Quick things to learn to make posh food at home.

1) Butterflying meat/chicken breasts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot46Cueod4s

This isn't me, but that's how you do it. If you want to grill or bbq a chicken breast, this is the way to go. Other wise it won't cook evenly, and you'll end up with a disastrous grilled chicken sandwich.

2) Balancing food on top of other food. (presentation)

If you're cooking dinner for someone you want to sleep with, there is an easy way to make yourself appear to be a good cook. Balance the food up on top of itself. Plain white plates, food right in the centre, no sauce splatters. there's books and books of photographs of food. There's no need to spend too long reading up, it's just a question of making sure a) your food looks tidy and b) you've got a few different colours in there.

3) Making flowers out of food:
Tomato rose:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AcwtD9MdCU

Radish rose:
(video with creepily big radishes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0O-tfKgwvg

And that orange thing you see in the butchers!
-Take an orange and a short, sharp knife. Stab the knife into the orange at the equator, at a 45 degree angle. Now do it again, and again, until you have a zig-zag line around the equator.

At this point, if you've been stabbing through to the centre, you should be able to pull the two halves of the orange apart. And you should be able to put one of these two halves in the middle of any huge bowl or platter of anything to make your dinner look like the 1970s. Extra bonus points for putting a glace cherry in the centre.


4) Add booze!

If you're making a sauce, throw in a glass of wine. If you're making chilli, throw in a shot of whiskey or tequila. If you're making a stew, throw in some beer. If you're doing stuff with pork, throw in some cider. Alcohol boils at around 80 degrees, so the alcohol is gone almost instantly, and you get delicious flavourful dinners!

Radio

No recipe today, but...
Stay tuned for details of the Life of Miley Radio show - coming soon on Tallaght FM!

I have a few days off work at the moment, and this is doing wonders for examining the world of the daytime. Turns out there's more to the hours between 8 and 6 than computer screens and crumbs in my keyboard.

So time without much money, a slight cold (guinea pig flu)has not led to any new life of miley insight.
So i offer this...meal. I'm not calling it a recipe.

2 slices of toast
2 dessert spoons full of supermarket egg salad
that's it.


(for today's recipe - check out http://www.seasaltwithfood.com/2009/05/hasselback-potatoes.html) I haven't tried it, but it'll feature this weekend.

My newest favourite recipe

I've started to scribble a few easy yet scrumptious recipes down in my diary, so if for some reason a quick dinner is needed wherever I find myself I'll have some good options. All of the diary entries are dead easy to make, inexpensive and taste pretty good too.
My latest addition is risotto, and I'm in love with it! I made risotto for the first time in my life about two months ago, and now I'm almost an expert. The recipe I follow is infinitely easier than all of those other ones that require constant stirring and leave you with a mess as often as a delicious dinner. You can follow the recipe below (which serves four), but feel free to make a few changes and chuck in whatever's in the fridge either - I even made an Irish breakfast risotto recently!

You will need:
25g butter
an onion
150g chicken
200g risotto rice
a teaspoon of fennel seeds
900ml of chicken stock
75g frozen peas
juice and grated rink of about half a lemon
2 tablespoons of double cream (or maybe a little bit more)
50g or so of grated Parmesan
2 tablespoons of chopped mint
salt and pepper

To cook:
Boil the kettle and pre-heat the oven to about 200 degrees. Chuck the butter into a pan. Throw in the chopped onion and the chicken and fry for a couple of minutes. Make up the chicken stock. Add the risotto rice and fennel seeds to the pan of chicken, butter and onion and stir it all about for a minute or so. Add the stock and the peas.
Put that mixture into a casserole dish, put the lid on and cook it for about 20 minutes. Keep an eye on it though - the goal is for the rice to be tender and all the liquid absorbed. When you get to that point you're almost there.
All that's left is to stir in the lemon juice and rind, cream and Parmesan, and add a bit of salt and pepper. Cover it up and leave it sitting for about two minutes, and stir in the mint just before serving. If you're watching what you're eating you might want to add only half of the Parmesan and put the rest on the table so more can be added if needed.

