Caribbean chicken curry and rice

 

Movie night at Kitchenfairies HQ ... the film is "Straight Outta Compton" - a wholesome american tale of rap, drugs and alcohol, etc ... but also, dig deeper - Dr Dre (the dj) has dug deep in these troubled times and donated a shed load of money to help feed the community in Compton, joining up with restaurant chain "Everytable" ... and has provided 150K meals to people who need them in his community.  Respect!  This is my interpretation of one of the dishes on the menu.  It were lovely!

Vegetable oil

Onion

Garlic

Caribbean curry spice mix

Green beans

Chicken thighs 

Yellow pepper

Mushrooms

Courgette

Tomatoes

Chicken stock

Mango chutney

Basmati rice

Natural yogurt

1.  Sautee chopped onion and crushed garlic in oil, add in curry powder.  Add chicken thighs, skin side down to brown a little.

2.  Chop all the veg, turn the chicken, chuck veg in the pot, stir.

3.  Add about a pint of chicken stock and simmer for 30 minutes, stir in a couple of spoons of mango chutney and simmer again for about 10 minutes.

4.  Cook the rice.

5.  Serve, with natural yogurt, scoff ... 

Chicken, ham, leek and mushroom pie

 

This was actually an exercise in using up leftovers, but it was delicious as well as "frugal".  We had chicken left over from some roast chicken thighs and ham left over from BBQ pulled gammon.

I made a sauce using the last of the leeks and mushrooms from the veg box, and some soya milk.  Threw on a pastry lid, bunged some potatoes in the oven, and we finished the coleslaw.

Olive oil

Leeks

Mushrooms

Cooked chicken

Cooked ham

Plain flour

Soya milk

Flour

salt

butter

Yogurt

Cold water

1.  Make pastry - rub butter into salted flour.  When it resembles breadcrumbs add a couple of spoons of natural yogurt and a splash of cold water, work together gently to make the pastry.  Form into a ball, wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.

2.  Fry mushrooms and leeks in olive oil, add cooked meats.

3.  Sprinkle a spoonful of flour into the pie filling mix, coat all of the elements, then add about a muful of soya milk, stir in to form the sauce.

4.  Transfer pie filling to pie dish, roll out pastry and cover the top.  Wash with soya milk.  Bake for about 30-35 minutes.

5.  Serve, scoff

Pulled gammon and coleslaw (Movie night - Gangs of New York)

Movie night - Gangs of New York - well, there's drinking involved, and "Bill the Butcher".  The biggest lump of meat we had was a big gammon joint, so I tried pulled gammon.  It was tasty, but if I did it again I might boil it a couple of times in water to reduce the saltiness.  I made it with a tin of peaches to add a fruity note to the BBQ sauce - which worked, to a certain extent.

• Big lump of gammon (or pork)
• Tin of peaches
• BBQ spice
• Cider
• Wholegrain mustard
• Tomato Ketchup
• Sugar
• Chilli sauce

• Red onion
• Carrots
• Cabbage
• Radish
• White wine vinegar
• Olive oil
• Mayonnaise

• Chips and bread rolls to serve

1.  Make the marinade by zizzing up peaches into a puree and mixing in BBQ spice, cider, wholegrain mustard and enough water to sit two thirds of the way up the joint of meat.

2.  Remove fat and rind from the gammon joint, turn over in marinade, put in a medium oven for 4-8 hours.  Checking every now and then, turning the meat and add more liquid if necessary.

3.  Make the coleslaw by chopping the veg - sprinkle with a little salt, stir in a splash of olive oil and white wine vinegar, let it set for 30 minutes to start to soften a little, then stir in mayonnaise and chill in the fridge.

4.  Remove joint from marinade - "pull" with 2 forks.  Moisten with a ladle of the cooking liquor.  Keep warm.

5.  Make additional BBQ sauce by straining the cooking liquor, and then stirring in ketchup, sugar and chilli sauce to taste.  Heat through briefly to help the flavours meld.

