A week in my kitchen: Beautiful beetroot, rich venison and a second attempt at a spicy soup

It’s been an interesting week in my kitchen this last seven days, so I thought I just blog with a few snippets of the meals I’ve been eating. I started and ended the week with a similar dish mainly because it didn’t go well the first time, but I remained determined and gave it another go – second time lucky and my spicy Asian prawn soup was a triumph.

My first attempt at Asian prawn soup looked great but tasted bland

It was based on a recipe I saw on Nigel Slater’s latest series on BBC, which just finished, called Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers. Anyone who didn’t catch it missed out, I don’t know about anyone else but I thought it was fantastic and have already had a go with some of his ideas – I even had a long chat with a lady in the library about it whilst I was booking out a copy of Nigel’s old book Appetite.

Anyway the recipe involved making a paste with various aromatics then cooking with stock and coconut milk, adding prawns, fish sauce and fresh herbs. As you can see the result was visually wonderful and smelt very good, but unfortunately I think I watered down the flavours too much with an over enthusiastic amount of coconut milk, which meant it smelt much better than it tasted.

But last night I half-followed a similar recipe from Nigel’s book Appetite and it was a winner.

Brief recipe with approx amounts is: In a small food processor whiz together three cloves of garlic, roughly the same volume of fresh ginger, a stick of lemongrass chopped, good handful of fresh coriander, one red chilli, half teaspoon of coriander seeds, half a teaspoon of turmeric and some vegetable oil. Fry in a wok until fragrant then add 250ml chicken stock and 200ml or just less of coconut milk, simmer for five minutes. Add some shredded pak choi and let it wilt. Then add some plump, juicy raw prawns and cook until just pink (minute or two) season with half a teaspoon of sugar, good few glugs of fish sauce (at a guess 2-3 teaspoons) and the juice of half a lime, stir in some fresh coriander and mint then serve on top of some cooked rice noodles and slurp it from a deep bowl.

Venison steak with sweet potato mash and swiss chard

Given we are well into autumn I thought it was high time I bought some venison, and we have a lovely local supply nearby from Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire. The deer roams in their beautiful deer park and makes lovely meat. I have to say if you’re not an experienced cook – just like me – don’t be put off trying to cook venison, it is just as easy to do as steak. You must make sure it is cooked pink though because venison is a lean meat (popular with athletes in fact) so over cook it and it will be dry. I fried it quickly in a pan. Then set aside to rest and added some red wine to the pan, reduced it and added some meat stock and some redcurrant jelly to sweeten it to make a sauce. It is delicious served with sweet potato mash and a rich irony vegetable such as chard, spinach or kale.

And lastly I end on a light and healthy note. This isn’t really a recipe, but it is really tasty. For lunch the last two days I have eaten a salad made up of beetroot that I baked in foil and cooled, chopped into chunks and threw into mixed lettuce and rocket. I then added some sliced cucumber and crumbled over some strong goat’s cheese. I drizzled it with a dressing made of extra-virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper and finished with lots of toasted mixed seeds. It was so delicious, the idea really is sweet beetroot against salty cheese and feta works just as well.

Beautiful beetroot salad

A table full of tapas

Question: What is better than a delicious plate full of food? Answer: Several delicious plates of food of course. The reason we love Spanish tapas so much is that we get to experience a whole range of tastes and textures in one sitting – a nibble of prawn and a spoonful of pork stew, a bite of omelette and loads of crusty bread to mop up all the juices.

Our table full of tapas, for just two people!

Tapas, served as a meal, also has a relaxed feel to it that is perfect for entertaining. You can slowly graze, picking at some food then pausing to drink and chat before moving on to a different taste.

Having said that Will and me enjoyed this mini feast to ourselves with a bottle of Vino Tinto and we also had a starter and dessert – the word pigs springs to mind.

The starter was a favourite of Wills, roasted red peppers stuffed with cream cheese (although this time I stuffed them with a mix of ricotta and feta, which was what I had in the house, it is nice with cream cheese and chopped herbs). I placed them on a plate with rocket and some jamon Serrano. A great nibbly starter that doesn’t fill you up too much.

