Lentil curry

Probably not one you'd really enjoy at the moment, but give it a few years and you'll love curry. This one's dead easy, and once it's going you don't have to stand over it for hours.

You'll need:

8oz red lentils
1 onion, finely chopped
a clove of garlic, squashed
a piece of fresh ginger, sliced (or a teaspoon of dried ginger)
2 tablespoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon hot chilli powder
a tin of tomatoes, chopped
a squirt of tomato puree
1 teaspoon sugar

Chuck the lentils in a pan with some cold water, bring to the boil, and simmer until they're cooked (15 minutes or so). Drain.

Gently fry the onion and garlic in a little oil (probably sunflower would be best) until they've softened. Add the ginger and spices, and fry for 30s or so. Throw in the tomatoes, tomato puree, and sugar, and stir well. You'll probably need a little extra water - rinse out your tomato tin and that should do it. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes or so - then add the lentils back in. Swish everything round, and leave to simmer for a while (20 minutes) until the mixture is no longer watery.

It goes well with meaty curries, and freezes brilliantly - it's nice for lunch with a pitta bread or two.

Sunshine bars

I adapted this one from the brilliant Good Food 101 Cakes and Bakes. It's designed to feed a horde of toddlers, who are descending on us tomorrow afternoon. God help us.

You'll need:

4oz porridge oats
20z rice krispies (that's actually quite a lot of rice krispies...)
3oz dessicated coconut
2oz sunflower seeds
4oz brown sugar
4oz golden syrup
4oz butter, chopped
2oz raisins/sultanas
2oz dried dates and prunes, chopped

Chuck the oats, rice krispies and coconut in a bowl, and get small biddable child to mix well. Add the raisins/sultanas/dates/prunes, checking that most have gone in the bowl rather than the small child.

Toast the sunflower seeds in a dry frying pan for a couple of minutes until they brown, and then chuck them in too.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup. Pour this over the dry ingredients, and mix really really well. Line a shallow tin with greaseproof paper, and tip the mixture into it. Press down hard with a spoon, to compact everything. Once finished, let small child lick the spoon.

Leave to cool for a couple of hours, and then divide into bars. It should keep in a tin for a week or so, I guess.

Chilli

This is your Dad's special recipe (hence no kidney beans, as they don't agree with him). We generally eat it with pasta or rice, and I have been known to add a side dish of green peas...

You'll need:

500g mince (lamb is probably the best, but I also like pork)
a couple of large onions, finely chopped
a clove of garlic, squidged
lots of mushrooms, finely chopped
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
a small tin of tomato paste
a couple of squares of dark chocolate
a splosh of vinegar (preferably malt)
a selection of dried chillis (I like the smoky chipotle ones best, but de Arbol are also good) chopped and then soaked in a finger or so of whisky
a heaped teaspoon of chilli powder
a tablespoon of dark brown sugar (I also suspect that black treacle would be nice)

Fry the mince until browned, and I mean really browned. Add the onions and garlic, and fry until they're translucent - you then need to follow suit with the mushrooms. Chuck in your selection of dried chillis, and cook for another couple of minutes (mind out at this point for the chilli fug - if you've got your pan on high the fumes are quite overpowering).

Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, vinegar, sugar, chilli powder and chocolate, and bring the resulting mixture to the boil. Simmer for a very very long time - a couple of hours at least, until the sauce has reduced.

You can also make this in the slow cooker, but I'd tone down the amount of liquid, or cook it for the last hour with the lid off.

Steak, celery and onion stew

We spent the afternoon at the swimming pool, with you giggling like a loon whenever I pretended to be a shark. Consequently, lots of stodge was required afterwards.

You'll need:

a large piece of stewing or braising steak
an onion, chopped
four or five sticks of celery, chopped (don't worry about the leafy bits - chuck it all in)
a large teaspoon of flour
a couple of medium potatoes, peeled and chopped into small chunks
dried thyme
lots of black pepper
worcestershire sauce

I made this in the slow cooker, but you could equally stick the oven on fairly low (160 degrees C) for a couple of hours, or cook it on the stovetop.

Chop your steak into small chunks, and brown in a frying pan (you may have to do this in a couple of batches). Chuck into your stock pot. Add a teaspoon of flour to the juices left in the pan - swish it about for 30s or so, and then add a little hot water. Pour the resulting liquid into your stock pot.

