Devils on Horseback

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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

Sweet and Spicy Marinated Tempeh

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While trying to eat less meat I’ve struggled with plant based protein alternatives.  Tofu is s big turn off for me (I’ve given it every chance but it’s just not for me).

I remembered some of the delicious tempeh I had in Bali and gave it a try with a satay type marinade.

If you haven’t used tempeh before, its a soy protein widely eaten in Indonesia and you should be able to find it in the freezer section of Asian supermarkets or some larger supermarkets.

It usually comes in a flat loaf shape and you usually crumble or slice it before cooking.

This is a really versatile dish, you can eat it  straight from the oven with rice or noodles, or it also yummy in salads, budha bowls or sandwiches and wraps.

Tempeh makes a great addition to jar salads with veggies, and rice noodles, perfect for bringing to work for lunch.

Ingredients

500 Grams Tempeh

For the marinade

1 Red chilli (finely chopped or 1/2 Tsp chilli flakes)

Thumb sized piece of ginger (grated, or its fine to cheat and use a tablespoon of the prepared stuff in a tube)

2 Cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

3 Tbsp Peanut butter

2 Tbsp Soy sauce

Juice of 1-2 limes (I only had a lemon and also worked OK, because what your after is acidity to balance out the salt and sweet in the marinade)

3 Tbsp Maple syrup (cane sugar is traditional but this work well)

Method

  • Defrost the tempeh and slice into  1cm thick slices
  • In a large bowl combine all the ingredients for the marinade and stir well to make sure the peanut butter disolves.
  • Put the tempeh slices into a large dish and cover with the marinade, ensuring all the slices are covered. Cover and put in the fridge for a couple of hours (ideally overnight)
  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
  • Line a baking sheet with parchment and lay the temp slices on this and bake for 20-25 minutes.

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

Dunseverick with Wild Women of the Woods NI

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I had never heard of this stunningly beautiful place before, but had been telling a couple of friends about Wild Women of Woods for ages, and when this event came up we decided to go for it.

Dunseverick is about 90 minutes from Belfast.  Close to the Giant’s Causeway and the Dark Hedges (famous location from Game of Thrones).

Wild Women events are always great fun, and this was a one day event (ideal for us “Mild Women” who aren’t up for the longer camping events just yet).  But if camping is your thing and you feel better/safer doing it with a group of like minded, friendly women I guarantee you’ll have great craic.

If you’re visiting Dunseverick,  you’ll need to navigate a narrow windy road to get to the Harbour.  Once there you’ll find a decent sized car park, bathrooms and even a cute little shack were you can buy hot drinks and snacks and take in the views.

Being wild women, we hiked along the shoreline, and were treated to more breathtaking scenery than you could shake a big stick at.  The hike was fairly physical with lots of stiles to climb over, this was fine but might be worth remembering if you have bad knees etc.

After trekking back, the group decided to go for a dip in the deeper sheltered rock pools (I’ve gotten quite into sea swiming recently, and even if you just prefer to go for a dip its meant to be great for boosting your immune system).

All dried off and snuggled up in oodies (best invention ever).  Rachel who runs Wild Women of the Woods NI and her fantastic volunteers treated us to a super tasty barbecue.  Which was no easy task to feed over 40 ravenous ladies, on an uncharacteristically sunny almost tropical Summer evening. Afterwards everyone just rested, hung out, chatted, laughed and got to know people, some of us just  enjoyed soaking up beautiful surroundings that we would have never thought to visit before.

If you’ve seen Wild Women events before but were maybe a bit unsure about trying one, I promise you’ll see gorgeous places, enjoy fabulous food and meet lots of really lovely people.

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.