Tom's Dinner

Vegetarian 'Jambalaya'

2008-03-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

Jamabalaya, traditionally made with spicy sausage, chicken and prawsns isn't something you'd see on a vegetarian menu. Considering there's no seafood, or spicy sausage in this version, it probably can't really be described as authentic creole cuisine. Yet I am currently trying to come up with more veggie dinners as Chayne is a vegetarian who doesn't like pulses much.

Vegetarian Jambalaya (Serves 3-4)

2 tbsp olive oil
1.5 tsp smoked paprika
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 celery sticks, sliced
2 red chillies, sliced
4 garlic cloves, chopped
3 vegetarian sausages, sliced thickly
350g Quorn pieces
250g long grain rice
1 litre vegetable stock
2 bay leaves
1 thyme sprig
1/2 tsp dried oregano

1) Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add the paprika and cook for a coiple of minutes. Then add the onion, garlic, peppers, celery and chillies and cook for 10 minutes.
2) Next add the Quorn and sausages and stir around for a couple of minutes. Then add the quornmm and sauasges and cook for another few minutes before adding the rice and stirring everything around for another 60 seconds.
3) Now use enough vegetable stock to top the rice and simmer until the rice is cooked. You will need to top up the pan with stock every now and then. It is ready when the rice is light and fluffy and has absorbed nearly all the water.

I can't lie. This would have tasted nicer with prawns, chicken and chorizo but it is still a very good vegetarian mid-week dinner and I couldn't stop going back for another spoonful.

Celery Soup With Blue Cheese

2008-03-06T23:10:00.000-08:00

This is another leftover dish. Stews and stocks often need the odd stick of celery but, of course, you can't just buy two sticks. So what to do with the rest of it. Well, I usually treat myself to a stick with salad cream. Then I made this soup with the rest. It's based on Delia recipe but I had a little blue cheese leftover in the fridge from lunch with my parents the other week. It takes 2-3 hours to cook but the best thing about it is that you don't need to fry anything. Just chop everything up, put it in a pot, stick it in the oven and forget about it for a few hours.

Celery Soup With Blue Cheese (Serves 4)
1 head of celery
1 small celeriac
1 onion
1.5 litres stock
2 bay leaves
80g any blue cheese (I used Norbury Blue from Norbury Farm near Dorking)
Handful of flatleaf parsley, chopped

1) Heat the oven to 140 then prepare the veg. Start by choping the celery into large chunks. Then peel and chop the celeriac into large chunks and do the same with the onion. Season with salt and pepper. Put it in the casserole dish with the stock and bay leaves. Bring to a gentle simmer on the hob and place in the oven for 2 1/2 hours.
2) Remove the soup from the oven, remove the bay leaves and blend it until smooth. You might need to do this in batches.
3) Pour the soup back into the casserole dish, bring it to a gentle simmer and crumble in the blue cheese. Then throw in the parsley at the last minute.

I'm not a big fan of cream in soup as while it makes for a smoother soup it usually takes something away from the flavour of the vegetables. Here though, the blue cheese does add the touch of creamyness to a robust soup. I continued the cheese them by having it with one slice of cheese on toast.

Sausage, Beans And Mash

2008-03-06T16:49:00.000-08:00

The Oxtail Stew turned out to be a great start to my thrifty eating plan. Not only did it provide me with a dinner (Andy had some too) but I also got two lunches out of it and still had some of the sauce left over. Of course this had turned to jelly in the fridge but it gave me another dinner once I'd scarped the fat off and reheated it. I bought some beef and chilli sausages from The Ginger pig (not that frugal but I within my £20 budget for the week) and cooked them in the stock. I served this with mustard mash. You could, of course, just use normal stock but I'm not sure of the precise measurements as I just had what was leftover.

Sausage, beans and mash Serves 2)

1 red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4 beef and chilli sausages (You can just use normal pork sausages if you like)
1 can of pinto beans
2 tsp cumberland sauce
Leftover Oxtail and ale stew stock (you can just make up some using 250ml beef stock and 250ml of stout)
3 potatoes
2 tsbp wholegrain mustard

1) Easy this. First heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and add the onions. Fry for a couple of minuted before adding the sausages and broining all over. Next add the garlic and cook for a couple of minutes.
2) Next add the beans and pour overthe stock. When it melts from its gelatinous form, the stock shouldn't cover the sausages but come about half-way up the sides. Simmer fort 20 minutes
3) While this is cooking, make your mash. Mash it with warm butter and heated milk and stir in a couple of tablespoons of wholegrain mustard.

Again this was pretty rich, but the cumberland sauce made it sweeter and less intense. I lov ethe way a simple Sunday dinner can provide almost a week of great lunches and dinners.

Oxtail Stew

2008-03-06T16:19:00.000-08:00

I had an embarrassing meeting with a financial advisor in the bank the other week. It was embarassing as my bank balance turned out to be far lower Than I had expected. So I've had to start saving money on food. This means no more roast beef baguettes from Pret A Manger for lunch, no more AMT coffees every morning and no more expensive cuts of meat from The Ginger Pig butcher. However, being thrifty doesn't mean I have to eat poor food as, hopefully, I'm about to prove.

Oxtail Stew (Serves 4)
1 red onion, cut in half and sliced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 kg oxtail (it should already be cut into sections)
2 medium carrots, sliced into four chunks
2 sticks of celery, sliced into four chunks
500ml stout (I used Shoreditch Pitfield Stout)
450ml chicken stock
1 tbsp thyme leaves
1kg potato
2 tbsp horseradish sauce

1) Pre-heat the oven to 140c. Heat a tablespoon of butter with a tablespoon of olive oil in a large casserole dish and brown the oxtail all over. Spoon it into a large bowl and set aside. Now fry the onion for five minutes, adding the garlic for the final two minutes. Throw the carrots and celery in the pan and cook fora minute or two.
2) Return the oxtail to the casserole, pour over the stout and chicken stock, add the thyme and bring to the boil. Remove the casserole from the hob and put in the oven for three hours.
3) With 20 minutes to go until the stew is cooked, peel the potatoes, cut into large chunks and boil in salted water. When they're cooked, mash with melted butter and warm milk. Season with salt and pepper and stir in a couple of tablespoons of horseradish sauce.

Oxtail might put some people off but it just tastes like beef and when it's slow cooked like this, it just falls off the bone. And considering this cost me just over £3 for a kilo of tail, you wonder why more people don't buy it. Actually when you eat it it does become obvious. It is quite fatty but this makes for a rich, gelatinous stew. Because it's so rich, you don't need much. I just had three bits of oxtail with my mash. It made enough for two dinners and two lunches, all for the same price as that aforementioned beef baguette.

Cheese Sausages With Beer Gravy

2008-03-06T15:59:00.000-08:00

I made these about a year ago when my recipes were on my MySpace page. Some of my friends made them and they were a big hit. The only problem was that everyone kept saying "I loved your cheese sausages." So I want to set the record straight. They're not mine, they're SIMON RIMMER's. You can find the original recipe here. Still they are great for a special vegetarian dinner. This time Chayne was coming around for lunch to meet my parents for the first time. She's a vegetarian so I wanted to make something nice. I really don't know what my Dad is playing at in the picture!

Lancashire Cheese Sausages (Serves 4-6)
400g Lancashire Cheese, grated
225g mozarella, grated
200g white breadcrumbs
6 spring onions, finely chopped
1 tbsp chopped thyme
1 tbsp chopped basil
1 tbsp chopped parsley
2 medium eggs and 3 medium egg yolks
2 garlic cloves, crushed

For the gravy
3 tbsp vegetable oil
3 large onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp light brown sugar
25g plain flour
200ml brown ale
500ml vegetable stock
2 tsp Marmite

For the mash
1kg potatoes
150g butter
2 tbsp whole grain mustard

1) First you need to make the sausages, so put all the ingredients in a bowl, season with salt and pepper and mix it all together with your hands. Then split the mixture into 12 equal sized oportions and roll each one into a fat sausage shape. Refridgerate for at least two hours or overnight.
2) Next make the gravy. Fry the onions in the vegeetable oil for 10 minutes, then add the garlic, sugar and continue cooking for ten minutes until the onions are golden brown. Now sprink with the flour and cook for a further minute. Finally add the stock and the Marmite and cook until it has reducced to a nice gravy
3) Now start making the mash. Cut the potato into decent-sized chunks and cook in salted water for 15 minutes. Mash with the butter and mustard, put a lid on the pan and keep warm until the sausages are done. with five minutes cooking time to go, put a green vegetable on to boil - I went for broccoli - and boil for five minutes.
4) Now you need to heat enough oil for deep frying in a saucepan. When it's hot enough (test to see if it's working with a cube of white bread. If it turns golden brown in 40 seconds, the oil is at the right temperature. Now drop the sausages into the hot oil in batches. You'll know when they're done when they go golden brown - should be about three minutes

I think everyone, including meat eaters, should give these a go. I love the way the outside is crunchy and the inside soft but it's the addition of those herbs that really makes what could be something heavy and greasy into something fresh and tasty. The beer might not be to everyone's liking as it does give the gravy a slight bitter aftertaste.

Chicken And Lentil Curry

2008-02-18T15:34:00.000-08:00

The picture makes this look like a korma but while it does include coconut milk and quite a bit of butter, it is actually a dal with some meat in it. John ate a similar thing when we went for a pre-Christmas curry at a scruffy (but tasty) South Indian restaurant in Charlotte St. I liked it so decided to give it a go myself.

Chicken And Lentil Curry (serves 4)
60g butter
2 tsp black mustard seeds
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 tsp turmeric
2 green chillies, finely chopped
250g red lentils
1 pint of water
300 ml coconut milk
1 tsp salt
6 chicken thighs, cut into large chunks

1) Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the mustard seeds and when they start popping you can add the garlic, onion and ginger. When they are softened the the garlic is browned you can add the turmeric and chillies and continue cooking for another five minutes.
2) Stir in the turmeric and chillies and cook for two more minutes.
3) Add the water, coconut milk, salt and the chicken. Bring to the boil, then turn it down to simmer for 40 minutes. Now it is up to you how thick you want your sauce to be. Personally I prefer a thinner sauce for this as it gets really heavy if you allow it to reduce too much.

Rich and fragrant, I really like this curry. It's not hot at all and the flavour comes from the butter and coconut milk. It's quite a cheap dish too which is quite good.

