Meatloaf with Spicy Tomato Sauce

MEATLOAF

Serves 4

250g minced beef
10-12 streaky rashers, stretched with the back of a knife if they’re short
4 streaky rashers, finely chopped
1 fat garlic clove, crushed
1 medium onion, finely chopped
Couple of handfuls of breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten
Couple tbsps tomato sauce
Tsp dried oregano
Splash of Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper

• First, fry off the chopped rashers and allow to cool on kitchen paper. In the same pan gently fry the onion and garlic until the onion is translucent but not brown, allow this to cool also.
• Put your mince into a bowl add a handful of the breadcrumbs, the egg, tomato sauce, oregano, Worcestershire and seasoning. To this add the cooled onion and bacon and combine well – I find it easiest to use my hands for this. If it is still too wet add more breadcrumbs. To test your seasoning is ok you can fry off a small pattie to taste now.
• In the meantime, line a greased 2lb loaf tin or dish with the remaining streaky rashers leaving some overhang on the edges of the dish. Spoon in the mince mixture, spread it out and press it down firmly and cover over with the overhanging rashers. Put the dish into a bain marie (basically a larger roasting dish with the water between a quarter and half the ways up the tin) and cover loosely with foil. Place into a preheated oven at 180C/fan 160C for approximately an hour and half.
• You want the mince to be fully cooked but juicy so every now and then empty out the fat that will accumulate in the dish. For the last half hour take the foil off and take the loaf out of the dish and place onto the foil on a separate tray so that the rashers colour and crisp up on the 3 sides. Let it sit for 10 or 15mins while before you slice it, it’s nicer and slices easier when cooler.
  
• I either serve this with cubed, crispy potatoes or pasta with a spicy tomato sauce. It is also nice the next day thinly sliced with a smear of the tomato sauce in a sandwich.

Spicy Tomato Sauce 

This sauce is simple. Just gently fry off some chopped onion, chopped red chilli, (as much or as little as you like only you know how much heat you can take!) and chopped garlic. Add a tin of tomatoes, couple tbsp tomato purée, good pinch of dried oregano, tbsp each of Worcestershire sauce and balsamic vinegar, couple tsps of sugar and plenty of seasoning. Let the sauce bubble away until nice and lusciously thick. Blend to a smooth and thick sauce and eat!

Chicken stuffed with Mozzarella & Roasted Red Pepper

There is nothing like the comfort food of stuffed chicken and this dinner was no exception.  The extra cheese topped the roasters and I served a little roasted pepper bruschetta on the side.

For the Chicken:

Chicken breast, with a pocket cut into the side of it

2 or 3 slices of Serrano ham, you can also use Prosciutto or a stretched rasher

Slice of roasted red pepper

Couple of slices of mozzarella

For the Potatoes:

Baby new potatoes

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Cubes of mozzarella

Olive oil

For the Roasted Pepper Bruschetta

An orange, red and yellow pepper, halved

Couple of shallots, finely chopped

Garlic clove, crushed

Fresh thyme, leaves picked from stalk

Sea salt & black pepper

Olive oil

Cut a pocket into the chicken and carefully slide the red pepper slice into it and then squash in the cheese.  Season the breast with black pepper, no salt needed as the ham will be salty. Wrap tightly in the Serrano ham and set aside until ready to cook.

To get your peppers roasted, halve them and place under a very hot grill or directly onto the gas flame. Let the skin get completely blackened and put into a plastic bag to steam away until cool. Once cool, remove the black skin. Do not do this under a running tap as you'll lose the roasted flavour.  Chop into thin slices, keep the slice for the chicken aside and place the rest into an ovenproof dish.  Add the chopped shallots, garlic, seasoning, thyme and a teaspoon of olive to the peppers and stir to combine.  Set aside until really to heat.

Slice your potatoes lengthwise and rinse off to remove the starch on them.  Make sure they are completely dry before you add them to the roasting pan. I used low-fat spray oil, spray a layer on the pan then add the slices of potatoes giving them another spray and season generously.  Place in a preheated oven at 180C/fan 160C, they'll take 35-40mins to roast.  Turn them over every ten mins or so to ensure even cooking.

After the potatoes have been in the oven for 10mins then place the chicken in the oven uncovered to cook.  If the chicken looks like its burning then you can cover it with foil but not too tightly as you want to retain the crispy nature of the ham.  The chicken will take 25-30mins to cook it all depends on much they are stuffed.

Ten minutes before the end of the cooking time, top each potato with a cube of mozzarella and return to the oven.  You can also top the chicken with some mozzarella as well if you want.  At this stage you add the pepper bruschetta to the oven to let it heat through.  Its probably best if you can rest the chicken out of the oven for 5mins covered.  When ready to eat, pour over whatever juices have come from the chicken over it for some extra juiciness.

