Sunday update

Hi again from relatively sunny Wales!

The burgers I blogged about earlier went down a treat. Rhianwen and I had a great time making them together! Easy too - a pack of lamb mince (leaner the better), 2 tbsp of clear honey, 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp garlic powder and I also added a whole chopped red chilli to mine but obviously not for the kids and plenty of seasoning. Don't need anything else to bind it, just mix it all with your hands and fry them off. I brushed them with some extra honey to caramelise the outside too, worked really well.

Tastiest burgers I've ever eaten I'd go as far as saying, truly delicious. Kids enjoyed too as you can see...

Also did some shopping earlier. On this weeks menu will be Gressingham duck breasts with teriyaki sweet sauce with noodles, pork medallions with a cider sauce and celeriac and apple mash, and some gorgeous Welsh ribeye steaks with my favourite sweet potato wedges. Watch this space!

Night folks, good eating

Tony

Morning Glory!

Morning folks!

I got up relatively early for a Sunday morning today. The reason? On my way back from playing snooker with friends last night I decided I would make the girls a good fry up to wake up to. I think they enjoyed it...

Delicious bacon, fried potatoes, fried bread, mushrooms cooked with garlic pepper, beans (yuck, not a fan myself) and their favourite Daddy's special scrambled eggs. Both girls go mad for it, especially the youngest its her favourite food in the world! Not exactly difficult things to cook but a good test as to how far I have come as a cook. I attempted this a few years ago before I really started cooking and ended up completely ballsing it up, to the point it was inedible because I couldn't time everything and I lost it. This one turned out well so I'd say I have improved! As you can see, they enjoyed it anyway. Nothing makes me happier than watching my wife and kids enjoying something I created, even if its simple like breakfast it makes me smile inside like nothing else.

I'll post again later as the eldest is assisting me in making lamb honey and cumin burgers! She loves to cook with me and loves learning about ingredients so I'm encouraging her as much as I can, cooking is a great hobby that brings people together. I'll let you know how chef Rhianwen's (4 years old) turn out!

Happy Sunday everyone

Tony

Caramelised Apricots with Vanilla and Honey Mascarpone

Ingredients
200g of Marscapone
1-2 Tbs of clear honey
1 Vanilla pod
4-6 Fresh apricots
2 knobs of butter
30g Golden castor sugar

Method
1. Preheat grill to 200 degrees celcius.
2. Half and destone the apricots. Lay centre side up on a grill tray.
3. Place a small amount of butter in the centre of each half, and sprinkle liberally with the sugar. Grill for between 4-7 minutes depending on how firm you want the fruit.
4. In a bowl mix the Mascarpone, Honey and seeds of the Vanilla pod.
5. Serve the now caramelised Apricots with a generous scoop of the Mascarpone. Also great if you would like to add some home made Shortbread or Pralines for an additional texture and flavour.

Cheers!

Tony

Mushroom Risotto

Mushroom Risotto
Serves 4:
Ingredients:
2 Cups of arborio rice
3 Cups of reduced salt chicken or vegetable stock
400g Swiss Brown mushrooms, sliced
1 clove of garlic, minced or chopped finely
Black pepper
Manchego cheese
Olive Oil
Method:
1. Begin by heating the stock in a saucepan until it is just below a simmer.
2. In a pan gently fry the mushrooms until they are cooked but still have a bite to them, then remove and leave aside
3. Heat oil in a heavy based saucepan and start to cook down the garlic until tender
4. Add rice and stir, making sure each grain of the rice is covered with oil
5. Add 2 ladles of the stock to the rice and stir until the stock has been absorbed
6. Once absorbed add another ladle and stir until this is absorbed, continue this until the rice is tender but has a slight bite to it.
7. Add the mushroom's to the rice, reserving a few to garnish, season with pepper to balance out the saltiness of the stock.
8. Once the rice is cooked to your liking, spoon into bowls and sprinkle remaining mushrooms on top.
9. Grate the machego cheese on top to finish and serve.

Tips
The key is to keep the rice moving as much as possible, this will ensure the rice cooks evenly and the risotto doesn't get to thick and heavy.  Remember to taste!  All stocks are different, some are saltier than others, the pepper will balance it out perfectly but you will need different amounts depending on the salt level of the stock.

Ant

Easy Takeaway!

We all get tempted to get a takeaway when we are short on time, but here is a recipe thats fast and easy and best of all cheap!

Pad Thai
Serves 4
Ingredients
450g Rice Noodles
400g Green Prawns, shelled
2 Cups of Bean Sprouts
2 Tbsp Fish Sauce
1.5 Tbsp Sugar
Juice of 1 lime, reserve cheeks.
1 Beaten Egg
2 Tbsp Roasted Peanuts, reserve a handful for finishing.
Peanut Oil
                                               Coriander

Method
1. Soak noodles as per instructions on packaging.
2. Heat peanut oil in a wok.
3. Throw in the prawns and cook until just pink.
4. Add noodles and bean sprouts, mix well in the wok.
5. Add fish sauce, sugar, lime juice,  peanuts and egg, mix until the egg is just cooked.
6. Remove into bowls and sprinkle the reserved peanuts and the coriander on top and place the reserved lime cheeks on the side.

Enjoy

Ant

Your own Recipe Book

When we cook, we all follow a recipe at some point.  The problem is, that these recipes are made to the taste of the person writing the recipe, not essentially to yourself.  I just wanted to share my way of tweaking, and most importantly, remembering what you did to make the recipe sing!

Let me give you the best example, you decide you want to have a go at cooking a certain dish, lets use Spaghetti Bolognaise in this example, so you jump online and look up a recipe.  You find the one you want and print it out.  What I suggest is getting yourself a notepad or a small exercise book etc and stick the recipe in it, leaving enough room for notes.

After everything is prepared for the dish you start cooking but when tasting you think it needs something extra, so you add some more garlic.  Make a note in the book that it needed an extra clove, or anything else that you add along the way.  By doing this you not only tailor the recipe to your tastes, but in 6 months time you will remember how to recreate it perfectly.

Not only will this book become your cooking bible, it can be passed down through your family for generations.

Ant

Getting there...

Hi from not so sunny Wales!

Since I ride a motorbike, the ride home today was not great. Windy, dull, just generally un-fun. So what better way to warm up than with a nice curry for tea?

I made this little lot. On the right we have marinated paneer with chilli, ginger and some hot spices. The curry itself is a Chicken thigh Pasanda which I made more interesting with flaked almonds, raisins, cashew nuts and baby corn. The rice is my own recipe Pilaff, a take on a Kashmiri recipe with saffron, whole spices, Dried Figs and Apricots. I'm afraid the Naan breads are from Tesco.

Would appreciate any comments, suggestions, discussion, anything goes on our blog the more feedback the better. When we start updating the recipe section I will of course pop these in for anyone interested, but as you know we are still getting up and running right now.

All the best everyone!

Tony

Why?

Hi Everyone


My best pal Ant and I have decided to write a food blog. We don't know much about blogging, we are just 2 amateur chefs with a passion for food that we want to share with the world and discuss with like minded people.


We'll be posting recipes, tips, our cooking adventures, ideas, videos, shopping links, allsorts of cool stuff including when things don't turn out too well. We are looking to be online by this weekend so please add to your favourites, bookmarks, whatever you like to do and visit again. 


We are looking forward to getting started but with the time difference between Australia and The UK its a little difficult to organise so please stick with us for now.


Much love to all of you foodies out there - we look forward to getting to know you all and to hopefully having some good times writing while you have a good time reading.


Tony (and Ant)