Eat More Variety Alphabet Challenge E: Eggplant: Eggplant Parmigiana

 Why when you can´t sleep at night, words come easily for a new blog post but when you actually sit down to write it, you can´t even remember what you were going to put or even think of anything to write. Zero,nada, zilch! A big fat nothing!

I had an aubergine lurking in my fridge, about to go bad, waiting to be used and I came across a recipe for Eggplant Parmigiana...or aubergine as it´s known as to us Brits, in my trusty American Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Every recipe that I cook from that book turns out delicious and it is one of my most used and well-thumbed, tatty,falling apart and spattered cookbooks. I decided to make it for me and my other half´s dinner as I wasn´t sure if the kids would even try it,despite the fact that one of my aims in doing this Eat More Variety Challenge is to get us all eating more variety. This dish was definitely a winner and I think the kids might even like it,if I can manage to get past the first stumbling block of getting them to at least try it, as it´s reminiscent of pizza. However, my daughter can even be fussy with pizza as she doesn´t like it with cheese...who doesn´t like cheese on pizza?...so she might not like the cheesey aspect of this dish.So with out further ado, on to the recipe.

Ingredients (Serves 2)
 1 small eggplant
  1 beaten egg
1/4 cup plain flour
2 tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup meatless spaghetti sauce or bolognese sauce
3/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese

Method:
1.Wash and peel the aubergine and cut into thin slices.
2.Combine egg and 1 tbsp water,then dip aubergine slices in egg, then flour to coat
3.Fry aubergine in hot oil  for 4 to 6 mins until golden on both sides, drain on kitchen roll.
4.Place aubergine in a single layer in a baking dish about 30x 19x 4.5cm,then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, then add the spaghetti sauce and finally sprinkle the Mozzarella over the top.
5.Bake for 10-12 mins in a 200ºC oven until cheese has melted.

...and there you have it!Easy peasy! Enjoy on it´s own or with a salad and some crusty bread.

Cooking England County by County: Buckinghamshire:Buckinghamshire Cherry Bumpers

I love anything with cherries or cherry flavoured from yoghurt to Cherry Coke and especially cherry desserts so when I came across this recipe I knew I had to make it! Even though cherries aren´t in season at the moment I had a big jar of pitted cherries just begging to be used!

Apparently these cherry bumpers are traditional at the end of the cherry picking season in August and are made "bumper" sized for the pickers!!Here is my version of Buckinghamshire Cherry Bumpers based on this version from the blog AllKitchenRecipes. I only made 3 due to their size!!They are delicious served warm with some cream or ice cream!!

Ingredients:
100g plain flour
1/8 tsp salt
50g butter
4- 4 1/2 tsp cold water
125-135g fresh cherries(pitted) or cherry pie filling
1/4-1/2 tsp brown sugar(depending on how sweet you like it)
To glaze: milk & caster sugar

Method:

1. Prepare shortcrust pastry by rubbing butter into flour and salt until it ressembles breadcrumbs, add cold water and mix till it all comes together in a dough.
2. Roll out the pastry till it is 5mm/1/4inch thick and cut rounds using a medium sized saucer.
3. Place cherries in one half of the round leaving a 1cm border and sprinkle brown sugar over the cherries.
4.Damp the border with water and fold over the rest of the pastry to form a pasty shape and then press a fork around the edges, then put a cross at the top of the bumper. Don´t overfill the cherry bumpers or the filling will ooze out.
5. Brush with milk and sprinkle caster sugar on top of the cherry bumper and place on a baking tray covered with baking parchement.
6. Bake in preheated oven at 180ºC for around 20minutes until golden brown.

Our verdict: Delicious!! Like I said I love anything cherry flavoured or with cherries.

My kids verdict: My daughter wouldn´t even try them unfortunately and my son who usually eats everything didn´t seem too keen either!

Cooking Spain Region by Region: Asturias: Tortilla de Manzana(Apple Omelette)

Despite not having published a recipe for my Cooking Spain Region by Region, it doesn´t mean that I haven´t been trying out some dishes from Asturias, one of them being Patatas en Salsa Verde(Potatoes in Green Sauce) and although they were ok,the results weren´t as successful as I´d hoped.So I thought I´d try my luck with a typical dessert or cake from Asturias,seeing as I haven´t made any yet.

