lunch boxes

It felt like high time to expand my lunch options. I've been having the same sort of soups and salads for lunch for weeks, with only minor variations. Time to shake things up a little and make the work day just a little more interesting.

My Seattle-dwelling friend Carisa is a Mexican food fiend, so when she recommended this Mexican soup recipe I figured it must be a good one. Monday was not a good day at work, and it didn't seem like Tuesday was likely to be much better, so a burst of Mexican sunshine in a bowl seemed like the thing to lift my spirits.

I made a few changes to the recipe due to the contents of my cupboards and to adapt it to my taste buds - I didn't have quite enough chickpeas, I used pheasant instead of chicken (we had roast pheasant on sunday and there was just enough left over for this recipe), and added a sprinkle of chilli flakes for heat, and a handful of spinach. Also, we were out of oregano so I used thyme. The measurements in cups instead of grams added a little complication to the process, but I think I got the quantities about right.

I made a rookie-error and under-seasoned the dish, but that was easily rectified at the eating stage. I think if I made this again I'd add a bit more spice - it could do with being a little punchier flavoured for my tastes.



Overall? Sopa Ranchera was tasty, easy to make, with one or two minor adjustments it will make a good spring or autumn lunch.

My second lunchbox experiment was Ottolenghi's Aubergine Cheesecake. I ordered the Ottolenghi cookbook the other day, so while I waited for it to arrive I figured I would browse his recipes from The Guardian newspaper and get some practice in!

I do love it when something looks this colourful and enticing before its even finished:


I adapted the recipe again to suit my fridge contents, using a mild soft goats cheese instead of cream cheese and yoghurt instead of double cream, so my version is probably a bit sharper flavoured than the recipe intended.



It is like a pastry-less quiche. I can completely see why Ottolenghi describes it as a savoury cheesecake as it has a similar texture to it.



It travelled well to work and made a more interesting lunch box than usual, so I'll definitely make this again. Creamy and delicious.

Find the recipe here.

Cooking it by the book

A few months back a read a novel called Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. Its a magical novel, unlike anything I've read before. It is a book infused with stories of family, food, love, frustration. Each chapter explains (in very vague terms!) a dish made by one of the main characters.

I thought that the Stuffed chillis in Walnut sauce sounded like they were do-able. Although the quantities and ingredients are listed at the start of the chapter, it is a little bit of a detective job to figure out the method.

So, here is my version of the recipe, with quantities cut down to a manageable size, method deduced (& guessed in places!), enough for lunch for 5 or 6 people:

2 - 3 bell peppers, halved, de-membraned & deseeded
Garnish:
1 pomegranate
10g cashews per portion
10g sheeps cheese per portion
Stuffing Ingredients:
300g minced pork
20g raisins or sultanas
50g blanched almonds
50g walnuts
1/3 can tomatoes
1/2 onion, peeled & sliced
1/4 peach, peeled & diced
1/4 apple, peeled & diced
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
salt & white pepper
1 tablespoon of fresh chopped parsley

Method:
Chop the nuts lightly, but don't pulverise them to a powder. You want to keep decent sized chunks and texture.
Fry the onion in 1 teaspoon olive oil over a medium heat until softened. Add the mince and cumin and keep it all moving until the meat is browned. Stir in the apple and peach, walnuts, almonds, raisins, chilli powder, and tomatoes. Stir it all together, add some salt. Let most of the liquid cook off.
Remove from the heat and stir in the parsley. Allow to cool slightly then spoon the meat mixture into the pepper halves. Pack it in quite well.
These can be kept in the fridge for at least 24 hours before serving.
When you want to eat, preheat the oven to 190C. Sprinkle 10g sheep or goat cheese on each pepper half. Bake the peppers for 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven and serve, either hot or cold, garnished with 10g salted cashews per person and a tablespoon of pomegranate seeds.



I served one pepper half per person for lunch, with carrots and sweet potatoes. The peppers were yummy, and definitely one to make again, but I would serve them with a different accompaniment next time. Maybe a dollop of yoghurt mixed with some mint, and flatbreads or spicey potato and sweet potato wedges.



Who'd have thought that a novel would offer up a gorgeous dinner recipe?!

