Recipe - Mini Empanadas

I'm never comfortable working with pastry, as you probably can see from the photo, but I have told myself that I need to get better with it. It really doesn't agree with me but I won't be the one of us two who budges first.

These mini empanadas works nice for dinner, or why not use them as a nibble for a party or as a starter? You can make the filling quite tame and then let your guests adjust the heat by providing different types of dips and sauces.

I cheated and used Jus-Rol ready rolled shortcrust pastry sheets but there's lots of recipes around for the proper dough. It's not that hard to make, even I have managed in the past, but I just couldn't be bothered tonight.

Ingredients (makes about 12)
250 g mince
1 onion, chopped
1 small can of sweet corn
1 - 2 tablespoons tomato paste/puree
2 packs of Jus-Rol ready rolled shortcrust pastry
1 egg, beaten
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Spice mix, for example cajun
Water, if needed

Method
Heat the oven to 200c.

Heat the olive oil in a pan on medium heat. Add the mince and let it fry until it starts to brown. Add the onion and the tomato paste and let this fry for a little while. Season to taste and add a little water if it's getting too dry. Stir in the sweet corn and let it heat through. Let this mixture cool down.

Put the pastry sheets on your chopping board and use a 10cm/4in cutter to make circles. Put about one tablespoon of the mince mixture onto each circle and fold double. Use a fork to seal the edge and baste with the egg mixture.

Put onto a non stick oven tray or similar and put into the oven for about 20 minutes or until nicely crisp and coloured.

Serve with hot/dipping sauces and a crisp salad.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Sausages with tomatoes and baked beans

Some days all you want is a comforting meal without having to make too much of an effort. Being able to use just one pan and thus save on the washing up is just an added bonus.

Try to use as good quality sausages as you can get. I used pork and garlic ones but I could see pork and leek work nicely for example.

As you can see from the ingredients I used a Jerk seasoning mix but use what you have/like. Cajun mix could work a charm methinks. If you want more of a kick, add some Tabasco or any kind of hotsauce really.

Ingredients (serves 2 - 4)
1 pack of pork sausages, about 450g
1 large red onion, sliced
1 tin of chopped tomatoes, about 400g
1 tin of baked beans, about 400g
1 tablespoon Jerk seasoning
Olive oil

Method
Heat the oil on medium heat and add the sausages. Cook the sausages until they start to brown properly. Add the onion and fry for another couple of minutes so it starts to brown too.

Add the remaining ingredients and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and let it all simmer for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Miso Soup with Honey Glazed Chicken and Noodles

It's getting quite cold in the evenings here now so I thought it could be time for a nice and warming soup.

As always with my recipes, freestyle it. Add and subtract ingredients as you like. Make it to suit you. That way we all stay happy. ;)

The egg noodles I used for this came in small 'nests' and they needed to simmer for three minutes. Adjust the cooking time to the type of noodles you use.

If you don't want it to be too spicy leave out the chillies, or try and get rid of all the seeds.

Ingredients (serves 2 - 4)
1l - 1.2l miso soup
1 large or 2 small chicken breasts, cut into bite sized chunks
A handful or two of frozen peas
1/2 - 1 red onion, sliced
1 - 2 chillies, sliced
1 small tin of sweet corn
1 - 2 nests of medium egg noodles
Worcestershire sauce
Runny honey
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil

Method
Start by frying the seasoned chicken pieces in the olive oil on a medium heat. When they start to gain colour, add a good glug or two of Worcestershire sauce. Keep frying and this should bubble and caramelize quite nicely. Coming close to be being fully cooked, pour in a good tablespoon or two of the honey and stir well. Once the honey has caramelized put the pan to the side and keep the chicken pieces warm.

Add the peas, sweet corn, onion and chillies to the miso soup and bring it to a boil. Once boiling add the noodles and cook according to the instructions on the package. Toward the end of the boiling time, add the chicken and give it all a good stir.

Pour into serving bowls.

Enjoy!

Saturday's little pick-me-up - Steak Sandwich

This Friday gone I went down the pub with some colleagues for a couple of beverages. Needless to say there wasn't much food involved, or rather none at all.

Waking up on Saturday I felt a little bit brittle and very hungry so I decided that a steak sandwich was what was needed.

I spread the bottom half of a freshly baked (purchased, not home baked) roll with some mayonnaise. On top of that I put some rocket (arugula) and a couple of slices of juicy tomato. I caramelized sliced onions with olive oil and balsamic vinegar that went on top of the tomatoes, followed by the steak. To finish it all off I crumbled some gorgonzola on top off the steak and let that melt.

Exactly what I needed....

The best chilli sauce. In the world. Ever.

I've always been a fan of hot and spicy food. This has lead me down some nice food avenues, and some not so nice.

I can't help myself if I find a new hot sauce when I'm out shopping. My place is literally crawling with various hot sauces, jellies, salsas and so on.

However, this is probably the best chilli sauce I've ever tried. It's called Sriracha Hot Sauce and I buy it from Chinese/Oriental supermarkets here in the UK. It creeps up on you, it starts out quite nice and mild. Then you taste the garlic - lots of it - seconds before the sledgehammer hits you.

It's absolutely not unbearably hot, but it does pack a punch.

If you haven't tried it yet, go for a trip to your friendly local Oriental supermarket. I can almost guarantee that you won't be disappointed.

Recipe - Chicken breasts baked in a tomato sauce

This is another one of my 'fallback' recipes. Something I come back to time after time and each time it's a little bit different. It can easily be freestyled to suit what you got in your cupboards/fridge.

