Always burning your tongue after adding too much chilli or can you never quite get the kick that you want? Ellie and Robbie tell all about chilli hotness in this Audioboo.
The next few recipes in our Hearty Food section are pastry dishes, so now is the time to practice and hone your skills. In this Audioboo Ellie teaches Ingrid how to make the perfect pastry and reveals all of her secret pastry making tips.
Cooking time: Serves 3.
90 minutes.
This stew has rich, fresh flavours of Portuguese food; chorizo and lemon, with a sweet kick of honey. The fresh tomatoes that sit on top, brown in the oven, adding a lovely roasted taste. The perfect meal for a cold winters day – enjoy.
Listen to the podcast where Ellie and Robbie talk you through the recipe:
1 ½ tbsp (22ml) olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or crushed
300 ml (10 fl oz) stock (3/4 tsp bouillon or other stock cube dissolved in 300ml boiling water)
300g (10 ½ oz) tomatoes chopped in half
2 red peppers or sweet peppers (the long thin ones that look like a giant chilli), sliced into approximately 1cm thick slices.
400g (14 oz) tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed under cold water
1/3 fresh chilli
1 tsp ground coriander
3/4 tsp cumin
½ tsp paprika (optional)
¼ tsp cinnamon
Juice of ½ a lemon (approximately 1 tbsp)
200g (7 oz) chorizo slices, chopped in half
1 tsp honey
A bunch of spinach, washed (optional)
Non-stick frying pan
Oven-proof casserole dish
Fry the onions in the olive oil in the frying pan on a medium heat for about 10 minutes until they are translucent.
Add garlic and cook for another minute.
Add peppers and fry for 10 minutes until softened. Add the lemon juice, chickpeas, chorizo, stock, chilli, spices and honey.
Preheat the oven to 180 centigrade.
Brush the inside of the casserole dish with a little oil and warm the casserole dish on the hob.
Transfer the stew from the frying pan into the casserole dish and bring up to a simmer.
Arrange the tomatoes, which have been cut in half face up (cut side up) on top of the stew so they cover it as completely as possible.
Brush the tomatoes with a little olive oil and put in the oven without a lid for about 45 minutes, the tomatoes will begin to brown nicely on top.
Remove from the oven and serve with potatoes or rice.
You can listen to this recipe’s podcast on the player or alternatively you can save the mp3 by right clicking and “saving as” on the download link below.
In this Audioboo Ellie and Robbie give tips on how to go about chopping onions without having to run away crying. Handy advice as onions are a staple ingredient in most dishes.
Cooking time: 90 minutes.
Makes 12 mini quiches
I created the recipe for these lovely mini quiches years ago and have made them for practically every party I have held. A twist on your average quiche, the tomato cuts through the richness and they’re vegetarian so everyone’s happy. They can be made in advance and frozen. You can also make this as a large quiche (see below for instructions for this variation).
Listen to the podcast where Ellie and Ingrid talk you through the recipe:
Pastry
110g (4oz) plain flour
55g (2oz) butter
Approximately 30ml (2 tbsp) water
A pinch of salt
Filling
2 large onions, chopped
1 large clove of garlic, finely chopped
15g (½ oz) Butter
1 tsp olive oil
1 x 390g tin or tub chopped tomatoes
55g (2oz) cheddar cheese or other hard, mild yellow cheese
salt and pepper
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp chilli powder
1 egg
100 ml single cream
Large non-stick saucepan with a lid
Pattie tin
Add the water to a freezer-proof tub and place in the freezer to cool in preparation for making the pastry.
In a largish bowl, make the pastry by chopping the butter into small cubes and mixing it into the flour and salt. Then use your fingers to rub the butter and flour together to break the butter down into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Take the water out of the freezer (it should be cool, not frozen hard) and add to the pastry a little at a time. Stir the water into the flour with a knife; you will know when you have added enough water because when you stir, it should form into a dough. Try if possible to ‘handle’ the pastry as little as possible, i.e. only stir it as much as you actually need to, to bring it together into a dough.
Wrap the pastry loosely in cling film and put it on a plate in the fridge to cool for at least half an hour. I always try to form it into a fairly flat shape (max 3cm thick) before putting it into the fridge, as it is easier to roll out when it comes out of the fridge.
Preheat the oven to gas mark 6 (200 centigrade).
Heat the butter in the non-stick saucepan, add onions and garlic, and a pinch of salt and fry on a medium to low heat for 20 minutes, covered. You want the onions to become really nice and soft and translucent (go see-through), but not too brown.
Butter the patty tin.
Take the pastry out of the fridge. Cover the surface that you are going to use to roll out the pastry with flour and sprinkle the rolling pin with flour. Put the pastry on top of the floured surface and roll the pastry from the front to the back of the surface. Turn the pastry around clockwise by about 90 degrees and roll again from the front to the back of the surface, and then repeat this until the pastry is about 2-3mm thick. Using the cookie cutter, cut rounds of pastry and place into the holes in the patty tin. Clump together the remaining pastry and roll it out again. Put the pattie tin back in the fridge for about 20 minutes for the pastry to cool again.
When the onions have been cooking for about 20 minutes, add tinned tomato and spices, stir and cook uncovered, on a medium heat for a further 10 minutes to reduce some of the liquid from the tomatoes. Turn off the heat and add grated cheese. Stir well so the cheese melts into the mixture; it will cool the mixture down a bit. Take off the heat and let it cool for 5 mins.
In the meantime, in a separate vessel, whisk together eggs and single cream. Then stir this into the tomato mixture.
Take the filled pattie tin out of the fridge and fill each pastry round with some of the tomato mixture. Put patty tin in the pre-heated oven on a pre-heated metal tray for 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven, leave to rest for 5 minutes then remove the quiches from the tin.
You can serve these straight away or leave them to cool. You can also freeze the quiches once they are cool, then when you need them, thaw them and reheat them in the oven.
Variation 1: large quiche
To make one large quiche, follow the instructions as above for making the pastry. Then, instead of cutting lots of small pastry rounds, roll the rolled out pastry onto the rolling pin and transfer it onto a 23cm, loose-bottomed flan tin which has been well buttered. Gently press the pastry into the quiche tin and trim off the excess pastry. Refrigerate the pastry as above for at least 20 minutes.
Remove the pastry case form the fridge and line with a sheet of greaseproof paper, weigh this down with cooking beans, dried beans or pasta. Bake for 10 minutes at gas 6 (200 centigrade), then remove the beans (or equivalent) and cook for a further 5 minutes. Make the filling as above and fill the part basked pastry case with filling. Cook for 45 minutes at gas 6 (200 centigrade).
You can listen to this recipe’s podcast on the player or alternatively you can save the mp3 by right clicking and “saving as” on the download link below.
