Chicken with Awesome BBQ Spice Rub

 

Last year a friend gave me Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube – The BBQ recipe book, which I’ve used several times when we’ve done barbecues at the weekend. During the week, even though we have a gas barbecue so the cooking itself is quick, I don’t want to faff around in the kitchen and am more likely to do something simple like a tuna steak, sausages, or ready-made chilli beef koftas, which my husband loves and work really well on the barbecue.

 

This recipe though is really quick and is something that you can prepare in advance and keep in the cupboard. The full recipe actually involved brining pieces of chicken overnight and then coating them with a “mix of awesomeness”. I decided to skip the brining and use boneless chicken thighs, which are quite thin when you unwrap them so cook really fast. I prepared the mix and rubbed it onto the chicken thighs, which were simply barbecued – and tasted really good.

The recipe for the brining is available online here, and the chef calls the mix by the same name as the one in the recipe book but it is slightly different.

 

For the one I made, you need:

zest of half lemon

zest of one quarter of an orange

3 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tbsp. sea salt

1 tbsp. black pepper

1 tbsp. onion granules

1 tbsp. garlic granules

1 tsp smoked paprika

Optional: 1 tsp chilli powder

 

Scatter the zest onto a baking tray, and bake in a preheated oven at 110C for 10 minutes.

 

Mix the zest with all the other ingredients and use to coat the chicken.

 

 

Barbecue or grill the chicken until cooked through.

 

Beef Ragu

 

Sometimes when it's hot you still want a robust, cooked dinner but you don't want to be sweating over the oven or hob when you get home from work.

I adapted this recipe from Jamie Oliver's website;  he says it will feed a family for three days served over pasta, with mashed potato or crusty bread. I had mine with pasta and put the leftovers in the freezer for another day.

I didn't use all the ingredients from Jamie's recipe - for instance I don't like celery - so for his full recipe check out the link above. Or for my version, which is a bit quicker and I think just as  tasty, read on...

Serves 4

1 tbsp oil

6 rashers bacon, chopped

1 red onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 carrots, grated

750g minced beef

1 glass red wine

400g tin tomatoes

1 bay leaf

1 tsp oregano

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the bacon, onion and garlic.

Then add the grated carrot and minced beef and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mince has browned.

Add the bay leaf, oregano, seasoning, wine and tomatoes and simmer for about 30 mins until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Remove the bay leaf before serving.

This is a great way to sneak in some hidden veg like the grated carrot; you could experiment and see what other veg you can add as well. As well as Jamie's suggestions of pasta, mash or crusty bread I think this would be nice with rice (a bit like a chilli) or in a baked potato. It's really versatile and you can make a huge pot at the weekend and have it for dinner when you get home from work.

Jamie Oliver's Swedish Style Fishcakes

I was planning my week's meals  and wondering if I could find something Swedish-inspired for the Bloggers Around the World challenge. I was given Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals a while ago as a gift and hadn't made all that much from it, so I was pleased to come across a recipe for Swedish style fishcakes, as I love fish and fishcakes. I did have to substitute fresh tuna for tinned tuna though, as I was shopping for this recipe on the way home from work and my little local supermarket didn't have any fresh tuna. I also only realised when I got home that I didn't have any bread to make breadcrumbs, so had to use dried golden breadcrumbs out of a packet.

To serve two, you need:

2 slices stale or crusty bread, or 4 tbsp golden breadcrumbs

1 salmon fillet, skin off and de-boned if necessary

1 haddock fillet, skin off and de-boned

1 tuna steak or half a tin of tuna

1 lemon

small bunch fresh parsley or dill

1 clove garlic

If making breadcrumbs from scratch, whizz the bread in a food processor until you have crumbs.

Place the salmon, haddock and tuna in a food processor with the grated zest of the lemon and the parsley or dill. Pulse until combined.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl, season and shape into patties

Place the breadcrumbs in a bowl and press both sides of the fishcake into the breadcrumbs

Heat some oil in a frying pan and add a clove of crushed garlic. Fry the fishcakes on both sides until browned.

I enjoyed these, though to be honest I would have preferred to eat the piece of salmon as it comes. The fishcake tasted of haddock and tuna and I think the taste of the salmon was lost a little. They made a nice change though!

I'm sending this to Bloggers Around the World, hosted by Chris at Cooking Around the World, as the country this month (until the 13th anyway when it changes) is Sweden.