French Vinaigrette

 

I've always eaten a lot of salad. This isn't because I'm particularly healthy nor is it because I'm on a diet. As a child I was always confused when I heard people moaning about boring salad and what a chore it was to just have salad for dinner. I thought everyone had delicious homemade salad dressings. In fact as much as I enjoy crisp lettuce and juicy tomatoes, the best bit about a salad is definitely sopping up the dressing with some crunchy French bread.

 

I always have some of this french vinaigrette lying around, it's much tastier and cheaper than buying the ready made dressings from shops. I love it on all types of salads, I love dipping crunchy radishes into it and most of all I love drizzling it on a tuna salad sandwich instead of using butter or mayo.

 

The ratio of vinegar to olive oil is really up to you. My dad has always said 1 part of vinegar to 3 parts of olive oil, but I like mine a bit more tart (no tart jokes please!)... so I put roughly 1 part vinegar

 

Ingredients

 

Wholegrain or dijon mustard

Extra virgin olive oil

Red wine vinegar (can use raspberry or tarragon etc)

Salt

Pepper

 

I tend to make this in a glass bottle because it looks nice, but if you just have a smidge of mustard left in a jar you can make it in that.



 

 

How to...

 

1. Put a generous blob of mustard in your bottle/jar/bowl.

2. Fill your jar/bottle/bowl 1/3 full of vinegar. Add salt and pepper.

3. Top up with olive oil.

4. Shake.

5. Pour.

 

This keeps for absolutely ages, but you'll end up using it all within 2 weeks.

 

While cooking I was listening to... Ready for the Floor by Hot Chip.

Creamy Thyme, Mushroom and Bacon Smothered Crumpets.

I've just moved house and started a new job. I've finally got a kitchen which is easy to use (although it will take me a while to get used to where everything is) and I've unpacked all my bags. As anyone who has ever moved house will relate to, moving is one of the most stressful things. To make life a little more stressful I finished work on a Tuesday evening and had to move my stuff 150 miles across the country ready to start work at 8am the next morning.

I survived my first 2 days at work on a diet of soup cooked by my lovely new housemate, cereal and lots of salads in my packed lunch box. I promised myself a proper dinner today. Today I got up at a reasonable time (considering I finished work at almost 3am) and headed to town to stock up on the last little bits I needed. I lugged my shopping back which made me break a sweat and then continued to slog away unpacking the last of the bits I had sitting in a suitcase.

By the time I flumped myself on to the sofa I fancied something packed full of flavour but quick and easy to cook. I was tempted by another salad, but then I remembered how much I was looking forward to something hot and tasty.

I really love mushrooms on toast for supper but I felt that I deserved something a little more luxurious for my supper since I'd had such a busy week.


Ingredients (serves 1... just multiply up if you want more)

5-6 Chestnut mushrooms (you could use others, but these are tasty!)
Half a small onion sliced thinly
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
Small handful of diced smoked bacon
Creme Fraiche (I used 1/2 fat - my Dad would disown me if he knew)
Fresh thyme
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
2 crumpets

How to...

1. Slowly fry the finely sliced onions in a little drop of olive oil.
2. While those are frying slice up your mushrooms, like them best in little wedges.
3. When the onions are soft and starting to colour add the smoked bacon.
4. Once the bacon is beginning to cook throw in the garlic and 30 seconds later the mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Add a generous pinch or two of fresh thyme. I like to just scrunch a bunch of thyme a couple of times and lots of leaves fall off.
6. When the mushrooms are cooked as much as you enjoy them add a big spoon of creme fraiche. Make sure your crumpets are in the toaster.

7. Heap the creamy mushrooms and bacon on hot crumpets and tuck in.

Whilst cooking I was listening to... You're Gorgeous by Babybird

Banana and Nutella Bread

I am a self confessed cake addict. The first thing I did after my final exams last year as a reward was to go and buy myself a nice cupcake. Unfortunately others don't recognise cake as a food group and once an ex-boyfriend through out my 2 drawers full of mini-rolls as he was worried that I would become malnourished. It was a traumatic experience. In an effort to avoid that ever happening again I had to disguise my love of cake with fruit and vegetables. Carrot cake was my first love until a friend made me a banana bread.

