Category: Eggs

Easy king prawn and egg fried rice

October 14, 2015
There is something I find quite comforting with a fried rice dish. In British takeaways or restaurants we tend to order it as a side dish but I find it a great supper in-itself. 
  I feel sometimes people are a little unsure and daren’t try to cook Chinese favourites at home but they really are easy to do.
   The key to a successful fried rice is to always make sure your rice is cooked and cooled down to cold before frying it in the wok, else hot rice to a hot pan just will stick together. My recipe is done from scratch or you could cook your rice the day before.
  I have used King Prawns but you could substitute to Chicken, turkey or Pork.
  This is a delicious meal that only takes 15 minutes to do, so is perfect when you need to get food on the table fast. Just don’t forget the chopsticks!

Easy king prawn and egg fried rice:


Ingredients:
  • 250g Long grain rice 
  • 2-3  tbsp Rapeseed oil ( can burn quickly, just be careful ) or use vegetable, or groundnut oil
  • 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
  • A thumbnail size of fresh Ginger grated
  • 2 eggs 
  • 2-3 Spring onions chopped (save some for on top at the end)
  • a few leaves of green pak choi chopped 
  • tbsp of light soy sauce or superior light ( found in Chinese supermarkets. Mine was from Wang Fung Hong in Leicester )
  • tbsp of Oyster sauce ( Wang Fung Hong )
  • cracked black pepper to season


Method:
  • Cook rice to packet instructions. In a sieve or fine colander under cold water rinse the rice until all cold, not sticky and no water at all. Pop aside.
  •   Heat a little oil in your wok and once hot pop in your scrambled eggs, just folding in the wok until almost cooked, do not scramble vigorously.Then place aside in a bowl.
  •   Place some oil in your wok again and start to fry off some of your spring onions, pak choi, stir, then add in garlic and ginger for only about 30 seconds.
  •   Pop in your sauces to your veg, stirring, then add in your Rice, stir or toss all around the wok allowing the sauce to coat your rice. Add in your prawns and cook for a couple of minutes.
  •   Then stir in your cooked eggs from before, stir and add some pepper to season. 
–  Once all is perfectly hot, serve into bowls and place on some finely chopped spring onion. 




   

Sweet Potato, Kale and Bacon Hash topped with Poached Egg

March 11, 2015




Ive always loved Kale and its different varieties, have done for years.  Love all greens really, but with the curly Kale option, I find it is so easy to just throw into any dish to give you that extra green oomph for your vitamins in a day. I eat it that much, maybe I should think of putting it on my growing list for my Kitchen Garden this year? 

  Recently I threw together a dish of “odd’s and sod’s” that were in my fridge and made a sublime little supper for myself.   The recipe did of course, suprisingly involve Kale but in a rather different way…with Bacon and Egg. 
  I am always going to cook this recipe from now on as it is so quick, it uses things up and theres hardly any ingredients to it. You can tweak a few things but these ingredients work through being sweet, yet salty, all manners of different tastes.  
  
  If you are going to try this recipe, You must go and buy some Sriracha sauce first. I have been using it in my Asian cooking for years and it is my favourite Hot sauce.  I drizzle it on a lot of foods including Hot spicy noodle broths. It seems now a lot of major sauce brands are trying a version them selves. I’ll never change my brand though. 
So Here is my simple Supper, or maybe even a Brunch recipe? An easy dish for an occasion? With an optional Hot sauce.



Sweet Potato, Kale and Bacon Hash topped with Poached Egg:

Ingredients:
(For 1 approximately)

–  1 Tbsp of Rapeseed oil
–  1/2 Tbsp of Maple syrup
–  1 large Garlic Clove finely diced
–  1/2 Red Onion sliced finely
–  1 Sweet potato diced roughly
–  1-2 rashers of Bacon chopped
–  couple of small Handfuls of Curly Kale
–  1 egg for poaching
–  2 tbsp of White wine vinegar for the poaching
–  To finish, some Sriracha Hot Chilli sauce for on top if required. 
  (I buy mine from Wang Fung Hong in Leicester)

Method: 

*  Boil the Sweet potato until soft.

