Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Rachel Khoo’s Cauliflower Cheese Burger and Sticky Red Onion Chutney

11th January 2017wheelie38 Leave a comment

So we’re all feeling a little sluggish after Christmas, we’ve eaten and drank our body weight throughout the festivities and we need recharging…. Plus there’s probably a load of leftovers! No, well it doesn’t matter because this recipe is great made from leftovers or fresh. I’ve wanted to post this on the blog for some time now but haven’t got round to it. I’ve literally cooked this recipe so many times, it’s quick and easy and guaranteed not to let you down. As you know I’m a new lover of the wonderful meaty vegetable that is Cauliflower so this is right up my street.

Ingredients for my Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Cauliflower Cheese Burger and Sticky Red Onion Chutney

The ingredients are fairly simple:

For the Burger:

1 Cauliflower boiled
Cheddar Cheese
Breadcrumbs (generally blitz up slightly older bread, saves it being thrown out)
Whole Grain Mustard
Mixed herbs
Flour
Olive Oil for frying
Salt and Pepper
Cheese to top the burger

For the Red Onion Chutney

One red onion
Red wine vinegar
Brown sugar
Olive Oil for frying
Salt and Pepper

First things first as they say, chop up the red onion, you’re going to cook it quite low and slow so don’t dice it. We’re going to make the chutney first so we can set that aside for later.

Preparing the onions for my Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Cauliflower Cheese Burger and Sticky Red Onion Chutney

Heat some oil in a pan, when the pan has started to warm add the onions and sauté slowly on a low heat.

Lightly frying the onions for my Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Cauliflower Cheese Burger and Sticky Red Onion Chutney

Firstly, as always prep all your ingredients, as I always say it works for me to set them aside in small containers ready for putting in the pan… I’m not organised often but I try to be in the kitchen.

Adding the sugar to my onions for my Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Cauliflower Cheese Burger and Sticky Red Onion Chutney

When the onions have softened add a table spoon or so of brown sugar. Basically you’re adding enough to make the onions sticky, stir in the sugar and continue to cook on a low heat.

Adding the red wine vinegar to my onions for my Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Cauliflower Cheese Burger and Sticky Red Onion Chutney

Add two table spoons of red wine vinegar and allow the onions to continue to cook on a low heat until they become sticky, gooey and unctuous.

The Sticky Red Onion Chutney to accompany my Cauliflower Cheese Burger for my Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Cauliflower Cheese Burger and Sticky Red Onion Chutney

When it’s become sticky and luscious set it aside to accompany the burgers later on.

Preparing the cauliflower for my Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Cauliflower Cheese Burger and Sticky Red Onion Chutney

Break the cauliflower up in to florets and, you’re going to blitz them in a food processor so don’t go too mad about it.

Whizzing up the cauliflower for my Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Cauliflower Cheese Burger and Sticky Red Onion Chutney

Blitz up in the food processor, you’re basically making minced cauliflower, place the mince in a bowl.

Adding dry herbs and mustard to the cauliflower for my Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Cauliflower Cheese Burger and Sticky Red Onion Chutney

Place the cauliflower in a bowl, then add add two heaped teaspoons of mixed dry herbs and then add 1 tsp of mustard, you can use Dijon mustard or English mustard but personally Wholegrain is my favourite.

Adding breadcrumbs and flower to the cauliflower for my Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Cauliflower Cheese Burger and Sticky Red Onion Chutney

The next stage you need to grate/blitz up cheese and add to the cauliflower mixture, add as much cheese as you like, it’s all going in the burger. To the cheese add the bread crumbs, dry breadcrumbs are better (bread from older bread) but you can buy crispy panko bread crumbs. Lastly add enough flour to hold all the ingredients together. Mix thoroughly to bring the burgers together. Shape the burgers into equal sized patties and place in the fridge to allow them to set.

Frying the burgers for my Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Cauliflower Cheese Burger and Sticky Red Onion Chutney

Take the burgers out of the fridge and fry on a medium high heat, when the burgers are starting to brown on the bottom side turn them over.

Finishing off the burgers for my Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Cauliflower Cheese Burger and Sticky Red Onion Chutney

Allow to cook on the other side until that is golden brown.

Adding cheese to the burgers for my Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Cauliflower Cheese Burger and Sticky Red Onion Chutney

I would have put a square of cheese on the burger at this point but I didn’t have any, and I didn’t have any time to cut nice slices of cheese…. So I put a couple of lumps on each burger 😆

Adding cheese to the burgers for my Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Cauliflower Cheese Burger and Sticky Red Onion Chutney

I thoroughly enjoyed this recipe, it’s quick and easy to make and great for a post Christmas meat free meal.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Cauliflower Cheese Burger and Sticky Red Onion Chutney

If you’ve enjoyed this you can find cauliflower recipes by clicking on the image below.

