Spaghetti with tuna & parsley

 This is the perfect pasta dish to make mid-week when you fancy something a bit comforting, a bit special, but quick and easy. It uses ingredients you will most likely already have which is a bonus (who doesn't always have a tin of tuna in the cupboard?)

 It would also make a super quick Valentine's meal, if you don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen but want to make something special for a fellow pasta lover.

(I made this just for myself but will double the quantities below to serve two)

Serves 2 

- 200g spaghetti

- 25g butter

- 2 garlic cloves, crushed

- 1 large onion, finely chopped

- 1 tin of tuna, in oil

- 50-100ml creme fraiche

- handful of fresh parsley, chopped

- parmesan, to grate on top

1. Cook the spaghetti according to packet instructions in salted, boiling water (around 10 minutes).

2. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan and fry the garlic for a couple of minutes.

3. Then add the onion and cook until softened. 

4. Drain some of the oil away from the tin of tuna and pour the rest of the tuna oil into the pan with the onion and garlic. Tip the tuna into a separate bowl and mash with a fork, then add to the pan and stir.

5. Mix the crème fraiche and parsley into the tuna mixture and heat through.

4. Drain the pasta and add to the pan with the tuna mixture, stirring until combined.

5. Serve and top with a generous grating of parmesan!

 Enjoy :)

Rosemary, wholegrain mustard & garlic lamb steaks

A perfect, quick mid-week meal - very tender and full of flavour!

 The best part for me was having leftovers and making a lamb steak sandwich the next day...

Serves 2
- olive oil
- 4 lamb steaks
- 2 tsp wholegrain mustard
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- sprig of fresh rosemary
- 1 red onion, quartered

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees and drizzle some olive oil in a small roasting tin. Place in the oven to heat up whilst you prepare the lamb.
2. Coat the lamb steaks in the wholegrain mustard. Feel free to cut the fat off the lamb if you prefer - I kept it on for extra flavour and some of it crisped up which tasted great, but you can just cut off the fatty parts when eating.

3. Remove the tin from the oven and place the lamb steaks in the hot oil. Spread the crushed garlic on top of the lamb and sprinkle with plenty of fresh rosemary, tearing with your fingers. Place the quartered onion around the lamb steaks and drizzle with some extra olive oil.

4. Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or longer, depending on how you like your lamb.

Enjoy :)

Oreo Cheesecake

Oreo's and cheesecake - does it get any better?

Warning: you will want to eat the whole thing.

This recipe is basically the same one as I created for the honeycomb/Crunchie bar cheesecake which you can find here. This one is even more delicious though, it will make a perfect dessert for a dinner party or just for a Friday night in... It is really quick and simple to make as it is a no-bake-cheesecake, unlike this bad boy. Make sure you crumble the Oreo's on top just before serving because the longer they are on top of the creamy filling, the softer they will go and although it still tastes great a day or two later, it is better with a biscuity crunch on top!

Serves 6-8

- 200g dark chocolate digestive biscuits, finely crushed

- 50g slightly salted butter (plus more if the biscuit isn't sticking together very well)

- 150ml double cream

- 50g icing sugar

- drop of vanilla essence

- 200g cream cheese

- 1 and a half packs of Oreo's

1. Grease a circular loose-bottomed tin, or line a normal circular tin with grease proof paper.

2. Melt the butter and mix with the crushed biscuit. Press into the tin until compact and set aside.

3. Whisk the double cream with the icing sugar until thick consistency, and add the vanilla essence. 

4. Beat the cream cheese in a separate bowl then add the cream and sugar mixture and stir until combined.

5. Roughly crumble one pack of Oreo's with your fingers.

6. Stir the crumbled Ore's into the cheesecake mixture, then spread on top of the (buttery) biscuit base.

7. Leave in the fridge for a few hours then carefully take the cheesecake out of the tin and place on a serving plate. 

8. Place an Oreo in the centre of the cheesecake, then crumble half a pack (or as much as you want) all over the top, then slice and serve!

Enjoy :)

Pork Spaghetti Bolognese

A twist on the classic beef bolognese!

Serves 4

- 500g lean pork mince

- 1 large red onion, chopped

- 2 cloves garlic, crushed

- 4 rashers of smoked bacon, chopped

- 400g spaghetti

- 400g tin chopped tomatoes

- mixed dried herbs

- salt & pepper

- balsamic vinegar

- cheddar or parmesan cheese, to garnish

1. In a large saucepan, brown the pork mince in olive oil. Then add the onion, garlic and bacon. Stir and cook for 5-10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in salted, boiling water for about 10 minutes, or according to packet instructions.

3. Add the chopped tomatoes, herbs, salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar to the mince mixture and mix together thoroughly, bringing to the boil then simmering for a further 10 minutes.

4. When the spaghetti is cooked, drain, and dish up.

5. Top with the mince and sprinkle with some grated cheese!

Enjoy :)

Soda bread

Perfect served hot from the oven, smothered in butter with a bowl of soup for a pick me up on a cold day!

I bought some cream of tomato soup for lunch and wanted to make some bread to go with it, but needed a quick, easy recipe so I thought soda bread would be perfect. Soda bread uses buttermilk (or milk and lemon) and bicarbonate of soda as a raising agent, rather than yeast, so it is really simple and quick to make but has great flavour from the cheese and herbs in this recipe. 

It is quite a dense bread so is great with something runny like soup. I used my lovely mum's recipe - she always makes it and it is delicious so I wanted to give it a try. The original recipe uses half wholemeal and half plain flour but I didn't have any wholemeal so used all plain (to my mum's dismay) and it worked just as well so it is up to you what you choose to use!

