Tandoori chicken...at home!

I love this recipe. It's so effortless and the results are better than most restaurants and take aways that i've visited who own tandoors. Easy, healthy and wholesome. No bullshit.

I've found that baby chickens always work better for this recipe. Partially  because they cook in no time and there's just enough char/crusty bits and partially because it's ideal for one person. One very hungry person. 

Here's what you'll need:

1 baby chicken - skinless. 

1 small pot fat free yogurt.

1 tbs mashed ginger and same for garlic.

1 lemon

Spices: 1/2 tsp of:  ground cumin, coriander, paprika, smoked paprika, garlic, cayenne pepper. Also sea salt and cracked pepper (to taste) 

1 tbs tomato purée

1 chilli

In a large bowl and the yogurt and everything above. Not the whole lemon, just the juice ;)

Once thoroughly mixed, smother all over the chicken and then let it rest on the fridge for as long as you need to. Stick the oven on to full whack and stick it in when you're ready. Once in, turn it down to 180-200. Cook uncovered. If you cover it with foil it will release all it's juices in the pan and, combining with the yogurt, will become mushy. You want it to dry the yogurt out - so you get this amazing healthy crust. 

Serve with your favourite rice or, like me, on a bed of couscous and/or some home made coleslaw. :)

Italian broth.

A lovely, soft and velvety Italian style broth - great to eat as a snack or part of a main meal - with lots of crusty buttered bread.

Now, the Italians, I'm sure, would used quite a bit of swine in something like this. Lardons for the base and pork sausages for the meaty part. Obviously, my shizzle needs to be Halal...so I've chosen a halal beef and chicken salami sausage, which can be bought from most continental food stores now. 

Fried, and it gives off a lovely fatty oil and also crisps up nicely. Or just use conventional bits of fatty lamb or chicken thighs.

Here's what you'll need to feed 3-4:

1 large onion; 1 small red pepper; 1/2 tin pinto/Canaloni beans; 1/2 kidney beans; 

1 tin chopped quality tomatoes; 2 cloves garlic; the meat (or veg) of your choice; 1 chilli; a handful of fresh spinach; 1/2 pint boiling chicken/veg stock; a handful of basmati rice; salt, pepper to taste and a pinch of the following spices: ground cumin and coriander; cayenne pepper and 1/2 tsp of dried oregano and basil (or use fresh) 

Method:

In a medium sized pan - fry off your garlic, chilli, onions and red pepper gently in some olive oil. Nothing worse than burn garlic in your dinner!  Dice the sausage/salami up (or whatever you're using) and fry until fat is released and edges start browning. Sprinkle in your dry seasonings.

Add the stock and let it bubble all the nice sticky bits off the bottom of the pan. Add your beans, a tin of tomatoes, the rice and let it cook for 20mins. Wilt in your spinach 5 mins before switching it off. The handful of rice should be puffy and noticeable in the pan and the oils should have risen to the top. 

Serve as a starter or with some nice Chunky bits of buttered bread.  

tagliatelle with tomato, anchovy and baby spinach dressing.

This's a tasty, quick and easy Italian dish which I saw Rick Stein making on his Mediterranean adventures and thought I had to try it. He had his with something similar to Gnochi - which I don't like, so I've substituted it with tagliatelle.

Ingredients required for 3-4 portions:

- 1 medium onion

- 4 gloves of garlic

- Extra Virgin Olive Oil

- 1 tin of Anchovies

- 15-20 cherry tomatoes

- half a lemon juice

- Cracked black pepper

- baby leaf spinach

Your olive oil is going to be the base of this dish - so don't be shy. Remember, olive oil is good cholesterol ;)

Heat your pan and olive oil, about 10 table spoons, add your chopped garlic and diced onions. Let these soften and add your anchovies. Make sure the anchovies are melted into the sauce before you add your halved cherry tomatoes. Cook until the tomatoes start to break down and then add your lemon juice and cracked black pepper. Add the spinach right at the end and let it wilt into the sauce. At this point the sauce may taste salty (this should be eliminated by the addition of the lemon juice) but remember, the sauce will intensify less once added to the tagliatelle.

Enjoy.

Peppery Roast Butternut Squash.

Allot of people don't really know what to do with butternut squashes - I've never to this day, ever seen anyone pick one up at a supermarket!

This recipe is so easy and delicious; It can also be kept for a few days, if you don't fancy eating it a couple of days in a row. Or alternatively, it can be frozen and eaten later.

ingredients:

Butternut Squash
Vegetable Stock
Ground black pepper
Sea salt
Olive Oil
Fresh Chives





Slice the Butternut squash in equal portions and place on baking a baking tray. Rub the slices with olive oil and season with salt and pepper (use the desired amount of salt only at this point - you can use half of the ground pepper now and the rest near the end to keep the peppery flavour strong)

Bake the squash until it's becomes caramelised and soft - whilst waiting, you can can bring your stock up to the boil and let it simmer. Once the squash is ready, let it cool a little and remove the tough skin. Add the squash to the simmering stock.

Add the remaining ground black pepper and blend everything together. The consistency of your soup is up to you - A proper butternut squash soup should coat the back of a spoon nicely. Now add your finely chopped chives (if you think some other herb suits the squash better, then by all means experiment)

Enjoy :)

Thai Broth with Chicken and\or Vegetables

(picture stolen from the Interweb)


As i was on my weight loss mission - this is probably the one thing I really looked forward to eating. As me, you may also suffer from carrying a few extra Ib's during the winter months, because naturally we prefer hot foods then and the vast majority are higher in saturated fats and carbs. Sure, if you're really careful, you can avoid the weight gain - but what the heck.

