The 'Here's what I had for dinner last night' thread - Part I

callmescratch

Two boiled eggs and three slices of toast

Quality

i had cajun salmon, and homemade wedges, with veg..


Dinner in 20 mins,,

BanzaiBk

Salmon en Papillote with new baby potatoes in garlic and herbs, some green beans and some cubed baked potatoes.

Toto Wolfcastle

It was heart attack day in the janeybabe household today. I had a huge dish of potato gratin made with double cream followed by a whole tub of Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie. It was great!

Kurumba

We had pasta with chicken & chorizo in a creamy tomato sauce with loads of fresh basil leaves. Delish. Dinner done in 15 mins!

chiempi

Few dinners from the past week:
Homemade tomato soup with onion, garlic, green beans, carrots, red pepper and lots of basil.
Spicy chicken casserole with potato, carrot and celery in it (I LOVE paprika!)
Brown sugar, orange and apple grilled pork chops with roast potato and honey-baked carrot
Gordon Ramsay's sirloin steak with oven-baked potato and carrot chips and green beans and tomato
Nigella's Coke gammon with buttery champ
Pasta with a creamy tomato and ham (leftover from the gammon) sauce

I've just bought brisket for the first time and plan to experiment with that this weekend...

_blank_

jessie1 wrote: »

We had pasta with chicken & chorizo in a creamy tomato sauce with loads of fresh basil leaves. Delish. Dinner done in 15 mins!

chiempi wrote: »

Spicy chicken casserole with potato, carrot and celery in it (I LOVE paprika!)

chiempi wrote: »

Pasta with a creamy tomato and ham (leftover from the gammon) sauce

Could I get the recipes for them please, and thanks

Quality

DesF wrote: »

Could I get the recipes for them please, and thanks

Are you writing a cook book?:D

The Hill Billy

Quality wrote: »

Are you writing a cook book?:D

Yes Des - I think we should be told. Either that or you are just a recipe whõre.

The Hill Billy

Des:

I did myself the Thai Soup last night. As Mrs Billy & HB Jr I weren't having it I went to town on the ginger & chillies for a thoroughly 'cleansing' experience as I've had a dodgy gut recently.

Anyway, just for the hell of it I threw in a heaped teaspoon of Chinese 5 Spice. It was magic! Really added a new depth of flavour. Give it a shot next time you do it. Thai 7 Spice (a Sharwoods' marketing gimmick?) may be even better.

chiempi

DesF wrote: »

Could I get the recipes for them please, and thanks

No recipe for the pasta, really - boiled up some wholegrain spirals, and while the water was boiling sliced onion and minced garlic, chucked it in the pan with olive oil and a squeeze of chilli to liven things up. Then added frozen beans (hey this was a 'leftovers' dinner) and 3 diced tomatoes and a squeeze of tomato paste. I didn't use any extra spices because the ham was quite strongly flavoured, but added a fair bit of pepper. Stir-fried everything, added a splash of white wine for more liquid, and a dollop of cream. Very basic, and yum.

I'll attach Nigella's recipe for Coca Cola ham, just because it is so good - I don't like it so much as a main dish, but it's great in other things.

Nigella’s Coca Cola Ham

2kg mild-cure gammon
1 onion, peeled and cut in half
2-litre bottle of Coca-Cola

FOR THE GLAZE
handful of cloves
1 heaped tablespoon black treacle
2 teaspoons English mustard powder
2 tablespoons demerara sugar

Mild-cure gammon doesn't need soaking, but if dealing with a salty piece, put it in a pan covered with cold water, bring to the boil, drain and start from here; otherwise, put the gammon in a pan, skin-side down if it fits like that, add the onion, then pour over the Coke.

Bring to the boil, reduce to a good simmer, put the lid on, though not tightly, and cook for just under 2 and a half hours. If your joint is larger or smaller, work out timing by reckoning on an hour per kilo, remembering that it's going to get a quick blast in the oven later. Take into account that if the gammon's been in the fridge right up to the moment you cook it, you will have to give it a good 15 minutes or so extra so that the interior is properly cooked.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 240ºC/gas mark 9.

When the ham's had its time take it out of the pan (but do NOT throw away the cooking liquid) and let cool a little for ease of handling. (You can let it cool completely then finish off the cooking at some later stage if you want). Then remove the skin, leaving a thin layer of fat. Score the fat with a sharp knife to make fairly large diamond shapes, and stud each diamond with a clove.

Then carefully spread the treacle over the bark-budded skin, taking care not to dislodge the cloves. Gently pat the mustard and sugar onto the sticky fat. Cook in a foil-lined roasting tin for approximately 10 minutes or until the glaze is burnished and bubbly.

