pumpkin PanFry

Ingredients

• 650g/1lb 7oz pumpkin or butternut squash
• olive oil
• 6 rashers of streaky bacon
• 2 bushy rosemary sprigs
• 3 large garlic cloves
• half a teaspoon of dried chilli flakes
• a small ciabatta loaf
• a handful of parsley leaves

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven at 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. Peel, seed and roughly chop the pumpkin (or butternut squash). The pieces should be roughly 2cm/1in square. Steam the pumpkin over boiling water until soft enough to take the point of a knife with ease (a matter of 15 minutes or so depending on the age of your pumpkin). Drain and set aside.
3. Warm a shallow layer of oil in a heavy-based pan. Cut the bacon into small pieces, about the size of a stamp, and fry until the fat is pale gold. Stir in the leaves of the rosemary sprigs.
4. Peel and lightly crush the garlic cloves and add to the frying pan with the chilli flakes.
5. Tip the cooked pumpkin into the frying pan and leave to colour lightly.
6. Tear up the ciabatta and add to the frying pan, adding more olive oil if necessary (there should be a thin layer in the bottom of the pan.) When the bread is golden in patches, roughly chop the parsley and add it to the pan. Serve hot.

Easy Tiramisu

INGREDIENTS

• 250g mascarpoone
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp Marsala, brandy or Tia Maria
• 150ml strong coffee or espresso, cooled to room temperature
• 150ml single cream
• 4 tbsp icing sugar
• 16 sponge fingers (savoiardi)
• Frozen bar of 70% of chocolate bar
• Cocoa powder, to dust

METHOD

How to make easy tiramisu

1. Whisk the mascarpone with the vanilla and Marsala and 50ml coffee, until everything is thoroughly mixed together. Whisk the cream with the icing sugar until smooth, then fold in the mascarpone mix

2. Pour the remaining coffee into a bowl (sweeten with more icing sugar if you like). Take one sponge finger at a time and dip it in to the coffee. Set it to one side and continue with the remaining biscuits

3. Line 4 serving glasses with 4 sponge fingers, breaking them in half if you need to. Spoon the mascarpone mix in until you reach the top of the glass. Refrigerate for 20 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse.

4. Remove the tiramisu from the fridge. Take the frozen chocolate bar and grate a little chocolate over the top of each tiramisu. Finally, dust with sifted cocoa powder to serve. 

Roasted Pumpkin Lasagne

Ingredients

• 75ml olive oil
• 500g pumpkin flesh, diced
• Pinch of cayenne
• Pinch of paprika
• Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• Salt
• Ground black pepper
• Fresh rosemary
• 225g ricotta chese
• 50g butter
• 50g flour
• 350ml milk
• 250g fresh raw lasagne
• 35g freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil in a roasting dish, add the pumpkin flesh and season with the cayenne, paprika, nutmeg and a little salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the fresh rosemary, place into a pre heated oven set at gas mark 6/200C/400F and cook for an hour until the flesh is tender.
2. Add the ricotta cheese and mix through, remove from the heat and leave to infuse.
3. Make a white sauce by melting the butter, adding the flour and mixing together. Cook gently over a low heat and slowly add the milk, stirring to ensure that the sauce is smooth. Season.
4. Cover the base of an ovenproof dish with a little of the sauce, add a layer of the lasagne and top with the pumpkin mixture. Repeat with another layer of each and top with the parmesan cheese.
5. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

These lovely little seeds should never be discarded, if like me, you would rather eat them than wear them as a necklace then this is the perfect recipe for you as they make a great nibble.

Ingredients

Serves 6

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 100g pumpkin seeds
• Pinch of cumin
• Pinch of garlic salt
• Pinch of paprika
• Pinch of coarse sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Heat a frying pan, add the olive oil and then add the pumpkin seeds.
2. Once they become brown then tip them into a bowl and season them with the other ingredients.

Garlic Mushrooms

Serves four

• Four very large open mushrooms
• 100 g butter
• Four garlic cloves chopped finely
• One tablespoon of dried parsley
• Two heaped tablespoons of breadcrumbs
• Salt and pepper to season

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C gas mark 6.Grease a casserole dish that will take the mushrooms without overlapping them.

