Christmas Menu has been Decided

Well its going to be a simple but filling affair this year:

Starter
Spiced Carrot soup, with brown bread

Main
Roast Turkey (of course), Honey Roast Ham, Roast Potatoes, Honey roast Carrots and Parsnips, Buttered Peas, Onion Gravy, Stuffing balls wrapped in bacon (saw this on RTE website this evening its Richard Corrigan recipe), Bread Stuffing & Potato Stuffing.

Dessert
Traditional Trifle - made by the venerable Mr. Chops!

The shopping list has been written and the agreement to keep the shopping sane has been made! The cleaning of the house has begun also, its gonna be a hectic week. And Doggie Chops needs a quick short back and sides as well for Christmas. More as the week goes on.

Prawn Salad with Dipping Sauce

Simple supper tonight. Prawns tossed in tandoori masala mix then quickly stir-fried. On a bed of crispy salad leaves including lambs lettuce and rocket. Adorning the middle of the dish was a little bowl of Hot and Spicy Sweet Chilli dipping sauce, I used Blue Dragon because I think its the nicest. Tasty and snack like supper, hit the spot though.

Freddies Bistro

It was my work night out on Friday and before the carnage, we had booked an early bird meal at Freddie's Bistro in Limerick city. Its been a long time since I was Freddies and to be very honest it'll be a long while before I go back. Loads of people rave about this restaurant being the best in the city but I found it disappointing on Friday. Now I grant you it was pre-Christmas party night combined with a Heineken cup match in Thomond park so it was going to be busy.

There was at least 35 people scrunched into the tables upstairs, all big groups and it was stuffy, noisy and slightly uncomfortable. We were ordering from the set Christmas menu (available until 6.30) priced at €26.95 and €3.95 extra for steak. We weren't offered the A La Carte as a choice. There's plenty to choose from, I went for the garlic mushrooms, I felt risotto would be too filling; I'm allergic to mussels; Caesar salad you can have any time; I don't consider garlic bread with cheese a proper starter; the wings would ruin my manicure (!) and soup is too heavy. The garlic mushrooms are stuffed with garlicky breadcrumbs, served with a few salad leaves and drizzle of mayo and pesto. They were nice but nothing exciting.

For main, I was in the mood for something meaty so I opted for the medallions of fillet steak with perigourdine sauce (peppery mushroom). There's also a choice of chicken with peppercorn sauce, baked salmon, pasta carbonara, fish with lime & coriander and Thai red veg curry. Two thickish medallions arrived, one was just over medium and the other was as I asked for: medium rare. Nice meat but the dish was nothing special. I'd asked for the sauce on the side and I got a tiny little bowl of it. The usual sides arrived: baton carrots with brussel sprouts, mashed potato, chipped baby potatoes (with skins still on and not crispy enough), boiled baby potatoes with butter and chives I think, and roasted halved baby potatoes with garlic.

While I can't fault the food or the price, it didn't really excite me and it didn't feel special if you know what I mean. It was like decent pub grub.

But the desserts were amazing, I went for the chocolate pudding and all I left on the plate was the sprig of mint!! The staff were also brilliant, attentive but unobstrusive. Maybe on a quieter night it's a special place and more deserving of its reputation, but I did feel disappointed and let down.

Thoughts are turning to Christmas

Only 10 days to big celebration and there's been a change of plans this year, Mammy Chops is joining us. My ma was going on about spending the day alone and we decided to invite her being the nice people we are! Anyway, now its got me thinking what will I cook? Being an elderly lady of 79 its not everything she can eat. So the recipe testing has started. Tonight I decided to try a carrot soup. I finely chopped garlic clove, 3 medium sized carrots, an onion, a small potato, good pinch of ground coriander and plenty of seasoning. I gently fried them off in oil and real butter until the onion was soft and translucent. Then added approx a litre of stock with a big splash of orange juice, you need to cover the veg completely. I let that bubble away gently for around three quarters of an hour, then blitzed it up with my hand held! It should be a nice smooth soup and you know what, it turned out quite nice, if I say so myself. So it looks like a runner for Christmas day.

