Sweet Potato Salad

I'm late to the sweet potato party but I'm making up for lost time. I'm not a huge fan of potatoes in general and the name sweet potato does not do this delicious, filling healthy object justice. With both of us working from home and me doing the majority of homeschooling I handed the cooking reigns over to Joe but since moving to Hampshire just before Christmas I have taken back one reign and will occasionally do a freezer filler or a filling salad for a healthy lunch and this is one of my go to's. 

You can of course tweak it to suit your tastes - I would always add pomegranate seeds, Joe can live without them - but this should be just what you need to liven up your working-from-home lunch break and you can cook the sweet potato, keep in the fridge and then make the salad when you need to which means it takes a matter of minutes. 

This is the basic recipe - I tend to do the sweet potato, I usually have feta in the fridge and some herbs and then add whatever else I have. Avocado is delicious in this as are a few spinach leaves. 

Sweet Potato & Feta Salad
serves 2

2 sweet potatoes 
1/2 block feta, cut into cubes
Pumpkin seeds and/or pine nuts
Pecans and/or almonds, chopped
Half a head of broccoli
1 tbsp teriyaki 
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin
basil or any fresh herb you like
salt & pepper

For the dressing:
soy
honey
olive oil
fresh ginger

Pre-heat oven to 200C/

1. Peel the sweet potato and cut into cubes, you can par boil it or not. If you do it will reduce the time in the oven. Then toss in oil, cumin and turmeric and cook in the oven for about 40-45 minutes or until slightly crispy. 

2. In a small frying pan over a low heat sprinkle the pumpkin seeds and pine nuts with the teriyaki and cook briefly til they are coated and the teriyaki is sort of hardened onto the pan - not too much! If you don't have teriyaki soy will do just as well. Tip into your salad bowl and using your wooden spoon get the teriyaki off the bottom of the pan into the bowl too. 

3. Add the feta and then tear off tiny mini heads of broccoli into the bowl. It can seem ponderous but small bits of raw broccoli are amazing so worth it. 

4. Mix up the dressing and then put the sweet potato into the salad bowl, add the chopped nuts and the dressing. Add the basil and toss. Season to taste. 

Jamie Oliver's Chicken and Squash Cacciatore

Having a conversation on Twitter the other day I realised I had no shame in admitting I love Jamie Oliver, yes sometimes my hand twitches with the urge to give hi a little slap but I can say that about most people and they don't consistently make cookery books that I love.

I went to Bree's house and she had the new Jamie Oliver, Everyday Super Food. I had added it to my Amazon wishlist but one look at hers and I bought it (half price in Waterstones) on the way home. Not that it is full to bursting with things I want to cook (I look to Jamie's 15-Minute Meals for that) but because I am trying to lose weight, I need a healthier diet, I live with a man who needs man food, but of the slimming variety and Everyday Super Food seems to have that all covered.

The Chicken and Squash Cacciatore with mushrooms, tomatoes, olives and bread is a good example of this. It's just not really my sort of thing, in fact I hate squash so, as suggested by Jamie, I substituted it for the mildly more bearable sweet potato. But it was delicious, filled us up and Joe cooked it. Successfully but not taking hours. So here it is. I didn't take a photo, I left out the olives and resisted the urge to have it with pasta and had one slice of bread as per the recipe.

I sometimes think Jamie's portion sizes are a little on the small side. This did both of us and a huge leftovers lunch for Joe the next day so it would do 4 but make sure you have bread and pudding. In fact, if you are so inclined this is a great one to cook with a view to having the leftovers for lunch the next day, it is filling and reheats well.

Chicken and Squash Cacciatore

Serves 4

1 onion
1 leek
4 cloves of garlic
2 rashers of smoked pancetta
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
olive oil
2 fresh bay leaves
½ a butternut squash or 600g sweet potatoes
100g chestnut mushrooms
2 x 400g tins of plum tomatoes
250ml Chianti or other good red wine
4 chicken thighs, bone in
8 black olives (stone in)
200g seeded wholemeal bread

Pre-heat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5. The recipe says it takes 1 hour 20 minutes and I'd agree with that, an hour of it is cooking time.

1.  Peel the onion and cut into eighths, trim, wash and slice the leek, peel and slice the garlic.

2. Place a large ovenproof casserole pan on a medium heat. Finely slice the pancetta, pick and finely chop the rosemary leaves, then place both in the pan with 1 tbsp of oil and the bay leaves.

3. Stir regularly for 2 minutes, then add the garlic, followed by the onion and leek. Cook for 10 mins, stirring regularly.

4. Meanwhile, chop the squash or the sweet potato (wash first) into bite sized chunks, leaving the skin on and discarding any squash seeds. Jamie chops the stalks off the mushrooms and adds all to the pan with the squash/sweet potato.

5. Remove and discard the chicken skin (we didn't) and add the chicken to the pan. Pour in the wine and let it reduce slightly, then add the tomatoes and break them up with a wooden spoon. Half fill each tin with water, swirl about and pour into the pan and mix it all together.

6. Destone the olives (we left them out completely), then poke them into the stew. Bring to a gentle simmer, the transfer to the oven to cook for an hour or until the sauce is thick and the chicken falls off the bone. Season as you wish and serve with bread to mop up the sauce.