 I decided on this Tortilla de Manzana or Apple Omelette because of it´s orginality and because I thought we would enjoy it and I was definitely not disappointed. Furthermore, it´s the first "trampantojo" I´ve ever made...a "trampantojo" is a Spanish word to describe food that looks like another food e.g. a burger which is actually made of chocolate etc so is sweet but looks like a normal hamburger. This tortilla looks like a normal Spanish omelette but is actually made of apple and is a dessert. This dessert could probably be eaten hot or cold but I definitely reccommend eating it warm and with a nice big dollop of ice cream or                                                           fresh cream.I went back for seconds.

I´ve adapted and translated this recipe from a book about cuisine in Asturias but I can´t remember the name. So without further ado onto the recipe:

IngredientsI(2-4 people....I halved the recipe which was for 4 people but I think it´s enough for four people)
                                                     
                      2 big apples(I used Ambrosia)
                      2 eggs
                      50g butter
                      1 tbsp sugar
                     1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
                     1/2tbsp breadcrumbs
                                                      Method:
                                                      1. Core and peel apples and chop into thin slices.
                               2.Put apple slices in a pan with  172 tbsp of butter, ground cinnamon and 1/3 cup of  water as shown in the photo above(I would reduce the amount of water to 1/4 cup next time I make the recipe as I believe there was too much water) and cook on a gentle to medium heat for about 15-20mins or until the apples are soft (The recipe I was following was a bit vague and didn´t say how long to cook the apples for...)
3. Add the sugar and stir well and then add the breadcrumbs until well combined.
  4. Place apple slices in a bowl(drain if there is too much liquid or juice)     and add the beaten eggs.                                                                      5.Melt some butter (I used around 35g of the 50g which I think was         plenty) and fry until the eggs start to set,then using a plate flip the tortilla over and fry until golden brown and cooked through.

My verdict: A new favourite Spanish dessert. I´ll definitely be making it again and c´mon apple & cinnamon and eggs-what´s not to like?

My kids vedict: Unfortunately my kids were a little less enthusiastic. My daughter wouldn´t even try it just for a change and my son tried it but spat out the apple slices. He´s never appeared to be very keen on eating apple slices or chunks though.Oh well,more for us! Maybe I´ll have better luck with them eating it next time.

Cheese & Herb Sausages

First of all Happy New Year to you...it´s been awhile but haven´t been able to find much time to make the recipes I want to blog, let alone blog about them, with one thing and another. So with the New Year, comes the new resolutions. Have you got any? Would love you to share them with me. I have a couple of resolutions, one of which is to eat a healthier and more varied diet and the other is to try not to waste food so hopefully you´ll see some of this reflected in my blog.

While waiting to get around to making my next British county, Great British Bake Off technical challenge or dish from Asturias, thought I´d leave you with this quick recipe for Cheese & Herb sausages. It may not be the healthiest of dishes but it is tasty, vegetarian and is British into the bargain!This is a recipe taken from Delia Smith´s Complete Cookery Course and is based on the recipe for the famous Welsh dish, Glamorgan sausages so without further ado, I´ll leave you with the recipe. This is so simple that you could even try making them with kids and I think most children would enjoy these, however we couldn´t get my daughter to so much as try them!!! BTW, I know the photo is horrendous but when there´s no natural light, you don´t have a lot of time, you are hungry and you don´t want your dinner to go cold....there´s no choice but to rush the photos!!!

Ingredients(for 2-3 people):
150g white/wholemeal breadcrumbs
1 medium onion, grated
110g extra mature Cheddar cheese,grated(this is personal preference,you could use a milder cheese if you prefer)
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
3/4 tsp English mustard powder
1 egg yolk
salt & black pepper to taste

Coating & frying:
10g breadcrumbs
10g grated Parmesan
1 egg white, lightly beaten
oil

Method:
1.Place breadcrumbs, Cheddar cheese, onion and mixed herbs in a bowl and add mustard powder and season with salt & pepper.
2.Add egg yolk and stir ingredients together until they bind.
3. Divide into 12 small portions and shape into a sausage form using your hands.
4.Mix breadcrumbs and Parmesan, then dip each sausage first into egg white and then in breadcrumbs and Parmesan to coat.
5. Heat oil and fry sausages until crisp and golden on all sides and drain on kitchen paper.

Cooking Spain Region By Region: Asturias: Flamenquinos

Ta-da! I´m back! It´s been awhile due to various things, the hot summer weatherand being pregnant and giving birth to my baby boy so I´m just starting to get bak into the swing of things!!

