Beef stew with cheese cobbler topping

We ate this on the balcony in the sunshine, after an afternoon spent digging at the allotment. It felt rather more like May than March.

This is adapted from a Hugh Fearnley-Whirligig recipe in the Guardian, and a fish cobbler recipe from Yorkshire. It's not a bad hybrid.

You'll need:

400g stewing beef, chopped into largish chunks
a little flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
a couple of medium-sized onions, cut into large chunks
3 carrots, cut into largeish chunks
4 large mushrooms, chopped into large chunks
a glug of olive oil
fresh parsley
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
150ml bitter/stout
400ml vegetable stock or beef stock

First of all, put the oven on at about 140 degrees C. Dip the chunks of beef in the seasoned flour, and then fry in batches in a frying pan until they're browned. Tip into your casserole dish.

Fry the onions in the meat juices (you may have to add a little extra olive oil) for a couple of minutes, and then tip them into the casserole too. Add the carrots, bitter, stock and the herbs (3 or 4 large stalks of parsley, a couple of bay leaves and the dried thyme. Shove a lid on the casserole dish, bung in the oven, and cook for 1 hour 45 minutes.

In the meantime, fry the mushrooms in a good glug of olive oil, until they soften and colour. You can also make the cobbler (essentially a cheesy scone topping).

You'll need:

8oz self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon mustard powder
2oz butter
3oz cheese (preferably something strong like cheddar, although Wensleydale would also be good)
1 egg, beaten
1/4 pint of milk
a pinch of salt

To make the cobbler, pour the flour, salt, baking powder and mustard powder into a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter, until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs, then add the cheese. Mix in the egg, and however much of the milk you need to form a soft dough (I used all of it, but it does vary depending on your flour).

Once the stew has cooked (you could happily leave it in for a couple of hours or so), bring it out, and crank up the oven temperature to 180 degrees C.

Chuck the mushrooms (and any juices left in the pan) into the casserole dish. Then top with the cheese scone cobbler. You could roll the dough out, and cut out proper scone shapes. I just divided mine up into small-ish balls, squashed them until they were about 2cm thick, and then placed them on top of the stew.

Bake in the oven for about 35 minutes - or until the scone topping is golden and crunchy.

We ate ours with some steamed cabbage and broccoli. It disappeared very quickly.

Tagliatelli with smoked salmon, leek and thyme

We spent most of the afternoon pottering about in the garden centre, after the exciting news that we have a share in an allotment. You've decided you want to grow 'carrots and flowers'.

Tea was courtesy of the leeks in our back yard. We only managed to grow 6 last year...

You'll need:

tagliatelli - enough for three
a pack of smoked salmon trimmings
a couple of large leeks (or several small, if they've been grown in your back yard), sliced
five or six spring onions, sliced into chunks
dried thyme (in summer, this would be lovely with some dill, I suspect)
a squeeze or two of lemon

Stick the tagliatelli in a large pan of boiling water, and cook until tender. In the meantime, chuck the leeks and spring onions in a frying pan with a good slug of olive oil, sprinkle with a teaspoon or so of dried thyme, and fry until they've softened.

Once the pasta has cooked, drain it (reserving a couple of tablespoons of water). Toss through the smoked salmon, leeks and spring onions, and then add a squeeze of lemon juice. If it's still a little dry, use a tablespoon of the reserved cooking water.

Grate over lots of parmesan cheese, and eat before it goes cold.

Pork with date and apple stuffing

Yet another use for cooking apples (Grandma gave us a bag a couple of weekends ago).

You'll need:

pork tenderloin (enough for three)
a good handful of breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten
a handful of dates, roughly chopped
a cooking apple, peeled, cored and grated (or finely chopped)

Turn the oven on to about 190 degrees C.

Take your pork tenderloin, place some clingfilm over the top, and hit repeatedly with something heavy - I use my Grandma's old wooden rolling pin. The pork will gradually flatten in a pleasing fashion.

In a bowl, mix together the breadcrumbs, grated apple and chopped dates. Add the egg, and a couple of tablespoons of water, and mix everything together into a horrific mess.

Tear off a sheet of foil, and place the flattened pork on top. Dump the stuffing into the middle in a long sausage, then roll up the foil lengthways (which also rolls up the pork). Twist the ends, so that you have a giant meaty shiny Christmas cracker. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes - then open up the foil, and see how well cooked the pork is. If you like a little bit of crispiness to the stuffing and/or pork, roast for another 10-15 minutes in the oven with the foil left open.

We ate this with some steamed green cabbage drizzled in soy sauce, and a mix of carrot and sweet potato.

