Five spice chicken and rice

This is a variation on my soy chicken and vegetable rice dish, (May 2015). It takes hardly any time to prepare and cook - 25 minutes at most. As with the soy chicken recipe, it’s easy to scale up the ingredients as you will see.

Ingredients

Three large chicken breasts, approx. 400g in total, (defrost if frozen)
One onion, chopped
Red pepper, chopped
Soy sauce (I use light soy, but the choice is yours)
Sunflower or olive oil
160g Basmati rice
Two big pinches of Chinese 5 Spice
Small scattering of chilli flakes
Salt.

Method

• Cut the chicken breasts into strips, cutting across the breast, put in a bowl and pour over enough soy sauce to colour the meat and have a bit ponding in the bottom of the bowl. Sprinkle Chinese 5 Spice over the chicken and leave.
• Chop the onion and slice the red pepper.
• Switch on the kettle to boil water for the rice.
• Heat up around 2tbsp of the oil in a frying pan, add the onion and pepper, stir frequently and when they  start to soften, remove from the pan and keep on one side.
• Meanwhile, start cooking the rice. Tip about 1.5 litres of boiled water from the kettle into your saucepan, (it saves time) and bring back to a rolling boil. At that point, tip in the basmati rice, bring back to the boil and simmer on a medium heat for 13 minutes exactly. No stirring, just leave it while you get on doing the rest of the meal.
• Turn up the heat under the frying pan. Tip in the chicken and the soy sauce from the bowl. Stir quickly to stop it burning, then once the meat starts to colour, turn down the heat to a low setting. Tip the onion and pepper back into the pan, add a sprinkle of chilli flakes, put on the pan lid and simmer while the rice cooks in the other pan. Stir occasionally. Add salt to taste and ensure the mixture doesn’t dry out.
• Once the rice is ready, drain it into a colander or sieve and pour half a kettle of hot water (boiled but not boiling) over the rice. Leave the rice to drain for a minute or two then return it to the rice pan. Put the lid back on to keep the heat in.
• Check the frying pan. The chicken should be cooked through.
• Serve in shallow bowls, rice first with chicken on top. 

Moroccan lamb meatball tagine

Serve this delicious dish with couscous for an authentic Moroccan vibe. The original version of this meal came to me with an egg cooked on top, but that’s a bit much, I think. 

As this is a mid-week recipe, I use shop-bought lamb meatballs – it certainly saves both time and effort. If you are not a fan of lamb, then beef meatballs work just as well. 

I would also only use a tagine to serve at the table, maybe at the weekend! Cooking in a tagine would take additional time and adds to the washing up.

Serves four, with a prep/cooking time of 35-40 minutes. 

Ingredients

One onion, chopped

600g lamb meatballs

400g tin chopped tomatoes

One garlic clove, crushed (or a pre-squished substitute such as Very Lazy Garlic)

Ground cumin

Ground cinnamon

Paprika

Dried crushed chillies

Coriander leaf (Cilantro)

Couscous:

1 x 110g packet of lemon flavoured couscous (both Tesco (lemon & coriander) and Waitrose (lemon & garlic) do a good version).

55g plain couscous

330ml boiling water

Method

Start with the couscous

• Boil the kettle and tip the packet couscous, along with the additional plain couscous into a small pan. 
• Add 300ml of boiling water, heat the pan on a low heat just until the couscous starts to bubble. Remove from the heat, cover and leave on one side. 
• Ignore any packet instructions to add butter to the couscous. All it does is add calories!

Next, the meatballs and sauce

• Heat about one tablespoon of olive or sunflower oil in a large frying pan. On a medium heat, tip in the meatballs and moving them regularly, seal their surfaces. There’s no need to cook them through.

• Take the meatballs out of the pan and put to one side.

• Now add the onion to the pan, cooking until the pieces start to soften, scraping the meatball scraps and any juices into them.

• Add in a tablespoon of each of the herbs and spices apart from the crushed chillies. Add the garlic (optional).

• Pour in the tinned chopped tomatoes and stir.

