Courgette Pasta

We got the first of summer's courgettes in our veg box this week, small, firm and sprightly specimens. Perfect for the first Courgette Pasta of the summer. I wrote about this last year, but for those of you who might not have read it or who simply forgot, then this is a little reminder.
A perfect way to cook courgettes, grated coursely and fried slowly in plenty of butter and olive oil, left long enough to create crusty caramelised bits in place. Add plenty of garlic, lemon zest and pepper and eat with pasta. This is fresh and summery, none of the usual mushiness that makes most people dislike courgettes. Try adding a handful of pine nuts or a few spoons of creme fraiche.
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Brown Rice and Spinach Pilaf

Eggs are my new favourite thing. Especially poached eggs, nestled atop a bowl of rice. I like to break open the yolk and let the insides trickle down. Recently it's been a stir fry, full of garlic, ginger and chilli and topped with plenty of toasted cashews. I came across this simple comforting bowl in Waitrose Food Illustrated and couldn't resist. Delicately spiced with cumin, cinnamon and cardamon, with plenty of spinach stirred through at the last minute and topped with toasted pine nuts.

Originally intended to be bulghar wheat pilaf, I reached into the grain drawer only to find I'd used all my bulghar wheat already. So brown rice it was, a little disappointing, only in the sense that brown rice takes about 3 times as long to cook and we were impatient for our dinner. Either grain would work well as they each lend a certian nuttiness to the end result.

Ingredients

serves 4
25g butter
2 garlic cloves , crushed
1 large onion , finely chopped
4 cardamom pods , bruised
1tsp cumin
1tsp cinnamon
250g brown basmati rice
500ml hot, vegetable stock
200g spinach, finely chopped
50g pine nuts
4 eggs, poached

• Heat a frying pan (that has a lid), as you do so, toast the pine nuts and remove.
• Add the butter and a little oil. Once bubbling add the onions and garlic and fry for 5-10mins until brown.
• Add the spices and cook for a few more minutes until they begin to smell delicious.
• Tip in the rice and stir well. Pour in the hot stock and bring to the boil.
• Turn the heat down, cover and simmer for 20-30mins until the rice is cooked, adding more water if necessary.
• Stir through the spinach, cover and leave to sit for a few minutes until the spinach is wilted. Season well and stirin the pine nuts.
• Serve topped with a poached egg.

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Roasted Tomato and Spinach bulghar salad

This is one of the great salads that I'm loving at the moment. They take a bit longer than your average chop and go salad to prepare but are bursting with flavour and if you make a huge batch, you can eat it for dinner and keep leftovers in the fridge for lunch or for other meals. Simply add the protein of your choice. Try blistered slices of haloumi, fried mackerel fillets, chicken, lamb kebabs or a poached egg.

This salad was inspired by this recipe from 101cookbooks, in all honesty, I took a cursory glance at the ingredients and went by the picture more than anything, so my version is below. Bursting with colour, sweet roasted cherry tomatoes and slow cooked red onions go beautifully with the nutty bulghar wheat spiked with loads of fresh herbs, a little garlic and a handful of spinach (I have a sneaky suspicion that toasted pine nuts or almonds would be a fabulously crunchy addition). A perfect accompaniment to a mezze type affair, try a simple carrot salad, some hummus and flatbreads.

Ingredients

250g cherry tomatoes
250g bulghar
olive oil
juice 1/2 lemon
1 clove garlic
3 handfuls spinach
1 bunch mint
1 bunch parsley

