Stuffing balls

Over easter I receieved an e-mail from someone asking for my help this is what they asked:

Chef Shamus..

Over Easter i wanted to make the perfect roast dinner for the family. Everything went down a treat, but i had problems with the stuffing. It's not that Paxo didn't explain clear enough how to put it all together, it's just the end result was too sticky for my liking. I want to mix sage and onion stuffing with sausagemeat, but i just want it to be the right consistency. Can you help???

Being the gentleman that I am i was more than happy to help so here is a recipe for delicious sausagemeat stuffing balls. The key to getting a good consistency is to add a grated potato, I know it seems strange but it works, trust me!

Ingredients

• half a pack of sausagemeat
• 1 small potato
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic (crushed)
• 1 tablespoon mixed herbs
• a shake of season all
• 1 packet of sage and onion stuffing

Method

1. Grate the potato and the onion into a bowl then add all the other ingredients. Kneade them all together thoroughly, sage and onion stuffing doesnt enjoy being mixed with sausagemeat so your going to have to put in some elbow grease!

2. When the ingredients are mixed together roll the mixture into egg sized balls and place them on a greasy tray. Put in the oven at 180°C for 20 minutes. Take out your perfectly done stuffing balls and add to your roast dinner. Enjoy :)

Tips

Adding a finely chopped chilli will give it a flavoursome kick.

Jerk Chicken with pepper rice

Serves: 2

Preparation time (not including marination): 10 mins

Cooking time: 20 minutes

It's time to start delving into my Jamaican roots now and I have to admit I enjoyed it thoroughly. This dish is quite simply one of the tastiest things I have ever produced and will do so again and again. Its important that you leave the chicken to marinade for a number of hours, preferably overnight so plan it well in advance, I promise you its worth it. I cooked this indoors due to me living in England and it being particularly wet spring but this would be brilliant on a BBQ as well. without further ado here is the recipe and how to do it.

Ingredients

For the chicken

• 4 chicken thighs
• 2 cloves crushed garlic
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 2 yellow scotch bonnet chillis finely chopped
  
• 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
• 1 teaspoon ground mixed spice
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 25g butter

For the rice

• 2 cups long grain rice
• ½ red pepper
• ½ yellow pepper

Method

1. Take all the spices, chilli and garlic (not including butter) and whisk together with the oil. Pour the mixture onto the chicken making sure all pieces are fully covered, rub it all right into the chicken before covering and leaving in the fridge for 24 hours.

2. Heat the butter in a frying pan until frothing, then fry the chicken thighs for 7-8 minutes on both sides, or until golden-brown and cooked through. (The juices will run clear when the chicken is pierced in the thickest part with a skewer.)

3. For the rice cook as normal (see video earlier on blog) and add the chopped peppers 5 minutes before the rice is cooked.

4. serve the chicken on top of the rice and enjoy :)

Tips

Keep the Caribbean theme going and have a nice can of Red stripe Jamaican larger, good times.

Difficulty

Beef Steak

Serves: 1 steak per person

Preparation time: 20 mins

Cooking time: 5 mins

It's what you've all been waiting for, yes its time to reveal the secret to cooking a perfect steak. The secret is...there is no secret. Just stick to the guidelines and you'll be be enjoying a delicious juicy steak in no time. Where are these guidelines you're wondering? Just look below.

These are the cooking times for a steak approximately 2.5cm thick, thicker steaks will require a longer cooking time and less time for thinner steaks. The resting time is very important, leaving your steak to rest away from the pan allows the meat to become warm, moist and tender all the way through. Don't forget it is still continues to cook even if its not in the pan.

	Cooking time (per side)	Resting time
Rare	1-2 mins	6-8 mins
Medium rare	2-2.5 mins	5 mins
Medium	3 mins	4 mins
Well done	4.5 mins	1 min

If you've kept your steak in the fridge leave it out at room temperature for about 20 minutes before cooking. Cook the steaks in a hot pan, not too hot otherwise you will burn the outside (if its smoking its too hot.) Lightly brush the steaks with vegetable oil and put a splash in the pan and cook to your liking. Lightly season the steaks with salt and pepper serve on a hot plates with chips and salad. Enjoy :)

Tips

Use a griddle pan, it will give the steak the nice chargrilled lines across it.

