Quesadillas

Quesadillas are one of my favourite lunchtime meals because they are easy to make and a good way of getting lots of healthy, nutritious ingredients to taste amazing. You can put anything you want in a quesadilla, so this is just an idea to make a healthier, more nutritious version. Loaded with lots of fresh ingredients, 1 tortilla can even serve two if you are really trying to keep your portion size down. But I would eat the whole thing.

Ingredients (makes 1):
Half an avacado, peeled and cubed
3-4 small tomatoes, e.g., cherry tomatoes, cubed
Half a small red chilli, deseeded and finely diced
1 tablespoon fresh coriander, roughly chopped
1 spring (green) onion, roughly chopped
Handful grated reduced fat cheddar cheese
Handful shredded cooked chicken (totally optional - just if you have leftovers)
1 flour tortilla
1 teaspoon oil

Method:
Heat a large frying pan or griddle on a medium to high heat. Add a drop of oil to the pan and using a paper towel brush around the pan to evenly coat. Place your tortilla in the pan and, on one half of the tortilla, spread the cheese in a thin, even layer. Then add the rest of your ingredients, just to half with the cheese. Using a palette knife, take a look at the underside of the tortilla. After a couple of minutes on the heat, it should be browning up nicely. If not, keep cooking it until it starts to brown. Fold the tortilla in half so the empty half covers the half with the toppings. Press down to "seal" the tortilla a little. The ingredients will start to stick together thanks to the melting cheese. It won't be perfectly stable so when you go to flip it over, some ingredients might fall out into the pan, but you can put them back in again. Once flipped, cook on the other side a little more, and then remove from the pan. The cheese should be melted and everything should be nice and warm. Your tortilla will hopefully be crispy. Cut into triangles, squares or whatever you want and then eat.




NB: I had about a teaspoon of refried beans leftover from something else which I also used in this recipe. I couldn't really taste them in the quesadilla so I left them out of the ingredients list, as I don't think it would be worth buying/making refried beans for this unless you specifically want to include them, in which case I would add more to really get the flavour of the refried beans coming through the other, fresher tasting ingredients.

Chicken noodle soup

It's the 1st October and I have the reddest nose this side of the North Pole. What I thought was a passing sore throat has become a fully fledged cold. I'm surrounded by tissues and all I want is a simple clear chicken noodle soup. I had mine with bread for double carbohydrate heaven. If you have the time/energy of course you can make your own stock and cook your chicken but this is a shortcut version which tastes very good indeed.





Ingredients (serves 4 generously):
A few stalks of celery, cubed
A couple of carrots, peeled and cubed
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus a little more for the noodles
Salt and pepper
1 clove fresh garlic (optional)
A few cups of cooked chicken (I bought a cooked chicken and took the meat off the bone)
1 tub of ready made chicken stock and the same amount of water
1 chicken stock cube (optional)
Small handful fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
Fettucine or other egg pasta/noodles (as much or as little as you want)

Method:

Fill your kettle and boil. Add the olive oil to a large pan on medium heat. Add the celery and carrot and season with a little salt and pepper. Saute until the vegetables begin to soften. Mince the garlic clove and add to the pan. Stir for a minute and add a little stock or water to the pan to stop the garlic from burning. You don't want to colour the veg, just soften it slightly.

Add the tub of stock and then with the hot water from your kettle, fill up so the water level is about three quarters of the way up the pan. You can use all stock rather than half water/half stock, but this was just to make the soup more affordable. If you feel the soup needs more flavour, add a stock cube and stir in. Bring the soup to the boil and reduce to a simmer.

Add the chicken and cook for about 15 minutes or until the vegetables have cooked through and the soup has increased in flavour. Season further if needed. In the meantime get your pasta on. Add some oil to the cooking water to stop the pasta sticking together. When it is al dente, drain.

Stir the parsley into the soup. Add some noodles to your bowl and pour over the soup.

Chicken salad with pecans and pancetta

I'm obsessed with pancetta at the moment. Salty pig strips can only ever be a good, addictive thing. Even when they are referred to as "salty pig strips". It isn't the main event in this recipe but it adds a wonderful luxuriously salty note to what otherwise is quite a subtly flavoured salad. I've adapted this from an Emeril Lagasse recipe:

Ingredients (serves 2):
1 bag of mixed salad leaves (the lazy, and therefore best, way)
6 slices pancetta, chopped into small strips
2 chicken breasts, poached and chopped into bitesize chunks
1 clove peeled garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup finely diced celery
1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
Salt and black pepper
1 cup good quality mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
A handful chopped fresh parsley
A couple of pinches of chopped fresh tarragon
1/2 cup whole pecans

Heat a frying pan on high heat and add the pancetta. There's no need to add any oil - the pancetta, as it frys, will render down and become crispy and golden. Once it is cooked to your liking, remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.

In a large bowl, add the cooked chicken breast chunks, the garlic, the celery, red onion, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, parsley, tarragon and pecans. Add a pinch of salt and a good grind of black pepper. Mix until well combined. Taste for seasoning.

