Advent Post #3: Christmas Recipe - Mushroom Bourguignon

Mushroom Bourguignon - serves 4, takes 30 mins, vegetarian, suitable for freezing

Ingredients
2 tbsp. olive oil
15g (1/2 oz) butter
125g (4 oz) shallots or pearl onions, halved
1 carrot, thickly sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp. tomato puree
2 tsp. plain flour
125ml (4fl oz) fruity red wine
150ml (5fl oz) vegetarian stock
2 sprigs thyme
625g (1 1/4 lb) mixture of mushrooms, halved if large

Method

1. Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil and butter in a heavy-based pan. Add the shallots and cook for 5 minutes, then add the carrot and cook for 5 minutes more until soft. Stir in the garlic, tomato puree and flour and cook for 1 minute until the vegetables are well coated.
2. Pour over the wine, stirring well to ensure the sauce is smooth. Leave to simmer for a couple of minutes until the wine had reduced by half. Add the stock and sprig of thyme and cook for another 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 tbsp. oil in a frying pan. Cook the mushrooms for a couple of minutes, add to the pan, along with any juices and simmer for 5 minutes. Scatter over some thyme leaves and serve.

Each serving contains 159 calories, 4g sugar, 10g fat, 2.9g saturated fat, 0.2g salt.

This recipe is ideal to double up as a delicious mid-week evening meal and then freeze the leftovers for a quick and tasty meal for Christmas week. Just don't forget to label it correctly and reheat thoroughly once defrosted (defrost overnight in the fridge is best)!

Recipe source: Tesco instore magazine, December 2013.

Caramelised apple cake – Recommended Recipe!

Caramelised Apple Cake – serves 12, takes 10 mins to prepare, 50 mins to cook

Ingredients

4-5 Bramley apples (800g unprepared weight)

Juice of ½ a lemon

275g light brown sugar

5 medium eggs

100g butter, melted

Pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

215g plain flour

¾ tsp baking powder

100g ground almonds

Ice cream or cream, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to Gas 4, 180C, fan 160C. Grease a 23cm (9”) springform cake tin and line the base and sides with non-stick baking paper.
2. Peel, halve and core the apples. If you have a melon baller, you can use this to neatly scoop out the cores. Slice the apples into ½ cm thick slices. Sprinkle with the lemon juice and 50g of the sugar and set aside.
3. Scatter a further 50g of the sugar over the base of the tin. Cover with a layer of apple slices, overlapping them slightly so they sit in concentric circles.
4. Beat the eggs, melted butter, remaining sugar, salt and vanilla extract together until combined. Sift the flour and baking powder over the mixture, followed by the ground almonds. Add the remaining apple slices, including any liquid, and fold together quickly. Pour into the tin and bake for 50 mins, until the cake has risen and is golden brown. (At around 30 mins into the baking time, check the cake. If the top is golden brown by that point, cover with a layer of foil for the remainder of the baking time.)
5. Carefully turn out onto a serving plate so that the base is uppermost. Serve warm with ice cream or cream.

Per serving: 315 kcal, 28g sugar, 15g fat, 5.5g saturated fat, 0.4g salt.

Source: Tesco instore recipe card.

Fish pie - Recommended Recipe!

Fish Pie - serves 6, takes 25 mins to prepare and 35 mins to cook.

Ingredients
750g floury potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
60g butter
200ml milk
1 tbsp plain flour
175ml fish stock
200ml creme fraiche
1 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon
zest of 1/2 a lemon
750g fish pie mix (we used a mix of prawns, haddock and smoked cod)

