This week is groundbreaking as I’ve already performed two culinary experiments with a Cottage Pie and Pizza with alternative type of base – Whoopah!
Cottage Pie Recipe – secret ingredient
Believe it or not, this was the first time I’ve had a go at making Shepherds …ahem, COTTAGE Pie! As a non-liker of mash potato, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t sceptical about the dish, but we went along with it anyway! To start with, yes it was remarkably easy to make – leaving me embarrassed this was my first attempt aged 27! Luckily, to get over my fear of ruining the entire dish with soggy topped mash potato, I used one of my Mother’s secret ingredients from when I was a child to leave us with a Cottage pie with a lovely golden crisp topping.
Once you’ve put your meat sauce into an oven dish and topped with mashed potato, take a bag of plain/ready salted crisps and bash them into smithereens whilst still in the packet. Then evenly sprinkle them on top of the mashed potato before putting in the oven. You can use any standard Cottage Pie Recipe for this, so find one from a trusted source and add this little gem at the end to make your Cottage Pie stand out from the crowd!
Low calorie pizza base alternative
We’ve all been there when you have no food and you’re scrounging around in the kitchen cupboards looking for anything you can find to make a decent meal out of! The other day we decided we had a good variety of scraps to whip together a pizza – minus the vital ingredient – a pizza base!
We had some Warburtons Brown Square(ish) Wraps in the cupboard and thought we’d give it a go and use them as a pizza base. I thought GREAT, they’re low in calories, however, will they buckle under the weight of the pizza toppings? It’s also possible using these wraps as a pizza base would re-introduce my fear of soggy/floppy food that I got from the Cottage Pie recipe!
Ever willing to give it a go, we layered our pizza toppings onto the wraps as we would normally with a regular pizza base, and then placed them onto a pre-heated pizza stone at 180c. 10-15 minutes later, we took the pizzas out and luckily they tasted sublime! I was most surprised at how sturdy the base became after cooking – comfortably supporting the weight of my pizza toppings. I’m pretty certain the pizza stone would have had something to do with it, and I’d recommend one to anyone cooking pizzas on regular or improvised bases – as they do a really good job at evenly cooking your pizza.
I guess the only question now is what am I going to find for dinner tomorrow (as appealing as a trip to the supermarket sounds)!
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This post was written by Warren Nash on May 22, 2013 |
This weekend was one of the first opportunities of 2013 that many Brits took to getting out in the garden and lighting the BBQ. Although it’s nice to have seasons in England, the wet and cold ones don’t half drag on, but this weekend was a scorcher and I certainly got my moneys worth!
Firstly, you can’t beat a cooked breakfast on the BBQ – that includes Sausage, Egg, Bacon, Tomato and Toast. Egg you say? Simply stick a frying pan on the grill of the BBQ and cook the egg from there. Then throw your Sausages, halved Beef Tomatoes, Toast and Bacon onto the grill and leave them to cook and soak up that lovely charcoal flavour. If you’ve yet to try toast on the BBQ, try it this weekend and I promise you it won’t be the last time!
Next, the standard! Mates round for Burgers, Sausages, Chicken etc with cool crisp cider. Stack the BBQ with enough fuel to see you through, whip up the potato salad and enjoy the outdoor entertainment. I’m sure most of us have had the experience of putting something on the BBQ followed by a flurry of flames from beneath – cremating your food in an instant – if so, it’s usually because the food is high in fat. I like to have a little bit more control when it comes to burgers and sausages because sometimes you really don’t know what goes into them! So if you’re firing up the BBQ any time soon, be sure to check out my BBQ Burgers Recipe. Then you can put in exactly what you want with no hidden nasty’s!
Finally, to finish off the Bank Holiday weekend, we decided to do a quick stir-fry with Salmon Fillets. In my opinion, the smoky flavour from a BBQ enhances the taste of most things, but nothing more so than with fish. Grilled for about 5 minutes either side, we enjoyed the incredible flavour of freshly grilled salmon fillets on a bed of quickly fried vegetables.
If you’re new to BBQing, check out my ‘How to BBQ’ article that I wrote a while back. It’s full of tips on setting up your BBQ, prepping and marinating your food and finally cooking it all. One thing I would say – you can’t beat the flavour of solid burned fuels such as charcoal or wood, so if you have a gas BBQ, give it a go with solid fuel. If you don’t want to splash out on a new BBQ, use an old kitchen sink – a little tip I learned from my Granddad who’s still BBQing into his old age (something this waistline can also confirm)!
I have a line-up of BBQ recipes coming for 2013, so be sure to stay tuned to my YouTube Channel to be the first to see the cooking videos.
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This post was written by Warren Nash on May 8, 2013 |
I’ve been making cooking videos for a couple of years now, and I thought it was about time I made a video about who I am, where I’m from and what I do. After all, you gotta trust the person doing the cooking, so here’s me introducing myself…
Transcript
Hi, I’m Warren and I love cooking, so I thought it was about time I did a quick reflection about who I am and how far I’ve come since I started creating cooking videos on YouTube.
