Braising steak

Chicken fillets

Silverside joint

I'm fed up doing the usual boring stuff with the above, any suggestions? I'd like some kiddie friendly suggestions but adult ones (with wine etc) would be most welcomed too
:D

*Peaches*, I can answer the chicken part of your question if you mean chicken breasts.
First you need a pot of Rose Harrisa, this is a paste obtainable from Sainsbury's. It's usually on the speciality section. Then you need a package of cherry tomatos, and some black olives, about a couple of dozen. Place the chicken breasts (two) on a baking tray and rub the harrisa on all sides, be careful though because it's powerful hot. Then scatter the tomatos and olives all around the chicken and bake in a 200 degree oven for about 30 minutes. That's it, quick and brilliant.

Try this, relatively simple and you can serve it with potatoes/rice/pasta whatever

2 large chicken breasts slashed across
1 tub of wild mushroom pasta sauce
a handful of chopped parsley or a tsp of dried
one clove of garlic, crushed
half a pack of chestnut mushrooms sliced
salt and pepper
lemon wedges and a bit of fresh parsley to serve
put everything in a casserole and cook in a moderate to hot oven 200 c gas 6 for about 45 mins.

I serve it with hot pot style potatoes and green beans usually but you can serve it with anything you like

It also makes a rather nice chicken sandwich when cold

or

Two chicken breasts with the skin removed then slashed across 3 times. Marinade for a couple of hours before putting in a covered dish in the oven [200c gas 6] for 30 mins

Marinade
Juice and grated zest of 2 large oranges juice and grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tbsps runny honey 1 - 2 tbsp of soy [1 of dark or 2 of light]
tbsp fresh chopped parsley or 1 tsp dried
1 clove of garlic finely chopped 1 tsp grated ginger

mix all the above together, you can add more orange juice if you have it around
when the chicken is cooked, remove the breasts and thicken the sauce, I usually use arrowroot [about 1 tsp mixed with water like you would cornflour] as it doesn't make the sauce cloudy.
serve with buttered new potatoes and whatever veg takes your fancy.

Phwoar, I'm going shopping tomorrow :hihi:

*Peaches*, I can answer the chicken part of your question if you mean chicken breasts.
First you need a pot of Rose Harrisa, this is a paste obtainable from Sainsbury's. It's usually on the speciality section. Then you need a package of cherry tomatos, and some black olives, about a couple of dozen. Place the chicken breasts (two) on a baking tray and rub the harrisa on all sides, be careful though because it's powerful hot. Then scatter the tomatos and olives all around the chicken and bake in a 200 degree oven for about 30 minutes. That's it, quick and brilliant.

Texas might be talking about Belazu Rose Harrisa. You can also buy it direct from their website and I have seen it at Waitrose as well as the odd large Tesco.
I love the stuff.

I put braising steak, chopped chorizo, cherry tomatoes, red wine & beef stock into a slow cooker to make a REALLY rich, spicy casserole and serve with various different veg/yorkshires depending on what I fancy that day... it's also yummy with rice :)

I adapted it from a tapas dish I had at the Wig & Pen once ;)

*Peaches* Hope I'm not to late but you only need a spoonful of harrisa for two chicken breasts. Also you can add a teaspoon of olive oil and a pinch of oregano to the rub. Just mix it all together.
Katieb 23, how about a few details on the braising steak recipe. Do you think it would do slow in the oven? Sounds good to me though.

Katieb 23, how about a few details on the braising steak recipe. Do you think it would do slow in the oven? Sounds good to me though.
Well I don't have a proper recipe cos I just made it up!
It depends what proportions of steak to chorizo you like... last time I made it for 6 large portions & used 3lb beef, 300g chorizo, a punnet of cherry tomatoes, and enough liquid (red wine & beef stock) to not quite cover the ingredients (about 1cm below). I put it in the slow cooker before going to work and we didn't end up eating til gone 9pm so it had been cooking for 12 hours and was still lovely but I would say 8hrs would have been best.

If you're using a proper oven I'm sure that would be fine so long as you've got a good casserole dish with a lid. I wouldn't know how long to do it for but probably a couple of hours - until the beef is falling apart and the fat has completely melted out of the chorizo so you're just left with the lean meat.

The casserole sauce is very rich but sometimes quite thin, depending on how much liquid I put in. If you prefer a thicker 'gravy', sometimes I've skimmed a few spoonfuls of liquid off & mixed with flour then added it back to the pot.

Hope that's enough detail? :)

Thanks for that Katieb 23, I'll give it a try.

No Texas you're not too late. I'll be trying various things out this week coming :)

*Peaches*, I can answer the chicken part of your question if you mean chicken breasts.
First you need a pot of Rose Harrisa, this is a paste obtainable from Sainsbury's. It's usually on the speciality section. Then you need a package of cherry tomatos, and some black olives, about a couple of dozen. Place the chicken breasts (two) on a baking tray and rub the harrisa on all sides, be careful though because it's powerful hot. Then scatter the tomatos and olives all around the chicken and bake in a 200 degree oven for about 30 minutes. That's it, quick and brilliant.

This would be great served with some spicy couscous, a spoonful of natural yogurt and some preserved lemon if you want the whole Moroccan experience:thumbsup: