A petty pan-full of risotto

The alien looking petty pan

May I introduce you to the petty pan. Yes this strange, yellow, alien-like thing is a vegetable – a summer squash to be exact and a member of the same family as courgettes, butternut squash and pumpkins. My first reaction upon seeing it in my veg box a few weeks ago was – has a flying sauce crash-landed into my cardboard box?

Much research told me it could be cooked in a similar way to many of the squash family but was more like a courgette in taste.

I have to tell you now it was neither unctuous and sweet like a squash nor refreshing and tasty like a courgette – I found it a bit boring to be honest. So what is the point of this post? Well out of this research came quite a delicious meal.

I concluded the best way to cook it would be to stuff it and for filling I plumped for a risotto with some of the scooped out petty pan and some of its cousin the courgette.

The baked petty pan was ok, but the risotto was a triumph. So much so that I cooked it again for Will (who doesn’t usually like risotto) minus the petty pan casing and it went down very well indeed.

Petty pan stuffed with delicious courgette risotto

Note: I don’t use white wine, as many do, in a risotto as one: I don’t personally like the flavour it gives the dish that much and two: as red wine drinkers we don’t ever have any in the house. If you do like to add some wine before adding the first ladle full of stock go ahead.

 

Courgette risotto (serves 2)

200g Arborio rice

1 litre of chicken stock (you might need a little more water depending on the brand of rice you use)

One large or two small courgettes, sliced into rounds then each rounds into quarters.

Small knob of unsalted butter

1/2 small red onion, finely chopped

2 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Zest of one lemon

Handful of fresh basil

Small amount of freshly grated parmesan

 

1. Fry the onion slowly in the butter, with a splash of olive oil to stop it burning. Then add the garlic and cook for a few minutes more.
2. Add the rice to the pan and stir around in the flavoured oil, then add you first ladle of hot stock.
3. Continue as you usually would with a risotto gradually add the hot stock and the rice absorbs it and stirring regularly to release the starches (thus making the risotto nice and creamy). It will take at least 20 minutes.
4. After about 15 minutes put a separate pan or griddle on, drizzle the courgette pieces in olive oil, salt and pepper and fry quickly until they go brown but still retaining some bite.
5. Add the courgettes to the risotto. Taste to check the rice is soft. Once it is soft enough add lemon zest, the roughly chopped basil and parmesan. Stir and serve.

My favourite sweet potato wedges

I adore sweet potatoes. They are so versatile and yet so healthy and nutritious – double bonus points. I always add them to vegetable curries and often to meat curries as well to bulk them out. I also regularly make an Italian style shepherds pie that has a sweet potato and parmesan topping, which is delicious (I’ll have to remember to post that recipe soon). But by far and away my favourite way to eat them are my sweet potato wedges, which are beyond simple and always taste great.

My sweet potato wedges

They go with lots of things like chicken or steak. In fact I serve them with anything you might serve chips or potatoes with. I think they would go down a storm with children as well, although I haven’t tried that theory. Let me know if you do.

There isn’t really any need for a recipe just wash and dry the sweet potatoes then chop them into wedges or chip shapes (leaving the skin on). Put them on a baking tray with a good few slugs of olive oil. Then sprinkle on some mild chilli powder (the blended kind that has garlic, cumin and seasoning added, you get it in all supermarkets) a good dusting of paprika and a bit of salt and pepper. You want the spices to cover all the wedges. Now get you hands in and mix it all around so the spicy oil covers everything.

Then put the tray in a preheated 200 degree oven for 25-30 minutes until they look a bit crispy. One thing to say though is that sweet potato won’t go crispy like regular potatoes do – not unless you deep fat fried them. They will be more chewing with crispy ends, but that’s just as good.

They are really tasty with either barbecue sauce or a sour cream dip.

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.

