August 8th, 2007

Brian is finally feeling much better thanks to the meds and all the smoothies. The latest smoothies have been extra cold!!!! And extra fruity!!! The last trip I had to the grocery store I picked up some Scottish strawberries and they really did smell like proper strawberries and some lovely big red raspberries and some blue berries. Once i got home I separated them out into 4 containers with a mix of each berries. Then froze them. I pull out one container of frozen berries and put them in the blender then add a banana, and a nectarine and since the Cranberry blueberry juice was on sale I picked up loads of that too and put a bit of it in the blender. Then whizz up and if needed more ice cubes and some lemonade for a bit of fizz. They have been really tasty!!!! They were very cooling for the few days we had of hot weather.

This was yesterdays lunch. Smoothie and a salad. I picked up some lovely Belgium ham from the deli counter and decided to have it with some melon and a nice slice of brie on a bed of lettuce.


German cooking magazine recipe....


My German recipe translation is just a little better than my French. And this recipe you could almost figure out just by looking at it.
Take a plate and line with lettuce leaves some tomatoe slices and a sprinkling of sliced onion. (I added some blanched green beans too!!)
Take some tuna filets and marinate in the juice of 1/2 lemon, some olive oil, zest of lemon and some chopped parsley. I added a splash of terryaki sauce, pinch of salt and some fresh ground black pepper.
Heated up my cast iron grill pan till it was smoking hot and then seared the tuna on each side. Cook to desired doneness and drizzle with a dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, lemon zest and chopped parsely. Very nice and light for a hot summers evening. You can substitute chicken, pork chops, or swordfish for the tuna. And other ingredients can be added to the salad. I made chicken and added some boiled potatoes the next night.
Here is the German version
Tunfischsteaks mit Zitronenhaube
Zutaten für 4 personen:
4 Tunfischsteaks (à ca. 150g)
Saft und abgeriebene Schale von 1 unbehandelten zitrone
3-4 EL Olivenöl
Salz, weisser Peffer
1 Bund galatte Petersilie
1 TL grobkörniges Meersalz
1 Römersalat (ca. 300g)
3 Tomaten (ca. 175g)
1 mittelgrosse zwiebel
evtl. zitronenespalten
zum Garnieren
1. Tunfisch mit zitronensaft beträufeln. 2 Esslöffel Öl in einer Pfanne erhitzen. Tunfischsteaks mit Küchenpapier abtupfen und im Öl von jeder Seite bei mittlerer Hitze 3-4 Minute braten. Mit Salz und Pfeffer würzen.
2. Petersilienblätter abzupfen und fein hacken. Mit Zitronenschale und Meersalz mischen. Salat in mundgerechte Stüke schneiden, Tomaten in Scheiben und zwiebel in Ringe schneiden.
3. Eine grosse Platte mit Römersalat, Tomaten und Zwiebelringen auslegen. Steaks darauf anrichten. Mit der Petersilien-Zitronen-Mischung bestreuen und alles mit 1-2 Esslöffel Öl beträufeln. Nach Belieben mit Zitronenespalten garniert servieren.

Not sure I have said this before, but I really do love my new stove!!!!
When we had the new stove installed the installer said our extractor fan was too close to the top of the stove so it had to go. Brian and I had put the new one in and it just about covered the hole from the old extractor fan that wasn't working. So I came up with a brill idea to get a stainless steel backsplash to cover the tiles and the gaping hole. I was lucky and found one for sale on Ebay. It arrived the other day and we also bought some industrial glue off another person on ebay. These things can run rather expensive in the shops and I priced one for around £100. in the local shop. But mine only cost £40.00 and that included the glue, which we have loads left to fix one or two other things around the house with. And I think it looks darn good for a Pat and Brian DIY project.

Before (Big gaping hole!!!)

After (Nice and shiny!!! No ugly gaping hole!!!)

The night before last I used my wok again. Boy does the wok and wok burner ever cook quick!!!! I now have to make sure that I start the rice and it is done before I cook the other dishes.
This is a super quick and really yummy stir fry....

Szechuan Chicken - serves 4
2 chicken breast skinned and boned
pinch salt
1/2 egg white lightly beaten
2 tsp. cornflour(starch) paste(mix with a little water)
1 green pepper, cored and seeded
1 chopped chili pepper(optional and use the one you like most or even part of one)
4 tablespoons peanut(groundnut) oil
dried chili flakes
1 to 2 spring onions chopped into 1 inch pieces
small piece of ginger peeled and chopped fine
1 to 2 tablespoons bean paste or hoisin sauce
1 Tablespoon dry sherry
1 Tablespoon Terriyaki sauce
115 g roasted cashew nuts
few drops of sesame oil
Cooked rice.

