Roast chicken thighs, mediterranean veg pasta bake

The veg box arrives in two days, so we're using up what's in the fridge.

Chicken thighs
Olive oil
Chicken run

Onion
Garlic
Aubergine
Courgettes
Tomatoes
Red pepper
Passata

Pasta
Pecorino

Mixed leaves

1.  Drizzle chicken thighs with olive oil and rub in chicken rubs, roast at 180 for about an hour.
2.  Sautee finely chopped onion, crushed garlic in olive oil.
3.  Chop all other veg into small cubes and add into the onions and garlic, fry until a bit soft.
4.  Add passata and water, simmer until veg is soft - about 40 minutes.
5.  Meanwhile, make pasta according to packet instructions.
6.  Drain pasta, add to sauce, transfer to oven dish.
7.  Top with grated pecorino, and pop in the oven to melt.
8.  Serve, with a green salad, scoff.

Prison dinner?

Theme-ing dinner with film night - when the film is "I love you Phillip Morris" ... In other days I would have popped to an Asian supermarket for those sectioned thali trays ... but these are tricky times, so I followed the theme of separate items, rather than a casserole type thing.

So, burgers, roast potatoes, carrots roasted in cumin, cauliflower cheese and wilted spinach.

Toad in the hole ...how retro can you get?

Redefining comfort food?  I don't know - but we all enjoyed this classic tonight.

Sausages
Olive oil

Self raising flour
Salt, pepper
Eggs
Soya (or dairy) milk

Baked beans
Carrots
Beans

Onions
cornflour
bit of stock

1. Stick the sausages in an oven dish, and bake for a bit.
2.  Make the batter mix ... some flour, break  some eggs in, whisk, add salt and pepper - should still be sticky - add milk and whisk again.
3.  When it's smooth, and a bit thicker than double cream, it should be OK.  Leave to rest for 20 mins
4.  Start gently frying onions for the gravy.
5.  Prep the rest of the veg - put baked beans into the bottom of the oven, steam, the beans and carrots.
6.  Shake the sausage pan, pour in batter mix, and put back in the oven - put the baked beans in an oven proof dish in the bottom at the same time.
7.  Steam the veg, and finish the gravy with stock/cornflour ... or gravy granules.
8.  25 (ish) mins later ... serve, scoff ... it was GOOD!

Roast pork ... wow!

OK - we all deserve a Sunday dinner ... and by heck did we have a Sunday dinner - roast pork, roast veggies and damn good gravy!  It were proper lovely.

Pork shoulder, boned
Olive oil
Potatoes
Fennel
Carrots
Courgette
Chilli flakes
Mixed herbs
mixed herbs
Garlic
Apple juice
Flour
Cauliflower

1.  Salt the pork joint - at least an hour before cooking it.
2.  Put the pork into a hot oven, for 20 minutes, then turn it down.
3.  Prep the veg ... I mixed everything except the cauliflower in olive oil with a little salt 2 hours before I expected dinner to be ready, into a roasting dish.
4.  Turn the oven down, to let the pork cook.
5.  An hour and a bit before you want to eat ... stick the veg into the oven.
6.  Pour apple juice around the pork (I think this is where I could have gone wrong, had I wanted really crisp crackling... but fortunately for me the preference is for nice fatty/chewy skin ... who knew!?)  but this makes for the fantastic gravy.
7.  Do what ever it is you are doing ... etc
8.  Stick the floret of cauliflower in with the rest of the veg, stir around and put back into the oven.
9.  20 minutes before serving ... pour the juice from the pork roasting tray into a jug.  Spoon off about 3/4 of the fat.  Make a gravy with a bit of the fat off the top, mix in some flour, stir into a smooth paste - then add the rest of the juices ... simmer (add more apple juice/stock if you think it needs it)
10.  Pull the pork out of the oven and let it rest for at least 15 minutes.
11.  Serve, scoff ... receive accolades ... bloody hell, it were gorgeous!  We all had thirds

Chicken tikka, potato, cauliflower and red pepper tray bake - with onion bhajis

Chicken thighs in the freezer - a random jar of tandoori tikka masala sauce in the cupboard - some potatoes and a cauliflower in the veg box ... Tah dah!  Also, luckily the last veg box left us with quite a few onions and I had a bag of gram flour ... so - it was almost as if I had planned it.

Chicken thighs
Tandoori masala cook in sauce
Olive oil
Potatoes
Cauliflower
Red pepper


Onions
Salt
Chilli flakes
Fennel seeds
Bicarbonate of soda
Gram flour
Sunflower oil

1.  Marinade the chicken thighs in masala mix - mine was from a jar - which is unusual - but it was using up what was in the cupboard!  Leave for a couple of hours.
2.  Into an oven dish, with a little oil on the bottom, add cubed potatoes, cauliflower florets and red pepper chopped into biggish pieces.
3.  Mix the veg together in an oven dish/tray.
4.  Plonk the marinated chicken thighs in and between the veg - and mix up gently.
5.  Roast it all for about 45 minutes - an hour at 180.  Mix through a couple of times.
6.  Prepare onions - remove skin - cut into half moons - shake into a bowl.  Add a teaspoon of salt and shake through the onions.  This will release some moisture, and soften the harsh flavours.
7.  To the onions add chilli flakes, fennel seeds, onion seeds (whatever you think might work) and toss about a bit.
8.   To the onion mixture add a scant tsp of bicarb, a handful of gram flour and mix together.
9.  Heat sunflower oil in a pan and fry the onion mixture in hot oil, in small spoonfuls, for 30 se onds - to a minute-ish on each side - drain on kitchen paper.
10. Serve, scoff ... delish..

Comfort pie

Times are hard.  Really hard.  I asked - chilli or pie? ... and PPIIEEEE was the only reply.

So, pie, chips and veg it was.

Onions
garlic
olive oil
steak mince
Mushrooms
stock
tomato juice
worcestershire sauce
onion gravy granules
puff pastry


oven chips, carrots and broccoli

1.  Sautee chopped onion and crushed garlic in olive oil.
2.  Add mince and chopped mushrooms and fry for about 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently.
3.  When mince is brown all over add tomato juice, stock and flavourings.  Simmer for 10 mintues.
4.  Stir in a spoonful of gravy granules - call it cheating if you like, but it gives it a nice sauce.  Simmer for 5 minutes.
5.  Allow to cool, transfer to an oven dish and cover with puff pastry.  Brush the top with a little soya (or dairy) milk.
6.  Bake for 40 minutes - chuck the oven chips in as well.
7.  Steam prepped carrots and broccoli.
8.  Serve, scoff ... was well tasty.

Fried chicken, potato wedges, salad with wild garlic tzatziki

Lots of wild garlic around at the moment - I keep smelling it, but I can't find it!  However, a lovely neighbour dropped some off yesterday, so I made it into wild garlic tzatziki to have with our fried chicken and wedges.

Potatoes
Olive oil
Chicken thighs
Natural yoghurt
fried chicken seasoning (or make your own using flour, herbs and spices)
sunflower oil
salad leaves
cucumber
lemon juice
wild garlic

1.  Wash potatoes and chop into wedges, toss in olive oil and bake for about an hour.
2.  Toss chicken thighs in yogurt, then in the seasoning.  Fry on each side for 5 minutes, until coloured.  Transfer to a drying rack on top of a roasting tray - put in the oven to cook through, for about 20 minutes.
3.  To more natural yogurt add a drizzle of olive oil, a squirt of lemon juice, a pinch of salt, chopped cucumber and finely chopped wild garlic.
4.  Serve, with salad ... scoff

Sausage paella

 Maybe I should have called it a very British paella.  It's the night before the new veg box, so it's very much - use what you have, it'll still be tasty, dinner.

Olive oil
Onion
Garlic
Carrots
Sausages
Red pepper
Green beans
Paella rice
stock
wholegrain mustard
Kale


1.  Sautee chopped onion and crushed garlic in olive oil.  Add finely chopped carrot and fry gently for a few minutes.
2.  Add sausages and turn a few times, until they start colouring.
3.  Add chopped red pepper and green beans, stir in.
4.  Add paella rice, stir everything around until every grain of rice has a bit of a coating, then pour in stock, and a spoonful of wholegrain mustard.
5.  Simmer, check stock level, adding more if it goes too dry.  When the rice is nearly cooked add finely chopped kale, put the lid on and let it steam.
6.  Stir in the wilted kale, let it rest for 5 minutes.
7.  Serve, scoff

Veg dodger 2 "complained" about kale - grown by the devil, or something - but ate it nonetheless.