Chicken Tagine with Spinach, Olives & Preserved Lemons

Whale received multiple Moroccan themed ingredients and a tagine for her birthday so naturally this is the result. On a side note we’re also going to Marrakech in the summer. I’m sure you could do this without using a tagine – a large casserole dish would probably suffice. Recipe modified from a gorgeous book – The Food of Morocco.

Ingredients

Marinade

1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp garlic paste or 1 clove crushed
good pinch of salt and pepper
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp of lemon juice

Tagine

4 chicken breasts, cut into large chunks
3 medium red onions, halved and thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 pickled lemons, quartered
few strands of saffron
1 cup red lentils, rinsed
good handful spinach
200ml chicken stock
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp cinnamon
handful pitted olives
large handful fresh coriander, chopped

Method

Make up marinade in a large sandwich bag (or a plastic bowl). Add the chicken, give a good squidge around and stick in the fridge for a few hours.

When ready to cook, put the saffron in 2 tbsp warm water. In a large frying pan sweat the onions over a medium heat for 5 minutes, then add the garlic for and sweat for a further 2-3 minutes. Tip half the onions into the tagine (put the other half to one side) add the chicken stock and saffron water, then layer over with lentils and spinach.

In the frying pan fry the chicken with the cinnamon and turmeric then once sealed add on top of the spinach, with the preserved lemon quarters. Stick the tagine in a cold oven and put on 160^oC/320^oC/gas mark 3 for 45-60 minutes. 5 minutes before serving take the tagine out, top with the remaining onions, olives and chopped coriander and stick back in the oven. Serve with a side order of tagine bread (recipe to come).

Sweet Potato Cottage Pie

aka Jelly’s Miraculous Return from being a massive lazy bum.

So, I’ve been terribly rubbish and awful with not posting for like 6 months so I do apologise about that. Here’s a proper tasty, easy peasy cold January kind of a recipe. Adapted from BBC Good Food. Totally customisable to your taste.

P.S. Happy New Year!

Serves 4 very well, 5 quite well and 6 well

Ingredients

3 onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 medium carrots, chopped
hefty sprinkling of thyme
300-400g minced beef/lamb
100g puy lentils
1 cup of peas
flour to thicken, if necessary
1l stock (beef or vegetable)
3 medium sweet potatoes, cut into 2cm cubes
3 large potatoes, cut into 3cm cubes
150g yoghurt
salt and pepper
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp ground paprika
few handfuls grated cheese

Method

Heat some oil in a large/deep saucepan. Sweat the onions for 5 minutes then throw in the garlic, thyme and carrots. Cook for 5 more minutes before adding the mince, stirring and breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Once fully browned add the lentils and stock. Simmer for 30 minutes or so, until nicely thickened – add flour if necessary.

Meanwhile stick all your potatoes in another large saucepan. Boil until soft, then drain and mash with the yoghurt. Season to taste, add the peas and stick in a large casserole dish. Cover the meaty mixture with the mash (if you’re feeling fancy you could pipe it, but if not just stripe with a fork). Stick in the oven (180°C/350°F/gas mark 4) until the mash begins to crisp then add the cheese and cook for a further ten minutes.

Picture soon to follow…!

See, told you so.

J

Summer Chicken Tray Bake

Inspired from a recipe in the Hairy Bikers “Hairy Dieters” book. Their recipe included chorizo (75g, thinly sliced) which would have been a fabulous addition, alas none was to be found in my house. This is a really pretty and straight-forward dish and would make a great centre-piece for people to help themselves, on its own or accompanied by a leafy salad.

Serves 4-5

Ingredients

4-5 chicken breasts (approx 600-700g) deeply slashed every inch or so
2 red onions, cut into 8 wedges
500g new potatoes, cut into inch cubes if large/left whole if small
8 whole garlic cloves, in their skins
4 large tomatoes, cut into 8 wedges
10 or so sundried tomatoes, halved
handful asparagus spears, woody ends snapped off
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried oregano/mixed herbs
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 peppers (colour of your choosing!) cut into 1cm thick strips
salt and pepper
lemon juice

Method

Preheat the oven to 200^oC/400^oF/gas mark 6. Stick onions, potatoes, garlic and tomatoes in a large roasting tin. Season with plenty of pepper and a little salt, drizzle with a little oil (I used the oil from the sundried tomatoes) turn everything over with a spoon or similar implement. Roast for 20 minutes. Mix the paprika, turmeric and oregano and set aside.

