canapes recipes: July 2013

Summer Fruit Salad with Lime and Mint

Having a surplus of beautiful summer fruit in the house and a garden full of mint, I decided to make this salad.

Simplicity and sophistication are two ingredients I am always striving to bring into my cooking. I really adore this fruit salad because I think that it is unique, fresh and bright. It is simple and easy to make but will wow anyone you make it for. The flavor combinations in this are familiar yet intriguing.

Ingredients:
2 cups cantaloupe, without the skin and cut into pieces
2 nectarines, cut into slices
1 pint blackberries
1 cup blueberries
zest of 2 limes
the juice of 2-3 limes
1 tbs. fresh mint, finely chopped

Gently mix the cantaloupe, nectarines, blackberries and blueberries together in a medium sized bowl. Set aside.
In a small bowl mix together the lime zest, lime juice and mint together. Pour this over the fresh fruit.
Mix everything together. Chill if desired.

Happy Eatings!

Fresh Crab Fra Diavolo

I must admit....today I was feeling a little crabby (yes pun intended)!

Living in the Ocean State comes with some obvious vast baggage. And that is the ocean of course. Seafood plays a huge role in my life. Both sides of my family were in the seafood business. Over the years I have heard some great stories about the hard yet rewarding life of the seafood world. I even learned that my great grandfather used to go fishing with Joe DiMaggio's father in Sicily!

For dinner my family had fresh crab far diavolo sauce. We got the rock crabs in Point Judith and hurried home to cook them. This dish was served over spaghetti.

Happy Eatings!

Curry for 48? No worries...

Do you like shopping?

You do?

Then I must tell you about the epic shop I went on yesterday. 3 of us - good friends - went.

A much planned trip, in anticipation of one of our annual highlights.

We were gone for 5 hours, while the children languished with various friends, and as the afternoon drifted into evening, with our respective husbands.

We spent over £1,000. I know. £1,000.

It took us 2 cars - well, actually a 7 seater people carrier type car and the camper van to get our spoils home.

Because, yes, this was no girly clothes shop (we wish), and the event is no swanky done up to the nines new outfit occasion. Oh no. This is Scout Camp.

We leave tomorrow. For the Derbyshire Dales. Via Leicester Forest East services (for us) to hand the dog over to my mother).

Shopping for scout camp is one of those things that I don't think I will ever get over. Normally, the thought of food shopping in any kind of supermarket fills me with fear and dread, but there is something so spectacular and so utterly hilarious about shopping on this scale, that somehow, the fear and dread leaves me and I start to enjoy it.

To be fair, I didn't draw up the list. The senior scout wife does that, although I am in charge of catering the curry feast on the last night. Oh yes. My list for that particular meal starts off with 16 onions, 16 cloves of garlic and 2 jars of lazy ginger...

While our menfolk, all Scout leaders, prepare climbing and abseiling expeditions, worry about how many minibus places there need to be, whether we need one or 2 trailers or whether a horsebox will do instead, and organise surprise drop hikes for our charges, we scout wives squirrel ourselves away with a bottle of gin and come up with the food and the craft. Every now and again, the men drop in helpful comments like - "Oh yes, so and so doesn't eat pork" or "Don't forget there are 2 scouts with nut allergies". Fortunately, on this occasion, we had at least 12 hrs notice before the shop.

Yes folks, those 3 trolleys - they are all ours...

In the end, it took 3 cash and carry trolleys, stacked to the gunnels, followed by 2 trolleys in Morrisons for the 'sweep up' (including the all important chocolate custard and Angel Delight). We try and get as far as possible all the non-perishable goods for the week, and fresh to get us through the first couple of days so we can get our breath before playing sat nav roulette to find the nearest peddlar of groceries to where we are camping. This involves things like 325 packets of crisps, ditto cereal bars, 56 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes and 1 catering pack of approx 3 kg. 100 tortillas (for the turkey fajitas we're having on Sunday of course) and 4 kg of turkey, of course. 18 tins of pear halves and 92 pieces of fresh fruit. Your mind would boggle at the amount of cereal we anticipate 48 scouts, leaders and hangers on will eat.

The same applies in the actual cooking. Eggy bread for 48? Nothing to it. But you do need rather a lot of eggs...

So there we have it. For the next week, it's good bye Recipe Junkie and hello Scout Wife. But I'll be back, knackered, covered in mosquito bites, and wearing my mass catering badges on my sleeve (or at least a couple of decent burns). Oh, and if you're that way inclined, please pray that it doesn't rain too much...

The real flavors of Tandoori kitchen taste in an authentic Indian restaurant

In addition to luxury and splendour, London is also known for world-class family restaurants. The place with different cultural and traditional practices that belong to different sites also offering different cuisine and so attracts food lovers from throughout the city. Among the available many cuisines, Indian cuisine is most popular among people. There are many Indian restaurants that offer exotic and at the same time food service quality to customers. The elegant and refined restaurants spread across London excelled in various foods, making arts like Chinese cuisine, European cuisine, Mughlai cuisine, Italian cuisine, Tandoori cuisine, Indian cuisine, etc.

Indian tandoori food certainly needs no introduction for those who love Indian food. The preparation and presentation of Indian food is different in different parts of the country. One of the most popular styles of cooking tandoori style is. Is one of the most popular cooking methods like food cooked in this style is not only tasty but also healthy. Is an age old method of cooking that came into existence with the Mughal dynasty and decision could be one of the most preferred cooking styles until today. In the United Kingdom, you can find some of the best restaurants in Chelsea offering delicious dishes serving tandoori every palate. You can visit an Indian restaurant with friends and family, an have a good time enjoying some of the best food with the best flavors.

In London, a number of Indian restaurants have introduced as a result of the increasing demand and popularity of authentic Indian cuisine. If you want to taste real flavors from dishes then you should always choose an authentic restaurant to dine in. It is important to choose a reputable position eating, since I have the right knowledge and expertise to cooking tandoori cuisine in the most authentic way. If someone tries to fry the chicken in this style then he need to marinate the ingredients inside a perfect blend of the special Indian herbs and spices then grilled chicken gently in a clay oven. Both vegetarian and non vegetarian food can be cooked in this cooking style.

