This recipe is a world away from the kind of ‘spag bol’ I used to make in my student days – a quickly cooked sauce using just minced beef as the meat base which always seem to end up very watery. A good ragu on the other hand is a rich sauce, full of flavour…
Tag: Easy recipes
Creamy chicken and mushroom pappardelle
The inspiration for this recipe was the ingredients I just happened to have in my fridge. It’s a bit like the TV show ‘Ready, Steady Cook’ where contestants have to create a dish from four or five random ingredients. I used to love watching ‘Ready, Steady, Cook’ when I was in between work contracts (a…
Sun-dried tomato houmous
Here’s another Miguel Barclay recipe from his ‘Vegan One Pound Meals’ cookery book. I love the fact that he keeps his list of ingredients short and the method easy – his book is full of recipes that have just a handful of steps to create a tasty dish. These are simple and affordable vegan recipes…
Courgette omelette
Sometimes I think I veer away a bit from the ‘easy’ part of the ‘cheap, fresh and easy’ philosophy of this blog. So here’s a quick and simple recipe that only takes about 10 minutes. My tips for a successful omelette are: use a non stick frying pan pour the beaten eggs into the hot…
Mushroom frittata
I made this frittata two weeks ago over the Easter (and Passover) weekend because I was observing Passover, so not eating any bread or flour based products otherwise I might have made a quiche. I was out and about a lot over the long weekend and wanted to grab something ready prepared for quick snacks,…
Chicken and sweetcorn soup
Just under a year ago I blogged about my recipe for chicken soup, made with home made stock from a roasted anchovy spatchcock chicken. This soup, which I made yesterday, is very similar – using my own chicken stock from a roast, but using sweetcorn kernels scraped off four little corn cobs (bought over a…
Chickpea curry
I’ve been stocking up my freezer with home made ready meals. This is partly to reduce my food costs (and batch cooking is one of the easiest ways to do that) and partly to have a big selection of quick meals to choose from in January when I know I’m going to be busy. I…
Chicken pizzaiola
The last time I went to Jamie’s Italian I had the chicken pizzaiola and it was so tender, spicy and delicious I wanted to try making it myself. It’s served with a puttanesca-type sauce (minus the anchovies) which I love, not just because of the flavour but because it’s so easy and quick to make….
Beetroot burgers
Here’s a recipe inspired by a four day cookery and meditation retreat at Sharpham House I went on recently. This was the recipe I made as soon as I got home from the trip. It was for supper that same evening – I couldn’t wait to start trying out what I had learnt, even after…
Spanish hunter’s chicken
This started out as a chicken cacciatore (Italian hunter’s chicken) – minus the mushrooms, which I think are traditional in hunter’s chicken (of any nationality). But I had lots of red peppers to use up, and pitted black olives, so I was in two minds – Spanish chicken, or chicken cacciatore? So this is a…
Cod and prawns baked in a wine, tomato and basil sauce
On Friday evening I had a craving for some cod – a pice of chunky fish baked in a rich tomatoey sauce with garlic and basil. I’d had a very challenging day of work (working at home but dealing with lots of frustrating calls and a feeling I was getting nowhere on a project) so…
Lime chicken
Two weeks ago I spent a lovely long weekend in Lyme Regis to celebrate a milestone birthday of one of my friends. Her husband had rented a house for close family (and me – I’ve known my friend since we were five) as a surprise for her. The weather was fantastic most of the time,…
Cheap, fresh and easy 