Roasted Mediterranean Vegetable & Cheese Quiche

Well, once again it's been an age since I've committed a recipe to the blog but this one was so good, it looked so pretty and was very successfully tasty that I've had lots of requests for the recipe.  So here we are!

I won't go into a long old rigmarole about the quiche, just suffice to say that I was looking to achieve a quiche that had to be tasty, I didn't want it to be too wet (the contents, that is!) and it had to be vegetarian.  For me, this creation ticked all those boxes but be aware that my hubby thought it was a little bit "squishy", so if you've got texture-centric diners it's probably worth subbing some other vegetable in for the courgette, as I suspect that was the culprit.

I managed to avoid most of the "squishiness" by oven roasting the majority of the vegetables, which dried them out nicely.  Take care to cut the sweet potato pieces into very small chunks to avoid it overpowering the contents.  It will spread out better as smaller pieces.

Ready for the oven

Hubby thought that perhaps the addition of some sweet corn would have been nice, so maybe I'll try that in the next version.  :)

As ever, if you try the recipe and have any problems or confusion with it do let me know and I'll do my best to iron those problems out for others!

ROASTED MEDITERRANEAN VEGETABLE & CHEESE QUICHE   (serves 4-8)

Ingredients :

1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 small red onion, peeled and cut into quarters
1 medium courgette, top & tailed, then cut into small chunks
8 button mushrooms, sliced finely
Frylight sunflower oil cooking spray
sea salt & black pepper
300g approx ready rolled shortcrust pastry (or you could make your own)
3 large eggs
1 tsp English mustard powder
100ml double cream
100ml semi skimmed milk
2 pieces of chargrilled red pepper from a jar (rinsed), cut into small pieces
3 sprigs of fresh basil, sliced fine
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
half a tsp dried oregano
30g Gruyere or Gouda cheese, grated finely
30g red Cheddar or red Leicester cheese, grated finely
50g mature Cheddar cheese, grated finely
50g Greek salad cheese (Feta-alike, so if you've got Feta, that would be fine) broken into small pieces
1 medium tomato, sliced
1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped.

Method :

Pre-heat your oven to 180degC/340degF/Gas 4.

Place the sweet potato, onion and courgette pieces onto a large baking tray and spread them out evenly.  Spray well with cooking spray and sprinkle with a little sea salt & black pepper.  Place into the oven to roast for 25-30 minutes or until the sweet potato is tender.  Ideally, the vegetables should have small areas of charring on them in order to get the best flavour.

With 10 minutes to go, sprinkle the vegetables with the sliced mushrooms, give a quick spray with the Frylight and replace into the oven until the rest of the veggies are done.  Remove from the oven and place to one side to cool until required.  Once cool, cut the onion quarters into smaller pieces.

While the veggies are cooking, prepare your pastry case by lining a loose bottomed 8 inch sandwich tin or quiche dish with pastry that has been rolled out thinly, making sure it is pressed into the corners of the tin and without any air bubbles underneath.  Cover the pastry with a layer of baking paper and fill with baking beans.  Once the vegetables are done and removed from the oven, place the pastry case in to part-bake for some 20-25 minutes.  Again, when the time is up, remove and leave to cool until required.

While the pastry is part baking, you can get on with making the filling.  Take a large bowl and break the eggs into it.  Give them a light whisk to break the yolks and combine with the white.  Add the cream, milk, some black pepper and the mustard powder and whisk to combine.

Add the sliced red peppers, basil, parsley, oregano and all the vegetables from the oven which should be fairly cool by now.  Add most of the grated cheeses but reserve a little to sprinkle over the top and give the whole lot a good, but gentle, stir so as not to break anything up.  Add the Greek salad cheese and give everything a light stir, just to combine.

When the filling is ready, take the part baked pastry case and carefully pour the filling in.  Gently encourage the contents to spread evenly across the pastry case to avoid any areas that are just egg mixture.  Sprinkle the surface with the reserved grated cheese and lay the tomato slices in an attractive pattern on the top.  Sprinkle the chives across the surface and give the tomato pieces a tiny sprinkle with black pepper.

Place into the oven to bake for 30-35 minutes. Check the quiche after 25 minutes and turn it if the surface is browning unevenly.  When cooked, the centre of the filling should feel fairly firm to the touch, but have a little spring in it and the whole thing should be a golden colour.

Remove the quiche from the oven and allow to cool for some 15-20 minutes.  In the case of a loose bottomed sandwich tin, gently remove the quiche from the tin and leave on a baking rack to cool completely.