Chickpea And Potato Stew

2008-01-23T13:39:00.000-08:00

After having a mixed grill at Ishtar, a Turkish Restaurant near Baker Street, I felt like I needed a break from meat this evening. The grill came with a little bit of salad and a few spoonfuls of rice and the rest was made up of kebabs and chops which must have come to more than a pound of meat. I followed this with a beef topside baguette for lunch and at about mid-afternoon I started getting chest pains. I'm not sure if this was linked with my consumption of red meat but I went home on the dot and made this vegetarian stew.

Chickpea And Potato stew (serves 2)

3 tbsp olive oil
350g red onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 green chilli, sliced
2 tsp paprika
250g tomatoes, chopped
1 can of chickpeas
1 large potato, peeled and cut into large chunks
salt and pepper
220g couscous
A large pinch of saffron

1) First peel the potato, cut into largeish chunks and par-boil for around five minutes. Drain and then fry them in 2 tbsp of sunflower oil until slightly brown and crispy. Pat them dry with kitchen roll.
2) Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and add the sliced onions. Cook for about 15 minutes, by which time they should be really soft. Now add the garlic and chilli and continue cooking until the aroma mellows.
3) Next add the paprika and cook for a further couple of minutes before throwing in the tomatoes and the chick peas. Add 1/4 pint of water to loosen it a touch, season with salt and pepper and cook until the tomatoes have gone mushy. About ten minutes.
4) Put 220ml of boiling water in a small saucepan with a large pinch of saffron. Add the couscous and leave for five minutes until cooked. Add a knob of butter to the couscous to make it taste nice!
5) Finally stir the potatoes into the stew and warm through. If you'd prefer the sauce to be a bit thinner you can add a little more water at this stage.

Despite being Spanish in flavour, this recipe is inspired by two curries I made in India. You've got the tomatoes and onions of the Egg Masala and then the fried potatoes from the Aloo Gobi. But instead of adding coriander and garam masala I flavoured it with smoke paprika and added some garlic. I reckon this is as hearty a vegetarian dish as you could make for a winter evening and you do want some meat you could add some chorizo or even serve it under a fillet of cod or haddock.

Lamb Kebabs

2008-01-15T15:47:00.000-08:00

Damn Sainsbury's. Do they do it deliberately? Do they sell their lamb mince in 400g portions, knowing that you need 500g to make a proper Shepherd's Pie? This means that I had to buy two packs of lamb mince and, after making Sunday's Shepherd's Pie I had more lamb mince leftover. What to do? I could freeze it for a later day but I know it would be left there for months until it's time to throw away. I'm not very good with freezers, see. For me they're like cupboards to hide food in and forget about. So, in the end, I decided to have more lamb the following evening. This time in the form of koftas. I served them with a tomato, shallot and lime salad and a carrot thoran.

Lamb Koftas with carrot thoran and tomato and onion salad (serves two)

300g lamb mince
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
1 green chilli, chopped
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp chopped coriander
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
3 tsp lemon juice
salt and pepper
2 carrots,grated
1 shallot, chopped
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
Pinch of turmeric
30g dessicated coconut, mixed with 2 tbsp water.
1 tomato, cut in half and sliced
1 shallot, sliced
Juice of 1/2 lime

1) The lamb koftas are easy. First dry fry the coriander and cumin seeds until they give off an aroma. Then crush them all and put in a bowl. Next chop the garlic, coriander and ginger and add these to the bowl with the chopped coriander, lemon juice and the meat. Mix around into a big ball.
2) Now pick large chunks from the meat, roll into a ball, flatten it out into a log shape so it is about an inch thick and put it onto an oiled skewer Refridgerate for 30 minutes.
3) Put the grill on and put the koftas onto a baking sheet lined with foil. Grill for five minutes on either side.
4) While you are grilling the koftas, make the carrot thoran. For this you need to heat 1 tbsp of groundnut oil in a frying pan and pop the mustard seeds. Then add the shallot and the green chilli and fry for five minutes until softened. Add the carrot and coconut and continue cooking for a few minutes.
5) Finally the salad. Slice the tomato, alternate withe a slice of shallot, sprinkle with salt and squeeze over some lime juice. Serve it all up.

This would have been better had I not overcooked it but at least I can now say that there is no need to cook koftas for 20 minutes. Nor is there any need to have three yourself but they were really tasty, fragrant and mildly spiced. That's a good excuse isn't it?

Shepherd's Pie

2008-01-14T16:03:00.001-08:00

For some reason I've been asked this question a few times recently: what would be your final meal. Once again this topic came up on Friday evening and I find it amazing how many people go for food from their childhood. Mine is always my Grandma's shepherd's pie. Hers was special because she always made it when we visited as she knew it was my favourite. As soon as we arrived we'd be down the beach hut and then after a game of football in the back garden we'd be called in to eat shepherd's pie. I can't say I always fancy a curry but I could always eat a shepherd's pie. Here's mine. It's got garlic in it. Grandma wouldn't approve.

Shepherd's Pie (Serves 6)

1 oz butter
500g lamb mince
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery stick, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tbp flour
1 tin of tomatoes
1/2pt lamb stock
1 tbsp chopped rosemary
1 tbsp thyme leaves
1 tsp Worcester Sauce
1.25kg potatoes
1 egg, beaten

1) Melt the butter in a large heavy-based saucepan and fry the lamb until browned all over. Remove the lamb from the pan and drain all but a couple of tablespoons of fat.
2) Gently fry the onion, carrot, celery and garlic for around five minutes. Return the lamb to the pan, add the flour and mix around in the pan. Cook for a further minute to cook the flour and then add the tomatoes, stock, herbs, Worcester sauce and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer, put the lid on and cook for 45 minutes. Put the lamb into a casserole dish and refridgerate
3) Meanwhile make the mash potatoes. Cut them into large chunks and boil in salted water. When cooked mash with about 75g butter, 55ml warm milk and a beaten egg yolk. Season with salt and pepper. Leave to go cool.
4) Take the cassserole dish out of the fridge, top with the mash potato and put in the oven at 200g until the topping is golden - should be around 30 minutes. I served it with kale and carrots.

Leek, potato and bacon soup

2008-01-14T15:44:00.000-08:00

I made this on the Friday of my birthday weekend. I'd had a rotten cold all week and had to tidy my mess of a room before my friends arrived from Bath on Saturday. So that meant no time to go to do some food shopping. In the fridge was three rashers of bacon and I had two leeks and some potatoes in my veg bowl. So I put it all in this soup.

Leek, potato and bacon soup (Serves 4)

2 tbsp butter
2 leeks, sliced
3 maris piper potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 pint chicken stock
3 bacon rashers, cubed
1 tbsp chopped parsley

1) Melt the butter in a saucepan and coook the leeks until soft. This will take about ten minutes.
2) Add the potatoes and mix around with the buttery leeks. Next add enough chicken stock to cover the potatoes and cook until the potatoes are cooked (around 15 mins).
3) Meanwhile cut the bacon into cubes and fry until nicely browned. Add to the soup with the chopped parsley.
4) Pour everything into a blender and blitz until smooth.

I'm not a big fan of creamy soups so thsi is great. Leek and potato soup can be quite bland so the addition of bacon adds a bit of flavour. I was still hungry after eating this though. Soup never really does the business for me if I need filling up. I thought about buyings ome chips from around the corner but was a good boy and just went to tidy the room instead.

Pork And Lentils

2008-01-14T15:07:00.000-08:00

This is a good recipe when you've got some leftover roast meat. This time I had plenty of pork letfover so I put it with a few of my favourite things: Puy lentils, mustard and mashed potato.

Roast Pork With Lentils (Serves 2)

A bowlful of leftover roast pork leg (apologies for the lack of accuracy!)
200g puy lentils
1 carrot, cut in three
1 celery stick, cut in three
Half an onion
1 bay leaf
parsley stalks
1 tbsp butter
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 heaped tbsp creme fraiche
1 tbsp parsley leaves, finely chopped

1. Cut the roast pork into cubes. Put the lentils in a pan with the carrot, celery, onion, bay leaf and some parsley stalks, bring the the boil and cook for 20 minutes. Drain, making sure you reserve some of the cooking liquor. Remove the carrot, bay leaf, onion and celery.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the garlic and saute for a few minutes. Then add the pork to heat through. Now add the lentils to the pan with the mustard, creme fraiche, parsley and season with salt and pepper. Add some of the water you cooked the lentils in to slacken to your desired consistency.
3. Serve with mashed potato and boiled savoy cabbage flavoured with a teaspoon of caraway seeds.

This is quite heavy, stodgy fare but just what I needed on a cold, rainy night. The savoy cabbage flavoured with caraway seeds wasn't bad either. Puy lentils really are amazing - they keep their shape, have loads of flavour and only take 20 minutes to cook. Puut them together with sausages or leftover meat and you've got a quick, hearty dinner that's almost as good as the previous day's roast.

Roast Pork Leg

2008-01-06T14:34:00.000-08:00

Just catching up on My Christmas cooking at the moment. I usually go out drinking on Christmas Eve with my friends, but mindful of the nightmare it was to get back to Costessey from Norwich on the night before Christmas I decided to stay home this time and make a nice dinner for my parents. I wanted to make the stuffed pork tenderloins from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's book but Pickerings, the local butcher, didn't have any. So I picked a nice piece of boneless leg for three. It's really important to get a good piece from a decent local butcher. I bought some for New Year's Day from the supermarket but it was a bit lop-sided and the fat wasn't completely covering the meat so one end went a bit dry. I've always gone for Hugh FW's 20 minute sizzzle method but the sticker on the wrapping for this said "for perfect roast pork, smear in olive oil season with salt and pepper and put in the oven at 200c for 25 minutes for 500g). I cooked it for slightly longer than that but it came out juicy with a crispy layer of fat.

Roast Pork (Serves 3)

1kg Boneless Leg Of Pork
Olive Oil
Small handful of thyme
4 sage leaves
1 red onion, thickly sliced
4 garlic cloves
salt and pepper
splash of Aspall's dry cider
1 tsp flour
1/2 pt chicken stock

1) Pre-heat the oven to 200c. Smear the bottom of your roasting tin with olive oil. Place the onion slices in the middle of the pan and put the sage leaves on top. Now smear the pork in a little olive oil, sprinkle over some thyme leaves and put a few sprigs in the pan along with the unpeeled garlic cloves. Put in the oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Check to see if it's done after an hour though. The juices should run clear if it is.
2) As the meat rests for 20 minutes, make the gravy. Spoon off the fat from the roasting pan, mash the garlic cloves and put your pan on the hob. Deglaze the pan with a splash of cider. Then add a teaspoon of plain flour and mix around before gradually adding the chicken stock. At this stage I find it easier to transfer the gravy to a saucepan. Pass it through a sieve in a pan and keep it warm on the hob or reduce it to your desired consistency.
3) Now it's up to you. I think roast pork is great with mashed potato and savoy cabbage flavoured with a sprinkling of caraway seeds but you can go for the full works and have roast potatoes. For these I would par-boil the potatoes for five minutes, scrape them with a fork, give them a good coating in hot olive oil, sprinkle with more thyme leaves and season with salt and pepper. Stick them in the oven for 45 minutes.

