Prawns and chorizo, tapas style
Serve with green salad
Bag of frozen, uncooked, de-veined king prawns, defrosted. Some sliced chorizo. Some finely chopped red onion or shallots and a couple of cloves of garlic crushed. Saute the shallots and garlic in olive oil, add the chorizo, cook until lightly browned and all the lovely paprika flavoured oil is released, add about half a glass of dry white wine, bring to the boil and reduce a bit, add the prawns, turn the heat down to medium, cook for about 5 minutes with the lid on, until the prawns are ready. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, add a squeeze of lemon juice and a big handful of fresh, roughly chopped flat leaf parsley.
A slightly ammended one:
Fish pie (not creamy)
1-2 packs Smoked mackerel
Frozen or fresh spinach, either defrosted or wilted in a pan if fresh
1 tin ratatouille
2 baking potatoes (so swede/celeriac/turnip instead)
Preheat oven to 180. Slice potato substitutes and boil for a couple of mins til hot and par-cooked.
Get an ovenproof casserole and flake the fish into the bottom of it. Cover with the defrosted/wilted spinach. Spread the ratatouille over the top of the spinach. Top with the sliced ?potatoes?. Dot with butter. Bake for 20 mins, serve with salad.
Sausage tray bake
Cook sausages in a roasting tray. Prick the skins. Add chopped red onion, courgettes, aubergine, half tin chopped tomatoes, basil leaves, garlic, salt & pepper. Also add chilli or other herbs if you want. If you don't have any basil or herbs and couple of dollops of pesto will do. Drizzle with olive oil and put in oven. You can add some balsamic vinegar if you wish. Put back in oven for 25 mins. Serve with salad.
Salmon with pesto and parmesan crust, served with confit baby tomatoes
First do your tomatoes. Buy cherry tomatoes still on the vine, drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and roast them very slowly in a medium oven for about an hour so they stay whole and don't turn to mush. Before cooking snip the vine into smaller strips so each person has about four or five each.
Meanwhile, get your salmon steaks, smear top with pesto, sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
Take the tomatoes out when they look softened, slightly browned and caramelised and the juices look nice and syrupy, but they have stayed whole. Keep warm, and whack your oven up to about 200c. Heat a flat baking tray covered with a bit of lightly oiled foil until really hot.
Whack the salmon in, leave the steaks for no more than about 4 or 5 minutes, then turn the oven off and the grill on, just to finish browning the top and melting the cheese. (or leave for about 7 minutes in total and finish the tops off with a cook's blowtorch)
The whole thing will take about 8 minutes. No more, or the fish will be dry.
Serve with garlicy green veg.
A sort of Aubergine Parmegiana.
Slice a couple of aubergines, sling them in the oven on bout 180c drizzled generously with olive oil, salt and pepper, and a bit of thyme and oregano or marjoram.
While that is cooking, soften some red onion in olive oil, and and a some chopped up streaky bacon fried in olive oil, slowly so that the fat has started to render down and the bacon has started to brown, but not too much. Add them to the aubergines in the oven and continue to bake until the aubergines are soft and have started to colour nicely. Top with loads of mozzarella cheese and some grated parmesan as well, and stick back in the oven until the cheese has melted and gone golden on top.
You can eat this straight from the oven, but it's much nicer if you leave it go go to room temperature as it firms up a bit, and you can slice it like pie. I keep it in the fridge and eat cold for lunch as well.
Coconut Chicken
? Coconut milk 2 1/2 cups
? Boneless chicken breasts, cut into small pieces 2
? Fresh coriander leaves with roots 1/4 cup
? Fish sauce 2 teaspoons
? Green chillies 1
? Fresh red chillies 1-2
? Lemon 1
? Fresh basil leaves 15-18
? Salt to taste
Chop coriander leaves with roots. Put chicken pieces in a deep non stick pan, add fish sauce and mix. Chop green and red chillies and add along with coriander leaves. Grate rind of ½ a lemon and add. Add coconut milk, basil leaves and salt and mix. Cook on medium heat till chicken is completely cooked. Serve with cauli rice.
Quick frozen yogurt
Frozen berries (raspberries work well), pot of Greek yoghurt, and some sweetener. Blitz frozen fruit in food processor, when all grainy add the yoghurt, and whizz around until the yoghurt freezes. Add sweetener to taste. Voila! Instant frozen yoghurt. Will work with cream too, but yog is healthier.
Pot au Chocolat
250g (I think) of good chocolate
130ml (or whatever the standard carton size is) of cream
1 egg yolk, beaten
Break up the chocolate and put in a switched-off blender. Heat the cream slowly in a pan, then, carefullly pour the hot cream over the chocolate and blend at the same time (so the chocolate melts) and then add in the egg yolk towards the end. Continue to beat until fully mixed, less so if you like some chocolate lumps. Pour into small glasses/bowls, and leave in the fridge to set. Tah dah! and if you want some variety, add in things like a shot of espresso or vanilla essence or orange essence or whatever.
Have also saved links to the following:
www.healthyindianrecipes.co.uk/dry-masala-chicken/
www.healthyindianrecipes.co.uk/paneer-jalfrezi/
www.healthyindianrecipes.co.uk/bombay-aloo/ with swede/turnip?
www.healthyindianrecipes.co.uk/healthy-chicken-tikka/
www.healthyindianrecipes.co.uk/karahi-murgh/
Middle Eastern Style Roasted Cauliflower
Lots of cauli florets, bunged in a big roasting tray, drizzled with tons of olive oil (I like to add 1/4 of a teaspoon each of cumin and turmeric to the oil but you don't have to) a good dose of salt and pepper, and roast, long and slow until it's soft and golden. If you have the oven too high the flowery bits will burn before the stalks are softened.
Again, this is absolutely delicious hot or cold, but best at room temp, and a big batch gets bunged in the fridge and picked at for a few days in my house.if it lasts that long.
If you want to make it a bit posher you can sprinkle it with tiny confetti of red, green and yellow peppers and very finely chopped red onion, and drizzle with tahina sauce. (tahina paste mixed with water and lemon juice..) It's a lovely salad to go with simple roast chicken or lamb chops, great for parties and barbecues.
Sausage bake
Cut a pack of sausages into pieces, brown under grill. Place in ovenproof dish. Add a pack of frozen char grilled veg. Whack in the oven for 30 mins on high. Just before serving sprinkle half a pack of grated mozzarella cheese over the top.
Creamy green veg bake
Bag of frozen chopped cabbage. Put in pan with butter salt pepper and bag of frozen chopped leeks. Add chopped sprouts and bag of washed spring greens. Three chunks of frozen garlic added. Sauté until all frozen veg soft. Pour into shallow dish. Pour over cream or creme fraiche and cover in cheese.