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

Chicken Penne Pasta Bake

We've had a few tummy issues in the family just lately, so I've been trying to avoid the heavily spiced, full of chilli, rich with tomato sort of flavours so as to give everyone a chance to recover.  Inevitably, my first port of call is always what my hubby refers to as "brown food", or "something in some sort of gravy".  Now that is okay by me because I love gravy of all kinds, but it's not necessarily so okay with the remainder of the assembled throng.

So I began pondering the thought of how to adjust foods that we normally eat but that are very tomatoey, or contain a hefty whack of chilli for instance, but exchange something else for those troublesome ingredients.  Something that will deliver a good flavour in exchange for the tummy-troubling effect.

Amazingly - I think probably because I've a talent for comfort food - I've been fairly successful in most of these "calmer" dishes and this one proved to be particularly good.

Cooking the chicken through

Now I know that some of you will raise your eyebrows and move on at the mention of the use of a tin of condensed cream of chicken soup.  Well, if that's the way you feel about it then fine, I won't try and convince you otherwise.  However, for those of you who are left, the use of the soup as a sauce base is invaluable when you're either a little bit pushed for time, or are just worn out and can't face the "from scratch, infuse with chicken, add an hour to the cooking method" version.

I don't recommend that you use the soup alone for your sauce - although it would do at a pinch - but if you work on adding complimentary flavours, you can create a multi-layered flavour profile resulting in a really quite interesting sauce which will keep your taste buds interested through to the last bite.

Mmmmn ... had to stop myself from "tasting" too often!

I started my layers of flavour with sweated down onion and garlic in olive oil, then added chopped celery and a green pepper (which was a late addition, but made all the difference).  The tarragon made a huge impression on the sauce flavours, of course, as did the use of goat's milk instead of cow's.  You just get that slight tang of goat's cheese coming through - and the little bit of Philadelphia helped that along by providing the creaminess.

Again, it was one of those "put things into the pan in order, boil some pasta, combine the two and eat" dinners that are always so welcome.  Plus, with the extra little bit of breathing space that you get when it goes into the oven, you've got time to beat back the washing up or put together a little side salad, if the idea moves you.

As for Cook's Tips, well I've a few :

With any vegetable that you are using for flavour, chopping them finely instead of just chopping them into bite sized chunks, will increase the flavour they can deliver by a factor of many.  So don't be tempted to leave your onions, celery and green pepper in large chunks - small pieces will work so much harder.

It really isn't necessary to use goat milk for the sauce, cow's will do the job perfectly well - and if you're using a semi-skimmed of whole milk, then there is no need to add the Philadelphia as that was really just there to provide the creaminess lacking in a skimmed milk.  Likewise, if you're using skimmed milk but don't have any Philadelphia but do have some cream - use that!

Do try to find - and use - low salt chicken stock granules or cubes.  It makes all the difference if YOU can say how much salt you want in the mix, rather than some manufacturer deciding for you.

Again, it isn't essential to use petit pois - ordinary peas will do perfectly well.  Petit pois are just smaller and sweeter, but were what we had in the freezer at the time.  If you don't have any peas, then some frozen sweetcorn would do a similar job!

Also, it isn't essential to use the mozzarella ball.  It just provides some "stringy cheese" which my son always enjoys and adds a nice creamy flavour to the cheesy layer on top of the bake.  However, if you're strapped for cash or can't find any - don't worry about not including it, nobody will notice.

It's a great mid week dinner, this one.  It can be dressed up for more than four by the addition of a side salad and garlic bread, or just eaten as is.  Very flexible where ingredients are concerned and forgiving to cook, it's a very civilised little recipe.  The evenings are beginning to draw in and the temperatures have dropped, so I think it's time for a little bit of comfort food.  What say you?

CHICKEN PENNE PASTA BAKE   (serves 4)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped finely
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
1 stick celery, de-strung and chopped finely
1 green pepper, cored and diced
10g salted butter
half a tsp ground black pepper
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced
1 tsp dried tarragon
295g can of Batchelor's condensed cream of chicken soup
250ml skimmed milk (I used goat milk)
1 tbsp Philadelphia cream cheese
1.5 tsp Knorr reduced salt chicken granules (stock powder)
2 tbsp frozen petits pois
300g penne pasta
125g mozzarella ball, sliced
150g mature cheddar cheese.

