Back with a Bang!!!

Well, I've just returned from one of the most amazing places on earth. I visited Egypt last weekwith a friend and I have to say it was truly spectacular from the minute we arrived in Luxor towhen we left 8 days later in Cairo.

Our first morning we hopped onto a tour bus and went to visit The Valley of the Kings, TheValley of the Queens, Hatchepsut's Temple and The Colossi of Memnon and that was all beforewe had our first traditional Egyptian lunch...falafel, of course and chicken shish tawook.Throughout the week we sampled some really amazing foods. Every meal I had was local andbeautifully fresh. The Egyptians grow fields upon fields of cucumbers and tomatoes and youwould always get a fresh salad with your meal, just what you need on a hot day in the desert.

Living in the Middle East for the past 8 months has opened up a whole new world of tastes andflavours for me. So I knew when I arrived in Egypt we were in for a treat!

Falafel, a staple for many Arabs, Eggplant Tajine (pronounced Ta-geen in Egyptian), Hummus, Baba Ghanoush, Grilled Sea Bass, Carp Tajine, Chicken Shish, all kinds of Kababs and finally Kushari….which was my favourite Egyptian meal, we ate it on our last day in a restaurant called ‘Abu Tarek’ which is famous for serving some of the finest Kushari in town!

A local Cairene, Mohammed, whom we randomly met in the street told us all about it and I had been dying to try some all week so off we went to find this “Temple”.

Kushari is a very healthy but cheap vegetarian dish; It is a mix of lentils, noodles and rice, topped with chick peas and lemon, crispy fried onions, a spicy tomato sauce and garlicky vinegar. As you can imagine it tickles every taste bud in your mouth and is extremely satisfying. The flavours all work so well together. A medium sized bowl cost around 2 Euro and kept us going all day.

Fuul Medames is another of their local dishes, well, it is a common dish throughout the whole of the Middle East, it is a blend of fava beans and is very common to be eaten at breakfast with hard-boiled eggs, quite a distinct yet earthy flavour but still very tasty!

And of course, EVERYTHING is served with a generous basket of Arabic bread...hard to resist especially when it is fresh out of the oven :P

After a week of spoiling myself with some of the most delectable foods I have eaten I have decided to be a lot more productive and test out all of these new recipes at home. I will try and do as many as I can over the next couple of weeks.

As well as that I have many recipes which I have been meaning to put up for a very long time, so be prepared to get some tasty, colourful treats on your screens very soon :)

Peach Upside down cake

I decided to do some experimenting with this cake....it is the first time I ever tried an upside down cake and it went down a treat :) I was a bit weary as I have never done it, but it was so simple that it couldn't fail

150 g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

100 g caster sugar

100g margarine

vanilla essence

2 tablespoons Greek yogurt

Large tin of peaches in syrup

Honey

• Cream the margarine and sugar together

• Beat the eggs and pour them in gradually to the creamed mixture

• Sieve in the flour and baking powder

• Add in the Greek yogurt and vanilla essence

• Heat the peach syrup in a saucepan on a medium for about 10-13 minutes to make a thick syrup

• Pour this syrup into a greased cake tin

• Add in some honey to the syrup

• I added the remaining syrup to the cake mixture to give it some extra flavour

• Line the peach pieces over the syrup in the cake tin and then pour in the cake mixture

• The cake will take longer to cook because of all of the extra liquid, so it needs more time to absorb all the yummy juices.

• Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 25 minutes and then reduce it to 160 degrees in a fan assistd oven 

• Let it cool down on wire rack

• Serve with some peach syrup and greek yogurt mixed with vanilla essence.

• Perfect end to a rather indulgent day! 

• Enjoy!!

 

Macaroni and Cheese

I've never even tried making this before or even thought about it and last night I just got the idea in my head that I wanted MAC AND CHEESE!!! one bad thing is I forgot to take a photo before we gobbled it up for dinner, but there's none left so you can be guaranteed it was goooood!!!

Anyway, I figured all we need is a nice cheese sauce and seeing as I couldn't find any macaroni pasta, I just used pasta shells. It worked out pretty much the same, Simon said it tasted like mac and cheese so I'm happy!!! I used cheddar for this but I'd say it would be tasty with what ever type you prefer

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour, sieved

2 Cups of bread crumbs

2 Cups of Milk

2 Cups Cheese - 

Salt, pepper, Garlic salt, Sage, Parsley

400g Pasta, preferably macaroni, but pasta will do :)

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

• Boil the pasta in hot water

• Melt the butter and add in the sieved flour, stir with a wooden spoon, stir until all lumps have been removed,

• Pour in the 2 cups of milk and allow to thicken over a medium heat.

