With the temperature plummeting it’s time to roll out some comfort, carb heavy recipes. As pasta bakes are cheap, tasty and very easy to make they can be top of your list. I say easy but I have just remembered an occasion years ago when I was cooking with my then teenage niece and we…
Tag: Main courses
Chicken pilaf
Pilaf is a a kind of Middle Eastern risotto. I make pilaf with chicken leftovers after a roast, in this case after the weekend’s spatchcock chicken. You only need a handful or two of chicken, and the scrappy bits of chicken at that, as the key ingredient is rice. So it’s a great way to…
Spatchcock chicken with anchovy butter
Spatchcock (or butterfly) chicken is a way of cooking a chicken by cutting out the backbone and pressing the chicken out flat. It’s handy for cooking on the barbecue but also great for cooking in the oven because you can reduce the cooking time by about 30 minutes, keeping energy costs down. Cooking chicken this…
Griddled chicory with Gorgonzola dressing
This was a recipe I planned to use as a first course but with sourdough bread it was really substantial and I was too full to eat anything else. It’s based on a Jamie Oliver recipe which uses radicchio (which I couldn’t find so I used chicory instead) and raisins (which I didn’t have in…
Kedgeree
This is my version of kedgeree which uses a mix of cayenne pepper, curry powder and fresh chilli to give it heat and spice. I use brown rice for a healthier option (I love brown rice anyway) and often include different vegetables. I like using peppers and often use more than just one (a combination…
Meatballs in tomato sauce
I made a big batch of meatballs the other afternoon. It was a perfect way to spend a cold and wet January afternoon and to replenish supplies of home made ready meals for the freezer. All I need to do now is defrost a portion and boil up some spaghetti. I based this on a…
Roasted whole celeriac
This is my version of a Jamie Oliver’s ‘Zombie’ brain recipe – a whole roasted celeriac. I served it with courgettes and Cavolo Nero, instead of pearl barely. It’s a perfect vegetarian alternative to a traditional roast dinner and is very quick and easy to prepare. I have kept the garlic whole because I wanted…
Cheap and cheesy vegetable bake
I popped into Sainsbury’s on my way back from a trip to Somerset on Sunday and found a packet of Brussels sprouts in the bargain section – 300g reduced from 80p to 19p – so I decided to use them in a vegetable bake. Added to a few florets of cauliflower (taken from a cauliflower…
Melanzane alla Parmigiana (baked aubergine with Parmesan)
This is my version of baked aubergines cooked in tomato sauce and Parmesan. I never get sick of aubergines. They are hearty and versatile and a good staple for a vegetarian diet. Aubergines are brilliant for dips, tagines, stews like ratatouille and of course cooked simply on their own. I often just brush them with…
Delicious salmon en croute for a cozy Christmas Eve
I made salmon en croute for Christmas Eve dinner – the plan was to have a quiet evening in, just me and my (grown up) children. We normally go out to eat on Christmas Eve because it’s my birthday. But this year was a big birthday and I had a party the week before so…
Super green lasagne
I had a similar lasagne last week at The Magic Garden pub in Battersea – it was delicious – and as usual when I find something particularly good I want to see if I can make my own. The Magic Garden used asparagus and I did too because I found a packet at a reduced…
Happy halloumi burger
I had a brilliant day last Saturday. I met up with some of my best friends to watch the fireworks at the end of the Lord Mayor’s show from a boat on the Thames (followed by a little cruise up and down river). Before that I wandered around the food stalls on the South Bank…
Tarragon chicken
Tarragon has a mild aniseed flavour and pairing it with chicken is a classic French dish (poulet a l’estragon). This recipe is from one of my favourite old recipe books – Pan-cooked chicken dishes around the world. I bought the book years ago at a charity shop and would never want to be without it. In that…
Chicken, chickpea and chorizo stew
I can make this from scratch in about 40 minutes which is enough time to cook on a weekday evening after work. It’s perfect comfort food on an autumn evening. There isn’t very much work to do – just a bit of chopping and slicing and then stewing everything for around 35 minutes. You don’t…
Quick and easy mushroom stroganoff
This is one of my regular recipes. I prefer it to beef stroganoff as it’s incredibly cheap (the mushrooms only cost around £2 or £3) and so fast you can rustle it up in about 10 minutes. I like to use a mixture of mushrooms, in this case chestnut mushrooms and some large Portobello mushrooms…
Chicken with fennel and orange
This is a slightly different version of a Nigella recipe (from Simply Nigella) which I used when I was on the look out for fennel recipes this summer. Fennel is really expensive in the supermarket – about £3.50 per bulb – but at Surrey Street market in Croydon I could buy three bulbs for £2. Bargain!…
Spaghetti with minty aubergine and sun-dried tomato sauce
Aubergines are cheap and nutritious and make a great base for a spaghetti sauce. I watched Rick Stein make something similar to this recipe based on a Sicilian dish but he used tinned tomatoes which I didn’t have (very unusual for me) so I made it with a few sun-dried tomatoes and tomato puree instead….
Celebrating a win with slow cooker beef bourguignon
I made this on Saturday to have something for myself and my son to have ready to eat after football (we support Crystal Palace). I wanted something easy and comforting to come home to after what we thought would be yet another demoralising defeat – we were yet to score a goal (or gain a…
Big batch vegetarian chilli
Batch cooking is one of the best ways to keep costs down and you don’t have to lose out on flavour just because you’re on a budget. I regularly make up a big pot of vegetarian chilli which I freeze and then cook with other ingredients to bulk out the meals. Using this recipe as…
The first supper
I was away in North Yorkshire at the weekend and on the way home my friend and I started talking about what we were going to cook for our respective suppers. I always think that first supper home after a trip is important – you want something easy and tasty but also something that keeps…
Cheap, fresh and easy 