Ingredients:

• 2 cups sushi rice.
• 2-3 nori sheets
• 20 small shrimps (sushi grade).
• Avocado
• cucumber
• 50gr Tobiko (flying fish roe)

Making the Boston roll

1. Slice to avocado and cucumber into long slices.
2. Spread the rice on the nori sheet.
3. Add the avocado and cucumber you have pre-cut.
4. Line up some shrimps in too.
5. Roll it inside-out style and cut the endings, but leave the rest whole for now.
6. Use a little spoon to carefully spread some Tobiko on the roll.
7. You can cover the entire roll with it, or just the top side – it’s your call.

Now you can cut, and enjoy your Boston roll.

Recommended wine: The Arniston Bay Sauvignon Blanc Semillon will pair great with this dish.

Source: makemysushi.com

Ingredients:

-3 blocks egg noodles

-1 head broccoli , cut into small florets

-1 tbsp sesame oil

-400g pack beef stir-fry strips

-sliced spring onion

For the sauce:

-3 tbsp low-salt soy sauce

-2 tbsp oyster sauce (not oyster stir-fry sauce)

-1 tbsp tomato ketchup

-2 garlic cloves , crushed

-1 thumb-sized knob ginger , peeled and finely grated

-1 tbsp white wine vinegar

Method:

Start by making up the sauce. Mix the ingredients together in a small bowl. Boil the noodles according to pack instructions. A minute before they are ready, tip in broccoli.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a wok until very hot, then stir-fry the beef for 2-3 mins until well browned. Tip in the sauce, give it a stir, let it simmer for a moment, then turn off the heat. Drain the noodles, stir into the beef and serve straight away, scattered with spring onions.

Source: bbcgoodfood

Ingredients:

-4 thick generous slices beef shin, about 700g

-plain flour , for dusting

-2.tbsp sunflower oil

-3 medium onions , halved and thinly sliced

-2 tsp caster sugar

-6 garlic cloves , sliced

-700ml beef stock (made with 2 cubes)

-3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

-4 large flat mushrooms , thickly sliced

-chopped parsley , to serve

Method:

Dust the beef in flour, then set aside. Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onions and fry for 5 mins. Add the sugar and cook for 5-10 mins, stirring frequently, until the onions are caramelised. Stir in the garlic for the final few mins.

Pour in the stock and stir in the Worcestershire sauce. Add the beef and mushrooms, then season, adding plenty of black pepper. Cover and cook gently for 2 hrs until the meat is tender. Can be chilled for up to 3 days. To freeze, cool and store in freezer bags. Thaw and reheat in a pan. Serve scattered with parsley.

Source: bbcgoodfood.com

Ingredients

2kg chicken

50g soft butter

2 tsp fresh thyme  1 lemon

1l chicken stock

2 tbsp flour

1 tsp Marmite

Method:

Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3 and put the chicken in a roasting tin. Put the butter into a small bowl and add the herbs and plenty of seasoning. Grate in the zest from the lemon and mash everything together with the butter using a fork. Rub this over the chicken breasts, legs and wings, then push the whole grated lemon into the big cavity of the chicken. Pour half the stock into the tin. Use a large sheet of tin foil (or a couple of smaller pieces) to cover the chicken and scrunch together the foil along the edges of the tin so the whole thing is sealed. Put in the oven and set your timer for 2 hrs.

Carefully remove the foil from the chicken, increase oven to 220C/200C fan/ gas 7, and put the chicken back in for another 30 mins. If you’re making the Crunchy roast potatoes (see ‘Goes well with’), put them in now, under the chicken. After 30 mins, take the chicken out of the oven and lift it onto a serving dish (move the potatoes up). Snugly cover the chicken with foil and set aside while you make the gravy.

Tip the chicken juices and stock from the tin into a jug. Put the tin over a medium heat on your hob and use a wooden spoon to stir in the flour and Marmite, if using, with a splash of the juices to make a paste. If you want, spoon the fat off the top of the chicken juices in the jug, then gradually stir this into the tin to make a smooth gravy. Add as much of the rest of the stock as you need to make a good gravy, then serve with the chicken.

