shepherd’s pie

Like most of you, we’re confined to the house right now, and comfort food is absolutely necessary. So yesterday, we had shepherd’s pie. The filling was 400g frozen lamb (from Iceland) 1 mug of red lentils 1 chopped onion a few rather wizened mushrooms a tin of baked beans some Henderson’s relish (use Lea and…

tired brassica pakoras

Sorry, more sprouts, but that’s the last of them for now, I promise.  Oh, and Pete wrote this, hence the long spice list! These pakoras were made with leftover cooked sprouts and an aging quarter cabbage lurking in the fridge veg drawer, but anything similar would do! Cauliflower, peas, potatoes – great way to use…

roasted brussels sprouts

Now, I know that brussels sprouts are much maligned, and many people claim to hate them. Well, we don’t – we love ’em. I bought a stalk of sprouts before Christmas for a quid, and there are still some left; the stalk has been out in the cold, in the log store, and they’re still…

everyday bread

This is, as named, my everyday bread recipe, lifted from Jack Monroe, the Bootstrap Cook. It is the most forgiving and adaptable of recipes; you can use pretty much any mix of flour, you can bake it into any shape you like, including rolls, you can add nuts or seeds, and it scales beautifully. Now I’ve…

smoked salmon and pasta

We’re getting to the time of year when we’re using up all the bits and bobs of festive fare. The last of the goose has gone into the freezer, the rest of the cheese is destined for lunches this week, along with the gammon. We’ve eaten far too much rich food over the past few…

potato scones

 Honestly, these are the easiest things ever – a really flexible recipe, and great for leftover boiled potatoes. My Irish grandmother made a batch of these almost every day. You need three parts cooked potato, two parts flour, and one part butter/marg/vegan spread of choice – I usually work on 150g of spud, but if…

sprout stirfry!

Like a lot of people, we found ourselves eating up all sorts of bits and pieces after Christmas. We bought sprouts onnastalk for our festive dinner of roast goose, cooked a load up for the meal and subsequent bubble ‘n’ squeak, and then … forgot all about them. I’d stashed the stalk in the log…

unexpected chicken

I found a bag of unlabelled … something in the freezer. It looked quite chickenish, and I assumed that it was a brace of chicken breasts. Anyhoo, out it came, with a vague plan to stuff with blue cheese. I was quite surprised post thawing to find that the bag in fact contained four chicken thighs,…

my Magimix

I’ve had my Magimix for years – I bought it, and a whole batch of blades, many years ago, when I was much better off than I am now 🙂 It’s always sat there on the worktop, but I don’t actually use it all that much – veg for soup, whipping up the odd cake when…

salad, salad, salad

We’re not huge fans of salad, or at least of the lettuce-ish variety; however, recently I’ve been making us a raw vegetable based luncheon a few days a week, on the basis that I eat too many carbs, and we could both do with more fresh veg. Mostly, it is some combination of cucumber, spring…