A weekend in the kitchen

Wow, what a busy weekend I've had! I spent approximately ten hours cooking and baking in preparation for my turn of the Come Dine With Me competition me and my friends are having. I wanted my menu to be something a bit different and decided to do it tapas style. For those of you that might not know, I was born in Spain and lived there til the age of 7 and then again duting my Erasmus year at uni which means I know a thing of two about good Spanish food!

For some reason I hardly ever cook Spanish recipes, I don't know why. I have always wnated to incorporate them into my regular 'repertoire' - you know, those recipes you know off the top of your head and can throw together in a jiffy. I thought my turn of the dinner party competition was a great chance to make some of the things I know to be the tastiest food in Europe. I made everything from scratch, (with the exception of the bread and the pastry for the empanadas) which is how it took about 10 hours! It was well worth the effort though and I think I have a good chance of winning...

I thought I'd share the menu with you all in case it inspires you to try a few new dishes, or even for you to borrow next time you're hosting a dinner party! If you do use the menu I'd love to know how you get on. I haven't got any pics of the food because I was so involved in the cooking that it never entered my head to take any photos! Oops!

So here it is:

Menú del Día

Entradas

Gazpacho

Chilled tomato and vegetable soup

Ibéricos

Serrano ham and chorizo

Manchego, con higos y miel

Manchego cheese served with figs and honey

Pan de ajo

Garlic bread, Spanish style

Platos Principales

Tortilla

Traditional Spanish omelette

Chorizo con jerez

Sherry-cooked chorizo

Empanadas de atún y de pollo

Mini tuna and chicken pasties

Croquetas de jamón y queso

Ham and cheese croquettes

Patatas bravas

Potatoes with spicy tomato sauce

Albhondigas caseras

Spanish style meatballs

Postre

Tarta de limón

Lemon tart

Friday Suppers: Something with apples

Do you struggle to get your 5 a day? Well, do not fret, Princess Crafts has come to the rescue!

This is a great way to get some of your 5 a day... Apple and Cinnamon Squares!

I decided to make this part of the Friday Suppers series as it is great for a Friday treat and technically can count as a pudding. If Friday is Cake Day in your office,  then take these in and you'll have loads of new friends instantly!

This recipe is one that my mum has had for years and we always used to make it when I was a kid. The smell alone is enough to make you swoon...! It is dead easy to make and requires no previous baking experience.

You will see from the pics that there are only 4 squares left, well the recipe makes about 9 generous sized squares but these are so moreish that they barely make it out of the baking tin and into the storage tin, they generally fall straight into my tummy...

Anyway, on with the recipe!

You will need:
1 cup plain flour
1 cup sugar
2tsp baking powder
2 eggs
2tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
3 apples, peeled and sliced

8x8inch tin, greased and floured

To make:
1. Sift dry ingredients and mix well.
2. Add the eggs, vanilla and butter and mix thoroughly.
3. Add the chopped nuts and apples and mix well with a spoon. If you use an electric mixer at this point you'll mush up the apples and nuts.
4. Put the mixture into the tin and spread out to make sure it's even. Don't worry if the mixture feels a bit thick, it's meant to be.
5. Bake at 180 degrees for about 45 minutes.
6. Once cooked, let them cool in the tin before using a plactic knife/spatula to cut into squares. Don't use a metal knife otherwise you'll scratch up your tin!

Best served with a giant mug of your favourite hot drink and try not to eat them all at once!!

PS. Please let me know what you think of these if you try them!

Friday Suppers: Lamb steaks and vegetable cous cous

Here we are again, another Friday is upon us and the weekend is a few hours away!!

For this week's Friday Supper, we're having lamb leg steaks and vegetable cous cous.

This recipe serves 2.
You will need:

For the lamb
2 lamb leg steaks, seasoned
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
Olive oil

For the cous cous
3 handfuls of cous cous
1 onion
1 pepper
Handful of mushrooms
Olive oil
Knob of butter

1) In a shallow dish, mix the lemon juice and zest with the garlic and olive oil. Place the lamb into the marinade and leave for 30 mins-1 hour. Make sure the meat is well covered, this allows the it to soak up the flavours.

Marinade ready and waiting

Lamb in the marinade for 30-60 mins

2) While the lamb is marinading, chop the vegetables for the cous cous and lightly fry them in some oil. Once cooked, put to one side so you're ready to assemble the cous cous later. 

Cook the veggies

Set aside once cooked

3) Once the lamb has marinaded, heat up the BBQ or a griddle pan (a frying pan will also do) so it's nice and hot. Then place the lamb in and watch it sizzle!

4) Keep an eye on the lamb as it cooks, and turn it every few minutes so it browns evenly.

5) As the lamb cooks, put a small saucepan on to heat and pop in the cous cous. Stir and allow it to heat up a little bit, then add the butter and keep stirring.

Stir the cous cous in the hot pan

6) Add just enough boiling water to cover the cous cous and let it boil off, about 1-2 mins. Keep stirring so it doesn't stick together. The water MUST be boiling before you put it in otherwise your cous cous will go soggy!

