Butternut Chicken Thai-Style and the Slow Cooked Challenge - February 2015

This recipe was inspired by Lucy's (Baking Queen 74) recipe for Malaysian Style Veggie Curry with Lime, from the January Slow Cooked Challenge, you can find it in the January round up.  The other influence was the large box which arrived from Knorr on Saturday morning.  A box packed with vegetables, some tins and dry goods and the full range of  Knorr Flavour Pots   The Slow Cooked Butternut Chicken Thai-Style was delicious with the flavours from the Knorr Flavour Pots, shining through and still fresh after long slow cooking.


Knorr Flavour Pots have just collected first prize in the Sauce and Seasoning category for this year’s Product of the Year awards. Knorr Flavour Pots allow you to easily infuse your cooking with the flavour of fresh herbs and spices but with the handy convenience of dried. The range features nine different tantalising flavours, including Mixed Herbs, Three Peppercorn, Curry, Garlic, Mixed Chillies, Garden Herbs, Ginger & Lemongrass, Paprika, and Mexican.

Labels: butternut squash, Chicken, coconut milk, garlic, Knorr Flavour Pot, Lemongrass and Ginger, Slow Cooked Challenge, Thai

posted by Janice @ 19:11 21 Comments

Cheesy Pasta Bake for 'Pasta Please'

This particular carb-fest is the result of my store cupboard audit.  As I mentioned in my Random Recipe post I'm trying to use up the bits and pieces that have been abandoned at the back of the larder. In this case about a third of a bag of chickpeas, a few tagliatelle 'nests'.  There was also a butternut squash which has been in the fridge for two weeks, I can't even remember why I bought it!

Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes is hosting 'Pasta Please' a food blogging challenge using, yes you've guessed it, PASTA!  This month the theme is Cheese and Jac has been begging asking for entries on Twitter, so I thought I would help her out with this rather unusual combination of pasta and other stuff that needed used up.

Cheesy Butternut Squash, Chickpea and Pasta Bake

1 large butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and chopped
2 tbsp oil
150g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and cooked in boiling water until just tender
3 tagliatelle 'nests'
100g Philadelphia cream cheese (mine was the light one but any will do)
100g cheddar cheese, grated (you can use any hard cheese)
salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat the oven to 200C.  Put the oil in a roasting tray and add the squash, roast for 30-40 minutes until soft and slightly browned.
2. Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions in boiling water, when ready, drain and mix the cream cheese into the pasta.  Season to taste.
3. Mix the cheesy pasta with the chickpeas and roasted butternut squash and put in a buttered or oiled ovenproof dish.
4. Sprinkle the grated cheese over the pasta bake and put in the oven for 15 minutes until the cheese has melted and formed a crunchy golden topping.
5. Serve with a green vegetable.

The bake was filling and tasty, ideal for a cold day in January.  The chickpeas near the top of the dish had become lovely and crunchy in a 'Bombay Mix' sort of way and the sweetness of the butternut squash and saltiness of the cheese worked well with the bland flavour of the pasta and chickpeas. 

Labels: butternut squash, chickpea, cream cheese, pasta, Pasta Bake, Pasta Please, Philadelphia cheese, Tinned Tomatoes

posted by Janice @ 20:27 3 Comments

Venison cooked in Cider and a Giveaway

Venison is one of those meats that many people shy away from.  Perhaps because they are not sure how to cook it, and then there is the 'Bambi' factor.  Neither of these reasons would put me off and I have cooked venison in the past but I find that it is just not readily available at the butcher or the supermarket. It's nice to know that I'm in tune with top chefs Valentine Warner and Ainsley Harriott who were championing Venison and Mustard on the Great British Food Revival and I couldn't  believe how closely Valentine Warner's views  about venison were to mine!

So I was excited to see that as part of  Flavour Fortnight in August this year, a Vension Farm Walk and tasting was offered by Millbank Parkland Venison just outside Lockerbie.


