Chicken, potato and chorizo bake

Are you in need of a quick and easy supper dish, that's healthy and tasty and with hardly any washing up too !  Well this is the dish for you, a one pot dish that uses one of my favourite cuts of chicken, thighs juicy and extra tasty they are also a great economy cut too, providing plenty of flavour and flesh for your buck.

To enhance the dish I used fresh oregano from the herb garden including the flowers so beloved of the bees at the moment. Did I tell we now host a hive in the garden so I am much more aware of what flowers they enjoy and oregano is a firm favourite, along with cat mint and thyme.

What you need

• Chicken thigh - skin on and bone still in
• Chorizo - approx 1/2 a loop, chopped into chunks
• 1 red pepper - seeds removed and chunkly chopped
• 1 red onion - peeled and chunky chopped
• Couple of large handful - washed baby potatoes, chopped in half or quatered if large
• Small bunch of fresh oregano
• Extra virgin rapeseed or olive oil - about 1 tbsp
• Large metal baking tray
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 220c / 180c fan
• Place all the ingredients in a large metal baking tray
• Toss so all ingredients have a very light coating of oil

Bake for approx 30 minutes baste with some of the delicious juices, bake for another 30  minutes or so until golden.

• Remove and serve with a freshly dressed green salad and a glass of something chilled.

We are linking up to recipe of the week over on A Mummy Too

                                            

And to Cooking with Herbs over on Lavender and lovage - who's theme this month is Summer Herb
Flowers

                                         

Potato, spinach, pea and basil soup - a tasty vegan feast

Another week has passed and we have another soup recipe for you, this one does have some reseamblence to shrek's swamp but trust me its very tasty and great for making when you hardly have anything in the cupboards. For the sake of economy I use frozen peas and spinach and there is no waste either.

                     

Vegan as it contains only vegetables, however if this isn't important to you then its delicious served topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese or swirled with creme fraiche or yogurt.

Thickened by blending half the ingredients in to the soup its low in fat and containes no flours or grains so its gluten free too.

What you need

• Onion - peeled and chopped
• 2 potatoes - peeled and diced
• 3 blobs of frozen spinach
• 1 cup of frozen peas
• Vegetable stock
• Salt and pepper
• A little olive or rapeseed oil
• Handful fresh basil

What you do

• Fry the onion and the potato in a little oil add the vegetable stock to the pan, simmer until softened
• Add the frozen peans and frozen spinach to the pan and bring back to the simmer and the spinach is defrosted. Add the basil 
• Now blitz half the pan with a stick blender until smooth and retaining some chunky vegetables for texture.
• Taste and season with salt and pepper as necessary.
• Serve piping hot

We are linking up to "Eat your Greens" over on Allotment 2 Kitchen , the challenge being to cook with a green vegetable and for the recipe to be vegeterian.

Lancashire Hotpot - made with love and a perfect winter dish

I love Lancashire hotpot and as a born and bred Lancastrian so I should, its the perfect frugal comfort food which will happily blip away in the oven whilst you get on with other things. Requiring minimal effort you can still deliver a wow dish for your supper (or in a Northerner case tea) table.

I decided recently to experiment with different ways of cooking the dish and in my opinion this is the best method so far, ideal served with a green vegetable or just the traditional accompaniments of pickled beetroot or red cabbage.

What you need

• Diced lamb pieces (ask your butcher whats the best and cheapest)
• 3 large white potatoes 
• 1 large white onion - peeled and roughly chopped
• 3 carrots - peeled and chopped
• Lamb stock ( I use essential cuisine - the best in my humble opinion)
• Splash of Worcestershire sauce (use gluten free brown sauce if necessary)
• Cornflour
• Thyme and rosemary - finely chopped
• Salt and pepper
• A little rapeseed oil

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 160c
• Heat the oil in cast iron casserole dish
• Fry off the lamb pieces in batches until lightly caramelised
• Remove from pan to plate
• Fry in the same pan the onion and carrot until slightly golden, add the lamb back to the pan and add a tablespoon or so of cornflour.
• Stir and add the herbs and sauce, remove from the heat
• Stir again and top the vegetable and lamb mixture with potato slices
• Pour enough lamb stock to just be visible on the top of the potato topping, put lid on casserole dish and place in oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes
• Once the time has passed the vegetables with be tender and the meat cooked, remove the lid and place back in the oven for another 15 -30 minutes until the top is golden and slightly crispy.
• Serve immediately with a green vegetable (cabbage / kale is nice) and traditional hotpot accompaniments