Jamie Oliver's Gorgeous Gado Gado

Jamie's Comfort Food arrived in my life when my pregnant superhero level sense of smell was at it's peak and making a baked egg exhausted me. It has to be one of my most looked at cookery books, there are a ton of recipes I want to try out and every mood and taste is covered but they mostly require a level of time and mental involvement that I just didn't have. Until now. Now I am just about managing two children, I'm going to the gym three times a week and it's not acceptable to send my husband out for pizza 5 nights out of 7 because the large slab of fat on my tummy no longer houses a person and needs to disappear. In short I'm not pregnant anymore so I need to take control of what I eat. I'm back in the kitchen.

One of the recipes I've been threatening to try out for a while is the Gado Gado, an Indonesian salad with radishes, beansprouts and tofu, with a peanut and lime dressing. We eat salad quite a lot and I am very strict about what qualifies as a salad-that-is-a-main-course. If there is cheese or meat involved then it is a main course, without these it is just a side salad and not enough for my supper. Therefore feta and mozarella feature heavily in our diet - it's nice to explore other options. Gado Gado has neither cheese nor meat (though I'm sure you could add both) but the egg, potato and tofu sneak this one in to the main course category and it is incredibly filling. We made the amount from the book, recommended for 4 people and had two large helpings each and both had a large bowlful for lunch the next day.

This was the first time I had cooked tofu rather than using the pre-cooked stuff and it was ok - it sort of disintegrated in the pan so I'll probably use the pre-cooked next time, or just try again until I'm better at it (unlikely). I followed his instructions on cooking the cabbage and agree it's the best way to do it (see below). I do think I'd probably add at least one more tomato to this though. But I'm a tomato fan. This is basically, like all salads, one of those recipes where you use the dressing and add what you like. It's a guideline. A good one.

I've changed the order in which he does things as this, to me, makes more sense. If you want soft-boiled eggs, well I do them almost last, he does them first...

Gorgeous Gado Gado
Serves 4

for the salad:
400g new potatoes
4 large eggs
400g firm silken tofu
sesame oil
½ Chinese cabbage
2 ripe tomatoes
1 handful radishes
½ a cucumber
2 handfuls ready to eat beansprouts
½ bunch fresh coriander
optional: prawn crackers
optional: 1 fresh birds eye chilli

sauce:
1 clove garlic
50g palm sugar  (I used this)
120g crunchy peanut butter
1-2 fresh red chillies
juice of 2 limes
2 tsps fish sauce
1 tbsp low-salt soy (we just have normal soy)
1 tbsp tamarind paste

You will need a magimix or blender for the sauce though of course you can mix it by hand, and a frying pan for the tofu if you are cooking it yourself.

1. Scrub the potatoes and cook in salted boiling water for 15-20 minutes or until tender; then halve or slice them up.

2. Finely slice the cabbage if you want it raw of if you want it cooked, which is more traditional, cut into 2cm slices, place in a colander and slowly pour a kettle of boiling water over the top.

3. Cut the tomatoes into wedges, quarter the radishes and slice the cucumber.

4. Put all the veg into a bowl and season with salt.

5. Cut the tofu into 2½ cm chunks and fry in a splash of sesame oil for about 15 minutes, or until golden, then sprinkle lightly with salt.

6. While the tofu is cooking put the eggs on to soft boil for 6 minutes or longer if you prefer. Place all the sauce ingredients in a blender, peeling the garlic and grating the palm sugar if needed, and blitz until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning - you want this to be quite limey so I added some more.

7. Traditionally you serve this in individual bowls adding the salad first and then mixing in the dressing. Jamie adds the sauce to the bowls first with the dressing on top so the individual can see all the ingredients while they mix the dressing in. I am lazy. I put it all in a big bowl, added the dressing and mixed. Tastes the same, doesn't look as beautiful as you can see from my picture. If I was making this for other people I would probably do the individual bowl thing.

Jamie's Griddled Kinda Nicoise

My infatuation with Jamie Oliver is escalating. What started as mild disinterest is now a full-on passion. I was very kindly given Comfort Food for Christmas and am gearing up to cook something from that soon (pregnancy makes everything very slow) but the other night I was cooking for my mother and husband both of whom are trying to be virtuous in January and I'm very aware that the bump isn't getting its 5 a day so I randomly picked this Salad Nicoise from 15 minute meals. No potatoes and no egg but supremely delicious and finished by three of us and pretty easy to cook (and no it didn't take me 15 minutes but I'm a pretty slack cooker). Will be cooking this again and again - nice tuna steaks aren't cheap but the rest of the ingredients are and you can use what veg you have in your fridge.

There were quite a few things I tinkered with on this recipe, for example I'm not a huge fan of green beans and couldn't get the mixed green and yellow from the recipe so I used half beans and half broccoli tips.Where I've made changes I hope I've made them clear - I think the thing with salads is they are endlessly adaptable depending on what you have and like. I also refuse to serve anything on a board so I did this on one big platter... as you can see from the picture.

Griddle Tuna Salad
Serves 4

350g mixed green and yellow beans (or half green and half broccoli tips)
½ a baguette (I used a small one from Sainsburys)
12 black olives (Jamie says stone in, I say stone out)
3 ripe mixed-colour tomatoes (or red ones)
1 romaine lettuce
20g feta cheese
1 lemon

Tuna and Dressing
1 big bunch of fresh basil
6 anchovy fillets
1 lemon
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 x 200g tuna steaks (about 2.4cm thick)
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 heaped tsp wholegrain mustard
1 tsp runny honey

You will need a medium sized saucepan with a lid, a griddle pan and a liquidiser/magimix.

1. Line the beans up and cut off the stalks, put them into a pan of salted boiling water and put on a lid (I did my broccoli and beans for the same length of time).

2. Slice the baguette into 2cm chunks and, if you are following Jamie put onto the hot griddle pan. I think basting them in a tiny big of garlic oil pre-griddle would be lovely. Turn when golden.

3. Pick and reserve 10 baby sprigs of basil then rip off the rest of the leaves and blitz in the liquidiser with the anchovies, juice of 1 lemon, the extra virgin olive oil and a splash of water.

4. Pour about 40% of the dressing on to a nice serving platter (Jamie uses a separate one for the dressing and tuna and then places the whole lot on a board with the salad. I used one big platter and it worked very well).

5. Rub 10% of the dressing into the tun and season with salt and pepper. Pour the rest of the dressing into a big bowl with the vinegar, mustard and honey then mix together. Drain the cooked beans, remove the stones from the olives. roughly chop the tomatoes and add to the dressing and mix together.

6. Put the tuna on the griddle pan and cook for 2 minutes on each side or until blushing in the middle. How you cook your tuna is a matter of personal preference.

7. Chop the lettuce into 2cm chunks, tear the toasts into croutons and arrange over a large board (or on the platter) with the lettuce. I think it's nice to toss half the croutons in the bowl of tomatoes and dressing so they get a bit soggy.

8. Scatter the dressed beans, olives and tomatoes over the top. Tear each tuna steak in half or more and add to the dressing platter (or put on top of the dressing in the centre of the platter if you are not using a board).

9. Scatter over the reserved basil leaves, crumble over the feta and serve with lemon wedges (if you remember).

Chicken Zorba

This recipe has been in my family for years. So long that I have it written in my first ever recipe book (when I was about 14) and we still eat it now. My favourite way to eat this is with warm flat tortillas, salad, strips of cucumber and tomatoes. A great thing to have prepped ahead of time (marinade the chicken anywhere from 30 mins to overnight) for a spring/summer lunch and it's what we had as our first lunch in the garden in our new flat.

Chicken Zorba

serves 4 (light lunch)

4 chicken breasts
1 tbsp vegetable oil
juice of 2 limes
1 level tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tumeric
handful of mint, chopped
pinch of salt
150g Greek yoghurt
170g houmous

1. Mix the lime juice, spices and salt together in a bowl or bag big enough to marinade the chicken.

2. Cut the chicken into thin strips, mix with the lime juice and spices and marinade for at least 30 minutes.

3. When you are ready to eat mix the yoghurt and homous together and put into a serving bowl.

4. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry the chicken for 8-10 minutes or until it is cooked through.

5. Sprinkle with mint and serve with the houmous/yoghurt mix, tortilla wraps, and salad.

Chicken Noodle Soup

My sister-in-law came to supper last week. I had chicken thighs that needed using and I've only every seen her eat soup - so soup it was. You probably don't need a recipe for this but sometimes I find a recipe a reassuring starting point so here's my incredibly easy recipe for chicken noodle soup - adapt at will.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Serves 4

1 litre good chicken stock
450ml stock cube stock
6 chicken thigh fillets roasted (or leftover roast chicken equivalent), torn into pieces
Oyster or shitake mushrooms
Straight-to-wok Udon noodles
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
star anise
coriander
3 baby pak choi, torn into strips and washed

1. Pour the good chicken stock into a large saucepan and gently heat through for about 15 minutes adding the star anise, ginger, soy sauce and sugar.

2. While the stock is heating up, tea the mushrooms into strips, melt some butter in a small frying pan and gently fry the mushroom until golden. Then remove from the heat and put to one side.

3. When the stock is hot add the strips of  chicken, mushroom and pak choi and the noodles.

4. Add stock cube stock to taste (I ususally use most of it) and cook for another 5-10 minutes.

5. Serve in bowls and sprinkle with coriander.

There are sugarsnap peas in this soup.... I wouldn't bother next time

Tartiflette

I never have a problem deciding what sort of food is appropriate. Except for Saturday lunch. For some reason Saturday lunch really throws me off and, unless its suitable weather for a rare roast beef salad with lots of bread and cheeses, I never have any idea what to cook. I asked my family for inspiration and tartiflette came up as an option served with salads and bread and something nice for pud. Then a neighbour came round offering us half a Reblouchon, she'd bought some in a 3 for 2 offer and was going to be away before they'd have a chance to eat it all. So that sealed the deal. Tartiflette it would be, even though, I was slightly scared of it.

I was wrong to be scared of it - it's incredibly easy to do and is happy to be made up and then just sit about a bit waiting to be cooked. And it tastes divine and is perfect for Saturday lunch or indeed week day supper. There are lots of recipes hanging around so this is mine!

Tartiflette
Serves 4-6

1.5kg potatoes (I like Vivaldi for this)
1 Reblouchon
1 clove garlic
400-500g bacon lardons
300ml creme fraiche
salt and pepper

I use a fairly small but deep rectangular roasting dish for this. Pre-heat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6.

1. Butter your dish and rub it with garlic. I tend to smash the garlic a bit to get the skin off so I then leave bits of smashed garlic in the bottom of the dish.

2. Boil a pan of water, add a good pinch of salt and then cook the peeled potatoes until they are just done. Drain them and leave them to cool.

