Thermos Adventures, Chapter 1: Soup

Rather naturally I suppose, the first thing I made for the thermos was soup. Seeing as the original function of the Thermos was the transportation of hot beverages, I supposed it would fair well transporting hot soup.

I was feeling a bit chilly, so I decided to go for a warming winter soup: Roast chicken and mushroom. I had a browse around but could not find a recipe that was quite what I wanted, so I concocted my own. Here it is:

Roast Chicken and Mushroom Soup
Serves 2 + leftovers

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped finely
1 carrot, chopped
1 stick celery, chopped (in place of celery and carrot, I often supplement and/or substitute vegetables like swede, leek, squash etc)
1 tbsp dried rosemary
2 roast chicken breasts (or the same quantity of leftover chicken legs, thighs etc)
150g mushrooms, sliced thickly (I like to use little button mushrooms)
1.5 litres of vegetable or chicken stock (I use bouillon powder)
3 or 4 handfuls of breadcrumbs

Heat the oil in a large, heavy based pan (I use a Le Creuset Casserole) and add the onion, carrot and celery. Gently fry until lightly golden and aromatic. Add the rosemary and the mushrooms and continue to fry over a low heat until the mushrooms start to sweat.

Add the stock, and simmer (careful, you want a gentle simmer, not a hard boil). After 10 minutes, add the roasted chicken, torn by hand into small chunks, and the breadcrumbs, one handful at a time. The breadcrumbs are to thicken the soup, so you may need more or less, to achieve the thickness you desire. Simmer for a further 10 minutes.

Before serving, take a hand blender, and give it a whiz. This will give the soup a creamier texture and a lighter colour.

TIP: separate the soup into 2 bowls, and whizz only 1. This will give you a creamy base, but still some lovely chunks of veg and chicken.

This was DELICIOUS. I actually shocked myself with how good this was.

And, you'll be glad to know, the fiance sat down at lunch to a bowl of lovely warming soup. Amazing.

Hot Packed Lunches without a Microwave: A Solution

I thought it couldn't be done. I supposed that no microwave inevitably meant cold, boring packed lunches. I thought this week would involve a sandwich, a wrap, a sandwich, a pitta pocket, or any of the "variations" in between (not very varied, I know).

I started thinking, there must be some other way to warm food up in the office, besides a microwave? Then it struck me. Change the problem. Instead of "how can I warm this up?", I asked myself, "how can I keep this warm?". I considered the options, and only one presented itself. Thermos. Thermoses can keep tea or coffee warm for hours. But, the long thin canisters designed for hot drinks would be inconvenient for food. I did some research and discovered that Thermos manufacture food canisters as well, with wider bodies and necks so that you can fit food inside, and eat directly from the pot too.

I have ordered one (this one) and shall be testing it over the coming weeks. I'll keep you posted.

Packed Lunch without a Microwave

Disaster! The company my fiance works for have relocated and (rather inconsiderately, I think) moved to an  office in the City which does not have a microwave. When he told me, I took me a second or two to consider the gravity of this change. No more hot packed lunches.

My whole cooking routine revolves around the format of Dinner for 2 & Lunch for 2. For a moment I felt really rather befuddled about how I could possibly re-engineer all of my recipes for this new format: Dinner for 2 & Lunch for 1... for ONE? But then I recovered.

I realised that you, my readers, may also sometimes have need to whip up a packed-lunch that does not require reheating (picnic, school lunch...). You may be bored of the same old sandwich from M&S, but unable to think of anything more insporing to prepare at home. And so, for this period of time while my fiance is sans le microwave, I shall be thinking up, testing out and posting solutions to the microwaveless packed lunch dilemma.

Chicken Scaloppini Metamorphosis

There are some dinners that don't easily transform into a packed lunch for the next day. One such example is my Chicken Scaloppini recipe.

Scaloppini is, according to Wikipedia, an Italian dish consisting of thinly sliced meat (chicken, veal...) that is covered in flour, sauteed, and served in a sauce (perhaps tomato or wine based). I think this is the kernel reason that I love Italian cookery - complete flexibility, without any pretensions. Fry a bit of chicken and put it in a sauce (whatever you have lying around), and *voila* you have a Scaloppini! Bellisimo.

