Posts Tagged ‘thyme’
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
Its as cold as a witches tit here in London at the moment. The kind of cold that gets into your bones, and wont shift until it’s made to. Which is where this chorizo and chickpea stew comes in. A bit of a riff on the Spicy Spanish Stew I do, this is hotter, spicier, smokier and has all the ingredients to give you that Ready Brek glow, but without having to shovel some unpleasant gruel down your neck.
I use Brindisa’s picante chorizo, as I like it the best, but you can use whichever cooking chorizo floats your boat. Don’t use the salami like cured stuff, as it doesn’t really work for this recipe. Lets crack on.
Ingredients (serves 3-4)
6 cooking chorizo
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 medium hot red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp maras biberi
1 tin of chopped tomatoes (400g)
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Tags: Brindisa, Chickpea, Chilli, Chorizo, Cold, Garlic, Hot, Maras Biberi, Onion, Piquant, Ready Brek, Smoked Paprika, Smokey, Spicy, Stew, thyme, Tit, Tomato, Weather
Posted in Dinner, Recipes | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
The other day the missus suggested that I should tackle some indigenous recipes on Hand To Mouth. The kind of food that, for better or worse, the good ol’ US of A is known for. So this is the first of these American Classics, Southern Fried Chicken.
I’m no food snob. I love a bit of fried chicken. A KFC or Junior Spesh after a night out is one of life’s pleasures. But there’s nothing wrong with elevating it a couple of notches either. I use thighs for this recipe, as to my taste they’ve got the right skin to flesh ratio, and of course that tasty dark meat. I also use a good dose of not very traditional herbs and spices in the coating.
Buttermilk isn’t that easy to get in the UK, so if you can’t get it, some live yhogurt will do just as well. Lets get cookin’.
Ingredients (serves 2)
6 chicken thighs
For the ‘marinade’
1 pint (600ml) buttermilk
1 clove of garlic
1/2 an medium onion
Sprig of rosemary
Sprig of time
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Tags: American, Buttermilk, Classic, Crispy, Egg, French Beans, Fried Chicken, Garlic, Lemon, Mashed Potato, Melinda's Hot Sauce, Onion, Recipe, Rosemary, SFC, Smoked Paprika, Southern, Thighs, thyme
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Recipes | No Comments »
Monday, April 11th, 2011
We’ve had quite a nice burst of sun in London over the past few days, which got me thinking about salads. But seeing as we’re not quite out of the woods temperature wise yet, this is greenery with guts.
The beetroot is warm and sweet with a bit of a spicy kick, and goes really well with the tangy, creamy goats cheese. If you wanted to, you could also throw in a few crushed walnuts, but I didn’t have any to hand, so I didn’t.
Y’all ready?
Ingredients (serves 2)
500g beetroot
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
1 teaspoon, fresh oregano, chopped
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
(more…)
Tags: Beetroot, Chilli, Goats Cheese, Honey, Olive Oil, Oregano, Rocket, Salad, Spinach, thyme, Watercress
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Recipes | No Comments »
Sunday, March 27th, 2011
Like the previous recipe, this one also pairs up lamb with some heat and punchy flavours. The harissa loses some of it’s heat in the cooking, and creates a lovely tangy, spicy, sticky crust on the lamb. I got my hands on a fine leg of Yorkshire lamb from my new favourite meat source, Marky Market. It’s a great idea. Mark gets up every day to go to Smithfields and Billingsgate, you place your order the day before, and then he delivers to your door. Brilliant.
In terms of prep time, the potatoes are a bit of a faff, but the lamb is simplicity itself, so it’s swings and roundabouts. We served it with a gorgeous heritage tomato, red onion and mint salad, and a tzatziki (you can find the recipe for the latter here).
Ingredients
(for the lamb)
2.5 kg leg of lamb
90g Harissa paste
90g 0% fat Greek yoghurt
Juice and zest of one lemon
(for the potatoes)
1.7 kg of potatoes (Desiree / King Edward)
1 white onion
1 red onion
(more…)
Tags: Boulangere, Harissa, Juice, Lamb, Leg, Lemon, Onions, Potatoes, stock, thyme, Tzatziki, Yoghurt
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Recipes | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
As mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been looking at new features to add to Hand To Mouth. My friend Dazzler suggested I try re-creating recipes from weird and wonderful books, which I thought was a great idea. This first ‘Tried & Tested’ post fits more into the latter category, as it comes from a rather lovely new cookery book called ‘Great British Food‘.
Put together by the guys behind the brilliant Canteen mini chain of restaurants, this Lancashire Hot Pot stays true to their ethos of cooking gutsy, tasty, good quality, British grub. The recipe calls for leg mutton, which I couldn’t get hold of at the time of cooking, so instead I used shoulder of lamb.
The recipe takes a bit of prep, but once you get going it’s pretty easy, and it tastes reet good.
Ingredients (serves 6)
50g butter
250g onions, sliced
1kg boned leg of mutton, 3-4cm dice
150g carrots, sliced
10g fresh thyme, leaves picked
3 bay leaves
700g floury potatoes (Maris Piper), peeled ad thinly sliced
500ml meat stock
100ml meat stock
Salt and black pepper
(more…)
Tags: Bay, Book, Canteen, Carrot, Lamb, Lancashire Hot Pot, Potatoes, Recipe, stock, thyme
Posted in Dinner, Reading, Recipes, Uncategorized | No 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
(more…)
Tags: Breadcrumbs, Cake, Chilli, Courgette, Egg, Escalope, Italian, Lemon, Milanese, parmesan, Potato, Recipe, Salad, thyme, Veal
Posted in Dinner, Recipes | 1 Comment »
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
So, catching up, the second course of our valentine’s dinner was baked cod and baby leeks straight from the pages of Jamie at home, which if you don’t have it is a brilliant book (IMHO). The cod is marinaded in a lemon and herb mix before cooking. We had ours served with garlic mash.
Ingredients
10 baby leeks, trimmed
2 x 200g fillets of cod (with skin and sustainable if possible)
4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
Juice of 1/2 a small lemon
Olive oil
1 large clove garlic finely chopped
2 sprigs rosemary
(more…)
Tags: Bacon, Baked, Bay, Cod, Garlic, Jamie at Home, Jamie Oliver, Leeks, Lemon, Mashed Potato, Olive Oil, Rosemary, thyme
Posted in Dinner, Reading | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
It’s bloody cold in London right now, and add hangovers into the mix from all the Christmas partying, you need some seriously restorative food to get you back on an even keel. This French onion soup ticks all the boxes in terms of comforting, warming and tasty sustenance, and will have you ready for that next session of festive boozing before you can say zut alors!
Ingredients
Olive oil
Large nob of butter
1kg of onions
5 fat cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
70ml French brandy
150ml French white wine
750ml chicken stock
750ml beef stock
(more…)
Tags: brandy, Cheese, croutons, French, Garlic, gruyere, Onion, Soup, Soupe a l'oignon, stock, thyme, wine
Posted in Lunch, Recipes | No Comments »
