 |
| Recipe of the week... ... Sweet Potato Tagine |
Ingredients: 1 large glug of cooking oil, 1 onion, 2 cloves
of garlic, 1 aubergine, 1 sweet potato (or 2 if they’re quite small), 1
courgette, 2 stalks of celery, 1 x 400g tin chickpeas, 1 x 400g tin chopped
tomatoes, 1 handful of dried apricots, 2 handfuls of raisins, 1 tablespoon
tomato puree, 2 teaspoons sugar, 2 mugs of couscous, 1 vegetable stock cube, 2
teaspoons coriander, 2 teaspoons cumin, 2 teaspoons paprika.
Time taken: An hour (Half an hour prep and half an hour to
cook).
Hi readers,
Hope this finds you well. More than well! Hope you’re having
an all guns blazing start to the week!! Firing out emails and answering the
phone WITHOUT hesitation.
As I write, readers, it’s a Monday afternoon in April and Brits
everywhere are recovering from the hottest weekend of the year so far… may I
speak for the nation when I say what cracking weather we’ve had! It really didn’t
disappoint! Clear blue skies, ice cubes fizzing in lemonade, feeling the warm
sun on your face, barbecues sizzling, ice creams melting fast, lawn mowers
mowing away, and beer gardens overflowing… we turn out for the sun.
 |
| Me and my lovely friends enjoying sangria in the sun |
Back to work today and I’m not the only one sporting a
lobster-like sunburn! As it’s April, and all good thing come to an end, the
weather’s settled back down to normal today and we’re waving goodbye to our
heatwave. But, along with our glowing noses and singed shoulders, it feels as
though everyone’s putting their best foot forward today and getting the week
off to a good start.
Doesn’t the sun bring out the best in everyone? I think so. When
the sun comes out, it’s something everyone can enjoy and it’s an event that we
all share in. We rip up any plans we’d made and get ourselves out in the garden
instead. We invite friends over, crack open a beer and speak with neighbours we
haven’t seen in months (and don’t mind all that much). We get our legs out,
cream each other up, and burn all the same. We laugh about it.
 |
| And proud |
I love the sun. Love love love it. I hope you all got to
enjoy it while it lasted, readers, and I hope you had a cracking time this
weekend. Don’t be too sad to be back to work today! There are still great shows
on TV (Broadchurch! One Born!), new films out at the cinema (I want to go see
City of Tiny Lights – has anyone seen it?), and there’s ace new music to
discover (I’m listening to a playlist I found on The Hungry Yogis’ blog.. which
you can find here) and so much to look forward to in life. Just think.
Like FOOD.. glorious food. If you aren’t feeling too weighed
down by the immense amount of BBQ food inside you, readers, I’m sure you can
appreciate we’ve only six days left to go until Easter Sunday. That’s right –
just six days until we’re tucking into a delicious roast and scarfing our way
through more chocolate eggs than a bunny could imagine.. even in his wildest bunny
dreams.
 |
| Even more than that |
And, meanwhile, we can’t have any one starving before
Easter! Not when we’re this close. Six days allows plenty of time for some
wonderful recipes. No matter how busy your week ahead looks – why not carve the
time into your calendar to cook a proper meal? Treat your insides! I’m writing
to you this week, readers, to share a tasty recipe that I first tried out for a
dinner party I threw not long ago.
I had a bunch of friends over one weekday evening, for food
and chatter, and needed an all-in-one-pot kind of recipe to feed lots of hungry
mouths! I try to broaden my friends’ culinary horizons when it comes to veggie
food (and my horizons, too!) and give unusual dishes a go, and have one friend
who’s allergic to milk, so I was looking for something a bit different to try,
and it had to be dairy-free.
 |
| Next time we're having a compulsory dress code |
In the end, I settled on a recipe I found in Vegetarian Nosh for Students. This recipe
book is a favourite of mine (and will probs continue to be cherished loooooong
after my student days are past) as its recipes are straightforward and
fuss-free, with cheap ingredients and inventive shortcut steps, and you always
end up with filling, tasty food at the end of the day.
I found recipe for a colourful-looking vegan Sweet Potato Tagine, tripled
the quantities of ingredients (to feed a houseful of friends) and hit the shops
to get everything in. Prepped veg the evening before and had no trouble on the
night, cooking and chatting away with a wine in my hand! All went to plan and
everyone tucked in and said they’d really enjoyed the food. Which is a big
relief.. one bad recipe and they might stop coming round!