Millbank Farm is run by Emma Boyes with her husband Gareth, and after a walk around the farm to see the deer, Emma  prepared some recipes which we were able to taste.  The sausages and burgers were delicious and all the dishes were full of flavour.  I was intrigued to see what I could make with this local produce, so last month I contacted Emma to see if she would like me to make some dishes with venison from her farm.



Venison is regarded as the premier meat for the health conscious. With the lowest fat, lowest cholesterol and the highest protein content of any meat combined with high iron content and omega 3 it is ideal for those on a healthy or low cholesterol diet.
Venison: 6g/100g fat (beef/chicken/lamb/pork 12-20g/100g)
Venison: 198 kcal/100g (beef/chicken/lamb/pork 214-286kcal/100g)

Millbank Parkland Venison is exclusively sourced from 14 to 22 month old animals in prime condition, the meat is hung for the optimum period of 1 week, resulting in venison which is consistent, tender and of very high quality.
Not all venison is the same. Venison varies within species, age, gender, whether farmed venison or wild venison as well as the condition and health status of the deer. There are 6 deer species in the UK. Scottish venison includes fallow, red, roe and sika deer. We believe fallow and roe venison are of the highest quality due to the texture and flavour of the meat. At Millbank, through the choice of deer combined with how they manage and select the deer, they aim to consistently provide the very best culinary experience.

Millbank Farm Parkland Venison is Fallow Deer venison and wild Roe deer which are less gamey than  Red Deer venison and much more tender, it is low in fat and Millbank Farm venison is ethical, welfare friendly, stress free, low food miles, low carbon footprint, processed in their natural environment. This information and more is available on the Millbank Farm Parkland Venison website.

Haunch of Millbank Farm Parkland Venison in a Cider and Mustard Sauce

I wanted to come up with a recipe full of the flavours of autumn, which complemented rather than overpowered the venison, apples and squash seemed to be the answer!

Serves 4-6

1 small haunch of venison (approx 500g)
1tbsp olive oil
10g butter
6 sage leaves, chopped
150ml vintage cider
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
100g creme fraiche
1 tsp cornflour
salt and freshly ground black pepper



You could easily increase the quantities to serve a larger group, this haunch will provide two half inch thick slices of venison per person for 6 people, or three slices for four people.



1.  Heat the olive oil in a pan on a medium heat.
2. Brown the haunch of venison in the pan, then remove to an oven proof dish.

3. Add the butter and sage leaves to the pan juices  and cook for 1 minute, then add the cider and mustard. Let it bubble up for 2-3 minutes, then add to the venison in the ovenproof dish.

4. Cover with foil and bake in the oven at 180C for 45 minutes.
5. Once cooked, lift the venison onto another plate cover with foil and allow to rest.
6. Pour the  mustardy juices into a small saucepan and heat until simmering.
7. Mix the teaspoon of cornflour with the creme fraiche and add to the juices.
8. Cook until slightly thickened.
9. Carve the haunch of venison in thick slices and serve on butternut squash and apple puree with the sauce poured over generously.

Butternut Squash and Apple Puree

1 medium butternut squash
2 Cox's Apple Pippins
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt


1. Heat the oven to 200C
2. Peel, deseed and chop the butternut squash into cubes. Cut the apples in half and take out the core with a teaspoon.
3. Put the 3tbsp of olive oil into a roasting tin and add the butternut squash and the apples to the tin and roast in the oven until the squash is tender, about 30 - 40 minutes.

4. When the squash and apples are soft, remove the apple pulp from its skin and puree both with a stick blender or liquidiser, season to taste.  The consistency should be similar to mashed potato.


The Millbank Farm Parkland Venison should be served slightly pink to be enjoyed at its best.  The flavour of the meat is excellent and goes really well with the sharp heat of the mustard and creme fraiche sauce and the sweetness of the butternut squash puree and cider.

