It's been a while....

Hi all, sorry for such a long break between posts, things have been a little hectic.

I will be telling you all about the following:

• Pancetta, Pasta and Peas
• Moroccan chicken with sweet potato mash
• Fish Jalfrezi

Pancetta, Pasta and Peas (or the triple 'P' if you want to be down with the kids.

This recipe is a regular in my repatoire of cooking on a weekly basis. It's tasty ,has pasta (always a win, especially on a winter eve) and doesn't take too long after a hard day at work.

This was originally sourced in delicious magazine but I have changed/added things as I have gone along.

You will need:

• 1 pack of pancetta (130g)
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
• 1 onion, chopped finely
• 1 lemon, squeezed for the juice ( I added this to the recipe)
• creme fraiche (This is subbed in instead of double cream) - about 2/3 of a 300ml tub (add a dash of water to the pan to loosen)
• freshly ground black pepper (I added this to the recipe)
• 200g of frozen peas
• Wholewheat Pasta - enough for 2 people
• Parmesan- add to your own taste

Add the pancetta to your wok/large frying pan and fry for 2/3 minutes (if you like your pancetta crispy, i would recommend frying for longer) then add the onions and garlic and fry for a further 5 minutes or until the onions and garlic are soft.

Add the peas to this mixture. I used frozen peas so allow this to cook for around 5 minutes until the peas are cooked through. Add the creme fraiche and a dash of water to the pan and mix in well with the ingredients  Once this is fully combined add the Parmesan and allow to melt into the mixture. Next add lemon juice and pepper to your taste.  Drain the pasta and stir into the sauce and serve! Josh always likes extra cheese!

The recipe doesn't call for the lemon/pepper however, when i tried it originally I found the dish too creamy and heavy. The lemon and pepper addition lifts the dish and adds to the flavour over all.

Sorry about the lack of piccys! My camera decided not to work :(

Moroccan Chicken with Sweet Potato

This is something i stumbled across on (you've guessed it) The BBC Good Food website. This dish offers unusual flavours with warming spices - a must have for those cold evenings. You can find the recipe here!

As ever I have made some amendments to the recipe. As you can see it states that 2 tsps of clear honey is used. I have found after making this dish several times is that adding extra honey can help the sauce to thicken more quickly and plays nicely alongside the spices. The spice mixture of cinnamon and cumin is fab and being spice-obsessed i add 2 tsps of each to the recipe which does make it stronger.  I also think its advisable to mix the cumin and cinnamon with a touch of oil to marinade the chicken in as it absorbs the flavours a little better. 

The recipe also states that it will take about 10 minutes to thicken, once again I have found that this can be considerably more around 20 minutes to half an hour so bear this in mind with the potatoes.

Look at my pretty pictures....

The Prep Phase...

Chicken smothered in olive oil, cumin and cinnamon - sorry it looks so unappealing!

Garlic, onion, corander, honey and oxo

Sweet Potatoes ready to boil....

The cooking phase...

Smashed sweet potato with olive oil and pepper

Chicken in the pan with stock, honey, onion , garlic and coriander

Ta Da....

 This recipe is one of my personal faves! tangy and garlicky! firm 9/10!

Fish Jalfrezi

so after the success of my Fish Thai Yellow curry, i thought i'd branch out and try it in a jalfrezi. The base recipe recommends chicken (thighs at that but I always opt for breast) but I thought i'd be frivolous! 

Chopped onions, garlic, ginger chillis and peppers

I am pleased to say that the humble cod fillets I used stood it ground firmly against the gorgeous spice mix! I even added extra chopped chillis for extra heat and it worked well. I personally don't see the need for the yogurt as the heat of the jalfrezi suits my palette well.

As you can see above, this curry has my favourite spice blend of coriander and cumin! all together this mixed together smells heavenly!

Ta Da....

As you can see the fish did break up a little but still tasted amazing! I would recommend highly.

When i told people about the fish curry, there seemed to be a lot of unsure looks staring back at me. Have you tried fish curry? If so what do you think?

Next time on harriate....
I am attending a craft day with lots of new food/drink recipes! Camera at the ready!

Eat,Drink and Be Merry

H x

I'm back! 2 new recipes and a restaurant review

Hi all, sorry for the delay, my week off work was filled with car hunting then swiftly followed by illness. I'm happy to say I have lots to report back on!

This picture pleases me

Josh and I ventured over to Birmingham recently to visit friends and I finally got to Handmade Burger Co. As you will tell from the following pics, this was not a diet day



The restaurant was clean and had a good atmosphere, I like the fact that the tables were distanced far enough apart so that I wasn't on anyone's lap. The staff were friendly and weren't all over us at the table so that we could enjoy our food.

Me and Josh opted for the following:

• Beef Burger stuffed with Wensleydale and Cranberries (£7.95)
• Blue Cheese and Bacon Burger (£7.85)
• 2 portions of chips (£2.95 each)
•  Blue Cheese Mayo (3 Dips for £1.95)
• Garlic Mayo
• BBQ Dip
• Side of Guacamole (95p)

The dinner was really great overall and there were lots of positives. The highlight for me and Josh was the Blue Cheese Mayo! Massive chunks of blue cheese were balanced perfectly with the mayo! Josh had the Blue Cheese and Bacon Burger and he said that next time he would just have bacon burger and order extra of the blue cheese mayo as he felt the flavours were better. I loved the quality of the meat, it wasn't too greasy and was well cooked but still (yes i'm going to say it) moist. The burgers were also a good size and this is proved by the skewer that holds them together.

