Villa.....finger Food!

Come On Villa!

Mistakes are made on two counts: an argument is either based on error or incorrectly developed.
                                                Thomas Aquinas

Many mistakes were made because Aston Villa were incorrectly developed this season. It's a miracle that Villa made it to the final but we're here. Can we win? Do you believe in miracles? I'm hopeful but then I have to be with the season we've had. 


The Villa have been in dire straits before as this cartoon points out It commemorates a day at the Hawthorns, on 29th April 1959, that West Bromwich Albion held Aston Villa to a 1-1 draw, and in doing so, condemned the Villa to relegation to the old 2nd division.

Quick rub his 'ead it's like a magic lamp! We could wish for more goals.

Kick Off is 5.30 p.m. so if you are going to watch the match why not get some food ready. Like a mini barbecue style of a meal.

Skewer of Mixed Grill

for 4 persons
2 Sausages
300g Steak
2 Black Pudding slices
4 Lambs Kidney
300g Liver
4 Back Bacon rashers

Soak 4 bamboo skewers in cold water for an hour first and cut all the meat up.
Take the two sausages and roll them on a chopping board so they are perfectly cylindrical.
Next half way down each sausage start to pinch in the skin and twist it as you force the filling back to each end. Roll again and cut in half to for 4 pieces.
Cut the steak into 4 even sized pieces.
Black pudding slices need to be bought from the counter of a butchers but have them cut at least 1cm thick but a bit more won't hurt. Then take these slices and cut in half.

The lambs kidneys need to be cut through the side, but not al the way through. Cut out any bits of fat. They should look circular shapes.

Cut the liver into 4 pieces and roll the 4 bacon rashers into rolls.
Thread all these items onto the skewers alternating each skewer with sausage, steak,black pudding, kidney, liver, bacon.

Then you can light the barbecue if you have not already done so or whack under the grill or onto a grill pan.

Cook for about 10-15 minutes gently then serve with barbecue beans and wedges.


More finger food!

 

Feelgood Friday...Rain?

"Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, 
                                       a bath and a glass of wine"

      Thomas Aquinas

Had a stressful week? Got a stressful weekend coming? Whatever your situation make sure you make time for relaxing at some point and there is no better way than cooking a nice bit of fish. Don't forget the wine.

                 Probably been on Britain's Got Talent with that tune!

Here's the fish!

Haddock with Scallops on Provençal Sauce

 

 
Serves 4

4 Haddock portions
8 Scallops
1 Courgette
100g Kale
12 Potatoes, small
2 tbsp Oil
1 onion
pch Dill
pch Parsley
pch Tarragon
pch Basil
splash White Wine
1 Garlic clove
1 tin Chopped Tomatoes
1 tsp Vinegar
1 tsp Sugar


Finely chop the garlic and onions. Heat a saucepan with oil and add the onion and garlic and sweat.
Mix in the tomatoes, white wine and herbs and simmer for 15 minutes.
Taste season with salt and pepper and add a dash of vinegar and a teaspoon of sugar.
Peel the potatoes and if you can shape them using a turning knife try to get them all the same size.
Cut the courgette into batons 5 cms long and the kale into bite-size pieces.
haddock from pan and
Cook the vegetables in boiling salted water.
Heat up a frying pan with oil and butter and cook the haddock 5 or 6 minutes per side. Remove haddock from pan and keep warm. Return the pan pouring off excess oil and heat up then quickly sear the scallops for a couple of minutes per side.
Plate up, spooning the sauce on first with the haddock in the centre of the plates top with scallops then
arrange the vegetables and potatoes around the fish.



Fancy a bit of fast food? A burger? There's no accounting for poor spelling. Or maybe that's what's in our burgers after all. Bummer eh?

Because it's Breast...........

Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason.

                                                                                                                                    Thomas Aquinas


Everything is a bit crash bang wallop but that is the way of youth running into everything like a bull in a china shop. It was for me anyway. A few years on you start to see that perhaps time is required to stop and reflect a little before charging on. We still do it though brainwashed by the media, the new trend, the latest gizmo's. Perhaps it's time to stop and think.

After all you do still need to keep abreast of things............

 

I did say I'd give you something vegetarian to cook today so here it is. 

Light your joss sticks and get your bells out, you hippies.

Corn Pancake filled with Quinoa

For 2 persons

70g Fine Corn Meal

30g Flour

1 Egg

Milk, just a splash

100g Quinoa

Thyme, a sprig

1 tbsp Marmite

1 Red Pepper

300g Chopped Tomatoes

Kale, handful

2 Garlic, cloves

1Onion

50g Mushrooms

150g Brown Rice

Mix the corn meal and flour together in a bowl, add a beaten egg and moisten with milk to form a pancake batter. Cook the pancakes in the usual way in a frying pan with a little oil.

