Cranberry and chicken curry with egg-fried rice!

After writing (half) an Irish essay about eating healthy and being all self-righteous about cooking for yourself instead of getting a take-away, I decided to throw together an easy, cheap meal that absolutely anyone can make. :P This meal tastes great and will leave you feeling a lot better than anything you'll get from the take-away! :L I just threw in any veg. I could find in the house so be sure to add in whatever you want! I got the idea for trying out the egg fried rice from my brother, it turned out really well, giving the rice an extra bit of flavour! :P


Cranberry and chicken curry with egg-fried rice:

Ingredients:

• 150g Cranberries
• Enough Rice for 4 people (approx. half cup per person)
• 1 Red Pepper
• 1 Yellow Pepper
• 1 Carrot
• 1 Onion 
• 3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 1 Chicken stock cube
• 1 Lemon
• 2 sections Garlic, crushed
• 2 tbsp Curry Powder (I used medium!)
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 eggs

Method:


To start, we'll prepare a few things before we get into the real cooking, this will just speed up the process later. Put the cranberries into a bowl and pour in a large mug of hot water. Leave this to one side to soak. Next, put the rice into a pot and pour in enough water so that the rice is covered. Have that to one side and ready to cook. Finally chop up all of the veg and have all that ready to rock too. :)


Now that all the preparations are out of the way, throw the three chicken breasts into a large pan with some oil and fry them until the outside is cooked. Cut them up into little pieces and fry until all of the chicken is cooked. Dissolve the chicken stock cube in a mug of water and pour it into the pan with the chicken. Squeeze the lemon into the pan and mix in both the curry powder and cumin. Finally, add the veg. and the cup of cranberries and water. Let this all simmer in the pan and put on the rice.



Cook the rice according to the instructions and then drain it off. Take the mix that was simmering in the pan and put it in a bowl, to one side. Now put half of the rice into the pan and crack in the two eggs. On medium heat, fry the rice, mixing it thoroughly so that all of the rice gets coated in egg. Add the rest of the rice and mix it all through. This shouldn't take too long, so the chicken mix will still be warm! Serve up the rice and then the chicken mix.


 Enjoy! :D

Soundtrack to this recipe:  
Rihanna- Shut up and Drive
Hypnotic Brass Ensamble- War

Chocolate Brownies

I usually object to brownies because they are just pure sugar :L But I have to say that these are a favourite! My friend requested that I put up the recipe for some "Slutty Brownies."  The first thing I thought was "Jesus what is she on about" :L But then this recipe came to mind... because its incredibly easy! I got the recipe in transition year in our home-ec classes. When I made them, I halved the amount of each ingredient and it turned out fine. If your using the whole amounts, your going to need an 8x12 inch baking tray. My baking tray was 4x6 inches and I ended up having to bake them for an extra 15 minutes because they were so thick. They turned out fine in the end but when your making them, ensure that the tray your using isn't massively deep. You'll see from the pictures that I tried adding a white chocolate icing (which tasted delicious!) but I made the mistake of putting it on before the brownies were totally cooled :L:L It just melted!! I'll include the recipe for that icing, but make sure the brownies are COMPLETELY cool before you put it on! Your also going to want to use a fairly hight quality white chocolate, I used Green and Blacks (expensive but worth it!). This brand had vanilla in it so I didn't add any extra for the recipe. These Chocolate Brownies are incredibly easy to make and really, really yummy so be sure to give them a go! :D

Chocolate Brownies:

Ingredients:

Brownies:

• 370g Caster Sugar
• 1 and a half tsp Vanilla essence
• 220g Butter (melted) plus extra for greasing
• 4 Eggs , lightly beaten
• 110g Plain Flour
• 85g Cocoa Powder
• half tsp Baking Powder
• 220g Walnuts or Pecans or broken up chocolate (optional)

White Chocolate Icing:

• 175g White Chocolate
• 75g Butter
• 115g Icing Sugar
• 90ml Double Cream
• A few drops of food colouring
• Some chocolate sprinkles, to decorate

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees Celsius and start off by making the Chocolate Brownies. Mix the vanilla essence into the melted butter and then add the caster sugar. Stir this thoroughly. Add the lightly beaten eggs to the mixture. Then, sieve in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Mix well and then fold in the  Walnuts, Pecans or broken up chocolate. Grease the 8x12 inch baking tray with butter and then dust with flour. Pour the batter into the prepared baking tray and bake for about 25 minutes, until just set in the middle. Depending on the thickness or depth of your brownies, you might have to bake them for longer, just insert a knife into the centre of the brownies and if it comes out clean, they're done.

