Friday, July 24, 2009

Bread Day in the Relish Test Kitchen

I watched an old Jamie Oliver tv show whilst spending some quality time bonding with my sofa at the weekend. He made gorgeous twister bread with chargrilled veg filling.....it looked so good that I had to make it. Stokesy will happily eat bread all day every day so I knew I had a willing test audience.





I had a second batch of dough left over so did foccacia with rapeseed oil and dried herbs. It came out a bit too doughy for my liking, so it looks like I'll have to retest......oh well!


Saturday, July 18, 2009

Sweetcorn Fritters

Hmmmm second sweetcorn blog recipe in not very long. I ate loads of these fritters 2 summers ago when me and the Stokes spent the summer MX-ing in Canada. The corn there is sooooo good.

Now I am going to treat you with a proper recipe for this....hold on....I have used all gluten-free ingredients because I used this recipe on a gluten-free coking class I did last year. You can substitute plain flour if you want.

 325g can of corn kernels, drained
 4 spring onions, finely chopped
 2 tbsp fresh coriander
 2 tbsp rice flour
 1 tsp gluten-free baking powder
 1 egg
 oil for frying

Combine all of the ingredients except the oil. Stir well.
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan. Drop 4 tbsp of the corn mixture into the pan – avoid overcrowding. Cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, on each side, or until golden brown – turn carefully to prevent the pancakes breaking. Remove from the pan and drain on paper towels. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Delicious with sweet chilli sauce

Summery Fish Pie

Facing a weekend of no cooking work I fancied having friends round for dinner. I took charge of dessert (egg custard tart) whilst my guests got on the case with the main. Step up Heidi and Michelle! Oh and Coffee Bean helped out too.
They used a Jamie Oliver recipe for a light fish pie with no cream and loads of veggies. From my position of sitting on my tail at the kitchen table (drinking ginger beer yum) it all looked pretty easy ;o) I can assure you it was absolutely delicious

Lunch at Meena's - Sweetcorn and peanut curry yummmmmm

I went to help Meena with some pictures for her body art project. We negotiated a good exchange, I take the pictures....Meena makes lunch. Suits me! Meena teaches a class at the cookery school so I knew that I was in for a tasty meal.

On the menu was sweetcorn and peanut curry, freshly made chapatis and lightly spiced lassi. I even got to practise my chapati rolling skills. Thank you Meena!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Thai Pork Noodle Salad

After a celebratory evening out for Stokesy's b-day we needed a day of rest and hangover food. Some more than others, mentioning no names, but I managed to watch Basil at his track day whilst Stokesy 'rested' on the sofa.
To make this deee-licious salad you will need:
2 portions of egg noodles - cooked according to packet instructions
350g minced pork - fried until crispy
20 pods of peas, podded by your hungover boyfriend
1 handful of green beans, boiled for 4 minutes (blanched being the fancy-pants chef term)
1 red onion - finely sliced
a big handful of peanuts
2 tbsp fresh coriander, roughly chopped
Dressing -
1" ginger grated
1 clove garlic grated
1/2 red chilli
juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp peanut or sunflower oil
Combine main salad ingredients in a big bowl. Combine dressing ingredients in a jam jar and shake well. Add the dressing to the main salad, give it a good stir and leave for 5-10 minutes so that the flavours from the dressing can be absorbed by the rest of the salad. I also pour over the pan juices from cooking the pork.....mmmm yummy pig fat. *Note* if you are one of my nutrition clients then I'd prefer that you ignore that last line
Here you can see Stokesy mentally portioning out the salad.....hmmmm 2 spoonfuls for Kathryn, the rest for me.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

IOM Today come to school

Rachel (shorthand expert), Annabelle (fishatarian), Mike (missed dessert!) and Gary (queenie virgin) from IOM Newspapers came to the school today to photo and film me teaching them a couple of recipes. They requested local + seasonal....so that's what they got. Who says I can't do as I'm told?!