If you would like to try some Millbank Farm Parkland Venison you can buy it from the
online farm shop  or take part in the giveaway below for a chance to win a taster pack for two people containing 2 rump steaks, 2 vension burgers and a ring of venison sausage.  Details of what you need to do are in the Rafflecopter widget with opportunities for bonus entries.   Please remember to read the terms and conditions.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Labels: apples, butternut squash, cider, creme fraiche, Flavour Fortnight, giveaway, Great British Food Revival, Millbank Farm Parkland Venison, mustard, venison, win

posted by Janice @ 20:20 126 Comments

Roasted Butternut Squash and Tomato Tart - Herbs on Saturday

I'm not quite sure what I did before I discovered Butternut Squash.  It has to be the most versatile of vegetables, that sweet, firm flesh goes so well with so many different flavours.  I combined the squash with tomatoes, bacon and basil in this tart with a single small courgette from my garden which needed to be used up.  As I am trying to cut back on calories, I used 0% Greek yogurt in the custard mix and it worked really well.  I had very positive comments from the family about this tart.  Vegetarians can just leave out the bacon with very little detriment to the texture and flavour.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Tomato Tart

1 quantity of shortcrust pastry  baked blind

1 Butternut Squash
8 small vine tomatoes, halved
1 courgette, sliced
8 rashers of streaky bacon
1 tbsp olive oil
200g 0% fat Greek Yogurt
3 large free range eggs
salt & freshly ground pepper
8 fresh basil leaves

1. Peel squash and deseed.  Cut into even sized pieces and put into a roasting tin.
2. Cut tomatoes in half and slice the courgette, place in roasting tin with squash.
3. Pour over the oil and mix through the vegetables, sprinkle with 1/2 tsp salt
4. Roast in an oven 200C for 30 minutes until the butternut squash is soft and slightly caramelised round the edges.
5.  Chop the streaky bacon into pieces and spread over the vegetables, roast for a further 10 minutes until crisp.


6. Place the vegetables and bacon into the pastry case.
7. In a bowl, whisk the eggs and stir in the 0% Greek yogurt, season with salt and pepper.
8. Pour the mixture over the vegetables.
9. Tear up the basil leaves and spread them evenly across the tart, push them down into the egg mixture.

10. Bake at 180C for 30 - 35 minutes until the egg mixture is set.

 I'm entering this tart for Herbs on Saturday run by Karen at Lavender and Lovage.

Labels: 0% Greek Yogurt, butternut squash, Herbs on Saturday, Lavender and Lovage, quiche, roasted tomatoes, tart

posted by Janice @ 08:51 19 Comments

Food Bloggers go to the Ayr Races

Chapter Three - Food Bloggers go to the Ayr Races - or more accurately to Ayr Racecourse, the superb venue for the Taste of Ayrshire Food Bloggers Conference.
What does this empty plate say to you?  For me it is the sign of a good meal.

Executive Chef for the Western House Hotel and Ayr Racecourse, Donald McInnes is used to catering to the highest standards, he has worked at the Savoy in London and in Lyon in France.  Donald told us that chefs have to learn to respect food, and that to retain the flavour they need to keep it simple.  

Our conference was held in one of the Princess Royal private boxes overlooking the racecourse.  That's not a real horse, just  a little silhouette as part of the balcony railing.

And they're coming round the bend...where?  Well they soon will be as the racecourse is a busy place with regular races. Coming up on  20th - 22nd of September is the Ayr Gold Cup, their most important event of the year.
This was our table laid out just as it will be for diners at the Gold Cup.
Thanks to Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes for this photo of the three stoodges Louise from Please Do not Feed the Animals, me and Stuart from Cakey Boi

Our lunch came from the menu for the Ayr Gold Cup. Donald told us about how they will prepare this menu for 1200 people every day of the Gold Cup, a total of 3,500 - 4000 covers from 6 kitchens.