There might be a few additions on the day itself - I was thinking finely chopped crispy chorizo sprinkled on, or finely chopped red chilli, red pepper & spring onion as a garnish. For the Mammy it'll be plain soup with some warm bread.

Now onto the dessert.....

Meatball Sunday

Its been a lazy day today. Even Doggie Chops lazed out. This was the position he was in most of day, be it on the floor, the couch or his personal favourite: the arm of the couch.

Maybe its the weather. Its freezing here so staying inside relaxing is his favourite thing at the moment. Thankfully, the rain has abated and we're in no danger of getting flooded anymore.

Minced beef was taken out of the freezer last night with the intention of having Spaghetti Bolognaise today; stew was then mentioned; then Cottage Pie; then burgers (but we had them earlier in the week); we finally settled on Meatballs with Spicy Tomato sauce and once again cubed roasted potatoes. This form of potato cooking has become an obsession in this house. The spicy tomato sauce is another fall back for us. Its so easy, its just tinned tomatoes, chopped onion, chopped red chilli or dried chilli flakes and garlic. You let it bubble away for a while, probably half hour or so and blend it down to a smooth sauce. If you've any parmesan rind floating around you can throw it in too, they add a nice background flavour but don't forget to take it out before you blend the sauce.

The meatballs are your standard beef, finely diced chopped onion, little bit of garlic, seasoning and some Italian herbs such as dried oregano and basil. Pour the cooked sauce over the cooked meatballs and enjoy. The picture quality isn't great, took it on my phone as my camera is dead! But you get the idea.

Now a slew of cookery programmes awaits us. There's Saturday Kitchen, Kitchen Meltdown and Come Dine With Me. Oh and maybe a glass of wine to accompany the relaxation.

This week, we've been mostly eating nice dinners!

Its been a week of comfort food and grub hugs. Mr Chops was getting in on the cooking this week practically shoving me out of the kitchen so he could take over...so I let him. Thursday it was homemade burgers, mash and onion gravy. Friday, he did full chicken roast, yummy. Well it was the supreme of chicken with the usual extras of roasted potatoes, stuffing, gravy & veg. One of his favourite things to do in the kitchen is to joint a chicken so we got two decent dinners out of a small chicken that was on offer in the butchers the other evening. Tonight it was one of our fall-back favourites: Spanish style stew. My recipe but his execution! He served it with roasted cubes of potatoes, very delish.

Its a simple dinner. Roughly chop up some chorizo and fry it off gently until it releases its oils, set aside. You the sear off chicken pieces, we used legs and thighs, dusted with flour and smoked paprika. Remove the skin. Then you add tinned tomatoes, chopped red chilli, sliced red pepper, sliced onion, garlic, good pinch of oregano, squeeze of tomato puree, pinch of sugar, good pinch of smoked Spanish paprika and plenty of seasoning. It should be a wet stew but thick if you follow me. Add the chorizo for the last half hour of cooking. It should take an hour in total to cook. The chicken should be loose from the bone. The heat from the chilli should be a background hint and not blow your head off! Its the perfect dinner for a cold winter's night.

The weather outside is frightful

Well it has been raining quite a lot where I am; the flood warning has been given; and we've to hope high tide later goes well for the area or we'll be sandbagging the doors. The Chops family took a stroll in the local area earlier this evening and I have to say that some people haven't gotten off so well and there's a few feet of water in their houses.

The bad weather has put me in the mind of comfort food and what works really well on an evening like this. I'd decided I was definitely having some kind of mashed potato. Mr. Chops wasn't feeling great so it was a one-woman dindins. I decided that as it was a solo effort that I was gonna roast up some garlic and add it to the mash. I consider it a guilty pleasure.

So I roasted the garlic (as much or as little as you want) with the skin left on the cloves, in a little drop of olive oil, wrapped in tin foil for around 30mins at 160C (fan). Let it cool down and then squeeze it from the skins into the mashed spuds. Needless to say, you have to add loads of butter and seasoning to the mash. I like it nice and buttery and when feeling really decadent I add a little drop of cream. I actually got a present of a potato ricer last Christmas and it has changed the way we eat mash in this house. It keeps the potato fluffy and soft. This is the model Mr. Chops got me, now there's a man who knows what his woman wants!!!

