Turkey chilli

Our easy Turkey Chilli recipe.

When we dropped red meat from our diet, one of the dishes we thought we would miss the most was Chilli con Carne, but through experimentation, we have created a great Turkey chilli and prefer this over a normal chilli, plus it's really easy to make. This is a great low-fat, heart-healthy meal.

Adding beans to the chilli extends the dish, we love black beans, kidney beans and also cannellini beans. It's a way of changing the dish. It also means you have leftovers for another day. Great on the top of a jacket potato or with some tortilla chips, guacamole, salsa and sour cream.

Sometimes I will add a chopped green or red pepper when I'm frying the onions. You could also add 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper and 1 chopped fresh chilli instead.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 white or red onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon paprika
1 level teaspoon cayenne pepper (this is medium spice)

1 teaspoon of mild smoked paprika

Turkey thigh mince
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 Knorr beef stock pot 

1 tsp Tamari soy sauce
optional tin of black beans/kidney beans

optional 1 green/red pepper chopped

salt and pepper

Method

Over medium heat, sweat the onion in the olive oil until soft, add a small amount of water to the pan before adding the spices, this stops them burning. Gently fry off the onion and spices until the water has evaporated, keep stirring. If you are going to add the green pepper, add it now and fry 1 minute.

Add the turkey mince and fry off until browned.
Add the tin of tomatoes and a beef stockpot, you can also add a tin of black or kidney beans (don't drain them). If you didn't add the beans, then add half a can of water (wash out the rest of the tinned tomatoes). Stir in the Tamari (this gives a deeper flavour).

Cook gently for about 25 minutes, check the seasoning.

If you are using this in taco shells or with tortillas, cook down a little more, so that it is firm.

Serve with rice.

We also like some salsa and guacamole with ours. A pot of chopped fresh chillies, so that you can sprinkle over as much heat as you want. 

If you aren't worried about the fat content, some grated cheddar and sour cream is a perfect topping.

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Oven Baked - Southern Fried Chicken (gluten free)

Oven Baked - Southern Fried Chicken

Trying to get southern fried chicken that isn't deep-fried and is gluten-free is impossible unless you make it yourself. I've created the following recipe and it is so easy to make and much better than a well known fast food. You cannot tell that this is gluten-free, we serve to all of the family, saving you time.

You can use normal flour if you aren't on a gluten-free diet or butter if not on a lactose-free diet. 

I have now discovered that a spray oil works really well and the taste is great.

I've been tweaking the recipe over the last year and this is my revised recipe.

Ingredients

3 legs of chicken - cut into thighs and drumsticks (we now buy a pack of free range thighs and drumsticks from Tescos), so that's why I now use 2 eggs.

spray oil

2 eggs

Coating

4 oz plain or self-raising gluten-free flour

2 oz white cornmeal (if you don't have this, increase flour above to 6 oz).

Spices as follows - (see picture for spices I use)

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp dried sage

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp ground mace

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp garlic pepper
1/2 tsp onion salt
1/2 tsp garlic salt or granules

Method

Preheat oven to Gas 6. 

I use an 11-inch roasting tray, it needs sides to capture the juices and oils as they are released. I use a parchment liner (these are available from Lakeland precut and save so much time).
Grease the tray with the spray oil, this is the simplest way to grease and allows you to spray the chicken easily once coated.

Mix all the coating ingredients in a zip lock large bag, zip closed and then shake to mix.

Dip and coat a piece of chicken in the beaten egg, then drop the chicken in the zip bag and coat with the seasoned flour, keep moving until all of the chicken is coated. 

Place the chicken evenly onto the roasting tray, place the thighs with the skin side down, this makes a great crispy skin and coat the remaining pieces of chicken in the same way.

Lightly spray the chicken with the oil.

Put in the oven on the middle shelf and bake for 20 minutes, turning over half-way through, give another light spray with the oil and continue baking.

At the point when I turn the chicken, I normally pop in a tray of oven chips on the top shelf, or some sweet potato wedges.

Bake for another 20 minutes, total cooking time is about 40 minutes. 

Check the chicken is cooked by piercing the chicken thigh with a sharp knife, check that the chicken isn't pink. If pink, return to the oven for another 5 minutes. Always check the chicken before serving.

The wing joints are also great especially if you joint your own chicken.

To make chicken nuggets, use breast meat cut into chunks, they will cook quicker.

We've also coated some button mushrooms in the same way and baked using this method, really yummy.

Serve with chips and some homemade coleslaw or my salsa.

