Strawberry smoothie

We have more strawberries on the allotment than we know what to do with, so we've started eating them for breakfast. You like this smoothie a lot, because it's pink...

Makes enough for 1 (adult). You'll need:

1 small banana banana (the riper the better)
a handful of ripe strawberries, hulled
a tablespoon of yoghurt
3 or 4 ice cubes

Stick everything in a blender. Whizz around until the ice has been crushed, and everything has turned a glorious pink. If you're making it for a little one, don't bother with the ice cubes - just dilute with a little cold water.

Broad bean, tuna and spring onion salad

I may have made this even more exciting/even worse (take your pick), by adding the remains of your boiled egg to the mix. Well, I liked it.

Makes enough for 1.

You'll need:

1/2 a tin of tuna
8-10 pods of broad beans (you want a nice double handful of beans)
a couple of spring onions, finely chopped
a splash of balsamic vinegar
a good slurp of olive oil
lots of black pepper

Pod the beans, then cook in boiling water for 5-7 minutes until tender. Don't add salt, or overboil them, or they'll be very tough.

Drain, and decant to a bowl. Add the spring onion, tuna (and any boiled eggs you happen to have lying around), and then dress with a good slurp of olive oil/balsamic vinegar, and lots of black pepper.

Serve with some slices of baguette, spread with butter.

Summer bubble and squeak

We trekked over to Whitburn today to visit Souter Lighthouse, which has a rather splendid pirate ship outside to clamber all over. You had fun taking pictures, and dressing up in the princess/pirate outfits. Here's one of yours:



This 'sort-of' bubble and squeak seemed like the perfect idea for tea, and was remarkably popular. Makes enough for 3.

You'll need:

a small spring cabbage, finely shredded (nicer if you take the leaf ribs out too)
enough new potatoes for 3, scrubbed and chopped into small pieces
3 or 4 rashers of streaky bacon per person, chopped into small pieces

Stick the potatoes in a pan, cover with boiling water, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10-12 minutes until tender, and then drain.

Meanwhile, fry the bacon in a large frying pan (you may have to add a little extra olive oil if it sticks) until it starts to go golden. Add the cabbage, and fry until it's tender. At this point, tip in the drained potatoes, and mix everything together. Fry for a couple of minutes (you may have to add a little extra oil if the potatoes start to stick), and then season with black pepper.

Turn out onto a plate and eat at once.

Spiced carrot and lamb salad

I can't claim credit for this one - it's pinched from the Sainted Jamie, who I saw extolling the virtues of carrots on his Jamie at Home programme.

Sadly, I didn't have the delightful purple/white/yellow varieties of carrots to play with (the allotment doesn't seem to like carrots very much), so my version didn't look quite so pretty as the original salad.

Makes enough for 3 greedy people. You'll need:

400g lamb mince
1 1/2 heaped teaspoons garam masala
3 or 4 large carrots, peeled
1 large teaspoon sesame seeds
lots of fresh mint leaves, shredded
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 large spring onion, finely chopped
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 teaspoon ginger (freshly grated or powder)
lots of olive oil

Tip the lamb mince into a large pan, and fry until the fat comes out. Add the garam masala, and then cook the mince until crispy.

In the meantime, make your carrot salad and dressing. You'll need to peel the carrots to get rid of the outer skin - then just keep peeling, so you get lots of very thin strips. Shove these in a bowl.

To make the dressing, toast the cumin seeds in a dry frying pan for about 30 seconds. Stick in a pestle and mortar, and grind up. Tip into a bowl, add the finely chopped spring onion, lemon zest, lemon juice, ginger and a pinch of salt. Pour in 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil, mix well, and have a taste. If it's too lemony, add a little more oil.

Toast the sesame seeds in the dry frying pan too, until they go golden (should take a minute or so).

To assemble, tip the dressing over the carrots, and add the shredded mint (Jamie also suggests coriander as well, which I think would make things even better). Mix well. Decant onto plates, add the lamb mince, and then sprinkle the sesame seeds on top.

This goes well with bread (we only had baguette, but naan bread would be better), and aubergine or lime pickle.

Gooseberry jam

I'd forgotten just how hideous picking gooseberries is - our giant bush has very prickly thorns.

