Tag: #familyfood

Slow Cooker Taco Soup
Alliyah Dawud
February 8, 2019

I love my Slow Cooker (crockpot). I use it on the regular…even in the hotter months as it doesn’t heat up the kitchen.

I love tacos….and also easy family meals where you don’t need to weigh out ingredients. So here I present to you my Taco Soup…which tastes soooooo good. And no two bowls are the same when you pimp it up with various toppings.

Makes enough for 6 large bowls. I’ve successfully frozen leftovers too.

Ingredients:

SOUP:
500 grams browned mince (or raw mince)
2 small onions diced finely
1 400 gram tin chopped tomatoes
200 ml water
1 tbsp salt (or less depending on your dietary requirements)
1 tbsp cumin powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
1 tbsp dried mexican oregano (or standard oregano)
2 tbsp fresh coriander chopped finely
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp smoked paprika (or standard paprika)

Add the following 30 minutes before serving:
1 400 gram red kidney beans drained
1 400 gram white kidney beans drained

To thicken the soup:
1 tbsp cornstarch

Optional items:
1 whole chipolote chili
Liquid smoke

Garnishes/toppings (mix and match as you please):

Soured cream or low fat yogurt
Grated cheddar cheese
Crushed up taco shells
Crushed up torilla chips
Lemon or lime wedges
Tomatoes chopped finely (I like using cherry tomatoes as they are sweeter but that’s optional normal tomatoes will also work)
Red onion-finely chopped
Jalepeno pepper slices
Fresh coriander leaves-chopped finely
For extra heat fresh chili finely chopped

1) Place all the ingredients listed under soup in your Slow Cooker. Turn the Slow Cooker on to a high. Cook for 3 hours.
2) Now add the drained kidney beans. Stir through. Add two tablespoons of water to the cornstarch and mix. Add the mixture to the soup and stir. This will thicken the soup up for you. If you don’t like thicker soups just skip this step!
3) Place the lid back on and leave for another 25-30 minutes. Turn off and remove lid if you don’t want the beans to ‘cook’ further.
4) Ladle into bowls and serve garnished as you wish. I make a ‘toppings bar’ and allow everyone to personalise their own soup.
5) Leftovers will keep for 48 hours easily in the fridge. Can also be successfully frozen (use within a month).

Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Alliyah Dawud
February 1, 2019

This impressive cake is actually really simple to knock up.

It makes a nice impressive teatime treat. If you are serving this cake in Autumn or Winter don’t forget lashings of custard drools.

I’ve seen many recipes call for coconut but in all honesty I love this version so much I didn’t notice the lack of it….

Ingredients:
1 tbsp butter (for the caramelised pineapple)
1/2 pineapple peeled and sliced (or cubed)
50 grams soft dark brown sugar
2 tbsp double cream

For the sponge:
125 grams butter
200 grams castor sugar
3 eggs beaten
90 grams self raising flour
75 grams plain flour
60 ml milk (OR 4 tablespoons)

1) Preheat the oven to 160c. Line a 20 cm round cake tin
2) Take a large pan and place it on medium heat. Add the 1 tbsp butter and allow to melt. All the pineapple and cook for 2 minutes or until the pineapple becomes a light brown colour.
3) Add the dark brown sugar. Stir and allow to dissolve (keep stirring). Add the double cream and stir in. Bring to a light boil then turn it off.
4) Carefully pour the pineapple mix into the cake tin. Be very careful as hot sugar can burn. I speak from experience.
5) Now we need to make sponge. Beat the sugar and 125 grams butter together. Add the egg mixture in three lots beating in every time. Don’t worry if it looks a bit curdled this will change when the flour goes in.
6) Add the flours and stir in. Add the milk and stir to combine.
7) Pour the smoothe batter mix over the pineapple mixture.
8) Bake the cake on the central shelf for 45 minutes. Insert a skewer/cake tester at the centre of the cake. If the cake is done the skewer will be clear. You need to poke the sponge not the pineapple.
9) Leave the cake to cool for 15 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool further. Or alternatively allow to cool for 15 minutes and then transfer to serving plate.
10) Serve with lashings of cream, a scoop of ice-cream, or custard. Or just as is. A great classic.

