Midweek Meal - Quick and Easy Crab Risotto

Hey,

Mid-week winner for me is risotto - although can take a little longer to cook out, it still effectively boils down to - put in one pan and cook!

I had a tub of crab meat at home - and I can't remember my original plan for it, but as soon as I clocked it while making dinner, I just wanted Crab Risotto. 

Risotto is 3 steps; 1 cook base, 2 deglaze, 3 cook rice. And that is universal. To expand on this a little:

Step 1 - the risotto base

Sweat diced onion and garlic in pan using butter (can add thyme leaves now too if you'd like). Add the rice into this once onions are translucent - and cook until rice is toasted (look for a little colour/starting to catch on the pan).

Step 2 - deglaze

Add wine and stir....yup I made this a step.

Step 3 - cook rice

This is the bit that takes time. Add a bit of hot stock - enough to just cover the rice - and then cook until dry - and then add stock - and then cook until dry - and then...I thin you get it. You need to be stirring pretty close to constantly otherwise it will stick to the bottom and burn.

And that is basically it. Sure we zhush it up - and if I am feeling a bit more fancy I may blend some peas with cream as a sauce to go with it. But overall - if your base is right then you are 90% of the way there!

Recipe and Method below - enjoy!

Recipe

• 1 White Onion
• 3 cloves of Garlic
• 100g crab meat
• 150g garden peas
• 200g risotto rice
• 75g grated parmesan
• 125ml white wine

Method

Prep

1. Dice white onion (ball park 5mm pieces) and then core and chop garlic (the green stem running through cloves of garlic are bitter and best removed (see video) but not essential, if its just me it usually all goes in!)
2. I always pick through crab (even the prepicked stuff) to check for missed shell pieces - a bit of faff but only takes a few minutes.
3. Grate the parmesan cheese so it is ready to go.
4. Prep stock (either have a pan on low heat with 2 ltr of stock in or kettle and mix stock in jug (likely need to do twice to have enough - but make second batch later if needed so it is hotter)
5. Have a small pan on for peas
6. Measure wine needed for cooking - and pour your self an assistant glass

Cook

1. Sweat onions and garlic down on a low/medium heat until translucent. (approx. 5 mins)
2. Add rice into pan and increase heat to medium/high - cook until rice begins to catch/toasts. (approx. 2 mins)
3. Deglaze with the white wine (throw in full measure and stir until all absorbed - and any bits caught on the pan are lifted off)
4. Cover with hot stock (just enough to cover the rice)
5. Stir occasionally - but as liquid absorbs/evaporates more stirring needed so not to burn.
6. Once excess liquid gone (See video) add more stock
7. Repeat steps 4 to 6 three times - and then check how cooked rice is - if still has a raw bite in the middle - repeat steps 4-to-6. 
8. Once rice is cooked right we can add a little more stock, the parmesan and the crab - drop the peas in the other pan of water (these can be strained and added as soon as done.
9. Drag spoon through risotto (touching the bottom of the pan) to create a valley and watch how it oozes back (See video for reference)
10. Happy with the ooze - make final seasoning adjustments (taste before adding salt) and then add to plate/bowls and enjoy!

See easy right - just in case you don't like reading or are more visual there is a video below!

Thanks bye 😊

Oven Braised Pulled Pork

 Hey (Again?),

Slow. Slow is always best when cooking a pork shoulder for pulled pork, we don't want to shock the muscle fibres with too much heat, no one want's tough, dry meat!

That really is the key to good braised pork - time! so set your oven to 150 (Degrees Celsius) and get ready to put your feet up (well, after some work up front!).

No messing about with this one here is the recipe:

• 1.5kg Pork Shoulder Joint (Boneless)
• 1 and 1/2 White Onions
• 3 Inch piece of Fresh Ginger
• 3 Garlic Cloves
• 1 tsp Garlic Powder
• 2 tsp Smoked Paprika
• 1 tsp Paprika
• 1 tsp Dried Oregano
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
• 1 tsp Fennel Seeds
• 1 tsp Coriander Seeds
• 2 Desert Spoons Tomato Puree
• 500ml Veg Stock
• 1 Tin Chopped Tomatoes
• 1 heaped tsp Sugar
• equal part Malt Vinegar to Sugar
• Season to taste

There is a video below if reading isn't for you, if however you would like to hear my life story and how I came to make pulled pork shoulder...well I have a treat for you.

I am joking - just the method below!