Add the celery, onions and potatoes. In a slow cooker, add a little boiling water, so that the veg/meat is barely covered. You'll need to add more if you're cooking this in an oven or on the hob (maybe 1/4 to 1/2 a pint). Season with several splashes of worcestershire sauce, lots of black pepper and a good sprinkling of thyme.

Cook for 4-5 hours on high in a slow cooker, or for a couple of hours in the oven/on the hob.

We ate ours with dumplings - you'll need half suet to flour, and a little cold water to mix. Roll into balls, and then either drop into the stew or slide onto a tray and stick in the oven for 25 minutes until they're golden brown on top and fluffy inside.

Spicy cornbread muffins

We had this with yet another batch of chicken stew. You went camping, and ate yours in your 'tent' in the living room...

This recipe makes 12 smallish muffins, and is an adaptation of the proper thing in Leith's Latin American Cookery (there's far more chilli/coriander in their recipe).

You'll need:

200g plain flour
a pinch of salt
a tablespoon of baking powder
25g brown sugar
70g polenta
3 eggs
70ml sunflower oil
6 tablespoons water
a teaspoon of chilli flakes

Stick the oven on at 180 degrees C.

Mix the flour, polenta, salt, baking powder and sugar in a large bowl. Add a teaspoon of chilli flakes (or less, depending on how spicy you like your bread). In a large jug mix together the three eggs, sunflower oil and water, and then pour into the flour mix.

Swirl everything round with a wooden spoon until it's all combined - it should look like a thick batter. Spoon into 12 small muffin tins - you'll need some paper or silicon cases.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on how fierce your oven is, and then leave on a rack to cool.

Kedgeree

You were quite taken with the idea that this used to be eaten for breakfast. I'm not sure anything could come between you and your cereal, toast and dried apricots combo though.

You'll need (makes enough for three adults):

two eggs, hardboiled and chopped
an onion, finely chopped
a tablespoon of butter
a mugful of rice
about 350g smoked fish (eg cod or haddock)
a teaspoon of mild curry powder
lots of fresh parsley, finely chopped
lots of lemon juice

First of all, poach your fish in two mugfuls of cold water. Bring it to the boil, and simmer for 8 minutes. Drain the fish (keep the liquid), and keep it warm under a plate.

Gently fry the onion in the butter for 5 minutes, until it's softened. Add a teaspoon of curry powder, and cook for half a minute. Stir in the rice, and swish it all about until it's coated with the curry mixture. Add your drained fish liquid, bring to the boil, and then simmer for 10-12 minutes until all the liquid has been absorbed. If the rice is still too al dente, you may have to add a little more.

Flake the fish and take out any bones. Add to the cooked rice, along with the boiled egg and lots of fresh parsley (ours is still going strong in the front garden, despite snow, ice and tumultuous wind and rain). Add lemon juice to taste, along with lots of black pepper.

This goes well with a green salad, or some peas. In fact green stuff of any description looks lovely against the yellow fish and rice.

Stilton, red Russian kale and courgette pie

Bear with me here. It sounds a bit of an odd combination, and it was born out of the need to use up the last of the stilton from Christmas. We also had some weird stuff in the veg box this week which turned out to be red Russian kale, and I'd run out of things to do with it.

To be honest, though, there's very little that can't be improved by sticking a piece of pastry on top.

You'll need:

a small block of puff pastry (life's too short to faff about making this from scratch on a Monday night)
a small block of stilton (I guess I had about 150g of the stuff left), cubed
a couple of onions, finely chopped
a large courgette, cut into small pieces
a couple of handfuls of red Russian kale (spinach would also be good, but you'd need a lot more of it)
a small carton of cream (I didn't have this, so I used a small pot of cheese sauce which was lurking in the back of the freezer)
black pepper (I didn't add any salt because the stilton is salty enough), a teaspoon of dried thyme

Stick the oven on at 180 degrees C. Hopefully miss out the bit where it trips the electricity, and you have to go out in the freezing cold to turn the switch back on.

First of all, sort out your filling. Gently fry the onions in a little olive oil until they've softened, then add the courgette and the thyme, and cook for 5 minutes on a gentle heat.

Chop your kale into small pieces, and blanch - put into boiling water for 5 minutes, until the purple has turned to green (spooky). Drain (the water will be beautifully purple), and chuck into the bottom of your pie dish. Add the courgette/thyme/onion mixture, and gently turn until it's all combined.

