Mexican-style Chicken Soup

Vienna's been feeling a bit sorry for herself this week. Her teeth are coming through and she's had a bad case of the sniffles so I thought I'd make her some chicken soup to feel better and put a bit of a YMHT spin on it.

Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 red chilli, chopped
• 400g chicken, diced and grilled
• 1 can sweetcorn, drained
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 800 ml stock (see below)
• 1 tbsp tomato puree

For the Stock

• 800 ml water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp oregano
• a pinch of tarragon
• the chicken from the ingredients above

1. Put 800ml water into a saucepan and add the herbs. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
2. Add the chicken, cover, and simmer for another 10-15 minutes.
3. Don't forget to take the bay leaf out before you use it!

Method

1. Put the onion, garlic and chilli in a large saucepan and cook until soft.
2. Add the tomatoes, sweetcorn and tomato puree. Stir well.
3. Mix in the stock with the chicken in and leave to simmer for 15 minutes.

 It's great with a nice bit of buttery toast. Vienna had hers with a jacket potato, broccoli and some kidney beans. I gave her some of the juice in a cup so she could have her own cuppa soup too!

Ratatouille

That's quite hard to spell but to be fair, I was planning on eating it not spelling it so apologies if it's wrong ;) I love ratatouille because it's a nice main meal with some pasta if you've forgotten to take some meat out of the freezer, but it also goes really nicely with fish and garlic bread (like we had it), chicken, baguettes- it's just really versatile and pretty easy to do.

Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 large aubergine, cut into chunks
• 1 large courgette, cut into chunks
• 1 red pepper, chopped into chunks
• 1 green pepper, chopped into chunks
• 5/6 large tomatoes, blended (feel free to substitute for a can of chopped tomatoes)
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 tsp oregano

Method

1. Fry the onion until lightly browned and add the garlic. Cook for about 3-5 minutes.
2. Add the aubergine and brown, followed by the courgette and then peppers.
3. Add the tomatoes then mix in the tomato puree and season with oregano to taste.
4. Leave to simmer for 15-20 minutes until soft.

You can get boneless, skinless fish fillets that can be microwaved from frozen and they're so handy for some healthy food in under 5 minutes. The amount of fish you actually end up eating makes these better value than buying from the fish counter and it's just as good for you. I don't eat cod so we always get either salmon or haddock but any white fish would be really tasty.

Aubergine Gratin

That's posh for Aubergine and Lentil Bake.

Ingredients

• 1 large aubergine, sliced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 150g red lentils (dried)
• 1 tsp oregano
• 50g grated mild cheddar (mature has more salt in it)

Method

1. Give the lentils a rinse and put them in a pan with twice as much water. Bring to the boil and simmer until all the water has evaporated.
2. Stick the aubergine slices under a low heat grill until they're nice and browned.
3. Fry the onion  in a small saucepan until soft, then add the garlic and cook for about 3-5 minutes before mixing with the tomatoes and oregano. Add the lentils and simmer until they're really nice and soft.
4. Preheat the oven to 180C.
5. Take a casserole dish (ceramic/pyrex dish) and layer the aubergine on the bottom. Cover with the sauce, then repeat until you run out of both.
6. Cover with the grated cheese and bake for 20 minutes.

Tell you what, this was really nice on top of a toasted bagel. Vienna said so too.

(Well, actually what she said was "ning ning" but I'm assuming that means yum.)

What is this "Spice" Nonsense?

I have a few updates tonight so I'll get to them in a minute, but this has been on my mind this week. I want this blog to be a bit more than just a list of recipes, I want it to be helpful to people (mainly mums and dads, obviously, but not just parents) who want quick but nice food, and, like me, don't speak "chef".

Tonight, I'm going to decipher the mysteries of the spice rack! Sort of...

I kind of take after my mum, who thinks you NEED herbs and spices in a dish, except not quite as strongly. I think people that say they "transform a dish" are going a bit overboard, because no amount of coriander is going to make chicken taste like fish, you know? But on the other hand, if all you've got in the cupboard is a couple of carrots and some coriander then there you go! Carrot and coriander cuppa soup. Just makes life a little bit less beige.

So here's the YMHT guide to essential herbs and spices it might be a good idea to stick in the cupboard:

1. Coriander (dried, leaf)- lots of recipes ask for this, it's one of the most useful herbs there is, you can use it in soups, curries, stews, salsa, mexican food, thai food, indian food and it's really nice in stuffing
2. Oregano (dried)- this is also really useful, the best way of describing its flavour is 'italian' and it's great with tomato dishes and meat stews
3. Cumin and Turmeric (ground)- if you only have cumin, you don't necessarily need turmeric and vice versa, but they work really well together in curries and asian dishes- I use a lot because I love moroccan food and these two give a nice, bit more exotic flavour
4. Nutmeg and Cinnamon (ground)- these are lovely in cakes or rubbed into grilled apple wedges but they give sweet dishes a little bit more of a pudding-y flavour; if you get cinnamon sticks these are nice in asian stews as well but they aren't all that essential
5. Flat leaf parsley- parsley's quite easy to grow and it is nice fresh but it's just as easy to buy dried. There is actually a difference between curled and flat leaf but flat leaf is a bit more common for cooking and curly is more of a garnish- it has a nice clean flavour that goes with fish, pork, soups, salads and vegetables on a sunday roast
6. Basil- this is like oregano in that it has a nice italian flavour that goes really well with tomatoes and meats
7. Chives- really easy to grow, it has an onion-y type flavour because it comes from the same family so it's great with cheese, salad, dips and sauces
8. Mixed Spice, Mixed Herbs- right now this can be a bit confusing because mixed spice and mixed herbs are pretty obvious, but allspice lives near mixed spice in the supermarket and it's not the same- technically it's ground pimiento berry but you can make an allspice substitute by mixing 1 part cinnamon/nutmeg/cloves

If you only want a REALLY basic stock I'd go with cumin, coriander, oregano and mixed spice, but that's no fun at all.

Chilli con Carne

We eat a lot of chilli con carne so I thought I'd give it a go. It was really yummy, I'm dead proud :) It was actually meant to be for a do on Sunday but Steve got home before I could hide it in the freezer and commandeered it. Probably just as well because I polished off Vienna's stew yesterday and she'll want something nice and hearty after swimming tomorrow. It's really easy, but if you have a bit of time the night before I'd probably do it then. By the way, this counts as 2 of your 5 a day. I  know, I didn't believe it either.

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 red chillis, deseeded and chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 500g mince
• 1 1/2 cans chopped tomatoes
• 1 can kidney beans
• 2 tsp oregano
• pinch of black pepper (to taste)

Serves: 3

Method:

1. Fry the onion until soft, then add the garlic and fry for 3 minutes. Add the chilli and cook for another few minutes, stirring constantly (you don't need oil because the mince is fatty enough and it will make it a bit too oily if you do)
2. Add the mince and properly brown. Drain the excess fat then stir in the tomato puree until the mince is all evenly coated.
3. Stir in the tomatoes, kidney beans, oregano and season with pepper to taste.
4. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Notes:

• made me feel a lot less poorly after snaffooing this...!