Food for a Wedding at the Youth Hostel in Eyam, Derbyshire

Eggbound

I have nothing further to add ..

Chickpea Balti with Kale

I think kale is quite horrible really; I tried steaming it once and it was like trying to eat my tights. However, some good can always be made of such a situation. Shred it up and give it a proper nuking with some chickpeas, onion, maybe some tomatoes went in there, and curry paste.

Lamb & Chickpea Jalfrezi in the Slow Cooker

This is really, the absolute danglers. There are not many ingredients either. Begin in the morning before you go to work, and chuck two tins of chickpeas and a jar of curry sauce in the slow cooker. Add some water (to stop it all getting too thick) and plonk a piece of lamb in. Dont expect it to look good yet.

When you get home, you will open the door and be greeted by a lamby, chickpeay spicy smell, wafting through the house. So by all means, dig in now if you must. However, I cooled it all down and put it in the fridge for the night, and lifted some of the fat off the next day.
I cut the meat up and warmed everything up in a pan. Add a bit more water too. At the end, I quickly fried some onions and peppers over a high heat, just until they started to go brown round the edges, then mixed them in.
Troff it down with rice, and some yoghurt and chopped cucumber.

Chocolate Ice Cream Sundaes

Begin with some tasty sundae glasses (I got mine off eBay!) and fill with .. possibly in the following order .. some squashy chocolate fudge cake; a drizzle of chocolate sauce; a few chocolate buttons; some chocolate ice cream, a sprinkle of maltesers and perhaps more sauce. Then another blob of ice cream, a dollop or squirt of cream, a mini flake, and some crumbled up or grated bits of chocolate.

Fish & Chips

Oh, joy ...

Macaroni Cheese in the Slow Cooker

This slightly barmy recipe is from an American website for slow cooker recipes. I couldn't believe any sane person would try and do pasta in this way, so I tried it out of curiosity.

Stage one: the macaroni has been cooked and put in the pot with a spoonful of oil and half a cup of melted butter ..
Stage two: I have now added milk, a tin of evaporated milk, salt, pepper and a great big block of grated cheese. I have to say, there was a nice sort of milky buttery smell .. Then the lid goes on and you can forget about it for four hours.
Three hours and a couple of good stirs later, it looked like this. But it did taste quite nice! And I could not resist chucking in some tomatoes and bits of bacon.

A further hour and a bit later, and it looks like this. The macaroni is now the consistency of baby food.

(Verdict: I still don't think any sane person would try and do pasta in this way.. but it was ok I suppose.)

Roasted Vegetables with Mozzarella & Veggie Sausages

This is basically a load of peppers, onion, courgettes & aubergines, chopped up and mixed with tomato paste, red wine and olive oil. Cook it for quite a long time, in quite a hot oven. Then we put pieces of mozzarella on top, and some veggie sausages. It was all a bit of a mish mash but bloody gorgeous; we had it with some pasta, chickpea & paneer curry, a blob of yoghurt & mint, and naan bread .. MMM!

Darren's Pasta Sauce

Alice's Garlic Soup

Roast onions (3) and garlic (a bulb) with thyme until caramelised, blitz with stock and cream. Obviously just for those nights when you are alone, or perhaps those awkward times where you have to entertain someone you are concerned might try to snog you.