Scatter the cubes of stilton over the top of the mixture, and season generously with black pepper. Pour your cream (or creme fraiche or whatever) over the top.

Roll out the puff pastry to the size of your pie dish, and lay it over the top of everything (remember to make a couple of small holes in the top to let the steam out). Bung in the oven for 20-30 minutes (or until the top is golden brown and puffed up).

Chicken, pepper and apricot tagine

This one was also made in the slow cooker, due to the fact that the oven is kaput, and keeps tripping the electric...

You'll need:

a couple of large pieces of chicken (I used a leg/thigh combo)
a handful of apricots, chopped
an onion, finely chopped
1 yellow pepper, chopped into smallish pieces
1 orange pepper (ditto)
chicken stock - enough to cover the chicken and vegetables
a heaped teaspoon each of cinnamon, cumin and turmeric
lots of black pepper and a little salt

Brown the chicken pieces, and place in the stockpot/tagine. Chuck in the apricots, onion, and peppers. Heat up your chicken stock, and add the spices to it - then carefully cover the vegetables and chicken with liquid. Don't use too much (whether you're doing this in a tagine or in a slow cooker), or you'll end up with spiced chicken soup.

If you're slow cooking, you'll need to stick it on medium for a good 6-8 hours. In the oven, a couple of hours in a tagine should sort it out in about 1.5, if you stick the oven on at about 160-170 degrees C.

Serve with lots of fluffy couscous.

Afternoon tea

This is your absolute favourite of all teas, I think. We went for afternoon tea at the Vermont for my birthday in November, and then made our own version on Christmas Eve. We got out all the old china (my Nanna's cake stand, my Grandma's tea set, and Grandma's special cake-cutting knife), and sat in the dining room with the Christmas tree sparkling in the corner.

It's traditional to have sandwiches, a selection of cakes/biscuits/pastries, and a nice pot of tea or hot chocolate.

For the sandwiches, you'll need some homemade bread sliced thinly (or some really nice bread - not just sliced white!). Good fillings include ham (or ham and cream cheese), thinly sliced cucumber, marmite and Shipham's crab paste (surprisingly good, and 70% crab!).

We also had a cake stand full of Christmas cake, some mini stollen and several lebkuchen. I darkly suspect if it wasn't Christmas, we'd have gone for Battenberg (your Dad's favourite, along with lemon drizzle), jam tarts (your favourite), or carrot cake (mine).

Chicken and root vegetable stew

I tried doing this in the slow cooker that Gran and Grandpa gave us for Christmas...it's dead easy to use, but it turned out a little like soup. So beware - reduce the liquid if you're going down that route.

You'll need:

leftover cooked chicken (say hello, Christmas capon)
an onion, sliced
a couple of potatoes, peeled and chopped into small cubes
a couple of carrots (ditto)
half a small swede/turnip (ditto)
a parsnip (ditto)
some leftover white wine (about half a glass)
vegetable stock (I made mine from some stock powder and hot water)
dried thyme, black pepper and a little salt

Fry the onion in a little olive oil until it softens. Chuck into a stew pot, or slow cooker, and add all the other vegetables and chicken. Season with the herbs, pepper and salt. Add whatever leftover white wine you have in the house/freezer, and top up the liquid with some vegetable stock, until the mixture is covered.

Stick a lid on, and put in the slow cooker for 4-6 hours on high (but leave off the lid for the last half hour or so, or you'll have soup), or in the oven (at about 160) for a couple of hours until the vegetables are soft.

If you don't have many potatoes, and you like a slightly thicker stew, you could add some pearl barley or spelt as well.

Apple crumble

Made to Grandma's specifications (and Grandad's custard requirements).

For the topping you'll need:

4 oz flour (whatever you've got most of will do)
1.5 oz granulated sugar (brown demerara makes it nice and crunchy)
1.5 oz butter, cut into small pieces
a little cinnamon

Tip the flour, sugar and cinnamon into a large bowl, and mix. Add the pieces of butter, then attack everything with a fork - the idea is to break up the butter and combine it with the flour/sugar mix, until everything looks like fine breadcrumbs.

You'll also need:

4 or 5 cooking apples
a couple of tablespoons of sugar
a splosh of orange juice

Core and peel the cooking apples, and chop into smallish pieces. Shove in the bottom of an oven-proof dish with the sugar and orange juice.

