Spicy Chicken Skewers

Hey guys, here's another recipe for you all.  These chicken skewers are quick and easy to make, you literally only need 4 ingredients.  On top of that, they're super tasty as well, so why not give them a try?

The ingredients you will need are:

• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 peppers (and other vegetables if you like)
• 5 tablespoons natural yoghurt
• 1/2 tube of chilli paste

These quantities serve two people, if you want more or less skewers the the quantities are pretty easy to adjust.

1. Firstly, work out roughly how many wooden skewers you're going to use and soak them in a bowl or washing up basin full of cold water.  This will stop them burning in the oven.

2. Next, make the marinade by putting the yoghurt into a dish and adding the chilli paste. The paste I used is from Schwartz and it or something similar should hopefully be available next to the herbs and spices in most supermarkets.  I also add a bit of chilli powder and some tabasco at this point, but if you don't like your food to be too spicy then leave the marinade as it is.

3. Cut the chicken into small pieces and mix into the marinade.  Remember to wash hands or utensils thoroughly if they have touched raw meat.

4. Cut up the peppers into small pieces and add them to the marinade as well.  For variety, you could add in other vegetables, like courgette, cherry tomatoes or small wedges of red onion, or whatever you like best.

5. Mix everything together and leave to stand for a while if you have the time, to allow all the lovely spicy flavours to work their way into the meat and veg.  Put the dish in the fridge to marinate if you're leaving it for more than 15 minutes.

6. Pat the skewers dry and push the chicken and pepper pieces on to them, alternating between meat and veg.  Place on a baking tray or a grill tray with a dish underneath so your oven doesn't get ruined by drips.

7. Cook in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for 10-15 minutes, turning once halfway through cooking.

I appear to have taken more photos than usual for this post, so I'm sorry if that creates the illusion that these are complicated and time-consuming to make, they really only take about half an hour!  I normally serve them with my spicy potato wedges but I realised too late that I only had one potato in the cupboard (that was attempting to grow mutant baby potatoes), so I made some rice instead which complemented the spicy chicken very well.  For a lighter meal, the chicken skewers are perfect on their own or with some dips - enjoy!

Turkey Stroganoff

Looking over my blog, I've realised that a lot of my meals are tomato based or have tomato sauces - I know how to cook with tomatoes and I know what goes with them, so I tend to revert back to them maybe more than I should.  This week, I've decided to break free from my tomatoey comfort zone and increase my cooking repertoire, starting with this turkey stroganoff recipe that I found in an Asda magazine that my Mum gave me. I'd eaten stroganoff before at my job waitressing for weddings, as they often did a mushroom stroganoff for the vegetarian option. Believe it or not, you rapidly get sick of the usual wedding main course of chicken stuffed with haggis if you have to eat it every single day...  I'm pleased to say my stroganoff turned out as nice as my work's standards, so I was pretty proud!         

                    

 

 For the stroganoff you will need:

• 1 turkey breast per person
• 1 onion
• 250g mushrooms (this is Asda's suggestion but I feel that weighing mushrooms is going too far, use however many you want)
• 2 peppers
• 1 chicken stock cube, dissolved in 150ml boiling water
• 1 tbsp coarse grain mustard
• 100g soured cream
• 1 tbsp butter

1. Firstly, prepare all your ingredients.  Finely dice the onion, slice the mushrooms and peppers.  Always wash or wipe mushrooms before use as they tend to have dirt on them.  Cut the turkey into strips or cubes.

 2. Heat some sunflower oil in a large frying pan or wok and cook the onion until it is soft.  Add the butter and the mushrooms and cook until all the juices come out of the mushrooms and start bubbling, as in the picture.

 3. Add the peppers and cook over a high heat until the juices evaporate.  Tip all the vegetables into a bowl.

4. Add a little more oil to the pan and cook the turkey pieces for 3-4 minutes.  Do this in two batches if the turkey won't all fit properly in the pan.  Add the stock and mustard and simmer until the liquid has reduced,  Asda suggests this will take 5 minutes but it took more like 10 for me.  I apologise for the terrible quality of the photo of this stage, this is the only one I managed to take that wasn't entirely obscured by dramatic steam.

 5. Return the vegetables to the pan and give them a few minutes to reheat.  Stir in the soured cream and heat until it is gently bubbling.

This meal is perfect served with rice.  I feel that it would be nice with mashed potatoes too, but I eat potatoes with anything so I may be biased!

Garlic and Rosemary Roast Potatoes

These roast potatoes are probably my favourite thing to cook and eat, as they're just so ridiculously packed full of flavour.  They are also a favourite with my friends, my friend Ruaridh scrapes the roasting dish clean every time I make them!  They're pretty easy to make, all you need is:

• Potatoes - I use about three per person, depending on size
• Half a bulb of garlic
• Rosemary (fresh or dried)
• Sea salt
• Sunflower oil
• Garlic salt, dried basil and oregano (optional)

1. Peel the potatoes and chop into smallish pieces.  I generally half the potato and then cut that half into quarters.  Boil the chopped potatoes for about 5 minutes, then drain.

 2. While the potatoes are boiling, crush and finely chop 4 garlic cloves.  Crush the remaining cloves and remove the skin, but don't chop them up.

 3. Prepare the roasting dish.  This process is layered like a sandwich - first put in a drizzle of oil, then add the salt and some herbs until it looks like the picture below.  If using fresh rosemary, tear it into little pieces and reserve some whole stalks for putting on top.

 4. Put the potatoes on top of the herbs, and add the garlic, evenly dispersing the whole garlic cloves throughout the dish.  Mix everything together with a spatula, then add another sprinkle of salt and herbs on top and complete the layering process with another drizzle of oil.

5. Put the dish in the oven at about 200 degrees for 40 minutes to an hour, depending on how crispy you want your potatoes.  Take the dish out once or twice and move everything about with the spatula and add more oil if it looks a bit dry.

 6. Your finished potatoes should look like this, but possibly less yellow due to the flash being off on my camera.

 I had my potatoes with cajun chicken, but they go well with lots of things - a roast dinner, pork chops, chicken pies, whatever you like.  Leftovers are really nice heated up the next day with some little bits of bacon.

Here they are as part of the Christmas dinner Tetley and I made for our friends, they are perfect for any occasion!