tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26321912994711117882024-03-14T09:59:04.825+00:00Tesco Value ChefYou can eat well on a budget! Good value, good quality food that's easy to make in your own kitchen.Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.comBlogger132125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-37120677444728439502015-06-06T02:53:00.001+01:002015-06-06T02:53:21.608+01:00Jimmy's in BrightonWell, here's a new experience. I've had good food and bad food in restaurants, and I've heard good and bad news in them too, but I've never before had a restaurant meal that made me cross. I'm still cross, nearly two weeks later.<br />
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Even my cathartic angry Tripadvisor review hasn't made me feel any better.<br />
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Jimmy's isn't somewhere we'd normally eat, but we wanted to go to the cinema (Avengers: Age of Ultron, a fun actiony explosiony film with a bit more character development and a lot more heart than usual, but the usual waffer-thin plot) which entails going to one of those complexes on the edge of town that has nothing but chains.<br />
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We went to Jimmy's because we'd been to all of the other chains before and thought it might offer something different.<br />
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I won't repeat my review here, except to say that the food was far and away the worst thing I've put in mouth... well, ever, actually. Worse than the canteen at work. Worse than supermarket ready meals. Worse than anything you'd find on a station concourse.<br />
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Until now I had two amusing bad-meal stories: the most disappointing meal I'd ever had was in a pub in Whitstable where I ordered moules marinieres because I could see the harbour with all the fish suppliers along it, and it came out still frozen in one-half of the dish. The worst meal I'd ever had was a breakfast in the Wetherspoons in Brighton (to be fair to 'spoons they are quite variable and the Bright Helm is a dive) which came out stone cold and when I sent it back the same breakfast reappeared a few minutes later having spent some time in the microwave. Do you know what a fried egg looks like when it's gone cold and been re-heated? Or what happens to brown sauce when you nuke it?<br />
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This was worse.<br />
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But why am I still cross about it? I'm generally quite a laid-back sort of person so I thought it was worth examining.<br /><br />This must be about more than just bad food: I've had bad food elsewhere and not got angry about it.<br />
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The aforementioned canteen at work has some shockers, but it's quite easily navigated: avoid all the bought in gack (pies, pasties, burgers etc) and eat what's been made in-house - the salad bar, the sandwiches, the excellent haloumi burgers and the curries, chillis and pasta bakes. This doesn't make me angry: it's a small team of dedicated and friendly people doing their best on the minimum wage with crap raw materials and equipment. I salute them, and I'm very happy to eat haloumi and portabello mushroom in a bun with salad, coleslaw and chips for £3.50.<br />
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We went to a gig recently at a venue in Southampton where the only food within walking distance was a McDonalds. The restaurant experience is a bit nasty with the queuing, the noise, the bright lights and the uncomfortable chairs, but we needed food and it did the job without being actively horrible. The worst thing I can say about McDonalds is that it makes me sad: the place has stood completely still since my 'teens in the '90s at the very least while the general standard of food in the UK has got better and better. Look objectively at your town: I guarantee there's somewhere you can get a better burger than McDonalds. No, I can't be angry about a place that sells lunch with no real nutritional value but an all-right-I-suppose flavour for a fiver.<br />
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Last time I serviced the car, the national chain of garages I chose ballsed up my booking so rather than spending a pleasant afternoon in Brighton with its wide range of dog-friendly eateries and strolling opportunities I found myself on a trading estate in Newhaven. My dog isn't allowed in the McDonalds or the KFC on the trading estate, so it was a mile-long walk around the harbour for us, to the nearest pub. I had a chicken burger which was a bit rubbish. It all seemed to have come from Tesco: a breaded chicken breast in a cheapo white bap with oven chips and some limp salad on the side. Still, it was cheap and I liked watching the boats come and go. The pub was done up nicely and the chairs were comfy too. No, I can't be angry at a pub in an out-of-the-way corner of a fairly run-down town where the food isn't up to my high standards. I was probably the first person who'd eaten there all week: what would be the point of paying a top-end chef?<br />
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So. Jimmy's. What have you done to earn my wrath?<br />
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Last time we went to the pictures it hadn't opened. It looked very exciting though: it's all glazed and the windows had been filled with really exciting images of food and slogans. It looked like an exciting, up and coming sort of place. There were fliers. They had an online presence. There was buzz.<br />
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So, onto our recent cinema trip. The place looked great from the outside, and inside. It's big, but it's done up nicely. There are serving staff everywhere and they're obviously well-trained as they're very efficient despite being uniformly very young. It looks like a slick new restaurant.<br />
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And there it is. That's the root of my anger. It feels like we were lied to.<br />
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Most places telegraph their intentions. I know, for example, never to go into a pub with a Sky Sports banner strung across it. I know that no matter where I am in the world the Golden Arches mean an unhealthy but not-horrible meal for not much money and a clean toilet to use afterwards.<br />
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Jimmy's wrote cheques its food couldn't cash. It ran an effective local advertising campaign, fitted out a big but lovely-looking room, trained its waiting staff to perfection... I was even excited by the "how Jimmy's works" stuff on the paper placemats.<br />
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Then we were punched in the face with the worst food we've ever had.<br />
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Then we paid a bill which was about twice what it would have been in the neighbouring Nandos or Wetherspoons. <br />
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More fool you, you might say: surely a buffet restaurant is never going to be any good! Not so. We've eaten at Zsa Zsa Bazaar in Bristol which was quite impressive. It's a noisy barn of a place and you're on a time limit but the food is pretty good. Not somewhere for a special occasion, but reasonably priced for quite decent food.<br />
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If you ask yourself "How can I make the most money out of my customers for the least outlay?" you wend your way along a road which probably starts with Russell Norman's Polpo brand (London locations, high end food, all the numbers are worked out well in advance - and good luck to him for that) via Nandos (one sort of food done really quite well with a nod at ethical sourcing) then your burger joints. Finally, at the very end of that road, after its gone through some gates and become a rutted track you find Jimmy's: a chain that claims to appeal to even the most fractious and divided family, or to offer everything to the most adventurous foodie, while actually just peddling schlock that's a bit worse than the supermarket value ranges.Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-31333647773340016792014-09-30T21:43:00.001+01:002014-09-30T21:43:09.335+01:00Pork and chickpea stew<div style="text-align: justify;">
I have a confession to make. I've got a bit overexcited, having moved here to Lewes, and bought a lot of exciting ingredients because they looked amazing then realised that there are only two of us and put the whole lot in the freezer.</div>
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This isn't necessarily a bad thing: I reckon we can get from here to pay day without buying anything other than some odd bits of fresh veg and salad, so all the money in my wallet is mine and mine alone, to spend on fun stuff. That's what the freezer's for, no?</div>
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I also seem to have gone a bit overboard on chorizo. The freezer seems to be full of the stuff, which is fine because I love it and it's really versatile. That and the pork belly seemed to suggest a Spanish style stew.</div>
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Start by finely chopping a carrot and an onion (the classic trilogy would include celery as well, but neither of us can stand the stuff) and sweating them in olive oil over a low heat. Chop a chilli pepper and stick that in too.</div>
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Get some potatoes boiling while that's going on. We're using stock later on, so I used some of it in the potato water to add a bit of extra flavour. When they're nearly cooked drain them and put them to one side.</div>
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When the veg is getting soft, add your chopped up chorizo. I love how the colour starts bleeding out of it and into the veg straight away.</div>
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While the veg is softening and getting to know the chorizo we want to get some colour onto the pork. I used pork belly, removed the skin and cut it up into bite-size pieces - it is available skinless if you don't want the extra work but I used the skin to make pork scratchings so nothing was wasted!</div>
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Just get a pan really hot, season the pork with salt and pepper and brown it on all sides.</div>
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Now, back to the main pan. Throw in the pork pieces when they're nicely browned along with a small tin of tomato purée (or about four tablespoonfuls if you're using purée from a tube), a drained tin of chickpeas, a splash of red wine vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.</div>
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Now move it all around so everything's coated in spice, then add the rest of the stock - 300ml or so should do it. Raise the heat until it just starts to bubble - not a rolling boil - then back it off to a simmer.</div>
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It doesn't need long, maybe 20 minutes or so until the stock has reduced to a thick sauce and everything heated through. Add the cooked potatoes and let them warm through, then serve.</div>
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This made four portions for us - so the level of stock in the freezer hasn't really gone down, it's just turned from ingredients into meals ready to take to work and microwave!</div>
Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-12548854233213954012014-09-10T21:46:00.000+01:002014-09-10T21:46:23.922+01:00Pork bunsWe had roast belly pork last night, mostly so that I could have a stab at making <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr4vxVQ-kNA" target="_blank">this item</a> (opens in YouTube) that I saw on TV.<br />
