Vegetarian buckwheat, mushroom, ginger and lemongrass soup

After cooking, cooling down. Lovely stuff.

This is a simple soup that we made to use up some buckwheat. It was inspired by a fantastic soup we had in Pärnu at Mahedik, and then adapted using this recipe as a basis. The main thing is not to overdo it with the buckwheat, as it absorbs quite a bit of liquid:

1 leek, cut into 1-cm chunks
2 celery stalks, chopped up
2 tbsp lemongrass, or 2 stalks chopped up. If you're using fresh lemongrass, don't cut it up too thinly, as it doesn't really soften much
2-cm piece of ginger, minced or finely sliced
2 carrots, chopped up
500g mushrooms - use a number of varieties for a more flavoursome dish
1 cup (250ml) buckwheat, raw or toasted. Don't overdo this!
8 cups (i.e. 2 l) chicken or vegetable stock
Thyme, to taste (about 1 tbsp)
Juice from 1 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, fry up the leek, celery, lemongrass, ginger, and carrots for a few minutes. Add in the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes more, then add in the buckwheat, stock, thyme, lemon juice and salt and pepper, bring to the boil, then simmer for about 15 minutes or so. If you need more liquid, add it in during cooking, or you could feasibly add it afterwards too.

South African monkey gland sauce

Don't mind the name—this stuff rocks. It's one of South Africa's unknown masterpieces, and it's quite sad, as we've got plenty of monkeys that could donate their glands for this... It's dead easy too, and a good way to use up errant bits of veg and monkey parts in your fridge. Smother meat in it, either as a sauce or as a marinade. Remember to pick out the pituitary gland before you eat—the texture goes to pot when you boil it.

1 onion
3-4 garlic cloves
Thumb-sized piece of ginger
1 pepper (optional)
3-4 tomatoes, diced
1 small tin double concentrated tomato purée
1 tbsp Worcester sauce
1/2 cup chutney
big dollop of red wine (optional)
AND/OR
dash of balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp mustard
150 ml vegetable (or chicken) stock
tabasco, to taste
1 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to season

Fry the onion, garlic, and ginger (and pepper, if you're using it) until the onion is translucent. Add the other ingredients, bring to the boil and cook on a high flame for about 8 minutes, then simmer for another 30–40 minutes. Taste and season if necessary.

Use for marinade and sauce. It should keep for about 2 weeks.

Bacon, cheese, and monkey gland burger

Honey and mustard roast chicken with couscous stuffing

Make one portion of the couscous stuffing, and enjoy. The credits definitely go to food24's recipe.

One portion of couscous
1 whole chicken
1/4 cup Dijon mustard (or preferred, not-too-spicy mustard)
1/4 cup honey

Preheat your oven to 180 Celsius. Mix the honey and mustard. Smear over the chicken, stuff the stuffing into the cavity of the chicken, and then shove the chicken into the oven, breast down. Cook for 30 minutes, and then turn over and cook for another 60 minutes breast up. Serve with roast potatoes and assorted side dishes. Enjoy.

Couscous side-slash-stuffing

This is adapted from a food24 recipe. When I first made this recipe a few years ago, I really liked it when I used it as a stuffing, but (typically) I made more stuffing than I needed and it turned out to be the star of the show, so to speak. The good thing is it can be scaled up with no regard for loss of quality. Here's my version of a fantastic recipe:

Should serve 2:

1/2 cup couscous
Depending on instructions, 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock
2-3 tbsp olive oil
25 g butter
130-150 g courgette, grated
100 g dried cranberries, finely diced
1/2 cup shelled hazelnuts, crushed or ground up in a blender. You can add the cranberries to this and save yourself the hassle of chopping them up yourself
juice and zest of 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the couscous in the stock, according to the directions on the packaging. When ready, add the butter and the oil. Stir in the courgette, hazelnuts, lemon juice and zest (I guess this can be added with the stock, though), and season. I do recommend adding salt to your couscous, as it can be a bit anaemic without it. Serve warm or cold. This goes brilliantly with roast chicken, especially this recipe.

Hummus

I made a decent hummus, but then I added salt...

Moral of the story: never add salt to your hummus. It ain't worth it.

Ingredients:

1 tin chickpeas, very well rinsed
100 g or 3 big tbsp tahini
3 tbsp olive oil, but more to taste if needed
1-2 cloves garlic
Plenty of black pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
1 lemon, juiced
A bit of coriander, if you fancy

Add everything to a hand-held mixer, blend until smooth, eat with whatever is at hand, but vegetables and bread are always good. Don't cut your fingers on the blades.

Smoked mackerel kedgeree

A slightly different breakfast dish, but this could be good for almost any meal. Despite the list of ingredients, it's very quick, easy and cheap to make. It shouldn't be too spicy - the main taste is the mackerel - so don't overdo the chilli. I based my version on this one from BBC Good Food, but I've made adaptations where necessary.

