Quick Crunchy Enchilada Vegetable Bake

Sometimes you’ve just got to go with what’s in the cupboard and the fridge, a bit like that old TV program Ready, Steady cook.

I found the ingredients below and it was “no meat” night so decided to throw them all together and hope that they turned out as good as my cheat’s chicken burger.

Crunchy, creamy, delicious

Crunchy, creamy, delicious

I served it with a huge side salad with light dressing and it worked out pretty well, if you wanted to add some meat it would work well with chicken or pork in it.

Ingredients

  • 1 Jar Old El Paso Enchilada Sauce
  • 1 small head of broccoli broken up into florets
  • 1 small head of cauliflower broken up into florets
  • 1/2 red pepper, sliced
  • 1/2 green pepper, sliced
  • 1/2 yellow pepper, sliced
  • 3 Spring onions, sliced
  • 4 mushrooms, sliced
  • Salt
  • Black pepper
  • 1/2 bag/box of Old El Paso Nachips or your favourite tortilla chips. Crushed up into chunks
  • 25g strong cheddar cheese, grated
  • Old El Paso Sour cream
  • Olive oil

Method

  1. Pre heat your oven to 200 degrees
  2. Bring a large pan of water to the boil, season with salt and blanch the broccoli and cauliflower until cooked, drain
  3. Wipe the pan then quickly fry the peppers, stir in the broccoli and cauliflower then tip over the Enchilada sauce. Mix well and warm through.
  4. Tip into an oven proof dish.
  5. Sprinkle over the the tortilla chips, followed by the cheese.
  6. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes until the cheese has melted and the sauce is bubbling.
  7. Serve with salad and a drizzling of sour cream.

 

Super simple chilli and tomato sauce

This is quickly becoming my go to sauce for pretty much everything, it works well as a sauce for meat, fish and even on pizza, the base sauce can be spiced up however you want, If you want Mexican flavour add Mexican spices, if you want to add smoked chilli then add smoked chilli, if you want to make it fresh and zingy add fresh chilli and lime, it works with pretty much everything I’ve tried, it’s especially good with smoked paprika then drizzled over pork tenderloin.

If you are vegetarian just switch the chicken stock for vegetable stock. If you want it thicker just add less stock or cook it for a little longer.

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • 500ml chicken stock
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp chilli powder
  • 1 tsp Tabasco.
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • salt
  • black pepper
  • pinch of sugar
  • 1 tsp of oregano

Method

  1. heat the olive oil in a saucepan then add the tomato purée and heat through
  2. stir in the other ingredients apart from the stock
  3. now add the stock a splash at a time, stirring well
  4. heat and keep stirring, once the sauce is at the consistency you like stop adding the stock,remove from the heat and serve

Morrisons Really Hot, Hot Cross Buns with dried chilli

As soon as I spotted these on the shelf in Morrisons I had to buy them, although I very nearly missed them as the packaging isn’t much different to the normal ones and the contains hot chilli sticker is quite small, not good if your eye sight isn’t great. They actually looked bigger and fluffier than the non chilli hot cross buns with a little flecks of red here and there, obviously coming from the chilli.

On slicing them open, the red tinges were more obvious and they seemed to have plenty of fruit in, although they almost didn’t fit in the toaster they were that big and fluffy. They toasted really quickly so it’s best to keep your eye on them as you don’t want burnt buns.

Lightly buttered with salted butter and served with a nice strong Hasbean espresso they went down a treat, you could certainly taste the chilli in them which added a nice dry flavour against the sweetness of the fruit, there was a tiny little bit of heat but not enough to be considered really hot, even by my wife’s standards. There was plenty of fruit in all for buns and they were suitably sticky without being overly so.

Would I buy them again? Yes I would, even without the massive chilli heat they were decent hot cross buns, although If we had a Booth’s near by I’d be in there buying their sour cherry and chocolate hot cross buns as they are possibly my favourite hot cross buns ever.

Lightly buttered and serve with coffee
4 pack for £1 – note the tiny warning sticker.

Chilli Chicken Burritos

I’m  a huge fan of Mexican and Mexican style food but always struggle to choose what to have, that’s why I love burritos, they offer the chance to stuff them full of your favourite Mexican treats and fill your belly. They are also great for dinner parties and mid week meals as they an be prepared in advance or even frozen.

Although this recipe using chicken, my favourite filling has to be pulled pork, so if you’ve got time and or the inclination swap out the chicken filling for some of this pulled pork.

You can also make your own rice but to keep it quick and easy I used Tilda Mexican bean rice. I served it with sweet potato wedges and a huge salad.

