Every New Year's Day from as long as I can remember we have had roasted ham for our New Year celebration dinner. Boiled until tender, and then the skin stripped, fat scored and roasted in the oven with a glaze until the fat was all sticky and sweet and gilded golden brown.
Its pretty hard to buck with traditions. They usually run deep and don't like to budge.
Its been a tradition, and that would be followed in the coming days with a huge pot of Pea and Ham Soup, made with the bone left from the ham.
Oh my mother did make lovely soup. The ham was lovely served cold and in thin slices with some mustard . . .
Red meat is not something we eat very often in our house. We eat mostly fish and chicken, but this year I thought I would treat us to some nice steaks for our New Year dinner.
I am breaking with tradition all over the place for some unknown reason!
I picked up some lovely rib eye steaks at Costco the other day. Of course they come four in a pack but with there only being two of us I froze the other two for another time, maybe even Valentines Day.
We will see.
The meat at Costco is lovely . . . Scottish Angus beef, dry aged . . . these were beautiful looking steaks. I should have taken a photograph of them before I cooked them.
They had just the right amount of fat and marbling.
Of course they were rather expensive, costing about half of my grocery budget for the week, so I couldn't afford to mess them up.
I decided to lightly season them and then pan sear them in some oil and butter, until golden brown . . .
I added garlic and sprigs of thyme to the butter in the pan, which made for a really nicely flavoured basting sauce.
The timings I have given were perfect for the steaks I was cooking, about 1 inch in thickness and at room temperature . . . with the end result being medium rare, which is how we like our steak.
I used the pan drippings and a bit more garlic to create a beautifully creamy and lush mushroom sauce to serve with the steaks.
I started by sauteing the mushrooms in a bit more butter along with some garlic, adding some good balsamic vinegar and then finally some cream . . .
Oh but it didn't half smell heavenly if I don't say so myself!
It was the perfect accompaniment to the steaks . . .
This made the perfect meal along with some salad and baked jacket potatoes . . .
Yield: 2
Garlic Butter Steak with a Creamy Mushroom Sauce
Perfectly cooked pan seared steaks, beautifully flavoured and served with a lush and creamy mushroom sauce.
ingredients:
- 2 (7-ounce) rib eye steaks, each about 1 inch thick
- fine sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
- 1 TBS olive oil, divided
- 2 TBS butter, divided
- 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and bashed/broken open
- 3 to 4 sprigs of thyme
For the sauce:
- 1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
- 1 tsp Balsamic vinegar
- 10 to 12 quartered closed cup white mushrooms
- 120ml light cream (1/2 cup)
instructions:
How to cook Garlic Butter Steak with a Creamy Mushroom Sauce
- Bring the steaks to room temperature by unwrapping them and leaving them to sit open to the air for at least half an hour. Season them all over lightly with salt and black pepper.
- Heat a large heavy based skillet over medium high heat. Add the oil and when it begins to shimmer and smoke add the steaks very carefully. It will sputter and spit. Cook for three minutes on one side, then flip over and cook for a further 3 minutes on the underside. They should be nicely browned.
- Reduce the heat to medium low and add 1 TBS of the butter to the pan, along with the sprigs of thyme and 3 garlic cloves. Once the butter begins to foam, and using a metal spoon, carefully tilt the pan and baste the steaks with the garlic/herb butter in the pan. Cook for a further 1 to 2 minutes, basting.
- Remove the steaks from the pan to a heated plate, discarding the thyme and garlic. Leave to rest while you make the sauce.
- To make the sauce add the mushrooms to the pan along with the crushed garlic and remaining butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring, for a few minutes until fragrant. Add the balsamic vinegar to the pan and cook for a few minutes longer until soft, then add the cream. Let bubble up and heat through. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve immediately with the steaks.
You can safely double this recipe if you are wanting to feed more people. It makes a great dinner party entree for entertaining. The steaks don't take overly long to cook, nor does the sauce, especially if you have everything in place and ready to go when you start cooking them. Any sides can be done before hand, well ahead of time and just reheated when you are ready to serve. Enjoy!