Onions
3 red onions, finley sliced
2tsp brown sugar
1tbsp balsamic vinegar

• First up the tomatoes. Preheat the oven to 180C. Slice the tomatoes in half and throw onto a large baking tray. Drizzle with olive, season with crunchy flakes of sea salt, a twist of black pepper and a pinch of brown sugar. Stir well, making sure all the tomatoes are cut side up and roast for 40mins until shrivelled and golden.
• Meanwhile pour the bulghar wheat into a saucepan that has a lid with 1/2tsp of bouillon if you have it or a pinch of salt. Cover with boiling water, bring to the boil, cover and simmer until all the water is absorbed and the bulghar is tender but still with some bite. (you may need to add a little extra water or drain any excess off.
• Heat a large frying pan with 2tbsp olive oil, add the onions and cook on low until completely soft. Add the balsamic vinegar, sugar and plenty of seasoning and cook for another 5mins or so until dark, sweet and sticky.
• To assemble the salad, squeeze the lemon juice over the bulghar and add 2-3tbsp olive oil, the garlic and most of the mint and parsley. Stir well and season to taste.
  
• Fold in the spinach and tumble onto a large serving platter. Top with roasted tomatoes, onions and the rest of the herbs.
  

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Summery Salad

I picked up some lovely organic pork meatballs from Waitrose (who can resist a 'reduced' bargain these days?), at the time I was thinking of a rich stew spiced with cumin, coriander and cinnamon to eat with a mound of cous cous and a dollop of yoghurt (serious comfort food) . Alas, the weather was having none of it, after sweating it home on the tube, the thought of cooking a stew and then eating was not appealing.

Off I went to the cookbooks and came back with this recipe from Delicious magazine. A fresh and summery salad of sweet peas, broad beans, crunchy radish and meatballs made by splitting open sausages and rolling them into balls. View this as completely open to interpretation - we used what we had in the fridge for ours, some thinly sliced fennel, peas, lettuce and red onion along with the lovey meatballs.



What brings the whole thing together is a generous scattering of mint and parsley and a deeply flavourful dressing made from (a lot of) anchovies, garlic and lemon juice.

Leave out the meatballs and this is a great side salad or try it grilled chicken or fish and here you could add capers for extra zing. I must admit I also mixed the leftovers with some bulghar wheat for my lunch - perhaps a little unorthodox but the extra carbs bulk it up and make it a little more exciting for lunch rather a leftover soggy salad.

Dressing
1 garlic clove
4tbsp olive oil
6 anchovy fillets, chopped
juice 1/2 lemon

To serve:
1 small bunch of mint and parsley, roughly chopped

To make the dressing, heat the anchovy fillets and olive oil gently until the anchovies melt, now add the garlic and lemon juice and some black pepper.



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Fajitas

Another student recipe, perfect for eating with a big group of friends. Surprisingly healthy, this is ful of veggies and will make a couple of chicken breasts go a really long way. We also had some sliced chillis on the side so you can make it really spicy if you're into that kind of thing...

Thinly sliced chicken breast, marinated in a punchy mix of paprika, ground cumin and ground coriander. Fry it up with lots of sliced onions and peppers. Load this onto your tortilla, top with some grated cheese, guacamole, a fresh and zesty salsa and a big dollop of soured cream (or yoghut). Then roll it up and stuff it into your mouth - be prepared for a bit of a mess.


Ingredients

Chicken
2 chicken breasts, sliced
1 tsp ground corriander
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp paprika
2 onions, sliced
2 red peppers, sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 chilli, finely chopped

Guacamole
1 avocado
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 lime
2tbsp yoghurt

Tomato salsa
200g cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 red onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cucumber, finely chopped
1/2 bunch coriander, chopped
1 lime
1tbsp olive oil

To serve:
200g grated cheese
1 small pot soured cream
8 tortillas, warm

• Put the chicken in a freezer bag and sprinkle over the spices.Close the bag, massage the spices into the meat and leave whilst you prepare the rest of the vegetables. Ideally, you'd leave it overnight to marinate in the fridge.
• Heat a large frying pan with a little oil, add the peppers, onions, garlic and chilli and cook over a high heat until softened.
• Remove from the pan and add the chicken, cook for 5 mins or so until browned. Add the onions and peppers back to the pan and cook for another few mins. Season well.
• For the guacamole, scoop the flesh out of the avocado and mash well, add the garlic, juice from the lime and yoghurt and stir well. Season well.
• For the salsa, simply mix the tomato, onion, cucumber, coriander and garlic together, squeeze over the lime juice, drizzle over the olive oil, season with salt and pepper and stir well.

