Lone Star Chilli and Cheese Bread – yeehah!

Jon has been nagging me to have a go at this idea since we left Houston six years ago…. we used to go to this amazing supermarket called ‘Central Market’ and he used to buy a loaf of this bread each week, without fail. They baked it fresh on the premises and it was incredibly yummy. Now that I feel more competent at making bread I thought I would have a go!
Lone Star Chilli and Cheese Bread

I used the same method and bread ingredients as in my previous ‘Breadilicious’ post: http://kidandkitchen.com/2011/08/20/breadelicious/ ;apart from I used 100% white bread flour, no granary this time

I added 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar and 1 large jalapeno from our garden (deseeded and finely chopped) to the main mix – not the sponge.

I now have a very happy husband (and daughter)…. although a fantastic result at Weight Watchers is looking less likely now! Have frozen the rest to help resist temptation and to prevent the scales from breaking!

Lone Star Bread

A slice of pure heaven!

The amazing Maize Maze, a huge downpour and some smoky cobs!

Last week we were treated to a visit from my sister-in-law and two of Abbie’s cousins; Molly and Jessica. Jon, Abbie and I had passed the Maize Maze so many times this holiday that I thought it was time we finally took the plunge and visted. Have to say I was really impressed with how much there is to do for children; the only downside was that Pip and I were deemed ‘too old’ to jump on the huge inflatables.

Molly and Abbie leading the way through the maze in drier times

We set off into the maze with the fairy trail in hand – you have to collect letters at various stamping points and then scramble them to tell you an ingredient for a potion at the end for a prize! We used Jon’s ingenious method of always going right to make our way around and quickly found ourselves bang in the middle…. that is when it happened. The heavens opened! Rain poured down with such a force that it felt as if someone was actually pouring buckets of water on us. No problem.. I shouted for Jon to get the raincoats out of his backpack.

‘Oh….’ he said… ‘they’re in the car!’. To make matters worse he then looked in his bag and discovered that he had brought his raincoat with him! We were not impressed, but we wrapped Jessie and Abbie up and tried again to make our way out of the maze. It was not a day to wear a thin, white blouse….. all at the prize booth had a good laugh at the lot of us and we obviously looked very pathetic as even Pip and I were given a lolly and packet of seeds! Jon was not permitted a lolly after we told the woman in charge of his error!

Should we forgive Jon?

So to commemorate our wet, but hilarious afternoon, I made sweetcorn (from the maize maze and our garden) with chipotle butter. The butter can be made with chipotle pickle/chipotle hot sauce, mashed into unsalted butter, with a little Maldon salt added. Then refigerate and smear on top of corn on the cob (boil for 10 mins). Grated cheese optional. Smoky and warming….

Making chipotle butter

Our corn is stacked!

What a lot of heat!! Chilli festival at Felbrigg Hall….

Beautiful chillies

Mum in the midst of the stalls

As you might have noticed, we love our spice in this household. My husband has been making his own personal countdown to the chilli festival which, for him, is one of the annual highlights of the summer holidays. For the past few years, Felbrigg Hall, here in North Norfolk, has hosted chilli growers and producers of chilli products from all over the UK. You might think that an event such as this would have a poor turnout… if so you couldn’t be more wrong!! Every year the event has become more and more popular and this year, with the temperatures rocketing, people turned out in their hundreds to sample some of the UKs hottest, smokiest and most deicious chilli products.

NEED WATER NOW!

We arrived before lunch and quickly set to making a picnic. Smoked salmon tart, pakoras, bhajis, thai food and freshly squeezed lemonade were all gathered from nearby stalls. Abbie tried everything… I was really impressed, although the draw of playing in the woods was too great!

My favourite part of lunch has to be the tofu and green bean red curry from this stall – AMAZING flavours!

Truly fantastic Thai food

Mention also has to go to the venison, chocolate and sloe gin pie from these master pie makers… delicious!

Master pie makers!

lemonade and an amzing venison pie!

We buy loads of these products - superb chilli growers

Tried a hot sauce (like Tabasco) here that nearly blew my head off – it was called ‘Ultra Heat’- no kidding! Also saw one called the Bullet.. bullet attached inside which was a tiny spoon about the size of a petit pois – this was the quantity needed for a meal for four. I bought a slightly tamer hot sauce made from chipotles, which are smoked jalapenos. We also bought a jalapeno plant, grown by Felbrigg growers, in order to have a go at making our own chipotles at home… watch this space!

How many hot sauces??

In eager anticipation of her new TV show…. Thomasina Miers’ ‘Mexican scrambled eggs with chorizo’ – a surefire family hit!

