Chicken and chorizo bake

I’ve been working on this recipe for a while. It’s very similar to Greek chicken (for those who know what that is) but it’s quicker and lighter. Perfect for a week night dinner,

Serves two but can easily be multiplied to feed more

Ingredients

• 4 large chicken thighs (2 per person)
• 1 large red onion quartered
• 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 2 peppers (1 red, one orange) deseeded and chopped into large chunks
• ½ a courgette chopped into large chunks
• Small bag of new potatoes (or 3 large bakers chopped into small dice)
• 10 cherry tomatoes (left whole)
• ½ a chorizo sausage, skinned and chopped into thick rounds
• 1 red chilli chopped finely, seeds left in
• 3 tbsp paprika (I use sweet but smoked is fine)
• 2 tbsp dried oregano
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200oC. Put the potatoes into a large baking tray, halving any which are particularly big.
2. Add to the baking tray the chicken, chorizo, chilli and all of the vegetables.
3. Pour over the olive oil, season well with salt and pepper and mix with your hands to make sure everything is coated. Then sprinkle over the paprika and oregano.
4. Bake in the oven for 45mins, turning carefully with a spoon halfway through. Make sure the chicken is golden and cooked through before serving.
5. When the chicken is cooked and the veg are tender, pour over the vinegar and give everything a good stir. Serve in a lovely big dish so that everyone can help themselves. Crusty bread and a green salad would go well here.

Melt-in-the-middle smoked mackerel fish cakes

I made some beautiful fish cakes last week based on Jack Monroe’s recipe from the Guardian website http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jan/22/jack-monroe-smoked-mackerel-fishcakes-recipe Rather than flavouring mine with lemon and chilli, I added spring onions and a melt-in-the-middle cheddar cheese centre. Both ways are delicious- try them and let me know what you think.

It would also be easy to adapt this recipe, adding lemongrass, garlic and ginger to give the cakes a Thai feel. If you do this I would suggest making 12 little fishcakes rather than four large ones, frying them in a pan on the hob with a little vegetable oil, and having some sweet chilli sauce on hand for dipping.

Ingredients

• 500g potatoes, diced
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• Salt and pepper
• 5 spring onions finely chopped (greens and all)
• 300g smoked mackerel
• 3 tbsp breadcrumbs (brown or white bread, doesn’t matter)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 100gms cheddar cheese cut into four cubes

Method

1. Put the oven on to heat at 200oC and get yourself a baking tray.
2. Put the potatoes into a saucepan of boiling water, then reduce the heat and simmer until tender.
3. Drain and mash with the lemon juice, butter and salt and pepper. Flake the fish into the mash, add the spring onions and mix well.
4. Shape the mixture into four large fishcakes. Press your thumb into the centre of each to make a dimple, add a cube of cheese then squash the mixture around it so that the cheese is completely contained.
5. At this stage you can put the cakes into the fridge to chill and firm up for 30 minutes, or you can just carry on- do whatever suits you and the time you have- I crumbed and cooked them straight away and they were fine.
6. When chilled or ready to cook, pour the oil on to a small plate and spread the breadcrumbs out on a slightly larger one. Dip each cake briefly into the oil on both sides then roll in the breadcrumbs to coat.
7. Place on the baking tray and bake for 30mins or until golden. I served them with purple sprouting broccoli, but a salad would work very nicely too.

In minature

One of my colleagues brought these gorgeous minature cheesecakes into work today. Each had half an Oreo cookie in lieu of a base.

White on blonde

I made Nick a little valentines treat- the cheesecake from earlier this week minus the raspberries but adorned with a white chocolate heart. Yum!

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Salad nicoise

I picked up this recipe while flying home from the US in late February a couple of years ago. Boredom struck and I found myself flicking through the TV shows available on the in flight entertainment system. I was delighted to find several episodes of The Good Cook with Simon Hopkinson and couldn’t wait to get home and rustle up this treat of a recipe. I did so the following weekend and we ate the results while sitting in the sunshine in the garden; yes, it was warm in February that year! 
For those who don’t like anchovies, you could replace them with fresh tuna- select a large fresh fillet of tuna and sear it in a frying pan on both sides for two minutes before slicing into strips and adorning the salad. Or, for the fish-phobic, try grilled chicken strips. Don’t forget to season them though or you won’t get the sweet-salty contrast that is so important here.

