Eat ‘n Drink

I can’t think when my love of ice cream started. I remember when I was living abroad we would go shopping to a big cash and carry place and always pick up a 5l tub of Stracciatella icecream which I’d sneak downstairs, grab a bowl and pack as much icecream into the bowl as I could, so that it didn’t look too much!

I first got a taste for Haagen Dazs when I spotted the Baileys flavour. I’d liked Baileys since I was 15/16 and being able to have it in icecream form was great! Out in Germany we were limited to what was in the supermarket, so I only got to have Baileys icecream once in a blue moon.

I can then remember in my final year at University I’d go off shopping to Tescos and now and then pick up a tub of Baileys icecream. A few times the large 500ml tubs weren’t available but you could get a box of 4 mini tubs, one of which was the Baileys flavour, so I’d sometimes opt for these. This is where I got my first taste of the Belgian Chocolate flavour and so my problems started!

The comment on the Haagen Dazs site says

With a full pint in each tub they’re big enough to share - if you really have to…

The last part says it all really! If I have a tub of Belgian Chocolate icecream, I hate having to share

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I’m not sure if I’ve posted this before but as I’ve just cooked them I thought I’d mention it again. Chicken Enchiladas. Kind of like Fajitas but much more filling!

Per Person:
1 chicken breast, cut into strips
1 red pepper or half red and half green
1 small onion sliced into strips
Schwartz Fajita seasoning
2 Tortillas (old el paso seem the best)
Tub of Salsa
Grated cheddar cheese
Sour cream to cool it down

Fry the chicken on a hot heat until it’s sealed/cooked on all sides, add the peppers and onion and a good dousing of fajita seasoning. Once the peppers start to soften a little take it off the heat.

In a casserole dish curl the tortillas in so that the ends are sticking up (the tortillas need about 2″ of space so that you can put the filling in and then curl the sides over the top of the filling ‘closing’ them). Put the hot filling in. Close the tortillas over and put the salsa on top covering the tortillas. Then put the grated cheese on top.

Put in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for 10-15 minutes. Serve with Sour cream and a cold drink.

For extra oomph add some more fajita seasoning over the top of the cheese or chop up a couple of chilli peppers and add that whilst cooking the chicken.

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I think I’ve been spoilt when it comes to Pizza. I think the first pizzas I used to eat were from a pack of 10 out a bag, with plastic cheese and even worse tomato sauce! Then at University I found the only pizza place in town that delivered (admittedly it could take up to 2 hours on a friday night for delivery!) and at the time I thought the pizzas were great. I doubt they were. When I lived in London my flatmate and I were partial to Pizza Hut pizzas and often ordered instead of cooking, made worse by the fact you could pay with a credit card! I have to admit that now, I don’t even like Pizza hut. I’ve never really liked Dominoes Pizza either.

Why do I think I’ve been spoilt? Whilst living out in Austria we lived near a couple of restaurants that did stone baked pizzas. One was on the slopes, so on quiet days or if you got in early enough for lunch you could get a pizza (ski instructors got their lunch free if they took a group of paying customers in!). The best however was from a place called the Alpina. A 5 star hotel at the foot of the slopes which had a great little Bistro and Pizza place. Often, if we’d been out for a few drinks after work to the apres ski next door to the office / ski hut, we’d end up in the Alpina ordering pizza, before hitching a lift home (yes we bought the pizza but wouldn’t ordered a taxi!!). At 6 euros for a 12″ thin base with cheese, tomato, ham and parmesan (gave it a kick) you really couldn’t complain. Plus they did a good hot chocolate whilst you waited for an extra couple of euros! These pizzas were, and still are, amazing. I have to say I’ve not come across anything close to comparison. I’m sure I will when we go to Italy in the autumn, but for now, being in the UK, I’m fed up with the lack of decent pizza around.

Tonight we ordered pizza from a local Italien Takeaway. Run by true italiens (well I can’t understand them on the phone!), I thought we’d get the real deal. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The cheese was tasteless and plastic, the dough too thick and undercooked. The only place I know of in the area that can do a fairly decent pizza is Pizza Express down on Cheshire Oaks shopping outlet. Unfortunately they don’t deliver but they do offer takeaway. I guess it’ll be the best option available for now.

