Barbecue ribs, mmmmmmmmmmmm!

I picked up a rack of ribs really cheaply in the Chinese supermarket at the weekend. All of our family love ribs, so we’re feasting on those tonight. I marinaded the ribs in my own version of barbecue sauce.

1 cup of tomato ketchup
1 cup of bulldog sauce
Tomato puree, approx 2 tablespoons
good shake of garlic granules
pepper

The bulldog sauce is a bit like brown sauce, you can buy it in Asian grocery stores. It’s a fruit and vegetable sauce or so it says on the label, so perhaps fruity brown sauce would work in its place?

Mix all the ingredients for the marinade together.
Place in a container with your desired food and leave for a minimum of 24 hours. When ready to cook, remove from the marinade and reserve the remainder.

As the ribs were cooking, I periodically lifted them out to brush with the leftover marinade. This helps lock in flavour and keep the meat moist.

I baked my ribs in the oven for 1 and 1/2 hours at 160 Celsius, turning and basting every 20 to 30 minutes. This ensured even cooking and plenty of flavour.

I served the ribs with salad, garlic bread and Japanese potato salad.(Taken from this video on You Tube)

Enjoy!!

OK, so today I’m on a bulk bake mission. I have leftovers from yesterday to use as well as strawberries and tomatoes from the greenhouse.
Yesterdays tea was a turkey crown that I picked up in a local store. We had loads for tea and I’m in the process of making turkey and leek pies for tonight. There’s also some more left, which I’ve sliced and placed in the freezer for another night. Not bad for £7!
I’m going to make strawberry muffins with the alpines, as they were so tasty the last time. I have no idea what I’m doing with the tomatoes though. Perhaps a batch of tomato sauce?
There are also chinese hot dogs on the go for bento lunch boxes, I’ve made these before with limited success so this is a new recipe I’m trying out to see if I have better results.

Recipe for the turkey and leek pie is as follows:

I have no idea of quantities as I’m using leftovers, so my apologies in advance for that if you are the kind of person who has to weigh and measure everything!

leftover turkey
chopped leeks
chopped onion
chopped ham or bacon
salt
pepper
1/2 pint chicken stock
approx 3 tablespoons plain flour

In a large pan sweat off leeks and onions until soft.
Chop up ham or bacon and add to pan.
When the vegetables are soft, sprinkle on 2 to 3 tablespoons of plain flour, stir in well.
Add turkey and ham/bacon to the pan.
After a few minutes slowly add the stock until you have a thick sauce, you may not need all the stock. If you do need more you can add it or use plain water too.
Stir in stock well to the leeks turkey and onion mix.
Allow the mixture to bubble for a few minutes. This allows the flour to cook and the sauce to thicken.
Check seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.
At this stage you can add a splash of cream or creme fraiche if you like.
Divide the mix between 4 pie dishes. You can also make this as one large pie.
Allow the mix to cool slightly.

At the next stage you have a few options for topping.

Pastry, either shortcrust or puff.
Mashed Potato.
Breadcrumb.

The breadcrumb topping will work well if you have added cream or creme fraiche to the pie mix. I’m using ready rolled shortcrust sheets.

When the pie mix has cooled slightly, this prevents soggy pastry, brush the rims of the pie dishes with beaten egg or milk. Place pastry on top of pie dish and crimp the edges to seal.
Make a slit in the top of the pastry to allow steam to escape. Brush the top of the pie crust with beaten egg or milk and bake in the oven at 180oc until golden brown.

I’m serving this with mash and vegetables.

Right, got to keep cooking, I’ll post pictures later if the family don’t hoover all the food up before I get a chance!

As I suspected, family hoovered up the pie, but I did manage to get a snap of the rolls!

For tonight’s tea I’m cooking chicken thighs. I fancied trying something a little different with them. Usually I just roast them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. I’m experimenting with a few flavours, here’s what I did…..

To an oven roaster bag I added 2 tablespoons of plain flour, 2 teaspoons of paprika and 1 teaspoon of garlic granules. I shook this round the bag to mix it well. Then I added 1 pack of skinless boneless chicken thighs 1 chopped onion and a slosh of southern comfort I found lurking at the back of the cupboard. I will roast this is the oven, at 180oc for approx 20 to 30 minutes until the chicken is fully cooked. I’m serving this with baby potatoes, broccoli and carrots.

