Category: Recipes

Tacos – Do I need to say more? Great with either crispy taco shells, soft shells or even just a tortilla wrap. I normally make them with Chicken Fajitas hence the pic 🙂

Ingredients
450g mince beef
3 tsp Taco Seasoning
1/2 tsp Chilli Flakes (if you like it a bit hotter, if not then dont add)
taco shells
shredded iceberg lettuce
grated cheddar cheese
Cool salsa
Thinly sliced tomatoes
sliced chilli peppers

Method
Heat a pan with a little oil in the bottom and brown the mince. Once this is done add the taco seasoning and the extra chilli flakes if you want them, and cook for a minute or so.
Add 250ml boiling water and cook until all the water is boiled off, stirring occasionally so it doesnt stick.

To server, heat your tacos are per the instructions on the pack, add a couple of spoonfuls of the mince, top with the cheese, salsa, tomatoes, chilli peppers and the lettuce. Enjoy with an ice cold beer or lager and as many friends as you can 🙂

Fajitas have to be one of my favourite feel good foods, quick to make, tasty and not too bad for you 🙂

Ingredents
4 chicken breasts
Flour tortillas
2 Peppers
1/2 Onion
Cool Salsa
Guacamole
2 or 3 Chilli peppers

marinade for chicken
1 tbs lime juice
1 tsp oil
3 tsp Taco Seasoning
1 tsp Smoked Paprika

soured creamed and chives
250ml soured cream
handful of chives

Method
Thinly slice the chicken and stick it in a bowl, add the lime juice, oil and give it all a thorough mixing. Although you can use it straight away its much better if you leave it for an hour or so in the fridge.

While its marinating make up the sour cream and chives by mixing the chives with the cream and stick that in the fridge so its nice and chilled later.

Slice up the peppers, onions and one of the chilli peppers

heat up two pans each with a 1tbs of oil in, when its nice and hot add the peppers and onions to one pan and the chicken to another. You want to cook both of these until you see some charring on the peppers and the chicken. Remember to stir the food – but not too much, this helps with the charring.

You want the chicken to look like the following

And the peppers like this

once everything is done, take a tortilla, add some chicken and top with the peppers, guacamole, soured cream, sliced chilli peppers and salsa – roll it up and have it with a nice cold beer. And remember if it isnt messy you have done something wrong 😉

This is such a refreshing yet spicy salsa and nothing like the shop bought jars, goes great with Tacos and fajitas. The addition of the mint and lime juice gives it a refreshing edge.

Ingredients
8 tommatoes (seeds removed)
1/2 onion (or less if you prefer – I like lots of onion)
1 or 2 chilli peppers (or more if you like!)
1 tsp lime juice
1 tbs fresh corriander
2 tsp of mint sauce
1 tbs chilli powder
1 tbs smoked paprika

Method
Finely chop everything and mix it up – simple as that!

I like to keep this as simple as possible, but feel free to add chillies, chopped tomatoes, onions etc. And please dont make this up in advance, it only takes a minute to make so make it fresh – its much better that way.

Ingredients
2 Avacado
2 tbs Lime Juice
2 tbs Corriander
1 clove garlic
salt to taste

Methods
Stick it in a jar or jug and mash it all up 🙂

This is much better than the packet bought stuff with less salt, and you can mix it how you like. I use it for tacos and for fajitas. If I am making tacos I like them a bit spicier so I tend to add more chilli flakes, and if I am making fajitas then I add lime juice and a bit more smoked paprika.

Inredients
8 tsp chili powder
2 tsp garlic pepper (or 1/4 garlic powder and 1/2 black pepper)
4 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chilli flakes
1/2 onion salt

Method
Mix it all together and keep it in an air tight jar. If you like it a bit spicier then add extra chilli flakes, or a bit earthier add more cumin.

This is a great one if you are into thin bases. My wife prefers a deep pan base, but me and my son prefer these ones. Easy, quick and no pizza dough to make!

Pizza
Ingredients
Flour Tortilla
Grated Mozzarella Cheese
Tomato Sauce (Pasta sauce not ketchup!)
Pizza Toppings of your choice

Method
Heat your pizza oven, pizza stone or a baking sheet in the oven.
Take your tortilla base, add your tomato sauce, cover with cheese and add your favourite toppings,
Place either in your pizza oven or on your pizza stone/baking sheet and cook until the cheese is golden and the base is nice and crispy.

As for toppings I like to do what I call the dynamite – this involves mixing the tomato sauce for the base 50/50 with minced chillies, then adding salami before the cheese. Then covering with the cheese and topping with pepperoni, chorizo, onions, jalapeno and dried chillies – not one for the faint hearted mind! haha. The pic on this post is how it turns out.

Garlic Bread

You can also make garlic bread by covering the tortilla with garlic butter and mozzarella cheese instead of the other stuff. Make the garlic butter by mixing butter with garlic and parsley – then spread it all on the tortilla, cover with the cheese and bung it in the oven.

Tonight I am feeling sorry for myself as I have just been to the dentists, so I am making another one of my favourite comfort foods – something so nice about fried rice with sweet and sour chicken.

