PixieCooks

This is my go-to, store-cupboard, I’m-too-tired-to-cook recipe; therefore it’s full of canned or frozen ingredients, follows no chilli tradition from anywhere and is un-apologetically cosy comfort food. It’s also a lot healthier than take-away, so it’s all good .

If you have a sweet potato or two kicking about, peel and chop and add a little extra water with them (add both at the same time as the tomatoes) and cook down until they’re fork-soft. You could also chop and peel them, if you’re like me and fail miserably at using a vegetable peeler (I’m more likely to take great chunks out of things – including but not limited to me – than remove the skin from my veggies); if you chop the sweet potatoes into rough cylinders slicing off the skin should be easy.

Feeds 4-6, only gets better with reheating
Cheat’s Bean Chilli

• 1 can mixed bean salad (packed in salt water, drained and rinsed)*
• 1 can chickpeas/garbanzo beans (packed in salt water, drained and rinsed)
• 1 can kidney beans (packed in salt water, drained and rinsed)
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 2 good hand fulls frozen chopped peppers (you can use fresh, but it’s not really the point of the recipe!)
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 2 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp worchester sauce
• 2 tbsp dried coriander (cilantro) leaf
• Chilli Flakes, to taste
• 400g/14oz can tomatoes (either chopped or mash up a bit before use)
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 Garlic Clove, minced

*Note that the bean mixture is infinitely variable, these are just the ones I like

Method
Sauté the onions, adding the dry spices as they begin to brown.

Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, coriander, garlic, worchester sauce, peppers and drained, rinsed beans.

Cook over a low heat, stirring regularly, until the mixture thickens or you are too hungry to wait. Serve with soft tortillas and grated (shredded) cheese of your choice. Add baby spinach if you feel like being super healthy.

Bean mixture keeps in the fridge or freezes like a dream and can be reheated with ease in a microwave or in a pan.

In the usual retail tradition of selling seasonal foods for at least 3 months longer than appropriate our shops have had Hot Cross Buns on sale since the new year (although perhaps we’re just trying to get back to pre-Elizabethan tradition and it has nothing to do with cynical commerce), and they’ve also had vast numbers of them reduced for a quick sale because they’re heading to staleness. Now, a stale Hot Cross Bun is a horribly disappointing thing, but they make a cracking base for a not-quite bread-and-butter pudding.

serves 4-6
Ingredients

• 4 Hot Cross Buns
• 3 Eggs
• 1 Can Evaporated Milk (you can use normal milk, it’s just slightly less rich
• 2 Tbsp Sugar (I used normal granulated)
• 3 Tsp Ginger Jam/preserve

Method
Slice the hotcross buns (as if you were slicing bread) and pack tightly into a bakable dish. Make sure none of the edges are sticking up terribly far beyond the top. Dot the jam over the top of the buns.

Whisk together the eggs, sugar and evaporated milk.

Pour over the buns, ensuring that all the pieces of bun are at least doused in the liquid – press them down if neccessary.

Cook in the oven at 200C (180C fan/400F/Gas Mark 6) for 15-20 minutes.

Serve hot, cold or reheated in the microwave.

When my brother was wee he refused to eat anything called curry, but he would eat (and enjoy, I think, but I wasn’t much bigger than him) spicy prawns. This is an adaptation of the original spicy prawns and is quick, simple and tasty.

Serves 2-3
Ingredients

• 2 Small Onions, Diced (or one large, or as many medium ones as you like)
• 400g/14oz Tin Tomatoes (either chopped, or chop them a little before adding)
• 3 Spring Onions (Scallions) Chopped
• Small Thumb of Ginger, Diced Small
• 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
• 400g/16oz Frozen, Cooked, Peeled Prawns. (Not anything like an exact weight, I just buy a bag of whatever’s cheapest.)
• 2 tsp Curry Paste of your choice
• 2tbsp Tomato Puree

Method
Saute the onion in a little vegetable oil – don’t allow them to colour – and when they go from ow, my eyes, raw onion to mmmmh, fried onion in scent, add the curry paste and fry off for another 2-3 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, spring onion, ginger and lemon juice (I often don’t bother with the ginger or lemon juice and they may not work with your curry paste, so don’t worry if you don’t have them) and simmer gently until the sauce has reduced a little. Add the prawns (follow the packet instructions, some need to be defrosted, some can be used frozen, if they are defrosted they will take much less time), stir through and allow to heat. The prawns are already cooked and over-cooking them will just make them go rubbery, around 4-5 minutes is enough from frozen.

Serve with rice or noodles. I served mine with brown rice noodles, because 5 minutes soaking time is just about as long as I was willing to wait! If the curry is a little hot for you, stir through a little natural yogurt after it is off the heat – if it is too warm the yogurt will separate, it will still taste fine, but will look a bit grainy.

Our local farmer’s market has started selling water buffalo (apparently they are like large, particularly stupid, cows), which tastes not dissimilar to beef but is lower in fat and seems to enthuse various food-evangelists. It’s a little tougher than beef, so lends itself well to being marinaded overnight before cooking. The marinade is lovely and would work well with some of the tougher cuts of beef (I’m particularly thinking frying steak).