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!
I am a woman of many weaknesses, most of them being food related . . . hand me a slice of ice cold, trembling Lemon Meringue Pie, topped with billowing sweet golden meringue, and I am a gonner.
A bag of lightly salted ruffles with a container of onion dip and I'm in! Tempt me with a hot dog in a butter grilled bun, topped with all of my favourite toppings, raw onions, Dijon mustard, sweet pickle relish and I almost faint.
Likewise a square of nut filled good chocolate. I love toasted almonds in milk chocolate as well as filberts, and a square of good dark chocolate can make me go positively weak at the knees.
Don't get me started on the finer points of fudge brownies, studded with toasted walnuts and gilded with a chocolate ganache frosting. Or golden blondies, chewie and flavoured with brown sugar.
I adore ice cold wedges of deep pink watermelon, or fresh pineapple spears, crisp black sweet grapes, crisp wedges of iceberg lettuce, drizzled with a blue cheese dressing and sprinkled with bacon.
Mmmm . . . a thick wedge of a Victoria Sponge cake, filled with vanilla butter cream and jam, or a slice of Coffee & Walnut Cake . . . a fruit studded scone, tall and light, split and filled with clotted cream and strawberry preserves . . .
A perfectly cooked slice of Prime Rib, a medium-rare grilled rib eye steak with garlic butter . . . oh boy. Medium rare beef, nice cuts, cooked properly. You can't beat them!
Then there is the Caesar Salad, with fresh romaine lettuce, torn into pieces, cold and crisp, with buttery garlic croutons on top and bacon bits and flakes of a good Parmesan cheese, all gilded with that lovely rich and creamy garlicky dressing. Add some grilled chicken and I'm in salad heaven . . .
And then there are freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, I like them with raisins and walnuts in them . . . or . . . crisp freshly baked peanut butter cookies, the tops all criss-crossed with a fork . . . crisp oatmeal cookies, studded with sweet sticky raisins.
Give me homemade cookies any day of the week. The first sheet pan of them never ever makes it to the cookie jar. Just saying . . .
Crisp slices of buttery cinnamon toast . . . gilded golden brown and served with hot cups of herbal tea. Ice cold dishes of trembling vanilla speckled Panna Cotta. Scoops of cold vanilla ice cream with strawberry jam spooned over top.
Blueberry Muffins, with sugar crusted tops. Lush, rich and creamy Lemon Posset, eaten in tiny, tiny spoonfuls.
Tender pieces of slow cooked beef brisket, coleslaw and potato salad . . . with crisp buttermilk biscuits and plenty of cold butter . . . or . . . thick slabs of pan fried ham, the fat on the edges crisp and golden brown . . . served with creamy rich scalloped potatoes.
Molasses baked beans and thick slices of hot homemade white bread, slathered with plenty of cold butter. I'll have another slice for dessert please and pass the strawberry preserves. I would be as happy as a pig in muck with just the bread and jam.
Oh I am SUCH a foodie, and there are many, many things that get my taste buds tingling. I could go on with an endless list, and wax poetic about many wonderful foods. I feel so lucky to have been born into a life where I can enjoy such things easily.
If I had to pick one favourite thing however, out of ALL the things that I love to eat, and the one thing I could absolutely NOT live without, it would be the humble potato . . . I would trade all of these other things for that . . .
Boiled in the skins in salty water and then cracked open. Adorned with a dollop of butter melting into the fluff.
Boiled and mashed together with plenty of hot milk and butter, salt and pepper. Mom always grated a bit of raw onion in and I love that to this day.
Skins rubbed in oil and baked in a hot oven, right on the rack so that the air gets all around them, making that lovely skin crisp and golden.
Split open and gilded with a dollop of sour cream, salt, black pepper and minced chives. I could make a meal of just that . . . and nothing else.
And then there are these . . . Garlic & Parmesan Crispy Potatoes. They are slightly spiced and nicely crisp on the edges
Scattered with rich and salty Parmesan cheese, baked until golden brown . . . little bites of moreish crisp potato heaven. You can't eat just one and we are not talking potato chips here. We are talking side dish, although I have been known to eat them as a snack. Need I say more?
