Tagged "garlic" | Je Goûterai

Pizza for dinner! Sauce made with garlic, shallots, red wine vinegar, passata and red onion chutney then topped with broccoli, mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes, one sliced regular tomato and bbq chicken :)

My Beautiful Breakfast Eggs :)

Recipe can be found on my new food blog ^.^

If it’s wrong to have hot chocolate so early, I don’t want to be right. It’s snowing outside, uni is cancelled and my little feet are freezing. Wanted a nice cosy warm breakfast today so opted for my favourite, poached eggs :) I had them on an English muffin with garlic and herb cream cheese.
And a hot chocolate….. yes.

Lemony Courgettes on Toast

No. 68: Eggs Baked in Tomatoes – 14.10.12

As most people know, I love Nigel Slater. Every single time I try one of his recipes, I fall in love even further. They are divine. Anyway, in the summer I stumbled across across a copy of his “Real Fast Food”for a quid in a charity shop so snatched it up and took it home with me. I haven’t really had a chance to look through it but last night I wanted something very very simple. I was not in the mood for thinking but needed to try a new recipe and this was perfect. So simple, you defiantly want to get the best quality ingredients for it!

I have no idea how many this serves, I’m going to say 2 baked eggs per person for a nice filling meal. There were no specific quantities so this serves 1

Preheat the oven to 180oC

2 large and I mean LARGE Tomatoes
2 eggs
1 clove of garlic, crushed or minced
Salt and Pepper
2 tbsp double cream
Pinches of any chopped herb of your choice
Sprinkle of Parmesan cheese

Slice the tomatoes in half horizontally and scoop out the seeds. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and a bit of the crushed garlic.
Break an egg very carefully into each egg, not letting too much of the egg white into the tomato and season with salt and pepper.
Spoon over a tablespoon of double cream over each egg, season again with salt and pepper and add a few chopped herbs of your choice! Finish off with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and bake in the preheated over for 15-20minutes until the egg has just set. Serve with a croûton of bread fried till golden in olive oil (optional)

And that, as they say, was that! I say you NEED large tomatoes because I got small/medium ones (there were no large ones in the shop I was in…) and they were disastrous! They fell over, spilled out and bahhhhh it was so annoying! One stayed standing which was fine! I really liked the textures and flavours in this, the sweet soft tomato, the creamy egg (especially from the double cream), the subtle flavours of the herbs, garlic and the sharp salty cheese. I used thyme as I thought it would work nicely with the egg and some basil for the tomato which was delicious! Quick, simple and you can play around with the different herbs you place in it :)

Pepper, Tomato and Basil Pasta

No. 64: Pepper, tomato and basil Pasta – 11.09.12

I am starting to look more at the food I buy, to make sure it is in season, home grown and good quality. I was having a shop in Asda and they were selling their home grown specials range for 2 for £3, so decided to buy a packet of Sweet peppers and some Aramatico cherry tomatoes. I’ve never cooked with sweet peppers, let alone even bought them! I don’t really like regular peppers but I’ve tried sweet ones in ready made wraps you can get at the shops and really liked them, so wanted to give them in a try in my cooking. I browsed the net for some recipes and came across one of Nigel Slater’s recipes which came with a video of the recipe from one of his Simple Cooking episodes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pepper_tomato_and_basil_74401

Serves 2, preheat the oven to 180oC

3 long sweet peppers, red, yellow and orange
12 cherry tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
7 tbsp olive oil
One large bunch of basil
400g orecchiette pasta
Pinch of salt and pepper

Slice the peppers lengthways and trim any odd bits to make neat boat shapes. Lay them in a roasting facing upwards.
Halve the cherry tomatoes and place them into the little boats you’ve made, chop up the odd bits of peppers and share them between the peppers and thinly slice the garlic and scatter over.
Drench the peppers in four tablespoons of the oil, season and place in the oven for 30 minutes.
To make the basil sauce, take a small handful of the basil and blitz in a food processor with the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil and a little salt. After the 30 minutes have passed, the peppers should start to soften. Remove from the oven, pour over the dressing and return to the oven for a further 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, onto the pasta! Nigel Slater uses orecchiette pasta because it has little dips to hold the basil dressing, however any pasta like this or with twists or crimps should be fine! Cook according to the packet instruction and drain.
The peppers are ready when they are completely soft , wrinkled and starting to brown/caramelised round the edges. Lift them onto a separate plate and pour your pasta into the roasting tray. Mix it around the tray so the pasta picks up any pepper bits and left over basil dressing left over in the bottom of the tray.
Place the pasta on a plate or deep bowl so it creates a bed for the peppers. Place the peppers and tomatoes on top of the pasta and serve with a sprinkling of the remaining basil, torn up a little.

