Quick Chili

It's March 2016 IHCC Potluck week at I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC). I'm sharing one more of Nigella Lawson's recipe this week. I made this Quick Chili a few weeks ago which we had with Rick Bayless's, Garlicky White Rice.

Just as it's name, this is a quick chili to make. It does not take long to cook, unlike the usual chili that is usually braised for 2 hours or more. This recipe is from Nigella's book, "Nigella Express", so that explains why this is cooked in an "express" way! It takes only about 40 minutes to cook, from start to finish. 

This dish uses store-bought jar of chunky vegetable pasta sauce and canned mixed spicy beans. I have replaced the minced beef with pork.

Smells good with the spices ; ground cumin, coriander, cinnamon and cardamom pods.

Served over Garlicky White Rice with a generous amount of chopped cilantro. It was delicious! This Quick Chili is perfect with the rice. A new favourite with my family. One that I would gladly cook again.

Quick Chili
(Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson, or here)
5 oz chorizo sausage (not the hard salami sort of sausage), halved lengthwise and
        cut into 1/4-inch half-moons
1 lb ground beef (I use ground pork)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cardamom pods, bruised
2 cups good-quality tomato and chunky vegetable sauce for pasta
1 14-oz can mixed spicy beans
1/4 cup sweet chile sauce
1/4 teaspoon chili flakes, optional, or if your canned beans are not spicy

1. Put the sliced chorizo into a hot pan and cook over medium heat until the sausage crisps a little and gives up its orange-red oil.
2. Add the ground beef and cook for about 5 minutes, breaking it up with a wooden fork to help it brown.
3. Stir in the spices and then add the tomato-vegetable pasta sauce, beans, and chile sauce. Also add the chile flakes if you need more heat.
4. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes and eat with rice or just as it is. If you're not adding any rice, you might consider dolloping with a blob of sour cream and sprinkling some grated cheese and chopped cilantro. I can't think of any way of eating this that isn't good.

I'm linking this post with I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), theme for this week

March 2016 IHCC Potluck

and

Souper Sundays @ Kahakai Kitchen

Breakfast Bars

"Monthly Featured Chef Event : Nigella Lawson", our new monthly theme at I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC). I like this new theme where once a month, IHCC will revisit one of the past featured chefs, and this month's Monthly Featured Chef, is Nigella Lawson. 

I've made Nigella's Breakfast Bars, which I have been meaning to make for the longest time! These bars are really super easy to make, but the baking takes about an hour, which is not a problem anyway!

 Breakfast Bars.... it's an Anytime-for-Snacking Bars for me!

 About to go into the oven.

Condensed milk is first warmed over a low heat, then mix with all the other ingredients ; rolled oats, flaked coconut, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, lightly toasted peanuts. Tip everything into the prepared pan, press down firmly, level it and bake for about an hour at 250F until golden brown. The only sweetener here is the condensed milk, and the sweetness turns out to be just right for me, not too sweet. The baking pan is greased with oil or simply use a disaposable baking foil pan. If you chose to use a normal baking pan, I would advise about greasing it really well with oil. The bars are a little difficult to come out of the pan. Some parts would stick to the pan, but with a little gentle force using the metal spatula, I did manage to take them all out.

These bars are yummy! Chewy, crunchy, and smells pretty good with the flaked coconuts. These are great anytime of the day, and it acually tasted nicer on the next day, but it gets more chewier. Best eaten in small bites! Take a big bite and you would be busy with "jaw-ercise"! LOL! Don't ask me how I knew!  :) 

Breakfast Bars
(adapted from "Nigella Express", Nigella Lawson)
1 (14-fl-oz) can condensed milk
2-1/2 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup mixed seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, sesame)
1 cup natural unsalted peanuts

1. Preheat the oven to 250F and oil a 9 x 13-inch baking pan or just use a disposable aluminium foil one.
2. Warm the condensed milk in a large pan.
3. Meanwhile, mix all the other ingredients together and add the warmed condensed milk, using a rubber spatula to fold and distribute.
4. Spread the mixture into the oiled or foil pan and press down with a spatula or, better still, your hands (wearing those disposable latex gloves to stop you from sticking) to make the surface even.
5. Bake for 1 hour, remove, and after about 15 minutes, cut into four across and four down to make 16 chunky bars. Let cool completely.

I'm linking this post with I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), theme for this week,

Monthly Featured Chef Event : Nigella Lawson

and
Little Thumbs Up (October 2015 : Coconut) organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen of My Little Favourite DIY, and hosted by Jess from Bakericious.

This post is linked to the event 


and 

Cook-Your-Books #27 @ kitchen flavours

Minestrone In Minutes : IHCC - for Deb

One of the co-hosts at I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), Deb, has recently lost her mother. We, at IHCC is making a potluck dish to honour Deb, to offer some comfort by way of food, during this time of bereavement. Deb loves soups, so I have made a comforting bowl of pasta soup.