Put the chicken breasts on a board, season all over with ground pepper. Remove the vegetables from the oven, sprinkle over half of the spice mix, shake/turn to coat. Add the sundried tomatoes (and chorizo if you’re lucky enough to have some!). Lay the chicken breasts on top of the vegetables and sprinkle with the rest of the spice mix – open up the slices and try to get some in if possible. Return to the oven for 20-25 minutes.

Remove the tin from the oven. Holding one corner (use oven gloves, obviously) tip the tray ever so slightly so the juices run down to the opposite corner. I recommend tipping it slightly away from you as if there are any spillages at least it will go toward the relative safety of the top of the oven and not all over you and the floor! Spoon the juice back over everything – concentrate more on the chicken. Add the pepper strips around the chicken.

Return the tray to the oven and turn up to 220^oC/425^oF/gas mark 7 for ten minutes. Remove and lay the asparagus spears over the top of everything. Return to the oven one final time for 10-15 minutes depending on the thickness of your asparagus. Stab a couple of the potatoes to ensure they’re cooked through and serve.

J

 

Middle-East Feast

We would certainly recommend this as a lazy weekend afternoon set of recipes. There’s nothing particularly difficult here, but it’s nice to get everything together in a leisurely manner – even factoring in time for a mid-aftermoon cocktail! Equally you needn’t cook everything here, feel free to mix and match as you see fit!

Serves 4-5

Harissa Lamb Kebabs

Ingredients

400g lamb steaks, cut into inch cubes

Marinade

1 tbsp harissa paste
1 tbsp tomato purée
juice of one lime
2 garlic cloves, crushed/finely chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds, ground
a few cloves, ground
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp paprika
salt and pepper

Method

Mix up the marinade ingredients in a bowl. Stick in the lamb and smush around till all sides of are coated. Cover with clingfilm and stick in the fridge. 15 minutes before you plan to eat, remove from the fridge and stick on a skewer, leaving a small gap between each cube. Stick under a medium grill for 10-15 minutes (or to your preference) turning every so often until the outsides are slightly charred and hey presto.

Oven-Baked Aubergine

Ingredients

1 large aubergine
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed/finely chopped
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
few handfuls of raisins
handful walnuts, chopped up

Method

Preheat the oven to 200^oC/400^oF/gas mark 6. Halve the aubergine lengthways and slash the cut side. Wipe all over with olive oil, stick in a roasting tin and season with salt, pepper and a little paprika. Cover with foil and bake for 35-40 minutes.

Meanwhile sweat the onions and garlic in a little oil, add the spices and cinnamon stick, raisins and nuts and a little water. Cook till the onions are translucent, adding water if things start to stick. Remove the aubergine from the oven, take off the foil, cover in the mush and put back in the oven for 5 minutes.

Flatbreads

See here

Hummus

Ingredients

1 tin of chickpeas
1 tbsp tahini
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper
1 tsp paprika

Method

Drain the chickpeas, preserving the water in a separate jug. Whizz them up with a blender until they are crushed, before adding the tahini paste, lemon juice, paprika and seasoning. Whizz a little more, a cautiously add bits of the chickpea water until you reach the desired consistency.

Tasty Tabbouleh

Ingredients

2 tomatoes, chopped
2 inch piece of cucumber, chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
1 large handful of herbs: mint, parsley, coriander, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper

Method

Add all the chopped vegetables and herbs to a bowl. Drizzle over the oil and lemon juice, season well.

Yoghurt, Two Ways

Ingredients

400g natural yoghurt
1 tsp harissa paste
1 spring onion, finely sliced
1 inch piece of cucumber, chopped
handful fresh mint, basil and coriander leaves, roughly torn
squeeze of lemon juice
pepper

Method

Add half the yoghurt to one bowl, stir in the harissa. Add the rest of the ingredients to a separate bowl, stir and that is essentially it! Time to enjoy all this incredible food!