I wasn’t too sure how this would turn out, the peppers looked a little too dark for my liking but when trying it, these bits were crunchy and caramelised. I loved the contrast of the different kinds of sweetness from the ingredients! The cherry tomatoes were delicious and fresh, yet the peppers had a more, deep sweetness to them. The basil dressing gave that herby lift the dish needed and the undertones of garlic gave it such a delicious pesto feel. All of these ingredients tasted like just how I would imagine Italy would taste. This is one of my favourite recipes I had tried this year. Outstanding.

Stuffed Aubergine Rolls

No. 63: Stuffed Aubergine Rolls – 31.08.12

I had bought an aubergine the other day because they’re always quite cheap and I wanted to try a new recipe with it! I’ve also wanted to try out some more vegetable based dishes or ‘vegetarian’ meals and this looked absolutely delicious!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/stuffedaubergineroll_85751

Serves 4, Preheat the oven to 180oC

2 Aubergines, cut lengthways into half a cm think strips
Pinches of Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive Oil for Brushing

For the Filling
150g Ricotta
150g buffalo mozzarella
pinch freshly grated nutmeg
2 spring onions, finely chopped

For the sauce
250ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
450g Cherry tomatoes, halved
1 clove of garlic, crushed
pinch of sugar
pinches of salt and freshly ground pepper

Season the aubergine slices well with salt and pepper and brush with the oil. Griddle each slice for a few minutes on each side for a few minutes or until golden brown grill marks are formed. Remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper.
For the Mixture: Mix the ricotta, mozzarella, nutmeg and spring onions in a bowl together. To make the aubergine rolls lay out the slices of aubergine and place one teaspoon of the mixture on the bottom of each slice, then carefully roll them up and rest them seam side down on a plate.
For the sauce: Heat the Olive Oil in a pan, add the cherry tomatoes and simmer for 8-10 minutes until they began to break down. Remove from the heat and stir in the garlic, sugar and season to taste.
Spoon some of the sauce onto the bottom of a oven proof dish and carefully place the aubergine rolls seam side down onto the sauce and to finish it off, spoon over the rest of the sauce.
Bake in the oven for 12-15minutes until the cheese begins to melt. To serve, spoon the rolls onto a plate.

Not the healthiest of things I’m sure but absolutely delicious! The little nutmeg in the filling worked really well with the subtle flavours of the cheeses and the slight heat from the spring onions. Oh my the sauce! Anything cooked in Extra Virgin Olive Oil is sure to be amazing. The tomatoes are gorgeous and when you stir in the garlic, the heat of the oil cooks it and disperse throughout the sauce which the tomatoes soak up. It is delicious.

No. 58: Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup – 1.8.12

Yes. Tortilla soup might sound weird but do not fret! The tortilla aspect of this soup is a tortilla sliced and fried just as the soup is done and is sprinkled on top when crispy and warm! This is the first proper recipe in Gizzi’s Kitchen Magic and I’ve always looked at the title thinking it sounded quite bizarre however when I actually read though it, there wasn’t too many ingredients and it actually seemed like a pretty simple dish to pull off!

Serves 4

3 tbsp Olive Oil
2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
4 Garlic Cloves, peeled and finely chopped
2 red or green chillies, seeded and chopped
3 Ripe Tomatoes, chopped
850ml Chicken Stock
1 x 285g tin of sweetcorn, drained
2 whole chicken breasts, skinned
pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper

For the Topping
2 medium flour tortillas, cut in half then thinly sliced
1 avocado, chopped
a handful of fresh coriander leaves to serve

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large pan then add the onions and fry over a low heat for 10 minutes until they have softened and started to turn a golden colour.
For the last minute throw in the garlic and chillies and stir through.
Add the tomatoes, stock, stir and then add the sweetcorn and chicken breast and simmer slowly for 15 minutes.
Remove the chicken and set aside whilst the soup continues to cook for further 10 minutes. Season to taste.
Shred the chicken and return to the pan along with any juices!
Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a frying pan and add the tortilla strips. Fry fro 3 minutes or until crisp and golden brown.
Ladle the soup into bowls top with a sprinkling of the tortilla, some avocado and coriander

Firstly, I did not use avocado or coriander as you can see from the photo because 1. I couldn’t find any avocado in the shop and 2. I do not like coriander (you probably think I’m crazy for bothering with Mexican food if I’m not a fan of the old coriander but whatever). As soon as I text my boyfriend telling him I was making Mexican food without him he was over to mine like a shot. I made enough for 2 and it was gorgeous. I wasn’t expecting greatness from this dish as usually for a good soup you need a good stock and I had simply used OXO chicken stock cubes! However, poaching the chicken in the soup mix flavoured the stock with a deeper chicken flavour which made it so delicious! We both wanted seconds when we finished! It wash filling, warm and ….almost juicy and succulent! We topped ours with sour cream because I’m not great with heat and I wanted to keep a little Mexican for the toppings so used this to help with my sensitive taste buds! This is a healthy, quick and easy recipe and I assure you, once you try this you will be making it every time you need a warming meal ^.^

Je Goûterai - I will taste