Smoked salmon and courgette quiche

This was one that your Dad and me loved, but which you wouldn't touch with a bargepole. Funny - you love slices of bread topped with smoked salmon.


Makes enough for 4. You'll need:

1 large courgette, chopped into smallish chunks
a small packet of smoked salmon, torn into small pieces
1 onion, finely chopped
shortcrust pastry (made with about 8oz flour)
2 eggs
1/2 pt full cream milk
a little olive oil
a sprinkle of thyme (dill would be lovely if you have some), and lashings of black pepper

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C, and fish out (a) one of those flan dishes with a removable bottom and (b) a baking tray to stand it on. Grease the flan dish, or line with some greaseproof paper.

Roll out your shortcrust pastry, and line the flan dish. Mine's about 20cm across, I think, and this amount of pastry is more than enough to line the dish and have a little left for 3 or 4 jam tarts.

Fry the onions in a little olive oil, until they turn translucent. Add the chopped courgette, and cook until it's softened (but not too much, or you'll have a soggy mess on your hands).

Tip the courgette/onion into your flan dish, and spread them about artistically. Add the smoked salmon pieces, and season with some thyme and lots of black pepper.

Lightly beat the eggs with the milk, and pour (carefully) into the pastry shell. Make sure it's on the baking tray before you start - there's nothing worse than wobbling across the kitchen with it.

Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is set. Eat while still warm, with a green salad.

Butternut squash, spinach and blue cheese tart

This was inspired by the vast quantities of butternut squash in the veg box last week.

Makes enough for 4. You'll need:

a medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed
a good slug of olive oil
lots of spinach (about 1/3 of a bag, or whatever frozen stuff you can drag out)
a good hunk of blue cheese (ours was miscellaneous Sainsbury's value 'blue cheese', but stilton would be good, and roquefort or gorganzola pretty special)
one onion, finely sliced
a clove of garlic, minced
shortcrust pastry (enough for an A4-sized baking tray - 8oz flour should do the trick)

Stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C. Tip your cubed squash into an ovenproof dish, and slosh some olive oil over the top. Shake the cubes about until they're coated, then roast in the oven for 20 minutes or so, until the squash is soft.

In the meantime, fry the onion and garlic in a little olive oil until its turned translucent. Add the spinach, and heat in the pan for a couple of minutes until its wilted.

Grease your baking tray, and roll out the shortcrust pastry. Line the tray with the pastry, and then tip the onion/spinach mixture on top. Scatter over your roasted squash, and some cubes of blue cheese. It should now look a little like this:


Season with some salt and black pepper. Turn the oven down to about 180 degrees C, and bake the tart for about 20-25 minutes. It's ready when the pasty is crisp and golden brown, and the cheese has melted.

We ate ours with lashings of black pepper and a nice green salad:

Carrot cake

I pinched this recipe from Rachel Allen's excellent book, Bake. It's one of the best carrot cakes we've made - really light and fluffy, and dead easy to make. It was very popular...as you can tell by the small amount I was able to photograph.

You'll need:

300g grated carrot
100g raisins
200g soft brown sugar
180g self-raising flour
140ml sunflower oil
2 eggs
a pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarb
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice

Stick the oven on at about 150 degrees C, and find a deep baking tray or a loaf tin (I lined mine with greaseproof paper).

Sling the eggs in a large bowl, beat and then chuck in the oil, brown sugar, grated carrot and raisins. It will look like a disgusting mess, but bear with me. Pour in all the dry ingredients (you should probably sift the flour, but life's too short) and mix everything together.

Tip the mixture into your baking tray/tin, and bake in the oven for about an hour (you may need to add another 15 minutes or so - you'll be able to tell it's done when a skewer pushed into the middle of the cake comes out nice and clean).

Cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes or so, then carefully transfer to a wire rack. You could faff about with icing this (an orange glace icing would be nice, or traditional cream cheese frosting), but it tastes wonderful on its own with a nice cup of tea.

Hot cross buns

We cheated a little with this recipe, in that the bread machine made the dough. These are fantastic when just out of the oven, or toasted then spread with a little butter and gooseberry jam.

Makes 8. You'll need:

1/2 teaspoon fast action yeast
250g strong white flour
1 teaspoon sugar
25g butter
1 tablespoon milk powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
100ml water
100g raisins
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice

Sling all the ingredients in the bread machine. I then stuck mine on the bread dough program, which took a couple of hours, and does the first part of the proving process.

Once your dough is made, divide it into 8 balls, and place on a baking tray (either lightly greased or covered with a silicon sheet). Cover with a tea towel, and allow to prove in a warm place until they've doubled in size (this will probably take about an hour).

Don't forget to stick your oven on at some point during the hour - about 220 degrees C should do it.

Make a paste from a couple of tablespoons of flour and a couple of tablespoons of water. Use this to pipe or drizzle a cross over the tops of the buns. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until they are golden brown.

Szechuan pork

We ate this with some steamed rice and pak choi. There wasn't a lot left.

You'll need:

3 pork loin steaks/boneless chops
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 clove of garlic, squished
a little sunflower oil

Stick the oven on at about 200 degrees C.

Mix together the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar and garlic (you could also add some dried chillies) in a bowl. Dunk the pork in the marinade, and leave for half an hour or so (the longer the better).

Decant the pork and marinade into an ovenproof dish, and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the pork is browned and any fat has become crispy. You can either leave whole, or slice thinly.

Pasta with anchovies, broccoli and stilton

I know this isn't too dissimilar to the orecchiette with anchovies and broccoli that I posted last July (was it really that long ago?). You can blame Nigel Slater for that - I have a sneaking suspicion both recipes were inspired by his latest book, Tender.

Makes enough for three. You'll need:

1 medium-sized head of broccoli (this would be even nicer with purple sprouting)
a 150ml or so of creme fraiche
4 anchovy fillets
1 onion, sliced
enough pasta for three (that's about 6-7 handfuls in our house)
a slosh of olive oil
a chunk of stilton, crumbled

Sling the pasta in a pan of boiling water, and cook until al dente. In the meantime, chop the broccoli into small florets, and steam for 3-4 minutes.

In a frying pan, gently cook the onion in the olive oil, until it turns translucent. Add the anchovy fillets, and stir to break them up (they'll almost dissolve in the oil). Add the creme fraiche, and simmer for few minutes. Sling in the stilton (dolcelatte would be even better here, I suspect), and let it melt - if the sauce becomes a little thick, then dilute with a little hot water.

Tip in the broccoli and the drained pasta, and toss everything together. Season with lots of black pepper.

Teriyaki chicken

You've decided that this is your favourite chicken dish ever. I predict we'll be eating it again...

Makes enough for three. You'll need:

6-8 boneless skinless chicken thighs (chopped into chunks)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine
2/3 tablespoon dark brown sugar

Sling the soy sauce, rice wine and dark brown sugar into a small saucepan, and heat until the sugar has dissolved. Tip over the chicken, and leave to marinade (for half an hour or so - depends on how hungry you are).

Turn your grill up high, and leave to get hot. Tip the chicken pieces (and the rest of the marinade) into an ovenproof dish (I lined mine with foil in a bid to make it easier to clean afterwards, but the chicken just stuck to the foil, which then stuck to the dish...) and put under the grill. Turn after 5 minutes or so - and then leave for another 5 minutes. Your chicken is ready once it's glazed and browned (and no longer pink in the middle). You can make it even more fancy by sprinkling with a few sesame seeds...

We ate ours with some noodles cooked with ginger, garlic, red pepper and onion, but it would also go well with steamed rice.