[FOOD FRIDAY] Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Ever since I was a student pasta has been a staple in my diet and it continues to be one of my favourite “fast foods”. This carbonara recipe is a particular favourite as it literally takes as long as the pasta takes to cook, to make.

I have adapted the recipe from an old Housekeeping cook book belonging to my mother. The measurements are enough to serve two, so simply double for four, and so on.

[FOOD FRIDAY] Chickpea and Spinach Curry

On Wednesday I decided to try my hand at making our weekly curry. I usually make chicken curry but when we get take-out curry we usually get two and share them, thus making the meal a little more interesting. So this time I decided to try my hand at a vegetable curry. I chose a Chickpea and Spinach curry recipe that I found:

Serves 3- 4 (I just halved all of the quantities for two of us)

Ingredients:

1 tin (420g) of cooked chick peas, drain and rinse
1 heaped cup of frozen spinach,defrosted (or use about 4 handfuls of fresh spinach)
1 large onion, finely sliced
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tin (420g) of chopped tomatoes
A little bit of ghee or oil for frying

Curry paste:

1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp onion powder (didn’t have – so didn’t use!)
1/2 tsp garam masala
Small bunch of fresh coriander, roughly chopped (didn’t have, so used dried coriander instead)
1 red chilli, finely sliced
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tbsps oil (vegetable, olive etc)
1/2 tsp salt

Method:

1. First, make your curry paste. Place all of the ingredients in a mortar and work the mixture into a paste.
2. In a large frying pan heat a bit of oil/ghee and fry the sliced onions over a medium heat till soft and golden. Add the garlic and fry for just a minute or two.
3. Add the curry paste to the onions and fry over a gentle heat for approx. 2-3 minutes before adding the chickpeas and tinned tomatoes to the pan.
4. Cover then cook over a medium heat for approx.15 mins, stirring regularly (if it gets too dry add just a dash of water or stock).
5. Add the spinach to the pan and cook for another minute or two. Adjust seasoning if neccesary.

It was good for a first attempt but I think I added a little too much water as it started to look dry on a few occasions and I think it might have benefited from drying out and combining a bit better. I also didn’t soften the onions enough. I’ll let you know how I get on next time – and take a photo of the finished dish – this time I was too hungry to wait!!

[FOOD FRIDAY] Breakfast: Baked eggs and Parma ham with sage butter

I love the fact that Grazia includes a recipe each week and have tried out a few already (including this chicken curry). So the minute I saw this recipe for baked eggs and Parma ham with sage butter I knew I had to try it out. It seemed the perfect recipe for Saturday brunch:

And my, was it easy and quick to make and was delicious too:

I have to be honest though, serving it out of the dish was a little difficult and it didn’t look quite so good on the plate! I should also add that the recipe said that it would take only 3-4 minutes in the oven, however the whites were still clear after 4 minutes so I left mine a good 8-10 minutes and the yokes were still lovely and runny – my advice would be to keep an eye on it.

On weekday mornings I only usually have time to have a quick bowl of cereal or, at best, a bowl of granola and yoghurt but at the weekend, I like to try to be a little more adventurous.

Do you try new breakfasts at weekends? What’s your favourite way to start the day?

FOOD FRIDAY: Christmas cranberry fizz jelly

The other day I showed you the first of the two desserts I made for friends for the dinner I hosted last weekend, here is the second:

INGREDIENTS
Pared zest of 1 orange, plus finely grated orange zest, for decorating
570ml cranberry juice
150g caster sugar
1 cinnamon stick
37g (15 sheets) gelatine
570ml sparkling wine or cava

METHOD
1. Put the pared zest into a pan with the cranberry juice, 150g sugar and the cinnamon and heat until the sugar dissolves. Set aside to infuse for 30 minutes. Strain into a clean pan, discarding the cinnamon, and warm through again.
2. Meanwhile, soak 25g (15 sheets) gelatine according to the instructions. Squeeze out the water, stir into the warm cranberry until dissolved. Cool.
3. Add 570ml sparkling wine to the cranberry mixture and stir well. Pour enough jelly into 200ml martini or wine glasses to come about 2.5cm up the glass. Chill to set completely.