Yield: 4
Garlic & Parmesan Crispy Potatoes
Crisp and flavourful, these make the perfect side dish for whatever, or even just a snack. They are wonderful dipped in ketchup or sour cream.
ingredients:
- 4 medium red potatoes, scrubbed, dried and unpeeled
- 4 TBS light olive oil
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- salt to taste
- 1/2 tsp parsley flakes
- 4 TBS freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
instructions:
How to cook Garlic & Parmesan Crispy Potatoes
- Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/gas mark 7. Line a large baking tray with baking paper set aside.
- Cut the potatoes into 1/4 inch thick rounds, discarding the ends. Place them into a bowl along with the olive oil and all of the herbs and seasonings. Add 2 TBS of the cheese and toss everything together to coat. Spread out on the baking sheet in a single layer.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, flip over and bake for a further 10 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Return to the oven to melt the cheese.
- Serve hot.
We enjoyed these today with some wings and ribs from Costco and an Oriental salad. I couldn't eat the wings as they were too spicy for me . . . the ribs were likewise. (I don't like really spicy food.) I polished off my potatoes and salad however. Both were very, very good. Yes, I am incorrigible.
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!
I can't think of a better recipe to end the year on than this delicious and simple chicken recipe. Did you have Shake & Bake when you were growing up?
It was a favourite of my brother, sister's and mine! It was a rare treat in our house. I think my mother considered it to be a bit of a luxury.
And as a woman who worked outside the home, my mom did buy it every now and then. Not that we had chicken very often.
We did not. Chicken must have been really expensive back then. It was only ever rarely on the menu, and when it was, it was a real treat!
Usually if we had chicken legs mom would use the shake and bake on them. I confess as an adult the legs/drumsticks are not my favourite cut.
If we had chicken breasts, mom did her Maryland Fried Chicken. Now that was something which we thought of as an exceptional treat!
She would buy bone-in, skin on chicken breasts. She rolled them in egg and cracker crumbs. They were fried in butter and oil.
Oh boy but we thought it was magnificent. We had it maybe once a year and we were all really pleased when we did!
This is not that. It is not my mum's Maryland Fried Chicken. However good that might have been . . .
I can tell you that this is even better than my mom’s Maryland Fried Chicken! That's why this is called Heavenly Chicken. When something is called heavenly, you better believe that it is!
This recipe is like a combination of my mom's chicken recipe, and shake and bake. but I like to think it is a lot healthier than either one. (Don't burst my bubble.)
I like to think that for a number of reasons. First unlike shake and bake, there are no chemicals and preservatives!
This recipe uses boneless, skinless chicken breasts. They are pounded lightly to an even thickness.
I like to put them either between two sheets of cling film to do this, or into a plastic bag. Do be gentle so as not to tear the meat.
Secondly this is baked, not fried. We won't think about the butter drizzled on top, shhh . . .
You begin by making up a flavourful mixture of sour cream and some seasonings. I would use full fat sour cream. In for a penny, in for a pound!
You coat the chicken with this. It is then rolled in fine round buttery cracker crumbs. I am sure you know the kind I mean.
It is then on a baking sheet, drizzled with butter and baked. What’s not to like???
We love this. It's so, so, SO Tasty! You are guaranteed to love it! I served it with baby peas and sweet potato fries, but it would be equally as delicious with mashed potatoes or rice!
Yield: 2 (but can easily be doubled)
Heavenly Chicken
prep time: cook time: total time:
Tender, moist and filled with flavour. This is a real favourite simple supper. I like to serve it with sweet potato fries and a vegetable.
ingredients:
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 2 TBS melted butter
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 90g light sour cream (3/4 cup)
- 90g finely crushed buttery round crackers
- 1 TBS light olive oil
instructions:
How to cook Heavenly Chicken
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Line a baking tray with aluminium foil and spread with the olive oil.