Anyway, my recipe for Chicken Scaloppini hardly follows even these lax rules. I don't flour my chicken breasts before I saute them (mainly to save time). Although, if you wish to, please feel free, I'm sure it would work wonderfully. Instead, I tend to rub the chicken with a little coarse salt and olive oil, and then grill it in my Le Crueset grillit, which produces gorgeous black char grilled stripes, and a delicious flavour.

The char grilled chicken breasts are then placed in individual oven-to-table dishes, in a sea of delicious tomato sauce, and covered with slices of mozzarella and a topping of your choice, then grilled on high until the cheese melts and sizzles.

The trouble with this recipe is that it simply does not work for lunchboxes. How do I get the chicken, the sauce, and the cheese into a Tupperware pot without the cheese getting muddled into the sauce in a higgeldy-piggeldy mess? It's impossible I tell you.

My solution is to make Chicken Scaloppini for my dinner, and a separate, slightly modified lunch of Grilled Mozzarella Chicken with Tomato Pasta.

Chicken  Scaloppini + Grilled Mozzarella Chicken with Tomato & Basil Pasta


Serves 2 for dinner + 2 for lunch

4 chicken breasts, flattened with a rolling pin
500ml jar of tomato and basil pasta sauce, or the same quantity homemade
125g bag of mozzarella
2 mugs of pasta (penne, fusilli...)
Topping e.g. salami, pepperoni, chorizo, peppers, mushrooms, Pepperdew, cherry tomatoes, basil leaves
Pesto (optional)

Begin by heating up your grillit/griddle/frying pan (or whatever utensil you will use to cook your chicken breasts). Next, flatten the chicken breasts with a rolling pin. I do this one at a time, inside a freeze bag to minimise mess. Rub the flattened chicken breast with some course sea salt and brush with a little olive oil. Place each breast in the pan, and cook on both sides, for about 10 mins total (this will depend on how thin your chicken breasts are, so don't forget to check for doneness).

Meanwhile, start boiling the pasta in water (with a little oil and salt added to the water, if you wish). In a separate pan, heat the tomato sauce gently - you want it to simmer, but to never boil.


Slice the mozzarella, and prepare any of the toppings you wish to use.

Place 2 of the cooked chicken steaks into 2 oven-to-table dishes. Cover each in 1/4 of the tomato sauce each. Cover each dish with a layer of mozzarella slices, reserving 2 slices for the other chicken breasts. Place the toppings on top of the mozzarella and place under the grill for 5 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and sizzling.

Spread the two remaining chicken breasts with pesto on one side, and place a slice of the reserved mozzarella on top. Pop them on a tray, and stick them under the grill as well.

Meanwhile, mix the pasta with the remaining tomato sauce. Spoon this into two Tupperware containers. Place the mozzarella chicken on top. I like to add some veg to the tub as well (broccoli florets, peas, french beans, sweetcorn). The veg will get heated up in the microwave with the rest.

Serve the Chicken Scaloppini with some nice veggies.

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In a hurry! Tuna Pasta Salad

Tonight me and the fiance went out to dinner with a couple of friends (had sushi - yum!), which was great, but it's thrown a spanner in my routine, for there are no leftovers for lunch tomorrow! What to do? I decided to solve this by whipping up something ultra quick.

Tuna Pasta Salad 
Serves 2
 2 mugs of penne pasta
1 tin tuna 1 tbsp mayonnaise
1 handful frozen peas
2 tbsp pesto
1/4 red or yellow or green pepper, sliced thinky and diced
a few cherry tomatoes, quartered

OPTIONAL
tsp garlic infused olive oil
sprinkling of oregano/basil/mint


This one is as simple as 'put it in a bowl and stir it'. But for you novices out there, here are the instructions:

Start by boiling the pasta. I add a little salt and a few drops of sunflower oil to the water. The salt speeds up the boiling of the water, and adds a little flavour to your pasta, and the oil keeps the pasta from sticking together (you won't need to watch it quite so closely).

I recommend cooking your pasta to just al dente. You want it to have some bite still, as it will continue to rehydrate even after you have drained the water off - and no one likes soggy pasta in their salad!