I ate my mash with sirloin steak, steamed broccoli and sautéed mushrooms. Now the steak wasn't great, it was a last-minute supermarket buy and was a little bit tough and chewy and Doggie Chops did get some leftovers today. Compared to the aged steaks we've been getting at our local butchers recently it was a definite let down so therein is the lesson: butcher bought is definitely best.

Now back to my studies, which I should have been doing while adding to this little blogeen.

Thoughts of Christmas

So its that time of year again...I know its only November but Mr. Chops and I have been discussing our Christmas dinner already. It looks like its just going to be us again this year which is a very blissful thought indeed. Its nice to cook the dinner our way and by our own schedule. Last year was the same. We got up around 10.30am, opened the presents and got most excited by Doggie Chops' reaction to his pressies; there's nothing like watching a dog eviscerate wrapping paper, joy to the world indeed! After a leisurely morning of stuffing the turkey; changing the vegetable water in various pots; and early morning home-cooked ham and brown bread for breakfast, we had a nice long walk with said Doggie who was wearing his Santa jacket. Westhighland Terrier's look very fetching in red it really shows off their noses:

Late afternoon, we had our starter. The plan of action was at least 1-2hours between starter and main course and sure an auld drop of wine inbetween! Our starter last year was a Tomato & Chorizo tartlet. It was my own invention. I defrosted the puff pastry and halved one sheet; created an edge by scoring it lightly with knife, pricked the middle part and then spread over sliced cherry tomatoes, fried slices of chorizo (the full sausage not the pre-sliced packets you get) and a good sprinkling of grated mozarella. Cooked it in the oven for roughly 20-25mins approx and served with a peppery salad of rocket and watercress. To accompany it we popped open a bottle of pink Cava from Tesco. It was a lovely start to the meal.

When we were ready for the main event and the turkey had its sufficient time. We sat down to the traditional full meal with all the trimmings: roast turkey, honey & mustard roast ham, roast potatoes, roast carrots with honey, roast parsnips with maple syrup, potato stuffing, bread stuffing and gravy. Mr.Chops didn't speak for at least an hour, so I think he enjoyed it. Then we weren't the only ones who had pig for Christmas:

Just an observation:

For a blog about cooking I've done very little...

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It is only right that I'm embarrassed.

Sorry, It's Been a While

Yeah, its been ages actually, over a month apparently (insert sad smiley face here please). Cooking has been on the down-low due the Mr. Chops being on overtime a lot and who can be bothered cooking for one, night after night? I've been putting a lot of effort into Doggie Chops recently because he had a sick tummy so it was a strict diet of chicken, rice and some pasta. I've been slowly trying to introduce dog nuts back into his diet but it seems Doggie Chops is an animal of discerning taste and palate and not everything is acceptable. Though, he has no problem with sausages, burgers, stew, toast, biscuits, pretzels.....basically whatever I'm eating! Also, I've started an Open University course about Leonardo da Vinci and I've been trying to get ahead on it cos there's lots of reading. But I'm feeling awfully intelligent reading dem big words.

Anyway, tonight I watched 'Julie & Julia'. For those who don't know, its the film of New Yorker Julie Powell's year long blog to cook her way through Julia Child's 'Mastering the Art of French Cookery'. Meryl Streep plays Julia and Amy Adams plays Julie. Since I saw Amy in Enchanted she has become a favourite actress of mine. She's brilliant in 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day' as well. I digress, the film is sweet, warm and engaging. Both the leads are amazing, though that's kind of a given with Meryl. For anyone who's ever seen footage of Julia Childs I think Meryl really captures her, though I'd like to know how they made her tower over Stanley Tucci (he plays husband Paul) it was a feat of cinema magic. The film has inspired me to order Volume I of Julia's book and her autobiography from Amazon. I'll read the biog first methinks and I'll cherrypick from the cookery book; I don't have the discipline or the time at the moment, but I have to say I felt the inclination to make Boeuf Bourguignon. If you watch the movie you'll understand why.

