Thursday 1 August 2019

SITE NO LONGER UPDATED


Hi everyone, I just wanted to share a notice to confirm that I won’t be updating the website anymore for the ChefBeHere blog. You can still find me sharing recipes and photos of my greatest meals if you head to Instagram @chefbehere and this website will stay live, so you can check back here to look up recipes that I’ve shared over years gone by. Rather than keeping up the blog though, I’ve decided it’s time to give something new a go and try my hand at writing something different for a change. Thank you to everyone though who’s been reading my blog posts all these years and getting stuck in with the recipes at home. I hope you continue to eat great food – I know I will. Thanks for all your support, Hayley x



Saturday 8 June 2019

THE SPEEDY SPAGHETTI ONE-PAN WONDER

Recipe of the week...
...Syn-Free One-Pan Prawn Pasta


Ingredients: Low-calorie cooking spray e.g. Frylight, 1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 3 fresh tomatoes, 450g baby spinach leaves, 240ml passata, 1 vegetable stock cube, 2 drops tabasco sauce, 20 large peeled raw prawns, 200g spaghetti, salt and pepper to season

Serves: 2 portions

Time taken: 45 mins max

Dietary: Pescetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free (and syn-free on Slimming World!)

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Hi readers,

How are you all today? Is your weekend off to a good start? Do you have anything exciting planned?

As I write, it’s a gusty and rainy Saturday evening in June. Not at all the balmy summer weather that we love to imagine here in the UK, as Storm Miguel has blown in to spoil our barbecue plans. And it’s landed just in time for the weekend.

As they say – you really can’t rely on the weather, readers. I have a ticket to attend an outdoorsy folk music event this evening and looking out of my window right now, it’s not very tempting to go! Think of me this evening, readers, while you settle in on your settee for the return of Killing Eve. I will likely be wind-battered out in a muddy field somewhere up north. Standing as close to the campfire as is feasible, in a bid to not freeze my tits off. Trying to catch faint strains of folk music over the deafening sound of a gale force wind.

But I’ve prepaid for the ticket. So, I’m going.

--

- Food for thought -

This week, readers, I can recommend you a few things. Lately, I’ve been…

Listening

The song that we’d all love to hate! No one is supposed to admit they like Just Bieber or, heaven forbid, they like Ed Sheeran. But I do like singing along to their best songs on a sunny day, and I think this song is a summer smash! It’s lifting me up when I hear it on the radio during a long commute, and powering me on during runs around the park... it rocks my socks.



Watching

Again, think of me what you will, but I was raised on Disney films and it’s exciting when a new remake comes out. Me and the Mr made it to the cinema last week for a date night to see Aladdin and, despite ending up on the very front row being blasted by the aircon, we enjoyed it! A spectacular, upbeat, colourful evening of light entertainment. I’ve been singing A Whole New World ever since – much to the Mr’s joy. He wasn’t so impressed with the bad guy Jaffar in this new 2019 version of the film – not bad enough, is the verdict. But, otherwise, a fun and uplifting film that I’d recommend you all go to see.



Reading

I’m squeezing in a read of my own between Book Club selections and have taken on a whodunnit-type crime thriller, following a troubled young journalist with a history of self-harm and a dangerous relationship with sharp objects, as she reports on a double murder in her hometown. Right now, it seems like everyone one of the characters could be the murderer! The plot has me gripped and it’s not a big book, so I don’t think it’ll be long before I make it to the end. I’d recommend this book as an easy read. If you’re not that big on reading and looking for a slim page-turner to take on holiday with you. Or if, like me, you’re in a monthly Book Club and like to squeeze in a shorter read between your meet-ups, then Sharp Objects could be a spot-on addition to your reading list.  

 


Enjoying

Walking a dog
If you’re local to Sheffield and would love to own-your-own doggos, but can’t right now, then Mill House Animal Sanctuary is the place to go. Located up Fulwood way, the sanctuary takes in dogs and looks after them until they can be found a new home. If you head on over, and pop some change in their collection bucket, they’re happy for you to take a dog out on a walk around the local area. You just need to be back by 3pm. I think this is a great idea! Free dog walkers for the sanctuary, donations to keep them running, and lots of love and attention for the dogs while they’re staying at Mill House. Plus, I imagine plenty of dog walkers make it back to the sanctuary enquiring how to adopt their new four-legged friend. We walked a little Jack Russell called Oscar, with a funny skip as he walked and a dislike of most people that we crossed paths with. A little character!




