Cold plates

No cooking at all, at all!

Sometimes you just don’t need to cook to have some lovely food in front of you.  When I feel like this I turn to the fantastic pig.  I think I could live without other meats, if I was left on a desert island with a pig and a few sharp knives!!!

Maybe I need a few more courses before I can produce all the lovely food that a pig has to offer, sausages, rashers, pate, hams.  Thankfully in the mean time there is the English Market in Cork and some wonderful artisan producers.  On the Pig’s Back, Iagos and the ABC bread company sell most of what was in front of me tonight.

Just because you are not cooking, does not mean that you can just shove it on the table any old way.  I recently bought some wooden table mats just for this purpose, and Yes Cian, I was practicing for a dinner party!  This is not a complicated presentation, but I think  it looks well.  The addition of some chutney, made last year from these recipes complimented everything and nothing more to do but open a nice bottle of red.  Pretty darn fantastic, even thought I say so myself 

Student Chicken

Chicken in Tomato Sauce with Pasta

I could give this a fancy name, but I want to stress how easy this recipe is.  This is my contribution to student cooking, fast, easy, good for you and cheap!  All the ingredients are available in Lidl or Aldi, it’s a step up from adding bottle sauce to cooked chicken but above all it tastes so much better and you will feel like a pro.  Ok, you need to act like a grown up and buy some store cupboard ingredients like oregano and basil and hopefully a block of parmesan, but these will last for ages and you will have something to look at on your shelves on Thursday nights, before you head back to Mammy at the weekend. 

For two people (you know that makes sense!)

2 chicken breasts or 4/5 legs or thighs, skin off

1 portion of bacon bits (half that pack of smoked bacon bits you get in Aldi or Lidl)(optional, but do it anyway)

A little oil for frying

1 meduim onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, crushed and finely chopped

1 small red pepper, cut into pieces, no seeds

8 to 10 mushrooms sliced

1 can of tomatoes, chopped if they are not chopped already

1 tablespoon of tomato puree, (buy the tube not the small cans and you can store it in the fridge)

Teaspoon of dried oregano

Pinch of dried Basil

1 chicken stock cube

To serve,

100g pasta per person, cooked in boiling water

Some grated parmesan

Cut the chicken into small pieces so they will cook evenly and quickly.  Fry the bacon pieces in a little oil over medium heat, and then add the chicken pieces.  Turn them over so that they brown on all sides.  After a minute or two add the chopped onion, garlic, red pepper and mushrooms.  Turn everything over in the oil and continue cooking until the vegetables begin to collapse. 

Add the tin of tomatoes, the puree, the chicken stock cube and about half a can of water.  Finally add the oregano and the basil, rubbing them through the palm of your hand to release the flavours and make you look more like Jamie Oliver.

You don’t need to add any more salt as there is quite a lot of salt in stock cubes, but feel free to add pepper if you like.  A pinch and I mean a pinch of chilli flakes are good too.  But that is for second year!

Serve over the cooked pasta with some grated parmesan on top.  Phone Mum and tell her what a healthy student you are!

(PS Clean your board, your knife and your hands with HOT water after chopping raw chicken.)

Rhubarb and Orange Cake with Flaked Almonds

Rhubarb and Orange Cake with Flaked Almonds

When my son was growing up he used to tease me if I produced a special dinner on a week night, “Practicing for a dinner party, Mom?”  He was often correct, but it became a little joke between us when anything a tiny bit special was produced.  But therein lies the first rule of the dinner party, never cook something for guests that you have not cooked before.  It is not the night for trying out that recipe that looked great in the book, but you are not sure if you can manage all the steps.  You will just get flustered when you should be sipping wine with your guests.  As sipping wine with my friends is one of my all time favourite things to do, I limit the work and stress of entertaining by cooking things I know that work, and that I can cook without too much effort. 

If you want to go all out and do three courses, then either buy one course or get a guest to bring one.  For my last dinner party I bought fishcakes to serve with (bought) sweet chilli sauce, roasted a belly of pork and made this fantastic rhubarb cake for dessert.  Start practicing this one while the rhubarb is in season.  It is also a great dessert to carry to a dinner party if you are asked to bring something.  I found this recipe when I asked that very question, “What is an easy dessert to carry to a dinner party?” on this forum, where I hang out talking about food, not as boring as you might think, well each to their own!!

You will find the recipe here

http://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/recipes/recipe_directory/r/rhubarb_and_orange_cake_with_flaked_almonds.html