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It gave me a chance not only to cook prawn crackers (which was great fun) but also to play with two new kitchen gadgets, a food processor and a set of Chinese bamboo steamers, bought from one of the stalls in the Open Market in Brighton. I wasn't so obsessive about using local independent shops when I lived here before, but I wish I had been - I reckon if you live or work in walking distance of Brighton or Hove you'd never need to set foot in a supermarket again.<br />
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Mine didn't turn out as neat as Jamie's, mostly because my
dough was unbelievably sticky, but they were tasty if a little heavy -
I'd cut the quantities right down next time, this would easily have fed
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Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-70687142091121576962014-09-08T22:49:00.000+01:002014-09-08T22:55:09.778+01:00Curry goat<div style="text-align: justify;">
It's considered bad blog etiquette to start a post by apologising for being away for so long but given my performance over the last year or so I feel I have to.</div>
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The enforced peripatetic life of a tenant means that not all food bloggers have a dream kitchen and for the last year I've endured the foodie hell of living in a town with some really excellent food shops in a flat with a tiny kitchen. I just haven't wanted to cook anything more than the simplest meals, which is why there have only been four posts in the last year, and I note that one of those has the word "fail" in the title and another "leftovers."</div>
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Another move has happened though, and this one through choice! Shall we find out what good quality, value eating is like in one of the foodiest destinations in the south? We're going to have to because after a long absence I've returned to Brighton. There's everything here, from the dirtiest fried chicken or kebab to fine dining via some of the most exciting, innovative food going. I'm really looking forward to this chapter.</div>
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Let's start with some home cooking though.</div>
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If this blog has a regular reader, he or she might remember a rant I did a couple of years ago about the quality of food at outdoor events. My internet campaign didn't change anything, obviously. I still go to folk music festivals where the food is amazing, and I still go to more traditionally male events like air shows where the food is barely fit for the dog.</div>
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Never mind. In consolation, I polished off a most amazing Jamaican curry goat from a stall making its debut at the <a href="http://www.fairportconvention.com/" target="_blank">Cropredy Festival</a> this year and when, a month and a house move later, I saw a stall selling goat at the monthly Lewes Farmers' Market I knew what I had to do.</div>
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I can't claim this as being a "value" dish because the goat mutton was expensive - £9 for 500g, making it about twice the price of braising steak - which suggests there's something wrong in the industry. There's a huge amount of goat milk and cheese available in our shops... what's happening to the male kids? I'd suggest the goat meat industry has to grow as an urgent welfare issue - presumably they're just being slaughtered otherwise. If it's happening anyway, much better that the meat goes to good use.</div>
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I did some intensive googling and came away with <a href="http://girlinterruptedeating.wordpress.com/2010/03/28/curried-goat-with-rice-and-peas/" target="_blank">this recipe from Girl Interrupted</a> which I pretty much followed to the letter, except for running out of ginger and using coconut milk instead of water to cover the meat before putting it in the oven.</div>
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It includes a step of dry-frying spices, which I quite like doing at six o'clock in the morning after a night shift because it means the first time I see my girlfriend is when she appears round the door saying "That smells amazing," which is not what she usually says to me first thing.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwZBh9SZTxsWsCf5Zmjw_w0kRIrvn-CbAJvfvfmPyHkOToq32RT_yzM4IazLumvW-QJpdaujFO4vDRKYWKf0Lsa4Q8tHkx1wVkO7ca_nbY_wAb0c2wtrAK7R_f9ZUJVfqLAJOZ-Xd4CBAe/s1600/2014-09-08+07.07.11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwZBh9SZTxsWsCf5Zmjw_w0kRIrvn-CbAJvfvfmPyHkOToq32RT_yzM4IazLumvW-QJpdaujFO4vDRKYWKf0Lsa4Q8tHkx1wVkO7ca_nbY_wAb0c2wtrAK7R_f9ZUJVfqLAJOZ-Xd4CBAe/s1600/2014-09-08+07.07.11.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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Oh, and I used home-grown <a href="http://www.realseeds.co.uk/hotpeppers.html" target="_blank">Bartlett's Bonnet </a>chilli peppers.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCNjH8qW9TyDcRHmXxtxpVleQLgLev6uhU-xFC68DqtOp_KzsT6cM751UxheNuO9BI83OOYUQDmkWokoY9ZvF10pHsc4TWOmqxV2-EIwV_hMNfIHQtVkG-Kqv1CigVAVJarW7sniyy0ra_/s1600/2014-09-08+22.23.09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCNjH8qW9TyDcRHmXxtxpVleQLgLev6uhU-xFC68DqtOp_KzsT6cM751UxheNuO9BI83OOYUQDmkWokoY9ZvF10pHsc4TWOmqxV2-EIwV_hMNfIHQtVkG-Kqv1CigVAVJarW7sniyy0ra_/s1600/2014-09-08+22.23.09.jpg" height="400" width="266" /></a></div>
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Definitely one to add to the repertoire. It was easy and delicious, and if you can't get hold of goat it would be just as good with sheep mutton - and if you can't get that (and it is stupidly hard to get hold of) I reckon lamb neck would be a good economical substitute.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVG0Ls23izwFt3UpCbl4tbjakEhZ3sc_iof1knCFlPrL21KJr4nEo1pKgjYIsszk97Zu0iz_hfaqHTz4VjOsGwsfRKC4cssonSPeFnOTddU0AFeXiSw7XF1kuVSV7ffv85o35DSCPKo7dt/s1600/photo+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVG0Ls23izwFt3UpCbl4tbjakEhZ3sc_iof1knCFlPrL21KJr4nEo1pKgjYIsszk97Zu0iz_hfaqHTz4VjOsGwsfRKC4cssonSPeFnOTddU0AFeXiSw7XF1kuVSV7ffv85o35DSCPKo7dt/s1600/photo+1.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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Balance is maintained. One of the first things I did after moving was attend the <a href="http://www.shorehamairshow.co.uk/" target="_blank">Shoreham Air Show</a> which was a brilliant event marred by beige food. If it wasn't cheap fried meat you wanted, tough tits. Shame. </div>
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Oh yeah, I didn't, did I? Sorry for being away for so long.</div>
Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-24721161387099980242014-04-14T08:08:00.000+01:002014-09-08T23:33:47.902+01:00Chickpea and bean stew with egg, or posh baked beans<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify;">
Joy! I have a supply of home grown eggs again, from a colleague who has just started keeping hens. I hadn't planned anything for today and I wanted to use them as I know they're only a day old so I had a dig in the store cupboard and decided to make a spicy bean thingy.</div>
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When I was lining up the "before" shot I did wonder if I should feel guilty about constructing a meal almost entirely from tinned ingredients, but I don't think I should. The debate over whether or not tinned vegetables are good for you has opened up again, but I'm pretty sure it's better to eat a tinned vegetable than no vegetable at all. You also have to factor in convenience and cost - it's not realistic for busy working people to get to the shops every day for fresh, and tinned beans and pulses are an incredibly cheap way to get some nutrition. </div>
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I like to use anchovies as seasoning but if you're a veggie, or you just don't like anchovies, feel free to leave them out. I'm starting by sweating an onion in the oil from a tin of anchovies though. Once the onion's started getting nice and soft (it'll take at least five or six minutes over a low heat) add some spices - cumin, paprika, some cayenne pepper for heat - and mix it all up so that the onions get nicely coated.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnK4A2Wigq4qgqY5QjBLE3zZX0NhXAJf7YIMjeNBh3qgKNRTl_3MvJY9_YVJbXTvtjmmYUqKFouC7lsphaetf_fJpr6InDgTM4z0zUWi4WWQ4IT_zrZpB4WTdHg9BSHJj2Scow2QICK-MI/s1600/2014-04-13+18.53.29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnK4A2Wigq4qgqY5QjBLE3zZX0NhXAJf7YIMjeNBh3qgKNRTl_3MvJY9_YVJbXTvtjmmYUqKFouC7lsphaetf_fJpr6InDgTM4z0zUWi4WWQ4IT_zrZpB4WTdHg9BSHJj2Scow2QICK-MI/s1600/2014-04-13+18.53.29.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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Drain and rinse a tin of chickpeas and add them to the pan. Again, swirl it all around so that they get nicely coated in spice.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjw6JaWGUZXJjWW4ocEiKh905aNPyeaRGItVcGmrC8IiJLxf_4Ivw6gpy-FydTj4-N9j1JoqvkZODGUzeDkmkZTMmD0wdFVjZoPykvY8DJyGEccBBFDPLyjeSwtwOBJaXtZdNYvVPP_Cxz/s1600/2014-04-13+18.56.00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjw6JaWGUZXJjWW4ocEiKh905aNPyeaRGItVcGmrC8IiJLxf_4Ivw6gpy-FydTj4-N9j1JoqvkZODGUzeDkmkZTMmD0wdFVjZoPykvY8DJyGEccBBFDPLyjeSwtwOBJaXtZdNYvVPP_Cxz/s1600/2014-04-13+18.56.00.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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Now chuck in a tin of tomatoes. Chop up the anchovies into small pieces and they can go in too.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi88Wemsywb04y1ca_j6atIQJ3uiXylubyECDvkAxK_6-8_0rokLjbv3TK34zdH-hU_hhRmTEx859fm37hY9tk0Oq428dHFgCe6wND3PbLCquLVn6cO0kFahwB4QEZ3133iEKIG5KGKRx2t/s1600/2014-04-13+18.57.52.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi88Wemsywb04y1ca_j6atIQJ3uiXylubyECDvkAxK_6-8_0rokLjbv3TK34zdH-hU_hhRmTEx859fm37hY9tk0Oq428dHFgCe6wND3PbLCquLVn6cO0kFahwB4QEZ3133iEKIG5KGKRx2t/s1600/2014-04-13+18.57.52.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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Drain and rinse a tin of cannellini beans and it's time for those to go in too. Give it all a stir, have a taste and season with salt and pepper and add some more chilli heat if you so desire. I thought it wanted some green herbs too and it's vaguely Italian so I threw in a little basil.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijHB84tnr84XO_1cysm9gIEfnt1GByugHAy_DBa_DoXPR56GT9p8mP-dukNSiGQw3Y4lg8fpugXnvtrdV9lYcoMN8C-CG2NcPspZwFESNxT6hTyidu2QeL8WYG1rc6WQksk0UY2p5ouxNb/s1600/2014-04-13+19.04.03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijHB84tnr84XO_1cysm9gIEfnt1GByugHAy_DBa_DoXPR56GT9p8mP-dukNSiGQw3Y4lg8fpugXnvtrdV9lYcoMN8C-CG2NcPspZwFESNxT6hTyidu2QeL8WYG1rc6WQksk0UY2p5ouxNb/s1600/2014-04-13+19.04.03.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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Everything from the tins is already cooked so you don't want to boil anything, just let it heat through. Pop a lid on and let the whole lot simmer for about 20 minutes, then have another taste and adjust the seasoning if you want to. Crack in an beautiful garden egg per person, put the lid back on, and let them poach for four or five minutes.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNbwXn-sqK8JlratZUpnTNgszdAr5Sj_cQ7GxvtI-XcqzbmxyleSRx22JdMqBvb9LFnhHkpsE6lV2lxpoLZQQ1IEgdU66RDVdLk2fb9VNZcka1qZ4qLFuXrYce0ftN0868nZS_sJHs6D2U/s1600/2014-04-13+19.24.42.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNbwXn-sqK8JlratZUpnTNgszdAr5Sj_cQ7GxvtI-XcqzbmxyleSRx22JdMqBvb9LFnhHkpsE6lV2lxpoLZQQ1IEgdU66RDVdLk2fb9VNZcka1qZ4qLFuXrYce0ftN0868nZS_sJHs6D2U/s1600/2014-04-13+19.24.42.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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These quantities divided into three equal portions for us - one each tonight, and we'll have the remainder tomorrow between us with a couple of sausages, or maybe on toast for lunch.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wdEdpq3RSPUak4_zWG631TIxEQDKf2lE-zK73fwckPfLy662U-EdJb8ujwxL0WeBB45uVARgd3M9LJNGcD9ezzJWFGjeIZknNt3ZNjm0rcf3SoStOTRsKTFd932-h3X7NaCXcpnApX7a/s1600/2014-04-13+19.30.41.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wdEdpq3RSPUak4_zWG631TIxEQDKf2lE-zK73fwckPfLy662U-EdJb8ujwxL0WeBB45uVARgd3M9LJNGcD9ezzJWFGjeIZknNt3ZNjm0rcf3SoStOTRsKTFd932-h3X7NaCXcpnApX7a/s1600/2014-04-13+19.30.41.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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Between three, this comes to seven WeightWatchers ProPoints and