Should serve 2-3

1/2 cup basmati rice
2-3 thin smoked mackerel fillets
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
3-4 curry leaves (optional)
1-2 onion, diced
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
chilli to taste, finely diced
1 carrot, speed-peeled or thinly sliced
1/2 leek, thinly sliced
1/2 small bunch coriander, roughly chopped
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp curry powder
100 g frozen peas, cooked
knob of butter
4 boiled eggs (I put mine in the cold water in the pot and then boiled them for 3.30 and they were perfect, but you do you)
1 lime, juice

To prep: boil and peel your eggs, cook your peas and put them to one side, cook the basmati rice as per directions, and haul out your wok.

Place the mackerel fillets in a bowl and cover with boiling water. I suppose you'll cover it with around 200-400 ml of boiling water. Let to sit for a while.

Stir-fry the mustard seeds, corianders seeds, curry leaves, onion, garlic, and chilli for a couple of minutes, then add the carrot, leek, coriander and bay leaf. Cook for around 8 minutes.

Add in the rice, pour in about half the water from the fish, and stir very well. Add in the turmeric, curry powder, peas and butter, stir well, and cook for another few minutes.

Peel one egg, stir it in, then add the lime juice. Serve with the remaining eggs and with yoghurt if so desired.

Baked sausage, harissa and tomato casserole

This is a pretty simple dish that has an amazing flavour combination. It's adapted from Nigel Slater's recipe, with a few changes.

Should serve 3 or so, depending on how hungry you are

3 big sausages (boerewors, saucisse de Toulouse or something similar, should be around 600 g or so)
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp Provencal herbs
2 tbsp harissa paste
250 g mushrooms (button mushrooms work well, but you could probably use porcini too)
1 x 400 g tin of red kidney beans, rinsed
1 x 400 g tin of chickpeas, rinsed
(or, use 2 tins of kidney beans, rinsed)
4 tomatoes, roughly chopped
200 ml chicken stock
Crusty bread, to serve

Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Brown the sausages in a grill pan. Remove, then fry the onion and garlic for a bit. When it starts to go translucent, add the herbs and the harissa, stir well, then cook for a minute or so. Transfer everything to an oven-proof dish. Add the beans and, if you're using them, the chickpeas, as well as the tomatoes and the stock. Chop the sausages up into bite-sized pieces and add them to the mix. Add in the beans (and chickpeas) and the mushrooms, mix well, and shove in the oven.

If you have only beans, cook for 25-30 minutes. If you've added chickpeas (and I do recommend adding chickpeas to your casserole), cook for around 35-40 minutes. In any event, make sure your sausages are not undercooked.

Serve with bread, lots of it. If you fancy, you could serve this over pasta.

Baked eggs with tomato sauce and spinach

I've been using a lovely tomato sauce recipe I discovered recently for a bunch of different stuff. It is very nice. This time, I've used it for baked eggs. Although I made it in one casserole dish this morning, it works better if you have small single-portion pots that you can cook the eggs in.

Serves about 4

2 onions, thinly diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 red peppers, diced
1 chilli (or to taste), finely diced
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp Provencal spice
2 x 400 g tins diced tomatoes
200 g spinach, stalks removed and roughly chopped
Salt and pepper
6 eggs (in small pots) or 4 eggs (in a casserole dish)
crusty bread to serve

Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Fry the onions, garlic, peppers, and chilli until the onion is translucent. Add the wine vinegar, mix in, and then add the sugar, Provencal spice, and tomatoes. Simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. While you wait, put the spinach in a colander and pour boiling water over it to wilt it. When it has cooled down, squeeze out excess water and, when the tomato sauce is done, add to the tomato sauce and then spoon into the pots or casserole dish. Make a small hole, or put a spoon in the tomato mix in a pot so that the is a bit of a depression in the sauce. Crack an egg on top of the spoon, then push down so that the egg sinks in to the mixture a bit, and then remove. Do this for all the eggs. Shove the pots in the oven, and cook for about 15-20 minutes. Be careful if you're cooking in a casserole dish, as you'll need to cook for longer. It might be a good idea to heat the oven to 140 or so and cook for about 20-25 minutes. In any event, it'll be nice.

Serve with bread, and enjoy. The tomato sauce rocks.

Aubergine/melanzana parmagiana

A vegetarian sort-of-lasagne Italian dish which worked out quite nicely. Very happy with the results. It did not take as long as I thought it would, either, so there's that, although it does take a bit of time. Make sure you have plenty of crusty bread, like a baguette or something similar, with you, so that you can mop up the sauce.

I adapted this from the Guardian's version of this recipe, with some changes. NB: I used quite a large baking tray which explains the quantities. I also layered the aubergine quite thinly, so if you increase the density of the aubergine, you can cut down on the tomato sauce. Still, tomato is nice, so it's up to you.