Starter: roasted red peppers stuffed with cream cheese

The first tapas dish was patatas bravas. I follow a delicious recipe of Simon Rimmer’s which you can find on my post called ‘Tapas for two’ in the August 2008 archive – you really must try it, it is so delicious. Then for a lighter dish I sliced some courgettes lengthways griddled them until charred but not floppy then dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and a good grinding of salt and pepper.

A dish that was a real success was one I came up with while on holiday in Spain, and I have to admit it did taste better over there because they had deliciously soft cannellini beans, good quality chorizo and juicy tomatoes.

Tapas dish: chorizo and butter beans

To make it fry half a finely chopped white onion in some olive oil until it starts to soften, then add a finely chopped clove of garlic and fry for a few more minutes. Add some chorizo in large slices and cook until it releases it gorgeous red oils. If you like add one or two chopped juicy tomatoes at this stage and cooked for a few minutes. Throw in some cannellini beans or butter beans and warm through, then serve with crusty bread.

Lastly I did some garlic prawns, something you tend to find on most Spanish menus and which invariably tastes delicious with their fresh prawns, but didn’t taste so great with my slightly rubbery supermarket prawns. Just fry some slices of garlic in plenty of oil, then cook the raw prawns until they turn pink, squeeze in a little drop of lemon juice, season, then throw in some freshly chopped parsley and serve in a shallow dish – but definitely get good quality prawns!

Salad days

Hola! I’m back from a holiday in Spain. Completely forgot to post a blog before I went saying I wouldn’t be writing for a couple of weeks, sorry about that. On returning home I found summer had well and truly arrived – I think I brought the sun back with me.

And with the good weather has come some good crops of fruit and vegetables. In my first veg box after the holiday I had fresh broad beans, beautiful lurid pink radishes, sweet English cherry tomatoes and strawberries! Hurray, I had been excitedly waiting for them, and not only that I had some delectable English cherries, what a delight.

Summer pasta dish

I read an article by Jill Duplex (a fabulous Australian food writer) quite a while ago about how you can turn anything into a salad dish by eating it as a cooler temperature or changing a heavy sauce for a light dressing, and salad is all I want in summer. Words you associate with summer eating are fresh, light, crisp and juicy and a salad encompasses all of this.

In the article she gave a recipe, which I give you below, for a pasta dish which is distinctly salad-like. Banish the rich tomatoes sauces and thick creamy dishes and instead go for something lighter like this lemon, courgette and Parma ham pasta dish.

You can eat it luke warm to make even more summery and it is also quick to prepare which is just what you need on a hot day.

Summery lemon, courgette and Parma ham pasta

I don’t know if this is an accurate account of the recipe, but it is pretty close.

Serves 2 (of course!)

4-5 slices of Parma ham torn up roughly

Zest of ½ lemon and 2tbsp of the juice

1tsp of fresh thyme leaves, roughly chopped

Your usual amount of spaghetti for two

Good glug of quality olive oil

1 courgette in thin half-moons

Handful of rocket leaves

Freshly grated parmesan

Put the ham, lemon zest and juice, thyme leaves, a good glug of olive oil and some salt and pepper in a large bowl.

Cook your spaghetti until ready, but for the last 2-3 minutes add the courgette so they cook. Drain the pasta and courgettes and throw into the bowl with the other ingredients and mix it round thoroughly. Then throw in rocket leaves toss through and spoon onto serving plate. Top with grated parmesan.

A simple everyday summer salad

This is quite a posh looking salad dish. But something that I like equally is a simple plate of salad maybe with some cold cooked meat, hard boiled eggs, or nice cheese. I also have a strange affection for canned pilchards and salad from my childhood. Then just add a few steamed new potatoes tossed in butter and fresh mint or some nice fresh buttered bread and you have yourself a delicious meal. So simple and so tasty.

In the photo I made a massive salad with mixed leaves, peas, sweetcorn, tomatoes and toasted pine nuts. I served this with preserved artichokes, avocado, some strong cheese and some thick slices of homemade wholemeal bread.

I’ll probably eat something along these lines every week from June-September just mixing and changing the sides and accompaniments. Let me know what dishes make you think of summer.

First barbecue party of the season

A couple of weekends ago Will and I hosted our first proper barbeque of the year on a sunny spring Saturday. I was faced with a house of hungry police officers – a daunting thought to say the least – but luckily I had more than enough food. As always you end up over-catering for fear of not having enough. Imagine finishing a meal and seeing someone picking carefully but desperately around the last chicken leg trying to find some more meat on it – I couldn’t bare it!