Pulled Pork Method

1. Rough chop the onion, garlic and ginger - throw them into stove top safe casserole dish (cast iron for the win) on a low heat and sweat them down.
2. Once Onions are translucent throw all of the spices in and cook on low heat for two more minutes 
3. Add tomato puree - then cook for a minute
4. Add tinned tomatoes and stock and bring up to a simmer
5. Stir in sugar and vinegar
6. Nestle pork shoulder in the braising liquor
7. Cover and get it in the oven at 80
8. Do some washing up, maybe a load of laundry, make a cup of tea and put your feet up - literally nothing to do now for an hour.
9. After an hour have a little look at how the pork is doing, if you can flake it with a fork we are ready to continue
10. If not - bring temperature of the oven down to 100 and leave for 30 mins to finish off
11. Next we take the pork out and put it to one side.
12. Put sauce back on stove and reduce it down by about half.
13. Blend the sauce - and then season to taste.
14. Remove the fat from your pork shoulder
15. Shred the pork using to forks (see video if not sure)
16. Bind your shredded pork using the sauce 
17. Pat yourself on the back - you've made pulled pork!
18. Put on burger - in a baguette, pffft - eat it how ever you want, it's goooood (also can freeze for a month!)

And that is that! Hope you enjoy this pulled pork recipe - sorry for the chaotic energy.

Thanks bye!

Children's "Biscuits" - No added sugar

Toddler Biscuit Cookie...things

Trying to find a biscuit recipe for a 20 month old toddler was a minefield of Syrups and "as much sugar as you are comfortable with for your child". Now we are not a totally no sugar household, but as a rule of thumb it is something we try to do without at the moment, will save sugar treats in the back pocket for the terrible twos!. 

So how to make a "sweet" treat...that isn't sweet?

Well, I blagged it, and our toddler devoured them, and I thankfully was paying attention to how much of what I was throwing together.

Now these are soft biscuits, somewhere on the scale towards a scone, but in shape and size little biscuits for your toddler, and as I caught her in the act of theft, apparently your partners.

Okay I think I have mentioned Child, biscuit, toddler, and young enough for Google...oh wait, cookie!

Don't feel limited by the recipe, want some nutmeg, ginger, lemon, or Orange zest? Give it a whirl, the base will handle pretty much anything you add to give it a little extra flavour. Don't like dates? Boom, literally any dried fruit will work!

Recipe and method below, enjoy :)

Recipe

- 1 banana (fresh or defrosted)

- Peanut Butter 100g

- 1 whole egg

- 2 tsp Cinnamon

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 150g flour

- 100g Oats

- 40g melted butter

- 4 Dates 

Method

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Throw banana and peanut butter (we use whole peanut crunchy as I can't get enough of it!) and the egg into a blender and whizz until a paste is formed (if using defrosted banana, take flesh and leave juice behind).

Add dry ingredients, and chopped dates to the mix.

Finally add melted butter in two parts, as you may not need the last bit. It should be a slightly sticky dough!

Now roll dough out to thickness of just over a pound coin and cut with whatever shapes you have.

In the oven for 8 - 10 minutes, then bring out and cool.

Easy as that.

After all my low sugar nonsense I may have dusted with a little icing sugar and cinnamon mixed together... But that's my lack of self control!

Hope you and you little one/s enjoy!

Linguine Vongole

Linguine Vongole (Clams)

Hey,

First and foremost - recipe, method, and link to video at the below. Read on for all the search engine good stuff!

I love seafood - and my partner LOOOVES seafood! Coming from Sardinia it's what she grew up with, this dish was inspired by those classic tastes, but was made as we successfully gathered our own Clams! 

After a day combing the beach (okay, maybe 20 mins on a beach trip) we had gathered enough Clams for tea (or dinner if you like) and decided to do one of my favourite pasta dishes with them.

I would have photo's to share - but I may have smashed my phone on waterfall walk in Wales...oops.

Spaghetti Alle Vongole - it's a classic dish with clean flavours allowing the Clams to shine. This dish has a slight twist as I have used linguine, for the very culinary reason, that's what was in the cupboard! We also had to remove the Chilli as I forgot to pick one up from the shops - off to a great start!

Linguine Vongole Recipe (for 2)

• 150g Linguine
• 500g Clams
• 10-15 Cherry Tomatoes
• 2 Cloves of Garlic
• Parsley
• White Wine
• Olive Oil
• Fresh Red Chili (Optional)

Method

This is a wonderfully quick and easy dish to put together (once you have clean clams!) and is packed full of flavour - the key is to really lightly cook the clams so that they don't become little rubber bullets!

