Doritos Jalapeno Fire and Pepsi Max Citrus Freeze
Last week I got sent one of the best PR packs that i’ve ever been sent, It was from the lovely people at Doritos and Pepsi and was to promote their new Doritos Jalapeno Fire crisps and Pepsi Max Citrus freeze.
The package it’s self came in a huge box with super hero survival kit on it, one opening I found a scroll with my mission on it, a brilliant hand drawn cartoon of me as a super hero, some invisibility glasses, Kick-ass on DVD, Worst case scenario survival handbook and most importantly some Jalapeno Fire Doritos and Pepsi Max Citrus freeze. It was all very well thought out and I really love the picture.
The crisps them selves were great, incredibly moreish, had a lovely smokey flavour and a nice bit of heat, they worked quite well with some hummus and also some sour cream but personally I’d just munch them on their own.
The Pepsi was a little sweet for me but my other half liked it so I let her drink it and snaffled a few extra crisps while she topped her glass up.
Doritos Jalapeño Fire retail at around £2.37 per 250g pack and Pepsi Max Citrus Freeze retails at £1.89 for 2 litres.
Check out the website here , facebook here, twitter here, here and here
Hotshot Parmo Recipe
If you don’t live in Teesside and haven’t been there, you probably haven’t heard of the the Parmo, if not you can readmore about it here. Basically it’s a heart attack waiting to happen, cheese, fried chicken and bechamel sauce, which can then be topped with all sorts of delicious treats such as mushrooms, chilli and bacon, it’s usually served with chips, salad and garlic sauce and consumed after a night in the pub and even though you know you should’t have one it’s one of those things you crave every now and then.
Despite being a local delicacy, good ones are surprisingly hard to find, especially when you are sober. So I’ve had a go at making my own and thought I’d share the recipe with you so those of you who’ve not had one can give it a go.
I added some extra spice to the breadcrumbs but if you don’t want it to hot you can always leave that out.
It’s up to you how you cook your chicken, you can deep fry it for a few minutes until crisp and golden, shallow fry or bake in the oven.
You can also top your chicken with bacon/ham/chorizo or salami to add an extra twist.
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts
- Breadcrumbs
- Pinch chilli flakes
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder
- 1/2 tsp mixed herbs
- Salt
- Pepper
- Flour
- 1 free range egg
- Lots of Grated Cheddar
- Sliced chillis of your choice, I used pickled Jalapeno.
For the Sauce
- 25g Flour
- 25g Butter
- Handful Parmesan cheese
- 1 bay leaf
- Pinch of nutmeg
- 350ml milk
To Serve
- Garlic Sauce
- Chilli Sauce
- Salad
- Homemade Chips
Method
- Pre heat oven to 200 degrees, or pre heat your grill
- Butterfly your chicken breasts then bash them out so they are really thin.
- Coat them in seasoned flour
- Beat the egg and dip the chicken in the egg.
- Mix the chilli flakes and powder with the breadcrumbs, along with a little salt and pepper.
- Coat the chicken in the breadcrumbs.
- Cook your chicken using your preferred method, I fried mine so drained it on some kitchen paper while i made the sauce.
- Make your sauce by melting the butter in a pan, then add the flower and mix to form a paste, then add a little of the milk at a time, stirring well to avoid getting lumps.
- Add the nutmeg, a pinch of salt and pepper and the bay leaf and cook for a few minutes until the sauce has thickened and no longer tastes of flour. Remove the bay leaf
- Stir in a handful of grated parmesan and remove from the heat.
- Place your chicken on a baking tray (use some grease proof paper if you want to save scrubbing your tray later)
- Cover the chicken in the sauce, then top with lots of grated cheese
- Top with a few slices of chilli then place in the oven or under the grill until the cheese has melted.
- Remove from oven/grill and serve with salad, chips and loads of garlic and chilli sauces.
Trick or Sweet Apple Bobbing
Sweet or Hot it's all pot luck..