Have to admit that not I, but my wonderful husband, Jon, made these for us all for lunch – I am a lucky woman! Jon loves cooking from ‘Mexican Food made Simple’ by Thomasina Miers and we are both really excited about her new TV show starting this summer! We are trying to introduce Abbie to some Mexican food (as we love it) and try to give her something that is familiar (scrambled eggs/chorizo) whilst also introducing new flavours like chilli. As you can see, we didn’t have any problems in convincing her of the merits of these dishes!

A happy burrito muncher!

It really was incredibly tasty and a geat adaptation to our usual ‘Huevos Rancheros’.

Mexican Scrambled Eggs with chorizo Serves 2 adults and 1 child
5 corn tortillas
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 white onion, diced
100g uncooked chorizo sausage
1 deseeded and diced red jalapeno pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 plum tomatoes, quartered
6 eggs, lightly beaten
25ml milk
50g Pecorino cheese, grated
salt and pepper
chopped, fresh corriander

• Heat olive oil in large frying pan and when hot, add onion, chorizo and chilli.  Cook for 5 mins and then add garlic. Stir fry for about 10 mins until onion is translucent and chorizo has released fat into the pan
• Scoop out seeds from tomato and add to pan – cook for a few mins to warm through
• Whisk eggs, milk and cheese together, season with s&p and stir in half of the corriander. Add egg mixture to the sizzling chorizo, turn heat right up and cook as you like your eggs; runny or set – be aware that they carry on cooking after you have turned the heat off.
• Serve scatter with other bit of corriander, in warm corn tortillas

Scrambletastic with warm corn tortillas

Korean Keema….. the perfect end to a perfect day cooked by my near-perfect husband!

I am currently getting our upstairs bedroom and bathroom ready for Abbie to move into on her 4th birthday – not long now! The job at hand at the moment is painting 2 of the bathroom walls ‘disco glitter pink’… and I can only get to it when Abbie is sleeping, so whilst I painted… my wonderful husband cooked Nigella’s ‘Korean Keema’ from her most recent book ‘Kitchen’.

It uses the Korean chilli paste known as Gochujang paste, which we managed to find on Norwich market, in an Asian foodstore.  We have used this before, when making Korean squid from the same book and now need to find more recipes which call for it as have a tub to use.  This is definitely one recipe which we will be making again… if you make it don’t be put off by the turkey mince smell (not pleasant), the spicy hot, smoky, sweet flavour of the paste masks any turkey mince nastiness!

The finished dish – next time we’ll use sushi rice, but two meals in one day didn’t seem like a good idea!

We should have served the keema over the top of sushi rice, but having had sushi for lunch… we dipped pittas in instead! I also put a dollop of sour cream with mine.

 

Korean Keema (Nigella Lawson) – served 2 generously

 

250g turkey mince

6 thin/ 3 fat spring onions, chopped

125g frozen petit pois

1 tsp veg oil

2 tablspn rice wine

1-2 tablspn chopped corriander

 

For the sauce:

2 tblsmn gochujang paste

1 tblspn honey

1 tblspn rice wine

2 tablspn soy sauce

 

• Whisk together sauce ingredients and stir in turkey mince – leave to steep for 5 mins
• Heat up wok (while heating up, pour boiling water from a kettle over the frozen peas in a sieve) and add oil to wok, add peas and spring onions – stir fry for 3-4 mins
• Add turkey and it sauce and stir fry for 4-5 mins until cooked
• Add 2 tblspn rice wine adn 4 tblspn water to remainder of sauce and empty into pan, stir fry for 30secs more or until piping hot
• Serve over rice with a generous sprinkling of chopped corriande

What a fantastic dish – a real winner for Friday night after work or when you need something quick to make that satisifes aching bones (something I am encountering more and more these days!)

King prawns with garlic and chilli – so good I made it twice!

Ready, steady, cook! The basic ingredients…

Tonight had to be a quick one….. I am exhausted…. Jon was out running a debate…. Abbie now in bed…..Tesco have delivered…. washing is in machine….. need wine asap!  I went for an old stand-by, ‘Chilli and garlic prawn’ beacuse it is delicious and primarily quick!  Jon came in about 45mins after I’d cooked and eaten mine and looked so forlorn that I made it again!  As Abbie would say… ‘Two thumbs up, times two!!’

Ingredients for one – splash of cold-pressed rapeseed oil (or olive oil), 1/2 red chilli, big squeeze of garlic puree, 8 huge, frozen raw king prawns, slosh of dry white wine, pinch of Maldon salt, sprinkle of finely chopped corriander (cilantro).