Source: bbcgoodfood.com

Ingredients:

• 1l milk
• 2 garlic cloves , bashed
• 2 bay leaves
• 500g dried pasta
• 350g broccoli , in small florets
• 75g butter
• 75g plain flour
• a little freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp mustard powder
• small bunch parsley , roughly chopped
• 200g cheese , grated (cheddar/ Parmesan)

Method:

Bring the milk, garlic and bay leaves to the boil in a small saucepan, then remove from the heat and leave to infuse. Cook the pasta to al dente following pack instructions (if you’re freezing, cook for 1 min less), adding the broccoli for the final 2 mins. Drain.

Strain the milk into a jug. Heat the butter in the pan until foaming then stir in the flour for 1 min. Add the milk a little at a time, stirring or whisking constantly to remove any lumps. Bubble for 1-2 mins, stirring constantly until you have a thick, lump-free sauce.

Remove from the heat and stir in some nutmeg, the mustard powder, parsley, three-quarters of the cheese and seasoning. Combine with the pasta and broccoli and transfer to one large, or individual, heatproof dishes. Scatter over the remaining cheese and cool and freeze for up to three months, or heat the grill to high and cook for 2-3 mins until golden and bubbling. If frozen, defrost in the fridge overnight, then cook at 200C/180C fan/gas 6 for 30-40 mins until piping hot.

Source: bbcgoodfood.com

Wines labeled “Cooking Wine” are typically salty and include other additives that may adversely affect the taste of your chosen menu. If you choose to use a cooking wine, adjust your recipe to reflect the salt content already in the wine.

An expensive wine is not necessary, although a cheap wine will not bring out the best characteristics of your dish. The process of cooking/reducing will bring out the worst in an inferior wine. A good quality wine, that you enjoy, will provide the same flavor to a dish as a premium wine. Save the premium wine to serve with the meal.

If you are intent on cooking with a premium wine, do not simmer the wine for a long length of time. To preserve a reasonable part of its flavor, cook the wine slowly and do not let it come to a boil. If you are creating a sauce through reduction cook it separately in an enamel skillet. Premium wines require careful handling, more so than good quality wine, to maximize the quality of your finished dish. For the novice it is best to use good quality, well balanced, young and powerful wines. These good quality wines will stand up to higher temperatures and longer cooking time. Save the premium wine to serve with the meal.

Read more… recipetips.com

Ingredients

• 227g can pineapple slices in juice, drained and chopped, juice reserved
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 1 tbsp tomato sauce
• 1 tsp each soy and brown sugar
• 2 ½ tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 200g stir-fry pork strips, trimmed of fat
• 1 red pepper , cut into chunks
• 3 spring onions , quartered and shredded

Method

Mix 4 tbsp of pineapple juice into the cornflour until smooth, then stir in the tomato sauce, soy, sugar and vinegar.

Heat oil until very hot in a wok, then throw in the pork for 1 min, stirring. Lift pork out onto a plate, then set aside.

Add the pepper, stir-fry for 2 mins, then add the pineapple and most of the spring onions for 30 secs. Stir in the sauce for 1 min, splashing in a little water as it cooks, then stir the pork back in for 20-30 secs until just cooked through – it should still be tender. Scatter with the remaining spring onions and serve with rice or noodles.

Source: bbcgoodfood.com

 (1) Serve the wine at the right temperature

Though it is common wisdom that red wines are to be served at room temperature and white wines chilled, this will not give you the best tasting wine.

A bottle of wine opens up and releases its richest bouquet of aromas at a particular temperature. This particular temperature differs for each wine, depending on the grape variety and region.

Typical temperature for storing red wine ranges from 11°C-18°C, and 7°C-10°C for white wines. Generally speaking, serve more intense, fuller-bodied wines at higher temperature. For best wine tasting, do refer to a serving temperature by grape variety chart.

(2) Aerate or breathe the wine:

Aeration can make younger wines more balanced and smoother by rounding their tannins. In addition, airing helps get rid of bottle stinks — the unpleasant odor that emerges when the bottle is opened.

Uncorking a bottle of wine and letting it sit for an hour is surely the worst way to aerate the wine. Not only must you wait an hour to drink the wine, but also the method is ineffective. Even after many hours, the narrow bottleneck still prevents much air from opening up the wine.

Most wine lovers use a decanter, a glass pitcher with a wide opening. The increased surface area allows faster aeration. If you don’t want to invest in a decanter, swirling the wine in the glass helps aerate it.

The key to aeration is timing! A young, intense, tannic red might need up to 2 hours to open up. An hour is great for a mature, full bodied, complex red. As for aged wines (older than 15 years), they are highly volatile. Do not aerate them for more than minutes!

Read more… 100bestwines.com