Sumac roasted potato wedges

For the last couple years there has been an increased interest in the food of the Israel, Turkey, Libya and Tunisia and the near middle east, personally I think  this is  mainly due to works of  Yotam Ottolenghi. He has brought a new flavour palate to the UK, so much so that sumac and z'atar now  routinely appear on most supermarket shelves. We enjoy sumac sprinkled on oven baked potato wedges which have been tossed on little olive oil and roasted for about 40 minutes until soft and golden, delicious served with a garlic yoghurt dip or as a side dish.

National Vegetarian Week and Greenhalghs

Greenhalgh's Butter pie served with brown sauce

This week is National Vegetarian Week  a great celebration of vegetarian food. One great Lancashire delicacy is a great dish for vegetarians and that is Butter Pie. A pie that has its history firmly fixed in Lancashire and the area surrounding Preston in particular as a economical and nutritious meal for catholic mill workers. Butter pies are still produced by a number of local north west bakeries to satisy local demand, one of which Greenhalghs recently approached me to review their butter pie, obviously as a connoisseur  of the butter pie I was more than happy to undertaken this task.

A butter pie has a filling of potatoes, onion and butter, plus a little seasoning this is all in cased in a shortcrust pastry parcel, happily all the fats in Greenhalghs pastry are of vegetable origin so no worries there if you are vegetarian  I found the freshly baked pies to be delicious, juicy and tender and the pastry having just the right amount of crumble combined with melt in the mouth filling. Some people may think a pie with only potato, onion and butter in its filling would be a little bland, but far from it in a Butter pie the potato flavour comes to the fore. It is also nice that the pie has potato slices which create a nice texture rather than a mush I have seen in other butter pies.

Most high streets in the North west have a Greenhalghs so its easy to pop in and stock up on this great tasty vegetarian snack , especially during National Vegetarian Week.

                                           
Alternatively if you are feeling creative you could always make you own , check out the recipe in the popular posts.

Cheesy potato topped chilli

This is another recipe which uses Tasty Creations ready made Lancashire Cheese sauce, in need of a quick warming supper dish and not having much time to make it, I raided my stash of frozen goodies. I found a pot of Tasty Creations sauce and a couple of pots of homemade quorn chilli, so out they came, with the frugal addition of a couple of par boiled potatoes and this dish was born. Pronounced delicious by Mr Lancashire Food it certainly hits the spot on a cold winters night.

Ingredients

• Tasty Creations Lancashire Cheese Sauce - thawed
• Quorn chilli - made to this recipe but using quorn instead of mince and vegetable stock
• 3 large white potatoes, peeled , sliced and parboiled until tender

Method

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Place the chilli mixture in your oven proof dish, covering the whole of the dish
• Place the drained potatoes on the top of the chilli mixture in an even layer
• Pour oven the tasty creations sauce
• Place in the oven and bake for approx 25 - 35 minutes until golden and bubbling
• Serve accompanied with a fresh green salad if you are especially hungry.

Leek, Potato and thyme Soup

This is my standby soup recipe, deliciously warming and comforting and a great anecdote to when you need the equivalent of a hug in a bowl. Outside its been bashing down with rain and even when it stops raining its raining leaves as autumn is well and truly well under way. Leeks are fairly easy to grow in the garden and even if your yield is disappointing you normally can rescue enough leeks for soup.

Ingredients

• 3 large potatoes - peeled and chopped in to chunky cubes
• 3 leeks, cleaned and chopped into rings
• Vegetable stock about 500ml
• Thyme - dried or fresh
• Salt and Pepper
• Butter

Method

• Melt the butter in a large saucepan
• Add the leeks and chopped potato and cook gently until slightly softened
• Add the thyme and enough vegetable stock to cover
• Bring to a gentle simmer, cover and cook until the vegetables are tender
• Now liquidise half the soup ( I use a stick blender), by doing it this way you still retain texture
• Add more water / stock if too thick and bring back to a simmer
• Taste and season
• Delicious served with homemade bread

I am entering this into the Simple and Seasonal challenge hosted this month by franglaiskitchen for Fabulicious Food

And also in Herbs on Saturday October hosted over at Lavender and Lovage 

Courgettesakka

Inspired by  the classic Greek dish Moussaka and also as a way to use up courgettes from the garden this recipe was born. Its a delicious easy family dish which is pimped by the addition of some delicious chutney I received to review from FATJAX chutneys, which delivers a fresher flavour layer to the base bolognaise sauce.

