Does anyone know the trick to get chilli off your fingers?

Tonight for dinner I cooked (recipe #50 and #51) Mexican-style corn and Parmesan Chicken Breasts with Crispy Posh Ham. It was an incredibly easy dinner.


You slice the chicken but not all the way through, just to make scores on one side then you sprinkle over pepper, fresh thyme, lemon zest and parmesan cheese. Top with prosciutto and olive oil. Cover with glad and smash with a hammer/mallet till the chicken is 1cm thick. Heat a frying pan and add the chicken prosciutto side down and cook for 3min. the turn and cook until cooked through.


While the chicken is cooking, cook your corn (I used the microwave- mum style). Chop your chilli finely, grate your parmesan and spread both over a large plate and sprinkle with pepper and salt. When the corn is cooked add butter to it and make sure it melts and overs the corn. Roll the buttered corn in the cheese and chilli.


Serve Chicken and corn on a hot plate (we also had a baked potato with dinner) and ENJOY! Dinner was delish I just wish I didn't have crackers and cheese when I got home.


**do not add salt to the chicken as the posh ham is very salty. 

Not a Stew but a Stroganoff

Recipes #48 and #49.


Tonight I am cooking Beef and Ale Basic Stew. Mum hates the word stew... so we'll call it Beef and Ale Basic Stroganoff with lovely dumplings. It was easy to cook, I chose to cook it in the oven rather then the stove so I could sit and relax. 


I chopped 2 carrots, 2 onions and 2 celery sticks. Threw them in a oven proof dish with some olive oil and butter (butter was my touch... I've been reading too much julia Child lately and couldn't stop myself.) through in a couple of bay leaves and cook it for 10 min or until soft. I added pre-chopped beef, a can of Guinness, pepper, salt and a can of chopped tomatoes. Brought it to the boil and bunged it in the oven for 3 hours. (It's in there atm). 


For the dumplings a rubbed butter and self-raising flour together to get breadcrumbs and then added some chilled water to make a dough. Divided it in to 12 and rolled them in to dumplings. 


I added them to the stew.. sorry stroganoff for the last 30min and there is 5 min left on the cooking. I am hoping this fix's my headache :)


Fingers crossed!

Never fear, I have returned.

I cooked recipe #47 a few weeks ago and yes I have been extremely lazy, apologies to my faithful readers. 

Moroccan Lamb with couscous.

First things first. I hate cooked fruit especially in savoury things. I’d have to say that its one of the only things I really hate when it comes to food! This recipe has apricots in it. (Gag) EW! They were evicted from the recipe.

    I chopped the onions, tomatoes, chilli and parsley as Jamie asks. Next was to heat oil in a large pan cook onions and garlic till tender. Add 2 tsp of cumin, pepper and salt. Next add tomatoes, parsley, pine nuts and chickpeas. Cook for about 5 min.

    Meanwhile cut Lamb; I used lamb back-strap, into 2.5cm pieces. Season with salt, pepper and a sprinkling of ground cumin. Put a pan on high heat and cook lamb for about 2-3 min on each side. My Lamb was still a little frozen so it didn’t go as crispy as what Jamie’s looked like.

    I had Julia Child’s voice going through my head. (Well actually Meryl Streep’s voice) telling me that “wet meat does not brown properly” and she’s right! My lamb cooked in a puddle of water that came out of the lamb during the cooking. It did not brown nicely and I overcooked it waiting for the couscous to cook which ended up being a big bowl of glug.

     Yes Glug.

What is Glug? It is couscous that does not separate and sticks together as one big disgusting patty. How can you stuff up couscous?? I have no idea what I did wrong. Every time I cook couscous not following a recipe it works, when I use a recipe it glugs. If someone knows what I might have done wrong please comment and let me know because I failed at making it this time.

    You are meant to squash the sauce with the back of a spoon and add a tbs of balsamic vinegar before serving to make it saucier. It was nice though but not enough chilli.

    All I kept thinking was that if Pete and Manu were in my kitchen last night I would have been so embarrassed. Overcooked Lamb and Glug.

FAIL.