Potato Wedges

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I love potatoes. I could eat them everyday for a week and never get bored of them as they are so versatile. Mashed they are one of my favourite comfort foods, roasted they are a guilty pleasure but perfect with any Sunday dinner, baked and combined with my favourite fillings they make a great dinner and I could go on and on.

Tonight I'm making oven potato wedges to have with a salad and some grilled chicken breast fillets. You can experiment with any combination of seasoning, whatever tickles you're fancy should work. It doesn't matter if you use a ready bought mix or use different herbs and spices, until now whatever I have tried has worked out just fine. You can also add things like lemon juice, balsamic vinegar or tabasco, there really are no limits. Preparing them this way makes the wedges crisp and golden on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

This makes enough for 2 people, but you can easily increase the recipe to serve more.



Savoury Oven Wedges

2 large baking potatoes, cut into wedges
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp Italian or steak seasoning
salt, to taste

Once you have cut the potatoes into wedges, (8-12 depending on the size of the potato) place the wedges into a large bowl of cold water for thirty minutes to an hour. You can leave them in longer or even overnight if you like. This washes out some of the starch and guarantees a nice crispy outside.

In a large, strong food bag, combine the rest of the ingredients and mix into a paste, by rubbing it all together.

Preheat your oven to 200C/Gas 7.

Drain the potatoes and pat them dry with a paper towel. Now add them to the large food bag. Hold the top shut and shake the contents about until your wedges are evenly coated with the spice paste.

Spread them out into a single layer on a non-stick oven tray. You won't need any additional oil, the oil from the paste is enough.

Bake for 35-45 minutes until golden and done. They need turning once after about 20 minutes.

They make a great side dish or serve them with some sour cream as a wonderful snack.

Another Late Holiday Treat

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I meant to share this recipes before Christmas but obviously never got around to it. Every year since we have lived in our current house we have a pre-Christmas 'Glühwein Party'. Having grown up in Germany, mulled wine has always been an essential part of the holiday season for me, especially to warm you up during the run up to Christmas. It's still nice to have now though, in particular when you have been out for a long walk at the weekend, coming in and craving something to really warm you up.

We invite all our friends round and I make a large pot full of wonderfully hot, spiced wine. We also get the BBQ out to grill German sausages and simply serve them in a bread bun, like you get on the German Christmas markets that are happening all over the UK now.

The recipe makes a large amount, but you can easily scale it down and make a small portion. You could also try adding some cranberries and maybe a couple of star anise. You can't beat the smell that your house becomes filled with.



Glühwein/Mulled Wine

2-3 oranges, quartered
8 cloves
3 litres of red wine ( I usually use a Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot)
1 litre of orange juice
1/3 litre dark rum
1 apple, cored and sliced
2-3 cinnamon sticks
brown sugar, to taste

more rum, amaretto or cointreau to serve

Stud the orange quarters with the cloves, that will stop the cloves from floating around in the drink and ending up in somebody's cup.

Place all ingredients into a large slow cooker. You can also use a large heavy based pan, but I prefer the slow cooker as it allows for all the flavours to really mix and develop.

Set the slow cooker to medium or high and check after a couple of hours, you don't want the contents to boil as it would make the alcohol evaporate. Once the contents are properly heated, reduce the setting to low to keep the wine warm for as long as needed.

If you use a large pan just try and heat the wine as slowly as possible and avoid it boiling.

Add sugar to your liking, stirring until it's dissolved.

Serve in mugs with an extra shot of rum, amaretto or cointreau.

Fabulous Fudge

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I usually don't do the whole resolutions for the new year bit, as they just get forgotten, but well this time I did and that's to update this blog more often than I have been doing.

It might have been more fitting to post this recipe before the holidays as it makes a great home-made present (in fact I made it as a Secret Santa present), but who says that fudge is only for Christmas. I could eat this at anytime of the year. Using good quality dark chocolate (I use Green & Blacks) means that it is very rich and chocolaty. I found it hard to resist.

