Leek and Potato Soup

A real old favourite of mine. What I love about this soup is the simplicity in the flavours in the soup itself can be completely jazzed up with your choice of toppings that you want to add to the soup.

Minestrone Soup

Minestrone Soup is one of the cornerstones of Italian cuisine. It is essentially a vegetable broth with whatever vegetables are in season at that moment. So if you do not like one of the vegetables below you can easily remove it. Also if you want it vegetarian just remove the bacon.

The process of getting it together is actually fairly simple. The one comment I would make with my own recipe is that I was unable to locate an Italian bean such as cannellini or borlotti so I used red kidney beans. If your beans are fresh or dried you would need to obviously cook them first.

The €5 euro meal

As someone who loves to cook I have found that the vast majority of my disposable income will go into food and in general cooking my evening meal. So much money in fact that in recent times, I have really researched and invested a lot of time into the following concept.

‘The €5 euro meal’ 

What I have always thought and do strongly believe is that if you have the will to do it, it is possible for you to eat your evening meal for 2 people for just €5 a day. So in 30 days or a month you can spend only €150 on your evening meals and you can eat very well during that time.

A few tips however before we start:

 
- Bulk Buying: Plan out in advance what you want to cook and buy in bulk. This way you can only buy what you need and you will avoid waste. Purchase your meat in bulk and freeze in dinner servings until needed.

- Ignore Brand Loyalty: this is not the time for spending your cash on those expensive brands you might always turn too. Now is the time to buy the generic brands that are considerably cheaper.

-  Make a list: Before you shop make a list of what you want & stick to it. (no impulse buying)....Never shop when you are hungry!

- Shop Local: get to know your neighborhood & shop local for cheaper options.

- Weekly Specials: get to know the specials in your supermarkets & plan meals around them.

- Buy Seasonal: buy seasonal vegetables instead of their out of season more expensive cousins.

- Store your vegetables properly to keep them freshest the longest.

The Meals:

What I do here to keep the meals interesting is to break them down into separate price categories. That way you can play around yourself and decide when and what you want to cook. As you can see with the recipes you have a vast selection of options open to you at any time so it will never get boring.

Remember however that if you have a €7 meal you then in turn must cook a €3 meal to compensate.

Always plan your recipes in such a way that you will use up all your ingredients whenever you buy them, do not ever throw anything away.  

€3 or lower meals                                                    Cost per Meal      Hamburgers                                                                       €2.20

Broccoli & Cherry Tomato Pasta                                            €2.50
Tomato Sauce with Pasta                                                    €2.80
Fusilli with Bacon & Cream                                                    €3.00

€4+ meals
Roast Veggie Pasta                                                             €4.00
Sausage Pie                                                                       €4.00
Chicken Stroganoff                                                              €4.00
Potato & Roast Vegetable Quiche                                           €4.50

€5 meals
Spaghetti Bolognese                                                          €5.00
Tomato Sauce with Meatballs                                              €5.00
Pepper Pesto Pasta                                                           €5.00

€6+ meals
Musilitos de Pollo                                                              €6.00
Pink & Green Pasta                                                           €6.50

€7 meals                    
Quiche (3-4 people portion)                                               €7.00
Salmon Dinner (with roast veggies & potatoes/rice)                €7.00
Beef Steak Dinner (with roast veggies & potatoes/rice)           €7.00

Side dishes
Egg Fried Rice                                                                   €1.20
Potato Gratin (3-4 servings)                                                €2.50   
Mozzarella Garlic Bread                                                       €1.00
 

To obtain my prices I used www.ah.nl as my reference point. Albert Heijn is not the cheapest place to shop so if you know your local stores and plan you’re shopping better the above prices are definitely possible at a lower price.

Note: With the above prices I will assume that your kitchen will already have the stable goods such as Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper, Spices, Flour, Soy Sauce, Fish Sauce, Sambal, Sweet Chilli sauce etc. 

As these products have a shelf life of longer than a month it is always useful to have these as they are the cornerstone to any meals you may have now or in the future
        

ENJOY!!!

