Slow Cooker Dump Bags

Really should uploaded this last week especially seeing as it was so popular Facebook. Came across an idea on Pinterest and thought I’d give them a go.  A couple of hours work for a couple of weeks of dinners. All you need is some decent ziplock bags/Tupperware, plenty of room in your freezer and that coolest of contraptions - the Slow Cooker.  You stick them in the freezer then just pull them out the night before to defrost then dump in the slow cooker with any extra ingredients like tinned tomatoes or mushroom soup etc. Should make dinners even easier through the week plus most of the veggies in them are already frozen so cost pennies.

A few things to note:

1) I used mostly already frozen veg. Quicker and easier otherwise I’d have to blanch stuff before freezing. And all the meat was raw. Chicken was frozen raw chicken breasts.
2) I googled crock pot dump bags for ideas
3) ingredients are written on the bags but I did them by eye so no quantities I’m afraid.
4) the bags I’m using are from Ikea but any good zip lock bag or indeed Tupperware would work.
5) it’s the first time I’ve done this so not sure how they’ll all turn out but thought I’d give it a go.

Samosa Pie

Trying to lose weight but really want some crunchy pie action? Then look no further!

This is my sped up version of a fantastic recipe by Tom Kerridge.
https://www.itv.com/thismorning/food/pork-samosa-pie-tom-kerridge-recipe
He dry roasts his mince in the oven to create a deeper flavour and uses raw potatoes so they absorb the spicy flavours in the stock. But this adds about an hour to the overall cooking time. So I cheated. You can (I did just last night in fact) get this on the table within 30 minutes of walking through the door after work.

My secrets to the speed:
A) I dry fry my mince in a non-stick pan till it starts to caramelise and catch in places. It gives the same effect as the dry roasting in the oven but much much quicker.
B) I used tinned cooked potatoes. Yes those things you can grab from the corner shop that come in water.
C) I used a rich beef stock pot with a little water instead of the beef consume and chicken stock Tom uses. It gives the same intense meaty flavour without having to wait an age for all the liquid to reduce.

I also had to work with the spices I had in the house (infinitely more now thanks to my amazing sister and brother in law for their kind Christmas gift but) I didn’t quite have the exact spices called for in the original recipe but made it work for me.

Serves 4
Prep time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 25 mins

Ingredients:
500g of 5%fat beef mince (feel free to swap pork mince here)
1x large white onion finely chopped
1tsp garlic purée
1x can of cooked potatoes in water (drained and chopped into even size pieces)
1x can chopped carrots (drained)
1x cup frozen peas
1x knorr rich beef stock pot
1x long green chilli (pricked with a knife in a couple of places to stop it exploding when cooked)
2tsp punch poran (whole spice mix includes: cumin, mustard seeds, fenugreek, nigella seeds, fennel seeds)
2-3tbsp curry powder
1 cup hot water

6x sheets filo pastry (removed from a fridge for a few minutes so it’s less brittle to work with)
1-2tbsp nigella seeds
Olive oil fry light

Method:
1) preheat oven to 200*C
2) heat non-stick frying pan on a high heat
3) dry fry mince stirring till all the liquid has evaporated and the meat has started to brown.
4) add onion to mince and fry till softened.
5) add chopped potatoes and carrots, along with the garlic purée and spices
6) fry till the spices are fragrant and everything is well coated in the seasoning
7) add the frozen peas, stock pot and hot water. Stir well till the stock pot has dissolved.

8) give it 5 mins on a high heat for some of the water to evaporate then decant into an ovenproof dish.
9) put scrunched your sheets of filo on top of mince mixture, spritz with a little fry light then sprinkle over the nigella seeds

10) bake in the oven for 10 mins till it’s golden and crispy. Then serve and enjoy!

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.