Cover with the crumble topping, and pop in a hot oven (180 degrees C ish) for 20-30 minutes or so, until the apples are bubbling and the crumble top is golden brown (now I come to think of it, it's easier to see this if you've got a glass dish!).

According to Grandad, crumble has to be eaten with custard, preferably Bird's custard. I thoroughly agree - it's the best bit. You'll need to buy a tin of powder, and add milk and a little sugar.

Chicken curry with coconut, courgette and mangetout

This is loosely based on a Jamie Oliver curry recipe that we've made many times (I think it's the one in Happy Days with the Naked Chef) - when you first arrived we made batches of the stuff to go in the freezer and ate it in shifts between the early evening wails.

Today's tea was far more sedate, after an afternoon of taking down the Christmas decorations. Roll on December - the house looks bald without them.

You'll need:

some cooked chicken (enough for 3 or 4 - ours came from the slowly decreasing pile of Christmas capon in the freezer)
a courgette, chopped
a large handful of mangetout
a tin of coconut milk
three really large tomatoes (I happened to have some in the veg box last week, but to be honest I most often use a tin of chopped tomatoes)
an onion, finely chopped
a teaspoon of mustard seeds
a teaspoon of curry leaves
a teaspoon of turmeric
a teaspoon of chilli powder
a teaspoon of dried ginger (fresh would be miles better but I didn't have any in)
a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds
some sunflower oil

Heat a couple of tablespoons of sunflower oil in a frying pan, and add the mustard seeds. When they pop (after a minute or so), add the fenugreek, curry leaves and ginger, and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the onion, and cook until it's softened and browned. Add the chilli powder and turmeric (watch out - it's impossible to get off if you spill it down you), and fry for another couple of minutes. You may need to add a little more oil if it sticks.

Throw in the tomatoes, and cook for five minutes or so until they start to go slightly mushy. Add the coconut milk, turn the heat up slightly, and simmer for 10 minutes or so.

Add the chicken and courgette, and simmer for another 10 minutes. Chuck in the mangetout, and cook for a couple of minutes if you like them al dente, 5 or 6 if you prefer them a little softer.

Eat with lots of plain boiled rice. Some chopped fresh coriander on the top would be perfect, if a little poncey.

Vegetable lasagne

This rounded off a day of playing in tents (artfully constructed from a couple of blankets and some living room chairs), and a trip to the Winter Gardens in Sunderland. I think I prefer the bolognese version, but there were a whole load of veggies in the fridge desperate to be eaten.

You'll need:

2 onions, finely sliced
a pepper, sliced
a few mushrooms, quartered
a really large courgette (or a couple of smaller ones), sliced into rings
a carrot or two, sliced thinly lengthways
tin of chopped tomatoes
tomato puree
dried thyme, mixed herbs and black pepper
lots of grated cheese
sheets of lasagne (dried, not fresh)
1/4 pint of milk
a tablespoon of flour
a large knob of butter
grated nutmeg

Stick your oven on at about 180 degrees C.

First of all, you need to make your tomato/vegetable sauce. It takes a while to simmer, so I did this at lunchtime, because I knew I wouldn't have time later on.

Fry the onions in a little olive oil until they're soft and translucent. Add the peppers and carrot, and fry until they soften, chucking in the mushrooms after a few minutes (you may need to add some extra olive oil).

Tip in the tin of tomatoes, a squirt of tomato puree, and the thyme, mixed herbs and black pepper. Bring to the boil, then leave to simmer for ages - at least half an hour. It'll cope quite happily with up to 1.5 hours, but you'll probably need to add some extra water at some point.

Take your oven-proof dish, and cover the bottom with a layer of courgette slices. Top with half the tomato sauce, and a layer of lasagne sheets. Repeat - you'll end up with the pasta on the top.

You'll then need to make your white/bechamel sauce. Chuck the butter in a non-stick pan and let it melt. Add the flour, and mix to a smooth paste. Gently and gradually add the milk in small stages, beating any lumps in the paste out with a wooden spoon. Once all the milk's incorporated, grate a little nutmeg into the sauce, and leave on a very low heat to thicken (be careful it doesn't start to boil). If you haven't got time for all this shenanigans, you could always just use some creme fraiche.

Pour the sauce over the top of the lasagne sheets - ideally you want enough that it runs down the sides and into the lower layers. Season with lots of black pepper, sprinkle with lots of grated cheese, and put in the oven for 35-45 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and starting to brown.

