Milk and Two Sugars

Coffee Mornings!

 

Now, I have 3 big loves in my life. That’s food, my beautiful girlfriend and good coffee. So you can imagine that when they all come together I am a very happy man. I had the pleasure of having a rather spontaneous coffee morning with my beloved a few days ago, but the problem was that there was no cake! That’s just not right is it folks? Coffee morning without cake?

Now the problem was I had no eggs at the time and really didn’t want to go to the shops to buy some, I was feeling very lazy OK! So I set myself the challenge of cooking a cake that was pleasant to eat, but one that also didn’t have any eggs. I have heard of recipes that didn’t use eggs but I had never tried one for myself so it was completely new ground. I found a few recipes to follow but some called for things I didn’t have and so forth so I decided to make one up. Living on the edge right 😉

Spinach and feta felo pie

Spinach and Feta Pie

Before I even start, I just wanna say that this was incredibly fun to make, although rather hard in a tiny kitchen like mine. I have never made a pie like this in my whole life, it was mental! Good fun though 🙂

I don’t usually like pies as they can sometimes be very heavy, especially if the pastry is too thick. But with the whole thing made from filo pastry and filled with feta, lemon, spinach and cayenne pepper, I had to make it. Had too. The technique for making the thing was different from anything I had ever done before, but worked perfectly. 

Vanilla and Nutmeg Fudge

First things first, I want to apologise for my lack of posts over the last few days. I have been slaving away at work doing some crazy hours and I started to feel I didn’t have the energy to post anything. Now things have calmed down, I can post all I like, with things like these beautiful melt in the mouth fudge pieces, flavoured with nutmeg and vanilla!

I first tried making fudge around christmas last year. I originally made it only using vanilla but when I tasted it I felt like it needed something more. I had a few extra spices hanging around from the other things I had been cooking up, so decided to through some nutmeg in there along with it.

Chocolate Fondants with Rosemary Foam

Ahh, the chocolate fondant. Rich and gooey goodness! Often avoided as it is considered ‘hard’, but fear not people! This recipe is easy to remember and to pull off. You will have runny fondants everytime you cook them if you follow this recipe correctly.

Quick Chorizo Carbonara

Busy busy busy. These past few days have been a little crazy, but I enjoy it. It pushes me to find dishes that are not only quick and stress free, but that are also full of flavour. At a time like this, who better to turn too for inspiration than the king of 15 minute meals himself, Jamie Oliver.

I love Jamie Oliver, he is an incredibly talented chef who creates fast, full flavoured meals, that are healthy, colourful and inspiring. His range of skill is vast and he is always promoting new and exciting ingredients.

I first saw kaffir lime leaves on his program, which are quickly becoming a fascination of mine…

Lemon Thyme Shortbread

I have always had trouble with shortbread. Although it has very few ingredients, I always over mix the dough, or it is too dry, or too wet, or the texture isn’t right. After looking all over the internet for far too long, I found a recipe that created the nicest shortbread I have had in a long time!

“What can make the most amazing shortbread even better?!” I hear you cry.

French Style Mussels Oh là là!

The doom and gloom of winter is creeping up on me. It is cold outside, dark when I get to work and dark when I leave. There is snow everywhere, which in turn changes to ice, and I don’t like ice! So I thought what better way to take my mind off things, than to make one of my favourite meals to have whenever I go abroad. French style mussels!

To be honest, this is the first time I have used natural mussels (not the farmed ones). These little beauties have a beard that you have to remove which does take a while, but the flavour of these things is incredible and fresh. Try to get these whenever you are cooking mussels. Anyway, let me give you guys the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1kg live mussels (preferably de l’océan)
• 25g butter
• 100ml dry white wine
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• 1 shallot
• handful rough chopped parsley

1. First things first, you need to clean the mussels. Empty the bag into a bowl, run each mussel under a cold tap and remove the beard. This is the small collection of hairs usually on one side of the mussel, remove it with a side to side motion, carefully does it! If any of the mussels are open, run them under the cold tap for a few seconds and put them on the side, if they close they are good to eat, any that do not close, through them away!
2. After the long task of cleaning and de bearding the mussels, chop the shallot and garlic into fine slices and gently cook for 4 minutes in the butter.
3. When they become slightly transparent, turn the heat up, add the mussels and the white wine and cover. Steam for 3-8 minutes, until they have opened. Any that have not opened, do not eat them! Whilst they steam, why not pour yourself a glass of wine? Well, it is a french dish right!
4. Serve in a nice big bowl and top with the chopped parsley and dig in, remember the extra bowl for the shells.

Perfect on their own with some crusty bread. I added spring onion and a little chili to mine, what did you add? Would be great to hear from you in the comments below! au revoir

My ’empty’ Fridge

 

‘Empty fridge’, I thought to myself. I was hungry, cold, tired and to top it off I had ‘no food’ in the house. I sat down and contemplated braving the cold weather to go and get some food or waiting it out until I HAD to leave the house to go to work, and grabbing something on the way, ‘kill two birds with one stone’ and all that. I tried to wait it out seeing as the weather wasn’t exactly appealing but I couldn’t enjoy my time relaxing whilst I was hungry now could I?

I looked through my fridge once more and to my delight, found a pack of chicken thigh fillets. Lovely, it was a start I guess. I decided to start browning these off and to see where my mind took me. Adding a few onions, some paprika, cayenne pepper, a little chicken stock, I was onto something good here! The final dish was a beautiful and rich tomato and chicken curry affair, which I happily munched down with a few flat breads, homemade of course!

Paprika Chicken

Ingredients:

• 6 chicken thigh fillets (cut into bite size pieces)
• 2 onions (sliced)
• 500ml chicken stock
• 330ml chopped tomatoes (around a tin)
• 100ml Crème fraîche
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• thumb sized piece of ginger, grated
• 2 garlic cloves
• half a teaspoon cayenne pepper
• handful of chopped coriander
• 1 teaspoon cumin

1. First off in a large pan, brown the chicken pieces until slightly browned, remove from the pan and set aside.
2. In the same pan, cook the onions and garlic until soft, around 5 minutes should do.
3. Add the spices, ginger and season with salt and pepper and cook for 2 minutes, stirring so the spices don’t burn.
4. Return the chicken to the pan and add the warm chicken stock and chopped tomatoes. Simmer for 25 minutes.
5. After 25 minutes add the Crème fraîche and continue to cook for another 15 minutes on a low heat.
6.  When ready to serve, sprinkle chopped coriander on top and enjoy, even better with some cardamom flat breads! *https://everythingfoody.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/cardamom/