Category: Main Course
Croque Monsieur

Croque Monsieur

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I’m not gonna lie to you, this is essentially a glorified cheese and ham toastie – but man is it a good cheese and ham toastie! It’s a ‘I think I just heard the hallelujah chorus when I took a bite’ kinda good if you hear me.

Unlike most toasties this one is a) French and b) has a cool cheese sauce in it which makes it incredibly tasty. It may seem like a bit of an efffort to take out a pan and make a sauce for a sandwhich, but trust me, it’s 100% worth it. You’ll also probably have some of this sauce left over, in which case keep it – it’s great on leeks, cauliflower, or with pasta and will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days!

I should point out that it’s not strictly traditional to put tomatoes in a croque monsieur, but hey, this is a blog and I like a bit of a fruity/sharp tang in the middle of my toastie. But it’s totally optional, so if you’re not a fan of tomatoes don’t let it put you off.

 

Recipe

Serves 1

Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

For the Cheese sauce

  • 13g Unsalted butter
  • 13g Plain flour
  • 125ml Milk
  • 1/2 tsp English mustard
  • 35g Strong cheddar cheese, grated

For everything else

  • 2 Thick slices of white bread
  • 2 Slices of honey smoked ham
  • 2 Cherry tomatoes, sliced thinly
  • 100g Gruyere Cheese, grated

Method

  1. Begin by making the cheese sauce. Put the butter into a small saucepan and melt over a medium heat.
  2. Add the flour and stir to form a paste. Cook this paste in the pan for 1-2 minutes.
  3. Slowly add the milk to the paste, stirring in between each addition to make a really smooth sauce. I find using a whisk really helpful here as it helps to break up the lumps, and make sure you pour the milk in slowly as otherwise your sauce will be lumpy.
  4. When all the milk in incorporated, continue to whisk over a medium heat until the sauce thickens enough to hold its shape a little. Then add the mustard and grated cheddar cheese and whisk until the cheese is melted and all combined. Set aside for later.
  5. Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Take your bread, butter it lightly and then put it, butter side up, into the oven to crisp up. Once just starting to brown take it out.
  6. Turn the bread slices over so you’re working on the non-crispy sides. Spread the slices with the cheese sauce (about 1 tsp on each). Then put a ham slice on each bit of bread. Arrange the tomato slices on one of the pieces of bread and then sprinkle half of the grated Gruyere over them.
  7. Put the bread slice without tomatoes ontop of the one with tomatoes, crisp side out, to make a sandwich. Sprinkle the rest of the gruyere over the top and then bake in the oven for 5 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and starting to brown.
  8. Take out of the oven and serve warm with a side salad!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Pesto Salmon and Sweet Potato Traybake

Pesto Salmon and Sweet Potato Traybake

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So I’ve got to the end of detox January and on the whole it’s been pretty successful. I’ve found that making healthy dishes look appetizing is extremely hard, but you can still make meals that are super tasty. This one, for example, may look green, textureless and as though it’s come straight out of a 1970’s cookbook, but it tastes insane. Even better than that, it’s low-effort and only needs 6 ingredients!

Note: If you’re not a fan of the strong fishy taste that comes with salmon this also works really well with cod, and if you’re not a fan of sweet potato you can easily use any other root vegetable!

Recipe

Serves 2

Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 Sweet potatoes
  • 1 tbsp Olive oil
  • 2 Salmon fillets (I went for tail fillets as they’re cheaper and cook quicker)
  • 2 tbsp Pesto
  • 1 Red pepper, de-seeded and cut into chunks
  • 100g Vine tomatoes

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
  2. Cut the sweet potatoes into batons and then put into a deep roasting tin, (you can leave the skins on the potatoes). Drizzle with the oil, season with salt and pepper, and then mix to coat.
  3. Put the tin into the oven and roast for 20-25 minutes.
  4. Once the potatoes have been in for this long you can start on the salmon. Put the salmon onto a sheet of tin foil, skin side facing down. Spoon the pesto over the fish, spreading it out into an even layer. Wrap the foil loosely around the salmon so it’s in a little, enclosed parcel.
  5. Put this salmon parcel into the tin with the sweet potatoes, (you may need to move the potatoes to one side of the tin to make room). Mix the potatoes around in the tin so that they can crisp up evenly and then put back into the oven to roast for another 10-15 minutes.
  6. 5 minutes before the end of this cooking time add the chopped red pepper and tomatoes to the tin to roast slightly.
  7. When the salmon is ready it will be pink and should flak easily when prodded with a fork. When it reaches this point take it out of the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes.
  8. Serve with the roasted veg, and a side salad!

Thanks for reading, I’m going to be focusing on comfort food over the next few weeks so keep an eye out for that!