Last week the excellent A Quarter Of sent me what could be the next hot thing this Halloween. For those of you who haven’t heard of A Quarter Of they are one of the biggest online sweet shops, specialising in retro sweets and treats for the whole family, not only that they are celebrating their 10th anniversary next year.
So you may be thinking what has this got to do with chillis? Well to celebrate Haloween they have released a nice new touch on apple bobbing, in the form of Trick or Sweet apple sherbert pips. These are no ordinary apple pips for 1 in every 10 pips hides a dark secret, they are laced with hot and spicy chilli. There’s little to no difference in colour between the chill and non chilli pips so it really is down to chance.
Each pip is flavoured with real Cox’s apples and has no artificial flavours or colourings…..they are darn tasty too, I was planning on saving them for the trick or treater’s but have ended up munching most of them. The chilli ones pack quite a punch, they wont leave you gasping for breath but they will give you a little bit of a shock.
They come in at £2.27 for a 160g tub which is a bargain if you want to see the faces on either your party guests or the kids at the door in a couple of weeks time.
If you fancy some you can buy them online here, while you are there you could treat your self to some old school classics or some of the other chilli sweets they sell
Dolmio PastaVita Tomato & Chilli
A couple of weeks ago I was sent a selection of Uncle Bens Rice Pots and this Dolmio PastaVita in Tomato & Chilli flavour.
Both are new ranges from parent company Mars, and I’ll write some more about the Uncle Bens ones seperately.
dolmio pastavita tomato and chilli pasta pot
This Dolmio PastaVita comes in to little pots, one containing the pasta the other containing the sauce, The concept is simple, open each pot a little bit, put both pots in the microwave then heat on full power for 90 seconds, carefully tip the sauce over the pasta and your lunch is ready.
The 300g serving is just the right size for lunch or a light snack, the pasta was nice and soft but still had a little bite to it, the sauce it’s self was delicious, predominantly tomato flavoured but with plenty of nice earthy herbs and sweet roast garlic followed by a decent chilli kick, not super spicy but enough to let you know there’s chilli in the sauce.
My only criticism would be the texture of the sauce, for me it could have done wtih a few more lumps, maybe some mushroom or corn to bulk it out a little and add a little extra, although I did solve this by adding some slices of left over sausage that I had in the fridge.
They retail at £2 per pot and are a great alternative to the dried pasta pots where you add water and usually end up with a slimey mess, they are also great if you don’t have a fridge at work as they don’t need to be kept cool.
If you want to know more then check out the Dolmio website here.
Cheats Spicy Chicken Burger Recipe
I’d bought an Old El Paso Crispy chicken fajita kit a while back and not used all of the seasoning for some reason, when I discovered the leftover packet in the cupboard I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.
As much as I’m not a fan of the kits and preffer to create my own fajitas, the crispy chicken seasoning is delicious.
I’m not sure of you can buy the crispy coating seasoning separately but if not some normal fajita seasoning mixed with breadcrumbs should do the trick.
Crispy, spicy and delicious
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts, bashed out so they are nice and thin and sliced into 2 or 3 big chunks/escalopes
- 1/2 packet Old El Paso crispy chicken fajita seasoning.
- Guacamole
- Salsa
- Sour cream
- 2 bread buns
- Salad and potato wedges to serve with.
- Olive oil
- Sandwich bag
- Pre heat your oven to 200 degrees
- Place the chicken in the sandwich bag, drizzle a little oil over the chicken pieces then add the seasoning, shake well until all of the chicken is covered in the seasoning.
- Place chicken on baking tray and bake in the oven until crispy, should take about 10-15mins depending on how thick your chicken is.
- Toast your bread buns, spread some sour cream, guacamole and saslsa on the buns, top with the chicken and a little salad then serve with side salad and spicy potato wedges.
The East India Company – Cherry Chocolate Chip and Chilli Cookies
A few weeks ago I got sent some rather delicious Cherry, Chocolate Chip and Chilli cookies (or CCC Biscuit) from The East India Company.