Serve with chips or Jersey Royal new potatoes and salad.

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Latin American Chicken - frisky, fruity and delicious

Well, colour me surprised and extremely impressed by this recipe.  Some recipes you can look at and immediately imagine the flavours, know how it is likely to look, what consistency the sauce will be etc. This one, I had a good idea of the flavours but I couldn't, for the life of me, think what sort of consistency it would turn out to be and whether the flavours would be intense or somewhat wishy-washy.  You see, I have something of a past history with wishy-washy tomato based chicken dishes.  *coughs behind hand*  Moving on ....

I don't remember finding this recipe, but it was there in my "new recipes" folder on my computer so I obviously spotted it at some point and saved it for future reference.  As you do.  I have so many recipes saved that I have had to categorise them to within an inch of their lives in order to keep control.  Without the blessed categories, there'd be recipes romping unchecked everywhere as soon as I got past the opening window, I'm sure of it.  Anyway, there it was (here, if you're curious) and originally intended to be a recipe for the slow cooker.

Now although - as you know - I do have a slow cooker, in this instance it wouldn't have been a lot of use as I was cooking for just the two of us and the ingredients would have got lost in my big old crockpot.  Whatever you can cook in a slow cooker can be cooked in an oven, so that's where it ended up and (ssssshhh, don't tell anyone) but I think it may have been all the better for it, too.

As a matter of necessity, I tweaked the recipe remorselessly.  Things such as leaf coriander went out of the window, in favour of ground coriander, as my chaps really don't like leaf coriander.  I didn't have any allspice, so in went a combination of cinnamon, mace and a bit more ground coriander for luck.  For all that I did have a can of black beans, it would have made way too much so I swapped them out for a small can of red kidney beans and crossed my fingers.

The bit I was having trouble with, was knowing quite how the sauce would turn out - and indeed, if I would wind up with any sauce at all.  You see, apart from a small amount of chicken stock and a much larger amount of spicy salsa (for which, I used Asda's salsa in a jar) plus any juice that might leach out from the red pepper and sweet potatoes, there wasn't any identifiable "sauce" as such.  Now, cooked in a slow cooker, this wouldn't be such an issue as they do tend to water their contents down through returning the steam back into the pot as condensation.  I decided the best thing was to prevent the loss of steam created during the cooking process and covered the casserole dish with a tight sheet of silver foil under the lid.  Oh and crossed my fingers.  Essential bit of cooking technology, that.  Well hurrah for crossed fingers, because it worked!

The end result had just enough sauce to keep the contents nicely moistened, the chicken soft and tender and with the final addition of a squeeze of lime juice, was sooooo blinking delicious!  Plus, of course, the added benefit that other than a bit of chicken frying the cooking was a simple matter of heating everything up in the chicken pan, pouring it into the casserole dish and waving goodbye to it for an hour and a half.  Take fifteen minutes of that time to cook some rice and ~back of hand to forehead~ oh the stress!  SLAVING over a hot stove (a.k.a. reading my book in the living room) whilst the dinner cooked.  Perfect.

Do, by all means, feel free to cook the original incarnation of this recipe if it appeals, but I have noted down my version of it below, which is of course a whole lot better.  *wink*  If you prefer chicken thighs, you'll possibly need to increase the cooking time by a half hour or so, depending on how big and muscly your chicken is.

LATIN AMERICAN CHICKEN   (serves 2)

Ingredients :

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
sea salt
ground black pepper
1 tsp plus 1 tsp ground coriander
2-3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite sized chunks
1 red pepper, de-seeded and cut into strips
1 large clove of garlic, sliced finely
1 200g tin of red kidney beans, drained
200ml chicken stock (made with 1 stock cube or 1 tsp stock powder)
200g spicy salsa from a jar
half a tsp of ground cumin
half a tsp of ground cinnamon
half a tsp of ground mace
a pinch of dried red chilli flakes (to taste)
a small bunch of fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish
lime wedges, for garnish.

Method :

To begin with, pre-heat your oven to 180degC/350degF/gas 4.

Then, take each chicken breast and cut it in half horizontally so that you end up with two much thinner pieces of chicken for each breast.  This will ensure the chicken cooks evenly.