1. If you have managed to gather your own clams you will need to wash the shells and then purge the clams in seawater (if you have it) or salinated tap water. This is a really good blog on the process: purge-clams. If shop bought you can most likely skip the above step - but it won't hurt and may get rid of any trace elements of grit or sand in your clams.
2. Get a pan of water on to cook the pasta, once boiling season well with salt and then add pasta to cook.
3. As pasta is cooking it is time to get the other prep done:
•  cut the (washed) Cherry Tomatoes in half
• Peel and slice the Garlic
• Chop the Parsley
• and if you want a little heat slice the fresh Chili
4. Get a large pan (with a lid) and put it on the stove on high heat (aim to have this on the stove with 3-4 minutes left of pasta cooking time).
5. When pan is hot and pasta has only 2-3 minutes left add all the other ingredients (except for Parsley) into the hot pan and put the lid on:
• Clams (drained)
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Garlic
• A good splash of White Wine (about 150 ml)
• and Red Chili
6. Give the pan with the Clams in a gentle shake after 1 minute to encourage clams to pop open.
7. Drain the pasta once cooked (do this quickly so that it retains some of its cooking water; into colander, back into the pan - don't leave it standing to drain), get it back into it's pan and stir in a generous glug of olive oil.
8. Check Clams (should take 2-3 minutes to cook, once all have popped open remove the lid, and in the pasta, and the Parsley stir together gently so as not to chip an shells.
9. Add seasoning to taste (it's a thin sauce so a little goes a long way).
10. Serve and Enjoy!

It really is a fast dish to put together and is full of flavour.

Finished Clam Pasta bowl

Close up of Cooked Clams

As always it will be a huge help if you engage with the blog and video (below) like, comment, subscribe, and share. :)

Thanks/Bye

Rob

x

Slow Cooked Lemon & Courgette Pasta

Hi,

I am growing my own courgettes for the first time, and they are yielding a lot  - a LOT - of crop!

So I am having to start to think of different ways of using them to keep them interesting! Below is a recipe for a pasta dish I made the other night.

I used two courgettes, one was cooked down as a sauce base and the other lightly cooked to retain its fresh flavour.

Lemon & Courgette Farfalle

Cooking time 30 mins.

• 2 Courgettes

• 1/2 Lemon (Juice)

• 6 Mint Leaves

• 1 TSP Dried Oregano

• 50g Grated Parmesan

• 2 Garlic Cloves

• 1 Small Red Onion (1/2 Large)

• 200g Farfalle (or other pasta)

• 200ml Stock

Method

1. Slice the onion and start to sweat on a medium heat in a pan (we want a light caramalisation to start). Add in the Garlic (chopped up) and cook for a further minute before adding one of the Courgettes (cut into quarters length ways, then slice as thinly as you can - the aim here is to cook this into an almost puréed consistency). Get some colour into the Courgette s before adding Oregano and then covering with stock.

2. Get a pan of water on for your pasta and season heavily. Slice the remaining courgette into ribbons on a Mandolin (if you don't have a Mandolin, I would recommend cutting julienne).

3. Keep topping up the base sauce to prevent Courgettes catching in the pan. When the Courgette's are starting to breakdown (about 20 minutes) put pasta into the boiling water (put a timer on for 1 minute less than the recommended cooking time).

4. Once pasta is in the water add the Lemon Juice and grated parmesan to your sauce base.

5. Keep an eye on your sauce adding spoons of pasta water when needed to prevent it catching (this will also season, so you may need to change to adding water fr the tap to prevent over seasoning). When timer for pasta goes off drop in your Ribbons of Courgette to the pasta water. And add mint chiffonade (thinly sliced) to your sauce.

6. As soon as courgettes are translucent (30-60 seconds) drain pasta and immediately add to sauce - the Farfalle will trap some cooking water - cook out the dish on a high heat stirring constantly until you have a consistent sauce covering pasta (about 30 seconds) and then serve!

This dish would be great with some toasted pine nuts, or fresh dressed rocket on the top, or maybe a little cream running through the sauce!

Have a go and let me know how you get on, did you make any tweaks?

Whilst you're here check out my YouTube channel, slowly filling with content!

Thanks/bye

Rob

X

Banana & Rum Soufflé

Hey,

So I don't know about you but there is only so much Banana Bread I can eat, and now I'm all smoothied out too!

Good News - I am going to share a recipe for some Banana Soufflés I made not so long ago.

Soufflés seem to have an air of mystery about them, or people believe that they are much harder to make then they really are. All a Soufflé is, is air and structure. Air to lift it up and make it fluffy, and then something to capture the air and give the Soufflé structure.

Most Soufflés use a pastry cream or fruit pureé for the structure and all Soufflés use egg whites to provide the air.

The only thing you need to be careful with when making your structure mix is the fat content - you see fat breaks down egg whites, so a high content will weaken your structure (creating a recipe for a blue cheese Soufflé still gives me nightmares!).

