Cheap & Cheerful Dinners No.1 : Pasta alla Carbonara

Since my financial position has changed (i.e. no longer living at home on social welfare) I've decided to blog a few recipes that won't break the bank to make and are authentic and delicious while still being quick enough to make when you come in from work.

This Carbonara recipe was taught to me by another of my Amster-friends Giuseppe (Italian obviously) who made it for us one night. Beforehand I was quite naive and thought that carbonara had to have cream in it. This is an authentic Italian recipe that contains no cream, no mushrooms, no onions etc. And what's more it's so quick to make.

Ingredients:

 360g Spaghetti

 200g Bacon Lardons

 2 Whole Eggs and 1 Yolk

80g Parmesan Cheese (Grated) 

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Method:

• Bring 4 litres of water to the boil & add a pinch of salt. Add Spaghetti and allow to cook.
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, egg yolk, parmesan cheese and salt and pepper. 
• Fry the bacon lardons until the cooked.
• Drain the cooked spaghetti, saving some of the starchy water. Add the spaghetti to the bacon in the pan & stir. 
• Add the spaghetti & bacon to the bowl with the egg/cheese mixture. The heat from the spaghetti will cook the egg. Stir, making sure the egg coats all the pasta. Add some of the starchy water if needed to coat the spaghetti. 
• Season with a little more salt & black pepper & serve with a sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese. 
• Enjoy.

Side Show :Gratin Dauphinois

Since all my previous posts on here were proper, full meals, I've decided to post a few recipes for side dishes that can go with anything. They are simple enough recipes that can be put with anything from chicken to roast beef or a simply fried piece of fish.

This recipe is for delicious Gratin Dauphinois; thin slices of potatoes roasted with garlic and cream. This recipe calles for Double Cream but I've also made it with Single Cream. You could use  Low-Fat cream if you wanted to. The only time consuming thing with this recipe is having to thinly slice all the potatoes. If you have a mandolin to use then you will fly through this part. This recipe serves 6 people but you can obviously  make half the amount if you are serving less.

Ingredients:

1kg Potatoes

2 Cloves Garlic (crushed)

65g Grated Cheddar Cheese

315ml Double Cream

125ml Milk

Nutmeg.

Method:

• Preheat oven to 170°C. Thinly slice the potatoes with a sharp knife or Manolin (if you are lucky enough to have one).
• Butter a 23cm x 16cm dish & layer the potatoes, sprinkling with garlic, grated cheese, nutmeg & seasoning between the layers. Leave a bit of cheese for the top.
• Pour the cream & milk over the top and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. 
• Bake for 50-60 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked & the liquid has absorbed. If the top browns too much, cover loosely with foil.
• Leave to stand for 10 minutes before serving.
• Enjoy

A healthy alternative: Fish Balls with Chinese Greens

First off I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of fish. It would be my last choice of food when going out to eat and for many years the closest I came to a fish dinner would be the odd battered cod and chips from Leo Burdocks in Dublin. But I'm always willing to try new dishes out and explore my culinary and gastronomical boundaries.

This dish is from a Chinese cookbook I bought years and years ago. I have tabs in the book next to all the recipes I want to cook (yet have actually never cooked any). It's a really simple dish to make and is really healthy. The fish is steamed while the veg is simply stir-fried.

The recipe calls for any white fish. I used pollock because it was cheaper in Lidl but you can use cod if you prefer. The only real problem I had was sourcing Fish Stock. Other people might have better luck but in a Tescos in the countryside fish stock is hard to come by. If you can't find fish stock you can use vegetable stock and add about a teaspoon of fish sauce if you have any.

You need a steamer for this recipe. Traditionally you would use a bamboo steamer over a wok (which you can buy easily in any asian shop) but any veg steamer will work perfectly.

Another tip is in relation to the cornflour. If you don't have any or can't be bothered buying a bag just to use 1 tsp of it, you can simply use double the amount of regular flour (i.e. 2 tsp for this recipe).

