Showing posts sorted by relevance for query lamb. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query lamb. Sort by date Show all posts
Today's recipe is the type of recipe everyone should have tucked up their sleeve. It comes in very handy when you are not ready yet to go shopping and you find yourself with a few bits in the refrigerator which are still good to use, but not enough that a person could make a meal of them on their own.
I will often find myself with a piece of a head of broccoli, an onion, perhaps a carrot or two, a couple pieces of bell pepper, a tomato, etc. You know what I mean. There is nothing wrong with them but for the fact that there are not huge amounts of them.
Its happened to us all, but that doesn't mean that any of these tasty vegetables should go to waste, or that you need dash to the store until you really want to. You can make a delicious, quick and easy stir fry with them by adding a bit of this and a bit of that and a lot of ingenuity!
One thing I love about stir fries is you don't need a lot of anything really, not even the protein part . . . and almost anything works protein wise. Beef, chicken, pork, fish, tofu . . . quorn. You can even use leftover cooked meats if you really wanted to, but I like to use fresh myself.
That way I can marinate the protein first and really get some flavour into it, but I suppose you could marinate cooked meats as well if you really wanted to. A few nice flavours such as soy sauce, sesame oil, hot chili oil, garlic, five spice powder, garlic . . . and all of that lovely veg and protein thrown together in a pan and cooked into a delicious chinese feast. All you need on the side is a bit of rice, and Bob's your Uncle.
No need to shop right away, and everyone is happy. Feel free to use whatever vegetables you have in the fridge. Just add them from the order of the ones which will take the longest to cook to the quickest cooking ones and it will all work out well. Cheap, cheerful and cooked to order. You can't get much better than that! Enjoy!
*Clean Out the Fridge Stir Fry*
Serves 4
A great end of the week supper. Quick and easy to make. Serves 4
1/2 tsp five spice powder
2 TBS rice wine vinegar
1 tsp grated ginger rootcut into wedges)
rice to serve
Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add a TBS of peanut or vegetable oil. Drop in the meat. No need to drain. Cook and stir, flipping it around and adding vegetables as required and according to the length of time it will take them to cook. Add the ones who take the longest first and work your way up to the ones which will cook really quickly. Keep flipping and stirring until the meat is cooked through and the vegetables are crispy tender. Serve hot with rice.
I am in the process of testing side dishes for the up and coming holidays and this week I really wanted to try this recipe I found in a book by Diana Henry. The name of the book is Pure Simple Cooking.
It is filled to overflowing with an abundance of simple recipes which require very few ingredients and not a lot of effort. When you are talking holiday meals, any recipe which meets those requirements is a plus for me!
I adore onions. They are quite simply one of my favorite vegetables and they go really well with roasts of any kind! Turkey, beef, chicken, lamb, pork, even ham.
These delectable onions would be a perfect side dish with any one of those meats. And when I say delectable, I mean delectable. These onions simply melt in the mouth.
Are you the person who always wants to pig out on that onion which has roasted in the middle of your roast chicken? (and who isn't!) If so, then this recipe is built just for you!
I don't know why I am always amazed when such simple ingredients and techniques come out crazy delicious. I shouldn't be. We all know its the simple things in life which bring us the most pleasure after all!
Caramelized onions are one of my favorite things to eat, but they are rather time consuming and you do have to keep a close watch on them. Worth the effort, but still . . .
When you are cooking a roast dinner you have plenty of other things to do, without having to babysit a skillet of onions! With a tiny bit of prep, these quite simply cook themselves! Easy peasy!
As you all know by now, I am a no fuss no muss kind of a girl. You can call it lazy if you want to, but the truth is I like recipes that can get me in and out of the kitchen with little or no effort.
Yes, they have to taste delicious, but recipes that cook themselves? Sign me up!
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO MAKE MELTING ONIONS
Very simple ingredients are needed to make these onions and you only need four ingredients.
