I’m currently on a diet & slowly losing weight which is good, but the bad thing is, I’m craving all the food I shouldn’t lol. Mom & I are trying new recipes that are low fat since we cut out fried food & junk (I miss Pizza Hut the most!). Anyhooo the other day Mom bought some little frying steaks which I thought would be great in a Steak Sandwich (craving’s are a bitch!) & tonight I cooked that for dinner, the good thing is, it’s healthy… even down to the fries which we had along with it (I cheated on them, didn’t make them, they are Weight Watcher’s oven fries)! So here is the recipe with food porn photographs

Ingredients for 2 people:

2 Panini or Ciabatta rolls
2 Tomatoes sliced
A Handful of Salad Leaves (I’m currently digging Tenderleaf Mix)
1 Large Onion chopped
4 Frying Steaks (Or minute steaks, hell you could even use a normal steak & slice it up!)
Ground Black Pepper
Chilli Hot Sauce (I use Timor from Quinta d’Avó from Portugal which my brother got me, it’s amazing!)
1 Teaspoon of Chopped Garlic
Some Mayo, Ketchup or Mustard for Dressing (or all if you want!)
Fry Light Sunflower Oil Spray (if you want to be healthy, or just use a little Sunflower/Vegetable Oil)

Method:

In a frying pan, squirt some cooking spray (or use oil, whatever you like) and fry the chopped onions with the garlic until brown then add a teaspoon or two or three (if you like it spicy) of chilli sauce to give them a little kick. Leave to the side.

Next, you need to cook the steaks. I used the George Foreman Grill to cook them since it’s healthier (but you could fry them in a pan if you don’t have one). Before cooking, I rubbed them with ground pepper & a few teaspoons of the chilli sauce mix. The good thing about these steaks is that they cook in a few minutes, the ones we had cooked in less than 4 minutes, so this recipe is pretty fast

While they are cooking, get the panini rolls ready and add the tomatoes & lettuce to them along with your dressing(s) of choice. Once the steaks are ready, pop them into the rolls and top with the onions. Slice the rolls in half, stick in your mouth & enjoy

Mom bought some Langoustine’s the other day and we decided to have them for dinner tonight but wasn’t quite sure what to make with them. I googled the main ingredients that I was going to use Langoustine & Pasta and came across a recipe from All Recipes that looked quite nice so I decided to adapt it a little bit & it turned out really yummy (according to my mom & I at least)

Ingredients:

Tagliatellie (depends on how much you like, I used 3 swirly lumps)
2 tablespoons butter
Mushrooms (and any other veggie you want to use)
60g butter
2 cloves of garlic chopped finely (or use 2 teaspoon’s of garlic paste in a tube like I did for ease)
300g of Soft Cheese (Cream Cheese)
1 teaspoon of basil (either use dried or freshly chopped)
60 milliliters of milk
60 milliliters of water
A few drops of tabasco sauce (for a little kick!)
Langoustines & Shrimps (as many or as few as you like)

Method:

Bring to the boil a large pan of lightly salted water and add the pasta. Cook until tender (around 7-10 minutes), then drain. I had to cook the Langoustine’s as they were un-cooked, so I boiled them for 4-5 minutes and made the sauce while waiting. The shrimps I used were already cooked so only needed heating up.

While the pasta is boiling, heat the 2 tablespoon’s of butter with a little garlic in a frying pan over a medium heat adding the mushrooms & any other vegetables you like (I added cherry tomatoes). Cook until soft and transfer to a plate to rest.

In the same frying pan, melt the remaining butter (60g) with the garlic then add in the soft cheese stirring and breaking the lumps out of it while it melts. Stir in the basil and simmer for 5 minutes turning the heat down a little. Mix in the milk, tabasco & water until the sauce is smooth. Next add the Langoustine’s & Shrimp’s and heat through.