The chips came in a good size bowl and were nice and fluffy. 6 of us on the table had a portion each and the only thing that made me sad was the inconsistent size of the chip portions. I feel that when going onto the same table that should be important. Especially as me and Josh are both known for getting food envy! 

My wensleydale and cranberry burger was great, good amounts of each filling crammed inside the meaty goodness. I think when I order it next time I may do so without the salad. I found that the onion overpowered the cheese and cranberry together. As I cut my burger in half I managed to get the flavour in the second half.

Mmmmm

This is one small thing that I found that i didnt enjoy was the plates. As they were curved at the edge when I cut my extra larger burger in half i lost some of the filling :( 

Although I am a fan of table service, on reflection I feel that the set up of going to the till yourself and re-filling your drinks adds to the rustic and homemade feel of the restaurant.

You'd think after our massive indulgence we would have left it there but oh no...

me and my friend rich indulging!

Seano with Choc brownie

Me and josh had individual sundaes - lemon meringue and strawberry cheesecake. Sean and Rich opted for Sharing sundae. I dare say that all 4 of us could have gone for it!

The Handmade Burger Co is great for meeting up with friends and having good home made rustic food. If you can eat go for the holy trinity - burger, chips and dip, you're sure to be a happy diner!

The Flag speaks true -  I was stuffed!

The recipe section

This week(ish) I tried out 2 new dishes. As ever one was far more successful than the other. Probably my fault, you can decide!

The winner. Josh has said that this is his favourite new recipe of mine

Spicy African Chicken Stew 

The recipe is above. I found this easy to make and really flavoursome, a great depth of flavour. I subbed the chopped tomatoes for pasata as ever, so this turned out more like a curry than a stew. I didn't have any complaints though from Josh or from guinea pig Goose. I didnt use the drumsticks as I am not a fan of bone chicken. We also halved the quantity as there was only 2 of us!

When you mix the peanut butter and chicken stock together don't be put of by the consistency when you are first mixing it - keep going and it comes together into a smooth paste.

 Get your spices together!! Love this bit as i get excited by the flavour combination and the gorge smells!

Some of the cooking bits:

Adding the spices to the onion and stirring in! My excitement was not premature as the scents mixed beautifully together - a sensation if you will!

Swirly colours mixing the peanut butter mixture to the onions and  the spices

To this you add the chicken (or turkey in our case) and cook for 30 minutes.

In the recipe it says to add the sweet potato after this initial 30 minutes of simmering with the peppers. However, after doing this I would recommend putting them in at the same time as the chicken as I ended up cooking the mixture longer than the advised 1 hour 5 minutes to soften the potatoes further.

The finished product! I served this with basmati rice. As I am a carb fiend I always always over do the potato/rice mix. For this reason I would suggest something lighter like a pitta for the sauce and miss out the rice!

This recipe scored a fabulous 9/10. As I said before the stew turned out more like a curry, which is a happy coincidence as I dislike the word stew.Well worth the hour cooking time and the 15 minutes prep time! 



The ' needs more work recipe'

So I felt a bit excited about this cooking malarky and decided to branch out the new recipe test to the girls as well as myself and josh! As we have a resident veggie (Loz) I went for a black bean chilli.


This was also a BBC Good Food Recipe but for some reason couldn't find it online so here's the recipe:

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 large red onion    1 large white onion for me as i'm allergic
• 2 large red chillis, chopped
• 3 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp hot chilli powder
• 1 tbsp of tomato puree
• 2 x 400g cans of black beans
• 400g of kidney beans, drained
• 2 x 400g of chopped tomatoes   400g of passata for me
• 250 ml of veg stock

Now thanks to the wisdom of my local tesco (other supermarkets are available :P) There were no black beans!!! I had to go for kidney beans, chick peas and mixed beans (used for tacos)

Chopped onion garlic and chillis

Yummy spice mix - such a nice vibrant colour and rich fragrance

1: warm oil in your wok and once hot add the garlic, onion, chopped chillis and salt and simmer for 5/6 minutes
2: add the cumin, cinnamon, paprika and chilli powder along with the tomato puree. Stir well and cook the spices for a few minutes

Should look something like this

3:Add the beans, tomatoes and stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30/40 minutes and season to taste.

Serve! Simple no?

As I mentioned above the mixture of beans i used and the passata instead of chopped tomatoes overtook the blend of spices a little. After 20 minutes of simmering I topped up the cumin and cinnamon and allowed to simmer for another 20 minutes. Fortunately this addition made the mixture less tomato-y and added some depth in the flavour. I think I may have expected too much from the recipe and was let down as I felt this was just a posh chilli rather than something a little different. It was however, easy to cook and can see the appeal when catering for bigger numbers or short for time. We served it with rice, pitta, tear and share garlic bread and guacamole. With this there was enough for 6 of us to be full!

This was Josh's least favourite so far and he gave it 6/10. The girls rated it 7 upwards. As I was disappointed I did only give it a 7.

If you have a go let me know what you think!

I'll be back soon with more recipes.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry.

H x