Some cheap and cheerful recipes

[Mouse]

Although a carnivore I do like veggie food only because veg and fruit are always around at this time of the year. I'll avoid the supermarkets because they jack the price up, so instead will visit the village grocer's to support the guy, because driving into town is a bore, saps the petrol and trying to find a parking space is nigh on impossible. Support your local 24/7 corner shop. Soon thanks to Tesco Express (and their high prices), corner shops will become a thing of the past.

So.. food. What about a nice veggie bake? Fresh tomatoes in the winter months have no flavour and still cost a lot. Instead this recipe will use tinned. I calc'd the estimate cost for this meal to be about £1 per person. Meal makes for 4.

Veggie bake cooks out between 50 mins to an hour. Top it with a couple of handfuls of grated strong cheddar.

5-6 tbsp olive oil
1 medium to large onion, peeled and cut into 8
1 medium to large aubergine, cut into large chunks
1 large red pepper, deseeded and cut into large chunks
2 courgettes, cut into rounds
About 4/5 fresh ripe tomatoes roughly chopped or 1 x 400g can of tinned tomatoes
1 tbsp of tomato paste (if using fresh tomatoes)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed or finely chopped
About 3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (optional)
Salt, pepper and sugar to taste
250g dried pasta shapes e.g. penne or rigatoni

Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5.
Pour 4 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large roasting pan and add the chopped onion, aubergine, pepper and courgettes. Season with salt and pepper, toss them in the oil and bake them for 30 minutes, turning them half way through.

If you're using fresh tomatoes dilute the tomato paste in a mug or jug with 225ml boiling water, stirring well to mix it in evenly. Add the crushed garlic, tomatoes and tomato stock if using to the baking dish, mixing it well with the vegetables and return it to the oven. Meanwhile... cook the pasta for a minute or two less than the time recommended on the pack.

Drain pasta, reserving a couple of spoonfuls of water, mix it into the vegetables and bake for another 5 minutes or until the pasta is cooked through. Helps max out the flavours, too.

Check the seasoning adding salt, pepper and a little sugar to taste (this will enhance the tomato flavour). Stir in the parsley, if using, drizzle with a little extra olive oil and serve.

Tip:
Don't make pasta in advance otherwise it will go gluey and stick together. Use it as soon as you've cooked it. If you want to keep some for a pasta salad, take off a portion and rinse it under cold water.

If you're cooking spaghetti push it down into the water as the ends soften until it is completely submerged.

Basic tomato sauce

Don't be afraid to make sauces using canned plum tomatoes. My tip is to add a little sugar to cut through the acidity of the tomatoes - you'll be amazed at the difference it makes to the finished sauce.

Makes 4-6 portions

4 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1 onion, finely chopped
2 x 400g cans plum tomatoes
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 tsp tomato purée
pinch of sugar
1 sprig of fresh rosemary

Heat the olive oil in a pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, or until soft and translucent. Roughly squash the tomatoes with either your hands or a fork.Add them to the pan along with the garlic, tomato purée, sugar and rosemary. Lower the heat and simmer for 25-35 minutes, or until the sauce is thick and jam-like in consistency.

Remove the rosemary spring and finish with a drizzle of olive oil. Store in the fridge for up to 4 days, or freeze until ready to use.

Pizza
making pizza dough is cheap and easy. While the dough is rising you can be doing other things. I have two smashing books both bought from Abe Books: http://www.abebooks.co.uk/: Italian Pizza and Savoury Breads by Elizabeth Romer, and The Renaissance of Italian Cooking by Lorenza de Medici. Bothe books cost be under £1 plus postage.

Perfect pizza dough
This recipe is foolproof and the dough keeps well, sealed in the fridge, for a couple of weeks. Whenever you feel that pizza craving coming on, simply break off a lime-sized piece of dough and get rolling. Makes eight small pizzas.

250g strong white bread flour
250g plain white flour
5g powdered dried yeast
10g salt
325ml warm water
About 1 tbsp olive oil
1 handful coarse flour (rye, semolina or polenta), for dusting

In a bowl, mix the flours, yeast, salt and water to form a sticky dough. Mix in the oil, then turn out on to a clean work surface and knead until smooth and silky. (Alternatively, if you have a mixer with a dough hook, mix the flours, yeast, salt and water on a low speed, add the oil and knead for 10 minutes). Shape into a round, and leave to rise in a clean bowl, covered with a plastic bag, until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven (and pizza stone or substitute) as high as it will go. Take a lime-sized piece of dough and roll it into a 5mm thick round. Dust a rimless baking sheet with coarse flour, lay the dough on it, add your toppings and slip the pizza from the sheet on to the hot stone. Bake until any cheese is bubbling and the base is taking on some colour, seven to nine minutes. Scatter over any leaves or raw toppings, and tuck in.

