Chilli Con Carne Ciabatta Rolls with Melted Cheese!

Hey there everyone!

If you have been following me for a while you may know that I am a chilli con carne fanatic, I just love it!

Usually though, due to money restraints, my chilli is meatless using whole kidney beans to fill out and add bite to the meal, a travesty I’m sure!

I managed to afford some good sausages this time and fried them out of their skins to make a super seasoned, gorgeous mince!

I also added diced onion, kidney beans and believe it or not, a can of tomato soup!

I reduced it all down with a pinch of turmeric and some mild chilli powder then added the delicious mix to ciabatta and added cheese, putting it under the grill for crispy hot bread and amazing melted cheese!

Who’s coming for dinner?

Gifts From Japan Part 6! Bento Accessories & Goodies!

Hey there everyone!

Today is my last piece in my Gifts from Japan series, unless of course, I’m lucky enough to get any more sometime!

The first thing I want to show you is the beautiful note card that my friend sent me!

The envelope has 3D layered glittery Sakura Blossoms and inside, gorgeous paper!

An amazing way to send a note!

It’s so pretty, I even put this picture as my computer’s wallpaper!

I have been spying on these adorable animal soy sauce bottles for a long time but never brought them for myself!

Which one is the cutest to you? Is it possible to pick just one?

Another thing I have wanted for a long time is full size portable chopsticks!

Isn’t the box so cute?!

She also sent me some of the cutest of all Disney characters!

Stitch seems to be very popular in Japan!

This gorgeous guy is a tiny little pouch!

It can hang from a keyring and hide a few sneaky sweets or a tissue!

Next to Stitch is Angel, another of the many many experiments!

She has been made to be a book of sticky notes!

She also thoughtfully put in this pretty pink bento strap which goes really well with the pink box she also sent!!!

I’m a big cliché and like a lot of cute anime characters!

Here are some tissues she sent!
I love the drawings, they are so colourful!

Of course, in Japanese style, there are flying babies?!

I wonder if Doki Doki! Precure has English subtitles!

She also sent these really useful pieces of bento equipment!

Heart and star onigiri shapers!

Surely I’m not the only one that thinks making onigiri into hearts and stars is important? Hehe!

Hello Kitty has been growing in popularity just about everywhere!

You may not believe it but even here in England you can’t go to any shop without seeing at least one piece of Hello Kitty merchandise!

I got something more special though, as these really came from Japan!!!

They are really going to come in handy, they are hooks as you can see but they have sticky squares on the back!

Really useful for hanging up light hanging ornaments!

Next, something I had never seen before!

A silicon onigiri pouch!

This can be microwaved and frozen so it’s going to be great for an onigiri snack on the go!

Last but not least, since my friend and I met through or love of crafting, a cute little felt sewing kit!

Making felt into cute little ornaments is all the rage over in Japan and that’s just fine with me since I love sewing AND cute things!

Traditional English Bangers & Mash Recipe

Today I wanted to show you a meal traditional to England, Bangers & Mash!

Known to the rest of the world as sausages & mashed potato!

It’s rather obvious where the name for mash comes from but why are the sausages called bangers?

Well, when frying they can pop and make a rather loud bang!

This dish often gets overlooked, maybe due to it’s simplicity but it is such a delicious combination of flavours you have to try it!

In my opinion, many people that make this, or that get this from pubs or restaurants, lose out as usually the sausages are not browned enough and not often is a gloriously thick gravy served with this which are both so important for the flavour.

Make sure you use extremely good quality sausages for this since they are to be the star of your dish!

I used 98% pork sausages from my local supermarket but if you can get big juicy sausages made by your local butcher, do!

Bangers & Mash

Serves 2

 

Ingredients
6 good quality pork sausages at least 80% pork

4 medium sized potatoes

Beef gravy granules

Salt, pepper, milk & butter

Method

Preheat the oven to 220°c.

Peel, quarter and rinse potatoes making sure the potatoes are roughly the same size.

Place the sausages on a rack with a tray underneath for 15 minutes.

Place the potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with cold water.

Bring the water to a boil on a high heat then lower to a medium heat keeping a rapid boil going.

When the sausages have had their time, turn them over and cook for another 15 minutes.

When the potatoes are tender and offer no resistance when you poke then with a fork or knife, drain them.

Place them back in the saucepan, shake them a little and mash or rice with a ricer until smooth.

