Beat that Cold - Roast Parsnip Soup

Ok guys n Gal’s lets get cooking!

First let’s break down what we are going to need:

½ Onion
4 Medium Parsnips
1 Potato
1 Vegetable Stock Cube
Salt and Pepper
Level Teaspoon of Ground Cumin

Feeling under the weather? Get this down your neck! It’s guaranteed to lift your spirits and give you a nice energy boost!

First off Pre-Heat your oven to Gas Mark 5 (190c) Peel and chop your Parsnips and place them on a baking tray. Drizzle some over some olive oil and place in the oven. Keep a close eye on your parsnips because we want to cook them enough to bring out the sweet flavour but not so much that they start to brown. I would say 15-20 minutes in the oven should suffice but check regularly.

Finely chop the onion and slice the peeled potato. Sweat the onions on a low heat in a large pan and stir regularly so they don’t brown. Boil the kettle, pour out 550ml of boiled water and add the stock cube.

Once your parsnips are nice and soft remove them from the oven and throw them in the pan with the onions, add the chopped potato, Salt, Pepper and cumin then pour over the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes. Once everything is falling apart nicely you can get out the blender and potato masher.

Now I like a nice runny, creamy texture to my soup so after mashing I blitzed half of it in the blender, if you want a nice chunky soup then simply mashing it will do. Add the Crème fraîche, mix and serve, Yum!

Seafood Pizza

Ok guys n Gal’s lets get cooking!

First let’s break down what we are going to need:

Toppings

1 Small Tuna Steak
6-8 Uncooked Prawns
6 Green Lip Muscles on the half shell
Mozzarella Cheese
Mushrooms
Onion

Pizza Base

400g Strong White Flour
1 Packet of Dried Yeast
1 Tablespoon of Sugar
1 Teaspoon of Salt
1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil
200ml Tepid Water

Sauce

1 Tin of chopped Plum Tomatoes
½ an onion
Finely chopped Oregano and Basil
3 Cloves of Garlic
1 Tablespoon of olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

Wow that’s a lot of ingredients! You can buy things such as pizza sauce and dough pre-made but as with all of my recipes I like to cook everything as fresh as I can.

First things first we need to make the pizza base. Pour the Flour into a mixing bowl and add the yeast, salt and sugar. Mix with together with your hands. Once you are happy it’s all mixed together make a well for your water. This is where your hands get really messy! Mix everything up until you have a single mass of dough. If the dough is too wet then add a little more flour and if it’s a little too dry and still floury add a little more water. Take the dough out of the bowl and need for about 3 minutes on a floured surface. Once finished put it back in the mixing bowl, pour over the olive oil and ensure its fully coated to prevent any dryness and leave it to rise in a warm part of the kitchen.

Whilst we are waiting for the dough to rise (normally takes 45-60 minutes) we can make the sauce. Finely shop your herbs, crush the garlic and put them into the mixer with some olive oil and the tomatoes. Once blitzed in the blender you can transfer it to a bowl and add the half onion finely chopped. This will give it a bit of texture. Leave this covered in cling film in the fridge until needed.

The dough is ready when it has reached about twice the size it was originally. Flour your work surface and place the dough there. Punch out any pockets of air. Separate the dough into two parts and roll out with your rolling pin (One thing I don’t own is a rolling pin so I am using a wine bottle with some tissue inside to keep it dry…How embarrassing!) It’s very difficult to get a perfectly round pizza so don’t worry if it’s a little wonky!

Spread some of the sauce over the base and add your toppings. Don’t forget, cheese melts so make sure you don’t go too overboard else it will go over the edge!

Put your pizza in a pre-heated oven for around 15 minutes on Gas Mark 5 (190c) until the cheese starts to go a light brown. Remove it from the oven, slice and serve. Enjoy!

Chicken & Mushroom Pie

Ok guys n Gal’s lets get cooking!

First let’s break down what we are going to need:

Filling

2 Large Chicken Breasts
Selection of Mushrooms (Enough to cover your pie dish)
1 Red Onion
50ml Single Cream
2 Garlic Cloves
A Bunch of Thyme
Some Medium Dry White Wine
½ a Cube of Chicken Stock

Pastry

200g Flour
100g Butter
2 Table Spoons Cold Water
Pinch of Salt

First we need to make our pastry. The pastry will need to rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes before we use it. Put the flour through a sieve into a mixing bowl. Add a pinch of salt. Break up the butter and rub it into the flour. When you have finished you should be left with a slightly lumpy powdery mixture. A little trick to know what it is fully mixed is to grab one of the larger clumps and break it up. If it is mostly butter then you need to rub it for a little bit longer. When you are satisfied, add the 2 table spoons of water and mix into dough. You may need to add a little tiny bit more water to bind it all together but I must stress you WON’T need more than a tea spoon extra if any! Wrap you dough in cling film and put in the fridge.

Now for the filling. Finely chop about ¼ of the red onion & crush the garlic, finely slice the mushrooms and chop the chicken into cubes. Lightly dust the chicken with some flour.

Heat the pan and add some olive oil. Fry your chicken, onion and the cloves of garlic in the pan. Once the chicken has browned off all over add the mushrooms, 100ml of chicken stock and a generous splash of white wine. Simmer this for about 5 minutes allowing the wine to reduce down. Finally add some chopped thyme and about 50ml of cream. Mix in and take off the heat.

Preheat your oven to 200c (Gas Mark 6). Dust your worktop with some flower and take your pastry out of the fridge. If you don’t have a rolling pin you can make use of the wine bottle from earlier. Make sure you either drink the wine or re-cork the bottle first, I opted to drink it! Roll out the pastry until it is about 3-4mm thick. Place this on top of the pie dish and gently lower it in. Once the pastry nicely coats the inside of the dish cut the excess off the edge of the bowl. Don’t throw this away as we will be using this for the lid.


Add the Chicken mix to the dish. Roll out the remaining pastry. Place your pie dish on top of the pastry and cut around it. Don’t worry if the lid isn’t big enough to cover right to the edges because you can fold the sides down. Whisk some egg and milk together. Use a teaspoon and put some of the egg mix around the edge of the lid and then fold down the sides. Coat the whole pie with egg to glaze. Put a few holes in the pie lid to allow for steam.

Put your pie in the oven for about 25-30 minutes until the top is golden. Serve with mash, peas, carrots and good old bisto gravy!