Who doesn’t love a good Chinese crispy duck? We’ve been making our own homemade version for ages and I thought it was about time to share the recipe here. This homemade version of crispy duck is far healthier than the restaurant version as it isn’t deep fried. But it’s just as delicious. And unbelievably easy to make.
If you like your food packed with flavour, this Thai style grilled chicken dish is for you. By adding aromatic Thai spices, a simple grilled chicken dish is taken to a new level. It’s healthy, delicious and makes an easy mid-week family meal.
One of my healthy eating food goals for this year is to eat more vegetarian meals each week. We are usually fairly healthy only eating fresh food cooked from scratch but realised that we could cut down on eating meat. One of my favourite go to dishes is this Indian style vegetarian chili called Rajma (it’s vegan too) made with red kidney beans. Bags of flavour and warmth, this dish is traditionally served with just rice – it really needs nothing else. But if you feel like it you can make a side dish of some spiced veggies. I’ve grown up on this dish and it was always a favourite. I’ve even got my fussy eater to eat it so it not only makes a an easy and delicious mid-week family meal but also a very healthy one as kidney beans are so good for you as are many of the spices (like turmeric and cumin) in this dish.
Continue Reading "Warming Indian style vegetarian chili (rajma)"
For parties and gatherings at this time of year I love to serve mini morsels of my favourite foods. That way, in one meal I can serve (and eat) so many delicious foods. Besides, nearly all our parties these days involve kids so making bite-sized party food lets me serve a range of mini dishes that will work for adults as well as kids. The biggest thing I consider when making bite-sized food is how much of the work can be done ahead – I always choose recipes that require minimal last minute preparations but that are still big on taste.
One of my favourite bite sized party foods are these gorgeous flavorful Chinese pork dumplings. Little morsels of deliciousness that go down a treat with any age group. So when Furniture Village asked me to come up with a favourite party food recipe for festive guests, I knew I had to go for this one. I like think of them as the Asian version of sausage rolls that make a nice change when you’ve had one sausage roll to many! And besides, I love dumplings – who doesn’t? So much flavour in one little bite!
It’s no secret that chicken soup is so good for you. So when the weather turns cooler I crave a dose of good, comforting, warming, homemade chicken soup. Nothing hits the spot quite like this simple dish. While I love a good old fashioned clear broth, my go to chicken soup is this Vietnamese one. Not only is it a full meal in a bowl but the subtle flavour of lemongrass adds such a delicious dimension to the soup. Add to that the coriander and dash of lime and you may have the best chicken soup ever. Once you try this Vietnamese chicken and rice soup recipe, you will be hooked. It’s easy enough to make for a mid-week meal which everybody will love, even the fussiest of kids (maybe minus the coriander!)
VIETNAMESE CHICKEN SOUP RECIPE
Serves: 4
For the broth:
1 small chicken
I medium onion peeled and quartered
2-3 cloves garlic peeled and crushed
2 inch piece of ginger sliced roughly
1 dried red chili (optional)
2 stalks lemon grass cut lengthwise and lightly bruised
2 tbs fish sauce
To finish the soup:
2 stalks lemongrass cut in to 3 pieces each and lightly bruised
110gms thai jasmine rice (or any rice you like)
1 tbs fish sauce
3-4 pak choi (optional)
small handful coriander roughly chopped
1 lime cut in to wedges
Start by putting all the broth ingredients in to a large pot – as large as you have! Add 2.5 litres of water and bring to the boil. Let it boil for a couple of minutes. Turn the heat down to a low simmer, cover and leave to cook for 2 hours.
When cooked, skim the fat off the broth, remove the chicken and shred it. Strain the broth and set aside. I usually do up to this stage in advance like in the morning so I find the fat much easier to remove once the broth is cooled.
When you’re ready to eat, heat the broth and bring it to a boil. Turn down to a simmer, stir in the remaining lemongrass, fish sauce and the rice. Let it cook uncovered on a low heat till the rice is cooked – around 20-25 (but it really depends on your ratio of rice to broth). Once the rice is done, add as much of the shredded chicken in as you want (I usually keep some back for chicken sandwiches the next day!). Add your pak choi or other veg if using and once the veg has wilted a bit and the chicken is heated, it’s ready.
