Last Weeks Recipe : Moroccan Lamb

This recipe will get me up to date with all the recipes I have tried. Well, until tomorrow at least, but I swear next time I'm not going to do a mass update on my recipes, itll be once a week, I swear I don’t know where the time goes, it’ll be the weekend again before you know it! Anyway, last week I made Moroccan Lamb.

Serves 4 – ready in 45 minutes, including prep

Ingredients:

·         500g lamb neck fillets, cut into bite sized pieces

·         2 tsp paprika

·         3 tsp ground cinnamon

·         2 x 400g cans of chopped tomato with olive oil and garlic

·         1 tbsp finely chopped parsley, plus extra to serve.

·         Chilli Flakes

Now for the How To:

·         Heat a large, non-stick frying pan, without adding any extra oil, cook the lamb well on all sides.

·         Tip in the spices and fry for a minute until aromatic

·         Pour in the chopped tomatoes, chilli flakes and parsley, bring to the boil and then summer gentle with a lid on for 30 minutes or until the lamb is tender.

·         Served sprinkled with parsley

It is a very easy and simple recipe. I don’t think traditionally chilli flakes are supposed to be added to the recipe, but I added them and it lifted the dish nicely, I think without them it would be a bit too much tomato. But it was very tasty, you could make out the paprika and the flavour of the ground cinnamon, and its worth a try, I served it with rice just to add some substance to the dish, but you could serve it with cous cous, or even mash potato if you wanted to, it was quick and easy, and tasted brilliant the next day.

Tomorrow I am making Paella, I have never tried it before let alone made it so fingers crossed it goes well, it’s mixed sea food, so I will be using squid, prawns and muscles! Interesting times ahead

Out of the recipes I have attempted so far, which is your favourite?

Bye for Now!x

Sicillian Style Fish Stew

Last week I made Sicilian Style Fish Stew, it didn’t quite turn out how I expected, but I will come to that later

Serves 2 – ready in 30 minutes (including prep)

Ingredients:

·         Olive oil

·         1 onion, halved and finely sliced

·         2 celery stalks, sliced

·         3 garlic cloves, sliced

·         1 anchovy, rinsed (this is an optional extra)

·         Pinch of chilli flakes

·         2 plum tomatoes, diced

·         125 ml white wine (another optional extra, if not using white add 125ml more of stock)

·         400 ml vegetable stock (a cube is fine it’s what I used)

·         50g cous cous

·         250g white fish fillet, from a sustainable source (I used coley, it was very tasty)

·         ½ lemon, zested

·         A handful of chopped parsley

Now for the How To:

·         Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a wide, shallow pan. Add the onion, celery, garlic, the anchovy (if you are using it) and the chilli flakes. Season and cook for 10 minutes

·         Add the tomatoes and cook for another couple of minutes.

·         Pour in the white wine (if using) and stock and bring to a boil, cook for two minutes.

·         Add the cous cous and turn down to a simmer and add the fish.

·         Cover with a lid and cook until the fish is done, about 5 – 7 minutes.

·         Divide between 2 dishes, breaking the fish into large pieces (or you can leave them as the fillets its personal choice) sprinkle over the lemon zest and parsley to finish. 

As I said at the start of the post, it wasn’t really what I expected, I thought it would be thick and with a lot of juice and more stew like, but I think I added too much of the cous cous and not enough of the stock, so instead of having a sauce with it, the cous cous absorbed all of the liquid leaving it with more just cous cous and fish, this being said it was still very tasty, the fish was very tender, and the cous cous which is normally really bland was full of flavour from the chilli, garlic and seasoning, it is worth trying the recipe but try not to make the same mistake I did so you have it more stew like.

What is your favourite recipe? Or what is your signature dish? Any suggestions what I should cook over the next few weeks?

Bye for Now! X

Chicken & White Bean Stew

Right my next one I need to update is the recipe from 3 weeks ago.

A few weeks ago I made Chicken & white bean stew.

