Greek Courgette Pie

I was challenged at work today by 2 colleagues to make a meal for two people with 2 courgettes and 2 eggs.  I've done better than that - I've made a meal for four people (with a little extra help along the way!).  This is based on a Sarah Raven recipe from her Garden cookbook, a great option for seasonal veg cooking.  You start off by gently sauteeing a chopped red or white onion, 2 medium courgettes, grated, and a crushed clove of garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil - Greek if you have it.  Let this cook for 15 minutes until soft and most of the moisture has been driven off.  Cool a little whilst you beat the 2 eggs in a bowl with a tablespoon of Greek yoghurt or creme fraiche, some salt and pepper (not too much salt, as the feta is salty), a sprinkle of dried red chilli flakes, and a tablespoon each of chopped parsley and mint.  If you have fresh dill, add a tablespoon of this too.  If you have toasted pine nuts lying around (I keep mine in the freezer) then add a tablespoon or so to the mix.  Now fold in the cooled courgette mixture and 100g of proper Greek feta, cut into squares.  Then, melt about 25g of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan.  Take a baking tin (wide and shallow is best) and brush with some of the butter/oil, then line with a sheet of filo pastry, letting the excess hang over the edge.  Brush with a little butter/oil, then lay another sheet of filo.  Repeat.  Now pour the courgette mixture onto the pastry.  Fold over the excess overhanging pastry and brush with more butter.  Lay another sheet of filo over, brush with butter and then scrunch another couple of sheets over the top.  Brush the whole thing with more butter/oil, sprinkle with sesame seeds if you have any (I didn't) then bake for 30  to 35 minutes at around 180C (fan)  until golden brown and crisp and the filling is gently set.  Serve warm or cold.  Definitely under a fiver territory here, and you can scale it up to feed more people in a bigger tin for a picnic, perhaps.  Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall does a version of this in his 'Veg Every Day' book with rice added, but I felt the rice didn't soften enough when added raw.  You could bulk this out by part-boiling a cup of Basmati and adding it to the filling, but it will be a firmer, denser stuffing, albeit a more substantial one.

Not Quite Paella

I make no claims about the authenticity of this but it makes for a delicious Paella-style dish.  I sauteed sliced onion, a Romano red pepper and the remains of last night's fennel bulb with half a horse-shoe of chorizo in olive oil, until all was just beginning to become tinged gold and the oil has rendered from the sausage.  Grate in a couple of garlic cloves, add half a teaspoon of hot smoked paprika and a teacupful of Bomba or Callasparra Valencia rice (Waitrose sells it).  Stir well, then stir in a mixture of 3/4 pint veg stock, a teaspoon of tomato puree, a good pinch of best-quality saffron (I use Iranian, brought from there by my friend Noshin) and 1/4 pint of dry white wine.  Bring to the boil, turn the heat right down, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.  Then stir in about 12 peeled de-veined King prawns and tiny broad beans or petit pois.  Cover again, and simmer for 4-5 minutes.  Finally, add chopped parsley and serve with lots of lemon chunks.  Lovely!  We started the meal with fresh corn cobs with chilli and coriander butter and washed down with Margaritas - Ay Carrumba!!!!

Composed Warm Chicken Salad with Beetroot, Fennel and Orange

I love salads where you distribute everything on a big platter, pour over the dressing and dig in - everything gets well blended as you dish up, and you can layer the dish with texture, colour and flavour.  This was a great example with a base of Batavia lettuce leaves, sliced freshly-boiled beetroot, shaved fennel and fillets of orange.  Topped with chunks of chicken marinated in lemon, rosemary and garlic, then quickly sauteed, and little croutons of bread sizzled to golden deliciousness in olive oil, and then all dressed with a vinaigrette made from the orange juice, you end up with a vibrant and healthy supper.  You can vary this so much, and I could have used smoked or grilled mackerel, poached salmon, chunks of good tinned or fresh tuna, strips of juicy steak, chunks of fried chorizo, garlic prawns, or feta or goats' cheese for a veggie option, instead of the chicken.  Use your imagination and whatever is best in the market and in season.  Just think about the overall colour and make sure there is textural variation as well to keep things interesting.  As well as crunch from croutons, you can get the same effect from cucmber or red pepper, and spring onion adds texture and a sharp savour too.

