Goats Cheese, Red Onion & Tomato Tart

I stumbled onto this recipe last night when I had all of the above ingredients as leftovers and I wanted to have a light snack. The tart was all super easy to put together and the end result was absolutely delicious.

Lentil Bean Burgers

I got inspired to make this post by a blog post I read from a woman who was on the poverty line but still found a way to eat amazing food. I had of course give it the food devil twist so I added lentils and the 4 Cs (Cumin, Coriander, Carrot & Chilli). The end result is really delicious, as always with my burgers I serve it with fresh corn on the cob with chilli butter as it compliments burgers perfectly.

Cream Sauce

Group D: Sweden

This is a super simple creamy sauce that compliments my Wallenbergare recipe perfectly. But in all honesty the sauce is so quick to get together it can be used to compliment any dish you choose.

Russian Tomato Salad

Group A: Russia

The recipe below is super simple and is eaten in Russia mainly with stews. As you can see from the core ingredients it is a very fresh and crisp salad option.

Placki Ziemniaczane (Polish Potato Pancakes)

GROUP A: Poland

First Country and first post for my European Championships Kitchen is this very tasty Polish recipe for potato pancakes. Can be eaten at any time of the day but for myself they are always on the weekend brunch menu with a poached egg on top.

Learn how to poach an egg here:

Makes 4 medium sized pancakes (or 2 huge ones like mine)

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.

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.

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…..

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.

Broccoli & Cherry Tomato Pasta

The simplicity in this dish is what really makes it so special. As part of my €5 meal concept this meal is less than €2 to get together once you have the ingredients in-house.

To prepare the dish it is just so simple and it all can be done in the time it takes to cook your pasta. You will flash fry small florets of broccoli in garlic & chilli. Then this will be added with chopped cherry tomato to cooked pasta and chopped fresh herbs (if you have some available). All served on a warm plate with grated parmesan on top.

Super Quick, Tasty & Cheap……really the perfect combination to any meal

Creamy Onion Soup

You know only one thing with this post….Winter is coming. From a food perspective I really like European Winters, it means you can start to enjoy your soups again & also more hearty meals like Irish Stew, Goulash Soup, Chicken Stroganoff and of course Lamb or Steak Pies.

Madame Jeanette Chutney

After the success of my Tomato Chutney I decided to spice things up with this very tasty Madame Jeanette chutney. The Madame Jeanette chili comes from Suriname with the Scotch Bonnet chili originating from Jamaica.

The Madame Jeanette chilli is from the same family as the more commonly known Scotch Bonnet and is a variety of chili pepper that belongs to the same species as the habanero. It is one of the hottest peppers in the world and found mainly in the Caribbean islands. Most Madame Jeanettes have a heat rating of 100,000 – 300,000 Scoville units. For comparison, most jalapeno peppers have a heat rating of 2,500 – 8,00 on the scoville scale.

The chutney below is a fusion of roasted tomato, peppers, chilli & shallots. Unlike the tomato chutney the start of the cooking process occurs in your oven. The flavours are really delicious together and it works great on sandwiches or as an accompaniment to a warm meal.

Cucumber & Chilli Dressing

This dressing is pure genius & incredibly simple to get together. All the tastes & flavours compliment each other perfectly. You have the sharpness of the vinegar with the sweetness of the sugar in the dressing liquid which has a hint of ginger & garlic thru it. The dressing is then poured over grated cucumber, chopped spring onion & chilli. So you have the refreshing taste of the cucumber with the spiciness of the chilli….its really a delicious combination.

The dressing keeps in your fridge for a week so can be used again & again until it is finished 

Quesadillas

This recipe is an old favourite of mine. Its just so easy & as well perfect for when you are having lots of people over for an evening in your house. You make up your cheese mixture keep it in the fridge, then cook when the people arrive or when they get hungry. Just keep going until the cheese mixture is finished. Add cooked shredded chicken or prawns to make different types.

I remember stumbling onto this recipe that was written to be cooked on a BBQ – you roll the tortillas up & wrap in 2 layers of tin foil and place on a warm BBQ. It works well but tends to be very messy when eating.  

What I have attached below is the original quesadilla recipe – Quesadilla in Spanish means cheesy tortilla and in practise it is a glorified cheese sandwich. You can really add whatever it is you like to the below basic ingredients – if you do not like one of them remove and add what you do like.

Tomato Sauce

This is by far and away the best Italian Tomato pasta sauce I have ever tasted.

A good tomato sauce was something that always interested me but I was never happy with my efforts until I was shown this recipe by a good friend. What I learnt the most from it is that simplicity works.

The sauce has a few layers or stages to it and all up you will want to set aside about 2 hours to cook it. Within this time you do not have to be standing by the side of the sauce as you will cook everything on a low heat and only are needed to stir and keep a watchful eye on the sauce.

Potato & Roast Vegetable Mini Quiches

In my recent post regarding 'the €5 meal' I realized that the Quiche recipe I used cost €7 to make & the only reason for this was that I was using a larger baking dish for 3-4 people. In recent months I have become addicted to Pastry Pies so last night I wanted to try and make my own individual quiches, when made this way are considerly cheaper and really tasty as all of the flavours are condensed into individual servings.

What I decided to do this time is a Vegetarian Quiche with Potato & Roast vegetables and I served it with a light salad

Vegetarian Club Sandwich

There is nothing quite like a good sandwich, it is something that I am quite the expert at, I got to say. So what makes the perfect sandwich? 

Essientially it is ingredients that all compliment each other in taste and flavour, something you got to be able to take in your hands. If you eat your sandwich with a knife & fork there is something wrong….

If you check the Sandwich section to my blog you will see some other sandwich ideas but today I am going to talk about the Club Sandwich. 

There are a few golden rules in my book here before we start:

- The Club Sandwich is always a triple decker affair

- The Bread should be really fresh
- You will toast the middle piece of bread and let this get cool – this will offer the sandwich a delicious crispy crunch when you bite into it
- Use only fresh ingredients for best results (treat yourself to top quality tomatoes and cheese)
- Divide your sandwich into 2 distinct sandwichs that will sit on top of each other. You want the flavours here to compliment each other and not battle against each other.
- Use my Tomato Chutney in this sandwich