Leek and Spinach Risotto

Serves 2 people

SORRY! I've not posted in so long it's unbelievable, but my camera SD card is at home and i'm at uni atm. But finally got round to making something, yay.

I was cooking for my friend as well so i had to think of something that didn't include mushrooms or tomatoes, so i was a bit stuck. But this turned out very well i think. And my friend loved it, yay. 

Ingredients:

1 shallot, finely minced
2 large garlic cloves, finely minced
1 litre of vegetable stock
6oz arborio rice
large glass of dry white wine
1 and a half large leeks, chopped up into smallish chunks
bag of baby spinach
olive oil
margerine/butter
salt and pepper
parmesan cheese/vegetarian parmesan

Equipment:

large saucepan
wooden spoon
chopping board
medium sharp knife

Method:

- Heat up around 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the saucepan. Once it's hot, throw in the minced onion, garlic and the chopped leeks. Sauté on a medium heat until the onions and leeks are softened (around 5-7 minutes).

- Once they have softened so they're no longer crunchy at all, add the rice. Stir through the mix until the rice is coated with the oil. Then pour in the wine! Let it simmer and stir occasionally until the wine has reduced and the liquid has been absorbed. 

- Now start adding the stock, one ladle at a time, waiting until the liquid has been absorbed before adding the next one. You have to stir pretty much constantly so the rice doesn't get stuck to the bottom of the pan. Every so often, check the rice by eating a couple of grains to check when it's done.
- Once the rice is mostly soft but still retains a small amount of bite in the middle, it's done! The rice should be quite loose and not overly sticky or gloopy, if it has become like this, add a little more stock to loosen it up.

- To finish, take it off the heat and stir through a large handful of the spinach, it will wilt from the heat of the risotto. Next, add a handful of grated parmesan cheese (or vegetarian alternative) and a large knob of butter/margerine. Season with pepper and a little salt, to taste. 

- Finally, serve into bowls and sprinkle parmesan over the top.

Et voila!

Noodle one Bangor (Wales, not Ireland) review

Sorry I haven't posted in so long! I have a few recipes lined up but stupidly i left my SD card with all the pictures on, so i can't post until i have them. Never mind!

Last Thursday all the girls from uni wanted to go for a meal. we'd originally decided on fat cats but we didn't think to book it, and it was so busy we had to go somewhere else. We were all pretty annoyed because we'd been looking forward to it for so long! We decided on noodle one because it was close to where we were, not like Bangor is a big place anyway, and i'm so happy we did!

Obviously from my review about wagamama's i love noodles. And i've been to noodle one a few times before, but i always opted for ramen. Now i have more of an idea about different noodle dishes, so i went for chili yakisoba with tofu and a side of vegetable gyoza. I'm slightly obsessed with anything with a bit of heat to it at the minute, so naturally i had to go for the chili, but they do one without as well. The gyoza came out first, and it was a nice touch that the woman who served us told us she'd made them herself! They were lovely, and came with a sweet chili dipping sauce. The sauce was nice but i thought it was a bit disappointing that that was the only type of sauce that came with all the sides. We ordered prawn crackers too and had the same dip with them.

I love noodle one because it's really easy to mix and match, basically. You can choose to have different noodles if you wanted, and you also choose the dish you want, and then choose what kind of meat you want with it. The choices are crispy tofu (obviously not meat), beef teriyaki, shichimi duck, teriyaki chicken, and king prawns, and you can have any of them with any dish. Also, with the ramen, you can choose between vegetable or chicken and pork broth. My yakisoba was amazing, i couldn't find a single fault with it and i'll definitely be having that again next time i go. I can't remember what the other 5 of my friends had, but you can be assured there were no complaints! I already can't wait to go again.

I highly recommend going to noodle one for lunch or dinner if you're around in Bangor. There aren't many places to choose from, but this is my number one favourite restaurant and i wish i could go there every day. They also have a 10% discount if you take out! Definitely better than a takeaway.

Hope you enjoy!

p.s. if you love this review please hit the share button underneath!

Potato Dauphinoise

Serves 2 people

Ingredients:

3 large potatoes (e.g. maris piper)
Double cream
3 Garlic cloves
salt & pepper
butter or margarine for greasing
Cheddar cheese (optional)

Equipment:

Small oven-proof dish
Small knife
kitchen roll
bowl of cold water
speed peeler

Method:

- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Take your small dish, and using a piece of kitchen roll, grease the dish with butter/margarine, and put to one side.

- Peel your potatoes using a speed peeler, or your knife if you prefer, whatever's easiest for you. Slice the potatoes thinly, around the width of a £1 coin at most. Try to make the potato slices as even as possible, or they will all take different times to cook. After slicing them, put them into the bowl of water to stop them from turning brown due to being exposed to air. Chop the garlic as finely as you can.

- Now to assemble! Start by sprinkling a small pinch garlic at the bottom of the pre-greased dish, then season the dish with salt and pepper. Now, take the potato slices out of the bowl and pat dry with kitchen roll.

