Mexican Chicken Stew

For a long time I have been tempted by the idea of making a stew with cocoa or chocolate in it.  You might think my experiments with cocoa pasta might have put me off but not at all.  When Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog announced that this month We Should Cocoa would have the theme, sugar free, I knew it was my chance to finally push myself to make a proper savoury cocoa dish.   After all, the pasta contained hidden sugar, but if I made a stew I would know exactly what was in it and there would be no chance of being surprised by an unwanted sweet chocolate taste.

This time, my savoury cocoa dish really was savoury and I enjoyed it so much.  The cocoa gave the tomato base for the stew a richer flavour with just a hint of bitterness.  There wasn’t an obvious chocolate flavour.  If you didn’t know it had cocoa in, you might not even guess, and I suspect that that is what most people want from a savoury cocoa dish.  An added layer of flavour but not an overpowering hit.

As well as We Should Cocoa, which is hosted on alternate months by Chele at Chocolate Teapot, I am also linking this to My Kitchen My World (the theme is anywhere) and Bloggers Around the World at Cooking Around the World.  The theme this month is Mexico.

Ingredients – serves 2-3

250g chicken, diced

400g tin chopped tomatoes

1 red pepper, sliced

1 red onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 red chilli pepper, sliced

Handful of Coriander (cilantro), chopped

2 spring onions, sliced

3 cloves

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp cocoa powder

How to Make Mexican Chicken Stew

1. Heat a little oil in a sauce pan.   Add the onion and chilli pepper and cook until soft.  Add the red pepper and crushed garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.

2. Add the chicken.   Cook until it is sealed on all sides, then stir in the cocoa, cumin, cloves and tomatoes.  Add a dash of water and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.

3. A few minutes before the end of the cooking time, stir in the spring onion and just before serving, stir in the chopped coriander.

4. Serve with rice or flatbreads.

 

Banana Bread

This month for the Secret Recipe Club I felt like making something sweet, well not too sweet, something that would be good for a snack but not too unhealthy.  After all, it is the new year and a time for making at least some effort towards a heathy lifestyle.  Banana bread of course has bananas in and so can’t be bad.  Also, it’s called bread, not cake, and so although some people (not me) might think bread is not the healthiest thing to eat, I’m sure most would agree that it is healthier than cake.  Never mind that banana bread is in fact cake and should really be called cake. That’s an argument for another day.

Anyway, this month for the Secret Recipe Club I was paired with Shelley from C Mom Cook. Shelley is a stay at home mum and loves cooking with and for her two children.  She added blueberries to this banana bread, which I’m sure were delicious.  I planned to add some chocolate chips but then decided to leave it plain and it was still very tasty.  I don’t have a very sweet tooth and I thought it was perfect.  My husband would have prefered it to be a bit sweeter. I’m sure adding the chocolate chips would have made it perfect for him.

I am also linking to Sweets for a Saturday and Sugar and Slice Sunday.

Ingredients

60g butter, at room temperature

100g sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

130g flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp Greek yoghurt

1 banana, mashed with a fork

How to Make Banana Bread

1. Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream together with a wooden spoon.   Then add the egg, vanilla and yoghurt and stir until you get a smooth batter.

2. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into another bowl.

3. Add about a third of the flour and a third of the banana to the butter and sugar mixture.  Mix until just combined.  Then add another third and finally the last third.

4. Line a loaf tin (9″ x 5″) or cake tin with baking parchment.   Pour in the cake batter and bake in the oven for 25 minutes or longer if necessary at 180C.  My cake tin was larger than it should have been, which is why my banana bread is a bit flatter than yours will probably be.

5. Cool on a wire rack.

 

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are by far the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made. In fact, I don’t know if I will ever want to use another recipe now I have discovered how good these are.   They are crisp and chewy just around the edges but the inside is soft, rich and doughy, a bit like a brownie.  If you love soft cookies then these are definitely ones you should try.  I love cookies but don’t often make them.   Until now I was more likely to just buy the very occasional bag when I was out somewhere.   Now I’ve found this recipe I think it might just tempt me to make them more often.   I have even frozen about half of the cookie dough in nice walnut sized balls, just ready to bake, and because they bake so quickly, you can easily bake just one or two whenever you fancy them.