This broth is a beautiful blend of sharp tastes, sour, sweet and heat.

Ingredients:

for around 5 large servings, you will need:

• 4Ib Chicken thighs (on or off the bone, makes no difference)
• 2 larg onions
• 1 red and yellow pepper
• mushrooms (I use shiitaki and funny looking mini mushrooms growing from one lump - I can't remember their name)
• fresh or frozen garden peas
• 4-5 spring onions
• 1 large lime
• Fresh coriander
• pinch of cumin seeds
• 3tbs Thai fish sauce
• 2tbs Dark Soy sauce
• pinch of sugar
• freshly grated black pepper and sea salt
• fresh ginger
  
• fresh garlic
• 1 large chili
• 1/2 pint chicken or vegetable stock
  

To start with - make sure you have all you vegetables sliced in nice strips or equal sizes to help even the cooking process. Keep the Ginger sliced, as you would with the vegetables - finely chop the garlic.

Have a hot pan on the ready and pour in a Little sesame oil or vegetable oil. If you're choosing the none Veg option, then you have to fry the chicken off first and seal it. Once it's sealed, remove and put it to one side.

For the vegetarians, you can start from this point and obviously miss out the re-introduction of the chicken later.

To the hot pan, add your chili, Garlic and ginger and let it fry off for about 1 minute - before adding the onions. Let them soften, then add the peppers and mushrooms. add half of the sliced spring onions and let them soften also.

Re-add the chicken and let the flavours mix for 3-4 minutes. Add your cumin seeds, salt, pepper, sugar, soy and fish sauce and half of the fresh lime juice. At this point, you will either love the smell or detest it. The fish sauce can give off a little pong - but i like it :) let these now work with the rest of your ingredients for about a minute (or until you can't take enough of the smell) and throw in your stock and top the lot with (roughly) 1.5 Litres of water.

The above cooking process, in between the cooking and re-adding of the chicken, shouldn't take more than 15 mins. You now need to cook it until the chicken is cooked all the way through.

About 5 mins before the end - add the peas (if frozen - if fresh, then you need to add at the same time as the peppers and mushrooms) and half of the coriander.

To serve- add the remainder of the chopped spring onions and coriander.

If you would like noodles - then simply prepare some egg noodles seperately and add them to the bowl.

hope you enjoy. I still do :)

Humous.

If you're the type of person who likes little snacks in-between main meals, then this quick and simple humous recipe is delicious. As I've had nothing except a cup of soup today, I just fancied a light, quick and healthy snack before dinner tonight.

Ingredients:

• Chick peas (tinned variety is probably the best)
• Extra-Virgin olive oi
• Garlic
• sea salt and cracked black pepper

Personally, I love garlic - so for the average taster, 1 clove per 1 tin of chick peas should be plenty. Add all of the above ingredients to an electric blender/processor and whizz until there's a nice thick paste. About 3 table spoons of olive oil should do for 1 tin of chick peas.

I've just had mine with some ryhbread - but you can have humous with any sort of cracker or even well done cold toast.

Lemon, Ginger and Paprika chicken with couscous

Well, here I go with my first recipe. I've literally just cooked and ate this in about 20 mins - that's how easy and straight forward it is. Easy and healthy.

Now, I'm not here to give you exact measurements of ingredients or to tell you what you should and shouldn't use. If you find an alternative better for you or your diet, then go for it.

I also apologise for the poor picture quality, I can assure you, it tasted a million times better than it looks ;)

Ingredients you will require:

For the chicken:

• Boned and skinned thighs
• paprika
• salt
• juice of half a lemon (per 4 thighs should be surf ice)
  
• sliced fresh ginger
• 6 tbs of chicken or veg stock
• cherry tomatoes
• baby leaf spinach

For the Couscous

• Dried Couscous
• Sea salt and cracked black pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Chicken or veg stock
• Spring onions (1 per portion)
  
• Tin of chick peas
• Tin of black eyed peas
• White wine vinegar
  

Cooking the chicken:

I find cooking the chicken thighs in a good, non-stick wok the best way to keep the meat moist and juicy. Pre-heat the wok until it smokes and use a couple of tea spoons of oil. Olive oil has a high burning point, but i find it spits allot more in a wok than veg or sun flower oil. For best results, please don't shake chicken about in the wok. If it's a good non-stick pan - it will seal the chicken nicely, without burning or sticking.

• lie thighs open and flat in the wok and sprinkle with paprika and salt. Let one side brown and turn over. Sprinkle the opposite side with just paprika (don't want to much salt) and let it cook for a further 4-5 mins.
  
• Flip the chicken back over and squeeze in the lemon juice.
  
• Let the juices amalgamate and add the sliced ginger and tomatoes.
  
• once the tomatoes start breaking down, add the stock.
  
• lastly, add the spinache and let it wilt.

For the couscous

couscous is a great ingredient. It's versitile, healthy, filling and quick and easy to make. If you can get your hands on some Isreali couscous, that's even better.

• Add couscous to a deep bowl and just cover with hot stock and cover with cling-film. I just use stock cubes - ignore the TV chefs who snarl at people for using the cube. The Easier option. If you're not a great fan of stock - then hot water will do. Note: Couscous has to be well seasoned, before it's worth eating!
  
• Once the couscous has absorbed the stock, you will notice it's probably doubled in size. Season well with sea salt and cracked black pepper.
• Add olive oil and the white wine vinegar.
  
• Add the black eyed peas and chick peas.
  
• Add the spring onions and cherry tomatoes at the end for a bit of texture.

Enjoy!