New Make/Bake 36 - Smoky bean, bacon & eggy bread bake

M loves comfort food, anything stodgy is always a winner for him. However he has been reluctant to try one of my personal favourite comfort foods, eggy bread, otherwise known as french toast. One of the best foods when served piping hot, and covered with cinnamon sugar and jam - yummy! Apparently he thinks it's weird and that egg shouldn't go with sweet things. To try and tempt him into trying it I decided to try and make a savoury eggy bread!

I found this recipe in one of the BBC Good Food mag and it looked very tasty - as always I had to give it a tweak!

Smoky bean, bacon & eggy bread bake

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 3 x 400g cans haricot bean , drained and rinsed- I only had 2 so I added a tin of Cannellin beans
• 500g passata
• ½ tbsp sweet smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 200g bacon lardons
• 5 eggs
• 125ml milk
• 10 slices white bread , crusts removed and halved to make triangles 
• 100g grated cheddar cheese ( comfort food is always better with cheese!)

 Method

1. Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Tip the beans into a large baking dish with the passata, paprika, vinegar, sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Season and mix well. Scatter the lardons over the top, cover with foil and bake for 30 mins.
2. Remove the beans from the oven, take off the foil and stir well. Return to the oven, uncovered, for 10 mins to crisp up the bacon. You can now cool and chill the beans for up to 2 days, or freeze for up to 3 months. Just defrost and warm through before continuing.
3. Whisk the eggs and milk with some seasoning. Dip the bread triangles into the egg mix, then layer them over the surface of the beans. Pour the rest of the egg over the bread, sprinkle with cheese and cook for 20 mins, or until the bread is puffed and the cheese is golden. 

M thought it was lovely, the beans perhaps needed a bit longer to soften as they had quite a bite to them. I also might play a bit more with the flavours as it wasn't a strong enough BBQ flavour which I think would have been lovely. I think eggy bread with jam is the next step :)

New Make/Bake 35 - Full English frittata

Apologies for a long delay of posts. I have been new make/baking but haven't had the time to blog - it's been a busy few weeks! Hopefully I'll catch up!

As part of a health kick I've been trying to eat tasty but lower calorie things - it's not going terribly well but now the sun appears to be here, I'm hoping salads and BBQ will be more common - hooray!

Here is one of the new recipes I tried - adapted from by favourite site

Full English frittata

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 low-fat sausages , sliced
• 4 rashers smoked bacon medallions, chopped
• 150g pack button mushrooms , halved, or larger ones quartered
• 8 egg whites - I'm not a fan of whites so I used whole 6 eggs instead
• 3 tbsp milk
• 140g cherry tomatoes , halved
• small bunch chives , snipped 

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line a roasting tin about the size of A4 paper with enough baking parchment to cover the base and sides. Fry the sausages and bacon in a non-stick pan until golden, stirring them often to stop them sticking. Scoop into the tin.
2. Place the pan back on the heat and fry the mushrooms for about 5 mins until golden, then add these to the tray, too. Whisk the egg with the milk and lots of seasoning. Pour into the tin, then dot the tomatoes on top.
3. Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins, until set. Scatter the frittata with the chives and serve with salad (or the recipe suggested smoky beans which is a tin of baked beans and 1.5 tsp smoked paprika)

New Make/Bake 25 - Creamy Chicken and Leek Spuds

After a hectic weekend, including a Saturday spent on a beginners cake decorating course (where I learnt lots of new tips and tricks) I fancied a quick and easy dinner but nothing too fatty.

I'd spotted a recipe on the BBC Good Food site a few weeks ago which I'd bookmarked to try, Creamy Chicken and Leeks.

I do enjoy a jacket potato, typically with beans and cheese, Mince or tuna and sweetcorn or if I'm feeling posh Brie and Bacon.The one thing I don't like is how long they take to cook as I'm not really known for my patience and I don't like microwaved potatoes as they always seem to be soggy. So I make my jacket potatoes the cheats way! I microwave the potatoes until they are soft (usually about 5-10 minutes depending on the size of the potato) and then I stick them with a skewer, drizzle with with a bit of olive oil and then bake them in a hot oven for about 20 minutes (turning once, halfway through). And voila, perfect jacket potatoes, fluffy insides and a lovely crispy outside.

The Recipe was really simple and easy. Typically with me being me, I did add a few extras: a squirt of honey, and a sprinkling of grated cheese.

M's verdict was that it was delicious (lots of meat and leek is always bound to keep him happy to be fair) and has to be made again soon. I thought it was yummy, very creamy and tasted like it was bound to be full of calories but was actually rather healthy (I used half fat cheese and Crème Friache).