(depending where you buy your tins - tomatoes in Sainsbury's range from
37p to over £1 and I'm perfectly happy with the cheap ones) less than £1
per portion. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7JpukR4UroaHeAmcinA5PXuQDtjVFzZL8v7hPg8YgXMZ6VuZxPG74t06XBsFMY1u-sk8k1YCgoBawidIDEotlKmhE8XPrkRYWfV3FKjSJBPYdozQcpz3aI__-hoPfHx6dIpmiS70D6K6Q/s1600/2014-04-13+19.32.03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7JpukR4UroaHeAmcinA5PXuQDtjVFzZL8v7hPg8YgXMZ6VuZxPG74t06XBsFMY1u-sk8k1YCgoBawidIDEotlKmhE8XPrkRYWfV3FKjSJBPYdozQcpz3aI__-hoPfHx6dIpmiS70D6K6Q/s1600/2014-04-13+19.32.03.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-48503185061964539842013-12-14T19:45:00.000+00:002013-12-14T19:45:44.750+00:00Lasagne Fail<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tiny kitchen in the new flat, a couple of injuries which prevented me from cooking, stuff going on in life elsewhere... It's bad form to start a blog post with an apology for the gap since the last one but the sad fact is I haven't been cooking much from scratch lately. I suddenly started missing it though, so here goes.</div>
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I wanted to make a big lasagne today as I have night shifts coming up and the freezer is a bit Mother Hubbard. Homemade food is one of the things that makes nights bearable so I really wanted a freezer full of tupperwares.</div>
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All was going well until I took the pack of lasagne down from the store cupboard and found this. It's not something I make very often, so it can run low without me noticing.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYxkP_gUEEbkWrjB4ZOUpG15sVp7oH32r_nn9LM_Q7_waLEwjQVongezv4xv8GOyz2KFgymLE8f4_vevWlSGhI9biBIKePx5GgZdwhkEPGm3-MC8EwBhXXzLDEyX7OiU1NgPDl0j-txLwS/s1600/2013-12-14+18.25.21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYxkP_gUEEbkWrjB4ZOUpG15sVp7oH32r_nn9LM_Q7_waLEwjQVongezv4xv8GOyz2KFgymLE8f4_vevWlSGhI9biBIKePx5GgZdwhkEPGm3-MC8EwBhXXzLDEyX7OiU1NgPDl0j-txLwS/s400/2013-12-14+18.25.21.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
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I posted something on Facebook and my friends came up with a couple of awesome solutions:</div>
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<li>Make moussaka instead, if you have an aubergine in the fridge</li>
<li>Make <a href="http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/pasticcio-%28greek-pasta-bake%29" target="_blank">pasticcio</a> instead</li>
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Personally I've never had an aubergine in the fridge but we've all got our little quirks...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ3XTke3mqq0Bc2dEAtXoOGUmj8-2aA4Xibtn8sej1dhqOAPdUIcA_5smbUpV_oKMDwYosh2RtjDSr-U285ZhijaIDl_1h__8bDAecqV6x3IQYv9dLAtn6jGBzKMn5JWGyWHAl5zGw-mjL/s1600/2013-12-14+18.21.56.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ3XTke3mqq0Bc2dEAtXoOGUmj8-2aA4Xibtn8sej1dhqOAPdUIcA_5smbUpV_oKMDwYosh2RtjDSr-U285ZhijaIDl_1h__8bDAecqV6x3IQYv9dLAtn6jGBzKMn5JWGyWHAl5zGw-mjL/s400/2013-12-14+18.21.56.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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My solution: Cook up a batch of whatever other pasta was in the cupboard (penne, as it happens), mix it in with the ragu, and just cover with those lonely sheets of lasagne.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgO2haRvw-17T_X-YRqOnhttzq8kVD2rWJuKBYrSexPkN5xSQTmOV8wfc3bvmp1F07H0hnRwHMFZ9fuhSGww5P094iGhdZJBZuwg32O6aKqCA4KasID0EzJLBhP0_t0STtmC_fCty52K90/s1600/2013-12-14+18.33.54.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgO2haRvw-17T_X-YRqOnhttzq8kVD2rWJuKBYrSexPkN5xSQTmOV8wfc3bvmp1F07H0hnRwHMFZ9fuhSGww5P094iGhdZJBZuwg32O6aKqCA4KasID0EzJLBhP0_t0STtmC_fCty52K90/s400/2013-12-14+18.33.54.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I'm not quite sure what to call my finished product, beyond "cheesy ragu pasta bake type thing," but it tasted good and I really enjoyed making it.</div>
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Here it is before and after baking.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8VBaA__rYWHre1XoAZu6nrNOPwtUC7OfRnvoRSp8lp0TQqiadVkORnuE8BHmInzr-L94jjoY1FgS0tvHxgwAy2hNrsGc44QQ1NiH8U4cXUqenJ3nJ6Am0tHNjAERaoqIVxieJSKoRMmpX/s1600/2013-12-14+18.36.41.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8VBaA__rYWHre1XoAZu6nrNOPwtUC7OfRnvoRSp8lp0TQqiadVkORnuE8BHmInzr-L94jjoY1FgS0tvHxgwAy2hNrsGc44QQ1NiH8U4cXUqenJ3nJ6Am0tHNjAERaoqIVxieJSKoRMmpX/s400/2013-12-14+18.36.41.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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An economical meal, too - 120g or so penne, three lasagne sheets, 500g
really top quality local beef mince from a local farm, a glass of red
wine, an onion, some mushrooms and a carrot - call it a tenner absolute
tops - and this made five portions and the difference between enjoying
my nights (sounds weird, I know, but I do like working nights) and dreading them. </div>
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No plated photos because I just glopped it out like I usually do and also because <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/dec/14/whats-happened-to-home-cooking-from-scratch" target="_blank">this.</a></div>
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Enjoy your home cookery, do it cheaply and well, don't worry about the presentation... just get cooking from scratch.</div>
Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-73782338524353319152013-08-12T20:27:00.000+01:002013-08-12T20:27:39.135+01:00Pasta, mushrooms and cream cheese<div style="text-align: justify;">
We have fibre internet in the new house, and a Youview box which means free access to catch-up services on the main TV set. So much food porn available on 4OD, but lately we've been catching up with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Three Good Things.</div>
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The premise of the show is simple, three celebrity chefs competing to see who can make the best dish using just three ingredients (plus store-cupboard stuff like herbs and spices). It's actually a really good way to cook: most of the recipes on the show have looked really tasty, and most of them have stuck to techniques that any home cook should be able to use with no really cheffy stuff.</div>
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<a href="http://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/allegra-mcevedys-pasta-mushrooms-and-mascarpone/" target="_blank">This offering</a> from Allegra McEvedy is ace. Cheap, easy and really delicious.</div>
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On the show she made the point of frying the chestnut mushrooms for some browning and flavour then adding the oyster mushrooms later for just a gentle heat-through as that suits their natures.</div>
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She also emphasised on the show that it's important to fry in a mix of butter and olive oil: it always tastes better with butter, but oil will raise its burning temperature so that you can get some nice browning without burning and smoke.</div>
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I've also made a couple of minor alterations, the addition of a couple of rashers of smoky bacon (pancetta would also work well) and the substitution of mascarpone for Philadelphia Light in order to lose a couple of WeightWatchers points. In my version (plus bacon, minus mascarpone), using our usual 40g pasta person, this is 9 points.</div>
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The multi-coloured pasta is tricolore spelt fusili, incidentally, from our local farm shop. I'd never had spelt pasta before but it's nice, very similar to normal pasta but it cooks quickly and had a nice bite to it.</div>
Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-7078053657506401402013-08-01T22:39:00.000+01:002013-08-01T22:42:23.912+01:00Slightly Mexican spicy rice with pork<div style="text-align: justify;">
Blimey, hasn't the weather been nice! Faced with this unaccustomed British summer, my girlfriend's parents invited us to a barbecue. As is traditional, the MiL bought food for about three times as many people as were actually there so we came away with a good haul of leftovers, including a couple of cooked pork chops. These particular ones had a Chinese marinade, making this a slightly bizarre but very tasty bit of fusion food, but that doesn't really matter - plain ones would be just as good. What matters is not throwing away perfectly good food.</div>
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All the best recipes start by chopping an onion and sweating it over a low heat in a mixture of butter and oil, so let's do that. Chuck in a crushed or finely chopped clove of garlic too, if you want.</div>
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While it's doing, we can cut the pork chops into fine strips, discarding any fat or gristle. It helps all round to have sharpened your knives before getting to this bit. Get the pork in the pan along with the onion.</div>
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That onion will need 10 minutes or so to soften, it's probably getting there by now so let's give it some flavour. A bit of coriander and a lot of paprika, I think, along with the necessary twist of salt.</div>
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It needs heat as well, supplied today by a Wenk's Yellow Hot chilli pepper from the lovely people at the <a href="http://www.realseeds.co.uk/" target="_blank">Real Seed Company.</a> My chilli peppers haven't done so well this year, due to neglect caused by moving house and a rampant attack of aphids, but the seeds are as always top quality. </div>
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When the onion's soft, add the rice to the pan and stir everything around so that it's coated in all that flavour. Then immediately add a tin of tomatoes and a tin of black beans, including the water that they're preserved in.</div>
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Bring to the boil then back the heat right off to a gentle simmer - a bubble bursting the surface every second or two - and wait until the rice is cooked. It'll take around twenty minutes and by the end there won't be much liquid left but take care not to let it boil dry - you can always add a splash of water from the tap if you think it necessary - and give it a good through stir every five minutes or so to prevent the bottom burning and the top from being undercooked. Leave the lid off though, or you'll end up with a soggy dinner - you want it to be dryish by the end.</div>
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I had some mushrooms knocking around so I added them five minutes before the end of cooking time, as well as a good sprinkle of dried coriander leaves. If you have a coriander plant, use fresh leaves instead.</div>
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We had this really simple tonight, just in a bowl with a spoonful of guacamole, but having given it some thought I reckon this is a really versatile dish. We used pork, but chicken would do instead - and chorizo would be amazing</div>
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You could use it as a burrito filling in a tortilla wrap maybe, with cheese melted on top? The possibilities are endless.</div>
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I haven't done this for a while, for which I apologise... I don't think the money-saving skills have atrophied too much, but the photography certainly has. Forgive.</div>
Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-15601663431531053422013-07-17T20:15:00.003+01:002015-07-07T16:16:17.789+01:00Gooseberry Fool<div style="text-align: justify;">
It's funny what nostalgia does to you. I was in Alton, Hampshire, the other day and got some shopping in Get Fresh & Fruity, an absolutely fantastic greengrocer on the High Street. When I saw they had gooseberries - a fruit I've not eaten in years - I had to buy some and make gooseberry fool, like my Grandma used to make for my sister and me when we were kids.</div>
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I followed <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/15/nigel-slater-classic-gooseberry-fool-recipe" target="_blank">Nigel Slater's recipe</a> to the letter, never having made it myself before, and it was tasty but I reckon Grandma used to use a higher fruit:cream ratio - you want to properly taste those tart goosegogs. I think I may have had sweet eating ones rather than cooking ones - I am speaking from ignorance, not realising there were different varieties, but I remember it being more tart. There is a childish pleasure in screwing your eyes up when you reach a sour bit.</div>
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Forget counting calories, go make this and enjoy!</div>
Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-14287414770099627002013-06-14T21:16:00.001+01:002013-06-14T21:16:50.071+01:00Cheesy gnocchi with prawns and courgette<div style="text-align: justify;">
I spent the last week of May on holiday in Italy, in and around Sorrento, with the other half. As is usual when two gastronomes go travelling together we spent pretty much the whole time eating, drinking, and wondering where to eat next - although we did manage to visit some incredible Roman ruins at Pompeii and Herculaneum between meals. If you can't get to Italy, get to the related <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/pompeii_and_herculaneum.aspx" target="_blank">exhibition at the British Museum</a> this summer: they're incredible sites despite being surrounded by fairly horrific bits of modern urban Italy.</div>
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If you ever go to Sorrento, go forearmed with the knowledge that it is an efficient, tightly-run machine for making money out of tourists, but underpinned with the natural affinity for food and instinct for hospitality that gives Italy its well-deserved reputation as a holiday destination. It is more expensive than other places in Italy, but that's only normal in a place where demand is high - and rightly so, because it is a beautiful place.</div>
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The only time we felt a bit ripped-off was on the first day when, weary from a cheapo red-eye Squeezyjet flight, we were daft enough to order bottled beer with our pizza, sitting outside, and paid €16 for a 750ml bottle of beer. Having said that the pizza was excellent, the beer was excellent, and later in the week we found the same beer for €12 in a shop (admittedly a touristy shop - and it was a limited edition local beer) so the markup wasn't outrageous.</div>
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Italy would be so much nicer if every move wasn't hindered by a badly-ridden scooter buzzing past at slightly-higher-than-sensible speed... there's a reason why they're called Wasps. Outdoor eating especially carries a hint of danger and a whiff of unburnt petrol from the exhaust of many a Vespa. The constant pull of waiters out front trying to pull you into their establishment is exhausting, too. Don't worry about being rude, just brush them off.</div>
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Despite all this, we did have some amazing food. The ice cream probably had the most consistent WOW factor but the savoury food was surprisingly good too.</div>
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Menus in Italy do make you realise how lucky we are in Britain to have our diversity of food; Italian food is ace, but you need a cigarette paper to insert the difference between one menu and another, needing other clues to tell you whether or not one will be better than another. I reckon wherever you live, you have a Chinese, an Indian, an Italian, a pub, maybe a Thai place, probably even somewhere Mexican and definitely a kebab shop within striking distance: wouldn't it be dull if you only had a bog-standard pub menu, with differing degrees of quality and price, to choose from? The mean quality is higher: you know that wherever you go, you're going to get food as good as the best local British pubs and you're unlikely to see anything as bad as standard Wetherspoons fare.</div>
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In the interests of impartial reporting I have to say we had one crap pizza the whole week, and it was really minging, but when the waiter came to clear the plates I explained how it was so horrible (someone had apparently poured a bottle of vinegar over it to put it out when it had caught fire) and he took it off the bill without a word of disagreement. </div>
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One of the best meals we had was a special <a href="http://www.ilpozzoristorante.it/default.aspx" target="_blank">nel Ristorante Pozzo,</a> an unprepossessing place tucked away in the back streets. We liked it so much we went back, twice.</div>
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Here is my attempt to rip off their gnocchi stuffed with provolone cheese with courgette and shrimp.</div>
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Well... I'm not about to make stuffed gnocchi. So I'm just going to cook bought gnocchi and serve it up in provolone sauce with prawns and courgette.</div>
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Here's the provolone, as smuggled home from Italy in my suitcase.</div>
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And here are the prawns. I've got to be honest... I think prawns in their shell are tastier than those bought without, but only in the same way that I think £8.99 Taste The Difference Red Wine is nicer than £4.99 Sainsbury's Red Wine: worth it if you want to make the investment, but otherwise the cheaper version will do just fine.</div>
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There's also the investment of time: it takes forever to shell prawns so unless you're doing it for the love of doing it, don't bother.</div>
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Slice up a courgette, as fine as you like.</div>
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Make cheese sauce from the provolone, <a href="http://tescovaluechef.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/pork-with-cauliflower-and-courgette.html">in the usual way.</a> On this occasion I used all the provolone and a good chunk of cheddar from the fridge too: I wanted it cheeeeeeesy.</div>
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While the cheese sauce is thickening up, throw in the sliced courgette and the peeled prawns, cook the gnocchi (it only needs 4 minutes in boiling water, until it comes to the top) and add that too.</div>
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Serve. Eat. Ask your girlfriend, anxiously, if it's as good as what
she had in Italy. Apparently the gnocchi was obviously inferior
(obviously: I'm not in a position to learn to make provolone-stuffed gnocchi) but otherwise it was equal. Result! </div>
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Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-53249351260681949912013-04-12T12:34:00.001+01:002013-04-12T12:34:43.529+01:00Beef stew<div style="text-align: justify;">
I have blogged <a href="http://tescovaluechef.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/beef-stew-and-dumplings.html">beef stew</a> before, but it's one of those simple dishes that bears repeating - I've also learned a couple of things and discovered some new products since then. I've also tampered with it slightly, so I want to show that it's OK to muck about with recipes if you decide you want things done slightly differently.</div>
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We're well into April now so I wouldn't normally be serving dishes like this but it's been such a horrible spring - it rained this morning - that I still want nice warming stew. Also, I can never resist using my slow-cooker - complete with timings in today's recipes so you can see how slow I go on my days off!</div>
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<b>14:30</b></div>
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First of all, chop up a couple of shallots (or onions and a clove of garlic) and peel and slice a couple of carrots. I've found that I prefer thin slices of carrot to big bite-size chunks but it's all down to personal preference. These are from our excellent local greengrocer - he's cheaper than the supermarkets and the veg always looks more appealing.</div>
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<b>14:44</b></div>
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Sweat the shallots and carrot in a drop of veg oil and a knob of butter over the lowest possible heat. You don't want to brown them, just soften them.</div>
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<b>14:47</b></div>
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While that's going on, prepare your meat. Waitrose do an excellent range of "forgotten cuts" and I couldn't resist trying ox cheek the first time I saw it. One cheek gives you around 350-400g meat: this one was 370g costing £2.40. A bargain! I decided to top it up with 250g braising steak (costing £2.75 from the local butcher) because I like variety. I'm a big fan of cheap cuts - a fiver for enough meat to feed four hungry people or about six WeightWatchers portions is A Good Thing.</div>
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Chop your cheek into bite-size portions. It's fairly lean but you'll want to trim away any lumps of fat you find.</div>
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<b>14:59</b></div>
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By this time the shallots and carrots will be nicely softened, so spoon them all into the slow-cooker insert. Get the pan smoking hot, add a drop more veg oil if you need to and brown the meat on all sides. This is the opposite to what we did with the shallots and carrot: just a few seconds on each side at a blistering heat to maximise flavour. Do it in batches to avoid crowding the pan and transfer the meat straight to the slow-cooker insert.</div>
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Looking at the old recipe, I used to coat the meat in cornflour in the belief that it would thicken the sauce. I've got lazy and stopped doing that, and I don't think it makes a blind bit of difference to the sauce. What do you think? </div>
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<b>15:04</b></div>
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Once that's done, pour half a pint of beer into the pan and boil it for a minute or so, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon as you do so that you don't leave any flavour behind in the bottom.</div>
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I used to just add beer to the slow cooker, but I've since read that when cooking with beer or wine you should boil it in order to reduce it and get a full flavour while getting rid of the harshness of the alcohol.</div>
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The usual rule with beer is to buy local. For some reason I went to Sainsbury's when I bought this and disappointingly they didn't have anything local so I just went with what was on special offer - Greene King is perfectly acceptable beer, especially for £1. </div>
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Chuck that in the slow cooker too, then add your stock.</div>
