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

Nectarine, raspberry and yogurt smoothie

The ingredients are the recipe - chop and zizz. 

Veg box fritters with new potatoes - from the allotment.

The photo makes it all look a bit dark - I blame my photographic skills, not my cooking.  These fritters are NOT burnt, they were browned to perfection.

The new potatoes are our first crop from the allotment - very proud!  And, very delicious.

The fritters:

Corn on the cob
Carrot
Courgette
Red onion
Cumin seeds
Fennel seeds
Turmeric
Chili flakes
Salt
Gram flour
Bicarbonate of soda
Rape seed oil

1.  Scrape kernels from sweetcorn (or use tinned/frozen).
2.  Grate peeled carrots, onion and courgette.
3.  Mix all veg together and add salt, let sit for at least 10 minutes to draw out some of the moisture (not to drain off, to activate the bicarb).
4.  Add in spices, mix well.
5.  Add gram flour, bicarb, and mix well.
6.  Fry, gently, in rape seed oil.
7.  Drain on kitchen paper and keep warm.

Yogurt sauce

Natural yogurt
Crushed garlic
Lemon juice
Olive oil

1.  Mix ingredient together, and season to taste.

Tomato and basil salad ... yup. tomato, basil and salt.

I would have added a green salad, but no leaves left from the veg box.  However, this was all delish and the yogurt sauce went spectacularly with the fritters.

Caribbean roast vegetable and chickpea soup

Yesterday, a lovely wedding - this meant a night in a hotel - therefore, the compulsory full english breakfast (I'm not going to name and shame - it wasn't brilliant) - leaves you quite full, or at least wanting something tasty and nutritious and not swimming in grease.  I looked in the fridage and found the remains of the veg box (nearly) were sweet potato, butternut squash, red pepper and pak choi.  Add a tin of chickpeas, tin of tomatoes and some yogurt and tadah!


Olive oil
Sweet potato, peeled and chopped into biggish bits
Red pepper, chopped and deseeded
Butternut squash, peeled and prepared
blackenned cajun seasoning
garlic, lots of it, crushed and the tough peel removed (papery bits can be left)
Stock
tin of tomatoes
tin of chickpeas, drained

lemon, zest and juice
salt
natural yogurt

pakchoi
olive oil

1.  Roast prepared vegetables and garlic in olive oil, whit a good sprinkling of cajun seasonning - in a hot oven, until soft and slightly singed.
2.  Meanwhile gently soften a chopped onion in olive oil.
3.  Add roast vegetables and garlic to onion, add a pint or so of stock.
4.  Bring up to simmer.  Add 1/2 tin drained and rinsed chickpeas and a tin of tomatoes.  Heat through.
5. Zizz to a smoot soup - add more stock/water to taste.
6.  Tip in the remaining chickpeas, and heat through.
7.  Just before serving squeeze in lemon juice (1/2 lemon)

Top with yogurt, which has a big pinch of salt, the zest of the lemon, and the other half of the lemon's juice mixed in.

Top that with shredded and fried in olive oil, pak choi.

FAB-U-LOUS!

Okra curry, Tara dhal, onion bhajis. And some other stuff

These instructions are quite vague, because I got a new phone, and had to prioritise playing with it - so have forgotten exactly what I did... but you get the gist ;)

Turn the oven on, and then set to ... some is opening packets, but there is some chopping and stuff too - I started the dishes in the following order, to get them to get to the table at the same time

Tarka dahl - boil lentils until done - just before ready to serve - fry spices in oil, chuck into lentils - scoff

Okra curry - oiol, chopped onion, chopped veg, garlic, spice mix... fry - add frozen okra and some water - simmer - add tin of chopped tomatoes - simmer - scoff (keep warm in oven if done and waiting for other stuff)

Yogurt garlic sauce - natural yogurt, garlic, olive oil, lemon, seasoning ... stir - keep in fridge until ready to scoff

Samosas - open frozen packet - cook in oven for 12 minutes (splash of oil) - scoff

Onion bhajis - chopped onion, and I added some shredded cabbage, salt and pepper and chili flakes.  Stir in gram flour, and at the minute a teaspoon of bicarb and some cold water - mix quickly and fry in hot oil.  Drain and scoff ... with ... yogurt garlic sauce, sweet chili sauce and chutney.

