October Meal of the Month - Time to Vote Folks!

Discussion in 'Can Cook, Will Cook' started by 72wilma, Nov 5, 2011.

  1. well here we are, a brilliant selection, remember choose wisely!

    1 Daisy-Mae's Curry


    OK, at home I would make a curry from scratch but when we are away in Daisy-Mae, it just isn't going to happen. This is a veggie curry on the grounds that we are veggie ... but feel free to make your own changes. Takes about 10 - 15 minutes to do.

    Ingredients

    Cooking oil
    Handful of mushrooms
    Tin of chickpeas
    Uncle Ben's express rice
    Jar of Sharwoods Curry Sauce - Rogan Josh is Freya's favourite!

    Couple of bottles of cold beer
    Ready to eat poppadoms or Naan breads if you are feeling fancy!

    What to do

    In a large-ish pan put a couple of cm of water and heat it up. When it starts to come to the boil put in the rice to heat through - fluff with a fork as it heats to separate it.

    In a medium-ish pan put a slug of oil and add the chopped mushrooms. Once they have cooked enough for your liking put in the drained tin of chickpeas & the curry sauce ... if it is all a bit thick then add some water. When it is hot and bubbling it is ready!

    Drain rice and serve it all up.

    With the ready to eat poppadoms or Naan breads and drink the cold beer if you are feeling fancy/drink!


    2. Dinky's Chili


    12oz Mince

    1 red pepper Choppped

    1 red onion chopped

    2 garlic cloves finley sliced

    2 x 397g/14oz red kidney beans

    2 x 397g/14oz chopped tom's ( cans)

    chopped onion, red pepper, and garlic. Add kidney beanies, chopped toms, tom puree, sweetner, paprika and stir to mix

    Bring to the boil, stiring occasionaly, and cook over a medium heat for around 15mins, Stir in the parsley and season to taste witht eh salt and pepper.

    You could serve straight away or you could leave overnight so that the flavour's have time to develope, then reheat the following day and serve it, AWESOME!!!!!!

    3. Dinky's Blue Cheese Sauce

    This is lovely but i warn ya its strong O:)


    2 lvl tbsp cornflower

    284ml/ 1/2pt skimmed milk

    113/4oz stilton cheese, grated

    142g/5oz very low fat natural fromage frais

    Salt fresh ground pepper


    1) Blend the corn flower with a little milk to form a paste, pour the remainding milk into a pan, bring to the boil, then add the cournflower mixture, stirring all the time, and cook for 1-2mins, intill thick. Add the stilton, reduce the heat, and simmer , stirring often, until melted.

    2) Remove from the heat and then gradually beat in the Fromage Frais, season well, but if you do freeze this, rememebr to heat it slowly because if you heat it too fast and let it bubble the fromage will curdle, :eek:

    Great for freezing by the way..

    Great to eat with everything, my fav is Collieflower, with a steak mmmmmmm :p

    4.Sarah and Sharons Bacon Pasta.


    This is a super quick staple recipe used in our house and van, with prep time it takes about 20 minutes.

    Ingredients

    1 pack of bacon (about 250gms) chopped
    1 pepper chopped
    1 onion chopped
    handful of mushrooms chopped
    Tin of chopped tomatoes
    Spray oil or cooking oil - your preference
    salt and pepper
    fresh garlic 1 or 2 cloves depending on how much you like it ;)
    fresh chilli probably 1 chopped again it depends on how hot you want it
    mixed herbs (whichever you prefer)
    worcester sauce
    Pasta (amount to suit the number of portions)/>
    Ok so this will serve 4 (unless you are really hungry), as there's only 2 of us we tend to box it up and eat the rest for lunch on the second day ;D

    Method

    1) Put on the pasta, we use wholemeal which takes about 15 minutes.
    2) Oil a frying pan (we use spray oil) once hot fry off the bacon, if you are trying to be a little healthier once cooked drain off the excess fat.
    3) Add the mushrooms, onions, peppers and garlic to the frying pan, if a little extra liquid is needed add a little of the juice from the chopped tomatoes.
    4) Once the peppers and onions have softened add the tin of tomatoes.
    5) Add all the remaining ingredients, stir and wait for the pasta to cook.
    6) Serve over the pasta, for a little extra taste add some grated cheese.

    If we are doing this in the van we try and cut everything up before we leave home, that way we can just chuck it all in the pan, sit back and wait for it to cook

    5. Baywatcher's Lemon Bars


    [​IMG]

    Crust:
    3/4C Frozen Butter
    1 3/4C flour
    3/4C powdered sugar
    1/2t salt

    Filling:

    4 LG eggs
    1 1/3C sugar
    3T flour
    1/4t salt
    3/4C lemon juice
    1/4C whole milk

    Preheat oven to 350*.
    Grease a 13X9 pan
    Whisk together dry ingredients for crust- Grate frozen butter into it with large hole grater. Stir until it looks mealy and combined.
    The trick here is to work fast, like you would with pie crust. You don't want the butter to melt. I like to use a thick glass bowl that has been in the freezer for hours. If it is Winter, I make such buttery crusts and pastries right outside at the snowy patio table. Solid little lumps of butter in your mix will give you flakiness. If the butter melts and soaks into the flower it will come out tough and hard.
    Press mixture into your baking dish using the bottom of a frozen glass, mug, jar, etc,,, freeze for 15 minutes, then bake 16-18 minutes until just slightly golden. Leave the oven on.

