Campfire Stew: gammon and beans but not as you know it

I'm back!!!!

Cheap as chips, super easy, feeds an army and so versatile you can pair it with anything or use it to fill/stuff anything you like (jackets, peppers, grilled cheese etc).  You can use it anywhere you'd use BBQ pulled pork ... I give you my version of Campfire Stew!

One of my hubby's faves 'cause it's hearty, meaty and real food for real men. One of my faves 'cause it takes less than 10 minutes to make, goes really really far and uses one pot so less washing up. What's not to love?!

For example: Campfire Stew = tea tonight with mash, then tomorrow for lunch with rice plus 4x giant campfire stew and cheese pasties for later in the week. Not bad for a meal that takes 5 mins to prepare and cooks while you're at work.  You think it won't be saucy enough but trust me it will. So please don't add any extra water or stock etc.

I stick everything in the slow cooker pot (mine is separate to the electric bit) the night before and bung it in the fridge ready so in the morning I can just slip it into the the slow cooker and switch it on.

Recipe for the Stew:

Ingredients:
small gammon joint soaked overnight then drained
2 tins of baked beans
chopped onion and a pepper
herbs and spices of your choice - I like paprika, garlic, oregano salt and pepper with a little squirt of tomato purée but pick whatever you like

Method:
Chuck it all in a slow cooker and cook on low for about 8hrs, remove the joint, shred and return to the slow cooker.

Spring Vegetable Cornbread Bake

Serves 8-10

This is a variation on a recipe my sister sent me. My modified version sits somewhere between a quiche and a cornbread. So for the sake of argument let's call it a bake. 

Once cooled this is lunchbox friendly but will happily take being reheated. 

The cheesy top and sweet veg make this one kid friendly. And apparently husband friendly too. He went straight back for seconds. It's lovely and dense and less gelatinous than some quiches I've had. The cornmeal adds a touch of sweetness and swells up in the batter in a way that flour might not do. I like cornbread but find it can be a little on the dry side or too sweet as recipes often say to add sugar as if you're baking a cake. Well this has a little sweetness but it's all natural. No added sugar so it's nothing like the overly saccharine ones I've had in the past. 

 If you wanted it to be lighter you could add a little baking powder but we wanted something with a bit of stodge about it - "real quiche for real men" as the saying goes (for 'quiche' read 'bake' as discussed above. ha ha). 

For the batter:

8 large eggs 

100ml milk

1pk Philadelphia with garlic & herbs

400g fine cornmeal 

Season with:

Salt n pepper 

Tabasco sauce 

Finely shredded spring onions 

Chopped coriander

Chopped mint

Vegetables:

2 coarsely grated courgettes

1 coarsely grated carrot

1 cup drained sweet corn

Topping:

100g finely grated mature cheddar

1. Pre-heat oven to 170*C

2. Combine wet batter ingredients in a large bowl

3. Whisk in cornmeal until batter is smooth and set aside for 10-15 minutes to allow the cornmeal to swell a little absorbing some of the liquid in the batter

4. Add seasoning ingredients 

5. Add vegetables and stir till well combined

6. Pour mixture into a very large lasagne dish lined with grease proof paper

7. Spread evenly and top with the grated cheese

8. Bake for 1hr until the mixture is set and the cheese golden brown

9. Carefully Lift the greaseproof out of the dish and place everything on a cooling rack (this helps to stop the bottom going sticky/soggy) 

10. Slice up and Serve with salad and a yogurt and herb dip or good old baked beans

Sunday Lunch with a French Twist

Decided to give my Sunday Lunch a classy Parisian makeover and this did not disappoint. 

Chicken roasted with rosemary, lemon and garlic. New potatoes roasted in the chicken juices and served with green beans and a sauce made from the chicken juices.

The sauce for this was out of necessity rather than design as when I went to make my usual gravy, I'd run out of gravy granules. Yes I am that person who uses gravy granules. They work! But in the absence of these I had to get creative. 

This meal is also cheap as chips and will easily leave leftovers for later in the week. 

Ingredients:

For the chicken and potatoes:

Medium chicken (mine was 1.65kg)

A lemon quartered

A bulb of garlic broken up into cloves but with the skins left on

A few sprigs of fresh rosemary

50g butter cut into 3 chunks 

1tbsp olive oil

1 glass of white wine (I used a mini bottle I'd received as a gift a while ago)

New potatoes

Green beans

For the sauce:

2tbsp plain flour

1/2 cup milk

Salt and pepper

Sprig of fresh rosemary finely chopped 

Method:

1) preheat oven to 175*C

2) stuff chicken cavity with: 1/3 of the butter, a few cloves of garlic, a couple of sprigs of rosemary and the quartered lemon.

