Homity pie

This is one of the first veggie recipes that became part of my regular repertoire. It’s basically a potato pie, which sounds a bit dull and austere. In reality there are so many other ingredients that make it completely delicious. I use some basic ingredients every time I make this - potato, cheese, onion and garlic - and vary others – mustard or parsley; egg, milk, cream or butter – depending on how I feel and what I have in.

I hate recipes that stipulate ‘mashed potato’ as though you just buy it like that and not that you have to cook the potatoes for 20 minutes and then mash them, practically doubling any washing up you may create. I have developed a strategy to deal with this – it’s called a microwave.
Jacket potatoes done just in the microwave are generally rubbish but they are ideal for making mashed potatoes – a 10 minute zap, then scoop out the soft middle and mash with a fork. You can also bake the shells - drizzled with a little oil, salt and pepper - for 10-15 minutes to make scrummy potato skins.

I also made a cauliflower salad to go along side with this, which was basically blanched cauliflower dressed with olive oil, white wine vinegar, tarragon and parsley.

100g flour
50g butter
2 tbsp water
1 large potato (microwaved and mashed as detailed above)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 cup grated cheese
1 tbsp cream (or butter, or milk or 1 egg)
5 sprigs parsley, chopped (or a tsp mustard)

Pre-heat your oven to 210C

This is a really simple way of making pastry, but in all honesty generally I just use ready made! Combine the flour and butter with a fork until they resemble breadcrumbs. Then bring it all together with the water (you may not need it all). Cover in clingfilm and put in the fridge until you need it.

Fry the onion, with a little salt, in the oil until soft. Then combine the potato, garlic, onion, half the cheese, cream and parsley with a little salt and pepper.

Roll out the pastry and line a buttered tart tin. Pile in the potato mixture and the top with the remaining cheese.

Put in the oven and cook for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is cooked and the top is golden.

Serve warm with salad or hot with creamed spinach and crisp potato skins.

Serves two, with left overs

Spinach, mushroom and tarragon orzotto

I was chatting with my mum and gran the other day and we got on to what an odd child (I asked for that), I was a fussy eater but in a really strange way. Some of the things I disliked I stick by – potatoes in stews are still a big yuck. Some I’m getting over but only in small doses - like peas and mince. Others, I now just don’t understand – how can anyone not love mashed potato? On the other hand some things I loved against the odds – like tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese. I would pick pearl barley and sweetcorn out of stews, not to discard but because it was my favourite bit. I still love pearl barley, so imagine my delight when I discovered a recipe based solely on it.

Orzotto is like a risotto but made with barley. It takes a bit longer to make but needs less avid attention and comes out a bit soupier – which isn’t a hardship, you just need a bit of bread to mop up the juice.

You could replace the spinach, mushroom and tarragon which what ever you want (I based this on a pea orzotto recipe in Nigella’s How to Eat) – that said it is an fabulous combination. Mushrooms and tarragon together is classic, they give a really deep savoury flavour, and I’m happy to have spinach with pretty much anything.

1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
150g pearl barley
1 litre stock
100ml white wine/vermouth
100g mushrooms, ½ diced and ½ sliced
Few leaves tarragon, finely chopped
handful fresh spinach, roughly chopped
1 tbsp cream/crème fraiche
small handful grated parmesan

Start, as you would with a risotto, by frying your onion in a little oil and/or butter. Once it is soft add the barley, garlic and diced mushrooms and stir until the barley is coated in the oil. Add the wine, stir it well, getting all the barley from the sides of the pan. Once the wine has evaporated add two or three ladles of stock, stir and leave it until the stock has been absorbed, checking and stirring occasionally.

Next add the remaining mushrooms, half the tarragon and another ladleful of stock. Continue adding stock a ladleful at a time until the barley is soft and delicious – the whole process will take about 40-45 minutes.

With the last bit of stock add the spinach and let it wilt. Once all the stock has been absorbed add the tarragon, cream and parmesan giving it one final good stir, and leave to stand for a minute or two.

Serve in warmed bowls, topped with more parmesan and bread to mop up the juice.

