Author: Seaneen's Sunnyside Kitchen

‘El Bulli’ Bean Soup with Picada

Seaneen's Sunnyside KitchenLeave a comment

El Bulli was one of the most famous 3 Michelin star restaurants in the world.  I don’t claim this was what they served their customers, but apparently they would provide a 3 course meal for staff each day, and this is one of those dishes.

Anyone who’s ever worked in fancy restaurants will you the traditional staff meal can often be a bit ropey to say the least (I worked in a place once that only ever fed us cheap and nasty chicken nuggets).  A cook book based around El Bulli’s staff meals has actually been published called The Family Meal (dropping hints ahead of Christmas, just in case Santa is reading this)

It’s good to see El Bulli fed their staff well, and while it isn’t an extravagant dish, it’s delicious.  The thing that takes it to another level is the Picada (a Catalan version of pesto, made with hazelnuts and parsley).

Do yourself a favour and try to buy ready blanched hazelnuts, it will save a lot of time and effort.

Ingredients

For the soup

1 Onion (finely chopped)

1 Tbsp Oil

1 Clove garlic (finely chopped)

2 x 400 Gram Tins of cannellini beans

1 Litre Vegetable Stock (I used a 2 x stock cubes)

400 Mil Carton of Passata

1 Tsp Rosemary (Finely chopped)

1 Sprig of Thyme (or 1/2 Tsp of dried Thyme)

Salt and Pepper to taste

For the Picada

1 x Large punch of parsley or couple of handfuls (roughly chopped)

1-2 Cloves of garlic

75 Grams Hazelnuts (try to buy the pre-blanched one, as removing the skins is a pain in the a*se)

50-75 Mil Olive oil, (or more if you want the Picada to be looser)

1/2 Tsp Salt

Serves 4

Method

  • For the soup, heat the oil in a large pot, and add the onion and cook over a medium heat until it becomes translucent, add the garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes before adding the rest of the soup ingredients to the pot.  Simmer for over a low heat for 20 minutes.
  • While the soup is cooking you can make the picada.  If you haven’t been able to find ready blanched hazelnuts, heat the nuts in a frying pan until they smell nutty (I know this sounds weird but when you can smell the nut smell it means they are ready),  Transfer the toasted nuts onto the centre of a clean tea towel, bring the edges together and roll the nuts within the towel until the papery outer layer comes away
  • If you have more sense than I did and have bought hazelnuts without skins, add these to a food processer and pulse a couple of times until the nuts have broken up.  Add the rest of the picada ingredients to the food processer and blitz until you have a bright green paste.  I like mine quite chunky and rustic, but you can whizz it up until you get a super smooth paste if that’s your thing. 
  • Transfer the picada to a bowl and wipe the food processer, and you will be ready to transfer half the soup to the food processer and whizz until smooth before returning to the pot and stirring well.  This helps to thicken the soup
  • Add half the picada to the soup and stir well, before serving in large bowls.  Spoon a dollop of the picada in the centre of each bowl, serve crusty bread for a simple but delicious meal.

Pecan Pie

Seaneen's Sunnyside KitchenLeave a comment

It’s Thanksgiving and while I’m not American I do like the idea of getting together with your loved ones and sharing what you are grateful at least one day a year.

With this in mind I decided to make one of my favourite desserts, pecan pie.

If you use ready made pastry this is fairly quick to assemble giving you time to get on with other things.

Serves 8-10

Ingredients

1 Sheet of ready made/ready rolled pastry

100 Grams Dark brown sugar

170 mil Condensed milk

1 Tbsp Maple or golden syrup

2 Eggs

150 Grams Pecan nuts

Method

  • Grease a 9 in pie dish. Preferably one with a removable bottom. I think metal dishes work best but use what you have. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees (Celsius)
  • Line the pie dish with the ready rolled pastry, make sure its pressed well into the corners. Cover the pastry wth baking parchment and cover with baking beans or just use old dried rice like I do, and bake for 10 minutes.
  • Carefully lift the baking parchment and baking beans out of the pastry shell and bake for another 10 minutes before removing from the oven
  • Reduce the oven heat to 170 degrees
  • Add all the remaining ingredients (except the nuts) to a large bowl and whisk until well combined.
  • Pour the mix into the pastry case and top with nuts. Bake for 50 minutes and allow to cool before cutting

24 Hours in Amsterdam

Seaneen's Sunnyside KitchenLeave a comment

I last visited Amsterdam a lifetime ago.  When the chance to came to revisit it again, I was on it like a car bonnet.

