{"id":129,"date":"2011-04-18T20:28:36","date_gmt":"2011-04-18T20:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/suppersfromscratch.wordpress.com\/?p=129"},"modified":"2013-04-21T21:00:22","modified_gmt":"2013-04-21T21:00:22","slug":"in-search-of-my-lost-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.suppersfromscratch.com\/?p=129","title":{"rendered":"In search of my lost inspiration"},"content":{"rendered":"

So the last few weeks have been quite monotonous \u2013 I haven\u2019t written anything because nothing exciting has happened: \u00a0no great successes, no great failures. All pretty bland really \u2013 just like my meals over the last few weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although they \u00a0have all been fairly pleasant, they have become a tad repetitive and uninspired. The odd moment of inspiration has found its way on to the plate, for example a very tasty and comforting coconut rice pudding and some hearty and juicy home made burgers.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But other than that it\u2019s all been a bit lacklustre.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then I realised that\u2019s exactly the challenge. Four months in now, I have tried the easy stuff, I have been inspired to try new flavours, seek out new foods and create my much-loved favourites From Scratch. Now I have come to the point I think we all do with food where you realise you\u2019re having the same few meals (or variations of over and over again). It\u2019s the challenge we all face with food: what\u2019s for dinner tonight, never mind cooking up an elaborate home made pasta dish, followed by seasonal ice cream and honey comb when on a Wednesday night you realise chicken and rice again just doesn\u2019t cut it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other challenge has been, caused mostly through laziness, my food lacking the density of flavour you get when you pile stock, tinned tomatoes, cooking wine, herbs, spices etc into everything.\u00a0 When you\u2019re doing it From Scratch it\u2019s not that simple, you have to find bountifully ripe tomatoes to really get the flavour and have time to create a great stock.\u00a0 And really I have just been \u201ctoo tired\u201d or \u201ctoo busy\u201d – READ \u201cJust Plain Lazy\u201d!<\/span><\/p>\n

So now I am in search of inspiration for new kick start, as I\u2019m genuinely loving the project and learning so much that I want every meal to have a glimmer of that excitement. Basically I want food that packs a punch and makes you realise all you really want to do is spend your life eating .<\/span><\/p>\n

So with that challenge in my head yesterday I set out to make flavourful and perfectly satisfying weekly dinner food.<\/span><\/p>\n

What popped into my head was the Chicken Casserole my Mum and Grandma used to make with some creamy mash potato and lots of flavour filled sauce.<\/span><\/p>\n

So that\u2019s what I did and even thought it took about 1:15 hr to make it was well worth it.<\/span><\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re stuck for dinner tonight and have a bit of time on your hands to make it From Scratch here\u2019s the recipe:<\/span><\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

3 chicken thighs ( 1 per person or serving)<\/span><\/p>\n

1 onion<\/span><\/p>\n

1 green pepper<\/span><\/p>\n

half packet of mushrooms<\/span><\/p>\n

4 rashes of streaky bacon<\/span><\/p>\n

Vegetable stock<\/span><\/p>\n

For vegetable stock<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

1 carrot<\/span><\/p>\n

2 sticks of celery<\/span><\/p>\n

1 onion<\/span><\/p>\n

2 cloves garlic<\/span><\/p>\n

1 bay leaf<\/span><\/p>\n

any herbs you have spare ( I used parsley and thyme)<\/span><\/p>\n

Method<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Prepare the stock: chop up carrots, celery, and onion and soften in pan. Peel garlic and add to pan, then cover with boiling water so everything is full covered and then add some more, throw in herbs, salt and pepper and bay leaf and leave to simmer<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Meanwhile chop the bacon and fry off with chicken in a pan<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Remove meat and soften onion, chop up peppers and mushrooms and add to pan<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Once they have softened add the meat back in the pan.\u00a0 By this point your stock should be ready, sieve the stock and add the liquid to the pan and then top up with hot water<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Let this simmer with the lid on for at least 40 mins, I made mash potato to go with this as I love the way it soaks up all the juices, but you could equally rice or bread<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. After 40mins remove from the heat and serve<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This meal was so satisfying and so full of flavour, which surprised me a bit as the stock was so quick to make. It tasted exactly the way I remember it as a child which as Pixar\u2019s Ratatouille has taught us is enough to turn the Anton Ego (the film\u2019s snooty food critic) in all of us into blissfully happy foodies.<\/span><\/p>\n

    I followed this comforting main with an even more delectable Cr\u00e8me Caramel \u2013 Not necessarily a natural match but I have a sweet tooth and have never made it before so why not?<\/span><\/p>\n

    It was surprisingly simple \u2013 it just took a bit of time to cook<\/span><\/p>\n

    Ingredients<\/strong> \u2013 serves 2 generously<\/span><\/p>\n

    200ml Milk\u00a0 ( I used skimmed as that\u2019s all there was and it tasted really creamy- so the puddings almost healthy!)<\/span><\/p>\n

    240g Sugar<\/span><\/p>\n

    2 Eggs<\/span><\/p>\n

    Method<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Take 190g of sugar and melt in a pan on a low heat, stir occasionally- this will create the caramel, when it is golden and all liquid take it off the heat and pour into the bottom of your ramekin\/ oven proof dish ( I didn\u2019t have ramekins so used a small Pyrex dish)<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. Pour the milk into a saucepan and gentle heat through, meanwhile combine the sugar and eggs and whisk them together. Once the milk is very hot (don\u2019t let it boil though) pour it into the egg mixture and continually whisk until combine ( make sure you keep stirring as otherwise you could end up with scrambled egg and nobody wants that!)<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. Pour the milk and egg mixture over the caramel and place ramekins in a roasting tray- add some just boiled water to the tray until it is about half way up the side of your ramekins, then pop the tray into the oven and cook at 150 degrees for about 35-40 mins (keep checking but mine took at least 40 if not more \u2013 however if your ramekins are quite small I don\u2019t think it will take that long)<\/span><\/li>\n
    4. Eat!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      For a first attempt I was very happy with the results and there is great satisfaction as you break through the custardy topping and witness the caramel gushing out.\u00a0 With a hint of shameless arrogance I would say it didn\u2019t taste any different to previous offerings I have had of the pudding in a restaurant!<\/span><\/p>\n

      So that\u2019s it \u2013 one nights effort has given me a renewed sense of vigour and confidence in my food and this project, so I guess that means when inspiration takes a fall go back to childhood comforts and you will get there.<\/span><\/p>\n

      Oh and just in case you need some inspiration for tonight I\u2019m using the leftovers from these meals to make Brinner!… (that\u2019s an amalgamation of \u2019breakfast\u2019 and \u2018dinner\u2019 for anyone stuck in the 90s making \u2018brunch\u2019! \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      So the last few weeks have been quite monotonous \u2013 I haven\u2019t written anything because nothing exciting has happened: \u00a0no great successes, no great failures. All pretty bland really \u2013 just like my meals over the last few weeks. Although … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[270],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppersfromscratch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppersfromscratch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppersfromscratch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppersfromscratch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppersfromscratch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=129"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppersfromscratch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1451,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppersfromscratch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions\/1451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suppersfromscratch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppersfromscratch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suppersfromscratch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}