Ingredients:

• 1 rainbow trout per person
• 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder
• Squeeze of lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon of paprika
• New potatoes
• 1 leek
• Knob of butter
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon of parsley
• Dash of salt

Start by mixing together the onion powder, garlic powder, salt, paprika and squeeze of lemon. Baste this mix evenly inside the trout. Finely chop a clove of garlic. Put a pan on a low heat and add in a knob of butter along with the garlic and the parsley. Stir until a liquid and use this to baste the trout. Turn on the grill to a medium heat and place the trout under it. After 5-7 minutes or until the skin goes crispy, turn the fish over and baste with more of the butter and garlic sauce. Once cooked serve up with some boiled new potatoes tossed in herbs and butter and some fried leek.

Ingredients:

• Sliced white or brown bread
• Butter
• Sultanas
• Cinnamon powder
• Ground nutmeg
• 2 eggs
• 350ml of whole milk
• 50ml of double cream
• Granulated sugar

Start by greasing an oven dish with the butter. Next, cut the crusts off the bread and spread each slice on one side with butter then cut into triangles or smaller squares. Place a layer of bread in the oven dish butter side up and add a sprinkle of the currants and some cinnamon. Repeat this until you’ve used all the bread. Finish with just a layer of the bread.

Slowly warm the milk and cream in a pan to just before boiling then remove from the heat. Crack the eggs into a bowl with 3/4 of the sugar and whisk lightly. Add the eggs a little at a time to the milk and cream whilst stirring constantly. Once it’s all mixed together you should pour it evenly over the layers of bread. Sprinkle lightly with nutmeg and leave to stand for about 20 minutes to allow all the flavours to blend together. Whilst that is sitting pre-heat an oven to around 180 degrees C.

Once upto temperature, put the bread and butter pud into the oven for around 25 minutes. Let it cook until it’s nice and golden brown on the top and the custard has set. Eat straight away!

Ingredients (for 2 people):

• 2 good sized chicken breast fillets or portions of strips
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 lemon
• 2 large garlic cloves, chopped finely
• ½ teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
• Ground black pepper
• Half a glass of white wine
• 12-18 cherry tomatoes
• Some rocket salad
• 1 large carrot, peeled and sliced
• 2 tablespoons shredded fresh basil or a good dash of dried basil

Start by finely chopping up a clove of garlic and the rosemary. Place the fillets or strips of chicken into a bowl and add the garlic and rosemary along with the olive oil, a squeezed whole lemon and a grind of pepper. Allow this to marinate for at least ten minutes.

Heat up a pan and add a little oil and once hot add in the carrots. Stir for a few minutes before adding in the other sliced clove of garlic and basil. Keep stirring and keep on a constant heat. Whilst the carrots are cooking, heat up a frying pan and add in the chicken. Continue stirring the carrots whilst the chicken cooks. As the chicken whitens on the outside, add in the tomatoes and cook for a few more minutes. Then add in half a glass of white wine to the chicken and tomatoes and allow to reduce. Continue stirring the carrots and reduce the temperature if required. Also keep turning the chicken and tomatoes until the chicken is cooked and the skins on the tomatoes are bursting open.

Once it’s all cooked serve up by placing a bed of rocket salad on each plate and add the carrots along with the chicken and tomatoes. Eat straight away to enjoy the warming flavours!

Ingredients:

• Salmon fillets
• 1 large carrot (for 2 people)
• 1 large onion (for 2 people)
• 1 leek (for 2 people)
• 1 chilli

Salmon Marinade:

• 1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1/2 tablespoon rice wine vinegar (can use cider vinegar also)
• 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoons brown sugar , packed (or sugar substitute)
• 1/4 teaspoon finely minced garlic
• 1 dash fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon finely minced onions

Egg Noodles:

• 100g of plain flour per person
• 1 egg per person (whisked)
• Pinch of salt

Start by dicing up some onion and garlic for the salmon marinade and combine with the other ingredients in a bowl and stir thoroughly. Add in the salmon and coat evenly, cover with cling film and allow to marinate in the fridge for at least ten minutes (I just left it in until ready to cook).

