Pork belly, roasted new potatoes & carrots.

Roasted butternut squash & couscous salad

My new favourite 'it's Monday and I'm knackered from the weekend so couldn't be bothered spending too much effort on dinner; I also want to be healthy and I want it to be ready fairly soon' dinner.  Takes about as long as it takes for the butternut squash to roast, and if you buy it already peeled & frozen (like I did from Waitrose) then it makes life incredibly simple. 

I added my squash to a roasting tray, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt & pepper and added to the oven for 30 mins - and turned all the pieces half way.  I then chopped a red onion and fried in a little olive oil with salt & pepper, then added some spinach (frozen also, defrosted in the microwave) and about a fistful of raisins.  I took this off the heat whilst my squash finished.  I took plain couscous and added some chicken stock; salt & pepper and covered for 5 mins to cook, then added some freshly chopped mint leaves & sunflower seeds.  Once my squash was ready, I added the spinach mix to my couscous and stirred, then arranged on the plate with my squash in the middle; rocket and mixed salad leaves around the outside; and the odd dollop of natural yogurt on top.  15 mins effort max and delicious!

The highlight of my weekend was seeing the genius that is Dev Hynes, aka Blood Orange, at Field Day on Saturday afternoon.

Eggs Benedict (ish)

After recently discovering the real ease behind making homemade mayonnaise, I decided to take this a step further to whip up a hollandaise sauce to create the greatest breakfast known to man - Eggs Benedict.  There was an issue in the way of not having any muffins, but I replaced this with some homemade Irish wheaten bread (Irish soda) so a decent replacement, if not traditional.

The hollandaise was actually just as simple as the mayo, with the added step of adding melted butter.  I slowly made my mayo with vegetable oil, switched to olive oil after it had started to come together, and then finished with a good chunk of melted butter.  The picture was also helped by the fact I somehow made the most perfect poached egg of my life!

Finbury Park next Saturday!

Shot using my new camera - pizza dough made with white & brown flour, resting for tomorrow night!

Potato croquettes

I've discovered something else to do with leftover potatoes!  To leftover mash I added some red onion & seasoned.  Rolled into wee rolls; coated in seasoned flour; dipped in egg; rolled in breadcrumbs; dipped in the egg mix again; rolled in breadcrumbs again - deep fried for about 5-7 mins till golden brown and crispy.  Served with my homemade mayo (see last post), paprika baked salmon and garden peas!

Lovely, relaxing album this.  Reminds me of early-90s pop rock.

BBQ Stuff

I threw together a few items for a BBQ at my bro's place last Friday, so here they are.  Firstly, I made my own mayonnaise for the first time.  It's taken me this long to try it because I always thought it was difficult to do, but the straight-forwardness of it blew me away.  Into my food processor went 2 egg yolks along with a teaspoon of dijon mustard.  Slowwwwwwly I added in 250mls of olive oil, just a drop at a time at the start that slowly turned into a slow slow drizzle (this is what I've always read you must do when making mayo).  Once this oil was combined, I added some salt; a squeeze of lemon and a splash of white wine vinegar.  I then added another 250ml of oil a little quicker this time.  Done!  It didn't taste amazing at first as it was warm, however I placed into a jar and popped in the fridge and once chilled - delicious!

So I mentioned above I needed a jar for my mayo...and I noticed in the fridge I had a jar of sun dried tomatoes, so this jar was emptied with the contents saved, and I cleaned the jar out for the mayo above.  Great, but I had a few sun dried tomatoes remaining with nothing to do with them.  So instead of making plain hummus, I decided I'd try a sun-dried tomato variety for a change!  Into the food processor went my tomatoes; 1 drained can of chick peas; 1 tablespoon of tahini; 3 tablespoons of low-fat natural yogurt; a squeeze of lemon; and some salt and pepper.  Once blended together, I checked the consistency and added a little more yogurt to thin it out a little further, then added a little paprika & cayenne pepper for a bit of a kick.  It was delightful, and quite a hit at the BBQ!