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Chicken Stew with dumplings

It was a little cold this morning, waking to 2 degrees C, with a slight touch of frost. After a busy staff development day today, we all needed something comforting to eat. The temperature was already dropping when we left college, I wanted to cook something really simple for dinner that was full of nutrients, but would give us a foodie hug.
I still had carrots and leeks left from the organic box, so wanted to use those up, there were 6 chicken thigh fillets in the fridge, so decided to make a very easy chicken stew.

Chicken Stew

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 1/2 leeks, sliced
4 carrots, sliced
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 sweet potato, cut into chunks
2 1/2 pints water
1 chicken stock pot
6 chicken thighs
1 handful of paella rice
couple sprigs of fresh thyme
freshly ground black pepper
salt
1 cup frozen peas
cornflour and water

Method

Add the oil, onion, leeks and carrots to the pan, gently sweat the vegetables until the onion and leeks begin to soften, add the garlic and sweet potato and continue to sweat for another minute.
Add the water and stock pot to the pan, pop in the chicken and rice, throw in the thyme with some pepper and a touch of salt (add more later after cooking if needed).
Cover and cook gently for 1 hour.
Add the frozen peas bring the stew back up to the boil and add the dumplings, cover and gently simmer for 10 minutes.
Season to taste.

Depending on how you like your stew, if you like it thin, then serve as it is.

If you prefer a thicker stew, serve the dumplings, then thicken the remaining stew. Mix a couple of teaspoonfuls of cornflour with a little water, add gradually to stew and cook until thick. Add as much cornflour as necessary to get the thickness you prefer. Serve.

I wanted to find a gluten free recipe for dumplings, didn't have any suet, so went for a hunt online and discovered the following recipe. I added some mixed herbs to the flour and they were scrummy. I wet my hands before taking spoonfuls and use the damp hands to make the dumplings into soft balls.

Dumplings

150g Rice flour or any gf flour
2 tea spoons of baking powder
2 large eggs
a little water
optional a few dried herbs.

Mix to a dough and put spoonfulls into boiling stew and simmer for around 10 mins.

These are suitable for vegetarians and are lactose free and easy peasy

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Paella

If you want a special dinner, then this makes a great dish. There are quite a few ingredients, but I've discovered some quick cheats when shopping to make this easier.

Ingredients

Sofritto:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 medium tomatoes, chopped

1/2 chorizo chopped (can buy ready chopped pack)
1 large pinch of saffron
1 teaspoon paprika
1 pack of chicken pieces
1/2 packet of paella rice
1 chicken stock pot made up to 1 pint with boiling water
1 pack of frozen mixed shellfish (M&S contains, prawns, squid and scallops defrosted)
Frozen peas
1 tablespoon flat leaved parsley, finely chopped
1 lemon cut into wedges.

Method

In a non-stick frying pan, gently fry the sofritto together until the olive oil starts to separate from the mix, this can take 10 minutes.
Move the sofritto to the side of the pan and add the chorizo to the other side of the pan, let this fry off and release it's wonderful oils, add the paprika and chicken pieces, cook for 5 minutes stirring the chorizo side of the pan separately from the sofritto, cook until you have browned all the chicken. Mix everything in the pan together. Now sprinkle over the rice and stir in well to the mixture. Pour over the stock and add enough water to cover the chicken with liquid. Stir well and reduce to a simmer.
Stir gently occasionally, cook for 20 minutes. If the pan is drying out, you may need to add more boiling water.
Check the rice, you want it to be just soft and the chicken is cooked. Add the seafood and the frozen peas, stir well and continue to cook for another 5 minutes (add liquid if necessary), the prawns should be pink when fully cooked.
Sprinkle over the parsley and serve with lemon wedges.

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Research is needed

Research

It really is worth investigating the types of recipes your readers are interested in.  I'm interested in finding out a little bit more about the kinds of recipes and food you are most interested in.
Would you mind answering the poll on the right, I can then look at creating those recipes as a priority.
It may be that you've recently tried to remove gluten/wheat from your diet, are suspicious that you have an allergy to dairy, or simply that you are looking for easy recipes that are quick to cook, don't need masses of ingredients and that your family will love to eat.
I simply cook from the heart and use the ingredients I have to hand, very much a "Ready Steady Cook" kind of method.

Why gluten/dairy free?

I've embraced gluten free cookery for all of us as our daughter is intolerant to gluten, also we use lactose free products as that also causes reactions. In the beginning this seemed daunting, but on investigation, it is really simple to cook one meal that all of us enjoy. It's so much easier now that the freefrom ranges in supermarkets are growing rapidly, hopefully with more companies thinking about making their products freefrom, the costs will start to drop.
I still find it confusing when looking at ingredients on packets, that wheat flour is used in so many different products that you don't expect. If you look at a packet of frozen chips, you wouldn't expect them to be coated in wheat flour, if the manufacturers swapped to potato flour, then everyone would be happy.

