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
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
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:
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!
- 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
| 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!
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
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
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
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