I also fancied some coleslaw.  Using the 'grating' utensil on my food processor, I grated in some savoy cabbage; carrots; and half a red onion.  I then emptied this into a container and put the regular blade back into my processor, blended up one small white onion and some more carrots.  All this went into my container with a big (un)healthy dollop of my mayo, and mixed in a little pepper to finish.

One of my favourite albums of the year, hoping I get a Glasto ticket on the resale tomorrow to see them.

Pancake Tuesday!

In recent years I've explored the savoury pancake, and I took that a step further this year I think by serving a whole dinner inside of one.  I had some lamb left over from a roast dinner a few weeks ago, this was defrosted and placed into my slow cooker with a load of spices I think I pretty much guessed, but I knew I was going for a spicy-smokey flavour.  So I added some cayenne pepper and plenty of paprika for that.  Plenty of seasoning and a little dried oregano, along with red onions, homemade lamb stock and some water.  This cooked very slowly for around 24 hours.

To provide a little sweetness, I made some caramelised onions by frying red onions slowly in a little butter; balsamic vinegar; lots of pepper and a touch of salt; and brown sugar.

When serving, I placed a smear of greek yogurt onto the pancake, topped with the lamb & onions, and a little lettuce.  It was a fantastic combination with a hint of spice and the smokey flavours coming through the tender juicy lamb; the sweet onions providing a perfect contrast; the lettuce for a little texture; and the yogurt to balance everything out.  All wrapped up in a lovely thick pancake somewhere between a crepe and a thick American-style pancake.

For dessert, I served up one with strawberries & yogurt; one cooked with blueberries and folded over; and probably my favourite for the last - lemon juice & sugar.  Perfect!

Cannot wait for Damon Albarn's new album following the first two tracks he's released, gorgeous stuff.

Penne Carbonara

Saturday night presented a challenge, exhausted with no motivation to cook other than I didn't fancy splashing out on cash for food to be delivered to my door, and I also wanted something that wouldn't leave me feeling lethargic for 3 days as a pizza would.  The answer was a quick nip to the shop for ingredients to whip up something that would take minimal effort & time, but also delicious.  Carbonara ticked all these boxes, and probably took 30 mins from slicing into the first onion, to taking the first mouthful.

Started by heating my casserole dish and frying onions in a little oil, to which I added a couple of crushed & sliced garlic cloves; good streaky bacon; whole button mushrooms; and a little dried thyme.  After about 5 minutes, I added a good drop of single cream and stirred.  I also cooked my penne for around 10 mins, still not cooked but loosened slightly.  I drained the pasta and added to the casserole dish, popped on the lid and placed in the oven for around 15 mins.  With the penne not quite cooked, this meant with the lid on it would cook just fine with the steam, and would also soak up some of the oniony, garlic, smokey bacon creamy juices floating around the dish.  After 15 mins I lifted out of the oven, let cool for a few mins, and added my beaten eggs.  I stirred the egg mix around the dish allowing the heat from the pasta to cook, but not allowing the egg to sit stationary to avoid scrambled egg lumps.  I added salt & plenty of cracked black pepper, and served.

Result was perfect, the penne soaked up the juices and was perfectly al dente.  A wee hint of smokey bacon in each bite, and the whole button mushrooms still had a little bite left in them, the way I like them.  Perfect quick meal with minimal effort, though with the bacon and the carton of cream, maybe not the best dish for those watching fat content :)

Headed to see these beauties at Ally Pally this Friday, I am going to get verrrrry drunk.

20-hour slow cooked pork

So thanks to the generosity of Santa (Mum), I had £80 worth of vouchers to spend on Amazon.  I ended up spending around £120 but got myself a coffee bean grinder; a cast-iron casserole dish; a bread tin; a mini deep-fat fryer; a knife sharpener and most importantly - a 6.5L Morphy Richards slow cooker.  Whilst all the new appliances are going to be put to great use over the years, the slow cooker has immediately transformed my kitchen.  It makes it much easier to make stock (my freezer is now packed with chicken & lamb stock), and it allows for soups to be thrown together and forgotten about until ready to eat.  I love it!

