Cheese Pie

I found this one in IKEA yesterday in their food section. Firstly I never knew D'aim bars were swedish. Guess you learn something new everyday.

Anyways, this is a simple enough recipe and it's quite tasty. You don't need many ingredients and you can improvise if you like.

What ya need:
300 g of plain white flour (recipe recommends wholemeal, doesn't matter really)
140g of butter
3 tbsp of water
4 eggs
150ml cream (I used milk instead, not as nice, but can be substituted)
Spring onion, dill, onions (some, not all needed)
Ground Black Pepper
300g of grated Brannvinsost Snaps-cheese from IKEA

Add the butter to a mixing bowl, sift the flour into the bowl, then add the 3 table-spoons of water and mix quickly into a single ball of dough. To make the dough extra tasty I added dried basil and ground black pepper into the mix and the mixed it thoroughly. Wrap it in cling flim and leave in the fridge for 30 mins.

Put a bit of flour on your countertop and remove your dough ball from the fridge. Roll it out into the shape of the tin you'll be putting it in. Grease your tin with either butter or olive oil. Ensure there is no holes or cracks in the dough when you put in your tin. With a fork poke holes in the dough so as to let steam escape. Place your tin with the dough in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 175°C.


In another mixing bowl, add your eggs, grated cheese and finely chopped onions or spring onions. Add some dill for taste. I also added some mustard here (Dave's Insanity Mustard from Scorchio.co.uk), 1 or 2 teaspoons should be enough. Mix it all up thoroughly. Take the tin out of the oven, add your mix and put it all back in the oven for another 25-30 mins at 175°C again.

Remove, slice up, garnish with a little sprig of dill and serve hot. Serves about 2 people.

Enjoy

PANCAKES

I know, I know, I'm a day late! I don't care.

I was supposed to go to the Engineer's Ireland member's information evening last night but I decided not to as I had a need to feed my pancake lust! Also I know I'm calling them pancakes when my recipe is actually for a crepe. What's the difference you say? It's all in the word, pancakes are a CAKE. Cake's are made using raising agents like baking soda or bicarbonate of soda. They are also much thicker and unhealthier for you. I'm not saying my 100g butter below is good for you, but it works for me and for one night in the year, I'm not worried about gaining weight!

Here's the ingredients:-

1. 200g plain flour
2. 100g butter
3. 300ml milk
4. 3 eggs

Here's how ya do it:-
Place your milk and eggs into a larger mixing bowl like in my pic there. Mix it together of course. Add the butter and plain flour a little bit at a time, mixing these in with a whisk or something similar.
N.B. You can melt the butter in the microwave first to make mixing easier or it can be replaced with Olive Oil instead, the oil being the healthier option.

The batter should be mixed without leaving any lumps. It should have a nice thick consistency right through. If it's too runny, add more flour. If it's too thick, add more milk.

Your batter is now ready to add to the pan, pre-heat your pan with a bit of oil. Add your pancake batter, wait until the edges curl up or go a little brown before flipping. For extra enjoyment, flip the pancake by flicking the frying pan (a certain amount of practice and skill is needed for this) instead of using the egg-lifter.

Place cooked pancake on plate, add anything you like. Lemon and sugar are the classics, Nutella is a huge favourite for chocolate lovers and Maple Syrup for the true sugar addicts.

Savoury Option: As I've added no sugar to the basic mix, these crepes can also be used in a savoury fashion. It's best if the mix is a little runnier than the normal dessert pancakes. You can add grated cheese, fried mushrooms and peppers to the centre before wrapping up to make a delicious dinner as well.

BTW the pic is mine, taken off my phone as are most of the pics in my blog. That's what your pancake batter should look like. Enjoy!

Indo-Italiano-Greek Lunch Pot :D

I was asked by the lovely Divya Ravi to post this quick recipe up online. I'm not even half way through the pot as I write this up.

Here's the story and the ingredients.
I found an pot of Hot Madras curry sauce in my freezer that I had frozen some time ago. You can freeze these pots for months. Anyways, I bought the 475g pot a while ago at one of the Sunday Markets out in Howth. You can also buy them in other markets found in the Portmarnock Golf club Hotel and there's one in Fairview as well. I'm sure there's a load more places you can buy these, but I find the markets give a great price for 6euro for 1 or 15euro for 3. Check out Curry Sauce Website to order them online if you like. Most of them are vegetarian friendly, the odd one or two have fish in them. So I made up some pasta, used up my old sauce and threw in a load of greek natural yoghurt to calm it down a bit. That's the back story. Here's the ingredients.

Half a tub of Madras Curry Sauce
200g of Pasta (any type will do, I used Fusili, but Penne or similar should work)
200g of Greek Natural yoghurt

Cook up your pasta with a pinch of salt and a drop of olive oil. Cook it until it's soft (it lasts longer and tastes nicer if you cook it until soft and you want to store it for lunch next day).

Add your curry sauce to a frying pan, keep it on a low heat. Try not to let it bubble or boil as this will kill the taste of any sauce. Add the Greek yoghurt if it's too spicy/hot for you. It also makes it creamier too.

Drain the pasta, add the pasta back to the pot and then add the sauce. Stir until the sauce is completely mixed in.

I cleaned out the pot I bought the curry sauce in and now I use it to bring this tasty dish with me to work for a tasty work lunch.

I also guessed some of the measurements, they should be close enough, but add more as you see fit and enjoy :D