Ali Cooks... Honey & Orange Teriyaki Salmon with Stir-Fried Veg & Rice

Tonight for dinner I decided to go for the quick and easy but oh so genius option of stir-fry... Honey & Orange Teriyaki Salmon with Stir-Fried Vegetables to be precise! This made for a deliciously sweet and succulent healthy meal which was cooked - and ravished - in minutes!

The Recipe (Serves 2)

The Ingredients

2 Salmon Fillets (One for each person)

One Red Pepper Sliced

One Small Red Onion Sliced

2 Spring Onions (Chopped)

100g Bean Sprouts (Washed)

1 Carrot Sliced

125g Cabbage

25g Pea Shoots

4 tbsp Orange Juice

4 tbsp Runny Honey

4 tbsp Teriyaki Sauce

Rice (enough for 2)

The Method

First of all once the veg has been prepared bring a pot of water to the boil and add the rice. Let this cook for 10 minutes whilst you move on to cook the Salmon and the Veg...

Place the Salmon in a heated wok and add 2tbsp of Teriyaki Sauce, 2 tbsp of Honey and 2 tbsp of Orange Juice. Cook the Salmon in the juices for about 1-2 minutes on each side until nearly cooked through.

Keep the Salmon to one side of the work and add another 2tbsp of Teriyaki Sauce, 2 tbsp of Honey and 2 tbsp of Orange Juice to the other side of the wok along with all of the Veg. Stir Fry this next to the Salmon for about 3 minutes (in this time the Salmon will be completely cooked through.)

The Rice should be ready by now so remove this from the heat and drain the water out. For display I pressed the rice into a little bowl and turned this out upside down on to the plate to create a cute little Rice dome.

Place the Salmon and the Veg on the plate along with the Rice and drizzle over the left over juices.

Ali Cooks Tapas!

Break out the Maracas and the Sombreros and get the Sangria on chill! To start my blog off with a bang today I am writing about my interesting yet exciting experience of cooking Tapas for the first time.

I had decided during the week that since there was nothing better on this Friday night that it would be a great idea to have a night in and I would make Tapas for my Boyfriend and I. Also I had been craving the delicious flavours of this wonderful Spanish food ever since I had walked past a popular Tapas Restaurant in our area on my way home from work earlier this week.

So I began to plan our Spanish feast straight away, after all “how hard could it be? It is only tiny little dishes.” one may have thought! Well what I did find is that although it was not easy it was actually great fun and a lot less hassle than I had originally anticipated whilst scrolling through various intimidating Spanish recipes. The one main thing that I suggest is being organised – having all of the ingredients measured out, chopped and ready for the final cooking.

Also, if like us there ends up far more food than could ever be consumed by two beings then don't worry as the leftovers can easily be wrapped up and heated again for a lovely lunch the following day or even better the paella can be packed up and popped in the freezer to be defrosted for future food-less nights when you have not had time to even think about what to prepare for dinner.

The menu consisted of...

Grilled Goats Cheese with Seville Orange Marmalade

Chorizo Al Vino Tinto (Chorizo in Red Wine)

Gambas Al Ajillo (Garlic Prawns)

Patatas Bravas (aka “Fierce Potatoes!”) 

Paella de Marisco

A little ambitious for a first timer? Absolutely! But hey, I am always up for a challenge.

See the following blogs for details & recipes...

Grilled Goats Cheese with Seville Orange Marmalade...

After ordering an option similar to this in a local Spanish restaurant a few months ago and being shockingly surprised by how the deliciously tangy marmalade complimented the rich creamy goats cheese so well creating an utterly more'ish dish I knew I had to include this in my menu.

Even better, this was very straight forward to prepare and a delight to eat...

I must however confess that I was a little lazy here in that I did not make my own marmalade but since I had an already formidable task at hand I figured there was no point in adding fuel to the fire and I went for the easy but wise option of selecting a good quality Seville Orange Marmalade from the shops which eminently did the job.

One more thing to note as that I may have gone a little bit overboard with the crisping of the top of my goats cheese resulting in a slightly burnt look on the outer edges of the top. Not to threat though... under that darker than black layer was perfectly grilled and warm crumbly (just the texture I was after) goats cheese akin to untouched snow waiting to be destroyed.

As they say "Never judge a book by its cover!"

The Recipe

The Ingredients

A decent sized round of goats cheese for each person dining (Try to get equally sized portions)
Seville Orange (or similar) Marmalade (A generous dollop needed per person)

Brown Sugar

The Method

Heat the grill.

Place the goats cheese on a non stick tray and sprinkle over the brown sugar.