1.5 kg aubergine/brinjal/"egg"plant, cut lengthwise into 1 cm-thick slices
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 red onions, thinly diced
4 x 400 g tins tomatoes
1-2 glasses of red wine, or 4 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp oregano or Provencal spice
250 g grated parmesan cheese (or grana padano - meaning that the name is somewhat badly chosen. Oh well...)
250-500 g mozzarella (depending on your cheesy preferences)
50 g breadcrumbs
handful of basil leaves

Cut up the aubergine, salt it (I laid it in layers in a colander, sprinkled some salt over it, and then repeated until I'd done the whole batch), and leave for about half an hour. While you're waiting, fry the onions and garlic for a couple of minutes, add in the wine/wine vinegar, and then tip in the tomatoes and simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring frequently. Crush any big bits that might cause trouble later on.

Rinse the aubergines very well and then fry at least half, but preferably all, of the aubergine slices on a griddle pan for a couple of minutes on either side. I cooked half the slices and left the other half raw when assembling the dish, which seemed to work quite well, but I'd recommend cooking all the aubergine before assembling the dish.

When you've cooked everything, heat your oven to 180 degrees, and then start putting together the dish. Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce in your oven dish, then a layer of aubergine (packed tightly), then mozzarella, parmesan, and seasoning. Repeat in this order until you have used up all the aubergine. Top with a final layer of tomato sauce, then sprinkle breadcrumbs and a little bit of parmesan on the top.

Shove in the oven and cook for about 30 minutes or so, then take out when ready and leave for a couple of minutes before serving. Top with some of the basil, and serve bread on the side. 

Butternut and beef chilli con carne

There was a bit of butternut left at home (when isn't there?) and I decided to try this. As a wise man once told me, "Use 2 different kinds of meat when making chilli." I decided I'd add some seasonal veg instead of extra meat. It was lovely. This is an adaptation of a couple of recipes which I have sadly misplaced. My apologies. Trust me, though: this is good.

1-2 onions
1-2 chillies (to taste)
Garlic to taste (around 4 or so)
2 red peppers
400-500 g beef mince

400-500 g butternut, in 1cm cubes

1 tbsp. chilli powder
2 tsp. cumin
¼ tsp. cinnamon
1 bay leaf
2 x 400ml tins diced tomatoes
2 x 400 ml tins beans (black or kidney), drained and rinsed
2 or 3 ripe avocados, diced (to serve)
white rice, cooked
grated cheese (cheddar or comté if possible)
sour cream
coriander

Fry the onions, chillies, garlic and red peppers for a couple of minutes until the onions start going translucent. Add the meat and brown it, add in the butternut and cook for about 30 seconds (to brown it too, I guess), then add in the spices, mix up well, and then add the tomatoes and season well before mixing it all up. Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 20-30 minutes or so. Add the beans after about 10 minutes and check to see if you need to add more spice (another chilli or chilli powder, or cumin or cinnamon). When ready, serve with white rice, top with avo, coriander, cheese and sour cream, to taste. 

Enjoy.

Chakalaka a la francais

Here is a South African recipe that should be included in everyone's oeuvre. It's sometimes called a Soweto curry or chilli, but whatever you call it, it is very good and can be as spicy or warm as you wish. Also, it's cheap and easy to make. Ideally, it should be served with pap, but since this is not really feasible in France, it's going to have to work as a side. Still, rice could make this a decent vegetarian meal on its own.

Serves 2-4:

Vegetable oil

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, grated

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cm ginger, minced

1-2 chillies (to taste), diced

2 tbsp garam masala

3 tomatoes, diced

1 tin baked beans

1 tin red kidney beans

Salt and pepper to taste

Fry the onion, carrot, garlic, ginger, chilli and garam masala with the oil in a medium-sized pot until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and bring to the boil, then cook for about 5 minutes. Add the baked beans, kidney beans and seasoning and cook for a few more minutes. Can be served warm, with pap or rice, or cold, or as a side.

Eggs Benedict (with hollandaise sauce [of course])

I recently discovered that recipes (lists of ingredients) are not protected by intellectual property laws. Nevertheless, I feel that someone else's work should be credited. So, this comes from Jamie Oliver's video on how to make several different kinds of eggs Benedict, with some reference to Gordon Ramsay's recipes. Still, it's pretty straightforward, despite the scary reputation. Go wild.

Ingredients:
Hollandaise sauce:
Should provide enough for 4-6 eggs, depending:
2-3 egg yolks
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
200-250 g butter
1 tsp tarragon

Poached eggs and toppings:
1-2 eggs per person (up to 6), cracked into little bowls or corning dishes or something. You can also add the remaining egg white from the hollandaise sauce to bulk up the eggs
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 baguette
Ham of sorts, preferably Black Forest or Kessler

Also:
Small pot (1 l or so
Large pot (3 l or so)
Thermos
Electric whisk

Melt the butter before you get started. Bring some water to simmer in a small pot and add the egg yolks, the tarragon and the 1 tbsp of vinegar to a heatproof bowl, then put the bowl on top of the pot (it needs to create a tight seal). If you have an electric whisk (big bell whisk needed), use this, otherwise you can use a handheld whisk - enjoy the workout. Also, pour boiling water into your thermos to heat it up.

