What are you cooking this week?

[TillieTrotter]

I've recently started doing a 2 week menu plan and whilst there are a million and one options on line and in cookery books it'd be nice to get tips from you orrible lot. My aim is to have at least 3 non meat days per week for myself and 2 teenage boys. Suggestions please.

[WorkingMummy]

If you can get hold of fresh, round head radicchio (not red chicory, it ruins the recipe) then radicchio spaghetti.

The Greek grocers on Camberwell Church Street always has tonnes.

Finely chop one onion, 2 garlic cloves. Shred and wash two large radicchios. Finely chop bunch basil and small bunch fresh parsley. Cube 200 gr easy melting cheese, like fontina or St Gall or Gryuere. You also need a splash cider and 200 ml vege stock (from bouillon).

Fry onion in olive oil until soft. Add garlic, stir for minute. Add radicchio, stir till starts to wilt. Splash in some cider (or calvados if feeling classy) and boil off. Add hot vege stock. Stir. Let simmer till most of liquid evaporated. Turn heat off. Sprinkle cubed cheese and herbs on top. Place lid on and leave. Cook spaghetti. Combine.

Top off with chopped walnuts or pistachios to garnish if you like. Serve with Parmesan.

My all time favourite comfort food.

[TillieTrotter]

That sounds yum.

[steveo]

Spinach and chickpea soup

Sweat an onion, add a bit of water and a big bag of spinach to blanch

2 chicken stock cubes

3 tins of chick peas

Top up with water

Season (not much salt because it's already in the chick peas)

Grate on Parmesan

Deelish

[StraferJack]

If we leave aside that we aren't ever going to get crisp, thin, authentic pizzas in a domestic oven there are some very good alternatives to delivery pizzas

I promise you this is as easy as it gets and is pretty darn good - if you stretch out the dough in the pan a little thinner you should end up with something much closer to thin crust than deep pan as well

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/01/foolproof-pan-pizza-recipe.html

toppings entirely up to you obv...

[woodrot]

not going to give a list of actual recipies - I also try to avoid the ubuiquitous cheese that seems to infest all non meat dishes. I alos try to avoid too much pasta as its leaden deadweight makes me sleepy

a hefty Spanish Tortilla & large salad is always a good fall back I find

Vegi chilli can be made with pretty much anything in the veg drawer & a few tins of kidney beans, has virtually no fat and is nomtastic in a baked potato with sour cream or in a burrito a day or two later- I often cook a batch and it actually gets better after a few days in the fridge.

Aduki Bean cottage pie ditto, but you have to soak the beans for 24 hours beforehand.this is a killer winter dish with a load of peas or soya beans as a side

get teh teenagers to make their own pizza- either form a base mix of easily just using yer own kitchen ingerdients and load it up with veg

my sole cheese centric reguar is roasted quatered bell pepper, with halloumi, fresh basil and pine nuts - takes about half an hour end to end and is a fresh rainbow coloured treat when hot from teh oven

[TillieTrotter]

They love soup but not too keen on pizza. I'd also like meat dish ideas particularly ones you can make batches of to freeze.

[EP212]

Today I am making lamb tagine with sweet sweet potatoes and okra... looking forward to dinner.. : )

[????]

Crystal Meth :)

[woodrot]

The charidee shops on LL seem to be bulging with Jamie Oliver 30 minute meal books - the xmas present that no one really wants - to be fair thouigh, the fat tounged essex boy has some decent ideas in there - though I have yet to complete one in the alleged 30 minutes implied

[steveo]

No snacking (meth)

[TillieTrotter]

That's going on the list EP212. My lovely tagine could do with the cobwebs dusting off.

@ Quids. I'm trying to wean them off ;-)

[KidKruger]

meat dishes to freeze.

I regularly make huge batches of lasagne and load those plastic take-away cartons with double portions before freezing.

Also I make large Thai meat (mainly chicken) curries and do same.

Then, when required, remove from freezer in morning ready for evening cooking (or micorwave if you have one), just preparing some pasta / rice respectively.

I've also done this with goat curry (West-Indian) but rice n peas can take a bit too long to prepare properly if speed / convenience is what you're after.

[StraferJack]

". My lovely tagine could do with the cobwebs dusting off. "

I'm going to pretend that wasn't deliberate

[KidKruger]

I can make fresh chana in 30 mins if you want that recipe, and paneer.

[EP212]

Glad to hear it TT. I got a tagine recipe book and this is my first recipe from the book though I've cooked tagines before. I went through a phase of cooking curry but a bit bored of it now so time for yummy tagine to warm me up on this miserable cold day!

[TillieTrotter]

Ha ha SJ. That says more about your mind than mine.

Yes please for the chana recipe KK.

