Mushrooms on toast

This is fast, fresh and extremely tasty. Great to use as a snack or an appetizer.

Time: 15 mins

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

200g Button mushrooms - left whole

1 Medium banana shallot - Finely sliced

2 Large cloves of garlic - Finely sliced

1 Small glass of white wine

3-4 Tbsp of single cream

1 Small handful of flat-leaf parsley - Finely chopped

Freshly milled black pepper

1 Fresh Ciabatta

Method

Heat the olive oil in a small/medium frying pan on a low to medium heat. Add in the shallot and garlic and fry together until soft, but not so the garlic is starting to brown or burn.

Now add the mushrooms into the pan and fry for 3-4 mins or until they start to soften and get a little colour on them.

Now turn up the heat to high and tip in the glass of wine. Keep the heat on high until the alcohol has cooked off and the liquid has started to reduce, when this starts to occur turn the heat back down to medium.

Next add the cream into the pan along with the flat leaf parsley (leave a little left over for garnishing) and a good bit of cracked black pepper. Let this all simmer for a good 5 mins.

Half your ciabatta bread roll and place them under a hot grill, cut side up. Just lightly toast these, it shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes.

Now arrange the ciabatta on the plate, and spoon over your mushroom mixture. Finally add Parmesan cheese shavings and a full parsley leaf to finish.

Enjoy

Hector's Orange & Mango Brownies

These deliciously rich chocolate brownies are a real treat as a desert.

Serves 15

Time: 50 mins

Ingredients

250g Good quality dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)

150g Plain flour, sieved
250g Unsalted Butter
350g Caster sugar
4 Free range eggs, beaten
50g Chopped Nuts
90g Dried Mango peices (or dried sour cherries if you prefer)
Zest of 1 large orange

Method

Pre-heat your oven to 160 degrees (fan) or gas mark 4.

In a large mixing bowl over a pan of gently boiling water, melt the butter and the chocolate and mix until smooth. At this point, mix in the chopped nuts, the orange zest and your dried mango pieces.

In a separate mixing bowl, mix together the caster sugar and the flour. Now add this to your chocolate, folding and mixing it in. We now add the beaten eggs and mix it all together until silky.

Now line a baking tin (Approx 30cm x 15cm, and 2-3cm deep) with grease proof paper and add the brownie mix.

Bake your brownie for exactly 35 mins. Take out and leave to cool before cutting up into small portions.

Courgette, Chilli and Fragrant Lemon Tagliatelle

Serves 4

Ingredients;

8 Rashers streaky bacon (best quality you can afford), chopped

1 Red Chilli, finely chopped (De-seeded for less heat, leave them in for more)

4 Courgettes, grated

Zest of 1 Lemon

50g Parmesan shavings

2 Free Range Egg yolks

4 Tbsp of Double Cream

500g Wholemeal Tagliatelle Pasta

Method

Place your grated courgettes into a sieve, over a bowl and push and squeeze as much liquid out of them as you possibly can.

Get your pasta cooking in a large stock pan as per the instructions on the pack. Meanwhile in a non-stick frying pan, dry fry the bacon pieces on a medium heat until crisp. Now turn up the heat to high and add the chilli and the courgettes and cook for approx 2-3 mins more.

Mix the cheese, lemon zest, double cream and egg yolks well together in a bowl.

When the pasta is cooked to your liking (We like al dente) drain it, but reserve a little bit of the cooking water. Tip it pack into the pan and then add your couregtte/bacon mix and your cheese sauce and toss it all together.

Divide the pasta up into bowls and serve with extra Parmesan shavings.

Mediterranean Pan Fried Cod

A nice little fish dish here. You should always have to be careful when accompanying fish like cod so as not to over power it and drown out the delicate flavour of the fish.

Approx 30 - 40 mins

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 x good quality cod fillets (Lindsay Bro's Mongers, Grainger market if you are in NCL) @broslindsay

1 x Red pepper, sliced

1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes

1 x Garlic clove, crushed

1 tsp dried oregano

1 x large red skin potato, peeled and  chopped into 2.5cm cubes

Baby leaf spinach

Plain flour for dusting cod fillets

Salt & Pepper

1 Squeeze of lemon juice

Olive Oil

1 tsp sugar

Method

First, get your potatoes on in a pan of salted water. Bring up to the boil and cook for 20 - 25 mins or until soft and tender.

Heat the oil up in a sauce pan on a medium heat and then add the garlic and red pepper, cook for 2-3 mins or until the peppers are starting to soften.

Now add the chopped tomatoes and the the dried oregano, turn the heat to low and let this sauce simmer gently and reduce for approx 20 mins. Stiring occasionaly.

Now for the fish, dust the fillets in plain flour. Shake off the excess.

Heat 1 tbsp of oil on a medium/high heat in a large frying pan and then add the fillets making sure they are skin side down. Fry for 3-4 minutes and then turn with tongs, then fry for another 2-3 minutes or until the fish flesh is opaque and the skin is crispy and golden. Season with salt and pepper.

By now your sauce should be nicely reduced, when using cans of tomatoes I more than often add 1 tsp of sugar just before the end of cooking to take the sharpness off the sauce. You may or may not want to do this, its down to preference but since we are cooking with cod I use the sugar.