Next it’s time to make the noodles! I used a different recipe to the one above and it turned out to be a bad one that required a lot more flour than specified (it included milk and butter in the recipe). I think that the ingredients list above is more accurate. Start with a mixing bowl and add in the flour and a pinch of salt, mix around and then create a well in the middle into which you put the whisked eggs. Next use a knife or fork to slow incorporate the eggs and flour until it forms into a dough ball. Add a little more flour if required. As soon as you can you should start using your hands to knead the dough. It will require kneading for 5-15 minutes until dry, smooth and slightly springy.

Allow the dough to rest for about 20 minutes and then split into multiple balls to make it easier to manage for rolling out if necessary. Lightly flour a tabletop and a rolling pin and roll out the dough, turning regularly; you should aim to have an elongated oval shape rather than a round one. You should get the dough to about 2-3mm thick. Once it is rolled out you can slice the dough into noodles. If the dough is dry enough to allow it, a good tip is to roll up the dough and then slice. This will create uniform noodles and is a lot quicker and neater. As you cut the noodles place them on tea towells or plates and make sure that they’re not touching each other so as not to allow them to stick together. You’ll need to let them rest once more for upto an hour until dry.

You’re nearly ready to start cooking! Finely slice up the remaining onion and also the carrot and the leek plus the chilli.
Bring a pan of lightly salted water to the boil and start the oven heating up to around 180 degrees. Once the water is boiling, heat up a pan and add the salmon and marinade into it skin side down, adding a little more oil if required. Cook for a couple of minutes and then turn over and cook for another minute or so. Turn the salmon back onto it’s skin side again for a minute before putting it into the oven. As that goes in you’ll need to get a wok nice and hot. Put the noodles into the boiling water and put the leek, onion, carrot and chilli into the wok with a little oil. Keep stirring the vegetables for about 3 minutes, which should be the same amount of time that the noodles take to cook. Also stir the noodles during cooking ensuring that they don’t stick together. Once the noodles are cooked, drain them off and then add them into the stir fry and mix for a few seconds.

Plate the noodle and stir fry mix up straight, remove the salmon from the oven and place the salmon on top.

Alternatively, you could use shop bought noodles! 🙂

Ingredients:

• Pork fillet or steak
• 2 spring onions
• Half an onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 red chilli (you’re welcome to use more!)
• 2cm cube of ginger
• Olive oil
• 1 medium carrot
• 1 large leek
• Salt and pepper

Start by thinly slicing up the garlic, chilli and ginger. Slice the pork and put it in a bowl with the garlic, chilli and ginger along with a little olive oil and mix with your hands. Cover and allow this to marinate for at least ten minutes in the fridge. Before you take the pork out, thinly slice the spring onion, carrot, leek and onion.

Now heat a wok up until it starts to smoke and add in the pork (with a little oil if needed) and cook for a few minutes until it’s just cooked. Remove the pork mix to a plate and immediately return the wok to the hob and add a little more oil. Now throw in the sliced carrot, onion and leek and cook for around 3 minutes (stirring constantly). Add the pork back in for a couple of minutes, once again stirring regularly.

Once done, plate up straight away and sprinkle the sliced spring onion on top!

Ingredients:

• Pork rib steak
• Shallots
• Honey
• Balsamic vinegar
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil
• White rice
• Spring onion

Start by bringing a pan of water to the boil (around 1 and a half times the amount of water to rice). Slice up the shallots and finely slice the spring onion. Add in the rice once the water in boiling and reduce to a steady simmer. Now heat a pan up, add a little oil and put the pork steaks in. Allow them to cook for a minute or so on each side before turning and then continue to turn until nearly cooked. Give the rice a stir to check it’s not sticking to the base of the pan and adjust the temperature if needed.

Add to the pork a tablespoon of honey and half a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar along with the shallots and season. Continue turning and the pork should begin to take on a golden colour whilst the shallots, honey and balsamic reduce to a caramelised glaze.
Once the rice is cooked, drain it off. Remove the pork steaks from the pan to a chopping board and slice into strips. To serve, simply give a helping of rice and lay a sliced steak on top with a spoon of the remaining sauce. To finish, add a sprinkling of the slice spring onions.

