Ingredients

-2 large onions

-700 gr of fresh beef mince meat

-One packet of cannelloni shells

-4 cloves of garlic

-Salt and pepper

-100 gr of mozzarella slices

*For the red sauce

I had no tomatoes,so I had to cheat and use ready made pasta sauce with herbs

*For the white sauce

-1 egg yolk

-3 cups of full fat milk

-2 cups of flour

-20 gr of unsalted butter

-plenty of nutmeg

A 20x20 non stick bake pan

Preparation time:20 minutes

Cooking time:45-50 minutes

One thing I would like to mention is that for the preparation of the mince meat I used a wok.

Irish beef can be very fatty,so I decided to use a pan that requires no extra fat to cook,and cooking in the wok is a lot faster,so always keep the temperature on very low.

Step One

-Finely chop the onions and garlic  and place in the wok and fry for 5 minutes until brown and soft.

-Add the mince meat ,stir well and fry until brown for another 7 minutes

-Remove from heat and allow any extra liquid to be absorbed.

Step Two

Preparing the red sauce:

-As I said in my case unfortunately due to the fact that I had no time and no tomatoes,I used ready made tomato     sauce with seasoning such as oregano,salt and pepper.

Step Three

-Poor the red sauce at the bottom of the pan 

-Stuff the cannelloni shells with a spoon.What I did is I used a small dessert spoon ,and put the stuffing in and at the end pushed it with the back end of the spoon,and that way I was sure that it was perfectly stuffed.

-Place the cannelloni in the baking pan on top of the red tomato sauce.

Step Four

Preparing the white sauce

-Melt the butter in a small saucepan

-Add the flour

-Pour the milk slowly ,while stirring the ingredients constantly 

-Add the egg and nutmeg ,stir until thick but runny

-Place the white sauce on top of the cannelloni 

Step Five

Place baking pan in oven,adjust oven temperature to 180 and the baking tray in the middle of your oven.

Step Six

-10 minutes before removing the dish from the oven,place thick mozzarella slices on top of the cannelloni and allow another 10 minutes in the oven.

Cannelloni is best served with a cold salad


My favourite salad for this season is very plain and healthy
You will need:
-Carrots
-Celery sticks
-Iceberg
-Spinach 
-Plain greek style yogurt
-Dill 
-Cucumber
-Spring onion


I never use a knife to chop my carrots and cucumber.What I do instead is I use a potato peeler ,and peel them off,so I have long stripes of carrots and cucumber ,and it always makes the dish look pretty.
Add the dill in the yogurt with a few drops of virgin olive oil ,and add it to the salad.

What I did forget to mention is that canelloni goes beautifully with red wine of your choice.


What I did forget to mention was that we started our night ,with a lovely platter of 3 types of cheese
of course what cheese to choose is a very personal decision,I suggest that your platter has a theme.
For example make a plate with entirely Spanish cheese or English 
Crackers and bread are the best garnish for the plate.Use plain crackers,they don't interfere with the cheese
Don't overwhelm or stuff your guests.

This is what my cheese platter looked like :

And finally Dessert


I didn't put too much thought into the dessert.
For me the most obvious decision was to make the all time classic Brownies with vanilla ice cream!!!
Now I've got to be honest,the ice-cream was not made by me,but it was organic pure Irish ice cream and it was delicious!!
The recipe for the brownies was a classic one which has not failed me yet


Ingredients
-175 gr of plain dark chocolate
-2 cups of caster sugar
-50gr of unsalted butter 
-2 cups of all purpose flour 
-6 eggs
-1tsp of vanilla extract
-1tsp of baking powder
-1 cup of nuts (I use hazelnuts)




Step One


-Melt the butter on a low heat 
-Add the chocolate and stir well
-Remove pan from fire and add the eggs,sugar,flour,vanilla,baking powder and nuts
A lot of people blend the flour and the rest of  ingredients  in a separate bowl ,I choose to do them all together.


Step Two


This is what your brownies should look like :