I am ashamed to say that my boyfriend and I ate both the loaves I made in one sitting (it's better hot from the oven anyway...) but realistically this recipe will serve 4 as the original recipe says to divide into 4 balls of dough to bake. It's up to you if you want to separate it into just two like we did, or one big one - although remember that the bigger it is, the longer it will take to cook in the middle so cooking times may vary.

Serves 2-4

- 225g wholemeal flour

- 225g plain flour

- 1 tsp salt

- 2 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

- 50g butter

- 2 tsp dried mixed herbs

- 75g cheddar cheese, grated

- 250-300 ml milk

- 2 tsp lemon juice

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees, and grease and flour a baking tray.

2. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and soda.

3. Stir in the butter, herbs and grated cheese.

4. In a separate jug, mix together the milk and the lemon juice, then pour enough into the bowl to make a soft dough. (The original recipe said 300ml of milk and I found this too much and had to add a lot more flour to get it to the right consistency, so add less milk first as you can always add more!)

5. Knead lightly in the bowl until the correct consistency then break into 4 or 2 equal pieces and round into a ball shape.

6. Place on the baking tray and flatten the tops slightly, and cut two parallel slashes in the top of each.

7. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, then slice and serve hot with lots of butter! (Which has to be lurpak...)

Enjoy :)

Crispy duck stir fry

 Since it is Chinese New Year on Friday, I thought it was only fitting that I treat myself to some duck, and thankfully, the supermarkets agreed. In Sainsbury's the crispy aromatic duck is half price at £5 so I bought it and decided that instead of sitting there by myself and scoffing duck pancakes, I would make a delicious stir fry that I could share with you all!

It was super yummy - I love duck because it's so tender and full of strong flavour, and you can make it really crispy. Don't worry if you don't have a whole or half a crispy duck to cook, you can buy duck breasts and cook them like you would chicken and this stir fry would be just as good. If you haven't tried duck before, I really recommend it - I have only enjoyed it in recent years since my mum unfortunately got really bad food poisoning from duck once (not to put you off) and so we never had it in the house so I never got to try it. But now I love it and will always choose it in restaurants if the opportunity is there. As a student, duck is an expensive meat and a luxury but I thought it was time to treat myself! (Make sure you buy some prawn crackers too)

This recipe made a portion for my dinner and two others which I have frozen - all were quite big portions so I will say this serves 3 but it could stretch to feed 4, or if you have an even bigger appetite than me or are eating with a man then perhaps it would serve 2, but there was a lot of duck!

Serves 3

- half a crispy aromatic duck (or any duck equivalent)

- olive oil

- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed

- bunch of spring onions, chopped

- 1 carrot, peeled and sliced lengthways

- 1 red pepper, sliced

- 300g beansprouts (or as many as you desire)

- pack of fresh egg noodles (410g)

- sachet of hoisin sauce

- splash of soy sauce

1. Start by cooking the duck - if you have the crispy duck like me then you will need to oven cook this for about 40 minutes on 180 degrees, until crispy. If you have different duck meat then follow packet instructions or if duck breast then slice and fry until browned.

2. Once the duck meat is cooked, set aside, or if you used crispy duck then you will need to shred it and then set aside (and try not to eat all the crispy skin before you even start cooking the stir fry).

3. In a wok, or large saucepan, heat a generous amount of oil, then fry the garlic, most of the spring onions (leaving a few raw to garnish) and carrot for a few minutes. Then add the red pepper and beansprouts and cook until softened.

4. Next, add the duck meat and cook for a few more minutes to heat through. Then stir in the egg noodles and the hoisin and soy sauce. I used the hoisin sauce sachet that came with the duck - but you can buy it in sachets or in bottles at the supermarket and can use as much or as little as you like, but don't forget that it has quite a strong flavour and the egg noodles and duck are quite moist without a lot of sauce.

5. Serve immediately and sprinkle the remaining chopped spring onion on top!

Enjoy :)

Baked Camembert with Garlic and Rosemary

If you're going to treat yourself, do it properly.

There is nothing more comforting on a winter's day than an oozing baked Camembert with warm, crusty bread for dipping. You may be wondering why this Camembert looks like it has exploded - the wooden edging just cracked open in the oven and I am really glad that it did - it meant we got to eat some extra flavoursome cheese that had started to go crisp mmm, but don't worry, the middle was still perfect.

I have posted a Camembert recipe before here and made some rather delicious ham, cheese and chive bread to go with it which you can find the recipe for here. Both were delicious but this time I decided to try fresh rosemary with the Camembert rather than thyme and it was very tasty - although I would recommend either herbs! I also didn't have as much time so I bought some fresh ciabatta from the supermarket to heat up in the oven for dipping in the cheese, but if you do have more time or if it is a special occasion, you should definitely try out the above bread recipe - super quick, easy and yeast free!

Serves 2
- 1 whole Camembert
- 2 fresh garlic cloves
- few sprigs of rosemary
- caramelised onion chutney
- ciabatta

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees.

2. Remove the Camembert from its packaging and with a sharp knife, make a few slits on top.

3. Slice the garlic and tear the rosemary leaves in half, then push both into the slits.

4. Place the Camembert back in the wooden box and onto a baking tray in the middle of the oven - bake for around 15 minutes or until fully melted in the middle. Place the ciabatta in the oven and bake for the same amount of time.

5. When done, slice the ciabatta and serve immediately - open up the Camembert by removing the top with a knife, then dunk the ciabatta in, and top with a generous amount of chutney!

Enjoy :)