Pop this under the grill for about 4-5 minutes until the goats cheese begins to bubble and appears slightly crispy on top. Note that there is no need to turn them over. Withdraw from the grill and if you have a cooks blow torch you can use this to finish off the top of the goats cheese.

Place on a serving dish and top with a considerate scoop of marmalade.

And there we have it! Grilled Goats Cheese with Seville Orange Marmalade ready to serve!

Chorizo Al Vino Tinto (Red Wine Chorizo)...

Considering my boyfriend doubtlessly loves chorizo this dish went down an absolute treat. The spicy but sweet chunky chorizo sucks up all of the sweet red wine forming a food alliance against your tastebuds making you succumb to the wonderfully succulent boozey juicy taste of every bite. Simply sausage perfection...

Also, dont forget to grab some of your favourite fresh bread to dunk in the basin of bright oily, winey juices that gathers at the bottom of the bowl, we chose a loaf of good old tiger bread, delicious!


The Recipe (Serves 2)

The Ingredients

One large cured chorizo sausage (about 225g)
60-70ml/2-2.5fl.oz of Dry Red Spanish wine/Vino Tinto
1 garlic clove, chopped (or 1 tsp of 'Very Lazy Garlic' from a Jar would also do the job)
Fresh & finely chopped thyme & parsley
Some nice slices/chunks/tears of bread for dipping.

The Method

Preheat the oven 220c/425f/Gas Mark 7.

Cut the chorizo into slices around 1/4 of an inch thick.

Place the slices of chorizo in an oven proof dish that is at least an inch or so in depth so that the marinade does not run over the side creating a mess.

Pour over the red wine, the garlic and sprinkle with the herbs.

This will go in the oven for around ten minutes until the chorizo begins to brown on the edges, appears to have soaked up some up the wine which has begun to bubble.

Serve straight away, accompanied with the bread to dip and get ready to control yourself from devouring the whole lot!

Gambas Al Ajillo (Garlic Prawns)...

These prawns prepared in garlic and olive oil with chilli for a little kick are tasty juicy little suckers that make for a great refresher within a selection of strongly flavoured dishes.

Some bread also goes down a trick here, lower it into the light garlicky punchy liquid leftovers from this dish whilst munching away at the textrous Gambas.

The Recipe (Serves 2-3)
 
The Ingredients

200g large king prawns cooked & peeled
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped (or 2 tsp of 'Very Lazy Garlic' from a Jar would also do the job)
2 glugs of olive oil
2 Red Chillies Diced

The Method

Heat the olive oil in a pan.

Add the garlic, chillies & prawns and sauté for around 2-3 mins.

Salt to taste.

Straight away scoop the prawns out into the serving dish and drizzle the remaining garlic oil all over creating a sizzling hot helping of gambas al ajillo!

Patatas Bravas...

Patatas Bravas is one of those classic Spanish dishes that everyone raves about! Cubes of potato baked or fried to crispy perfection and topped with a thick tasty tomato sauce... basically the name which is translated to "Fierce Potatoes" is rather fitting.

The Recipe (Serves 3-4)

The Ingredients

400g of potatoes
Olive oil
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 small onion
1 clove of garlic, chopped (or 1 tsp of 'Very Lazy Garlic' from a Jar would also do the job)
2 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp paprika
A pinch of chilli powder
Pinch of Sugar
1-2 tbsp of flour
Parsley

The Method

Boil the potatoes in a pot for around 10-15 mins until cooked through.

Remove from the heat, drain and leave to cool for about 10 mins.

Whilst the potatoes are cooling you can begin to make the sauce.

Heat the olive oil in the pan, add the onions and cook for a few minutes until they soften.

Next, add the garlic cook with the onions for 1 min or so.

Pour in the tin of chopped tomatoes, spoon in the tomato puree, paprika and chilli powder.

Stir everything together and allow to simmer for 5 mins.

Now, while the sauce is simmering away, take the potatoes and chop them into decently sized cubes.

Get a frying pan and heat some olive oil in it, put the heat on a medium-high setting and place the potato cubes in. Fry these for around 5-10 mins until they begin to look nice and crispy.

Whilst keeping a watchful eye over the frying potatoes and turning every so often you can do a little multi-tasking and finish off the sauce...

The sauce should have been simmering for around 5 mins now so sprinkle in a pinch of sugar and begin to gradually add the flour to thicken the mixture.

Allow this to simmer for a further 5 minutes and by this time the sauce and the potatoes will be ready!

Take the potatoes off of the heat and bundle into a serving dish, top with the tomato sauce and voi la! Potatas Bravas served!

Paella De Marisco...