Courgette and Sweetcorn Fritters with Tzatziki (revisited)

I've blogged courgette fritters before, and they are a great favourite of ours.  However, I tinker with the recipe, and discovered today that using self raising flour, instead of my usual plain, makes for a much lighter, fluffier fritter.  I made a batter with 2 very heaped tablespoons of SR flour, 2 eggs (from a neighbour's chooks, and fresh as anything) and a tablespoon or so of milk.  Mix well with a whisk, and season lightly with salt and plenty of pepper.  Allow to sit for half an hour.  Meanwhile, grate two medium courgettes, sprinkle with a teaspoon of salt and let them drain in a colander while the batter rests.  Strip the kernels from an ear of fresh corn (or use a small, well-drained tin), and finely-chop a couple of spring onions.  Break up a 100g block of feta into small chunks.  Now, drain the courgettes really well by squeezing handfuls tightly and then drying even more in kitchen paper.  Stir everything into the batter, and fry tablespoons of the batter in hot sunflower or rape seed oil until golden brown on each side.  You can do this in advance and reheat in a hot oven on a non-stick baking sheet for 10 minutes - they'll puff up again.  Make the tzatziki by grating half a cucumber and mixing with a small pot of Greek yoghurt, a grated clove of garlic, the juice of half a lemon, a handful of mint, finely-chopped, and salt and pepper.  Serve with the fritters with salad and perhaps roasted tomatoes, or maybe ham if you want some meat.  A great dish for kids, packing a real veggie punch, and definitely under a fiver.

Caldo Verde

This Portuguese soup is great for a not-particularly-warm summer evening, and provided you watch your timings, you'll have a fresh veggie-packed, vibrant supper, best eaten with lots of crusty bread.  There are as many recipes for Caldo Verde as there are Portuguese.  However, most seem to require the presence of onion, potatoes and fresh leafy greens such as kale or chard (my green of choice today).  You can then add layers of texture and flavour depending on what you have available - I added fresh sweetcorn kernels, some tinned chickpeas, a couple of finely diced tomatoes and half a 'horse-shoe' of good chorizo, sliced.  Simmered in chicken broth, with garlic and a little smoked hot paprika to boost the sausage flavours, it was a fabulous, filling, savoury, brothy soup, packed full of veg.  Just make sure you add the greens and tomato if used) a few minutes before serving to preserve their colour and texture.  As this only uses half a chorizo, this qualifies for 'Under a fiver' easily.  You could make it veggie/vegan too, by using veg stock and omitting the sausage.

Rice and Peas

What to cook, now the hot weather has finally arrived?  I like a salad along with the next woman, but I need carbs as well.  I find that I get a lot of inspiration from the food cultures of hot countries in this weather, and the possibilities are endless.  To go with some simple baked salmon with a tangy fresh guacamole sauce, I thought I'd cross cultures from the Gulf of Mexico to the Caribbean.  The national dish of Jamaica, Rice and Peas, fitted the bill as a savoury, soulful accompaniment, nice served just warm, and the leftovers will happily freeze until a day when appetites are larger.  For a very generous pot for two with leftovers, saute a chopped onion in a tablespoon of sunflower or rapeseed oil until soft and translucent, then stir in 2 bay leaves, a quarter of a teaspoon each of ground cumin, ground coriander and allspice, and crumble in a small dried chilli.  Stir into the onions, and cook gently for a minute or so.  Now measure Basmati rice to 5floz in a measuring jug and rinse.  Stir into the spicy onions.  Tip in a 160ml tin of coconut milk, then add 200mls of veg stock (Marigold is fine) - sorry for mixing my Imperial and Metric.  Put a sprig or two of fresh thyme in, then drain and rinse a 400g tin of kidney beans and stir in.  Bring to a simmer, turn the heat down really low, and cover.  Cook for 20 minutes or so until all the liquid is absorbed.  Taste and adjust the seasoning.  Put a couple of sheets of kitchen paper over the pot and replace the lid and let the rice sit like this for up to half-an-hour.  Then serve with jerked chicken, a coconut and fruit Caribbean chicken curry or on its own for a protein-packed vegan supper.  As I say, the leftovers freeze well if cooled and frozen quickly, and reheated until piping hot in a microwave.