The Indian restaurants in London offering a plethora of choices in both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food tandoori. If you are a non-vegetarian, then you can enjoy dishes such as chicken tikka, mutton tikka, fish tikka masala, prawn tikka and many more of those appetizing tandoori food. If you are a vegetarian, then you are available with many options, like vegetable Tandoori, paneer tikka, tandoori aloo and many more of these delicious foods. With the help of a London restaurant guide, you can easily locate the best eatery to dine with family and friends.

The author is a food critic and has a comprehensive knowledge about the Indian tandoori cuisine . His love for Indian food has helped to write several articles about different Indian cuisine. Rate this article

The real flavors of Tandoori kitchen in an authentic Indian taste RestaurantNot rated yet

Joseph Elly John has published 5 articles. Article submitted on 23 July 2013. Word Count: 453

Sugar plum chocolates are chocolate producers for the last 15 years producing mouth watering pizza, chocolate and chocolate candy chocolate truffle. We agree on these hand dipped chocolate using the chocolate gift baskets.

Written by: Colin Dolly

Searching for the best tea safe to buy? The machine should be easy to operate and give a wonderful taste. The amount of water you put in the tank will determine the flavor of your coffee too.

Written by: Alice Angell

One of the features of decadently delicious food is a rich and creamy texture, but very often the price for the luxurious freshness is high in fat and calorie counts soaring. The solution? Homemade yogurt cheese to the rescue.

Written by: RA butters

Pepper called for in almost every savory recipe as saying, and even in some desserts. How often do you read Add pepper, to taste? How many of us, even taste the pepper? How many types of pepper you can name?

Written by: Chris Rawstern

Airy Fried Zucchini Flowers

I don't know about you but zucchini flowers excite me. Zucchini flowers serve as the ultimate symbol and importance of seasonal produce. These flowers only pop up during a certain time of the year and unlike many other American produce they can't be found at every grocery store every day. These delicate blossoms also have to be cooked close to when they were picked because they are very perishable. Sometimes zucchini flowers can be hard to find, (especially in large quantities) but if you look around at your local farmers market, farms or specialty grocery stores you will have a better chance of finding them. And believe me these little guys are worth the search. I picked these flowers from my garden.

These unstuffed blossoms are light, airy and simple. Stuffed and fried zucchini flowers are amazing (in fact just last week I was at NYC restaurant Minetta Tavern and they were serving zucchini flowers stuffed with crab and egg yolks); however, sometimes I just prefer the extraordinary taste of the flower itself to shine through.

Ingredients:

vegetable oil and/or olive oil for frying
1 1/4 cups ap flour, sifted
1/2 tsp. paprika
1 12 oz bottle of beer
1/2 tsp. minced fresh parsley (optional)
3 egg whites, stiffly beaten
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
zucchini flowers (as many as you can find; this batter can make you at least 20 flowers)

Heat 3-5 inches of oil in a medium sized pot over medium heat.
Line a large dish with paper towels. Set aside.
In a medium sized bowl combine the flour, paprika, salt and pepper together.
Pour the beer into the flour mixture and whisk until there are only a few smaller lumps. Add the parsley to the mixture.
In batches, gently fold the stiff egg whites into the beer batter.
In batches, gently emerge each flower into the batter. Make sure all sides are dredged. Shake off any excess batter.
When your oil reaches about 350 degrees F (according to an oil thermometer) gently drop each flower into the oil. Work in batches so that you don't overcrowd the pan.
Using a spider, (don't worry I mean the cooking utensil!) flip the flower over once so that each side is a beautiful light golden brown. About 1-2 minutes per side.
Using a spider, take the flower out of the oil and place on the dish lined with paper towels. Sprinkle with salt while they are hot. Enjoy immediately!

Happy eatings!

Shrimp stir fry

Shrimp stir fry recipes are special dishes crafted in accordance with the family tradition that influenced much of the Asian culture. This article will cover the spring asparagus and shrimp Stir Fry recipe that has become so famous and is a specialty of a Vietnamese cuisine in Seattle. Many people assume that the Vietnamese food is highly influenced by French traditions. While this may be true to some extent, the Chinese also influenced the Viet cooking in many ways. If you could remember, Viet Nam was a colony of China for nearly 1,000 years. And there legions of Viet Nam-Chinese people were the ones who help shape the Vietnamese food for generations. Apart from this, there were interactions through trade routes and neighbors of Viet Nam in addition to culture as a factor in the mix too.

This recipe is actually a mixture of Vietnamese cooking cultural perfection that this restaurant has mastered through the years. In the name of the family tradition, the restaurant owners still recognize their experience as a family legacy.

For some who have tried to cook the dish, fresh asparagus is highly recommended by the canned asparagus. The soy sauce and oyster sauce and the fish sauce is a combination trio umami seasonings that combines Viet and southern Chinese cooking. The method of frying garlic and onion until golden is a good approximation of Viet Nam, where it is estimated very caramelized shallot and garlic goodness. And adding the sauce twice is really a method for layering restaurant taste. There is no velvety sauce, since I use cornstarch, a Viet-Chinese approach to stir frying. Let's start cooking then. The original recipe can serve as a main dish 2 to 3 p3ersons.

INGREDIENTS:

1¼ pounds fresh asparagus, Woody ends are broke away, and the stems cut into 2-inch long pieces.

½ teaspoon sugar

1 ½ tbsp fish sauce

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon oyster sauce

4 tablespoons and a half a teaspoon of vegetable oil, separated accordingly

1 tablespoon minced garlic

8 to 10 ounces, peeled deveined large shrimp, or can a few more if you want

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 tsp cooking Shaoxing wine or sherry

¼ TSP grated coarsely ground pepper

THE PROCEDURE:

Wash the asparagus with water, then drain and set aside.

For sauce stir fry, combine in a small bowl and mix together the sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce and ½ teaspoon of vegetable oil. Stir to mix until it is quite smooth and set aside near stove.

To start stir frying, heat a wok or a large skillet over medium high heat in American stove. Then once it is hot, add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in wok and wait until it starts getting pretty hot. You can then add the garlic and stir fry for about 15 seconds, until garlic begins to Brown a little.

Here you can add the prawns and cook for about 30 seconds. Add 1 tablespoon of your prepared seasoning, combine, and cook for about 2 minutes until the shrimp are almost cooked. Then, please transfer them to a plate and set aside.

