A heart attack of my own making: Gateshead Eggs

In my high school days I spent a lot of time at my best friend Andrea's house. Once there, we used to inexplicably demand that her big sister Shelley make us food. I'm not sure why we thought being so bossy was okay, but Shelley really did make good cheese sandwiches. We used to routinely demand that she make us Anglesey eggs, which was always met with a resigned sigh. 

Nowadays, I understand that sigh. I made Anglesey eggs myself a couple of years ago, and whilst it was delicious, I ended up using every bloody pan and receptacle in my kitchen. By the end of cooking it, I was greeted by a kitchen disaster area that made my heart sink. 

 This evening, as I gazed into the fridge hoping for inspiration, I remembered the recipe and considered making it. Then I realised that I neither had all the ingredients I needed, nor the energy for hours of washing up, so I decided to make my own abbreviated version instead. Even then, I had to make some on the hoof changes as I got halfway through and realised that my milk had gone off and I had no mustard. 

I am calling it Gateshead Eggs. Just like a Saturday night out in Gateshead town centre, it is actually probably quite deadly if experienced regularly.The result ended up really quite pleasant and very comforting. 

Ingredients

• olive oil
• 6 eggs
• Whatever potatoes you happen to have lying about, diced. I used about 500g of Charlotte potatoes, but I'm guessing anything will do.
• 2 leeks, sliced. 
• 50 g unsalted butter
• 50 g plain flour
• 300 mL double cream
• 75g extra mature cheddar cheese, grated. A mixture of cheeses would be lovely too. 
• 6 rashers of bacon
• Some water
• smoked garlic salt, pepper, and chives to serve

1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees or equivalent. 
2. Splash some olive oil around an oven-proof dish. If you want, pop in some finely chopped garlic or herbs, and pop in the oven.
3. Boil the potatoes and leeks in a pan together for a few minutes. Once softened, drain and toss in the dish with the olive oil. Put into the oven until nicely browned. I didn't time it, but I think it took about 20 mins or so.
4. In the meantime, hard boil the eggs and leave aside to cool
5. fry up or grill the bacon to your liking. leave aside to cool a bit
6. Peel and slice the boiled eggs
7. Chop up the bacon into chunks. 
8. Once the potatoes and leeks are done, place the sliced egg and bacon over them. You could do this in a pretty, precise manner, or you could just vaguely chuck it in like me. 
9. In a sauce pan, gently melt the butter over a low heat. Once melted, stir in the flour, then pour in the cream, whisking continuously, in three or four lots. Add enough water to make a pourable sauce. 
10. Pour the sauce over the dish contents. 
11. sprinkle the cheese evenly over the whole affair and shove in the oven
12. Cook until gooey and bubbly and lush. 
13. At this point, it might be nice to consider a bread crumb layer. I couldn't be bothered, but I imagine a bit of crunch could be quite pleasant. 
14. Season with garlic salt, pepper and chives as required.
15. Eat and enjoy the sensation of your arteries clogging up.

Like I say, this is definitely an occasional treat sort of recipe. It has that lovely comforting cheesy goo about it that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Perfect for a dark winter night, and ideally consumed in pyjamas under some sort of blankie. 

Hxxx

Easyville Stir Fry

Hi my lovelies,

Just thought I'd quickly tell you about this great little recipe. It's a REALLY easy and delicious stir fry which is just brilliant for a hearty but healthy mid-week post-work tea.

this stir fry was made with a standard stir fry veg pack, and topped with sesame seeds.

It's from a bento box book that i used to use all the time back in my bentobeautiful*days. The original recipe just uses beef and green peppers, but this stir fry is really versatile and great with any veg and/or any meat.

I dust beef strips with cornflour and stir fry with some garlic until just about nearly done. I'll then chuck in my veg, and stir fry for a few minutes until just nearly done.

Then, throw in your stir-fry sauce. to make this, mix together 1 tsp of oyster sauce, 1 tsp of rice wine (sake or mirin will do nicely- i usually use mirin as i end up swigging sake, lol) and 1/2 tsp of soy sauce.

Top with either sesame seeds or crushed black sesame seeds, if you wish.

beef with green and yellow pepper, topped with crushed black sesame seeds.

Stir fry for a few more minutes, and voila, a delicious, filling, healthy meal in minutes.

Curry Night In

Hi all,

Expect a glut of posts today... I'm feeling a bit under the weather so am firmly planted on the sofa with a blanket, and catching up with blog posts seems like a nice thing to do to cheer me up on a poorly day.

I tend to binge cook. So, on a night when i'm not doing anything, i'll usually make some large batches of stew or a curry, then portion it off and freeze it all then have it for my lunch at work or as a quick and easy tea when i get in from work.

This is one of my favourite curry recipes that i wanted to share with you. It's actually quite healthy (adapted from a Slimming World Recipe) and whilst it's probably not quite as delicious as a takeaway curry it's very satisfying and best of all, it will make your kitchen smell absolutely wonderful as it's cooking. Because I'm lazy, I love to use Very Lazy products and I always have a stock of their red chilli, garlic, and ginger to hand.

Ingredients:
Fry- Light
1 onion, peeled and chopped as chunky or as small as you like
4 cloves
6 cardamom pods
2 tsp Very Lazy red chilli
1 tsp Very Lazy ginger
2 tsp Very Lazy garlic
2 dried Chipotle chillies
1 tbsp hot curry powder (ideally Madras powder, but normal curry powder will do)
900g beef fillet, cut into chunks, with any fatty bits removed.
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
250ml beef stock

1. Spray a wok liberally with Fry light over a medium heat. Add onion, cloves, and cardamom and stir fry for 3-4 minutes.

2. Add the Very lazy chillies, garlic, and ginger, and the dried chipotle chilli and stir fry for a further couple of minutes.

3. Add the curry powder and beef. Stir fry for 6 minutes or so until the beef is browned and sealed nicely. Add the coriander, cumin, and stock and bring to the boil, Then simmer gently over a low heat for 1-1.5 hours until the meat is tender.

Perfect served with pilau rice and chappatis.