Split the salad leaves between two plates, spoon over the chicken mixture and top with the pancetta.

Homemade cheeseburgers

 

I'm going to blame the blurriness of that picture on the fact that I was really hungry and just wanted to eat the deliciousness that was this burger. It had nothing to do with my terrible photography "skills"

What can I say? These are tasty and really easy to make. Using a griddle plan helps to get some nice charring on the burgers.

Ingredients (serves 2):
2 burger buns (I like sesame seeded 'cos I'm old school)
1/2 lb steak mince
A good splosh of Worcestershire sauce
1 egg yolk
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
2 slices of cheese (I used Jarlsberg)
4 slices tomato
4 iceberg lettuce leaves
2 gerkins, sliced lengthways into strips
Condiments:
I made a makeshift burger sauce with ketchup, mayo and diced gherkin but you could use any sauce you wanted
Ketchup

In a large bowl add the mince, egg yolk, minced garlic and Worcestershire sauce. Add a pinch of salt and a good grind of black pepper. With clean hands, gently mix the ingredients until they are just combined (squishy!) Try not to over-mix as this can toughen the burgers. Pour a tiny bit of olive oil into your hand and take half the mixture. Form into a ball and then squish down to create a burger. Place on a plate and repeat the process with the other burger. Wrap in cling film and pop in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

Take the burgers out of the fridge about ten minutes before you want to cook them. Heat a griddle pan on high heat. Take the burgers and with your fingers just rub a bit of olive oil on them. Adding the oil to the meat instead of the pan means they shouldn't smoke as much. Add to the pan and watch them sizzle. Cook for a few minutes without moving so when you flip them they should have griddle marks on them. Flip and cook on the other side. Turn right down to low and cook for a couple more minutes. Add the gerkhin slices to the tops of the burgers, then top with a slice of cheese. Place a large saucepan lid on top. This will circulate the steam around the burger to help them remain moist and melt the cheese.

Toast the burger buns. To the heel of the bun spread sauce of your choice, then top with lettuce and tomato. Add the burger with the gerkhins and gorgeous melted cheese, then top with more sauce and the top of the bun. Eat with gusto and some napkins.

Spicy teriyaki chicken with noodles and stir fried vegetables

I love this recipe because not only is it delicious but it's pretty healthy and affordable.

Ingredients (serves 2):
4 skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces
 1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 cloves garlic, peeled and grated
A good glug of soy sauce plus a bit more (use reduced salt variety if you prefer)
A splash of white wine
1 heaped teaspoon of brown sugar
150g straight to wok noodles (or if using dried noodles, boil first)
1 packet ready to use vegetables for stir frying
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
6 spring onions, 3 finely chopped, and 3 cut into thin strips

In a bowl combine the chicken, half the diced red chilli, garlic and ginger. Pour over soy sauce until the chicken is well coated. Add a splash of white wine (around two tablespoons or so) and the brown sugar. Stir to combine and set aside for about ten minutes.

Heat a shallow frying pan on a high heat and add a small amount of oil just to lightly coat the pan. Take the pieces of chicken out of the marinade (draining any excess liquid from the chicken) and add to the pan. You want to give the chicken a chance to cook off a little before adding the marinade, otherwise the chicken will poach. Once the chicken has brown off, add the marinating liquid and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low. The teriyaki sauce will begin to thicken as the chicken cooks through.

Heat a wok on a high heat and add a tablespoon of vegetable oil. Add remaining red chilli and finely chopped spring onions to the oil and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add the rest of the vegetables and stir fry for two minutes. Add the noodles to the wok and add a splash of soy sauce. Stir fry for another minute and put on two plates.

Once the teriyaki sauce has thickened add a little dark soy sauce to the pan, stir and then serve on top of the vegetables. Add the shredded spring onion to garnish.

Chicken with Boursin, and pancetta and herb breadcrumb topping

This was an off-the-cuff experiment, but I must say when served it elicited table-wide approval. It is so simple and stress-free to make, but really is a crowd pleaser. From a cooking perspective, there was something wonderfully liberating about having chicken with breadcrumbs that didn't involve "breadcrumbing", with flour, egg, breadcrumbs and then the inevitable frying. It was simplicity itself.

Ingredients (serves 2):
2 chicken breasts, skinless and boneless, and trimmed of any fat
1.5 cups dry breadcrumbs (like panko)
1 tablespoon or thereabouts of olive oil
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
6 thin slices of pancetta
Salt and pepper
1/2 pack of garlic Boursin cheese, or any soft cheese like le roule

Method:
Take the Boursin or whatever soft cheese you are using out of the fridge about 20 minutes before you plan to use it. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees centigrade. In a bowl, mix the breadcrumbs with the olive oil, fresh parsley and salt and pepper. Take a frying pan and place on a high heat. Cut the pancetta slices into about 1cm strips and throw into a hot pan. You want the fat to render down and to become nice and crispy. After a few minutes remove from the pan and mix into the breadcrumb mixture. Take a rolling pin or meat tenderiser and bash the chicken out to about 1cm uniform thickness. Grease a baking tray and place the chicken breasts on the tray. Using a palette knife spread the soft cheese onto the tops of the chicken breasts. You want a layer about 1/2cm thick, but of course it's up to you. On top of this, add the breadcrumbs, either with a dessert spoon or your hands. You want to press the breadcrumbs down so that they stick a little better (the soft cheese acts as a wonderful glue for the breadcrumbs). Again you want about 1/2cm thick layer of breadcrumbs, or until they are nicely coated. The cheese and breadcrumb topping should completely cover the top side of the chicken. Place in a baking tray and bake for around 20 minutes, but keep checking it. Flattened chicken breast can easily overcook, so keep a beady eye on it. You also want to ensure the parsley in the breadcrumbs doesn't brown up or burn.

