Chicken in a Red Pepper Sauce

This recipe comes from a card picked up in Sainsbury's years ago; I have made it before but never blogged about it so thought I would do so now. It's a good way to get extra vegetables into your diet - I don't like red pepper in large quantities but enjoyed this recipe.

To serve 4, you need:
1/2 tbsp. olive oil
4 skinless chicken breasts
2 fresh chillies, deseeded
2 large red peppers, deseeded, cored and chopped
75g sundried tomatoes
2 tsp soft light brown sugar
1 tbsp. white wine vinegar
227g can chopped tomatoes
salt, pepper

Brush a large frying pan with the oil and cook the chicken breasts over a medium heat for about 15 minutes or until cooked through - it will take longer if they are large.

Meanwhile put all the other ingredients in a food processor and whizz until smooth.

 

Transfer the sauce to a saucepan and heat through for a few minutes, then serve the chicken breasts with the sauce on top.

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Fizz, Balloon and Gift Birthday Card

This is a quick, informal card (perhaps in the way that Mary Berry means when she says informal) that is suitable for someone of any age and gender. I used a piece of red and yellow polka dot paper to cover a card blank which I decided to use in landscape orientation. The three pictures mounted onto it are cut from an old birthday card I received - there's nothing wrong with recycling! I added the words 'happy birthday' from a pack of silver outline stickers, mounted onto a piece of red card.

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Salmon with Mustard and Gruyere Herb Crust

I love salmon and often when I'm planning my week's meals, I put down salmon for one night - it tastes so good I don't really need to do anything, and can quickly cook a piece of salmon and some vegetables for a delicious dinner.

Sometimes though it's nice to do something a bit different. I found this recipe in my BBC Saturday Kitchen Cookbook; it's also available on the BBC website.

You make a crust from breadcrumbs, cheese and herb, and press it on top of the salmon. I didn't bother with the part where you chill it in the fridge and instead mixed it and pressed it straight onto the fish.

The fish is baked in a mixture of fish stock and wine which keeps it light and gives it a lovely flavour. I didn't bother roasting the tomatoes as I don't like them, but didn't think the dish lacked anything for it.

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Restaurant review: The Fox, Caterham, Surrey

Do you have a favourite local pub? My husband and I aren't really drinkers and when we go out for meals it tends to be after work in central London, or when we are away visiting family or friends, rather than anywhere around where we live. But a few weeks ago I really fancied a Sunday roast. We were visiting my brother-in-law and his family but they had to be somewhere at midday, so I suggested to my mother-in-law, who was also with us, that we go for lunch afterwards.

We only decided this at the last minute and I don't know any pubs in the area where we were going to be - around Caterham and Kenley, so resorted to Google Maps to see what was nearby, then went to the establishments' websites and read some reviews. Perhaps not the way most people decide on a pub for Sunday lunch, but it worked for me!

I chose the Fox which described itself as a "country pub oozing rural charm and rustic behaviour" with "hearty, seasonal pub food". It's part of the Vintage Inns chain but it didn't feel like a chain pub at all, with its own unique character and a menu that didn't look mass-produced.

The restaurant area where we sat had wooden tables and chairs, while I could see armchairs elsewhere in the pub. A few people were sitting in the pub garden but it was too cold in my opinion - but as the restaurant started to fill up with people who had reserved tables, I wondered if the ones outside were there because there was no room indoors!

I couldn't decide which roast to have and decided to be a bit of a pig and have all of them! The Fox does a platter where you get beef, turkey and lamb for £11.95 - not a huge amount of each of course so it is a fairly big meal but quite manageable for one person (I would have liked more roast potatoes, but I'm a bit obsessed with roast potatoes). The Yorkshire pudding was nice, though the menu stated it came with a jug of gravy, and the gravy was already poured on - it looks like a lot in this photo but

 

there really wasn't enough of it, which the very friendly and chatty waiter acknowledged.

My husband had a burger (£9.95 with an extra £1 for cheese), because that's what he generally orders when we go out, and said it was really nice, while his mum had the baked camembert from the starter menu - it's designed to be shared as a starter, so made a reasonably-sized main course, though at £10.75 I thought it seemed a bit pricey for bread and cheese (even if the cheese was topped with cider-soaked raisins). She'd said she was saving room for dessert and though I was supposed to be following Sugar-Free September, I have to admit that I cracked!

My mother-in-law ordered the bakewell slice (£6.75) which was absolutely huge - we all ended up trying a bit and even though I don't normally eat bakewell tarts I thought this was very good. My husband had the Belgian chocolate brownie (£4.75) - he is very predictable - and I was torn between a few things.

 I plumped for the Bramley apple pie (£4.75) - I love apple pie but never make it at home as my husband doesn't like apple, but I think I might just make one anyway and see if I can persuade him! It was extremely good, and overall we were very happy with our meal and will definitely be going back.