Now comes the challenging part: turn the heat down. Beat the egg yolks while slowly adding the melted butter. It needs to be slow, as otherwise it will separate. Keep adding the butter until it's all in, while constantly beating the mixture. If the mixture separates, add a bit of water and beat it in. Keep beating the mixture over the simmering water for about 5 minutes or so until it has thickened. When ready, pour the hollandaise sauce into the thermos to keep it warm (thanks, Jamie!).

Toast the bread. Traditionally, it should be served on a toasting muffin, but a baguette worked wonderfully well. Don't over-toast it, though. While it's toasting, bring about 2 l of water to the boil in the larger pot, lower the heat to a simmer, and add about 2 tbsp of white wine vinegar. Stir the water and then drop in the eggs (alternatively, you can lower in the eggs in a ladle. This works if you want to poach more than one egg at a time). Cook for about 2 1/2 to 3 minutes and then remove from the water with a slotted spoon.

While the eggs are cooking, put a bit of the hollandaise sauce on the toasted baguette/muffin/bread, then put a slice of ham or whatever your topping of choice is on the bread. Put the cooked egg on top of the ham, then pour the sauce over the top. Enjoy.

Very tasty. It's breakfast, so you need some coffee too.

Spinach and ricotta cannelloni

This one was introduced to us by a friend of mine who has given me several fantastic recipes over the years (including this one). He used lasagne instead of cannelloni originally, but we were told, in no uncertain terms, that this should be made using tubes.

Cannelloni, for those who are as ignorant as I was, is a long tubular type of pasta that you can stuff. Whatever you put into it gives it a lovely taste. This one was particularly good, and surprisingly easy once you've got the stuffing sorted. It also keeps very well in the freezer, although I've never left it for long enough to need to freeze it. Very recommend.

Ingredients:

olive oil
salt and pepper for seasoning
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 red onion, diced
chilli, to taste (optional)
1.5 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tins (400g) chopped/diced tomatoes
1 or 2 red peppers, diced (optional)
handful of basil leaves
500 g mascarpone
3 tbsp milk
500 g spinach, hard stalks removed (baby spinach is better, but regular spinach works well too)
500 g ricotta
about 200 g parmesan cheese or equivalent
pinch of ground nutmeg
200-250 g cannelloni tubes (uncooked)
250 g (2 balls) mozzarella

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and cook the garlic and onion (and chilli) for a minute or 2. Add the sugar, wine vinegar, tomatoes and peppers, season, and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until thickened. When ready, add the basil leaves, mix in, and pour the mixture into a shallow, medium-sized oven dish, which should be big enough to fit your cannelloni in one layer, maybe two if you have to.

Take the mascarpone, season with salt and pepper, and beat it together with the milk until smooth. This will be your sauce.

Place the spinach in a large colander and pour boiling water over to wilt (you may have to do this in batches). When it is cool enough to handle, squeeze the excess water out of the spinach, and roughly chop it quite small. Mix together with the ricotta and about half of the parmesan, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Now comes the stuffing part. In order to do this, take a fairly strong plastic sandwich bag or a piping bag and put a couple of tablespoons' worth of the spinach mixture in. If you're using a sandwich bag, cut a corner off the bag, leaving a hole about 1-1.5 cm wide. Don't make it too big, otherwise you won't be able to do the next stage. With your bag and spinach mixture, take an uncooked cannellono (one cannelloni? Grammatically incorrect, I know, but so be it), fit the bag in one end and cover the other with a finger or two. I have found this (kind of) stops the mixture spurting out either end. Gently squeeze the bag to force the mixture into the cannelloni. If your spinach is too big, it'll get caught in the whole and it'll make the whole exercise quite difficult, so be careful with this. Lay the stuffed pasta side by side on the tomato sauce in the oven dish, trying to keep it all in one layer.

Once you have stuffed your pasta and laid them in the dish, spoon over the mascarpone layer and then sprinkle over the remaining parmesan and layer the mozzarella over the top. Put in the oven and cook at 180 degrees for 30-35 minutes. When ready, take out of the oven and leave for about 5 minutes. Serve with crusty bread and wine.

Very nice. Very recommend.

Jamie Oliver's butternut muffins

'Tis the season for squash and other autumnal vegetables. I personally am a huge fan of butternut. It is far tastier than pumpkin in general. Still, at the moment we have a bit of a glut at home. So I made these. They were very nice.

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

200 g butternut (no need to peel), cut into chunks
175 g sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
150 g flour
pinch of salt
1 tbsp baking powder
2 eggs
handful of nuts (walnuts or pecans for preference)
5 tbsp olive oil
Icing:
70 g sour cream (or more)
1 tbsp icing sugar
1 vanilla pod OR 1 tsp vanilla
lemon zest
seasonal berries or something from the shop

Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Throw the butternut into a food processor and cut it up into very little bits. Once it's done, add the sugar, cinnamon, flour, salt, baking powder, eggs, nuts, and olive oil to the food processor with the butternut and switch it on again. Line a muffin tray with paper baking cups, then pour the mixture into the cups (each about 2/3 to 3/4 full). Shove in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes. When they're done, take them out and leave them to cool for a bit. Mix the sour cream, icing sugar, vanilla and lemon zest together. When cool enough, ice the muffins (adding berries on top of some if you so wish) and leave the icing to set. Enjoy.

