Category Archives: Recipes

Chilli Basil Chicken Burger

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A nice quick one tonight!

Sometimes, (but only sometimes!) like most people,  I can’t really be bothered to spend an hour or so in the kitchen after a long day at work. This takes 15 minutes tops, if you have everything ready.

Chicken, the blank canvas that it is, means these burger are completely customisable too. I was thinking of using some coriander, fish sauce and lime for a Thai flavour. Or, you could throw in some curry spices or cajun spices of course and change the condiments to match.

I went for chilli and basil with a little garlic oil here though.

Ingredients and method:

Simplicity itself really –  just blitz two chicken breasts in a food processor with a whole (mild-ish) red chilli, a handful of basil leaves, two good sized pinches of salt and a glug of garlic infused oil.

Wet your hands and scoop out the mixture, forming into two burger-patty shapes.

Heat a griddle pan until you’re on the verge of setting off the smoke and alarms and add the patties. Once you start to see the sides colouring all the way up (5-6 mins or so), flip them over for another 5 mins or until cooked through.

Try not to overcook them or they will dry out, so a temperature probe is useful here (insert it at a low angle though to get the centre).

Set the cooked patties aside and char the buns a little on the griddle. Serve it up with salad leaves, tomato and some cracked black pepper mayo.

Smoked Salmon and Leek Quiche

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I thought I’d try out a quiche this afternoon. Not words I thought I’d be saying as a younger man, but then I suppose things change as one, err, ‘matures’.

Besides, quiche is a kind of Gallic pizza. Working from a base of shortcrust, and unsweetened custard you can go on to produce all manner of combinations to taste. I thought I’d try smoked salmon and leek, mainly as that was what I found rummaging through the fridge.

Sorry, salmon is featuring a lot on this blog I know, but I did have a fair bit left over from the party last week. That’s mainly because, I’d forgotten all about it and left it in the fridge. For the record, I do recognise that other fish species exist and are edible….

Ingredients:

  • 225-250g shortcrust pastry (the BBC do a recipe here that always delivers for me)
  • 200ml double cream
  • 2 eggs
  • 100g smoked salmon, chopped into small pieces.
  • 1 medium sized leek, finely sliced
  • Small knob of butter and 2 tsp oil for frying
  • Handful grated parmesan cheese
  • Handful of grated cheddar cheese
  • tsp of chopped dill (optional)
  • Salt and pepper

Method:

Start by softening the leek: add the oil and butter to a small frying pan and gently fry with a pinch of salt until softened. Turn off the heat and leave to cool whilst you get on with the next stages.

Very lightly butter or oil a smallish circular baking tin (if using a solid one). You won’t need to if using a loose base version, but I don’t have any.

Roll the pastry into a large circle so that it fits into the tin with plenty overhanging (4 or 5cm). This extra will help ward off shrinkage in the oven.

Gently press the pastry into the sides of the tin and use a fork create small holes to ensure the base doesn’t puff up. To be sure, I lined the top of the pastry with baking parchment and baking beads (courtesy of my friend Sarah). I used a tip flying around at the moment which is to screw up the paper first so it’s flexible and doesn’t need to be cut to fit.

Blind bake the pastry at 190ºC (Gas 5) for 25 minutes or until golden. I removed the parchment for the last 10 minutes to help it crisp up better.

Whilst that’s baking, you can make the filling:

Whisk the eggs in a bowl and simply combine all the remaining ingredients, including the now cooled leeks. Season with salt and pepper (I tasted the mixture at this point in case something was needed, but just to point out, there is raw egg in there….)

Once the pastry case is ready take out the oven and allow to cool for a little while on a stand. Leave the oven on though as it won’t be too long until it goes back in. When cooled enough to do so, neatly trim off the excess pastry from the edge with a sharp (but not your best) knife.

Pour in the mixture and return to the oven for around 30 minutes, or until the top has started to brown and the middle is ‘springy’.

Leave to cool, again, and serve it up still warm if you can. Just as nice cold though of course…..

Chop Suey

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One of my favourite ways of preparing vegetables, Chop Suey can be made as healthily as you want, providing you don’t drown the dish in oil.

My wife much prefers my attempt at Chinese cooking as it’s not as ‘greasy’ as the local takeaways, but I must admit I personally think good a restaurant dish is pretty difficult to copy faithfully.

The version here uses, chicken, a lot of veg, and Oyster Sauce. I’m not sure if there is an ‘authentic’ combination in a chop suey, so apologies people of China if not! I recommend using a ‘premium’ Oyster Sauce from a Chinese Deli. It’s a few pounds more, but far richer flavoured than the cheaper supermarket approximations. It’ll last a while if you get a large bottle and keep it in the fridge.

