guacamole

yum. seriously! i know some people wince at the sight of the fragrant green mush, but don't knock it 'til you try it... it's extra-tasty and easy to make... come on, you know you wanna! 

guacamole

serves as many people as you're willing to share with (but a comfortable 4-6 as a snack)

3-4 ripe avocados

2 roma tomatoes, deseeded & chopped

1-2 garlic cloves, minced

4-5 spring onions, chopped

1 jalapeno pepper, minced (avoid the seeds & pith if you don't want it to be too hot...)

juice of 1/4 - 1/2 lime (or you can use orange juice, to shake it up)

cilantro & salt, to taste

i usually go with the following steps, but there is no right or wrong way to make this... as long as you think it's tasty, you're good to go!

1. put the avocado in a bowl, mash with a fork 'til lumpy (but not too smooth)

2. add in everything else but the lime juice, salt & cilantro; mix well with fork.

3. squeeze in lime juice, add seasoning to taste (i don't like cilantro, so i usually dispense with it, but whatever floats your boat...)

4. serve with nacho chips! 

NOTE : make sure you don't oversalt the dip, as you're typically serving it with already über-salty nacho chips... 

lemon risotto

taken from nigella lawson's nigella bites tv show/cookbook, lemon risotto.

lemon risotto

2 fat spring onions
1 stalk celery
knob of butter (about 1 tbsp)
olive oil
1 1/3 cup risotto rice (i use arborio)
1 quart vegetable stock
lemon & zest of 1/2 a lemon
approx. 2-3 tsps dried rosemary, chopped (or the needles from 1-2 sprigs fresh)
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

step 1 : i usually start off by making the vegetable stock since it needs to be kept simmering - bring a little more than 1 quart (4ish cups) of water to a boil and add dried vegetable stock according to directions. keep on a simmer on low low heat with a ladle at the ready.

step 2 : in a large saucepan, melt the butter with a drizzle of olive oil (to keep the butter from smoking) on med-high heat. now, the original recipe says to blitz the spring onions and celery in a food processor 'til mushy, however i don't have a food processor, so i just finely chop them. same difference. throw them in the pan and cook 'til the celery's soft (about 2 min). 

step 3 : chuck the rice in with the celery and onions and mix well (the rice should be coated with the buttery oil) and stir for about 1 - 2 min. 

step 4 : now for the finnicky part : add in a ladleful of stock and stir the rice 'til completely absorbed. repeat this, one ladleful at a time until rice is al dente (roughly 20 min.) usually after about the 5th ladleful, you can let it be a little more, but always have an eye on the rice and stir quite often.

step 5 : when the rice is al dente, add rosemary and lemon zest. stir. remove from heat. stir in the mix of egg yolk, cream, parmesan and lemon zest until well blended. you can top it off with a bit of unsalted butter and salt and pepper to taste.

feeds about 4 (or 2 greedy people, depending on portion size...)

caribbean jerk chicken skewers with coconut rice

NOTE - - ok, there are no regular readers of my (very badly kept up) blog, but i felt as though i should come back to this blog and add some posts... what prompted this? a good friend gave me an amaaaazing rosé sauce recipe and i thought to myself : "huh, i should add some posts to my blog", so here is a new recipe... 

today i am going to introduce you to the wonderful world of caribbean jerk sauce. it's delicious. eat it now. (unless you don't like spicy stuff, then do not eat it.) i used president's choice blue menu pre-made sauce as i have yet to find a recipe i love for it (that and the ingredients), but use what you want.

feeds 5 hungry people

4 chicken breasts, cut up in large cubes
1 each yellow, orange and red bell pepper, cut up in 1 cm cubes
1 largeish thingy of pre-cut pineapple (in the produce section)
1/2 red onion, cut in wedges
caribbean jerk sauce (and/or other choice sauce in case you're feeding non-spicy people)
20-25 wooden skewers, pre-soaked (so they don't catch fire)
***
hob of butter
2 cups jasmine rice
2 cups coconut milk
1 1/2 cups h2o
salt (to taste)
optional - shredded coconut

1. marinate the chicken cubes in the sauce for at least 2-3 hours prior to cooking - overnight is best. i usually just toss everything in a plastic resealable freezer bag, squidge everything around 'til evenly coated and chuck it in the fridge 'til i need it.

