Spicy Pepper Pasta

3 bell peppers - red, yellow & orange work best.

1 large onion

1/4 pint single cream

3 handfulls of pasta (shells, twists, etc)

Veg Stock

Ketchup

Lea & Perrins

Cajun seasoning

Garlic Italian Seasoning

Olive Oil & Cooking oil

Chop the peppers up into large squares (1-2cm a side).

Put them in a dish lined with foil and cover in olive oil. Mix them thoroughly so they are all covered in oil. Put in a hot oven (as hot as you can get it for about 1/2 an hour or until they are just starting to scorch.

Meanwhile chop the onion into small squares, and fry in plenty of oil, slowly. Stop just before they start to brown, but when they are soft and translucent.

Add the peppers to the onions.

Make up a teaspoon of vegetable stock in a little boiling water and add to the vegetables. Add in a small squirt of ketchup, and a couple of dashes of worcestershire. Add a generous sprinkling of cajun seasoning, and a little garlic italian.

Cook on medium heat until the stock is reducing down.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to instructions - but stop a minute or two before it's finished and drain.

Once the stock has reduced, take it off the heat, leave to cool for a minute, and add the cream, slowly, stiring all the while. Once all the cream is added, return to the heat and cook down until it's starting to thicken.

Add the pasta and stir until covered by the creamy sauce, and cook for the last two minutes the pasta needs.

Serves 2.

Moroccan Chicken Curry

2 chicken breasts

1 red pepper

2 medium - large onions

2 tomatoes

Large handful of mushrooms

2 cloves of garlic

2 chicken stock cubes

2 tsp dried chipotle chillies

3 heaped tsp coriander seeds, finely crushed.

2 heaped tsp garam masala

2 heaped tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp turmeric

Cous-cous

Chop up the onions finely and fry until almost transparent. Remove skins from the tomatoes and chop the other vegetables into good sized chunks. Cube the chicken breasts into about 3/4 inch cubes.

Remove the onions from the pan and replace with the chicken. Fry up for a bit until pretty much browned on all sides. Add the onions and the other vegetables and fry up for another few minutes.

Make a well in the center of the pan, and fry up the spices for a minute and then stir into the rest. Crush the garlic and add.

Make up the stock in a pint of boiling water and add to the pan. Add more water to cover everything in the pan.

Heat until boiling, and then turn the heat down to a simmer. Cover and leave for an hour or more, checking periodically to make sure it's not boiling dry.

Remove the lid, and turn up the heat, and reduce down until you get to the desired consistency (1/2 hour?). Make the cous-cous up as per the packet once almost ready to go.

Serves 2, generously.

Chicken & Pepper Pasta

A quick (relatively) and easy pasta dish

4 small chicken breasts, chopping into small bits
3 medium onions, chopped into small pieces
2 Peppers, chopped into small pieces
½ bottle cheap white wine
1 tin tomatoes
8-12 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped into medium pieces
1 small pot (1/4 pint?) of double cream
1 Chicken Oxo
Garlic Italian Seasoning
Lea & Perrins
Oil for frying
8 handfuls of pasta (about 400g) – I used rigatoni.

Fry up the onions until starting to turn transparent. Add in the chicken and cook until browned. Add the peppers and cook for another minute.
Pour in the wine, add the seasoning, oxo, lea & perrins and sun-dried tomatoes. Cook for about 10 minutes
Add the tin of tomatoes. Cook for another 20 minutes or so on high heat until it has reduced down considerably – should be a good saucy consistency.
Cook the pasta as instructed on the packet.
Reduce down again, stirring often until a light sauce. Add in the pasta once cooked and mix together carefully.

Serves 6

Risotto with Mushrooms & Brocoli in a Balsamic Reduction

(Forgive the Pretension - I've been reading Heston)

Serves 2

For the Risotto:
3/4 cup Arborio Rice (or your favorite risotto rice. Long grain will not do).
3/4 pint chicken stock, made up from 2 oxo cubes if nothing better (I used the oxo)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
About 1/3 small pot double cream. (50ml ?)
A little Parmesan, flaked (about 1 inch of the thin end of a wedge)
Olive Oil
1 cherry tomato

For the Veg
1/2 head of broccoli, florettes only - small florettes at that.
8 mushrooms, chopped
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Lea & Perrins
Splash of Red Wine
Lemon Thyme
Oregano


Fry up the onion, in hot oil until starting to turn transparent. Do not let it brown! (A couple of minutes - less than normal if chopped fine enough)
Add the rice, and stir together for a minute or two.
Add about 2/3 of the stock, stir in, and leave to simmer
Top up the rice when it's starting to look like it's getting dry.
(Should take ~ 20 mins all told - see pack of rice)

Meanwhile,
Fry up the mushrooms in a little olive oil over a high heat. Keep throwing them around in the pan; keep them evenly coated with oil / juices and don't let one side over cook while the other goes unloved.
Once the mushrooms are showing signs of starting to brown, take them out of the pan and set aside.

Turn the heat off.
Add a little more olive oil, then add in the lea & perrins, wine & Balsamic Vinegar. Beware! will likely start spitting!
Mix together using the heat of the pan only.
Add the herbs.
Return the mushrooms to the pan

Also,
Steam the Broccoli for 5 mins. Once done, tip into the pan with the mushrooms and stir through. Leave until end.

Finale;
When the rice is done, turn off the heat and leave for a minute.
Turn the heat back on the veg, to warm through.
Add the Parmesan and the cream to the rice, stir through as little as possible to get a good mixture.

