Jamaican rice with coconut and red beans

I got this cookbook in December called The Essential New York Times Cookbook and it is a collection of recipes over the years that featured in the NY Times. The recipes were selected based on response of readers and I must say it is one of the best cookbooks I have ever owned. It hasn't failed me yet!

This recipe is so simple, you literally throw everything into a pot and close the lid! I slightly modified the amount of shallots you add and I used Adzuki beans instead of simple red beans but other than that it is as described.

Soak 400g Adzuki or red beans overnight and then cook according to packet instructions. (Gently simmer for 40 min). Heat a little olive oil in a heavy based saucepan with a tight fitting lid over a medium heat and add your chopped shallot and garlic, cooking until softened. Add the rice, coconut milk, water, thyme, chili, beans and salt. bring to a boil over high heat, then stir well, reduce the heat to very low, cover tightly and cook without disturbing for 25 - 30 minutes, until the liquid has been absorbed and the rise is tender.

Season again with salt and pepper to taste and voila! If you are worried about coconut milk, the flavour it produces is so subtle you barely know it is even there. The result is a nutty, hearty dish that is so light it is hard to believe you are eating rice and beans.

• olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 5 green shallots, sliced
• 2 cups of jasmine rice
• 1 sprig of thyme
• one 400ml can of coconut milk (unsweetened)
• 1 1/2 cups of water
• about 3 cups of cooked small red beans or Adzuki beans
• 1 red chili
• salt and pepper

II:8.5

Stuffed Cypriot Chicken, Pan-Fried Asparagus & vine tomatoes and Cabbage salad

This is my first attempt at cooking anything from Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals cookbook and I have to admit when I saw that in 30 minutes you can make a stuffed chicken breast and 2 sides to go with it I was a little dubious. But to my surprise I managed to do all 4 components in under 45 minutes and what was even more surprising was all the components really do go together.

One of the things that I always find frustrating is deciding what goes 'with' a dish and one of the great things about this book is that every recipe includes a side and a dessert that would go with it.

Timing is everything with this dish if you want to get it on the table within an hour so I would suggest sticking to the steps in the order described. I slightly amended from the book as I found this order worked better for me. (Perhaps this is when it took 45 minutes not 30).

Turn the oven to 220 Celsius. Pile the parsley, basil and sun dried tomatoes onto a chopping board with a little olive oil and a pinch of pepper. Crush over 2-3 cloves of garlic and chop everything together mixing with the knife as you go. Crumble over the feta, finely grate over lemon zest and mix again.

On a big sheet of greaseproof paper, put the chicken breasts down and using a knife carefully fold back the fillets and cut a little pocket in each one until you can open each breast like a book. Divide the filling equally among the 4 chicken breasts, pat down and then fold back.

Add a little olive oil to an empty frying pan, and using tongs carefully lay the chicken down. Scrunch up a sheet of greaseproof paper under the tap, slightly wetting it then flatten it out and tuck over the chicken, leave to cook shaking the pan every now and then.

 

Now it's time to get the asparagus started. Drizzle a little olive oil into a frying pan, squash and add a couple of cloves of unpeeled garlic. Add the tomatoes and the herb sprigs and reduce.

Sprinkle salt and pepper onto your uncleaned chopping board and add a teaspoon of oregano and 2 cloves of garlic. Take our flat breads and rub them on the board, then wrap them in some greaseproof paper and put them in the oven.

 

Add the trimmed asparagus to the pan.

 

Now for the cabbage salad. Shred the cabbage, peel and shred the onion and add to a big bowl with chopped parsley, basil, finely chopped chili. Squeeze over lemon juice add a little salt and pepper and mix. This is now done.

 

By now the chicken should be golden underneath, so carefully turn each breast over and add 4 small sprigs of rosemary to the pan. Recover with the greaseproof. put a medium frying on top of the chicken to push it down a bit and help it crisp up.

