Ingredients

Olive oil

12 whole chicken thighs and drumsticks (we used chicken breasts)

2 red peppers, sliced

200g piece cooking chorizo, cut into small chunks

1 large onion, roughly chopped

4 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tbsp hot smoked paprika

1 tsp chilli flakes

1.3 litres chicken stock

375g paella rice

flat-leaf parsley chopped to make 2 tbsp (we used chives instead)

1 lemon, halved

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Heat 4 tbsp oil in a very large wide shallow pan, season the chicken and brown it all over in batches. Remove the chicken then add the peppers and chorizo to the same pan and cook over a medium heat until the peppers begin to soften.

2. Add the onion and garlic and cook gently until the onion is soft. Stir in the paprika and chilli and cook for 1 minute, stirring, then add the chicken stock. Put the chicken pieces back, bring the stock to a simmer and cook, covered, over a gentle heat for 15 minutes.

3. Pour the rice all round the chicken and season – if you don’t have a big enough pan, you can transfer everything to a roasting tin. Then put it in the oven and cook for 20-25 minutes or until the stock has been absorbed and the top is golden. Cover the dish with foil and leave to sit for 5 minutes.

4. Scatter with the parsley (or chives) and squeeze lemon juice over the top before serving.

Enjoy!

The post Baked Spanish rice with chicken and chorizo appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

Ingredients (serves 4)

 
3 tbsp olive oil
1 small-ish butternut squash, chopped into small pieces
2 leeks, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Small handful fresh sage leaves, roughly chopped
350g risotto rice
200ml white wine
800ml vegetable stock, hot
25g butter
50g vegetarian Parmesan, grated
100g goat’s cheese, crumbled

Method

 
1. Place the butternut squash in a roasting tin with 2 tbsp of the oil. Roast in the oven until browned at the edges – you can do this in advance of needing it if you wish.

2. Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan over a medium heat. Add the leek and fry until slightly soft. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more, before adding the rice and stirring for another 1-2 minutes.

3. Turn up the heat, add the wine and bubble for a few minutes to cook off the alcohol. Add the stock, a ladleful at a time, waiting until each one is absorbed before adding the next.

4. Take the risotto off the heat and stir in the butter, the Parmesan and the goat’s cheese.

Enjoy! If you’d prefer the version with bacon in it, click here!

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The original recipe for the steak and ale filling is from the BBC food website (I have adapted here from this pie recipe) and the cobbler originally comes from this recipe.

Ingredients

For the filling

1 kg/2lb 4oz braising steak, cut into matchbox-sized pieces

3 tbsp plain flour

salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 tbsp olive oil

300ml/ 1/2 pint brown ale (I used Guinness)

2 garlic cloves

2 onions

250g/ 9oz carrots

1 fresh or dried bay leaf

handful fresh thyme sprigs

300ml/ 1/2 pint good quality beef stock (I used a Knorr beef stock pot)

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

250g button mushrooms

For the cobbler

200g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp mixed herbs
2 tsp oil
150ml plain, unsweetened yoghurt

Method

1. Mix the beef with the flour and some salt and pepper. An easy way to do this without making too much mess is to put everything into a large food bag, seal, then shake well.

2. Heat a tablespoon of the oil in a large heatproof casserole up to a medium heat, then add half of the beef, shaking off the excess flour and keeping the chunks well-spaced so they fry rather than sweat. The original recipe says to brown for about 10 minutes, but it didn’t take that long so just cook until golden-brown all over.

3. Transfer the first batch of meat to a bowl, then add a splash of brown ale or water to the pan and scrape up any meaty bits. Tip the liquid into the bowl of meat. Wipe out the pan with some kitchen paper, then add a tablespoon of oil and brown the second batch of beef. When the beef is golden-brown transfer it to the bowl and set aside. Repeat until all the beef is cooked.

4. Chop the garlic, onion, and carrots into chunky pieces. Add the final spoon of oil to the pan and heat gently. Add the vegetables and herbs to the pan and fry to soften for a few minutes.

5. Put the beef back into the pan. Pour in the stock and brown ale, then add the tomato purée and balsamic vinegar. If necessary, add a little more stock or hot water to ensure the meat is covered in liquid (this will prevent the beef from drying out). Bring to the boil then cover and simmer the stew for 1-1½ hours until the beef is almost tender and the sauce has thickened. Chop the mushrooms in half and then add about half an hour in, stirring well.

