Mushroom pappardelle with kale crisps

 We had a lovely box of wild muchrooms with our veg box so I made a nice pasta dish that turned out well.  We also had a large bag of Kale, now I quite like Kale but there was too much of it for the week, we'd have to eat it every day, so I thought about cooking it in a really hot oven with some fry light and a little salt until it was nice and crispy, what a treat!

Ingredients

A good selection of wild mushrooms, any will do

20g dried porcini mushroom just covered in boiling water and soaked for about 10 minutes

1 onion finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, crushed

20ml single cream substitute - we use soya cream

1 tablespoon zero fat plain quark

a good handful of kale, stalks cut out and torn into roughly 4cm pieces

fry light - I used the olive oil flavoured one

100g Tagliatelle

Method

Preheat the oven to it's top temperature (250C for mine).

Make mushroom sauce in a sauté pan.  Wipe the mushrooms clean - don't wash them as this adds too much water, a damp cloth will get rid of any stray bits of dirt on them, then trim the stalks to get rid of the dried bottoms.  Slice them roughly.

Take the onion and garlic and fry gently in fry light over a medium to low heat until soft but not coloured. 

Add the fresh mushrooms and mix with the onion and garlic. Drain the porcini mushrooms keeping the liquid for later, roughly chop them and add to the pan, stirring well.  Once the mushrooms are cooked, stir through the soya cream and quark and stir to combine.  Add enough mushroom water to get the sauce consistency you want, then keep warm.

Cook the Tagliatelle as per the instructions, drain and add to the pan, mix together to coat the pasta in the mushrooms mix and keep warm.

Add the prepared kale to a non stick baking sheet, add a little salt and spray with fry light,  Put them in the top of the oven for a couple of minutes - no more - until they crisp up and start to brown a little.

Serve the pasta and top with the kale crisps and enjoy :-)

Reduced fat and calorie chicken korma

 We've been vey good over lockdown and eaten very little takeaway food, but last week we caved and decided to order a takeaway curry.  We went on the website to order and couldn't find an option to get it delivered and so we were gutted :-(  I did a quick web search and came across this recipe for a "restaurant style chicken korma" and decided to give it a try.  I was a bit concerned though that it uses quite a bit f cream to make the curry, so it was very high in fat and calories.  As we're both trying to lose weight I thought I'd try and reduce he calorie intake while keeping to the spirit of it.  I was really pleased with th results, it really does taste like a good takeaway, so we'll be having this again :-)

PS all orders will be for collection only and you'll need to order two weeks in advance!!!!!

Follow the recipe here: Indian Takeaway Chicken Korma - BBC Good Food but for the base curry sauce use a third of the ingredients for one dish - which is plenty for two people.  

Use fry light instead of oil and if it gets too dry add a dash of water instead of oil.

I left out the sugar, it wasn't needed, and instead of cream I used about 20ml of soya single cream and two to three tablespoons of quark.

Sweet and sour prawns

 We bought some lovely raw king prawns from the fishmonger so I thought I'd make some sweet and sour prawns.  I used the Andrew Wong recipe for the sauce at Sweet and Sour Prawns Recipe - Great British Chefs but shelled the prawns, used tinned pineapple and made a reduced broth to add to the sauce.  It turned out really well so here's the recipe.

Ingredients

12 Raw king prawns, shells on
1 teaspoon corn flour
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
1 tablespoon jaggery
4 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 banana shallots, peeled and chopped finely
4 rings tinned pineapple cut into 8 pieces per ring
a small bunch coriander roughly chopped

Method

First, preheat the oven to it's hottest setting, then peel the prawns and de-vein them keeping the heads and shells.  Rinse everything thoroughly, then put the shells and heads in a medium pan, crush them down as much as possible, just cover with water and boil rapidly, lid on, for 10-15 minutes.  

Prepare the prawns by seasoning, then sprinkle over the cornflour and mix well to coat the prawns.  At this stage the cornflour will become like a thin paste, that's fine.  Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with sunflower fry light, then place the prawns on this making sure they are well separated.

Next, take the shells off the heat and strain them, add the broth back to the pan and reduce over a high heat to about 20ml, then set aside to cool.

Make the sauce mix by mixing the soy sauces, ketchup, jaggery and rice vinegar and taste to get the right level of salt, sweet and sour.  Add the cooled shell broth to this.

Put the prawns in the oven towards the top and cook for 10 minutes, turning them over half way through.

To make the sauce, spay some fry light in a wok and over the shallot, heat the wok over a high heat and add the shallot, stir fry for about a minute, then add the sauce mixture from above and stir.  Now add the prawns, pineapple pieces and chopped coriander.  Serve with vegetable fried rice.

Smoked haddock with mustard sauce, spinach and oven roasted new potatoes

 Steve at the fishmongers gave me this idea, and what a cracker it is too, thanks Steve :-)

Ingredients

7 or 8 new potatoes

Butter fry light

2 shallots, skinned and chopped finely

300g undyed, smoked haddock

300ml skimmed milk

1 or 2 teaspoons cornflour mixed with a small amount of water to make a smooth paste

3 good handfuls baby spinach, washed and stalks picked off

Fresh herbs of choice - chives or dill go well, but parsley is fine too

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

First start the potatoes.  Preheat the oven to 180C. Make sure they're clean but leave the skins on.  Cut them in half lengthways and par boil them for 4 minutes, then drain.  Line a baking sheet with baking parchment and spray a little fry light on the parchment, then add the potatoes, arrange them cut side down, add a little salt and black pepper then spray them lightly over the surface.  Bake them for around 30 mins until crisp and golden.

