Reduced counter challenge.

Currently listening to: "Falling Down" by Oasis

Whilst slightly tipsy thanks to an afternoon of St. Paddys day drinking a mate bet that I couldn't make a decent meal from what is on the reduced counter at our local Tesco Express. Unfortunately the counter was rather bare (literally all there was were some chicken breasts, a pack of broccoli and some bacon) so the meal is a bit boring... however I'm planning to do this regularly so hopefully it'll turn out some more interesting combinations!

Chicken in a Cheddar and Bacon Sauce with Broccoli and Sweetcorn.

I just poached the chicken then made the cheese sauce my usual way and added small pieces of fried bacon... EASY!




Sorry the pic is a bit rubbish, my friend has borrowed my SLR so had to use my phone!

Back in the Kitchen...

Currently Listening to "Soul with a Capital S" by Tower of Power

After all of my recent eatting out I got back in the kitchen to cook up a meal for a mate so I went back to my good old friend "Easy Mushroom Pasta" which I featured over a year ago now (with a couple of alterations).

This time I sliced and baked the mushrooms at 200c for 4-mins, and added strips of chicken into the sauce. As I've already shown you how to do the sauce I'll blog about prepairing the chicken as I alway have mates asking me how to do it. Now I learnt this wat whilst working in a gastro pub so I know none of the technical words for bits of the chicken so please bare with me...!

How to butterfly and cook a chicken breast!

• Take your breast and flip it over
• Chop off the flappy bit of meat as shown below


• Slice the breast open (as shown below again) and open up

• Coat in crack pepper (or what ever you want to put on it)
• Cook in a pre-heated oven at 200c for 15-20mins

My knife is a bit blunt so it really hashed up cutting it into strips!

Anyway this was the finished product

Got to get to bed though have a lot of portfolio work to get through in the morning!

P.S - I forgot to mention in my last blog GBK have a buy one get one free offer at the mo (mon to thurs - runs out the end of the month) click here to print the voucher.

Hunters Chicken

Currently listening to: "Chop Suey" by Richard Cheese

How rubbish has the weather been this summer?! I can't remember the last day we had the resembled anything like summer but today dreadful, I daren't leave the house as I risk coming home looking like a drowned rat due to a sharp shower. I offered to cook for the family this week which gave me an excuse to use my new Spanks products.

Hunters Chicken

Serves 4

This is a pub classic dish which is so easy to make, but what makes this dish is the choice of ingredients.


4 Free range Chicken Breasts
2 Balls of fresh white mozzarella (sliced)
4 slices of Waitrose Palmer Ham (really spelt Parma Ham)
Spanks 'Gents Sauce'

Preheat oven to 200c. Once the oven is heated, place a slice of Palmer Ham (Parma Ham) on top of each chicken breast and put in oven for 30mins. Take out of oven and lightly over the ham in Gents Sauce. Cover each breast with the sliced mozzarella and grill 'till it has melted covering the whole breast.

Serve with seasonal veg.

Although the directions on the bottle of gents sauce says it goes well with strong cheese when used lightly in this dish it really helps bring out some awesome flavours.

For afters we had various cheeses with water biscuits and crackers. I used this opertunity to get out my other new spanks product "Apple, Raisin & Walnut Chutney". I'm not normally a big fan of chutney, nor am I a fan of cooked apple but this version really did take me by suprise. So much so we nearly finished off the whole jar in one night.

Anyway, I've also gone through a bottle of Spanks Tangy Tomato Ketchup in the past week but that's a story for another post!

P.S The Gents Sauce is a great hangover cure with grilled cheese on toast!

Chicken and Chilli Tomarto Pasta

Currently Watching: The British sailors clearing up at the Beijing Olympics!

It's been a frantic couple of weeks with me going on holiday then my computer quite literally blowing up! Anyway, I'm back now and loving following the Olympics.

I made this a few weeks ago using what I could find in the fridge...

Chicken and Chili Tomato Pasta

I made the sauce with cherry tomatoes as I love the sweet flavour of them in a sauce. Basically, boil 300g of cherry tomatoes per portion needed. I know it's a lot but they really do reduce quite a lot. Once the skins start to come loose drain and mash! Keep simmering...