Rinse the cooked pasta under the cold tap.

Put the pasta in a bowl and stir in all of the remaining ingredients.

Divide the pasta into two tupperware pots and store in the fridge until you want to eat it.

Leftovers for Lunch - Smoky Chicken and Bean Stew

I get my food shopping delivered fortnightly on a Thursday night, so last night (Wednesday) was one of those empty fridge sort of dinners. A dinner which instead of being premised on 'hmm, what do I fancy...?' was instead decided on the factor of 'hmm, what can I do with this plus that, minus everything else...?) I had run almost completely out of fresh stuff, no cheese, no eggs, no milk, and so I was in need of a store cupboard solution.

After some digging around I found a pack of chorizo slices at the back of the fridge. I knew there was a pack of 4 chicken breasts in the freezer, and I also I found a red pepper which needed to find a home promptly, unless it were to be destined for chez bin-bag.

So, what to make? I grabbed some recipe books and had a browse around some of my favourite recipe websites. I came across a rather yummy recipe called Smoky Chicken and Bean Stew on www.bbcgoodfood.com and rooted around my cupboards to see if I had the other necessary ingredients. I lacked berlotti beans, but I did have a tin of cannellini beans that would do just as well. Everything else, miraculously, I had in stock!

One other thing to mention before I begin, is that this stew calls for only 15-20 mins of simmering once all the ingredients are in the pan. What could be better for a midweek dinner?

And so, to work!

Smoky Chicken and Bean Stew - scaled to serve 4 and slightly adapted

2 small red or white onions, sliced
4 garlic cloves, crushed (I like garlic... a lot...)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp chilli powder
1 red pepper, diced
4 chicken breasts (or 8 chicken thighs - for a richer flavour), diced
3/4 pack of chorizo slices, cut into strips
400ml chicken stock
400g tin of berlotti/cannellini/butter beans

Pitta or thick crusty bread, to serve

Heat the olive oil in a big heavy pan (a big casserole is perfect), and fry the onion gently until it starts to soften. Add the garlic and continue to cook until the onions are softened and slightly golden.

Add the chilli, paprika and peppers to the pan, and sizzle for 1-2 minutes before adding the chicken and the chorizo to the pan for a further 2-5 minutes until the chicken is sealed.

Next, add the stock and tomatoes, and bring to a gentle simmer. Then add the beans, and allow the whole pot to continue simmering for 15-20 minutes until nicely thickened.


Wow - could any recipe that quick and simple really be delicious? Surprisingly yes! I usually find "30 minute" recipes bland and insipid, but not this one. The addition of the beans meant that the whole thing had thickened up nicely even after just 15 minutes, and it had acquired a real depth of flavour too.

I made scaled the recipe up to feed 4 so that I could take the leftovers to work (if you want the original recipe to feed 2, follow the link at the bottom of the post), and it was even more delicious the next day.

The only thing I might do differently next time (and there will be a next time), is to add some extra water to the leftovers, to turn the 'stew' into a 'soup'.

The original recipe suggests serving this with rice or pitta, which of course you could, however, I think this really belongs with some thick crusty bread for mopping up those juices. Yum.

Ciao.

Recipe adapted from www.bbcgoodfood.com
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7268/smoky-chicken-and-bean-stew

Leftovers for Lunch - Toad in the Hole

My lunch main courses are (more often than not) leftover whatever I had for dinner the night before. I love this - flavours developing overnight, the guarantee of a tasty aromatic home-cooked meal for lunch, and my colleagues poking their noses in my lunchbox to see what I've bought with me today. Leftovers for lunch has more benefits than I can name, but off the top of my head, I give you:

• It's cheap - ever totted up how much you spend at Pret a Manger per week?
• It's healthy - I guarantee that your homemade lasagne will be less calorific, less fatty and less salty than Marks and Spencers
• It's quick - no separate preparation or cooking
• Saves time at lunchtime - you'll save the 15 mins its takes to walk to the shop and buy your lunch

Friday's lunch was (Thursday's dinner) leftover Toad in the Hole. It was actually the first time in my life I'd attempted Toad in the Hole. Generally I'm not a huge fan of classic British dishes (and it doesn't help that my other half doesn't like potatoes, pretty much an essential ingredient in all British fare) but I happened to have a pack of sausages in the fridge that needed to find a good home, and so I decided it was about time I had a go a the Toad. This recipe is an adaptation of a recipe from Prue Leiths Cooking Bible - which you'll soon learn is my holy grail in the kitchen.

