Chicken Nuggets, MumsJustLove Style!

Homemade chicken nuggets couldn't be easier. All you need is a food mixer and a pair of little helping hands!

ingredients; per child!
1/2 chicken breast
2 slices of stale (not mouldy!) bread
1 egg
tablespoon flour
salt n pepper

method;
to make your breadcrumbs, put your stale bread in a mixer and pulse to make breadcrumb size pieces. If you don't have stale bread then you can use normal bread but lightly toasted and then pop in the mixer. so blitz up the chicken in a food mixer, so all the meat is broken down. crack the egg and whisk in a cup. put 1/2 the egg in with the chicken and mix using your hands. then make into nugget size chicken portions and shape as you wish. dust in seasoned flour and then in the rest of the egg mixture and then in your breadcrumbs. then fry in some oil until golden and cooked through.

alternatives;
you could add herbs to your breadcrumbs such as dried rosemary & parsley.
you could add a some cubes of mozorella or chedder cheese with the chicken - if you do this then the amount of the cheese should be 1/4 of that of the chicken.

Roasted Quail with Cabbage

Whn my husband came across Quail at our french version of a farmers market and realised they were local and only 6 euros for 8 we had to buy them and give them a try! So i searched high and low for a quail recipe and found this one from Marco Pierre White which works a treat! It also means i can use my plentiful supply of sage leaves.

Ingredients
8 x quails
25ml goose fat
24-32 slices ventreche ham (or very finely sliced streaky bacon)
24 sage leaves
100ml vegetable oil
cabbage
lardons
garlic
cream

Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Start by rubbing the quails with some of the goose fat, then alternate 3-4 ham slices with 3 sage leaves across the breasts of each bird, tucking firmly in at the bottom. Repaint with goose fat, then tie to secure.
Roast in the vegetable oil (we use something called Colza oil which is brilliant but not idea what it is!). To do this place in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, then allow to rest for 2 minutes before serving.

Now my cabbage recipe is cook the cabbage for 8 minutes until just short of being ready to eat. Then drain and place in an ice bowl to stop it cooking any further. Take a deep frying pan and fry off some lardons of bacon, once these are 2 minutes off being cooked and crispy add 2 chopped shallots and 2 chopped cloves of garlic. Mix alltogether and cook for a further 2/3 minutes. Then add the cabbage, cook for 2 minutes and then turn up the heat high and add 250ml of cream. Cook in the cream for 1 minute and then you can serve.

Hedgerow Crumble

Well I have taken as many blackberries as I can from our garden and hedgerows. As our apple trees are only a year old there is no fruit this year but luckily our friends just gave us a bath of cooking apples from their tree. This weekend I have some of our builders and their children coming over to eat, and with a housefull I want to create something simple. So what to do with these lovely ingredients, simple a Hedgerow Crumble!

This recipe will serve 4 large or 6 smaller portions

ingredients;
crumble
300g plain flour, sieved pinch of salt
175g unrefined brown sugar
200g unsalted butter (make sure its room temp.)


filling
450g apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm/½in piece
200g blackberries
50g/2oz unrefined brown sugar
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Method

Get your oven on and preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Then take the flour and sugar and put into a large bowl and mix well with your fingertips. Taking a few cubes of butter at a time rub into the flour mixture. Keep rubbing until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Put your fruit into a large bowl and sprinkle over the sugar, flour and cinnamon. Stir well being careful not to break up the fruit especially those blackberries!

Butter a 24cm ovenproof dish. Carefully spoon the fruit mixture into the bottom, then sprinkle the crumble mixture on top. Then all you need to do is bake in the oven for 40 minutes until the crumble is browned and the fruit mixture bubbling.

Tasty! And lovey for these cold Autumn nights.

Enjoy! Helen x

Pancetta & Leek Pasta

The leek is part of the Alliaceae family along with the onion and garlic. Now you may be thinking leeks are not seasonal as they grow all year round, but i have been told that in the Autumn into early spring is when their flavour and growth is best.

2 adults & 2-3 children
ingredients;
2 leeks
500g pancetta or bacon lardons (ideally smoked)
10g butter
15g plain flour
milk
grated parmigiano reggiano
500g pasta - whichever you prefer!

method;
first put your water onto boil, once it starts to rapidly boil you can start to cook your sauce. so trim the leeks to leave you the stem, then chop into slices. start to fry these in a knob of butter on a low heat. after a minute or so you add the pancetta and cook until crispy - which takes about 10 minutes. at the same time you can put your pasta onto cook.

while you are cooking the pancetta, in a separate saucepan melt the 10g of butter and add the plain flour to make a rue. then slowly add the milk (probably about 2 glasses) until you get a thick white sauce. add some of the grated parmigiano reggiano cheese to your taste. this takes about 7 minutes and when thick turn off the heat. once the pancetta (with leek) is cooked you add to the sauce and leave.

by this time your pasta should be ready, so drain. pour the cheese mixture in the same saucepan you used for the pasta, add the pancetta & leek mixture and then put the pasta over the top and stir.

serve, with a touch more grated parmigiano reggiano cheese on the top.

Seasonal Food, Tasty Flavours...

mumsjustlove simple, tasty food and to top it off the ingredients are seasonal and where possible direct from local farmers or producers.

our recipe blog will cover a variety of recipes, tips and tricks for cooking for kids and the family.

enjoy!