*  Take out the Sweet potato with a slotted spoon and place onto kitchen paper on a plate.Leaving the water in the saucepan for your Kale.

*  Fry off the Bacon in a frying pan, then after a minute or two add the onions.

*  Pop in the Kale to the saucepan to cook for about 2 minutes.

*  Add the drained Sweet potato to the frying pan mix and add the garlic.

* Pop in the maple syrup to make the sweet potato caramelise and the bacon taste wonderful.

*  Drain the Kale on kitchen paper. Add to the Hash mix.

*  Poach your egg.

*  And Serve… Adding the Sriracha sauce if you wish.






Roast Vegetable, Chilli and Parmesan quiche with wholemeal Spelt Pastry:

September 22, 2014

One Afternoon, sometime last week, I decided to drag out all the bits and bobs that needed to be used up in the fridge, as you do.  Well, I always do as I save everything! I cannot begin to throw anything away, even if it is a 1/4 of an onion as it all links with another Recipe!
  Anyway… I had numerous vegetables, cheese, milk, all sorts to use up so I decided to do a quiche but with Wholemeal Spelt Flour.  It turned out great! I loved it, My partner loved it, in fact both of us said that the aubergines in this recipe tasted brilliant and adding that red chilli, really gave it some “Pizzazz” to it. 

  I was amazed how much interest I had for this recipe. People made some really nice comments and have been asking me to put it up on my site.  So this delights me to say, By Popular demand, here is my recipe for…


Roast Vegetable, Chilli and Parmesan quiche with wholemeal Spelt Pastry:


* My Tin was approximately 9 inch wide by 2 inch deep. 
I cannot state this recipe as vegetarian as it has Parmesan in it. But you could substitute for another cheese or simply none at all! *


Ingredients:

(Pastry *I froze half down)

–  250g Wholemeal Spelt pastry, (Sieved half as I wanted some “crunch/depth” to it)
–  150g Unsalted Butter cubed and softened
–  Pinch of Caster sugar
–  Pinch of Sea Salt
–  1 Egg
–  1 tbsp of cold Whole Milk

(Filling) 

–  3 Medium Free Range Eggs
–  100 ml   Double Cream
–  100 ml  Whole Milk
–  Sprinkle of Ground Nutmeg
–  100g Parmesan Cheese 
–  Half and Aubergine Diced roughly
–  1 medium Onion Diced
–  6-8 small red and yellow tomatoes halved or quartered
–  1/4 green Pepper Diced
–  1/4 Red Chilli diced finely
–  3 leaves of fresh basil finely sliced
–  1/2 small green courgette finley sliced
–  Splash of Olive oil
–  Few dried herbs
–  Sea Salt and Cracked Black Pepper

Method:

*  Preheat Oven to 190c

*  Pop ingredients for your Pastry into a food processor and mix until dough forms a ball. Or if you prefer, you can do this by hand.

*  Place Pastry onto floured surface, knead slightly together, Cover with Cling Film and place in fridge until you want to use.

*  Roast all vegetables in oven with olive oil and dry Herbs.

*  Roll out Pastry to about 1/2 cm thick or if you can, slightly thinner.

*  Blind Bake Pastry for approximately 12- 15 minutes

*  Once Vegetables are cooked and Pastry is blind Baked, Pop your grated Parmesan into the pastry case, then vegetables, Everything else all in and bake in the oven for approximately 30-40 minutes as different Ovens and Tins can make a big difference.

*  When your Quiche is cooked, allow to cool first before slicing into.


This is a great Quiche eaten Warm or cold. Ideal for a picnic and can be served with many different things.





