Potato and Mushroom Halloumi Grattin with Sticky Pork Ribs / Crumed Garlic Chicken / Fish Cake

Receita em Português AQUI

Another simple yet effective recipe, very tasty indeed, if I may say so, and the accompaniment is so versatile that goes with many things, some of which I listed here, the rest is up to you. Above you can see the Potato and Mushroom Halloumi grattin, bellow are the sticky ribs YUM!!!

Recipe Ingredients: (grattin, feeds 4 people)

• 1kg potato red skin (washed and thin sliced)
  
• 1 large onion (finely chopped)
  
• 300grs Large open mushrooms (sliced)
  
• 200grs cheddar cheese (grated)
• 200grs Halloumi cheese (thinly sliced , about 1/2 cm thickness)
  
• 1/2 glass full fat milk
  
• (optional) few bits of butter
  
• 2 garlic cloves (minced)
  
• salt pepper and olive oil (to taste)

Place a pan with boiling water on the stove, and put the sliced potatoes in, once it reaches boil again let them cook for 4 minutes. While that is doing you can pan fry with a little olive oil the mushrooms and 1 garlic clove (minced), and once that is that do the same to the onion and another garlic clove (minced).

You then assemble the dish for the oven, after draining the potatoes, one by one cover the bottom of a pirex dish, then scatter covering those potatoes with the onion, followed by the mushrooms. On top of those pour half of the milk you have in the glass evenly throughout the whole area, and then the grated cheddar, follow that by a little seasoning salt and pepper, and layer another section of potato slices using the remainder of the potato, once that is done pour the remaining milk evenly to cover all area and position the Halloumi to be well spread over al of the potatoes (see picture). Then goes in the oven for 30 minutes at 180c.

For the pork ribs, make sure when you buy these that they are quite meaty, but they also must have a little fat, as they helps with being tender when cooking.

Recipe Ingredients: (ribs enough for 2)

• 400-500grs pork rib rack
  
• 2 soup spoons of ketchup
  
• 1 soup spoon of condiment of mustard (or American style mustard)
  
• 1 tea spoon of smoked paprika
  
• 1/2 tea spoon of chilli powder
  
• 1 soup spoon of smoky BBQ sauce
  
• 1/2 orange in juice
  
• 1 soup spoon of denmerra sugar

Mix all the ingredients (apart from the pork rack...lol) to form a basting and sticky sauce. Brush it on both sides of the rack, once that is done place the rack in the oven at 180c for 30 minutes (so you see this will cook at same time as the potatoes), however set a timer every ten minutes of those thirty for you to brush more sauce on the rib rack, so you get to brush it 3 times in all and I want you to (by the last brushing) use all the sauce. that will make the ribs very nice tender and sticky, obviously tenderness of the ribs will also depend on the quality of pork. YUM!!

The chicken is just some rests I used to not go to spoil, basically I de-boned a couple of leg/thighs and took the skin off, tempered them with salt lemon and garlic, and let them marinate for 30 minutes before I started the whole coking. Then I pass them through flour (mixed with garlic granules and pepper), and some egg (mix) and finally through bread crumbs. And deep fried these until golden brown (see picture)

The fish also a rest of fish, weigh it and boiled the same weight of the fish in potatoes. So 50% fish 50% potato, mashed the potato and minced the fish, mix the two together, adding an egg yolk some seasoning and some parsley chopped, once well mixed I beat the egg with to peak and folded that into the mixture, formed some cakes pass these through flour, and then egg (mix), finally bread crumbs and deep fried, same as the chicken...well YUM!! again,,, you can top it up after fried with a little lemon juice, and some tartare sauce if you like... have fun...you can use many more left overs. If you ever have difficulties thinking what to do with left overs asked I might be able to help....lol

Fish in Courgette Wraps and beer batter with Mandolin Crisps and Steamed Pak Choi + Courgette Fritters

It looks complicated, but I assure you was not. It was a little fiddly. But it sure was worth it afterwards, when eating my creation.

Recipe ingredients: (feeds 3)

• 1 large fish fillet (I used Cooley) remove skin and cut into small chunks
  
• 1 large courgette
• 2 soup spoons of flour
• 1 egg
• a glug of beer
• salt and pepper to taste
• a pan with about 3 fingers deep of frying oil.
• 3 Pak Choi
• a small courgette (chipped)
• 6 medium potatoes (or 8 small, very thin sliced, to make the crisps)

First fry the crisps in the oil, while that is doing, with a potato peeler cut thin slices of courgette (large) until it's all used up, sprinkle a little salt and pepper on the fish chunks and once that is done wrap each fish portion into two slithers of courgette, setting it aside on top of an absorbent tissue to remove excess water.