Scorpion Cocktail

Aptly named, as it has a sting in the tail!  The relative length of the drink, with fresh orange and lemon juice and loads of ice, means it is dangerously 'gluggable'.  But refreshing on a warm, dry, sunny evening.  Per person, you need 2 parts of white rum (i.e. Bacardi), 2 parts of good, freshly-squeezed orange juice, 1 and a half parts of fresh lemon juice, 1 part brandy (preferably good Cognac), 2 teaspoons of Amaretto liqueur (or orgeat syrup, if you happen to have any lying around, as you do), 2-3 drops of Angostura Bitters, sugar syrup, to taste, and slices of orange and lemon.  Shake over ice, then strain into highball glasses filled with broken ice and garnish with the fruit slices.  ***Hic! ***

Baked Vanilla Custard with Blackcurrant Compote

What an elegant little dessert this is, and it shows that the British Isles can give any country a run for their money in the food stakes, in my humble opinion.  This recipe is all about the best ingredients - the best milk and Jersey cream, and intense little blackcurrants, whose fragrance, as they gently cooked, filled the flat today.  Now, I'm not pretending the baked custards are low fat, but with 200ml of double cream and 400ml of milk between 4 people, they are not as rich as, say, panna cotta or  creme brulee.  However, gently baked and chilled, they deliver a silky smooth texture.  We need to rescue the British baked custard, which has suffered from the popularity of these other two desserts (although, in fact, the English can lay claim to Creme Brulee as their own, Trinity Burn't Cream, from Cambridge). The blackcurrant has also suffered, I think, from the blueberry's sweeter (and, perhaps, slightly bland?) taste, and it is definitely an 'adult' tangy fruit.  How sad that most of the country's crop goes towards making Ribena.  Please use it in this compote and stir into yoghurt, over pancakes and ice cream and stirred into cream as a fool.  Or as one of the components of Summer Pudding (to be made next week, I hope)  Sweetened to taste, and perhaps with some Creme de Cassis, as in this recipe, you'll be rewarded with a burst of intense berry fruitiness, and all the vitamin C and antioxidants you could wish for.  As for the recipe itself for this lovey pud - well, it is from the great Irish chef Richard Corrigan, via Riverford Organic's website - here it is, do try it, your guests and family will thank you profusely.  I made the custards in individual silicone ramekins and baked them for 30 minutes or so, until just set.  The silicone makes them very easy to turn out, but making them in one dish and spooning out would be good too.

Char-grilled Aubergine, Tomato and Feta Salad

There are many things that you can make with a plate of griddled aubergines.  You can layer them with minced lamb for a moussaka, or with rich tomato sauce, mozzarella and parmesan for Melanzane Parmigiana, or spread them with miso and grill them for a Japanese feast.  I could go on!  I chose to use a them in a lovely assembly-job salad from Saint Delia, tossing them in a marinade of olive oil, a little Balsamic and lots of chopped fresh basil, then overlapping them on a bed of proper Batavia lettuce with halves of slow-roast tomatoes, and topping them with crumbled feta cheese.  Very nice, served with the roasted carrot hummus made with the left-overs from last night's carrot and chickpea pitta pockets.  Here is Delia's original recipe if you fancy giving it a go - we eschewed the creme fraiche as I thought it was rich enough.  And I didn't have any!

Spiced Carrot and Chickpea Pitta Pockets

I forgot to take a photo of this simple, flavourful and CHEAP little meal - another from Hugh F-W's 'Veg Everyday' book, so I shall pinch his photo (thanks Hugh and Simon Wheeler) and link to the recipe on The Grauniad.  This is SO 'under a fiver'.  If you have any leftovers, blitz in a processor with a spoonful of tahini and some lemon juice to taste for a quick carrot hummus.  We served these with Quick Tomato and Red Pepper Soup with fresh basil oil swirled in (recipe earlier this year) for a healthy vegan supper, cheap as chips.  But without the chips.  One note on chickpea brands.  I favour the East End brand, as the chickpeas are always soft and creamy, not like the chalky bullets you get with lesser brands - not expensive, either.  Do look out for them.