Let the water boil off

7) Don't forget to check how the lamb is doing! Cook it to your taste, Mr PC and I prefer it medium/rare but you can have it well done if you want.

8) Once the water has boiled off and the cous cous is plumped up, add the vegetables you cooked earlier along with some olive oil. Stir together and keep on a medium heat. Then put the pan lid on and allow the cous cous to steam in the pan while you sort the lamb out and fetch some plates.

Stir in the veg

Put lid on and allow to steam

9) Once the lamb is ready serve it alongside the cous cous and hey presto, a yummy dinner!

Grub's up!

Friday Suppers: Pizza

Hello and welcome to the second week of Friday Suppers.

This week has been hectic and time has run away from me. So this week's Friday Supper is a bit of a cheat because I haven't been organised enough. We're having Pizza and a DVD.


You will need:

A phone
Money to pay
Pizza takeaway menu
DVD


1. Find your favourite pizza takeaway menu
2. Choose your favourite, don't forget the garlic bread!
3. Call in the order and get it delivered at an appropriate time.
4. Get the dvd ready and wait for dinner to arrive!
5. Enjoy with a large glass of your fave drink.

Hope you enjoy your pizza, and next week I promise to create something exciting for you!

 

Source

Friday Suppers: Smoked salmon ravioli

I've decided to try my hand at a regular feature in which I will post a recipe suitable for a Friday night in. In the spirit of offering some variety, this might be a starter, main course or dessert and I'll try my best to come up with my own recipes although at times I may refer to one of my faithful cookbooks. I'd love to hear how you get on with these dinner suggestions, so feel free to leave comments.

So, the first Friday Supper is here and we're having homemade smoked salmon ravioli with a basil tomato sauce. Here goes!

You will need:

For the ravioli
Fresh lasagne sheets (shop bought or homemade if you have the equipment)
A portion of hot smoked salmon (you can use regular smoked slamon too)
3-4 tbsp cream cheese, such as Philidelphia
1 egg
A small bunch of fresh basil
Salt and pepper

For the sauce
A tin of chopped tomatoes
2-3 cloves of garlic
2-3 tbsp olive oil
Splash of white wine
Splash of balsamic vinegar
Salt and peper, to taste
Grated parmesan cheese



Please note these quantities are approximate and will feed 2 people. You may need to upscale the recipe as necessary.


To make the ravioli

1. Flake the salmon into a bowl and break it up into small pieces. Add the cream cheese, tear the basil leaves and add to the salmon. Mix thoroughly with a fork, you want to get a fairly even texture, not too lumpy. Taste it then add more basil if required and season accordingly.

2. Lay out a fresh lasagne sheet and spoon 1tsp of the salmon mix onto the sheet. Depending on the size of the lasagne, you might get 4-8 raviolis per sheet. Remember to space out the fillings so that there is enough pasta around the edges so you can seal the ravioli.

Source: mothsoupstories.com

3. Beat the egg and use a pastry brush to brush over the lasagne sheets, around the salmon mix. This will help seal the ravioli.

Source: petitchef.com

 

4. Lay a lasagne sheet over the sheet with the fillings and press down around the edges of each spoonful of salmon mixture. Make sure not to tear the pasta as this will cause the ravioli to leak when you cook them.

5. Use a pizza cutter (or pasta cutter if you have one) to cut between the mounds and make individual 'parcels'. A bit like this:

Source: theitaliandishblog.com

6. Now the ravioli is made, they are ready for the sauce!

To make the sauce

1. Using a blender or food processer, mix the tomatoes, basil, garlic and oil until it is smooth.

2. Use a large frying pan to gently heat the sauce. Stir occasionally and add the wine when it starts to simmer.

3. Once the wine has cooked off slightly, add a spalsh of balsamic vinegar. Be sure not to add too much, you can always add more later! This might sound like a weird addition, but trust me, it works and gives a bit of depth to the flavour of the sauce.

4.  Mix well and season to taste. Add more balsamic if necessary.

5. While the sauce is cooking, drop the ravioli into boiling water to cook the pasta. When they float in the water, they are cooked.

Ravioli, just about ready

Sauce cooking while ravioli cook

6. When the ravoili is cooked, use a slotted spoon to life them out of the water and into the pan with the sauce. I find if you drain with a colander, they tend to stick together, so lifting them out with a spoon works best for me.

Ravioli in sauce

7.  Gently stir the ravioli in the sauce before serving. Top with grated parmesan to taste. If you want to be posh you can add a small sprig of basil to decorate.

Posh basil on top!

8. Serve with a large glass of wine and a chunk of ciabatta to soak up the sauce! Enjoy!!

Yummy!

NB. Mr PC made the pasta from scratch, and I didn't have the brainwave to create a Friday Suppers feature until halfway through the cooking process, hence the pics which I've borrowed from other websites. I'll also be more organised and take better pictures next time!