Once the crisps are made (it will take you about 3 go's) stick them on a plate on top of some absorbent paper to remove excess oil, also you can place them in the oven at 50c to keep them hot and dry. Meanwhile put a pan on the stove with about 6 soup spoons of water, with a lid on and wait till starts boiling reduce heat to minimum and placed inside the pak choi (washed) place the lid back on and now move on to the fish.

get two bowls one put just a little flour, the other the 2 sp of flour + egg + glug of beer + salt and pepper to taste, mix into a batter, dip one end of the fish rolls into the flour and then into the batter, then place them in the oil, once the batter is cooked tip them on their side to cook better it will only take about 3 minutes to cook the fish and courgette. once done place them on an absorbent paper to remove excess fat and water released by courgette. Please remember this is not a crispy batter, but a soft one, once all the fish bits are done use the excess batter to coat the other courgette chips and fry them too. Once all done the pak choi will be cooked and now is just a matter of assembling it on the plate and eating, I added a little lemon juice on top of the fish and pak choi after dished..it was delicious. But like i said in a comment bellow, i feel I done to many fried things together if I made this dish again I would have made some mash with a little butter cream (salt and pepper to taste) pinch of nutmeg and some chopped chives ...Hope you like it.

Continental Pork Meatballs & Cranberry Sauce Panini

Receita em Português AQUI



This was an excellent sandwich I made, is a classic in some places but nothing like a home made one. With all home made.

Recipe ingredients:

• Pork mince 300grs
• 2 garlic clove minced
• 1 hand full bread crumbs (I just grate old dried baguettes)
• 1 egg
• 1 tea spoon of smoked paprika
  
• salt and pepper (to taste)
• some fresh panini's (I used Morrison's, they great 5 for £1.00)
• 150grms cranberry's
• one soup spoon of sugar
  
• a squeeze of lemon
• some olive oil

In a bowl mix in the pork mince, the garlic, egg, paprika, salt and pepper (to taste), once is all very well mixed make little balls. put a frying pan on the stove with some oil once very hot add the meat balls and keep swirling occasionally until the balls are all sealed, to better retain flavour. Once that happens, let them cook about 3 minutes on each side, so 3 minutes and turn and three minutes more, take them out to a plate with some absorbent paper to takes excess fat.

On a little non stick milk pan or similar size put the cranberries a soup spoon of sugar and a soup spoon of water + a little lemon squeeze, cook them for four to five minutes then mash them with a masher and cook for a couple minutes more until is quite thick, but you don't want jam, so don't cook much longer than that if is still too liquid don't worry the bread will absorb some juice will just make it nicer. Cut the panini's in half (see picture) cut the balls in half fill the panini place some cranberry sauce on top and their ready to eat, this is a delicious and fast snack. really really nice with some latte. When you doing the cranberry sauce if you want to add some more mystery add a couple of thinly sliced mint leaves...yum yum !!! Hope you really enjoy this one.....

Smoked Fish and Prawns in a Pasta and Cream Grattin

Recipe Ingredients:

• 1 large courgette cut in half and then in stripes.
  
• 6 carrots with skin (well washed, thinly sliced)
  
• 1 large onion (finely chopped)
  
• 3 garlic cloves (two minced, one crushed)
  
• 300mls double fresh cream
  
• 150grs grated cheddar
  
• 800grs pasta (use a mixture of two nice ones, different types)
  
• 400grs smoked filet's like haddock or another smoked fish( skinless and boneless cut into little cubes)
  
• 250grs fresh uncooked king prawns skinless (cut in half's)
  
• 2 soup spoons of butter
• salt and pepper to taste
• a little olive oil
  

Easy recipe to make. Place a large frying pan on the stove and a deep pan with water salt and the crushed garlic to cook the pasta, once the water is boiling add the pasta, leave it cooking for 10 minutes, while on the frying pan ad a glug of olive oil, and once hot add the two minced garlic, onion, courgettes, carrots and seasoning (salt and pepper to taste), stir these frequently until the onion and carrot are half cooked, at this stage add, the butter and then once melted the fresh cream, wait now until the cream starts to bubble, and at this stage add the cut smoked fish, reduce the fire to medium and let it simmer for 3 minutes, lastly add the prawns and let it simmer a further 3 minutes.

Get a couple of large Pyrex, cover the bottom with some of the boiled pasta (half) dividing equally between the both. After that split the sauce into two parts reserving a little liquid with veg bits, put each of those two parts over the bed of pasta, and then cover the sauce with another layer of pasta on each dish until all the pasta has gone, now pour half of the reserved liquid evenly over the pasta of both dishes and over that the grated cheese over the two trays (for more cheese flavour you may add some grated Parmesan "optional") season a little salt and pepper and goes in the oven at 200c for about 15 minutes, well ...until golden brown on top to your liking, this serves 10 people easy. At least that is how many ate this at my house, and to be honest they all loved this dish, so hope yours like it too, if your people eat a lot make this dish for 8. Luv ya ...and thanks for visiting my blog and taking the time to comment.