Serves 4 – Ready in 1 hour 20 including prep time (I think it took me less than that, approx 1 hour)

Ingredients:

·         2 tbsp sunflower oil

·         400g boneless, skinless chicken thighs (chicken breasts also work) cut into chunks.

·         1 onion, finely chopped

·         3 carrots, finely chopped

·         3 celery sticks, finely chopped

·         2 thyme sprigs or ½ tsp dried

·         1 bay leaf, fresh or dried

·         600ml vegetable or chicken stock

·         2 x 400g haricot beans, drained

·         Chopped parsley, to serve

Now for the How To:

·         Heat the oil in a large pan, add the chicken and fry until lightly browned.

·         Add the vegetables and fry for a few minutes more.

·         Stir in the herbs and all the stock.  Bring to the boil.

·         Stir well, cover and reduce the heat and cook for 40 minutes until the chicken is tender.

·         Stir in the beans and simmer for a further 5 minutes, stir in the parsley and serve.

I liked this dish, but unfortunately I did realise that I do not like celery, which sometimes ruined the spoonfuls I had, but if I had it with the beans and the juice, it wasn’t so bad! I thought that maybe the ratio to beans to everything else wasn’t very equal, so I maybe wouldn’t use as many next time, but considering the dish is gluten free, low fat, healthy and dairy free, it was really tasty, per serving its 291 calories! And it is really filling!

Next recipe coming up is Sicilian style fish stew so keep posted!

I still welcome all recommendations!

Bye for Now! x

Chicken and Bean Enchiladas

I'm a little bit behind on updating you guys on the recipes I’ve been trying, I just don’t know where the time goes, and before I know it’s another week and another recipe being tested, I'm currently working 3 weeks behind on the recipes, so I will try to get up to date as soon as possible. First we have:

Chicken and Bean Enchiladas

Serves 10 (the quantities can easily be changed) – ready in 1 hour 10 minutes including prep time

Ingredients:

·         3 tbsp olive oil

·         2 red peppers, sliced

·         2 red onions, sliced

·         3 red chillies, 2 deseeded and chopped, 1 sliced

·         Small bunch coriander, stalks finely chopped, leaves roughly chopped (optional)

·         2 garlic cloves, crushed

·         1 tbsp ground coriander

·         1 tbsp cumin seeds

·         6 skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks

·         415g can refried beans

·         198g can sweet corn, drained

·         700ml bottle passata

·         1tsp golden caster sugar

·         10 tortillas

·         2 x 142ml pots soured cream

·         200g cheddar, grated

Now for the How To:

·         Heat 2 tbsp of the oil in your largest pan, then fry the onions peppers, chopped chilli and the coriander stalks with half the garlic for 10 minutes until soft. Meanwhile in another pan, fry the chicken in the remaining oil until browned and add it to the pan of veg when it is done.

·         Stir in 2 tsp of ground coriander and 2 tsp of cumin seeds and fry for a further 1 minute.

·         Stir in the beans, sweet corn, coriander leaves and 150ml of the passata into the veg and chicken.

·         In a jug mix the rest of the passata with the other crushed garlic clove, the remaining spices and the sugar and set aside

·         To assemble: lay the tortillas onto a board and divide the chicken mix between them. Fold over the ends and roll up in order to seal.

·         Divide the passata sauce into the dishes you are using, top with the enchiladas, dot with the soured cream, sprinkle with the cheese and scatter with the sliced chilli.

·         Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/ gas 6 and bake for 30 minutes scattering with more coriander leave to serve, if you like it (I don’t, so I didn’t)

I’ll be honest, this wasn’t my favourite recipe, yes it was tasty, but it was a lot of effort, and I can’t roll to save my life, so for me it wasn’t worth the effort, it wouldn’t be one Id race to make again, but at least I’ve tried it, its 490 calories per serving (one tortilla each) I was just very disappointed by the end result. Maybe you’ll have better luck!

Bye for now! x