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Probably one of the most versatile and popular dishes in the solar system......the omelette which is not only extremely filling, tasty and easy to cook but it can be combined with almost any other ingredient on earth with minimal fuss. It was only time until the baked bean met up with its soul mate and bubbled away together in a warm oily pan.
I was craving something nice and filling tonight and this did not disappoint. I got the idea while looking on YouTube at those DIY cooking clips and thought “I can produce the masterpiece that was just shown to me”...so off I set.
Three free range eggs (I’m very strict on not getting battery farm eggs as I know what the dirty old farmers do with them late at night, at least if they are free range then they have the chance to run away thus reducing my chances of consuming anything) add a slash of milk to give it that fluffy texture, a sprinkle of grated mature cheese and a tin of beans.
I added them to a hot pan but quickly realised that the omelette was about 3 inches thick and this was far too much for the small pan to handle but it was too late and I had to solider on knowing that it would be messy and hard to cook. After much prodding and moving around I finally managed to flip it over the best I could but the finished product looked like a large salmon had been run over by a juggernaut.
Eating this road kill look-a-like was a real pleasure, tasting so so good and it was cooked to perfection. The cheese added a little tang that proved to be the finishing touch.
I will once again be going to bed feeling very satisfied and looking forward to tomorrows treat..
A refreshing meal was required after last night’s gristle filled meatballs that I’m sure have taken years off my life and were not meant for human consumption but for animal feed.
I needed something that would regenerate by body and mind like a warm wave of love spreading across the world.
This dream was realised when I noticed some nice ripe avocados in my local shop...I was not expecting to find this as it mainly only stocks processed foods that have a shelf life of at least 100 years or more, but it seems my luck was in so I put them into my basket and headed back to prepare the food.
Avocados were a perfect visual accompaniment for the Waitrose baked beans which also came in the mysterious package the other day. Once the pip was taken out of the avocado it was ready to be filled with a few beans and the remainder were tipped along the outside of the plate for added looks.
This was a meal that could be served in a high class restaurant and probably not even get any funny looks (maybe I’ve been around beans to long as I do think this is true) I was unsure how the cold and hot mixture of foods would taste but I was pleasantly surprised...I didn’t expect the textures to go this well together.
The Waitrose beans were full of flavour and tasted unusually fresh for a tinned product while the cholesterol lowering avocado gave me that lift that I was looking for and added the years that were previously taken away back onto my life.
I think this is the most visually pleasing dish I have created during this experiment and will be one that may be hard to beat!!
Tonight’s meal features a special guest appearance of some organic baked beans which were mysteriously sent to me in a package from an unknown sender....whoever this person is must be a fan of the blog so I would like to say thanks for the kind gesture....just proves that some people have a genuinely kind heart.
These organic baked beans could not have come at a better time due to my current physical condition (man flu) which by the way is far worse than most illnesses but girls still don’t understand this!!! This delivery of beans has allowed me to stay indoors and thus increase the recovery time...however I am still limited to my local shop for ingredients which has impacted on my meals severely.
The baked beans looked great and having the organic element really made me feel like I was doing my bit for the world....that is until I threw the tin direct in the bin without any thought for recycling (oh well, one step at a time) I was actually looking forward to the meatballs until I realised I had purchased them in gravy which once opened looking very much like dog-food (even the realistic tripe smell)
I decided that cooking them separately would do little but add more washing up so I combined them both in the same saucepan. Once they were ready the beans had gone a little brown colour due to the gravy in the meatballs and it unfortunately didn’t taste that great.....some of the meatballs had little bits of gristle in which instantly put me off and made me think about what went into these unnaturally round balls.
I wish I had saved the organic beans for an ingredient that was worthy of them but you learn from mistakes right so tomorrows one will be a little bit better thought out...
Today I’ve been hit by some sort of bug that has left me feeling very ill indeed, I am hoping this is not related to the high consumption of beans (or octopus) that i have had so tonight’s meal wasn’t what I had planned as getting the ingredients was out of the question given how I am feeling. While thinking what the meal could be tonight I discovered my housemates old toastie machine and hey presto....a baked bean toastie with some cheese would now be the creation I was about to make. I used some farmhouse thick break with Heinz beans and some grated cheese....but this proved too much for the small light duty toastie machine and the lid would not close....immediately I knew I was going to have problems cooking this one and while holding the lid down as best I could the bean/cheese juice started running out the side of the machine all over the work top which was making a huge mess but this did smell really nice. About 10 min later (extra cooking time needed for the cold beans) it was ready to come out.....slightly tricky getting it out in once piece but eventually it was free.