I really like roast pork leg. It's far easier to carve than the last roast I had (lamb shoulder) and the fat prevents it from drying out. My Dad annnounced after he'd eaten it that he'd gone off pork but I don't know if that says anything about my cooking or not.

Lamb And Aubergine Curry

2008-01-03T16:03:00.001-08:00

I made this one Saturday before Christmas. I seem to remember it being cold outside and Norwich were playing Colchester on the telly. For some reason I wanted something that reminded me of going to Norwich matches when I was young in the days when there was always a hearty one-pot dinner waiting for us boys. For this one I took the base from the tomato and onion masala I learned on my Indian course and slow cooked it like a stew. A meeting of English and Indian if you like.

Lamb And Aubergine Curry (Serves 3-4)

750g cubed lamb (either from the shoulder or leg)
25g plain flour, seasoned with a large pinch of cumin
1 large aubergine, cut into bite-sized chunks
3 tbsp vegetable/sunflower oil
350g red onion, sliced
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
2 1/2 tsp ground coriander
250g tomato, chopped
1 tsp sugar

1) Pre-heat the oven to 140c (gas mark 1/2). First deal with the lamb. Just toss it in the flour and heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a large casserole dish and fry in batches until nicely browned.
2) Remove the lamb from the pan and fry the sliced onion for around 15 minutes until light brown and really soft. Next add the spices and temper over a medium heat until the spices have released their oils and the aroma has mellowed. Then add the chopped tomatoes with a teaspoon of sugar and cook until it has gone mushy.
3) Return the lamb to the pan, cover with water and place in the oven for three hours.
4) Half-way through cooking time, cut the aubergine into bit-sized chunks. Place in a colander, sprinkle with salt and leave to bleed. Rinse the aubergine, pat dry and with an hour to go until the lamb is ready, add to the casserole dish.
5) Remove from the oven and serve with plain boiled rice.

This is a really fine English-style winter curry. That's not to say it's greasy but it is very gently spiced with all the hallmarks of a good British casserole. Mild curries are often full of cream and butter but this isn't yet it's still slightly sweet and rich.

Aubergine And Tomato Pasta

2007-12-14T13:52:00.001-08:00

I made a bit of a breakthrough tonight. I ate some goats cheese and liked it. Goats cheese is one of the few foods that I struggle with, partly because when I was a vegetarian between 2003 and 2005 every single vegetarian option in a restaurant used to be some form of goats cheese tar. Anyway I always think its good to re asses with food as as tastes change. I tried a tomato in a restaurant after 20 year of refusing to eat them and enjoyed it. Quite why I decided to be brave with goats cheese when feeling incredibly hungover after the work Christmas party I don't know. I just liked the thought of having little white crumbs of cheese sitting like snowflakes on top of my pasta.

Aubergine and tomato pasta (serves 1)

2 tbsp olive oil
1 aubergine, cut into bite-sized cubes
1 tsp salt
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 red chilli, Finely chopped
4 tomatoes, blanched, skinned, deseeded and chopped
125g fusili pasta
goats cheese

1) Cut the aubergine up into cubes and toss in the salt. Put the aubergine cubes in a col lander, leave it to bleed for around ten minutes and then give them a rinse under the tap before patting dry witrh kitchen paper and setting aside.
2) Meanwhile pour some boiling water over the tomatoes. Leave them for five minutes then skin them, remove all the seeds and chop.
3) Fry the aubergine in the olive oil for 5-10 minutes until its really soft. Then remove from the pan and using the same oil, fry the garlic and chilli for a few minutes, then add the tomatoes and cook for ten minutes until the tomatoes have broken down into a mush. Stir in the aubergine.
4) While the tomatoes are cooking put the pasta onto boil. When ready, drain it and them mix it with the sauce. Pour all the pasta into a bowl and crumble goats cheese over the top.

This goats cheese was relatively mild so it didn't over power the sauce but it still made it a bit more interesting. You can see why chefs use goats cheese for the vegetarian options. A lot of chefs believe that vegetarian food is boring and they couldn't live without meat. Of course they're wrong but you can see why they go for the goats cheese option as it is strong and can making a dull dinner a bit more exciting.

Best Ever Vegetarian Chilli

2007-12-10T16:25:00.000-08:00

Provided you've got some dried ancho and chipotle chillis in your store cupboad (you can order them from the cool chile co) you should ignore the three bean chilli I made on the night of England's defeat against Croatia. This, with melting aubergines, black beans and smoky chipotles and ancho paste has a depth of flavour that makes it far superior. I was going to top it with sliced aubergines and bake it in the oven but it was late and I couldn't be bothered.

Black Bean and Aubergine chilli (serves 3-4)

1 large aubergine
2 tbsp sunflower oil
5 ancho chillies
3 chipotle chillies
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp ground cumin seeds
2 red onions
2 garlic cloves
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 can of black beans
15g ((or three squares) dark chocolate, grated
salt and pepper

1) Put the chillies in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave to soak for half an hour. Remove the chillis and keep the soaking liquid. Then leave to cool, remove the stalks and put them in a blender with the cumin seeds, paprika and enough of the sokaing water to loosen and form a paste.
2) Meanwhile cut the aubergines into cubes, put them in a collander, sprionkle with salt and leave for 20 minutes. Fry in the oil until soft. This should take around four to five minutes. Remove the aubergines from the pan and set aside.
3) Fry the onions in the same pan you cooked the aubergines in. Cook for 15 minutes until soft and light brown. Now add the garlic to the middle of the pan, cooking until the raw aroma has gone (about two minutes).
4) Now add the chilli paste to the pan and cook for a few minutes before adding the beans, tomatoes and aubergines. Add a little more of that soaking water to loosen the sauce again and simmer for 15 minutes. At the end, grate the chocolate into the chilli and stir around. Serve with plain boiled rice.

This vegetarian chilli is probably the finest I've ever made but I'd still like to try it slow cooked in the oven with stewing beef and dried black beans. Chilli really isn't a good sporting omen for me though. I made this one the night of another English defeat. This time it was Ricky Hatton against Floyd Mayweather. At least his defeat wasn't embarrassing. Unlike the England football team's.

Beef & Guinness Stew

2007-12-10T15:15:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday I asked Andy whether he preferred a roast or a stew. I think my answer would always be a stew. The thing like about a roast is all the trimmings - the roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and those little sausages wrapped in bacon you get at Christmas. Yet I love slow cooked, soft meat cooked in a pot and this sort of cooking always brings back happy memories of returning from Carrow Road to find a hotpot bubbling away on the hob. So here is a beef and Guinness stew with thyme dumplings

Beef & Guinness Stew (Serves 4)

750g good stewing beef
1 tbsp butter
125g shallots
25g plain flour
500ml Guinness
1 bay leaf
2 thyme sprigs
250g chestnut mushrooms, halved
60g suet
60g self-raising flour
60g white breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten
2 tbsp thyme leaves
salt and pepper

1) Pre-heat the oven to 120c. Heat the butter in a frying pan and cook the onions until light brown. Transfer to a casserole dish. Then mix the beef with the flour in a bowl and brown in batches in the frying pan. Again transfer to the casserole dish.
2) Now pour the Guinness over the meat and top up with a little water if needed to cover the meat. Put in the oven for 2 1/2 hours.
3) With an hour to go, fry the mushrooms in a little butter and add them to the stew. Then start work on the dumplings. Mix the flour, breadcrumbs and suet in a bowl and make a well in the middle. Pour in the beaten egg and mix it around with your hands until you have a dough. Add the thyme leaves and rub into the mix. Drop the dumplings into the stew with 40 minutes to go.

This stew is fantastic with mash potato. The meat is so tender it breaks up when you put it in your mouth, the onions will have melted into the rich Guinness sauce and the mushrooms and thyme add some more big flavours. Contrast that with some crusty, herby dumplings and you've got a perfect autumn/winter dinner.

Rabbit Stew

2007-12-09T15:40:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I was on my way to buy some fish and stopped off at the butcher's for a scotch egg for lunch. Seeing they had some wild rabbits, I bought one for dinner that evening. It was just £4.50 which is quite incredible when you consider that a chicken breast can cost £5 these days. Admittedly one rabbit will only serve two by my generous portions but it's great value for such a tasty animal. Until then I'd never eaten rabbit before so was hoping for great (okay, decent) results from this Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall stew.

Rabbit Stew (serves two)

1 wild rabbit, jointed into six (I asked the butcher to do this for me)
125g pancetta
1tbsp olive oil
1 onion, thickly sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 carrots, cut into four
2 celery sticks, cut into four
1 bay leaf
thyme sprigs
250 ml dry cider (I used Aspalls)
1 tsp honey
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
salt and pepper

1) Pre-heat the oven to 120c. Then heat some olive oil in a large frying pan and sizzle the bacon until it is lightly browned. Transfer to a casserole dish.
2) Next brown the rabbit pieces and add them to the casserole dish as well. In the same pan, fry the onions for five minutes and then add the garlic, cooking it for a few more minutes. Add to the casserole with the carrots, celery, bay leaf thyme, cider, honey, mustard and enough water to just cover the rabbit.
3) Put a lid on the casserole dish and place in the oven for one hour and twenty minutes. Serve with mash potato.

I've never eaten rabbit before and although it was slightly overcooked I'd say it went pretty well. The rabbit had a surprising amount of meat on it and it was very tasty although it is slightly annoying to eat with all the bones. As for the rabbit is has a plesant mild game flavour which is nothing like chicken.

Cabbage And Bacon Soup

2007-11-22T15:15:00.000-08:00

Back to that cabbage I mentioned earlier, I had no chance of using it before the weekend so I made a soup out of it with some streaky bacon. Cabbage soup doesn't sound that exciting but great things happen when some crispy bacon is thrown into the pot. Making a soup is easily the best way to use up leftover veg. Especially when you're cooking for one and you only need two leaves of savoy cabbage for dinner.

