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!

Spicy Seafood Stew With Tomatoes And Lime

The majority of my blog posts are usually recording the family recipes being passed down to me, or sharing new recipes I find and like the look of, to try out at home. Rarely do I get the chance to cook for friends, trying out a recipe that is new and untested, all at the same time.

I’m glad I got the opportunity to try this out on a new audience as I had had this recipe bookmarked for a while and hadn’t managed to cook it yet. Having never been a huge fan of stews or Mexican food, I thought I could try and conquer two hurdles at the same time. 🙂

While this recipe may be Mexican in origin and while it technically should be called a stew, I would not call it one, in comparison to those I am used to, from the hazy days of school dinners with dodgy dumplings. This was seriously a world far away better!

After taking over my friend’s kitchen, I set about diligently following the recipe, until I had all the pieces of the dish ready to cook together. The smell of the sauce was incredible and tasting the sauce as I was cooking it, just seemed to get hotter (chilli wise) as time went on.

Serving it up at the table, it was like a feast had been created from a simple recipe, especially with all the accompaniments and tortillas it was served with.

It tasted amazing and within seconds of it being tried, I was rewarded with comments such as “You can make this again!”

I asked for a quote from my friends, to add to the post and this is what I was sent… 😉

“A sensational dish jam-packed with all the variety vibrancy and va va voom of a Fiesta”

Based on a recipe by John Torode

Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 dried chillies
1.0 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion , chopped
4 garlic cloves , chopped
1.0 tsp chipotle paste
1.0 tsp ground cumin
700.0ml chicken stock
250.0g chopped tomatoes , from a can
200.0g large peeled raw prawns
300.0g halibut or other firm white fish fillets, cut into 2.5cm pieces
300.0g mussels or clams
500.0g small new potatoes , halved and boiled
juice 2 limes


1. Toast the chillies in a hot dry frying pan for a few moments (they will puff up a bit), then remove. Deseed and stem chillies, and soak in boiling water for 15 mins.

2. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, season and cook for about 5 mins or until softened. Add the chipotle paste, reconstituted chillies, cumin, stock and tomatoes. Sauté for 5 mins, then purée until very fine in a blender.

3. Pour back into the pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 mins. When close to eating, add the prawns, fish fillets, mussels and potatoes. Place a lid on top and cook for 5 mins over a medium-high heat. Add the lime juice and serve with avocado, coriander and red onion.

Additionally serve with soured cream, if you want it a little cooler.

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!

Quick Recipe – Twitter Salad Dressing

I stumbled across this salad dressing recipe, while browsing some old tweets yesterday and immediately thought it sounded good. Knowing that we were going to have a salad with supper, I decided to make it exactly as Donal Skehan had tweeted it:

My fav simple salad dressing: mix 3tbsp EVOO, 1 tbsp balsamic vin, 1tsp whole grain mustard, 1tsp honey, 1 chpd garlic clove, S + P! 🙂

It really is so easy to make and tastes as good as I thought it would, so I decided to share it.

Definitely one to pin to the fridge.

Enjoy!

Satay Chicken

Having purchased a lot of different Asian sauces and spices at the weekend, I decided it was about time to try something new and found this amazing recipe for Satay Chicken.

Satay or sate, is a dish of marinated, skewered and grilled meat, served with a sauce. It usually consists of diced or sliced chicken, goat, mutton, beef, pork, fish, other meats, or tofu; the more authentic version uses skewers made from coconut palm fronds.

Satay originated in Java, Indonesia where it has now become a national dish. It is also popular in many other Southeast Asian countries, such as: Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand as well as in the Netherlands, as Indonesia is a former Dutch colony.

‘Satay sauce’, often referred to as peanut sauce, is widely used in Indonesian cuisine, Thai cuisine, Malaysian cuisine, and Chinese cuisine (under different names). It is also used in some European cuisine. Initially the sauce was meant as a sauce for Satay when being grilled, as well as for dipping.

This recipe from ‘Yeo’s’ is easily adaptable to being done on skewers or in the pan, as I tried.

Ingredients:
400g Chicken, Beef or other meat or tofu
3 tbsp Satay Sauce
2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
1 tsp Pure Seasame Oil
2 tsp Malaysian Curry Powder
3 tbsp White Sugar
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 Small Onion and Garlic Clove, chopped

1. Mix the ingredients above in a bowl and marinate the meat or tofu for around 1 hour.

2. If you are cooking in the marinade, then cook it through in the pan, on a medium heat, so that the sauce does not burn, until it is thoroughly cooked.

3. If you are cooking on skewers, grill them until cooked.

Serve with rice and/or stir fried vegetables and warmed Satay sauce for dipping.