Serves 3-4 for lunch

Ingredients

• 4 large eggs
• 8 artichoke hearts (bottled) in olive oil
• 16 black olives
• 2tsp green capers drained of their brine
• 4 large, very ripe tomatoes quartered
• ½ a cucumber, peeled and sliced in chunks
• 4 spring onions finely chopped
• Handful of green beans blanched and chopped into bite sized pieces
• 1 tin anchovies in olive oil
• 1 tbsp chopped chervil
• Small handful basil
• 1 garlic clove finely chopped
• 175ml extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• Pinch of salt and pepper
• 2 little gem lettuces, leaves washed and sliced
• Loaf of sourdough bread to serve

Method

1. First make the dressing- whisk together the garlic and vinegar in a small bowl and set aside. The vinegar will start to cook the garlic and take the edge off of its flavour.
2. Place the eggs in a small saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil then switch off the heat and leave to cook for five minutes.
3. Meanwhile, arrange the lettuce leaves in a large bowl. Chop and sprinkle over the herbs. Add the cucumber, tomatoes, olives, artichokes, capers, spring onions and green beans. Drain the anchovies of their oil and lay them on the top (discard the oil).
4. Add the olive oil to the vinegar dressing along with the salt and pepper, mix well and pour over the salad.
5. Cool the eggs under cold running water for two minutes then peel and slice into quarters. It’s best to slice them over the salad bowl as the yolks will still be runny.
6. Serve with toasted slices of sour dough bread and eat in the sunshine

Baked raspberry cheesecake

This was the highest rated recipe on the Good Food website for many years, although for some reason when they revamped the site it disappeared. I replicate it here for you now in homage to its success. It is everything you would want a cheesecake to be, with or without the raspberries.

Ingredients

• 8 digestive biscuits
• 50gms melted butter
• 600gms cream cheese (such as original Philadelphia)
• 2tbsp plain flour
• 175gms caster sugar
• Vanilla extract
• 2 eggs plus 1 extra yolk
• 142ml pot of sour cream
• 300gms raspberries
• Icing sugar to dust

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180oC, and grease and line a 20cm springform cake tin.
2. Blitz the biscuits in a food processor until crumbly then mix in the butter and press the mixture gently into the base of the cake tin to form the cheesecake base.
3. Beat the cream cheese together with the flour, caster sugar and 1tsp of vanilla extract, then beat in the eggs and sour cream until the mixture is light and fluffy. To be honest, I normally clean out the food processor bowl and just blitz this mixture together quickly.
4. Once your mixture is ready, pour it into the tin on top of the biscuits and sprinkle over half the raspberries- they will sink but don’t worry, they’re meant to.
5. Bake in the middle of the oven for 40mins (no bain marie or any of that guff needed)- when ready the cake should be set but still wobbly in the middle if you jiggle the tin a little.
6. Remove from the oven and allow the cake to cool completely in its tin (will take about 3hrs). You can then serve it straight away decorated with the remaining raspberries and dusted with icing sugar, or you can pop the cake in the fridge ready for decorating later. It will keep well for several days.

Winter ragu with beef and pancetta

This recipe is adapted from Michaela Chiappa’s Simply Italian version. I cook mine in the oven so that I can potter round the house rather than stand watch over the stove. It’s a great alternative to Bolognese- and you know how strongly I feel about Bolognese- so trust me when I say it’s worth a go.

Ingredients

• 100gms pancetta cubes
• 1 large onion finely chopped
• 1 large carrot finely diced
• 2 sticks celery finely diced
• 1kg lean beef mince
• 1 large glass red wine
• 140gms tomato puree (you can buy tiny tins in the supermarket which are exactly the right amount)
• 2 beef stock cubes
• 2 bay leaves
• Olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves chopped
• Parmesan to serve
• Parpadelle or tagliatelle for six people