Then rinse and wipe clean your wok. Heat the Pan again by high heat, then add the remaining 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Then you can add the shallot, cooking them for another 1 minute until slightly browned.

You can then add the asparagus and sprinkle remaining seasoning sauce that you have prepared. Stir fry the asparagus until it is tender but slightly crunchy, about another 3 to 5 minutes.

Add shrimp to wok and continue stir frying to reheat them. Turn off the heat from the stove and add the rice wine and stir to mix a little.

Serve immediately while hot.

Enjoy this Viet shrimp stir fry recipe at home and continue to stir frying too.

Hi, I'm Miguel and I like to do an article writing since I was in the first year of high school. Makes me feel good, every time I wrote a story. Until now I always do this every time I have a break in my work. I hope you like my article on shrimp stir fry that I submit here. Thank You.

Preparing delicious dishes kyklopteroy ROE

Almost everyone thinks that the caviar is too expensive. Well, you could purchase quality caviar from the market at affordable prices too. The trick is to know what to buy and how to prepare it at home. For example, kyklopteroy ROE is affordable. Kyklopteroy ROE is perfect to serve as a side dish or appetizer before the main course. The price of caviar varies depending on the quality. However, if you're too specific, you can use kyklopteroy ROE in small quantities and use other ingredients, increase the quantity of plate. Listed below are some recipes for preparing kyklopteroy ROE cost-effectively.

Recipe 1

Ingredients needed are:

Potato-1 largeButter-100 crab-55 gramsFresh gramsWhite pepper and salt-tasteWhipped-2 spoonsLumpfish ROE mayonnaise-25 gramsFor dip-chervil, 1 sprig

Preparation: Preheat the oven to 170 degrees c. wash the potato and dry it thoroughly. Place the potatoes on a baking sheet. Then prick the potatoes and using a metal skewer, runs through the potato. Bake for 1 and a half hours. Once baked, cut in half lengthwise and from each potato half, take out the flesh into a bowl. Keep the skin.

Add the crab and butter to the potato. Season with pepper and salt. In a separate bowl, mix mayonnaise with kyklopteroy ROE. At the back of the potato skins, put the crab and potato mixture. Then top with kyklopteroy ROE and mayonnaise. Garnish with Chervil. Serve the dish immediately.

Recipe 2

Ingredients needed are:

Pasta-50 gramsChopped, smoked salmon Cream-150 gramsSour-150 milliliterChives-1 spoonLumpfish-50 gramsSalt ROE and freshly ground pepper for seasoning

Preparation: Cook and drain the pasta. Stir in cream, smoked salmon, along with the chives. Serve in soup bowls, topped with 1 tablespoon kyklopteroy ROE. Season with pepper and salt. Serve this dish right away.

Recipe 3

Ingredients needed are:

Eggs-oil-60 milliliterPlain 2Olive yogurt-125 milliliterGrated 125 milliliterMilk-lemon zest-1 spoonSelf-growing flour-375 teaspoonCreme milk gramsSugar-1-250-1 smallLumpfish gramsSmoked trout caviar-for service

Preparation: First Preheat the oven to 180 degrees c. Grease then mini-muffin pans. In a bowl, Combine the oil, eggs, milk, yogurt and lime zest. In a large bowl, stir in the sugar and flour. Pour the wet ingredients and combine well. Spoon this mixture into the muffin pans. Bake for 12 minutes or until cooked. Keep aside to cool completely. Cut off a small piece from the top of all muffins, scoop out a little of the mid-section and discard. Fill it with a little trout, Creme Fraiche and caviar some kyklopteroy. The guest will love this concoction.

Posh Poached Eggs for the big 3-0

I'm a relative newcomer to the Random Recipes challenge, but it's become bit of a fixture for me. I don't have any sort of pattern or routine to my blogging (you may have noticed), but I find myself looking out for the announcement post every month, and then getting my random recipe selected more or less straightaway in order to have a fighting chance of working it into a meal plan somewhere. You see while I'd love to spend hours in my kitchen designing dishes, tweaking recipes, arranging food beautifully on a plate and taking gorgeous photos, the reality is that the food that goes up here is what I've cooked to feed us, there's no room to re-make and take a better photo (or to take a photo at all if we were all so hungry that it got eaten before I'd got the camera out...).

This month, the 30th month of the challenge, the selection criteria for the recipe was the number '30' (Dom, you're so original!). 30th book on the shelf/ves of cook books, 30th page.

At the time I made the selection, '30' gave me Posh Poached Eggs in a Cup from Leon - Family & Friends. If I made the choice another time, it would be different because the books don't stay in the same order, or even on the same shelves, depending on what I've been up to in the kitchen.

So, Posh Poached Eggs. "That'll be easy to squeeze in somewhere", I thought.

We ended up having it for lunch yesterday, the kids and I, another sultry day (the rain didn't reach us till late last night) when the last thing I wanted to do, really, was make a cheese sauce - or even poach an egg. The things I do.

So you make a cheese sauce using gram flour and butter, quite a lot of cheese and some truffle oil. I didn't have gruyere or truffle oil in the house, so cheddar and some nice olive oil had to do.

You fry some thin slices of chorizo till they are nice and crispy, and poach some eggs, then layer it all up in a cup.

It's delicious. Even Blue, who, as I have bemoaned before, normally avoids cheese sauce with a barge pole, and isn't massively keen on poached eggs, enjoyed it. Result.

The only thing I'd say is that the recipe in the book makes a huge amount of cheese sauce. More than you could possibly use feeding the 4 specified in the recipe, however hungry. The rest of it is in the fridge covered with greaseproof paper. Pasta bake for dinner tonight, then.

Tarragon chicken and a hankering for France

I may have mentioned before once or twice how much I love France.

Indeed there was a time as a post-grad law student when, unsure of my destiny and only certain that I had failed the land law component of the C.P.E. conversion course that non-law graduates had to sit, the only thing I could think of doing was to decamp to France and see what happened.