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This is unusually profligate of me, but I have recently discovered the delights of Waitrose Heston stock. It's expensive so you won't be using it every single time you want stock, but for something like this - a big production, with guests round - it really impresses. If you can't afford Heston, or you think it's a waste, at least use home-made or a decent brand. An Oxo cube is really not up to par in these circumstances, when the stock is a main ingredient of the dish.</div>
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<b>15:10</b></div>
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I used to add chunks of potato or parsnip, but I've since decided I don't like the texture they develop in a slow cooker. It needs something to bulk it up though, so I go with pearl barley - 75g in this case, as it expands quite considerably when cooked. The Heston stock is so good it doesn't need much in the way of seasoning, but I also chucked in some thyme, a bouquet garni and a couple of bay leaves.</div>
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Turn the slow cooker on Low and go and enjoy the rest of the afternoon.<br />
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<b>18:49</b><br />
A stew needs mushrooms, but they don't take very long to cook so pop them in not too long before the end of cooking time.<br />
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<b>19:02</b><br />
Once the 'shrooms are in, follow the instructions on a pack of suet to make dumplings. I always find I need a few drops more water than they recommend. They like a big of heat to cook through, so turn the slow cooker up to High at this point.<br />
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Guests arrive, so forget to take any more photos. It was ready around 19:50ish and went down a treat with some crusty bread from the local baker.</div>
Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-86464509600271222302013-04-01T23:47:00.001+01:002013-04-02T00:06:11.128+01:00Tandoori Butter Chicken<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is one of those recipes that I've done quite a few times down the years, but never really adapted - partly because I don't know enough about Indian cookery to experiment too much, and partly because it's perfect as it is. It's a direct lift from <i>Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cookery,</i> published to accompany her 1982 BBC TV series and so almost as old as I am.<br />
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The first step is to make tandoori chicken. Madhur Jaffrey does give a recipe for this, but I've had perfectly good results from shop-bought tandoori masala so I tend to use that. I don't recall ever seeing it in supermarkets, but it's widely available in specialist Indian food shops, and if your little local shop is run by an Indian family they probably sell it too. This came from Taj in Brighton.</div>
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Just mix a healthy amount - say three tablespoons - and a smaller amount of garam masala up with a pot of plain natural yoghurt to make a marinade.</div>
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Chop up some chicken (I favour thighs, but breasts are fine) and mix it all up in the marinade. Cover and leave in the fridge for a few hours (or overnight, if you want).</div>
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The essence of tandoori - that is, cooked in a tandoor - is the fabulously high temperature of that traditional Indian clay oven. You can't achieve that at home, but you can go some way towards emulating it.</div>
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Your know your oven better than I do. Some take longer to heat up than others. You want it as hot as it can be though, so some time before you want to eat turn it on and turn it up as high as it will go. Mine is pretty good and takes about half an hour to get to an indicated 250C.</div>
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While that's doing, make the butter sauce. It has to be the easiest Indian sauce ever: simply put the following ingredients in a measuring jug or bowl and stir until mixed together. Four tablespoonfuls of tomato puree, 250ml water, some ginger (I'm experimenting with the new Sainsbury's line of frozen herbs in ice-cube-like arrangement - the ginger works well, the garlic is overpoweringly strong), a small tub of cream, a teaspoonful of garam masala, a pinch each of salt and sugar, a chopped chilli pepper (or whatever heat is convenient for you to add), a smattering of fresh or dried coriander leaves, a wee bit of ground cumin and either the juice of half a lemon or four teaspoonfuls of Jif lemon juice. Once they're all in, add - wait for it - one hundred grammes of butter. I did tick the "indulgent" tag.</div>
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Is your oven really hot now? Excellent. Take a cast-iron pan or a sturdy baking tray and put it over a high heat on the hob until it's giving off a shimmer.</div>
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Turn off the heat, put the chicken pieces on it, and chuck it in the oven. It'll be cooked through with that nice slightly burnt edge that you get on restaurant tandoori chicken in the 12 minutes that it takes you to cook some rice.</div>
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Keep a really close eye on it. By the time you smell burning, it's too late - there's about 30 seconds between "perfect" and "buggered." Remember what Gordon Ramsay says - if it's brown it's cooked, if it's black it's fooked.</div>
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Once the chicken's in, pour the sauce into a deep frying pan and set it over a low heat. Stir it every few minutes and it'll melange together.<br />
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When the chicken's cooked, add it to the sauce and give the whole lot a few minutes to get to know each other.</div>
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In an ideal world I'd serve this with a vegetable curry or a saag aloo but it's a weekday and I can't be bothered so here it is, served simply over pilau rice.</div>
Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-31969260744843575322013-03-21T20:31:00.000+00:002013-03-21T20:31:40.951+00:00Chorizo and chickpea thingy<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sometimes I browse for something delicious and inspiring, sometimes I have a craving for a particular thing and go out to get the ingredients for it, and sometimes necessity is the mother of invention.</div>
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Money's tight at the moment thanks to some unexpected vehicular expense and we're going away at the weekend so we want to save our funds for that rather than spending money on ingredients. Plus I'm working nights at the moment so I don't have the get-up-and-go to get to the shops.</div>
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If you regularly find yourself in that depressing situation where the wallet's empty but there's still a week to go before payday, my advice is to keep a well-stocked store cupboard and freezer. I find it very reassuring to know that I could make a week's worth of (perhaps slightly repetitive) meals from what's in stock without spending a penny.</div>
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Digging in the freezer, I found some cooking chorizo. There are always a couple of tins of chickpeas in the cupboard, which seemed like a good combination.</div>
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So, over a low heat, gently sweat some chopped shallots (because that's what we had - an onion would be fine instead) and add the chopped chorizo. I love the way the oil turns red and flavours the onion.</div>
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When the chorizo is nicely browned, drain your tin of chickpeas and add them to the pan. These happen to be brown chickpeas, but normal ones are fine.</div>
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Ordinarily I would have used a tin of tomatoes (something else that you should always have in the cupboard), but we had a big bag of fresh ones so I used them. You really should skin them first but life's too short.</div>
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Add some rosemary, a bit of chilli heat if you want, and leave to simmer on a low heat for 20 minutes or so.</div>
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Due to a miscommunication where my girlfriend and I each thought we were responsible for buying eggs we've got loads at the moment so I served it with a fried egg on top.</div>
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It's quite filling enough as it is but if you really want to add carbs
this would be nice with patatas bravas, or maybe some nice bread. </div>
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Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-78664121627720316182013-02-18T07:23:00.000+00:002013-02-18T07:23:06.084+00:00Sunday Roast at the Cooper's Cask, Hove<div style="text-align: justify;">
As you may have noticed, I've become slightly obsessed by roast dinners lately. I'm quite happy with the way I'm doing them at home now (I won't say I've perfected them, because I'm bound to start trying something new in a while) but I have definitely reached the point where my roasts at home are much better than most pubs. You know how it is: you're attracted in by a beautifully written menu, all "hand-made" and "jus" and you find yourself confronted with dry meat, deep-fried potatoes and Bisto.</div>
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Not so at the Cooper's Cask. I was a regular there when I lived in B&H, a few years ago, so I was really pleased to find the same team still churning out fantastic food at this tiny, unprepossessing pub.</div>
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They only sell roasts on Sundays (fine by me - what else would you order, on an unhurried day off?) and between the group of us we had lamb, pork and beef. My pork was excellent, full flavoured with loads of crackling and a really generous serving of proper roast potatoes and veg - parsnips, carrots, cabbage, beans and sweet potato mash.</div>
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I haven't been there during the week for years, but it used to change weekly and was consistently excellent.</div>
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It's deservedly popular so you'll be crammed in and you'll probably have a bit of a wait, but you won't be disappointed by the food.</div>
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Cooper's Cask, 3 Farm Rd, Brighton and Hove, Hove, East Sussex BN3 1FB </div>
Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-19259225888231619502013-02-08T20:22:00.000+00:002013-02-08T20:22:00.335+00:00Quick chicken, lemon and olive tagine<div style="text-align: justify;">
Although I'm an advocate of slow cooking, it's not always the right technique. I've adapted this from a recipe I found in a book: when I cooked it to the letter of the recipe I had the unusual experience of finding that it tasted better when I tasted it during the cooking process than it did at the end. The long simmer at the end of the original recipe didn't seem to melange the flavours, but just render the chicken bland and with a not entirely pleasant texture.</div>
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Also, the original instructions made for an immensely long prep and cooking time - my version will do as a midweek supper.</div>
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So, first, cut up a chicken breast into bitesize chunks and marinate in a mixture of: one finely chopped onion, one crushed clove of garlic, one small finely chopped piece of ginger (or their preserved equivalents), a generous teaspoonful or two of dried coriander leaves (or fresh, if you wish), a pinch of saffron threads, the juice of one lemon, a glug of olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.</div>
