Blog writing slackness!

I know it has been far too long since my last blog update however I have been doing a lot of cooking! So expect some new updates in the next few days!

The most tasty treat ever!

We had a charity coffee morning at work last week and I decided to try out some baking. My wife cooked some meringues and I decided to cook some chocolate brownie cookies earlier that day I had read an awesome blog called 'Buns in my oven' and had read the most tempting recipe called 'No bake chocolate peanut butter oatmeal bars'. But I had already set my mind to baking the cookies thankfully I ended up having some extra time that night else I would have missed out on these unbelievable bars of awesomeness!

Seriously if you only ever try one thing on this blog make some of these bars right now! You will not be sorry! I added a layer of Pecans to the recipe but it is essentially the same.

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos but there are ample over on Buns in my oven. The Oatmeal Bars went down exceedingly well at the Coffee morning I even ended up having to send an email round at work with the recipe.

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups quick cooking oats
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky)
1/2 cup of Pecan nuts

1. Melt butter in a large sauce pan over low heat. Stir in brown sugar, vanilla, and oats. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Press half of mixture in to the bottom of a buttered 8 x 8 dish.
2. Place the Pecan nuts across the layer of Oatmeal.
3. In a microwave safe bowl, microwave the chocolate and peanut butter, stirring every 30 seconds until melted and blended. Pour the chocolate peanut butter mixture over the oatmeal and Pecans, reserving a couple of spoonfuls to drizzle over the top.
4. Sprinkle the remaining oat mixture over the chocolate and peanut butter, pressing gently to form a crust. Drizzle the remaining chocolate and peanut butter over the top of the bars.
5. Refrigerate for 3 hours before cutting and serving.

The Burger

Sunday hangovers are no fun! However there can be an upside if you look for it and one of my favourite things is trying to work out what you need to feed the hangover in order to dispatch it.

After spending a bit of time last week reading A Hamburger Today I already had the thought that I wanted to make homemade burgers running about in the back of my mind and that combined with the hangover made the choice easy. Hamburgers it was!

Thankfully I already knew we had some good 80% lean beef mince in the fridge so I knew I was set on that one ingredient however I was lacking in a few others so off I went to the local supermarket to pick up a few essentials.

Ingredients:
600g 80% Lean Beef Mince
2 Red Onion
2 Sweet Pepper
16 slices of Pancetta
8 Slices American Cheese
4 Burger Buns
Olive Oil
Knob of Butter
Ranch Dressing (if you can get it) or Garlic Mayonnaise
Tomato Ketchup
Salt and Pepper

I know most people in the UK would rather some good cheddar over the American cheese but there is something about a good burger and the way American cheese melts on the grill that make them a perfect combo.

The same goes for the Burger buns rather than a normal soft white roll so long as they are fresh in my opinion a sesame bun is very necessary for a good burger.

Preparation:

1. Put 3 tbsp of olive oil into a small roasting pan and place in preheated oven (200 degrees C) for 5 mins. Chop your Sweet pepper into thin strips then add to the roasting pan and cook for 10-12mins or until soft.
2. Slice your red onion into rings and saute for 5 mins with a knob of butter. Then cover and sweat for a further 5 mins until soft.
3. Put your beef into a glass mixing bowl add 1 tbsp of salt and 1/2 tbsp of freshly ground black pepper. Break up by hand until the seasoning is well mixed in.
4. Heat up a griddle pan or I use my George Foreman Grill you need the pan good and hot.
5. Divide the beef into 4 portions and mould into burger patty shapes about an inch thick then press down in the centre to form a shallow depression (according to the burger experts over at AHT this helps as the burger expands slightly during cooking and I can confirm it really does).
6. Fry the pancetta with no added fat until nice and crispy save the rendered fat for later.
7. Place your burgers on the griddle and cook until the first side is well seared (about 2.5 mins) then add layer of the cooked onions to the uncooked side of the burger and flip your burger.
8. Immediately place 2 slices of American Cheese to the top of the burger and cook for a further 3-4 mins by which time the cheese should be well melted.
9. Slice your burger buns in half ans brush lightly with some of the pancetta fat and place on the griddle to toast.
10. When the burger is cooked begin layering up the burger. From the buttom up: Bun, sweet peppers, burger, more onions, crispy pancetta, ranch dressing, ketchup and bun lid.

Your burger should be pink but warm in the middle in my opinion however if you prefer your meat a bit more cooked then just add a little more time on during the cooking process.

By the time I had finished eating this bad boy my hangover was well and truly defeated.

I have just discovered a great butchers on Turnham Green Terrace in Chiswick that sells both Quail and Rabbit which are both on my list of ingredients I want to cook with so hopefully my next recipe will be a little more refined. But you can't go wrong with a good honest burger and everyone needs a good hangover cure.

Fish Hook Saturday Lunch

This Saturday I had lunch in Chiswick at a superb restaurant called Fish Hook. I couldn't help but wonder why there were not more people filling the tables.

