Category: Recipe Index

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Leftover Roasties Recipe

Roast potato with red onion, white onion and cayenne pepper

Save this for your Christmas leftovers!

Ingredients
1 tablespoon oil
1 red onion, peeled & sliced
1 white onion, peeled & sliced
3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon each of white pepper, cayenne pepper, curry powder, ground cumin, and turmeric (or go straight for a large tablespoon of spice bag mix!)
Generous pinch of salt
500g leftover roast potatoes (this also works with chips sshhhhh)
Fresh coriander to serve

Method
Get a large frying pan smoking hot before adding some oil.
Lash the onions into the frying pan and cook until softened and blackened on the edges (this adds to the flavour). Add a little salt here to speed up the process.
Add the garlic and then the spices, stir well so that the spices are activated by the heat.
Tumble in the leftover spuds. Toss well in the onion/spice mixture. Turn the heat on the pan down a little and stir the potatoes around.
Serve with plenty of fresh coriander once all the ingredients are piping hot. I like mine with chutney on the side.

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Legendary St Stephen’s Day Pie


Do you have one recipe that a family member adores and repeatedly requests? That’s the legendary pie that our 23-year-old begs me to make every year. In truth, it’s all about the leftovers from the main event but you could use fresh ingredients if you really wanted to.
You will need a very large baking dish or several medium sized dishes to make this in large quantities but it freezes very well.


Ingredients
• 400ml warm cooking stock (I use the ham water from the day before)
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 sticks of celery chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic chopped
• 80g flour
• Ham, cooked and chopped
• Turkey, cooked and chopped
• 200g frozen peas
• 200g frozen sweetcorn
• 2 packets defrosted pastry
• 1 egg for egg wash over the top
Method
Heat 3 tablespoons of pan juices in a saucepan on a medium heat. Add in the onions, celery and garlic. Cook gentley until tender.
Sprinkle the flour on top and with the vegetables. You are essentially making a type of roux sauce. Ladle in spoons of the hot cooking stock or hot water to the saucepan and stir constantly until you get a runny sauce-like texture. Stir in 1 tablespoon of wholegrain mustard (or more if you like mustard). There is no need to season this sauce because the seasoning comes from the salty stock made when the ham was boiled the day before.

Stir the meat and frozen vegetables into the sauce. Lay any leftover cooked vegetables into the bottom of the baking dish.

Spoon the sauce on top of the cooked vegetables. Cover the dish with a layer of pastry. Use a fork to poke holes on top and wash with a beaten egg for a glossy coating.

Cook in a fan oven heated to 180 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Serve with plenty of buttered mash.

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Blueberry Muffins



Top Tip! Roll your frozen fruit in some flour before adding to the batter to stop the fruit from falling to the bottom of the muffins/cake.

Bear in mind this is a muffin recipe so it’s not overly sweet like cake.

Ingredients
• 30g self raising flour
• 150g frozen blueberries
• 400g self raising flour
• 150g caster sugar
• 150g butter at room temperature (this is important)
• 3 medium eggs
• 75ml whole milk

Method

Preheat a fan oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Mix 150g of blueberries with 30g self raising flour. Set to one side to use later.

Mix together flour and sugar in a large bowl. Using your hands rub the butter into the flour and sugar mixture until you get a breadcrumb like texture.

Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture. Crack in 3 eggs and pour in 75ml of milk. Using a fork draw the batter together. No need for a stand mixer for this recipe!

Once you have a batter, stir in the coated blueberries.

Divide into muffin cases and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown on top and cooked through.

This is a great recipe to batchcook and freeze.

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Carrot Soup



Use whatever you have in the fridge to make a yummy wholesome soup for all the family!

Ingredients
• 1 tablespoon of cooking oil
• 2 onions, sliced
• 3 sticks of celergy chopped (hold onto the leafy bits for a garnish)
• 5 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 litre of veg stock (use a stock cube)
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

Cook off the onions in a little oil until softened. Add the celery and season well with salt and pepper. Cook again until the celery begins to soften. Add the rest of the vegetables. Pour the vegetable stock over and put a lid on the saucepan.

Bring the soup mixture to a simmer and cook until all the veggies are tender. Blitz using a stick blender or eat as it is.

Garnish with chopped celery stalks

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Smokey Fried Rice



Originally this recipe was meant to have chorizo but the kids snaffled it all out of the fridge for their lunchboxes.

Ingredients

• 200-300g of ham, chopped (but I’d rather chorizo!)
• 2 red onions, sliced
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 level teaspoon chipotle chilli flakes
• Lots of chopped garlic (who am I to tell you know much)
• Salt & Pepper
• 1 red pepper sliced
• 150g broccoli sliced
• 150ml water
• Leftover steamed rice

Method
Saute off the meat in the pan to release the oils, then add onions and allow to soften. While softening add the smoked paprika, chilli flakes and garlic. Season well with salt and pepper.

Add in the red pepper and broccoli, stir so that they are coated in all the ingredients. A glass of water starts the steaming process, then the leftover rice should be stirred around until coated in all the ingredients and completely heated through.

