Asian Laksa Coconut Soup with Noodles

Quick, easy, healthy and a firm favourite of mine (and Alis!!)

Ingredients:

Carrots
Beansprouts
Spring Onions
Red Pepper
Onion
Chicken
Noodles - egg, rice, whatever you like!

For the soup base:
Corriander
Cumin powder
Fish Sauce
Red chillie
Ginger
Garlic
Lime or Lime Juice
2 cans of coconut milk or 1 can of coconut milk and then re use can and fill with chicken stock cube and hot water 

Method:

1. Roughly chop large handful of corriander, 1 or 2 red chillies, 3cm of ginger, 2 cloves of garlic and place in blender.  Add table spoon of fish sauce, 1 teaspoon of cumin, a couple of tablespoons of lime juice, a dash of water and blend.

2. Finely slice the carrot and spring onion into strips, cut the onion and pepper roughly. Place your noodles in boiling water to soften.

3. In a deep frying pan or saucepan place the onion and half the carrots.  When softened add the paste from the blender and stir for a minute.

4. Then add the coconut milk and stock - even if you use 2 cans of coconut use a stock cube in a very small amount of water. Also drain and add your noodles.

5. Slice your chicken and cook quickly in a little oil in a fry pan and then add to the soup along with the juices and oil for extra flavour. Also add the peppers at this point

6. Finally bring to the boil and add more water if you require more soup then serve placing the remaining carrots and the springonions and beansprouts on the top so they remain crunchy and fresh.

Homemade Veggie Dumplings

Much easier than it looks but a great starter or canape to impress your guests...

Ingredients:

1 Carrot
1 Red Onion
Chinese Cabbage
Garlic
Red Chillie
Ginger
Soy sauce
Wonton Pastry Skins (available from you local chinese supermarket)

Method:

1. Cut up all your ingredients (carrot, red onion, cabbage, garlic, ginger and chillie) really small, as small as you can, at least smaller than 1/2 cm. This makes it easier for when you are making the parcels.

2. Place in a frying pan with a dash of soy sauce and a few tablespoons of water, the idea is to just soft all the veg. Leave for 5 to 10 minutes, adding more water when necessary and stiring occasionally.

3. Take off the heat and sieve to remove any excess liquid and leave to stand for 5 to 10 minutes to cool and dry off.

3. Take your wonton skins and place a teaspoon of the mixture in the middle (picture 1), dip your finger in a little water and wet the edges and corners then take the opposite corners and bring them together (picture 2), once they are all together in the middle (picture 3) then using your fingers to bring them all together and stick to give final look like in final picture above.

4. In a frying plan place a tablespoon of vegetable or groundnut oil and heat gently.  Once smoking slightly add the dumplings carefully - I use tongs.

5. Fry dumplings until the bottoms are browned, use tongs to lift and check one dumpling.

6. Once browned get a jug of water and very carefully poor a few tablespoons of water over the top of the dumplings (it will bubble and smoke lots when the water hits the oil but thats fine just do it quickly) and imedietely put a lid on and leave for 2 minutes to allow the dumplings to steam, giving the pan a little shake every now and then to make sure they arent sticking.

7. Remove and place on a plate and serve with sweet chillie sauce and soy sauce!

Bacon and Stilton Salad with Sweet Potato Pie

A yummy yummy lunch or dinner for any summer occasion...!

              

Ingredients:

2 sweet potatoes

Pitta bread

Cucumber

Stilton cheese

Bacon

1/2 Red Pepper

Salad leaves

Balsamic Dressing

Black olives

Sesame seeds

Olive oil

Creme fraiche

Pine nuts

Method:

1. Put the sweet potatoes in the microwave for around 7 minutes until soft and the skin is easy to peal off.

2. Place the sweet potatoes in the blender with a dash of olive oil, salt and pepper and 2 tablespoons of creme fraiche.  Blend until completely smooth.

3. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, sprinkle with sesame seeds - optional.

4. Put the bacon until the grill and cook for 5 minutes or until crispy.

5. In a bowl place the lettuce leaves, sliced cucumber and red pepper, crumbled stilton and the olives.

6. In a frying place place a handful of pine nuts and warm gently, constantly tossing to stop them burning, remove from the heat as soon as they are browned.

7. Dress with salad dressing of your choice then slice bacon and spread over the top and sprinkle pine nuts on the top.

Serve with sweet potato pie and warm pitta bread.

Quick, healthy and sooo yummy!





Piiizzzaaaaa

Nothing tastes better than home made pizza and it is so much easier than you think!

Ingredients:

 

2 1/2 to 3 cups flour (can use a combination of white and whole wheat if you prefer)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) yeast
3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1 cup very warm water

Tomato pasata

Toppings of your choice

Gratted cheese

Method:

1. Combine yeast, sugar, 1 cup of the flour, and salt in a large bowl. Add the warm water and mix.

2. Stir in remaining flour slowly until dough is soft but not sticky. Knead until smooth.

3. Cover with a damp tea towel and let the dough rest for at least an hour in a warm dry place.

For Calzone:

4. Roll out the dough into a big rectangle ON baking paper.

5. Put sauce on the centre half of the dough.

6. Just like pizza, add your toppings (our favourites are pepperoni, olives, and mushrooms). Any small amounts of meat, cheese and vegetables can be put into the calzone.

