Artichoke & Chicken Pasta Bake

I feel cheated lately because I have learnt just in the last few days that bechamel is french for white sauce! I always thought that bechamel was this complex sauce and simply refused to do any dishes with bechamel and it turns out to be the french word for white sauce made of butter, flour and milk! 

Anyway, the brits have made me realize that white sauce is quite perfect for many dishes and it is not unhealthy like using cream all the time, which is so fattening AND it curdles when it boils. Did you hear that??? Cream curdles when it boils and no one has told me that before. 

Anyway, here is a recipe that I have made from a few ideas I have been watching here and there....it has a lot of balance and artichokes being the star, these one dinner trays are the best because who has time for cooking separate dishes? 

INGREDIENTS:

-3 chicken breasts.

-250 grams of pasta (pene or macarroni).

-a good bunch of spinach.

-200 grams of artichokes in oil/water.

-200 grams of asparagus. 

-2 medium carrots (optional)

-a bunch of breadcrumbs. 

-some grated cheese for top.

For the white sauce:

-1 tablespoon of butter.

-4 tablespoons of flour.

-2 cups of milk.

-cheddar cheese.

-2 teaspoons of dijon mustard.

-salt and pepper.

STEPS: 

1. Dice up the chicken and seal it but don't cook all the way through and set apart.

2. Boil the pasta in the meantime, together with the diced carrots to save time and set apart.

3. Cut up the asparagus in 2cm pieces and sautee a little for 3 minutes and set apart. 

4. Start preparing the white sauce. Melt the butter in saucepan and then add about 2 tablespoons of butter until you create this grey paste. Then add the milk and stir away until it is all smooth. It's simple, if it is too runny add more flour, if it is too solid add more milk. Now bring the sauce to a boil and it will magically thicken. Get it out of the stove and let it cool.

5. Now season the white sauce with dijon mustard, grated chesee, salt and pepper. Taste it and see if it needs more salt. 

6. Now add the esparagus, spinach and the drained artichocke to the sauce and mix together for about 5-10 minutes in low heat.

7. Once the pasta is ready, place it on a oven dish. Now add the chicken and distribute evenly around the whole oven dish. 

8. Now add the delicious sauce with the veggies and give it all a good toss so that everything is well mixed.

9. Now sprinkle the pasta with the cheese first, and then breadcrumbs. Wow, breadcrumbs just finish this dish like amazingly.

10. Stick in the oven for about 30 minutes at 200 degrees. 

Real good! I like this dish because the acidic artichokes and strong asparagus contrasts well with the soft cream, pasta and chicken, etc. Next time I will not add carrots. Great recipe for fall and winter days.

 

Broccoli and Goat's Cheese Soup

My husband calls me the Queen of Soups. And it is true. Is there anything better than a good soup in the winter or fall or really spring? Soups is all I cook at night. They fill you up and warm you. Did you know that it is one of the tricks for asians people to stay thin? 

I have found a keeper recipe in the book Good Housekeeping Cookery Book at Tyndale House in Cambridge. So good! 

INGREDIENTS:

-700 grams of broccoli
-2 medium onions. 
-150 grams of crumbly goat cheese.

-50 grams of butter.
-1 litre of chicken/vegetable stock.
-pepper and salt.
-6 garlic cloves (optional).

STEPS:

1. Melt the butter in a pot and cut up the onion in slices. Saute in low heat till it becomes translucent. 

2. Add the 1 litre stock and bring to a boil. 

3. And now add the broccoli that you have cut up in florets and bring it all to a boil again. Then turn down fire to simmer for 20 minutes.

4. Now let the soup cool a little and now add the cheese and stir.

5. In the meantime you can prepare the garlic if you want (totally optional this step). Basically just roast some garlic cloves in the oven with some oil. Let it roast for 20 minutes.

6. Get your hand blender and puree the soup. 

7. Finally serve in bowls and add black pepper and the garlic cloves to give some extra roasted flavour. You can peel the cloves and stir them in the soup but for me that was too much.

Superb! 

again: who would have known that goat cheese and broccoli would go together?? Not in a million years I would have guessed this.

 

Creamy Fish Pie

Still in the UK and enjoying some basic British recipes. Another one I was after: fish pie. Around 1 hour in total, massive mess in the kitchen but worth it. 

