The richest and most delicious treat imaginable. But it’s hard to eat more than three. Sorry.
It is not often that I make something that is so delicious, yet can;t be finished because it is so rich in flavour.
I am not calling this my gourmet grilled cheese, simply because I could think of better cheeses to use.
The FatLads Best Three Falafel Recipes. Gotta Eat em All!
Considering I gave a whole book to my favourite food in Pizza, Falafel has been underused in the FatLad arsenal, yet it is my number two, all time favourite food.
Continue reading “The Three Best Falafel Recipes, known to man”
The first pizza I ever tried, and it still holds a special place in my heart.
You know, I have been waiting to do this recipe for a while, because I very rarely make these, but yet eat a lot of them when I am out in restaurants.
As you will have seen from my recent Byron Burger review, their version of the Macaroni & cheese wasn’t my favourite, even though my lady enjoyed it.
My favourite of all of the Italian meals (outside of pizza), the humble lasagne is best made by my lady, but I think this is a close second.
I make Lasagne every other month or so, and have also made many other vegetarian alternatives to this meal in the past.
But I have never really gotten the consistency right, it always ends up being too watery, so the sauces don’t mix together really well.
Until now. This one is a belter, and uses my favourite Vegetarian Mince Meat recipe, that I am sure by now, you are sick of hearing about. So make it and I’ll stop.
Vegetarian Mince Meat
Tomato Sauce
The Roux
For the Lasagne
Making the Mince Meat
Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 5
1. Put the mushrooms in a baking tray and cover and coat with Olive Oil.
2. Chop the garlic cloves, and spread evenly amongst the mushrooms.
3. Cut the butter into cubes, and dot around the mushrooms.
4. Place into the oven, and cook for 30mins.
5. When cooked, put the mushrooms and all of the butter and garlic, into the food processor.
6. Pulse five times to cut the mushrooms up a bit.
7. Add the spinach in, and blitz until it resembles black breadcrumbs. Do not blitz to a paste so take your time.
For the Tomato Sauce
1. Chop up the garlic and add to a saucepan on a medium hob heat, frying gently in Olive Oil for a few minutes.
2. Add the chopped tomatoes to the saucepan, stirring in the garlic and leave to heat up to a boil.
3. Once it comes to a boil, turn down the heat to a simmer as it wants to cook for around 45mins to an hour.
4. At this point, add in the Balsamic Vinegar and the sugar and mix thoroughly. Leave the sauce to cook for 30mins on a medium to low heat, allowing it to simmer.
5. At the end of cooking, add salt and pepper to taste, along with the basil.
Making the Roux
1. Add the butter into a saucepan and put it on the hob, on a high heat. Using a whisk, melt the butter entirely.
2. Add the flour. mixing both together to create what resembles yellow ectoplasm. Whisk continually for two minutes until the flour is cooked out, as per the picture below:
3. Continuing to mix with the whisk, add the milk a little at a time. Continue whisking until the sauce becomes thick. Keep going in this fashion, adding the milk each time, until you have used it all.
4. Take the Roux off the hob and add seasoning as required, depending on what you are actually making the Roux for.
The final build
PreHeat your oven to200C/400F/Gas Mark 6.
1. Get a square/rectangle baking dish, and add half of the vegetable ragu mix to the bottom.
2. Grate over parmesan until covered.
3. Put the lasagne Pasta over the top of this in one layer.
4. Cover with a third of the Roux.
5. Cover with spinach.
6. Redo steps 1-5 two more times, missing out the spinach on the last layer.
Cover the top of the lasagne in the mozzarella and a generous grating of parmesan.
Bake in the oven for at least 45mins, to ensure the pasta is cooked throughout.
Serve with a salad on the side or maybe a little bit of Garlic Bread!