Heat the rapeseed oil in a large frying pan over a moderate/high heat and lay each piece of chicken inside.  Quickly sprinkle with half of one of the tsp of ground coriander and a pinch of sea salt & black pepper, turn the chicken and repeat for the other side.  Fry the chicken until golden on the one side, then turn it over and complete the frying on the other side.  If the chicken isn't quite cooked through it doesn't matter as it will complete cooking in the oven.  Once golden on both sides, remove the chicken to a lidded casserole dish and reserve.

Tip the sweet potatoes, red pepper and garlic into the frying pan - add a little more rapeseed oil if necessary - and fry until the garlic is golden, the potatoes have coloured in places and the red pepper has begun to soften - around 5-10 minutes.

Add the red kidney beans, stock, salsa, remaining ground coriander, cumin, cinnamon, mace and chilli flakes and stir through.  Bring to a boil and add a little more water if necessary, as it can evaporate quite quickly.  Pour the contents into the casserole dish and stir through.

Cover the casserole dish with a tight fitting layer of silver foil and the casserole lid and place into the middle of your oven for 1.5 hours.  I would advise checking the liquid level after an hour, just in case your sealing hasn't quite worked!  If necessary, top up with a little water or chicken stock.

I served mine with basmati rice that had been cooked in vegetable stock, with a few added peas and a very naughty knob of butter melted through.  Sprinkle the chopped parsley over the top and add a couple of lime wedges for squeezing.  Scrummy!

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Tasty turkey stuffed Romano peppers

This recipe, which came from my fevered imagination whilst I was craving stuffed peppers one day, succeeded in surprising even myself.  Oh yes, in a positive way, of course!  You wouldn't be seeing it if the reverse was true as I very much keep my failures to myself.  Well, apart from sharing the very worst of them on my Facebook page, where it's worth it for the laugh.

Anyway, these 'ere stuffed red pointy peppers are just totally lush.  The tasty turkey mince filling (you could use pork mince, if turkey isn't your thing) is flavoured with Italian style influences - tomato and sun dried tomato pesto predominate - yet they have a Mexican touch with the spicy Mexicana cheese that tops each pepper.  The gorgeously soft, sweet, fruity flavour of the peppers themselves just brings everything together in a deliciously amalgamated whole.

I recommend serving the peppers either with something creamily rich like a mushroom risotto (which is my choice), or a fresh crunchy mixed salad with a creamy dressing.  I think either would work as well as the other.

Super-simple to make, the bit that takes the longest time is the making of the filling.  However if you're going to be pushed for time then that can easily be made ahead and even frozen (but defrost before use), thus making the preparation a simple matter of filling the peppers and putting them in the oven.  From getting out the ingredients to sitting down to eat took around 90 minutes, but then I'm incredibly slow.  However, it gives you an idea of the time required.

Go!  Fry!  Stuff!  Bake!  Enjoy!  (A glass of wine wouldn't go amiss, either).

TASTY TURKEY STUFFED ROMANO PEPPERS   (serves 2)

Ingredients :

2 long red pointed Romano peppers, cut into two lengthways and de-seeded
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 red onion, diced finely
1 garlic clove, diced finely
sea salt & ground black pepper, to taste
300g minced lean turkey
1 vine ripened medium tomato, diced
4 cherry tomatoes, quartered
2 tsp tomato puree
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
half a tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
1 tbsp sun dried tomato pesto
1 tsp reduced salt Knorr chicken stock powder
100ml warm water
1 tbsp torn fresh basil leaves
60g sliced Mexicana cheese, or grated mature cheddar.

Method :

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

Before beginning to cook the filling, deal with the two peppers and cut them in half lengthways, remove the pith and seeds but leave the stem attached.  Place them into a suitably sized baking dish.

Heat the rapeseed oil in a large frying pan and add the onion & garlic.  Fry until the onion is softened and beginning to take on colour.  Season with a pinch of sea salt and a couple of pinches of black pepper.

Push the onion & garlic across to one side of the pan and add the turkey mince.  Break up the mince and fry until there is no pink colour left.  Mix the onions & garlic in and continue to fry.

Add the diced and quartered tomatoes, frying until the pieces have softened and are beginning to dissolve into the mix.  Add the tomato puree, tomato ketchup, dried oregano, chopped parsley, pesto, chicken stock powder and water.  Stir gently to combine and cook on until everything is mixed well together and the liquid has reduced significantly.  You are after a fairly dry mix, so that the mince doesn't just flow out of the peppers!  Once you are happy with the consistency, add the torn basil leaves and stir through.  Taste for seasoning and adjust both salt & pepper to taste.

Divide the mince mixture between the four pepper halves and either place the Mexicana cheese slices over the mince, or sprinkle the cheddar over the top of each pepper.

Place the baking dish into the middle of the oven for 25-30 minutes, until the cheese is golden and bubbly.

Serve with some wild mushroom risotto, or alternatively a fresh mixed salad.

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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

Sausage & red pepper Mexican rice - one pot, big flavours!

Some time ago, I received some fairly intense instruction from my lovely friend Deb Barragan on how to make Mexican rice to accompany things like burritos, enchiladas and fajitas.  I think she was fed up with keep seeing potato wedges, chips or savoury rice appearing alongside such things.  *chuckle*

Since having acquired the knack of Mexican rice, I discovered  a brilliant recipe that included grated cheese over the lot.  You can only imagine how much my menfolk approved of that.

So when I was contemplating this week's meals, I remembered that I had a complete shed load of Spanish rice in the cupboard.  Immediately the "plus cheese" Mexican rice recipe came to mind and, instead of thinking of something to go alongside, I began to think about what could go inside.  Bacon was rejected.  I know, but still, it seemed too salty.  Sausages were the next idea - and skinned sausages made into meatballs seemed perfect.

I also wanted to include some sort of vegetable matter in the mix and just happened to have a red pepper going begging.  A bit like the small amount of finely sliced sandwich chorizo that was going begging from the cheddar & chorizo quiche and the end of a chorizo sausage that was also looking for a job to do.  (I skinned and quartered that!).  So in a funny kind of way, the recipe made itself just by thinking about what would go with what - and what I already had in the fridge!

There wasn't enough rice to say that this was risotto-like, but it did have something of a risotto quality to it as the creamy rice grains held everything together and gave it a reason to be there.  The addition of the grated cheese at the end just turned what was a tasty thing into a delicious thing and gave it heaps of appeal where the menfolk were concerned.  I liked it a lot.  We didn't have any accompaniments with ours - we're trying to cut down on portion sizes and definitely cutting down on carbs, so garlic bread was a no:no.  Personally, I think it would have been lovely with a green salad with balsamic dressing, whereas my hubby was after a bit of bread to mop up the sauce with.  So go with what your menfolk and/or conscience decrees!

As for Cook's Tips, there are a couple included in the recipe.  However aside from that, it is worth noting that the Harissa paste I used includes cumin in its recipe so I left that ingredient out.  It's worthwhile checking yours and doing the same, if so.

Another tip involves the tinned tomatoes.  For those of you in the U.K., by far and away my favourite type of tinned chopped tomatoes are from the Tarantella brand.  They are organic and as such a wee bit more expensive than lots - but the flavour and lack of acidity is just streets ahead.

Well, there you are.  All that remains is for me to wish you good cooking and you to make your menfolk very happy.  Oh - and you may want to up the Harissa content if you and/or your menfolk are dead keen on food that makes your nose glow.  *wink*

SAUSAGE & RED PEPPER MEXICAN RICE    (serves 3)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp olive oil
8 pork sausages, skinned and each separated into 4 small meatballs
90g thinly sliced chorizo, cut into ribbons or small pieces
1 red onion, chopped small
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 red pepper, cored, de-seeded and diced small
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp Harissa paste
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp chicken stock powder or 1 chicken stock cube
400g tin chopped tomatoes
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
180g Spanish rice (Paella rice is good for this)
300ml hot water
150g mature cheddar cheese, grated
3-4 slices of Mexicana cheese
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley as garnish.

Method :

Begin by heating the olive oil in a large, deep frying pan or wok (one with a lid) over a high heat.  Once good and hot, add the sausage meatballs and fry until a deep golden brown on at least three sides.  Spoon away and discard a good two thirds of the ensuing oil from the sausages.

Add the chorizo, onion, garlic and red pepper and stir fry - it's quite important to keep the pan contents moving with occasional pauses - until the onion is softened and there is a degree of juice evident.  Add 50ml of water to the pan and cover it.  Continue to cook, covered, for around 5 minutes or so.

Once the peppers have begun to soften, uncover and add the oregano, Harissa, tomato puree, tomato ketchup, cumin powder (if required), chicken stock powder, chopped tomatoes and cherry tomatoes and stir gently to combine.

Reduce the heat to moderate and add the dry rice.  Stir gently to combine and make sure that each grain is covered by the flavoured oil, then add the water and gradually stir it in.  Replace the lid and simmer for approximately 20 minutes until the rice has cooked.  You will need to remove the lid and stir the contents from time to time to prevent the underside from burning.  A little sizzle is good - and to be recommended in Spain - so I tend to leave that until the last couple of stirs.