The first recipe I had on my mind when purchasing the slow cooker however, was probably the most 'fashionable' food going - 'pulled pork'.  I invited some lads over for a FIFA & pork night (steady), and set about finding a recipe to follow.  To be honest, I wasn't quite convinced by any of the recipes I found, and decided to go at it alone.  So in a pan I fried some onions in olive oil with chilli flakes; oregano; a dash of balsamic vinegar; brown sugar paprika and a little cumin.  Once this had been cooked for a few minutes, I added my scored, seasoned & oiled ham shoulder joint (half price at £4.99!) into the pan and sealed fat side down, and then all around.  The contents of the pot then went into my slow cooker along with the juice of one lemon and some dark chicken stock just to cover.  The lid went on at around 8pm and I left this to cook overnight.  With around an hour to go, I added a can of kidney beans and a couple of chopped peppers and put the lid back on.  The slow cooker was finally switched off around 4pm.  We then ate this wrapped into a tortilla with some creme fraiche; blue cheese, salad and some delicious chunky homemade quac provided by Mr Aaron Watson.  I also cooked up some homemade chips, cooked in my new deep fat fryer,

The result was spectacular. After inspecting the pork the following morning, the meat was just falling apart as soon as the spoon even looked sideways at it.  It was so tender, and the amount of moisture I put in there was perfect as it kept it perfectly moist but had soaked up enough so it didn't resemble a soup.  There was a slight hum of chilli from the flakes; a bite of acidity from the balsamic vinegar & lemon juice - the latter of which also gave a nice sweetness alongside the sugar.  The cumin & paprika then gave the hint of curry & smokey flavour I was looking for.  The meat of course was stunning, chunky succulent pieces of meat, with little ribbons of pork through every bite.

This truly was an incredible meal and all through very little effort, really only 15 minutes preparation.  The 1.7kg joint I used easily fed 5 hungry lads, as well as providing lunch the following day for 3 - so would happily buy again at full price for pure value.  Can't recommend this dish & buying a slow cooker enough!

Off to see these lads in a 150-capacity pub tomorrow night, can't wait!

Homemade scotch eggs

First of a succession of posts, as I've been busy both with the creation of my culinary masterpieces, and also with celebrating the festive period, so I've had very little time to blog.

Homemade scotch eggs then, loved by many including myself, but not something I treat myself to all too often, primarily because of the fact that I don't trust the supermarket scotch egg due to the presence of a number of unrecognisable ingredients - a rule I tend to try and stick too.  Due to this fact I've been meaning to make them at home for a while, as they're frequently featured on cookery shows and look very straightforward.  I can confirm that they are, and here's how I made mine...

Added a couple of eggs to a pan and covered with cold water, brought water to the boil and boiled for 3 minutes.  Whilst the eggs were boiling, I took the skin off 4 sausages and rolled the meat into a circle onto my chopping board.  I then blended up a few slices of bread in my blender with some salt & pepper, and set alongside a plate of seasoned flour and seasoned egg mix.  As the eggs cooked, I took off the shell and covered with the meat from two sausages, and pinched in the middle to ensure there were no gaps.  I coated the sausagey eggy ball in seasoned flour; dipped in the egg mix; covered in breadcrumbs; dipped in egg again and finally covered with another layer of breadcrumbs.  I set them on a plate in the fridge to rest for 15 mins, before removing to shallow fry on a low heat, constantly monitoring and rolling them over to ensure that they are cooked evenly.  Once cooked I dabbed with some kitchen roll to remove any excess oil, and served alongside some homemade chips.