This is a recipe from Nigella Lawson's 'Nigella Express' book, therefore it is quick and simple and you won't need to fuss about with a sugar thermometer.



Chocolate Pistachio Fudge

350g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped roughly
1 (397g) can condensed milk
30g butter
pinch of salt
150g pistachios, roughly chopped or bashed with a rolling pin

In a large heavy-based pan, melt the chocolate together with the condensed milk, butter and salt. Keep the heat low and stir continuously.

Once the chocolate is melted and has mixed with the other ingredients stir in the pistachios and mix well.

Pour the mixture into a 23cm square foil tray or a tray lined with baking paper. Smooth the top.

Let the mixture cool and then place it in the fridge until fully set. Once it is hard, turn it out onto a chopping board and cut into small pieces.

You can keep the pieces of fudge in the freezer and don't even need to defrost them before eating.

American Goodies

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It's been nearly a months since I last posted. Shame on me! Well, what can I say, there are just no excuses.

I have just got back from a week long trip to New York City where I had a wonderful time. So much to see and do and just not enough hours in the day. It was my second time there and I'm already looking forward to going again, whenever that may be.

Being me I had to bring back some food stuff of course. I wish I could have bought loads more, but I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to squeeze anymore into my bags and with the hand luggage restrictions on liquids I found that I was hitting the maximum allowed weight already.


This is what I got:

Ranch Dressing mix
Sweet Hungarian Paprika (because I liked the tin it came in)
Old Bay Seasoning
Penzey's Aleppo Pepper
Penzey's Creamy Peppercorn Dressing Base
Penzeys Apple Pie Spice
Penzey's Pumpkin Pie Spice
Velveeta Cheese
Rotel Tomatoes (I forgot to get them out for the picture)
Nathan's Deli Mustard
Buttersotch flavoured baking chips
Peanut Butter flavoured baking chips
Pancake Syrup
Ranch Dressing
Ceasar Dressing
Hershe's Cookie n' Cream Bars
Hershe's Mr Goodbar
Baby Ruth bar (for my friend Ruth for Christmas)

Roast Chicken

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I have no idea what is going on at the moment. Everything seems so hectic and it doesn't even have anything to do with Christmas yet. I've not been doing much notable cooking over the last few weeks, that's why my posts have been so sporadic. I did buy a chicken to roast last weekend, with the intention to make it on Sunday, but we ended up going out so I made it during the week instead. This recipe is really easy though and doesn't require much effort at all, but still guarantees a well flavoured, moist chicken.



The original recipe calls for lime juice, but it also works well with lemon or orange. This is the perfect recipe for anybody who is roasting a chicken for the first time, but also good enough for company.

Honey & Lime Roast Chicken

1 chicken
1 onion, peeled and quartered
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1 lime, quartered
juice of 1/2 lime
1 tsp paprika
2tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

Preheat your oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6.

Rinse your chicken well, inside and out and dry thoroughly with a paper towel.

Rub salt and pepper into the cavity.

Stuff the cavity with the quartered lime, onion and the garlic.

Rub the olive oil all over the chicken and season with salt and pepper.

Place the chicken in a roasting tin and place in the middle of your preheated oven.

The roasting time depends on size of chicken. You need to calculate it as follows: Roast for 20 mins per lb plus an extra 20 minutes for the whole chicken (example: 4 lb chicken: 4x20+20=1hr40mins).

Using the juices from the roasting tin, baste the chicken every 30 mins to stop it from drying out.

While the chicken is roasting mix the lime juice, honey and parika in a small bowl.

30 mins before your chicken will be done take it out of the oven and brush with the lime& honey glaze.

Cover the roasting tin loosely with tin foil. The chicken should already have a lovely golden colour and covering it will stop the honey from burning. Return the chicken to the oven to finish roasting, at the end of the roasting time make sure all juices run clear by inserting a skewer into the thickest part of the thigh.

