Chicken sausage burrito bowls - frisky comfort food!

Two posts in one month!  I'll be meeting myself coming back, soon.

I dare say you won't be surprised to hear that I collect recipes like a magpie collects milk bottle tops.  Except, milk bottles don't have shiny tops any more.  Oh well, you get the drift.  I have LOADS of recipes I've bookmarked for future reference.  I look through them whenever I'm putting together the menu plan for the week and will often choose one or two.  Interestingly, this week, it would seem that all the chosen recipes are good'uns (doesn't always happen!).

Mind you, I always wind up tinkering about with the recipes for one reason or another but really that's neither here nor there.  This one - the burrito bowls - was originally a vegetarian recipe that I decided to add some protein to, in the shape of chicken sausage meatballs.  It worked very nicely!  Here's the original recipe if you're curious, but remember that I've changed several things in my version.

I'll warn you, that it is chili peppers three times over (chili powder in the rice, chilis in the Mexicana cheese and some chili in the salsa) so be prepared for your nose to run and your tongue to tingle - but it is controllable and the avocado helps no end!

Another great pro point is that it all comes together beautifully in the one pan.  *happy sigh*  I like those recipes.

Let's get on with it then, eh?  Forwards!

CHICKEN SAUSAGE BURRITO BOWLS   (serves 4)

Ingredients : 

2 tbsp rapeseed oil

8 chicken sausages, skinned and cut into 4 pieces
3 spring onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, cut into small squares

½ a red bell pepper, cut into small squares
12 cherry tomatoes, halved

2 vine ripened tomatoes, chopped into small pieces
1 tsp hot chili powder (adjust as desired!)
1½ tsp sweet smoked paprika (use hot if you're a chili hound!)

150g short grain rice (Spanish if you can get it)

300ml hot water

1 tsp vegetable stock powder
1 x 200g tin red kidney beans, drained
Sea salt
Black pepper
100g Mexicana hot cheese, grated
1 avocado, chopped into small squares

salsa, to taste.

Method :

Heat the rapeseed oil in a deep frying pan and add the sausage pieces.  Fry over a hot heat until the pieces are golden coloured but not wholly cooked.  They will finish cooking with the rice.  Remove the sausage pieces to a bowl with a slotted spoon so as to leave as much oil in the pan and reserve.

Put the spring onions, garlic and bell pepper into the pan and stir fry until the pepper is beginning to soften.

Add the tomatoes, chili powder and smoked paprika to the pan and fry until the tomatoes are beginning to break up.

Add the rice, hot water, vegetable stock powder, kidney beans and reserved sausage pieces and stir through.  Taste for seasoning and adjust with sea salt and black pepper if necessary.  Cover the pan and cook for some 10-15 minutes until the rice is tender, stirring from time to time to prevent the rice sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Once the rice is tender, serve into warmed bowls.

Garnish with grated Mexicana cheese, cubes of avocado and a good dollop of salsa.  If you like it, some fresh coriander is good, too!

Printable version

Leftover couscous for lunch

You might recall the Winter Couscous that I made the other evening to go with the smoked mackerel.  Well, there was (inevitably) some left over.

Hooray!  Almost instant lunch for the following day.  All I had to do was soft boil an egg and slice up an avocado, then sit down and tuck in.

The couscous had soaked up the juices from the chargrilled veggies and was a little bit dry, so I cheered it up by running a little more olive oil through it, then added a sprinkle of cider vinegar (Maille Vinaigre de Cidre is my current favourite - I could drink it by the shot glassful).

With the addition of a sliced avocado and the gorgeous yolk from the egg running through, it made a perfect lunch.  Hooray for leftovers!

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Avocado Pound Cake - score!

Avocado in a cake recipe.  Who knew it would be so good!

Well, to be honest, I had a sneaking suspicion that it would be good (as the Avocado Pie had been such a resounding success) - but not completely yummy.

I'd been tipped off about this cake by my contact at the Bournemouth Echo, who recommended it to me quite a while ago, having found it on the "Joy the Baker" blog site.  So, when I saw that Avocado Week was fast approaching, I sought it out with intentions of making it to coincide.  Regrettably, real life got in the way and we missed Avocado Week by a mile.  Can't be helped.

