PixieCooks

This one’s a result of me trying to empty my freezer and trying to find new and fun ways to use up chicken thighs (cheaper than chicken breast, and tastier). I’ve been on a bit of a thyme kick recently – it’s a lovely fragrant herb, but less prone to that slight soapiness that rosemary has – and stuffing seemed to be a good way to get it into the mix.

I buy my chicken thighs with the bone in and skin on, but I removed them for this recipe – it’s easy enough to do with a decent pair of scissors – but if that squicks you get the butcher to do it for you or buy from the supermarket without .

Serves 4-6
Ingredients

• 100g Breadcrumbs
• 1 Onion, Diced
• Small knob of Butter and a splash of vegetable oil
• The Leaves from 6 stalks of Thyme (save the stalks)
• 6 Chicken Thighs, Skinned and Boned
• Sufficient Bacon to wrap

Method
Heat the butter and oil in a heavy bottomed pan (the oil helps stop the butter from burning) and saute the onions gently, so they soften but don’t colour.

Add the cooked onions to the thyme leaves and breadcrumbs, stir through and allow to cool.

The removal of the bone should leave a fairly obvious place to put the stuffing – you’re effectively just making a sausage shape and rolling the chicken around it – and once the chicken is stuffed, wrap the bacon around it to hold the stuffing in and secure using the stripped thyme stalks.

Roast at 200C (108c fan/400F/Gas Mark 6) for 35 minutes. Remove thyme stalks and serve.

Serve with potato dauphinoise (recipe to follow), mash or rice.

I’ve given up chips (fries) and crisps (chips) for Lent (again), but I’ve decided that these are distinctly more potatoey than anything else and therefore don’t count.

They take spice very well, but too much powdered spice will burn, so go a bit canny if you use it instead of the lemon pepper suggested here. I’ve had great success with smoked paprika and cumin seed, garlic salt and chilli flakes, and rosemary and thyme.

Ingredients

• Appropriate quantities of potato for the numbers you wish to feed (I’ve used all kinds of potato from King Edward to Jersey Royals with great success)
• Vegetable/Groundnut/Sunflower oil
• Freshly Ground Black Peppercorns to taste (a rough grinding – if your mill turns them to powder, grind in a mortar and pestle instead)
• Lemon rind to taste

Method
Scrub the potatoes clean and cut out any eyes or nasty bits (life is too short to peel a potato and all the good bits are in the skin, anyway) then chop lengthways into chunky wedges.

Put the wedges in a pot of cold, salted water (as a rough guide, if it comes out of the ground, put it in cold water, if it comes from above the ground, put it in boiling water) and bring to the boil. Boil for about five minutes – the wedges should yield easily to a knife point but remain intact (or intact ish. Any roughened edges will crisp up and be yummy…).

Use a vegetable peeler or sharp knife to remove the lemon rind in fingernail sized pieces (use an unwaxed lemon for preference) and be careful not to get the bitter white pith with the rind.

Drain the potatoes well and put into a bag with sufficient oil to lightly coat all the wedges, and the seasonings. They can be left in this bag, in the fridge, up to overnight if you want.

Pre-heat the oven to 200C (180c Fan assisted/F/Gas Mark), put the wedges on a baking tray and cook in the oven for twenty minutes, turning after 10minutes.

The wedges should be crispy and beginning to caramelise a little bit. Serve with fish, chicken or anywhere you would chips.

Real, proper* bolognese sauce would generally have pancetta, veal or some kind of pork in with the beef mince (hamburger/ground beef), but I get lovely beef from our local farmers’ market, sourced from local aberdeen angus cows, and I like to keep the flavour quite clean. If you’re not so lucky, chuck a handful of pancetta in the pan and brown off before you add the onions.

*In as much as there is any proper recipe for something so traditional. There’s also milk involved and various other complications.