It is also important to note that fat can prevent you whisking your egg whites to a peak; due to this it is highly recommended to use a glass or metal bowl, as plastic can trap fat and may be the cause of failed attempts.

So I had brown banana's and decided to make up some Soufflés for after tea (or dinner depending on your north/south divide). A dash of rum beacause... I like rum! You can exclude the rum if that is your preference, but I would be careful if you decide to increase the amount as this may ruin our precious structure!

I used this recipe from Eric Ripert as a base, it  made enough for 4 x 125ml ramekins. I simply swapped out the lime juice for some Rum and a squeeze of lemon juice.

First grab hold of all the ingredients!

You need a lot less sugar than you might think - ripened bananas have plenty of natural sugars, and you don't want to make your Soufflé sickly sweet!

I added the Banana, Rum, and Egg yolk and blended together to form my structure base. I was unsure of using the egg yolk due to the fat content, but it added a nice bit of richness to the Soufflé. I didn't add any cornflour to my pureé as there is enough strength with the bananas and egg, but cornflour can be added to mixes for additional rigidity, however that comes with more weight which will result in less height in the final Soufflé bake.

You then need to whisk your egg whites, when they start to form peaks, slow down the mixer slightly and and gradually add sugar until it is all combined and you have beautiful glossy peaks.

You will then need to butter your ramekins and line them with caster sugar before combing your two mixes.

Mix 1/3 of your egg white into your structure mix until fully combined, then fold in remaining egg whites until fully combined, be gentle and take your time.

Once you are happy you can't see chunks of egg white and you have a smooth mix spoon it into the ramekins and give each one a light tap (hard enough to settle the mixture, but not so hard as to deflate it - think a gentle door knock) on the counter top to settle the mix. Then run thumb around inside edge and dust with icing sugar.

Place Soufflé in the oven on a flat tray - they should take between 8-12 minutes in a pre-heated oven. This is the perfect amount of time to caramelise some banana to serve with your souffle, simply dust with sugar and get into a non-stick pan!

Once the Souffles have risen, and the tops are golden brown they are ready to serve, get them onto the table as quickly (and carefully) as you can, with a good scoop of vanilla ice-cream and a couple of slices of caramelised banana - yum!

Really hope you have a go at this recipe, I think I may revisit this and try cooking out a banana puree first to intensify the flavour!

Recipe for Soufflé

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened 
• 3 dessertspoons sugar for pureé
• 1 dessertspoon sugar for egg whites
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 dessert spoon rum
• 1 large egg yolk 
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 tea spoon lemon juice 

Extra Caster sugar used to dust Ramekins. Optional extra Caramelised Banana + Sugar for garnish.

separate.

Anyway please watch the below short video of this recipe - like, comment, and subscribe!

Thanks/bye

Rob

x

Houmous or is it Hummus... Chickpea and Tahini dip!

First things first, how the devil am I supposed to spell it? It had not previously occurred to me that the spelling of one of Britain's (if not the most) loved dips would be so contentious!

I have the spelling of "Houmous" so deeply ingrained I don't know if I can convert to writing Hummus, and it all seems to stem from translation from Arabic not being straight forward due to differing alphabets.

Personally I would be on board with Hummus as it seems to tie in more closely to the dishes origin...but as previously alluded too, I think I have Houmous in the veins!

Now you may be wandering why you'd want to make something that is so readily available in store...and the answer is the same as every other dish you make; it. will. taste. better!

The best part about making Houmous at home is that you can play with the flavour profile, want a little extra garlic kick? Go ahead an put another half clove in! Want some spice running though? Add 1/2 tsp of Cumin!

You get the idea!

The recipe I used is below (and a quick video if you're not sure on how to make this simple and delicious dish).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by PrettyGoodFood (@pretty.goodfood) on Feb 3, 2019 at 5:04pm PST

Recipe

1 x Tin of chickpeas*
1 x Lemon Juice
1 x tsp Tahini
1 x tsp Salt
3 x tbls Olive Oil
1 x Garlic Clove

*If you are confident I would highly recommend using your own cooked chickpeas - but be warned that you need to prepare in advance!


Method

This is the easy part, put all together (only use half the lemon juice to start) in a blender and blitz up into a smooth paste - add water a little at a time to loosen the mix to the right consistency and remember to check your seasoning (add more lemon juice if needed - the juice should lift the flavours not over power them, so stop adding juice before the lemon becomes too strong!)

Anyway please watch the below short video of this recipe - with some home made Flatbread if you want to create a nice antipasti (like, subscribe - we all know the youtube drill!).

Thanks/bye
Rob
x