Chocolate pinwheel biscuits

Seeing as it poured down all afternoon, we decided to cheer ourselves up by making some silly biscuits.


This makes lots (about 40-odd). You'll need:

200g butter
150g caster sugar
300g plain flour
25g cocoa
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg

Put the oven on at 180 degrees C.

Stick the butter and sugar in the food processor, and blitz until it's all creamed together (try to avoid swearing when the processor trips the electrics in the dodgy plug in the kitchen).

Add the vanilla extract and egg, and blitz again until it's smooth. Pour in the flour (you should probably sift it for maximum effect, but life's too short) and blitz again, until everything comes together into a smooth dough.

Extract half the dough, and stick on a plate. Add the cocoa to the rest, and blitz again. You've now got plain vanilla dough, and chocolate dough.

At this point, you should probably leave both halves of dough in the fridge for half an hour, until they're nicely chilled. If you're working with an overexcited three-year-old, you can safely ignore this bit.

Roll out each half of dough into a long oblong shape, about the thickness of a pound coin. Place the chocolate dough on top of the plain dough - you'll probably have to neaten up the edges and trim a few bits here and there. These bits are ideal for the three-year-old to play with and make some shapes out of.

Roll the two pieces of dough up lengthways into a long sausage (as if you were making a Swiss roll), and wrap in some clingfilm. You really do need to leave this bit in the fridge for at least 10-15 minutes to chill, and become firm.

Taking a really sharp knife, slice the dough into thin discs, and place these on a baking tray (I used a silicon sheet on top so they didn't stick). You'll be pleased to know they don't spread very much, so you can squeeze them in together.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or so, until the plain dough has turned golden brown. Turf out onto a wire rack to cool down, and try not to eat them all at once (they'd be lovely with some vanilla or chocolate ice cream).

Pepper, courgette and asparagus couscous

This is a very green salad, that goes well with chicken. It's probably a complete waste of asparagus, but I had a couple of stalks leftover from something I'd made the other day, so I chucked it in.

This makes enough for 4 adults, if you're using it as a side-dish. You'll need:

1 green pepper, diced
1 medium courgette, chopped into chunks
a couple of spring onions, sliced
4 or 5 stalks of asparagus, sliced
olive oil
butter
black pepper
100g couscous
a handful of raisins
a few flaked almonds

Fry the pepper and spring onions in a good slug of olive oil for 3 or 4 minutes, until they've softened. Add the courgette, and cook for another 3-4 minutes, and finally the asparagus (that'll only need a couple of minutes).

In the meantime, melt a knob of butter in a large pan. Add the couscous, and stir round for a minute or two on a low heat. Pour in some hot water (you need the couscous to be covered by about a centimetre), and allow it to become absorbed (this might take a couple of minutes). Test the couscous - if it's really hard still, add a little more water, and give it another minute. Turn the heat off and cover the pan with a plate so the steam can't escape. Leave for 4-5 minutes.

Fluff up the couscous with a fork, and tip into the pepper/courgette/asparagus mixture. Mix everything carefully together, and season with lots of black pepper. Scatter the raisins and flaked almonds on the top.

You may find you need a little olive oil drizzled on top when you serve it (or maybe a squeeze of lemon juice). Some chopped flatleaf parsley would also be nice.

Spicy lemon chicken

A Middle Eastern-ish tea for a distinctly English spring day (grey and rainy).

It's dead easy to make, but you do need to marinate the chicken for a while - a couple of hours will do, but longer would be even better.

You'll need:

2 chicken breasts (either flattened with a rolling pin - most satisfying - or sliced into long strips)
3 tablespoons lemon juice (which probably works out at 1 lemon)
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground coriander
a slosh of olive oil
a handful of fresh mint, finely chopped

To make the marinade, chuck all the spices, olive oil, lemon juice and mint into a (non-metallic) bowl, and swish it all about. Drop in the chicken breasts, and make sure the marinade is spooned all over them.

A couple of hours later, coat a griddle pan with a little olive oil, and put onto a high heat. Take the chicken breasts out of the marinade (if there's any left you can discard it), and sear quickly on both sides in the pan. Turn the heat down a little, and leave the chicken to cook through - it'll take 5-10 minutes, depending on how thick your pieces are. You'll probably need to slice one in half, just to check whether it's done.