It´s time to start exploring the culinary delights of a new region in Spain: Asturias. When you hear Asturias, you automatically think of cider and fabada but as I´m not that keen on fabada, I want to try some less well-known dishes so first up are flamenquinos,not to be mixed up with the Andalucian flamenquines!! These little fried "cakes" are pretty easy and fairly quick to whip up and so delicious.We loved them and will definitely be including them in our monthly meal repetoires.Unfortunately we couldn´t get my daughter to try them but I´m sure she´d love them if she tried them! The recipe is pretty straightforward if a little strange but with tasty results. My only gripe is that when it came to frying them, they started to stick to the frying pan or break up so I don´t know if this was to do with the frying pan or the oil not being hot enough or something!!(Excuse the photo...it was night and I was rushing as I was hungry and didn´t want them to go cold!!!) Flamenquinos are supposedly served as the second dish at meal times but we had them in the evening for our dinner and this recipe is supposed to be for four people but we ate it all between the two of us (and I was still a bit hungry afterwards!).

Ingredients(2-4 people)
25g butter
50g plain flour
1 small cup of water
50g Spanish cured ham
1 boiled egg
Sunflower or mild olive oil
A pinch of salt

Method:

1. Put butter and water in a saucepan and place over a gentle heat till butter has melted.
2. Add the flour and stir,not allowing to boil, until combined...if necessary,remove from the heat.When combined allow to cool.
3. Finely chop egg and ham and then add to the flour mixture and add salt and let sit.
4. Heat abundant oil in a frying pan and then drop spoonfuls of the batter into the frying pan and fry until golden brown on both sides.
5.Drain on kitchen paper.

Cooking Spain Region By Region: Aragon: Malenas: Aragon-style Magdelenas

"Rain, Rain,go away, Come again another day" as the children´s nursery rhyme goes but to tell you the truth I don´t actually mind the rain....too much! This weekend has been pretty overcast and rainy and it appears as if summer is coming to an end and autumn is approaching. However, I for one am glad that the summer heat is over. I like rainy days,spent indoors with your family,cuddling up together and watching TV with a blanket round you and drinking hot chocolate and tea. It also is much more appealing to bake especially if it´s raining...perfect baking weather!

 I wasn´t convinced as to whether I´d like this particular Aragon delicacy, Malenas or Aragon-style Magdelenas, as I´m not a big fan of two of the main ingredients, honey and orange blossom water but I decided to give them a go, only to be pleasantly surprised. They are very distinct-tasting buns with an exotic but tasty flavour and have a lovely, spongy texture.As they don´t contain sugar but are sweetened naturally through the honey, they are not oversweet and are probably a bit healthier too! They are also very simple and quick to make,however I have made them twice nice and have failed to achieve the peak that magdelenas usually have...not really sure as to why but peak or no peak they still taste good!

Malenas (Aragon-style magdelenas) Makes about 12
Ingredients:
150g plain flour
150g honey
75g unsalted butter
2 eggs
1 tbsp orange blossom water

Method:
1.Preheat the oven to around 180ºC and line a cupcake mould with paper cases.
2. Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks, then mix the egg yolks with the honey.
3. Add the butter and orange blossom water and mix till combined.
4. Add the flour gradually, mixing after each addition till all the lumps have gone and the batter is smooth.
5.Whisk the egg whites till they reach the stiff peak stage and then carefully fold it into the batter taking care not to knock the air out, till it looks spongy.
6.Spoon the batter into the cases filling them till they are just over the half full mark, lower the temperature to around 170-160ºC (I made these twice,first time I baked them around 160ºC and I think they turned out to be more spongy,the second time I tried baking them at a slightly higher temperature to try and get more of a peak but I think it overbaked them slightly as they seemed a little drier...the original recipe doesn´t give a temperature but says to bake them at a medium temperature)
7. I only baked them for between 15-20 minutes as I thought they were ready despite the fact that the recipe said 35 minutes...they should be a golden brown and a toothpick should come out clean when inserted.

One thing I have to warn you about is that they don´t stay spongy for very long and soon start to dry out so either eat them all the day you bake them or freeze half a batch to eat another day.