Peppercorn sauce goes very well with any steak

It hasn't got 4 difficulty spoons for nothing, this can be a tricky dish to do, its all just a case of practice.

Difficulty

Salmon Curry

Serves: 2

Preparation time: 5 mins

Cooking time 15 mins

When its time to impress your going to need something a little bit fancy to really make an impact well don't worry Chef Shamus has got you covered. Just make this delicious but simple salmon curry and your aims will be achieved, whether they be amicable or not ;)

There might be a couple of ingredients your going to have to buy especially for this dish, not everyone has masses of coconut milk laying around. My advice is if your going to be doing a lot of Thai/Indian cooking, buy a block of creamed coconut which lasts a lot longer and just add hot water to it to make it into a coconut milk.

Ingredients

• 200g salmon
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 clove of garlic
  
• 1 onion
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 4 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 200ml coconut milk

Method

1. Use a sharp knife and remove the scales from the fish (if any) sprinkle the salmon with salt and leave for 20 minutes

2. Chop the onion and crush the garlic, fry the onion on a medium heat until golden then add the garlic and fry for a further 30 seconds.

3. Add the coriander, chilli and turmeric, mix in and fry for another minute before adding the coconut milk then cook for another 2 minutes.

4. Place the salmon in the pan and bring the mixture to a boil before turning it back down and allowing to simmer.

5. Place a lid on the pan and cook for 5 minutes then turn the fish over and cook for another 5 minutes. Serve on a bed of basmati rice and enjoy :)

Tips

Don't overcook the salmon, a lot of people are nervous to cook fish but salmon really doesn't need much cooking

Difficulty

Cooking Rice

The amount of people who have claimed that they can cook rice and then serve a big sticky white blob or equally awful dried mess is unbelievable. So i have taken it on myself to create a step by step video guide on how not to balls up rice!

Tips

If your using basmati rice then only use one cup of water when cooking.

To give your rice a more exotic look add a bit of turmeric which will give it a yellow colour.

Difficulty

Chilli Burritos

Serves 3 (or two hungry people!)

preparation time: 10 minutes

cooking time: 1 hour

I will warn you now that this is not the best looking dish in the world as you might tell from the picture but trust me the taste more than makes up for it. With this one more a kind of 'feeding the lads' than impressing the girlfriend, they don't always appreciate the effects chilli can have on a mans bowels. Serve with a few nice cold beers (try not to drink them before you start cooking it can lead to great difficulties!).

So get the boys round, serve this and your certain to please. As they say in mexico 'permite comer y emborracharse!

Ingredients

• 250g beef mince
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• ½ a green pepper
• 2 birdseye chillis
• 1 teaspoon of chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon of mixed herbs
• 1 beef oxo cube
• ¼ pint of water
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 4 tablespoons tomato puree
• 1 tin of red kidney beans
• 6 tortillas
• cheddar cheese

Method

1. Chop the onion and the green pepper into cube
2. Fry together mince, onion, garlic, herbs, pepper, green chilli and chilli powder in a large saucepan for about 5 mins or until the juices start to run from the meat
   
3. Add the chopped tomatoes, purée, oxo cube, kidney beans and water
4. Stir, bring to boil on a medium heat then turn down to simmer
5. Allow to cook for minimum 30 mins - longer is possible, adding water as required
6. After the chilli has cooked for a sufficient amount of time its time to place into the tortillas this is where it can messy! arrange all the tortillas in a large oven proof dish and pour a serving of chilli into each.
   
7. Seal them by folding over the edges and grate cheese all over the tortillas, if you like it cheesy then go nuts!
   
8. Put in the oven at 220°c for 10-15 minutes until the cheese has turned golden brown.
9. Now use whatever utensils you can get your hands on and and lift out the burritos trying to keep them intact, i have only ever succeeded twice in doing this but ont worry about it if all fails just get a good scoop and whack in on the plate. Enjoy :)

Difficulty

Chicken and Chorizo skewers

Serves: 2

Preparation time: (not including marination): 10 minutes

Cooking time:10 minutes





Since its winter and probably not the best time for a BBQ in the garden I thought I would bring it indoors and make some grilled skewers. I've seen a lot of skewer recipes but never a chicken and chorizo one so im going to take credit for this creation. Its very easy to do but looks quite impressive and a perfect recipe to be brought out again in the summer. It does take a bit of preparation as you have to marinade the chicken, the longer you do it the better it will be but make it at least a couple of hours.


