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Christmas party – menu

January 5, 2013 by potatoface

I said recipes were coming soon, but who truly can define ‘soon’.

In other words I was just being lazy, doing what you should over Christmas – do nothing, eat, drink, and be merry…

But here it comes, christmas party menu:

Beetroot soup with mushroom parcels

For the beetroot soup you need:

2-3 beetroots (fresh)

1 carrot

1 parsnip

1 onion

3 pints of water

salt

pepper

dried marjoram

oregano

lemon juice from 1 lemon

1 spoon of olive oil

1. Boil water in a pan. Add olive oil.

2. Peel all the vegetables , cut them into big chunks (onion in half) and add to boiling water.

3. Add salt and pepper.

4. After few minutes add lemon juice. Boil for 15-20 minutes, taste and add more seasoning or lemon juice if you need to.

5. You can take all the vegetables out of your pot (we need clear beetroot soup) and add herbs and a dash of an olive oil.

I’m not going to lie, you can make yourself mushroom parcels (like tortellinis with porchini mushrooms). My sister does. But I bought them frozen from a Polish shop (one can only do a few things at a time).

mushroom parcels

beetroot soup with mushroom parcels

Next thing on the menu were Beet and Goat Cheese Terrine with Rocket and Roasted Butternut Squash Salad

beetroot and goat cheese terrine

beetroot and goat cheese terrine

You can find the recipe in ‘Fresh’ by Anna Olson

I served it with Rocket and Roasted Butternut Squash Salad, Ina Garten aka Barefoot Contessa’s recipe:

You can find it in her book ‘Back to Basics’

or on the Food Network website here.

For the main we had Spanakopita (Spinach and Feta in Filo Pastry). I tried different variations of this Greek dish but my favourite recipe which I used over and over again is Jamie Oliver’s from his ’30 Minute Meals’ book

There were two deserts. One of them was mince pies in filo pastry, dead easy. You need to cut filo pastry into squares, brush with melted butter and arrange in a muffin tin. If you feel artistic and have time arrange them with corners making a star. Fill them with vegetarian good mince meat, zest of lemon and fresh cranberries, bake till golden and sprinkle with icing sugar and maybe little sugar snowflakes…?

mince pies in filo pastry

And there were also Gingerbread Cupcakes.

Christmas gingerbread cupcakes

Christmas gingerbread cupcakes

And the recipe you can also find on the Food Network website here.

Category dessert, dinner, Party, soup, starter | Tags: baking powder,butter,butternut squash,cheese,christmas,cinnamon,cupcakes,eggs,feta cheese,flour,garlic,herbs,lemon,mince pies,mushrooms,nutmeg,olive oil,pepper,pine nuts,rocket,salad,salt,spinach,wine | No Comments
French themed party

August 15, 2012 by potatoface

To achieve a successful French theme party you need:

1. to befriend a French person, preferably with a family (so you can have a French person times three = more legitimate French party)

2. miniature Eiffel Tower,

3. A la French menu,

4. lots of wine,

5. no nonsense taking attitude,

6. lots and lots of wine and cheese,

7. stamina…

8.selection of French music.

Now, it’s definitely not a good idea to start with a little session called ‘two Cosmopolitans drinking two cosmopolitans’…which is me and my ex flatmate (Kamil, mentioned before in this blog) downing two cosmos before the French arrived. Three words of warning – next day hangover.

And try not to delete half of the photographs you had taken (!)

Anyway, setting the table for the French themed party in my case was more like fishing from a basket of clichés. Baguette here, Eiffel tower there, and voila! Sorted.

French theme party

french theme party

french theme party

For dinner I made green bean and goat cheese tart. The inspiration came from Anna Olson’s book ‘Fresh with Anna Olson’, I just turned it into a vegetarian dish.

Green bean and goat cheese tart

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

1 1/2 cups of flour

120 grams of unsalted butter

1/2 cup of grated parmesan

2-3 tablespoons of cold water

Filling:

200-300 grams of green beans, trimmed and blanched

2 eggs

3/4 cup of sour cream

black pepper

pinch of salt

herbes de provence

120 grams of goat cheese

1. For the pastry pulse the flour and butter in a food processor until crumbly (you can do it by hand, just try to be quick so the butter stays cold)

2. Add parmesan and water and pulse again. Turn the dough out, shape into a disk, wrap in a cling foil and chill for 30 minutes in the fridge.

3. Preheat the oven to 190 C. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a circle. Line the tart shell with the dough, trim the edges. Chill for another 30 minutes (trust me, it’s worth it).

4. Stab with a fork a few times (helps letting the air out while baking) and bake till it starts getting golden. Let it cool.

5. Reduce the temperature to 160C. Arrange the green beans, sprinkle herbes de provance.

6. In a small bowl whisk the eggs, sour cream, salt and pepper. Pour this over the tart filling and crumble goat cheese over the top.

