Seafood Risotto

This dish was inspired by a recent trip to Italy.

Serves 2

Extra Easy - 0 syns

Ingredients 

150g risotto rice
1pt fish stock
Pinch saffron
Mixed seafood
1 brown onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
Half a lemon, zest and juice
1 tbsp tomato purée
Handful frozen peas
Black pepper
Flat leaf parsley
Frylight

Method 

1. Make up the fish stock with a stock cube and 1 pint boiling water and add the saffron. Leave to infuse.
2. Fry the onions until soft in a frying pan sprayed with frylight then add the garlic. Once cooked add the tomato purée, lemon juice and zest, peas and the rice and season with the black pepper. Stir to combine.
3. Add a ladle of fish stock and stir until absorbed by the rice. Continue until all of the stock has been used and the rice is cooked (you may need to top up with boiling water).
4. Add the cooked seafood (I used king prawns, mussels and squid) and stir until warmed through.
5. Serve in bowls and top with chopped parsley and black pepper.

Peppercorn Sauce

I make this all the time when we're having steak and it's absolutely delicious. Better, in fact, than the stuff you get in restaurants even!

Serves 2

Extra Easy - HEXa or 6 syns per portion

Ingredients
150g philadelphia light (HEXa)
mushrooms, sliced
black pepper to taste
oxo beef stock cube

Method
1. Crumble the oxo cube into a saucepan. Add 190ml boiling water and the philadelphia. Put on a low heat and stir ingredients together. Grind in as much black pepper as you like (I like a lot!)
2. Meanwhile fry the mushrooms in fry light until soft. Add to the sauce.
3. Leave to simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has thickened (approx 10 mins).
4. If the sauces becomes too thick, thin with a splash of boiling water.

Lamb Dhansak

 Taken from the BBC Good Food website with a few tweaks. This recipe really is as good as the takeaway version!

Serves 4

Extra Easy - 0 syns

Ingredients

100g red lentils

500g butternut squash, peeled and chopped into chunks

2 onions roughly chopped

400g tin chopped tomatoes

1 tsp turmeric

1½ tsp ground cumin

1½ tsp ground coriander 

4 cardamom pods, squashed

1 bay leaf

1 cinnamon stick

400ml stock (chicken, lamb or vegetable)

 400g lean diced lamb

thumb-sized piece root ginger, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, crushed

2-3 green chillies, sliced (take out the seeds if you don't want it too hot)

small bunch coriander, chopped

1 tsp garam masala 

steamed basmati to serve

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. Put the lentils, squash, onion, turmeric and tinned tomatoes into a sauce pan and pour enough stock to just cover everything. Simmer for 20 minutes or until the lentils are tender.

3. Spray a pot (that can be used in the oven such as Le Creuset) with frylight and heat. Brown the lamb in batches until it has browned all over. Remove the lamb and add the spices to the pan, then add the ginger, garlic and chillies and cook for 2 minutes. Add the bay leaf, cinnamon stick, lamb, lentils and squash and 200ml stock (top up with hot water if short of 200ml).

4. Put the lid on the pot and cook in the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes or until the lamb is completely tender and the sauce thickened. Stir in the garam masala and coriander then serve with boiled rice.

Chicken and Mushroom Risotto

Serves 2

Extra Easy - 0 syns, HEXa

Ingredients
150g Risotto rice (Arborio)
1 pt Chicken Stock (more if needed)
4 Chicken thigh fillets, chopped into chunks and excess fat removed
Couple of handfuls of Chestnut mushrooms, sliced
4 shallots, sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 tbsps grated Parmesan (HEXa)
1 tsp thyme
Salt & Black Pepper
Frylight

Method
1. Fry the shallot in a frying pan sprayed with frylight until slightly softened.
2. Add the garlic, mushrooms and chicken, then add the thyme and seasoning and fry until the chicken has whitened. Spray the pan with more frylight if needed and add the rice and stir through.
3. Add a glug of the hot chicken stock at a time, stirring until the liquid has been absorbed by the rice and repeat. Keep doing this until the rice is cooked and the stock has run out. If needed, add more hot water to the pan until the rice is cooked through.
 4. Take it off the heat and stir through half of parmesan. Serve with the remaining parmesan sprinkled on top and a grinding of black pepper.

