Summer Pizzaiola Bagels

INGREDIENTS FOR TWO PEOPLE

2 BAGELS HALVED AND TOASTED LIGHTLY / HALF A WHITE ONION CHOPPED FINELY / HANDFUL OF BLACK OLIVES SLICED -rinsed if from a can / TBSP CAPERS / CAN OF TUNA / MAYO / PINCH OF DRIED OREGANO / PINCH OF DRIED CRUSHED RED CHILLIS / 8 CHERRY TOMATOES SLICED CHOPPED (discard the seeds) BALSAMIC VINEGAR / OLIVE OIL / PARSLEY CHOPPED – OR YOU COULD USE CORIANDER / SALT AND BLACK PEPPER

METHOD

Add onion to a bowl plus the capers, olives, tuna, oregano, dried chilli, parsley and tomatoes. Add mayo – enough until you get a nice smooth mixture when you stir all the ingredients gently together. Season lightly.

Add a swirl of olive oil to each half of the toasted bagels. Top with equal amounts of the pizzaiola mixture then add a swirl of balsamic vinegar or balsamic crema.

A wonderful light summer lunch!

Lentil Bolognaise

This is a really tasty dish and a fab way to eat lentils. An idea of Nigel Slater’s.

For 4

2 carrots finely diced
1 onion finely sliced
3 tbsps of olive oil
230 gm Puy lentils (or any green ones will do if you cannot get Puy)
1 litre of chicken stock or veg stock
400 gm pappardelle or tagliatelle pasta
2 tbsps crème fraîche
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
50 gm lardons – you could leave these out if you wish – esp. vegetarians!

Heat the oil in a pan – I used a non stick wok – and fry the onion and carrot until both are soft and the carrot lightly browned.

Rinse the lentils then add to the pan. Stir and add the stock

Lower the heat and simmer for around 35 – 40 minute until the lentils are just soft. Season with a little salt. Cook the pasta. Whilst this is happening remove half the lentil mixture, including liquid and add to a blender. Blizt to a puree. Return it to the pan. Stir it in along with the crème fraîche and the balsamic vinegar. I then pan fried the lardons separately and added them also.

This is a really cheap and satisfying dish. It tastes, as Nigel Slater says, wonderfully ‘earthy’ and I cannot tell you how amazing the flavour is considering how basic the ingredients are – it is a marvellous example of the the alchemy of food!

Please, please make this!

FISH TAGINE

A stunning supper recipe for two….

INGREDIENTS – FOR TWO PEOPLE

• 2 cod fillets / haddock or any white fish of choice, skinned
• 200 ml fish stock
• 1 teaspoon paprika – picante not dulce
• 1 teaspoon of zatar
• 1 fresh red chilli-deseeded and cut into strips
• 250 gm chick peas rinsed
• 2 carrots halved then cut into 4 batons each
• 1 small white onion
• 1 long red pepper, deseeded and cut into small pieces
• 3 cloves of garlic chopped
• Olive oil
• 4 cherry tomatoes
• Salt and black pepper

METHOD

Preheat oven to 150c.

Pan fry the onions, garlic, red pepper and carrots in a good splash of olive oil until the onions a soft. Add the chick peas and chilli strips and heat through for another minute or so. Then add the tomatoes, halved, and stir in. Sprinkle over the zatar. Cook for another few minutes stirring gently.

Add to a tagine.

Season the fillets with salt and black pepper. Then in the same pan gently fry the fillets for about two minutes either side – you are not cooking them right through, just colouring the outsides. Then add hot fish stock to your vegetables in the tagine – it should not swamp the veg, just about cover it. Lay the fillets on top. Sprinkle over the paprika.

Pop the tagine lid on and place in the oven – you can leave it for up to two hours to absorb the flavours but it should be fine after an hour if you are in a hurry!

Thi sis so wonderful – I love playing about with these types of recipes and i created this based on other meat dishes I had cooked. I made a vegetable tagine recently that was similar to this – minus the fish of course – and with ras el hanout instead of zatar, no paprika and vegetable stock instead of fish. I used an aubergine (eggplant) diced, courgettes, sliced and half mooned, cubed butternut squash, onions, peppers – you can use anything! Key with the veg one is to pop all veg, minus the onions, in a large bowl, add splashes of olive oil, then the ras el hanout and coat it well before frying.

Enjoy amigos!!

