What To Eat 19th March 2020 by Denise Curtin

Cooking Chez Moi – 5 Easy Dinners That Take Just 5 Ingredients To Make

Time to root around those cupboards!

Planning what you’re going to cook for dinner tonight?

Sweet and Sour Chicken Noodles

Ingredients

  • 2 x 200 g free-range chicken thighs , skin on, bone in
  • 150 g fine rice noodles
  • 200 g sugar snap peas
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 teaspoons chilli jam

Method

  1. Pull the skin off the chicken. Place the skin in a large non-stick frying pan on a medium heat to render and get golden, turning occasionally.
  2. Cut the bones out of the thighs and chuck into the pan for bonus flavour, then chop the meat into 2cm pieces.
  3. Move the skin and bones to one side of the pan, then add the meat alongside and cook for 5 minutes, or until golden, stirring occasionally.
  4. Once crispy, remove, chop and reserve the skin, discarding the bones.
  5. Meanwhile, cook the noodles in boiling salted water according to the packet instructions. Halve the sugar snaps lengthways.
  6. Once soft, drain the noodles, reserving a mugful of cooking water, then refresh under cold water.
  7. Use scissors to snip the noodles into roughly 8cm lengths.
  8. Stir the Worcestershire sauce and chilli jam into the chicken pan and let the jam melt, then add the sugar snaps and noodles.
  9. Toss over the heat for 2 minutes, adding a splash of reserved noodle water to loosen, if needed.
  10. Taste and season to perfection with sea salt and black pepper, then dish up and sprinkle over the reserved crispy chicken skin.

Lamb kofta flatbreads

Ingredients

  • 250 g minced lamb
  • 2 teaspoons rose harissa , plus extra to serve
  • 250 g red cabbage
  • 2 seeded wholemeal tortillas , or flatbreads
  • 2 tablespoons cottage cheese

Method

  1. Put a griddle pan on a high heat.
  2. Scrunch the minced lamb and harissa in your clean hands until well mixed.
  3. Divide into 6 pieces, then shape into koftas with your fingertips, leaving dents in the surface to increase the gnarly bits as they cook.
  4. Griddle for 4 to 5 minutes on each side, or until sizzling and golden.
  5. Meanwhile, shred the red cabbage as finely as you can. Sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt and black pepper, drizzle with 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar, then scrunch together to quickly pickle it.
  6. Warm your tortillas or flatbreads, sprinkle over the cabbage, spoon over the cottage cheese, add the koftas, drizzle with a little extra harissa, and tuck in.

Speedy spinach curry

Ingredients

  • 20 g unsalted cashew nuts
  • 1 onion
  • 2 teaspoons rogan josh curry paste
  • 100 g paneer cheese
  • 200 g baby spinach

Method

  1. Put a large non-stick frying pan on a medium-high heat and toast the cashew nuts as it heats up, shaking the pan occasionally until lightly golden.
  2. Tip the cashews into a pestle and mortar, returning the pan to the heat.
  3. Peel and finely slice the onion and place in the hot pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the curry paste.
  4. Cook and stir for 8 minutes, then add 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar. Let the vinegar cook away for 30 seconds, dice and add the paneer, then the spinach.
  5. Stir until the spinach wilts and all the liquid evaporates, then taste and season to perfection with sea salt and black pepper.
  6. Crush the cashew nuts and sprinkle over the top before serving. Yum.

Crazy simple fish pie

Ingredients

  • 400 g undyed smoked haddock , skin off, from sustainable sources
  • 2 bunches of spring onions
  • 250 g baby spinach
  • 150 g Cheddar cheese
  • 4 sheets of filo pastry

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6.
  2. In a bowl, cover the fish with boiling kettle water. Put aside to soak.
  3. Meanwhile, trim and roughly chop the spring onions, placing them into a 30cm non-stick ovenproof frying pan on a high heat with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
  4. Stir and fry for 2 minutes, then pile the spinach on top, let it wilt down and turn the heat off.
  5. Spoon 100ml of the soaking water over the spinach, then drain the fish, break up the pieces and sit them evenly around the pan.
  6. Finely grate over most of the cheese and season well with black pepper.
  7. Quickly layer the filo on top, tucking it around the fish and up the sides of the pan, tearing the last sheet on top in a nutty fashion.
  8. Grate over the last bit of cheese, drizzle with ½ a tablespoon of olive oil, and bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until golden and crisp. Easy as pie!

Easy sausage carbonara

Ingredients

  • 150 g dried tagliatelle
  • 3 higher-welfare sausages
  • ½ a bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley (15g)
  • 1 large free-range egg
  • 30 g Parmesan cheese

Method

  1. Cook the pasta in a pan of boiling salted water according to the packet instructions, then drain, reserving a mugful of cooking water.
  2. Meanwhile, squeeze the sausagemeat out of the skins, then, with wet hands, quickly shape into 18 even-sized balls.
  3. Roll and coat them in black pepper, then cook in a non- stick frying pan on a medium heat with ½ a tablespoon of olive oil until golden and cooked through, tossing regularly, then turn the heat off.
  4. Finely chop the parsley, stalks and all, beat it with the egg and a splash of pasta cooking water, then finely grate and mix in most of the Parmesan.
  5. Toss the drained pasta into the sausage pan, pour in the egg mixture, and toss for 1 minute off the heat (the egg will gently cook in the residual heat).
  6. Loosen with a good splash of reserved cooking water, season to perfection with sea salt and pepper, and finely grate over the remaining Parmesan.

All these recipes come from Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients Quick & Easy Food cookbook which you can purchase online here.

You can also check out loads of Jamie Oliver’s quick and easy recipes over on his website here.

Tags: