Side Dish of the Week: Garlic and Basil Roast Potatoes

An excellent accompaniment to a roast dinner, or a meat dish such as stuffed chicken breasts! I never cook roasties without spicing them up a little and here I've used lots of garlic and basil to give an intense flavour! I love the colours in this dish too.

Basically, what you need is about a bulb and a half of garlic (bashed to bits with the skin on), some potatoes that have been peeled and chopped, Olive and Sunflower Oil, salt and pepper and, of course, plenty of freshly torn basil! Boil your taties until they are really soft. Whilst they are boiling, put a roasting dish with a layer of sunflower and olive oil poured over the bottom into an oven preheated to 180 degrees. Once the potatoes are soft drain them and place them into the hot oil. Sprinkle over the garlic, salt, some whole peppercorns and some freshly cracked ones and pour over just a little more oil. Roast on a middle shelf in the oven for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn the oven up (if you're making a roast dinner this is the bit when the Yorkshire puddings go in!) high and finish the potatoes off by crisping them up a little. Take out of the oven and stir through the basil. Serve intermediately!

Whitby Potted Crab

This was my starter for the York Young Chefs competition.  This photo was my practice of the dish (that's why the toasts are a bit burnt!), unfortunately I didn't get any photos there! I actually served it on a long slate with a drizzle of balsamic, I also used different bread for the crostinis and I served it with a Langoustine instead of King Prawns. This starter got 10/10 for presentation in the form that I presented it in the competition and the judge also said the taste of the crab was excellent and he would happily order and pay for that in a restaurant - so that made me happy!

Ingredients (serves 2):

The white meat from about 2 Whitby Crabs, checked for any bits of shell

About 90g Wensleydale butter

1/2 Red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

Juice of half a lemon

1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

2 Bay Leaves

Method:

1. Melt 50g of the butter in a sauce pan and add most of the chilli, all of the lemon juice and nutmeg and all a pinch of salt. Cook for a few minutes until butter is completely softened, take off the heat and stir in the crab. Put the crab in two small jars/ramekins and pack down.
2. Melt the remaining butter in a clean pan. When it is foaming, remove from the heat and skim off any scum.
3. Pour the clear butter over the crab in the pots. Sprinkle over remaining chilli and place a bay leaf on the top for decoration.
4. Leave to set in the fridge for at least one hour. Serve with toasts/crostinis, salad and prawns or langoustines. A simple yet impressive starter.

Alice's Yorkshire Risotto

This was my entry into the York Young Chef's Competition that I recently took part in. It was my first cooking competition and I was very nervous! I didn't win but I did get complimentary comments for the judges, which is good as I was the only one of the contestants who wasn't a professional chef! The dish had to be sourced from Yorkshire and themed around Yorkshire produce so I used Yorkshire Beef, Yorkshire Blue Cheese, Masham Black Sheep Riggwelter Beer, Yorkshire Butter, Parsley grown by myself in Yorkshire and the Arborio rice itself was bought from a little shop in Masham!

Ingredients (serves 2):

300g Arborio Rice

3 Small Shallots, finely chopped

Handful of chopped Mushrooms

About 3/4 Litre Chicken Stock (see Alice's Basic's section)

2-3 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped

About 80g Yorkshire Blue Cheese, crumbled (from the Wensleydale Creamery if possible!)

1 Rump Steak

About 150g Wensleydale Butter

1 Bottle of Riggwelter Black Sheep Beer

Method:

