Dill Stuffed Chicken with Roasted Vegetable Tagliatelle and Italian Green Sauce Reduction

Mmmm. There are no other words to say for this dish other than that.
This is a perfect mix of flavors--bold and slightly sweet coming from the dill, creamy and smooth from the cream cheese. You get the smoky bacon flavor and that lovely clean taste that only chicken can offer.

Then there's the pasta. The bite of al dente tagliatelle is met with the crunch of roasted bell peppers and the sweetly charred, earthy taste of roasted red onions.

And of course, the reduction. A wonderful blend of olive oil, spring onions and parsley. Stirred into the pasta with a bit of the cream cheese and some parmesan and you have a perfect accompaniment to juicy chicken parcels oozing with sweet cream cheese, hugged by crunchy bacon. Really guys, it's perfection.

Gluten Free Pork and Noodle Broth with Prawns

Mmm. How I wish I had invented this recipe! Alas, it is swiped from the gold-tipped pages of the Soup Bible. It is so good and warming and subtly Asian. :)

Ingredients:
12oz pork chops or pork filets
8oz raw or cooked prawns (shrimp)
5oz gluten free egg noodles
tbsp. vegetable oil (I boycott veg oil & use sunflower)
2tsp. sesame oil (I doubled this because I love sesame oil)
1 medium sliced (I used a red onion because I like them better)
tbsp freshly sliced root ginger
garlic clove
tsp. sugar
6 1/4 cups chicken stock
2 kaffir lime leaves
3tbsp fish sauce
juice of a lime
2 spring onions, chopped to garnish

Go ahead & prep everything. :) Remove any fat from your pork & allow cut it into even sizes using kitchen scissors. If using raw shrimp, peel and de-vein. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and simmer the egg noodles according to the instructions on the packet. Drain and refresh under cold running water. Set aside.

Pre-heat your wok & add the veg/sunflower oil & sesame oils. Heath through & when the oil is hot, add your onions and stir-fry for 3 to 4 minutes, until evenly browned. If you use red onions, they do't really go brown (unless they're charred) so just cook until they're soft. Remove them from the wok and set aside.

Add your ginger, garlic, sugar and chicken stock to the wok & bring to a simmer. Add the lime leaves, fish sauce and lime juice then ad the pork and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the onions, shrimp and cooked noodles and simmer for an additional 3 to 4 minutes. (You will need to simmer longer if you use raw shrimp.)
Enjoy :)

Gluten Free Quinoa Bake with Roasted Vegetables and Beef

Quinoa is the weirdest ingredient I have ever cooked with! It starts out the texture and consistency of couscous, but once it cooks it kind of separates.

It has a nutty flavor which is slightly sweet and yummy. It paired nicely with the beef and the roasted vegetables really enhanced the flavor. I had never tasted quinoa until this dish. I frequently heard about it on health food shows and in diet books and stuff--it's supposed to be really good for you.

So, I've been wanting to try it for a while. I'll admit, I'm pleasantly surprised by it. It's not a common ingredient, although, I do think I'll be making it more often and finding more way to dress it up and more things to pair it with. This dish was simply roasted tomatoes, roasted red onions, roasted red peppers, fried beef that was then roasted and roasted garlic.

I cooked the quinoa on the stove like rice or couscous and then forked through some tomato paste before adding the roasted ingredients and mixing. Simple, easy, and delicious! Perfect for the middle of a long week when you're tired and want something quick and tasty that it's not going to be fattening! Look out for the next entry where I discuss what quinoa is in detail, it's properties and what makes it so good for you. :)

Pistachios

Name: Pistachio
Genre: Nut
Nickname: The Green Almond

Pistachios are the coolest nuts on the planet. They come in traffic light colors: red, green & beige (which is kind of like yellow). As a kid, I remember going to this particular mall in Fayetteville with my mom. This mall has a snack stand in the middle and my mom would buy loads of pistachios in bright red shells. She'd eat them on the way home, her fingers stained red. It was always so fascinating to me but, simultaneously, I think I was afraid of them. For a while I thought they were dipped in blood.

