A Tasty Treat: Semifreddo with Raspberries

This is a lovely, simple dessert that is great for serving if you have guests over. It's also delicious if you want to eat it straight out of a bowl while watching your favourite weepy (not that I've ever done that.....honest). It's quite a rich dessert because of the white chocolate and Greek Yogurt so it's best to serve small portions, especially after a large meal.You can either place the mixture in individual moulds (if you have them) or a larger single mould and serve sliced (as in the above photo). "Semifreddo" means "half frozen" so you only have to put in the freezer for a few hours before serving.

Ingredients:

250ml Whipped Cream

4tbsp Sugar

250g Greek Yogurt

100g White Chocolate (grated)

150g Raspberries

Method:

• Whip cream & sugar in a bowl until stiff.
• Fold in the yogurt.
• Add grated white chocolate & 2/3rds of the raspberries.
• Cover moulds with cling-film. Add mixture & freeze for 2 hours.
• Serve with the rest of the raspberries.
• Enjoy

Gourmet on a budget: Weeks worth of meals for under £15

I've decided to do a very different blog post today. I am always asked how I survive on about £10-£15 pound a week on food. So I've decided to show my typical weeks shop and the various different recipes and dishes I can make that will do me for lunch and dinner for the next week or so. I wont give the recipes this time but will tell the ingredients I use. Obviously the meals made using the items in this list are supplemented by food everyone would have in their fridge and cupboard at home (pasta, rice, noodles etc.), as well as items I didn't use last week. Basically the purpose of this exercise is to show how, with a bit of imagination and time, anyone can make delicious, healthy meals on a budget.

I do look for deals and special offers as well as items on sale. You don't always have to buy them, but you can use them to compliment your normal shop. So here is what I bought today:

Ingredients:

Mayonnaise £1.27

Sun-dried Tomatoes £2.49

Tin Tomatoes 3 x £0.33

Parmesan Cheese £2.92

Anchovies £0.73

Goat's Cheese £0.99

Beansprouts £0.35 (Sale)

Cooking Bacon £0.75)

Mushrooms 250g x 2 £0.29 (Sale)

Salad Leaves £1.05 (Sale)

Organic Red Onions £0.35 (Sale)

New Potatoes 1kg x 2 £1.35 (Buy 1 get 1 free)

Total Price: £13.82

Okay now that I have my food for the week. This is what I can make:

Method:

1. Using the Anchovies, Mayonnaise, Parmesan, cooking bacon & Cos Lettuce (from last week), I can make a large amount of Caesar Salad that will do you for lunch for 2 or 3 days (depending on the portion size)
2. Using Mushrooms, Red Onion, Stock & Rice, I can make the Mushroom Risotto which, again, will do for both lunch and dinner. 
3. Cook the baby potatoes, chop and pan fry, add to sun dried tomatoes, red onion and goats cheese and mix with the salad to create a gorgeous crispy potato salad. And/Or...
4. Simply cooking the potatoes and mixing with some herbs and the mayonnaise, have a more traditional potato salad.
5. I'd freeze some of the beansprouts for use in stir fries in the future. But you can use some with the red onion, mushrooms & any other vegetables you may have for a quick and easy stir-fry, served with rice or noodles.
6. Use some of the cooking bacon and Parmesan with eggs and pasta to make a traditional Carbonara
7. With the potatoes, Onions and tinned tomatoes you can cook the gorgeous Spanish Patatas Bravas (without the chorizo).
8. Use a tin of tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, garlic & red onion to make a pasta sauce to serve over pasta. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.

So there's 8 dished you can make. You can make them for one meal or make a larger amount to do you for a number of meals. It just takes some imagination. Look at recipes online that contain ingredients you have at home. There are more dishes out there than you think. I have just given a few but if you were to search online with these ingredients you could find plenty more.

I really hope I've helped to show you what can be done on such a tight budget. It doesn't have to mean trips to iceland and ready-made meals. It can still be gourmet on a budget.

Enjoy

Plum-ped No.1: Plum Sorbet

So recently I was back home in Ireland visiting my family. A few years ago I built a huge fruit and veg patch at the back of the garden and planted apple trees and plum trees as well as various berries. When I was home I found the plum tree nearly breaking under the weight of all the fruit growing on it's branches.

Fearing that they would go rotten before we got to eat them all, I decided to make some dishes to use up all the fruit. The first one is a refreshing plum sorbet. It's quite easy to make and you don't necessarily have to use the vanilla and cinnamon if you don't want to. The only awkward thing is having to keep removing it from the freezer in order to mix. Of course, if you have an ice-cream maker then this is no problem at all.

