Smoky chicken & bean stew

When my dad is on afternoons, I have to get a recipe that will be just as good the next day when my dad heats it up and has it for lunch before starting work, this is one I’ve looked at for a while, but then often decided on a different recipe.

Serves 2 – ready in 30 minutes

Ingredients

·         1 small red onion, sliced

·         2 garlic cloves, crushed

·         Olive oil

·         1tbsp chilli powder

·         ½ red pepper, cut into chunks

·         4 skinless chicken thighs (or breasts)

·         ½ pack chorizo

·         4 tomatoes, chopped

·         300 ml chicken stock

·         400g tin borlotti beans, rinsed and drained

·         ½ small bunch coriander, chopped

·         Pita bread to serve

Now for the How To:

·         Cook the onion and garlic in 1 tbsp olive oil until softened.

·         Add the chilli powder and pepper and cook for a minute.

·         Add the chicken and chorizo and fry for a couple of minutes.

·         Stir in the tomatoes and stock and bring to a simmer.

·         Add the beans and cook for another 15-20 minutes until thickened.

·         Stir in the coriander and serve in bowls with the pita bread.

This was a brilliant dish, the onion almost melted away completely and there was just enough of a chilli heat to leave a tingle in your mouth and on your lips, it was so tasty and filling it was a completely amazing stew. The pita bread helped to mop up the juice and it was amazing, the chicken was soft and tender and honestly, I can’t think of a bad thing about this dish!

You must try it! What did you think of it? Any feedback is welcome!

I haven’t decided the next recipe yet as I'm now officially up to date on my recipes, next i will be adding my movie lists!

Bye for now! x

Cinnamon Nutella Cake

I had a day off work, and what better way to spend it than by baking a cake! I was going to make this for father’s day, but my dad decided he wanted me to bake something else so I thought what better time to try it!

Serves – about 12 slices - ready in 60 - 70 minutes

Ingredients:

·         175g softened butter

·         175g golden caster sugar

·         3 eggs

·         200g self raising flour

·         1tsp baking powder

·         2tsp ground cinnamon

·         4tbsp milk

·         4 rounded tbsp nutella

·         50g hazelnuts, chopped.

Now for the How To:

·         Preheat the oven to 180c / gas 4 / fan 60c. Nutter and line the base of a 20cm round cake tin.

·         Add the butter and sugar into a bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy.

·         Add one egg at a time along with a spoonful of milk and spoonful of the sieved flour, cinnamon and baking powder, and gently mix together.

·         Continue to do this until all flour is mixed in and the mixture remains light and fluffy.]

·         Tip three quarters of the mixture into the tin, spread it level, spoon the nutella into the mixture in 4 blobs.

·         Top with the remaining mixture, swirl a few times with a skewer then smooth to cover the nutella.

·         Sprinkle with the nuts

·         Bake for 60 – 70 minutes, until risen, nicely browned and feels firm to touch and springs back when lightly pressed (use a cocktail stick to poke the cake, if it comes out clean its cooked)

·         Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack.

·         Wrap up tightly in double thick foil to keep fresh for up to a week! 

I LOVED this cake! It was so moist, it came out of the tin with complete ease, it was easy to make and good lord it was amazing! 5 days later and it was still as moist as the first day! I was surprised this was still the case, although be warned, you will have to restrain yourself if it’s going to last that long!

My grandparents even tried a bit of the cake and they loved it, at first they thought it was made, this made me so happy! I love my grandparents anyway but this confirmed it!

You really need to try this cake! It will beat any of the cakes that you will buy!

Do you have a favourite sweet / desert?

Next up is a smoky chicken & bean stew!

Bye for Now! x

Mini Meatloaves with chive Mash

I’ve often heard of meat loaves in American TV shows and movies, and so I decided its worth giving it a go to see what all the fuss is about, I'm not sure if it’s exactly how the Americans do it, but there’s no harm in trying!

Serves 4 – read in 1 hour including prep

Ingredients:

For the Meatloaves:

·         4 tsp olive oil

·         1 onion, finely chopped.

·         1 carrot, finely chopped

·         50g fresh breadcrumbs

·         175ml passata

·         2tsp Worcestershire sauce

·         1 egg, beaten

·         500g lean beef or pork mince

·         2tsp thyme leaves

·         2 plum tomatoes, halved, seeds scraped out

·         1 tsp sugar

For the Chive Mash:

·         4 large potatoes (Maris Pipers)

·         2tbsp butter

·         100ml milk

·         chives

Now for the How To:

·         Heat oven to 200c / 180 fan / gas 6 and heat 1tsp oil in a large frying pan.

·         Add the onion and carrot and soften for 10 minutes.

·         Once cooked add to a large bowl, add the breadcrumbs, 5 tbsp of the pasta, the Worcestershire sauce, egg, mince half the thyme and some seasoning. Mix well.

·         Brush 4 large ramekins, or 6 muffin tins with the remaining oil (if using the silicone muffin trays, the extra oil isn’t needed)

·         Press the mince mixture into them, and pour the remaining cassata over the top.

·         Top each one with a tomato half, sprinkled with a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper and the remaining thyme.

·         Bake for 50 minutes.