Method :

Two thirds fill a large saucepan with water and put on to boil over a high heat.

Heat the olive oil in a large, deep frying pan over a high heat and add the onion, garlic, celery and pepper.  Make sure to stir the contents regularly so as not to allow them to brown, but cook until the onion is transparent and the celery & pepper have softened.

Add the black pepper and stir through.

Add the sliced chicken and continue to cook, stirring regularly, until the chicken has all turned from pink to white.

Reduce the heat to moderate and add the dried tarragon and stir through.

Once the water comes to a boil, add the pasta and cook until al dente.  You don't want it to be cooked all the way through, as it will finish cooking in the oven.

Add the soup, milk, cream cheese and stock powder and gently stir until all is amalgamated.  Allow the combination to come to a gentle simmer.  Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary, but remember that there will be cheese on top - so go easy on the salt!  Add the frozen petit pois and stir to combine.

When the pasta is done, drain and make sure to retain a little of the pasta water, just in case you need to reduce the thickness of the sauce a little.

Replace the pasta back into the hot saucepan and add the sauce contents.

Stir through gently.

Decant into an ovenproof dish and lay the mozzarella slices over the top.

Cover with the grated cheddar and put into a pre-heated oven at 180degC/350degF/Gas4 for 20-25 minutes or until the cheese is melted, bubbly and just beginning to turn golden.

Serve.

Printable version

Citrus & spice chicken

I've been going through a whole heap of old paperwork recently - which included my many and various files and folders chock-a-block full of collected recipes.  In doing so, I have re-discovered several favourites from pre-Rhubarb & Ginger times, one of which being this citrus & spice chicken.

The recipe has developed over the years (as recipes are wont to do) but I note from the paper recipe in my folder, that the original was adapted from the Good Food Magazine's "40 Best Chicken Recipes" booklet.  Well, it's been adapted yet again - and very much for the better.  The very first recipe was basically a traybake, my first version added several ingredients such as the honey and chilli powder.  This last incarnation has separated out the vegetables to be cooked on the hob instead of in the oven, which I much prefer.

Marinate, my little lovelies!

Oven cooking the vegetables inevitably led to burned ends and undercooked middles, as the sheer quantity of meat and vegetables in the tray didn't really allow for even cooking.  Plus, it is nice to have a small degree of char on the chicken, but not so nice on the peppers and mushrooms.

This way, the chicken has plenty of air space around each piece and the cooking is much more even - particularly if you place the larger pieces to the outside and the smaller pieces to the inside of the tray.  The surface attains nice little charred corners, while the chicken itself stays moist and delicious.

Cooking the vegetables in a frying pan enables much more degree of control.  Inevitably the leftover marinade isn't enough moisture to see them through the entirety of the cook, but adding a little water from time to time not only allows the vegetables to steam, but also keeps the marinade saucy.  This way, you have the relatively dry chicken, accompanied by the saucy vegetables - which provides a lovely balance and completely without burned ends.

Ready for the oven - Bacofoil's non-stick aluminium foil is great for this!

Another huge positive to this recipe - apart from the flavour which is really tasty - is its speed.  Provided you get the chicken on to marinade in advance, it is a really simple task to prepare a couple of salad veggies, cook some rice, put the chicken in the oven and pan cook the vegetables.  From taking the marinating chicken out of the fridge to dishing up, probably only took around 45 minutes in total.  I love that - especially when there's such a pay-off by way of flavour.

So what's the flavour like?  The chicken flavour is there, no one flavour overrules it and because the curry past is used fairly sparingly and is very much tempered by the use of the yoghurt, it doesn't take precedence.  The honey gives a quiet sweetness and the garlic helps to savoury it all up nicely.  In fact, don't tell anyone, but if you add the yoghurt, then the lemon juice, then the honey, stir it all together and have a taste - mmmmn, it would make a smashing dessert!

Once the curry paste, oil and garlic are added though, I wouldn't recommend tipping it on top of your strawberries.  The oven adds the last element of flavour to the chicken, in the small degree of charring as the tops of the chicken pieces catch in the oven.  It all amounts to an absolutely scrumptious whole.

