Sangria

I got this recipe from a Spanish friend of mine many years ago when we had a Tapas workshop together. Last weekend I had sangria again when watching the El Clásico in a Spanish Tapas bar so it gave me the idea to make it today for a Christmas party with friends.

Mix up your wine, lemon, cinnamon & alcohol the night before to let the flavours fuse with each other. Add your fruit the next day a few hours before serving to stop the fruit turning to mush.

Chicken Soup

My thoughts on food have always been that it should be practical and suit the need & purpose for what you want. This soup fits that bill perfectly. This recipe is more or less 100% 'a hangover cure'. Although it is mighty tasty I only seem to cook it to cure a bad hangover….hence the reason why I use the soup mixes. The soup is very easy to get together and when it is ready it will really come to your aid and make your recovery day that little bit more bearable.

On the Soup mixture discussion I like to make a 1.5 litre soup with half of the stock coming from the soup mixture. So use enough soup mixture to make 0.75lt of soup. If you can try combining cream of vegetable & chicken soup for best results

Irish Soda Bread

Soda Bread is one of those things I really do miss from back home. The recipe itself is super easy with the key ingredient being that of Bi-cardonate of Soda. In the past I have been unable to find it here in Amsterdam but a trip to an ex-pat shop was a success so happily I am able to make it again.
 
The recipe that I used is the one that my father used when I was a kid and I followed it to the letter. Modern versions of the recipe use butter milk and also add some porridge oats to the bread but to be perfectly honest the traditional way is easily the best. Also the whole process of getting the bread together takes about 5 minutes, so you really have no excuse not to try this.

Roast Turkey

With Christmas around the Corner I thought it best to upload the recipe from how I Roast a Turkey and also how I Honey-roast my Ham at Christmas. Whenever people go on to me about Christmas dinner they always say how stressful it is and also how dry the Turkey was etc.

Honey Roasted Ham

A real favourite of mine at Christmas but in all honesty it can be eaten all year round if you can get your hands on some good Ham. The Ham comes in 2 stages. Firstly you need to boil it – you can do this the day before.
 
Secondly you roast it – it only takes 60 minutes, so do this while the Turkey is resting in the Aluminum Foil

You will need aprox 250g per person – again cook more as it is really delicious  as leftovers

Mushroom and Mozzarella Burgers

I made these burgers many moons ago for a friend who is a veggie, they went down so well back then that they continually come up in conversation whenever we get talking about food together. The reason as to why I cooked them this time is that my girlfriend just loves Mushrooms & Mozzarella and also Sara has been asking for the recipe.

When serving I serve in a lightly toasted bun with some caramelized onions, I always serve whatever burger it is I make with Corn on the Cob and today I also made a Tomato stuffed with leftover red onion & mozzarella.

Seafood Quiche

To Quiche or not to Quiche that is the question. I got to say that Quiches have become a real addiction of mine recently so much so that I even created a Quiche label here at Food Devil.

Next up for myself was to try a Seafood Quiche. The below recipe can handle prawns, lobster or crab meat. Myself I used crab meat this time and it really worked a treat.

Smoked Turkey Filo Quiche with onion, potato, pinenuts, gruyere & sage

Some months ago I saw a friend make quiches with filo pastry and thought it was a much better alternative to the sometimes heavier pastry option. Last night therefore I decided to make a new quiche that I have never thought of before and I had 3 ingredients that I wanted to base this around.

Filo Pastry – Smoked Turkey – Gruyere Cheese

What I wanted to do with this quiche was to find complimenting flavours to go with the above so I went for the following: 

Filo pastry – Smoked Turkey – Caramelized Onions – Cooked potato – Roasted Pinenuts – Grated Gruyere Cheese – egg/crème fraiche/garlic/sage – Grated Parmesan

The result was stunning I got to say and it was a real melt in your mouth dinner…

Damn you Amsterdam 'Summer'

It is with much regret that I have some sad news on the Rooftop garden front

This Summer has been the wettest on record and my tomatoes just could not survive in these sorrowful conditions...if any on us could come ot think of it

I learnt alot this summer in respect to gardening & it is definitely something I will continue next year. I feel if i had of got off to a good start back in April things might of been different....but next year it is my intention to have a full crop of tomatoes by the middle of July so the lessons have been learnt.