This makes about 2.5 normal-sized jars of jam - perfect for putting two in the cupboard, and starting one right away. It's definitely on the sweet side. You'll need:

650g gooseberries (topped and tailed)
900g sugar
300 ml water

Stick the gooseberries and water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, then simmer gently until the skins have gone soft and the gooseberries are reduced to a gloopy pulp (this should take about half an hour). Add the sugar and stir, until it's all dissolved. Bring the jam quickly to the boil, and then boil rapidly for about 10 minutes - you really need to stir it well.

Pop a plate in the fridge or freezer, and drop a tiny amount of the mixture onto it. If it wrinkles when you push your finger across it, you've reached setting point. Beware - don't boil this jam for too long, as gooseberries contain a lot of pectin. I made that mistake, and my jam is (a) very dense and (b) very stiff!

Decant into some sterilised jamjars, and leave to cool.

(You can sterilise jamjars by washing with hot soapy water, and then drying out in the oven on a low heat. Using warm jars also stops the glass from cracking when you pour the boiling hot jam in.).

Grandma's marmalade cakes

Everyone felt a bit rotten this afternoon, so we made these to cheer ourselves up. You can make lots of small cakes (the mixture made enough for 12), or one large one (in which case a 7 in cake tin, or a loaf tin should do the trick).


You'll need:

8oz plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4oz butter, softened
4oz sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons bitter orange marmalade (I used rhubarb and orange, which was all we had left)
grated rind of one orange

First of all, stick the oven on at 180 degrees C (all Grandma's cakes bake at that temperature). Mix the baking powder into the flour, and rub in the butter (or cheat, and do it in the food processor). Stir in the sugar - I used brown, but white caster sugar would probably produce a lighter result.

Beat the eggs and the marmalade together - this looks absolutely disgusting. Add it to the dry mixture - you should end up with a fairly stiff mix. I loosened mine with a tablespoon of milk. Stir in the orange rind, and you're good to go: spoon the mixture into small fairy-cake sized cases (of the paper or silicon variety), or into a big tin (see above).

Bake in the oven until the tops have gone golden brown, and a little bit crunchy. It'll take about 20 minutes if you do the little cakes (and keep an eye on them - you might have to turn them round, and bring them out a little earlier if your oven's fierce). A big cake will take about 1 1/4 hours.

Allow everything to cool in its tin for a 5 minutes, and then turn out onto a wire rack. They're nicest sprinkled with icing sugar, and would also be good with a blob of creme fraiche and some fruit.

Coconut dahl

This one was shamelessly lifted from Olive magazine, and tweaked slightly. It's delicious with cold chicken, naan bread and salad.

You'll need:

250g red lentils
a tin of coconut milk (around 400ml)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 onion, sliced
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 teaspoon crushed dried chillies
1 teaspoon turmeric
a good splosh of sunflower oil
a teaspoon of black mustard seeds

Chuck the lentils, coconut milk, finely chopped onion, tomatoes, chillies and turmeric into a saucepan. Add about 300ml water to start off with (you may need a little more later on if the lentils aren't quite cooked and are starting to stick).

Mix well, and bring to the boil. Leave to simmer for half an hour, until the lentils are tender - everything will have gone a beautiful yellow colour.

Take the sliced onion, and fry in a good splosh of sunflower oil until it's crisp and browned. Add the mustard seeds, and fry until they start to pop. Sling on top of the lentils and serve (some fresh coriander on top would also be nice).

Millie's chocolate and banana pots

You made these all by yourself - you did all the chopping, and the wrapping of everything in foil.

Makes enough for three. You'll need:

3 glass ramekins
a couple of bananas
whatever leftover chocolate you can find (ours was the remnants of the Easter hoard)
a handful of cranberries/raisins
a splash of rum or orange juice

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C.

Peel the bananas, and chop into small(ish) rings. Place on the bottom of the ramekin dishes. Smash up all the chocolate you can find, and divvy up evenly between the pots. Sprinkle over whatever dried fruit you fancy (cranberries or raisins are good).

If the pot is for a grownup, they'll appreciate a splash of rum in the bottom. Children can stick to a slurp of orange juice.