It was moist, bananaey and just 100% cakey goodness. She used the Hummingbird Bakery recipe and it was pretty close to perfection. Unfortunately pretty close to perfection is just not enough for me, so I tweaked it... then I added nutella because the only thing that is better than perfection is perfection with nutella.

Ingredients (makes a whole loaf)



5-6 very ripe bananas
Jar of nutella
2 eggs
270g soft brown sugar
280g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1" grated ginger
1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
Half a clove of grated nutmeg
150g unsalted butter

How to...
1. Mush the bananas in a big mixing bowl.
2. Melt the butter and preheat the oven to 170C (gas mark 3).
3. Put all the other ingredients except the nutella in with the bananas and mix well. There is no need to be delicate about this and add things in any order, just mix it up.
4. Grease a loaf tin with some butter and dust with flour.
5. Scoop all the mixture into the loaf tin.
6. Use a teaspoon to drop blobs of nutella throughout the mixture. This gives lovely gooey blobs of nutella in the baked loaf. Remember the rule; 1 spoon in cake, 1 spoon in face.
7. Bake for around an hr (it might need 10 mins more or less). When its cooked if you stab it with skewer it will come out clean.
8. Allow the cake to cool and either eat it all yourself or cut it into little squares and share.

Whilst baking I was listening to... Vanilla Twilight by Owl City

Frying-Pan Raspberry, Raisin and Oat Cookies.

Last year the oven in my flat broke. I've been away on placements for university and then otherwise so busy that I've just coped without it. All my cooking has been on the hob, and that's been pretty much OK. I've missed roasts and pies... so I just demand them when I go home.

The main downside is that I haven't been able to bake anything sweet. I find it so calming to bake a big batch of cupcakes or cookies when I'm feeling stressed out, and then I can distribute the yummies to all my equally as stressed out friends. It really is spreading the food love.

Now that Finals are over and I'm waiting for results I got around to ordering a new oven. It was being delivered today. In anticipation (and to kill the time while I waited), I made a massive bowl of cookie dough ready to bake as soon as the oven was installed.

It wasn't to be.

The nice man arrived with my new ELECTRIC oven. The old one was gas. Even though the lady on the phone said he'd be able to uninstall the gas oven he wasn't.

Depression almost set in. I couldn't imagine waiting 2 days to cook my cookies, not while the batch of cookie dough was staring at me.

I had 3 options;

1. Keep the dough in the fridge and wait. Er. No.

2. Eat it all raw... but even I'm not that piggy.

3. Find another way to cook the cookies.

So I put my mind to work and decided to try and cook the cookies in a frying pan. It was time consuming, but a big success...

Ingredients (makes 25+ small cookies)

2 eggs

250g unsalted butter

155g dark soft brown sugar

155g caster sugar

375g plain flour

pinch of salt

Tsp baking powder

120g porridge oats

200g raisins

2 handfuls of fresh raspberries

Butter to grease the pan.

How to...

1. Mix together butter and sugars. This is easiest with clean fingers.

2. Add eggs and give it all a good whisk.

3. Add flour, oats, salt, baking powder and raisins, then get your fingers back in there and give it another good mix. Break up the raspberries with your fingers so bits of raspberry are all the way through the mixture.
4. At this point if you want to you can just cover the mixture and pop it in the fridge until you want to cook the cookies. If you want to cook them in an oven put them on a greased baking tray at 170 for about 12-15 minutes... if you'd rather cook them in a pan read on..

5. Grease a pan with a little bit of butter. Put the pan on the lowest heat you can.

6. Splodge some of the cookie dough in the pan and try to get it a bit flat and cookie shaped. I find it easiest to cook maximum of 4 cookies at a time.

7. Cover the pan with something like a baking tray and leave for 4-5 minutes.

8. Flip cookie over and cook for another 4 or so minutes on the other side.

9. Put cookies to cool and try to resist eating them all at once. If you're generous you can wrap them up in little cellophane parcels and give them to people. If you're not just enjoy them with a cup of tea.

Whilst cooking I was listening to... Moon Chavs by Jay Foreman

Creamy Smoked Salmon and Mushroom Pasta

It's easy to think of smoked salmon as a luxury food stuff. In my last couple of weeks of being a student I had a double dilemma. I craved a treat to get me through exams, but my student loan was running low. This is where supermarket value smoked salmon trimmings come into their own. They're perfect for stirring into pasta or putting in a fish pie.