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Lamb Saag

So, first up apologies for the absence. I've been cooking of course and I have a whole raft of recipes ready to write about, i guess life just gets in the way sometimes...

Next up for OxNosh is a booklet of recipes for students and we spent the bank holiday weekend developing recipes. The idea is that they're easy, obviously but we've also kept the ingredient list as short as possible whilst delivering big flavours so that it's likey to turn out edible and hopefully tasty if even the most inexperienced cook tries it.

This curry was one of our triumphs, using cheaper cuts of lamb designed for long and slow cooking. Leave this to do its thing puttering away slowly on the hob so that you're left with a rich dark curry, meltingly tender. Extra brownie points for sneaking in some vegetables too, bearing our audience in mind, we also tried this with frozen spinach. I was initially unconvinced, but it worked and keeps it green colour well.

I would also make loads of this and freeze it for a treat at a later date. If you're making it for lots of people like we did, try doing a daal or vegetable curry to go alongside and make the meat go further. Eat with fluffy white rice and yoghurt.




Ingredients

Serves 4
2tbsp sunflower oil
750g lamb shoulder or neck fillet cut into cubes
1tbsp flour
2 medium onions, finely chopped
3 garlic gloves, finely chopped
2tsp ground coriander
2tsp ground cumin
2tbsp tomato puree
1 tin chopped tomatoes
200g frozen spinach

• Put the lamb into a bowl, sprinkle over the flour and season well.Heat a large casserole with the sunflower oil, add the lamb to the pan in small batches, allowing it brown it on all sides before removing it.
• Once the lamb is cooked, add the onions and garlic to the pan and cook on a low heat until browned.
• Add the spices and lamb to the pan and cook for a few mins, stirring all the time.Add the tomato puree and chopped tomatoes, bring to the boil and simmer for 45mins until the lamb is tender.
• Before you want to serve the curry, stir in the frozen spinach and cook for another 5minutes.

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Chocolate Brioche pudding

There's this Nigella recipe for Orange Scented Brioche Pudding and it is AMAZING. Brioche, spread with marmalade, squished into a dish, topped with custard and baked until golden. This is the bread and butter pudding.

So, when I spotted these little chocolate brioche rolls in the supermarket, I thought I'd make a chocolate version. Yes, it was as good as it looks and so easy. Sweet, buttery brioche, dark chocolate and eggy custard. This is much better at warm or even at room temperature rather than hot out of the oven. Leftovers can be eaten out of the dish for a naughty breakfast.

Ingredients

Serves 4

1 pack chocolate brioche rolls (approx 300g)
or bricoche with 100g chopped chocolate
2 eggs
50g sugar
125ml double cream
125ml milk
3tbsp brown sugar

• Slice the brioche and squish into a large, greased casserole dish.
• Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, cream, milk and sugar.
• Pour the custard over the brioche and leave to sit for 15minutes.
• Sprinkle the brown sugar over the top and bake at 170C for about 30mins until the pudding is just set.

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Creamy Cauliflower Pasta

I'm a big fan of fried vegetables plus creme fraiche plus pasta for tea. It's quick, easy and delicious. So, with yet another cauliflower to use up this week, I thought I'd give a similar treatment.

I had initially thought of making a cauliflower cheese (i.e. cheesy bechamel sauce) and adding pasta. But, instead sizzled some garlic in oil and butter in a frying pann, tumbled in cauliflower florets, gave them a quick stir and then poured in a little stock. On went the lid and the cauliflower was left to braise and soften in the tasty broth. Stir in cooked pasta, creme fraiche and cheese for all the tastiness of cauliflower cheese, but a little lighter and healthier.

