STEAK & PARMESAN ROAST POTATOES...

This is maybe my 10th Steak & Potatoes recipe, there's no prize for guessing that i love meat and potatoes! Well, no need for any fancy intro, lets just get into it...

5 Large Potatoes (Cut Into Halves or Quarters)

1/2 Cup of Olive Oil

1/2 Onion (Sliced)

1/2 Cup Button Mushrooms (Sliced)

250ml Alfredo Sauce

2 Lean Cut Flank Steaks

1/2 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

Chopped Green Onions and Parsley

Garlic Powder 

Salt & Black Pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Season steak simply with salt and pepper and set aside.

Wash and cut potatoes and drain. In a bowl add half your portion of oil, salt, pepper and garlic and toss potatoes into it.

Arrange on the wire rack of your oven, cut side up, placed in the center. Placing it directly on the rack instead of on a pan allows for even distribution of heat to give you crisp potatoes all the way round. Allow to cook for 35 minutes.

Keep a pan under your potatoes to catch any oil drippings and don't forget that food shrinks as it cooks so don't cut your potatoes too small or they will fall right through the rack after a few minutes of cook time.

Carefully remove potatoes and transfer back into the bowl with whatever remaining oil may be in it. If you have no oil left, add maybe an additional teaspoon. Taste a little bit of your potatoes for seasoning. Pour in cheese and toss around.

Transfer back to the oven and allow to cook for an additional 10-15 minutes, the parmesan cheese flavour will permeate the potatoes and form a light brown crust over it.

While your potatoes finish up in the oven, pour your remaining oil in the pan and add your steak. Now i must state that for thin cut steaks like this, during the cooking process, it tends to balloon up. To avoid this, snip into the steak with a pair of kitchen scissors or a sharp knife maybe about 1/2 an inch deep around the circumference. Lol, obviously i was a bit overzealous and quite hungry and ended up butchering my meat... womp womp...

Cook on each side for 1 - 2 minutes on medium to high heat and transfer steak to plate.

Turn the heat down and add your onions and allow to cook down, add mushrooms and stir fry for 2 - 3 minutes.

Add Alfredo Sauce and taste for seasoning. If your sauce is too thick, you can add a little water or chicken broth to loosen it up a bit.

Serve with a light salad and garnish with chopped green (spring) onions and chopped parsley.

I had to tap out after this one, in a great way!
:)

SIMPLE CHICKEN CURRY...

Curry has received a bad flack from a lot of people. We eat food from all over the world and not everything will agree with our palate, i believe in making food work for me. Don't be scared to cook any recipe, just taste as you go along and tweak it to suit you.

You can make curry from scratch if you please but some might find this a bit too technical because it has to do with developing a lot of flavours and searching out a lot of traditional spices so just feel free to buy curry paste with a heat level that works for you and lets get to cooking. For this recipe i used Sharwood's Red Curry Paste.

250 Grms Boneless Chicken Breasts

Sharwood's Red Curry Paste

2 Cups Coconut Milk

1 Spring (Green) Onion, Chopped

1/2 Medium Onion, Chopped

1/2 Teaspoon Cumin

Garlic Powder

1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil

1 Teaspoon Grated Ginger

Juice from 1/2 a Lemon (or 1 lime if you want a bolder flavour)

1 Tablespoon Chopped Cilantro

Red Pepper Flakes

2 Seasoning Cubes

Salt

Cut chicken breasts up and season with salt, chili, ginger, garlic, 1 seasoning cube and lemon juice. Mix and refrigerate.

Pour oil to the pan on high heat, add cumin and onions, fry until soft. Add the chicken and stir fry until brown on the outside but not all the way cooked.

Pour in curry paste and coconut milk and bring to a simmer. As soon as it starts to bubble, add chopped spring (green) onions and turn down the heat.

Season to taste and add chili flakes.

Allow to continue to simmer till you get your desired consistency, add chopped cilantro and leave for another 30 seconds to 1 minute for the flavour to infuse and serve on a bed of basmati rice.

FRIED RICE...

Since my last post was a Party Jollof Rice post, i figured i'd follow it with a party fried rice post, you can never go to a proper Nigerian party and find one without the other...

3 Cups of "Regular" Rice

6 Chicken Drumsticks

1 Large Chopped Onion

Chopped Carrots, Green & Red Bell Peppers.

Green Peas and Sweet Corn

1 Teaspoon Oriental/Chinese 5 Spice

Curry, Thyme, Garlic & Ginger Powder, Chili Flakes

1 Cup of Shrimps (Peeled & De-veined)

Chopped Cooked Liver (Optional)

2 Cups of Vegetable Oil

3 Seasoning Cubes

Salt and Pepper

Season chicken at least 1 hour prior to cooking time with salt, pepper, curry, thyme, ginger and half your portion of onions. Refrigerate covered.

Cook you chicken with enough water to just about cover it for 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove your chicken from the stock and set aside.

Pour oil into a pan and fry your chicken for about 2 minutes on each side, not manipulating it too much so that it doesn't start to break apart. This will seal up the moisture in the chicken without deep frying it as well as infuse flavour into the oil.

Allow the oil to cool then strain it.

Wash your rice and drain properly.

In a dry pot/pan, add a quarter cup of vegetable oil and as soon as it gets hot add your rice to it and stir for about 30 - 45 seconds, till your rice is properly coated but not turning brown.

Add Chicken stock and allow to cook on medium heat uncovered. As soon as you start cooking the rice please do not stir or move it about, just leave it be. You can use a fork to taste for flavour and see if its properly cooked and if need be add a little water or chicken stock at a time. When the rice is al dente (3/4 cooked) and the stock was been fully absored, take it off the heat.

This next step is going to be pretty fast as everything left needs just 2 - 3 minutes to cook so have all your chopped vegetables or additional meats ready.

Add whatever oil you have left to another pot/pan and fry your shrimps (and chopped liver) for a minute, add remaining chopped onion first and stir then follow with all other vegetables. Season with as needed with seasoning cube, all other spices and it is here that you add your Chinese 5 Spice. There's a reason why i specified the quantity to use for this spice, it isn't one that we find in our everyday recipes so a lot of people may not be familiar with it. You want to use it sparingly because if you add to much it will overpower the food and it will be difficult to rectify. Using this spice, however, is well worth it and brings a nice earthy and even almost sweet flavour to the food.

Almost immediately after, turn your heat down low and gently add your rice to the shrimps and vegetables a little at a time, mixing as you go along until you have transferred all of your rice. If your rice is still a little hard, leave the heat low and just cover the pot for 5 to 10 minutes.

Serve with a light vegetable salad and enjoy!