• Add in some bread crumbs, herbs and the cheese, allow to melt

• Drain the pasta and add in the cheese sauce

• Add the whole mixture to an oven dise cover with some pepper and more breadcrumbs and bake in the oven at 18 degrees for 30 minutes

• Perfect for a hungry tummy :)

Wholemeal Brown Bread

After watching the Ireland vs. Wales 6 Nations GRAND SLAM, I was feeling rather full of Irishness and thought I'd indulge myself in a nice loaf of wholemeal brown bread. It's probably one of the simplest recipes to use and it makes bread making really enjoyable.

Again, like the other breads I've made I use a pint glass to measure the flour. Make sure the buttermilk is at room temperature

1 pint wholemeal self raising flour

1 pint plain flour

1 teaspoon bread soda

Olive oil

Buttermilk

• Heat the oven to 200 degrees celcius, fan assisted

• Sieve the 2 pints of flour into a mixing bowl, add in the teaspoon of bread soda through the sieve as well.

• Add in a tablespoon of olive oil and then add in the buttermilk. Pour in enough buttermilk to make a nice sticky mixture with the flour. 

• Pour into a greased bread tin and bake in the oven for apprx 40 minutes, depending on the oven you are using. 

Roasted Butter Nut Squash Seeds

I've been cooking with Butter nut squash for a few years now and only this evening did I realise I can eat the seeds. A long time ago, I read that they were too bitter and not really the nicest thing to eat. But, they are magic!!!

Scoop out the seeds from the butter nut squash soup and put them in a drainer. 

• Run hot water over them to remove the stringy stuff.

• Cover them in some salt and also, cover the tray you are using for them

• Pop them in the oven and after a few minutes of popping sounds, remove them from the oven.

• They should be a little swollen and toasty.

• Great for snacking on when you are making some butternut squash soup or curry.
  

Spinach and Chorizo lentil stew

Lentils are amazing। Simple as!!! They go with anything and are so cheap yet so filling!!
dI really need to get a new camera with a special food option, my camera can never make my food look sexy....but it is :)
Anyways, I spent nearly all of my year in Italy munching on lentils, a friend of mine on Erasmus introduced me a recipe that her Chilean mum always cooked at home, I made a few variations to it and came up with this.....

1 large cup red lentils
Handful spinach leaves
1 large onion
4 cloves garlic
2 Chorizo sausage
Tin of chopped tomatoes
Oregano, Basil, Salt, Pepper
Stock cube

• Boil the cup of lentils in two cups of water and stock

• Cut chorizo into small pieces and fry in a little oil, add the chopped onions and garlic. When the onions are cooked and have absorbed the juices from the chorizo, add the tin of tomatoes. Add in all the herbs.

• Simmer for a few minutes and then add to the lentils, which should have absorbed all the water by now. Add a handful of spinach leaves towards the end.
• 
  
• Allow it to simmer gently for 10-15 minutes.

• The flavours are quite strong so don't over do it on the portions.

• Garnish with some Parmigiano Reggiano.
  

La Pizza Verace.....

The first time I ever tried this pizza was on a trip to Naples at the end of my year long stint in Italy last year, it was the ultimate location to finish an absolutely amazing adventure!!
Almost every evening, after trekking all around Vesuvius, Pompeii and La Costiera Amalfitana, we would visit the second oldest pizzeria in Naples, the pizza comes only in one size.....60 cm...i think, could have been inches, but I'm terrible with measurements :p anyway I took the idea and mixed a simple pizza base recipe and topped it off with some juicy ingredients.

The mozzarella di bufala is quite watery and stringy and adds a lot of moisture to the base, it's taste and aroma is also quite distinct from normal mozzarella, it's the traditional cheese from the region of campania in Southern Italy, an amazing place to visit if you are ever in doubt of where to go in Italy....I could talk for hours about it, it's truly spectacular!!



