Stewed Aubergine with Prawns
Due to forgetfulness, I had a rather tired aubergine in the fridge. It was definitely past being suitable for griddling in slices, so I diced it up into cm ish pieces.
The sauce contains: a tin of chopped tomatoes, the diced aubergine, two whole, slightly squashed garlic cloves (removed at the end), chilli flakes, stalk of fresh rosemary and a bay leaf (removed at the end) and a good grinding of salt. It is not essential to remove the garlic at the end, but the sauce tasted just right and I didn’t want to over-garlic it.
Warm a little olive oil in a heavy, oven-proof pan and add the diced aubergine, stirring well to stop it sticking. It will soak up the oil for now, that’s fine. Add everything else and combine well, before putting the pan into a medium oven for at least thirty minutes.
The prawns were cooked already, so they were warmed through in the cooked sauce.
It’d be fabulous with pasta, obviously, but I fancied a baked potato, which was just as delicious.
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The Top 5 Recipes Our Family Loves & How To Make Them
Every family has them. Those mouth watering at the mere mention recipes. Those beautiful meals that take you right back to childhood, the ones that remind you of Christmas, or helped you get through a tough time. Food has always been a place we run to when times are tough. The thing we most worry about when hosting parties. The center piece of our most memorable vacations.
Over the years I’ve learned the best meals don’t have the most ingredients! They have a few high quality ingredients. When you’re cooking make sure you use the highest quality you can afford. Whether it’s your turn to cook dinner tonight, or you’re looking for a new family holiday tradition, we hope this list of our family’s favorites hits the spot for you like it does for us!
1. Bazagna
Ok, so this is our version of Lasagna. My daughter called it Bazagna when she was little, no matter how many times we tried to correct it, so now we all do. Simple and crazy good! No matter how tempting DO NOT USE bottled sauce. The sauce below is simple and way to good to sub. It really does make all the difference.
Ingredients:
2lb ground beef
Oven ready lasagna pasta
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
Fresh parmesan (brick)
Goat cheese (crumble or brick)
Basil (fresh leaf)
Garlic cloves
1 Bag Shredded mozzarella
Chives (optional for presentation)
Steps:
Cook 2 lb ground beef over medium high heat until the fat and water is absorbed. Set aside
Turn heat down to medium. Pour 2-3 glugs of Extra Virgin Olive Oil into the already hot pan. Add the diced garlic. Pour in the large can of crushed tomatoes. Cook until thick. Add fresh basil and salt to taste.
Mix in cooked ground beef. Congrats, the sauce is finished.
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees
Coat the bottom of an oven safe pan with sauce, then add one layer of oven ready lasagna pasta, one layer of sauce, one layer of fresh parmesan, and nobs of goat cheese. Repeat until pan is full. Finish with 2 lbs of mozzarella. (If you don’t like goat cheese you can sub Ricotta, cream cheese, or cottage cheese.
Cook in oven for 30 minutes, or until the cheese is nice and golden brown. Let it rest for about 10-15 minutes. Serve.
2. Chicken Fried Rice
Healthy, Fast, & Easy to make in bulk. Everyone loves it! You can make it as complicated as you want, but I don’t. I keep it simple and basic.
Ingredients:
2lb chicken thighs
Calrose rice (Jasmine is also amazing.)
Frozen bag of carrots & peas
Eggs
Sesame oil
Soy sauce
Shrimp (if you’re feeling fancy)
Steps:
Cook rice according to instructions
While rice is cooking, heat 2-3 glugs of olive or avocado oil in a wok (or skillet) to medium high. Cook chicken thighs fully, set aside to cool, then dice.
Add the frozen veggies to the pan, when fully cooked make a hole in the middle of the pan and scramble 6 eggs.
Add the diced chicken and rice, pour 2-3 teaspoons of sesame oil, and soy sauce to taste.
Done! Air fry some egg rolls or pan stickers for the side! Pure joy.
3. Cheese & Berry Crepes
Our absolute favorite Christmas tradition. I only make them at Christmas to keep it special. I will admit it’s hard. Sometimes the kids get me and ask for them on their birthday. It’s the only breakfast my kids wait to open presents for. Seriously! Try them out and you’ll understand why.
Ingredients:
Flour
Milk (regular or plant)
Eggs
Butter
Cream Cheese
White Chocolate Pudding Mix (French Vanilla also a good option)
Fresh Mixed Berries (Your choice, but do not use frozen)
Honey
Lemon
Whipped Cream
Steps:
In a large bowl whisk 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk, and 1 egg. This is your crepe batter.
Make pudding mix according to instructions, then add half a block of cream cheese. This is your filling
In a large bowl mix your berries, juice of one lemon, and a generous pour of honey. This is your topping.
Heat a small nob of butter in a pan at medium low heat. Add the crepe batter to the center covering only half the pan, then swirl the pan until a very thin layer covers the whole surface. When the top of the batter is no longer wet, flip the pan on to a plate and repeat.
Spread a layer of filling on the lighter colored side of the crepe, fold in half, then fold in half again, creating a triangle. Top with berries, whipped cream, and if you’re feeling fancy grate lemon zest on top.
I hope these make your Christmas mornings as happy as ours!
4. Chili Con Carne With Crispy Potatoes
The most versatile meal on the planet! You can eat chili with burgers, hot dogs, rice, potatoes, pasta, add cheese and it becomes a dip! Change the meat from beef to pork and it becomes a whole new experience, use turkey and you can claim it’s some type of fitness meal! LOL! It does everything! Most of all when it’s cold outside it hugs your soul! My favorite is a combo of beef and bacon with crispy potatoes! I just drooled on the keyboard. Gross.
