Folded Pizza Stuffed with Fish & Salad

This brainwave involved a boring old cheese & tomato pizza, with the addition of (umm) scampi, salmon, rocket, tomato, cucumber, red onion and a bit of mayo.

Fishcakes with Pea Soup

Is this a bit weird? Oh well sod it, it was lovely.

The soup was made by softening onion and garlic in a little olive oil, then adding quite a big bag of frozen peas. In went boiling water from the kettle, and some vegetable stock powder (the kind in the green tubs). I blitzed it with a stick blender and stirred in a noggin of cream cheese. Finally, just after plonking the fishcakes in, it was drizzled with drops of oil from a jar of pesto sauce.

Fish, Banana & Coconut Curry

From a recipe I found in a magazine in a waiting area. I scribbled down the ingredients quick, and tried to remember the rest. This is how it goes:

Fry a sliced onion and a pepper in a little oil, until soft. Add a teaspoon (I suggest more) of curry paste, and stir in. Add a tablespoon of flour and mix in. Gradually add, a splash at a time, a tin of coconut milk. Stir well to prevent lumps forming and the sauce should thicken nicely. Add your fish, cover and cook gently until the fish is cooked. A few minutes before the end, add a sliced banana. The bananas are so gorgeous in it, I'd maybe add more next time.

You could add fresh coriander, lemongrass, or perhaps some chopped red chilli. As it is, this is a lovely, simple and gentle curry. Deffo be making this one again.

Pie & Soup Part 2: Steak & Kidney + Tomato Soup

Compiled and consumed by Freddie. Thanks again Linda!!!!!!!

Chocolate Mug Cake

Made from a recipe someone was sending round at work - and easy to find on the net. Quick, hot fresh choccy cake. I present the recipe here but would only suggest you reduce the cooking time. It says 3 minutes, but I'd start with half that and pop it back in if its needed. I would prefer mine a bit squidgy. May I also suggest, buttering or greasing the inside of the mug first, to aid easy exit. As you can see, I had mine with ice cream. There are obvious possibilities here for making sponge with jam / syrup / banoffee / coffee .... etc etc etc oh wow!

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
a small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

Linda's Cornish Pasty with Soup Poured Over It

This was a giant (and cheap) pasty, cut in half. Linda has hers with oxtail soup but I prefer tomato.

This was definitely one of those occasions where, a dish becomes, more than the sum of its parts ...... cookery alchemy!!

Hot Veggie Sausage, Pesto, Mozzarella Cheese, Caramelized Onion & Sundried Tomato Baguette

Prepare ingredients: slice the cheese, snip up the tomatoes, cook the onions slowly for a long time, fry the sausage, etc.
Stuff the baguette and carefully squeeze it closed. Wrap tightly in foil, and bake in a hot oven for about 20 minutes.
Unwrap and EAT!

Pete's Egg

Open your mind and look at that yolk, cascading and flowing like liquid gold ..

Easter Egg

What could be more beautiful?

Easter: Lindt Chocolate Breeding Bunnies!

I only bought a couple of these, forgot about them for a couple of days and then look what happened!!

Nigella's Lemon Risotto

This is probably my favourite and most stunningly gorgeous thing to cook and eat ... ever.

When Nigella made this on Nigella Bites she seemed to suggest that she can eat it all, which would be very naughty indeed. But its creamy. It's cheesy. It's lemony, it's aromatic and it's buttery ... phew .. this really is the kind of dish you could believe had been cooked by angels and brought down from heaven for you..

If it's the recipe you are after, I would recommend visiting http://www.nigella.com/ - it is on there. Meanwhile, drool over the photo I took of mine, and let me promise, you will not regret rustling this up for tea!!

New Mexican Mild Red Chilli Bread (by Marlena Spieler)

This recipe comes from Marlena's very good book, called "Hot & Spicy" which basically, is a lot of recipes, all of which are, er, spicy.

This is essentially just like garlic bread, but with the addition, in the butter, of mild red chilli powder, spring onion, coriander leaves, and parmesan cheese.

Beanfeast with Cheesy Dumplings

This most excellent recipe comes from an old Sainsburys recipe book called "50 recipes for cheese" (which you might be able to find on Amazon Marketplace..) Basically in a big pot you do onion, carrots, parsnips, tins of tomatoes, butter beans, and kidney beans, and a bit of curry powder, then you make dumplings with a noggin of cheese in the centre and let them cook and fluff up ... and when we made it here, we put more cheese on top.

We ate it with veggie sausages, and Marlena Spieler's recipe for New Mexican mild red chilli bread!!

Pasta Bake

This was made with minced beef, chilli sausagemeat, tomato sauce, more tomatoes, tomato puree and red wine. Mixed with pasta, then with cheese sauce (with added eggs) on top. Baked in hot oven until golden on top.

Fred's Ultimate Sandwich: BLT with SGD

I want more Ultimate Sandwiches! (Thanks to Hannah for the idea too)

This is the Ultimate Sandwich of my 9 year old son. I am glad I was able to take a picture which captured every ingredient. This is essentially, a BLT with added sausages, and garlic dip... so starting from the bottom we have "lettuce" (although in this case, it's watercress and baby spinach), garlic dip, crispy bacon, sliced tomatoes, and sausages. At the time of writing, he is demolishing it with fervour ..

Fred's Banoffee Cheesecake

My son wanted to adapt a recipe for lemon baked cheesecake, so we omitted the lemon and added mashed bananas to the mixture. After it had baked and cooled, we just drizzled toffee sauce over it, and served with a dollop of sour cream.

I suppose, adding more sliced bananas and/or chocolate in some form or another would also be good.

Meatball and Butter Bean Stew, with Mash and Creamed Leeks

Another gorgeous, steaming, savoury consoling bowlful of joy! I made this stew much as I always do. Take care to use some good stock. Stir in flour at the beginning when you are frying / sweating the vegetables, this will help it get nice and thick. Let it cook very slowly, for a lonnngggg time. I made my meatballs using a method picked up from my friend Kirsty's mum: add a handful of dry stuffing mix to the mince, and an egg. Mix well with your hands and form walnut-sized balls. Just drop them in before it all goes in the oven. The stuffing mixture seems to season them perfectly without taking over (you would never guess it was there) and also keep them nice and firm so they don't fall apart. Finally I added a tin of butter beans (plus their juice) about an hour from the end.

For the sweet, buttery side-dollop of creamed leeks (something I remember my Nan making, I think) I cooked sliced leeks very gently, not letting them brown, in butter for about half an hour. I then added a spoonful of flour, stirred it in, and gradually added splashes of milk and stirred until I ended up with soft leeks in creamy sauce.

Chicken Korma

This was made in a similar style to the chicken tikka masala I did last year.

Fry 6 large onions slowly until very soft. Add half a jar of korma curry paste, and dollops of ginger & garlic paste. Cook it all for about an hour, until very soft. Add a tin of coconut milk, then blitz with a stick blender. Add water to dilute, if too thick. Add about a cupful of ground almonds, and a cupful of cream. Add salt to taste, and sweeten with a spoon or two of sugar.

I made chicken tikka pieces to add to the basic sauce. We ate it with rice, bread, and a side dish of potato, chickpea & spinach.

Paella For My Valentine

Check out the love-heart pieces of red pepper! The paella contained turkey, sweet chilli meatballs (minced pork, mixed with a dollop of sweet chilli sauce) and the prawns cooked in garlic butter were added at the end. Add a squeeze of lemon too.