PixieCooks

This is a recipe that I’ve taught D how to cook, and it seemed like a plan to include it here. It’s incredibly simple but very tasty and easy to scale up for larger numbers; it makes a great dish for casual entertaining if you serve it with a large leafy salad and some good crusty bread. It also reheats pretty well if you want to keep some back for lunch the next day – box it up with the cheese already on it and just nuke for a couple of minutes.

serves 2 hungry people
Ingredients

• 150g (or a generous 1/2 cup) Pancetta (or dry cure bacon) cubed
• 2 Medium onions, diced
• 2tsp dried basil*
• 2tsp dried oregano
• 400g/14oz tin of tomatoes (chopped is fine, if they’re whole either break them up with the spoon in the pan or blitz them first)
• 2tsp crushed garlic or garlic puree
• 2tsp tomato puree
• Enough pasta for 2
• Fresh parmesan to taste (if not, any hard cheese can be grated (shredded) on top)

Method
Gently brown off the pancetta in a little olive oil.

Add the onions and gently sauté.

Once the onions are translucent and just beginning to colour, add the herbs, garlic, tomatoes and tomato puree and simmer very gently, stirring regularly until the sauce thickens.

Whilst the sauce is thickening, cook the pasta according to the instructions, drain and then stir in the tomato sauce.

Serve in a shallow bowl with a grating of Parmesan cheese on top. Goes well with green beans (if it’s chilly outside) or a leafy salad.

*Or fresh, use twice the amount and add it later in the cooking process

I went to my parents’ house for Easter and managed to persuade my mum to let me take pictures of one of her meals. (Of course, this ended up being in exchange for a lot of stirring, but I don’t mind helping!)

Risotto is a lovely, comfortable meal – and not nearly as hard as people think it is. Yes, there’s a lot of stirring, but it’s only 20minutes over a nice warm pan – what better on a miserable dreich day!

For 3, easily adapted
Ingredients

• 225g/1 cup Arborio (or other risotto) Rice
• Slightly More Stock Than The Rice Packet Suggests (you keep it warm, so allow for evaporation)
• 2 Onions, Diced
• 2 Smoked Haddock Fillets
• 1 Salmon Fillet
• Butter for Frying and Seasoning

Finely dice the onion and saute in a little butter – the trick is to soften, not brown.

Whilst the onion is softening put the stock on to boil (you want to keep it at a rolling simmer in a separate pan throughout the whole process of cooking the rice) and prepare the fish in a foil parcel – dot the fillets with butter and form the foil around the fish in a loose parcel to keep in the steam. You can actually use any fish you like here, and it’s a great way to serve those frozen fillets you can pick up in supermarkets.

Once the onion is browned, add the rice and stir for a couple of minutes

Add a couple of ladle-fuls of stock to the rice and stir in, keep the rice pan and the stock pan at a gentle boil throughout.

Place the fish in the oven. Depending on the size of the fillets they will take 15-18 minutes at gas mark 4 (180C/160C fan/350 F). This is almost exactly the amount of time it’ll take to finish cooking off the rice

Keep stirring the rice, to stop it sticking and to help break down the carbohydrate into that lovely gooey creaminess that risotto should have.

Every time the rice starts to almost catch (see picture, below), add a ladle-ful more of the boiling stock

Just before the fish is due out of the oven, taste the rice. It should be soft with only a little “bite” to the grains. Provided it is, keep stirring until it is nice and thick (if it is not keep stirring in more stock until it is!) and add a little bit of butter to finish it off.

Serve the risotto heaped on a plate with the fish stacked on top, for the eater to break it into the rice with their fork.

We finished out the meal with a simple pudding of plain yoghurt topped with honey and flaked almonds (very good for calcium!).

Thanks mum!

This one’s a result of me trying to empty my freezer and trying to find new and fun ways to use up chicken thighs (cheaper than chicken breast, and tastier). I’ve been on a bit of a thyme kick recently – it’s a lovely fragrant herb, but less prone to that slight soapiness that rosemary has – and stuffing seemed to be a good way to get it into the mix.

I buy my chicken thighs with the bone in and skin on, but I removed them for this recipe – it’s easy enough to do with a decent pair of scissors – but if that squicks you get the butcher to do it for you or buy from the supermarket without .

Serves 4-6
Ingredients

• 100g Breadcrumbs
• 1 Onion, Diced
• Small knob of Butter and a splash of vegetable oil
• The Leaves from 6 stalks of Thyme (save the stalks)
• 6 Chicken Thighs, Skinned and Boned
• Sufficient Bacon to wrap

Method
Heat the butter and oil in a heavy bottomed pan (the oil helps stop the butter from burning) and saute the onions gently, so they soften but don’t colour.

Add the cooked onions to the thyme leaves and breadcrumbs, stir through and allow to cool.

The removal of the bone should leave a fairly obvious place to put the stuffing – you’re effectively just making a sausage shape and rolling the chicken around it – and once the chicken is stuffed, wrap the bacon around it to hold the stuffing in and secure using the stripped thyme stalks.

Roast at 200C (108c fan/400F/Gas Mark 6) for 35 minutes. Remove thyme stalks and serve.

Serve with potato dauphinoise (recipe to follow), mash or rice.