Fate intervened, I met the Husband and passed land law by the skin of my teeth (events related only by the fact that the Husband was in the same pub that I was celebrating the end - but not the results - of said exams), so my other life as an English woman in France never happened. May be, Sliding Doors-esque, my other self is currently sitting on the terrasse of a sprawling proprietee somewhere in the Midi, a herd of goats and some chickens milling around, while the Husband, assuming a slightly more unreliable "Kevin-Kline-in-French-Kiss" air about him than he currently sports, grows grapes and olives and the children run about tanned and bilingual...

I still have friends in France and we go back occasionally - we haven't been to my preferred corner of Languedoc for a few years, although we had a great holiday in Normandy last summer. I love French towns and cities as much as the countryside: Paris for sure, but also Lyon, Toulouse, Nantes, Aix en Provence, Carcassonne and my favourite of them all, Perpignan. I would gladly go back at any opportunity. May be next summer.

For now, I am compensating by cooking French. Tarragon is one of those classic tastes of France. My mother and I both have tarragon plants parented by a plant belonging to my French exchange's grandpere . Combine that with chicken and creme fraiche, a splash of white wine and some peas, and I could be sitting in a little bistro somewhere, the best memories I have of eating fabulous meals in France washing over me. The feel of the heat that hits you getting off the plane, the wonderful, clear light you get in the mountains, the sunsets over ancient fishing villages, the markets, the pains au chocolat, le Grand Bleu, Jean Reno, the cafe culture - all of it.

Sigh.

Tarragon Chicken
serves 4

8 chicken thighs (bone removed)
salt & pepper
olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
100ml dry white wine
300ml chicken stock
2 tsp cornflour
fresh peas - a good couple of handfuls
3 tbsp creme fraiche
2 tbsp tarragon leaves, ripped

Season the chicken with salt and pepper and set aside.

Heat a tbsp of olive oil in a large frying pan and fry the shallots gently until soft - about 5 minutes. Add the garlic at the end of the cooking time for a minute or so.

Add the chicken pieces to the pan and brown for 2-3 minutes, turning once. Increase teh heat, pour in the wine and let it bubble up then add the chicken stock and let everything simmer for 10 minutes.

While the chicken is simmering, mix the cornflour to a paste with 2 tsp water, then stir into the cookking liquid when the 10 minutes is up. Throw in the peas and keep simmering until the sauce thickens at which point stir in the creme fraiche and tarragon and serve with new potatoes.

Best eaten outside as the sun goes down with a glass of crisp white wine...

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This is a sponsored post on behalf of Superbreak

Camping Cake

Camping cake comes in many forms. The main thing of course is that there is cake when you are camping and beyond that it's really up to you, but in case you were needing a bit more guidance, here are my thoughts on what constitutes good camping cake.

Let's get one thing straight. Delicate doesn't cut it. If you're going camping, the last thing you need is delicate cake. You need something fairly substantial.

Anything that includes filling or buttercream is out on grounds of practicality and the fact that in the unlikely event that the weather is good, it's likely to melt.

If it's got oats in it, you're onto a good thing - you use up a lot of energy with all that fresh air and out of doors stuff.

Ditto fruit/veg because if you can get it in cake form, well that's got to be a bonus.

It must be 'cup of tea' cake. Cake your tea would be too wet without. I'm not suggesting you're going to dunk it or anything, just that if you've got a cake that tastes perfect with a cup of straight up builders tea, you can't go far wrong.

This cake is based on one from the Camper Van Cookbook. I like the Camper Van Cookbook, although the recipes aren't necessarily ones I'd choose to cook while we're camping. Only a very few of the recipes are actually by Martin Dorey, and I'm not sure the author of the bulk of them has done much camping - her recipes are quite ingredient and utensil heavy, and time consuming. That's not to say they aren't good recipes - what I have cooked from the book while camping has always turned out well. Lamb Burgers with spring onions and feta and Lemon Cup Cheesecakes are particular favourites, but I remember the burgers took quite a long time to put together, and with limited utensils, out in the fresh air, I think I'd be just as happy with some good sausages...

There is, however, a section of pre-camp bakes: stuff you'd make to take with you, and I cannot recommend these highly enough. They are great cakes (and biscuits) that absolutely hit the spot in the fresh air. This one is one of Blue's absolute favourite cakes, and went down very well in Suffolk the other weekend .

Sticky Ginger Treacle Cake

200ml milk
3 tbsp treacle
100g butter
75g plain flour
200g soft brown sugar
125g porridge oats
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinammon
1tsp bicarbonate of soda

Line a 20 cm square tin with greaseproof paper and pre-heat the oven to 150C/130C fan.

Place the treacle and butter into a small pan with the milk and gently bring to the boil till the butter is melted. Set aside to cool a little.

Seive the flour, ginger, cinammon and bicarb into a large bowl, then stir through the sugar and porridge oats.

Stir the melted ingredients quickly into the dry ingredients, pour into the tin and bake for 45 minutes.

Leave to cool in the tin, then cut into 16 squares and store in an airtight container. This is sticky cake (the name gives it away) so if you need to stack, separate layers with greaseproof paper.

Of course, you don't have to go camping to make this cake, but I really think you should give it a go

Featured in Foodie Crush Magazine and Summer Spaghetti with Crab and Chiles!

Thank you so much to the fabulous Foodie Crush Magazine for including me in their summer issue involving teen food bloggers. I am honored to have been in this magazine and to have been listed along with other inspiring and excellent teen food bloggers! Check out the link to my page:

http://issuu.com/foodiecrush/docs/foodiecrush-summer-2013/36?e=3197056/4039630

Along with my interview I included my original recipe for Summer Spaghetti with Crab and Chiles. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

3 tbs. olive oil, plus more for finishing
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 small shallot, finely diced
Sea salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
2-3 fresh red and/or green chilies, deseeded and finely diced
Pinch of crushed red chili pepper (optional)
¾ cup white wine
1 stick of butter
1 lb. unpasteurized crabmeat, picked through for shells
1 lb. spaghetti
Reserved pasta water, as needed
¼ cup parsley, finely chopped
Lemon zest

Bring a large pan filled with water to a boil. Season the water with salt.
Meanwhile, heat up a large sauté pan with olive oil. Add the crushed garlic and shallots to the pan. Season the garlic and shallots with salt and pepper. Cook for about 2-4 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Remove and discard the crushed garlic cloves.
Add the chilies, white wine and butter. Bring this mixture to a boil and let the wine reduce. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings. Fold in the crab and take the pan off the heat.
Cook the pasta until al dente (according to the package directions) in the salted boiling water. Reserve about a cup of pasta water in a bowl (you won’t use all of the water, but it is better to have the water in case you need it).
Drain the pasta and add it immediately to the sauce in the sauté pan. Return the pan to the heat and briefly cook until the pasta absorbs most of the sauce. Add some pasta water as needed. Next incorporate the parsley. Pour the spaghetti into a serving bowl and top with more parsley, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and lemon zest. Eat and enjoy!

