I regularly use bulgur wheat in a lot of my recipes and it's a fantastic storecupboard ingredient to have. It bulks up salads, goes great with barbequed meat, it's a perfect lunch box filler, all that and it's so cheap! From a 500g pack you could serve 10 portions all for about 1 euro, bargain or what! There is another advantage to it which is just how easy it is to prepare, you can make it ahead of time pop in the fridge and it will last 3-4 days in there covered. Follow the easy steps below to make up a little batch!
Preparing Bulgar Wheat In 5 Easy Steps!
1. Boil the kettle. 2. Add 1/2 a cup of bulgur wheat to a small bowl. 3. Add 1/2 cup of boiling water to the bowl. 4. Season with salt and pepper and stir through. 5. Cover with cling film and allow to cook until all the water has been soaked up.
GOOD MORNING! Well this was dinner last night mainly because I decided that if i didn't use the squash in the fridge it was going to end up in the bin! I love love love roast veggies, when there done properly that is, I mean when there's a little crispy chewy and caramel like on the outside and soft and mushy on the inside, now that's perfection. I have just moved into a new apartment which means a new oven, which means getting used to regulating the heat! I'm used to gas hob and oven so moving to electric isn't exactly great news as it seems much harder to regulate the temperature. But I'm getting there!
Also I just want to apologise if you've seen the gaudy yellow plates repetitively in photo's and have had just about enough of them but there all I have at the moment what with the moving and all! Were going to Sweden in a few weeks time so I intend to stock up with a few Ikea essentials.
This dish came together as a result of wanting to make a meal out of the squash rather than presenting it as the weird vegetable on the side of some other complicated dish. Squash is a strong meaty vegetable and should be treated as such.
Spicy Sticky Roast Squash Salad
(serves 2)
1 Large Squash
1 Red Onion
1 Red Pepper
1 Large Carrot
8 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of Honey
1 teaspoon of chili powder
A good splash of olive oil
This is an extremely easy dish and comes out looking like your a pro! So first of all prepare all your veg. I've read about different ways of cooking squash mainly with the skin on but being a glutton for punishment I like to peel them, so there's no work involved during the eating process. Once you have peeled your squash, cut it into halves and scoop out the seeds, then cut into chunky slices. Prepare the rest of the veg cutting into chunks. Leave the garlic cloves as they are, this will result in a rich yet mellow flavour a lot more palatable than in it's raw form.
Place all the veg into a large roasting tin and toss in some olive oil, next drizzle the honey over the mix, and finally sprinkle the chili powder.
Roast in a preheated oven at about 150 degrees Celsius for approx 30 minutes or until brown. YUM!
This isn't exactly the most amazingly intricate Chinese dish I have made but I chose to write about it because, if you have all the ingredients it is a very simple, tasty, balanced and healthy meal.
The first time I was introduced to real Chinese cuisine (I'm not talking about the deep fried slop from the local take-away which uncontrollably I am partial to now and again) was during a visit to my Aunt's house where a Chinese friend was giving a cooking demonstration to a group of her friends. I was encouraged to try beef, ginger and scallion, a simple dish which seemed to capture the simplicity of this extensive cuisine.
A short while after this encounter I was taken on a trip to the Asian market in Dublin city, it was then and there I fell in love! The bottles full of strange and foreign ingredients, the cling wrapped chicken paws poking out the sides of freezers, the huge bags of various assortments of rice and noodles were all enough to create great excitement at such a young age.
Now having tried hundreds of recipe's and still exploring new ones, Chinese cuisine has become a staple part of my diet.
Chili Chicken Broccoli Asparagus Noodles
2 Large Chicken Breasts
1 Red Chili chopped finely
1 inch of fresh ginger chopped finely
2 Garlic Cloves chopped finely
2 Tablespoons of Oyster Sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
8 Asparagus Sprigs cut in to bite size pieces
1 Broccoli head cut in to bite size pieces
1 Red Onion cut in half moon pieces
A handful of Ho Fan Noodles
First of all you will find with most Chinese recipe's the hard work is all in the preparation before the cooking starts. Boil some water for the noodles and begin by chopping all your ingredients.
Chop the chicken breasts into thin strips and place in a bowl with the chili, oyster sauce, fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and half the garlic and ginger. Combine the ingredients and place in the fridge to marinate.
