"Fake" Sausage Paella

J asked for Paella... "Fake" Paella as I call it as he doesn't like sea food - and for me, if it doesn't have at least a few prawns, it's not Paella.

We skipped our weekly shop, so our fridge is quite empty... Nonetheless, I managed to pull this one off.

 

Here's what I used:

- 8 thick fresh pork sausages, skin removed (I didn't have any other meat)

- 2 small onions, finely diced

- Olive oil (+/- 2 tablespoons)

- Garlic Granules

- Smoked Paprika (+/- 1 1/2 tablespoons)

- Chorizo (I used 6 large thin slices of Spanish Chorizo from a packet)

- Turmeric (1 tablespoon)

- Rice (I used +/- 2 mugs of long grain rice)

- Salt

- 1 chicken stock cube

- Frozen Peas

- Dried Parsley

First I removed the skin from the sausages and cut them into chunks.

In a large frying pan heat olive oil and then fry the sausage.

Once the sausage gets a bit of colour, add the onion and garlic granules (and a bit more olive oil if pan is too dry) and let it fry. 

Add the chorizo (I chopped mine into tiny bits using scissors) and sprinkle with paprika, let it cook for a couple of minutes.

Then add the rice and mix well, making sure it gets covered with the frying pan juices/fat.

Pour about one mug of stock, add turmeric and let the rice soak. The rice will soon absorb the stock, so carry on adding more stock, (or boiling water when your stock runs out), just like you do with risotto.

When the rice is soft, but still has a bite to it (it took me about 12 minutes) add frozen peas and dried parsley.

If the rice is practically cooked, but is getting really dry and sticking to the pan, careful, don't add too much water - just add enough to finish cooking. Check seasoning, and add salt if necessary - mine only needed a pinch, as sausages, chorizo and stock are naturally salty.

... And that's it! "Fake" Sausage Paella. Quick, inexpensive and tasty.

I made loads, so we'll have a nice leftover lunch tomorrow.

 
Let me know if you have a go ;)

Pork Meatballs

A lot has happened since my last entry.

After 6 years of living, cooking and eating together, it was time to say bye-bye to M. who left for new ventures last Summer.

The household is now composed by J, myself and our parasite ;) who should be fully baked by June.

We now live in a tiny (ridiculous small) one bedroom flat, with the tiniest kitchen I've ever had to deal with...
To say cooking has become extremely challenging is an understatement! Still, we persevere... But I must admit that my kitchen is so dysfunctional, I no longer have the same willpower to cook and experiment.

Another thing that really pisses me off, are my economic lightbulbs, who (supposedly) help to keep electricity bills low... But on the other hand, turns my pictures this awful shade of yellow! (I've literally given up taking photos indoors - so I've been lazy and whenever I want to snap something, I just use my phone/tablet... To be honest, I don't even know where my camera is since we moved!)

Anyway, I thought I should stop procrastinating and update Yummo!

So today, we made pork meatballs.



Here's what I used (please be aware that most of the given measures are 'eye-o-metered' and are not precise)

• 2 onions (diced as thinly as you possibly can)
• Olive oil (about 3 generous tablespoons)
• Bay leaf
• 750 g minced pork
• Parsley (I used dried for convenience)
• Garlic (I used granules)
• 2 eggs
• Salt and pepper
• Fine breadcrumbs (about 5 tablespoons)
• Smoked paprika
• Vegetable oil spray

In a large frying pan, fry the onion with olive oil, garlic, bay leaf and parsley until onion is cooked and soft.

Place the onion in a bowl and let it cool down.

Once the onion is cool, add the minced pork, eggs, smoked paprika, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Mix ingredients with your hands, and check if the mix holds well together. If it's not gluing, just add an extra egg (you might need to add more breadcrumbs if the mix becomes too soggy).

Mould meatballs and place them on a tray, previously sprayed with vegetable oil.

Cover with cling film and place in fridge for at least 15 minutes.

Re-heat the frying pan and spray some vegetable oil. When hot, place meatballs and let them cook, turning them frequently. Make sure they're cooked throughout. 

I almost cremated mine to ensure they were totally cooked... 

Let me know if you have a go ;)

Muffins

I really fancied baking today, so I decided to bake some muffins.

Here's how I made them - easy, peasy!

• 150 g self-raising flour
• 100 g granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon and 1/2 orange
• 90 ml milk 
• 60 ml vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 30 g plain chocolate, finely grated

Place all ingredients (except chocolate) in a bowl and mix well. 

Then add chocolate to the dough and stir.  

Pour onto muffin cases, only 3/4 full as muffins will rise! 

Place in preheated oven at 140ºC fan (or 160ºC if fanless) and bake for 30 minutes.

