Jambalaya

Hello lovely readers! After far too long, it's time for a new recipe... Jambalaya! Having grown up primarily outside of the United States, I was ashamed to realize that I'd never actually tried this delicious dish before. However, with a recipe this easy, I can safely say I'll be repeating the experience as often as possible! 

An export of Louisiana Creole country, this spicy and filling dinner was surprisingly quick and easy to knock together - chopping up the ingredients was the most time consuming element. Although most recipes use Andouille sausage, I went with this recipe's suggestion of chorizo since it's much easier to come by here in Britain. However, I'm sure this version would work equally well with either ingredient. 

Please don't be put off by the long list of ingredients! Although it looks like it could add up at the supermarket, you'll be surprised at how many items you probably already have - such as the garlic, spices, stock and rice. Also, this recipe calls for chicken, chorizo and prawns but you could easily skip the prawns if you prefer. Finally, I've tried this recipe with both canned tomatoes and fresh ones and didn't see any difference between the two so use whatever is more convenient. 

Recipe via www.hairybikers.com

Prep Time: 5 - 10 min

Cook Time: 20 - 30 min

Serves: 6

Ingredients: 

4 large chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
200g chorizo, outer skin removed and chopped
Olive oil
1 large onion, roughly chopped
2 large celery sticks, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 yellow pepper, chopped
5 large tomatoes, chopped (or 1 can of chopped tomatoes)
3-5 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
2 bay leaves
200g long-grain rice (easy cook version)
450ml chicken stock
150g cooked and peeled prawns (or shrimp if you're American)
6 spring onions, sliced
salt
pepper
Fresh coriander/cilantro

Method: 

Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot. Sauté the chicken for three to five minutes until starting to brown. Add the chorizo and cook for a minute until fragrant. Remove the chicken and chorizo from the pot and set aside.

Next, remove most of the oil from the pot - leaving just enough to sauté the vegetables (about a tablespoon). Stir in the onion, celery and peppers. Over a low heat, cook the vegetables for eight to ten minutes until they soften, stirring occasionally so they don't stick to the pot.

When the vegetables are ready, stir in the spices. After a minute, add in the chopped tomatoes and their juice. Increase the heat to medium and cook for five minutes or until the tomatoes have softened.

Add the chicken and chorizo back into the pan along with the rice. Cook for a minute, stirring to make sure the rice is fully incorporated. Next pour over the stock and add salt and pepper to taste.

Bring the pot to a simmer and cook for ten minutes or until the rice is ready, stirring occasionally. The rice will absorb most of the liquid but if the pot is looking too dry, add a little more stock and stir to combine.

Finally, stir in the prawns/shrimp and the spring onions and cook for about two minutes or until the prawns have heated through.

Serve with a sprinkle of coriander/cilantro and enjoy! 

A Taste of Seville: Salmorejo

As it has been quite a while since my last post, it should be no surprise that this recipe is a throw back to slightly warmer times... Specifically, the lovely girls weekend I spent in Seville with three fabulous friends. 

Ladies in line for the cathedral

On our first night, we'd all arrived at different times with myself and Nicola arriving last around ten that evening. Naturally, we quickly dropped our things off at the flat and headed out to enjoy a little tapas restaurant down the street. This soup was one of our first dishes and became an instant group favorite.

The one and only photo I managed to snap of our lovely little flat! 

A quick note on Seville: it's fabulous! We rented a flat via Friendly Rentals, a website similar to Airbnb. It was the perfect size with a bedroom and a mezzanine with two twin beds. Split between the four of us, it ended up being only twenty-five pounds a night. This was fantastic as it left plenty of cash for more important things... FOOD. 

NOMS!

As evidenced by the photo above, I wasted no time in getting properly stuck into the lovely tapas and Andalusian dishes. While many restaurants offer the usual tapas options, such as chorizo al vino or croquetas de jamon, there are also many local specialities to chose from. The recipe in this post is one of those dishes and would have been my favorite meal from our trip if we hadn't lucked into trying the dish above - a phenomenal rice and duck dish that was the unanimous winner. Served in a little restaurant down the street from our rented flat, it was one of several wonderful dishes. We took turns and each chose a dish to share which led to a nice variety of options. A chorizo and manchego starter, a spanish version of salmon tartare, fresh and light sautéed octopus and finally, the duck. I've been searching the internet for a similar recipe and promise to share if I find it! 