Cabbage and Bacon soup

25g buitter
1 small onion, chopped
8 rashers streaky bacon, cut into bite-sizzed pieces
1 450g savoy cabbage, shredded
1 litre vegetable stock
2 tablespoons of creme fraich
1/2 tsp caraway seeds
2 tbsp creme fraiche
1 potato, peeled and diced

1. Melt the butter in a large pan and fry the onion and 6 rashers of bacon together for ten minutes.
2) Next add the cabbage, the stock, potato and caraway seeds. Bring to the boil and turn down the heat to simmer for 30 minutes until the vegetables are soft.
3) Finally fry the remaining two rashers of bacon that that have been cut into pieces. Meanwhile add some creme fraiche and top the soup with crispy bacon.

Now this is a tasty soup - so much better than anything you can buy in the supermarket. Cabbage soup sounds a bit worrying but it is full of flavour and is brilliant with bacon. I'm looking forward to my lunch tomorrow already.

Herring With Beetroot and Apple

2007-11-22T14:54:00.000-08:00

Tonight is leftovers night. I'm going to Bath for the weekend and I have a cabbage and some bacon that needs using up and I've also got a bowl of chunky beetroot and apple chutney that I made the other night to go with my roast mallard. As for the mallard, it didn't got that well. For starters I overcooked it slightly (it was bloody after 35 minutes and overcooked after 40) but I also thought it would be a good idea to slice the potatoes and try to quickly roast them in the fat. Bad idea. Unfrtunately the potatoes were digusting but at least the beetroot was nice. There is still some left and I thought it would go well with herring which, at £1.24 for a whole fish, was a bargain.

Herring with Beetroot and Apple (serves 2)

4 small beetroots
1 bramley apple, cored abnd cut into chunks
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small red onion, sliced
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
Juice of one clementine
2 Herring, gutted and scaled
Salt and pepper

1) first put the beetroot onto boil for 30 minutes oor until soft. Peel the beets and cut them into cubes.
2) Fry the onion in a little olive oil for 10-15 minutes until light brown and realy soft. Now add the sugar, red wine vinegar, clemintine juice and the apple and cook until the apple is softened but still holding it's shape. You don't want it to stew.
3) Meanwhile you should put some potaoes onto boil and grill the herring. Just season both sides and stick it under a grill for four minutes on each side. Serve with the hot beetroot and apple mix ands some buttered boiled potatoes.

I really like Herring. Mackerel is relatively cheap but at £4.50 in Fishworks it seems very posh when compared with herring which must be one of the cheapeest oily fish around. It tastes so good though and works with powerful and slightlly piqaaunt flavours like this hot beetroot chutney.

Three Bean And Lentil Chilli

2007-11-22T14:01:00.000-08:00

Last time I watched an England game I had Jim, Andrew and Steve over for a curry. Jim commented that it was all a bit Jamie Oliver and he had a point but, seeing as we had won 3-0 against Russia, I decided to do the same again, only this time I made a chilli as it's a bit easier. This time it was just a case of putting everything in a pot and stirring. I've probably made more chillies than anything else in my life and although it might not be particularly sophisticated, no other food quite sums up autumn for me than a pot of bubbling chilli.

Three Bean And Lentil Chilli (Serves 4-6)

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large red onion, finely chopped
1 green and 1 red pepper, thickly sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4 small green chillies, sliced with the seeds left in
2 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tins chopped tomatoes
1/2 pint vegetable stock
1 tin black beans
1 tin haricot beans
1 tin kidney beans
100g red lentils
Salt and pepper

1) Heat the oil in a large pan (I used my 3 litre capacity Le Creuset casserole dish) and fry the onion for 15 minutes until reallly soft. Then add the peppers and chillies and continue cooking for five more minutes. Next add the garlic and fry for a few more minutes.
2) Add the chilli powder and ground cumin to the pan and cook for a couple of minutes, taking care not to let the spices burn. Next add the tomatoes, stock, beans and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and turn down to gently simmer for 30 minutes.
3) Meanwhile put the red lentils in a pan of boiling water and cook until they're very soft. This should take about ten minutes. Stir the cooked the lentils to the chilli.
4) Serve with plain boiled rice or a baked potato.

I've made a lot of chillies in my time. Sometimes with meat, sometimes veggie. I don't actually think it makes much difference because the flavour is in the sauce rather than the mince. I have messed about with it too - I've added chocolate, baked beans, a can of guinesss and used fresh tomatoes rather than tinned. Yet this is probably my definitive chilli - it is the best I've made. Not too hot yet with a slight kick and I like all the different beans. The lentils are actually there to thicken the chilli rather than flavour it. Unfortunately the chilli was the highlight of the evening as England failed to qualify for Euro 2008 with a 3-2 defeat against Croatia. It looks like I won't be having another one of these evenings for a while.

Mackerel With Lentils

2007-11-20T15:50:00.000-08:00

So this week I've started a food diary, writing down everything I eat. The plan is to make sure that after a few weeks of eating terribly - pizza, cornish pasties, supermarket curry - I start eating fruit and vegetables. I also want to make sure I get enough fish. It never fails to make me feel better and today I went to Kensington Church Street in search of fish only to find it closed. So I went to the expensive Fishworks where I wanted to buy some Haddock but wallked out with a plump south coast mackerel. It's rare that one dish will contain so many of my favourite things but grilled mackerel, roasted tomatoes and puy lentils are probably in my top ten. So I put them all together.

Mackerel With Lentils (Serves two)

2 large mackerel fillets
2 plum tomatoes, halved
100g puy lentils
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small red onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 tbsp creme fraiche
Handful of flatleaf parsley, chopped
Savoy Cabbage

1) Pre-heat the oven to 180c. Cut the tomatoes in half, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper annd place in the oven for 45 minutes
2 Put the puy lentils onto boil for 20 minutes. Meanwhile heat the olive oil in a frying pan and lightly brown the red onion. Then add the garlic and cook for a further minute or two. Drain the cooked lentils, add them to the frying pan and stir in the mustard, creme fraiche and parsley.
3) With five minutes to go until the lentils are done, season the mackerel with salt and pepper. Place under the grill, skinside up, for five minutes. Serve on top of the lentils with the roast tomatoes and steamed savoy cabbage on the side.

I just love the sweet flesh of a mackerel - it goes so well with tomatoes and can take hot flavours like mustard. My one portion of oily fish this week was an absolute pleasure to eat.

Squash And Sage Risotto

2007-11-13T15:23:00.001-08:00

I was flicking through Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries this morning as I put off going to work until the last possible moment. The picture of the roast squash in the November section really looked appetising and tempted me even at 8:50 in the morning It also had the effect of inspiring me to make my favourite risotto - Squash and Sage. Now this is a bit of an experiment for me. I want to see if a risotto can still taste nice without wine. I realise that a glass of wine in a risotto isn't that bad, especially seeing as the alcohol is cooked off. Yet I'm not worried about the glass of wine that goes in the risotto, the three quarters of a bottle of wine leftover is the problem as it all too easily finds its way into my mouth. Not good for someone who is attempting to cut down on booze.

Squash And Sage Risotto (serves 3)

1 Butternut Squash, peeled and cut into chunks
1 tbsp creme fraiche
large pinch of chilli flakes
1 celery stick, finely chopped
1 small carrot, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
A knob of butter
1 garlic clove, crushed
10 sage leaves
200g arborio rice
1 litre vegetable stock
50g parmesan cheese, grated
Handful of pumpkin seeds

1) First preapre the squash. Put the chunks of squash in a pan of boiling water for five minutes or until soft. You want tos top the cooking process here so drain the squash and refresh with cold water. Now put half the squash in a food processor with the creme fraiche and chilli flakes and process to a puree. Set aside.
2) Heat the olive oil and melt the butter in a large saucepan. Saute the onion, celery and carrot with four of the sage leaves. When softened add the garlic to the centre of the pan and continue cooking until you lose the raw garlic smell.
3) Next add the arborio rice to the pan and cook for a minute of so or until the grains are transluscent. Then add a ladel of warm vegetable stock and stir your risotto until the liquid has been absorbed. When this happens add another ladel of water and repeat until the rice is cooked. It should take around 20 minutes.
4) Heat some butter and olive oil in a pan and fry the four remaining sage leaves. Set aside and then roast the pumpkin seeds in a dry frying pan for a minute or two.
5) When the rice is cooked you can stir in the pureed butternut squash, bit-sized squash chunks and heat through. Then add the parmesan top with a couple of sage leaves per person and some pumpkin seeds.

So obviously risotto is a bit richer with wine but I made up for the lack of booze with some more flavour. In the past I've pureed all the vegetables but left some chunks. Not only does it mean the risotto has more texture but you still get the pure sweet squash flavour. Lovely stuff...

Sea Bream And Tomato Stew

2007-11-12T13:59:00.001-08:00

Aside from the curry I've been eating pretty poorly recently. I've been so busy since I got back from India that I've barely had a moment to cook and my usual diet has suffered. Leftovers for lunch have been replaced by cornish pasties and I've been going out to eat a lot. Shockingly I have actually lost weight during this period but Suzanne told me that this wasn't necessarily a good thing as I'm not getting enough vitamins and she should know as she writes a diet and fitness blog. So to kick the week off I've decided to have some fish served with a hearty spanish-style tomato and potato stew. I bought some Sea Bream from Fishworks as I couldn't be bothered to go to the good fishmongers in Kilburn at lunch. It was expensive but that's what you get for food shopping on Marylebone High Street rather than Kilburn High street.

Sea Bream with Tomato and and Potato Stew (Serves 2)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 red pepper, cut into thick strips
1 tsp smoked paprika
6 tomatoes, chopped
1 bay leaf
Handful of thyme (about six sprigs)
1 large potato, cut into chunks
2 Sea Bream, gutted, scaled and fins removed

1) Pre-heat the oven to 200c. Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a saucepan and saute the onions for around five minutes. Then add the pepper and continue cooking until softened. Next add the garlic and cook for a few minutes or until you can no longer smell the raw garlic aroma.
2) Add the smoked paprika, stir vigorously and cook a for a few minutes. Then add the chopped tomatoes, bay leaf and leaves from two sprigs of thyme. Cook until the tomatoes have gone mushy and you have a nice thick sauce.
3) Put the sauce into a casserole dish. Then season the sea bream on both sides, stuff the cavity with the rest of the thyme, place it on top of the toamto sauce and put in the oven for 20 minutes, flipping the fish half-way through.
4) While the fish is cooking, par boil the potatoes for five minutes. Then fry them in a tablespoon of olive oil until light brown and crispy on all sides.
5) When the Bream is done remove the dish from the oven and move the fish onto a plate. Then add the potato to the sauce. Stir it around and serve with the fish.

