Author: Laura Nana

Mum, wife, full-time worker, food blogger, runner, cyclist, nail painter extraordinaire...!

Goats Cheese Salad with a Giant Crouton

Laura Nana1 Comment

This is a regular in our house as we pretend its healthy. Its not. It is simply the gathering of lots of yummy items and combining them to make a rich and tasty dish.

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Ingredients

Rocket or other salad leaves
Juice of 1/2 a Lemon
About 4 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 good squidge of Honey
Disc of goats cheese
Walnuts
Thinly sliced Pear (1 should be enough for 2 servings)
Cherry Tomatoes
Bread

Method

Put the goats cheese discs on square pieces of baking parchment and a baking tray and put in the oven for about 7-10 minutes at 180 degrees for a fan assisted oven.

Whilst that is cooking, toast your bread. In a bowl add lemon juice, honey, olive oil and salt and pepper. Whisk together really well so it is nicely emulsified. If you’ve got whole walnuts break them up a bit to edible bite-size pieces. Cut your tomatoes in half and add the walnuts, salad leaves, tomatoes and sliced pear to a bowl.

Butter the toast and cut it into a circle shape to sit under the goats cheese.

Remove the goats cheese from the oven. Don’t worry if some of it is leaking out, its going to do that anyway on the plate. Put it on top of the crouton. Then add the lemon and honey dressing to the salad and toss it well. Add the salad items around the goats cheese. Drizzle some olive oil and grind some pepper on top of the goats cheese and there you have it!

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do! Its another really simple mid-week dinner.

Prawn and Aubergine Curry

Laura NanaLeave a comment

I had this for lunch today, obvs it was lovely, but I realised I have about 4-5 prawn curry recipes. I love this one for its simplicity and speed.

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INGREDIENTS
Glug of oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
Stick of cinnamon
4 vine-ripened tomatoes chopped small
500g raw tiger prawns, peeled and de-veined
Small can of coconut cream (about 150ml)
1 Aubergine remove skin and cube
bunch of chopped fresh coriander, separate the stalks

For the curry paste

1 medium onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 green chillies, deseeded and chopped
2.5cm fresh ginger, chopped
OR 1 cube of my frozen green massalla
4 tsp paprika
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp salt
Squeeze of lemon or lime juice

METHOD

Get your food processor out. Put the curry paste in and blend until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat, add the cinnamon and mustard seeds until they begin to pop, uncover and add the prepared curry paste. Fry for 4-5 minutes until it seems to be splitting from the oil, then add 250ml hot water and simmer for a further 3 minutes.

Stir in the tomatoes and chopped coriander stalks and cook for 5 minutes, stirring, until they have broken down in the sauce. Let it cook out and then add the aubergine. Cook for about 5-7 minutes and then add the prawns and coconut cream and simmer gently for 3-4 minutes, until the prawns are just firm and pink. Season to taste. Stir in the coriander and serve immediately with rice or roti/chappati.

My Green Massalla

Laura Nana3 Comments

Passed down to me by the experts, here is my green massalla which will be your flavour saviour for many a dish.

Ingredients

1kg green chilli
1/2 kg ginger
1/4 kg garlic
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt

Method

First don some suitable rubber gloves! Take the stalks off the chillies and drop them into your food processor. Take the skin off the ginger and chop it into a couple of lumps. Crush each garlic clove slightly to make it easier to remove the skin and add it all to the food processor. Give it a good blitz then stop, scrape down the sides and add the oil and salt and blitz again. You want it to be pretty fine.

Put the mix into an ice cube tray and freeze overnight and then pop them out of the tray and put them into a freezable bag.

You can just take one or two out each time and add it to whatever you are cooking. We use this for every curry we make including Butter Chicken Heaven and also my Hardcore Hot Ribs.

Butter Chicken Heaven

Laura Nana6 Comments

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Easily the quickest and tastiest chicken curry you can make mid-week. Don’t even bother with a takeaway as this recipe requires few fresh ingredients and mostly store cupboard staples….

Ingredients

For the marinade

  • 2 tbsp natural yoghurt
  • 2 tbsp double cream
  • 1 tsp grated ginger
  • 4 cloves garlic, crushed
  • large pinch ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/4 tsp chilli powder or fresh green chilli
  • 500g chicken breast sliced or diced into bite size pieces

For the sauce

  • 3 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 2 medium onions, finely chopped
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/4 tsp ground fenugreek seeds, or 1 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves
  • 100 g plum tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1/4 tsp salt

To serve

  • Chapatis or Rotis
  • onion, tomato and coriander salad

Method

In a large bowl, mix together the ingredients for the marinade, adding the chicken. Mix the marinade with the meat until it is well coated. Cover and refrigerate for 1/2 and hour.

To start the sauce, heat the oil in a large pan and fry the onions for 5-7 minutes or until they are lightly browned.

Add the turmeric, cumin, salt and fenugreek. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Tip in the tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes or until the onion mixture becomes thick.

Stir in the butter, then the chicken and marinade, and cook on a low heat for 10 minutes or until the chicken is done.

I always serve this with shop bought frozen chapatis and an onion, tomato and coriander salad mixed with a little oil and the juice of 1 lemon
I’ll get a picture of this up for you as soon as I make it again 🙂

Hardcore hot ribs

Laura Nana1 Comment

This is a recipe very close to my heart, it was a Friday night favourite for a very long time and still brings good memories of when my son was a baby.

