Pure Filth

Potato, Sausage, and Apple Skillet

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I love a quick dinner after a long day when standing cooking holds little appeal. If you can be organised enough to cook extra potatoes for dinner the day or two before this makes this even quicker.

My sort of comfort food

Nothing says comfort food to me like spuds. Crispy fried potatoes, meaty pork sausages and hot sweet apples makes a really dreamy combination. On a chilly Autumn evening this makes a perfect dinner, it’s also really good with fried egg on top.

Serves 4

Ingredients

500 Grams Cooked potatoes cut into chunks (I like to leave the skins on)

8 Pork sausages (cut into chunks)

2 Red onions (thinly sliced)

2 Dessert apples (cut into chunks)

2 Tbsps Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Method

  1. Heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil in a large skillet or heavy frying pan
  2. Add the cut up sausages and onions, and stir occasionally until browned
  3. Remove from the pan and set to one side. Add the other tablespoon of oil to the pan and add the potatoes, cooking until brown
  4. Add the sausages, onions, and apple to the pan, cook for another 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and if you’re feeling really fancy you could sprinkle over some chopped herbs like parsley, or sage

Garlic Bread Vegetable Bake

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I did the thing I normally do when I go to a farmer’s market. I bought way too much random stuff because I thought it looked good. I got it home and then had to think what I was going to do with it.

Note to self, stop buying too much stuff at the market.

This is a scrummy mix of colours and textures. Delicious Autumn vegetables in a creamy sauce, with a little bit of heat from smoked paprika, topped with crunchy, cheesy garlic bread.

Who doesn’t like garlic bread (weirdos, that’s who). You can use any combination of vegetables you like, pumpkin, butternut squash, or green beans also work well.

Crunchy Cheesy Perfection

I tried this recipe on one of my oldest friends. I was nervous because she owns a steak restaurant and is a confirmed carnivore and got two enthusiastic thumbs up (still sorry I forgot to send you home with a doggy bag Mags, but here is the recipe as promised). Go get your comfort food on.

Ingredients

1 Tbsp Olive oil

250 Grams Brussels sprouts

150 Grams Cavelo Nero (or Kale)

1 Pepper

1 Onion

175 Grams Mushrooms

2 Courgettes

400 Grams Cream cheese

250ml Vegetable stock

1/2 Tsp Smoked paprika

Handful of parsley

25 Grams Butter

2 Cloves of garlic

50 Grams Cheddar Cheese

1 Baguette

Method

  1. Cut the bottoms of the Brussels sprouts and halve. Remove the stalks from the cavelo nero and slice. Cook the sprouts and cavelo nero in the vegetable stock for 5 minutes, until just tender
  2. Slice the courgettes, onions, mushrooms and pepper, and fry in the olive oil in a large frying pan for about 5 minutes until soft
  3. Add the sprouts, cavelo nero and vegetable stock to the frying pan. Sprinkle the smoked paprika over the vegetables, and add finely chopped parsley and cream cheese
  4. Mix until thoroughly combined
  5. Crush or mince the garlic and combine with butter
  6. Slice the baguette into 2cm slices, and spread with the garlic butter
  7. Put the vegetable mix into an oven proof dish and top with the slices of buttered baguette
  8. Top with grated cheese and bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees, for 30 minutes until golden brown

Caramelised Onion Sausage Rolls

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Savoury and satisfying

I love a sausage roll, add some sweet dark caramelised onions and these are hard to resist.

I use shop bought pastry because its quick. The only thing that takes any effort (and it’s not much) is browning the onions.

Caramelised Onion, the best smell in the world

Makes 6 large sausages, 18 cocktail sausage rolls.

Ingredients

1 Sheet of ready rolled short crust pastry

6 Tennis ball sized onions

1 Tsp Balsamic vinegar

1Tbs Olive oil

6 Sausages (I used pork and leek, but use what you prefer)

1 Egg (to brush the pastry with)

1 Tbsp Sesame seeds (optional)

Method

  • In a frying pan, add the olive oil and heat
  • Peel and slice the onions before adding to the pan (it looks like a lot of onions, but this cooks down quite a lot)
Don’t worry if it seems like a mountain of onions, it cooks down
  • Stir onions occasionally and cook over a medium heat for around 30 minutes over a medium heat. Add the balsamic vinegar and cook for a further 5 minutes. Allow to cool.
  • Devide the pastry into 6, and place a sausage (I leave the skin on the sausage, some people prefer to remove it), and 1/6 of the onion mixture onto the square of pastry
  • Brush the edges of the pastry with beaten egg
  • Fold the pastry over until the edges meet and crimp with a fork
Sprinkle with sesame seeds for some extra texture.
  • When you have made all 6 sausage rolls, brush with beaten egg, and sprinkle with sesame seeds
  • Transfer to a baking sheet, and bake 20 minutes in an oven heated to 200 degrees until golden brown

