Thursday 27 June 2013

HFI - Spinch and Feta Pie - Jamie Oliver Recipe



spinach and feta pie
  • 100g pine nuts
  • 5 eggs (or 300ml creme fraiche)
  • 300g feta cheese
  • 50g grated cheddar cheese
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • Knob of butter
  • 400g spinach
  • 270g pack of filo pastry
  • Cayenne pepper
  • 1 whole nutmeg

  1. Spinach and feta pie - Toast the pine nuts in the dry frying pan until they start to colour. Crack five eggs into a mixing bowl and crumble in the feta cheese. Add the cheddar cheese, salt, pepper, oregano, lemon zest and a tablespoon of olive oil. Stir in the toasted pine nuts and mix well.
  2. Heat the frying pan with a bit of olive oil and butter then add half of the spinach. Move the spinach around in the frying pan for about a minute and once it has wilted add the remaining spinach. Stir frequently.
  3. Cover your worktop with a 50cm piece of greaseproof paper (shiny side up), which has been greased well with olive oil. Scrunch the paper up and then lay it back out flat. Working quickly, arrange four sheets of filo pastry in a square, making sure that the inner edges slightly overlap. Drizzle a little olive oil over the pastry sheets before sprinkling with cayenne pepper. Repeat this process until you have three layers of pastry.
  4. The spinach should have wilted by now. If it's very wet, drain it in a colander then add it to the egg mixture and grate in half of the nutmeg. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
  5. Pick up the greaseproof paper that the pastry is sitting on and transfer it to the frying pan (or cake tin in my case) so that the edges hang over. Push the pastry into the sides of the pan (don't worry, filo is stronger than it looks) then pour in the egg mixture. Fold the sides of the pastry into the middle to seal the pie and put the frying pan back on the heat for a few minutes.
  6. Transfer the frying pan into the oven to cook for around 20 minutes.

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Baked Semolina Pudding

Thanks Bill Armstrong for this recipe, it was not just a hit with me but my family loved it when they came to dinner with sultanas and sugar :)

Baked Semolia Pudding

  • 600ml, 1 pint milk
  • 1/4 semolina
  • 1/3 cup glucose (optional)
  • 15g,  or a knob of butter
  •  nutmeg or cinnamon to sprinkle (to taste)
  1. Well grease an ovenproof dish
  2. Put milk into pan and heat until lukewarm
  3. Sprinkle in the semolina
  4. Cook slowly, stirring all the time until it comes to the boil and thickens
  5. Add sugar and butter
  6. Remove from the heat and pour into the ovenproof dish
  7. Grate (or sprinkle ready ground) nutmeg over the top
  8. Put into a moderate oven (160C or Gas 3) for 30 minutes

Salt and Pepper Squid

Tried making this the other night and just kind of threw in a few spices here and there and it came out delicious, i would say better then most of the Chinese places eaten at :)

SALT AND PEPPER SPICED SQUID



  • 1 Tube of Calamari
  • Milk to tenderise
  • Rock salt (Himalayan contains the most minerals)
  • Black Peppercorns
  • Pinch Szechuan spice
  • Pinch Chinese 5 spice 
  • Pinch chilli flakes
  • cornflour
  • olive oil for deep frying


Cut tube of calamari into either rings or wide rectangles.
Place in a bowl of milk and tenderise in fridge for at least 3 hours, this will make it beautiful and tender
In a mortar and pestle combine salt, pepper and spices and grind up until ingredients are combined.
You may want to reserve some of the mix to sprinkle over at the end.
In a plastic freezer bag put cornflour in the bag and then add the spices, shake it up to mix it all together.
Discard milk from squid.
Drop a squid at a time into the bag, shake until coated with cornflour and spice mix.
Deep fry in batches until golden brown.
Serve with lemon




HFI Marinated chicken wings

HFI Marinated chicken wings

1/2 kg Chicken windings
Mix in a bowl:-
Soy sauce
Olive oil
Chilli flakes (to taste)
1/4tsp garlic
1/4tsp ginger

Pour mixture over chicken, put in fridge to marinate for at least a few hours.
Cook in frypan

Enjoy :)

Chicken and bacon casserole

Great sunday night dinner, very quick and full of flavour 


  • 500g diced chicken
  • 4 rashers bacon
  • Sliced Mushrooms
  • 1 Packet French onion soup (the recipe says the whole packet but i use a quarter so reduce the water a little bit)
  • 1 1/2cups water or chicken stock
  • 2 tbls cornflour
  • Sour cream to serve
  • parsley for garnish
Brown chicken and bacon, season with salt and pepper
Add mushrooms, french onion and water, sprinkle cornflour slowly while mixing through
Simmer gently. Take off heat and stir in sour cream
Garnish with parsley

Cheesy Muffins

A nice and easy but yummy snack

Cheesy Muffins


1 Egg
2 Cups grated cheese
1 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup milk
4 rasher bacon
1 tspn baking powder
pinch of salt
onion (optional pending on tolerance)

