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.

First play with my new Christmas toy

I got a very lovely ravioli maker for Christmas and hadn't actually made any with it yet, so I dug it out of the cupboard this week in an attempt to make pea and mint ravioli. As usual, I took the fly by the seat of my pants attitude to a recipe and had a crack at just making it up myself and it worked....sort of.



I used a basic pasta dough recipe from Jamie Oliver's Italy. The end result was nice but the filling wasn't thick enough and I eventually had to put an egg into it so at least when the pasta was cooked, the filling wasn't runny. I didn't want to blitz cooked garden peas so I blended still frozen ones meaning that they eventually thawed and made the filling distinctly sloppy......stupid!

It also took much fiddling around with the pasta maker and the ravioli tray until I really got the hang of turning out a presentable set of ravioli. 



I won't share the recipe for the filling just yet as it needs to be perfected but you can see what the ravioli turn out like when using the tray. Getting one of these ravioli trays is really worth it, as when you get the hang of it you will never have a burst rav again.

Soup and superheroes (a la Angela Petrelli)

I love Heroes, the TV show that is. It's so exciting and intricate. You can just imagine that Peter Petrelli, with one flick of his wrist, could do the dishes, the ironing, the weekly shop and walk the dog and still have the energy to make a romantic three course meal, any male who can do that has got to be a keeper.  Also one or two of the cast members are rather easy on the eye which always helps, although sadly they don't sport the skin tight get up that most traditional superheroes seem compelled to wear.  

Why am I rambling on about Heroes, you may ask? Well, last weeks episode (sorry, this is a spoiler if you haven't seen it) showed Angela Petrelli poisoning her husband with a rather lovely looking Italian lentil soup, so I thought I'd have a go at re-creating it for a midweek dinner for both of us, minus the poison obviously, possibly, well he does keep leaving he clothes lying everywhere!

I didn't consult any recipe books, just decided to delve into the depths of my cook's brain and dream something sort of authentic up. The result was a rather tasty and not too gluttonous soup which went down very well, obviously need to add more anti-freeze next time!

Serves 2-3

150g green lentils

1 stick celery, finely chopped

1 small/medium onion, finely chopped

2 medium carrots, finely chopped

1 fat clove of garlic, finely chopped

large handful of flat leaf parsley, 2 large bay leaves and a sprig of rosemary, tied in a bunch with string

a small handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Extra virgin olive oil

150g pancetta cut into cubes

1 Litre chicken stock

Heat a deep, wide saucepan (I use an SKK pan) and add about a tablespoon of olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the chopped onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Cook for a few minutes until they begin to soften, then add the herbs. Cook for another few minutes before adding the lentils. Stir around to coat the lentils with the oil and add the chicken stock. Cover and simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour until the lentils are completely soft. Meanwhile heat a pan over a medium to high heat and add the pancetta cubes and fry until lightly coloured, then drain on kitchen paper. Once the lentils are cooked add the pancetta, season and add the freshly chopped parsley. Ladle into bowls and drizzle with olive oil before serving with hot buttered ciabata. 

Sausage and tomato bake

It was the other half's turn to cook last weekend and he picked a very blokey dish of sausage and tomato bake. It isn't a dish that I would've picked, probably because purely by looking at it I could hear the distant groan of my jeans as I try and force my sausagey bulk into them. The other thing is that it is a very simple dish and I sometimes struggle to do simple, thinking that complicated is more impressive. Having said all that the dish was lovely and just served with crusty bread and a glass (or four) of red wine it went down very nicely. The recipe is out of Jamie Oliver's latest book Jamie at home.

Serves 6

• 2kg ripe cherry tomatoes, all different colours if you can get them


• 2 sprigs each of fresh thyme, rosemary and bay leaves


• 1 tblsp dried oregano


• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped


• 12 good quality Cumberland sausages or course Italian pork sausages


• extra virgin olive oilbalsamic vinegar


• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Centigrade. Place all the tomatoes, herb sprigs, oregano, garlic and sausages in one layer in a roasting tin and drizzle well with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Mix this all together, making sure the sausages are on top and roast for 30 minutes. Take it out of the oven, give the tin a shake, turn the sausages and then bake for another 15 to 30 minutes depending on how golden you want the sausages. Remove the sausages from the tin and if the sauce is a bit thin boil it up on the hob until it is the consistency you want. Serve with warm crust bread and lashings of red wine. Real man food, but something for the girls to enjoy too. Grrrrrr!!