I am sending these to Alphabakes which is hosted this month by Caroline Makes, and on alternate months by The More Than Occasional Baker. The letter is D.

Ingredients – Makes about 18

125g butter at room temperature

100g soft light brown sugar

125g caster sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

175g self-raising flour

50g cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt

200g chocolate, chopped

How to Make Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

1. If the butter is not room temperature, put it in the microwave for 30 seconds.   Then put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and cream together.

2. Beat the egg slightly then add it to the butter and sugar along with the vanilla extract.   Mix together.

3. Sift the flour, cocoa and salt into the bowl.   Mix it together.   You should get quite a stiff cookie dough.   Add the chocolate chips and stir in.

4. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.   Roll the dough into balls and place them on the parchment paper, with plenty of space around each ball of cookie dough.  Some of the balls of cookie dough can be frozen at this point to bake later.

5. Bake the cookies in the oven at 180C for 8-9 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.

I am also linking to Sweets for a Saturday and Sugar and Slice Sunday Link Party.

 

Green Lentil and Coriander Soup

A new year, a new healthy diet.   That’s the plan for most of the time anyway.  Apart from that I have made no new year food plans and have written no review of the past year.   I would like to blog more frequently and I would like to be more active in commenting on the blogs I follow, but if I set that as a resolution, I feel I would just be setting myself up for failure.  After all, I am running the London Marathon on 21 April so will need to find time to fit all the training for that into my schedule!   So, I am just going to try to keep on blogging as often as I can, when I can.    I know it’s quite late to be saying this on 8th January already so that is all I am going to say on the subject.  Moving on to this green lentil and coriander soup….

I love making soups like this as they are warm, filling and are useful for using up any leftover vegetables.  Although the lentils are very dark,  I love the colours of all the vegetables showing up in the soup and I especially love the fresh coriander stirred in at the end.  It makes the soup taste very fresh.

I am linking this soup to Pantry Party, Food of the Month Club and Souper Sundays.

Ingredients – serves 2 (as a main meal)

3 tbsp dried green lentils

2 carrots, sliced

1 onion, diced

2 tbsp chopped red cabbage

2 tbsp sweetcorn

Small knob of ginger, finely diced

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 chilli pepper, sliced

Handful of coriander (cilantro), chopped

2 cardamom pods, crushed slightly

2 cloves

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp garam masala

How to Make Lentil and Coriander Soup

1. Put a little oil in a saucepan.   Add the cloves and cardamom pods.   Cook for 30 seconds then add the chopped onion, chilli pepper and ginger.  Fry gently until soft.

2. Add the turmeric,cumin, garam masala, carrot and lentils.   Stir in and add boiling water from the kettle.

3. Simmer for 30 minutes then add the cabbage.   Continue to simmer for another 20 minutes.

4. Add the frozen sweetcorn.   As soon as the water reaches the boil again, take out two ladles of the soup.   Blend in a food processor or with a stick blender and then return the pureed soup to the pan.   Stir in the coriander and serve immediately

 

Orange Cheesecake

This orange cheesecake is a recipe I came up with to use up the leftover mascarpone from the Cocoa Salmon Pasta.  I didn’t have much mascarpone left.   Not enough to make a whole cheesecake, but after all the indulgences of Christmas, that is probably just as well.

Usually I buy ingredients like mascarpone to make a particular recipe and half the container goes to waste before I have time to finish it.  This time, I was determined not to waste the leftovers and as this cheesecake is so easy to make, I’m sure it won’t be a problem in future.

I have to admit that I do have a weakness for cheesecakes and although I usually go for berry ones, I liked the oranginess of this one.   I know that it’s not at all healthy but the yoghurt gives it a nice tang which made it taste fresher and lighter than most cheesecakes.  Maybe the fact that I only had two small cheesecakes and so could not have a second slice (or huge first slice) also helped!

You could also make this cheesecake with lemons or limes but I decided to use oranges and so link it to the One Ingredient Challenge, hosted this month by Laura at How to Cook Good Food and on alternate months by Nazima at Franglais Kitchen.