Our starter was a Warm Butternut Squash and Beetroot Tart with Ricotta Cheese with piccalilli and beetroot dressing.  The pastry was crisp and the sweet flavours of the beetroot and butternut squash combined with the creamy cheese made it my favourite course of the meal. (see empty plate above)
The main course of Duo of Roast Sirloin of Cairnhill Farms Beef, a medallion of Scotch Sirloin with Braised Beef Tian served with a Peppercorn Sauce was slightly less successful.  While the Tian of Beef had been cooked down so it melted in your mouth and the sauce was very good,  my sirloin was a bit overcooked, dry and chewy which was  a real pity. 
Jacqueline declared this Ratatouille with Granola and Cheese topping to be delicious, although I felt that it was an unsinspiring and conservative vegetarian option for this level of cuisine. 

For dessert we had a rich Chocolate and Toasted Almond Mouse with Chantilly cream, Toffee Sauce and a chocolate tuille (at least that is what is says on the menu, I wouldn't call that chocolate cigarillo a 'tuile' but hey ho, it was very tasty.
The mouse was very soft and had almost a coffee flavour, the little chocolate pot had quite a thick base and some people had difficulty breaking it, but the chocolate was good and there was just enough as the flavours were intense.

I'd like to thank Ayr Racecourse and their chefs for a very good lunch, oh yes and the glass of wine ;-)

What would you choose from the Gold Cup Menu?

Labels: Ayr Racecourse, beetroot, butternut squash, Gold Cup, peppercorn, sirloin beef, tart chocolate mousse, Taste of Ayrshire

posted by Janice @ 18:30 4 Comments

Roasted Courgette, Tomato, Feta and Basil Tart

There was a bit of joking on Twitter the other night about how we should make one recipe that covered all the blog challenges, then we could have the rest of the month off!  I haven't managed to cover quite all the blog challenges with this post but it ticked off quite a few.

My courgette/zucchini plant has sucked up all the rain and produced some huge fruits, so although I had planned to make the Pea, bean and bacon tart from the July issue of BBC Good Food, I decided to adapt it to use the courgettes, hmmm maybe I could use some tomatoes too, oh and that half block of Feta cheese, so no need for the bacon and I'll make my own pasty instead of using frozen shortcrust like in the recipe...not much of the recipe left to be honest!

Roasted Courgette Tomato, Feta and Basil Tart

1 quantity of butter shortcrust pastry blind baked in a flan case (click through to the link for full recipe)

For the roasted vegetables
2 large or three medium courgettes/zucchini
8 small tomatoes, halved
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Heat the oven to 200C, slice or dice the courgettes into even sized chunks, halve the tomatoes.  Place the vegetables in a roasting dish and coat with the oil.  Sprinkle with salt and roast in the oven for 20-30 minutes until starting to blacken round the edges. Remove from oven and drain the juices into a bowl.

For the filling
100g Feta cheese, cubed
300ml double cream
4 large eggs
juices from the roasted vegetables
6-8 basil leaves
freshly ground pepper




Place the roasted vegetables into the baked tart case, top with the cubed feta and torn basil leaves.  Season with freshly ground pepper.
Beat the cream and eggs together and stir in the saved juices from the roasted vegetables. Pour over the vegetables and cheese and bake at 160C for 35 minutes until set and golden.

Roasting the veg means that the pastry doesn't go soggy and it makes a nice firm filling, very tasty indeed.

I'm entering this tart for One Ingredient, the July ingredient is 'The Tomato' and it is being hosted this month by Jacqueline at How to Cook Good Food who shares this challenge with Working London Mummy


 And..Veggie/Fruit a Month which is featuring the Zucchini for July and is being hosted this month by Cook's Joy



It is also Simple and in Season another challenge run by Jacqueline at How to Cook Good Food in patnership with Ren at Fabulicious Food



Okay, so far three challenges busted with one dish, now to the salad I served with the tart

Giant Couscous, Butternut and Walnut Salad

I've been reading about Giant Couscous, so when I saw a bag at the farm shop last week, I popped it in my basket.  Also in GoodFood July issue was this recipe which was perfect to try out the giant couscous.  This time I stuck to the recipe!


