A morsel and munch it’s the first of the month! Honestly, this year is flying by at a rate of knots – it seems like it was just a minute ago that I joined Sherry and friends for the January edition of In My Kitchen but here we are again, this time for the February edition. February was quite a delicious month all things considered and while we did a fair bit of eating out, there was plenty to keep me busy in the kitchen as you’ll soon see.
I have been making this chicken parmy recipe on the regular – it’s a hybrid of a Joe Wicks and a Bill Granger recipe. I don’t know how authentic it is but I can definitely vouch for how good it tastes. I’m just waiting for good light so I can take the pictures and post the recipe.
There’s so much processed and pre-made food in the UK and it’s all throroughly tempting. Over the past month we’ve tried to go back to basics and make (almost) everything from scratch. I’ve been making this hummus – an old favourite – and it’s so good!
Although we were trying to stay away from processed food, we could not resist picking up some of this langos dough when it was Eastern European week at Lidl. We were a little bit obsessed with langos since we went to Budapest. When it’s an international food week, you have to get your products while you can so David put 2 packs of langos dough in the trolley. I figured there were 2 langos bases in each pack but when we were packing away the shopping at home, we realised there were 8 balls of langos dough in each pack! Langos for days!
To make the langos, you brush each ball of frozen dough with oil, wrap in cling film and leave to rest for a few hours before rolling into shape. The best bit about this pre made langos is that unlike regular made from scratch langos, you only need a bit of oil for cooking, regular langos are deep fried and I’m not a deep frying kind of girl. Anyhoo, we tried to recreate the aptly named “Hungarian” langos we had in Budapest at Retro Langos – topped with sour cream, red onion, bacon and grated cheese. It wasn’t pretty but it tasted de-fricking-licious!
I’ve cooked a lot from the book Recipe Tin Eats Dinner book this month. I especially love the Asian recipes because we miss Asian food so much and alas, apart from the sushi place, there are no Asian restaurants in our town (and no, I’m not counting the Chinese restaurant – 1984 called and wants it’s decor back!) Here’s the Chinese Fried Rice and Sesame Ginger Garlic Stir Fried Vegetables – it definitely satisfied all our Asian food cravings!
Also from Recipe Tin Eats, this Baked Chicken Breast is an absolute game changer. I see us eating a lot of this in our future! I love how so many of Nagi’s recipes are on the website so you don’t need the recipe book to enjoy all the yum.
I also made some of my vegetarian sausage rolls. I used to make them all the time in Australia but English puff pastry is not my favourite. However, I’m going to persist and am prepared to pastry wrestle because we love these sausage rolls so much. That said, that my neighbour gave me her secret recipe for homemade (meat) sausage rolls so watch this space!
I am trying to post recipes as I go otherwise they sit in my drafts folder for ages and so I pressed publish on my Fudgy Zucchini Brownies. I was absolutely thrilled with how they turned out.
I was actually on a girls’ trip away on Pancake Day but I was determined to get my paws on some pancakes. One night we had Pancakes Bolognese – it was so good, I feel very strongly that bolognese in pancakes should be for life, not just for Pancake Day! I also whipped up some of Bill’s pancakes (not to be confused with his ricotta hotcakes) from the book, Bill’s Basics. They didn’t look like Bill’s but they definitely tasted like it. Such a quick and easy treat for a weekend breakfast!
My friend Caroline (you should totally check out her Instagram for all things scrumptious, swoony and Stamford) popped round for a cuppa. She has given up sugar for lent so I whipped up some savoury treats instead – my 4 ingredient parmesan and pesto twists and Recipe Tin Eats’ Broccoli Fritters – perfect for morning tea and for future lunchboxes!
Coincidentally, I scored two free loaves of bread on two different supermarket loyalty apps this month. We are consciously trying not to eat a lot of bread so I upcycled the excess loaves into one of our all time favourite teatime treats Choc Chip Bread Pudding. It doesn’t look pretty but by golly, it tastes divine. I had to freeze it immediately because otherwise I could easily inhale it in one sitting!
My dear friends Beverley and Joan came to stay which is always a treat and not just because Joan is my London Cheesecake dealer. You may have heard me wax lyrical about the London Cheesecake AKA my favourite cake before and my love for these is real. Just as well for my waistline then that as it’s name suggests, you can only get these baked delights in London. Joan outdid herself this time and bought a 4 pack so I can eat some now and freeze some for later.
If you come to our place for dinner, bed and breakfast, it’s highly likely that I’ll serve up my chicken pie for the evening repast. Of course, I made it for Bev and Joan and served it up with some roast potatoes and steamed veggies (don’t worry about the olives – they were left over from the “nibbles” course!) This pie is a real crowd pleaser and is easy to put together – now I just need to post the recipe!
Regular readers might be astounded to learn that I did not add any non food items to the kitchen this month… Unless you count this Who Gives a Crap kitchen roll. We are big fans of the loo roll and the quality of the kitchen roll is also fab plus look at the pretty paper! Kitchen roll has never looked so good!
Well folks that’s a wrap (excuse the pun) on this month in my kitchen. Have you ever had a London Cheesecake? What would you serve for dinner if you had house guests? I’m all ears!