Plaza de Espana

What made this trip such a lovely adventure was the simplicity: we neglected to plan out any of our days and just went along with whatever we felt like doing. This meant that while we wandered the halls of more cultural sites such as the Catedral de Sevilla, Alcazar de Sevilla and the Plaza de Espana, there was also plenty of time for shopping, meandering and sunbathing. Perfection.  

Purple passport posse

Additionally, this trip was the first outing for my brand new Italian passport. It felt so strange to finally get to go through passport control with my friends instead of having to go through the "all other passports" line alone. Final verdict: Seville was lovely - easy to navigate, delicious and thoroughly enjoyable. Now... back to the soup! 

Blended soup ready to chill in the refrigerator 

I've never been a major fan of tomato soup but this was perfect and completely made me a convert. Very similar to gazpacho, this soup is served cold with a drizzle of olive oil and some crispy bits of bacon scattered on top. Heavenly. And, even better, it's so simple to create that you can throw it together in minutes. By grating the tomatoes, you avoid having to blanch them to remove the skins since the grating process will separate the skins for you. 

Ready to eat!

Recipe via www.foodandwine.com

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: N/A

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients: 

2lbs tomatoes, grated and skins discarded. 

1 baguette, cubed into small pieces 

2 garlic cloves, chopped
Dash of vinegar

1/4-1/2 cup olive oil

Bacon lardons, fried until crisp

Method: 

Starting with the tomatoes, cut each one in half and then grate the cut side over a coarse grater. Discard the skins as you go along before mixing all of the tomato pulp in a bowl. Add in the baguette and allow the bread to soak up the tomato juices before adding the mixture to a blender. The bread should be softened by this point.

Pulse gentle to combine the tomato and bread mixture further before adding the garlic and vinegar. Continue pulsing until the mixture is thoroughly combined. Allow the blender to run on a low setting while drizzling in the olive oil until your soup has a light color and smooth consistency. Move to the refrigerator to cool while you fry the bacon.

Finally, ladle into bowls and drizzle with olive oil before topping with the bacon lardons. Enjoy! 

Brown Butter Gnocchi with Zucchini and Cherry Tomatoes

Hello! As most of you might know, I've been away for the last two weeks visiting my parents in Rome. I had a really lovely time and especially enjoyed the fact that the boyfriend (Sam), the lovely flatmate (Laure) and the lovely friend (Anna) were all able to visit as well! Of course, the real highlight is always getting to spend time with the most loving and sweet little mini dachshund. Little Izzy is just the greatest and I'm definitely missing her now that I'm home!

Ingredients

Zucchini ribbons, chopped onion and garlic 

Boiling gnocchi, ready to come out! 

Anyway, on to the food! I have a confession to make... while on holiday, I get very very lazy when it comes to food. Meals are more likely to be made up of bread, cold cuts, cheese and salad than to be something needs actual effort to create. This is particularly true in Italy because, let's be honest, their "cold cuts" are really a cut above the rest (ha). That said, I did take the time to test out this recipe that I found after searching online for "healthy gnocchi dinner" or something like that. This isn't actually that healthy I'm afraid since butter is one of the main ingredients but it's definitely tasty and surprisingly light - perfect for spring or summer! The courgettes are perfect in this and the cherry tomatoes really help to bring that brightness into the dish. I used mini gnocchi because they were too cute to pass up and so I went with 100g per person. That said, when I made this for Anna, Laure, my parents and their friends (7 of us total)... 1000g of gnocchi meant we had TONS of leftovers which made a perfect lunch the next few days.

Zucchini, garlic and onion in the brown butter 

All the ingredients in the pan

Finished product! Delicious!

Recipe via www.eatingwell.com

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 15 min

Serves: 1

Ingredients: 

2 tbsp butter

1/2 a small onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 large zucchini, stripped

5 cherry tomatoes, halved 

100g gnocchi

30g parmesan cheese, grated 

Method: 

Chop the garlic and onion and set aside while you use a vegetable peeler to cut the zucchini into ribbons. When ready, melt the butter in a pan and let it simmer until it starts to brown over a medium-high heat. Toss in the onion and garlic and let simmer until fragrant before adding the zucchini to soften. Meanwhile, boil water in a pot and add the gnocchi when it has reached a rolling boil. The gnocchi are ready when they float to the top of the pot. While waiting for the gnocchi, add the cherry tomatoes to the pan, cut side down and saute until they start to break down. Finally, add the gnocchi to the other ingredients along with the parmesan cheese and enjoy!