Cooking England County By County: Berkshire: Eton Mess

Time to move onto the next county, Berkshire, which I´ve never visited.I decided to kick off Berkshire by cooking the renowed pudding,Eton Mess, although surprizingly enough,it´s yet another dish which I haven´t tried before!This is an ideal summer dessert as it´s served cold and strawberries are in season (at least in the UK anyway!). It´s also great for those of you who have never made meringue before as it doesn´t matter if the meringue goes wrong,as it´s going to get broken up anyway!! Also, it´s a fairly simple and quick dessert to prepare and you can even use ready made meringue nests if you are short of time.It´s definitely a winning dessert and I shall be making it again although my daughter unfortunately wouldn´t try it!

However, it definitely lives up to it´s name...Eton Mess by name, Eton Mess by nature. It´s quite difficult to make this dessert look presentable!Eton Mess was served in the 1930s at Eton College in the tuck shop and orginally consisted of strawberries and bananas mixed with ice cream or cream..meringue was a later addition. It is now served annually at the Eton College cricket game against Harrow School although it has gained popularity throughout Britain.I used the following Delia Smith recipe but used less cream! Enjoy!

Cooking Spain Region by Region: Aragon: Chicken in Tomato & Pepper Sauce: Pollo al Chilindrón

Well, here we are about to start discovering more about the food from the Aragon region of Spain. I have visited some cities of this region quite a long time ago as I worked at a summer camp but I don´t recall trying any local specialities...in fact as I ate at the summer camp, I don´t recall the food being anything special so hopefully this culinary journey will convince me otherwise!!

I decided to kick off Aragon cuisine with a dish known as Pollo al chilindron, or in other words chicken in a tomato and pepper sauce. Yes, as you can see I am fond of chicken as I´ve already featured two chicken dishes when I cooked Andalusia!!! This recipe is actually a Thermomix recipe and is taken from the Imprescindible Thermomix TM 31 recipe booklet but I´m sure it can easily be adapted to cooking it on the oven hob. It is a really simple dish to make especially if you are using the Thermomix and is a really tasty dinner...another dish that will become a regular!The great thing about the Thermomix is you don´t have to be totally exact with the ingredients...I didn´t put the whole amounts given in the following recipe as sometimes I didn´t have enough of an ingredient but it still turns out delicious!

Ingredients (for 4 people)
4 chicken drumsticks (booklet doesn´t specify how many legs but says 1000g)
50g olive oil
3 cloves of garlic(peeled)
150g onion,peeled
150g green pepper, deseeded
150g red pepper,deseeded
50g white wine
50g water
200g tomato sauce
1 chicken stock cube(I used an Oxo one)
a pinch of black pepper
a pinch of nutmeg
250g sliced mushrooms

Method
1.Place the cloves of garlic and oil in the Thermomix jug and chop for 6 seconds at Speed 5, then programme for 3 minutes at Varoma temperature,Speed 1.
2. Add the onion, red & green pepper,white wine and chop for 4 seconds at Speed 5.
3. Programme for 10 minutes at Varoma temperature, Speed 1.
4. Add the chicken drumsticks, the water, the tomato sauce, the stock cube, the black pepper and the nutmeg and cook for 20 minutes at Varoma temperature, stirring to the left(anticlockwise direction), on spoon speed.
5. Finally add the sliced mushrooms and cook for a further 10 minutes at Varoma temperature, anticlockwise direction, spoon speed.
6. Serve with rice, pasta or sauteed potatoes and vegetables and enjoy!

Cooking Spain Region by Region: Andalucia: Soplillos: Almond Meringues

Originally, I was only going to publish two main dish recipes and one sweet recipe but in the end I thought what the heck, I love desserts and cake..why not do two. While looking into typical Andalusian dishes, I came across this cake or biscuit, which I fancied making as it like a cross between a meringue and a macaron and it does not disappoint.It´s light and airy texture makes you want to go back for more.

. When I said I was going to make soplillos,people looked at me and said "eh?" as they´d never heard of them before.However, they were very successful...everyone who tried them liked them and it is hard to resist eating more than only one. My daughter, who doesn´t always try all the cakes and desserts I make, even ate 4 in one day! They are also fairly simple and quick to make. So, here goes with the last but not least, final recipe for Andalusia and then it´s on to the next region, Aragon. Any suggestions of what I should make?Anyway onto the recipe, which is adapted from a book called something like La Cocina de Andalucia:

Ingredients (makes about 32-35)
150g ground almonds
200g sugar
3 egg whites
Juice and rind of one lemon
A pinch of vanilla sugar

Method:
1. Beat the egg whites while gradually adding the sugar, till it forms stiff peaks or so that when bowl is turned upside down over your head,none falls out.