The toastie tasted great and wasn’t too much to handle with the way I’m feeling at the moment.10 out of 10 for speed of cooking and quick preparation time but 0 out of 10 for the aftermath of mess. This experiment started out as a bit of a joke and in the first few days I wasn’t sure what I was getting into but looking back even from this point I have realised that thanks to this experiment I have tried new food that I might not have otherwise which in itself has made it worthwhile and I’m also hopefully putting a smile on a few people’s faces along the way. I’m off back to bed now as starting to feel worse......I’m hoping I won’t be found dead in the morning with a bright orange face :)
Offal is a wonderful food but one that has lost its popularity in recent years due largely to the snobbishness of our society and the increase in marketing for higher prices goods but with current world situations it’s very important to waste as little as possible (like the American Indians who used everything from the animal they had killed, even the bones for hunting instruments/jewellery)
Most offal is extremely high in essential vitamins and minerals that can’t be found in other parts of the animal.
My mum always used to cook me a mean liver stew when i was younger which has been the inspiration for today’s meal which is liver and beans and one that i was looking forward to, it’s been a long time since I last had any liver so when the idea popped into my head while walking around Tesco’s I had to grab the guy who was filling the shelves and do a little dance up and down the aisle (I didn’t actually do this but it really did happen inside my head)
Once I got back to mine I started to cook immediately as I had a long day at work which left me needing to refill the petrol tank. One of my housemates was very off-put by the idea of what I was cooking but I thought to myself “I’m only just beginning” I fried an onion until caramelised and then added the chopped liver for about 10 minutes (or until it’s no longer pink in the middle) I then served up with some Tesco standard beans (39p) The meal was as good as I had anticipated it to be and the beans went very well with the liver...so much in fact that I will be having this long after the experiment has ended!!I have a few good ideas for tomorrows meal which build on tonight’s dish so stay tuned...
Life is a journey and no real journey is complete without its up and downs.
Today I think I need to explore a little bit more and move away from the classic recipe dishes and into the forest which is full of its dangers but also its pleasant surprises.....”could octopus and beans be one of these pleasant surprises?” initially I am thinking this is a bad idea, the very sound of it makes me feel sick but you never know until you try it right?I chose Sainsbury’s value beans for this meal....I didn’t want to waste money on some great beans only to have octopus juice all over them so I’m sure for this meal the quality of the beans will not affect the overall taste as much as other meals I have had.The octopus comes in a nice gold tin which leads me to think that some sort of treasure is located inside but unless the treasure you’re looking for is octopus tentacles then it couldn’t be further away from the truth.I tried to place the tentacles as well as I could on the beans but most of them ended up submerged within the bean juice. The first mouthful was the hardest as I have never tried octopus before but I know they are extremely high in fibre which makes them a great partner for the beans which are also high in fibre.I was surprised that I had soon finished the meal without ending up in the toilet. I think the hardest part was looking at the little suckers as I put them in my mouth but the actual taste was very similar to mackerel which I was not expecting.This proves that experimenting with things a little outside of your comfort zone is important as I now know that I would have octopus again but maybe not with baked beans :)
Apologies to my loyal fans who have had to wait a little extra time for this post but due to technical issues with this site I was unable to upload anything until this point so it’s ok....there is no need for mass hysteria, I am alive and this experiment has not killed me yet so get yourself a nice cup of tea and enjoy the rest of this post.
Today I finally had a meal with some preparation time involved. This is something I have been missing a lot in recent days but with this baked bean bake my culinary skills were once again able to flourish.
This meal was recommended to me by a friend to whom I am now greatly in debt too as it’s become my favourite of the baked bean meals so far!! From the start of the day I had been looking forward to this, it’s very rare that you come across a baked bean recipe that can stimulate your senses to the levels which this little beauty has.
This meal was baked bean bake which just from its name makes your ears tingle with excitement and is achieved by taking some Heinz baked beans and pouring them into a small oven-proof dish with some fried onions added and a splash of Worcestershire sauce and pepper to flavour, toast two slices of bread and then cut into four triangles and delicately arrange them on top of the beans and cover with a generous layer of mature grated cheese and add to pre-heated oven (180c)......... I felt like a proud father waiting for his new born child to come out....it seemed to take a lifetime to happen (actually only 20 min) but when it did I was greeted by the most amazing sight and one that I will remember for at least a week.
Dishing up this miracle of a meal was great fun, the cheese had done its job well in holding the whole dish together and it was easy to serve up on the plate of my choice. I added a few drops of Tabasco sauce and then proceeded to eat the whole dish which left me myself feeling like I was about to give birth but this is nothing a pot of tea didn’t soon sort out!!