Happy Eatings!

What is Round Table Pizza?

Round Table Pizza is just one of the few popular pizza restaurants today that have served customers for many years at an outstanding level. Famous for its scrumptious oven-fresh pies, this restaurant manages to stay successful in the business despite the trend of shifting to more economical methods of production. No wonder customers love this place for its high regard to quality and authenticity.

Labor of Love

Inspired by the company's slogan, Round Table Pizza commits itself to the highest standards in pizzeria business. Unlike the other restaurants with the same specialty, Round Table makes its pizzas from the scratch-rolling the dough, chopping the veggies and preparing fresh meat toppings. The dough itself comes from the exclusively-grown wheat which is only used for this purpose. If you are wondering what makes the cheeses so delicious, then you should know that they are made from a combination of aged cheddar, whole milk mozzarella and provolone cheeses.

Such dedication to quality is the key to Round Table's success. Other pizzerias might think that the daily manual labor is hampering the productivity of the restaurant, but not this company. Actually, it is through this time-consuming and physically taxing method that Round Table is preferred by many customers.

The Birth of an Honest Pizzeria

It was 51 years ago when William Larson founded the first Round Table in Menlo Park, California. What started out as a small pizza parlor is now a thriving chain of more than 500 restaurants all over the US. The brand is similarly successful in the international market.

The Legend Has It

Interestingly, Round Table Pizza has a curious story of the origin of its name. It was in 1961 when a friend of Larson made some sketches of the knights eating pizza at King Arthur's fabled Round Table. Soon after, the owner adopted the Arthurian legend in its restaurant theme. By 1970s, the famous three shields have started to appear in its official logo.

But the medieval theme is not restricted to the atmosphere of the Round Table restaurants. In fact, the menu includes varieties of pizza named after the characters of the Arthurian legend. There's the King Arthur's Supreme pizza that combines all three meats, cheeses and other premium garnishes. As it turns out, it is the pizzeria's ultimate bestseller. There is also the Guinevere's Garden Delight named after the English queen. It has several vegetables for toppings.

Aside from the hero and heroine of the Middle Ages, there are also some pizza themes inspired by other literary influences such as the famous Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet. The Montague's All Meat Marvel represents an all-Italian meat pizza. Another variety of round pie is the Maui Zaui which has a similar taste as a regular Hawaiian pizza, although a little more generous in toppings.

Be Your Own Pizza Maker

Round Table gives you an option to create your very own pizza. If you want to try something new on your next visit, you may skip the specialty pizzas and choose your favorite combinations of crust, meat, cheese and veggies. It is up to you to combine the ingredients as you wish. At Round Table Pizza, the toppings are generously spread over the hand-made crusts. While deciding on the type of pizza you want, be sure to test out Round Table coupons to save on your big purchase, because saving a little can go a long way!

My Dream Kitchen...

We live in an old cottage. The oldest part of the house dates to the 1750s, there are beams, inconveniently thick (and occasionally damp) walls, not enough insulation, and spiders so big they make a noise when they hit the ground after you've chucked them out of the window. I love it - although the spiders can be quite surprising sometimes...

The kitchen lives in what we think was once a separate outhouse/washhouse/beer cellar. It stretches out of the back of the house on one side, edging a decking area that fills in the square-ish space at the back of the house. The house was once a pub - The Old House at Home. There is now a new 'Old House at Home' over the road which replaced it in the 1920s. We are too close to the river to have a proper cellar - underground, the water table is not too many feet below us - and we understand that this is where the beer was stored at one time. Since then, we know that the room that is now our kitchen has also been the bedroom/music room of a young teenager. We know this because when we had the kitchen done up a few years ago, the same teenager (now in his 40s) did the tiling for us. Village life...

So the kitchen has not been the kitchen of the house for that long, relatively speaking, and certainly before we moved in, the house hadn't had small children living in it for some time. With 2 big dressers at either end, an enormous and impressive French range cooker (can one admit to wanting to buy a house solely for the cooker that is currently in it?) and a big 'breakfast bar' which provided worktop and pan storage down the centre of it, dividing the space between the cooker and the sink, it was not a family friendly kitchen. The room is not all that big, and all this big furniture reduced the space quite dramatically. Chuck in 2 small windows, some dingy yellow paint and navy blue tiling, and you can imagine it was quite dark and dingy.

We immediately got rid of the breakfast bar (Ebay is a marvellous thing), and installed the 'family' table. The beautiful range cooker eventually had to go too - beautiful and French it may have been but trying to get parts for it as it started to breakdown was a nightmare. We put in a roof light to increase the natural light and a few years ago we put proper units in and moved where the cooker was (installing a newer and less complicated range cooker which I do love for all that it's not French and steel) to give a long run of worktop, perfect for me to make as much mess as I want (when it's not cluttered up with the kids' detritus).

We kept one of the dressers, painted the walls light blue, and I finally got to install a set of tiles that I was given for my 21st birthday and have been carrying round waiting for the 'forever' house.

I love the kitchen, but at the risk of making the Husband hold his head in his hands with despair, if money had been no object, here's what I would have loved to have done:

I would have extended over where is now the decking, filling in the space at the back of the house. It may not even be architecturally possible, given the pecularities of how the exisiting house is built, but I don't let things like that get in the way of a good kitchen fantasy. There would be sliding glass doors which would open up the entire extended back of the house to the garden in the event of sunshine. The roof might even be insulated glass using something sourced probably from Germany, or even Denmark involving a perilous cross-Europe delivery and much teeth sucking to install (yes, I love Grand Designs...)