Marmalade flapjacks

We made these this afternoon, in between telling fairy tales and playing with the play-doh. Your fairy tales were definitely better than mine.

This is adapted from another Dan Lepard recipe in the Guardian...

You'll need:

100g raisins
100g butter
60g dark brown sugar
75g orange and rhubarb marmalade (you could use any type, but this is what was lurking in the cupboard, courtesy of Leverington WI)
zest of an orange
1 tablespoon black treacle
200g rolled oats

Stick the raisins in a bowl, and cover with boiling water. Leave to stew for 10-15 minutes while you get on with the rest.

Turn the oven on to about 170 degrees C. Chuck the butter in a saucepan, together with the marmalade, sugar, black treacle and orange zest. Melt over a low heat.

Drain the raisins, and add to the saucepan. Ditto the oats. It'll look a right mess, but will smell lovely. Decant the mess into a square baking tin - which you've lined with greaseproof paper (otherwise it'll stick like anything).

Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, until it's coloured slightly. Leave to cool on a wire rack (but cut into squares while it's still a little bit warm, or it'll set rock hard).

Breakfast in bed

Today was Mother's Day, so you brought me breakfast in bed.

You chose:

cornflakes
toast and marmalade
a croissant
orange juice
lots of coffee

It was a pretty good combination.

The heart in the sand came later on at Low Newton, where we watched Eldred retrieving his lobster pot on a surfboard. There were two inside, and you chanted "lobster lobster lobster" all the way home.

Roast leeks with thyme

This is a really simple side-dish, that livened up the roast chicken that we had for tea. Makes enough for two adults, and a hungry three-year-old.

You'll need:

three large leeks
a good slug of olive oil
a teaspoon of dried thyme

Stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C (or whatever temperature you're cooking your roast chicken or main dish at!). Wash out all the soil, and slice the leeks into rings.

Tear off a large square of foil, and place it on a baking tray. Tip the leeks onto the foil, slosh some olive oil over the top, and sprinkle liberally with thyme. Fold up the foil into a parcel (a biddable three-year-old comes in handy at this point).

Bung the parcel in the oven (it's easiest if you stand it on the baking tray) for about 30-40 minutes until the leeks have turned beautifully moist and squidgy, with a little bit of brown at the edges.

Apple cake

This is adapted from a Dan Lepard recipe, and never fails - it's always beautifully squidgy in the middle thanks to the ground almonds.

You'll need:

1 apple (about 150g), peeled, cored and chopped into small chunks
a large teaspoon of ground cinnamon
50g ground almonds
150g rye flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
75g butter
50g golden syrup
100g dark brown or muscovado sugar
75ml milk
an egg

Stick the oven on at about 170 degrees C, and find a suitable tin - I use a silicon loaf tin, which is probably a 2lb one.

Toss the chopped apple in the cinnamon, so it's coated all over. Mix together the flour, ground almonds and baking powder in a large bowl.

Pour the golden syrup into a small saucepan, and add the sugar and butter. Melt slowly over a very low heat until everything's dissolved. Take off the heat, and then add the milk, and a beaten egg. It'll look pretty disgusting, but bear with me.

Pour this fairly revolting mixture into the flour/ground almonds mix, and stir really well. Chuck the apple in, and fold in gently. Scrape the lot into your tin, and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. You could sprinkle the cake with some flaked almonds or demerara sugar before you bake it, if you're feeling fancy.

Leave to cool before eating, if you can - it'll slice much better.

Update: pic of cake (with slice missing - wasn't me, honest). It tastes far better than it looks.

Raspberry jam biscuits

We made these for Red Nose Day, and they disappeared very rapidly. There's lots of variations that would be nice - you could add cinnamon, vanilla or lemon zest to the basic biscuit and cut out the jam, or go the whole hog and have jam as well (or maybe lemon curd).

Makes 12 enormous biscuits (be warned - they spread like billy-o). You'll need:

100g sugar
100g butter
200g self-raising flour
1 egg (don't worry if you don't have one - I used a little milk instead as I'd run out, and they still rose fine)
raspberry jam (a dollop for each biscuit)

Stick the oven on at about 170 degrees C.

Mix the flour and sugar together, and rub in the butter (you could do this in the food processor to speed things up). Beat the egg and add to the mixture (you may not need all of it), to create a stiff dough.

Shape the dough into a long sausage, and cut 2cm thick slices. Place the slices on a baking tray (preferably on greaseproof paper or a silicon sheet), a fair way apart (see above - they spread!). Make a small dibble in the middle of each biscuit, and fill it with raspberry jam.

Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until they turn golden, and have risen slightly. Leave to cool slightly, then decant onto a wire rack.

