Tag: quick and easy

Braised Lentils with Pork Chops

Braised Lentils with Pork Chops

Sometimes, Lentils can seem a little… healthy.  You know when you are eating them that they must be good for you, but that doesn’t necessarily make them enjoyable.  When they are treated well though, they make a fantastic addition to a meal. So how can you get the best out of them?  For me, the answer to that question is braised lentils.  Here they are packed full of flavour and beautifully tender.  Crème fraiche and butter bring a silky texture that offsets the soft, mildly spicy flavour of the lentils perfectly. Add to that the smoky, savoury hit of crispy bacon and you have a dish that dreams are made of.

This recipe is adapted from one I saw, about a decade ago, on a Canadian TV show.  Unfortunately I can’t remember who originated it, but I have tweaked it over the years and adjusted the measurements into UK friendly values (who measures butter in cups?!). The braised lentils are really versatile, going nicely with chicken, steak or roasted vegetables, but I’m serving them here with pork chops as it is a cut of meat that I love but don’t often eat, so it feels like a real treat.

Finally don’t be put off by the length of the ingredients list – a number of items appear more than once and all are common items in the supermarket.

TIPS:

  1. You could make the lentils vegetarian by changing the chicken stock for vegetable stock and omitting the bacon. Adding a teaspoon of smoked paprika and a tablespoon of miso paste should bring some of the smoky, umami flavours that the bacon provides. You could serve with wedges of roasted butternut squash to replace the chops.
  2. While the fresh herbs bring some lightness to the dish, they are not essential. If you don’t have them to hand, just leave them out – it still tastes delicious.
  3. Experiment with adding other bits of veg. I have added finely sliced cabbage and diced pepper in the past, when I have needed to use them up. Both worked brilliantly.
  4. The exact timing for cooking the pork will depend upon the size of the chops. As a rough guide however, you should start cooking the chops at about step 4 of the lentils recipe –when the carrot, leek and onion are added to the pan.

Braised Lentils with pork chops – serves 4

Ingredients:

To pre-cook the lentils

200g dried puy lentils

½ medium onion cut into 3 wedges, root attached.

2 stalks celery, halved

½ medium carrot, halved

1 bay leaf

To braise the lentils

4 rashers of smoked back bacon, cut into strips approx. 1 cm wide

½ medium onion, diced

1 small leek, sliced thinly

½ medium carrot, diced

1 large clove garlic, minced

75ml white wine

250ml chicken stock

50g unsalted butter

3 tablespoons crème fraiche

1 small bunch of fresh soft herbs such as parsley, marjoram or tarragon, finely chopped.

For the chops

4 large pork chops or cutlets

3tbsp vegetable oil

50g butter

6-8 sprigs thyme

1 clove garlic

 

Method

Braised Lentils

  1. To pre-cook the lentils, place the lentils, onion, carrot, celery and bay leaf into a saucepan and fill with cold water to about an inch above the lentils. Simmer, uncovered until the lentils are tender – approximately 25mins.
  2. Once cooked, remove the vegetables from the pan, then drain the lentils. Set the cooked, drained lentils aside.
  3. In a large, high-sided frying pan, cook the bacon in a little vegetable oil, over a med high heat, until it starts to crisp.
  4. Turn the heat down to medium then add the onion, leek and carrot. Allow the vegetables to sweat for a few minutes, stirring regularly to avoid burning. Once the leek and onion are tender, add the garlic and cook for a further minute.
  5. Add the wine to the pan, to deglaze. Allow the wine to reduce a little before adding the lentils and chicken stock. Stir gently to combine all the ingredients then simmer for 5-10 minutes until the liquid reaches a sauce like consistency.
  6. Finish the dish by stirring in the butter and crème fraiche. Taste and adjust the seasoning if required. Stir in the fresh herbs and serve immediately.

Pork chops

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 170C (fan). Season the chops with salt.
  2. Heat a large frying pan over a high heat. Heat the oil then add the chops and sear for 2-3 minutes on each side, until golden brown.  Add the butter, thyme and garlic. As the butter melts, use a spoon to baste the chops in melted butter. Continue to do this for a minute or so before transferring the pan to the oven (use an ovenproof frying pan if you can –otherwise transfer the chops into a roasting pan).
  3. Roast the chops for 4-7mins (depending on size) then remove and set aside to rest while the lentils finish.

 

Leftovers?

  • If you have any lentils leftover they will keep in the fridge for a couple of days, and are every bit as tasty reheated or eaten cold.
  • Reserve the water and veg that the lentils were cooked in and use it as a base for soup. Most stock cubes/pots produce about 500ml, so add the remaining stock, a peeled, chopped potato and a few other bits of veg such as carrot, pumpkin, cauliflower, cabbage etc.  Simmer everything together until all the veg is tender, liquidise with a stick blender, then strain through a sieve to remove any stringy, tough bits. The resulting soup will be a rather muddy colour, but extremely nourishing and tasty. Serve with croutons and a dollop of crème fraiche, if you like.
  • Leftover crème fraiche? Try these other recipes: Quesadillas with beef burger and peppers or Fusilli with pork, peas, leeks and mushrooms.
Quesadillas with beef burger and peppers.

