Spiced Chicken, Bacon, Asparagus & Spinach Lentils

All during the time I was writing the previous recipe out, I was feasting myself at the thought what came next. 
Easily my new favorite recipe of the whole entire cookbook, it consists of my two favorite foods in the whole wide world - lentils and spinach. 
Spinach has always been my favorite because of the dish my grandma makes with it, and lentils have been a favorite since my nutrition revolution, when I realized how yummy and good they are for you. 
This is also a soup-like dish, which is always a plus in my book but the meat and crispy asparagus sort of break that up with texture. Simply incredible!

So I dived right into this meal, head first.

Firstly I chopped the onions and carrots, then blitzed in the processor with the rosemary leaves just so it is all well combined. 
I spooned that out onto a pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and keep in mind that this should be a rather large pan because there will be a lot of other ingredients in there. 
While that was frying, I took care of the meat and seasoned it with salt, pepper and cayenne and set aside. 
I then stirred in the lentils and their juices into the pan with the onions and carrots, chopped in the tomato and closed with the lid. With the unwashed processor from the first step, I whizzed the spinach to be rather fine because a) it will "melt" in the lentils so you won't see it anyways and b) as I said, there is a lot of ingredients and the spinach would've been too large for my pan. With the spinach I added the balsamic vingar after the spinach wilted, I seasoned to taste. 
While that was cooking away on low heat now, I put the meat into a grill pan full of wondrous flavors. Oil, unpeeled whole garlic cloves, fresh and dried herbs, yum! 
I like my meat well done so that grilled for about 5 minutes. Right after that was done, I added the asparagus into the same pan with the already wilted herbs and oil until they got lovely stripes on them, biting to see if they were done. By this time I turned the fire off from beneath the lentils but let them sit on warmth and quickly fried some pancetta on a different pan with no oil at all, because I concluded that the oil or fat should I say it releases is enough. 
I tipped the lentils on to a platter, put my meat on top and bacon on top of that, asparagus shooting out from all sides and two ciabatta's nice and crispy on the side. 
I skipped the yoghurt Jamie includes because come on Jamie, for the love of love, enough with the yoghurt.

 Here you can see my arrangement close up:

 I've really learned to love asparagus thanks to this recipe!:

Yum lentils!:

A true winter recipe to warm your heart, you can find it on page 52 of the "Chicken" section...if not, listed below:

*Ingredients out* Food processor (bowl blade) * Oven at 180C/350F/gas 4* Large lidded pan, medium heat* Large frying pan, medium heat* 

Serves 4, 616 calories 

Ingredients 

Lentils 

1 onion

1 carrot 

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary 

olive oil

2 x 400g tins of Puy lentils 

1 ripe tomato 

200g baby spinach 

1 tsp red wine vinegar 

4 heaped tbsp fat-free natural yoghurt 

Chicken 

4 x 120g skinless chicken breasts 

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 

4 cloves of garlic 

1 handful of fresh thyme, rosemary and/or bay 

4 rashers of smoked pancetta 

1 bunch of asparagus (300g) 

Start cooking 

Peel and halve the onion and carrot, then blitz in the processor with the rosemary leaves until fine. Put into the large pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, tossing regularly. On a large sheet of greaseproof paper, toss the chicken with salt, pepper and the cayenne, then fold the paper over and bash and flatten to 1,5cm thick with a rolling pin. Put into the frying pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, the unpeeled whole garlic cloves and a handful of fresh herbs, turning after 3 or 4 minutes, until golden and cooked through.

Stir the tinned lentils (and their juices) into the veg pan with the roughly chopped tomato and put the lid on. Pop the bread into the oven to warm through. Roughly chop the spinach in the processor and add to the lentils with the red wine vinegar. When the lentils are boiling and the spinach wilted, season to taste. Add the pancetta and trimmed asparagus to the chicken pan and fry until golden and crispy. 

Tip the lentils on to a platter, then marble through most of the yoghurt. Remove the chicken to a board, cut in half at an angle, and serve on top of the lentils with the crispy pancetta, asparagus and garlic. Dollop over the remaining yoghurt, then serve with the crusty bread to mop up the juices. 

