Lay the table » chilli

Spicy carribean chicken stew

Becs — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 12:23:10 +0000

Well hello there! This place is starting to look like a bit of a graveyard recently hasn’t it? I haven’t updated for a while and I don’t really have an excuse except that I’ve felt a bit lacklustre about blogging and I’ve lacked any imagination or creativity to make some really nice stuff for the blog. That, and last weekend I was suffering from a monumental hangover last weekend after my staff party. I also managed to lose my house and car keys resulting in epic stress on my part. I haven’t found them by the way but fortunately I had a spare car key, but it’s going to cost me the best part of £200 to get a replacement one. Not what you need around Christmas time really is it?

Anyway, back to the cooking, that’s what you’re really here for isn’t it? So if you’re looking for a wonderful winter warmer, you can’t go wrong with this. It’s got spicy flavours, sweetness from the coconut milk and sweet potato, and the stodge to keep you feeling full through those cold winter nights.

I got the recipe from my friend Jamie, who lived with a load of guys I was great friends with. One evening I was round at theirs and Jamie said I had to try this stew he’d made. I was hooked on the first spoonful and had to get the recipe. I love it because it’s so simple, and you could use up some chicken leftovers instead of using chicken thighs if you want.

The best bit is you can mix up the recipe however you like and use vegetables that are in season. For example, you can add in a bit of pumpkin but here they only tend to be available around Halloween.

The key ingredient is a packet soup would you believe! It’s Grace Cock Soup – I picked it up from Asda, but if you’d got a local shop that sells Carribean food they’re almost guaranteed to have it. It’s like a spicy chicken noodle soup. We also put a scotch bonner chilli in there, pierced to realease the spice but not sliced – it’s going to blow your face off if you do! Just take it out at the end so no-one gets a nasty surprise.

{Serves 4}

Ingredients

4 boneless chicken thighs
1 onion
10g butter
1 pack Grace cock soup mix
1 red pepper
400ml coconut milk
1 small butternut squash
1 sweet potato
1 scotch bonnet

Instruction

Roughly chop the onion. Peel the butternut squash and sweet potato and chop into bite size pieces. Core the pepper and cut into strips. Chop the chicken thighs into bite size pieces too.
In a casserole dish, melt the butter over a low heat and add the onion. Place the lid on, and then stirring occasionally, allow the onion to soften for about a couple of minutes, then add the pepper and soften for another three minutes.
Add in the chicken pieces and cook for another couple of minutes.
Pierce the scotch bonnet chilli with a fork or skewer then add it to the casserole dish along with the sweet potato and butternut squash. Add about a mugful of boiling water and tip in the cock soup mix, stirring to dissolve.
Add in the coconut milk, season and gently bring it to the boil. Once boiling, turn down the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the butternut squash and sweet potato are cooked, stirring occasionally.
Remove the scotch bonnet. Serve in bowls with some nice crusty bread.

Chilli and garlic olive oil bread

Becs — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:27:11 +0000

I am grumpy. I hate winter and now the nights are drawing in it makes it even more difficult to execute a blog post from start to finish during the week. So I have to use the flash and tungsten light bulbs and all my photos look, well, shitty.

I can promise that my bread is delicious, and it’s well worth taking the time to let the chilli and garlic flavours infuse into the oil – possibly overnight. I left mine for a couple of hours and I got a quite mild taste but could see potential for flavour development.

This bread’s a bit of a mixture of ideas and recipes. I really love making Steph from Clockwork Lemon’s focaccia but looked around for some possible other olive oil recipes to use and found this one for Pompe à l’Huile and make hybrid mixture of the two; that is to say I used more of the ingredient make up of the pompe recipe but more of the technique of the focaccia, leaving it to develop in the fridge overnight rather than making a poolish. I found the dough very very slippery, so I added more flour than was specified in the pompe recipe.

The resultant bread is sweet with a hint of spicy flavour and gentle garlic overtones. I took it to work where it was dipped in balsamic and (more!) olive oil but Mr Lay the table made some delicious salami sandwiches with it.

{Makes one loaf}

Ingredients

500g white bread flour
250ml water
9g fresh yeast
70g granulated sugar
175ml olive oil
2tsp salt
4 garlic cloves
3 long chillies (2 red, 1 green)

Instructions

To make the chilli and garlic oil, take one of the chillies and slice lengthways. Peel the garlic and press gently with the side of a knife. Place in a small saucepan with the olive oil. Warm VERY gently for a couple of minutes and then take off the heat. Leave to infuse for an hour or two, or overnight in a container in the fridge. If you leave it overnight, remember to get it out of the fridge and let the oil get to room temperature before using it.
In a large bowl (or mixer) add the flour, water and sugar together and crumble in the yeast.
Strain the olive oil to remove the chilli and any seeds plus the garlic. Then add a couple of tablespoons at a time into the dough, ensuring it’s well mixed before adding more.
Once it’s all well mixed, knead by hand (ok, you can use the mixer but I think you should put some love into this!) for about 10 minutes.
Place in a bowl and cover with cling film. Leave for an hour to rise and then gently press down into the dough with your knuckles to flatten.
Make dough ball and then press into a flattish circle and place on a baking tray. Peel and thinly slice the garlic and chop the two chillies. Decorate the top of the dough with the garlic and chilli slices and brush with olive oil.
Leave for 2 hours at room temparature, then cover loosely (to allow rise) with cling film and leave overnight in the fridge.
One hour before cooking, remove from the fridge and allow dough to come to room temperature. Preheat oven to 400°F/205°C and bake for around 25 minutes. To check whether it’s cooked, gently turn upside down and check the base to see whether it’s squishy or not. If it’s too squishy, it’s not cooked!
Leave to cool on a cooling rack