See more recipes including cauliflower

I’m back on the weekend with a restaurant review and then Tuesday with something Time-Saving. Keep your eyes peeled for my recipes on a budget, they’ll be coming soon!

Lots of changes going on in my life, very busy at the moment but I’m back to blogging and want to hear from you, if you have any money saving ideas in the kitchen please feel free to get in touch.

Before I end this post I’d like to say big congratulations to my niece Alice who has started on a new chapter of her life this week with a new job over the border. I’ve very proud of her and to have had her volunteering with Accessible News for the last few years has been a pleasure.

Alice and I

Take care and see you on the weekend!

Quorn Keema Masala

8th January 2017wheelie38 Leave a comment

Heeeelllooo! Welcome back, happy New Year to you all, I hope you all had a good one, this is my first recipe back for a long while. As you know I am a massive fan of the Indian curry Keema Masala, you’ll probably remember my review of Asda’s Keema Masala in a tin from July 2015. It’s one of my favourite meals I’ve reviewed, alas Asda in their wisdom don’t make it anymore but I’ve decided to give it a go.

Ingredients for my Quorn Keema Masala

You’ll notice from the snazzy picture above that Quorn is the main feature of this recipe, that’s because I was cooking it for the lovely Gemma, while she’s not a vegetarian she prefers it to mince. I was thinking that as I have two vegetarian friends it was a good opportunity to try using it. Keema is, as far as I can tell traditional done with Lamb and comes from the Hyderabad area of Indian and is usually made with Lamb Mince. I’ve based this recipe on a recipe I saw on Titli’s Busy Kitchen, Titli’s website is amazing and a hughe source of inspiration for me, make sure you check her out. I’ve made this twice now and I think the best result is when you use, as she suggests Garlic and Ginger paste, not lazy Garlic and Ginger like I did here.

The Ingredients:

Salt and Pepper
Oil for frying
500ml beef stock
2 Onions
2 Carrots
3 Potatoes
½tsp of Chilli flakes
1tsp of Turmeric
2tsp Ground Corriander
1tsp Lazy Ginger
1tsp of Lazy Garlic
2 x Tins of chopped Tomatoes
1 x 450g pack of Quorn Mince
½ Cup of frozen peas and a bunch of fresh Coriander (not pictured)

As with all the spices, you can add as much or as little as you want, when I made the recipe for the second time I didn’t use fresh coriander, but I did the first time, if I’m honest I’m not a fresh coriander fan but I think it added to the dish.

Preparing the ingredients for my Quorn Keema Masala

Now comes the fun part, peel and quarter the two onions, set aside, then peel the three potatoes… I like this recipe so much I even peeled all the vegetables on my own lol. Cut the potatoes into cubes and place in water for later on, then peel the two carrots.

Preparing the carrots and onions for my Quorn Keema Masala

Place the quarters of onions in a food processor and blitz, you don’t want a pulp but you do want them to be finely chopped. Then add the grater attachment if you’ve got one and grate the two carrots, if you haven’t you can grate them by hand or finely chop them but try and keep them the same size as the onion. If you do have a grater attachment press down on the carrots for a finer grate.

Quorn Keema Masala Spice Mix

Once you’ve done that you can leave them in the food processor bowl for now, then place the spice mix on the plate – apologies for the photograph it’s shocking, I wasn’t drunk your honour! The spice mix is:

½ teaspoon of Chilli flakes,
1 teaspoon of Turmeric
2 teaspoons of Ground Coriander (you can grind your own if you have a spice grinder or a pestle and mortar)
1 teaspoon of salt

Again as I said earlier, you can add to this or take away, some recipes use Garam Masala, I think I may try that next time as it adds a depth that you only get from a blend of spices.

The Quorn before anything is added to make my Quorn Keema Masala

Place the mince in a bowl, this is where the flavour begins

Adding the spice mix and the garlic and ginger to the Quorn for my Quorn Keema Masala

To the mince add all the spices and a teaspoon of lazy garlic and ginger. If you’re using a garlic and ginger paste add two teaspoons of it. Mix thoroughly, my one regret now is not cutting the ginger smaller, you can see it looks like bits of wood in the rubble that is the Quorn Mince.

Frying my carrots and onions for my Quorn Keema Masala

Heat a pan, once it’s come to temperature place the onion and carrot in and stir for a few minutes.