Cooking for others

I am still surprised that so many people have no idea about what ingredients are used to make a product. Conversations about taking wheat out of the diet and I'm asked is pizza ok, or pasta, can't you eat couscous. This is especially worrying when talking to people that work in restaurants or cafes. Perhaps it was the lack of cookery lessons in schools teaching children to cook the basics from scratch. They may have studied food technology, but that was more about packaging the product and the labelling rather than the creation of good healthy food.

Cookery lessons

I was lucky to be taught cookery at school and studied an O level in Food and Nutrition and still have my folder with the theory of nutrition and basic recipes. We were all taught how to use mince in many different ways (lasagne, shepherd's pie, meat loaf) and also to extend it using soya to save money. All the different types of pastry, from shortcrust (french apple tart), rough puff (sausage plait) and choux pastry (eclairs). Made cheesecakes, fatless sponges (peach flans with juice thickened with arrowroot), rubbed in cakes (banana and nut bread), whisked and creamed cakes (butterfly cakes were a favourite). Fresh fruit salads with homemade shortbread was also a favourite that always found it's way onto our practical exams. Also salads, preparing and cooking vegetables, white sauces (roux and all-in-one methods). There were many dishes made, taken home for parents to enjoy, both savoury and sweet, plus we were taught to washup properly. We all remember being called back after our lunches as the teacher wasn't happy with the state of the saucepans and we were introduced to wire scourers to get them shining bright again.
I made marmalade, pickles, lemon curd, plus yoghurt. We learnt about yeast and made fresh bread and rolls, then rich yeast dough was made into chelsea buns.
We learnt how to read cookery books, plan meals, organise cooking planners so that everything was ready in time, also we had to cost out the meal we cooked.
I've been lucky to pass this all onto our daughter who is now an accomplised cook, many of the recipes I created for her to use at school are on this blog, they are also on my "Cooking with Kids" blog.

Our mission

We owe our children and grandchildren, good healthy food that they can prepare themselves without buying packets, I cannot believe that packets of sauce mixes are used when simply putting the butter, flour and milk in a pan and using a balloon whisk over a gentle heat gives the same result at a fraction of the price. My all-in-one sauce method, is really simple and you can add parsley or cheese if you want a flavoured sauce.
Yes, new cooks can get a bit messy, but it's fun and so rewarding. My husband says "even your mistakes are edible" which is a great complement.
If you don't try, you never know what's possible, be brave, find a new recipe and try it.

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Tuna fishcakes

There was some riced (mashed) potato left after dinner the night before. Wondered what to make with it, bright idea, Tuna Fishcakes.
A light lunch served with salad.

Tuna Fishcakes (serves 3)

Ingredients

1 medium potato (mashed)
1 tin tuna drained and flaked
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1 free range egg, beaten
1 tablespoons capers
2 oz self-raising gluten free flour
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

Method

Mix the all the ingredients together in a bowl, lightly season. Divide into 6 and shape into patties about 1/2 inch thick.
Heat a heavy bottomed frying pan, add the oil and make sure you swirl around the pan covering all the base.
Turn heat to medium and add the fishcakes. Fry until golden brown, about 3-4 minutes then flip onto other side, again fry until golden brown. Flip a couple more times until cooked.
Serve with a mixed salad.

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Leek and Potato Soup - Simple can be all that's needed

Gently does it

When you aren't feeling quite as good as you should, slightly off colour then soup maybe all you fancy. A very simple Leek and Potato soup would be a failsafe, plus I could put into a pour and store bag and pop in the fridge for later.

Leek and Potato Soup

Ingredients

1lb Potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch slices
1 Leek, washed and sliced
1 Vegetable stock cube
Water to cover
Seasoning

Method

Put all the ingredients in the pan and cover with enough water so that there is 1/2 inch above all the ingredients.
Bring to a boil and simmer until the potatoes are soft.
Remove from heat and then blend using a hand blender.
Season to taste. If serving at a dinner party, you can add a swirl of cream and a few chopped chives, but for convalescing leave out the cream.

If chilled, this is a great vichyssoise.

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Chicken Fajitas - when short cuts are good

A very successful dinner last night.

As our daughter has an intolerance to wheat, gluten and dairy, we had bought a Fajita Kit a couple of weeks ago. Tonight I used this to save some time and create a healthy dinner for all of us.
The kit came with the tortillas, salsa and the fajita spice mix.
I used one chicken breast, plus a red and a green pepper and one onion to make the fajitas.
I added some salad leaves and slices of avocado when building the fajitas with the salsa.
A big hit, the aromas in the kitchen were wonderful. A great store cupboard hit, full of nutrients and very low fat.

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