Black bean salad with BBQ chicken

This is another HelloFresh recipe. I've recently cancelled my account with them as I've had repeated problems with missing items and a couple of cold packs bursting and ruining ingredients and recipe cards.

I cup new potatoes, 3 chicken thighs, 1 tin of black beans, 1 lime, 1 spring onion, 1tbsp BBQ sauce, 1/2 cup sweetcorn, 2 tbsp sour cream, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1/2 red pepper

1. Pat dry and smother the chicken in BBQ sauce then bake at 200 degrees in the top of the oven for 20 minutes.

2. Finely chop the spring onion and pepper.

3. Boil the potatoes in salted water then drain and chop into bit sized pieces.

4. In a small bowl mix a little lime zest and half the juice with the sour cream and olive oil and a pinch of salt.

5. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes after taking out of the oven then shred with 2 forks (crispy duck style)

6. In a large bowl mix together all the ingredients and serve!

Fresh Week - Day 1 complete

Healthy lunch and dinner achieved!

I haven't eaten raw carrot sticks since my mum made me lunch, but I was actually surprised how nice it was!

The roll was packed with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, Edam cheese and crumbed ham and actually kept me full all afternoon.

  

Dinner was Chicken and Mushrooms in a tomato sauce with Carrots and Rosemary crushed Potatoes.
Ingredients:

4 chicken thighs
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 Clove of Garlic
350g new potatoes
A sprig of thyme
A bay leaf
300g Carrots

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees and boil a pan of water.

First I chopped up the garlic finely, halved the larger potatoes, and roughly chopped the chestnut mushrooms.I peeled and sliced the carrots into equal sticks, this took a few minutes (if I had a Tefal Fresh express it would have taken seconds, hint, hint!)

The chicken was patted dry, rubbed in oil and seasoned before going in the hot oven on a baking tray for 20 minutes.

In a large pan I heated a tablespoon of oil and fried off the garlic before adding a tin of tomatoes with a bay leaf and the mushrooms. The potatoes were added to the boiling water and both pans simmered for 14 minutes. I then added the carrots to the boiling water for 4 minutes, took the chicken out of the oven and put it in the pan of tomato sauce.

Finally to make the crushed rosemary potatoes I drained the pan of water and put the carrots to one side. I crushed the potatoes gently with the back of a fork and heated a frying pan with a little oil. Once hot I added the rosemary waited a few seconds then fried the potatoes until crispy!

 Serve it all in warmed bowls and enjoy!

Fresh Week - Plan

If fresh week is about buying the right food then I win!

Unfortunately it's not! So today as planned I received a Veg box from Abel and Cole and also ordered some bread flour and yeast.

Now comes the tricky bit; planning a week of healthy meals from my fridge and box!

Plan A:

Monday: Dinner is already sorted as I have a HelloFresh! meal ready to make from scratch of Matador chicken and chorizo casserole with crushed new potatoes. For Lunch I am going to make myself a fresh roll with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, ham and cheese (I know the ham and cheese aren't organic/handmade etc but they're in the fridge!)

Tuesday: First hurdle; I'm out all day and not home till after 10 due to work events! I'm thinking make bread in the morning to atone for my sins later on? Healthy pack-up with said bread and carrot sticks then I'll have to make do with whatever buffet is served at the evening meeting

Wednesday: Home-made pizza with peppers, onions and chicken for dinner. The pizza dough is from the Tesco make it at home range but still better than frozen or ready made bases plus I can put all my own fresh toppings on top!

Thursday: I'm concerned that my lovely fresh food will not stay fresh! I have some carrots and  leeks in the fridge and the veg box potatoes are piling up so i think I will have a soup session. Leek and potato for the fridge and carrot and coriander for this evening with some homemade rolls.

Friday: Starting to struggle for ideas now, I'm not one of these people who can make a box of vegetables into a main meal easily. Maybe a vegetable stir fry with the spring greens, peppers and carrot with soy sauce and chicken stock for flavour and seasoning.

Saturday: Leek and Potato soup for lunch,  Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms with salad and potatoes.

Sunday: Dinner at the in-laws, usually a roast or casserole made from scratch.


Making the plan took a little more effort than I thought but there's nothing on there which is unachievable!

Bacon Wrapped Pork Loin With Peppercorn Sauce

Following the Pork theme of my last recipe HelloFresh seem to be quite generous with the pork!

For this recipe and the Spiced Pork Skewers I only needed 300g of pork fillet but was sent at least 600g so  an looking forward to making them both again.

300g Pork Fillet, 450g potatoes, 4 Rashers Streaky Bacon, 100ml Milk, 1 Clove of Garlic, 3 Tbsp Double Cream, 1 Beef Oxo cube, 3 Tbsp diced Shallot, 150g Broccoli, 1/2Tbsp Black Peppercorns

As usual chop everything up; Peel and finely dice the garlic and shallot, peel the potatoes and chop into just smaller than golf ball size pieces.