The trimmings don't look as attractive as nice slices, but when you're just cooking for yourself does it really matter? To be honest I quite often mix the trimmings with cream cheese and use them in sandwiches and on bagels with freshly cracked black pepper. I must get through a packet a week... but at less than £1 a packet, which is enough for 2 meals, that's pretty bargaintastic.

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 servings of pasta

1 packet of smoked salmon trimmings

2 big dollops of cream cheese

Clove of garlic

Half an onion

Little drop of olive oil

8-10 mushrooms

Chopped parsley

Salt

Pepper

How to...

1. Cook pasta according to packet instructions

2. Slice onion and fry in a pan with a drop of olive oil until the onion is soft.

3. Finely chop garlic and cut mushrooms into segments.

4. Add garlic and mushrooms to pan, cook for 5-10 or so minutes until the mushrooms begin to get soft and the garlic is fragrant.

5. Stir in 2 generous dollops of cream cheese and the packet of smoked salmon trimmings. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

6. Finish with a handful of freshly chopped parsley. (To keep herbs you can freeze them into ice cubes and use them in cooking later.)

7. Stir in the pasta and split into two bowls. Enjoy!

Whilst cooking I was listening to... A-team by Ed Sheeran

Chocolate Chilli Con Carne

There's something comforting about anything with beans or with mince, so when the two come together along with some chilli it really makes my tummy happy. This is usually something I'd cook in winter, but I needed some hearty revision food and this really filled a hole.

The good thing about chilli is that you can get a lot of mince (good quality lean mince though, as fatty cheap mince is just tasteless and greasy), and make a big batch to freeze. This means a freezer full of scrummy home-made ready meals. Adding beans to anything with meat not only gets in more fibre and healthy stuff, but also cuts down the cost as pulses really bulk things up. Sometimes I like to add a handful of red lentils as well as the kidney beans, or even a tin of baked beans... useful tips if extra unexpected people turn up for dinner and you have to stretch things that bit further.

I can't decide my favourite way to eat chilli. Whether it is heaped on top of nachos and covered with cheese, dolloped on a baked potato, served next to a steaming pile of rice or simply in a bowl with a crusty baguette to mop up all the juices.

I think the dark chocolate in the recipe really makes it taste special, but even without the chocolate the chilli is good. Please don't waste your money buying expensive chilli-con-carne spice mix packets though, as the flavour is so easy to achieve with some basic spices you should have at home anyway.

Ingredients (serves 4 generously)

500g lean beef mince

1/2 an onion

Tin of red kidney beans (in water or spicy sauce, your choice)

Tin of chopped tomatoes

Clove of garlic

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

Ground cumin

Ground corriander

Fresh or dried chillis

Dark chocolate (4-6 big squares)

Vegetable oil

Salt (or a blob of bovril)

How to...

1. Finely chop onions and garlic, soften in a pan for 5 mins with the vegetable oil.

2. Chop peppers into little cubes and add to frying pan. Cook for another 5 minutes or so.

3. Add mince to pan along with as much chilli as you want, a teaspoon or 2 of cumin and a teaspoon or 2 of ground coriander. Remember you can have this as spiced as you want, I tend to put in about a tablespoon of cumin and half as much coriander.
4. Add tin of chopped tomatoes and kidney beans once the mince is browned. Season with salt or a spoon of bovril if you fancy adding a bit of extra beefyness. Cook for 15ish minutes.

5. Add chocolate and cook for another 5-10 minutes.
6. Serve with rice, a jacket potato, crusty bread or on nachos... with or without a dollop of sour cream on top.

Whilst cooking I was listening to... The Bird and The Worm by Owl City

Swedish-Style Pork Meatballs

I've only just gone and done it again. Given a probably highly unauthentic dish a nationality. OK, so the closest I've got to Sweden is Ikea. Needless to say these meatballs are much better than their Ikea cousins (but I must admit, I have a soft spot for Ikea meatballs....).

This is another dish I remember really fondly from when I was little. My Mum and I used to make a little production line. We'd get our hands nice and messy squishing the meatball mixture between our fingers and then one of us would roll the meatballs, while the other one would dust them in flour. Needless to say if I was in charge of dusting the meatballs it would be like an explosion in a flour factory.