I served mine with french fries and a simple green salad. Unfortunately I couldn't face taking a picture because I just wanted to eat it as soon as possible! When I post a picture is when I've made it again and managed to contain myself long enough to click a button!

Quick and Easy Potato Salad

I went to a party recently where everyone had to bring something for the meal. I opted for potato salad because who doesn't love potato salad? I looked online and couldn't find a recipe I really liked or thought was simple enough. So I devised my own. I used 1.75kg of new potatoes to service 10 people, so that is the quantity I'll give here. Halve it for a side dish for a small family dinner and you might get leftovers (although don't count on it!)

Ingredients (serves 10):
1.75kg new potatoes (baby pots, salad pots, any you like)
1/2 cup each of the following:
Finely chopped parsley
Finely chopped chives
Roughly chopped radish
Finely chopped spring onions
A few tablespoons of good quality mayonnaise (I use Sainsburys Taste the Difference mayo)
A pinch of salt and a good grinding of fresh cracked black pepper

Wash the new potatoes and boil them until they are tender. When cooked, drain and leave for around 10 minutes to dry off a bit more and to cool slightly. Place in a large mixing bowl and add the other ingredients. Stir well. You may wish to the mayo a spoonful at a time and mix and repeat, until you reach your desired level of mayo-ey-ness. Let sit for 10 minutes then refrigerate. If covered it will keep in the fridge for several days and in fact it will taste even better the next day!

Huevos Rancheros

I'm becoming increasingly enamoured with the concept of eating chillies at breakfast time. Both their vibrant hue and warm kick of flavour serve to wake me up in the morning and make me feel generally happy. Huevos rancheros is one of my favourite breakfasts, not only because it incorporates a good amount of chilli, but because it is sunny, warm and happy, and it tastes amazing.

This recipe is based on the one from Valentine Warner's The Good Table. I love looking at the recipes in this bright and appealing book, and this is the first recipe I tried. Valentine blended his tomato sauce, but I liked the idea of keeping it a bit chunky, mainly for texture (but also because blending things in the morning gives me a headache). His recipe includes refried beans and mine doesn't, just because I thought it didn't particularly need them.

Ingredients (serves 2):
2 tablespoons sunflower or vegetable oil, plus a bit more
1 small red onion, finely chopped
A good handful of fresh coriander stalks
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin (I used cumin seeds which I roughly bashed)
Can of chopped tomatoes
100ml water
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
Juice of 1/2 lime
Salt and pepper
4 corn tortillas
4 free range eggs
Handful of grated Lancashire cheese
A pinch of chopped fresh coriander leaves

Method:
1) Heat a tablespoon of the oil in a saucepan and on a medium heat add the onion, coriander stalks and cumin, and stir.
2) When the onions are softened and translucent, add the tomatoes, water, chilli, and salt and pepper to taste.
3) Bring to the boil and simmer for about 12 minutes until the sauce is no longer watery. Add the lime juice.
4) Heat a dash of oil in a large frying pan and put in all four of the tortillas. They should go quite floppy in the heat, then once they're at that stage, keep turning them so they all directly touch the pan and begin to crisp up. Use your judgement as to how crisp you'd like your tortillas.
5. Once crisp, remove the tortillas from the pan and set aside. Heat up a tablespoon of oil in the same pan and fry the eggs. I like mine "sunny side up" with a nice soft yoke.
6. When your eggs are done, place them on the tortillas. Spoon over the tomato sauce and add cheese and coriander.

I can't tell you how amazing this breakfast is, especially with a Mexican lager. I know it sounds awful to drink beer with breakfast, but one nice cold beer won't hurt on the weekend once every now and then. And besides, posh people have champagne breakfasts, don't they?!

Thai Red Curry - the cheat's way

Now, I'm not going to lie to you and tell you this is the best Thai red curry in the world ever. Of course it isn't! But I will tell you that it makes a delicious and very quick week night meal, and as well as being delicious it is also nutritious! I find this really addictive and usually have two big bowls in one sitting (and I won't feel guilty about that!) Of course you can make your own curry paste but this recipe is about making a Thai curry quickly and with minimal ingredients and effort. It's also a lower fat curry because it uses low fat coconut milk, which I found works very well in place of it's full fat counterpart. The trick is to find a really good Thai red curry paste, and the only way to do that is to try different ones until you find one that suits you.