For the White Chocolate Frosting, melt the butter and white chocolate together, stirring every few seconds until they are totally combined. Sift in the icing sugar, a little at a time and mix well. Finally blend in the cream and food colouring until you achieve a good spreading consistency. When the brownies are completely cooled down, cut them up into little squares or bars and spread the icing over each one. Shake on some chocolate sprinkles and enjoy!

Soundtrack to this Recipe:
Rita Ora- RIP ft. Tinie Tempah
 Adele- Rumour Has It

Delicious Chocolate Icing :P

Two things led to the making of this recipe :L Philadelphia have collaborated with Cadburys to make a chocolate cream cheese that I've been DYING to try... and it was a good friend's birthday (and she LOVES chocolate :P) So I decided to make her a lovely cake with a delicious chocolate icing, by using the new cream cheese. Also, for all you sceptics out there, the Philadelphia is GORGEOUS! It doesn't taste like cheese at all! Just chocolate :P For the cake, I used the basic sponge cake recipe that I posted here:  

http://stephenconlan.blogspot.com/2012/02/birthday-cake-d.html

(Without the blueberries) I was blown away by how nice the icing was, you could use it for anything really, on top of a cake or muffins or even as a side with ice-cream or strawberries!

Chocolate Icing:

Ingredients:

• 2 packets Cadbury's Philadelphia ( I think they were 160g each?) at room temperature
• half tsp Vanilla essence
• 60g Icing Sugar
• 160ml Double Cream

Method:

First, you have to have your muffins or cake or whatever ready to be iced, it has to be totally cooled down! In a mixing bowl, beat the Philadelphia until smooth. If you have an electric hand mixer, use that for the whole recipe, on a low enough speed. Add the half teaspoon of vanilla essence and mix in the icing sugar, a little bit at a time until its all incorporated. Pour in the double cream and continue to beat with the electric mixer until you achieve a good thick consistency for piping or spreading with a knife. You can pipe this mix onto muffins or cupcakes or you could spread it onto a cake, like I've done in the pictures. Here are a few videos for inspiration!

Betty Crocker cake decorating tips

Allrecipes.com: How to Frost Cupcakes

Triple Chocolate Muffins!

These muffins... I don't know where to start! They taste incredible and they've got a really beautiful texture that almost melts in your mouth. They never last long and they drive people crazy, my friend's Mam loves me because of them! :L:L They really are sooo chocolatey and delicious and they turn out perfect every time! I got the recipe from a little BBC colaboration cookbook that (I think) my sister gave me a few years ago. I've made these muffins on more than one occasion and they really do go down a treat! They taste the best on the day they were made but they will keep for a few days, as long as you keep them well covered.

Ingredients:

• 250g Plain Flour
• 25g Cocoa Powder
• half tsp Bread Soda (bicarbonate of soda)
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 85 to 100 grams Dark Chocolate
• 85 to 100 grams White Chocolate
• 100g Milk Chocolate
• 2 Eggs, beaten
• 300ml  tub Soured cream
• 85g light Muscovado Sugar
• 85g Butter, melted
• 1 tsp Vanilla essence

Method:


Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius and line 12 holes in a mufin tray. In a large bowl, combine the Flour, Cocoa Powder,  Bread Soda and Baking Powder. Cut or break up all of the chocolate into little chunks and add them to the bowl. In a seperate, smaller bowl, mix together the Eggs, Soured Cream, Sugar, melted Butter and the teaspoon of Vanilla essence. Pour the liquid mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients, a little at a time, and stir gently. Stir until combined and fairly stiff, but don't overmix! Spoon the mixture into the holes of the prepared muffin tray. I use an ice-cream scoop because it holds just the right amount of mix in one scoop to fill the holes in the tray. :)