·         Meanwhile peel and chop the potatoes and boil for 15 minutes in salted water until tender.

·         Drain and return to the pan, mash with the butter and the milk.

·         Season to taste, fold through a small bunch snipped chives and serve.

I didn’t really know what to expect from this recipe, as I didn’t really know what a meat loaf was! But the only way I can think of describing it is a mix between a meatball and a faggot it was delicious and I can understand exactly why it’s so often mentioned in American TV shows and films! I will be trying this recipe again soon!

Next up is a desert and cinnamon Nutella Cake!

Bye for Now! X

Chicken Chow Mein

So again my dad decided on this dish, I have no idea what makes him decide on what he prefers, but this time it was chicken chow mein, now I’ll be honest, I’ve never tried this dish before now, whenever I go out for a Chinese it’s something I always bypass thinking it’s not going to be worth the money and it won’t fill me up etc, I will certainly spend a minute or two searching the chow mein section.

Serves 2 – ready In 35 minutes (or less)

Ingredients

For the sauce:

·         Thumb sized piece fresh root ginger

·         2 garlic cloves

·         3 tbsp tomato ketchup

·         2 tbsp oyster sauce

·         2 tbsp reduced salt soy sauce

For the noodles:

·         1 large red pepper

·         5 spring onions

·         200g bean sprouts

·         2 small chicken breasts

·         3 nest medium egg noodles

·         1tbsp sunflower oil

Now for the How To:

·         Using a potato peeler remove the skin from the ginger and grate 1tbsp from the root.

·         Put into pestle and mortar and crush in the garlic, add the ketchup, oyster sauce soy sauce and 3 tbsp of water and mix well.

·         Cut the pepper into quarters, removing the seeds and stalk and slice diagonally into strips.

·         Cut the ends off the spring onions and cut the onion lengthways.

·         Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces.

·         Boil a large pan of water on the hob, when the water is boiling drop in the noodles, turn off the heat and leave for 4 minutes, then drain.

·         With everything prepared you can now start cooking.

·         Heat the wok, when it starts to smoke its hot enough, add the oil and the chicken. Keep moving the chicken around until it’s cooked.

·         Add the pepper and stir fry for a further minute.

·         Pour the sauce into the wok and stir well until bubbling.

·         Add the noodles, bean sprouts and spring onions a handful at a time, making sure they are well coated with the sauce and stirring until the bean sprouts have wilted. 

I was surprised by this dish; it was quick, easy, tasty and very filling. I didn’t really know what to expect and I really enjoyed it, the pepper still have a bit of a bite to it, and the noodles were cooked perfectly, and the sauce had a brilliant mixture of flavours! My dad said it wasn’t quite as good as the local take aways but it’s a very close second and that’s good enough for me!

What do you normally order when you have a Chinese? I used to like the sweet and sour chicken balls, but the batter just got too much for me, I now like the shredded chicken, and prawn toast is always a winner in my books!

Next up is mini meatloaves with chive mash

Bye for Now! x

Chicken biryani

I’ll be honest, this recipe didn’t really grab me straight away, but I decided to try it as my dad picked it out as one he would like to try, so I thought I would give it a go.

Serves 4 – Ready in 40 minutes including prep

Ingredients

·         300g basmati rice

·         25g butter

·         1 large onion, finely sliced

·         1 bay leaf

·         3 cardamom pods

·         Small cinnamon stick

·         1 tsp turmeric

·         4 skinless chicken breasts, cut into large chunks

·         4 tbsp curry paste

·         85g raisins

·         850ml chicken stock

·         Chopped coriander

·         Toasted flaked almonds to serve

Now for the How To:

·         Soak the rice in warm water, and then wash in cold until the water runs clear.

·         Heat the butter in a saucepan and cook the onions with the bay leaf and the other whole spices for 10 minutes.

·         Sprinkle in the turmeric.

·         Add the chicken and curry paste and cook until aromatic.

·         Stir the rice into the pan with the raisins.

·         Pour over the stock.

·         Place a tight fitting lid on the pan and bring to a hard boil.

·         Lower the heat to a minimum and cook the rice for another 5 minutes.

·         Turn off the heat and leave for 10 minutes.

·         Stir well, mixing through half the coriander.

·         To serve scatter over the rest of the coriander and the almonds. 

Again a recipe with coriander, but this time I left it out, I feel if I am going adding a little bit to the dish and the rest is for garnish then it’s not going to add a huge difference to the dish, and so I omitted that, I also left out the raisins, this is simply because I hate them possibly even more than coriander! I have to pick out the raisins from a muesli mix and I just can’t stand them, no idea why, when I was younger, I used to eat them by the little small box full’s, but as I got older, I just can’t stand them, maybe it’s because when I was little I only ate them on their own and not part of a dish? I don’t know I'm weird, I know this.

Other than that, I thought the dish was average, nothing really stood out to me, it was nice, and it was full of flavour, but I'm not sure what exactly I didn’t enjoy with it, but to me it lacked something, and I wasn’t wowed, as I have been previously with some of the other recipes.

So you know a lot of my weird food habits, what are some of yours?

My dad also picked the next recipe, Chicken chow mein.

Bye for Now! x