Mouse's recommended toppings
• Brush with olive oil and scatter on some slices of finely sliced mackerel fillet. Dot with crème fraîche and sprinkle on finely sliced red onion. Once cooked, scatter over some dill.

• Spread with a thin layer of roasted tomato sauce, arrange goat's cheese on top and bake. Before serving, scatter on a handful of basil, chervil, thyme and oregano, and trickle on some olive or seasoned oil.

• Break some cooking chorizo into biggish chunks and cook in a frying pan until they give off their tasty red fat. Brush the base with the red oil, smear on some roasted tomato sauce, scatter over the chorizo, some black olives and a bit of grated hard goat's cheese and bake.

Soups
2.2 lbs /1kg fresh tomatoes
1 potato, peeled and cut into small chunks
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon sugar
salt and pepper

Finish with fromage frais (lower on calories than cream)
a little chopped parsley or basil

Turn on the oven to 350F /190C/gas mark 5. Add half the oil to a roasting tin and cover the base of the tin. Cut all the tomatoes in half and spread out in the roasting tin. Add the garlic cloves and pour the rest of the oil over the tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put in the oven for 30 minutes.

While the tomatoes are roasting, boil the potato in 300ml of water. When it is cooked, use a fork to take the potato out and keep the water to one side.

Take the tomatoes out of the oven and remove the skins with a fork. Put everything into the food processor – tomatoes, garlic, sugar and potato water – and blend until smooth.

The soup is now ready and just needs to be heated up in a saucepan. A drop of fromage frais and a sprinkling of chopped parsley or basil adds to the flavour and makes it look more attractive to serve to guests.

Chunky deep-dark winter soups.
One of those swamp-like soups that gives much in the way of sustenance and warmth. Hence the swamp. lol. Bro made a big bubbling cauldron of it, setting it down among the bread and cheese and some plums to eat afterwards. Enough for 4 as a main course.

2 small onions or 1 large one
olive oil
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
a good handful of diced unsmoked bacon or pancetta
a small bunch of flat-leafed parsley
a good 2 handfuls (250g) of green or brown lentils - maybe Puy or Castelluccio
about a litre of stock or water - enough to cover the lentils completely
2 or 3 big handfuls of spinach
a lemon
a small bunch of mint - leaves only

Peel the onions and chop them quite finely, then let them cook over a moderate to low heat with a little olive oil, the peeled and sliced garlic and the diced bacon. You want all to be golden and fragrant. Chop the parsley and stir it in.

Wash the lentils thoroughly and pick them over for little stones, then stir them into the onions and bacon. Pour over the stock or water and bring to the boil, skimming off any froth that appears on the surface. You can add a bay leaf or two if you like. Turn the heat down so that the lentils simmer merrily, then almost cover the pot with a lid and leave until they are tender but far from collapse - about 30 minutes, depending on the age of your lentils.

Wash the spinach very thoroughly and tear it up a bit. While it is still wet and dripping, put it into a shallow pan over a high heat and shut the lid tightly - you want it to cook in its own steam. After a minute or so, it will be limp and bright emerald green. Lift it out, squeeze it dry (I do this by pressing it against the side of the pan with a draining spoon), then divide it between four warm bowls.

Season the soup with salt, black pepper, lemon juice and the torn mint leaves, tasting it as you go. Ladle the hot soup on top of the spinach and serve with more lemon and mint for those who want it.

Haricot and tarragon soup
Soak 250g of dried haricots overnight, then simmer them in unsalted water for 30 minutes.
Drain and add to the onions and bacon.
Continue as in the lentil soup above, but obviously without the lentils.
Instead of mint, try tarragon leaves, but add them earlier, say 15 minutes or so before the soup is due to be ready.
There is no need to offer more herbs at the table, but the lemon juice will still be welcome, as will some lovely crusty bread.

Lentil soup with celery and mushrooms
Add a stalk or two of celery, finely diced, to the onions and garlic in the basic recipe above.
Some button mushrooms, cut into quarters, can be added just before the lentils, so that they colour and sweeten. They will add even more earthy notes to the soup. You may need a little more lemon.

