Hash Browns – easy peasy!

I love hash browns, but you rarely to never see them in France. They don’t even have them on their MacDonald’s breakfast menu here! So I gave them a try and I was extremely surprised at how easy they were to make. So I made loads and have put them in the freezer.

Ingredients

1 egg, beaten
4 medium potatoes, peeled
1 medium onion
salt & pepper
3-4 tblsp vegetable oil for frying

Method
1.Coarsely grate the potatoes and onions onto a tea towel.
2.Squeeze out the excess liquid by twisting the towel.
3.Place the mix into a large mixing bowl and mix in the egg, salt & pepper.
4.Heat the oil in a frying pan.
5.Add spoonfuls of the potato mixture and flatten into patties (about 1cm thick).

6.Cook for 2-3 mins each side (until browned).

Serves : 4

Preparation : 10 mins

Cooking time : 5 mins

Stuffed Ham and Eggs

Here’s another great example of a mucky mixture. I couldn’t face the hoards in the supermarket on a Saturday so I’d made do with what was left in the pantry. Here’s what I made

Ingredients

4 slices of country ham
4 triangles of spreadable cheese
4 eggs, each fried both sides then chopped into bite size pieces
4 tsp humous

Method

1.For each slice of ham spread 1 triangle of cheese and 1 tsp humous
2.Add one egg for each slice
3.Roll into a long sausage

I served this with new potatoes, a mixed salad and garlic bread.

Quick and delicious!

Serves : 2

Preparation : 5 mins

Cooking time : 5 mins

Mac and Cheese with Bacon Bits

I stumbled across a lonely tin of Heinz macaroni and cheese whilst doing a spot of cleaning in my cupboards. (note to self, really should do that more often!). The last time I had this was when I was about 15, how time flies, and I distinctly remember it not being very nice! Anyway, a few tweaks here and there and I created my own version of this children's favourite.

Ingredients

1 medium onion, chopped
1 pack of lardons, or 4 slices of bacon diced
5 tblsp crème fraîche
150g grated cheddar cheese
150g grated emmental/gruyere cheese
50g soft cheese (philidelphia for example)
300g macaroni pasta
salt & pepper
½ tsp paprika
½ tsp cayenne pepper
25g butter/margarine

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C
2. In a large saucepan cook the macaroni until al dente (5mins max), drain and set aside
3. In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter
4. Add the onions and lardons/bacon
5. Stir constantly for a few minutes
6. Add the soft cheese, grated cheddar, crème fraîche, paprika, cayenne pepper and salt & pepper to taste
7. Simmer gently for 5-10 mins, until a the sauce is smooth and creamy (add a little milk if needed)
8. Mix the macaroni and pasta well together
9. Spoon into an oven proof dish
10. Sprinkle over the emmental/gruyere cheese
11. Bake in the oven until cheese starts to bubble nicely

Serve with warm bread and a light salad

Serves : 4
Preparation : 10 mins
Cooking time : 30 mins

I wish I had this much spare time!

These Gingerbread Houses are just amazing. Such a shame to eat them.

Mafé and Plantain Bananas

Yesterday while flicking through a few recipes books and finding nothing that interested me, I suddenly thought of Mafé. A famous and very popular dish in West Africa. It is a kind of stew in a peanut sauce. My boyfriend makes a fantastic Mafé, so I decided to give it a go myself. I must admit looking up the recipe on the internet I was a bit daunted as none of them were the same. A quick telephone call to my chap for the ingredients he uses and following a basic Mafé guideline I became an African momma for the evening. P.S. The cooking smells were heavenly!

Ingredients

1 large onion, chopped finely
3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
4 carrots, peeled and chopped
6 medium potatoes, peeled, quartered and par boiled (5mins max)
6 large chicken thighs
2 thin beef steaks, diced
420g unsweetened peanut butter
2 Maggi (Kub Or) cubes, crumbled NOT mixed with water
1 tin of whole, peeled tomatoes
5 tblsp olive oil
2 chillis, left whole
Salt & pepper to taste

Method

1. In a large soup pan or stew pot heat the oil
2. Add the onions, garlic, chicken and beef
3. Sauté over a high heat
4. Reduce the heat a simmer for a few minutes
5. Add the remaining ingredients, except the peanut butter and beef stock
6. Simmer over a low heat for 30 mins, stirring occasionally (add a little water if becomes too dry)
7. Add the beef stock and peanut butter, stir well together
8. Add the chillis, DO NOT LET THEM OPEN INTO THE SAUCE!
9. Leave over a low heat for about an hour, stirring occasionally

Serve with rice.

Serves : 6
Preparation Time : 10 mins
Cooking time : 45 mins

I also made plantain banana, a traditional side dish.

Ingredients

2 plantain bananas, peeled and sliced

3 tblsp sugar

25g butter

Method

1.In a large frying pan melt the butter

2.Add the banana and sugar

3.Cook until nicely caramelised

I have to admit it wasn't as good as my boyfriend's, but he has been cooking it since he was a boy! But he did say it was an excellent first try and he liked it so much he ate three platefuls!

Serves : 6

Preparation : 2 mins

Cooking time : 5 mins

Honestly it’s true!

Here are a few fun food facts that may leave you in disbelief.......

The “special sauce” in a Big Mac is actually thousand island dressing.

The potato was the first vegetable to be successfully grown in space.

An apple, when fresh, is made up of about 25% air. That is why they float in the barrel when we “Bob-for-apples”.

Apples are more efficient than caffeine at waking you up in the morning

Linguine literally means, “little tongues”.