FOOD FRIDAY: Chocolate cappuccino pots

Last weekend, I hosted a dinner party for a few close girl friends. I love the television program Come Dine With Me and often play the game, what would your menu be? So I decided to play this game for real and made two desserts for my guests, in the hope that they would like at least one of them. Here is the first:

INGREDIENTS
1 vanilla pod
200ml double cream
50ml very strong coffee
150g dark chocolate, broken up
50g icing sugar
3 egg yolks

METHOD

1. Split the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape out the seeds. Put them in a pan with the cream and coffee and heat.
2. Just before it starts boiling, take off the heat and add the chocolate. Stir until smooth, then add the icing sugar. Next add the egg yolks one by one and beat in quickly, so they don’t start to cook.
3. Pour into individual dishes (ramekins or espresso cups are ideal) and put in the fridge.

What would you make for dessert to impress your guests? Come back next week for the second of the two desserts I made.

Food Friday: Cinnamon Roasted Peaches

Another fabulous breakfast recipe for you. A few month’s ago I bought Sophie Dahl’s Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights, a beautiful cook book which follows the seasons and offers recipes for each meal. This is taken from the Summer Breakfast section:

Another simple and scrumptious breakfast which also includes one of your five-a-day:

Ingredients:

• 1 or 2 peaches per person
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tbsp soft brown sugar
• 1/2 tbsp butter or oil
• 1 cup Greek-style yoghurt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tbsp honey

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 230C/210C fan/Gas Mark 8.
2. Wash and halve the peaches, removing the stones and place in a small roasting tin.
3. Sprinkle each peach half with a little cinnamon and brown sugar and dot with butter or oil.
4. Cook for about 10 minutes.
5. While the peaches are cooking, mix the yoghurt with the vanilla extract and honey.

And finally, serve the peaches in bowls dowsed with the yoghurt. And enjoy!

For more scrumptious recipes, why not treat yourself to a copy of Miss Dahl’s Voluuptuous Delights?

Food Friday: Granola

Now that Friend Friday posts are fortnightly, I have decided to feature some of my favourite recipes on alternate Fridays. In order to keep the fashion element of the blog on a Friday too, I will also endeavour to post an outfit post later in the day. Hope you like the changes.

A couple of week’s ago I mentioned that my weekend breakfast was my homemade granola, the recipe for which I discovered via A Girl, A Style.

It is an reasonably easy recipe to follow that I would highly recommend it for your breakfast as you can make a large batch at the beginning of the week and it will last a week or two, depending on your appetite!

Ingredients:


3 cups of plain rolled oats (not instant or quick cooking)
1 cup roughly chopped nuts (any combination, such as almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts or pistachios)
A good handful of mixed seeds (such as pumpkin, sunflower, linseed)
1 cup roughly chopped dried fruit (such as apricots, peach, cranberries, dried cherries, sultanas, raisins)
1/2 cup apple juice
2 tbsp honey + 2 tbsp maple or golden syrup (or 4 tbsp honey)
2 tbsp vegetable oil or melted butter
Small handful of dried coconut (shredded or flaked – optional)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
A large handful of rice bubbles, wheat flakes, chocolate chips or any other preferred additives (optional)


Method:


1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Lightly grease 2 large baking trays/sheets.


2. Combine the oats and cinnamon in a bowl.

3. In a separate small bowl, combine the juice, vanilla extract, honey, syrup, salt and oil/butter. 

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir well.

5. Spoon evenly into two large baking trays, and bake for approximately 20 minutes – or until almost dry and golden.

6. Add the nuts, seeds, dried fruit and coconut (stirring in to combine and break up the baked mix slightly – you want a mix of small pieces and chunks). Bake for another 10-20 minutes, or until the nuts and dried fruit look slightly baked and the whole mix is a nicely crisp and golden.

7. Allow the mixture to cool completely. And store in an airtight container.

I like to serve a couple of spoons of the granola mix with a good few spoons of Greek-style yoghurt and a handful of berries.

What is your favourite breakfast recipe?

I have added a little poll in the top of the right hand column, if you have a spare second – p
lease choose your response. Thank you.