Adding the Quron mix to the pan for my Quorn Keema Masala

Add the Quorn mince and stir thoroughly cook for two minutes on a high heat.

Adding the peas to the Quorn Keema Masala

Next add the frozen peas and stir thoroughly to combine, cook for a fture two minutes on a high heat.

Adding the potatoes to the Quorn Keema Masala

Next add the potatoes and stir them through thoroughly to combine, I microwaved the potatoes for about ten minutes in boiling water so that they were slightly softer as they were hard the first time I cooked this recipe, and let’s be fair no one likes a hard spud.

Adding the tomatoes and stock to the Quorn Keema Masala

To the potatoes add two tins of tomatoes and stir thoroughly, then pour some boiling water in one of the tins, break up a stock cube and stir so it starts to dissolve. Pour the stock into the other tin of tomatoes picking up all the tomatoey goodness.

The Quorn Keema Masala ready to thicken

When you’ve added all the ingredients, give it a stir to allow all the ingredients to come together. Then place the lid on it and cook for 20-25 minutes on a low heat.

Cooking the Quorn Keema Masala on a low heat

Check on a regular basis, stirring occasionally keeping an eye to make sure that everything is not sticking and also that the potatoes are cooked.

Quorn Keema Masala after it had thickened

The aim is for it to thicken, this is how it was the first time I made it, it’s thicker and not so saucy. I personally like a saucier curry so the second time I didn’t let it thicken so much.

An option to add Coriander to the Quorn Keema Masala

I’m not a big lover of coriander but when I made it the first time Take the ramekins off the baking tray and place on a plate; this recipe is ideal to be served as a quick and easy, yet luxury breakfast over the bank holiday, or as a simple supper.

Quorn Keema Masala is an ideal recipe to cook for work

I’ve cooked this twice, both times I took it to work the next day, the other pot in the first photograph is my Spiced Butternut Squash Soup, which I also took in to work. I think it’s fair to say that Gemma enjoyed the curry, I was really chuffed her daughter tried it and liked it too… winner winner!

Quorn Keema Masala, boiled rice and poppadoms

We served it with packet boiled rice and some poppadoms, I can honestly say it was really enjoyable. It could have used some more heat maybe, but I’m not a fan of stupidly hot food as you know. This is a dish I order a lot from my local Indian takeaway, only theirs is made with lamb and it’s much hotter than mine was.

Quorn Keema Masala, boiled rice, poppadoms, pakoras and mango chutney for Gemma and I

Gemma picked up some Pakoras and some Mango Chutney from our local supermarket and they were a great accompaniment to this dish.

Quorn Keema Masala, boiled rice, poppadoms, pakoras and mango chutney

I thoroughly enjoyed this, I’d make it with lamb next time, or would I, to be honest it was great made from Quorn. It was easy to make and didn’t involve much fuss, especially if you use the good old food processor. I’ve used Quorn once or twice but wasn’t completely convinced but it works here and I’d definitely use it again. I’m a big fan of Titli, check her website out, her recipes are great and her videos, well they’re amazing! Thanks to Kirsty for her help cooking it, and to Gemma for her taste testing… thanks to both for their photography skills,

Remember to get in touch, I’d love to hear from you, don’t forget to come back on Wednesday for a great Waste Not Want Not recipe and then we’ll have a restaurant review on the weekend.

See you Wednesday

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce

10th June 2016wheelie38 Leave a comment

So on my low carb diet I’ve started eating lots more fish, you know I have always eaten fish but I’m finding it easier cooking creatively with fish than I am with meat… why, who knows 😆

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – Ingredients

You’ll notice the ingredients are basic, I’ve got tinned tomatoes, garlic, olives, capers, ginger and tomato purée to accompany the salmon. I also used dried oregano in this sauce which isn’t seen in the picture. The equipment is straightforward, knife, wooden spoon, frying pan and a wok.

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – Putting the oil in the wok

Firstly spray some oil in the wok and heat it, I’ve used the light spray. I’m not overly convinced by it but I’m prepared to give it a go.

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – Chopping the onions in half moons

Chop the onion into half moon shapes, try and keep them thin so they’ll cook quicker.

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – Fry the onions until they soften

Fry the onions until they start to soften, don’t stir them too much, keeping them moving will mean they’ll take longer to cook.

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – Add the garlic and stir thoroughly

After a few minutes add the ginger, I’d use a small knob of ginger if you’re using fresh or a few strands of the lazy ginger. Again stir them through and allow them flavours to get to know each other. I’ve started chopping the strands of lazy ginger up now, but for this recipe I forgot lol.