- Place one layer of potato slices into the dish. Sprinkle more garlic and salt and pepper. Add another layer of potato, then more garlic, salt and pepper. Repeat layering until the dish is full (depending on the depth of the dish, 4/5 layers). Don't fill to the brim of the dish, leave around a 1cm gap at the top.

- Take the cream, and pour until the top layer of potato is just covered. Put into the middle of the oven, for an hour and a half. If you wish, 10 minutes before the dish is ready to come out of the oven, take it out and grate a layer of cheddar cheese over the top. Put back in for the last 10 minutes for the cheese to melt and crisp up.

Sorry there's a chunk missing, I couldn't wait to get into it! Enjoy.

Et voila!

Home Made Pizza

Makes 4 large pizzas

Ingredients for dough:

500g strong white bread flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1x7g sachet dried yeast
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
350ml lukewarm water

Ingredients for base:

400g tinned tomatoes
tomato purée
salt & pepper
1-2 clove(s) garlic

Ingredients for toppings:

pesto
sundried tomatoes
mushrooms
goats cheese
mozzerella
parmesan
rocket
spinach
blue cheese
beetroot
balsamic vinegar
cheddar cheese

Method:

- First things first, make the dough. Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the salt, mixing it through.

- In a mixing jug, add the oil and sugar to the water, then add the yeast and mix thoroughly. Leave it alone for a few minutes until it starts to froth up. Make a well in the centre of the flour and begin to incorporate the liquid mixture in slowly, mixing the flour into the liquid with a fork.

-Once the dough begins to form, turn out onto a well floured surface and begin to knead with floured hands. Knead the dough until it forms into a springy ball (about 10 minutes). Once kneaded, leave to rise for an hour in a floured bowl (flour the top of the dough as well), covered with a damp cloth. 

- While the dough is rising, prepare all of the other ingredients, starting with the pizza sauce. Mince the garlic finely and sauté in a little oil in a saucepan, for a minute or so on a medium heat. Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato purée and salt and pepper, and simmer until reduced to a thick sauce, then take it off the heat.

- It's also a good idea to lay out all of your ingredients and get them prepared so it's easy to just throw them onto the pizza base once it's onto the baking tray. For the pizza I made, I used goats cheese, beetroot, rocket on one half, and mushrooms and pesto (from a jar, oops) on the other.

- 15 minutes before the dough has finished rising, pre-heat the oven as high as it will go, with a baking tray inside it to heat up as well. 

- Once the dough has risen (after about an hour), knead once more on a floured surface to 'knock it back', for about 5 minutes. This dough should portion into about 4 medium pizzas. In my experience, I've found it easiest to do one pizza at a time. So, roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin into whatever shape you wish, be it square, round, oval, triangle, whatever, just make sure it's thin! 

- When it's thin enough, take the baking tray out from the oven, dust with flour, and transfer the base (carefully!) across to it, then go crazy with toppings! Add the sauce first, then all the toppings you desire, and finally the cheese on top. Try and do this as quickly as possible so the tray doesn't cool down too much.

- Once all the toppings are on, put into the oven at 200°C, until golden and crispy (about 15 minutes ish?)

Et voila!

Wagamama (Cheshire Oaks) Review

Last Saturday (14th July), me and my boyfriend were celebrating our 4 year anniversary and we decided (I forced him) to go out for a meal. Normally we'd go to a brasserie or Italian, because they're always a fail safe, but I'm currently in the midst of a noodle obsession, so I managed to drag him to Wagamama. I've never been before, but there's a similar place where I go to university; every time I want to go my friends refuse because 'Wagamama is so much better'. I guess i wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
So anyway, we went. When we got there it was busy so we had to wait awhile (you're not allowed to book for parties under 6, I checked). When we sat down, a waitress came over within 5 minutes to take our drinks order. The wine list wasn't very extensive, and I wanted to try saké, but my boyfriend wouldn't share with me so maybe next time...
We both ordered ramen noodles and sides, he had the seafood ramen and duck gyoza (deep fried dumplings), and I had the vegetarian one, Saien Soba, and prawns deep fried in panko breadcrumbs. My ramen was delicious, the portions of ramen are HUGE because it's broth and noodles that comes in a huge bowl, so I barely got past the half way mark. And I'm finally mastering chop sticks (though I'll never get how people eat rice with them O:). I tried some of my boyfriend's seafood ramen as well, but it was more plain than mine. The broth was vegetable, instead of fish so there wasn't much of a seafood taste about it... it also came with smooth dory which I've never had before, but I was sadly disappointed by it. It didn't have much flavour, so it wasn't helped by the lack of flavour in the soup too. But the squid was cooked perfectly and not rubbery in the slightest. On the plus side, he said his duck Gyoza were AMAZING, and he'd go back just for them! I couldn't try them, being vegetarian 'n' all. Well, technically pescetarian now (:.
There were about 12 things I wanted to try on the menu, so I'll definitely be going back again. I already know what I'm going to have next time I go. The one thing I will say is, don't go there on a first date, slurping noodles is less than flattering.


Ciao.