Wash the quinoa in cold water through a sieve for 15 minutes then cook until soft about 20 minutes with a sprig of thyme. Drain when cooked remove the thyme sprig and mix in the Marmite.

Put the brown rice on to cook in boiling water. Cook for about 40 minutes but can need a bit longer sometimes. Keep a lid on it and simmer it.

Peel and slice the onion, the peppers, the mushrooms and pick out the hard stalks from the kale.

Fry a pinch of onion in oil until soft add the garlic and tomatoes and cook for 20 minutes. Process with a stick blender and season with salt and pepper. Add a splash of vinegar and sugar to taste.

Fry the rest of the onion, mushroom together till soft and then add the kale but only cook for a couple of minutes keeping it crisp and green.

Fry the pepper and add the quinoa then divide among the pancakes and roll them up.

Drain the rice and arrange the pancake on the plates with the rice then spoon on the kale. Finish with the tomato sauce.

My friend thinks he is smart. He told me an onion is the only food that makes you cry, 

                                                   so I threw a coconut at his face.

Port Anyone?

“If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, 
he would keep it in port forever”
                                            Thomas Aquinas

Clearly not in port unlike me!

Would like port in me mind.
Any suggestions?




I'm feeling a bit like the ship in the picture today. Listing in a storm! Must be the weather or a full moon. Watched John Torode in Argentina a real treat. Slight meat overload but I recommend it on the BBC i player if you missed it. Back to basic grilling and barbecuing but meat look great.

Might have to do a vegetarian dish tomorrow!

So just a simple snack for a mid-week meal in the recipe below. Calls for a big bowl of salad to accompany it. You can eat this a la Homer Simpson, shovelling it in as you watch BGT.

Chicken in a White Wine & Cream Sauce 

with Garlic Mushrooms

 

For 2-3 persons

1 Onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of Garlic
500g Chicken, cut into pieces
50g Plain Flour
300ml Double Cream
175ml White wine
1 Chicken stock-cube or 100ml chicken stock
300g Pasta
For the mushrooms:
200g Mushrooms
2 cloves of Garlic

Boil a pan of water, add the pasta I used penne and cook as per the packet's instructions usually 15 minutes.
Soften the garlic and onions in a small amount of oil and add the chicken pieces, cooking for 7-10 minutes.
Add the flour and mix in, then add the white wine and chicken stock then reduce to a ¼ of the amount of liquid.
Add the cream and season, simmer for 10 minutes.
Just before serving melt the butter in a frying pan, then add the garlic and mushrooms. Cook for 3 minutes while draining the pasta.
Serve the chicken on top of the pasta and garnish with the drained mushrooms.


Missed Opportunity to add some protein to the pasta he should have turned up earlier.












 Looks' more like a cheeky little rabbit to me!





Proof that the meaning of words convey different things to different people.

 

                               You can get these in Tesco I think.  

Loved Up Tuesday..........

"The things that we love tell us what we are."
                                      Thomas Aquinas       

     


Bit of a hippy tune to start you off on a Tuesday.

When NASA started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work at zero gravity.

To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion developing a pen that wrote at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 C. The Russians used a pencil.

Knocked this up the other day. I'm partial to a bit of pork and it's in the style of Swiss-German cooking. If you're using pork fillet don't cook it so much. Just make the sauce without the meat first then seal the meat and add to the sauce. A nice dry white washes this down.

Strips of Pork in Mushroom Sauce with Berner Rösti

For 2 persons

3-4 Potatoes (medium sized)

1 Onion

2 Smoked Bacon rashers

150ml Oil

50g Butter

280g Pork, lean

200ml Double Cream

100ml Stock, pork or chicken

100g Mushrooms

1 Garlic clove

Chives

Par-boil the potatoes in their skins, test them after 10 minutes by inserting a cocktail stick. There should be quite a bit of resistance to the stick. Drain the potatoes and leave to cool.

Peel the onion, cut in half and slice. De-rind the bacon and cut the bacon into strips that are 75mm wide.

Peel and grate the potato with a course grater into a bowl.

Cut the pork into thin strips about 3-4 cm long and 1 cm thick. Remove any fat. I got away with using pork shoulder but best would be pork fillet (tenderloin). Cut the mushrooms into quarters.

Heat up the oil in a frying pan and add half the sliced onion and the bacon strips and cook until the bacon and onions start to colour. Remove the bacon and onions with a slotted spoon and mix into the grated potato, season with pepper.

