Chinese Sweetcorn Egg Drop Soup

Chinese Sweetcorn Egg Drop Soup is such a quick, simple, but tasty soup.  I made a storecupboard vegetarian version, but you can use fresh vegetables and/or chicken as your time and budget allow.

Serves 2, or a greedy one as a meal

1 mug of frozen sweetcorn, or 285g can of sweetcorn in water

100g grated potato or 100g cooked rice

Handful of finely shredded spinach, kale, or cabbage (optional)

1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed (optional)

1cm cube of fresh ginger, grated or finely chopped

1 tbsp miso paste, or 1 stock cube

500ml hot water 

1 large free range egg

1 spring onion, finely sliced (optional)

Chilli oil or chilli flakes (optional)

Soy sauce to taste

Authentic (or possibly Chinese-American) Egg Drop Soup seems to use creamed sweetcorn.  I like to do this by cooking/warming the sweetcorn in the stock first, then liquidising with a stick blender, as I think it gives the soup a better consistency.  But, if you don't have a stick blender, or don't want to blend the sweetcorn, this is not essential.

If pureeing the sweetcorn, simmer the frozen sweetcorn for 5 minutes in the hot water in a soup pan, or heat tinned sweetcorn until the water is boiling.  When the sweetcorn is cooked/hot, liquidise with a stick blender in the pan.  

Add the potato or rice, crushed garlic, grated ginger, and miso paste or stock to the sweetcorn (or add all these to the pan with the water if not liquidising the sweetcorn).  Simmer for 10 minutes in a covered pan.

Beat the egg in your soup bowl.  Turn up the soup to a gentle boil and drizzle in the egg.  Leave for 30 seconds then swirl with a spoon.  You should have 'flowers' of cooked beaten egg.

Serve with chopped spring onion, soy sauce, and chilli oil to taste.

Jollof Rice & Beans

Jollof Rice & Beans is an easy, cheap, nutritious plant based one pan dish.

Jollof Rice is a spicy West African dish of rice, tomatoes, chillis, onions, spices, often served with a meat stew.  To add more protein and fibre to the rice I had the idea to add beans, similar to Caribbean Rice & Peas.

All recipes online use Scotch Bonnet chillis, so use one or two if you want a more genuine flavour, but beware these are very hot!

And I highly recommend Afrizi, an African restaurant in Festival Place in Basingstoke to try 'proper' Jollof rice and other West African dishes.  

Here is my take...

Serves a greedy 4

1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped

2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

2 red peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped

1 tbsp rosemary, dried or fresh

1 tbsp thyme, dried or fresh

2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp hot chilli powder 

1/2 carton passata

2 tbsp light olive oil

1 mug basmati rice

2 cans of mixed beans in water (or kidney, pinto, black beans)

Recently boiled water

1 vegetable stock cube 

2 bay leaves

Liquidise the onion, garlic, peppers, rosemary, thyme, coriander, chilli powder, and passata.

Heat the oil in a shallow casserole dish.

Carefully pour in the blended sauce, bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

After 5 minutes, stir in the rice into the sauce and drain the liquid into the mug.  Top the mug up with recently boiled water, pour over the rice plus another 1/2 mug of hot water, the crumbled stock cube and bay leaves.  

Stir everything in, sprinkle over the beans, cover, and bring to the boil. 

Turn down to the lowest heat and cook for 20 minutes.

Stir in the beans and sauce that will have risen to the top during cooking and serve.

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Prawn & Pea Risotto

Prawn & Pea Risotto is a simple dish with big flavour for only a few ingredients.  Frozen prawns and peas make this an easy quick supper.

Serves 4

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, peeled & finely diced

1 large clove of garlic, peeled and crushed

1 small glass of white wine (optional)

300g risotto rice

2 fish or chicken stock cubes

1 litre recently boiled water

250g frozen prawns

Large pinch of chilli flakes (optional)

Chopped parsley (optional)

Freshly grated parmesan (optional)

Heat the olive oil in a heavy based pan over a medium heat.

Sweat the chopped onion for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft but not coloured.

Stir in the risotto rice and garlic into the onions.  Pour in the wine, and stir until evaporated away.

Add a ladleful of hot water and the crumbled stock cubes, stirring until evaporated and the stock cubes have completely dissolved.  Keep adding one ladle of hot water at a time, and stirring until evaporated.  Halfway through the hot water add the frozen prawns, and then continue adding the ladles of hot water.  After about 25-30 minutes the rice is tender but not mushy.

Stir in the frozen peas and chilli flakes, turn off the heat, cover with a lid and rest for 5 minutes.

Serve with a topping of chopping parsley and parmesan if wished.

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High Fibre Brown Rice

Everyone's talking about the benefits of eating more fibre.  It's good for your digestive health, heart health (lowering cholesterol and blood pressure), blood sugar control, weight management (increased fullness), reduces the risk of certain cancers, promotes a healthy gut microbiome, and reduces inflammation. 

Brown rice has more fibre than white rice, and I've added to this with lentils and quinoa.  The quantities below make about 8 150g servings.  This week I've been eating with vegetable curry, oily fish, and in soup.

1 cup brown rice

1/2 cup puy lentils

1/4 cup quinoa

Simmer everything for 25-30 minutes in a pan with at least double the volume of boiling water in a pan that seals well.  

Season after cooking otherwise the lentils don't go tender.

Divide into portions and freeze until needed.

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Mexican Roast Potatoes & Beans

We seem to be alternating between pasta and rice for carbs recently, so I googled 'potato main meals' and turned up this Mexican Bean & Potato Bake.  It is a pretty versatile bake - the original recipe says to use kidney beans, but I was going to use pinto beans until I discovered I had leftover Chilli con Veggie.  You could also use Chilli con Carne if not vegetarian.  

Serves 4

1kg potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces

2 tbsp olive oil

1 pepper, cut into bite sized pieces (optional)

400g drained kidney, pinto, black beans, or leftover chilli

400 g tin chopped tomatoes

2 tsp smoked paprika (if not using using leftover chilli)

1 tsp ground cumin (if not using using leftover chilli)

1 tsp hot chilli powder (if not using using leftover chilli)

Salt & pepper

100g cheese, grated

Preheat the oven to 200C/190C Fan.

Toss the potatoes in the oil in a lasagne dish and roast for 45 minutes, stirring around half way through the roasting time, until lightly browned and nearly cooked through.

After 45 minutes, stir through the beans/chilli, tinned tomatoes, spices, salt and pepper. Sprinkle cover the cheese, and return to the oven for a further 30 minutes until bubbling hot, the potatoes are cooked through.  

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Birria Beef Tacos

My son came back from a meal with friends at a taco restaurant, raving about the Birria Tacos he had.  So I had to try to re-create it at home.  I based my recipe on BBC Good Food's Birria Tacos, without the range of chillies in their ingredients list, added pinto beans to stretch the meat a little further, and cooked in a slow cooker rather than the oven.

Serves 4

2 tbsp olive oil
1 kg braising steak cut into large bite sized pieces

400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground ginger

1 tbsp chipotle hot sauce

1 tsp white wine vinegar

2 cloves

3 black peppercorns

A large pinch of salt

2 bay leaves

16 soft mini tortilla wraps

Topping ideas

Lettuce

Pickled red cabbage

Chopped coriander

Finely sliced onion

Grated mozzarella

Guacamole or avocado

Jalapeños 

Refried beans or drained pinto beans, warmed

Fresh lime to squeeze over

Soured cream, useful to cool the chilli if you find it too much

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan over a medium high heat.  If cooking in the oven, heat the oil in a lidded ovenproof casserole dish.

Dot the beef pieces around the pan, without overcrowding it, and brown on all sides.  You may have to brown the beef in several batches.  Once browned place in the warming slow cooker, or set aside if cooking in the oven. 

If cooking in the oven turn it on to heat to 140C/120C fan/gas 1.

Heat another tablespoon of oil in the pan and brown the onion.  Add the chopped tomatoes and garlic.  Heat to boiling, then turn off the heat and leave to cool enough to liquidise.