Lemon,ricotta and blueberry pancakes

May 16, 2014

In our House, one of our Favourite Breakfasts have to be My Blueberry Pancakes.  Wether it is someones birthday or just because we have a bit more time on a Sunday, having this really brightens us up for the day ahead.  They’re not too sweet, not too savoury and the sensation of Blueberries popping in your mouth is like Gigantic Caviar (of course without the fish taste)!  Even as a dessert… this would be great.  

  When I last did these, I decided to change my recipe slightly as I had some ricotta to use up. I had never put it in before and thought it should add an extra maybe creaminess, tang or even make them lighter?  Well, in fact, it did all three! The new recipe worked straight away, which is always a thrill! And they were better than ever! 
 This is my new improved recipe and My Fiance loves these better so there’s no turning back! 


Lemon Ricotta and Blueberry Pancakes

Ingredients:

–  175g Self Raising Flour
–  2 tsp Caster Sugar
–  1/2 tsp Baking Powder
–  Pinch of Salt
–  1 Egg separated
–  200 ml Semi Skimmed Milk
–  1 Tsp Vanilla Extract or pod
–  100 g of Ricotta Cheese
–  1 Zest of Lemon
–  1 tbsp of melted unsalted Butter
–  Blueberries
–  Icing Sugar
–  Creme Fraiche to serve

Put the Flour, Caster Sugar, Vanilla Extract, Baking Powder and Salt into a bowl and then whisk in the Egg Yolk, milk and Ricotta until you have a nice smooth Batter.


Whisk the Egg White and Fold in to the batter.

Heat a non stick Frying Pan and use a very small amount of oil. When the pan is hot put a spoonful of mixture and flatten out with a ladle. Sprinkle some blueberries on top and you’ll start to see the bubbles forming, flip and cook the other side. 



At this point you could have a plate warming in the oven and start stacking them up to keep warm. 
 Serve the Warm Pancakes with a Sprinkling of  Icing Sugar and Creme Fraiche on the side.









A Midweek Marvel

April 30, 2014


 I can’t always share every recipe of which I create or cook on here. It would be extremely difficult as I cook ALOT!  I do try my best though in sharing as much as I can but sometimes I create a recipe or cook one day and something comes together when I least expect it.  I had done this dish one night midweek, for what I thought was going to be a somewhat, quick Pasta dish to keep me going in between writing. Nothing special as I grabbed some remains of ingredients to use up in the fridge… More fool me!  I had meant to post this over a month ago and came across it this week whilst juggling through my Food Photography Pics. I pretty much try to take pictures of all dishes I cook as you never know! 
  The good thing about this dish is that the main vegetable featured, the wonderful Purple Sprouting Broccoli is still in season… just! So I would say, if you’re going to have a go?, try this weekend? Or even for tomorrow nights dinner! 
  If you can’t get hold of  Purple Sprouting Broccoli, You could substitute for Tender stem or  even Standard Broccoli but you should find some still knocking around. 




Chicken, Chorizo and Purple Sprouting Broccoli Carbonara:


Ingredients: ( Serves 2-3 people)

–  Tbsp Rapeseed oil
–  Knob of Butter
– 2 large Free range Eggs
–  100 g of grated Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan Cheese) 
–  350g of Spaghetti 
–  2 cloves of Garlic finely chopped
–  1 small red onion finely sliced
–  approximately 60g of Spanish cooking Chorizo diced
–  1/4 of a mild green chilli diced finely
–  150g Roast/cooked Chicken 
–  100g Purple Sprouting Broccoli (Blanched before hand)
–  Salt and Black pepper to season
–  Pinch of dried mixed herbs ( I used herbs de provence)


Whisk Eggs in a bowl and add in the grated parmesan cheese.
Cook the Spaghetti to packet instructions.
Fry off the Red onion and Garlic in oil and then add the butter.






Add the chorizo and Green chilli. Then the cooked chicken and Herbs.

At this stage you can add the Blanched Broccoli,season to taste then stir for a few minutes and add your drained pasta to the mixture.


Then pop your Pasta mix into the bowl with the eggs and parmesan and quickly stir.

Serve into warm bowls immediately and grate some more parmesan on top.