A meatless soup (I've used vegetable stock), which do not take much time to prepare. I've used elbow pasta instead of ditalini.

"I hope, Deb, that you would find some comfort in this bowl of pasta soup, even though it is only virtually. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family."

Minestrone In Minutes
(adapted from "Nigella Express", Nigella Lawson)
Serves 2-3
1 (14-oz) can mixed beans (sometimes sold as mixed bean salad) or other canned beans
3 cups hot chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup tomato-based pasta sauce of your choice
4 oz ditalini or other soup pasta

1. Drain the beans and put them into a saucepan with the hot stock and pasta sauce.
2. Bring the pan to a boil and then add the ditalini, cooking according to package instructions.
3. Once the pasta is tender, switch off the heat, remove the pan to a cool surface, and let stand for 5-10 minutes if you can bear to wait. The pasta swells in the soup and everything just gets better.

I'm linking this post to I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), for Deb.

Chocolate Pear Pudding Cake

There's one more day left until tomorrow to join Cook-Like-A-Star featuring Nigella Lawson. If you have not linked up yours yet, there's still time until 12.00 midnight tomorrow.

Tomorrow shall be my last post for Nigella's event, and for today, I'm sharing one of Nigella's chocolate recipe. All of the Nigella's chocolate recipes that I've tried so far are winners. And this is one of them. A simple chocolate cake with canned pears at the bottom, and served with chocolate sauce. Delicious!

The best part is, all the ingredients for the batter are mixed using the food processor. Couldn't be any easier than that! Drained canned pears are placed on the bottom of a greased baking dish or pan, the batter is then poured over the pears. At first, I was worried as there seems to be not enough of cake batter to entirely cover the pears. But not to worry, once the cake is baked, it puffed up nice and soft.

A slice of Chocolate Pear Pudding Cake, though I wonder why she named it Pudding Cake? It has all the texture of a lovely, moist and soft chocolaty cake, very good!

Serve with chocolate sauce, spooned over as much as you want! 

Delicious! Another keeper recipe, and it is so easy and "express" to make! 

Chocolate Pear Pudding Cake
(adapted from "Nigella Express", Nigella Lawson)
serves 6-8
2 (14-oz cans) pear halves in juice
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar (I use 1/2 cup)
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour
1/4 cup cocoa
10 tablespoons (1-1/4 sticks) soft butter plus more for greasing
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 400F and grease an 8-1/2-inch square ovenproof dish with butter.
2. Drain the pears and arrange them in the base of the dish.
3. Put all the remaining ingredients in a processor and blitz till you have a batter with a soft dropping consistency.
4. Spread the brown batter over the pears, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
5. Let stand for 5 or 10 minutes and then cut into slabs - I cut 2 down and 2 across to make 9 slices - and serve with chocolate sauce.

#86/100

I'm linking this post to Cook Like A Star, where the featured chef for this month is NIGELLA LAWSON. Cook Like A Star is an event organized by Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids, and the co-hosts for this month are Anuja from Simple Baking and me, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours. Cook or bake any of Nigella Lawson's recipes and link your posts to any of the hosts' linky which will stay open for the whole month of August. All submissions to this event must be current posts, published within the current month of this event, any older posts will be deleted. Please mention and link Cook Like A Star somewhere in your post. Do join us, everyone is welcome!

Cook Like A Star featuring Nigella Lawson, from 1st August to 31st August 2013

And I'm sharing this with :
Cook-Your-Books #3 hosted by Kitchen Flavours

and Little Thumbs Up, where the ingredient for this month is Eggs, hosted by Baby Sumo from Eat Your Heart Out, and organized by Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids, together with Doreen from My Little Favourite D.I.Y.

Mac and Cheese (Nigella)

What is it about Mac and Cheese that never fails to bring a delight to kids, teenagers included. I made these for lunch on one of the school weekdays, and when my kids came back from school, big grin on their faces!

Very simple and does not take up much time to make. Simply cook the macaroni till al dente. The cheese mixture are just a few ingredients ; grated cheddar cheese, eggs, evaporated milk, grated nutmeg and salt to taste. Mix all the ingredients together. Drain the cooked macaroni and mix with the cheese mixture. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until it is bubbling and macaroni has blistered a little. Before baking, I have divided the macaroni mixture into two baking dish of 7" square. It took about 20 minutes for the sauce to bubble and with some blistered top.

Upon request from the kids, I have scattered some grated Mozzarella cheese over the top of one dish and bake for a further 10 minutes until the cheese melts. 

They love the cheezy one better, obviously!! 

