Chilli Chicken One-Pot

This recipe was chosen after a need to use up some left over chorizo and what a great choice it was 🙂

As a big fan of one-pot dishes, they come into their element when having guests over for dinner, as you can spend time with them, instead of slaving away in the kitchen, while the aroma fills the house.

Definitely make sure you have some zingy chorizo to go with this, as the flavours really seep into the chicken. A warming hearty dish to try and make the rain and floods of the British winter go away!

Ingredients:
2 large onions, halved and sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
265g chorizo ring, peeled and thickly sliced
4 red peppers, deseeded and cut into large chunks
2 x 400g/14oz can chopped tomato
2 chicken stock cubes
½-1 tsp dried chilli flakes
2 tsp dried oregano
16 boneless skinless chicken thighs
3 x 410g/14oz cans red kidney beans, drained

To serve:
15g pack coriander, chopped
2-3 avocado, skinned and sliced
good squeeze lime juice


1. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Fry the onions in the oil for 5 mins until they become soft and start to colour. Add the chorizo and fry for a few mins more. Stir in the peppers, then pour in the tomatoes, followed by a can of water, the stock cubes, chilli and oregano.

2. Arrange the chicken thighs on top of the sauce, pushing them under the liquid. Bring to a simmer, cover, then cook in the oven for 40 mins. Add the beans, stir, then cook for 20 mins more. You can make this up to 2 days ahead and keep chilled.

3. To serve, reheat on the top of the stove or in the oven at 190C/fan 170C/gas 5 for 1 hr 10 mins until piping hot. Stir in most of the coriander, toss the rest with the avocado, lime and a little salt, then pile this on top. Serve with Garlic & oregano bread (below) and a bag of green salad tossed with olives, cherry tomatoes and finely sliced red onion.

Recipe from Good Food magazine, May 2008

Enjoy!

Indonesian fried rice with mackerel

Having spent lunch at one of Surrey’s finest hostelries, there was no way I wanted to cook something big for supper, so ended up searching for something light and tasty, using up what I had in the fridge. Searching for mackerel and rice, I actually found the following recipe on the BBC Food website. Making sure I had everything else in my cupboards, this recipe took about 20 minutes to make from start to finish. It had a clean spicy flavour and actually left me wanting more, after I finished my bowl. I have only just started getting in to rice dishes and this was nearly as good as the trio roast I had in the pub!

I might just have to re-use the base of this recipe later, as I have a ham end I need to use up 😉

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tbsp red curry paste
pinch caster sugar
800g cooked basmati rice (about 250g-300g uncooked)
small bunch spring onions, sliced
140g frozen peas
2 tbsp soy sauce, plus extra to serve
4 smoked mackerel fillets, flaked


1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok. Tip in the eggs and swirl to coat the base of the pan. Cook for 1 min, then flip and cook the other side until set. Remove and roughly chop into ribbons.

2. Add the curry paste and sugar and fry for 1 min. Tip in the rice and stir to coat in the paste, then add the spring onions and peas. Stir-fry for 2-3 mins until everything is really hot. Add the soy sauce, then gently toss through the omelette ribbons and mackerel.

3. Divide between 4 bowls and garnish with the cucumber. Serve with extra soy sauce, if you like.

Enjoy!

Greek Lamb Fricassee

In Greek: αρνί φρικασέ, pronounced ar-NEE free-kah-SEH

The Greek definition of “fricassee” may differ from what you know as a French dish, and this ‘is’ a Greek classic. Lamb fricassee with avgolemono (a traditional egg-lemon sauce) is a favourite in Greek homes.

It’s an easy recipe to make and a celebration of taste. This is a Jamie Oliver version of the famous dish and while it may not be the prettiest of dishes, it certainly makes up for it with a deep and hearty flavour!