Slow Cooked Red Cabbage with Chicken

Seriously tasty and well worth the time and effort – a dish for a cold snap, full of wintery flavours and scents. And so adaptable to any meat really.

INGREDIENTS

1 tbsp olive oil / 1 kg chicken – I used breasts skin on but legs or thighs would work / 1 large brown onion sliced / 2 cloves of garlic sliced / 1 red cabbage sliced / 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar / 1 tbsp dark brown sugar / 1 tsp all spice / Zest and juice of 1 orange / 300 ml chicken stock / 250 ml red wine / fresh chopped flat leaf parsley

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 200c fan 180c
2. Heat the oil in a large casserole dish. Add the onion and garlic. Cover with lid and cook gently for 10 minutes. Stir in the cabbage, balsamic vinegar, sugar and all spice. Cook for a further 5 minutes.
3. Pour over the orange juice and zest, red wine and stock and bring to the boil. Cover with lid and transfer to the oven for 1 hour and ten minutes.
4. After an hour pan fry the chicken skin side down til it is coloured.
5. When red cabbage mixture is ready, remove from oven, take lid off and nestle your chicken pieces in the cabbage. Reduce oven to 180 c / 160c fan, then pop casserole back in the oven uncovered for 30 minutes til the chicken is golden and cooked through.
6. Remove from the oven and scatter the parsley over the dish – serve with creamy mashed potatoes, or dauphinoise potatoes. Drizzle any spare juices over the potatoes. Fabulous!

Coconut Dream Chicken

This dish is a take on the standard Thai chicken curry but for me, it packs more flavour and has a tropical touch. It is based on a recipe from the BBC Good Food magazine and I strongly recommend you to try it! Simple to cook though you need to get all your prep done carefully first so it is all ready to go!

SERVES 4-6

INGREDIENTS

Oil of choice

8 skin on bone in chicken thighs

1 large onion roughly chopped

4 garlic cloves finely chopped

3 cm piece of ginger peeled and grated

1 1/2 tsp turmeric

2 tsp cumin powder

3 green chillies halved deseeded and finely chopped

200 gm butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cubed

150 gm cauliflower florets broken up

225 gm Basmati rice

Bunch of coriander chopped

2 limes zested and juiced

400 ml coconut milk

400 ml chicken stock

METHOD

1. Heat oven to 200C / 180 c fan. Heat a good splash of oil in a shallow casserole or high sided pan that can go in the oven I use a stoneware one, see pic, which is ideal. Fry chicken thighs skin side down til well coloured then remove and put to one side. They will take on a deeper colour in the oven so do not fret. Fry the onion in the same pan til soft and coloured- add the garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin and chilli. Cook for 2 minutes, then stir in the cauliflower and squash. Add the rice, half the coriander, the lime zest and half the lime juice and a little seasoning. Put the chicken back in the pan on top skin side up this time! Add a little more black pepper to them.
2. Heat the coconut milk and stock together gently til just about to boil then pour this around the chicken. Pop the pan uncovered into the oven for 40 minutes or until the liquid has been more or less absorbed and the rice is as you like it. Remove from the oven and add the remaining lime juice and coriander, mixing it in a little amongst the chicken. Serve and enjoy!

Appetising artichokes!

 

This is a popular first course at my local bar in Malasaña. (Click on the link to see my barrio !)

Alcachofas a plancha con jamón iberico.

It is so easy to replicate at home and really really tasty.

All you need is a good tin of artichokes – if not ready sliced, drain them well and slice. Get around 50 gm to 100 gm of, if possible, jamón iberico diced, if not any decent lardon cubed or even cubed pancetta.

Pan fry the jamón in olive oil for a minute or two then add the artichoke and warm through. No need for seasoning at this point, but taste in case and by all means add a pinch of salt.

Serve and add a few grinds of black pepper and serve with crusty bread.

Muy bueno!

Recommended Madrid Tapas and Wine Tour!

 

 

Check this link BELOW to the page of Andres Jarabo – Madrid Tapas and Wine Tour – this is his bio – a really enterprising guy who is providing a quality product in the wine and tapas tour field – I will report back  more after the weekend but I highly recommend it when you are in Madrid next.

‘In 2ooo I posted a message on a travel board inviting people visiting Madrid to join myself and my friends on a tapas night. I didn’t expect anyone to write back but James and Chris, two Americans, did. The experience fascinated me, I was hooked!