Boil two pans of water, with a pinch of salt in each, and add you potatoes to one of them. Let them boil for 10-15 minutes until soft throughout and drain.

lay the bacon out, overlapping the edges to make a sheet to wrap your pork loin in. place the loin on end and roll carefully into a giant pig in blanket.

Heat a pan with a tablespoon of oil then seal your pork roll and let brown a little on all sides.

Slice the roll into discs about 2cm thick then pop them back in the hot pan and fry for 90 seconds on each side. Let rest on a warm plate.

fry the shallots and garlic in the pan containing your pork juices then add half the stock cube and 200mls of water. Allow to simmer until reduced by half then crush the pepper corns and add these plus the cream to the pan. Leave bubbling until thick.

Now cook your broccoli for 3 minutes in the second pan of boiling water and mash your potatoes with the milk, a nob of butter and a little salt to taste.

Serve the pork on top of the mashed potatoes with a good splash of sauce and broccoli on the side.

Result:

A little bit fiddly rolling up the pork and bacon but worth it in the end.

An impressive dish with lots of flavours.

Recipe score:

Spiced Pork Skewers with Carmelised Onion Rice

Another lovely recipe from HelloFresh! last night.

After taking a bit of a break from proper cooking over Christmas I decided to give the healthy January boxes a go.

300g Pork Fillet, 200g Basmati Rice, 1 Red Pepper, 1 Clove of Garlic, 80g of Onion, A pinch of Smoked Paprika, 1tsp Curry Powder, 1 Lime, 300g Broccoli

First put the skewers in some water to soak, this stops them burning when the skewers go in the oven.

Chop up all your vegetables remembering that the garlic and onion need to be finely diced to go in the rice and the red pepper should be large chunks to go on the skewers. Chop a little off the top of one of your broccoli florets so that you have a teaspoon on tiny buds to garnish.

Chop your pork into bite sized chunks, again remember that they are going to be threaded onto skewers.

Heat a pan with a tablespoon of oil then add the garlic and onion, stir and allow to cook for 5 minutes.

Next add a generous pinch of paprika, a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Add the rice and stir for a minute than add 300mls of cold water.

Once the pan starts to boil turn the heat down and pop on the lid. Turn your grill on to high and put a pan of water on to boil for your broccoli.

Meanwhile mix up a marinade of one tablespoon of olive oil, the curry powder, zest of half the lime and juice of half the lime. mix well and add a couple of pinches of slat and pepper then coat your pork and peppers. If you have time you could make the marinade the night before and leave the meat and pepper sot soak up the flavour in the fridge.

Thread your meat and peppers alternately on the skewers and pop onto a baking tray and put on to the top shelf under the grill. Cook for 10-12 minutes making sure to turn every 3 minutes. Be careful as the skewers will heat up very quickly!

Lastly put the broccoli into the pan of boiling water and cook for 4 minutes and drain. check your rice and turn off the heat if all the water has been absorbed.


Serve the skewers on top of the rice with your broccoli bud garnish sprinkled on top and the florets on the side.

Result: 

Lovely tender Pork with plenty of flavour and the rice was good enough to be eaten on its own!

All that at under 500 calories.

Recipe Score:

Undercover Ratatouille with Lemon Roasted Sea Bream

This is by far one of the easiest from scratch recipes I have ever made but also very tasty and fresh. Quite an achievement since I have always ended up with the Courgette and Aubergine (Egg plant for any Yanks) in my veg box going to waste as I've not been keen on them before.

 2 Fillets of Fish (Bream), 1 Lemon, 1 Aubergine, 200g Courgettes, 2 Peppers (we used 1 red and 1 Yellow), 1 Tin chopped Tomatoes, 2 Cloves Garlic, 1 Tsp Sugar, 1 Tsp Provencal Herbs (mixed herbs would also work)

As we have learnt by now, first I heated the oven to 250 degrees C then chopped up all the veggies. The peppers were de-seeded and sliced, the courgette was chopped into cubes and the for aubergine I removed the top and bottom, sliced into quarters and removed half of the spongy middle before chopping into cubes. If you really like your peppers you could slice it into bitter strips than I did.

These were all popped onto a baking tray and tossed in a little oil with a pinch of salt and pepper before being put on the top shelf of the oven for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile I finely chopped the garlic and fried it in a large pan with a little olive oil for a minute before adding the tin of chopped tomatoes. I then added the herbs, sugar and a pinch of salt and let it bubble until I had a thick sauce.