Ingredients:
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 medium-sized onion, sliced
2 bunches spring onions, including green stems, finely chopped
2 heads cos lettuce, washed and finely shredded
1 bunch fresh dill, finely chopped
1.5kg boned leg of lamb, trimmed and cut into 5cm pieces
Green salad and bread, to serve

Avgolemono sauce
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Juice of 1½ lemons


1. Heat the oil over medium heat in a large saucepan and sauté the lamb for 5–7 minutes or until browned on all sides. Add the garlic, onion and spring onions and cook for 5 minutes until they begin to soften. Add the lettuce and dill and cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly until the lettuce wilts. Season generously with sea salt and ground black pepper. Add water to just cover the stew and simmer for 1½–2 hours or until the meat is tender.

2. For avgolemono, whisk the eggs and lemon juice together and ladle in some broth from the stew while whisking. Pour into the stew and combine wellwith a wooden spoon. Continue to stir over a low heat (being careful that the sauce does not curdle) for 3–5 minutes until the sauce begins to thicken. Serve with a green salad and crusty bread to mop up the sauce.

Enjoy!

Pollo alla Cacciatora

I hadn’t bought a cook book for a very long time and it was only because I was feeling sorry for Jamie, seeing his cook books on the shelf of a shop in town, going for a very low price, that I didn’t want to see him falling on hard times 😉

It was then a case of what am I going to cook first from it? It was cold and wet and I didn’t exactly want to go out for hours shopping just cook something for supper. So after returning from a local butcher and off licence with the chicken and wine, I was able to get back home in the warm to start preparing. Setting up the chicken to marinade in the wine etc. was good but I think I would have preferred to leave it in the fridge overnight to really infuse the flavours.

When it came to cooking this finally, the kitchen looked like a bomb site, with the amount of bowls and pans used to prepare and cook this recipe but it was well worth it 🙂 I made enough to last the following day and it was well worth letting it reheat again slowly, as I reckon it tasted even better second time round!

According to Jamie Oliver in his Italian book,

Chicken cacciatora seems to be reasonably well known in Britain because it’s the classic pre-packed dish you find in Italian food ranges in supermarkets (which, to be honest, never taste of much). When you get the real deal cooked at home with love and passion it’s a totally different experience. It’s a simple combination of flavours that just works really well. Cacciatore means ‘hunter’, so this is obviously the type of food that a hunter’s wife cooks for her fella when he gets home from a hard morning spent in the countryside. This is also a great dish for big parties, as it looks after itself in the oven.

Ingredients:
2 kg higher-welfare chicken, jointed, or use the equivalent amount of chicken pieces
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
8 bay leaves
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 cloves garlic, peeled (1 crushed, 2 sliced)
½ bottle Chianti
flour, for dusting (gluten free or plain)
extra virgin olive oil
6 anchovy fillets
1 handful green or black olives, stoned
2 x 400 g good-quality tinned plum tomatoes


1. Season the chicken pieces with salt and freshly ground black pepper and put them into a bowl. Add the bay leaves and rosemary sprigs and the crushed clove of garlic and cover with the wine. Leave to marinate for at least an hour, but preferably overnight in the fridge.

2. Preheat your oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4. Drain the chicken, reserving the marinade, and pat dry with kitchen paper. Dust the chicken pieces with flour and shake off any excess. Heat an ovenproof pan, add a splash of olive oil, fry the chicken pieces until browned lightly all over and put to one side.

3. Place the pan back on the heat and add the sliced garlic. Fry gently until golden brown, then add the anchovies, olives, tomatoes (broken up with a wooden spoon) and the chicken pieces with their reserved marinade. Bring to the boil, cover with a lid or a double thickness layer of foil and bake in the preheated oven for 1½ hours.

4. Skim off any oil that’s collected on top of the sauce, then stir, taste and add a little salt and pepper if necessary. Remove the bay leaves and rosemary sprigs, and serve with a salad and plenty of Chianti.

Enjoy!

