Greek night. Easy meal.

We enjoy Greek night at our house. Its a buffet of sorts. I take a few chicken breasts and slice them really thin. Easy way to do this is freeze them and just as they start to thaw you can slice the breasts paper thin. I heat some olive oil in a pan and put in some Greek spices. Oregano, paprika, basil, mild chili and onion powder. Heat for 30 seconds or so. Then add chicken. The thinner the chicken the quicker it cooks.

Take some pita bread and cut in half with kitchen scissors.  Put some Hummus and Tzatziki.  *Tzatziki- chop cucumber up into small chunks. Add it to Greek yogart and add some mint. *   Add feta cheese and the chicken.  Add a few cucumber slices. Its yummy and pretty healthy.

Vanilla Sugar

I love watching Jamie Oliver shows. I love him to bits. He is a sweetheart. So, with his latest series, I noticed him using Vanilla sugar. Hmmm. New one to me. I love Vanilla. Its what I would choose over most everything. So my interest was peaked. He made it look easy to make. So I gave it a go over the weekend.

Get some Vanilla bean pods. I found some at Tesco. In a metal tube in the fancy ingredient section. I also got a 500g bag of organic sugar.  I took one of the bean pods and cut it up a bit and whizzed it in the food processor. It didn’t whizz up great. The blades didn’t really hit it.  So I added the sugar. Whizz, whizz, whizz. I poured it into a sieve and using a spoon stirred it until all the sugar went into a bowl underneath. I was left with a bit of big bits. I whizzed those with a bit of the sugar and sieved again. I was left with a bit of the bean bits left that where big. I just tossed them away. I put the sugar in an air tight canister. Its supposed to get stronger with time.

It is great. Next to Vanilla I love coffee. I could live on coffee. I will always get a vanilla latte at any cafe I go to. So I brewed up some espresso and heated up some milk in my big mug. Normally we use the sweetener tabs. I substituted 1 teaspoon full of vanilla sugar for 1 sweetener tab. It was the perfect sweetness, and perfect vanilla flavor. Yeah. No need to buy any syrup again.

You can also use Vanilla sugar on top of cakes, or cookies and things like that. It is supposed to last donkeys years in an airtight container and it was fairly cheap to make. Win / win in my book.  Thanks Jamie. Your the best.

Chicken and Stock

Every week I go to the farm store and buy a free range Chicken and some free range eggs. If I can’t make it to the farm store I go to the grocery store, but its always free range. Yes, its a little more expensive, but not much. And I can get 3 meals out of a chicken, usually.

It doesn’t matter if you roast the chicken or boil it you can get broth. The best broth comes from a boiled chicken. It is so easy. Just take a huge pot and plop the chicken in. I usually cut off any bands or ties that may be on it. Then fill the pot with water. I add a few bay leaves and Thyme. Rinse a stalk of celery and drop in, no need to cut it up. Take a small onion and peel the skin and cut in half and drop in. Peel a small carrot and cut off ends and drop in. These are for flavor not really for eating. Put on lid and turn on heat and boil the bird for about 1 1/2 to 2 hrs. You may need to add a little more water half way through. The bird is cooked when the legs and wings just fall off.

I just turn off the heat and let the bird sit in the water until it cools a little. Then with two big forks pull the bird out and sit it on a plate. This is like a roast bird, but not as greasy. When its cool enough to touch pull all the meat from the bones. This meat can be used in any dish that calls for chicken.

Once the stock has cooled down I pour it through a strainer to stain out veg or bones that may be in it. Strain it into a container with a lid. Put it in the fridge. The stock will thicken into a jelly consistency when its cold. The best bit is that all the fat will be sitting on top. Just take a spoon and scrap it off. Now you have a low fat, home made stock. Great to make soup, or anything that requires stock. As soon as the stock heats up it goes back to liquid so don’t worry about the jelly consistency.

