The end is nigh!

I can't belove it's the last day of my 30 day NaBloPoMo challenge. And I'm sorry to disappoint you but there is no recipe today. The main reason for that is I haven't cooked a thing all day. N and I went out for our first Christmas dinner with friends today. It was a lovely evening, good food, good company, but it felt a little to early to be Christmas. I ate turkey and we pulled crackers but I still don't feel festive yet. Saying that advent calendars start tomorrow and I must put up my tree this week. Once I've done that I'm sure that will get me in the mood. And now my 30 days food blogging challenge is over I can start thinking about Christmas shopping. And all the other things I've put on hold for the last month. Because amazingly by spending 30 minutes every day writing a post, I have neglected everything else. My admin pile is mountaining, I have phone calls to return, we are running short of clean clothes and lets not even start talking about my skirting boards! That is because I now realise that the only 'free-time' I have every day (weekends are a bit different of course) is about 30 minutes. And I've been using that blogging. But I have no regrets. It was a greater challenge than I had anticipated but I got to the end. It wasn't easy, about day 9 I broke down and sobbed to N that I couldn't do it anymore. But I got past the wall and it was worth it. What an achievement for an absolutely fantastic cause. Thank you to everyone who logged on and read my blog, particularly those of you who logged on every day. Without seeing how many page views I was getting I doubt I would have been motivated to carry on. Thank you to all the wonderful people who favourited and re-tweeted my tweets and to everyone who liked my Facebook status. You have all been amazing and I really hope that somewhere in these 30 posts there has been a recipe of two you have used. 

So for now this is goodbye. I promise to donate my money to CHECT this week. And for any of you feeling particularly generous as Christmas approaches you can donate directly at www.chect.org.uk. Apart from learning how little free time I have, this post has reminded me that if you try you can always find time for something you want to do. So although I have no intention of posting every day I do promise to keep adding something at regular intervals so please make sure you keep checking! 

Capers!

For NaBloPoMo November 2014 my challenge is to upload a post every day thoughout the month. That's 30 days and 30 posts. The more page views I get per day the more money I will donate to the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust (CHECT). Help support my challenge by logging on daily and donating directly www.chect.org.uk. 

Yesterday's total page views: 100 

I actually managed to find 10 minutes this afternoon to browse through a recipe book. That is something I love to do but I rarely make time for it, there's just too much else to do. I have so many cookery books, thousands of beautiful pages with colourful and exciting recipes waiting to get out. But they just sit there on my shelf tucked away in a dark cupboard. But today I got out my favourite one. Nigel Slater's kitchen diaries, only for once I picked up volume 2.  I stumbled across a beautiful recipe for sea bass with rosemary and capers. I had all the right ingredients at home (except some sherry vinegar, oh and I added a few green olives in for good measure). it must have been fate! 

As a description to the recipe Nigel wrote a beautiful prose about capers. It is amazing how these random salty berries that lurk in the door of the fridge could be so fascinating. Here's an excerpt...

'Capers generally come in brine or salt. The latter is considered better, mostly because the capers are plumper and, although salty, the seasoning stays on the outside and can be washed off - unlike the brined version, where the capers soak up the water solution like sponges. 

The caper is the cooks' first call for piquancy. Bitter, sharp and salty, it has the ability to bring out the flavour of any ingredient it is partnered with. A dull nugget that makes others shine'. 

Nigel is without-a-doubt my food writing guru. I could read his words all day. 

Sea bass with rosemary and capers 

(Serves 2 | total prep and cooking time 40 mins)

Ingredients 

- 2 boneless sea bass fillets 

- approx 250g new potatoes

- olive oil

- 1-2 bushy sprigs of rosemary 

- 1/2 chilli - deseeded and finely chopped 

- tablespoon of capers - rinsed and crushed or chopped slightly 

 - juice of half a lemon

- 2 cloves garlic - finely chopped

- 6-8 green olives - sliced 

- tablespoon of chopped parsley

Method

- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees fan

- Wash the potatoes and cut them into slices about the thickness of a pound coin

- warm a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large, shallow pan or roasting tin set over a moderate to low heat and slide in the potatoes. Cook for a about 10 mins stirring and turning regularly so they don't stick to the pan 

- while the potatoes are cooking remove the needles from the rosemary and place in a small bowl. Add the chilli, capers, olives, lemon juice, tablespoon of olive oil, parsley and garlic and stir well

- when the potatoes have been cooking for 10 mins, take off the heat and lay the sea bass fillets on top. Pour over the dressing and cover the dish with foil

- place in the oven for approx 25 mins until the fish and potatoes are cooked 

Should we chicken out?

