Lamb patties/kofte

This goes brilliantly with some plain boiled rice, salad and Strictly Come Dancing.

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

400g lamb mince
1 small onion, grated
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
a good pinch of cinnamon
a good handful of freshly chopped parsley
90g fresh breadcrumbs
a couple of tablespoons of olive oil

Mix all this lot together, and add a good dollop of salt and pepper. Leave for half an hour or so, for everything to stick together and all the flavours to meld.

Heat up a grill pan, and add a little olive oil, so everything doesn't stick. Take about a tablespoon of the mixture, flatten it in the palm of your hand, and sling it into the pan (you can usually fit 4-5 in at a time). Fry for 3-4 minutes (don't even think of moving it), and then flip it over and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Tip out onto a hot plate, then make the next batch in between the dancing.

Tex-Mex chilli

We missed out the chilli for your version, but one day you'll like it...

Makes enough for 4 (we ate this first with rice earlier on in the week, but then had it on top of pizza tonight - I know, I know, but sometimes it just has to be done).

You'll need:

400g mince (I used pork, but beef or lamb would be equally good)
1 onion, finely sliced
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 green pepper, diced
5 or 5 mushrooms, roughly chopped
2 red chillies, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tin of tomatoes
a small tin of tomato puree
lots of black pepper
a bit of fresh coriander to stick on top

*If you're making this for someone other than your Dad, you'd probably also sling a tin of beans (kidney, borlotti etc) in when you tip the tomatoes in.

Fry the mince until it's browned. Add the onions and garlic and chilli, and cook until they've softened. Add the green pepper and mushrooms, and do the same (you might have to add a bit of extra olive oil, depending on how lean your mince is).

Add the spices, and fry for another couple of minutes. Tip the tin of tomatoes in, and add about the same again in water. Add the tomato puree, some black pepper, and stir. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for a while (20 minutes will do, but longer will be even better).

Eat with rice (or even just on its own, if you've made it with beans). It's lovely with some fresh coriander sprinkled on top, and some grated cheese.

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.

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.

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.

Lasagne

Another freezing cold day, but it was livened up by real reindeer and an animatronic polar bear at Gateshead's Frost Fair.

There were no reindeer for tea, just a blast of 1970s lasagne (coincidentally, Hugh Fearnley Whearnley's got a good recipe for one in today's Guardian as well).

You'll need:

bolognese sauce - recipe here from August
some sheets of lasagne - you could probably go to town here and make your own, but ours was Morrisons value, and tasted no worse for that
lots of grated cheese (preferably mature cheddar)
black pepper
a bechamel sauce (the amount depends on how big your lasagne dish is - ours was A4-sized today)

For the bechamel, I used:

about 1/3 pint of full cream milk
a large knob of butter
a heaped tablespoon of flour
lots of freshly grated nutmeg

Melt the butter in a non-stick pan, and add the flour. Swish about until the butter has been absorbed into the flour - you've now got a mixture called a roux. Little by little, add the milk, making sure each time that it's absorbed into the roux - you want a really nice, smooth paste, with no lumps. Keep stirring, and gradually add all the milk. Grate some nutmeg into the sauce, and then heat until it thickens - you probably need to give it a good stir every minute or so.

Right. Stick the oven on at a sensibly high temperature - 180-200 degrees C. Now assemble the lasagne. Take one large squarish/rectangular dish (makes it easier when you've got rectangular sheets of pasta). Stick a layer of bolognese on the bottom, followed by a layer of pasta sheets. Repeat. Pour the bechamel sauce all over the top pasta sheet, and let it trickle down the layers. Sprinkle with grated cheese (you don't need a huge amount).

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or so - once the top is browned and bubbling it's ready. It goes well with a nice green salad, and maybe a bit of baguette (I suppose it should be garlic bread if you're being authentically retro...).

Mince and dumplings

These are just the thing on a freezing cold and windy day in November. You were at nursery while I rummaged through old newspapers and colliery documents in the Northumberland archives - a traditional tea felt very appropriate.

This makes enough for three large people (you could feed more if you added a few extra dumplings, or had some potato on the side)

500g mince - I used pork, but I suspect beef mince would have been even nicer
a large carrot, finely diced
a large onion, finely diced
a stick of celery, finely diced
a stock cube
lots of black pepper and dried thyme
a good splash of worcestershire sauce

For the dumplings, you'll need:
100g self-raising flour
50g vegetable suet
a pinch of salt
a little cold water to mix

Start off with the mince. Brown (in a large, heavy bottomed pan that you can also stick in the oven), and then add the onion, celery and carrot. Cook for 5 minutes until the vegetables have softened. Add the stock cube, dissolved in some hot water, the worcestershire sauce, and lots of black pepper and dried thyme. You need the water to cover the mince and veg nicely.

