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Showing posts with the label 5 Stars

Gino D'Acampo - Potato Dumplings with Mozzarella & Fresh Basil (452 calories)

   Review:  🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 This is a really nice and tasty dish. It's very quick and easy to make. I like to use the Asda fresh Gnocchi from the refridgerator aisle as it's much better than the vacuum packed stuff. Recipe Book: Gino D'Acampo - Gino's Healthy Italian for Less Buy The Book Ingredients: Serves 4 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped 1 x 690g bottle of passata (sieved tomatoes) 10 basil leaves 500g shop-bought plain gnocchi 125g mozzarella balls, drained and cut into small cubes Salt and freshly ground black pepper Method: 1. Place a medium saucepan over a medium heat, pour in the oil and fry the onion for 5 minutes until golden. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon. Pour in the passata and continue to cook for a further 10 minutes, with the lid off, stirring occasionally. Stir in the basil, season with salt and pepper and set aside. 2. Fill a large saucepan three-quarters full with water, add a tablespoon of salt and bring to

Paul Hollywood - Crumpets

  Review:  🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 So, I got up early on Sunday and decided to have a go at these. They did not disappoint. I was surprised how easy they are to make, but you do need to have some crumpet rings or egg rings available to make them...and I did! I'd bought some of these Professional Egg Rings from Amazon and just took off the handles. They worked a treat. Oh how soft and tasty these crumpets are especially with some lovely Longley Farm Butter on top...💖 Mmmmmmm. Anyway, back to the review at hand. My egg rings are only 2cm deep and I did follow the instructions to fill to just below the top, but they still overflowed so I would advise filling to 1.5cm full to allow rising room! On my Aga (DC3) simmering plate my timing were about 7 minutes on the first side and then 2-3 minutes on the tops. I didn't eat them all on Sunday, but they were good enough to eat all of them so I have frozen 6 in a freezer bag. I toasted a couple of the fresh ones on Monday morning and they were perf

Fortnum & Mason - Pork Escalopes Cordon Bleu

  Pork Escalopes Cordon Bleu Recipe Book: Fortnum & Mason - The Cook Book  Buy The Book Review : 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Excellent! Pretty quick and easy enough to make. I actually prepped most of it earlier today and left them in the fridge and then finished off by coating them in flour, egg and breadcrumbs when I was ready to start cooking. They're really tasty, a bit like a pork version of the stuffed chicken breasts. I couldn't get hold of Gruyere cheese slices so I just bought a small block of Gruyere and cut off thin slices to line up to form a slice all along the inside. It didn't actually say which side to roll up from (long or short side) so I made the executive decision to do it from the short side. Turns out it was a good decision. I used a tiny spoonful (approx half a teaspoon) out of a Knorr Chicken Stock Pot for the stock, mixed to 50ml with hot water. Ham was just sliced ham on the bone packed stuff from Sainsbury's. All in all a very good recipe. Serves 2 Ingredi

Mary Berry - Divine White Chocolate Chilled Cheesecake

Recipe: Divine White Chocolate Chilled Cheesecake Recipe Book: Mary Berry - Simple Comforts Buy the Book Here Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Oh Sweet Baby Jesus! If you are going to fail in your January dieting...do it in style with this!  You really won't regret making this.  You know that episode of Friends where they get a cheesecake mistakenly delivered and they can't stop eating it? Yeah? Well if you make this, you'll probably find after a while that no one will bother cutting nice neat slices off it and just resort to leaving a spoon in the fridge next to it on the plate!  It really is that good. It's not too sweet or sickly, it is in all honesty, perfection or divinity on a plate. I must apologise though for the naff photo...we had eaten over half of the cheesecake (in a couple of hours of it being ready) before I'd realised that I forgotten to take a photo of it. Full Recipe Below SERVES 6-8 For the base: 50g (2oz) butter 150g (5oz) digestive biscuits, crushed For the f