- Measure the sour cream, salt, onion and garlic powders, and paprika into a bowl and mix well together. Measure the cracker crumbs into another bowl.
- Pound the chicken until it is an even thickness. Roll it in the sour cream mixture and then into the cracker crumbs to coat completely. Place onto the baking tray.
- Drizzle the melted butter over top of each piece.
- Bake for 35 to 45 minutes (depending on the size of your chicken pieces) until golden brown, crisp and the juices run clear.
It always comes out moist, tender and very delicious. I am not sure why, but its a combination that works. I really hope you will give it a go.
The recipe quantities are for two people, but it is very easily doubled or even tripled to serve more!
Have a happy New Years Celebration tonight. If you are out and about stay safe and drink responsibly. Talk to you next year!
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!
After all of the excess of the last week or so I was craving something simple today that I could enjoy with a cup of herbal tea. I confess I am fruit-caked and mince-pied OUT!
Actually in all reality Todd is the one for the most part who eats those things.
I find them really sweet, and can only enjoy them in small amounts. I prefer something more in-between sweet and savoury with my tea.
These fabulously moist and delicious muffins fit the bill perfectly.
They are sweetened naturally, with just maple syrup. I can remember when I first moved here to the UK, I brought along a 2 litre can of Maple Syrup, right onto the plane!
Remind me sometime I will tell you how much fun that was carrying it through the terminals with its wire handles. 😖 At the end a kind gentleman helped me out!
Back then maple syrup was very difficult to get ahold of here in the UK, and if you did find it, it was super expensive.
Truth be told maple syrup is always a bit dear, even in North America, but I feel that it is worth every penny. I buy mine at Costco in a small jug.
These delicious muffins are not too sweet. There is no refined sugar in them, just the maple syrup, which also gives them a mild maple flavour . . .
I have to talk about my teacup. My sister gave this to me for my birthday a long time ago. She had found it in a charity shop and knew I loved teacups.
It is my most prized teacup, mostly because it came from my sister with love. Gifts tied with heart strings are the best gifts of all.
Back to the muffins, they have a very tender crumb, almost cake like I suppose . . . . but they aren't cake. They're muffins.
They are studded throughout with toasted walnut meats, coarsely chopped . . . I love toasted nuts. I always toast them prior to baking with them. It helps to bring out their nuttiness.
Just a few minutes on a baking sheet in a hot oven does the trick. You only want to toast them in the oven until you start to smell them. Then they will be perfectly toasted.
I chose to garnish the tops with halved walnuts, which is completely optional, but I think it makes them rather pretty.
Optionally you can dip the tops in warm maple syrup and serve them warm, dusted with a bit of powdered sugar, but I like them just like this.
These were the perfect treat after all of the indulgence of the holidays. Very, very welcome! I enjoyed one with a cup of Hibiscus tea steeped in the pot our friend Maxine gave us for Christmas. Its a glass teapot. I have always wanted a glass teapot!
Maple Walnut Muffins
Yield: 15 muffins
Moist, light and delicious without being overly sweet.
ingredients:
- 245g plain flour (1 3/4 cup)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 120g butter at room temperature (1/2 cup)
- 180ml pure maple syrup (3/4 cup)
- 120g sour cream (1 cup)
- 1 free range large egg
- 87g chopped toasted walnuts, plus more to garnish (3/4 cup)
instructions:
How to cook Maple Walnut Muffins
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Butter a medium size muffin tin and line with paper liners.
- Sift together the flour, soda and baking powder into a bowl and set aside.
- Cream the butter until light with an electric whisk. Continue with the electric whisk and add the in the maple syrup a bit at a time, whisking constantly. Whisk in the egg and sour cream. Fold in the flour and the walnuts, until just blended.
- Spoon into the prepared tin (you will have to cook three more separately after the first batch) filling 2/3 full. Top each with a piece of walnut if desired.
- Bake for 12 to 16 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the centre will come out clean. Leave in the tins for a few minutes, then move to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
If you are wanting something that is tender and not overly sweet, I think you will enjoy these beautiful muffins!
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