I was sceptical as to how they would turn out due to the fact that the egg had to go through two separate cooking processes, and therefore assumed the yolk wouldn't turn out nice and runny.  As you can see from the pics, it turned out perfectly :-)  I put this down to the exact boiling time of 3 mins, and the thick layer of sausage meat to protect the yolk as the scotch egg was shallow frying.  The combination of textures was the highlight, with coarse sausage meat below the crispy breadcrumb exterior; and the soft centre of the egg with the runny delicious yolk in the middle.  They tasted great also, but perhaps a tad plain if I'm honest.  But this was plain sausage meat; plain egg and plain breadcrumbs, so it's unsurprising really.  So next time I'll mix it up a bit by perhaps adding a little onion, apple or cinnamon through the sausage meat (or maybe all 3), and a fragrant herb through the breadcrumbs like thyme or rosemary.  Definitely something everyone should try at home in my opinion, it's a quick; simple and cheap dish - perfect for a midweek meal, or even to whip up for the weekend as a lunchtime snack :)

We're nearing the end of an incredible year of music, and to celebrate, here's the best track of the year.

Homemade chicken pie

A dish I originally got from an old Gordon Ramsey book, this was previously my ‘signature dish’, i.e. the recipe I’d always turn to should I ever be entertaining guests.  I did this again recently for the first time in a number of years, but in all honesty - it didn’t turn out great.  So with a guest staying with me last weekend, I decided to give it another shot.

Firstly, I roasted a whole chicken.  I popped some chopped onions & carrots into a roasting tray, as well as a few garlic cloves and drizzled the lot with oil & seasoned.  For the chicken, I scored each breast, applied generous seasoning and some dried thyme.  I rubbed this into the meat, and place on top of the veg in the roasting tray.  I covered with foil and then cooked at 200C for an hour.  I then took off the foil and gave it another 40-45 mins (it was a big bird).

Once cooked, I cut all the useable meat off and set aside.  I took the carcass and added to a big pot with the veg from the pan (I squeezed the garlic out of its skin) and filled the pot up with boiling water, popped a lid on and let it simmer on a low heat for about 3 hours to make a delicious homemade stock.

The pastry was the easiest part.  I put 250g of flour, 110g of butter and a little salt into my food processor, and slowly added water to bring it together.  Done.  It went into the fridge until I was ready to use it.

Once my stock was done, I made a roux to which I slowly added my stock, stirring all the time.  Once I had a nice creamy sauce, I added onions; 3/4 of the mushrooms I’d sliced; my chicken meat (I added most in nice chunks, but took a big knife to the remainder and chopped it up nice and fine) and peas.  This cooked for about an hour or so, slowly thickening nicely.  Once I was ready to get it in the oven I added a drop of double cream to the sauce as well as the remaining 1/4 of mushrooms, then I greased my pie dish (just a glass casserole dish…) with butter and lined with pastry.  I added my pie mix in, and popped the pastry lid on top.  I used a fork to squeeze the casing and lid together, and used a pastry brush to lather the pastry with egg wash.  Into the oven it went for 35 mins and the results are in the pictures :)

Needless to say, this is not a recipe I’d recommend if you’re watching your weight.  I must’ve used half a LARGE packet of butter!  However it’s worth it, it’s delicious and incredibly moreish - you can’t stop yourself from taking a fork to the remainder of pie left on the counter for the rest of the night.  Lovely tender chicken chunks as well as little strands of the finely chopped chicken in each bite; mushrooms with different textures and stronger flavours from that final quarter added at the end; crunchy, crumbly pastry around the edges with your pastry soggy from the delicious sauce on the bottom; and every bite made heavenly with that creamy rich sauce.  Heck, there’s even peas in there to make you feel like you’re being healthy.

Served this up with some sweet potato chips and broccoli, the greatest of all the vegetables.

Treated myself last night to tickets to one of the finest bands in the world right now, and here’s the best track off this year’s release.

Fish tacos

My favourite thing to cook and eat, and I can't believe it's taken me this long to get it onto the blog.  I had my good pal Keith over last night, so thought I'd treat him to this along with a few beers.

So firstly - the homemade tortilla wraps.  So easy, and 100 times nicer than anything you'll buy in a shop.  It takes about 30 mins start to finish, but most of that time is spent on the dough resting, which you can use to work on other parts of your dish so it really isn't much hassle.  Mix 2 cups of flour with one cup of warm milk; a teaspoon of baking powder; a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of vegetable oil.  Bring it together and get it onto a floured board, and bring together with your hands like you would any other dough.  Rest for 10 mins.  Now slice this into even sizes, and roll into balls, a little bigger than a golf ball is what I'd aim for.  Now rest again for another 10 mins.  Now get a pan on the heat, don't add any oil or fat.  Roll out your little balls of dough into wraps with a floured rolling pin, don't worry too much about getting a perfect circle as it's nearly impossible to get right :-)  Fry in the dry pan for 30 seconds on each side, you want a thin wrap so you cook the dough, but you don't want to cook them so much that they get crispy.  Easy!

Homemade beer batter takes 60 seconds to bring together.  Into a bowl goes a cup of flour; a cup of beer; an egg; a teaspoon of salt & teaspoon of baking powder.  Mix together - done.  Need to make sure this is reasonably thick as otherwise it'll not stick to the fish and just fall off in the pan (I made this mistake before...).

So for the fish, use any white fish - I'd normally use cod.  Other fish would work fine I guess but nothing too strong I suppose.  I've always been keen on trying this with prawns sometime, but never got round to trying it.  Slice it up into bitesize pieces and cover with seasoned flour.  Drop it into the batter and coat.  Now add this to a pan of vegetable oil and shallow fry, or otherwise deep fry.  Cook till nicely browned.

For the salsa, I blended garlic, coriander, chillies and added to sliced tomatoes and seasoned.

Now, I find that the assembly of my fish taco is quite key.  I could be imagining it, but this is definitely the best way!  Lay down your wrap and put down a line of crème fraiche, and add some finely chopped red onion.  Crème fraiche on the bottom helps the onions and fish stick to the wrap and not fall around.  Pop your fish bites on top, and squeeze over a bit of fresh lemon, as well as a drizzle of Tabasco.  I add the lemon juice and Tabasco at this stage as it will soak into the batter.  Drizzle over some salsa, then add some lettuce.  Wrap it up the way you like and tuck in. 

I love the flour from the wraps on your hands; the taste & texture of the fresh wraps; the bite from the lemon juice; the heat and fresh taste of the salsa; the kick from the Tabasco; the crunch of the lettuce; and the crème fraiche then just to balance everything.  The fish is the star of the show of course, but only because it's complimented perfectly by everything else going on in the wrap.  Genuinely my favourite thing to eat, ever.

I think he's a complete genius.  This album is going to dominate my summer.

Homemade potato gnocchi served with bacon & garlic sauce. To make the gnocchi I mixed flour with mashed potato to make a dough, then sliced and rolled into the shapes you can see in the picture. This was then boiled in some lightly salted water for a few minutes, and that was it! The garlic sauce was a standard béchamel with a couple of crushed garlic cloves added. Was then all served with a little bacon, spinach and peas. Delicious! Here's a song appropriate for the time of the year.

Couscous with roasted veg and chick peas.

First update for a while, so I'll ease myself back in with this simple dish.  Peppers, cherry tomatoes and garlic clove got drizzled with a little oil, seasoned and placed into the oven at 200c to roast for around 30 mins.  After about 25 mins, I warmed a little oil in a pan and added chillies & scallions, then added the roasted peppers and tomatoes.  I squeezed out the roasted garlic and added into the mix along with a splash of water.  Cooked chick peas in a pot and mixed through, then served with couscous and a little coriander mixed through.  About 15 mins worth of work involved, and very tasty!

Can't stop listening to these guys at the minute.

Homemade KFC

KFC.  In my days when fast food chains were not something I avoided like the plague, KFC was my favourite by a country mile and more specifically - the Zinger Tower burger.  I didn’t bother with the buckets or the hot boxes or whatever they have, Zinger Tower burger with a side of the famous KFC was something I was a big fan of.  However partly due to a little reading and watching this documentary, going to a fast food establishment is generally something I limit myself to as much as possible.  But that doesn’t stop the Zinger Tower being delicious, and who’s to say that I can’t make it just as delicious by using responsibly kept chickens and fresh ingredients?  So I challenged myself to recreate this fast-food classic.

So what is the Zinger Tower then?  Thankfully Google Images has thrown up a handy image to detail it all for us.  What I then set about doing was learning how to:

1) Make soft white baps (any baps/rolls or bread I’ve made before have been too crunchy/chewy on the outside to replicate the KFC bap);

2) Make hash browns;

3) Imitate KFC’s fabled 11 secret herbs & spices mix.

Links behind each of the 3 take you to the recipe I used.  The day began early making the baps.  Once the dough was resting, I make my salsa - 10 mins this took by blending a couple of garlic cloves, some coriander and a whole chilli - and mixing through some chopped tomatoes.  The hash browns came next and took maybe 30 mins all together, the food processor helped a lot here with the grater attachment.  I fried these lightly in the pan and then set them aside to be warmed through later.  At this stage I also chopped some potatoes into chips and fried once, and when it came to serving these were fried a second time to make delicious double fried chips.

In order to both not waste a load of oil deep frying the chicken, and in order to be a little healthier, the chicken was baked.  I wrapped 3 breasts in cling film and bashed with a rolling pin to flatten them, then cut these into 6 piece for the burgers and cut away the gristly bloody pieces.  I then poached the chicken in some milk to keep moist, and then these were covered in flour, then coated in egg, then the herb & spice mix, and then double dipped in egg & spice mix again.  These were added to the baking tray and sprayed with a little oil to go crispy in the oven.

The next challenge at this stage was making the KFC gravy.  Without cooking a whole chicken, it’s hard to get the juice required to make a proper gravy and without the bones - it makes things even more difficult.  So I improvised, and used the milk I had used to poach my chicken mixed with a little beef stock to add the darker flavour you’d have hoped to get from the chicken bones.  To start I fried onions in butter (a replacement for the fat), along with the little gristly pieces of chicken I cut away from the bones.  I added flour to this, a splash of chicken stock and some of the milk & beef stock mix.  I also added a lot of cracked black pepper, those of you who have tried the KFC gravy before will probably know the gravy has a strong peppery taste.

So I served up!  Baps ended up HUGE once they were cooked, so these burgers were exceptionally filling!  Bottom of the bap was smeared with my hot salsa, and on top of this went our chicken; a couple of slices of red Leicester cheese; a hash brown; iceberg lettuce; and then the top of the bap which was smeared with mayo.  Served on the plate alongside some double fried chips and a peppery gravy.

The result was very pleasing!  Double frying the chips ensured they were the finest I’ve ever made, and the creamy peppery gravy along side these was a delicious accompaniment.  The burger itself was excellent.  The baps were perhaps a little dry so I’d maybe not use that recipe in this scenario again, but thankfully the salsa and mayo made up for this anyway.  The salsa was delicious, perfect amount of heat from the chilli.  The hash brown was great, crispy bites of onion and potato in places but soft in the middle giving a lovely texture to the burger.  And whilst the chicken itself did not scream that classic KFC flavour, there were some bites that seemed to really strike a familiar note, so whoever did the research to imitate KFC’s famous recipe did an excellent job!  Chicken came out crispy and peppery on the outside with nice flavours of mustard and paprika coming out, and nice delicately poached moist meat on the inside.

I’d definitely be doing this again, however the baps took a lot of effort so I’ll maybe be asking Sainsbury’s to provide these in future.  The rest was simple really, so can definitely say this will be a Saturday night treat in future!

This the highlight on the new Local Natives album, really enjoying this album at the minute.

Beans on toast

A classic. If anyone from the British Isles told me that they’d never had beans on toast during their childhood - I’d call them a liar. Now whilst I haven’t purchased a can of Heinz (...means beans) in at least half a decade, it’s still something I remember fondly from my childhood. I still remember whipping up beans on toast for me & my brothers when I was probably around 14. Whilst the beans were on the hob, I left them to it and went and and played a little bit of Championship Manager. And forgot about the beans. The beans got a little (very) well done, but I served it up anyway. My brothers then told my Mum after how I make the best beans on toast! I was beaming! However Ryan & Jamie - I want to cook you this now as I guarantee you’ll say the same again!