Other good things to add to the basic soup
Lea&Perrins Worcestershire sauce; mushroom ketchup (or mushroom seasoning as it is called nowadays); dark soy - stir it in at the end of cooking; a wine glass of Madeira (fabulous) about 15 minutes before the soup is due to be ready; crushed, dried chillies added with the onions and garlic; a few florets of broccoli instead of the spinach - too healthy-sounding, I know, but it is just brilliant if you have used the purple-sprouting sort.

... so there you are my lovely friends. Enjoy your grub. I'll be back with some more later.

Love, Anna Mouse

 

[Mouse]

For this evening I've made a lovely Indian rice pud, the original recipe by Fiona Beckett who is a food writer for The Guardian's Lifestyle mag online. What I love about this recipe is it uses what is commonly available in most kitchen store cupboards. Instead of using mango whose price is exortionate this side of Christmas, I used fresh pineapple but with a little mouse magic.

My adapted Indian rice pud recipe, then.

Serves: 4-6
Cooking time: 45 mins

110g pudding rice
1 pint whole (not semi-skimmed) milk
1 x 410g can evaporated milk
3 tbsp caster sugar
8-10 cardamom pods, gently crushed
50g shelled, unsalted pistachios, roughly chopped
Fresh mango slices or puree (optional)

Put the rice in a nonstick saucepan with the milk, evaporated milk, sugar and crushed cardamom, bring slowly to the boil then turn the heat down to the lowest setting and leave for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the mixture thickens, take the pan off the heat and leave it to cool. Pick out the cardamom with a teaspoon. To tart it up, put some chopped fresh or tinned mango in the bottom of some glass dishes, spoon the rice pudding over the fruit and scatter the chopped pistachios on top.

What I did was caramalize slices of fresh cut pineapple in a little butter in a medium-hot pan. A teaspoon of oil first to prevent the butter from burning, layer the pineapple slices down and move them around the pan. The trick here is leave them to mind their own business, get nicely browned from the natural sugars of the fruit. Using a spatula, flip the slices over after a few minutes, and sprinkle a little demerara sugar to sweeten it further. When done to your liking, set aside to cool. Use as above as for Fiona Beckett's wonderful recipe.

"Serves 4-6". Pmsl not in my house. More like 2-3

Love, Anna Mouse

 

[Badjedidude]

Sounds good! :O

I'd like to see pictures of some of these, to see how they look!

 

[Nolife Princess]

Although a carnivore I do like veggie food only because veg and fruit are always around at this time of the year. I'll avoid the supermarkets because they jack the price up, so instead will visit the village grocer's to support the guy, because driving into town is a bore, saps the petrol and trying to find a parking space is nigh on impossible. Support your local 24/7 corner shop. Soon thanks to Tesco Express (and their high prices), corner shops will become a thing of the past.

So.. food. What about a nice veggie bake? Fresh tomatoes in the winter months have no flavour and still cost a lot. Instead this recipe will use tinned. I calc'd the estimate cost for this meal to be about £1 per person. Meal makes for 4.

Veggie bake cooks out between 50 mins to an hour. Top it with a couple of handfuls of grated strong cheddar.

5-6 tbsp olive oil
1 medium to large onion, peeled and cut into 8
1 medium to large aubergine, cut into large chunks
1 large red pepper, deseeded and cut into large chunks
2 courgettes, cut into rounds
About 4/5 fresh ripe tomatoes roughly chopped or 1 x 400g can of tinned tomatoes
1 tbsp of tomato paste (if using fresh tomatoes)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed or finely chopped
About 3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (optional)
Salt, pepper and sugar to taste
250g dried pasta shapes e.g. penne or rigatoni

Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5.
Pour 4 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large roasting pan and add the chopped onion, aubergine, pepper and courgettes. Season with salt and pepper, toss them in the oil and bake them for 30 minutes, turning them half way through.

If you're using fresh tomatoes dilute the tomato paste in a mug or jug with 225ml boiling water, stirring well to mix it in evenly. Add the crushed garlic, tomatoes and tomato stock if using to the baking dish, mixing it well with the vegetables and return it to the oven. Meanwhile... cook the pasta for a minute or two less than the time recommended on the pack.

Drain pasta, reserving a couple of spoonfuls of water, mix it into the vegetables and bake for another 5 minutes or until the pasta is cooked through. Helps max out the flavours, too.

Check the seasoning adding salt, pepper and a little sugar to taste (this will enhance the tomato flavour). Stir in the parsley, if using, drizzle with a little extra olive oil and serve.

Tip:
Don't make pasta in advance otherwise it will go gluey and stick together. Use it as soon as you've cooked it. If you want to keep some for a pasta salad, take off a portion and rinse it under cold water.