Real, proper* bolognese sauce would generally have pancetta, veal or some kind of pork in with the beef mince (hamburger/ground beef), but I get lovely beef from our local farmers’ market, sourced from local aberdeen angus cows, and I like to keep the flavour quite clean. If you’re not so lucky, chuck a handful of pancetta in the pan and brown off before you add the onions.

*In as much as there is any proper recipe for something so traditional. There’s also milk involved and various other complications.

Feeds 4-5
Ingredients

• Beef Mince (low fat, steak mince)
• 2 Medium Onions, Diced
• 1-2 Garlic Cloves, Minced
• 2tsp Dried Oregano (it’s more flavourful dried, so if you have fresh, use more)
• 2tsp Dried Basil (or about half that of fresh)
• 2 Stalks of Celery, finely sliced
• 2 Medium Carrots, finely diced
• 400g/14oz Can Chopped/Crushed Tomatoes (or equivalent)
• 2tbsp Tomato Puree

Method
Gently saute the onion in a little olive oil, cooking over a low heat and stirring regularly so it doesn’t burn or stick. Add the carrot, celery and garlic and cook slowly, stirring often, until they are softened.

If the mince is low fat then add it straight into the onions, if it isn’t then remove the onions to a bowl, brown the mince and pour off the fat before re-adding the onions, celery, carrot and garlic.

Add the herbs, tomatoes and tomato puree, and cook down over a medium heat stirring regularly until thickened and smelling gorgeous.

Serve with spagetti, over a baked potato or with any pasta you can scrounge up with a light blizzard of freshly grated/shredded parmesan over the top. If you don’t have fresh parmesan it’s better to use cheddar or some other sharp cheese than it is to use one of those tubs of dessicated, foot-smelling dust. Will keep in the fridge for a week or freeze like a dream; just nuke for 2-3 minutes to reheat.

Like a lot of people, come the apocalypse I’ll be surviving on tinned tuna – which is to say I tend to buy more any time I’m doing a “big shop” whether or not I actually NEED any and I have currently got enough to see me through several months.

Tuna pasta, tuna pasta bake, tuna mayo sandwiches and baked potatoes with tuna are all very well, but they’re a little bit studenty (in as much as they’re easily made in a communal kitchen where someone keeps using the good knife), but these fishcakes take a teeny bit more work and taste infinitely more sophisticated.

Makes ~ 5 Fishcakes
Ingredients

• 1 Tin Tuna in Oil, Drained. Roughly 130g/4.5oz (you can use brine packed, but wash it a little first or the end result will be salty. Water packed is great)
• 3-4 Medium Potatoes, Boiled and Mashed (this is one of the very few circumstances under which you will find me peeling a potato, the skins just don’t work here)
• 1/2 Red Onion, Finely Diced (or a white onion, or spring onions)
• a Dusting of Plain/AP Flour
• 1 Egg, Beaten
• 2 Generous Handfuls Breadcrumbs
• Vegetable Oil, For Frying

Method
Combine the tuna, potato (just mash them with a tiny bit of the cooking water) and onion in a bowl. Make sure the tuna is well flaked and the whole is mixed thoroughly.

Put the flour on one plate, the egg on another and the breadcrumbs on a 3rd (I keep my breadcrumbs in the freezer and use them from frozen). Take a handful of the mixture (about a 1/5th) and shape into a fishcake. Coat in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs (it’s easiest to place on the plate then pat around the flour or breadcrumbs).

Fry each cake until golden brown on each side (do not even move the cake until it’s been frying for a minute on each side, you want it to form a crust).

You can eat at this stage, but I like to let them cool and reheat in the oven (200C/180C fan/400F/Gas Mark6) for 10 minutes as this takes all the rawness from the onion.

Serve with a green salad.

I really like tinned tuna – it’s tasty, versatile and with some judicious shopping it’s also cheap – but I’ve never got on particularly well with tuna steaks; I’ve always ended up finding them a bit dull and no more special than tinned. This recipe however was my tuna game changer, it’s seriously delicious.

I’ve tagged it 2* difficulty but that’s really because it needs to be marinated which isn’t hard but does require a bit of planning.

Serves 2
Ingredients

• Marinade
• 3Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 4Tbsp Soft Light Brown Sugar
• 1 Garlic Clove, Minced
• 2 Tuna Steaks
• Noodles
• 2Tbsp Peanut Butter
• 1/2 Tsp Chilli Flakes
• 1Tbsp Soy Sauce
• Around 2 Tbsp Boiling Water
• Sufficient Noodles For 2 (I used brown rice noodles that cook in hot water for 5 minutes)
• 3 Spring Onions/Scallions, Chopped

Method
Add all the marinade ingredients (except the tuna) to a pan and heat very gently, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool and pour over the tuna, ensuring all sides are covered. Marinade for 30-60minutes.

Once the tuna is marinaded, fry in a hot pan using a small amount of vegetable oil for 1-2 minutes on each side. Don’t move the steak once it’s in the pan until you’re turning it, the trick is to make a crispy, yummy, crusty bit with the glaze.

Add all the noodle ingredients (except the noodles and spring onions) to a bowl and microwave for a minute (if you keep your peanut butter in the fridge, take it out a couple of hours beforehand so it’s not like trying to chip bits off a rock). Stir to combine, and add more boiling water if required to bring the consistency down to that of mayonnaise.

Cook the noodles as described on the packet, drain and combine with the peanutty sauce. Garnish with the spring onions.

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.

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.

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.