But until then you can check out my sorrowful toms. As you can see the trees were full of little cherry tomatoes but the weather just worked against us

Fish au Gratin

I really love this recipe, so many things going all which all result in some amazing flavours.

You will start off my poaching your fish in milk. Once the fish is cooked you will drain the liquid and make a roux of butter & flour and slowly mix back in your warm milk mixture. This will thicken everything up into a sauce and by adding back the cooked fish, cream, wine, gruyere cheese & mustard you will give that sauce a real kick of flavour. Finish off under a hot grill with breadcrumbs & gruyere on top.

Pure Genius!

The moment of truth has arrived.......

The time has come to pull the first of my carrots...at the start of the Summer I really had no clue what I was doing. I have definitely enjoyed the whole experience of getting to understand how this whole gardening lark works.

Anyhow lets see how they turned out

Baked Tilapia

This recipe is incredibly simple. I was originally looking for a white fish recipe for on the BBQ but the weather did not oblige so I baked in the oven instead

Melted butter with lemon is brushed over your fish and finely chopped herbs are added…I used coriander from the garden. The cooked in a pre-heated 180C oven for aprox 10 minutes. Tonight I served with my cous cous salad but it will go with almost anything.

Rooftop Gardening: 8 weeks on

This Amsterdam Summer is one of the worst for a very long time but my garden continues to really love it.

Last night

8 weeks ago

As you can see from my picture of last night the Tomatoes, carrots & onions are really thriving. 
 
to be continued.......

Parmesan Encrusted Fish

I have not done this recipe in ages and I just remembered it as I wanted to have a salad tonight but wanted some fish to go with it. It is like a common theme here at Food Devil but this is remarkably easy. Your fish is first coated in white flour and then egg white 7 finally grated parmesan cheese. Then it is shallow fried in hot oil for about 2/3 minutes each side. This recipe also works great with chicken breast/slices courgette/eggplant

Vegetarian Omelette

Check out this funky way of making a very simple omelette taste delicious. For this omelette you will separate your egg & then whisk your egg whites until you have soft peaks. In a separate bowl you will beat the remaining egg yokes & milk and then fold in the egg white very carefully.

The omelette is then cooked on a medium-high heat and the vegetables (which have been cooked earlier) are added when the omelette is cooked with some grated cheese (cheddar in my case)

Broccoli Feta & Cherry Tomato Salad

I tasted this salad the last time I was back in Ireland and I simply had to get the recipe and give it a go as it was delicious. Cooked Broccoli is not an absolute but a crunchy broccoli salad with feta, cherry tomatoes & roasted hazelnuts with a French dressing is really good.

Avocado with cottage cheese & black pepper

Its not often that you can post something that takes longer to write up than prepare & eat.

This is definitely one of those things and for people out there that say you cannot cook well start off with this as your starter and you will not go far wrong. 

Cous Cous Salad (Tabouli)

This salad is something I created many years ago and is always a big favourite whenever I have a BBQ at my place. At the time when I created it I did not even know what Tabouli was so you can see my ingredients and style of preparing it are very different to the traditional method as I really just tweaked the salad to my own personal taste & flavours.

With Cous Cous they advise that you use 1.5 cup liquid to every 1 cup cous cous but I like to keep it to 1:1 and then I add in the juice of a couple of oranges/lemon later to bring up this ratio. Also I used warm stock when adding to the cous cous and I noticed in many tabouli recipes they advise using cold water.