The key to Chinese food seems to be preparation and plenty of heat. Get everything ready so that when you start to cook, you only focus on that.

I’ve had many a tantrum in the kitchen before learning this, I think it has something to do with the panic induced by cooking in a super hot wok. Anyhow:

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts thinly sliced (and, if you can, marinated in 2 tbsp rice wine, good pinch 5 spice, soy sauce and a few drops of sesame oil for a minimum 20 mins).

1 Tbsp oil (you need more in a steel wok – I’m going for healthy here and used non-stick……)
2 garlic cloves, sliced finely
Thumb sized piece of ginger, finely chopped
Vegetables of your choice (Pak choi, carrot, mange tout, onions, bean sprouts etc) – I used tender stem broccoli, sugar-snap peas, onions, baby sweet corn and bamboo shoots, all sliced into bite sized pieces. About a handful of each.
Soy sauce
2 Tbsp Premium Oyster Sauce
About 150ml water mixed with a tsp cornflour
White pepper
2 Spring onions, chopped

Method:

Heat the wok and oil until hot and smoking.

Add the chicken (drained well if marinated) and brown well, until cooked through. Take out and set aside, retaining as much oil as possible.

Drop in the onion and garlic and ginger for a minute (don’t burn the garlic, keep it moving!)

Add the vegetables and stir fry for two or three minutes. Stir the chicken back in along with a good splash of soy sauce and the Oyster Sauce. Stir well, turn the heat down then add the cornflour mixture, mixing thoroughly and using more water if too dry. Taste the sauce and adjust as necessary using the soy sauce.

Season with pepper, add the chopped spring onion and serve with boiled rice (or egg fried rice if you’ve fallen off the wagon!). Yum.

Comfort Carrot & Coriander

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I know, I know, as soups go it’s a bit of an obvious one, but it’s one of my favourites nonetheless.

Strongly flavoured ingredients combine so well, there’s very little else to do other than simmer and blitz. Simple.

2 tsp oil
2 garlic cloves
1 large onion, sliced
500kg/1lb carrots, chopped roughly
Water or vegetable stock, enough to cover
1tsp ground coriander (not essential)
Good handful of coriander leaves
Salt and Black pepper

Fry the garlic, onions and carrots in a little oil to release the flavours and caramelise the onions a little. Fill with water or stock so the vegetables are covered and add the coriander powder if using.

Simmer very gently for 30 mins.

Blend until smooth using a blender, or a stick blender (as I do to save on dishes to wash but be careful not to scratch your pan!).

Add the coriander leaf and blitz again. Reheat gently if needed, being careful not to let it boil or the coriander flavour will be lost.

Taste and add salt / pepper as needed.

Salmon and Ratatouille

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I used Salmon again in this sin-free dinner, but this will work with cod, monkfish or any other fish with a delicate flavour.

Ratatouille is one of those rare dishes that’s both great tasting yet healthy. I didn’t have any aubergines so sorry purists, but this worked pretty well. Use good quality tomatoes, it’s worth spending a little more if you can. The flavours are simple and fresh so it important not to over cook anything here.

I wrapped the salmon in prosciutto as it wasn’t the best quality fish and in any case it adds a bit of texture and burst of saltiness.

No carbs in this meal Atkins fans, but garlic sauteed potatoes would work great!

Ingredients:

Serves 2

Salmon

  • 2 salmon fillets
  • 2 slices of prosciutto/Parma Ham

Ratatouille

  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 1 Onion thinly sliced
  • 1-2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 3 large ripe tomatoes, skinned and quartered (see below)
  • 1 yellow pepper
  • 1 courgette
  • Salt & Patter
  • A little water, as needed.
  • 4 basil leaves roughly chopped

Putting it together:

Preheat the oven to 180°C (Gas 5).

I skinned the salmon first. Wrap it in a slice of prosciutto.

Place is on a tray with a rack in the over for 20 minutes or until just cooked. Done overdo it or it’ll dry out (you can tell when that’s happened as the white residue comes out the sides). Set a timer so you can crack on with the next bit:

Make the ratatouille:

Boil the kettle. Add the boiling water to a medium sized saucepan and put the tomatoes in. Heat gently until the skins split. Remove and leave to cool on a plate.

Empty the pan and wipe dry. Add 2 tsp olive oil and fry the onion and garlic until soft (a couple of minutes)

Whilst this happening, peel the skin from the tomatoes (they should be cooler by now) and quarter, keeping the juice

Add the peppers, and continue to fry for a few minutes. Then, add the tomatoes, and a good pinch of salt. Stir before layering the courgette on top. Bring to a boil (adding extra water if needed) reduce to low heat, whack a lid on and leave for 5 minutes.

Take the lid off for another 5 minutes to reduce the sauce, or longer if needed. You can keep the salmon warm if done already.

