Author Archives: Wesley

Chicken Cacciatore… Mama Mia, it’s so easy!

The United Kingdom and other parts of Europe have been rocked by a horse meat scandal, which is bad news for us carnivores who love beef. For chicken farmers though, it is like an early Christmas present because sales of chicken have soared since the scandal broke. The bad news of course is too our taste buds, because let’s be honest, chicken can be so boring. If however, you spend a few minutes and add a few tasty ingredients you can make your chicken sing, and what a better way to turn your boring chicken breast into something tasty than this easy and cheap Chicken Cacciatore recipe.

  • Skill level: easy
  • Preparation time: 10 minutes
  • Cooking time: 45 minutes
  • Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 400g can chopped tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp chopped rosemary leaves
  • 4 chicken breasts
  • small handful basil leaves

Preparation Method

  1. Fry the onions and garlic in the olive oil until softened. Add the tomatoes, rosemary and season to taste. Cook for 10-15 minutes until thickened.
  2. Heat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Top the chicken with chicken with the sauce, then bake for 20 minutes until cooked through. Serve scattered with basil leaves with some of your favourite seasonal vegetables or rice.

 

 

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Banana Pancakes… don’t forget the eggs!

This is a recipe that I found in the January edition of Good Food Magazine, and I immediately thought of two things when I saw it… The first was that Jack Johnson once sang a song about Banana Pancakes and the second was, my kids will love this!

So with my humble cookery magazine and a bit of Jack Johnson for inspiration I decided that I would cook up a weekend treat for my girls… And all seemed to be going well, except that the mixture was a bit thick, but having never made these delectable treats I just thought that was the way it was… So I cooked up a stack and we all tucked in, and to be honest, they were not terrible but certainly they were not as good as I hoped…

…And about an hour later I learned why my little pancake adventure was not the roaring success I had hoped for when my wife yelled out from the kitchen “what are these eggs for on the counter???”

That is when I realised that I had made up the batter, but had forgotten to put in any eggs.

The next weekend I tried them again, and I must say they are a nice tasty weekend breakfast, but remember to check that you added the eggs to the mixture, they truly make all the difference.

  • Preparation time: 10 minutes
  • Cooking time: 20 minutes
  • Serves: 4 people (makes around 10 pancakes)

Ingredients

  • 140 g/5 oz self-raising flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tbsp light soft brown sugar
  • 2 ripe bananas, 1 mashed, one thinly sliced
  • 2 large eggs
  • 25 g/1 oz butter, plus a little extra for cooking
  • 125 ml/4 oz milk
  • maple syrup (to serve)

Method

  1. Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar. Make a well in the center and add the mashed bananas, eggs, butter and milk.
  2. Heat a little butter in a large frying pan, then ladle in small dollops of the pancake batter, leaving a little  space between each. Put 2 or 3 slices of banana on each and cook for 2 minutes over a medium heat. When you see bubbles appear between the banana slices flip the pancake over and cook for one minute more, until puffed up and golden.

 

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for my blog… And looking back I have to admit, 2012 was a wonderful year for my blog and me!

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 8,300 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 14 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

 

Merry Christmas Everybody

Merry Christmas from Domesticated Dad

Christmas 2012 has finally arrived, and I am taking a little time off from the blog for a much-needed holiday break. I will still be puttering about in the kitchen, but I am sure I won’t find a lot of time until 2013 to do much writing. Rest assured though I will be keeping a careful journal of all my foodie adventures and will post them in January.

So until then, may I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Wesley

TV Dinners: Nigellissima, An Italian Inspired Christmas

If you are a fan of Nigellissima, Nigella’s italian inspired cookery show from earlier in the year then you should pop over to the BBC iPlayer and give this a view. It is just a 60 minute version of Nigella’s earlier series with a Christmassy twist, but fans of this series will love it.

If you are new to Nigella’s Italian inspired series however, you might want to pop over and check it out if you have a few spare minutes. If you are busy preparing for the holiday festivities, don’t bother, I am sure your life will be just as fulfilled without spending an hour with Nigella in her immaculate kitchen.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Nigella. She is for me a fantastic home cook. One of my favourites in fact, but for me the recipes in this series were not very Christmassy. They all looked delicious, and probably are, but at this time of the year I want more familiar food, experimenting can come later in the year. And besides I don’t have the time in my schedule to be popping over to Venice to pick up a bottle of Tuaca that she used in the first recipe.