We ate this with a couscous salad and pitta bread. I reckon it would be a good barbecue dish in the summer - the chargrilled taste would really suit it.

IKEA-style Swedish meatballs

You really like these at IKEA, so I attempted to make them at home. You were less convinced - probably due to the fact they came with rice, rather than chips!

The recipe's adapted from one on the Good Food website. You'll need:

400g pork mince
1 medium onion, very finely chopped
85g breadcrumbs (you could make them fresh, but I just used some from the freezer, without defrosting)
1 egg, beaten
a good slosh of olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons flour
500ml chicken stock (I used a stock cube, as I'd run out of anything more exciting)
a large handful of dill, finely chopped
salt and black pepper

First of all, you need to make the meatballs - that's the fun part. Chuck the mince, onion, breadcrumbs, egg and dill in a bowl, and squidge everything together. Shape into small balls - this made about 35-40 small ones (they tend to brown and cook faster, but you could go large if you like - just allow a little longer).

Heat a good slosh of olive oil in a large frying pan, and brown the meatballs over a reasonably high heat . You'll probably need to do this in 2 or 3 batches, unless you have an enormous frying pan. Take them out once done, and store them on a plate.

Remove any debris from the frying pan (there's inevitably a few bits of onion left lurking), and add the butter. Let it sizzle for a few seconds, and then sprinkle on the flour. Stir, and leave to cook for a couple of minutes - it'll turn gloriously brown, and take on the flavours of the meatballs. Season with salt and lots of black pepper.

Slowly and carefully whisk in the chicken stock - I did this in 3 or 4 stages, to avoid any lumps. Simmer until the sauce has thickened, then add the meatballs back in. Cover the pan with foil, and leave for 10-15 minutes, until the meatballs are completely cooked all the way through. You'll probably have to add a little more water/stock so the sauce doesn't turn to sludge.

We ate this with some rice, and some spring greens/broccoli doused in lemon and olive oil.

Asparagus, lemon and parsley pasta

This should really be called 'Spring pasta', as it's so green. You were delighted at the thought that your wee would be too.

It's adapted from a Nigella Lawson recipe in Forever Summer - her pasta recipes are lovely, and very simple to make.

Makes enough for three (two big, one small). You'll need:

a small lemon, zested and juiced
a very good splosh of olive oil
a clove of garlic, finely chopped
asparagus - whatever you can get your hands on (and afford - although this recipe is great because it stretches it quite a long way!)
lots of black pepper
grated cheese (something like pecorino or parmesan would be good - we happened to have mature cheddar in the fridge)
a handful of flat leaf parsley, washed and chopped
pasta (six good handfuls)

First of all, chop up your asparagus - bend the spears near the base until they break (discard the very woody bottom bit, and keep to use in some soup), and then chop into inch-long pieces.

Bung your pasta in some boiling water. Ideally, you need to cook this in the base of a steamer, and then you can stick the asparagus on top (you can just use a colander and a lid over the top of a pan if not). Keep an eye on your pasta, and once it's about 5 minutes' away from being done, pop the asparagus in the steamer on top (it'll take about 3-4 minutes).

In the meantime, tip a good slosh of olive oil in a frying pan on a low heat, and fry the garlic for a couple of minutes. Add the lemon juice, and switch off the heat.

Once the asparagus is cooked, whip it off the top of the pasta. Drain the pasta once it's al dente (not too soggy in other words), and tip into the frying pan or a bowl with the olive oil/garlic/lemon juice mix. Chuck in the asparagus, lemon zest and parsley, and swish it all round together.

Tip into bowls to serve - it'll need a good grind of pepper on top, and a generous scattering of cheese.

Bacon and blue cheese salad

This is your Dad's kind of salad - one with 'interesting things in'. We ate it today for tea, as the pair of you were still fairly full from IKEA's meatballs and chips at lunchtime...

