Chicken tagine with baby potatoes and mushrooms

I received a gorgeous tagine for my birthday, so I really wanted to give it a try.

Ingredients: 1 chicken - carved, 300 g baby potatoes, 150 g mushrooms, 3 garlic cloves - chopped, 100 ml chicken stock, thyme leaves, salt, pepper, smoked paprika.

Preheat the oven at 170° C.
Carve the chicken. Fry it in a pan until golden brown. Season.

Wash the potatoes and mushrooms and add them to the tagine. Season them.

Remove the meat from the pan and add it to the tagine. Add the garlic to the pan and the chicken stock. Bring to a boil and pour it over the chicken and vegetables in the tagine.

Add the thyme leaves.

Put the lid on and into the oven for 45 min.

Serve with a nice glass of red.

Pizza calzone

I was in the mood for a pizza, and calzone is my favourite.

Ingredients: 1 kg flour, 1 tsp dried yeast, salt, 4 eggs, 100 ml olive oil, 1 onion - chopped, 2 garlic cloves - chopped, oregano, 150 g ham, 500 g tomato sauce, 200 g mushrooms, 2 red peppers, 200 g grated cheese - I used cheddar and mozzarella.

Mix the flour, yeast, salt, 600 ml warm water and 80 ml olive oil. Add some dried oregano. Work until you get a dough. Rest for 30 min.

Preheat the oven at 180° C.
Fry the onions and garlic. Add the ham and tomato sauce, peppers and mushrooms. And cook for 10 min.

Split the dough into 4 parts. Roll them to round shapes. Careful not to roll them too thin, they will not hold the filling.
Add the filling on half of the dough. Make a hole in the middle of the filling and pour the egg in.Add cheese.

Cover the filling with the other half of the dough. Moisten the edges with water so that they would stick.
Bake in the oven for 20 - 30 min until golden.

Beef steak with red wine reduction

Lazy Saturday lunch :)

Ingredients: 1 cauliflower, milk to boil the cauliflower, salt, pepper, steak, thyme leaves, mix of mushrooms, 4 tbsp butter, 1 onion - chopped, 2 garlic cloves, 100 ml red wine, 100 ml vegetable stock, oregano.

Boil the cauliflower in milk until softened.

Season the stake all around. Heat a pan and seal the meat until golden.

Don't forget to check with the supervisor from time to time, just to make sure you are doing everything right.

Place the meat into an oven-proof pan, place the thyme leaves and cook at 160° C for 12 min. 

Fry the onion in a pan with 2 cloves of garlic. Add the red wine and vegetable stock a,d reduce down to half. Add oregano, salt and pepper.

When the cauliflower has boiled, remove the excess milk and crush the cauliflower. Don't forget to season and add some butter. 

Melt 2 tbsp butter. Fry the mushrooms until softened. Season.

Serve everything together.

Cinnamon ice cream

This is the first time I am making an ice cream. And because I received as a birthday present an ice cream churner, I figured: "Why not?".

Ingredients: For the ice cream: 300 ml milk, 300 ml double cream, 2 vanilla pods - split and scraped, seeds reserved, 2 cinnamon sticks, 6 egg yolks, 250 g caster sugar, 1 tsp ground cinnamon.

First of all, make sure you have good quality vanilla pods. This is how I check:

Got you!!!!! :)

Then remove the seeds by cutting the pod into half and scrape them with the knife.

Add the milk and cream into a large sauce pan, on a low heat with the cinnamon sticks and vanilla pods without the seeds. Heat until steamed, then cover and leave to infuse for 5-10 min.

In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with the sugar and vanilla seeds.

Whisk for 3-4 min.

Pour the milk and cream mix and whisk until completely incorporated. Pout everything back into the saucepan, and cook it on a low heat until thickened.

Pour it into a bowl and leave to cool down at room temperature.

After bringing it to room temperature, put it into the fridge to cool down. Then add it to the ice cream churner and let it mix for an hour or so.

Hmm, what's cooking Doc?????

After an hour, pour the ice cream into a tray and freeze it for 45-60 min.

Serve it with cinnamon biscuits. Yummmmmmm!!!!

Cabbage and sausages wrapped in bread dough

This is the most delicious thing I have ever cooked. I will also try a cheese-vegetarian version of this.

Ingredients: half of a cabbage - chopped thinly, 4 sausages, 50 g butter, 1 onion - chopped, 1 bay leaf, oregano, 500 g flour, 1/2 tsp yeast, 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, pepper, 1 egg.

Preheat the oven at 200° C.
For the bread dough: mix the flour, yeast, salt, sugar and oregano into a large bowl. Beat the egg with some pepper and add it to the mix. Pour 250 ml warm water and 25 g melted butter.

Mix everything until forming a dough. Rest it in a warm place until doubled in volume.

In the meantime, prepare the cabbage. Rub the chopped cabbage with salt.

Melt the remaining 25 g of butter. Add the onion and cook until softened.

Add the cabbage and cook stirring often, to get it softened and browned on all sides. Add the bay leaf and salt.

Split the dough in 2 parts. Roll one part into a rectangular shape. Place the cabbage and the sausages in the middle of the rolled out dough. Wrap the dough around the mix. Use some water to seal the ends.

Place the bread with the folded side down on a baking tray. Do the same with the other part of the dough.

Bake in the heated oven for 30 min, until golden brown.

Take it out of the oven and moisten with water or the juices from the baking tray.  This will prevent the top of the bread to get too hard. Let it rest for 15-20 min, otherwise it will not cut properly.

Yum!!!!!

Ground rice pudding with caramelised apples

Not a cheat dessert, but easy to make on a cold winter night.

Ingredients:  50 g ground rice, 600 ml semi-skimmed milk, 25 g caster sugar, 4 apples - peeled and cut into thin slices, 2 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp amaretto or sweet wine.

Preheat the oven at 200° C. Heat the milk in a saucepan and sprinkle the ground rice. Stir over a low heat until it thickens. Add the sugar.

In the meantime, add the honey, sweet wine and apples into a pan and cook them until softened.

Place the apples on the bottom of an oven-proof pan.

Pour the rice mix on top and cook in the over for 20 min, until golden.

Rest it for 10 min. Serve warm.

Parmesan risotto with mushrooms

Ingredients: 250 g risotto rice, 2 garlic cloves - chopped, 1 onion - chopped, 2 celery stalks - chopped, 1 red pepper - chopped, 250 g mushrooms - chopped, dried oregano, 1 litre vegetable stock, 70 g parmesan cheese - grated, salt and pepper, olive oil.

Heat the oil in a deep saucepan. Add the rice and cook on a low heat until the grains are coated in oil and translucent.

Add the garlic, onion, celery and red pepper and cook for 5-10 min. Add the mushrooms and cook for 5 min.

Add the hot stock. Stir in constantly. Increase the heat so that the liquid bubbles. Cook for about 20 min, until the liquid is absorbed. Season.

Remove the risotto from the heat and stir in half of the parmesan until is melted. Serve in warm bowls. Top with the remaining cheese.

     

Stuffed mushrooms with ricotta and feta cheese

If you are a mushroom and garlic lover, you are going to enjoy this!

Ingredients: 10 large mushrooms, half an onion - chopped, 3 garlic cloves - crushed, ricotta, feta cheese, salt, pepper, smoked paprika.

Pre-heat the oven at 180° C.

Chop the stalks of the mushrooms.

 Mix them with the ricotta, feta, garlic and onions. Add the paprika and season.

Stuff the mushrooms with the filling. Put them on a baking tray with baking paper.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 min, until they are golden all around. Serve with fresh bread.