For NaBloPoMo November 2014 my challenge is to upload a post every day thoughout the month. That's 30 days and 30 posts. The more page views I get per day the more money I will donate to the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust (CHECT). Help support my challenge by logging on daily and donating directly www.chect.org.uk. 

Yesterday's total page views: 54

So this chicken contamination story scared me a little today, and my automatic reaction was 'should I stop eating chicken?' Until I realised of course that this is not new. Chicken infected with campylobacter has always been the case, the food standards agency has just happened to release a new report on it. But as much as I always knew you have to be really careful with undercooked chicken or contamination with raw chicken juices I did not know that up to 70% of all supermarket bought fresh chicken is infected. That is huge. And no supermarket is spared although some seem to sell a greater proportion of infected meat than others. And ironically going free range is worse as chickens pick up bacteria from the ground. I know supermarkets have pledged to reduce their rate of infected chicken over the forthcoming years by 'steam-cleaning' the meat but is this really the answer. They only plan to reduce the percentage of campylobacter in chickens by 10% so if you go in to a shop and buy a chicken you still have a very high chance of buying infected poultry. So the only real solution is incredible food hygiene and safe cooking practices.  I like to think I am pretty careful but I guess you can never be too sure. I always use a separate chopping board for meat, chicken and fish and I make sure my chicken is well cooked even if I risk over cooking it. But the best tip I ever learnt was to not wash the chicken. This made no sense to start with, I assumed by washing it you clean it, but actually all you do is spread the bacteria. 

So after my little panic I calmed down. You clearly can't stop eating chicken, but it's a great reminder of how careful you need to be with these things. 

Spag Bol!

For NaBloPoMo November 2014 my challenge is to upload a post every day thoughout the month. That's 30 days and 30 posts. The more page views I get per day the more money I will donate to the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust (CHECT). Help support my challenge by logging on daily and donating directly www.chect.org.uk. 

Yesterday's total page views: 91

Spaghetti Bolognese is probably one of the most frequently made dinners. In fact it's almost thought of as a bit of a cop out! Especially if you use a ready made sauce. But it doesn't have to be. I try to put a bit of a twist on mine by packing it full of veggies. It makes it taste less dense and it's a fantastic way to boost your 5-a-day, especially for little ones that try to avoid their greens! The key to a great bolognese is to cook the mince on a low heat for as long possible. If you have the time to do this fantastic, but I would add the vegetables a lot later so you can preserve the vitamins. 

My Spag Bol! 

(Serves 2 | total prep and cooking time at least 1 hour)

Ingredients 

- 120-150g spaghetti 

- 400g pack of beef or lamb mince

- 1 onion - diced

- 3 cloves garlic - finely chopped

- 6-7 mushrooms - sliced 

- vegetables e.g leek (very finely chopped), spinach, peas etc 

- 227g tin chopped tomatoes

- lamb or beef stock - how much depends on how long you plan to cook it for, if you don't make enough don't worry you can top up with water if need be

- Italian herbs 

Method 

- cook the spaghetti according to packet instructions

- fry the onion in a large frying pan or sauté pan

- add the garlic and fry for a few moments

- add the mince and brown, stirring regularly so the mince doesn't clump together

- add the mushrooms and vegetables and fry for a few moments 

- pour in the tomatoes and add the herbs. Stir well and cook for a few moments

- add approx 200 ml of stock and simmer for 30 mins. Keep adding water if it dries out or turn up the heat and uncover if there is too much water

- serve on top of the spaghetti or mix the spaghetti into the sauce

Arrabiata

For NaBloPoMo November 2014 my challenge is to upload a post every day thoughout the month. That's 30 days and 30 posts. The more page views I get per day the more money I will donate to the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust (CHECT). Help support my challenge by logging on daily and donating directly www.chect.org.uk. 

Yesterday's total page views: 42

For some reason I never order Arrabiata when I go out to eat but I quite enjoy making it at home. It's an especially good choice when I have a pack of bacon in the fridge that needs using up. And if I happen to have my back-up ready roast chicken in the fridge it's actually a pretty speedy meal. For some reason I always add mushrooms, I guess it breaks up the meatiness a little. I know it's traditionally meant to be made with penne but I vary the pasta depending on my mood, but to be honest the penne tastes the best! 