Fortnum & Mason - Chicken with Squash

Last night's creation: Chicken with Squash Recipe Book: Fortnum & Mason - The Cook Book Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Tasty. I really liked the look of this recipe so I thought I'd give it a bash for tea last night and I was pleasantly surprised. The squash relish was lovely, sweet, aniseedy and has a bit of a kick from the chillis and fennel and chicken cooked perfectly. It wasn't a quick recipe to make, but I suppose some of us have a bit more time on hands at the moment during this shite show of a pandemic. If you're looking for something a bit different to do with a chicken breast, then certainly give this recipe a try. Please note, I had to ask my butcher for chicken breasts with skin on as Sainsbury's didn't stock them in the meat aisle. Full Recipe Below Serves 2 Ingredients: 4 fennel bulbs 4 chicken breasts, skin on 80ml rapeseed oil salt and freshly ground black pepper For the butternut squash relish 4 tablespoons olive oil 2 shallots, finely diced 1 red chill

Nigella Lawson - Fried Chicken Sandwich

Fried Chicken Sandwich Recipe: Fried Chicken Sandwich Recipe Book: Nigella Lawson - Cook, Eat, Repeat. Link to recipe Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 OMG this is so unhealthy but SOOOOOOO good. I made this before I saw it on her new show. To be brutally honest I really didn't expect much from it, having made other burger style recipes...but! Honest to God this is amazing. It's not particularly quick or tidy to make but the taste truly makes up for this. I chose to make it with buttermilk as I always have a pot or two in my freezer for times like these. I also took myself off to the Filipino store down on Standish St in Burnley to locate some of the Chilli Crisp Oil, it's only £2.50 a jar there compared to £7.50 on Amazon! I didn't use the pink pickled onions but I did pick up a tin of Kimchi and I tried it. Pretty much made it as per recipe. For those with a deep fryer this should work fine. Aga Conversion: Used the pan on the boiling plate with a thermometer. Will I ma

Nigella Lawson - Old Fashioned Sandwich Loaf

This is the spot where I do the proving of the dough.                                         Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 In my opinion, this is THE best bread recipe I've ever had the chance to make, believe me I've tried loads of recipes for a loaf of bread and they have pretty much always failed me and ended up dense and dry. I was starting to believe that I just couldn't make bread.  This one however is bloody brilliant, so much so, my youngest son (18) pretty much eats almost a whole loaf in 24 hours! It's that good and OMG as toast...well, layer it up with butter....😛💗 My silver surfers (aka the in-laws) love it too, I'm expecting orders from them soon! 😆 Bread isn't the easiest to make as it's quite time consuming, but honestly, this recipe is worth it.  So far, since 8th November when I made the first one, I have made about 12 since. My last two loaves I made, I wrapped in greaseproof paper and then into thick good quality freezer bags and they froze and d

Nigel Slater - Poor Man’s Potatoes

Poor Man’s Potatoes Recipe Book: Nigel Slater - Eat Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 I have to say I really enjoyed this dish. It’s quite a nice comfort food style vegetarian dish. I have made this before and the first time I made it I decided to add in a chilli 🌶 at the start.... a whole sliced chilli 🌶... maybe you might want to put a half one in instead! 😆  nevertheless it was still good.  This time I sort of stuck to the original recipe. Only alterations were that I didn’t have the normal size bell peppers so I used a few of those smaller sweet peppers to get the same amount. Aga conversion: I kind of struggled with this conversion, I sort of toggled between both hot plates and then when it was time to cover and simmer enthusiastically, I popped the covered Aga sauté pan on the floor of the roasting oven. After 20 mins there was still loads of stock left so I gave it a bit longer uncovered on the hot plates toggling between them for roughly 10 minutes after squashing about

Nigel Slater - Chorizo Potatoes

Chorizo Potatoes  Recipe Book: Nigel Slater - Eat Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I do love Nigel Slater recipes and I think all of this weeks reviews are from this book. There are very few recipes that have disappointed from this guy, he really does know his stuff. So tonight’s recipe was easy to make but I did have a couple of quirks with it.... Firstly, I forgot to write down exactly how much chorizo I needed so bought a pack of diced cooking chorizo from Sainsbury’s. When I got home I realised I only had 150g 😱 instead of 250g.  Fortunately this turned out for the better because my potatoes were slightly smaller and 150g really was enough for them. I also decided to use a 50/50 mix of cheddar and mozzarella as I cannot for the life in me seem to be able to get hold of Manchego cheese so google said to use mozzarella or cheddar....so I used both! Cooking wise, the potatoes took longer than 45 minutes to be cooked right through they took 1hr 15, so basically cook y

