Ten Minute Treat: Stir Fry

Much as I love spending hours standing over the stove, gently stirring a risotto, sometimes there just isn't time. This is perfect for a mid-week meal as it's ready to eat in under ten minutes - and is healthy and wonderfully flavoured to boot.

The key to this dish is preparation. None of it takes long to cook at all, so you really do need to make sure you have everything chopped and ready to go before you start to avoid things burning etc.

Ingredients (serves 4):
- 1 red onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- thumb fresh ginger, peeled
- 1 red chilli
- 5 spring onions
- 1 large carrot, peeled
- 1 red pepper
- 100g baby corn
- 100g mangetout
- 160g marinated tofu
- handful beansprouts
- 120g stir fry sauce (pick your flavour - I like the chow mein)
- 2tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1tbsp sesame oil
- juice of ½ a lime
- 300g fine egg noodles (substitute to make vegan/gluten-free)
- sprinkle of sesame seeds

For the mangetout and baby corn I'd recommend just grabbing one of the mixed packs you can get in supermarkets. You can vary the amounts, and can really add any veg you like - mushrooms, water chestnuts or savoy cabbage would all go well - the above is just a list of my favourites/what I had in at the time.

1. Start by putting a pan of water on to boil and thinly slicing all your veg. Put the onion, garlic, ginger, chilli and spring onions together in a bowl to keep them separate from the rest - just because these go in first.
2. Put about 1tbsp olive oil in a wok and heat (think mid to high heat on your hob) - you can test if it's hot by dropping in a slice of veg and seeing if it sizzles. If it does, then go ahead and add the onion mix. Stir this for a minute before adding the carrot, pepper, corn and mangetout and tofu.

3. After another minute add the beansprouts; at this point you should also put your noodles into the pan of boiling water to cook. Make sure you're stirring everything A LOT, or it will just burn.
4. Add the stir fry sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil and lime juice to the wok, along with the drained noodles once cooked (they shouldn't take more than 2 minutes).
5. Serve up and sprinkle with the sesame seeds (and some fresh coriander if you have some to hand). Voila!

Spanish Bean Stew

Or 'Spanish Bean Cassoulet', if you're trying to feed someone fussy (*COUGH* Shannon, *COUGH* Alex) who gets put off when they hear 'stew'. The recipe belongs to my Mum's friend Christine, so I'm hoping I've done it justice and that my alterations aren't frowned upon too much! It's super cheap to make and the flavours are like nothing else I've ever had, and oh lordy the smell.

Ingredients:
- 3 shallots
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3 peppers (not red)
- 2 sticks celery
- 10 new potatoes, washed
- 3 large tomatoes, chopped
- 400g tin green lentils
- 400g tin chickpeas
- 400g tin borlotti beans
- 2tbsp smoked paprika
- 1tbsp sweet chilli sauce
- water to cover
- 1 glass red wine
- 100g curly parsley

The celery is Mum's addition, and the wine is mine. Not just because I'm a student and that's what we do... I think it gives it an extra depth of flavour and helps everything else to come alive. Also, in terms of the beans, you can pretty much use what you like - this time I had cannelini beans instead of borlotti, and they were brill. ALL OF THE BEANS.

Method:

1. Roughly chop the shallots, garlic and celery into small-ish pieces (you're not going to blend it at the end like a soup, so however big you chop everything is pretty much the size they'll be at the end) and throw into a large pan with some olive oil.

2. Cook on a low heat while you chop the peppers, potatoes and tomatoes, and then add those too. Cook for a further 10 minutes or so, until everything's softened.

3. Stir in the beans and lentils, then add the smoked paprika and sweet chilli sauce. Pour in the wine and enough water to cover everything, then bring to a low boil. Cover (use tinfoil if you don't have a lid) and simmer for about an hour and a half, stirring every 20 minutes or so (I usually take the lid off for the last 20 minutes, too).

4. Once it's nicely reduced and you just can't stand the smell any longer, chop up the parsley and add to the pan along with some salt and pepper. Serve with lots of bread and butter.

NB: You can freeze any leftovers, though it does make it go slightly mushy. Still good though!

Here Comes The Sun

As soon as the sun comes out my cooking motivation and ideas go wild, and I also want very different sorts of food to the kind I crave when it's cold. This particular one I'd been fantasising about for a good 4/5 days before I got to make it, but boy was it worth the wait.

I admit it's not the most visually stunning, but my god you have to taste it because it is brilliant. It's also super-duper easy to make which is perfect, particularly after a day like this:

I LOVE THE SUN. Also now that it's hot we can eat in the conservatory, which is beyond awesome.

Ingredients: (serves 4)
- 1 large red onion (or 2 smaller)
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 red pepper, de-seeded
- 1 courgette
- 3 carrots, peeled
- 200g cherry tomatoes (approx)
- 1tbsp dried thyme
- salt and pepper, to taste
To serve:
- tortilla wraps (or GF pasta for a gluten-free option)
- 150g pot natural yoghurt
- 200g pack feta cheese
- 1 standard size pot of hummus (I happened to have a 'chargrilled red pepper and hummus dip' which was brill)

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 220°C. Grab your veg (you can really use anything you like) and chop into similar sized pieces so they'll all cook at a similar time, then throw them all into a big dish they can be roasted in. Drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle over the thyme, salt and pepper before giving it all a good stir and bunging in the oven for 45-60 minutes (stirring every 15 minutes or so).

