King prawn, chilli and tomato risotto

I decided to do this as an alternative to Sunday lunch today and am so pleased I did. Less dishes no worrying about whether everything will be ready at the same time and goes rather well with a little glass of chilled vino (white or rose). I added prawns and chicken stock to this but you could just as easy use vegetable stock and at the last minute add cubes of halloumi or just leave it as is.

Traditionally you would use a separate pan for the stock to bring it to the boil and keep it hot. I use stock cubes in a jug of boiled water from a kettle so no ladling hot stock from one pan to another. I just pour it straight from the jug I make the stock up in.

 


Ingredients:
2tbsp olive oil
300ml arborio risotto rice
700ml boiling water
2x chicken oxo cubes
1/2 diced onion
1 red chilli deseeded and finely chopped
4 cloves crushed garlic
2tbsp tomato purée
200ml passata
20g finely grated cheddar
King prawns
1tbsp Fresh basil chopped
Salt and pepper

Method:
1.  Gently fry the onion in the olive oil
2. Add the chilli and garlic and cook on a low heat for a minute to let the flavours infuse the oil.
3. Add the rice and stir until coated in the oil.  Season with salt and pepper.
4. Add the tomato purée and stir until mixed into the rice and the pasta has cooked out a little.
5. Add the passata in two stages stirring in each portion and ensuring some of the liquid has cooked off before adding the next bit.
6. Turn up the heat to a medium heat and start adding the stock in small amounts, stirring all the time, ensuring that each addition is fully absorbed by the rice before adding more.
7. Towards the end of the stock additions add the prawns and stir them in.
8. Finally add the finely grated cheddar and chopped basil and serve. The cheddar needs to be finely grated as you want it to dissolve into the creamy juices.

Chorizo and courgette frittata

Chorizo and courgette frittata
Serves 4

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 courgette grated
6 chestnut mushrooms chopped
1 red pepper, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
1 ring chorizo, diced
3 spring onions, chopped
100g grated cheddar
200g crumbled feta
Pinch oregano
1tsp smoked paprika

 
Method:
1. Pre-heat your grill
2. In a non-stick pan gently fry the chorizo until the oils have rendered out and the chorizo is crispy
3. Add the mushrooms and cook down until golden
4. Add the other veg and cook until all the liquid has evaporated and the veg has started to colour
5. Add the cheddar, feta, oregano and paprika to the eggs
6. Pour the eggs into the veg and chorizo in the pan and quickly stir to mix everything together then turn down the heat
7. Gently cook until the frittata is mostly cooked through and set
8. Put the pan under the grill on high to set the top and get the cheese on the surface bubbly and golden (careful if your pan has a plastic handle like mine so keep it out if the heat)
9. Slice and serve

Spinach and feta filo pie

Spinach and feta filo pie

Ingredients:

1 pack of chilled filo pastry

For the filling:
8-10 bricks of frozen spinach, thawed
5 eggs
300g crumbled feta (1 & 1/2 packs)
100g grated mature cheddar
1/2 fresh nutmeg finely grated
1/2 bunch mint finely chopped
100g pine nuts

 



Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200*C
2. Lay out a sheet of grease proof (approx. 50cm long). Oil the grease proof and rub it all over the paper.
3. Open the filo and lay all the sheets opened out onto the grease proof
4. Carefully lay the grease proof into a round ovenproof dish and press it in until the dish is fully lined with the grease proof and filo
5. Squeeze all the excess water out of the spinach and finely chop
6. In a large bowl whisk the eggs and add the remaining ingredients and spinach and stir together
7. Pour the filling into the dish lined with the filo and fold up the excess filo to cover the top
8. Tear off the excess grease proof from round the sides
9. Bake for 20-25 mins until golden and crisp and the filling is set

10 minute - Chorizo and butter bean pan fry

My lovely husband managed to get away from work early today so I got to do something a bit different for our lunch.

This one has a real feel of tapas but obviously a bigger dish and takes only a few minutes to cook from start to finish.

Ingredients:
Thinly sliced chorizo
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 red onion
Pinch oregano
1tsp Moroccan style seasoning
2 tins butter beans
Small handful of coriander
1/2 iceberg lettuce
1/2 block of feta

Method:
1. Chop the chorizo into smallish strips. Heat a dry non-stick frying pan on a medium heat and add the chorizo. You want the oils to render out of the chorizo.
2. Chop the onion and peppers into strips and add them to the pan.  Fry everything until the chorizo starts to brown and the veg starts to soften.
3. Drain the butter beans and add them to the pan along with the oregano and Moroccan seasoning.
4. Turn the heat up and let the beans start to scorch a bit. You want the skins to dry out and the beans to start going a little fluffy. Stir occasionally so they don't burn.
5. Chop the coriander and add to the pan.
6. Shred the lettuce and plate up. Add the butter bean fry up to the plate and top everything with a crumble of salty feta.

Mushroom and lentil lasagne

I know there are a million veggie lasagne recipes out there but I can honestly say this one gives others I've tried a real run for their money. This one offers the texture and slightly caramelised flavour you'd get from browned minced beef.

I have made a massive lasagne! I mean truly huge! We're talking 9 very generous portions but there's a reason for this. Lasagne is fairly labour-intensive by nature so I always make lots so I can freeze the leftovers. That means I've got frozen lasagne handy that beats the pants off of the per packed ones you'd get from the supermarket.