3. Fry the lardons for 2-3 minutes and put to one side.

4. Slice the cooled potatoes into slices (about 1 cm thick) and put one layer of them, using about

half the potatoes in the bottom of the dish.

5. On top of the potatoes sprinkle the lardons and then cover with creme fraiche.

6. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, not too much salt as the lardons will be quite salty.

7. Add the rest of the potatoes as a top layer an then slice the Reblouchon in half and lay on the top skin side downwards.

Tartiflette pre-cooking

8. Cook in the pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes or until the top is sort of gooey and golden... and looks done.

Just remembered to get a photo as it was being served

Somen Noodles, Prawn and Cucumber Salad

My sister is very good at buying cookery books as presents and one little gem she got for Joe is A Little Taste of Japan. My close family are obsessed with Japanese food, my mother having spent some time living there when she was tiny, and one of the things Joe has done for me over the past ten years is hand rolled sushi for me. Knowing this my sister bought him A Little Taste of Japan to broaden our at-home Japanese cooking horizons, so on Saturday night I was treated to sushi, sashimi and Somen Noodles, Prawn and Cucumber Salad.

Well I would have been if you could get all the ingredients in a mad dash at Waitrose in Shepherds Bush... which you can't. So we were missing a few things but this salad was delicious anyway and perfectly fine without them, or with the substitutions we made. Probably another great all-round dressing to liven up a normal salad with prawn or beef and we will definitely be having this again but next time I will venture to Thai Smile to see if I can get the things we were missing.

Somen Noodle, Prawn and Cucumber Salad

Serves 4 as a starter or 2 fatties

2 Lebanese (short) cucumbers
1 tbsp dried wakame pieces*
200g dried somen noodles
12 cooked king prawns, peeled. deveined and cut in half lengthways
3 spring onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal
shichimi togarashi (seven spice mix) to serve, optional*

Dressing:
½ tsp dashi granules*
125ml Japanese rice vinegar
60ml mirin
1 tsp Japanese soy sauce
2 tsp lightly grated fresh ginger
pinch of sugar
½ tsp sesame oil

* things we didn't have

We also couldn't find somen noodles so we used thin egg noodles which were yummy.

1. Cut the cucumbers in half lengthways, scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon, then slice the flesh very thinly on a slight diagonal. Put the slices of cucumber in a colader, sprinkle with salt and leave for 10 minutes before rinsing and squeezing out as much  water as you can. Chill.

2. Meanwhile soak the wakame in cold water for 5 minutes, or until rehydrated and glossy but not mushy. Drain well and chill... or skip this step if you too can't find Wakame.

3. To make the dressing mix the dashi granules with 1 tbsp hot water until dissolved. Add the rice vinegar, mirin, soy sauce, grated ginger, sugar and sesame oil and stir to combine. Chill.

4. Bring a large pan of water to the boil, then reduce and simmer. Add the noodles and cook for 2 minutes or until tender (or follow the instructions on the packet). Quickly drain and rincse under cold running water until completely cool.

5. Combine the cucumber, wakami, noodles, prawns and half the spring onion in a bowl. Pour on the dressing and toss well. Serve immediately garnished with the remaining spring onions and the shichimi togarashi.

Lamb Ragu

I'm not a huge fan of lamb, as you'll see if you click on 'Lamb' in the cloud on the right. However, in my frenzy to cook as much as possible from Nigellissima: Instant Italian Inspiration and because the picture looked so damn yummy I decided to try  out her Lamb Ragu. She also describes it as one of her 'go to weekday suppers' and well, I was having friends to supper, it was a Thursday, I thought I'd give it a try. Typically it was the picture that made me want to cook, and eat, this recipe and what with feeding the baby, putting him to bed, cooking and drinking vast amounts of wine I forgot to take a picture. I'll add one next time I cook it. And there will be a next time.

Nigella always bangs on about these exciting types of pasta that I vow to get next time I'm near anywhere that sells such a thing but I always end up ordering online from Sainsburys, so instead of the mafaldine or pappardelle that the recipe requires, I used good old tagliatelle and it worked just fine.This is a great alternative to normal bolognaise as the lamb mince can be in the freezer and everything else is store cupboard stuff. I have to admit that I left off the fresh mint and I'm not a huge fan and added a squirt of tomato ketchup towards the end of cooking as I felt it needed a little sweetness... whether you decide to do that or not is up to you.

Lamb Ragu

Serves 2

1 ½ tbsp garlic oil
1 banana shallot, chopped
1 tsp dried mint
1 tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp dried chilli flakes
250g minced lamb
1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
2 tsp redcurrant jelly
1 ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
salt
pepper
200g mafaldine or pappardelle (or whatever pasta you can find)
Fresh mint, to serve (optional)

I doubled the quantities and cooked this in a round le creuset but a heavy bottomed saucepan with a lid would do just as well. Whatever you usually put your bolognaise in basically. I also cooked this on a low heat for about double the amount of time because that was easier when you have people coming over.

1. Put a large pan of water on to boil, then warm the garlic oil in a small, heavy-based pan (with a lid) and cook the shallots, stirring, for 2 minutes.

2. Sprinkle in the herbs and chilli, stirring again in the hot pan before adding the mean and cooking for a couple of minutes, stirring to break it up with a wooden spatula or spoon until it loses a bit of the pinkness.

3. Add the tomatoes, redcurrant jelly, Worcestershire sauce, pinch of salt and some grindings of pepper, give it a good stir and bring to the boil, then partially cover with the lid and simmer for 20 minutes.