Lasagne originated in Italy, traditionally ascribed to the city of Naples (Campania), where the first modern recipe was created in the Middle Ages and published in Liber de Coquina (The Book of Cookery), and became a traditional dish. Traditional lasagne is made by interleaving layers of pasta with layers of sauce, made with ragù, bechamel, and Parmigiano-Reggiano. In other regions and outside of Italy it is common to find lasagne made with ricotta or mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce, various meats (e.g., ground beef, pork or chicken), miscellaneous vegetables (e.g., spinach, zucchini, mushrooms) and typically flavored with wine, garlic, onion, and oregano. In all cases the lasagne are oven-baked.
Traditionally, pasta dough prepared in Southern Italy used semolina and water and in the northern regions, where semolina was not available, flour and eggs. Today in Italy, since the only type of wheat allowed for commercially sold pasta is durum wheat, commercial lasagne are made of semolina (from durum wheat).
Emilia-Romagna’s intensive farming economy in the northern region of Italy results in plentiful dairy and meat products, and their commonality in regional cooking – more so than the olive oil found in southern regions of Italy. Pastas from Emilia-Romagna and its capital, Bologna, are almost always served with a ragù, a thick sauce made from ingredients such as onions, carrots, finely ground pork and beef, celery, butter, and tomatoes.
Info courtesy of Wikipedia
I take my first ever Italian meal experience, and create a vegetarian version that is very hard to beat! A must for any student household.
My first ever (bastardised) Italian meal was Spaghetti Bolognese, a wonderful staple of the student household.
There used to be vats of it in our student house, and I ate it for years, day in, day out.
Then (as you can imagine) I got impressively sick of it, and didn’t eat it again for many, many years. Until I created this vegetarian version, which I come back to again and again.
Vegetarian Mince Meat
Tomato Sauce
For the meal
Making the Mince Meat
Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 5
1. Put the mushrooms in a baking tray and cover and coat with Olive Oil.
2. Chop the garlic cloves, and spread evenly amongst the mushrooms.
3. Cut the butter into cubes, and dot around the mushrooms.
4. Place into the oven, and cook for 30mins.
5. When cooked, put the mushrooms and all of the butter and garlic, into the food processor.
6. Pulse five times to cut the mushrooms up a bit.
7. Add the spinach in, and blitz until it resembles breadcrumbs. Do not blitz to a paste so take your time.
For the Tomato Sauce
1. Chop up the garlic and add to a saucepan with the onion, carrot and celery, on a medium hob heat, frying gently in Olive Oil for a few minutes.
2. Add the chopped tomatoes to the saucepan along with the tomato puree, stirring it to mix, and leave to heat up to a boil.
3. At this point, add in the Balsamic Vinegar and the sugar and mix thoroughly. Leave the sauce to cook for 45mins.
4. At the end of cooking, add salt and pepper to taste, along with some Basil.
Bolgnese please!
1. Add the mince meat to the tomato sauce and simmer on a low heat.
2. In a large pan, fill it with water and add a lot of salt.
3. Place the pasta into it when boiling, and cook for as long as it suggests on the packet.
4. Drain the pasta and put into a bowl.
5. Cover the pasta with the Bolognese mixture.
Grate some parmesan over the top and eat, its as good as the meaty alternative.
Bolognese sauce, known in Italian as ragù (alla) bolognese, or simply ragù, is a meat-based sauce originating from Bologna, Italy. In Italian cuisine, it is customarily used to dress “tagliatelle al ragù” and to prepare “lasagne alla bolognese“. In the absence of tagliatelle, it can also be used with other broad, flat pasta shapes, such as pappardelle or fettuccine. Genuine ragù alla bolognese is a slowly cooked sauce, and its preparation involves several techniques, including sweating, sautéing and braising. Ingredients include a characteristic soffritto of onion, celery and carrot, different types of minced or finely chopped beef, often alongside small amounts of fatty pork. Red wine and a small amount of tomato concentrate or tomatoes are added, and the dish is then gently simmered at length to produce a thick sauce.