Gnocchi with butternut squash, onion and sage

We spent the afternoon at IKEA, sitting on all the new garden furniture and pretending we were sunbathing in the garden. Well, a girl's got to dream...

I adapted this recipe from one in the April edition of Olive.

You'll need:

a pack of gnocchi
a small butternut squash, peeled and cut into tiny cubes
an onion, thinly sliced
a handful of sage leaves
olive oil
parmesan cheese to grate over the top

Chuck the cubes of squash into a large frying pan, together with the onion and a generous slosh of olive oil. Fry until the squash has softened and browned - it took me about 15-20 minutes. You'll need to keep an eye on it and swish it around, so that the onion doesn't burn. Once the squash is tender, add the sage leaves, and fry for a couple of minutes.

Tip your packet of gnocchi into a pan of boiling water, and leave to cook for 2-3 minutes. The gnocchi are done when they rise to the surface - drain them, then tip into the frying pan with the squash, onion and sage. Mix everything together so the gnocchi takes on the flavours, and then tip into a bowl to serve. Grate lots of parmesan cheese over the top, and a fair bit of black pepper.

We ate our gnocchi with a green salad, but I suspect something tomato-based would also be nice.

Chicken, leek and mushroom lasagne

The perfect food for a wintry day.

You'll need:

some cooked chicken (ideally 3 or 4 chicken thighs, or whatever you've got left from a roast)
any leftover gravy
3 or 4 large leeks, cleaned and sliced
an onion, sliced
some large mushrooms, sliced
lasagne sheets
about 1/3 pint milk
a knob of butter
a tablespoon of flour
freshly grated nutmeg, black pepper, mixed herbs
grated cheese

First of all, stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C.

Then, saute the onion and leeks in a frying pan with some mixed herbs and olive oil until they soften. Remove from the pan, then do the same with the mushrooms (you may have to add a bit more olive oil).

Now comes the fun part - the layering in a baking dish. You'll need a layer of leek/onion/mushroom/cooked chicken, followed by a layer of pasta. If you have some gravy leftover from a roast, then you can drizzle this over each layer. How many layers you create depends on the size of your baking dish or tray, but you need to end with a pasta sheet on the top.

For a bechamel (white) sauce to smear over it all, you'll need to melt a knob of butter in a non-stick pan, and add a tablespoon of flour to it. Mix to a smooth paste, then gradually whisk in the milk, to avoid any lumps. Add some freshly grated nutmeg, and heat gently for 5-10 minutes until the sauce thickens (you'll probably have to do a fair amount of stirring, so it doesn't catch on the bottom).

Pour the bechamel sauce over the top of the lasagne, and scatter over some grated cheese (the stronger the better). Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, until the insides are bubbling and the lasagne sheets are fully cooked.

If you're short of time, don't forget you could use a small pot of creme fraiche instead of the bechamel sauce.

Carrots with orange, garlic and rosemary

This one's adapted from a Sainted Jamie recipe. We had toad in the hole for tea, and I wanted a little something to jazz up the veg.

You'll need:

enough carrots for three, sliced
a few stems of rosemary
three or four whole cloves of garlic
a little butter
an orange
a teaspoon of sugar

Cut the orange into eight, and place the pieces in some boiling water, together with a knob of butter and the carrots. Add a teaspoon of sugar, and then the rosemary and garlic.

Once the carrots are cooked, drain, and discard the herbs. Keep one of the pieces of orange, chop it into small pieces, and add it to the carrots. Squidge out the innards of the garlic, and add that too, together with another small knob of butter and lots of salt and black pepper.

Lemon, raisin and sour cream muffins

We made these in the morning, and then spent this afternoon at Whitburn, marvelling at the stripy lighthouse and the beautiful pebbles on the beach.

Makes an enormous amount (26 small cupcakes, or presumably about 13 large muffins). You'll need:

180g raisins
375g self-raising flour
220g sugar
rind of a lemon, finely grated
90g butter, melted
180g creme fraiche or sour cream
125ml milk
2 eggs

Stick your oven on at 180 degrees C, and line a cupcake pan with some paper cases.

Mix the flour, raisins, sugar and lemon rind in a bowl. Add the melted butter. In a large jug beat the milk, creme fraiche and eggs together, and then tip in. It'll look like an unholy mess - give it all a swish about, until all the flour has mixed in properly. It'll still look lumpy (that's the raisins for you), but will smell amazing.

Decant the mixture into your paper cases, trying not to drop it all over the floor. Bung in the oven for about 20 minutes, until they've started to go golden brown.

