Google+ Hangout 3 #carolinesfamilymeals

This is a one pot dish, so everyting for the meal goes in and cooks together. You can change what meat you like to whatever you have available or prefer? This dish goes very well with pork, chicken, or an even healthier version would be lean ground turkey mince. You can even use chunks of beef instead of ground beef, but you’ll just have to cook it longer so the beef is nice and tender before adding the rice in!

Serves a family of 4

Ingredients

Sauce:

• 1 onion chopped into quarters
• 4 cloves garlic
• 3 – 4 jalapenos, de seeded – (this depends on your spice level- FYI if you can get jalapenos in adobo sauce even better!)
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tsp oregano
• 1 x large handful fresh corainder / cilantro – plus extra for serving
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tin tomatoes
• ½ cup water
• 1 tin black beans / or kidney beans / Sweetcorn
• ½ red pepper cut into cubes
• ½ yellow pepper cut into cubes
• 500g Lean ground beef
• 400g long grain rice / = 1 tin’s worth of rice
• 1 ½ tins of water
• 1 beef stock cube
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt / pepper

Method:
Blend together all the ingredients for the sauce using a blender / liquidizer, until you have a smooth paste.

Heat the oil in a large pan, and brown the mince, add the sauce and beans and cook on a low heat for 20 minutes stirring occassionally. The mixture will reduce and get thick, you can add a bit of water to make sure it doesn’t dry out completely.

Add the uncooked rice, water, beef stock and peppers, season with salt and pepper. Give a good stir around and leave to cook on a very low heat with a lid.

Ingredients makes 24

Dough:

• 2 x 7g dried yeast
• 1/4 cup / 60ml warm water
• 1 cup / 240ml lukewarm milk
• 1/4 cup / 50g white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup / 80g shortening or butter – melted
• 4 cups / 500g all-purpose flour (plus extra for dusting)
• large amount of sunflower oil for frying

Glaze:

• 2 cups / 200g icing sugar
• 1 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/3 cup / 80g butter
• 2 tablespoons hot water or as needed

Method:

Start by making the dough as it needs time to rise. Mix the milk, water, butter, sugar in a pan. Heat the mixture until body temperature, if you put your finger in it should not feel too hot or cold. Stir to make sure all the butter has melted. Then add the yeast and leave to sit somewhere warm for 10 minutes. This helps the yeast grow.

Pour the yeast mixture into a large bowl and add one cup of flour and the 2 eggs and mix together, then add the rest of the flour and knead it until it forms a ball of sticky dough.

Keeping this kneading this ball for about 10 minutes, adding more flour if it get’s to sticky. Leave covered in the large bowl, in a WARM place for about an hour or until it has doubled in size.

Once it has risen, take the dough out onto a floured work surface and roll out until it is about 1cm thick. Cut into doughnut shapes either using a doughnut cutter or 2 round cutter one bigger than the other? You can even use a clean opened can and a bottle top? Just be careful and make sure whatever you are using is clean. Once you have cut out all the shapes using all the dough (you have to keep rolling it out until you have used it all up), lay them all on a tray, cover and leave to rise again in a warm place for about half and hour, and again they should rise.

While waiitng for the dough to rise youcan make your glaze. Simply get a pan and heat the butter , water and vanilla. Once the butter has melted take off the heat and add the icing sugar, stir until melted and thick. Leave to one side. The mixture should be thick but still slightly runny, but not watery.

Get the oil ready in a deep pan, you need at least 2- 3 inches deep to fry these. 350f You can test the oil is hot enough when you drop a small piece of dough in and it rises to the top quickly.

Carefully place doughnuts in the oil a few at a time. Be careful not to over crowd the oil as this will reduce the temperature. Once they are golden on one side turn them over to cook on the other side. This all happens very qucikly so have everything you need ready. Take doughnuts out and lay on a tray with kitchen towel to absorb any excess oil.

Glaze doughnuts with the melted mixture while still hot.

