The weekend I turned 30.....{Fish Pie Stew}

Well I made it to 30. Amazing! I had a fantastic weekend with lots of fun and laughter and I can honestly say I feel very blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.

So now that the celebrating is over its time for me to put my head down and overhaul my lifestyle a bit. I have been trying to loose weight for so long and I always put it off or had an excuse. Time to get focused and get exercising!

This is a new-ish recipe that has become a really nice staple evening meal. I started off by making the original but I've changed it around a bit to make it a really nice alternative to fish pie, It's also much less time consuming so there's that as well...

Fish Pie Stew 

Inspired from the recipe here 

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 onion, chopped

3 sticks of celery, chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

175ml white wine

300ml chicken stock or vegetable stock if you prefer

1 tbsp cornflour, mixed to a paste with 1 tbsp cold water

200g raw prawns 

300g fish pie selection (the one I used had smoked haddock, cod and salmon)

small bunch flat leave parsley, chopped

300ml half-fat crème fraîche

150g new potatoes, already boiled and slightly squashed with a fork

heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the onion and celery until soft. add the garlic and cook for another minute them pour in the wine and simmer until most has disappeared. p

our in the stock and cornflour mix and simmer for 5-10 mins, stirring often until thickened. season, then add the fish, new potatoes and most of the parsley. simmer for a few mins until piping hot, then stir in the crème fraîche. serve with a sprinkling of parsley. you could have this with some bread, but I find that the addition of potatoes makes this plenty filling. 

The Man Made Food.........{Greek Style Lemon Chicken & Rice}

You know how it is, you're late leaving work, the man calls and asks what time you will be home. When you tell them that you've only just left you can hear his brain whirring as he realises that it will be a long while before dinner is made, so he actually offers to cook. To be fair to H, if I wasn't such a little chef I'm sure he would do more cooking but when I love it so much he kind of just lets me get on with it.... what can I say, he irons my creased shirts - it works for us. It was a lovely meal, all cooked in one pot (bonus) and pretty healthy as we are trying  to eat more healthily and I am trying to loose quite a bit of weight. We ate this out in the garden which was just lovely. He is lovely. How lucky I am.

 This recipe is adapted from RecipeTin Eats which is fast becoming a favourite blog of mine!

Greek Style Lemon Chicken and Rice

for the marinade:
5 - 7 chicken thighs / legs
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp dried oregano
1tsp salt

for the rice:
1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup long grain rice
500ml chicken stock
200ml water
1 tbsp. dried oregano
lemon quarters
S&P

take the chicken and marinade ingredients and combine them in a bowl. cover and refrigerate - H left it for a couple of hours but the original recipe suggests overnight. heat 1/2 tablespoon olive oil in a heavy based pan and place the chicken in skin down. brown both sides of the meat and then remove from pan and set aside. add a tbsp. of olive oil to the pan and cook the onions until translucent then add the garlic. after a minute add in the rice, reserved marinade from the chicken, the oregano and the stock and water. bring the pan to a simmer , season and then place the chicken on top of the rice. put lid on the pan and then cook covered for 40 minutes (180oC)  then take the lid of and cook for a further 15 minutes. serve - we served with some broccoli which was lovely.



Linking up with Honest Mum for #tastytuesdays

When One Raids the Contents of Ones Fridge......... {Spanish Wild Rice}

The other day was one of those days when I hadn't planned what we were going to eat, I had no idea what I wanted us to eat and I hadn't gone to the shop to buy anything to eat so I just opened the fridge and cupboard and cobbled something together. I like cooking like that as I'm a firm believer that if you trust your experience of flavours, textures and ingredients there's always something that can be made from not much at all and as a budding cook its the best way to learn. This was a sort of combination of a basque and a paella and it tasted wonderful; the oil for the chorizo and the peppers delicately flavouring the nutty rice. I had to blog it as H loved it so much and I need to remember the recipe....

Spanish Wild Rice  

150g Chorizo, sliced in to circles size of pound coin 
one chicken breast cut into chunks 
one large onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped 
1/2 orange pepper, sliced
approx 200g cooked wild rice 
200ml chicken stock
100ml white wine 
1 TBSP tomato puree 
couple handfuls frozen peas
S&P

cook the chorizo in the pan, remove with slotted spoon. add chicken and cook in the chorizo oil, one cooked through and golden brown remove, add onion garlic and pepper to pan and cook until soften. add in the chorizo and chicken with tomato puree, stock and wine cook off for a couple of minutes before adding rice and frozen peas, season and transfer to oven proof dish and place in oven 200oC for approx 30-40minutes until the liquid is absorbed and the dish is piping hot. 

All in one ....... {Roasted Spanish Chicken}

Autumn is the time of year when you want lovely filling, comforting food - sticky ribs, stews, roasts but with both H an I working long hours at our jobs we don't really have a lot of time to prepare that sort of thing. Autumn really does become the season of food that can be cooked in one pot or on one tray and if I'm honest that's the kind of cooking I like best.

My old housemate Paul taught me how to make this dish and I think he got it from the lovely Nigella, I've just tweaked it a bit. We always tend to have chorizo in the fridge and chicken in the freezer so its a go to dish of mine. It's very easy to prepare and it tastes sensational - the chicken and chorizo juices blending together with the orange zest and garlic. Perfect with a large glass of red and the sound of rain.

Spanish Chicken 

5 chicken thighs

150g chorizo, cut into rounds the thickness of a pound coin

8 shallots, peeled and cut in half

250g new potatoes, I used apache as I love the colour and they are perfect for roasting

4 cloves garlic, unpeeled 

zest of one orange 

bay leaf

olive oil

S&P

take the chorizo, shallots, potatoes and garlic and tumble into a roasting dish. add a TBSP of olive oil and mix together until coated. Place the chicken on top and drizzle with oil and season with S&P. Sprinkle half the zest over the chicken and other ingredients. Cook on high for 20 minutes. Take the dish out and add rest of the zest and then put the dish back in the oven at a lower heat and cook for a remaining 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.  

Linking up with Honest Mum 

And with Delcious Dish Tuesday with Eat Drink and Be Mary and Full Time Mama