Homemade Coleslaw, You Can't Beat It

When I was still at school, I used to have a weekend job at my local Harvester restaurant (http://www.harvester.co.uk). The home of the salad cart and spit roast kitchen... And even the soup or salad saying for the original lunchtime deal. At the end of my shift on a Saturday night, I used to treat myself to a healthy bowl of salad, but occasionally a bowl of chips and coleslaw. The coleslaw was freshly made each day. What's easier then tossing together cabbage, onion and carrot with some mayonnaise. I've always made my own since, you can't beat it and its so much more tasty then the shop brought with lots of crunch and in my case chunky with extra onion. My only variation is that i use half fat mayo. Did working at the Harvester make me into a coleslaw snob? I think so, it's homemade only all the way!

Tonight's was perfect with chicken kiev.

Johnny's Kitchen

http://johnnys-kitchen.blogspot.com.es/
 

An Englishman living in Europe for years, a blog about the recipes he has made for dinner and lunch parties for friends and family over the years.

 

Foodie inspiration!

 

Cooking inspiration? Just Cook Lasagne

A few years ago I attended a cookery course at Just Cook in Newport, Essex. One of the dishes that I made was a lasagne from scratch: the ragu, the white sauce and the lasagne sheets. It was one of the best I had ever tasted. I’m not being arrogant, it really was – deep in flavour, which was really meaty and flavoursome and extremely filling. Whenever I make lasagne now, I always refer back to the recipe. The key I’ve learnt is to let the ragu to stew for a good two hours and to use a quality pancetta.

I admit, I normally short cut the homemade lasagne sheets, but not today. On seeing how good Lesley Beech’s homemade tortellini was on Twitter, either inspiration struck or the green eyed monster within me. Homemade lasagne sheets it was today. Thanks to Lesley for the cooking inspiration, I’m glad I put the effort in!

The end result … just as nice as I can remember from my cookery course and leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Cooking inspiration? A fairly healthy salad

A busy day in the kitchen, I’ve been on my feet all day. Today was a day for cooking inspiration….

On reading the November 2012 Good Food magazine, I’ve decided to try healthy lunches this week for work and to stop buying the very tantalising panini from the Italian sandwich bar. I’ve stocked up the ingredients ready for a lentil, carrot and ham salad for Monday lunch. After a nice long walk with the dog today however, I decided to keep up the healthy theme by using some of the ham hock to make a ham and egg salad for lunch. Very tasty indeed and healthy, if it wasn’t for the blue cheese dressing, but it had to be done.

So in the spirit of salad or soup, it’s salad!

Kitchen Geekery

Kitchen Geekery is a website with articles, recipes, and kitchen equipment for the discerning foodie.

A mayo convert, thanks Delia

I’ve been catching up with Delia’s How to Cook series on the Good Food channel this week, rather amusing in places. The series was only filmed in 1998, but how things have moved on. A brilliant series and cooking inspiration!

I did notice the Cuisinart Professional Ice Cream Maker hasn’t changed over the last 14 years however. If you’re considering buying one, I came across a useful review recently on Kitchen Geekery.

Having caught up on the series, I thought it was time to dust off the accompanying books for the series. Having a flick through, I realised I had never made homemade mayonnaise. Having brought some fresh dressed Cromer crab from Saffron Walden market, I decided I would give it a try to accompany the crab, fresh crusty baguette and egg. I changed over to Delia’s ‘Complete Illustrated Cooker Course’ as my regular kitchen bible. People say that homemade mayonnaise is easy to make and once you’ve made it, you never go back. I fully agree! A perfect accompaniment for lunch and the rest will be great in a potato salad.

Thank you Delia, another mayo convert!

Ginger Cake - A perfect Sunday roast desert...

I’m not sure whether it was watching the Great British Bake Off or adding Holly Bell to my Twitter account (HollyBellMummy), but something inspired me to back a cake. I generally avoid baking as much as possible; as I confess I really don’t have the patience.

Either way, ginger cake was called for and I had to turn to the Readers Digest The Cookery Year that has a prime position on the shelf. It may be the 1977 edition and be third or fourth hand, having been picked up in a library sale, but it's one of my most used and is regularly called upon for inspiration.

Despite making a mess with the black treacle, the cake came out perfect. Following the recipe to the word for a flawless result, the cake is lovely served hot with some cream drizzled over. A perfect Sunday desert to follow the roast.