Food Quote of the Week

'I am not a glutton - I am an explorer of food'
Erma Bombeck

Thai Green Curry Fish Pie

Preparation time: 20-30 minutes
Cooking time: 30-40 minutes

I love fish pie.
It's so easy to cook, makes tons of portions and when cooked well is really tasty. I've been experimenting to create another cultural mash-up, like my Pork and Apple Stir Fry. I've been using pre-made curry sauces to spice up my fish pie, because they really speed up the process, and Thai Green Curry seemed like it would work well. I used the really handy fish pie mix from Tesco which means you get a good portion of White Fish, Haddock and Salmon. The Loyd Grossman Thai Green sauce I used turned out to be a bit disappointing, lacking in spice, but I can recommend the Bhuna.

Ingredients (For 4/5 servings):

• 3 large Potatoes
• 390g Tesco Fish Pie Mix (or similar)
• 2 diced Peppers (I used 1 red and 1 green)
• 1 can of Sweetcorn
• Grated Cheese for the top of the pie
• 1 jar of Thai Green Curry Sauce 
• Rocket or other salad to garnish
  

Steps:

1. Peel the potatoes and dice into equal sizes
2. Preheat the oven to 200C 
3. Boil the potatoes on a medium heat over the hob until they're soft (easiest way to check is if they fall off a sharp knife
4. Mash the potatoes with a little butter
5. In a large oven-proof dish mix in the fish pie mix, sweetcorn, peppers and curry sauce then once spread top it with the mash, fluffing it with a fork. If you want a nice crispy/cheesy top, then put some grated cheese on
6. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes

Jack Eats Food... Carluccio's

I love a good Italian meal, and I go to quite a lot of different Italian restaurants, but one of my favourites definitely has to be Carluccio's. They make really amazing meals and for once don't have a giant menu. I mean, I don't mind big menus, but sometimes it just gets ridiculous.

Anyway, this time happened to be in Windsor's Carluccio's with my Mum for my birthday (where my Mum also got me tons of M&S Percy Pigs) and I was ridiculously excited. I find I don't eat out that much as a uni student, so I love a good meal at a restaurant. 

We had what me and my Mum pretty much always have to start which is their Bread Tin - 5 different types of home-made bread with Olive Oil and Vinegar. I don't think you can ever underestimate how much tastier bread is when it's fresh and home-made, which is why I've started experimenting with making my own!

We then tried their pasta trio to share, which was really great. We chose their Tortelloni Di Cervo (Venison filled tortelloni), Ravioli (filled with ricotta and spinach) and Spaghetti Alla Vongole In Bianco (Spaghetti with clams). They were all lovely, and just the right amount of filling, but the Tortelloni was by far my favourite. I always love meat with pasta and the venison was rich and tasty.

We never actually made it to dessert because we filled up on the rest, but from what I've had before it's fresh from their kitchen and pretty good. Drinks-wise, too, they make a great Fresh Lemonade amongst other things. I'd love to recommend wine, but I'm no expert.

Herby Breadcrumb Pork

Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Prep Time: 5 minutes

This was a pretty spontaneous dish. I'd used 3/6 of the pack of pork steaks I had for the Pork & Apple Stir Fry I'd already done so needed to use up the rest. I grabbed some Panko breacrumbs I'd bought for a £1 at the BBC Good Food Show and got to work.

Ingredients (To serve 1):

• 2 Pork Steaks
• About a tablespoon of Olive or Sunflower oil
• 3 teaspoons of Sage
• 5/6 tablespoons of Breadcrumbs (I used Panko, but any will do)
• Salt and Pepper
• 1/4 Lemon to garnish
• A handful of Rocket

When it comes to breadcrumbs and seasoning it's all down to your own taste really - these are only guidelines!