My crammed fridge hours before the barbecue

I have to say it was a real success though. As young new-comers to the dinner party scene, we planned everything down to the last detail and spent the whole day cleaning the house, shopping then preparing food.

I kept it simple and went for chicken drumsticks in a barbecue marinade, ribs (brought along buy a guest) in a sticky barbecue sauce and Greek lamb kebabs with pitta bread and Tzatziki. These went down a storm with the hungry meat-eaters.

For the lamb kebabs: marinate lamb leg steaks in olive oil, salt, pepper, a pinch of dried oregano and a squeeze of lemon juice for about an hour. Instead of cutting into cubes and skewering I leave the steaks whole so I can barbecue them quickly over very hot flames and keep them pink inside (if they are in small cubes on a skewer they can dry out very quickly). I then let them rest, slice and pile up the juicy pink pieces of meat on a warm plate for people to tuck into.

Alongside the piles of meat I served a classic homemade coleslaw (a mix of thinly shredded cabbage, carrot, red onion and grated apple dressed in mayonnaise and lemon juice), potato salad (dressed in natural yogurt with lemon zest and seasoning, chopped chives and then topped with crispy pieces of bacon) plus bowls of salad an lots of crunchy bread.

The desserts were the real stars of the show, a deliciously creamy vanilla baked cheesecake (which I have posted the recipe for on a previous post) with a bowl of fresh raspberry sauce, mini pavlovas and a gorgeously gooey soggy chocolate orange cake (look out for my next post for the recipe), which was a take on a Nigella Christmas recipe that I fiddled with. Apparently they were all talking about the dessert at the station the next day – result!

At the end of the day as long as there is a good supply of cold beers, soft drinks and wine you’re on to a winner. Barbecues need to be relaxed and stress free. Minimal use of cutlery is a good tip (we used plastic plates to cut down on washing up). Most people managed with just a fork and their hands. Now we just have to wait for another sunny weekend to have another go.

Scrummy Savoy cabbage

One of the most important aspects of my blog is that I try and make it easy for couples to cook simple meals, without having to divide portions for four or six people and without creating lots of waste.
So what do you do with a whole Savoy cabbage? It’s in season at the moment and is much tastier than the common cabbage – a little more refined I think.
I first tried a Savoy after seeing Jamie Oliver do a pasta recipe with it (my version of which is below), but I was left with half a head of the bright green vegetable. So with other left-over ingredients I created my second meal – a stuffed chicken breast wrapped in pancetta on top of garlic braised cabbage.

Mozzarella stuffed chicken and savoy cabbage

So what follows is both recipes so you can go out and buy that Savoy cabbage, happy in the knowledge not a scrap will be wasted.
Both recipes give only rough guides on amounts as they were thrown together by me without weighing and measuring.

Pasta with Savoy cabbage, pancetta and cheese sauce.

Your usual amount of pasta for two people (me and Will eat a monstrous amount so I won’t give you a weight) – I suggest Farfelle (the bow shape).
Half a head of Savoy cabbage, thinly sliced.
Half a pack of pancetta (or more if you wish, depends on the amount in the pack I suppose), cut into large strips
One clove of garlic, finely chopped.
Knob of butter
Just over half a ball of mozzarella in chunks
Handful of freshly grated parmesan

Cook your pasta as usual. For the sauce: Heat some oil in a large frying pan that has a lid, add the pancetta and fry until it starts to crisp. Add the garlic and stir round then add all the Savoy cabbage, a knob of butter and some seasoning. Stir this around then add a dash of water and slam a lid on the pan straight away. Let it steam for five minutes or so until the cabbage has wilted, but retains some bite. Throw the cooked pasta in the pan with some of the cooking water and add the cubed mozzarella and the parmesan and stir so it melts into a thick sauce (the cooking water helps it all amalgamate). Serve straight away.