Spoon generously in to big bowls, top with lots of chopped coriander (may be not for the kids) and a good squeeze of lime and enjoy!
The subtle flavours of this Vietnamese chicken and rice soup are not only so comforting but they are also so refreshing. If food could give you a great, big hug, this would be the dish that does it for me. Whenever I mention that this soup is tonight’s dinner, everybody in my house is jumping up and down. And not just them – I’ve made it for friends too and they’ve all become addicted and taken the recipe. If I sound a bit crazy getting over excited about a bowl of soup, all I can say is that once you try it you’ll know exactly why!
P.S. If you like your Vietnamese food, you might enjoy this delicious Vietnamese grilled chicken dish too.
*Recipe adapted from Ghillee Basan’s Vietnamese Food & Cooking
I love cooking but I’m not a fan of baking. When I have friends over I usually get so involved in the main savoury food that I end up buying a dessert or sometimes completely forget to get one at all. Recently I started thinking that I should try and up my dessert making skills but only easy-peasy stuff that still has the wow factor. And preferably no baking involved. So I decided to try a no-bake shortbread vanilla fruit tart and I can’t even begin to tell you how delicious it turned out. And the best part is that it’s so easy to make and you can just use the basic idea and get as creative as you want with toppings. Also it’s a great dessert to get kids involved in too – it’s that simple.
This fruity dessert is a beautiful cross between vanilla cheesecake and a fruit tart but instead of traditional digestive biscuits as a base or a normal fruit tart base, I decided to try shortbread biscuits and it worked so well. The shortbread biscuit base has just the right amount of crunch and sweetness without needing to add more sugar to it.
SHORTBREAD VANILLA FRUIT TART
Serves: 8-10
340 gms shortbread biscuits
100 gms butter melted
3 tubs philadelphia cream cheese (180gms x 3)
100 gms icing sugar
300ml double cream
½ vanilla pod seeds
2 tsp vanilla extract
7 kiwi fruits
Start by putting the shortbread biscuits in to a freezer bag or similar and crush them to a fine crumb with a rolling pin. Add the melted butter to the biscuit crumbs and mix really well. Spoon this mixture in to your tart tin and flatten with a spoon making as even as possible.
Note: I used a rectangular tart tin (35 x 12 cms) for extra wow factor but Anya also made four individual ones in mini round tart tins (9cms diameter). So the quantities above are for making more than a rectangular tart but you can reduce slightly to make just one big tart.
Place the biscuit bases in the tins in the fridge so they can harden and set – leave for at least an hour. While they’re chilling, tip the cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla pod seeds and extract in to a bowl and mix well. Next add the double cream and fold it in till it’s completely mixed in. Get the bases out of the fridge and spoon the cream cheese mixture on to them. Smooth it out with a palette knife if you have one otherwise just a regular ol’ knife is good enough – it’s what I used.
Let the tarts chill and set in the fridge for 2-3 hours. You can do all this even 5-6 hours in advance. When you are ready to serve, chop your fruit – you can choose any fruit you like or even a few different ones. Top your tarts, serve and enjoy!
This vanilla fruit tart with cream cheese and shortbread is so delicious. And it has such a wow factor too but yet it’s so easy to make. It is quite rich so a little goes a long way. For the fruit toppings, you can use any fruit you like or even a combination of 3-4 fruits. I love the slight sharpness that the kiwi fruits gave to this dessert but berries, mangoes, peaches, plums or any fruit you can think of will work just as well.
*I’ve linked up to Honest Mum’s tasty tuedays.
Do you get stuck in a food rut? Making the same old tried and tested recipes week in and week out? As much as you may love those foods, it gets boring to eat the same food every week. I have recently found myself being caught in this trap and decided it was time to try one new recipe a week. Nothing too complicated as time is always short during weekdays and also any new recipe has to be family friendly too. So when I came across this Taiwanese minced pork recipe that sounded interesting, I decided to give it a go. It turned out to be yummy with bags of flavour and has already become a regular in our mid-week menu. And it also freezes really well so I usually make two meals worth which is what I’ve given you quantities for below.
TAIWANESE MINCED PORK AND RICE
Serves: 8
900 gms minced pork
1-1½ tbs sunflower or vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves minced
2 star anise
2 bay leaves (dried is fine)
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 teaspoons sugar
1 tsp Chinese five spice powder
4-5 tbs cooking wine
2 tbs dark soy sauce
4-5 tbs regular soy sauce
600ml chicken stock (shop bought is fine)
80gms fried shallots and a bit extra for garnishing*
3 spring onions finely sliced
One fried egg per person
*For the fried shallots, the easiest option is to get them ready fried from an Asian supermarket. If not then finely slice and deep fry the shallots till they are crispy.
Start by heating the oil over a medium heat. Add the garlic and quickly stir for about a minute making sure it doesn’t burn. Add in the minced pork and turn the heat to high. Cook the pork, stirring and breaking up any large bits until all the meat is browned.
Now add the sugar, pepper, five spice, star anise and bay leaves to the minced pork and give it a very good mix. Next add the cooking wine and bring to a boil. Let the wine bubble for a couple of minutes and then add both the soy sauces and the chicken stock. Bring back to the boil, reduce the heat to a low simmer and cover and leave to cook for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes add in the shallots and stir everything really well. Then cover and leave to cook for another hour – stirring occasionally. Once the sauce has thickened and the pork has become really soft, it’s done.
When you’re ready to eat, fry the eggs – one per person. Pile up a bowl with rice and top with the pork. The pork is very flavourful so a little goes a long way. Place the fried egg on top and I like to add some steamed green beans to the dish as this then makes a complete meal – but you can add any veg you have in the fridge. Serve the dish with the chopped spring onions and fried shallots for everyone to use as a garnish.
This Taiwanese minced pork dish doesn’t only freeze really well but you can also make the pork several hours in advance and just heat when you’re ready to eat so it makes a great prepare in advance dish for when you have friends over too. And once all piled up in a bowl it tastes delicious and looks so pretty too.
I got the idea for this dish while googling recipes with minced pork. There were two recipes that stood out for me and so I kind of created my own version using these two recipes as a guide: 1 and 2.
*I’ve linked up to honest mum’s tasty tuesdays.
Eating fresh and healthy food as a family doesn’t have to mean boring. We love oriental style meals in this house as they always offers lots of flavour and often without too much effort. Home cooked oriental food is always better and so much healthier than a take-away. One of my favourites is this Vietnamese street food inspired dish of grilled chicken with rice and pickled veggies. The Vietnamese version almost always uses pork and noodles but I use chicken for a healthier option and I think rice works better than noodles in this dish so rice it is. I also use different herbs and spices than the traditional so you could say this is my take on a Vietnamese classic.
Once you try this dish, I promise you will never look back. How can ingredients like the ones pictured above be anything but flavourful? The grilled chicken in the dish is just delicious and all the other flavours come together to make for an absolutely beautiful bowl of food. What’s more this dish is versatile and can be adapted for different tastes within a family – if you want to go low carb, leave out the rice and have it on a bed of salad or if you’re eating really healthy use brown rice. Also the toppings are all optional so everybody can choose what they want on their dish. The dish takes a little effort to prep but you can strip it down for a quicker meal or go the whole hog when you have a bit more time. Like the pickled veg for instance – you can serve it with just freshly sliced veg instead of pickling when time is short.
VIETNAMESE GRILLED CHICKEN AND RICE RECIPE
Serves: 4
For the marinade:
700gms boneless & skinless chicken thighs
2-3 shallots very finely chopped
3 garlic cloves minced (add more or less depending on taste)
2 stalks fresh lemon grass lightly bruised and very finely chopped
50gms granulated sugar
2 tbs fish sauce
1.5 tbs dark soy sauce (the dark soy is important as it’s a lot thicker than usual soy)
1.5 tbs sesame oil
generous amount of freshly ground pepper
Toppings:
2-3 tbs toasted sesame seeds
handful of chopped coriander
3-4 thinly sliced spring onions (topped with 2 tbs hot olive oil and a pinch of salt and sugar)
1-2 sliced red chilies (optional)
Pickled veg:
2 x 3 inch piece of cucumber cut in to matchsticks
2 x 3 inch piece of carrot cut in to matchsticks
250ml warm water
40ml white vinegar (add more if you like a sharper taste)
1 tbs sugar
½ tsp salt
200-250gms basmati rice cooked as per packet instructions
Start by marinating the chicken thighs. Just trim any big pieces excess fat but leave a little on as you don’t want the chicken to dry out when it’s cooked. Cut in to large-ish bite size pieces. Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a large bowl and add the chicken to this. Give it a very good mix and leave to marinate for at least 1.5-2 hours or longer.
