Posts Tagged ‘Chilli’
Saturday, September 11th, 2010
As man cannot live on smoothies alone, we’ve been cooking up some detox friendly solids too. This recipe is a bit of a remix of a Nigel Slater feta and lentil salad recipe, and it’s really delicious. You won’t even notice that it’s actually pretty good for you.
Our detox is now over, but we eat this pretty regularly regardless. It’s good served hot, but can be eaten warm or even cold the day after.
Ingredients (serves 2-3)
200g green lentils
200g feta cheese
2 red onions, sliced
1 red pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Small handful of fresh oregano
1 heaped teaspoon of maras biberi or dried chilli flakes
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Salt a pepper to taste
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Tags: Bake, Chilli, Dijon Mustard, Feta, Green Lentils, Lemon juice, Lentil, Olive Oil, Oregano, Red Onion, Red Pepper, Salad
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Recipes | 2 Comments »
Monday, July 26th, 2010
My Mac has recovered, so its back to France for a few posts.
When we visited the food market at Forcalquier, as mentioned in this post, the missus spotted some courgette flowers for sale. We both remembered seeing Jamie Oliver deep frying some ricotta stuffed flowers on one of his shows, and despite not having a cookbook or any access to the interwebs, we decided to gave it a go.
Without blowing my own trumpet, the results were great, and to be honest it was easier that I thought it would be. The following recipe serves 6 as a small starter (2 flowers each), and although I didn’t at the time (because my father ain’t fan of the spice) I’ve added some red chilli. Not very French, but there you go.
Ingredients
12 large courgette flowers
For the stuffing
250g Ricotta
50g Parmesan, grated
1 tablespoon finely chopped basil
1 tablespoon finely chopped mint
Zest of 1 lemon
1 red chilli, seeds removed, finely chopped
Salt & pepper to taste
(more…)
Tags: Basil, Batter, Chilli, Courgette, Flowers, Fried, Lemon, Mint, parmesan, Ricotta, Stuffed
Posted in Lunch, Recipes, Snack, Travel | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
Whilst my Mac is being re-habilitated I don’t have access to my holiday pics, so I’ll have to come back to the stuff I rustled up in France at a later date. But my camera is still working, and I’ve bought my schizo old mac back from the dead, so I can do a bit of posting in the meantime.
This recipe is my take on the tapas classic Gambas al Ajillo, and It’s pretty simple and quick too. Buy the biggest, fattest prawns you can afford. Serves two as a main course.
Ingredients
8 King prawns / Tiger prawns
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 dried or fresh red chilli, chopped
20g unsalted butter
35ml extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1/2 large lemon
Salt to taste
Handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped
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Tags: Butter, Chilli, Garlic, King Prawns, Lemon, Olive Oil, Parsley, Salt, Sourdough, Tapas, Tiger Prawns
Posted in Lunch, Recipes | 3 Comments »
Thursday, June 24th, 2010
It’s been hot, hot, hot in London town this week, and the warm weather has got me thinking about summer food. Aside maybe from a decent burger on a barbie, for me it’s the Mediterraneans that totally nail ‘al fresco’ eating. Grilled meats, crunchy veg and fresh zingy flavours.
These lamb wraps have all that and more. The taste of the spicy, charred, marinated meat and the tzatziki work really well together, and the wraps mean that the dish is still pretty light. We don’t have a garden, so our griddle pan has to do.
Ingredients (makes 3 large wraps)
For the lamb
400g lamb leg steaks
Handful of fresh oregano leaves, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
Juice of one lemon
50ml extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
Pinch of salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
For the tzatziki
200g 0% fat Greek yoghurt
1/4 cucumber, sliced and diced
Handful of mint leaves, chopped
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Tags: Chilli, Cucumber, Garlic, Lamb, Lemon, Mint, Olive Oil, Onion, Oregano, Paprika, Salad, Tzatziki, Wraps, Yoghurt
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Recipes | 3 Comments »
Sunday, June 20th, 2010
I love a bit of pork belly, but I don’t cook it at home that often. I’m not really sure why, but as soon as I taste that tasty, unctuous meat and get my teeth round that crackling, I vow to do it more often.
