A Mini Summer Time Barbecue

I have a wonderfully quick post for you today so I can go make the most of this beautiful sunshine!

Anyone reading this from the UK will know how beautiful-a week we've had weather wise, getting upwards of 22˚ C near me, which is crazy for any time of the year, never mind in March. So in true English style, me and my friends rushed to the shops to splurge out the items required for a barbecue, the standard burgers and sausages and buns and whatnot. You get the general drift. I was actually inspired to write about this yesterday, but seeing as today is even more wonderful and the fact that I'm actually having a barbecue, I thought I'd include a really tasty recipe for the wonder that is the Brit-barbecue. This truly modern idea of "Holy crap the sun is shining, GET THE BARBECUE!", is the inspiration for this post. It's sticky, smoky, a little bit spicy and really fast to make, so if you're having a barbecue today, try it out on anything, vegetables as a sweet glaze, as a sauce on top of hot dogs or burgers, it's quite versatile. And naming it "British" barbecue chicken is not in reference to the ingredients or particular style of Great Britain, but more the idea of how fast it is to make, so you can get your chicken before the sun goes behind a cloud.

British Barbecue Chicken Skewers
Enough for 6 people as a main or 15+ as extras to a barbecue

6 chicken breasts, chopped into medium chunks 
2 tblsp black treacle
2 tblsp tomato puree
2 tblsp Heinz tomato sauce
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
A glug of Olive Oil
1 tsp (ish) of lemon juice
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

- This is really simple. 
- Put all of the ingredients except the chicken and mix together well. Taste to see if it's to your liking, if it's too sweet, add more lemon juice, not garlic-ey enough? Add more. Easy.
- Put the chicken in and stir until  lightly coated with the sauce.
- Thread onto skewers and cook on the barbecue until sticky and yum.
- I'm going to say about 5 minutes each side for the chicken on an open barbecue, but please take care when you're cooking because dependent on the size of your chicken and barbecue heat, it could take longer.

They should look something like this...apart from the crispy bits. I can tell you that I most certainly did not get distracted drinking cider in the sunshine whilst waiting for these to cook...

And that's it. Perfect for the flash-in-the-pan style barbecues we have over here in the UK! I have this normally as a meal during the week in Summer, usually with spiced sweet potato wedges and salad. It all goes together rather nicely and is a pleasant alternative to plain salads in the Summer time.

I trust that you're all enjoying the mini-Summer we have at the moment, or if you're in a hot country, just enjoying the sunshine anyway. I hope I've inspired you to get those coals smouldering and get the cider/beer/Fanta on ice.

Peace

JR

Orange Cake and Inadequate Pasta

Apologies for the short absence, I take no shame in the fact that I have been absorbed in the Hunger Games trilogy. I do, however, take a teensy bit of shame in that I've done little else in the past week except sit in my pyjamas and read on my days off.

In order to keep my humble little blog up to date and keep those of you who enjoy reading occupied, I've torn myself away so I can update you on the culinary happenings in my life. It was my best friend's birthday not too long ago, and in a true friend fashion I bequeathed unto her a sick-ass cake. A little ruggedly iced (not my best quality), but a tasty cake nonetheless.

Yes, they are amazing dark chocolate orange segments, woohoo!

For the feature today I'm going to include something a little less sweet, as I'm not feeling particularly sugary today. I actually made this dish a few weeks ago now, I just never ended up writing about it. In short, I was in a huff because I tried to make pasta and it didn't go exactly to plan, so I was sad/annoyed (yes, I am a child getting huffy over something going wrong). Partially because I was feeling confident that I could make anything that day, and partially because I was sure I could handle only two ingredients. It wasn't entirely a disaster, it looked like pasta, it tasted like pasta, and it acted like pasta when it was cooked but the texture just wasn't quite right. I ended up cooking my ravioli for a whole ten minutes longer then it should have been cooked for, and it was still a little al dente. It could have been to do with the fact that it was my first time making pasta, but it was an absolute pain in the arse to knead, even after 15 minutes, it was still like kneading cold clay. 

The cold, steely appearance of a useless pasta maker. Ominous, teasing and space-taking.

It could have been that instead of a pasta maker (after I found it was mostly broken) I had to go traditional and use a rolling pin and it might have seized the dough or something. Not that I'm blaming my equipment or anything...I really hope I don't have a spatula uprising on my hands after this. I have no idea what went wrong until I have gotten out of my mood and tried it again. But alas, the filling and the sauce was divine, and the pasta tasted pretty amazing. The filling consisted of a mix of chorizo, red onions, garlic, oregano, paprika, gran padano cheese and olive oil, all gently fried together and stuffed into ravioli squares. And the sauce was essentially the same, minus the chorizo, just to give a bit extra taste and tomato-ey...ness. Yum! If you want to recreate it, you can alter all of the ingredients to how much you like them, and mix it with regular pasta. If you like it super-garlic-ey, add more garlic, if you aren't so much of a fan, add only a little. It's really, very simple and a lovely quick afternoon snack, if you're using shop bought pasta of course.

Until I am absolutely satisfied with my pasta recipe though, I am going to hang fire with sharing it. I don't want to go around sharing inadequate recipes now, do I?


So in true Jessica style, after mentioning that I wasn't in a sugary mood, I've instantaneously decided I want to make some gingernut biscuits. How very typical! I will update of course very soon - probably later this evening or tomorrow - on how they went. I'm quite excited to get my apron on and have Jason Mraz on in my sunny kitchen!

Peace

JR

Bludger Sweet Potatoes

I had a bit of an American morning yesterday. Browsing Reddit, Foodgawker and Etsy, as per. But I sat, longing for the day when I would get a recipe accepted to Foodgawker, something caught my eye. Whilst browsing through the immaculately taken photographs, almond and peanut parsnips hit me, square in the face...like a bludger. I absolutely love root vegetables, I don't care what time of year, any excuse for earthy spices and starchy vegetables. The reason I added almond butter instead of just peanut butter is, apart from the fact that they produce two very sexy and different outcomes, but because my sister can't eat peanut butter anymore, and I think she'll really like them. Simply.
So instead of a full, complicated recipe, I give you a sort of concept to try.

Bludger Sweet Potato Wedges (aka, Almond Butter/Peanut Butter Wedges)
Serves 4 as a side or 2 as a lunch

3 or 4 medium sized sweet potatoes, scrubbed, not peeled (keep the goodness in!)
3 or 4 tablespoons almond or peanut butter, or both if you fancy.

A drizzle of olive oil

Pinch of sea salt

Something wonderful about this recipe is that it's really nice, and really easy. 

- Preheat oven to about 180C/gas mark 4 and lightly oil a baking tray

- Slice the sweet potatoes into relatively skinny wedges, and leave aside.

- Mix all the other ingredients in a bowl to the side. If you're using almond butter, you won't need much oil, if you're using peanut butter, not only will you maybe need a little more oil, but a tiny bit more salt to counter-act the sweetness. But the better peanut butter you get, the less sweet it'll be. I've found Whole Earth peanut butter is awesome.

- Toss the wedges and bake for about 35-50 minutes, depending on the amount you make and size of wedges. Turning up the heat for the last 5 minutes of cooking to crisp even more.

And that's pretty much it.
For now, i'm off to go and try to make some sort of biscuit or delicious treat.

Peace.

JR