Hi Guys & Happy New Year!
My first post of 2023 and it’s a delicious one. My coconut and spinach chicken curry. It’s a golden turmeric creamy curry that is highly adaptable. What I mean by this is it makes an amazing vegan curry if you switch out the chicken for cauliflower or chic peas, or perhaps both.
I hope you enjoy the recipe and I look forward to sharing many recipes with you, foodie discussion and banter to come in 2023.
Now that we are firmly in soup season, I felt it highly appropriate to share with you some of my favourite soups. Soups are versatile, in that they lend themselves well to an array of preparation methods and ingredients meaning that flavour and types of soups are also vast. Most soup keep extremely well, in fact most soups are better made ahead of time as it gives the flavours time to develop and intensify. Most soups are suitable for batch cooking and then freezing in portions making what is already a cost-effective meal even more so. Below I have shared some of my favourite Autumnal soups that will bring reassuring comfort and a general sense of hygge. Which I believe we all need a little of at this time of year when the skies are grey, the evenings are drawing in and the warmth of summer is behind us.
There is something for everyone from a fridge raid chicken noodle soup to bring quick succour in times of need, deep comfort in the form of smoky bacon soup or potato and leek. For those in a more virtuous spirit why not check out my turmeric, ginger, and butternut squash soup it brings a spiced heat and power punch of nutrients. My Thai noodle broth, as in authentic as it may be, provides a light spitfire noodle broth that will instantly add a little zing to your day.
Click image below for recipe…
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
This year’s celebration will again be very different as here in Ireland it is the anniversary of Lockdown 1 and we are still in Lockdown. This year there will be a key ingredient in my Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations one that I love to both eat and drink that mighty pint of black stuff Guinness. It adds a herbily note with tones of molasses. In sweet items it gives a subtle almost ginger bread flavour and it is so good in beef stew in place of wine. I hope you all enjoy your Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations & stay safe.
Check out my YouTube channel here to watch these recipes: YouTube
Hey there,
It can be hard to be inspired first thing in the morning about food. If like me you need several cups of caffeine whilst pondering what it is you would like for breakfast then you may be interested in this post. Below I have listed a few of my favourite breakfast dishes that might aid you in making a decision.
Guacamole Eggs
This dish is without doubt my favourite breakfast. It originally started out as Çılbır or Turkish eggs. Which is a dish of poached eggs served on garlicky yoghurt with a chilli butter sauce, I know it sounds crazy, but truly is divine. My version came about as I really wanted Turkish eggs for breakfast and had avocados that really needed using up so I mixed them through the yoghurt and it made the creamiest mild guacamole. I then substituted the aleppo pepper in the butter sauce and made a spicy chorizo sauce. I think perhaps I should have called these Irish eggs not because any of the key ingredients are Irish, but because it has the same colours of our flag the green of the guacamole, the brilliant white of the poached egg and the orange tinted chorizo butter sauce. All you need with these eggs is some good toasted bread to scoop them up. I hope you try and enjoy.
Ham & Cheese Jambons
For those not in the know ham and cheese jambons are a puff pastry parcels filled with, you guessed it, ham and cheese. They can be found everywhere in Ireland every petrol station and deli counter and for just reason nothing makes a better portable snack. Another, benefits of these are that the mixture makes 12 what I do is cook 6 to eat still warm from the oven and freeze the remaining 6 to be cooked straight from the freezer at a later date.
Granola Muffins
I used to really only ever make breakfast muffins at the weekend, now with this simple recipe I make them any day of the week. As with all muffins they are best eaten on the day they are made, I find the particularly handy during the week I can take a couple to my desk and eat through the day as I work. The time can vary a little in the cooking depending on the granola used.
Another favourite of mines is a dish that originated in lockdown one, not even really a recipe. I was out of bread and since I was making as little trips to the shops as possible, I had to come up with an alternative, I certainly first thing in the morning wasn’t going to start making a loaf of bread. I had some frozen potato waffles and though they are something to be honest I had eaten in years. I had a box for when my nephews and nieces are visiting, some of them are very fussy eaters. I simply toasted them in the toaster, it took 3 times for them to come out bronzed and slightly crisp. Whilst the waffles were toasting, I poached some eggs and make the quickest zingy chilli sauce by combining the juice of ½ lime, 1 tablespoon of runny honey and chilli flakes, fresh chilli chop finely is an excellent choice here too. Just stir together over heat until it begins to foam up, switch off the heat and let it stand to cool slightly whilst you waiting on the eggs and waffles. I simply topped the crispy toasted waffles with the soft poached or fried eggs and then drizzle with the chilli sauce.
What are your favourite breakfast dishes? Leave me a comment down below ad let me know.
For More recipe ideas click here
Chorizo often creeps its way into my comfort food and go to recipe for a couple of reason one is its long shelf life I always have a couple stashed in the fridge and the other is because I simply adore its flavour and the flavour it imparts on any dish it is cooked with. For example, the flavour it can bring to a simple pan-fried chicken breast is phenomenal. Simply chop the chorizo warm it through in a dry pan until it releases those flavoursome orange tinted oils, remove from the pan then fry a butterflied chicken breast seasoned simply with salt & pepper in the oil until cooked through. Top with cheddar cheese and pop under a hot grill to melt the cheese. Yum!
This brings me to my chicken & chorizo orzo which is the type of bolstering comfort food I love. The orzo gets all sticky and gives the whole dish a velvety texture, the chorizo gives bright bold flavour and the chicken cooks in the steam released from the whole dish and the skin in the final 15 minutes in the oven with the lid off makes the skin really crisp up and bronze. Truely comfort food at its best. It also helps that it is very easy on the washing up. Check out the recipe below.
Summer may be coming to a rapid end. The weather has changed, the evening began to draw in. Whilst I do welcome the thought of cosy and comforting meals that will ensue, I am not quite ready to give up on the brightness and freshness that summer eats provide. Below are a few of the latest recipe editions to the site during August. You may notice that some of that cold grey skied weather has prompted a few dishes that help bolster and warm the soul. I do hope they can bring a little summery brightness to your eating.
I know it’s summer but it is a cold wet grey day so why not try this warming soul soothing stew with cheesy dumplings. I do call these cheese scones as they are a simplified version of dumpling that are made more like scones and look like scones. As they cook the top browns and gets firm add a delicious texture, whilst the underneath soaks in the beefy juicy of the stew and is out of this world. No matter how large a pot of this I make everyone goes back for seconds or thirds until we are scrapping the bottom of the pot.
You can cook this entirely in the oven, which will leave you free to potter about and get on with other things which I expect on a Saturday morning will be a bonus. Other than the scone topping feel free to swap and change any other ingredients that you like. This is the joy of long slow cooking with stews/casseroles you can add just about anything and the long slow cooking does it’s magic.
Leave a comment below and let me know how you like the new look of the website and recipe section and share with your friends.