If you're cooking spaghetti push it down into the water as the ends soften until it is completely submerged.

Basic tomato sauce

Don't be afraid to make sauces using canned plum tomatoes. My tip is to add a little sugar to cut through the acidity of the tomatoes - you'll be amazed at the difference it makes to the finished sauce.

Makes 4-6 portions

4 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1 onion, finely chopped
2 x 400g cans plum tomatoes
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 tsp tomato purée
pinch of sugar
1 sprig of fresh rosemary

Heat the olive oil in a pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, or until soft and translucent. Roughly squash the tomatoes with either your hands or a fork.Add them to the pan along with the garlic, tomato purée, sugar and rosemary. Lower the heat and simmer for 25-35 minutes, or until the sauce is thick and jam-like in consistency.

Remove the rosemary spring and finish with a drizzle of olive oil. Store in the fridge for up to 4 days, or freeze until ready to use.

Pizza
making pizza dough is cheap and easy. While the dough is rising you can be doing other things. I have two smashing books both bought from Abe Books: http://www.abebooks.co.uk/: Italian Pizza and Savoury Breads by Elizabeth Romer, and The Renaissance of Italian Cooking by Lorenza de Medici. Bothe books cost be under £1 plus postage.

Perfect pizza dough
This recipe is foolproof and the dough keeps well, sealed in the fridge, for a couple of weeks. Whenever you feel that pizza craving coming on, simply break off a lime-sized piece of dough and get rolling. Makes eight small pizzas.

250g strong white bread flour
250g plain white flour
5g powdered dried yeast
10g salt
325ml warm water
About 1 tbsp olive oil
1 handful coarse flour (rye, semolina or polenta), for dusting

In a bowl, mix the flours, yeast, salt and water to form a sticky dough. Mix in the oil, then turn out on to a clean work surface and knead until smooth and silky. (Alternatively, if you have a mixer with a dough hook, mix the flours, yeast, salt and water on a low speed, add the oil and knead for 10 minutes). Shape into a round, and leave to rise in a clean bowl, covered with a plastic bag, until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven (and pizza stone or substitute) as high as it will go. Take a lime-sized piece of dough and roll it into a 5mm thick round. Dust a rimless baking sheet with coarse flour, lay the dough on it, add your toppings and slip the pizza from the sheet on to the hot stone. Bake until any cheese is bubbling and the base is taking on some colour, seven to nine minutes. Scatter over any leaves or raw toppings, and tuck in.

Mouse's recommended toppings
• Brush with olive oil and scatter on some slices of finely sliced mackerel fillet. Dot with crème fraîche and sprinkle on finely sliced red onion. Once cooked, scatter over some dill.

• Spread with a thin layer of roasted tomato sauce, arrange goat's cheese on top and bake. Before serving, scatter on a handful of basil, chervil, thyme and oregano, and trickle on some olive or seasoned oil.

• Break some cooking chorizo into biggish chunks and cook in a frying pan until they give off their tasty red fat. Brush the base with the red oil, smear on some roasted tomato sauce, scatter over the chorizo, some black olives and a bit of grated hard goat's cheese and bake.

Soups
2.2 lbs /1kg fresh tomatoes
1 potato, peeled and cut into small chunks
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon sugar
salt and pepper

Finish with fromage frais (lower on calories than cream)
a little chopped parsley or basil

Turn on the oven to 350F /190C/gas mark 5. Add half the oil to a roasting tin and cover the base of the tin. Cut all the tomatoes in half and spread out in the roasting tin. Add the garlic cloves and pour the rest of the oil over the tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put in the oven for 30 minutes.

While the tomatoes are roasting, boil the potato in 300ml of water. When it is cooked, use a fork to take the potato out and keep the water to one side.

Take the tomatoes out of the oven and remove the skins with a fork. Put everything into the food processor – tomatoes, garlic, sugar and potato water – and blend until smooth.

The soup is now ready and just needs to be heated up in a saucepan. A drop of fromage frais and a sprinkling of chopped parsley or basil adds to the flavour and makes it look more attractive to serve to guests.

Chunky deep-dark winter soups.
One of those swamp-like soups that gives much in the way of sustenance and warmth. Hence the swamp. lol. Bro made a big bubbling cauldron of it, setting it down among the bread and cheese and some plums to eat afterwards. Enough for 4 as a main course.