Summer Madness Cocktail

Here I am, with my close friends, drinking this lovely Campari cocktail.  I have a great life.  Yeah, note to self: stop reading 'Fifty Shades of Grey'.  Anyway, this was delicious, comprising of 1 measure each of vodka, Campari, sweet vermouth, 2 measures of Cointreau, and the juice of half a lime and 1 orange.  Serve over lots of ice, and top up with a little soda water.  Great with salmon and dill pâté on blinis.  Warning: quite alcoholic - see delusional photo on the left.

Caramel Cardamom Apricot Cake

It has been a weekend of caramelised upside-down food, what with yesterday's beetroot Tarte Tatin and this cake today.  This is a hybrid recipe based on Bill Granger and Rachel Allen versions, and it is delicious served with vanilla ice cream or clotted cream - or possibly both - I won't tell!  You make some caramel in an oven-proof cast iron dish or pan with 30g of butter and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, the zest and juice of half a lemon and the crushed seeds from 3 cardamom pods - heat all together over a medium heat and allow to bubble and turn a deep golden brown.  The smell is amazing.  Halve about 12 ripe apricots (the Riverford apricots from the south of France have been superb this year), and place them, cut-side down, on the caramel.  Now, make a sponge with 75g each of soft butter and caster sugar, 2 egg yolks, 90ml of milk and 160g self-raising flour.  Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold through the sponge batter.  Dollop onto the apricots, spread out, and bake for around 40 minutes at 170C - check after 30 minutes, depending on the depth of your tin.  Leave to sit for 10 minutes then turn out onto a cake stand or platter.  Tidy up any apricots that might have dislodged, and tuck in.  The tart apricots, sweet lemony, buttery caramel and fragrant cardamom are a taste of heaven.

Beetroot Tarte Tatin

A simple recipe, making use of the lovely sweet new beetroot in season.  Some plants are enjoying the rain, and beetroot seems to be especially good this year.  I boiled 5 medium whole beets for about an hour until just tender, then peeled and sliced them into chunky wedges.  Then, I melted 30g of butter (you could use olive oil) with 3 teaspoons of brown sugar in a cast iron pan, and allowed the sugar to caramelise.  Season well with salt and pepper, and pour in a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar.  it will sizzle a little, so stand back.  Then sprinkle in a teaspoon of fresh thyme.  Now arrange the beetroot over the caramel, cutting to fill gaps.  Cover with a sheet of puff pastry, cut to be just a little larger than your dish, and tuck the excess under and down the inside of the dish.  Bake at 190C (fan oven) or equivalent for 20 minutes or until the pastry is cooked, golden and crisp.  Remove from the oven and allow to stand for 5 minutes then invert onto a large plate - be careful of the hot sticky juices.  Drizzle over another tablespoon of balsamic over the glossy caramel beets, rearranging them if they have become dislodged, and eat with salad or we had lovely peeled broad beans, the emerald beans contrasting beautifully with the deep maroon of the beetroot.  A great veggie dish, and vegan too if you use olive oil.  An under a fiver job too, though we polished the whole thing off between the two of us.

Thai Turkey Patties

These were simple and yummy, based on a James Martin recipe.  He used chicken mince in his version, but I went for turkey instead.  Both would work fine.  For 4 people, take 500g of turkey mince, and place in a bowl.  Now, using a mini chopper, blend a small onion, 3 juicy cloves of garlic and a large 'thumb' of peeled ginger, and blitz to a paste.  Tip into the bowl with 1 teaspoon hot chilli flakes (or a finely-chopped hot fresh chilli) and 2 heaped tablespoons of chopped coriander leaf.  Season well with salt and pepper - it needs quite a bit, and splash in a teaspoon of Thai fish sauce if you have any - don't worry if you don't.  I also added a splosh of Tobasco to make sure they were good and pokey.  Mix this well - your hands are the best tool here - making sure that the aromatic seasonings are evenly distributed throughout the mince.  Using wet hands, shape into patties - I got 16 out of this amount.  Allow to rest in the fridge for half an hour or so.  To cook: in a big non-stick frying pan, pour in about 1/2 a centimetre of sunflower or other 'tasteless' oil, and heat over a medium high-ish flame.  Carefully add half the patties - don't crowd them.  Leave them for 2 to 3 minutes to form a golden crust underneath - do NOT poke and prod!  Turn over and cook for another couple of minutes, again, leaving well alone to form a good crust.  Keep warm in a low oven on sheets of kitchen paper to drain whilst you cook the remaining patties.  Serve with bowls of sweet chilli sauce and lots of lime wedges to squeeze over.  If you have all the aromatics in the house, this could be classed as an 'under a fiver' as turkey mince is so cheap.