Steps:

1. Pour the olive oil into a bowl and make sure the pork steaks are lightly covered
2. Sprinkle over the breadcrumbs, salt and pepper and sage and make sure it's evenly spread on one side of each steak
3. Put both steaks under the grill for about 2 minutes or when the breadcrumbs have crisped a little
4. Move the steaks into the oven at 160C for 20-25 minutes
5. Check if the pork is ready by using a skewer or knife to see if the juices run clear. If not, keep cooking.
6. Serve the steaks with the slice of lemon on top of a bed of rocket

Food Quote of the Week

  'People who love to eat are always the best people'
Julia Child 

I have massive love for Julia Child for saying this. I've never understood people who skip meals, you're missing out on an opportunity to eat something amazing! Every time I eat it's like a mini event for me. 

A Very British Stir Fry: Pork & Apple Noodles

Cooking time: 10-12 minutes
Prep time: 5-10 minutes

This is one I'd been thinking about for a while. I love playing around with type of food so thought I'd try doing a British-y stir fry. I had a look round and found that you can fry apple pretty easily and that was the real winner. It turns out fried apple is soft and delicious. Here, like with most stir frys, most of the ingredients are pretty exchangeable (I only added the noodles to bulk it up a bit) but the apple is key.

Ingredients (For 3/4):

• 3 Pork Steaks
• 1 Carrot sliced
• 1 Apple sliced
• 1 Parsnip sliced
• 1/2 Onion sliced
• 2 Garlic Cloves diced (or some Minced Garlic from a jar will do)
• 1 150g pack of Straight to Wok noodles (I use Amoy ones but any other kind of noodle will do)
• A few teaspoons of Apple Sauce
• 2 teaspoons (or so) of Sage

 Steps:

1. Heat some oil in a wok on a high temperature
2. Fry the onions and garlic for about 3 minutes
3. Add the apple and cook for another 2 minutes
4. Add the pork and fry until the pork has sealed on all sides
5. Chuck in the veg and let it heat through for a minute
6. Spoon in as much apple sauce as you want and mix it through
7. Add noodles if you want them

Penne with Curried Tuna Sauce

Cooking Time: 10 mins

Prep Time: 5 mins

This was my 'just got back to uni' meal and was seriously tasty and seriously easy. I used a pretty spicy curry paste for the sauce, but you can use pretty much whatever you like to spice up your pasta. 

Ingredients (For 1 person):

75g Penne pasta

1 185g can of Tuna

1 400g can of Chopped Tomatoes

3-4 teaspoons of Curry Paste

4 Baby Sweetcorn sliced

5-6 Sugarsnap Peas sliced

Olive Oil

Rocket to garnish

Steps:

1. Heat some oil up in a saucepan and in a separate saucepan bring a decent amount of water and a little salt (to stop the pasta sticking) to the boil
2. Chuck your pasta in the boiling water and leave on a medium heat for about 9 minutes
3. Meanwhile, chuck your tuna and the vegetables in the oil in the saucepan along with the curry paste and cook for a few minutes
4. Add the can of tomatoes to the tuna & vegetables, stir, and bring the saucepan to a simmer adding water if the liquid gets too low
5. Once the time for the pasta has come up, drain the pasta and serve with the tuna sauce and pop a few bits of rocket on to add a bit of colour

A Taste of Paris

 
So, a couple of weeks ago I took a really lovely mini-break to Paris with my friend Grace. We took the Eurostar out, spent a night and came back the next evening. When out there I sampled some really beautiful Parisian and French foods.

Enjoying a chocolate brioche pastry just by the Eiffel Tower

My first taste of France was eating a baguette while sat in the park outside the Eiffel Tower, which seemed like pretty much the Frenchest thing I could be doing. This was a plain and simple Ham & Cheese Baguette but it was the first sign of the French really caring about their food - the bread was fresh, the cheese was good, not plastic-y, and the ham was pretty damn good too.

We then picked up some ice creams on our walk round the city, which was a vanilla/chocolate mix and very tasty. We also decided to go on a Macaroon hunt, which wasn't too tricky because there's lots of shops with really beautiful displays of macaroons. I'm not a macaroon fan, but Grace assures me they were brilliant.