After a week of eating pretty poor food this was just what I needed. It was healthy enough to do me good but the tomato, paprika and potato stew made for a big-flavoured, hearty autumn dish. This stew is very versatile. I had half leftover at the end so I added a tin of chick peas and will have it for lunch tomorrow.

Indian Feast

2007-11-11T15:46:00.000-08:00

I haven't written a blog since going to India in mid October for my cooking course. I learned to make so many dishes that I could never face writing them all down at once. It seemed like too much work after a day at work. So instead I've decided to do a bit at a time, starting with the four dishes I made at John and Helen's house in Banbury this weekend. I made five dishes - egg masala, aubergine vindaloo, okra thoran, tarka dal and vegetable rice. Be warned though: you'll need a bit of time to get this lot ready. The individual dishes don't actually take that long if you want to make one or two for a midweek dinner but when you put them all together there's a whole lot of chopping going on and if you've got a small kitchen like mine you need to be quite organised. All this food will be enough for four but if you only wanted to make one dish I think each one would be enough for two.

Egg Masala
8 eggs
2 tbsp vegetable/sunflower oil
350g red onion, sliced
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
2 1/2 tsp ground coriander
250g tomato, chopped
1 tsp sugar

1) Heat the oil in a pan and, when it is very hot, add the onions. Turn down the heat and cook until soft and lightly browned.
2) Now add all the spices and stir vigorously. When you add the spices the aroma will be intense and you need to carry on cooking the spices until the smell mellows and the spices release some of their natural oils. This will take around five minutes.
3) Add the tomatoes and sugar and continue cooking until it is mushy.
4) Meanwhile hard boil the eggs. Shell and cut them in half with some sauce spooned on top.

Okra Thoran
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp urad dal (optional)
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 dried kashmiri chilli (the wrinkly ones), broken
pinch of turmeric
30g fresh coconut, grated. Or use dessicated coconut soaked with 2 tbsp of water.
150g Okra, sliced at an angle

1) Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the urad dal and mustard seeds. When they stop popping add the onion and cook until lightly brown. Add the chilli, turmeric and coconut and stir around to mix.
2) Now add the okra and stir fry for around five minutes.

Tarka Dal
150g channa dal
100g red onion, finely chopped
150g tomato, sliced
1 tsp salt
2 cups of water
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp cumin seeds

1) Put the dal, red onion, tomato, salt and water in a pan and cook for forty minutes or until the pulses are soft. You might need to top up the water every now and then.
2) Next heat some oil in another pan, add the spices and cook for about a minute. Take care not to burn the spices.
3) Then you pour the dal into the pan with the spices, give it a stir and garnish with fresh coriander.

Aubergine Vindaloo
2 tbsp oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 large aubergine, cut in half and then sliced into strips.
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 inch ginger, grated
4 garlic cloves, crushed
3/4 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp vinegar.
150g sieved tomatoes (or passata)

1) First prepare the aubergine. It needs to be cut into short strips about one inch thick. Soak in water for around five minutes and drain, squeezing out excess liquid. 2) Heat the oil in a large saucepan and saute the shallots for five minutes.Next add the aubergine and put the lid on the pan letting them sweat for around 20 minutes until it is really soft.
3) While that's happening make a vindaloo paste from the vinegar, ginger, garlic, cumin and mustard seeds. Add this to the pan and cook until the smell becomes less intense.
4)Finally add the sieved tomatoes and heat through.

Vegetable Pullau
300g
lime juice
1 tbsp butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 inch of ginger
1 inch of cinamon stick
5 cloves
4 cardamom pods
10-15 black peppercorns
1/2 piece of mace
1 star anise
150g frozen peas
2 tomatoes, blanched for five minutes, skinned and chopped

1) First cook the rice as usual in some boiling water with a little lime juice squeezed in and a tablespoon of sunflower oil. Set aside.
2) Heat 2 tsp of oil in a saucepan, add the red onion and cook until lightly brown. Then add the garlic, stir around for 1 minute. Next cook 150g peas and add this with the rice and tomatoes to the big pan. Stir around until all the rice is hot.

That's all. I wanted to make a rice noodle desert but I bottled it on four curries. Also it was 9pm by the time the curries were on the table so I didn't fancy spending another 30 minutes stirring milk. Understandable really. All these dishes are really simple and fragrant without being hot, heavy or rich.

Coriander Sea Bass

2007-10-03T14:53:00.001-07:00

After getting my jabs for India I went to the fishmongers in Willesden. I wanted to get some John Dory but they didn't have any so had to settle for two nice fillets of sea bass instead. I marinated it for about an hour in a coriander paste that sort of followed the same principle as the pesto I made the other week. This would work equally well with chicken.

Coriander Sea Bass (Serves 2)

2 Sea Bass fillets
50g coriander leaves
2 tbsp almonds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 mild green chilli, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
6 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
125g basmati rice
Handful of coriander leaves, chopped
1 lime, zest and juice

1) First toast the the almonds and coriander seeds in a dry frying pan. Put them in a food processor with the coriander leaves, green chilli, garlic clove, lemon juice and oil. Blend to a smooth paste and season with salt and pepper.
2) Put the sea bass in a dish and cover both sides with the paste. Leave for 20 minutes.
3) Put the rice onto boil and with five minutes cooking time to go, put the sea bass under the grill, skin-side up. Remove from the oven after four minutes.It should be just cooked through but if you feel it needs more put it under the grill for a further minute.
4) When the rice is cooked and the water has all reduced away, add the handful of chopped coriander leaves, lime zest and the juice from one half of the lime (set aside the other half). Give the rice a stir and keep on the heat for around 30 seconds.
5) Now divide the rice between two plates and lay the sea bass fillets on top. Cut the remaining half of lime in two and squeeze over the fish. Serve with any steamed green vegetable. I used broccoli because I like it!

Sea Bass is a lovely fish and I wanted to be able to taste it without overpowering it with spice. So I only used one teaspoon of coriander seeds and a very mild chilli. I was very pleased with the results. Coriander can divide opinion but I love its pungent aroma and its citrusy overtones go so well with fish. The green chilli added a tiny kick and the almonds and coriander seeds a pleasing crunchy texture. Obviously it is quite healthy but it is just so green that it looks like it is going to do you good. Something I needed after a curry at Bawarchi on Monday and sausages with (huge) potato cakes at the Quays on Tuesday.

Figs With Sherry Cream

2007-09-26T16:49:00.000-07:00

This was a successful dessert after today's unsuccessful dinner. I made devilled mushrooms - it was edible and the sauce was very tasty but it just didn't go very well with the mushrooms and as I was eating it I was thinking how good it would have been with eggs or some Cauldron vegetarian sausages. I'll write about that another day. Anyway, back to the dessert, I bought some figs on special offer at the weekend and they really needed using so I baked them with honey and made a Spanish inspired cream flavoured with dry sherry and almonds.

Figs With Sherry Cream (serves two)

Four Figs
2 dssp runny honey
100ml double cream
Handful of almonds, halved
1 dssp dry sherry

1) Pre-heat the oven to 220c. Now slice across and down the middle of the figs without cutting right through the bottom of the figs. Place the figs in a small roasting tray, drizzle with the honey and put them in the oven for 10 minutes.
2) Meanwhile beat the cream with a mixer until it is thick and stands in peaks. Then stir in the sherry and almonds, saving a few whole ones back to present on top of the cream.
3) Serve two figs per person with a generous dollop of cream and the pan juices spooned over the top.

Roasting figs in honey releases this gorgeous pink liquid which tastes so good. It's a bit messy this pudding but in a good way. The sherry and the almonds give a great flavour to the cream, too.

Chicken Noodle Salad

2007-09-26T10:48:00.000-07:00

If yesterday's chinese had a bit of the tacky chinese takeway about it then this is the modern, healthier side of the country's cuisine. And after a few days of lard it's good to return to the healthy eating plan. This is seriously healthy as the chicken for this salad is steamed. The first time I made this I tried smothering the meat in Szechuan peppercorns but because it was steamed I just ended up crunching on peppercorns. This is my second attempt, this time made with Earl Great teabags. These are optional - they only lightly perfume the chicken but it does smell nice when you lift the lid off your steamer.

Chicken Noodle Salad (Serves Two)

2 chicken breasts, skinned
2 inches of root ginger, thinly sliced
3 Earl Grey tea bags
salt and pepper
Chinese Leaf, shredded (you need about half a head)
2 portions of egg noodles
4 radishes, sliced
6 spring onions
1 red pepper
4 tbsp groundnut oil (or any other flavourless oil)
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1 inch root ginger, grated
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 green chilli, finely sliced (optional)

1) Put three tea bags in the bottom of your steamer, pour some boiling water over the top, put the top half of the steamer in place and stick the lid on.
2) Meanwhile make some slashes in the chicken breasts and put a thin slice of ginger in each pocket. Season both breasts with salt and pepper and put them in the top half of the steamer for 10-15 minutes until cooked through. You can take them out after 10 to check.
3) While the chicken is steaming, prepare your salad. First put the noodles on to boil for four minutes (or according to pack instructions). When they're ready, drain in a colander and put them under the cold water tap until they're cool.
4) Now shred the chinese leaf, cut the red pepper into large chunks and slice four of the spring onions. As for the other two, slice them lengthways. Put everything in a large bowl
5) When the chicken is ready, remove from the steamer and leave for a few minutes before cutting into large cubes and adding to the salad bowl.
6) Finally make the dressing. Just put the garlic, ginger and chilli (if using) in a measuring jug, add the oil and vinegar and give it a good stir with a fork. Pour over the salad and give it all a good mix to coat the salad in the dressing. divide between bowls and serve.

Out of all the salads I've made so far this is my favourite. You've got crunch from the chinese leaf, pepper and radishes, then there's the soft noodles and tender, aromatic chicken. Finally you've got a dressing which is punchy but doesn't overpower the chicken. Not sure if the tea bags do that much apart from make the kitchen smell nice but you could try tea-smoking the chicken or even poaching it in green tea. In fact I might try that next week. Watch this space...

Pork With Plum Sauce

2007-09-25T15:55:00.000-07:00

I bought some plums on Saturday and made a chinese-style sauce to go with the leftover pork from Sunday's roast. Once again this doesn't fit into my healthy eating plan and it's not just because of the fatty meat. The plum sauce has quite a lot of sugar in it but it is always satisfying making a sauce that you usually find in a jar or a packet. I made some tomato ketchup last year and I think I enjoyed it all the more for the extra effort that had gone into making it.