Add some salt and pepper to taste, then add milk and butter a tablespoon at a time until it’s thick, creamy and to your tastes.

When the sausages are done, move them to the bottom of the oven, turn the oven off and close the door until serving.

Next, dissolve beef gravy granules until a thick gravy is made.

Alternatively, reduce some beef stock adding in corn flour mixed until smooth in some boiling water until thick.

Don’t put flavoured water on your food, EWWW! Thick is delicious.

Plate up with mashed potato on the bottom, sausages lined up and gravy on top!

A traditional way to serve this to children is to make a little castle with potato in the middle of the plate, sausages sticking up in it and around the edge, gravy as the castle’s moat!

Gifts From Japan Part 5! The Pink Bento Box!

Hi there!!!

Today I want to show you a close up of another goodie I got from Japan!

Another cute bento!!! How lucky am I?

This one has two tiers as well!
It has a lid to go over each tier.
The top lid holds chopsticks which are included so one less thing to carry!

On top a see through decorative lid and a black elastic belt to hold it all together!

100% microwavable too, just make sure the lid and belt aren’t attached! ^.^

A wonderful little box! I can’t wait to use it!!!

Gifts From Japan Part 4! Food gifts!

Hello everyone!

Today, in the name of science of course, I have been digging in to some of Japan’s wonderful and strange snacks courtesy of my fab friend from Japan!

As you can see there are chocolates, sweets and crisps, all the food groups I need!!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am an avid Pokémon fan, the original 151 are my favs!
So what an amazing surprise it was to find Pokémon gummys!

From the package it looked as if there were two big gummies in the pack, as shown in the right hand corners buttttttt………

…there were lots of gummies!

Intensely orange and blackcurrant flavoured and as cute as buttons!

There was Eevee, Meowth, Pikachu and more until they all found there way into my mouth………tehe.

Then there was meiji milk chocolate!

This was a block of chocolate, with good sized blocks for snapping off and snaffling!

As far as I’ve heard from my Japan insider, Japan don’t have the best chocolate selection in the world (I’d like to think that’s here in England!) but this chocolate was rather pleasurable.

It tasted almost like a standard chocolate, the kind made by Nestle here, it was thin though so the texture was different and very nice.

It was quite harsh, almost like a dark chocolate but did have a creamy back note to smooth it out!
Yum!

Next were these little crisps!

Most of us wouldn’t have recognised these as the crisp component to this treat trove as they aren’t the usual air and crisp filled bags!

These are individual puffy maize crisp sticks!
No wonder Japan is one of the healthiest countries in the world!

These are called Umaibō or delicious stick!

I have been lucky enough to have had them before but not in these flavours!

These were from left to right, Mentai, Cheese and Corn Potage flavours!

Purple packaged Mentai flavour was probably the most originally Japanese of the three, which is why I’m rather embarrassed to say it really wasn’t my cup of tea.

Mentai is the marinated roe (fish eggs) of Pollock and Cod fish which personally I wouldn’t eat from a moral stand point but that really isn’t the reason I didn’t like this one.

It just had an overwhelming ash sort of taste.
Call me crazy but that’s what I tasted!
Slowly it turned into a fishy, spicy curry flavour, spicy mentai anyone?!

The next flavour, featuring some karaoke going on is cheese flavour!

This flavour is not unlike a giant Wotsit if you have ever tasted one, thought it has a sharper more cheesy taste to it, really delicious!

Last but not least was the corn potage flavour!
How cute is that corn in the cooking pot?!
Looks pretty happy from here!

This flavour was very strange, it was rich, buttery and creamy but then that gave way to this really amazing fresh corn taste, it was delicious but unusual to be eating actual corn flavour in a crisp!

Next, I tried these little wafer like tubes.

These say Bourbon on the package but I’m not sure if that pertains to the flavour or something else as I didn’t detect any bourbon flavours coming through.

What I did detect though was amazing!

They are crispy, though lovely and soft when bitten, softer than shortbread, as buttery as a croissant and have the wonderfully sugary edge of a Nice biscuit!

Last, but certainly not least, the star of my stomach, Almond Peak!

These are not only pretty but are absolutely delicious too!

There are some almonds peeking! Hehe.

The aroma of these are as good as the taste, these almonds taste like they have been slowly roasting for a long time, which leaves them so full of flavour but also softer than a usual almond, crumbling and yielding.

The best way to try almonds,ever.

Have a look at my other gifts from Japan posts!

