Saturday night takeaway, without taking it!

Most weekends, I do a takeaway type meal, something a bit junky, a bit indulgent, and this weekend, I'd decided on ribs and onion rings, with side dishes.
Actually, in the winter we have actual takeaway, but it just doesn't seem to fit when it's light outside.  I don't know why this is.
Anyway, these ribs, took a bit of work, a bit of on and off, but they weren't actually didfficult.  I don't do difficult.
The onion rings were easy, but you do need a deep fat fryer.  Why do so many people shy away from them?
I love mine.
With it was coleslaw.  The leftover bit of a white cabbage, carrot and spring onion, dressing made from greek yoghurt, mayo and cider vinegar, and corn cobs.
We both feel so stuffed, that a night on the couch groaning awaits!

101 recipes to try with mince, number 1!

Ah c'mon, we all do it, we buy mince, we chuck it in the freezer for spag bol/chilli/shepherd's pie, and then repeat. And then get bored.
The bank balance is not being friendly this week, so I'm going through the freezer, and of course, I have the  pack of Beef Mince.
The Boring Beef Mince.
Actually, I  make pretty good meals with it, but it still lurks in my mind as , 'ugh, mince'. We don't dislike it, it's just that it features on the 'boring food' list.
Anyway, as it needed to be used, I looked for a recipe, and found one in Nigella's Kitchen
I'm afraid the bourbon was left out.  We are eating freezer mince, how likely is it that the budget will buy bourbon?
This was messy, messy, messy.  I can't stress this enough.  You need aprons, and bibs, and to open your mouth wide!
I think Nigella does that, well she never seems to spill down herself.

Niamh washed it down with her Friday night treat, she's Scottish, through and through!

Biscuits and gravy.

I used to be on a food site with someone who had made this.
I'd heard of it, though wasn't sure what it was, and it had lurked in the back of my mind. A skint week, and pack of cheapy sausages (Asda Smartprice, yes, earholes and arseholes), meant I tried it.
Biscuits and gravy
Biscuits is obviously an American word, for what we would call scones, savoury scones at that.  They are great, light and flaky.  The gravy is white sauce with sausage, rich, but delicious.
I urge you to try this, I reckon kids would love it.

Slow cooker pork and bean stew, and more flour.

Since I live in temporary accommodation, lots of my stuff is in boxes, that includes most of my recipe books.
I was so close to finding, and opening the recipe book box earlier this week, but then realised that I've never cooked anything from any of my Lonely Plant, World Food, series.  I have 15 of these, 13 right in my living room.
I asked Niamh to choose one, and she chose Spain.  There was a recipe, for a pork, bean and blood pudding stew, it sounded good, so of course I completely didn't make it at all, but it did inspire me to make up my own recipe for this evening's meal!
I used a pork shank, reduced from Morrison's (see a theme here?), a tin of tomatoes, plus one of purée, a couple of onions and garlic cloves, and just whacked it in the slow cooker all day.
The pork completely collapses when you remove it, but that's fine, it's soft, tender, delicious, and takes on all the flavours.
I used haricot beans, soaked overnight, and put in first, under the pork.

To serve with it, I made foccacia.  Why I started with flour again, I don't know.  I'm so floured out, yet I want to make a cake on Saturday.
For this, I used Jen's place, but I halved the recipe, as there's only two of us, compared to Jen's five.
I used my Kenwood chef to knead the dough, which unfortunatly made a sparky noise and then smoked.  I think it's died.
I've been offerred help to fix it though, so hopefully it'll work.
I love my Kenwood.

There's plenty of stew left, but it did make a huge amount.  All the bread has gone!

I didn't bother with the rosemary, mainly, because I forgot to buy it!

Deep fried pastry x 2, and a disaster!

A few weeks ago, I came across some reduced cod's roe in Morrison's.

I've never cooked this before, or tried it, other than in the form of Supermarket Taramasalata, so bought it, thinking I'd work out what to do with it later.
Later came tonight.
First off, , the homemade version of taramasalata, and cod roe beignets to be served with cullen skink, the Arbroath smokie version of cullen skink, since we've never tried Arbroath smokies before, and they were available in the fishmongers when I was in to buy chicken livers on Saturday.
I made the taramasalata first, knowing it could chill in the fridge untill dinner time.
Hmm, I followed the recipe, but it was very thin, and smelt a bit, um funny.

I tasted it, yes, exactly like fishy bins.  Niamh tasted it, and pulled a face.
I'm afraid it got chucked out, with the rest of the roe and the cod's roe beignet recipe!

So it's now 6 o clock, dinner time is looming and I have no idea what to serve with the soup.
A quick poke of BBC Good Food brings up this recipe for crab beignet.
Excellent.  Do I have crab? Of course not, but I do have prawns, so defrost an equivalent amount to the crab.

Actually, by this time, I'm realising I'm making choux pastry for the first time, I've already had one disaster, and I'm still recovering from last night's flour mess.  I think I'm a glutton for punishment, but no, just a glutton, so on I plough.

The choux pastry was easier than I thought, at the adding eggs stage, I chucked in the Kenwood.

You really, really can't go wrong with deep fried pastry, trust me on this.

So, after a bit of a 'mare, I turned out a pretty good meal.  We both loved it, and it's on the repeat list, the beignets in particular, but then they're deep fried.
We like deep fried!

Deep fried pastry-Mussel empanadas

A few weeks ago, I happenned to catch Rahm Fama, on meat and potatoes deep frying pastry, I can't even remember what the dish was, just that it was pastry, and deep fried.
Now this I had to try.
As luck would have it, I'd also just bought, Valentine Warner's book, What to eat now', with a recipe for mussel empanadas.
I'm afraid I bought the pastry, pastry making is not my strong point.
The stuffing for these was really easy and other than the mussels, I had everything to hand.
The end results, were rich, but sweet shellfish tasting, crispy, crumbly mouthfuls of heaven.
You have to try these, but perhaps not if prone to heart attacks.  I believe they are around 3 million calories each!

A balanced diet

I've been asked, or it's been suggested, that I don't eat junk food, or 'normal food'.
I can assure you, I do, we do, I believe in balance, .
Want to see?

 Aldi instant noodles.  I've not tried them, but I love the kimchi instant noodles from the Chinese shop.  I think they are mainly MSG. Yum.

Morrison's salad bar selection, featuring plenty of bacon bits.
What are those things made of?
Is it bacon?
I'm not sure, but it tastes fake, and I bloody love them, ditto, the crispy onions.

My favourite sideways snack ever, I did tell you that I'm rubbish at technology right?
The one thing wrong with it is that it's not M&S salt and pepper party snax, 'cept they don't call it snax, something clarsier, same thing though!

Too sweet, too cold.
Yes, I'm strange, I like to call it interesting, but I don't really do sweet foods, and I find ice cream too cold.
Niamh likes it though.

Munchy box!
Yep, not for everyday, but delicious.  I do usually ask for extra salad, which seems to baffle them!

80's food!
I love vesta chow mein, I love it once every couple of years in a weird, overly salty and fake tasting cardboard kind of way, anyway. I feel the same way about Fray Bentos pies, actually, I'm due one of them...........
Vesta Chow Mein tip-draining the deep fried noodles, directly into a nylon sieve might melt it.
Perhaps don't do that.

See Paul, we do eat junk !