Come Dine with Merlotti - Amuse Bouche recipes

From Bon Appétit

So, here's the first in a set of posts detailing the recipes from my recent Come Dine with Me session with the girls from school!

Part 1 includes the amuse-bouche, although I think the only recipe I haven't previously documented is the Tomato and chilli gazpacho.

tomatoes - deseeded and chopped
garlic - crushed
chilli flakes
vegetable stock
seasoning
herbs - I used chopped fresh basil

Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and add the chopped tomatoes.
Fry until they start to go mushy, then add the garlic and chilli flakes.
Stir in the stock, a little at a time until the sauce has loosened.
Simmer gently for about 25 minutes, adding stock so it remains runny.
Taste and season as desired.
Stir in the chopped basil and leave to cool.
Pour into shot glasses and chill.
Garnish with a basil leaf and serve at room temperature.

As for the Tadpoles in Holes and Smoked Haddock Pot au Feux, simply click their names to find the recipes! For the Tadpoles, cut sausages into small pieces first and use little tiny tart cases, cooking for no more than 15 minutes. For the Smoked Haddock, simply poach the fish in milk first, then break into bite-sized pieces and place into individual moulds. Use the milk to make the sauce, pour over the fish, cover in grated cheese and pop into the oven until the cheese bubbles.

Oxtail Stew

The hubby recently attended a butchery course at Allen's of Mayfair, and returned home, rather a bit worse for wear after dinner out with friends, with a selection of meat, butchered by his own fair hands! Tonight it was the turn of the oxtails.

Now, I've never cooked with these before, but the butchers also provided, very kindly I might add, a recipe. It was a simple stew with winter veg. Simply brown the oxtails and place in a ovenproof dish. Fry off the veg - celery, onions, leeks, carrots - in the same pan, then add chopped tomatoes, a bay leaf and a spring of thyme. When softened, add to the pot for the oven. Reduce a few glasses of red wine in the original pan, add some beef stock and pour over the meat and veg. Pop in to a hot oven for at least an hour and a half. I also added some tomato puree, a blob of redcurrant jelly and stirred in a little flour to thicken the sauce. The recipe suggests that once cooked, you pour out the sauce and reduce on the hob, but I couldn't be bothered with the palaver!

I enjoyed using the carrots and the leeks from the garden, even though the carrots were a little stunted!

Day 7 : Tandoori pork burgers with tomato & coriander raita

Tandoori Pork burgers with tomato & coriander raita

recipe: Janine Ratcliffe

Olive Magazine, August 2009

According to the recipe, it should take 20minutes, serve 4, and is classed as 'easy'.

Ingredients

500g lean pork mince
1 red onion, grated
2 tbsp tandoori curry paste
coriander, small bunch, chopped
150ml pot natural yoghurt
2 tomatoes, chopped
4 spring onions, sliced
mini naans and crisp lettuce leaves to serve

Method

Put the mince, onion, curry paste and half the coriander in a bowl, season and mix real well. Form into 4 burgers.

Chargrill for about 4-5 minutes each side until cooked through. Meanwhile mix the rest o the coriander with the yoghurt, tomatoes and spring onions. Serve the burgers with warm naan and the raita.

What it should look like...

Original photograph: Lis Parsons

What mine looked like...

The facts:

Once the mix was combined, this actually made 5 good-sized burgers. I didn't have the tandoori paste, but instead used dry tandoori seasoning with a splash of oil and yoghurt. The raita recipe looked great, and was again very simple. I chose to leave out the tomatoes and have them on the side as I didn't want the raita going watery, and I'm not than keen on raw tomatoes - its the texture not the flavour! Both husband and friend said they were very filling so no-one went hungry!

Taste:

Again, these were a winner. Fresh and tasty and a real change from beef burgers which I make quite regularly. They were light and spicy! I'd use more tandoori seasoning next time, but enjoyed the raita without the tomatoes, to which I also added a dash of lemon juice. The flatbreads turned out better than earlier in the week, but I did have to call them fat-breads as I didn't roll them out quite enough before grilling! All three of us thoroughly enjoyed these as a tea-time treat, liked the fun of making up your own filling combinations and decided they were delicious!

So, all in all, a successful week's cooking, thanks to Olive, which I'll review as a whole in my next blog!

