Five in one hash with eggs

So called because I reckon (probably wrongly) it must cover all of your five a day and you cook it all in one pan – so minimum washing up.

I was feeling a little bit poorly when I cooked this, and it really met the comfort food, stodge requirements. I suppose it is really just a tarted up egg and chip – and really who could complain at that. However because of all the veggies you can pretend it is almost healthy! The curry powder gives it a gentle spice and I know the smoked cheese sounds odd with it but trust me it works.

Obviously all the ingredients and quantities are entirely reliant on what you like and/or have lying around – pumpkin or peppers would be really good as would blue or goats cheese – and instead of the curry powder you could use thyme or sage or make it good and spicy with some chilli, some smoked paprika would also be nice...

200g potatoes, cut into about 1cm pieces
1 carrot, cut into about 1cm pieces
4-6 small onions, peeled and halved
2 cloves garlic, still in its skin
2 tbsp oil
8 mushrooms, quarters
4 baby courgettes, cut into 1cm chunks
8 tomatoes, halved or quartered
2 tsp curry powder
Salt
Pepper
2 eggs,
Smoked cheese, grated

Heat the oil in a frying pan and throw in the potatoes, carrot, garlic or onions. Cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes stirring regularly. When they are nearly cooked and just turning golden add the mushrooms and courgettes and cook for another 5 minutes or until everything is just cooked.

Next add the tomatoes and curry powder and stir everything together. Fish out the garlic and squeeze the soft cloves into the mixture (you might need to leave them on one side for a mo so you don’t burn your fingers). Season and then give everything one last good mix.

Finally clear two spaces and crack the eggs into the pan, cover and fry until the eggs have set.

Dole everything out onto two plates, sprinkle the cheese over the top and serve with crusty bread.

Serves 2

Tomato risotto

I finally have a decent number of tomatoes on the plants which, I think, might be trying to take over…first my conservatory, then the world.

When I have grown something from seed I want to make something that centres around it and really lets it shine and, most importantly, lets me taste it and reap the rewards of my hard work.

With tomatoes the obvious thing always seems to be a sauce (to me anyway). But that seemed a bit boring so I decided to buck the trend and make a risotto. Definitely do-again-able. It turned out really light, fresh and tomato-y, which was just what I wanted.

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
1 cup arborio rice
750 ml vegetable stock
200g tomatoes, cut into halves or quarters depending on how big your tomatoes are
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
Few leaves oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
Small handful grated parmesan
Squeeze of lemon juice
Small knob butter

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large pan and fry the onions until translucent. Add the rice and stir for until the rice is coated in the oil.

Add the stock a ladleful at a time stirring regularly, allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next, until the rice is cooked and just a little firm to the bite. It will take about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile put the remaining oil in a pan with the tomatoes and garlic, season and heat very gently. Cook for about 15-20 minutes adding the oregano 5 minutes before the end.

When the rice is cooked add the parmesan, lemon juice, the knob of butter and tomatoes and stir well.

Serve in warm bowls with chunks of crusty bread.

Serves 2

Pumpkin, chickpea and spinach curry

Being a little over keen, I roasted a pumpkin the other day that was slightly under-ripe. The first half was very disappointing so I decided to spice the other half up a bit and use it as a base for a curry. Well worth trying even if your pumpkin isn’t disappointing!

If your pumpkin isn’t already roasted, I’d added it to the spices with a bit of water, cook it until it is soft and then mash it lightly.

1 tbsp oil
Pinch asafoetida
1 bay leaf
1 small onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp ginger, finely chopped
2 dried chillies, finely chopped
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric
400g roasted pumpkin, mashed with a fork
1 tin chickpea, drained and rinsed well
1 tsp garam masala
1 handful spinach, roughly chopped
Squeeze of lemon juice
Salt to taste

Heat the oil and gently fry the asafoetida and bay leaf (it will smell vile at first) for about 30 seconds.

Add the onion and garlic, cook for a couple of minutes before adding the ginger, chilli, coriander, cumin and turmeric. Fry for another minute then add the pumpkin and about half a cup of water. Combine everything well and cook until the water has more or less evaporated, then taste for seasoning.

Add the chickpeas and warm through, adding a splash more water if it gets a bit dry.

Finally add the spinach and garam masala. Let the spinach wilt, check once more for seasoning and add the lemon juice before serving with chapattis.

Serves 2

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.