3) put the chicken in a suitable roasting dish and surround it with the new potatoes 

4) press the other 2 chunks of butter onto the breasts and then scatter the remaining garlic cloves over the potatoes along with the rest of the rosemary (remember to keep a bit back for the sauce)

5) drizzle over the olive oil and pour over the wine

6) tent with foil

7) cook covered for 45 mins, then remove the foil and cook for a further 30 mins per kilo

8) while its cooking prep the beans and put them in a pan of boiling salted water and bring to a boil then simmer for 10-15 mins until they're just tender 

9) once the chicken is cooked remove it and the potatoes to a serving dish and loosely tent with foil to  rest

10) pour the chicken juices into a jug through a sieve to remove the garlic and rosemary sprigs

11) the oil/butter should float to the top

12) to make the sauce pour 2-3tbsp of the oil/butter from the jug into a saucepan and put on a medium to high heat

13) whisk in the flour and cook for a couple of minutes until the flour is cooked out

14) gradually add the remaining contents of the jug whisking at all times

15) pop open the garlic cloves and mash them in a bowl and add the mashed garlic to the sauce

16) add the milk, seasoning and finely chopped rosemary and stir together, decant into a sauce boat

17) drain the beans and put them on a serving dish

18) serve immediately 

Spiced Beany Bites

Truth be told this recipe was to use leftovers from my curry paste from the Potato and Pea Curry.   For the paste I'd actually used 2 tins of beans and a full can of drained chickpeas. So once I'd made the curry, I had all this nice beany spiced paste leftover. Then I remembered I'd seen a few SW recipes for onion bhajis including ones where the base was chickpeas, others where the base was instant mash. So I decided to work them both together.

The end result is somewhere between an onion bhaji, a falafel and a spicy bean burger. But most important it's pretty darn tasty and doesn't feel like diet food!

A lot of this recipe was about getting a feel for the texture you want. The mix has to by dry enough to hold its shape but wet enough to stick together so I'd add all the instant mash and then add the wet ingredients gradually with the food processor running so you can stop before it gets too watery.

The best way I can describe the paste was the texture of slightly warm peanut butter. Soft and mailable but fairy sticky.

I also dry fry the patties in a non stick pan. The reason for this is to develop the crust on the outside which is difficult to achieve in the oven but also is the key to preventing them from sticking to your tray when you finish them in the oven.

For the paste:
1/2 can chickpeas drained
1 can baked beans
1/2 onion chunked
2-3 tbsp curry powder of choice
1 packet of instant mashed potato (I used asda Smart Price - nothing but the best ;-)

Liquid;
2 medium eggs
1/2 - 1 1/2 cups of water (as I've said it depends on texture so just add as much as you need)

Chunky bits:
1 large onion roughly chopped and separated into the bits
1 cup frozen peas
2tbsp chopped coriander

Fry lite

Method:

1.  Put the chunked onion in the processor and blitz till very fine.
2.  Add the beans, chickpeas and curry powder and blend till mostly smooth. The mixture will be quite wet at this stage.
3. Add the entire pack of instant mash and blend again. Now your mix will be really dry. The next step is where you need to be careful.
4. Add 2 eggs and blend then with the motor running, gradually add as much water as you need to loosen the mixture to something resembling peanut butter.
5. Once you're happy with the texture, scrape the paste into a large bowl and add the chunky bits (onion, peas and coriander).
6. Mix well until thoroughly combined.
7. Line 2 trays with greaseproof paper. And spritz with fry lite. There's no point making these if you can't get them back off the trays!
8. Using 2 desert spoons fo the mixture into largish patties (don't bother trying to do this with your hands as the mix is way too sticky). Each pattie should be about the size of a small scoop of ice cream. Thinking about it... If you had a mechanical action ice cream scoop you could just use that. But I don't so went old school with the spoons.
9. Place each pattie on the paper and spritz with fry lite then gently press down to flatten it.
10.  Spray a non-stick frying pan with fry lite and heat on a high until the pan is very hot.
11.  Cook the patties in the pan in batches, turning once. Make sure before you attempt to turn each one, they've developed the crust otherwise they'll break up.
12.  Once toasted on both sides, place each one carefully back on the greaseproof and put the tray in a preheated oven at 200*C for 25-30 mins turning once.
13. Serve with a yoghurt and mint dipping sauce (fat free yoghurt with a couple of teaspoons of mint sauce mixed in).

Potato and pea curry with a surprising sauce

It's been a while since I've posted anything new but thought this one deserved a mention.

I've recently joined Slimming World and am getting back into my groove culinarily speaking so I'm going to post as often as I can.