Toad in the Hole FOR THE TOAD 1 pack of sausages Olive oil 5 or 6 cherry tomatoes, halved FOR THE HOLE 110g plain flour Generous pinch of salt 2 eggs 150ml water added to 150ml milk FOR THE GRAVY Half an onion, thinly sliced 2tbsp balsamic vinegar 1tbsp red onion chutney Squeeze of HP sauce 100ml water 1 tbsp plain flour

Start by prepping the batter for the 'hole'. For best results, Leith's Cookery Bible suggests leaving the batter to rest for 30 minutes in the fridge. Letting it rest, Prue says, allows the gluten to develop, resulting in a less doughy final product. Unfortunately I didn't have 30 minutes to play with, so I left mine to sit for 10 minutes, and my final product was not at all stodgy.

To make the batter, you should sift the flour and salt into a bowl, and make a little well in the top. Break the eggs into the well, and start mixing the eggs into the flour gradually to make a paste (I used a whisk). Bit by bit, add the liquid, and keep mixing until combined, but be careful not to over beat it, or it will not rise properly. Pop the bowl into the fridge to rest, and go and have a sit down and a cup of tea while you wait.

5 minutes before your batter is ready, oil the dish you will be using (I used a ceramic lasagne dish, but you could use a pyrex dish, a casserole dish, or any dish that has a large enough surface area to allow you to arrange your sausages with a 1cm(ish) gap between them, and high enough sides to contain the batter (a couple of inches).

Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry the sausages until they a are sealed (don't wash up the pan - you will be using it later). Arrange the sausages in the bottom of the lasagne dish, and pour the batter into the gaps.
Pop it in the oven. After 20 minutes, take the dish out of the oven and arrange your chopped tomatoes skin side up on the top, and place back in the oven for the remaining 20 minutes (by which time they'll have got all delicious and roasted).

Meanwhile, start the gravy. I made a bit of a makeshift gravy by frying up sliced onions in the frying pan I used for the sausages, until the onions were soft and golden. Then I added a tablespoon of red onion chutney, a squeeze of HP sauce, 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and 100ml of water. I let it simmer, adding a bit of plain flour, till it was slightly thickened and syrupy. However, you could use Bisto granules, if you have them, or anything else you fancy.

Once cooked, I served up 2 portions for dinner, with boiled peas, carrots and sweetcorn, reserving some  extra veg and popping it into the tupperware tubs with the remaining portions for lunch the next day.

I was a little concerned that reheating the Toad in the Hole in the microwave for lunch might dry the batter out and make it chewy, but I was wrong, after 3.5 mins at 800W, it was prefect!

Waste not want not; an easy Grapefruit Cake recipe

Somehow or another, I've ended up with 3 big juicy grapefruit in my fruit bowl. I don't usually buy or eat grapefruit, so I really had no idea what to do with them. I considered juicing them, but honestly I find grapefruit juice just a touch too bitter to enjoy in it's unsweetened form.

So, what to do with them?

I started by googling (the source of all inspiration) 'grapefruit cake' to see what would come up. I got a lot of results for something I'd never heard of before called Hollywood Grapefruit Cake which seems to be a cake flavoured with grapefruit, and using yogurt and oil instead of butter making it nice and healthy (or rather, heathIER...). Unfortunately however, I did not have any yogurt in the fridge, boohoo.

Before I got too concerned about these 3 homeless grapefruit, it suddenly dawned on me that grapefruit is a citrus fruit just like any other, just a little more bitter. So I decided to take a rather delicious recipe for Lemon Drizzle Cake by Tana Ramsey (Gordon Ramsey's missus), and adapt it to suit this new fruit, and voila, I introduce you to: Grapefruit Drizzle Cake!