J&W

Everything-But-The-Kitchen-Sink Chicken Stir Fry

As I’m currently on Easter break I am home for a while which means I have access to many more (free) ingredients than I would do normally. Hence this stir fry has got everything I could get my hands on in! It could easily work with a lot fewer ingredients.

Serves 4-5

Ingredients

400g chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
1 large carrot, thinly sliced
½ broccoli, cut into small florets
handful red chard, leaves stripped from stems, stems sliced
½ karela*, cut horizontally into strips
1 red pepper cut into strips
1 cup of peas
handful peanuts
handful cashew nuts

*also known as bitter melon apparently, I picked one up in the supermarket because it looked interesting. This really is pretty bitter, though grated in the marinade it gets cooked through nicely and loses its edge much more than when left in chunks. If I use it again I think I will probably grate it all.

Marinade

6 spring onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic, grated
½ bitter melon, grated
thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, grated
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp tomato purée
2 tbsp brown sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
2 tsp chilli powder
3 tsp coriander
1 piece galangal, broken into a few pieces
zest and juice of ½ a lemon
zest and juice of ½ a lime
1 kafir lime leaf
handful fresh basil, torn up
handful fresh coriander, torn up
1 stick lemongrass, slightly crushed
glug sesame oil

Serve with noodles

Method

Usually I would advice cutting everything up first but seeing as your chicken is going to want to marinade for a while it makes sense to do the marinade first. Stick all the marinade ingredients into a large bowl. Give a good mix then add the chicken and smush around until everything is relatively evenly coated. Cover with clingfilm and stick in the fridge. I left mine for an hour or so. Go get cutting!

If possible get a wok, preferably one with a lid. (You could use a frying pan but it would have to be pretty mega). Toast the nuts for a few minutes then set aside. Fetch your marinaded chicken from the fridge. Heat a fairly large glug of oil (sesame if you have it, but this is by no means essential) over a high heat. Add the chicken and fry off for a few minutes, until cooked through. Remove and put to one side.

Put a saucepan onto boil for your noodles. Fry up the onions for 7-8 minutes then add a little water to the wok and throw in the broccoli. Stick the lid on and steam for 5 minutes or so. Remove lid, stir, add carrots and chard stalks, replace lid. After a further five minutes add the peas, chard leaves and re-add the chicken and nuts. Heat everything through while you cook your noodles. Depending on personal preference either add the noodles to the wok or just put them on a plate and add the stir fry on top.

J

 

Lamb, Spinach & Potato Curry

Courtesy of the Hairy Bikers from their dieting book. Not that either of us are dieters. Not that it’s even our book.

Serves 5-6

Ingredients

600g lamb steaks, cut into 3cm cubes
2 large onions, sliced
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 medium potatoes, cut into 3cm cubes
5cm piece fresh root ginger
1 medium red chilli, deseeded & finely chopped
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tin spinach*
curry paste**
4 bay leaves
3 large tomatoes, cut into eighths
200ml coconut milk
water
salt and pepper

*I used tinned simply as that’s all we had. If you have fresh (and it will undoubtedly taste better if you do) use 200g of that!
**I haven’t given a quantity here as curry paste varies so much. To put the recipe into context I used 4 teaspoons of Patak’s “extra hot” and I reckon it could have done with at least 1 more

Method

Preheat the oven to 190^oC/375^oC/gas mark 5 and set aside a bowl. Heat some olive oil in a large casserole dish, brown the lamb with some salt and pepper and place in the bowl. Add the onions to the casserole dish and cook over a medium heat for 7-8 minutes before adding the garlic, chilli, curry paste and grating in the ginger. Cook for a further five minutes before removing from the heat and blitzing to a paste with a hand-blender.

Return the lamb to the paste and return to a medium heat, cooking and stirring for 5 minutes or so until throwing in the chopped tomatoes, coconut milk, potatoes, bay leaves and enough water to cover everything. Season with salt and pepper and add a spoonful of sugar, give a good stir before adding the lid and whacking in the oven.

Cook for 60 minutes, check then stick back in for half an hour. Remove from the oven add the tomatoes, spinach and cook on the hob, for five minutes. Serve with a lovely curry-soaking flatbread.