Quesadillas with beef burger and peppers.

Quesadillas are a ludicrously simple thing to make, and really versatile. The only essential ingredients are cheese and tortilla wraps.  They can be made as a snack or a quick lunch and can be filled with whatever takes your fancy. You can even cut them into small wedges to create a delicious finger food – perfect for parties or to watch the rugby.

I came up with this recipe as a way to use up an unwanted burger that my three year old had turned his nose up at.  Once it was chopped up, mixed with melted cheese and wrapped in a toasted tortilla, he couldn’t get enough.  It is also a great way to hide a few veggies from more plant-phobic children!

 

TIPS

  • All quantities besides the wraps are simply a guideline. If you have a little more or less of something it will be fine.
  • The burger meat can be omitted if you want to make the recipe vegetarian, or replaced with cooked sausage meat, bits of ham, chorizo, or bacon.
  • Try adding other vegetables – if you have sweetcorn, cooked beans or peas to use up, all work brilliantly.
  • Spice everything up by adding some finely diced fresh chilli.
  • I cooked mine in a panini grill, but if you do not have one, a large frying pan can be used. Place the quesadilla into a hot dry pan and cook for 2 mins on each side, or until golden brown.

Quesadillas with beef burgers and pepper

(recipe creates 4 quesadillas).

Ingredients

100g cooked beef burgers (1 or 2 burgers depending on their size)

8 flour tortillas

160g cheddar, grated

1 red pepper, diced

1 banana shallot, finely diced

Salt and pepper to season

Crème fraiche or sour cream and pickled jalapenos to serve (optional).

Method

  1. Heat the panini grill to high – settings vary from machine to machine, but a couple of notches from its highest setting should be about right.
  2. Roughly chop up the beef burgers and season with salt and pepper to taste.
  3. Place a tortilla on a board. Sprinkle about 20g of cheese evenly over the wrap. Next, add a quarter of the chopped burger, diced pepper and shallot, distributing them equally. Finally sprinkle on more cheese and place another tortilla on top.
  4. Repeat step 3 until you have created 4 quesadillas.
  5. Place the quesadillas into the panini grill, one or two at a time depending on the size of your grill and cook for 3-3½ minutes, or until golden brown and crisp. Keep the first batch(s) warm until all are cooked.
  6. Serve with pickled jalapenos and crème fraiche, salsa, chilli sauce or any other condiment that takes your fancy!

 

 

Leftovers?

If you have crème fraiche leftover from this recipe, why not try making fusilli with pork, peas, leeks and mushrooms?  Follow the link for the recipe.

Quick and Easy pasta with Pork, Peas, Leeks and Mushrooms

Quick and Easy pasta with Pork, Peas, Leeks and Mushrooms

This quick and easy pasta recipe is a regular week night supper in my home – If you prep all of the ingredients before you start cooking, the sauce can be made in the time it takes to cook the pasta.  It is another great dish for using up leftovers. Add other vegetables to the sauce if they need using up, or replace ingredients you don’t have with something similar; it will still be delicious. See the tips below for suggestions.

TIPS

  • The pork could be replaced with gammon or roast pork, just skip the initial step of frying the meat
  • If you have some sausages that need eating up, sausage meat is another good alternative. Squeeze the sausage meat out of the skins (about three sausages is plenty), then fry, breaking it up into small pieces as you go.
  • If you don’t have leeks, use a large onion, diced, instead.
  • Try adding other vegetables such as peppers, spinach, green beans, runner beans or fennel. This is great if you have odd bits of unused veg left over from other recipes.
  • Replace the water with white wine If you have a bottle open.
  • Use whatever pasta shape you prefer – I like fusilli because the sauce coats it really well but anything will work.

Quick and Easy Pasta with Pork, Peas, Leeks and Mushrooms

Ingredients

1 large leek, trimmed, cleaned, halved lengthways then sliced thinly.