Drain your potatoes off and serve with wilted spinach (pan with a dash of cold water, and wilted for 1-2 mins on a med/high heat with a lid on) your sauce and the cod fillet placed on top with a small squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

Sticky Satay Chicken

The authentic Satay marinade is the key part of this recipe. It works fantastically well with chicken and is super fast to make. In this post we are baking sweet potato, which does take approx 1 hour, if you dont have that amount of time you can whip up a fast firey noodle salad instead to go with this (method for that at the end of this post)

Serves 2

Time : 1hr 10mins

Ingredients

2 Large free range chicken supremes

2 Large sweet potatoes

1 pack or 1 bunch of fresh baby spinach

Olive oil

For the satay;

3 Tbsp of good quality crunchy peanut butter

1 Good glug of dark soy sauce

1 Red chilli, Chopped finely

1 Handful of corriander, Chopped finely

The juice of 1 Lime

The zest of 2 Limes

Method

Get your oven preheated to approx 220 degrees first and when its up to temperature, pierce your sweet pots a few times and get them onto the middle shelf of the oven and bake for approx 1 hr.

Now make your sticky satay marinade. Mix the peanut butter, chilli, corriander, lime juice, lime zest and soy sauce together in a bowl. Fast, Authentic, Delicious Satay marinade DONE!

Approx 25 mins before your sweet potatoes are ready to come out of the oven, Heat a large pan on a medium/high heat and cook your chicken breasts for approx 5 minutes, turning over. If you don't do this and cook in the oven straight away, the chicken will dry out.

After 5 minutes of cooking in the pan, lift the chicken out and onto a baking tray with a tiny bit of oil. Now using a spoon coat the chicken in your satay marinade all over, make sure you flip them over to get the bottom covered also.

Now chicken into the oven with your potatoes, on the bottom shelf. And bake for the remainder of time (Around 20 mins).

2 minutes before your chicken and potatoes are ready, wash and then add your baby spinach to a saucepan with a dash of cold water and wilt the spinach over a high heat for 2 minutes. (Remember to put a lid on the pan while doing this)

Now to serve, cut your sweet potato in half and take the end off if its not completely round. Place on your plates and add a small dollop of peanut butter ontop. Serve with your spinach and chicken.

ALTERNATIVE

Serve your chicken and spinach with a firey cold noodle salad.

Ingredients

1 x pack of plain noodles

1 x Small red onion, finely chopped

1 x Red chilli, finely chopped

Juice of half a lime

Method

Cook the noodles as per instructions on the pack. When they are done transfer to a colander and rinse with cold water.

Now add the noodles, red chilli, red onion and lime juice to a mixing bowl and toss together.

Serve cold with your Satay Chicken!

Beef Wellington with Sweet Sherry Gravy

This is a rather luxurious recipe, ideal for special occasions and feeding a group.

Serves 4-6

Approx 90 mins

Ingredients

1 kg Fillet of beef (ideally the middle of the fillet so its evenly thick)

Olive oil

375g of good quality chicken liver and mushroom pate

1 small red onion (finely chopped)

50g Cup Mushrooms (finely chopped)

1 Large knobs of unsalted butter

1 Sprigs of rosemary

50g Fresh breadcrumbs

1 x 500g block of puff pastry

1 Large free-range egg

For the gravy

2 Onions roughly chopped

4 sprigs of thyme

1 Heaped teaspoon Blackcurrent jam

100ml sweet sherry

1 heaped tsp of English Mustard

2 heaped tsp plain flour plus extra for dusting

600ml of Beef stock

Sides

Seasonal green vegetables

Method

Preheat a large frying pan on a high heat, season the beef fillet with salt and pepper all over. Now get a good glug of olive oil into your pan. Place the beef into the pan to begin searing it, followed by 1 knob of butter and 1 sprig of rosemary. Sear the beef for around 4 minutes, turning with a pair of tongs to make sure its seared all the way around. After its seared, take the beef out of the pan, onto a plate and set aside.

Now mix your pate with the mushrooms, red onion and the breadcrumbs in a mixing bowl and set aside.

Pre-heat your oven to exactly 210 degrees (gas 7).

Roll out the pastry on a flour dusted surface to approx 30 x 40cm with the longest side facing you. Now  evenly spread the pate mix onto the pastry leaving a 5cm gap around the edges. Egg wash the longest edge furthest away from you and the two shorter edges.

Now place your beef fillet onto the edge of the pastry nearest to you, and begin to roll it up. You need to keep this as tight as you can. Once rolled all the way around, nip the ends together and make sure its sealed across the top.

Transfer the wellington to a suitable sized baking tray lined with grease proof paper with the pastry seal at the bottom and brush all over with egg wash. Heat the baking tray on the hob for a couple of minutes to start crisping the pastry base to avoid a soggy bottom. Now place the Wellington into the oven to cook for exactly 40 minutes.

Now to make the gravy, get yous chopped onions into a large pan with a glug of olive oil on a medium heat. Throw in the thyme leaves and cook for 20 minutes whilst stirring. Add the Blackcurrent jam and simmer this until shiny and dark. Now add the Sweet Sherry and simmer away, then add the mustard and the flour, gradually add the beef stock and then simmer to a consistency of your liking.

You may blend the gravy once ready or leave it chunky.

Once the beef is ready, let it rest for 5 minutes. Carve into thick slices and serve with steamed seasonal greens and the gravy.