I would keep long worktop where it now is, and reinstate an 'island' unit to delineate the end of the 'kitchen' area. There would be loads of storage and more glorious worktop. Beyond the island unit there would be an area for the table. Given the layout of other areas of the back of the house, the table would stretch across the back of the house, an old refectory style, possibly with benches to sit on. There would be a cosy seating area with a wood burner at the end.

Back to the kitchen though. So yes, there's worktop. Acres of it. I love the wooden worktops we have now (the Husband hates them) but some cool granite would be high on my list if we changed things - easy to keep clean and perfect for pastry, although after my River Cottage bread course, I'd need some wood somewhere for bread kneading - it's better on wood, apparently! I'd also make sure I got back the 'triangle' between sink, fridge and cooking area. We have it now, the holy triangle, except the table sits in the middle of it so when the Husband and I are both in there, we end up chasing each other round it trying not to get in each other's way.

Would I swap my range cooker? I still struggle with this. I don't know. We currently have 5 gas rings and 2 electric ovens, and they are great - even if the non-fan oven is now called 'the Christmas oven'. I wonder about induction hobs - I haven't come across them much, but they are very impressive. And what hardship to have to choose a whole new set of pans too? I quite fancy the idea of a hob in the island unit - but induction or not, it would need to have at least 5 rings. One thing we would defintiely include would be a cooker hood. At the moment, in time of toast burning, and over-zealous grilling/griddling, we run around closing the kitchen door to prevent smoke getting to the smoke alarm in the hall, and open the roof light, then sit surrounded by acrid fumes waiting for the breeze to do its job. Given the nature of old houses, when I'm boiling something for a long time in the winter, we get a huge amount of condensation. A cooker hood to extract steam and fumes would be wonderful.

Beyond that, well, I haven't thought much - this is a fantasy you know. I'd keep a 'rustic' look - despite my desire for state of the art glass doors, I couldn't go completely modern with the look of the room, and the dresser would definitely have a home somewhere. It would be cool in the summer, warm and cosy in the winter, and I'd definitely keep my hanging pan rack - although with all the storage around instead of having the pans hanging from it, perhaps it could hang some hops, and some more strings of chillies instead. That and a trophy copper milk pan. Most definitely!!

And you - if money was no object, and wishes came free, what would you have in your dream kitchen?

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This is a sponsored post for electrolux

How to Make Braised Chicken at Home?

Braised chicken, the name that can make your mouth water and this is the prime reason why you attend cooking classes and watch cookery shows on TV. Just for making this delicious dish at home. You don't need to dream about having your favorite dish which you have made at home. With some basic cookery skills and a little bit of persistence, you can make the same magic recipe in your kitchen, in your own oven. Here is the recipe for one of the best braised meal dishes you have ever eaten. All you have to do is to follow it and make it when you have guests visiting whom you have to impress or when cooking for someone special. The ingredients are simple and basic. Get into a cooking mood and make this very easy to make braised chicken which is just heavenly.

The Ingredients for your braised chicken

A whole one of about 2 poundsFor the marinadeFour cloves of garlic, crushed2 tablespoons of butterMixed herbs - thyme, oregano and rosemaryA lemonFor the sauce:Red Currant jam - 1 tbspCorn flour - 1 tbspGround black pepper, to tasteSalt, to tasteWorcestershire sauce - ½ tsp

Preparing braised chicken

Take half of the garlic cloves and rub them over it to marinate it. Mash the balance garlic with the butter, the black pepper powder and the herbs. Spread this marinade throughout the chicken. Slice the lemon into four pieces and place it inside the chicken cavity. You need to make sure that the oven is preheated to about 400 degrees F. Arrange the chicken in a roasting bag inside a roasting tin and let the braising process least for two hours. The chicken will be roasted to perfection when the meat is cooked thoroughly and the juice is clear when you pierce the chicken with a knife. Now remove the already braised one from the roasting bag without removing the juices.

The gravy

Pour the juices from the chicken into a pan, add in the redcurrant jam. Mix corn flour and cold water to make a smooth paste, add it to the gravy, stirring continuously, and bring it to a boil, now add the Worcestershire sauce and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Let the gravy bubble for 2 - 3 minutes till it becomes thick. The gravy is ready.

Presenting the braised chicken

You can serve it with potatoes, carrots, beans and peas. Then carve it, pour a generous amount of gravy on top and serve with butter sauteed veggies like boiled peas, carrots and beans. You can add the potatoes to the roasting tin at the same time with the chicken to save time. You can, however, boil the potatoes first. The beans, peas and carrots can also be boiled to remove any raw taste.

This great recipe is very easy to make, and a genuine treat for your children. Be known in your circle for your truly fantastic braised chicken recipe, a really good recipe for Sunday brunch and family reunions.

If you want to learn more about braised chicken(or also called langtidsstegt kylling by the Danish) preparations and recipes, then I can recommend you to check out this site for the professional ones that you need.

The Best Recipes For Stir Fry

Here is a very popular and favorite recipe for stir fry that your family will love and enjoy. The spring vegetables and chicken breast strips stir fried with fresh ginger, the lime juice and a touch of soy sauce for a quick weeknight dinner. At home, we always enjoy making stir fries for dinner, the art of cooking veggies and protein in a wok and having dinner ready in just few minutes.

Many of us just use whatever vegetables we have on hand, a great way to clean up our refrigerators. You can just serve it over white cooked rice, quinoa, noodles or whatever. We always love the crunch of the sugar snap peas with the chicken, best crunching them raw while you are cooking.

As a super quick procedure, you can start first by using perhaps the Jaden's rice bran oil which is made from the outer layer of the rice kernel where all of the nutrients are found, which is very high in antioxidants and is perfectly suited for high heat wok cooking. But you can also use another type of oil that has a high smoke point such as sesame oil, canola or grape seed oil. This is below 200 calories, weight conscious people, this is gluten free, and low on carbohydrates, very clean that can be easily adapted for Paleo Diets.

As a Paleo note: For people you who are on a Paleo diet, you can substitute the cornstarch with arrowroot, and the rice oil with coconut oil, lastly the soy sauce with coconut liquid aminos. Here is the recipe for the SPRING STIR FRIED CHICKEN WITH SUGAR SNAP PEAS AND CARROTS. The original recipe serves 4 persons.