RECIPE: Homemade Granola

What better for breakfast than a bowl of homemade granola with yoghurt and berries? After seeing this easy peasy recipe for granola on A Style, A Girl, I knew I had to give it a go:

What do you like for your breakfast?

Friend Friday #44: Food

This week’s Last week’s Friend Friday topic was food, glorious food! Katy asked us to, share the recipe to your favorite seasonal dish… the one you love to make and love to eat this time of the year. Before I headed off for my long weekend away, I didn’t have time to post my recipe, so when I made it this evening I figured now would be as good a time as any to post it.

This really is a terribly easy and absolutely delicious meal to make. (Please note, it does seem to create an enormous amount of mess and washing up in a very small amount of time!! But then maybe that’s just me.)

Chicken with lemon butter sauce


Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
50g plain flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
60g butter
4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 tablespoons chicken stock
20g flat leaf parsley

Method:

1. Place the chicken breasts on a chopping board and use a sharp knife to cut each one horizontally into two thin slices.

2. Put the flour onto a large plate, season with salt and pepper and mix. Coat each side of the chicken breasts with flour.

3. Heat the olive oil and half the butter in a large frying pan. Place the chicken in the pan and fry for 5 minutes on each side until it starts to brown and is cooked through (work in batches if necessary).

4. Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon and keep it warm while you make the sauce.

5. Pour the lemon juice and the stock into the frying pan, scraping all the brown bits from the edges and bottom into the liquid. Bring to the boil, stirring for about 1 minute.

6. Add the chopped parsley and remaining butter and give it all a good stir to create a creamy texture.

7. Place two slices of chicken in the middle of each serving plate and drizzle over the lemon sauce.

I like to serve the chicken with salad and caramelised onions.

What is your favourite thing to make and eat at this time of year?


Remember to check out the other summer recipes over on ModlyChic – and for more information on Friend Friday.

PS:

Have you entered my giveaway to win a fabulous pair of Oasis New Vintage earrings? If not, make sure you do so right away!! You can’t win, if you don’t enter! 

AND, if you have already voted for me in the Filofax Facebook Blogger Style Off, thank you. If you haven’t voted for me yet, please do go and vote for me and will be forever grateful.

Recipe: Homemade Swiss Style Museli (via River Cottage)

Recently, on a Sunday evening I have found myself watching re-runs of River Cottage Every Day. A few weeks ago Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall presented some interesting options for breakfast including his own homemade Swiss Style Museli. I’m always looking for new breakfast ideas as it is the meal that I fail to get very excited about (unless it’s a fry up at a greasy spoon after a night out!), so I decided to give the museli recipe a go. It’s all I’ve been having every morning and when I realised I was almost out and needed to make up some more, I thought I’d share it with you:

Ingredients:

200g porridge oats

150g mixed dried fruit of your choice, such as raisins, sultanas, dried apricots, dates, prunes

100g nuts of your choice, lightly toasted if you have time

100g wheat flakes (optional)

3-4 tbsp seeds, such as pumpkin, sunflower, sesame or flax (optional)

To serve (for 1)

1 crisp eating apple

Juice of 1-2 oranges (or a little milk, if you prefer)

Sugar or honey

Plain yoghurt

How to make swiss style muesli:

1. To make the muesli, put the oats in a bowl. Roughly chop larger dried fruits, such as apricots, dates and prunes. Leave the nuts whole, or chop them roughly if you prefer. Add the fruit and nuts to the oats, together with the wheat flakes and seeds if using, and stir to combine. Tip into an airtight container, seal and store in a cool, dark place until required.

2. For a serving of muesli, put about 50g of the muesli mix into a bowl. Coarsely grate or finely chop the apple (including the skin) and add this to the muesli. Squeeze the orange(s) and add the juice to the bowl (or use milk, if you like). Stir to blend everything evenly and leave to soak for about 10 minutes. Finally, sprinkle over just a little sugar or trickle over some honey, add a good dollop of yoghurt and serve.

I prefer to serve mine with a large dollop of Greek yoghurt, fresh raspberries and a large drizzle of honey, how do you like yours? Next week I plan to try out the River Cottage answer to the Pot Noodle: Chorizo and Tomato Instant Noodles in a Pot. I’ll let you know how that goes, naturally.