Mini Spicy Burgers, Halloumi Cheese & Griddled Veg

The clocks have gone forward and it finally looks like Summer's on it's way (I hope!). Saturday was spent browsing Broadway Market, a cheeky pear Bulmer's at the pub & being cooked for by @lauramccluskey, YUMM.

We bought the mini spicy burgers from the shop over the road from @lauramccluskey house in Hackney, and grilled the lot - burgers, halloumi, red onion, vine tomatoes and portobello mushroom - together in her griddle pan (I need to get me one of those!) and voila, dinner was served with some rose wine to wash it down with.

Hackney sunset 

Friday Night

 

I went back to my parents for the weekend last week and got to catch up with my home girlies. We made fish & chips with crushed peas and strawberry daiquiris on the Friday night, and it was soooo yum, best Friday night in a long time!

Posh Sausage & Mash

This is a really good take on the old fashioned sausage and mash and gets a few of your 5 a day in as well, always a bonus.

I made this just for one (pathetic, I know) but just double the ingredients for two, and so on.

1/2 apple

2 sausages

1/2 large red onion

1 veg stock cube

Fry light spray

1 sweet potato

1 leek

Cornflour

First peel and chop the sweet potato and add to boiling water. Boil until soft and ready to mash.

Meanwhile, chop and gently fry the red onion in a pan with a spritz of fry light until the onions are soft, then put to the side.

Add the sausages to the pan and fry until cooked then put to the side.

Core, peel and chop the apple into small cubes and fry until soft.

Chop the leek and add to a seperate pan of boiling water and cook until soft.

Mash the potato and stir in the cooked leek and apple.

Add the sausages and red onion back to the pan with a dissolved stock cube in boiling water. Keep adding cornflour and boiling water whilst on the heat until you have the right amount of gravy, add more cornflour flour for thick gravy and keep the pan on the heat until all the cornflour is cooked out.

Serve up your mash, sausages and gravy and wash down with a glass of red!

Chocolate Cornflake Cakes

 

Seriously easy cakes to make, it's as easy as 1, 2, 3!

Ingredients are as follows;

Cornflakes

Chocolate 

Melt the chocolate either in a bowl over a pan of boiling hot water or in the microwave.

Mix the chocolate and cornflakes together and spoon into paper cases (although we just spooned lumps onto a plate as we had no cases!) and leave in the fridge to cool.

Yummy variations on the theme include using different brands of chocolate; Dairy Milk, Galaxy, Milky bar...using rice crispies instead of cornflakes, or adding mini eggs on top in keeping with the Easter holidays coming up.

Enjoy!

PANCAKE DAY!

So excited! I've been thinking it was today all week until I was told last night that it's actually next Tuesday. Only another week to wait, YUM!

Homemade Apple Crumble

This may look a little burnt, and to be quite honest it was. I think we put the oven on too high and ended up setting the fire alarm off, oops! It was still very good though, albeit a bit harder than orginally planned so my advice is when following this recipe, don't put the oven on 250 degrees, or leave it in too long...

The recipe is as follows to serve around 4 people;

A bag of apples (I think cooking apples are often recommended but we just used any old normal ones)

Caster Sugar

Flour

Butter (although we used a low fat margarine and it was just as tasty)

1/2 lemon

First core, peel and chop the apples into your preferred size/shape and boil in a pan of water, about 2 teaspoons of lemon juice and a sprinkle of caster sugar until slightly soft (not too much, you don't want mushy apples!).

Crumble together the margarine and butter in a bowl and then add sugar (as much as you like depending on how sweet you like your apple crumble.

Add the apples to the pan and crumble over the flour, margarine and sugar mix.

Add a little more sugar over the top to brown in the oven.

Put in the oven at around 200 degrees until the top is golden brown (not black or smoking, like we did...).

Serve with ice cream or custard and you've just made yourself probably one of the most simple hot deserts I know.

Enjoy!

Caramelised Red Onion, Tomato & Mozzarella Tart

This tart was so quick, easy and cheap I have no idea why I haven't tried it before. It doesn't just have to stop at those three toppings though,  I imagine the tart to be just as tasty with goats cheese, ham, spinach or peppers, anything you can bung on and stick in the oven really!

The recipe is as follows for a whole tart;

1 Jus-Rol puff ready rolled pasty

2 red onions

Brown sugar

Balsamic vinegar

4 Tomatoes

1 mozzarella ball

Salt 

Pepper

Start with caramelising the red onions as this is the part that will take the longest - if you can call 10 minutes long. Cut the 2 red onions into long thin strips and add to a pan with a good glug of balsamic vinegar and brown sugar (measurements depend on your taste really, add according to how sweet you would like the onions). Cook the balsamic vinegar and sugar out with the red onions for around ten minutes, by this point the onions should be soft and caramelised.

Next roll out the pastry, spread the onions out over it, cut the tomato and mozarella and add to the top. 

Stick the tart in the oven for around 20 minutes at 200 degrees until golden brown.

Scatter rocket over the top, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a spinach and rocket salad with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and it's as easy as that.

Enjoy!

Hen Party & Homemade Sushi

My friend got married last August and for her Hen party we went out on a boat on the River Thames to dance and drink wine. Before we went we had a little tea party at hers beforehand and made a little spread.

We had chicken skewers, hummus and cucumber crackers, spring rolls, party rings and homemade sushi.

To make the homemade sushi the recipe is as follows;

Sushi rice

Seaweed sheets

Cucumber

Smoked salmon

Soy sauce

Rice wine vinegar

Start with making your rice as this has to be left for a while to cool before rolling the sushi. Add boiling water to the rice (I'm all about the guessing amounts but the general rule is 2 cups of water to every cup of rice) as well as the rice wine vinegar, around a tablespoon per cup of rice. I also add a dash of soy sauce for taste at this stage.

