I don’t know where this recipe is from so I’m not sure who to credit for it. It’s one my mum (and in turn her mum) gave to me from an old-looking magazine cutting, and I don’t know anything more than “it’s yummy!” and it’s such a simple dish to do!
Ingredients (serves 4)
4 tablespoons double cream
4-6 chicken pieces
225g frozen broccoli, thawed
298g can condensed cream of chicken soup
4 rounded tablespoons real mayonnaise
Half level teaspoon curry powder
50g English cheddar, grated
Instructions
1. Preheat a moderately hot oven (Gas 5, 375 deg. F, 190 deg. C)
2. Arrange the chicken and broccoli in a shallow baking dish.
3. Combine the undiluted chicken soup with the mayonnaise, cream and curry powder. Spoon this over the chicken and broccoli then sprinkle with the grated cheese.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the cheese is turning golden brown.
Yeah OK so this isn’t an original recipe, it’s shamelessly lifted from my Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food
book that my sister gave me a couple of years ago. I love this recipe and make it at least once a month though, and you can vary it by swapping out the korma paste with any sort of paste – tandoori, tikka massala etc.
Ingredients
- Half a Cucumber
- Lemon juice
- Red chilli
- Yoghurt
- Coriander
- 2x Naan bread
- 2x Salmon fillets
- Salt & Pepper
- Korma paste (e.g. Patak’s)
- Olive oil
Instructions
Chop the cucumber into small chunks and put in a pyrex bowl, saving a few pieces for garnish. De-seed and finely chop the red chilli and coriander (save a little of each as well) and add to bowl. Add a couple of splashes of lemon juice and the yoghurt. Season with salt & pepper, mix up well and leave on side.
Warm your naan bread in the oven. Slice the salmon into chunks about half an inch thick. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and add the salmon chunks, followed by 2 tablespoons of korma paste (more or less to taste). Mix up well as it cooks.
As soon as the salmon is cooked, place your naan bread on your serving plate, and spread out the cucumber/yoghurt mix around the large end of the naan. Add half the salmon on top, serve with the remaining cucumber, chilli and coriander on top. Yum.
Ratatouille is a great dish and full of vegetables which makes it cheap to do. I do Ratatouille slightly differently to many though as I exclude the common ingredients aubergine and bell peppers. My take on Ratatouille still keeps the tomato base in though, and I think it’s still just as yummy. Truth be told I vary the veg I put in each time, but I’ll write the recipe for the latest dish I made.
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 3/4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 3 small courgettes, chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, sliced into batons
- Tin of chopped tomatoes
- 12-16 on-the-vine cherry tomatoes
- 5/6 broccoli florets
- 8 baby corns
- Your choice of herbs, e.g. Basil+Marjoram, Bay Leaf+Thyme or Provençal herbs mix
- Optional – Lea & Perrins
- Optional – 300g long grain rice
Instructions
Prepare all the vegetables. In a large saucepan, heat some olive oil and add garlic and onions. After a couple of minutes, add in the rest of the vegetables except the broccoli. Add the tin of tomatoes on top and add the herbs you have chosen. Optionally add some Lea & Perrins Worcester sauce. Give everything a good stir. After a couple of minutes add all the cherry tomatoes and broccoli and give a quick stir and cover.
If you want rice, in another saucepan immediately after adding the broccoli and cherry tomatoes, boil some water for the rice. After 5 minutes, add the rice and cook everything for a further 15 minutes. If you are not doing rice, just cook the ratatouille for 20 minutes with the lid on. Everything should be ready all at once – which is something I never get quite right, but thankfully this is such a simple dish so it makes it possible!
I love pies, and they’re so easy to make, especially with pre-rolled pastry. My favourite is this Chicken & Mushroom pie recipe I honed on my own from various sources.
Ingredients – serves 2
- Pre-rolled puff pastry
- 2 chicken breasts, diced
- 4-6 sliced mushrooms
- 150ml Double cream
- 1/2 pint vegetable stock
- Tablespoon of cornflour
- 1 diced carrot
- 1/2 chopped broccoli heads
- 1 chopped onion
- Plain flour
- Olive oil
- 2/3 crushed garlic cloves
- Splash of white wine (optional)
- 1 egg
Instructions
There is normally enough puff pastry in the pre-rolled packets for both the lid and outside. I normally slice the pastry in half with a sharp knife and roll one half big enough for a lid, and the other half big enough for the dish (make it slightly bigger for the sides of course!). Make sure you use plenty of flour to roll, and sprinkle a little flour into the dish before you put the pastry in. Leave the lid aside for now.
The pie filling is made by frying some onion and garlic in olive oil on high in a large frying pan. Add the diced chicken breasts until starting to go golden brown. Add the mushrooms, vegetable stock, optionally white wine, carrots, and simmer on low/medium for 15 minutes. Add in the broccoli a few minutes before that is done. Add in cream and cornflour and stir continuously for another 5 minutes on medium heat until nice and thick. Let this cool completely on the side. Once it is cool, put into your prepared pastry in your pie dish and cover with a lid. Gently press down around the edges with a fork or your fingers, and decorate if you wish.
Beat an egg and brush the top of the pie with it. Pop the pie in the oven on 200 degrees for about 20/25 minutes until golden brown.
I got this recipe off the UKTV website (and modified it slightly) and it is absolutely delicious on it’s own as a starter, or as a side to a nice lemon-marinated salmon fillet. It’s such a simple dish too, and the flavours are exhilarating.
Ingredients
- Finely diced bread
- 50g butter
- Iceberg lettuce
- Scallops
- Chopped chives
For the dressing:
- 2tbsp Ground nut oil
- 175ml sunflower oil
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 shallot
- 1tsp English mustard
- Salt & Pepper
- 2tbsp white wine vinegar
Instructions
- Heat white wine vinegar, nut oil, sunflower oil, garlic, shallot and mustard, cook for 5 minutes. Season salt & pepper.
- Whilst that is doing, 25g butter in frying pan. Add finely diced bread and fry until crispy. Drain on plate with kitchen paper.
- 25g butter in frying pan. Fry for 1-2 minutes on each side until cooked.
- Serve lettuce on plate, put scallops on top and sprinkle with croutons. Top with the dressing. Sprinkle with chives.