Don't be fooled by their pale colour, prick them with a toothpick/skewer to check if they are done. They should be ready after 30 minutes, unless your oven is playing up.

This recipe yields 8 muffins. Let me know if you have a go ;)

Chicken with Couscous

Here's something yummy and quick - inspired from here.

I sometimes find couscous a bit bland, but this recipe packs so much flavour, hands up I'll never look at couscous the same way again!

Here's what I used:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, diced thinly
• 2 large chicken breasts, diced
• Salt, Pepper
• Garlic Granules
• Ground Ginger
• 1 heaped teaspoon of harissa paste (we are wimps - use more if you like it hot and spicy)
• Dried apricots (about 10), diced thinly
• 1 can of chickpeas (I used Napolina as I find them softer than other brands)
• 200 g couscous
• 1 ½ cups of chicken stock, made with one stock cube (I used Knorr)
• Ground Coriander (unfortunately I didn't have any fresh available)

Here's how I did it:

Sauté onions in olive oil until translucid.
Add chicken, season with salt, pepper and garlic granules (be generous with the garlic). Let the chicken cook through.

Add harissa paste and ginger, stir and make sure chicken is coated with the paste. Let it cook for +/- 2 minutes.

Add the apricots and chickpeas (previously drained and washed).

Pour stock into pan, cover and let it simmer for 5 minutes.

Sprinkle a bit of coriander on top and fluff the couscous.

Serve it up!

It doesn't look like much, but let me tell you... this was absolutely delicious!

Yummo!

Pancakes

I must have dreamt with pancakes, because that was the first thing that came into my mind this morning. So one must oblige!

I regret not taking any decent pictures of the pancake tower, but they were warm and calling for us... so I'm afraid this is it:

We had a mix of sweet and savoury - bacon and scrambled egg, butter, honey and lemon and sugar.
I really ought to get some Maple Syrup!

Here's the recipe:

• 3 eggs
• 2 cups of milk
• 2 cups of flour (and a bit more if batter is too runny)
• 2 tablespoons full of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon full of baking soda
  

Bang everything in a bowl and beat with electric mixer.

Grease a frying pan with butter and then remove excess butter with kitchen paper - keep the greasy paper nearby.

Once the pan is hot and well greased, pour about half a laddle and let it set. Once the batter starts bubbling and the bottom is set and light brown, quickly flip it over and wait for a minute or two - this side shouldn't take too long to cook.

Take it away from the heat, and rub the greasy paper on the frying pan prior to pouring the batter. Mind your fingers! If you've got asbestos fingers you should be okay, but it's probably wiser if you use a spoon or another utensil to rub the paper on the pan.

Add a tiny bit of butter if the greasy kitchen paper doesn't grease the pan enough.

If you're impatient like me, I would suggest you have two or three small frying pans on the go... I had two going on today and it took me about 10-15 minutes.

We didn't manage to eat them all, so I froze the rest for when I'm feeling lazy.

Just make sure you let them cool down and then separate them with baking paper before you place them in the freezer.

Yum!

Carrot Cake

I fancied a bit of baking today - and carrot cake was the result (got inspired with this recipe).

No matter what I do, my carrot cakes baked in the UK are never as orangey as the ones baked in Portugal... do UK carrots have less carotene? I haven't got a clue!

I usually do my carrot cake differently, but today I did it like this:

• 3 carrots, peeled
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups flour
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven at 180ºC and prepare baking tin with margarine and flour.

In a blender/liquidifier/Magic bullet/whatever you use, put carrots, eggs, oil and blitz until you get a runny orange mix without any chunks of carrot.

In a bowl, place flour, sugar and baking powder. Add carrot mix to the bowl and mix well.

Pour onto tin and bake.

Let it bake for about 35-40 minutes, stab it with a skewer to check if cooked.

I guess you could ice the cake to your liking... cream cheese or chocolate would go well... but I could not be bothered am a carrot cake purist, and just had it like that :)

Yum!

Roast Chicken - Portuguese style!

A case of Achilles tendonitis has been bothering me and making me feel pretty useless; so today I really felt in need of comfort food and what's better than a bit of a taste from home, eh?

I found this recipe a while ago, which inspired tonight's dinner.
(It's in Portuguese but nothing that a web translator won't fix :p )



Here's what I used:

• 4 chicken leg quarters (I'm sure other chicken parts would work well!)
• White potatoes
• 1 tablespoon of Portuguese sweet red pepper paste (aka massa de pimentão)
• 3 garlic cloves, thinly chopped
• 1 teaspoon of lard
• 2 tablespoons of margarine
• 1 cup of white wine
• 1 cup of chicken stock
• Chorizo, cubed (or bacon)
• S & P

Peel and cut the potatoes and let them soak in salty water. Pre-heat the oven at 200ºC, clean/cut the chicken, chop garlic.