4. Salt the pasta water and cook the pasta according the instructions, and your taste.

5. Once the pasta is cooked, and not too efficiently drained, return the pasta to the pan and dress it with the ragu. Spinkle a little fresh mint and serve.

Healthy Ham, Egg and Chips

Since having a baby I have been unable to read. Not literally, I'm not some sort of medical anomaly, but I just can't bring myself to read a book. It's strange, and slightly tricky as I still do one day a week working for a publisher. Magazines I can just about do however and Good Housekeeping is my magazine of choice. In fact it is Good Housekeeping and Nigellissima that have got me back into the kitchen even if what I'm choosing to cook isn't all that taxing. At least I'm cooking.

I never make ham, egg and chips. It's partly that it's one of those things that I think you can have in the pub and partly that whenever I do have it in the pub it comes with fat chips... which I loathe. I also think that if I were to have it at home it would morph into Brinner - bacon instead of the ham, bread instead of the chips and beans on the side to please Joe.

February's GH mag had a load of recipes that I wanted to cook in it and a rather lovely interview with Jennifer Saunders... added bonus. One of them was this Healthy Ham, Egg and Chips which seemed like a good way to use up some of the potatoes that have been hanging around for some time. I have also got into the habit of buying 12 eggs instead of 6 - mostly out of laziness - but it turns out that it's quite hard to use 12 eggs if you are not baking.

The recipe uses pulled ham hock which is apparently available in some supermarkets but they suggest using thick sliced ham if you can't find it. Tesco Metro didn't have either so Joe got two gammon steaks (250g) and grilled those up before starting the recipe which I think is what we'll do in future. Unless we can find any illusive ham hock. We also didn't have any fresh thyme (we used a sprinkling of dried), too few mushrooms and tomatoes and we ate it all quite happily between the two of us (not that I'd advise that... it was terrible gluttony on our part). I don't think I would have wanted any more tomatoes in it actually... it was very nice with the 150g we used. But here's the recipe as it should be - feel free to tinker with it at will.

Healthy Ham, Egg and Chips

Serves 4

3 medium potatoes, skin on and cut into 2cm dice
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
400g small closed cup mushrooms, halved or quartered as you like
4 fresh thyme sprigs
250g cherry tomatoes (although 100-150g fine as far as I'm concerned)
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
4 large eggs
125g pulled ham hock
chopped fresh parsley or chives to garnish

All the ingredients

 Pre-heat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6. You will need a large non-stick roasting tin and that's it!

1. In your roasting tin toss the potato cubes and onion in well seasoned oil and roast for 20 mins.

2. Add the mushrooms and thyme and toss together and then return to the oven for 25 mins or until the vegetables are tender and golden.

Adding the mushrooms

 3. Toss through the cherry tomatoes and mustard. Then make four spaces in the tin and crack in the eggs.

4. Return to the oven for 8-10 mins or until the egg whites are cooked.

Topped with ham and herbs

5. Top with the ham and herbs and serve.

Meatzza

My husband has never been able to pronounce things correctly. So much for his university education. When I met him he would say burlesque to rhyme with barbecue, it was only a couple of years ago I sorted out the Arkansas problem for him and literally months ago that we had a sit down discussion about reneged having a hard ‘g’. I thought it was all over but no, thanks to Nigella and her lovely new book Nigellisima I now have to deal with regular requests for the ‘Meatatza’. He means Meatzza. 

On second thoughts maybe this annoying inability to pronounce quite a simple word was a deliberate ploy to get me to cook it so we could move on. It worked. I cooked it for our romantic Friday night that I’d been planning involving booze and a new Midsommer Murders that actually ending up being me and Most Haunted while Joe wolfed his Meatzza and returned to his computer to get his award for slowest. Worker. Ever.

A quick word on Nigella’s latest series – loved it. Far less simpering and saucy sideways glances, amazing figure, amazing clothes, updated fab makeup and yummy recipes. A big improvement (although I did watch and love Kitchen she was a bit OTT wasn’t she?). And the accompanying book is just lovely – completely different to her usual look and easy to follow.

Now for the Meatzza which she says is the most requested recipe in the book. It was delicious and very simple to make but kind of hefty. Admittedly the recipe is for 4-6 people and there are only two of us, and yes we did finish it (see my constant twitter complaints about how I’m not losing weight even though I’m breastfeeding). But on its own for 4-6 people I feel it would need something with it – salad or tagliatelle perhaps?

Also would like to add that mince doesn't photograph well... I tried.

Meatzza

Serves 4-6

500g minced beef

3 tbsp grated Parmesan

3 tbsp breadcrumbs or porridge oats (not instant)

3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 clove garlic, peeled

salt and pepper to taste

butter, for greasing

1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes

1 tsp garlic oil

1 tsp dried oregano

1 x 125g ball of mozzarella (not Buffalo), halved then sliced

few leaves fresh basil

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas Mark 7. You'll need a large mixing bowl and a round baking tin,  although I used a round Le Creuset, about 28cm in diameter. I didn't add enough salt, do not be afraid of salt in this recipe, it is your friend, if in doubt heat up a small frying pan and fry off a tiny bit of the mince mixture to try it for seasoning.

1. In a large bowl, using your hands, combine the mince, Parmesan, breadcrumbs, parsley and eggs. Grate in the garlic and add some salt and pepper. Do not overwork it, just lightly mix together, or the meat will become compacted and dense. 

