Home-grown is best, but you knew that didn't you?

It'll come as no surprise to you that I'm a fan of home-grown fruit and vegetables, even before we had our allotment I regularly grew tomatoes and more in pots in our back garden. So when I saw this infographic from Premier Polytunnels I was keen to take a closer look.

What I didn't realise was that polytunnels don't have to come in super-huge size, they can be as small as 6ft x 8ft which while it's not tiny, is smaller than I expected.

At the moment we're eating our way through our small mountain of allotment grown purple sprouting broccoli, so in the spirit of this infographic I thought I'd share my favourite way of cooking (and eating) one of my favourite vegetables.

Chilli and purple sprouting broccoli pasta

250g dried spaghetti or linguine
three or so handfuls of purple sprouting broccoli and its leaves, cut into bitesize pieces
1 clove garlic, crushed
4 anchovy fillets in olive oil
A red chilli

Serves 2

1. Fry the anchovies and garlic in olive oil - often I use the oil from the anchovy tin - on a low heat until the anchovies "melt" then add some chopped chilli to taste.

2. At the same time cook the pasta in boiling salted water following the cooking time on the packet, adding the purple sprouting broccoli for the last three minutes of cooking. Don't forget to add the leaves as well.

3. Drain the pasta and broccoli, reserving some of the cooking water.

4. Add the pasta and broccoli to the anchovy, garlic and chilli mixture and stir well, adding some of the pasta water as needed.

5. Serve with slices of fresh chilli and drizzled with chilli oil.
    

* This is a collaborative post with Premier Polytunnels, but all opinions are my own.

Dinner & Lunch: A reduced cooked chicken

The other weekend we were in our local supermarket looking for inspiring sandwich fillings for our lunches the following week, when we spotted a cooked chicken reduced to £4. Realising it was way cheaper than the sliced chicken "designed" for sandwiches and even cheaper than the chicken thighs we'd usually buy, it went straight into my basket. Don't get me started on why that is...

Our plan was to use it for lunches, but to use it more quickly than we would a non-reduced chicken or one we'd cooked ourselves. Making soup and freezing that seemed a good option, and would bring a welcome change to sandwiches again...

The next day I set about making some stock from the carcass to form the base of my chicken and vegetable soup. I used this recipe - Chicken Garden soup -  by Jamie Oliver as my guide, but through circumstances such as a lack of celery and parsley adapted it by including coriander stems and other aromatics instead.  Along with the stock ingredients I added a couple of whole unpeeled garlic gloves, an inch or so of ginger, half a red chilli (unchopped) and a couple of star anise. 

The rest of the recipe was pretty much the same, except I excluded the spinach as I wanted to freeze the soup and I thought it might go a bit slimy. And it turned out well. I was surprised when this £4 chicken made four portions of chicken and vegetable soup, and two 500ml of chicken stock which I've also frozen for use another day.

There was clearly too much chicken to use in the soup, so I used the chicken breasts which I'd removed in a single piece in fajitas, along with red onions and red and yellow peppers. There was still enough meat for sandwiches and I mixed up some quick Coronation Chicken for these - see my recipe below. Then we finished the last of it off in a chicken and broccoli frittata. 

For £4 that chicken provided a lot of meals, and I was reminded how easy it can be to "cook once, eat twice" at times - even if we didn't actually cook this chicken in the first place!  

Clearly though it was the day for bargain chickens, as in my local butchers he was selling three small chickens for £9.50, so I've a feeling I'll be sharing some more Dinner & Lunch ideas here in the forthcoming weeks.

My Quick Coronation Chicken

2 tbsp light Mayonnaise
2 tbsp Greek yogurt
1 tbsp Korma curry powder (or to taste)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
Ground black pepper (to taste)
1 tbsp Mango chutney
Sultanas (to taste)
Flaked almonds (to taste)
Shredded cooked chicken

Method

Mix the Mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, curry powder, cinnamon, black pepper and mango chutney together and check it's to your taste before adding the sultanas, flaked almonds and cooked chicken. Ensure the chicken is covered in the sauce and serve in your roll, sandwich or wrap.

Makes enough for four sandwich wraps

Enjoy! 

What's your favourite thing to do with leftover chicken?

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