Now, as for Cook's Tips, I don't have many but there are a few worth mentioning.

The recipe calls for the juice of half a lemon.  If, however, you don't have a lemon but do have a lime - then no worries, use that instead!  You will need the whole lime's juice and the flavour will be slightly different, but no less nice.  I have used both in the past and can't decide which one I like the best.

Where the chilli powder is concerned, feel free to add as little or as much as you like.  However, if you're new to chilli powder and curry spice, I'd suggest you err on the side of caution to begin with - you can always add a little bit more the next time.

You can certainly freewheel a bit where the accompaniments are concerned.  I think the chicken and vegetables would be lovely served in a soft Indian flatbread with some salad alongside.  On this occasion, I served the chicken with some basmati rice that I had cooked in chicken stock and turmeric, along with the cooling influence of avocado and cucumber.  For my son, who isn't keen on avocado, I served a sliced juicy tomato and cucumber.  The chicken is certainly flexible enough in flavour profile, that there are a whole host of accompaniments you could serve with it.

Calories are in the range of 398 per portion, it is low in sodium and high in Vitamins B6 and C, so it could be worse!

I am so happy to have rediscovered this recipe.  I think it is going to appear fairly regularly on the menu plan and I recommend it to you.  Without the chilli powder, it would be great for children, too.

CITRUS & SPICE CHICKEN   (Serves 3)

Ingredients:

For the marinade :

150ml natural yoghurt (I used Greek yoghurt)
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp runny honey
1 tbsp vegetable oil (I used sunflower)
2 generous tsp curry paste or powder
1 garlic clove, crushed
chilli powder to taste (I used 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder).

Other ingredients :

3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut into large chunks
1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into large slices
half a green pepper, deseeded and cut into large slices
1 onion cut into large slices
6 medium chestnut mushrooms , quartered
1 tbsp olive oil.

Method :

1.  Mix together the marinade ingredients in a bowl.

2.  Add chicken chunks to the marinade, stir to coat and set aside to marinate for as long as you've got - from 4 hours to 30 minutes.

3.  Pre-heat your oven to 180degC/350degF/Gas 4.

4.  Place the chicken chunks onto a baking tray, taking care to leave as much of the marinade in the bowl, but without scraping any off the chicken.

5.  Bake the chicken for 30 minutes, remembering to turn the tray half way through to ensure even colouring.

6.  Add the vegetables to the bowl and stir to coat them in the marinade.

7.  Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and add the vegetables, marinade and 200ml water.  Cook, covered, on a medium heat until the peppers are softened and onions are cooked through.  You may need to add more water, but only a little at a time.

8.  Once the vegetables are cooked, remove the lid and allow the sauce to reduce and thicken, which will only take 2-3 minutes if you haven't added too much water.

9.  The chicken is ready once the chunks are cooked through and they have gained a little bit of charred colour.

Serve with steamed basmati rice, avocado and cucumber.

Printable version

Saffron & pepper fish stew

Well, I can't bleat on about not being able to source fresh fish any more.  Not with a neighbour like Frank, who goes out sea fishing in his little boat and comes back to present us with Plaice and a huge Cod!  It's just as well we had room in the freezer, because it took me a few days to work out what to do with everything!

(It's also just as well that I have a hubby who will gut fish and lop the head off anyone who needs it.  Fish, that is .. not neighbours.  Although there have been moments .. but I digress).

The Plaice - isn't it gorgeous?

Now I have some small experience with filleting a Plaice (two goes, to be exact), so I was pretty much okay with that.  However, filleting a whopping great Cod?  Never done that before.  Well, I can't say that any more and it was actually surprisingly easy.  Thank you Mr Cod, for making it easier than I thought.

I was quite proud of my filleting efforts, even if my second Cod fillet wouldn't have passed Monica Galetti's critical eye.

Beautiful fat and chunky Cod

I had spent some time contemplating what to do with this fish and, rather than a recipe that demanded fillets to be kept whole, I decided to go with a "chunks of fish" recipe, just in case my filleting left a lot to be desired.  As it was, I could easily have gone for a "full fillet" recipe - but I'll know for next time (if there is one!).