In case you’re wondering, whilst my attempts at pizza making haven’t been too bad (better than most that are available!), the dough isn’t as light and tasty as I’d like and I’m still working on getting the tomato base right. Plus sometimes you just don’t want to spend an hour in the kitchen cooking pizza when you can order and have it within half an hour!

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At the moment, in the UK, there is a rerun of a program called A Taste of my Life which is presented by Nigel Slater - a very good cook with some great traditional cookbooks.

The show, for those who haven’t seen it, involves Nigel and a celebrity guest, where he chats to them about growing up, their life and how it all revolves around food and their tastes. He takes them back to their childhood and cooks up the foods they used to eat, right through to recipes the celebrity may enjoy cooking or created themselves, and finishes with the celebrity’s chosen 3 course meal. It’s so different to your standard cookery program as it’s more of an informal chat between two people (most likely good friends) about food.

I have to admit, there are certain foods I thought were great as a child and now wonder where my taste buds were all that time! The best foods I still cook now, however I’ve not baked a cake in years (the first thing I was taught to cook).

Anyhow, great program, worth watching if you can.

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Recently we bought some diced Venison to try. It was fairly cheap, about £20 for around 9-10 portions. Venison is quite a lean meat too. The raw smell reminded me of beef to be honest, perhaps just a little stronger/richer in smell. Unfortunately we didn’t have many recipes to choose from for cooking it so we opted for a quick stew with fried rice (left over from Friday night’s takeaway!). Have to say the meal was very nice and tasty. Neither Dave nor I have eaten Venison before and were both quite impressed. I’m also quite impressed with the price and the leaness of the meat too, none of this having to cut fat off or draining oil off after you’ve quickly fried it.

So the recipe, nothing fancy but very nice all the same.

1lb Venison diced
3/4 pint of hot water with 1/2 beef Knorr cube and an Oxo cube dissolved
A good glug of red wine
2 tbl spoons of flour
Onion, diced
2 Garlic cloves, sliced thinly
2 Bay Leaves

Fry the onion and garlic in a little oil until golden, add the venison and brown the meat. Stir in the flour until the meat is coated. Take your stock and wine and pour this over, adding in the bay leaves afterwards. Bring the stew to the boil and then put a lid on the pan and simmer for around 45 minutes.

This can be served with mashed potato, pasta or rice. We did some stir fried baby veg and rice which was quite nice. Potato would be good but it would probably be quite filling, but very warming on a cold night. Pasta is probably a better option for a lighter meal as the meat and sauce is quite rich.

(Sorry I should have taken a photo but I was too hungry! I will next time!!)

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Tonight is the first night I’ve had a glass of wine in over two months. I’ve not been suffering from any pains for over a month now so I figured that it was worth a try and see how things go. In the past couple of weeks we’ve managed to get a couple of good deals on wine from Costco. The first was Torres Vina Sol, a dry white I’ve had in Lanzarote in the past. Then last week was Oxford Landing Sauvignon Blanc, an Australian wine. The Sauvignon Blanc has worked out almost 50% cheaper than in the shops and it’s a nice wine too. It’s not as light as the wines I usually have, however providing it’s served chilled it’s fine, alternatively a little soda water to top it off is fine.

Of course tomorrow morning will tell as to how I feel after drinking this tonight!

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Woohoo, my first attempt at growing Chillis and out of the 12 seeds sown, 10 are now growing. We’ve got two types on the grow at present. The Demon Hot ones and others called Capsicum (I think!) which grow up to 20 cm long (gonna look great in the garden!). There’s one seed from each still to appear however seeing as the last two only just showed themselves yesterday I’m still holding out hope that the last two will pop up in the next day or two.

Tomorrow I’ll probably plant up the next batch which are Jalepenos, and get those on the go too.

Large Photo: Chilli Plants

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We’ve recently upped the usage on our George Foreman Grill. Every time I use it I get a kick out of watching the oil drain off food, knowing that usually the food would be cooking in its own fat. It’s also quite interesting cooking food that barely has any fat to drain out such as the steak burgers we eat and often the same for the steaks as we tend to pick lean cuts anyhow.

However the bonus of using the grill has to be the speed for cooking and the taste. Even with lean healthy food, if we can put it on the grill we will, simply because it cooks both sides at the same time. On Friday we had a couple of Tuna steaks. Cooked within a few minutes and the speed locked the taste in and left them with the melt in your mouth taste.

There are a lot of newer models available, the bonus being removable plates, which is something I’d like. The other option (which there may be one already) is a way to cook with the lid up, allow the lid to tilt back a little or all the way over and get it to only heat the bottom plate. Sometimes not everything can be cooked between plates and at this point I have to return to the ‘too large for the job and takes a long time to heat up’ oven!

It’s definitely a worthwhile buy. Almost everything can be cooked on it and it’s even come in handy for doing toast since our toaster died!

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Okay I know, it’s Shrove Tuesday, but to me it’s just simply Pancake day. Gotta say I love Pancakes. The Pancake mix is so general as it allows you to make Yorkshire puddings, ‘Toad in the Hole’ (that’s Sausages cooked in the batter mix for any non UK readers!) and of course pancakes.

When I was younger, when my Dad made yorkshire puddings for sunday dinner he’s always make a bit of the extra batter mix and make us a pancake each afterwards. I was amazed at how the two tasted so different. Of course now when I make yorkshire puddings I don’t have any mix left (and if I did I’d be ordered to make more yorkshires!).

Pancakes are great as they’re made with the most basic of ingredients. Flour, Egg and Milk. Besides your toppings, there’s nothing obscure about what you need and 9/10 times you’ve got the 3 ingredients in your cupboards. There’s been plenty of times when I’ve fancied a good snack and pancakes have been made.

Of course the toppings are important. Today I didn’t have any lemon juice as I forgot to buy a lemon on the weekend (and I even stood and stared at them on Saturday!), and I really noticed it missing Syrup, icing sugar and icecream are all good toppings too, but syrup or sugar with lemon is the best in my opinion. Icecream is hard to eat with a fork and it makes the pancake go cold. However icecream and hot cherries in a pancake is definitely a nice dessert!

I’ve been to a couple of dutch pancake houses in my time (why don’t we have british pancake houses?). One out in the Netherlands and one in Manchester. These places were the first time I’d seen savoury pancakes, almost like a pizza! So anyone who says pancakes are too sweet, clearly haven’t thought about their toppings

Anyhow, the recipe? Very simple:
300ml / 0.5 pint of milk
1 egg
Plain flour (self raising can be used for pancakes but not for yorkshires)

Simply put the milk and egg in a large jug and then mix in flour until it’s the right consistency - thick but running, like a thick double cream. To make your pancakes simply heat a small pan (I go for small pancakes, easier to flip!), add enough oil to grease your pan (too much and the batter will bubble on hitting the pan). Keep the pan on a medium heat and add some batter mix, the amount depends on how thick you want your pancakes - the first usually is too thick! Cook it for about 1-2 minutes on one side, then turn or flip it over and cook it for a further 1-2 minutes on the other side. I tend to keep an oven on low (100 degrees C) to put the pancakes in to keep warm whilst I cook the rest.

The mix above will create between 6 and 8 medium pancakes.

Enjoy

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Everything I watch keeps mentioning Spinach as such as a super food. One such program was on the Truth About Food which has spent each week looking at certain food issues, dispelling myths and showing case studies of proving ideas we’ve been told in the past. Spinach is often mentioned as this super food. It seems great for everything!

Up until yesterday I’d never eaten Spinach plain. The only time I’d had it was in a Spinach and Ricotta Canelloni. So yesterday we picked up a bag to have some with dinner. I did a pan fried chicken breast with potato dauphinois and stir fried baby veg. Once the veg was virtually done i simply put a couple of handfuls of spinach on top of the veg to allow the heat to get to the spinach without overcooking it. Have to say, besides the whole dinner tasting great (!!) the spinach was actually quite nice.

Today we’re having salad with our BBQ so I’ll be adding in some more spinach in with the lettuce and chicory leaves and trying it out raw. But knowing the goodness it’s meant to give you I can see us now eating it more often with all out meals.

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