Fry off chopped onion, chili, garlic and pepper then add to tomato sauce. Fry your desired meat (in my case Chicken) and add to sauce. Add spinach for the final 30secs of cooking. Season to taste and serve with pasta.

This is a very simple dish but full of flavour.

I've just taken delivery of lots of new Spanks products so expect some exotic recipes very soon!

Just thought I'd share this photo I took down Crosby beach of Anthony Gormley's "Another Place"

Mike

P.S Oh, please can everyone watch "Last Choir Standing" and vote for "Only Men Aloud"... I'm close mates with about half of the lads, and I feel they really do deserve to win!

Sweet Jazz

Currently listening to: "Clocks" Coldplay & Buena Vista Social Club

It was my turn to cook for friends again tonight as we were going to a Buena Vista Social Club gig tonight and as all my mates were in work/lectures 'till late I made food so we could eat and get to the gig in time. If you've not heard the Buena Vista Social Club, you haven't lived!

Anyway, I thought I'd mess with some flavours today and for once it did work!



Honey, Stilton and Chilli Chicken

Now I know you're thinking I've lost the plot but this meal was really nice.

Firstly, roll some diced chicken in a tiny bit of tandoori spice mix, don't use much as you'll be adding more spices later. Then fry it off. When the chicken is nearly cooked, add two finely chopped chillis, garlic and the juice from a whole lime.

Once all of this is cook turn the heat to low and add a table spoon of honey. Mix well.

Now cover in stilton cheese sauce using my 'easy cheese sauce' recipe.

For extra flavour add a few dried apricots.

Enjoy

Ready steady cook stylie!

Currently listening to: "Somewhere - Westside Story" - Leonard Bernstien

I was invited for dinner round to a mates house last night on the condition I cooked from ingredients that they had in their cupboards. As ever I was in a pasta mood and made chicken, bacon and leek in four-cheese sauce.

I used this recipe that my Mum taught me, it's so easy and works better then more complicated recipes.

Easy Cheese Sauce

I table spoon of Corn Flour
½ pint Milk
Any cheese, and as much cheese as you want!
Crack pepper (to taste)


Add corn flour to milk, and bring to boil stirring continually
Add cheese, pepper and turn heat right down, keep stirring.
Stir ‘till all the lumps have gone and serve

I just butterflied the chicken and chopped it into strips to fry off. Then finely chopped the bacon, leek and garlic to add to the pan at the last minute.
Take off the heat and stir in the cheese sauce.

After the meal, one of my mates commented on how if he had that meal at a good Italian restaurant he would be sure to go back again!

Unfortunately I didn't have a camera with me so I couldn't take a pic :( so instead I've uploaded one of my random travel photos from Australia!

Mike

Post-pub food

Currently listening to: "Jeu du rapt" - Igor Stravinsky

I was walking back from the pub and much to my horror the local chippy had shut early, and because of the current extreme weather conditions I didn't want to walk the 400mtr round trip to the next fine takeaway establishment, so I briskly walked home praying I still had some food in the cupboard! Luckily I had some raw chicken left over after my previous "Spanks" dish, so I went about using some more presents from my eldest sister.

This time I used some of the "Thai Curry Paste" made by Cottage Delight (which is the parent company of Spanks) that my sister gave me for Christmas.

As per usual I didn't read the label or "recipe suggestion" and went about it my own way to make a curry sauce to accompany my poached diced chicken and rice. I simply, add a healthy dollop of paste into a hot pan followed by as much double cream as it takes to make a substantial sauce. Add more paste if needed…

Yet again this paste is full of great flavours and I can see an increasing amount of my loan being spent buying different products from both of these companies!

SPANKS...

Currently listening to: "Nothing Else Matters - S&M Live Album" Metallica

OMG, this is my 2nd post today!

I had to post after having such a great lunch; my eldest sister gave me a bottle of Spanks Lime, Chilli & Herb Marinade as Christmas present. Well today I finally got round to trying it and it was amazing, so full of flavour.


The bottle recommends use with fish or lamb, but being a student all I had in was chicken, veg and pasta. It worked fantastically as a Chicken, Mediterranean style roast veg, and pasta dish...

Their website has a compendium of marinades, dipping sauces, dressings and many other great looking products. I'm going to order some seasonings and see what they're like... watch this space!