Potato parathas - open frozen packet - follow instructions (dry fry on each side for 2 minutes) scoff

Popadoms - break up - spread on plate - microwave on full for 1 and a half minutes - scoff

Sweet chili sauce - take top off bottle - pour into small bowl - scoff ;)

Pasta bake with spinach and pine nut salad

Assorted veg in the fridge, lovely curry last night - wanted something to ring the changes a bit tonight.  It, in all honesty, wasn't as nice as I had hoped - I am trying to keep cheese to quite a low level - if there was cheese sauce instead of yogurt it would have been much richer and nicer ... having said that - it was low fat, tasty and full of good stuff.

olive oil
onion
celery
mushrooms
green beans
fennel bulb (1/2)
italian herbs
macaroni (gluten free for us)
white wine
gram flour
parmesan
natural yogurt
black pepper

spinach
pine nuts

1. Sweat chopped onions, celery and chopped fennel in olive oil.
2. Add, as you chop them the mushrooms and chopped ans and crushed garlic.
3. Sprinkle in italian herbs, season and splosh in white wine.
4.  Simmer for a bit, sprinkle in gram flour to create a bit of a sauce, stir in.
5.  Simmer until veg are at a done-ness where they are nice to eat.
6.  Meanwhile, cook pasta (in our case GF macaroni) to 1 minute before packet instructions.
7.  Turn off heat under veg when there is still a little, but not watery, sauce.
8.  Drain pasta, stir in, also add grated parmesan and enough yogurt to keep it all together.
9.  Stick it in the oven (more cheese on the top if you have it) to bake for 20 minutes.


Meanwhile...

1.   Put washed spinach leaves on a plate.
2.  Toast pine nuts in a hot frying pan - don't walk away from them - just toss them for a little while, and take off the heat before they start burning.
3.  You could make a dressing with oil, vinegar, seasoning and italian herbs ... but it's really not essentail

Serve - scoff - have seconds!  To be brutal I would prefer more soft cheese than yogurt for the bake, cos it was a bit sharp - but I enjoyed it anyway.

Veggie curry, dhal and brown rice

A bit of a day at work.... a bit of a day with family news.  Apparently, when I got home, I was extremely hyper, so this might explain why, instead of making something quick I choose to make something easy - but involving quite a lot of chopping and faffing.  There are many ingredients in this, but it really is very simple (but it does take nearly an hour to make...) .

There are 3 main parts - 1 x veggie curry, 1 x tarka dhal and some rice - yogurt is also very integral - but too easy to be called a recipe/cooking!

Veggie curry:

2 tbsp peanut (or other mild) oil
1 onion, chopped
Garlic (2 cloves, crushed or 1 tbsp paste from a jar)
1 aubergine, diced
1 courgette, diced
spice mix (to taste, I used about 1 and a half tbsp of quite spicy kebab mix)
 1/2 butternut squash, peeled and diced
1 kholrabi, peeled and diced
1/2 (big) patty pan squash, diced
8 new potatoes
1 tin chopped tomatoes
salt and pepper
water
(1 tsp sugar)

Rice:-

Brown rice
Water
Salt

Dhal:-

Lentils, red in this case...

Tarka:-

Peanut oil - 1 tbsp
Green chili - 1 - stab it to let the flavour out
fennel seeds - 1 tsp
cumin seeds - 1 tsp
black mustard seeds - 1 tsp
curry leaves (8 ish)
fenugreek leaves (8 ish)

Here I must point out that the veg could have been all sorts of combinations - I had this stuff in the fridge, and I thought it would go together - it did.