I decided to go with a fish stew, as a very good way of making use of randomly shaped pieces of fish - and anyway, I've always wanted to make a fish stew or a fish curry.  I took hubby's advice in the end, and plumped for the stew.

I put the Plaice on top of the thicker Cod so that it wouldn't cook too quickly

I could see in my mind's eye what I wanted - and I got fairly close to it, I think.  The flavour was great - the fully flavoured ingredients didn't overpower the gentle flavour of the fish and the sauce/broth was an intriguing mix of richness and sweetness, with the wine preventing it from going too far into the sweet.

The colours were beautiful and, with some of hubby's delicious home made bread, it really was something out of the ordinary and truly memorable - for all the right reasons.  I knew it was good, when I heard our son comment "Mum, this is SO good!".  Thumbs up, that's the kind of reaction I like.

Not too many Cook's Tips for you with this one, just :


1.  I used a wok to make it in, as I felt it gave more control than a deep saucepan.

2.  Make sure not to allow the garlic to burn, so as not to make it bitter.

3.  Once the fish has been added, make sure to stir gently so as to keep the fish chunks as large as possible.  You don't want fish mash!

I can't recommend this one highly enough.  Quite apart from being exceptionally good for you, it tastes amazing and is fun to eat with the dippy bread.  I suspect that even people who are a bit leery of fish, would like this one - so long as they like saffron!

SAFFRON & PEPPER FISH STEW    (serves 4)

Ingredients :

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, half chopped finely, half sliced, then quartered
2 large garlic cloves, chopped finely
1 red pepper, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
a pinch of sea salt
a half a tsp of ground black pepper
half of a butternut squash, diced
1 fennel bulb, sliced
1 large vine ripened tomato, diced
a good pinch of saffron threads
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme
half a tsp dried parsley
4 strips of orange zest
250ml white wine
250ml water
2 tsp fish stock powder (or sufficient cubes for 500ml liquid)
80g sliced black olives
500g cod fillets, skinned
300g plaice fillets, skinned
lemon quarters for garnish.

Method :

1.  Heat the olive oil in a deep saucepan or large wok.  Once good and hot, add the onion, garlic and both peppers with the sea salt and black pepper.  Stir fry over a moderate heat until the onion is transparent and the peppers have softened.  Don't allow the garlic to burn.

2.  Add the butternut squash, fennel and tomato and continue to stir fry until the fennel appears slightly softened.

3.  Add the saffron, bay, thyme, parsley and orange zest and stir to combine.

4.  Add the wine and allow it to frizzle and reduce to around half, stirring throughout.

5.  Add the water and stock powder/cube(s) and stir to combine.  Bring to a lively simmer and cook with a lid on but stirring occasionally, until the saffron colour is well established and the flavours have combined nicely.  Keep tasting the sauce - you will know when it is ready.  Adjust the amount of black pepper, if it requires it.

6.  Remove the lid, add the black olives and stir through.  Continue to simmer until the sauce has reduced significantly and intensified.  Do not allow it to run dry, however!  Taste for seasoning - particularly salt at this stage.

7.  Place the fish on top of the mixture and replace the lid.  Cook on a gentle heat until the fish is almost done, then break it into large chunks and stir in the liquid that it will have produced, taking care not to break up the fish too much.

8.  If the stew is still rather dry, add a little more hot water - bit by bit - until it reaches a nice saucy consistency.

9.  Serve in warmed bowls with chunky bread for dipping and a lemon quarter to squeeze over.

Printable version

Bacon & Pesto Gnocchi - suspending disbelief

I've been going through a bit of a purple patch with my cooking lately again, in that I had lost my way a bit - well, a lot in fact.  It happens that way sometimes.  Eating is something that we HAVE to do, to keep operating and to stay as well as possible - but sometimes it can be just the most dull, time consuming and tedious thing imaginable.  Add to that it being more than a little bit painful to complete and you have all the ingredients for a purple patch.

However, I hadn't lost my interest in all things culinary or my curiosity for new ingredients - so I knew I'd be back to it, if I just wound things back a bit and swung with the tide for a while.  So here I am, quietly getting back into the swing of things.  I didn't stop cooking, either - we just went through a few weeks of some fairly dull meals, incredibly unhealthy meals and some stellar and spectacularly gorgeous Sunday roasts.  Well, it had to come out in some way or another - and I saved it all for Sundays.  LOL

I will do a couple of posts detailing some of the Sunday meals we've had - as they deserve to spend some time in the spotlight.