• Add a teaspoon of dried chillies, bring to the boil.

• As soon as the tomatoes start to bubble, return the meatballs the pan, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes on a low heat until you are sure the meat is cooked.

• Add salt and black pepper to pep up the seasoning, maybe some more coriander leaf, then serve either to the table in a tagine with couscous on the side, or directly on to plates, on a portion of couscous.

Spicy butternut squash and sweet potato dairy-free soup

This hearty soup with a kick is lovely and warming. It is also lactose-free unlike most shop-bought soups. I tend to make it mid-week, when I’m wondering what on earth to do with that squash in the fridge and the sweet potatoes cluttering the bottom of the veg rack. I freeze it in single portions so that I can defrost it for office lunch breaks or to go into a flask when out and about. This recipe will produce six generous portions at least. It takes an hour to cook, but you can be doing other things while it spends most of that time simmering on the hob.  

Ingredients

Table spoon sunflower oil

One butternut squash, the flesh peeled and cubed

Three or four sweet potatoes – more if they are small-sized, peeled and cut into big cubes

Dried chilli flakes

Dried parsley

Salt

Crushed black pepper

Vegetable stock cube

Method

• Boil a kettle of water and add a half litre of boiling water to a jug with a crumbled vegetable stock cube. Stir.
• Get out the biggest pan you have. I use a large double-handled frying pan, but a big saucepan would be fine. 
• Heat the sunflower oil in the pan and add the chopped squash and sweet potatoes, stir fry for two minutes. 
• Pour the stock cube water into the pan and add at least another ¾ litre of water, ensuring that the vegetables are completely covered with water. Bring to the boil.
• Turn down the heat to the lowest level which will maintain a slow simmer, add a generous sprinkle of chilli flakes and dried parsley to the pan. Season with salt and black pepper and put the lid onto the pan. 
• Allow the soup to simmer for twenty minutes. By then, the vegetables should be very soft when you press a knife into them.
• Turn off the heat. At this point, you need to blend the soup. I use a wand blender – standing it in the pan and blending the vegetables with short bursts as I move it slowly around the soup. If you don’t have a wand, then you will need to pour the contents of the pan into a blender and again, blend in short bursts until the soup is reasonably smooth.  
• At this point, the soup will be very thick, so you need to add more boiling water to the pan (or the blender), stirring it in until the soup feels like it is at the correct soupy consistency. Put the soup in the pan back onto a low heat and simmer again for at least half an hour, then serve or divide into portions and freeze.  

Soy chicken and vegetable rice

It’s that day of the week immediately before you do your weekly shop and the fridge is looking a little bit empty. For me, this is usually a Tuesday and I’m looking to make something quick and easy from the contents of my freezer and the kitchen cupboards. 

This supper is a hit with my family and is good for using up left-over vegetables from the fridge. It takes hardly any time to prepare and cook and can be served in a bowl to save on the washing up. It’s also easy to scale up the ingredients as you will see.

Ingredients

Three chicken breasts (defrost if frozen)

One onion, chopped

Soy sauce (I use light soy, but the choice is yours)

Frozen peas - handful

Sunflower oil

160g Basmati rice

Coriander leaf – a liberal scattering

Small scattering of chilli flakes

Salt

Crushed black pepper

Any/all of the following – whatever is left in your fridge:

Red or yellow pepper, chopped

Mushrooms, sliced, or quartered if bigger than button-sized

Broccoli head, split into quite small florets (even a small amount of left over broccoli can go a long way in this recipe)

Carrot or two, peeled and thinly sliced

Sweetcorn niblets – out of the can or handful of frozen

Method

• Cut the chicken breasts into big cubes, put in a bowl and pour over enough soy sauce to colour the meat and have a bit ponding in the bottom of the bowl.

• Chop up all the fresh vegetables including the onion.

• Switch on the kettle to boil water for the rice.

• Heat up around 2tbsp of sunflower oil in a big frying pan, add the onions, stir frequently and when they start to soften, add all the other veg. Keep the veg moving occasionally and fry on a medium heat for a couple of minutes until they start to cook.