More Riverford recipes

I'm still working my way through the Riverford Farm cook book which I bought in Devon. Its an amazingly useful book. I LOVE the fact that its full of fantastic ideas for vegetables.

So...ta dah! This week we had Mexican one-pot courgettes. I only made one amendment to the recipe, and that was enforced; the cream we had in the fridge had gone off so I used sheep's yoghurt instead.

Sorry, no photos - I was too hungry! We had our courgettes (cooked up in one-pot with cinnamon sticks, cloves, pepper, chilli, coriander and mint, yoghurt and tinned tomatoes) with pork loin chops and new potatoes. We both thought this would be great with chicken and rice, and possibly also good cold for work lunches.

It was easy. It was pretty quick. Low effort. Tasty. What's not to like?

I forgot to post last week's recipe - One of my Dad's recipe cards picked up in the supermarket a while back. It was lemon and basil chicken with pasta. It meant that we could have the first crop of peas grown by my own fair hands in our little vegetable plot.
Here's the recipe:

Lemon and basil chicken (for 2)

2 chicken breasts
Handful of basil leaves
Approx 50g fresh peas (or defrosted frozen ones)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon yoghurt or creme fraiche
Enough pasta for 2 people

Dice the chicken then stir fry it until there is no more pink showing. Stir in all of the other ingredients. Season with salt and black pepper. I also added a pink of smoked paprika but you don't need to. Heat through. Serve with cooked pasta.

It was easy, quick, filling and refreshing on the tastebuds.

PS You will notice that a lot of my recipes recently have been low-effort quick dishes. My explanation (excuse?) is that I'm currently training for a half marathon in 4 weeks time. I'm spending silly amounts of time running, which doesn't leave a lot of energy for complicated cookery!
Next week marks the 52nd of this project, ie a WHOLE YEAR. Who'd have thought I'd keep going for so long? Lobster here I come......

Further forays into Latin American cooking

....Guacamole. Not technically cooking, just lots of chopping, mashing and mixing.

I don't like avocado. Not at all. So I should probably explain why I bothered to make this.

Firstly our vegetable box yielded an avocado this week.
Secondly it was a busy week so the thought of a no-cook recipe was distinctly appealing.
Thirdly, in homage to Carisa's love of Mexican food.
And fourthly, I wondered if I might like avocado this time.

I think that's enough reasons. My guacamole recipe, taken from a cook book stolen from my mum (sorry Mum) turned out nothing like the green goo you buy in the shops.



I don't think I will be eating avocado on its own anytime soon, but I'm not averse to making this guacamole again. The combination of crunchy red onion, zingy lime and the softness of the avocado was quite pleasant. It made a good addition to what I very loosely describe as prawn fajitas (really just stirfried prawns, peppers and onion with a bit of tomato sauce and some mexican-inspired spices wrapped in a soft tortilla).

I wouldn't go out and buy avocado, but if it makes an appearance in my veg box again I will not be completely disgusted. Progress of a sort I suppose!

Guacamole

1 avocado
1/2 red onion - finely sliced
1/2 red or green chilli - deseeded and finely sliced
1/2 garlic clove - crushed
grated zest 1/2 small lime
juice of 1 small lime
100g fresh tomatoes - deseeded and diced
1 tbspn chopped fresh coriander
1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1-2 teaspoons olive oil
salt + black pepper to taste

Cut the avocado in half and prise out the stone from the middle.
Scrape the flesh out of 1/2 of the avocado and mash it with a fork. Add the onion, chilli, garlic, lime zest, tomato and coriander and mix it all together.
Next add the cumin and seasoning and stir through before drizzling the olive oil over the mixture.
Peel the rind off the remaining half of the avocado, dice the flesh and mix in with the other ingredients. Squeeze the lime juice over.
Leave to stand for 15 minutes to let the flavour develop before serving.

I think my next Latin recipe will have to be Brazilian cheesy bread. I remember Yu Chen getting me some from a Brazilian cafe at the end of the Oxford Road in London when they were still warm from the oven. Although not usually a major fan of cheese I did enjoy these. I spotted the recipe in my Cuban book last week, so watch this space. I need to find Tapioca flour first though - anyone got any ideas where that can be bought?