The place is just effortlessly cool and I can recommend staying in the Vondlespark district, with its beautiful parkland, gorgeous houses, great restaurants and about a 10-15 minute walk for the Museumsplein.

You can also rent bikes easily and the city has extensive bike lanes, with the majority of locals opting cycle for most day to day trips.

The Museumplein is a square containing multiple world class museums including the Rijksmuseum, which has some amazing works by old Dutch masters and another museum dedicated to Vincent Van Gogh. 

You could spend an entire day in either of these museums. Since I had visited them both before and didn’t have the luxury of endless amounts of time I decided to visit MOCO, which was originally built to resemble a hunting lodge between the two larger museums.

This was my favourite part of the trip, it’s exhibits included works by contemporary artists like Banksy, Andy Wharhol, and Damien Hirst.

Other exhibits included mind bending digital light installations, and a sculpture garden.  MOCO’s exhibitions are quirky, lighted hearted, easy to navigate and well worth a visit.  The entrance fee is €22.50 and has a pretty cool gift shop.

If you’ve had your fill of culture and want to see an “earthier” side of the city, you can visit the De Wallen district.  This is home to the city’s legal red light district, with sex workers posing in windows facing out onto the street to entice customers.  It’s a busy area and didn’t feel unsafe when I visited, but it’s also popular with stag parties and things can get a bit leery late at night.

You’ll also find any number of legal “Brown cafes” or coffees shops selling an eye watering variety of hashish, edibles and cannibas products.  You’ll probably leave the place with a contact high as the smell of weed is everywhere for a couple of streets (quick traveller tip, don’t use the taxi rank in De Wallen, we were quoted €45 for a short trip that ended up costing €14 with an Uber).

A short walk brings you onto Dam Square where can sit outside in cool cafes and people watch, before window shopping in the high end designer shops.

If you walk a short distance towards the central train station you’ll find lots of companies offering canal cruises starting from €16. You can also take cruises that include drinks and dinner if you want something fancier.

We took an evening cruise which was a fantastic way to see the city’s unique architecture with the elegant 17th and 18th century buildings beautifully flood lit at night. You’ll learn more about the massive wealth that was accumulated by Holland’s merchant class that turned a small village into a cultural and financial hub. You’ll notice homes in Amsterdam don’t tend to close their curtains at night. This is meant to hark back to a Reformation tradition that you left curtains undrawn to show you had nothing to hide, (it’s also great to be able to get a looky loo inside some of the houses)

The locals are friendly and customer service is great, and excellent English is spoken virtually everywhere. It’s easy to find great places to eat. Prices for food and drink vary depending on how close you are to tourist attractions (like most cities). If you are visiting don’t forget to try the local specialities like chips with mayonnaise (you’ll burn those calories off when you’re walking/cycling around the city). Don’t forget to stock up on some stroopwafels for coming home.

Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Seaneen's Sunnyside KitchenLeave a comment

Baked potatoes are a great cheap meal, these pimp them up a notch.

Whenever I have the oven on I try add a couple of potatoes to bake so I get my money’s worth out of using the oven (you can cool them, keep them in the fridge for the next couple of days and then heat them up in the microwave (you can also bake them in the microwave but I don’t they taste as good, and you don’t get he nice slightly crunchy skins). I have also tried making these in an air fryer and they worked really well too.

You can swap out the fillings if you need to use up left overs. I like these for lunch, but they also make a good side dish.

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 Large potatoes (baked until soft, the time will depend on the size of the potatoes)

1-2 Scallions/spring onions (finely sliced)

2 Tbsp Mayonnaise

75 Grams Cheddar cheese (grated)

Salt & pepper

Method

  • Preheat oven to 200%
  • Cut the cooked potatoes in half and scoop he middle out and place in a separate bowl
  • Mash the scooped out potato with a fork, stir in the scallions, mayonnaise, a half the cheese as we as salt and pepper before mixing well
  • Spoon the mixture back into the potato skins and sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the potatoes
  • Bake for 15-20 minutes until the cheese bubbling and starting to brown

Cauliflower Cheese Soup

Seaneen's Sunnyside KitchenLeave a comment

It’s comfort food season and this rich velvety smooth soup will make you feel all warm and cosy inside.

I like to top mine with some croutons made from stale baguette I had left over, and a little grated cheese. It’s also amazing topped with some crunchy bacon bits.

Ingredients

1 Cauliflower (broken into thumb sized florets)

1 Large potato (peeled and into 2-3 cm cubes)

1 Onion (finely chopped)

1 Tbsp Oil

350 Ml Milk

1 Litre Vegetable stock (I used 2 stock cubes)

100 Grams Mature cheddar or other strong cheese (grated)

Method

  • Heat the oil in a large pot and fry over a medium heat until the onion softens
  • Add the potatoes and cauliflower to the pot and cook for 5 minutes stirring occasionally
  • Add the milk and vegetable stock and heat until just before the soup comes to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 15 minutes
  • Check that the potatoes and cauliflower are cooked (they should be soft enough to stick a fork in easily)
  • In a food blender or with an immersion blender whizz the soup until totally smooth. Add the grated cheese and give a final whizz to make sure it incorporated, cook for a further 5 minutes
  • Taste the soup to check the seasoning and add salt and pepper if you think it needs it. Sprinkle with your favourite topping

Witch’s Fingers

Seaneen's Sunnyside KitchenLeave a comment

Halloween has become a total sugar fest, and not everyone has a sweet tooth

If you’re having a Halloween party and don’t want your little humans bouncing off the walls off their t*ts on sugar then try these.

They might look creepy but they’re pretty tasty and are easy to make (you might even get your tiny humans to help). Even better you’ll only need 3 ingredients.

I used string cheese for this, but you could also use hard cheese like cheddar cut into batons. For the meat part I used Parma ham but use any deli meet you like.

Makes 8

8 Cheese strings/batons of hard cheese

8 Slice of Parma ham or Prosciutto (or other deli meat)

8 Almonds

Method

Cut a 1cm slit in one end of the cheese stick and wedge the almond in the slit.

Wrap the cheese stick with the meat, leaving the almond showing so it looks like a finger nail.

Mauritian Chicken Curry

Seaneen's Sunnyside KitchenLeave a comment

I was lucky enough to visit Mauritius last year and stayed at the amazing Outrigger resort. While there, their very sweet and super talented Chef Matthieu showed me how to make this fantastic curry.

Mauritius was populated largely by slaves and indentured servants brought from India and the Asian sub continent to work on the sugar plantations. So their food is highly flavoured and draws influence from many different cultures.

Ingredient for the curry paste.

Now that the cold wet weather is back I needed a little reminder of lush and beautiful place I visited and the warm friendly people who were kind enough to share this recipe with me.

This curry is usually eaten with roti flat breads, but nan bread or rice are also great with it.

Ingredients

500 Grams Chicken breast or thigh meat (cut into bite sized chunks)

1 Onion (finely chopped)

1 Tbsp Minced garlic

1 Tbsp Minced ginger

1/2 Tbsp Chilli powder

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 Tbsp Salt

2 Tbsp Oil

1 Tbsp Garam masala powder

For the curry paste

1 Onion (finely chopped)

100 Grams Dessicated coconut

2 Tbsp Fennel seeds

5 Cloves of garlic

2 Cinnamon sticks (or 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon)

Method

  • Marinade the chicken with the minced garlic and ginger, salt, chilli powder and lemon juice for 30 minutes
  • Heat a large frying pan before adding the coconut to toast until light brown, stirring regularly (don’t take your eyes of this, as it can burn in a second). Remove from the pan a set to one side (or else it will keep on cooking with the heat of the pan)
  • Add 1 Tbsp of oil and cook 1 chopped onion over a medium until it starts to caramelise.
  • Add the toasted coconut, caramelised onion, garlic cloves, fennel seeds and cinnamon to a blender and blitz until you have a crumbly paste
  • Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large pan, before adding the diced chicken and finely sliced onion and seal over a high heat for 1-2 minutes. Reduce the heat and add the paste, cook this for 5 minutes before adding 500ml (1 pint of water) and the garam masala powder and mix well.
  • Simmer gently for a further 20-30 minutes. Adding more water if you think it needs it. It should be quiet a loose curry, as the sauce is the best bit for mopping all the delicious flavours with flat breads.