Place the chicken in oven dish and add garlic, red pepper paste, salt and pepper (be careful with the salt, as the pepper paste can be quite salty). Make sure all the chicken gets covered in it!

Drain the potatoes and place them in the dish with the chicken, mix them together so they get a bit of seasoning and colour. Throw spoons of lard and margarine on top of it. 

Add wine and stock. (Next time I'll reduce wine/stock quantities as I found it had too much liquid).

Bang it in the oven!

Make sure you turn the chicken and potatoes every now and then, every 15 minutes or so.

After +/- 40 minutes, I added the chorizo and then let it roast for another 30 minutes. 

It didn't taste quite like my mum's, but it was yummolicius nonetheless!!!

... and perhaps this is the only bright side to using crutches! Me = 1 x Fire Alarm = 0! 

Amazing Chocolate Cake!

Chocolate cake is not my favourite (I'm more of a lemon drizzle cake kinda gal), but I hold my hands up - this was probably one of the best chocolate cake I ever had! Definitely the best chocolate cake I ever baked.
It was just sooooo good I could have eaten the whole thing by myself... so, I took most of it to work so M. and I couldn't eat it all as we would feel guilty because we are on a perpetual diet.

I got inspiration from this recipe, but deviated from the recipe as usual.

Here's what I used:

• 3 cups flour (I used self-raising)
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 ½ tablespoon baking soda (the photo has baking powder, but I did use baking soda)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup of chocolate powder (I used Tesco's drinking chocolate powder)
• 1 ⅓ cups vegetable oil
• 1 pack of buttermilk (284 ml)
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup freshly brewed strong coffee (I brewed a Nescafé Dolce Gusto Americano capsule)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pack of plain chocolate
• 1 pack of milk chocolate
• +/- 200 ml of whipping cream

Spray a large round cake tin and line the bottom with parchment paper.

In a large bowl mix flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, chocolate powder.

Add oil and buttermilk and combine using the mixer on low speed.

Add eggs one at a time.

Add coffee slowly.

Mix that bad boy!!

Pour batter onto the tin.

Bang in the oven, preheated at 170ºC.

It took me about one hour for it to be baked.

When the cake is almost ready (last 10 minutes of baking), start preparing the ganache. 

Easy peasy: Hot water in pan, bowl inside pan, chocolate and cream inside bowl, wait until it starts melting, mix - done!

Set it aside and let it cool for a bit.

By this time your cake should be ready, so take it out and let it cool for a bit.

I turned my cake upside down because the bottom was prettier.

Spread the ganache all over the cake, the counter and yourself.

I must say that I was rushing so I didn't do a very good job (had to pick up J. from work)... I just wanted the cake done and ready, no time to make it look perfect!

I don't think any of these pictures makes this cake any justice! Each slice was so moist and yummy, it was great! (I really should have taken a picture of a slice)

Anyway, if you need a chocolate fix, I seriously recommend to have a go at this - I can't wait until I bake it again!

Sausage Roast Dinner

I fancied a roast dinner, but didn't really have any nice meat to roast (and we all went a bit overboard with our Christmas shopping, so we need to watch the pennies!) - so sausage roast dinner it was!

What I used:

• Sausages (I used 12 Richmond thick)
• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Parsnips
• Salt/Pepper
• Honey
• Olive Oil
• Vegetable Oil
• Frozen Yorkshire pudding
• Gravy Granules (I used Bisto - Favourite)

First I peeled the potatoes and put them in a pan with cold salty water.

Then I peeled and cut the carrots and parsnips and placed them on a tray. Add salt and pepper, drizzle of olive oil and honey. Bang them in the oven - preheated at 190ºC.



The potatoes should be just starting to boil by now - let them be for about 6 minutes (don't let them cook completely!!)

Drain the potatoes and place them on a baking tray, pour a bit of vegetable oil over them and give them a shake to make sure they get coated with the oil.



Put the tray in the oven (potatoes on the top shelf, vegetables on the bottom) - let it roast for 20 minutes.

It's time to add the sausages. I didn't season these, I just took them out of the package and placed them straight onto the oven dish.

Shake the potatoes and vegetables.



Roast for 15 minutes, then turn the sausages (and shake the other trays if you are inclined).
Give it another 15 minutes... everything should be cooked!

If your potatoes, veg and sausages need a bit more colour, increase oven temperature (to 220ºC) and roast for a further 10 minutes.

I added my frozen yorkshire puddings when there were 4 minutes remaining.

While you wait for the final minutes of roasting to be done - prepare your gravy.

Dish everything up and pour the gravy on top.




Hmmm... yummo!

Smoked Mackerel Kedgeree

I got some smoked mackerel on special the other day, it's been ages since we had some!
We also hadn't had kedgeree for a good while... so why not have a bit of both?!

