This is a super simple, serves 2 greedy people and takes about 20 minutes to cook and if you don’t like prawns you can always leave them out. It also works really well with good chicken stock but when I made this last night I didn’t have any stock so used the oxo cube and water.

If you really want to stir the rice you can, although a Spanish friend once told me never to stir it so for once I’ve done as I’m told.

Ingredients

• 1 Chicken breast, cut into chunks
• 1 small packet of smokey bacon lardons
• 4 mini cooking chorizo (picante ones if possible), skin removed and then sliced
• 10 (ish) large raw king prawns
• 1/2 green pepper, thinly sliced
• 1/2 red pepper, thinly sliced
• 1/2 yellow pepper, thinly sliced
• 5 large chestnut mushrooms, sliced
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 3 sprigs worth of thyme leaves
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 oxo chicken stock cube
• 350-40ml water
• 150g paella rice.
• pinch of saffron soaked in a tablespoon of water.
• Handful of chopped flat leaf parsley.
• 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 1 handful of frozen peas
• 1 medium tomato, chopped and seeds removed.
• 1 glass of white wine.
• salt
• pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• bay leaf
• olive oil

Method

1.  Heat a splash of olive oil in a large frying pan, add the bacon and cook until crispy, add the sliced chorizo and cook for a minute or so before adding the chicken.
2. Cook the chicken for a few minutes until its nice and golden then add the mushrooms, peppers and onion along with the garlic, bay leaf, chilli flakes and paprika. Stir well.
3. Cook until the onions are soft, add the wine, give it a really good stir then add the rice , once the rice has soaked up the wine add the water and crumble in the stock cube (unless your using stock then just add the stock), give it a quick stir.
4. Now turn the heat down so the pan is simmering and just a say bubbling. The trick here is not to stir anything and leave it for 10-15 minutes, checking it every now and then to make sure it’s not drying out too much, the rice will soak up all the juices and puff up nicely, the bits that catch on the pan add a little more texture and taste fab too.
5. The rice will start to soften so after 15 minutes try a few grains, if they are about cooked add the prawns and peas, pushing them into the rice but not stirring too much as you don’t want to disturb the pan too much.
6. Cook until the prawns are pink and cooked through.
7. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and season with salt and pepper.
8. Remove from the heat and give it all a good mix before you plate it up.

Enjoy!

This recipe was inspired by something I saw on River cottage a few weeks ago, I’ve had a play around with it now and it’s really tasty, once you have the base noodle/veg combo down you can easily switch the flavours by using chilli powder, curry powder and all manner of herbs and spices along wtih any meat or other veg you want, just make sure you slice them thin enough so they cook when the hot water is poured on them.

You could also use those dried veg you get in tubs for use in pasta and soups or even dried mushrooms, although make sure they have been rinced first so you don’t get the grit in your pot.

Speaking of pots, you could go out and buy a specific pot to make your noodles in but i’ve found that the plasic ones you get supermarket “fresh” soup in work brilliantly. For the sauce pot I used a little jar i had left over from those tester sized jams you can buy in the supermarket.

For an extra firey kick you can also use a sprinkling of chilli flakes.

Ingredients

• 1 nest of fine egg noodles
• 1/2 tsp crushed fennel seeds
• 30g of good quality chorizo picante
• 3 spring onions
• 2 tbsp peas.
• 1 tsp fresh corriander, finely chopped.
• 1 tbs tomato ketchup
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 tbsp hot chilli sauce (not sweet chilli)
• 1 pinch of pepper
• Boiling water – enough to cover the noodles (300-500ml)

Method

1. Put the noodles in your pot.
2. Thinly chop your chorizo and add to your noodle pot.
3. Finely slice your spring onions, add to the noodle pot.
4. Add the peas to the noodle pot along with the fennel seeds
5. Mix the tomato ketchup, puree and chilli sauce together in your little sauce pot and season with pepper if necessary, you can adjust the quantities of sauce to ketchup as much as you want.
6. When ready to serve tip the sauce into your noodle pot, cover with boiling water and leave for about 5-6mins until the noodles have softened, mix well then enjoy!

Sorry if its a bit rough but i tend to do it out of my head when i make it so just add extra bits to taste

Ingredients:

• 3 or 4 parsnips – peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 litres of Chicken stock
• 1 fresh red chilli, chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes (i usually use 2 but that makes it quite firey)
• Grated ginger (to taste) i usually use a good thumb sized piece
• Honey or maple syrup.
• 1 onion or leek finely chopped
• splash of milk (optional)
• A couple of knobs of nutter
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil

Method

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees
• Par boil the parsnips in some water, then drain, add a knob of butter and a drizzle of olive oil to a frying pan and heat, add the parsnips and fry for a few mins until slightly browned, sprinkle with chilli flakes ,ginger and drizzle the honey over, fry for a few more minutes.
• Empty the parsnips onto a baking tray and bake until nice and golden,  (you can skip this step by keeping them in the pan longer but i always end up burning the honey)
• In the meantime fry the onion in a knob of butter until soft and then add the garlic.
• When the parsnips are ready, mix them with the onion.
• Blend with the milk and stock until you have your desired consistency, i usually strain the soup to remove lumps and then liquidise the lumps with the remaining stock until the soup is nice and smooth and creamy.
• Season to taste with salt and pepper

If you prefer thicker soup you can add a potato or 2 or leave the parsnip lumps in.

I like to serve it with homemade parsnip crisps on the top and homemade bread.

This serves two and takes about 10 mins to prepare and 15-20 mins to cook depending on the thickness of your fish.

I served it with some new potatoes, green beans, red pepper and red onion that i had roast in the oven with some olive oil and some oregano.

Ingredients

• 2 pieces of cod loin, you could also use haddock or your favourite fish.
• 1 mug of breadcrumbs
• zest of 2 lemons
• juice of 2 lemons
• black pepper
• 15g of butter
• salt
• 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes.
• tablespoon of sugar

Method

• Pre heat your oven to 200 degrees C
• If your fish has skin, remove it and any remaining bones, place the fish on an lightly greased baking tray.
• Melt the butter in a frying pan and then add the lemon zest,chilli flakes and breadcrumbs, fry until they start to crisp up and remove from the heat. Season with the black pepper and some salt.
• Brush your fish with a little bit of the lemon juice
• Lightly press the breadcrumbs onto your fish.
• Roast in the oven for 15-20 mins, or until the topping is nice and crunchy, if you find your topping hasn’t gone crunchy you can crisp it up under a hot grill.
• Turn the oven off but leave the fish in it.
• Put the rest of the lemon juice in a pan along with the sugar and some more black pepper and head for a couple of minutes, until the sugar has dissolved and the sauce is hot.
• Place the fish on your serving plate with your chosen side dish and drizzle with the hot lemon sauce.

I borrowed the recipe from the Hairy Bikers and added some heat!!

Ingredients:

• 500g of ready rolled puff pastry
• 200g your favourite cheese
• 2 teaspoons Chilli flakes
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds.

Method: