Hot Sizzling Mexican Chicken Fajitas

Hot Sizzling Mexican Chicken or Steak  Fajitas straight  from the garden

Everyone has their own way of making Fajitas, but this is my way, I don’t use a packet to spice the chicken or Steak as the packets contain so much salt. Fajias are great this time of year as it uses a lot of my salad & vegetables I grow.



For the vegetables

Slice the peppers and onions and set them aside   

 
 For the salsa

2  ripe tomatoes (peeled & chopped)a small bunch of fresh coriander or paisley (finely chopped)  Red Onion (finely chopped)1/4 Cucumber  (finely Chopped)

Place all the ingredients  in a bowl and give it a good stir to mix it all up

it tastes so fresh

I cook my meat and vegetables in different pans as it nicer when it comes to building the Fajitas        I also make my own guacamole but this is my version 

½- fresh chilli a few sprigs of fresh coriander1 ripe avocado (scooped out)1 lime a spoon full of the fresh salsa (as above)

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until nice and smooth 

The meat

You can use steak or chicken I used both this time as had  a little of both in the freezer.

To make the spices 

1 red or green chilli 1/2 teaspoon chili powder1/2 teaspoon cumin 1/2 teaspoon hot pepper flakes A clove of garlic crushed 1 tsp. red paprika1 tsp.Mustard seeds 

Dry fry the mustard seeds for 1 minutes and add to a food processor with the remaining ingredients and pulse until they are all mixed together.

slice the  beef or chicken into strips and add the spices and give it a good mix around so all the meat is covered and place to one side.

 
Time to cook up 

Heat a couple of tbsp oil in two pan. Throw in the chicken or steak and quickly brown all over, cook for a 10 minutes until cooked though the beef should not take as long but I suppose it up to you on how you want the steak cooked I like mine pink.


In the second pan  add the onion and peppers to the pan and cook until softened.

Now your ready to roll in warm tortillasI like to Spread a little mayo (some people use sour cream but I don't like it)then the guacamolethen the salsa meatvegetables and wrap Lush

It's been a long wet summer

Summer 

It's been a long wet summer

it's been a dreadful summer, and everything is so late.

I know I'm not the only one as everyone I speak to complains about how badly their gardening is doing, but what can you do when this weather has been the worst since records began.

It seems that every day with the a little more sunshine there is a success story.

but this is how it's all going for me.

Runner Beans 

August

August and some runner beans at last

The end result

Theses were taken to grandparents for their Sunday dinner 

Tomatoes 

Well the wait was worth it as the tomatoes in the Greenhouse are massive 

Just turning 

mixture of red & yellow tomatoes 

Theses Tomatoes will be going in my salsa 

Peppers 

Globe artichoke

These won't be ready for a while 

Summer Garden Party Part Five-Chambord ice cream

 Chambord icecream

Ice cream can be so simple to make , my simple ice cream recipe can be adapted to fit most flavors, but as my friend had a bottle of Chambord left, it was a joke that inspired this idea to make this flavoured ice cream

100g caster sugar

400ml double cream

200ml whole milk

30ml Chambord liquor (I also make baileys ice cream so just add baileys )

Add the sugar milk and cream into the ice cream maker add the Chambord liquor (or what ever flavour you have chosen) and give it a stir and until completely mixed in.

Then churn in an ice-cream maker until thickened.

Put into a freezerproof container and freeze until needed.

Summer Garden Party Part Four -Summer fruit Pudding

Summer fruit Pudding

The Strawberries came out of my garden, and the raspberries were my mother from last year which she had frozen.

I also used a small bag of berries from the supermarket

But you can use

raspberries,

strawberries,

red and blackcurrants,

damsons and blackberries.

 

all you need is 

2 tbsp water

5oz / 150g sugar

1lb/450g washed, mixed summer fruits as available.

4 - 6oz/100 -150g thin sliced white bread, crusts removed

Whipped cream or custard sauce

 

Stir the water and sugar together and bring to a gentle boil. Add the berries and fruits and stew very gently until softened but still retain their shape.

Line a pudding basin with the bread slices ensuring there are no gaps.

Fill with the stewed fruits and cover the top with more bread slices.

Leave some of the juices to one side (to use before you serve)

Place a saucer with a weight on top

And leave overnight in a cool place.

The next day, before serving, turn the pudding out onto a plate and ensure all the bread has soaked up all of the juices (you don’t want to see any white bits of bread) add some of the saved juices to cover up

Serve with the whipped cream or custard sauce.

Summer Garden Party Part Three -Halloumi in red pepper with chilli

Halloumi  in red pepper with chilli

This is  recipe is great for the veggies at a barbecue but every one will love them.

Because you can make them in advance they are a simple alternative to meat.

 All you will need

Red peppers 

block halloumi cheese , sliced into 4

1 red chilli , finely chopped

Grill or roast the red peppers whole until they begin to soften (do not over cook as they will fall apart) and remove the skin.

Try and keep them whole as it will be so much easier when you add the hallomi

Put a slice of halloumi in to each pepper.Add a little of the finely chopped chilli (add as much as you can  handle)

Add to the grill on the  barbecue.

Barbecue the red peppers on both sides for 5

That’s how simple it is

Cheats

There are many ways to cheat with this 

recipe

You can use a jar of red pepers in brine

Or even use chilli dipping sauce instead of the chilli’s 

If I'm doing them just for me then I also add a few slices of chorizo and so I cook it a little longer to ensure the chorizo is cooked through.

Garden party part 2 - White Chocolate Cheese cake

White chocolate cheese cake 

I've been making this chesses cake for years

I have a friend who can not eat milk or dark chocolate so this is perfect for him.

The original recipe has Oreo biscuits for the base, but as this is dark chocolate I changed it to digestive biscuits.

But the Oreo base is much better so I made two this time.

One with a digestive base and one with Oreo’s and digestives

Oreo base 

All you need is 

Base 

250g of either Oreo’s or digestives (most biscuit will do the job (not wafer )

120g butter, melted (the amount you need may vary, depending on the type of biscuits you use)

Filling

375g cream cheese, softened

100g caster sugar

3 large eggs

200g white chocolate, melted

225g Crème fraiche   

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 160 degrees

Line the base of a 20cm or 21cm diameter cake pan with baking paper.

 Place the  biscuits in a food processor until finely crushed

Then add the crushed biscuits to the melted butter and  press mixture over the base.

digestive base 

Then pop in the fridge while you preparing the filling.

Melt the White choclate in a bowl over a saucepan

And while this is melting

Use a electric mixer to beat cream cheese with sugar together.

Beat in eggs one at a time.

 And

add the Crème fraiche   

And then add the melted white chocolate.

 Stirring until smooth.

Add the vanilla extract

And beat until ingredients are combined.

Pour filling over biscuit base and bake for about one hour.

before it goes in the oven 

When you take it out of the oven allow to cool as this will allow the cheese cake to set.

I like to decorate mine with fruit or white chocolate shavings. 

A Summer Garden Party

Recently my parents held a garden party at their home and I helped my mother cater the event.

It was a lovely day with around 50 family and friends and we were so lucky to have the sun come out and stay out.

The idea was I would take lots of photos and share with you what I cooked up, well I started of well but when you are catering for so many people you just get lost in the moment and it was only after it was all gone that I remembered my camera.  (Don’t forget I am new this blogging as it was new years resolution)

So a lot of my recipes don’t show the finished product, but it must have gone well as there was nothing left by the end of the day.

I also set myself the challenge as to use as much as possible from the garden. 

We also got the Chocolate fountain out for the day the kids were a little surprised when the fruit came out, I think they believed it was just marshmallows that you cover in chocolate.