Chicken kebab

We are on a lifestyle change, eating more healthy with better portions.  But I love the chicken kebabs from the kebab house that delivers to my house.  Although I don't like green peppers I also love their green peppers, mushrooms and onions so I needed to find a good substitute for these or I was going to crave what I was deprived off.  So I tried to do this at home and this version was received well by all.

For the chicken I chopped 2 chicken breasts for 3 skewers in bite size pieces and put in a bowl with a marinade of

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons lemon juice

3 tablespoons white vinegar ( white wine, cider or rice wine is fine)

2 cloves garlic crushed or finely grated

1 teaspoon cumin

1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 pepper

stir to mix, cover and put in the fridge for 2 hours plus.

when you are ready to cook thread the chicken onto skewers and either cook in a preheated griddle pan or frying pan until charred on all sides and cooked all the way through. It took about 8-10 minutes I think turning so all sides were cooked.  I've done similar to this just stir frying in a pan to

meanwhile I chopped an onion, green pepper and some chestnut mushrooms up so there is roughly a third of each

while the chicken was cooking I heated a little vegetable oil and stir fried these in a frying pan over a high heat with a little seasoning and a good sprinkling of oregano.  the pepper should be slightly charred, onion should of lost its rawness and well cooked. 

I warmed through a pack of pitta, Gave everyone a skewer of chicken and put salad and the pepper mix on the table.  It all vanished.  Even the not liking green pepper kid ate his share with enthusiasm. 

Will in the future invest in a jar of pickled chillis.  I am only one who likes them ;o) And maybe do a low fat yogurt dressing to.  But for now it's good as it is. 

Mixy mixy mix muffins

OR 

Mincemeat and cranberry muffins 

Not a brilliant first photo but the light was strange at this point due to the weather.  With school out and my daughter at work I was pleased to have my son Luke home and Granddaughter Ever round to play.  I mentioned baking and Ever was in the kitchen and had oven gloves at the ready 

I started to get things out and the wash basket was flipped over and Ever was in there quick as lightening and pushing everyone out the way to be in charge of the dry ingredients bowl.

In the dry ingredients bowl we measured out

250g self raising flour

150 g caster sugar

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

50 grams dried cranberries

2 teaspoons of mixed spice

These were stirred together well with a wooden spoon while Ever was chanting and singing mixy mixy mixy mix

I preheated the oven to gas mark 6 and then we put out 12 muffin cases in a tray and Luke was in charge of the dry ingredients, he whisked together

200ml semi skimmed milk

85 ml vegetable oil

2 eggs 

Happily still mixing Luke then added the wet to the dry mix and it was kind of mixed between the pair of them, Luckily being muffins not being totally combined is fine. we added 

125g of mincemeat left over from Christmas mince pie making and folded through.

I just about convinced the kids to let me put it in the cases and we got 11 out of the mix, baked for 18 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

we dived in while still only just warm.  A cup of tea with them would of been perfect. 

Garlic Bread is the future

Until about 6 months ago I hadn't even heard of the Garlic bread sketch by Peter Kay,  now you can't mention Garlic Bread without someone happily squawking out the whole scene. But as good and loved garlic bread is all that butter is not a good thing.  I found a Paul Hollywood recipe that used roasted garlic and cooked that within the bread dough itself. It works beautifully. 

The white bread dough was just normal white bread dough mix with a little added butter to the mix, you could use olive oil to I think. Once the dough had been kneaded and was left proving I was left to peel 3 bulbs worth of garlic. Went fairly fast watching TV. the garlic was sprinkled with 1 tsp caster sugar and a tbsp of olive oil and roasted for 20 minutes at gas mark 5 until golden and soft.  Mine was a touch over in places.  Then left to cool

The garlic was simply then kneaded through the proven dough and then divided in 2 and stretched into rough rectangles, then placed on a silicone paper or oiled tin and left to double in size again

then a simple drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of dried oregano and we were ready to bake for 25-30 minutes at gas mark 6 

The garlic did go a bit dark and it added to the pungency although a few were a bit to dark.  We left it to cool before trying it, rare in our house it's usually cut into while still warm.

Cutting through I thought the garlic looked very sparse, but it did permeate the bread with  lovely garlic flavour, then very now and then you got a more pungent, slightly chewy gorgeousness. Definitely a make again and play with recipe

Experiment with vodka

Someone mentioned toffee vodka earlier in the week which led to a discussion on Facebook between toffee or chocolate vodka. After checking cupboard for vodka and buying some Werther originals I quickly put together a batch which should be ready Sunday I hope 

First of all I I got organised. Was about to pulverise them in a pestle and mortar, then decided I wasn't in mood for pulverising. So I blitzed instead. 

Just under a bag as these had extra free. Was surprised to see how light they looked blitzed 

Next job was pouring into a jar and covering with vodka to make a very murky looking liquid. 

I stirred it a bit and now will leave for a day or 2 for the sweets to dissolve. Need to top up the vodka to as didn't have as much in cupboard as I thought. Will give it a gentle shake as I walk by. 

Will update you on Sunday. 

Shepherds Cobbly pie!

I started off making a shepherds pie.  Then me being me got distracted and decided to make dumplings, then decided to make the mixture a bit looser and do a cobble type but not top. Anyway it was delicious and great comfort food for this time of year. 