7. Bake till the eggs are set. (Don’t engage into a long conversation if you don’t want to burn your tart)

8. Let it cool a bit before slicing.

green bean and goat cheese tart

I served it with a salad made of rocket and watermelon with lemon and olive oil dressing and shaved parmesan on top.

There was also plenty of wine, cheese, baguette, etc.

Dessert is a different story. I decided not to make a cake but biscuits. There were two : normal shortbread filled with raspberry jam and hazelnut shortbread filled with nutella. Yum!

Vive la France!

shortbread biscuits

shortbread biscuits

Category dessert, dinner, French theme party, Party, tart, Uncategorized | Tags: butter,cheese,cream,eggs,flour,goat cheese,green beans,herbs,parmesan,salt,wine,yummy | No Comments
Mac and cheese

March 6, 2012 by potatoface

mac&cheese

When it’s cold and gloomy outside, you might be craving comfort food. I would’ve never thought of having macaroni cheese, but few days of cold weather and early mornings at work and there I was. Comforting myself with children food.

macaroni cheese

Macaroni cheese

2 -3 cups of pasta (small)

2 knobs of butter

milk (about half a cup)

3-4 spoons of flour

nutmeg

pinch of salt

100 grams of vegetarian cheddar

100 grams of vegetarian parmesan

mozzarella

breadcrumbs

1. Boil water for pasta.

2. When your pasta is cooking, make your sauce (like bechamel) – melt butter in a pan, add flour and mix carefully on the low heat, then pour milk gradually, whisking. Try not to leave any lumps. Add pinch of salt and as much nutmeg as you like (spoon or two for my liking).

3. Drain pasta and grate parmesan and cheddar. Mix cheese, sauce and pasta (if you feel cordon bleu, add any veg you fancy or fresh herbs or go crazy and add some nuts). Add chunks of mozzarella to it.

4. Butter ovenproof dish, sprinkle some breadcrumbs and transfer your macaroni mixture into it. sprinkle more cheese on top and more breadcrums.

5.Bake in the oven until golden.

Category dinner, lunch | Tags: breadcrumbs,butter,cheddar,cheese,flour,milk,mozzarella,nutmeg,parmesan,pasta,salt | No Comments
brussel sprouts quiche

December 21, 2011 by potatoface

I don’t understand people who make fun of brussel sprouts.

Anyway, if you want to try something christmassy but different, here’s the recipe for a nice quiche.

The one on the picture has got the base made of wholemeal flour. Not that it’s relavant.

brussel sprouts quiche

Brussel sprouts quiche

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

1 glass of flour

1/2 pack of butter

few spoons of cold water

pinch of salt

for the filling:

300-400 grams of brussel sprouts

100 ml of sour or soya cream

1-2 spoons of nutmeg

pinch of salt

2 eggs

200 grams of hard cheese (any type you like)

fresh or dried herbs (oregano, basil, thyme, parsley)

1.For the pastry go to the recipe for spinach and cherry tomato quiche and make it exactly the same way.

2. Pre-bake the base, in the meantime boil brussel sprouts in a lightly salted water (obviously you have to first cut off the stems, but not so much that the leaves fall. Cut a small X into the base of each sprout to allow the core to cook thoroughly) for about 5-6 minutes. Drain.

3. Arrange sprouts on pre-baked base. Mix eggs with cream, herbs and nutmeg. Sprinkle grated cheese on the sprouts, then pour cream and egg mixture over and sprinkle some more cheese.

4. Bake in 160 C till it’s golden and done.

Category dinner, lunch | Tags: brussel sprouts,butter,cheese,christmassy,cream,eggs,flour,herbs,nutmeg,salt,wholemeal flour | No Comments
easy vegetarian shepherd’s pie

December 17, 2011 by potatoface

I haven’t been here for a while. It was because I was down. And when I’m down I get stressed and worried that my family genes I hoped I didn’t have in me are actually saying hello.

Luckily it a was false alarm this time.

Even when I’m down, I’m still cooking. And what’s better on a cold day than comfort food – nice, hot shepherd’s pie.

I make a variation of this recipe with mung beans instead of quorn mince meat.

Vegetarian shepherd’s pie

Ingredients:

Quorn vegetarian mince meat

tin of chopped tomatoes

2 diced carrots

3 spoons of olive oil

3 shallots

tin of green peas (or 100grams of fresh ones)

vegetable stock cube

spoon of basil (fresh or dried)

freshly ground pepper

4-5 potatoes

knob of butter

3-5 spoons of milk

pinch of nutmeg

150 grams of grated cheddar

1. Chop shallots. Warm olive oil in a pan and fry shallots on the low heat.

2. When the shallots start getting golden (but not brown) add quorn mince meat and chopped tomatoes and carrots. Stir, cover and leave it to simmer.