When thickened, taste and add salt/pepper as needed, and stir in the chopped basil leaves.

Serve it up with the salmon.

Next time, I’ll make sure I get the aubergines!

Guest dessert alert!

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Banoffee Pie

My mate Vic makes some great desserts. I’m not normally a pudding person, but I love this sort of thing!

Banoffee Pie is a British invention, I was surprised to find out, but less surprisingly it’s based on an American dessert. Either way it combines biscuits, toffee, banana and cream  which combine just great.

Anyway, recipe à la Vic:

For the base:

  • 100g butter, melted
  • 1 generous teaspoon of honey or golden syrup
  • 300g digestive biscuits (or hob-nobs), crushed

For the caramel:

  • 100g butter
  • 100g light Muscovado sugar
  • 1 generous teaspoon of black treacle
  • 400g can of condensed milk

For the top:

  • 4 small bananas, peeled and sliced (ripe bananas that have a few brown spots are the best)
  • 2 x 300ml cartons double cream, whipped until you can spread it with a spatula
  • Grated dark chocolate

You will also need…

20cm loose-bottomed cake tin, greased (or use a non stick tin).

Tip the crushed biscuits (Digestives work really well, but for a more crunchy, oatier base I find hob-nobs are much better) into a bowl and add the melted butter, then add the honey or golden syrup and give it a good stir. Spoon the crumbs into the base evenly then press it down firmly with a round bottomed cup or use the back of a wooden spoon. Chill for 10 minutes.

A lot of people suggest boiling the condensed milk in the can for about an hour or two, but for me this is just a faff on, and the results are more or less the same. Melt the butter and sugar into a non-stick saucepan over a low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved, add the treacle and continue stirring until you get a thick dark paste. Pour in the condensed milk and turn up the heat all the while stirring with a wooden spoon. As soon as the caramel starts to bubble remove from the heat and spread the caramel over the biscuit base let it cool for about 10-15 minutes.

While the base still has some heat left in it, layer the sliced banana over the caramel until it is completely covered then spoon on the whipped cream and cover the bananas. Lastly liberally sprinkle the grated chocolate over the cream.

Place in the fridge and chill for about an hour, alternatively get the forks out and scoff while it’s still warm…!

Mutton & Spinach Madras

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IMG_4331

No wait, come back!

Mutton is rarely used or available but is great in a slow cooked curry. I got it at the Wallington food festival from a company called Greenbrae, http://www.greenbrae.co.uk/. If you can’t get it, lamb or beef will work as a substitute.

Being a work night, I’ve taken a slight shortcut with the spices, using a shop bought madras powder instead of roasting & grinding my own.

The result was very rich so I added spinach to lighten it up. I served it with plain basmati (that’s all it needs).

2 Tbsp oil
300g of diced mutton
3 garlic cloves and 1 large chilli, finely chopped.
1 Tbsp finely chopped ginger
1 large onion, chopped
2 tbsp madras curry power
1 tsp turmeric
500ml chicken or beef stock
1 Tbsp tomato purée
1 tsp sugar (if needed)
4 handfuls of spinach
Handful Chopped coriander leaves

In a large saucepan or hob proof casserole pot, fry the mutton in half the oil with a good pinch of salt. Don’t overcrowd it or the meat will ‘boil’ rather than colour. If it does, turn up the heat and evaporate it off.

Add the onion towards the end to soften a little.

Meanwhile in a small sauce pan heat the rest of the oil and add the garlic, chilli and ginger. Fry gently for a few minutes. Add the curry power and dry fry it for a minute (it’ll soak up the oil) then add a little water to make a paste. Simmer for a bit and add to the meat. It should smell very fragrant.

Scrape the spice mix into the pot with the mutton and add the stock, the tomato purée and turmeric and simmer with the lid on gently for 30-40 mins hour then with the lid off for 20 mins to reduce and thicken. Taste and add the sugar to balance the flavours if needed (I did).

Meanwhile whilst waiting….put the spinach in a pan with a little water, put the lid on and bring to a gentle boil to wilt. Stir, strain it and squeeze it to remove the water, chop and set aside

Put the kettle on and rinse the same pan out (to cut down on the washing up!!). Add 50g rice per person and a good pinch of salt. Add enough boiled water to cover by a cm or two, put a lid on and bring back to the boil, then turn down to a simmer on it’s lowest heat for 15 mins or until all the water is absorbed.

Add the spinach to the curry at the end to warm through then the coriander leaf just before serving.

Sorry Lancs!

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Tonight was a hotpot, but not the version made famous by the Lancastrians.

Vension is becoming easily available nowdays and I used it in this alternative version along with a quick pickled red cabbage. Fab.