100g chestnut mushrooms, sliced

400g pork steaks, cut into 2x2cm pieces

400g fusilli

2tbsp tomato purée

3tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp dried oregano

250ml water

50g frozen peas

4tbsp crème fraiche

Salt and pepper to season

Parmesan and fresh herbs (optional) for garnish

Method

  1. Prepare the leeks, mushrooms and pork then set aside. Get a large pan of water on the boil, salt generously and put the pasta in.
  2. Season the pork with salt. Then, over a medium high heat, fry until golden brown. Remove from the pan and leave to rest.
  3. Turn down the heat slightly, then add the leeks, stirring regularly until soft. Add the tomato purée and cook for 2 minutes, before adding the mushrooms, and frying for another minute.
  4. Return the pork to the pan and add the paprika and oregano. Combine then add about 2/3 of the water. Turn down to a simmer. If the pan starts to look dry add a little more water.
  5. When the pasta is nearly cooked, add the peas to the sauce, stir then add the crème fraiche. Warm through, taste and season with salt and pepper.
  6. Strain the pasta and combine with the sauce. Serve immediately topped with grated parmesan and fresh herbs, if you wish.
Beans on Toast

Beans on Toast

I feel like a bit of a charlatan calling this a recipe, but if Delia can write a recipe for boiling an egg…  I am putting a recipe for beans on toast up here simply because it is a delicious way to use up leftovers.   Stale bread will make the crunchiest toast and the rest of the ingredients are almost completely interchangeable.  Just use whatever you have in the fridge!

TIPS:

  • Treat the recipe and quantities below as more of a guideline than an absolute set of instructions.
  • Replace the bacon and sausage with any leftover cooked or cured meats, such as roast pork, gammon, ham, cooked sausages or braised beef. 150g is a decent quantity for a single tin of beans.
  • Switch the onion for shallots, leeks or even spring onions if you need to use them up.
  • Use whatever type of chilli you have around or prefer (fresh/powdered/sauce) – I often have one or two fresh ones left over when buying for other recipes.
  • Try adding other veg such as mushrooms, chickpeas, kidney beans or swiss chard.
  • Top your beans and toast off with a poached or fried egg for an even tastier meal!

Beans on Toast

Serves 3-4 people

Ingredients

1 small onion, diced

1 small pepper, diced

2 rashers of bacon, diced

100g ready to eat smoked sausage, sliced

1 tin of baked beans

2tsp sriracha

2 tbsp BBQ sauce

2 pieces of bread per person

75g baby spinach

 

Method

  1. In a frying pan, fry the onions and pepper until the onions start to caramelise.
  2. Add the bacon and continue to fry until crisp.
  3. Place the bacon, peppers and onions with the sausage, beans, chilli sauce, and BBQ sauce in a saucepan over a low heat. Bring to a simmer.
  4. Put the bread on to toast.
  5. Add the spinach to the beans and stir in until just wilted.
  6. Serve the beans on top of toast. Eat immediately.
Drinks Friday: Negroni

Drinks Friday: Negroni

So for tonight’s ‘Drinks Friday’ I am keeping things simple:  the negroni.  This is a cocktail that is fairly ubiquitous right now, appearing on every hipster cocktail menu up and down the country (for the record, I was drinking it long before it was popular).  But here is the secret – it is really easy to make.

To be fair it is not to everyone’s taste; it is bitter and strong, so if your idea of a great cocktail is something made with a ton of fruit juice then a negroni is probably not for you.  But if you do like it then you will probably find yourself making these at home fairly regularly – I know I do.  I have one rule: when I can no longer remember how to make it, it is time for bed!

Tips

  • You can premix the ingredients in bulk – great if you want to serve these as an aperitif for a dinner party. Simply mix in equal parts and store in a clean, sterilised bottle. When you are ready to serve, simply pour over ice and garnish.
  • Try using different gins (and gin-based liqueurs) to change the flavour.  Sloe gin works brilliantly, as does blackberry gin. Just remember that the prominent flavour of Campari is bitter orange – choose something that complements that and you won’t go too far wrong.

The Negroni

Ingredients

35ml Gin
35ml Campari
35ml Sweet vermouth
Orange peel to garnish
Ice cubes

 

Method

  1.  Fill a glass with ice.  Pour the gin, Campari and vermouth into the glass. Stir for a few seconds. Garnish with a piece of orange peel.

 

I told you it was easy.

 

That is it from me – I’ve got a cocktail to drink! Happy Friday everybody – please drink responsibly(ish) and let me know what your favourite variations on the classic negroni are in the comments. Cheers!

Chicken and Chorizo Tray Bake

Chicken and Chorizo Tray Bake

This is barely a recipe – more just something I threw together once and have repeated a number of times since, but it is quick to prepare, cooks in under 30 minutes and is really tasty.  Treat the recipe here as more of a guide – It is great the way I have described but is also a fantastic way of using up a few leftover odds and ends that are in the fridge. This has become something of a family favourite in our house – give it a try and I’m sure you will love it too!

TIPS – Salting the chicken in advance is not essential but worth doing if you can.  If you don’t have time, just follow the method as described, but leave the chicken out while you prepare the marinade and chop the vegetables.

