Recipe Collection Thread (recipe board)

thriftlady_2

Ooh, I am pleased with myself -just come up with this recipe and it is gorgeous. It's based on something I saw on a French recipe site, but I've improved it

You need
1 chicken breast per person, cut in chunks
a chunk of chorizo sausage -about an inch per person
half a jar of sun-dried tomatoes (drained), chopped
a slug of dry sherry (I find this improves almost everything )
1 tbsp of creme fraiche per person
olive oil

Here's what to do
Heat some olive oil in a frying pan (deep saute pan with a lid is ideal)
Brown the chicken, add the chorizo and tomatoes. Stir about for a bit.
Add the creme fraiche and sherry, let it bubble gently until chicken is cooked through.

We're going to have it with roasted new potatoes, peas and green beans.

thriftlady_2

This served 5 of us using ramekin dishes.

250 g strawberries
juice of half a lemon
125 g icing sugar (or caster, but icing sugar dissolves quickly)
120 ml water.

Put the water and sugar in a small saucepan and heat to boiling point, turn heat down and heat until the sugar dissolves.

Let the syrup cool.

Blitz the stawberries to a puree and stir in lemon juice.

Mix cooled syrup with strawberries and pour into an ice cream maker. Churn till frozen.

You can freeze it in a plastic tub or a metal tray. You'll need to get it out of the freezer every couple of hours and break the ice crystals up though.

thriftlady_2

These are what my kids like for breakfast. I get about 10 from this mixture, they have 2-3 each with golden or maple syrup. I like butter on mine too.

I've found they work well without the egg, which is money-saving and good for my egg allergic dd;)

Mix together in a large jug
1 cup (8 fl oz) yogurt/buttermilk/sour milk
2 tbsp veg oil or melted butter
1 cup (9 oz) plain flour - you can use a mixture of wholemeal flour and white or sub some oats/wheatgerm for some of the flour.
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt

Heat a non-stick frying pan or griddle and pour batter on to produce pancakes about 4-5 inches in diameter. Flip over with a fish slice when bubbles start to appear on the surface.

They should be quite thick and spongy

~Chameleon~

Just made these to try them and also added a handful of sultanas to the mix to make them like those you buy in the shop, and they are absolutely fantastic, thank you!!! :T

I managed to make 12 and have eaten 2 :drool: so the rest are cooling off for the others to have when they get home later (unless I decide to be a pig :rotfl: )

Just wondering, do you think it would work if you added a spoonful of honey to the mix before cooking?

squeaky

I'm not at all sure that our cousins across the pond would actually call this a meatloaf - but what the heck - I couldn't think of any other description for it!

Serves four good helpings.


Ingredients:

400g (about a pound) mince

250g (a fairly standard punnet these days) mushrooms

1 large onion

1 (or perhaps two) can(s) of beer *

1 teaspoon mixed herbs (to taste: minimum a level one, I use well rounded, and heaped is fine if you want to go there).

3 stock cubes (I use two lamb and one beef but the choice is yours)

4 single cloves of garlic (the fresher the better)

cornflour (as required)


Method:

Whizz the mince in a food processor (or give it a darn good thrashing by hand) until it is more like a meat paste. (Don't overdo it because you've more work to do on it yet)

Note: You may find that it will be better to this in two halves if your food processor can't cope with the volume, and then combine your mixes in a large bowl.


Now add the large onion (roughly chopped) and the mushrooms (again rough) and the garlic (finely chopped or put through a garlic press). Stirr them in.

Whizz these until the visible bits of onion and mushroom are quite small. You can leave things a bit chunkier if you like but at least some of the onion and mushroom needs to be well worked into the meat.


Shape your meat mixture into a loaf sort of shape, no need to be too fussy, and then put it into your slow cooker (for preference) or some sort of cooking tray that is a bit larger than your loaf if you are going to do this in the oven. Fish slices help a LOT to pick your loaf up in one piece.


Now break up your stock cubes into a measuring jug, add the herbs and a heaped desert spoon of cornflour, and mix well into a smooth paste with a small amount of the beer. (see the note )


Add enough extra beer now to give you about 100 ml (4 fluid ounces) of gravy sauce, mix well and then pour it gently over the meatloaf.


Put the rest of the beer in the fridge (or drink it if you didn't start this recipe at breakfast time ) That's why I said you may need two cans


I know that gravy mix sounds as though it would be heavily loaded with three cubes in that small amount of liquid - but we ain't finished yet, honest

In a slow cooker you need to give it a good eight hours on low. For an oven, just follow whatever general advice you have on how to cook a meatloaf - i.e. google someone else's recipe and use their timing

Once done - lift out the meatloaf and pour your gravy sauce into a pan. Add the rest of the beer and bring quickly to a boil.

The choice is yours now: if you don't want much gravy, just keep this on a gentle boil (with the pan lid off) until the liquid reduces and thickens to what you want. Otherwise, you may find that mixing another spoonful of cornflour with cold water and then adding it will thicken what you have now. It would then need to be boiled fairly vigorously for between two and five minutes. *If you use plain flour, a gentle simmer for at least ten, and better still twenty minutes, would be needed to cook out the flour properly. (Cornflour cooks way-a-ay faster than ordinary flour).


Serving suggestions:

You can by all means choose to slice this neatly, or just chop it into quarters. (Me, I like my meat in chunks )


Serve with either boiled potatoes (in their skins works well), or better still - new potatoes.

Vegetables can be simple because the meatloaf in itself is filling and rich, so perm any combination of the veggies your family is most likey to eat from, perhaps, peas/carrots/cabbage/sweet corn.