- medium sized brown onions, skins on
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- salted butter
HOW DO YOU MAKE MELTING ONIONS
Nothing could be easier to make. With just a tiny bit of prep, these can be in the oven and roasting in no time at all.
First of all you will need six medium sized brown onions. By brown onion I mean onions with brown skins. You need to do a bit of prep on them, but not a lot.
Wash them really well and dry them and then trim all those hairy bits from the root end. You can just cut them off as close to the root as possible. You want essentially to make sure that the root end stays intact.
Although it is not essential you will also want to trim a bit from the stem end of the onion. I like to cut a thin slice from the top, discarding it.
You then need to make a deep cross cut down the height of the onion towards the root end, only going down 3/4 of the way.
Make sure you don't cut them all the way through the bottom. You want them to stay together.
You then rub them all over with some extra virgin olive oil. This is when you want an oil with some flavor, so extra virgin olive oil is perfect. You will also be seasoning them with some salt and pepper.
I like to use fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Once you have rubbed and seasoned them you need to pop them into a roasting dish that is small enough to hold them all snugly in a single layer.
This helps to keep them intact during the long roasting time. I used a 6 inch cake tin because I was only roasting 3 onions today for testing purposes.
They are then covered tightly with some more foil and popped into a moderately hot oven. (375*F/190*C) Initially they need to roast for a fairly long period of time. 70 minutes.
But essentially, they are cooking themselves. You can just walk away and get on with whatever else you need to be doing.
At the end of the that time you remove from the oven and add some butter. Just plain salted butter.
I cut it into slivers and inserted it into the cuts of the onions so that the flavor gets right in there.
Back into the oven they go for another 25 minutes, until that butter gets all nut brown and golden and the onions get to the point where they really do melt in the mouth.
You will need to baste them a couple of times with the melted butter. Not a problem. The end result is something that brings pure and simple taste satisfaction.
You can also turn these delectable little morsels . . . cheesy melted onions . . . by adding some grated strong cheddar cheese and popping them back into the oven just long enough for the cheese to melt.
Cheese and onion are perfect partners and this makes for a fabulous finish for what is essentially one of the simplest and most delicious sides dishes you could ever put together. I highly recommend!
PS - Do caution your guests to peel off the skins prior to eating. The onions slip out of them very easily. This tiny bit of hassle is well worth it. Trust me on this.
Melting Onions
Yield: 6 as a side dish (can easily be halved)
Prep time: 8 MinCook time: 1 H & 32 MTotal time: 1 H & 40 M
These will be the star of the show! These delicious onions melt in your mouth.
Ingredients
- 6 medium onions, skins left on
- 1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup (60g) salted butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/gas mark 5. Have ready a baking dish that you can fit all the onions in upright, snugly.
- Carefully trim the bizarre bits from the root end of the onion, leaving the root and skins intact. Trim a sliver from the other end as well. Make a cross cut into each onion 3/4 of the way down the height of the onion, taking care not to cut all the way to the bottom.
- Rub the onions all over with the oil, season with salt and pepper and then fit snugly into a small ovenproof dish. Cover tightly with aluminum foil.
- Roast for 70 minutes. Uncover. Divide the butter amongst the onions, sliding it down into the centers. Bake for a further 25 minutes, basting them with the melted butter a few times. Serve at once.
Notes:
You can turn these into melting onions with cheese by adding some grated or cut strong cheddar (about 6 ounces) and stuffing it into the centers of each onion when done. Return to the oven just until the cheese has melted. Delicious!
You can also add herbs to these. Fresh thyme leaves are especially nice.
I am a huge fan of baked rice recipes. They are so simple to do. No fuss. No muss cooking. That is how I like to do things for the most part in my kitchen.
I am also a huge fan of oriental flavors! That's why when I saw this recipe for an easy oven rice on Recipe Tin Eats I immediately popped it onto my "to do" list of things to try!
I knew I wouldn't be disappointed and I wasn't! Its fabulously tasty!
