Wild garlic and prawn sandwich

 

Same recipe as here, but prawns.

Leftovers

A slice of ham, two different sorts of salami, a couple of spicy cocktail sausages, and a mini scotch egg.

You can put anything in scrambled eggs!

How to grill pizza

I learned this from one of my flatmates at uni, who learned it from her mum.

How to cook pizza without heating up the oven.

• You will need a frozen pizza. If it didn't come frozen, you will need to freeze it. (I have only ever tried it on small ones - I don't know if it would work with big ones).

• Remove the grill pan from under the grill, and heat the grill to hot.
• Dampen the bottom of the pizza (I just stick it under the tap) and place it on the grill pan upside down.
• Grill base until brown. (Because the pizza was frozen and the pan was cold, the cheese & tomato should still be stuck on, and not have melted).

• Turn the grill down to medium.
• Turn pizza right side up, and place on grid of grill pan.
• Optional - add more toppings. Here I added more cheese, and herbs.

• Grill until cheese is nice and melted and beginning to brown.

• Eat!

Wild garlic & chicken sandwich

 

Ingredients:

• Chicken (I use frozen chunks)
• Wild garlic leaves
• Bread & butter
• Black pepper
• Lemon juice
• A spot of oil 

Method:

1. Heat oil in frying pan.
2. Slice chicken thinly and add to pan (if using frozen, fry chunks until just soft enough to slice, and then return to pan).
3. While cooking, grind on some pepper and add a dash of lemon juice.
4. When nearly done, add chopped wild garlic leaves.
5. Maybe add a (very little) water to deglaze the pan.
6. Make sandwich.
7. Eat!

I pick wild garlic when it's there (like now), chop it, and freeze it to use throughout the year.

Home made fish fingers

Normal bought fish fingers are good, but I thought I'd try making some from scratch. Very easy!

You will need:

• White fish
• Flour
• Egg
• Breadcrumbs
• Paprika
• Butter or oil for shallow frying (I used butter, because I thought that might taste better)

What to do:

1.  Mix breadcrumbs and paprika together. It's not going to be as orange as bought ones, but it makes them a bit orange.
2. Cut fish in strips.
3. Dip in flour.
4. Dip in egg.
5. Dip in breadcrumbs.
6. Fry.
7. Eat.

Mush

Not sure I want to try one of the recipes from my Grandma's recipe book. It starts by boiling macaroni for 30 minutes.

Extra fake

Found an old recipe book of my Grandma's.

Was amused to find a recipe for imitation mock turtle soup.

Spinach French toast roll-ups

I read a recipe for stuffed french toast here. She used strawberries.
So I tried it, but with spinach instead. 

I used frozen spinach, added some spring onion, Lea & Perrins and ground black pepper. Microwaved for a couple of minutes, and then pressed in a sieve to drain. Followed the rest of the instructions (Obviously don't put sugar/syrup/vanilla in it! I just used an egg with nothing added)

Yum!

Hedgehog potatoes

Aka Hasselback potatoes.

I didn't make this recipe up, but I did it a bit simpler than some I've read - I didn't faff about with preheated baking trays of oil, or iced water or anything unneccessary like that :-)

You will need:

• Potatoes (new or medium)
• Oil
• Seasoning if you want

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. (Recipes say do it a bit hotter for medium potatoes)
2. Scrub potatoes.
3. Slice each potato in narrow slices, but don't slice all the way through. Tip from Nigella - place potato in the bowl of a wooden spoon to slice - that means you can't slice through by accident.
4. Brush potatoes on both sides with oil, place on baking tray sliced side up.
5. Season.
6. Cook for 45 minutes or so (longer if bigger), until brown and a bit crispy.
7. Yum!

Hedgehog potatoes - before cooking

Hedgehog potatoes - after cooking

I did quite a few potatoes as I had some needing used up. So I just had them on their own with a little gravy and salad. Obviously could be used in smaller quantities with meat.

It would be interesting to slice them both ways, in a criss-cross pattern - would look even more hedgehog-like.

Banana Matzo

OK, I don't really think I need to give a recipe for this. Except that you should butter the Matzo so the banana doesn't fall off.

Noah's Ark jelly

The KitKat finger is - believe it or not - almost the same proportions as the ark. And, as an added bonus, when you bite into it, it has three floors!!! 