Should you want to do the braising stage in advance and then let the ham cool, clove and glaze it and give it 30-40 minutes, from room temperature, at 180ºC/gas mark 4, turning up the heat towards the end if you think it needs it.


This is the recipe for spicy chicken - I started with a Good Housekeeping recipe and tweaked it a bit.

Spicy Chicken
Serves 4

1kg chicken pieces, eg. thighs and drumsticks
1 onion, peeled and sliced
1 clove garlic, peeled and sliced
2 tbsp each chicken seasoning and coriander
½ tablespoon cumin
1 tbsp paprika
1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped
Juice of one lemon (I use 2 but I like mine very lemony)
2 tbsp soy sauce
8 sprigs thyme, and more to garnish
2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 tbsp muscovado or granulated sugar
500gm potatoes, cut into 5cm pieces
2 carrots, cut into 3cm pieces
600ml hot chicken stock

Pierce each chicken piece in several places. Place in a sealable container and sprinkle with all the ingredients up to and including the thyme (I used dried thyme which worked perfectly well). Shake or stir thoroughly until well combined and the chicken is well coated. Leave in fridge for half an hour or overnight.

Heat the oil and sugar in a heavy-based casserole (a big heavy pot did the job!) over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar is dark golden brown. Add the chicken immediately, reserving the onion and marinade, and brown for 5 minutes, turning as needed.

Add the onion, marinade and veggies, and cook stirring for 10 minutes. Add the chicken stock and stir thoroughly. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove lid and cook for a further 10 minutes to allow the gravy to reduce a little.

Serve garnished with sprigs of thyme.

Notes: the carrots weren’t in the original recipe, but were very good – any root vegetables eg. parsnip or celeriac would do well in this I think. Worth adding extra veg – the flavour is fantastic, and good to balance out the meat/veg proportions. This is a very heavy winter dish, but very easy, and nice for a treat.

MoominPapa

Cooked tofu for the first time last night, kinda inspired by Okinawa diet highlighted in the Horizon show on longevity this week. Fried some garlic, ginger and chillies in olive oil. after a minute bunged in a bunch of kale, once that began to wilt threw in the tofu, cut into cubes. Once the tofu had a bit of colour added some oyster sauce and soy sauce, served with noodles. Simple, took less than ten minutes, delicious and satisfying but so good we had it twice! Tofu ftw

Kurumba

jessie1 wrote: »

We had pasta with chicken & chorizo in a creamy tomato sauce with loads of fresh basil leaves. Delish. Dinner done in 15 mins!

DesF the way i make this is as follows, really simple. This fed 2 of us.

Ing:
2 chicken breasts chopped into chunks
Chorizo ( i didn't actually buy the sausage itself, i bought it in salami sort of slices that came in a packet in Superquinn)
Tin of tomatos
1 to 2 cloves garlic
1 onion
half carton of cream ( i used low fat)
Fresh basil leaves & parsley if desired.
As much pasta as you want

First of all i put the water on for the pasta. Once boiled add the pasta and let it cook.
Then i finely chop the garlic & onion and fry it off for a minute, then put in a saucepan with the tin of tomatos with plenty of salt and pepper and let it simmer on a low heat.

Next cook the chicken in a pan, once it's nearly done i pour the cream into the tomato sauce and stir until it all comes together. Blitz together with a handblender if you have one. If not just mash it until the lumps have gone.

I then add the creamy tomato sauce to the pan with the chicken in it, then add loads of chorizo, drain pasta and add to the pan also and stir it all together.
Finish by stirring the basil & parsley through it with a touch of parmersan over the top if you like.

Would be lovely served with garlic bread as well.

BanzaiBk

Dinner last night for my 4 y/o sister and I was champ, honeybaked ham and some proper Dijon mustard:)

tSubh Dearg

Tonight we're going to have sea bass which I think I will steam with lemon and butter.

Served with roasted mushrooms and roasted red peppers (possibly with goat's cheese on them)

siobhan.murphy

I had 4 star pizza last night as I was suffering with a hangover!
tonight Im having strips of chicken with mozzerella garlic and sundried tomatoes wrapped with rashers,and a nice fleurie!

_blank_

Quality wrote: »

Are you writing a cook book?:D

NO! I juts like cooking and trying new things. Don't worry, any recipes I do try I always give feedback on.

But any recipe posted I copy into a little file on my laptop, and when I'm feeling in a cooking mood I open it up, go get the ingredients and cook up a storm!

