Pork Kebabs

Posted on by lotsofbutter

Hello guys!

It’s been a bit hectic at work – my full time job as a customer relations advisor at Kurt Geiger – and busy weekends chilling out with my best bitches.

We’ve thrown out our old BBQ, so until we replace it with a new one, I got to use the grill for my BBQ style recipes.

This weekend I got some nice camera lied red onion pork sausages from lovely Waitrose – you see I only shop at Waitrose at the beginning of the month.. When my bank account is still popping with sssshmoney. And of course my obsession for courgette salad will never die, so I have made a nice fresh courgette and feta cheese salad to go with my pork sausages kebab!

 
For the pork sausage kebabs, I’ve cut the sausage into pieces.. 3 chunks of cut sausage per stick! So if you get a pack of 6 sausages, you can make 6 kebab sticks, that could be a nice meal for two people! One whole red onion cut into chunks and one red pepper cut into pieces – I wanted to use vegetable that would bring some life to the dish.. The bad thing about being on Atkins, the color of the food can be a bit boring!

I’ve put the kebabs in the grill until the meat was cooked.. I like when the vegetables still have a bit of crunch. While this is cooking, I’m using my baby Benriner (vegetable spiralizer) and cutting the courgettes in long thin strands. I’ve seasoned it with salt, black truffle olive oil and garlic.

 

You can use any meat for the kebabs, if you have left over burger meat from BBQ or other vegetables you can also use that too! Good thing about my recipes, it’s to YOUR taste. I’m here to guide you and give you ideas!

Please try them at home and let me know how it goes!

Much love, Ana xx

Ribeye and Courgette Salad

Posted on by lotsofbutter

 

Day before payday… I decided to treat myself for some steak.. Ribeye steak hmmm! Good thing about living in my area is the millions of butchers.

My favorite of the area is Baldwins Butcher!

I could seriously eat this dish everyday! I love this courgette salad that goes with it!
I bought an amazing tool for peeling vegetables! I got the Benriner and if I could use it in all vegetables I would, I mean I am a real pasta/noodle fan, so anything in pasta or noodle shape will do for me. This little tool is so easy to use and clean.. I definitely recommend it.

For the courgette salad, I used chilli powder, fresh garlic, truffle salt, ground black pepper and a big splash of toasted sesame oil! This automatically gives more of an Asian taste to the salad.

For the steak, I usually have mine medium rare or rare – This will usually depend on if I forget the steak in the pan and I’m doing something else.. like chatting away with my housemates!

I hope you get the chance to try the salad at least!

  Ana x

Lemon Sole and Salmon Ceviche

Posted on by lotsofbutter

 

It’s paaaaayday! I always got a good excuse to buy fish.

Last night I’ve decided to treat myself for some Ceviche with rice vermicelli! It’s super delicious and it’s a great summer dish! I bought a whole side of salmon to do Gravlax (expect the recipe this weekend!) and I’ve cut off the side and tail for this ceviche recipe. I also used one whole lemon sole – big mistake of you don’t have the skills to remove the skin off ha like me! I spent way too much time butchering the fish – luckily I need the fish in small slices so it didn’t matter – but I’d advise you all to use sea bass or any non flat fish!

I’ve took the skin off both salmon and lemon sole and cut them up in thin slices. Put it all in a bowl with the juices of 3 or 4 lines, and some chopped up red chilies – I used 2 because I love it! Add chopped up coriander, half of a red onion, a whole red pepper, add a bunch of salt and black pepper. Mix everything up and put it in the fridge for at least 30min. The juices of the line and the chili will cure the fish and that way you’re not eating raw fish – if you are able to get fresh fish and like raw fish, you can cure it for a little at 5min/10min.

When the fish is almost ready, cook your rice vermicelli, make sure you don’t overcook it – nobody likes mushy vermicelli. Drain the water off and add some sesame oil to the vermicelli. I like it with quite a lot, it helps the vermicelli not stick together.

I’ve served mine with some fresh, ripe and ready to eat avocado!

 
No surprise that I had two servings!
Ana x

Eggs and Ham

Posted on by lotsofbutter

About two years ago I applied to go on “First Dates” – and they called be for an audition last October.

They asked me about the things I am passionate about, and I said cooking and food. (Obvi.. Food inever cheats on you… Now your bathroom scales.. You can’t trust that creep!)

They asked me how I would relate love and food. I said “Eggs! Eggs are the perfect methaphor.. They are hard enough if you leave them alone but you need to handle it with care because they are still fragile! Some people like poached, others prefer scrambled.. You just need to find someone that likes poached eggs like you do and if they don’t, they better be willing to compromise, otherwise you’re wasting your eggs!”

Anyway, I do love eggs, and it’s a easy go to food.. I always have eggs in my kitchen!

 
I call this Egg nest with Parma ham! This recipe takes literally no more than 10minutes (if you have an electrical whisk!)

I’ve seperated the yolk to the whites (see.. You can save the yolk for the Bag’hole recipe!) and beat the whites until peak.

Add some Parmesan cheese (I’m going to say to your taste.. There’s never enough cheese in the world for me!), and some black pepper. You spoon the mixture to some parchment paper and shape it as you wish. I rolled some Parma ham and put it in the centre of the mixture. You can cut up the Parma ham or use fried bacon/pancetta and sprinkle on top instead of you want.

Make sure the oven is preheated on a high temperature and put the egg nest in the oven to bake for about 7/8 min – please keep an eye on it, the outside should be brown and they should have risen a bit when it’s done.

 
I’ve served mine with some rocket salad, but I’m sure you can get a piece of buttered toast and it would be equally delicious.

Have a great hump day!

Ana x

Roasted Salmon with Crab Mayonnaise

Posted on by lotsofbutter

After teaching Matt how to make raviolis, I’ve decided to treat him for a nice main for all his hard work.

Below we have a roast fillet of salmon served with crab mayonnaise and grilled fennel.

Is this recipe mine? No.. I’ve seen the original one on Masterchef Ireland. Obviously the original dish contain more fancy ingredients like purlane and samphire and unfortunately my local sainsburys cannot provide that. They also use fresh crab for the crab mayonnaise, but I’ve got 2 tinned crab meats for £5.70.

I started by cutting the fennel in halves and frying them in butter until they softened. I then transferred them to the grill.

I pan fried the fillets of salmon skin side down with a oven proof pan with butter in high heat for about 3 min then transferred to the over on a very low heat – I’m sorry I don’t really know oven temperatures or times, I usually know when the food is done by looking or touching the food.


For the crab mayo, I drained two tins of crab meat and mixed it with your normal Heinz mayonnaise – I would usually take the time to follow the recipe and make my own mayonnaise, but since I was teaching someone who doesn’t really cook much, I tried to keep it simple and easy.

For the sauce, I used knorr fish stock pot and mixed a little bit of mayonnaise again. The stock on the original MasterChef recipe is made with fresh velvet crab but again, that isn’t something I can easily get in London – or cheap unfortunately.

I layed the 3 halves of roasted fennel on the plate and carefully spooned the sauce around, put the piece of salmon and two spoonfuls of crab mayonnaise  on top of the fennel and decorated it with a piece of terragon for some colour.

I hope you guys take the time to try this at home because it’s easy and delicious!

Ana x