Try this with a sturdier wholewheat pasta, or baked in the oven sprinkled with breadcrumbs.

Ingredients

Serves 4

350-400g wholewheat fusilli or penne
6 rashers streaky bacon, cut into small pieces
50g butter
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 head cauliflower, broken into small florets
125ml vegetable stock
1 small tub creme fraiche(about 300ml)
1 tsp english mustard
100g strong cheddar, grated

• Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling water until al dente.
• Meanwhile heat a large frying pan (that has a lid) and add the bacon. Cook for a few minutes until the bacon starts to brown.
• Add the butter and garlic, and stir. Throw in the cauliflower and stir well to coat. Season well and pour over the stock, turn the heat down, cover to braise for about 5mins until the cauliflower is soft.
• Pour the cauliflower onto the drained pasta along with the mustard, creme fraiche and cheese. Stir well and serve.

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Red Rice Stir Fry with Poached Eggs

We get our vegetable box on a Friday and if we get cabbage and potatoes, I've taken to making bubble and squeak for brunch at the weekends. A spoon (or more) of baked beans on the side and a poached egg, what could be better? Now, this isn't bubble and squeak in the strictest sense, I literally peel and boil and rice potatoes, then stir fry shredded cabbage in butter and garlic and mix together. A bit of a hassle, but so good.

As I'm still trying (somewhat in vain) to eat a bit lighter, I started looking for inspiration for alternatives. 101cookbooks is always a good place to start for healthy recipes and I soon decided to try some of the more intresting grains out there. Off I went to Waitrose after work and came home clutching a bag of red and wild rice.

This isn't a brunch dish as sorts, but I did eat it about 1, which is brunch time in my book. Red rice is similar to brown rice in nuttiness, it's ability to fil you up and the length of time it takes to cook. I stirfried some cabbage with garlic and chilli, added the cooked rice, a splash of soy sauce and sesame oil. Top with a poached egg, some finely diced red onion and toasted cashew nuts. Simple, tasty and healthy.

Below is the version I made for Pete, I made an egg omelette first, shredded it and added it the rice instead of a poached egg.


Ingredients.

4 eggs
200g Red rice (or brown rice), cooked
75g cashew nuts
3tbsp sunflower oil
2 red chillis, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 green cabbage, shredded
2tsp soy sauce
2tsp sesame oil
1 red onion, finely diced

• Poach the eggs using Delia's method.
  
• Meanwhile, heat the cashew nuts in a dry frying pan until golden. Remove and roughly chop.
• Now add the oil to the pan. Add the chilli and garlic and fry for a minute.
• Add the cabbage and fry for a few minutes until softened.
• Now add the rice, soy sauce and sesame oil. Stir in the onions and chopped cashews and serve.

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Beef Goulash

Our vegetable box is delivered on Friday, so my current Saturday morning routine consists of getting up in time for Saturday Kitchen, sitting amidst my various cookbooks and looking for new recipes to try with my muddy bounty. One eye on James Martin, one on the books.

My routine was somewhat upset this week as I awoke not only nursing a hangover, but to the chaos left behind by several of us drinking too much fizzy wine and eating lots of good food (fajitas with bean chilli, cheese and lashings of gaucamole and soured cream; followed by key lime pie).

The upshot of this is that I was somewhat randomnly inspired by a sad looking bowl of leftover soured cream. I decided to try goulash, remembering a delicious looking version Jamie Oliver cooked on Jamie at Home (part of our Sunday night aspirational viewing on More 4 along with River Cottage). A rich stew of slow cooked pork and peppers served with creme fraiche.