Ingredients

• Low fat ground minced steak
• Onion - finely chopped
• Garlic
• Mixed herbs
• Beef stock and /or wine
• Tinned tomatoes
• Tomato puree
• 1/2 jar of FATJAX Mediterrean vegetable chutney.
• Splash of balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil
• 2 large courgettes, sliced using a potato peeler
• Potatoes , sliced and parboiled
• Milk
• Butter
• Flour
• Parmesan cheese

Method

• Fry off the onion in a little oil , then the garlic, then add the minced steak and cook until coloured
• Now add the beef stock, wine, tomato puree, chutney, tomatoes and mixed herbs, Stir and add a splash of balsamic vinegar.
• Cook on a gentle simmer until the the mince is cooked and the vegetables softened
• Keep cooking until the suace is reduced and taste for seasoning
• Meanwhile make cooked off the courgette ribbons in a little oil in a seperate frying pan
• Once the courgette is softened, put the bolognaise sauce in the bottom of your chosen dish, top with the courgette ribbon and parboiled potato slices
• Now make a roux sauce, using the butter, flour and milk, season to taste
• Pour this on top of the potatoes
• Sprinkle the dish with grated Parmesan cheese
• Bake in a pre heated oven at 170c until golden and bubbling, about 30 minutes or so
• Delicious served with a dressed green salad.

Green Garden Soup

Well the weather is still not playing ball, its wet, its cool then its sunny, very confusing for the plants in the vegetable garden and very confusing for the cook too, what do you make when its supposed to be summer but some evenings you almost feel like putting the heating back on !

Soup is the answer in this household but not the rib sticking type of winter, something all together lighter using seasonal ingredients of course ideally from the garden and so this soup was born.

A quick rummage in the vegetable garden yielded rocket, peas, broad beans, baby courgettes and lovage, this was supplemented by store cupboard additions of potato, garlic and onion, the resulting soup was delicious, sweet and very moreish.

Ingredients

• Peas (you could use frozen)
• Broad beans
• Baby courgettes - chopped finely
• Rocket - handful no more
• Lovage leaves - couple
• White onion, finely chopped
• Potato- peeled and diced in to small pieces
• Vegetable stock
• Butter 

Method

• Melt butter in a large saucepan
• Add all your vegetable and sweat for a few minutes without browning
• Add vegetable stock until all your vegetables are covered
• Simmer until the vegetables are tender
• Allow to cool slighty, then blend to desired consistency, thinner with more stock or water if needed
• Taste to see if needs seasoning, bring back to gentle simmer, do not boil as it spoils the sweet flavour
• Serve accompanied by great bread

I am entering this post in simple and in season blog challenge on Fabulicious Food, this month guest hosted by homemadebyfleur 

This is also an entry for No croutons Required, July challenge for summer soups and salads, a vegetarian challange co hosted by Tinned Tomatoes and Lisa's Kitchen

Potato and lovage soup

Well its May and its unseasonably cold, after a morning in the garden I decided to make this quick and easy soup. I had noticed that one of my lovage plants was in lush fresh leafy growth so a recipe that would use this bounty was in order. Lovage is a herb which grows easily in my Lancashire garden and seems to enjoy having a moist position, its flavour is a yeasty celery , its seeds are used in southern european cuisine. The soup was whipped up very quickly.

Ingredients

• Potatoes - peeled, chopped into small cubes
• Onion, peeled finely chopped
• Lovage leaves - go carefully its quite strong in flavour, finely shredded
• Vegetable stock
• Butter / Oil

Method

• Heat your oil / butter in large saucepan
• Gently fry your onion for 2 minutes
• Now add your chopped potatoes
• Stir and allow to sweat for a few minutes
• Add the shredded lovage leave and the vegetable stock to just cover
• Bring to boil and simmer until the vegetables are cooked
• Taste for seasoning , add if required and either serve as it is or partially blended if you like a thicker soup.
• Garnish with a whole lovage leaf