Details

Written by Tony Carson

Category: Recipes

Created: 06 April 2022

• Quick and Easy
• Chicken
• Gluten Free

At £1.59 for two breasts from Farm Foods these are a pretty good deal. But we have found it the past that they can turn out a bit dry / tough. So hammering the living day lights out of them seems to work!!!!

Ingredients:-

2 Chicken Breasts, beaten with a meat tenderising hammer
1 Tbsp of Brown Sugar
1 ½ Tsp of Paprika
1 Tsp of Oregano
1 Tsp of Adobo Mix
1/2 Tsp of Garlic Powder
½ Tsp of Onion Powder
¼ Tsp of Fresh ground Black Pepper
½ Tsp of Cayenne Pepper
1 Tbsp of Olive Oil
3 Tbsp of (Home Made) Garlic Margarine

Method:-

(1) Pound the Chicken Breasts with a meat mallet to about 1/2” thick. (Think of a Politician who has do you and your family wrong!).
(2) Line a tray with Parchment paper.
(3) Add the Chicken Breasts and rub with Olive Oil.
(4) Combine all the other ingredients except the Garlic Margarine.
(5) Rub into the Chicken making sure everything is evenly coated.
(6) Place in the oven at 180c for 15 minutes.
(7) Pre-heat the grill.
(8) Add the Garlic Margarine to a pan. Drain off the cooking juices from the Chicken and add to the pan.
(9) Allow to simmer and reduce.
(10) Place the Chicken under the grill for 2 to 3 minutes until caramelised.
(11) Pour over the sauce and serve.


We served ours with hand cut chips, Sweetcorn and Asparagus wrapped in Bacon. The Asparagus is obviously coming to the end of season and was really woody. But apart from that, this was really good.

Details

Written by Tony Carson

Category: Recipes

Created: 03 April 2022

• Home Brew

Well it might not be food, but it’s home made! Strangely the local supermarket had a load of jars of Honey at 49p a jar in January. It was apparently close to it’s ‘Best before date’! Honey by it’s very nature is one of the few food items which are not dried which will never go off. But their loss is our gain…..

Ingredients:-

4 x 400ml jars of runny Honey
1 Cinnamon Stick, snapped in half
2 Thumb sized lumps of Ginger, peeled
4 Cloves
1 Sachet of (Polish shop) Dry fast acting Yeast
Water
Liquid Finings sachet

Method:-

(1) Bung all the ingredients in a demijohn with enough water to allow a little head space.
(2) With your hand over the opening, give it all a good shake.
(3) Place a bung and air-trap in the neck.
(4) Make sure it doesn’t make a mess through the air-trap for the first week of fast fermentation. If so clean the outside for the demijohn.
(5) Pop in a cupboard and check the water level in the air-trap once in a while.
(6) Leave it alone until the air-trap stops bubbling.
(7) Decant using a pipe into another large bottle and sterilize the demijohn ( If you can’t get hold of proper tablets, Denture tablets work perfectly! )
(8) Rinse the demijohn well and then return the Mead.
(9) Add liquid finings ( You can buy these on-line for very little. )
(10) Allow to clear for 24 hours.
(11) Decant into seal-able bottles.
(12) At this stage it will be good. Give it a few months to mature and it will be better.

We tried a small tipple each before adding the finings. It’s very warming. I suspect as there is quite a sweetness that it has brewed out to 11 to 12 %, which is the best ( Or worst! ) you can expect from this sort of Yeast. It’ll be a treat tipple. Not for drinking by the pint, as we’re likely to loose days of our lives if we did!!!!!!!


 

Details

Written by Tony Carson

Category: Recipes

Created: 02 April 2022

• Quick and Easy
• Fish
• Sea Food
• Gluten Free

Yes you read Kelp as in the Sea Weed. We did actually buy this from a Chinese Supermarket dried a while ago. But Kelp is Kelp. If you are near the coast and the water quality is good, there’s no reason why your shouldn’t harvest your own and give it a go.

The Gurnard were a Yellow Sticker gig. It’s not a Fish I would personally generally buy as unprepared they look a bit scary! Filleting them was a bit tricky but I managed to get all the fine bones out and we really enjoyed the ‘Meaty’ texture.

Ingredients:-

2 Gurnard, filleted into strips
Spaghetti (Gluten Free for us)
2 Kelp ‘Leaves, cut into strip with scissors, after soaking in cold water
2 Tbsp of Olive Oil
2 Cloves of Garlic, minced
1 Red Chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
2 Plum Tomatoes, chopped
1 Tbsp of Capers
1 Sweet pointy Pepper, chopped
½ a Lemon juiced
½ a Lemon cut into wedges to garnish
Salt & Pepper to season
A handful of Balcony Parsley, chopped ( It grows quite happily on our little balcony)

Method:-

(1) Add the Olive Oil to a frying pan and fry the fillets on both sides for a minute over a low heat and season with Salt & Pepper.
(2) Add the Tomatoes, Sweet Pepper, Chilli and Garlic, stirring gently for a further 2 minutes.
(3) Add the Caper and Lemon Juice.
(4) Blanch the Kelp in water for 4 minutes over a low heat and drain.
(5) Cook the Spaghetti according to the packet instructions and drain.
(6) Stir the Kelp and Spaghetti though the other cooked ingredients.
(7) Serve garnished with chopped Parsley and a wedge of Lemon.

This was based on a Rick Stein recipe which Sue ‘Pimped Up’ a bit. We really enjoyed this. The Kelp has a real taste of the sea and a pleasing bite to it.

Details

Written by Tony Carson

Category: Recipes

Created: 31 March 2022

• Quick and Easy
• Fish
• Gluten Free

Fish & Chips was once an inexpensive treat to eat in the evening as supper, or maybe on the way home from the pub. Pubs? You remember those, maybe?

I passed a chippy last week in an area of York where I’d not expect prices to be excessive. £7.20 for Fish and Chips to take out. Just Fish & Chips, nothing else……

You can do better at home folks at half the price…..

This Pollock fillet was £3.29 with a Yellow Sticker on it. It was skinned and I only found two small bones.

Ingredients for the Gluten free Batter:-

2 Eggs, whisked
Cornflour
Turmeric Just a bit to add some colour
Garlic Salt
Onion Salt
Fresh ground Black Pepper
Soda Water

Method:-

(1) Coat the Fish (and Onion rings if you adding them) in Cornflour.
(2) Preheat the fryer to 170c.
(3) Dunk in the batter mix and fry until they float.

We served ours with Peas, Onion Rings, hand cut Chips, Tartar Sauce and a slice of Lemon. Honestly this was much better than a take-out and cost less than half the price.