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – Add the tomato purée and stir to mix all the flavours together

Add the Tomato Purée and stir through, you should give this time to cook through, here’s an interesting article on cooking with Tomato Purée

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – Add a tin of tomatoes and some water

Next add a tin of chopped tomatoes, and then add 200ml of water to the can of tomatoes and swish it about, picking up any tomatoes left behind, then pour that in to the pan. Stir thoroughly so all the ingredients have combined, allow that to cook through for five minutes.

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – Stir the tomatoes through so all the flavours come together

Turn the heat down and let it sit on its own, stirring occasionally to allow it to thicken.

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – Take some olives and capers and wash them

Take out a handful of olives and a teaspoon of capers, rinse them and set them aside.

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – Add the olives and capers to the sauce

Add the olives, capers and a couple of teaspoons of Oregano/Basil to the sauce and stir thoroughly, you’ll notice I’ve changed pans above. I’ve kept the olives whole, but you can chop them up if you’d prefer.

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – Sprinkle the Cajun Powder over the salmon

Sprinkle the Cajun powder on the salmon steaks. Cajun seasoning is one of my favourite seasonings, I really like the deep spicy taste, its warming and comforting and I try and use it in many dishes.

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – Season the salmon with salt and pepper and spray oil over them

Season the fish with salt and pepper and spray with oil, put the oil on the fish not in the pan because it smokes less.

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – Place the fish in a boiling hot pan

Make sure the pan is very hot, then add the fish, don’t play with them, just leave them cook.

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – Cook the fish skinned side down

Cook the salmon for a few minutes, don’t overcook fish you can see the fish cooking as the colour changes. Cook for the majority on the back and then turn over for the last part, you’ll know when the fish is cooked because it’ll come away the pan.

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – Turn the fish over and cook further

Turn over when you’re happy with how cooked the salmon is and cook for the last part on the other side, no more than a couple of minutes on a high heat.

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – Put the sauce on the plate

Spoon the sauce on to the plate, the sauce freezes quite well and can be used to accompany rice, pasta or mashed potatoes without the salmon.

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – When cooked, peel off the skin

When the fish is cooked, peel the skin off, you can eat the skin, my mother likes it, but I’m not so keen.

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – Put the salmon on the sauce

Serve the salmon on top of the sauce, if you are eating carbs you can have something like rice with this but I had it as it was.

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce – The Salmon works lovely with the sauce

I really enjoyed making this and even more so eating it 😆 the sauce was deep and flavourful and the spice of the salmon was just right. I liked the addition of the olives and the capers, they gave the sauce a different dimension.As I said earlier I really enjoyed this, it was deep and flavoursome with a mild level of spice, you can ramp up the spice if you want to, that’s totally up to you. If you enjoy Salmon you could also try one of 2015’s Strictly Suppers recipes, it was the first in the series, Salsa Steamed Salmon. If you’re not on a carb ban you could try my Quickstep Leftover Fishcakes or if you’re looking for something more substantial than the fishcakes you can try my Quick and easy mid week pan fried salmon with Ainsley Harriet’s Creamy, you can find the recipe here.Well that’s three posts this week… I know I’m making up for lost time but it’s all good! Hope you have a good weekend, Greg my mother and I are off to Caradog’s tonight, looking forward to that a lot. As always you can get in touch on social media, I’m hopefully going to be working on my youtube channel soon and going to try and work on some videos, as soon as we have one ready you’ll be the first to know.

Take care, enjoy the weekend!

Rich

Time-Saving Tuesday – Weight Watchers Hunters Chicken with Brown and Wild Rice

7th June 2016wheelie38 Leave a comment

Time-Saving Tuesday – Weight Watchers Hunters Chicken with Brown and Wild Rice in its packaging

Don’t all shout at me, I know I’ve said I don’t eat rice these days but this review was written some time ago but never published. This is Hunters Chicken and from the Weight Watchers range, a range in which we’ve already seen us review the impressive Salmon and Broccoli Wedge Melt and the less so impressive Thai Green Chicken Curry.

Time-Saving Tuesday – Weight Watchers Hunters Chicken with Brown and Wild Rice – Ingredients and Nutritional Information

You can see the ingredients and nutritional information above, you’ll notice there was 352Kcal (calories per pack) of which 4.2g were fat. As I’m now on a low carb diet… I wouldn’t be eating this because of the rice, it’s a whopping 57g of Carbohydrates which is about more than I plan to eat in a three days. The ingredient list is awesome, because it almost tells you how to make BBQ Sauce. Hunter’s Chicken is chicken in a BBQ Sauce, it can be topped with cheese and is often found on gastro pub menus.