What amazed me most about the movie is loving way the food is shot. You're salivating watching it and my gosh did I want duck after I watched. So that's my recommendation for today: Julie & Julia.

Speaking of duck, I had delicious crispy duck last night from the local Chinese (see I'm not cooking). It was falling off the bone but still a little bit pink in the middle and the Hoisin was unctious and sweet. Even Mr. Chops liked it and he doesn't like duck that much or Chinese food.

PRAWNS AGAIN

Last night I decided to go Chinese with my dinner. I had some raw king prawns that needed to be used. I soaked some egg noodles in boiling water for 3 or 4 mins, then strained them and refreshed in cold water. I sliced some red onion, red pepper and topped and tailed some sugar snap peas. For the main event I stir fried the prawns for around a minute and removed from the wok. Then threw the peppers into the wok, stir-fried for 2mins then added the onion and sugar snap peas fried for another minute and now throw in the noodles. Keep everything moving or else they'll burn and stick. To this mixture I added a couple of teaspoons of Sweet Chilli Sauce (I use Blue Dragon) and 3tsps of Ketchap manis which is a sweeter soy sauce from Indonesia (if you don't have any use light soy sauce instead) and around 30mls of water. Let this mixture bubble away for a few mins until the sauce is syrupy and thick. To this add the prawns to heat through. Serve immediately. There is no need to add any salt to this mixture though I did add a few grounds of black pepper, but that's only because I love black pepper.

The above measurements are for a single serving. You can find Ketchap Manis in Tesco with all the other ethnic foods.

Mr. Chops didn't partake in my meal, he had a fish finger sandwich. Now that's living!!

TIS BEEN BAD FOOD WEEK

Didn't do too much cooking this week. Other than a Thai-noodle soup with prawns from Nigel Slater's new programme on BBC2. Mr. Chops isn't a fan of Thai food while I adore it. I love the heat of it and that little touch of sweetness in the background. You can find his recipe on the BBC food website bbc.co.uk/food, there's a link to his show.

I've become obsessed with prawns recently. Tesco were doing an offer on frozen raw king prawns so I stocked up on a good few bags. Of course, I never remember to take them out to defrost overnight so my little tip is to put them in tightly shut plastic bag and let sit in very cold water for an hour or so. If you think of it, change the cold water a couple of times but they won't be sitting in it for that long so its not entirely necessary. Turn the bag around every now and then and eventually you'll have perfectly safe-to-use defrosted prawns. The Tesco prawns are pretty tasty too, nice and meaty.

Another fall-back cupboard dinner is pasta with olive oil, garlic and chilli. If you've a fresh chilli near the end of its life hanging around, you can use it, otherwise I used dried chilli flakes. All you need to do is cook your choice of pasta, then while its draining, use the same pot to heat up a good splash of olive oil with a very finely chopped garlic clove and a sprinkling of chilli flakes - more or less depending on how much heat you like. Just make sure the garlic doesn't burn. Add the cooked pasta to the oil mix and give it a good stir. Check for seasoning, but definitely add some fresh ground black pepper. For a final flourish add some grated parmesan, then serve. Literally from pan to plate in 15mins max! Mr. Chops likes it and he's usually not one for plain pasta, he likes a little texture added. If you have it, you could add some roughly chopped chorizo to the pan with the garlic.

NO COOKING TODAY

Mr. Chops and I were in the mood for something bold but satisfying. So we went to Turkuaz, at 4 Cornmarket Row, Limerick city. Now I'm not a fan of doner kebabs, I'm not a fan of lamb but Mr. Chops says these are the best kebabs he has ever eaten. I spent 10 years or so listening to him going on about this place in Tralee being amazing; that was until a couple of months ago. A trip to Kerry Airport coincided with a trip to the Tralee kebabery place and poor auld Mr. Chops came home pretty much with his tail between his legs.