6. The original recipe then says to set aside to cool, overnight if possible. But we wanted to have this for dinner (and I hadn’t started it early enough) so I just put some of it into an oven proof dish whilst making the cobbler. Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas mark 6.

7. Make the cobbler dough by sifting plain flour and baking powder into a bowl. Mix in the herbs. Make a well in the centre and pour in the oil and yoghurt, bringing it all together to make a soft, but not sticky dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and cut into rounds, and then place them on top of the meat.

8. Cook in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the cobbler is golden brown. Enjoy!

The post Steak and ale cobbler appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

Tom is making his recipe debut on my blog today – he quite often makes things up when cooking, and this is what he made up for dinner tonight! A yummy cassoulet which was carb-free (great if you’re trying to eat healthily). He left the sausages whole so that there would be leftover veggie stuff – this will go great with a jacket potato or some pasta so we’ll box it up for the freezer.

Ingredients

6 sausages (Tom used some chipotle chilli ones, but you can use whatever you like)
3 peppers
1 chilli
Black pepper
Thyme (dried or fresh)
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 small brown onion
1 big garlic clove
1 courgette
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of cannellini beans
1 tbsp tomato puree
Grated nutmeg
Grated parmesan cheese
Dash of soy sauce
Handful of finely chopped mushrooms
A handful of spinach
Juice of half a lemon

Method

1. Put the sausages, peppers, chilli and oil into a baking dish. Add some fresh or dry thyme and season with black pepper. Put in oven to roast for about 45 mins (or until sausages are cooked and peppers have blackened slightly).

2. Then in a large pan, sautee the onion, garlic and courgette. Add a tin of tomatoes and a tin of cannellini beans and stir well. Add the tomato puree and Henderson’s relish, before grating in some nutmeg and parmesan cheese (as much of each as you prefer).

3. After this has simmered for a little while, add the rest of the ingredients and leave to simmer again. When the sausages and peppers are cooked, add them to the pan.

4. Serve with some green veg (we had mange tout) for a perfect carb-free meal!

The post Tom’s Cassoulet appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

As many of you know, I’m always on the look-out for new recipes to try – especially if they are healthy and low-cost! We went to Edinburgh for my birthday earlier in the month and I spotted this recipe in the Observer Food Monthly magazine (click the link for the online version). Tom made it for dinner one night last week and it was so easy and really delicious! When he got home he realised that he had forgotten to buy yoghurt for the cobbler, so we improvised by using a splash of semi-skimmed milk and some grated cheddar cheese and they tasted really good. As I’m not a huge fan of mustard, we grated a little nutmeg into the cobbler mix.

The author of this recipe, Miss South, used leftover cooked chicken for this recipe – we just used 3 chicken breasts as we didn’t have any pre-cooked chicken. This recipe is so easy that it can be made on a weeknight, which is always a bonus! We had some leftover too so that was boxed up and packed away in the freezer for another day.

Ingredients

1 leek, chopped
1/2 brown onion, chopped
1 punnet mushrooms, sliced
25g butter (plus 10g for sweating the vegetables)
25g plain flour
285ml milk
285ml stock
2 tsp oil
Cooked chicken (or 3-4 chicken breasts, cut into medium sized pieces)
Worcestershire sauce (or our alternative, Henderson’s Relish)
Salt and pepper
Tarragon (we used mixed herbs because the supermarket was all out of tarragon!)

For the cobbler

200g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp mustard powder
2 tsp oil
150ml plain, unsweetened yoghurt

Method

1. Sweat the chopped vegetables in about 10g of the butter until softened (this takes around 10 minutes).

2. Heat the oven to 200C/Gas mark 6. While the vegetables are sweating, make your white sauce. Melt the butter in a pan, add in the flour and combine, cooking for 1-2 minutes until the roux looks glossy. Remove from the heat, whisking in the liquid gently to make sure there are no lumps. Return to the heat and bring just to the boil to help it thicken. Cook out on a low heat for about 8-10 minutes.

3. Heat a little oil in a pan and cook the chicken (if using pre-cooked chicken, flake and toss in the pan with the vegetables). Once browned, add the chicken and juices to the vegetables, adding Worcestershire sauce and seasoning. Add the white sauce and herbs, stir well and leave to simmer.

4. Make the cobbler dough by sifting plain flour, baking powder and mustard powder into a bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the oil and yoghurt, bringing it all together to make a soft, but not sticky dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and cut into rounds.

5. Put the chicken and vegetables into an oven-proof dish and place the cobbler rounds on top. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with some steamed green vegetables and enjoy!

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