Ingredients

• 2 Chicken breasts
• Chorizo sausage
• 1 Red pepper
• Bamboo skewers
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 1½ teaspoon of all spice
• 1½ teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ½ tablespoon chilli sauce
  

Method

1. Cut the chicken into chunks and place in a bowl. Coat with the honey, all the spices and chilli sauce before leaving in the fridge to marinade for at least 2 hours. let the bamboo Skewers soak in water, this will ensure they don't burn during cooking.



2. Slice the chorizo and peppers into large-ish chunks remember the pepper will shrink when cooking so they need to be large enough to stay on the skewer.



3. Thread the chicken, Chorizo and peppers onto the skewers. It's best to have a slice of chorizo, then some chicken and then pepper and so on. There should be enough to make at least 4 skewers.



4. Place them under a hot grill for about 10 minutes but keep checking and turning them. Serve with salad or wedges. Enjoy :)

Tips

Use them on an outdoor BBQ, pre prepare them and then just throw them on the grill with everything else.

Feel free to add any other vegetables to the skewer cherry tomatoes work well, as does chunks of onion.

Difficulty

Chicken Fajitas and Crispy Wedges

Serves: 1

Preperation time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 25 mins


This has to be one of my all time favorite meals, it always reminds me of my days in school when every week a few of my friends would have 'fajita friday' over at my house. It's very easy to make for a big group of people expecially if you buy the pre made tortillas and spice mix. I tend to go with a rule of one chicken breast per person so just increase the ingredients in this recipe as is needed.


Ingredients




fajitas

• 1 chicken breast
• ½ green pepper
• ½ red pepper
• 2 tortillas
• 1 chilli
• pack of spice mix
• ½ teaspoon of all spice
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil

crispy wedges

• pack of frozen potato wedges
• spicy season all
• olive oil

Method


Wedges


1. place the frozen wedges on a baking tray and place them in the middle of a pre-heated oven at 220°C


2. After 5 minutes take the wedges out and sprinkle them with season all and a drizzling of olive oil, this will give them added flavour and ensure they come out crispy. Then place the wedges back in the oven for another 20 minutes.


Fajitas


1. Slice the chicken breast into thin strips (this will mean it cooks quicker) and coat with the all spice, cayenne pepper and paprika.

2. de-seed and wash the peppers before finely cutting them into strips also chop the chilli and leave to the side.

3. Heat the oil in a fryingpan on a medium- high heat and add the seasoned chicken. Cook for about 5 minutes until the chicken is just browning.

4. turn the heat down to meduim and add the peppers and chilli then mix all together.

5. Coat the entire mixture in the pan with the packet of spice, the more you put on the spicier the dish will be. Mix everything together and prepare to put into tortillas.

6. For the tortillas its a good idea to warm them first, the prefered way is in a dry frying pan by heating it up and putting the tortillas in for about 5 seconds on each side or a few seconds in the microwave will also do the job.

7. Place the filling into the warm torillas and serve with crispy wedges and salad. Enjoy :)


Tips


If your unsure on how to fold a tortilla correctly here's a great step by step guide


There are a thousand different things you could serve this dish with but most people seem to prefer either salsa, sour cream or guacomoli


Any Mexican food is best served with a ice cold corona :D

Difficulty

Beef in Ginger

Serves: 1

preparation time: 10 mins

cooking time: 15 mins

The ingredients I use tend to be whatever the supermarket has on the reduced shelf and this day was just the same. It just so happened some beef steaks were rapidly approaching their sell by date in Sainsburies so I nabbed them for about half price. Never be put off just because meat is near the end of its use by date, as long as you cook it/freeze as soon as possible you will be fine.

Apparently the origins of this dish are in Malaysia and since I love Asian food it seemed like a good idea to make it....and it was. I made this for one person but if your expecting company just double the amount of meat and spices. Enough talking about it I'll tell you how to make it.

Ingredients

• 200g beef steak
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 1 teaspoon of ginger
• 1 teaspoon of ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• ¼ cayenne pepper
• ¼ black pepper

Method

1. Cut the beef into very fine strips, you may find this easier if you put them in the freezer for about 20 minutes and then cut them. chop the onion and garlic very finely and leave to the side.