Emma x
Vegetable Curry

Vegetable Curry

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I love a good authentic curry as much as the next person, but when you go to make your own at home it can often end up  bland and lacking in flavour – nothing like the ones you get in restaurants or at take-outs. A good way of avoiding this is to make your own paste for the sauce, but who honestly has the time in the middle of the week to spend ages grinding spices in a pestle and mortar?? I’ve found that the best way of getting a flavoursome curry with as little elbow grease as possible is to cook the spices a little before using them in the sauce. This will unlock the aromas and give the curry more oomph. The best way of doing this is to add the spice mix to the onions once they’ve just started to caramelise, and then fry it all together for another 2-3 minuteness before adding the wet ingredients to make the sauce.

I chose to make a vegetable curry for this post as I had a lot of vegetables floating around my kitchen which I wanted to use up, but a homemade curry is also a really good way of using up cooked meat. For example leftover roast chicken or turkey can be shreded up and then added to the sauce with some vegetables and voila, you have a delish meat curry ready to go!

 

Recipe

Serves 8

Time: 1 hour (including cooking time)

Ingredients

  • 1 Large potato
  • 1 Sweet potato
  • 1 Aubergine
  • 1 Red pepper
  • 1 Corguette
  • 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
  • 6 tbsp Medium Curry Powder
  • 1 Red onion
  • 430g Tomato Passata
  • 400g Coconut milk
  • Salt and pepper to season

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200˚C.
  2. Now prep the veg. Peel the potato and sweet potato and chop into chunks. Chop the aubergine into similar sized pieces. De-seed the pepper and chop it into small chunks, slightly smaller than you chopped the potatoes and aubergine. Then slice the corguette down the middle and then chop it into bits of a similar size.
  3. Put the chopped vegetables into a large roasting tin and drizzle with 1 tbsp of the oil. Sprinkle over 2 tbsp of the curry powder and stir around the tin to coat evenly. Put into the oven to roast for 30-35 minutes, stirring half way through, until the veg are soft and just starting to crisp.
  4. Meanwhile peel and dice the onion. Put the rest of the oil into a large saucepan and put over a medium heat. Add the onion and fry, stirring occasionally, until it begins to caramelise and go brown.
  5. Add the other 4 tbsp of curry powder and stir to coat the onions in it. Fry for another 2-3 minutes to slightly cook the powder and then add the passata and coconut milk. Stir to combine and then leave on a gentle simmer for 10 minutes.
  6. When the vegetables in the oven are ready take them out of the oven and add them to the sauce. Leave everything to simmer for another 5-10 minutes until all the veg are cooked through and infused with the spices in the sauce.
  7. Season the curry with salt and pepper to taste and then serve with rice and/or naan bread!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Tomato Soup

Tomato Soup

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Over new year I spent some time in Northern Italy, and for me there’s nowhere where the food is better. One of the things that really sticks in my mind from the trips I’ve made out there is their tomatoes. It’s an odd thing to pick up on, but their tomatoes are 100% better than any you find in the UK. Because of volcanic soil they manage to grow ones which are full of an intense, sweet and sour flavour which makes incredible tomato sauces and soups.

Whilst we don’t have direct access to this incredible produce, the UK does have it’s fair share of delicious vegetables and this soup is a great way of making use of this. Especially now we’re hitting the cold and wet season, and everyone seems to be getting flu, a quick, warm and nourishing bowl of soup is what we need. Packed full of good stuff and deliciously filling this soup is a perfect mid-week winter warmer.

Recipe

Serves 6

Time 25 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 White onion
  • 2 Garlic cloves
  • 1 Medium Carrot
  • 1 Celery Stick
  • 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
  • 900g Ripe tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp Tomato puree
  • 2 Stock cubes
  • 1 Litre of boiling water
  • Salt and Pepper to season
  • Basil and Pine nuts to garnish

Method

1. Begin by prepping the vegetables. Peel and dice the onion, garlic and carrot. Then take the ends off the celery and chop it into chunks about the same size as the carrot.

2. Put the oil into a large saucepan and heat gently. Add the prepared vegetables once the oil just starts to bubble, and gently fry until the onions begin to caramelise – this’ll take about 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile chop the tomatoes into chunks. Once the vegetables are ready add the tomatoes and puree to the mixture, stir to combine. Then leave with the lid on for 5 minutes to soften.

4. Next make up the  stock by putting two stock cubes into a jug and pouring over the boiling water. Stir with a fork until the stock cubes have dissolved.

5. Pour the stock over the vegetables and leave on a medium heat to gently simmer with the lid off for about 15 minutes, or until all the vegetables are soft and the liquid has reduced slightly.

6. Take a hand-blender and blend the soup until it’s as smooth as you want it. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

7. Ladle into bowls and garnish with pine nuts and fresh basil. Serve with fresh bread and enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
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