Ingredients – makes 2 individual cheesecakes

3 digestive biscuits (approx 50g)

20g butter

75g mascarpone

35g Greek yoghurt

20g icing sugar

Juice of 1/2 orange

How to Make Orange Cheesecakes

1. Line 2 ramekins with cling film.

2. Put the biscuits in a plastic food bag and crush them with a rolling-pin.

3. Put the butter in a small dish and melt in the microwave.  Mix the butter over the crushed biscuits and press them into the bottom of the ramekins.

4. Put all the other ingredients in a bowl and mix together.  Pour on top of the cheesecake bases and refrigerate for at least 5 hours.

I am also linking this to Sugar and Slice Sunday Link Party and Sweets for a Saturday.

 

Cocoa Pasta with Smoked Salmon

I know, cocoa pasta and salmon does not sound right, but don’t judge too soon.  I wouldn’t have tried it either, except that I was given a packet of Hotel Chocolat cocoa pasta for Christmas.   Never having had chocolate flavoured pasta before, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.   As the recipe on the packet was for a savoury dish, salmon and mascarpone cocoa pasta, and the packet said, ‘made with pure unsweetened cocoa’, I assumed the pasta would not be sweet and that maybe the cocoa would just give the pasta a slight bitter flavour.   Taking the easy route, I decided to make the recipe on the pack.  After all, I reasoned, Hotel Chocolat must know what they are talking about.  The pasta must be suitable for savoury dishes.

As the pasta was cooking, a lovely chocolaty smell wafted up from the pan.  Is this really going to work with salmon? I wondered.  Luckily, the chocolate smell is stronger than the chocolate taste, but there is still a definite chocolate taste to the pasta.  Chocolate rather than cocoa.  Milk chocolate rather than dark chocolate.   I checked the ingredients.  Sugar.  The pasta contained sugar!

It was a little odd to eat slightly sweet pasta with a creamy salmon sauce.  A little odd but not unpleasant.  I would even eat it again if it was given to me.  However, I won’t be making it myself again as my husband claimed it made him feel a little sick.

There is still some pasta left in the packet and I’m sure it’ll end up in a delicious dessert soon.

Ingredients – serves 2

150g Cocoa Pasta

100g smoked salmon, sliced into strips

2 tbsp mascarpone

Handful grated parmesan

1 Lemon, quartered, to serve with the pasta

How to Make Cocoa Salmon Pasta

1. Put the pasta on to boil.

2. When the pasta is al dente, drain it and return it to the pan along with a little of the cooking water.

3. Mix the mascarpone and parmesan into the pasta until it forms a smooth sauce and has heated through. Stir in the smoked salmon.

4. Serve with the lemon wedges.

 

Hasselback Potatoes and Review of Knorr Gravy Pots

Some recipes are so simple but it takes a long time to get around to making them.   I first came across these Hasselback potatoes a couple of years ago and knew I wanted to make them.   They looked so crispy and delicious.   Since then I’ve cooked baked potatoes many times and made quite a few roast dinners, but I love roast potatoes so much (and I make pretty good ones) that I’d rarely done anything more adventurous.   Hasselback potatoes are Swedish in origin and the slices that are cut into the potatoes provide a larger surface area and so more surface of potato to crisp up.  If you love crispy potatoes then you should try these.  You do need to be having a roast dinner to prepare the potatoes in exactly the same way that I did.   However, if you are not, you could use butter as an alternative to beef fat.  I used baking potatoes and we had one each but you could use smaller potatoes as well.  Then you would have even more crispiness.

I served the roast dinner with beef gravy made from Knorr Gravy pots.  It was quick and easy to make and although not an alternative to real homemade gravy, it did  have a rich taste and it was easier to avoid it having lumps in than in gravy made with granules.  For a quick almost instant gravy, it is something that I would use again.

Ingredients – per person

1 baking potato

Salt

lard (or butter)

How to Make Hasselback Potatoes

1.Wash and dry the potatoes. Cut slices 2/3 of the way through the potato about 5mm apart along its length.  Rub salt in and leave for an hour.

2. As I was making  a roast dinner I sealed the beef joint in the frying pan then drizzled the fat that came off over the potatoes.  Seasoned them again and put them in the oven.

3. Bake the potatoes for up to 2 hours. Every 20-30 minutes baste the potatoes with the fat from the meat.

Disclosure – I received the Knorr Gravy Pots for free, as a BzzAgent but the views are my own.