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Easy recipes from Apple Tree

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Lamb and Couscous in the Pan

26/10/2016 / / 0 Comments

Ingredients (for two) – easily halved

  • 2 lamb things (steaks, pairs of chops or a small pack of lamb mince to be made into meatballs)
  • 2 tsp harrisa paste
  • 1 mug couscous
  • 1 mug boiling chicken stock
  • 1 can of chickpeas
  • Handful of dried fruit and nuts (chopped dried apricot, sultanas, flaked almonds, cashews, stuff like that)
  • Oil

Rub the meat with the harrisa paste, or if using mince make meatballs with the harrisa paste mixed in. Heat the oil and fry the meat until it looks cooked. Add the couscous, drained chick peas, fruit and nuts, and stir about. Add the stock, cover with a lid or plate and turn off the heat. Come back ten minutes later and eat it all up. Quite nice if you chop parsley or mint leaves and toss them in.

Quesadillas

Quesadillas – snack or meal

24/10/2016 / / 0 Comments

This can be a quick and easy warm snack or a meal in itself, depending what you put in it or on it. For a snack, omit the chicken, or just add a few slithers of ham.

Ingredients (For One) – easily multiplied up for more people.

  • 2 flour tortillas
  • 1 small chicken breast or a couple of mini fillets
  • grated cheese
  • 1 teaspoon of Taco seasoning mix
  • Taco sauce
  • Oil for frying

Step 1: Slice up the chicken. Stir about in a bowl with the taco seasoning to coat.

Step 2: Heat your oil in a frying pan and stir fry the chicken, it will cook in a couple of minutes.

Step 3: Lay out your tortillas. Spread one tortilla with Taco sauce. Spread the chicken over. Sprinkle with cheese, use as much as you like. Lay the other tortilla on top to make a giant sandwich.

Step 4: Quickly rinse out your pan and dry it. Put it back on a high heat. Put the tortilla sandwich on the pan and after a minute flip it over. Hopefully the cheese will have melted and help glue it together. Give it another 30 seconds and you are good to go.

Cut into quarters and either eat on the run like street food or make a meal of it with sour cream, jalopenos, lettuce, tomato, refried beans, guacamole and a Corona.

Nasi Goreng

Cheat’s Nasi Goreng

20/10/2016 / / 0 Comments

Purists will say this is not authentic, I will say quick, easy and near enough! Here are the ingredients for one person, you can easily scale it up.

  • 60gm basmati rice, cooked then well drained
  • I carrot, grated
  • 1/4 small head of sweetheart cabbage or Chinese leaves, sliced thinly
  • 1/2 onion, chopped
  • 1 garlic clove or paste
  • 1 tbs light soy sauce
  • 1 tbs fish sauce
  • 1 egg beaten
  • oil for stir frying

Cook your rice and leave it to drain well. If it is too wet it makes the stir-fry a bit clumpy. Meanwhile,  fry the onion gently until soft. Add the garlic, fry 30 seconds then add the carrot and cabbage. Whack up the heat and stir fry the vegetables. After a couple of minutes add the rice and keep stir frying on a high heat. Add the sauces and stir again. Now shove the mix to one side of the pan to make a space on the bottom to fry your egg. If the pan is a bit dry add a splash more of oil. Now trickle streams of egg only the pan base. It will cook into a mini omelette almost immediately. Lift onto your rice pile and repeat until your egg is all cooked. Job done! I like to serve with a zingy chilli sauce.

Ingredients

 

Chorizo Hash

Corned Beef Hash (or Chorizo Hash)

15/10/2016 / / 1 Comment

If you don’t like corned beef which I admit does smell like cat food, use sliced chorizo  for a Spanish touch.
Ingredients (For One) – easily multiplied up for more people. If you have leftover cooked boiled potatoes use these and omit Step 1 below

  • 2 or 3 medium sized potatoes
  • Half an onion, chopped (optional)
  • Half a 340g tin of corned beef (use the other half sliced in sandwiches, it slices well when cold from the fridge) or, about 75g sliced chorizo
  • Sunflower oil for frying
  • 1 egg
  • Chopped fresh parsley (optional), about a tablespoon
  • Salt and pepper

Step 1: If you are using raw potatoes, peel them then chop into cubes about the size of a sugar cube (12mm across). Boil for  five minutes. Drain very thoroughly.
Step 2: Put a generous glug of oil in a frying pan. Fry the onion gently if using, until soft but not browning.
Step 3: Add the potatoes, and fry, turning around with a spatula, until just starting to look brown and crispy.
Step 4: Add the corned beef or chorizo and keep stirring about until it starts to look a lot more brown and crispy.
The next stage is up you you – you can eat as it is, or poach or fry an egg to put on top, you can put chopped parsley through, you can lash it with black pepper and a bit more salt, then eat with tomato sauce, hot sauce or any kind of sauce you like.

15 minute meal

Fifteen Minute Meal (don’t ask what, just look)

15/10/2016 / / 0 Comments

This one one of those recipes with lots of options. Fundamentally it is a quick bean stew with meat on top. You can use what is available, as follows:
Ingredients (for one) – easily multiplied:

  • Meat thing ( a lamb steak, a chicken breast or a bacon chop, even a couple of sausages)
  • half a tin of either butter beans, canellini beans, black-eye beans, flageolet beans, pinto beans or similar
  • half an onion
  • a garlic clove
  • Other veg you may have to hand – chose two or three from: a carrot, a celery stick, half a red pepper, a small courgette, a lonely potato
  • 1 mug boiling chicken stock (if using chicken or pork), or lamb or beef stock if using a lamb steak
  • half a teaspoon paprika
  • Oil, salt, pepper

Take your onions and vegetables and chop to about sugar cube size. Heat the oil in a pan and sweat the veg and garlic until soft. Add the paprika and stir around for a bit longer. Pour in the stock, cover and simmer gently for ten minutes. Add the beans (drained) and heat for another five. If you are hungry and on your own use the whole tin, why not. Check the seasoning and add some if needed, it depends on your stock.
In another pan heat a spoon of oil and cook your meat thing both sides until done.  You can speed this up for chicken by slicing the breast into 1cm slices cross-ways, it will be cooked in about four minutes!

Serve your bean and vegetable stew in a bowl with the meat on top. Sprinkle with fresh parsley if you have some. Eat.

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