Pepper and Halloumi Bake

This is one of my favourite quick recipes. It's adapted from Nigella Express and it's even better than Nigella's--sorry.

Basically it's a hot salad of sweet bell peppers and chopped halloumi with some spices and herbs, eaten picked up with pita bread, tortilla strips or some other bread. It's fast, adaptable between vegetarian and meat-containing, and leftovers warm up well. Once again, most importantly, it's delicious and very satisfying.

Start with bell peppers of course. Three large ones works in good proportion to a 250gm block of halloumi. The seasonings are garlic, salt and pepper, and some chili oil which I've made up, but a couple spoonfuls of olive oil and a couple of teaspoons of dried chili flakes also does the job. Adjust seasonings as you desire. Just remember that the halloumi is really salty and doesn't need too much more salt. Often I don't even bother with salt. I don't know why I put it in the picture. DON'T, however, skimp on the fresh ground black pepper. I love black pepper. I also love a fresh green hit with some fresh basil. My basil plant is thriving like you would not believe so I apply basil liberally, and at the very end. Step one: chop up those red peppers into a dice. You can chop them bigger, just make them convenient to scoop up onto a piece of bread.
Put them into a large zip lock bag. This just makes coating them with oil easier.
Chop up the halloumi into similarly sized chunks. Steal some halloumi to eat plain--it's a bit like cheese curds, squeeky and salty.
Throw that into the bag, along with a bit of fresh chopped garlic (here, my garlic puree--I told you, I put it in everything), the chili oil (or olive oil and dried chili pepper flakes), and tons of black pepper. A more course grind works well here. I like biting down on a sudden hot hit of pepper.
Shake that stuff up to coat in the oil and seasonings.
Tip it out onto a baking sheet. It goes in a 350F oven for 10 minutes. Told you this was fast.
Meanwhile I like to prepare the basil by making a chiffonade. Just lay all the basil leaves in a pile and roll the whole pile up really tight.
Look at my pink fingernails. They look pretty rad next to the green.
Then slice the leaves into a narrow chiffonade. Fluff the chiffonade to separate the little strings.
This time we ate the peppers and halloumi with a fresh baguette, sliced up and spread with some butter.
When it's baked, the peppers will be softened but still a bit crisp. The halloumi will take on a SLIGHTLY brown colour but hopefully will not be burnt because that doesn't taste good.
And finally sprinkle the basil on top. Scoop up a bit onto your bread, or scoop with the bread and pop that goodness into your mouth. It's really good.

Meat adaptation: sometimes when I feel I want the protein or when I have it around, I separate the baking into two sheet pans, and sprinkle some chopped up chorizo into one. It adds a whole other thing, being spicy and garlicky itself, but also delightfully meaty. Alternately, lay some pepperoni on your bread as you scoop up the peppers. Frankly, it's a rare recipe where it's actually equally good both ways.

Butternut Squash Risotto

Mmmm, butternut squash risotto! I've been making this for years, adapted from a recipe I saw in the Williams-Sonoma catalogue.

Start with butternut squash of course. I cooked the squash a few days ago, quartering a whole squash and steaming it. Then I scooped out the flesh and saved it in a bowl. You also need some sort of onion--I'm using shallots here (I've read that it's the Rolls-Royce of the onion family), but I've always happily used plain yellow onions. Risotto rice, olive oil, white wine, sage and thyme, vegetable broth, parmesan cheese, butter, salt and pepper.
Take the cooked squash flesh and blitz in a processor until smooth. You can easily dispense with this step or just mash with a fork.
You get this nice smooth puree.
Take the vegetable stock (reconstituted if necessary) and mix in the squash puree.
You get this beautiful, thick stock. Set it on the stove to warm. Bring it just barely under a simmer.
Chop the onion very finely. You can also do this in a processor. What you don't want is big chunks destroying the smoothness of the risotto.
Melt some butter and olive oil in a large saucepan.
Cook the onions gently until they're soft. Then add the sage and thyme.
Next add the risotto rice and stir in the buttery onions for a few minutes. The rice will turn translucent on the edges.
Add about half a cup of white wine and stir into the rice until it's absorbed.
Now add the hot stock, one ladle full at a time, stirring into the rice until absorbed each time. It should take the risotto half an hour to cook, so set your timer now. Keep adding stock and stirring... for about half an hour!
About halfway through--the rice will still be pretty hard.
After half an hour the rice will still have a bit of bite, but the sauce will be creamy and thick.
When the rice is cooked, add a ton of parmesan cheese, a few more tablespoons of butter and a little bit more liquid.
It's done! Sprinkle with parmesan on top.
Yum!

Electric Goat

Here is a relatively quick and easy snack. I ate something similar at a restaurant in my hometown and this is the first time I've tried to re-create it. It's called, provocatively, Electric Goat. It's simply goat's cheese in a spicy tomato sauce, baked; and served with toasted slices of baguette.