Americans eat approximately 100 acres of pizza each day, or 350 slices per second.

Since Hindus don't eat beef, the MacDonald's in New Delhi makes its burgers with mutton.

The largest living organism ever found is a honey mushroom, Armillaria ostoyae. It covers 3.4 square miles of land in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon, and it's still growing.

Lemons contain more sugar than strawberries.

Onion is named after a Latin word meaning large pearl.

Ice cream is Chinese food. When the famous explorer Marco Polo returned to his homeland of Italy, from China in 1295, he brought back a recipe (amongst other things). The recipe, was a Chinese recipe for a desert called "Milk Ice." However, Europeans substituted cream for the milk, and voila..."Ice Cream."

The founder of McDonald's has a Bachelor degree in Hamburgerology.

The Word "Salary" Comes From "Salt!" Salt, our oldest preservative, was extremely rare in the past. So rare, in fact, that it was often used as pay. Imagine...earning a couple of tablespoons of salt for a hard-days work. Today, salt is so common that restaurants give it away for free, and packaged food contains so much that it's far too easy to eat too much salt.

Cream is lighter than milk

Bakers used to be fined if their loaves were under weight, so they used to add an extra loaf to every dozen, just in case -- hence, the expression "baker's dozen"

Let them Eat Cake

This quote is of one my many pet peeves. This infamous Marie Antoinette quote has been lost in translation. She did not say "Let them eat eat cake", she said "Let them eat brioche", which is a sweet bread very popular at French breakfast table and the recipe is very similiar to that of normal bread. So she wasn't being that hoyty toyty!

Anyway, rant over! I put cake into to Google images and spent a good half an hour gazing in awe at the talent. There are thousands of photos, but here are a few that really made me go WOW!

Rationing - the Real Pauper's Kitchen

There have been many moments in history where people have simply had to make do. I watched a documentary about rationing during the second world war and some of the dishes the women managed to make out of practically nothing was awe inspiring.

The British Ministry of Food issued this advertisement

‘Because of the pail, the scraps were saved,
Because of the scraps, the pigs were saved,
Because of the pigs, the rations were saved,
Because of the rations, the ships were saved,
Because of the ships, the island was saved,
Because of the island, the Empire was saved,
And all because of the housewife's pail'

A typical week’s rations in 1943 Britain were

3 pints of milk
3 1/4lb meat
1 egg of 1 packet of dried eggs every 2 months
3-4 oz of cheese
4 oz bacon and ham
2 oz of tea
8 oz sugar
2 oz butter
2 oz cooking fat
+ 16 points a month of other rationed foods (usually tinned).

Luckily these weekly rations were stretched with the help of un-rationed extras like bread (bizarrely not rationed until after the war), cereal, potatoes, offal and fruit and vegetables.

I gave one of the most popular recipes of the time a go Woolton Pie and I was quite surprised at how tasty it actually was. This recipe was created by the Chef of the Savoy hotel and named after Lord Woolton, head of the Ministry Of Food.

Woolton Pie

Ingredients

450g diced potatoes
450g cauliflower
450g diced carrots
450g diced swede
3 spring onions
1 tsp vegetable extract
1 tblsp oatmeal
A little chopped parsley

Method

1. Cook everything together with just enough water to cover, stirring often to prevent it sticking to the pan.
2. Let the mixture cool.
3. Spoon into a pie dish, sprinkle with chopped parsley.
4. Cover with a crust of potatoes or wholemeal pastry.
5. Bake in a moderate oven until golden brown.
6. Serve hot with gravy.

Serves : 4
Preparation : 10 mins
Cooking time : 30 mins

Burritos Baby!

(As I have already visited America and tried to tackle their humongous portions, I can well believe that these are indeed as big as your head! But don't worry mine are realisticly edible sizes!)

Where I work in Disney there is a Dinner Show called the Wild West Show with real cowboys and indians! One of the indians who works there makes the most fantastic (and HUGE!) burritos and sells them for only 5€ but the other day as I strolled over for a burrito fix I discovered much to my disappointment he is on holiday for a month. So I thought if he can do it so can I. So here’s my burrito recipe.

Ingredients

6 tortilla wraps
6 tblsp creme fraiche
200g grated cheese
500g minced beef/lamb/pork
1 small tin of tomato purée with meat
1 red pepper, chopped
4 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 small tin of sweetcorn
1 large onion
2 tsps cayenne pepper
1 tsp chilli purée or chopped chilli
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp salt
2 tsps worchestershire sauce
1 tblsp olive oil

Method

1. Before starting the burritos, par boil* the carrots, drain and set to one side
2. Preheat the oven to 200°C
3. In a large shallow pan heat the olive oil
4. Add the onion, chilli and red pepper
5. Stir until the onions and peppers start to soften
6. Add the minced meat, cayenne pepper, paprika and salt
7. Stir constantly until the meat is beginning to brown
8. Add the tomato purée, carrots, sweetcorn and worchestershire sauce
9. Mix well together and leave to simmer for 5-10 mins
10. Meanwhile, lightly heat the tortilla wraps in the oven (see instructions on the packet as these may vary)
11. Once the tortilla are warmed, spread a tblsp of creme fraiche onto each
12. Fill the tortillas with the meat sauce, sprinkle over the grated cheese and wrap up!

Tip : You can wrap the bottoms in tin foil just to keep them together during consumption!!

I served with rice and a green salad.

* To cook partially by boiling for a brief period

Serves : 6 (or 3 if 2 each!)
Preparation : 10 mins
Cooking time : 20 mins