Once the rice is cooked and the liquid has reduced, turn off the heat, sprinkle the grated cheese over the rice, lay the Mexicana on top and don't stir for the next 5 minutes.

Serve onto warmed plates and garnish with the chopped parsley.  You can either serve it as it is, or with bread to mop up the sauce, or even with a green salad.

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Sticky Hoisin chicken and red pepper with onion rice

Well, this one wasn't supposed to be like this at all.  However, the Chinese chicken traybake that I'd originally intended to make just wouldn't have suited our different requirements, so I bailed out at the last minute and made this up instead.  I think it turned into a very definite win.

As such, I can't give you chapter and verse as to how the recipe came about - I just made it up on the fly!  However, I will tell you that I was very impressed with myself for running two pots that required so much watching over and stirring, without burning either of them.  LOL  I must be improving!

Everyone loved this recipe and hubby even went so far as to declare it delicious and say that he was missing his deep fried King Prawn balls with sweet & sour sauce and prawn crackers that we normally have with a Chinese takeaway.  So that is high praise indeed.

If you're not used to juggling two pans, both of which require your attention, you can always just make plain boiled rice or alternatively buy a bag of egg fried rice from the supermarket to go with it.  However, it really isn't a difficult thing to get the two pans working well and fortuitously the action does seem to alternate from pan to pan!

As for any Cook's Tips, well the most important one is to ensure you have all your a-chopping and a-peeling done before anything hits a hot pan.  Getting a mise en place together in this way is worth dividends when you're cooking Chinese food as you really don't have time to stop and chop a pepper as you go!

It really is worth the 45 minutes of fairly intense cooking action involved in this one, to hear the admiring plaudits from your family as they tuck in happily.  So, onwards to the recipe!

STICKY HOISIN CHICKEN AND RED PEPPER WITH ONION RICE   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

For the chicken :

1 tbsp olive oil
3 chicken breasts, sliced
sea salt
ground black pepper
1 bunch spring onions, sliced diagonally
3 cloves garlic, chopped finely

1 red chilli, chopped
1 tsp Chinese 5 spice powder
1 red pepper, cored and sliced
4 white mushrooms, sliced
200ml hot water
4 tbsp hoisin sauce

2 tbsp clear honey

1 tbsp light soy sauce.

For the rice :

2 individual tbsp olive oil
2 medium eggs, lightly mixed
0.5 tsp Chinese 5 spice powder
sea salt
ground black pepper
1 large brown onion, chopped
200g white rice (I used Basmati), rinsed until the water runs clear

400ml good chicken stock

200g petit pois.

Method :

Begin by heating one tbsp of the olive oil for the rice in a wok set over a moderate heat.  Crack the eggs into a small bowl and add a pinch of sea salt, a pinch of black pepper and half a tsp of Chinese five spice powder.  Whip lightly with a fork.  Once the oil is hot, pour the egg into the wok and cook until an omelette has formed.  Ensure the egg is solid (you can flip the omelette over if you wish) and remove to a warmed plate and reserve.

Next, place 1 tbsp olive oil into both the wok (for the chicken) and a deep saucepan (for the rice).  Heat the wok over a hot heat and the saucepan over a moderate heat.  Once they are both hot, add the chicken to the wok and the brown onion to the saucepan, including a pinch of sea salt & black pepper to both.

Cook the chicken until it begins to caramelise, then turn and cook again until it again begins to caramelise.  It is not necessary to cook the chicken through at this stage, but it should have two golden sides, at least, after which remove from the pan and set aside somewhere warm.

Cook the onion until transparent and softened and just beginning to caramelise.

While the onion is cooking in the saucepan, add the spring onions, garlic, chilli and five spice to the wok and stir fry for 2-3 minutes.  Next, add the red pepper and white mushrooms to the wok and stir fry for another 2-3 minutes.  Add the water, cover the wok and bring to a boil.

In the meantime and while the water is coming to a boil in the wok, add the rinsed rice to the onion in the saucepan and stir to combine.  Add the chicken stock and cover the saucepan, bringing the contents to a gentle boil.  Allow the rice to cook approximately half way and add the petit pois.  Cook the rice until just al dente, after which turn off the heat, leave the lid on and allow the rice to steam until the chicken is ready.