7. Then add cheese.

8. Cut the dough on the sides at about 3/4 inch intervals. Don't cut all the way to the filling.

9. Then "wrap the baby." Start at the bottom and alternating sides, overlap the strips of dough onto the filling in a lattice pattern. You can stretch the pieces to fit all the way over the filling.

For Normal:

10. Roll out the dough on a large circle on baking paper

11. Add tomato pasata and then your choice of toppings.

12. Bake for around 20 minutes until the crust is crispy.

Soup glorious souppp!

Use this as a base to make any sort of soup you want!

Ingredients:

1 chicken stock cube

1 vegetable stock cube

2 big onions

Garlic

Pepper

Olive oil

Butter

1 potato

Mixed herbs

An assortment of vegetables – either carrots or mushrooms or leek and potato, any mix you like!

Method:

1.  Cut the onions into medium sized squares and finely chop garlic

2. Cook in a decent amount of olive oil and add a knob of butter.

3. Sprinkle over pepper, mixed herbs and mild chilli powder or paprika. (Dont add salt as there is plenty in the stock cubes)

4. Cook on a low heat for 5-10 minutes until soft.

5. Slice potato and all remaining vegetables and then add to the onions, stirring so that everything is covered in the herbs and oil.

6. Sauté for a couple of minutes.

7. Place both stock cubes in a large jug and add boiling water to dissolve.

8. Add stock to the vegetables so that all vegetables are just submerged and cover with lid.

9. Turn down the heat and leave to simmer for 20 minutes or until all vegetables are soft.

10.  Leave to cool and then blend.

- If you have used carrots add coriander to season before blending.

- If you use mushrooms you will need a lot as they shrink loads when cooked and do not use a potato, instead use an extra onion.

- Spinach soup and brocolli and stilton are also yummm!

Salmon en Croute

Great for posh dinners and when you want jazz up your salmon!

Ingredients:

Approx 10g bunch of basil

Approx 5g bunch dill

60g unsalted butter at room temperature

Zest of 1 lemon

1 x approx 1kg side of salmon, skinned, pin boned and cut in half

1 tbsp wholegrain mustard

Plain flour, dust

500g shortcrust pastry

1 x egg

Olive oil

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C/gas 6.

2. Dust a clean surface with flour and roll out the pastry using the salmon as a guide size. Leave to rest in a cool place.

3. Place the softened butter in a large bowl. Use scissors to roughly chop in the dill and basil before grating in the lemon zest. Season with salt and pepper and mix.

4. Pat the salmon fillets dry using kitchen paper and season with salt and pepper. Spread the butter mixture over one side of the fillet and the wholegrain mustard on the other. Sandwich the two salmon fillets together, in opposite directions so that both ends are of a similar thickness.

5. Beat 1 egg to make your egg wash. Place the salmon in the centre of the pastry and brush around it with the egg wash, season with salt and pepper. Bring up the longest pastry sides, trimming as much excess away as possible, and tuck them in before folding the shorter pastry edges over to form a neat parcel. Turn the whole thing over so that the seam is sitting on the bottom, and transfer to a non-stick baking tray. Brush with egg wash over the outside. Mark the pastry using the back of a small knife to make a cross hatch. Mark again to show 4 portions. Finally season the salmon parcel with salt and pepper.

6. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown and crisp.

Winter Warmer - Chicken and Asparagus Pie

For days like today when its grey and miserable this will warm for you from the inside out!

Ingredients:

Chicken diced            

150ml white wine

2 onions    

Asparagus

1 packet of puff pastry round               

1 packet of short crust round               

½ tub crème fraiche                   

400ml chicken stock use 2 cubes

1 tbsp corn flour

The asparagus can be swapped for mushrooms/green beans/spinach etc depending on what you like!

Method:

1. Finely chop the onion and then fry in a little olive oil until just soft and starting to brown.  Remove and put to one side then fry chicken until golden brown on all sides.

2. Stir in the wine and simmer to reduce liquid slightly.  Then add the stock plus the liquid drained from the asparagus and simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Stir in the onions, crème fraiche and the corn flour mixed with a bit of water to make a paste.  Bring to the boil and stir continually.

4. Season with salt and pepper and then allow to cool.

5. Pre heat the oven to 180oC.

6. Line a deep dish/cake tin with the short crust pastry and cover with a sheet of greaseproof paper, then filling with baking beans and bake for 5 minutes.

7. Remove from the oven and lower the temperature to 150oC.

8. Remove the baking beans and cook for a further 5 minutes.  Leave to cool.

9. Using a slotted spoon put the chicken into the pastry case.  Make sure there is some sauce in the case otherwise it will be too dry.  Arrange the drained asparagus on top of the chicken.  Save some of the remaining gravy for the pie later.

10. Brush the edges of the pastry with some milk and then place over the puff pastry and press gently to seal the edges.

11. Brush the top with more milk and then cook in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until the pastry is risen and golden brown.