Chilli Quorn chunks
Here’s a recipe I made up last night, one which turned out rather tasty. So I thought I’d share.
Ingredients
- One onion, finely chopped
- Two or three sticks of celery, finely chopped
- Half a fresh chilli, chopped
- One carrot, chopped small
- (A red pepper would probably be nice too, but I didn’t have any peppers.)
- One box (350g) Quorn chunks (aka “Chicken style pieces”)
- Two large teaspoons Bart red Thai curry paste
- A small sliver of creamed coconut
- Cheapo tin of chopped tomatoes
Howto
Fry up the onion, celery, chilli and carrot until soft. Throw in the Quorn chunks and get them nicely browned (this will need fairly constant stirring). Add the chopped tomatoes, then the curry paste and creamed coconut and anything else you’ve forgotten. Leave to simmer for a good 20 minutes (at least), during which time you can cook up some rice or some noodles to go with it. Yummy.
Labels: food
Parsnip chips
Get your hands on some nice fresh parsnips (or neeps, as a bloke I used to know used to call them), and slice them up nice and thin. Chuck them in a bowl with a drop of olive oil, then stir them around with your fingers until they're all well coated. Slip the slippery oily neep chips (neep cheeps?) under the grill until they start to go brown and crispy; extract and eat immediately, with lentil loaf or sausages or some other yummy dish. Ketchup and cold lager optional. Mmmmmm.
Labels: food
In search of a good breakfast
Talking of breakfast, I’m facing a mid-life breakfast crisis. After 36 years of cereal and toast, I am officially Bored of Breakfast.
I come downstairs in the morning and the thought of another bowl of dried up wheat product (or oats, or similar) makes my appetite fade quickly. I don’t fancy my 10,000th slice of Marmite/jam/marmalade on toast either. I want something different to eat first thing in the morning.
Digression: the best breakfast ever
The best breakfast I ever had was on the roof of a small hostel in Selcuk, Turkey. Kate and I had caught an overnight bus to get there, and arrived early in the morning, tired and dirty; and in Kate’s case, with a severe headache.
We found a nice room and Kate collapsed into the bed; I had a shower, and went off in search of something to eat. The hostel’s owner found me at the bottom of the stairs and said: “Breakfast?” I nodded. She put her hands on my shoulders and turned me around. “Up,” she barked. “Roof. I bring breakfast.”
So I went back upstairs, kept going past the door to our room, and emerged in the sunlight on the roof. There were a couple of tables, a pergola to provide shade, and a fantastic view. I sat down.
Soon my host reappeared with a tray. On it was a glass of hot apple tea, and a plate with feta cheese, fresh slices of tomato, a blob of honey, and I think a slice of freshly baked bread.
I tucked in, all alone on this rooftop, looking out at the view. I listened to the sounds of the town waking up; car horns tooting, people calling each other in the street below. When I’d finished I sat for some time, sipping more apple tea and reading our tatty, faithful copy of “Lonely Planet”, deciding what to do next.
It was the most delicious, most unusual breakfast I’ve ever had.
Back to moaning
So I’ve tried feta and tomatoes and honey at home, but it’s never been as good as the Turkish version. And anyway, I need more ideas. I’ve tried various combinations of fruit and yogurt, which is OK some of the time. I tend to be running late in the morning, so any fruit that requires a lot of preparation and cutting up is not a good plan.
In short, I need something tasty, quick, nutritious, inexpensive, and most important, different.
Any suggestions?