In the end, my version was completely different, I looked around for inspiration and came up with a really simple version that doesn't use chopped tomatoes but is flavoured with paprika and smoky roasted peppers. This is best with cheaper cuts of braising beef and left to cook long and slow, the peppers almost melt into the sauce to give a rich stew . Given the opportunity, I would cook this day before and let the flavours develop. Even so, cooked on the night this absolutely delivious, full of flavour and meltingly tender. We eat ours with thick ribbons of pasta, a dollop of sour cream and lots of parsley, but mash would be divine too.

Ingredients

Serves 4

1kg braising beef, cut into chunks
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp sunflower oil
25g butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 jar roasted red peppers (approx 300g), or 4 peppers roasted and skinned
200ml beef or vegetable stock
1 small (140ml) tub soured cream
Chopped flat leaf parsley to serve

• Season the meat and sprinkle over the flour to coat well.
• Heat the sunflower oil in a large frying pan. When hot, fry the beef in batches until sealed and beginning to brown. Remove from the pan and set aside.
• Add the butter to the pan. Once melted, add the onion and fry for a few mins until softened.
• Add the beef back to the pan and sprinkle over the paprika, stir well so that the beef is well coated.
• Slice the roasted peppers into long thin strips and add to the pan as well.
• Pour in the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for at least an hour until the beef is tender and the sauce has thickened.
• Before serving, stir in half the soured cream, reserving the rest to dollop on top with a liberal sprinkling of parsley.
  

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Vegetable Laksa

In my university days of cooking for 5 people in a 'kitchen' that consisted of a Baby Belling, a sink and fridge to do all my prep on; this was always a special treat. We got it from our culinary bible of the time - Cranks, a revelation of vegetarian cooking and not a bean chilli in sight.

I've since tweaked it a little and cut down the long of ingredients to make it something I might be able to rustle up from ingredients at home. Of course, the authenticity leaves a lot to be desired. But, what you do get is noodles cooked in an aromatic coconut milk broth, spicy with chilli and sour from lime, topped with chickpeas, stir fried vegetables and lots of coriander. A comforting and soothing bowl.

Ingredients

Serves 4

1 tin coconut milk
3 cloves, garlic
1 red chilli
3cm piece of ginger
1 small bunch coriander
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 litre vegetable stock
400g egg noodles
1 can chickpeas, drained
1 tbsp sunflower oil
spalsh soy sauce
200g carrots, peeled, halved and sliced
250g mushrooms (shitake work best)
2 heads pak choi, sliced
1-2 limes

• Either blitz in a blender or finely chop the garlic, chilli, ginger and stalks of the coriander. Add to a large saucepan with the coconut milk, stock and fish sauce. Bring to the boil and take off the heat.
• Add the noodles, stir to untangle and leave to soften in the heat with the chickpeas. Add some lime juice to taste, until you have a nice sour contrast.
• In the meantime, heat a large wok and the sunflower oil, stir fry the mushrooms, carrots and pak choi for 5 or so mins until cooked through, finish with a splash of soy sauce.
• To serve, heat the noodles and broth until piping hot. Spoon a nest of noodles into a shallow soup bowl and top with some of the vegetables, ladle over a generous amount of the aromatic, coconut broth and top with a lime wedge and lots of coriander.

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Triple Decker Club Sandwich

These are inspired the by The delightful Rose in Oxford, in fact just looking for a link to the website is making me drool. Many mornings, lunches and afternoons have been happily spent here drinking vanilla tea, eating scones and everything else. It's all organic, made from scratch and outrageously good.

The club sandwich is legendary, layers of chicken oozing with mayonnaise and avocado, crispy bacon, lettuce and tomato. A heart attack on a plate, maybe. The best way to start the weekend, definitely. This is my version - I like to secure the little triangles with cocktail sticks not just for looks, this helps hold the entire creation together. For next time I'm planning on having this with a handful of crisps to wedge into the sandwich, a guilty pleasure if you will.

Ingredients

Makes 2 rather large sandwiches

6 slices bread
150g cooked chicken, shredded
2 tomatoes, sliced
6 rashers streaky bacon
1 avocado
2 tbsp mayonnaise
handful lettuce, shredded

• Toast your bread. Meanwhile cook the bacon in a frying pan until golden and crispy.
  
• Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone and scoop out the flesh. Mash in bowl with a little salt and pepper, and 1tbsp mayonnaise.
• To assemble the sandwiches spread half the avocado onto one slice of bread and top with half the chicken and another slice of bread. Top this with half the bacon, tomatoes and lettuce. Spread half the mayonnaise onto the third slice of bread and complete. Repeat for the other sandwich.

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Pappardelle with Sausage and Savoy Cabbage

Possibly the best way to eat savoy cabbage (along with colcannon). There aren't many vegetables that don't benefit from being paired with pasta and cream or cheese. Faced with another cabbage in the veg box, I rustled this up and it's definitely one to make again.

The cabbage is definitely the star, you're not trying to mask it with all the other ingredients, simply enhance. So don't be alarmed at the amount of raw cabbage you have to fit into the frying pan, it will cook down. This is all about using what you have, any other pasta will do, try mozzarella in place of the parmesan or strong cheddar. Any other greens would also work well, kale, chard, or spinach.


Ingredients

serves 4

400g pappardelle
1 pack sausages, approx 250g
2 fat cloves garlic, finely chopped
50g butter
1 Savoy cabbage
200g grated parmesan
3 tbsp pine nuts, toasted

• Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain and reserve a mugful of the cooking water.
• Meanwhile, quarter the cabbage, remove the core and slice as finely as possible.
• Heat a large frying pan and add a little oil, split the sausages, and add the insides to the pan, use a wooden spoon to break the meat up into chunks whilst you're frying. Once golden, add the cabbage, garlic and butter.
• This will look like a huge amount of cabbage, but it will cook down. Stir as best you can and try to coat it all in the buttery juices. Continue frying and stirring for about 5mins until the cabbage is completely cooked, season well.
• Tip the pasta into the pan along with the cheese and 2 tbsp cooking water. Stir the pasta into the cabbage, be patient after a minute or so, the cheese will melt and form a lovely shiny sauce that clings to the pasta, add some more pasta water if you need to.
• Sprinkle over the pine nuts and serve.

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Sticky Toffee Pudding

Yes, yes, yes. Possibly one of the best puddings ever and it's so much better homemade. Not only that but it's worringly easy to make, do it once and prepare to become obsessed.

Perfect, tooth-achingly sweet comfort food. Dates and dark brown sugar give this it's butterscotch stickiness with a divine caramel sauce to pour over. I cook them in muffin tins for individual puddings.

You could actually bake a big batch and freeze leftovers (as if!) for a later date.

Ingredients

Makes 6 puddings

125g pitted dates, chopped
½ tsp bicarbonate soda
30g butter
90g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
125g brown sugar
1 egg

Sauce
100ml double cream
75g brown sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup

vanilla ice cream to serve

• Put the dates and 125ml water into a small saucepan, heat until bubbling, take off the heat and stir in the bicarbonate of soda and butter until melted.
• Meanwhile, whisk the egg in a large bowl, add the date mixture, flour and baking powder and stir until combined.
• Grease six holes in a muffin tray and divide the mixture into them. Bake at 180C for 20mins until a cake tester comes out clean.
• To make the sauce, add all the ingredients to a small pan, bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes.
• To serve, place the pudding on a plate, pierce a few times and drizzle the sauce over. Top with a big scoop of ice cream.

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Root Vegetable Rostis

And yet, the root vegetables keep appearing, every week a pile of muddy parsnips and carrots peeking from the vegetable box. Only this week there was a massive swede coming along for the ride, enough to send you over the edge, I tell you.

So, on Saturday morning, reading cookery books as per usual, I came across a Bill Granger recipe for potato and feta pancakes. I adapted this (a lot), left out the feta and used parsnip, carrot and swede and what a success! The egg binded them perfectly to form sweet little cakes, perfect with baked beans and a fried egg for breakfast. Although I'd eat them wherever you'd normally have potato.
I'm thinking these would be good with a handful of grated cheese thrown into the mix or courgettes and feta in summer.