3. In the meantime boil potatoes in salty water.

4. Add vegetable cubes to your meat free mince and season with pepper. I don’t use salt, but if you feel like adding some, suit yourself.

5. When your mince sauce starts to thicken, add herbs and peas (if they are fresh, you have to add them earlier).

5. Drain your potatoes and mash them with butter, milk and nutmeg.

6. In an ovenproof dish layer mince sauce. On top spread the potato mash, sprinkle with cheese and bake in the oven ( 180 C) till top starts getting golden.

Enjoy!

Category dinner | Tags: basil,butter,carrots,cheese,green peas,milk,nutmeg,olive oil,pepper,potatoes,quorn mince meat,shallots | No Comments
Stuffed peppers

September 10, 2011 by potatoface

stuffed peppers

Apparently stuffed peppers have got less calories than a tic-tac. I don’t know if it’s true but I love them. They are tasty. And it’s always better to stuff peppers then get stuffed.

So whenever you feel like stuffing your face or simply kicking the stuffing out of someone, stuff peppers instead. Let the force be with you…

stuffed peppers

Stuffed peppers

Ingredients

3 peppers

brown rice (half a cup)

100 grams of mushrooms

1 courgette

100 grams of green peas (fresh or from a tin)

herbes de provence (or fresh basil, oregano and thyme)

salt and pepper

olive oil

100 – 150 grams of cheddar cheese

1. Cook rice.

2. Chop mushrooms, fry them in olive oil. Add chopped courgette, add herbs, salt and pepper. Add fresh green peas, if you are using tinned peas, wait till courgettes are soft.

3. Halve the peppers. Mix vegetables with rice and stuff the peppers. Grate cheese and sprinkle it on top of the peppers.

4. Bake in the oven (180 C) till peppers are soft and the cheese has melted.

5. Serve with salad and roasted potatoes.

Category dinner, lunch, starter | Tags: brown rice,cheese,courgettes,grean peas,herbes de provence,mushrooms,olive oil,pepper,peppers,salt,yummy | No Comments
wholemeal pancakes with spinach – no nonsense food

August 8, 2011 by potatoface

wholemeal pancakes with spinach - no nonsense food

There is no story behind pancakes with spinach. I like spinach, I like pancakes, that’s why I have combined the two together. Cheese is nice as well. And that’s basically it. They taste good though, everyone should try them…

Wholemeal pancakes with spinach and cheese

Ingredients for pancakes:

1 glass of wholemeal flour

1/2 glass of soya milk (doesn’t have to be soya if you don’t have it)

2 spoons of olive oil

2 eggs

1/2 glass of water if the batter is too thick

Ingredients for stuffing:

spinach

200 grams of cheddar cheese

2 spoons of olive oil

salt and pepper

1. Mix all ingredients for pancakes, if the mixture seems to thick, add some water.

2. Heat the frying pan. It has to be really hot. Then when the pan is hot and your batter smooth and creamy, using the ladle pour some onto the pan, tilt the pan in a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly, leave until it sets, flip it and put it onto a plate on the side.

3. To prepare spinach, heat olive oil in a pan, saute spinach (you need to do it on a low heat, add spinach gradually and cover).

4. Add salt and pepper.

5. When the spinach is done, spread some butter in an ovenproof dish (you can use a separate dish for each person), grate cheese, spread some spinach in the middle of the pancake, on top of the spinach sprinkle cheese, roll the pancake, put it into an ovenproof dish.

6. When your ovenproof dish is full of rolled pancakes, sprinkle more cheese on top of them.

7. Leave them in the hot oven (180C) till cheese melts properly.

Enjoy!

Category dinner, lunch, starter | Tags: cheese,eggs,flour,milk,olive oil,pepper,salt,spinach | No Comments
Spinach and cherry tomatoes quiche – a dinner party winner

July 31, 2011 by potatoface

spinach and cherry tomatoes quiche

When you invite people for dinner ( I don’t understand why you would want to do that but whatever), you don’t want everyone to enjoy themselves, drink at the table and gossip, while you are slaving in the kitchen. My best advise coming from experience is; prepare dessert in advance and for dinner serve quiche. It’s easy and simple, tastes nice, and when the guests arrive, you can stick it in the oven and enjoy nice conversation and an even nicer glass of wine. Another advantage is that even if you get tipsy during that process, your dessert is already made, so you are not going to mess it up. You can only burn a bit of your quiche, like what I did as you can clearly see on the picture…..

