Quick Recipies

[Ken L]

We all have our favorite recipies and probably a dozen or so that we keep comming back to because they're quick and tasty. Lets try posting them up with idiot proof instructions and see how we get on.

I'll start with "Chicken, Chorizo and Canelini Beans" - Serves 2.

 

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts

100g chorizo (buy in a lump - not in slices) choped

1 can of cannelini beans - drained - I use the East End brand 'cause they're cheap

2 glasses of dry white wine

2 medium onions diced

3 cloves of garlic chopped

3 or 4 cubes of frozen spinach - defrosted and drained

a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil

salt n pepper

1/2 tsp of smoked sweet paprika

a loaf of nice crusy bread

 

 

Method:

Add the oil, onion, chopped garlic and chopped chorizo to a pan and fry gently until the onion softens - it should have a little colour but shouldn't start to caramalise.

Slice the chicken breasts into pieces about the size of your thumb, lay them in the pan (on top of the stuff you've just fried) and cover with the wine. Add salt and pepper and then poach them for about 3 minutes until they are just cooked

Break up the balls of spinach and stir them in and then add the beans. Stir gently (don't break the beans up) to coat the beans in the cooking liquor and cover and cook for another five minutes.

Dish up with a spinkle of the smoked paprika and serve with chunks of crust bread and the remaining wine.

 

 

20 minutes from start to serving, easy as you like and only one pan to wash.

 

Edited October 24, 2005 by Ken L

[Newt]

Note to any US readers

 

- Cannellini beans = Great Northern Beans pretty much. A white kidney bean.

 

- Chorizo is a pork sausage originating from Spain. It is made from coarsely chopped fatty pork and usually seasoned with chili and paprika. The mild Spanish paprika used is what gives this sausage its characteristic flavor.It can be found as picante (hot) or dulce (mild).Some varieties are hung in cold dry places to cure, as happens with jamón serrano (ham).The Pamplona variety grinds the meat further.

 

Not sure how different the Spanisn and Mexican versions are but in the US, we'll almost always get the Mexican style if we can get it at all.

 

Note to Ken - I gotta try that one. Sounds excellent and certainly easy.

[ayjay]

Onion bacon and potato hotpot.

 

couple of large spuds

couple of large onions

12oz Streaky bacon in one piece (if you can get it like that)

Pint of cheese sauce

 

slice the spuds and onions

cube the bacon

 

layer in a casserole dish with plenty of f/g black pepper finishing with a layer of spuds

 

(works best for me in a cast iron casserole dish)

 

pour over the cheese sauce

 

bake with the lid on for an hour at gas mark 6

 

give it another 45mins uncovered at gas mark 4

 

serves two pigs - depending on the size of the spuds

 

yummy

[Guest Ferret1959]

Any easy 'hot' spicy soups I can try?

[Newt]

Hot Shrimp Soup

(note: shrimp = prawns)

 

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper

1/4 cup sliced green onions

1 clove garlic, minced

3 cups tomato-vegetable juice cocktail

1 (8 ounce) bottle clam juice

1/2 cup water

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup uncooked long-grain white rice

3/4 pound fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined

hot pepper sauce to taste

 

------------------------------------------------------------------

 

DIRECTIONS:

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Saute green bell pepper, onions, and garlic until tender. Stir in vegetable juice, clam juice, and water. Season with thyme, basil, red pepper, bay leaf, and salt. Bring to a boil, and stir in rice. Reduce heat, and cover. Simmer 15 minutes, until rice is tender.

 

Stir in shrimp, and cook 5 minutes, or until shrimp are opaque. Remove the bay leaf, and season with hot sauce.

[Guest Ferret1959]

Cheers Newt.

Just off to ASDA or for the folk across the 'pond' Walmart.;)

[Ken Davison South Wales]

Quick recipe.

 

Small pan of water bring to the boil and simmer.

 

Place bread into toaster.

 

Stir water and crack in one large free range egg.

 

Take toast and butter, lift out poached egg and lay on toast.

 

Apply seasoning to taste

[Ken L]

Any easy 'hot' spicy soups I can try?

 

Easy Laksa.

 

Ingredients:

A wallnut sized lump of tomyam paste* - I prefere the Suree brand.

1 can of coconut milk.

Half a can of water (might as well wash the can clean)

A good handfull of beansprouts (about half a pack if you buy them at Tesco's).

A little oil.

Rice vermicelli - 1 nest each - this can be substituted with any rice noodles or even wheat spagetti/vermicelli but avoid the heavy chinese egg noodles or udon noodles.

Seafood of your choice - for two. I'probably use 10 shelled tiger prawns, 8 greanlip muscles and some squid.

Chopped coriander.

 

 

Method:

Add a splash of oil and the tomyam paste to a pan and cook gently for a couple of minutes.

Add the coconut milk and water and bring the whole lot up to a rolling boil and then drop the heat down to a simmer - check the flavour and if it's not hot enough, add more past untill you're happy.

(prepare the noodles as instructed and set aside/boil a kettle at this stage)

Add the seafood to the mix in cooking time order prawns first, then the muscles and the squid should be stired in just prior to serving with only a couple of seconds to cook.

drain and place some noodle in the bottom of two bowls.

Scald the beansprouts with boiling water (they should be raw but hot) and add those to the bowls.

Pour over the soup splitting the seafood so as to avoid a fight latter.

Sprinkle with copped corriander.

For a real wow, add a couple of raw clams to each dish before serving (but only if you can get them really fresh) its like a smack in the face with seaweed on a hot day - and totally authentic.

 

 

Again, about 20 minutes end to end but two pans this time.

 

* Thai and indian curry pastes are great for quick meals and because they are preserved in oil, they can be kept in the freezer where they'll stay fresh almost indefinatly and can still be spooned out with a teaspoon when frozen.

Edited October 25, 2005 by Ken L

[Newt]

Ken - when you speak of 'coconut milk' is that the clearish liquid when you open the coconut or juice pressed from the 'meat' inside?

[Ken L]

It's the juice pressed from the meat. Easily available in the UK and as it gets used a fair bit in West Indian (Jamaican) cookery, it shouldn't be that hard to track down in the US.