  • Whisk egg and milk together
  • Stir in cheese, bacon, onion & dry ingredients. Mix well
  • Spoon into small greased muffins tins. Bake at 190deg for 10-15mins
  • leave in tin to cool for 10mins

Best ever hotcakes recipe

Well over the time i tried a few different recipe's but after finding this one i will never try anything else

Hotcakes

(obviously we don't have maple syrup but you can always get creative with the topping, my choice is vegemite or homemade lemon butter)

1 1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 1/2 cup self raising flour
1/4 tspn bicarb soda
1 large egg
1 1/2 tablespoon melted butter
2 tablespoons glucose powder (optional)
  • Stir Milk, Lemon and Sugar in seperate bowl.
  • Sift flour and bicarb into bowl
  • combine egg and melted butter with milk mixture and add to flour, make sure you pour slowly and mix well as you pour, use a metal spoon and don't overmix
  • Leave batter for 2mins
  • Heat frying pan & grease
  • Pour mixture in to desire sizes, cook on one side until bubbles appear and pop.  Flip and serve when golden brown

Saturday 23 February 2013

Tempura Chicken with Indian Rice


Tempura Chicken with Indian Rice

Tempura Chicken:-

2 Chicken Breasts
Olive Oil
1 Cup Flour
Salt and Pepper
1 Cup iced water

Cut chicken into bite size pieces.  Cook chicken until brown in a small amount of oil.

Sift flour into a bowl with salt and pepper.  Gradually stir water in until a batter forms.

Roll chicken in batter a few times and fry in oil in batches until golden brown

Indian Style Rice Recipe

  • 2 cups long-grain rice, preferably Basmati
  • 8 cups water
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 cardamom pods
  • One 2-inch piece of cinnamon
  • 3 Tbsp olive oil (or ghee if you have it)
  • 1/2 teaspoon dark mustard seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
  • chopped garlic cloves
  • 1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1. Place rice in a sieve and run cool water through it to rinse it until the water runs clear. Soak the rice in cool water for 30 minutes. Drain.
2 Bring 8 cups of water and the salt to a boil in a large pot. Add the rice and stir. Add the cloves, cardamom and cinnamon and simmer for 10 minutes. Taste the rice, and test if it is done to your taste; rice can take more or less time to cook depending on how old it is. If still too firm, cook a few minutes longer.
3 When the rice is cooked to your liking, drain the rice into a colander and rinse with cold water to stop if from cooking. Remove the cloves, cardamom and cinnamon and discard. Set the rice aside to drain.
4 In a pan large enough to hold the rice, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the mustard and cumin seeds and the chili flakes. Cook until the mustard seeds start popping. 
5 Add the garlic and sauté another 2-3 minutes. Add the rice and mix well. Sprinkle the turmeric over the rice and mix well. Cook for another 3-4 minutes, stirring often.


Marinated Madras Chicken Curry - HFI


You will need:-
Chicken Fillets
Madras Paste
Natural Yohurt
Quinoa
Chickpeas


This was a very last minute throw together, marinating the chicken longer would have made it a lot nicer but it still was a nice flavour.

A traditional Madras Curry has tomatoes in it so i opted for a marinated option.

All i did was chop up a chicken breast fillet into cubes.  One spoon of Madras Curry Paste and 1 spoon of natural yoghurt (takes the heat down a notch). Marinate chicken and put in fridge, ideally overnight but at least for a few hours.

Boil up some quinoa seeds.

Put chicken into hot pan with olive or coconut oil, before just about ready to come out, throw in some quinoa and mix around.  This is more like a stir-fry so you can add what ever you would like but i like my plain with some roasted chickpeas on top.


Asian Fish Soup with Vermicelli Noodles

Asian Fish Broth with Vermicelli Noodles





  • 200g rice vermicelli600mls Homemade Fish StockFresh Red chilli Flakes to taste, Fresh finely chopped Garlic & GingerGreen ShallotsSoya Sauce to tasteBoneless Fish FilletsFresh Coriander Leaves to garnishLemon wedge
    Add the rice vermicelli to a large saucepan of boiling water and boil for 3-5 minutes or until softened. Set aside and keep warm.
    Combine fish stock, chilli flakes, garlic, ginger, green shallots and soya sauce in medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low.
    Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a non-stick frying pan over high heat and cook the fish fillets for 2-3 minutes on each side Or until just cooked through.
    To serve, divide rice vermicelli among warm soup bowls and top each with a fish fillet. Pour simmering stock over fish, then sprinkle with coriander leaves, salt & cracked pepper. Serve accompanied by lemon/lime wedges, if desired.

Fish Stock

How to make Fish Bone Broth

Making fish stock is simple. You need fish head and bones to start with. If you prefer to use fish fillets in your fish dishes, buy a whole fish, ask the fish monger to fillet the fish for you then bring home everything — fillets, head and bones

Place the fish heads and bones in a pot. Pour enough water to cover then bring to the boil. Remove the scum that rises. 