Gifts From Japan Part 3! Orange Bento Box!

Hey there everyone!

Today we have another piece in my most viewed saga! Gifts from Japan!

Saturday was my 21st birthday and I was lucky enough to get some wonderful gifts!
An amazing friend of mine, sent a shoebox of dreams from Japan! ^.^

This is what she sent, yes, all this in one shoebox, she is a genius!

There is so much and all of it wonderful but I won’t identify everything right away!

Today I will just be focusing on one of the bento boxes!!

How cute is this little box?
It’s flying the Pepper Bento flag in these colours!

It’s a great size, really not as small as it may appear!

It has an adorable little fork and doesn’t waste any room!

Both tiers get clipped together with the lid securely, it’s a good size for all kinds of food, it has a super cute fork that clips nicely into the top lid and it’s microwavable without the lid, I love it!!!

I can’t wait to get cooking!
Have a look at parts 1 & 2!!

Sri Lankan Mild Potato Curry Recipe!

Hey there everyone!

I was recommended this recipe by a wonderful friend, native to Sri Lanka!

Who would  know better what the best recipes for an authentic dish are?!

This is the most amazing way to use left over boiled potatoes but it is also so delicious it is worth cooking them from scratch!

Mild potato curry
Serves 2
Ingredients

300g boiled potato chunks (3 potatoes aprox)
½ onion, diced
2 red chilies, deseeded & diced
8 small curry leaves
½ teaspoon fenugreek
450 ml coconut milk (Half a block of creamed coconut dissolved in 450 ml warm water can be used)
¼ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon mild curry powder
¼ teaspoon Salt

Method

Measure and place all ingredients but the potato into a sauce pan and mix well.

Place your pan on to a medium heat and stir continuly until it starts to come to a boil.

When you see the bubbles rising, add the boiled potato chunks and cook until the sauce is thick and the potatoes are to your liking.

Optionally you can now either leave in or fish out the curry leaves.

Serve with rice, naan or anything else  you fancy and add a few fresh curry leaves for decoration.

Pepper’s Mystery Bento Revealed!

Hi there guys!

Last week I showed a mystery bento and today I shall reveal it’s secrets!

If you remember, I entered my mystery bento into the Bento & co pasta competition.

Sadly, I didn’t get into the last 20 contestants but hey!

I still think it’s good!

On the left, I made a tricoloured Trottole pasta salad with avocado, tomato, onion and parsley.

On the right, what was to be my wow factor, some hand baked pasta shaped pizza breads.

I glazed them with olive oil for the finishing touch!

Pep’s Cheesy Pizza Bite Cone Recipe!

Hi there everyone!

Spring has officially sprung here in England!

The sun is shining, kids are laughing and playing outside and daffodils are peeking out of grass all over the place!

That means, my place is a rather luxurious looking sauna room!!!

Now, I don’t know about you but when the heat is like this, the last thing I want to do is sit down to a hot steak with potatoes and gravy, as gorgeous as that sounds!

I need munchies that can be prepared quickly without too much time spent over a hot stove!

This is where my cheesy pizza bite cones come in!

I tell you, my hubby was as happy as can be digging into these cheesy treats!

Cheesy pizza bite cones
Makes 2 cones
Ingredients

Uncooked pizza dough

2 slices of cheddar cheese, about 3 or 4mm thick

1 tablespoon olive oil

Special equipment
Baking paper/wax paper

Method

Preheat the oven to 220°c.

With the pizza dough made and ready, roll into a long cylinder about an inch in height on a floured surface.

Use a pair of kitchen scissors or a sharp knife to cut inch length pieces from the cylinder and place them on a baking tray with room to expand.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden and brown.

These are delicious as they are but this next trick makes them a touch more special.

Preheat a frying pan until hot and add in the bites, about 10 per person (or per slice of cheese!), drizzle the oil over the top and mix well.

Push the bites to one side of the pan and add the slices of cheese.

Once they are just melted and liquidy, fold the cheese in over the bites and keep going until you have a golden, cheesy encrustment!

Drain your pieces on a rack while we make some cones!

Cut out two large squares, fold them corner to corner so you have created a triangle, roll it diagonally so the bottom becomes tight and small and the top becomes flared and open.

Pour in your bites and tuck in!

For a more adult, dinner party edge, snip fresh chives in to the cheese while frying and present in a lined basket at the dinner table with a sour cream dip on the side.