2.Add the lemon juice and peel, almonds and vanilla sugar and fold them into the meringue carefully, taking care not to knock any of the air out. The mixture will have a very grainy appearance.

3. Line a baking sheet with baking paper and fill a piping bag, fitted with the Wilton 1M nozzle, with the meringue mixture and pipe out evenly sized meringues. Leave enough space between each meringue as they spread in the oven and also don´t pipe them too big as they lose their shape.

4. Place in a preheated oven at 140º C and bake for 25 minutes.

5.Leave to cool..don´t try to take them off the baking paper too soon otherwise they may stick to the paper a little.

Super Simple & Quick Crunchies

 This recipe is great if you don´t have much in the cupboard or have unexpected guests and need to whip something up very quickly as it is so simple and quick to make. It is also ideal to make with older kids because it´s so easy to do. I don´t know the origin of Crunchies so I´m not sure if they are British or from elsewhere...however this particular recipe comes from Delia Smith´s book The Complete Cookery Course and what´s more it only has 3 main ingredients so is pretty economical too! You could always adapt the recipe too and add dried fruits, nuts or coconut...anything you want really.

Ingredients (makes about 12)
110 g porridge oats (or 50g whole or jumbo oats(very difficult to find!) and 60g porridge oats)
75g brown sugar (preferably demerara)
110g butter or margarine

Method
1. Preheat oven to 190ºC(375ºF), Gas Mark 5.
2. Grease a shallow square tin of roughly 28 x 18cm (I´m not sure my tin measures this but it did the job anyway!)I´d also reccommend that you use some baking paper as despite greasing the tin with baking spray, it did stick a little.
3.Place oats and sugar in a bowl and combine.
4.Melt the butter over a low heat so it doesn´t brown, then add to oats and sugar and combine well.
5. Tip mixture into baking tin and press it out evenly using your hands, the back of a spoon or a knife.
6. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until a pale golden colour and remove from the oven.
7. Cut into 12 equally sized bars while still warm and then leave to cool and crisp.

The Great British Bake Off Technical Challenge: Victoria Sponge Cake

 It´s back....The Great British Bake Off Technical Challenge and even better, we have another person who´s decided to participate in this challenge...my good friend,Amélie from Amélie Cuisine. We decided to meet up and bake the technical challenges together and to start with opted to do a Victoria Sandwich cake using the very same recipe that the Bake Off contestants had to follow. I hadn´t realised that a Victoria Sponge cake was one of the technical challenges and as I have made Victoria Sponge cakes before, I found it quite an easy technical challenge. Probably the most difficult part is avoiding the cake from rising unevenly when baking, so you have a level cake.
                                                     
We followed the recipe to the letter, put it at 170º in a fan assisted oven and cooked for the amount of time the recipe stated. We left the cakes outside on the window sill to cool while we made and ate our lunch, brown bag fried chicken (very delicious),chips and vegetables. We had a little trouble getting the cakes out of the tin,despite having greased them, as they stuck a little and one sponge broke a little. We decided to add some fresh fruit to the original recipe to jazz it up and for decoration so we placed some halved starwberries on top of one layer, then piped some whipped cream on top of the strawberries, then placed the top sandwich on. We piped more whipped cream on the top layer, then decorated it with a ring of raspberries then blackberries, another ring of raspberries and halved strawberries,stood upwards, then sieved icing sugar over the berries.You couldn´t even tell that one of the sponges was a little damaged! We were so proud of our Victoria Sponge cake....I think it´s one of my nicest looking cakes so far!! Amélie made the bunting, which is a great touch to add to any cake....I´m definitely going to have to learn how to do that too!!

Finally, we got round to trying it and it was delicious. The sponge was light and spongy, the cream,jam and fresh fruit really complemented it and made for a really delicious cake. It was so good that I even went back for seconds....between the four of us we almost ate the whole lot! It must have been good as my daughter doesn´t always eat or even try cakes etc but she tucked in and ate quite a lot too! It´s my new favourite Victoria Sponge cake recipe...definitely worth giving a go and surprizingly not that difficult to make.Here´s a link to the recipe:Victoria Sandwich. Enjoy!

Cooking England County by County: Bedfordshire: Bedfordshire Clangers

One thing that has always irritated me a little and is probably what started off my foodie obsession...is the fact that everybody says that British cuisine is bland and boring and that the British can´t cook. So I´ve decided to cook England county by county to prove to people that English food is more varied and tasty than they think.Also, it gives me the opportunity to discover and try out food from my own country that I´ve never had before and also provide us with a more varied diet!