2 small onions or 1 large one
olive oil
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
a good handful of diced unsmoked bacon or pancetta
a small bunch of flat-leafed parsley
a good 2 handfuls (250g) of green or brown lentils - maybe Puy or Castelluccio
about a litre of stock or water - enough to cover the lentils completely
2 or 3 big handfuls of spinach
a lemon
a small bunch of mint - leaves only

Peel the onions and chop them quite finely, then let them cook over a moderate to low heat with a little olive oil, the peeled and sliced garlic and the diced bacon. You want all to be golden and fragrant. Chop the parsley and stir it in.

Wash the lentils thoroughly and pick them over for little stones, then stir them into the onions and bacon. Pour over the stock or water and bring to the boil, skimming off any froth that appears on the surface. You can add a bay leaf or two if you like. Turn the heat down so that the lentils simmer merrily, then almost cover the pot with a lid and leave until they are tender but far from collapse - about 30 minutes, depending on the age of your lentils.

Wash the spinach very thoroughly and tear it up a bit. While it is still wet and dripping, put it into a shallow pan over a high heat and shut the lid tightly - you want it to cook in its own steam. After a minute or so, it will be limp and bright emerald green. Lift it out, squeeze it dry (I do this by pressing it against the side of the pan with a draining spoon), then divide it between four warm bowls.

Season the soup with salt, black pepper, lemon juice and the torn mint leaves, tasting it as you go. Ladle the hot soup on top of the spinach and serve with more lemon and mint for those who want it.

Haricot and tarragon soup
Soak 250g of dried haricots overnight, then simmer them in unsalted water for 30 minutes.
Drain and add to the onions and bacon.
Continue as in the lentil soup above, but obviously without the lentils.
Instead of mint, try tarragon leaves, but add them earlier, say 15 minutes or so before the soup is due to be ready.
There is no need to offer more herbs at the table, but the lemon juice will still be welcome, as will some lovely crusty bread.

Lentil soup with celery and mushrooms
Add a stalk or two of celery, finely diced, to the onions and garlic in the basic recipe above.
Some button mushrooms, cut into quarters, can be added just before the lentils, so that they colour and sweeten. They will add even more earthy notes to the soup. You may need a little more lemon.

Other good things to add to the basic soup
Lea&Perrins Worcestershire sauce; mushroom ketchup (or mushroom seasoning as it is called nowadays); dark soy - stir it in at the end of cooking; a wine glass of Madeira (fabulous) about 15 minutes before the soup is due to be ready; crushed, dried chillies added with the onions and garlic; a few florets of broccoli instead of the spinach - too healthy-sounding, I know, but it is just brilliant if you have used the purple-sprouting sort.

... so there you are my lovely friends. Enjoy your grub. I'll be back with some more later.

Love, Anna Mouse

Hey there,
These are nice, thank you for posting, I am always on the lookout for new cooking ideas!! (

 

[Chasm]

im all discombul8d ovr a mouse being a carnivore
wuts this world comng 2????

 

[Mouse]

Sounds good! :O

I'd like to see pictures of some of these, to see how they look!

I'll try next time, but it's difficult when bringing a dish to a table of hungry girls. What I could do is get an illustration of a recipe and Photobucket it.

Hey there,
These are nice, thank you for posting, I am always on the lookout for new cooking ideas!! (

Are you vegetarian, sweetie? If so, I'd be happy to post some more because we love veggie foodles. And what types of desserts do you like?

im all discombul8d ovr a mouse being a carnivore
wuts this world comng 2????

Ahh, but there are different species of meeces, and this little mouse has sharp teef.

 

[Nolife Princess]

Sounds good! :O

I'd like to see pictures of some of these, to see how they look!

I'll try next time, but it's difficult when bringing a dish to a table of hungry girls. What I could do is get an illustration of a recipe and Photobucket it.

Hey there,
These are nice, thank you for posting, I am always on the lookout for new cooking ideas!! (

Are you vegetarian, sweetie? If so, I'd be happy to post some more because we love veggie foodles. And what types of desserts do you like?

im all discombul8d ovr a mouse being a carnivore
wuts this world comng 2????

Ahh, but there are different species of meeces, and this little mouse has sharp teef.

I am Vegan, I have always been Vegetarian, but decided to go all the way, been doing the Vegan thing now for 9 months. (
I do have a vegan cookbook, and am trying to learn the trade outs.

Actually learned how to do a cake, with no milk or eggs! lol but it was good (
And yes, I am always looking for new cooking ideas... as different folks do their recipes differently.
always a welcome to share (

Thank you for asking ! You are sweet!

