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.

Great Balls of Fire!

Currently Listening to: "String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110 - Largo" - Dmitri Shostakovich

In an attempt to finish off my fresh pasta before I go training up north this weekend so went to a recipie I learnt when working in a gastro pub.

Meatballs in Tomato and Chilli Sauce and Pasta




I used my usual Tomato and Chilli Sauce and cooked the pasta as I always do, but the meatballs is a first for this blog!


Serves 2 (6-8 meatballs)

• 120g lean beef mince
• 120g pork mince
• 2 tablespoons of fine bread crumbs
• 1/2 small onion,finely chopped
• 1 medium egg
• 2 table spoons of water
• 1 pinch of salt
• 2 pinches of black pepper

Method

1. Mix all indgredients together and form in balls about 2" in diameter
2. Place on grill pan and grill on high for about 12-15min turning regularly
3. Put in pan with sauce and warm through
4. Serve with pasta

Anyway, got to keep this short as I have a lot of work still to do... oh the joys of being a student :(

"Tiny salmon swimming in a stream..."

Currently Listening to: "Don't Worry Be Happy" - Bob Marley

I had two fillets of salmon in the fridge that needed to be eaten and I didn't want to do my usual Canjan Salmon Salad and I had no potatoes in to do Salmon and mash so I put my thinking cap on...

Salmon & Broccoli Pasta with a Tomato, Basil and Mascarpone Sauce

The Sauce (serves 2 - I've chilled the 2nd portion for my lunch tomorrow!)

• 3 large tomatoes
• a large pinch of freshly chopped basil
• 2 Tablespoons of Mascarpone Cheese
• a small pinch of salt

1. Blend the tomatoes
2. stir in the basil and salt
3. Melt the Mascarpone on a low heat
4. Add the tomato and simmer for 3-mins

The rest of the dish...

• Fresh Pasta
• A hand full broccoli broken into small sprigs
• 2 Salmon fillets

1. Put the salmon in the microwave (I know I'm usually anit-micro waving, but it really does cook salmon very well) for about 2mins 30sec (750watts)
2. Whilst the salmon is cooking cook the pasta (with a pinch of salt and a drip of cooking oil) and broccoli in the same pan. If you use fresh pasta this should work out just the right amount of time to keep the broccoli nice crunchy and full of flavor. If you're not using fresh pasta add the broccoli for the final 1 min.
3. Once the salmon is finished break into chunks, mix with sauce and warm through slowly.

This really is one of my favourite pasta dishes. The chef at my local Italian take away has promised to teach me how to make "the best" fresh pasta, can't wait!

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!

Pre-run food: The ugly duckling of the food world!

Currently listening to: "Against all the Odds" - Phil Collins

As mentioned in previous blogs I'm doing a half marathon in October. Well training is in full swing now and I can comfortably run longer distances, all I need to do is bring the pace up to race speed... I'm at my parents this week so I have nothing to do so I'm going to have a go at a 9 mile run. When I was younger I was a member in the GBR Youth Sailing Squads and this taught me all I need to know about pre-event nutrition so I'm applying the same rules to my running, so for my lunch today I made a high slow release carb meal with a bit of saturated fat to help.

The theory is if I have this meal about 90-mins before I go on the run the carbs will start releasing energy shortly after I start and will keep releasing them throughout the run. I'll also take some bananas with me as a source of quick release carb.

Anyway enough of the nutrition babble...

Bacon, Mushroom, Chilli & Tomato Pasta


Now it doesn't take a genius to workout how i made this one!

Fry all together whilst the pasta is cooking!

Anyway, my 90-mins is up. Better go on this run :(

Naked Bolognese

Currently Listening to: "Queen Symphony - Mvnt 3" - Tolga Kashif

I woke up really early this morning (not like me) so my body clock is all messed up and I ended up having lunch at 11.20! Today I made a classic that I haven't made for ages Penne Bolognese, my housemates always comment on how it's the best Bolognese ever. Considering half of one of my housemate’s family is Italian and she spends most of her holidays in Southern Italy I think it's quite a compliment. Anyway enough bigging myself up...!

Today I made my "Naked Bolognese" which is my simplest yet most loved version of my recipe.

Normally I'd make my own sauce with fresh tomatoes but I hadn't got enough in to make a sauce so I went for second best, Tomato Passata.