They come in a really posh looking tube, that’s obviously Eastern inspired, with the shapes and stand out gold leaf on the sides. The tin with it’s metal lid also feels really nice and adds that extra bit of luxury.
Inside the tub the biscuits are stacked neatly in a black plastic tray and wrapped in clear cellophane to keep them fresh.
On ripping open the cellophane I was greeted with a whiff of chocolate and a hint of spice, quite surprising as I wasn’t really expecting biscuits to smell of much.
The biscuits are quite thin and have a lovely texture, crispy and crumbly, the predominant flavour is the cocoa which is dark, rich and really chocolatey. Then the fruity sweet and sour cherries come through followed by a rather spicy and slightly smoky chilli kick, which has quite a burn to it that lingers for a while after you’ve finished the biscuit.
Sometimes chilli and chocolate really doesn’t work, usually because the chocolate over powers the chilli and there’s not enough heat to let you know the chilli is there, fortunately with these biscuits all the flavours stand out and the chilli kick is fantastic, certainly not a disappointment.
If you’d like to give them a go you can buy the 150g tub from here for just over a fiver, while not cheap they are delicious and worth treating your self to.
Mexican Feast: Chorizo and Squash Tacos Recipe
This was the final course in our Mexican Feast, it was probably one of my favourites, I served it with loads of homemade home grown tomato spicy salsa and cooling guacamole.
This is yet another recipe from Mexican Food Made Simple by Thomasina Miers, although I used butternut squash instead of onion squash and used red onion instead of shallots as couldn’t find any.
Rich and delicious
Serves 2
Ingredients
- 1/2 packet soft corn or flour tortillas or soft tacos.
- 1 clove of garlic
- olive oil
- 1 red onion, sliced
- 1/2 a butternut squash, peeled and diced….you don’t have to peel it but the skin can be a bit chewy.
- 1 chilli of your choice, sliced
- 2 cooking chorizo, thickly sliced.
- 1 tablespoon chopped oregano.
- Salt and pepper
- Guacamole/sour cream/salsa/fresh coriander/pumpkin seeds to serve with
Method
- Pre heat oven to 200 degrees C.
- Smash the garlic with some salt and pepper, then mix with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.
- Toss the squash in the seasoned oil mix, sprinkle over your chilli and roast for 20 mins, until the squash is soft.
- Heat a splash of oil in a frying pan and fry the chorizo and onion until the onion has softened.
- Add the Oregano followed by the squash, remove from the heat, mix well and adjust the seasoning.
- Serve in the tacos/tortillas with salsa and salad.
Roast chicken with honey butter chorizo stuffing recipe
A couple of days ago I recieved a press release along with this delicious sounding recipe that I thought some of you might like, obviously I’d spice things up a bit with a little bit of chilli and by using a hot and spicy chorizo.
There’s also a chance for the budding cooks reading this to submit their recipes and to win a chance to be in a cookbook alongside Rachel Allen
Kerrygold and Rachel Allen Launch Community Cookbook
Kerrygold, the Irish butter brand, has teamed up with top Irish Chef, Rachel Allen, to produce the very first Kerrygold Community Cookbook. Kerrygold is inviting cooking enthusiasts across the UK to be part of it by submitting their best-loved recipes, be they old family favourites or original flashes of culinary inspiration, to their Facebook page
Roast chicken with honey butter chorizo stuffing
Serves 4-6
Rachel’s quote: ‘Chorizo and honey are two powerful flavours that are carefully balanced in this stuffing, they both work wonderfully with the supremely versatile chicken. I have used Kerrygold Honey Spread as a convenient cheat for adding both honey and butter.’
Ingredients:
- 40g (1 ½ oz) Kerrygold Honey Spread
- 110g (4oz) chorizo, finely chopped
- 100g (3 ½ oz) white breadcrumbs
- 1 chicken (1.5 – 2.25kg or 3lb 5oz – 5lb)
- 2 tbsp thyme, chopped
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°f/Gas mark 4.