Ingredients (serves 4):
1 tablespoon oil (I used toasted sesame oil)
300g skinless and boneless chicken breast, cubed
1 jar of Thai red curry paste (my favourite is from Marks and Spencer)
400g can of reduced fat coconut milk
1 small pack of mange tout
1 small pack of baby corn
1 red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
1 bunch of spring onions, sliced thinly on the diagonal
2 red chillies, sliced thinly on the diagonal
Handful of coriander, chopped
Juice of 1 lime

Method:
1) Use a large frying pan to heat the oil. On a high heat quickly stir fry the chicken for two minutes.
2) Add the curry paste and about half a cup of water and bring to the boil.
3) Reduce the heat to medium and allow the sauce to simmer for two minutes.
4) Add the coconut milk and continue to simmer. Allow the sauce to simmer for 15 minutes.
5) After 7 minutes of this time, add the baby corn and stir into the sauce.
6) After 3 more minutes add the mange tout and red bell pepper.
7) When the sauce has been simmering for 15 minutes in total, stir in the spring onions, chillies, a sprinkle of coriander and finally the lime juice.
8) Remove from the heat and serve with steamed jasmine rice and more coriander.

Single stack club sandwich

This is my way of making, and eating, club sandwiches. Rather than using a layer of bread in the middle of the sandwich, I make it with a chicken breast which has been coated in dry Panko breadcrumbs and then shallow fried until golden brown.
This sandwich is really delicious especially with a nice, cold beer.
Ingredients (makes one club sandwich):
2 slices of thick bread (I use white)
2 rashers of good quality smoked bacon
1 free range chicken breast, skinless and boneless
Salt and pepper
Garlic powder (optional)
1 cup of plain flour
1 egg, beaten
1 cup of Panko breacrumbs, or other brand of dry, course breadcrumbs
3 cups of vegetable oil
2 slices of tomato
Small handful of shredded iceburg lettuce
A slice of cheese (I used gouda)
Mayonnaise
Ketchup (optional)

Method:

1) Put the chicken breast in a zip lock plastic bag and use a rolling pin to bash the chicken breast until it is approximately 1cm thick.
2) Pour a cup of flour into the bag with the chicken, and the salt, pepper and garlic powder (if using) and shake the bag so that the flour coats the chicken.
3) Remove the chicken from the bag, and shake off any excess flour.
4) Put your beaten egg into a shallow dish and dip the chicken breast into the egg, coating well.
5) Put the breadcrumbs into shallow dish or plastic bag and put in the chicken. It is important that the breadcrumbs stick really well to the chicken, so take some time to really make sure the breadcrumbs adhere.
6) I make this in advance for ease so at this point I put it in the fridge.
7) When you're ready to make your sandwich, heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan or pot and turn the heat on to high. You can test whether the oil is hot by adding in some breadcrumbs. If they sizzle, the oil is ready. Use tongs to carefully place the chicken in the hot oil.
8) Fry on one side for about 5 minutes. Use the tongs to gently turn the chicken in the oil, ensuring the breadcrumbs brown evenly. Turn the chicken and cook in the same way on the other side. When fully cooked, remove from the oil and place on paper towels to drain.
9) Meanwhile, take a frying pan and fry the bacon rashers on a high heat. I like my bacon nice and crispy. When cooked, place on paper towels.
10) Lightly toasted the slices of bread. After this, you're ready to assemble your sandwich. I do it in this order:

- Take a slice of bread and spread it with mayonnaise
- Add the lettuce and tomato
- Add the chicken breast
- Then the cheese
- Then the bacon
- Then a dollop of ketchup
- Then the other slice of bread on top

Shortbread

I love shortbread, perhaps a little too much, and part of its charm is how easy it is to make at home.

Ingredients:
150g butter, at room temperature and cut into small cubes
100g caster sugar (plus a little extra for serving)
360g plain flour

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade and line a baking tray with grease proof paper
2) Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth and completely combined
3) Add the flour bit by bit, combining as you go. The mixture will become more and more solid until it becomes firm and doughy.
4) Once you have added all the flour, work your dough into a ball and place it on the lined baking tray. Push the dough down either with your hands or a rolling pin, until it is about 1cm thick and reaches to the edges of the baking tray.
5) Use a knife to score the dough into rectangles so that you will have "fingers" of shortbread. Prick each rectangle with a fork a couple of times and place the oven. Bake for around 15 minutes or until the shortbread is a light golden brown.
6) Remove the shortbread from the oven. Use your knife to retrace the cuts you made in the shortbread earlier so that when it is cool you won't have to break apart the shortbread to form the "fingers". Sprinkle with sugar and allow to cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack to fully cool.