Drizzle the prepared broccoli, asparagus and onion with a little oyster sauce and sesame oil. Fry the garlic and ginger in some oil until brown then add the onions and follow with the rest of the veg. When this is cooked through remove from the pan and place on a plate.
Now add the noodles to the boiling water and stir, they should only take about five minutes, keep checking them and make sure not to overcook. Now fry off the chicken, when it's cooked add the veg and by this time your noodles should be cooked. Drain them and mix with the chicken and veg. Serve immediately!
Now generally I am a Chicken and fish fan so this dish mostly came about because my girlfriend gently suggested that I should cook something other than chicken tonight! Not one to dissappoint I head to the butchers with this in mind and picked out some lamb chops. Ok I know carrot and cabbage mixed together is coleslaw but there's something off putting about coleslaw which make my mind conjure up images of soggy cabbage drenched in watery cheap mayonnaise. Ew! So that why I'm sticking with carrot and cabbage salad!
Oregano Lamb Chops
4 good quality lamb chops
3 cloves of garlic chopped finely
3 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of good quality balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons of dried oregano
A good pinch of sea salt and ground pepper
Put the lamb chops in a ziploc food bag and add the chopped garlic plus the rest of the ingredients to the bag. Zip Lock the bag then shake so that the mixture completely coats all the lamb. Then put the bag in the fridge to marinate, while you prepare the salad. It's like sooo easy!
Simple Carrot and Cabbage Salad
The salad is just as easy. You will need:
1/4 of white cabbage
1 Large carrot
1 tablespoon of homemade mayonaisse
A good pinch of Sea Salt and Ground Pepper.
Peel the carrot and slice into thin strips and place in a large bowl. Then chop the cabbage finely and seperate into pieces. Add the cabbage, mayo, salt, pepper and mix it all up! Put the salad mix in the fridge.
I normally cook this for just my self and my girlfriend so I take two of the chops out of the marinade bag, reseal it and freeze. I find that when the meat is defrosted in the marinade it makes it very tender. So anyway take the lamb chops out of the fridge and place on a hot grill and cook till brown on both sides (about 5 mintues either side). Take the carrot and cabbage salad out of the fridge and put a portion on a plate and place a golden brown chop ontop!
Getting homemade pizza right is a real art, I used to make it a lot when I was a kid and slowly perfected it over the years! One of my favourite things to do was to try different topping combinations from Asparagus and Spinach, to Feta and Rocket. One of the great things about pizza is that it's just so customisable. I also recommend experimenting with the tomato sauce as it can really enhance the overall flavour. The main thing I find when mixing is always to make sure your dough is not too moist as this creates a really unpleasant doughy taste when cooked. Here is my standard recipe for a great pizza dough, I'm not sure where the original came from as I know it by heart!
Basic Pizza Base Dough
1 sachet of active dry yeast
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 cup of warm water
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
3 and 1/2 cups of Strong all purpose flour
Combine the yeast with the sugar and warm water in a separate container and leave stand for 15 minutes or until foamy. Then stir in the olive oil and salt.
Put the flour in a large bowl and create a small well, pour the yeast mixture in and slowly combine incorporating the flour from the sides. This bit generally the most worrying as it looks like it will never come together, but it will just keep mixing! When the dough begins to come together put it on a work top and knead the crap out of it for about 7 minutes.
When all your frustration has been taken out shape into a ball and place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth and leave in a warm place. The warmth activates the yeast and will allow the dough to rise quickly. Leave it stand for about an hour or until it doubles in size. This is normally when I start making the tomato sauce and preparing the toppings, effective time management you see!
When the dough has risen punch it down to remove the air. Then place it on a worktop and depending whether you like your dough thin split into two or four. Form the separated pieces into a circle and keep pushing until you have the right shape. The base is now ready for toppings!
Spicy Tomato Pizza Sauce
3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
Drop of olive oil
Two Tins (400g) of chopped tomatoes
Pinch of Sea Salt and Ground Pepper
1 Tablespoon of dried Oregano
1 teaspoon of tobasco sauce
Sauté the garlic in the olive oil till brown then add the tomotoes and bring to a steady simmer. Then stir in the salt, pepper, oregano, and tobasco sauce. If you have a drop of red wine available to you it adds a richness to the sauce and by all means add it! Leave at a steady simmer to reduce for about 25 mins. Leave to cool until it's room temperature and then it's ready to add to the pizza base.
- I generally use mozzarella cheese for the topping, but any cheese can be used really! ENJOY!
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