Pea and Ham Soup

I was so knackered yesterday, after a strange headachy, virussy thing over the weekend.  All I wanted, in the middle of this crazy wet and miserable July, was soup for my tea.  And I didn't want to spend long making it.  Thank heavens for for the frozen pea, surely the cook's best friend?  Ridiculously simple: sweat an onion in a good knob of butter, then add a big bag of peas (450g / 1lb), just cover with Marigold stock, simmer for 10 minutes then blitz with a hand blender into a soup of verdant freshness.  Season with loads of black pepper, some mint if you like, and stir through some chopped ham (I had some leftovers from a gammon joint at the weekend).  Served with toasted cheese sandwiches, it was heavenly comfort food in 20 minutes.  Rubbish photo, I know.  Definitely an under a fiver job.

White Chocolate and Strawberry Tiramisu

OK, this isn't a traditional Tiramisu, with no coffee or dark cocoa, but the elements are the same - savoiardi sponge biscuits, liqueur (Creme de Framboise), Mascarpone, Cream and chocolate (White , in this case).  In addition, there are loads of luscious strawberries - yummy!  I prefer not to use raw eggs in my tiramisus - not that we are immuno-challenged, I just prefer the texture without.  You make a sugar syrup with 100ml water and 2 tablespoons of sugar, boiled for 2 minutes, into which 100ml of Creme de Framboise is then stirred.  Line a dish with parchment paper, lay the sponge fingers over the base and drench with the boozy syrup, then a large punnet of strawberries, sliced and tossed with a tablespoon of icing sugar and a tablespoon of Framboise.  Now carefully melt 160g of white chocolate (a good brand please, not Milky Bar).  In a big bowl, beat a 250g tub of Mascarpone with a tablespoon of sugar, the zest of a lemon, and 150ml of double cream.  Now fold in the melted white chocolate and spread over the strawberry/sponge finger base.  Smooth the top and sprinkle with 40g of white chocolate, grated or finely-chopped.  Leave in the fridge for at least 8 hours - overnight if possible.  Then decorate with sliced strawberries, and serve in squares - this will serve 6 people as it is quite rich.

Berlioni Cocktail

We had boiled globe artichokes and tapenade as a starter tonight, and with them came the challenge of what to drink?  Artichokes are notorious for killing wines, but we found the answer in this cocktail, which includes Cynar, made from....globe artichokes!  We love Italian amare and bitters, the best known of which being Campari (to which I am probably addicted) and I realise they are an acquired taste, but I love them.  This was an excellent combination of 2 parts gin, 1 part Cynar and 3/4 part Noilly Prat white dry Vermouth.  Stirred and served over ice with a lemon twist, this was a delicious bitter drink that echoed the artichokes perfectly. 

Aubergine Butternut Squash Curry

I know.  This sounds like knitted nut cutlets and bread made from ground-up rocks and sand, but in fact it was soothing, comforting, sweet and wholesome - a bit like me!  I'd had a butternut squash lurking in the shed for a month, and every time I checked it, I had to knock off a slug or two, hoping desperately to break through the tough skin, but never succeeding.  Well, it got peeled and chopped tonight (minus the slugs!) and added to a curry with chopped, sauteed aubergine, a tin of chickpeas, a small tin of coconut milk, some veg stock, and a masala paste of blended onion, garlic, ginger, tomato puree, garam masala, turmeric, ground coriander and cumin, and chilli flakes.  With a handful of spinach and fresh coriander stirred in at the end, and a spritz of lime juice, it was a great way to despatch a squash!  Serve with Basmati rice and/or naan bread or chapattis, and you have a wonderfully healthy meal for four for under a fiver.