Rooftop gardening: in 5 short weeks

I have been really amazed at how fast everything is going in the garden in recent weeks. The warm weather coupled with the Amsterdam rain in the Summer is making at least someone happy.

Check out the contrasting photos from 5 weeks ago & today! Hopefully I will be making homemade tomato chutney in no time.

Tomato plants 5 weeks ago

Tomato plants today

To be continued......

Italian Breadcrumbs

Every now and again you stumble onto a recipe that you know will be with you for a very long time…..an absolute piece of pure genius that every time you eat it, you enjoy every single bite and cannot wait to make it again

Well this recipe for Italian Breadcrumbs is one such recipe…..

Better late than Never

Pepper plant moved to get full sun, Carrots & tomatoes going great

Finally I am happy to announce that I think I have cracked this gardening lark. After a slow start after my first seeds did not sprout I can happily say that my second batch are coming along nicely.

My tomato plants are really taking off and all going well I should see some fruit from them at the end of the summer. The Pepper plant I moved last week to the front as the Rosemary was blocking it from the sun. In the front bin only my carrots appear to have taken as the onions & lettuce got attacked by birds! 

To be continued......

Smoked Salmon & Prawn Pies

I came up with this recipe after a couple of times making my Salmon in Cream & White Wine. I have said already many times that the Pies that are on Food Devil are very tasty. Especially the Lamb Potato & Caramelized Onion Pies with chilli, coriander & ginger if you have not tried these you really have too.

But onto this post. I wanted to make a Fish pie and I also wanted to make it in Cream & White wine so I came up with the below recipe. In the pie you have poached Tiger Prawns and when the pie in placed into the oven the cream/wine & leek sauce is poured over smoked salmon so that will also poach during the cooking process. By using frozen pastry it all makes it super easy and quick and the end results are super tasty.

Poached Salmon in Cream & White Wine

This Pasta is a very welcome addition to my weekly menu as yet again it all can be gotton together in about 15 minutes. As the pasta takes about 10 minutes I generally start to cook the pasta after I have sautéed the onions and just before I add the brown sugar.

A good tip at the end it to add your cream to your cooked pasta first and add your onions & Salmon pieces when you serve the dish.

Rooftop Gardening: Take II

I learnt from the mistakes of my first attempt at planting my seeds by doing the following:

Coriander & Spring Onion Marinade

I have been working on this marinade for the first few BBQs of this summer. I always keep my marinades with a consistency of 2:1 in terms of oil & vinegar. By keeping to this ratio the marinade will penetrate the chicken and you will be truly amazed with the flavour. The rule of thumb for marinades and Chicken is that you want to marinade for a minimum of 3 hours.

What I like to do with my marinade is to use half Balsamic & half Applecider vinegar for the contrasting sharpness and also the darker colour of your marinade

Rooftop Gardening: Back to Square One

OK as much as I regret to say I think I got to start over again.....these fingers of mine are not so green after all it seems.

It’s been 3 weeks now since I started the garden and still there is nothing happening. I had a little sprout last week but nothing more than that. The mistake I made was not fully understanding exactly it is I was trying to do. I was way too busy with the mountain of information I was trying to digest on the gardening process that I forgot to understand the principle of a seed sprouting. Also I think starting the seeds outside was a little early too, as it is only in the past week that the good weather has really arrived.

Rooftop Gardening: What did I plant?

What did I grow?

I thought it would be a useful idea to run thru everything that I planted in my garden on an individual basis and outline the special areas to consider in terms of when to plant, where to plant, how to water?, How long to harvest etc.

Also for myself it is a good way for me to understand what exactly I need to do over the coming days, weeks & months per each vegetable. Already I realised that the carrot should be planted in a moist soil up until they are almost mature. I had read the instructions wrong and thought they needed to be watered twice a week which I had in fact done as 3 times a week as the weather has been very dry recently. I am glad I caught this mistake early, we will see I guess if it had a drastic effect on the success of the crop.