Do you have a dinner party coming up soon? Or maybe you just
fancy cooking something a bit different? Trying out new flavours? Giving a
colourful veggie recipe a go? And munching through for 5-a-day in one
plateful?? Hell yeahhhh! Readers, if you’re tempted to give this Sweet Potato
Tagine a try for yourselves, here’s the recipe in just twelve simple steps…
 |
| Just me, then |
Recipe: Sweet Potato Tagine
1.
Set some sensational tunes playing and – as
there are quite a few of them – gather all your ingredients together on one
counter where you can see them all and where nothing can be forgotten.
2.
Time for veg prep! Arm yourself with a sharp
knife aaand cut your aubergine up into bite-sized amounts, peel your sweet
potato(es) and chop into cubes, cut your onion up into wedges, finely chop your
cloves of garlic, cut your courgette into bite-sized chunks, and chop our your
stalks of celery.
3.
Heat the oil in a wok or a large saucepan and
add the onion and garlic. Fry until you see the garlic browning and the onion beginning
to soften.
4.
Then, add the coriander, cumin and paprika to
the pan, and fry for a minute more.
ChefBeHere Top
Tip: Of these three seasonings… I only actually had paprika. So I cheerily described
the dish as “off season” to friends and cooked hoping for the best. I switched coriander
for Herbes de Provence and subbed cumin for a sprinkling of chilli flakes
instead. And the dish turned out pretty well considering! I’m a lucker
sometimes. But, I will advise, that if you’re in a shop and you’re not sure
your spice rack is as well stocked as you’re hoping it is.. maybe invest in the
proper ingredients!
5.
Add the courgette, aubergine, celery and sweet
potato to the pan and fry for a few minutes, stirring well to combine
everything together.
6.
Add the tinned tomatoes and a mugful of water,
along with the raisins, apricots and sugar. Stir to combine and turn the heat
up high.
7.
Once your tagine begins to boil cover it with a
lid or some foil, and turn the temperature back to a medium heat. Leave to
simmer gently for ten minutes.
ChefBeHere Top
Tip: I use this time to set the table, top up drinks, and breathe deeply. Keep
going… you’re nearly there! The house should begin to smell tasty.
8.
Add the chickpeas and tomato puree to the pan,
stir to combine, and then cover again to simmer for a further five minutes.
9.
Now, while your tagine finishes cooking, fill
the kettle and boil some water. Pour the couscous into a large bowl and crumble
a stock cube over it. Add boiling water until this rises a centimetre or so
above the couscous, and stir the contents of the bowl.
10. Then
cover the bowl with a plate and leave your couscous to stand for five minutes
until all the water is absorbed.
11. Uncover
and use a fork to fluff up your couscous, then spoon this evenly between the
four plates.
12. Then
– last but not least – switch off the hob and dish up your tasty tagine,
spooning on top of the couscous. Serve dinner to your horde of hungry guests!
 |
| A real crowd pleaser ... Sweet Potato Tagine |
Fancy giving this recipe a try? I highly recommend! Going
into this, I was a bit unsure about adding fruit to a savoury dish. Would it be
a Hawaiian pizza kind of fandango? A sweet and sour sauce? A cranberry stuffing?
I am not a fan, readers, in general of recipes that mix sweet and savoury
flavours. Only recently have I opened my mind to the notion of sweet and salty
popcorn. It’s a whole new world.
But, of course, I wouldn’t be writing to you if this recipe didn’t
taste KNOCK OUT. I think Sweet Potato Tagine is a keeper, readers! It’s fruity
and vegetabley and – somehow – it just works. No one turned their nose up at
the table. In fact, everyone was full of (genuine, I hope) compliments, and I
took tagine into work as a packed lunch for days afterwards and it didn’t
get old. A tagine dream.
Give this recipe a go, readers? And fill me in on how you do
in the kitchen? And let me know whether or not you like the tagine? Sounds a
plan. Meanwhile, my housemate will still be telling everyone he had tangerine
for his tea and it didn’t taste all thar orangey…
Power on and have an amazing week, everyone.
Chef safely,
Hayley
 |
| And look at my pretty new tealight holder! A thing of beauty, I think. |
No comments:
Post a Comment