Let me know what other ingredients work for you in this risotto.

Enjoy!

Barbecue, the continuing obsession

Honestly, there are some things i can do confidently and well. They are few and far between. I can play blackbird by the beatles on the guitar, i can navigate around MS excel like i'm in the olympics, and i can cook barbecue.

I learnt my trade from my dad, in the back garden, then from an early age, i sought more barbecue knowledge. I travelled the world, and spent some time in the darkest recesses of Queensland, plying my trade as a bbquer professionally. And now i returned to the rainiest country in the world, with the ability to cook summer food!



Ok, so, couple of quick caveats before we get onto the recipe:

1) This is for a gas barbecue. I'm fully aware that charcoal/wood/smokebox/etc bbqs offer a more authentic flavour, but let's please be realistic. We live in an apartment in Dublin. It's not a serious option. (also, the philosopy of this blog is 'good food, cheap')

2) I'm not going to tell you how to make bbq sauce. There's hundreds of recipes, and we've a list below of all the store-bought ones we've use.

BBQ Chicken Wings - Cheap, Cheerful, Awesome!

Buy your chicken wings from the butcher, they're the cheapest cut of chicken, so you'll get a good deal. (I paid 3 euro for 10 wings- makes 20 chicken pieces)

The wing will come in one piece, with 2 joints. Cut the wings at each joint, and throw away the wingtips. (If you're making stock, hang onto them, but i'll go into that another time)

Put the wings in a mixing bowl with a good dose of Olive oil, and salt and pepper. (You can throw other spices in at this point, but it's up to you - i normally add a tiny bit of cajun seasoning)

Mix them up until all the wings are oiled and seasoned. Put in oven at 160 degrees for 30-40 mins. At this point, they will be cooked through, and will be a light golden colour.

Take them out of the oven, and leave to cool for a little while. put them in the mixing bowl with a good dollop of bbq sauce. Again, mix around until they are nicely coated with the sauce.

Leave to marinate for as long as you have.

put these on the grill until the sauce on the outside browns, and blackens in spots.

You now have awesome bbq wings!

Safety Note
Cooking chicken on a barbecue is great, but you need to be conscious of the risks. Raw chicken can carry bacteria that causes food poisoning, so it is important that the raw chicken does not come into contact with anything that will be eaten uncooked.

Not too big a deal - use seperate plates for raw and cooked meat, wash all implements immediately after handling raw chicken, do make sure to wash your hands immediately after touching raw meat. It's obvious stuff.

Not the Wurst

Is anyone else a little frightened of Lidl? I don't understand the meat, and i'm mostly afraid to try the frozen food. (I once bought some frozen paella that tasted sort of like the food a german serial killer eats while stalking his victims)

The veg is excellent, and the brand name beer is grand. But i'm sort of frightened, because i mostly end up spending loads on mysterious, non-standard tools.

This dinner feeds a multitude for only a few euro. Brought to you by the side effects of the celtic Tiger (ie Lidl)

Chorizo Casserole!

1 Lidl Chorizo
2 Tins Tomatoes
1 Tin Kidney beans
1 Tin Chickpeas
1 Tin Sweetcorn
1 Onion
1 Clove Garlic (Optional)
1 Dessert Spoon of Tomato Puree
1 Splash Balsamic vinegar
1 splash of olive oil

Chop the onion finely, and slice/mash the garlic.
Heat the oil at the bottom of a big saucepan, and soften the onion and the garlic till the onion is translucent.
Pour in the tins of tomatoes.
Pour in 1/2 tin of water.

Rinse off and strain the sweetcorn, Beans and chickpeas, add to the pan.
Chop the Chorizo into 1/2 inch chunks, add to the pan.
Add the tomato Puree and the balsamic vinegar.
Bring to the boil, then lower heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour.

To thicken, either add a cornflour and water mix, or a clarified butter and flour.
Season to taste.

Optional Extras - add the following for different effects

-Splash of whiskey
-Add red wine to the onions and garlic
-Add paprika and cumin to the onions. (leave out the garlic)


Serve with Rice/bread.