 

[Mouse]

I am Vegan, I have always been Vegetarian, but decided to go all the way, been doing the Vegan thing now for 9 months. (
I do have a vegan cookbook, and am trying to learn the trade outs.

Actually learned how to do a cake, with no milk or eggs! lol but it was good (
And yes, I am always looking for new cooking ideas... as different folks do their recipes differently.
always a welcome to share (

Thank you for asking ! You are sweet! [/quote]

I have a few good vegetable recipes and will look them out. I'd be interested to know your recipe for an eggless, milkless cake. That sounds interesting.

Here are the vegetable recipes I hope will be okay for you. I love Yotam Ottolenghi who writes inspiring recipes for The Guardian. These are some of his.

Online cooking conversion chart: http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/cooking#subs

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Hoisin sauce
Serves four to six.

750g brussels sprouts, trimmed
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper
6 little gem hearts, quartered lengthways
5 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced thin
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1½ tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
20g ginger, peeled and finely diced
1 tbsp white-wine vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
Skin of ½ orange, finely shredded
2 tbsp ready-made crispy fried shallots

Set the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Bring a pan of water to a boil, add the sprouts and blanch for two minutes. Drain, refresh under cold water and cut in half lengthways. Toss the sprouts in half a tablespoon of oil, half a teaspoon of salt and some pepper, spread out on a baking tray and put in the oven. After 15 minutes, mix the gem hearts with half a tablespoon of oil, add to the tray, cook for three minutes more, then tip everything into a large bowl.

Heat the remaining oil in a small pan and cook the garlic on medium heat for five minutes, until it turns golden. Tip the garlic and oil into a heatproof bowl to stop the cooking.

Mix all the remaining ingredients bar the orange peel and shallots, and drizzle over the sprouts and lettuce. Pour on the garlic and oil, scatter over the peel and shallots, and serve.
Ottolenghi: http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/

Cauliflower with sumac and seeds

Sumac is a crushed, dried berry that lends a lovely, lemony-sweet tang to this dish. Serves four.

1 small, firm cauliflower (about 600g), broken up into florets
4 tbsp pumpkin seeds
2 tbsp sesame seeds
3 tbsp rapeseed oil
2 lemons
½ tsp sumac, plus more to finish
Flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 small handful parsley leaves, roughly chopped

Using a sharp knife or a mandolin, thinly slice the cauliflower lengthways. In a small frying pan, dry-fry the pumpkin seeds over a medium heat until fragrant and just starting to take on some colour. Tip into a bowl. In the same pan, fry the sesame seeds until they begin to crackle and turn golden. Tip into the bowl with the pumpkin seeds.

Whisk together the rapeseed oil, the juice of one lemon and the sumac. Toss the sliced florets and seeds in the dressing, and season well. Arrange on plates, squeeze over more lemon juice and scatter a few pinches of sumac and chopped parsley on top to serve.

Ratatouille is by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall of The Guardian.co.uk
Serves four to six.

Olive oil
250g aubergine, cut into 2cm cubes
250g small courgettes, cut into 1cm slices
250g sweet cherry or Sungold tomatoes, left whole
250g onions, in fairly thick slices
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
A handful of basil leaves, torn

To serve
Thick slices of good white bread
A little olive oil

Put a pan over a medium heat, add a splash of olive oil and begin to fry the aubergines (these take longer than the rest of the vegetables, so start them off first).

Put three more small pans over medium heat and cover the base of each with a little olive oil, then put the courgettes, tomatoes and onions into their own pans.

Cook the courgettes until tender, then turn up the heat a little to brown them lightly. The tomatoes should be wrinkled and sweet, but just about holding their shape. And the onions should be soft, sweet and slightly caramelised. The aubergine, when finished, should be very soft and tender, almost creamy.

Season the vegetables towards the end of cooking, then remove each from the heat. When the vegetables are done, toss them gently together in a large pan and heat through for a few minutes with the garlic, then add the torn basil leaves.

Heat a grill or griddle pan, brush bread with oil and toast lightly on both sides. Spoon the ratatouille over the bruschetta and serve.

Mexican tomato and bean soup is also by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
River Cottage: http://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/mexican-tomato-bean-soup/

This fresh, piquant soup combines many of the ingredients you might find in a feisty salsa, but in this case they're all "souped up". Add more chillies if you like it hot; a handful of fresh sweetcorn kernels, sliced straight from the cob, is a good addition, too. I like grub like this. Serves four to six.

