Hello Oxfordshire... hello first supper!

It's been an exciting couple of months! But I'm finally back in Oxfordshire for good! No more commuting to Cornwall, no more being apart form Mr P! Yay! Friday 18th March was my last day at work and the folks gave me a great send off. I was totally spoilt with cake and pressies.

It was lovely to wake up on Saturday morning, in my own bed, with my husband beside me. The sun was shining and it was a glorious day. We popped into our local town of Witney for an explore on Saturday morning and found some lovely traditional and independent shops and cafes. We even tried some local warn lardy cake which was amazing! I don't think I will be eating that very often though! I can already feel it on my hips!

On Sunday we were up early and had a nice leisurely breakfast. We then popped on the walking boots and walked over to Woodstock via Blenheim Estate. It was glorious! 8 miles later we were back home and totally pooped!

For our first proper Sunday Supper, I whipped up one of my favourites - Chicken Tagine - well, in this case it was Quorn Tagine since Mr P doesn't eat chicken. I've been watching my dad make this over the past couple of months whilst I was recuperating with them and I've now mastered it. So I thought I would share his recipe with you.

Here's the recipe, serving 4:

Ingredients:
- 1 white onion, chopped
- 1 large knob of ginger, peeled and chopped
- 2 sprigs of rosemary
- 2 star anise
- 2 pieces of cinnamon bark
- Selected vegetables, peeled and sliced / chopped: I use 2 carrots, 1 red pepper, 1/3 squash, 1/2 sweet potato, 1 courgette
- 2/3 chicken fillets
- 2tsp tagine paste (Al Fez Paste)
- 2tbsp honey
- tin of chopped toms
- handfull of apricots and dates
- pinch of saffron
- 1 dried chilli


Ingredients all ready on the chopping board



Here's what to do:

First of all, dice your chicken (or Quorn Fillets) and marinate in two tsp of Al Fez Tagine Paste (available in supermarkets) with 1 tbsp olive oil.

In your tagine (or large casserole dish) add the onion, ginger and rosemary with a glug of olive oil and cook slowly until onions are soft and translucent.

Slowly sweating over a low heat...

Add the star anise, cinnamon bark, chilli and chicken / quorn filllets and cook for a further 5-10 minutes until chicken is cooked. 

Looking lovely!

Add the the honey, tomatoes, fruit and vegetables (apart from the courgette). You can add what veg you like - there are no golden rules! Stir. I usually add some water, filling up the empty tomato tin half way. Place the courgette slices on top and sprinkle with saffron. Place the tagine lid on top (or casserole lid, leaving a little gap for steam to escape), bring slowly to the boil, and then take the heat right back to a slow simmer. Cook for an hour or until the vegetables are soft when you insert a knife into them. Sometimes I cook mine for 1hr 30minutes on a really slow heat if I'm pottering around the house.

Time for some slow cooking...

All ingredients snuggly simmering away under the tagine lid... a casserole pot will be fine if you don't have a tagine...

Serve with couscous or bread. The dish is amazing the following day, heated up for lunch!

My favourite!

Yum yum!

Nic xoxox