Once the rice has absorbed all the water and vinegar, and is the texture of how you would eat sushi, transfer the contents to a bowl and leave to cool completely.

Cut the cucumber and salmon into very thin strips ready to roll.

Place your seaweed sheets onto a bamboo mat, I use basic table mats made from bamboo, you don't specifically need mats made for sushi.

Spread the sushi rice evenly onto the seaweed sheets, not too thin as you don't want the rolls to break, and not too thick as remember, you have to roll the sheets which will mean the rice is doubled up.

Place the cucumber and salmon across the middle of the sheets and then carefully roll.

Once rolled, slice it into smaller sushi pieces and your sushi is done! Serve with soy sauce for dipping.

Summer Summer Summertime

Hot Dawg Sausages

These were made my friend Pat's mum sometime last year for his birthday. We were invited round for drinks and these bad boys before drinking a lot more in town and they turned out to be the perfect party food.

Bung your sausages in the oven for however long it says on the packet and stick them in a hot dog bun and bobs your uncle, with a little ketchup, they're ready to eat in no time. Enjoy!

Simple Butternut Squash soup

I told you I liked butternut squash, and there's nothing nicer in winter than a piping hot bowl of soup. This recipe is so cheap and simple that it's silly not to try it yourself. It's also great for storing leftovers in the freezer for another day!

The recipe is as follows for...a lot of servings;

1 butternut squash

4 leeks 

1 onion

1 glove garlic

Bit of margarine (I use a light option just so the onion and garlic doesn't stick for a few less calories, using butter for a more creamy taste is fine too, as is olive oil etc.)

2 vegetable stock cubes

Boiling water

1 red chili (optional, depending on whether you like a bit of spice, chili powder works just as well)

Salt

Black pepper

Start by chopping the garlic very finely, and then the leeks and onion. Put into a pan with a little bit of melted margarine and leave to 'sweat' (a word learned from my mother) for up to 20 minutes (apparently the longer you leave it, the more tasty the soup).

Sweat by leaving the lid on the pan on a low heat with the occasional stir so the pan contents don't stick.

Whilst this sweats, wash your butternut squash and dice into small(ish) cubes. You can peel the butternut squash but I often leave the skin on as it doesn't make much difference either way. De-seed and chop the chili (or not, as you like) and add to the pan.

Pour boiling water into the pan until all the contents are covered. Crumble and add both stock cubes, salt and pepper to taste and give it a good stir before leaving the pan to simmer (after having been brought to the boil) for up to 20 minutes, or until the butternut squash is soft.

Use a hand blender to blend everything together and your soup will be good to go.

Serve with a crusty bread roll, ryvitas or a bit of philadelphia (I go through phases) and freeze the rest for a later date. It couldn't be easier! Again, not my own image but I'd just eaten a bowl I had defrosted from another time so will save the image for a freshly made batch.

Roasted Stuffed Peppers

These were really tasty, healthy and nicely filling. I used larger peppers and served them with a crispy side salad and balsamic vinegar dressing as a main, but they work equally as well with smaller peppers for a tasty wholesome starter.

I love butternut squash and often buy it to keep in until some inspiration crops up,  everything else was what I had left over in the cupboard, nothing too adventurous, making them easy to make.

Ingredients are as follows for 4 servings;

4 red peppers

1 sachet of Ainsley's roasted vegetable cous cous

1 butternut squash

2 red onions

2 gloves garlic (add/remove to taste)

1 large carrot

Chili powder

Sea salt

Black pepper

Extra virgin olive oil

First off, pre-heat the oven for the roast peppers (I never know what temperature - I usually guess - so let's say to 200 degrees?)

Chop garlic and onion finely and add to a hot pan with a drizzle of olive oil (although make sure the pan's not too hot - don't want to brown/burn the onions!)

Dice butternut squash and carrot into small cubes and add to the pan, cooking until the carrots are slightly slightly soft (take off the heat before the butternut squash goes squishy).

Season the mixture with sea salt, black pepper and a bit of chili powder to taste, meanwhile boiling the kettle to add to the cous cous.

Add boiling water to cous cous, leave for 5 minutes and fluff the cous cous with a fork and add to the pan.

Mix everything together in the pan, then after carefully slicing the peppers lid off (we want to pop them back on for presentation!), stuff the peppers with the mixture and pop into the oven. I never know how long for either so I just keep checking on them until they're slightly brown and ready to eat!

Smoked Salmon & Scrambled Eggs

This dish is probably one of the quickest to make. Ingredients are as follows for one serving;

2 eggs
Milk
1/2 packet smoked salmon
1/2 a lemon
Black pepper

Crack the eggs into a bowl and add milk (depending on how hard or soft you like your scrambled eggs), whisk together and pop in the microwave for two minutes (giving them a stir half way through).

Plate up your salmon with a drizzle of lemon juice and add the scrambled eggs.

Pepper them to taste and, voila! Dinner is served.

Add sliced avocado, a piece of toast or a toasted bagel if you're hungry, all three work just as well as each other! Sadly the image isn't mine this time, I was far too hungry this evening and ate it all before I got the chance to take a photo. Better luck next time!

Hello Foodies...

Hello and welcome to my new food blog, Memoirs of a Taster, where I aim to cook simple and delicious recipes in an easy-to-read blog style.

Having browsed the web for food blogs myself of an evening when I'm stuck for inspiration, I've found most hard to read or simply just not to my taste. Hopefully, Memoirs of a Taster will come up with fun, easy and tasty recipes, using accessible and fresh ingredients, with the hope of being as healthy as possible! (I'm no health freak but if it doesn't have to add inches to the waistline, why make it?).

Hope you enjoy and please, feel free to leave any feedback!