Nigel Slater's Chicken with Mustard & Crème Fraîche

I can't take any credit for the creation of my dinner last night. It was all down to Nigel Slater's column in the Guardian.  There was some software downtime at work so there was nothing to do only trawl through t'internet for inspiration, luckily this is what I found:

 Nigel Slater's Chicken with Mustard & Creme Fraiche

Serves 4

4 chicken thighs
250ml crème fraîche
2-3 heaped tbsp grain mustard
2 garlic cloves, crushed
150g pancetta or bacon in the piece
3 or 4 small sprigs thyme

Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Put the chicken thighs in an ovenproof dish. Put the creme fraiche in a mixing bowl with the mustard, crushed garlic, a little salt and black pepper. Pull the thyme leaves from their stalks and add them to the creme fraiche.

Cut the pancetta into short, thick strips then fry in a non-stick pan until the fat is golden. Mix with the sauce then spoon over the chicken. Bake for 35 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and the chicken skin is nicely coloured.

It tasted delicious, lovely and lusciously creamy. To cut down on the fat and calories, I used chicken breast, low-fat crème fraîche and low-fat smoked bacon medallions.  Using chicken breast also means reducing the cooking time to approximately 20mins or less depending on how you chop the chicken. I served it with garlicky mushrooms and roasted new baby potatoes.

Roasted Baby Potatoes

Who doesn't love potatoes? And who doesn't love roast potatoes? If you don't, then I'm sorry I've lost all respect for you.  My cheap bag of baby potatoes needed using up so I decided that roasting them was the only option. I sliced them lengthways fairly thinly and threw them in the oven for 25-35mins until crispy and slightly blackened on the edges. I put a little bit of cheese on each of them for the last 5mins or so just for the hell of it! I defy you not to eat every single one of them.

Steak Stuffed with Mushrooms & Asparagus

The weekend is lovely and there's nothing I love more than cooking on a Friday night listening to 80s music on the radio. I treated myself to a piece of sirloin steak and decided that I'd stuff it; thanks for the inspiration 'you-know-who'.
I quickly seared off a few asparagus spears until almost done, they should still have a decent amount of crunch.

Then I finely chopped up a few chestnut and button mushrooms and fried them gently in a little olive oil with crushed garlic, finely chopped shallot and plenty of seasoning. Allow these and the asparagu to cool before putting them into the steaks.

Lay the steaks between two sheets of cling film and flatten out as thin as possible. Then you lay the asparagus into the middle of the steak and spread the cooled mushrooms across the top. Fold either side of the steaks over to seal and put seal side down in a baking dish. Set aside while you prepare the rest of the meal.





There was a bag of baby new potatoes on offer yesterday so I decided they'd be nice roasted in their skins. Slice them lengthways and rinse them well to get rid of the starch. Pat them completely dry with kitchen paper. I preheated the baking tray then sprayed it with spray oil added the potato slices, sprayed them with more spray oil and generously seasoned with sea salt and black pepper. These take approximately 25-35mins in a preheated oven at 180C/fan 170C. Turn them every ten mins to ensure they go brown and crispy on both sides.

I char-grilled some asparagus spears on the griddle until nicely marked but still with a bite. I left some button mushrooms whole and griddled them as well.  Once the potatoes have been cooking for around 15mins add the steaks to the oven. You want them to be still juicy and pink in the centre.  Once they are cooked remove and let sit for a few minutes while you reduce down the juices they released to make a sauce. The sauce can then be spooned over the steaks just before you serve them.

Spanish Chicken & Chorizo Stew

I normally serve it with roasted cubes of potatoes, very delish.

Its a simple dinner. Roughly chop up some chorizo and fry it off gently until it releases its oils, set aside. You sear off the chicken pieces, we used legs and thighs, dusted with flour and smoked paprika. Remove the skin. Then you add tinned tomatoes, chopped red chilli, sliced red & yellow pepper, sliced onion, garlic, good pinch of oregano, squeeze of tomato puree, pinch of sugar, good pinch of smoked Spanish paprika and plenty of seasoning. It should be a wet stew but thick if you follow me. Add the chorizo for the last half hour of cooking. It should take an hour in total to cook.

The chicken should be loose from the bone. The heat from the chilli should be a background hint and not blow your head off! Its the perfect dinner for a cold winter's night which as we all know at the moment is the only weather we're having.

Crispy Potatoes with Prawns, Halloumi & Veg

Nice dinner tonight for me. Mr. Chops treated himself to fish and chips from town but I decided to cook. We got a small bag of baby potatoes yesterday so I sliced a few of them up thinly and threw a bit of seasoning on them and into a hot oven for 30 mins until nice and crispy. There's no need to peel them just wash them thoroughly and pat dry with kitchen paper.

While the spuds were roasting, I sliced some red & yellow pepper, halloumi cheese and a red onion. I halved a garlic clove, just wanted a hint of garlic. Then I sprayed some oil in a fry pan and added the halloumi slices and fried them until they were golden brown like this:

 

I used frozen prawns which I fried off at the same time as the vegetables. I added the halloumi for the last few seconds while I was getting the potatoes sorted. It was really tasty too. I added a big pinch of chilli flakes to the veg just to give a background heat. Don't forget to remove the large chunks of garlic before serving.