Righteous Recipes

Easy Apple Chutney and Camembert Crostini

Seaneen's Sunnyside KitchenLeave a comment

Like most cooks I hate food waste.  So the sad looking bag of apples that was getting past their best got turned into an easy and delicious chutney.

If you’re serious about chutney and want to make a massive batch I would recommend sterilising your jars beforehand and this should ensure the chutney can last for months.  I was only making a small batch, so its fine to keep in the fridge for 4-5 days.

This is amazingly versatile.  I just used it on crostini because i was having people over and I wanted to make something a little boujie, but it will also turn a bog standard ham or cheese sandwich into something super yummy.  I’ve even used it on cheese burgers and it was incredibly tasty.  If you’re making the crostini, try to make the chutney the day before, it will give it time to cool, let the flavour develop and saves you time, you can then spend with your guests.

Ingredients

For the chutney

3-4 Dessert apples (peeled, cored, and cut into 2cm chunks)

1 Small red onion (finely sliced)

75 Grams Brown sugar (you might need a little bit more or little less depending on on how sweet/tart your apples are)

125Mil Cider vinegar

1/2 Tsp salt

1/2 Ground cumin

1 Tsp Ground ginger

For the crostini

  1 French baguette (cut into fine slices)

1 Tbsp Oil

1 Clove of garlic

125 Grams Camembert or brie

Method

For the chutney

  • Place all the ingredients in a large pot and bring to the boil
  • Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cooked for 30 mins before checking the seasoning and see if want tweak anything
  • Allow to cool and store in tje fridge for 4-5 days.  See, I told you it was really easy
  • For the crostini
  • Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius
  • Brush the slices of baguette with the oil and place on a baking tray, bake for 10 minutes or until they golden brown.  Allow them cool, and you can even do this the day before and store them in an air tight container if you don’t want to be running around at the last minute)
  • To make the crostini, simply spread the toasted baguette slices with apple chutney and top with a slices of cheese

Devils on Horseback

Seaneen's Sunnyside KitchenLeave a comment

I love the names of some dishes and make them just because they sound cool, this is one of them.  I also love the sweet, salty little nuggets of deliciousness that these are with a frosty beverage.

Super simple to make and only 3 ingredients, these are cool little one bite canapes if you’re having friends round.  Essentially these are stoned prunes wrapped in bacon, but you can substitute the prunes for dates if you prefer.

If you’re feeling super fancy you could make Angels on Horseback.  These are oysters wrapped in bacon.

Ingredients

12 Prunes (stones removed)

6 Rashers of smoked streaky bacon (cut in half)

A little oil for brushing

Cocktail sticks

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
  • On a chopping board cut the slices of bacon in half and run the back of your knife along each slice to flatten it out
  • Place a prune at the top of each slice and roll the bacon arond the prune and secure with a cocktail stick
  • When you have wrapped all the prunes in bacon, place on w backing sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes until the bacon is brown and crispy
  • Serve immediately

Chicken Marsala

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I love a fairly straightforward recipe that tastes so good people think you have spent hours on it.  This is one of them.

I don’t cook with booze that often, but if you get a chance to pick up of Marsala (fortified wine), you’ll be glad you did.

I used tiny little button mushrooms in this, but if you can’t get them just chop larger mushrooms roughly, you don’t need to get too fancy.  You can use chicken breasts for this recipe, but I opted for boneless, skinless chicken thighs became they’re cheaper and i think have more flavour.

Serves 4

600 Grams Chicken thighs

1 Onion or 2 shallots (finely chopped)

200 Grams Button mushrooms

75 Mil Marsala

250 Mil Chicken stock (it’s fine to use a stock cube dissolved in warm water)

Juice of 1 lemon

1-2 Cloves of garlic

2-3 Tbsp flour

50 Grams Butter

1 Tbsp Oil

Salt and pepper

Method

  • Spread the flour on a plate and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper
  • Coat the chicken in the seasoned flour
  • In a large pan, heat the oil and a large knob of butter over a medium heat until the butter starts to foam
  • Add the chicken to the pan and colour until golden brown on both sides. Remove from the pan set to one side
  • Next add the onion and mushrooms to the pan and cook for a few minutes before adding the garlic, stirring occasionally
  • Pour the stock, lemon juice, and Marsala to the pan and stir well to make sure all the yummy crusty chickeny bits on the base of the pan disolve into the liquid
  • Return the chicken and any juices back to the pan to finish cooking and the sauce reduces by about a third and the alcohol has evaporated off
  • Check the seasoning and you can add more salt and pepper if you think it needs it.  I love this with potatoes and greens, but its also great with crusty bread to mop up the delicious sauce

