PEA BACON GOATS CHEESE RISOTTO

After the success of my Crab & Truffle Risotto I wanted to cook another one and today was the perfect day for it. Poor Arabella was home from school with a terrible cough and sore throat and so needed to eat something soft and warming….plus she is a goats cheese fanatic (her illness certainly hadnt affected her appetite)!

This is an old recipe of mine and was the first risotto I ever cooked and at the time I remember thinking I would "save calories" by using margarine rather than butter - what an error - definitely use full fat butter and lots of cheese!!

Ingredients for 4 people:

1 litre of chicken or vegetable stock
70g butter
1 onion, finely chopped
200g lardons
A bunch of thyme
400g risotto rice
150ml white wine
200g frozen peas
Salt & pepper
150g goats cheese
150g Parmesan cheese, grated

Chop the onion and remove the thyme leaves from their stalks.

Heat a knob of butter in a saucepan and add the bacon, onion and thyme.

Cook for 10 minutes until the onion is soft and the lardons are cooked. While this is cooking, heat the stock in a saucepan.

Once the 10 minutes is up, add the rice to the bacon, onions and thyme. Turn up the heat so it almost fries.

After a minute the rice will look slightly translucent. Next add the wine and keep stirring.

Next for your exercise!! Add a ladle of hot stock and a pinch of salt and turn down the heat to a fairly high simmer. Stir and stir until the stock is absorbed completely, and then add another ladle, and then stir some more.

When there are only a couple of ladles left, add the peas to the stock and then add them to the risotto along with the stock.

Keep on going until all the stock is used up and the rice is soft but still has a slight bite. Season with salt and pepper.

Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, half the goats cheese, and the Parmesan.

Serve with the remaining goats cheese and eat as soon as possible while it retains it lovely moist texture!

Oh my goodness, this was delicious, so creamy but so fresh - peas, bacon and goats cheese is a winning combination. For once I didnt even need to add extra cheese! Finally, if you are veggie, you can leave out the bacon and use vegetable stock rather than chicken. This is time consuming with all the stirring but very simple to make.

I am already looking forward to the leftovers tomorrow!!

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TRAY BAKED CHICKEN WITH SWEETCORN BACON

It was Pascals birthday on Thursday and so we went for an incredible meal at our favourite restaurant Gola, of course. We then celebrated again last night with friends and I cooked this tray baked chicken recipe which I adapted from one of Jamie Olivers cook books. In his recipe, he adds banana to the chicken but to me that sounds utterly gross so I left it out but each to their own! This was a great dinner party dish as it was quick and easy to make and you can prepare it all beforehand. Although presentation wasnt the best….something I definitely need to work on!

We made this dish for 6 however here is the recipe for 4.

Ingredients for 4 people:

4 chicken breasts, no skin
4 fresh corn on the cob
1 x 410g tin of cannelloni or butter beans, drained
1 large wine glass of white wine (250ml)
300ml double cream
55g butter
12 rashers of smoked streaky bacon or pancetta
a handful of fresh mint, leaves picked

Preheat your oven to 220 C / gas mark 7.

Run a knife down the length of the corn of the cob to remove the corn. Once done, add the corn to the tray and discard the cobs. The corn is much more flavoursome than buying it in a tin and this is super easy to do.

Using a fork or your fingers (messy but best I reckon), squash up half of your beans until you have pulp and then add these to the sweetcorn along with the unsquashed beans.

Add the chicken breasts side by side and season well.

Next add the 300ml of double cream and the 250ml of white wine.

Divide the butter into little knobs and scatter around the tray.

Then drape the bacon or pancetta over the chicken breasts and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes (I did 40).

Then serve with some scattered mint leaves.

This was really good - I love all the different flavours together. Definitely both kid and adult friendly. It did need further seasoning though. My plate didnt look as good as Jamies in his cook book and Pascal reckoned there was too much sauce - next time we will serve this with some mash or rice as I think that would go wonderfully together and it would soak it all up. If you like the combination of fruit and food, you can add half a squashed banana to the inside of each chicken breast - it is how they cook this in the American South!