Mozzarella and sun-dried tomato stuffed chicken breast with Savoy cabbage

Two chicken breasts
The left over mozzarella from the pasta dish
Six strips of pancetta left over from the pasta dish
A few sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (and if you wish a few roasted red peppers from a jar, chopped)
Half a head of Savoy cabbage, finely sliced
Two garlic cloves finely chopped
A knob of butter
Some steamed purple sprouting broccoli if you wish

Chicken stuffed with mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes

Open up the chicken breast so they are flat and place on a board. Cover with cling film and bash lightly with a rolling pin so they flatten out a bit. In the centre place a few slices of mozzarella, and a few sun-dried tomatoes and red peppers. Don’t add too much or it will burst open when cooking. Wrap the chicken up tightly with the pancetta strips. Fry the outside of the chicken parcels quickly in a pan to get a bit of colour on them. Transfer to a baking dish and put in a pre-heated 200 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until the chicken is fully cooked.
Ten minutes before the chicken is due to come out of the oven heat a large heavy based frying pan that has a lid. Add some butter and the garlic, fry gently for a few minutes. Add the Savoy cabbage, a dash of water and slam on the lid and steam for 10 minutes. Season and serve in the centre of the plate with the stuffed chicken on the top.

A special meal for two

ONE of the most depressing things that I heard recently on the news was that sales at Dominos Pizza are up since the recession kicked in because more people are staying in with a take-away and a DVD instead of going out. Well, I would say keep the DVD but ditch but the take-away. Why would you want to pay £10 (or whatever the price is) for two greasy pizzas when you could buy some nice ingredients and a bottle of wine and cook your own meal. Set the table with candles and your best crockery and serve up a restaurant style meal for a credit crunching price.
Will and I did exactly that for New Year’s Eve. We had looked around at various set menus in nice restaurants that looked delicious but cost a fortune, and we started to wonder; is it really worth it? I could easily cook us a delicious meal at home for half the price of a meal out, leaving plenty of money left over for a few bottles of wine.

Retro prawn cocktail

I let Will choose the menu, which invariably meant he chose a steak. I also correctly predicted that he would ask for a baked cheesecake because he has been begging me to make one for ages, although I would never has guessed he would choose the retro starter prawn cocktail. What a wonderful throw back and actually a delicious throw back when made with fresh juicy prawns, crisp lettuce and some added avocado chunks hidden in the salad for texture. I couldn’t resist the triangles of brown bread and the dusting of paprika!
Then for mains we decided that since we were saving so much money by eating in, we would splurge on the steak and buy two fillets, which were melt in the mouth good. I served the steak with homemade chunky chips, creamed spinach and a slice of butter flavoured with Worcestershire sauce and parsley.

Fillet steak with chunky chips and spinach

Now here is where it gets good. The vanilla baked cheesecake. This recipe came from Tamasin’s Kitchen Bible by Tamasin Day-Lewis. It was light, but rich and creamy, very smooth and also easy to make. Below I will give you the original recipe and in brackets the changes I made, which were mainly done because I couldn’t get hold of the ingredients listed.

Base:
1 packet of Doves organic digestives (I used McVities)
55g unsalted butter
Cheesecake:
450g fresh cream cheese, full fat (I used Philadelphia Light and it worked well)
2 Large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
55g vanilla sugar (caster sugar that has had a vanilla pod sitting in it)
170ml organic double cream
1 split vanilla pod
Zest of 2 lemons (I used just one and felt it was enough but I imagine two would be lovely and zingy)
Topping:
150ml sour cream (I used a 140l pot that they sell in supermarkets)
1 dsrt spoon vanilla sugar (I used 1 tbsp)

Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Whiz the biscuits into crumbs (or put in a bag and bash with a rolling pin). Tip them into a large, loose-bottomed cake tin and pour over the butter. Stir to amalgamate and press down firmly. Bake for 10 minutes then remove from the oven.
Put the cream cheese, eggs, yolk, cream, sugar, vanilla seeds and lemon zest in a bowl and beat with an electric whisk until very smooth and creamy. Pour on top of the biscuit base and bake for 25 minutes.
Cool in the oven with the door ajar. When cool remove from the tin and chill in the fridge. For the topping stir the vanilla sugar into the sour cream and spread all over the top, decorate with some more lemon zest.
Beautiful served just as it is or whiz up some raspberries with a little icing sugar to make a coulis and serve on the side.

