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

My week in food 15/10

Right, we are getting on track and I have finally caught up with my tales of yesteryear and food. 

Last week was fairly busy so I only have a couple of recipes to share with you. One is a trusted classic and a Josh favourite and one was a new find.

The Trusted Classic....

A good friend of mine Lucy introduced me to the Good Food Magazine books and I invested in the 101 Veggie Dishes which has a couple of good recipes in it. Josh being a strong carnivore couldn't understand the concept of eating a meal without meat so I amended the recipe to include diced turkey

Thai Satay Noodles

you will need:

• 3 Tbsps of crunchy peanut butter (I like to use the whole nut version as it gives the flavours a different element).
• 3 Tbsps of Sweet Chilli Sauce 
• 100mls of coconut milk (light option all the way for me)
• 100mls of Chicken Stock 
• 2 Tbsps of Soy Sauce
• 2 inches of ginger, grated
• 140g of broccoli florets
• 1 red pepper sliced
• 85g of baby corn, sliced in half length ways
• 50g Mangetout, sliced in half length ways
• 3 cloves of garlic, diced finely
• 2 nests of wholewheat noodles
• Olive oil

To start you need to mix the peanut butter, sweet chilli sauce (I usually add another tablespoon or so as I like it spicy), coconut milk, chicken stock and soy sauce. Mix them together until the peanut butter mix becomes smooth. One thing I forget to do regularly is to stir the coconut milk before adding. It makes the difference. It may not seem the most appealing in sight or smell but give it a taste here as I often add extra soy sauce.

Add a small amount of olive oil to a wok or large frying pan and add the turkey and cook through then add ginger, broccoli, peppers and corn for 3 minutes. I always tend to cook this for a little longer as I find that the broccoli can be underdone and too crunchy for my taste. Take your own taste after 3 minutes and see what you think. At this point boil the water for your noodles and cook as per packet instructions.

Add mangetout and garlic and fry for another 2 minutes. Add peanut mix and stir into vegetables and allow to boil for a couple of minutes. Once the noodles are cooked add to the mixture, stir and serve.

When I first made the recipe I wasn't too sure about it, especially the first phase, however it mixes well with the ginger and garlic to give a unique flavour. One thing that does often gripe me is the ability to mix the noodles in to the vegetables enough that they are spread evenly. You may benefit from plating the noodles first and then adding the sauce mixture. the recipe will take about 30 minutes to cook and prepare when you are in full flow and this should serve around 3 hungry mouths. I have had to sub in petit pois and normal sweetcorn at a push and it still works well.

I tried to find the link for this on the bbc good food website but no joy. If you want to buy the book this is what is looks like:

I got mine from W H Smiths but is available online too!

The new find...

So as you will know by now I have a love of curry. And I'm a fan of vegetables. I made this one and managed to persuade Josh to have this without meat! 

Quick Vegetable Curry

Now I'm not sure about you but quick to me is around half an hour but this recipe with all of its faffing would take at least an hour. As I was tired and impatient I must admit I cut a few corners and amended it to my taste 

*bad harriet*

 As you know this goes against my ethos of try the recipe first then mix it afterwards. If you have a read through the recipe I'm hoping you will let me off about this one.

The recipe says you will need the following. (Though I have crossed out the things I didn't use)

• 2 large aubergines, cut into quarters, thickly sliced
• salt
• good glug groundnut oil
• 2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
• 3 large, juicy garlic cloves, peeled, chopped
• finger-length piece fresh root ginger, peeled and cut into fine shreds
• 6-8 cardamom pods
• 1-2 good pinches dried chilli flakes
• 1-2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1-2 tsp cumin seeds
• 6-8 tomatoes, roughly chopped    I used passata here
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• few good dollops natural yoghurt I omitted this as I felt it would be too creamy
• dollop crème fraîche
• small handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped
• small handful fresh mint leaves   I ommitted this as I didn't feel it would be to my taste.

• 
  
  I also added to this 2 potatoes (cut into quarters and boiled for 20 minutes) and 2 carrots (Sliced thinly and boiled for 15 minutes) and a can of cannellini beans to add some more texture and to bulk it out for my man

So for this recipe I changed a lot. Firstly it said to :

1. Place the aubergine slices into a colander set over a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and leave for 30 minutes to draw out the moisture from the aubergine. - No Thanks, I want to get this ball rolling!
2. Meanwhile, to a large pan over a high heat add the groundnut oil with the onions, garlic and ginger. Cover with a lid, lower the heat and cook for 20 minutes or so, until the onions have softened. I once again feel that this was too long to cook them for so cut this down dramatically.
   
   
   The next stage it says is:
   Crush the cardamom pods, extract the black seeds and lightly crush them in a mortar with a pestle (I don't have one of these at the moment as I broke mine so used a spoon to crush and extract the pods.) - a gold star so far.
   Add them to the same pan, along with the chilli flakes, turmeric and cumin seeds, and stir to lightly toast the spices (discard the empty cardamom pods) - once again this was fine.
   
   
   Next it says to add the Aubergines which you have to griddle cook first until brown which is fine. At this point I added my other vegetables and the passata. I also added a little water to the mixture to loosen it up slightly. I left it to boil for about 15 minutes. 
   
   
   
   

   The chilli was quite strong against the onions so at this point I added the creme fraiche to cool it a little. The portion fed 3 of us and I had enough left over. As there is a lot of veg in my version there wasn't really the need for rice but I can't fault having a Naan to mop it up. I didn't find the aubergine needed to have the moisture drained out and found that the veg worked together well.

Tomorrow Night I am embarking on some baking with my friend Jessie so I'll take lots of pictures and let you know how we get on.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry.

H x