Today's dinner : Indulgent potatoes and pesto chicken

Owing to the Vegibox deliveries - which are a weekly delivery of locally grown fruit and vegetables - we have had something of a potato glut in the house.  Now this is very okay where myself and son & heir are concerned, but not so good for hubby - who would see all potatoes fired into the face of the sun, if he had his way.

So this has set me the difficult task of trying to find potato dishes that hubby either does like (one in a million) or might like (even rarer).

I remembered that I cooked a dish of scalloped potatoes that he enjoyed - and reported that he really quite approved of - so I decided to go there again.
 

Looks good to me!

Scalloped potatoes (well, my recipe anyway!) involves slicing the potatoes very thinly and laying them in a dish interspersed with finely cut celery and grated garlic and pouring over a concoction of milk, cream cheese and cream.  Bake in the oven for the next hour or so until the potatoes are soft.  So very indulgent!  Definitely not something to have more than once a year!  I paired them with some chicken that had a layer of green pesto through the middle - just for a bit of added flavour - and was then roasted with a little butter on top for around 30 mins at 180degC.  A final flourish of steamed carrot, broccoli, peas and a little gravy rounded off the plate.

Myself and son & heir loved it - poor hubby was less than impressed with both the potatoes and the chicken.  Oh dear.  I'll try to do better next time!

For dessert, son & heir and myself had our current favourite thing - little pre-packed jellies with fruit inside.  Our choice this evening, was orange flavour jelly with mandarins.  They are so refreshing - and just a few spoonfuls big.  They really hit the spot.

Broccoli chicken - far, far nicer than it's name implies

Last night's dinner was very nearly a complicated messup.  This was largely due to my appalling memory skills, in that we ate the greater part of a head of broccoli that was meant to be for that night's dinner, the night before with the Cottage Pie.

I had completely forgotten that I'd scheduled peas & carrots with the Cottage Pie.

So, yesterday morning dawned and as I was considering what needed to be got out of the freezer in preparation, I realised that we'd eaten most of the broccoli.  Hubby wasn't terribly pleased by this news, as we'd had broccoli twice that week and he was then looking at yet another dose of broccoli.  This is not a good thing, apparently.  Then Son & heir chimed in and declared that he didn't like the sound of the Broccoli Chicken anyway and why couldn't we have something else?

*BIG SIGH*

So, while I was still gritting my teeth and trying not to snap, Hubby came up with a compromise that was (puts tongue firmly in cheek) painful for me, but would save the day the cheapest way possible.  His suggestion was that Son & heir had (~sob~) the leftover Cottage Pie (~sob~) that I was angling to have for lunch, instead of the Broccoli Chicken and we got some Green Beans for him to have and to bolster the little bit of broccoli we had left.  Having mopped my tears (I absolutely LOVE leftover Cottage Pie cold the next day) and made Hubby swear to buy some mushrooms to go with the chicken too, that problem was solved.

Another problem turned out to be that all of my shallots had gone manky.  Thankfully, I had half a bunch of Spring Onions, which made a lovely stand-in.

This is why the Ken Hom Broccoli Chicken turned into Jenny Eatwell's Chestnut Mushroom, Green Bean and Broccoli Chicken - based on a Ken Hom recipe.  LOL

I'll tell you what, though, it was jolly lovely - and far more interesting than just broccoli would have been.

However, the best and most useful part of cooking this dish was not matching the vegetables, but learning - quite by accident - how to "velvet" chicken.  This is the process by which your local Chinese takeaway manages to keep chicken so soft and moist - and is well worth learning.  I'd seen Ken "velvet" chicken on the Good Food Channel's "Perfect" t.v. show and had tucked the information behind my ear to examine at a later date.  However, completely unnoticed by me when I gave the recipe its first read-through, the first bit of real cooking involved in this dish is to do just that - velvet the chicken.  It's basically to marinate the strips of chicken in whatever flavours you want, so long as it includes cornflour and sesame oil, for around 20 minutes.  Goodness, but it made all the difference!  I'll definitely velvet chicken again when I'm doing a chinese style dish - it only takes a second and is very worthwhile.

I paired the chicken dish with Jasmine rice which was very acceptable, although it has to be said that a good special fried rice would have been better - and even better than that, from the chicken's point of view, would be to include some water chestnuts with it.  Because of that, I've added them as an ingredient in my recipe.