The avid reader will spot that I used leeks, again, but you can use normal onions instead. I'm all leeked out for the moment now though, finally. ;)

If you want to you could chuck in some peas, sweet corn or whatever takes your fancy really.

This time I choose to serve it with rice but it goes just as well with mash or pasta for example. I didn't have any bread at home but this dish goes very well with some nice and crispy garlic bread.

Ingredients (serves 2 - 4)
2 chicken breasts, sliced in half to speed up the frying
2 leeks, sliced
2 - 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
400 g chopped tomatoes
1 ball of Mozzarella, sliced and torn
Mixed herbs
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil

Method
Heat the oven to 220c.

Season the chicken breasts and fry them in a pan with some olive oil on a medium heat until nicely coloured and cooked through. Put them to the side in small-ish oven safe casserole dish.

Lower the heat a notch and if needed add some more olive oil before you start frying the leeks and the garlic. Let the leeks sweat until they start to soften. Once you're there pour the contents of the pan into the casserole dish.

Add the tomatoes and mixed herbs to the casserole dish and give it all a good stir. Put in the mozzarella, making sure to distribute it evenly. Season a bit more and then it's time for some quality oven time.

Let it stay in the oven for about 15 - 20 minutes or until the Mozzarella has melted nicely and are turning golden.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Creamy Pork, Leek and Lardon pasta sauce

Having noticed that pork and leek recipes are very welcome with my readers I now shamelessly play on this with another recipe containing those ingredients. Bad Mikey... ;)

I couldn't really decide what to cook the other day and it wasn't until I was walking around the supermarket that I decided on this. I had two leeks at home that were close to getting past it I grabbed the other stuff and got home to get down to some cooking.

Oh yeah, this photo is the first one where I have used my new light. Not really there yet, but some more experimentation and I think it will really help me getting some better photos for you guys.

Ingredients (serves 2 - 4)
2 leeks, fairly thinly sliced
100g smoked lardons
500g pork mince
300 ml creme fraiche
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Salt
Pepper
Pasta, cooked by the instructions on the package

Method
Heat the oil in a frying pan on a medium heat. Add the leek slices and let it cook until the leeks start to soften.

Add the lardons and fry for another couple of minutes before adding the pork mince. Season generously. Let all this fry away until the mince is cooked through.

Pour in the creme fraiche and let it all bubble away for a couple of minutes. Add lemon juice and seasoning according to taste.

Serve with pasta.

Enjoy!

A new light in my life...

Whoever designed my kitchen clearly didn't have food photography in his/hers mind. Getting good lighting in there is really hard. Pair that with the winter coming up with even worse natural lighting and you have a problem.

Problems are there to be solved so I google'd around a bit and found some really good help and ideas on a couple of other food blogs. Two of them being Steamy Kitchen and VeganYumYum.

Both those sites mentioned or recommended the Lowel EGOLight's.

After having read up on them I decided that one of those could be what I needed. After a bit more googling I found a place here in the UK who sells them, ProKit. After locating the product on their pages I ordered a kit.

Being what seems like really good people they delivered the next day. What I got was a flat pack with some parts to assemble. The assembly was quick and easy and I had the light kit up and running in no time at all.

I think it will take some time to get used to and get the best out of these but I'll get back with reviews and tips later on as I stumble forward.

The contents of the box, pre-assembly.

After assembly, reflector to the left and the light itself to the right.

Same stuff, just viewing the back of the light.

The light turned on, still in the same lighting conditions as the earlier pictures. I guess it really freaked out the cameras sensors. ;)

Johnny Rotten in his first tv ad ever. For butter?!?

Yes it's true. True genius if you ask me.

Have a look here on the Guardian.

Recipe - Homemade Steak and Gorgonzola Pizza

I think this serves more as inspiration than a recipe. Use this as a start and make a pizza that suits you and your taste. I won't bother with measurements etc, just use the force Luke! Go with your gut feeling and add what you like in proportions you think will work. What's the worst that can happen? It's not like the pizza council will come and drag your sorry ass in front of the pizza court or something.

Why make your own pizza? Why not? You save money, get it exactly as you want and you know that it is made with love using fresh ingredients. Another bonus is that you'll avoid potentially awkward situations. Like last time I called Domino's to get a pizza delivered. I ordered a thin crusty Supreme. When the doorbell rang Diana Ross stood outside...

If you can't be bothered to make your own sauce, use ready made pasta sauce for example. You could even mix some tomato paste and ketchup if you're in that mood. However - whatever you do, please don't use one of those pre-made pizza bases. They are pure evil, sprung directly from the loins of the devil!

Something that made this pizza taste even better was to eat it whilst watching the mighty Arsenal crush Porto in Champions League. ;)

Ingredients (serves 1)
1 batch of pizza dough
Steak, cut into thin strips
Gorgonzola, crumbled
Mozzarella, torn
Marinara sauce
Garlic, cut into paper thin slices
Red pepper, cut into strips
Red onion, halved and then sliced
Salt
Pepper

Method
Start by frying the seasoned steak strips until they start to get some colour. Put them to the side.

Heat the oven to about 220c - 240c.

In the meantime prepare the pizza dough as per the instructions in your recipe/on the package.

When the dough is ready and is rolled into a circle and placed on a baking tray or similar it's time for the fun stuff.

Spread a thin layer of marinara sauce on the pizza base. Scatter the garlic, followed by the mozzarella and some ground pepper. Place out the red pepper, onion and steak slices. Finish off with the crumbled gorgonzola.

Chuck it all into the oven for 15 - 20 minutes or until the cheese has melted and gained a healthy golden brown colour. Remove from the oven, cut into slices and...

Enjoy!