This version of the recipe I use sausage meat for ease. I have been known to make these meatballs using a mixture of pork mince and bacon. They're even nice with turkey mince if pork isn't your cup of tea. If I can get my hands on fresh tarragon I like to substitute it for the thyme for a different but yummy flavour.

Ingredients (serves 3)

Packet of 8 good quality pork sausages

Onion

Garlic

Thyme

White wine

Chicken stock

Vegetable oil

Plain flour

Salt

Pepper

How to...

1. Finely dice the onions and garlic and soften in a pan with some vegetable oil.

2. Slice open the sausages and empty the meat into a bowl. Grind pepper and salt into the sausage meat. Add a generous sprinkling of thyme and the onions and garlic.

3. Make sure your hands are clean and stick them in the sausage meat and mix it all up.

4. Roll the pork mixture into small balls and coat them in a dusting of plain flour.
5. Brown the meatballs in a pan with some vegetable oil. Drain off the excess oil once they're brown.

6. Slosh about a glass of wine into the pan, pour the same into a glass for yourself and enjoy it.

7. Pour enough chicken stock in the pan to almost cover the meatballs, for me this was about 1 pint.

8. Leave to simmer for half an hour. The sauce should reduce and become as thick as gravy.

9. Serve with boiled rice and spinach, or just in a bowl with a hunk of fresh bread to mop up the sauce.
Whilst cooking I was listening to... The Buena Vista Social Club

Chorizo and Bean Soup

Strangely I only like homemade soup, even the premium ready made soups that are available just don't do it for me. Also a little strangely I'm a big fan of soups in summer, possibly because they tend to be quite light and easy to digest. I think there's little better than tucking into a bowl of delicious, fresh soup after a day in the sunshine.

Soup is also really easy to make, which is an important thing for me at the moment. I'm in the middle of sitting my final exams at university. This means I need to get in lots of nutritious food, but not spent forever making it. It also helps that it's so simple, that even when my head is somewhere else, it's impossible to get it wrong.

Ingredients (makes 3 hearty bowls)

Chorizo (about 150g)

Tin of chopped tomatoes

Tin of mixed beans in spicy tomato sauce

Half an onion

Clove of garlic

Vegetable/chicken stock

3 handfuls of baby spinach leaves

Olive oil

How to...

1. Chop onions and garlic, soften in a pan with olive oil.

2. Dice chorizo and cook with onions and garlic for 5 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes, beans and 1 litre of chicken stock. Leave to cook on a medium heat for 30 mins or so.
4. Pour steaming hot soup into bowls and top with a handful of fresh baby spinach leaves.

Whilst cooking I was listening to... Turning Tables by Adele.

Pad Thai

I remember the first time I went to a Thai restaurant. I must have been about 9 years old and it was in Bayswater. The first bite of pad thai I had was like love at first taste. Since then I've had a lifetime of disappointment when restaurants get it wrong and probably for that reason I haven't had a go at making it. Weirdly it's probably the recipe I've googled most.

I was having dinner at a friend's and they said they fancied pad thai. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to give it a bash. We encountered a few problems... lack of large flat rice noodles was the main problem, in fact it was thin egg noodles or udon noodles. We went for udon as they're my second favourite, but ideally it would be made with flat rice noodles.

This recipe (as with the last one I wrote), probably isn't totally authentic, but it tastes pretty nice and I'll certainly be making it again.

Ingredients (serves 2)

Flat rice noodles (2 portions)

100g pork loin

200g raw king prawns

Beansprouts

1 egg

Thai fish sauce

Brown sugar

Tamarind paste

2 cloves garlic

2 red chillies

2 spring onions

Crushed peanuts

Coriander

Lime

Vegetable oil

How to...

1. Finely chop garlic and chillies and soften in frying pan with a generous splosh of vegetable oil.

2. Finely slice pork loin and add to pan. Cook for 5 minutes.

3. Cook noodles according to packet instructions.

4. Add raw prawns to pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes.

5. Add noodles, finely sliced spring onion, a generous splash of fish sauce, a tablespoon of brown sugar, a teaspoon of tamarind paste and the juice of a lime.

6. Tilt the pan to one side and push noodles away from the flame. Add a beaten egg to the side of the pan nearest the flame and scramble it.

7. Mix the egg in with the rest.

8. Throw 2-3 big handfuls of beansprouts in the pan.

9. Cook for another 2 minutes.

10. Serve topped with crushed peanuts, coriander leaves and a wedge of lime.
Whilst cooking I was listening to... Coyotes by Jason Mraz.