Feeds 4-5
Ingredients

• Beef Mince (low fat, steak mince)
• 2 Medium Onions, Diced
• 1-2 Garlic Cloves, Minced
• 2tsp Dried Oregano (it’s more flavourful dried, so if you have fresh, use more)
• 2tsp Dried Basil (or about half that of fresh)
• 2 Stalks of Celery, finely sliced
• 2 Medium Carrots, finely diced
• 400g/14oz Can Chopped/Crushed Tomatoes (or equivalent)
• 2tbsp Tomato Puree

Method
Gently saute the onion in a little olive oil, cooking over a low heat and stirring regularly so it doesn’t burn or stick. Add the carrot, celery and garlic and cook slowly, stirring often, until they are softened.

If the mince is low fat then add it straight into the onions, if it isn’t then remove the onions to a bowl, brown the mince and pour off the fat before re-adding the onions, celery, carrot and garlic.

Add the herbs, tomatoes and tomato puree, and cook down over a medium heat stirring regularly until thickened and smelling gorgeous.

Serve with spagetti, over a baked potato or with any pasta you can scrounge up with a light blizzard of freshly grated/shredded parmesan over the top. If you don’t have fresh parmesan it’s better to use cheddar or some other sharp cheese than it is to use one of those tubs of dessicated, foot-smelling dust. Will keep in the fridge for a week or freeze like a dream; just nuke for 2-3 minutes to reheat.

I had a jar of pear halves in juice in the fridge, a guest over and a serious craving for something sweet (I don’t generally keep biscuits or cakes in the house). After a little disconsolate poking around in the fridge and cupboards I remembered the lovely Apple Enchilada Dessert that Liz guest blogged over at $5 Dinners and this lush pudding was born. Nom.

Serves 4
Ingredients

• 250g/1 Cup (Granulated) Sugar
• 100ml/ 1/4 Cup Water
• 1tsp Ground Ginger
• 1tsp Ground Cinnamon
• 1pinch Ground AllSpice
• 100ml/ 1/4 Double/Heavy Cream
• 16 Pear Halves in Juice, drained
• 4 Soft Flour Tortillas

Method
Place the sugar and water in a strong based saucepan and bring up to the boil. Keep stirring (carefully! Hot sugar is a little like lava) and heating until the mixture turns a light caramel colour.

Add the spices (the mixture will foam up) and cream – stirring throroughly to ensure the sugar doesn’t seize on contact with the cold cream. If it does heat it gently to re-melt it.

Remove caramel from heat and add the pears.

Divide the pear caramel mixture between the tortillas and roll up. Serve with vanilla ice cream or pouring cream. Also delicious cold.

Like a lot of people, come the apocalypse I’ll be surviving on tinned tuna – which is to say I tend to buy more any time I’m doing a “big shop” whether or not I actually NEED any and I have currently got enough to see me through several months.

Tuna pasta, tuna pasta bake, tuna mayo sandwiches and baked potatoes with tuna are all very well, but they’re a little bit studenty (in as much as they’re easily made in a communal kitchen where someone keeps using the good knife), but these fishcakes take a teeny bit more work and taste infinitely more sophisticated.

Makes ~ 5 Fishcakes
Ingredients

• 1 Tin Tuna in Oil, Drained. Roughly 130g/4.5oz (you can use brine packed, but wash it a little first or the end result will be salty. Water packed is great)
• 3-4 Medium Potatoes, Boiled and Mashed (this is one of the very few circumstances under which you will find me peeling a potato, the skins just don’t work here)
• 1/2 Red Onion, Finely Diced (or a white onion, or spring onions)
• a Dusting of Plain/AP Flour
• 1 Egg, Beaten
• 2 Generous Handfuls Breadcrumbs
• Vegetable Oil, For Frying

Method
Combine the tuna, potato (just mash them with a tiny bit of the cooking water) and onion in a bowl. Make sure the tuna is well flaked and the whole is mixed thoroughly.

Put the flour on one plate, the egg on another and the breadcrumbs on a 3rd (I keep my breadcrumbs in the freezer and use them from frozen). Take a handful of the mixture (about a 1/5th) and shape into a fishcake. Coat in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs (it’s easiest to place on the plate then pat around the flour or breadcrumbs).

Fry each cake until golden brown on each side (do not even move the cake until it’s been frying for a minute on each side, you want it to form a crust).