Liquidise the tomato mixture together with all the remaining ingredients apart from the bay leaves

If cooking in a slow cooker, pour the liquidised tomato sauce, add the bay leaves, and add recently boiled water to just cover the meat if required. Cook on High for 6-8 hours until the meat is tender and falling apart.

If cooking in the oven, return the beef to the casserole dish, add the bay leaves, and add 400ml recently boiled water to just cover the meat if required. Cover and cook in the oven for 3 hrs until the meat is tender and falling apart.  Check the beef every hour to ensure it is not drying out, and add recently boiled water to just cover the meat if required. 

When cooked, remove the meat with a slotted spoon and shred using two forks. 

To serve, put some shredded beef onto a mini wrap together with the toppings of your choice, and dip into a small cup of the sauce.  Do not build tacos in advance, as they will go soggy and fall apart.  For the same reason don't use larger tortilla wraps as I did - they fall apart before you get to the end of them!  But even with small wraps this is messy, but delicious.

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Pigs in Blankets Sausage Rolls

I made Pigs in Blankets Swirls a few weeks ago, but thought I'd try making more traditionally shaped sausage rolls for an extended family gathering the day after Boxing Day

Makes 8/16

320g pack ready rolled puff pastry
8 slices of streaky bacon
8 sausages or 500g sausage meat 

If using sausages, remove the casings by cutting them off with scissors. 

Lay the pastry out on the greaseproof paper it comes with, with one of the longest sides towards you.  With a rolling pin, roll the pastry out towards and away from you to make it a little wider.  

Cut the pastry in half lengthways from left to right to make two long strips.

Lay short lengths of bacon along the middle of the pastry strips.  After cutting the first few slices of bacon in half, I worked out I needed to cut them in three to cover the middle of the pastry.

Divide the sausagemeat in half and spread each half evenly over the bacon, along the middle of each pastry strip, right up to the edges.  If using sausages, just lay four skinned sausages along the bacon on each pastry strip.

Fold the longside of the pastry over to the over and crimp it closed with a fork.  Lightly score each pastry roll into 4, or 8 if you want mini sausage rolls. 

Once scored, cut with sharp scissors.  Drag the greaseproof paper onto a baking tray and arrange the cut sausage rolls with a bit of space between them.

Bake at 180C for 40 minutes until golden brown, turning half way though the cooking time.  Best eaten hot.  Can be reheated at 180C for 7 minutes in an air fryer.

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Camembert or Brie Tarts

I've had two failed attempts at making Camembert (or Brie Tarts, Tartlets, Bites, or Pies), first with wraps as the casing and the second time with shop bought puff pastry.  The wrap casings went soft, and the puff pastry heat sealed itself to the muffin tray and had to be chiselled out.  So I returned to my old faithful homemade food processor all butter pastry (from a 20+ year old Good Housekeeping magazine cutting), which I make Chicken & Ham Pies, Mince Pies, and Quiche with, to make Camembert Tartlets (or Pies, or Bites) 

Makes 20-24

175g plain flour

100g cold salted butter, cubed

250g Camembert or Brie

Thinly sliced garlic, rosemary sprig, or Cranberry Sauce (optional)

Place the flour and cubed butter into a food processor with 2 tablespoons cold water.  Pulse a few times, add another tablespoon of cold water and pulse a few times again.  Keep adding a tablespoon of water and pulsing a few times until the flour and butter begins to look like breadcrumbs.  I find the Aldi flour I use takes about 4 tablespoons of water to get to this texture.  After 4 tablespoons of water, run the food processor for a few seconds continuously to make the pastry clump together into a rough ball, adding a little more water if it doesn't.

When formed into a ball, tip out onto a floured surface, shape into a block and place in a plastic bag in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.

After the pastry has rested (it apparently should rest to allow the gluten to relax so it doesn't shrink as much, and making the butter harden and make the dough easier to work with - but it is not essential if you really don't have time to let it rest),  roll it out on a lightly floured surface and cut out disks with a pastry cutter.  I used my largest round cutter and made 20 disks.  Had I gone a cutter smaller, I might have been able to cut 24 disks.