Gnocchi 3 ways

As a teacher, we regularly have a 'book box' at school; cheap books from outside firms that we can order. As usual, before half term, there was the odd cookery book. Now, I'm someone who already has many, many cookbooks, but this one caught my interest. Firstly, the recipes all looked good. Secondly, they were short and simple and thirdly, each had relatively few ingredients. It was Gino D'Acampo's first book, 'Fantastico', and it was a pleasure to take home, sit in the sun in the garden and browse through.

I was so excited that I've tried two recipes, both on the same day! I hadn't however, thought this through. Gnocchi Pomodoro and Pizza Alla Napoletana were my two choices; pizza as it looked delicious and I had a 'bottom of the fridge' to empty so seemed a good idea. The second recipe was specifically for the boyf. as he loves Gnocchi and, whilst I've never particularly enjoyed it on previous occasions, I thought I'd give it a go. What I failed to consider was the fact that both were dough based and, as a consequence, by the time I had finished, the kitchen looked more like a bakery: flour covered and glued itself to every available surface, including me!

Both were very easy to prepare and I added a range of toppings to the pizza. It was the one and only pizza base I've ever made that actually went bubbly and crispy at the edges, a first for me!

Since I'd spent so long making it, even I had a bowl of the gnocchi. The most exciting part is waiting for it to bubble up into the pan and float to the top! I served it with the suggested sauce, a simple tomato and basil reduction.

The second recipe for the Gnocchi, since I had at least another two servings left, was an even simpler basil pesto. Simply blitz basil with salt, pepper and olive oil. roast some halved cherry tomatoes in the oven until soft. Mix the cooked hot Gnocchi with the pesto and serve topped with the tomatoes. It was even better than the first recipe and perfect as a summer starter for a dinner party.

The third recipe is also very easy but particularly tasty. Toss the cooked Gnocchi in butter, salt, pepper and torn sage leaves. Serve hot.

If, like me, you don't really like Gnocchi, this is definitely the recipe to try, and all the sauces really are delicious, so I urge you to give them a go. I do, however, suggest that you make either the Gnocchi or the Pizza and don't do them on the same night! Unless you like looking like Fred!

Monday Night Treats

Had a course locally today so got home a bit earlier than usual! Even managed a trip to the shop to buy food (rather than the leaf-blower I spent last week's food money on!) Getting home early gave me lots of time to cook. I had been dying to make Dan's chocolate fondant (more about those later in the week!) and also wanted to use fresh ingredients in a light starter and main.

We began with Insalata Caprese (sorry Dan, I'm really not trying to copy all your brilliant ideas!) I used baby on-the-vine tomatoes, packet mozzarella and fresh basil with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The mozzarella was tasteless, but if I had a local deli, I'd definitely have used it for this ingredient! You can't beat real, fresh, creamy mozzarella balls. I wonder if you can freeze them?! Ideas on a postcard...

I had two pieces of salmon that needed eating, so simply pan-fried them, wilted some spinach with butter and pepper for their bed and baked some herby scones instead of mash / potatoes / rice. All served with a dollop of aioli.

Pudding was delicious, and I won't spoil the later post by telling you now, that they worked out perfectly. All I need now are some of those lovely round pudding-type tins that I can't remember the name of!

Buenas Nachos!

Or 'Buenas Noches' as they say in Mexico! A quick tea tonight with Nachos followed by Fajitas. Again, a cheat was in order in terms of a jar of salsa to go over the nachos. I do often make my own to try to reduce salt / sugar and artificial gloop, but was too hungry by the time we arrived home at 8!

Simple Salsa

jar chopped tomatoes / passata
mixed herbs
pepper - chopped finely
onions - chopped finely
chilli and garlic to taste

Gently fry off the peppers and onions, and garlic if desired.
When softened, mix together with the other ingredients and pour over the nachos.
Sprinkle grated cheese over the top and bake for about 10 minutes at 180 degrees.

Fajitas were simply Mexican seasoning, strips of beef, peppers and onions, all wrapped tightly in soft tortilla and smeared with soured cream.

Thanks must go to my boyfriend, though, who cooked a delicious tuna steak last night. He marinated it in lemon juice and crushed peppercorns before pan frying on both sides. He seared it until the outside was coloured and flavoursome, then served it up on a bed of 'bottom of the fridge rice salad'. (See post from 23.01.09 for recipe - it tastes yummier than it sounds!)
Thanks hun!