Homestyle Chicken and Noodles

I have always been fascinated by American homestyle cooking and comfort food. Casseroles made with condensed soups and creamy bakes oozing comfort. I have seen many different versions of chicken and noodles but this was the simplest recipe I came across. It was delicious, so creamy and wholesome. I will definitely be making this again.

I had to make a couple of substitutions, I used leek intead of celery as I don't like celery and I used tagliatelle for the noodles as I have no idea what Americans mean by noodles really, to me that means oriental, but that's not what's in the picture and pasta was the closest I came!

Homestyle Chicken and Noodles (from Iowa Girl Eats)
(Serves 4-6)

2 chicken legs and 2 chicken wings, skins removed or 3 chicken legs
750ml water
500ml chicken broth
1 tsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper
1 large onion, chopped
4 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 leeks, sliced
340g tagliatelle
150g frozen peas
250g skim milk
2 tbsp flour

Put chicken in the bottom of a large casserole. Add the water, chicken broth, thyme, bay leaves, salt, pepper, onion, carrots, and celery. Bring to a boil then place a lid on top, lower heat, and simmer for 30 mins, or until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken from pot then shred and set aside.

Meanwhile, add the tagliatelle to the casserole and cook according to packet instructions. Once tender, stir in the peas.

Put the milk and flour in a jar with a screw-top lid, then shake to combine. Drizzle into the casserole then stir to combine. Cook for 3-4 mins or until mixture is thick and bubbly.

Add chicken back to the pot then taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Let chicken and noodles sit for 10 mins to thicken before serving.

Beetroot and Potato Soup

I made this soup a long time ago with the beetroot I was given by a friend. I froze it immediately and have only just got around to eating it. I was expecting it to be a bit too sweet but actually the lemon juice worked a treat and really cut through the sweetness of the beetroot. It has definitely reignited my interest in trying different dishes with it.

Beetroot and Potato Soup

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tsp cumin

1l vegetable stock

450g beetroot, peeled and quartered

225g potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 bay leaf

1-2 sprigs of fresh thyme

2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp honey

Sour cream or plain yogurt to serve

 

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté for about 5 mins, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add the garlic and cook for another 30 secs. Add the salt, pepper, and cumin, stir to coat and cook for another 30 secs.

Add the stock beetroot, potato, bay leaf, and thyme. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for 30-35 mins, until the beetroot and potato are tender. Remove the bay leaf and thyme sprigs. 

Using a hand blender purée the soup, adding a splash of stock if needed. Add the lemon juice and honey and heat through.

Serve each portion with a swirl of sour cream or yoghurt.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

So in a effort to use up some of those tomatillos still hanging round my kitchen I made salsa. Tomatillos have a very particular taste that is, I think, like a very tomatoey tomato, although it's not from the same family. My sister didn't like it much, I do, but in small quantities. I used most of this salsa heated up over pinto beans and rice as I don't really have much call for salsa. It was really tasty though. I halved the amount of chilli I used because of my chilli problems, although I think my tolerance is building! It's all those chilli spiked gozleme I keep eating!

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa (from Wellness Today)

450g tomatillos (or green tomatoes)
2 jalapeno chillis, seeeded and roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1/4 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp chilli powder
1/4 bunch coriander, roughly chopped
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
juice half a lime
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Cut the tomatillos in half and place them on a baking sheet with the jalapenos, onion, and garlic.

Bake for 30 mins. Remove veggies from oven and leave to cool.

Once cool, put the roasted ingredients into a food processor or blender with the lemon, salt, pepper, chilli, cumin, and coriander.

Adding the olive oil in a steady stream, blend until the mixture is smooth and even in texture.

Serve with tortilla chips.

Aubergine, Mozzarella and Saffron Rice Bake

I found a gorgeous white aubergine at my local supermarket and made this dish contrasting it with a normal purple aubergine, the colours looks really lovely together. This is a kind of risotto gratin again, a bit like the Courgette, Bacon and Brie Gratin I made a while ago. It's really tasty with lovely Mediterranean flavours.

Aubergine, Mozzarella and Saffron Rice Bake (from Eats Well With Others)
(Serves 6)

3 large aubergine, cut 1/2cm rounds

cooking spray

1 onion, chopped

240g arborio rice

pinch of saffron

60ml white wine

240ml veg stock

500g tomato sauce

450g mozzarella, cut into cubes

90g grated parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

 

Preheat oven to 200C. Place the aubergine slices on a lined baking sheet. Spray with cooking spray and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 20-25 mins, flipping halfway through, until tender and golden.

Heat a little oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened and translucent, about 8 mins. Add the rice to the pan and cook, stirring, for 3 mins. Stir in the saffron and the wine and cook until the wine reduces a bit. Add the stock and season with salt. Cover and cook for 6 mins. Remove from the heat.