Ingredients:
2lbs ground beef
1 pack of finely chopped bacon
2 cans red beans (any type of beans work)
1 small can tomato paste
Chili powder (the darker the color the more rich the taste)
Crushed garlic cloves
Finely diced Sweet onion
Gold Potatoes
Shredded Cheddar
Sour Cream
Cilantro
Steps:
In a pot fully cook finely chopped bacon on medium high heat, strain then set aside.
Cook ground beef on medium high heat until fat and water is absorbed. Make sure you constantly move it around and break it up. We want the beef to be as small as possible. No nasty dry chunks.
Add bacon, onion, garlic, a generous amount of Chili powder, and tomato paste. Cook until tomato paste is fully dissolved into meat.
Add beans and enough water to fully cover mixture. Let it cook down for about an hour at medium low heat stirring occasionally.
While the chili is cooking pre heat the oven to 425 degrees and cut up your gold potatoes. Put them into a mixing bowl. Pour in a generous amount of olive oil then season with salt. Mix until evenly coated then pour on to a bake sheet and bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.
Pour the Chili onto the potatoes then top with cheese, sour cream, and cilantro! So freakin’ good! Especially when it’s cold and raining. Double the recipe to have a solid amount of left overs.
5. Cacio e Pepe
A delicious ancient Roman recipe. I learned how to make this from Stanley Tucci’s book Taste. Instantly became a family favorite! After this you will never buy boxed Mac’ N Cheese or bottled Alfredo sauce ever again. The most insanely easy dish for those nights you really don’t feel like cooking.
Ingredients:
1lb spaghetti (sub any pasta)
Block of parmesan (sub any cheese, as long as its not pre shredded)
Black Pepper
(Optional: We often add breaded chicken with a squeeze of lemon on top)
Steps:
Boil the pasta al dente in salted water. (Minus 1 minute from the directions on the box.)
Save 1 coffee mug of the pasta water then strain
Add 2 large handfuls of freshly grated cheese, 2 pinches of black pepper, and your mug of pasta water. Stir & Serve.
For the kids Mac n Cheese I’ll add a couple nobs of butter, swap parmesan for medium cheddar, and leave out the pepper. Don’t use pre-shredded cheese. The anti caking agents in it make for a sub par dish. Simple & fast! From start to finish maybe 10 minutes! Definitely my kids favorite!
Well, there you go! Our family’s top 5 ridiculously delicious recipes! Try them out! Let us know what you think, and check out our other content for helpful reviews, tutorials, and must haves!
Photo Credit:
All the recipes above are our family's. But, Im not the greatest photographer. I'm getting better. Here's where i got the photos I swiped. However, all of these sites have amazing recipes. Check them out!
Lasagna: Inpiredtaste
Chicken Fried Rice: Healthyfitnessmeals
Chili: Brian Kavanagh | The Sophisticated Caveman
Crepes: Diethood
Cacio e Pepe: Nonnabox
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Frittata Friday
I know an omelette and a frittata are similar, but in my mind, a frittata is more ‘stuff’ than egg.
Today’s ‘stuff’ was: finely sliced onion, one crushed clove of garlic, grated cheese, sweetcorn, red pepper, dried chilli flakes, salt and pepper and a little bit of finely chopped chorizo, which is optional, but tastes so good. If making a vege version, I’d add a little smoked paprika to give a similar flavour.
I only used one egg and a dash of milk, as I wanted some fries with it and there was so much ‘stuff’ in it, one egg was plenty.
I have a fabulous old pan, with a heavy base, which is perfect for a frittata or omelette. You can use oil, which is probably more traditional, but I always do them in a knob of butter. It’s vital to allow it to brown well on the bottom, before attempting to turn it over, or it’ll completely collapse. It’s not an exact science and you just have to lift it slightly to check, but generally it’ll be between 5-10 minutes. It shouldn’t need quite as long on the other side.
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"A Good Meal"
The writer Pat Conroy supposedly said those words about recipes. I thought it’s an apt title for a first post because, after all, no matter how good or bad we are as cooks — whether at home or inside a restaurant — what we always aspire to create is a good meal. The key word here, of course, is aspire.
Now I’m not a chef. My cooking experience, as it were, is limited to my struggles with a singular task every time I turn on the stove or oven: By the end of the hour — or the day, if I make KBL (kadyos, baboy, langka — I have to have something on the table to nourish myself and my family. It’s an obligation borne out of a necessity, but I aspire, as always, for a good meal even when cooking the simplest, like sauteed Mega sardines, or the quickest of dishes, like fried marinated bangus (milkfish).
I have my cooking pretensions, of course. I’d be lying if I wasn’t inspired by Julia Child or Ina Garten or Stanley Tucci or Nigella Lawson or, more recently, Lidia Bastianich and Jacques Pepin. They help home cooks like me and my wife Ayi to aspire for that good meal. The thing about these celebrity chefs and cooks is that they make cooking look so easy and enjoyable, and even though you find out inevitably that it’s hard to replicate what they create (and realize, too, that all of what you see on the screen is marketing-driven), they make your mouth water enough to compel yourself to try to do what they do. Because, as I said, it’s always about a good meal.
My personal history with home cooking encompasses my humble, poverty-stricken childhood in the ‘60s and ‘70s in the southern Philippines (when a soup of poached eggs and lemon grass was considered a luxury) and my decidedly bourgeois obsessions these days (enjoying, for instance, toasted sourdough bread dipped in Nigella Lawson’s recipe of “Eggs in Purgatory”). I can cook the most spartan of meals but at the same time I’m exploring, at the moment, the more, um, sophisticated fare I see on television.
Whatever it is that end up on our dinner table, if it does what it intends to do — fill our tummy, make us happy, nourish us enough to enjoy another day — that is a good meal.
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