Raspberry Bakewell Pudding

This recipe is from The Hairy Bikers Food Tour of Britain which I have to say is a very interesting, if quite unusual, book. Si King and Dave Myers travelled the length and breadth of Britain to find the best food in each county. What they found was a mixture of recipes from professional kitchens, and stuff you could more easily and affordably make at home. For example, the section on the county of Lincolnshire offers a plum bread, and on the following page, a haslet beignet, with rhubarb puree and sage foam. My favourite instruction in the book comes courtesy of a Slow-cooked Derbyshire Lamb with oatcake crust and wild garlic and rosemary jus: "To make the caramelised onion mousse: Dissolve the methocel in the chicken stock and fold it into the onion puree. Season with salt and pepper and pipe into individual moulds. Cook in a water bath at 70 degrees centigrade for 10 minutes". I wonder that they offered instructions at all. I feel rather like a child gawping into a sweet shop window.

Anyway, my favourite recipe from the book hails from Derbyshire, and is a raspberry bakewell pudding. Cast your mind away from the spongey, cloying offerings of a certain mini-cake manufacturer and toward an unctuous wobbly pudding! This, quite obviously, uses raspberries but you could use cherries if you wanted to. It has a puff pastry base as opposed to shortcrust, and it is devastatingly simple:

Ingredients:
1 packet of puff pastry
Some good dollops of seedless raspberry jam
A small box of fresh raspberries
100g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
5 eggs
150g ground almonds
A few drops of vanilla essence

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 190 degrees centigrade. Roll out the pastry until it is large enough to drape over a flan tin with a diameter of 25 cm. Push the pastry down into the flan tin so you can fill it. You should have some pastry overhang but leave it there for the time being.
2) Take a few spoonfuls of raspberry jam and spread it onto the pastry base. Just use your judgement as to how much you'd like, but I use about 5 tablespoons worth.
3) Crush your raspberries slightly and spread them over the jam in one even layer.
4) In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. I just whisked them by hand but use electronics at this point if you wish.
5) Begin to alternate adding the eggs and the ground almonds, so add one egg and a spoonful of almonds, then mix. Repeat until all the eggs and almonds are combined into the mixture.
6) Add your almond essence, then pour the mixture into the flan tin. Trim the edges of the pastry either now or when the pudding comes out of the oven.
7) Bake in the oven for 35-45 minutes, but check it every now and then. It should be lightly brown on the top.

I sliced the pudding and had it with fresh single cream and raspberries. As you can see I had trouble cutting the pudding neatly. It was extremely moist and frankly I wanted to eat it as quickly as possible! The smell of the pudding as it cooked was wonderful.

The Hairy Bikers Food Tour of Britain is available from amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hairy-Bikers-Food-Tour-Britain/dp/0297859749

Burritos

Burritos make a wonderful party food and cater to a plethora of tastes. I must say now that this is burritos in the truly Anglicised sense, so you will not find here a recipe for authenticity. And having said that, neither is it much of a recipe. It is in fact purely a list of ideas of what you might put in a burrito, and how you might like to cook and serve it.

I like burritos for parties because everyone can make their own from a range of ingredients, and so you can cater to a fussy eater without too much ingenuity. What's more, the cooking part of the enterprise is really just warming through, meaning you don't have to turn your attention away from your guests for any more time than it takes to bung a baking tray into an oven.

For my party burritos I serve, each in an individual bowl with a serving spoon:

-Two meat dishes:
I really like to use pork sausage mince which I fry off in a pan with some freshly ground black pepper and chilli powder. Once the meat has crisped up and the fat has rendered down, drain the excess fat off the meat and serve.
I also like to serve chicken breast which has been chopped into cubes and cooked in a pan with olive oil, minced garlic, chilli powder, salt and pepper and smoked paprika. Once cooked I drain the excess fat and serve.

Fried chorizo, beef, pulled pork, and even smoked tofu would all be great options too. Just cater to you and your friends' tastes.

I also serve:
- Refried beans
- Guacamole
- Tomato salsa
- Shredded iceberg lettuce
- Grated strong cheese like cheddar
- Pickled jalapenos
- Sour cream

I give my guests each a plate with a warm flour tortilla which is sitting on a slightly larger square of tin foil. They can then go round the table choosing whichever items they want for their burrito. Once they've filled their burrito they can wrap it and hand it over to you to go in the oven! Meanwhile they can keep their plate to fill with any more ingredients they want, and lots of corn tortilla chips as well. I put the burritos on a baking tray in the oven for about ten minutes, on about 190 degrees centigrade. All there is to do is warm the burrito and it's filling through, considering everything is already cooked.

It would be pretty easy to confuse who's burrito belongs to who, so you may want to find some way of differentiating them. Otherwise you'll have a free game of Pass the Parcel!

Hopefully you'll have leftovers for breakfast the next morning. Enjoy!

Lasagne

I love lasagne but I don't eat it very often. I love it a bit too much, and if I made it any more than perhaps once a month I think I'd become rather pillowy. But anyway, it's a treat and as such it employs all of the major food groups of joy: cheese, pasta, beef and a little piggy additive I like to throw in for good measure. The ingredients list will be tricky because I rarely measure when I made lasagne, which I know doesn't exactly lend itself to an easy recipe. But in my house we tend to play the guessing game a lot of the time, which I can imagine would be quite irritating to those who like a fixed list of stuff. I'll try my best!