You can vary the chilli content to your own taste but I recommend to have them as hot as you can bear, there is nothing quite like the finger licking taste with amazingly burning lips!!!

This a great recipe as its easily scaled up, all you have to do is make sure the marinade covers the ribs

Ingredients

minimum of 2 racks of pork ribs
Soy sauce
2 crushed Garlic
A thumb of Ginger
Chilli (the more the better)
1 stick of cinnamon bark
3 star anise
8 tbsp Soy Sauce
1 tbsp of tomato purée
A few glues of Worcester Sauce
A few flubs of fish sauce
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon or lime
Finely chopped coriander stalks

To serve you’ll need:
Cooked rice
Onions
Tomatoes
Coriander chopped
Juice of 2 lemons

Put all the ingredients in a suitable pan or dish and stir well. Add the ribs and leave overnight in the fridge

Remove from the fridge and cover with foil. Place in a low oven 140 (fan assisted) for approx. 3-4 hours, best thing to do is test after 3 hours and see how soft they are

Remove from the oven and place on a flat pan covered in foil suitable for the grill. Pour a little honey over and grill until brown on all sides. Strain the sauce in a sieve and serve alongside the ribs with rice and a salad made of chopped tomatoes, coriander and onion macerated in lots of lemon juice (this will need about 20 minutes).

Indian fishcakes

Laura NanaLeave a comment

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Ingredients

3 Spring onions
2/3 cloves of garlic
Thumb of ginger
3 chillis
Handful of Parsley
Handful of coriander
Lime zest and juice
Salt and Pepper
2 tsp Madras Curry Powder
1 tsp Paprika
250g smoked mackerel
3/4 mini chicken fillets

Method

In a food processor put spring onions, garlic, ginger, chillies (or less if you’re a wuss), parsley and coriander, lime zest and juice, salt and pepper.

Give it a whizz and then add the smoked mackerel, paprika, curry powder and chicken fillets.

Form into little patties and put in the fridge for 20 mins.

Fry in a non-stick pan without oil for 4 mins or so on each side and serve with a salad of onions macerated in lime/lemon juice, add tomatoes, coriander. Serve with sweet chilli sauce

This is a lovely summery light supper or great if you made them smaller for nibbles at a dinner party or bigger for a fish burger

Bolognaise

Laura Nana1 Comment

Ok, there is a secret to really good bolognaise, its not an amazing secret but it is the key to success –  slow cooking, it is fundamental that it is cooked low and slow for at least a couple of hours to let the flavour develop and the mince to loose that horrid, hard, gristly texture it can sometimes have.

You’ll also notice that I don’t go in for adding vegetables and tonnes of over store cupboard favourites – its a meat sauce so lets focus on that although I won’t hold it against you if you chuck in a mushroom or courgette.

PS – I cook mine with lamb mince as I believe it has a better flavour but obvs you don’t have to 🙂

Ingredients

Oil (I use Canola or Olive)
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed (optional)
500g lamb mince
1 a can of tomato purée (the small tin cans you can get)
1 glass of red wine
Lamb stock cube
½ – 1 cup Water

Method

Heat the oil and add the onion and garlic (if using) and cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes or so.

Add the mince and let it get really very brown and cooked. Not adding too much to the pan at once will help here as the more you add the more juices are released and what you really want here is a dry pan for the mince to get brown instead of grey.

Add the red wine and let that cook out.

Add tomato puree – it will look quite red and tomato-ey but don’t be worried.

Add your lamb stock cube and some water, give it a good stir

Leave it for as long as you can up to a max of 3 hours – this’ll make the meat really soft and yummy. Keep checking that its not sticking on the bottom of the pan and add more water if it is.

Serve it with Rigatoni instead of spaghetti – it soaks up more of the sauce

Let me know how you get on 🙂

Sicilian Pesto Rigatoni with Lemon Sole

Laura NanaLeave a comment

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This is a lovely mid-week meal, delicate flavours and simple to make. By having the pasta as a side accompaniment I found that this wasn’t too heavy for an evening meal as I sometimes experience when I have a usual pasta dish.

Ingredients:

Big bunch of basil
75g of Almonds
Hunk of Parmesan
1 Red Chilli
Handful of Cherry Tomatoes
1 tsp of Anchovy Paste
3-4 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
4 lemon sole
Tarragon
A sprinkle of white wine
Pasta of your choice

Method:

In a food processor – throw in a handful of basil, the almonds, parmesan, chilli, tomatoes, anchovy paste, and extra virgin olive oil and blitz for a few minutes, add more oil if you think the mixture requires it.

Cook the pasta as per the packet instructions, (I used Rigatoni) and then drain and stir in the pesto. Whilst the pasta is cooking, make 2 parcels out of foil or baking paper – add 2 soles to each parcel and throw in some tarragon, white wine and salt and pepper and bake in the oven for 10 minutes or so – really shouldn’t take long. Alternatively you can simply grill the soles without the marinade and they are equally as delicious.

Hello world!

Laura Nana3 Comments

I have started this blog because my mind is constantly whizzing with new ideas for recipes and I need to jot them down somewhere, I have recipe folders at home but I never use them so I’m hoping the interweb will be a better tool to use.

Click here to view my recipes, they are categories at the to of the page to make life a little easier

I hope you enjoy my site and please leave any comments, feedback or ideas you have

Lozza Nozza

xxx