• Meanwhile, start cooking the rice. Here’s how I get lovely rice – tip 1.5 litres of boiled water from the kettle into your saucepan, (it saves time) and bring back to a rolling boil. At that point, tip in the basmati rice, bring back to the boil and simmer on a medium heat for 13 minutes exactly. No stirring, just leave it while you get on doing the rest of the meal.

• Tip the onion and other vegetables out of the pan and keep on one side.

• Turn up the heat under the frying pan. Tip in the chicken and the soy sauce from the bowl. Stir quickly to stop it burning, then once the meat starts to colour, turn down the heat, tip the onions and vegetables back into the pan, add the frozen peas and/or sweecorn, put on the pan lid and simmer while the rice cooks in the other pan. Stir occasionally. Add salt, pepper, sprinkle of chilli flakes and coriander leaf. The soy sauce, frozen peas and the pan lid should ensure the mixture doesn’t dry out.

• Once the rice is ready, drain it into a colander or sieve and pour half a kettle of hot water (boiled but not boiling) over the rice. Leave the rice to drain for a minute or two then return it to the rice pan. Put the lid back on to keep the heat in.

• Check the frying pan. The chicken should be cooked through. Tip the contents into the rice pan.

Mix it all up, serve into shallow pasta-style bowls and enjoy.

Thai pork salad (Laab)

This is not really a ‘salad’ in the European sense of the word, but it is a classic Thai dish called Laab. It has a hot, sour, sweet and salty combination which always reminds me of when I first ate it in a Hong Kong restaurant many years ago. This is my version, using store cupboard ingredients.
Serve with a small portion of rice and/or a green salad, sliced tomatoes and extra chillies on the side if you like it hot. You can increase the dry herb quantities (go on - go mad) for a bigger flavour effect.

Minced pork is an economical meat for a mid-week meal and makes a change from wheeling out yet another minced beef based Bolognese or chilli con carne.  This recipe will serve four with rice and salad leaves. 

Ingredients

500g lean minced pork

Small bunch of spring onions, or a small brown onion, chopped.

5 tablespoons fish sauce

1 tablespoon soy sauce

6 tablespoons lime (or lemon) juice

Large pinch of sugar

Tablespoon of dried mint

Coriander leaf (Cilantro)

Dried chopped/crushed chillies

Salt/black pepper

Method

Place the minced pork into a cold, dry frying pan and cook on a medium heat until no pink meat is visible. Add the chopped onion and continue fry for a few minutes.

Sprinkle the chillies (as much as you like), coriander leaf, mint and sugar over the meat, stir in and heat for another minute or two.

Add the fish and soy sauces, then add the lime juice.

Simmer for up to five minutes, stirring regularly, then add salt/black pepper to taste.

Serve with a small portion of boiled rice, sliced tomatoes and a green salad.

Chorizo and tomato pasta bowl

This is an approximation of a great meal I ate in a small Greek cafe in the Forest of Dean. The windows were all steamy and the plastic tables gave no hint of the delicious meals the staff could serve up. This recipe serves three as a lunch or light supper.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 1/2 red onion, finely chopped (or any onion will be fine)

• 250g raw chorizo sausages, cut into bite-sized pieces.

• 55g tomato purée

• One tomato, chopped 

• Eight big handfuls of short pasta, such as fusilli or penne, cooked according to packet instructions (approx 250g)

• Sea salt and black pepper

• Basil

Preparation

• Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium to high heat. Add the onion and cook for two minutes. 

• Add the chorizo and cook for a further five minutes, or until golden brown all over. If you can find soft cooking chorizo, all the better, but any type is fine.

• Add to the pan the tomatoes, tomato puree and a generous scattering of basil, fresh or dried. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for around 12-15 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and either coarsely ground or ground black pepper. 

• Cook the pasta while the chorizo mixture simmers. Drain it and stir the pasta into the sausage mixture, then divide into shallow bowls or plates to serve.