I placed a tray with a tablespoon of oil into the oven to heat up then rubbed some oil on my fish again seasoning with a little salt and pepper then placing on the heated tray. Finally squeeze the juice from 1/4 of a lemon on top and place in the middle of the oven for 5 minutes.

The veggies should be about ready by now, gently roasted and a bit crispy around the edges. Remove from the oven and add to the tomato sauce, taste and season as needed.

Serve the fish on top of the ratatouille and zest a little bit of lemon on top.

Result:

Both the fish and the ratatouille would work really well with other dishes or together. I couldn't believe how nice and simple this was and still so tasty. The fish was perfectly cooked and very moist and the vegetables all tasted very nice amazingly as both myself and the other half didnt think we really liked courgette or aubergine.

Recipe Score:

Decadent Wild Mushrooms and Truffle Macaroni

This was a very luxurious twist on a normal macaroni cheese and also suitable for vegetarians (depending on cheese). I usually make a spring version of macaroni with bacon, leeks and peas.

The HelloFresh! recipe card layout has changed slightly since I last had a box, I'm not sure if it is better or about the same!

250g Macaroni, 100g Wild Mushrooms, 25g Butter, 250ml Milk, 25g Plain Flour, 80g Cheddar Cheese, 1/2 Tsp Mustard, 1/4 Tsp Truffle oil, 30g Breadcrumbs 150g Broccoli

First I grated the cheese and put 2 pans of water on to boil. I added the pasta to one of the boiling pans with a pinch of salt and rubbed any dirt off of the wild mushrooms, don't wash as this will affect the flavour.

I pulled my mushrooms apart into managable chunks as some were quite big or joined and then fried in a little olive oil until softened.

In a large pan I melted the butter and added the flour, once the flour had slighly cooked through I added a dash of milk, stirring well and slowly adding the milk till you have a thinner paste, stir until all the lumps are gone and add the rest of the milk. This is a roux and is a great white sauce base for many recipes. Finally add 2/3 of your cheese the mustard and truffle oil and cook on a low heat until the sauce coats a wooded spoon easily.

I then added my pasta and mushrooms to the sauce and put the broccoli in  the remaining pan of boiling water. Heating the grill to high I transferred my pasta and sauce into an oven dish, topped with breadcrumbs and the remaining cheese and grilled until brown.

Serve with the broccoli!

Result:

This wash such a lovely rich version of macaroni cheese that I will definitely be looking for where to get wild mushrooms in the future. My other half didnt even notice that there was no meat tonight!

Recipe score:

Speedy Chicken Kiev with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Broccoli

This is another HelloFresh! recipe with new ingredients. I've never had much success with sweet potatoes so was a bit worried that I would end up with mushy sweet potato chunks at the end but this went better than I thought.
 If you've enjoyed the Hello fresh recipes you have seen so far then you can download a whole book of them at: http:///hellofreshrecipes.co.uk/recipe-book-download/

2 Chicken breasts, 400g Sweet potato, 350g Broccoli, 2 Cloves of Garlic, 20g Breadcrums, 2 tblsp cream cheese, 1 tsp italian herbs

As we have all learnt by now the first task is to put on the oven and chop up all the ingredients.

The oven needs to be heated to 190 degrees.

The broccoli should be separated into florets, sweet potatoes into wedges and the garlic finely chopped.

The sweet potato needs plenty of time to roast so toss this in some oil with a sprinkle of salt and pepper and pop onto the top shelf of the oven.

Next I mixed together the cream cheese, quarter of the garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper.

I made a slit in the fattest end of the chicken breasts and using my fingers made a large enough hole to squish my cream cheese mixture into. This was quite messy but don't worry, it its really not working well extend the slit down the side a little as long as you get most of your mixture inside the chicken.

Once the chicken was filled I mixed the remaning garlic, bread crumbs and italian herbs in a bowl and rolled my chicken in it so it was well coated. I then popped them onto a tray and put them in the oven for  25 minutes.

Keep an eye on the sweet potato so that it doesn't burn but try not to move the wedges around too much unless you have to, that when it gets broken up!

Finally I steamed the broccoli in a steamer, if you don't have one you can use a metal colander on top of a pan of water with the lid on top!


And Serve!

 

Result:

The chicken was lovely and moist, the sweet potato was crispy and the broccoli tasted nice and fresh.

This recipe was actually easier than I thought so I definately wont be buying ready made, hollow kieves in future!

 

 

Recipe score:

Pad's Thai with Tiger Prawns and Tamarind

Another lovely tiger prawn HelloFresh! Recipe, next week I will be reviewing Gousto to see how the services compare.

I didn't know what tamarind was until I picked up this recipe (for those who still do not know it's a fruit used in Worcestershire and HP sauce) but it fit perfectly into my aim of trying new food and ingredients.