I'll post links to the video and photos as soon as they're online.

On the menu:

1. Queenie stir-fry with spring onion, ginger and tiny carrots
2. Raspberry shortbread stack with blackcurrant puree

And for once I am actually going to provide you with proper recipes......here ya go...

Queenie stir-fry with spring onion and baby carrots - Serves 4

1 tbsp Ellerslie Farm rapeseed oil - from Pentti on 472717
1" root ginger finely sliced
2 cloves garlic finely sliced
1 bunch baby Manx carrots - From Ken on 880370
2 bunches Manx spring onions finely sliced - from Bry Radcliffe
24 Manx Queenies - from Desmonds in Ramsey
50ml soy sauce
50ml water
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Heat the oil in a wok or large pan, add the garlic, ginger, carrots and spring onion and fry for a minute or two until softened. Then add the queenies and cook for a further 2 minutes until they have browned slightly, add the soy and water, taste and more water or soy if required then sprinkle over the sesame seeds. Eat immediately.

Delicate shortbread biscuits - Makes 25

170g white plain flour - Laxey Glen Mills
110g butter - IOM Creameries
55g sugar

Put the flour and sugar into a large bowl. Rub in the butter. Gather the mixture together and knead lightly. Roll out to 7mm thick. Cut into rounds with a 6cm cutter. Bake in the oven at 180˚C for 8-15 minutes depending on thickness. These biscuits burn very easily so keep a close eye on them.

Serve layered with whipped double cream, soft fruit and fruit coulis. Thank you for Ken Maynard for the lovely fruit too, blackcurrants and raspberries. Thank you to the sparrows for leaving me some!

Queenie Festival....including celeb chefs woohoooo!

Pictures courtesy of Isle of Man Queenie Festival

Queenie Festival 09 was a great success. I was taking care of the Food Theatre where we had a load of queenie/seafood demos. A big thank you to Butlers Choice (ask for Sue on 614805) for sponsoring the demo kitchen, they provided Global knives (yes, you should be jealous), Le Creuset pans, Induction hobs and loads more.
On stage we had Mitch Tonks and Mark Hix, top seafood chefs from the UK. There are loads of photos here on flickr. We also had Joan from Tanroagan showing us Queenie Pie with samphire, Anne from The Wine Cellar matching wine and seafood, Paul from Moore's smokehouse with his kippers and crab, plus the Laxey School recipe book crew including their star chef Richard.

Chargrilled summer veggies with chilli dressing

Forgive me father, for it is a long time since my last blog. I know, I've been a bad girl, leaving you all alone. But I've got a good excuse.....errrmm.....the dog ate my blog? No, I've been working my tail off, getting ready for some food events over here. I'll post a bit about them shortly. But more important is the piccie of my dinner above :o)
Chargrilled veg.....mushrooms from Greeba Farm and courgettes from Kim's allotment (cheers Kim!). These were cooked on a hot griddle whilst I mixed up the dressing. For this you will need:
2tbsp Ellerslie rapeseed oil, 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, 1 clove garlic, big pinch sea salt, 1 red chilli
Throw that lot into your pestle and mortar, and bash it until emulsified. Then drizzle it over your hot veggies. Yum

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

DTL Girls - NIght out at Relish

The girls from DTL (Dept of Tourism and Leisure) came over to Relish on Friday night for some R&R. This came in the form of Massaman curry and Chocolate Truffles......plus they got to check out Stokesy in his pinny. Down girls!

We started with a chocolate tasting, well they had been at work all day, I didn't want any of them fainting on me. Next we made the curry paste and did veg prep. Then they learnt the secrets of seasoning Thai-style. A sprinkling of coriander, roasted peanuts and perfectly sliced limes completed the dish.

After dinner the girls shaped then dipped the truffles in more chocolate, making sure they did plenty of tasting along the way. Now that's what I call a Friday night!