Chicken and apricot stew March 18, 2019

4-5 chicken breasts (or drum sticks, or legs. If you’re using legs, you don’t need a stock cube as the bone does that)
1 pack of apricots
1 chicken stock cube
1 shallot – chopped
3 cloves smoked garlic – chopped
1 thumb sized lump of ginger, grated
1 carrot, chopped
1 cinnamon stick
1 tbsp ras el hanout
1 tbsp cumin (ground)
1 chopped sweet potato
1 box passata
1 tsp truvia

fry the shallot, garlic, ginger and carrot till fragrant, and the onion is soft. Add the sweet potato, cinnamon and ras-el-hanout, and stir.

Add the chicken, apricots, stock cube and water to almost cover the chicken. Stir in the passata, leave to cook for about 40 minutes on the stove. stir in the truvia just at the end if necessary.

rhubarb crumble March 18, 2019

3 stalks of rhubarb per person
40g oats per person
1 table spoon of truvia per person
1 pat of butter per person

chop the rhubarb into individual ramekins and add a tsp of the truvia. Bake for about 20 minutes at 200C. Stir

Mix the oats, remaining truvia and butter, and put on top of the cooked rhubarb. Bake at 200C for about 30 minutes.

Serve

Lamb ras-el-hanout stew March 17, 2019

I found this recipe online, but saw how much oil there was and winced.  So me, being me, I adapted it, and it’s turned out pretty well. It’s not a quick cook (2+ hours to marinate and 2+ hours to cook, and that’s not allowing for the prep time)

squirt of frylight and a few spritzes of oil spray
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground paprika
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp whole black pepper
2lb lamb chunks,
1 large onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
5 smoked garlic cloves, lightly crushed
1 inch grated fresh ginger
1  can chopped tomatoes with juice
about a pint of chicken stock
12 dried figs
1 cinnamon stick
2 teaspoons ras el hanout
1 can chickpeas, drained
1 tablespoon sweetener

Harissa or red chili paste

pound the coriander, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper in a pestle and mortar, and rub the mixture into the lamb. leave at room temperature for at least 2 hours, preferably 3-4.

get a dutch oven or similar pot – one that goes on the stove as well as in the oven – and heat on the stove until medium-hot. Spritz with frylight and a little oil, brown the lamb, a bit at a time, and reserve the juices. keep the browned lamb in a separate bowl. Heat the oven to 200C around now.

Spritz in a little of the oil and add the onion and carrot to the juices/spices. Add the ginger and garlic, and stir until fragrant. Stir in the cinnamon stick and ras el hanout for 30 seconds or so, then add the tomatoes, stock, and figs. Add the lamb to the dutch oven, and stir.

Put the lamb in the oven for a couple of hours, uncovered, but keep an eye on the liquid levels (I can do this because I’m using a halogen oven, but this may be trickier for some and you may just want to cover the pot.)

Stir in the chickpeas and sweetener and reduce the liquid on the stove top if necessary.

Beef Dhansak March 16, 2019

• 200g red lentils
• 2 carrots
• ½ small swede, peeled and diced
• 2 medium potato, peeled and diced
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp garam masala
• Salt to taste
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 450g of lean beef cut into 2.5cm cubes
• 3 red chillis, finely chopped but not de-seeded
• Low calorie cooking spray
• 2.5cm ginger, grated
• 3 cloves garlic, fine chopped
• 1 tsp of turmeric
• 2 tbsp garam masala
• 1.5 tsp of chilli powder
• juice of a lemon
• 2 tsp of sweetener

spritz the pan with frylight, and add the carrots, onion, turmeric and garam masala. Stir until fragrant, then add the swede, lentils and potatoes. stir until well mixed, then pour over enough water to cover the ingredients with an inch to spare. Cook until the lentils are done.

meanwhile, fry the beef with the chillis and a bit of the garam masala. add tin of tomatoes, and boiling water if necessary (about 1/2 inch depth) and cover to cook for 45 minutes.

In a third pan, fry the garlic and the ginger, and add the remaining spices till fragrant. Drain the beef, and add that to the garlic and ginger. Pour in the lentil mix, and stir.

Cook for a few minutes, then add the lemon and sweetener and serve with rice.

beef, lentil and bacon pie March 16, 2019

500g chunks of beef
4 slices of bacon, cut into 1cm strips
1 tin of green lentils (drained)
1 tbsp herbes de provence
1 onion
1 tin tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
2 carrots – chunked and peeled
1 sweet potato – peeled and chunked
frylight
5 large rudolph potatoes (or other mashing varieties) peeled and chopped
30g cheddar

Fry the onion, bacon and beef in frylight for about 20 minutes.
Add the herbs, lentils, carrot and sweet potato and stir for about 10 minutes
Add the tomato, tom puree, a little water and cook until the beef and sweet potato are tender
meanwhile, boil the mashing potatoes, and mash them with the cheddar when soft.
Assemble the pie, and put in the oven for 30 minutes at 200C

Cod and bacon March 14, 2019

Cod fillet

slice of back bacon

herbes de provence

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

cherry tomatoes

 

Layer the above, and cook in 200C oven for 20 minutes.