6.  Serve, scoff .... we were SOOOOOO full!

 

Vegetable, cashew nut and noodle stir fry, with seared ginger soya steak

Steak

Peanut oil

Garlic

Ginger

Soya sauce

Spring onions

Garlic

Red pepper

Carrots

Mushrooms

Pak choi

Udon noodles (rice noodles)

Cashew nuts

Beansprouts

Rice wine

Rice wine vinegar

Oyster sauce

Tomato ketchup

Soya sauce

1.  Marinate steak, in crushed garlic, ginger, soya sauce and peanut oil.

2.  Chop the veg, into this slivers, for the stir fry, crush garlic.

3.  20 before due to serve - bring a pan of water to the boil, put a wok and a grill pan on to heat up.

4.  When the grill pan and wok are hot put the steak in the grill pan, and start the veg stir fry in the wok - using ingredients from the list down to the pak choi (the white bits of the pak choi, save the green leaves until the last stage.  Put the noodles in the water to boil for 5 minutes.

5.  After 2 minutes turn the meat.

6.  Keep stir frying veg, add condiments and a spoonful of noodle water, keep moving in the wok.

7.  Take the meat out of the pan and leave to rest.

8.  Drain cooked noodles and add to the veg, add beansprouts, cashew nuts and the green tops of the pak choi - keep tossing together.

9.  Serve, scoff ... was delicious.

Pork, chorizo and mushroom pasta, with peas

I'm trying not to run out of inspiration in these very dark days - though I admit we have had more than a few comfort dinners eg. sausage, mash and beans, in the past weeks.  Today there were pork chops in the fridge - and I was heading towards another tray bake (nothing wrong with that) ... but then, I remembered there was a chorizo sausage to use up and some proper decent pasta ... so, a little bit more effort in chopping the meat later - I enjoyed this much more than I would have done big lumps of pork.

Onion

Garlic

Olive oil

Pork chops

Chorizo

Mushrooms

Flour

(Soya) milk

pasta

peas

black pepper

1.  Gently sautee chopped onion and garlic in olive oil.

2.  Chop pork into small pieces, and add to the onion mixture.

3.  Chop chorizo into small pieces and add to the pan.  Keep stirring and cook out for a while.

4.  Chop mushrooms and add to the pork mix.

5.  Cooks the pasta.

6.  Add a couple of spoonsful of flour to the pork mixture, stir in, then add a cup of soya milk.  Stir it in to make a sauce.  Simmer.

7.  Add a handful of frozen peas to the sauce, then add pasta.

8.  Toss together, serve, scoff ... it was delish!

Movie night: Flight

Theming dinner to movie night can be entertaining.  The things most consumed in Flight are booze and cocaine ....

But, we needed an actual dinner - so I made us airline meals ... smoked salmon cocktail;  roast chicken dinner, ice cream and cheese and crackers.




Spring onion
Red pepper
Smoked salmon
Mayonnaise
Paprika
Salad leaves

Chicken thighs
Chicken rub
Potatoes
Butter
Carrots
Green beans
Leeks
Mustard
Cream

(Ice cream out of a tub, cheese and crackers with butter)

1.  Rub the chicken thighs with olive oil and a little herbed rub.  Roast for about an hour.
2.  Prepare potatoes to make fondant potatoes by chopping into almost they same, almost cubes.  In a deep frying pan melt butter, add potatoes, and water to about half way up the potatoes.  Simmer gently for ages, basting frequently and turning now and again.
3.  Prep other veg.
4.  Mix chopped spring onion, finely diced red pepper and smoked salmon together, bind with a little mayonnaise and add a sprinkle of paprika.  Fridge until ready to plate up.
5.  Steam carrots and beans, fry/poach the leeks in a little olive oil and water, when soft stir in a teaspoon of mustard and a spoon of cream.
6.  Keep an eye on the potatoes, add more water when required.  After about 40 minutes the butter water mixture will have reduced down, now start browning the potato cubes ... keep basting but turn them over, about 3 minutes on each edge.
7.  Line started "dishes" with salad leaves, blob in the salmon cocktail.
8.  Put ice cream in ramekins, cover in foil, and pop in their well.
9.  Add cheese and biscuits.
10.  Plate up chicken and potatoes, with a spoon of meat juice in one well, and veg in the other.
11.  Serve, watch people fall about laughing,  scoff.

