Chilli tostada

I went home this weekend. In lieu of spending Christmas with my family on the actual day, we'll be at Mother in law Spread's.


My family doesn't do Christmas traditionally. There is no Turkey. However, there is usually between 20-30 of us, eating a range of delicious treats and delicacies, all with a twist bringing together British dishes with an Asian fusion of spices and textures. For example, dad makes a beef wellington every single year, where the mushrooms are spiced with garlic, ginger, chillies and the usual Indian spices. I of course do not eat this.


Anyway, I digress. My point is, as we were back home in lieu of Christmas, we were fed very handsomely and sent on our way with a bootful of goodies. So, after this weekend, I'm back on the simple, delicious, low fat and high protein dinners. This dish is exactly that and perfect as a Monday night winter warmer.


What you will need
300g quorn mince (any brand will do)
1 yellow pepper
1 tin of kidney beans
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon of tomato puree
1 tea spoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon of paprika
1 teaspoon of chilli powder
2-3 green chillies
½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon of ground cloves
1 onion
2-3 cloves garlic
8 corn tortillas
Sour cream
150g Cheddar


Firstly, make the chilli. Chop the onion and pepper and fry off with the garlic until softened and browned. Add all the spices and cook these off for just a minute before adding the mince, chopped green chillies, tinned tomatoes, kidney beans and tomato puree. Add half the amount of water as the tin of tomatoes and season. Cook this for approximately 20 minutes on a medium heat to reduce and cook through the mince. You want the chilli fairly 'dry' for topping the tostadas.


Cook the corn tortillas as per packet instructions. Mine are ripe for frying, but can also be crisped up in the oven so I chose the healthier latter option.


Top each tostada with the chilli, followed by the grated cheddar and some sour cream with chives.

Serve garnished with some jalapenos if you so wish.

Morrocan spiced butternut squash and lentil salad

The countdown to christmas is on, and it includes a count of the large meals to be eaten until we finally reach the culmination of this journey on Christmas day, or is it New Year's Eve?


Between now and christmas, I have two work Christmas party meals, one friends' get together and an afternoon tea with both sets of mums at the Wolseley; nevermind the two night foodie break in the Cotswolds and NYE dinner ahead. So I want simple, filling, but light and delicious dinners in between all the richness to come. This winter warmer salad is just that.


What you will need
500g butternut squash
250g green lentils
1 small onion
A handful of radishes
2 cooked beetroot
2 table spoons of ras el hanout
1 lemon
Pomegranite molasses
80g watercress
Parmesan


Firstly peel and cube the butternut squash. Add a tablespoon of oil and the ras el hanout spices, season with salt and coat the squash in the spices. Place the squash in the oven to roast for 45-50 minutes at 220 degrees.


Next cover the lentils with water, season with plenty of salt and bring to the boil. Cook for 15-20 minutes until cooked but al dente.


Very thinly slice the onion and radishes and quarter the beetroots.


When the squash is cooked, toss through the lentils with the onions and radishes and the juice of half the lemon.

Serve the salad warm on the watercress leaves with a two quarters of beetroot per plate. Drizzle over a tea spoon of pomegranite molasses and add shaved parmesan.

You can serve with another salty cheese if you fancy, feta also works wonderfully.

Gipsy Spread of course has no need or desire to limit his food intake and supplemented his warm salad with an M&S 28 day aged rump steak cooked in garlic and herb butter!

Leek, pepper and feta souffle omelette

Ok, this might not sound like a simple dinner as it has the word 'souffle' in it, but it is. In fact, souffles aren't always really that difficult and they are truly delicious. Gipsy Spread makes a fantastic cheese souffle.


Anyway, I digress. I had lots of fresh vegetables and some eggs in the fridge and I didn't just want a simple omelette as this is usually something I have at the weekends. I wanted a dish with a bit more... oomph. However, I only had 3 eggs. So, I decided to cook my vegetables and seperate my eggs and by putting in an extra few minutes into whisking the egg whites seperately from the yolks, a fantastic and hearty dinner was born.


What you will need
1 red pepper
1 large leek
I onion
4 large eggs
2-4 green chillies
1 heaped tea spoon (flavoured) mustard
50g feta cheese
25g parmesan cheese
Fresh lemon thyme
Fresh parsley


Firstly slice the peppers, leeks and onion, add to a frying pan with some salt and saute until soft in a table spoon of oil for 5-10 minutes. Add the chopped chillies towards the end.

Next, seperate the eggs into whites and yolks. Whisk the egg whites until light and fluffy, this takes about 3-4 minutes by hand. You are not making a meringue, so they need to quadruple in size and fill with air, but not stiffen.

Mix the mustard into the egg yolks (I used a spicy hot garlic mustard with chillis for extra flavour) and grate in the parmesan.

When ready to cook, mix together the egg white and yolk mix, adding the fresh herbs. Add the mix to the hot pan holding all the vegetables and top with the crumbled feta cheese. 