Baked Paprika Eggs

After the arrival of my online supermarket shopping the other evening, I discovered a freebie magazine buried at the bottom of a bag. Just before throwing it into the recycling, I noticed this recipe mentioned on the front cover, so dived in for a look. I am always looking for simple suppers at weekends, especially having walked to a pub for a good old fashioned Sunday lunch 🙂 This Spanish treat was spot on!

The great thing about this recipe was the simplicity, especially as the only ingredients I needed to pick up (on the way back from the pub) were some basil leaves and chives. Everything else I had in the fridge or the store cupboards.

I reckon this could also be cooked in a large pan, adding the eggs together and then putting it in the oven to cook. Would be a great way of serving it up on the table for guests.

Ingredients:
4 medium eggs
100g chorizo, skin removed and roughly chopped
1 tsp olive oil
1 slice red pepper
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 mild red chilli, finely chopped
2 tsp smoked paprika
800g chopped tomatoes
½ tsp sugar
4 spring onions, sliced
2 tbsp basil leaves
1 tbsp chives, chopped
½ tsp chilli flakes, optional


1. Preheat the oven to 190C/Gas 5. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the chorizo and fry for 4-5 minutes.

2. Add the pepper and fry for 4-5 minutes, until golden at the edges.

2. Add the garlic, chilli and paprika and fry for 1 minute, until fragrant.

3. Add the tinned tomatoes, breaking up a little and simmer for 5 minutes. until slightly thickened and reduced.

4. Stir through the sugar and season to taste.

5. Divide the sauce between four ramekins and create a well in the centre of of each.

6. Crack an egg into each ramekin, transfer to a baking tray and bake in the oven for 8-10 until the egg white has set and the yolk is cooked to your liking.

Serve scattered with the spring onions, herbs and chilli flakes (if using) with sourdough bread to dip.

Enjoy!

Baked Pappardelle with Pancetta and Porcini

After receiving a pot of Porcini Mushrooms for Xmas (Santa has good taste), I knew they would come into good use at some point soon. So while sat watching morning TV, full of a cold and feeling thoroughly miserable, ‘The Good Cook’ with Simon Hopkinson came on and after a few minutes he started cooking this dish. It was just the recipe I was after and something that would make me feel a whole lot better after eating it 🙂

Now, after family praise for the Seafood Curry, the reaction to this dish was even better! I got a “now you really must cook this again soon – really yummy” comment. I have to agree and it is definitely my kind of comfort food and so simple to make. What was really nice was the contrast in flavours between the earthy nutty taste of the porcini and the cured sweeter taste of the pancetta along with the pasta, sauce and salty parmesan – perfect combination.

Ingredients:
500ml/18fl oz milk
20g/¾oz dried porcini mushrooms
40g/1½oz butter
25g/1oz plain flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper
100g/4oz pappardelle
50g/2oz pancetta, cut into 2cm/1in pieces
4-5 tbsp freshly grated parmesan


1. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.

2. Warm the milk in a saucepan, add the porcini mushrooms, remove from the heat and soak for 10 minutes. Strain through a sieve suspended over a bowl, pressing lightly on the mushrooms with the back of ladle to extract all the milk.

3. Heat the butter in a clean saucepan, add the flour and stir over a low heat for 2-3 minutes without colouring the roux.

4. Pour in the porcini-flavoured milk all in one go and whisk together vigorously until smooth. Cook the sauce for a further 10 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened. Season lightly with salt and freshly ground black pepper and set aside.

5. Bring a large pan of salted water to a rolling boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain in a colander, tip into a roomy bowl and carefully stir in the sauce, porcini and pancetta until well combined.

6. Place the pasta into a lightly buttered oven-proof dish. Smooth the surface and cover with two tablespoons of the parmesan. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until bubbling around the edges and golden-brown.

7. Serve the dish piping hot at the dinner table and have extra cheese at the ready.

Enjoy!