The earliest documented recipe of an Italian meat-based sauce (ragù) served with pasta comes from late 18th century Imola, near Bologna. A recipe for a meat sauce for pasta that is specifically described as being “bolognese” appeared in Pellegrino Artusi’s cookbook of 1891. The ragù alla bolognese that is now traditionally associated with tagliatelle and lasagne is somewhat different from Artusi’s recipe. Many traditional variations currently exist. In 1982 the Italian Academy of Cuisine registered a recipe for authentic ragù alla bolognese with the Bologna Chamber of Commerce (incorporating some fresh pancetta and a little milk). In Italy, ragù alla bolognese is often referred to simply as ragù; and in Bologna, tagliatella.
Outside Italy, the phrase “Bolognese sauce” often refers to a tomato-based sauce to which mince (beef or pork) has been added; such sauces typically bear little resemblance to ragù alla bolognese. Whereas in Italy ragù is not used with spaghetti, so-called spaghetti bolognese has become a popular dish in many other parts of the world.
Information courtesy of Wikipedia
Two recipes for a tasty new friend. FatLad knocks out the Pesto!
In 2015, one of my main memories is around the things that I hated as a child, I now love as an adult.
Mustard, raw cheese and Pesto being the main ones.
In fact, I recently used it in my Pesto Falafel recipe, after an accident in making it the first time.
Below is two techniques for making pesto, that show that the method can indeed, change the results.
Using a Pestle & Mortar
1. Put the garlic and a few turns of course salt into the pestle & mortar.
2. Grind until it resembles a really smooth paste. It only takes a few seconds.
3. Add in the nuts (in this case any nuts I could find) and bash then down to a pulp as well.
4. Add in the basil, and again crush it down, until it becomes a paste.
5. Add in the lemon juice and bring the Pesto together, into a thick paste.
6. Add olive oil to let it down, and then grate the parmesan in.
Mix thoroughly and use.
This pesto is very smooth, as each stage has had the life beaten out of it.
Using a Food Processor
1. Using a food processor, add the Basil, Nuts, Parmesan, one Garlic Clove, Olive Oil and Lemon juice and blitz until it magically becomes Pesto.
2. Remove into a bowl and put in the fridge overnight.
This version is much thicker, as the oil is absorbed into the basil. As the basil and garlic aren’t pulped, they aren’t as strong in flavour as the pestle and mortar Pesto.
Either way, they are both delicious.
Basil, Thai basil, or sweet basil, is a common name for the culinary herb Ocimum basilicum of the family Lamiaceae, sometimes known as Saint Joseph’s Wort in some English speaking countries.
Nutritional information courtesy of Nutrition and You.
A culinary mistake in the kitchen, another version of Falafel to enjoy.
It is true to say that I have been eating Falafel as a staple to my diet for the last few years, and that I absolutely love the stuff.
This recipe came entirely by accident, as I was trying to perfect a chick pea ball recipe, but didn’t add egg to bind, so it turned into Falafel.
It is delicious, especially with some pickle.
1. Using a food processor, add the Basil, Nuts, Parmesan, one Garlic Clove, Olive Oil and Lemon juice and blitz until it magically becomes Pesto.
2. Remove into a bowl and put in the fridge overnight.
3. Take the Chickpeas, Garlic Clove, Chilli and Cumin seeds and blitz in the food processor again.
4. Take the Pesto out of the fridge. You will note that the oil and lemon juice has been sucked up into the basil, and is quite thick.
5. Add one tablespoon of the Pesto into the chickpea mix, and then blitz until thoroughly combined.
6. Put the Falafel into a baking dish and put into the oven for 30mins, or until it looks golden.
Enjoy with some vegetables in a flour tortilla.
As a part of a main meal or simply with a cup of tea, this savoury scone really works a treat.
I am a great believer in the phrase “Everyday is a learning day”. To that end I regularly scour the TV and YouTube, looking for new ideas to add to soups.
In Northern Ireland, we are bread orientated, in fact, I can’t have soup without bread.
FatLad starts his barbecue accompaniment series with one of the best recipes around, in Cauliflower Cheese.
If you follow me on Twitter, you will have seen I am going through a BBQ renaissance at the minute, as well as the inevitable diet after the holidays.
But a little bit of what you fancy always does you good, they say.
One of my favourite accompaniments to BBQ is Cauliflower cheese.
fatladfood 