It doesn’t take very long to make but if you have time it’s best to leave the chicken to marinade for a few hours. You an also spice up the left over tinned tomatoes before topping your burrito with a little bit of Tabasco, a pinch of chilli powder and some paprika.

Chilli Chicken BurritoServes 4

  • 2 large chicken breasts, skinned and cut into thin strips
  • 1 red pepper, thinly sliced
  • 1 green pepper thinly sliced
  • 1 onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 tbsp ground cumin
  • 1 tbsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tbsp hot paprika
  • 2 tbsp ancho chilli or Chipotle paste
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/2 jar pickled, sliced Jalapeño
  • 1/2 bunch fresh coriander
  • Salt
  • pinch of Cayenne pepper
  • 1 tbsp cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp tomato puree
  • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
  • 1 tin of Mexican bean salad, drained and rinsed
  • 1 packet Tilda Mexican bean rice, cooked according to the packet.
  • 4 flour tortillas
  • Sour cream
  • Salsa
  • Guacamole
  • 20g grated cheese, Monterey Jack is best.
  • Olive Oil

Method

  1. If you are making and serving straight away, pre heat your oven to 200 degrees C
  2. Put the chicken in a large bowl, sprinkle over the dried herbs and spices, add a dash of olive oil and the cider vinegar along with the garlic. Mix well and leave to stand.
  3. Heat a large frying pan, dry fry the tortillas for 20-30 seconds each side, until they start to puff and bubble up, set aside.
  4. Add a little olive oil to the pan and fry the chicken and it’s marinade for a few minutes until it’s nearly cooked
  5. Add the onion and peppers, cook until soft.
  6. Add the beans and Jalapeños (feel free to keep some for decoration) to the pan and mix well.
  7. Add the Chipotle or Ancho paste along with t the tomato puree and stir.
  8. Now add half of the tin of tomatoes and stir
  9. Cook for 10 minutes until everything is nice and soft.
  10. Now you can either leave it to cool or start assembling your burritos.
  11. To make the burrito lay each tortilla out on a worktop, divide the rice between the tortillas, placing in the middle of each disk.
  12. Next spoon over the chicken mixture
  13. Top with a spoonful of salsa, spoonful of  soured cream, spoonful of guacamole and a spoon full of salsa, and a little bit of the grated cheese, keeping some back for the topping.
  14. Fold your burrito
  15. Bake the burrito in the oven for 5 minutes
  16. Remove, top with a couple of spoonful’s of the left over tomato and the left over cheese, put back in the oven for another 5-8 minutes until the tomato is hot and the cheese has melted.
  17. Serve


 

Chilli Cauliflower Cheese

Cauliflower has to be one of the most boring vegetables ever, I’ve never really got on with it unless it’s been spiced to hell with curry spices, in picallili  or covered in cheese so when I found a cauliflower in the shopping trolley I knew there was only one thing to do with it.

I think this is  a pretty traditional cauliflower cheese recipe that I just tweaked a little, had I had more time to plan I’d have swapped some or all of the cheddar for some chilli cheese like Mexicana or Dutch Hot.

Serves 4-6

chilli cauliflower cheeseIngredients

  • 1 Medium cauliflower, broken down into florets.
  • 125g strong cheddar cheese, grated
  • 500ml semi skimmed milk.
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 red chilli, split in half
  • 3 cloves
  • 5 peppercorns
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
  • 50g butter
  • 50g plain flour
  • 25g parmesan, grated
  • large pinch of grated nutmeg
  • Tabasco (optional)
  • 4 tbsp natural breadcrumbs.
  • Salt
  • White pepper
  • 1/2 tsp English mustard powder.

Method

  1. Pre heat your oven to 200 degrees C
  2. Place the milk, bay leaf, nutmeg, cloves, peppercorns and red chilli in a pan and warm through, set aside for as long as possible to infuse the flavours into the milk before straining into a jug.
  3. Wipe the pan clean
  4. Fill the pan with boiling water, add some salt then add the cauliflower, cook for 3-4minutes until the cauliflower is al-dente.
  5. Drain the cauliflower and place in a large ovenproof dish.
  6. Wipe the plan clean
  7. Melt the butter in the pan before whisking in the flour to form a paste.
  8. Now gradually add the milk mixture whilst whisking until you’ve used all of the milk, heat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally so that the sauce starts to thicken, once the sauce is nice and thick remove from the heat and stir in half of the parmesan and 3/4 of the cheddar cheese and all of the mustard powder.
  9. Taste then season with salt and pepper
  10. Tip over your cauliflower and mix well.
  11. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top of the cauliflower, sprinkle the chilli flakes over along with the breadcrumbs
  12. Bake in the oven for 30-40minutes until the cheese is bubbling and the top is nice and crispy.
  13. Serve with a dash of Tabasco.