Damned Delicious White Mushroom Pizza

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Mushroom Pizza

I was inspired by another food blogger, Damned Delicious in this recipe, I prefer to use rosemary as a seasoning because I think it works well with mushrooms, but use what herbs you like the taste of.

I liked this recipe because it used a premade pizza base. This was a relief, I have a bit a chequered past trying to make pizza bases from scratch. Using a premade base also makes this recipe probably as quick as calling a pizza, and significantly cheaper (most take away pizzas have a 900% mark up).

Cheese, garlic and mushrooms are one the best flavour combinations ever and the only problem with this pizza is that fights over the last piece can get mean.

Makes 1, 12 inch Pizza

Ingredients

1 x 12 inch Pizza base

125 Grams Mushrooms (sliced)

2 Cloves of garlic (minced)

200 grams Mozzarella

50 Grams Ricotta

1/2 Tsp Rosemary (Rosemary can overwhelm everything else if you use too much, if you’re going to use other herbs you can use a bit more)

1 Tbsp Butter

Salt

Method

Add toppings before baking
  1. Pre heat your oven to 200 degrees
  2. Melt butter in a pan, and add the mushrooms rosemary and garlic and cook for 5 minutes (don’t stir too often)
  3. Put the pizza base on a baking tray and top with slices of mozzarella, the mushrooms and garlic, and dollops of ricotta. Give the pizza a light sprinkling of salt
  4. Bake for 15-20 minute, until golden brown and damned delicious

Burrito Pie

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This is one of those brilliant comfort food dishes that you can make ahead and let it sit in the fridge for a couple of days. This also freezes brilliantly.

The original version of this dish was really meat heavy, so I tweaked it to add more vegetables to make it a bit healthier. Even with less meat it’s still really satisfying.

Burrito Pie

Serves 6

Ingredients

250 Grams Minced beef

100 Grams Mushrooms

1 Onion

1 Red pepper

400 Gram Can refried beans (these are really expensive, so usually I blitz a can of kidney beans along with a few àtablespoons of vegetable stock in a blender, which costs about a third of the price

2 x 400 Gram Cans of chopped tomatoes

100 Ml Vegetable stock

150 Grams Sweetcorn

125 Grams Black olives

1Tsp Ground Cumin

1Tsp Chilli flakes

1Tsp Salt

3 Cloves of garlic (minced)

1Tbsp Tomato Puree

Handful of chopped coriander

150 Grams Grated cheese (I used cheddar because this is what I had, but you can use which ever cheese you prefer)

6 Flour tortillas

Method

  1. Fry the minced beef, and when brown add the chopped onions, peppers, tomato puree and mushrooms, cook until tender.
  2. Add the beans, sweetcorn, olives, chopped tomatoes, vegetable stock, salt, chilli flakes, garlic and cumin
  3. Simmer over a medium heat for 15-20 minutes, until this mixture has thickened
  4. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees, and line an 8 inch spring form cake tin with parchment paper
  5. When the burrito mixture has thickened add the chopped coriander and check the seasoning
  6. Put enough burrito mix to cover a thin layer in the base of the tin. Add a tortilla and top with another layer of the burrito mix and sprinkle with grated cheese.
  7. Continue until you have used up all the mix and cheese. Bake for 30 minutes, and allow to sit in the tin for another 10 minutes before cutting. Serve with sour cream and salad

Mushroom, hazelnut and gorgonzla tart

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A bit more “rustic” than I planned, but I put it down to me trying to make pastry with nuts in it. Save yourself the time and energy and use shop bought short crust pastry. It’s what I plan to do next time.  This recipe might be best saved for the weekend, as it’s a bit more labour intensive, but it’s well worth the trouble, (I had to stop myself eating half of it).