Nigel Slater - Citrus Chilli Grilled Chicken

Citrus Chilli Grilled Chicken Recipe Book: Nigel Slater - Eat Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was so good! Such a simple idea but so tasty. It’s supposed to be easy to bone a chicken leg.... not for me... I ended up using the scissors to do it, but I got it off in the end. Next time I’ll get the butcher to do it! So, apart from the faffing about deboning the leg it was very quick and easy to make. I just served mine with a salad. Aga conversion: I used a small baking tray on the top set of runners in the roasting oven. Took about 10-11 minutes as my Aga was running slightly cooler. Will I make this again? Yes I will

Nigel Slater - Spaghetti Bake

Spaghetti Bake Recipe Book: Nigel Slater - Eat Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ OMG 😮 this was so simple yet so tasty 😋. Absolute winner! This recipe is not in any way healthy with having double cream and bacon in it, but it’s a great winter warmer. Quick to prepare and then 30 minutes in the oven....can’t grumble at that.  I made a half portion and put it in my 1.2L (I halved the recipe to serve 2) capacity oven dish.  I have to admit, it didn’t look overly appetising when I put it in the oven dish, it looked quite bland and boring and I was actually hesitant to try it.... what a nice surprise though, the garlic and bacon really did do something special. Note: when Nigel’s recipe says serves 4 I get 6 out of it. So this recipe when halved I thought there was enough to serve 3 but it was so good I ate my very large portion! Aga conversion: I put mine on the grid shelf on the floor of the baking oven for 30 minutes and it was perfect. Will I make this again? Defin

Jamie Oliver - Veggie Bolognese, Loadsa Veg, Lentils and Parmesan

Veggie Bolognese, Loadsa Veg, Lentils and Parmesan (441 calories) Recipe Book: Jamie Oliver - Superfood Family Classics  Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Wow! Impressed! For those who have followed this page since it started in 2017, you’ll know that I love meat 🥩. I’ll do a few veggie recipes, but ultimately I’ll never make a good vegetarian I’m too fussy. This recipe however is excellent. It’s not a quick one to make, save it for a weekend,  it’s pretty easy but wow the taste is great, I even didn’t notice the absence of meat as it had a good texture and it must be the porcini mushrooms that gave it the meaty flavour (granted all veg and mushrooms were chopped finely in the processor so I couldn’t pick them out!). Aga conversion: I softened the veg in the Aga sauté pan with lid on the floor of the simmering oven. Added the Chianti and the rest with the pan on the boiling plate. Moved it uncovered to the floor of the simmering oven for the final 35 minutes.  Pasta I cooked in a

Jamie Oliver - Cajun Sweet Potatoes

Cajun Sweet Potatoes (346 calories) Recipe Book: Jamie Oliver - 5 Ingredients  Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I absolutely loved these. I have to admit, I’ve got a thing for sweet potato 🍠. Putting Cajun spice on them takes them to a whole new level though. The garlic yoghurt sauce was pretty great too. Aga conversion: Roasting tray on middle set of runners in the Roasting Oven. I did mine for about 45 minutes as my oven was running hot. Will I make this again? Absolutely, I loved it.

Mary Berry - Almond Crumble-Topped Mince Pies

Almond Crumble-Topped Mince Pies Recipe Book: Mary Berry Cooks Up A Feast Review: 5 stars for this one! Ooooooh! You know when you really want a mince pie? Well yesterday was it for me. These had been on my mind since I picked up this book on Tuesday in Costco. They certainly didn't disappoint. Very quick and easy to make. I made the full recipe. I didn't manage to get 24 out of the mixture...maybe I rolled the pastry bases out too thick, but they turned out delicious anyway, sweet delicious pastry, lovely mincemeat and sweet and crunchy topping...Mmmmmmm. Aga conversion: Looks like Mary has decided to include Aga instructions in this book. See photo. I did 16 minutes in my Aga and didn't check them any earlier, so mine were just a touch too brown. Will I make this again? Absolutely. Buy the book here  Buy the Kindle Version