Cover the pots with foil, sling them on an oven tray (makes it much easier to get them in and out of the oven), and put them in the oven while you eat the first part of your tea - they need about 15-20 minutes.

Take the foil off carefully, and then serve with a dollop of creme fraiche, or ice cream.

Spinach, ricotta and wet garlic cannelloni

I'd never come across wet garlic before - the veg box is full of surprises. You love going through it and seeing what we've got for the week (mainly to make sure there's some broccoli).

This makes enough for 4. You'll need:

a small tub of ricotta cheese
half a large bag of spinach, washed
an onion, finely chopped
a bulb of wet garlic, finely chopped (I was a bit overenthusiastic and used two, and we may not have been pleasant to meet for a couple of days...)
about 8 lasagne sheets (fresh or dried)
a tin of tomatoes
2 bay leaves
a splash of balsamic vinegar
a slug of olive oil
black pepper
grated cheese to go on top

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C.

First of all, get your tomato sauce going. You could mess about with shallots or onions etc, or you could just tip a tin of tomatoes into a frying pan with a good slug of olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar and a couple of bay leaves, and leave it to simmer down for 15 minutes while you get on with the cannelloni.

Fry the onion and garlic gently in a little olive oil, until it turns translucent. Add the spinach, and cook until it wilts. Take this mixture, and bung it in a food processor - give it a quick whizz until everything's chopped. Don't overdo it - you don't want a liquid.

Dump the ricotta cheese into a large bowl, break up with a spoon, and add the chopped-up onion/garlic/spinach mixture. Season to taste - you might need a little salt and a lot of black pepper.

Traditionally you'd stuff this into cannelloni tubes. But frankly life's too short to be faffing about with teaspoons or icing bags, no matter what Jamie et al tell you. Either use fresh lasagne sheets (a doddle), or dried (you'll need to par-boil them for 3 or 4 minutes until they're soft enough to roll up). Stick a line of filling in the middle of your lasagne sheet, roll it up, and sling it into an ovenproof dish.

Pour the tomato sauce over everything, top with some grated cheese, and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until everything's piping hot and the cheese is bubbling.

Lemon drizzle cake

Just the thing for a hot day, especially if decorated with sugar flowers. I would add a picture, but it's nearly all gone.

You'll need:

4oz butter
6oz self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
6oz caster sugar
2 eggs
6 tablespoons milk
grated rind of a lemon

for the lemon drizzle icing

juice of a lemon (ie the one you've just used the rind from)
3oz caster sugar

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and line a rectangular baking tin with greaseproof paper.

You could just chuck all the cake ingredients in a food processor, and blitz until it's smooth. I suspect you'll get a fluffier sponge if you blitz the sugar/butter together first, then add the eggs/milk, and then the flour/lemon rind/baking powder.

Spoon the mixture into your tin, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until it's turned golden brown. Take it out of the oven, but leave in the tin.

Mix together the lemon juice and sugar, and pour (drizzle) over the top of the cake. You might want to make a few tiny holes with a skewer first, so it soaks into the cake too.

Leave to cool - then cut into squares. We decorated ours with tiny sugar flowers (v tasteful), and then lots of pigs/rabbits/owls/dogs (v silly).

Courgettes stuffed wth pork, rice and mint

The weather's gone all summery, so we required something Mediterranean-ish for tea. Sadly, it won't last...

Makes enough for two. You'll need:

two large courgettes, halved lengthways, and with the insides scooped out
120g cooked rice (about 50g dry rice)
200g pork mince
a large handful of mint, finely chopped
an onion, finely chopped
a clove of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C.

Brown the mince in a frying pan (you may need to add a little olive oil if it's very lean). Add the onion and garlic, and fry until they go translucent. Add the spices, and cook for a couple of minutes. Chuck in the innards of the courgettes, and cook for another couple of minutes until they've mushed down.

In a large bowl, mix this onion/courgette/mince conglomoration with the cooked rice. Add the chopped mint, and season with lots of black pepper and a little salt.

Place the courgettes in a baking dish, and stuff them with the rice/mince mixture. Cover with foil, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until the courgettes have cooked through.

We ate this with a ridiculously hot tomato and chilli sauce. It'd also be nice with something a little tamer.