Puy lentil, rocket, beetroot and feta salad

For some reason, salads aren't something that I do very well. My wife does, though, so I borrowed this from her. It was very nice.

This should feed 3 or 4, depending on whether you are serving it as a meal or as a side.

Ingredients:
Salad:
1 cup Puy lentils, cooked according to package instructions
2 boiled beetroots, diced in 1cm cubes
1-2 (red) onions, sliced
200g feta, crumbled
Handful of rocket per serving
Dressing:
Juice of 1 lemon
4-5 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp raspberry (or red wine) vinegar
1 tbsp mustard
Small bunch of parsley, finely chopped

Place all the salad ingredients except the rocket in a bowl and mix together. Mix the dressing and pour over the salad. Place a handful of rocket on each plate (according to appetite) and serve the salad on top. 

Lancashire hotpot, or lamb stew

I wanted to make a lamb chop casserole, but when we went to the market to get some chops for the casserole, our friendly market butcher told us (in a blend of about 4 languages plus a lot of gesturing) that we'd ruin his very special chops if we stewed them, and so we should use shoulder meat instead.

It was fantastic.

I've adapted Nigel Slater's recipe ever so slightly, with a couple of extras on my part. All in all, it was very good, very quick, and rather tasty. This is perfect for a dark autumn evening, and the best part is it takes all of about 90 minutes to cook, from start to finish.

The portions are allegedly for 3, but I'd say you could stretch this out to about 4 or 5.

Ingredients:

Olive oil
600-700 g lamb shoulder, cut into bigger-than-bitesize pieces
1-2 carrots, roughly chopped
2-3 stalks celery, roughly chopped
2 onions, sliced
2 tbsp plain flour
900 ml-1 l beef stock (I used Bovril - 1 tsp per 250ml)
1-2 tomatoes
Thyme (8 sprigs or a lot of dried stuff)
1 bay leaf
100 g butter
2 roasting potatoes, cut into 0.5 cm-thick slices
salt and pepper to taste

Heat some oil in a medium- to large-sized pan (mine was 26 cm, which was big enough, or even too big) and brown the lamb on all sides (about 6 minutes all told) then move to a cast-iron pot (something you can heat over a flame on the stove and put in the oven). Depending on how fatty the lamb is, you might need to add some more olive oil in. If needed, do so now. Add the carrots, celery, and onion, cook for around 4-5 minutes until brown or soft, then stir in the flour, coating the vegetables in it. Cook for another 2-3 minutes, then pour in the stock, stir in so there is no lumpy flour, and simmer until the mixture has thickened. Pour the contents of the pan into the cast-iron pot, add in the tomatoes, 7 sprigs of thyme, and the bay leaves, season, and stir all together, then bring to the boil. Reduce temperature so the mixture is just simmering. Melt the butter, then layer the potato slices across the stew, overlapping where necessary and covering the top of the mixture. Brush the butter over the potatoes (or, if you're like me, you can pour the butter over everything), then shove it in the oven for an hour or so. I cooked it with the lid on for about 30 minutes, then took it off and cooked it without the lid for the last 30 minutes.

Serve with some crusty bread on the side.

Quick Raspberry and Blueberry Cake

This one comes from my wife's relative. Simply excellent cake. Some minor changes to the original recipe but generally this works wonders.

Should be enough for about 8

Ingredients:
Base:
150-250 g digestive biscuits, crushed
100 g butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
Cake: 
150 g butter
250 ml sugar
3 eggs
300 ml wheat flour (regular, non-self-raising)
1.5 tsp baking powder
75 ml milk
Topping:
350-400 g raspberries and blueberries (or more. As they say in Estonian, topelt ei kärise)
Icing sugar
To serve:
Ice cream, whipped cream

Mix together the digestives and butter. Grease a 25x35 cm baking tray, then pack the base on the bottom. Put in the fridge to set for about 30 minutes to an hour.

Heat the oven to 200 C. Whisk the sugar together with room-temperature butter. Beat in the eggs one by one, sieve together flour and baking powder and beat into the mixture together with the milk. Pour the dough into the baking tray, smooth it out, and put in the oven to cook for 10-15 minutes.

Take the cake out of the oven, add the berries on top, then put back in the oven for another 15 minutes. Once done, remove from the oven, leave to cool, then top with icing sugar. Serve with ice cream or cream.

Ragne's courgette, bacon and cream pasta

This one comes from a popular Estonian cooking blog, Kokkama Ragnega. If you do read Estonian, check out her blog. It's very good, very simple, with a bunch of stuff that justifies her publishing deal. Of course, the problem for some is that it's in Estonian, which can be slightly problematic.

Here's where I come in.

My wife found this, and since we had a few extraneous semi-packs of pasta left lying around the (new) flat that needed eating, we gave it a go, with some minor changes to the recipe. It's all based on what we had. It was lovely. Very recommend.

Should serve about 4.

