Chorizo and Squash Risotto

Chorizo and Squash Risotto

OK now it's my turn.  This is just a very simple idea that I thought you might like to try and I don't know about you but I find making risotto very therapeutic.  Now although I can eat anything, apart from toast in the morning I am basically gluten-free as I eat the same food as Fran (most of the time).  The Chorizo I used was gluten-free as was the chicken stock (Knoor). 

What you will need (for about 4 people):

Olive Oil
40g Butter
250g Arborio Rice
100g Chorizo (chopped)
1 Butternut Squash (diced)
1 Onion
2 Cloves Garlic
1 glass white wine
1 ltr Chicken Stock
Handful of Frozen Peas

First get a your chicken stock to a simmer and add the butternut squash. 
In a frying pan, heat the oil and butter and cook the chopped Chorizo for a few minutes till the oils are released. 

Remove the Chorizo with a slotted spoon and put aside.  The fry the onion and garlic in the residue oil for 5 minutes till soft.  Add the rice and coat with the oil.
Add the wine and bubble till the alcohol has evaporated then add a ladle of stock (leaving the squash cooking for a little while).
As with all risottos, keep adding stock as the rice begins to dry out.

After about 10 minutes drain the stock into another pan and put the squash to one side, bring the stock to a simmer again and continue adding to the rice.

When the rice has been cooking for about 20 minutes add the squash.  At the 25 minute mark add the Chorizo, then the peas for the final couple of minutes.  The rice should take about 30 minutes and use all the stock.

Simply serve with some Parmesan shavings and enjoy.

Leftovers - Chorizo Pasta Bake

Chorizo Pasta Bake


In continuation of our post about frugality (still don't know if that is actually a word), here is a concoction we made one night last week with just what we had left over in the fridge. By some strange fate it seemed that all the bits and bobs we had were exactly the right amount for what we wanted to do. This dish was great as we didn't spend anything on ingredients, and it fed us both for two nights. Bargain!
We made a pasta bake which isn't unusual when scrimping around for left over bits and bobs as I suppose there are limitless possibilities for what to put in them. 

This is what we used: (the amounts are very approximate)

100g Chorizo (diced)
Handful of Frozen Peas
1 Onion (chopped)
Half a Corgette (diced)
Half a tub of Passata
A glug of Double Cream
Gluten-free Pasta (enough to cover a lasagne dish)
2 Spring Onions (chopped)
Grated Mozzarella and Chedder mix
Olive Oil
Dried Oregano
Dried Basil
A little water
Salt and pepper

What to do:

Fry the onion for 5 minutes to soften.  Then add the chrorizo and fry for a further 5 minutes until the oil is released .  Add the courgette and fry until soft.  Season with salt and pepper and add the dried herbs.  Then pour in the passata and cream and bring to a simmer.

In a lasagne dish, cover the bottom with dried pasta and add the sauce and frozen peas.  Mix well and add a little water as necessary to just cover the pasta.  Sprinkle the cheese and spring onion over the sauce to make the topping.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Mixed Tapas

January is generally a month of frugality (is that a word?), both money-wise and food-wise. I'm not going to say diet, as we never diet, but occasionally we take stock of what we're eating.
This post is not really about sensible eating, more like watching what we spend.

One of our favourite restaurants is The Orange Tree Tapas and Grill, and we have come to love several dishes on the menu. Since we are trying to watch what we spend at the moment (home improvements and credit card bills pressing) I decided to try and re-create some of our favourite tapas dishes rather than going out.

The dishes I tried were the Chicken in Paprika and Cream and the Beef in Peppercorn sauce from the restaurant. I also did a dish based on their Chicken with Mushrooms in Cream but with the addition of some cured ham. And also a dish of chorizo and prawns in a tomato and garlic sauce which I had seen some time ago on Market Kitchen.
The paprika cream sauce was simple to make, just a couple of lightly fried shallots with the chicken, then a splash of white wine and then the cream. And then enough paprkia to get the right flavour.
The mushroom sauce was similar, but I slowly cooked a couple of sliced mushrooms with the shallots. I wanted the flavour of the mushrooms throughout the sauce which seemed to work well. In both cases the chicken was finely sliced so it cooked quickly.

The chorizo and prawn dish was very simple, and the most tasty of the lot. I cooked two finely sliced cloves of garlic very gently in quite a bit of olive oil, so that the garlic softened but didn't brown and the oil was infused with the garlic flavour. I then added chucks of chorizo to the pan so that the lovely oils would mix together. Then came a good helping of passata and then the cooked king prawns just to warm through.