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Pop it all in the fridge to marinate - the original recipe said two hours, but 20 minutes is enough if you don't have two hours.</div>
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Get your tagine warmed up over a medium heat (or a saucepan, if you don't have a tagine, I just like playing with kitchen gadgets. Melt a knob of butter and a glug of olive oil, and transfer your chicken, turning until it's coloured on all sides - it won't brown, exactly, over a medium heat.</div>
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Then dump in the rest of the marinade, stir and cover with the lid.</div>
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Halve some olives (about 100g) and add them to the tagine. I found these nice ones in the cupboard - I think they were a Christmas gift - but a tin or jar of ordinary green olives from the supermarket is just fine. </div>
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Add some dried thyme and stir everything together.</div>
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Prepare your couscous according to the packet instructions.</div>
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By this time, the chicken is probably cooked through. If so, serve it up!</div>
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<br />Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-53832404432669266172012-12-28T19:22:00.000+00:002012-12-28T19:22:05.151+00:00Experimental Roast Beef Christmas Dinner<div style="text-align: justify;">
Happy 28th of December everyone!</div>
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I had to work on Christmas Day (it was quite nice - one of my colleagues cooked a big roast, some of the brass popped in with gifts of chocolate and we weren't too busy) so my other half and I are celebrating today. We didn't fancy turkey so we went for a nice joint of beef instead.</div>
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We both like beef rare, and it should be tender, so I decided to experiment with slow-cooking it. Research on the internet seemed to indicate that the best method is to cook the joint at 75C for about 4 hours with a meat thermometer stuck in it until the middle of the joint reached 55C.</div>
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Great - the only problem being, how do you roast your potatoes if the oven is at 75C? Solution: slow cooker. Unfortunately they tend not to have temperatures marked on the controls, just "low" or "high" so I did some experimenting with my oven thermometer (a must-have if you've lived in crappy rented homes with crappy ancient ovens in them) and discovered that even on Low my slow cooker reaches about 90C. What about this "Warm" setting that I've never used, designed to keep the food warm without cooking it any more? Perfect. 75C.</div>
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So: to prepare the meat, keep it out of the fridge for about 20 minutes to let it reach room temperature. Season with plenty of salt and pepper and rub vegetable oil into it (don't use olive oil for this, it'll burn).</div>
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Now get a heavy-duty pan as hot as you can and sear the meat on all sides. All those lovely crispy bits add flavour. The smoke alarm will go off at this point.</div>
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When it's just nicely browned all over, transfer it to the slow cooker and leave for around four hours, or until the interior of the joint reaches 55C. I bought the meat thermometer specifically for this, as I'm getting more and more interested in slow cooking, and it was only a fiver from Robert Dyas - money well spent, I think.</div>
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Yorkies were made to <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/feb/16/how-make-perfect-yorkshire-puddings" target="_blank">Felicity Cloake's recipe</a> and turned out really well - normally my toad-in-the-whole never rises so I was very happy to see these beauties rear their heads in the oven!<br />
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Roast veg, of course, and gravy made in the vegetable roasting tray in the usual way using the juices from the bottom of the slow-cooker insert.<br />
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The meat turned out exactly as I'd hoped - pink all the way through except for the very edges, delicious and oh so tender - it just melts in the mouth. Cooking in this way will turn out rare, no option for well-done, but who wants beef well-done anyway?<br />
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I made loads of veg, so there will be bubble-and-squeak with leftover cold beef tomorrow. Lovely.<br />
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Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-33203604886248352032012-11-13T19:19:00.002+00:002012-11-13T19:19:24.203+00:00MusselsI've posted <a href="http://tescovaluechef.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/hughs-mussels.html" target="_blank">my technique for mussels before</a> so I won't repeat it here.<br />
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I do bang on about seasonality, and mussels coming into season is worth celebrating! When one of your favourite ingredients is readily available for not very much money, it's time to dive in.</div>
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This time around I substituted wine and shallots for cider and spring onions but otherwise it was much the same and just as delicious.</div>
Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-40615078298538783492012-11-01T19:49:00.002+00:002012-11-01T19:49:46.440+00:00Vietnamese Chicken<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tonight we had <a href="http://www.kimberlycun.com/2011/10/05/vietnamese-chicken-with-mint-my-best-asian-dish-to-date/" target="_blank">this.</a> I won't repeat the recipe, just follow the link - I pretty much followed the instructions, cutting down the quantities for two people, but missed out the mint because my girlfriend doesn't like it, and threw in some stir-fry veg for one of our five-a-day.</div>
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The main reason I'm posting about it is my astonishment that you can buy something as esoteric as shrimp paste in Sainsbury's. I already had the other ingredients in stock.</div>
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For all that I complain about supermarkets and champion local shops, we are so lucky to live somewhere that you can buy ingredients from all over the world in a mid-size, mid-range supermarket.</div>
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On the same shelf, they had kits and ingredients for making sushi and nigiri. Do people in smallish towns really make this stuff at home? If so I'm really very impressed - home cooking really does happen and not everyone is living off of frozen, pre-prepared crap.</div>
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Go easy on that shrimp paste though. It's not half pungent. </div>
Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-75454535628141702652012-10-29T19:54:00.000+00:002012-10-29T19:54:30.721+00:00Slow-cooked chicken in white wine and cream sauce<div style="text-align: justify;">
My first introduction to a slow-cooker was as a child visiting my Grandma. She lived a fair way away so visits were always packed with activity. She liked using the slow cooker because she could just set it going and then we could go out and have fun without her having to worry about cooking a meal later on.</div>
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My favourite slow-cooker dinner from those days was chicken in cream sauce. I think she used a Homepride cook-in sauce but I can't seem to find it in the shops any more so I thought I'd have a bash at making something similar.</div>
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Grandma used the slow-cooker for convenience, but like all her generation she's careful with the pennies so I'm sure she'd be happy to see me promoting it as an excellent way to lend tenderness to cheaper cuts of meat like the chicken thighs and drumsticks I'm using today.</div>
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As usual with slow-cooker dishes, the trick is simply to get some colour onto the ingredients in a frying pan then cook in liquid in the slow cooker. I've had to over-complicate this simple process a bit due to the complications of our day, but just imagine you've got the grandkids staying, you do the prep while they're getting ready to go out, and then you're free to enjoy your afternoon on the beach at Weston-Super-Mare without having to worry about a meal when you get home.</div>
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Here in the reality of everyday life though, I'm on night shifts so I'm doing the prep at 7am on the way in from work. </div>
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I'm going to start with the chicken. I've got thighs and drumsticks, which are usually dirt cheap with the skin and bone on even if you go free-range/organic. One thigh and one drumstick per person is a fairly sensible portion. Get a pan nice and hot and fry in a mixture of butter and vegetable oil until the skin is nice and golden-brown.</div>
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Ordinarily I'd put the browned chicken straight into the slow-cooker, but I'm not starting straight away. This is for tonight's dinner and I'm not happy about leaving warm chicken out at room temperature until the slow-cooker starts up on its timer, but nine hours is too long to cook chicken for. Not a problem - my girlfriend comes home for lunch so I'm putting the chicken into the fridge for now. She'll load up the slow-cooker later.</div>
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Next, take the pan off the heat and prepare the veg. Slice up a leek and a couple of carrots, on the diagonal, nice and fine.</div>
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Re-light the heat under the same pan (no need to wash it) as low as possible and gently sweat the leek and carrot.</div>
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While that's going on, peel and cut up a large potato (or a couple of small ones) into bite-size chunks and add them to the pan too.</div>
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When the leeks are soft, add a large glass of white wine to the pan, bring it to the boil and let it reduce for a minute or so.</div>
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Then add enough chicken stock to cover everything comfortably, season, add a generous sprinkling of tarragon (or whatever herbs you fancy) and reduce the heat to let it simmer for a few minutes.</div>
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Again, if you're planning to eat in three or four hours time, this can go straight into the slow-cooker. I'm over-complicating things today though, so into the fridge it goes.</div>
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I'm off to bed. I've set the timer on the slow cooker to come on at around half three, so that we can eat at seven. My girlfriend will be home at lunchtime to transfer the ingredients from the fridge to the slow cooker.</div>
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<i>Later...</i></div>
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I'm awake! Slow cooker sauces can be a bit watery so make a paste of a tablespoonful of cornflour and about two of water, and stir that through to thicken it.</div>
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Then, about half an hour before you want to eat, cut some nice nutty brown mushrooms into quarters and add them, along with a small tub of double cream.</div>
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I'll be honest, the thickening agent didn't make a blind bit of
difference - this was still a bit of a watery sauce. Delicious though.