Crunchy purple coleslaw

What’s a barbecue with coleslaw? I don’t mean that horrible, cloying, mayo laden shop bought variety, I mean the fresh crunchy homemade variety. I like mine best because it takes on a beautiful pinky-purple colour from the red cabbage and red onion, which is pleasing to the eye if nothing else. I don’t like mine swimming in mayonnaise, just a fine coating to keep it moist and I love the subtle sweetness the apple brings. To make sweeter still add a few raisins. This recipe will make a big plastic tub full, either to feed a crowd at a party, or to last two or you three or four days.

Crunchy purple coleslaw

Rough guide

½ a small head of red cabbage, finely sliced.

1 medium red onion, finely sliced.

1 large carrot, grated (or two medium carrots)

1 eating apple, grated

Put all the ingredients into a large bowl, spritz with the juice of about half a small lemon, season with salt and pepper and dollop on a couple of tablespoons of good quality shop bought mayonnaise (or more to your taste). Mix thoroughly and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.

Also for a more impressive potato salad, take these tips from Jamie Oliver. Boil or steam some new potatoes and while warm pour on them some olive oil, lemon juice and seasoning and leave to cool. To dress mix lemon zest and fresh chopped chives with some natural yogurt (best not to use fat free as it is too thin), season and stir into the potatoes. The potato salad is even more delicious sprinkled with some cold snipped up crispy bacon pieces. Just these two little homemade side dishes elevates any barbecue without barely any effort.

Cauliflowers don’t grow underground!

I was sent a shocking press release at work yesterday. It came from the new Eat Seasonably Campaign and it said that one in five 16-25 year olds think cauliflower grows under the ground! Worse still a quarter of 16-24 think peas are in season all year round and one in five of the same age group think sweetcorn grows all year round.

Photo from www.eatseasonably.co.uk

I think we have a big divide in the food world. At the moment we have a food revolution going on with artisan producers popping up everywhere, allotment waiting lists growing longer and longer and more awareness of animal welfare. But at the same time there is another food revolution going on. Thousands of people are finding ever more cheaper ways to feed themselves with fat laden take-aways and salty microwave meals, imported cheap vegetables and battery farmed meat.

How has it come to this? I can understand that the pressure is on families during the recession, but it is all down to education. Teaching people that using fresh seasonal ingredients when they are abundant and using a better quality of meat in smaller quantities is essential.

The Eat Seasonably Campaign, which was spearheaded by Dame Fiona Reynolds, director general of the National Trust and Chairman of B&Q Ian Cheshire, is backed by top chefs such as Angela Hartnett, Allegra McEvedy, Valentine Warner, Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall, as well as Defra secretary of state Hilary Benn, the RHS and all the major supermarkets.

Eat seasonably logo

The campaign has introduced a label which will be used to highlight seasonal fruit and vegetables where they are sold. This surely is an excellent idea and I hope it helps the situation. If it was clearly marked out for people they might be tempted into trying out seasonal produce. I really hope it works. Check out the campaign’s website, http://www.eatseasonably.co.uk it includes lots of advice for growing and eating seasonally.

How I learnt to love cauliflower

We are currently coming to the end of what organic vegetable box suppliers Riverford aptly call ‘the hungry gap’. It is the time between March and May when the stored fruit and vegetables have run out and the new plants haven’t grown enough to pick. Inevitably that has meant the boxes have had to include some imported vegetables to make up for the shortfall.

Vegetable curry with cauliflower

There is one vegetable, however, that defies the hungry gap (apart from the welcome edition of purple sprouting broccoli throughout February and March) and that is cauliflower. Great you might think – a home grown vegetable to enjoy through the months before spring really springs into life.

Not for me though. When I decided to start ordering a vegetable box I was fully aware you have to accept what you are given and I said to Will that will be fine because I love nearly all vegetables except for cauliflower – and as soon as I said the dreaded word they started to arrive, and they continued to arrive four weeks in a row!

I don’t know what it is about cauliflower. I think it might be more of a psychological thing rather than a complete aversion to the taste. The smell of it cooking reminds me of being 10 years old and desperately thinking of ways to get out of eating dinner when a cauliflower cheese was bubbling away in the oven – to this day you will not get me to eat a cauliflower cheese.

