Chicken and mushroom risotto

For a beautiful creamy chicken and mushroom risotto for 4 you will need:

8oz or 225g cooked chicken
2 medium onoins
2 cloves garlic
8oz or 225g Italian risotto rice
3/4 pint or 450ml chicken stock
1/4 pint or 150ml dry white wine
6oz or 175g mushrooms
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
Chopped parsley

Finely chop the onions and the garlic

Slice the mushrooms

Dice the chicken

Heat the oil in a pan and gently fry the onions and the garlic until tender.

Add the mushrooms and cook for about 2-3 minutes.

Then add the rice and cook for another 2 minutes.

Add the wine and cook until it has all been absorbed by the rice.

Add half of the stock and bring to the boil.

Lower the heat and simmer gently, stirring frequently and adding the rest of the stock very slowly, bit at a time.

When all of the liquid has been absorbed add the chicken and cook gently for about 5 minutes until the rice is creamy but still firm when you bite it.

Season to taste and serve immediately sprinkled with a little chopped parsley.

Banana cake

Scrumptious warm banana cake. Perfect for using up those last few bananas that never seem to get eaten.











You will need:

A 1lb loaf tin
Greaseproof paper

4oz / 100g butter or margerine
8oz caster sugar
3 eggs
3 ripe bananas
10oz plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder dissolved in 3 teaspoons cold water
2oz chopped blanched almonds (optional)

Grease and line the loaf tin

Cream together margerine and sugar.

In a seperate bowl beat the eggs

In another bowl mash the bananas

Now add the beaten eggs and the mashed banana to the margerine and sugar mixture

Add the baking powder, the flour and the almonds

Pour mixture into the loaf tin and bake in a preheated oven (180C) for about an hour or until cooked

This is at its best when it is warm but tastes great cold too.

It is a flexable mixture. I have made it with only 2 eggs and with more or less bananas. You could add some roughly chopped chocolate.

The riper the bananas are the sweeter the cake will be.

Roast pepper soup

This is a really good winter dish , it is a fabulously thick warming soup

To serve 6 you will need:

3 red bell peppers
1 orange bell pepper
6 large carrots
3 leeks
3 large onoins
3 cloves of garlic
2 sweet potatos
1-2 red chillis
1 litre or 2-3 pints vegitable stock
Salt and pepper
Double cream (optional)

Chop all vegitables and roast until tender

Put roasted veg into a saucepan and using a hand blender blitz adding stock to required consistancy

Season to taste

Swirl a little cream into soup if desired and serve with fresh crusty bread

Chicken strips in yellow bean sauce served with brown rice

This has got to be the nicest chicken dish ever, it is like nothing you have ever tasted before!

To serve 4 people you will need:

1lb or 450g skinless and boneless chicken breasts
4 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 jar sharwoods yellow bean sauce
1 fresh green chilli
4 teaspoons cornflour
2 tablespoons olive oil
4oz or 100g cashew nuts
12oz or 300g brown rice
Water

Firstly put your rice on to boil

Cut the chicken in thin strips trying to keep them as even as possible so that they cook in the same amount of time.

Cut open the chilli and remove the seeds. Now cut into fine rings

Mix together the yellow bean sauce or paste, the honey and the soy sauce. Then mix the cornflour with 3 tablespoons water until smooth, and add it to the yellow bean mixture.

Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a pan and fry the cashew nuts on a low heat until lightly toasted. These can burn very quickly so keep your eye on them. When they are cooked remove them from the pan.

Heat another tablespoon of oil in a pan and on a high heat cook the chicken and the chilli for 3-4 minutes until the chicken is sealed on all sides.

Now add the yellow bean mixture to the pan and stir over a medium heat until all the chicken is glazed and the sauce is thickened. At this point I would recommend cutting open a piece of chicken to check it is cooked properly.

Add the cashew nuts and serve with the rice.

Enjoy!

Flapjacks

Flapjacks are good if you need a filling snack and the oats are very good for you but they have got a lot of sugar and fat in.








You will need

An 11 by 7 shallow tin

4 oz golden syrup
4 oz margerine
2 oz brown sugar
6 oz oats

Melt golden syrup, margerine and sugar in a pan over a low heat

When it has all melted together take off the heat and stir in the oats

Spread out in your tin, you can grease if it you want to although I never have with flapjacks

Cook in a preheated oven (180C / 350F/ Gas 4) for 25-30 minutes

When it is cooked leave for about 5 minutes and then cut it into peaces

If you like you can put some melted chocolate on top.

There are many variations to plain old flapjacks , you could try adding some chocolate chips to the mixture or / and some orange rind.

You could try lemon and honey, sesame seeds, nuts.

Try a few little experaments , see what you like!

Easy pan pizza

This is soooo easy!

You will need;

8oz flour
5 tablespoons olive oil
5 tablespoons water
Salt and pepper
Herbs and/or spices

Cheese
Tomato puree and/or chopped tomatos
Toppings of your choice


Measure out your flour in a mixing bowl, add to it some salt and pepper and some herbs or spices of your choice or you could add onions , garlic, cheese, mustard anything, if you add nothing then it will be tasteless!

Next add 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 5 tablespoons of water. Mix this into a dough and knead lightly then roll it out to about 10 inches.

Add to a 10 inch frying pan 1 tablespoon of olive oil and heat on a medium heat. When this is hot enough put in the pizza base and cook for about 5-7 minutes on a medium heat.

Turn this out onto a plate and heat another 1 tablespoon of olive oil to cook the other side of the pizza base.

While it is cooking you can add the topping to it. Either use tomato puree or a mixture of chopped tomato's (blended) and tomato puree.

Put on the cheese - as much or as little as you like.

Next add to it any other topping that you like . My favourite is mushroom and bacon!

When the other side of the pizza is cooked put it under a fairly hot grill until the topping is cooked.

And thats it an easy delicious homemade pizza in less than half an hour!