Easy tasty meal

I have made this meal several times recently, and it is an extremely easy and tasty family meal. It has chorizo in it which imparts a rich punchy flavour but if you want to make it vegetarian meal, you can omit it. This makes enough for about six servings and it freezes well so it makes a quick meal if you are short of time. There are a few ingredients to get but they are reasonably cheap and will make a large quantity. If you serve it with bread, it will eke it out a bit more.

Ingredients

1 red onion, chopped
2 sticks of celery, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, finely chopped
1 tin of sweet corn
1 tin butterbeans
1 tin of kidney beans
1 small garlic clove
1 tin of plum or chopped tomatoes
500ml vegetable stock
About 100g cooking chorizo, chopped
Small tub of sour cream
1 avocado
Small bunch of coriander, chopped
Small bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 bay leaf
A couple of sprigs of thyme, leaves picked
Extra virgin olive oil

Heat a large pan to a high heat and add a little olive oil. Fry the chorizo until starting to go golden, then empty onto a plate and set to one side. Lower the heat to medium then add the onion, celery, carrot, bay leaf and thyme leaves to the pan and cook for a few minutes until softened. Add the garlic and fry for a few more minutes. Then add the chorizo back into the pan and add the drained beans, sweet corn, vegetable stock and tomatoes. Simmer for about 30 minutes until you have a reduced, slightly thickened rich stew. Taste to see if you need to add any more seasoning. Stir in the chopped parsley and coriander and heap into bowls. Top with a dollop of sour cream, a few pieces of chopped avocado and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle the top with a little pepper and sea salt flakes if you have them and serve with crusty bread.

Smoked Pancetta wrapped Scallops with broad beans and toasted ciabatta

This is the final recipe I made with the scallops. It's a really simple dish that can be a mid week treat as it's so quick to make. Smoked pancetta goes really well with the scallops and the crunch of the ciabatta gives a good contrast in texture.

Ingredients

Serves 2

Half a ciabatta loaf

two large handfuls of fresh salad leaves (watercress and rocket works well)

16 fresh queen scallops

a couple of handfuls of podded broad beans

8 rashers of smoked or ordinary pancetta

a tbsp of grated parmesan and parmesan shavings to garnish

A bay leaf

tbsp olive oil

Extra virgin olive oil 

Walnut oil (optional)

Freshly ground sea salt and black pepper

Heat the oven to 200 degrees. Place the broad beans in a pan of unsalted water and add the bay leaf. Bring to the boil and cook for about 20 minutes until tender. Immediately refresh under cold water to keep their colour, then slip them out of their skins. Cut the ciabatta into 1 inch chunks, put in a bowl with salt and pepper, tbsp of grated parmesan and tbsp of olive oil and mix to combine. Spread out on a baking sheet and put in the oven for five to ten minutes to go golden and crispy. Place the scallops in a bowl and season lightly and dress with a little olive oil. Take each rasher of pancetta and tear in half then wrap each scallop in a piece of pancetta and place on a baking sheet. Cook for about eight minutes until the pancettta is starting to crisp slightly. While the scallops are cooking, dress the salad leaves and broad beans with a little extra virgin olive oil and salt and pepper. Take the ciabatta and scallops out of the oven. Place a handful of salad and broad beans on each plate then add the scallops and the ciabatta and drizzle with a little walnut oil and garnish with parmesan shavings. 

 

Scallop Triumph

I have made three dishes in all with my scallops now and have one more to go. I made a fish pie last night with some of them which was really tasty but the meal I did tonight was so simple and absolutely delicious I had to share it with you first. I think this one might be a contender for entering the competition in the Isle of Man Queenie festival. This scallop dish was lovingly created thanks to the generous donation from Island seafare Ltd.