You'll need:

salad leaves (we had a combination of romaine lettuce, homegrown parsley and celery leaves today)
a couple of cold leftover potatoes, sliced
spring onions, sliced
a large carrot, peeled and sliced thinly
2 or 3 rashers of bacon, chopped into small pieces
a handful of cubes of stilton (or any blue cheese - Roquefort is brilliant, but a little wasted here)
lots of black pepper

Fry the bacon in a small frying pan, until it's crispy. You could even make some croutons by frying cubes of stale bread in the bacon fat, if you're really being fancy.

Chuck the leaves/spring onions/carrot slices in a large bowl. Scatter the bacon pieces and stilton cubes over the top, and toss. Add lots of black pepper, and serve with some crusty bread.

It works very well with a French-ish salad dressing of mustard/olive oil/vinegar/lemon drizzled over the top.

Pear and chocolate pudding

A beautifully quick recipe (as you'd expect), adapted from Nigella Express. We ate it when Uncle Dom and Auntie Michelle came to stay (and fought them for the leftovers - it makes enough for 6 very large portions).

You'll need:

2 large cans of pear halves (in juice, rather than sugared)
125g plain flour
125g sugar
25 cocoa powder
150g butter
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

First of all, stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C. You'll also need to fish out an ovenproof dish, and grease it with a little butter/oil.

Drain the pears (keep the juice, you might need it later on), and arrange them nicely at the bottom of the dish (you may have to slice some of them in half - mine were huge).

Stick everything else in the food processor (hurrah! no creaming butter and sugar together), and blitz, until you get a brown batter. Ideally it needs to be a soft, dropping consistency - I must have been using quite small eggs, as mine was quite stiff. If that's the case, just add a little of the pear juice, blitz again, and all will be well.

Splodge the batter over the top of the pears (doesn't matter if they poke through - the sponge will rise to cover them), and bake in the oven for 30 minutes (the top should be not too wobbly when you take it out).

Let the pudding stand for 5 or 10 minutes (if you can wait that long), and then divide up. It should be beautifully runny inside - a gorgeous, chocolatey sauce that contrasts really well with the pears.

In fact, I'd go as far as to say that this is the pudding to make for someone who really isn't sure about pears at all - they'll be converted very quickly.

Camping breakfast

You'll need:

1 Rapido Confortmatic
1 carton of orange juice (for you and your Dad)
1 cup of very strong espresso (for me)
3 bananas
1 bag of chocolate chip brioche rolls

Lemon pudding

We gave this to Grandma and Grandad, to help them recover from an exhausting afternoon reading lots of children's books in Borders.

You'll need:

50g butter
200g sugar
zest of 2 lemons
100ml lemon juice (I juiced the lemons, then topped it up with a bit from a bottle)
3 eggs (separated)
50g self-raising flour
250ml milk

icing sugar to dust on top

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C.

Take your three egg whites, and whisk until they're firm (not stiff) - I did this in the food processor, but one of those hand whisks would also do the job.

In the food processor, cream together the butter, sugar and lemon zest. Add the lemon juice, egg yolks, flour and milk one at a time, giving each one a good blitz. You should have a smooth (ish) batter.

You'll then need to fold in the egg whites (carefully), and decant the lot into an oven-proof dish. It might be wise to run a little butter round the dish, so it doesn't stick.

Stand the dish on a baking tray, in about an inch of hot water. Carefully place the lot in the oven, and bake for 45-50 minutes. The top needs to be nice and brown, and should have set.

Dust with icing sugar, and eat while hot - you should have a beautiful gooey lemon curd underneath a very light sponge.

Salmon pie (koulibiac)

I adapted this from a recipe in Olive - seduced by the pictures yet again. It's probably the easiest thing you could make for a dinner party, especially if you have guests who don't eat meat (but do like fish).

Apparently this is a traditional Russian pie, which is usually filled with salmon, or sturgeon. It makes enough for 6, especially if you err on the generous side with the rice.

You'll need

500g block of puff pastry (life is certainly too short to start making your own)
250g (ish) cooked rice
2 hardboiled eggs, chopped
zest and juice of 1 lemon
a very large handful of dill, chopped
2 large fillets of salmon

Stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C.