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Meal Planning Monday 2016 - Week 41

Last week's meal plan went out the window a bit as I was working late a lot and my husband was off work ill for several days. So there are various things I didn't make that I am going to put on the meal plan for this week, which makes planning a bit quicker!

Monday
Sticky sausages with carrots and couscous from this Tesco recipe

Tuesday
chicken curry to use up coconut milk from this recipe

Wednesday
my husband will probably be at his mum's so I will have some spiralized veg with a creamy sauce and salmon

Thursday
pesto chicken in tomato sauce with mashed potato

Friday
chicken kievs and chips

Saturday
Lunch: I'm out all day on a training course, where lunch is provided
Dinner: tacos with potato wedges

Sunday
Brunch: beignets
Dinner: roast vegetable and cashew pie from the new GBBO cookery book (chicken pie for my husband as he won't eat this), served with vegetables and quick herb butter sauce from the same book

This is a blog hop - join in!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Blueberry Compote Cupcakes

 

While I was in the middle of Sugar-Free September I wanted to make a cake to take into the design agency I work with as I was spending a day working with them. I always take cake and didn't want them to miss out just because I wasn't eating sweet treats, so I had a good idea: to make a cake I didn't like and wouldn't eat!

I had some blueberries in the freezer that I'd been given and I don't really like blueberries (even in muffins). I've got a gorgeous-looking recipe book I've hardly used, called Cox Cookies & Cake - it was a pop-up (or in any case relatively short-lived) bakery in London's Soho that was a collaboration between baker Eric Lanlard and fashion designer Patrick Cox, that had very glamorous, decadent - and sometimes slightly naughty (cupcake toppers of topless men or showgirl legs) treats. I remember fondly going there with a friend while we were shopping in Soho for Halloween party costumes a few years ago.

Reminiscing aside, the book had a recipe for blueberry compote cupcakes, which looked perfect. I made the blueberry compote from scratch and used it to fill the middle of the cakes before they were baked - which was a bit unusual as normally I'd add a jam filling after the cakes were baked, but this seemed to work really well - not that I actually tried one, but I had very good feedback from the team!

To make 12 cupcakes, you need:
2 eggs
200g caster sugar
125ml sunflower oil
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
250g plain flour
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
250ml soured cream

for the blueberry frosting;
150g blueberries
50g caster sugar

for the buttercream:
250g butter, softened
500g icing sugar
2 tbsp. milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
and I added a few drops of blue food colouring as well

 

Make the blueberry compote first; I actually did this the day before. Heat the blueberries and sugar in a saucepan, over a low heat and stirring well, until the sugar has dissolved and the blueberries softened. I let mine cool and put in a container with a lid in the fridge overnight.

Preheat oven to 200C/ 180C fan. Beat the eggs and the sugar and gradually pour in the oil, mixing well. Add the vanilla extract, then fold in the flour, salt and baking powder. Stir in the soured cream.

Put paper cake cases into a muffin tin and put one large tablespoon of the cake mixture into each cake case then put 1 tsp of the compote on top.

Fill the rest of the paper case until 2/3 full with the rest of the cake mixture.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes and allow to cool.

Beat the butter with the icing sugar and add the other ingredients; using a piping bag with a small star nozzle, pipe the buttercream onto the top of the cupcakes.

I'm sharing these with Treat Petite, hosted by Stuart at Cakeyboi and Kat the Baking Explorer.

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Goat's Cheese Monte Cristos

When I was at university, my friend Dan made the best late-night post-pub cheese toasties - I've had my own Breville sandwich toaster for several years (the same brand that my parents had when I was a kid, a long time ago) and there is definitely something comforting, if a little greasy, about a toasted cheese sandwich.

I usually add a slice of ham and maybe a smear of mustard to mine, but that's as fancy as it goes. I was looking through a recipe book I have reviewed before called Breakfast for Dinner looking for weekend lunch recipes and came across Monte Cristos - which are effectively cheese toasties but posher.

Apparently this particular recipe originated in the US - it uses turkey and goat's cheese, with hot red pepper jelly for sweetness and spice, though as I didn't have any and didn't want to make it from scratch, I used cranberry jelly instead. You don't need a dedicated sandwich toaster - you make this in a skillet or frying pan, brushing the bread with egg to make an almost eggy-bread texture.

To serve 4, you need:
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
8 slices bread
100g spreadable goat's cheese
1/4 cup hot red pepper jelly - I used cranberry jelly
8 slices roast turkey
2 tbsp. butter

Spread 2 tbsp. goat's cheese onto a slice of bread, then 1 tbsp. jelly. Top with a slice of turkey and another piece of bread to make a sandwich.

Whisk the eggs, milk and salt in a jug and brush over the top of the sandwich.

Melt the butter in the frying pan and place the sandwich in the pan, egg side down. Brush the other side of the sandwich with egg mixture. Cook for 3-4 minutes then turn and cook on the other side, then keep warm wrapped in foil while you repeat with the rest of the sandwiches.

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