Vietnamese Beef Pho

I get a bit worried when claiming to cook something from a country that I've never even visited, so before I offend anyone with any authenticities I thought I'd come clean. So this may (or may not) be authentic, but regardless it's pretty scrummy. As well as being delicious it's really quick to cook and is one of those soup that even goes down well on a hot summers day.

If I don't have rice noodles I either have it without noodles, with egg noodles or sometimes even put some leftover cooked rice in it.

Ingredients (Serves 4-6 in little bowls as a starter or 2 as a main meal)

2 sirloin steaks

3 shallots

5 cloves of garlic

2" of ginger

2 chillies

2 pints beef stock

1 portion of rice noodles

1 lime

Fish sauce

2 spring onions

Basil

Coriander

Vegetable oil

How to...

1. Finely chop garlic, shallots, ginger and chillies.

2. Finely slice steak and lie over the bottom of a bowl in a single layer. When the hot broth is poured over this later it will cook the beef through perfectly.

3. Fry shallots, garlic, ginger and chillies in a splash of vegetable oil until they are soft and fragrant. Be careful not to burn it!

4. Pour in 2 pints of beef stock. Ideally use fresh but in all honesty I use stock cubes most of the time.
5. Squeeze in the juice of a lime and add a splash of fish sauce (not too much as you don't want it too salty).

6. Cook noodles according to instructions on packet. Split between bowls.

7. Pour hot broth into bowls over beef and noodles.

8. Garnish with finely sliced spring onion, coriander and basil.

Whilst cooking I was listening to... Come Away With Me by Norah Jones.

Braised Peas

Another one from my Dad. In fact I don't even know why I say that as it's a given that 95% of the stuff I cook I learnt to cook from him.

I was lucky enough to be at home again this weekend. My Dad enticed me with the offer of roast chicken and let me choose what I'd want with it. The obvious answer for me is peas. They're my favourite vegetable to have with a roast chicken, in fact I think I look forward to the peas more than the actual roast.

Whenever I invite people over for food I always like to ask them if there's anything they don't eat. A surprising number of people say peas. Unfortunately this is like a red rag to a bull for me... as soon as they say it I see it as a challenge. I automatically decide I'm cooking them these braised peas... or "magic peas" as I named them while at uni.

So far they've converted 6/6 pea haters. I'm spreading the pea love...

Ingredients (serves 4... or more or less... depends how much you like peas)

Bag of frozen petits pois (I only use birds eye)

Smoked bacon

Half an onion

Clove of garlic

Thyme

Chicken stock

Little gem lettuce

Knob of butter

How to...

1. Finely chop onions and soften in a pan with a generous knob of butter.

2. Add chopped bacon and a smushed clove of garlic and gently fry until the bacon is cooked.

3. Throw in frozen peas. I use about half of one of the small bags at a time. Use a bit more or a bit less depending how many people you're cooking for.

4. Add enough chicken stock to not quite cover the peas. Also bung in a generous amount of thyme. (Stock from a good cube is fine, contrary to popular belief not always making your own stock is not a crime. If you have homemade stock, well done, you're doing better than me.)

5. Simmer for 10 mins.

6. Add chopped baby gem lettuce and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Serve... preferably with roast chicken and home-made gravy.

Whilst cooking I was listening to... The sound of my own voice talking to my Dad.

Cheat's Lamb and Olive Tagine

My Dad grew up in North Africa, and because of that tagine, cous cous and other North African delights make him think of warm summers spent as a child. Not surprisingly when its wet, windy and raining, he's always keen to whip something delicious up for dinner.

I visited home on the weekend and my Dad and I decided it was one of those days when only a tagine would do. Unfortunately as we were stuck at his hotel we didn't have a tagine to cook it in, nor did we have any preserved lemons. This wasn't going to stop my Dad and his awesome cookery skills. Needless to say the final dish was fabulous...

Ingredients (serves 6)

A shoulder of lamb diced (big enough to serve the number of people you're cooking for)

2 sweet peppers

Half a large onion

12 - 18 new potatoes

Half a jar of green pitted olives

1 unwaxed lemon

Garlic

Saffron

Whole coriander seeds

Dried chilli

Olive oil

Lamb stock (or chicken or veg stock)

Coriander leaves

How to

1. Finely chop onion, garlic and chop sweet peppers into large chunks. Soften over a medium heat with olive oil.

2. Add diced lamb to pan.

3. Splosh in about half a pint of stock.

4. Throw in olives, a pinch of saffron, a generous tablespoon or two of whole coriander seeds and a healthy pinch of chilli flakes.

