Italian Buffet with Friends!

Hello and welcome back! 

A huge thank you to everyone who has continued to check out my recipes and things, even though I've been blog-absent for far too long! I am so excited to say I now have a laptop again, so I plan to post weekly(ish) as before... And to kick it all off I thought I'd share a few super simple recipes that I made on Saturday night for the girls as a bit of an Italian Buffet Feast!


The recipes are for three different pizzas - Carbonara Pizza, Chicken Pesto Pizza and Pepperoni Pizza - and a Pasta Salad. The pizza recipes are my own, but the tasty pasta salad was taken from the handy little book, Everyday Pasta, published by Parragon 2009. Served with a basic green salad, some mixed olives and a ton of garlic bread, this buffet worked a treat (though I had to take the photo of the table before adding everything to it because the girls were dying to tuck in!) It made a wonderfully easy meal as it can nearly all be prepped in advance, so it's perfect if you don't want to miss out on any of the catch up! Admittedly a carb heavy buffet but undeniably tasty with a glass or two of a good Pinot and some lovely company.

Carbonara Pizza

pack of pizza base mix (for an 8" pizza)
1/2 cup of double cream
1 medium egg
black pepper
olive oil
1/2 red onion, sliced
a couple of handfuls of mushrooms, sliced
parmesan cheese
a few pieces of parma ham
a couple of handfuls of rocket (optional)
balsamic syrup (optional)

Make the pizza base according to packet instructions, but make sure to roll is out really nice and thin to get a lovely crispy base (mine was much bigger than the suggested 8"). Leave it to rise slightly on a piece of baking paper while you prepare the topping.

Whisk together the cream and egg. Add a good twist of black pepper and leave to the side for a moment.

Heat a splash of olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and add the onion. Fry for a couple of minutes then add the mushrooms for a further minute (these will be cooked in the oven so don't overdue them at this stage). Add the cream mixture to the pan and grate in as much parmesan as you want! Give it a quick mix around then empty back into your jug or bowl to cool.

When you're nearly ready to serve your pizza then preheat the oven to about 220 degrees. Spread the cream mixture over your base and rip over the parma ham. Grate a little more parmesan over the top and pop in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes or until the topping is turning golden and the edges are just starting to crisp up.

If using, then scatter rocket over your cooked pizza and drizzle with balsamic syrup. Enjoy!

Chicken Pesto Pizza

pack of pizza base mix (for an 8" pizza)

2 tablespoons of basil pesto (I used shop bought to save on time but if you can be bothered to make your own then definitely do!)

olive oil

2 chicken breasts, baked in the oven for about 30mins wrapped loosely in silver foil then sliced (or buy some ready cooked)

1 small courgette, grated

a handful of pine nuts

about 1/2 – 1 ball of mozzarella, depending on how cheesy you'd like it!

parmesan cheese

See above for making your base then preheat the oven to about 220degrees when you're ready to cook pizza. Spread the pesto evenly over the base and drizzle with a little olive oil, mixing it around on the pizza to thin the pesto slightly.

Spread over your cooked chicken pieces, grated courgette and pine nuts. Rip the mozzarella into small pieces and scatter over the top. Grate with a little parmesan then pop in the oven for about 10 minutes or until all of the cheese is melted.

Yummy!

Pepperoni Pizza

pack of pizza base mix (for an 8" pizza)

about two tablespoons tomato purée
about a tablespoon of water
olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 teaspoon of herbs (try basil and oregano if you've got them!)
salt and black pepper
a selection of pepperoni pieces
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 ball of mozzarella


Make your pizza base as above, then preheat your oven to 220degrees when ready.

Mix together the tomato purée, water, a dash of olive oil, garlic, herbs and a good twist of salt and pepper. Spread this evenly over your base, then scatter the pepperoni, onion and pepper pieces. Finish by ripping mozzarella into small pieces and spreading around.

Cook in the oven for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling away, then serve!

Pasta Salad

As I mentioned earlier, this recipe is not my own - it was taken from the Everyday Pasta book, published by Parragon, and adapted for this buffet. The recipe asks for parmesan but I figured that the feast was already so cheesy that I'd leave it out, and it is also meant to be served warm (called Warm Pasta Salad in the book!) but I prepared earlier in the day and served cold. I've also changed the quantities to match my haphazard way of cooking - but seriously, who measures out pasta to the gram?!