Fried Rice
2 cups of cooked, cold white Rice
Soy Sauce
Frozen Peas
2 Eggs
Chinese 5 spice
1tbs Sesame Oil
Spring onions

Method
Heat the sesame oil in a pan and fry the spring onions and peas.
Add 5 spice, soy sauce and rice and cook until the rice is heated thoroughly and everything is mixed.
Whisk the eggs, move all the rice to the side of the pan leaving a hole in the middle,
Add the egg a small amount at a time, and cook until the egg sets, stirring it all the time, then mix it with the rice before adding more rice.
continue until all the rice is cooked.

Fried Chicken in Batter
2 diced fresh chicken breast
110g self raising flour
1 tsp Chinese 5 spice
1 tbs sesame oil
1/4 tsp tumeric
1/4 tsp salt
100ml cold water

Method
You will either need a deep fat fryer for this, or a deep sided frying pan with enough oil in to cover the chicken pieces. Either way be careful, keep watching and don’t start a fire!

Mix all the dry ingredients together, and coat the chicken chunks and put them to one side, keeping all the remaining dry ingredients.
Mix the dry stuff with the oil and the water and mix into a smooth batter. then add the chicken back in a ensure it is thoroughly coated.
Deep fry until golden and the chicken is cooked (you might have to do this in batches)

Sweet and Sour Sauce
1 cup sugar
1 cup vinegar
2 tbs soy sauce
3 cups tomato ketchup
1 small tin pineapple chunks
1/2 tsp chilli flakes

Method
Heat the vinegar, sugar, soy sauce and chilli flakes in a pan until the sugar has desolved – then allow to cool. Add the Tommato ketchup and pineapple chunks (along with the juice) and reheat when you are ready to serve. Taste it and if you want it a bit sweeter add more sugar, if you want more sour add more vinegar and if you want more savoury then add more soy sauce.

Server the rice on the plate, chicken on top and cover with the sweet and sour sauce – then dive in until you are feeling better! 🙂

This has to be one of my favourite simple to cook meals at the minute. Harissa chicken, with humus and salad, served in a seeded flatbread.

Recipe
4 chicken breasts
85g jar Harissa paste
4 seeded flatbread
Humus
Salad
Tomatoes
Onion

Method

Cook the chicken in boiling water for 15mins, then allow to cool enough to handle

Slice the chicken around 1/4″ (6mm) thick

Heat a large frying pan, add a tbs of oil and the jar of Harissa paste. Then add the sliced chicken and cook, turning infrequently – you want the outside of the chicken to cook and caramelise. When done it should look like below.

Once the chicken is done, lay out the flat breads, cover with a generous helping of humus, top with as much of the chicken as you like, then sliced onion, tomatoes and salad. Either serve like this or fold the flatbreads so they are easier to hold.

Serve with home made chips and, if you really want to push the boat out, garlic mayo 😉

Me and my son made chicken satay with Chinese style noodles the other day, turned out fantastic. This is the first proper meal he has cooked. I did any of the dangerous stuff, like pouring the boiling water etc, but he did the majority of the work himself. Well proud of him.

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts
kebab sticks or skewers

Marinade for the chicken
3 tbs peanut butter (I prefer crunchy, but any will do)
2 tbs honey
2 tbs soy sauce
good clug of lemon juice.
splash of sesame oil
chili flakes to taste

4 medium egg noodle nests
4 tbs of soy sauce
2 tbs of sesame oil
handful of chopped coriander
1 tsp Chinese 5 spice
Chopped Chili, spring onions, corriander and peanuts to garnish

 

Method

The first thing to do is marinade the chicken, so stick all the marinade ingredients into a bowl and give them a proper mix. Now slice up the chicken breast into thin strips, about 6mm or 1/4″ thick. once all the chicken is sliced up throw in the marinade and give it a good mixing so all the chicken is covered. Now leave it to one side for about half and hour or so.

Next thing to do is to put the chicken onto the skewers, go in and out a few times, so the chicken is scrunched up on the skewer – stick as many pieces on each skewer as you want.

Stick the griddle on and get it up to temperature, I prefer to use a george foreman type grill, but any griddle type pan with the ridges will do.  Once the pan is hot enough stick the chicken on.

While the chicken is cooking, boil up a kettle full of water.

Keep checking the chicken, turning over every once the chicken is cooked and you have some nice brown griddled ridges in there.

To cook the noodles, put the noodle nest in a large pan with a bit of salt, cover with boiling water and cook for around 4 to 5 minutes depending on the noodles. Once they are done, drain them thoroughly. Then put them back in the pan, and add the sesame oil – giving it a good stir so all the noodles are covered. Now throw in the sesame oil, coriander and Chinese 5 spice.  Give it a full on mixing and put it to one side until the chicken is ready.

Once everything is done, divide the noodles up on 4 plates, sprinkle the garnishes over the top of them, and put a skewer or two of the chickens on top. Finish off with a splash of soy sauce and lime juice

Finally, sit down and enjoy.