Brush the mushrooms to clear them of debris. Remove the stalks, trim away the dried end part and chop the remaining stalk.

Add a small piece of butter into a small pan to melt. Add the garlic and cook until soft. Add the chopped mushroom stalks, parsley and remaining butter and cook gently until ingredients have melted.

Divide the breadcrumbs between the open mushrooms then pour over the garlic butter mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Place in the top of the oven for fifteen minutes or until the mushrooms have become tender and succulent.

Spiced tomato and lentil soup

Serves 4-6

Tinned tomatoes are one of the most indispensable and healthy convenience veg. Like so many perfectly good basics, though, they're often messed around with and come with flavourings like garlic and various herbs. I prefer to buy the plain chopped ones, and then add my own fresh flavours depending on what I'm cooking.

2tbsp olive oil
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 small dried chilli
1tsp cumin seeds
160g red lentils
2tsp white wine vinegar
400g can of chopped tomatoes
2tsp tomato purée
Salt and pepper
2 litres vegetable stock - use good-quality stock cubes or powder
1 bay leaf

Gently cook the onion, chilli and cumin in olive oil for 3-4 minutes until soft. Add the lentils, vinegar, chopped tomatoes, tomato purée and stock, season, add the bay leaf and bring to the boil. Simmer for 40 minutes stirring every so often, until the soup is a rich and thick consistency. If it looks too thick, add a little more stock and re-season if necessary.

Dhal Curry

It's not always easy to know what to drink with a spicy Indian curry, but if you enjoy wine then it has to be a Chilean Carmenère. This grape is packed with lovely peppery, spicy, smoky, herby flavours which are more than a match for the chilli, ginger, cardamom and cloves you often find in curries.

Dhal is simply the Indian word for lentils. The best kind to use for this are the red split lentils which most supermarkets stock.

 

 

  Serves 2

Ingredients
8 oz (225 g) red lentils
2 level teaspoons ground ginger
1 level teaspoon ground cumin
1 level teaspoon turmeric
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
2 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
1 small green pepper, de-seeded and chopped
1 level teaspoon Madras curry powder
1 clove garlic, crushed
4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
Salt

Equipment
You will also need a medium saucepan and a medium heavy-based frying pan.

Method

In a saucepan containing 1½ pints (850 ml) of water add one teaspoon each of ginger, cumin, turmeric and salt, then bring it all to the boil. Stir in the lentils, let it come back to a gentle simmer and cook for 5 minutes. After that add the diced potato and continue cooking until the lentils have turned mushy (making sure the mixture doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan by giving it a stir now and again).

While that's cooking, heat up the butter in another pan and fry the onion and pepper in it (over a fairly high heat) until the onion has browned – then lower the heat and stir in the Madras curry powder (if you like your curries hotter, you can add more), the garlic, the remaining ground ginger and the chopped tomatoes. Cook for a minute before adding the lentil mixture, then taste, season with more salt and cook gently for a further 5-10 minutes (stirring from time to time). Serve this with rice and yoghurt.

 

Everyday Roast Chicken

Less than 30 mins

preparation time

30 mins to 1 hour

cooking time

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

• a small, free-range roasting chicken
• 75ml/3fl oz olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, squashed
• a large lemon
• 6 sprigs thyme
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 8.
2. Place the chicken onto a chopping board and cut in half down the backbone using a large and very sharp cooks’ knife. Flatten the chicken as much as you can buy pressing down with the palm of your hand.
   Watch technique3:39 mins
3. Pour the olive oil into a mixing bowl large enough to take the chicken, add the squashed garlic cloves, the juice from the lemon and then the squeezed lemon shells. Put in the sprigs of thyme, a good seasoning of salt and black pepper, then turn the chicken over in the oil. (If you have the time, you can leave the chicken like this for an hour or so.)
4. Place the chicken in a roasting tin, skin-side up. Roast for about 30 minutes or until the skin is golden and the bird cooked right through.