Ingredients:

• Sausages
• Potatoes
• Butter
• Milk
• Honey
• Wholegrain mustard
• Olive oil
• Rosemary
• Balsamic vinegar
• Garlic clove
• Salt and pepper
• Onions
• Shallots

Bring a pan of water to the boil. Peel and slice the potatoes for the mash. Slice an onion and a few shallots. For the sauce you’ll need to put a tablespoon of wholegrain mustard, a tablespoon of honey, a crushed and finely chopped garlic clove, dash of olive oil, tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and some very finely sliced rosemary leaves from one sprig. Mix all of that up in a bowl and save until later.

Once the water is boiling add in the potatoes and leave to cook. Heat a frying pan up and add in the sausages and cook until nearly done. Next add in the onions and shallots and stir for a minute or so. Now add in the sauce and stiry around evenly. Keep stirring the sausages and reduce the sauce until almost all the juices are gone, reducing the heat as needed. Once the potatoes are done, drain them off, return them to the pan and mash as usual.

Serve up a bed of mash and add the sausages and cover with the now lovely and reduced sauce. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• Steak
• Chips
• Vine tomatoes
• Groundnut oil
• Salt and pepper

Heat up the oven to around 180 degrees C and once upto temperature put the chips in. I sprinkled some chip seasoning on the chips before putting them in. Prepare the steak by pinching any fat and pushing it into other areas of the meat and then season with salt and pepper. After the chips have been in for five minutes put the vine tomatoes into the oven on a foil lined baking tray with a light drizzle of olive oil. To cook the steak get a frying pan very hot and add the groundnut oil (this is better for high temperature use, such as steaks and stir frys). Put the steak in and cook to your liking, allow at least a minute on either side to keep the flavours inside. Once the steak is cooked, take it off the heat and allow to rest for around five minutes. Either use the top oven if you have one or place between two sheets of tin foil.

Check the chips and the tomatoes; the chips should be nearly done and the tomatoes’ skin should have opened and the stalks will have started to brown off a little.

Once the chips and tomatoes are cooked and the steak is rested you can plate up. Add a sauce or some wholegrain mustard to go with the steak. I did try to make a red wine and shallot sauce to go with the steak but it messed up right at the end and so I ended up just having a dollop of balsamic wholegrain mustard instead. I shall attempt the recipe for the sauce again in the future and will not follow the last instruction that fubared it!

This recipe was suggested by forum member Sedge so I thought I’d give it a go.

Ingredients:

• Rice (half a mug per person)
• 1 chicken breast per person (cubed)
• Half an onion per person
• Half a dozen mushrooms per person (sliced)
• A couple of rashers of bacon per person (sliced)
• Half a tub of single cream per person
• 200ml of chicken stock per person

Heat a pan up and add a little oil then add in the chicken and cook for a few minutes. Then add the bacon in and cook for a further few minutes. Next add in the sliced onions and mushrooms and mix well with the chicken and bacon. Now add some hot chicken stock and stir until consistent. When the stock goes in you should put the rice into a pan of boiling water to cook. Let the chicken simmer for around ten minutes to reduce the stock a little. Finally add in the cream and stir around evenly. Check how the rice is doing and remove from the heat if necessary. Heat the chicken and cream mix until it’s heated right through. Drain the rice off well and serve straight away with a decent portion of the chicken supreme and enjoy!

I had some jobs to do after work today so thought I’d try another pizza as I wouldn’t be cooking until late and decided upon a meat feast. See the 4th January for more in-depth instructions but the ingredients needed are below:

Dough

• 200g self-raising flour
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• Around 100ml of warm water

Sauce

• One tin of tinned tomatoes
• Dash of sugar
• Nice squeeze of tomato paste
• Some oregano and basil
• Season with salt n pepper

Topping

• Grated cheese
• 1 onion (sliced into rings)
• Pepperoni
• Ham
• Garlic sausage

Et voila!