Ingredients:

200 g wild garlic Spätzle
100 g regular egg Spätzle
(or 300 g penne, per original recipe)
Around 600g courgette
200 g smoked bacon, diced
1 onion, diced
Thyme, to taste
Provencal herb mix, to taste
250ml cream (rõõsk koor)
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tbsp olive oil
Grated Comté cheese, to taste

Cook the pasta as per indications on the packaging. Top, tail, core and  roughly grate the courgette. Fry the bacon for about a minute, then add the onion, cook for another minute or 3, then add the courgette and herbs and season. Cook until the courgette is starting to get crisp (and the bacon is cooked), then add the cream, heat again, season to taste and cook for a few more minutes. Drain the pasta, reserving about half a cup of the water. Add the sauce to the pasta, plus a bit of water, and the olive oil, and mix it all up together. Once ready, serve in bowls, with bread if so desired, plus cheese on top.

Mumbai vegan curry

This was a recipe we picked up after a mass cycle through Tallinn a few years ago. It is very tasty and quite simple to make. And, of course, offers a bunch of your five a day.

Should serve 2

Ingredients:
Half a medium aubergine/brinjal/eggplant
Mustard seeds
Lime leaves
1 Onion
Curry leaves (if available, not essential though)
Dried coriander
Chillies, to taste
100ml coconut milk
1 medium tomato
Vegetable stock, as needed (probably good to make half a litre and then play it by ear, but you probably won't need more than about 200ml)
100g chickpeas

Slice the aubergine up, season it, and roast in the oven. In a medium-sized pot, roast the mustard seeds and lime leaves for a minute or so, and then fry with the onion. Add the chilli and remaining spices. Add in the coconut milk, tomato, and stock, then bring to the boil and simmer. Once the sauce has thickened somewhat, add in the chickpeas and aubergine. Cook until ready and then serve with rice and fresh coriander on top.

Pork chops with red wine, apple and onion sauce, served with mashed potatoes and carrots

Adaptation of something I found from Martha Stewart, plus a little bit extra. Came out wonderfully well - very recommend.

Ingredients:
4-6 potatoes, peeled and chopped up
2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped up
1 onion, finely diced
Butter and milk (for mash)
4 pork chops, seasoned and covered with mustard
Oil
A big chunk of butter
2-3 apples (depending on size), cored and sliced thin
2-3 onions, sliced
1 cup red wine (it's very important you use red wine - it gives it a lovely taste)
Mustard to serve

Boil your potatoes and carrots until they are soft enough to mash. Add in diced onion, butter and milk (enough to make it interesting, but not so much that you're eating mashed potato soup). Season to taste and then put to one side.

Pour a bit of oil into a large grill pan or frying pan, and once heated, put the pork chops in and brown for 5 minutes on one side, then flip over and brown on the other for another 5. Remove from the pan and add the apples and onions, cooking until the onions are soft. Add in your wine to deglaze the pan, then return your chops to the pan, cover the chops with some of the onion and apple mix, and cook over a medium-high heat for about 15 minutes, turning halfway through. Serve over the mash and with some mustard on the side.

One-pot Thai chicken noodle soup

Mostly courtesy of Carlsbad Cravings. Do be careful with the spice. It is very nice, though - very recommend.

Ingredients:
500g chicken fillet, sliced to make very thin fillets
2-3 onions, diced
2 carrots, diced
2-4 tbsp Thai red curry paste (to taste)
2cm piece fresh ginger, minced
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
2 chillies, minced (optional)
1l chicken stock
2 400ml tins coconut milk
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp sugar
5-6 lime leaves
1 tsp basil or Provencal mix
Pepper to taste
250 g mushrooms, sliced
2 red peppers, sliced
150 g rice noodles, broken up into manageable pieces
handful roughly chopped coriander, plus extra to serve
juice of 2-3 limes, plus extra to serve

Brown the chicken in a big soup pot and then remove and put on a plate. Add in the onions and carrots and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the curry paste, ginger, garlic and chilli and cook for 2-3 minutes. Return the chicken to the pot, then add the stock, coconut milk, fish sauce, sugar, lime leaves, basil and pepper. Bring to the boil then simmer for around 15 minutes or until the chicken is tender enough to shred. Remove the chicken from the pot and leave to cool until it can be shredded. In the meantime, add the mushrooms and peppers, bring to the boil again, add the (uncooked) noodles to the pot and simmer for around 4 minutes. Add the chicken, coriander and lime juice. Mix and serve with bread and wine on the side.