INGREDIENTS:

For the sauce:

1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce (or Braggs Liquid Aminos or Tamari for GF)

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

2 tablespoon water

1 teaspoon cornstarch

FOR THE STIR FRY:

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, already sliced thin into strips

Salt to taste only

1 tablespoon rice bran oil, or canola

1 teaspoon fresh gingerroot, peeled and minced and sliced

2 teaspoon garlic, peeled and minced and chopped

1 cup sugar snap peas

1 cup of carrots, peeled and sliced into strips diagonally

Scallions to garnish

THE PROCEDURE:

In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, the water, the lime juice, and the cornstarch. Stir them until they are smooth and the cornstarch is fully dissolved and set it aside.

Then season your chicken breast strips with salt.

Heat a large skillet or a wok over high heat. Wait until the wok is very hot, then add half of the oil and then add the chicken strips sizzling in your wok. Stir fry them occasionally until the chicken is cooked through and browned, for about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the chicken from the wok with a slotted spoon into a plate and set aside. Reduce the heat to medium now.

Add the remaining oil into the wok. Then add the garlic and the ginger, and stir for 20 seconds. Then you can now add the sugar snap peas and the carrots or any other veggies that you may wish to add, and stir over medium high heat, until they are crisp-tender, for 3 to 4 minutes.

Return the chicken to the wok, and add the soy sauce-lime juice mixture. Mix them well and cook for 30 seconds to perhaps 1 minute. Serve immediately while they are hot.

Enjoy this recipe for stir fry at home and please continue cooking.

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Barley Salad with A Cumin Vinaigrette

I love barley. It is a very versatlie yet underutilized grain in my opinion. You can make barley soup, barley risotto, barley "oatmeal" for breakfast, barley water ect... This barley salad is a really nice summery dish that will make you feel good about yourself. Barley is high in fiber and can help lower cholesterol. Cumin is a great earthy spice that also has many health benefits such as aiding in digestion and boosting your immune system. Needless to say this is a healthy and bright dish to add to your summer recipe box! Experiment with different vegetables and ingredients such as feta cheese.

Ingredients:

For the salad:

3 1/2 cups of cooked pearl barley (about 1 cup of uncooked pearl barley; cook according to the package's directions)

1 15 oz can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1/3 cup of celery, minced

1/3 cup of onion, minced

vinaigrette (recipe below)

Mix all of these ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Taste and adjust the seasonings. This salad is best when served cold or at room temperature.

For the vinaigrette:

the zest of one lemon

1/4 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/3-1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil

3 tbs. fresh parsley, minced

3/4 tsp. ground cumin

cayenne pepper (to taste)

sea salt

freshly cracked black pepper

Whisk all of the ingredients together. Taste to adjust the seasonings. I like acidic dressings but feel free to add more oil.

Happy Eatings!

The Tefal OptiGrill - a review and a perfect steak dinner

In my role as a member of the Tefal Innovation Panel (check out my badge) I have been provided with a Tefal OptiGrill to try out.

This innovation was introduced to the panel at an event in London in early July. It's new to the market, and has proved very popular. Indeed, on paper and in demo, this is a very impressive product. It's a grill with 6 programmes depending on what you want to cook - meat, fish, chicken, bacon, sausages and a manual option for toasted sandwiches etc. At the demo day, there were some tasty looking vegetable kebabs knocking around. By measuring how thick the meat or fish you are cooking, using 'sensor technology', the OptiGrill can then make sure that your food is cooked for the correct amount of time- including differentiating between rare, medium and well done for your steak. Even more helpfully, the device then communicates this to you using an LED which changes colour, and a beep to tell you as the cooking is entering the next phase, or when it is done.

So there's the blurb. What actually happened when the Tefal Optigrill arrived chez Recipe Junkie?

Well, after unpacking and feeling quite excited, I texted the Husband - "Steak for dinner tonight!" - and hot (very hot, actually) footed it off to the butcher for some of his best ribeye steak. I had a quick debate with him about whether I should actually introduce the kids to the joy that is a beautiful steak, and in the end we compromised. He cut me 2 big juicy steaks for the Husband and I and 2 rather more modest ones for the kids. I came over all faint at the cost (or may be it was just the heat), but I've had his steak before and it is G-O-O-D. And it hadn't escaped my notice that in the literature that accompanies the OptiGrill, it does mention, casually, that "the results will vary depending on the quality, type and cut" when grilling meat. I felt it was only right to give the OptiGrill the best shot by making sure I bought good meat.

There is absolutely no denying that the steak we had was wonderful. I had washed the grill plates before first use, as instructed, and given them an optional wipe over with some olive oil. I fed the kids first as they wanted to go to the pool, and I will say that on the first go, I struggled with the lights and the beeping. I think I also didn't press the correct buttons because the indicator LED didn't do the thing it was supposed to do and by the time I'd worked this out, the kids' steak was definitely well done. Not disastrously so, but enough to make me worry. This may well have been due to the thinness of the steaks, and you'll be pleased to know that despite this, the meat was still tender (despite being cooked more than I had intended) and the kids absolutely loved it.

When the time came for the Husband and I to eat, I was a bit more prepared. I had already podded the peas and broadbeans while sorting out the kids' tea (probably why I got distracted), so I could concentrate on my LED and the beeps. The Husband came in while the OptiGrill was pre-heating

"Good grief! It looks like BattleStar Gallactica"

"That's the LED"

This time, it all worked. Once I put the meat in and lowered the lid, the LED did its thing and started changing colour. Pink tried to have a disco in the kitchen with it, but it was too hot to keep on dancing. She has high hopes for her next birthday party, though...

I got a little confused with the beeping, and had a moment of "When do I take it out again?" angst, but I whipped it out while the LED was on yellow (for rare), and had enough time while the veg finished off for the steak to rest a while.

It was delicious. Melt in the mouth, and as promised by the LED, rare. So a combination of great meat and a good grill. I'll admit to being a little concerned about the prospect of leaving the grill to 'tell' me when the steak would be ready, rather than using my own tried and tested method, but the fear was unfounded.

So, perfect steak dinner for 2 aside, what do I think about the OptiGrill?

