Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Below is my family recipe for Irish stew a dish. Have a fun and safe day.
Tag: recipes
Pancake Tuesday
The perfect excuse to make pancakes on a weekday. Whilst a good recipe is essential to pancake making, and below you will find one provided. For me the magic is what you eat them with. Usually for me it’s either a simple blackberry or raspberry sauce made by cooking the frozen berries in a little honey or with crispy bacon and poached eggs. However, you like your pancakes the below recipe won’t disappoint it makes fluffy delicious pancakes. I’m going rogue tomorrow and plan to eat mines with a salted caramel sauce, whipped cream and berries.
The below recipe calls for kefir, simply as I always have some in the fridge you can use instead buttermilk or runny plain yoghurt.
Happy Pancake making guys!
Swedish Meatballs & Champ
Chicken & Chorizo Orzo
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.
Christmas: The Countdown
It has been a long and dark year. One which most of us will be glad to see over and look forward to a brighter 2021. I feel it is the lack of celebrations through 2020 that are making me feel so strongly that this years Christmas celebrations will be more important than ever. Christmas has always been an important event, at least to me, anyways. It breaks up and brings brightness to the bleak mid winter, something which I feel we all need amped up this year. There is a Danish and Norwegian word that sums up the feeling of the seasonal period perfectly and that hygge. It is a word used to express feelings of comfort, coziness and contentness. These are all the feelings that these cold dark nights bestow upon me. I love the coziness of a cold dark night, the house illuminated with fairy lights and the flicker of tea light candles as wind, rain, snow or sometimes even a combination of all three pelt the windows and of course a bowl of something soul soothing and comforting to eat from a bowl on the couch.
This year from today the 11/12/2020 the recipe of the day will be a festive recipe on the countdown to Christmas. These recipes will look at side dishes to accompany the main feast, cozy recipes on the lead up to the big day, sweet treats and snacks and of course all those other eating opportunities in between.
Below are just a few of the recipes available in the Christmas recipes section.
Kefir Pancakes
These I boldly boast are the best pancakes ever! Light, fluffy and sponge like absolutely ideal for mopping up syrup or any of the butter pat that may have melted and run down the stack pooling at the bottom. I have posted pancake recipes before and I do at times still make those pancakes, but it is usually with kefir these days. It isn’t just because of this fabulous elixirs numerous health benefits but simply because I always have some in the fridge and it really makes the best pancakes ever.
Kefir for anyone not in the know is a fermented milk drink , it’s similar to a thin yoghurt. It originates in Russia and dates back to 1884. It is usually fermented over night with kefir grains giving the drink a sour, tangy slightly carbonated drink. I now use it in place of buttermilk in almost all my recipes as well as drinking every morning. one of my favourite recipes including kefir are my pancakes. I make them almost every weekend.
Slow Cook Oxtail stew
If like me you are craving hearty comfort food then have I ever got a recipe for you this slow cook sensation creates a large vat of stew that can make several dinners and only gets better the longer it sits. It also can be frozen making it extremely useful for weeknights. Simply thaw and reheat.
Oxtail is a cheap old fashioned cut, like most cheaper cuts it benefits from a long slow cook to make it tender. My recipe takes 5 hours in the oven so that the meat becomes so tender that it comes away from the bone with the slightest nudge with a wooden spoon. If it makes things easier you can pop it into a slow cooker rather than the oven, especially handy when your working.
I recommend eating with a large bowl of buttery mash or champ potatoes. To change things up for the next meal cook some pappardelle pasta, reheat and stir through the meat sauce, and sprinkle with a generous amount of parmesan for a rich and delicious ragu, or top with puff pastry for a delicious and simple pie to take care of the leftovers.
August Recipe additions
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.
pasta bolognese
Pasta Bolognese
I can be a bit apprehensive about posting recipes for some of the classic recipes, as purist can often be negative of any alteration to the classics. It is something which I don’t understand. There may be many reasons for altering classic recipes ingredient availability, cost, time, or above all and most importantly taste and flavour. I never feel that I have done something wrong when I play with classic recipes, I think that is the essence of cooking itself. Having said that I sometimes may take this concept a little too far and some of the classic dish may not be recognised as a classic dish anymore by the time I’m done.
I think often that we now a days forget that the core essence of food obviously it is fuel for our bodies, but it brings so much more to our lives than just being a fuel source. Good food enriches our lives with pleasure and joy. Family style meals are the most comforting and enjoyable. I like to strew the table with bowls, plate, canisters of cutlery, lots of bowls and pans of food on the table so that everyone can take what they like and as much as they like. The hustle and bustle around a table as everyone grabs their bowls and pass the food about bring me immense joy. I do find that this always helps conversation if guests aren’t familiar with each other as well. This leads me to my Bolognese ever since I was a child this was a favourite meal in the Diver household. There is no dish that screams family dinner more so to me than a large vat of meat sauce, pasta and fresh parmesan to grate over at the table is a must.
My version may not be 100% authentic, but I can reassure you that it tastes delicious. I have added it into my everyday easy category on my website it does take a little longer than most dishes in there, although it doesn’t need much attention whilst it cooks away and besides I think I would be sacked as the cook in our house if it was on the menu at least one night a week. It is also worth noting that this sauce is great reheated and gains flavour if made a day in advance, plus it also freezes well. I always due to the reasons make a much larger portion that I want usually doubling the recipe below and freezing the leftovers.
I hope you enjoy the recipe.
World chocolate day
World Chocolate Day
It seems only fitting that chocolate has its own day 7th July, I will remember this date as it is also my birthday to. Chocolate in fact has several celebration days and rightfully so. National Chocolate Day October 28th and International Chocolate Day September 13th. Although, I certainly don’t need an excuse to eat chocolate and it is a coincidence that it has been a tradition for me on my birthday for many years to make my favourite chocolate indulgent treat and that is my salted chocolate tart. I have been making it for years long before I ever knew that my birthday shared the same day as world chocolate day.
To celebrate this day, I am posting my favourite chocolate recipes below. I hope you chocolate lovers out there will enjoy these recipes and celebrate the day with one of them.