Spinach and cherry tomatoes quiche

For the pastry:

1 glass of flour

1/2 pack of butter

few spoons of cold water

pinch of salt

For the filling:

spinach (300 grams)

2-3 spoons of olive oil

cherry tomatoes

2 eggs

half a cup of soya cream (or ordinary single if you are pleased)

spoon of nutmeg

salt

any fresh herbs (basil, oregano, etc) but if you don’t have any, dried herbs de provence will do

200 grams of hard cheese (whichever you like, cheddar is absolutely fine)

breadcumbs

1. To make pastry sieve the flour, add a pinch of salt, cut room-temperature butter into cubes . Add it to the flour and using your hands mix it together until you have a breadcrumbs texture. Add cold water (just few spoons,enough to make firm dough) and using your hands mix everything until you form nice pastry, then leave in the fridge for half an hour.

2. Saute spinach in a pan with olive oil. Add nutmeg, a pinch of salt and herbs. Leave to cool for a bit.

3. Take the pastry out of the fridge, dust with more flour, roll it out on a floured surface. Butter flan dish, I usually sprinkle the dish with 2 spoons of breadcrumbs. Line the dish with pastry. I never use fancy baking beans, I just simply poke the pastry with a fork, leaving plenty of little holes.

4. Pre-bake pastry in an oven for about 20 minutes (temperature 150 C).

5. Take it out of the oven, sprinkle a spoon of breadcrumbs into the pastry, then some grated cheese. Spread spinach and add cherry tomatoes. Whisk eggs with cream and pour it into the pastry. Sprinkle more cheese on top.

6. Bake it in the oven till eggs set and cheese melts (30 -40 minutes, temperature about 170 C).

Serve with a salad and a smile.

Category dinner, lunch | Tags: cheese,cherry tomatoes,cream,eggs,herbs,nutmeg,olive oil,spinach | 2 Comments
creamy mushroom pasta – carbs are back

June 29, 2011 by potatoface

creamy mushroom pasta

Well, guess what I read recently…? Carbs are back. Apparently high-carb foods thank to ‘resistant starch’ are actually good and can even help you loose wait.

To celebrate the news everyone should have carbs. I’m going to have pasta. I love pasta. I have pasta almost every day. Luckily Boyfriend loves pasta too, otherwise we would have a tricky situation. The household could turn into scenes from the film ‘The War of the Roses’…

It’s not that I ever cared about carbs anyway. I eat what I like and have never been on a diet. As my ex flatmate told me – I’m not fat but I’m not exactly skinny either. Well, I told him he is not stupid but not exactly bright either though…My bitchiness burns off most of my calories intake.

Creamy mushroom pasta (quick recipe, it takes only 20 minutes)

Gnocchetti pasta

400 g of mushrooms (button or any you fancy)

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 tablespoons of cream cheese or pack of goat cheese

150 ml of cream (less if you are calorie conscious, you need some to melt cheese, but it’s up to you if you want it extra creamy. I think extra creamy is the best. You can replace it with soya cream, less calories, perfect for vegans)

parmesan

salt and freshly ground pepper

chopped parsley or chives

1. Boil water for pasta with a pinch of salt.

2. You can use any pasta you want but in my opinion gniocchetti tastes the best.

3. Chop or slice mushrooms.

4. Warm olive oil in a pot, add mushrooms. Cover and fry for a few minutes.

5. If the water for pasta is boiling, add your gnocchetti, stir, cover and leave for 4 minutes.

6. When your mushrooms start to get soft and the liquid evaporates a bit, add cream (and again, it can be double or single, I use anything I can find in the fridge) and then cream cheese or goats cheese, or both. Sometimes I add a splash of white wine for added flavour or if I’m left with an open bottle and have to get rid of it before it goes bad.

7. Lower the temperature and stir until cheese starts to melt.

8. Grate some parmesan and add to your cheesy sauce.

9. Pre-warm plates.

10. Drain your pasta ( you can leave some starchy water, pasta doesn’t have to be drained completely)

11. Add pasta to your sauce, add some salt and fresh pepper, mix carefully.

12. Serve with chopped parsley, chives or even basil. This one is perfect with white wine, yumm!

Category dinner, lunch | Tags: basil,cheese,chives,cream,cream cheese,gnocchetti,goat cheese,mushrooms,olive oil,parmesan,parsley,pasta | No Comments
vegetable omelette – breakfast has never been easier

June 11, 2011 by potatoface

In ‘Pulp Fiction’ there is a scene where the character played by Quentin Tarantino says that he doesn’t eat Big Kahuna Burgers ‘because my girlfriend is a vegetarian, so that pretty much makes me one too..’

And that’s pretty much Boyfriend’s life. To make up for it I’m sometimes using Quorn. Some of it is not too shabby, for example the bacon. Totally kosher as well.

Here’s a recipe for vegetable omelette. Basically you fry anything you find in the fridge with some eggs and top it up with cheese. Breakfast has never been easier…

(more…)

Category breakfast, lunch | Tags: butter,cheese,chives,easy,eggs,milk,mushrooms,omelette | No Comments