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Cracking ice-cream flavour combo: Coconut and chocolate

Sun, 01 Jan 2017 11:00:00 +0000

On yet another fun Saturday night out at National Cycling Centre to watch the Revolution Cycling Series I set off in search of a snack! I had often seen the ice cream stand at the Sapporo noodle bar, but had never tried the ice cream.

I joined the queue to get myself an ice cream, deciding to get two scoops (despite declining the offer of his own ice cream, I knew Marty would tuck into mine!). Normally I am a mint choc chip girl but the flavours on offer were chocolate, coconut, strawberry or green tea (???). So what to do? Two chocolate, chocolate and strawberry, or chocolate and coconut. Hmmmm, that could work....

Opting for the choco-coconut combo I had to sample it. The ice cream tasted just like a bounty ice cream. I reluctantly went to find Marty (secretly wanting to walk slowly and keep my new find to myself), and told him he had to try it. He assumed it was chocolate and vanilla, so got a spoon of chocolate, then a spoon of the "vanilla". When he realised it was coconut and tried a spoon of both flavours together I knew that I had lost the rest of my pudding!!!

However, as it got a massive thumbs up from us both I have no need to be sad. I think a cheeky choco-coconut ice cream will now become part of our Saturday night cycling. Roll on the next round - I need more ice cream!!!!

The great Indian restaurant lamb scandal?

Sun, 18 Dec 2016 08:00:00 +0000

Whilst we were out in Tanzania on Safari something wasn't quite adding up, every night at the hotels there was several Lamb dishes to be found on the menu. The thing was vexing me was that despite being in the country for nearly a week and spending at least eight hours a day driving through various types of countryside I'd yet to lay eyes on either a sheep let alone a lamb...

With this puzzling me I broached the subject with the safari guide, MacDonald. He reluctantly pointed out that I may well have been served goat. 'May' may have been an understatement, if there was any livestock I had seen in abundance it was indeed goat and thinking back I'd actually commented to myself on several occasions how desipte its looks, the meat I was served didn't taste very lamby and was a fair bit chewier.

So that begs the question, does this ever happen in this country?

Armed with this information I've been keen to conduct a thorough survey, said investigation has taken place over year where I've been sampling Lamb dishes as often as would allow. So far my conclusion is that I've yet to suspect anything other than bonefide lamb although I fear that I've only been frequenting a couple of different establishments which are not renowned for there low quality dishes so may have introduced some selection bias.

In the coming year I'm looking to some more vigarous testing!

Slow cooker goulash

Thu, 12 Mar 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Slow Cooker Goulash Recipe
By Martin Childs

Authentic tasting, easy and tweakable from a soup to a hearty main meal.

My first experience of this popular Hungarian dish was during a trip to Budapest to visit a friend. We we stopped for a bite to eat having visited the Royal Palace.

I'm a fan of sampling the local cuisine when we are travelling so I ordered the Goulash Soup served with a crusty roll. It was so delicious it has been a regular on our menu ever since the arrival of our slow cooker.

The bueaty of this dish is its flexibility - you can vary the consistency from a soup all the way through to a a casserole like viscosity just by varying the amount of tomatoes and water added.

The other great feature is that it is so tasty that you'll need only a little beef, this is despite the relatively short list of ingredients.

Serves 2

Ingredients
• 150 - 200g beef (stewing/casserole or as chep/expensive as you like)
• two thirds of a red pepper
• medium onion
• tin of chopped tomatoes
• cumin
• paprika
• chilli (fresh/dried flake/powder)
• salt and pepper
• beef stock cube
• crusty bread to serve

Method

1. Roughly chop the oinions and brown in a frying pan with some oil then remove to the slow cooker

2. Dice the pepper and add to the slow cooker

3. Brown the diced beef on a high heat until it carmelises and remove to slow cooker

4. Keep the heat on the frying pan and add boiling water to at least 1cm depth and crumble in the stock cube.

5. With a (wooden) spatula scrape all surfaces of the pan until clean and add to the slow cooker

6. Add one third to a whole can of chopped tomatoes and top up with water to desired consistency (ensuring that you at least cover the ingredients)

7. Add three teaspoons of paprika and one of ground cumin, stir and season to taste

8. Cook according to your slow cooker's instructions (normally for me 6 - 8hrs)

Perfect Corn on the Cob

Mon, 13 Oct 2014 13:00:00 +0000

Corn on the Cob Recipe
By Martin Childs

A super easy and cheaper corn on the cob recipe.