Now don't go thinking that I'm back with dishes of Lark's tongue in aspic, or a new take on Lobster thermidor, far from it.  For this week's menu plan (yes, I'm still doing those!) I've tried to come out of my default "meat and two veg" and venture into things - like today's Gnocchi - that I haven't cooked for ages because of lack of inspiration and enthusiasm.

So, all that aside, this evening's meal of Bacon & Pesto Gnocchi was a great start.  We all love gnocchi and I had simply forgotten about it.  After all, there are so many different ingredients out there, it is impossible to remember them all.  Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.  Like a hot gnocchi to an aluminium pan.  *wink*

I can't claim this recipe as all my own work, the inspiration and basic idea came from a recipe on the U.K. & Ireland All Recipes site - which you can see here if you fancy having a look.  I simply added a couple of extra ingredients - mushrooms and onion - to the recipe, to pad it out a little further and to increase the veggie quota.

I'm currently trying to eat mushrooms whenever I can, having read that folk who eat mushrooms and drink green tea (not necessarily together at the same time, but whatever floats your boat) stand considerably less chance of contracting cancer - of all sorts of types.  Now it's not hard work to eat mushrooms and fairly easy to add a cup of green tea to my day, so that's what I've been doing.

This recipe really is simplicity itself.  Now I approve of that, because not every recipe needs to take an aeon, involve every pan you possess and take you an hour to get over cooking.  Far from it.  It sounded easy - it's one of those "put stuff in the pan in order and cook on various heats, boil other stuff, combine the two" recipes.  They get a big thumbs up from me.

The peppers do need chargrilling earlier in the day, but if you don't have the time or inclination to do this (it is well worth it though, as the flavour is so much better), you can use them ready done, out of a jar.

There are two odd things about the recipe, however.  One is that it involves Philadelphia cream cheese - which isn't odd on its own, it's just that it uses Sweet Chilli Philadelphia.  In a dish which is ostensibly Italian.  ~scratches head~  Demands the suspension of disbelief to do it, but it's worth it!  If it is any consolation, the Sweet Chilli version is one of the low fat types of Philadelphia, so it could be worse!

The second odd thing is the end colour - which, thanks to the green Pesto, is eccentric at best.  Don't panic when you see it all combined in the pan before you add it to the gnocchi - the addition of the gnocchi helps to lighten the colour and if served with a green salad alongside, it kind of makes sense.

My menfolk liked it a lot - well, cheese and bacon?  It'd have to go a long way to shake off a man's love for bacon.  I was a little bit concerned that there wouldn't be enough for everyone, whereas the reality was that it was absolutely perfect.  No leftovers and everyone was satisfied.  Works for me!

So, having said all that, let's get on and make it shall we?

BACON & PESTO GNOCCHI   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

1 red and 1 green pepper
1 onion, chopped finely
1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
300g smoked back bacon, chunkily chopped
4-5 chestnut mushrooms, sliced
500g potato gnocchi
3 heaped tsp green pesto (to taste)
3 dessertspoonfuls sweet chilli Philadelphia
1 generous handful of grated cheddar cheese.

Method :

1.  If you are using your own home chargrilled peppers, some hours before you begin to make the dish, heat your grill to high and place the whole peppers under the grill.  Leave them there for their skins to turn black and blister, turning them until they are completely charred.  Cool for a moment, then pop into a freezer bag and seal the top.  Condensation will form, which will enable their skins to be removed really easily - and they have such a gorgeous smokey taste.

2.  So, place a large pan of salted water on to boil for the gnocchi.

3.  While the water is heating, add the oil and the onion to a frying pan and cook gently until softened and just beginning to caramelise.

4.  Add the bacon, which will cool the pan - so increase the temperature to cook the bacon until all the water has dispersed, then add the mushrooms and cook on until they have softened.

5.  Add the peppers and heat them through - by which time the water should have boiled for the gnocchi, so in they go for their three minutes, or whatever the pack demands.

6.  Add the pesto, Philadelphia and grated cheese to the frying pan and stir through until the cheddar has melted and the whole lot has combined.  This is where you'll start getting a little bit worried about the colour.  Do not despair!

