Tag: Sauces

Argentinean/Swedish turkey meatballs

vbnelliganLeave a comment

I love tart and tangy flavours and when I was first introduced to chimmichurri as a sauce for steak, I fell in love. It (stupidly) took me a while to realise that the sauce was not exclusively a dressing for steak but went well with many grilled meats. Later I realised you could put it on virtually anything. And so, when I don’t want Swedish meatballs with cream sauce and lingonberry jam, I make this mush mash of turkey meatballs with mash – a leaner, zinger, but just as tasty meal for lunch or dinner.

Read More »

Working on my bolognese

vbnelliganLeave a comment

We were making a lot of bolognese for our twins since they started eating solids – east to make, has some veg in (and we lace it with courgettes and spinach so they get an extra dose of greens), and can be eaten with and without pasta. Before them it had been a long old time since I’d made a bolognese for myself. Even then, effort was minimal. Onions, beef, tomato – of course. A bit of garlic, herbs, tomato paste – naturally. That’s pretty much where it stopped though. I cooked it quick and was happy with whatever the result was, but I guess I stopped eating it as it wasn’t knock out flavour.

Now that’s all changed. I’m using nice plum tomato passata (or blitzing San Marzanos myself), freshly ground beef, adding bay leafs, Parmesan rind, balsamic, red wine, actually using a real soffrito combo. Not to mention cooking the thing on the lowest possible heat for hours. You get the picture – my finally taking my bolognese seriously.

I do a lot of variations, but here is the most recent I did.

Read More »

No need to deliveroo this one

vbnelliganLeave a comment

All credit to this Reddit Gif recipe from u/pumpypurbrakeskid for the lion’s share of the inspiration and guidance.

Takeaways are great and with deliveroo it’s almost too damn easy in London these days. Instead of going for our usual Thai takeaway (the best one, Rosas, doesn’t seem to be on deliveroo anymore in any event), I whipped up a Thai green curry with chicken the other night. Absolutely tasty and just the right amount of kick.

I made a paste rather than dumping the coconut milk in right away which means we have another bit ready to go in a couple of weeks for the next one!

Best part is that it can easily be made vegan if that takes your fancy.

Chicken Green Thai curry (2 – 4 portions)

Ingredients – curry paste

  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 1 lemongrass stalk
  • Handful Thai basil leaves
  • 3 green chilliest (1 1/2 deseeded to take out kick)
  • Handful coriander
  • Zest and juice of 2 limes
  • 1 eschallion shallot
  • 4-5cm worth fresh ginger
  • 1 tsp crushed coriander seeds
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tsp cumin

Ingredients – full meal

  • 400ml coconut milk
  • 100g green beans
  • 1 green pepper, sliced into strips
  • 1 tin bamboo shoots
  • 2 chicken breasts, sliced into strips

Method

  1. Blend all curry paste ingredients into a paste in the blender. It should be a pesto like consistency without the oil. (I used a little oil so it would blend easier and then oil to seal it in the jar so it would keep in the fridge for next time).
  2. Brown chicken strips in a wok or big pot.
  3. Remove and stir fry the veg and bamboo strips.
  4. Add back chicken and then stir in curry paste.
  5. Add coconut milk and simmer for 5-15 mins.
  6. Serve with rice of your choice or just eat as is.