The chinese greens are gorgeous and crunchy and the sauce gives them a lovely flavour. If you didn't have fish (or don't like fish) you could easily make them and use them as an accompaniment to steamed/ poached chicken if you want to keep it healthy.

Fish Balls

Ingredients:

450g White Fish (skinned, boned & cubed)

3 Spring Onions (chopped)

1 Back Bacon Rasher (rinded and chopped)

1 tbsp Rice Wine

2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce

1 Egg White

Chinese Greens

1 Head Pak Choi

1 tsp Cornflour

1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce

150ml Fish Stock

2 tbsp Groundnut Oil (or Toasted Sesame Oil)

2 Garlic Cloves (sliced)

2.5cm Fresh Ginger (shredded)

75g Green Beans

175g Mangetout

3 Spring Onions (sliced diagonally into 7.5cm lengths)

Salt & Black Pepper

Method:

• Put the fish, spring onion, bacon, rice wine, soy sauce & egg white into a blender and mix until smooth. With wet hands, form into balls (approx 20 balls)
• Steam the fish balls in batches in a steamer for 5-10 minutes until cooked through & firm. Remove from steamer & keep warm. 
• Trip the pak choi & tear into manageable pieces. 
• Blend together the cornflour, soy sauce & stock in a bowl & set aside.
• Heat the wok until hot. Add the oil. Stir-fry the ginger & garlic for 2-3 minutes. Add the beans & cook for another 2-3 minutes. Then add the mangetout, pak choi & spring onions and stir-fry for another 2-3 minutes. 
• Add the sauce to the wok & cook, stiring, until thickened & the vegetables are tender but crisp. Taste & season as necessary.
• Serve with the fish balls. 
• Enjoy

Japanese Favourite: Chicken Teriyaki

So I was over visiting friends in London last week. As usual with my foodie friends, the conversation turned to the various things we have cooked recently (my friends Orlaith & Marco loving to cook too). Orlaith asked me to find a teriyaki recipe & post it on my blog. So here it is! I have only had teriyaki once or twice before so was not completely au fait with exactly how it is supposed to taste & what exactly classifies as a "good" teriyaki sauce. However I did a good bit of research online & found that teriyaki sauce is surprisingly easy to make (or more importantly, difficult to mess up!) I served this will some crispy vegetable tempura (which I will blog the recipe to later) but you can easily just have some nice, fluffy rice as an accompaniment. You can also add some stir-fry vegetables to the pan before frying the chicken to add some depth and texture to the meal.

Ingredients:

3/4 Chicken Breasts or thighs

75ml Soy Sauce

75ml Mirin (Sweet Rice Wine)

75ml Sake (Optional)

2 tbsp Sugar

1 Clove Garlic (grated)

1 inch Fresh Ginger (grated)

Method:

• Mix the Soy Sauce, Mirin, Sake, Sugar, Ginger & Garlic in a bowl. Pour over the chicken breasts & leave to marinade for at least 30mins (the longer the better)
• Heat some oil in a frying pan. Drain the chicken and fry on one side until brown. 
• Lower heat and turn the chicken over. Add the marinade, cover the pan & allow the chicken to cook through. 
• Take off the lid & simmer until the sauce thickens. 
• Take the chicken out of the sauce and slice into 1 inch pieces & place on the serving plate. Pour a little of the thickened sauce over the chicken.
• Enjoy

3 Sauces to Brighten up any Meal 3) Red Wine Sauce

I have only started making this sauce recently but it is a rich & exquisite sauce that works amazingly with steak or pork. My personal favourite is to fry a sirloin steak and serve it on a bed of fried mushrooms and onions and then just drizzle the sauce over the top. Another option is to use some stir-fry beef pieces, add the sauce to them and then serve with couscous or rice. Again this sauce can be made in advance and either refridgerated or frozen.