Pepper steak pie

A lovely South African specialty. I've adapted a couple of other recipes I found online, and added some of my own ideas. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

1kg stewing beef, diced (I used rump meat)
1/2 cup or so flour seasoned with salt, pepper and cayenne
1-2 red peppers, chopped small
2-3 onions, chopped small
3 or 4 cloves of garlic, minced
2-3 chillies or to taste (everything is better with chilli)
Splash or 3 of brandy
1 1/2 cups beer (ale is good, but lager works as well)
1 cup beef/chicken stock
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
Finely chopped thyme to taste (but around 1 tbsp)
1-2 tbsp freshly ground peppercorns (or to taste)

500-800 g pre-made puff pastry (or make your own)
flour
1 egg, beaten
1 round pie dish, around 25 cm or so in diameter usually works

Coat the beef in the flour mixture. Brown in a large pot (cast-iron works best), then add in the onions, garlic, chillies, and red peppers. Add the brandy to deglaze the pot, then add the beer, stock, tomatoes, thyme and pepper. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for about 60-90 minutes or until the meat is good and tender (depends on the cut of meat you've using, really). If necessary, add more liquid (stock works, although you could sacrifice some beer). Also if necessary, add in corn starch or flour to soak up excess liquid. You need to keep an eye on the filling in any event.

While this is cooking, heat your oven to 180 or so and roll out the pastry. It's up to you whether you want both a bottom layer and a lid, but the lid is kind of essential, so if you're lacking pastry, make sure you have enough for the lid. In any event, grease the pie dish, add a layer of pastry to the pie (if desired), then, once the filling is ready, add in the filling. Don't overfill the pie, though. Brush the edge of the lid with the beaten egg, put the lid on top, and seal the pastry around the edges. Brush the remainder of the egg over the top of the pie. Cut a cross in the middle of the pie to allow steam to escape.

Shove it in the oven for about 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and golden. Serve and enjoy.

Top tip: the filling can be frozen, so if you don't use it all, shove in the freezer for later.

Peri-peri chicken

Last night's dinner, with small changes. The original source can be found here.

Should serve 4 people

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken
700g of potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
Salt
Thyme (dried or fresh)
2 or 3 onions, sliced thickly
For the peri-peri sauce:
3 or so tsp chilli paste
1-2 tsp harissa paste
1 or 2 fresh chillis (bird's eye if you can get them)
1 tsp dried chilli (or to taste)
2 tbsp smoked paprika
5 cloves garlic
2 cm ginger
1/4 cup wine vinegar (white or red, but I used white)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
Juice from 1 lemon
Limes to serve (optional)

Heat the oven to 200. Soak the potatoes in cool salted water until needed. Cut along both sides of  the spine of the chicken using a sharp knife or scissors to remove it, then press flat. Rinse and dry the chicken (probably not needed, but it seemed to work). Throw all the ingredients for the sauce into a blender. Once it's ready, taste to see if you need more chilli (the answer is probably yes). Remove the potatoes from the water and pat dry.

Take a fairly deep roasting pan, oil it, and spread a layer of sauce on the bottom. Put the potatoes in the bottom, season with salt, pepper and thyme, add the onions on top of the potatoes, then use about half of the remaining peri-peri to cover the chicken all over, inside and out, then place it skin down on top of the potatoes and put in the oven for 15 minutes. Then, flip the chicken over (skin up), cover it again with half the peri-peri, and put back in the oven for 15 minutes. Finally, brush the last bit of peri-peri over the chicken and return to the oven for 20 minutes, or until the juice flows clear when you pierce the thigh (when it's ready). When it's ready, remove the chicken from the oven and leave it to rest for about 10 minutes. While it's doing this, put the potatoes back into the oven to cook for another 10 minutes or so.

Very nice, very recommend.  

Homemade Bibimbap

We've got a Korean place around the corner from us, Gotsu, which is fantastic, but it's only open from 12.00 to 20.00, Monday to Friday, and only during the academic year. They make an awesome bibimbap though. I finally hunted down gochujang (Korean chilli paste) and I intend to use it all. Lots of bibimbap coming up. This is adapted from a recipe I found here, but do be careful about saltiness. The first batch I made was a touch on the saline side.

Ingredients (supposedly feeds 3):

Meat:
100g mince
0.5 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
1-2 cloves minced garlic (or to taste)

Vegetables and rice: Use your best judgement
250g spinach (or other leafy vegetable)
Handful or 2 of bean sprouts
100g mushrooms thinly sliced
1-2 carrots, thinly sliced
Steamed rice (or, as I used, basmati)
4 eggs
Seaweed salad (Korean if you can, or goma wakame if you can't)

Chilli sauce:
2 tbsp (or more) gochujang
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp water
1/2 tsp vinegar
1-2 cloves minced garlic

Cook the rice early on. Mix the meat and marinade ingredients together and leave for about 30 min. Mix the sauce ingredients. Stir-fry the carrots and mushrooms for about 3-5 minutes, or until browned and cooked. Cook the meat for 3-5 minutes until cooked through. Fry an egg per person, soft yolks (recommended). Add rice to a bowl, then sauce, then meat, mushrooms, carrots, beansprouts, spinach, seaweed salad, and finally egg on top. Mix together and enjoy.

The best thing about this dish is that you can add whatever you want. It's a good way to use up leftover veg in the fridge. I've had it with cucumber, little radishes, and courgette. Basically, use your imagination.