Blinis with Forman & Field London cure salmon

Becs — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 22:04:59 +0000

I was sent some smoked salmon by Forman & Field to try. I was wondering, could it be any better than normal smoked salmon? Well, yes it can actually. It has a gentle flavour which shows off the quality of the salmon and isn’t too salty. What better way to serve it than on some homemade blinis? Here I serve them with three flavoured types of creme fraiche: chilli and lemon, cucumber, horseradish.

{Makes 20}

30 mins – Prep time: 15 mins – Cooking time: 15 mins

Ingredients

1 quantity blinis
1 quantity Forman & Field London Cure Smoked Salmon 200g

For the lemom and chilli creme fraiche

3 big tablespoons creme fraiche
Rind ¼ lemon
2tsp lemon juice
½ chilli flakes
cracked black pepper for garnish

For the cucumber creme fraiche

3 big tablespoons creme fraiche
2cm thick slice cucumber

For the horseradish creme fraiche

3 big tablespoons creme fraiche
1tsp cream of horseradish
chives for garnish

Instructions

For the chilli and lemon creme fraiche: Mix the lemon, chilli and creme fraiche. Ideally leave for the flavour to develop for a couple of hours. Spread on a ⅓ of the blinis (roughly one large teaspoon per blini) and garnish with some cracked black pepper.
For the cucumber creme fraiche: Finely chop the cucumber and mix in with the creme fraiche. Spread on a ⅓ of the blinis (roughly one large teaspoon per blini).
For the horseradish creme fraiche: Mix the cream of horseradish with the cream of horseradish. Spread on a ⅓ of the blinis (roughly one large teaspoon per blini) and garnish with some finely chopped chives.

Chilli sauce showdown

Becs — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:35:19 +0000

My addiction to chilli sauce has slowly crept up on me. I was actually never really into spicy food that much until I went travelling, now i’m addicted to it! Chillies can help with pain relief, reduce inflammation and of course, help clear the sinuses.

In Thailand they serve a table sauce which is made from fish sauce with chillies used like you would soy sauce.

Fish sauce with chillies

Ingredients

8tbsp fish sauce
5 chillies (you may want more/less depending on what type you choose and how spicy you want your dish)
1tsp lemon juice

Instructions

Mix the fish sauce and lemon juice together
Chop the chillies and place in the mixture, leaving them to marinate (preferably overnight)
Spoon over your dish – goes great with pad thai, fried rice etc

Mild chilli sauce

If you want regular chilli sauces, there’s plenty of available in the shops. The most familiar one is probably sweet chilli dipping sauce. It goes with almost everything and isn’t too overpowering. Most suitable for prawn crackers and dim sum! I personally like the Blue Dragon one as it’s readily available in the supermarkets I shop at.

Medium chilli sauce

Had a taste of the chilli spice and want to step it up a heat level? We adore Lingham’s which my mum gave us to try – she used to have it in Singapore and we’re lucky that we found it in Wing Lee Hong Supermarket on Vicar Lane, Leeds. It’s got quite a sweet taste and medium strength so it won’t overpower your food but still give you a little kick. Chris loves it on chicken rice.

Hot chilli sauce

Now we’re talking! If you prefer some fire in your belly then hot hot chilli sauce is the only way forward. My chilli sauce of choice is the Flying Goose Brand Sriracha Sauce. I like it because it contains garlic as well and I tend to squeeze over just about anything I eat, including macaroni cheese! Be warned though, a little too much on the fork and your tongue won’t thank you for it!

I was inspired to write this post after finding this funny blog post from Hey Okay about The Food Pyramid. It through here that I discovered that there’s a Sriracha cookbook coming out! You can pre-order it from Amazon here: The Sriracha Cookbook: 50 ‘Rooster Sauce’ Recipes That Pack a Punch.

Super hot chilli sauce

If you really want to take the plunge you can enter the murky waters of the extra hot chilli sauce. We found Mr Singh’s whilst we were in Harvey Nichols. It really has the wow factor so I wouldn’t recommend dipping your dim sum in it, but it makes a great accompaniment to curries or mixed into a noodle dish. It’s a real lip tingler!

Make & Do: Chilli Strings

Becs — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:36:03 +0000

I bought a huge pack of chillies from the chinese supermarket and had loads left. Instead of letting them go to waste I decided to dry them out to use in the Alessi Chilli Scruncher my mum bought Chris for Christmas. They are really decorative too and brighten up the kitchen.