So, to the beans. I got this recipe from Jamie’s America, one of my favourite recipe books (which contains a recipe for the world’s greatest chilli) in my collection, so check the for the full recipe. But quickly, I fried onions in olive oil in a big soup pan with a little smoked paprika. I took some dried chillies at this stage and popped them in a bowl with a little boiling water to rehydrate. After 10 mins or so, I added 4 cans of cannellini beans, 2 cans of chopped tomatoes, the rehydrated chillies (chopped) along with a splash of the water, seasoning and a couple of bay leaves. I brought this to simmer and switched off the heat. Recipe says to simmer at this stage for 60-90 mins, however I made mine the night before I ate it so switched it off here.

When I returned to the beans, I added a little white wine vinegar and molasses (sugar). I tasted it and corrected the seasoning. I then put some smoked streaky bacon rashers into a food processor along with some bread, grated Parmesan and rosemary leaves and pulsed.

I then poured the beans into a casserole dish and covered the top with the breadcrumby bacon mix, then popped in the oven for 40 mins. When it was almost ready, I toasted a little fresh bread in a griddle pan, popped this on the plate and drizzling the beans over the top.

The result was amazing. Very, very filling with all those beans and a little reminder of what your standard Heinz beans from a can tastes like. But there’s way more to it. Smokey flavours come through from the paprika and the bacon, an adequate hit of sour from the white wine vinegar, but what made this dish a winner was the sweetness from the molasses. It added a little artificial sweetness but also helped bring out the sweetness of those tomatoes. Absolutely delicious this was, and filling enough on its own.

The lyrics to Kele’s ‘Tenderoni’ a great motivator for the ‘get fit’ mindset in January.

Chargrilled chicken with pineapple salsa and fried rice

Thanks to Santa my kitchen has found itself stocked with some brand new utensils, mainly a bread maker; food processor; a handheld blender; a griddle pan; a meat grinder and also a cafetière for fresh coffee.  So my Saturday was made putting most of these to good use!  I brewed myself a coffee and set about making a carrot soup (I blogged about this previously) along with some fresh bread.  I'd never used a bread maker before so was a little lost at first, however packing a load of ingredients into a tin and pressing a button is a hell of a lot easier than scraping dough off the counter & a number of utensils for half an hour.  Soup & bread both delicious in the end.

For dinner Saturday night at Chez Cosmo, I went for Chargrilled chicken with pineapple salsa and fried rice.  Whether I'd read it somewhere recently or had heard somebody mention it, pineapple salsa had been in my head for a number of days and I just had to do it.  Into the new food processor went a few cloves of garlic; coriander leaves; a chilli pepper; a few chunks of pineapple and a splash of the juice as well.  I then gave this a 'wazzy wazzy woo-woo'.  I mixed this then to a can of chopped tomatoes, added a few whole chunks of pineapple and set aside.  I preheated the oven and added the salsa to a tray along with some thinly sliced & griddled chicken breasts, sealed with foil and allowed to bake for 15 mins or so. 

I served this up alongside a bit of garlic bread (chopped up some garlic cloves thickly and let marinate in olive oil & a little salt and pepper for about an hour, then fried the sliced bread in the oil on the griddle pan) and some rice fried with chilli, garlic, onions, spinach and kidney beans. 

The result was a combination of textures with the crunchy garlic bread, the crispy chicken and the soft chunks of pineapple that almost melted when you ate them.  Pineapple salsa was fantastic and I'll be doing this LOADS from now on.  The method I used for the garlic bread was one I'd never used before but I'll be doing it again for sure, as further down the road I want to start making my own flavoured oils to have on standby.  But I can't praise the pineapple salsa enough, please try it!

Listened to this absolute classic yesterday afternoon.