Stickiest-ever BBQ Ribs

Finally… the sun came out at the weekend and that only meant one thing… BBQ time! 🙂

Having a load of ribs and chops ready to be barbequed, we needed a glaze to dress them with, that would finish them off nicely. After reading an old copy of Good Food Magazine during the afternoon, there was a recipe for “Stickiest-ever BBQ Ribs” which sounded perfect!

Once we had found all the ingredients, it was the easiest thing to add them all together, whisk it all up and pour it onto the ribs ready for the BBQ. Now, when they said these were the stickiest ever, they were not joking! After only a few mouthfuls, we were licking fingers clean and trying to wipe the rest of the sauce from our mouths. Everyone devoured the ribs as if they were going out of fashion!

Definitely a keeper for the side of the fridge and one that I just had to share with everyone – really yummy.

Ingredients:
4 tbsp Tomato Ketchup
4 tbsp Soft Brown Sugar
1 tbsp Soy Sauce
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tbsp Sweet Chilli Sauce
1 tsp Paprika


Served best with cold beer – preferably from the West Country. 😉

Enjoy!

Salmon Tray Bake

Having tried the recipe off the front cover of a previous edition of delicious magazine for my last blog post (The One-Pan Roast), I thought I would also do the same thing again from this month’s edition, titled “One-Pan Winner”. Writing my blog is not only about learning and sharing old family favourites and secrets but also about sharing recipes that I want to try and would try for an evening’s supper, regardless of writing my blog or not!

The idea of these simple ‘one pan recipes’, that use fresh ingredients and that are easy to put together after a long day in the office, is great. Another bonus, is that it is something new to try, rather than reconstituting the same quick meals (with minor variations) that we normally throw together after working long days! If I see anymore of these style dishes on the cover in coming months, then I shall have to review and cook them as well, making a feature about them on the blog!

Being big fish fans and always being able to find Salmon in the fridge, we thought this would be perfect, based partly on the fact that the last one (One-tray roast chicken with white wine, zesty potatoes and asparagus) worked so well. The whole recipe was very aptly named as we thoroughly enjoyed it, not just from the taste but that it was very healthy too, which is never a bad thing.

What I like about these ‘one pan recipes’, is that ‘in theory’ you can try just about anything you want, that your imagination lets you come up with. If anyone has any other ‘one pan recipe’ favourites they love cooking, then please Comment on this post and let me know (including a quick recipe guide) – for the ones that grab my attention the most, I will do a cookup and review in a future post.

Ingredients:
2 Red Onions, cut into wedges
2 Red Peppers, sliced into strips
1 Yellow Pepper, sliced into strips
1 Courgette, halved lengthways and thinly sliced
1 Garlic Bulb, halved across the middle
2 Medium Tomatoes, halved
3 tbsp Olive Oil, plus extra to drizzle
270g Cherry Tomatoes on the vine
2-4 Salmon fillets (depending on how many you are cooking for)
Squeeze of Lemon Juice
Handful of fresh Basil leaves


1. Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6. Tumble the onions, peppers, courgette, garlic and medium tomatoes into a roasting tray. Pour over 3tbsp olive oil, season with sea salt and ground black pepper, then gently toss to coat. Roast for 20 minutes.

2. Add the vine tomatoes to the tray and lay the salmon fillets on top. Season, then drizzle with a little more oil and a squeeze of lemon juice. Return to the oven for 10-12 minutes until the salmon is cooked through and the vegetables are tender.

Scatter with fresh basil leaves to serve.

Enjoy!

The One-Pan Roast

After coming home with a chicken the other weekend (as you do), neither of us were in the mood to cook a full blown roast dinner, after a long week. Trying to work out what to do with it, we saw a copy of delicious magazine on the coffee table with a huge roasted chicken plastered on the front cover with the tag line “The one-pan roast”. Now that sounded ideal and looked ideal, once we opened it up to the recipe page – not much prep to do but looked great and only took 75 minutes to cook. Result!

