Cherry Tomato with Garlic & Chilli soup, with fresh basil, cremefresh & croutons.

Now that the cold weather is upon us, there's nothing better than tucking into a  bowl of hot soup to either warm you up or get you through the rest of the day.

You can make this fresh & serve for dinner, or make up & warm through for lunch the following day. 

Ingredients:

1kg (2lb 4oz) ripe cherry tomatoes red and yellow. You can use all red, but I like the sweetness of the yellow ones.

4 large tomatoes

1 fresh red chilli

5 cloves of garlic

1 ciabatta roll, I used one with sun dried tomatoes in it

2 small red onions

5tbsp balsamic vinegar

A small bunch of fresh basil

A few dollops of créme fraîche, to serve

A cube of vegetable stock 

Sea Salt

Black Pepper

Place all the cherry tomatoes in a large roasting tin. 8th the larger tomatoes & then slice off the tough middle cores & discard these, as these won't break down that well during the cooking process.

Now throw the large tomatoes into the roasting tray with all the cherry tomatoes.  

Then de seed a red chilli & chop into small pieces. Leave the seeds in if you want a really good kick to the soup!

Now add the chopped chilli to the tomatoes in the roasting tray.  Crush all the garlic bulbs into the roasting tray also, season with salt & pepper & drizzle over a good glug of extra virgin olive oil & mix all together.

Now place the roasting tin in a preheated oven at 220 degrees for 15/20 mins.

Peel & chop your onions & pan to a low to medium heat frying pan & cover with a tea spoon of oil olive & leave to sweat down for 10 mins.  Then add 5 table spoons of your balsamic vinegar & cook down for a 5 minutes.

Now for the croutons.  Take a ciabatta roll, half lengths ways & the cut both halves into roughly the same size pieces.

Now place in a roasting tin of their own, drizzle a good glug of olive oil over them & season well with a good pinch of sea salt.  Place in the oven on a separate shelf to the tomatoes.  These will be lovely & crispy in 10/15 mins. Shake them half way through.

Now take the tomatoes from the oven & add to the pan with the onions & mix.

Now in two batches, carefully load up your blender with the tomatoes & onions mix, sprinkle in a veg cube stock, add 4/5 leaves per batch (or in one hit) & blitz to your preferred texture, I don't like mine too smooth.

Add each batch to a large bowl.  Once you have blitzed all the tomato mix, pour the blitzed soup back into your original pan & warm through on a low heat, this is where you can season to taste.

Now in a warm bowl spoon in your soup, add a tea spoon of crime fresh & garnish with so e extra basil leaves & Enjoy!

A Banging Chilli Con Carne.

You can't beat tucking into a good bowl of Chilli Con Carne to warm you up once you've frozen your socks off at bonfire night, or on a cold & wet winters evening infront of the tv with a cold beer or large glass of red wine.

This will serve four.

Ingredients:

Tea spoon of olive oil

500g of minced beef

4 tea spoons of cumin seeds

4 tea spoons of chilli flakes

4 tea spoons of dried garlic 

2 tea spoons of plain flour

2 tea spoons of sea salt

2 tea spoons of black pepper corns

2 tea spoons of BBQ sauce

8 splashes of Worcestershire Sauce

6 splashes of Tabasco 

2 tea spoons of brown sugar

1 onion 

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1 green pepper

1 420g can of mixed beans including red kidney, pinto, cannellini, borlotti & black eye. (Or a handful of each beans)

1 400g can of chopped tomatoes

200mls of beef stock

2 squares of chilli chocolate 

Add 2 tbsps cumin seeds, 2 tbsps chilli flakes, 2 tbsps dried garlic, 1 tbsp of sea salt & 1 tbsp black pepper into a pestle & mortar & crush/grind together.  

Then place in a separate bowl.  Now repeat with the remaining cumin seeds, chilli flakes, dried garlic, sea salt & black pepper.  You can do all in one hit, but I find it makes for a better mix to do it in two hits.

Now in a good non stick frying pan, add a tea spoon of olive oil & whack the pan on a high heat.  Now brown off the mince, you want to keep hearing the mince sizzling otherwise it'll end up boiling in its own juices, so keep the heat up high. 

Once the mince is browned off, then turn the heat down to low add all the flour & cover the mince. After a minute then add your crushed mix of cumin, chilli, garlic, salt & pepper & mix into the mince.

Now finely chop up your onion & green pepper & add to the mince.

Once they are mixed in add your Worcestershire Sauce, Tabasco, Brown sugar & stir together. Now add your chopped tomatoes, 200mls of beef stock & your can of mixed beans.

Stir together & then transfer to your slow cooker & set on low.

Now add your BBQ sauce & crumble in your chilli chocolate & stir.

Now leave on a low heat for 5/6 hours.  (Though I like to check on it every hour or so for a taste, as you can always add more chilli etc as you please. Plus it'll smell so good it's hard not to try it!) 

I then like to half take the lid off, so that some moisture can leave the bowl & reduce for another 30/45 mins cooking.

Then serve either with rice or on top of a buttered crispy baked potato.  Grate a nice strong cheddar cheese on top, then garnish with sour cream & guacamole.

And ENJOY!

Grilled mackerel with Dijon mustard new potatoes & lambs lettuce

Another quick, very simple & cheap idea for lunch for two!  Another non rocket science idea/dish, but that's just exactly what it is, a lunch idea if you're stuck for what to have?

Ingredients:

250g of boneless smoked mackerel from any supermarket 

Enough new potatoes for two people

A bag of green leaves, I really like lambs lettuce

Tea spoon of Dijon mustard

Butter

Salt & pepper

And a dollop of mayonnaise on the side if you're a freak like me!

Simmer the new potatoes in boiling water for about 20 minutes & then take off the heat & leave in the hot water whilst you prepare the rest of this.

Take your pre washed green salad leaves, lambs lettuce mixed in my case here & place a good handful on your plate.

Now heat up a griddle pan on full whack & leave for a minute so it's nice & hot, now take your mackerel & place skin side down on the griddle pan & leave for 45seconds to a minute.  All you want to be aiming for is a really crispy skin on the mackerel & for the fish itself to be warmed through.  Now take off the heat.

Drain your new potatoes, add a large knob of butter, a tea spoon of Dijon mustard & a good seasoning of salt & pepper & mix them up a bit.

Add the potatoes & the mackerel to the plate with the salad on & tuck in.  Simple.

ENJOY! 

My sticky melt in the mouth BBQ ribs

Love these, they are so easy to make, cheap & are bloody fantastic to eat!  Serve them with crispy French fries & a buttered & black peppered corn on the cob & you've got yourself one hell of a treat.

The below is enough to serve 2 people though I tend to usually serve it as a 1 portion for myself!

Ingredients for the marinade:

There are loads of different types of dry rub/marinades you cab shop buy, or make up yourself, I quite like the chilli kick to go with with the sweet & smokey flavours.  

• 1 Table spoons of chilli powder
• 1 Table spoons smoked paprika
• 1 Table spoons garlic powder

• 1 Table spoons dark brown sugar
• 1/2 Table spoons of freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 Table spoons of course rock salt
• A good squeeze of a bottle of any sweet BBQ marinade sauce such as Heinz

Other ingredients:

1 rack of pork ribs from any decent butchers or supermarket 

Skinny French fries

A corn on the cob

Salt & Pepper

Butter

Any dipping sauces of your choice.

Start by taking your ribs out of the fridge & let them come up to room temperature, say 15/20 minutes.

Whilst they are sitting on the side, mix up your dry rub marinade as per the above ingredients.

Once the ribs are at room temperature, take your dry rub mix & start to cover all the ribs, really taking time to rub as much of the ribs as you can & to work the marinade into the meat.  Once this has been done, cover them up with some foil & leave on the side for 20/30 mins.

Pre heat your oven to 150 degrees.

Take a large roasting dish & add one tea spoon of water to it, then place your ribs into the dish & cover the ribs & the dish with tin foil, I double wrap just to make sure that done of the moisture escapes for the ribs & the inside of the roasting dish, as it's this moisture that'll help make your ribs melt in the mouth & fall straight off the bone.

Place in the pre heated oven at 150 degrees & leave to cook for 2 hours 15 mins.  Take out & leave on a chopping board.

Turn up your oven & cook your skinny chips as instructed, though I always cook on a slightly higher heat for less amount of time. I also like to add a good shake or grind of some coarse sea salt & a sprinkling of paprika.

After 10 mins cooking, get the corn on the cob in some boiling water & cook as instructed.

Now open the ribs up from the foil & squeeze over a generous covering of the sweet sticky BBQ marinade all over the ribs & place uncovered back into the oven for 7/8 mins.  

Get a plate your serving on in the oven also, as food served on a hot plate is so much easier to keep your food warm when you're eating it.

Take your corn on the cob & smother with a large knob of butter & crack over a lot of black pepper, take your chips & ribs out the oven, plate up & serve with an ice cold beer.

Enjoy! 

Monkfish poached in a white wine, garlic & fresh tomato sauce.Delicious.

Love this recipe which I stole off a good mate of mine & top cook himself.   Made this recently for my Mum & Dad when they came over for my Dads birthday, went down a treat & base sauce is to die for!

Served with buttered new potatoes, fine green beans & broccoli.  Really easy to make, very tasty & being a nice meaty fish doesn't leave you feeling too bloated.  Monkfish is fantastic but if you can't get your hands on any, Cod or any other meaty fish would be just as good.

This will serve sought for four people. 

Ingredients:

2 lb fillet of monkfish, cut into 4 pieces 

Good glug of Olive oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

2-4 shallots, depending on size, finely chopped

2 gloves garlic, finely chopped

A large handful of cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters 

1/3 cup very finely chopped parsley

1/4 cup of crisp white wine (if it's good enough to drink, it'll definitely do!) 

1/3 cup fish stock

salt and pepper

Tea spoon of double cream

Put the new potatoes in simmering/boiling water for 20mins or until nearly soft, the turn off the heat cover & leave in the hot water, they'll be lovely & soft by the time you've knocked this up.

The San Miguel was for the Chef whilst chopping this lot up! ;-)  

In a good sized pan heat the butter and the oil.  Add the shallots and gently cook until soft and just turning golden.

Add the garlic and continue cooking for another 2-3 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and parsley, cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring well and allowing the tomatoes to release their liquid.

Turn up the heat, add the white wine and cook for a minute, add the fish stock & parsley then turn down to a simmer.  Allow to simmer for 10 minutes or so.

Remove from the heat, add a tea spoon of double cream and transfer to a blender.  

Blitz and return to the pan.  

 Add the pieces of monkfish, throw on some rough chopped parsley & cover the the pan and cook on low/medium heat for about 8/10 minutes or until the fish is fully cooked through.  Don't overcook or the fish will be tough.

Now's a good time to get some plates in a warm oven & the green beans & broccoli on the go.

Remove from the heat, Serve immediately with buttered & well seasoned new potatoes, fine green beans & broccoli.

ENJOY!