Stopping for dinner at a bistro, we sat out on the street overlooking a cross-roads and watched the world go by. I ordered a classic; Steak Frites with an incredible peppercorn and wine sauce. There is, it seems, a reason the French are known for this dish; it was tender, juicy and definitely one of the best steaks I've eaten.

The next morning we headed back to the Eiffel Tower park because it was nice and near to where we staying. I nibbled on a freshly baked Chocolate Brioche... thing which madet the perfect breakfast.

Now, for lunch. We were doing a bit of shopping on the Champs-Elysees and I'm not ashamed to say that we went to McDonalds. We needed somewhere quick, cheap and easy and we happened to stumble upon McDonalds. Once in, I was wowed by all the flashy gadgets they had there - there were quick order stations that allowed you to order, pay by card, then just pick it up at the counter but we went for the normal queue where a nice lady with a tablet took our order, printed a receipt and we handed that over to the counter. I have to say, it made ordering in a different language considerably easier. The meal wasn't half bad either - I had some Chicken McNuggets & fries (which were definitely better than the English ones) and some Tex Mex sauce which was like a tasty cross between BBQ and ketchup. Turns out, in France even the McDonalds have better food!

And sadly, that was the end of my mini-trip of French food discovery. I jetted back home in the evening and ate a M&S sandwich on my train home as a sort of 'Welcome Back to England' present.
I loved Parisian food, and I'll definitely be back for more!

Eggs... in a sandwich toaster?

So, for my birthday I got a pretty incredible sandwich toaster. I use it quite a bit to make tasty toasted sandwiches but I decided to explore a bit more.
So, inspired by some very inventive and quite funny Youtube videos, I found a recipe for cooking Eggs in it, and it's really tasty.
All you need to do is:

1. Turn the toaster up to medium and let it heat up
2. Whisk eggs together (1 for each triangle in the toaster)
3. Pour into the sections of the toaster once it's heated up
4. Cook for 5 minutes

And you're done! It's as simple as that, I you can make some very tasty omelette-eseque triangles out of it. As it was the first time I'd tried this I didn't want to go too wild, so I just mixed in a bit of Cumin with the egg mix at the start to give it a little bit of a kick and then after the eggs were cooked, chucked the triangles into some bread with Cheddar, Tuna and Sweetcorn and toasted it. Simply put, it was good.
So, if you have a sandwich toaster, then give it a go. Quick, easy, tasty.

Jack Eats Food... Prezzo

So, onto the next meal out!
I went out for a meal with a great big group of students to the rather lovely Prezzo today.
Prezzo is somewhere I'm always happy to visit; it feels a bit classier than other Italian chains, has some really interesting & tasty food and there is almost always an offer on! Prezzo actually means 'price' in Italian, and appropriately thing are generally pretty well priced.
This time I was excited to try their brand new menu, which has arrived in the past couple of weeks. My favourite new addition, and one I took full advantage of was the Two Classic Pastas deal, where you can get two half-portions of pasta for £10.95. This is perfect because I find I can get a bit bored of having one big bowl of pasta and having that variation was great. I chose their Fusilli With Italian Sausage and Fusilli Alla Rusticana both of which were very tasty, especially the Rusticana with some yummy bits of pancetta bacon.
There's also been a streamlining of the menu - you can choose between any base for pizzas (including the massive V.I.Pizzas) and classic or light pastas.

One of the HUGE, but totally worth it V.I.Pizzas

Other dishes I'd recommend are: their very tasty calzones, especially the Il Carltoni (pepperoni, chicken, peppers, cheese and a pour-over pomodoro sauvce), Panne Con Cippola (Cheesy garlic pizza base with caramelised onions) and their very good Sticky Toffee Pudding.

Another very tasty place to eat, Prezzo is definitely great for calm and classy lunches with friends. Yum.

Quick & Easy Sausage Casserole

Cooking time: 40 mins

Prep time: 2-5 mins (however long it takes for you to chop up some veg!)