As the Husband pointed out, is it really so much easier than cooking it on the griddle I normally use? Well, no. I'm pretty confident cooking steak, and use the James Martin test (for rare steak, the meat will feel like the ball of your thumb when you hold the tip of your thumb and first finger together, getting progressivley more cooked as you use successive fingers).

On the other hand, it didn't set off the smoke alarm as I am liable to do using the griddle, which in turn had the added bonus that we didn't have to eat our steak in a kitchen full of smoke. Actually we ate outside last night, but if we had eaten inside, well, you know what I mean... (I don't burn the steak, you understand, but the griddle pan has been well -used and tends to smoke rather once it gets good and hot)

It's a pretty big bit of kit it has to be said, and I'm not quite sure where I will keep it. On the other hand, it will do toasted sarnies & paninis, coffee-shop style, which I am keen to try out. We don't have a toasted sandwich maker any more. The Husband threw it out because it was "Crap" (he doesn't mince his words). Well, may be it was, but I do like a toasted sandwich, so I'm excited to have the means to make them again.

On the demo day, the nice people from Tefal also showed us how it cooked salmon, and it really was incredibly well cooked, which is another bonus, as I find salmon trickier than steak to get right. The OptiGrill can also tell you when bacon is lightly cooked, well done or crispy - and although I haven't tried it out, I'm pretty keen on giving it a go because our bacon tastes differ across that spectrum and if the OptiGrill can make it easier, well that'll be a bonus.

As I have said, I got confused a bit by all the lights and beeping, but I'd done my usual trick of only reading half the instructions and believing that I had remembered everything from the demo. With a little more practice, I reckon I'll have the measure of it.

The grill plates detach very easily for cleaning, but they are quite hard to get fully dry with a tea towel due to the ridges. The instructions recommend paper towel, but I'm afraid I'm a tea towe girl through and through when it comes to drying up. The plates are supposed to be dishwasher safe, but I can't quite trust that. I'm sure non-stick technology has advanced significantly, but in my experience, stuff like this just dies if you clean it in a dishwasher. This has nothing to do with the product, just my own outdated prejudices. May be I'll give it a go.

So there you have it - the Tefal OptiGrill. First impressions are that it's a pretty good bit of kit, but it may well be more for someone less confident with grilling/griddling than I like to think I am. It's quite big, and would need to offer pretty good results to warrant a space in most people's kitchens, but I think that if you eat grilled food a lot, the OptiGrill does seem to offer those results.

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Disclaimer: I was provided with a TEFAL OptiGrill free of charge for the purposes of writing a review. I was not required to write a positive review.

Enjoy Great Recipes With Cheesy Tomato Paste And Pizza Sauce

Seems yummy? It is. Even the words like pizza sauce and tomato paste are mouth-watering. If you are a food buff and love to try out different recipes using different ingredients, this stuff is simply outstanding to add up to the taste.

Well, pizza sauce is a common garnishing ingredient for pizzerias. Whether you're making pizza at home or baking the frozen one, few sprinkles of pizza sauce will suffice to add up to flavor.

These are available readymade though, you can also try it at home. For people looking forward to cut costs, it is rather better option to make instant pizza sauce.

Homemade Pizza Sauce with Tomato Paste

The sauce can be made from myriad of tomato products from canned tomatoes to crushed tomatoes to fresh tomatoes. You can resort to the easiest one and save yourself the fuss, simple use tomato paste.

You can easily find the paste in the market in small cans. It costs very low and tastes very bold which, I feel, is some of the virtues. To turn the paste into pizza sauce, add dried herbs like parsley, rosemary, oregano etc. Parsley is the perfect to start though. Now, add crushed pepper flakes, garlic flakes and salt. You can also add a pinch of sugar, depending on your taste.

The next step is, to add liquids. There are many options to choose from:

White wine vinegar - adds tart and crisp flavorOlive oil- adds sheen to the sauceBalsamic vinegar- for a bold flavorWater - doesn't add any flavor but gives you the consistency you desire.

In usual 1/4 to 1 cup addition of liquid will give you the desired consistency. If you want it to spread easily, adding more of olive oil will be helpful. Once you are done with this, add spices to adjust to the liquid levels. Add more salt and pepper and taste. With this, your instant pizza sauce is ready to use. You can use right away or keep it in refrigerator for a couple of hours so that the taste develops further. The choice is yours!

You can try it out and share your experiences with friends and family. One thing is sure though, making the sauce at home is very simple with no extra efforts required. Try it out and add flavor to your dishes.

In fact, tomato paste is a multipurpose agent. Adding just basic ingredients, you can make it fit to be added to different cuisines including Greek, Thai and of course, Italian. Store simple tomato paste and add different spices as and when required. All the best for your cooking experiments!

Pets, Vets & Unexpected cherries

So I know I shouldn't let him, but the dog really loves running through the wheat. And he seems to merely pass through it rather than crashing it all down. The only evidence he is there is a ripple passing over the top as he choffles through at speed, nose down hot on the scent - any scent. The problem with stopping him will be forgoing the look of utter joy that is a springer spaniel 'wheat sharking'. But there we go. I know I shouldn't be letting him do it.

My internal tussle came to a head yesterday after I spent time I didn't have and £50 (ditto) at the vets having a rather viscious spike of grass removed from the dog's ear, so this morning, we avoided the wheat and headed up to a gorgeous little plantation of trees that sits up on the Downs to the north of the village.

Well, it's beautiful up there, shady, cool, green. I go up there in all seasons and it's wonderful at any time, but seemed particularly lush this morning, not least because I stumbled upon cherries. Now, I know that there are cherry trees up there - crab apples too - but usually I see them in the early stages of fruiting, and then they are all gone - the birds have them. I reckon the birds must have sunstroke this year, because there were hundreds - ripe and luscious. Far too good to pass up.

I might not have had a conventional picking receptacle, but being the good, responsible dog owner that I am, I had dog poo bags (unused), and while the dog took advantage of the shade, I picked. I only stopped because I thought I'd better save one bag, you know, just in case...

So 1.5 kilos later, and I am a happy Recipe Junkie. My head is reeling with the thrill of the forage, and the prospect of what I might make with my pickings - and of course, I will need to go back and try and get some more later on.

I'm thinking jam, clafoutis, cherry bakewells, cherry vodka - so much choice...

What should I make?