2 tbsp olive oil
2 red onions, peeled and finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1-2 medium-hot fresh green chillies, such as jalapeño, deseeded and finely chopped
½ tsp ground cumin
600ml vegetable stock
200ml tomato passata, or sieved, roasted tomatoes
400g ripe tomatoes, cored, deseeded and finely chopped
400g tin black beans or black-eyed beans, drained and rinsed
1 handful fresh oregano leaves, roughly chopped
Pinch of sugar
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Juice of 1 lime
1 small handful fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped

To finish
4-6 tbsp soured cream (optional)
1 small handful fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped

Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium-low heat and sauté most of the onion (reserve a little for garnish at the end), stirring from time to time, for about five minutes, until softened. Add the garlic, chillies and cumin, and stir for a minute. Add the stock, passata, fresh tomatoes, beans, oregano and sugar, season and bring to a boil. Simmer gently for 10 minutes, remove from the heat and add the lime juice and coriander. Adjust the seasoning to taste.

Serve topped with dollops of soured cream, if you like, and scattered with more coriander and freshly ground pepper.

 

[Mouse]

Last night in Chat I was enthusing about how we must act our shoe size when eating a messy chocolate truffle, and this led me to find a recipe for these deep dark unctious beasts so that you can make them yourself. There are many good chocolate truffle recipes out there, but my favourite of all always falls back on Nigel Slater, who writes for The Guardian and whose recipes have never failed me yet.

Classic chocolate truffles
Illustration

Nigel Slater's luxurious Christmas treat that is as easy to make as it is delightful to receive.

The recipe
Chop 225g of fine dark chocolate into small pieces about the size of gravel, then put it into a heatproof china or glass bowl. Pour 135ml of double cream into a small saucepan and heat gently. As the cream approaches the boil, remove from the heat and pour over the chopped chocolate, stirring slowly until melted. Put the mixture in the fridge for an hour to chill. Remove heaped tablespoons of the mixture and roll very gently into balls or small logs. Drop into cocoa powder and roll them around gently to cover, then remove and serve. Makes 15 large truffles.

The trick
Use a good-quality dark chocolate with about 70% cocoa solids. Chop it very finely so that it melts in the warm cream. If the chocolate refuses to melt, place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir gently. Don't leave the chocolate mixture in the fridge for more than an hour or it will become too stiff to roll easily. Make certain your hands are cool for the rolling, or better still, leave the truffles rough-edged.

The twist
You can, of course, add brandy or rum to the mixture, but other flavourings, such as spices, work nicely, too. Add these to the cream rather than the truffles. Put the crushed cardamom, cinnamon sticks or vanilla pods into the cream and bring to the boil. Cover and set aside to cool for an hour. Strain to remove the spices, then warm the cream again before using it to melt the chocolate. Instead of cocoa powder, cover the truffles in melted chocolate and leave to set to a crisp coating.


Chocolate Florentines

Florentines' ingredients may not be that cheap, but they are a darned sight more cheaper than shop bought, and taste twice as good. Recipe belongs to Nigel Slater.

Sweet, intensely buttery and crisp, these are perhaps the most luxurious biscuits in the world. They are traditionally made with glacé cherries, but I prefer to use dried cranberries and soft-dried pears from the wholefood shop. They tend to spread over the baking sheet while in the oven, so pull the biscuits back into shape with a cookie cutter, bringing the wayward mixture back into shape before letting it cool. Eat within a day or two, before they go soft. I keep an eye open for slices of proper crystallised peel sold in the piece, rather than the usual mean little tubs of candied peel. The lemon and orange flavours clearly shine through. Makes 12.

flaked almonds - 125g
butter - 140g
sugar - 110g
double cream - 3 tbs
dried cranberries - 30g
glacé cherries or other crystallised fruit - 40g
mixed peel - 85g
flour - 50g
dark chocolate - 120g

Set the oven at 180°C/gas 4. And lightly butter and flour two baking trays.

Very lightly crush the almonds, (if you leave them whole the biscuits will fail to hold together). Melt the butter in a small pan, add the sugar and bring to the boil. Add the cream, the fruits, the mixed peel and the flour and stir for half a minute then remove from the heat. Leave to cool for five minutes before continuing.

Drop generous heaped tablespoons of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving a 10cm gap between each heap (I put 4 dollops on each sheet). Pat the mixture down a little with the back of the spoon then bake for about 8 minutes, by which time the biscuits will have spread. Each biscuit will have a central heap of nuts with a thinner layer of darker mixture around it.

Using a knife or cookie cutter, push the darker, outer layer that has spread over the tray back into the biscuits then leave for several minutes to cool a little.