Spiced Mango Cod with Lemon & Spinach Rice

I adapted this from a recipe I found on Tesco's website.

Serves 2

Extra Easy - 1 syn

Ingredients
150ml long grain rice (measured in a measuring jug)
300ml hot vegetable or chicken stock
2 cod fillets
1 tbsp mango chutney
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 red pepper, cut into small chunks
Handful of frozen peas
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp medium curry powder
Finely grated zest of half a lemon
50g spinach (fresh or frozen)
Fat free Natural Yoghurt or 0% Greek Yoghurt (optional)
Lemon wedges (optional)
Frylight
Black Pepper

Method
1. Put the rice and the stock in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and put a lid on the pan. Leave until the stock has been absorbed and the rice is cooked.
2. Spread the mango chutney onto the top of each cod fillet and sprinkle over the cumin seeds and chilli flakes and season with black pepper. Place onto a foil lined tray sprayed with frylight and place under a medium-hot grill for 10 minutes or until the cod has cooked through.
3. Meanwhile fry the onions and peppers in a frying pan sprayed with frylight until soft. Add the garlic, peas, turmeric, curry powder and lemon zest and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Add the cooked rice and the spinach to the pan, season, and mix well until the spinach has wilted (if using frozen spinach place in the microwave for 2 minutes and drain off any excess liquid before adding it to the pan).
5. Serve the cod on top of the rice and dollop on a tbsp of the natural yoghurt. Serve with the lemon wedges.

Seafood Paella

Serves 2-3

Extra Easy - 0 syns

Ingredients
200g Paella Rice
Mixed Seafood (prawns, mussels, calamari)
2 Garlic Gloves, finely chopped
1 red pepper, sliced
1 yellow pepper, sliced
1 red onion, sliced
400g tin of chopped Tomatoes
1 pt Fish Stock
Pinch of Saffron
1 tsp Smoked Paprika
Handful of broad beans
Salt & Black Pepper
Frylight

Method
1. Prepare the stock and add the saffron, leave to infuse.
2. Fry the onions and peppers in a flat bottomed frying pan or paella dish sprayed with frylight until soft.
3. Add the garlic and paprika and fry for 1 minute.
4. Add the tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Stir in the rice until it is coated in the ingredients and mixed through, then add the mixed seafood to the pan.
6. Pour over the stock and leave to simmer for 10 minutes. Take off the heat and cover the pan with tin foil and leave to rest for 10 minutes. Garnish with lemon wedges and serve with a sprinkling of parsley to finish the dish.

Crab Linguine

A yummy recipe I came up with in order to use up some crab meat I had in the cupboard.

Serves 2

Extra Easy - 0 syns, HEXa

Ingredients
1 tin of Chunky Crab Meat
Half a Red Chilli, finely chopped
2 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 Spring Onions, chopped
Handful of Tenderstem Broccoli
60g Parmesan, grated
150g Spaghetti/Linguine/Vermicelli 
1 tbsp Pasta water
Frylight
Salt & Black Pepper

Method
1. Cook your chosen pasta according to the packet instructions.
2. Fry the spring onion and broccoli in a frying pan sprayed with frylight until the broccoli has slightly softened. Add the garlic and chilli and fry for 2 minutes.
3. Add the crab meat to the pan and fry for a further minute.
4. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 tbsp of the pasta water and put back into the saucepan. Add the reserved pasta water and half of the Parmesan, along with the spring onion, garlic, chilli and seasoning and combine.
5. Dish into two pasta bowls and sprinkle over the rest of the Parmesan and serve.