Method

1. You will need a big (and I mean BIG) casserole dish with a lid for the ragu, as well as a small frying pan to brown the pancetta in. While you find the casserole, put the oven on to preheat at 150oC.
2. Put the frying pan over a medium heat and add the pancetta allowing it to brown and go crispy. Once it’s done, remove from the heat and tip the pancetta on to a plate lined with kitchen paper to drain off the fat.
3. Meanwhile, add 2tbsp of oil to the casserole, add the beef and brown all over.
4. Chop all the veg and add to the pan along with the pancetta. Fry for 10mins to soften, then pour in the wine and bring to the boil to reduce the alcohol.
5. Crumble in the bay leaves and add the tomato puree. Make up the stock cubes with 500ml of boiling water and add to the pan.
6. Bring the mixture back to a simmer then put the lid on and bake in the oven for three hours. I like to stir the ragu every hour.
7. After three hours check the seasoning- you will probably need pepper but not salt as the pancetta is quite salty. Remove two ladles of sauce to a blender (or you could use a hand blender) and blitz to make the sauce smooth, then stir this back into the main pot of ragu. This step is optional and purely for texture- if you like it chunky don’t bother- it’s good either way.
8. Cook your pasta and serve the ragu with lots of parmesan.

Note- once the three hours cooking time is up you can also cool the ragu and it will keep well in the fridge or freezer until needed.

Gnocchi with spinach and dolcelatte

Thank you Nigel Slater for this gem... http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/feb/11/nigel-slater-gnocchi-spinach-dolcelatte-recipe

Asparagus soup

You could probably make this using two onions rather than one onion one leek if you prefer. Best served with crusty bread and maybe some crispy fried pancetta bits on top. This makes about four lunch sized portions.

Ingredients

• 400gms asparagus stalks, roughly chopped, woody ends removed
• 1 white onion roughly chopped
• 1 leek, cleaned and roughly chopped
• 1 stick of celery, washed and chopped
• 1 litre chicken stock (made with two stock cubes)
• Salt and pepper
• Small knob of butter

Method

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onions, leek and celery and fry slowly over a low heat for 5 mins to soften.
2. Add the asparagus and stock. Cover and bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer gently for 15-20mins.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and blend the soup- either with a hand blender or in a a goblet-style blender. Taste and season with pepper and salt if necessary.
4. You can serve the soup as is or, if you prefer a smooth soup, push it carefully through a sieve with the back of a ladle. The result is a very clean, tasty broth

*nb this soup also freezes very well 

Hake baked with asparagus, lemon and chilli and served with salsa verde new potatoes

 

I adapted this from a Jamie Oliver recipe. It's a healthy but decadent feeling dish, perfect for if you have friends coming over for dinner or if you just want to treat yourself. This recipe feeds four but you can cut down the fish to two portions for two people. Also, I was so eager to eat this that I forgot to photograph it! So apologies, and please dont expect it to look like the picture above!

Ingredients

• Four large hake fillets (cod or pollack work well too if you can’t get hake)
• Small bag of cherry tomatoes
• 1 red chilli
• 1 lemon
• 4 garlic cloves
• 3tbsp olive oil
• 1 standard supermarket bag of asparagus (not the baby tips)
• 1 small bag of new potatoes (the very tiny ones)
• Small bunch of parsley (I just use the supermarket bags)
• Half a small bunch of mint
• 2tsp Dijon mustard
• 1tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp capers in brine
• Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, fill the kettle with water and put it on to boil.
2. Get a medium sized roasting tin or baking dish and empty in the bag of cherry tomatoes.
3. Chop the woody ends off of the asparagus spears, chop the spears into bit sized chunks and add them to the tomatoes.
4. Slice the garlic finely and add about three cloves worth to the tomato dish, reserve the rest for the salsa verde.
5. Finely slice the chilli and add to the tomato dish along with salt and pepper and  two tbsp of olive oil. Slice the fish into thick chunks and add to the dish skin side up. Mix everything well to coat in the oil, then quarter the lemon, squeeze over the juice and add the quarters to the dish to roast with the fish.
6. Put the baking tray into the oven- this will take about 20 mins to cook- so, in the meantime put the bag of new potatoes into a saucepan, cover with water from the kettle and bring to the boil with 2-3 sprigs of mint.
7. While the potatoes are cooking make the salsa verde, you will need a food processor or a hand blender for this. Put the mint leaves (removed from stalks) into the processor along with the whole bunch of parsley, mustard, capers (drained of their brine) one tbsp olive oil, the remaining garlic and the vinegar and blitz to a paste. Season to taste.
8. Once the potatoes are cooked drain them and put them back into the dry pan. Crush them a little with the back of a spoon, then mix in the salsa verde to coat the potatoes. Keep warm until the fish is ready.
9. Once the fish is crispy on top and cooked through, remove the lemon rinds and serve the fish and veg alongside the potatoes*

*nb a very cold glass of sauvignon blanc wouldn’t go a miss here