More Soup

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I hope you're like me and don't get bored of soup quickly, because that's exactly what I've been cooking again. During the autumn and winter month we often have soup every week or so. It's warming, quick and most of the time even a cheap meal. Even with the added cream one portion of this soup has only about 250kcal. If you wanted to reduce that amount even further, just leave out the cream, the soup is still yummy without it. I like to serve it with croutons if I'm having it for a quick lunch or with some fresh crusty bread if I want something a bit more substantial.







Parsnip Soup

2tbsp butter
900gr parsnips, peeled and thinly sliced
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2tsp ground cumin
1tsp ground corriander
2pints good quality vegetable or chicken stock
1/4 pint single cream
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
chives, for garnish
croutons (optional)


In a large soup pot, melt the butter over a medium heat. Add the parsnip, onion and garlic and cook over a low heat until softened, but don't let it brown.

Add the cumin and corriander and cook for another couple of minutes, stirring continuously.Add the stock, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until the parsnip is cooked.

Puree the soup with a stick blender or food processor until smooth.

Add the cream and re-heat, making sure that it doesn't boil again.Granish with chives and croutons and serve immidiately.

Soup

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I have no idea where this week has gone. Well, one thing I do know is that I haven't had much time to cook. It's been one of those weeks where I was glad I had some home-cooked meals in the freezer to just quickly heat up when I got home from work. I also have to admit that on Wednesday I even resorted to opening a tin of Ravioli. Oh well, at least it brought back some fond childhood memories. Saying that, my mum is a great cook and it wasn't often that we got fed Ravioli.

The one thing I have made this week is soup. Not only do I truly believe that everyone should be eating soup at this time of year, because it warms your heart and soul, as well as your stomach, but my 87-year-old friend Jock has just come out of hospital and I wanted to take him something that he can easily just warm up. He loves soup, so I thought that's what it'll be.

This particular soup is one of the quickest that I know to make and it uses ingredients I usually always have in my kitchen cupboards. It's great if you want a quick warm lunch or a soup as a starter. It can be on the table in less than 15 minutes.




Butter Bean Soup with Sundried Tomatoes, Pesto and Parmesan

900ml good quality chicken or vegetable stock
2 cans butter beans, drained and rinsed
1 can white kidney beans or butter beans or haricot beans, drained and rinsed
4tbsp sun-dried tomato puree
5tbsp pesto
2cloves of garlic, chopped finely
5tbsp freshly grated parmesan
salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Place the beans and stock in a large pan and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat and stirr in the sun-dried tomatoe puree, pesto and garlic. Cover and simmer for five minutes.

Remove from the hob and puree until smooth using a stick blender or a food processor. If you like you can keep some of the beans whole by removing them and adding them back after processing the soup.

Return the pan to the hob and simmer for another 4 minutes. Add the parmesan and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with some crusty bread.

Halloween Graveyard Cake

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As I said on Wednesday my Halloween cooking didn't really happen until today. I've been invited to a Halloween party at my friend's house tomorrow and thought I'd bring a spooky cake. This isn't so much a recipe, but instructions so you can make your own graveyard cake when you have a spooky event to attend.



Just bake your favourite chocolate cake on a large, deep rimmed baking tray and cover it with a chocolate frosting. To make it look more like it's covered with soil, place about six bourbon cream biscuits in a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin until you have a bag full of fine crumbs. Sprinkle those over the whole cake. All you have to do now is decorate it with gravestones and all kinds of other halloween sweets like winegum worms and bats, squirty skulls and sugar bones. You could also use marzipan pumpkins and ghosts, there really is no limit, just have a look what you can find in the shops.

I really enjoyed myself doing the gravestones. All you need is some malted milk biscuits, a glaze for the biscuits and some writing icing in adifferent colours. To make the biscuits look mor like gravestones just use a small sharp kitchen knife to carve one end into an oval shape. Glaze each biscuit and allow the glaze to dry before decorating them with the writing icing. Alternatively you can place some small Halloween sweets into the wet glaze, they will stick once the glaze has dried.