This recipe is one of my favourites because it requires little effort and gives great results. It's adapted from a recipe from the brilliant BBC Good Food Website and can easily be changed around. This time I chose to use beef stock cubes and a few spices & herbs to flavour it and carrots and onions for the veg bit, but you can add whatever you like the make each casserole different. A good casserole is amazing comfort food and I love it with a bit of toast, though it's equally good with mash. Plus, it's another recipe that's fantastically easy to freeze and reheat later

 Ingredients (For about 3 portions):

• 1 6-pack of any kind of Sausages
• 1 400g tin of Chopped Tomatoes (these are great for keeping in the cupboard and using in tons of recipes
• 3-4 peeled and chopped Carrots
• 1 Onion peeled and chopped
• Smoked Paprika (lots of people don't use this spice, but it's great for giving a really tasty smoky flavour)
• A selection of Mixed Herbs (There's tons of different herb mixes that are lovely, I used one of my favourite Herbes De Provence for this - Thyme, Rosemary, Basil, Majoram, Oregano and Tarragon)
• 1 or 2 Beef Stock Cubes dissolved in 150ml boiling water (or pork stock cubes if you can find them!)
• Minced Garlic (Or a couple of garlic cloves diced into tiny pieces)

Steps:

1. Chuck the sausages, chopped onions and carrots and a sprinkle of minced garlic, (tastes great when roasted) into a roasting pan and spread them evenly. Then put them into an oven preheated to 220C for 20 minutes to roast.
2. While you're waiting, dissolve the stock cubes and mix it with the tomatoes in a jug.
3. After 20 minutes, take the pan out of the oven and pour over the tomato and stock mix then put the pan back in the oven at 200C for 20 more minutes
4. Again while waiting, you can toast some bread or prepare something else to eat your casserole with.
5. Get it out the oven, serve, and savour the taste!

Here's one I froze earlier...

Simply put, I love freezers. They are brilliant: my bread never goes mouldy, I can keep ingredients like ginger root in there for ages and best of all, you can freeze meals.
This can be handy in several ways:

Before...

• Simply can't be bothered to cook? All you need is a microwave with most pre-frozen meals. Whap it in there until the meals completely thawed out and piping hot and you're done. Nice.
• Too many ingredients? Sometimes you get a pack of veg or meat that is way too much to cook for more than a one-person portion. Now, this is fine if you're eating with people, or if it doesn't go off for ages.But otherwise there's loads of leftovers and this can be a massive. But, if you freeze it then you can have it anytime for about a month. Much easier.
• In a rush? No worries, zap one of your frozen meals in the microwave and you can have it in minutes. If you've made something packed with veg then you'll have a properly healthy meal too. It's like having a ready meal, but homemade, healthier and much tastier.

Tonight, I've opted to defrost a chicken stir-fry I made a couple of days ago (the recipe of which I might pop up soon). Now, this stir fry is rice based, so you have be a little careful with freezing. The main thing when freezing rice is to cool it down really quickly after its cooked and not leaving out to attract bacteria. You can do this by chucking a container full of your meal into some cold water or just popping it straight in the freezer - watch that you don't defrost other things in the freezer while it's still warm though!
But, once you get past the hoo-hahs of freezing rice, defrosting is simple. It took about 10 minutes in the microwave to heat up and it was still just as good as when it was first made.

Jack Eats Food... Yo! Sushi

So, anyone that knows me, knows that I LOVE eating as well as all that cooking business. So when I'm not cooking myself, I love to eat out. Jack Eats Food will be my little bit for blabbing about my favourite restaurants and my favourite foods from them.

First is a great love of mine, Yo! Sushi.  I love Japanese food and Yo! is always my first stop for a quick bit of tasty food.
And straight out I'd like to tackle a few commonly asked questions about Yo!:

1. Do I have to have fish? No! They have a really big menu at Yo! and as such you can stuff your face with anything, beef, chicken, veggie or yes... fish.
2. But I don't like sushi! No worries, have a curry, some noodles, salad, rice, dessert. Seriously, it might be called Yo! Sushi but that doesn't mean it's the only thing they do - think about what Burger King offers!
3. Isn't it expensive? Not if you don't want it to be. Yo! is actually probably one of the easiest places for me to eat on a budget because you can keep tabs on exactly what your spending. The coloured plates are all designated different prices and if you just make sure you don't eat 50 grey plates (£5 each) then you should be fine.

