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6th June – Chicken and vegetable bake

Ingredients (serves 4-6):

  • 450g of chicken breasts – chopped into cubes
  • 300ml of chicken stock
  • 100g of button mushrooms – whole if small enough or cut in half if a little bigger
  • 1 tablespoon of cornflour
  • 150ml of milk
  • 200g of carrots – sliced
  • 1 teaspoon of dried rosemary
  • 900g of potatoes – chopped, cooked and mashed
  • 1 onion – grated
  • 100g of cheese – grated
  • Salt and pepper

Start by making the filling.  Pour the stock into a large pan and bring to the boil.  Add the chicken and mushrooms and lower to heat to a gentle simmer for 20-30 minutes.  Heat up the oven to 200 degrees C.  Remove the chicken and mushrooms from the pan and transfer them to a large oven dish.

In a bowl, mix together the cornflour and milk and add this to the stock along with the carrots and rosemary.  Season generously to taste.  Pour this mixture over the chicken and mushrooms.  Mix half of the cheese and the onion in with the mashed potato.  Spoon the mashed potato over the chicken, mushroom and carrot etc. mixture, making sure it’s smooth and even.  Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and bake in the oven for around 30 minutes or until the potato topping is nice and golden.  Serve up straight away!  Enjoy.

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5th June – Pepperoni (Chorizo) pasta

Ingredients (serves 3):

  • 1/2 loop of chorizo – cut into 5mm discs
  • 1 onion – chopped roughly
  • 1 red pepper – chopped into cubes
  • 1 yellow pepper – chopped into cubes
  • Enough penne pasta for everyone – I chose some giant pasta
  • 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
  • A squeeze of tomato puree
  • 1 teaspoon of paprika
  • 2 teaspoons of dried parsley

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and fry off the onions for 3-5 minutes until soft.  Add the chorizo and briefly fry until the juices run red.  Add the peppers and chopped tomatoes along with the puree and paprika.  Give it a good stir and bring it to the boil and then reduce to a gentle simmer.  Add the parsley, season with salt and pepper, give it another stir and simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While the sauce is simmering, bring a pan of lightly salted water to the boil and cook the pasta to your liking.  Once it’s cooked, drain off and serve up with the chorizo and sauce.  You can serve the sauce on a bed of the pasta or mix the sauce in with the pasta once you’ve drained it and returned it to its pan.

Enjoy with a glass of red!

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4th June – Sausage, bacon, beans and wine mix up

Ingredients (serves 4-6):

  • 1 pack of small sausages
  • 1 tin of baked beans
  • 1 glass of red wine
  • 1 pack of bacon – sliced into strips
  • 1 onion – chopped
  • 1 carrot – sliced
  • A handful of mushrooms – sliced
  • Mixed herbs
  • Salt and pepper

Yet another camping meal!  This is the remnants of everyones food! 🙂

Heat a little oil up in a pan and fry off the onions, bacon and sausages until the meat is browned off.  Add the carrots and mushrooms along with the red wine.  Bring to a gentle simmer for ten minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the baked beans and mixed herbs and stir in.  Season with salt and pepper and continue to simmer for a further ten minutes.  Season once more before serving up with some bread.  Enjoy!

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3rd June – Garlic, paprika and lemon chicken

Ingredients (serves 3-4):

  • 6-8 chicken drumsticks
  • 3-4 cloves of garlic – crushed and sliced
  • 1 teaspoon of paprika
  • 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon
  • Salt and pepper

Another night of camping, another meal!

Combine the marinade ingredients and turn the chicken drumsticks in the mixture well.  Allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes.  Turn on the oven to 200 degrees C.  Place the drumsticks along with the excess marinade into an oven tray and place in the oven for 15-25 minutes or until the skin is nice and crispy.  Serve up with fries or salad.  Enjoy!

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2nd June – Irish beef stew

Ingredients (serves… 12+ ?):

  • 1.2 kg of beef – sliced into chunks
  • 1 pack of bacon – sliced into strips
  • 2 onions – sliced
  • 800g of mushrooms – sliced
  • 3-4 large carrots – sliced
  • 2/3 of a bottle of red wine
  • 2-3 large potatoes – cut into cubes
  • Olive oil
  • 2 vegetable stock cubes (dissolved in about 1 litre of water)
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 tablespoon of thyme
  • 1 tablespoon of parsley
  • 4 cloves of garlic – crushed and sliced

This was another recipe I managed to do whilst camping.  It went down very well with all that tried it as it was a bit miserable weather wise and it helped to warm everyones’ cockles!

Start by browning off the meat in a very large pan with some olive oil.  Add the thyme, parsley, garlic and onions and cook for a further 3-5 minutes.  Add in the potatoes, carrots, wine and vegetable stock.  Bring to the boil, stirring frequently, and then reduce to a simmer.  Continue simmering the stew for 40 minutes to an hour to allow all the flavours to infuse together and make the meat tender.  Season and taste regularly whilst it is simmering away.  Add in the mushrooms 20 minutes before you plan on serving up the stew.  If it reduces down too much, add some more water or wine.  You can also add some chilli to this dish to give it a spicy twist.

Serve up once you’re happy with it and enjoy!  It can be eaten on it’s own, with some extra potatoes or veg on the side of simply with some crusty bread to dip in.

Enjoy!