5. Juice the lemon and save the juice for something else. Chop up the juiced lemon into big chunks and throw in the pot.

6. Cover the pot and simmer on a low heat for an hour and a half or so.

7. Add in the new potatoes peeled and cook for another 15-20 mins.

8. Serve with a handful of fresh coriander leaves.

Whilst cooking I was listening to: I'm Yours - Jason Mraz

Crab and Leek Risotto

Risotto is one of those things that I could eat every day and never get bored of. It can be vegetarian or meaty and its gluten free. This means it's always an option when I'm cooking dinner for friends. It's definitely a crowd pleaser. Unfortunately I've had a few over cooked mushy risottos which risked putting me off for life, but the memory of a good home cooked risotto has always rescued me.

This is a pretty simple risotto to make. I tend to make it when I'm missing home. I come from by the seaside where we can get big crabs pretty cheaply. My cupboard version with a tinned crab is perhaps not quite as amazing as using fresh crab, but I still adore it.

Ingredients (for 4)

400g risotto rice

1 x good quality tinned crab (or if you're lucky enough about 300g fresh white crabmeat)

1 leek

1 lemon

1.5l of fish stock

Glass of white wine

Pepper

Knob of butter

Fresh parsley

How to...

1. Finely slice the leek, having washed all the mud off beforehand.

2. Soften the leek over a medium heat with a knob of butter.

3. Zest the lemon.

4. Add risotto rice, half the lemon zest, a generous grinding of fresh black pepper and a slosh of fish stock to pan.

5. Stir the risotto adding stock and wine as it is absorbed. Keep cooking for around 15-20 minutes over a medium heat. The rice should still have some bite to it.

6. Add in 3/4 of the crab and stir.

7. Dish up the risotto topping each dish with a spoon of leftover crabmeat, some lemon zest and a big pinch of fresh roughly chopped parsley.

Today whilst cooking I was listening to... Everything by Micheal Buble.

Gazpacho

Every year I toy with what to get my Dad for his birthday. Except for another Hawaiian shirt, I always struggle to come up with something that won't just sit on his desk or table untouched.

My Dad loves his food as much as I do, if not more. In fact it's my Dad who really taught me how to cook. Cooking him dinner always seems like the best present I could give him.

I probably spent longer planning a menu for the evening than I would have spent shopping for a gift. It had to be something light and summery because of the time of year. All of the courses also had to be able to stretch to an unknown number of guests, we pretty much have an open door policy to friends coming over for dinner. Pork is a no-no for one of our closest family friends and my Dad has an aversion to chicken most of the time.

I toyed with the idea of different salads for a starter. Nothing really stood out though as we always have all kinds of delicious salads. I needed to think of something we wouldn't usually have.

Gazpacho seemed perfect. All the delicious componants of a salad, but different.

There seems to be a lot of controversy surrounding what is an authentic gazpacho. Does it contain bread? herbs? chilli? garlic? peppers? Should it be smooth or chunky? Keep or bin the tomato seeds? After a few hours of reading hundreds of recipes I thought my head was going to explode. I decided just to use what I had in the fridge, keep it basic, and hope for the best. It turned out pretty delicious if I say so myself.

Ingredients (for 8ish servings).

1.5kg ripe tasty tomatoes

Half a loaf of stale crusty bread

3-4 cloves of garlic

Slosh of red wine vinegar

Olive oil

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

For the garnish:

Avocado

Red onion

Yellow bell pepper

How to...

1. Soak the stale bread in a basin of water for half an hour.

2. Use a sharp knife to score a cross in the base of each tomato, then immerse the tomatoes in boiling water for a minute or so until the skins become loose. Plunge into cold water and remove the skins which should come off easily.

3. Roughly chop tomatoes and garlic.

4. Blend tomatoes, garlic and the soaked bread (with some of the water squeezed out). If you only have a small blender you may have to do this in a few batches.

5. Season with salt and pepper and add a generous slosh of red wine vinegar. Taste to see if the seasoning is right and the vinegar has given enough tartness.