Pear and Chocolate Muffins

Seaneen's Sunnyside KitchenLeave a comment

Rich chocolate muffins with a bite of juicy pear in each one.

Ground almonds in this recipe keeps these super light and moist, yummy.

Makes 12

Ingredients

150 Grams Ground almonds

2 & 1/2 Tsp Baking powder

40 Grams Cocoa powder

175 Grams Butter, plus 1 Tbsp

175 Grams Sugar, plus 1 Tbsp

3 Eggs

150 Grams Self Raising flour

4 Tbsp Milk

4 Firm pears (peeled and cored, and cut into 2-3cm chunks)

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (Celsius). Line a muffin tin with paper cases, or else grease the cups with extra butter to make them easy to remove
  • Add a tablespoon of butter and sugar to a frying pan and melt before adding the pears. Gently cook over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes stirring occasionally (don’t let them get too soft). Remove from the heat and allow to cool
  • With an electric whisk, or stand mixer cream the rest of the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
  • Add the eggs one at a time and continue mixing, (don’t panic if it looks like it’s curdled, it’s fine)
  • Add the milk and the rest of the dry ingredients and mix until well combined
  • Empty the pears into the muffin mix and gently fold them into the batter with a metal spoon until they are evenly distributed
  • Spoon equal amounts of the mix into the muffin cases and bake for 30 minutes
  • Allow to cool and then dust with icing sugar

Hearty Autumn Soup

Seaneen's Sunnyside KitchenLeave a comment

Soup is virtually impossible to mess up. So when it’s cold and wet outside its the ideal thing to make that’s cheap and easy. Its also a great filling lunch to bring to work if you’re on a budget.

This soup is vegan friendly, but if you need a meat fix, you can also add some cooked chorizo or smokey bacon and reduce the amount of smoked paprika.

Ingredients

1 Small Leek (roughly chopped)

2 Handfuls of either cabbage, kale or cavelo Nero (shredded)

3-4 Small potatoes (skins left on, and cut into 3-4cm cubes)

1 Vegetable stock cube

1 Tsp Smoked paprika

1 Can Black beans (you can use any type you like)

3 Cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

1 Tsp Chilli powder (optional)

Large sprig of rosemary, or thyme

1 Tbsp Vegetable oil

500ml Carton of passata

1 Tbsp Tomato puree

Salt

Method

  • Heat the oil in a large pot over a medium heat and add the leek. Fry until the leek starts to soften
  • Add the potatoes, tomato puree, chilli powder, rosemary and paprika and cook for 2-3 minutes
  • Add the crumbled up stock cube, pasatta, garlic, 1 litre of water, and bring the soup to the boil. Add your greens and beans, reduce to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are soft
  • Check the seasoning and add salt if you think it needs it.

Apple Crumble

Seaneen's Sunnyside KitchenLeave a comment

When it comes to comfort food apple crumble is in almost everyone’s top 10.

I was gifted a giant bag of apples from a friend with a tree in her garden. One particularly shitty wet Sunday this was exactly what I wanted.

I think traditional crumble topping can be a bit Meh. I like to include some porridge oats and nuts for some extra texture. The apples I used were pretty sweet so I didn’t use any extra sugar, but if your apples are on the sour side, sprinkle with 1-2 tablespoons of sugar before adding the topping.

Ingredients

1 Kg Eating apples (peeled, cored and sliced into 1-2cm slices)

For the topping

50 Grams Cold Butter (cut into small cubes)

125 Grams Plain flour

25 Grams Walnuts or hazelnuts (chopped)

25 Grams Rolled oats

25 Grams Sugar

Knob of butter

Method

  • Preheat your oven to 180 degrees (Celsius)
  • Rub a knob butter around a large oven proof dish (this will prevent the apples from sticking)
  • In a large bowl, add the flour, sugar, oats and butter and rub the butter into the other ingredients until it resembles large breadcrumbs before adding the chopped nuts
  • Spread the sliced apples into the oven proof dish, and sprinkle the topping mix evenly across the apples
  • Bake for 45-50 minutes and serve with custard or cream