Gluten Free Roasted Butternut Squash & Beef Risotto with Toasted Pecans

In yesterday's entry, I was all "Yay Fall!" & expelling copious amounts of autumnal glee. Today, I'm just a meager few steps short of rolling in the leaves & slipping on a sweater for a hayride. :)

Following my autumn-flavored "cakies" of the previous entry, I decided to really up the ante & welcome the season with arms wide open. To the left there, that thing you've been ogling & probably salivating a little bit for is my roasted butternut squash & beef risotto with toasted pecans. Mmmm.

Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip "Cakies" with Walnuts and Pecans

Here in England, Fall is definitely on its way. The leaves are changing and falling from tree branches with excited abandon, pumpkins and other squashes are appearing in abundance in the produce sections of grocery stores and on a number of occasions, I have been dressed in boots and a scarf. :)

Nothing signifies Fall to me in terms of food like the warmth of cinnamon, nutmeg and oatmeal. That is what inspired these would-be cookies.

Yesterday, in my kitchen in socked feet, I combined brown sugar, sifted all-purpose flour, baking powder, a pinch of salt, two beaten eggs, milk and butter with oatmeal, chocolate chips and crumbles of pecans and walnuts and traces of nutmeg and cinnamon to make these monstrously delicious "cakies" as they've been dubbed in my house. These cookies are sightly doughy and moist, the way any baked goodies should be. The butter gives them a rich flavor and the nutmeg and cinnamon combine to warm the back of the throat, conjuring memories of home and safety. Ultimately, these are the perfect comfort cookies. They are thick and hearty and absolutely beg to be paired with cold milk or warmed coffee or cocoa. Every inch of these cookies screams Fall and everything that goes along with it: chilly nights wrapped in blankets, reading by a fire, a Saturday morning football game, falling leaves, Thanksgiving ... it's all just around the corner and these are the cookies you want to introduce you to all that homeyness.

Roast Pork with Crackling and Vegetables

Roast pork shoulder with crackling and vegetables. This dish turned out at lot better than I had expected.

With fingers crossed, I stood at my kitchen counter, rubbing olive oil and rosemary into the uncooked pork, taking care not to rub any onto the skin of the pork. Instead, I scored the skin and smeared it with salt.

I let the pork roast for about 45 minutes to an hour and opened the oven door, impressed that I had actually made crackling!

In the future, though, I think I will remove the crackling from the pork, cut it into strips and roast it separately, to ensure that it is crackly on all side and that the flavors and the technique are not masked by the overall dish. Accompanying, you have lightly steamed green beans, roast potatoes and rosemary and honey carrots with a spritz of orange juice and zest. Yummy! 

luten Free Plum & Ginger Beef Stirfry on a Bed of Szechaun Rice

This is going to be a quick entry, just photos. If people are interested, I can come back & post the recipe. I'm rushing against the clock to get a project completed for my M(F)A program & sent off to be published so it'll be back by the due date.
Nevertheless, here's the plum & ginger beef stirfry on a bed of Szechaun rice:

Gluten Free Green Bean & Basil Risotto with a Poached Egg

Inspired by the Waste Not Want Not cookbook & a general need to reduce my carbon footprint & to use less & to reuse more, I've been on a don't-throw-away-anything-reusable kick.
Such was my mood yesterday around lunchtime when I was trying to figure out what to have. Normally, my boyfriend comes home & we have lunch together, but he had a previous engagement & since I was to spend the entire day inside working on an M(F)A project, I didn't want to run out and get anything.
So, after a rummage in my cupboard & fridge, I noticed that I had leftover risotto rice, enough for one person, half an onion, and a handful of green beans that needed using. Naturally, a green bean risotto & basil risotto was what I came up with, topped with Parmesan and a poached egg.

Orange Crusted Lamb Cutlets

This is one of the times where I found a recipe and wasn't impressed by it. On a scale of one-to-ten, it's a two. Maybe a one and a half, but definitely not more than a two. It was just ... plain and unradical and unextraordinary. So, at the least, I thought I would post the photos, because, it at least looks good. :) It didn't taste horrible, don't get me wrong, but there wasn't anything outstanding. It was lamb, with citrus. Basic.