1 large or 2 medium carrots, peeled and cubed smallish

1 onion, fairly finally chopped

2 stalks of celery, strings removed and chopped small

The above 3 things I used to blitz in a processor until very fine when I had my kids going through  a picky stage

450 g lamb mince ( 400 if that's what you get in a pack)

squirt of tomato sauce or tomato puree ( guess who lost tomato puree tube)

2 tablespoons flour

one chicken stock cube and 400 ml water to dissolve stock cube or stock melt into. 

topping

175 g self rising flour 

75 g suet, or grated hard butter 

1 heaped tablespoon wholegrain mustard

50 grams grated cheese and more for the top if liked

Start with a tablespoon of oil in a pan,  I have an oven proof fry pan with deep sides I use but you can put the mix after pan cooking into an oven proof dish when moving to the oven, on a medium heat put in your chopped veg and cook on low for around 10 minutes. It should be softening, onions cooked through and just started  get some colour on it. 

Add the lamb and increase the heat browning the mince off so no remaining pink is visible.  Season with salt and pepper and add your tomato puree and stir through for a minute.  sprinkle over the flour and stir through until absorbed into the mix.  Gradually add your stock stirring the whole time so you get a thick saucy effect.  Bring to the boil then lower to a simmer and let it simmer for around 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and tasting at the end of the time to check for seasoning.  

Near the end of simmering turn the oven to gas mark 5 and grab a bowl.  measure in all your ingredients for the topping plus some seasoning.  Mix together well with warm water.  Add enough so the mixture is slightly to wet to roll into balls.  I pushed the on top of the meat mix in tablespoon dollops until it mostly covered the meat but not quite.  Grate over a little more cheese if liked and place in the oven for around 25 minutes. I served with some peas, cauliflower and red Kale as was what we had to hand and got good noises from the family so will be one I make again :o) 

I have long since stopped buying supermarket mince.  Unbelievably buying at the local butchers is a better deal.  My local farm shop even better.  When I cook the mince from these places less fat and water runs out meaning I get more meat to.  Also the flavour is stronger. So if you are using supermarket mince you might need to add a bit more seasoning or stock depending on your personal taste.  

Lemon meringue cupcakes

These were to good,  I ended up making 2 batches to deliver to 2 different people during course of the week . The base are just cupcake/fairy cake size so although they are rich and lemony with clouds of meringue they are not to much to get through. 

for the cakes

Oven was heated to gas mark 4/180 degrees

110g caster sugar

110g unsalted butter

2 medium eggs

110g self raising flour

zest of one lemon

put 12 cupcake liners in 12 hoes in a cupcake tray

cream together the butter and sugar until pale, light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time until thoroughly incorporated before adding the next egg.  Then sift in the flour and lemon zest and stir through until fully incorporated

Spoon mix into the cupcake liners evenly,  and bake for 15 minutes until they are cooked but testing with a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean.  Leave to cool completely.

Then I used end of a piping nozzle to push through gently in the centre and then used a teaspoon to take this bit of cake out and filled it with half a teaspoon of good lemon curd.

for the meringue 

2 egg whites ( room temp)

110g caster sugar

Whisk up the egg whites until soft peak stage, then slowly add the caster sugar while still whisking until the egg whites are tick, glossy and hold a stiff peak.  I piped mine on top with a large star icing nozzle.  And then the fun bit.  I used my mini chefs blowtorch to gently and carefully caramelize the meringue on top to give it the cooked look.  You could also preheat a grill and pop under for a few minutes.

It's a very simple cake but it was I think the most talked about cake I have made lately :o) 

Here's an inner view

As these meringues are not 'cooked'  please be careful with the quality of the eggs you use and don't give these to any of the vulnerable groups to be on the safe side.

soy glazed chicken salad

Yesterday I bought Delicious magazine. The past few months I haven't really bought or read many magazines but this one caught my eye.  Looking through I found this recipe and as a bonus I actually had everything for it, well almost. Will type it out with what I had and did, if you want the original recipe then go buy the magazine ;o) 

To generously serve 2

2 free range chicken breasts, skinless

3 tablespoons dark soy sauce

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

2/3 cucumber, halved deseeded and cut into half moon shapes

1 & 1/2 big carrots peeled, then sliced into finish strips

1/2 iceberg lettuce finely sliced or ideally 2 little gem lettuce

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

juice 2 limes

1 tablespoon fish sauce

sesame seeds to serve

Directions also say large handful of mint and coriander with the leaves picked which I had but forgot to add. d'oh! Would of made this dish very special I think 

First thing first, had to put the chicken breasts between cling film and flatten a bit so they are about a cm thick. Turns out my chicken breasts were so big we ended up only using one of them after cooking them and have one left for dinner tonight :o)

Put the chicken in a dish, bowl or container and add the soy, honey and 1 tablespoon of the sesame oil.  move the chicken around and make sure its all mixed and coated,  leave it to one side for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare your salad and place in a serving bowl along with your herbs. Set aside and warm up a frying pan over a fairly high heat.  When up to heat add the vegetable oil and cook the chicken breasts around 2 minutes per side until cooked and glaze a bit, Mine looked a little scorched in places but it wasn't and tasted great.  When it is cooked then put to one side to rest and cool before slicing into strips. 

For the dressing mix together the rest of the sesame oil, lime juice and fish sauce. Add the dressing and chicken into the salad and toss all together.  Serve sprinkled with sesame seeds if you have them and enjoy. 

This went down really well as it has a fair few contrasting tastes that really make this interesting to eat,  I was a little worried the dressing with the limes might of been a bit sharp for Luke but once it was all dressed and the flavours combined it wasn't to strong at all.  

Best of all from opening the cupboards and grabbing the ingredients to putting the salad on the table took 20 minutes.

Think I am going to try using the second breast I used with some egg fried rice tonight. With some veggies.  I bought 2 chicken breasts from the farm sop Sunday.  Once they were bashed out flat I could only fit one in my frying pan at a time, giant monster chickens on their farm I think.