Mac and Cheese
(adapted from "Nigella Express", Nigella Lawson)
serves 4
8 oz macaroni (I use 6 oz)
2 cups coarsely chopped mature Cheddar or red Leicester cheese, or a mixture of both
1 cup evaporated milk
2 eggs
grating of fresh nutmeg
grated mozzarella cheese (for the top)

1. Preheat the oven to 425F. Cook the macaroni according to the package instructions, drain, and then put back into the hot pot.
2. While the pasta's cooking, put the cheese, evaporated milk, eggs, and nutmeg in a processor and blitz to mix. Or grate the cheese and mix everything by hand.
3. Pour over the macaroni, stir well, and season to taste.
4. Tip into a 10-inch-diameter dish (wide and shallow is best) and bake for 10-15 minutes or until it is bubbling and blistering on top.

#84/100

I'm linking this post to Cook Like A Star, where the featured chef for this month is NIGELLA LAWSON. Cook Like A Star is an event organized by Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids, and the co-hosts for this month are Anuja from Simple Baking and me, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours. Cook or bake any of Nigella Lawson's recipes and link your posts to any of the hosts' linky which will stay open for the whole month of August. All submissions to this event must be current posts, published within the current month of this event, any older posts will be deleted. Please mention and link Cook Like A Star somewhere in your post. Do join us, everyone is welcome!

Cook Like A Star featuring Nigella Lawson, from 1st August to 31st August 2013

And I'm sharing this with :
Cook-Your-Books #3 hosted by Kitchen Flavours

and Little Thumbs Up, where the ingredient for this month is Eggs, hosted by Baby Sumo from Eat Your Heart Out, and organized by Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids, together with Doreen from My Little Favourite D.I.Y.

Mirin-Glazed Salmon

This is another simple and lovely recipe from Nigella, well, I did tweaked it a little. When you are short for time and the easiest and fastest dish to cook, is fish, as they cook really fast.

The salmon pieces are marinated with some mirin, sugar and soy sauce. The recipe says that the pieces are then pan-fried in a little oil on one side, turn it over and the marinade are added in to the pan and let it come to a bubble for two minutes (sounds like braised to me), the salmon is then taken out and place on a plate, add some vinegar to the pan, let it come to a bubble and pour over the salmon. 

I tweaked the steps, well just because I do not like to eat "braised salmon", I think salmon tastes the best either pan-fried, or baked. So for this dish, after marinating the salmon, I pan-fried it with a little canola oil on both sides until some dark spots (because of the marinating ingredients) can be seen, about 2-3 minutes, place them on a serving plate. In the same pan, add in the marinade liquid, let it come to a boil, add the rice vinegar, let it sizzle for a minute, then pour over the salmon. Garnish with some shredded spring onions, serve at once.

With some simple marinating ingredients, this dish is so easy and very quick to make. My son like this dish very much, we had it with some plain rice for dinner.

Mirin-Glazed Salmon
(adapted from "Nigella Express", Nigella Lawson)
Serves 4
1/4 cup mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
4 (4-oz) pieces of salmon, cut from the thick part of the fillet so that they are narrow but tall rather than wide and flat (mine was wide and flat, cut into two)
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1-2 scallions, halved and shredded into fine strips

1. Mix the mirin, sugar, and soy in a shallow dish that will hold all 4 pieces of salmon, and marinate the salmon in it for 3 minutes on the first side and 2 minutes on the second. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet on the stove.
2. Cook the salmon in the hot, dry pan for 2 minutes and then turn it over, add the marinade, and cook for another 2 minutes. (Heat 1-2 tablespoons oil, fry salmon on both sides until brown with dark spots, on both sides. Remove to a serving plate).
3. Remove the salmon to whatever plate you're serving it on, and add the rice vinegar to the hot pan. (Pour out all the oil from the pan, stir in the marinade, add the rice vinegar and let mixture boil and sizzle for a minute).
4. Pour the dark, sweet, salty glaze over the salmon and top with the scallion strips. Serve with rice or noodles as you wish, and consider putting some sushi ginger on the table, too.

#76/100

I'm linking this post to Cook Like A Star, where the featured chef for this month is NIGELLA LAWSON. Cook Like A Star is an event organized by Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids, and the co-hosts for this month are Anuja from Simple Baking and me, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours. Cook or bake any of Nigella Lawson's recipes and link your posts to any of the hosts' linky which will stay open for the whole month of August. All submissions to this event must be current posts, published within the current month of this event, any older posts will be deleted. Please mention and link Cook Like A Star somewhere in your post. Do join us, everyone is welcome!

Cook Like A Star featuring Nigella Lawson, from 1st August to 31st August 2013

And I'm sharing this with Cook-Your-Books #3 hosted by Kitchen Flavours