7.  As the gnocchi cook, lift them out with a slotted spoon, directly into the bacon mixture.  Once they are all done, fold them through until everything is combined, check for seasoning and adjust if necessary - and serve.

I thoroughly recommend serving the gnocchi with a green side salad, which provides a lovely freshness to counteract the richness of the pesto and cheese.  Perfect!

Printable version

Stir-fried pork with ginger & honey : another quick, satisfying supper

Harking back to the previous post (Lemony Prawn & Chorizo Rice), this is another one cropped from the Good Food Magazine.

February's magazine seems to have been a fund of interesting recipes, perhaps because the emphasis is on "healthy" instead of "expensive indulgence".  Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a bit of expensive indulgence - but after Christmas and New Year I find I start hankering for sausage & mash, or meatballs & pasta.

Well, this recipe isn't either of those - but it was completely gorgeous.

I'm always keen on a stir fry and a stir fry that involves noodles and pork?  Well immediately I'm interested.  Ordinarily, I'd have got six pork steaks from our local butcher to do this recipe.  However, having bought a pork fillet for the Ballotines, I realised that - at the moment - it's an affordably good source of extremely lean pork.  Unlike the Ballotines, if you're buying just the one fillet then it becomes almost affordable as there is so little waste.

Hubby really liked this dish - as did I.  The only tweak to the original recipe I made beforehand was the inclusion of a red pepper along with the green.  That was largely because I had a spare red pepper sitting in the fridge without a home to go to.  In retrospect, I think I would add some mushrooms to it as they would fit very well within the flavour profile and just add to the interest.

Of course, this then places the stir fry completely outside of son & heir's comfort zone.  He'll eat the pork, noodles & mange tout happily enough, but the peppers received a big negative, as would mushrooms.  In fact, I'll keep on serving this sort of dinner up to him from time to time, ever hopeful that his taste buds will have matured and he'll find the vegetables palatable.  Well, it might happen!

STIR FRIED PORK WITH GINGER & HONEY    (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

3 nests medium egg noodles

3 tsp cornflour

1 tbsp water

3 tbsp soy sauce

1½ tbsp runny honey

1 tbsp sunflower oil

500g pork tenderloin (fillet) cut into thin bite-sized pieces

1 tsp ginger, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 green pepper, deseeded and sliced

1 small red pepper, deseeded and sliced

a handful of chestnut mushrooms, sliced

150g mange tout

1 tsp sesame seeds.

Method :

1.  Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the noodles according to the pack instructions.

2.  Mix the cornflour with the water, soy sauce & honey and set aside.

3.  Heat the oil in a wok or deep frying pan over a high heat until it’s as hot as you dare.  Then add the pork and cook, stirring regularly, until browned all over.

4.  Add the ginger, garlic, peppers, mushrooms and mange tout and cook until the peppers are demonstrably softened.

5.  Reduce the heat, then add the soy and honey mixture, stirring until the sauce bubbles and thickens – which will be just a moment or two, so don’t leave it!

6.  Add the drained noodles and toss to combine, then serve adding a sprinkling of sesame seeds at the last minute.

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Chicken Jhalfrezi - not only a healthier version, but delicious too.

Well, I finally got around to cooking the Chicken Jhalfrezi that Asda prevented me from cooking last week.  This week, they delivered all the required ingredients and I was able to set to following on from our tour of the New Forest and get currying.

I had been a bit nervous of this recipe, as I know how suspicious hubby can be of curry recipes that purport to be "lighter" or "healthier" than your average butter-rich, nut-laden, creamy curry.

However, this one had a nice mixture of ingredients that looked as though they would go well together - and I had a brand new pack of Garam Masala.  I know that these spice mixes can get a bit dull as you get towards the bottom of the pack, plus this was from a new manufacturer.  It turned out to be much sweeter and more fragrant than the Garam Masala we'd had last time - and was absolutely perfect for this dish.

The original recipe - from Mallika Basu (who I'm afraid I've never heard of) - asked for chicken thighs, but as neither hubby nor son are terribly impressed by chicken thighs, we went for the more agreeable skinless and boneless breasts.  I can't say we missed the extra flavour that the thighs bring.

