All of the recipes on the list are dinners that all the family will eat. Cross my heart!
Prawn Stir-Fry and Egg Fried Rice
First make the rice, it will stay warm in a covered pyrex dish while you make the stir-fry.
Cook 150g basmati rice in a full pot of hot chicken stock until the rice is tender and cooked. (about 8-10 mins)
Drain in a sieve and keep to one side.
In a wide frying pan, heat 2 Tbsp of sunflower oil. Beat 4 eggs in a bowl. Add to the pan and with a whisk, scramble the egg until just barely cooked. Don't dry them up too much or they will end up rubbery. Set aside in the bowl and add another 2 Tbsp of sunflower oil in the pan, heat and add the cooked rice. Toss the rice so it is heated up and coated in oil. Add the egg back in and douse it in soy sauce to taste. ( I use about 3 Tbsp) Stir with a wooden spoon to mix in the soy and heated through. Put in a pyrex to keep warm and cover.
This sounds more complicated than it is. But it is very tasty. I have used this late at night watching TV to use up rice. It is nice with spring onions chopped in too.
For the stir-fry...........
Use raw peeled prawns, about 6 to 8 per person.
Toss them in seasoned flour.
Chop a carrot into fine strips, also a red pepper and about 3 spring onions.
(Green beans, mange tout, beansprouts, mushrooms, baby corn, would all be delicious in here, but I would not get them all past the kids.)
Heat 2 Tbsp of sunflower oil in a wide pan or wok and heat. Add the prawns and cook on a high heat until crispy and cooked through. Raw prawns turn pink when they are cooked.
Remove to a plate when cooked and add another Tbsp of oil back in the pan. When hot, add in the vegetables and stir fry for a few minutes. The veg should be crunchy. Add a t of hoi sin sauce and t of soy sauce. Heat through and add the prawns back in.
Serve with the rice.
You could use thin strips of chicken breast either or pork.
Mac and Cheese
Boil 300g of Macaroni and set aside.
Grate 250g of cheese and have it ready in a bowl. I use cheddar, but you could use Emmenthal, Gruyere, or a mixture of all three.
Finely chop an onion and fry in 75g butter until soft and translucent. Add 75g flour and stir until it makes a roux. Give a couple of minutes for the flour to cook out a little. whisk in 900ml of milk and keep stirring or whisking if it looks a little lumpy. It takes about 3-4 minutes to thicken and start to bubble. Add 200g of the cheese and whisk in.
Add 2 tsp mustard. (don't tell the kids!) I use dijon as it goes undetected, but I prefer wholegrain. Yum!!
Stir in the cooked pasta. It'll be a little sticky but will loosen and break apart in the sauce.
Put into a pyrex dish and cover with the 50g of remaining cheese.
Bake for 20 mins ish at 200 c until the cheese is golden and bubbly.
You can eat this without baking as it is all cooked.
It is yummy too with lardons of bacon that have been fried til crispy.
Fish Cakes
These are not difficult but can take some time and use a good few pots, so I make it in double quantity or more and freeze them. The kids love helping with this recipe. It is a great one to get a couple of kids involved.
Boil 250 g of potatoes and mash with butter and season well.(while warm or it will be horrible to mash when cold)
Hard boil 4 eggs. Peel and chop each into about 8 pieces
Fry or poach 1kg of fish. We use a mixture of salmon and smoked fish we get from the fishmongers already skinned, boned and chopped.
Fry a chopped onion in butter until translucent.
In a bowl, combine the potatoes, eggs, fish and onion in a large bowl and mix until combined. (Sometimes it's easier to use your hands for this.) Season to taste. You can taste the mixture at this stage as it is all cooked. You could add fresh chopped herbs here if you like.
Make into burger sized patties. You get between 12 and 16 out of this mixture depending on the size.
Beat 2 eggs in a bowl, put 200g of breadcrumbs on a plate, and 100g seasoned flour on another.
My daughter LOVES doing this stage! So I lay the plate of fish patties on the left, next the flour, next the egg, next the breadcrumbs and an empty plate next.
You dip each patty in flour and dust off the excess. Dip into egg then breadcrumbs and repeat for each one. Robyn sits near the sink to do this so after 5 or 6 she washes her hands as her fingers start looking like KFC chicken pieces!
You can cook them without the breadcrumb coating, and they are nice, but they are better with the crumb coating.
You can freeze them now at this stage so long as the mixture has cooled.
Fry in oil or butter until golden brown; a minute or two on each side.
We serve these with a side salad and potato wedges and sweet chili sauce.
Daniel's Fish Pie
This is the one Daniel created for the competition he entered on TV
Check it out at
www.rte.ie/tv/theafternoonshow/2009/1028/beatthechefpastry799.html
It is not in the usual format I use as we had to write it like this for the website.
Ingredients
300g Fish (mixture of smoked and white)
300ml White Wine
300ml Water
60g Butter
60g Flour
Couple of tablespoons of cream or milk
250g Grated cheddar cheese
1 Carrot finely diced
1 Stick of celery finely diced
1 Leek finely sliced
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt and Pepper
Packet of ready made Puff Pastry
1 beaten egg
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200 c
2. First make sure the fish is skinned and boned and chopped into chunks.
3. Place the fish into a saucepan and add the wine and water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5-6 minutes until the fish is just cooked. (Do not overcook)
4. Remove the fish to the dish (4 individual ovenproof ramekins or large casserole dish ) and reserve the poaching liquid.
5. In another saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour. Whisk for a few minutes and allow the flour to cook away any raw flavour.
6. Add the poaching liquid slowly, whisking all the time and continue cooking on a medium heat until the sauce resembles the consistency of custard. If the sauce is too thick whisk in some cream or milk until it thins out. Taste the sauce for seasoning. If you are using smoked fish it may be salty enough.
7. Then add in the grated cheese whisking until melted in. This will thicken the sauce slightly. Turn off the heat and set the sauce aside.
8. Saute the carrots and celery in the olive oil or butter if you prefer. After a couple of minutes add the leeks and soften the veg for about 5 minutes depending on the size of the dice. When cooked, with still a little bite, add to the cheese sauce.
9. Pour the sauce over the fish, covering well.
10. Roll the pastry out until it is about 1/2 cm thick. Cut out a round slightly bigger than the dish you are covering.
11. Brush the rim of the bowl with beaten egg and cover with the pastry disk. Brush the pastry with the egg wash and put a small slit in the top to allow the steam to escape while cooking.
12. Bake in the oven for about 20 mins for individual pies or 30 - 40 mins for the large pie. Or until the pastry turns golden brown.
13. Cool for a few minutes before eating, especially if it is for children as it will be very hot.
Photos above are from Daniel's TV appearance. Recipe he made is below