It tasted of nostalgia to me, so I think I did it right. </div>
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Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-85610861983313105512012-10-26T20:40:00.003+01:002012-10-26T20:40:27.491+01:00Lamb meatball tagine<div style="text-align: justify;">
I felt like playing with my tagine again... it's one of my favourite cooking toys, but this will just cook in a heavy-bottomed saucepan if you don't feel like a trip to Morocco to get one! You can't hurry anything when you're using a tagine as it takes so long to heat up and cool down: it makes for a very relaxing way to cook.</div>
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I'm not sure how authentic this is, but kafta - lamb mince - is certainly a popular ingredient.</div>
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First, make the meatballs. Some people are funny about handling raw meat, but I quit enjoy this - the only way to do it right is to get in there and mush it up with your hands.</div>
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Finely chop half an onion and put it in a bowl with an egg yolk, 400g good quality lamb mince, a teaspoonful ground ginger or ginger paste, a teaspoonful of paprika, a teaspoonful of paprika and a teaspoonful of dried coriander leaves, or some fresh chopped up coriander leaves if you have them. A bit of chilli pepper or something else to add heat probably wouldn't go amiss either.</div>
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I know I said "finely" chop, that would be my legendary knife skills in action... I could always have put it through the blender.<br />
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Smoosh it all up and turn it into meatballs with your hands, then fry them gently in the tagine. When they've got a little bit of colour set them aside for the time being.<br />
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Now, to the sauce. Chop the other half of your onion, turn the heat down low under the tagine and fry gently for five minutes or so until translucent.</div>
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Stir two tablespoonfuls of tomato puree and two teaspoonfuls of honey through the onions.</div>
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Now drain the liquid from a tin of chopped tomatoes and add the tomatoes.<br />
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Throw in a handful of frozen peas, add the meatballs back in (it'll be a tight squeeze!), cover everything with the lid and cook over a medium heat for about 15 minutes.<br />
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The plan was to add an egg to the sauce to poach before the end of cooking time, but the tagine was too full and we felt this already had enough going on so I didn't bother.<br />
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Serve over couscous. </div>
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Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-66205788984955623952012-10-03T00:55:00.000+01:002012-10-03T00:55:15.661+01:00Cheesy chicken and yoghurt pasta bake<div style="text-align: justify;">
If you're serious about keeping your food spend down, it's important to develop the skill of looking in the fridge to see what there is before going shopping. Britain throws away a staggering amount of food - about a third of what we buy - so it's really important to use everything up and not chuck any ends of anything away.</div>
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There's plain yoghurt, lots of cheese, mushrooms, we've got a load of chicken breasts in the freezer at the moment because the butcher's doing a special offer on them... pasta bake it is! There's always pasta in the cupboard, so all I needed to buy for this was a leek.</div>
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Dead simple, this one - all you do is boil the pasta, give the meat and veg a bit of time in a frying pan to bring out the flavours, then bake the whole lot in a mixture of yoghurt and grated cheese.</div>
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Start with a chopped leek and some mushrooms, just sweating over a low heat until soft. Do you like garlic? Chuck a finely chopped and crushed garlic clove in too then.</div>
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You'll want to get your pasta on the go at this point - I used 75g penne (because that's what was left in the packet), which takes 10 minutes to cook - around the same time as the leek and chicken need.</div>
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Once the veg is softened, transfer to an oven-proof dish, turn the heat up under the pan and fry the chicken on both sides. It doesn't need to be cooked through as it's going in the oven later. This has got nothing to do with sealing anything in, it's just that the frying creates tasty flavours on the surface of the meat. You could skip this step, but it's much nicer this way.</div>
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Put the chicken in the oven-proof dish, and the cooked pasta, and add any herbs you fancy at this point - I just stuck to salt, pepper and tarragon. I like tarragon with chicken.</div>
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Mix it all up so that you get a homogenous mix, not layers.</div>
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Add plain yoghurt (however much is left in the pot) and a handful of grated cheese (again, I haven't weighed it - just what was left).</div>
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Mix it all up again and chuck it in the oven. 180C for 20 minutes should just about do the trick.</div>
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This seems like the appropriate moment to mention that the oven in the new place only works on its "fan" setting. I've always been a bit distrustful of fan ovens, but I've had nothing but good results so far. Keep a close eye on proceedings though, they do work quicker so the chances of a little burniness around the edges is that much higher. </div>
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This is one of those wonderfully adaptable ones. You don't like leek? Use an onion instead, or shallots. Mushrooms? Leave 'em out. Got a lonely slice of ham left in the bottom of the packet? Cut that up and throw it in, chicken and ham go really well together. Don't like tarragon? No problem. Use whatever you think goes well with chicken. Low carb diet? Leave the pasta out and double the meat and veg. </div>
Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-64959824063828392012012-10-01T21:46:00.002+01:002012-10-26T20:41:07.017+01:00Chicken tagine with apricots, rosemary and ginger<div style="text-align: justify;">
My girlfriend brought me back a beautiful tagine from her holiday in Morocco last year. You don't really need them - a heavy-bottomed saucepan will do the job - but it's a fun kitchen toy to have. You can pick them up over here now for not much money, but it's nice to have a real Moroccan one.</div>
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If you decide to get a real tagine, you'll need a heat diffuser as well because the pottery would crack on an open flame. These things are a useful tool anyway, especially if you like slow cooking, and they're only about a fiver on ebay or from your local kitchen shop. </div>
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I've only got one tagine cookbook (<i>Tagine: Spicy Stews from Morocco</i> by Ghillie Basan, ISBN 978-1-84597-478-7) so my use of it is a bit limited, but I decided to get it out to play tonight, mostly because we had chicken thighs and drumsticks left over from our housewarming party and they do well low-and-slow - which is what tagine cooking is all about!</div>
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Start by sweating a chopped onion in olive oil and a knob of butter. Once that's started to go soft, add a chopped chilli, ginger and rosemary - fresh is generally nicer but I had preserved versions of ginger and rosemary in stock so that's what I used. Throw in a cinnamon stick too.</div>
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Give it a bit more time to soften, then add the chicken - I've given us one thigh each, but feel free to be a bit more generous if you like. You want to get a bit of colour on the skin, so when you first put them in press them down to the bottom skin-side down so that they get to fry in the butter and oil.</div>
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Everything takes time with a tagine, so there's no rush. Just leave it alone, with the chicken skin-side down, until it's taken on a bit of colour.</div>
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Once it has, turn the chicken over and add about 75g dried apricots, chopped up into quarters, and a tablespoonful of honey.<br />
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Now season with salt and pepper, add a tin of tomatoes, and stir them in.</div>
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Put the lid on, turn the heat right down low and simmer for half an hour.</div>
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Serve over couscous. The packet instructions recommend 75g per person but we think that's literally twice as much as you need. 75g between two makes enough to fill my stripy pasta bowls up to the white line, which seems like a sensible portion to me.<br />
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As you can see, I did spill a bit with this one... in fact, I completely destroyed the kitchen. I'm generally a fairly tidy cook but the tagine always seems to bubble over. Worth it though, this was damn tasty! Really nice mix of sweet and spicy, and slow cooking chicken on the bone makes for tasty tender meat. </div>
Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-32079006798798052882012-09-24T19:10:00.002+01:002012-09-24T19:10:49.162+01:00Beeetroot, mackerel and lentil salad<div style="text-align: justify;">
