Whether it’s the weekend or Wednesday, a little indulgence is always nice & doesn’t need to be extravagant. Sometimes it’s the little things that bring the most joy & that includes a plate of satisfying comfort food.
When a delicious main course is centre stage, it usually requires a couple of supporting acts. All the best ones do – fish & chips, bacon & eggs, spaghetti & meatballs (the list is endless). Burgers always require a good bun, but they also need some serious sidekicks like crispy coated 
onion rings & deliciously chunky chips. These two sides are a well-loved staple in our household & with good reason.
Firstly, the chunky chips (fondly known by our family as Aimée Chips) accompany everything from fish fingers to roast chicken. They are ridiculously easy & totally faff-free – chop them up & chuck them in the tin kind of cooking.
Secondly, there are crispy light onion rings that literally melt in the mouth. These oh-so-delicate flavoursome delicacies are perfectly 
light & crisp, tasting much naughtier than they actually are. Before you start worrying about chips & onion rings being deep fried or not very healthy, the best bit is … there’s no frying required because they’re all baked! That also means no hot pans to stand & watch (because nobody has the time for all that).
Ready to bake it happen? Starting with my Aimée Chips! Hands washed, aprons on & here we go!
What you need:
6-8 medium Potatoes (nothing fancy, whatever you’ve got is fine)
Sea Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tablespoon Coarse Semolina Flour
What to do:
Pre-heat the oven to 220*C & get a large roasting tin to cook the chips in.
Wash & dry your potatoes well, leaving the skins on. Cut them into thick wedges. Don’t worry about them being exact-sized, just make them at least the thickness of your thumb. Place them all into a roasting tin.
Drizzle well with the olive oil, then dust with a good pinch each of black pepper & sea salt, about a quarter teaspoon. Tip: if you’re preparing these in advance, do not add the salt until you are ready to cook them. The salt will make them rock hard & no amount of cooking will soften them up.
Sprinkle the coarse semolina flour over the chips, shaking everything around to coat them thoroughly. Place each potato wedge skin-side down in the tin (this helps stop them sticking to the tin, as they’re curved & touching less surface area – little bit of science-y stuff there).
Bake in the centre of the oven at 220*C for about 20-25 minutes, giving them a shake half-way through. When they’re crispy & deeply golden, remove the tin from the oven & place on a rack. To keep them warm, place another baking tray loosely over the top (leave a gap to allow steam to escape) & then reheat just before serving for about 5 minutes in a hot oven.
Onto those deliciously delectable onion rings! No frying pan required, just a large baking tray & a little baking magic. Hands washed & here we go!
What you need:
2-3 large Brown/Spanish Onions
2 large Free Range Eggs
4oz Plain Flour
2 tablespoons Greek or Natural Yoghurt (full fat or 0% fat is fine)
Sea Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
What to do:
Pre-heat the oven to 220*C. Prepare a large baking tray – line with a sheet of greaseproof paper. I use Bacofoil Non-Stick Baking Paper for this (it’s strong & textured, so stands up to the heat without disintegrating). You don’t need to use it, but it stops your onion rings from sticking to the tin & means you use less oil.
Prepare your onions – remove the tops & tails, take off the outer papery skins & cut into thick chunky slices.
Pop out the centres, then each inner onion ring, being careful not to break them. Place them onto a plate or board & set aside. The tiny chunky centres can be saved for another day – simple chop them into pieces, spread onto a tray & freeze for 10 minutes. Once frozen, tip them all into an airtight bag & pop back in the freezer – no big lumps of onion this way & no waste!
Tip the flour into a shallow dish & season with a little salt & pepper. Give it a good stir to mix well.
In another shallow dish, crack the eggs & add the Greek Yoghurt, along with a little salt & pepper again. Give it a good whisk with a fork to break up the eggs & blend into a thick, gloopy liquid.
Take an onion ring, coating it in the yoghurt & egg mixture all over, inside & out. Shake off the excess & drop into the flour. Coat well, again making sure you cover the inside too. Don’t worry if the flour goes lumpy, that’s fine. Lift the onion ring out, shake off the excess flour & pop onto the baking tray.