First make sure the rice is cooked and hot. Roast the cashew nuts. I did mine in a dry nonstick pan on the hob.
Next chop your chicken breasts up into small cubes about the size of a lump of sugar. Mix in a small bowl the chicken, salt, egg white and cornflour paste.
Cut the green pepper into chunks about the same size as the chicken pieces.
Heat the groundnut(peanut) oil in a preheated wok. Stir fry the chicken cubes for about 1 minute or until the colour changes. Remove from the wok with a slotted spoon and keep warm. Add the green pepper, chillie flakes spring onion and ginger and stir fry for about 1 minute. Then add the chicken, bean paste, Terriyaki sauce and sherry. Blend well and cook for 1 minute more. Finally add the cashew nuts and sesame oil. Serve over hot rice.
(you can add chili peppers if you like it spicier)
I also served it with some stirfried beansprouts.
Take about two good handfulls of beansprouts, 2 to 3 chopped green onions and stir fry in some peanut oil for a couple of minutes. Toss in a teaspoon of brown sugar and a few drops of sesame oil. Serve. And yes it is that quick.



Today's Lunch

Today's lunch is thanks to another fellow Food blogger....Thyme For Cooking It is their Caprese Pasta salad with Salami scroll down through the pasta recipes for this one. It really is tasty and just the right recipe for todays lunch!!! Thanks!!!

August 4th, 2007

Sorry for taking a while to post again. Been a bit hectic and busy here. First off it is summer break from school(my place of employment) Anyway break starts out okay and I have a few days of rest.... then we decided to do a bit of DIY. Thought hmmmm we will do the bathroom as that is the smallest room in the house.... Ended up taking at least two days before it was finished!!!! Then my stepson and his partner were coming for lunch on the weekend so I had to decide what to cook and start cooking. Sorry but I just didn't take any photos. I went Carribean for the meal. Well tried to. My starter the one I had posted earlier of Avacado mousse and prawns, I did modify and added crab to the mousse along with some chopped red pepper. It was much better.
Then I fixed redbeans and coconut rice and a tropical veg ratatouille and we had baked spicy halibut and swordfish with a mango salsa. By that time we were stuffed!!!! But I had made them their fav biscuits(cookies for the Americans) Snickerdoodles and also made some Zucchini(Courgette for the Brits) Bread. They were well impressed with the bread. I will need to make some more and post the recipe for all my British friends who have never tried using Courgettes as a sweet. It is such a versatile vegetable and I have lots of different recipes for using it. Guess that is why it is one of my favourites.
Well anyway it was either the same day or the day after, Brian said he wasn't feeling well. We had thought he had pulled a muscle while painting or gardening and he said he thought he had a cold. By the next day we both were feeling like we had colds and a bit on the fluey side. Then he got a bit of a rash. Well off to the docs..... I wasn't sure if I had poisoned him or not. LOL I made him take an echinacea pill to help make the cold easier. I took one also....but didn't get a rash. Anyway come to find out it wasn't the pill, thank goodness it was Shingles!!! Neither of us has dealt with this before and it really does hurt and makes you listless and tired. Along with the rash turing to blisters. Well after about 4 or so days he is doing a bit better now. And I didn't have any time to be ill. Just got on with things. So that is why I haven't been posting lately.
I did look up on the internet some things that can help with this illness. Vitamin A, C and E and chocolate.... Sooooo I bought him some Kitkats for the chocolate part and I have been making him Smoothies for the past few days to help with his vitamins. And he is on a meds from the docs and has his calamine lotion. He asked the doc what he should avoid (thinking about wine and the likes) and she says Pregnant women. I told him he couldn't have any of them anyway.


Here we have a Tropical smoothie in the making!! In the blender went 1/2 papaya, 1/2 mango, 1 banana, 4 strawberries, juice of a lime, 1/2 tin pineappler chunks and a bit of juice and some orange juice, a tray of ice cubes and about 3 tablespoons yougurt. Whizz it all up and enjoy!!!


My friend Fiona (Cottage Small Holder) and I were having a little chit chat about Chips. I love chips probably almost as much as her Danny. These are the ones I make from scratch when I don't have any frozen ones in the freezer. You can use any oil you like and can either spray the chips with it or put a glug in the roasting tin and then toss the chips in the oil. I take a couple of potatoes and wash them and cut into half lengthwise. Then cut each half into four. Either spray with oil (Olive or rapeseed) or toss in oil. I have two very huge lovely rosemary bushes that are growing in my front garden so I just pick a couple of sprigs and tear the leaves off and sprinkle over the potatoes. (I do wash the sprigs off first) then you can either toss in some whole unpeeled garlic cloves or peel and slice. Depends on my mood which I do.