Banana and Chocolate Cheesecake Pots
Google+ Hangout 2  for my #carolinesfamilymeals

Makes 6

• 150g digestive biscuits (or graham crackers)
• 75g roasted and chopped hazlenuts
• 2tbsp caster sugar / or healthy sugar alternaive
• 250g half fat cream cheese
• 150g melted dark chocolate
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp hot water
• 2 bananas / or use strawberries or raspberries

Smash the digestives so they become large crumbs, I use a food bag and a rolling pin, add the chopped hazelnuts and shake together. Fill each of your glasses up with a tablespoon or so of the biscuit crumbs.

To make the filling, simply add the cream cheese, cooled melted chocolate, sugar and beat well. Mix the cocoa powder with the hot water until you get a smooth paste, and then add to the cream cheese mixture.  Mix everything in together.

Put a tablespoon of the chocolate mix on top of the biscuit base, smooth it around then slice your bananas add a layer and finish off with a layer of chocolate mix.  Cover and leave to chill in the fridge for 2 hours or over night.

Serve with extra fruit on top and enjoy, a delicious dessert, with half the fat of a normal cheesecake and that also ridiculously easy to make.

You can also make this into a large cheesecake by making it in a spring form tin, and adding 100g melted butter to the biscuit base.

Chicken with Cherry Tomatoes, Basil and Creme Fraiche
Google+ Hangout 1 for #carolinesfamilymeals

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken breasts cubed
• Basil pesto 2 large tbsp
• Crème fraiche  half fat 1 large tub (approx 500ml)
• Cherry tomatoes 1 large punnet, halved
• Sun dried tomatoes 1 tub (large handful)
• 2 clove garlic chopped
• salt / pepper to season

Heat a dash of oil in a saucepan, chuck the chicken in and cook on a medium heat until chicken is browned on all sides 2 mins. Stir in the garlic, and pesto and cook for another minute, then throw in the tomatoes and sun dried tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes go soft, approx 3 minutes, stirring all the time. Once the chicken is almost cooked through  add the tub of crème fraiche and stir in.  Cook for another 2- 3 min’s until the sauce is simmering and the chicken is cooked.  Serve with steamed saffron rice.

Saffron rice:
Cook rice your normal way, but add a few strands of saffron for an extra delicate flavour.

Ingredients:

Makes a large jar

• 2 tbsp Dijon / o whole grain mustard
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 4 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 6-8 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 clove garlic squished
• 1 heaped tsp sea salt

Method

Simply mix everything together, keep stored in an airtight jar in the fridge and pull out whenever you need something to dress your salads.

Ingredients:

• 2 courgettes sliced length ways
• 1 aubergine sliced into rounds
• 1 bag watercress
• 2 balls mozerella
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 clove garlic
• salt / pepper

Dressing:

• Handful of fresh basil
• Handful of Fresh mint?
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 100ml olive oil
• 1 clove garlic
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp roasted pine nuts (plus some extra for sprinkling on salad)

Start by cooking your vegetables. Slice them up, lay on a plate, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, cut a clove of garlic in half and tub all over the vegetbales to give extra flavor.

Heat a griddle pan, or frying pan and cook each side for 2 -3 minutes until cooked through. If you have a BBQ going then cooking the vegetables on that would make them taste amazing!

To make the dressing simply blitz all the ingredients together until finely ground, taste and adjust seasoning to your own preferance.

Assemble the salad with watercress, grilled vegetables, chunks of mozerella, sprinke of extra roasted pine nuts, and drizzle dressing over. Serve up and enjoy!!

• 2- 4 lb pork shoulder (pork butt)

Mariande:

• Jalapenos in adobo sauce x 4
• 1 x serrano chillie
• 1 x red chillie
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 large shallots
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp salt and pinch pepper
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil to cook with

Oven temp preheat – 220f / gas 2/ 140c

Blend all the mariande ingredients together with 1/4 cup of the water, blend until a smooth paste. Heat 2 tbsp of sunflower oil in a pan ad cook the marinade
for about 7 – 10 minutes. Add a little more of the water if it looks like it’s drying out. Keep the heat low and stir to stop it sticking occassionally. Add the remainder of the water once cooked and stir together.