Serve immediately. I know certain people would like mayonnaise or chipotle sauce on top but I’m a bit of vegetable fan so like to keep things simple

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Whipped Jelly

A retro jelly treat that my Nana used to make for special occasions.

Ingredients

• 2 sachets sugar free jelly
• 200ml hot water
• 150ml cold water
• 1 tin sweetened condensed milk

Method

Combine the sugar free jelly with hot water until the crystals are dissolved. Add in the cold water and stir. Put the jelly mixture into a cold spot for about 20-30 minutes so that it starts to thicken slightly.

Using an electric whisk, rapidly whisk the condensed milk and jelly mixture together until light and foamy. Decant into fancy glasses or dishes and chill until serving. Alternatively mix some fresh or tinned fruit with the whipped jelly and chill in a large bowl.

Serve with whipped cream on top

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Crispy Oven Chicken



There are a couple of tricks to making the most crispy oven chicken so listen up!

1. You’re going to use your herbs and spices twice. Whatever you choose, use some in the marinade and some in the flour mixture before breading the chicken.
2. Use buttermilk to tenderise your chicken. You will soak your chicken in the buttermilk and herbs/spices mixture for about an hour before cooking.
3. Strain the buttermilk into some beaten eggs when breading the chicken.
4. Use skinless boneless chicken thighs for perfectly moist chicken, rather than chicken breast which can get tough and dry. This is cheaper per kg to buy too!
5. Use Panko breadcrumbs which means you won’t need any oil for this crispy oven chicken.

The herbs & spices I’ve used here are dried coriander, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, white pepper, dried sage, salt, black pepper. By adding to each layer of the cooking process you get a more rounded result and you’ll use less salt overall. Which is always a good thing.

Cook in the fan oven at 190 degrees for 25 minutes. Yes, you can also cook this chicken in the air fryer. Cook at 180 degrees for 17 minutes, check with a temperature probe to make sure it’s cooked through and safe. Remember, 75 degrees to stay alive!

I got my Panko breadcrumbs at the Asian Supermarket in Ballymount a few weeks ago. I make the trip about once a month to stock up on ingredients. Always a happy customer, but you can also shop from them online

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Chocolate & Caramel Banana Bread (Cake)

banana bread with vanilla extract and chocolate chips

This is a decadant recipe that is incredibly moreish!

Ingredients
* 150g butter.
* 150g muscavado or soft brown sugar.
* 3 large eggs.
* 3 ripe bananas.
* 200g plain flour.
* 150g wholemeal flour.
* 1 teaspoon baking powder.
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
* 100g chocolate chips.
* 30g brown sugar for the crisp caramel topping.

Method.
Line a loaf tin and preheat a fan oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
Cream the butter and sugar together until soft, then crack in the three eggs and beat into a batter. Next, beat in the soft bananas.
In a separate bowl, combine the plain flour, wholemeal flour, and the baking powder. Then add into the batter in the mixing bowl until combined.
Stir in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and the chocolate chips. Spoon the mixture into your lined loaf tin. Then sprinkle a line of the brown sugar down the centre of the loaf tin for the caramel topping.
Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, until cooked through. Use the skewer test to make sure your cake is baked. If it has some batter still stuck to it, increase your baking time by a further 10 minutes before testing again.
Wait until the cake is fully cool before slicing and enjoying. Otherwise it’ll crumble and while it tastes delicious it won’t slice as well!

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Jam Tarts

This is not a complicated recipe but more of a reminder that jam tarts are incredibly easy to make at home plus taste so much nicer than shop bought.


Use a roll of ready-made pastry. Cut into rounds, ease the rounds in a muffin tin that has been greased and lined with a generous amount of flour. Press into a cup shape. Use empty muffin cases to hold dried beans inside of the cups of pastry. Bake in the oven at 170 degrees Celsius for 15 – 20 minutes until crisp and light.


Remove the beans and muffin cases, set to one side. Fill the baked cases halfway with jam or even nutella. Return the muffin tin to the oven for a further 5-7 minutes until the filling has warmed through. Remove the tray from the oven and use the bake of a spoon or spatula to spread out the filling evenly. Leave to cool to room temperature before enjoying

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Honey Buns Recipe

Makes 18 Buns or 12 Muffins

Ingredients

140g self-raising flour
80g wholemeal flour
40g oats
150ml milk
100ml runny honey
75ml sunflower oil
3 medium eggs (or 4 small eggs)
2 ripe bananas

Method
Preheat a fan oven to 170 degrees Celsius and line a muffin tin with bun cases.

In a large bowl combine the self-raising and wholemeal flour, along with the oats then stir. Take a second bowl and combine the milk, honey, sunflower oil, and eggs. Stir with a fork so that they are combined before pouring into the first bowl with the dry ingredients.

Whisk so that the wet ingredients are mixed with the dry ingredients. Once you have a batter, break in the 2 ripe bananas and stir. Spoon the mixture into the bun cases. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes and allow to cool before serving.