Italian sausage pasta

Italian sausages from Nick Fielden's family butcher in Todmorden Market Hall inspired this dinner - and it was delicious.

Italian sausages
Olive oil
Onion
Mushrooms
Red pepper
Green beans
Cherry tomatoes
Pasta
Spinach
Cheddar cheese

1.  Squeeze the sausage meat out of the sausage skins and form into small balls.
2.  Fry the sausage balls in olive oil until slightly crispy around the edges.
3.  When the balls are done, removed them and start to sautee the chopped veg in the meat juices, you may wish to add a little more oil.  Start with the onion, then red pepper and green beans, then mushrooms, finally add the quartered cherry tomatoes.
4.  Cook the pasta in salted water.
5.  Add the sausage balls back to the sauce, adding a little water if it looks a bit dry.  Just before the pasta is done wilt spinach into the sauce.
6.  Drain pasta and add it to the sauce, grind over plenty of black pepper.
7.  Serve, with grated cheddar to taste, scoff.  Have seconds.

BBQ chicken pie

We had lots of BBQ chicken bake left over, and it would have been criminal to waste it - so I stripped the chicken meat from the bones, mixed it back in and topped it with sliced tomatoes, strong cheddar and a pastry top.  It was delicious served with good old baked beans.

Leftover chicken bake
Tomatoes
Cheese

Plain flour
Salt
Butter
Natural yogurt
Water


1.  Make pastry, rub butter into salted flour, when it resembles breadcrumbs add a dollop of natural yogurt and a drop of water.  Work into a smooth paste.  Put in the fridge for 30 mins or so, to make it easier to handle.
2.  Strip the meat from the chicken bones and mix the leftovers together.
3.  Put the mixture in an oven dish and cover with sliced tomatoes and slices of cheese.
4.  Roll out the pastry and layer over the top, pushing the edges into the oven dish.  Slash/stab to let out steam, and brush with milk/soya milk.
5.  Bake for about 35 mins at 180.
6.  Serve, scoff.

Barbeque chicken bake

Chicken legs ... and various bits and bobs from the veg box - but wanted to make it a bit more tasty (but easy) ... so BBQ marinated chicken, and chucked it all into a baking tray ... it was delicious, and created its own sauce.

Olive oil
Potatoes
Carrots
Fennel
Onion
Red pepper and tomato relish
American mustard
Soy sauce
Ketchup
Black pepper
Chicken legs
Garlic
Red pepper
Peas

1.  Slosh olive oil into a big oven dish and add potato chunks.
2.  Add peeled carrots, chopped into decent sized pieces (ie. average carrot, chop top third off, halve the rest and chuck those chunks in)
3.  Add fennel bulb and onion, both cut into wedges.
4.  Make "BBQ" sauce by mixing relish, mustard, olive oil, ketchup, pepper and soy sauce - squish the chicken legs around until well coated.  Then add peeled garlic cloves.
5.  Stick in the oven, at 180 for 45 mins (ish)
6.  Add chopped red pepper, stir around.
7.  After about 20 minutes add podded peas (or frozen), stir around.
8.  10 minutes later - stir, scoff ... have seconds ... it was proper tasty.

Fish curry

An interesting fish curry, as most of the vegetables were very definitely English ... but a small tin of bamboo shoots added a tiny oriental edge ... A malaysian curry powder and coconut milk - mildly spicy, and a really nice texture.

Onion
Garlic
Groundnut oil
Malaysian curry powder
Carrots
Mushrooms
Coconut milk
White fish (pollock)
Bamboo shoots
Frozen peas

Basmati rice

1.  Finely chop onions, and crush garlic, fry in groundnut oil.  Put the rice on.
2.  Add curry powder and stir in well.
3.  Add chopped carrots and mushrooms, then add coconut milk and simmer until the veg are a bit cooked.
4.  Put the fish on the top, cover and allow to steam/poach for a few minutes.
5.  When the fish is nearly done add a tin of bamboo shoots and a handful of frozen peas.
6.  Stir in - ready in 2 minutes.
7.  Serve, scoff - easy and very tasty.