Ingredients (to fit a standard 9x13x2 baking dish):
100g slices italian smoked pancetta (aforementioned piggy additive)
500g lean mince beef
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and finely chopped
2 celery stalks, peeled and finely chopped (it may seem odd to peel celery but the outer layer is quite chewy and I don't really want that in my lasagne
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 tablespoon tomato puree
75cl bottle of full bodied red wine
1 tin chopped tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
One packet of dried lasagne sheets
1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese

For the bechamel cheese sauce (this part of the recipe was swiped from YouTube amazingness Titli Nihaan. The woman's a genius http://titlisbusykitchen.com/archives/lasagne):
1 litre of milk
500g of strong cheddar cheese, grated
80g butter
80g plain flour

I like a lot of cheese sauce in my lasagne but if you want to halve the recipe that would give a sparing, but still tasty, amount of sauce for this recipe.

Method:
1. Cut the pancetta into small pieces and place in a large pan. Turn on the heat up to medium-high and allow the pancetta to fry off until the pieces become crispy and the fat has imparted into the pan. This will be used to cook the rest of the ingredients.
2. Throw the onion in and allow to sweat until translucent. I don't like brown onions but you can brown them if you prefer.
3. Throw in the carrot and celery and sweat until they start to become tender as in the picture below. Once tender, throw in the garlic and stir round for a minute, but don't let the garlic brown.
4. Remove the ingredients from the pan and set aside. Throw the mince beef into the pan and cook until browned. Return the onion/celery/carrots/garlic mixture to the pan and season with salt and pepper.
5. Make a well in the centre of the pan and chuck in a dollop of tomato paste. Let the paste cook in the direct heat of the pan for a minute, then stir into the rest of the mixture.
6. Pour in the bottle of red wine and the tinned tomatoes and bring to the boil. Allow to boil for a few seconds before turning it down to a gentle simmer. Simmer for about 30 minutes uncovered until the mixture has thickened slightly and the sauce has reduced somewhat. Stir occasionally. You can then set this mixture aside until you are ready to assemble your lasagne.
7. Meanwhile, make your cheese sauce. Add the butter to a saucepan and melt on a medium heat. Add the flour and stir vigourously for a few minutes, combining the butter and flour to form a paste.
8. Turn down the heat and stir continuously for another minute or so to allow the flour to cook. Then add the milk bit by bit, stirring or whisking to combine.
9. When all the milk is combined, keep whisking until the sauce begins to thicken. It may appear as though it will never thicken but trust me, all of a sudden you'll start to see it getting thicker.
10. Once the sauce has thickened, take it off the heat and add the grated cheese and stir to combine. The residual heat in the pan will melt the cheese. 
11. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade. Assemble your lasagne. Add a ladel of meat sauce to the bottom of the dish and spread it out. This will prevent the lasagne burning on the bottom. Add a layer of lasagne sheets, then another layer of meat sauce, then cheese sauce, then lasagne sheets, and so on until your dish is full.
12. Add cheddar and mozzarella to the top and cook covered with foil for 25 minutes and uncovered for 20 minutes until the pasta is tender and the cheese topping has browned.

Pancetta, onions, garlic, carrot and celery, fried until softened

 Cheese sauce

 The finished article. Leave to rest for about fifteen minutes before cutting into it as it will help you to get even, layered slices

Chicken fajitas

I absolutely love chicken fajitas but I dislike the ones that come from a packet. They taste odd! Jamie Oliver has a fantastic chicken fajita recipe which we tweaked slightly to our tastes. My partner loved this so much we now make it regularly, usually on a Friday night. They're filling so we always have leftovers (unusual in our house) and on Saturday mornings we make enchiladas!

Ingredients (makes 8 fajitas):
1 large red bell pepper
1 large red onion
2 limes
2 large free range (where possible) skinless and boneless chicken breasts
250g cheese, grated
300ml tub reduced fat sour cream
1 dessert spoon paprika
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, crushed, or use cumin powder
1 teaspoon hot red chilli powder
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 flour or corn tortillas, slightly warmed

For the salsa:
1 fresh red chilli, or more if you're a spice fiend
The best part of a pack of cherry tomatoes (we use pomodorino tomatoes)
1 small bunch of fresh coriander
Salt and pepper
1 lime


Method:
1. Cut your red bell pepper in half, take out the sides cut into thin strips (about 1-2cm thick)
2. Peel the red onion and cut into thin strips as above
3. Remove any fat or gristle from the chicken breasts and cut into strips as above
4. Put your strips of pepper, onion and chicken in a large bowl and add the paprika, cumin and chilli powder. Season with salt and pepper, and add a tablespoon or so of olive oil (I tend use the "glug" measurement system - this would constitute a "good glug"!)
5. While your chicken and veggies are steeping in the oil and spices, this is a good time to make the salsa. Finely chop the red chilli and roughly chop the coriander and cherry tomatoes. Add to a bowl with the juice of one lime, and salt and pepper. Fastest salsa ever!
6. Back to the chicken and veg for your fajitas. Heat a griddle pan to a high heat and put it all of the chicken, onion and pepper strips, along with the oil and spices they were marinating in. Use a pair of tongs to flip over the contents of the pan so they don't burn. Allow the chicken and vegetables to get a nice char on them, though - that really helps to bring out all the flavours. Continue to cook and flip until the chicken is cooked all the way through and the vegetables have started to become slightly tender, although it's of course nice if they have a bit of bite to them.

