Coronation chicken kebabs

Perfect for BBQ or can be grilled or baked. Also if you don't have skewers just use the chicken breast whole.

Serves 4
Preparation time 10
Cooking 25-30 minutes

Ingredients:

3-4 medium chicken breasts sliced length ways
Thread on skewers
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
1 onion diced
3 tablespoon curry power
1-2 tablespoon mango chutney
4 tablespoon natural yogurt
Squeeze of lemon juice to loosen
2 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander

Method:

Heat the oil
Gently fry onion until just cooked not coloured.
Add curry powder and cook out well (otherwise the sauce will taste raw and bitter).
Take off the heat add chutney, yogurt ,lemon and corainder.
Pour over the chicken (If you have time leave for a few hours to marinade).

BBQ or grill for 20 minutes.
If your unsure if the chicken is cooked cut the middle with a knife if the knife is too hot to touch they should be done.
Failing that a kitchen thermometer will tell you it should be 75oC or over when stuck in the middle.
This is important when cooking BBQ food as people often give themselves food poising by not cooking the food enough. Not a great end to a party.

Moroccan tomato, chickpea and chilli soup

This soup is really healthy and filling. It only contains 220 calories per bowl.
Serves 4
Preparation time 10 minutes
Cooking time 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 onion diced
2 potatoes diced
1 carrot diced
1 red chilli finely diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tin of chopped tinned tomatoes
1 tin chickpeas drained and rinsed
1 knorr vegetable or chicken stock pot cube mixed with 750 ml of boiling water
Salt and black pepper
To serve :
Chopped corainder
A few spoons of yogurt

Method:
Fry the onion until soft
Add the carrot, potatoes, cumin and chilli and stir well.
Add the tomatoes and stock
Boil until the potatoes until just cooked
If you wish to blend the soup you can do it at this stage.
I like to half blend it so it's not too chunky but still has texture.
Finally add the chickpeas and heat through.
Serve in a bowl with a dollop of yogurt and chopped corainder

Flourless hazelnut brownie cake

This cake is delicious. It keeps very well for a few days. The recipe can be doubled to make two cakes then sandwiched together with fresh cream and berries to make a celebration cake or just cut in squares and enjoyed as brownies.
Makes 8 brownies or one whole cake.

Use a 20cm round cake tin. Or something similar that you have at home.

Make sure the tin is greased and lined with baking paper.

Preheat the oven to 170oC
Preparation time 10 mins
Cooking time 30-35

Ingredients:

200g dark chocolate
200g butter
200g sugar
200g ground hazelnuts
6 eggs separated

Method:

Melt the butter and chocolate.
Leave to cool slightly.
I use a microwave to do this but you can use a bowl over boiling water to if you don't have a microwave or don't trust them.

Whisk the sugar and egg yolks together until light and fluffy.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff.
Add the melted butter and chocolate
To the egg yolks and sugar.
Mix well
Then add the hazelnuts.
Lastly add the egg whites to do this, get a metal spoon and add one big spoon of egg whites to the mixture and mix around until fully incorporated. This will loosen the mixture and make it easy to add the rest of egg white without knocking out all the air in the whisked eggs whites. Fold in the rest of the egg whites gradually and slowly.
Finally add the mixture to the greased and lined cake tin.
Cook until firm but not too dark.
Leave the cake to cool before cutting
These brownies are extra special with nutella spread on top.

Easy Flat-Breads

I love making bread at home but sometimes we don’t have the time or energy to make yeast bread or fresh soda bread and wait for the proving, rising and cooking. Flat-bread is a perfect way to start making bread and goes so well with homemade curries, kebabs,  even just a bit of hummus a salad rolled up for a quick lunch.

I have used black onion seeds in the recipe as I love the flavour and it goes very well with Indian themed food. However you can add fresh herbs, cumin, onion flakes and chillies the list is endless.

Makes about 8-10 smallish size flat breads.

 

Preparation time 5 minutes

Cooking time 3-4 minutes per flatbread

Freezes very well for up to 3 months

Ingredients:

• 300g plain flour
• 300g natural yogurt or buttermilk
• 1 tsp baking power
• ½ tsp of black onion seeds aka nigella seeds
• ¼ tsp salt
• A couple of tsp of oil for brush on top before cooking

Method:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl then add the yogurt or buttermilk to the mix.
2. Get your hands in a mix all the ingredients until you have sticky dough it should not be very wet. though 
3. Flour a counter top and roll out the dough fairly thin about the thickness or a 2, 1 euro coins stacked.
4. You can use a cutter to divide the dough, but I just like to cut it up with a knife a have it all different shapes and sizes it looks more home made that way.
5. Heat a griddle pan or frying pan until hot, brush the bread with a little oil and place on the pan.
6. It’s ready to turn when you see its golden brown and firm on one side this should take 2 minutes on each size depending on how big they are cut.
7. In the summer the flatbread can be cooked on a bbq to get that authentic char grill flavour.

Smoked Mackerel Pate

This Pate is so easy and cheap anyone can make it.
Serve on Melba toast, rye bread, baguettes or potted.

Makes a medium size bowl.

Ingredients:

1. 200g pack of smoked mackerel 
2. 100-150g Crème Fraiche
3. Juice of half a lemon
4. 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley 
5. Salt and Pepper 

Method:

• Flake up the Mackerel off the skin and make sure you don't leave any bones on the fish.
• Mix all the ingredients together either in a food processor lightly or for a more rough pate by hand.
• Season well 
• Serve on chosen bread, salad etc.

Cooking Steak

I often find people are a bit nervous when it comes to cooking steak perfectly so I'm adding this to the blog as a reference to use when cooking.

If you like to eat your steak rare, I suggest taking it out of the fridge about a half hour before cooking so the center of the meat will not taste too cold.

For the cooking I suggest that get your frying pan really hot so the meat will sear and keep all the flavour inside.

(Getting the pan really hot is essential for cooking all meats really because if you add your cold meat to a cold pan and heat it up gradually the meat is going to stew and look gray when done).

This is a mistake alot of inexperienced/ amateur cooks will make, resulting in a steak that is not that nice to eat.

I personally don't season meat until it is cooked and resting, as salt will draw out all the flavour your trying to keep in by searing the meat .

You can use butter, sunflower oil or vegetable oil for frying the steak or a mixture.

So add your chosen fat to the pan when hot enough if the fat is sizzling and the pan is smoking slightly  your ready to add the steak.

Rare	2 minutes then turn the steak and cook for 1½ minutes
Medium	3 minutes then turn the steak and cook for 2½ minutes
Well done	4 minutes then turn the steak and cook for 3½ minutes  ( season wiht fresh black pepper and salt, leave steak to rest for a couple of minutes covered in foil before serving this will let the meat relax abd stop all the juices from escaping).