Bring to the boil, and simmer for 10 minutes while you get on and make the dumplings.

(oh, and don't forget to stick the oven on to about 180 degrees C)

Mix together the suet, flour and pinch of salt. Add a little cold water, to make a firm, pliable dough. Shape the dough into little balls (I reckon this makes about 8 large dumplings and 2 toddler-sized ones).

Place the balls on top of the simmering mince, and shove the whole lot into the oven (uncovered) for 20-30 minutes, until the dumplings are golden brown and crispy on top. You might need to add a touch more water to the mince now and then, so keep an eye on it.

Goes nicely with green cabbage, or peas.

*Update*



Tastes just as good reheated...

Pork and cabbage parcels

We spent this afternoon running round Homebase like a bunch of loons, looking for wallpaper samples. Sixteen rolls of paper later, we've found one we all quite like for the loo. You liked pretty much all the ones we tested up against the wall, especially if they were pink.

Tea was adapted from a Hugh Fearnley Whernley recipe. His leaned towards Eastern Europe, with dill and sour cream, whereas this one is a bit more Greek in its origins.

You'll need:

tomato sauce
a largish onion, finely chopped
two tins of chopped tomatoes
a clove of garlic, chopped
salt/pepper/thyme

Fry the onion and garlic in a little olive oil until they soften and turn translucent. Add the tomatoes and herbs, bring to the boil, and leave to simmer for 20 minutes or so.

parcels
12 large cabbage leaves (we used white cabbage, but savoy would also be nice)
500g pork mince
an onion, finely chopped
half a mug of rice
an egg, beaten
a few mushrooms, chopped
oregano, salt and pepper

Add a mug of cold water to the rice, and cook until soft (there shouldn't be any water to drain away). Stick in a large bowl.

Brown the pork mince, then add the onion, and fry until it's softened. Add this mixture to the rice.

To the rest of the pork/onion juices in the pan, add the mushrooms, and fry for a couple of minutes (you might need to add a little extra olive oil here). Chuck in your bowl with the rice/pork etc. Add the beaten egg, season well with the herbs/pepper, and squidge together.

Take your 12 large cabbage leaves, and blanch for 3 minutes in some boiling water. I had to do this in two batches, as I only had a small pan on the go. Shake most of the water off, and then stick a very large tablespoonful of the pork/rice mixture in the middle of each leaf, and fold up. Place fold side down in a large baking dish. Repeat ad nauseam until all leaves are parcelled.

Pour the tomato sauce over the top, and then stick in the oven at 180 degrees C for 30-40 minutes. We ate ours with grated cheese on the top...

Spaghetti bolognese

An oldie, but a goodie, to quote my mum. (note - a goodie, not a Goodie. That would be something entirely different.)

I suspect this recipe is nothing like an authentic bolognese, but hey, this is what I remember my mum making in the 1970s, and it was one of the first things I learned to cook, so this is what we have too.

Makes enough for 4-6 (depending on how greedy you are).

500g lamb mince (can be done with beef or pork too, but I like lamb the best)
one large onion, chopped
one clove of garlic, finely chopped
couple of sticks of celery, chopped
diced peppers (we had a bit of red and green pepper in this today, as that's what was left in the fridge - sometimes I also add some courgette, or carrots)
a tin of tomatoes
tomato puree - a tablespoon (I didn't use this today, as I still had some sauce left from the pizza on Sunday, which I bunged in instead)
couple of bay leaves
black pepper
dried mixed herbs (you could use thyme, oregano, basil...you choose)

Fry the mince in a hot pan until it turns brown. Add the garlic and onion, and fry until translucent. Throw in the rest of the celery and peppers, and cook until softened. Add the tomatoes (and a little extra water - rinse out the tomato can), tomato puree, bay leaves, herbs and black pepper, and heat until it bubbles. Turn down, and simmer for a while - an hour or more is perfect. It's edible after 30 minutes (especially if you use passata instead of the tomatoes, as the sauce cooks down quicker).

Eat with lots of spagetti and parmesan cheese. Twirling around the fork optional.