  • 1 Tbsp oil
  • 1 thinly sliced large red onion
  • 2 sliced garlic cloves
  • 2 bay leaves, and a tsp each of chopped thyme and rosemary
  • 300g diced venison
  • 2 chopped carrots or 2 large handfuls of chantenay carrot, cleaned
  • 4 fist sized maris piper (or similar) potatoes.
  • 2 glasses of red wine
  • Beef stock (enough to cover)
  • Good ‘lug’ of Worcestershire Sauce.
  • Cornflour paste made from 1 tsp cornflour to 2 tsp water

For the pickled cabbage.

  • Half a red cabbage
  • 50ml red wine vinegar
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • salt
  • Water to cover

Heat the oven to 180°c (gas 4).

I used a cast iron casserole pot for this, as it’s hob-proof. If not, you’ll need to do the frying separately.

Heat the oil in the pot and brown the venison (in two batches if necessary), remove with a slotted spoon and set aside (leaving the oil in the pan). Add the onions and garlic and fry until softened.

Return the meat and add the wine (use it to deglaze the pan), the carrots and the herbs. Top up with stock to just cover. Stir in a generous lug of Worcestershire Sauce (it’s practically the law) and a Tbsp of the cornflour mixture.

Slice the potatoes fairly thinly (no need to peel, but clean well if you don’t) and place on top in two-three layers.

Put the lid on and place in the oven for 3 hours. 30 minutes before the end, take the lid off and brush with butter, or a little oil to crisp them up.

Take out the oven and rest/cool slightly whilst making the cabbage:

Slice the cabbage, pull apart the layers and place it in a sauce pan. Add the ingredients and bring to the boil. Put a lid on and simmer for 5-6 minutes until just done. MIx well and serve it up with a generous helping of the hotpot

Delicious.

A British Favourite!

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After a pretty miserable day yesterday, I make no apologies for the classic Toad in the Hole.

There is something very underrated about British (particularly English) food but done well can be as good as any other country’s. Still on a health kick, I used low fat sausages. I know, wierdo. But with onion gravy, it’s still pretty good. In fact, everything is good with onion gravy.

Thankyou Delia for the mixture, but I tweaked it a bit to suit.

  • 85g flour
  • 60ml whole milk
  • 1 egg
  • 50ml water
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Tbsp chopped rosemary

Cook the sausages (2 or 3 each). Heat the oven to 230°C (Gas 9). When at temperature place a smallish roasting tin in there with a Tbsp or two of oil so it gets very hot. You could cook the sausages in the roasting pan of course, instead of adding oil, but as mentioned above these were pretty fat free….sigh.

Whilst heating, mix the batter as per the ingredients above.

When hot and nearly smoking, carefully put the sausages in followed by the batter immediately after. Leave in the oven for 30 mins or until risen in the middle and well coloured.

Cover with onion gravy, add your veg of choice and tuck in. With mustard.

Thai Style Salad with Salmon

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I love Thai food. Though not totally authentic, nor exact, the results were pretty good. And healthy.

Serves 2 with plenty left for lunch tomorrow!

For the salmon

  • 2 salmon fillets
  • 1 Tbsp oil for frying
  • Salt and pepper

For the salad:

  • 300g cooked and cooled rice noodles
  • Half a courgette, halved again and sliced thinly
  • Two handfuls of bean sprouts
  • Half a green pepper thinly sliced
  • Small carrot, grated
  • 1 large red chilli, thinly sliced (sweet and not too hot)
  • 1-2 Tbsp chopped coriander
  • 1-2 Tbsp chopped basil leaves

For the dressing (but tweak to taste):

  • Tbsp Vegetable oil (or similar)
  • Juice of one lime
  • Tbsp brown sugar (or palm sugar if you can get it)
  • Thumb sized piece of ginger finely sliced or grated
  • Two garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 2 Tbsp fish sauce (be brave)
  • Half a medium red onion, very thinly sliced.
  • 1/2 tsp of sesame oil if you have it.

Preheat the oven to 190°C (Gas 5). Season with salt and pepper then fry the salmon for a few minutes, skin side down in a very hot oven proof frying pan. Turn to colour all sides and put in the oven, skin side down for about 10-15 mins (use a probe if you have one – 60°c is about right to just cook through).

Then, put all the dressing ingredients into a bowl or shaker bottle and stir/shake to dissolve the sugar. Leave to rest. Taste it and adjust as you see fit, it should be a nice ‘balance’.

Prepare, wash and shake dry the salad ingredients using a colander and put in a large bowl. Combine with your hands or salad tongs.

Remove the salmon from the oven, remove the skin, flake onto plate and leave to cool down but still warm. (Perfect time to start cleaning up!)

Add the salmon to the salad, pour over the dressing and combine again.

Serve in bowls with a handful of crushed peanuts or cashews.