• Fry some very finely chopped (I used a blender to get them very fine) onions and one crushed clove of garlic.
• One the onions and garlic are just about cooked add the whole carton of passata and break up an oxo cube into the mix.
• Add a large pinch of oregano and chopped coriander, then leave to simmer for 5 mins.
• Whilst the Sauce is simmering fry your mince with a splash of Worchester Sauce at the being and once the mince is starting to brown add the smallest splash of ruby port.
• Mix the sauce and mince together then serve on any pasta.

The thing I've learnt recently with this recipe that less really is more, don't drown your mince in sauce, just use enough to cover the mince.

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

Getting better

Currently listening to: "Fratres- for Violin & Piano" (this clip is only the opening section of the piece)- Arvo Pärt



I'm finally getting better - YEAY! I've been to the doctor and I know it's nothing serious...



Also my appitite returned today - the last time I lost my appitite was when I was about 2 years old when on holiday in Gran Canaria, but thats another story. When I got home from the doctors I made myself a sort of carbonara. I used the cabonara bit of the resipie from a this BBC food page, however I used ham instead of pancetta and I also added garlic and sweetcorn.


Anyway, not really got much else to talk about after yesterday's rather lengthy blog!


Mike

Yachting...

Currently Listening too: "Hamish" - Screaming Citizens (check 'em out click on the name!)

Well I'm back from yachting and still alive, although I came close to running us aground over a pretty famous sandbank! On-board we had a mother watch system which means one crew member is "mother" for 24hrs, duties include making sure the crew are all well fed.

For my main meal I cooked a variation on a dish I used to do in a bar I used to work in:

Chorizo, Spinach and Tomato Pasta

Sorry the pic is a bit dark!

This dish is really simple, just fry off slices of Chorizo Sausage, chopped onion, crush garlic (to taste). Once these are cooked, cover with a tin of chopped tomatoes and add fresh chopped coriander and a bit of black pepper.

Heat through then add a huge helping of spinach, stir in for 30 seconds, take off heat and serve. As you can probably see from the photo I forgot to add the spinach before serving the sauce so I parched it in a pan with water and served as a garnish!

As I do with everything, add a little gratted cheese...

I'm back home again for Easter weekend, but I return to my student digs on Tuesday so expect some more blogging towards the end of the week! HAPPY EASTER...

This isn't tapas?!

Currently listening to: "So What" - Miles Davis

I was en-route to my weekly uni sailing club social when a mate calls to say its a tapas social - this is where someone hosts a house party and we all bring one tapas dish. Total disaster, at these types of socials I normally pull out all the stops and spend all day preping a couple of good dishes. However with so little warning I had to run home and rustle my dish up out of what I had in the cupboard.

Now I know it’s not tapas but it's all I had a lot of as it had to be for like 20+ people...

Like most students my cupboards were full of pasta and not much else, so I cooked off some pasta and made a quick Chilli, red pesto and tomato sauce to mix in. The result was pretty good to be fair and most people commented on how simple but nice it was.

I wish I'd taken my camera to the party as some of the food was rather special, I managed to get most of the recipes (the majority from various Jamie O books) so I hope to try some of them out soon.

This could be my last blog for a while as I'm going away yachting for a week and I won’t be near a computer, but I will return with lots of photos of what we cooked on-board. Cooking on board a yacht is usual quite fun (especially with the current wind and sea conditions), the hob and oven is on a gyro so it rocks with the waves and the cook has to be strapped on the kitchen (or "galley" if we're using nautical terms) to stop him/her falling over and burning ones self!

Anyway, speak soon...

Easy Mushroom Pasta

Currently listening to: "At the River" - Groove Armada

It's Sunday, my cupboards are nearly empty and the corner shop is shut. So I routed around the kitchen to she what I could put together to make a decent lunch.

This dish is really easy and pretty quick to make as it needs nearly no preparation.

Ingredients

100g Pasta
1 can of condensed cream of mushroom soup
A handful of chopped mushroom
A small bit of garlic (any form is ok, paste, roasted flake or fresh cloves)
Two splashes of white wine
Mixed herbs
As much or as little cheese as you want

How to make it

1. Start cooking your pasta which ever way you prefer; I usual cook on the hob with (obviously) boiling water, a splash of olive oil and a pinch of salt.

2. Fry the mushrooms and add garlic once they start to brown.

3. Once all the mushrooms are brown lower the heat and stir in the condensed soup. DON’T NOT FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE TIN TELLING YOU TO ADD WATER!

4. Add your white wine and herb and continue stirring until the sauce looses all the lumps.

5. Drain pasta, and top with sauce, cheese and another sprinkle of herbs.

6. If you’re lucky enough to have ham or bacon in your fridge you can always add it to give your meal some more flavour.