Time-Saving Tuesday – Weight Watchers Hunters Chicken with Brown and Wild Rice – Cooking Instructions

The cooking instructions are easy to follow and include instructions for microwaves which are 750W and 850W. The printing is clear to understand and spread out fairly well. The packaging was very clear all round and in my opinion was not too difficult to read.

Time-Saving Tuesday – Weight Watchers Hunters Chicken with Brown and Wild Rice ready to eat

If this dish hadn’t had the rice to accompany it I would have really enjoyed it, The Hunters Chicken element was really lovely, chunks of chicken which were succulent and a rich BBQ sauce made for a really enjoyable meal… then there was the rice! I’m writing this fresh today but I’m going off my notes at the time, the grains of rice was like bullets, I don’t think it was the way the dish cooked because everything else was really nice. Apart from the rice I’d buy this again, but as it comes with the rice I’m only scoring it a 6 out of ten.

I’m back later in the week with a recipe, and then it’s Party time on Friday as we get the band back together so to speak. Greg my mother and I are off to Caradog’s for my mother’s birthday meal… bring on the fun and food! Remember you can join us on social media and share with us your thoughts, recipes, and more.

Hope you’re all having a good week so far and not suffering in the heat too much!

See you at the end of the week with a great recipe.

Time-Saving Tuesdays & 6 Nations of Food – Scottish Mussels in a Garlic and Butter Sauce

29th March 2016wheelie38 Leave a comment

It’s been a while since I last posted a Time-Saving Tuesdays review so I thought why not introduce it to the 6 Nations of Food feature, I know this is a slight deviation off track but bear with me as it’ll all make sense soon. I’m going to review something that my mother and I ate on Easter Weekend.

Time-Saving Tuesdays & 6 Nations of Food – Scottish Mussels in a Garlic and Butter Sauce

I love mussels, I’ve cooked them a few times and they’re fairly easy to cook, my mother bought this for me from Lidl. I hadn’t had them for years and was quite looking forward to them.

Scottish Mussels in a Garlic and Butter Sauce – Cooking instructions

The cooking instructions were clear and easy to follow and these mussels can be cooked in the microwave, boiled in the bag or in the hob. The guidelines are easy for all these cooking methods.

Scottish Mussels in a Garlic and Butter Sauce – Ingredients

I would have said that the muscle liquor tasted very winey, however, there was no wine in it. I don’t know what the predominant flavour was but the sauce was excellent. With hints of garlic and little flecks of carrots and tomatoes running through the sauce it really set the mussels off well.

Scottish Mussels in a Garlic and Butter Sauce – Nutritional information

I probably didn’t eat 100g of them because I had other things to eat as well and my mother was sharing them with me, but there were 4.6g of Carbohydrates in 100g. I suppose had I not been on my low carb diet I wouldn’t have even noticed.

Scottish Mussels in a Garlic and Butter Sauce – Nutritional information from the front of the package

Here is the nutritional information from the front of the pack, while the sugar levels are good the fat, saturated fat are not brilliant and there’s a lot of salt for half a pack. My mother and I are nightmares though we love salt, so this suited us.

Scottish Mussels in a Garlic and Butter Sauce – Ready to eat

The sauce was stunning as I’ve said, if I’d been eating bread I could have just had a bowl full of the sauce and dunked some bread in to it. Some of the mussels were a bit chewy and some were quite small, but those aside the rest were excellent, sweet and plump. This is a great way to try mussels if you don’t feel confident in cooking them yourself. They were quick and easy to cook, whichever way you chose to cook them, I say congratulations Lidl, these were a triumph.

Time-Saving Tuesdays & 6 Nations of Food – Scottish Mussels in a Garlic and Butter Sauce

My next recipe, and final instalment of the Six Nations of Food will be towards the end of the week and it will be Mags Welsh Cakes…. I’ll let you guess what country that comes from lol. I know I said I’d do Scotch pancakes but I couldn’t resist reviewing these Mussels.

Remember, you can get in touch; you can visit our social media pages below, or subscribe to the blog for regular updates.

Bye for now!

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Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Rachel Khoo’s Cauliflower Cheese Burger and Sticky Red Onion Chutney

Quorn Keema Masala

Cajun Salmon on a Mediterranean Sauce

Time-Saving Tuesday – Weight Watchers Hunters Chicken with Brown and Wild Rice

Time-Saving Tuesdays & 6 Nations of Food – Scottish Mussels in a Garlic and Butter Sauce