Nadiya’s Fast Flavours episode 2: Nadiya Hussain turns her attention to quick and easy recipes to fit into our busy everyday lives. As a working mum of three, Nadiya is no stranger to juggling work and family, and she shares useful recipes that are all loaded with flavour but can be rustled up in no time.
Nadiya loves a sandwich but firmly believes that no sandwich should ever be boring. Why stick to the same tried and tested fillings when you can have so much fun experimenting with new flavour combinations? Inspired by a trip to Louisiana, she cooks up a delicious po’boy sub sandwich, stuffed to the brim with crunchy and quick-to-cook crabstick pakoras and served with a zingy garlic mayo made with the ingenious addition of fruity apple sauce.
Nadiya then turns her attention to one of her go-to simple suppers, sweet and sour stir-fried prawns on a bed of wok-fried noodles. No matter how manic life is, Nadiya always makes time for cake, and her delicious chocolate and cherry cake spiced with cinnamon is both easy and extremely tasty.
Finally, Nadiya shares one of her favourite speedy family meals, a spinach and paneer cheese pilau, all in one pot and topped with creamy eggs and crunchy red cabbage. A blessing in food form! Meanwhile, Bristol-based supper club host Fozia Ismail teaches us how Somalia’s famous hot sauce can transform the everyday to the extraordinary.
Nadiya’s Fast Flavours episode 2 recipes:
Cherry cinnamon dump cake
This dump cake is exactly what it says on the tin: all the ingredients get dumped together and baked. The cherries, the dry cake mix and then the melted butter all go in care-free, and what comes out has cakey bits, crunchy bits, oozy bits and gooey bits.
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and have a small oven dish ready (about 25x20cm/10x8in or 2.6 litre/4½ pint).
- Put the cherries into the base of the dish with the sugar, cinnamon, cornflour and salt. Mix well.
- Now mix the cake ingredients. Put the sugar, flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a bowl and combine.
- Sprinkle the dry ingredients all over the fruit mix. Now drizzle over the melted butter and bake for 40–45 minutes.
- I like to serve this piping hot, with dollops of chocolate ice cream and a drizzle of melted chocolate.
Saag paneer pilau
Traditionally saag paneer is cooked as a curry, here I have added rice to the mix to make a one-pot easy pilau, giving you the most vibrant-green and flavourful pot of rice.
Method:
- Start by putting the ghee in a large non-stick pan that has a lid. As soon as the ghee is hot, add the cumin seeds and let them bubble away for 1 minute. Add the garlic and onion and cook over a medium to high heat for around 5 minutes until golden. Add the paneer and cook for 2–3 minutes until it takes on a golden colour.
- Blend the spinach to a paste with a splash of water. Add the spinach and lemon juice to the pan, season well with the salt and cook until the mixture is dry.
- Add the rice and cook for 1–2 minutes, or until you see it start to get a brighter white in the centre of the grains (if you look hard you will see the change, just ever so slightly). Pour in the hot water and bring to the boil. As it boils, the liquid will reduce. When the water is thick and the rice visible (about 5 minutes), reduce the heat to the lowest you can get it, cover and leave to steam for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, soft-boil the eggs by dropping them into a pan of simmering water and cooking for 6 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, take the lid off the pilau, leave for 10 minutes and it’s ready to serve. I like to serve this with a sprinkling of pickled red cabbage and the soft-boiled eggs cut in half.
Sweet and sour prawns
Whip up your own sweet and sour prawns at home. Packed with sweet veg, pineapple, cashews and crispy prawns – they’re perfect with noodles!
Method:
- Put the cornflour in a bowl with the egg whites, pepper, salt and 2 tablespoons cold water. Mix to a smooth batter.
- Pour the oil into a frying pan so you have a thin layer of oil covering the base of the pan. Dip the prawns in the batter and fry over a high heat for 3–4 minutes until crisp and golden on both sides. You will need to do this in a few batches. Drain on kitchen paper.
- To make the sauce, wipe out the pan and pour in a drizzle of oil. Add the cashews and toast until golden. Add the garlic and cook until crisp and brown. Put the onion and pepper chunks and fry until just cooked but still crunchy – this should only take 3–4 minutes. Now add the pineapple, ketchup and vinegar and mix through.
- Toss in the prawns and stir through, then finish by mixing in the coriander and spring onions. Serve with noodles.
Nadiya Hussain – Nadiya’s Fast Flavours episode 2
Nadiya Jamir Hussain is a British TV chef, author and television presenter. She rose to fame after winning the sixth series of BBC’s The Great British Bake Off in 2015. Since winning, she has signed contracts with the BBC to host the documentary The Chronicles of Nadiya and TV cookery series Nadiya’s British Food Adventure and Nadiya’s Family Favourites; co-presented The Big Family Cooking Showdown; and has become a regular contributor on The One Show.
Nadiya Hussain is a columnist for The Times Magazine and has signed publishing deals with Penguin Random House, Hodder Children’s Books and Harlequin. She has appeared as a guest panellist on ITV’s Loose Women. She was invited to bake a cake for the 90th birthday celebrations of Elizabeth II.
In 2017, Hussain was named by Debrett’s as one of the 500 most influential people in the UK and was on BBC News’ 100 Women list. She was also shortlisted for Children’s Book of the Year prize at the British Book Awards for Bake Me A Story and was nominated for Breakthrough Star at the Royal Television Society Awards for The Chronicles of Nadiya. Ted Cantle, the author of a government report on community cohesion, said Hussain had done “more for British-Muslim relations than 10 years of government policy”.