My Slow Cooker Pasta Sauce
Alliyah Dawud
January 25, 2019

Note: this recipe is by no means a REAL ITALIAN sauce. This is a sauce I make that is pretty much easy to put together (in less than 5 minutes if you have frozen browned mince in your freezer).

This is enough for 4 family dishes serving 4 at a time so 16 servings (or more depending on your portion sizing and if you wish to add additional vegetables).

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons pre-fried onions soaked in water for 20 minutes then drained.
6 8 cloves of garlic crushed
2 tablespoons rapeseed oil
1.5 kg mince of your choice (I use Mutton)-you can use vegan mince if you wish
1 small (250 gram) box of mushrooms diced finely
2 bell peppers (I use red) deseeded and finely diced
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt-to your dietary requirements
1 tin (approx 400 gram) chopped tomatoes
1 carton passata (the approx 390 gram carton-not the small one)
125 ml water

For thickening:
1 tablespoon cornflour
Extra water

1) Heat a large pot on a medium heat and add the oil. Fry off the mince to seal it and retain moisture. This step takes me 15 minutes tops but adds a lot of flavour.
2) Add the garlic to the mince and fry for another 1 to 2 minutes. Turn off the heat.
3) Drain off the excess oil from the mince.
4) Add all the remaining ingredients to the Slow Cooker and the mince. Cook the mince sauce on a low heat for four hours. I check up on the mince after 2 hours and give it a stir.
5) After four hours the mince should be cooked (as should all the other ingredients). If the sauce isn’t as thick as you would like make a ‘slurry’ using the cornflour and a little bit of water. Add that to the Slow Cooker and stir in. Check up on the sauce after 15 minutes. The slurry should help thicken up the sauce.
6) If you are happy with the sauce consistency turn off the heat and allow to cool before freezing.

Note: if you find your Slow Cooker uses up more liquid than mine you may need to add more water. But that’s only if you use up all the ‘liquid’.

TIPS:
If you have fussy eaters and need to get vegetables into your family diet blitz the vegetables and add them to the sauce. If you feel your family won’t like the texture you can fry off the vegetables with the mince. This gives them a more ‘fried’ taste.

This sauce is clearly awesome with and can also be used in your favourite pasta bakes, skillet pasta dishes, cannellini and lasagne too. Leftovers can be used as jacket potato topping or even to top ‘Italian inspired Hotdogs’.

You can also add crushed up pulses to add extra protein.

Grated carrots are also a good addition and hardly detectable with the tomato sauce.
Tinned tomatoes with herbs and garlic will add additional flavour.

For extra flavour add a handful of olives (rinse them first to remove extra salt).

Remember that cooking in a Slow Cooker results in less liquid ‘evaporating’.

Busy Mama (or Baba) Slow Cooker Chicken
Stylemesisteradmin
December 21, 2018

Busy Mama (or Baba) Slow Cooker Chicken

I admit that this is more of an instructional tutorial than recipe however if I’m completely honest with you on nights where you are more likely to reach for a fattening takeout or ready meal cheats like this are awesome.

By no means am I saying feed your family this every night however let’s be honest here. Sometimes we need a meal we can prepare whilst juggling a clingy baby, a toddler crying over toys that have somehow ended up down the toilet and a boss that wants to know when you think you’ll be returning to work FULL time.

My children love this recipe (as do I). The only effort in this recipe is the actual browning of the chicken.

Once I’ve browned the chicken it’s pretty much throw stuff into the slow cooker and forget about it until you need to prepare the rice to serve with it (I served the chicken with basmati rice).

Did I mention this meal works out at less than £0.75 per head?

So to put together this super easy meal (that serves 4/6) you will need:

6 pieces of chicken (I purchased three legs, skin on cut in half)
1 tablespoon oil

For the sauce:
60 ml dark soya sauce
3 tablespoons honey
80 ml tomato ketchup (for an extra kick you can use flavoured ketchups)
8 cloves of garlic-crushed
Juice of 2 limes
Optional: salt to your taste (remember that soya sauce is very very salty!)
Optional: 1 teaspoon chili flakes (for some heat!) OR 1 tablespoon chili sauce

To serve:
I served mine with rice. If you are on a low carb diet replace with cauliflower rice.