6. Chill for 4+ hours.

7. Finely chop all the ingredients for the garnish and mix them up.

8. Serve in chilled bowls or cups with a generous spoonful of the garnish on top and a glug of olive oil.

Today whilst cooking I was listening to... Hot in Here by Athlete

Marniated prawns with hot spicy tomato salsa

Prawns are something I always tend to have in the freezer. I go a little OTT every time I see a special offer on raw king prawns and end up buying 4 or more bags. This means I've always got the ingredients to treat myself to something prawn-based and delicious. I think it's important to use raw prawns (fresh or frozen), as using ready cooked prawns makes it so much easier to accidentally overcook them and end up with rubbery bullets of prawn. I also like watching them turn pink from grey. It's like magic.

Tinned tomatoes are the other thing I always have at home in excess. I probably eat tomato based meals 5 or 6 days a week. My tomato to other food ratio is always a little odd to other people's tastes so if you have a go at making this a little blob of the hot tomato salsa is probably enough for most people. I like to have half a plate so once I've piled it high on to each mouthful of prawn I can mop up the rest with fresh crunchy bread.

Marinated Prawns

Ingredients

Raw prawns

Fresh chillis

Lemon or lime juice

Garlic

Soy Sauce

How to...

1. Mix finely chopped or crushed garlic with finely chopped chillis, the juice of a lemon or lime and a generous swig of soy sauce.

2. Mix in raw prawns

3. Cover and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours.

4. Heat up a pan.

5. Cook prawns for a couple of minutes until pink. Be careful not to overcook.

Hot Spicy Tomato Salsa

Ingredients

Half an onion

Clove of garlic

Tin of high quality chopped tomatoes

As many chillis as you fancy

Salt

Olive oil

How to...

1. Finely chop onion, garlic and chillis.

2. Cook onion in olive oil until soft and translucent.

3. Add garlic and chillis and cook for another 2 minutes.

4. Add chopped tomatoes and salt.

5. Cook for 20ish minutes, or until the salsa is thick, rich and tasty.

Today whilst cooking I was listening to: Handle Me by Robyn

Sausage and Tomato Pasta Sauce

Sausages are one of those things I adore. Strangely when I was younger I hated them. Probably due to the poor quality sausages that got foisted on us at school. Still to this day I can't abide low quality sausages. My favourite type of sausage has to be a toulouse sausage. This not only has normal pork sausagemeat but also has bacon, garlic, herbs... mmmm. All my favourite things.

Because of my slight obsession with sausages I tend to keep some in the freezer at all times. Thankfully they're also quite a crowd pleaser. Fed up of cooking sausages with onion gravy (Yes! I know that sounds like blasphemy...), I decided why not merge my other eternal crowd pleaser, pasta with tomato sauce, with my beloved sausages. Match made in heaven. So good that I now get requests for it, and not just from my tummy!

Sausage and Tomato Pasta (serves 2 hungry people, probably more if you ration out the sauce and give people a big helping of pasta)

Packet of high quality pork sausages

Half an onion

Garlic

Olive oil

Tin of chopped tomatoes

A couple of chestnut mushrooms

Balsamic vinegar

Salt

Pepper

Oregano

Bay leaf

How to...

1. Soften sliced onions in a little bit of olive oil until they start to colour.

2. Add chopped up sausage bits. If you have fussy eaters take the sausage skins off as they can fall off in cooking and lurk in your sauce. I'm too lazy to do this. Even for my friends. Cook until the sausage starts to brown.

3. Add in mushrooms and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes. Don't add the garlic before now or it might burn and go bitter.

4. Bung in a tin of chopped tomatoes, some salt, pepper, oregano and bay leaf (preferably fresh but dried is ok).

5. Drizzle in a bit of balsamic vinegar. I feel any sauce with tinned tomatoes needs a bit of sweetness and a bit of acidity. You can really tell when this is left out.

6. Cook for at least half an hour on a low heat. If the sauce gets a bit dry just add more water. The secret to a tinned tomato sauce with good depth is making sure the tomatoes are cooked for a long time. If you don't have the time for this use delicious fresh tomatoes instead as they taste fabulous in minutes. If I have some overripe fresh tomatoes I add these in 10 mins before serving the sauce.

7. Serve with a mountain of al dente spaghetti and a shaving of parmesan.