Paella is a bit of a Friday night treat in our house. Usually mid-week suppers consist of something that can be easily prepared in advance with little or no finishing once the kids are in bed. But on a Friday it's nice to eat a bit later, enjoy a nibble on some olives, carrots & reduced fat hummus while I get dinner ready, glass of wine in hand of course. I find on WeightWatchers if I'm really religious during the week, come Friday, I can afford a glass of wine or two along with dinner. I still try to keep to a healthy meal on a Friday (that's 12 ProPoints in my book) but it's usually something that takes a bit longer to prepare.
We are quite traditional in that white wine is largely summer drinking and most definitely when eating fish, and red wine is mostly for the winter and always to accompany red meat. Paella works well with either but a splash of white wine does work particularly well with the stock bringing out more flavour.
My paella uses chicken breast, raw king prawns, lots of red pepper & peas and it wouldn't be Paella without the use of saffron and cayenne pepper! My hubby has an allergy to some seafood but otherwise I would use the bags of frozen mixed seafood containing mussels, squid etc, but use whatever you like to suit your own taste.
You'll need for 2:
- 1/2 onion, finely chopped
- 1-2 garlic cloves, crushed or grated
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 2-3 tbsp frozen peas, I use petits pois
- 1 medium chicken breast (165g), chopped
- 50g chorizo
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 150g Paella rice
- 1 big vine tomato or a few cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped
- Pinch of saffron
- Pinch of cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp smoked paprika or normal paprika
- 1 bay leaf
- Liquid chicken stock concentrate or stock pot
- 1 lemon
- 100g (about half a bag) of raw frozen king prawns, defrosted
- Boiling water from the kettle
- Glug of white wine (optional)
- Seasoning
In a large non-stick frying pan, heat the oil and gently saute the onions and garlic until slightly golden. Turn up the heat slightly and add the chorizo and chicken. Brown all over.
Weigh out the rice into a measuring jug and make a note of where it comes up to. Add the rice to the pan and stir frequently to coat the rice. Double the volume of rice with boiling water and chicken stock concentrate into your measuring jug. Add the saffron to the stock and allow to dissolve. Add the white wine if using or if not use a little of the chicken stock.
Add the pepper & tomatoes and stir well. Add about half of the chicken stock, the spices and bay leaf. Give it a good stir and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Add the peas.
Keep stirring every now and then and top up on some stock when it starts to look a little dry. It should take about 20-25 minutes for the rice to cook through. A few minutes before the end, add the prawns and a good squeeze of lemon (about half a lemon). Taste and season accordingly. Cook until the prawns are pink throughout and serve up with lemon wedges.
WeightWatchers ProPoints Per Serving: 13
Tray baking is so easy. You chuck everything in a nice roasting dish and let the oven do it's work. It's also easy to stick to the same old chicken,veg and potatoes so I thought I would try something a little bit different. I've had some haddock in the freezer for a few weeks now and I was thinking of how I could cook it differently instead of my usual herby breadcrumbed way. So with the desire to tray bake with something other than chicken I came up with this dish!
I've mentioned my fondness for chorizo and just figured this would add another dimension to the dish too. All in all we were really pleased with this and I will definitely continue to experiment with tray bakes!!
Oooh I almost forgot. The day I cooked this, I asked my mum to pick me up a bag of new potatoes as she was on her way over to me, anyway she turned up with charlotte potatoes. This was not met with an over enthusiastic thank-you, but I had no choice but to use them. I cannot tell you how pleased I was with them!! They are my new favourite potato and work really well when baked, without par-boiling. The skins go lovely and crisp and the inside soft and fluffy. Yum.
What you'll need for 2:
- 2 x 120g haddock fillets or other white fish, cut into half
- 400g charlotte potatoes, halved or quartered if large
- 65g chorizo sausage, sliced
- Courgette, sliced
- Red onion, cut into wedges
- Roasted red peppers from a jar, roughly chopped
- 1-2 tsp olive oil
- Seasoning
What to do:
Put everything except the fish into the roasting dish, season well and drizzle over the olive oil. Using your hands, rub the oil and seasoning into the vegetables and potatoes really well. You can add whatever vegetables you like really; butternut squash, aubergine, tomatoes.
Roast for a good 30 minutes on a high-ish oven (190) tossing occasionally. When you think that's almost ready, move the mix to the edges and add the fish fillets to the middle of the dish. Season and spray lightly with olive oil. Return to the oven for another 5 minutes. Be careful not to overcook the fish so check it after 3-4 minutes.
WeightWatchers ProPoints Per Serving: 11
I was in a quandry over what to cook for dinner yesterday. Usually it's a quick and easy pasta dish on Thursdays due to football / zumba but we both fancied something using rice and I'd already taken some chicken out of the freezer... So after researching a bit on the web I decided on a jambalaya style dish for the flavour and I like the idea of cooking using a one-pot method too. I had most ingredients at home but really needed a pepper so off to Waitrose I popped. £11.76 later (how does that happen??!) I bought some lovely sweet red Romano peppers and some cooking chorizo to add to my dish, amongst alot of other crap.
- Half a medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 -2 garlic cloves, crushed or grated
- 1 red pepper
- 35g chorizo, halved, then sliced thinly
- Half a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
- 1 tsp Cajun seasoning (more if you like it hotter)
- Seasoning
- 140g dried basmatti rice
- Approx 350ml chicken stock (you will need double the volume of rice)
- 2 tbsp frozen peas
- Half a punnet of chestnut mushrooms, roughly chopped
- 260g chicken breast cut into chunks
What to do:
Spray a good non-stick frying pan with a little olive oil (use about half a tsp). On not too high heat saute the onion till soft. Add in the garlic and the chorizo. The chorizo will omit some oil so don't worry if it looks too dry to begin with. The chorizo will also flavour and colour the onions beautifully.
Next add the peppers and saute for a couple of minutes. Turn up the heat and add the chicken to brown. Add the mushrooms and continue to saute. Sprinkle over the Cajun seasoning and add the rice. Stir quickly to avoid the rice sticking until it is all nicely coated. Next add your tomatoes and bring to a boil. Then add nearly all the stock and turn down to simmer. Stir well and cover turning down to a low heat so it is just simmering.
Do give it a stir every few minutes to ensure the rice is not sticking and add a little more stock if need be. After 10 minutes add the frozen peas. All in all the cooking time should take approximately 20 minutes but you will know when the rice has cooked through and absorbed the stock. Taste and season as required.
I've got to say I REALLY enjoyed this meal. It was sooo tasty (in fact I did scoff a few mouthfuls at 5pm!) and it's a great meal mid-week if you want something to prepare in advance. I am sure it would freeze pretty well too, if any is left that is!
WeightWatchers ProPoints per serving: 12
