Courgette and broccoli spaghetti

Courgette, onions and broccoli at the end of the veg box ... so, here goes:-
 1.  Sautee chopped onion and crushed garlic in olive oil.
2.  When a little softenned add diced courgette, and the broccoli stem, diced.
3.  Add a little water, so that it doesn't get too dry, and a few chili flakes, season.
4.  Make pasta (GF spaghetti in this case) according to packet instructions.
5.  5 minutes from serving add small broccoli florets and juice and zest of half a lemon.
6.  Drain pasta, toss together ... turn of black pepper
7.  Scoff - with, or without parmesan.

Delicious and under 20 mins to make.

Parsley and lemon crusted fish, with chips and green vegetables

Traditional Friday night dinner - small ringing of the changes.

"Chips" ... boiled and roasted in olive oil.  Boil - 5ish minutes - into hot fat, in hot oven, for about an hour.

The fish is Alaskan pollock in a batter made from 1 whisked egg, a splash of soya milk, a half cup of polenta and a fistful of chopped parsley, with salt and pepper and the grated zest of a lemon.  The fish was coated in the batter, and then fried, a couple of minutes on each side just before serving everything else.  Drain on kitchen paper.

The vegetables - leeks, softenned in olice oil, then added crushed garlic, some mushrooms and a knob of butter.  Sautee gently, then season and add a splosh of white wine.  Simmer briefly, transfer to oven dish - tip on handful of frozen peas, and some baby spinach.  Cover with foil and stick in the bottom of the oven.

Fnatastic batter, really fresh tasting.  And the veg ... oooo ... lovely, buttery and garlicky and fresh.

Fennel, red pepper and lemon risotto

Olive oil
Onion
Celery
Fennel
Red pepper
Garlic
Arborrio rice
White wine
Stock
Parmesan
Frozen peas

1.  Sautee chopped celery and onion in olive oil.
2.  When a little soft, add the chopped fennel and red pepper.
3.  Add rice and stir until each grain is covered in a film of oil.
4.  Add garlic, white wine and stock gradually, stirring frequently.
5.  Keep adding stock, seasoning and stirring until rice is very nearly cooked.
6.  Stir in grated parmesan and a handful of frozen peas.
7.  Serve - garnish with baby kale and parmesan shards.

Smooth, silky and comforting - with a nice fresh edge from the aniseed fennel and lemon.

Greek(ish) chickpea casserole, cabbage and leek and lemon rice

The veg box is coming to the last ingredients - and they're mostly lettuce and cabbage.  I really didn't fancy lettuce (so will have to work hard on that tomorrow) - but I love cabbage, so this actually wasn't too hard to contemplate.

To start, I put the rice on - then started the leeks for the cabbage bit, then the onion for the chickpea casserole - and with juggling in between pots the whole thing was on the table in 30 minutes.

Lemon Rice

Basmati rice
1 lemon
water

1.  Put basmati rice into cast iron pot, grate on zest of 1 lemon, add juice of I/2 lemon and pinch of salt.
2.  Add water to 1 inch above surface of rice - bring to boil on the hob.
3.  Put lid on pot and transfer to oven, it will be ready in about 20 minutes (or when you are).

Leek and cabbage in yoghurt

olive oil
1 leek, sliced and washed
Crushed garlic
1/2 cabbage, shredded
1/2 glass white wine
sprinkle of thyme
1 bay leaf
water
natural yoghurt

1.  Sweat leek in olive oil, add crushed garlic when soft.
2.  Add shredded cabbage, stir in - add the thyme, bay leaf and wine. Cover and simmer (add water if it looks like it might catch).
3.  When all cooked, turn the heat off and let it cool down slightly - then stir in 2 tbsps good greek yogurt.
(don't add yogurt and it is vegan and lactose free)

Red pepper and chickpea casserole

onion
olive oil
crushed garlic
mixed herbs
10 black olives
1 red pepper
tin of chickpeas
tin of chopped tomatoes

1. Sweat chopped onion in olive oil.  Add chopped pepper and crushed garlic when onion is soft, cook for about 5 minutes.
2.  Stir in herbs and garlic, add drained tin of chickpeas.  Warm through on medium heat.
3.  Tip in tomatoes, simmer.  Serve when you are ready.

There was loads - I think it would easily have served 6.

Price per portion: 70p - ish.  lemon 15p, leek 20p, cabbage 40p, pepper 70p,  chickpeas 50p, tomatoes 35p, extras £2 altogether (?guessing because I buy oil, rice, yogurt, olives etc in bulk - of you use them all they're cheap, to buy in small volumes they are more expensive).

Effortless plaice and vegetables

Home alone this week, as my primary victim is enjoying a week sailing in the sun in the Greek Islands.  So, after catching up with work today, wanted to take full advantage of the opportunity to cook fish (primary victim is not keen on the flavour, and HATES the smell) - but to also have time available for lots of faffing.  I find that faffing is an activity best enjoyed in quiet me moments.

So, this took 10 minutes (if that) to put together, and left me with a full hour to enjoy faffing / mooching - and a little bit of plotting.

