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

Mixed Veg Risotto

I bought some Arborio rice in Tesco, thought I may as well make an attempt at making Risotto. This is a dish my Mum makes a lot at home. So this is my first time. Let's just say it was a roaring success and my lovely girlfriend said "you can make this again, yum!"

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
1 cup Arborio Rice (Tesco brand will do, or whatever you think)
2 1/2 - 3 cups of vegetable stock.
1/2 Aubergine (sliced and diced)
1/2 Red pepper (sliced and diced)
1 Red small onion (sliced and diced)
4-5 mushrooms (quartered is best)
1/4 courgette (sliced and diced)
some grated cheese (parmesan is preferable, I used cheddar, it doesn't matter)
any other vegetables you want to add in.

Recipe:
Now I've seen a load of recipes using butter, but I don't. I think it makes it too fattening, my recipe doesn't need it either. It's creamy enough.

Season your pan first, by adding some olive oil on a low heat. Then add the cup of arborio rice. Fry the dried rice for two minutes with some diced onion to give it some flavour. Add all of your other vegetables to the frying pan as well. If you have a second frying pan, I recommend frying all your veg in this and then add it later as they may shrivel and dissappear into the risotto.

Boil the kettle on the side and in a seperate bowl, make your vegetable stock. I use Marigold Swiss Bouillon Powder. This stuff is hard to find, if you live in Dublin, you can buy it in the health food store in the Pavilions, Swords. I'm sure it's available elsewhere, but I don't know. Oxo cubes can also work, but they need to be stirred into the boiling water, until they break down and they're not as nice.
Anyway, use about 1 tablespoon of bouillon powder in 2.5 - 3 cups of boiling water from the kettle.

Add the stock a little bit at a time, each time stirring until the stock has been absorbed. The reason it is done like this, is to help release the starch from the rice and help give it a thicker taste.

Once you've added all the stock, your rice should be soft enough to eat. Add the grated cheese. Whilst on a low heat, let the cheese melt. Once the cheese has melted and been mixed into the rest of the risotto, it is ready to serve.

Add some more grated cheese to granish.

Enjoy :D

Quick Update

Hi, I know I haven't posted here in ages and to be honest I've been really lazy with this part of my blog. I probably should merge everything into the same blog.

Recipes I want to put here in the future include:

1) Quiche, short crust and puff pastry
2) Pizza dough
3) Savoury pancakes
4) Vol Au vents and what to put in them
5) French Toast
6) Eggplant Parmesan
7) How to make an easy soup
8) Hollandaise sauce
9) Thick creamy cheese roux

Until then, I suppose I'd best get back to work.

Pumpkin, Turnip and Sweet Pepper Lasagne

This is actually my Dad's recipe and I've kinda made up the exact meausurements and cooking times so adjust to suit who you're cooking for and the heat on your cooker.

Pumpkin, Turnip and Sweet Pepper Lasagne

Ingredients:-
1 Pumpkin
2 Turnips
2 Sweet peppers
Numerous Sheets of Lasagne Pasta (fresh or dried)

For Tomato Sauce:
2 cloves of garlic
500 ml Passata Tomato Sauce
Oregano

For Cheese Rue
Butter
Flour
Milk
White grated cheddar cheese

1) Dice the pumpkin or butternut squash, turnip and sweet peppers into cubes as big as a sugar cube. Pour olive oil into baking tray, throw pumpkin, turnip and peppers into tray. Drizzle more olive oil on top and oven bake for 20 minutes.

2) Place the sheets of Lasagne into hot water and let soak for about 5-10 mins.

3) Make a tomato sauce using the Passata tomato sauce in a saucepan over a low heat. Do not allow to bubble or boil. Add the Oregano, crush the garlic and add as well. Add other herbs and spices as you see fit. Once the vegetables in the oven have finished cooking, add them to the saucepan.

4) To make the cheese rue, add a knob of butter to a saucepan on medium heat. Add a small amount of flour and mix around until all the flour has congealed with the butter. Add a little milk, stirring as you pour it until all the lumps from the flour are gone. Add more milk for the consistency you desire. Add the grated cheese and stir until all the cheese is melted and there are no lumps in the sauce. Do not allow to bubble or boil either.

5) Oil up a glass oven dish for the lasagne. Add a layer of tomato sauce with the vegetables. Add a layer of Lasagne. Repeat this again until you've filled the oven dish. Leave space at top for cheese sauce. Pour the sauce in, filling the dish to the top. Add more grated cheese to the top to garnish. Place in Oven and cook at 220 degrees until golden.

6) Remove, serve and enjoy.

BTW the image on the left is a robbed image, I'll replace it as soon as I get an original photo of my cooking.

Difference between Pancakes and Crepes

Whats the difference between pancakes and Crepes? My good friend Pat has taught me a valuable difference between pancakes and crepes. It would appear that I thought I was making pancakes for years, when in fact I've been making Crepes.

Now I honestly didn't cop the difference. But it's all down to the basic ingredients. There seems to be a few different recipes for them out there, but here's the key difference.

Pancakes contain baking soda, yeast, some sort of raising agent. The way to remember, cakes raise, they get bigger, hence why they're called panCAKE's.

Crepe's are made with flour instead of baking soda. As a result, this means they are lighter and easier to eat. Crepe's can also be used for both dessert and as a savoury dish.