Bake in a 200°C oven for about 20 to 30 minutes until brown. Depends on how crispy you like your chips.

Ohhh getting hungry now!!!

Savoury Cake
Okay I have done it again. I have attempted to make the French savoury cake recipe again. Mine still doesn't quite look like the one in the photo of the magazine I have. I will post both my recipe and the French version too, so that anyone that can translate may tell me what I am not doing quite right.
Courgette and Ham Cake with a Lemon Yogurt Sauce.
(I didn't make the lemon yogurt sauce, just the cake)
150 g ham chopped fine
400g courgettes grated
250 g plain flour
1/2 pkt yeast *****UPDATE (This should be Baking Soda as per an anonymous comment below) Thanks!!!!
1 Tablespoon mustard (optional, only because I forgot to add it this time)
100 g grated emmental or cheddar cheese
3 eggs
100 ml olive oil
salt and pepper
Lemon zest
200ml yogurt separated into 100 mls
1/2 onion chopped fine
1 large garlic clove
2 teaspoons dried oregano
First mix your flour, yeast, and salt (I added about two teaspoons of sugar this time to help the yeast) in a large bowl. Mix eggs, 100ml yogurt and the olive oil together and add to the flour mixture.

Let this set for about 20 to 25 minutes to let the yeast work a bit.

Meanwhile grate the courgette and squeeze out as much moisture as you can. I bet I got about 1/2 cup or more from this amount of grated courgettes. I didn't save the liquid, but I bet it would be good in a soup or something like that.


Chop the ham up into a fine dice and I added the oregano to this.

Next sweat off the onion and the minced clove of garlic. And then add to the ham mix.

After the 20 minutes or so, mix in the ham mixture, the grated cheese (I used Cheddar this time round) and squeeze out the courgette and add this all to the flour mixture and stir till blended.
Preheat oven to 200°C. Put mixture into a greased and floured loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes. Turn down heat to 180 °C and bake for another 10 minutes. If it starts to brown too quickly you can cover with foil. Serve with Yogurt and lemon zest.



It was a bit salty tasting this time and not as wet as last time. It is sort of a cross between a souflé, a quiche and a bread. Very hard to describe. Can be eaten warm or cold.

Okay here is the French version in French of course!

Cake aux courgettes et au jambon, sauce au citron
Pour 6 à 7 personnes
La veille. Prépartion: 35 mn. Cuisson: 45 mn
Le jour même. Finition: 5mn
1 talon de jambon blanc de 150g
400g de courgettes
250 g de farine
1/2 paquet de levure chimique
1 c. à soupe de moutard forte
100 g d'emmental râpé
2 yaourts nature
3 oeufs
8 cl d'huile d'olive
sel
poivre du moulin
le zeste d'1 citron
La veille: laver les courgettes, en réserver une. Râper les autres grossiérement. Les mettre dans une passoire., les saler et les laisser dégorger 20 mn. Couper le jambon en petits dés.
Dans un saladier, verser la farine en fontaine avec une pincée de sel et la levure. Ajouter au centre les oeufs, 1 yaourt et l'huile d'olive. Mélanger progressivement à l'aide d'une cuillé-
re en bois jusqu'à l'obtention d'une préparation homogéne. Ajouter la moutarde, le fromage, les courgettes râpées dégorgées. Saler et poivrer. Bein mélanger.
Préchauffer le four à 200 °C. Verser la pâte dans un moule à cake antiadhésif et mettre au four pendant 45 mn en baissant la température à 180 °C au bout de 10 mn. Laisser tiédir le cake avant de le démouler. L'evelopper dans aun papier d'aluminium jusqu'au lendemain.
Le jour Même: à l'aide d'un Économe, prélever de larges bandes dans la courgette restante. Les blanchir 30 sec à l'eau bouillante salée puis les fafraîchir et les égoutter. Mélanger le dernier yaourt avec le zeste du citron. Saler et poivrer. Décorer la sauce d'une bande de courgette et disposer les autres en accordéon sur le cake. Le trancher et le déguster à l'apéritif (dans ce cas, le couper en petits dés), lors d'un pique-nique ou bien en hours0d'oeuvre avec la sauce.

I have several French cooking magazines and there are different versions of this cake in some of them. All of which look really appetizing. If I can perfect the actual bread like cake bit to this recipe I would like to try different combinations. But at the moment the experiments are rather tasty!!!!