'Guess what?' He said to me, before even saying hello.
'Ya,' I said, 'what's up with you now?'
'Turkuaz is the best kebab I've ever had.' It seems the Tralee dream was finally over. He said it so sadly, it was like he'd found out about Santa.

But that was then and today we had Turkuaz. I had the Chicken Shish Kebab meal which comes with chargrilled chicken, usual salad, Turkish flat bread (not generic pitta), garlic sauce and hot chilli sauce; when I say hot I mean temperature hot as well as chilli hot. You also get chips which I have to say are probably some of the nicest chips in town. They are not too skinny but they are always freshly fried. The flat bread is cooked in house and if the blurb on the wall is anything to believe so are the meats and I believe they are. Mr. Chops says the doner meat is well...real meat!!!! I believe other kebab houses use those compressed lamb thingies that come off in long ribbons. What I can say is that the chicken is always juicy, has a lovely barbequed flavour and is completely delicious.

They serve the gamut of Turkish food. Kebabs, pides, lahmacuns (sp?), hummus, salads and pizzas. They even do various burgers. Personally, I'd stick to the kebabs. I had the Shepherd's salad one time and my God the feta in it was delicious. It was just a salad I know but there was loads of flat-leaf parsley in it and flat leaf is gorgeous with feta.

So yes, I can definitely recommend Turkuaz. Ignore the basic seating and the fact it does takeaway (which for some is a mark down), it is actually a little jewel in Limerick's culinary crown and the chicken shish kebab is actually really healthy so there!!!

Food hugs!

Stew again today. As I said Mr. Chops did the dindins yesterday and am I glad he did. I know its hardly the spirit of the blog to not cook but a girl is entitled to a couple of days off every now and then. Well maybe staying up watching the Emmys wasn't the best idea either. Mr. Chops is now very content with his nice feed and even Doggie Chops is chilling out. It was a flavour-filled mince stew. Homely and comforting to the last.

Mr. Chops fried off some mince, drained the excess fat off it, then added roughly chopped potatoes, carrots, onions, dried mixed herbs, a veg and a beef stock cube, Chef brown sauce, tomato sauce, lashings of salt & pepper and a enough water to just cover the meat. The mixture can be left to bubble quietly away on the hob for as long as you like and is better eaten the next day. Have it with a nice crusty roll or really fresh white sliced bread that's been generously buttered.

LUNCH TODAY

Monday has been a lazy day. I stayed up very very late watching the Emmys with a bottle of Rosé for company, therefore, a very late rise and a late lunch. I decided to take the lazy way out and just quickly fry up some Halloumi cheese sprinkled with chilli flakes. I toasted a large pitta bread from the freezer, cut up a plum tomato and a scallion and put the fried cheese on top. I gave it a couple of grinds of black pepper and I have to say as hangover cures go it was pretty good. Now if I could get Doggie Chops to stop barking at the neighbours dog it would be even better for my recovery. It doesn't look very appetising in the picture but appearances can be deceiving! Here's the pic:

MR. CHOPS MAKES DINNER

It was a super soccer Sunday yesterday and poor me, I had a little bit of a cold so Mr. Chops stepped up to the cooker and said he'd take the dinner in hand. Lovely it was too. He actually made today's dinner as well which is sitting in a big pot on the cooker but more of that later.

Anyway, he made great use of some chicken breasts! He wrapped them in back bacon rashers with lashings of pepper. With the roasted breasts, which took just under 40mins at 170C fan, he served roast potatoes (par-boiled roosters just basted in olive oil, salt & pepper just under an hour to cook), peas and green beans and gravy. Now we cheated with the gravy it was made with Bisto but what's wrong with that? We like Bisto ok! This is what our gorgeous dinner looked like:

MR CHOPS HAS A HANKERING FOR BACON

Most Saturday nights we tend to treat ourselves to a nice home cooked dinner, and last night was no exception...except for the fact we didn't want the whole hog (pardon the pun I'm sorry). Mr. Chops had great idea as earlier in the day I'd made brown bread so the idea was to incorporate the bread into the bacon dinner. Now when you say bacon in Ireland you don't mean strips of bacon or rashers as we call them. You mean a slab or loin of back bacon, unsmoked of course as Mr. Chops hates anything smoked. The local butcher was doing an offer so we availed.