2 or 3 handfuls of dried farfalle or other pasta shades

6 pieces of sun-dried tomato in oil, drained and chopped

4 spring onions, chopped

a handful of rocket, chopped

1/2 cucumber, deseeded and diced

2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese, grated (optional)

4 tablespoons olive oil

a good pinch of caster sugar

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

salt and pepper

a few fresh basil leaves, finely chopped (or a teaspoon of dried if you forgot to pick it up like me!)

Make the dressing first by whisking the liquids together. Season with salt and pepper and add the basil.

Cook the pasta according to packet instructions, then drain and toss in the dressing.

If serving warm, then add the remaining ingredients and sprinkle with parmesan cheese (if using) now. If serving cold later then I'd recommend waiting to add your salad once the pasta has cooled to avoid the leaves becoming soggy.



And there you have it! A carb heavy, but satisfyingly simple Italian buffet... crack open a bottle of Pinot and enjoy with friends next weekend!

A quick potato salad recipe!

This is just a quick post because I was so chuffed with my potato salad that I had for lunch today - made out of the left overs in my fridge last night - that I wanted to share the recipe! Unfortunately I have no photos except a terrible one of the second half of the salad in it's Tupperware ready for tomorrow's lunch! But seriously, this is a real easy, really tasty potato salad that you can make the night before a miserable Monday morning to cheer you up later in the day - and it really did put a smile on my face at lunchtime!


So here we go... quantities are vague as ever - makes about two portions - but you can really just use up left overs for this recipe!

Ingredients

a couple of handfuls of small potatoes (or chop up a couple of bigger potatoes!)
about 100ml sour cream
a splash of white wine vinegar
generous twist of salt and black pepper
a handful of fresh dill, chopped finely (or just use about a teaspoon of dried dill like I did!)
1/4 red onion chopped very finely
1/2 cucumber, seeds scraped out and chopped
about 100g smoked salmon (or however much you can spare!)

Boil your potatoes for around 15minutes or until soft.

While they're boiling, mix together the sour cream, white wine vinegar, dill and seasonings in a large bowl.

Drain your potatoes and add to the dressing while still warm. Leave to cool while you chop the remaining ingredients.

Once cool, add the cucumber, onion and smoked salmon and mix through until everything is coated nicely in the dressing. Pack up in a Tupperware or two for lunch the next day, or serve with a green salad and a glass of cool white wine for dinner!

Variations

If you have a different combination of ingredients in your fridge or want to try a different potato salad then go for it! Why not swap the smoked salmon for some smoked haddock and go heavy on the black pepper? Or you could easily swap the sour cream for crème fraîche (maybe use a bit less as this tends to be a bit richer) or natural yoghurt, though the red onion works really well with sour cream. And if you're less of a fish fan, then go for some cut up smoked bacon or pancetta instead and swap your dill for some fresh parsley. The opportunities are endless... so Happy Monday... have a lovely week and enjoy!

Super Easy Open Baguette

This was a ridiculously easy but very tasty meal that I cooked for a friend the other night after work. When you want to eat nice food, but really can't be bothered to spend hours in the kitchen, then this might be one for you! You can change the ingredients to anything that you fancy (I think most people would add tomatoes to this but I don't particularly like them), or you might prefer different toppings altogether...

Whatever you put on it, a part-baked baguette topped with tasty bits is going to be a hit! And if you are anything like me, then you just cannot have too much cheese...

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 large part-baked baguette
2 tablespoons green pesto (preferably homemade but if it's going to be a quick after-work dinner like it was for me then shop bought will definitely suffice!)
1/2 red pepper, sliced
4 pieces parma ham
1 mozzarella ball, sliced
freshly ground black pepper

Method

Cut the baguette in half and then top up with the ingredients in the order shown below. Make sure to give a good twist of black pepper before putting it into a preheated oven (according to the baguette packet instructions). I would probably bake it for about 10mins or until the cheese is bubbling deliciously!

Serve with a green salad (delicious with rocket!) and add some roughly chopped fresh basil leaves to compliment the pesto flavours... Enjoy!

BBQ with the Girls

I meant to post this yesterday afternoon, sorry folks! But here it is, just in time for your Sat night BBQ!

