Tuna salad

This is not even a recipe, as it's so easy - but I include it because I have seen people buying jars of tuna sandwich filler etc... and it is so easy, and more delicious to make it yourself.  To a can of drained tuna add chopped spring onion, celery, roast red pepper, cucumber, radish and gherkin.  Mix in 1 spoon of mayonnaise and one spoon of natural yogurt, grind on black pepper.... easy, incredibly quick and delicious - and people buy this stuff at great expense from the chiller compartment.  Use as sandwich filler, baked potato topper or on its own.  Victim had breadsticks, and says it's yummy.

Caribbean(ish) turkey, squash, sweet potato and peanut casserole

Diced turkey in the fridge, and some random vegetables... What do you do? Well, I did this... Chopped and sautéed one onion, garlic, one red pepper, one courgette, one peeled sweet potato and half a chiquito (or butternut, or other) squash.... After a few minutes add turkey, stirred until edges were a bit cooked. Added tin of chopped tomatoes, pint or so of chicken stock and good splash of hot sauce. Stuck in the oven for an hour while watching Saturday night film ... Before serving added chopped spring onions and some peanut gravy mix ... Could have been peanut butter and chili. Served with brown rice and natural yogurt. Victim liked it! Shed loads left for freezer.

Pork biryani

Victim was hankering biryani (go figure!), and we had some pork shoulder steaks in the freezer... and loads of veg from the veg box... so I fashioned this... and it was DELICIOUS (even though I say so myself).  Downside... enough left over for the rest of the week... Upside ... palmed it off on the neighbours... and some left for the freezer.  So, instructions... marinade diced pork in rogan josh curry paste, garam masala, loads  of crushed garlic, star anise, bay leaves, and some olive oil for at least an hour.   Meanwhile cook rice, and parboil some potatoes.  Sautee chopped onion until soft, add chopped veg (celery, red pepper, courgette, mushrooms, a turnip and fresh tomatoes) and cook gently until veg starts to soften. Season.  Add chicken stock and tin of chopped tomatoes.  Simmer again.  Cook pork in hot pan for about 10 minutes, including marinade - this stage is to seal the meat, but more importantly cook off the spices.  When the meat mixture has sizzled away for 10 minutes or so, add vegetable suace and mix well.  Chuck potatoes on the top and layer cooked rice over these.  I then added chopped almonds and cashews, and sultanas.  Cover tightly and cook in medium oven for at least an hour and a half.

Bread and butter pudding

Until tonight I would have claimed, vehemently, that bread and butter pudding is absolute pants - and there is no way I would think it a decent end to a meal ... or a nice afternoon sweet treat.  Until tonight!  We had shed loads of stuff left over, and I am trying not to waste stuff, so when victim suggested bread and butter pudding I stifled the gag reflex... and gave it a go.  IT IS YUM.  When I have tried it before it has been cloyingly sweet, dry, heavy, soggy, plastic tasting ... and altogether nasty ... but today, it was warm, sweet, but not too sweet, the texture was light but not soggy, and the top was crunchy, in all it was fruity, custardy and delicious.  So - we had a lovely crusty loaf which we bought for gathered victims with cheese after dinner - but stuffed ourselves so full of dinner (no pics cos I was distracted - but it was butter bean casserole, green beans, wilted spinach with cottage cheese and rice) - and trifle (no pics cos victims dove in so quickly that I didn't get a snap - but used brand new beautiful trifle bowl, am sure this will feature here eventually)... that we didn't get around to cheese.

Anyway - back to the bread and butter pudding.  Sliced left over loaf and buttered, layered in oven proof dish... scattered on, and in between slices, big handfuls of raisins.  Made a custard mix of 6 eggs, sugar, splash of vanilla and about 2 pints of milk... whisked together.  Tasted eggy milky mix and adjusted sugar until it was quite sweet, but not tooth achingly... it does have to soak in to all that plain bread, it needs to be a "light" custard, enough eggs so that it will set, but not so many that it is gloopy and then hard in the cooked dish (in between texture of single and double cream).  Poured custard onto bread and fruit.  Push bread into custard to that every crust soaks in the milky goodness.  Weigh the bread down gently (eg put another dish on top) and let it soak in for 30 minutes.  Spinkle top with brown sugar and bake at medium heat for about 30-40 minutes - until custard is set and top is slightly browning.  Allow to cool slightly, then scoff.

I'm a convert - who'ld a thunk it! (Victim said it wasn't quite sweet enough - but has a legendary sweet tooth)

Bring on summer - spicy hake with 3 salads

There was some sun today - hurray! So, I thought I would try to prolong the good sunshiny vibes with a salad dinner.  I had spicy hake, but also chucked a burger in for the victim ... just as well, as spicy fish was properly poo-pooed (silly! was delish).  OK - in order of cooking - beetroot, borlotti bean and mozzarella, coleslaw, waldorf (kind, sorta, ..ish) salads... spicy fish "goujons", green salad.