Ingredients

Serves 4

500g root vegetables, grated. Try potato, parsnip, carrot, swede, turnip, squash or pumpkin
1 onion, grated
2 eggs
45g flour
4 tbsp vegetable oil

• Put the grated vegetables in a colander with a liberal sprinkling of salt and leave for 30mins.
  
• Meanwhile whisk the eggs in a large bowl and add the flour. Add the vegetables to the bowl squeezing out as much water as possible as you go. Stir well and season.
• Heat the vegetable oil in the pan and add about 2 tbsp of mixture to the pan for each rosti, you should get about 8.
  
• Make sure the heat is on medium and leave the rostis to fry for 4-5mins on each side until golden brown.

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Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie

I guess you could call this more of a 'gardeners' pie' as naturally there is no lamb in it, either way given this was a random idea thrown together after work, its definitely as rich, filling and hearty as any meaty version and as delicious too.

Red lentils braised in red wine and tomatoes, topped with buttery mashed potatoes and grated cheese, and baked until bubbling and golden. I used plenty of carrots and even a little cabbage in the mash (I always seem to have leftover cabbage in my veg box) so as well as the lentils, this makes for virtuous eating in fitting with January Healthy Eating (surely we can stop that soon?)

This is a really basic recipe, perfect for varying with what you feel like, just googling this I found recipes using sweet potato mash, goats cheese topping and beans instead of lentils, so feel free to experiment. The only word of warning is to make sure you pack plenty of flavour into the lentil sauce as anyone who's cooked lentils and/or beans before knows, they do taste good, they just need a little extra care and attention to get there.

This is perfect cook ahead food to serve to large groups of people. You could even make double and freeze half, great for chucking in the oven after a busy day. Leftovers make perfect packed lunches too.

Ingredients

Serves 4 (with leftovers!)

2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and diced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 bay leaves
200g red lentils
250ml red wine
1 can chopped tomatoes
1tsp stock powder (or ½ stock cube)
900g floury potatoes, peeled and cut into 5cm chunks
50g butter
200ml milk
100g strong cheddar, grated

• Heat a large casserole and add 2tbsp oil, fry onions and carrots gently for 5mins, add the garlic and bay leaves and fry for a few mins more.
• Tip in the lentils and stir well to coat in the oily, oniony juices.
• Pour in the red wine and allow it to bubble aways for about 3mins.
• Add the chopped tomatoes, fill the can with water to rinse it out and add this too.
• Add enough extra water so that lentils are covered in about 2cm water.
• Bring to the boil and simmer for 20-30mins until the lentils are cooked, top up with water if necessary, you want a fairly liquid sauce.
• Once the lentils are cooked , check the seasoning and add salt and pepper.
• Meanwhile boil the potatoes in plenty of boiling salted water until very soft, drain well and either push through a potato ricer or mash with a masher.
• Heat the milk and butter in a small saucepan and pour over the potatoes, add plenty of seasoning and beat until smooth with a wooden spoon.
• Spoon the lentil mixture into a large baking dish, top with the mashed potato.
• Sprinkle over the grated cheese and bake at 200C for 20mins until bubbling and golden.

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Bacon and Parsnip Pasta

I've been thinking of using parsnip with pasta for a while, but just hadn't come up with the right way of doing it, then I came across this Jamie Oliver recipe and I earmarked it for the weekend.

I personally think he's got the proportions a bit wrong, too much bacon and not enough parsnip, plus I think it was a little too oily, but that might just be my generous hand with the butter.

Either way, I definitely think I'm onto a winner and I love this way of cooking parsnips in long thin strips, I actually think it could work quite well in some sort of carbonara or with creme fraiche and pine nuts.