 

Cover the bottom of a 23x33cm ovenproof dish with a third of the tomato sauce. Sprinkle 1/3 of the mozzarella and parmesan over it. Top with about half of the aubergine overlapping them so that there is no visible sauce in the pan. Top with the rice, spreading out so that it covers the aubergine. Sprinkle over half of the remaining sauce and another third of the mozzarella and parmesan. Add another layer of aubergine. Top with the remaining tomato sauce, mozzarella, and parmesan cheese.

 

Cover with foil and bake for 15 mins. Remove the foil and bake for 20 mins more, until golden on top. Serve with a green salad.

Tuna and Tapenade Wrap

Tapenade and tuna go perfectly together one really seems to compliment the other. This sandwich was dreamed up to use up leftover tapenade and it was scrumptious. I love a warm wrap. I would do one thing differently though, I would definitely put the mozzarella on top of the tapenade rather than the tuna as my cheese didn't really melt which is half the point of putting it back on the griddle!

Tuna and Tapenade Wrap
(Serves 1)

1 tuna steak
1 large tortilla wrap
1 tbsp olive tapenade
1/2 ball mozzarella, sliced
1/2 tomato, sliced

Heat a griddle pan and spray the tuna with cooking spray. Cook the tuna on the griddle to your liking.

Meanwhile, heat the wrap in the microwave for about 15 secs to soften it. Spread the tapenade on the middle of the wrap and then layer with the mozzarella, tomato and finally the tuna.

Roll the wrap up and place it back on the griddle to melt the cheese, turning it over to get lovely char marks on the wrap. Serve.

Blackberry Cinnamon Rolls

I went to my sisters one evening a little while ago and as she was cooking the main course, I made a pudding. I had had enough of apples so I made a blackberry pudding instead. Technically these are not real cinnamon rolls as they don't have yeast in but they were very tasty nonetheless.

I also just wanted to make a quick note about quantities. Sometimes my amounts look a little weird like 113g butter or 63ml milk, this is because I'm using American recipes, which use cups and then transferring them into grams, which never comes out at a nice number! The recipes work though, even with the weird numbers.

Blackberry Cinnamon Rolls (from Food.com)
(Serves 4)

113g butter or margarine                           

113g sugar

125ml cup water

94g cup self-raising flour

63ml milk, at room temperature

110g blackberries

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp demerara sugar

 

Preheat the oven to 200C. Put half the butter into a 13cm round or oval baking dish. Then place it in the oven as it heats to melt the butter

 

In a saucepan, heat the sugar and water until the sugar melts and then set aside. 

 

Place flour in a mixing bowl and rub in the butter using your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the milk to the flour mixture, stirring with a fork until the dough leaves side of bowl.

 

Turn out the flour mixture onto a floured surface and knead 3 or 4 times. Roll out the dough to a 14cm by 11cm rectangle, roughly a half a cm think.
 

Spread the berries over the dough and then sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll up the dough into a cylinder like a swiss roll and cut into 1cm thick slices.

 

Carefully lay slices of dough in the baking dish over the butter. Pour the sugar syrup around the slices. Bake in the oven for 45 mins, sprinkle sugar over top and bake for 15 mins more. Serve with ice cream.

Meal Planning Monday

I had another lovely pottering weekend, apart from my boiler breaking down and then leaking everywhere. I woke up on Saturday morning to a my kitchen counter being awash with water. I had to wait in for the British Gas man to appear on Saturday afternoon, so I didn't get to the Belleville Sassoon exhibition. I did however, get to Mojo on Saturday evening after queueing for tickets in the morning, it was a good play but not as good as Jerusalem. On Sunday I brought the tone down a bit and went to the gym in the morning and then to the cinema to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, which I loved! It was so cute, animated vegetables masquerading as animals, really clever! I was the only adult in the cinema without a child though!!

This week is fairly quiet, nothing exciting until the end of the week when I'm going out for a Thanksgiving meal, and my parents are here for the weekend. I'm off to the Pearls exhibition at the V&A again with my Mum and we're going out for lunch at Brasserie Blanc before. Food wise I'm clearing out the freezer a bit again as my Mum is coming with lots of food that I bought at Half Term and is sat in her freezer, the rest of that awesome cheap Waitrose shop that we did.

Monday
Crab Sandwich with Crisps
Old Bay Shrimp with Pasta and Alfredo Sauce

Tuesday
Sorrel and Goat's Cheese Quiche with Salad

Corned Beef Hash with Veg

Wednesday
Italian Wedding Soup
Ginger, Chilli and Soy Mackerel with Special Fried Veg Rice

Thursday
Salmon and Cream Cheese Sandwich with Crisps
Pork, Courgette and Corn Enchiladas

Friday
Runner Bean and Corn Farro with Goat's Cheese
Out for a Thanksgiving meal

Saturday
Out at Brasserie Blanc
Something simple and light

Sunday
Lamb, Pea and Mint Burger with Crisps
Cabbage Rolls

Chilli Verde Sauce

With the rest of the 6 hour pork roast I made green chilli. Over the summer I grew tomatillos in the garden, a kind of Mexican vegetable, which looks a bit like a tomato but tastes completely different. Last year these failed dismally, this year they took over! I have so many I've been making them into everything under the sun.