Lift the biscuits from the tray with a fish slice or similar wide, flat implement, and slide them onto to a cooling rack lined with baking paper. They will be fragile so go carefully.

Leave to cool completely before covering one side of each biscuit in melted chocolate. I use a brush, spreading the melted chocolate over thickly.

Konditor & Cook Chocolate Biscuit Cake
Illustration only

Making these are so easy. They take 15 minutes to make and 4 hours' chill down in the fridge. The best thing about them is making them yourself will save you £££s, as patisseries charge extortionate prices.

Makes: 10 large, very rich slices

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Chilling time: 4 hours

* 125g / 4½ oz unsalted butter
* 75g (3oz) golden syrup
* 200g (7oz) 72% Cooks' Chocolate, broken into pieces
* 1 egg
* 50g (2oz) digestive biscuits
* 50g (2oz) whole walnuts
* 50g (2oz) sultanas
* 50g (2oz) glace cherries, reserving a few for decoration

1. Line the loaf tin with greaseproof paper or baking parchment and set aside.

2. Melt the butter and syrup together in a small saucepan over a gentle heat until they begin to boil.

3. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended over a saucepan of barely simmering water, then mix thoroughly with the butter and golden syrup.

4. Pasteurise the egg by beating it slowly and continuously into the hot chocolate mixture.

5. Break up the biscuits into large chunks; remember, they will be broken further when mixed, so don't make them too small.

6. Add the walnuts, sultanas and most of the cherries.

7. Pour the chocolate mixture on to the dry ingredients and mix together with a spatula or wooden spoon.

8. Press the mixture into the tin and decorate with reserved glac cherries.

9. Leave to set in the fridge for about 4 hours. Remove from the fridge, peel off the paper and cut into slices or cubes.

10. Serve chilled.

HINT: To make this recipe more appealing to children, why not replace 100g of dark chocolate with milk chocolate?

 

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Coninued..

Everyone has their own fish pie recipe. Mine varies according to what I can buy from the lone fisherman off the beach and how lucky I get for casting a long line out to sea. This afternoon from my apartment's balcony I spotted mackerel shoaling on an almost dead-flat sea. Ten minutes later, 4oz of lead and silver traces landed smack in the centre of them and after what felt like ages, I reeled in five plump mackerel. Rather than mess up the kitchen sink I prepared them on the beach. This is my pie recipe from the catch of the day. Just remember fish pie is straightforward enough if you get organised. It is not a dish for the chaotic cook or anyone short of time. Serves 4.

750g firm white fish (filleted weight)
250g smoked fish (eg. haddock)
a little butter for the dish
500ml milk
a bay leaf
6 black peppercorns
a little nutmeg
75g butter
40g flour
a small bunch of dill, chopped
about 5 stalks of bushy parsley
2 medium-sized leeks

For the crumble topping:
95g butter
80g plain flour
75g rolled oats
25g finely grated parmesan

Check the fish for any stray bones, but keep the skin in place for the moment. Lightly butter a baking dish or shallow pan, place the fish in it, skin-side down, and pour over the milk, topping up with a little water to just cover the fish. Add the bay leaf, peppercorns and a very fine grating of nutmeg. Place over a moderate heat, turning it down just before the milk boils. Leave to simmer gently for 5-10 minutes, until the fish is opaque and tender.

Turn off the heat, remove the fish and strain the liquor to remove the bay leaf. Remove the skin from the fish and discard. Break the fish into large pieces and roughly chop the dill.

Melt 40g of butter in a saucepan, add the flour and cook till pale biscuit-coloured, stirring almost constantly. Pour in the strained cooking liquid from the fish (adding more, if necessary, to make 500ml), stirring over a moderate heat till smooth. Cook over a low heat for 10 minutes, then fold in the fish. Season with salt, pepper, dill and parsley.

While the sauce is cooking, slice the leeks thinly, give them a thorough rinse, then let them cook with 35g butter in a deep pan, covered with a lid, until they are soft. It is important that they don't colour, so I often put a round of greaseproof paper on top of the leeks and cover with a lid, which will encourage them to steam.

Gently fold the cooked leeks into the fish sauce, then transfer to an ovenproof dish.

Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. To make the crumble, put the flour and butter into a food processor and blitz to the texture of fresh breadcrumbs. Alternatively, rub them gently together by hand. Fold in the oats, parmesan, a little salt and ground black pepper.

Tip the crumble over the fish sauce. Bake for 40 minutes in the preheated oven until crisp and golden, and the filling is bubbling. Wonderful.