Eat while piping hot - it goes well with a crisp green salad.

Cheesy puffs

The block of puff pastry I bought to make the apple galette just went on and on and on...this made use of the last remnants. We scoffed them in the car* on the first picnic of the year, overlooking the lake at Herrington.

You'll need:

some offcuts of puff pastry
grated cheese (preferably mature cheddar, or something strong)
a sprinkle of paprika

I baked these in the oven at about 200 degrees C.

Roll out your pastry - you need some strips about 2 inches wide, and 3 inches long. Place the grated cheese at one end, sprinkle a bit of paprika on top, and then roll up. Pinch the edges together really well (if you want to seal it properly you could brush it with a little beaten egg), and stick on a lined baking tray. Repeat ad nauseam, depending on how much pastry you've got left.

Bake in the oven for about 12-15 minutes, until the pastry has puffed up (it should look like little sausage rolls), and gone golden brown.

I thought these would be perfect for three-year-olds, but you refused to have anything to do with them. Next time I might try sausage rolls.

*Yes, I know picnics are generally eaten outside, but it was 2 degrees on the car thermometer and we were feeling too feeble.

Chicken, ham and leek pie

The leftover pie to end all leftovers - chicken/capon from Christmas Day (don't worry, it hasn't been hanging around for that long - I froze it), ham from New Year's Day dinner, and the other half of the puff pastry I used to make apple galette.

It made a quick tea, after an afternoon of creating a rocket for Captain Jack, reading The Man on the Moon and watching Wallace and Gromit's Grand Day Out.

Makes enough for 4 (if you like it with mashed potato on the side), or 2 if you're especially greedy and only eat it with veg.

You'll need:

about 200g of puff pastry
leftover cooked chicken - a couple of hundred grammes
leftover cooked ham (ditto)
two large leeks, sliced
lots of dried thyme
leftover gravy (you could also use bechamel sauce or single cream/creme fraiche)
black pepper

Stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C.

Chop the chicken and ham into small pieces, and scatter in the bottom of your pie dish. Chuck the leeks in a frying pan with a little olive oil and the thyme, and cook until they've softened. Add them to the pie dish.

Pour over the gravy/sauce/cream, and season with lots of black pepper.

Roll out the puff pastry to the size of your pie dish. Place the pastry over the top of the pie, making a couple of small slits in the top to let the steam out (I don't have a fancy pie funnel so this has to do).

Shove in the oven for about 20-30 minutes, until the pastry is puffed up and golden brown, and the filling is piping hot.

Serve with lots of green vegetables (and possibly some mash).

UPDATE: you can also make a rather good chicken turnover/pasty if you have enough pastry left. Roll it out to about 2/3 A4 size, and put a handful of chicken and whatever cooked vegetables you have lurking in the fridge (I used some sweet potato/swede mash) in the bottom third. Fold over the pastry, and pinch the left, right and bottom edges together really well (you could also brush with a little water or beaten egg to help it stick). Make a small hole in the top, and bung in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, until it's golden brown and puffed up.

See also cheesy puffs...

Apple galette

We ate this for New Year's Eve dinner, after some rather good haggis.

This makes enough for six greedy people (an A4-sized baking tray's worth).

You'll need:

about 250g puff pastry (you can make your own, but life's too short - I bought a block in Sainsbury's and very good it was too)
about half a large yoghurt pot's worth of apple sauce (enough to cover the base of the galette)
three large cooking apples, cored and sliced thinly (I like mine with the peel still on, but you could go the whole hog and peel them too)
a teaspoon of cinnamon
a tablespoon of butter
a tablespoon of dark brown sugar

Line your baking tray with greaseproof paper or a silicon sheet. Roll out the puff pastry to the size of the baking tray (I rolled the pastry out to about 3mm thick - if you've got any left you can always make some mini galettes or turnovers). Take a sharp knife, and score a border all the way around the pastry, about a centimetre in from the edge.

Liberally spread the apple sauce over the pastry, keeping it inside the border. Then decorate with the apple slices - I did mine in overlapping rows, but you could get far more intricate.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan, together with the cinnamon and brown sugar. Pour over the apple slices.

Bung the whole thing in the oven at about 200 degrees C for around 20 minutes, or until the pastry is puffed up and golden brown. You can eat it straightaway with some cream, but it also reheats in the oven for later.