Cover the salmon with cold water, and bring to the boil. Simmer until the fish is nicely poached, and has turned pink throughout (it'll take maybe 5 minutes, depending on how thick your fillets are). Drain (you could keep the water for a fishy soup), and flake the fish into a bowl, checking for bones as you go.

Mix in the cooked rice, eggs, lemon zest and juice, and dill. The smell is to die for.

Divide your block of pastry in two, and roll each out into a large rectangle. Place one on your baking tray (on a silicon sheet or piece of greaseproof paper), and then carefully spoon the filling onto it, leaving a border round the edge.

Wet the edges/border of the pastry, and then place the other sheet of pastry on top. You'll need to press down the edges, so the filling can't escape. Cut a slit in the top to let the steam escape, and brush with a little milk to glaze.

Bake for 30 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown, and the filling piping hot.

Lemon syllabub

Grandma and Grandad are staying at the moment, and made this for tea, after a hard day's work planting potatoes at the allotment.

This makes enough for 4. You'll need:

a carton of whipping cream (about 250-300 ml)
50 ml white wine
juice of a lemon
zest of two lemons
50g caster sugar

Put the caster sugar and whipping cream together into a mixing bowl, and whip until you've got soft peaks of cream. Carefully stir in the wine and lemon juice, and most of the lemon zest (you
need to save a bit to sprinkle on the top of the pudding at the end).

Decant into little ramekins or pretty glasses, sprinkle the remaining lemon zest on top, and serve with some lemony biscuits. It would also be lovely with some raspberries, I suspect.

Easter biscuits

We went climbing this morning, and photographed Sweetcorn the bear making his way up the wall. Nursery will either think it's hilarious, or we'll be forever labelled as rebellious parents.

Biscuits were definitely required after all that hard work. These are based on a Hugh Fearnley-Whirligig recipe, and are nicely spicy for Easter - a good antidote to all that chocolate.

You'll need:

100g raisins
juice of half an orange
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
225g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
a little grated nutmeg
110g sugar
110g butter
1 egg

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and find a baking tray.

Sling the raisins in a bowl with the orange juice and vanilla extract, and leave to steep for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, mix together the flour and spices in a bowl. Rub in the butter, and then stir in the sugar. Tip in the raisins/juice, and mix well, so that they're evenly distributed. Beat the egg lightly, and then add that too. It'll look like a sticky mess - you'll need to mix it until it comes together to form a ball of dough. Give it a knead for a minute or two, to make sure all the crumbs stick together.

Hugh reckons you should chill the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes. He's probably right, but I ran out of time and energy, and moved straight onto the next part - rolling out the dough. Once it's about 0.5cm thick (ish), fish out your cutters and start cutting out some rounds (or squares, or whatever).

Place on your baking tray (that you've conveniently lined with a silicon sheet, or some such thing), and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until they've turned golden brown. Sling onto a wire rack to cool. And try not to wolf them all at once.

Spanish omelette with leek and feta

Anyone Spanish would probably die of shock at being served this, but we have a glut of leeks at the moment (especially as the ones in the back yard are finally large enough to eat). You rather like the potato and leek combo too.

You'll need:

half a pack of feta cheese (about 100g), cubed
4 eggs
5 or 6 medium potatoes, peeled
3 or 4 large leeks, washed and sliced into rings
olive oil
fresh parsley, finely chopped

Chop the potatoes into quarters, and throw them into a pan. Cover with boiling water, and cook until tender. Drain, and then slice (thickly).

Pour a good slug of olive oil into a heavy-bottomed frying pan, and add the leeks. Cook them on a low heat until they have softened. At that point, add the potatoes in a layer on top of the leeks, and scatter (a) the cubes of feta cheese and (b) the parsley over everything.

Break the eggs into a bowl, and beat lightly. Pour over the leek/potato mixture, and leave on a low heat until set round the edges. At that point, it's usually easiest to turn the grill on, and plonk the pan underneath - that will set the top layer of egg, and melt the feta cheese slightly.

Liberally apply black pepper, and eat with a tomato salad or winter coleslaw.

Chard with lemon and olive oil

You wouldn't want to eat this on its own, but (a) it's good with things like sausages and (b) it makes chard taste nice, which is something of a miracle.