2. Butter your dish or baking tin and turn the meat into it, pressing the mixture lightly with your fingers to cover the bottom of the dish. 

The mince base

3. Make sure you've drained as much juice as you can from the chopped tomatoes, then mix the tomatoes with the garlic oil, oregano and some salt and pepper and spread, using a rubber spatula, lightly on top of the meat base. Arrange the mozzarella slices on top.

4. Cook for 20-25 minutes by which time the meat should be cooked through and the mozzarella melted. 

5. Remove from the oven and let it sit for 5 minutes then cover with the basil leaves and cut into wedges like a pizza to serve.

Quails Egg Pasta

I'm terrible at cooking for vegitarians. I have a couple of friends who are, or have been, veggie and I know from them that it's usually a choice of goats cheese, mushrooms or veggie sausages and this puts me into a cookery tail spin because then all I can think about is making a goats cheese tart... However, this is a yummy option that is actually really easy but exciting enough to cover up the fact that really it's pretty studenty!

Quails Egg Pasta

Serves 4

400-500g fettuccine
1 head of garlic
12 quails eggs
125ml single cream
25g grated Parmesan
salt and pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. You can of course you any kind of pasta you like, fettuccine is my favourite long pasta that's why I use it here. And you can use double cream if you prefer, I usually do but for this with all the roasted garlic I like the consistency of the single cream. You can be extra cheaty and buy pre-boiled and peeled quails eggs but ideally you want these to be slightly soft-boiled.

1. Wrap the garlic in tin foil and roast in the pre-heated oven for 30 minutes or until it's all soft. Remove from oven and leave to cool a little bit.

2. Put the pasta on.

3. Open the garlic and squeeze it from its skins into a small bowl and mix with the cream, Parmesan, salt and pepper.

4. Cook the quails eggs according to the instructions on the packet. You want slightly soft boiled but so that the yolk stays mostly where it is. 1 minute in a pan of boiling water should do it. Peel when they are cooled slightly.

5. When the pasta is cooked, drain it and return it the sauce pan mixing in the cream and garlic. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

6. Dish up and then add the halved quails eggs to each plate with an extra grind of pepper and grate of Parmesan.

You can see that I've cheated and used pre-boiled quails eggs, still yummy but not perfect

Beef, Stout and Anchovy Pie

It's that time of year again - pie night - where I make a pie for my friends Libby and Ian. I'm not even a huge fan of pie but they are fun to make, they take time but are very satisfying when they come out of the oven all golden and lovely. Last years pie was Steak and Stout and this years was a quicker, simpler (pregnancy) version courtesy of Rachel Allen's lovely book Bake. I say simpler, it was still time consuming but you can make it quicker by using puff or flaky pastry from the shop in place of the hot water crust pastry she recommends and I used here. I served this with baked potatoes and peas.

Beef, Stout and Anchovy Pie

Serves 4-6

For the pie: 
4tbsp olive oil
600g stewing beef, trimmed and cut into 2cm chunks
salt and freshly ground black pepper
400g button mushrooms, cut into quarters
2 large onions, peeled and sliced
4 large cloves of garlic peeled and chopped
500ml beef or chicken stock
250ml bottle of stout
1 tbsp chopped tarragon
30g tin anchovies, drained
1 x quantity hot water crust pastry (see below)

For the pastry:
75g butter, cubed,
100ml water
225g plain flour
pinch of salt
1 egg, beaten

You will need 1 medium pie dish or 4-6 individual dishes, a large oven-proof casserole and a big mixing bowl and rolling pin for the pastry. Pre-heat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas Mark 2.

1. Place a large ovenproof casserole over a medium heat. Add 2 tbsps of olive oil and the beef and cook until brown (do this in batches if necessary). Season with salt and pepper, then remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

2. You may need to tip some excess juices out, then add 1 more tbsp of olive oil and the mushrooms, season and cook until browned. Remove and set aside.

Chopped mushrooms

 3. Pour the last tbsp of olive oil into the casserole and add the onions and garlic. Toss these for 1 minute, then add the beef, mushrooms, stock and stout. Bring to the boil, cover, reduce the heat and simmer gently on the hob or, as I did, into the preheated oven for 1-1½ hours or until the meat is tender. Depending on the meat, it may even take a bit longer.

4. Add the chopped tarragon and season to taste, but go slightly easy on the salt as you'll be adding anchovies later on. Allow to cool, while you make or prepare the pastry. Preheat the oven to 230C/450F/Gas Mark 8.

5. To make the pastry: place the butter and water in a medium-sized saucepan and heat gently, stirring occasionally, until the butter melts, then allow the mixture to come to a rolling boil.

 6. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the egg and stir it in to the flour slightly.

7. Pour the hot liquid into the flour and stir with a wooden spoon to mix.

8. Spread the mixture out on a large plate with a wooden spoon and allow to cool (about 15 mins), then remove the pastry from the plate (easiest done with a metal spatula) wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 mins until firm.

Pastry cooling on a plate

9.  Place the pie filling in the dish/s. Place 1-2 anchovies in each individual dish or all the anchovies in the large dish spaced apart from each other.

Pie filling in dish

10. Roll the pastry out, cut out rough lengths and stick these to the edge of the pie dish using egg or beaten water. Paste these strips with water or beaten egg and then add your pie top. Crimp the edges with your thumb and index fingers and add decoration of your choice (I use a cow cookie cutter as its a beef pie).