2. now start the rice - melt the butter on med-high heat in a medium saucepan. once it's all melted, throw in the rice, coconut milk, water and salt. stir 'til it comes to a boil and then reduce heat to low. put on the (tight-fitting) lid and let cook like that 'til liquid's absorbed (about 15-20 min). once it's cooked, turn the heat off, stir the rice and put the lid back on - keep the pot on the burner 'til you're ready to eat (up to an hour!!)

3. k now while the rice is cooking, thread your skewers. there's no right or wrong way to do this - put as much or as little of whatever on each, but be sure to have about 1/2 inch at the top and a good 2 inches at the bottom left (to y'know, pick up and eat with). when you're done threading, put the skewers on the BBQ 'til chicken is cooked through (i'd say for room temp chicken, 10-12 mins should do it on med-high heat). another option is to grill them in the oven (i placed the skewers on my large bar pan and put that in the oven about 20 mins @ 425 fahrenheit). 
if you're so inclined, feel free to brush the entire skewer (pineapple, peppers and all) with the sauce the chicken marinated in

4. put everything on a big plate and serve to hungry hungry people! :)

linguine with chicken in an arrabiata sauce (i think)

ok, i suppose the title requires that i preface the recipe with some sort of explanation, so here it is : like some of you may have guessed, i have a nigella lawson fetish. i adore her cooking, cookbooks, cookware... and her website! i had been looking for a decent arrabiata sauce recipe a few years back and fell upon this one, submitted by a reader, on the nigella.com website. the"i think" bit is that i'm note quite sure it's really an authentic arrabiata sauce... i've been fiddling with it for a while and this is what comes out now... it does turn out quite hot, but you can adjust the quantities... 

serves 4 - 5 people
8-12 ripe roma tomatoes (those elongated ones), chopped, chucked in a large bowl and smushed by hand (so much fun!)
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 spring onions, chopped (you can use regular onions if you wish, i just always have spring onions at hand)
1 jalapeno, minced (deseed it if you want it to be less spicy)
handful fresh basil, shredded
extra virgin olive oil
salt* & pepper to taste
2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut up in strips or cubes, whatever you prefer
1 box whole wheat linguine
parsley to garnish (optional)

1. i usually start by cooking the chicken - heat up some olive oil in a pan on med-high heat, season your chicken with salt and pepper (you can just put it in a bowl and tumble it round with your hands 'til it's all coated). cook for about 14 - 18 mins (you can check by cutting a thicker piece to see if it's no longer pink). take the pan off the stove, put it on a heat-safe surface (an oven mitt will do fine) and cover 'til you need it. 

2. now at this point, if you haven't chopped, diced and minced your other ingredients, do it now. done? great, we can move on.

3. put the salted water for the pasta to boil (i read somewhere that when cooking pasta, the water should be as salty as the mediterranean, so...). i usually use a larger pot for this as i mix in the sauce with the pasta afterward, but do as you please. when the water boils, throw in the linguine, being careful to stir around a bit so that it doesn't stick together. start checking for doneness about 2 min before the al dente cook time indicated on the packet. when it's done, drain the pasta and put it back in the pot. 

4. while the water's boiling/pasta's cooking, in a medium saucepan, heat some more olive oil on med heat (perhaps a little higher than med, but not too high as you don't want to brown/burn the garlic, making it bitter). once it's heated, chuck in the garlic, onion, jalapeno and some of the shredded basil. swirl it round a bit (about a minute), being careful of the garlic.

