Favourite product this week

Rachel’s Organic Greek Style Yogurt 

You may think I am exaggerating and really over blowing this product’s trumpet, but for me Rachel’s Organic Coconut Greek Style Yogurt is as good as a bowl of chocolate ice-cream (although not as good as profiteroles).

It is not the healthiest of all yogurts because it is so rich and creamy, but the only ingredients in the tub are organic yogurt, organic cream, organic sugar and organic coconut and you can really taste the coconut. For those who love coconut – me – this yogurt is a dream.

I started with a small bowl of the yogurt with two figs sliced up, but even more delicious, the next two nights I had it with some tinned peaches! The last night I just ate what was left out of the tub. If you don’t fancy coconut, I have just got some of the low-fat rhubarb Rachel’s organic yogurt, which is also gorgeous on its own or with a few blueberries.

Chicken kebabs with homemade savoury rice

This is a real Saturday night recipe for me, it is very moorish and filling. You may find the rice with the kebabs too filling so you could just serve them with a salad.

I have written the recipes separately because both parts work well without the other. You could cook up the kebabs when doing a large family barbeque and the savoury rice really goes with anything from grilled chicken to steak. The rice is also a great recipe for children because you can hide lots of vegetables in it and it is much healthier than the shop bought savoury rice out of the packets, which include colourings, lots of salt and often MSG (monosodium glutamate).

Chicken kebabs – makes four kebabs easily, sometimes more if you use larger chicken breasts.

2 small chicken breasts

½ red onion cut into chunks

½ red pepper and ½ green pepper cut into chunks

1 large flat mushroom

1 small can of cubed pineapple

8 slices of courgette

BBQ sauce

Simply skewer the meat and vegetables on in a random order until all the kebab sticks are full and have equal amounts of meat and vegetable. Then brush all over with barbeque sauce. You can cook them in a number of ways – either on a barbeque in summer, on a George Foreman style grilling machine or under a hot grill until slightly crispy and cooked throughout. Under the grill it takes around 15 minutes.

Savoury Rice

150g Arborio rice/paella rice or just normal rice

500ml of chicken stock (chicken boullion stock cube) plus 300ml water.

½ red onion finely chopped.

½ courgette finely chopped.

½ red pepper finely chopped.

A handful of frozen or canned sweetcorn.

½ tsp paprika

¼ tsp sweet paprika

½ tsp mild chilli powder.

For the savoury rice, start by frying all the vegetables (except sweetcorn) in a large deep frying pan in some olive oil for 10 minutes until softened. Throw in the rice and stir round for one minute then pour in the stock and the spices. Simmer gently and keep an eye on it. The added water is just a guideline you may need a little more or a little less. Work it like a risotto and keep adding liquid until the rice is soft. It should take around 20 minutes to absorb enough liquid – after 10 minutes add the sweetcorn. Check for taste at the end you may want to add a little extra chilli powder or paprika.

A Spanish supper

There are hundreds of versions of the dish Paella and all are delicious in their own way. The whole idea of a Paella is that you can add what you want to it – it is a traditional Spanish dish which uses up leftovers.

This is my recipe, which is a simple mixed Paella. I find doing Paella for dinner parties is perfect because you can cook it, pop the lid on and sit down and enjoy a starter without worrying about it spoiling. A great simple, fresh, spanish starter is to serve slices of melon with some good quality slices of Serrano ham. Very, very simple but really delicious.

Paella for two greedy people (Or if you are serving starters and desserts it will easily feed three)

200g Paella rice or arborio rice

1 Litre chicken stock (can be a good stock cube)

1 White onion finely chopped

2 Cloves of garlic finely chopped

Pinch of saffron and pinch of paprika

Half a red pepper sliced

Some cooked chicken (up to you how much, preferably leg or thigh meat)

Around 10-12 cooked prawns.

Half a chorizo or even 8-10 slices of the salami style chorizo (much cheaper!)

1 Lemon

1. Put some olive oil in a pan and fry the onion until soft, add the garlic and cook for a further 1-2 minutes.

2. Add the chorizo and peppers and cook for a few minutes. Throw in the rice and stir round in the juices for 1-2 minutes.

3. Meanwhile put the saffron in a small bowl add a few tablespoons of warm water and let it dissolve a little.

4. Pour half of the stock in the pan, add the saffron and the paprika and stir. Bring to a simmer and leave until it starts to soak up the stock.

5. Add the rest of the stock and throw in the chicken and prawns. It will take a further 10-15mins. Really you just need to wait until all the liquid is absorbed. You could add shellfish or other vegetables if you wanted.

 6. Serve with the lemon wedges.

Although this dish contains shellfish and chicken I find a nice red wine, such as a classic Rioja, goes well with the strong flavours.