.JPG "Oven Baked Fried Rice")
I did cut the quantities in half and made a much smaller batch, as well as adapting it to my way of doing things in my kitchen and the ingredients I happened to have on hand. This worked very well for me.
I just didn't think I needed that much rice for just little old me. Not that I don't enjoy leftovers. I do. But these days I am really getting more into small batch cooking because I have found that to do otherwise in my kitchen means waste.
And I hate waste. My freezer can only hold so much.
.JPG "Oven Baked Fried Rice")
This easy dish makes the perfect mid-week side dish! There is no need to precook the rice ahead of time. Nor the vegetables. You simply stir everything together in a baking dish, cover and bake, leaving your hands free to get on with something else.
Easy peasy. I also like this recipe because it uses ingredients that I normally have on hand, so its a great store-cupboard recipe as well!
.JPG "Oven Baked Fried Rice")
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE OVEN BAKED FRIED RICE
Like I said above, simple store cupboard ingredients. If you keep a fairly well stocked larder like I do, I am betting you can even make this today!
- 3/4 cup (160g) uncooked long grain rice
- 1 cup (240ml) chicken or vegetable stock
- 3/4 TBS soy sauce
- 1/2 TBS rice wine vinegar
- 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
- 1 cup (150g) frozen mixed vegetables, unthawed (a mix of peas, corn, carrots and beans)
- 1/8 tsp white pepper
- 2 rashers of thick sliced streaky smoked bacon, diced
To garnish:
- 1 spring onion, trimmed and thinly sliced on the diagonal
- 1 large free range egg, beaten
- 1/2 TBS toasted sesame oil
Optional additions: (your choice)
- chopped cooked meats (chicken, pork, beef, prawns)
- finely shredded cabbage (cooked crispy tender)
- bean sprouts
- baby spinach (chop and stir through at the end, the heat from the rice will cook it.)
- a splash of hot sauce (Sriracha is good)
.JPG "Oven Baked Fried Rice")
I used Uncle Ben's converted long grain rice for my dish. You can also use Basmati, medium and short grain rice. It is not recommended that you use Jasmine rice, brown rice, paella rice, risotto rice, wild rice, quinoa or other specialty rice.
You also don't need to rinse the rice first. I didn't. If you feel that you do, then you need to reduce the liquid in the recipe by 1 TBS for this small batch recipe.
.JPG "Oven Baked Fried Rice")
Mixed frozen vegetables. I always keep a bag of these in my freezer. I use the mix that has peas, corn, green beans and carrots. This is the most common mix and I find it comes in handy for all sorts.
Pot pies, soups, omelets, etc. I added the vegetables frozen and they were perfectly cooked when the rice was done. Not overcooked in the least.
.JPG "Oven Baked Fried Rice")
I always have bacon frozen in my freezer. I buy it by the one pound package and separate it when I get it home. I usually buy two packs when it is on offer at the shops.
One I will cook and then freeze for times when I want or need some cooked bacon for whatever it is I am making.
The other package I will separate into individual rashers. I roll each rasher up and pop them single layered into an airtight container. Into the freezer it goes.
Once frozen you can transfer the frozen rolls into a zip lock bag if you want. These frozen rolls are very convenient for when you only want a few rashers of bacon as they thaw quickly.
Its also super-easy to chop them while the bacon is frozen. If you have ever tried to chop raw bacon that is not frozen, you know how difficult this is! It stretches, etc. Not easy! Its much better to do it when the bacon is frozen.
.JPG "Oven Baked Fried Rice")
HOW TO MAKE OVEN BAKED FRIED RICE
Nothing could be easier. I am rather lazy at times and this fits right in with that!
Preheat the oven to 400*F/200*C/ gas mark 6. Have ready a 7 X 11-inch casserole dish.
Place all of the ingredients for the rice, except for the bacon, egg and onion into the baking dish. Give it a good stir and then spread it out evenly. Sprinkle the chopped bacon over top. Cover tightly with foil.