12 April 2013 : I've just made this again (see photograph on the left there) and this time, as I didn't have any green beans I added two small sweet red peppers and left the water chestnuts out (again).  I didn't have any basil in either, so just left it out.

I also used my favorite stock - Essential Cuisine's fantastic chicken stock and the lovely vegetable stock in which I cooked the rice.  This time, I paired the chicken up with lemon rice - which son & heir absolutely loved.  He ate the lot, chestnut mushrooms, broccoli, everything.  You see?  What a couple of months (or so) will do for a boy.

BROCCOLI, BEAN & MUSHROOM CHICKEN  (serves 2)

Ingredients : 

2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 skinless & boneless chicken breasts, sliced thinly into strips
half a bunch of spring onions, trimmed and sliced along the diagonal
1 clove of garlic, grated
half a tsp finely ground black pepper
1 tbsp Mirrin, rice wine or dry sherry
2 tbsp Oyster sauce
100g small broccoli florets (cut them smaller, if they are large and also include the stalks, cut on the diagonal)
100g green beans, chopped into 4
4 chestnut mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
a small tin of water chestnuts, sliced
150ml chicken stock
handful of basil leaves.

For the marinade :
2 tsp low salt soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp cornflour. 

Method : 

1.  In a large bowl, combine the chicken with the marinade ingredients and leave to marinade at room temperature for 20 minutes or as long as it takes to prepare the vegetables.

2.  Heat the wok over a high heat, then add one tbsp of the sunflower oil and the chicken.  Stir-fry for 5 minutes or so until the chicken is golden brown.  Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside to keep warm.

3.  Reheat the wok and add the other tbsp of oil.  Stir fry the spring onions and garlic for 2 minutes until softened.

4.  Add the pepper, mirrin (or whatever you are using) and oyster sauce and stir-fry for a minute or so.

5.  Now add the vegetables and the chicken stock.  Bring to the boil, cover and cook for around 5 minutes.

6.  Return the chicken to the wok and cook for a minute or so until the chicken is thoroughly cooked.  Finally, add the fresh basil leaves and serve immediately.

Printable version

Sausage & Mozzarella Pasta Bake

This is a dish for those days when you want to provide a good wholesome meal that pleases everyone, but have completely run out of inspiration.

It is such a ridiculously simple dish but it is an evergreen that we simply don’t seem to be getting bored with. The original recipe was one of Jamie Oliver’s “Food for a Fiver” recipe cards produced by Sainsbury’s. However, I felt that the tomato sauce was a bit weak, so have broadened the flavours with the addition of a few extras.

If you’re feeding a number of people, you can include a green salad and/or garlic bread. However as it’s just us three and none of us need the extra calories, we don’t bother.

The dish is just as nice the following day, for lunch, so perfect for anyone carrying lunch to work provided you've a microwave there!

Sausage & Mozzarella Pasta Bake

Ingredients (to feed 3-4) : 

1 pack of 8 sausages
200g approx of penne pasta
Sufficient Mozzarella to cover the top of your casserole dish.  I used 3, but then we did eat almost half of one before it ever reached the dish. lol
As much broccoli as you think your family can stand.
2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped fine
1 clove of garlic, grated or chopped fine
1 small red chilli
400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
A shake or two of Worcester Sauce
Half a teaspoon of Oregano
Salt & pepper

Method :

1.  Place the sausages onto a baking tray and bake for 25 mins at 190deg C. You want them to be just browned, as they’re going to cook further in the casserole dish.

2.  While they are cooking, put a large pan of salted water on to boil and then cook the broccoli florets for no longer than 2-3 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon (reserving the cooking water for the Penne pasta) and place into the casserole dish. Place the pasta in to cook according to the instructions on the pack, once the water is back to boiling.

4.  In the meantime, in a high-sided frying pan, sweat off the onion and chilli in the oil and add the garlic and oregano when almost done.

5. Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, tomato ketchup and Worcester sauce. You may need to add 100ml of water, depending on how juicy the tomatoes were. Allow this to simmer gently while the pasta cooks and you chop the part-cooked sausages into four.  Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.