Going back to the wok, uncover it and add the hoisin sauce, honey and soy sauce.  Stir through and bring to a frisky boil.  Re-introduce the chicken and stir through.  You are now just waiting for the liquid to reduce in the pan, to a sticky, coating sauce.  It's up to you how far you take it, I suggest you taste it as it reduces and stop when you're satisfied with the flavour and texture.

Finally, chop the omelette into small pieces and stir into the rice.

Serve onto warmed plates.  You can set aside some of the green parts of the spring onion and a few chilli slices for garnish, if you wish.

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Chestnut & aubergine stew - big, punchy flavours.

I seem to be having a bit of a Mediterranean leaning at the moment where cooking is concerned.  So much so that everything seems to have at least one red pepper in it and my olive oil stocks are depleting rapidly.

It has even crept into my Sunday dinner plans.  You see, we're currently shopping at Lidl as our primary supermarket - they've just opened a nice big store quite close by where you can get most things and what you can't get, you can either stop at Sainsbury's (if you go home one way) or Tesco (if you go home the other!) for.  Now Lidl has a regular weekly special offer on four items of fruit/vegetable and four items of meat/fish, which I keep in mind when it comes to creating the menu plan.  Hence, the pork being part of the special offer dealio was why I was focused on roast pork loin for our Sunday dinner this week.  I'm going to have to buy another piece and do a blog post on successful roasting of pork loin with rosemary and sumac, because it was by far and away the nicest piece of pork we've had in a long time.

Anyway, I digress.  I didn't want to do a standard roast pork with all the trimmings, as that is so much up and downing to the oven that I'm exhausted by the end of it.  No, this week I thought I'd couple it with delicious sweet potato and nutmeg (with outrageous amounts of butter) mash and some kind of vegetable stew.

Now I know that the name "vegetable stew" is an instant turn-off for a lot of people and understand why.  However, the stew I wanted to create wouldn't be that dull and boring.  Oh no. It was to have deliciousness like red onion, saffron, chestnuts and aubergine in there, along with the carrots and mushrooms and all in a delicious richly sweet tomato sauce.  Oh alright, it also had a red pepper.  I admit, I couldn't resist.

Now you may raise your eyebrows at the idea of humble chestnuts along with such exotic ingredients as saffron and aubergine, but the phrase "they were brought in by the Romans, don'cha know?" (the chestnuts, that is) was all the encouragement I required to place them in what turned out to be a very appropriate recipe.

You will need a fair old amount of time to create this stew because, well, it's a stew.  It needs time to hubble, to bubble, to toil and well hopefully not create trouble, but to cook all those ingredients to a stage where they're all very good friends.  It needs to stew.  It's no good throwing all the ingredients into a pot and hoping for the best, although you would get something more closely resembling a weak soup.

However, your reward for that time spent stirring (plus lifting the lid hopefully and having a wee soupcon as a taste - which is essential, of course) is such an unusual and delicious accompaniment to just about every meat and fish that's on the planet (bearing in mind I've not tried them all, but of those I have tried ...).  It would even be brilliant with eggs.  Perhaps a little odd as an accompaniment for a pineapple cheesecake, so let's just stay with the savouries, I think.

Anyway, as you will see from the photographs, I paired mine with the roast loin of pork (which I roasted for 35mins per pound, plus 35 mins, at 180degC/350degF/Gas4 covered for the first hour then uncovered for the rest, if that helps) and the sweet potato mash.  The combination made for an excellent Sunday dinner that made a lovely change from the standard roasties etc.

A closer look at that roast pork because, well, it deserves it.

So, whether you're choosing to eat it with roast pork, sausages, or salmon, I just hope that you like it as much as we did!

CHESTNUT & AUBERGINE STEW     (Serves 4)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp plus 2 tbsp olive oil (used separately)
1 small aubergine, diced
1 red onion, finely diced
2 big garlic cloves, sliced finely
2 carrots, peeled and sliced thinly
1 medium red pepper, cored and sliced
a pinch of sea salt
half a tsp ground black pepper
2 large tomatoes, tough cores removed and diced
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 pinch of saffron strands
a quarter of one preserved lemon, sliced into fine shreds
300ml hot water
1 heaped tsp of chicken stock powder (or 1 stock cube)
90g halved chestnuts (I use Merchant Gourmet brand)
5 large white mushrooms, quartered
1 tsp runny honey (if required)
2 tbsp fresh Basil leaves, torn
1 tbsp fresh Parsley leaves, chopped, for garnish.