Cook on the hob on a medium heat for 5 minutes, then place under a preheated grill to brown the top of the omelette.

Slice and serve hot with a nice fresh salad.

Refried bean tostada

A good friend has recently parted company with his girlfriend and he was coming round for dinner to commiserate. Now, this partner didn’t like spicy food, so how better to help him realise the pluses to this sad event than to help him remember the joys of spicy food. I know that some readers might think this is small comfort, however for me, I can content with Gipsy Spread's meat eating, however a dislike of chilli and spice would be a deal breaker! It was with this in mind and the many corn tortillas in the freezer that I set about making him a Mexican feast for his dinner. This included tacos, bean tostadas using the larger corn tortillas, a radish salad and of course the ubiquitous guacamole and salsa.


I had contemplated using these naga bhut jolokia dried chillies that I recently picked up in Borough market. I thought however that this might be too much too soon for him. I heeded the warning that these should be 'handled with care'!

 

What you will need

3 tins of kidney beans

1 tablespoon of tomato puree
2 tea spoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon of paprika
1 teaspoon of chilli powder
1 teaspoon of ground cloves
2-3 green chillies
Crispy iceberg or little gem lettuce
Cheddar
Guacamole
Salsa
A handful radishes

8 tostada corn tortillas

 

 

Fristly prepare the refried beans by adding the drained tins of kidney beans with all the spices, some salt, the chopped green chillies and tomato puree. Add a little but of water (c50ml) and heat through for a 5-6 minutes until the sauce has thickened and reduced. Take a potato masher to the beans to mash them up slightly. Then set aside.

 

 

Next make the guacamole and salsa. Grate enough cheddar for four people and slice the lettuce and radishes. Put everything aside and crisp up the tortillas for 4-5 minutes in a pre-heated oven or via frying.

 

 

When ready to serve, reheat the beans and bring all the dishes to the dinner table.

 

 

Start with the beans and spread on top of the tortilla. Next layer up the lettuce and radishes, then salsa and guacamole, then finally the cheddar (or mix it upyour way). This is a messy dish, eat with your hands and enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 





Roast butternut squash and chimichurri tacos

I still had corn tortillas left as I had frozen the many packs the guy at Borough market handed for £3. I don't know how much he sells them for normally, but £3 for 2 packets of small tortillas and one medium packet seemed alright to me?

Also, my friend had just parted company with a girl who doesn't like heat/chilli/spice, so I chose to spice up his life with a Mexican feast, which included tacos with the butternut squash taking centre stage. My favourite way to cook squash is also via roasting as it really caramelises and brings the sweetness out, which works fantastically with salty feta cheese. I have then topped it all off with a herby chilli chimichurri sauce.


What you will need
300g butternut squash (diced and peeled)
1 onion
2 tea spoons ground cumin
2 tea spoons paprika
1/2 tea spoon ground cinnamon
80g feta cheese
Chimichurri sauce
8 corn tortillas

Peel the butternut squash and cube. Thickly slice the onions and mix with the squash. And a little bit of olive oil. Sprinkle over some salt and add the cumin, paprika and ground cinnamon. Mix together. I am not adding any chilli or garlic to the squash as there is plenty in the chimichurri.


Next, roast in a preheated oven at 220 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until the squash is caramelised and soft. 

Heat the corn tacos as per instructions and top with the squash and onion mix, a tea spoon of the chimichurri and some crumbled feta cheese.

Chimichurri sauce

Chimichuri is a green coloured garlic and herby chilli sauce or rub which originates from South America, Argentina to be exact. It is a deliciously simple way to dress up dishes, either as a sauce, dip or marinade. I am using it today as a sauce inside my fresh tacos. It will balance the sweetness of my roasted butternut squash and salty feta fantastically. It is, as you can imagine, also perfect for barbeques.
 

What you will need 

1 bunch of fresh coriander

2 cloves garlic

2 table spoons olive oil

1 table spoons white wine vinegar

1/2 tea spoon ground cumin

4 green chillis

Splash of water

 

Place all the ingredients into a blender whizz together.





Et voila! Serve with or on kebabs, or on the side a beed or spiced cauliflower steak.

 

Simple tomato salsa

A tangy tomato sauce is the simplest thing to make and is so versatile with so many uses. The Italians might top bread with it for bruschetta, the french will have it simply as a salad and the Mexicans use it as a fabulous salsa to accompany and refresh spice dishes and add another depth of flavour and texture. Genius! I have this particular version with tacos, enchiladas, chilli, tostadas and the like.

 

What you will need

250g Tomatoes
1-2 cloves garlic

1 onion

1 red chilli
Fresh coriander

 

Chop the tomatoes, onion and chilli. Crush the garlic, season with salt and a pinch of sugar and mix together. Stir through some chopped fresh coriander before serving.

 

Guacamole

I don't think any mexican dish is complete without guacamole. There is nothing better than a perfectly ripe, nutty and creamy avocado. The mexicans pair it genious-ly with chillis and lime to provide a sublime dip and accompaniment to many of their dishes. I have this with tacos, enchiladas, chilli, tostadas and the like.