Put the muffins into the preheated oven and lower the temperature to 180 degrees Celsius. Bake for twenty minutes, until they are well-risen. I know its tempting, but your going to have to leave the muffins alone in the tray for about fifteen minutes, before transferring them to a wire wrack to cool completely. The mixture is quite tender so it needs a few minutes exposed to the air to firm up. After they've cooled, you'll want to hide them because they'll all be eaten before you know it! Enjoy! :D

 Soundtrack to this recipe:
Katy Perry- ET ft. Kanye West
Carly Rae Jepsen- Call me maybe (lol!) :L

Strawberry Cheesecake!

Despite how it looks, this delicious cheesecake is sooo easy to make, which makes it the ideal thing to throw together when your in the mood for showing off! This cheesecake is also a handy one for a planned event, like a meal or party, because you can make it the day beforehand. This can reduce the amount of stress and things that you have to remember to do on the day! I got the recipe for this in transition year, when we did a bit of cooking, but I've made a few changes. For my Dad's birthday, I made it with a layer of raspberry jelly (from joyofbaking.com) over the top but you can leave that part out if you like :P Your going to need a 9 or 10 inch spring baking tin, otherwise you'll have some trouble serving the cheesecake! Just make sure you don't open the clasp on the tray  before the cheesecake is set. You might think that's just common sense but I've seen it done and it wasn't pretty, unless your into floor flavoured cheesecake :P


Ingredients:


Base:

• 225g Digestive biscuits
• 100g Butter

Cheesecake:

• 1 Packet Strawberry Jelly
• 150ml Boiling water
• 450g Cream Cheese (full fat)
• 150g Caster Sugar
• 100ml Milk
• 100ml Whipping Cream

Raspberry Jelly (leave this out if you just want a plain strawberry cheesecake):

• 350g Frozen Raspberries
• 80g Granulated White Sugar
• 1 and a half teaspoons powdered Gelatin (unflavoured)
• 60ml Cold Water

Method:

To start off, put the biscuits into a sealable bag and crush them up into tiny crumbs, make sure there are no big chunks. Then cut up the strawberry jelly and dissolve it in 150 ml of boiling water, leave this to cool. Now, for the Base, melt the butter in a pan and pour in the crushed biscuits. Mix all of this together so that all of the biscuits get covered in melted butter. Put all of this into the cake tin and flatten it down evenly. You want to compact the biscuit layer as much as possible so maybe use a small pot to flatten the mix. Leave this to one side until later.

Next, we'll start on the Cheesecake filling. Put the cream cheese into a mixing bowl and beat it until its nice and smooth. Then, beat in the caster sugar. Add the milk and the dissolved and cooled jelly. Mix the liquids in but you want to try and avoid any lumps so maybe use a hand blender/mixer on a low speed. That said, you don't want too many bubbles either, so do keep it on a low speed. Finally, fold in the cream. Pour this into the cake tin, on top of the prepared crumb base. Pour slowly to avoid air bubbles! Chill in the fridge for a few hours, until completely set.




That's the cheesecake sorted, if you want to stop there. If not, wait a few hours for the cheesecake to set and then start with the Raspberry Jelly!

Put the frozen raspberries and sugar into a heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Cover the bowl with tinfoil and heat the berries for  about 40 minutes, when the berries are soft and have released their juices. Remove the bowl from the heat and pour it's contents (the berries and juice) through a fine-meshed strainer suspended over a measuring cup. This parts a bit of a pain in the ass but you need to press the berries through the strainer so that all you have left there are the seeds. You'll need 300ml of seedless raspberry juice so add a bit of water, if necessary.