For the picked veg, take a jar and combine the warm water, vinegar, sugar and salt stirring till the sugar is dissolved. Add the matchstick veg and leave to pickle. Even an hour or two will do for light pickling. I don’t like a sharp taste (I prefer a bit more sweetness) so I put very little vinegar but you can adjust quantities to your own taste. The best way to find the perfect quantities for you is to taste the pickling liquid before you put the veg in so you know exactly how sharp/sweet/salty it is.
Chop and prepare all the toppings if you haven’t done so yet. For the sesame seeds toast them lightly in a dry frying pan over a moderate heat. Move them around with a wooden spoon to make sure they toast evenly. Keep an eye on the seeds as once they start browning they can burn very easily. Once they’re lightly browned, take them off the heat and out of the frying pan immediately otherwise they will continue to cook.
That’s all the prep done! When you’re ready to eat cook the rice and place the chicken under a hot grill. You can also skewer the chicken and cook over a barbecue. It’s even more delicious but a grill works well too. Turn the chicken once – around halfway through cooking. The chicken will take around 10-15 minutes to cook and will come out all dark and beautifully caramelised. Scoop some rice in to a bowl, top with the chicken and the pickled veg. Then generously scatter some sesame seeds, coriander, spring onions and chilies (if using) and eat!
This Vietnamese grilled chicken and rice recipe is one of my favourite mid-week family dinners and it’s also a very tasty one dish meal to serve when you have a few friends over as it appeals to adults and kids. What’s more, kids love being given all the bits of the dish and building their own. Try it and you won’t regret it!
*I’ve linked up to Honest Mum’s Tasty Tuesdays.
We are huge foodies in this house. We LOVE to eat! And we love to cook. If you’ve been following this blog you’ll know that we were doing a huge house renovation project which meant we haven’t had a kitchen for six months! But we do now and we’ve haven’t stopped cooking since. I am all for experiencing and eating different foods, foods from around the world but also food that is family friendly. In the past, I’ve often ended up cooking two meals in an evening – one for Anya and one for Richard and me. That just takes the joy out of cooking and it starts to feel like a chore. So I keep looking for new ideas and flavours that will feed us all and I thought I would share some of my favourties here too.
Even though Anya is a fussy eater, I’ve slowly been introducing her to new flavours and tastes and today I wanted to share my version of this delicious spiced Lebanese rice with mince lamb recipe. This recipe has lots of spices which are exactly what gives this rice dish so much flavour but these spices are in no way spicy. What’s more, this Lebanese rice is a one pot meal making it a convenient and quick mid-week meal without compromising on flavour.
Spiced Lebanese rice with minced lamb recipe:
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
500 gms minced lamb (I prefer 10% fat but up to 20% is fine)
basmati rice*
1 medium onion
¾ tsp all spice
½ tsp ground cinnamon
2 black cardamom pods (or ½ tsp ground cardamom)
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground clove
¼ tsp ground cumin
beef or chicken stock
1 tbs olive oil
large knob of butter
couple of handfuls of frozen peas
handful of coriander (optional)
*I measure my rice in a measuring jug so I know exactly how much liquid to add. I put in rice up to the 300ml mark and then I put in a little over double the amount of water/stock – around 700-750ml.
Start by finely chopping the onion. Then measure out your spices and keep them aside.
Next heat the olive oil in a fairly deep pan and add the chopped onions. Stir the onions until they soften and turn a very light brown. Add in the minced lamb to brown making sure that any clumps of meat are broken down. (These steps can be done a few hours in advance so I usually do this in the afternoon making the dish even quicker to put together at dinner time.)