Most restaurants offer a cheaper lunch/early dinner menu however this is often not available for lunch on a Saturday. Fish Hook however do and at £15 for 3 courses it offers exceptional value.

I decided to order the 2 course set menu and then I chose A la Carte for my desert.

The presentation of the dishes and quality of ingredients that are served are superb. I started with perfectly cooked Squid with a light sweet chili sauce however one of my fellow dinners defiantly had me beat by choosing the Pea Veloute with Tempura Whitebait.

For my main course I committed what I would usually consider to be a cardinal sin. I ordered Meat in a fish restaurant! However I was not disappointed the Slow Roasted Pork Belly was cooked exactly as I had hoped it would be, with beautifully crisp crackling and tender melt in the mouth meat. This was served with a beautifully smooth mashed potato and wonderfully fresh green beans topped off with a perfect red wine jus.

For my desert I chose a Strawberry Millefeuille with Pannacotta and Strawberry Sorbet which was very well executed.

My one minor complaint from the whole meal was the service. Which at times left us feeling rushed and wondering why it was necessary to collect up our water glasses and not just offer us refills. However this really was just a minor blot on what was an otherwise wonderful meal.

I would definatly recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for high quality food at an amazing price.

Leek and Bacon Carbonara

My wife has just started a new job which means she is spending quite a bit of time in the evenings doing preparation for the next day at work, this is great for me as it means I get to do all the cooking!

I have been using the same Carbonara recipe for quite a while now, it is a slight modification of The River Cafe's recipe. Their recipe is very simple but delicious. It really is nothing more that Cheese, Egg Yolks, Bacon/Panchetta, a little white wine and Salt and Pepper. I love it and I highly recommend it to anyone.

I have been trying to add some more variety of ingredients to my cooking over the past few months and that is what lead me to make the changes I have to this recipe. I recently created a Leek and Pear Cider sauce that goes exceptionally well with seafood and I really felt that some of the flavours would go very well with the carbonara sauce so I decided to make a few changes and see what I came up with. Here is the resulting recipe.

Leek and Bacon Carbonara

Ingredients:

1 Leek

1/2 Onion

1/2 Red Onion

4 Rashers of Smoked Bacon

1/2 Cup or 125 ml of Dry White Wine

4 Egg Yolks

30g Parmesan

30g Cheddar or Pecorino Cheese

180g Spaghetti

1/2 Cup or 125ml of Double Cream

Knob of butter

1Tbsp of Olive Oil

1 Bay Leaf

Salt and Pepper for Seasoning

Chopped parsley to serve

Method

1. Slice the Leeks and Onions into rings
2. Finely grate the cheeses
3. Chop the bacon rashers into 2cm squares
4. Beat the egg yolks and mix in the cheeses to make a thick paste. Season with Salt and Pepper
5. Heat a thick bottomed pan and add a knob of butter and the olive oil
6. Fry the bacon in the pan until it starts to brown slightly
7. Add the Leeks and Onions to the bacon and saute for a couple of minutes until everything is thoroughly coated in the fat
8. Cover and allow to sweat for 6 mins
9. Add the wine to the pan and stir through then raise the heat to allow the wine to reduce down by half
10. Then reduce the heat and stir in the cream simmer gently for a further couple of minutes
11. Remove the sauce from the heat and cover
12. Cook the Spaghetti as directed
13. When the pasta is cooked drain and set aside a small amount of the cooking water for later
14. Once the pasta is drained stir through the egg and cheese paste until all the pasta is coated with the mixture and the cheese has totally melted
15. Finally add in the leek and bacon sauce
16. If the sauce is too thick add a some of the reserved water to loosen it up
17. Serve quickly sprinkled with chopped parsley

One of the most important things about this recipe (and in my opinion most dishes involving pasta) is that the sauce can wait for the pasta but the pasta must never wait for the sauce!

The meal went down very well with my wife and I look forward to trying it out on a few more people in the future. The wine I used for cooking was a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc and unsurprisingly it went very well as an accompaniment to the meal as well.

My first foray into Blogging

I grew up loving food, both my mother and gran are great cooks and always encouraged me to join in.

I was always something of an experimental cook and never got around to writing down even my most successful creations. However recently I realised that this ended up being a waste of time as I was constantly recreating the same dish but not necessarily getting it quite right the next time around.
So I decided something had to change so I purchased myself a small Moleskine notebook and started writing down my recipes. This has been working pretty well so far and I certainly intend to keep on using it. I would really recommend it to anyone who enjoys creating their own dishes.

However I am an IT Guy by profession and so I figured maybe I should get a little more hi-tech and so here we are with a new blog.

My aim is to keep a record of meals I have enjoyed cooking and their recipes, also wines I have enjoyed drinking plus probably a few more things here and there along the way.

My plan for dinner tonight is a simple Carbonara with some new additions.