You can eat at this stage, but I like to let them cool and reheat in the oven (200C/180C fan/400F/Gas Mark6) for 10 minutes as this takes all the rawness from the onion.

Serve with a green salad.

I had a whole lot of carrots sitting making me feel guilty from the fridge and while I like raw carrot (more than I like most cooked carrot to be honest) I didn’t really feel like flinging them into a “normal” salad with my usual olive oil/balsamic or olive oil/lemon juice mediterranean dressing. A little bit of poking about in the fridge and cupboards resulted in a Carrot, Cumin and Brie Salad. Nom.

Serves One
Ingredients

• 2 Medium Carrots, Scrubbed or Peeled and chopped into short batons
• 2 Sticks of Celery, finely sliced
• 2 Spring Onions (scallions), finely sliced
• As Much Lettuce as you feel like, finely chopped (which means this must be eaten immediately otherwise it will brown very quickly)
• As Much Brie as you feel like, ripped into bite-sized chunks
• 3 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tsp Lemon Juice
• Large Pinch Cumin Seeds

Method
Combine the oil, lemon juice and seeds in a mortar and pestle, grind the seeds to break them all up and leave for the taste to amalgamate whilst you are preparing the salad.

Combine the vegetables and brie in a bowl and dress with the cumin dressing.

Serve with some crusty bread or oatcakes.

I was out for lunch with m’colleagues the other day at an italian buffet place (I work with boys, quantity is important to them) and whilst they got stuck into the pizza and pasta on offer I had a wee look at the salad bar (not to say I abstained from the pizza or pasta, for I did not, I just didn’t eat enough to sink a ship). The potato salad, in particular, was incredibly good and I (after several mouthfuls and a fair bit of thought) worked out that it was due to the thyme.

This recipe is not that salad (it was of the more traditional mayonnaisey variety), but it is completely lush.

If you’re ever in Glasgow and craving an Italian buffet lunch, you should check out Azzimo – the spicy chicken pasta and the equivalent pizza are both highly recommended and at just shy of £7 a head it’s well worth it.

Serves ~4
Ingredients

• Roughly 16 New/Salad Potatoes (I used Charlotte)
• 1/2 Medium Red onion, Sliced paper-thin
• The Leaves from 6 Stalks of Thyme
• 3Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1Tbsp Lemon Juice
• 2 Rashers Bacon (I used Ayrshire Middle bacon which has back and streaky – or Canadian and American – within the same slice. But whatever unsmoked you like is fine)

Method
Wash and boil the potatoes for around 15minutes (until tender to the point of a knife). If there are any larger potatoes in the mix, cut them in half.

Whilst the potatoes are boiling prepare the dressing. Mix the oil, lemon juice and thyme in a large bowl, add the onions, ensuring they are sliced as thinly as you can cut them (the trick is that the rawness will “cook” out of them with the lemon juice and the warmth of the potatoes, so they need to be very thin)

Grill or fry the bacon until it is cooked but not too crispy, and pat dry with kitchen paper. Using scissors, cut into very thin strips (similar to the onion) and mix with the rest of the dressing.

Drain the potatoes well and whilst they are still warm add them to the dressing and mix well.

The salad is best still warm, but okay cold. It will keep in the refrigerator, but let it come back up to room temperature before serving.

I was looking for something light to eat after a very soporific lunch out with my colleagues, and digging around the fridge I found some homemade chicken stock and some tikka chicken (the pre-sliced stuff, made for sandwiches and salad) and with a little bit of heat, spice and stirring I made some lovely soup.

It would work with a good pre-made stock (although chicken stock is a breeze to make and freezes very well) and any cooked chicken.

2-3 hearty portions
Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Pints Chicken Stock
• 1 Pack Sliced Tikka Chicken (225g/80z, chop to bite-sized if required)
• 4 Spring Onions/Scallions, Sliced
• Small Thumb Fresh Ginger, Finely Diced
• 1 Clove Garlic, Finely Diced
• 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• Handful Rice Noodles (the kind that cook in 5 minutes in hot water)

Method

Bring the stock to the boil, add all the other ingredients other than the noodles. Simmer for 10 minutes and taste, adding more spice and seasoning as neccessary (I added cumin seeds and the seeds from a handful of cardamom pods)

Add the noodles and swirl through the soup as they soften.

