Cookbook Challenge: Spicy Pork Stew

It's finally starting to feel like autumn around here so for this week's Cookbook Challenge I thought it was the perfect time to crack open a book I purchased several years ago and completely forgot about. Seriously though, how cosy does this cover look?! Really looking forward to trying more dishes as Britain settles into the colder seasons. I'd never tried using pork in a stew before since I usually fall back on my favorite beef stew recipe when I'm feeling like something warm and comforting. Therefore, this recipe was a delicious revelation. The spices add a nice background of heat while the sweet potatoes bring that addictive sweetness.

Fireside Feasts and Snow Day Treats: 

Indulgent comfort food for winter eating and entertaining

Edited by Ellen Parnavelas

Ryland Peters and Small, 2012

This recipe was also great because it includes kidney beans which serve to keep you full for longer. After talking to my sister about it, we decided that you could easily add in a can of black beans for added protein if you're looking for a low carb option. I served the stew with couscous because it was easiest but I also had the leftovers on their own and they were equally tasty. Definitely give this one a try - particularly since pork shoulder is one of the cheaper cuts of meat so it won't be causing any pain to your wallet. I'll warn you though, this recipe makes an absolute ton of food! I froze half of it and still struggled to finish all the leftovers before they went off. As a result, I think this could be a great option for easy entertaining or if you want to have leftovers for work week meals. 

Prep Time: 5-10 min

Cook Time: 75 min

Serves: 4-6 

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 tsp ground cumin

1 1/2 tsp dried oregano

700g/1 1/2 lbs pork shoulder, cubed

1 tsp clear honey

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 red chili, sliced

1 can chopped tomatoes

500ml chicken stock

800g / 1 3/4 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed 

1 bay leaf

1 can red kidney beans

a handful of fresh coriander/cilantro, chopped

Salt

Pepper

Plain yogurt, to serve 

Method: 

Preheat the oven to 150C / 300F.

Over a medium heat, add a tablespoon of olive oil to a large casserole dish. If you don't have a dish that is safe to use on both the stove and in the oven, then start this recipe off in a large pot and then decant into a casserole dish. Add the onion and cook until it starts to soften. Next add in the ciim and oregano and cook until fragrant. Remove the onion mixture from the dish and set aside.

Add the remaining oil and the pork into the dish and cook for 5-7 minutes or until it starts to brown. Next add in the honey, garlic, and chili. Season with salt and mix well. When everything has combined nicely, add in the onion mixture along with the canned chopped tomatoes, stock, sweet potatoes and bay leaf. Bring to the boil, then cover and move to the preheated oven. Cook for forty minutes.

When forty minutes have elapsed, remove the dish from the oven and add in the red kidney beans. Cover and return to the oven for a final twenty minutes.

To serve, sprinkle with fresh coriander/cilantro and a dollop of yogurt. Enjoy! 

Cookbook Challenge: Mixed Bean and Aubergine Tagine

For the first recipe of my cookbook challenge, I started with one of my stranger books: The Detox Health-Plan Cookbook. This particular book has been with me almost as long as I've been in Britain and yet... I've only made a handful of the recipes contained therein. It's a shame because this book also contains a lot of information about healthy eating, nutrition and holistic healing through food. Really interesting and a successful bargain bin find! 

The Detox Health-Plan Cookbook

Edited by Maggie Pannell

Hermes House, Anness Publication Ltd. 2006

The very first cookbook challenge post seems like the ideal place to confess that I have a particular weakness for cookbooks with fabulous photos. I wish every recipe would come with a photo! My reasons for choosing this particular recipe to kick off the challenge were based on practicality: I was desperate to clear out some cupboard space! I try to keep the kitchen cabinets fairly well stocked with canned tomatoes, different types of beans and other staples so, as a result, I'm often in need of a recipe that will let me use up some of those acquired bits and bobs! Since I didn't have a tagine dish handy, I used a large oven safe pot. However, I think you could also sauté everything in a large frying pan and then transfer to a covered baking dish if needed. 

Although this recipe calls for dried beans, I swapped those out for canned versions and they were perfectly delicious. That's what I call cupboard success! I stuck with the recipe's suggestion of using fresh tomatoes but I think using a canned version in colder months would be perfectly acceptable as well. Finally, the original recipe uses the bay leaves and the celery as part of the soaking process for the dried beans. Since I was using canned versions, I decided to add everything into the main dish instead and I think they really added a nice depth of flavor. 

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 60 min

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Olive oil
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 bay leaves
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
2 medium aubergines, chopped into bit size pieces
1 onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1-2 red chilies, finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp paprika
2-3 large tomatoes, finely chopped
1 1/4 cups vegetable stock
1 tbsp fresh mint
1 tbsp fresh parsley
1 tbsp fresh coriander/cilantro
black pepper to taste

2/3 cup greek yogurt
2 spring onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped

Method: 

Preheat the oven to 160C / 325F.

Heat three tablespoons of olive oil in a large, oven safe casserole pot over medium heat. Add the chopped aubergine and sauté for five minutes or until evenly browned. Remove from the pot and set aside.

Next, add another tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and add the onion and celery. Stirring frequently, sauté until softened. Add the garlic and chopped chilies. After five minutes, add the tomato puree and paprika and cook for a minute or two. When the puree has been mixed through, add the chopped tomatoes, aubergine, chickpeas, red kidney beans and vegetable stock. At this point, add black pepper to taste.

Cover the pan and transfer to the oven. After an hour, give the tagine a stir and check that the aubergine is cooked through. If the tagine still has a lot of liquid, allow to continue cooking in twenty minute intervals until it has the consistency of a stew.