Ingredients

750g Plums

500ml Boiling Water

500g Caster Sugar

1 Vanilla Pod

1 Cinnamon Stick

Method:

• Put the water and sugar in a saucepan & stir until the sugar has disolved.
• Add the Vanilla, Cinnamon & Plums.Place on a moderate heat & simmer for 10 minutes.
• Remove the plums from the saucepan using a slotted spoon & allow both the plums & the syrup to cool.
• Cut the plums, removing the stones, & place them in a food processor with the sugar syrup. Blend until pureed.
• Place the puree in a freezer proofed sealed container and place in the freezer. After 1 hour, remove & stir. After that, take out & stir every 30 minutes for 2 hours. Then return to the freezer until ready to serve. 
• Enjoy

Chicken Kiev with Spiced Potato Wedges

Well this will be a bumper recipe post today. A complete meal in fact. This is a classically simple mid-week meal that can be prepared in advance and cooked very quickly. It's also really cheap (which is always a good thing).

We've probably all had those store-bought Chicken Kievs; the processed mounds of chicken meat with a reservoir of garlic butter in the centre. Pretty tasteless. Here is how you make them for yourself from scratch. I'll start with how to make the garlic butter, which can be used for garlic breads or steaks or to flavour any other dish you're cooking. Then I'll show you how to make the chicken kievs themselves. I'll leave the quantities out because the amount of ingredients vary so widely. I served them with spicy potato wedges which can be used as a sidedish to any meal and are a cheap and healthy alternative to the frozen wedges you buy in the shops.

Garlic Butter

Ingredients:

250g Salted Butter

6 Cloves Garlic (or more if you want a stronger taste)

2 Tsp Mixed Herbs (Parsley, Oregano, Basil etc)

Chicken Kiev

Chicken Breast Fillets

Egg

Flour

Breadcrumbs

Salt & Pepper

Spiced Potato Wedges

1kg Potatoes

1 tbsp Olive Oil

Chilli Powder

Paprika

Oregano

Salt & Pepper

Method:

• To make the Garlic Butter. Simply soften/melt the butter and add the garlic cloves and herbs. Blitz in a food processor and pour into a container to set. 
• For the Chicken Kiev, cut a pocket into the side of the chicken breast. Be careful not to cut through to the other side 
• Have three bowls ready; one with flour, one with beaten egg & the final one with breadcrumbs. Season the flour with salt & pepper.
• Place a spoonful of the garlic butter in the pocket made in the chicken. Dip the breast in flour, then the egg & finally the breadcrumbs, making sure it is completely coated at each stage. 
• You can either deep fry the chicken breast until dark brown, or, for a healthier alternative, you can brown on both sides in a frying pan before placing in an oven to bake.
• For the wedges, chop the potatoes into wedge shapes & place in a bowl. Add the olive oil and herbs to taste (I like spicy food so I added a lot of paprika & chilli). Mix thouroughly and spread out on a baking tray. Cook in oven until crispy. 
• Enjoy.

Raspberry Spiked Chocolate Brownies

Unfortunately I can't take the credit for this yummy dessert, that lies with my lovely housemate Jessica who made it all for us. I can however, post the recipe so that everyone can enjoy the delightfulness. It's really easy to make and goes great with ice cream.

Ingredients:

200g Dark Chocolate
250g Butter
350g Brown Sugar
4 eggs
170g Plain Flour
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
45g Cocoa Powder (sifted)
200g Raspberries

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C. Melt the butter & chocolate over a low heat until smooth.
• Place the butter & chocolate in a bowl with the eggs & sugar.
• Sift in the flour, baking powder & Cocoa Powder & mix well.
• Pour into a 23cm baking tin lined with baking paper. Top with raspberries.
• Bake in the oven for 45mins or until set. The brownies should be fudgy in the middle.
• Enjoy

Cheap and Cheerful Dinners No. 2 : Chicken Quesadillas with Jalapeno Mayonnaise

Time for another cheap and cheerful recipe. It must be the weather that has me craving food from hot countries. Between the Spanish Patatas Bravas and the Argentinian Empanadas I should just start learning Spanish. And here we have another dish, this time from Mexico.

Quesadillas are flour or corn tortillas filled with grated cheese and other ingredients and fried on a pan so that they are crispy. This is a really quick and easy recipe. And because you can put whatever you want in it, it's really cheap and cost effective. I used chicken in this recipe but you can make a vegetarian option or use pork or beef; the combinations are only limited by your own imagination.

Quesadillas go great with sour cream and salsa or simply mayonnaise. I made a nice, spicy Jalapeno Mayonnaise to add a nice kick.