The ark on calm water

You will need (per person):

• About 150-200ml of blue - or clear - soft drink. (I used berry & tropical flavour Powerade - a 500ml bottle between 3 people)
• Gelatine. About 1 leaf per 100ml of juice.
• 1 finger of KitKat.
• A small bowl wide enough to fit the KitKat.

What to do:

1. Soak gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, put some of the juice in a pan, and heat.
3. Take off the heat, and add the gelatine. Stir to dissolve (it was pretty much instantaneous when I did it).
4. Add the rest of the juice and pour into bowls.
5. Put in fridge to set.
6. (Optional, if you want stormy water). Chop up the jelly small and stir around a bit.
7. Place KitKat finger upside down on top of 'water', to make an 'ark'.
8. Eat. 

P.S. Don't be put off by using gelatine - it's actually even easier than using jelly cubes.

The ark on choppy water

Pretend Pizza

We used to have this often for Sunday Lunch when I was young, and my brother was allergic to tomatoes.

You will need (per person):

• One medium sized roll. Morning rolls work particularly well (if you're fortunate enough to live in Scotland!)
• One sausage
• 1/2 tin Heinz Toast Topper - chicken & mushroom or mushroom & bacon *
• Cheese.

What to do:

1. Cook sausage - grill or fry. 
2. Cut roll in half, and toast outsides under the grill.
3. Turn over and spread both halves with Toast Topper.
4. Top with thinly sliced or grated cheese.
5. Cut sausage into 8 and arrange on top.
6. Put under grill until cheese melts.

*Not all shops sell this. I do know they sell it 3 for £ in Poundland, and from the internet looks like Tescos too.

Spinach melt

I had this for lunch today.

You will need:

• Bread (I used Hovis granary wholemeal)
• Frozen chopped spinach (a couple of lumps of Sainsbury's spinach was about right)
• Cheese
• Pepper
• Lea & Perrins (other Worcestershire sauces are available)

What to do:

1. Toast the bread on one side.
2. Meanwhile, microwave the spinach uncovered for a couple of minutes. No need to drain.
3. Add pepper and Lea & Perrins, and mix.
4. Spread spinach on uncooked side of bread and add cheese.
5. Toast until cheese melts.
6. Yum.

A useful culinary tip

Tarantulas are best served toasted like marshmallows.

BBC Human Planet: Jungle

Should you ever wish to eat one...

Quirsty's Quesadillas

You will need (serves 1):
Two wraps
Tomato pickle/chutney/salsa
Sweetcorn - you'll just need a little, so frozen is easiest.
Cream Cheese (I use Extra Light Philly - works just as well, and it's healthy too)
Large frying pan

Instructions:

• Put sweetcorn in microwave for a minute to defrost - then dry off by heating in frying pan. 
• Meanwhile, spread one wrap with the cheese and one with the tomato pickle. 
• Sprinkle the sweetcorn over one of the wraps, and sandwich them together. 
• Cook in frying pan over a high heat until brown and crispy. 
• Cut in wedges with pizza cutter. 
• Eat with a good book.

Recipe

Chicken and couscous.

You will need:
Chicken
Mayonnaise
Ketchup
A dash of lemon juice & worcester sauce.

Breadcrumbs
Herbs (I used dried mixed herbs)

Couscous (plain)
Chicken stock cube - for one person half or less will do
Sweetcorn
Pinenuts
Dried mixed fruit

Instructions:
Cut chicken in bits - an inch or so in size. Mix with mayo, ketchup, lemon juice and worcester sauce. You need enough to coat them well. If you did it in advance you could leave to marinade, but not necessary.

Mix herbs with breadcrumbs. Coat chicken in breadcrumbs.

Heat sweetcorn. In the same container (to make less washing up) dissolve stockcube in the amount of water specified on coucous packet - they're all different! Add couscous, herbs, mixed fruit and pinenuts. Do whatever the couscous packet says next.

Fry chicken. This needs hardly any oil.

Eat. If you make way too much, as I did, eat the rest cold.

Yummy Food

Very quick. Very tasty. Healthy too if you use low fat beef.

You will need (serves 1):
2 sausages or some beef
½ a courgette, sliced (or you could use mushrooms if you like them)
2 tomatoes cut into bits
Schwarz creamy pepper sauce.
Bread - the triangular brown crusty rolls from Somerfield are particularly good.

Make up the sauce (way too much if it's for one person, but you can freeze portions).
Fry the meat and courgettes, till brown.
Add the tomatoes. Cook a wee bit more.
Add sauce and heat.
Eat!