Peel the garlic and finely chop to a paste.

Reheat the pan used to cook the bacon and onion and using the drained oil add the potato. Add it as a clump in the middle of the pan. Leave to cook for five or more minutes then using a palette knife press it down towards the edge of the pan but do not be too heavy handed. Leave a mound in the centre of the pan. Cook for a least, another 5-8 minutes. Flip the rösti over using a flick of the wrist or a spatula. Cook for another five minutes then cut in half and tip onto plates.

Flash fry the pork strips in hot oil, then add the rest of onions and mushrooms. Drain any excess oil add the stock and cook for 10 minutes. Allow to boil up and reduce by half. Mix in the cream and garlic.  Cook for a couple of minutes then taste and season if necessary.

Spoon onto the plates on the rösti and accompany with vegetables.

Always knew cola was no good for you, must be the uric acid.

A Trifling Monday?

All the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly.
                        Thomas Aquinas

 

I stopped at a friend's house the other day and found him stalking around with a fly-swatter. 

When I asked if he was getting any flies, he answered: 'Yeah, three males and two females.' 

Curious, I asked how he could tell the difference. 

He said: 'Three were on a beer can and two were on the phone.'

 Perfect breakfast?

                                            Next time Lady Gaga goes trick or treating this mask would match her outfit.

Having a party or getting ready to watch the cup final on Saturday with the mighty Villa make a trifle. 
Really old style retro pudding and look no jelly, proper caveman food. You can tweak it and use any fruit really but this is cheap and cheerful with the fruit cocktail.

Old English Sherry Trifle

Serves 10 

For the sponge

140g Caster Sugar
140g Butter 
140g Self Raising Flour
3 Eggs medium or 2 Large
1 tsp Baking Powder
For the trifle
1 can Fruit Cocktail
1500ml Custard (110g Custard Powder, 1500ml Milk, 60g Sugar)
600ml Whipping Cream
6 Glacee Cherries
10g Toasted Almonds Angelica or Fruit Gums
10ml Sherry
35g Raspberry Jam


To make the sponge, preheat the oven to 180C or Gas Mark 4. Grease and line two 10cm sandwich tins with baking paper.
Cream together the butter and sugar using a mixer or food processor.
Beat together the eggs in a cup or small bowl.
Add the egg to the butter and sugar mixture a little at a time.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and gradually fold into the butter sugar mixture.
Divide the mixture between the two tins and spread out lightly.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes Remove from the tins and cool on a cooling rack.
Next find a suitable bowl, the more elegant the better. Using a pastry brush, brush raspberry jam liberally over the bottom and about 2cm up the sides of the bowl.
Put the milk into a saucepan and bring to the boil.
Mix the custard powder with a little cold milk in a bowl into a thin paste.
Add the custard powder to the boiled milk. Bring back to a simmer stirring all the time with a wooden or resin spoon. Mix in the sugar and allow to mix through before removing from the heat.
Take the sponge and cut into cubes.
Place the sponge in a bowl with the drained fruit cocktail.
Sprinkle the sponge and fruit with sherry. Combine all the fruit and sponge together.
Fill the sponge and fruit into the trifle bowl.
Cover with the custard and set aside to chill for a couple of hours. You could prepare the day before chill overnight and finish the next day.
Whip up the cream, add a little caster sugar and a drop of vanilla essence. Pipe the top of the trifle with swirls of cream.
Decorate the trifle with glacee cherries, angelica, chocolate shavings, toasted almonds anything you like really! Angelica should be cut into diamonds but you could use jellied fruits.

Sunday Funny Sunday........

How can we live in harmony?
First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God.
Thomas Aquinas 


Waiting for the sun to shine. Don't wait just read on and get some cooking done, always makes my sun shine. In the mean time here's the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain doing their stuff.

 

These guys are the the best ukulele orchestra give this watch it'll make you smile.

                                 Saw my x-rays yesterday hope they weren't photo shopped.
                                 Bunion totally gone just this learning to walk again is a pain.

Did you hear about the guy they found dead with his head in his cornflakes?
                                                                                     The police thought it was a cereal killer.

 

Okay let's cook.....just a snack for this Sunday or save and do it tomorrow. On this a day off here in the UK for everyone else do it any way it's simple enough.