Now I really enjoyed making this cake - which doesn't happen with all cakes.  Some just seem to involve parading backwards and forwards across the kitchen floor on some never-ending quest for a lemon squeezer, or another teaspoon, or some cling film, or a tablespoonful of water.  This one, however, was simplicity itself.  Get your ingredients out, get a couple of bowls, a couple of spoons, a knife, your cup measures, a Kenwood Chef and a chair - and get cracking.

The entire cake was made in the Kenwood's bowl, with a slight deviation for sieving the dry ingredients into a separate bowl for inclusion later.  We can forgive the recipe that.

Ready for the oven - if I can just stop eating it!

As the cake mix began to grow (and change colour - it truly is amazing, how an avocado will turn your world green) the aromas just got better and better.  When it came to filling the loaf tins and I had a valid excuse for trying some of the uncooked mix, I was pleasantly surprised at just how yummy it was - which bode so very well for the finished article.

The baked cake is a lovely shade of golden, with interesting cracks in the crust that give a hint of the uranium-green of the contents.  I particularly liked this aspect of the cake, as so often you'll find the colour on the outside.  Like a marble cake, it hides its most distinguishing feature until you cut into it.  Mysterious!

Son & heir described the flavour of the cake as being similar to that of pancakes - and I can see where he was coming from with that.  I'd say that the cake has a flavour all of its own.  It truly is like nothing I'd ever tasted before.  The avocado is in evidence, but subtly.  The yellow cornmeal (polenta) gives the crumb an interesting texture.  The overall texture is that of a very light sponge that manages to be moist whilst holding its shape - and I am just so glad that the recipe makes two, as we've another in the freezer ready to be got out when this one is finished.

Click to enlarge & you'll be able to see the uranium-green peeping through!

This cake is perfect with a cup of tea, or I can imagine would be gorgeous served as a dessert with a sharp fruit compote and some sweet cream.

If your imagination has been caught, do give the cake a go - you'll be so pleased you did!

AVOCADO POUND CAKE (makes 2 loaves)

Ingredients :

3 cups self-raising flour

½ cup yellow cornmeal

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

¾ cup unsalted butter, softened

3 cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

¾ cup buttermilk

1½ ripe avocados, mashed.

Method :

1.  Preheat oven to 350deg F/180deg C/Gas 4.  Butter and flour two loaf pans and set aside.

2.  In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Set aside.  Set the four eggs out on the counter to come to room temperature while you beat the butter and sugar.

3.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter on medium speed until softened and pliable.  Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.  Add the avocado and beat another minute to incorporate.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is thoroughly mixed.

4.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating 1 minute after the addition of each egg.  Beat in vanilla extract.

5.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half of the flour mixture, all of the buttermilk, and then the rest of the flour mixture.  Beat just until combined.

6.  Divide the dough between the two loaf pans and place in the oven.  Turn the oven down to 325deg F/170deg C/Gas 3.   Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean.  Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

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Avocado & Stilton Dip

Unfortunately not my dip - we were far too
keen to eat it - but one that looks like mine!

I was sitting in the living room, considering the shopping list for tomorrow and beginning to feel rather peckish.

As part of my consideration (of the shopping list), I had pondered on whether the avocado in the vegetable drawer of the fridge would be too old for use in a salad on Sunday.  I decided it was.

So I made Avocado and Stilton Dip with it instead.  It was beautiful with oatcakes and according to Hubby, went admirably well with Kettle Chips, too.


AVOCADO & STILTON DIP

Ingredients :

A ripe avocado
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp greek yoghurt
A 2cm square cube of blue cheese - I used Stilton
1 tbsp mayonnaise
salt & pepper to taste

Method :

1.  Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone and skin, then dice into a bowl.

2.  Add the lemon juice and mash with a fork.  It is not necessary to eliminate all lumpiness, because of the lumps of blue cheese.  If lumps bother you, them prepare in a blender.

3.  Add the greek yoghurt and stir to combine.  Then crumble the cheese in and stir to combine.  Next, add the mayonnaise and stir to combine again.

4.  Taste, which will help you to decide how much salt & pepper you prefer.  Season and stir one last time.

Break out the crudites!

Tuesday thoughts

Goodness, but this 'ere food blogging malarky is turning out to be even more fun than I anticipated it would be!

Have I told you the latest regarding the Avocado explorations?  I can't remember, but briefly, if you were ever considering making cold Avocado soup involving a fairly expensive piece of blue cheese - don't.  Vile.  Enough said.