I noticed what an important part of the experience wine was and started taking wine tasting courses. Now I work full-time in the wine sector. I am a member of the Spanish Wine Tasting Association and offer the only food tour in Spain that pairs tapas with award-winning wines from a private cellar.’

I am so impressed with people who do this and no doubt everyone learns a great deal from Andres.

Pics and report to follow!! CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT ANDRES WEB SITE!!

 

RECOMMENDED TAPAS & WINE TOUR IN MADRID!

 

 

Harira (lamb, chickpeas and spinach soup)

 

Made this the other day for supper and it is absolutley incredible! I got the recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi. He says in the intro ‘This is a variation on the traditional Moroccan harira soup, flavoured in the same way but without the extra carbs that are often added in the form of rice or pasta. Traditionally a meal for breaking the Ramadan fast, this hearty dish is perfect on a cold winter’s evening.’

I cannot tell you how flavoursome this dish is. It is best made the day before in my opinion – the flavours just develop even more incredibly. Please make this as soon as you can. Please!

INGREDIENTS – 

3 tbsp olive oil   500g cooked chickpeas
1 large onion, cut into 1cm dice
200g lamb neck fillet, cut into 1cm dice
2 tbsp tomato purée
1 tbsp caster sugar
1kg tinned chopped tomatoes
1.2 litres chicken stock or water
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground ginger
a pinch of saffron strands
100g baby spinach
4 tbsp roughly chopped coriander
salt and black pepper

 METHOD

Add olive oil to a large pan on a medium heat. Add the onion and fry til soft and clear. Increase the heat – add the lamb. Cook for 2-3 minutes until it is sealed and taken on some colour. 

Add the tomato purée and sugar and mix well. Cook for 2 minutes.

Add the chopped tomatoes, drained chickpeas, stock and some salt and pepper.

Bring the soup to the boil. Reduce heat  and simmer. Cook for 35 – 50 minutes til lamb is tender.

Squeeze the lemon juice into the soup. Season with ground cumin, ginger and saffron. 

Taste and adjust the salt and pepper if you wish.

When ready to serve, bring back to the boil. Wash and cut roughly the spinach and coriander and add to the soup just before you bring it to the table. Serve with lots of good bread! 

Lentil Bolognaise

Worth another look at this one!

From Alfredo's With Love

It was Nigel Slater’s birthday yesterday and I wanted to cook one of his newer dishes to mark the occasion. His writing, his cookery programmes and his approach to all things food is so encouraging and inspiring to writers like myself. The way he creates dishes like this one has given me so much confidence in creating my own recipes.

Hey, ok, enough of the eulogising!

This is a really tasty dish and a fab way to eat lentils.

For 4

2 carrots finely diced
1 onion finely sliced
3 tbsps of olive oil
230 gm Puy lentils (or any green ones will do if you cannot get Puy)
1 litre of chicken stock or veg stock
400 gm pappardelle or tagliatelle pasta
2 tbsps crème fraîche
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
50 gm lardons – you could leave these out if you wish – esp. vegetarians!

Heat the oil…

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A Sea Bass and Giant Cous Cous Supper

I created this recipe, like so many of us do, to use up some ingredients I had lingering in the fridge and store cupboard. But they had to go with the 2 sea bass filets I had just bought!

Ingredients for 2 to 3

100 gm Giant Cous Cous – I use Merchant Gourmet brand

A little olive oil

1 tulip shallot diced

Half a red pepper thinly sliced

A bunch of flat leaf parsley

400 gm tinned tomatoes

1 red chilli deseeded and sliced thinly

2 sea bass fillets – or any white fish frankly!

A little water

Method

1. Cook the cous cous as per the packet instructions – I pan fry them gently in a little olive oil for 5 minutes then add about 100 gm of water and let them simmer gently away for about 15 minutes. Then drain and put to one side.
2. In a wok or large saute pan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil and add the chopped shallot, red pepper and chilli. Fry gently til the onion softens and starts to turn a little golden.
3. Add the tomatoes and stir. Season to taste.Cook gently for around 20 minutes. til you have a nice velvety sauce.
4. Now add the cous cous and stir. 
5. In a separate frying pan cook the fish in a little olive oil – skin side down first for 2 minutes then gently turn and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from pan and flake away the white meat from the skin and add to the sauce. Gently move it around and then add a handful of chopped parsley.

Simple, I know, but stunning and sexy as fish suppers go!