1. In a bowl place the steak, sprinkle with a little salt and pour over most of the beer - saving enough for a splash in the risotto and a few swigs for the cook! Put to one side.
2. Begin to gently heat the stock in a saucepan as it needs to be hot as you add it to the risotto.
3. Sauté chopped shallots in a good nob of butter until softened, using a wok-style pan. Add chopped mushrooms and garlic for a further minute.
4. Add the rice to the pan and stir until it is coated. Add a splash of beer and reduce for a minute or two.
5. Begin ladelling the stock into the risotto, one ladel full at a time, making sure that each addition is fully absorbed before adding the next - stirring continuously.
6. When it is just about ready (the rice should be puffed up and still a little chewy to taste, al dente) prepare the steak by heating a griddle pan, removing the meat from the marinade and brushing with oil, salt and pepper. Fry for about 2 minutes on each side, wrap in foil and sit aside to rest.
7. Pour the marinade into the still hot stock pan (even if there is a little stock left) and whisk in a tea spoon or so of cornflour to thicken and create a jus/sauce for decoration.
8. Stir the blue cheese, parsley and more butter through the risotto.
9. To serve, pack risotto into small glass chefs bowls, turn out into or onto warmed bowls/plates. Slice steak and place over the top with a sprig of parsley. Do a fancy circle of jus around the edge of your serving dish. And there you go, my own version of Yorkshire in a dish!

Balinese Chicken in a Noodle Basket

This is actually really just a recipe for the Noodle Baskets as for the Balinese Chicken I used a pre-made curry paste and just added the chicken and some onions. But, it's the first time I've made noodle baskets and they're an attractive and tasty, crunchy addition to a plate! You can fill them with many other things: curries, stir fries, vegetables etc.

Ingredients:

Noodles, I used vermicelli style noodles but you can use any you like

Cornflour

Salt 

Pepper

Pinch of Cayenne Pepper and a pinch of Turmeric (optional)

Sunflower or Vegetable Oil (for deep frying)

Method:

1. If using dried noodles, cook them in boiling water. 
2. Place your noodles on some kitchen roll and spinkle over salt in order to drain as much moisture as possible. Leave for 5 minutes occasionally tossing.
3. Begin to heat your oil on a medium-high heat in a deep heavy-based pan. Be VERY careful with this, it can be extremely dangerous. Do not leave this pan unattended at all. 
4. Toss noodles is a bowl with spices, cornflour, salt and pepper making sure they're well covered.
5. When oil is ready (text by dropping in a small piece of bread and seeing if it sizzles) arrange your noodle baskets one by one by placing noodles in a circle around a medium size sieve. 
6. Some recipes recommend pouring the oil over the baskets but as this is a little dangerous I dipped by baskets by holding the handle of the sieve into the pan of oil. They will cook very quickly, in no more than 4-5 minutes each. You can keep the nests warm and crisp them up a little more in the oven while you cook the rest if you like. Voila, once cooked serve with something nice, I served mine with Balinese Chicken and some greens. Dispose of your oil carefully. 

Gozleme (Stuffed Turkish Bread)

This was a recipe that I came across on the internet. Turkish food is something that I think is much over looked in Britain. The flavours are lovely and I've often wanted to create them at home. But due to lack of recipes I haven't sallied into Turkish Cuisine that often. So here is my version of a Gozleme recipe. I think next time I might roll the bread thinner, make then smaller and find an easier way of stuffing them but I don't think they've worked out too bad for a first attempt! You can stuff them with whatever you like - I chose Spinach, Onions, Feta Cheese and Diced Chicken Breast.

Ingredients (makes about 6):

For the bread dough: - 

300g Plain Flour

300ml Warm Water

1 7g Sachet of Yeast

1 and a half tsp sugar

Olive Oil

For the stuffing: -

As I said in the introduction you can use anything you like here but I used 2 Chicken Breasts (diced), 1 bag of spinach, 1 block of Feta cheese (crumbled) and 1 Onion (finely sliced). I fried the Chicken and Onion together in some oil and garlic until cooked then added the Spinach. I added the feta on top when stuffing the breads later.