Bon Appétit! 

Spicy Cajun Chicken, Smashed Sweet Potato & Fresh Corn Salsa

Dear reader, whoever you are,
whether you've been following this blog or have just tuned in now, you may have noticed I was gone for a while. 
Well, as you know it is the holidays, and it is safe to say I have been enjoying mine. 
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, but it is time to resume work, which I am about to do. 
I also hope writing this will burn off the 3kg of cake I ate. Fat chance, right?
So this is the first of the several delayed recipes I made back when school was still in full swing. As my writing resumes so will my cooking, even more inspired by all the meals I had either at various relatives or at restaurants I spent my week at. 
So let's get cracking!

First up, I made this chicken recipe on page 28 of the "Chicken" section quite honestly because I had all the ingredients as leftovers from other recipes. 
For example I had the sweet potato from one of my first recipes, and it still didn't go bad! - exemplary duration. Canned corn is something I always have at home as I love it so much and it comes in handy quite often, and I had the meat in the freezer by chance. 
I pretty much popped out to find some spices I lacked but other than that I was set! 

Firstly I dealt with the potatoes, putting them in a large pan with salty water and let them cook for quite a while. Then I grabbed my meat and cut off any gnarly bits and created nice little chunks, seasoned with salt and Cajun seasoning, not polenta because I happened to overlook that part but I still think it isn't a vital part in the recipe and set that aside to soak in the flavors. 

I then took hold of the salad, and chopped the tomatoes, spring onions, chili, coriander and corn, and prepared for grilling. I put that on my favorite grill pan with a tablespoon of olive oil because if I did it after the chicken or the bacon, my veggies would soak up the meat undertone and I didn't want that. So I grilled that for 3 minutes maximum, until my corn started catching color. I put that in a bowl and set aside, because if I seasoned it now/then, the salad would be all soggy and sad by the time the meat and potatoes were done.

By now it was time to peel and mash the potatoes with some sweet chili sauce, and I set that near the fire to maintain heat. 

So now I re-oiled my grill pan and put my meat on. I like it well done, so I kept it there for 5 minutes in two rounds, and when that was done I just added in my egg plant strips. 

Now, I used egg plant because believe it or not, Croatia does not have okra. Yes, you heard me. I checked in every supermarket, every marketplace, asked friends, family, nothing. 

So, not surprised, I chose eggplant as a substitute because it looks of roughly the same consistency. I grilled that until it got lovely stripes on each side and then went straight in with the bacon (which cannot be seen on the photos because my dad immediately claimed it, thanks dad). I quickly reheated the mashed potatoes and spooned it out on a platter, covered it with meat, laid the eggplant over and crumbled some feta cheese on top. 

I dressed the salad and I was done! 

 Again, I took some magical closeups (and I say magical because I don't know how I did it):

So here is the charred eggplant strip on a piece of beautiful meat on some great sweet potato.

And here is the eggplant in all its glory and feta cheese. 

A very good recipe to use up extra ingredients quickly, I recommend it for a lightweight lunch or even dinner.

To achieve this recipe, you will need:

Ingredients out * Kettle boiled * Food processor (fine slicer) * Liquidizer * Griddle pan, high heat * Large lidded pan, high heat * Large frying pan, medium-high heat 

 Serves 4, 651 calories 

Ingredients 

Salsa

4 corn on the cob

1 small bunch of fresh coriander

1 fresh red chili 

4 spring onions 

3 ripe tomatoes

2 limes

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Smash

800g sweet potatoes 

2 tbsp sweet chili sauce 

Chicken 

4 x 120g skinless chicken breast

1 tbsp Cajun seasoning

1 tbsp polenta 

olive oil

2 rashers of smoked streaky bacon 

175g okra 

20g feta cheese 

Start cooking 

Put the corn on the griddle pan, turning when charred. Wash the sweet potatoes, remove any gnarly bits of skin with a speed peeler, then finely slice in the processor. Put the sweet potatoes into the large pan, the just cover with boiling salted water and the lid. On a large sheet of greaseproof paper, toss the chicken with salt, the Cajun seasoning and polenta. Fold over the paper, then bash and flatten the chicken to 1,5 cm thick with a rolling pin. 