6.  Ultimately, combine the sausages, pasta, broccoli and sauce together in the high-sided frying pan, mixing gently to ensure everything is covered with sauce. Decant into the casserole dish, add a layer of sliced mozzarella cheese on the top (try not to eat it all!) and bake in the oven at 190deg for around 30 minutes or until the cheese is golden and bubbly.

Scrumptious "in front of the t.v." food.  :-)

{Edited to add the broccoli, which I forgot to add to the ingredients list, and to say no, you're not seeing things, this is the second time I've posted this recipe.  *sigh*  Call it blog blindness, I'm forgetting what I've posted where!}.

Now that's what I call a successful day's meals

Some days, I look back at the meals we've had over the course of that day and feel like I could have done so much better.

However, yesterday wasn't one of those days I'm pleased to say.

Hubby got cracking early on the bagels and before we knew it, there was a new batch of bagels all ready for consumption.  He reckons he let them get a little over-browned, but I like them like that - adds flavour!  Mind you, I'm the sort of person who likes her toast to be browned as opposed to just warm bread.

We had a new batch of free range eggs and a new packet of Asda's cheap as chips smoked salmon offcuts (88p! Can't say fairer than that), so all that just begged to be made into scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, on a bagel.  Delicious!

I had plans to make Mary Moh's Sweet Potato & Carrot soup for lunch, so once we'd got back from our trip to the library, greengrocer (where Hubby picked up two duck eggs and more plums) and charity shops, I got started.

Mary's Sweet Potato & Carrot Soup - plus Bagel

I didn't have any garlic oil, so as a substitute, I began the process by frying a sliced clove of garlic.  Somehow a small chopped red chilli crept into the mix at the same time.  Well, it seemed like a good idea!

The soup is so ridiculously easy to make and smells simply gorgeous when it's cooking.  I digressed from the recipe once more, in that I pushed the blitzed soup through a sieve - just to emphasise it's velvetiness.  Goodness, but that soup is really delicious - and to think, it's doing you good too.

So, flushed with success, I set to and made a batch of plum chutney - but more on that later.

Dinner that evening was an easy one, but a family favourite.  Sausage & Mozzarella Pasta Bake.  It's grown a little from the original, as the recipe was one of Jamie Oliver's "Food for a Fiver" for Sainsbury's.   I felt that the tomato sauce was quite weak in the original recipe, plus the emphasis was too heavily on the broccoli, so the following recipe has resulted, which is always greeted with cheers whenever the question "what's for dinner tonight, Mum?" is asked.

Sausage & Mozzarella Pasta Bake

Serves 3 hungry people, or 4 people if you're serving dessert too!  Can also be served with a green salad, although we tend not to.

Ingredients :

1 pack of 8 sausages (Cumberland preferred).
Around 300g of broccoli (depending on how much you like it)
200-300g Penne Pasta
3 balls of Mozzarella (quantity depends on how big your casserole is!)
400g tin tomatoes
A small red chilli
An onion, chopped
A clove of garlic, chopped
Half a tsp oregano
Worcester sauce
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
Half a tbsp tomato puree
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt
1 tablespoon of olive oil

Method :

1.  Place the sausages onto a baking tray and bake at 190deg C for 25mins or so, or until they are brown.

2.  Put a large saucepan of water on to boil, with salt added.  Once boiling, add the broccoli florets and cook for 3 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon, retaining the cooking water.

3.  In another large pan, or deep frying pan, begin to make the sauce by sweating the onions until they gain a golden colour and are transparent.  Then add the garlic, oregano and chilli and cook for a minute or so more.

4.  Add the tin of tomatoes and allow to heat through, adding a shake or two of Worcester Sauce, the tomato ketchup and the tomato puree.  Leave to simmer while the flavours combine, then season and taste before the broccoli is added, to heat through.

5.  Fire up the heat under the broccoli water and once boiling, add the Penne pasta.  Cook for slightly less than recommended on the packet, retaining a little bite.  Drain and add to the sauce.

6.  Slice the sausages into four and add to the sauce.  Mix to combine carefully, so as not to break up the broccoli, then decant into a casserole dish.

7.  Slice the mozzarella and lay over the top.  Bake at 190deg for around 30 minutes, or until the cheese is browned and bubbling.

Serve, to the acclamation of all.  :)