I'm going to skip right to the end, and tell you now that this cake is DELICIOUS. I was as skeptical as you, but it turned out like a cross between an orange and a lemon cake, with just a little je ne sais quoi. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.

Grapefruit Drizzle Cake - adapted from Tana Ramsey's Lemon Drizzle Cake at www.bbcgoodfood.com

FOR THE CAKE
225g butter or margerine
225g golden caster sugar
4 eggs
finely grated zest of one grapefruit
225g self-raising flour

FOR THE DRIZZLE
juice of 1 grapefruit
85g caster sugar

First things first, preheat your oven to 160 degrees (fan) and line a loaf tin with parchment paper.

Get a big bowl, and in it whisk together the sugar and the butter or margarine until light and fluffy.

TIP: I always use margarine because a) it's just so much easier to work with and b) for everyday baking, it's a huge cost saving compared to butter.

Next, add the eggs, one at a time, mixing between each addition (adding the eggs one-by-one stops the mixture from curdling).

Add the flour and the grapefruit zest and mix until well combined.

Pour it into the loaf tin, and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle came out clean.

TIP: Always trust your instincts when it comes to your oven! For me this sometimes takes up to 55 minutes, but your oven may be a hot-mama and bake it in 40 minutes flat. The skewer test is always the best way to check for doneness and I keep a pack of bamboo skewers (under £1 for 50 skewers) in the kitchen especially for this purpose.

Once the cake is baked, stir the sugar and the grapefruit juice together, and drizzle over the top of the cake.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4942/lemon-drizzle-cake

Chocolate Cocoa Brownies

My fiance and I cycle to work every day. It's a 30 minute ride each way, which doesn't sound like far, but crikey, you'd be surprised how loud my tummy's grumbling by 11am! So I think that I deserve a little snack with my mid-morning coffee. And so do you.

Everyone has their own particular preference with brownies; fudgey, gooey, cakey, crispy. I prefer a fudgey brownie in the afternoon, a gooey rich one in the evening, and a cakey one with a crisp crust in the morning (not all on the same day I promise). This recipe will give you a brownie of the morning category, fairly light, not too rich, but still devilishly chocolatey, with a satisfying cakey crumbly texture.

Think brownie, think expensive? This recipe uses cocoa, instead of solid chocolate. Most brownie recipes call for 3 or more eggs, 200g high quality dark 70% chocolate and copious amounts of butter. The use of cocoa in this recipe, instead of dark chocolate (as well as more conservative quantities of butter -phew) however means that brownies can be an 'everyday' treat, instead of a luxury. In fact, I calculated that this recipe costs £2.51! Cut into 12 slices, that's just 20p per brownie.

Another advantage is that brownies are so moist, that they last for ages in the fridge without getting dry or stale. Mine were still fresh and yummy at the end of the week, and I reckon (if we hadn't scoffed the lot) they'd have been good into the next. This recipe will give you 9 big chunky brownies, or 12 more modest portions. That's at least a weeks worth of brownies for two!

Chocolate Cocoa Brownies - adapted from Leiths Baking Bible

115g margarine
45g cocoa powder
2 eggs
225g caster sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
55g self-raising flour (try wholemeal self-raising, for wholesome brownie points)
50g chopped hazelnuts (or whatever nuts you fancy or happen to have in the cupboard)
55g chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees (fan) and line a 20cm square cake tin with baking parchment.

Melt the margarine over a low heat. I like to do this in the microwave (30 seconds on 50% power) because its fast and results in less washing up! Once it's melted, stir in the cocoa powder to make a chocolatey paste.

Put the eggs and the sugar in a mixing bowl and beat for a minute or so with a hand blender, or for 5 minutes or so by hand. Then fold in the chocolate paste and vanilla essence.

Sift the flour into the bowl, then fold it in.

Pour half the mixture into the cake tin and spread it evenly. Then sprinkle with the chopped nuts and chocolate chips. Top with the rest of the mixture - think brownie-nut sandwich.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out damp, but without uncooked brownie bits stuck to it.

Sandwiches Hate Travelling

I can understand why people are put-off packing their own lunch. Despite their reputation as the lunch-box main course of choice, sandwiches are remarkably dissapointing after a jiggly bike ride in a backpack, and are further compromised by sitting in a slightly fusty plastic container in the fridge, waiting to be eaten.