Definitely something to add to the (growing) parsnip repertoire.

For the recipe, click here. Read more...

Baked Eggs

I love, love, love eggs and the weekends are quickly becoming all about my eggy treat in the morning. Paired with buttery potato bread toast and a special coffee (made in the stove top espresso maker with Monmouth Coffee), isn't this what weekends are made for?

Generally, I always defer to scrambled eggs, but recently we've been experimenting with a new and delicious variation - baked eggs. In its simplest form, an egg cracked into a ramekin (or heat proof cup in our case) topped with a generous spoonful of cream, some seasoning and final sprinkling of grated cheese and then baked until the white is firm and the yolk golden and liquid.

Haha, yes it does seem so simple, but I am yet to crack the perfect timing, first you take it out and the white is still liquid so you pop it back in and things look promising... but before you know it, the yolk is hard, given the propensity of eggs to firm up a lot once removed from the heat especially in its snug little ramekin.

Hugh inspired me a few weeks ago with this tarted up recipe using garlic and thyme, so we gave it a go and not too much of a disaster, we managed to retain the runny centre , now I see that as with boiled eggs, you have to be very careful with timing, waiting patiently by the oven until they look set, but with a wobble in the centre.

See Hugh's recipe here.
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Courgette and Bulghar Wheat Salad

Lovely nutty bulghar wheat with plenty of mint and coriander - the base for a classic tabbouleh. This time I used courgette, cut into small pieces and fried until golden along with a decent hit of chilli for a full flavoured salad that improves with age, making leftovers perfect for lunch. I also made a simple tahini sauce to drizzle over that is perfect with roasted vegetables too.

We had it as part of the mezze spread, but it would be good with haloumi, lamb or chicken. Of course, you can always use couscous if you don't fancy/have bulghar wheat.

Ingredients
Serves 4 as a side dish

200g bulghar wheat (approx 1cup)
2 medium courgettes (approx 300g)
1 small bunch coriander, chopped
1 small bunch mint chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 chilli finely chopped
6 spring onions, sliced
juice ½ lemon
3tbsp olive oil

• Cover the bulghar wheat with 500ml water (add a little vegetable stock for flavour), cover and simmer for about 5mins until all the water is absorbed, then turn off the heat and leave for 10mins.
• Meanwhile, cut the courgettes into 4 lengthways and slice out the fibrous central bit, and slice into thin crescents.
• Heat a pan and fry the courgettes in 1tbsp sunflower oil until golden, season well and add a squeeze of lemon juice.
• Once the bulghar wheat is cooked, combine in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients.
• Serve on a large plate with the tahini sauce drizzled over

Tahini Sauce

1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
2tbsp tahini
2 tbsp yoghurt
2 tbsp water

Mix the ingredients together well, adding a little more water if necessary to loosen the mixture. Read more...

Hummus with crispy lamb and pine nuts

This recipe from The Moro Cookbook jumped out at me straight away, hummus with crispy lamb and pine nuts. Its simple enough, make some hummus and spread onto a plate. Then fry some lamb mince with a touch of cinnamon until golden and crispy, throw in some pine nuts and tumble it onto the hummus.

Delicious. This was gobbled up in record time.

Ingredients

Serves 4 as a starter with plenty of bread for dipping

1 portion of hummus
1 onion, finely chopped
2tbsp olive oil
½tsp cinnamon
150g lamb mince
To serve:
Paprika
1 small handful parsley, chopped

• Spread the hummus onto a large plate.
• Meanwhile cook the onion in the olive oil over a low heat for 10mins until golden and crispy, add the cinnamon and transfer to a bowl.
• Turn the heat up high and add the lamb, break the mince up into small pieces as you go and fry until golden and crispy, add the onions, pine nuts and fry for a few mintues more until the pine nuts begin to toast.
• Tumble onto your plate and sprinkle with the parsley and a little paprika.

Read more...