While doing this prepare the fish.  Rinse under cold water and pat dry with kitchen towel.  Don't use too much water as you want to keep the smoky flavour!  

Heat a non-stick sauté pan over a medium heat, then spray with butter fry light.  Add the chopped shallots and cook until they are transparent but not browned.

Add the fish skin side down and sauté until the skin is browned.  Turn the fish over and add the milk.  Stir well to deglaze the pan and when the milk starts to boil turn the heat down to low.  Cook for a further 4 or 5 minutes until the fish is starting to flake.  Remove the fish and keep it warm while you make the sauce.

Add half a teaspoon of mustard of choice, I used half and half Dijon mustard and whole grain and stir well.  Add the cornflour to the sauce a little at a time until the sauce is the thickness you like.  Season with sale and pepper to taste.

To cook the spinach you can either add it washed to the pan and wilt for a minute or so, or you can put it in a bowl, pour over boiling water then drain and dry on kitchen towel.

To serve, pile some spinach in the middle of the plate, place the fish on top and pour over a little sauce.  arrange the potatoes around the side and serve.

Courgetti estate

Some friends gave us three courgettes and a handful of broad beans over the weekend so I thought about making a dish with them on a Monday evening to keep the freshness.  We have had spiralized courgettes before instead of pasta, very quick to cook, much fewer calories and delicious to boot, so I thought of using the veg for a nice summery dish.  I was really pleased with the results so thought I'd share it before I forgot how to cook it!

Ingredients

1 dessertspoon olive oil

2 banana shallots, peeled and sliced

3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thinly

½ a stick of celery

½ a teaspoon of vegetable stock powder

A handful of runner beans

A good handful of peas (I used frozen)

A small handful of fresh basil and marjoram

A dessertspoon of half fat soured cream

3 medium to large courgettes, spiralized

Method

Spiralize the courgette and place in a bowl or colander with a little salt for 10 minutes or so.  

Heat the oil in a pan and add  the shallot and garlic, fry over a medium to low heat until soft but not coloured.  Add the celery and cook for a couple of minutes more.  Add the stock powder and stir.

Remove the strings from the runner beans and slice them into 1cm pieces, I normally slice them on a 45⁰ angle but you don't need to do that.  Wash them and add the frozen or fresh peas to the colander.  Chop the marjoram and the basil.

Rinse the courgette and try to drain as much moisture off as possible, ideally use kitchen paper and pat dry. 

Add the beans and peas and cook for 3 minutes, then add the cream and herbs and stir to combne them all.

Now add the courgettes and cook for 2 or three minutes - don't overcook, you want to keep a little bite to the courgette.  Season with salt and black pepper to taste, then serve with a little grated Parmesan.

If you want some carb to go with that, you can serve with bread, but it's fine just as it is.  Enjoy!

Mango and Sweetcorn salsa

This came about as I had a mango and some sweetcorn left over.  Great Mexican style salsa I thought, put it together and everyone loved it, so here's the recipe.

Ingredients

1 large mango

2 corn on the cob

1 red and 1 green pepper

1 green chilli

1 small onion

2 limes

1 large bunch coriander leaves

Salt

Black pepper

Method

Remove the husk and the silk from the cob then slice the kernels away from the cob, wash and boil for 2 minutes - yoou want to keep a little of the bite.

Peel and slice the mango, then chop into bite size pieces. Core and seed the peppers, the chop into bite size pieces.  Chops the chilli finely, you can remove the seeds if you don't like it too hot but I don't usually bother as the green chillies we get are pretty mild even with the seeds.  Peel and finely chop the onion. Juice the limes. Chop the coriander leaves finely.

Chuck everything into a big bowl, mix it all together and add salt and pepper to taste and serve with pretty much any Mexican dish or even just as a salad.

Nepali Mushroom Curry

This recipe is taken from a recipe I frost saw by Atul Kochhar.  I've not seen a published version of it so thought I'd post it here as we had it and it was a really good curry side dish.  I hope you enjoy.

Ingredients

A few sprays of vegetable oil

1 teaspoon fenugreek

1/2 teaspoon asafoetida

1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic

2 medium onions, finely chopped

Salt to taste

400g assorted mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced in half

1 teaspoon chilli powder

2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon coriander

1 large packet fresh chives, chopped

1 large tomato, cored and chopped roughly

1 tablespoon fat free natural yoghurt

1 fresh chilli finely chopped

1 large packet coriander leaves

Method

Heat a frying pan large enough to hold all the ingredients under a medium heat, when hot spray with a little oil and add the fenugreek, asafoetida and garlic and sweat for a couple of minutes until the garlic is cooked but not coloured.

Add the onion and salt and cook while stirring until the onion has softened, make sure the onion doesn't start browning.

Now add the mushrooms and a little water, stir and cook for 4 or 5 minutes.  The mushrooms need to be cooked but keep their texture and not go too soft.

Add the chilli powder, cumin, turmeric and coriander and stir it in until the mushrooms are well coated.

Now add the chopped tomato and chives and stir the curry together to combine all the ingredients.

Finally, add the yoghurt, chopped chilli and coriander, stir everything in and serve.