Who said BBQs are a man's job?

http://www.crazywebsite.com/Pg-Free-Clipart-Graphics/pg-Celebrate_Labor_Day_Weekend/Funny_Barbecue_Clip_Art_Free_BBQ-2.html

 

Everyone assumes that the BBQ is a man's job - hilarious as it is (usually) the woman that does all the shopping for the food, marinating the meat, salad prep, taking out all of the food, plates, salad dressings etc. and the man just plonks the already flavoured meat onto the BBQ and nearly ruins it by either undercooking or burning it!! But on Thurs night I did a BBQ for the girls, and there wasn't a man in sight... as a result it may have been a little salad heavy and lacking in burgers and sausages! So if you fancy a refreshing change from the BBQ norm, then here are a couple of recipe ideas...

BBQ Bible

I used this book for recipe inspiration - BBQ Bible, published by Parragon years ago and probably not available any more. But if you can get your hands on it, it's a fabulous book! Colourful, full of different ways to cook meats and fish, with some very easy sauces and dressings; it's a good one to flick through and know that you will already have most of the ingredients in stock! The only sections that are uninspiring are the salad and veg dishes - but either you're a 'meat-only-BBQer' and this will not bother you, or a 'salads-make-the-BBQ' kind of chef, in which case you will probably have your own recipes! And the deserts section - but if you have room for desert after a BBQ then you're doing it wrong!

So I'll start with the meat recipes that I took from the book - Mustard and Honey Drumsticks and Middle Eastern Koftas.

Mustard and Honey Drumsticks

I used a combination of the marinated drumstick recipe in the book and a separate recipe for the honey mustard marinade, which I thought sounded like it had more flavour! So these measurements are copied from the book, but totally inaccurate as I just splashed in a bit of this and that!!



Ingredients
8 chicken drumsticks
125ml clear honey
4 tbsp Dijon Mustard
4 tbsp wholegrain mustard
4 tbsp white wine vinegar
4 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil

Recipe
Combine all the ingredients except the oil into a large Tupperware.

Gradually add the oil, mixing it as you go until it is all absorbed.

Put the drumsticks into the marinade and coat them in it, then leave to absorb the flavours in the fridge for as long as you can (ideally make in the morning and leave all day before you BBQ).

When you BBQ, make sure that you cook the chicken all the way through but keep turning it so that one side doesn't burn (it will blacken because of the marinade, but you shouldn't get that charcoal taste!!)

Middle Eastern Koftas

Ingredients
750g minced beef (or lamb)
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns
generous pinch of ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

Recipe
Blend the meat, onion, garlic, parsley, spices and seasoning to a smooth paste in the food processor. Or, if like me you can't find the food processor, then use ready ground coriander, cumin and black pepper, and just mix in your hands!

Gently roll the mixture between your hands and wrap around a flat skewer into a sausage shape.

The book then also instructs to marinate the kebabs in a Minted Yoghurt Marinade, which would have kept them nice and moist but I forgot to do... we had minted yoghurt as a side dish instead! (Recipe for that below)
 
So I would recommend to do that, then cook on the BBQ for about 10-15mins (depending on the thickness of your kebabs) and turn regularly. Worked well served with some ripped up naan bread, heated on the top BBQ rack for a few minutes!


The chicken will take a lot longer than the koftas, but I actually cooked them at the same time so we could eat the kebabs with some salads and have the chicken with corn on the cob afterwards!




Right, now that the meaty stuff is marinating and ready to go on the BBQ this evening, you can prep the salads!! It was so warm and lovely yesterday that I took everything outside with me and sat prepping in the garden! I used the Minted Yoghurt Marinade recipe from BBQ Bible as the dressing for my potato salad, and then also did a green salad and tomato salad.

Potato Salad

Ingredients
handful of new potatoes, chopped into bite size pieces
2 cloves garlic, crushed
pinch of salt
4 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped (or more if you love the flavour like me!!)
225ml natural yoghurt
1 tsp ground cumin, coriander or cinnamon, optional
handful of spring onions, chopped
1/2 cucumber, chopped
1/2 small white cabbage, shredded

Recipe
Boil the potatoes until soft. Drain and leave to cool.

Mix the garlic, salt, mint, yoghurt, and ground coriander (this is what I used but its your choice!) in a bowl.

Add the potatoes, spring onions, cucumber and cabbage and mix until everything is coated in the dressing. I also made a little extra to have as a dressing on the side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other Salads

I made a couple of other salads to keep the BBQ light and fresh, as well as some corn on the cob cooked on the BBQ, so here are the ingredients I used!