 

 

What you will need

Guacamole

2-3 ripe avocados

1 tomato

1 tea spoon chilli flakes

1/2 a red onion

Fresh coriander

1 lime

 

Firstly mash together two of the avocados, you can use the blender of you wish. Next, chop the third avocado, onion and tomato. Stir into the mashed avocado and add the chilli flakes and juice of half the lime with plenty of salt.

Stir through fresh coriander just before serving. Delicious!

 

Ottolengh-ing for a birthday dinner

 

It was Brother Toast’s birthday last week and he was coming round for dinner. I decided to make good use of my copy of ‘Jerusalem’ by picking all the dishes for the birthday dinner from it. I’m not going to go into detail about the recipes as they can be found in the book and I’m not sure if my reproduction here would infringe any copyright laws, but I thought it would be helpful to outline how I got on.


I decided that I would cook chicken for the meat eaters, so opted for a relatively easy chicken sofrito (p190) without the potatoes and which I accompanied with the rice and lentil dish 'mejadra' (p120) and the spiced chickpeas and fresh vegetable salad (p56).


All of these were really easy to make. For the chicken dish I used boneless taste the difference chicken thighs (as opposed to a split whole chicken) and sliced onions, which meant I only needed to cook for 45 minutes instead of 90.


I prepared everything in advance as I was off to the Cat's house for a housewarming/christmas party where there was going to be mulled wine.

 

So I started with the chicken, which was seared and topped with all the other ingredients and left aside to cook fresh before serving.

I cooked the lentils and mixed with the oil, rice and spices, ready for topping with the water to also cook afresh.

The chickpeas were simply coated in their spices and set aside for a quick toasting minutes before serving and the rest of the salad ingredients were chopped and placed in the fridge with a jar of the dressing.

 

I put the chicken on to heat through slowly 45 minutes before serving, the rice was cooked 25 minutes before serving and then left to steam as advised for the final 10 minutes before being topped with freshly fried onions.

 

The chick peas were heated in the last few minutes and added the salad ingredients and dressed.

The flavours of the rice and lentils and chickpeas were deliciously fragrant, robust and complex. Apparently all the additions suited the chicken dish very well too. I had served up an onion and coriander raita alongside as which added a further tangy, crunchy and pungent element to the main course.


I had prepared equally with the dessert which was the poached pears in white wine and cardamom (p267). The pears had been waiting in the cooking liquid until 25 minutes before I wanted to serve, when the pan went on to poach.

The most involved part of the meal was really the side of sweet filo cigars (p258) I had chosen to befriend the poached pear. I didn’t have any pistachios, so replaced these with pine nuts in the recipe which worked equally as well. Whilst I say these are involved, the were actually relatively simple to make, but requiring a bit more time a few stages of cooking.

 

 

The dessert was wonderfully fragrant and light from the cardamom pears, but also gooey, rich and sticky from the cigars.

All in all, I made this meal out of ingredients I normally have around the house, all the spices, lentils, rice, chickpeas, pears etc. It all worked wonderfully well together and felt like a special dinner.


Any and all leftovers of the chickpea salad and rice and lentils have made fantastic work lunches. If you are looking for a really excellent present for any foodie, I’d suggest picking up a copy of ‘Jerusalum’. Thanks again to the Cat and Alice who bought me this book. It was lovely seeing you both before the dinner at the Cat's!

Turkish eggs aka cilbir

So, we had some of yesterdays delicious brunch potato pancakes left over. Having served that with a yoghurt and harissa sauce, the fabulously tangy and decadent turkish eggs (also known as 'cilbir') came to mind. I was also planning on cooking out of 'Jerusalum' this evening as Brother Toast and his fiance are coming for dinner. So I began the day as I meant to go on, eating in the middle east.


What you will need
4 eggs
1/4 of a lemon
1 clove garlic
6 table spoons of plain Yoghurt
2 table spoons olive oil
A splash of white wine vinegar
1 tea spoon chilli powder
1 tea spoon paprika
½ tea spoon sumac


Fistly, prepare the eggs. This is the best way to get perfect poached eggs every time.


Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add a splash of vinegar. Turn the heat down and then carefully crack in 2 eggs. Let these poach for 3-4 minutes, they will start coming away  from the bottom when done.

Remove the eggs from the pan with a slotted spoon. Place on kitchen paper to drain any water and repeat with the other eggs.

Meanwhile, spoon 6 table spoons of yoghurt into a bowl, season with plenty of salt and pepper, then add the crushed clove of garlic and the juice of the lemon.


In a separate pan, heat together the olive oil, chilli powder, sumac and paprika for just a minute.


When ready to serve, dish up two of the poached eggs on each plate, followed by half of the yoghurt mix. Next, split the spiced oil between the two servings.

Garnish with fresh coriander or mint and serve with toasted breads, or perhaps potato latkes, like me?