Spicy Baby Potatoes

Ingredients:
Baby Potatoes
Oil
Spices

Wash the potatoes. You can leave them whole or cut them in halves or quarters. Toss with oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika (you can add or take more spices if you wish). Mix well.



Cook uncovered on 175 for 45+ minutes (depending how big potatoes are)

Carrot and Onion Rice

Ingredients:
2 small to medium Onions or 1 large
4 small Carrots or 2 large
1 cup Basmati Rice
2 tbsp Oil
2 cups Water or stock

Dice onions and carrots and fry over in the oil for a couple of minutes.



Add rice and fry for another couple of minutes.


Add salt and mix well. Add water, bring to a boil, stir then cover and lower heat and cook for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, turn off flame but do not lift lid or stir. Leave lid on for 5 minutes before fluffing with a fork.


Et Voila!

Tzimmes

Ingredients:
Carrots - either fresh or frozen
Oil
Salt
Sugar
Honey
Cinnamon

I used frozen sliced carrots. If you are using fresh, peel them and slice them.

Fry the carrots with a generous amount of oil so all carrots are covered, but not too much.

Fry for as long as the carrots need until they are quite soft and shrunk quite a bit.

Season with a sprinkle of salt and cinnamon, a couple of tablespoons of sugar and honey. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

Fry over for a few more minutes.

Once cooked, tzimmes can be frozen.

Serve hot.

Et Voila!

Roasted Garlic Potatoes

Ingredients:
Baby Potatoes
Salt
Oil
Fresh Garlic

Cut up potatoes in slices, quarters or halves. Crush lots of fresh garlic (I used 1 whole garlic to 1 bag potatoes). Toss with oil and a sprinkle of salt - doesn't need much because of the quantity of garlic.


Bake uncovered on 200 for 40 minutes tossing occasionally during cooking time.

If you want a very strong taste of garlic, put 3/4 of the crushed garlic on before baking and the last 1/4 about 10 minutes before the end of cooking time.

Note: If you line pan with greaseproof paper, the potatoes won't stick so much so easier to toss.

Et Voila!

Sausage Rolls

Ingredients:
1 roll ready rolled Puff Pastry
4 bags Tivall cocktail sausages or any meaty cocktail sausages
1 Egg
Sesame Seeds- optional



A roll of pastry is enough for about four packets of sausages (Tivall). This makes about 90-100 sausages. (I know you are thinking that's a lot, but you need quite a few to fill a bowl or a platter and they always disappear!)
Once these are prepared, they freeze very well. I like to prepare a whole packet and then freeze them in bags. This way you can take out portions at a time.

Open the puff pastry and unroll the beginning part only (If you unroll too much, it goes dry). Cut strips downwards about 2 fingers wide. Then cut strips the other way so you are splitting the pastry into four sections. Don't worry if you have not cut the pastry exactly straight - it is very stretchy if needs be.



Roll a piece of pastry around each sausage (no need to defrost sausages). Place seem side down.


After you have done a few, slice 3 small diagonal slices on top of each roll. If you are baking immediately place on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. If you are preparing in advance, place them in a plastic bag in a single layer.



Repeat process until you have used up all the pastry.

When you are ready to bake them, brush each one with raw egg.

If you have prepared in advance, take out of freezer an hour before wanting to bake. If you want, you can sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake on 200 for 20-30 minutes. When you remove them from the oven, it is normal for the sausages to look very blown up and they will shrink as they cool.

Serve room temperature or hot.

Et Voila!

Marinated Mushrooms

Ingredients:
Closed cup or Button Mushrooms
Vinegar
Oil
Onion

If you are using button mushrooms, you can leave them whole or slightly bigger mushrooms can be cut into halves or quarters.
Wash the mushrooms well.

Put them in a pot with a mixture of white vinegar and boiling hot water. If the mushrooms pop up to the top of the water, push them down a few times with a spoon. Boil for 10 minutes. Drain.

In a separate pan, fry an onion (diced very fine) until they become translucent. Be generous with the oil.


Add the fried onions to the mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper. Add some more oil and some more vinegar (to preserve them).

These can keep for weeks in the fridge (thats if there is any left!!!)

Et Voila!

Marinated Olives

Ingredients:
Olives
Fresh Garlic
Oil

You can use any olives you like, but pit free are nicer. I use Crespo green olives. Crush some fresh garlic - this is as much or as little as you like. Put the olives, garlic, some olive juice and a generous drizzle of oil in a container. Best to do this a day or two in advance of when you will be serving them.

Et Voila!

Spanish Rice

Ingredients:
Long Grain Rice (I use uncle Ben's because like it says on the box 'it is perfect every time'!!)
Onions
Peppers
Mushrooms
Garlic

Cut up all veg either in partial strips or diced. Fry over starting with onions, then adding peppers and then mushrooms and garlic.



Once all the mushrooms have gone soft, turn off flame.
Meanwhile, cook the rice. The way I cook rice is as follows:
Measure how much rice you need (1 cup is plenty for 2 people) and put into an oven proof dish. Sprinkle with salt. Add double the amount of boiling hot water to that of rice.



Cover and bake on 200 for 20 minutes.
To check if rice is cooked, all the water should be absorbed and there will be holes in the rice like this:

Once rice is cooked, mix with the fried veg. Season with salt and pepper.

Et Voila!