Wondering

Whether I can shift the final 2 pounds in 2 weeks?
For any regulars to the blog, you may have heard of me joining Slimming World just after Christmas, in a bid to lose a little winter weight and slim down for a holiday in June. That holiday is now a mere 17 days away (woohoo!) and this week at Slimming World I was handed my 1-stone certificate, which is a massive achievement for me. I’ve 2 pounds more to go in order to achieve my target, before we fly away on holiday, and 2 more weigh-ins to attend. So, I’m planning on eating lots of speed foods this next couple of weeks!! Can I do it, readers? Watch this space…



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- Feeding a friend -

My recipe this week, readers, is one that my housemate cooked for me for Flat Dinner recently. It’s so lovely to have my tea cooked for me, and my housemate’s made us some excellent teas so I always look forward to nights when she’s feeding me – the food is good every time!

On the menu this week was a prawn spaghetti based on a recipe which she found on the Slimming Eats website – you can read the original here. We’ve both been trying really hard lately with our slimming as we’d quite like to call it a day soon and be free of Slimming World, so this is a syn-free recipe. You can tuck in with no guilt whatsoever. 



I enjoyed this recipe so much, readers, that I've gone on to make it again. I can't get enough! To me, this pasta tastes how good food should. And it’s wonderfully easy to prepare – with only one pan required!

Want to give it a go? Well, check it out – here’s the recipe in just ten simple steps…
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- Syn-Free One-Pan Prawn Pasta -

Ingredients: Low-calorie cooking spray e.g. Frylight, 1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 3 fresh tomatoes, 450g baby spinach leaves, 240ml passata, 1 vegetable stock cube, 2 drops tabasco sauce, 20 large peeled raw prawns, 200g spaghetti, salt and pepper to season

1.     Get in the groove! Let’s make this enjoyable – set the radio playing and pour a tasty drink. Crack open the window (if there isn’t a gale force wind blowing) and let some fresh air in. Tidy around and set the table. Give your surface a quick wipe and gather together the ingredients. Now, you’re all set.

2.     Begin with some veg prep – chop the onion and crush the cloves of garlic. Peel and chop your tomatoes.

3.     Set a large frying pan or wok warming on a medium heat and spray liberally with Frylight.

4.     Add the onions and garlic and cook until they’re beginning to brown.

5.     Then, add the tomatoes and cook until they’re just beginning to break down.

6.     Fill and boil the kettle, and make up your stock using 500ml of boiling water.

7.     Add your dry spaghetti to the frying pan, along with the stock, passata, tabasco, and spinach.

8.     Turn up the heat under the frying pan and bring it to a boil. Simmer until the sauce reduces, stirring often, for 5-10 minutes.

9.     Then add in the raw prawns and continue to simmer, stirring often for another 5-10 minutes until the pasta and prawns are cooked.

10.  Season generously with salt and pepper, then turn off the hob under the pan. Spoon your pasta out evenly between two bowls, and serve up. Time to tuck in!


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- Recipe round up -

And that’s all there is to it, readers! Would you have thought that you could cook your spaghetti and your prawns in the sauce for your pasta while it reduces? It’s not something that I’d have though to try and not something I’ve heard of being done before – but somehow it works, and it comes out tasting delicious, I can report.

If you’re a fan of a prawn and you’re a pasta lover, too, then this is dish that will float your boat, readers. It’s just simple home-cooked food, tasting great and prepared in no time at all. Filling and delicious to tuck into. If you’re considering pinging a microwave meal in tonight or sliding a tray of freezer food in the oven… or calling the local takeaway! I say make that little extra effort and prepare yourself, and your friend or your partner, a proper meal from scratch which will be made with love and a total taste sensation.

Good luck in the kitchen if you brave it, readers. And, for anyone trying out this recipe, I hope you enjoy your pasta just as much as I did when you get to tuck in. Here’s wishing you all a fab rest of your weekend – take care, stay dry, and eat well, readers!

Simmer safely,

Hayley

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- Closing thoughts -

If you’ve been inspired to give this recipe a try, readers, whether I’m speaking to you on the day of this post or you’re reading some far out time in the future... please drop me a line to let me know whether it went okay. I’d love to hear how you got on in the kitchen and your thoughts on this dish. Plus, it’d be fab if you’re able to share any tips you have for success, or your suggestions to improve the recipe? Please send your wisdom my way.

Thank you for reading!




Monday 29 April 2019

SEA BASS ON A SATURDAY NIGHT


Recipe of the week...
... Sammy Sea Bass
with Crunchy Carrots


Ingredients: 4 sea bass fillets, 2 carrots, 1 cucumber, 6 radishes, 2 red chillies, 2 tablespoons fish sauce, 4 teaspoons sesame oil, juice of 1 lime, big handful of coriander sprigs, 70g cashew nuts, low-calorie cooking spray e.g. Frylight, salt and pepper

Serves: 2 decent portions

Time taken: Half an hour

Dietary: Pescetarian (and 14.5 syns per portion on Slimming World)

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Hi readers,

How are we all today? Is your week off to a wonderful start yet? Monday’s firmly out of the way now as we head on to bedtime. And that can only be a good thing – the week’s an easy ride from here, I tell you.