Courgettes/Zuchinni stuffed with Feta and Sun Dried Tomatoes

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Courgettes can be pretty boring, and during Summer they are cheap snd plentiful.  I found myself with a couple of largish courgettes and these can often be watery and tasteless.

I decided to try pimping them up with some some dried tomatoes and feta, and they were yummy.  This makes a good lunch dish or you could serve them as a side dish and is fairly quick and easy.

Serves 2

2 Large courgettes

100 Grams Breadcrumbs

100 Grams Feta Cheese (crumbled into 1-2cm lumps

50 Grams Sun dried tomatoes in oil (roughly chopped)

1 Tsp Fresh oregano, or 1/2 tsp of dried (you can use any herbs you have, rosemary also works well, but use a bit less as it’s stronger)

1 Clove of garlic (finely chopped)

1 Tbsp Oil from the jar of sun dried tomatoes

A little extra oil for brushing the courgettes with

Combine the stuffing ingredients in a large bowl

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (Celsius)
  • Trim the top and bottom of the courgettes and cut in half length ways, use a teaspoon to scoop out the seeds in the centre of the courgettes
  • Brush with oil and place cut side down in a baking dish, and bake for 10 minutes
  • In a large bowl combine the rest of the ingredients
  • Remove the courgettes from the oven and over to the cut side with a spatula
  • Fill the scooped out centre of the courgettes with the filling before returning to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes until the filling is golden brown

Chicken and Prune Tagine

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I visited Morocco years ago and fell in love with the food (not so much the scorching heat and hard sell tactics of the street hawkers).

Tagines are kind of a stew containing meat and or pulses, vegetables, dried fruit, and lots of spices all cooked in a special clay pot that gives it its name (I did have one but broke it because I’m incredibly clumsy and is part of the reason why I can’t have nice things). An ordinary casserole dish will do the job, or cover an oven proof dish with tin foil.

You can swap the ingredients based on what you have or what is in season, and adjust the spicing to suit your own taste.

Ingredients

8 Chicken thighs (skin on and with the bone in)

1 Large onion (thinly sliced)

1 Red pepper (cut into 2-3cm chunks)

150 Grams Green beans (I used frozen)

12-16 Prunes (without stones, you can also swap these for dried apricots if you prefer)

2 Cloves of garlic

1Tsp grated ginger

1Tsp Ground coriander

1Tsp Ground  Cumin

1Tsp Ground cinnamon

1Tsp Salt

400 Mil Passata

250 Mil Chicken stock (its OK to use a stock cube)

400 Grams Can of chick peas (drained)

Method

  • Preheat oven to 180 degrees
  • Heat a heavy pan and add the chicken thighs skin side down and brown before turning and cook for another couple of minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients and mixing well
  • If your pan isn’t oven proof, then transfer everything to a casserole dish and cook in the oven for 30-40 minutes
  • Serve with cous cous or other grains. Flat bread are also great to mop up all the tasty juices.  This is even better served the next day

Romesco Sauce

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If you learn to make no other sauce, then I would encourage you to learn this.

It takes 5 minutes to make in a food precessor and goes with absolutely everything.  You cam go old school and roast and peel red peppers, but if you like a short cut, then a jar of roast peppers works just as well.   Try it with grilled chicken or fish, use it as a dip or toss it into some pasta, its also yummy spread on sandwiches or burgers (I feel myself turning to Bubba describing all the ways you can eat shromp in Forrest Gump, but you get the idea).

The sauce is originally from Spain, and most families have their own recipe, so don’t be afraid to tweak it to suit yourself.  I had some cherry tomatoes that were going soft so I roasted them in the oven beforehand, but if you don’t have time to do this, use a jar of sun dried tomatoes.  This recipe makes a fairly big batch, but you can reduce the amounts.  The sauce can live in your fridge for 4-5 days, but you may tempted to take spoonfuls of it every time you pass the fridge.