[red devil]

Cheat's Chilli...

1 x Tin of Stagg Chilli Classic (they also do a Dynamite Hot and a Veggy version, I would use Classic and add your own Chilli to taste...M&S do a nice one, but not easy to get hold off locally ;-));

1 x Jar of Loyd Grossman Tomato and Chilli Sauce (you might not want to add anymore chilli as this has a bit of a kick);

1 x Tin of Organic Kidney Beans (worth paying extra for organic).

Put all contents into a pan and slowly heat through, serve with Basmati rice...

[WorkingMummy]

EP212 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Today I am making lamb tagine with sweet sweet

> potatoes and okra... looking forward to dinner.. :

> )

EP212, can I have your recipe please? Always wanted to use okra and never have.

For easy meet dishes, Nigellisima's Italian Roast Chicken with Saffron Orzotto (like risotto, but with pearl barley and much less of a hassle to make) is the best chicken dish ever and is very easy and quick. The BBC food website has it.

[Pickle]

I've recently bought a copy of the Hairy Bikers diet cookbook, which despite the name is full of big flavours and hearty meals. Spanish chicken went down a treat with my kids, as did Jambalaya (chorizo, prawns and chicken). A few of the recipes from the book are online if you search. Trying a lamb tagine later this week from the same book.

[sheilarose]

My kids are a bit younger and probably less adventurous than yours, but here is this week's menu.

Tonight: slightly spicy tomato and red pepper rice pilaf with roast squash and broccoli

Tomorrow: cauliflower and tomato mac cheese with smokey bacon

Thursday: baked potatoes with smoked trout, prawns, avo, spring onion, mayo and lemon juice

[Jeremy]

A great meat dish to freeze is chilli verde - a spicy pork stew.

Fry onions with garlic and plenty of chopped chillis, chilli powder, pepper, cumin.

Add chicken stock, sliced green peppers, oregano, coriander... simmer until peppers are soft.

Blend sauce until smooth

Fry chunks of pork shoulder, add to the sauce. Cook in a casserole dish for a couple of hours.

Good with rice, or even better as a taco/burrito/enchilada filling.

[EP212]

Hello WorkingMummy,

Here's the recipe.. Hope you enjoy it!

The recipe is for 6-8 people so work out the quantities depending on how many people you are cooking for.

you need:

6-8 lamb shanks cut into bite-sized pieces

6 onions

a pinch of saffron threads

2 cinnamon sticks

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 table spoons of Ghee or butter

250g fresh okra

juice of 1 lemon

salt

buttery cous cous

Put the lamb in a tagine or a casserole dish with half the onions, saffron, cinnamon sticks and pepper. pour enough water to cover the meat and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Add sweet potatoes, ghee and the rest of the onions. Simmer for 20 - 25 mins until the potatoes are tender. Toss the okra in lemon juice, leave for 10 mins and then drain. Add the okra to the tagine and simmer for 5-10 mins. Serve with buttery cous cous.ENJOY!

[MrBen]

Jeremy Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> A great meat dish to freeze is chilli verde - a

> spicy pork stew.

>

> Fry onions with garlic and plenty of chopped

> chillis, chilli powder, pepper, cumin.

> Add chicken stock, sliced green peppers, oregano,

> coriander... simmer until peppers are soft.

> Blend sauce until smooth

> Fry chunks of pork shoulder, add to the sauce.

> Cook in a casserole dish for a couple of hours.

>

> Good with rice, or even better as a

> taco/burrito/enchilada filling.

*LIKE*

This is my Saturday sorted and my kind of dish. Along with some homemade "dad" cocktails. (altho not a Dad you know what I mean)

[red devil]

Braised Sausages in Cider (quantities serves 2-3, so adjust accordingly)...

brown off an 8 pack of good quality Lincolnshire pork sausages, put to one side;

meanwhile in a lidded casserole dish, fry off a 200g packet of good quality dry cure smoked lardons (streaky bacon cheap substitute) and around 225g of whole shallots in 1 tbsp of olive oil;

when done, add a good heaped teaspoon of plain flour and bind into juices;

then slowly add 375ml of strong dry cider, a crushed clove of garlic, a teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves, a bay leaf, and pepper to taste (no need to add salt), and give a good stir;

finally add the sausages and a few whole sprigs of thyme;

as soon as the mixture starts to bubble, put the lid on and place casserole in a pre-heated oven at 180degC;

after 30mins remove lid and allow to cook for a further 30 mins;

serve with lashings of creamy mash, if you want to sneak some greens in for the kids, shred a Savoy cabbage and add it to the cooking potatoes for the last 8-10 mins, then drain and mash as normal...

ETA...typo re. quantity of shallots.