Chorizo Bean Pasta

This is the first of the "If It's" series of recipes, which basically stands for "If it's in the fridge it's in the dish!". More often than not you cannot beat eat up night. You know, the last night of the holiday when everything gets eaten up before the journey home the next day. Some unusual but wonderful creations are conjoured up in caravans up and down the country, and sometimes they can be the most delicious meals of the trip. We are no exception so starting us off is this dish created on the Isle of Wight, which turned out very tasty indeed, even if it doesn't look like it!

Ingredients:

1/2 Chorizo ring
1/2 Green pepper
1/2 Tin of tomato soup
1/2 Tin of beans and sausages
1/2 Carrot
1/2 Lemon, juiced
1/2 Lettuce
1/4 Broccoli
1x Garlic clove
2x Celery sticks
1x Stock cube
1tsp English mustard
Splash red wine vinegar
Glass of water
Handful of pasta
Pinch of mace
Handful of Greek basil, leaves separated from the stalks
Nice oil
Sea salt if you have it


Method:

1. Chop everything up then start by sweating off the chorizo in a wok.
2. When the chorizo starts to release its oil add the pepper, carrot, celery and garlic. Stir fry for a minute or two.
3. Now in goes everything else except the basil leaves and lettuce. Stir until cooked.
4. Plate up! Serve topped with the basil leaves, next to the lettuce dressed in oil and a bit of sea salt.

Chicken in 40 Cloves of Garlic

The garlic theme continues on our Isle of Wight holiday with the classic Chicken in 40 Cloves of Garlic. This is a famous dish that probably originated in France but has been tweaked by many a chef and home cook. The internet is jam packed with different versions of this recipe but in our van we are keeping it very simple, just chuck the lot in the oven and roast it.

Ingredients:

2x Chicken breasts, skin and bone on
40x Garlic cloves, whole and in their skins
1x Glass of white wine (large)
Some nice oil
Seasoning


Method:

1. Put the chicken and garlic in a roasting tin, season, cover with tin foil and pop in the oven on gas mark 3 for about 1 hour.
2. Remove the foil lid, drizzle over a good coating of oil then return to the oven uncovered and turn up to gas mark 6 for about 30 minutes.
3. When the chicken skin has crisped up nicely set it aside with the garlic cloves and deglaze the oven tin with the glass of wine to make a sauce.
4. Serve with seasonal greens and mashed potato as a meal, or simply tuck in, spread that lovely garlic pulp onto some hunks of bread and butter, top with a slice of chicken and dip into the sauce. You will whiff for a day or two but by gum its worth it.