recipes - such as they are - beetroot, borlotti bean and mozarella salad.  I had beetroot and borlotti beans in the veg box this week, so made it from scratch - vacuum packed beetroot, and tinned beans would be proper tasty, and much less time consuming.  So, starting from the raw state... roast washed (but not peeled) beetroot in a tray with garlic, slosh of olive oil and splash of balsamic until beetroot is soft - I cover tray in foil and test after about an hour, knife should go in with very little resistance.  Meanwhile, pod and then boil borlotti beans - takes about 12 mins from boiling - but depends on beans.  Cool beetroot, cool and drain beans.  Skin beetroot (I always use gloves) and cut into bite sized pieces.  Mix together beetroot pieces, beans, chopped radish, mozarella - torn into bite sized bits, basil leaves, seasoning, olive oil - taste...yum yum - add splash of lemon juice/vinegar if needs a little sharpness.  Sorta waldorf ... well, as kids we hated walnuts, so Mum invented this with almonds... it may have morphed over the years, but it's proper simple, so morph it yourself.. Chop a fair bit of celery into small, but still chunky, chunks, add some chopped onion... chop apple - add - squirt with lemon/lime juice - mix up until all apple has touched acid juice, at this point I added chopped orange and red pepper.  Chuck in handful of almonds, small spoon of mayonnaise, good teaspoon of horseradish and about 2 tbsp of natural yogurt - season - taste, adjust... should be crunchy, savoury and refreshing.  Coleslaw... everyone has their own recipe - but finely shredded red onion, about 3 times as much red cabbage and white cabbage, grated carrot - lemon/lime juice or cider vinegar, and good pinch of rock salt... let sit for 30mins, cabbage will start to soften slightly.  Stir in splodge of mayonnaise and some natural yogurt (adjust proportions depending on whether you are trying to reduce fat (0% mayo lowest fat... all mayo if you are a skinny imp wanting to chunk up).

Spicy fish - was hake (could've been most white fish, tuna or salmon) - cut into strips and tossed in flour and fish curry spices - fried - hot and quick...

Delish.

Lettuce... OK - for completeness - I tossed it in lime juice and a whisper of olive oil.

Cheesy noodles with spicy bean casserole

As we were wandering aimlessly through the supermarket aisles, the victim declared a hankering for "Pot Noodle".... sheesh!  So, I tried to fashion something not to replicate, but to echo the best in the product, and minimise the processing... So, spicy bean casserole - nothing to do with the instant product, but savoury cheesy noodles to go alongside to provide the comforting (and ever so slightly slimy) texture.  Casserole:- Chop and sautee in olive oil:- onion, garlic, celery, courgette and roasted peppers (veg of your choice obv).  Add very finely chopped red chili and tbsp(ish) mediterranean herbs.  When vegetables are soft add tin of canneloni beans.  Stir through, add tin of chopped tomatoes and a cup of stock.  Simmer, season, simmer etc - until veg are all soft and flavour has developed (at least 30 minutes, but as long as you have really).  10 minutes before you are ready to eat cook noodles in boiling stock - I used 4 minute egg noodles in vegetable stock.  Don't swamp the noodles, you want the stock to soak in as they cook, so I started with about 200ml per noodle portion, and added a little more water when they looked dry.  When cooked, pull of the heat for 30 seconds, allow stock to soak in (if they are still wet drain off most of the excess stock) and stir in good dollop of cream cheese and a tbsp grated parmesan.  This makes the noodles slippy, deliciously stodgy and savoury.  Serve, with grated black pepper.  I think this was a success.  Victim slurped all noodles, but declared the bean casserole "too hot" - which is very odd, because it's usually me who wusses on spicy, and I finished mine no probs.  To avoid this catastrophe, be careful how much fresh chili is added!

Mushroom etc stroganoff(ish)

OK. We eat quite a lot of pasta dinners.  I do not apologise.  This dinner, however, takes you away from the tomato (or tomato/meat/cheese)
 sauce with spaghetti/whatever, and towards a slightly more eastern european flavour [please note, no claim to any authenticity etc..] What I was going for was an earthy, slightly hot and aromatic, slightly crunchy silky smooth sauce with perfectly cooked, biteful pasta to add body.  So, the chosen pasta was tagliatelli (follow instructions) - I boiled the pasta for about half a minute less than instructed, but let to drain for half a minute, and rest in the sauce for a good couple of minutes before dishing up.  So, the sauce, chopped onion sauteed in olive oil, added minced garlic (quite a lot), sautee until onions nearly transparent (not burnt) - add chopped veg - today red pepper, green beans, celery, mushrooms & edame beans - and minced garlic - chucked  in glass of white wine. Keep stirring, add stock (about a pint) and some water if necessary, to get all veg to soften enough.  When veg is cooked to just still slightly crunchy, the pasta should be nearly ready - if it is not on yet - cook the pasta - finish the sauce when the pasta is ready.  So, to veg stir in big spoon of cream cheese, some grated parmesan and a big splosh of cream - toss in pasta - Serve, scoff - well tasty!

Leek and potato soup

Slice and wash 2 large leeks, peel and dice 3 large potatoes.  Sautee leeks, garlic and celery, then add the potatoes, some mustard and a litre of stock.  I also stirred in a teaspoon of vegemite and a splosh of worcestershire sauce.  Season.  Simmer until veg is soft, liquidise in blender or using stick blender.  Stir in chopped chives.  Serve with natural yogurt and parsley.

Kedgeree

Cook rice, steam smoked haddock, hardboil a couple of eggs.  Sautee onion, red pepper, celery and mushroom in olive oil.  Stir curry powder/paste (balti in this case) into vegetables with a few spoonfuls of water.  Cook vegetables until soft, rice until cooked.  Add frozen peas to steaming fish for the last 5 minutes. Shell eggs.  Mix veg, rice, skinned flaked fish and eggs together.  Scoff.  Yum.  Victim still on adventures, so there's only my opinion to go on, but I'm just about to have seconds.

Smoked haddock with spinach and mushrooms

As easy as it sounds - steam smoked haddock (in foil in oven, in a pan on low heat the hob with some water and a lid, steam in bamboo steamer - could add squirt of lemon juice...) sautee onion and sliced mushroom in olive oil.  When fish nearly done (15 minutes), wilt spinach with onions, mushrooms and a tablespoon of water.  Grind of black pepper.  Scoff. Simple, delicious.  (Can you tell that fish hating victim is off on their adventures?)