In another small bowl, soften the gelatin in 60ml of cold water, let this mixture sit for about ten minutes. Heat the raspberry juice until hot, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and stir in the gelatin until it has completely dissolved, return the mixture to the heat if necessary. Let the raspberry jelly cool down and then ensure that the cheesecake is totally set. Pour the Jelly onto the cheesecake gently, moving the cake around so that the liquid doesn't burrow a little hole in the cheesecake :L 




Put the cake back into the fridge and leave it in there for as long as possible, I left it overnight and the jelly still wasn't totally set :/ It still tasted great though! You can see from the pictures that it wasn't too runny either :P Serve it up with a dollop of whipped cream or a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream and enjoy!

Soundtrack to this Recipe!:
Lloyd- Dedication To My Ex
Rizzle Kicks- Mamma Do The Hump

My "Everything But The Kitchen Sink" Pasta Mix!

Sorry about the lack of posts over the last few weeks, I was doing my mocks! :O I thought that I'd put up a recipe that was totally different from the last one, so here it is, a delicious pasta mix! Its simple I know but you can pretty much throw in whatever you can find in your kitchen and it will still taste brilliant! I ALWAYS make too much of this mix, so there's plenty left for a great lunch the following day. This is a really sweet mix so if you don't fancy that much then leave out the brown sugar. If your feeling braver, add a teaspoon or two of hot chilli powder! You can manipulate the recipe to taste whatever way you want it to. So try it out and mess around!  :)




Pasta Mix!

Ingredients:

• 1 Carrot
• 1 Onion
• Half Yellow Pepper
• Half Red Pepper
• 5 Mushrooms
• 2 sections Garlic
• 2 Handfulls Cahews
• Juice of 1 Lemon

• 3 Breasts Chicken
• 2tbsp Soy Sauce
• 2tbsp Honey
• 1tbsp Sweet Chilli sauce
• Penne for 4 people
• Chicken stock cube
• 50g soft (dark) brown sugar
• 1tsp Cumin
• 5tbsp tomato Purée

Method:


First, chop up all of the Vegetables. Cut the Carrots and Peppers into strips and dice the Onions and Mushrooms. Put everything into a bowl with the crushed garlic and Cashew nuts and pour over the lemon juice (with bits!) Mix this around lik a salad and cover over the bowl with a plate or something. Leave this to one side for now.


Fry the Chicken in the biggest pan you have with a drop of oil, the 2 tablespoons of Soy sauce, the 2 tablespoons of honey and the Sweet Chilli sauce. Once the outside of the chicken has turned white, cut it up into tiny pieces and put on the kettle for the Penne. Make sure all of the chicken gets coated in the mix of sauces. Now put the Pasta into a pot with a bit of salt and pour in the boiled water until the pasta is submerged. Bring this to the boil and let the pasta cook. Don't forget to stir it around every few minutes so that the pasta doesn't stick to the pot!


When the chicken is almost fully cooked, prepare the stock cube in half a cup of hot water and add it to the pan. Lower the heat and let the mix simmer. Stir the Dark Brown Sugar and cumin into the mix. At this point, you could produce a delicious curry if you made rice instead of pasta and also added a handfull of sultanas, a chopped up apple or two and an extra teaspoon of Cumin! 


Next, Mix in the Tomato Purée and let the mix simmer on a low heat. Now drain off the Pasta and rinse off the salt with hot water. Add the Vegetables to the mix in the pan and then stir in the pasta. Make sure everything gets covered in the sauce. Serve it up and enjoy!

Soundtrack to this recipe:
Nas- Hero Ft. Keri Hilson
Rihanna- You Da One

Birthday Cake! :D

I got the base recipe for this vanilla sponge cake from a friend about two years ago and I've used it countless times since. This is one of my favourite recipes ever because its so simple, it tastes great and you can use it for any size or shaped cake you like! Basically for this one, I took the base recipe (the sponge cake) and added  a few tablespoons of blueberry puree. Then, I used a recipe from a Donal Skehan cookbook for the Cream Cheese icing. You can leave out the blueberries to get a plain vanilla sponge cake if you want, and then cover the cake with cream, fruit or chocolate!


 It was my sister's birthday over the weekend so I thought that it would be the perfect chance to put together the first recipe for the new blog, so here it is!