I've heard lots of recipes for soups at my SW group that involve blending tins of things and it got me wondering, could I use blended tinned products to make a nice curry sauce as much as I enjoy tomato based curry sauces I het bored of them as I'm a korma girl at heart. Let me stress, this isn't a korma or anything close but it's a nice change to the very tomatoey curries I've had of late.

This recipe involves very Anglo ingredients and not really any special shopping trips and is done in 30 mins flat!

And I just realised this recipe is not only vegetarian but vegan too!

Serves 4:

Curry paste ingredients:
1/2 large onion chunked
1 tin baked beans
1/2 tin chickpeas drained
2-3tbsp curry powder of choice

Veggies:
2 floury potatoes peeled and diced
1/2 onion chopped
2 carrots chopped into thin slices
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 cup frozen peas

Method:

1.  Put the chunked  onion in the food processor and blitz
2.  Put the beans, chickpeas and curry powder in with the onion and blend until mostly smooth.

That's your curry paste made!

3.  Spray a large pan with fry lite and cook the chopped onion till tender on a low-medium heat.
4.  Add the potatoes and carrots, cook for a couple of minutes until the potato starts to catch on the pan a little.
5.  Add the peppers, peas and paste. Cook stirring a bit, then add water to thin it a bit until you're happy with it. Bear in mind a little will cook off.
6.  Bring to the boil and simmer with a lid on for 20 mins stirring occasionally or until the potatoes are tender. Serve.

Butternut squash bruschetta

I asked the wonderful Jamie Magazine for suggestion to use butternut squash and they sent me a wonderful recipe for roasted squash topped with sage and goats cheese.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/magazine/recipes-view.php?title=squash-aamp-goat-s-cheese-bruschetta

However I'm not a fan of goats cheese and didn't have much in my cupboards so I decided to have a go with what I did have. So this is a much simpler version with NO OIL.

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash (unpeeled, deseeded)
Fresh spinach (sliced)
Feta cheese (crumbled)
2 cloves garlic
Ciabatta sliced
Black pepper
Pinch dried oregano

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200*C
2. Cut the squash into wedges
3. Bake wedges on a baking tray for 30minutes
4. Put the ciabatta slices on a tray in the oven with the squash for a further 10 minutes
5. Remove from the oven, and rub each slice of bread with a peeled garlic clove
6. Put the wedges of squash in a bowl and mash with a fork
7. Add the pepper and oregano to the squash and mix in
8. Spread the squash on the bread
9. Sprinkle with the spinach and crumbled feta
10. ENJOY!

Kofta kebabs and Moroccan Style couscous

This recipe takes 15-20 mins start to finish and you can choose exactly how you want to cook the kebabs and the cous cous just needs a kettle and bowl. The only fresh stuff you need is the mince, coriander and pomegranate. Everything else can live quite happily in the store cupboard till you want them.

Ingredients

For the koftas you'll need:
Extra lean beef mince or good quality lamb mince
Curry paste of your choice (tikka, madras etc)
Runny honey
Sesame seeds

For the cous cous you'll need:
Dried cous cous
Sultanas
Dried apricots (chopped)
Flaked almonds
Chopped pistachios
Pomegranate (ready prepped from the supermarket is fine)
Moroccan spice blend (ready mixed is just easier)
chicken stock cube(s)
Boiling water
Fresh coriander (chopped)

For the  raita you'll need:
Natural yoghurt
Mint sauce


Method

1. Open the mince and remove the (in the words of Sean Lock) "meat nappy". Break up the mince in the packet with a fork.
2. Add a couple of heaped spoonfuls of the curry paste. Work on about half a heaped desert spoon per person.
3. Work the paste into the mince until thoroughly combined.
4. Pack handfuls of the mince onto metal skewers till they're about the thickness of a sausage. They don't need to be perfectly smooth, just about the same thickness all the way along.
5. Your choice how you cook them: grill, oven bake, pan fry, griddle, BBQ, etc. just remember you want to cook them hard and fast so the outside caramelises but the inside remains moist. 10-15mins tops.
6. For the cous cous, add a couple of spoonfuls of the spice blend and mix together.
7. Make up some stock using the cube(s).
8. Following the instructions on the pack for how much to use rehydrate the cous cous using the hot stock. Cover the dish in cling film and leave to steam.
9. Once fully hydrated and plumped up, add the nuts, dried fruit, pomegranate and coriander to the cous cous and mix in.
10. 5 mins before the end if the cooking time brush the kebabs with the runny hunny.
11. Once cooked, roll the kebabs in sesame seeds. The honey should help them stick
12. For the sauce, Stir 2-3 teaspoons of mint sauce into half a cup of natural yoghurt.
13. Serve the kebabs with the cous cous and sauce.