Lastly, add the tagliatellie to the sauce, serve & munch Here’s photos of it, drool as much as you like *hehe*

It’s been a while since I posted one of my foody creations, I didn’t want you getting bored of me posting about food so I stopped posting for a while, the result is… I have a backlog of pictures and recipes to blog about.

My grandfather was craving this dish, so I had to try find the ingredients in the cupboards and fridge to make it. We didn’t have any garlic so I had to make do with adding extra herbs and you really couldn’t tell that garlic was missing, which was a good thing It turned out really nice and flavoursome.

Ingredients:
500g Minced Beef
1 Onion, Chopped
1 Can Chopped Tomatoes
4 Fresh Tomatoes
5 Mushrooms, Sliced
1 Red Pepper, Sliced
Handful of Fresh Basil chopped roughly
2 tbsp Tomato Paste
4 tbsp Dried Mixed Herbs
1 tbsp Chopped Garlic (if you have it!)

Method:
1. Fry Onion in a pan on high heat until golden. Next add the minced beef and stir until brown.

2. Add vegetables, tin of chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, mixed herbs, garlic, and basil and mix together throughly making sure all the minced beef is covered.

3. Turn down the heat on the stove, and cover the pan letting the mixture simmer away for 20 minutes. Make sure you stir occasionally so it doesn’t burn or stick to the bottom of the pan.

4. Next, boil some water on high heat until bubbles appear, then add in a handful of dried spagetti. Once it all has shrunk into the pan (see pictures), turn heat down a little bit and let it bubble away for 10-12 minutes until tender.

5. Drain the water from the spagetti and put on a plate covering with some of the bolognese meat, maybe some leftover basil leaves and enjoy

Coming in the next few days…. Roast Chicken & Pasta Bake with Homemade Garlic Bread *yum*

Damn, it feels like my blog has suddenly turned into a cooking blog since I moved in with my grandfather. The funny thing is, I hate cooking when I’m on my own, I normally eat junk food but I love cooking for other people and my grandfather is my test dummy hehe

Last night I used some left over rice to finish off this dish, I ended up cooking way too much rice with the Chinese food the other day, so rather than throwing it out, I re-used it and the good thing was it still tasted fresh when I re-heated it in the microwave (look here for how to cook rice, if you need too). This recipe is really simple to make and takes in total, 20 minutes to do

Ingredients:
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped finely
1 can canned chopped tomatoes
5 mushrooms, chopped
4 garlic cloves, cut into fourths
Lemon Juice, Salt and Pepper to season
Handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped
3 chicken breasts
Rice or Spagetti

Method:
1. Take your chicken breasts and flatten them a little. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and some lemon juice and wrap in foil (loosely not tight) and cook in the oven at 200ºc for approx 20 minutes.

2. While the chicken is cooking, you can prepare and cook the sauce by heating some oil in a large pan in medium heat. Add chopped onions and mushrooms then cook gently for 5 minutes until they are soft and slightly golden. Next, add the tomatoes and garlic and bring it to boil. Simmer (turn down heat) for let it bubble away for 15-20 minutes. Season with a little salt, pepper and sprinkle basil throughout and stir.

3. Once the chicken is cooked, put straight on a plate with some rice (or spagetti) and spoon over some of the yummy tomato sauce and eat I used a little plastic cup to make the rice look all funky of the plate!

Tonight my aunt stayed for dinner, we had left over steak from last nights dinner (I tried a new sauce which I’ll blog next week) and I had some chicken in the fridge. So I decided to make two different chinese dishes; Beef in an Oyster Sauce and Sweet & Sour Chicken with boiled rice. It turned out yummy, my favourite was the beef *drool* This will be a long post so beware

Stir-Fried Vegetables
Grab any vegetables you like, I used onions, mushrooms, green pepper, mange-tout and fry with a little oil, salt and pepper until soft. Set aside for use in the two upcoming dishes

Soft Fluffy White Boiled Rice
Heat a large pan of water which has been seasoned with a little salt and bring to the boil. Add in rice (I used 2 cups today) and make sure the water level is approx 1 inch more than the rice level, stir once and then put lid on the pan and turn down the heat and let it simmer away for 15 or until water has evaporated. To check if the rice is ready, get a knife and make little holes in the pan to get to the bottom of the pan, when you take the knife out, if it is sticky and watery then the rice is not ready and should take a few more minutes. Becareful not to stir the rice or else it will become all sticky and yuck! Take off the heat and let it sit for a few minutes before making sure all water has gone from the pan and plate up with the dishes featured below (or any other for that matter!).