- First make the stuffing, melt 25g of the Kerrygold Honey Spread in a saucepan with the olive oil, then add the onion, garlic and chorizo, cover with a lid and cook on a low heat for 8-10 minutes or until the onions are soft but not browned.
- Take off the heat, then stir in the thyme and breadcrumbs. Season to taste with salt and pepper then allow to cool.
- Spoon the cooled stuffing into the chicken cavity and place the chicken in a roasting tin. Smear the remaining Kerrygold Honey Spread over the skin of the chicken and sprinkle with some salt and pepper.
- Place in the oven and roast for about 1 hour and 30-45 minutes (allowing about 20 minutes per 450g/1 lb), until cooked, basting occasionally. If it begins to look quite dark while cooking, cover with some foil.
- To check whether the chicken is fully cooked, stick a skewer into the thigh with a spoon placed underneath to catch the juices, the juices should run clear. Also, the legs should feel quite loose on the bird.
- When cooked, transfer the chicken to a serving plate and leave to rest, covered with foil and in the oven at the lowest temperature. This will keep the chicken warm while you make the gravy or sauce.
- Spoon the stuffing out of the chicken into a serving bowl or onto a plate.
- Carve the chicken and serve.
For more information on the Kerrygold, delicious recipes and to be in with a chance to have your recipe featured in the Kerrygold Community Cookbook alongside Rachel Allen’s please visit
www.facebook.com/KerrygoldUK
Cancelled – Levens Hall Chilli Festival 2011
I’m gutted to report that the Levens Hall Chilli Fest has been cancelled, this was on their website earlier today
Following heavy rainfall this week and a forecast of continuing poor weather, we have regrettably taken the decision to cancel the 2011 Chilli Fest. The field used for event parking is currently flooded.
Rising water levels would compromise the safety of our visitors.
The House & Garden, Tearoom & Gift Shop will be open as usual on Sunday, as normal visitor parking is on hardstanding.
Mexican Feast: Mushroom Tostadas Recipe
Next up on our Mexican Feast is Mushroom Tostadas, yet another dish inspired by my visit to Wahaca last week, The recipe is a version of the Spring Tacos with mushrooms from Thomasina Miers Mexican Food Made Simple Book.
I used the basic recipe for the mushroom tacos and turned it into Tostadas as I really loved the ones I’d had in Wahaca that were topped with a lovely cold chicken salad.
It’s really simple and quick and the mushrooms would make a great filling for just about anything.
Serves 2
Ooozy and earthy, absolutely delicious.
Ingredients
- Big hand full of mixed mushrooms, roughly chopped
- Knob of butter
- Salt and pepper
- 1 small red onion (or a shallot), finely sliced.
- 1 clove of garlic, crushed
- Small hand full of fresh tarragon, finely chopped(or a tsp of dried tarragon)
- 1 tbsp creme fraice
- Small hand full fresh parsley, finely chopped.
- Grated Pecorini (or similar) cheese.
- Pumpkin Seeds
- 1/2 red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped.
- Chipotle Sauce (you can leave this out)
- 2 corn tortillas (you can also use flour ones but I like the flavour of corn ones when they are fried)
- Oil for frying (you can also use a deep fryer if you have one)
- Olive oil
Method
- Cut the tortillas into discs, I used a ramekin as a template and just cut round that, you need about 3 disks per person.
- Heat your frying oil in a pan or your fryer, then fry the discs until crispy on both sides, place on kitchen paper to drain.
- In another pan, heat the butter and a splash of olive oil until its nice and hot, add onions and mushrooms followed by the garlic and chilli
- Fry the mushrooms and onions until nearly cooked, then add the tarragon and creme fraiche, cook until the mushrooms are done.
- If using the chipotle sauce, spread a little bit on each toasted disc, top with a spoonful of mushrooms, then sprinkle with a little bit of cheese, parsley and a few sunflower seeds.
- Serve and enjoy.