5. now's the time to tip in the smushed tomatoes - be sure to try to get all the juices. stir the tomato sauce, lower the heat to med-low, and let it simmer for about 12 minutes - the flavours will meld beautifully (and if you're anything like me, the smell will make you salivate)

6. add in the chicken and the rest of the shredded basil to the tomato sauce, let it sit for a couple minutes (giving the time for the chicken to absorb some flavour). taste it and season with salt & pepper to your preference. tip the sauce into the pot full of linguine, mix everything up, garnish with some chopped up parsley and serve.

note :this sauce isn't very thick and i've never been tempted to thicken it, but you could do it by either adding more tomatoes and leaving out most of the juice when you mix them with the garlicky-jalapenoey-onioney oil or adding tomato paste (but i fear that will mess with the flavour). also, some people may not want the tomato skins - that's fine, just blanche the tomatoes for about a minute and peel the skins off before mushing them up. 

*i use sea salt and ground pepper for their flavour, and table salt should do, but do try to avoid the powdery, sneezy pepper

lemon raspberry pavlova

i love pavlovas... i really do. i first discovered the dessert years ago, browing on nigella lawson's website. it looked easy and delicious, and it's been a crowd-pleaser ever since! it's basically a giant meringue topped with cream and fruit. making it has gotten even easier since i got my kitchenaid stand mixer for xmas. there are many variations on the classic pav, this is one i thought up a couple of months ago and it worked beautifully!


lemon raspberry pavlova


4 egg whites, room temp
1 1/3 cup white sugar
juice of 1 lemon
zest of 1/2 lemon
2 tsps cornstarch
1 tsp white wine vinegar
topping
250 ml whipping cream
raspberries (fresh or frozen, doesn't really matter)


1. preheat oven at 350°f. line a baking sheet (i usually use a round pizza sheet) with baking parchment (if you want, you can use a cake pan to trace a circle on the parchment to size the pavlova).


2. beat egg whites (with a whisk attachment) with a pinch of salt about 2 min, until satiny peaks form (it'll sort of look like clouds). add sugar a third at a time until stiff and glossy (when you take out the beaters, the meringue stays up).


3. sprinkle on lemon juice and zest, cornstarch and vinegar. fold in carefully, making sure everything is just combined.


4. mound the meringue on the parchement, carfully shaping it out nice and round (about 9" diameter - like a cake pan). put it in the oven and immediately reduce heat to 300°f. bake for an hour and a quarter - the outer shell should be hard, cracked and golden but the inside, still squidgy.


5. remove from oven and let cool completely (i cannot overstate the mess you will have if you try to put the toppings too soon on this one).

6. whip cream till firm - you can add anything you want to the cream for flavouring (i usually throw in a couple tablespoons icing sugar, but you can also try cointreau, lemon or lime juice, amaretto or even vanilla extract. it's up to you). invert the pav on a flat bottomed plate, mound the whipped cream on top and add the raspberries. if desired, garnish with lemon peel (although it's really not at all necessary).

remember how i said in that last post that i was going to write about the trials and tribulations of being a high school teacher? yeah, that's not going to happen. instead, if all goes according to plan, i'm going to have yet another blog about food. mostly recipes, but some general eating experiences (restaurant or home).

i'd like to state that i know i'm not being quite original (neither with the blog theme nor the recipes themselves), but striving for originality in the worlds of food and blogging is like claiming that windows 7 was your idea...

those who can't do...

ok, so i don't really plan on being an overnight internet sensation or anything, and to be quite honest, i'm not even sure about whether or not people are reading this (though i haven't been actively publicizing it either...), but i feel as though i should a) develop some sort of thematic to the blog and b) keep it up more often. i figure i may as well start with the theme as i can't guarantee i'll maintain the blog so...

WELCOME TO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF TEACHING!

i have been a high school teacher for the past two years, and i figured i would regale all of you in cyberspace with tales of my job.

***warning : all the stories i will post here are real, but names of people have been changed to protect myself from getting bit in the ass. also, if i exaggerate (which i have been known to do), i will definitely indicate it in order to maintain some sort of credibility***