cooking comp 4 january 2011

[tanhae]

Sauteed Chicken with Crispy Garlic Slices






Ingredients

4 chicken thighs
1 tsp Smoked Spanish Paprika
2 tbsp Spanish Olive Oil (We used regular olive oil)
10 garlic cloves, sliced
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 bay leaf
Salt to taste
chopped parsley for garnish (optional)
Method

The book calls for boneless thighs with skin-on, but we removed the skin and left the bones in. If you are planning to serve with cocktail picks or toothpicks, use boneless thighs, but personally I love crunching the bones.

Cut the chicken thighs into bite sized pieces, and season with paprika.

Heat the oil in a large skillet and fry the garlic slices for about a minute. Remove the fried garlic pieces with a slotted spoon and keep aside on paper towels to drain the oil.

Add the chicken pieces to the same skillet and cook turning occasionally for about 10 minutes, when the chicken pieces are browned well on all the sides. Add the wine and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook for another ten minutes or until most of the liquids are evaporated. Season with salt. Add the fried garlic pieces and mix well.

Transfer to a serving vessel and sprinkle the chopped parsley on top. Serve warm.

[Ruby Ahmed]

Spanish rice & prawn one-pot



A fast and easy meal filled with Mediterranean holiday flavours

Serves 4....Prep 4 mins....Cook 16 mins.....Low-fat

Method:

Boil the kettle. In a non-stick frying or shallow pan with a lid, fry the onion, peppers, chorizo and garlic in the oil over a high heat for 3 mins. Stir in the rice and chopped tomatoes with 500ml boiling water, cover, then cook over a high heat for 12 mins.
Uncover, then stir - the rice should be almost tender. Stir in the prawns, with a splash more water if the rice is looking dry, then cook for another min until the prawns are just pink and rice tender.
TIP If you don't want to spend time at the stove you can bake this dish in the oven. Tip the onion, peppers, chorizo, garlic and oil into an ovenproof dish, then bake for 15 mins at 200C/180C fan/ gas 6. Stir in rice, tomatoes and water, cover, then bake for another 20 mins, stirring in prawns for the final 2 mins.
PER SERVING
356 kcalories, protein 19g, carbohydrate 59g, fat 7 g, saturated fat 2g, fibre 4g, sugar 7g, salt 0.85 g

[~*Rano*~]

Chicken with Red Peppers Ingredients:

For 4 people

4 table spoons of olive oil
1.5kg chicken (3�lb) chicken chopped into small pieces - alternatively use chicken portions - in the photos below you can see that I used the whole leg and thigh
3-4 cloves of garlic crushed
1 onion chopped
75g (3oz) serrano ham diced
2-3 red peppers sliced into 1.25cm (� inch) wide strips
450 g (1lb) tomatoes peeled, seeded and chopped (or use a 14oz can of chopped tomatoes)
2 teaspoons of paprika
1 dried hot chilli (guindilla) or 1 fresh chilli
1 bay leaf
salt
freshly ground black pepper
chopped fresh parsley or coriander to garnish

Preparation:

Heat the oil in a large, heavy based frying pan that has a lid, or a shallow casserole or if like me you don't have a large enough frying pan use 2. Fry together the chicken pieces, garlic and onion for about 3-5 minutes until they begin to go golden, then depending on what you have used in the way of frying pans you could push them to one side of the pan, put them in one of the two pans or remove them from the pan.
I used a frying pan and a Wok so once the chicken was golden I moved all of the portions into the Wok.
Add the ham and peppers to the frying pan and fry these for 1 or 2 minutes until the peppers soften a little. Then stir everything in the pot together.
Hint: The first time I cooked this dish I was worried that I had left the peppers too big but it wasn't a problem as they shrink and break up during cooking.

The tomatoes should be skinned and seeded but I find seeding tomatoes a drag. I am very much a believer in trying to make recipes as simple as possible. You can peel and seed them if you want to or be like me and only peel them or alternatively use a 14oz tin of chopped tomatoes.
Hint: To peel the tomatoes cut the skin and place them in boiling water for about 1 minute. This makes them easy to then peel.

Stir in the tomatoes, the chopped chilli, the paprika and the bay leaf, put the lid on the casserole or pan and simmer over a low heat for about 1� hours when the chicken should be lovely and tender. Quite a lot of juice comes out of both the tomatoes and the red peppers so it is a good idea to remove the lid towards the end of cooking to allow the sauce to reduce.
Add salt and pepper to your taste and remove the bay leaf.

In Spain they would serve this with chips but I prefer to serve it with rice or small boiled potatoes.

[Hero g]

[Cr1m1nal___l30Y___]

Spanish Ratatouille

Ingredients


Extra Virgin Olive Oil
salt & pepper
1 large red onion
3 cloves garlic
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash
1 eggplant
1 jalape�o
2 jars roasted red peppers
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 can cannellini beans, drained
3 cups (dry) brown rice, cooked (optional)





Directions


1. Wash and dice the zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, and jalape�o. The smaller the pieces, the better. Set aside in one bowl.

2. Meanwhile, start preparing the brown rice (if you choose to make it) as instructed.

3. Peel and dice the onion and mince the garlic (or you can get those jars that are already minced for you!). Heat a VERY large saucepan (if you don’t have a large one, use two regular-sized saucepans and divide the ingredients equally) and coat the bottom with olive oil. Add onion first, wait a minute, then add garlic. Add dashes of olive oil as needed until the onions brown.

4. Add the zucchini, squash, eggplant, and jalape�o and stir until they lose volume and the zucchini are browned at the edges.

5. Remove red peppers from jars and slice thinly. Add the peppers and cannellini, stir about 1 minute.

6. Last, add the diced tomatoes and stir another 2-3 minutes until all ingredients are soft. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve over rice, as desired. Yum!

[fasco_buk]

Garlic Mushrooms

It is very simple to make and takes just a few minutes. The same instructions can be used to make garlic prawns (gambas al ajillo). If you like some added spice with your food just add some fresh chillis or dried cayenne peppers according to taste.

Ingredients


Mushrooms - cleaned and sliced (for these three dishes I used 400g).
Garlic - I used half a head of garlic on this occasion.
Olive oil sufficient to saut� the mushrooms.
Salt according to taste.
A splash of alcohol - sherry would be most common but as we didn't have any I threw in a drop of brandy.
A gin and tonic to help you concentrate!

Instructions

Add olive oil and garlic to the earthenware dish then place it directly onto a medium gas flame. Once the oil is sizzling start to add the sliced mushrooms. Stir occasionally and sprinkle some salt into the mushrooms. After a few minutes the mushrooms will look a darker colour, turn off the heat and add a splash of sherry to the oil. Serve in the dish with a crusty loaf.


Enjoy!

A word of warning. Try to use a medium sized earthenware dish with the oil lying quite low in it when it sizzles. With small dishes the oil tends to spill over the edge which can be dangerous as it comes into contact with the gas flame.

[sheem]

Trout with almonds

INGREDIENTS:
- 4 x trout
- 100g almonds
- � lemon
- Butter
- Flour
- 2 garlic cloves
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper



METHOD:
Wash and dry the trout, and then salt and pepper them. Roll them in the flour. Heat a large quantity of oil in a pan and fry the trout. Crush the almonds and garlic in a mortar until they have mixed together completely. In a different pan heat a little of the oil from the trout, add the butter, the almonds, and the juice from the lemon. Brown the almonds. Cover the trout with the sauce and serve.


TIME: 25 minutes

[Arslan]