Method :

Heat the one tablespoonful of olive oil in a large, deep frying pan or wok until very hot.  Gently add the diced aubergine and fry until quite deeply coloured on at least three sides.  Remove the aubergine from the pan and set aside.

Heat the two tablespoonfuls of olive oil to a moderate heat and add the red onion, garlic, carrots and red pepper with the sea salt & black pepper.  Cook until the onion is softened, then add the diced tomatoes, tomato puree and saffron.  Stir occasionally until the tomatoes are beginning to break down.

Add the preserved lemon shreds, hot water and stock and stir through.  Bring to a simmer, cover with a lid and cook - stirring every so often - for around 20-30 minutes until the tomatoes have broken down completely and the carrots are al dente.

Add the aubergine, chestnuts and mushrooms and stir through.  Replace the lid and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Taste for seasoning and add the honey if the sauce seems acidic.

Remove the lid and allow the liquid to evaporate, until the sauce has become thick and is covering the vegetables and the carrots are cooked through - around another 10 minutes or so.

Finally, stir in the torn basil leaves and serve, sprinkling with a little fresh parsley as garnish.

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Chicken Jalfrezi - a lighter but still tasty version!

Over the last few months, my hubby has slowly taken agin the curry pastes that are widely available for home made curries.  He's begun to find them very one-dimensional but more importantly to him, they don't taste of curry. Now this curry flavour is a very definite thing that we have yet to quite pin down, but this Jalfrezi got the closest to it in any curry for a long time.  We're still not quite there, but as I liked this recipe a lot for its flavour and use of fresh vegetables, I thought I'd pass it on to you all.

This recipe doesn't result in a heavy, thickly sauced curry but one that is a lot lighter in texture and without the pools of oil that characterise so many curries these days.  Oh and I'm really not sure how much of a Jalfrezi it really is, but I'm hoping that it is close at least.  As it uses curry powder, my first word of warning is to make sure you are using a good curry powder.  One which has a number of different flavours to it is by far and away the best.  I have yet to find - and yes, I will admit that perhaps there is one somewhere - a supermarket own brand curry powder that would even remotely fit the bill. My favourite curry powders come from our local ethnic shop, where I'm hoping that the curry powders on offer are close to the "real thing", but are certainly a long way from bland.

Secondly, make sure to use tomatoes that have flavour.  Vine ripened are the best of the supermarket choices, but it is worthwhile throwing in a few cherry tomatoes just to boost the profile a bit.

Lastly, make sure to leave yourself enough time.  Once the tomatoes get cooking, you need time for them to cook down, then time for the juice to reduce and intensify the flavour.  If you take the pot off the heat and think it's finished too soon, you'll just have a vaguely spicy tomato stew and not a curry.  So, give yourself and your curry time to chuckle, burp and spit tiny blobs of curry into random spots in your kitchen, you'll be glad you did even if the clean up is tricky.  (Of course, I could have got out the splatter guard which would have made sure no blobs escaped, but I was comfy and would have had to have moved.  What can I tell you?  ~shrug~).

From first putting the coconut oil into the wok, to calling everyone to attention in order to get them sat down and ready for the meal, my curry took around 50 minutes (with a good 30 minutes of chopping beforehand).  So it's not an earth-shattering amount of time, but if you only have half an hour, you're going to be in tomato stew land.  So leave sufficient time.

I really liked this curry.  Hubby wasn't so enthused, but I've already told you about the quest for curryness that we're on there.  When cooking it, I was concerned that it didn't have enough curry character, but as our son came home from college and immediately knew it was curry for dinner, I'm assuming it was just that my nose had got used to the aromas.  It tasted good right from the off and really came together in the last 10 minutes, once the liquid had reduced and the proper curry sauce texture arrived.  It was amazing the difference that reduction made to the overall flavour.

So, enough blathering and on with the recipe!

CHICKEN JALFREZI  (serves 4)

Ingredients :

2 red peppers, one roughly chopped into chunks, the other sliced
1 large onion, half roughly chopped into chunks, the other half sliced
4 large garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tbsp coconut oil
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced
a pinch of sea salt
4 heaped teaspoonfuls curry powder
1 heaped teaspoonful garam masala
a quarter of a teaspoonful of ground black pepper
2 very large sweet tomatoes, chopped
6 cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 tsp chicken stock powder (or 1 stock cube)
150ml hot water
1-2 tsp runny honey (optional)
10g butter (optional)
15g fresh coriander, chopped (reserve a little for garnish)
cooked white rice to serve.