Veggie :-

1.  Sautee onion until a bit soft in the oil.
2.  Chuck other veg in as you chop it, and keep stirring it around.  Add water when it looks a bit dry.
3.  Add spice mix - a bit at a time, taste when the ingredients have had a chance to mesh together.
4.  Throw in tin of tomatoes, at least half a tin of water and allow to simmer as everything else cooks.
5.  Taste again - adjust seasoning - add sugar if chili is too hot.
6.  Simmer until veg is nice and tender.

Rice:-

1.  Put rice in heavy bottomed saucepan with close fitting lid.  Add cold water to about 2.5cms above surface of rice
2.  Bring to the boil.  Simmer for 15 (ish) minutes for brown rice.  Turn off heat, plonk on lid and leave for 10 minutes to steam.

Dhal:-

1.  Put lentils in pan, add about twice the volume of water - bring to the boil - simmer until soft (about 20 minutes) - skim the top if and when necessary, add water if not soft.
2.  When cooked, turn off heat and let it cool and thicken a little.  Add tarka 2 minutes before serving.

Tarka:-

1.  Heat oil in frying pan - to a medium heat.  Chuck in a seed or two, listen for the sizzle - a sizzle is what you want - if they pop straight away it's too hot - take it off the heat for 1 minute, then add the seeds and carry on
2.  Add whole spices (fennel seeds etc....), keep them moving.... add the leaves.
3. Chuck into dhal, stir - scoff

Both of us cleared our plates, and agreed that the yogurt really helped bring it together.  All elements nice - as a combination - yum

Lentil fritters, mushroom "biryani", roast tomatoes and yogurt dressing

Left over dhal and rice.  Excellent!  In 20 minutes flat they became this, which was delicious.  The lentil patties were gently flavoured, the rice as spicy and complex, the roast tomatoes added sweetness and the yogurt sauce was garlicky, minty and had a bit of a chili kick in the background.  An absolutely brilliant combination if I say so myself.  Only one other witness, who agreed with me completely and had seconds of rice and sauce - we were both too full for another fritter.

For the dhal:-

Big handful of red lentils - boiled in water for about 20-30 minutes.  Left to cool - kept in fridge over  night.

Cooked basmati rice.

peanut (or other light) oil
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
big handful of mushrooms
2 baby aubergines
small handful methi (fenugreek leaves - not essential, coriander or parsley would also be good, but the methi was delicious)
biryani (or whatever) spice mix
olive oil
red chili
juice of a lemon
natural yogurt
small handful mint
seasoning

1.  Chop onion and sweat in peanut oil.  Add chopped mushrooms and aubergines.
2.  Stick vine tomatoes in a pan with a little olive oil in the bottom, add sprinkle of sea salt and put on tightly fitting lid and heat on hob for 15-20 minutes.  Shake occasionally, but resist opening pan and prodding too often.
3.  To softened veg add half of the crushed garlic, the biryani mix and the cooked rice.  Stir and keep on a low heat (you may need to add a little water if it looks a bit dry.
4.  Form lentils into patties, and fry in a hot pan in peanut oil for about 3 minutes on each side.
5.  Mix yogurt, the rest of the garlic, mint, chopped chili, lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.
6.  Stir chopped fenugreek into rice - leave to stand as you serve out patties and tomatoes, then serve with good spoonful of dressing.
7. Scoff.
8.  Have seconds.

Morrocan-ish pasta bake

Terrible pic - delicious dinner.  I have claimed it to be lower fat, because there is no thick cheesy sauce, some yogurt and some strong parmesan adding the savoury creaminess.