I watched these two videos to make this recipe, but pretty much followed this one. 

INGREDIENTS:

-5 eggs.
-4 salmon fillets.

-2 satchels of mashed potatoes or 

1 kg of potatoes.

-2 or 3 handfuls of spinach.

For the white sauce:

-5o grams of butter.

-50 grams of flour.

-350 ml of milk.

-2 tsps. of dijon mustard.

-50 grms of cheddard cheese.

-salt.

-pepper.

-green onions.

STEPS:

1. Boil the eggs for 12 mins until they fully boiled. Peel them off.

2. Cut up the salmon fillets in slices not too thin and distribute in pan as well as the eggs cut up in fours.

3. Get the sauce ready. Melt the butter in a stove and add the flour, creating a paste. Now add the milk and stir and stir and stir. Bring it to a boil and get it out of the stove. It will thicken. Now add the seasoning, the mustard, the grated cheese, the pepper, the salt and the green onions. Make sure it is all tasty and salty.

4. Now add the sauce onto the baking tray with the salmon and the eggs and distribute it. 

5. Add the spinach on top of the sauce, distribute.

6. Now get your mashed potato going (I did instant), and when ready pour on top and with a fork trace some lines. Now add the cheese.

7. Stick in oven for 30 minutes in 200 degree temperature until it gets golden on top.

Delicious. Although next time I will add fish stock to the white sauce.

Who would have thought for one minute that mustard, cheese, spinach, eggs and salmon could actually go together?? We are too tough on the brits....they do some have a couple of good recipes here and there. ;) 

 

The very best chicken Soup by Turia Pitt

In Cambridge!

How beautiful is fall you all....it seems like this season everything is colourful and magical, with orange, yellow and pumpkins, bikes and leaves.  

So I came across this recipe of Turia Pitt on her favorite chicken soup, she is also a sucker for chicken soup like me. So I screenshot it and since then I have already made it twice in one week.

 So here it is.

INGREDIENTS:

-1 whole chicken.

-2 medium onions.

-2 cloves of garlic

-4 carrots.

-4 sticks of celery.

-2 cubes of chicken stock.

-15 brussels sprouts (optional)

-black lentils. (optional)

-black pepper, salt, white pepper, rosemary.

STEPS:

1.  Chop up the two onions with the garlic and sautee until onions are traslucent and a lovely aroma comes.

2. Chop up the carrots and celery and sautee for a few minutes.

3. Now add the whole chicken into the pot. Yes do not be afraid, just do it like the photo. 

4. Cover it with water and add the chicken stock. Here add your spices, I add rosemary always, black pepper (lots) and lentils if you want. Turn it down to a simmer. 

5. Let it simmer for about an hour. Now add the Brussels sprouts and let is simmer for another hour if you want. 

6. Now after 1 or 2 hours get the chicken out and shred the meat and add back to the soup. Ready!

Super comforting soup that can last for 4-5 days. The longer you leave the skeleton in the soup the better but do not leave the whole chicken with the skin or the soup will turn super greasy.

Thank you Turia and her friend who gave her this recipe. 

Italian Sausage & Vegetable Soup

This recipe is one of those that just has to do be in my blog. I have always loved Italian sausage soup since I lived in the USA. This recipe is perfect and not hard.

INGREDIENTS:

-6 medium sausages.
-2 carrots.
-1 zuchinni.
-1 medium onion.
-3 celery stalks.
-1 clove of garlic.
-1,5 litres of water.
-1/2 of vegetable stock.
-1 tspoon of thyme.
-400 grams of diced tomatoes.
-a bundle of some frozen spinach.
-pepper and salt.
-optional: some pasta/potatoes.
-optional: white beans.

STEPS:

1. Brown the sausages in a pot and set apart. I use the same one for the entire recipe.
2. Dice up the vegetables, including the garlic in little squares and sautee in the pot in which you have just fried the sausages a bit. Sautee them for 10 minutes until they soften up a little.
3. Now add the pepper and salt and add the can of diced tomatoes the thyme and the water and stock.
4. Add the sausage that you have sliced up and bring everything to a boil. 
5. Now reduce heat and let it simmer to medium fire. 
6. After another 10 minute add the pasta, spinach and beans.
7. After 10-15 minutes pasta should be done and it will all have come together nicely.