Steak ‘n chips

I know that recently I have talked about how you don’t need expensive meat all the time to make a delicious meal but in the same breath I have to say I couldn’t live without steak and chips every now and then. To me it is a luxury. It is mouth-wateringly perfect in every way. Soft, juicy, tender meat with crisp, salty chips and now to further this treat a slice of cold, flavoured butter that gently oozes all over the steak, which is charred on the outside and quivering and pink on the inside. As long as you are not a vegetarian I feel sure you will be salivating by now.
I offer not the perfect steak recipe, nor the best technique for cooking the meat, but instead simply how I do it because I know no better way at the moment.
This flavoured butter was my attempt to recreate a bloody Mary butter served on some steak Will and I had at a wonderful restaurant in the Cotswolds called the Boathouse. My version was pretty good, but not the best steak butter I have ever had. A trusty combination is lemon and thyme smashed into the butter.

For the chips: Chop good cooking potatoes (red skinned potatoes work particularly well) into wedge shapes with the skin left on. A quick tip is to make sure the skin is completely dry because the chips will crisp better this way. Put in a tray with a good few glugs of olive oil, salt, pepper and my secret ingredient a very small sprinkle of mild chilli powder (specifically that blended type you can get in the supermarket which is chilli, garlic, salt and cumin mixed together). I don’t know why but this addition is so good but you should try it. You must not put so much on that you can taste chilli powder, it just needs to be a warm background flavour. Toss together and place in a pre-heated oven at 220 degrees for between 30-40 minutes. Don’t try to move them in the first 20 minutes they will be stuck to the tray.

For the bloody Mary butter: Put a big blob of unsalted real butter in a bowl and allow to warm until it is pliable. Add a few sun dried tomatoes finely chopped, five or six shakes of Tabasco sauce and salt and pepper. Place it onto a long piece of cling film and roll into a sausage shape and twist tightly at each end to secure it. Leave it in the fridge for at least an hour (or if you haven’t much time then throw it in the freezer for 20 minutes) just before you need it take it out of the fridge and slice into rounds.

For the steak: Simply season the steak and brush with olive oil. Cook on a hot griddle until it is cooked as you like. Always rest for a few minutes and serve with the chips and a thick slice of the butter.

Kitchen cut-backs and frugal feasts

Have you heard? We are heading into a recession. Britain, no sorry the world, is in the midst of a credit crunch and the economy is spiralling downwards. It’s Armageddon!
Sorry, I don’t mean to sound too sarcastic (well I guess I do) but if you hadn’t seen any credit crunch news then you will have been living down a small badger hole for the last year.

Love Food Hate Waste Logo

But seriously this is affecting all of us whether we want to admit it or not and while I am not one for being gloomy and saying my life is over now I can’t afford a new pair of killer heels, I am one for making small cut-backs to ease the pressure of mounting bills.
Any regular readers will have seen an earlier post about thrift and how we have forgotten the good old art of thriftiness that our mothers and grandmothers knew. Below are a few more helpful hints and tips on how to save money and stop wasting food – without stopping enjoying food.
I would again usher you to look at the Love Food Hate Waste website, which is absolutely packed with great tips for storing and using up leftovers.
This credit crunch, or whatever you want to call it, has served to remind us that waste is, well, very wasteful. Why then, when we have lots of money do we think it’s ok to use half a bag of lettuce then throw it away, or buy large packs of good quality meat, use half, then realise the rest is off and bin it? Why have we only just been told that a third of the food we buy, we throw away? This to me was a real wake-up call. So with much struggling and for-thought and planning and discipline I have embarked on a lifestyle of thrift, but without sacrificing good taste and healthy meals.
I try to devise frugal meals using cheaper (but not poorer quality) ingredients, instead of splurging on chicken breast three times a week and use up all my leftovers in canny ways – and there are lots of leftovers when there are any two people in a household. So I hope the following tips will help you cut down waste and save a few extra pennies.