If there is one con in the food retail business it is adding value to your product when you simply don't need to - sweetcorn is the prime example. It is almost impossible to find a corn on the cob in the supermarket with it's husk intact. Most retailers insist on removing the natural protection, trimming the ends, packaging it in plastic in a special atmosphere then storing it in a chiller when there is absolutely no need.

Why do they do this I hear you ask, one reason alone: profit - they can now charge you twice as much. If you ask them they'd probably say that customers prefer to buy them this way - this is probably true as in my cooking/shopping lifetime this is the only way I remember it being so of course they are going to say they prefer it if they don't know any different!

The recipe is super easy - place the sweetcorn complete with husks intact into the oven for 25-30mins at your favourite temperature (180 - 200 deg C), when they are ready take them out, peel back the leaves which now double up as a convenient handle and you are pretty much ready to go apart from removing any remain hairy fibres and smearing over some butter if you wish.

Oven roasting is a great way of cooking your cob, the husk stops all of the moisture evaporating so the sweetcorn steams itself in its own juices - nice. And who can't be impressed with the pure simplicity of it.

Serves 2

Ingredients
• 2 corn on the cobs with husk intact
• Knob of butter (optional)

Method

1. Place corn (husk on) in preheated oven
2. Cook for 25-30 mins
3. Smear with butter (optional)
4. enjoy.

Roasted Monkey Nuts review

Mon, 28 Jul 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Roasted Monkey Nuts

Reviewed by Martin Childs

£1.00 per 250g

Nutrition per 25g as consumed: 155kcal; 12.0g fat (2.1g saturates); 7.1g protein; 2.6g carbs ;trace salt.

Quality snacking at a good price.

These roasted monkey nuts really are great, their roasted flavour really does make them much more tasty than their regular plain counterparts. The fact you have to shell them is also makes them great on the stats - it really slows you down eating them compared to the preshelled counterparts and unlike these pre-prepared snakcs they don't have a tonne of salt added and they aren't greasy.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Quick & Tasty Coleslaw

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 20:00:00 +0000

Coleslaw Recipe
By Martin Childs

A quick, easy and healthy alternative to shop bought coleslaw.

Once you've tasted homemade coleslaw and you see how easy it is to make your own, I'm telling you theres no way back. I certainly haven't, I now find the shop bought variety unnecessarily swimming in some white saucy stuff and if you look on the nutritional information on the side you always get a shock.

The recipe is so simple - equal amounts of carrot, white cabbage and onion which is easily sliced/grated and then mixed with your favourite low fat mayo.

It actually works out cheaper than the pre-prepared product you buy even given the fact that 1 cabbage is way more than you need. And as it's so easy to prepare you can keep making up batches when you need it until the cabbage is no longer usable.

It's also great for camping as you can prepare a couple of batches of the ingredients (without the mayo/salt/peper) and package them up. They will then last well and when it comes time to eat them you just mix in the salt/pepper/mayo and you are away.

Serves 2

Ingredients
• 1 medium carrot
• White cabbage
• half medium onion
• mayo
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Coarsly grate the carrot
2. Finely slice the cabbage & onion
3. Season with salt and pepper
4. Add a couple of dollops of mayo and mix well

Chorizo and Pepper Pasta

Wed, 04 Jun 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Chorizo & Red Pepper Pasta Recipe
By Martin Childs

Super tasty, super cheap and super easy - what else do you need for a dish!

I normally make a very similar-ish meal with sliced pepperoni, but having been seduced in sainsburys by a chorizo ring I don't think I'm going back! The texture it adds to the dish makes it for me plus I'm always a sucker for some Paprika. As a bonus theres plenty left over to keep you snacking for a week.