For one steak
Ingredients

• 2 Tsp. lemon juice
• Scant tsp garlic salt
• 2 Tsp vegetable (or groundnut) oil
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 2 Tsp light brown muscavado sugar
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 2 Tsp soy sauce
• 1 Water Buffalo Ribeye steak (bone out)
• Extra soy sauce, to taste

Combine all ingredients (bar the steak and extra soy sauce) in a plastic bag and mix well. Place steak in the bag and massage into the meat.

Put the steak, in the marinade, in the bag, into the fridge for at least 6 hours, preferably 24.

Heat a little oil in a frying pan (skillet) and fry steak for 3 minutes on one side, turn, pour on half the reserved marinade and fry for a further 3 minutes (timings are not exact, time as per a steak – given the thickness and your preferred result).

Remove steak from pan and place on warm plate in very low oven to rest (as with a joint this helps the fibres relax and results in a softer meat).

Add some cold water to the marinade remaining in the hot pan (about a cup full) and bring to the boil. Add the extra soy sauce and stir to thicken slightly

Serve the steak with the sauce puddled to the side, brown rice and either a leafy salad or green beans.

I suspect this would barbeque well, if you kept dousing it with the marinade.

Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday (you may call it Mardis Gras) and traditionally one makes pancakes to use up those things that will be given up for Lent. I’m giving up crisps (chips) which have never notably been a pancake ingredient, but still, it was pancake day and they’re about the easiest “baking” in the world.

Ingredients

• Plain (AP) flour
• Large Egg(s)
• Milk

Method
I haven’t included quantites, as they’ll depend on how many you want to make and how thick you want them – the ratio is 1 egg per 1/4 pt (a generous 1/2 cup) milk with as much flour as you can beat in to make a runny batter. How runny exactly you want the batter to be, you’ll find out with experience, but I use about 2oz (50g/ 1/2 a cup) per egg. A one egg batter makes an ample sufficiency for two, and probably enough for 3, and will keep in the fridge for a couple of days (if it seperates, which it probably will, just stir it back together).

Use a non-stick frying pan (skillet) on a medium heat (and don’t worry if you have to chuck the first pancake, that’s entirely normal) and cook only a little at a time (I use a fairly small ladle which makes perfect “scotch pancake” sized pancakes and cook one at a time, keeping the made pancakes warm on a warm plate under a clean teatowel).

Ladle the batter into the pan and leave it until the batter starts to bubble and the bubbles leave little holes in the top side. You can, if you watch the pancake closely, see that the batter is more or less “set” by the time the pancake is holey and you can then turn over and cook for a similar amount of time on the other side – watching to check it doesn’t get burnt and browning up each side to your heart’s desire.

Serve hot with sugar and lemon juice (or if you’re feeling sweet toothed try chocolate spread, jam or sweet chesnut puree). Thinner batters make more “rollable” pancakes, thicker ones are better with a fork.

Nigel Slater has a great deal to answer for, not least that he describes food in an entirely hungry-making fashion. I had a notion for some kind of pudding last night, and nothing readily apparent in the pudding milieu, but some digging around in the freezer found some aged frozen berries (one of those “suitable for smoothies summer berries” mixes with strawberries and blueberries and things) and a sad scraping of vanilla ice cream. A little sugar and spice made for a lovely, lovely pud.

Makes quite a lot, but it keeps in the fridge
Ingredients

• Bag frozen summer berries (or any berries, if they’re not frozen they won’t need so much cooking
• Light brown muscovado sugar (or any sugar, but this has a warmer flavour that’s good with the spice. Given I was using frozen berries so old that they may have been out of date, I just used what I had)
• Powdered ginger, to taste
• Powdered cinnamon, to taste
• Pinch of all-spice (this is really just as a back note, so substantially less than the other spices)
• Boiling water (I used about the same volume as I had fruit, but my fruit had freezer burn and needed re-hydrated)

Method
Bung everything in a wide (non-stick) pan, and keep stirring as it boils so it doesn’t catch. Some of the fruit will burst (frozen berries have already had their internal structure mushed a bit, so it doesn’t take much) and it will begin to thicken.

Pour over ice-cream and enjoy.

Will keep in the fridge (becomes like a loose jam), reheats in the microwave in about 1 minute and the cool compote is good stirred into plain yoghurt.

It’s been a long, cold, hard winter here this year (Scotland has had the coldest december and january since records began and I’ve had an apparently never-ending series of heating and plumbing issues) but it’s beginning to get brighter (and a little warmer) and I’m feeling more and more like it’s spring.