The dish I really wanted to get close to what we eat at The Orange Tree was the Beef in Peppercorn sauce. The sauce at the restaurant is lovely and rich, with a dark colour and is almost chocolately in flavour and texture. I've been searching for a recipe for something similar for a while now and came across a discussion on the BBC food messageboard about how to acheive this chocolatey-ness in peppercorn sauces. Several people thought it was to do with the use of brandy or madeira to de-glaze the pan, and the length of time cooking. One contributor posted a link to this recipe as a recommended version of steak in peppercorn sauce which could lead to the chocolately texture and flavour. So it was on this that I based my attempt to re-create our favourite dish.

Here is my adapted recipe:

1 steak (sirloin or rump, or any quick frying steak) cut into strips
1 shallot, finely chopped
a splash of brandy
crushed black peppercorns
double cream
beef stock

1. First fry the shallot gently in a little olive oil (or butter).
2. Cover the steak strips in loads of crushed black peper then add to the pan and cook very quickly.
3. Remove the meat from the pan and set aside.
4. De-glaze with a splash of brandy making sure all the bits left from the meat are scraped up. Heating so the brandy reduces. I didn't heat it til it ignites as the original recipe suggests, as I am a wuss!
5. Add about 50ml of beef stock to the pan, and enough cream to give the consistency you want and heat through.
6. Return the meat to the pan, stir through and then serve.

Sorry that the amounts are vague, but I generally cook by eye and taste, if anyone would like more precise measurements, please let me know, as I will be trying this again!

This dish didn't turn out chocolatey, but was very tasty. I think next time I will cook down the sauce longer to reduce it, intensify the flavours and to darken the colour. I also think I added too much pepper to make it comparable to the sauce we have had at the restaurant. It was more like a standard peppercorn sauce that you have with steak rather than something that bit more special. Does anyone have any idea if cooking the sauce for longer will work?

Morale of the story: maybe it is best to eat your favourite foods at the place where they became your favourite! We will return to the Orange Tree, but maybe not this month!

Orange Tree Tapas and Grill, Denton

On Sunday evening, since earlier plans had been cancelled, we decided to try the Orange Tree Tapas restaurant in Denton. We'd often looked at the menu but decided to stick with original plans of a takeaway or the Italian, but this time we stuck to it, and went in.

Being a Sunday night, the restaurant was empty, but we were warmly greeted by what appeared to be the owner.

The restaurant looked lovely, and we guess could have a great atmosphere when busy. The owner seemed determined to make us laugh and proved to be a character, chatting to us and making jokes throughout the night - perhaps a little too much at times.

We asked him how many dishes we should order after being told that the portions were quite big, and he recommended 3 each, and he also pointed out a couple of dishes to try (which we didn't actually! But will next time).

We ordered some house wine, and he gave us pretty much a full glass to try, and if we didn't like it, he'd get us something different. But it was very nice, so bonus glass of wine!

Eventually we ordered a mixture of dishes, and some chips as the side. The owner was quite keen that we wouldn't order too much and kept saying that if we wanted more throughout the meal we could order as and when. He also said that one portion of chips would be more than enough for us both with what we'd ordered. Something which we were impressed with.

 

We ordered the (1) Chicken, Mushrooms, Cream and Garlic, (2) Lightly Spiced Lamb Stew, (3) Sticky and Spicy Rice, (4) Chicken, Paprika and Cream, (5) Fillet Steak in Garlic and Chilli, and the (6) Chorizo sauteed with Parsley and Lemon.  All were very tasty indeed, and we wondered why we'd never been in before. The owner pointed out the blackboards which displayed the specials as well as the mid-week offers. The offers seemed to be so good value it was untrue, so next time, we're going to try a week night and see what we get. The bill game to around £38 with a bottle of wine, so very good value.

Paella

Paella

Thursday night had Tim on a night shift, and my usual tea for myself is some sort of tomato pasta sauce, but everything recently seems to have been tomatoey, so I thought of something different. Paella. I used to cook this ages ago, and even got the Brother into the joys of Chorizo and into cooking this.

Now, this isn't strictly actual Paella. I don't use Paella rice (can't be bothered), or a Paella Pan as Mr Stein says you need. And I probably don't really follow the normal way of cooking it - Mr Stein says to just leave it and don't stir. This may work with said pan and rice, but really, not stirring is surely a recipe for disaster for whatever I cook. Maybe this is therefore a kind of savoury rice, but the flavours are Paella-ish.

I started by chopping an onion, half a yellow pepper and half a red pepper and fried them gently with a couple of finely chopped cloves of garlic.
I then diced one chicken breast into small chunks and stuck that in the pan too.
I'll say at this point that I was using the biggest frying pan we have, as whenever I cook a rice dish, I seem to overestimate the amount of rice needed and the amount of food seems to multiply over the cooking period!

