Day 38 - Homemade Tomato, Mozzerella & Jalapeno Pizza

HOMEMADE TOMATO, MOZZARELLA & JALAPENO PIZZA

Serves: 2 People

Prep Time: 10-15 Minutes

Cooking Time: 20-25 Minutes

225g of Self Raising Flour
2 tsp of Dried Basil
3 tbsp of Olive Oil
3 tbsp of Tomato Puree
2 Tomatoes
75-100g of Jarred Jalapeno Peppers
150-200g of Soft Mozzarella

• Preheat the oven to 190 degrees
• Place the flour, 1 teaspoon of basil and a pinch of salt and pepper in a bowl. Make a well in the centre, add 3 tablespoon of olive oil and about 6 tbsp of cold water. Stir with a round bladed knife until the mixture makes large crumbs then bring together to make a dough adding more water if needed.
• Knead the dough lightly, then roll into a round to fit the base of a frying pan.
• Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in the pan. Place the dough in the pan and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes. Then turn the pizza out onto a plate and cook the reverse side of the pizza for a further 5 minutes.
• Next spread the tomato puree over the pizza and lay the tomatoes and jalapenos evenly over the puree. Grate or finely slice the mozzarella and sprinkle over the top with the remaining basil.
• Place the frying pan into the oven and cook for about 10 minutes until the cheese has melted and is golden on top. Then serve immediately.

Day 37 - Jerk Chicken with Rice & Peas.

JERK CHICKEN WITH RICE & PEAS

Serves: 2

Prep Time: 25 Minutes + Marinating Time

Cooking Time: 45 Minutes

2 Chicken Breasts or 4 Chicken Thighs
5 Spring Onions
Thumb Sized Piece of Ginger
3 Garlic Cloves
1 Small Onion
2 Red Chilli Peppers
1 Lime
2 tbsp of Soy Sauce
2 tbsp of Vegetable Oil
3 tbsp of Brown Sugar
1 tbsp of Ground Allspice
200g of Basmati Rice
100g of Peas

• To make the jerk marinade, in a food processor (bowl blade) combine the spring onions, ginger, garlic cloves, onion, chilli peppers, lime juice, soy sauce, oil, sugar and ground allspice with a pinch of salt, and blend until it's a puree.
• Make slashes in the chicken and if you're using breast - bash it out a bit. Pour the marinade over the chicken and rub them together. Cover and leave to marinade for a few hours or overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Put the chicken and the marinade into a roasting tin and cook for 45 minutes until tender and cooked through.
• Whilst the chicken is cooking, put salted water in a pan on medium to high heat. Once boiling, add the rice and the peas, cook for 15 minutes until the rice is soft and fluffy.
• Serve the jerk chicken on top of the rice with some hot sauce if you'd like.

Day 36 - BLT Baguettes

This recipe was a lovely easy recipe but really tasty. You could add chicken to the baguettes if you'd like or possibly instead of butter make some homemade mayonnaise. We were really tired & lazy that evening, so we just made this simple BLT baguette recipe.

DAY 36 - BLT BAGUETTES

Serves: 2 People

Prep Time: 10-15 Minutes

Cooking Time: 10-15 Minutes

6-8 Rashers of Smoked Bacon
2 Tomatoes
40g of Rocket Leaves
20g of Butter
2 Foot Long Part Baked Baguettes
Olive Oil

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and place the baguettes into the oven for 5-10 minutes. Once the baguettes are done, remove from the the oven and leave to cool for about 10 minutes.
• Put a teaspoon of oil into a frying pan on a medium heat, fry the smoked bacon until a little crispy around the edges, turning every so often, then set aside. Meanwhile, thinly slice the tomatoes and set aside.
• Slice the baguettes in half and spread with the butter. Place the cooked bacon in the baguettes with the slices tomatoes and rocket salad. Drizzle with a little olive oil and serve with some homemade chips.

Day 35 - Smoked Salmon & Watercress Tart

SMOKED SALMON & WATERCRESS TART

Serves: 4 People

Prep Time: 10-15 Minutes

Cooking Time: 1 Hour 15 Minutes

300g of Shortcrust Pastry (see here)
50g of Watercress
120g of Smoked Salmon
4 Large Eggs
300ml of Creme Fraiche
1 Lemon

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
• Roll out the pastry on a floured surface so that it's about 5 mm thick. Line a tart tin with the pastry, then line the pastry with baking paper and baking beans, bake blind for about 15-20 minutes. Remove the paper and beans and return to the oven for a further 5- 10 minutes until the base is cooked. Then leave to cool a little. Turn the oven down to 180 degrees.
• Pick the watercress leaves, discarding the stalks. Spread over the base of the pastry case evenly. Roughly tear the smoked salmon into small pieces and scatter over the watercress.
• Lightly beat the eggs, creme fraiche and lemon juice together and season well. Carefully pour this over the salmon and watercress and grind a little more black pepper to the top. Bake for 35-40 Minutes until the filling is set.
• Leave the tart to cool for 5-10 minutes and then serve with a rocket salad.

