Spanish Paprika chicken using Schwartz flavour shots ! - recipe mix in oil

You've seen the TV advert, which is very cool and very colourful so I was intrigued to try Schwartz newest kid on the block. Flavour shots are essentially a recipe herb and spice mix in oil, ready for you to cook with. Most of the shots are gluten free (do contain maltodextrin but this is considered safe for most coeliacs) (not all) and vegetarian friendly ( not all), the website has various recipes for you to try the shots with plus videos of others as well. The package also has a suggested recipe for you to follow.

Flavour shots are available in most supermarkets and in eight tasty flavours (not all supermarkets are carrying the full range) and retail for around £1.

I plumped for the Spanish smoked paprika chicken shot, which is a pretty easy recipe to follow and I had the necessary ingredients to hand.

What you need

• Flavour shot
• 1 onion - chopped finely
• 1 can of chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp of tomato ketchup 
• 1 pepper - finely diced
• 2 large chicken breasts - chopped into bite sized pieces
• 75g chorizo - chopped (optional I didn't use)

What you do 

• Mix up the flavour shot with a spoon and pour into large frying pan
• Heat over a medium heat, add the chopped onion and stir and cook for about 5 minutes until softened
• Now add the chicken pieces (and chorizo if using) and fry another 4-5 minutes
• Next add the chopped pepper, tomatoes and ketchup
• Stir and simmer over a low heat, covered for approximately 10 minutes or so until the chicken is cooked through.
• Remove the lid and simmer to reduce sauce to desired consistency.

Serve with rice, roast baby potatoes or whatever takes your fancy, a pretty tasty dish a little too tomatoey for me which I felt dominated the chicken a little. 

This is a featured post for Schwartz for which I have received compensation, all views are my own. 

          

Herbs on Saturday Blog challenge - Mint syrup

If your like me, once apon a time long long ago you were given a cutting of peppermint by a friend (I use this term loosely given mints behavior in the garden) you have a forest of the stuff which you have to battle with a machete every season. You just wish that more recipes that use it, Mint does have a some redeming features in the  kitchen as a herb, with the obvious lamb, boiled with the first new potatoes and its also fab in cold salads and used to garnish desserts and in pimms. But, it just grows to well and you can't use it all, I also make a fab strawberry and mint ice cream (thats another post) and loads of mint sauce but I just can't keep up with it.

As someone who always makes elderflower cordial every year , I have had an inkling for sometime to make a similar mint version. I spied in the River cottage perserves book, a recipe so I thought I would give it a go with some tweaks. Essentially you macerate fresh young leaves with sugar, salt and lemon juice (this less for its flavour and more to stop your mint going a sludgy brown), this is left overnight and then made into a sugar syrup with boiling water and then strained and bottled.

The resultant syrup can be used to make a refreshing cooling drink with ice and sparkling water (and very nice it is too). You can also use the syrup in your baking or to make desserts and added to teas or sorbets.

Just a pity it doesn't use more mint though .......

I am submitting this post to @KarenBurnsBooth #herbsonsaturday campaign, come join the fun.  

I am also entering this for the @BotanicalBaker #Summertimesipping campaign as well 

Lemon balm loaf cake

Lemon balm is one of those herbs that once you have it you always will, it will happily self seed if it likes you garden and can become a bit of a pest. It has limited uses such as in a tea or a nice refreshing bath, so I thought I would have a go at using some in a cake recipe. Lemon balm or melissa for the unintiated has a lemon sherbet flavour with a herby back end on the tongue, so should be a perfect marriage for a traditional lemon drizzle cake.

Melissa is a very old fashioned herb and would have been a typical inclusion in the traditional cottage garden which is the style of gardening I favour, it has none discript white flowers, followed by loads of tiny dark seeds, which should be cut off unless you want to commercial harvest the plant.

I have tried cooking with the herb before but I don't have particularly fond memories of the result, but I think I used the older leaves which tend to go woody and be less flavourful. 

So firstly choose your favourite lemon drizzle cake and then add to the normal lemon zest in the sponge mix an additional 2tbsp of finely chopped lemon balm leaves. You normally make a lemon syrup to make the drizzle so I also added chopped lemon balm to my syrup too. The result is a moist lemony herby cake, very pleasant and a very good keeper if wrapped in foil and stored in a cool place.