Ingredients

100 Grams Blanched almonds (you could alao use hazelnuts)

650 Gram Jar of roasted red peppers, drained weight 400 Grams (well drained and roughly chopped)

2-3 Cloves of Garlic (roughly chopped)

250 Grams Roasted tomatoes (or a jar of sun dried tomatoes)

25-50mil Olive oil

1/2 Tsp Smoked paprika

1 Tbsp Red wine vinegar (I only had cider vinegar, ad it was fine)

Method

  • Add the almonds to a food processor and pulse 3-4 times until they are well broken up
  • Add the other ingredients (hold back some of the oil, as may not need it all)
  • Whizz in the food processor until it starts to form a sauce.  Check the flavour and add the rest of the oil if you think it needs it.  Blitz some more until it has the consistency you like (I like mine fairly rustic and chunky, but you can continue blending until you have a super smooth sauce if that’s what you prefer.
  • Refrigerate until ready to use (can be eaten hot or cold).

Courgette/Zucchini Bread

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This is actually more of a sweet loaf/tea bread, but you can kid yourself that this is slightly healthier than normal cake because it also incorporates vegetables. This is really good on it’s own, but I also like to spread cream cheese or butter on it.

The courgette/zuchini keeps the cake super moist and tender, and during the Summer when they courgettes are cheap and plentiful this is a good way to use them up if you are running out of ideas.

If you’re super organised and want to make a double batch this also freezes really well.

Ingredients

2 Eggs

125ml vegetable oil

350 Grams Courgettes, coarsely grated

300 Grams Plain flour

2 Tsp Cinnamon

1tsp baking powder

75g Walnuts (roughly chopped)

150g Dried cranberries or sultanas

75 Grams Brown sugar

1/4 Tsp Salt

(extra butter for greasing the loaf tin)

Method

  • Preheat your oven to 180 degree (Celsius), and line a 2lb loaf tin with parchment paper
  • Add the oil, sugar, and eggs to a large bowl and whisk until combined before adding the courgette
  • In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients before adding to the dry ingredients and mix well
  • Transfer the mix to the prepared baking tin and bake for 1 hour.  Test the loaf with a cocktail stick and if it comes out clean the loaf is cooked.  If it doesn’t give the loaf another 5 minutes in the oven before checking again

Blueberry and Lemon Scones

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I haven’t had the best luck with scones, usually they ended up like hockey pucks.

A friend who makes great ones advised me that secret is to handle scone dough as little as possible.  I decided to try this and instead of Irish version I was always taught to make using a cutter, I tried the American method when the dough baked in piece with sections marked out.

This did the job and these had a nice crust on the outside but stayed fluffy inside (yay, I have broken the scone curse placed on me by Sr Claire in 3rd year home economics for throwing dough).  I also gave these a cheeky wee lemon drizzle when the come out of the oven, that brings them to another level.

Serve these with lemon curd and whipped cream if you want to be posh (it’s sooo good), but these are also good with just butter.

You can use defrosted frozen blueberries which are cheaper, but remember to drain them well before adding to the mix so it doesn’t get too messy.  These also freeze well, but don’t use the lemon drizzle if you know you are going to freeze them.

Makes 8

Ingredients

150 Grams Blueberries

1 Lemon (juice and zest)

100 Grams Chilled butter (cut into small cubes)

1 Tsp Baking powder

350 Grams Self raising flours

200mil Milk

2-3 Tbsp. Icing sugar

Method

  • Preheat your oven to 220 degrees (Celsius), and line a baking sheet with parchment (or else grease the baking sheet well if you don’t have parchment)
  • Add the flour, baking powder and butter to a food processer and pulse until the mixture looks like bread crumbs.  If you don’t have a food processer, use the rubbing in method,  rubbing the flour and butter between your fingers until it looks like breadcrumbs
  • Grate the lemon zest wth a fine grater and add to the flour mix along with sugar and mix well.  Add the milk and stir the dough until it is just starting to come together, then gently mix in the blueberries so that they stay whole, but try to make sure they are evenly spread within the dough
  • Gather the dough in a ball, (it should be fairly soft dough).  So that I handled the dough as little as possible, I dusted a little flour onto the baking parchment and sat ball of dough in the centre.  Dust a rolling pin ( or wine bottle or what ever you have) with a little flour, and gently roll the dough out in a circle about 4 cm deep
  • With a sharp knife, score a deep cross into the dough, and then cut these quarters again until you end up with  8 evenly sizes segments (don’t cut the dough right through)
  • Bake for 10-15 minutes, and allow to cool slightly.  In a small bowl add the juice from the lemon you zested and add to the icing sugar and mix well before drizzle over the scones
  • Once cool break the scones into individual sections a serve with butter or lemon curd and cream