Chicken in Honey & Lemon with Brown Rice

For 4 persons

4 Chicken Breasts

150ml Vegetable Oil

2 tbsp Honey

2 Lemons

Small bunch Coriander

1 bunch Spring Onions

400g Brown Rice

800ml Water

6 Black Olives

2 Onions

Put the rice and water into a saucepan and bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover pot and simmer until liquid is completely absorbed and rice is just tender, about 40 minutes. No peeking until then; valuable steam escapes! Set covered pot aside off of the heat for 10 minutes then uncover and fluff rice with a fork.

Mean while cut the chicken breasts into thick slices about 2cm thick.

Grate the zest from the lemons and squeeze the juice out.

Shred the spring onions and the coriander reserving a few leaves for garnish.

Heat up the oil in a frying pan, season the meat with salt and pepper and flash fry to give a little colouration on the meat.

Then pour off the oil and add the lemon juice and honey. Boil up and mix in the spring onions and coriander.

If your sauce is too thick let it down with a little water to get a nice consistency. You'll know how you like it with the rice. Taste and season further if it needs it. Too sour add a little sugar.

Cut the olives into slices, cutting lengthways to avoid the stone.

Once the rice is ready fork the olives and lemon zest into the rice. Taste and season if necessary.

Serve it up garnished with a sprig of coriander.

Rock & Roll Saturday

 
Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand. 
Thomas Aquinas

It's Saturday and if you haven't planned anything who cares? Just go with the flow. I've got a lamb recipe that you can even do for one person if you need some peace and quiet this weekend. Calm and you time could be what you need how about meditating if you want to get transcendental. Otherwise cook up a feast and get a few friends round and have a sing song. 

Guitars out, ukuleles out hear we go. Nobody in tune! 

Well these guys are. Check this out.

The United Kingdom Ukulele Orchestra on form just in case no-one comes round or your friends don't want to sing.




 Here's the cooking.............................................

 

 Loin of Lamb with Rösti, Orange & Beetroot Pickle &     Lavender Jus

For 1 person

1 Loin of Lamb (150g lean) 
2 Potatoes
1 Orange
1 Beetroot (medium)
150ml White Wine Vinegar
20g Brown Sugar
2 Cloves
3 Allspice Berries
1 Bay Leaf
1 Baby Leek or Spring Onion
75g Spinach
30ml Oil
100g Butter
200ml Stock, lamb is best
1 Lavender sprig (from your garden)

Trim all the fat off the lamb loin and the silverskin. Thats the protective layer between the white fat and the flesh.
Place the potatoes in their skins in cold water, bring to the boil then reduce to simmer for about 10 minutes. Check them by using a cocktail stick to pierce the skin and feel how much it is cooked. It should have an amount of resistance. If the cocktail stick goes in about three quarters of the way then they are ready. Remove, drain and leave to cool. Good to do this in the morning ready for dinner.

Cook the beetroot by boiling in water until soft about 20 minutes depending on size. Cool and remove the skin, it should just flake off. Then slice and cut into sticks or batons. Peel the orange and remove the segments. Place the beetroot and orange segments in a bowl. Heat up the vinegar, sugar, Bay leaf, allspice, cloves for 5 minutes then take it off and allow to infuse for half an hour before pouring enough to cover the beetroot and orange. Again this could be done in the morning.

Cut the spring onion but shredding the top (keep to one side) then cut out a section like in the picture from the centre of it. Lightly blanch this piece in boiling water for 2 minutes. 

Peel the potatoes and using a coarse grater, grate the potatoes. Heat up a small non-stick frying pan with a splash of oil and knob of butter, season the potato and add a clump to the centre of the pan. Do not squash it out at this point. Leave it to cook for 3-4 minutes. This will seal the bottom of it. Then using a palette knife start to push the potato down towards the edge of the pan all the way round but leaving a mound in the centre of the pan. Leave it to cook further. Then toss the rosti over or use a spatula to assist the turning of it. Cook for five minutes on the other side then turn out onto a warmed plate. Keep warm whilst you cook the meat.

Heat up a frying pan, season the loin of lamb with salt and pepper and add to the pan. Cook turning once for 12 minutes then remove and leave to rest.

Wilt the spinach in a pan with melted butter add the shredded spring onion. Stir quickly then remove and arrange on the plate with the potato.

Warm the pickle and place in a small bowl to accompany the dish.

Using the pan that cooked the meat pour off any excess oil then pour in the stock, add the lavender and boil up, allow to reduce. Strain to remove the lavender.

Carve the lamb and arrange on the potato. Top with a herb, I used chervil. To finish the sauce remove from heat and add a couple of knobs of soft butter and work it in with a whisk if you have to or better still just shake the pan. Spoon the sauce onto the plate.







Just changed my Facebook name to ‘No one' so when I see stupid posts I can click like and it will say ‘No one likes this'.