But I am a firm believer that you can learn to love any food if you give it a chance, and if you cook it in a sympathetic way. So during those four long weeks I tried cauliflower every which way – in soups, as a side, in spicy frittas and in creamy curries – and do you know what, I don’t mind cauliflower that much anymore, in fact I quite like it in a spicy vegetable curry. I actually cooked the vegetable curry three times it was so tasty. So below I give you my mish-mash recipe for a probably very not authentic vegetable curry for all those cauliflower haters out there.

This recipe makes more than two portions but reheats really well the next day for lunch left-overs. Use whatever you have in the house to go with it, I find you need a sweetish vegetable like sweet potato or squash in there though to balance the flavours.

½ a cauliflower cut into florets

1 sweet potato cut into small square chunks

1 onion, roughly chopped

1 or 2 carrots, depending on their size cut into equal sized chunks to the potato

½ can of chickpeas

½ can of coconut milk

1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

1 green chilli finely chopped

2 large tablespoons of Pataks tikka masala curry paste

A small knob of ginger, grated

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped.

Plus, fresh natural yogurt, fresh coriander leaves and ½ a lemon to serve.

1. Heat some vegetable oil in a large heavy based saucepan. Cook the onion until it starts to soften, then add the garlic, ginger and chilli and cook for a minute, then add the curry paste and cook for a few minutes until it releases its smells and flavours.

2. Add your vegetables and coat them in the flavour then add the chopped tomatoes, fill the can about a quarter of the way up with water, swirl it around to get all the flavour out of the can and add to the pot. Finally add the coconut milk, stir and put the lid on and let it cook on a gentle simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring every now and then. The only way to know if this is done is to stick a knife in the vegetables to see if they are soft. The carrots are likely to cook last out of the lot. Depending on how big you have cut the carrot and sweet potato you might want to add the cauliflower into the pot 10 minutes after them so it doesn’t go soggy. When the vegetables are more or less cooked add the chickpeas and warm through (at this stage you could also add a handful or two of frozen peas for colour).

3. Serve with plain rice, dollop some natural yogurt on the top (this cuts through the richness of the dish), sprinkle over coriander leaves and serve with a wedge of lemon.

(You will be left with half a can of coconut milk. Either use in a smoothie the next morning, it goes well with pineapple and mango. Or pour into ice-cube trays and once they are frozen pop into a bag and store until you make another curry when you just drop the cubes into the pot and they defrost into a sauce. Use the half can of chickpeas to make a small pot of hummus for your lunch the next day by putting them into a food processor with some lemon juice, olive oil, half a clove of garlic, tahini paste and seasoning then blitzing. The curry paste keeps brilliantly in your cupboard for months, no need to even refrigerate)