You will need…

Chillies
Strong cotton
Needle

Instructions

Take a long length of cotton and thread the needle so the thread is two strands thick. Make a big knot tying both the strands together.
One at a time, thread the chillies onto the string through the middle on the chilli. They tend to move around and all point in different directions.
When you’ve finished the string, make a knot leaving a large loop so you can hang the chillies up – then snip the needle off.
Hang up in your kitchen, sitting room – wherever is dry. They’ll start to go wrinkly after a week or so…If they go mouldy don’t eat them!!

Bang bang chips (chilli sesame chips)

Becs — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:10:16 +0000

A few years ago my friend Kyo took me to a chinese takeaway in Fratton (the type I usually despise with yellow and red signs) that served sesame chips. They are chips which are battered with chip shop batter and then sprinkled with sesame seeds and deep fried. You eat them with satay sauce. They must have been pretty good seeing as they’ve stuck in mind! I created my own “shoestring fries” version but oven baked them and added some chilli to spice things up a bit.

{Serves 2 as a side dish}

30mins – Prep time: 10 mins – Cooking time: 20mins

Ingredients

3 large white potatoes
6 tbsp chilli paste
About 6 tbsp sesame seeds
2tbsp sunflower oil
&fract12; salt

Instructions

Oven temp: 220°C/430°F

Pre-heat oven. Peel potatoes and slice lengthways into “shoestring” style chips. If you choose to make them thicker they may require a longer cooking time.
Dry potatoes out on kitchen towel, then place oil, salt and potatoes into a large plastic bag and shake vigourously.
Spread potatoes out onto a baking tray and place in the oven. Remove from oven after 5 minutes and shake the tray to prevent chips sticking and ruining the crispy texture.
After another 5 minutes, shake chips again. Using a pastry brush, brush chips with chilli paste and sprinkle half the sesame seeds over the top. Place back in the oven for another 5 minutes. Repeat. Serve.

1950′s recipe: Malaysian Jahor Laksa

Becs — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:13:43 +0000

With the new series of Mad Men just beginning, it seems like an excellent time to tell you about a recipe book I’ve inherited from my maternal grandmother. Published in 1951, the YWCA Cookery Book of Malaya is an amazing insight into advertising during that period. I often wonder if any of the shops listed are still in there in Singapore.

Anyway, since visiting Tampopo restaurant I’ve wanted to learn how to make my own laksa, a kind of curry spiced soup with noodles. Laksa originally refers to the noodles used, but over time has come to mean the soup. I took this recipe from the book, although I’ve tweaked it a fair bit; firstly the asian ingredients were listed with their malaysian names and it calls for “5 cents worth of shrimp paste” and a tahil (a chinese measurement) of beansprouts. It’s still fabulously tasty but just modernised a little.

{Serves 4}

Ingredients

For the paste

20g peanuts
1tbsp shrimp paste
1tsp turmeric
10 thai shallots
2 cloves garlic
3tsp dried chillies
1inch galangal
2 sticks fresh lemongrass
4tbsp oil

For the soup

200g king prawns
800ml coconut milk
40g beansprouts
60g medium egg noodles
1 large red chilli
A small handful of mint leaves
½ cucumber
½ lime

Ingredients

Finely chop all the paste ingredients (apart from the oil!). I use one of these classic choppers and it reduces chopping time to just a few minutes.
Take the cucumber and chop in half width ways, then cut into thin batons. Top and tail the fresh chilli and cut into rings.
Heat the oil in a wok until very hot, then fry the paste ingredients for 3-4 minutes, then stir in the coconut milk. Leave to simmer for 10 minutes.
While the laksa is cooking, cook the noodles in a separate pan according to the instructions.
When the laksa is done, add in the noodles, prawns and beansprouts and cook for a further 3 minutes.
Add in the cucumber and fresh chilli, then serve. Shred a little mint onto the top, but not too much, then add a squeeze of lime juice.

Thai prawn and mussel tom yam (hot & sour) soup

Becs — Tue, 18 May 2010 17:45:37 +0000

This is one of my absolute favourite things to eat, plus it’s really healthy too. I learned to make this whilst I was travelling, at a little place called Pum’s on Kho Phi Phi island (famous for its satellite island which you may have seen on The Beach, and which was almost completely destroyed by the tsunami in 2004. If you ever get a chance to go there, please go and support the people whose lives were affected by this tragedy). This soup isn’t so much sour as zingy – make sure you use fresh kaffir lime leaves, it really does make a difference to the taste.

{Serves 2}

Ingredients

600ml boiling water
100g cooked mussels (shells removed)
8 cooked king prawns
4 birds eye chillies
1 stalk of lemon grass
4 kaffir karrif lime leaves
4 thai shallots (if you can’t find these, replace with ¼ onion)
4 slices galangal (if you can’t find this, replace with ginger)
4tbsp lemon juice
4tbsp fish sauce
2tbsp chilli paste
2tbsp sugar

Instructions

Add all the ingredients except the prawns and the mussels into a pan and bring to the boil. Simmer for two minutes.
Add in the prawns and mussels and simmer for 1 minute longer. You’re done! (Yes, it’s that simple!) Don’t eat anything except the shallots, prawns and mussels and serve with rice.