Tell me about your simple, signature meals....

[catinboots]

Culinary inspiration desperately needed ..............

ta cat x

My version of shaksouka:

Fry some garlic and chili flakes in oil. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes. When simmering break a few eggs into the pan. Cover and let eggs cook gently. Eat with nice toast.

Kids favourite - sticky pork
Fry up diced pork, meanwhile mix sauce of maple syrup, soya sauce, crushed garlic and lemon. Once the pork is almost ready then add spring onions and the sauce. The sauce will bubble up and stick to the meat.
Serve with boiled rice and veg like green beans
Takes less than 10 minutes

Love this thread!

My fave quick, cheap, healthy storecupboard recipe is
sardine spaghetti

Spoon of butter in saucepan, melt. Add large spoon plain flour, mix. As flour swells, feed with little pot of double cream. Add passata. Add slosh of brandy. Add black pepper. Chop up smoked salmon and pop in. Leave to simmer. Serve with farfalle pasta

I've asked for this to be moved to recipes so it doesn't get lost

These sound yummy, I've got lots of ideas now! :o

My quick favourite is:

Spicy Tomato and Prawn Spaghetti
Cook the spaghetti
Fry a whole red chilli and a clove of garlic in olive oil
Add prawns and cook until, also add a handful of cherry tomatoes
add the spaghetti and mix through.

Dh's speciality which takes 10 minutes

Cantonese Steamed Fish
Cook some long grain rice
Steam any white fish e.g. Seabass, lemon dover sole, plaice etc whole. Place some slices of fresh ginger in the cavities
Once the fish is nearly cooked, heat up some cooking oil
Slice some spring onions lengthways and place on top of the fish
Pour the hot oil on top of the fish and spring onions
Add a large glug of light soy sauce
Serve with any green vegetables like pak choy or broccoli

My favourite fast meal is burritos:

Fry some garlic/onions/peppers/courgettes/anything else you fancy
If you want meat bung that in the frying pan too
Heat a tin of refried or pinto beans
Heat the tortillas (2 for every adult) in the oven/microwave for a few minutes/seconds
Spoon some of the fried meat & veg mixture onto each tortilla
Add a blob of sour cream and some grated cheese

As with my other, start with butter and flour but feed with creme fraiche. Separately boil sweet potato & parsnips, drain and pop in. Add sliced raw mushrooms. Fry small amount of chicken & an onion in a frying pan, then tip into main saucepan. Add a good slosh of white wine. Leave to simmer. Eat with big chunks of bread.

Mac and cauliflower cheese.

Easiest cheese sauce ever - melt 2cm cube of butter and add a tablespoon of flour. Cook gently for 5- 10 mins and then add 1/2 pint milk, slowly and a little at the time. Add mature cheese and seasoning to taste. I sometimes add mustard powder. Sauce is great for lasagne.

I make it in the best pyrex dish ever. I make it in advance, top with cheese and put in the oven after work.

marking place...

Now now Vicar. No lazy place marking. Everone must contribute

Pesto salmon or chicken:

Cover chicken breast or salmon filet/ steak in pesto on one side.

Put on foil rectangle and make into envelope, fold in half and fold over the 3 edges. Bung in oven for 15-20 mins while you cook whatever veg / rice / salad you have in. Nice with cherry tomatoes roasted in some olive oil for 5 mins.

eggrules I have been making cheese sauce your way my whole life until my sister suggested the Delia way! Basically you weigh all the ingredients for your cheese sauce into a pan (minus the grated cheese) all at once (I sift the flour/ mustard powder) and then simply stir over a low heat, it works honestly!!!! No lumps or anything, as long as our never stop stirring that is!!!! I just take it off the heat if I get called away for a minute and it's fine! I didn't believe it until I tried it!

lolalotta I'll check it out.

I don't weigh anything and never have lumps. It is much nicer than packet mix and just as quick.

My two store cupboard favourites:

Spaghetti with prawns garlic and chilli

Slowly heat some sliced garlic in olive oil. Add some dried chilli (this infusion bit is the most important bit of the recipe)

Boil spaghetti or angel hair pasta (anything stringy will do)

Cook big prawns in garlic/chilli infused oil.

Add lemon juice at the last minute

Mix into pasta.

Chorizo Risotto with peas/squash/parsely/mushrooms/scallops

this is such a standby as you can put in whatever you have. I tend to resort to it when I can't think of anything else to cook.

puy lentil salad

boil puy lentils. or use a tin. add chopped red onion to cooled lentils. add olive oil seasoning and white wine vinegar. top with crumbled feta. serve with part baked ciabatta

or
red pesto and creme fraiche stirred into cooked pasta along with whatever vege may you have (sauteed)

Cajun chicken, Chicken breasts, cover in salt, pepper, paprika and sage and stick in George Foreman.

Sausage Pepper Pasta Pot: Fry sausages until brown,(not cooked through) take out and fry onions, garlic and red pepper. Add tin tomatoes, chicken stock, chopped sausages and pasta. Simmer until pasta cooked and sauce thickens.

Cowboy casserole
Chop up sausages and cook in oven until nearly brown
Add some chopped up bacon, let it brown
Chuck over some beans
Once beans are hot take the whole out and serve
So blooming quick and simple and the beans take on the flavour of the sausage and bacon, lovely.

I love Jamie Oliver's minestrone soup - although mine always ends up being a bit thicker and more like a pasta dish, but it's lovely
here

This is a fabulously useful thread so bumping for the good of womankind.

My favorite standby is nigella's lardon and garlic pasta. Put a pack of lardons on oven sheet. Add four or five peeled garlic. Cover with olive oil and mix around. Stick in oven at 220 for 15 mins. While cooking, do the spaghetti. Poor the yummy lardon garlic mixture into cooked pasta and cover with parmesan. My family loves it.

Fry chopped shallots in oil from sundried tomatoes. Add cooked chicken and chopped sundried tomatoes and stir for a bit. Add single cream and serve with cous cous , rice, potatoes or pasta.

Some brilliant recipes here.

I want to cook them all.

Starving after reading this

Herby pasta. Just a big handful of mixed fresh herbs of your choice stirred into a few tablespoons of good olive oil, then mix into hot pasta (linguine, spaghetti or angel hair is lovely) with some salt & pepper. Lush, quick lunch.

Quesadilla. Top flour tortillas with grated cheese, finely chopped tomato, pepper and onion, some jalapenos and a dollop of tomato or corn salsa - you can add coked chicken, chorizo, prawns or whatever if you want. Fold in half, press down and fry for a minute or two each side.

Poached eggs w/ streaky bacon or pancetta & asaparagus

Grown up fishfinger sandwiches. Coat white fish in flour and fry up. Serve with crusty white bread & butter and a wedge of lemon.

Super quick Thai beef (DH loves this). Fry up some thinly cut steak in oil (peanut oil best) for a minute, then add crushed garlic and finely chopped fresh red chilli. Turn steak over and fry for another minute. Then add a big handful of basil leaves, 4 tablespoons of water and a good splash of soy sauce. Fry for a further 90 secs then dress with lime juice and chilli flakes and serve with white rice.