Category: courgettes

Categories
balsamic vinegar basil chorizo courgettes pasta tomato

seriously good pasta bake

seriously good cherry tomato and balsamic vinegar pasta bake

If you’re a regular reader of this blog you might notice I do a lot of things “from scratch” (I really hate that phrase, like a badge of snobbish one-upmanship), because I enjoy it and I like knowing what goes into my dinner. In my time of course I’ve used pasta sauces and the like, and they range from OK to pretty good to truly vomit-inducing (usually ones that involve mascarpone).

I wouldn’t usually blog about such a jar but I happened to use a Seriously Good pasta sauce. These are Gordon Ramsay-devised with a 10p donation to Comic Relief for each jar sold. And no, Gordon doesn’t get a penny. There’s a bunch of flavours, and the one I used happened to be cherry tomato & balsamic. Peering over the ingredients list on the label is very surprising: you can pronounce everything. And I can buy all of them in any supermarket. That’s very reassuring.

I chucked it in a pasta bake with some chorizo and courgette, and it was lovely. Well worth a try – certainly if you find it on promotion, as it was in my local Sainsbury’s. At least bask in the glow of making a small donation to a good cause 🙂

Seriously good pasta bake (serves 4):

400g fusilli

100g chorizo, roughly diced

2 large courgettes

1 jar Seriously Good cherry tomato and balsamic sauce

Cheddar cheese

Some basil leaves, shredded

Splash of balsamic vinegar

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
  2. Get a pan of salted water on to boil and cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. Get on with the rest of the recipe and when ready, drain until needed.
  3. In a large oven-proof pan, heat a little oil and add the chorizo. Cook briefly until it starts to colour on all sides, then add the courgette.
  4. Continue to fry for 3-4 minutes, tossing frequently so the courgette gets coated in the rich chorizo juices and is starting to turn tender.
  5. Add the sauce, then refill the jar half-full with water. Sloosh it around to gather up the dregs of the sauce and pour into the pan. Bring up to the boil and then add the drained pasta. Make sure everything is well-mixed and pop into an oven for ten minutes, or until the tops of the pasta sticking out are starting to turn dark-brown.
  6. Scatter the basil over the top, grate some cheddar over and sprinkle with balsamic. Grind a little black pepper on top and a swirl of your best extra virgin olive oil, then return to the oven for a further minute or two, until the cheese has melted. Serve piping hot.
Categories
chicken courgettes curry food mushroom nam pla

thai green curry

There are times when only the fire, sweetness and creamy sour hit of a Thai curry will do. I’d not cooked one before so I chickened out slightly and bought a ready-made paste. It was very tasty but a leeetle on the spicy side – I’ll use a bit less next time.

I agree that chestnut mushrooms and courgettes are inauthentic but the earthiness and body they offer really match up.

Thai green curry:

2 chicken breasts, diced

1 courgette, sliced

250g chestnut mushrooms, sliced

2 teaspoons Thai green curry paste (I used Barts)

Half a teaspoon green peppercorns

400ml coconut milk

200ml chicken stock

4 kaffir lime leaves, shredded

Few splashes of nam pla

Bunch of coriander

  1. Fry the chicken in a little oil until coloured all over and remove to one side. Fry the courgette and mushroom in the same pan until they start to turn tender. Again, put to one side.
  2. Fry the paste for a minute to release the oils, then add the pepper corns. Add the milk and stock and bring to a boil. Pop the chicken and veg back in the pan and continue to simmer for about ten minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has reduced to a creamy consistency.
  3. Add the lime leaves and nam pla to taste, and serve with inauthentic but really tasty basmati rice. Garnish with torn coriander.
Categories
carrots chicken courgettes food rice stock

thai rice soup with chicken

It was one of ‘those’ Mondays; very little in the cupboard and mouths to feed. What I did have however, was some Tilda Stir Fry Thai Green rice and one of Jo Pratt’s recipe cards from a recent cookalong. Using that as a starting point I knocked up a ten min din which was slurpy, filling and had that tickle of heat rolling through your mouth and leaving you with a warm feeling in your belly.

The Tilda rice helpfully skips all the pastes and mounds of herbs and spices, which gives it a real authentic taste. It may sound like a complete shill but I believe in the product – we’re all busy people and these kinds of ethical prepared foods give us handy shortcuts. Sometimes you have the time, and you can bash down a Thai paste and simmer the ingredients gently. Sometimes you don’t and that’s where these come in.

I decided to use a yaki soba style sauce to enrich the broth, and yanked courgettes and carrots from the garden for veg. However my coriander was looking decidedly ropey and attempting to go to seed, so rather than use the leaves I went for a coriander “bouquet garni”, tying some stalks together and leaving it in the soup to give out flavour as it cooks. I’d prefer to use the greenery but it’ll do in a pinch.

(PS. Note the oversize teacup serving dish. I really must get around to buying Chinese style soup bowls – I have the spoons but no bowls!)

Thai rice soup with chicken:

2 chicken breasts, diced

2 cloves garlic, finely sliced

1 litre chicken stock

1 tablespoon chilli dipping sauce

1 pack Tilda Thai Green Rice

1 medium carrot, cut into matchsticks

1 medium courgette, cut into matchsticks

Bunch of coriander stalks, tied into a bundle

1 small red onion, cut into rings

Sesame oil

For the yaki soba sauce:

100ml light soy sauce

1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

  1. Get the yaki soba sauce on: put all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Whack down to low and allow to reduce gently until syrupy. Put to one side.
  2. Heat a little oil in a wok until smoking and add the chicken. Stir fry quickly until the chicken is white all over, then add the garlic. Fry for another 30 seconds and add the stock and chilli sauce.
  3. After bringing the stock to the boil add the carrot and rice. Continue to cook for another minute and then add the courgette, ½ the yaki soba sauce, coriander bunch and rice. Bring back to the boil and simmer for another few minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Taste to see if it needs more yaki soba sauce (if not this can be kept refrigerated for another day).
  4. Remove the coriander and serve in bowls, garnished with onion and a few drops of sesame oil.
Categories
courgettes food

grilled courgette masala

griddled tori masala

To accompany the mega-rich butter chicken, I wanted a veg-based accompaniment. I was in the mood for courgette so Googled Indian-influenced courgette recipes. Disappointingly there was hardly anything out there; it’s not a particularly Indian ingredient and the only recipe that seemed to crop up was one for “courgette with peas and tomato” which was moving away from the side-dish I was after. There was nothing left but to get creative. I thought about how I would prepare a courgette, and thinly sliced and griddled is one of my favourite. By adding a curry-flavoured oil I was pretty much there. I was really pleased with how they turned out and will stick them out front for another Indian meal some time.

Griddled tori masala:

2 courgettes, thinly sliced lengthways

100ml vegetable oil

1 teaspoon garam masala

3 cloves garlic, grated

  1. Combine the oil with the garam masala and garlic and heat in a pan over a low heat. Once the garlic pieces start to fizz and bubble, turn the heat off and allow it to infuse the oil for 15 minutes.
  2. Preheat a griddle to very hot. Brush one side of the courgettes with the oil and griddle the courgette oil-side down.
  3. After a couple of minutes peek underneath. If the char-marks are starting to appear, brush the raw side and slip them over.
  4. When griddled on both sides, drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
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