 

Celebrate National Pie week with some spicy pie recipes

In case you hadn’t guessed I’m a huge fan of pies, we even had them as the meal on our wedding last year, It’s no suprise that the humble pie now even has it’s own week, dedicated to all things pie.

So I’ve jumped on the bandwagon and thought I’d take the opportunity to re-share some spicy pie recipes.

Spicy tomato and cheese topped cod

This recipe is really simple and full of flavour, you can spice it up more by adding a different type of chilli sauce or using some chilli flakes or fresh chilli in the mix.

It serves two and is best served with home made wedges/chips and vegetables.

spicy- tomato cod recipeIngredients

  • 2 Cod or haddock fillets
  • Tabasco
  • 2 tsp low fat cream cheese with herbs
  • 6 tbsp chopped tomatoes (tinned/carton)
  • 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
  • 1 tbsp grated cheddar cheese
  • salt
  • pepper
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • Olive oil

Method

  1. Pre heat your oven to 200 degrees c
  2. Place some grease proof paper on a baking sheet.
  3. Rub a little olive oil over the fish and place on the baking sheet.
  4. Season the fish with salt and pepper.
  5. Spoon the tomatoes over the fish then sprinkle on the oregano.
  6. Add a few dashes of Tabasco
  7. Place a spoon full of the cream cheese on each fillet
  8. Sprinkle on the grated cheese
  9. Top with the breadcrumbs
  10. Bake in the oven for 12-15minutes depending on the size of your fish
  11. Enjoy!

Slow Roast Porchetta with Chilli and Apple Sauce.

The Porchetta was in the meat box I was kindly sent by Farmison.com, in all honesty I was shocked when I saw how much it costs for a 1.35kg piece of Porchetta, but then it is pre prepared and also comes from one of 5 rare breeds of pig, which are known for their flavour and quality.

Crispy crackling and soft meat!

Crispy crackling and soft meat!

It comes vacuum packed and will serve 4 or 5, it’s also suitable for freezing so if you ordered it as part of a delivery you don’t have to use it straight away.

I did consider doing it like my slow roast pork here but didn’t want to over power the Italian herbs in the stuffing, so decided to serve it with a spicy chilli and apple sauce.

The pork it’s self is probably the best piece of pork I’ve ever eaten, it had bags of flavour and the balance of the herbs inside was excellent, the skin turned into the perfect crackling with no nasty chewy bits underneath.

Farmison & Co is the brainchild of John Pallagi and Lee Simmonds; two old friends who share a love of fantastic food with real flavour and a genuine admiration for great British artisan farmers and producers.

They wanted other people to experience the sort of food that they love and having previously been restaurateurs, they had the expertise and the right contacts to make it happen. So they made it their mission to create a place where people who love great tasting food could go to buy outstandingly good produce from small specialist suppliers – and the Farmison & Co website was born!

Ingredients

  • 1 pre prepared porchetta from Farmison.com
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 onion
  • salt
  • olive oil
  • Vegetables to serve with
  • Glass of red wine
  • Pork stock

For the apple sauce

  • 1 fresh red chilli
  • pinch of chilli flakes
  • 2 cloves, crushed.
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp cider vinegar
  • 2 large cooking apples
  • 1 small onion

Method

  1. Pre heat your oven as hot as it will go.
  2. Remove your pork from the fridge at least an hour before you want to cook it.
  3. Sprinkle the skin with salt and rub in a little olive oil
  4. Cut the carrot and onion into big chunks and place in a roasting tin, place the pork on top. Pour the wine round the edge.
  5. Place in the oven and immediately turn your oven down to 180 degrees.
  6. Roast for 3-4 hours until the meat is soft and tender and the cracking is crisp and golden, you may want to turn the pork round half way depending on your oven and you may want to add some pork stock to the tray half way too to stop the veg burning, it makes the best gravy.

For the apple and chilli sauce

  1. Peel and roughly chop your apples, finely slice your onion.
  2. Place all of the ingredients into a saucepan, stir well.
  3. Cook until the apple is soft and starts to loose it’s shape, if it’s a little dry add some water.
  4. Serve with your pork.
Pre roasting, lovely thick fat!
Apple and chilli sauce
Apple and chilli sauce ingredients

Soft melt in the mouth pork
Farmison Meat Delivery

Chocolate, cherry and chilli muffins.

