What's been cooking?

I got a few great recipe books for my birthday (Yes Jamie Oliver were some of them)!! So this week I have made two dishes from Jamie's Dinners book. Here are the recipes, please try them yourself! So easy!!


Crispy Chicken with Sweet Tomatoes

4 chicken legs joined (I used 8 drumsticks instead)

sea salt (this is a must, gosh it tasted good, I added 2 pinches) and fresh ground black pepper

big bunch basil, leaves picked, stalks cut up

I used 1 punnet cherry tomatoes (red) and I could of added yellow ones, but they didn't have any so I used 3 large yellow roma tomatoes quartered.

1 bulb garlic broken into cloves

1 fresh chilli finely chopped (I didn't add this)

olive oil

(optional- tin of cannellini beans, drained or few potatoes)

Preheat oven to 180. Season chicken pieces and put them into snug-fitting pan in one layer. Throw in all basil leaves, stalks and tomatoes. Scatter garlic cloves and chilli and drizzle with some olive oil. Mix around a bit. Place in the oven 1.5 hours, turning the chicken and tomatoes halfway though until the skin is crisp and meat falls off the bone.I served with mashed potato and salad. You could add this to some pasta too.

Jools' favourite Beef Stew

olive oil
1 onion chopped
handful sage leaves (I didn't have this)
800g stweing steak or beef ( I used boneless beef steaks)
sea salt and freshly ground pepperf
lour to dust
4 carrots peeled and halved (I cut them smaller so the kids could eat)
1 sweet potato (he has 2 parsnips, I hate parsnips)
1/2 butternut pumpkin
500g potatoes quartered
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 bottle red wine
285 mls veg stock (i had beef stock, so I just used 1 cup of that and the rest was water)
.zest of 1 lemon
handful of rosemary leaves picked
1 clove garlic peeled, finely chopped.

Preheat oven to 160 clecius (I cooked this in a pot on stove top for 1.5 hours then I put in oven for the last hour). Put some oil into pan, add onion and sage leaves and fry for few minutes. toss meat in a little seasoned flour then add to pan along with all vegies, tomato paste, wine, stock and stir. Season with pepper and just a little salt. bring to boil, place lid on top, then cook in preheated oven until meat is tender (sometimes this is 3 or 4 hours- it was 2.5 for me). once its cooked you can turn oven down to about 110 and hold until you are ready to eat. We ate it with some nice crunchy continental bread.