Chilli Prawn Pasta

This is my take on a typical Sicilian dish and is my favourite seafood pasta dish right now.

You need to buy 400g of large prawns or langoustines in their shells and heads on. This dish will serve about 4 people.

The prawns need to have the tail shells removed, deveined, but leave the heads on. If you have a good fishmonger he should do this for you but it’s easy to do yourself.

Chop 4 cloves of garlic and one fresh red chilli, mix with 4 tablespoons of olive oil.

Put your spaghetti or whatever shape pasta you prefer onto boil.
Now heat a wok or pan to gently cook the garlic, chilli and prawns in the olive oil. This needs to cook for about the same time the pasta takes to cook so no more than 6 minutes.

As the prawns cook, press the prawn heads with a wooden spoon to release their flavour and they will come away from the tails when cooked. Remove the heads from the pan and discard.

When the pasta is cooked add straight to the pan with the prawns and throw in a handful of flat leaf parsley to stir through.

I love this with slices of oven hot sourdough bread dri

Puy Lentil Salad with Feta Cheese

This is a great salad to have with BBQ chicken or lamb and serves around 4.

Take 300g of dried lentils (you don't need to soak overnight) and boil in plenty of water for about 30 minutes or until they are just soft to the bite. Drain and leave to cool

Roast a whole bulb of garlic in the oven for about an hour until soft. Once cooled, squeeze the cooked garlic out of its skins and mash this with 4 tablespoons of olive oil.

Mix the garlic paste in the cooked lentils and add the juice and zest of one lemon. Add roughly chopped coriander and mint and half a teaspoon of cumin powder. Crumble 200g of feta into the salad. Add more olive oil to suit.

Serve with warm pitta or mediterranean flatbread.

Phad Kraphaw Gai (Stir Fried Chicken with Holy Basil)

This is a dish you may not find at your local Thai restaurant unless you ask for it.

It’s very popular as a breakfast in Thailand and is a supercharged mix of Thai cooking that is dead easy to do at home. This will serve about 4 people.

You will need to buy minced chicken breast from a butcher. I tend to get 1kg and then freeze half for later. Most butchers will do the mincing for you without a problem.  All the other ingredients are readily available from any good Asian supermarket.

Its best to do the prep in advance as once you start cooking it all happens fairly quickly.

Finely chop 10 birds eye red chillies (use less if you are not good with spice) and 5 cloves of garlic.

Finely chop 120g of green beans into 3mm slices.

Pour a tablespoon of vegetable oil into a wok over a high heat. Add the garlic and chilli and turn down the heat. Cook until the garlic is softened but not burnt. Add 500g of the minced chicken and the green beans.  Cook for several minutes over a medium heat until the chicken is cooked through. You may need to add a splash of water to stop it sticking to the wok

Add 1 tablespoon of the folowing:  fish sauce, light soy sauce and mushroom sauce and sugar. 
Then add ½ a teaspoon of black soy sauce and finally a handful of Holy Basil leaves and cook until they are wilted.

Serve immediately with steamed rice. If you want it the traditional way, quickly fry an egg in the still hot wok and place on top of the rice!

Rocket and Lemon Pesto

Rocket and lemon pesto is a quick and simple vegetarian dish, and can be ready in less than 15 minutes. I like it with chilli as it gives it a subtle kick.

Put your pasta on to boil. Whatever shape you prefer.

Take a 100g bag of rocket (the wild stuff is the best), the zest of a lemon, and one fresh green chilli. Blitz the whole lot in a blender with a few tablespoons of olive oil until smooth. Add a small handful of grated parmesan or pecorino cheese to the pesto. You don’t need salt as the cheese will bring out the flavours.

Stir the rocket and lemon pesto into the cooked pasta.

I usually have this with a grilled fillet of salmon, but it’s really good with char roasted bell peppers (skins off deseeded and sliced) with homemade garlic bread.

Murg Makhni (Chicken Curry)

If you have ever struggled to create a really good tomato based Punjabi chicken curry, this one is a classic. Its quick and easy to make and doesn’t need hours of preparation.

I tend to use a 700g pack of boneless chicken thighs, as they have more flavour than breast meat. This will serve about 4 people.

First cut each chicken thigh in half, so each piece is still quite large. Add the chicken to a bowl with a tablespoon of vegetable oil, the juice of a squeezed lemon and enough natural plain yoghurt to coat the chicken. Mix in a tablespoon of tandoori masala powder, which you can get from any large supermarket. You can make this yourself but i find the shop stuff is quick and easy to use with good results. Leave this to marinade whilst you get on with the makhni sauce.

Roughly chop 500g of tomatoes and add to a hot pan with a splash of vegetable oil. Roughly chop 4 cloves of garlic, an inch of fresh ginger and add this to the tomatoes. Then add a teaspoon of turmeric, cumin and coriander powder. Also add a tablespoon of chilli powder, a stick of cinnamon, 4 green cardamom pods and 4 cloves. Cook this for 30 minutes or until the tomatoes have completely broken down. Add a splash of water if it gets a bit dry.

Take out the cinnamon stick and puree the sauce until completely smooth (leave the cardamom pods and cloves in as they need to be blended). Your basic makhni sauce is now done, but add more chilli powder if you want more spice.

Thread your chicken pieces onto skewers and place in a very hot oven at full heat or ideally straight onto your BBQ. The idea is to try and get the chicken cooked in a similar way to a tandoor oven. This should take about 30 minutes to cook through. The chicken should be well charred on the outside, but not burnt.

Remove the chicken from the skewers and add to the makhni sauce. Stir in a teaspoon of garam masala powder, 4 tablespoons of single cream and 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter. If you are trying to keep this low fat then you can leave out the cream and butter, but the sauce won’t be quite as glossy.

Serve with basmati rice and naan bread.

Fire Roasted Chilli Sauce

This is an amazing recipe for a chilli sauce that can be used as a dip or a marinade.  I travel to New Zealand every year and found a fabulous place that sells all sorts of different chilli sauces and marinades - I would always come back to the UK with a case full of their sauces.  However, the place has now closed and I wanted to try to re-create the flavour of their fire roasted chilli sauce - after much trial and error (the error being using scotch bonnet chillis - far too hot!) I think I have the perfect recipe.


Take 1kg of mild red chillies, four red bell peppers with stalks and seeds removed (from the peppers, not the chillies) put in a roasting tray and into the oven at full heat (or on bbq with lid closed) and cook until the chillies and the peppers have softened and the skin nearly black - a little oil may help to stop them sticking.  Blend the whole lot - skins on, with 100ml of white malt vinegar, 8 cloves of raw garlic, 1 tbls of sugar.  Put into sterilised jars and you're good to go!