Add your aromatics now or when serving, season with salt and pepper, then simmer for at least 30 minutes.

Cool stock, pour into freezer containers and keep in the freezer until needed.

Nutrional Notes:-

This food is low in Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Protein, Thiamin, Pantothenic Acid, Copper and Manganese, and a very good source of Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B12, Phosphorus and Potassium.

Read More http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/soups-sauces-and-gravies/1110/2#ixzz2LmUN2uag






Friday 1 February 2013

Caro, Walnut and Cinnamon Ice Cream

If you haven't already got yourself an ice-cream maker, GET ONE! You will not regret it.  It doesn't matter if you don't add sugar to most recipes and you can get so creative and use all the yummy ingredients we CAN have to treat yourself with a little bit of delish after a meal.  I made this one tonight and i was impressed :)


Caro, Walnut & Cinnamon Ice-cream 
(Ice-Cream maker required)

Ingredients:-

1 Cup whole milk
1 Cup heavy cream
2 large egg yolds
1 tablespoon glucose powder (optional)
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons Caro
Chopped Walnuts
Cinnamon

Directions:-

Beat eggs with a mixer, gradually add glucose powder if you are using.  Beat again until well mixed.

Place eggs mixture into a saucepan on medium head, stir and gradually add milk in continually stirring.
Melt Caro with a tiny amount of boiled water and add to mixture and also add vanilla.

Take off heat as soon as it starts to thicken or just before boiling point (it will curdle if it boils.)

Put mixture in a bowl and cool down mixture in the fridge.

Once cooled, add the cream, stir through and chill in fridge over night.

Once this is done you are now able to put mixture straight into the ice-cream maker.  If you would like cinnamon and walnuts, chop up walnuts and add a sprinkle of cinnamon to mixture just before adding to icecream maker.


Saturday 19 January 2013

3 Cheese Omelette with Mushroom and Spinach

3 Cheese Omelette with mushroom and spinach

  • 2 Eggs
  • Mushroom sliced
  • Cooked and dried/frozen spinach
  • 3 cheeses - i use tasty, parmesan and fetta
  • salt and pepper
  • oil
Whisk eggs together and season with salt and pepper. On a low heat put egg in frying pan, layer mushrooms, spinach and cheeses across egg. When starting to cook through fold in half and cook on slow until golden brown. 

A healthy and HFI Safe nutritious snack /breakfast or dinner :) 

Blog Update

Stuck for idea's?  I'm always sick of looking up recipes and having only half of the ingredients so i'm just going to upload some very basic, HFI safe, quick and easy meal ideas to help with the nights when you just can't be bothered :)  Hope you Enjoy :)
Sheree :)

Sunday 6 January 2013

HFI spin on Spaghetti Bolognese

HFI Spaghetti Bolognese

200g Organic Spaghetti
500g beef mince
2-3 rashers bacon diced
1 mushroom diced
oil
parmesan cheese

Bechamel Sauce
Please click here on how to make Bechamel Sauce

Method:

Get spahetti on the stove and cook as per package instructions.
Fry off mince until starting to brown in oil, add bacon and mushroom season with salt and pepper, cook on medium heat so ingredients don't dry out.
When cooked, add ingredients to Bechamel Sauce then stir in spaghetti pasta, serve with fresh grated parmesan.

HFI Notes:-

  • You can add some garlic, canneloni beans, lentils etc for more flavour, depending on your preference



Pork Mince Curry Noodles

Pork Mince Curry Noodles




So tonight i wanted to try something new and different and was quite happy with how it came out considering it was, "whats in the fridge and cupboard that i can throw together" night.  Give it a go, it was so quick and easy.

Ingredients:-
Olive oil 
300 - 500g pork mince
Chinese/green cabbage
Cannelloni beans
Chicken or Beef broth (click here for recipe)
1/2-1 tsp Curry powder (i like my mild)
Wok ready asian noodles (or rice noodles)
dollop natural yoghurt (optional)

Fry off pork mince on medium until starting to brown. Add in some chopped up cabbage. Season with salt and pepper. Fry off for a few minutes.  Add cannelloni beans, Sprinkle curry powder in, add broth until mixture is moist.  Cover and let simmer for about 5mins adding more broth if it starts drying out.  Throw in noodles, toss through, let simmer for 2mins.
Serve with a dollop of natural yoghurt and i scooped it up with some mini mildly spiced papadums for a little more flavour again.

HFI Notes and Information:-
  • Broth is something i recommend using rather then just water, for its nutritional benefits I use it as the base of a lot of my cooking.
  • Olive oil is a great way to cook however i have switched to coconut oil for most of my cooking now as its flavoursome and has some awesome nutrional benefits.
  • Small amounts of cabbage seem to be okay in moderation
  • check the noodles you purchase to check there sugar content, the ones i use solely are water & potato starch. :)