Lightly grease the mince pie tin with a little vegetable oil and place a disk over each hole.  Don't worry about pushing them down into the hole as they will fall back into them once into the hot oven.

Cut the camembert into as many disks as you have cut.  Place the cheese in the centre of each disk.  I cut my Camembert into small wedges, which I cut in half again to get a rough square in the centre.  

Sandwich the garlic and a few rosemary leaves between the slices of cheese, if using.  If using cranberry sauce, place 1/2 a teaspoon on top.

Bake at 180C for 18 minutes, turning half way through the cooking time, until lightly golden.

Leave to cool for a few minutes so the cheese is not molten, but serve warm.

We warmed these up at 180C for 2 minutes in an air fryer at a family gathering yesterday.

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Egg Foo Yung/Chow Mein

Egg Fu Yung is a Chinese style omelette, popular in American and British Chinese restaurants, usually served with a soy based gravy. 

Chow mein is a Chinese dish of stir-fried noodles with leftover vegetables, meat or tofu, also popular in America and the UK.

I thought I'd combine both Egg Fu Yung and Chow Mein to use up some leftover cooked chicken, and some eggs that needed using.  This recipe would work well with leftover turkey after Christmas.

Serves 4

3 layers medium egg noodles

4 eggs

300g cooked chicken, turkey, pork, beef, or prawns

1 onion, peeled & thickly sliced

1 garlic clove, peeled & sliced

100g frozen peas

1 chicken stock cube

500ml recently boiled water

2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp turmeric (optional)

1/2 tsp paprika (optional)

1 tsp sesame oil

2 tbsp cornflour

Vegetable oil for frying 

Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions.  Leave to cool in a pan of cold water.

Heat one tablespoon of oil in a wok over a medium high heat.  

Beat the eggs, and fry in the wok like a omelette for a few minutes so you have a side plate sized disk of cooked egg. Flip the egg over carefully to ensure the egg is cooked through.  Slide the egg onto a plate, chop into bite sized pieces, and wipe the wok out with a piece of kitchen paper.

Heat another tablespoon of oil in the wok over a medium high heat.

Stir fry the onion for 1-2 minutes until it starts to soften or go golden brown.  Add the peas and garlic.

Crumble in the stock cube and melt in the oil and heat.  Add 500ml of hot water, oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, turmeric and paprika.  Stir well.

Mix the cornflour with two tablespoons of cold water.  When the 'gravy' is boiling, pour in the cornflour mixture whilst stirring to thicken it.

Drain the noodles and add to the gravy together with the meat or prawns, and chopped egg.  Mix well and serve.

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Air Fryer Brussel Sprouts, Chestnuts, & Squash

I bought a pack of reduced 'Red Darling' brussel sprouts in Aldi a few weeks ago to decorate our Christmas wreath, but had quite a lot left over.

I'd bought Aldi Whole Chestnuts around the same time, and had half a small pumpkin that needing using too. So I thought I'd toss them all in the air fryer.

If you like kale crisps, this is definitely one for you, as the outer leaves go lovely and crispy.

Serves 2

200g ready to eat chestnuts

200g trimmed brussel sprouts, halved

200g cubed squash (butternut squash, pumpkin)

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

A large pinch of salt.

Place all the ingredients into a air fryer liner, and toss well to coat in the oil.

Air fry at 180C for 8 minutes, stir everything around, then air fry for another 8 minutes.

I was going to make hummus to serve this on but ran out of time, so instead made a hot salad with some lettuce and thinly sliced onion.  I made a tahini dressing with 2 tbsp tahini, 4 tbsp kefir (or plain yoghurt), and crushed garlic.

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Pickled Red Cabbage Salad

Pickled cabbage is a sugar free alternative to traditional braised red cabbage served with the Christmas roast.  The mild vinegary tang works well with roast turkey, roast pork, or roast lamb.