Next I add some sliced chorizo to the pan, I used about half of the sausage that I'd bought form the "Farmer's Market". Cooked this a little until the oils came out and things were turning the lovely chorizo colour. I then put in some rice. I used the normal basmati rice that we keep in the cupboard. I put in a smallish amount, then thought it didn't look enough, then topped it up. This is always what I do/my mistake! Stirred it a little to coat in the oil, then added half a pint of chicken stock into which I'd added about half a teaspoon of saffron strands.

This is where the tasting and adjusting happens. The liquid had disappeared, and the rice was not cooked so I added more water. Then later, after stirring, yes, stirring the Paella, I tasted it, and due to the ratio of rice to stock and other flavourings, it tasted of nothing. So I added another stock cube with some more water. After this had been soaked up and the rice was almost cooked, I tasted again. It kind of tasted like chicken stock. Whoops. So I added some paprika, which gave it a bit of heat and a some more interest. I then chucked in quite a few frozen peas - enough to make the colours look balanced as the amount of rice was dominating the amount of meat and veg. This is what I mean by the amount of food multiplying over the cooking process.


I then, at the last minute, tipped in the pack of cooked "cocktail" prawns. Since these were cooked, they just needed a quick stir though.

As you can tell, when it comes to this sort of thing, I don't really follow a recipe. Perhaps I should? I judge things on how it tastes and if it is balanced and cook it "til it is done", which can annoy some people!Following a recipe for this would mean venturing into the world of Paella rice, (even though I do use risotto rice occasionally) Paella pans, probably shellfish and maybe some crazy ingredients only to be found in Spain depending on who's book you are reading. And again, can't be bothered.

This met my cravings for something tasty and not tomatoey for tea and left plenty for 3 more lunches afterwards. (So maybe the amount of rice worked out well in the end). It was a little salty, but this wasn't really apparent while eating, only afterwards when I had an almighty thirst. Probably didn't help as I had gone back for seconds. Maybe next time we go shopping, we'll get the reduced salt chicken stock cubes, as we have with the veg stock as this could improve the saltiness. The flavours of the chorizo, prawns and veg all came though and I was actually pleased with how it tasted. Tim liked it for his lunch today too, so an overall success. Whether it is authentic or not doesn't really bother me. I do prefer this version of "Paella" compared to the type that you get in a well-known Tapas chain, so I think I will be reviving this recipe back into my portfolio. It will probably taste different next time since no recipe or strict quantities were followed, but hey-ho, that's how I cook.

Chicken with Chorizo, Courgettes and Butter Beans

Tea tonight was a dish adapted from a Rick Stein recipe from his Mediterranean Escapes.  I say adapted as it should be made with Sobrasada rather than Chorizo but cannot find anywhere that stocks it.  (Anyone know??)  Not even Rick Stein's Deli in Padstow stocked it!!  Also I have changed some of the proportions from the book to satisfy Fran's sauce requirements!!

Chicken with Chorizo, Courgettes and Butter Beans

For my version you will need:

2 Chicken Breasts
Small tin of Butter Beans - drained
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Teaspoon of Crushed Chilli Flakes
90g Chorizo (Gluten-Free)
2 Medium Courgettes
Handful of Chopped Parsley Leaves
Salt and Ground Black Pepper
300 ml Tomato Sauce (see below)

To make 600ml of tomato sauce (half can be frozen or fridged after for another day)

2 Tins Plum Tomatoes
20g Garlic Finely Sliced (about 6 cloves)
6 Tablespoons of the best olive oil you can find
Salt and Pepper

I made the tomato sauce this morning and left to cool for the day, here was how:

Finely chop the garlic
Heat the olive oil and add the garlic till it sizzles

Add the tomatoes

Season well with 1 teaspoon of salt and a good pinch of black pepper
Simmer for about 20 mins while breaking up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon.  The sauce should reduce a little and thinken.

Then a bit nearer teatime I started the chicken:

Season the chicken and fry in olive oil for 5 mins on each side
Move chicken to one side and fry the chorizo and chilli flakes till the oil is released

Stir chicken around all the lovely juices

Add the courgettes and a little more oil, cover the pan, lower the heat and cook for 15 mins

Add the tomato sauce and butter beans and cook for a further 5-10 mins

Sprinkle with parsley and serve

There turned out to be a bit too much sauce after all (the portions would work with 4 breasts) but not to worry as it will probably make a pasta sauce for another day!  So out popped the freezer tub - always the economist!!





All in all a success I feel.  It was spicy and moreish but we can't help wonder what it should have tasted like had we used sobrasada as per the recipe.  According to Mr Stein the sausage would melt a little and so produce a different textured sauce.  We will keep an eye out and report back if we find a stockist.