 

Cook the chicken for a further 10 minutes and then it should be ready. Serve with asparagus, flat breads and salad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the chicken:

• small bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley
• small bunch of basil
• 8 sun dried tomatoes (not in oil)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 100g feta cheese
• 4 chicken breasts
• 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary

 

For the asparagus:

• 4-6 cloves of garlic
• 200g of cherry tomatoes on the vine
• small bunch of fresh herbs (whatever you have left I used rosemary)
• 250g asparagus
• 8-10 pitted black olives

 

For the flat breads:

• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 cloves garlic
• 6 flat breads

 

For the cabbage salad:

• 1/2 small white cabbage
• 1 onion
• a few sprigs of flat leaf parsley
• a few sprigs of basil
• a red chili
• 2 lemons

 II: 9

Spinach and ricotta gnocchi

So this dish is fairly indulgent for a weeknight but it is so delicious and you really don't need to eat much of it. The only thing to bare in mind about this recipe is that there is 4 hours resting time, so you can either prepare them the night before you plan to cook them and then boil them fresh.

First, get the spinach ready. I used fresh baby spinach, but you could just as easily use frozen spinach. If using fresh spinach, rinse the spinach leaves then put them in a pot with a teaspoon of water and turn on medium low heat. the water that clings to the leaves is enough. Cook the spinach with a lid on for a couple of minutes until it breaks down, then cool it. Once it is cool, squeeze all the excess water out of the spinach, chop roughly and set aside.

Chop the onion finely and saute in a little butter, once the onion is soft add the spinach and briefly mix through. Once this mixture is completely cool add to the ricotta with 2 tablespoons of semolina flour, the Parmesan and some salt and pepper to taste.

Now this is the 'tricky' part. In a large backing tray lay the semolina about 1cm deep on the bottom. I used about 500g of semolina flour for this. Then you have to shape the gnocchi....because there is basically no flour in the mixture it is fairly sticky and difficult to shape into gnocchi. I used to teaspoons and tried to make quenelles . You need to be patient, as you don't want them to be too big. About 2cm each should be the max. As you make them drop them onto your semolina tray. Once you have them all layed out, cover with about the same amount of semolina flour and put in the fridge.

Leave them to rest in the fridge for 2 hours and then turn each of them and leave for another 2 hours. This step is crucial, if you skip it they will fall apart when you boil them.

Once the gnocchi have rested, bring some water to a gentle boil and drop in your gnocchi being careful not to cook too many at once. How many is too many? Well...when they form one big gnocchi ball then it is too many, so try not to do that. Once the gnocchi float to the top they are ready.

I served them with some roasted baby tomatoes that I roasted in the oven for 5 minutes but you could easily do without.

• 500g spinach, fresh or frozen
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• salt and pepper
• 500g fresh ricotta (I used low fat but you MUST use the fresh kind not the processed kind that comes in a container)
• 1kg of semolina flour (only a couple of tablespoons goes into the gnocchi)
• 2 tbs Parmesan and extra for serving
• baby tomatoes (optional)

There is a bit of effort involved but the result is well worth it.

II:8

Quinoa salad with roast vegetables

This salad is so delicious and easy to make as I was eating it for dinner all I could think of was how it would taste the next day cold for lunch.

Heat the oven to 200 Celsius. Put all your chopped up vegies in there with the garlic cloves and a little oil , salt and pepper and roast for 30-40 minutes until they are soft. Once they are soft enough take out the tray and drizzle with white wine vinegar. Make sure you do this while the vegies are still hot so they absorb the vinegar.

Meanwhile cook the quinoa according to packet instructions (3 cups of water to 1 cup of quinoa) and allow to cool.

Once the vegies are cool enough to handle put them on a huge chopping board with herbs and chop up with a big knife. Don't worry about getting it into uniform pieces. It kind of looks like a big mess but it is meant to. Once you have done this mix with the quinoa, season with salt and pepper and lemon juice. That's all!

