Best recipes for leftovers: Quick and easy pork and summery vegetable risotto recipe
I always used to choose risotto in Italian restaurants as I imagined that it was a complicated dish to cook. “Let them do all the stirring and sweating.” I’d think as I pointed to my choice on the menu. Recently I discovered that risotto is easy and quick to make. And a great way to transform the leftovers from the Sunday joint into something delicious. You can use uncooked meat and fish in a risotto but this recipe is designed to breathe life into pork or chicken that you find kicking about in the fridge. There are two...
read moreAnna’s half remembered wonderful spinach and courgette Tian recipe
I tend to work a 10 to 6 day. One of the hardest things about decorating is working in a house where children eat at six. Just as I am beginning to feel a bit tired and peckish, delicious wafts drift out of the kitchen from 5 o’clock onwards. By the time I am leaving it is hard not to grab a plate and join the queue. Anna’s head appeared over the balustrade one evening “I’ve bought you a tasting plate of Tian.” Within seconds I was wolfing it down. Heavenly, delicate and tasty. I tried to memorise the ingredients,...
read moreThe slow cooker chef: Carnivores on a budget soup recipe
Cayenne pepper is not something I have used very much over the years. In fact, until last week, we were using a jar that I had bought when I moved into my first flat in 1979. It was just sprinkled on egg mayonnaise as a garnish. It still smelt spicy to me. Cayenne seems to be a handy ingredient for vegetarian dishes so in two weeks we used the final 95% of the small vintage canister. When I opened a new jar I instantly twigged that we were dealing with a much livelier beast. I was using our new slow cooker to make soup for Danny’s lunch...
read moreAnne Mary’s recipe for Magimix pastry
I learnt how to make pastry at school. I didn’t enjoy the experience. It seemed to take forever. I think that I made it for Smart Wife. Once. Heavy ponderous stuff that shrank alarmingly away from the sides of the quiche dish when baked blind and guaranteed a soggy bottom. Light years later I discovered Jusrol. Not having a rolling pin or a board I rolled it out on my worktop using an empty wine bottle. Perfect. But not quite as perfect as the pre-rolled Jusrol. I had inherited a rather dashing rolling pin by the time I found the long...
read moreThe slow cooker chef: Tasty steak and kidney pie recipe for alpha carnivores
As the mention of steak and kidney led me to buy our slow cooker, there had to be a ceremonial christening of the beast with meat. Last Saturday I motored into Newmarket to buy the essential ingredients for this mission. I had two alternatives on my list – oxtail or steak and kidney. “Well I’ve got both, so which would you prefer?” Smiled our excellent butcher, Fred Fitzpatrick. I dilly dallied as both were equally tempting. I finally plumped for steak and kidney. Having chomped through several vegetarian days, just...
read moreSkinflint soup recipe: broccoli stalk, last week’s courgettes and post Christmas Stilton combine and rule
I hate throwing out the thick broccoli (calibrese) stalks. The Penultimate Paramour used to chop them and use them in stir fries but they always tasted a bit rough and to be quite honest, stalky. They are tough miniature tree trunks and probably needed a bit more time than a quick whisk in a hot pan. This morning I tottered downstairs. Before you could say “bacon sandwich” I was chopping an onion. I had an hour before leaving for work. The broccoli stalk was going to be the heart of a tasty soup. Poking about in the fridge I found...
read moreThe slow cooker chef: Spicy Creole bean and summery vegetable soup recipe
Having been a bit sniffy about slow cookers for years I am now a convert. It has just been a week since I tottered into the cottage with our virgin slow cooker. Since then she has slaved away preparing wonderful food. Generally this is fat free and so tasty that I need to officiate towards the end of the cooking time. Otherwise Danny is tempted to visit this well of wonder several times a day. If I’m late back from work there is no longer a pinched face at the door. D might have polished off a litre of soup during the afternoon but he...
read moreVegetables that store well: Acorn squash
Way back in October I bought an Acorn squash. We had tried a gem squash simmered for 20 minutes and served with lashings of butter and black pepper and loved it. Somehow the little Acorn squash didn’t have quite enough hanger appeal. Day after day it was considered and turned down for supper. Sometimes it would vanish completely and I’d find it behind a bottle of tonic water (its home was beside the drinks tray). A couple of days ago it had totally disappeared. Eventually I found my diminutive friend sitting inside the blender jug...
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