I’m not entirely sure a sandwich merits a recipe, but the sunny, bright, weather deserves some bright, light, food and the warmth of the bread, coupled with the dressing makes the tomatoes sing. Followed by a little plain yoghurt swirled with spiced berry compote it’s a meal to lighten the soul.

serves one
Ingredients

• 1 warm white crusty small bagette (I got those part-baked ones, which also keep in the freezer)
• Tomatoes (whatever smells best in the shop, I had cherry on the vine, but anything flavourful will work; just chop larger ones more. Keep them out of the fridge and a little bit of sun through a window can work wonders, too)
• Brie (I have french, because it was on offer, but whatever you like best, and if you keep it out the fridge it will taste stronger and riper, although it’ll be sticker to cut)
• 3 tsp Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp Balsamic vinegar
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste. Lots of black pepper will pick up the flavour of the tomatoes beautifully

Method
Put the oil and vinegar into a bowl and whisk with a fork – it will only temporarily emulsify, but that’s fine.

Wash and dry the tomatoes, chop in half (cherry or baby plum tomatoes, if they’re bigger, chop into smaller parts) and add to the bowl with the salad dressing, add salt and pepper to taste. Leave in the bowl (cover it with a tea towel) in a coolish place for the flavours to combine and deepen.

Warm the bagette (if it’s already cooked split it in half lengthwise and grill/broil). Slice the brie thinly and lay on one side of the split bagette. Heap the other side with the tomato mixture.

Serve with a green salad.

This dates back to when I was a first year student, freshly moved away from home, and the original recipe (the one created by a friend in our halls of residence that a group of us ate two or three times a week in front of the ever-present re-runs of Quantum Leap) is long lost. I spent more time that I care to admit to experimenting to re-create the morish nomminess of the original and finally came up with something which, whilst not exactly the same, is lovely and disappears very, very quickly whenever I make it…

Quantum Leap (Tortilla Chip) Dip

• 1 (250g/8oz) pack cream cheese (like philli. The reduced fat is fine, the lowest fat or fat free is not)
• 4 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 tbsp garlic puree (optional)
• 100g/just over a cup of grated/shredded cheese (I use a mild cheddar)
• 2 tbsp milk (I use skim, but whatever’s on hand)
• (optional) 2 sliced tomatoes, but only if you’re feeling fancy

Method
Beat cream cheese and milk together to loosen its texture – your dip will be about this texture so add more milk if it’s stiff.
Add tomato puree, garlic puree and grated cheese and mix thoroughly
If you’re using the tomatoes arrange them on top.

Serve with tortilla chips, “cool” flavoured ones for preference.

I’ve had a bag of breadcrumbs burning a hole in my freezer for almost a month now, and when D came round late on Saturday afternoon it seemed like time for a cooking lesson combined with a craving for something coated in breadcrumbs was too good a coincidence to waste*.

(*I’m aware that, as coincidences go, this is a rubbish coincidence, but it’s also entirely how my brain works and it’s probably just better to be happy for me.)

I’ve had Veal Parmigiana several times at our good local Italian and I like it very much and I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to make a version with chicken.

Serves 4, or one and one D
Ingredients

• 3 Chicken Breasts, butterflied and battered out to 1cm/ 1/2″ thick (or 6 breast fillets, battered evenly thick, or 6 chicken thighs, deskinned and deboned, battered out to 1cm 1/2″ thick)
• Breadcrumbs equivalent to 3 slices of bread (more is not a bad thing)
• 1 Egg, beaten and seasoned
• 1 Cup plain (AP) flour
• 2 medium onions, diced small
• 400g/14oz tin/can of tomatoes, blitzed to smooth (or equivalent of passata)
• 2 Tbsp dried basil*
• 1 tbsp dried coriander (cilantro) leaves
• 4 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 pack (6 slices) dry-cure bacon (or Prosciutto , something with a bit of salt/smoke and not too much fat or water)
• 1 pack mozzarella (around 125g/5oz) sliced and well drained if wet
• Enough pasta for 4

(* it’s february, in Scotland. Fresh herbs come here to die, but if you’ve got them use about double the quantity, well chopped, and add them closer to the end of cooking)

Method
Pre-heat over to 200C (180C fan assisted/400f/Gas Mark 6)

Prepare a baking tray for the chicken (the breadcrumbs can be sticky, so either non-stick, silicone lined or lined with very lightly oiled foil).

Put the flour, seasoned egg and breadcrumbs out on 3 flat (dinner) plates.

Taking one piece of chicken at a time, lightly coat each piece in flour (tap off the excess), coat in egg (drip off the excess) and coat in breadcrumbs (press on gently then tap off the excess) and lay in the baking tray

Cook in oven for 20 minutes, turning after 10 minutes.

During the cooking time prepare the tomato sauce and start the pasta so it finishes 5 minutes after the chicken’s oven time is over.

Soften the onions gently, so they become translucent and smell yummy, but don’t start to brown.

Add the dried herbs, tomatoes and tomato puree, stir in and cook gently over a low heat until it becomes thick and delicious (this suace can be reheated, or kept in the warm pan for up to 20minutes).

Take the chicken out of the oven and turn over so the “best side” (where the majority of the breadcrumbs have stayed on and browned) is on the bottom, then place the sliced mozzarella evenly over the chicken and cover with the bacon. Put under a medium-high grill (broiler, if you’re in the US) until the bacon is cooked and browning (5-10minutes).

Drain the pasta and combine with the tomato sauce, warming through if required.

Serve the pasta gently draped over the top of the chicken.