The postie delivered my prize from Whimsical Wife's competition to win some Flying Pumpkin Lanterns and I was so excited!  We haven't had a chance to use them yet, between inclement weather and running out of time on Halloween, but I'm sure they'll be fun when we do!

Hubby had a brilliant idea and reminded me that I still had some money from my birthday  vouchers left with Amazon, so why didn't I buy Ottolenghi's "The cookbook", which I'd been renewing religiously ever since I borrowed it from our Library.  An inspired idea! Having had a look on Amazon, it transpired that the price had been significantly lowered on both "The Cookbook" and "Plenty" - so I got the pair of them.  ~hugs them to herself~  Such joy!  Just looking through them at the photography is enough, never mind the fact that simply all the recipes are saliva-inducing.  Rarely have I felt so protective over a pair of books.  I'm cooking a recipe from each this week and, rather than have them spoiled by cooking fallout, I'm going to type and print out the recipes I'm using.  I think I might cry if the books were marked in any way, right now.  Sad, isn't it?  However, thanks go out to Laura for supplying the wherewithall for them.  ~blows kisses~

Now, here's something exciting!  I had an email yesterday from the PR folk who are running the "secret ingredient" campaign for Heinz Tomato Ketchup.  They'd seen my recipes for Sausage Goulash and Spicy Minced Beef both included ketchup and wanted to know whether I'd be interested in having them included on their Tomato Ketchup Facebook site.  Needless to say, I responded that I would very much like them to be included, so long as I could include a link to my Rhubarb & Ginger blog - as it needs all the publicity it can get right now.  Ha!  Fun, eh?

Another exciting thing is that I saw a Tweet from Quadrille Books on Twitter today, asking for food bloggers to review one or more of their new recipe books.  I replied saying I'd love to - and am now expecting "My Kitchen - real food from near & far" by Stevie Parle.  Apparently Stevie spent time living on a houseboat in London, as I did in Kingston, and it sounds as though the recipes in the book could mirror those I like to produce.  So I'm excited about receiving that - and the review will appear on Rhubarb & Ginger very soon.

Last, but a long way from least, is the news that we are having Sparky for a week again.  Sparky is a Parsons Jack Russell terrier - and one of immense character.  Once more, this is down to Facebook and Twitter, as Sparky's owner placed a message asking whether anyone in our area could recommend a holiday kennel for dogs and my friend Laura put her in touch with me.  We had Sparky for a week a few months ago and loved having him here.  We dubbed him the Father Jack of Jack Russells, as for all the world, he appears to have the same propensity for yelling "drink ~ feck ~ gurls!", except in Sparky's case, I suspect it's more "ham ~ biscuit ~ chase!".  We can't wait!

So - all these things have happened as a result of Twitter, Facebook or Jenny Eatwell's Rhubarb & Ginger.  Awesome!



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"Around the world - Chilean Hass Avocados" cookbook

Well goodness me, but that was a surprise!

We'd just got back from shopping, when there was an extremely loud hammer on the door and the dogs went bonkers, barking like mad.  I went to see if we were being raided by the police (which is what it sounded like) and there was our postman, proferring a brown cardboard box at me.  ~shrug~

Whatever could it be?  I wasn't expecting anything - and that always makes it all the more interesting.  Opening the box, there, nestled in a comfy bed of bubble wrap, was this :

"Around the world - Chilean Hass Avocados", from The Chilean Hass Avocado Cook Book Collection.  How exciting!

Now I love Avocados, as does hubby.  Son hasn't yet come around to their texture, although the flavour is okay so long as it's involved in Marie Rose sauce and prawns.  He'll get there, give him time!

Looking through the book, there are some yummy looking recipes (like Crab & Salmon Terrine with Avocado, and Lamb Chops with Pea, Mint & Avocado salad) and some recipes that appear to just involve slicing the avocado and putting it on top of, or beside, the main dish (such as Colombian Potato Soup, where the avocado is simply garnish). 

However, as often happens with any cook book, there are a couple of recipes that intrigue, such as the Avocado pie, which together with a biscuit base, lemon and lime, results in a sweet pie that looks rather like a Key Lime Pie.

So thank you, whoever sent it to me - it's very welcome and most interesting.

Now the only problem is that - at the moment, at any rate - we can't afford to buy Avocados!   Anybody want to send me some, so that I can play with the book?  LOL