Fish parcels, with tomatoes, olives and parsley

A funny old day today - we went to the Baltic this afternoon, which was unusually uninspiring (all the kids things in the Quay on Level 2 just looked battered and old, and there didn't seem to be much that engaged you).

We ended up taking so long at the supermarket afterwards (thank you Tesco, your new layout is most unappreciated) that tea had to be something bung-in-the-oven-quick that would cook in 20 minutes while we watched a bit of telly.

You'll need:

a fillet each of white fish or salmon (we had pouting, which I'd never come across before, but was cheap in Morrisons. I think salmon would have been better - it was a bit bland)
half a jar of black olives
half a punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved
some long stems of parsley (we are still inundated with the stuff, even in March)
a little olive oil
black pepper

Turn the oven on to about 180 degrees C. Take a large piece of foil (squareish), and place a fillet in the centre. Chuck a tablespoon of cherry tomatoes on top, add 8-10 black olives and a couple of stems of parsley, and drizzle a little olive oil over the top. Season well with black pepper.

Fold up the foil into a parcel, and then place on a baking tray (if it leaks, you don't want fish juice all over the floor of your oven). Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or so - depending on the thickness of your fish.

We ate ours with some boiled, buttered potatoes, and some shredded cabbage.

Picadillo

It was beautifully sunny this afternoon, so we sat on the balcony and looked at the new bulbs, which are just poking their heads out from the soil. Half an hour later it snowed. Hmm.

Tea was therefore something wintry and warming - although yours was minus the chilli.

You'll need:

500g minced pork or beef
a large onion, finely diced
a couple of peppers, finely diced
a large potato, cubed
2 tablespoons tomato puree
a tin of tomatoes
a clove of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
a little sugar or honey
1/4 pint stock
a teaspoon of dried chillies

Fry the mince until it's browned, and then add the onions and garlic. Cook until they've softened, and then add the peppers and diced potato. Cook for another 5 minutes.

Chuck in the tomato puree, tomatoes and the herbs/spices (parsley, cumin, oregano), as well as the chillies. Add half a teaspoon of sugar or honey, and mix everything together well. Add enough stock so that the potatoes and meat are completely covered.

Bring to the boil, and leave to cook for half an hour or so. You'll probably need to add a little extra stock from time to time, to stop it sticking. Once the potato is tender, it's ready to eat.

We had ours with some couscous, but really it's a Latin American dish and deserves some rice on the side, or to be used in a burrito, taco or empanada.

Mini carrot cakes with lemon drizzle icing

This was an an attempt to cheer you up, and distract you from the spots. It seemed to work - you had a ball drizzling the icing everywhere.

Makes about 12 little fairy cakes/cupcakes.

You'll need:

4oz butter
4oz sugar
4oz self-raising flour
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of mixed spice
3oz grated carrot
1 tablespoon raisins

Stick the oven on at 175 degrees C, and line your tins with baking cases (your favourite bit).

Put the butter, sugar, flour, mixed spice and eggs in a food processor, and blitz until everything's well combined and smooth. You could do this by hand - it'll just take longer and need more elbow grease.

Take your blade out of the food processor. Add the grated carrot and raisins, and mix by hand (you don't want to do this bit with the processor, as you'll end up with shredded raisins) to create a fairly sloppy batter.

Spoon the batter into your cases, trying not to drip. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or so, until the cakes have risen, and turned golden brown. Take out of the tins, and place on a rack to cool.

For the lemon drizzle icing you'll need:

1oz icing sugar
a little lemon juice

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Add a couple of splashes of lemon juice, and mix to a smooth paste. Thin this with a little more lemon juice, until it drips nicely off your spoon, and can be drizzled dramatically over the cakes, plate and worktop.

Leek and thyme pastries

You're still in the throes of chicken pox, so you had leek and bacon pasta for tea. Your Dad and I decided to go all sophisticated with these later on.

You'll need:

2 large leeks, sliced
2 tablespoons creme fraiche
1 egg, beaten
black pepper, dried thyme
125g (ish) puff pastry (readymade)

Stick the oven on at 180 degrees C.

Fry the leeks in a little olive oil, until they've softened. Add lots of dried thyme (I would use fresh, but there's none to be found outside at the moment) and black pepper. Leave to cool slightly.

Beat together the egg and creme fraiche, and add to the leeks.

Roll out your puff pastry into a couple of rectangles. Fold over the edges of each, to make a thin border, and place on a baking tray (preferably on a silicon sheet). Tip the leek mixture onto each piece of pastry, and spread it out evenly. It's delicious as it is, but you could also grate some parmesan on top of the leek mixture, if you'd like a stronger taste.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or so, until the pastry is crisp and golden brown.