Serves 2

Ingredients

For the skewers:

24 fresh queenie scallops

zest of one lime

olive oil

tsp of paprika

tsp cayenne pepper

salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

For the Guacamole:

1 ripe avocado, cut into bite size chunks

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

3 or 4 small vine ripened tomatoes, deseeded and cut into bite size chunks

zest and juice of 1 lime

a spring onion halved and cut into small chunks

salt and freshly ground black pepper

a small handful of fresh flat leaf parsley chopped

a drizzle of olive oil

 

For the flatbreads: 

255g self raising flour

1 tsbp of greek yoghurt

1 tbsp olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground cinnamon

water

Begin by making the flatbreads. Put the flour, spices and seasoning into a bowl and make a well in the center. Add the yoghurt, olive oil and a tbsp of water and begin to bring together. Keep adding water a little at a time until the dough comes together. Knead the dough for about five minutes on a floured surface until it becomes soft and elastic. Leave to one side. 

In a bowl add the scallops, lime zest and juice, paprika, cayenne pepper, a drizzle of olive oil and seasoning and mix to combine. Leave to marinade. 

To make the guacamole simply combine all the ingredients in a bowl.

Light your BBQ and when the coals are glowing white and there is no flame left they are ready to use. Thread the scallops on to skewers.

Divide the dough into three and roll each bit out very thinly on a floured surface. Set each flatbread on the BBQ and allow to bubble up and brown lightly on each side, this should take about two or three minutes.



Set to one side and then place the scallops on the BBQ. Cook until nicely coloured all over and cooked through, then remove.



Immediately serve on the flatbreads with a spoonful of the guacamole and a little lightly dressed salad. And to drink, a chilled Pimms and lemonade. Lovely.

Jamie's Quesadillas

This recipe is a real favourite of ours for weekend lunches. It is so simple yet delicious and we never seem to tire of it. maybe because they are so versatile and you can put pretty much whatever you like in them. The recipe comes from Jamie's Dinners and is well worth a try. This time I decided to put some prawns into it and a touch of lime to jazz it up a bit.

Ingredients

Pack of flour tortillas

3 Spring onions

1 red (or any other colour you fancy) pepper, finely chopped

1 red or green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

zest of one lime

a small handful of raw prawns

1 clove of garlic finely chopped

1 handful of grated cheddar and 1 of red leicester (again you can experiment with different cheeses)

1 little olive oil for frying

 

Heat a frying pan to a high temperature and add a little olive oil. Throw in the chilli and garlic and stir for a couple of minutes before adding the prawns. Fry until the prawns are pink and completely cooked. Slice the prawns once slightly cooled and add them to all the other ingredients in a bowl. Take a flour tortilla and sprinkle a little of the mixture onto it making sure you don't add too much filling as the cheese will just drip out once cooked. Top with another tortilla and sandwich together. Warm a dry frying pan over a medium heat and put the filled tortilla onto it. Cook for a minute or so until golden on one side and then flip over to do the other side. Once cooked, remove from the pan, slice into triangles and serve with some bought or homemade guacamole.



 

Courgette and chilli pasta

I was busy as usual trying to find cheap and quick meals for my food order for the week and this one jumped off the page. It looked tasty, easy, healthy and had only a few ingredients so ticked all the appropriate boxes. I fiddled with the recipe a bit as I usually do because I'm incapable of leaving things alone (as my other half always tell me). I added a little finely grated lemon zest and a bit of grated parmesan in the sauce as well as on top which did give it a bit more depth ( I felt I had to replace some of calories lost with cheese as I used low fat creme fraiche!) It turned out really well, so well done to Good Food magazine this month for making my week of food so tasty. 

Serves 2

200g linguini

1 tbsp olive oil

1 red chilli, finely chopped

1 clove of garlic

2 courgettes, grated

2 tbsp creme fraiche

2 tsp lemon zest

grated parmesan to serve

Put a large saucepan of salted water on to boil and cook the pasta according to instructions. While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a frying pan over a low heat and add the chilli and garlic and stir but don't allow it to brown. Turn up the heat and add the courgette and stir for a few minutes to cook and allow any water to evaporate. Stir in the creme fraiche, lemon zest and season well. Drain the pasta and coat in the sauce adding some grated parmesan and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil to finish.