Greek Rice

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Good side dishes can make a meal.  I love this with roast chicken but it’s also yummy with fish, barbecued meats, or griddled halloumi.

Rice can be a bit meh, but herbs and lemon give this a really fresh taste.  I used chicken stock, but you can swap this for vegetable stock if you’re vegetarian.

Ingredients

100 Grams Uncooked rice (I used basmati, but if you’re using a different type of rice then make sure to rinse it first so it fluffs up)

1 Small onion or shallot (finely chopped)

1-2 Cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

1 Tbsp Olive oil

200 mil Chicken/vegetable stock

1 Lemon (juice and zest)

1 Tsp Dried Oregano (or 1 Tbsp fresh oregano)

1 Tsp Dried Dill (or 1 Tbsp fresh dill)

Method

  • Heat the oil in a large pot with a lid, and gently fry the onion/shallot over a medium heat until it starts to become translucent, then add the garlic and cook for a further minute
  • Add the rice, salt and stock and cover the pot with a lid, before bringing to the boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove from the heat and the rice should continue to cook with the residual heat until the rice has absorbed all the stock (if you’re using brown rice you may need to cook for longer)
  • Grate the zest of the lemon with a fine grater, before squeezing the juice and setting to one side
  • Stir the lemon juice and zest into the rice and cover with a lid again for another 5-10 minutes before checking that the rice is fully cooked before stirring in the herbs.
  • This can be eaten hot or cold.

Roast Shoulder of Venison with Miso Butter

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I’m lucky enough to have a friend who’s husband culls local deer.  She recently turned with a big of venison including a shoulder of venison (thank you Dermot and Bronagh). Apologies that the photos don’t do this justice, but we fell on this like a pack of animals and were too interested in feeding our faces with delicious roast meat to take decent photos.

This was a bit of an experiment (I’ve never cooked with this cut before, but as its from a really muscular part of the animal so I knew to cook it long and slow, at least 4 hours, plus resting time). Because venison is so lean I wanted to keep it from drying out.  I did this by slathering it in miso butter (which tasted yummy but didn’t overwhelm the taste of the meat).

I served this as part of an Easter dinner with roast potatoes and vegetables, but you’ll have plenty of meat left over and it’s great in sandwiches, wraps etc.

Ingredients

2.5 Kg Shoulder of venison (including the bone

125 Grams Butter (softened)

1.5 Tbsp Miso paste

Carrots/celery/parsnips

1 Glass White wine (optional)

Method

  • Remove the venison from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature
  • Preheat your oven to 200 degrees (Celsius)
  • In a large roasting pan, cover the base with celery stalks, halved carrots or parsnips (this will act as a bed for meat to stop it sticking to bottom and will help flavour the meat juices.  I use old wonky vegetables that have hanging around the fridge, these won’t be eaten but are just to add flavour)
  • Mix the butter and miso paste together and rub all over the venison, making sure to get into all the nooks and crannies.
  • Set the venison on top of the bed of vegetables and add a class of white and a glass of water to the pan (or 2 glasses of water if you’re not using wine)
  • Cover the roasting dish tightly with aluminium foil and place in the oven
  • Cook at 200 degrees (Celsius) for 30 minutes before turning the heat down to 150 degrees for at 3.5 hours
  • After 2 hours remove the pan from the oven. Turn the meat over and baste with juices in the pan.  Cover again with foil and return to the oven
  • After 4 hours check on the meat, if it still feels a little tough, cook for another 20-30 minutes.  Remove from the oven and keep covered while the meat rests for at least 30-45 minutes (it’s important not to rush this part as it will help the meat stay tender).  Drain of the meat juices and use to make really delicious gravy, or spoon over any left over meat to help keep it moist