Method :

Begin by placing the chunks of red pepper, the chunks of onion and the garlic into a food processor and blitz until a purée is achieved.  Set this aside.

Next, heat the coconut oil in a large saucepan or wok until really quite hot and gently add the sliced chicken breasts and sprinkle with the sea salt.  Spread the pieces across the pan and leave them to achieve a little colour, then turn and do the same again.  The slices do not need to be cooked through at this stage.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the chicken to a bowl and reserve.

Add the sliced red pepper and sliced onion to the wok and cook, covered, for 5-6 minutes stirring half way through, until they have gained a little colour and begun to soften.

Add the puree to the wok, along with the curry powder, garam masala and black pepper.  Stir well to combine and fry, stirring occasionally, until the juices are released and the mix has dried out considerably.  This should take around 10 minutes if your wok heat is high enough.

Add the chopped tomatoes and stir through, along with the chicken stock and the water.  Once combined, add the chicken pieces and stir through.  Now this is where the patience is required.  You need to have the pan hot enough that the tomatoes will cook and release their juices, then the juices (and the chicken stock) will reduce and the full flavour be created.  You will start with a quite considerable quantity in the pan, but once everything has cooked down and reduced, the sauce will thicken and the liquid will evaporate.

Marginally before the sauce reaches its final few minutes, taste for the salt level and add a little more if necessary, but remember that there will be a little salt in the butter that if you're using, should be added now.  Taste also for acidity and add the honey to your preference to correct that.  If you consider there's no sweetening required, then don't use the honey.

Once everything is combined and happy to be there, the sauce is thick and there are no pools of water on the surface of the curry, then you're ready to serve.

Serve with plain white Basmati rice and sprinkle with the reserved chopped fresh coriander as garnish.

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Malay style chicken & peanut curry - silky, spicy and delicious

Well, this one worked out well!  

I think I shall call it a Malay style chicken & peanut curry as the basis of it was the recipe as below, but I halved the Thai curry paste and added the other half in Indian curry paste (a Korma paste) - so it wound up being a fusion of the two.  Knowing what a fusion of races now call Malaysia home, I think that represents Malaysia quite well.  

Original recipe : http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2838670/thai-pork-and-peanut-curry

I deviated from the original recipe in several different ways, the first being the addition of the Korma paste as I've already mentioned.  I added a red pepper, chopped into smallish dice, for colour and interest and a white sweet onion cut into eighths, the sweetness of which meant I could leave the soft brown sugar specified in the recipe, out.  I'm always keen, where I can, to reduce the amount of added sugar in dishes.  The sweet red pepper, the sweet onion, the baby sweetcorn, the coconut milk all have an inherent sweetness and I felt that the soft brown sugar would just take it too far.

It was mildly spiced so easy to pep up if you like it hotter and was jolly tasty.  Everyone said they'd be happy to have it again, only with rather less coriander, next time!  LOL  (I'm a bit heavy handed with the coriander, because I like it so much.  I forget that others aren't as keen!).

I've reproduced the recipe with my alterations below, but feel free to cook the original if you prefer the look of that!  I'm not precious about my recipes - they're there for you to use, change, adjust and develop as much or as little as you wish.

MALAY STYLE CHICKEN & PEANUT CURRY   (serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 skinless & boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized chunks
ground black pepper 
1 sweet white onion, cut into eighths
bunch spring onions, sliced
small bunch coriander, stalks finely chopped, leaves chopped
1 red pepper, cored and cut into dice
130g baby sweetcorn, halved lengthways
2 tbsp Thai red curry paste
2 tbsp Korma curry paste
2 tbsp peanut butter
400ml can coconut milk
1 tbsp soy sauce 
juice 1 lime.  

Method :

Heat the oil in a large and deep frying pan until very hot and carefully add the chicken chunks.  Fry them until lightly golden on at least two sides and season with black pepper.  Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add the sweet onion, spring onions, coriander stalks, red pepper and baby sweetcorn to the pan and stir fry (adding a little more oil if necessary) until softened.

Return the chicken to the pan and reduce the heat slightly.

Add the Thai curry paste, the Korma curry paste and peanut butter and stir to combine.  Cook over a moderate heat for some 3 minutes or so, until well combined.

Add the coconut milk and soy sauce and stir gently.  Simmer for some 10 minutes or so until the sauce thickens to your preference.

Just prior to serving, add the lime juice (Half a lime at a time, then taste.  If necessary, add more) and stir in the chopped coriander leaves.

Serve with plain white rice, or jasmine rice.

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