.JPG "Oven Baked Fried Rice")
Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for a further 12 to 15 minutes. Re-cover and let stand for about 5 minutes while you cook the egg.
Spray a skillet with some canola oil spray. Add the beaten egg and lightly scramble until just cooked.
Drizzle the rice with the sesame oil. Scatter the egg and onion over top. Fork through and fluff with a fork, adding in any optional ingredients you enjoy, or not.
Serve immediately.
.JPG "Oven Baked Fried Rice")
You can of course turn this into a main dish by adding any quantity of cooked meats (beef, pork, ham, lamb, ground beef), poultry (chicken or turkey) or other protein (think prawns here) at the end, simply stirring them into the rice when you fluff it up. Easy peasy.
If you like more egg by all means scramble two of them! I found one large free range egg to be just the right amount!
.JPG "Oven Baked Fried Rice")
Baked rice, its a good thing as Martha would say! Beautifully textured and nicely flavored. Some other baked rice dishes you might also enjoy are:
BAKED MUSHROOM RICE - A mix of rice, stock, thyme and garlic powder is put into the bottom of a casserole dish and covered with a thick layer of garlic mushrooms. No need to cover as the layer of mushrooms serves as a sort of a jacket for the rice, covering it . . . the juices running down and mingling with the stock and rice beneath it as it cooks. This is fabulously delicious!
GARLIC CHEDDAR CHICKEN & RICE BAKE - Loaded with chicken and rice and plenty of cheese, this delicious and easy casserole is the epitome of comfort food. Its all very simple to make. Just mix the chicken, rice, some chicken stock, grated cheddar and your seasonings together in a casserole dish. Cover and bake. Easy peasy.
BAKED RICE PILAF - Delicious and simple to make. Healthy and economical as well. With carrots, onion, celery and rice, at the end of the cooking time you are rewarded with a delicious perfectly cooked rice pilaf that is loaded with color, veg and fibre! This is a beautiful side dish to go with just about anything. No fuss. No muss.
Oven Baked Fried Rice (small batch)
Yield: 2 - 3
Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 42 MinInactive time: 5 MinTotal time: 52 Min
Nothing could be easier than this dump and go dish. Just throw everything into a casserole and bake. No need to cook the rice ahead of time. The end result is a well seasoned and delicious, perfectly cooked dish of rice that tastes amazingly just like fried rice!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (160g) uncooked long grain rice
- 1 cup (240ml) chicken or vegetable stock
- 3/4 TBS soy sauce
- 1/2 TBS rice wine vinegar
- 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
- 1 cup (150g) frozen mixed vegetables, unthawed (a mix of peas, corn, carrots and beans)
- 1/8 tsp white pepper
- 2 rashers of thick sliced streaky smoked bacon, diced
To garnish:
- 1 spring onion, trimmed and thinly sliced on the diagonal
- 1 large free range egg, beaten
- 1/2 TBS toasted sesame oil
Optional additions: (your choice)
- chopped cooked meats (chicken, pork, beef, prawns)
- finely shredded cabbage (cooked crispy tender)
- bean sprouts
- baby spinach (chop and stir through at the end, the heat from the rice will cook it.)
- a splash of hot sauce (Sriracha is good)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400*F/200*C/ gas mark 6.
- Have ready a 7 X 11-inch casserole dish.
- Place all of the ingredients for the rice, except for the bacon, egg and onion into the baking dish. Give it a good stir and then spread it out evenly. Sprinkle the chopped bacon over top. Cover tightly with foil.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for a further 12 to 15 minutes.
- Cover and let stand for about 5 minutes while you cook the egg.
- Spray a skillet with some canola oil spray. Add the beaten egg and lightly scramble until just cooked.
- Drizzle the rice with the sesame oil. Scatter the egg and onion over top. Fork through and fluff with a fork, adding in any optional ingredients you enjoy, or not.
- Serve immediately.
Thanks so much for visiting! Do come again!
Last week we were craving sausage rolls. I don't believe that I had ever tasted a sausage roll prior to coming here to the UK.