After spending about 10 to 15 minutes getting it ready and letting the oven heat up, in it went and that was that. I have to say, the smells of the various ingredients cooking away, were lovely and actually made us want to eat it sooner rather than later.

According to the recipe creator Donal Skehan:

Home cooking starts and ends with a good roast chicken recipe. It’s the food I was brought up on. Every Sunday we had a roast chicken, without fail. The bones were turned into stock and the leftovers would be made into sandwiches for school.

And guess what… the leftovers were made for sandwiches, instead for work the following day!

If you want a quick win roast dinner without all the fuss, then this is a perfect recipe for you to try.

One-tray roast chicken with white wine, zesty potatoes and asparagus.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:
800g baby new potatoes, halved
1 garlic bulb, cloves separated
1 lemon, sliced
Handful fresh thyme sprigs
3 tbsp rapeseed oil
1.5kg free-range chicken
Large knob of butter
1 large bunch of asparagus, woody ends snapped off
1 125ml glass white wine
Handful of flatleaf parsley, finely chopped


1. Preheat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Put the new potatoes . garlic cloves and lemon slices into a large roasting tin. Scatter with the thyme sprigs and drizzle with the oil. Season well and toss to combine.

2. Remove the string trussing the chicken. Gently loosen the skin on the chicken’s breasts to form a pocket, being careful not to tear it. Push a little butter under the skin, then spread more over the outside. Season with salt and pepper. Put the chicken on top of the potatoes, then roast for 45 minutes.

3. Remove the chicken to a plate, add the asparagus and pour the win into the roasting tin. Mix everything together so the asparagus is coated in the wine and chicken juices.

4. Sit the chicken back on the veg. Return to the oven and roast for 30 minutes more, until the chicken is cooked and the potatoes are tender. Rest the chicken and veg somewhere warm for 10 minutes, covered with foil, then stir through the parsley and serve.

The juices are amazing!

Enjoy!

Roasted Red Pepper and Courgette Frittata

Visiting my parents over the Jubilee weekend, our family had tickets to the local Party in the Park and we had to come up with a picnic meal to take with us. Along with the usual wine, beer and other nibbles, we decided to make this delicious frittata, after my Mum found it in a Marks & Spencer Recipe magazine!

After I cooked the peppers, mixed the ingredients together with the eggs, I then sat watching the whole thing cook diligently for about 15 minutes and it turned out fantastic! We thought we could cook it last thing and it would still be warm when we arrived and started eating, which it was. After all the rain we had had throughout the day, this really did bring the sun out when we started serving and eating it. It is definitely a great foundation recipe that could have lots of other ingredients added to make different flavours.

Ready in 45 minutes and full of flavour, this frittata requires only a small amount of ingredients and can be created in five easy to follow steps:

Ingredients:
2 Red Peppers, halved and deseeded
500g New Potatoes, thinly sliced
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 Red Onion, thinly sliced
1 Courgette, trimmed and sliced
8 Medium Eggs
120g Mature Cheddar, grated


1. Heat the grill to high. Arrange the peppers cut-side down in a roasting tray and grill for 8-10 minutes until the skins are charred and blistered. Transfer to a plastic food bag and seal. Set aside for 10 minutes to steam.

2. Meanwhile, cook the potatoes in a pan of lightly salted boiling water for 10 minutes or until just tender. Drain well.

3. Heat half the olive oil in a large non-stick, ovenproof frying pan, about 25cm diameter, and fry the onion and courgette for 4-5 minutes until softened and slightly coloured, then remove from the pan. Wipe the frying pan clean with kitchen paper.

4. Take the peppers out of the bag and remove the skins, then cut the flesh into thick strips. In a large jug or bowl, lightly beat the eggs and add the onion and courgette mixture, peppers, potatoes and half the cheese. Season to taste.

5. Heat the remaining oil in the clean frying pan and pour in the egg mixture. Cook over a very low heat for 10-12 minutes or until the mixture is set on the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and grill for 2-3 minutes until browned and completely set.

Enjoy!