The traditional recipe uses buffalo mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and basil leaves,
This recipe is enough for one pizza but whilst it's cooking you can be making another one ;) it's perfect for a night in with a few friends....
so all you will need is:

4-5 cherry tomatoes, halved
Buffalo Mozzarella
Mozzarella
Basil Leaves
Red Onion
Oregano


200 g Self raising flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
125 ml milk/water
50 g Margarine


Heat the oven to 200 degrees

• Sieve the flour, salt and baking powder into a mixing bowl

• Rub the margarine in with your fingers

• Add the liquid to turn in to a stiff dough

• Roll the dough out on a floured surface

• Grease a pizza tin and stretch out to the sides

• Top with halved cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and buffalo mozzarella, red onions and basil leaves, coat with some oregano, salt and garlic salt.
  

and simply bang in the oven for 20 minutes(fan assisted oven)

As it was my first time ever making pizza, I wasn't too sure about how much flavour and ingredients I would need, making it again, I would definitely add more cheese and herbs and salt....guaranteed perfection :)

Falafel

About 6 years ago, my eldest sister came home with a packet of falafel for me....I hoovered it up and I've been addicted to it ever since. I gave up meat for 3 years and found that falafel was a great alternative, it's really tasty, easy to make and very substantial and full of protein!!!
The recipe I've used here is for one person, well a very hungry person, it makes about 4 falafel patties and they're very easily eaten by one mouth!!!
If you want, you can just double the portions to make it for 2 or 3 people

225 g can chick peas
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon parsley
1 clove garlic
1/2 onion
pepper

To serve:
Pitta bread
Hummus
Salsa
Lettuce
Red Onion

• Heat a pan with oil, about 1-2 inches
  
  Mash up the chick peas to create a nice texture and then blend up the rest of the ingredients I uuse a soup blender, works a charm and a fork but if you have a food processor, it makes it so much easier!!

• Form the mixture into either patties or round shaped balls, I prefer patties :) they fit nicer in to a pitta. Cover the falafel in some flour and/wheat bran.

• Fry in lots of oil until brown on either side and serve in a warm pitta bread, smoothered in hummus and a little salsa and lemon juice for that extra kick and some lettuce.
  

Easy Peasy!!

Frosted Lemon Cake

Melt in your mouth cakey goodness!!! I used the basic Madeira mixture for this one too, it's so easy to make, it's unbelievable. After a week in Sligo, I'm totally hooked on baking!!!

ALl you need is:

150 g Self Raising Flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
100 g Caster Sugar
100 g Margarine
2 free range eggs
Zest of one lemon
Juice of one lemon
Teaspoon natural vanilla essence
Icing
115 g Icing Sugar
Juice of half a lemon

• Grease a cake tin

• Cream the margarine and sugar together

• Gradually add in the two beaten eggs, stirring after each addition

• (if curding occurs, add in a little flour)

• Stir in the zest of one lemon

• Sieve in the flour and baking powder

• Add in the juice of one lemon

• Fold the mixture into itself, ensure it is evenly mixed through

• At the end, I added a little extra sugar, about 2 teaspoons, just to make sure it didn't go bitter with all the lemon!!

• Pour into greased cake tin....I used cooking spray to grease the tin and also it's not really a tin, it's the rubber baking "tin" thingy from Dunnes, I love it!!!

• Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 35 minutes 

• To make the icing

• sift the icing sugar and add in the juice of half a lemon, slowly add in the juice until you get a nice thicky yet drizzly consistency

• Garnish with some lemon zest 

• Sit back, relax and enjoy it with a cup of green tea :)
  

Quesadillas!!!!

MMMMM.....just the thought of cheesesy fried tortillas get your taste buds going!!! I love this recipe and stumbled across it a few years ago when I spent some time in the South of Spain in Jerez, a beautiful city riddled with architecture inspired by the muslim invasions....anyways enough of my daydreaming!!! here is the yummy recipe I rustled up earlier

tortillas
Cheddar
olive oil 

black pepper

choice of fillings:
red onions
peppers
avocados
chicken
salsa

or really anything that tickles your fancy!!

 

·         Heat the pan and cover evenly with oi

·         Add a tortilla and flip every 10 seconds

·         When air pockets form, add the grated cheddar and some black pepper and salsa

·         Add your filling of choice and then slowly fold over the tortilla to form a moon shape

·         Flip a few more times to ensure cheese has melted and all the fillings have cooked a little bit

¡que aproveche!

great with a few spicy wedges or some tossed salad ;)