1. Half a can of coconut milk left after making a curry? Either mix with pineapple juice for a delicious drink (add rum for a retro Pina Colada cocktail, yum) or pour into ice cube trays, allow to freeze, then tip the cubes into a bag and keep in the freezer for up to three months.
2. Stock up on good store cupboard ingredients such as canned pulses and beans, pasta, rice and canned chopped tomatoes. Then if you have a few left-over vegetables you have all you need for my vegetable chilli recipe below. Also, make sure you have lots of non-perishable condiments and a well stocked spice rack so you can jazz up the most boring of leftovers. For example a few leftover bits of meat or frozen prawns can be transformed into a delicious bowl of fragrant special-fried rice. Try my recipe below and just add whatever you have to hand, including chopped up pieces of chicken, prawns, ham or vegetables.
3. To breathe life into that slightly stale bread run it under the tap for a few seconds then bake in oven for 10 minutes or until crisp and fresh again. Magic!
4. Found some spuds languishing in the bottom of your larder? Just cook them, mash them and freeze in portions. You can also use up other root vegetables this way (squash, carrots, celeriac, sweet potato ect). Then defrost on a night when you have some sausages in the fridge. All you have to do it re-heat it in the microwave and you have bangers and mash in minutes.
5. Being a household of just two we often have leftover vegetables, especially half a head of broccoli or a few carrots. Just chopped them up, blanche them and let them cool, then freeze in a bag. You can gradually build up the amount of vegetables and after a month or so you will have a bag of mixed vegetables in the freezer ready to throw into your steamer to accompany a nice piece of fish.

 
Chilli con vegetables (vegetarian chilli)
This recipe has no exact quantities and I suppose the same goes for all ‘using up left over meals’ because it is using whatever you have to hand. But this is a good outline that you can to or swap around. You also may end up making quite a large batch in which case it is brilliant to freeze. Add any vegetables that you have to hand that would be suitable but I wouldn’t recommend missing out on the red onion or red pepper (sometimes if I have a jar of the char-grilled peppers in oil I just use those).

Chilli con vegetables

Fry one chopped red onion and two garlic cloves in a little olive oil until softened. Add half a chopped red pepper, half a courgette chopped into little cubes and half a small aubergine in cubes. Cook these for about 10 minutes on a moderate heat stirring regularly. Add a can of chopped tomatoes and fill the can a quarter of the way with water and add that. Then had half a teaspoon of smoked paprika, a teaspoon of mild chilli powder (the blended stuff you can buy in the supermarket, which is a mix of chilli, garlic, salt and cumin), half a teaspoon of cumin, a sprinkle of oregano and plenty of salt and pepper. If you like it spicy add a few good shakes of Tabasco sauce. Simmer for 10-15 minutes with a lid perched half-way across the pan. Then add a tin of mixed bean that includes kidney beans or whatever canned beans you have in the house and continue to simmer for a further 10 minutes. Either serve on rice, on top of a jacket potato or I like to put mine in bowls with some strong Cheddar cheese grated on the top and serve with some potato wedges with melted cheese on the side. A blob of sour cream wouldn’t go amiss either!

Egg fried rice

This is my basic recipe for egg fried rice, you will probably see similar recipes everywhere, it is pretty much the universal way to make it I think. The recipe can then be added to, to create special fried rice, which I find is a meal in itself.

For two people I usually measure out 200ml of rice because it is easier to measure it in volumes instead of weight. If you want it as a meal not a side dish perhaps increase it to 250ml.
Here is the important part: If you want really delicious, authentic tasting egg fried rice you must buy a fragrant rice. Buy either a good quality basmati, or as I like to a Thai fragrant rice, which smells and taste so beautiful and delicate. You can buy Tilder Thai rice in the supermarket but it is very expensive. If you have a Chinese food market near you they usually sell large sacks of it for around £5 – £7. I have used half my sack and I bought it about six months ago.

Anyway cook the rice, rinse it and strain so it is dry. Whisk two eggs in a cup. Heat a wok or large frying pan until it is very hot, add a good slug of tasteless oil, such as sunflower oil, and throw in the egg. Swirl it around into scrambled egg very quickly and as soon as it starts to solidify tip onto a plate. Add a little more oil to the wok and throw in the rice and fry for a few minutes. Add two finely sliced spring onions and then throw the egg back into the wok. Stir round to combine and turn down the heat. Add a good drizzle of soy sauce and a small drizzle of toasted sesame oil – don’t go mad with sesame oil it is very strong but it is imperative to the dish, you only need to buy and small bottle and it will last you age. This is the egg fried rice done.
To turn it into special friend add you extras towards the end to heat through. Some cooked chicken and small prawns with some frozen peas is nice.
Or turn it into a meal by serving it with sticky Chinese chicken as I did below by marinating chicken breasts in three tablespoons of Hosin sauce, one tablespoon of soy sauce, one tablespoon of soft brown sugar and a dash of sesame oil. Fry in a pan then finish in the oven until cooked through.

