Category: Ben Jackson

“Fridge raid pasta” for BBC Radio Leicester

June 19, 2015

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I came up with this recipe about 4 weeks ago for BBC Leicester on my regular slot with Ben Jackson  but it had completely slipped my mind to post it, it sometimes happens with myself as I do so many recipes in a week.  So I must post this now as sadly, our lovely British asparagus are now coming to an end for their season this year, but if  you did want to recreate this as it is, you should just manage to find some still around this week and maybe next. As for the peas though, they are now coming into season so you could even use fresh British ones. They would be brilliant for this recipe.

This was done literally how it says in the title. I let Ben look into my fridge, we picked out a few ingredients ( Seasonal too) and then I came up with a dish on the spot. It was to show people really how easy and quick it is to come up with a dish as great tasting and looking as this, just by using up things that are in your fridge! I suppose one would call this a “Ready steady cook” thing maybe? I love doing that and  I love to show people what they can acheive just from a few ingredients or leftovers they have. Say no to waste!
I cook meals like this quite regularly in the week, maybe not with the exact ingredients but I always ensure I have a bag of pasta in so I can create something like this. It’s also great having a jar of homemade Pesto in your fridge as that alone with pasta and a sprinkling of parmesan is a dish in itself.  It doesn’t have to be a wild garlic one, you could use a basil or another green vegetable/herb pesto. Creating dishes like this in under 15-20 minutes, you’ll never turn back.

Click this link and you can hear me making it on BBC Radio Leicester

 

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Fridge raid pasta

Ingredients:
(Serves 2 -3)

*One thing I must add for this recipe is that I can’t mark it as Vegetarian as it has Parmesan in my pesto recipe*
– Approximately 200g Fusilli Pasta or any pasta of your Choice
– 1/4 Leek sliced
– 2 Spring Onions chopped finely
– 2 cloves of Garlic
– 8 British Asparagus Spears, wood end cut off
– 5-6 British Purple Sprouting Broccoli Stems
– A handful of Petit Pois defrosted and drained or British Fresh podding Peas
– 1 Tbsp Of Wild Garlic Pesto or can use Basil Pesto
– Small Handful of Pea Shoots
– Cracked black Pepper
– Sea salt to season

 

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Method:

*  Take of wood ends off the Asparagus and peel the outer layer at the bottom couple of inches and pop into Ice cold Water to keep them vivid green.

*  Chop Purple Sprouting broccoli into 3 and pop into the Ice cold water too.

*  In boiling water Cook the Asparagus and the Purple sprouting Broccoli for 2 minutes then plunge into Ice cold Water

*  Cook Pasta to packet instructions in the same Pan with boiling water used for the Veg.

*  Fry off your Onion, Leek and Garlic for a couple of Minutes adding a little Cracked Black pepper.

*  Chop your Asparagus into 3 and add them and the Purple Sprouting Broccoli, stir for a minute or two.

*  Drain your Pasta and keep a little water  to pop into the frying pan to add a little moisture. Add your Pasta to the Vegetable mix now.

*  Stir in your Pesto and cook for a minute making sure whilst stirring your pasta it is all coated with it.

*  Pop in your Peas, stir for 30 seconds and then add your pea shoots. Add a little Salt to season and you are ready to serve!

 

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Summer Tart for Food Friday on BBC Radio Leicester

June 6, 2015

Between Saturday 13th and Sunday 21st of June this year it is National Picnic week.  A great opportunity for families and friends to get outdoors and involve food and drink.
  I personally love picnics, I don’t do enough of them but am determined to have more this year, as I love being outdoors and love the countryside. I feel it’s a great way for children to experiment more with food and also learn things such as the wildlife around them from being outdoors.

  Picnics are a great frugal way of spending time together with your loved ones and getting people involved with food.  Now it doesn’t have to be all about “beige food” either, be as colourful as you can with food on picnics, use up your leftovers to create rice, pasta and noodle salads.  Look in your fridge and come up with what you can. Don’t feel you have to go and buy a load of food in, thats the beauty of it, creating what you can on a budget, and thats exactly what I did here for this weeks Food Friday with Ben Jackson on my regular slot on BBC Radio Leicester. (Listen here)
   I took a look at what I had that was on its last legs, of which were my lovely British vine tomatoes and an Aubergine I bought the day before for 10p!
  I decided to do a lovely Summer tart, It is super easy to do, will cost you less to nothing but has some great punchy flavours. 