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

Prawn and Chilli Linguine

This recipe is super quick, tasty and delicious. 

Butterflied king prawns are quickly cooked in a hot pan with garlic & red chilli before being tossed in cooked linguine & rocket (rucula).

French Onion Soup

This old favourite is very simple to make. You will naturally caramelize your onions & then cook in beef stock before adding a toasted baguette and gooey cheese. I like to use up to 3 different types of onions to give the soup extra taste & flavour.

Korean Bulgogi

I made this recipe during the World Cup Kitchen in the summer but wanted to repost it as the photos back then I was never happy with.
 
Bulgogi is a marinated beef recipe, although other meats such as chicken and pork can also be used.

It is made from very thin slices of prime cut beef. The meat is marinated with a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil & seeds, garlic & chilli. This is then combined with a selection of vegetables. I used onions, carrots, peppers, mushrooms & broccoli. (you can use of course other vegetables to your own taste)

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.

Sausage Pie

Nothing quite beats a potato crust pie. That super creamy mashed potato with a crust will always compliment whatever is beneath it. When I have the time I would always try to prepare my Shepherds Pie recipe but the Sausage Pie is a very tasty quick & cheap alternative.

Spaghetti Bolognese

There are many ways to make a Spaghetti Bolognese & the debates on what is the best one are far ranging. For myself I like to keep it simple with 3 steps.

Step 1: When I make one I like to always make my Tomato Sauce
Step 2: Then separately I like to brown my mince & let half a glass of red wine absorb completely into the mince. After this has done I will now blend the meat in a food processor, the main reason I do this is twofold:
1.    The mince can be quite tough & blending it will really break it up & make it very tender
2.    The blended mince when added to your tomato sauce will now race up & down each individual piece of spaghetti when you serve it.
Step 3: I will fry some finely chopped onions, carrots & green pepper with garlic & chilli. Then I will add the tomato sauce & also blended mince.

Tomato Sauce with Meatballs

The most time consuming part of this recipe is the Tomato Sauce. But once that is cooked a real simple meat ball to add is with Sausage meat. It is all real easy in that you will just squeeze out the sausage meat into even sized balls and cook on medium to high heat.

Then you will add it all together with your cooked pasta & serve with grated cheese

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

Roasted Vegetable Pasta

This pasta dish is perfect for a Vegetarian option or if you feel like a light & tasty pasta. Roasting the vegetables is similar to my previous post of Roast Vegetable Lasagne but this time you will add them to your pasta with a combination of cheddar cheese & a mustard/chilli/coriander cream sauce.

The Cream sauce is very much up to you, I like to use grained mustard with a hint of sweet chilli sauce with chopped coriander leaves. I find the mustard brings out the flavours in the dish. Also as I like things spicy I add 2 devil eye chilli’s when roasting the vegetables so if that is not for you do not put them in.

All up you get a very tasty pasta dish that is super easy to make, serve with my Mozzarella Garlic Bread for that perfect compliment

Nutty Chocolate Cake

I must admit that I do not have a sweet tooth so much so that mostly all of the baking in the house is done by my girlfriend. With this realisation I set about trying to replicate one of her favourite cake recipes and a favourite with all whenever it is baked. A Chocolate & Nut Cake.

The key to success here is to remember to get as much air into your mixture when you are folding in the ingredients. Also remember to grease your baking tin well. For best results it is best to leave overnight in a fridge so the cake will set completely

Prepare yourself for some serious Chocolate & Nut overload.....

Lime & Coriander Salmon Filo Parcels

The below recipe is a super healthy alternative when you are looking for that something different with a piece of Salmon. What I love about it is that the Salmon is wrapped in a light filo pastry & will cook in the lime & herb marinate in such a way that everything fuses together for a delicious crispy salmon parcel of goodness. Personally I like to spice mine up with some devil eye chillis but if you do not like things spicy you can skip this step.

All is cooked in a hot oven & can be served with your choice of sides.