French Ham Toastie

A lazy lunch today. I simply whisked up a large egg with some grated cheese, salt and black pepper. In the meantime, I put a non-stick frying pan on a medium heat and add a small spoon of oil.  Take some bread and put a good slather of mustard on each slice, I used Colman's English mustard, lay on a couple slices of ham and cover with the other slice of bread.

Then you must dip! This is messy but worth it. Lay the sandwich into the egg mixture and allow each side to soak up all the egg. Fry each side on medium heat until golden and the egg is cooked through. I sprinkled some chopped chives on top and tucked into it immediately, you don't want it to get cold.

An Experiment with Couscous

I haven't used couscous that much but decided to have a little experimentation on Saturday. There was the remnants of a red and yellow pepper and chopped them very finely and fried them off with some garlic, finely chopped mushrooms, chopped chilli and chopped cherry tomatoes. I mixed all this into the steamed couscous and spooned it into half a red pepper and a yellow pepper.  These were cooked in a moderate pre-heated oven for 30mins approx. About 10mins before the end of the cooking time I laid a sliced of sharp cheddar cheese on top to melt into the couscous.  Stuffed peppers are a cliché I guess but I don't cook them that often so it made a nice change to a meaty main and was perfect with a green salad.

Meatloaf with Spicy Tomato Sauce

MEATLOAF

Serves 4

250g minced beef
10-12 streaky rashers, stretched with the back of a knife if they’re short
4 streaky rashers, finely chopped
1 fat garlic clove, crushed
1 medium onion, finely chopped
Couple of handfuls of breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten
Couple tbsps tomato sauce
Tsp dried oregano
Splash of Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper

• First, fry off the chopped rashers and allow to cool on kitchen paper. In the same pan gently fry the onion and garlic until the onion is translucent but not brown, allow this to cool also.
• Put your mince into a bowl add a handful of the breadcrumbs, the egg, tomato sauce, oregano, Worcestershire and seasoning. To this add the cooled onion and bacon and combine well – I find it easiest to use my hands for this. If it is still too wet add more breadcrumbs. To test your seasoning is ok you can fry off a small pattie to taste now.
• In the meantime, line a greased 2lb loaf tin or dish with the remaining streaky rashers leaving some overhang on the edges of the dish. Spoon in the mince mixture, spread it out and press it down firmly and cover over with the overhanging rashers. Put the dish into a bain marie (basically a larger roasting dish with the water between a quarter and half the ways up the tin) and cover loosely with foil. Place into a preheated oven at 180C/fan 160C for approximately an hour and half.
• You want the mince to be fully cooked but juicy so every now and then empty out the fat that will accumulate in the dish. For the last half hour take the foil off and take the loaf out of the dish and place onto the foil on a separate tray so that the rashers colour and crisp up on the 3 sides. Let it sit for 10 or 15mins while before you slice it, it’s nicer and slices easier when cooler.
  
• I either serve this with cubed, crispy potatoes or pasta with a spicy tomato sauce. It is also nice the next day thinly sliced with a smear of the tomato sauce in a sandwich.

Spicy Tomato Sauce 

This sauce is simple. Just gently fry off some chopped onion, chopped red chilli, (as much or as little as you like only you know how much heat you can take!) and chopped garlic. Add a tin of tomatoes, couple tbsp tomato purée, good pinch of dried oregano, tbsp each of Worcestershire sauce and balsamic vinegar, couple tsps of sugar and plenty of seasoning. Let the sauce bubble away until nice and lusciously thick. Blend to a smooth and thick sauce and eat!

Some Recent dinner pics - recipes to follow

Chickpea & Vegetable Enchiladas

Meatloaf with Spicy Pasta

Chicken stuffed with Mozzarella & Roasted Red Pepper

There is nothing like the comfort food of stuffed chicken and this dinner was no exception.  The extra cheese topped the roasters and I served a little roasted pepper bruschetta on the side.

For the Chicken:

Chicken breast, with a pocket cut into the side of it

2 or 3 slices of Serrano ham, you can also use Prosciutto or a stretched rasher

Slice of roasted red pepper

Couple of slices of mozzarella

For the Potatoes:

Baby new potatoes

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Cubes of mozzarella

Olive oil

For the Roasted Pepper Bruschetta

An orange, red and yellow pepper, halved

Couple of shallots, finely chopped

Garlic clove, crushed

Fresh thyme, leaves picked from stalk

Sea salt & black pepper

Olive oil

Cut a pocket into the chicken and carefully slide the red pepper slice into it and then squash in the cheese.  Season the breast with black pepper, no salt needed as the ham will be salty. Wrap tightly in the Serrano ham and set aside until ready to cook.

To get your peppers roasted, halve them and place under a very hot grill or directly onto the gas flame. Let the skin get completely blackened and put into a plastic bag to steam away until cool. Once cool, remove the black skin. Do not do this under a running tap as you'll lose the roasted flavour.  Chop into thin slices, keep the slice for the chicken aside and place the rest into an ovenproof dish.  Add the chopped shallots, garlic, seasoning, thyme and a teaspoon of olive to the peppers and stir to combine.  Set aside until really to heat.

Slice your potatoes lengthwise and rinse off to remove the starch on them.  Make sure they are completely dry before you add them to the roasting pan. I used low-fat spray oil, spray a layer on the pan then add the slices of potatoes giving them another spray and season generously.  Place in a preheated oven at 180C/fan 160C, they'll take 35-40mins to roast.  Turn them over every ten mins or so to ensure even cooking.

After the potatoes have been in the oven for 10mins then place the chicken in the oven uncovered to cook.  If the chicken looks like its burning then you can cover it with foil but not too tightly as you want to retain the crispy nature of the ham.  The chicken will take 25-30mins to cook it all depends on much they are stuffed.

Ten minutes before the end of the cooking time, top each potato with a cube of mozzarella and return to the oven.  You can also top the chicken with some mozzarella as well if you want.  At this stage you add the pepper bruschetta to the oven to let it heat through.  Its probably best if you can rest the chicken out of the oven for 5mins covered.  When ready to eat, pour over whatever juices have come from the chicken over it for some extra juiciness.