Recipes For Dinner

Most of these recipes will be work in progress, my kind of scrapbook for recipes. As I am busy as a single parent I work when I don’t have the kids and spend time with them when they are here. My passion is my cooking but I no longer really get time to post them properly. I work in SEO so I am always working on clients sites and not my own.

I cook from scratch every single day and usually take a quick photo on the way to the sofa to eat my meals for one creations. So this is really a holding place for all those yummy recipes for dinner I create. Hopefully I will look back at them and make them into a full posts. This is also so I don’t forget what recipes I have developed.

The Food Photos and How I Take Them

I take most of my food photos on my iPhone 8 on the dining table I got from Ikea. Its cheap and in total cost me around £40 but I picked the colour because I thought it would be good for food photography. The plates were chosen for exactly the same reason, to give contrast to the food so it stands out better.

I do have a good Nikon SLR camera and tripod but I rarely use it as I just don’t have the time. I would rather spend time cooking and eating then spending too much time setting up a food photo shoot. Average time for my food photos is less than 3 minutes. Some of my food photos for my recipes for dinner turn out ok, some not so.

How I make My Recipes For Dinner

Most of recipes for dinner are made with reduced items from the supermarkets. My therapy and my break from work is to leave the housed go food shopping. Yes I am a freelancer so its quite easy to sit in front of the computer to long and work. So I stroll around the isle seeing if there is any reduced food items, then its time to come up with a recipe.

Yes the staff probably think I am strange and poor wondering around the supermarket most days. I do wonder as well looking up and down the aisle for inspiration trying to decide what I want to eat. I do struggle making the same recipe for dinner as I am always looking to do it better

Asian Inspired Sea Bass Fillets

So stumbled across 2 Sea Bass fillets on New Years Eve day time around 4pm. I had no plans to go out as I thought I was going to be having the kids. However the future ex had other plans and got mixed up. Never mind it gave me an opportunity to cook just for myself . I fancied an Asian inspired recipe for dinner and the Sea Bass fillets cost £1.20 so perfect for a cheap dinner idea.

The Sea Bass I slashed the skin then poured over some olive oil and then seasoned. Hot pan and placed the fillets skin side down to sear and crisp up. After around 5 minutes the bottom of the sea bass was cooked so I turned it over and popped it in the oven.

The sticky glaze on top is half a shallot, red pepper, chilli, ginger and garlic. I started frying those then added rice wine vinegar with a heaped tablespoon of brown sugar and sesame oil. high heat and cook until it becomes thick and sticky. Asian dressing done for the recipe for dinner.

Cooking And Flavouring The Couscous

to be continued

Belly Pork Recipes 2 Ways

Wondering around the supermarket as usual I dropped upon some belly pork pieces. So of course I picked. them up as they were super cheap. I fancied something different and I saw a new rice recipe from a friend on twitter. So I thought what about pineapple and pork belly, I wonder.

Yes the results were in the millions so I read a few of the recipes. I go as far as page 3 results because I want to discover new people and not the same big sites all the time. So after reading a few decided to take the pieces from each recipe I liked and thew it all together

Belly Pork And Pineapple

gredients

• 200 g Pork Belly
• 125 g Pineapple
• Small Onion
• 2 Cloves Garlic
• 25 ml white Vinegar
• 45 ml Light Soy Sauce
• 30 g Honey
• 1 Tsp Dried Chilli Flakes (your choice I use chipotle)
• 1 Tsp Black Pepper
• Cooking Oil
• 250 ml Water

Instructions

1. Dice the pork belly into 2.5cm cubes.
2. Peel and cut the onion in half and then slice .
3. Slice the garlic as thinly.
4. Bring a wide pan of water to the boil and then add the pork.
5. Simmer for 20 minutes, then remove and pat dry.
6. Clean out the pan and then add half of the cooking oil.
7. Add the sliced onion and pork and cook for 10-12 minutes on a high heat to get a little colour.
8. Throw in the garlic, chilli flakes and black pepper and cook for another 60 seconds.
9. Pour in the water, soy, vinegar and honey.
10. Bring to a boil before turning down to medium and then simmer for 50 minutes.
11. Dice the pineapple into cubes roughly the same size as the pork.
12. Add the remaining cooking oil to another pan over a high heat.
13. Throw in the pineapple and sear on both sides, this should take 7 or 8 minutes. These can be done while the pork is simmering
14. Add the pineapple to the pork mix and cook on for a final 20 minutes.

This was a little more time consuming than I actually wanted to spend. It did taste good but next time I will be looking at doing it a more inclusive way.

Belly Pork With Apple & Five Star Spices

As I had so much pork I used the other pork belly in a small roasting tin. Spiced with found five spice, salt pepper and apple. Added a few squirts of white vinegar and a teaspoon of brown sugar. I then covered it in tinfoil and left it in the oven for about 5 hours on a low heat.

The next day I reheated it in a frying pan and severed with a gratin of potatoes, parsnip, carrot, onion and Garlic. It was then cooked in the oven with cream, milk and butter like dauphinoise potatoes. Exactly the same method as the link but just extra. The other mushy bit on the plate was an apple stuffed with black pudding and drenched in Honey JD. A bit of an apple sauce, not perfect but life is a journey as is cooking.