Pork With Plum Sauce (serves 2)

400g roasted pork, shredded or diced (I used the rest of the belly I cooked on Sunday but you coould stir fry some diced lean for five minutes)
450g plums, halved and stones removed
110g caster sugar
100ml white wine vinegar
150ml cold water
1tsp grated ginger
2 red chillies, halved and seeds removed
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stick, finely chopped
1 tsp chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)
1 inch ginger, grated
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp cornflour, mixed with a little water
Egg noodles

1) First make the plum sauce. Put the plums, caster sugar, white wine vinegar, water and chillies in a saucepan, bring up to a merry simmer and cook for twenty minutes. The sauce won't be thick as you might expect but the cornflour will take care of that later. Now press through a sieve to get rid of the chillies and plum skin.
2) Now stir fry the carrot and celery in some groundnut oil for a couple of minutes. Then add the ginger and garlic and cook for a further minute. Add a teaspoon of rice wine and soy sauce and cook for another minute before adding the pork and about a third of the plum sauce (store the rest in the fridge. It'll last for a couple of weeks). You want enough sauce to come up just beneath the level of rest of the ingredients. Add the cornflour mix to the sauce and just warm through until thickened.
3) Meanwhile put the noodles on to boil for four minutes. Serve in bowls with the pork spooned over the top.

If you still enjoy the sort of chinese food you ate as a kid this is for you. As with apple sauce, this plum sauce works well with the fatty meat but it is rather sweet so it might not be to everyone's taste. As for the rest of the sauce you can use it with duck which I think it might be best suited to. Apologies for the picture. It doesn't make it appear very appetising!

Roast Pork Belly

2007-09-25T15:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry to quote myself but I did say when I started this blog that I would treat myself to the odd high-fat dinner. Well this probably takes my quota for the month up as it'sone of the fattiest things I've eaten since I started writing about food. I only really made it because my Mum had given me some bramley apples that needed using. Also I thought I could use the leftovers in a seasonal chines plum sauce.

Roast Pork Belly (serves 4)

1.3kg Pork belly, scored
Lots of thyme leaves (about 4-6 sprigs)
4-6 sage leaves
2 onions, sliced
4 bramley apples, peeled, cored and sliced
Juice of half a lemon
Juice of half an orange
1 tbsp caster sugar
Spinach and new potatoes to serve

1) When you buy the meat ask the butcher to score the skin for you. He should cut plenty of vertical slices in the fat. Then rub salt and pepper and thyme leaves into the cracks. Break up the sage leaves and rub those in too.
2) Pre-heat the oven to 220c, put the belly in a roasting dish and roast for half an hour. At this point a lot of juices will have been released from the pork and will start to caramelise on the bottom of the pan. A bit of this is okay but if you leave the meat sitting in it for the entire roasting time, the bottom of the meat will get too crusty. So, after the initial blast, lift the pork out of the tin, place the onion slices on the bottom and rest the meat on top.
3) Now turn the oven down to 180c and continue roasting for another hour. You should have some crackling on top of the pork and the juices should run clear when prodded with a skewer. Leave to rest for 15 minutes.
4) Meanwhile make the apple sauce. Core, peel and slice the apples and place them in a bowl with the lemon juice to prevent them from discolouring. Then put them in a small saucep;an with the sugar and cook until the apple has turned into a puree.
4) With about five minutes to go until the pork is done, put the new potatoes on to boil. When they're ready, drain them and put a knob of butter into the pan. Once melted, season with salt and pepper and lightly crush them with the back of a fork.
6) Finally put the spinach in a collander and pour boiling water on top of it until it has slightly wilted.
7) Cut the pork into thick slices and serve on topof the potatoes with some apple sauce and spinach on the side.

Unfortunately, because I didn't ask the butcher to score the meat properly, the crackling didn't crisp up enough. If this happens you can either whack the oven temperature up to the top and put the meat back in until you have good crackling. Or you can do what I did and remove the 'crackling' from the meat and put it straight in the oven. I'm not that big a fan of crackling so it wasn't a disaster for me. The pork is so soft and juicy it is comforting Sunday evening food of the highest order. Youw ill need a bit of apple sauce with each mouthful to cut through the juicy fat.

Smoked Mackerel Salad

2007-09-24T14:32:00.000-07:00

After having curry and cake with Mum at the weekend it was back to the healthy eating in the week. Well, kind of - I did go have a hot dog from the shop next to the Market Porter before the Norwich V Chelsea game on Tuesday. And then there was dinner (and lots of wine) at Mildred's on Wednesday. Oh, and not forgetting the curries I had on Friday (Bawarchi) and Saturday (Sagar). Although at least Friday's curry was just some grilled chicken made with coriander, lemon leaves and all sorts of spices. Saturdays vegetarian curry was quite light too. Anyway, enough justification - here's the salad

Smoked Mackerel Salad (Serves 2)

2 smoked mackerel fillets, skinned and cut into bite-sized pieces
2 handfuls of mini plum tomatoes
4 spring onions,sliced
250g mixed salad leaves (I had mustard leaves, red chard and mizuna)
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
salt and pepper

1) Not much to this. Half the tomatoes, slice the spring onions and skin and cut the mackerel into bite-sized pieces. Put in a bowl with the salad leaves.
2) Next make the dressing. Put the olive oil, mustard and vinegar in a jug, blend thoroughly with a fork and season with salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the salad and divide into two bowls.

This is all about the quality of the mackerel and salad leaves. Buy some horrible peppered mackerel and some iceberg lettuce and this will be pretty boring. However with naturally smoke mackerel and some interesting, peppery salad leaves and this will be great. Then it's just about matching the flavours. I had mustard leaves, tomatoes and wholegrain mustard because they go very well with the oily mackerel and can stand up to the smokiness.

Pineapple Upside-Down Pudding

2007-09-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

I saw this on the menu at Mildred's, a vegetarian restaurant in Soho. It's quite an old-school pudding - the kind of thing I used to be forced to make in food technology. Only then we just used a tin of pineapple rings and, if you were lucky, some glace cherries. I tried to update it a little with fresh fruit, mint and a pineapple juice syrup that I poured over the sponge when it was cooked.

Pineapple Upside-Down Pudding (Serves 6-8)

1 medium pineapple
Handful of fresh mint
4 tbsp caster sugar
110g butter, softened
110g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
110g self-raising flour, sifted
4 tbsp caster sugar
8 tbsp pineapple juice
Greek yoghurt, mixed with a tablespoon of honey

1) Pre-heat the oven to 200c. Grease a sandwich tin.
2) Now for the pineapple. Cut off the peel, getting rid of any black bits. Cut it into quarters and slice out the core. Then cut the pineapple into one inch slices. Chop the mint and put in a pestle and mortar with the sugar. Give it a good bashing until it is all combined and put it in the bowl with the pineapple, Mix it all around with your hands and place the slices in the bottom of the sandwich tin. Set aside.
3) Now for the sponge. Cream the butter and sugar together with a mixer until light and fluffy. Then with the mixer running, just add a little beaten egg at a time. Fold in the sifted flour. Spoon the sponge mixture over the top of the pineapple and place in the oven for 40 minutes. Do check it after about half an hour though. If it is spongey to touch and a skewer comes out clean it is done.
4) While the sponge is cooking you can make the pineapple syrup. Just put the pineapple juice and the rest of the sugar in a small pan, turn the heat up and cook until it has reduced to a syrupy consistency. When the sponge is ready, prick holes in the top with a skewer and spoon the syrup over a tablespoon at a time. It will soak into the holes.
5) Invert a plate over the top of the sandwich tin and flip it over to turn it out. Serve with spoonful of yoghurt mixed with honey.

It's not often that I make deserts, let alone one using my own recipe so I was quite pleased with this. There's something so satisfying about turning out an upside-down pudding. It didn't feel heavy after the roast monkfish as the pineapple and mint tastes so fresh. Also, thanks to the pineapple juice syrup, the sponge was quite moist and sweet. It was a good end to great weekend with my Mum. Interestingly, when I went Mildred's in the week, it wasn't on the menu any more so I had passion fruit creme brulee instead - that's another pudding I'll have to make...

Roast Monkfish

2007-09-23T00:38:00.001-07:00

My Mum came over last weekend to see The Merchant Of Venice at The Globe for which I'd bought tickets for her birthday. On Saturday night we went for a great curry at Bawarchi in Kensal Rise (one of my favourite Indian restaurants in London). Then on Sunday, Mum wanted to go to the Queen's Park farmer's market so I bought some food for lunch. I went for some Monkfish as Mum loves fish but doesn't get to eat it at home all that often (or at least without my Dad complaining about the smell). We had it with new potatoes and green beans followed by pineapple and mint upside-down pudding.

Roast Monkfish (serves 2)

2x 200g monkfish fillets, skinned and pink membrane removed (ask the fishmonger to do this. Foolishly I didn't)
Rosemary, one spring
Thyme, couple of springs
1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove
New potatoes (enough for two)
Green beans (enough for two)
Handful of flatleaf parsley, roughly chopped

1) Pre-heat the oven to 200c. Put the potatoes onto boil for 15-20 minutes. Then heat the olive oil in a frying pan, add the thyme leaves, rosemary, unpeeled garlic clove and the monkfish and brown on all sides for four minutes.
2) Tip the whole lot into an oven-proof dish and roast for 10-12 minutes until it is cooked through. While this is cooking you can put your green beans on for five to seven minutes, depending on how well you like them to be cooked.
3) Remove the fish from the dish, put it on a plate and cover with foil. Now squeeze the garlic out with the back of a fork and add this with a handful of chopped parsley to the potatoes. Then pour over the juices from the fish and lightly crush with the back of a fork. Spoon the potatoes onto a plate, put the monkfish on top and serve with some green beans on the side.

I made this while Mum was out weeding the garden. I wasn't going to use the herbs but as while I was out in the back I picked some and put them in with the fish. As monkfish is quite meaty it can take some robust herbs. I think I do prefer more delicate fish than monkfish but the flavours were good and it was a nice late summer lunch.