If you’re a vegetarian cooking for meat eaters, they’ll love this. The rich and unctuous filling feels really meaty, and unlike a lot of tarts isn’t too eggy.  This is delicious hot or cold.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

1 Sheet of ready made short crust pastry

2 Onions (thinly sliced)

1 Tbsp Chopped rosemary

3 Cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

1 Tbsp Olive oil

25 Grams Dried porcini mushrooms, (soaked in 50 ml of hot water)

200 Grams Button mushrooms (sliced)

50 Grams Gorgonzola (sliced)

50 Grams Hazelnuts (chopped)

2 Eggs

150 Ml Double Cream

Salt and pepper

Method

  1. Grease a 23 cm loose based flan tin, roll you pastry until thin and line the tin, (chill in the fridge for 30 minutes)
  2. Put the porcini mushrooms in a bowl with 50ml of warm water and allow to soak
  3. Take your flan tin out of the fridge and over the base with grease proof paper and add baking beans on top, (I use old lentils that had been hanging about). Bake blind in an oven heated to 180 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove the grease proof paper and baking beans, and bake for a further 5 minutes, before removing from the oven
  4. While the pastry is baking add the olive oil and onions to a large heated frying pan. Turn down the heat and cook gently for 10 minutes
  5. Add the button mushrooms, garlic and rosemary to the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring occasionally
  6. Add the porcini mushrooms and the water they were soaking in to the pan. Cook over a medium heat until all the liquid has evaporated, and leave to cool
  7. Put a baking sheet in the oven to heat (the temperature should be 180 degrees again)
  8. When the mushroom mix is completely cool, spread it evenly across the pastry base
  9. Distribute the gorgonzola on top of the mushroom mix
  10. Beat 2 Eggs, and add to the cream, season with salt and pepper, pour into the tart case and sprinkle chopped hazelnuts across the top
  11. Put the filled tart tin on to the heated baking sheet in the oven and bake for 35 minutes until the centre is set
  12. Allow to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes before cutting

Pineapple Smokies

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Are smokies just a Belfast thing?

A Belfast childhood can best be described as character building. One of the plus points was that every now and again you would get to have a smokey!

A smokey was normally served in a tall glass and consisted of pineapple lemonade, vanilla ice cream and a chocolate flake.

I’ve never been able to track down who started serving these in Belfast, although there was a well known Italian ice cream shop in Castle Street where I got mine. Give this a go, it’s really scrumptious. If anyone does know the origin of smokies please let me know.

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 Large scoops of vanilla ice cream

1 Litre Pineapple lemonade

4 chocolate flakes

Method

Get 4 tall glasses, and a scoop of ice cream to each glass and top up with the pineapple lemonade and stick the chocolate flake into the ice cream when floats to the top.

Mmmm super delicious!

Arancini (Risotto Balls)

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I had these for the first time in New York, with a cocktail in an air conditioned bar which felt like I’d arrived in heaven after pounding the streets on a hellishly warm day. 

These make a great little starter, or are divine with a glass of wine or a cold beer.

If you are organised enough to have made the mushroom risotto a day or two before then these are pretty quick and easy.  Some people like these with a marinara sauce, but I think these are delicious enough on their own.

 500 grams Mushroom risotto

100 grams Mozzarella (dolcelatte also works really well)

2 Tbsp. Plain flour

2 Eggs

*100 grams White breadcrumbs (See food hack)

Olive oil for deep frying

Salt and pepper for seasoning

Method

  1. Cut the mozzarella into 1.5 cm cubes, or you can use the little mozzarella “pearls” you can buy in some super markets
  2. Take a tablespoon of the cold risotto mixture in your hand and flatten it.  Add a small piece of cheese and form the risotto around it to make a ball.  Do this until you have used up all the risotto (it’s useful to have a bowl of water handy to wet your hands and stop the risotto sticking. 
  3. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Heat oil on a large heavy based pan or deep fat fryer.
  4. Put the flour on a plate and season with salt and pepper, which the eggs in a separate bowl, and add the breadcrumbs to another dish
  5. Heat oil on a large heavy based pan or deep fat fryer.
  6. Role the risotto balls in flour, then beaten egg, and finally the breadcrumbs
  • Add the breaded risotto balls to oil and fry until golden brown, remember to drain any excess oil on kitchen paper and season with salt and pepper.

* Food Hack  – When you’re shopping pick up bead that has been reduced because it’s going stale.  When you get home, take 5 minutes and whizz the bread up in a food processor until it’s crumbs.  Put these breadcrumbs into a large freezer bag and keep in your freezer.  Bread crumbs are an amazingly versatile ingredient, that you can use in everything from gratins, deep fried crusts, stuffing or even thickening sauces.