Pie pre-cooking

11. Cook in the oven for 10 mins before reducing the heat to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6 and cooking for a further 20-30 mins.

Tomato, Chipolata and New Potato Lunch Box

I bought River Cottage Every Day by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for my father a couple of years ago and have longed to cook from it ever since. So, while dog sitting a couple of months ago, I wrote down a couple of the recipes and today I finally did one for lunch using the left over chipolata's from our supper last night.

This is incredibly simple, you don't really need a recipe for it but the dressing is delicious and is actually a nice filling lunch even though it doesn't look much.

Tomato, Chipolata and New Potato Lunch Box

Serves 1

4 cold boiled  new potatoes cut into large chunks
a handful of sweet, ripe cherry tomatoes
2-3 cold, cooked chipolata sausages

For the dressing:
1 tsp English mustard
1½ tsp cider or white wine vinegar
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
a small pinch of sugar
salt and pepper

You can obviously use as many potatoes, tomatoes, sausages as you like. I used this amount and was the right amount for my lunch... and I have a big appetite.

1. To make the dressing, whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl to combine.

2. Put the potatoes and tomatoes in a bowl, trickle most of the dressing over the top and toss together.

3. Transfer to your lunch box, place the chipolatas on top and trickle over the remaining dressing.

Spicy Bean and Vegetable Soup

I made this soup for my husband once when we were doing Anna Richardson's Body Blitz and ever since he has requested it and got all misty eyed about how I used to make it all the time. So on Bank Holiday Monday, when he dashed off to Carnival by himself having deemed me 'too blimpy' to be allowed to go too, I bloody well made him some. I've even frozen some for when we get back from our holiday and I am lying in a pre-baby panic coma.

Now I'm not a huge soup fan and I hate courgette's so I don't eat this but my mother and husband love it and I trust their taste buds so here it is. This is from a diet book but you can substitute the oil spray for olive oil if you'd rather.

Spicy Bean and Vegetable Soup

Makes 4-6 servings (depending on who you are feeding)

Mild cooking oil spray
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1-1 ½ tsp hot chili powder or smoked paprika
2 x 400g chopped tomatoes
400g can red kidney beans
400g can cannellini beans
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 vegetable or chicken stock cube
1 red and 1 yellow pepper, deseeded
3 small courgettes, trimmed
198g can sweetcorn, drained

1. Mist a large pan with the oil and gently fry the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes until very soft, stirring regularly. Stir in the chili powder and cook for a further minute.

2. Tip the tomatoes into the pan, then refill the can with cold water and pour over the tomatoes. Drain and rinse the beans and add them, the tomato puree and stock cube to the pan. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Cut the peppers into roughly 1cm chunks. Cut the courgettes in half lengthways and then into 1cm slices.

4. Stir the peppers into the pan and continue simmering for a further 5 minutes. Add the courgettes and sweetcorn.

5. Simmer the soup for 5 minutes more or until the courgettes are tender, stirring every now and then. Season with a little salt and black pepper before serving.

Jamie's Stuffed Cypriot Chicken with Pan Fried Asparagus and Cabbage Salad

by guest blogger Joe Harrod

Say what you like about Jamie Oliver. I know people find him smug, laddish, jammy and generally irritating. But he's also really watchable - a genuinely nice bloke and who cooks appealing food and happily laughs at himself. For me, the biggest problem with his shows and books is ingredients. He's always bunging in a bit of arrowroot, or something equally unavailable at Tesco.

30-Minute Meals is the epitome of Jamie, and probably outsold the Bible last Christmas. (That's another irritating thing about him - successful bastard!) It's also, for a mainstream cookbook, pretty scary. Each double page spread presents you with a 3 course feast which you must prepare in a race against time, incorporating a barrage of flavours and cooking techniques. I've never, ever brought in one of these badboys at under 40 minutes and I've burned myself trying.

I have to say though, I love the book. It's packed with great recipes and makes after work cooking more of an assault course and less of a chore. And it builds up your repertoire of gourmet, fast-cook meals. I would add a couple of suggestions of my own: Firstly, don't be afraid to dawdle or mix up the order of the cooking. Jamie has you firing up the hobs before you start chopping and juggling four pans at all times, which is too much like hard work. Secondly, if you don't want to make the starter, side dish or the pudding - don't bother.

It was in this spirit that I approached Jamie's "Stuffed Cypriot Chicken, Pan-Fried Asparagus and Vine Tomatoes, Cabbage Salad, Flatbreads, St. Clement's Drink, and Vanilla Ice Cream Float." In other words, sod the St Clements and the Ice Cream Float. I served booze and frozen yoghurt instead. And, instead of stuffing the chicken and chopping the cabbage and prepping the asparagus and flatbreads against the clock,  I did all that before my guests arrived then just did the heating once they arrived. This made me look suave and collected like Michael Caine doing the omelette in The Ipcress File.

The results were impressive. Light but striking flavours, amazing textures... bloody delicious basically. The chicken comes out really zingy and asparagus steamed in tomato juice is a crunchy, flavour-packed revelation. This is a great summer set piece.

So here it is in two stages. I've upped the ingredients because I was doing for six. Preparation takes about 25 minutes and cooking only 20, whereas if you try and do it all together you'll end up sweating and cursing an hour later, and muttering all kinds of things about poor Jamie.