Method

1. Place the potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water. Add a large pinch of salt and bring to the boil. Gently simmer, partially covered with a lid, for about 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are completely tender. Drain thoroughly and return the potatoes to the pan over a low heat for a couple of minutes to steam off any remaining water. Use a potato ricer or masher to mash the potatoes.
2. Beat in the egg yolks, 25g of the butter and 50ml of the milk and season to taste with freshly fround black pepper and salt.
3. Preheat the oven to Gas 4/180C. Place the remaining butter in a small saucepan with the remaining milk, the flour and the fish stock and gently bring to the boil, whisking constantly. Keep whisking as the mixture boils and thickens to form a smooth sauce. Simmer for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the creme fraiche, tarragon and lemon zest and season with plenty of pepper and just a little salt.
4. Distribute the fish mix over the base of a medium, ovenproof dish. Pour the sauce evenly over the fish and spread the mash over the top, working from the outside in. Use a fork to rake over the top, creating a rough surface. Bake for 30-35 mins until golden on top and bubbling beneath.

Each serving contains: 495 kcals, 3g sugar, 30g fat, 17g saturated fat, 0.6g salt.

Source: Tesco instore recipe card
 

Sizzling Jamaican beef skewers - Recommended Recipe!

Sizzling Jamaican Beef Skewers - serves 8.  Makes 24 sticks.  Takes 25 mins.

Ingredients

1 kg beef mince

8 salad onions, trimmed and finely chopped

3 tbsp jerk seasoning

Olive oil spray, for cooking

Mixed salad, to serve

Method

1. Place 24 wooden bamboo skewers into a bowl of cold water and leave to soak for at least 30 mins, or overnight if possible – this will stop the wood from burning on the BBQ. 
2. Place the beef, salad onions,  jerk seasoning and a pinch of salt into a large bowl.  Using your hands, mix the ingredients together until really well combined. 
3. Shape a fairly large tablespoon of mixture around the end of one of the prepared sticks to make an oval shape about 4-6 cm long – dipping your hands in cold water first will make shaping the meat easier.  Set aside and continue with the remaining mixture to make 24 beef skewers. 
4. Spray the meat with olive oil to give it a light coating, then cook on the BBQ for 12 minutes, turning occasionally, until well browned and cooked all the way through.  Serve with the mixed salad.

Per skewer: 130kcal, 1g fat, 2.8g saturated fat, 2g sugar, 1.3g salt.

Source: Tesco instore magazine.

Chicken with creamy bacon penne - Recommended Recipe!

Chicken with creamy bacon penne - serves 2, easy, not suitable for home freezing.

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
100g/4oz smoked lardons (chopped bacon)
4 tbsp dry white wine
100g/4oz frozen petit pois
5 tbsp double cream
220g packet cooked penne (e.g. Dolmio Express)

Method

1. Heat the oil in a deep non-stick frying pan, then add the chicken breasts and scatter round the lardons.  Leave to cook over a high heat for 4 minutes while you gather the other ingredients together.
2. Turn the chicken over in the pan, give the lardons a stir, then pour in the wine and let it bubble over a high heat until it has virtually evaporated.  Now add the petit pois, the cream and penne, season, then stirwell.  Cover the pan and cook for 4 minutes more until the chicken is cooked all the way through.  Serve straight away.

Per serving - 639 kcalories, protein 48g, carbohydrate 24g, fat 38g, saturated fat 17g, fibre 3g, added sugar none, salt 1.86g.

Source - Tesco instore magazine.

5 Minutes of Fame!

An exciting post dropped onto my Facebook wall earlier from a good friend Rachel... my five minutes of fame!

Nearly 12 months ago our local primary school won a competition to win a school uniform for each child courtesey of Clothing at Tesco.  Then, a few weeks ago a couple of the families from the school (including me!) were filmed describing their experience of the competition... and now it has been published!

Uniform Embroidery Facebook Competition - 2011 winners story

I'm really proud of how the community I live in came together and managed to win a national competition - for a school with only approximately 200 pupils (nursery, infants and juniors) that's a pretty big achievement!

I must apologise that this is the second post with no pictures of food - but for your information this evening I had a home-cooked "pub lunch" consisting of scampi with lemon wedges, chips and salad with all the trimmings!  I promise that the next post will consist of a cake or two!