If you’ve browned the lamb mince in advance, just heat it up first. Add the knob of butter and once melted throw in all your spices and really mix it well so that they are spread through the lamb. Add the rice and peas and give it all another very good mix. Add your hot stock, bring to the boil and let it all boil for a minute or two, turn down heat to low, cover and simmer for around 20 minutes. Keep an eye on the rice as it’s done once the water has all evaporated. But make sure all the water has gone and it’s dry – if the rice is even a little wet it will be soggy and not as enjoyable. Often the rice at the bottom of the pan will burn a bit which makes that rice go crispy – this is the best bit of the dish so don’t throw it away, eat it!
I like to garnish with chopped coriander but that’s not essential. I usually have this with a simple red onion salad. Just thinly sliced red onions, sliced cucumbers and chopped coriander mixed together with a bit of salt, pepper and a ¾ teaspoon of vinegar.
This spiced Lebanese rice with mince lamb is a yummy little dish. If you give it a go, it may just become a weekly favourite as it’s become in our home. And the best bit is that not only is it a quick mid-week family dinner to put together, but you also have everything in one pot. This quantity comfortably feeds the three of us leaving a good amount leftover and this rice dish tastes even more delicious the next day.
P.S. If you want some more inspiration for tasty and easy mid-week family meals, take a look at my soba noodles recipe and my cheesy quesadillas.
*I’ve linked up to Honest Mum’s tasty Tuesday’s.
Since December we have been living with very limited kitchen facilities – a hob, no oven, barely any kitchen space and barely any cooking equipment. On top of that, the area where the make-shift kitchen was is freezing as it wasn’t heated. We have now begun renovations on our new home so I can’t wait till be have a brand-spanking new kitchen. But these last couple of months have been a challenge. Takeaways aren’t really our thing – I just think they taste nowhere near as good as fresh, home-cooked meals. So I’ve been trying to think of meals that are very quick to make on a hob but are still fresh and healthy. Eggs have been a lifesaver and as much as I adore them, I still want variety. And that’s where these delicious quesadillas have saved the day!
From play date food to after school snacks to a fast but fresh family dinner, quesadillas are quick, easy and so versatile. You can eat them three days running but with completely different fillings and you feel like you’re having a different meal each day. The tortilla wraps are handy to keep in the store cupboard and when you don’t have time to cook or just don’t feel like it, you can whip up a meal in minutes. The filling can be absolutely anything you have lying in the fridge already or anything you fancy. And these can be made ahead and just heated gently in the oven.
I made these the other day when I had some roast chicken around (which I had bought as without an oven, roasting a chicken is difficult!) so I went for chicken and cheese quesadillas Here’s what I used:
Flour tortillas
Shredded roast chicken
Grated cheese (I used emmental but have used cheddar and gruyere before)
Finely sliced spring onions
Handfuls of coriander
Finely sliced small green chilli
Salt and pepper to taste
Butter or oil
To make, simply take a tortilla and fill one half of it with your filling and then fold over the other half. It’s much easier to make these by filling half a tortilla and folding over. Heat a pan over a medium heat and melt a tiny drop of butter. Use very little butter to make sure they get crisp – too much and the tortillas will go soggy. Place the filled tortilla in the pan and cook on each side for 2-3 minutes. Remove, slice in to wedges and dinner is ready! It couldn’t be simpler. (For my kids version, I only put in chicken and cheese as not all kids like coriander and onions and of course no kid likes chillies). Such an easy dinner that really takes so little effort.
Some more filling ideas: I always like to use a bit of cheese as it helps keep all the filling together but apart from that, anything goes. Ham, mushrooms, re-fried beans, mozzarella, pesto, peppers, tomatoes, tuna, left over roasts, chorizo, bacon, broccoli, sweetcorn, prawns, guacamole, spinach and so much more. I’ve spoken savoury fillings as this is meant to be a quick and easy family dinner but for a bit of an indulgence I am planning to try a sweet version soon – maybe chocolate spread or peanut butter and fruit. Sounds yum!
{all photos by ebabee}
I’ve linked up to Honest Mum’s Tasty Tuesdays.
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