When both of us wants pie, we usually go for the fail-safe steak and ale, so for something a little different I remembered making a chicken and chorizo pie. After searching and searching, I found Curiously Delicious' Chicken and Chorizo Pie but couldn't find the original one I made way back before the blog. This version was the most similar to the original, bar the tomato sauce and peppers.
FYI: I used Jamie Oliver's shortcrust pastry recipe which I have reviewed here.
Yay or Nay: Yay
I've only added photos of the filling, mainly because everyone knows what a pie looks like!! The recipe straightforward and even though it wasn't like the dry original pie, this one I purposely reduced the tomato sauce down (in case of a soggy bottom!) and the chili paste (I used chili powder) gives it some heat. My only gripe is that I cannot for the life of me find real Spanish style chorizo, here in the States, it is more like a regular raw sausage.
TIP: The recipe says to use puff pastry, but I prefer shortcrust. I followed Jamie's recipe for cooking the whole pie, but I would increase the time to about 50mins as I like my pastry crispy and brown.
Happy New Year everyone!
I discovered this recipe a while back and it's been a long time since I made it. It's Mexican but not like I usually know it - burritos, tacos and empanadas. Admittedly I wasn't recipe browsing when I spotted Country Living's recipe for Huevos Rancheros, I was looking for interior inspiration.
Either way, the recipe looked easy and appetising - not heavy on the cheese and heartburn!
Yay or Nay: Yay
There are a lot of ingredients and a lot of steps but each one is pretty easy to do. I didn't fry the tortillas as I wanted a lighter option so I baked it. Bad move! Instead of being crispy, the tortilla was hard and chewy. I definitely want to find a better way to bake this to give the same texture as frying it.
TIP: Fry your eggs sunny side up as the oozing yolk adds to the whole experience!
TIP: Feta cheese works as well as Cotija cheese if you can't find it - I can't so I sub feta for this.
After eating so decadently I needed a bit of a break from rich and moreish dishes. As soon as I was back home I spent most of the morning trying to save plants from the dead and unpacking. I realised that I had no food in the fridge so had to quickly think of some things to eat for the week. In the muddle of jetlag I flicked through Amelia Freer's book Cook. Nourish. Glow. and picked out a few recipes that I could rustle up without searching far and wide for ingredients.
The one plus of going away was that I came home to a jungle of herbs, berries, peppers and tomatoes which I knew I would utilise this week for sure. For the Mediterranean 'Pasta' I had 90% of the ingredients bar the courgette/zucchini and olives so I knew this would be easy, but would it be tasty?
Yay or Nay: Nay
I love the idea of zucchini/courgette noodles and all that but it never really lives up to expectations - I did have an amazing bowl of noodles in, of all places, Prague but I've never really had anything close to that since. There's always that weird taste when it is raw so knowing that this was cooked appealed a little more. Once the noodles cook down it does have a better aftertaste and the zest of lemon adds freshness but it was overall kind of bland and boring. Plus there was no mention of seasoning it! I'm not a big salt person but even I knew to add salt and pepper for at least some flavour!
As soon as I moved to the U.S. I needed something from home to rustle up dinners while I wasn't working. I remember seeing Jamie do his thing on TV with Gado Gado. It looked delicious on screen and I had never tasted something like this before, so when I needed some inspiration I knew this was the dish to try. First, I had to buy the book, later I realised I could've just looked up the recipe online. Duh! What did we do before the internet?
Yay or Nay: Yay
Sorry, the photos are a little skewed! This was a combo of pictures from my last two tries of this recipes. Obviously the ingredients don't match but that's the beauty of Gado Gado, you can mix and match ingredients BUT keep the dressing the same! I substituted the green beans for Thai basil which I had leftover from Pho (although I think I had some Vietnamese coriander in the first pics). Anywho, it was all good, made even better with the nutty tangy dressing which is the star!!
