Category: meat recipes

Categories
beef food

chilli

Chilli (chilli con carne) is a sentimental dish for me; it’s the first thing I properly made. Now it’s Liam’s favourite, so it’s often on the menu. I also love the ways you can serve it: flour tortillas, corn tortillas, or with plain rice. In this case we served it with tacos and fried onions & peppers.

It’s very simple, and a great dish for learning a lot of fundamentals that you can then transplant into other dishes. It’s also adaptable, you can turn it into bolognese, shepherd’s pie and a dozen other meals with a twist on the herbs and spices.
This one is made by frying an onion with garlic, then browning mince. At this point I’ve two directions to go in, if I’m rushed for time and can’t let the dish bubble for a couple of hours I add an Oxo cube for seasoning. Then I add a tin of tomatoes, then powdered chilli and cumin. After half an hour of simmering it needs seasoning and then we’re good to go. Personally I don’t like it too spicy, more savoury, so often a splash of soy ends up in there for depth of flavour.
Another thing I like about this is the sharing aspect. You’re all sat round a table, grabbing a taco shell, spooning in some chilli, dollop of creme fraiche, sprinkle of cheese, hands bumping over the food… great communal stuff. I love it.
Categories
broccoli chicken food pasta

broccoli, chicken and pasta bake

Using the chicken in white sauce from Sunday makes this dead easy. Get some pasta on the boil along with some broc, meanwhile heating up some frozen chicken sauce and adding a little cream to loosen it up. When all is ready tumble into the same dish and bake. DONE.

Categories
chicken food peppers

chicken a la king

I’ve never been quite sure what’s kingly about peppers, but it’s tasty so that’ll do me. Yet again using the ever-bounteous frozen chicken, I warm this up with some ham from the deli. Then I add a drained jar of peppers in oil and end up with a very yummy dish that makes me grin all over.

Categories
food gnocchi pancetta spinach

an interesting gnocchi recipe

The title’s ironic, OK? I posted on Facebook that I was “looking for an interesting gnocchi recipe”, and that a couple of days later I had “found an interesting gnocchi recipe”. Three separate people asked me about – it’s easy to forget the reach that Facebook has.

Anywho, it’s dead easy. First I fry some spinach with a little sliced garlic until all straggly, then season and add nutmeg before removing to one side to cool. Once it’s cooled I squeeze the juice out and chop finely. Meanwhile I’ve some gnocchi on the boil (note: I made gnocchi myself once – it so wasn’t worth the effort, nor the washing up). Then I fry some pancetta in the same pan, and once crispy I throw the boiled gnocchi in the pan to absorb some hammy flavours. Then the spinach is back in to warm through, finally some creme fraiche, salt and pepper, a touch of parmesan (I added too much the first time) and it’s done. Creamy and extremely filling.
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an interesting gnocchi recipe

Servings 4 people
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 500 g spinach
  • 2 cloves garlic sliced
  • 1/2 nutmeg grated
  • 200 g pancetta diced
  • 500 g gnocchi
  • 150 ml creme fraiche

Instructions

  • Fry the spinach an garlic in a hot pan with a little oil until the the spinach is well-wilted. Remove to a chopping board, add the nutmeg and squeeze the excess juice out with your hands or through a sieve. Run through the spinach with a knife several times to make it bitesize.
  • In the same pan, fry the pancetta. Whilst it fries get the gnocchi on to boil. When the gnocchi is ready add it to the pancetta pan and toss well so it gets coated in the pancetta oil. Add the creme fraiche and spinach mix back into the pan, season with salt and pepper and add parmesan to taste. Serve immediately.
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