Spicy Chicken with Jumbo Cilantro Pasta shells.

Is Coriander and Cilantro the same thing? – technically YES! I didn’t know that I googled it!

Cilantro is the spanish word for coriander leaves also sometimes called chinese or Mexican parsley (now whose idea that was I wouldn’t know!).

Cilantro refers to the leaves of the plant, as soon as the Coriander plant developes flowers and seeds we refer to the seeds as Coriander. In South Africa we commonly refered to Cilantro as Dhania (Asian). And you ask me why I’m confused?

I’ve tried a bit of the a Asian flavour with pasta since I’ve had these beautiful giant pasta shells and I didn’t have any mince meat in the fridge. It turned out beautifully and my husband had severe heartburn….sorry honey!

Ingredients

500 g Chicken fillets, cubed

1 medium onion finely diced

1 glove of garlic (press with my new garlic press!)

5 ml fresh ginger

2.5 ml Garam masala

2.5 ml chilli powder

2.5 ml turmeric

2.5 ml ground dhania and jeera mix

50 g tomato paste

1 green chilli – deseeded

2 fresh tomatoes

10 ml olive oil

50 ml coconut milk

5 ml brown sugar

10 ml Cilantro pesto / or chopped fresh Cilantro with 5 ml Olive oil.

Cook pasta shells. Strain and add 10 ml cilantro pesto or fresh cilantro to the pasta. In the meantime prepare the Chicken.

Fry onions in olive oil until succulent, add chicken and fry until done. add garlic, ginger and all the spices, fry for a minute.  

Chop the tomatoes finely in a food processor also adding the chillies. Add tomatoes to the chicken and add enough water to form a little sauce. Continue stirring until all tomatoes have broken down. Add sugar, tomato paste and coconut milk, simmer for 5 minutes.

 Mix and serve on top of Spicy Chicken.

 Tips 

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Coconut milk should be refrigerated once the can is opened. It keeps for a couple of days to a week. They do not recommend freezing coconut milk as this increases the likelihood of curdling when it is next used in cooking – unless you are just warming it through without boiling, which I normally use it for anyway. I have successfully frozen left over coconut milk and found the easiest way by using an ice cube tray.

If you don’t have any coconut milk but coconut at hand try this: To make coconut milk, finely grated coconut meat is steeped in hot water until it is cool enough to handle. It is then squeezed until dry; the white fluid is strained to remove all the pulp voila! coconut milk!

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Skinny Lasagna

As a BBC Food Fan I’m totally obsessed with the program Cook yourself thin. 

What a mind shift experience it was the first time I’ve watched it, you could actually have your cake and eat it!

I thoroughly enjoy the hints and tips and the recipes are so easy and exciting.

This recipe of Skinny Lasagna made my day, I love pasta especially Lasagna but off course if you are on a constant diet you never ever have lasagna.

I’ve adapted it to my own liking, do give it a try you will be amazed that something so low in fat and carbs could taste this good.

The secret to this recipe is to replace half of  the high carbohydrate lasagna layers with slices of gourgettes which taste absolutely divine and which by the way are well hidden under the white sauce and meat layers…great for fooling children to eat their veggies!

Meat Layer 

300 g Lean Mince meat

1 tsp Robertson barbeque spices

1 tsp Robertson Italian herbs spices

1 onion finely chopped

1 crushed glove of garlic

5 ml olive oil.

1 punnet button mushrooms sliced

1 – 2 carrots diced

1 small tin tomato paste

1 tbs brown sugar

Braise the onion in a little water in a pan until soft, when most of the water has evaporated add the olive oil and fry for a minute longer.

Lower the heat and add the mushrooms and Italian herbs spices. Add the mince meat and fry until cooked through. Add the crushed glove of garlic and the Barbeque spices. Add carrots and full the pan with just enough water to cover the meat and carrots, simmer until carrots are cooked trough. Add the tomato paste and the brown sugar and cook for a further 2 minutes.

White sauce layer

300ml Low fat milk

3 tbs Flour

1 tsp English mustard

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix cold milk with the flour and slowly heat, cook until thickened constantly stirring. Add English mustard and salt and pepper.

Gourgettes layer

1 punnet of gourgettes, thinly sliced length ways.

1 tbs garlic and parsley butter

Fry Gourgettes in a non stick pan with a little spray and cook until golden in color. Do this in two batches.

After frying the gourgettes add everything back to the pan, add the butter and give it a quick fry again.

The gourgettes soak up all the lovely flavors of the butter and gives the lasagna a sensational taste.

Lasagna layer

4 sheets of lasagna.

60g Mature Cheddar Cheese (using mature cheese means using less cheese with the same amount of cheese flavor.

I’ve used Simonsberg 4 month mature Cheddar cheese for this recipe.

Spray your baking dish with spray and cook. layer gourgettes on the bottom followed by the white sauce, meat and lasagna sheet, repeat and top with 60g Matured Cheddar Cheese. Bake for +- 30 minutes.

Serves 4

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Tips

 For a complete supper meal serve with a simply salad on the side.

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Dry Spaghetti

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Tips 

This is such a simple way to Jazz up spaghetti, It goes especially well with fish 

and a simple side salad for supper. 

 Add any fresh herbs, chutney or chilies to the basic recipe for variation.

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I have saved this recipe for quite some time now.

The original recipe is meant for camping trips and only consist of tomato puree.

However I adore fresh tomatoes, and onions is always a winner.

We had this the other day with fish cakes (Shop bought!)  and a few slices of  Avocado  for lunch.

The men really enjoyed this.

This recipe is only for 120 g uncooked spaghetti which will serve 3 people

and equals to 2 starch portions per person.

Ingredients: 

1/2 onion

2 medium tomatoes

60 g tomato puree

1/2 tsp brown / white sugar

salt and pepper to taste

Cook Spaghetti (Al Dente’) , strain and  keep aside.

In a food processor chop up 1/2 onion and fry in a little olive oil, remove from heat.

Chop up 2 medium tomatoes in the food processor and add with the onions.

Add the tomato puree, sugar, salt and pepper.

Let the sauce simmer for a +-  a minute, allowing it to reduce a little while  stirring continuously.

Add cooked Spaghetti to the sauce and toss around to cover all of the Spaghetti.

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