Tag: Starter
Honey Glazed Duck Salad

Honey Glazed Duck Salad

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There’s nothing like a warm meat salad in winter, and duck is one of the best meats out there for it. When cooked right it’s both crispy and moist, with a deliciously deep meaty flavour. It also goes really well with sticky sweet things, and so naturally it appeals to my sweet tooth.

I first cooked duck this way for a competition a few years ago. Scoring and crisping up the skin before cooking off the meat is the way to make the most out of this cut, as otherwise it can end up really dry and fatty. Then coating it in honey and five spice creates a stunning aroma which makes it hard to not eat immediately. I’ve also combined it with plums and lentils here to make a balanced, substantial salad, but you could easily mix and match these as you choose to suit your preferences.

Recipe

Serves 2

Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 tsp Butter
  • 2 Duck Breasts
  • 2 tbsp Runny honey
  • 1 tsp Five spice
  • 75g Pine nuts
  • 2 Handfuls of salad leaves
  • 200g Green lentils, cooked to packet instructions
  • 3 Plums, de-stoned and cut into 8
  • Olive oil to serve

Method

  1. Put the butter into a frying pan and melt gently over a medium heat.
  2. Trim the excess fat off the duck breasts and score the fat with a knife into a criss-cross shape.
  3. Put the duck fat-side down into the pan and fry until golden and caramelised.
  4. Turn the duck over onto the flesh side, add the honey and five spice, and fry for another 5 minutes on a gentle heat.
  5. Take the duck out of the pan and leave on a board or plate to rest for at least 8 minutes. Meanwhile put the pine nuts into the pan with the juices and lightly brown. Set aside for later.
  6. Put the salad leaves into two bowls. Sprinkle over the cooked lentils and plum pieces. Fan out the duck on the salad and spoon over the pine nuts. Finish the salad with more honey, the pan juices and olive oil and serve!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Potato and Leek Soup

Potato and Leek Soup

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It’s the second bake of detox January and I’ve gone for the classic diet staple of soup. I know it doesn’t look like much – trust me, it’s very hard to make potato soup look sexy – but it tastes really good, which when you’re dieting is a big plus. As you can see from the recipe it’s very simple and quick to make as you only really need to chop up some veg. You can also alter the quantities depending on how you like the consistency of your soup; essentially the more potatoes you add the thicker it will be. If you’re not in detox land at the moment and you want a deluxe version I’d recommend adding a couple of rashers of grilled bacon and 50ml double cream to the mix before blending!

Recipe

Serves 5

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 Knob of butter
  • 1 White onion, chopped roughly
  • 3 Medium leeks, sliced into discs
  • 3 Medium potatoes, peeled and chopped into chunks
  • 1 Vegetable stock cube
  • 100ml Single cream to serve (optional)
  • Salt and pepper to season

Method

  1. Put the butter into a large saucepan and melt gently over a medium heat.
  2. Add the onions and fry, stirring occasionally, until they begin to caramelise and brown.
  3. Add the leeks, potatoes and stock cube. Then pour over enough boiling water to cover all the vegetables. Stir to dissolve the stock cube and then leave to boil until the veg are soft.
  4. Puree with a hand blender until smooth. Season to taste and then serve with a drizzle of cream and fresh bread!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Baked Egg Pots

Baked Egg Pots

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Now that it’s 2018 we’re into the new year and new years resolutions are flying all over the place. One that I’ve taken on along with thousands of others over the country is to eat more healthily. Whilst I can’t see this lasting long for the main reason that I write a bi-weekly food blog and I love patisserie, I thought a detox January would be a good way of exploring healthy food. So you can expect a month full of healthy (or healthy attempts) of recipes.

I first heard of baked eggs when I was on French exchange and loads of my friends were being served them by their host families. Since then I’ve wanted to give it a go and so now here we are! I instantly liked making these as I could just delve into my fridge and pull out the first things I could see which I thought would work well together. Whether you have some leftover roast chicken, or some about-to-go-off tomatoes, this is a great way of using it up. I’ve included three variations at the bottom of the post to get your imagination running as to how you could personalise your own baked egg pot.

As well as being really versatile in terms of ingredients, they also have loads of uses. As they’re so quick to make they’re a great little warm snack for a cold day, or you could serve them as simple starters at a dinner party. This is especially useful as they take very little preparation and can be easily altered to suit different dietary requirements! Alternatively you could do what I do and make one for lunch and serve it with a side salad to get a healthy, high-protein meal.

Recipe

Serves 4

Time: 10 minutes prep, 15 minutes to cook

Ingredients

  • 3 Plum tomatoes
  • 1 Small pepper (I went for yellow)
  • 12 tsp Light Cream cheese
  • 8 Large eggs
  • 2 Cherry tomatoes
  • Pinch of salt and pepper
  • Basil to garnish

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
  2. Chop the plum tomatoes into chunks and put them into the bottoms of 4 ramekins.
  3. Chop the pepper up into chunks and again distribute them between the ramekins.
  4. Take a teaspoon and put three little blobs of cream cheese into each pot.
  5. Crack two eggs into each pot – you don’t need to whisk them up or anything, just pop them straight in.
  6. Chop the cherry tomatoes into quarters and put two quarters into each pot.
  7. Season with salt and pepper (a very important step so do not miss!)
  8. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, the time will vary depending on how you like your eggs cooked.
  9.  Take out of the oven and garnish with fresh basil. Eat with bread and/or a side salad!

Variations-

Smoked salmon – Take out the plum tomatoes and instead add 1 handful of wilted spinach to each pot. Then put some smoked salmon in with the cream cheese before you put on the eggs. Serve with sour cream and chives!