• 400g quinoa cooked
• 3 yellow zucchini cut into chunky moons
• 2 green zucchini cut into chunky moons
• 2 bulbs of fennel cut into thick slices
• 1 red onion, cut into wedges
• 2 red peppers, halved and cut into chunks
• 2 eggplants, cut into chunks
• 4 garlic cloves peeled
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• white wine vinegar
• bunch of fresh herbs, a selection of whatever you have (parsley, oregano, mint, basil)
• juice of one lemon

II: 9.5

Fricassee of chicken

This recipe is based on Jamie Oliver's 'special chicken stew', which he bases on a classic french Fricassee of Chicken. Fricassee meaning flavoured meat fried and turned into a stew . Call me snobby but I think Fricassee of Chicken sounds much better than a special chicken stew.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.  I used a whole free range chicken and cut it into 8 pieces, rather than 2 whole baby chickens as Jamie's recipe calls for. Keep the skin on all the pieces. It really pays off!

Smear some wholegrain mustard gently under the skin of each piece then Rub the flour all over the chicken so that each piece is covered in a thin layer. Keep any flour that falls off you will use this a little later.

 

In a snug-fitting casserole-type pan, fry your chicken pieces in a little olive oil on all sides for 10 minutes until golden. I used a non stick pan and very little oil. Remove them to a plate and then gently saute the onion, garlic and celery in the pan. Add the  spare flour and continue to saute for about 4 minutes, scraping off any goodness that is on the bottom of the pan. You can add a little chicken stock if it starts to stick but not too much at this stage. Add your 2 glasses of white wine and allow the liquid to reduce by half, then put the chicken pieces back in the pan. Now pour in your stock – it should come to about half-way up the chickens. Make yourself a cartouche ( a simple circle of baking paper that you put on top of a sauce or gravy to stop a skin forming.) Wet it so it's flexible then tuck this in and around the pan.

 

Place in the oven and cook for around 50 minutes to an hour until the chickens have crisp skin and the thigh meat falls off the bone. Remove the chicken to some nice serving bowls – ones that can hold a bit of sauce – and place your pan back on the hob. Add the lettuces, grapes, parsley leaves and tarragon leaves and simmer for a couple more minutes. Correct the seasoning carefully and spoon this sauce next to the chicken.

 

 

 

I served the chicken on a bed of quinoa.  This simple dish is so full of flavour it is amazing. If you wanted to use chicken breast pieces instead of the whole chicken it would definitely work. I would just reduce the cooking time to 35-40 minutes.

 

Ingredients

• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 good quality free range chicken cut into 8 pieces
• 1 small handful of fresh parsley, leaves picked, stalks kept
• 1 bunch of fresh tarragon, leaves picked, stalks kept
• 4 teaspoons wholegrain mustard
• 2 heaped tablespoons plain white flour
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 white onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• ½ celery heart, trimmed back and finely sliced
• 2 good knobs of butter
• 2 wineglasses of crisp white wine
• 565ml stock
• 2 gem lettuces, sliced into large chunks
• 1 small bunch of seedless grapes, washed and halved
• quinoa cooked according to packet instructions

 

 

II: 9

Pasta e ceci

I have been meaning to cook this dish ever since a girl from work raved about this amazing dish that her husband (Ben) cooked for her. This is not a mistake. Her husband cooked this for her. In fact he cooks most nights. She raved about this dish saying it is not quiet a pasta and not really a soup!

 

Although technically this recipe is a pasta it is really more like a stew. It is from Jamie Oliver's book Jamie's Italy and he says it is a pasta like soup. The recipe only calls for 100g of pasta so I am going to call it a stew. Either way it is so delicious. Perfect for a cold winter night.

You start of by heating some olive oil in a pot and you saute the celery, onion and garlic for about 15 minutes on the lowest setting you can. You want them to soften but not colour.

Meanwhile thoroughly rinse the chickpeas in a colander.

After the onion mixture is soft add the chickpeas and the stock and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and leave for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes remove half the chickpeas and blend the remaining chickpeas (I used a hand blender), then return the while chickpeas to the pot with the mashed chickpeas and add the uncooked pasta.

Continue to cook until the pasta is done. This should take around 12 minutes, but keep tasting. If the mixture is getting too thick you can add some boiling water to loosen it.

Season with salt pepper.

Serve with chopped rosemary and parsley on top.

• 1 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 stick of celery, trimmed and finely chopped, plus celery leaves if available
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped
• 2 x 400g cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 100g ditalini or other small soup pasta
• A good handful of parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped
• Juice of half a lemon

II: 7.5

Green Lentils With Roasted Beets and Preserved Lemon

So one month on and I finally got to use my preserved lemons in a recipe! This recipe was fairly easy. There is a bit of prep work and peeling beetroot is never simple, but if you are going to use canned beetroot don't even bother. It really pays of. The result is a delicious lemony and hearty salad with the slightest touch of sweetness from the beetroot. 

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Peel and cut the beetroot into big chunks and make sure you use gloves. Toss the cubes with a teaspoon of oil, season with salt and pepper and bake 30 to 35 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, place the lentils, carrot, onion, bay leaf, parsley, thyme and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a small pot and add water to cover the lentils by about 3/4 of an inch. Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered, until the lentils are tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Discard the herbs, drain well and transfer to a large bowl.

To make the vinaigrette, combine the lemon juice, zest, shallot and 1/4 teaspoon salt and let stand for 15 minutes. Whisk in the olive oil and season to taste with pepper and more salt if necessary.

To assemble the salad, quarter the lemon and scrape out the soft pulp. Finely chop the pulp and stir 2 teaspoons into the vinaigrette. Finely chop the lemon skin and add it, along with the vinaigrette, roasted beets, parsley and chopped mint, to the lentils. Toss and serve on a platter. 

Ingredients

• ·         5 small beets, peeled
  ·         1 teaspoon olive oil
  ·         Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  ·         1 cup French green lentils
  ·         1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
  ·         1/2 small onion, finely diced
  ·         1 bay leaf
  ·         4 sprigs parsley
  ·         2 sprigs thyme
  ·         1 preserved lemon  or 2 teaspoons lemon zest
  ·         1/3 cup chopped parsley
  ·         2 tablespoons chopped mint sprigs for garnish
  
  
  FOR THE VINAIGRETTE:
  ·         2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  ·         1 teaspoon lemon zest
  ·         1 shallot, finely chopped
  ·         salt and pepper
  ·         olive oil
  
  
  II: 8
  
  

Tarragon and lemon poached chicken with fregola

I came across this recipe in another blog called what kate ate ,that a friend sent me (thank you Suzan). I think I have reached some sort of new level, I am writing a food blog about recipes that I try and today I try a recipe that I read on someone else’s blog about recipes that they tried. Regardless it was worth trying!

This dish is really simple, healthy and easy. If you are like me you will be relieved to know fregola is not the new quinoa or some new exotic grain that everyone has been eating and you are just now discovering. It is the technical name for Israeli couscous, which is basically larger grained couscous.

The chicken makes this dish a main meal, but you could easily skip it and make this a side salad or a light lunch.

First you poach the chicken by putting 6 cups of water together with the zest and juice of a lemon, peppercorns and 4 sprigs of tarragon into a large pot of water. Bring the boil and then reduce and simmer for about 10 minutes so the flavours infuse. Then place the chicken breast into the water and turn the heat way down and poach the chicken for 15-20 minutes until cooked through.  The heat should be on but it shouldn’t really be bubbling.

While this is cooking, in another pot, bring your stock to the boil and add the fregola and cook according to packed instructions (10-12 minutes). Drain and rinse well. Yes rinse. This is a pretty weird step but I just went with it... Set aside and cool.

In a small bowl combine lemon juice from remaining lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Slice the chicken add the fregola along with the almonds, orange segments, our the dressing over the whole lot and if you want to make it a little more pretty you can garnish with tarragon.

Ingredients

• 6 cups of water
• 2 lemons
• 3 chicken breasts
• Bunch fresh tarragon
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 500g fregola (Israeli couscous)
• Segments from 3 medium sized oranges (no skin on segments)
• ½ cup toasted slivered almonds
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

II: 8.5

Za'atar Chicken with Fattoush Salad

Just the fact that there is a salad called Fattoush is enough reason in my book to make it. What did you have with your chicken? Fattoush. Oh haven't you heard of it? It's just a little something I whipped up to go with my Za'atar Chicken!