1 tbsp olive oil
1 leek, chopped
400g minced beef
1 red pepper, chopped
1 courgette chopped
a few mushrooms, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
pinch chili flakes
pinch mixed herbs
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp tomato puree
500ml (ish) chicken stock
Big handful baby spinach
Small handful of pinenuts
100g feta, crumbed.
About 300ml natural yogurt
30g grated parmesan
Nutmeg
Pasta - about 200g

1.  Soften leek in olive oil.
2.  Add minced beef and brown.
3.  When mince is browned add chopped veg, garlic, herbs and chili, season.  Stir in for a couple of minutes.
4.  Cook pasta in boiling water.
5.  Add tomato puree, cinnamon and stock to mince mixture, stir in a simmer for about 15-20 minutes.
6.  Drain cooked pasta, chuck into meat mixture with spinach and pinenuts.  Stir in until spinach has wilted.  Stir in crumbled feta.
7.  Mix half of the parmesan into the natural yogurt, add a tiny grating of nutmeg.
8.  Put meat and pasta into oven proof dish.  Spoon over cheesey yogurt, and sprinkle with reserved parmesan.
9.  Bake for 20 minutes at 180C.

Lobster macaroni and cheese

Get me!  Lobster!  Well, frozen lobster - so thought I would give it a go, but not in a grilled delicious fresh kind of a way...  and had heard of this comfort and luxury combination, so thought I'd give it my own twist.  It was very easy (after initial shell hammering bit), and very tasty.

1 lobster, frozen (in this case)
Macaroni (or other short pasta)
green beens
Handful spinach
1/2 red chili
1 clove garlic, crushed
about an inch cubed each of ... cheddar, cheshire and parmesan, grated
5 tbsp natural yogurt

Heat oven to 180

1.  Thaw lobster (which may, or may not have been left by previous owners of new house!  who left it here by accident, but told me about it after I had found it... no, they didn't want it back they said I should keep it as a gift :) )
2.  Extract meat from tails and claws of the lobster.  Remove "vein" from tail meat and chop into bit sized pieces, carefully picking out bits of shattered shell (you could do something clever with the shells and oil and stuff, but I didn't today).
3.  Bring pan of water to the boil, when boiling chuck in pasta.
4.  After 2-3 minutes chuck in chopped beans.
5.  When pasta is nearly cooked (10 mins boiling, when it says 11)  drain.
6.  Chick spinach into pasta and beans stir and leave to wilt.
7.  Meanwhile grate all cheeses, add crushed garlic and finely chopped chili - stir together with yogurt - season with black pepper (and a scrape of nutmeg if you fancy).
8.  Mix cheese sauce, pasta and veg and lobster bits together - put into oven proof dish, bake in oven for 30 mins (ish)

You could have topped the dish with more cheese;  breadcrumbs and cheese; herby garlicky breadcrumbs etc .. delish whatever.

The resulting dish was lovely.  Creamy, despite ridiculously easy method of making "cheese sauce", a little bit tangy through using yogurt instead of cream/ wine to make a white sauce from a bechamel.

Incredibly easy, but felt like a proper treat.

Greek(ish) chicken stew, brown rice and garlicky spinach

Chopped an onion, some celery and a red pepper - sauteed in olive oil until a bit soft.  Added chopped red pepper and green beans cut into 2-3 cm pieces.  Chopped 2 x chicken breasts into bite sized pieces - and added them to the pan.  Kept stirring so that nothing started sticking, and everything had a coating of oil - then bunged in herbs - spice mix (some labelled as "greek spices", some mixed herbs, a bit of extra oregano and mint) and a teaspoon each of garlic paste and tomato puree. Crumbled in a chicken stock cube and added about 2 - 3 pints of water.  Peeled and diced a potato, and chucked that in  - mostly it thickens sauce.  Cook brown rice following packet instructions (in an aga (as we have) - bring to the boil in pan with water 1 inch above the top of the rice... steam in warming oven for 20+ minutes).  Spinach - boil a tiny bit of water (half a cup) with some crushed garlic - add spinach leaves, cover for 4 minutes.  Stir, grate in nutmeg and black pepper - drain, stir again, add greek yogurt and a squirt of lemon juice.  Victim wasn't keen on "slimy stuff" (meaning the spinach, which I loved) but ate the lot.  Result, I say!  3 pots left for kitchen fairies dinners :)