Chilli Con Carne

 We needed an easy slow cooker meal so, having checked the ingredients available, decided on Chilli.  This is a bit of a 'make it up as you go along' recipe at the best of times.

The ingredients we used were

1 Tablespoon oil 
2 onions, chopped
1 Tablespoon tomato puree
2 tins chopped tomatoes
450g pork mince
1 green pepper, deseeded and cut into large dice
dash of tabasco
slop of red wine
tin red kidney beans (drained and rinsed)

To serve -
Taco trays (we use Discovery ones)
Grated cheese (cheddar for us)
Guacamole and Sour cream dip - from a prepacked Tex Mex trio.

First of all, the oil was heated in our wok over a medium heat.  The chopped onion was added and left to soften for a few minutes.  Then the tomato puree was added, mixed through and the heat was reduced for about five minutes to allow the paste to cook through.  At this point, the slow cooker was switched on to the high setting.

Then the green pepper was added to the wok and left to cook for a minute. Next the mince was added and browned, the tinned tomatoes, wine and tabasco was stirred through.

Once the chilli was mixed, it was transferred to the slow cooker and the setting was reduced to low.  It was then left for about 5 hours.

When we were almost ready to eat our meal, the red kidney beans (which had been drained and rinsed) were added to the slow cooker mix and stirred through.

The taco trays were warmed under a low grill and the dips were placed on the table.

Finally, it was a case of 'self assembly' and eating without cutlery (always the mode of choice for Sous Chef J).

This made enough for 4 generous or 6 smaller portions.  Half of the chilli was cooled, transferred to a pyrex dish and put in the fridge for a midweek meal.  It could easily be frozen but make sure it's reheated thoroughly after defrosting and, more importantly, MARK UP what you put in the freezer! (It's my New Year's Resolution to only put things in the freezer that have been labelled... so far I am sticking to it)

Lemon Drizzle Loaf

Inspired by seeing a tweet from @utterlyscrummy about her baking and looking at her blogpost, we decided to give the recipe she posted a try with gluten free flour.

The recipe calls for the following ingredients -
200g softened butter
200g caster sugar
200g self raising flour, sifted (we used Dove's Farm Gluten Free Self Raising flour)
3 free range eggs (we used medium eggs)
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
for the lemon drizzle:
Juice of the zested lemon
50g of sugar  (add 5g more if you used a rather large lemon)

After gathering the above ingredients, Sous Chef J set about creaming the butter and sugar... for once, he was happy to give it a go with our electric hand mixer (this may have something to do with the promise of "cook's reward" of licking the beaters at the end of mixing).  He made a good effort and managed to handle the mixer quite well.

He then grated the zest of the lemon and mixed this into the creamed butter and sugar.

Next we added in the flour - about one third at a time, with one of the eggs - and mixed some more.  By the end of this time, the mix was quite firm so Sous Chef J had swapped back to being photographer.





Finally, the cake mix was dolloped into a pre-lined (we use the ready made loaf tin liners) tin. the mix was evened out before the loaf was put into a warm oven (170C fan) for 40 minutes. It was checked with a knife at this point but was still very batter-like so it was left in the oven for a further 10minutes (obviously this stage depends on your cooker and the ingredients/tin you've used so you need to keep an eye on it).  After this time, we turned the oven off but left the loaf in for a further five minutes.  It was then removed to cool slightly in the tin.

The lemon drizzle mix was prepared using the juice of the lemon and sugar.  It was poured over the warm cake which we'd 'stabbed' all over.  Then we had to be patient and let it cool a little more before we could eat it!

Having waited as long as we could, we cut a slice of cake each and were delighted at the light, lemony lusciousness we were rewarded with!  Sous Chef J did comment that "we've used too much baking powder" having seen that the middle had sunk... however, this will have been the result of our frugal oven use as we also cooked 2 pizzas and a tray of coconut biscuits so the oven door was opened a few times.  Anyway, to use a favourite phrase of Sous Chef J ""it all goes the same in your tummy; YUM." So we weren't put off by the saggy bit... in fact it absorbed the drizzle very well indeed.

Quick Chicken Nuggets

Needing a quick meal for tea, we decided chicken nuggets would be a good idea.  Gathering together a chicken breast, a packet of salted crisps and an egg we made a speedy meal in less than 15 minutes. 

The packet of crisps was left closed and the crisps were crushed.  Then they were placed in a bowl.  Some butter and oil was added to a frying pan over a medium heat.

A beaten medium egg was put in another bowl and the chicken was cut into bite sized chunks.

Having dipped the chicken in the egg wash, it was coated in the crisps and added to the frying pan.  After a few minutes, the chicken was turned and it was left to cook through.

Sous Chef J declared this to be "brilliant"... and, seeing as he ate the lot in record time, it did seem to be a successful quick meal to make!