150g Tiger Prawns, 2 Nests of Noodles, I Tbsp Tamarind Sauce, 1 Tsp Muscavado Sugar, 1 Tbsp Soya Sauce, 1 stock cube, 1 Tbsp Peanuts, 1 Tsp Red chilli, 1 Cup of Beansprouts, 1 Cup Coriander, Half a Tbsp Ginger, 2 Cloves Garlic,           3 Spring Onions, 1 Lime

As with the Other HelloFresh! Recipes we start by chopping up all the ingredients (garlic, chilli, ginger, spring onions), make sure to separate the white part of the spring onion from the green, and crush your peanuts.

Mix together your Tamarind Sauce, Soya sauce and the Muscavado sugar in a bowl and put to one side.

Dissolve your stock cube in a pan of boiling water, add the noodles and cook until al dente, drain and keep a couple of tablespoons of the water.
(or you could just leave a little in the bottom of the pan when draining, that's what I did!)

Heat up a tablspoon of oil in a pan and cook the ginger chilli and garlic of 30 seconds before adding the white spring onions and prawns. Cook until the prawns turn pink then add the noodles and stir in your sauce (add the extra liquid from the noodles now if you set it to one side rather than being lazy like me). give it a good toss for a few minutes.

Finally take off the heat and add the bean-sprouts and squeeze half of the juice of a lime over the top.

Serve in heated bowls with the coriander, green spring onion and peanuts sprinkled on top.

Result:

 

The prawns and noodles were lovely but there were a few too many flavours for me. The combination of chilli, garlic, spring onions, lime and coriander left a confusing taste. The crunch of the peanuts was great but I would probably leave out the lime and coriander next time.

 

Recipe Score:

 A lovely fresh dish but too many flavours happening at once!

 

The Ferrari of Zesty Orange Beef Stir Fry

This is my second recipe from Hello Fresh! it's really a different take on a recipe I usually cook at home. Usually I would buy ready cut up beef, some veg and a sauce but this recipe has a lot more flavour and isn't as tricky as it looks.

200g Flank Steak, 1 Orange, 2 nests of Egg Noodles, 80g Mange Tout, 1 teaspoon Muscavado Sugar, 2 cloves of Garlic, knob of Ginger, 1 Lime, 1 teaspoon Sesame Seeds, 4 tablespoons of Cornflour, 1 tablespoon of Soy Sauce, 1 Red Chilli

As with the Tiger Prawn Linguine recipe, first I chopped up the ingredients; chilli, garlic and ginger. The skin of the ginger can be peeled off with a spoon(!) before chopping. Zest a quarter of a teaspoon of orange and squeeze half the juice. Next I mixed together the orange juice, zest, soya sauce, and sugar in a small bowl.

I then sliced the beef thinly and coated in cornflour with a pinch of salt and pepper before stir frying the beef for 2 minutes and taking off the heat. Boil the noodles in a pan of hot water for four minutes. Finally cook the ginger, garlic, chilli and mange tout for 2 minutes before adding the beef, noodles and sauce.

Mix it all up and serve with the sesame seeds sprinkled on top!

Result:

Again Hello Fresh! delivered a dish full of flavour. The ginger really stands out and this time I didn't add too much spice as the fresh chilli was quite mild and I removed the seeds! (leave the seeds in if you like a bit of kick)

Recipe Score:

I could have made something similar with a ready made sauce but the ginger and fresh chilli are worth adding.

Tiger Prawn Linguine with Chilli and Sun-dried Tomato

This is my first attempt at a recipe from Hello Fresh!, a home delivery company which supplies you with ingredients and recipes to make fresh restaurant quality meals at home in half an hour!

I love prawns and my fiancé has only just started eating prawns so I was really pleased to get this recipe in my first box of goodies.

My "Hello Fresh!" ingredients and recipe ready to cook

The first part of the recipe was to chop up all my ingredients: garlic, onion, sun-dried tomatoes and parsley. This is actually a really good method, obvious, but it really makes the rest of the cooking easy as you don't have to stop to prepare anything later.

Next the garlic onion, sun-dried tomatoes and chilli went into a hot pan with a little oil. Once the onion was soft I added a tin of tomatoes and half a teaspoon of sugar, then let it bubble while I popped the linguine into a pan of boiling water. Add raw prawns to the tomato sauce, drain linguine, and toss together with the parsley.

Result:

The dish was full of flavour but very hot; when it said add the chilli I poured the whole little cup in rather than just a pinch! The result was very hot but still demolished quickly just with plenty of water.

We both really enjoyed this recipe and I would definitely make this dish again but be careful with the chilli flakes!

Recipe Score:

 

(please note: my own cooking probably deserved a 4 but it wasn't the recipe's fault that I can't read "pinch"!)