Serve;
With half a cherry tomato on the rice to give it a centerpiece.

Thai Style Prawn Red Curry with egg fried rice.

Peeled, shelled large prawns. 1-2 small packs per person.
1 large onion
Lemongrass (from a jar)
3 cloves garlic
4 tomatoes, roasted & marinaded in chili oil (from a jar)
1 small tin of coconut milk.
1 Fish Stock Cube
Thai Fish Sauce
Rice Wine
Sweet Chili Sauce
Green Chillies (really lazy)
Thai 7 spice
Lea & Perrins

1 egg
rice
soy sauce


Chop the onion roughly and fry in oil slowly until transparent.
Add the garlic (crushed) and the tomatoes (chopped). Fry for a bit longer. Add enough rice wine to cover the base of the pan, and cook for another minute. Add a splash of Worcester sauce, the stock cube made up in ~100ml of boiling water, the chillies, a little 7 spice and a teaspoon of the sweet chili sauce. Set aside to cook while doing the rice.

Cook the rice as per packet. When almost done, break the egg into a wok and mash it up with a spatula. Keep mashing and moving it about while it cooks, so the white and yolk are thoroughly mixed in. Add the rice to the wok, and splash in the soy sauce (not too much). Fry up for a few minutes.

Add the prawns and coconut milk to the curry and cook it hard - the aim is still a liquid sauce, but does want a hint of thickness. And everything needs to be warm.

Serve the curry over the rice so that the liquid soaks through the rice.

Serves 2.

Tomato & Garlic Pasta Sauce

Dead easy, and quick.

4 Large Cloves of Garlic
1 Tin Chopped Tomatoes
1/4 small basil plant
2 heaped teaspoons of green pesto
Lea & Perrins
Tomato Ketchup
Butter

Melt the butter in a pan. Crush the garlic into the pan and fry for about 1 minute. Add the tinned tomatoes. Roughly tear the basil leaves and stir them in. Add everything else, stir while cooking.
Let it reduce down to however thick you want it.

Serves 2

Hunter's Sauce

½ large onion (or, I suppose, a medium onion)
½ pack of chestnut mushrooms (~60g, I think)
1 sm glass red wine
1 beef stock cube made up in ~100ml boiling water
Sauce (Fine) Flour
Lea & Perrins
Tomato Ketchup
Garlic Italian Seasoning
Oil for frying

Chop onion into fine slices. Cook over a medium heat until starting to go translucent
Chop mushrooms into medium-thin slices (3-5mm) Add to the onion, and continue to cook over a medium heat. Mushrooms will produce liquid, the aim is not to boil it off at this stage.
After about 5 mins or so, dust with flour and add red wine and stock. Add a fair sprinkling of seasoning, a good squirt of ketchup (or dollop if you still have a glass bottle), and a generous dash of Lea & Perrins.
Cook over a low heat for 15-20 mins, stirring occasionally, or until it reaches a good saucy consistency.

Serve with Steak & Chips.

Serves 2-3.

Creamy Chicken with Beer

12 Chicken Thighs, boneless
2 Large Onions
4 cloves of garlic
2/3 small tub of double cream (1/3 pint, I think.)
1 glass Belgian Beer – I used Leffe Blonde, but most should do well.
2 Chicken Stock Cubes
Lea & Perrins
Thyme
Sauce (Fine) Flour.

Chop the onions and fry them up in a large casserole for 10-20 mins, until almost transparent. Stir often to avoid sticking to the bottom and burning. Towards then end, crush the garlic and add. Remove everything from the casserole and set aside.
Brown the chicken in 2 batches.
Remove everything from the casserole, and add in the beer. Scrape around a bit to get as much of the gunge on the bottom of the casserole. Add the onions and chicken back in. Dust with flour.
Make up the stock cubes in about 1 pint water and add to the dish. Add a generous helping of Lea & Perrins, and a fair bit of Thyme.
Chicken should be covered by the liquid – just. Add more beer (or water) if not enough.
Cook over a high heat for ½ hour. Keep stirring it to minimise it sticking to the bottom. Should be quite thick once done. Turn of the heat and allow to cool for a minute. Add the cream, stir in and return to the heat, although a medium – low heat this time. Cook for another 5-10 mins until the sauce is a nice consistency.

Serves 5-6 with mash, peas & sweetcorn.

Shredded Spicy Chicken

6 Legs of Chicken (with skin & bones)
3 Bell Peppers
1 ½ Large Onions
5 Red Chillies
Cajun Seasoning
Thyme
Lea & Perrins
Soy Sauce
Tabasco Sauce (chipotle)
1 chicken stock cube
6 Roast Tomatoes (from a jar)
¾ bottle cheap white wine
Olive Oil

Cover the base of a casserole dish with olive oil. Place the chicken in. Chop up the onions, peppers and chillies and place over the chicken. Put the Tomatoes in.
Cover liberally with Cajun seasoning & thyme. Splash in Lea & Perrins and Soy sauce (be generous). Tabasco to taste, but be generous again. Crumble the stock cube over the lot. Cover with more olive oil (I used the oil from the jar of tomatoes here).
Add the wine until it just covers everything. Stir the veg into the gaps between the chicken.
Leave overnight in the fridge.

Cook on low heat (150 C) for 4-5 hours. Add water (or more wine) if it looks as though it is drying out.

Take the chicken out of the casserole, remove the skin and bones. Tear the chicken into small pieces with a fork. Put everything into a large frying pan and cook on the hob for another 10-15 mins. Make sure there is enough oil in the pan.


Serves 6