Pindi Chana

2007-09-22T16:17:00.000-07:00

This is my attempt at making a version of a chickpea curry I had at an Indian restaurant in Marylebone called Cinnamon Spice. This was a pretty standard curry house but it had one thing on the menu that stood out from the usual mix of Jalfrezis and Bhunas and this was it. Mainly because of the inclusion of sun-dried mango which sweetened the nutty chickpeas. I first made this on the Saturday before the barbecue but stupidly added chilli powder which overpowered the fragrant chickpeas. So I tried it again when Jim, Andrew and Steve came over for the England V Russia match. It's quite a dry curry so it works well with a tarka dal and rice

Pindi Chana (Serves 4)

250g dried chickpeas
4 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
4 cardamom pods
1 tea bag
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 inch of root ginger, grated
1 green bird's-eye chilli, finely chopped
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp garam masala
2 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
1 tbsp tamarind paste
400g cooked new potatoes
4 dried mango slices, sliced thinly
Handful of coriander leaves, chopped

1) Soak the chickpeas overnight in plenty of water. The next day, drain the chickpeas and cover them with 1.5 litres of fresh cold water, adding the teabag, cloves, cinnamon stick and cardamoms. Cook for one hour until softened. You can cook the potatoes at this stage too. Just cut themin half and boil for 15-20 minutes.
2) Drain the chickpeas, reserving the water. Then fry the onion in some groundnut or sunflower oil for 15 minutes. Then add the garlic, ginger and chilli and cook for a further minute.
3) Meanwhile dry-roast the cumin and coriander seeds in a frying pan for a minute. Grind in a spice or coffee grinder or a pestle and mortar and add to the pan with the garam masala. Cook for futher minute.
4) Next add the tomatoes and the chickpeas to the pan with the reserved flavoured water and season with salt and pepper. When the tomatoes have disintegrated, add the potatoes and continue cooking until the sauce has reduced right down. Add the mango slices and potatoes and heat through for a few minutes before throwing in the coriander leaves right at the end.

Tarka Dal

2 tbsp groundnut oil
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 tsp black mustard seeds
2 garlic cloves, crushed
10 fenugreek seeds
1 inch root ginger, grated
150g red lentils
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 pint water
2 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
1 tbsp tamarind paste
Hanful of chopped coriander
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala

1) Heat one tablespoon of oil in a saucepan, add the onion and cook for 10 minutes. Next add the mustard seeds, cover the pan and cook until they pop. Then add the garlic and ginger and continue cooking for a further minute.
2) Now add the spices and salt and cook for another minute before adding the tomato puree and heating through for a further minute.
3) Next add the lentils, tamarind paste and tomatoes and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the lentils are cooked.
4) Finally, to make the tarka bit, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a frying pan, add the chilli powder and garam masala and keep on the heat for a minute before adding it to the dal along with the coriander.

I put the curries and the rice on the table and as the boys helped themselves I couldn't help but think it was all a bit Joliver. I could imagine him saying "You get the lads around for the football and make a curry." I always complained that no one does this but now I have. At least the food was tasty. From start the finish the Pindi Chana appears to take along time but once the chickpeas are softened it takes hardly any time to cook. It was so much better without the chilli powder, too. This is a very fragrant dish and it smells fantastic. The tea gives the chickpeas a pleasing dark colour, too. One of my finer curries.

Lamb Burger

2007-09-21T15:42:00.001-07:00

My plan for the barbecue was to make sure I wasn't left with a freezerful of burgers and sausages that would be left there for months until eventually being thrown away. Despite this aim I was still left with a bit of chicken tikka and some lamb from the souvlaki. I used some chicken in a roll for lunch but I gave the lamb a quick blitz in the food processor and served it with a bit of leftover pesto and yoghurt

Lamb Burger (serves 5)

1kg diced lamb shoulder or leg
4 garlic cloves, crushed
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
1 tbsp fresh oregano
2 tsp dried oregano
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
50g basil
1 tbsp pine nuts
1 garlic clove
6 tbsp olive oil
25g parmesan, grated
6 tbsp natural yoghurt
5 wholemeal baps

1) I used leftovers for the souvlaki for this. To make souvlaki you need to marinade the lamb with the garlic, lemon juice, oregano (dried & fresh), olive oil and pepper. Leave overnight.
2) Now you need to make the pesto. Put the basil in the blender with the pine nuts, garlic clove and olive oil. Blend until you have a smooth paste and then stir in the parmesan. As for the yogurt, add it a tablespoon at a time until you are happy with the consistency and the taste.
3) Now put the lamb in the food processor and pulse it. You don't want a meat paste, just something you can form into a patty. Then take 200g of meat per person and shape it into a ball before flattening into a burger shape. Now fry in some olive oil for five minutes on each side. Serve in a bap with a little of the basil and pesto spooned over the top.

I think this was even nicer than the kebabs and on a par with the forest burger I made for the barbecue. Obviously the lamb had been in the marinade for even longer so it had a fresh lemon and herby flavour but it didn't overpower the taste of the meat. I think burgers are all about getting the right toppings - too often I go for cheese or bacon which can be greasy but the yoghurt and pesto topping seemed clean and healthy even if it wasn't! I served it with some lovely tomatoes from John & Helen's garden and a bit of leftover potato salad. Proof that leftovers can be great as long as they're treated with respect.

Barbecue

2007-09-18T00:04:00.000-07:00

I'm quite lucky to have a garden in London but I can't say I use it that often. This summer I could use the weather as an excuse but it's not as if I spent a lot of time lying around in the garden last year. So a few weeks ago I invited lots of my friends around to have a barbecue. I'd done this the year before and asked people to bring their own burgers and stuff. This year, influenced by the amazing barbecue Alex did for Beth's birthday in Bath, I decided to prepare the barbecued food myself while Lisa supplied the cupcakes (or buns as we call them in Norfolk). It seemed like a good plan although sporting events and tofu searching got in the way of food preparation on Saturday afternoon meaning I was up until 1 on Sunday morning making marinades. Still it was worth it.

Souvlaki (Makes 6-8 kebabs)

1kg diced lamb shoulder or leg
4 garlic cloves, crushed
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
1 tbsp fresh oregano
2 tsp dried oregano
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

1) Put the lamb in a bowl and mix it with the rest of the ingredients apart from the salt.
2) Soak wooden skewers in hot water to sterilise them. Then thread the meat on the skewers, season with salt and cook over the barbecue (or you can do them under the grill) for nine minutes, turning regularly to prevent them from burning. I have served these in pitta bread with moutabal but I was having a burger later on in the afternoon and too much bread can spoil a barbecue for me!

Beefburgers With Mushroom and Pesto

1.6kg chuck steak or, if you can't be bothered making your own, 8 Sainsbury's Taste The Difference burgers
8 Portabella mushrooms
50g basil
1 tbsp pine nuts
1 garlic clove
6 tbsp olive oil
25g parmesan, grated

1) Making the burgers. I've done this before. All you need to do is trim any gristly bits from the meat, take 200g per person, roll it into a ball and then flatten it into a burger shape. All good but, to be honest, Sainsbury's Taste The Difference burgers are just as good and it will be cheaper to buy eight of these.
2) Once you've got the burgers ready, you need to make the pesto. For this you just need to put everything apart from the parmesan in a blender. Then when you have a smooth sauce, stir in the parmesan.
3) Now for the mushrooms. Take out the stalks, brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. If you have a big enough barbecue (I don't) you can put the mushroomd on about five minutes before you start cooking the burgers. If not, just put them under the grill.
4) Now for the burgers. Season both sides with salt and pepper and put them on the barbecue. Turn after four minutes and season again. They should be ready in another four minutes.
5) So put the burger in a roll, top with one mushroom and barely a teaspoonful of pesto.

Chicken/Tofu Tikka Kebabs

500g tofu, cut into chunky cubes. OR 4 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
Pinch of salt
Juice of one lemon
6 tbsp plain yoghurt

1) Another easy one. Make sure you sterilise your skewers in hot water for 30 minutes. Then mix all the ingredients in a large bowl, add the chicken or tofu and get it all covered with the marinade. Leave in the fridge over night.
2) Thread onto skewers and put on the barbecue. You need to turn the tofu or chicken regularly to prevent the yoghurt from burning. The tofu is done when it has browned and has gone a bit crusty on the edges. For the chicken, the juices should run clear and it shouldn't be pink in the middle. This should take about 10-15 minutes.

Jerk Haloumi (serves four)
500g Haloumi, cut into thick slices
3 tbsp groundnut oil
3 tbsp Walkerswood Jerk seasoning
Wholemeal pitta bread
3 tbsp mayonnaise
Juice of 1 lemon
1 carrot, cut in half lengthways and finely sliced
1 celery stick, finely sliced
1 red onion, cut in half and finely sliced
Handful of flatleaf parsley
1) Cut the Haloumi into thick slices. They need to be big enough to ensure that they don't fall through the bars of the barbecue grill. Then mix the olive oil with the jerk seasoning and gently mix the haloumi slices with the marinade with your hands. Set aside for a couple of hours.
2) Now make some coleslaw by mixing the mayonnaise with the lemon juice, carrot, celery, onion and parsley.
3) To barbecue the haloumi you just need to get it on when it's really hot. All it needs to do is brown on either side but you don't want it to blacken. Then just serve about three slices per person in a pitta with some coleslaw.

Potato Salad
450g sweet potato, peeled and cut into large-ish chunks
450g waxy potatoes (I used Vivaldi), halved
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
125ml mayonnaise
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
3 tsp Dijon mustard
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red onion, finley chopped
100g kidney beans
salt and pepper
handful chopped parsley
1 green chilli, sliced

1) Boil the potatoes for 20 minutes until tender. Meanwhile boil the sweet potatoes for 15 minutes.
2) Chop the hard-boiled eggs and put in a bowl with together the rest of the ingredients before stirring in the potatoes. Mix around gently with your hands, making sure not the break up the potatoes.

Lisa's Vegan Cupcakes

1 cup (220ml) soymilk
1 3/4 cups (260g) plain flour
1 tsp vinegar
2 tbsp cornflour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup (110g) non-hydrogenated margarine
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup (150g) caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the mint icing
1/2 cup (110g) non-hydrogenated margarine
3 cups (350g) icing sugar
2 tbsp soy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
mint extract and green food colouring to taste

1) Pre-heat then to 180c and line a muffin tray with 12 muffin cases
2) Combine the soy milk with vinegar and whisk. Set aside
3) In a large bowl, beat the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the vanilla extract.
4) In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cornflour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
5) Beat the soy milk mixture into the butter and sugar mixture and then fold in the dry ingredients.
6) Divide the mixture between the muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes.
7) While the cakes are cooking, make your frosting. Combine the margarine, icing sugar and soy milk. Beat until nice and fluffy. Add vanilla, mint and food colouring and mix thoroughly.
8) Take the cakes out of the oven, leave to cool and spread frosting generously over the top of each one.