Hill Billy wrote: »

Yes Des - I think we should be told. Either that or you are just a recipe whõre.

Hill Billy wrote: »

threw in a heaped teaspoon of Chinese 5 Spice. It was magic!

Cheers for the tip, see I'd never think of doing something like that. I was going to do up another batch of this sometime next week actually, so I'll stick a jar of this 5 spice onto my list.

Quality

Chorizo & Gammon, yellow peppers with penne pasta in a tomato sauce

Yum

The Hill Billy

Corn on the cob to start, then sirloin steaks with spicy wedges & fried mushies in a sauce from the scrapings of the pan with cream, brandy & pepper.

Minder

Thai duck curry

Mark Hulsman

Pulled pork butt on a bun, deep fried corn on the cob and sweet potato pie.
Oh yeah, beer.....

Toto Wolfcastle

My aunt fed poor studenty me tonight. We had spag bol. I'm not usually a huge fan but when you haven't had it in ages it hits the spot.

I also had practically a loaf of garlic bread.

The Sweeper

janeybabe wrote: »

We had spag bol. I'm not usually a huge fan but when you haven't had it in ages it hits the spot.

That is SO TRUE. You get really over spag bol, then suddenly you get a craving, and have a big plate of it, with spaghetti (not penne or farfalle or anything else, just spaghetti) and lots and lots of grated cheese...

/me grabs coat and flies off to supermarket

Minder

Gado gado - an indonesian style salad, a mixture of cooked and raw vegetables, fried potatoes and spicy prawn crackers, all dressed with a peanut sauce.

Chicken satay with the same peanut sauce.

MoominPapa

Picked up a pack of two lamb knuckles in Dunnes Cornelscourt a couple of week ago for 2.99:) and stuck in the freezer as I reckoned they would make a perfect Mothers Day dinner, and they did

For the lamb:
In a hob/oven proof pot (I use a large Spanish terracotta one) brown knuckles in olive oil, set aside. Fry onions, garlic, celery, carrots and red pepper until onion is soft, return the lamb to the pot and cover with stock, I used home made vegetable stock. Season and bring to the boil, as soon as its bubbling put on the lid and put in a slow oven, about 160C, for about 2 hours until the meat falls of the bone and has a buttery consistency.

For the potatoes and leek.
Place metal rings on a baking tray and brush the tray with melted garlic butter. Place a layer of sliced leek within each ring and brush again. Place a layer of thinly sliced potato in each, grate some nutmeg and brush again. Repeat until the ring is full. Roast in a hot oven until potato is cooked.

Delicious

Mr Magnolia

Pork belly with root veg.

Anyone got any good pork belly recipes, I've found plenty with Asian influences but I'm hoping for Irish/European type dishes? I'm hoping for nice crispy crackling too

NextSteps

Endives au gratin. I love endives.

The Sweeper

Mr Magnolia wrote: »

Pork belly with root veg.

Anyone got any good pork belly recipes, I've found plenty with Asian influences but I'm hoping for Irish/European type dishes? I'm hoping for nice crispy crackling too

Mr Mag, I did a double cooked pork belly recently - unintentionally! Take a nice piece of pork belly, it flesh-side down on a rack in a pan - or better still halve two large onions and balance the pork belly flesh-side down on the onions. Pour some hot water into the roasting dish, making sure you don't touch the pork. Score the skin, and rub sea salt flakes into it. Then put it in the oven on a low heat - I use gas mark 3 so whatever that converts to, 150-160 I think, lower if yours is a fan oven - for 2 - 2.5 hours.

The skin will have some crackling, but it'll be more chewy.

Now, allow the pork belly to COMPLETELY COOL. This is where the unintentional part came in - I put pork belly on and in the 2.5 hours our plans changed and we wouldn't be home for dinner. I just let the cooking time complete, then left the meat in the oven, switched off with the door cracked, to cool. It cooled overnight.

The next day I thought "Well that's going to make rubbish sandwiches" and switched the oven back on for another 1.5 hours.

WELL!! The pork belly was beautiful - tender, succulent, melt in your mouth, and the crackling was PERFECT, I didn't have to grill it or any shenanigans like that. The meat had a sweetness from both the slow cook and the onions.

It was so rich, I'd cook it again and serve it with plain boiled potatoes, some steamed baby carrots with just the smallest touch of butter and a big spoonful of tangy apple sauce.

Mr Magnolia

LOL. That sounds great MAJD. I'll try that with some new season cabbage & potatoes when they come out too. Thanks a mil

MoominPapa

Homemade fried rice, was ok not great. Any tips for the perfect fried rice dish?