Sticky Chinese chicken and egg fried rice

Tapas for two

Tapas for two

I go on holiday to Spain in just over two weeks. Ten days of chilling out, relaxing on the beach and most importantly finding fantastic local places to to sample Spanish food. Will and I are staying at my parent’s apartment in Torrevieja, on the Costa Blanca. As with most Spanish towns on the south coast it has been attacked by tourists and many restaurants offer a strange selection of Paella and Spanish omelette alongside chicken and chips and gammon and egg. But Torrevieja still has some Spanish charm and this time I am determined to find some authentic places to eat and drink.
To get us in the mood for the holiday I decided to have a go at doing a little tapas evening, but although I make a pretty good Paella, that is about the extent of my Spanish culinary range. I found a couple of recipes; one for the classic Patatas Bravas and a chorizo and cannelloni bean concoction. To those dishes I added a favourite started of mine – melon with Serreno ham – then some rustic bread with fruity olive oil and some cheese and salad. It is a strange mix of dishes but that’s the thing about tapas you can’t really go wrong with it because it is just a selection of dishes to nibble at. Knock it back with a few glasses and young Tempranillo and you can’t go wrong.

Patatas Bravas
This was a recipe I found in a book by Simon Rimmer (regular chef on Something for the weekend) called The Accidental Vegetarian. I will leave the quantity for four people because often with tapas you will be making for a crowd. But as a pointer I think I cooked about 400g of potatoes, with half a can of chopped tomatoes, one fresh red chilli (because that was all I had in the kitchen) with an added tsp of dried chilli flakes, plus three small garlic cloves for two people.

Patatas Bravas

Recipe
Lots of olive oil
600g Maris Piper or Desiree potatoes, peeled and cut into one inch cubes.
400g tin of chopped tomatoes.
3 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
Lots of fresh chopped parsley to through over at the end.

1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees. Heat a load of oil in a big roasting tray until really hot. Throw the potatoes into the oil, give them a shake, season well, and cook for about 10 minutes until they begin to brown.
2. Add the tomatoes, chillies, garlic and stir well to coat the potatoes. Put back in the oven for a further 25-35 minutes, until they are going crisp on the outside but are still soft and gooey on the inside.
3. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
WARNING: These are very addictive: make sure there is enough to go round!

Chorizo in beer
This recipe came from a really good book I read recently called ‘3 ways with…stale bread (and 99 other things you will find in your pantry, fridge or freezer)’, by Ross Dobson, an excellent Australian food writer. It is a great read for people trying to cut down on food waste and save money. Ross offers three different recipes for each store cupboard ingredient, such as tinned tomatoes, chickpeas, rice ect.
Recipe
Stir-fry one finely chopped onion in some olive oil for a few minutes. Add one tablespoon of soft brown sugar and one sliced chorizo and cook for 2-3 minutes until the sausage starts to brown.
Add a 400g tin of cannelloni beans, 125ml of beer, three tablespoons of red wine vinegar and one bay leaf. Boil for 6-8 minutes until almost all the liquid has gone. Serve in a bowl with the juices so you can soak them up with chunks of bread.

Not quite round – but delicious

If you think making a pizza from scratch is a waste of time, try it. Just try it, please. You may think it is not worth the hassle and that there are good quality, authentic, fresh pizzas on the market to buy.

But it’s not the same and it’s not actually that much hassle. Really, I promise (especially with a small cheat). I made two pizzas from scratch for the first time the other day and quite honestly they were delicious. Not only that I had a sense of pride looking down at my squiffy shaped pizzas in uneven slices.

So how simple? Well this simple:-

In the supermarkets now you can buy pizza dough mixes that have the right quantities of flour and yeast in a packet. You still get to do the kneading and all, but without all the weighing. So make up the bases to the packet instructions (which takes around 10-15mins).

Make a delicious sauce for the base out of garlic and passata cooked for a good 20 minutes until reduced down, then add a sprinkle of dried oregano and some fresh basil. Smear onto the pizza and top with whatever you fancy.

I got a little carried away at a lovely Italian deli and topped one with Milano salami, sun dried tomatoes, mozzarella and pecorino cheese. The other was covered in parma ham, pinapple and mozarella, plus a sprinkle of the pecorino. The better the toppings and ingrediants the better the pizza, but simple cheese and a few tomotoes would suffice. Just try it!