Recipe: Avo toast

Avocado toast with seeds

This is one of my favourite snacks, it is so quick to make and healthy.

Ingredients: (serves 1)

- 1 piece of brown seeded bread

- 1 avocado

- Half a lemon

- 1 small piece of ginger

- A handful of mixed seeds

- Balsamic glaze

- Chillies, chopped (optional)

- Chilly flakes (optional)

Method:
 1) Lightly toast the bread in the toaster.
2) Cut the avocado in half and scoop out the inside. Mash with a fork, until the consistency that you like.

3) Squeeze some of the lemon into the avocado.

4) Grate some ginger into the avocado.

5) Season with salt and pepper and mix together.

6) Spread the avocado onto the toast.

7) Add the balsamic glaze, seeds and chilli on top.

Recipe: Asian Sea bass

Ginger & spring onion sea bass

Ingredients: (serves 2)

- 2 fillets of sea bass, skin on
- 3 spring onions, chopped length ways
- A piece of ginger, chopped into strips
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 red and 1 green chilli, chopped (to taste)
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- Sea salt

Method:
1) Score (cut length ways into the skin of the fish) with a sharp knife.

2) Put some oil into a hot pan and add the sea bass, skin down.

3) Fry, skin side down for 5 minutes until crisp on a medium heat.
4) Then, flip the fish and cook for a further 2 minutes.
5) Take the fish out of the pan.

6) Add 2 tbsp oil into the same pan and add the spring onion, garlic, ginger and chillies.

7) Cook for a few minutes, then add the soy sauce and sesame oil.

8) Cover the fish with this sauce and season with a good amount of sea salt on top.

Recipe: Chicken katsu curry

Easy chicken katsu curry, like at Wagamama

Ingredients: (serves 1)
For the chicken:
- 1 chicken breast
- 1 egg, beaten, poured on a plate
- A plate of plain flour
- A plate of breadcrumbs (preferably Japanese panko breadcrumbs, but if you cannot find them just use the normal breadcrumbs in a packet (eg. the Paxo brand), found in most supermarkets.

For the sauce: (this makes about 2 portions of sauce (I froze the rest).
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 big onion, chopped
- 6 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 3 carrots, chopped
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 2 tbsp medium curry powder
- 600ml chicken stock
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tbsp corn flour, dissolved in a little water

Method:
1) Put the oil in a deep sauce pan, not a frying pan.

2) Once the oil has heated, add the onions and the garlic, Fry for 2 minutes, stirring.

3) Add the carrots. Put the lid on the pan and cook for 10 minutes, on a medium heat until the carrots are cooked.

4) Add the flour and the curry powder and stir in. Cook for a minute.

5) Add the stock in small amounts, mixing a lot as you add it, so there are no lumps.

6) Add the sugar, soy sauce and garam masala. Stir.

7) Place the sauce on the boil for about 10 minutes to reduce.
8) Use a hand blender/ blender to blend the sauce.

9) Place the sauce back on the boil, and slowly add the corn flour, to thicken the sauce. Again, stir quickly as you add it to avoid lumps.

10) Keep the sauce on the boil until it is the thickness that you want. Season with lots of salt and pepper.

Now to make the chicken:
11) Place the chicken breast on a chopping board.

12) Put clingfilm over the chicken and bang down on the chicken. (I only had an alcohol bottle, so you can use whatever you have, like a rolling pin). Press on the chicken until thinner. This will make the chicken moist when cooked.

13) Put the plates of flour, egg and breadcrumbs in this order. First dip the chicken into the flour (on both sides), then the egg (on both sides), then the breadcrumbs (on both sides).

Flour

Egg

Breadcrumbs

Dust the excess breadcrumbs off the chicken.

14) Heat some oil in a frying pan on medium heat and once heated, place the chicken in the pan. Make sure that the heat is not too high when cooking the chicken or the breadcrumbs will burn.

15) Cook on each side for 4 to 5 minutes on medium- high heat. Before you flip the chicken over, you will need to add some more oil to the pan, or the breadcrumbs will burn.

Check the chicken is cooked, by putting a sharp knife into the thickest part of the chicken, and the juices should run clear.

16) Cut the chicken up into slices, and serve with the sauce, rice and salad.

Enjoy x 

Recipe: Oreo cheesecake

Salted caramel & Oreo cheesecake

Ingredients:

For the base:
- 1 pack of milk chocolate digestives
- Half a pack of Oreos
- 100g butter, melted
- Butter for greasing

For the filling:
- 300ml soured cream
- 600g cream cheese eg. philadelphia
- 397g caramel eg. carnation caramel or dulce de leche
- 3 pinches of salt
- 2 whole eggs and 3 egg yolks, all whisked together
- Half a pack of Oreos, crushed

For the caramel sauce:
- 100g caster sugar
- 75ml double cream
- 25g butter
- 2 pinches of salt

- 1 pack of Oreos to top

Method:
1) Pre heat the oven to 160 degrees celcius.
2) Grease the baking tin with some butter.

3) Crush the chocolate digestives and Oreos until small pieces.

4) Pour the melted butter into the biscuits and stir.

5) Press this mixture into the biscuit tin, Use a fork to press this down.

6) Put this in the fridge to firm up while you make the mixture.

7) Mix together the soured cream, cream cheese, caramel, salt and eggs.

8) Add the Oreo pieces to the mixture.

9) Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour 15 minutes, until firm but still a bit wobbly. Leave in the tin for 45 minutes to cool down.

Don't worry if there are cracks in the cheesecake.

10) Make the caramel to go on top. In a pan, on medium heat, heat the sugar up, without stirring until a brownish colour.

11) Add the butter and cream in small bits whilst whisking. Make sure you do not add it all at once or the cold cream will harden the caramel. Add the salt. Stir for a couple of minutes to thicken the sauce.

12) Pour the sauce on top of the cheesecake and add the Oreos.

13) Leave the cheesecake to set overnight in the fridge.