Straight away I can see the benefit of the square foot gardening method as in the case of the carrots, their watering pattern differs from the others so it is easy to just water their square and not the others. Also with the excellent drainage in each pot any excess water will be drained away

Rooftop Gardening: The Start

(Before we start let me say that a foot is 30cm. An inch is 2.5 cm)

Concept
The concept of squarefoot gardening is very simple. You will condense down your garden into a series of square feet . In my case what I have chosen to do is make a rooftop/patio garden which will be 3 feet long and 1 foot wide. In my larger pot I will again have it 3 feet long but 1.5 feet wide.

The above size is just what suited me you can make it as big as you want with the standard squarefoot garden being 4ft by 4ft 

Rooftop Gardening: An Introduction

The traditional view or thought of gardening is something I have never been overly interested in. I think it all stems from my teenage years having to mow our massive garden at home. But when I read an article about a unique gardening concept called Square Foot Gardening I was very keen to give it a go as this Spring/Summer is my first one being able to enjoy my new Roof Terrace.

Grilled Squid with a Tomato & Onion salsa

This salad is beautifully fresh and with the kick of chili & lemon it is a perfect start to any meal or even to have for a light lunch. Squid is remarkably good value if you are willing to clean it yourself. Cleaning is not for the squeamish so ask your fish monger to clean it for you if you do not want to do the dirty work.

Squid takes only 1 minute per side on a hot griddle pan so make your Tomato & Onion Salsa first.  

Tandoori Murg

This tandoori recipe is quite easy to follow, the only thing needed for it is time for the chicken to marinade. The general rule in Indian cooking is that meats are marinated twice. The first marinade removes moisture and the second introduces flavours and spices. You would ideally like to marinade in your yoghurt& spices for a minimum of 3 hours, a great idea is to marinade overnight and prepare for a weekend lunch or early dinner.

With the below recipe it is a single serving but a great idea for this recipe is to double the marinade quantities and buy a whole chicken and divide it into 4 pieces (2 legs, 2 breasts).

Using boneless pieces of chicken &  push them through skewers for a Chicken Tikka

Macaroni with Cheese

This has been a while…..

I have recently returned from a very enjoyable and long holiday and I got to admit have taken some time to get back into my routine with cooking etc. I have however found myself trawling thru my old favourites from this site as a help to get me back into things

First up on my return is a quite legendary dish from the States that is amazingly simple to get together. One note on it when choosing your cheeses: take parmesan & mozzarella for definite but then you can choose whatever other grated cheese you prefer with those 2

Top 10 posts of 2010

I begin the New Year with a well deserved holiday, 4 weeks in fact. Presently I am sitting in our apartment in Bali in T-shirt & Shorts and we are working our way towards Australia where I am Best Man at my best mates wedding. All this will mean that Food Devil will take a back seat over the coming weeks as I plan to take a break from it all and recharge the batteries fully for the year ahead.

Tartiflette

The French most certainly know how to cook & if I was to undertake any type of cooking course it would most definitely be in French Cuisine. 
So it really excites me when I come onto a French classic that I was not aware of before. The Tartiflette has its origins in the French Alps & when you eat it you can certainly see why. The Crème Fraiche & Wine combined with your cooked potato with the mixture of melted Reblochon Cheese on top is very delicious. The one thing I have learned on this recipe is that it needs Reblochon….so seek the cheese out and try it…..you will not be disappointed

Cherry Tomato Salad

Yet again the Food Wholesaler across from my house has cherry tomatoes on sale, a quite ridiculous 12 punnets of cherry tomatoes for only €1.99. The principle reason for buying so many tomatoes was to prepare double batches of both my Chutneys but now I also wanted to find something quick & tasty to go with my planned Tartiflette recipe.

The below cherry tomato recipe is super simple, the only pre-requisite would be that you let it sit for a minimum of 2 hours in the fridge.