    While the crust is baking, beat the eggs lightly, then whisk in the rest of the ingredients.
    Pour it over the hot crust, sprinkle with lemon zest, continue baking for 18 minutes or until just the edges begin to turn golden brown.
    Let it cool and dust with powdered sugar to taste.

    6. Eveningstar's Easy Pasta Carbonara


    We have this every time we go away, it's really easy and tasty. You can make it low fat by using low fat cheese and adding less.

    Packet bacon (smoked tastes better)
    Oil (I use the Spray Light stuff)
    3 eggs (any size)
    Packet of grated cheese (or grate your own)
    Tabasco
    Salt and pepper
    Pasta (approx 75g per portion)

    1) Cut bacon into small pieces and fry in oil until browned. Set aside on a piece of kitchen roll to blot the excess oil off.
    2) Separate three eggs and put the yolks in a bowl (use the whites in an omelette or scrambled eggs the next day).
    3) Add the cheese (the whole bag if you're feeling decadent) and shake in some drops of tabasco and add salt and pepper. Mix well.
    4) Cook the pasta until al dente (approx 10 mins depending on type) and strain off the cooking liquid into a separate container (don't throw away).
    5) Put the pan of pasta back on the heat and add the eggy/cheesy mixture and the bacon.
    6) Add enough cooking liquid to make a rich sauce and heat through.
    7) Serve and don't think about the calories

    You could add extra things like cooked mushrooms, sweetcorn, crumbled blue cheese etc and sometimes I substitute the bacon with chorizo.

    ng>7. Eveningstar's Spanish Chicken Stew

    Feeds four

    1 tablespoon oil
    150g chorizo- chopped into little cubes
    1 onion - finely chopped)
    1 teaspoon paprika (more to taste if required)
    2 teaspoons spanish paella herb mix (if you can get it but not essential)
    bag spinach leaves - chopped
    400g tin chopped tomatoes
    1 tablespoon sundried tomato paste
    1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
    1 400g tin chickpeas
    Cooked chicken shredded
    salt and pepper
    rice

    Heat the oil in a pan (I always use a wok) and when warm add the chorizo.
    Heat until the oil starts coming out of the chorizo and then add the onion.
    Turn heat down and cook for 15 mins without colouring the onions. Keep adding water if it looks like it's catching.
    Then add the paprika and paella herb mix if using and cook for one minute.
    Add spinach, tomatoes, tomato paste, chickpeas and enough stock to cover everything, bring to boil and then simmer for 30 mins.
    If you're making it at home, it's nice to take a third of the mixture out and puree it in a blender before returning to the pan to thicken the sauce a bit but not essential for the van!
    Add the chicken, add more stock and more paprika if it needs it, add salt and pepper and heat through.
    Serve with rice and grated cheese (manchego to be authentic but anything will do).

    8. Eveningstar's Chocolate fudge peanut bananas

    175ml double magnolia
    100g milk chocolate broken into squares
    100g smooth peanut butter (about a third of a jar)
    3 x 15ml tablespoons golden syrup
    bananas - one per person
    packet salted peanuts

    Put the bananas in their skins on the fire.
    Heat the magnolia, chocolate, peanut butter and golden syrup in a pan until all melted together.
    When banana skins are black all the way round, take off fire and peel.
    Serve with dollop of fudge peanut sauce, add magnolia if desired and sprinkle with salted peanuts (strange but makes the dish).

    9. 72wilma's O[tt][/tt]range and Almond Hallowe'en Cake with O[tt][/tt]range C[tt][/tt]ream (and it's gluten free too)


    2 large o[tt][/tt]ranges
    200g caster sugar
    200g ground almonds
    1 teaspoon almond essence
    6 eggs
    1 teaspoon baking powder
    3 tablespoons of flaked almonds

    Topping
    Zest of 1/2 o[tt][/tt]range
    250g thick natural yoghurt/mascapone
    2 tablespoons icing sugar
    1 teaspoon Cointreau – or more if desired


    Put the o[tt][/tt]ranges in a pan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 2 hours. Top up with more water if they start to boil dry.

    Line a loose based 20cm/ 8 inch cake tin with baking parchment paper.

    Pre-heat the oven to 170 C/ 150 F/ gas mark 2.

    Remove the o[tt][/tt]ranges from the water. Using a sharp knife, carefully remove the outer o[tt][/tt]range layer. Cut o[tt][/tt]range in half discarding any pips. Place in the food processor with the caster sugar, eggs, ground almonds, almond essence and baking powder. Blitz until smooth.

    Transfer the mixture into the prepared cake tin & sprinkle the almonds over the top.

    Bake in the pre-heated oven for 1 hour 30 minutes, covering with foil half way through should it start to burn on top.

    Leave to cool and then cut into slices.

    For the o[tt][/tt]range c[tt][/tt]ream, combine the yoghurt/ mascarpone cheese with the sugar, jaffa juice and Cointreau.

    To serve, dust the plate with some icing sugar and serve the cake with a generous spoonful of o[tt][/tt]range c[tt][/tt]ream.
     
  2. I had to vote for eveningstars spanish stew as my family haven't stopped talking about how great it was!
     
  3. dean_butler

    dean_butler TLB Design Guru

    Wow it all looks really good. Maybe I should vote after I have eaten as want it all lol
     
  4. At the minute i have made the cury and it was lovely, already tryed mine loooooooooool, going down the list, hehe, but my daughter says we have to make the lemon cakes next, so will post up hehe.

    [​IMG]

    Everyoneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :)
     
  5. bumpety bump
     
  6. :)
     
  7. Woodylubber

    Woodylubber Obsessive compulsive name changer

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