Enjoy!

Chicken Breast with Langoustines

After making the Tomato Sauce, I got all the other ingredients ready to make this Floyd dish. I had no idea how this was going to turn out, so was definitely looking forward to the eating stage and trying it out!

The recipe said that it serves 4, due to it being a chicken breast per person. As there were only 2 of us we only used 2 breasts but kept the rest of the recipe the same, so there was lots of sauce left over. Next time I make this recipe, I will halve the sauce ingredients too.

You can tell there is a real French heritage behind this dish, using the Langoustines and Cognac and the final results were typically French too – flavours that I wouldnt normally put together to create a fancy and very rich tasting Floyd dish. This is not a recipe you want to make if you are on a diet. Having said that, we both polished the meal off and wished there had been a bit more chicken and a few more langoustines too. Floyd says to serve with boiled rice, which we did, but next time I think I will serve it with green vegetables and french green beans.

(Printable Recipe)

Serves 4

Ingredients:
4 Chicken Breasts
4 Langoustines per person - Large Crevettes or Whole King Prawns can be used
1 tbsp Onion, finely chopped
1 Clove Garlic, chopped
1 tbsp Parsely, chopped
1 cup of Tomato Sauce
½-1 cup of Double Cream (I used ½ cup and this was very creamy)
2 oz Butter
1 large glass White Wine
1 measure Cognac or Brandy
Pinch Thyme
Salt and Pepper
1 tbsp jellified Chicken Gravy
1 tsp Dry Sherry

1 Season the chicken and fry in the butter for 10 minutes.

2 Add the onions, garlic, thyme and langoustines (I removed the shells but the recipe didn’t say what to do).

3 Flame with the Cognac and add the white wine. Allow to simmer for a few moments.

4 Add the tomato sauce and the cream and if possible a tablespoon or two of jellified gravy. Taste the sauce, it should not be too creamy.

5 Season with salt and pepper. At this stage a teaspoon of sherry could be added to sharpen the sauce a little.

Serve with plenty of boiled rice and a green salad.

Enjoy!

Floyd’s Tomato Sauce

I thought it was about time to try something from ‘Floyd’s Food’ so I decided to cook up something I would never normally choose, in this case “Chicken Breast with Langoustines” (recipe to come) and one of the ingredients was a coffee cup of his own “Tomato Sauce”. So I found the recipe and set about cooking this sauce that reminded me of a very fragrant mediterranean pasta sauce. I’m going to make this again to use with other dishes in future!

(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients:
14 oz/400g Tin Tomatoes
2 Cloves Garlic, chopped
1 Onion, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh or dried Basil
1 tbsp chopped Parsley
1 tbsp White Sugar
1 tbsp Olive Oil
Black Pepper

1 Fry the onions and garlic in the olive oil until soft.

2 When soft, add all the other ingredients and cook over a low heat for 15 minutes.

3 Then liquidize the lot. This sauce can be served either hot or cold.

Enjoy!

Halloumi Bites

The idea for this delicious party starter came from a “Nigella Express” recipe. I adapted the ingredients to make a modified dressing for the Holloumi which turned out to be enjoyed by everyone who had it.

As Nigella mentions in her book, they are messy to eat and are probably best as part of a table, rather than as a tray-bound snack.

(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients:
80ml Garlic Oil or 80ml Oil with a glove of small crushed clove of garlic added.
2 tbsp Lime Juice (roughly the juice of one small lime)
3 tbsp Chopped Parsley
3 250g Blocks of Halloumi Cheese, drained
Good grinding of Pepper

1 Combine the oil, (garlic if needed), lime juice, pepper and parsley in a bowl and blend together with a hand-blender.

2 Slice the drained halloumi into 5mm wide pieces and then cut each slice in half again.

3 In a heavy based frying pan, dry fry the slices of cheese in batches until golden on both sides.

4 Put the pieces of the fried halloumi onto small plates and drizzle the dressing over the pieces.

Enjoy!

Garlic Croutons (Gluten Free)

I had to learn how to make these gluten free garlic croutons for my entry to the Farewell Floyd Food Blogging Event but you can use ordinary bread too.

(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients:
1oz (25g) Butter
1 Garlic Clove crushed
1 Slice of Bread (any kind) cut into cubes

1 Melt the butter in a pan and add the crushed garlic clove on a very low heat, allowing time for the garlic to infuse the butter.

2 Remove the garlic clove, turn up the heat and add the bread cubes and cooke until lightly golden and crisp.

3 Drain on some kitchen paper.

Enjoy!