Dipping my toe into seasonal cooking

It’s a bit late to be jumping on the seasonal food band wagon and probably even later to be writing about veg boxes. We’re all at it. Prancing around telling people how marvellous it is to have seasonal produce brought straight to your door. Waltzing past the neighbours carrying a cardboard box laden with frilly greens and giant roots. Chatting to the veg delivery man at the door about how wonderful last week’s purple sprouting broccoli was. But I have to say I’m pretty new to it and I’m writing this to convince others that people on a budget can afford local, seasonal organic food.
I’m on my third week of a permanent order for a fruitit and veg box from Riverford Organic and so far I am loving it. Just £15 gets me a medium sized box that is packed with top quality produce, which is the perfect amount for me and Will.
I have to say I have joined at the least exciting time of the year, they call March-May the ‘hungry gap’, because stored vegetables have run out and the new seedlings haven’t grown yet, so half of the items each week have been imported (from reputable suppliers, still organic, and not air freighted can I point out). I am positively bursting with anticipation for June when we will have summer berries, courgettes, spinach and all sorts of other delights.
This week for example I got about seven apples, four large oranges, a bunch of six bananas, two lots of celery, a large cauliflower, beautiful vine tomatoes, a bag of mixed lettuce leaves, four leeks, a big bag of absolutely delicious purple sprouting broccoli, a huge bunch of swiss chard and the very best bit an EXTRA item – wild garlic picked from the woods.
So far this week Will and I have had for dinner: Salmon steamed with Asian spices and coconut milk with a large side serving of ‘spiced greens’ (using the chard and some of the purple sprouting, plus some frozen peas), vegetable curry (using the cauliflower, onions left from last week’s box, and some added sweet potato) and stir-fry of prawns and purple sprouting broccoli in ginger, garlic and oyster sauce (the broccoli is divine stir-fried) with homemade egg-fried rice. Tomorrow I plan to have a large mixed salad with hard boiled eggs and steamed Jersey Royals and on Thursday a summer vegetable minestrone with the celery, tomatoes, onion, left over Jersey Royals, the leeks and anything else I can find. Plus there was also enough for a large batch of cauliflower cheese soup, which Will is going to take to work for lunches and plenty of salad for my sandwiches.
So after that marathon of food you can’t dispute that a veg box is value for money. Riverford regularly do price comparisons with supermarkets and come out on top and let’s not forget delivery cuts down on carbon emissions, the produce has a lower carbon footprint, soon nearly all of the produce will be from the West Country, there is very little packaging and the packaging that there is can be recycled or given back to Riverford to use again. There is no looking back now I am part of the veg box clan, join us! By the way I don’t work for Riverford, there are plenty of other great box schemes such as the nationwide Abel and Coles and smaller localised ones.

Below is a recipe that came in my bag of delicious wild garlic and was a beautiful way to enjoy the subtle yet pungent taste of wild garlic. I have very roughly halved it so the recipe is for two people.

Wild Garlic Risotto
Half an onion, finely chopped
One clove of garlic, finely chopped
150g risotto rice (Arborio)
1 litre of chicken stock, heated and kept on a gas ring (I used around ¾ of the stock)
Knob of butter
Good handful of wild garlic leaves, shredded (not too thin)
Couple of handfuls of grated parmesan
Optional half glass of white wine (I hate white wine so don’t use it)

1. Fry onion and garlic very gently in olive oil or butter until very soft but not coloured. Thrown in the rice and coat in all the yummy oiliness.
2. At this stage you could add some wine and let it sizzle away. If not add your first ladle of stock and stir to make the grains really rich. Continue in this way, adding stock and stirring to encourage the starch to come out of the grain.
3. After about 10 minutes add the wild garlic leaves. Keep adding stock until the grains are soft but still have a bite to them.
4. Stir in the butter and parmesan and serve will there is still a bit of sloppiness to the risotto. Decorate with wild garlic leaves.

Hangover salad

I had a terrible handover on Saturday, one of those hangovers that lingers all day. A little too much red wine and Champagne at our work’s Christmas party I think.
So I was moping around all day feeling sorry for myself and generally drinking tea and nibbling dry biscuits.
However there was one good thing to come out of the day and that was that Will (the other half of Food4two) made a tasty meal for himself. I don’t think he will mind me saying he is an appalling cook, and because I cook all the time he has no need to learn. Every now and then I have to leave him to cook himself diner and he literally falls apart. Everything he either burns or undercooks.

 

Hangover salad made by Will

But on Saturday he was peering into the fridge wondering what to have for lunch. He said he fancied something healthy and light, so as I sat with my plate of plain Birdseye Potato Waffles (don’t judge me, it was all I could stomach. And there is something comforting about the soft fluffy centre and crispy outside of a waffle) I said what about a salad with the left-over feta cheese?
This salad is what he came up with and I think it looks fantastic. Not only that but it tasted great too.
It was a layer of red little gem lettuce, finely sliced red onions, some roasted red peppers from a jar and sliced red grapes, dressed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar then covered in crumbled feta. The mix of sweet and salty was fantastic and even with my pathetic hangover I managed to stomach it and went back for several mouthfuls.
So now he has no excuse for not cooking, I will just show him this photo and remind him that he can. This might be my new hangover cure.

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