  Even if Picnics aren’t your thing, you may have some friends over for some “Al fresco” dining which I can assure you, this will impress them immensely! 
One thing to also state is the versatility of this, you can change the vegetables to something such as Peppers or courgettes. Or as Ben suggested, crumble some feta on top. 
  I know one thing, I will be making many different versions of this including a courgette one, when mine come to harvest and look out for some more Picnic recipes for you to try soon.

Summer Tart:



Ingredients:

(One Block of 500g Puff Pastry will make 2 Tarts)

*One Tart


–  Some Plain flour for sprinkling
–  Half block of 5oog Puff Pastry
–  One medium sized Red Onion sliced
–  2-3 large tomatoes sliced into wedges
–  A Few thin slices of Aubergine
–  2 cloves of Garlic finely chopped
–  A selection of fresh herbs, I used Thyme, Lemon Thyme, Oregano, Rosemary
–  Sea salt and Cracked Black pepper to season
–  Drizzle of Chilli oil over the top if you wish or You could use Rapeseed or Olive oil

Method:

*  Preheat Oven to 200-220c

*  Roll out your Pastry on a floured surface with a Rolling pin to just under a Pound coin’s thickness.

*  Score slightly with a knife a couple of cm’s in around the Edge of the Pastry to allow to puff up at the sides.

*   Prick with a fork a good few times so that the Pastry won’t rise to high.

*  Place your Red onion slices on, then your Tomatoes, Season with salt and pepper and pop in the Oven for 10 minutes.

*  After 10 minutes, place your Aubergine slices in between the slices of tomato, add your Garlic, herbs and drizzle your oil over and place back into the Oven for a further 10 minutes or when the tart is Golden brown with no “Soggy bottom”













BBQ roast chicken pizza

May 28, 2015
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Pizza is one thing in our household that we make every couple of weeks. Reason why? Its cheap, you can use things up in your fridge and you feel like you’re having a takeaway but with better benefits.  Its very, very tasty and ultimately satisfying when you make your own.

I have so many families that have said to me in the past that they don’t have the time to do this, but I beg to differ…

Firstly the dough takes 5 minutes maximum to make, 30 minutes to rise and yes then putting on a topping and baking…another 18 minutes (approximately)  Not long hey? Surely that is the time it takes for a family to decide firstly what cuisine they are having? Who the takeaway is going to be, ordering and then waiting? Thing is…the great thing is, YOU and your FAMILY have made it and put on exactly what you want on it!

That’s really what I wanted to show you in this write up and when I went on my regular slot with Ben Jackson on BBC Radio Leicester a couple of weeks ago. It’s a great recipe to do together as a family and more to the point, the one we did here cost roughly around 85p-£1 per pizza! Bearing in mind my plain flour only cost me 45p for 1.5kg bag!

So imagine if it was just cheese and tomato, or another vegetarian option? Would be a lot more cheaper too! This week is half term, so why not have a go at making them or even on a weekend sometime.

Here I am showing Ben Just how super easy and cheap it is to make these tasty pizzas at home:

Roast BBQ Chicken Pizza:

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Ingredients  ( Makes two large pizzas)

Dough

 –  500g Plain flour

–  Good Pinch of Salt

–  A drizzle of Rapeseed Oil or Extra virgin Olive Oil

–  1 Sachet of fast action dried yeast

–  350ml of warm water added a bit at a time

 

Topping:

 

–  Roughly 1/2 Tin of Chopped Tomatoes (400g tin)

–  1 heaped Tbsp Tomato Puree

–  A few Herbs such as Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary etc chopped

–  BBQ Sauce

–  Leftover Roast Chicken

–  Bag of Grated Mozzarella (250g)

–  1 Sliced Green Pepper

–  2 rashers Chopped cooked Bacon

–  1  Red Onion sliced

 

Method:

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*  Get a Large mixing bowl and add all dry ingredients into your bowl. Pop in a drizzle of your Oil and then start to add in your warm water bit by bit.