Repeat this until all the onion rings have been dipped & dunked in egg & flour. Place them all next to each other on the baking tray & don’t worry about them touching too much.
Drizzle olive oil all over the onion rings (don’t bathe it, just a light drizzle is fine) & bake in the centre of the oven for about 12-15 minutes, turning them over halfway through cooking.
Once they’re crispy & bronzed, carefully remove the onion rings from the tray using a fork or tongs & place onto a cooling rack with a bit of greaseproof paper underneath (just in case there are any oily drips).
Remember to pop your chunky chips back in the oven for a few minutes to warm up (remove the baking tray from the top) & that’s it, they’re all done!
Perfect piled up next to a beautiful burger or simply stacked up as a savoury snack, these crispy baked beauties are delicious sides by side anytime! Stay hungry! Aimee 😉 x
the end of November, I had already chopped, mashed & stashed an array of side dishes in readiness, cramming pots of fluffy potatoes, gorgeous gravy & cauliflower cheesiness into my freezer. Most of us work & don’t have the time to faff around in the kitchen, so a bit of prep now will make all the difference. It’s like giving yourself the gift of time! Because I’m covering a few things here, you will need some strong coffee to keep you going & a few Little Helpers to share the load (bribes at the ready if necessary!). This also works for Thanksgiving too.
exception. A week or two before, I make a mountain of mashed potatoes & a giant cauliflower cheese (sometimes with broccoli), then freeze them in two-person portions (for the recipe, click on this link to my blog: 
completely & I started making my own from scratch. It’s so simple, you can make it in advance & freeze it until you need it! If you prefer it inside the bird, just make your stuffing the day before, cover it & leave in the fridge. Depending on the size of your dinner party or the size of your bird, just increase quantities as required (I say “bird” because not everyone eats turkey, my family included, as we prefer chicken). Hands washed, aprons on & here goes!
1 large Onion, finely chopped
Sprinkle the Sage & Rosemary into the pan with a pinch of Thyme, add the breadcrumbs & stir well. The residual heat from the pan will bring everything together nicely, so just mix well. Season with a little sea salt & black pepper, stirring well again. If you’re adding the roasted chopped chestnuts or lemon zest, do this now.
If you’re making stuffing balls, get yourself an ice-cream scoop (spring-loaded will make your life easier & will also ensure they are all roughly the same size). Put some of the mixture into the ice-cream scoop (you don’t want to damage your pan by scraping it!) & press it in gently. Release the ball from the scoop, shape it into a nice sized ball in your hand & place on the greaseproof paper. Repeat until you’ve used the whole lot.
oven for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown on top, turning halfway. Once cooked, either serve immediately with your roast dinner, or place on a cooling rack (still on the greaseproof paper) & leave to cool completely. These can then be frozen & reheated on the day you want them. That’s the stuffing stuffed!
Once you’ve got your sides sorted, Christmas Day becomes a doddle – just take them out of the freezer the night before, pop them into an ovenproof dish to defrost & that’s it, prep done! They can be reheated in the oven while the bird is resting & the veg are roasting. This is also handy when unexpected extras turn up for dinner, because you’ll have a spare pot you can defrost (making you look like the most organised person ever & score major Brownie points!).
quality one that you like, then pimp it up with a few little tweaks. Simply scoop the whole lot into a small saucepan & break up with a wooden spoon, heating very gently. Add a shot of Sherry or Port, stirring carefully into the cranberry sauce. Sprinkle a little orange or lemon zest into the pan, about half a teaspoon, & stir gently for a minute or two. Pour it into a small dish to cool, then cover & put in the fridge until you’re ready to serve!
a pint into a jug. To remove any fat from the stock (that’s the golden bubbles you can see here), get yourself a few sheets of kitchen paper & touch it gently on the top – the grease will attach itself to the paper, which you can then throw away (no faffing around trying to separate it).