Serves 4 

Half a red cabbage, cored, quartered & thinly sliced

Half an onion, quartered & thinly sliced

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 big pinches of salt

Put all the ingredients into a bowl and mix with your fingers, scrunching and rubbing the ingredients together.

Leave for as long as you can, ideally overnight, but it can be eaten within 10 minutes of making it you like crunchy vegetables.

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Sesame Prawn Toast

I resisted the urge to buy some half price raw prawns in Aldi last week, and then saw a recipe online for Sesame Prawn Toasts. So when Aldi had some more half price prawns yesterday (and three tuna steaks - straight in the freezer), I grabbed them for my protein obsessed 17 year old son.

Makes 12

3 slices of bread

175g raw prawns

1 medium free range egg

1cm root ginger, finely gated

1 small garlic clove, peeled and crushed

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 spring onion, chopped into 1cm rounds

Sesame seeds

Sesame oil

Light olive or vegetable oil for frying

Whizz the prawns, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and spring onion together in a mini food processor.

Drizzle sesame oil on each side of the slices of bread.

Divide the prawn paste between the slices of bread and spread smoothly right to the edges.  The two recipes I looked at said to cut the crusts off, and to use white bread, but I left the crusts off and used light wholemeal bread.  Sprinkle the prawn paste with sesame seeds.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat.  If you have a larger non-stick frying pan that will fit more than one slice of bread, add 1 tsp oil per slice.

Fry topping side up for 1.5-2 minutes until the bottom is golden brown.  Lift the slice of bread up with a fish slice and pour in another 1 tsp of oil, then carefully flip it prawn paste side down into the hot oil.  Cover the pan with a lid or plate and fry for 1-5-2 minutes until prawn paste is golden brown.

Cut each slice of bread into quarters.  If the prawn paste looks slightly undercooked (grey rather than pale pink) when you cut up the toast, just fry again for another minute or microwave all four quarters for 1 minute.

Sesame Prawn Toasts can be cooked in an air fryer.  Drizzle the bread with sesame oil as above then toast  in the air-fryer for 3 minutes at 200°C until one side is golden. Spread the prawn paste on the untoasted side of the bread followed by the sesame seeds.  Cut into quarters and arrange as many as you can in the air fryer basket. Cook for 12 minutes at 180°C until golden brown.

Serve warm with sweet chilli sauce and/or soy sauce for dipping.

Can be reheated in the air fryer - 5 minutes at 180C. And can be frozen and reheated in the air fryer from frozen - 10 minutes at 180C.

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Pigs in Blankets Swirls

I started off thinking I was going to make Pigs in Blankets Sausage Rolls.  There are so many recipes out there, with red onion chutney, with cranberry sauce, with Camembert or Brie, with Camembert & Brie and Red Onion Chutney or Cranberry Sauce. But I thought I'd keep mine traditional with just sausagemeat and bacon, and opted for a swirl as I thought it less fiddly.

As ready rolled puff pastry is often vegan, it should be possible to make a vegan/vegetarian version of these with vegetarian sausages and vegetarian bacon.

Makes 18

320g pack ready rolled puff pastry

300g pack streaky bacon

6 sausages

Remove the sausages from their casing by squeezing or cutting off and mash together.  I bought Co-op Irresistible Cumberland Sausages and found the casing incredibly soft so just squished them together with my fingers.

Roll the pastry out on it's greaseproof paper on a chopping board.

Spread the sausagemeat evenly all over the pastry, right up to the edges.

Cover the sausagemeat with strips of streaky bacon in the direction you are going to roll (this makes slicing easier), spacing them out evenly and again right up to what will be the ends of your roll.  I rolled the long side to make smaller swirls, so made sure I had a slice of bacon right up to the left and right hand side.

Carefully roll up the pastry like an Artic Roll.

Slice into 2cm rounds with a sharp knife.  If the greaseproof paper the pastry came on has not been too damaged/cut in the process, arrange the swirls on this on a large flat baking tray or on new piece if needed with a bit of space between them.

Bake at 180C for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.  Best eaten warm, but my son was very happy to eat cold swirls for breakfast on his way into college.

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