I hope the recipe will go onto the website soon and I can link back, but it is basically roasted dice of butternut squash which have been sprinkled with chilli powder (I roasted them in a separate dish but at the same time as the courgettes and tomatoes).  You cook the couscous for five minutes, then mix through the roasted squash and the oil it has been roasted in and add walnut pieces, the seeds and juice of half a pomegranate and juice of half a lemon with a handful of chopped mint.

What a lovely salad it was, the squash pieces were quite hot as I probably used more chilli than I should and used chilli flakes rather than powder!  However, as the couscous is bland if you ate it altogether, the heat was about right.  I loved the fresh juiciness of the pomegranate seeds, the green bite of the mint and earthy crunch of the walnuts.   I would definitely make this again.

And this recipe is for Bookmarked Recipes one of the challenges run by Jac at Tinned Tomatoes from an idea by Ruth from Ruth's Kitchen Experiments founder of the challenge.

Labels: basil, Bookmarked Recipes, butternut squash, courgettes, feta cheese, flan, Giant couscous, One Ingredient, pomegranate, quiche, roasted vegetables, salad, Simple and in Season, tart, tomatoes, vegetarian

posted by Janice @ 20:19 11 Comments

Chicken Stuffed with Figs and Goats Cheese

How exactly are you supposed to react when you are contacted by a goat?  That's Ethel the Goat from Capricorn Goats Cheese who invited me to join the #CarpricornChallenge - national search for goatally scrumptious recipes using ingredients from Somerset including Capricorn Goats Cheese.




Ethel sent me this amazing hamper full of lovely goodies, it was packed with jars and bottles, packets and fresh produce.

After looking at the ingredients, I had a bit of a think and decided to stuff some chicken legs with goat's cheese, figs, honey and thyme in a sort of, Somerset meets Scotland meets Greece, kind of way.

Chicken Legs stuffed with Figs, Goats Cheese and Honey

4 Chicken legs (thigh and drumstick)
1 100g drum of Capricorn Goats Cheese
4 figs, quartered
8 teaspoons of honey
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper

for the sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
chicken bones
1/4 pint water
1/2 tsp chopped thyme leaves
stock vegetables e.g. chopped celery, carrot, onion (I also used some coriander stems which I had frozen as per Melanie at Edible Things - a brilliant idea for saving veg bits for making stock later)
salt & freshly ground pepper

I've made a little YouTube Video to show you how to debone your chicken, it's really easy and creates a perfect pocket for all kinds of stuffings.


So once you have your chicken leg without the bones in it,   stuff it with chopped figs, goats cheese, thyme, salt and freshly ground pepper, more figs, more goats cheese and two teaspoons of honey.  Then close up and secure with cocktail sticks.

Now make the sauce,  heat the oil in a pan, add the bones and cook until the little bits of chicken left on them start to turn golden.  Add the vegetables and cook for two minutes, then add the water, thyme and seasoning.  Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan and brown the stuffed chicken legs. Remove the chicken legs to an ovenproof dish and deglaze the pan with 1/4 pint of cider, I used Burrow Hill Farm Pressed, Somerset Cider  Add this to the stock/sauce and pour around the chicken legs.




 Bake in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes until the juices of the chicken, when pierced with a skewer, run clear.  Remove the skewers from the chicken legs and once on the plate, strain the sauce through a sieve to remove any bits.


Serve the stuffed chicken legs with the sauce.  I also served roasted vegetables, including red onion, red peppers, butternut squash and halved tomatoes. 

Now I'm not normally a huge fan of goats cheese but the Carpricorn Goats Cheese was mild and creamy and delicious and complemented the other stuffing flavours and the chicken very well.  The sauce was particularly good and some of the cheese had leaked out into it  and went well with the tang of the Burrow Hill cider.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. I was not required to write a positive review and any opinion expressed is my own.

Labels: butternut squash, Capricorn Goats Cheese, competition, figs, hamper, honey, roasted red peppers, Somerset, tomatoes

posted by Janice @ 20:01 11 Comments