Corn cakes with buckwheat and basil

A very filling lunch brimming with flavours




I love corn. Love love love it. These corn cakes are fat little gems fried on a hot pan and bulging with awesomeness. I have used buckwheat flour here (it makes them very filling and more like a proper meal) but you can use regular flour if you want. The best thing you can do to these lovelies is hit them with a bit of real butter once they come off the pan and let it melt in. It makes all the difference.

Ingredients: (makes about 10 cakes)

- 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- Tsp baking powder
- Tsp salt
- 2 cups corn kernels (fresh/ thawed from frozen/ tinned)
- 1/4 cup chopped basil

Method:
- Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and gradually add in the eggs and milk. Whisk together well to make sure there are no lumps.
- If using tinned sweetcorn, drain it and rinse it really well to get the sugary brine off the kernels as much as possible.
- Add the corn and basil to the batter and stir well.
- Put some olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat until it's hot but not smoking. Use 1/4 cup of batter per cake (or just over a tablespoon) and pour batter into the hot oil. The batter will be very thick. Cook for 2 mins or so, until the edges of the corn cake are dry, and flip them over for another min or two of cooking.
- Remove from the pan and rub a little butter over the top of each cake.
- EAT! For the love of jehovah, eat these lovely things!

Minestrone soup

Delicious and healthy, an awesome lunchtime special




This has recently become one of my favourite lunches as it is really easy to make as well as packed full of goodness. It's also gentle on the finances and will keep you full for hours. I like to make a big batch and freeze it in double portions, that way I'm never stuck for a quick lunch option when I'm home. I use chickpeas in this recipe as I like how they stay intact and retain their shape. Cannellini beans or butter beans would also work well but don't overcook them as they turn to mush easily enough.

Ingredients:
- 1 onion
- Couple of cloves of garlic
- 2 large carrots
- 4 sticks of celery
- Tin of chickpeas
- Small handful of spaghetti
- Tin of chopped tomatoes (or passata)
- 2 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 tsp sugar
- Chicken stock

Method:
- Heat some olive oil in a large saucepan on high heat.
- Chuck the onion, garlic, celery and carrots into a food processor and blitz until they are all chopped really finely. Add them to the oil, stir well and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 5 mins.
- Turn the heat down to medium. Drain and rinse the chickpeas and add them to the pot.
- Chuck in the tin of tomatoes and about the same amount again of chicken stock - add enough stock until the mixture is loose enough to be a soup rather than a sauce.
- Add 1 tsp of sugar, the tomato puree and another bit of salt and put a lid on. Cook for 10 mins at a simmer.
- After 10 mins, break the spaghetti up with your hands and add it to the soup. Pop the lid back on for 12 mins, stirring once or twice.
- Serve hot in big bowls with a side order of Eastenders and a crossword.

Tabbouleh

Zingy, yummy, healthy and easy




Tabbouleh is a Middle Eastern dish which is traditionally made with bulgar wheat. Here I have used quinoa instead but have otherwise kept it as it should be. This is really filling and a great choice for carbs.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup quinoa
- 2 tomatoes, deseeded and chopped
- 4 spring onions, finely sliced
- 1 red onion, finely chopped
- Handful fresh parsley, chopped
- 2 handfuls fresh mint, chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- Salt, pepper

Method:

- Cook the quinoa in double its volume of boiling water (lid on) for 15 minutes until it has absorbed all the water and is soft and tender. Transfer to a shallow dish to cool.
- While the quinoa is still warm, douse it with the lemon juice, olive oil and a really generous pinch of salt.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Serve at room temperature.

Goats cheese & potato bread

Bread and cheese, a happy marriage indeed



I cooked this as part of our Christmas dinner starter and it went down a treat. It's a dense, heavy bread that is bursting with flavour. It looks fancy but, as usual, it's easy to make.