Veggie Paella

I love Spain. I love going to a beach side restaurant and having freshly made Paella. There is nothing like it. You will, however, find me picking out all the fish, Mussels, and shrimp. I can’t  be doing with seafood. Ever since I got seafood poisoning in Dallas Tx at a lovely seafood place I can not stomach the idea. So here is my version of Paella. It is no where as good as the stuff in Spain, but I don’t live in Spain so I have to make due.

Veggie Paella

1 bag of Paella Rice

1 onion finely chopped

1 Bell Pepper finely chopped

1 carrot peeled into strips and chopped

3 stalks of celery finely chopped

1/2 cup peas

(any other veg you may have can go in the pot. I am not picky)

Olive Oil, enough to cover bottom of pan nicely.

Garlic  powdered or fresh

1/4 tsp of Saffron  (yes its expensive, but you can get it for about £2 at Tesco. Not the highest of quality. or leave out. It just wont be yellow)

1/2 to 3/4 tsp of Paprika to taste.

3 or 4 veg Oxo cubes

2 or 3 chicken Oxo cubes

1 can of chopped tomatoes

salt to taste

Boiling water or broth

Very similar to Risotto.

In pot, put in Olive oil and heat up. Add garlic, Paprika, saffron for 30 sec to flavour oil then add veg. Cook until onions have softened. Add rice and cook a bit more.

Now add boiling water or broth in ladle fulls. Then add Oxo cubes. Stir and let it boil then add more of the water. Repeat as its cooking rice. towards the end, about the time of the last ladle fulls add tomatoes and peas (if frozen, fresh add with other veg.) Taste and make sure that the rice is cooked. This wont be as creamy as Risotto.

My family loves this.  Makes a really nice meal.

Somethings wrong

The world is out of wack. There is something wrong with the Fridge. Its been to warm for days.  We may need a new one. Thank goodness the freezer “Seems” to be working. This is not in the plan. This is not in the budget. To top it off, I will have to throw out all the stuff in it.

They say it comes in threes. First it was the computer… dead. Now the fridge. Whats next… the TV? KNOCK ON WOOD!

My love for Risotto

Up to a few years ago I had never even eaten Risotto let alone made it. I kept seeing it being made on telly and it looked fairly easy. So I looked up a recipe  and dove in. My first try was okay, nothing special. It kind of turned hubby off but my step daughter loved it and I thought give it another shot. After all, I had never eaten it before so I really didn’t know what it was supposed to taste like.  So for 3 or 4 years now I have been perfecting it and I must say, its pretty damn good.

Here is my basic Risotto recipe.  Feel free to add any veg you want.

1 bag Risotto rice.

chopped onion

sliced Mushrooms

chopped red and yellow bell peppers

Chopped celery

use a peeler and peel carrot strips then chop up

1 container of low fat creme fresh  (or sour cream)

1 container of marscapone cheese (or ricotta)

Fresh  Parmesan cheese. Grated. I can not stress fresh not the crap that comes in the container.

1 big panfull of boiling water or stalk if you have it. On the hob on a low boil.

3 or 4 oxo cubes

Olive oil

White wine if you have it.

A couple of tablespoons of butter

In a large pot heat  up olive oil add spices. (what ever you like, thyme, oregano, basil, what ever) put it in for 30 seconds then add veg. fry up for about 10 mins. Then add rice and fry in for about 5 mins. This softens the rice a bit. This is a good place to add any additional veg you may want. Add white wine.

Now, by the ladle full, add water or broth. Add a few ladles at a time. Add your Oxo cubes. Stir and let it cook into the rice. Add more water/broth and cook into rice.  Repeat until rice is tender. (How do you know? taste it silly)  When rice is tender add butter.  Stir it in. Turn off heat. Add Creme fresh and Marscapone cheese and stir it in. Then grate the Parmesan cheese over the top and stir in. Taste. If it needs salt add a bit.

This is pretty basic and really really good. It will make a lot. Great for leftovers. My 2 year old son devours it. My step daughter is the same so its great for kids, with the bonus of them getting their 5 a day.