Serve your fajitas with the tortilla wraps, sour cream and cream, and of course that really quick and tasty salsa. I also make sure there is plenty of freshly chopped coriander to add, for extra adornment, and some more paprika and chilli powder for sprinkling! Jamie's recipe also includes what looks like a fantastic guacamole.

For leftovers we make enchiladas for breakfast or lunch the next day. All we do is this:

1. Take leftover tortilla wraps and fill with the leftover chicken, onion and pepper mix. Dollop on some sour cream.
2. Wrap up the tortillas as you would for a fajita and place them in a prepared baking dish (choose a size to fit how many wraps you have). I prepare it just by spraying with cooking spray so the wraps don't stick.
3. Take your leftover salsa (you may need and/or want to make more) and spoon it over the wraps.
4. Top with cheese, and cover with foil.
5. Place in a preheated oven (around 200 degrees centigrade) for around 15 minutes.
6. Take the foil off and allow the cheese to brown slightly for a further 5 minutes or so.
7. Take out and serve with yet more sour cream and fresh chillies!

A Birthday Treat: Mezzaluna and Board

For my birthday I was lucky enough to receive a lovely gift - namely a Nigella Lawson Mezzaluna and Mezzaluna board! Did I happen to mention I love Nigella? Anyway, the best presents are the items you would never buy for yourself, and I have to say I would never have thought to buy this - never thought I really needed it, or at least I could get by without it. This is not to say that I don't adore it - quite the contrary, and I was absolutely thrilled to receive it.

Each item comes boxed The mezzaluna is sheathed in a plastic wrapper with a button - very handy as that thing is seriously sharp! I must say it is quite a weighty implement, but that only serves to increase its chopping ability! I read in Nigella Kitchen that she liked the idea of a mezzaluna because it engages both of the user's hands, meaning they can't cut themselves.

The mezzaluna board is equally well designed, with its sloping, pool-like centre, which works in harmony with the curved mezzaluna blade, and means that whatever you are chopping (herbs, nuts, chocolate, chillis, anything) is less likely to escape from the board.

I like kitchen equipment that can routinely be used for more than one thing. I honestly don't think I would be comfortable with the idea of using this board and mezzaluna purely for chopping herbs. If that were the case, surely you would be better off using an ordinary knife, or a pair of scissors? Of course, there is always room for that, but the mezzaluna, at least in my house, will be utilised for all sorts of chopping scenarios. Chillies, especially. I hate chopping chillies with a knife because the heat gets onto my fingers, and being a forgetful sort of person, inevitably end up rubbing my eye. I also like the idea of using it to chop a large amount of ingredients for, say, a stir fry, which inevitably requires a lot of chopping.

The aforementioned mezzaluna and board can be purchased in the UK at Unique and Unity: http://www.uniqueandunity.co.uk/nigella-lawsons-living-kitchen/page/0/

"Tandoori" chicken

I've recently purchased a load of different spices to make a curry. I must say now that it is very like me to get excited over a single recipe, and a determination takes over me and I must make it, despite how many ingredients it requires. These ingredients I very rarely have, so I embark on an epic shopping expedition, where inevitably I only find half the things I need. The recipe becomes a compromised hodge-podge, a husk, a sham. I'm left feeling slightly bereft, and with a cupboard of ingredients I'm likely never to use again. I had a storecupboard clear out last week, and found jars I didn't know existed, never mind ever used. You see my problem. I wanted to make tandoori masala, and even with my now extensive range of spices, I still only had half the ingredients to make it. What's more, the shops didn't have the remaining items. Feeling brave, I got out my pestle and mortar, and my spoon, and set about concocting.

Ingredients:
4 chicken thighs, skinless and boneless
2 dessert spoons each of:
Cumin seeds
Fennel seeds
Coriander seeds
Fenugreek powder
Garam masala
Paprika
Hot chilli powder
Cayenne pepper
 A pinch each of turmeric and ground black pepper
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and grated
 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
Juice of 1 lime

A handful of fresh coriander, chopped - to serve

Method:
Crush the fennel, coriander and cumin seeds in a pestle and mortar. Place in a bowl. Add the fenugreek, garam masala, paprika, chilli powder, cayenne pepper, black pepper and turmeric. Massage the minced garlic and ginger into the chicken thighs. Place the thighs in the bowl with the spices. Add the vegetable oil and the lime juice, and mix together, either with your hands or a spoon. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours, or overnight if you want.

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees centigrade. Take the chicken out of the fridge 20 minutes before you want to cook it, so it has a chance to come to room temperature. Line a baking tray with foil, and place the chicken on the tray. Place in the oven and cook for 25-30 minutes until the chicken is cooked all the way through.