Serve, gathering a ladle of noodles and chicken before a ladle of broth (it’s easier to portion out fairly that way!).

If you have a different kind of chicken, change the spices to suit, five spice with chinese chicken, etc.. Lemon juice works with nearly all the flavours as it just perks up the poultry flavour. If you’re stuffed up or feeling blue add a little fresh chopped chilli to give the soup more kick.

I really like tinned tuna – it’s tasty, versatile and with some judicious shopping it’s also cheap – but I’ve never got on particularly well with tuna steaks; I’ve always ended up finding them a bit dull and no more special than tinned. This recipe however was my tuna game changer, it’s seriously delicious.

I’ve tagged it 2* difficulty but that’s really because it needs to be marinated which isn’t hard but does require a bit of planning.

Serves 2
Ingredients

• Marinade
• 3Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 4Tbsp Soft Light Brown Sugar
• 1 Garlic Clove, Minced
• 2 Tuna Steaks
• Noodles
• 2Tbsp Peanut Butter
• 1/2 Tsp Chilli Flakes
• 1Tbsp Soy Sauce
• Around 2 Tbsp Boiling Water
• Sufficient Noodles For 2 (I used brown rice noodles that cook in hot water for 5 minutes)
• 3 Spring Onions/Scallions, Chopped

Method
Add all the marinade ingredients (except the tuna) to a pan and heat very gently, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool and pour over the tuna, ensuring all sides are covered. Marinade for 30-60minutes.

Once the tuna is marinaded, fry in a hot pan using a small amount of vegetable oil for 1-2 minutes on each side. Don’t move the steak once it’s in the pan until you’re turning it, the trick is to make a crispy, yummy, crusty bit with the glaze.

Add all the noodle ingredients (except the noodles and spring onions) to a bowl and microwave for a minute (if you keep your peanut butter in the fridge, take it out a couple of hours beforehand so it’s not like trying to chip bits off a rock). Stir to combine, and add more boiling water if required to bring the consistency down to that of mayonnaise.

Cook the noodles as described on the packet, drain and combine with the peanutty sauce. Garnish with the spring onions.

Lorne (or square) sausage is a lovely Scottish breakfast food, and my local butcher makes a particularly yummy version with black pudding in the centre. I picked some up on saturday to enjoy as a sunday brunch along with some saute potatoes and baked beans, add a big mug of tea and the papers in a sunny kitchen and it’s a lovely way to spend a morning.

If you’re lucky enough to be able to get hold of some lorne sausage you’ll see that it’s just about the perfect shape for putting in a roll (Morton’s for preference!) – infinitely better than messing around with recalcitrant links (bangers) – and if you can get some with black pudding (or, even better, a little haggis) in the middle do try it, the sausage keeps the centre moist and delicious.

Saute potatoes are a cracking way to use up any left over boiled potatoes – especially if they’re extras from making potato salad as waxy textured potatoes are best – or just a quick and tasty savoury carb for breakfast or brunch that doesn’t involve getting something out of the freezer.

Enough for one, but just up the potatoes for more!
Ingredients

• 1-2 Medium Waxy Potatoes, Diced
• 2tbsp Vegetable Oil
• Crushed Sea Salt, to taste

Method
If your potatoes are already cooked, simply dice the cooked potato, otherwise, dice the potatoes (skin on, but remove any eyes etc) and place in pan of cold water. Bring to boil and boil for 5 minutes, or until they yield to a fork but do not break up.

Drain the potatoes well (I sit them, once they’re drained, in the colander over the still warm pan to steam off). Heat the oil in a large, heavy based frying pan (skillet) and add the potatoes (they should hiss a little as they start to fry). Move the potatoes regularly, but gently – don’t break them up, until all the sides are golden brown.

Serve sprinkled with a little crushed sea salt.