• Heat oil, add chopped chilli, garlic and stir, add frozen prawns (fine to cook from frozen as long as they are raw)
• Keep stirring until the prawns start to turn pink on both side and add a slug of white wine (I use dry vermouth if I am out of wine)
• Add a pinch of salt, stir and let it bubble down until the prawns are pink and cooked. Pour into a bowl and serve, sprinkling over the corriander (parsley would also do here)
• Accompany with a nice, crusty bit of bread, drizzled with a little oil, to soak up the juices

a little bit of prep - chop the chilli

add the wine and let it bubble down...

served with a piece of toasted sourdough (courtesy of my Mum)

The windowsill of life…. I feel a song coming on!

‘From the day we arrive on the planet, And blinking, step into the sun, There’s more to see than can ever be seen, More to do than can ever be done….’ (Tim Rice)
This definitely resonates with me this week…. in a week full of parents’ evenings, finshing off work, getting ready for the holidays is there any time to grow plant or get readyso we actually have a summer harvest! Here’s proof that you don’t need immense gardening skills or equipment to get growing.  Currently on the windowsill are; some chitting pink fur apples, old clean tins containing basil and corriander (I’ve heard that the metal gets hot on the windowsill and helps them to grow), two different varieties of chilli peppers waiting for the greenhouse to arrive and Abbie’s tomato plants from a grow-your-own pack in Sainsbury’s (likewise needing a greenhouse). 

Have to say that looking at this every morning and afternoon makes me feel as if we are really nearing summer now… even if the weatherman continues to be a burgeoner of doom!

It's the windowsill of life.... and it moves us all

Jon's chillis

Abbie's tomatoes

Basil and Corri!

A child-friendly chilli for a chilly day!

The sodden patio

What a horrible, rainy day!  The camelia may be blooming, but my family definitely isn’t. Abbie has a runny nose and a chesty cough, Jon is recovering from said-same cough (and now off to play rugby in the rain) and I have come back from work feeling depressed by the weather and with a cracking headache…..   so to enter the house and be presented with a warming, cardamon and chorizo-scented bowl of Nigella’s chilli on a jaket potato was heaven! Abbie and Jon had already eaten there’s – this one is great for children and adults as the hotness is reduced, but the flavour is still there….  if you are a chilli freak, like my husband, add some dried chilli flakes.

I’m afraid I gobbled it up instantly and forgot to take a photo, but here is Nigella making it in the states on Fox news! 

Nigella Lawson’s Quick Chilli – from Nigella Express

Nigella’s Quick Chilli – serves 4
150g chorizo sausage, chopped – again, the fresh chorizo sausage I have used before can be used here.
500g minced beef
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 cardamom pods, bruised
1 x 500g jar chunky veg pasta sauce
1 x 390g can mixed spicy beans

2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
A good pinch of chilli flakes (optional)

Heat the sliced chorizo in heavy saucepan over a medium heat and cook until a little crispy. Add the mince and cook until browned.
Stir in the spices and cook for a further couple of minutes. Add the pasta sauce, chilli beans, chilli sauce and chilli flakes (there’s no such thing as too much chilli!).
Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat and simmer for 20-30 mins.

We serve it with some chopped corriander on top, and a dollop of sour cream

Superman is ill – chilli needed!

In Tesco’s when I receive a pathetically voiced call from Jon. He is poorly….. I am instructed to ‘buy treats to make me feel better’. So 1) lucozade, 2) fizzy cola bottles and 3) malt loaf are purchased and I speed home to make prawn and coriander rolls from Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries. Full of chilli and bound to clear out his sinuses.
Forgot to take a picture of the final product as had had a glass of wine and talked with best mate Annie whilst making- they were hungrily gobbled once made.  I’ve never had any luck when frying food like this; usually having been told how easy it is by Nigella (who I usually love), but can’t believe it – these worked! No problems!   They were delicious  – didn’t have any iceberg so we used Romaine lettuce.  Super hot….. super delicious  – will definitely make again.

Had another glass of wine – Villa Maria NZ Sauvignon Blanc – and decided to have a slice of leftover Lemon Demerera Cake – again Nigel. Great cake in that it keeps for a week; ate with greek yog; perfect combination.

Recipe isn’t on the internet, but get yourself a copy of this fab book for not a lot at Amazon; http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0007199481/ref=cm_rdp_product

Have bought simple things for Jon to put together for us all tomorrow lunchtime while I’m at work. More about ridiculous cereal selction tomorrow…….. night!