Having some leftover goat's cheese is a good start to this recipe. The tomato sauce is pretty quick and easy to whip up: bit of tomato sauce, some garlic, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper; simmer for 10-15 minutes; voila!

This is a terribly out of focus picture of the tomato sauce I made for our electric goat.
Pour it into a small baking dish. I wish I had a pretty ceramic ramekin or tart pan. Unfortunately all I have is this circular cake layer tin. Such is life.
My leftover chunk of goat's cheese. I used the other half making some macaroni and cheese. That recipe might be forthcoming.
Plop that thing in the middle here and toss it into a hot oven for 10-15 minutes until the cheese is melting and oozing.
A bit of baguette leftover from a bacon sandwich I had earlier in the day. I will miss fresh baguettes when I move away from Europe.
Slice the baguette as thinly as you can on a diagonal. Toast them either in a toaster or, if you're not lazy like me, under the broiler.
Then rub the toasted bread lightly with a fresh clove of garlic. Don't overdo it because raw garlic is quite sharp.
Here are all my toasted and rubbed pieces.
Here is the cheese and sauce.
Use a knife or fork to scoop sauce and cheese onto each piece of bread and give it a bite!

Enchiladas Two Ways

So here is a big pan of a dish that you can make on a Sunday and have for dinner for a few nights. It's Enchiladas Two Ways, meaning one big pan of vegetarian enchiladas and one big pan of non-vegetarian enchiladas. It doesn't take much more effort to make both fillings and they both bake at the same time. Once it's baked, the edges of the tortillas will be crisp and crunchy. The filling is warm, savoury and melting, and the sauce is piquant, spicy and quite luscious. I top it all with a fresh cool salsa and sour cream, but it's equally good without.

I have once again forgotten to include in this picture many essentials, including tortillas and the blend of spices I've pictured down below. Anyway, in addition to those things you will need onions, ground beef, refried beans, cheddar cheese, tomato sauce, garlic, lemon juice, fresh tomatoes, spring onions, chili peppers, a lime or lime juice, cilantro, plus odds and ends of olive oil, salt and pepper.
Fry a chopped onion in some olive oil. I had half a leftover red onion, so that's what I used. The quantity itself doesn't matter that much.
Once the onions are cooked, add in the ground beef and brown it. Then skim off the extra fat, leaving only a few spoonfuls in the pan for moisture and flavour. Then season with salt and pepper, but go easy on the salt because later you will add some of the tomato sauce and this will bring up the seasonings too.
Now make the enchilada sauce. I use a blend of spices, including each of the ones lined up here. They are, in no particular order: nutmeg, cumin, cinnamon, paprika, dried crushed chilis, ground coriander seed and cayenne pepper. I like my enchilada sauce hot and spicy and piquant. It should feel thick and rich--just delicious basically, and this stuff really is just that.
Put a few tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepan and just throw the spices in. I give rough amounts below, but really put in as much as suits your own tastes. I also put in my garlic puree (and this was the last of it, so I will be making more soon, and showing you how). Stir this mix up in the heated oil for a minute, then add in the tomato sauce and let it simmer for about 10 minutes, with a lid slightly ajar on top. It will thicken and the sauce will cook. Once it's been simmering for 10 minutes, turn off the heat and add the lemon juice to sharpen up the flavor and give it that special tangy-ness that enchilada sauce has to have.
Now to assemble everything. Grate up a big pile of cheese.
For each vegetarian enchilada, scoop some refried beans straight out of the tin, spread it on a tortilla and sprinkle with some cheese. Do this with each tortilla and line them up in a sheet cake pan...
...Just like this.
For the beef enchiladas, add about 3/4 cup of the finished tomato sauce to the browned beef and stir it in.
Then do the same with each tortilla, filling with beef and cheese, rolling up and lining them up in a pan.
I've made 8 of each type because that's how many tortillas came in a two packets.
Spread the tops of the enchiladas with the remaining sauce, then sprinkle with the remaining cheese. These go in the oven for about 15 minutes at 350F.
Meanwhile, chop up the tomatoes, spring onions, chili peppers (minus seeds) and fresh cilantro and put them all in bowl. Squeeze over the juice of the lime and season with salt and pepper. That's the fresh salsa.
I don't have a picture of the finished pans but here are some beef enchiladas plated up complete with salsa and sour cream. Bon apetit!

Ingredients:

16 tortillas

500 gm ground beef

1 onion (any size, any type)

2 cups (roughly) refried beans

2 cups shredded cheese (cheddar, or anything similar)

4 cups tomato sauce

2 TBSP lemon juice

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp dried crushed chilis

1/2 tsp ground coriander seed

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

3 cloves fresh garlic (or 1 1/2 tsp garlic paste)

1 cup cherry tomatoes

3 spring onions

1 chili pepper, deseeded

juice of 1 lime

olive oil

salt

pepper

Recipe Profile:

Recipe Type: DINNER

Recipe Classification: VEGETARIAN, NON-VEGETARIAN