Spinach, ricotta and chorizo filo pie

Remember an earlier post, when I said I was excited to have my dinner? I was waiting for this to cook in the oven! :) I love the combination of spinach and ricotta, I feel like it's a match made in food heaven :) The addition of chorizo made this into a non vegetarian dish, but feel free to omit it, and add a teaspoon of paprika instead (to bring smokiness) to the dish.

Fresh out of the oven! Crunchy bits at the top :)

Pastry obviously makes most things better :) But I tasted the filling before covering it with the filo and it was yummy! I could have eaten the filling just like that :)

I believe this is sort of a mediterranean inspired dish, and I've seen a few similar around. I've seen recipes which add pine nuts and raisins. I might try that in the future.

The pie was enough to last me quite a few meals. I even had it for breakfast the 3rd day. Make sure you keep it in the fridge though, especially during the summer.

Look at those flaky layers! This was the first slice, of quite a few :)

So here's the recipe for this! Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did :)

Spinach, ricotta and chorizo filo pie
(Serve 4-5 as a main)

Ingredients

300 grammes of frozen spinach
1 large red onion, sliced
100 grammes of chorizo, roughly chopped
250 grammes of ricotta
200 grammes of filo pastry, at room temperature
1 teaspoon of cumin
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of vegetable/olive oil
10 grammes of butter

Method

1. Heat the oven to 185C (fan assisted)
2. First we prepare the filling. Heat the oil in a pan, and add the red onion. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until softened.
3. Add the chopped chorizo, and cook on medium heat. The oil from the chorizo will slowly release as the chorizo cooks, and this will add flavour to the spinach.
4. Add the spinach and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
5. Add the cumin, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Stir well. 
6. Remove for heat and let it cool down for about 5-10 minutes. Afterwards add the ricotta. You might want to taste again at this stage to check on the seasoning.
7. Melt the butter. Brush the pie tin with some melted butter. 
8. Put 2 layers of the filo pastry on the pie tin. My pie tin's diameter is about 25 cm.
9. Spoon the filling into the pie tin. Cover with the remaining filo sheets.I made some the sheets scrunched up a bit for a bit of artistic edge
10. Brush the top with the remaining melted butter
11. Bake in the per heated oven for 30-45 minutes, until golden brown.

And here's another picture, as I enjoyed this so much :)

Fried prawns with an Asian chilli dip

I had a craving for deep fried food the other day. I had a late lunch, so I only got hungry at about 8, 9pm. So I wasn't really in the mood to go out and buy some fried chicken at the local kebab shop. So I fried some prawns instead :)

Deep fried prawns

I had some seasoned flour from home that I used for this dish. However, you can produce the same results by using cold water, self raising flour and salt and pepper to taste. Cold water (some use sparkling water) produces a crunchy batter. If you use sparkling water, the batter is even lighter. The recipe below is based on what I actually did.

To make the dip, I didn't really have a specific recipe, I just put in the sauce as I went along :) That really is the way I often cook.

The prawns with the dip

Fried prawns with an Asian chilli dip
(Serves 1-2 as a min)

Ingredients

250 grammes of raw prawns
Seasoned flour ( I added some chilli flakes for an extra kick)
1 egg white

For the dip
2 tablespoons of nam pla (fish sauce)
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon of honey
2 tablespoons of soya sauce to taste

Method

• Dip the prawns in the egg white, and then coat with the seasoned flour. Deep fry in hot oil until cooked. Set aside
• Reuse 1 tablespoon from the oil that was used to cook the prawns. Heat the oil in a pan, and add the chopped chilli.
• Mix the other ingredients in a bowl until well combined, and pour into the pan. 
• Heat the sauce for 2-3 minutes, till slightly reduced.
• Serve with the prawns

Always try your sauce, and season accordingly. Bear in mind that the fish sauce can be quite salty, so you would want to go easy on the soya sauce. 

I didn't use coriander as I didn't have any, but serving the dip with some finely chopped coriander would bring the dip to the next level. The next time I cook this, I'd definitely add the coriander :)

When I was eating this, I had a big grin on my face. The crunch of the prawns really hit the spot. Yummss :D I was a happy girl indeed!

Easy creamy pasta with tzatziki

I had this for dinner earlier this week. It's really a quick and easy dish, perfect for mid week dinner after a busy day at work.

I actually got the inspiration for this dish from the BBC Good Food website. I've used tzatziki as a pasta sauce before, yes it's a cheat as I use shop bought tzatziki, but doesn't mean it's any less delicious :) Tzarziki is a Greek yogurt sauce, with finely chopped cucumbers. It gives this dish a lovely tang and slight crunch from the cucumbers.

Rigatoni with tzatziki

Easy creamy pasta with tzatziki
(Serves 1 as a medium-large main)

Ingredients

75 grammes of rigatoni
1 tub of tzatziki (about 200 grammes)
1 large handful of frozen peas, cooked in boiling water for 1-2 minutes
About 50 grammes of cooking chorizo, sliced into 1/2 cm pieces
1 tablespoon of oil (I used vegetable oil, but olive oil would work fine too)

Method

1. Cook the rigatoni according to the instructions on the packet. Mine took about 10 minutes to cook.
2. While the pasta is cooking, we make the sauce. Heat the oil in a pan, and add the chorizo. Cook on medium heat. The chorizo will cook slowly, while releasing its oils. The oils gave a smoky flavour to this dish.
3. Then add the peas. Leave the heat on for about 1-2 minutes. 
4. Turn off the heat and add the cooked rigatoni. Reserve some of the cooking water.
5. Pour the tzatziki into the pan, and add a little of the pasta cooking water if the sauce looks too thick for your liking.
6. Serve!

Okra with caramelized red onions

I'm waiting for my dinner to cook in the oven right now, it's something that I've been looking forward to make, and I'm excited to eat it! :) But for now, let's have a post about a very simple dish that I made over the weekend.

My mom cooked this dish pretty often and I absolutely love her version. I jazzed my version up a bit, to introduce a little sweetness to the dish. Caramelized red onions are delicious, I love the soft, sweet onions in close to every dish!

Okra with caramelized red onion

Okra with red onions
(Serves 2 as a side dish)

Ingredients

175 grammes of okra (I get them in a pouch from Tesco)
1 large red onion, sliced thinly
1 medium sized green chilli, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Method

1. Trim the edges and the top of the okra. Boil it whole for about 4-5 minutes, or until tender to touch. Set aside
2. Heat the oil in a pan. Add the onions and chilli, and cook on medium heat for about 3-4 minutes. 
3. Once the onion slices turn slightly brown, add the garlic. We don't want to add it too early else it'll burn.
4. Once the onions are cooked, add the soya sauce and season to taste.
5. Serve on top of the boiled okra, and have it with steamed white rice.

Busy!

Note to self: Always draft lots of posts so that when you have exams, the blog will continue to be updated!

Yes, I have been very poor at updating myrumblingtummy. Not that I haven't been eating, more like the things that I have been eating aren't really exciting. I wouldn't expect anyone to want to see pictures of bowls of instant noodles (jazzed up with an egg) very often.

So yes, I am still alive and well, and I shall update the blog asap! :) This weekend looks promising :)

Thank you for your patience and I will be back soon :)

Much love

mammam