Je Goûterai - I will taste

Lemonade Calamari

No. 62: Lemonade Calamari – 23.8.12

Again, I have been having a browse of the ‘Sorted’ website again for recipes because all of them seem to be quite simple. I came across this recipe and watched their video on Lemonade Calamari! I was intrigued by the lemonade aspect of this! They mention about how cheap squid is which is always a plus for students and the lemonade comes into the tempura batter side! You usually use sparkling water to make the batter but lemonade would obviously add a slight lemon flavour which lemon always works with fish or sea food!

http://sortedfood.com/#!/lemonadesquid/

Serves 2, PREHEAT a fryer to 180oC or a pan with oil to create a make shift fryer

100g Self Raising Flour
200ml Fizzy Lemonade, ice cold
1 large Squid, cleaned (I used 3 small ones just for me which cost 90p from Waitrose!)
a few tbsp of mayonnaise
1 lemon, zested
a hand full of Rocket (optional)

• Zest the lemon and stir into the mayonnaise, season with black pepper and there you have your dip!

• Clean the squid under cold water and slice into rings

• Sieve the flour into a bowl and make a well into to centre. Pour the lemonade into the well and whisk until it forms a smooth batter.

• Dip the squid into the bater to thoroughly coat it and fry for about 2-3minutes until the batter is crispy and the squid is cooked.

• Drain the calamari on some kitchen paper towel to remove excess oil and season well with salt and pepper.

• Serve on a bed of rocket and a little bowl of the lemon mayo dip.

This was delicious! I love love love lemon!!! The batter was slightly sweet from the lemonade but then was complemented well with the sharp citrus of the lemon zest in the mayonnaise. The textures worked well together as well, from the creamy dip, the lovely crunch from the batter and the chewy squid. This is a gorgeous simple recipe which I advise everyone to try!!

No. 47: Monkey Bread – 13.6.12

Making your own bread, in the long run, is cheaper than buying a regular loaf. Seeing as I’m trying to save a bit of money I thought I would make some as I have tones of Strong Bread Flour left from making a Cheese and Onion ‘share and tear’ honeycomb of buns a while back! However I didn’t want to make an ordinary loaf because that would be kinda boring! Don’t get me wrong, I love a nice old fashioned loaf but I wanted to give something new a try, a loaf with a twist! This is a loaf made up of lots of little dough balls stacked in a loaf tin to form a loaf of bread :) This recipe was taken from “The Great British Bake Off – How to Bake”

Makes 1 Large Loaf

500g Strong White Bread Flour
1 ½ tsp Sea salt flakes, crushed
1 x 7g sachet of fast action dried yeast or 15g of fresh yeast
50g unsalted butter, melted
200ml lukewarm Milk
1 large free range egg at room temp
100g unsalted butter, melted for coating

For Sweet Bread
75g Light Muscovado sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
100g Pecan or Walnut pieces chopped into small pieces

For Savoury Bread
150g Mature Red Leicester cheese, grated
¼ – ½ tsp dried red chilli flakes

• Firstly, combine the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl, if using dried yeast, mix that in with the flour and make a well in the centre . Mix the 50g of melted butter with the milk and egg and pour into the well. If you’re using fresh yeast mix that into the wet ingredients then add to the dry.

• Using your hand or an electric mixer with a dough hook attachment, mix the flour into the liquid to make a smooth soft dough. If the mixture is too dry, add a tablespoon at a time of milk, or if it is too wet, do the same with flour.

• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for ten minutes or 4 if using an electric mixer. Place back into the large mixing bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 Hour or until doubled in size.

• Punch down the dough, turn out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 60 small balls. They don’t have to be the perfectly round or perfectly the same size.

• Put the 100g of butter in a small bowl, if making sweet bread combine the sugar, cinnamon and nuts in another bowl, if making savoury bread combine the chilli flakes and cheese in a small bowl. One at a time dip the dough balls into the butter first and then into the sugar or cheese mix and stack them in a buttered loaf tin. They don’t have to be arranged neatly!

• Cover with a large plastic bag and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour. Towards the end of rising, preheat the oven to 200oC.

• Uncover the tin and bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown. Run a rounded blade around the inside of the tin to loosen the loaf then carefully turn it out onto a wire rack and leave it too cool.

So everything had gone completely fine. All the dough balls were about the same size, layered them in the loaf tin and made sure I gave it a sprinkle of cheese at the end to top off my creation. I waited for it to come out of the oven, staring at in through the dark oven door, watching it harden and become golden. It looked gorgeous when removed from the oven but taking it out of the tin proved a little harder than I thought. I ran the knife around and turned it upside down to slowly release it from the tin. Then it happened. The dough balls had not successfully stuck together and half of them tumbled across my kitchen counter. The loaf split in half and finally dropped out onto my cutting board. It tasted nice, looked a bit of a mess but who cares! Better luck next time ^.^

Basil Couscous with Lemon Green Beans, Broccoli and Pine Nuts

No. 27: Tangy lemon couscous with basil, green beans and pine nuts – 24.3.12

Helllooooooo tumblr!!! Feels like forever since I last wrote a new recipe entry but I’m not ill any more, am back on top of things and ready to get back to trying some new foods! I’ve been wanting to try this recipe for a while and today the sun is shining and is a gorgeous spring day so felt this fresh, light lunch would be the perfect thing to have on a day like this. This recipe I found on another tumblr blog named Kimm’s Kitchen :)

http://kimmskitchen.tumblr.com/post/18976255385/tangy-lemon-couscous-with-basil-green-beans-and

Some of this recipe was a little vague so I will add some comments into where I either changed things or to add more information.