J

Shredded Beef Wraps

Another “Mighty Spice“-inspired/stolen recipe.

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

Beef

400g braising/casserole/stewing steak
1 onion, quartered and sliced
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp tomato purée
pinch sugar
salt and pepper
6-8 flatbreads

Garlic Mayo

200g mayonnaise
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
handful fresh coriander
2-3 spring onions, sliced
pepper

Salad

1 small lettuce, shredded
bowl of strong cheddar, grated
a few baby tomatoes, halved
a few gherkins, thinly sliced
1 carrot, cut into matchsticks

Method

Put a large pan of water onto boil. Add the beef, lower to a simmer and cook for approximately 1 hour. Once cooked through remove from the water and leave to cool on the side. In the meantime, why not make your flatbread dough, salad-y item, garlic mayonnaise (just throw all the ingredients into a bowl of mayonnaise, stir and hey presto!) and start on the sauce?

Heat some oil in a separate saucepan and add the onion and garlic, sweating for approximately 8 minutes. Bung in the rest of the “Beef” ingredients (apart from the cooking beef and flatbreads, obviously…!) reduce the heat to as low as possible, cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the lid and really reduce the sauce down to a thick, gorgeous gloop. Yes I just used the word gloop in a good way.

This is where an extra pair of hands comes in useful but if like most of us you are blessed with just the two I would do the following in this order:

1. Flake the beef into the gloop, stir really well and heat through until everything is piping hot. Reduce heat to minimum, cover and move onto step 2.
2. Hey, you made it! Start rolling out and cooking your flatbreads, throwing each cooked one onto a hot plate under a (clean!) tea towel to keep them warm.

Et voilá – all that remains is to serve up. Put the beef into a large bowl so everyone can help themselves (or even just serve in the saucepan if you want to save on washing up). Frisbee out the flatbreads, dollop on the mayo, bang on the beef and fling on the salad. That’s one mighty fine wrap you got right there, I tell ya.

Enjoy!
J

‘Don’t-Ignore-Me’ Chicken Korma

I get the impression Chicken Korma is somewhat of an unloved second-cousin to what springs to most people’s minds when they think of curry. This reputation is no doubt bolstered by the fairly weedy offerings from supermarkets and take-aways and in my opinion is completely undeserved.

Korma can be delicious. Creamy, nutty, spicy, it’s a wonderful taste experience. This recipe is taken almost verbatim from John Gregory-Smith’s Mighty Spice cookbook, a Christmas present from my sister. It’s extremely quick – although you will need some kind of processor/blender – so if you’re after curry-in-a-hurry you could probably knock this up quicker than you could order and receive a take-away.

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

2 medium chicken breasts, cut into bitesize pieces
1 tin coconut milk
50g cashew nuts (or almonds)
1 large onion, chopped
1 large carrot chopped into thin strips
2.5cm piece fresh ginger
1 small chilli
1 heaped tsp coriander
1 heaped tsp cumin
½ tsp salt
good few twists of pepper
1 heaped tsp hot curry powder
juice of 1 lime

Method

Add the coconut milk, nuts, ginger, chilli, coriander, cumin and salt to the food processor and whizz until smooth.

Heat a little oil in a decent-sized frying pan/saucepan over a medium heat and add the onions. Sweat for 5 minutes then add the curry powder, stirring to coat the onions. Add a little water if it starts to stick to the pan. After a couple more minutes add the chicken and cook, stirring every so often. After a further five minutes throw in the coconut paste and stir to cover everything. Squeeze in the lime juice, bring to the boil then add a lid and reduce to a simmer.

Cook for approx. 15 minutes, stirring every now and again. With 10 mins to go throw in the carrots and for the last 5 minutes, remove the lid and increase the heat to thicken up the sauce – if it gets too thick just add water.

Serve with:

– rice
– naan
– bhaji
– raita
– mango chutney
– all of the above

Sorry, again no photo. Really need to get back into taking pictures of things before I scoff them! You could totally throw in some spinach or kale into this to up the veg content too.