Ingredients:

Garlic, lots of
Olive oil, plenty
Salt and pepper
Lemons (Jamie loves his lemons mmmate)
Thyme
Rosemary
Loads of parsley
Loads of basil
Bay leaves

+

Pitta Bread x 6

Chicken breasts, skin on x 6
Feta 200g
Sundried tomatoes

400g asparagus
2 packs vine tomatoes
Black olives

1/2 a white cabbage
1 onion
Red chilli

Preparation:

Flatbreads. (I used pittas.) Rub with garlic. Put a tablespoon of olive oil, loads of salt and pepper and a bunch of thyme on a chopping board and flop the garlicky pittas into them, rub them together and generally get them all sexy, then stack them up on a plate.

Cypriot Chicken. Put a good bunch of parsley, another of basil and a couple of rosemary sprigs, 8 sundried tomatoes and a block of feta on a board. (I didn't have sundried and used normal. Worked fine.) Chop it up nice and fine. Grate over zest of a lemon and crush on three cloves of garlic, drizzle with oil, salt and pepper and chop through again. Slit the chicken, stuff it and then rub salt and pepper into the skin liberally. Stand to one side - they'll be going in a super hot pan later.

 

Asparagus. Lug some olive oil into a deep pan, add thyme sprigs, rosemary sprigs, three bay leaves and vine tomatoes to a pan, and chuck salt over. Lop the bottom off the asparagus and leave to one side along with a good handful of black olives.

Cabbage salad. Use a Magimix salad blade to slice up cabbage and put that in a bowl. Now use the regular blade to dice the hell out of an onion, a red chilli (seeds out) and a good fistful of basil. add these to the cabbage, plus the juice of two lemons. Toss this salad and take to the table.

Cooking

When you're ready to eat turn on a high flame under a pan with nothing but oil in it, and under the tomatoes, with the lid on. Whack the oven onto full blast with the pittas in it.

After 2 minutes, put the chicken in skin down with the very hot oil. Put some crinkled greaseproof over the top, and a lid. Turn down the tomatoes to medium.

After another 5 minutes, add the asparagus to the tomatoes and replace the lid. Flip the chicken (remove the paper) and turn down to medium. You'll let these guys and the pittas cook for another 12 minutes.

Ta-dah!

Fish Pie No. 3 - Joe

Chef's perks

Finally the third in the fish pie triumvirate and another that really shows up Jamie Oliver's I think. Joe usually makes this when we are staying in the cottage in Blakeney, North Norfolk where you can get lovely fresh fish and all the other ingredients just by walking into the village. We always majorly overeat in Norfolk and when the boys were making this I thought I'd never be able to fit any in... but of course I did. There were no leftovers. It's also amazing what wonders happen in the kitchen while we girls were gossipping... and how much local ale gets drunk. For once Joe's bladder was fuller than mine during the night.

I put Tom in charge of being blog photographer and he took loads of pictures so this may be a rather picture heavy post but the recipe itself isn't exactly that complicated so the photos will be something nice to look at! Joe and I are going back to Blakeney next weekend for a friends wedding - as there will be only two of us there will be no excuse for quite such excessive over-indulgence!

What makes this pie amazing is the creamy mash (no Jamie I don't agree that it should be lumpy and 'rustic') the good amount of parsley and the fish-infused white sauce.

Joe's Fish Pie

Serves 4

450g white and smoked fish, skin on
1kg potatoes
parsley
4 eggs, hard boiled
180g cheddar cheese, grated
50g flour
50g butter, plus extra for the mash
400ml milk, and a little extra for the mash
salt
pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.

You can use prawns in this if you wish but Clare who was staying with us hates them (and calls them 'babies fingers') so we left them out. You can ask the fishmonger to remove the skin for you and package it up separately, you will need to flavour the sauce though. We were cooking this on an Aga so I've amended the heat and times to be for a normal oven. You will need a large ovenproof dish.

We chose smoked haddock, plaice and a tiny bit of cod

1. Peel and cut up the potatoes to roughly the same size. Put them on to boil. You can hard boil the eggs at the same time. I put them in cold water and bring to the boil, once they are boiling I count to 30 switch the heat off and leave for 12 minutes. Then drain and cover with cold water.

Potatoes and eggs boiling on the Aga

2. Chop up the fish and place in the bottom of the dish. Season well then chop and scatter the parsley over the top.

Seasoning the fish

3. When the eggs are ready slice them up and scatter them over the top of the fish and parsley.

Arty shot of parsley... thanks Tom

4. Make a roux with the butter and flour, then remove from the heat and add the milk, a little at a time, whisking continuously to avoid lumps.

Melting the butter for the white sauce

5. When the sauce is ready drop in the fish skins and leave on the heat stirring gently for 10 minutes or so for the flour taste to cook out and to let the fish infuse with the sauce.

White sauce with fish skins

6. Sieve the sauce directly over the fish, eggs and parsley and discard the fish skins.

7. When the potatoes are parboiled mash them adding milk and butter until it's smooth.

The dog is obsessed with fish... she may be part seal

 8. Push the mash over the top of the pie and then sprinkle the grated cheddar over the top.

Pre-oven pie

9. Cook in the oven for about 30-40 minutes or until just beginning to turn golden on top. In the Aga we do this for ten minutes in the top (hot) oven and then half an hour in the cooler oven at the bottom.

Clare and the pie (and me being fat on the sofa) there are peas in the fish pan...