For pudding I made a cake…..it is a good job we like chocolate and sugar!!

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BACON EGG TART

I havent cooked this much in a long time. Another day, another goats cheese recipe….Arabella and my bones must be getting super strong from all the calcium.

I love recipes with only a few ingredients, especially when it is pouring with rain outside and you dont want to have to go to the shops. Luckily I had all I needed in my fridge and cupboard to make this yummy dish.

Ingredients for 2 people:

1 tbsp olive oil
Half an onion, halved and thinly sliced
160g lardons
5 tbsp of breadcrumbs
2 large eggs
125ml single cream
100g goats cheese, crumbled or chopped into small pieces
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 200 C / gas mark 6.

Place a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the oil, onion and lardons and cook until the onion is translucent - around 5-10 minutes (it took me 7 minutes to be precise).

When it is ready, tip the bacon and onion mixture onto a plate and set aside.

In a bowl, beat the eggs and cream together until combined.

Then stir through the goats cheese and some pepper. I didnt add salt as the lardons are salty however you can if you want.

Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the base of the frying pan.

Scatter the bacon and onion mixture on top.

Finally pour the egg and goats cheese on top.

If your frying pan is oven proof, put it in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until the eggs are set and the top is golden. I was unsure whether our pan was oven proof - I just risked it and thankfully it was fine! If you dont have a oven proof frying pan, you can grill the tart with the oven door open and the handle sticking out (for the same amount of time as above).

When ready, remember the frying pan handle might be hot, remove from the oven and eat up!

I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised by this recipe - it actually tastes like a quiche but lighter and better (and easier to cook). Arabella and I both enjoyed it and it would go perfectly with a green salad. If you were a vegetarian, you could always substitute the bacon for spinach and you could even serve this for breakfast or brunch as well as for dinner. 

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CARAMELISED ONION GOATS CHEESE PISSALADIERE WITH BACON ROASTED PEPPERS

Whenever I see a French recipe in a magazine, I will normally cut it out and cook it for Pascal, just like I did here. A Pissaladiere is a pizza style tart from Nice in the South of France - traditionally it is a pizza style base topped with caramelised onions, garlic, olives and anchovies. Obviously we had to mix it up and involve cheese somehow!! Unfortunately little did I know Pascal doesnt like caramelised onions (and neither does Arabella) - whoops!

Ingredients for 4-6 people:

4 roasted red peppers (you can buy them in a jar or roast them yourself)
50g butter
4 red onions, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp Marmite
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
375g ready rolled puff pastry
8 rashes of smoked streaky bacon, chopped (you could probably use lardons instead)
150g goats cheese
Rocket leaves, Parsley or Basil, to serve

Melt 50g of butter in a frying pan and gently cook the onion and garlic over a low heat until they are soft and golden brown. This will take around 30 minutes. While these are cooking, preheat the oven to 180 C / 160 C(fan) / gas mark 4 and take the pastry out the fridge.

Then stir in the Marmite and thyme. The Marmite gives the onions a more meaty, richer taste.

Unroll the pastry onto a baking sheet (I used a dish) and prick all over with a fork.

Spread with the caramelised onions.

Then cut the peppers into strips and add them.

Scatter over with bacon and roast in the oven for 20 minutes.

Then add the goats cheese and cook for a further 10-15 minutes (you just need to make sure the bacon is cooked).

To serve scatter with some green leaves.

I really really liked this, even though I am not a Marmite fan, it added a great flavour to the onions which went brilliantly with the goats cheese, bacon and peppers. Unfortunately neither Pascal or Arabella were that enamoured with the recipe….Arabella even went so far to say it was the most revolting thing she had ever eaten…she did eat it though! The offending ingredient was the onions, so I will do this again for them but with a tomato base (more pizza than pissaladiere) or I will have to make it for fellow onion lovers like myself.

One thing I have realised is when I do rip these recipes out of magazines for Pascal, they are actually more for me than him ;-)

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