 

*  With a Wooden Spoon, use the Handle to mix, not the spoon end as this is much easier, trust me!

 

 

*  Start to mix your Dough together, you’ll feel it starting to Gel. Keep adding your water until you have a nice dough texture. Too wet, you need to add a little dusting of flour.

 

*  On a floured work surface, just bring the dough together with your hands, kneading only slightly.

 

*  Leave the dough in the bowl, cover with a warm, damp tea towel and place in a warm place. I put mine in the Airing cupboard. Leave for about 30-45 mins to rise.

 

*  Bash together with a fork in a bowl or in a Food Processor your Tomato Puree, Tomatoes and herbs.

 

*  Preheat oven to 200c

 

*  Once the Dough is ready, Sprinkle some flour onto a work surface and shape the dough out flat using your fingers as thin as you can. You can put onto a tray first if easier.

 

*  Add the Tomato paste allowing to leave an inch all around the Pizza. Add on top the bbq sauce, not too wet though.

 

*  Pop on a little cheese, then veg, meat and cheese again. Pop in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until pizza is done.

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Indian Spiced Cauliflower and Kale Fritters for Food Friday on BBC Radio Leicester

March 26, 2015

Often when it comes around for myself to do Food Friday again for BBC Leicester, which is about every month now.   I love to look at what I have already in my Fridge and Cupboards as I want to show people how it is great to tackle a few ingredients and see what you can come up with. I like to show how we can be more frugal by using up things we have and creating something that is quick, easy and has that wow factor.  Other times I have to admit, there maybe a certain recipe I want to cover may it be a particular event or season in the Calendar year.  I have the skills of being a Chef so I obviously want to share that knowledge with our Listeners.

   I had to laugh at Ben’s reaction to when I told him what I had decided to cook.  His response was, “Apparently we are doing something spectacular with a cauliflower!” Which I do believe our little humble cauliflower over the last couple of years has lost its pizzaz. I personally LOVE cauliflower (Has to be British over personal choice mind you).  It is so versatile and I hope to share many other recipes, however it is going out of season, but still widely available.  I won’t tell you what you can do with it as you will just have to listen Here at Ben and Myself chatting about this fantastic Vegetable. 

One thing I need to add is that since I did this recipe for BBC Radio Leicester, I actually feel that they should have been called Patties rather than Fritters as with a Fritter it is more likely to be covered with a Batter, which these are not. 

Indian Spiced Cauliflower and Kale Fritters:




Ingredients:

Makes about 20 fritters

– 1 Whole Cauliflower broke into its florets
– 3 handfuls of Curly Kale chopped
–  1 1/2 sweet potato chopped into 1/3’s if large
–  1 medium onion diced finely
–  3 cloves of Garlic
–  1 tsp of Cumin seeds or ground if have it ( I use Spice Kitchen for all my spices )
–  1 tsp of Ground Coriander
–  1/2 tsp of Turmeric
–  1 tsp of mustard seeds
–  1/2 tsp of chilli powder (hot)
–  1/2 large green chilli diced finely
–  1 Lime 
–  Small handful of flat leaf parsley chopped
–  Plain flour to coat fritters
–  Rapeseed oil 
–  Salt and pepper to season
–  Lime


Method:

*  Boil the Sweet potato until soft, take out of pan and dry onto some kitchen paper.

*  Boil the cauliflower until soft.

*  Fry off the onions and all spices, leave to one side to cool.

*  When the Cauliflower is soft, take out with a slotted spoon, pop onto kitchen paper to dry. Leave water to keep boiling for the Kale to go in.

*  Cook the Kale for a couple of minutes and once again, dry off with kitchen paper and chop down.

*  Into a Bowl mash with a potato masher all the veg and add the onions and spices. Add Salt and Pepper to season.

*  Add the chopped parsley, mix all together and start to make a ball in your hands with mixture, pat into a fritter/Patty shape, dust with plain flour and fry off in a hot pan with rapeseed oil in.