I never used smoked mackerel in kedgeree, we always do it with smoked haddock... but what could go wrong? They're both smoked and very fishy!

Here's what I used:

• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 1 onion - finely chopped
• 1 ½ tablespoon of curry
• 1 tablespoon of turmeric
• ½ teaspoon cinammon
• 1 mug of long grain rice (don't use easy cook)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon full of tomato passata
• 300 g smoked mackerel, flaked
• Parsley (I used dried because I didn't have any fresh)
• Salt, Pepper and Garlic Granules for seasoning
• Lemon

First put the eggs in some cold water and salt, let them cook on the side while you get the other things done.

I hardboiled more than needed so I could have some egg mayo sandwiches for lunch :)

In a wide non-stick pan with lid, heat oil and cook onion until translucent. 

Add curry powder, turmeric, cinnamon, rice, tomato passata and stir.

Pour 2 mugs of water, season with salt, paper and garlic granules. Bring to boil and cover. Simmer for 12 minutes (or until rice is cooked).

By this time, your eggs should be ready to cool down and peel.

You could also flake your mackerel in case you haven't done it previously.

After rice is cooked (water should be all gone!!) add flaked mackerel and boiled egg to the pan and sprinkle with parsley.

Mix everything together.

Serve with a wedge of lemon, and make sure you squeeze it on top of the rice before you dig in!

We quite liked it :)

Let me know if you have a go!

Cake with guava!

J's mum mailed us some guava paste ages ago, it has been sitting in the fridge ever since.
Despite liking guava paste, as long as there's quince jam in the fridge we never touch the guava.

However, J's been pestering me about his nan's kickass swiss roll filled with guava paste, and daring me to have a go myself.
So... to shut him up I made him a cake filled with guava paste.
This way he wouldn't be disappointed in case my swiss roll was crap and wouldn't mention how my baking skills are inferior to his nan's.

So, here's what I used:

• 200 g margarine (I melted in the microwave)
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 cups flour (I used self-raising)
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 cup of milk
• Guava Paste (you may use any jam or filling - I would recommend nutella as well!)

Get a round baking tin ready with spread and flour and set aside.

In a big bowl, add margarine and sugar.

After beating until smooth, add eggs (one by one).

Stick a finger in it and lick it - yum!

Add milk and flour little by little, always mixing it well.

Pour it onto the tin.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180ºC for 50 minutes.

Let it cool down for a bit (about 10 minutes) and remove it from the tin.

With a wet knife, cut cake in half (be delicate as the cake may fall apart)

Add filling to the bottom part of the cake.
(my guava paste was really hard, so I had to cut thin slices instead of spreading it all over the cake)

Put top bit on and press a down so the filling glues to both parts of the cake.

Wait for the cake to cool down and serve... or if you're like us who can't wait - at least be careful when cutting it hot as it can be quite crumbly. 

J the butcher did the honours of almost destroying my cake! 

Less than 24 hours later, there's only one slice left... so I guess despite it not being J's nan kickass swiss roll - my cake must have hit the spot!

Lazy Beef Stroganoff

It's a bit chilly at the moment, so the slow cooker has made its reappearance on the kitchen worktop. After stumbling upon so many slowcooker stroganoff recipes in pinterest, I thought I should have a go myself.

Stroganoff is something I cook quite often and I tend to use turkey and serve it with white rice, but as I was doing it differently this time - I went different all the way and used beef and tagliatelle instead. 

Ingredients A)

• Diced Beef (I reckon I used about 1 ½ lb stewing beef) - remove fatty bits
• 1 Onion - thinly sliced
• Mushrooms
• 2 tins of Cream of Mushroom soup
• 1 beef stock cube dissolved in a pint of water
• Tomato Passata (approximately 4 tablespoons)
• Worcestershire sauce (1 tablespoon)
• Lots of Garlic Granules
• Salt and Pepper

Ingredients B)

• 100 g cream cheese
• ½ cup soured cream

Bang Ingredients A in the slowcooker and cook on low for 6 hours.




Now... if unlike me, you're not impatient and don't want to get any more pans dirty, add cream cheese and sour cream and cook for another 30 minutes.
Or... if like me, you barely can stand the lovely smells coming from your kitchen, and want to eat asap. You can transfer it to a pan to speed up the process. (I only transferred it to the pan when it was time to add ingredients B).



The sauce was not thick enough to my liking, so I decided to cook the pasta inside the sauce. That way, the pasta would be all tasty and the sauce would thicken.
(If you don't want to cook the pasta in the same pan, just thicken the sauce with a bit of cornstarch).





This was the easiest way I ever prepared my stroganoff. The meat was really tender and melted in the mouth and there wasn't much effort involved - definitely worth a yummo stamp of approval.

Let me know if you have a go.