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1st June – Pork burgers

Ingredients (serves 3-4):

  • 1 pack of pork mince
  • 1 onion – finely chopped
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon of coriander
  • 1 teaspoon of dill
  • Salt and pepper
  • Burger buns

Combine the mince, onion, egg, herbs and salt and pepper in a bowl.  Use your hands to mix the mixture together until consistent.  Take handfuls of it and form into burger shapes, as big or as small as you like.  You can then either fry, grill, bbq or oven cook them!  Throw on some cheese, salad, bacon etc. to finish them off.

I was making these when I was away camping, hence the rather simple nature of them! 🙂

You can’t beat homemade burgers!  Enjoy!

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31st May – Vegetarian stuffed potato skins with a sour cream topping

Ingredients (serves 2):

  • 2 medium to large potatoes
  • 200g of cheddar cheese – grated
  • 2 spring onions – sliced
  • Small pot of sour cream
  • 1 red pepper – chopped
  • Mixed herbs
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oven up to 200 degrees.  Pierce the potatoes with a fork and place them onto an oven tray and then into the oven for 40 minutes to an hour.  Take them out when you can poke a knife into them without any resistance.

Remove the potatoes from the oven.  Slice them in half lengthways and scoop out the middle into a pan. Add the grated cheese and pepper and mix together well.  Add in the mixed herbs (whatever you have in the cupboard) and salt and pepper to taste.

Divide the mixture between the potato skins and return them to the oven until the cheese is bubbling and slightly browned off on top.  Whilst the potato skins are in the oven you should mix together the sour cream and spring onion along with a little salt and pepper.  You can also add coriander or other fresh herbs into the cream to enhance it’s flavour.

Remove the potato skins from the oven, allow to cool for a minute and then top with the herbed sour cream.  Enjoy straight away!

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30th May – Chocolate victoria sponge

Ingredients (makes an 8″ cake):

  • 175g of unsalted butter
  • 175g of caster sugar
  • 3 large eggs – beaten
  • 150g of self raising flour
  • 25g of cocoa powder
  • 1 tablespoons of warm water (optional)

Buttercream

  • 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
  • 100g of softened butter
  • 100g of icing sugar

Extras

  • Giant milk buttons to decorate

Turn on the oven to 180 degrees C while you prepare the cake mix.

Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until it is light in colour then mix in the eggs a little at a time – putting too much in will make the mixture curdle.  If this happens add a tablespoon of the weighed out flour and keep mixing until it blends to a smooth consistency.

Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the bowl with the butter and sugar and fold it in.  If the mixture is slightly heavy add the water.  I mostly add the water but this time the eggs might have been a little larger so I didn’t add it.

Now divide the mixture between two 8-inch sandwich tins.  Level with a knife and put both tins in the middle of the oven for about 20 minutes.  In my gas oven I leave them for just over 25 minutes.  All cookers cook differently so you need to check.  I know when they are ready because when I gently push the top with my finger the sponge bounces back.  Another sign is the sponge is slightly coming away from the sides of the tin.

Cool on a wire rack – don’t put the sponge top side down as it with appear with criss cross marks.

To make the buttercream soften the butter and then add the sifted icing sugar and cocoa and beat until smooth.  If you find the buttercream heavy add a tablespoon of milk and beat this in.

Sandwich together the two halves and either sift icing sugar over the top or split the buttercream adding half in between the sponges and half on top, if you want to go further you could then add chocolate buttons.

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29th May – Apple and cinnamon hot cakes

Ingredients (serves 3-4):

  • 200g of plain flour
  • 1 tablespoon of baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon of caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 275ml milk
  • 4 apples – cored, peeled and chopped into chunks
  • Knob of butter
  • 1 tablespoon of sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Start by placing the apple, butter, sugar and cinnamon into a pan over a medium heat.  Keep an eye on the apples, stirring occasionally.  You want to gently simmer the apples until they’re soft.

To make the batter, mix together the flour, baking powder and sugar along with the egg and milk until you have a smooth and slightly thick batter.

Heat up a pan and drop in a small knob of butter.  Drop a spoonful or two of the batter into the pan.  Allow the batter to cook until bubbles start to appear on the top; this means time to turn it over!  Try to avoid moving the pan as you want to try and keep the batter still so that you get nice thick hot cakes.  Cook on both sides until golden brown and place in some tin foil to keep warm whilst you repeat the process until the mixture is all used up.

Serve up the pancakes with the apple mix and some ice-cream or cream.

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28th May – Vegetarian moussaka

Ingredients (serves 4):

  • 1 large aubergine – cut into 1 cm thick slices
  • 1 large onion – finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves – chopped
  • 350g pack Quorn Mince
  • 2 tablespoons of tomato puree
  • 1 can of chopped tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon of dried parsley
  • 2 eggs – beaten
  • 500g fat free natural yogurt
  • Salt & ground black pepper
  • Olive oil

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Start by laying out the aubergine slices onto paper towels and sprinkling salt on them.  This will draw any excess moisture out of them.  While the aubergine is doing it’s thing you need to fry the onions, garlic and quorn mince in a little oil over a medium heat for a few minutes.  Then add the tomato puree, tinned tomatoes and parsley, bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 20-30 minutes.  Top up with a dash of water or red wine if the mixture looks a little dry.  Once cooked, pour the mixture into an oven dish.

Beat the eggs and yoghurt together until consistent and season with salt and pepper.

Remove any excess salt from the aubergine slices and fry them with a very small amount of oil until lightly browned on both sides.  Layer the aubergine on top of the quorn mix followed by the eggs and yoghurt.  Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until the top is nice and crispy.

Serve up straight away with salad or crusty bread.  Enjoy!

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