Nachos - amped up!

It's amazing the lengths you'll go to when faced with one solitary child home for the week on spring break, while the other two are off for an exciting field trip on the other side of the country. When one child is condemned to spend hours of time with only his parents for entertainment. Extra screen time? Why, of course darling! Round of my most hated board game: monopoly (choke, splutter, cough...), oh, ok then, if you're sure you wouldn't like some more screen time instead... Nachos for dinner? Why, yes, we can.

To be fair, we are not talking nachos with canned jalapenos and fake cheese and so much salt that you need a 'big gulp' soda to recover, like the ones they sell at the movies. These are nachos you can make a meal of. And nachos which you can serve up, safe in the knowledge that you can hide a multitude of sins (or beans and vegetables) sandwiched between a layer of melted cheese and a base of tortilla chips. So yes, nachos for dinner it is (but you have to have some salad with it...that's the deal...take it or leave it...)

Amped Up Turkey Nachos
adapted from Family Circle
Serves 5

8 oz multigrain tortilla chips
canola oil
1 lb ground turkey
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
1 8oz can tomato sauce (pureed tomatoes/passata)
1 package of taco seasoning
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup salsa
4 green onions (spring onions), finely sliced
1 cup shredded Monterey jack cheese/cheddar
1 large plum tomato, finely chopped
1/3 cup cilantro/coriander leaves, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
2. Line a 9" square baking dish with tortilla chips, standing some up the sides of the dish.
3. Heat oil in skillet and add turkey and bell pepper to hot oil. Saute over medium heat, breaking up the turkey, until it is no longer pink and the bell pepper is slightly softened.
4. Stir in tomato sauce, 1/3 cup water and the taco seasoning and continue to cook until heated through and bubbling.
5. Spoon turkey mixture over tortilla chips in baking dish. Sprinkle black beans over the top, then salsa, green onions and shredded cheese.
6. Bake for 20 minutes in oven, until heated through and cheese is melted.
7. Scatter chopped tomatoes and cilantro over the top before serving.

Not your average chicken stew

You know I love my slow cooker, I love chicken and I love tweaking new recipes. Well, here we have a trifecta. Yes, I was a happy bunny this week :-) And this one is an unusual recipe. The original came from my new favorite new slow cooker book: The Great American Slow Cooker by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough. I was dubious though - and not just because I am a suspicious untrusting individual, especially where new foods are concerned. If you doubt this, ask my husband about our trip to a Dim Sum restaurant whilst on honeymoon. He had to order, try everything first and only after multiple questions such as, "Are you sure it isn't some weird part of the chicken I don't want to put in my mouth", "Really? It doesn't look like beef!" and, " You wouldn't lie to me just to have a laugh when I spit it out, would you?" To be fair, I don't like seafood (which was in many of the dim sum) and they only spoke Cantonese. But, yes, I am suspicious.

Where this dish is concerned, my suspicious mind was twitching in part because it doesn't exactly have an exciting name: Chicken and Chickpea Stew doesn't just scream "Eat me!", even for someone with a love of chicken and chick peas. But the main reason for my doubts, were that the dish has an inordinate amount of ground cloves in it. I am suspicious of cloves. I bake a lot, and most recipes, even for highly spiced things like gingerbread, curries etc, the amount of cloves included is very small. Take a sniff of a jar of ground cloves, and you immediately see why, as they are very pungent indeed, and liable to overwhelm any other flavorings.

Nevertheless, on this occasion, I chose to push my doubts aside, and do a bit of sensible tweaking to make it seem more attractive a dish. This involved, at the very least, lowering the amount of cloves in the recipe, and making it more of a one-dish meal (a thick stew that you eat with a spoon), with the addition of some vegetables, more chick peas etc. And I have to say, sometimes opening your mind totally pays off :-) This is an unusual but very satisfying dish. I served it simply in bowls with some bread to mop up the juices.

Spicy Chicken and Chickpea Tagine
Serves 6-8

3 TBSP fresh oregano leaves, very finely chopped
2 TBSP olive oil
1 TBSP minced garlic
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 lbs skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 1" cubes1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cans chickpeas/garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3/4 cup (sweet)corn kernels
2 tsp mild smoked paprika
3/4 tsp ground cloves
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground black pepper


1. Mix together the oregano, olive oil, salt and garlic into a paste. Toss in a large bowl with the chicken cubes. Set aside in the refrigerator for a couple of hours for the flavors (if you don't have time, you can skip this step).
2. Stir tomatoes, chickpeas, onion, parsley, bell pepper, corn, paprika, cloves, cinnamon, turmeric and pepper in the slow cooker.
3. Stir chicken cubes into the slow cooker.
4. Cover and cook on low for 7 hours (or high for 4 hours).

The nights are still chilly somewhere

Apologies for my recent absence from the blogosphere, but I have been busy launching my new business: BiteSize Baking. For those of you who are local to the Bay Area, please check it out here.

I also had some family visiting from the UK, so I have been equally busy talking in a plummy accent whilst discussing the weather, scones and the fact that pants are worn underneath trousers. Now that my family are gone (boo hoo), I am consoling myself by returning to my kitchen in earnest. Suffice to say that, so far today, I have prepared a stew, made some bread, and experimented with some gluten-free cupcakes.  And I'm probably not done yet. A return to the kitchen for me, of course means rekindling my affection for the slow cooker. The temperature gauge has kind of gone a bit crazy here in the Bay Area this week, and spring is definitely here. However, in many parts, it is still decidedly chilly, particularly in the evenings, so I thought another chili dish might be in order.

This one is a keeper - it is healthy, containing a lot of protein from the quinoa and beans, but also vegetarian (even vegan, if you skip the dollop of cheese and sour cream I like to put on top). It will warm your cockles, for sure, assuming that you have cockles, and remember where you put them.

Quinoa and Black Bean Chili
Adapted from The Great American Slow Cooker by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough
Serves 6-8

2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups low sodium vegetable broth (plus additional broth if necessary - see below)
2 cups quinoa (any color, I used black)
1 15 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 onion, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
1 large jalapeno chile, finely chopped
2 TBSP chili powder
2 TBSP molasses
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped cilantro (coriander leaves)
sour cream and shredded cheese (cheddar or Monterey Jack) to serve

1. Stir beans, quinoa, broth, tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, celery, jalapeno, chili powder, molasses, cumin, coriander, oregano and salt in the slow cooker stoneware.
2. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours. Check after 5 hours, and add an additional cup of vegetable broth if appears dry.
3. Stir in most of cilantro before serving. Serve in bowls topped with sour cream, cheese and remaining cilantro.