I’ll post pictures later if it turns out, or alternatively I’ll tell you it was horrible and a disaster!!!

Pictures didn’t make it! Family had dinner scoffed before I had a chance. I did make a few moew tweaks before I cooked the chicken though, I added a few cherry tomatoes and some button mushrooms. On tasting the chicken when cooked, it was very good, but next time I think I’ll add a little more seasoning for more flavour.

OK, so I’m on a homemade kick tonight again, well sort of! I’m going to be late home tomorrow so I’m prepping ahead and I made my version of dauphinoise potatoes.

Here’s what you do……

One bag of baby potatoes, approx 750g bag.
1 tub of double cream, I used Elmlea which is a substitute for fresh cream and comes in a a 284 ml tub.
1 teaspoon of garlic granules or you can use crushed fresh garlic if you prefer.
1 onion sliced
cheese, I used some odd of cheese left in the fridge, so I have no idea of quantity, but there were 4 lunchbox sized babybel in there!
ground black pepper

Par boil or steam your potatoes until just starting to soften.
slice your onion and place in a pan, add cream and heat gently until simmering.
season with garlic and pepper.
when potatoes are done, slice up and place in pan with cream and onions.
simmer for a few more minutes.
tip into an ovenproof dish and then thrown in your cheese. I just chopped my cheese into chunks, you could grate it up if you like.
Pop into an oven at 180oc for 10 minutes until golden and bubbly. If your potatoes still feel a bit hard at this point, cover the dish with foil and drop the oven temp to 160oc, then cook for a further 10 minutes.

Serves as you like!

I also made falafels for lunch ion my bento tomorrow, but I have to admit, they weren’t from scratch! I used a packet to see if I liked them first and I do! I think this is a recipe I need to look up and try from scratch next.

Well tonight has been a night for making things myself. I’ve baked cheese muffins and strawberry muffins. I also made some really nice hand cream.

I found a health store which sells big tubs of fragrance free base for which you add essential oils to. My hand cream was a 1 ounce tub filled with the base and 10 drops of juniper oil. This is a very calming relaxing oil and smells wonderful when applied to the skin in the form of the hand cream! I’ve packed it in my work bag for use during the day.

My muffins were very quick and easy to make.

The strawberry muffins are a basic mix to which you can then add your own personal favourite flavours. We have some alpine strawberry plants which are loaded with fruit at present, and bursting with flavour. I added one cup of these to the basic mix. The cheese muffins were made with a strong cheddar and will be tasty for breakfast in the morning. I’m rebelling against breakfast in the mornings, it seems that it’s just too early in the morning for me to eat toast. As a result I’ve been trying other things. This morning for example, I had a bowl of semolina. It was nice and I actually managed to eat it without the usual problems I have with toast or cereal!

So here’s the recipe for the muffins:

Basic Sweet Muffin mix:
1 cup plain flour
2 tea spoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 egg

In one bowl combine all the dry ingredients and mix well.
In a seperate bowl, mix all the wet ingredients and add to this the flavour of your choice.
Mix the 2 bowls together until just blended and no more.
Divide the mix between a 12 cup muffin pan which has been lined.

(TIP – I use a potato scoop to do this as its less messy and produces a more even sized muffin)

Bake in a pre heated oven at 180oc for 15 to 20 minutes.

Serve warm or you can cool and freeze the muffins for use at a later date. If freezing, when you want to use a muffin, you can pop it in the microwave or oven from frozen.

For the cheese muffins:

3/4 cup self raising flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups cornmeal (I used polenta)
1 1/4 cups grated cheese (reserve 1/4 cup for muffin tops prior to baking)
4 tablespoons melted butter
2 eggs beaten
1 clove garlic crushed (Iused garlic granules for this, about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon)
1 1/4 cups milk

As before combine all dry ingredients in one bowl and all the wet ingredients in another.
CFombine two bowls and mix un til just blended. Divide between 12 muffin cases and bake at 200oc for 15 to 20 minutes.

There were more muffins here, but hubs decided thst he neede to test a few to do a quality check!

If you do try these, please come back and let me know what you think of them :0)