Some notes:

Next time I make this I'm going to put about a quarter of the herbs into the meat mix as I make it, and the rest into the gravy. I think that will help things along a bit.

I'm also seriously considering putting the prepared meatloaf into a dish only slightly larger than itself and marinading it overnight in the fridge, covered with the base gravy, before putting it into the slow cooker.

But then again... that might make my taste buds explode!






* That's bitter! Not that horrible muck that's the only drink on the planet that doesn't change colour (or taste) on it's way through your digestive system! You can by all means use a stout, such as guinness if you want an even richer gravy.


And a final note:

You need to lock yourself (and your family) out of the house 'cos this smells GORGEOUS while it's cooking!

squeaky

OK, I'm going to be lazy and not give you the recipe for the banana loaf. There's a recipe in the MR breadmaker book for sure, and I think there's one in the Panasonic book too (though I stand to be corrected if not).

There are also other recipes, from memory, in the breadmaker collection index, and also, I'm fairly sure, in some of the various threads in the cooking section of the MEGA Index listed under Fruit:- "too many bananas" or "(lots of) ripe bananas".


But anyway, once you have this stuff (banana bread, remember?), I'm told that most people like it sliced with a bit of butter on. But I have to be honest, I wasn't too impressed.

So I had a little play...


The Recipe:

Cut your loaf into thick (doorstep) slices (one for each serving, and bung the rest back into the fridge or freeze them for another day.

You may now need to halve or quarter them to get them to fit sensibly into a pudding dish. Individual ones, that is.

Give each slice (portion) a good sousing in ginger wine. (see notes below) Then pour on a generous dollop of maple syrup. (Golden Lion even do a golden syrup that's maple flavoured - and you could, of course just use golden syrup...)

Now place each portion / serving of the bread into the microwave for one minute on medium.

While juggling these about... make some custard.

Serve covered in custard. Yum!

This will probably work just as well served with vanilla ice cream, or double cream (or whipped) if you're not keen on custard.


Notes:

I discovered that banana loaf works really well with ginger!

So next time I'm going to add minced / grated root ginger to the original loaf mix (and you could, if you don't have root ginger, or ginger wine, just add powdered ginger to the basic banana loaf recipe. But the maple syrup is a MUST


Disclaimer:

I am not responsible for your waistline --- YOU are!

catznine

Aunty Beryl's Chutney Recipe

3lbs apples or any other fruit and veg (plums, marrow, toms)
3/4 pint vinegar
1/2lb chopped onions
1 tsb grated orange or lemon rind
1 dessertspoon each (yes, that much!) ginger, curry powder and mixed spice.

Prepare fruit or veg and simmer with other ingredients until tender.

Add 1/4lb sultanas and 1lb sugar and cook, stirring occasionally, until thick. Pot in the usual way.

HuntH1

Quick & Easy Meatballs/Burgers

Ingredients:
450g pack beef mince
1 rounded tsp Marmite (optional, but you can't really taste it in the finished product)
1 dessert apple (peeled then finely grated)
Small cubes of cheese (optional)

Method:
1. Mix together using hands (yeah, you gotta get down and dirty for this one) the mince, apple and Marmite.
2. Divide into small balls - makes about 8. If you don't fancy meatballs, divide into 4 and shape into burgers.
3. For a change, poke a hole in the meatball and add a small cube of cheese and then cover over until it is completely enveloped by the meat. I have only ever used cheddar, but softer cheeses may be just as nice.
4. Shallow fry until golden brown and cooked through.

This is a perennial favourite with the kids (both big and small) and can be served with pretty much anything - rice, pasta, potatoes...

Helen

siren13577

This is now a firm favourite in our house, so easy and so tasty:

1 onion, chopped, I use red for the colour and taste
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of beans
8 sausages.

You can change the amount of sausages, I have two, my partner has three and my son has three also, chipolatas will work too or you could make it with cocktail sausages also. So that's for a family of three, but could well stretch easily to four.

Turn on oven to gas mark 6 or equivalent, will update later, place two tbsp oil (you could leave this out if concerned about fat but it lets the sausages brown nicely) in a casserole/oven dish or deep tray, place in the oven until oil is hot, place sausages in tray and stir about. Place back into the oven for ten minutes, meanwhile lightly fry chopped onion (I use a small to medium onion, but this is optional, does give a nice taste though and is fairly disguised for those who don't like eating veg) Throw in the tray with sausages after ten minutes, add chopped tomatoes and return to the oven for thirty minutes (please not you may need longer if you are using frozen sausages, add another ten minutes but keep checking)

After half an hour, remove from oven, stir and add beans. Put back in oven for ten minutes. It's lovely with home made mash or baked potatoes and is really easy. You can spice it up with worcester sauce or even make it cheesy bean and sausage bake. It's sooo tasty and you don't end up using loads of dishes.

Enjoy

:beer:

Winsome_2

This is one of our favourites - appologies for the cup measurements - it is an american recipe.

Crunchy Orange Curried Chicken

1/2 cup orange juice
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp dijon mustard

10-12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I buy the thighs with the bone in, skin them and bone them myself then I can use the bones to make stock!)
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt-free seasoning mix (or use mixed herbs etc)
1 cup cornflake crumbs

Heat oven to 350F/180C/gas 4
Mix orange juice, brown sugar, mustard and honey together.
Place the thighs in a large shallow oventin - squish them together a bit if needed.
Pour the sauce evenly over the chicken (it does look like rather a lot - this is OK - most of it disapears during cooking).
Sprinkle over the cornflake crumbs
Bake in the oven for 50 mins.

I serve this with potatoes cut in chunks and baked alongside the chicken and a green salad.