Nigel Slater's Chocolate Brownies

300g caster sugar
250g butter
250g dark chocolate
3 eggs and one egg yolk, beaten
60g plain flour
60g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder

1) Pre-heat the oven to 180c and grease and line the bottom of a small roasting tin with baking paper.
2) Break 200g of the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and melt it over a pan of simmering water. Chop the rest of the chocolate finely. Set aside.
3) In a seperate bowl or a food mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4) Beat the eggs in a small jug and sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder into another bowl.
5) Now you can put the mix together. Beat the eggs into the butter and sugar mixture a little at a time. Then mix in the melted and chopped chocolate before gently folding in the flour mixture.
6) Spoon it all into the tin, smooth the surface and bake for 35 minutes. When it comes out of the oven it will have risen but it will look as though it hasn't cooked. Don't worry about this. When you leave it to cool for at least an hour it will sink a bit and you can then cut it into squares.

It was a feast! The tofu tikka and chicken tikka was okay but I prefer these grilled with a masala sauce. However the lamb kebabs were much better on the barbecue than under the grill and although they were very meaty you could still taste a slight zing from the lemons. Most successful, however, were the burgers. With the mushroom on top they were very juicy and the pesto was really fresh. I didn't actually eat any of the jerk haloumi but I have made it before in the frying pan (perhaps better?) and it does have quite a kick. As for the deserts, Lisa's cakes were a revelation! I couldn't believe how light they were. Company wasn't bad either! A great afternoon.

Pasta with tomatoes and prawns

2007-09-07T14:41:00.000-07:00

I was going to make a chick pea curry tonight but after working late and spending an hour buying food for Sunday's barbecue in the supermarket I was starving and couldn't contemplate boiling pulses for an hour. So there were two things in the reduced counter - king prawns and peperonni pizza. I toyed with having pizza but in the end plumped for the prawns. A better choice.

Pasta with tomatoes and prawns (serves 1)

A bowlful of pasta (i used fusilli)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
9 baby plum tomatoes, skinned (if you can be bothered) and halved
1 tsp tomato puree
125g king prawns
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
small pinch chilli flakes
A squeeze of lemon juice
1 tbsp flatleaf parsley, chopped
parmesan or manchego, grated

1) If using raw prawns, fry them first with a little olive oil, the lemon juice, chilli flakes and parsley. Set aside. If using cooked prawns (I was on this occasion) just put them in a bowl, squeeze a little lemon juice over the top and combine with the parsley and chilli flakes. Set aside.
2) Now put the pasta onto boil in a pan of boiling, salted water.
3) Meanwhile heat the olive oil in a small pan and cook the garlic for a minute. Then add the tomato puree and continue cooking for a further minute. Next the paprika goes in for another minute and then the tomatoes. Cooking until you have a nice thick sauce. Add the prawns at the end.
4) Now drain the pasta and put in in the pan with the sauce and prawns. Stir everything around to coat the pasta, grate some Parmesan or Spanish Manchego over the top and serve in a bowl.

I don't normally like mixing cuisines but with the paprika and pasta it has a bit of a Spanish and an Italian thing going on. But considering it only takes ten minutes to make it is so tasty so it doesn't matter. I love smoked paprika - you can always taste it lurking in the background but unlike chilli it doesn't hit you with heat. Also it does add an interesting flavour to the slightly zingy prwans which could have been a bit dull. Of course you don't have to eat it with pasta - you could just have the prawns with some crusty bread. That would be more Spanish. I think...

Coronation Eggs

2007-09-02T15:13:00.000-07:00

I've been in Swansea this weekend for Dave and Julia's wedding. The plan was to get the bus to Rhosilli today, but tired and with a slightly sore head I didn't feel like sightseeing and got the train home instead. The last thing I wanted to do when I arrived back in London was go to Sainsbury's so I slumped on the sofa, watched Villa v Chelsea and searched the store cupboard. This is what I came up with...

Coronation Eggs (Serves 2)

4 eggs
5 tbsp light mayonnaise
5 tbsp natural yoghurt
2 tbsp mango chutney
1 tbsp garam masala paste
salt
125g basmati rice
A pinch of saffron
4 cardamom pods
1 cinammon stick
2 whole cloves
Juice of one lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
Salad leaves

1) First you need to make the rice because it needs to cool. Rinse the rice, then add the saffron, cinnamon stick and cloves to the water, being to the boil, turn the heat down to the lowset setting, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Drain if necessary and leave to cool in a bowl.
2) When the rice is cool, put the eggs onto boil for ten minutes. Now cover the eggs with cold water, peel the shells off and cut each egg in half lengthways.
3) While the eggs are boiling you can make the coronation-style sauce. Mix together the yoghurt, mayonnaise, mango chutney and curry paste in a bowl. Season with a little salt.
4) Fluff the cooled rice up with a fork and add a tablespoon of lemon juice. Then make a quick salad dressing with another couple of tablepsoons of olive oil. Give each person two eggs a handful of salad leaves, a couple of large dollops of sauce and half the rice.

Obviously this is usually made with chicken but I love an egg curry and really the coronation sauce is just a spicy mayonnaise so it works well. Although Coronation Chicken is a bit naff it looks quite pretty. I nearly ruined it by putting sultanas in the rice but eventually decided that was only one step away from frying slices of banana in curry powder. Of course the original dish was created for the Queen's coronation in 1953 and I ate this while watching the film The Queen which was on TV this evening. My Dad would call that ironical.

Haloumi Salad

2007-08-28T16:15:00.000-07:00

Bank holiday weekends aren't great for a healthy lifestyle. Not for me anyway. I'm not the sort who is going to spend a bank holiday walking up a big hill in the Lake District or going canoeing in Wales. So after two curries in two days plus beer and some Caribbean food at the Notting Hill Carnival my stomach had taken a bit of a beating over the weekend. I woke up at 4am this morning with a bad tummy and couldn't even think about eating any breakfast until 11. So I needed something healthy for dinner.

Haloumi Salad (Serves Two)

250g haloumi, cut into chunks
250g cherry tomatoes, cut in half
200g salad leaves (I used a bag of Sainsbury's curly mixed salad)
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tbsp mint, finely chopped
6 tbsp plain yoghurt
Juice of half a lemon
1-2 tbsp water
salt and pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
Large pinch of chilli flakes.

1) First divide the salad leaves, tomato and red onion into two bowls. Then make the dressing. Mix the yogurt, garlic, mint and lemon juice. You'll need a tablespoon or two of water to loosen the dressing. Then season with salt and pepper and set aside.
2) Now for the haloumi. Cut it into thick slices and then half it. Put the olive oil and chill flakes in a bowl and then turn the haloumi in it. Then get a griddle pan hot (you can do this in the frying pan or under a grill) and cook the haloumi until it is browned on both sides.
3) When the haloumi is ready divide it between the bowls and pour the yogurt dressing over the top.

I admit that haloumi isn't exactly low-fat but with the minty yoghurt dressing this is so fresh it feels as though it is doing you good. Mint is supposed to soothe aching stomachs and I did feel loads better after eating this.

Grilled chicken with ratatouille (kind of)

2007-08-24T13:17:00.000-07:00

The problem with cooking for one is that you often have to eat the same meat twice. See, things like chicken breasts usually come in twos in the supermarket and although I'd like to buy meat from a local butcher all the time it's not easy to find one that is open after work. So for the second night in a row I had grilled chicken, only this time I made a kind of ratatouille to go with it. I say kind of because I'm aware that ratatouille is usually made with aubergines, not just courgettes, peppers and tomatoes...

Grilled chicken with ratatouille (serves 1)

1 chicken breasts
A few sprigs of rosemary
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large courgette, thickly sliced
1 pepper, thickly sliced
2 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp flatleaf parsley, chopped
salt and pepper
1 ciabatta
1 tbsp soft butter

1) Cut the peppers and courgettes into thick slices. Then heat a little olive oil in a saucepan and add the garlic. Fry for a minute and then add the courgette and peppers. Fry for a couple more minutes, add the tomatoes, a sprig of rosemary and cook over a low heat.
2) Make some slashes in the chicken with your knife and stuff the gaps with rosemary. Season and put under the grill for 10 minutes, turning half-way.
3) Meanwhile mix a little butter with a clove of finely chopped garlic. Halve the ciabatta and spread lightly over the top. Remove the chicken from the oven and put the ciabatta under the grill until toasted. By now the ratatoullie will be ready so serve up.

Ratatoille can be a bit sloppy but with the chunky chopped veg this has a nice texture and the peppers and tomatoes add some sweetnes which perfectly complements the rosemary scented savoury chicken. The garlic ciabatta's great for mopping up the tomatoey sauce too. Sudddenly eating grilled chicken two nights in a row didn't seem so bad

Grilled chicken with lentils and yoghurt

2007-08-23T16:23:00.000-07:00

I'd been writing a food blog for about a year on MySpace when my Dad got gall stones and had to start a low-fat diet. I told my Mum I'd devise one for him using some of my recipes. So I looked through my recipes and realised that most of them included plenty of butter, cream or booze. I didn't think too much of it until I saw my Dad lose more than two stone in two months. The fact that he now weighs less than me doesn't sit well so I thought I'd give the diet a go myself. I will still have to treat myself to the odd high-fat dinner but, for the next couple of months, most of my dinners will hopefully make me thinner. Starting with...

Grilled chicken with lentils and yoghurt (serves 2)

2 chicken breasts
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp flatleaf parsley, finely chopped
150g puy lentils
1 bay leaf
1 bag herb salad (mine was from Sainsbury's)
6 tbsp natural yoghurt
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp mint, chopped
salt and pepper

1) First put the lentils in a pan of boiling water with the bay leaf. Cook until tender which should be about 20 minutes.
2) Meanwhile, mix the olive oil with lemon juice and parsley in a in a bowl and rub the chicken breasts in it. Then season the breasts with salt and pepper and cook under the grill until golden and the juices run clear. This should take about 10 minutes
3) Mix the yoghurt, garlic, mint and season lightly with salt and pepper.
4) Slice the chicken breast and serve on the lentils with the yogurt dressing blobbed over the top.

If you're not going to use fat you have to make up for the lack of flavour. I always find herbs or spices do the trick. With the minty yogurt dressing this is a light and almost refreshing chicken dish that's great for a hot summer evening. Pity it's raining...