Ingredients:

250g Shallots (finely diced)

1 Clove Garlic (crushed)

5 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

400ml Red Wine

400ml Beef Stock

1 Knob Butter

Fresh Rosemary

Olive oil

Method:

• Fry the shallots in a saucepan over a high heat for about 3 mins until lightly browned, stirring often. Season with ground black pepper & add the garlic & rosemary. Cook for a further 3 mins, stirring often to prevent the shallots burning. 
• Add vinegar & cook until evaporated away to a syrup. 
• Pour in the wine & cook until reduced by two thirds. 
• Pour in the stock & bring to the boil. Turn down the heat & simmer until reduced by two-thirds again, (to around 250ml). 
• Remove the garlic & rosemary. 
• Add  salt to taste & stir in a knob of butter. 
• If serving with a steak, add any juices from the steaks just before serving. 
• Enjoy

3 Sauces to Brighten up any Meal 2) Barbeque

Now this is an amazing sauce. I always make a bit pot of it and freeze it so I can use it anytime I want. I owe this recipe to my Hungarian friend Viktor who first made it for me and I had to beg him for the recipe. It works wonderful as a marinade for chicken or ribs (a family favourite) or can be used as a condiment on the dinner table to add a bit of spiciness to any meal. This recipe makes a good quantity of sauce so you might want to half the quantities for your first try.

Ingredients:

470ml Tomato Ketchup

280ml Water

120ml Apple Cider Vinegar

5 tbsp Light Brown Sugar

5 tbsp Sugar

1/2 tbsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper

1/2 tbsp Onion powder

1/2 tbsp Mustard powder

1 tbsp Lemon juice

1 tbsp Worchestershire sauce

1 tbsp Chilli powder

1 tbsp Cayenne pepper

Method:

• Add all ingredients to a saucepan.
• Bring to boil. Simmer for 1 1/2 hour stirring frequently.
• Adjust the spice by adding more Chilli and Cayenne if desired.
• Enjoy
  

3 Sauces to Brighten up any Meal 1) Sweet & Sour

And now for something completely different.

Over the last while I have blogged "complete" recipes; that is, a full meal with meat, veg and sauce. However a lot of the time I cook for myself or family I usually just try to throw together whatever I have in the fridge/freezer and try to make it taste nice. That's why sauces are so important. They can turn a normal piece of chicken breast or steak into some extraordinarily. The best thing about sauces is that they can usually be frozen so can you can make a double the amount and just divide them into containers (I usually use the plastic takeaway cartons) and freeze them individually so that when you really aren't in the mood of cooking you can just defrost the sauce and save yourself the hassle.

Another thing I have found with sauces is that it can be hard to get the taste right. It sometimes can be too salty or too sweet or too bitter. A good tip is to think of these 3 tastes; salt, sweet & bitter, as 3 corners of a triangle. If you have too much of one corner, add more of the other two. For example: if your sauce is too salty; add some sugar and some lemon juice to counteract it. Similarly if it is too bitter and some salt and some sugar etc.

And so onto the sauces.

Sweet & Sour Sauce

The old favourite. We pick up the jar of Uncle Bens in the supermarket and throw it over our chicken not realising how simple (and cheap) it is to make this sauce at home. You use it add it to chicken or pork and serve with rice for a proper meal or simply use it as a dipping sauce for chips. The vegetables used in this recipe are just guidelines. You can use whatever veg you have lying around. You can also add chopped pineapple rings to give it a real fruity flavour.

Ingredients:

1 Carrot (cut into strips)

2 Peppers (cut into strips)

1/2 Red Onion (sliced)

2 Cloves Garlic (crushed)

1 tbsp Light Brown Sugar

2tbsp Rice Vinegar

2 tbsp Sherry (optional)

6 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce

150ml Chicken Stock

2 tbsp Tomato Ketchup

1 tbsp Cornflour mixed with water

Method:

• Fry vegetables for 3-4 minutes. 
• Add brown sugar & caramelize.
• Add vinegar, sherry, soy sauce, ketchup & stock.
• Bring to boil. Add flour/water mixture & simmer until thick.
• Enjoy