The recipe below is the one I used, but my pork was already cooked and shredded and so I added it, along with some corn and beans, to the sauce and cooked for 5-10 mins as the recipe suggests. I also did that heinous thing of buying a tin of cheap baked beans, washing off the sauce and using just the beans. I was only cooking for me, and supermarkets only sell cannellini beans in 400g tins, 3/4 of which I would waste, so this was a much cheaper option. It was delicious.

Chilli Verde Sauce (from Full Circle)

700g fresh tomatillos, husked, washed and halved

1 large onion, quartered

3 green chillis, Anaheim or Poblanos, seeded and halved

4 cloves garlic

salt and pepper

1/4 tsp dried oregano

125ml chicken or vegetable stock

1/4 tsp sugar

 

Preheat the oven to 200C.

 

Place the tomatillos in a roasting tin with the onion, chillis, and garlic. Bake for 45 mins to 1 hour, or until onion is beginning to brown and chilis are soft. Leave to cool.

 

Transfer the tomatillos, onions, chilies and garlic to a blender and add the salt, pepper, oregano, sugar and stock, blend until smooth.

 

If you are serving with meats, pork shoulder or chicken thighs, cut the meat into bite size pieces, cook in the oil until browned, then add the sauce and simmer covered for 1 1/2 hours, or until tender.

 

Otherwise, return the sauce to a hot, lightly oiled pan and cook for 5- 10 minutes over a medium heat. Season to taste, garnish with coriander and serve over rice and beans.

Skinny Alfredo Sauce

This is a delicious pasta sauce that uses cauliflower instead of loads of cream and you can't tell the difference. It's lovely and creamy and a good way to use up cauliflower, which I'm not particularly fond of. I have used it as a pizza topping, pasta sauce and this time I served it with Courgette Ricotta Gnocchi, monkfish and leeks.

Skinny Alfredo Sauce (from Slender Kitchen)
(Serves 8)

1 head cauliflower, chopped

1 tbsp oil

1/4 onion or 2 shallots

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 170g can low fat evaporated milk

125ml - 250ml chicken stock

100g Parmesan cheese, grated

salt and pepper

 

Bring a large pan of water to a boil. Add the cauliflower and simmer for 20-25 mins until the cauliflower is very tender. Drain and put back in the pan

Mean while heat the oil in a frying pan and add the oil and onions. Saute over medium heat for about 7 mins until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 min. Add the evaporated milk and cook for 2 mins.

 

Add the onion mixture, Parmesan cheese, chicken stock, salt, and pepper to the cauliflower and using a hand blender, blend until creamy and smooth.

 

 

Raised Pork, Apple and Elderberry Pie

I made a small Jamie's 6 Hour Slow Roast Pork a little while ago and with the remainder of that I made these Pork, Elderberry and Apple pies. The elderberries came from my parent's garden. I made a hot water crust pastry which I've never tried making before, but I didn't hand raise the pies, that I think would have been a step too far! So I made two smaller pies in tins which was much easier! I've posted the original recipe below as I can't remember in what quantity I used the ingredients I actually had, which didn't quite match the recipe.The pies were delicious though, I'll definitely be picking more elderberries last year.

Raised Pork, Apple and Elderberry Pie (from The Times)
(Makes a 20cm Pie, Serves 10)

for the filling

25g butter

100g chopped pancetta or bacon 

6 small shallots, finely chopped
1 tsp oregano leaves, fresh or dried
100g elderberries, mashed with a fork
1 apple, cored and grated
600g minced pork shoulder or other lean meat
100g minced pork belly
2 tbsp calvados
salt and pepper

for the pastry
450g plain flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 egg yolk
175g goose or duck fat, melted and kept warm
175ml boiling water
1 level tsp caster sugar
milk

Prepare the filling. Put the butter in a frying-pan and melt it over a medium heat. Add the pancetta, then the chopped shallots and oregano. Cook, stirring, until lightly browned. Add the elderberries and apple, then cook for a further minute. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Put the pork in a bowl with the pancetta, onion mixture, calvados, pepper and salt and mix well.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Now make the pastry. Put the flour in a large bowl and stir in the egg and yolk. Add the goose fat and water with a teaspoon of salt and the sugar, then mix until you have a soft dough. Roll it out lightly on a floured worktop, then fold into three. Wrap in plastic or greaseproof paper and refrigerate for half an hour.

To make the pie, roll two thirds of the pastry out to a rough circle half a centimetre thick, or less if you want a thinner crust. Line the tin with the pastry, leaving a generous overhang, then roll out the second piece, about 3mm thick, to make a lid, again with an overhang. Fill the pastry case with the pork mixture, place the lid on top, using water to help stick it to the edge of the pastry case. Trim the edges, pressing them firmly together, then make a hole in the centre of the pie so steam can escape during cooking. Brush with milk. Bake the pie for 1½-1¾ hours, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out piping hot.

The pie can be eaten hot or cold.