2. Heat up the oil a wok or a large saucepan on a medium heat and add the chopped onion cooking it until it browns. then add the garlic and ginger and cook for a further 2 minutes.

3. Turn up the heat and add the beef continue cooking, stirring to make sure nothing sticks until the beef is browned.

4. Add the chopped tomatoes and stir until sauce if well mixed then stir in the ground coriander, sugar, salt, Cayenne pepper and black pepper.

5. Turn the heat back down and leave to simmer for another 5 minutes. Serve on a bed of plain rice. Enjoy :)

Tips

Using Chinese stir fry oil instead of ordinary cooking oil can add extra flavour to any east Asian style dish.

I found that this meal is very nice with a glass or 2 of red wine, drinking the whole bottle as i did however is not recommended

Difficulty

Moroccan Style Chicken

Serves: 2

Preparation time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 50 mins

I made this dish last night mostly because it used the last few ingredients that I still had in the house. Making do with what you have is a very important element in cooking i think, it challenges you to create your own new dishes instead of following a recipe word for word.

I encourage anyone to adapt the recipes I post on here because it is after all about your own tastes, I'm just providing a starting point. The more you cook the more you'll learn which ingredients go well with each other and what you can use as substitutes for ingredients you don't have. I rarely follow recipes to the letter, not saying it always works! but its all part of a learning process.

This dish I adapted from a book I got bought last year and it was my first time attempting it and overall I think it went quite well. It was the perfect meal for a cold winter night nice and spicy and very filling, so don't expect to be moving around too much afterward! please note my photography does not do it justice tastes much nicer than it looks I assure you.

Ingredients

• 4 chicken thighs or drumsticks
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 tablespoon of season all
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• 1 teaspoon of coriander
• ½ a teaspoon of chilli powder
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin of chick peas
• pack of pitta bread

Method

1. Take your chicken and coat it with season all and rub into the chicken, if you don't have season all just skip this stage.

2. Chop the onions as finely or as large as you like and crush the garlic (if you don't have a garlic press just finely chop it) fry both together in a large saucepan or wok with oil on a medium heat for about 5 minutes until the onions are soft.

3. Add the turmeric, chilli powder, paprika and coriander. continue to cook for about 2 minutes, then add the chicken pieces.

4. Make sure the chicken gets well coated in the spices until they are all a beautiful reddish golden colour, continue to cook them on a medium heat until the skin on the chicken is nicely browned.

5. Add the chopped tomatoes and chick peas, ensure that you've drained away the chick pea liquid before putting them in the pan. Leave on a medium heat for 35 minutes stirring occasionally.

6. Just before the meal is ready sprinkle the pitta breads with some water and pop them under the grill for a couple minutes and serve them with the meal. Enjoy :)

Tips

A few leaves on fresh parsley sprinkled over the dish can make for an impressive presentation.

Difficulty

Quick Easy Chicken Curry

serves: 2

preparation time: 5 mins

Cooking time: 30 mins

The first recipe I'm going to share with you is a very easy chicken curry I made a couple of days ago (and ate again yesterday). I cook curries quite a lot mostly because they are amazingly simple to do and you can easily make two meals out of it and save some for the next day.

Ingredients:

• 2 Chicken breasts
• 1 Tin of concentrated tomato soup
• milk
• 2 tablespoons of tomato puree
• medium curry powder
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 2 chillies (optional)
• 1 tablespoon of cooking oil

Method:

1. First slice the chicken breasts into medium sized chunks and totally coat them with curry powder, also add the turmeric and coriander. Allow the chicken to stand for at least 5 minutes.

2. Heat the oil in a saucepan (make sure it has a lid) on a medium heat, add the chicken to the pan with finely sliced chillies (if you have chosen to include them) and fry until chicken has browned.

3. Add the entire tin of soup along with the tomato puree then refill the empty soup can with milk and pour into the saucepan.

4. Make sure everything is thoroughly mixed then place lid on saucepan and leave for about 15- 20 minutes stirring regularly.

5. Serve on a bed of basmati rice. Enjoy :)

Tips

If you like your curries hot like i do then try using a hot curry powder to give it a bit more of a kick but be careful, don't go overboard!

It's always nice to have a bit of naan bread with this dish, you can buy packaged naan from any supermarket just sprinkle a bit water on it so it doesn't dry out and grill for a couple of minutes each side before serving.

Difficulty