And, has your Monday been that bad, really? Nah, I bet not! We all love to moan about Mondays, readers, and it’s no joy when the alarm clock sprigs back into action. But, they’re never that bad in the end. Today it was a bit foggy in Sheffield, and I cc’d the wrong person on an email, and the shower would not be warm when it could instead alternate dramatically between hot and cold.

BUT, also, the weather stayed dry today and so I made it on a lunchtime walk. And the oven at home has amazingly been repaired and now, for the first time in a year living here, we even have an oven light. And, on my run this evening, the shuffle mode on my phone’s music library kindly played me some absolute banging tunes.

Sooo great day after all – thank you, universe! And how has your Monday been, readers? If you were throwing together a highlights reel right now – what would be the best moments that you’d select from your day today?

--

- Food for thought -

This week, readers, even though it’s only Monday I already have much to recommend for you. Lately, I’ve been…

Listening

To:





I’ll say no more, readers, but highly recommend each of these tracks which I keep listening to recently.


Watching
Fleabag
A friend recommended this show to me recently. The second series has just finished and, as they’re six-part series with half-an-hour long episodes, it’s not that much of an undertaking at this point to catch up. And I’d definitely advise getting in now, readers, before you find yourself on the fringe of a Fleabag centred conversation, with no clue and twenty series in the way of you joining in. I’d summarily say Fleabag is random, smart, funny, sweet, and unexpected. And if you consider yourself to be anything of the sort – then do give the show a watch.


Reading

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton
My dad bought me this book for Christmas, presumably based on either a good review or a prominent placing on a bookshop display. Whatever made him choose it – I’m glad he did! A real Cluedo-style murder mystery, this whodunnit is set among the corridors and grounds of a crumbling, grand old mansion, walked by a ruthless host of characters all enemies to each other and themselves... And, also, there’s a mind-bending twist on the plot whereby the main character (you) has eight days to solve the murder which takes place, of Evelyn Hardcastle, that’s eight of the same day though repeated over and over but in the body of a different character each time. Yes! What great reading. It’s one to keep your mind ticking over, readers, with a plotline to rival Inception I’d say. Do read.



Enjoying

Some good old fresh air
Get out and stretch your legs, readers, if you haven’t recently. Go traipse around the local shops with a tenner in your pocket, or pick a town you’ve never visited before and drive there to explore. Or look up routes for walks in some far-flung corner of your county which you’ve never felt the need to visit. Go there. Or, be impulsive, set off walking from home and turn left and right at random until you’re quite lost in your own area. Or think of somewhere that you’d like to go to and which you deem to be within driving distance, but tell yourself you can only go if you in fact walk it on this occasion… anything for a good walk, readers.


Wondering

Whether some people choose to eat quark?
As opposed to feeling compelled to eat quark, as part of their gruelling mission towards weight loss, following a diet which insists on this unearthly cross between natural yogurt... and cream cheese. I suspect I’m among the majority on the health kick bandwagon – but do some people out there genuinely eat quark because they like it? Or, out of serious fandom, because Nicole Sherzinger eats it, too? I wonder if non-dieters really eat and, possibly, enjoy quark.


--

- Feeding a friend -

My recipe this week, readers, is one with absolutely not quark in it – hurray!

It’s one I cooked for the Mr on Saturday night after he’d been at work all day – boo! – as a reward for all his hard work. I thought it was a nice gesture. And it did seem to improve his mood from the starter to the dessert, in a gin-fuelled vision of cheer, once he shook off all the cares of the working world.

I believe my sea bass dinner concoction played a large part in this all, readers – and it holds great potential to lift the spirits of your date, too! Not that they wouldn’t be skipping to the front door with kisses on their ready lips, in the first place. But, say, they’ve had a bloody hard day at work, their lunch was subpar, and the traffic was terrible… do not fear as you’re armed with a (well above par) sea bass recipe, which is certainly going to turn things around for your romantic date night in.



This week’s recipe, readers, for Sammy Sea Bass with Crunchy Carrots is one from the dashing Joe Wicks’ ‘Lean in 15’ recipe book, which I’ve recently been gifted. And if you’d like to give this recipe a go yourself, readers, then here it is in just ten simple steps…

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- Sammy Sea Bass with Crunchy Carrots -


Ingredients: 4 sea bass fillets, 2 carrots, 1 cucumber, 6 radishes, 2 red chillies, 2 tablespoons fish sauce, 4 teaspoons sesame oil, juice of 1 lime, big handful of coriander sprigs, 70g cashew nuts, low-calorie cooking spray e.g. Frylight, salt and pepper

1.     If you’re cooking this for a date night in, like myself, then you’re going to want to prep heavily before your date arrives. Leave a good 45 mins for the prep (that’s not taking into account any additional graft required for the starter or dessert).