Bacon and Cheese – If you’re not bothered about the whole healthy eating thing you can use full fat cream cheese, or even go two steps further and add bacon and cheddar cheese to make them really indulgent.

Chicken and Sweetcorn – Take some leftover roast chicken, or chopped up cooked chicken breast, and 4 tbsp cooked sweetcorn and divvy it up between the pots with the cream cheese, eggs and seasoning.

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Easy Christmas Canapes

Easy Christmas Canapes

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We’re hitting the party season of the year and it’s time to bring out the canapes! Here I’ve got three really simple ones which are perfect last-minute nibbles for any party. Of course vol-au-vents and palmiers are classic go-tos, but as not everyone has the time or energy to make them we have these. If the word ‘cooking’ strikes fear into your heart this is perfect for you as it’s essentially just assembling.

Pigs in Blankets

Also a favourite on the Christmas table, these work really well as canapes at a party. Just wrap them up, cook them off and stick them with a cocktail stick.

Recipe

Serves 18

Time: 5 minutes plus cooking time

Ingredients

  • 18 Mini Sausages
  • 9 Rashers of bacon, cut in half

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C.
  2. Take one of the sausages and wrap it in the halved bacon rasher.
  3. Put this onto a lined baking sheet, with the bacon join on the bottom to stop it from unravelling.
  4. Repeat for all the sausages and then cook in the oven for 10-15 minutes until cooked through and so that the bacon is crispy.
  5. Take out the oven, stick cocktail sticks into them and serve warm!

 

Bruschetta

This is an Italian classic,  usually served as a starter, but when downsized can also act as a great canape!

Recipe

Serves 18

Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 Thin baguette
  • 1 tbsp Olive oil
  • 1 Garlic clove, crushed
  • 3 Plum tomatoes
  • 1 Handful basil
  • Pinch of salt and pepper
  • 2 tsp Balsamic vinegar

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C.
  2. Take the baguette and slice about 2cm thick into 18 slices. If the slices are too big for a one-bite canape you can halve them. Put these slices onto a lined baking tray and drizzle with the oil. Put into the oven for 8-10 minutes and bake until crisp.
  3. Roughly chop the tomatoes into chunks and the basil into pieces. Put these and the garlic into a bowl and mix until combined. Season and set to one side until the bread is ready.
  4. Spoon this mixture onto the bread crostini.
  5. Drizzle these with the balsamic just before you serve!

 

Cream Cheese and Salmon

For me these are the quintessential Christmas party canape. Quick, simple, delicious and decadent they’re everything you need for a snazzy drinks party.

Recipe

Serves 18

Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 18 Small biscuits ( I used poppyseed ones).
  • 4 tbsp Cream cheese
  • 200g Smoked salmon
  • A little cress or dill to garnish

Method

  1. Take one of the biscuits and spread with a little of the cream cheese.
  2. Take some of the smoked salmon, curl it up and pop it onto one of the biscuits.
  3. Garnish with the cress or dill and then repeat with the rest of the biscuits.
  4. Serve!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

 
Roast Pumpkin Soup

Roast Pumpkin Soup

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Halloween’s coming up and that means it’s pumpkin time! In the world of carved pumpkins, the inner flesh is useless, but there’s no reason to discard all this delicious vegetable. So here’s something you can do with the leftover pumpkin sitting on your kitchen counter. Warming, smooth and healthy – this is a really quick and tasty lunch. Soup is also really good for freezing – so if you have more pumpkin soup than you can deal with in one go, pop it into a pot and bung it in the freezer until you fancy some more.

Here I’ve suggested roasting the pumpkin first as this will make it soft enough to get out of the skins, but if you’re using flesh from a carved pumpkin – meaning that it’s already out of the skin, you can use it just like that. This also works really well with butternut squash, so if you’re not a pumpkin family you can give that a go instead. My Mum’s really into gardening, and at the moment we have several squash plants taking over the garden, so soup is a great way of turning all this luscious veg into a meal that can be stored away and saved for a later day.

Recipe

Serves 4

Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
  • 1 Small red onion, roughly chopped
  • 1 Small white onion, roughly chopped
  • 2 Small pumpkins (about 1.5kg)
  • 1 Large carrot, peeled
  • 2 Medium baking potatoes, peeled
  • 2 Chicken stock cubes dissolved in 4 cups of boiling water
  • Salt and pepper to season
  • 125ml Single cream
  • 4 Rashers streaky bacon
  • 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
  • Fresh basil to serve

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Halve the pumpkins and remove the seeds from the middle with a spoon. Drizzle with oil and then wrap each half in tin foil. Put them into roasting tins and then roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until softened. Set aside to cool.
  2. Meanwhile, put the oil into a large saucepan and add the chopped onion. Cook over a medium heat until the onions have begun to caramelise.
  3. Chop carrot and potatoes into chunks. Scoop the flesh out of the cooled, roasted pumpkins and add this, the chopped potatoes, and the chopped carrot to the onion. Pour in the chicken stock and bring to the boil. Leave to simmer for 15-20 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
  4. Meanwhile heat a grill. Put the bacon on a grill pan and heat under the grill for 5-10 minutes, turning over a few times, until crispy all over. Take out from under the grill and set aside for later.
  5. Puree the vegetables once ready with a hand blender, add the chilli flakes and season to taste with the salt and pepper.
  6. Pour in half the cream and stir to mix. Pour the soup into bowls and drizzle with the rest of the cream. Chop the bacon into strips with scissors and sprinkle over the soup. Garnish with fresh basil and serve with buttered bread.

Thanks for reading!

Emma x