Put the chicken into the frying pan with two tablespoons of olive oil, turning after 3 or 4 minutes, until golden and cooked through. Drain the cooked sweet potatoes well, return to the pan and mash with the sweet chili sauce, pop the lid on and leave on a very low heat. Slice the bacon and add to the frying pan. As soon as the bacon starts to crisp up, add the okra to the pan. 

Carefully hold the charred corn steady and run a knife down the sides to cut off the kernels, then put them into a bowl. Roughly chop the top leafy half of the coriander and add to the corn. Finely slice the chili and trimmed spring onions, chop the tomatoes, and add to the bowl with a pinch of salt, the lime juice and extra virgin olive oil, then mix well. Serve the sweet potato mash on a board or platter with the chicken and okra, crumble over the feta, and serve with the fresh salsa on the side. 

Note: This recipe was taken straight out of the cookbook, my version can be read above.

Bon Appétit! 

  

Smoked Salmon, Yorkshire Pud, Beets and Asparagus (minus the Asparagus)

This weekend was a busy weekend.
Yesterday I had guests and a huge dinner, and today I cooked again!
I did opt for a much much easier meal though, and that is the Salmon Yorkshire pudding!
Ever since I got this wondrous cookbook, my mom has been begging me to make this recipe. She simply adores salmon and needed to eat it in this recipe.
Even more, one day she came home with some smoked salmon, vaguely indicating that she wanted me to make it.
As I felt sorry for the poor decaying salmon, I decided what better time than to make it today, when the recipe is so fast and basic! I only discovered I had no asparagus, and since on Sundays nothing lives in Zagreb, I had to go with it.
This can be found on page 130 of the "Fish" section:

Instead of the asparagus I went with some green salad and caramelized beets (included in the original recipe).

Surprisingly, I didn't change the order today, look at that! 

So firstly, I whizzed the eggs and flour in the processor, slowly adding the milk and whizzing until smooth. 

I then put 2 sprigs of rosemary into the pan with 1 1/2 tbsp of oil, even though Jamie says 2 tbsp, but I would even put 1 tbsp because the bottom of the pudding was fairly grease, so just spread it lightly with your little brush. 

I then put that on the fire until it started smelling gorgeously and the oil was fairly hot, and added the mixture inside. It says to fry for 30 seconds, which is far too little by me, let it fry for about 2 minutes so that there is a strong ground established. It may be because I had a 25cm ovenproof frying pan and Jamie had a 28cm one. 

After I checked that with a little knife, I popped it into a preheated oven for 20 minutes!!! 

Yes, I know, Jamie says 13, but when I stuck a toothpick in it didn't come out clean plus it didn't burn after such a long time inside so all was well. 

I guess everything depends on the oven and how preheated it is.

After this you're supposed to deal with the asparagus, which I skipped. 

I next drained and diced the beetroot and put in a casserole pan with balsamic vinegar and honey, stirred regularly and took of the heat once it was sticky. I let that cool a bit before I placed it on my salad in a bowl.

I mixed some greek yoghurt, plain yoghurt, parsley and 3 cloves of garlic as a sauce because I also didn't have any horseradish and I love this sauce recipe, goes great with anything baked like this pud. 

"Once my pudding was so good I couldn't stand it anymore", I took it out, and with a fish slice placed it on the board and voila!

Here are some amazing closeups that I have now idea how they happened: 

 Probably the fastest and easiest recipe of the whole cookbook, it is a true 15 minute recipe.