In terms of difficulty this Nigella Lawson inspired dish is so easy. You get some chicken breast and marinade it in  a couple of tablespoons of Za'atar, some olive oil and some salt. Za'atar is a spice mixture that is very easy to find. It is Middle Eastern and the primary ingredients are oregano, basil, thyme, sesame and sumac.

I marinaded the chicken breast for a couple of hours but you could leave it overnight if you have time. Once you have marinaded the chicken you put it in a roasting tin in the oven and cook for 20-25 minutes depending on how thick the chicken breast is.

To make the salad, you throw together all the ingredients (tomato, cucumber, shallots) and then you grill a couple of pieces of pita bread in the oven until it becomes crispy and cut triangle pieces into the salad with some fresh mint and parsley and then you dress it. It sounds so delicious and when I made it I thought that I would know exactly what it would taste like but I was surprised at how refreshing and light the salad was. I put it down to the mint and lemon. DELICIOUS.

Ingredients

• 500g Chicken breast
• couple of splashes of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of Za'atar spice mix
• Pinch of salt (the Za'atar spice mix that I used didn't have any salt in it but you may want to check the ingredients list before adding salt)

For the salad

• 3 tomatoes chopped
• 2 cucumbers chopped
• 4 fat shallots, halved and chopped
• 1 bunch of mint chopped
• 1 bunch parsley chopped
• 2 wholemeal pita breads toasted in the oven
• juice of one lemon
• splash of olive oil
• salt and pepper

II: 8

Italian Sausage, leek and cabbage rigatoni

As you may have noticed I haven't posted much last week, we either ate out or for some reason or another I found a reason not to make dinner. Well last night I made a pasta dish and as I was finely slicing the leeks I go so happy at the perfect paper thin little white and green circles that I was able to produce without the assistance of my mandolin that I literally wanted to cry (and not because leeks are the softy of the onion family). It reminded me why I love food and cooking so much. I knew that in ten minutes these hard and squeaky white circles would  produce the most delicate sweet flavour and even though I have never made this dish before, I knew that any recipe that called for 2 leeks thinly sliced and cooked down into the delicate soft rings that they become would be a winner.

I used low fat Italian chicken sausages in the recipe but you could really use any Italian sausage. You take the skin of the sausage and crumble it into a non stick fry pan and cook for about 10 minutes until lightly browned.

Then you add the leeks with a tiny bit of chicken stock. Mix together and cook until the leeks become soft. This will take about 5 minutes. Add about half the cabbage on the top and as it wilts mix through and add the rest of the cabbage. Once all the cabbage is in the pan add the chicken stock, season and cook until all the vegetables are completely soft. If I lived alone and had no one who judged my I would eat this straight out of the pan with a big crusty sourdough baguette and then lick the pan with all the juices!


But needless to say at this stage I cooked my pasta and then mixed it all in together with the sauce and cooked for another 60 seconds before serving. This is so completely my kind of meal, if I wasn’t doing something different every night I would seriously eat this at least once a week. Then whatever is left the next day….

Ingredients

• 6  low fat Italian sausage (chicken worked well but you can use any kind), removed from casing and crumbled
• 2 small leeks, white parts only, trimmed, cleaned, and sliced into ring
• 4 cups Savoy cabbage, shredded (about half a Savoy cabbage)
•  freshly ground pepper
• 1 cup chicken stock, or canned reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 250g whole-wheat rigatoni, or penne

Apple fennel salad

This goes really nicely with fish on the side or on its own with some dark  brown bread slathered with a little butter!

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of rocket (6-8 handfuls)
• 1 fennel bulb, sliced super thin (you guessed it mandolin)
• 1 apple sliced super thin (I used a granny smith but any tart apple would be perfect
• 1/4 cup chopped dill
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Combine salt with the lemon juice and stir to dissolve. Let stand a few minutes before combining with olive oil and black pepper.
2. In a large salad bowl, toss together the arugula, fennel, apple, and dill. Toss gently with the dressing to coat well. Serve immediately.

II: 8