Method:

1. Mix the warm water, yeast and sugar and leave somewhere warm for the yeast to ferment until frothy. (Usually about half an hour).
2. Sift flour into a bowl with salt and olive oil. Add yeast to mixture, combine and then turn out onto a floured surface and knead with the heel of your hand for at least 10 minutes.
3. Divide the dough into about 6 balls and place onto a greased baking tray, cover with a clean tea towel and leave somewhere warm to rise for at least half an hour.
4. Dust a clean surface with flour and dust your rolling pin. Knock the dough back and then roll each ball into a rough rectangle, quite thinly. Lightly brush the surface with oil and fold the sides, left and right, into the centre. (Next time I might do this with circles instead of rectangles as it might work easier).  Rotate the dough around (about 90 degress) and roll out into another rectangle. Repeat first rectangle and fold/roll again.
5. Making sure your filling is warm and ready to use, heat a pan (I used a Chapati pan as it should be flat-based) and brush dough surface with oil. Place filling on one side of the dough. Here I added the chicken mixture then sprinkled the crumbled feta over the top. Fold the empty half of the dough over the filling and pinch the sides together to make a parcel. Brush the surface with Olive Oil once again.
6. Lay onto the pan and cook each side until lightly browned, brushing the top side with oil before flipping over. It's difficult to cook 6 at once so I wrapped my first few gozlemes in foil and kept them warm in the oven before serving. Perhaps make less if it's just for a small meal. Serve straight away, I served mine with Greek yoghurt and salad. Delicious!

Stuffed Marrows

Recently I was given a load of marrows/courgettes from a neighbour of Paddy's Mam and Dad. So I stuffed them. I served these with a salad and they're a great Vegetarian alternative! I made two large stuffed marrows, but one is enough for two people. You can really use any other vegetables to stuff this too - or meats if you like! Added Chorizo would be nice.

Ingredients:

1-2 Marrows

1 punnet of Mushrooms, roughly chopped

1 Green Pepper and 1 Yellow, roughly chopped

Handful of Cherry Tomatoes, roughly chopped

5 or more cloves of garlic, finely chopped/crushed

Red and Green Chillies (optional) finely chopped

Splash of White Wine

Squeeze of Tomato Puree

Breadcrumbs

A cheese of your choice (I used Mature Cheddar)

Salt and Pepper (to season)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. Heat Olive Oil in a large pan.
2. Slice marrow in half and scoop out the inside, leaving a thin layer around the sides. Chop the insides into bite-size chunks.
3. Add garlic and chilli to pan and fry for a minute or two, add all the remaining veg - including the insides of the marrow - and stir fry until cooked/softened.
4. Add wine and tomato puree, season and stir.
5. Put veg mixture into marrow halves. Sprinkle breadcrumbs and cheese over the top and drizzle oil over the top. bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until breadcrumbs turn golden in colour. Serve either whole or sliced!

Tuna and Courgette Lasange

This is a quick and easy tea to make and is extremely tasty!

Ingredients (makes about 4 portions):

Enough of Alice's Basic Tomato Sauce (see Alice's Basics section)

2 Tins of Tuna

Medium bowl of frozen peas

9-12 Lasange Sheets

2 Mozzarella Balls

2 Courgettes (finely Sliced)

1 Red Onion (finely Sliced)

Handful finely grated Parmesan

Generous handful chopped Parsley

4 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped/crushed

Low fat natural yoghurt 

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Splash of White Wine

Method:

1. Fry the courgettes and garlic in oil in a wok/frying pan until gently browned then set aside on a tray lined with kitchen roll for later.
2. Next preheat the oven to 180 degrees and add the onions (and more oil if needed) to the pan. Once the onions begin to soften add the splash of wine and cook off the alcohol before adding the tomato sauce (save a little back) from Alice's Basics. You can make the tomato sauce as you go along or add some you made earlier. Season to taste.
3. Once the sauce is the right consistency stir in the tuna, peas and a large tablespoon of natural yoghurt. Cook for a further minute or two and now it's time to build the lasange!
4. In an ovenproof dish of your choosing pour in the remaining tomato sauce and spread across the bottom. Lay a layer of lasange sheets (3-4) then spread over a layer of your tuna/tomatoey sauce. Dot with courgette circles, torn bits of mozzarella, natural yoghurt (if you like) and parsley.
5. Repeat this 2-3 times until dish is almost full then top with a layer of lasange sheets, spread over some natural yoghurt, lay over courgettes in a 'fish scale' type arrangement. tear over mozzarella and sprinkle with Parmesan and Parsley. Drizzle over a little Olive Oil and put in the oven on a middle shelf. Bake for 20-25 minutes and serve!