Beef in Oyster Sauce
Ingredients:

500g sirlon steak cut into pieces
3 cloves garlic – thinly sliced
1/4 ginger – thinly sliced
1 tbsp sake or soy sauce
5 tbsp oyster sauce
pepper
vegetable oil

Marinate:

1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp corn starch
2 tbsp water
2 tsp vegetable oil
A pinch of pepper and sugar

Method:

1. Mix all the marinate ingredients together in a bowl and add the steak for 30 minutes in order to soak.
2. Heat the oil in a wok (or deep frying pan), saute garlic and ginger until slightly brown.
3. Add the marinated steak along with the leftover marinate juices and cook until cooked (approx 8 minutes)
4. Add oyster sauce, sake or soy sauce, 1/2 of the ready prepared vegetables & season and stir all together for a further 2-3 minutes, then serve.

Sweet & Sour Chicken
Marinate Ingredients:

500g boneless chicken breast sliced into chunks
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp cold water

Sauce Ingredients:

4 tbsp vinegar
4 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp sugar
5 tbsp cold water
5 tbsp pineapple juice
3 tsp corn starch
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vegetable oil

Method:

1. Mix all of the marinate ingredients together in a bowl and let the chicken sit it in for approx 30 minutes
2. Mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
3. Add a little vegetable oil in a wok (or deep frying pan) and put on high heat until you hear the oil cracking. Add in the chicken stirring for approx 4 minutes until golden brown. Remove the chicken from the wok and set aside remembering to drain excess oil away from the wok or else the dish will be too oily.
4. With your now oil drained wok, add a little vegetable oil (yes it doesn’t make sense but it’s fresh oil rather than used oil! Add in the rest of the previous prepared vegetables, sweet & sour sauce and stir until it because very hot, this will take 2-3 minutes.
6. Put the chicken back in the wok with the sauce and stir for a few minutes then serve.

& that’s basically it… the preparation takes the longest but munching into the hot yummy food at the end is great! Since I’ve moved in with my grandfather, I’m cooking much much more so these posts will continue for the near future so I hope you don’t get too bored & I would like some of you to try them out and lemme know how they worked!

This was the dish I was busy cooking when I sliced part of my finger off, it still hurts like a bitch but eating yummy food made it feel worth it, yes I’m weird like that! My aunt bought a Roasting joint of Scottish Topside Angus Beef the other day so I decided to cook it today and this is what I came up with. The recipe and cooking times are based on the weight of the beef I had. Increase/Decrease cooking time depending on weight. If you are stuck, email (comment) and I’ll give you the times based on the weight

Ingredients:
1. 1Kg Roasting Joint of Beef
2. Olive oil
3. Dried Mixed Herbs
4. Salt and pepper
5. Water
6. Beef Stock Cube
7. Corn Starch
8. Potatoes
9. Milk and Butter

Roast Beef:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°c

2. With a knife, make around 6-8 incisions, this will allow the juices to flow around the joint and also for heat to get inside

3. Take a tablespoon of olive oil and dried mixed herbs and rub into the joint along with sprinkles of salt and pepper

4. Get a baking tray with alumninum foil and place the joint in it and cover. Place into the middle rack of the oven

5. Cook for 50 minutes and then take out of the oven and prick the joint with a sharp knife to see what the juice colours are. If it is red it is rare (and probably still raw), you are looking for a clear juice to come out in the end. By now, juices will be at the bottom of the baking tray, so take a spoon and put some of the juices all over the joint and put in the oven for an additional 15 minutes

6. Take out of the oven and let to sit for 10 minutes before carving. This will allow the meat to set and make it easier to cut up.