Pasta Arrabiata

(Serves 2 | total prep and cooking time 40 mins)

Ingredients 

- 150 g or 6 handfuls of pasta 

- 1 onion - diced 

- 3 cloves of garlic - finely chopped 

- 1/2 chilli - finely chopped 

- 3 tomatoes - chopped

- 150-200g mushrooms - sliced

- 4 rashers of bacon

- 1 chicken breast fillet

- basil or other Italian herbs - frozen, fresh or dried

- black pepper

- 150ml vegetable or chicken stock 

Method

- cut the chicken breast into small pieces and fry in a little oil until sealed all over. Set aside

- heat a little more oil and cook the bacon. Once cooked remove any fat and cut into small pieces

- heat some more oil and fry the onion, garlic and chilli 

- add the mushrooms and cook for a few moments 

- add the tomatoes 

- return the chicken an bacon to the pan and stir well

- add the herbs and the stock and simmer for 10-15 mins until the chicken in cooked through. 

- turn up the heat until any excess liquid has evaporated 

- meanwhile cook pasta according to intstrictions 

- once cooked, drain the pasta and stir into the Arrabiata sauce 

- top with fresh black pepper

A quick meal for a cold winter night

For NaBloPoMo November 2014 my challenge is to upload a post every day thoughout the month. That's 30 days and 30 posts. The more page views I get per day the more money I will donate to the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust (CHECT). Help support my challenge by logging on daily and donating directly www.chect.org.uk. 

Yesterday's total page views: 66

I can't believe how the weather has changed. I feel like all I have done today is de-ice my car. In my 15 years of working this is the first winter I've ever have to drive to work. I used to envy people that could get into their warm cars on a cold winter morning but I had not accounted for how long it takes to clear frosted windows. Thank goodness for de-icer. It has got to be the best invention. Except for the poor girl that was getting into the car across the road from me this evening. I saw her start her car and just stand outside it waiting. I shouted across the road to ask her if she wanted to borrow some de-icer and she looked eternally grateful. It turns out she had two cans of it in the boot, but her boot had frozen shut. Now how do you possibly account for that! Moral of the story is keep it in the main car, one of those 4 doors is bound to open! 

Anyway, so after reaching home, late and covered in frost, barely feeling my fingers and toes, all I wanted was a hot shower and dinner to be ready for me. Thankfully I had some lemon sole in the fridge and just the recipe for a quicky tasty weekday dinner! 

Lemon Sole

(Serves 2 | total prep and cooking time 25 mins) 

Ingredients 

- 3-4 lemon sole fillets (they are pretty thin so you may need more than one each) 

- olive oil

- juice of 1/2 a lemon

- 2 spring onions - finely sliced 

- 1-2 tablespoons capers - slightly crushed 

- 6-7 green pitted olives - sliced 

- tablespoon chopped parsley 

- black pepper 

Method 

- preheat the oven to 180 degrees fan

- place the fish fillets in an ovenproof dish

- in a bowl mix together the olive oil, lemon juice, spring onions, capers, olive, parsley amd black pepper 

- pour the marinade over the fish

- cover with foil and cook for 10-15 mins until the fish is opaque and flaky

- serve with boiled new potatoes and your choice of vegetables 

The perfect egg fried rice

Working out how to make perfect egg fried rice is like trying to boil the perfect egg. It sounds simple but actually it takes a bit if practice and trial and error to get it right. The most crucial thing is to make sure the rice is cooked and cooled before hand. The easiest way to cool it is to spread it out on a plate. The next bit is whether you scramble your egg first or add it in to the rice. Ken Hom recommends the latter and who am I to question my Chinese cooking guru. And to be honest it tastes pretty good, try it next time you make Chinese food, you may have found your perfect egg fried rice recipe. 

Cook and cool the rice

In a bowl whisk egg(s) with some toasted sesame oil and a pinch of salt

Heat the groundnut oil in a large frying pan or wok

Add the cooled rice and stir fry for a few minutes

Drizzle on the egg mixture and fry for a few minutes until the egg has set and the mixture is dry 

Continue to fry for a few more minute until some of the rice grains start to turn a bit crispy

Top with chopped spring onions if you wish