ChefBeHere Top Tip: To make this less stressful – crack open a window for some fresh air, pour yourself an alcoholic drink, and set Smooth Radio playing.

2.     Then, have a good wipe around so you’re beginning with a tidy kitchen, set your table, light a candle, and make sure the glasses for drinks are nicely clean. Is dessert prepped and chilling in the fridge? Is starter either ready to cook, or ready to eat?

ChefBeHere Top Tip: I went for the full three course dinner, but the starter was simply olives from the cupboard – which I drizzled with olive oil, then seasoned with salt, pepper, and mixed herbs. Any excuse to get out my special olive dish from France! And I opted for a shop bough dessert – fresh cream yoyos – so no prep work at all. That, I highly recommend.

3.     Now, time to move on to main course prep. First, begin by slicing the carrots and cucumber into ribbons, using either a vegetable peeler or a cheese slicer. De-seed and finely slice your red chillies (be careful not to touch your eyes, during). Top, tail and slice your radishes. Roughly chop the cashew nuts and the coriander, too.

4.     Next, put the carrot in a large bowl with the cucumber, radishes and chilli. Pour over the fish sauce, sesame oil, and squeeze the juice of your lime into the bowl. Mix the whole lot together until all your ingredients are well coated.

5.     Then, lay the sea bass with the skin still on, skin side up on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Squirt liberally with Frylight and season the fish with salt.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: At this point, pause to freshen up and then greet your date. Enjoy your starter course together before proceeding onto Step 6… and wowing them with your culinary skills in-action.

6.     Begin by heating the grill to maximum – don’t be afraid. Slide the fish that you’ve prepared under the hot grill. Cook the fish, without turning, for about seven minutes, by which time the skin will have crisped up and blistered in a few places.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: While the fish is cooking, use this time to top up both your drinks. Why not share a joke, if you have one? Compliment your date on their sharp outfit / glowing tan / how well they look.  

7.     Make sure the sea bass is done by checking that the flesh has turned from a raw pale colour to a cooked bright white, then switch off the grill.

8.     While the fish is sitting under the turned-off grill, keeping warm, take out two dinner plates and spoon the carrot salad out evenly between the two plates.

9.     Safely remove your tray of fish from the oven (no matter how drunk you are – do use oven gloves here) and, with a spatula in hand, slide the fish out over the salad so that there are two fillets of seabass on each plate.

10.  Scatter over some coriander and garnish with cashew nuts to finish, then season with salt and black pepper, before serving up dinner to your lovely date.




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- Recipe round up -

And that’s all there is to it, readers! What do you reckon? Could you pull this off under the hot spotlight of a date night-in scenario? With your hair big, your outfit small, and the drinks flowing?

Just think, readers, if you can pull this off and dazzle throughout, then all that’s left to do afterwards is retrieve the desserts from the fridge and triumphantly sink your spoon into something chocolatey, while your date reels off the highlights of the meal for them on a course-by-course basis, proffers never to have tasted fish like it before, and generally overwhelms you with outrageous compliments in favour of your cooking…

Whether these are entirely true or not, whether they’re a device aimed to encourage you to feed your date more often, whether it’s all part of an effort to spur you into digging out that Baileys (yes! it’s in here somewhere) still left over from Christmas… Who cares, readers, you’ll feel pretty good all the same while you’re deservedly tucking into dessert.

And, who knows? Your date might even tackle the dishes for you! A chef can always hope.

If you take on this recipe, readers, inspired by all that you’ve read here today, I wish you good luck in the kitchen. Go forth and be lean. Have fun, remember, while cooking. Dance around a bit and sing along to all the best songs. No improv on the night – even if you’re tempted – do stick to the recipe no matter what, and follow all the steps as they’re written from start to finish. It’ll work out for the best, trust me. I believe – you can do it!

Go, grill safely,

Hayley

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- Closing thoughts -

If you’ve been inspired to give this recipe a try, readers, whether I’m speaking to you on the day of this post or you’re reading some far out time in the future... please drop me a line to let me know whether it went okay. I’d love to hear how you got on in the kitchen and your thoughts on this dish. Plus, it’d be fab if you’re able to share any tips you have for success, or your suggestions to improve the recipe? Please send your wisdom my way.

Thank you for reading!