The first county I´m starting off with is Bedfordshire,which is renowed for the Bedfordshire Clanger,something which is completely new to me. Bedfordshire Clangers are very similar to Cornish pasties(again something which surprizingly I´ve never eaten!!)which have a savoury meat filling at one end and a sweet filling at the other end. The idea of the Bedfordshire Clanger was so that miners or agricultural workers could take it to work with them  for their midday meal as they didn´t have time to come home for a big lunch and in this way they could have a main meal and a dessert all rolled into one.

I wasn´t sure if I would like Bedfordshire Clangers as they sounded a bit strange and I´m not sure if the recipe I used is a traditional one but whether it´s traditional or not, it is very tasty.Even my 2 and a half year old ate it!!Here´s a link to the recipe I used: http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/513570. The only thing I did was to halve all the ingredients....the recipe says it serves 2 but even when halved, there was plenty....in fact I think I overfilled my Clangers, which is why one has split open a little and I also had leftover filling. It managed to feed 2 of us plus my toddler! The most fiddly bit was making the wall to seperate the two fillings.
I really enjoyed this dish and will be making it now and again in the future!

Healthy Banana & Oat Muffins

I´m on a bit of a healthy eating mission at the moment and when I saw these muffins, I knew they´d be perfect as they are very healthy and full of goodness. Even more to the point, I thought they might tempt my daughter to eat some breakfast as she has become rather picky at breakfast. These muffins are an ideal wholesome breakfast and a great way to get some fruit and cereal down your children and what´s more they don´t even contain any sugar....although I have to say, it didn´t quite work with my daughter. She nibbled at them but didn´t tuck into them in quite the way I was expecting and hoping!!!

 I got the recipe from "365 Recetas para bebés y niños en edad preescolar" and I pretty much followed the recipe to the letter. Unfortunately, I myself don´t like banana so I don´t know how they actually turned out but both my husband and a friend seemed to enjoy them, even if my daughter didn´t.

Here is the recipe for about 8-10 small muffins:

Ingredients:

25g unsalted butter
3 tsp of clear honey
2 large,ripe bananas
100g flour
50g rolled oats/porridge oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
75ml milk
Method:
1.Preheat the oven to 190ºC and fill a muffin/cupcake tray with muffin or cupcake cases.
2. Heat the butter and honey on a low heat till melted.
3. Mix all the dry ingredients together.
4. Mash the banana up with a fork and add to the honey mixture, then add this and the milk to the dry ingredients.
5. When well-combined, pour the muffin batter into the cases and bake for 25 mins (Note: temperature and time may vary depending on your oven....I baked mine at 180º for 15-20 mins) or until muffins are a golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted.

Dublin Coddle for St. Patrick´s Day

Over the St.Patrick´s Day weekend,I decided to make something typically Irish and despite never having heard of or having tried Dublin Coddle, thought it sounded pretty tasty and since I had all the ingredients to hand, went ahead and made it.

Although maybe not the healthiest meal, it is certainly a very tasty one and it is a pretty easy and fairly quick meal to prepare. It is also suitable for toddlers and my daughter really enjoyed it, particularly the sausages, which she wolfed down. This is yet another dish that I will be adding to my monthly repertoire (the only reason  it won´t make a more frequent appearance is due to it not being the healthiest of meals!)

I adapted the recipe from the book Cocina Irlandesa by Anne Wilson and tried to make it a little healthier.  
I´m not sure how traditional this version of the recipe is!Apparently, it was traditionally eaten on a Saturday night.

Ingredients (for 3-4 people)
 7-8 pork sausages
4 rashers of bacon (I used smoked bacon)
1 onion, finely chopped
1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed
3 medium-sized potatoes, thinly sliced
1/4 tsp dried sage
a pinch of ground black pepper
3/4 cup of chicken stock
2 tbsp frozen parsley
olive oil

Method
1. Cook the sausage and bacon on a non-stick griddle pan,brushed with a little olive oil,till a golden brown colour.
2.Fry the onion and garlic until tender and add the bacon,cut into strips.
3.Place the potatoes in a shallow casserole dish and add a layer of garlic,onion and bacon.
4.Sprinkle the pepper and sage over it and then pour the chicken stock over everything.
5.Place the sausages on top and add the parsley.
6.Cook in a preheated oven at 180ºC for an hour until potatoes are cooked through and serve warm.Enjoy!