Chicken Mulligatawny Soup

I came up with this as a variation on a curry recipe. I think it’s worked pretty well.

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Hearty Chicken Stew with Dumplings

This is a bit of a hybrid recipe inspired from a bit of a Nigella and a bit of one of the anonymous cookbooks I’ve got hanging about. I’m proud to say that the dumplings were all my addition, although I didn’t have all the ingredients to make them so I had to settle for a pre-mixed packet.

• a pack of lardons
• two leeks, sliced into small rings
• an onion, roughly chopped
• 1/2 swede, peeled and roughly cubed
• a pack of about six good sized skinless, boneless chicken thighs, chopped into bite-sized pieces
• three cloves garlic, sliced
• handful of parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• a bottle of white wine
• couple of handfuls of frozen peas
• couple of cups of chicken stock
• salt and pepper to taste
• 6-8 dumplings made from packet mix

Brown off the lardons in a hot stock pot, before adding the leeks, onion, garlic and swede. You don’t need extra oil, just let them cook in the tasty bacon fat until they’ve softened up a bit, for about 5 minutes or so. Add the chicken, cayenne pepper, ground ginger, and turmeric, and stir about in the mix before adding in the bottle of white wine and frozen peas. Top up with the chicken stock until it looks like there will be enough liquid for about half an hour’s cooking, and sit the doughy dumplings made from the mix on the top.

Cook for half an hour and when almost done, throw in the chopped parsley and season. This can be served on it’s own in a bowl, or with a generous serving of mashed potatos should make enough for four people.

Watercress and Potato Soup

Yesterday, I made soup. The recipe I adapted is based around 100g of watercress, but Sainsbury’s sell it in 85g bags, so I’ve reworked it for two of those bags. This is a very tasty soup, and the recipe should make between 6-8 servings.

Chop 3 onions and fry off with a small splosh of olive oil in a large saucepan for 5ish minutes. Add 3 large potatoes, chopped (should be around 780g) and cook, covered for another 5 minutes. Chop the two 85g packs of watercress, and add with a litre of vegetable stock. Bring to the boil and cook until the potatoes are tender, which should take about 15 minutes.

Blend the mixture, while adding 500ml of semi-skimmed milk, a freshly grated nutmeg and some black pepper. Reheat to serve.

Soya mince chilli with seedy rice

I know what you’re thinking. “Mmmmmmmm, soya mince”. But this is proper tasty. And ripe for freezing and reheating in the work kitchen microwave. I guess this could be made with beef mince too.

Chop a large onion. Chop up two cloves of garlic. Add to a big heated saucepan which has got some oil in it. Add some chopped mushrooms and a thickly sliced green pepper. Fry off for a bit, and add plenty of dried oregano and cayenne pepper, and throw in a can of kidney beans.

While this is cooking off, put around 120g of soya mince in a jug, and rehydrate with boiling water and a generous sprinkle of vegetable buillion powder. Lace with tabasco sauce and worcester sauce, stir and wait a bit until the mince has rehydrated before pouring into the pan. Add a can of chopped tomatoes, a handful of cherry tomatoes, and a couple of teaspoons of tomato paste.

Put a dollop of marmite in the bottom of the can the tomatoes came in, add about a teaspoon of buillion powder and fill with any remaining boiled water, stir and add the liquid to the pan. Add more cayenne pepper and/or chilli flakes to taste, and cook for around 15-20 minutes until the chili is more sauce than liquid.

For the rice, boil up 250g of American easy cook rice with a splash of oil. Half way through cooking, add a couple of generous handfuls of pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.

This should make about six portions.

Vegetable chilli

I’ve been cooking a lot of asian food recently, largely to the amount of flavour I could get out of essentially just veg. So I thought I’d try a few subtle twists on a vegetable chilli. They’re twists in the sense that I’ve never used them in this kind of recipe before. I think it turned out well.

Ingredients
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
smallish chunk of ginger, finely chopped
6-7 medium-sized mushrooms, roughly chopped
can of kidney beans
can of chick peas
can of plum tomatos
1 green pepper, roughly sliced
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
2 tsp of tomato puree
handful of oregano
sprinkle of pepper
generous splash of soy sauce
few drops of tabasco to taste
juice of one lime

In a stock pot or large saucepan, cook the onion in a small amount of oil, until browned. Add the chilli, garlic, ginger, oregano and mushrooms and cook unto the mushrooms have softened. To the mixture add the chopped carrots, green pepper, kidney beans, chick peas, tomato and tomato puree, with the soy sauce and enough tabasco to taste. Season with pepper, and ensure there is enough liquid to cook for 20-25 minutes. About half way through, incorporate the juice of one lime. The chilli is cooked when the carrot has softened and the sauce has thickened. Serve with rice, or cous cous, or whatever you’d normally have a chilli with.