My mother used to make weiner rolls when I was growing up. They were something we all loved as a family.
Mom made beautiful plain pastry. It wasn't puff pastry, just plain. All of her pies, etc. were beautiful and we loved them.
When she made weiner rolls she would make her regular pastry recipe and then roll it out. The rolled pastry would be cut into rectangles large enough to wrap around weiners, enclosing them completely.
She would always spread the pastry with a bit of mustard before adding the weiners, wrapping them up and baking. Oh how very much we loved them.
I was surprised when I moved over here and saw sausage rolls. If you went down to the shops around school getting out time, there would be tons of children at the bake shop buying sausage rolls. You could also buy frozen ones to bake at home.
You can even get Vegetarian ones. Both are wrapped in flaky puffed pastry. Of course you get what you pay for.
The more expensive ones will have a lovely rich and ample meaty filling. Using a quality sausage meat. The cheap ones will be mostly pastry and filled with nasty sausage meat. People seem to enjoy both.
The first time I tasted a homemade one was at my friend Joy's in South Wales. They were magnificent. It truly was love at first bite.
You can find her recipe here. She was really generous and shared it with me. I think she also sent us home with a bag filled with them that visit along with her gorgeous lamb samosas!
This recipe for Apple & Sage Sausage Rolls was one I had clipped from the BBC Good Food Magazine back in 2012. I had saved it in my recipe files to bake one day.
I discovered it while going through them the other day and thought that there would be no time like the present to make them. I had puff pastry and sausage meat in the freezer that I needed to use up.
The directions were a bit ambiguous. I have tried to make them as straight forward as I can, as well as adding my usual North American measurements.
Try to use the best sausage meat that you can afford. I actually did a tutorial on making your own sausages here.
I know you won't be able to get British Sausages in North America. You can however make some tasty sausage meat yourself. I highly recommend it. They are really delicious.
You only need the meat to make the filling for these sausage rolls. It is mixed with chopped fresh sage and apple. I peeled the apple.
I used French all-butter puff pastry that I had in the freezer. If you can find all-butter puff pastry, I really recommend it.
I always think it is best to use natural ingredients whenever you can. I don't like things with artificial ingredients and preservatives. Go as pure as you can.
In any case these turned out really lovely. I sent half of them to my next door neighbour for her and her son to enjoy. She was most appreciative.
The sage and the apple give them a really nice flavour. Sage and apple are perfect partners for pork. I think you are really going to enjoy these!
Apple & Sage Sausage Rolls
Yield: Makes 12
prep time: 15 Mincook time: 25 Mintotal time: 40 Min
These delicious sausage rolls are flavoured with sage and chopped apple. Quick and easy to make.
Ingredients
- 400g (16 ounces) of sausage meat (from about 6 meaty sausages)
- 1 clove of garlic crushed
- 2 TBS chopped sage
- 1 apple, peeled and chopped
- 1 pound (500g) all butter puff pastry
- 1 free range egg beaten together wih 1 tsp water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Line several baking trays with baking paper.
- Remove the sausage meat from the skins and crumble into a bowl. Add the chopped sage, garlic and chopped apple. Mix well together.
- Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface to a large rectangle. 12 inches wide at the shortest edge. Halve the pastry to make two long thin sheets. Divide the sausage meat down the centre of each, leaving a good border on both sides.
- Beat the egg together with the water. Brush some of this down both long edges of each pastry strip. Fold over the edges to cover the sausage meat, making two long rolls. Seal the edges with a fork.
- Flip over and place pastry seam side down on the baking sheets. Brush more egg wash over top. Cut each roll into six equal pieces. Snip each in a few places and spread them apart on the baking sheets to leave room to rise.
- Cook for 25 minutes until golden brown and puffed.
One thing I will miss about the UK are the lovely sausages they have over here. There are about as many varieties of sausage as there are areas and counties.
Nevermind, they have good ones in Canada as well! There will always be things we miss about the places we have lived.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
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