The recipe for two people only uses about a third of the chorizo and as it was only £2 its great value if you can restrain yourself and make it last serveral meals. Or if you are anything like me you can throw that out the window and steadily work your way through it with a nice selection of cheese and biscuits.

I'll also add that it still tastes great as it cools down so it is a perfect dish to pre-prepare and take somewhere to eat as a picnic -great for watching events at the velodrome.

Serves 2

Ingredients
• 60 - 75g chorizo
• one third red or yellow pepper
• half medium onion
• tin of chopped tomatoes
• Optional: couple of cloves of garlic
• paprika
• Salt and pepper
• 120g penne pasta

Method

1. Finely dice the onion and cut the pepper into small batons and start to brown in a saucepan with oil

2. Start to cook the pasta

3. Cut up the chorizo into approx 10mm cubes and add to the oinion and peppers a few minutes before they are brown

4. When they are brown you can optionally chuck in some finely diced garlic at this point as well

5. Throw in the tin of chopped tomatoes stir it up and then sprinkle a nice layer of paprika across the whole pan (a couple of heaped teaspoons) then season to taste

6. Simmer the dish until the excess liquid from the tomatoes has evaporated

7. Drain the pasta and add all components to a pasta bowl and serve.

Alison and Martin's Carbonara

Sun, 30 Mar 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Pork & Mushroom Carbonara
By Alison Hardy & Martin Childs

A quick cheap and tasty twist on your traditional dish

I'm a fan of Carbonara but don't care so much for pancetta, it's more than double the price for what amounts to basically bacon. I don't like using regular bacon in the recipe either - I only buy thick cut rashers if you are using them for anything other than bacon butties then you are commiting a crime.

As a result my recipe uses pork loin, it actually costs less than bacon and at third of the price of pancetta it's a done deal. I generally always have some knocking about the freezer and you can chop it up nice and chuncky so you can actually tell you have meat in the dish. Gammon is another option - it's even cheaper and saltier - but I'm sticking to pork loin as the texture is great for this dish.

Alison has also managed to tweak the recipe to be easy on the cheese but to retain the cheesey-ness of the sauce so its good on the stats as well, I've also shoe-horned some mushroom in as well - they add a bit more bulk as I don't like feeling cheated with all sauce and no filling.

Serves 2

Ingredients
• 1 pork loin steak
• 120g dried spaghetti
• 2 mushrooms
• 1 egg
• 25 g Parmesan
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Cook 120g spaghetti until al dente (Approx 10 minutes)
2. Whilst the spaghetti is cooking cut pork into thin strips, slice mushrooms, crush garlic
3. Lightly fry pork, mushrooms and garlic for 4 minutes
4. Beat egg
5. Drain spaghetti and return to the pan, add beaten egg, ¾ parmesan, pork, mushrooms, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper to taste
6. Stir well
7. The heat of the cooked spaghetti will be enough to lightly cook the egg
8. Transfer to pasta dishes and sprinkle remaining parmesan over the dish

My RSS Feed

Cracking ice-cream flavour combo: Coconut and chocolate

The great Indian restaurant lamb scandal?

Slow cooker goulash

Slow Cooker Goulash Recipe By Martin Childs

Serves 2

Perfect Corn on the Cob

Corn on the Cob Recipe By Martin Childs

Serves 2

Roasted Monkey Nuts review

Roasted Monkey Nuts

Reviewed by Martin Childs

Quick & Tasty Coleslaw

Coleslaw Recipe By Martin Childs

Serves 2

Chorizo and Pepper Pasta

Chorizo & Red Pepper Pasta Recipe By Martin Childs

Serves 2

Alison and Martin's Carbonara

Pork & Mushroom Carbonara By Alison Hardy & Martin Childs

Serves 2

Slow Cooker Goulash Recipe
By Martin Childs

Corn on the Cob Recipe
By Martin Childs

Coleslaw Recipe
By Martin Childs

Chorizo & Red Pepper Pasta Recipe
By Martin Childs

Pork & Mushroom Carbonara
By Alison Hardy & Martin Childs