If you don't have the cookbook to find it on page 130 of the fish section, you can do it by:

Ingredients out * Oven at 200C/400F/gas 6 * 28cm non-stick ovenproof frying pan, high heat * Liquidizer * Griddle pan, high heat * Casserole pan, medium heat

Serves 4, 407 calories

Ingredients

Yorkshire pud
olive oil
2 or 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 large eggs
150ml semi-skimmed milk
65g plain flour
180g quality smoked salmon

Beets&asparagus 
1 bunch of asparagus (300g)
250g vac-packed cooked beetroot
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 heaped tsp runny honey
2 punnets of cress
2 sprigs of fresh basil
1/2 a lemon

Dressing
3 heaped tbsp fat-free natural yoghurt
2 heaped tbsp jarred grated horseradish
1 lemon

Start cooking 

Put 2 tablespoons of oil into the frying pan and pick in the rosemary leaves. Crack the eggs into the liquidizer, add the milk and flour, then blitz until smooth. Spread out the rosemary in the pan, then pour in the batter, let it fry for 30 seconds, then pop into the oven and close the door until golden (roughly 13 minutes). Trim the asparagus and put dry on the hot griddle pan, turning until nicely charred on all sides.

Drain and slice or dice the beetroot, then place in the casserole pan with the balsamic and honey, stirring regularly, and removing from the heat when sticky. Mix the yoghurt and horseradish in a bowl, then season to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Snip over the cress on to a nice serving board, and spoon the beetroot on top, then pick over the basil leaves.

Shake the asparagus with a squeeze of lemon juice, salt and pepper, and immediately pile on the board. Wait by the oven until your Yorkshire pudding is puffed up and beautiful. Once it looks so good you can't stand it any longer, get it out of the oven, slide it on to the board, then roll the smoked salmon into roses and place on top. Serve straight away with lemon wedges on the side.

Note: This recipe was taken straight out of the cookbook, my version can be read above.

Bon Appétit! 

Sausage Fusilli and Creamy Garden Salad

Hello lovely, 

this Sunday I cooked. Yes, I did, and I went for some sausage pasta. 

My parents have been begging me to do it this very recipe for weeks now, as they saw Jamie do it on Jamie's 15 Minute Meals show on 24 Kitchen which they watch to basically boss me around with which recipes I should make and for the lesser part, to remember some tips that would make the cooking easier on/for me. 

Jamie also said this was the recipe his kids always begged him to make, so as a kid, I wanted to see the lure factor.

It can be found on Pg. 176 of the "Pasta" section, believe it or not. 

And this here, is my version:

When you first look at the recipe, all dazzled up with the spices and other ingredients and lots of explanations, you think "Wow,  this is some serious pasta going on here." When, in reality, as soon as its done, you realize it's simplicity and ordinarity. And no, I don't mean this in a negative context, on the contrary - I'm amused with how words and a little extra ingredients transform a meal. It truly shows how everything is possible.

Now back to the recipe:

Yes, I did it, I am guilty, I changed the recipe again. But oh well, what can I do if my sausages have to be charring nicely just as I am draining my pasta and pouring the dressing over the salad?!              These recipes obviously aren't 15 minute ones let's be honest, because I'm not Jamie Oliver, you're probably not Jamie Oliver, all our ingredients haven't been pre-washed and laid out for the show and our kitchen isn't the size of a studio. If it is, good for you.

So I started with the salad - for this I used more types than Jamie, the following to be exact: rocket, lettuce, corn salad (hrv: matovilac) and a typical Croatian salad called Hrast/Rosa which Google refuses to find the English name for. And now for those of you who may Google it, no, it isn't dew or oak, the two are just names of two variaties on the same type of salad. I also prepared the dressing accordingly with the yoghurt, mustard and fresh chives. I couldn't find cress anywhere I looked and eventually gave up and noticed it wouldn't have made a grave difference anyway. Ooh, I also didn't use lemon here as I personally don't prefer it in recipes, it ruins them for me with the bitterness, especially dressings but to each their own, use as many as you want! 

(After shot:)

After the salad was drying and the dressing was ready, I went onto the pasta sauce. I whizzed the jarred peppers, red onion, fennel seeds, rosemary leaves and salt&pepper in my processor until it was in very tiny pieces, but wasn't pure liquid. This can be whizzed to your preference of course, as coarse or rare as you want, even though it will generally fall apart when subjected to high heat in the pan.          Which leads me to the next step, which is putting the mixture into a large frying pan (keep in mind you need to add 350g of passata so take the bigger one) along with the tbsp of olive oil and 4 cloves of garlic, stirring frequently so that it doesn't stick to the bottom near the very end. Let that simmer under a lid and finally tend to the sausages.

