Spicy Noodle Soup

Last weekend when I was doing a bit of study I got an awful craving for something hot and spicy. I couldn't get warm so thought a bit of chilli heat might do the trick.  This was literally a 5-minute wonder.

1 nest medium egg noodles, broken up

Chicken stock, made with cube or if you're fantastic your own homemade
2 scallions, including the green tops, chopped roughly
Small clove of garlic, finely crushed
Quarter of a Red or yellow pepper, sliced finely
Pinch of chilli flakes
Teaspoon of Thai red curry paste
Handful of peas



Gently fry off the scallions and garlic until soft for a minute or so.  Then add the hot chicken stock and let it come to the boil.  Once boiling throw in the rest of the ingredients, reduce to a simmer and allow to bubble gently for 4mins. Slurp immediately.  You could also add shredded cooked chicken or prawns to this for a more substantial meal.

Spicy Prawn Spaghetti

Sunday more often than not involves something spicy usually a curry. But this Sunday I went down the Italian route, this recipe has very few ingredients:

Spaghetti
Cooked prawns
Chilli Flakes
Crushed clove of garlic
Olive Oil
Sea salt & black pepper

Cook the spaghetti for the required length of time.  For the last couple of minutes heat a couple of teaspoons of olive oil in a frying pan add as big or as small a pinch of chilli flakes as you like. Stir it around for a minute or so then add the garlic and prawns keeping the heat moderate, you don't want burned garlic because it'll just give a bitter taste. Throw in the drained spaghetti with a little of the cooking water and add the salt and pepper. Mix everything together using two large spoons to combine the prawns with the pasta.  I ate this with a garlic pitta bread. Delish!

Spiced Beef Patties

I think I see a pattern developing! We like spice in this house and it seems to creep into a lot of our meals. I suppose it's the fact that I'm dieting I'm trying to find as many ways as possible to make my dinners exciting and flavoursome. So last night it was some Spiced Beef Patties.

Mix some beef mince with big pinches of paprika, cumin, chilli powder, chilli flakes, tomato sauce or puree, finely chopped garlic, a small handful of breadcrumbs to bind and plenty of salt and pepper. Shape into patties and put in the fridge for a couple of hours. Cook them straight from the fridge they'll hold their shape better.

Fry the patties in some oil until cooked through about 15mins or so. Serve either with pitta breads or a flatbread (again!!!) and some chargrilled peppers, onions and a spoonful of mayonnaise.

Spicy Chicken With Pictures

I bet you didn't know you were waiting for the pictures but you were. It was a weekend repeat mid-week if ya get me. Mr. Chops was watching football and I was being bold watching Lost online. Yup, there's some mighty kind peeps out there keep me a day ahead of everyone else in Ireland!!!!! Anyway, himself did the chicken again as we liked it so much last time. So look for the recipe and these be the photos:   The marinated chicken, mmmm.

All the ingredients - except for the flatbreads 

The chicken a-frying

The veg a-frying

Chicken and veg together at last

The Final Product on the Flatbread

So there you are, the pix to match the weekend's dish. Possibly tasted a bit better at the weekend but I put that down to having longer to marinade the chicken. Still, it was pretty delicious!! Oh by the way this is Exceptionally Healthy, and I put that in capitals for a reason!!!!!!!

Mr Chops' Spicy Chicken with Flatbread

Mr. Chops took over the cooking reins last night. The seeds of this dinner began with the find of the month in Aldi - Mediterranean flat breads. These breads make a delicious alternative to pitta breads and all they need is 40 0r 50 seconds in a warm oven. Anyway it was chicken breast for dinner and Mr. Chops decided that a little marination was in order. The following is his recipe:

Spicy Chicken and Veg - serves 2
2 Chicken breasts
Marinade made with some paprika, chilli powder, little bit of cumin, little bit of cayenne pepper, turmeric, chopped garlic and ginger, plenty of salt & pepper and a couple tbsp olive oil.

Mix the chicken with the marinade and give it all a good mix and let it sit in the fridge for around 4 hours.

In the meantime, slice a half each of an orange and yellow pepper and slice a red onion. Chop up a few leaves of iceberg lettuce finely and mix with a finely sliced small shallot as your garnish.

Chilli Mayonnaise
Mix a couple of tablespoons of mayo with crushed garlic, a little salt and a dollop of Sriracha sauce* and a dribble of Frank's Hot sauce. Just mix it all up and there you have it.

Method
Stir fry the chicken for approx 6 mins. Then remove it from the pan and stir fry the veg for a minute or two and add the chicken back in at the end. In the meantime, reheat the flatbread in the oven then assemble. Flatbread on the plate, smear on the chilli mayo, then the lettuce & shallot mix and top with the spicy chicken and veg and eat. No photo was too hungry to take the time.

*Sriracha sauce can be found at any Asian foodstore and is a really hot and spicy chilli sauce so if you like it very hot add more.