Then, make a hash of putting it out, but it was delish nontheless.


Recipe

1 tbsp olive oil
1 leek
Handful green beans
I clove garlic
4 big (or more smaller) mushrooms
4 medium sized new potatoes
2 tomatoes
2 plaice fillets
1 lemon

Do this:-

1.  Chop leek and sautee in olive oil.
2.  Add chopped green beans, chopped mushrooms, sliced potatoes and crushed garlic, stir around for a minute.
3.  Add a cup of water.  Simmer for a couple of minutes.  Move veg around to form a single layer.
4.  Layer fish on top.  Add tomato and lemon slices.
5.  Season, cover - stick in oven for about 30 minutes (or an hour in this case).

Lemon chicken with red rice

Both me and the victim have had horrible colds, amongst other pressures, so no posts for a bit.  Also, as we have been under the weather favourites have been wheeled out .. and they have featured on the blog many times. Lemon chicken may well have appeared before, but I'm not checking... I never promised a no repeat recipe blog.. and I know it doesn't appear every week.  It is tasty, though, so you could eat it every week if you had too!

So, sautee chopped onion and celery in olive oil until a bit soft.  Push veg to edge of pan, turn heat up a bit, add bite sized pieces of chicken, keep stirring until all edges a bit cooked.  Add other veg (chopped green beans and diced carrot), some stock, minced garlic, juice of a lemon or so and sprinkle of mixed herbs.  If you're feeling fruity grate in zest of lemon.  There should be enough liquid to keep the mixture a "sauce" but not to drown the contents.  Simmer gently for 10(ish) minutes.  Meanwhile cook red rice (it's a grass officially) according to packet instructions. (or use any other sort of rice/ pasta/ potatoes/ bread... whatever).  Just before serving stir in big handful of chopped parsley and another squirt of lemon juice.

Grind black pepper and add chopped parsley to the rice and splodge.  Victim has been moaning about splodge of rice - splodge of sauce, so I tried a ring presentation - all seems a bit 70s to me... so here is another pic.. same dinner, rice in a mould.  Please leave a comment to gang up on me, or give me ammunition against victim's ideas.

Lemon drizzle cake

When I left for work this morning this was a full, whole, freshly baked cake... when I got home!!! well, that is the point of cakes, ... to share... and there is a lot left.  I was told that our 6 month old neighbour ate most of it.  This is a FIB.  Anyway recipe mostly from here.... http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/534232 obv round tin, but otherwise followed recipe.

Lemon drizzle cake

There are dozens of recipes for lemon drizzle cake out there - and so there should be - it's delicious.  I (more or less) followed the one in the "Great British Bake Off" cookbook - but it could have been another - basically it's a chuck it all in the mixer and then bake - recipe.  The fiddliest bit is the spooning over the sugar syrup, let it cool spoon over some more bit - but the top is so delicious and crunchy that it is worth this very minor bit of faff.  So - zest of 2 lemons (or so, depending on how lemony you want it) - importantly zest it into the mixing bowl so that you catch every tiny spritz of the lemon oil which squirts out - that's the concentrated flavour - and don't keep grating until you get the pith - that makes it bitter.  Add 175 gms granulated sugar, 175 gms softened butter, 200 gms self raising flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder - 2 medium/large eggs (or in our case 4 tiny bantam eggs).  Mix until smooth (I am lucky enough to have a KitchenAid Artizan mixer which is a marvel - but you can do this in any food processor on pulse).  Pour mixture into lined 2lb loaf tin - and bake at about 180C until light brown (about 35-40 mins), and skewer pushed into the middle comes out clean.  Leave to cool for 5 minutes in tin.  Mix juice of 1 lemon with about 100gm granulated sugar.  Remove cake from tine and paper and stab (quite deep, but don't go through the other side of the cake, to much -the idea being to trap as much syrup as poss within the moist cake) with skewer at least 50 times.  Spoon over sugary syrup and let drizzle into holes and over edges of cake.  Wait 5 mins and drizzle on the rest of the mixture.  Leave for at least an hour to set - then cut and scoff - or deliver to batch of victims - let them cut and scoff... and give you huge thumbs up.  Took this round to some friends tonight and they assured me that it was scrummy.

Baked cod and capers, with fennel and potatoes

Trying to get fish into primary victim is a losing battle.  This was eaten - but with a face like a slapped kipper.  I thought it was refreshing, light and tasty.  So, roast par-boiled potatoes in olive oil, with wedges of fennel - for about 50 minutes.  Bake cod on lemon slices, drizzle of olive oil, tablespoon each of capers and black olives - cracked black pepper - with a good squeeze of lemon juice.  Cod takes about 20 minutes - cooked frozen peas.  Easy peasy then lemon squeezy.  As I said victim ate and grimaced, me and second victim enjoyed it.  Primary victim grinned when I declared we couldn't have it again for at least 3 weeks. 

Self saucing lemon pudding

Dinner with outlaws - beef casserole, mash and green veg - followed by self saucing lemon pudding.... yum yum yum... did I mention yum?!  More or less from here
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5781/lemon-selfsaucing-pudding ... but included half lemon and half lime.