Yum, serve with bread, crisps, etc. I add the beans and the pasta to make it a complete meal and forget about it all. 

Rhubarb & Apple Crumble

Yum!
One of the best thing of living in other countries is the different fruits and classics you can do. Another classic, rhubarb crumble, rhubarb does not even exist in Spain.

I followed another BBC recipe and worked out great. 

INGREDIENTS:

For the fruit mix:
-500 grms of rhubarb.
-500 grms of apples.
-180 grms of sugar (aprox).

For the crumble:
(this crumble is for 2 pies, and you can freeze it)
-250 grms of flour.
-160 grms of cold butter.
-80 grms of oats
-100 grms of brown sugar.

STEPS:

1.  Cut up the fruit (rhubarb and apples into pieces) and coat it in sugar. 
2. Stick in oven for 20 minutes and roast, turning it every once in a while. It will caramelize a little....yes drooling. The fruit will soften and roast. 
3. Now in the meantime, make the crumble. Add the ingredients above together and dissolve with hands. The butter has to be COLD and hard. Stick in the freezer if it isn't.
4. Now transfer the cooked fruit to your pretty dish that you will use. The fruit will have shrunk so you need a smaller dish. Now add the crumble on top and be generous.
5. Stick in oven again for 20 minutes or until the crumble is golden. 

Ready! 
I find that the proportion of sugar to the sourness is the tricky part in these desserts. In my opinion the British recipes are better than American ones, which contain so much sugar you'd be running marathons, every single day to burn off. I read MANY recipes to understand that this is a pretty good proportion. Let me know what you think.

Toad in the Hole

A super British classic now that we are in the Lake District. Wow this area is sooooo spectacular. Highly recommend it. I NEEDED to do this one being here and it came out pretty great! I'm doing this one back in Spain for sure. A comforting pub dish, pretty decently healthy, original recipe here from BBC.

INGREDIENTS

-300 grms of flour
-4 eggs
-400 ml of milk
-12 sausages.
-oil
-a bunch of fresh rosemary.
-salt&pepper.


STEPS

1. First prepare the sausages. Brown sausages in the oven to 200 degrees for 10-15 minutes and flip them so that they are brown on both sides. Drizzle them with olive oil.
2. In the meantime, prepare the batter for the Yorkshire pudding, which is the yellowy doughy blanket around them. For that you need to put the flour in a big container and make a space in the centre and there put the eggs. Now mix it all gently.
3. You will get a big lump of dough and egg and now add the milk and whisk until it is very smooth, it has to be slightly runny, not too doughy, but more on the liquidy side. 
4. Now add the salt and pepper (1/2 teaspoon of each) and stick in the freezer for a while or oven for an hour (I put it in the freezer because I had no time) until it gets cold.
5. Get the sausages out of the oven and now pour the batter in the container. The sausages should be half covered in the batter ideally. 
6. Now add the rosemary leaves on top. This is a great great touch that adds a lot.
7. Stick in oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees and let the batter rise, do NOT open the door of the oven.
8. Check if the batter is golden and has risen and if that is the case it is ready! At this point you can also turn the temperature down a little so the the dough is fully cooked and leave it for 5 minutes.
9. And that's it. Serve with gravy (granules one will do) and of course Brussels sprouts will make you feel like you are back to 

           

How to Make Butter

 I had no idea butter was so easy to do. I mean who wants to make butter right when you can buy it in the supermarket...but it is so useful to know things like this I find. Just so plain gratifying.  Found it in Bigger Bolder Baking.

All you need to make butter is:

INGREDIENTS:

-200 ml of 36% fat cream 
(nata para montar in Spanish or double cream in UK). 
-a blender.
-some clean cloth.
-salt? if you want.

STEPS:

1. There are basically no steps. Simply put the cream in bowl and mix with the blender for about 6-7 minutes until it becomes butter! It will go through the stages of nice creamy cream for cakes, and then it gets yellowy and then the water separates and you butter left.

2. Now place in a cloth with a spoon and drain as hard as you can. The water is actually buttermilk, so you can save it for cakes, pancakes, etc. 

3. Now scoop it out. Season it with salt and that's it.

            

          

Wow, we need to go back to the basics in this life.