You'll need:

chard - much like spinach it cooks down, so you'll need more than you think
a lemon, juiced
a very good slug of peppery olive oil
lots of black pepper

Wash the chard, and roughly slice the leaves/stalks (you could do fine ribbons, but I can't usually be bothered). Plunge into a pan of boiling water for 6 minutes.

Drain, and tip the chard into a bowl. Pour over the lemon juice, and a really good slug of olive oil. Grind over lots of black pepper.

Serve fast, before it has chance to cool down.

Spring greens soup with feta

I adapted this one from a lovely recipe in Olive. It's very green, and goes well with some freshly baked dough balls. It's also a good way of using up the parsley mountain, which is threatening to take over the front garden.

Makes enough for 3. You'll need:

an onion, finely chopped
a clove of garlic, finely chopped
a small spring cabbage (or spring greens), shredded
a couple of spring onions, chopped into large chunks
a large bunch of parsley, scissored into small strips
half a pack of feta cheese, chopped into smallish pieces
chicken or vegetable stock - enough to cover the cabbage
lots of black pepper

Fry the onion and garlic in a little olive oil (or whatever there is to hand - I ended up using some bacon fat that was left over after cooking your tea - it gave it a lovely flavour). Once they've softened, tip them into your soup pot.

Add the cabbage, parsley, spring onions and stock, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes until the cabbage is tender. Decant into bowls, sprinkle the feta over the top, and douse with lots of black pepper.

Mini apple pies

We made these in honour of your Dad coming back from London, where he'd been to a conference. In return, he brought us back some of the best croissants in the world from the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras.

This makes enough for about 12-15 pies. You'll need:

2 or 3 large cooking apples
a teaspoon of cinnamon
a couple of tablespoons of sugar (assuming you don't have sweet pastry)
shortcrust pastry (about 250g)

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C.

While you wait for it to warm up, peel and core the apples, and chop into small chunks. Put them into a saucepan with the cinnamon, sugar and a little water, and simmer for 10-15 minutes until they've gone mushy. Leave to cool.

Roll out your shortcrust pastry, and get out your biscuit cutters (or a couple of jam jars of different sizes). You'll need a 12-hole muffin tin too.

Cut out large circles, and line each muffin tin. Cut out some smaller circles for the lids (you could get fancy and do it with strips of pastry too). Dunk a teaspoonful or two of the apple mix into each pie (not too much or it'll bubble over and go everywhere), and lay your lids on top. Cut a little slit in the top of each pie to let the steam out.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or so, until the tops are golden brown. They're rather nice hot, dusted with a little icing sugar and eaten with some creme fraiche on the side.

Bacon, leek and potato pie

A ribsticking pie for what turned out to be a surprisingly sunny day. Tea was a bit of a hurried affair yesterday after watching your Dad's promo screening at the Tyneside Cinema, but today was far more leisurely.

You'll need:

4 or 5 rashers of streaky bacon, chopped up
a good wodge of mature cheddar, grated
3 or 4 large leeks, washed and sliced
5 or 6 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and halved
lots of black pepper
2 or 3 tablespoons of cream, creme fraiche, or at a pinch some milk
shortcrust pastry - enough to lay over the top of your pie dish

Stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C. Dunk the potatoes in a pan of boiling water, and cook for 12-15 minutes until they're tender. Drain, and then slice.

Fry the bacon pieces until they've coloured and start to go crispy (you shouldn't need to add any extra oil, but check they don't stick). Lift them out of your frying pan, and then chuck the leeks in - fry them for a couple of minutes, until they've started to soften.

Layer the sliced potatoes and leek/bacon mixture in your pie dish. Grate lots of black pepper over the top (and maybe sprinkle with a little dried thyme if you have any). Top with lots of grated cheese, and then drizzle over 2-3 tablespoons of cream/milk/whatever.

Roll the pastry out to the size of your pie dish, and place on top. Cut a couple of holes in the top for the steam to escape, and then stick in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until the pastry turns golden brown.

We ate this with some steamed broccoli and cauliflower (but it would be equally good cold, with a green salad - it holds together really well, and makes a good picnic pie).