For dinner, we had <a href="http://aroundbritainwithapaunch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/mackerel-beetroot-lentil-and-egg-salad.html" target="_blank">this.</a></div>
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I won't post the whole recipe again, just follow the link and enjoy.</div>
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I reduced the quantities a bit for the sake of WeightWatchers points (we find that 80g lentils, dry weight, is enough between two) and we had a whole smoked mackerel from the excellent Sussex Smokers in the freezer so we used that rather than fillets. Also, I used pre-cooked beetroot - I know fresh is nicer, but I'm on nights and I just couldn't be bothered. It was dry tarragon as well I'm afraid, although fresh would be better if you can find it.</div>
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I admit to using an egg-poacher, too. I am capable of poaching eggs properly, but I do sometimes break them and we only had two eggs left so I didn't want to take the risk. </div>
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It's delicious. Delicate flavours melting together, and a lovely contrast of flavours and temperatures. I'm starting to think that there's nothing that can't be improved be an egg yolk running through it.</div>
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With the quantities we used, this is <b>14 WeightWatchers ProPoints.</b> For some reason mackerel counts very high, and smoked mackerel even higher. I'm not sure this is correct... your thoughts?</div>
Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-67677440005134203092012-09-23T19:29:00.000+01:002012-09-23T19:29:10.232+01:00Pork and Mustard Serendipity<div style="text-align: justify;">
It's amazing how things fall together without the need to plan sometimes.</div>
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I popped into Waitrose for a couple of things the other day, and grabbed a pack of two pork steaks as they were practically giving them away because they were on their sell-by date. It's worth buying meat this way if you have a freezer - sell-by dates are of course conservative (no supermarket wants to poison someone) so if you don't want to eat it the same day just pop it in the freezer and it'll be fine.</div>
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I also picked up a Waitrose magazine, as I get them for free. My girlfriend got to it before I did, and picked out this recipe - not knowing that I'd bought the pork steaks - and we had everything else in stock so away we go!</div>
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It's simplicity itself - just the sort of cooking I like. The only brainpower goes into figuring out the timings.</div>
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Get everything prepared before you start. Massage your pork steaks with a mixture of equal parts olive oil and wholegrain mustard - a tablespoonful of each will do the trick. Season them with salt.</div>
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Now prepare the dressing for the vegetables. Easy peasy - mix together a teaspoonful each of wholegrain mustard, honey and balsamic vinegar in a bowl.</div>
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Chop up some green beans, and set a pan of water boiling.</div>
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Get a frying pan or griddle good and hot, and start frying the pork steaks. Ours were quite thick so I decided on 12 minutes, half each side. You don't want to blast the meat by giving it six minutes on one side and six on the other, so I did three minutes, turn, three minutes, turn, repeat.</div>
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The water will be boiling by the time the pork's nearly done, so put the beans in as soon as it's boiling. They want four minutes. You're going to add some frozen peas as well - they just want two minutes.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaDm7w5r5aDz_XIPYRDYKs_BHiO6Zmn5-sQVy8ZjuZmApBjCMYeNpq-2fHPSCrlD7oHwcC3txnFadzbmXpXywCyBbiE58xbes-rQGdviBLPRliGGxrN9lGKs2V5ZGVy5y-0KCgdVjqG1sZ/s1600/2012-09-23+19.02.44.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaDm7w5r5aDz_XIPYRDYKs_BHiO6Zmn5-sQVy8ZjuZmApBjCMYeNpq-2fHPSCrlD7oHwcC3txnFadzbmXpXywCyBbiE58xbes-rQGdviBLPRliGGxrN9lGKs2V5ZGVy5y-0KCgdVjqG1sZ/s400/2012-09-23+19.02.44.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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If everything's been timed right, you can serve the pork before putting the peas in so that it gets a couple of minutes to rest.</div>
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When the veg is done, drain and add to the dressing, getting everything covered.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixSiZBnrzmpHbz4lTkZD-DiL2wpekjVZeL5_1eRVkESl2aYNdym8ECSpSC6Yt6ifxN4oe8x0IwIl1sfsb6yxmD0z2tx3pgKtnYlCTWlOJgRq9DrZWBfJALyArSX7ks5No2CsuOPVfp0X-t/s1600/2012-09-23+19.07.31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixSiZBnrzmpHbz4lTkZD-DiL2wpekjVZeL5_1eRVkESl2aYNdym8ECSpSC6Yt6ifxN4oe8x0IwIl1sfsb6yxmD0z2tx3pgKtnYlCTWlOJgRq9DrZWBfJALyArSX7ks5No2CsuOPVfp0X-t/s400/2012-09-23+19.07.31.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Serve with boiled new potatoes or sauté potatoes if you want to - we're happy with this as a meal in itself though.</div>
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<b>WeightWatchers ProPoints: 8</b>Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2632191299471111788.post-79682469373891403942012-09-20T21:24:00.001+01:002012-09-20T21:24:27.548+01:00Chicken stir fry<div style="text-align: justify;">
Neither of us had a chance to get to the shops today, so dinner had to come from what's in stock. A glance in the fridge, freezer and cupboards suggested chicken stir-fry.</div>
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This is in no way a definitive recipe, just a mix of what I happen to have to hand, so please don't think that this is in any way authentic!</div>
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There were a few chicken breasts in the freezer so I pulled one out last night - one big one is plenty for two people.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTY2ZLUHrMeqeC8l8KEz19Ks4b4VNQBu79-Z7L8MAtUMB8QQK5xiLTvl3fQqqFUdZAXrkORlxpwjJy9euS-vqga7Zun7xi3-QZtwMslDKPZOG8GMvyEFJja4f9pWUuHkZPlMuf5VO_SjhP/s1600/2012-09-20+17.47.05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTY2ZLUHrMeqeC8l8KEz19Ks4b4VNQBu79-Z7L8MAtUMB8QQK5xiLTvl3fQqqFUdZAXrkORlxpwjJy9euS-vqga7Zun7xi3-QZtwMslDKPZOG8GMvyEFJja4f9pWUuHkZPlMuf5VO_SjhP/s400/2012-09-20+17.47.05.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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It wants a bit of a marinade - half an hour is enough, but a couple of hours is probably best - so prepare a marinade of olive oil, soy sauce, ginger, Chinese 5-spice, a dribble of Thai fish sauce and a teaspoonful of honey, along with a pinch of salt.</div>
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I like to cut the chicken into quite thin strips for this, so that the marinade has more area to cover and flavour.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA6_5mErpmE75ZkYPJfZ9JicBciGgt5ixE_ix5Peeyb2dWK_g2Zb-2HHzrydeMnmxT0byHkvIRDp0sYfSqc3K2CZJKw_14NpGnLwcrT1lOgZYF5hEDhlCYV7yi8PDUW6c61LD3yU0-CmXl/s1600/2012-09-20+19.24.29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA6_5mErpmE75ZkYPJfZ9JicBciGgt5ixE_ix5Peeyb2dWK_g2Zb-2HHzrydeMnmxT0byHkvIRDp0sYfSqc3K2CZJKw_14NpGnLwcrT1lOgZYF5hEDhlCYV7yi8PDUW6c61LD3yU0-CmXl/s400/2012-09-20+19.24.29.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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When you're ready to eat, just get rice or noodles on the go (I used 100g Thai jasmine rice for the two of us), chop up whatever veg you've got in the bottom of the fridge (onion, mushrooms, a chilli pepper and some sugar snap peas, left whole) and get them frying over a medium/high heat.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOg7MSK1wy1EydsiHecztmi92WD-9bDbeW5AUrNiiWgMKjuLDILXQS0MyUBqtDYxBHJ1Z8UQjsUB5VPqlBaprTObADaFRk5d7k-kk8GpmrFqkv-rrdz847pSdWglS6T4xKooOO8Mo9A9qK/s1600/2012-09-20+19.33.35.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOg7MSK1wy1EydsiHecztmi92WD-9bDbeW5AUrNiiWgMKjuLDILXQS0MyUBqtDYxBHJ1Z8UQjsUB5VPqlBaprTObADaFRk5d7k-kk8GpmrFqkv-rrdz847pSdWglS6T4xKooOO8Mo9A9qK/s400/2012-09-20+19.33.35.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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When the veg is starting to soften, chuck in the chicken in its marinade. Stir and fry. It's as simple as that!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVcZzu3SJHM4x10OB13kIYg5ajSEJZtuBbLgqsb7frSiyvLR5Lp-_WVl3_DafVTm7Y8fXmbESgmgIkgVLXa5IFqPlO2DdplWYBlHFXdlf9vvmrdYIMMx2aXgp_KgOlPD5dVW97p1naKjH1/s1600/2012-09-20+19.40.33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVcZzu3SJHM4x10OB13kIYg5ajSEJZtuBbLgqsb7frSiyvLR5Lp-_WVl3_DafVTm7Y8fXmbESgmgIkgVLXa5IFqPlO2DdplWYBlHFXdlf9vvmrdYIMMx2aXgp_KgOlPD5dVW97p1naKjH1/s400/2012-09-20+19.40.33.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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While we were eating, my girlfriend said it would have been nice with a handful of peanuts thrown in, except that we don't have any, or sesame seeds, which we do. She was absolutely right on both counts, and I was really pleased at that reaction - this is the sort of recipe that you can muck about with. No Chinese 5-spice in the cupboard? Use different Chinese spices instead. Got some garlic that wants using up? Chuck that in too. No chilli pepper? Use chilli sauce instead. And there are all sorts of nice veg that stir-fry well, the supermarkets do some excellent little mixed packs now.</div>
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Play with this one, and enjoy it! </div>
Tesco Value Chefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10069277520160021506noreply@blogger.com0