Having grown up in the countryside it was impressed on me at a young age how to cook a piece of bacon. No matter that the butcher tells you its not salty it often is. If you can soak the bacon overnight in cold water, start this process early in the evening so you can change the water a couple of times before you go to bed. If you haven't time to do it overnight then a couple of changes of cold water over a few hours will be enough. Then comes the cooking process. I always add a roughly chopped carrot, bay leaf, a large onion cut into eights and a good sprinkling of black peppercorns. This is what I suppose you'd call a brine. Make sure it completely covers the meat. It looks like this:

Bring it very slowly to the boil and let it bubble gently for 20mins or so. Then carefully remove the bacon to a plate and empty the contents of the pan into a colander getting rid of the water. Put everything back into the pan and replace with hot water from the kettle just making sure again that the meat is fully covered. Again bring slowly to the boil and repeat the process of changing the water. During the last boil you can make up your mustard glaze. Oh did I not mention you finish off the cooking in the oven with a delicious mustard and honey glaze. Now its up to you but I use 3 different mustards with my honey, which should be clear and runny. Here they are:

I mix a couple of large teaspoons of each of wholegrain, English and Dijon mustard with a couple of teaspoons of clear honey. Give it a stir to bring it altogether. Its not precise, I tend to make more than I need but I always use it up on the bacon, the thicker the layer of mix the crustier it gets and yummy!!!

Preheat the oven to roughly 160C fan/170C. Probably the best tip I can give you is to double line your oven dish with tin foil, it saves on the washing up afterwards which is very important for a Saturday night. Once the bacon has bubbled for another 20mins take it out and let it dry slightly, you can also dab it all over with kitchen paper. Pierce the meat with a long skewer but try not to go all the way through you want the mustard mix to seep through and it also keeps the meat moist in the oven. Remove any excess fat and skin from the meat, sit it fat side down on the tray and lather it all over with the mustard mix. You want to smother it really. It should look like this:

Give it about 30-40mins in the oven, cover it with foil if you think its getting burned - honey does tend to caramelise. Once cooked either serve it with the usual suspects of boiled potatoes & cabbage or do what we did: fresh brown bread generously buttered, slices of large plum tomatoes and chopped scallions. Absolutely delish and very satisfying indeed!

What this blog is hopefully going to be about

Well Mr. Chops (the OH) and I have decided to change the way we eat and our choice of foods. We've been stuck in a rut food-wise. So now is the time to make a difference to our bellies and make some nice meals that aren't boring but are very satisfying. This all coincides with Mr. Chops starting a photography course, therefore, the pics of our dinners should be good, at least that's what I'm hoping!!!

The Photos

I promise the pics will get better once the new camera arrives from a certain internet based auction site ;)

Tonight's dinner

Well it was made last night by the Mr. Chops but the overnight resting did it nothing but favours. It was a delicious, heartwarming beef stew. It basically consisted of:


Stewing beef - Onions - Large chunks of carrots - Baby new potatoes - Couple of tsps Dried mixed herbs (Goodalls brand) - Couple tsps Dried parsley - Vegetable stock, to cover meat - Dashes of balsamic & Worcestershire sauce - Tomato sauce - Chef's brown sauce - Bay leaves - Salt & Pepper - Pinch of nutmeg

All cooked slowly for about 3 hours until the meat is breaking apart and the veg are lovely and soft.

We made proper gluttons of ourselves and had some stoneground brown bread with lashings of butter on top. I couldn't finish it all and I'm stuffed now so I'm only slowing making my way through some rosé.

First post

Long way to go before this is set up properly. Going to start keeping online diary of new recipes and foods tried as my other half and I are trying to change the way we eat. He's getting a high falootin camera soon so we'll be able to upload some cool pics of some hopefully delicious dinners, lunches, etc etc