When I was at uni, I was so used to convenience food that when I left and first learned how to make a Bolognese from scratch, I was like “oh my God, you can make things like this not from the jar”! And from then on, I was converted. Ever since, the kitchen is where I spend most of my time because it’s in there I feed myself, which means my belly is full, and then I’m happy! So it was then my journey began all the way from my kitchen in Nottingham, England.
Luckily and to my knowledge, I managed to remove all evidence of my first ever cooking video. I wanted to do a cook-a-long video and I think I took the term a little too literally! Seriously, who wants to watch someone slicing onions for 10 minutes!?!? But since then, I just kept going – recording more videos from my kitchen and learning from each one I did.
Then, in November 2011, I was lucky enough to be the only UK winner of the YouTube Nextchef competition – which was great! I got to meet loads of other foodies to help improve my cooking videos and also got a few new snazzy bits of kit as well – and I finally got to ditch the Handycam and builders lights – well, eBay them!
Since then, I’ve seen my beloved followers increase at a rate I could only have imagined, and been truly grateful to you all for following my journey and allowing me to make cooking videos for you all. And what’s great about that? I get to hear all your comments – good and bad, and I take every single thing on board that my fans tell me – rule number one – always do a rehearsal first!
And in case you didn’t know, I’ve recently teamed up with and become a proud Tastemade partner. Allowing me to collaborate with Foodies across the globe so even more people can see my cooking videos.
It goes without saying I couldn’t have got this far without the support of my beloved followers and subscribers. It’s you who’ve kept me going and provided messages of support, or given me a kick up the arse when I needed one! So thank you for following my channel and here’s to many more years of culinary videos from me.
So that’s me! I’m Warren and I make cooking videos from my Nottinghamshire kitchen in England. Subscribe to me on YouTube, follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook! Whichever you choose, I look forward to making cooking videos for you all in the years to come.
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This post was written by Warren Nash on April 18, 2013 |
A great food to make if you’re hosting an event or have guests coming around is Nachos – and you can check out my Nachos Recipe here. However, I’m the sort of person who likes to go the extra mile when it comes to making food for friends and family, so I thought I’d have a go at making homemade Guacamole and Salsa too – best thing of all, they take hardly any time to make and don’t need cooking.
Check out the recipes here:
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Serves 5 | Prep time: 10m Cooking time: 0m | 28 calories & 0.4g fat p/serving |
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Serves 500g | Prep time: 10m Cooking time: 0m | 40 calories & 3g fat p/serving |
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Serves 4 | Prep time: 5m Cooking time: 15m | 380 calories & 25g fat p/serving |
Enjoy!
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This post was written by Warren Nash on April 11, 2013 |
So I’ve had a bit of a cold over the past few weeks, coughing all the time and a blocked nose etc – very pleasant! I thought I’d try my hand at a natural remedy to soothe the symptoms.
After all, what actually goes into off-the-shelf cold relief products? I’m pretty sure I won’t find any of these ingredients in my kitchen cupboard (Phenylephrine Hydrochloride, and Aspartame etc) – nor would I want to! Plus, the cost can soon mount up if you’re necking a good few back each day.
So a really simple recipe for you
Per drink, you will need:
- x1 Lemon
- 1-2 tsp of Sugar
- 5 cloves
…that’s it! Simply quarter your Lemon and squeeze out the juice into a mug (thanks to Sports Direct for my massive complimentary mug), then add the lemon skins to the mug as well. Throw in the Cloves and Sugar (gradually add the sugar and taste test to your liking) then fill with boiling water. Stir thoroughly and feel your sinuses scream out with relief! It’ll also do a great job at soothing your throat.
Enjoy!
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This post was written by Warren Nash on January 24, 2013 |
I’ve always been used to buying pre packed ham. After all, it’s convenient and if you get the taste the difference ranges, it can be pretty tasty. However, for my past few food shops, I’ve been buying gammon joints to make and slice my own ham, and boy can you REALLY taste the difference (at no extra cost).
So I thought I’d share some of my learnings thus far!
Saltiness
If you find the ham too salty (I did), soak the ham in water for 3-4 hours before cooking. Some may advise to leave it overnight, but I found this took away too much of the salt and a lot of the flavour too.
Cooking
Cooking a gammon joint in the oven is great, but I wanted to find a quicker way to do it, so I tried the pressure cooker. As a rule of thumb, I cooked the ham for 30 minutes per 1 kg with about a mugs worth of water added. Stabilise the pressure over the high pressure setting and leave to cook.
The ham worked out perfect and needed hardly any time to steam. I found it important to use the high pressure setting and check the ham is cooked through before slicing.
Enjoy, and let me know how you get on,
Cheers!
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This post was written by Warren Nash on January 17, 2013 |
So the New Year is upon us. I’m not sure about you, but I really don’t subscribe to going in ‘all guns blazing’ with new years resolutions at the beginning of January. I read a really good article that said you should try to commit to New Year’s intentions rather than resolutions – and I couldn’t agree more!
I still think January is a good time to begin making changes towards New Year’s resolution INTENTIONS, so as a start, I’ve decided to stay off the booze in January. It’s Sunday 6th and I’m still going strong!
