Thyme and Start Anise Potted Prawn

Wow. Ticks all of the boxes - simple, cheap, quick, stupidly tasty. Some chilli would have been good too.

200 gms cooked prawn, peeled

200 gms unsalted butter
1 clove garlic sliced
2 pieces lemon rind
Small handful of thyme leaves
2 star anise
1/2 tbs mayonnaise
Rind of 1/2 a lemon
1 spring onion minced finely
Salt and pepper
1 baguette thinly sliced
Extra virgin olive oil


Melt the butter over a low heat and throw in the garlic, star anise, lemon rind and thyme. Infuse for 10 or 15 minutes but don't allow to colour. While the happens, mince the prawn with a knife then combine with the remaining ingredients, then spoon into a ramekin. When the butter is ready carefully pour half into the ramekin and gently fold through with a teaspoon. Squish the prawn down flat lightly. Place some of the thyme on top and then 1 star anise before pouring in the remaining butter. If necessary squish down the star anise to submerge. Refrigerate to solidify. Take out of the fridge 10 minutes before you wish to use it. To serve drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over the baguette slices and grill on one side until crunchy. Tuck in.

Honey Chicken Souffle

Nom nom nom.
There are a couple of processes here but they are simple and the result is good. I essentially made a double batch of Cheese Souffle with Crab and Prosciutto but stuck sausage meat in it. These were helped by the fact that the butcher over the road, does awesome everything - particularly sausages. Hooray! Happy kids!



8 eggs, separated
1 small onion in small dice
2 cloves garlic minced
100 gms butter
6 tbs flour
2 cups milk
4 tbs parmesan
1 tbs blue cheese
3 tbs Tasty or other grated cheese
3 honey chicken sausages


Preheat an oven to 180C. Grease 8 ramekins with a little of the butter. Remove the skins from the sausages and fry the minced met in a frying pan, breaking them up as finely as you can as you go. Beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Make a white sauce by sautéing the onion and garlic with the remaining butter over a medium low heat until translucent. Strain the butter through a fine sieve to remove the onions then return the butter to the pan, discard the onion. Add the flour to the butter and cook, stirring for 4 or 5 minutes. Pour in the milk. Continue cooking until it thickens like thickened cream. Stir the white sauce and cheese together until the cheese melts then mix through the egg yolks and chicken. Semi-carefully stir through half of the egg white. Carefully stir though the remaining egg white then spoon into the ramekins until 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden on top.
Served with a salad.

Mushroom and Bacon Soup with Poached Egg

Hmmmmmm, breakfast in soup format. Except I ate it for dinner... I have been meaning to poach an egg in soup for a while to see if it would work. It kind of does - if you use a microwave after adding it to a bowl. Is it necessary? No but it does taste very good. When I next decide to poach an egg in some soup I will do it separately as the soup was too hot. I used 3 rashers of bacon here but as I used so much mushroom, it was a little hidden. If you try this, use 5 or 6 instead. Seriously worth trying.

1 big bag of mushrooms chopped
1 handful porcini mushrooms (optional)
1 1/2 onions diced
2 cloves garlic chopped
3 rashers bacon chopped
1/2 sprig rosemary stripped
1 L chicken stock
1 L water
1 cup white wine
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 big knob of butter
Salt and pepper
Croutons
Chives
Natural yoghurt
Porcini oil (optional)
1 poached egg per person

Heat the butter over a medium high heat until bubbling, add in the extra virgin. Cook the onion until soft. Throw in the nearly all of the bacon and rosemary and fry until it has some nice colour. Add in the garlic until fragrant then throw in all of the mushroom and porcini mushrooms along with some salt and pepper. Cook down until almost all of the liquid has evaporated (about 15 minutes) keeping an eye on it and stirring occasionally. Deglaze with the white wine and cook until it has all absorbed. Pour in the stock and as much water as you require, bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Check for seasoning, blitz with a stick blender and turn off the heat.
Heat some more oil, fry the remaining bacon and remove. In the same pan toast your croutons with some more rosemary.
Poach the eggs.
Spoon into bowls, add a dollop of yoghurt, a poached egg, top with some croutons and bacon, sprinkle with chives and drizzle with porcini oil.