J

Turkey Tagine

So my dad got given a 16lb turkey for Christmas by his work and bearing in mind there are only 4 of us in my family it’s safe to say we had a little left over. Some has gone into left-over pies (recipe coming soon) and some into this tasty tagine. Luckily we went to see family today so a good chunk of turkey got gobbled up but somehow the carcass is still not bare!

I have to say this is probably the best thing I’ve had with Christmas dinner remains. I like how it’s completely different to a rehashed roast. It’s also very straightforward, essentially a one-pot stew.

This recipe is completely adjustable to whatever you have leftover from Christmas. For example we had half a cabbage and half a butternut squash so I threw them in. To be honest I’m not entirely sure on the quantities I used myself, it was somewhat thrown together…

Serves 10 (with rice and naan breads)

Ingredients

1.2kg cooked turkey, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 litre turkey stock
4 red onions, cut into wedges (halve then halve then halve again)
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 tins of chopped or plum tomatoes
juice of 1 lemon
olive oil
golden syrup
few handfuls raisins
5-10 dates, chopped
10-15 dried apricots, chopped

Spice Mix

2 tsp Ras El Hanout*
2 tsp whole cumin, roughly ground
2 tsp ground cumin
3 tsp paprika
3 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt
LOTS of black pepper
good sprinkling dried coriander leaf
4 thumb-sized pieces fresh ginger, grated
1 thumb-sized piece of fresh turmeric, grated

*in no way essential but I got given some for Christmas, hence why I used it. It’s essentially a combination of all the other spice mix ingredients; paprika, cinnamon, ginger etc. I realise that’s a LONG spice list and I would say so long as you had cumin, coriander, paprika & cinnamon you’re pretty well set.

Method

Put the turkey in a large bowl with the apricots, dates and raisins then drizzle with a good glug of olive oil, the lemon juice and a tablespoon of golden syrup. Add two of the garlic cloves. Mix up the spices in a separate bowl and pour half over the turkey. Get yer hands in there and squish it all around, ensuring a good coating/fairly even distribution. Cover the bowl with cling film and stick in the fridge (preferably overnight).

When you’re ready to cook the tagine heat some oil over a low heat in a large casserole dish (in fact, in the end I had to use two, but it’s probably easier to start with one). Once hot, add the onions, a tablespoon of golden syrup and sweat/stir for 5 minutes before adding the remaining spice mix and garlic cloves. Sweat for a further five minutes – if the spices start to stick to the pan just add a dash of water and keep stirring.

Add the chopped tomatoes and turkey stock and simmer with the lid on, stirring occasionally, for half an hour. Fetch your turkey and throw in (this might be the point at which you need to divide into two pans (unless of course your pan is sufficiently well-endowed…). Simmer and stir with the lid off for a further half hour or until the sauce is sufficiently thickened.

Serve and enjoy, preferably in the merry company of others!

23rd December is the New Boxing Day: Christmas Entertaining.

One day, when I am grown up, I will have my own house, my own kitchen and I will learn how to use my own oven. I can’t wait for the time I will be able to host my own Christmas dinner for friends and family. I have had a couple of practice runs, making Christmas roasts and all the trimmings with my housemates each December, but it won’t quite be on par with a grown-up roast until we are able to eat round a dining table. Sadly our student house is too small for a dining table, so we eat around the coffee table or on our laps.

At home, my mum is in charge of the Christmas dinner. That’s not to say she doesn’t appreciate a little help, but she runs the show, meaning I am stuck as the sous-chef, peeling 1000 spuds and chopping 2 tonnes of veg. There is not much room for my creativity, which means I get bored and often hand over my duties to our commis-chef (my dad).

This weekend I am cooking for a birthday party, which is conveniently placed very close to Christmas, so that I can stretch my legs and make something Christmassy of my own. I have long been deliberating what I should cook and have so far narrowed it down to a few favourite party recipes that I will adapt:

Paul Hollywood’s Turkey and Stuffing Chelsea Buns

Turkey, Stuffing and Cranberry Pies

Mini Vol-au-Vents with a Turkey and Stuffing Filling

Can you spot a theme?

These recipes would be great for using up leftovers and impressing people on Boxing Day. In fact, I know that is probably what they were intended for. But a birthday gathering on 23rd December is the new Boxing Day. So they say.