Cream of celery soup

What to do with extra celery. This was an emergency recipe that's turned out quite nicely:

Ingredients:

Around 500-600 g celery (the better part of a head of celery), sliced
A large potato, diced
A large onion, diced
A red pepper, diced
A chilli or 2, diced
50-100 g butter
750 ml chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
100ml cream or creme fraiche

Melt the butter in a large-ish pot. Add the celery, potato, onion, pepper, and chilli, season with salt, and cook for around 10-15 min over a low heat. When soft, add chicken stock and pepper, bring to a simmer, and cook for another 10-15 min on a low heat. When ready, take off the heat, add cream/creme fraiche, and blend. Serve with extra cream if so desired.

Chicken cacciatore

A simple Italian chicken stew. Can also be made with game meat. Lovely. Cobbled together from the BBC recipe and food.com's own version, with a couple of edits.

Ingredients:

Butter for frying
4 chicken drumsticks
4 chicken thighs
Plain flour mixed with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper (to taste) to coat chicken
Olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 stalks celery, diced
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 or 2 chillies, diced
1 or 2 large red peppers
Rosemary or Provencal herb mix
3/4 cup white wine
2 400g tins of diced tomato
250-300ml chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a large pot. Dust the chicken in the flour mixture, and then brown in the pot over a medium-high temperature. Remove from the pot using a slotted spoon. Add the oil and heat, then add the garlic, celery, onion, carrot, red peppers and chilli, as well as the rosemary/Provencal mix. Fry for a few minutes and then add the wine, scrape the bottom to remove chunky bits, and then add the tomatoes and stock. Return the chicken to the pot. Bring to a simmer, put the lid on, turn the temperature down low, then cook for around 45 minutes. At this stage, the chicken should be quite tender, as should the carrots.

Serve with rice and/or salad.

Fish in a foil box/bag/thingy

Another one courtesy of Jamie Oliver. Some minor tweaks, but the original recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:

tinfoil (wider is better. You're obviously not going to eat this, but if you're like me, you'll need reminding to get some from the shops next time you're there)
1 onion
1 120-200 g fillet white fish (don't use salmon or anything similar - I tried this, and it doesn't keep the flavour as well)
100 g potatoes, peeled and diced into 1 cm pieces. If you're using new potatoes, keep the skin
1/2 bulb fennel, cut in segments, keep the frond (leaves? frilly bits that look like dill)
1/2 lemon, finely sliced
handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
olive oil
handful of pitted olives
salt and pepper to taste
white wine

Boil the potatoes until almost done. While they're boiling, preheat the oven to 200 degrees and make a sort of box out of the tin foil. Tear off a big piece and make it into a box with a lid. Put the onion, fish, fennel, lemon, tomatoes, olives, oil and salt and pepper into a biggish bowl and mix together. Once well mixed, put these into the foil box/bag, and sprinkle over the frilly bits of the fennel. Once the potatoes are done, add these to the mix, pour over some wine, then shove in the oven (carefully, of course) for about 25 min or so, until the fish is done and flaky. Add veg on the side if you so wish. 

Vegetarianish stew

"Vegetarianish" because I added some chorizo at the last minute. It's quick and lovely.

Ingredients:

2 onions, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
5-cm piece ginger, minced
1 chilli
1 carrot, finely diced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 400g tin chickpeas
1 400g tin kidney beans
250 g mushrooms, whole or diced
2 400g tins diced tomatoes
100 g chorizo
Spice of sorts (I used Cajun spice, but you could use anything)

Rinse lentils. Fry onions, garlic, ginger and chilli for a few minutes until soft. Add carrots and red pepper, mix in, add spice, and cook for a couple of minutes. Add chickpeas and kidney beans, stir in, and cook for a couple of minutes. Add mushrooms, stir in, and then add tomatoes and chorizo. Leave to cook for about 20 minutes or so. Enjoy.

Chicken Noodle Stir Fry a la Jamie Oliver

An adaptation of Jamie Oliver's chicken noodle stir fry recipe. Unfortunately, we were lacking space in terms of a wok big enough to fit everything in. Needs had to, so I changed it a bit. The result was quite good:

Ingredients:

250 g egg noodles, cooked according to instructions and kept to one side
2-3 chicken breasts, thinly sliced into 1 cm strips
5 cm ginger, chopped into thin strips
3 garlic cloves, minced
Chilli to taste, sliced thinly
2 red onions, diced
1-2 carrots, sliced thinly
1 yellow pepper, sliced
1 head broccoli, cut into small florets and with the stalk shredded as far as possible (second part optional)
Soy sauce to taste
Sriracha to taste
Coriander
Lime juice

1) Cook the noodles as instructed in a rather large pot (3-5 litres or so).
2) Season the chicken with pepper and fry in a large pan until browned, or for 3 minutes or so.
3) Add the ginger, garlic and chilli and fry for another minute or so.
4) Add the onion, carrot, pepper and broccoli and stir fry for a bit longer (3-4 minutes). Add soy sauce and sriracha to taste, then stir fry for a bit longer.
5) Add the stir fry, coriander and lime juice to the noodles and mix in. Serve warm.

Enjoy.