Chicken and Chorizo Tray Bake (Serves 4)

Ingredients

1kg Bone in, skin on chicken thighs and legs
2tsp table salt
2tsp smoked paprika
1tsp herbs de Provence (or similar mixed herb blend)
1tsp garlic puree
Juice and zest of one lemon
2tbsp olive oil
200g chorizo
2 red peppers
1 medium courgette
1 bunch of spring onions

 

Method

  1. Place the chicken pieces into a roasting pan and sprinkle with the salt. Try to ensure you evenly coat all the pieces. Do this job on the same day you are cooking as early as possible – if you can season in the morning before going to work, the meat will be more evenly seasoned and really tender once cooked. Store in the fridge until about 30 minutes before you want to start cooking then leave out to come up to room temperature.
  2. Heat the oven to 190ºC fan (210ºC conventional).
  3. Mix the paprika, dried herbs, garlic purée, lemon juice, lemon zest and oil together in a large bowl to create a marinade.
  4. Slice the chorizo into rounds about 1cm thick, then halve these to create semi-circular chunks. Chop the peppers and courgette into bite-size pieces.  Trim and clean the spring onions.  Cut each one into 3-4 pieces.
  5. Put all the vegetables, the chicken pieces and the chorizo into the bowl containing the marinade. Mix everything together thoroughly with your hands. Make sure the spice and oil mixture has coated everything, then spread the vegetables and chorizo out evenly in the roasting pan and place the chicken on top, skin side up.  Wash your hands.
  6. Place the roasting pan into the middle of the oven and roast for 20-30 minutes. It is ready when the chicken skin is crisp and the juices run clear from the meat if pierced with a skewer.
  7. Serve with whatever takes your fancy – crusty bread and a salad works brilliantly, as do roast potatoes.
King Oyster Scallops and Mushroom Risotto

King Oyster Scallops and Mushroom Risotto

During my visit to Forest Fungi earlier this week, I had to find out what their recommendations were for mushroom dishes.  Jess was kind enough to share the following two recipes with me.  If you are inspired by these, head on down to their farm shop and café in Dawlish Warren to get hold of the star ingredients, and perhaps get some more ideas from the extensive list of mushroom dishes on the cafe menu.

Also click the link to read all about my visit to Forest Fungi to see the new grow rooms

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Mushrooms on Toast with poached egg

Mushrooms on Toast with poached egg

Given the name of this site, I figured it was about time I got a toast based recipe up here.  This dish was inspired by some gorgeous shimeji mushrooms from Forest Fungi that I picked up at The Exeter Food Festival but could be prepared using any fresh mushrooms you can get your hands on.  It is also ridiculously quick to throw together. Just make sure you have everything ready to go before you start cooking, because it all comes together in minutes.

TIPS:

  • A fairly dense bread works best as the moisture from the mushrooms will quickly soften your toast if you use something too soft. I used a spelt and sunflower loaf that I got from Sainsbury’s which kept its texture brilliantly.
  • Shimeji mushrooms are well worth finding, but if you use something else, you may need to adjust the cooking times slightly. The bigger the pieces, the longer they will probably need. (For the photo, I actually bulked the dish out a bit with oyster mushrooms because I was a little short).
  • Try replacing the paprika with a spoonful of chopped tarragon. This will give the dish a fresh, aniseed flavour that works brilliantly with mushrooms.

 

Ingredients

30g unsalted Butter

1 large clove garlic

100g white shimeji mushrooms (or what you can get – see above)

¼ tsp smoked paprika

Salt and pepper

1 medium egg

1 tsp white wine vinegar

1 or 2 slices of good quality bread

Butter for spreading.

Flat-leaf parsley for garnish (optional)

Method

  1. Get a pan of water boiling for poaching the egg. Keep at a low boil until ready to use.
  2. To cook the mushrooms: Put the butter into a frying pan over a med-high heat and heat until foaming. Turn the temperature down slightly, add the garlic, peeled and partially crushed with the flat of your knife, and allow it to infuse into the butter for a minute or so.
  3. While the garlic is infusing is a good time to get the toast on. Cook to your own liking!
  4. Turn the heat back up to med-high. Add the mushrooms into the frying pan and stir to ensure they are all evenly coated in butter. Leave to fry unmolested for a minute, shake them up again then give them another minute or so.  Add the paprika, and season with salt and pepper.
  5. To poach the egg: As soon as the mushrooms are in the frying pan, break the egg into a ramekin and add the vinegar to the boiling water. Stir the water to create a whirlpool in the centre of the pan, then gently pour the egg into the centre.  Leave to poach for 2-3 minutes – as soon as the white is even coloured and opaque it is cooked.  Remove from the water with a slotted spoon and leave on the spoon to drain, until ready to serve.
  6. Finally, butter the toast and place it on a plate, pile the mushrooms on the toast then top it all off with the poached egg. Finish with a little black pepper, a pinch more paprika and some chopped, flatleaf parsley if you want.  Eat immediately.