To serve, mix the yogurt, mint and spring onions and add to each dish alongside a sprig of cilantro/coriander. We enjoyed this recipe on its own but it could also be nice over couscous for a more substantial meal. Enjoy! 

Sausage, Spinach and Chickpea Stew

In news that will surprise no one, life is pretty hectic at the minute with school and work so blogging hasn't really been a priority. However, spring has finally sprung and I'm getting excited about cooking lots of tasty treats so hopefully I'll be able to share a few of those with you all along the way. I might have to cut down on the step by step photos for recipes but I'll try to include at least one picture of the finished product for each post.

Finished product!

While this recipe is not the most spring oriented, it does make for a quick and tasty weekday dinner. However, the herbs add a much needed dash of green and, let's be honest, spring in Britain requires holding on to a few comfort dishes to warm you up. I made this for my flatmate and her friend and it was a hit - easy to make while chatting, super fast and delicious. Plus, add it a slightly sad attempt to artfully place the toast and you have a dinner party dish. I love this recipe because it works for most of the year and is pretty cheap (so perfect for those midweek meals!). This time, I doubled the recipe so I'd have plenty leftover to take to work for my lunches. Of course, I did this before remembering that the current tube strike means I'll be working from home today and tomorrow! Oops. Oh well, still delicious! If you'd like to skip the bread, this could be good with couscous or rice as well. You just want something that will let you soak up all that saucy goodness. Finally, try and get sausages with a high percentage of meat. I went with the Waitrose pork and leek sausages because they were on sale and, at 75% meat, they were perfect. 

Delicious and Prosecco... can't complain! 

I stayed pretty true to the recipe on Real Simple but added parmesan cheese to the final product. This is optional but, if you're like me, you probably have some in the fridge already! Sprinkle a bit of the leftover herbs on top and you're good to go!

Recipe via www.realsimple.com

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 20 min

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
6 sausages, casings removed
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro/corriander, chopped
500ml chicken or vegetable stock
2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
500g spinach
Salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese, grated
Crusty bread to serve

Method: 

In a large pan with high sides, heat a dash of olive oil over medium heat and add the chopped onion. Cook until softened and then add the sausages. Use a wooden spoon to break up the sausages as they brown so that they look more like mince than sausages. Once browned, add the tomato paste and cook for a minute or two, stirring continuously so the meat doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. If necessary, lower the heat to medium-low.

Next, stir in the herbs and continue to cook for another minute. When the herbs have been incorporated, add the stock and chickpeas. Increase the heat and bring to a boil.

Finally, add the spinach and simmer for ten minutes until wilted and well mixed. Serve with toasted crusty bread and enjoy! 

Chorizo and Chickpea Stew

So. This is awkward. It's been a shockingly long time since my last post! Apologies, apologies. However, I have a very good reason for this: I got a job! Well, sort of. It's a temporary position teaching a new summer school course at my university. Two weeks long, this course is designed to teach students who have just finished their first year a range of different skills that they might not have come across in their degree classes since they come from such a wide variety of subjects. For example, we have representatives from physics to english to history or art which makes for a really fantastic class mix. I'm really enjoying my time as a teaching assistant although it means that a lot of my other pursuits (like this blog!) have fallen a bit by the way side. The working world is tough! Although the class is short in duration, it is pretty full on in terms of contact hours with lectures and seminars from 10 am to 5 pm or even later some days. As TAs we need to be there for almost everything so it's been an exhausting week.

Chorizo and chickpea stew ready for the fridge

While I haven't been cooking too much this week, I have been focusing on my lunches since the short lunch breaks we have with the course mean that bringing my lunch with me in the morning makes a lot of sense (and saves money!). To this end, I made up a huge batch of this chorizo and chickpea stew at the weekend and basically have just been enjoying it with lots of extra veggies and tasty goodness piled on top every day for either lunch or dinner... and occasionally both! Inspired by an episode of Nigella Express, this recipe is perfect and super easy with only three main  ingredients. I added a dash of Greek yogurt and a sprinkle of fresh coriander the first time and ever since I've been basically just adding other leftovers to my bowl... all successfully since this dish is happy to share the spotlight. I added a few bits and pieces to Nigella's original recipe so I'll include those to the list below. The following pictures are of my most recent masterpiece with some beetroot salad, yellow bell pepper, feta and green onions. Finally, this recipe makes a massive amount but can easily be halved...

Couscous with a ladle of stew

Adding in the beetroot salad 

Bell pepper, feta and green onion on top 

Finished product ready to eat! 

Recipe inspired by www.foodnetwork.co.uk 

Prep Time: 1 min

Cook Time: 30 min

Serves:  6-8 

Ingredients: 

Splash of olive oil

1 onion, chopped

320 g Chorizo, sliced into half circles 

2 cans of chickpeas, drained

2 cans of cherry tomatoes with their juice 

1/2 tsp mixed herbs

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes 

1/2 tsp paprika 

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 

30g Greek yogurt per bowl

30g couscous per bowl

Sprinkling of fresh coriander, chopped 

Method: 

In a large pot, heat the splash of oil over medium heat and add the onion. When it's beginning to become translucent, add the chorizo and allow to saute for a few minutes. Next, add the chickpeas and the tomatoes with half a can of water. Stir in the herbs and spices and leave to simmer for half an hour. While waiting, pour the couscous into a bowl and cover with boiling water (adding a half centimeter of water above the top of the couscous) and place a plate on top to keep in the steam. Set aside for fifteen minutes. When ready top the couscous with the stew and add a dollop of Greek yogurt and a tablespoon or so of fresh coriander. Enjoy!