Herb Gravy:
With the juices left over in the baking tray from the roasting joint, put into a meduim sized pan and put on the heat. Add some water and beef stock (use a cube that has been mixed in water). Dissolve a tablespoon of corn starch in some water and add to the pan. Stir quickly as the gravy thickens up to avoid any lumps (which taste yuck!). Add a tablespoon of dried mixed herbs (and some thyme if you have it) along with salt and pepper to taste. If you feel the gravy is too thick for your liking, keep adding water slowly and mix until you get a consistancy you like.

Mashed Potato:
1. Peel the amount of potatoes you want depending on how many people will eat. I peeled 6 potatoes, along with my finger *cries* and then chopped each potato either into halves or quaters depending on the size of it.

2. Boil water with a sprinkle of salt and once brought to the boil, add the potatoes and boil for 20 minutes or under soft and tender.

3. Once boiled, drain the water and add a knob of butter, a little milk, salt and pepper and mash the potatoes together with one of those masher things (no clue what its called). The potatoes will be nice, creamy and fluffy by this point.

That’s basically everything. It turned out yummy and there are tons of leftovers for tomorrow! I was going to serve some other vegetables but my finger was hurting too much so I just stuck with the potatoes lol and then a scoop of ice cream and peaches to cheer myself up

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Tonight I decided I was craving steak and we didn’t have any sauce for it in my grandfather’s house, so I decided to create my own with some ingredients I found in the fridge, the result was amazing so here is the recipe

Mushroom Sauce:
Chop up mushrooms, onions and cherry tomatoes, add olive oil into a frying pan and fry until soft. Add some salt, ground pepper and ground mixed herbs and stir. Next, add some lemon juice and white grape juice. When some of the liquid evaporates, stir in some single cream and stir for a few minutes. Take off the heat and put ontop of your meat. I used steak but you could use this on chicken… it tastes amazing!

Steak:
Put into a frying pan with olive oil, season the steaks on both sides with salt, pepper and dried mixed herbs for taste. Fry on one side for 3-4 minutes, turn over for an additional 2 minutes for a medium steak… slightly longer is you like it well done.

Side Salad in a Parmigiano-Reggiano and Herb Sauce:
Fresh Salad, I used watercress, spinach and rocket leaves (but could use any lettuce variety), cucumbers, cherry tomatoes. The dressing was made using 1 cup mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of dried herbs, 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese and Salt & Pepper which was all mixed together then drizzled on the salad.

Finished Product:
It was yummy, I wish I had more *drool*

Dessert:
This is my grandfather’s favourite ice cream ever and I’ve been eating it since I was a little kid. It’s ultra creamy and great quality! I put 2 scoops into a bowl along with chopped strawberries which were spinkled with some sugar to make sweeter.

& there you go, that is all currently in my tummy and I wish there was more

It was my lunch today & yummy…. so here is the recipe for you all to make it too

INGREDIENTS:
2 pitta bread (or khubbiz)
1 bag pre-packed lettuce selection
8 radishes, sliced
8 spring onions, sliced
1 cucumber, sliced
1-2 large brine cured pickles
3 tomatoes
1/3 cup finely chopped parsley
1/3 cup finely chopped mint
1 garlic clove crushed
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons ground sumac

METHOD:
Chop all the vegetables according to the above specifications and place in a large salad bowl. Crush the garlic and chop it. In a separate small bowl mash the garlic with the salt using the back of a spoon. Stir in the lemon juice and oil, beating with a fork to mix well. Pour the dressing over the salad. Grind the black pepper over the top of the salad.

Split each of the pitta’s in half horizontally so that you have 4 thin rounds of bread. Toast the breads lightly under the grill until they are golden and crisp. Break them into small pieces and crumble them on top of the salad. Mix thoroughly. Top with the sumac.