I must admit I was a little bit daunted by the thought of cooking paella and although I was never going to be able to make it like a paella pro it turned out quite well for our tastes. I would therefore use this method again although next time I would make sure that in true paella style it would be a little drier and also that I would have the right utensils (for example a proper paella pan instead of a scrawny looking frying pan trying to pass for one). My result may even be classed more as a risotto, but call it what you like, it was a delight to eat with its bright colours and succulent surprises hidden throughout under the wonderfully flavoured rice in the form of brilliantly cooked prawns and peppers. This is definitely a great thing to place in the centre of the table for family & friends to tuck in to - looks wise and taste wise...

Also, my 'Marisco' (Seafood) Paella ended up a 'Gambas' (Prawn) Paella as I never had time to stop off at the shops to buy the rest of the seafood earlier that day, but to make a proper seafood paella where I added the prawns you would also add the rest of the seafood - mussles, langoustine, squid etc.

The Recipe (Serves 4)

The Ingredients

300g of Spanish paella rice
1 large onion
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
Half a tin of chopped tomatoes
16fl Oz (3/4 pnt) of chicken stock
3 handfuls of frozen peas
Saffron
Cooked Prawns (Mussels, Squid, Langoustine would also be great!)
Thyme & Parsely
1 Bay Leaf
1 lemon

The Method

On a high heat in a paella a pan (or less desirably in a frying pan like myself) heat about a tbsp of olive oil with a pinch of salt.

Add to the pan the chopped onions and bell peppers to cook for roughly 10 minutes until softened.

Next, stir in the paella rice and slop in the chopped tomatoes. You want to get the rice all coated in the mixture.

Keep the dish moving to stop it from sticking to the pan and burning and begin to gradually pour in the chicken stock little by little until fully absorbed by the rice and remember the paella should be cooked until slightly dry.

Just before finishing add the frozen peas, herbs, bay leaf, saffron and prawns (+other seafood) and cook for the last few minutes stirring in those final ingredients.

Finally cut the lemon in half and squeeze one half into the paella, stir, then use the other half of the lemon to decorate along with a garnish of thyme or parsley on top and a few prawns to finish.

Ali Cooks Burns Day Supper! - Haggis, Neeps & Tatties... Balmoral Style Chicken & Yummy-Honey Brussel Sprouts

As the 25th of January rolled around this year I so looked forward to tucking into a truly Scottish Burns Day Supper. Burns day is a tradition in Scotland when us Scots gather round tables to celebrate the honoured national bard - Robert Burns (1759-1796) who was a famous Scottish Poet. The menu normally consists of a main meal of ‘Haggis wi' bashit neeps an' champit tatties’ (and for you non-Scots out there this is translated to Haggis with Turnips & Potatoes.) This was my first year of cooking Burns Supper by myself (usually this task would be shared by my wonderful Grand-Mother, Mother & Aunts) but ever the enthusiast I rose to the challenge and even added my version of Balmoral Chicken to the menu (Chicken stuffed with Haggis in a Creamy Whiskey Sauce) and my Yummy-Honey Brussels Sprouts. We had a great night in which we enjoyed the meal and our recitements of the Classic Burns Poems – ‘To A Mouse,’ ‘Auld Lang Syne,’ ‘My Luve is Like a Red, Red Rose,’ and of Course ‘Address To A Haggis.’ Also, whilst on the subject this is where I take the opportunity to encourage all of you Haggis Virgins out there that if the chance ever arises for you to try out a good quality Haggis then don’t be afraid and get tucked in! Forget any horrible stories you have heard or the silly myths that a Haggis is a 3-legged creature that runs around the Highlands of Scotland. Haggis truly is one of my most loved foods and in all its spicy, hearty, oaty glory it makes for delicious grub. 

Click on for the Recipes...

An Introduction to My Blog

It could be referred to as 'Jumping on the Blog Wagon.' After accidentally stumbling across this amazingly weird but wonderful world of blogging I am yet another victim that could not fight it and - dare I say - has caught the blog bug! Thus, leading me to create this very here journal.

As the name probably suggests (ali cooks, bakes and blogs) this page is all about my new found love for the Culinary Arts… I love being creative in life and as recently I have embarked upon a type of 'Culinary Journey' to a fuller, healthier and happier state of being through the often forgotten Art of Cooking I feel like I have found myself a new outlet in which I can pour some of those creative juices that bubble away inside of me.

Through doing this I aim to develop my knowledge of food and broaden my skills in preparing it into delicious dishes, and on my path to being somewhat domesticated in this way on my journey I will document my exploration towards this ultimate goal here.

To sum it up/introduce, this is my Blog in which I will be sharing my cooking, baking and eating experiences, recipes, reviews, photography and general thoughts and opinions on all things foody and yummy on my road to a healthier place!

A cooker/baker/blogger will be made of me yet!

Hope you enjoy...