Quesadilla

Ingredients:

Flour/ Corn Tortillas

Grated Cheese (whichever variety you prefer)

Olive Oil

2 Chicken Breasts (Cooked and Diced)

1 Red Pepper (Diced)

1 Onion (Diced)

Jalapeno Mayonnaise

Ingredients:

2-3 tbsp Mayonnaise

1 Jalapeno Pepper (seeds removed and finely chopped)

1 tsp Garlic (minced)

1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Oregano

Method:

• Heat a frying pan to a medium heat & add the olive oil. Place a tortilla on the pan. Flip it over a few times until air pockets begin to form.
• Sprinkle the grated cheese onto the tortilla & then add the peppers, onions, chicken (& whatever other ingredients you have) on top. You don't want to layer the ingredients too thick because you will be folding the tortilla over. 
• Reduce the heat. Once the cheese has melted, fold the tortilla in half, pressing the two sides together. Continue cooking. Once the underside is brown, flip the quesadilla over to brown the other side. 
• Remove from the pan and cut into wedges. 
• For the mayonnaise, simply add all the ingredients in food processor and mix together. 
• Serve the quesadillas with a side salad and drizzle the mayonnaise over. 
• Enjoy.

Nada Como Las Empanadas. Nothing Like Empanadas

I first had Argentinean empanadas (or any sort of empanadas) in a lovely family restaurant in La Bocca, a suburb of Cannes. The area was described as “the ghetto” even though it was probably one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen; right on the beach. I remember not knowing what empanadas were but giggling that they had cumin (it sounded funnier in my head. We had a plate of small empanadas for a starter before the traditional argentine steak, but, for me, the highlight of the meal was those empanadas. They were crispy on the on the outside but moist and flavoursome on the inside…I was floored.

I’ve been meaning to try and make them for a long while and got the urge again recently so I decided to throw caution to the wind and just make them. I made 5 large empanadas, around the size of a Cornish pasty, but you can make smaller, bite sized ones for starters or finger food for parties.

I've included two fillings here; one beef and one vegetarian. These can be made in advance of making the actual empanadas but it's best if you make the dough the same day.

Dough

450g Flour

1/2 tsp Salt

220g Butter

1 Egg

2 tbsp Vinegar
230ml ice water
1 Egg (For Brushing)

Method:

• In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and salt. 
• Blend in the chilled butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. 
• Add the egg and vinegar. 
• Slowly add the water, only using enough so that the dough is moist but not too wet. The amount of water you use will depend on the type of flour.
• Turn the dough out a floured surface and knead gently until the dough becomes smooth. 
• Wrap well and chill for at least 30 minutes before use. 

Beef Empanada Filling

400g Beef (either cubed or minced

1 Large Onion (Chopped finely)

2 Cloves Garlic (Chopped finely)
1 Green Chili (Chopped finely)

1 tsp Cumin

2 tsp Paprika

1 tsp Chili powder
1 tsp Oregano
12 Green Olives (Sliced) (Optional)

1 Potato (Cut into small pieces)

Salt and Pepper

200 ml beef stock

Method:

• Chop the potato into small pieces & boil in salted water until cooked. Drain & put aside.
• Fry the onion, garlic & chili until the onions are translucent.
• Add the beef and brown. Add the olives (optional). Season with cumin, chili powder, paprika, oregano, salt & pepper.
• Add the beef stock and allow to reduce. You want the meat to be moist but not too wet. 
• Adjust seasoning if needed.

Vegetarian Empanada Filling
1 Onion (Chopped finely)
1 Jalapeno Chili Pepper (Chopped finely)
5 Garlic Cloves (Minced)
500g Tomatoes (Peeled, seeded & chopped)
500g Spinach (Chopped)
200g Sweetcorn
1 Red Pepper (Diced)
Salt & Pepper
1 tsp Cumin

1 tsp Nutmeg
1tsp Curry Powder
1tsp Freshly Chopped Rosemary

Method:

• Sauté onion until translucent. Then add the minced garlic, jalapeno, pepper, cumin, curry powder & rosemary. Cook for 2 minutes.
• Add the spinach & cook until limp. 
• Add the tomatoes and sweetcorn. Cook until all the liquid has evapourated.
• Add salt & pepper. Mix thoroughly & allow to cool.

Now comes the fun bit....Filling the Empanadas!!

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C.
• Removed the dough from the fridge. On a floured surface, roll the dough into a thin sheet.
• Using a saucer or pastry cutter (depending on how big you are making the empanadas), cut the dough into circles.

•  Place a spoonful of the filling onto one half of the pastry circle, making sure not to over fill. Wet the edge of the pastry with egg or water & fold over. 
• Press the two sides together and crimp with a fork*. 

•  Brush with egg and place on a greased baking tray. Bake for 10 minutes until golden. 

 

• Enjoy.

*You may also do the intricate plait fold on the top. I'm not good enough yet but for more information see here