Vanilla and Blueberry sponge cake with Blueberry and Cream Cheese Icing:

Ingredients:

Blueberry Puree:

• 1 punnet fresh Blueberries.

Icing:

• 225g full fat Cream Cheese at room temperature
• 375g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp Blueberry Puree

Vanilla Sponge Cake:

• 225g (8oz) Caster Sugar
• 225g (8oz) Real Butter
• 340g (12oz) Plain Flour
• 3 tsp Baking Powder
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 tsp Vanilla essence

Method:

I started off by making the icing, just to get it out of the way, but you could just do this while the cake is in the oven, if your stuck for time. First you have to do the Blueberry puree, which is a lot simpler to make that it sounds! All you have to do is pick out about five or six of your favourite looking blueberries and put them to one side for later. Then, blitz the bejesus out of the rest of the punnet with a hand blender for about a minute, until you get a nice smooth mix.

Next, we'll move on to the icing. Beat the Cream Cheese in a bowl until its nice and soft. Then, sift in the icing sugar, a little at a time, until its all incorporated. Make sure there's no lumps and you should be left with a smooth, glossy icing that's a little bit gloopy. Stir in the two tablespoons of Blueberry Puree, cover the bowl with clingfilm and put it in the fridge for later. 

If you just want to make a plain Vanilla sponge cake, you can start here and leave out the Blueberry Puree. First, preheat the oven to 220/240 degrees Celsius. Cream together the butter and sugar in a big enough mixing bowl, until it has light and fluffy texture. Then, add the flour and baking powder and stir with a knife, sharply, until the mixture looks a bit like breadcrumbs.


In a separate, smaller bowl or cup, lightly beat the four eggs and mix in the vanilla essence. 
Pour this egg mixture into the flour mix a little at a time, stirring gently until its all combined. Finally, stir in the 4 tablespoons of Blueberry puree (if necessary).

Grease a 9 or 10 inch, round baking tin with butter and then dust very lightly with flour (to prevent the cake from sticking to it) you don't want any clumps. Turn the tin upside-down to get rid of any excess flour and then pour in the mix. Put the cake into the oven and lower the temperature down to 200/180 degrees Celsius. Bake for about 30 minutes. Test with a knife to check if its done; when inserted into the centre of the cake, the knife should come out clean.

When the cake is done, take it out of the oven and let it cool completely. When its ready, spread the icing over the cake with a broad, flat knife or spoon. Throw on the extra Blueberries and your ready to go!

Enjoy! :P

Happy Birthday Joni!!! :D

Soundtrack to this Recipe!:
Snow Patrol- Just Say Yes
David Guetta- Turn Me On (ft. Nicki Minaj)

1st blog!

Right, so this is my first time writing a blog... ever. So, I'm not too sure where to start but I'd say it'd be good to let you know that this will be a cooking blog, with the odd random post about my pet budgie (Siris)! My name is Stephen Conlan and I like to think that I can cook :P


Basically I'm going to scour the Internet and any cookbooks that I can get my hands on, to give you the best and most fool-proof, tried and tested recipes that I can find. I'll also throw in a few of my own original recipes, which i plan to have a lot more of in the future. I'm seventeen now and about to do my leaving cert. My aim is to get up at least one recipe, post or link every two weeks and for all of the special occasions, but I am going to apologise in advance if they're not regular because I'm probably going to be getting pretty stressed out come June and the big exams :/


It doesn't matter how good (or bad!) you are at cooking, I can guarantee you that, with these recipes, you can go from burning a hole in your kitchen table (when trying to make popcorn!) to producing delicious, good-looking and sometimes even healthy food.


The recipes that I put up will all be easy to follow, with pictures to guide you every step of the way.

However, I do think that it's really important to note that these recipes aren't just instructions for you to follow, they're more like guidelines! The recipes are all going to work out perfectly the way they are but if you don't like a certain ingredient or you think that trying something different would be nicer, don't be afraid to mess around! 

 Let the recipe be an inspiration and you might surprise yourself!

I'll be putting up my first recipe during the week, so watch this space! (and subscribe :P)

Stephen Conlan