Green Salad Ingredients
handful of iceberg lettuce (chopped), lambs lettuce and rocket
1 avocado, chopped
1/3 cucumber, chopped
100g feta cheese, crumbled






Tomato Salad Ingredients
3 tomatoes, sliced (probably need more, but there was only a couple of the girls that like them!)
few leaves of fresh basil, chopped finely
dash of olive oil
black pepper
(and some red pepper, for good measure!)

So there you have it!!! A huge BBQ with lots of fresh flavours, and one that you could take your time over and keep coming back to pick at! Try out one or two, or all of the recipes, and I hope they work just as well for you!

 

 

A Real Wiener Schnitzel

Interrail Stop 4

While in Vienna we couldn't leave without trying the famous Austrian dish. We wanted to go to a traditional restaurant that would serve us up a real wiener schnitzel and we had a recommendation for a small restaurant cafe called Schnitzelwirt that would do exactly that.

We got so lost trying to find it that we thought they might have shut the kitchen by the time we got there... they were closing up outside as we arrived!

But luckily, my friend speaks fluent German and managed to ask them if they'd do a quick schnitzel and mixed salad for us to share with a couple of glasses of their house white.

We sat at a table surrounded by awards and newspaper clippings of the restaurant. It was a very traditional setting with lots of wood and a smiley Austrian couple sat opposite smoking, and chatting to us about our visit!

When the food arrived not long later, it was absolutely huge and so tasty - very simple with the apple and cabbage salad perfectly complimenting the pork - YUM!

As we hadn't looked at a menu, and the order had been a quick chat with a waiter at the door, we were a little concerned about the bill.

Knowing that it was recommended as a cheap place we were hoping for the best, but when the bill came we couldn't believe how cheap it was!!! 15Euro for the huge meal and two glasses of wine! I would have paid double that and felt we had got a good deal... so all in all a fantastic evening out and a delicious wiener schnitzel!

Nana and Grandad's Diamond Wedding Feast

This week is my Nana and Grandad's Diamond Wedding Anniversary - 60years married - amazing that they've put up with each other for so long! And yesterday we had a big party for them at my parents' house, with all the family, and extended family, and family friends, and family you didn't even know you had family... It was absolutely lovely and my grandparents had a great time. My Grandad's speech certainly brought a tear to the eye!!

Homemade Buffet Feast

My fantastic mum and auntie, along with help from Nana's butcher (ham and beef, a couple of homemade quiches and pork pies) and a couple of others, made an amazing feast for the 60guests. I could go on about how delicious each thing was individually, but it would take all night! So here are some photos for you to drool over... well done mum, even catering for 60 doesn't stop your culinary genius!!!

 

 

 

 

I didn't get home until Friday evening, so unfortunately didn't make very much of it. But I made four tray fulls of sandwiches Saturday morning which I had to include because every buffet needs a load of egg, prawn, and cheese sandwiches!

More in the next post... http://inmykitchenout.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/nana-grandads-feast-cont.html

Made-up Make-Me-Better Salad

So tonight I wasn't feeling my best - probably just overtired from my exciting weekend (which I will write about tomorrow), and a nasty sore throat making itself apparent. So I wanted a quick, easy, healthy dinner that would make me better! My mum always used to say that oranges would cure any sore throat, so I was determined to use oranges of some kind! I also had a couple of pork medallions and some feta left over from last night which I wanted to use. So I had a fumble in my fridge and decided on this...

Ingredients

Pork Medallions
Satsuma
Splash of Fresh Orange Juice
Generous Dash of Balsamic Vinegar
Pinch of Sugar
Mixed Lettuce Leaves
Red Onion
Cucumber
Feta Cheese

Recipe

Sear the pork for a few minutes on each side, then continue to cook it on a lower heat.

Add the satsuma segments, orange juice, balsamic and sugar to the pan when the pork is starting to look cooked.

Prep the salad. (I love red onion so had a good portion!) Crumble or chop the feta into small pieces.

When the pork is cooked through, add to the salad and pour the sauce over.

Verdict

This was exactly what I fancied tonight, and for a bit of a concoction, it was fairly good! The recipe definitely still needs some tweaking, so any suggestions would be most welcome! I added the sugar to try and avoid it being to tart, but it still had a bit of a twang (actually quite nice to spark some feeling into my numbing throat!) So it's an idea I'll revisit when I next need a Make-Me-Better Salad!