Serve with coriander and fresh lemon or lime wedge. Ooh it is good!

Sausage, Halloumi and Red Pepper Bake

This is a yummy one, courtesy of a certain Saint Nigella. I love her recipes - they are always simple to follow (which is great for me) and yield consistently rewarding results. My partner loved this - he said it was a nice treat for a Friday night. This would be great for a party, as you can very easily change the quantities to suit you. Nigella uses Merguez sausages, which I couldn't get hold of, so I just used some good quality pork and chilli sausages. I also couldn't find any jarred flame-roasted red peppers, so following Nigella's instruction, I used thinly sliced raw red pepper instead.

We served this with a baguette, plenty of extra virign olive oil, and a green salad.

Ingredients:
6-8 spicy good quality sausages
1 block Halloumi cheese, thinly sliced
1 jar of roasted red peppers, or thinly sliced raw red pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil

Method:
Preheat the oven to about 220 degrees centigrade. Take a large baking tray or oven proof dish, and throw in the sausages, the sliced Halloumi, and the pepper slices, and drizzle with olive oil. Bake in the oven for 20 mins until the sausages are cooked all the way through. If you are using raw peppers instead of jarred, you may wish to put these on the tray first and cook them on their own with some olive oil for about 5 minutes, just to give them a head start before adding the sausages and cheese.

The recipe is from Nigella Lawson and is available on BBC Food at the following link:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/sausageswithhalloumi_87396

Salami and bean stew

This was inspired, as most things inevitably are, by the great Nigella Lawson, through her recipe for salami and cannellini bean pasta. I make her recipe quite often, convenient as it is, but I often feel that, especially for a weeknight, the combination of the beans and pasta is too heavy. I had an idea to lighten it up (but still keep it satisfying) by adding more water and then spending a bit longer thickening up the sauce. I also add whatever fresh vegetables I have to hand, and use haricot beans instead of cannellini for a bit of variation (you can of course use any beans you have in the house). I add spice to this, just because I feel it needs livening up, and it makes a perfect partner to the savoury saltiness of the cured meat.

Recipe:
1 packet sliced cured meat like salami, cut into strips
400g tin chopped tomatoes
2-3 cups of water
Pinch of sugar
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced peppers (any colour)
1 red or green chilli, finely diced (use as many chillis as you like, and keep the seeds in if you're a spice fiend)
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Freshly ground sea salt and black pepper
1 or 2 cans beans (the choice is yours!)

Method:
1. Heat a wide heavy based frying pan on high heat. Once hot, throw in the sliced meat (no oil is needed - the fat from the meat will be sufficient).
2. Fry the meat until it is slightly coloured and crisped up.
3. Add the diced vegetables and chillis, and fry off for a few minutes until slightly softened.
4. Add the chopped tomatoes, pinch of sugar and the water. Bring to the boil, and turn the heat down to a simmer.
5. Add the cayenne pepper, and the salt and black pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Add more water if you want the stew to be a little more like a soup.
7. Drain the beans, rinse, and add to the stew. Cook for a further 10 minutes on a low heat, or until the beans are nice and tender.
8. Serve with some garlic bread if you fancy!

Homemade pizza...with sausage!

I love homemade pizza but I often find myself struggling to work up the energy to do it the "proper" way - with yeast. I tried a naan bread recipe a while back and realised how great it would be as a pizza base. I use the BBC recipe by Anjum Anand, and it really is a simple, quick and easy way of making pizza (and of course, naan bread!!!) I get two 12" pizza bases from one batch of this dough, but I roll them extremely thin because that's how we like our pizzas.

Makes 5 naan breads or 2 very thin 12" pizza bases, or 1 thin crust/medium 12" pizza base:
250g/9oz plain flour
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
110-130ml milk
2 tbsp vegetable or olive oil

1) Sift the flour (if you can be bothered - I rarely do) into a bowl with the sugar, salt and baking powder. Mix together with clean hands. 
2) Make a well in the centre of the dry mixture, and pour in the milk and oil. Take a fork or small spoon and gently begin to stir the dry ingredients in from the outside into the centre.
3) Once the mixture starts forming together, you may want to flour your hands and begin to knead it together. If it's too sticky at this stage, keep adding flour a little at a time until it's a workable texture.
4) Knead it for as long as you can be bothered (I rarely knead it for more than a few minutes) and set it aside until you're ready to use it.
5) Take your dough and split it into sections depending on how many pizzas you want to make. Flour a rolling pin and roll out your pizzas.

These are now ready to turn into pizzas!  Spread one tablespoon of olive oil onto the uncooked pizza base. This stops the tomato sauce from making the pizza base soggy. Then spread your pizza sauce (you could make your own, but I just use tomato paste) over the base. Then add your cheese, and any toppings you fancy. I used the sausage mixture from the Jamie Oliver sausage fusili recipe (posted here on 24th November 2011). Here you can see an uncooked version next to a cooked version! These went into a preheated oven for about 10 minutes on about 200 degrees centigrade.

The original recipe for the naan bread can be found on the BBC website at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/naan_86626