Remove from the oven & tip them onto a cooling rack. Either pile them up onto a plate for your dinner guests or let them go cold, bag them up & pop them in the freezer. Then when you fancy a Yorkshire pud, put them on a tray in the oven for about 4-5 minutes to reheat & crisp up – I like to use the residual heat from the turned off oven after cooking dinner. They’re also rather nice with a spoonful of jam & a drizzle of single cream (or tinned evaporated milk).
also the time of year my Husband & I met, so we always celebrate our first date (it involved a large Harley Davidson Sportster, a couple of hundred bikers delivering Christmas presents & rather a lot of tinsel!). 
Christmas Day. Some of these multi-tasking munchies can even be used as a starter, so make a few extra (which is my mantra, as you probably know by now). One of my favourites (& apparently everyone else’s!) are baked cheesy biscuits – you can serve them simply on their own or with a dip, or even pipe some cream cheese on them & decorate with chopped chives. They are really easy to make & the recipe is in my blog called “Grate Expectations” – here’s the link for speed: 
Scoop spoonfuls of the breadcrumb mixture into each mushroom – be generous & keep going until every mushroom is crammed full, then sprinkle with a little more cheese. Any leftover breadcrumb mixture, chuck it in the fridge for later (someone always turns up late or you might fancy a midnight snack). Scatter a few pine nuts over the top (these are gorgeous & have a sort of popcorn taste to them).
If you’re preparing them in advance, cover in cling film now & pop them in the fridge until you need them (they keep until the next day at least). Otherwise, bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden & gorgeous. These are great hot or cold, either on their own or with dips, or just with a green salad as a starter.
prepped by one of your Helpers a few days before, then stashed in the fridge in airtight containers or bags, ready to be whipped out with a delicious dip anytime! If you fancy something different, try raw crunchy cauliflower florets (one of my faves), sliced peppers, sugarsnap peas & mangetout. Give them a good wash, trim the ends & stand them in a cup. One thing I don’t do at this time of year is make dips – I really cannot be bothered & what with all the other stuff to do, just buy some nice ones & store them in the fridge until needed. Simply scoop them into individual tea cups with saucers & dinky spoons (saving your table from splodges), rather than leaving them in a plastic tray – even if they do have one of those optimistic re-sealable tops, dips always disappear first!
Measure your spices into a cup & carefully mix together. (Sometimes, I only use half this mixture & sprinkle the rest over chunky raw potato slices, drizzled in olive oil, to make spicy wedges in the oven – bake at 220*C for 25 minutes & serve with a cooling dip, like Greek yoghurt mixed with a few chopped mint leaves).
Take a couple of pieces of chicken, coat them in the egg & shake off the excess. Chuck them in the breadcrumb mixture & pat this onto the chicken to ensure it’s coated well. Place them into the roasting tin & repeat until you have coated all the chicken. Drizzle more olive oil over the top (drizzle, not drown).
Spread them on a huge plate for people to help themselves – turn it into a starter with a salad, a couple of potato wedges & a yoghurt & mint dip, or leave them to cool before freezing them in a bag until needed. Job done!
to head to the local shops & pick up whatever is in season. Most people go shopping with a list; I like to just see what’s available, then decide what I can make from that.
500g Stewing Meat – I prefer beef, but you can use whatever you like (adjust which herbs you use accordingly)
Prepare the vegetables – peel, top & tail the carrots, onions & parsnips. Dice the onions. Chop the other veg into bite sized pieces – I usually cut them down the centre lengthways, then again & chop them into pieces. Share them between the two casserole dishes.
Once it’s cooked, place the stews on a cooling rack or thick wooden chopping board. Using a fork & spoon, fish out the Thyme twigs & discard them – the leaves will have gone into the stew. If you want to thicken your gravy, my tip here is to strain some off from each pot, about half a pint each, then heat it up in a saucepan while stirring. This thickens it up nicely, without going like treacle. Then pour it back into each pot, stirring into the meat & veg, 
before serving in huge bowls with lots of fresh, thick cut bread to mop up the gravy.