This is based on a recipe I found a while back on the BBC Good Food website but I decided to spice it up as cherry, chocolate and chilli is one of my favourite combinations and Black Forest Gateaux is one of my favourite things ever.

If you don’t have any Krisch just use some of the syrup from the jar of cherries. Also your butter really needs to be soft, if it’s too hard you’ll just end up with icing sugar everywhere as I found out.

I used Lindt chilli chocolate but you can use what ever you can get your hands on.

Choc chilli cherry muffinsIngredients

  • 425g jar of morello cherries, drained
  • 100g  chilli chocolate
  • 1/2 tsp chilli powder
  • 100g plain flour
  • 160g unsalted butter
  • 3 large eggs
  • 120g icing sugar
  • 50g cornflour
  • 25g cocoa powder
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 4 tbsp Kirsch
  • 300ml whipped cream

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 180C.
  2. Line a 12- hole muffin tin with paper cases.
  3. Using an electric mixer beat butter and icing sugar until it looks pale and creamy
  4. One at a time, add the eggs and fold through with a spoon.
  5. Sift in the flours, cocoa powder, baking powder and chilli powder fold in.
  6. Keep 12 cherries separate to use for decoration and gently mix in the rest to the batter.
  7. Break up 50g of the chilli chocolate into small chunks and mix into the batter.
  8. Bake for 20-30 mins  until a knife or skewer comes out clean
  9. Remove from the tin and cool on a  wire rack.
  10. Once cooled, poke a few holes in the top of each cake and drizzle with a little Kirsch.
  11. Decorate the tops with cream, grated chilli chocolate and a cherry.

Chicken, chorizo and Jalapeño Tangle Pie

This is an adaptation of the delicious, Hairy Dieters Chicken and Ham Tangle Pie, it’s not quite as healthy but it’s blooming tasty.

The chicken was sent to me by Farmison.com who delivery meat, game, veg and cheese to your door, it was part of a pack which I’ll write some more about soon but the particular chicken in question was a Goosnargh Corn Fed chicken from their poultry range. It was really plump and the skin had that yellow tinge that is associated with corn fed chickens. It was well packaged and well prepared, It even had the farm written on the bag which after the recent horse meat scandals is re assuring and probably something that will become more common place.

I decided to make a version of the Hairy dieters pie with the chicken as I didn’t want to overpower the chicken and had some filo pastry that needed using.

Chicken Tangle pie Ingredients

  • 1 1kg whole chicken, roast and left to cool
  • 3 chestnut mushrooms
  • 1/2 jar Jalapeño
  • 1 pinch chilli flakes
  • 25g Monterey jack or similar cheese, grated
  • 1 medium onion, peeled and finely sliced
  • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 1 medium leek, washed, trimmmed and sliced.
  • 100ml white wine
  • 300ml low fat crème fraiche
  • 1 chicken stock cube
  • 150ml water
  • 50g picante chorizo, sliced
  • 2 tbsp plain flour
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 3 sheets of filo pastry
  • 4 tsp sunflower oil

Method

  1. Pre heat oven to 180 degrees
  2. Heat 2 tsp of sunflower oil in a large non stick fyring pan. Add the onion and crushed garlic, fry gently for 5 minuts until the onion is soft, add the leeks and cook for a further minute, add the chorizo and fry until the oil starts to release
  3. Pour over the white wine and 100ml of the water  and dissolve the stock cube in the pan, turn up the heat and simmer until the liquid has reduced by half
  4. Remove the pan from the heat
  5. Strip the meat from the chicken and cut into bit sized pieces, place in a large bowl then sprinkle the flour on top and toss to coat the chicken.
  6. Mix the onion mixture in with the chicken and season with lots of black pepper and a little salt, add the crème fraiche and Jalapeños stir until well combined.
  7. Tip into 1.5 litre pie dish
  8. Sprinkle the cheese over the top
  9. Pile the filo sheets on top of each other on a work surface, cut into 9 rectangles, cutting through all of the layers.
  10.  Brush each pastry rectangle with a little oil ,loosely scrunch each rectangle up and place on top of the chicken mixture, putting the pieces together until they cover the entire pie. Sprinkle the top with the chilli flakes
  11. Bake for 30-35 minutes until crisp and golden
  12. Serve with salad for green vegetables.
Chicken, chorizo, cheese and chilli
Corn Fed Chicken
Farmison Label

Farmison Meat Delivery

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