*  Fry for a few minutes each side and serve in a bowl with salads, chutneys and wedges of Lime.

Chinese steamed Sea bass with Stir Fried Greens for Food Friday on BBC Leicester

January 20, 2015


One thing that I get asked a lot by people, especially Mums with children (Teenagers more) is how to create take away favourites at home.  If I am not mistaken, I do believe we are calling this a “Fake-away” .  I have always cooked Takeaway favourites at home particularly Chinese dishes for many reasons: 1, Healthier. 2, It’s being Frugal. 3, you know exactly what is in your food and 4, you can get the Children involved with you in preparing it.  I could go on. 
  So last Friday was my Slot for doing my regular Food Friday programme with Ben Jackson on BBC Radio Leicester.  I felt that I wanted to do a “Fake-away”dish that is super Healthy, Super quick and also fairly Cheap… Well it’s certainly cheaper than picking up the Phone and ordering a banquet! 
  It’s also January, you may want to loose a few pounds? Or just changing the way you eat? Get some more Fish into your Diet? It was Friday after all, so a healthier Fish Friday! 

   I felt I should share a dish I regularly cook for myself.  It has hardly any ingredients in it but is PACKED FULL of flavour. Plus this style of cooking is so easy to do and such a great interacting dish, by if you put this in the middle of the table, you can all get stuck in. It’s a great dish to do for an intimate dinner also where you just do not want to spend all night slaving over the stove, if you know what I mean! 
  Even though it may not look spectacular, it has been a real hit so far. Listen here to hear Myself showing Ben how to do this Quick, Simple, healthy dish.
  
By the way, Ben couldn’t wait to dive in as you can see by the pictures as I haven’t one with all the fish intact! Sorry! 

Chinese Steamed Sea bass with Stir fried Greens


Ingredients:

(For the Sea Bass)

–  1 whole Sea bass or Sea Bream
–  3 inch piece of Fresh Ginger Julienned (Sliced finely length ways)
–  5 spring Onions julienned (sliced Length ways)

(For the dressing)

–  2 Tbsp Light Soy Sauce (I used one specifically for Seafood) (I buy all my sauces from my local Chinese Supermarket Wang Fung Hong in Leicester)
–  2 Tbsp Dry Sherry ( I used Pedro Ximenex )
–  Juice of 1 clementine or half an Orange
–  2 Tbsp of Water

(For the Sir Fry Veg)

–  2 tsp Raw Organic Coconut oil ( I use Lucy Bee )or another oil you have but Coconut will add extra flavour
–  5-6 Leaves of Pak Choi
–  3 inch piece of cucumber Sliced length ways 
–  approximately 10 sugar snap peas Sliced Length ways
–  2 cloves of Garlic sliced (Chopped Roughly)
–  1/2 Red chilli Diced finely 
–  2 Tbsp Light Soy Sauce ( Wang fung Hong )
–  1 Tbsp Oyster Sauce ( Wang fung Hong)
–  2 Tbsp Water
– Pinch of caster Sugar

Method:

–  Preheat your Oven on a warming setting, about 100c

–  Take a Large Wok and fill with approximately 1/4 Litre of water and place a grid of some kind so you can place a plate on top or if you have a bamboo steamer…Even better! 

–  Turn the heat up high so your water will start to boil but not too Rapid.

–  Put in Half of your sliced Ginger and Spring onions into the cavity of the fish, score diagonal lines through the skin of the fish, about 4 but making sure you don’t go too deep.

–  Place the fish onto your Plate or Steamer and cover with a lid or in my case I used another Wok. Steam for about 10 minutes.

–  After 10 minutes place the rest of your Spring Onions and ginger on top and half of your dressing over the fish. Continue to stem for a further 5 minutes.

–  Once cooked and the flesh will just flake away, place into the oven on a large serving dish with the dressing, veg and juices to keep warm.

–  In the meantime Stir fry your veg in the Coconut oil and as the veg starts to cook down after a couple of minutes add your sauces, water and sugar.

–  Serve as it is on large dishes so people can dive in and you could also serve some Noodles and Boiled Rice if you wish.