Comfort food

After a pretty busy and stressful week all I wanted was a homely warm meal. You know the type of food I mean, the type that reminds you of mum.

So I decided to cook a bacon joint, mash potato, veg and a cheese and parsley sauce. No cook book required :-)

I always buy a cooked bacon joint, then to warm it up I place it in a pan of boiling water and I turn the heat right down. It is left to simmer while I cook everything else, I just turn it every now and then.

I cheated and used frozen peas and sweet corn, as I just love these with mash and bacon. Finally peel and chop the potatoes and put them on until soft (cooked). I recently brought a potato ricer and I use ths instead of a masher, I find it makes a lovely smooth mash, I just add salt, pepper, dash of milk and knob of butter and stir until all mixed together. I then put cover on to keep warm

The last thing is to then make the sauce. Melt butter in a pan, approx 50g,

Then stir in 50g plain flour, and stir until a smooth paste. Keep it on low heat while you do this as it helps to ensure you don't get a floury taste to the sauce. Then slowly add milk, add drop at a time and stir well each time until smooth, keep doing this until sauce is the correct consistency. I don't know how much milk to recommend as everyone likes the sauce a different thickness but allow about 1 pint.

As you keep on the heat the sauce will thicken so don't leave it alone or it can go lumpy, this is why I ensure everything else is cooked and I do this last, as I can just concentrate on it. Once the basic white sauce is cooked add your flavours, I added 2 tsp parsley and 2 hand fulls of grated cheese, I never weigh as I just taste and add to taste. Quick tip is you can buy pre-grated cheese :-)

Then all done just stir this in, keep on heat 2 mins and stir! It takes about 30-40 minutes to prepare and cook.

So yummy and feels like home.

The way to MoMo's heart!

My eldest daughters favourite food is pie, so much so that for Christmas she brought me the higgerty pie cookbook and excitedly shouted as I opened it 'Cuz I love pie!'

There is a recipe in this book I have made a few times now, and it's become a firm family favourite. So when I want to treat Morgan I surprise her with it. It's called chicken pot pie, it's gorgeous. It contains chicken and ham, and the sauce has a mild cheesyness to it. It takes a good hour to make and well worth it! It's one of the meals I make where everyone ends up wanting seconds.

I will say though that not too good when frozen, so if not all eaten then put in the fridge and use up within the next few days. If frozen the sauce isn't as good it kind of congeals. 

I've put a link below to the recipe - enjoy! 

Chicken-Pot-Pie

3 course dinner ala Chez Aspinall!

You would think because I like cooking so much I would be having dinner parties every 5 minutes... But alas we never pull our finger out to arrange this. However I decided to treat my husband to some of his favourite food as he's been so stressed and working long hours, so to cheer him up and help him relax I made our own little dinner party.

As it was just me and Jim it meant I could be a little creative and not do my normal thing of scouring through cookbooks. So I pulled together things I know he likes 😊

To start I made chicken goujons with a chilli jam.

This was combining 2 different meals I've made before. The chicken nugget recipe I made for the children but just cutting the chicken into dipping size fingers, and in ainsley Harriet's meals in minutes cookbook he has a meal called chilli jam gammon, I love the chilli jam recipe. I use it a lot now, it's simple and takes 10 minutes and I bet most of you have all the ingredients for it in your cupboard!

I have tried to find a link on internet for it, but can't find one. So if interested look for Ainsley Harriet's Meals in Minutes.

As a starter this worked really well.

For the main I did try and wing it! Jim loves lamb, so I brought lovely lamb steaks from the butchers and decided to just griddle them and serve with champ mash, veg and a red wine jus. Champ mash is easy, just normal mash but you fry cabbage/leeks in butter then stir them into the mash. I used leeks and Savoy cabbage, but I've seen it with just leeks or just cabbage. Now what not to do is what I did and forget you were frying them so you burn bits... Haha!! I picked the worse bits out, and apparently it added to the flavour (oh he is so lovely). 

Red wine jus..... Never made it before.... Red a few different recipes and thought... Doddle! Ermmmm no...! I used shallots cooked until soft (in olive oil), then added beef stock, ref wine and reduced... Seasoning and adding butter towards the end (oh and chopped rosemary). It was ok, but not as strong a taste as I wanted and also really runny, I didn't reduce enough. But all in all was a lovely meal, and I used a ramekin to shape the mash trying to improve my presentation.... Think it still needs work 😁

So finally Jim loves hot puddings with icecream. I had some apples, so decided to make crumbles. Little hint, you can use eating apples for crumble just don't stew them! I layered individual pots with sliced apple, sprinkled a tiny bit of caster sugar on top then added the crumble mix. I made it using flour, butter, caster sugar but also a little rolled oats, to give it a little bit more of a nutty texture. Can't remember quantities, I just judged by eye and consistency of the crumble. I then added a ball of icecream, and no I didn't make the icecream, this is something I have never tried. I brought toffee ripple... Mmmmmm

The whole meal was a success, I chose things that meant I didn't have to stay in the kitchen too long in between courses, so mash was made and kept warm, etc. I only had to griddle the lamb which took 5-10 minutes. We ate it on trays watching a film, no formalities just a lovely relaxed evening. It did what I set out to do, will definitely do it again.