Serves 2

250g Fine Green Beans
¼ mug of lemon juice
2 cloves of garlic, minced
a handful of basil leaves
Couscous (for this I made 75g of dried couscous per person)
2 tbsp butter
Salt and Pepper to taste
Olive Oil
a handful of pine nuts

• Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the garlic until fragrant. Add the green beans and lemon juice and fry on a medium to high heat for 3-5 minutes and set aside. (I did not have enough green beans so I thinly sliced some broccoli to go with it which, if you wanted to add it as well, you add in the same time as you add the beans).

• Cook the couscous and stir in the butter and basil leaves over a low heat for 2 minutes, season to taste. (Here I covered the couscous with Vegetable stock and covered with a kitchen towel for a few moment. When absorbed, I fluffed with a fork and stirred in the butter and then the basil then seasoned)

• Spoon the green beans onto the couscous and top with pine nuts.

• If you want toasted pine nuts, place onto a dry frying pan for a few moments until golden brown.

This was so delicious! I’m not too sure what it would have been like just using the green beans on their own but I liked the addition of broccoli and the meal was light and simple! The bushy part of the broccoli florets soaked up some of the lemon juice whilst cooking, so on eating them, you got this hit of gorgeous tangy flavours from the juice. This worked really well with the vegetables if you crisped them up by frying them for a little bit longer.

Butter and couscous are a match made in food heaven. I’ve never tried butter in couscous but it just gives it that little extra dimension of flavour, not to mention making it gorgeously creamy and soft. There were so many different textures within this dish and I feel this is what makes it such a good little meal. There was the soft couscous and beans, a slight crispiness from the broccoli and a crunch from the pine nuts. I absolutely loved it!!

Squash and Bacon Risotto

No. 25: Squash and Bacon Risotto – 5.3.12

I love love love butternut squash! I tried a Nigel Slater recipe a while back of roast butternut squash with bacon that had been fried in garlic and rosemary and home made croutons. It was delicious. Seeing another squash and bacon recipe I thought I would give it a go as I knew it would taste good! I’ve never had risotto before so I went out, got myself some risotto rice and got cracking! This recipe is from Good HouseKeeping’s “Family Meals for a Fiver”.

Serves 4

125g of smoked bacon, chopped
1 small butternut squash, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 onion, finely chopped
300g arborio rice
1 litre Hot vegetable stock

• Fry the bacon and butternut squash in a large deep frying pan for around 8-10 minutes on a medium heat. Stir from time to time so it doesn’t catch!

• When bacon is golden and the squash has softened, add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes or until softened.

• Stir in the rice and cook for 1-2 minutes and then add the hot stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the rice has soaked up most of the stock and the squash is tender. Stir this quite often to make sure it does not stick!

• Serve immediately!

A pretty simple and easy recipe which I really enjoyed! Risotto is wonderful! I think my favourite thing about this dish is the different combination of textures, such as the creamy risotto, with the soft squash and the crispy bacon. I also loved how the sweetness of the squash worked so well with the salty bacon! However I kinda felt like it was missing something. More flavours. If I were to try this dish again (which I will) I think I will take a leaf from Nigel Slater’s recipe and add garlic and rosemary into the dish. I think this will add a bit more depth and give it that little boost of flavouring it needs!

Home Made Beans on Toast

No. 23: Beans on Toast – 26.2.12

As a student I have to keep an eye on my spending…. I have a student loan and seem to waste it all on new foods or expensive brands or kitchen ware! I have a book made by Good Housekeeping called ‘Family Meals For A Fiver’ so decided I should try more of these recipes to stop me spending so much money! I know baked beans aren’t expensive, they’re about 40p for a can but as I said the other day, home made is best!

Serves 4

1 tbsp of oil
2 garlic cloves, finley sliced
1 x 400g can of Cannellini or Borlotti beans, drained and rinsed
1 x 400g can of chickpeas
1 x 400g can of chopped tomatoes
Leaves from 2 rosemary sprigs
4 thick slices of Bread, which ever you prefer
25g Parmesan (or any hard cheese you have)
Chopped Parsley to Serve

• Heat the oil in a saucepan on a low heat and add the garlic, cooking for 1 minute and stirring gently.

• Add the beans, chickpeas and tomatoes into the pan and bring to the boil.

• Add the Rosemary, reduce the heat and leave to simmer for 8-10 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.

• Toast the bread, grate the Parmesen into the bean mixture, stir once and serve with parsley.

I used a micro plane grater for my cheese which I regretted because the cheese was lost in the sauce! So use a normal grater when doing this but either way it was still really nice! There were lots of different textures and was quite filling so would be a good thing to eat if you didn’t want to be snacking all afternoon!
The only thing I would say, which I would think would put people off of this, is the fact it is not as sweet as baked beans you get in a tin. If you would like it sweeter I would just suggest to add a teaspoon of sugar into your mixture whilst it cooked , you could also use different kinds of beans to play around with the recipe. I feel this recipe is a nice change from just the tinned stuff and is very cheap, so I would defiantly suggest giving it a go!