As per usual, I indulged slightly too much over the Christmas period and could hear my body screaming out with relief when I went back to my previous (healthier) ways before the festive period. To catapult myself back into healthy eating, I started detoxing by making smoothies by the bucket load – and drinking a glass of Pomegranate juice daily – all for under a fiver (and that was from Waitrose too)!
Simply get yourself down the supermarket and buy the following:
For the detox
- Pomegranate juice
For the smoothies (5-6 days worth)
- Frozen summer fruits
- Frozen chopped mango
- x1 Pineapple
- Orange and Mango juice
To make the smoothie recipe, chop the Pineapple and stick into a big mixing bowl, then add the Mango and Summer fruits. Mix everything together, separate into 5-6 sandwich bags and store in the freezer.
Each morning, add the contents of one sandwich bag into a blender with some Orange and mango juice, blend, then pour into a glass and enjoy. And if you want to make it really cool and fresh, blend the fruit when it’s still partially frozen and add a few mint leaves.
Enjoy!
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This post was written by Warren Nash on January 7, 2013 |
Well, what a year it’s been! I’ve been making cooking videos on YouTube since 2009 and the past year has been (by far) my busiest. Whilst I’ve uploaded over 25 cooking videos, there’s plenty more to do – so I’ll shortly be uploading a new cooking video every week direct from my kitchen in Nottingham.
Thanks to you all!
All of this wouldn’t have been possible without the support of a number of people throughout the year. I was lucky enough to be the only UK winner of the YouTube Next Chef competition who provided great support with some top class mentors this year. Hopefully you can see how my cooking videos have come along from when I first started out on YouTube (cringe)!
What’s more, we got an extra 850 subscribers on YouTube through 2012 which means we’ve now broken the 1000 mark – huzaahh! More and more of you are signing up to my monthly email newsletter as well – so thank you to everyone who’s following me and stay tuned for more great cooking videos in 2013.
Joining Tastemade
In October I joined the Tastemade food network who will help me further to reach out to like-minded foodies looking for simple recipes to cook, along with 100’s of other creators around the globe that I can collaborate with.
And with special thanks too…
This update couldn’t go without a mention of my mentor from The Hive. Phil’s been great to throw ideas at and been there when I need him to help keep me on track with, well, everything! We met up for breakfast last month and had a few cracking ideas that I’ll be making a reality this year, so look out and you may see some exciting new things on FitBrits.com
My good friend Ross has also been a great help with his never-ending knowledge of all things ‘photography’. He’s certainly taught me a thing or two over the past year and taken some great food shots when we’ve been recording.
And one last person to thank, my lovely other half, Trish! Through 2012 she kindly adopted the role of camera woman and even let me use her snazzy new kitchen which you can see in some of my cooking videos. Who knows, maybe one day soon she wouldn’t mind featuring in an up-coming cooking video (as long as we’re cooking with wine)!
Going forward…
So for 2013, keep watching and expect to see plenty more simple cooking videos from an avid foodie from the UK.
Thanks again to everyone for supporting me – You’re amazing!
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This post was written by Warren Nash on January 4, 2013 |
So, last week I wrote about my intention to start on a new natural/preservative free (where possible) health kick. I feel obliged to say at this point that I am writing this post whilst sipping an Amaretto, but that’s purely because I need to get rid of it!
So, my shopping’s been done and delivered (this was always when I intended to start the health kick more seriously) and I have a couple of new additions that I’m really looking forward to trying.
Firstly – Flaxseed. This was recommended by my good friend and mentor Phil as a natural food to bulk up, well, almost anything! It comes in a granulated form and although there’s just over 40g of fat per 100g, only 4g is saturated fat. Which means – lots of good fats. So where do I intend to use it? Initially, I’m thinking in yogurt, porridge, salads, wraps, casseroles and rice – or, anything else that I deem boring in taste!
Secondly – Smoothies. Sometimes I’m making them all the time, and sometimes not so much. So, if I’m going to take this health kick seriously, making smoothies on a regular basis is going to be one of the permanent changes. It was the M&S Super Berry smoothie that I’ve recently succumbed to on my lunch breaks that got me back into the idea. So armed with a stash of frozen and fresh fruit, along with juice, I’ll be taking a flask of it with me to work every day.
So to summarise, although I may not be consuming the new diet yet, tomorrow’s the day when it all starts. Follow me here and see how I get on.
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This post was written by Warren Nash on October 12, 2012 |
When you think about cooking rice, what do you think of? For me, I think BORING! It’s always been that ‘last resort’ kind of ingredient where I add it to a meal because I can’t think of anything else, needless to say, it always ends up being a quick boil in a pan and I end up with a plain tasting pile of rice on my plate!
So after doing a little research, and a few experiments, I came up with this great tasting Spanish Rice Recipe. Don’t worry, it still takes approx the same amount of time to cook than normal rice, just with a few extra key ingredients to give it a real Mediterranean kick (like a quick paella). It also has my favourite ingredient in – chorizo.
Check out the cooking video below.
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This post was written by Warren Nash on October 9, 2012 |