Place your pork in a large tray and pour the mariande over. Cover with foil and place in the oven for approx 5 hours. Take foil off and put back in the oven for a further ½ hour to get some color.

You could also make this dish in a slowcooker, exactley the same method, put pork in, pour over the cooked mariande and set to cook for 8 hours.

Pork will be ready once it begins to fall apart when pulled with a fork. Shred the meat up, pour over any left oer sauce and serve straight up.

This dish does very well served with rice and beans or inside a taco

Ingredients:

• 3 cups milk
• 2/3 cup palm sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 4 eggs

Sugar:

• 2/3 cup palm sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 2 tbsp white sugar

Preheat oven 150 c / gas mark 3

In large pan gently heat the milk, palm sugar and vanilla. Do not let it boil. Heat it very gently and stir until the sugar has melted. Once melted, take off heat and leave to cool for 10 minutes or until luke warm.

Add the eggs into a large bowl, add the luke warm milk stirring all the time.

Make the burnt sugar simply add the palm sugar, white sugar and water to a pan and heat until it has all dissolved.

Pour the sugar into your dishes. Leave for 1 minute then slowly pour the custard mix on top.

Put the dish or dishes into a ban marie, which is simply an oven proof tray filled with water up to about 2/3 of the way up the dish.

Pop it all into the oven for 30 – 35 minutes. The custards will still be slightly wobbly in the middle, take out, leave to cool and then set in the fridge preferable over night.

Ingredients: Serves 2 main course portions

• Flat rice noodles 500g (pre softened or ready to use) Fresh are best!
• Sun flower oil approx 2 tbsp
• Large handful of raw king prawns (200g)
• 3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• Large handful of chye sim (or leafy green veg / spring onions)
• 2 large handfuls of bean sprouts (100g)
• 2 large eggs lightly beaten
• 1 tbsp chilli paste (optional)
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tbsp dark sweet soy sauce –Kicap Manis
• (If you can’t find Kicap Manis at your supermarket just use 4 tbsp dark soy sauce and ½ tbsp sugar mixed in)
• dash of white pepper to finish off

Note: If you can find cockles and you like them, then why not try this dish with some in, they add a delicious flavour!

Cooking Equipment:

• Large wok

Method:
Heat the oil in the wok, add the garlic and fry until it just starts to turn brown (5 – 10 seconds max) add the chilli paste then chicken and prawns. Stir fry until cooked – about 3 minutes. Then add the noodles, chye sim, and egg and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Finally add the bean sprouts, soy sauces and stir-fry all together.

Serve straight away.

Ingredients

• 3 boneless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 3 tbsp plain flour
• ½ tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp Salt
• 5 – 6 Curry leaves finely sliced
• 1 stalk lemon grass finely sliced

sunflower oil for frying

Extra garnish:
Crispy fried shallots
Spring onions finely sliced
Sri racha chilli sauce for dipping
Sliced red chilli

Directions

Using a large bowl mix the garlic powder, turmeric, lemon grass, sesame oil, curry
leaves, salt and pepper, and egg together. Add the chicken and leave to marinade for 30
minutes.

In a smaller bowl add the flour and cornflour, with a pinch of salt and ½ tsp of garlic
powder for extra flavor, and mix well together. Heat a large pan of sunflower until hot.
Once the oil is hot, place a piece of chicken into the flour mixture making sure it is all
coated, then add straight into the hot oil.

Be very careful when deep frying, and make sure the oil is hot by testing it with the end
of a wooden spoon to see if bubbles when placed in. The chicken should only take a few
minutes to cook.

Once it is golden and cooked through take out onto some kitchen towel to drain off
excess oil and keep cooking until all the chicken is done.

I love to serve this with crispy onions and spring onions scattered on top and with a really
good chilli sauce to dip into.