Nigel Slater - Chocolate, Dulce de Leche, Cantucci

Chocolate, Dulce De Leche, Cantucci Recipe Book: Nigel Slater's Greenfeast (Autumn/Winter) The latest one! Review: 5 stars for this one! Finally something that actually did turn out for me this week. It's very rich, it's a chocolately heaven and both my son and I couldn't eat it all in one sitting. Oh, but how happy did eating this pudding make me? VERY happy I can say with all honesty. Didn't help my healthy eating, but never mind It's easy enough to make, I used my Kenwood Chef Major to do the whisking and all in all only took about 30 minutes to make. Aga conversion: Pop the chocolate in a bowl and place it on the top of the Aga to melt while you prep and weigh everything else, when you've got it in the ramekins pop it on the grid shelf on the floor of the baking oven for 20 minutes. Perfection in a pot. Will I make this again? Absolutely. Buy the book here  Buy the Kindle Version

Mary Berry - Macaroni Cheese with Cherry Tomato Topping (543 or 362 Calories)

Macaroni Cheese with Cherry Tomato Topping (543 calories as a main course serves 4 recipe or 362 as a side serves 6 portion) Recipe Book: Mary Berry Cookery Course  Buy the Book Here Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 OMG! Fantastic! What more can I say? I have been searching for the perfect Mac n Cheese ever since I fell in love with the Booths supermarket frozen mac n cheese. I'd been trying a variety of recipes and none of them hit the mark.....until this one! Bet it tastes even better with some crispy streaky bacon chopped up and mixed in.....mmmmmm maybe next time!I used semi skimmed milk and Cathedral City Mature (I like strong cheese) cheddar Light to reduce some calories off the calorie count stated and it was perfect. Mary Berry you are amazing! You are now on a par with my love for Hairy Biker recipes. Full Recipe Below PER SERVING (4) Calories: 543 Saturated fat: 17g Unsaturated fat: 11g Sodium: 496mg Ingredients 30g butter, plus extra for greasing 200g short-cut macaroni 30g p

Jamie Oliver - Sunshine Fusilli Pasta (388 Calories)

Sunshine Fusilli Pasta (388 calories) Recipe Book: Jamie Oliver Veg (the latest book)  Buy the book here  Buy the Kindle Version Review: 5 Stars! I can safely say that I was not expecting to score this recipe so highly. I am a hardened meat eater and don't particularly like or eat a whole lot of veg but I decided to really give it a go, so all this weeks recipes are coming out of this book. It was very quick to make, literally the 20 minutes as it states in the book. I made a half portion to serve 2. Mistakenly bought regular salted pistachios and it was fine. I blended the peppers, onions, garlic and cheese in my Kenwood Chef mini chopper attachment as the amount was pretty small and it fit just nicely. If I was making a serves 4 I might have to rethink this idea. Once it was blended, to be honest it looked like creamy yellowness and I didn't honestly like the look of it but hey ho, lets give it a chance eh? Was it good? It certainly was, I was also quite sur

Nigel Slater - Chicken Satay Sandwich

Chicken Satay Sandwich Recipe Book: Nigel Slater's Real Food  Buy the book here  Review: 5 stars for this one! Proper good! A real comfort food. It's not a healthy recipe, but by god it is good! If you like those chicken satay skewers with the peanut sauce that most good chinese takeaways do in the starter section of the menus, then you'll love this. I served mine on a baguette (you know those part baked ones that you can pick up in the supermarket, and I baked mine just before serving so they were nice and warm...Mmmmmm! I found it really easy and quick to make. Aga conversion: I mainly used the simmering plate for this recipe and then brought to the boil on the boiling plate. I baked the baguettes on the grid shelf on the bottom set of runner in the roasting oven for 8 minutes. Will I make this again? Yes definitely. # aga   # nigelslater   # nigelslater realfood   # chickensataysandwich