Day 34 - Rabbit Ragu

For this recipe I decided to try something new - I love Rabbit but I've never cooked it before. A lot of people turned their noses up when I told them I was cooking rabbit, obviously some people keep rabbits as pets, and I am no different, I had a pet rabbit when I was younger. Rabbit is a fabulous meat though, it's the most free range you can get, very lean and healthy!

RABBIT RAGU

Serves: 2-3 People

Prep Time: 15 Minutes

Cooking Time: 1 Hour 55 Minutes

1 Whole Rabbit
2 Large Onion
6 Carrots
6 Celery Sticks
4-5 Peppercorns
2 Rashers of Smoked Bacon
400g of Tinned Chopped Tomatoes
400ml of Vegetable Stock
200g of Linguine Pasta
2 tbsp of Fresh Grated Parmesan

• First of all I am going to roast the rabbit. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Chop 1 Onion, 3 Carrots and 3 Celery Sticks into quarters and place into a large roasting dish with the peppercorns. Cover the vegetable with a good amount of water and rest the rabbit on top but make sure. (I had the rabbit cut into 6 equal sized pieces at the butchers.) Place into the oven for 30-40 minutes.
• When done, leave to rest for 10-15 minutes then strip the meat from 4 of the 6 pieces of rabbit and put aside. Save the rest of the meat, the bones, vegetable and remaining juices in the dish in the freezer to use for an amazing rabbit soup.
• Meanwhile finely dice the remaining onion, carrots, celery and the bacon, add to a large lidded pan with a teaspoon of oil on a medium heat and cook 5 minutes until softened.
• Add the rabbit to the pan and turn the heat down to a low heat and add the stock and tinned chopped tomatoes. Season to taste and place the lid on. Leave to simmer for approximately an hour, stirring every so often and adding a little water if you feel it's getting dry.
• Cook the linguine according to the packet instructions and serve with the ragu on top and grate over some fresh Parmesan.

Day 33 - Garlic Chicken Curry with Coriander Sauce

This is a delicious, healthy curry recipe given to me by my mother.

GARLIC CHICKEN CURRY WITH CORIANDER SAUCE

Serves: 2 People

Prep Time: 20 Minutes + Marinating time

Cooking Time: 20 Minutes

Small Bunch of Fresh Coriander
3 Garlic Cloves
2 tsp of Garam Masala
1 tbsp of Mango Chutney
2 Large Chicken Breasts
1 Large Onion
400g of Tinned Chopped Tomatoes
2 tbsp of Natural Yogurt.

• Cut most of the stalks from the coriander and set the leaves aside. Finely chop the stalks and mix with the crushed garlic, garam masala, chutney and pinch of salt. 
• Make small slashes in the chicken and flatten a little. Smear the coriander paste over the chicken and leave to marinate in the fridge for 1 hour or overnight.
• Heat a tsp of oil in a large frying pan, finely slice the onion and fry until softened. Add the chicken and marinade to the frying pan and turn to coat the onion. Fry for 6-8 minutes, turning and stirring regularly.
• Add the tinned tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes. Chop the rest of the coriander leaves and stir half of them into the curry.
• Mix the remaining chopped coriander leaves with the yogurt and serve with the Curry, Rice and some Poppadoms.

Day 32 - Roast Beef & Yorkshire Puddings

On Sunday we had Rikki's Dad and Partner over for Sunday lunch. Rikki cooked this delicious joint of roast beef with Yorkshire puddings. I was in charge of roast potatoes and vegetables - as we had guests I kept it simple and did carrots and that delicious curly kale we had earlier that week with the cajun steak.

ROAST BEEF & YORKSHIRE PUDDINGS

Serves: 4 People

Prep Time: 25 - 30 Minutes

Cooking Time: 1 Hour 45 Minutes

Yorkshire Puddings

350g/12oz plain flour 

4 large or 5 medium free-range eggs

800ml/1 pint 7fl oz milk (you may not need all of it)

Roast Beef
1kg of Silverside Beef
2 Medium Onions
2 Carrots
2 Sticks of Celery
1 Bay Leaf
4-5 Peppercorns

• Preheat your oven to 240 degrees. There's no need to peel the vegetables – just give them a wash and roughly chop them.
• Pile the vegetables, bay leaf and peppercorns onto a roasting tray and cover with a decent amount of water. Drizzle the beef with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper, rubbing it all over the meat. Place the beef on top of the vegetables.
• Place the roasting tray in the preheated oven. Turn the heat down immediately to 200 degrees and cook for 1 hour for medium beef. 
• If you're doing roast potatoes and veggies, this is the time to crack on with them. When the beef is cooked to your liking, take the tray out of the oven and transfer the beef to a board to rest for 15 minutes or so.
• For the Yorkshire puddings, Sift the flour and a pinch of salt into a bowl, add the eggs and gradually whisk in enough milk to make a smooth batter thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. 
• Pour enough vegetable oil into the well of each Yorkshire pudding tin so that it covers the bottom and place in the oven to heat for a few minutes. When the oil is hot, remove from the oven. Give the Yorkshire batter a stir and carefully pour it into the tins.
• Place the tins back in the oven and cook for about 25-30 minutes alongside the roast potatoes, until they are well risen and golden.
• To serve, carve the beef into thick slices and pile on plates with the Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and vegetables. Pour lashings of gravy over the top.