When lunchtime does finally arrive, being greeted by a squished, soggy tuna mayo sandwich (because at 6:30am I can think of nothing more inventive than tuna) is a miserable dissapointment.

But, wait! Sandwiches are not the only answer to the lunch-box dilemma. It's actually remarkably easy to think of and bake new and exciting things for lunch, and you need not have the same thing day in-day out either. Follow my adventures in the kitchen, cooking up delicious lunch-box treats, and perhaps try some of them out yourself.

Roasted Mediterranean Vegetable Quiche

Quiche means, simultaneously, sunny picnics in the park and comforting lunch on a cold winters day. Fresh, but warming. Light, but satisfying. It doesn't much matter the filling - bacon, broccoli, onions, cheese, peppers, mushrooms, salmon, chicken (in any combination) - in quiche-form it is sure to be a delicious, melt-in-the-mouth affair.

This is also why quiche makes such a delightful packed-lunch; it doesn't really matter what you have in the fridge, as long as you have: flour, butter, eggs, milk, cheese + something to fill it with, you're guaranteed a tasty result.

I'll admit it now, it's not a quick recipe. But once you're eating flaky homemade pastry, filled with the lightest egg, and meltiest cheese, it will be worth the work.

Anything encased in pastry also offers you the major lunch-box benefit of: durability. I can stick a big slice of quiche in my backpack wrapped in foil and it arrives at the office after it's 10 mile bicycle journey, still in one piece.

And so, onto business.

Roasted Mediterranean Vegetable Quiche

First things first, let's get everything together. We'll need:

FOR THE PASTRY
85g plain white flour
85g wholemeal flour
85g butter or margarine
2tbsp cold water
Pinch salt

TIP: I tend to use a 50:50 mix of plain white and strong wholemeal flour - for some wholesome bonus points. But you can use all-pwhite, or a mix of whatever flours you have, e.g. rye, wholemeal, oats, spelt...

FOR THE FILLING
2 eggs
1/4 pint milk
2 or 3 thick slices of mature cheddar cheese
Olive oil
A selection of the following: 1/2 yellow pepper, 1/2 green pepper, 1/2 onion, 3 or 4 chestnut mushrooms, 1/4 courgette sliced, handful of cherry tomatoes, garlic clove (unpeeled).
Herbs (such as thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary or an italian mix)



Now that everything is prepared, let's cook.

Preheat the oven to 170C (fan).

Start by prepping the dough. Put the flour, (or flours if you decide to use a mix) butter, and salt into your food processor, or a large bowl. Mix on high in the food processor, or use a spoon if you're mixing by hand. Add a couple of tablespoons of cold water if the dough is too dry, you want the dough to cone together into a ball, but it shouldnt be sticky. Wrap the ball of dough in cling film and put it in the fridge to rest.

Next, start work on your roasted veggies. Chop your selection of Mediterranean veggies into chunky pieces:
Onions - place the halved onion face down and cut lengthways into 1cm wedges
Peppers - de-seed the pepper, and chop into 1inch batons.
Courgettes - halve the courgette lengthways, then place the pieces face down. Slice thickly.
Mushrooms - halve the mushrooms, place face down and chop into chunky wedges.
Cherry tomatoes - halve or leave whole.
Garlic clove - whole, unpeeled, lightly crushed.

Place the veggies in a roasting tin and toss with 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the herbs. Put the veggies in the bottom half of the oven to roast for around 15 minutes.

Remove the dough from the fridge. Flour your surface and rolling pin, and roll the dough out into a large enough round to fil your quiche dish or sandwich tin. Line the base of your dish or tin, and tidy the edges. Place a sheet of baking paper over the dough, and fill the dish with baking beans (I use dried chickpeas I happened to have in the cupboard). Place in the top half of the oven and blind bake for around 10 minutes.

Now let's make the quiche filling. Beat the eggs in a jug, and mix with the milk. Chop the slices of cheddar into dice. Place the cheddar in the bottom of your pastry shell, top wit the roasted veggies, then pour in the liquid. Place in the oven to bake for a further 15-20 minutes.