This recipe gives the belly the Eastern treatment using Szechuan pepper and Chinese five spice. Despite a lot of the fat rendering out during the cooking process, it’s definitely not the healthiest meat, but when it tastes as good as it does, who gives a toss.
Ingredients (serves 2)
For the pork
750g pork belly joint
1 tablespoon Szechuan pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper corns
1 teaspoon Chinese five spice
1 teaspoon sea salt
For the greens
200g baby pak choi
1/2 red chilli, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon Light soy sauce
2 tablespoons water
6-8 Spring onions
Sesame oil
Vegetable oil
Method
First up, score the skin of pork belly all over in a diamond formation with as sharp a knife as you’re got. You want to cut through the skin, but not down to the flesh, around 3 millimeters deep.
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Tags: Belly, Chilli, Chinese, Crackling, Crispy, Garlic, Pak Choi, Pork, Salt, Sesame Oil, Spring Onion, Szechuan pepper
Posted in Dinner, Recipes | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 3rd, 2010
As I may or may not have mentioned before, my other half’s family are a real mixed bag in terms of nationalities. Chinese, Indian, and South African to name but three. A veritable melting pot compared to my comparatively mundane ancestry.
As a result, my future mother in law, Connie, seems to be able to cook anything. From insane curries and whole fried Chinese fish, to cream horns and South African doughnuts. And the speed she does it at is mind blowing. Turn your back for 10 seconds and when you look back there’s a plate of food in front of you. Brilliant.
This recipe is for her quick lamb curry that I tried whilst over in Oz and she kindly wrote the recipe down for me. It’s very tasty, and also very easy. If you can get your lamb on the bone, so much the better as it’ll give your curry more flavour.
Ingredients
750g stewing lamb, diced
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, pounded
1 thumb sized piece of ginger, pounded
1/4 teaspoon tumeric
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 cinnamon stick
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Tags: Chilli, Coriander, Cumin, Curry, Garam Massala, Garlic, Ginger, Green Lentils, Lamb, Onion, Rice, Tomato
Posted in Dinner, Recipes, Travel | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
Veal had a bit of a bad rep in the 80s, but that didn’t stop the veal escalope becoming one of my favourite things to eat when I was growing up. There used to be this great Italian restaurant called La Baita up the road from my folk’s place in North London that we’d to go to on a pretty regular basis. I pretty much always ordered the veal escalope, which was served with sauteed potatoes and deep fried courgette. Not exactly healthy, but very tasty.
This is a bit of a remix of that childhood favourite. The prep is a bit fiddly, but well worth it.
Ingredients
For the Veal
2 veal escalopes
Seasoned plain flour
Thyme, finely chopped
Breadcrumbs (enough to coat both escalopes – 250 ish g)
1 egg, beaten
For the Courgette & Potato Cake
1 large potato, grated
3 courgettes, grated
1 medium onion, finely sliced
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Tags: Breadcrumbs, Cake, Chilli, Courgette, Egg, Escalope, Italian, Lemon, Milanese, parmesan, Potato, Recipe, Salad, thyme, Veal
Posted in Dinner, Recipes | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
It was Valentines Day at the weekend, and as Hand To Mouth got engaged at New Years, I thought I’d better make a bit of an effort. Not being a fan of going to restaurants on VDay (always disappointing) I whipped up a three course feast fit for the future Mrs HTM. The menu:
Salt & Pepper Squid
Baked Cod & Leeks
Lemon Posset with Lemon & Almond Shortbread
I’m going to do a post per course as I don’t have the time to do them all at once, so first up our starter, Salt & Pepper Squid. If you can’t get hold of Szechuan peppercorns, just use 3/4 of a tablespoon of black peppercorns instead.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon Szechuan peppercorns, ground
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
(more…)
Tags: Chilli, Cornflour, Flour, Lemon, Pepper, Rapeseed Oil, Salad, Salt, Spring Onion, Squid, Szechuan peppercorns
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Recipes, Snack | No Comments »