The recipe suggested just naan bread as an accompaniment, but I knew that wouldn't go down terribly well as we do like a bit of rice (and rice is a lot cheaper than providing naan bread for everyone, particularly as we like Peshwari naan over the plainer variety).  So, I cooked up a small portion of basmati rice and we shared two Peshwari naans between the three of us.  In truth, however, we didn't need the bread as the rice was ample.

I really enjoyed this dish.  I used watercress as the salad greens - largely because I love the stuff and know that it is incredibly good for you.  However, hubby's comment that baby spinach would have been equally good, was valid and I will probably give that a go next time.  There is most definitely going to be a next time, as the flavour of the Jhalfrezi was so light and tangy that it went extraordinarily well with the lemon juice & salt dressed salad greens.

I am never happier (well, maybe that's a bit of a push, but I'm pretty darned happy) than when I have been able to serve something up to the family that I know was a) economical, b) nutritionally good for them and c) tastes fantastic.  This one scores on all three counts.

CHICKEN JHALFREZI (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

3 skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into small strips
3 tbsp low fat natural yoghurt (I used Greek)
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp turmeric
half a tsp chilli flakes
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 medium onions
1 large tomato (or two medium vine tomatoes)
2 green peppers (one large, one small will do for 3 people)
1 tbsp vegetable or olive oil
half a tsp of grated garlic or garlic paste
1 tsp grated ginger or ginger paste
2 heaped tsp Garam Masala
25g fresh coriander, roughly chopped.

Method :

1.  Place the chicken in a bowl and add the yoghurt, tomato puree, turmeric and chilli flakes, plus the lemon juice.  Mix well, cover and leave to marinate.

2.  Whilst the chicken is marinating, peel and slice the onions, then slice the tomatoes and green peppers into 1cm slices.

3.  Warm the oil in a wok set over a high heat.  Once it is hot, fry the onions and green pepper for 2-3 minutes until softened, then add the garlic and ginger and fry until aromatic.

4.  Next, add the chicken with its marinade and stir vigorously for 5 minutes or until the meat is sealed evenly.  Add the tomato slices and continue to cook for another 5 minutes or so.

5.  Finally, add the Garam Masala and mix through.  Cover the wok and cook for a further 2 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.  Continue to cook until the sauce is greatly reduced.

6.  Stir in the coriander, taste to check the seasoning and serve on a bed of watercress or spinach dressed in lemon juice and salt.

Home made Pizza

The final articles

In days gone by, when we still lived in Kent, I would make pizza from scratch on a regular basis.  However, with the advent of frozen pizza becoming £3.00 for 3 in Asda, I just couldn't compete with that kind of price and home made pizza became too expensive to produce.

Recently though, the frozen pizzas have become sickly and more than a little bit yuk, which has put us off from buying them and leaving us pizza-less.  With a 12 year old boy in the house, this is something of a critical situation to be in.

So, hubby decided to have another go at making them from scratch.

Three pizza bases, ready for action
They look alright to me!

I won't go into the pizza bread base, as I know that hubby wasn't terribly pleased with it, although both son and myself had no problem with it and declared the whole thing just gorgeous.  However, I know there's no point in giving you the recipe until he's completely happy with it.

Ooooh, you saucy things!

He made the tomato sauce himself, comprising a tin of tomatoes to which he added a teensy bit, like a quarter of a teaspoon, of dried mixed herbs, dried oregano, salt & pepper to season, a teaspoon of tomato ketchup and a couple of drops of Worcestershire Sauce.  He then simmered it until it had reduced to the consistency of a thick passata and allowed it to cool.

Of course, everyone had different ideas about what they wanted on their pizzas.  Son was the easy one, as he just wanted pepperoni, plus mozzarella and cheddar cheeses.  However to make it a bit more meaty, we'd bought a Pepperami which hubby had sliced up for adding to the pizzas.

Mine (left) and hubby's (right)
all ready for the oven.

Hubby had pepperoni, pepperami, green pepper, mushroom, green olive, mozzarella and cheddar.  I had all that, plus a leetle bit of black pudding, sprinkled here and there.

Gosh, but they were good.  :)

I don't mind having Pizza more often, if they're going to wind up being THIS good.