Turkey and Halloumi Skewers

Much as I love wholesome, wintry food like Toad-in-the-Hole and stew, it's getting to the time of year when those kinds of dishes feel just a bit too heavy. Turkey is fairly cheap and very good for you, and halloumi is one of the few cheeses I actually like, so I combined the two to create some vaguely Mediterranean skewers:

Quantities are fairly variable, and much like a soup or stew, you can use up any slightly past-their-best veg. To make 2 skewers I used:


For the skewers:
2 handfuls turkey breast, diced
125g halloumi cheese, cut into chunks
4 small button mushrooms
1/2 courgette
1/2 yellow pepper
1/2 red onion
4 cherry tomatoes


For the marinade:
8 tbsps olive oil
3tbps lemon juice
3 tbsps fresh mint, roughly chopped
2 tbsps fresh coriander roughly chopped
1 spring onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
Pinch of cayenne pepper

• Mix all of the marinade ingredients together in a bowl. Add the turkey and halloumi to the marinade, making sure all the pieces are well covered.
• Leave for at least 30 minutes to marinate (or if you're rushed for time, leave for as long as it takes the to prepare the vegetables).
• Chop all of the vegetables (apart from the mushrooms and cherry tomatoes) into chunks.
• Thread the chunks of vegetables, turkey and halloumi onto skewers (if using wooden skewers, soak them in water for at least 20 - 30 minutes before use).
• Place the skewers under a hot grill until the turkey is cooked al the way through and the halloumi is beginning to brown (approximately 10-15 minutes), turning occassionally.
• Serve with cous cous or rice and natural yoghurt.

 [N.B. I imagine this would work well on a barbecue, or even with a griddle pan, though I have't tried it myself]

Students! If you're worried about budgetting for this, leave out the halloumi and buy reduced or on offer veg and poultry. Cous cous is a bit more expensive than rice, but it fluffs up so much that a normal sized packet will last a good few months. Plus you can make it in a mug! (Fill the mug 1/3 of the way up with cous cous, then pour over enough boling water to cover, put a clean teatowel over the mug, then leave for 5 minutes. Done.)

Also, I can definitely recommend Sainsbury's Basics natural yoghurt (or equivalent own brand yoghurt). It tastes no different to the more expensive Sainsbury's yoghurts and I'm fairly sure it's actually the same yoghurt with different packaging (I have stood in the aisles and done the slightly nerdy packet comparisons)

Pancake Day!

Happy Pancake Day/International Women's Day!

As much as I like pancakes (one of my childhood obsessions was the now sadly closed Dutch Pancake House in Manchester), I am not very good at making them. It's not the mixing or the frying of the pancakes that I can't deal with, it's the flipping. I've just not got the confidence to do an assured flip (I'd be a letdown Blue Peter presenter on the Shrove Tuesday episode). This poses no problem when I'm at home, as my mum is a champion pancake maker, but as with last year I'm stuck here is Bristol. My fear of dropping the pancake is compounded this year by the fact that the hob in our flat is a gas one, and a combination of pancake and flames is not one I really want to experience. And I refuse point blank to buy pre-made ones.

However, I am a dab hand at making American pancakes, which, as well as appealing to my Americophile tendencies, are flipped with a spatula, meaning I much less likely to set myself on fire. Therefore, sacrilege as it probably is, my pancake of choice today will most likely be American. Oddly though, the best American pancake recipe I've found is from one of the most decidedly English cookbooks that I own: The Dairy Book of Home Cookery. It's an old-fashioned, but adorable, book that was first published in the 1960s and features recipes for dishes such as Party Gammon and Jugged Kippers, but also really reliable recipes for more classic dishes. My family's copy is so well used that it's falling apart at the seams, so my mum and I hunted down an elusive extra copy for me to take to Bristol (we eventually found one in a garden centre). 

So here, based on that recipe, are the pancakes I'll be making today:

225g plain flour

4 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp caster sugar

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

350ml milk

25g melted butter (plus extra for frying) 

• Whisk eggs, melted butter and milk together in a jug.
• Add flour, baking powder, sugar and salt to the milk mixture (you could sift them in, but I've found it makes very little difference). Whisk vigorously til well combined - the batter should be a similar consistency to natural yoghurt. Add more milk if too thick or flour if too thin, though it's better to err on the side of it being too thick.
• Heat a little butter on a medium heat in a non-stick frying pan and when hot, pour out rounds of about 12cm/5ins. If the batter is thick enough, it should spread naturally into a smooth-edged circle.
• Cook until the surface of the pancakes looks bubbly, then flip with a spatula and cook until golden.
• Repeat making 10-14 pancakes.
  

I like to eat mine with a little bit of extra butter spread on the top, or sometimes with bacon, though they're probably nice with maple syrup and cream (these pancakes do not lend themselves to eating healthily).  Enjoy pancake day - whatever nationality of pancake you choose to have!