Anyway, now that's settled, let's get down to the actual food! My favourite dish at Yo! definitely has to be their Kaiso Salad. It is seriously tasty. It's a nice little mix of Japanese seaweed (yup, proper seaweed!) marinated in sesame with edamame beans (which are meant to be very good for you) and carrots. It sounds simple, but sometimes the most basic combinations are the most delicious.
Also on my recommendation list is their hand rolls, which take a little longer than just grabbing something off the belt but are very tasty, both their chicken and vegetable firecracker rices, coriander tuna sashimi and their mighty refillable miso soup is a must.

So, go on and experiment and have a go at Yo Sushi!

Gourmet... Potato Waffles (with scrambled egg, rocket and bacon)

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Prep time: Barely any (Just get straight into the cooking!)

Ingredients (For 1):

• 3 Tesco Frozen Potato Waffles
• A handful of Rocket
• 2 Eggs
• Black Pepper
• Salt
• 2 tablespoons of Milk
• Cayenne Pepper
• Tesco Pre-Cooked Bacon Strips

Steps:

I love to cook better quality versions of student meals, this being the first of what will hopefully be a succession of Gourmet... meals! This meal was great and really easy.
I actually didn't know I liked scrambled egg until about 6 months ago, before that I'd assumed I didn't like anything with egg in apart from cake. BIG mistake, because I'm in love with a bit of scrambled egg now. To help me do my first scrambled egg (shameful I know), I pinched this recipe which worked great. 

After that it was just a matter of heating up my potato waffles in a preheated oven (20 minutes at 220C from frozen), chucking on the very successful egg (to which I added a cheeky bit of cayenne pepper), some rocket and ready cooked bacon. I love this bacon because it's such a great ingredient for cooking; it tastes great and just makes things a bit easier if you're in a rush. Topped with a sprinkle of black pepper and it's ready.
Very proud of this delicious, and cheap, student meal. 

Cumin Spiced Sirloin on Lime and Pepper Noodles and Beansprouts

Cooking time: 7-10 mins

Prep time: 1-2 mins 

This meal was good and exceptionally easy. I am always looking out for deals, and ways to cook posh food at student-y prices. I found some thin cut sirloin steaks in the 3 for £10 meat offer at Tesco and it seemed too good to say no to. I had a few pre-made items in, like the Thai Dressing but lime juice should be fine and about as quick to knock up.

 Ingredients (For 1):

• 2 Tesco Thin Cut Sirloin Steaks (there's 4 in a pack so you can do this twice or do it for 2)
• 1 150g pack of Amoy Straight To Wok Udon Noodles
• A handful of Beansprouts (add however much you like in your stir fry, I added about the same amount as there was noodles)
• A good splash of Waitrose Fragrant Thai Dressing (to knock up something similar, a good bit of Lime Juice, Chilli Flakes and some Red Pepper should do the trick)
• Cumin
• About a tablespoon of Olive/Vegetable oil (I used extra virgin olive oil because that's all I had in)
• A few bits of Chive to garnish (Spring Onion will do just as well)

Steps:

1. Heat the oil up in a pan or wok on a high heat, then chuck the beansprouts in. Fry these for about 3 minutes.
2. Add the noodles and add a healthy amount of dressing (or lime juice etc.), give it a good mix and let it cook for a minute or two
3. Serve the noodles and beansprouts onto a plate
4. Add extra oil if the pan has run out then add the steaks, sprinkling a little cumin on each one, sealing them for 1 minute on each side then cooking for however tender you want your steak (I did mine for an extra minute to get it Medium...ish)
5. Chuck your steak on top of your noodles & beansprouts and enjoy.