Serves two

Red onion, broccoli and blue cheese polenta tart

So much of what I cook at the moment seems to be trying to rescue something growing in my garden before it goes to seed/rots/gets eaten (by something other than me)/is generally ruined.

This week I made and froze an enormous batch of broccoli and stilton soup and still had more broccoli than I could use. In the far reaches of my mind I remembered making a polenta tart before and thought it could be a good, slightly different, way of using some of the broccoli up.

It was light and summery and sweet and salty and generally scrummy.

100g polenta
400ml water
3 red onions, sliced
1 tomato, deseeded and diced
½ a head of broccoli, cut into small florets
75g blue cheese
knob butter
3 tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper
pinch cayenne pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 200C

Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a pan and gently fry the onion, with a little salt, until it is very soft and slightly sticky – about 20-30 minutes - adding the tomato for the final 5 minutes or so.

Blanche the broccoli in a pan of boiling water for 2-3 minutes drain and set aside.

Bring the water to a boil and then pour in the polenta in a steady stream, stirring constantly. Cook for about 4 minutes, stirring all the while, season with the salt, pepper and cayenne, and then spoon it into a tart tin and smooth over.

Top the polenta with the onion mixture, then the broccoli, then crumble the blue cheese over the top.

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and golden.

Eat and enjoy!

Serves two (with leftovers that are great for lunch)

Rhubarb and cinnamon muffins

I really thought we’d lost our rhubarb plant. We put it in last year it looked a bit sad and then died off. It’s tucked away in a corner and I realised last week that not only had it come back to life but was taking over a bit. Basically some of it needed eating.

The problem is I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, so I didn’t really know what to do with it; especially as it’s not the time of year for a crumble. I came across this recipe on the BBC Good Food, and it came out just right – light and moist on the inside and crisp on top, the rhubarb is surprising but really good (far better than blueberries – yuck) and the cinnamon makes them a bit carrot cake-y.

300g rhubarb, chopped into small pieces
3 tbsp caster sugar
100g caster sugar
300g flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
200ml milk
100g butter, melted and then cooled

Preheat the oven to 200C. Mix the rhubarb with 3 tablespoons of sugar, and bake for about 10 minutes.

Sift the flour into a bowl and mix in the sugar, cinnamon and baking powder. Beat the eggs, milk and butter together.

Once the rhubarb it cooked, drain it well and roughly combine all the ingredients.

Spoon the mixture into 12 muffin cases and bake for 30 minutes.

Eat with a big mug of tea or with custard as a pudding.

Aloo Gobi and Bhurji

I first had bhurji after a night out, when my best friend and her husband whipped up it up along with some homemade chapattis, quite a feat after a shandy or three. I can confirm it is the perfect late night snack.

It’s basically curried scrambled eggs which sounds odd at best but tastes amazing - proper comfort food. I was taught to cook it at a party. I was obviously very keen to learn to make proper Indian food and my friend was pleased to gain a sous chef.

Really it is a breakfast dish (like scrambled eggs). But, being a little traditional first thing in the morning, I prefer it for tea with aloo gobi or saag panner.

Aloo Gobi

1 large potato, cut into ½ cm pieces
1 small cauliflower, cut into small florets
2 tbsp oil
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds
½ onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
½ chilli, chopped
1 tsp garam masala
½ tsp turmeric

Heat the oil over a medium heat and then fry the potato until golden and cooked through, then set them aside.

Fry the mustard and cumin until they start to pop, then add the onion fry for a minute before adding the garlic, chilli and spices. Cook for another minute before adding the potatoes and cauliflower. Season well and cook for about 5 minutes until the cauliflower is done (longer if you like it a bit softer) adding a splash of water if you need it.

Bhurji

2 onions, chopped
2 tomatoes, deseeded and chopped
½ chilli, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp garam masala
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp salt
4 eggs, beaten

Fry the onions until very soft. Add the tomato, garlic and chilli and fry until the tomatoes have collapsed completely and the whole mixture is quite saucy.

Add the spices and salt, stir and cook for 1 minute. Add the eggs and scramble to your taste.
Serve with naan breads or chapattis and yogurt.

 Serves two