Ingredients:
- 4 oz goats cheese
- 4 spring onions, finely chopped
- 1 medium potato (approx 6oz)
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
- 6 oz self-raising flour
- 1 tsp salt
- Pinch of cayenne pepper or chilli powder
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 generous tsp wholegrain mustard

Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and grease a baking tray.
- Sift the flour, salt and cayenne pepper into a bowl.
- Peel the potato and grate it into the bowl.
- Add in the chopped spring onions and fresh thyme.
- Chop the goats cheese into 1cm cubes and add two-thirds of this to the mixture.
- Mix everything together gently with a metal spoon.
- Add the milk and mustard to the beaten egg, and pour this into the flour mixture. Bring it together into a loose, sticky dough using the metal spoon.
- Place the dough on the baking sheet and shape it into a rough 6 inch round.
- Gently press the remaining goats cheese into the top of the bread and dust with about half a handful of flour. Scatter over a few more thyme leaves if you have them. It should look something like this:




- Bake in the oven for approx 40 minutes until it is golden brown and sounds hollow when rapped on the underside.
- Leave to cool on a wire rack. Use within 2 days.

Feta and tomato quiche

Light on the belly and easy on the eye




After a rather epic Christmas, I was absolutely sick of rich foods, and really just wanted a nice simple dinner which wouldn't leave me feeling enormous and incapacitated. My lovely wonderful friend Kate was coming over for dinner so I wanted something delicious but not heavy. Quiche was the winning solution. To me, making a quiche is a healthier version of a pizza, as you can pick whatever toppings you like and lash them all in there. I had a serious craving for feta cheese, and couldn't face the prospect of any more meat, so this is a veggie option. If you want to add in meat, try some smoked bacon or cooked chicken.

Ingredients:

For the pastry:
6 oz flour
3 oz margarine
Herbes de provence
Water

For the filling:
4 or 5 eggs
Splash milk
1 onion, diced
A few tomatoes, sliced
A handful of mushrooms, sliced
Half a block of nice crumbley feta

Method:

- Preheat to the oven to 180 degrees and grease your flan tin well.
- Put the flour and margarine into a food processor and blend. Add in a good teaspoon of herbes de provence (or any herbs you like really) and mix.
- With the food processor switched on, slowly add in cold water until the mixture comes together to form a dough.
- Chuck some flour on your countertop and turn out the dough. Flour your hands and knead it lightly.
- Roll out the dough, pick it up carefully and place it into the flan dish. Press it into the edges, and using a fork, prick a few holes in the base.
- Cover the pastry with some tinfoil or greaseproof paper and weigh it down with some rices or dry beans. Bake it like this in the oven for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, remove from the oven and discard the foil and beans/rice. Brush the top of the hot pastry with a thin layer of beaten egg and return to the oven for 1 minute. This will create a seal to stop your pastry going soggy when you add the filling.
- Remove from the oven and scatter over the chopped onion, mushrooms and tomatoes. Top with the feta, which you can either crumble over (as I did) or chop into small blocks.
- In a small bowl, beat together the eggs with a splash of milk and some salt and pepper. Pour this into the flan dish.
- Place in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes until turning golden and cooked all the way through.
- Serve with either a mixed salad or some homemade chips.

Leek and potato soup

A comforting bowl of hot spiced veggies to hug you warm in the winter




Ingredients:
- 2 onions, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 leeks
- 2 potatoes, peeled and diced
- 2 litres chicken stock
- 1 heaped teaspoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon flour

Method:
- Heat a knob of butter and a glug of olive oil in a large saucepan on a low-medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and allow them to sweat for 5 mins or so until soft and translucent.
- Add the flour to the onions and stir well. Cook on a low heat, stirring regularly for 1 - 2 mins to make sure the flour is cooked through.
- Add a splash of the hot chicken stock to the pan and stir well. Keep adding small quantities of stock and stirring until the mixture is thin and loose - then chuck the rest of the stock in all in one go.
- Cut down the centre of the leeks lengthways and wash the leeks thoroughly under the tap, fanning out the layers to make sure you get rid of any grit inside the leeks. Chop the leeks and add to the pot.
- Add in the paprika (you can use either sweet or spicy paprika; both will give the soup a lovely warm colour but the latter will make it hot, if you're into that sort of thing), and add the diced potatoes too.
- Simmer with the lid on for approx 20 minutes until the potatoes are tender. Serve with thick buttered slices of homemade brown bread.

Minted chickpea salad

Nothing says 'summer' like the fresh taste of mint and lemon



I went shopping for a dress this morning, something I generally find a bit stressful and exhausting. I am not a born shopper. When I got home I was starving and craved something that was not only quick but also full of goodness to perk me back up again. I knew we had mint in the garden and feta in the fridge, so this all came together in a matter of minutes. This is a fresh salad with a bite, and is fairly filling because of the chickpeas.

Ingredients (serves 3 - 4):

1 tin of cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 or 4 scallions, chopped (I would usually use red onion, but didn't have any to hand today)
A block of good feta - it should be crumbley and salty - cut into chunky dice
2 big tomatoes, deseeded and chopped (or some cherry tomatoes)
Approx 10 mint leaves, finely chopped
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Method:

Mix together all the ingredients in a bowl, and make sure everything is coated in the lemon juice. It is ready to serve. It works on its own as a lovely lunch on a summer day, or as a side dish with barbeques or dinner parties. Sweet.

Hearty brown bread

Looking for something seedy?



This bread has been made in my house since as far back as I can remember. It's hearty, healthy and versatile. The recipe is completely yeast-free, sugar-free and salt-free, and packed with wholemeal flour and seeds to make it fibre and grain rich. This will keep for a good few days, and tastes great toasted when it's nearing its departure date.

Ingredients:

12 oz brown flour
4 oz white flour
2 oz pinhead oats
2 oz wheatgerm
2 oz bran
2 tsp bread soda
1 handful sunflower seeds
1 handful pumpkin seeds (and any other seeds you have about the place)
Approx 1 pint buttermilk

Method:

Grease a loaf tin lightly, and pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Add the buttermilk and stir. The consistency you want is that of a thick batter, and I often find I need to splash in another bit of buttermilk to get it just right.

Transfer the mixture into the loaf tin and bake in the oven for 50 mins. To check if the bread is cooked, remove it from the tin and turn it upside down. Tap on the underside of the bread; if it sounds hollow, then it's cooked. If not, put it back in the loaf tin upside down and return to the oven for another 2 minutes or so.

When it's cooked, wrap it in a clean damp teatowel. The dampness stops the bread crust from becoming hard. It can be eaten as soon as it has cooled; I suggest trying it with lots of blackberry jam or slices of lightly salted tomatoes.

Thick garlicky mayonaisse

Creamy garlicky decadence




This was my first attempt at making my own mayonaisse and it didn't turn out half bad. My only mistake was using an extra virgin olive oil instead of a more flavourless variety, as the extra virgin has too strong of a taste for a mayonaisse. This is great as a dip for chips, potato wedges, chicken wings, tortillas etc.

Ingredients:

1 egg yolk
2 garlic cloves
Salt
100ml olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

Method:

You can either make this in a food processor or by hand. My food processor decided it didn't want to partake in the construction of a mayonaisse, so I made it painstakingly by hand. It takes between 5 - 10 mins to make it this way but it is worth the effort.

Mince the garlic cloves finely and sprinkle them with a liberal amount of salt. Using the flat part of your knife, crush the garlic until it almost forms a paste. The salt acts as an abrasive which helps to break down the garlic pieces.

Beat together the garlic paste, egg yolk and the juice of 1/2 lemon with a whisk. You then need to very very slowly and gradually incorporate the olive oil; whisking all the time, add in a little bit of oil at a time until the mixture is thick and creamy. Don't rush this bit otherwise the mixture can split. Add the chopped parsley (either curly or flat leaf) and stir well.

Taste, and add more lemon juice as needed (or if needed) until you have your ideal garlicky mayonaisse.

Lemon flour mackerel

Fishy, healthy, lemony lunchtime




This is a deliciously light and healthy dish that is as easy on the pocket as it is on the palette. It is also ridiculously quick, and can be put together in less than 10 minutes.

Ingredients (serves 2):

2 mackerel fillets
Olive oil
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon flour
Salt, pepper
Fresh rocket leaves
Baby spinach leaves
1 tomato, cut into wedges

Method:

On a large plate, mix together the lemon zest and flour with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Lay the mackerel fillets on the flour mix and coat them evenly on both sides.

Put a glug of olive oil in a frying pan and put it on a high temperature. Heat the oil until smoking. Fry the mackerel in the hot oil for 2 minutes on each side. You can add a bit of butter to the oil if you want.

Meanwhile, toss the rocket and spinach in some lemon juice and plate it up with the tomato wedges. Serve with the hot mackerel and a slice of lemon.