The essential step in this recipe for texture is chopping the mushrooms. There's a lot of them and you want them a very fine dice. I should imagine you could do them in a food processor but you'd need to be careful not to over-process them or you'll end up with mush. My processor is only a mini one so I hand chopped my mushrooms. It took a while but once cooked the texture was perfect.

Also, for the veg base it's tradition to use an onion, celery and carrot but I didn't have any carrots in but I did have some parsnips. So I used one of them instead. And it worked great. Essentially you just need a slightly sweet root vegetable to counter the herbal, savoury notes of the celery and the parsnip seemed to do that perfectly well but I would leave it up to you.

Ingredients:

For the Bolognaise:
2 big family packs of supermarket mushrooms (mine cost under £3 for both), wiped clean of all muck and very finely minced
1 large onion peeled and finely chopped
3 sticks celery finely chopped
1 large parsnip finely diced
4 cloves chopped garlic
2 veggie oxo cubes
1tsp dried oregano
1tbsp Worcester sauce
Few drops of Tabasco sauce to taste
Pinch of salt to taste
1 cup dried red lentils
2 boxes of pasatta
2 cups water

For the white sauce:
50g butter
50g plain flour
500ml milk warmed (I use the microwave)
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Dried Lasagne sheets (15-20)
Grated cheese to top

Method:
1. In a dry frying pan on a high heat cook the mushrooms in batches. You need to cook them till all the water comes out of them, boils away and then they start to brown. It will look like you've got far to much mushrooms at first but once you cook them and the liquid evaporates they at least halve in volume. Once they're all cooked set them aside.

2. In a very large saucepan/stockpot, gently cook off the onion, celery, parsnip and garlic until the veg is translucent and tender. Adding a pinch of salt encourages the veg to leach there water preventing them from frying and colouring.
3. Add the mushrooms, oxo, oregano, Tabasco and Worcester sauce and stir together.
4. Add the lentils, pasatta and water, stir and bring to the boil. Simmer for 20 minutes then turn off the heat and allow the Bolognaise to cool. The lentils will continue to cook in the heat of the pan and will finish swelling and cooking in the oven.
5. For the white sauce, melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the flour. Cook over a low heat whisking constantly to prevent the mixture from burning but making sure the flour cooks out. Add the hot milk gradually, whisking constantly until thickened and add the nutmeg.
6. Pre-heat the oven to 190•C
7. To start building the lasagne, Pour a little of the Bolognaise mixture into the bottom of a very large lasagne dish (my dish only just fits in my oven).
8. Add a layer of the dried pasta sheets and top with more Bolognaise. Break the pasta sheets in half etc to fill all the gaps. Repeat until the dish is almost full.
9. After the last layer of pasta pour over the white sauce and top with the grated cheese.
10. Cover the dish with foil ensuring the foil doesn't touch the sauce or cheese.
11. Bake for 45 mins before removing the foil and return to the oven for 15 mins until the cheese is golden and bubbling.
12. Cut into 9 servings and serve with salad.

Creamy spring veg pasta

Creamy spring veg pasta

Feel free to substitute any if the veg in this recipe with tender spring veg of your choice I can imagine, spinach, asparagus and pea shoots would have worked wonderfully in this but I went with what was in my fridge and freezer: peas, broad beans and curly kale.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
Pasta of your choice (portion per person)
1 onion chopped
3 cloves garlic crushed
Half a bag of shredded curly kale
2 cups frozen peas
1 cup frozen broad beans
Big bunch if basil chopped
Half a bunch of mint chopped
Pinch dried oregano
Pinch black pepper
1/2 tub low fat cream cheese
2/3 pint of skimmed milk
2 tsp cornflour slaked in a little milk


Method:
1. Add a little salt to a pan of boiling water and add the dried pasta.
2. Bring to the boil then simmer as per the packet instructions
3. In a large frying pan/wok, Gently dry fry the onion and add the kale and garlic.
4. Gently stir fry until the kale starts to soften and wilt.
5. Add the peas, broad beans and pepper
6. Once the rest of the veg is tender add the cream cheese and milk
Simmer gently until the cream cheese has melted into the milk.
7. Add the cornflour mix and stir in
8. Simmer gently until slightly thickened
9. Add the herbs and drain the pasta
10. Add the drained pasta to the sauce and bring back to the simmer, stirring until the pasta is coated in the sauce
11. Serve

Spicy skinnier sloppy joes

Well I decided to try and tackle this all American favourite. Not the easiest of challenges. I'm afraid I didn't manage to cut out quite as much stodgy stuff as I'd have liked but it is beef, bun, sauce and cheese. There's only so much you can do with that combo without it no longer resembling the original. Plus this one's certainly not for every day so just enjoy the slightly pared back treat.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
400g extra lean beef mince (less than 5% fat)
1 large onion chopped
1 green pepper chopped
1 beef oxo crumbled
1/2tsp dried oregano
1 heaped tsp Moroccan seasoning from asda
3tbs worschester sauce
4-5tbs tomato ketchup
4 large wholemeal buns
Reduced fat mature cheddar grated

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200*C
2. Place split buns on a baking tray and bake for 10-15 mins until lightly toasted
3. In the meantime dry fry the mince, pepper and onion until gently browned.
4. Add the seasonings and sauces and simmer on a low heat until the meat is tender and the sauce has thickened.
5. Serve the mince on the buns topped with a little grated cheese.