(After shot:)

 Jamie says to use 4, but I used 6 small to medium pork sausages for the 4 members of my family. I cut them lengthways and rubbed some olive oil on the part that I opened like a book. I let that sit whilst I put my pasta to cook according to packet instructions, since pasta cooks longer than meat and we want it all done at the same time! Also, I used the whole package, so 500g instead of 320g as us 4 require it but kept the same amount of sauce which was exactly enough to make it juicy. 

At this point I already added the passata and balsamic vinegar to my frying pan, which you do as soon as the initial mixture seems dry and soaked up into itself and as soon as that starts boiling, you take it off the heat. With the pasta cooking and the sauce pan off the stove, we have room for the grill pan which I managed to put all my 6 sausages on, the cut side down (the one with the olive oil, book layout). Now, since there is olive oil on it, there is no need for extra on the pan, plus the sausage itself will release fat which is basically oil for the pan, but I just lightly brushed it over just in case, even though next time I wouldn't even do that. Actually, in the end I was spooning out oil from the corner of the tipped grill pan. I like my meat well done, and that's what I did with these sausages too. I turned them over several times, but all in all it took about 4-5 minutes on every side. 

While that was still cooking, I arranged my salad and the dressing, drained the pasta and covered it with the hot sauce which was made even hotter by the pasta and eventually took my meat off the pan and cut it into small pieces, arranging it on top of the pasta. I have forgotten to add the rosemary leaves near the end of the sausages, but they were surprisingly good without any spices whatsoever. 

The final look:

This is a very lovable meal, meaning if you're in doubt, chances are that anyone you are cooking it for will love it. From children to seniors, Jamie gave a very ordinary meal an extraordinary twist. 

To create this meal, you will need: 

Ingredients out * Kettle boiled * Griddle pan, high heat * Food processor (bowl blade) * Large frying pan, high heat * Large lidded pan, high heat 

Serves 4, 622 calories

Ingredients

Pasta

4 sausages (at least 80% meat)

olive oil

1 large red onion

1 heaped tsp fennel seeds

4 jarred red peppers

4 sprigs of fresh rosemary 

4 cloves of garlic

320g of dried fusilli 

2 tbsp of thick balsamic vinegar, plus extra to serve

350g passata 

Salad

1 soft round lettuce 

100g baby spinach or rocket 

1 punnet of cress

2 tsp English mustard

1 lemon

1 bunch of fresh thyme 

Start cooking

Score the sausages lengthways about three-quarters of the way through, open them out like a book, then rub 1 teaspoon of oil and place on the griddle pan, cut side down, turning regularly, until crispy and cooked through. Peel and halve the red onion, then pulse in the processor with the fennel seeds, peppers, half of the rosemary leaves and a pinch of salt and pepper. Put into the frying pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, squash in the unpeeled garlic through a garlic crusher and stir frequently. 

Put the pasta into the lidded pan, cover with boiling salted water and cook according to packet instructions. Add the balsamic and passata to the veg pan. Trim the lettuce and cut into wedges, then arrange with the spinach or rocket around a nice board or platter and snip over the cress. Toss the remaining rosemary leaves with the sausages until crispy, then remove from the heat. 

Make dressing by mixing the mustard, yoghurt and lemon juice with a pinch of salt and pepper. Finely chop the chives, stir half through the dressing, then drizzle over the salad. Drain the pasta, reserving a cupful of the starchy cooking water, then toss well with the sauce, loosening with a splash of cooking water, if needed. Season to taste and tip onto a platter, scatter over the remaining chives, chop and scatter over the sausages and finish with a drizzle of balsamic from a height. 

P.S. This above is the original recipe from the cookbook, my adjustments can be found in the text above.

P.P.S. I haven't tried to reconstruct the image from the cookbook this time as I had a lot more food than Jamie plus the salad is impossible to eat while just bluntly laid out on a platter, a total waste of dressing if you ask me.

Bon Appétit!