1) Heat the oil on a medium heat in a large pan. I use a non stick large frying pan.
2) Add the chicken pieces and fry for 5 minutes per side (I find this browns and crisps the chicken nicely. Always check your chicken whilst cooking it to avoid burning it).
3) Once the chicken is browned drain on some kitchen paper and set aside.
4) Now make the sauce. Pour the dark soya sauce, honey, ketchup, garlic, lime juice and optional ingredients (if using) into your slow cooker and stir to mix. You could use a whisk if that’s more convienent.
5) Add the chicken to the sauce. Spoon some of the sauce over the chicken. Cook on slow for 5 hours. If you are cooking on the high setting check your chicken after 2.5 hours. Remember that chicken on the bone cooks slower than boneless.
6) Check your chicken at half way and baste it with the sauce (your chicken is highly unlikely to dry out but we want maximum flavour).
7) Your chicken is ready to serve.

Notes: if you do wish to add salt please do so towards the end of the cooking process after tasting salt content. I find it easier to add salt that take it out if you over salt a dish.
Leftovers make great lunches the next day.
Or you can shred the chicken and make sliders (sandwiches).

My take on Chicken Daube
Stylemesisteradmin
November 30, 2018

Mauritian inspired Chicken and Potato stew
(inspired by Daube de Poulet/Chicken Daube).

The humble chicken. For me personally it doesn’t get enough credit. Literally. In my opinion it’s one of the most versatile proteins (and healthier than red meat too). However I don’t think it gets enough credit for what it is.

We bung it in the oven and tell it to come out as a perfect roasted chicken for the family to enjoy at the weekend. But give it a bit of love and the plain old chicken can be transformed into a pot of warm, comforting fair suitable for the colder months ahead.

I personally would prefer for my family to eat more chicken over red meat….but alas we haven’t got to that stage quite yet.

So here is my take on a Mauritian classic Daube de Poulet/Chicken Daube. I’ve adapted this classic to make it suitable for the slow cooker however you can easily cook it on the stove top.

I have a system where I try to prepare a weeks worth of meals in a couple of hours. In this session I will also brown off any meats I will using during the week and I will either store them in the fridge or freezer depending on when I will be needing the product.

Now for some people this will seem insane; for me it opens up many opportunities of using the slow cooker even on a really busy morning as there’s no need to ‘brown off’ meat on the stove before putting it into the slow cooker. But this is something I do and it works for me.

You can of course skip the browning step if you wish to. The flavour in my opinion isn’t as strong (rather mellow).

So to make a classically inspired dish that easily serves 6 (I get 8 portions out of this recipe) you will need:

1 kilogram of chicken drumsticks (skin off)
1 tablespoon oil (I used rapeseed oil)
3 medium potatoes cut into medium pieces (smaller pieces will cook faster and essentially turn into mush)
1 large onion chopped or 4 TSBP of pre-fried onions (available in most Asian supermarkets-they’ll be cheaper in bulk too!)
1 can (approx 410 grams in weight-check the tin) tomatoes-chopped.
200 ml water or chicken stock
1 heaped teaspoon smoked paprika (or plain paprika if that’s all you have).
1 heaped teaspoon garlic or garlic paste
1 small piece of ginger (around an inch)-whole
1 cinnamon stick
Salt-amount will depend on your own preference.
1 teaspoon dried thyme or 1 tablespoon fresh (dry herbs are more concentrated in flavour).
Variation (remember this recipe is inspired by NOT an authentic copy of the original) you can use other herbs. For a French twist try Herb de Provence. Again use 1 teaspoon.

OPTIONAL: 1 dried chili (for a bit of a chili flavour)

Note: the French variation can contain wine however a lot of Mauritian folk follow an alcohol free diet.

1) Heat the oil in a pan over a medium flame. Add the chicken, cinnamon stick and ginger and fry until opaque and a bit brown (bits will be brown but not the full chicken). Take off the heat.

2) Add all the ingredients to your slow cooker and stir to mix well. You’ll note that there doesn’t seem to be lots of liquid. That’s fine as cooking in a slow cooker uses less liquid (evaporates less).

3) Now you have two options.
Cook on high for 3 hours
Cook on low for 5.5 hours

4) Once cooked serve! The flavours literally develop more overnight. As you have the potatoes in the dish I haven’t suggested serving with potatoes or rice. Why add to the carbs?!

Enjoy.