2. Sit down and enjoy a glass of wine or similar. Because roasting the veg is basically all the cooking in this whole recipe so drinking alcohol has now become an actual instruction. ENJOY.
3. If you're gluten-intolerant, put 75g of GF penne on to cook 10 mins before the veg has finished roasting. Zosia used all the other serve-with things and said it was bon, so you can do that easy peasy. Otherwise, warm up the wraps, spread with hummus, then add the veg. Dollop on some yoghurt and feta, and wrap up all the lovliness. Then eat in your conservatory/garden because it's warm and beautiful and LIFE IS GOOD.

Vegetable Chilli (the best you've ever tasted)

This chilli is so easy to make that it's really impossible to get it wrong - it just takes a bit of time. It feeds a whole bunch of people (about 6) so is great if you're having friends round, plus it freezes brilliantly. It's also packed with the things your parents always ask if you're eating enough of, like BEANS (look, Mum!), and what’s more, you can adapt it to whatever you fancy or just happen to have in the fridge - use different kinds beans or vegetables, or play around with the spices to vary it.

 

Because of the awesomeness I ended up making it two days in a row last week - first to feed my friends before a night out, and the second time because Fraser requested it when he came to stay. I'd made double quantity the first night (there were 9 of us) but my hopes of leftovers were in vain!

Ingredients: 

- 1 onion

- 2 peppers (yellow and red)

- 2 sticks celery
- 1 large carrot

- 2 cloves garlic

- 2 chillies (red and green)

- 300g Quorn mince

- 1tsp chilli powder

- 1½tsp ground cumin

- 1tsp ground coriander

- 2tsp cinnamon 

- 1tsp paprika

- 1 glass red wine

- 2x 400g tin chopped tomatoes

- 2x 400g tin kidney beans (or any you like)

- 200ml vegetable stock

- 1 bay leaf

- 30g fresh coriander

Method:
1. Heat some olive oil in a large pan or wok. Roughly chop the onion, peppers, celery, carrot, garlic and chillies and add to said pan, then cook for about 10 minutes, until softened and beginning to colour.

2. Add the Quorn mince (straight from frozen, but bash it a bit to break it up first) and cook for a few minutes until it's browned, then add the spices and cook for a further 5 minutes. This is the only point where you really have to watch it, or the spices will stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.

3. Stir in the tomatoes, red wine, bay leaf, vegetable stock and beans (drained), then give it a good stir to mix it all together. Bring it to a boil, then let it simmer for about an hour, stirring every 10 minutes or so to make sure it isn't sticking.

4. Turn off the heat, then roughly chop the coriander and add it to the pan, along with salt and pepper to taste. You can serve it with basically anything - my favourite is in tortilla wraps with sour cream and a strong cheddar, but you could do it with rice and add chopped spring onions, or even just eat it by itself. The choice is yours! But do eat it - you're missing out until you do.

Something Different: Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Apologies for the lack of posting this month - I know we always say life's really busy but LIFE'S REALLY BUSY. This should make up for it though.

Every Friday afternoon Jamie and I go into Egham for soup and tea at what we call 'Bar-Divisible-By-Three' to celebrate the end of the week and get into the general Friday-feeling. A few weeks ago I got excited by the prospect of 'roasted red pepper and tomato soup', but when we went to order we were told the cafe had run out. The soup we got was awesome but I couldn't stop thinking about the one that got away... so I made my own. Because stubborn is my middle name.

 You will need:

- 2 onions                                                      - 600ml water  

- 2 sticks of celery                                         - 300ml double cream            

- 1 large clove garlic                                     - 1tbsp red pesto

- 4 large red peppers                                     - 2 handfuls fresh curly parsley  

- 10 cherry tomatoes                                     - plenty of salt and pepper     

- 1x 500ml stock pot, or 2 Oxo cubes                                 

What to do:

1. De-seed and quarter the peppers, then place into a baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle over some salt and pepper, then stir it all up so they're coated. Place into an oven preheated to 220°C, and cook for about 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so so they don't burn. After 20 minutes, add the tomatoes too. This can be done in advance.

2. Roughly chop the onions, celery and garlic and throw into a stock pot (or any big pan) along with a knob of butter and some olive oil. Cook on a medium temperature for 10-15 minutes, until soft.

3. Add the peppers and tomatoes to the pot, and cook for a further 5 minutes. Lots of recipes tell you to take the skins off the peppers, and you can, but leaving them on gives the soup more texture as well as being healthier. Add the pesto, water, stock, and cream (or you could use milk for a healthier alternative) and mix.

4. Bring to a gentle boil, then put on a lid and simmer for half an hour, stirring occasionally.

5. Using a hand blender/food processor/a sieve and lots of determination, blitz the soup. You can obviously make it as smooth as you like, but I think it's best if it's not done too much so you get the textures still. Chop your parsley and add that in, then season to taste.

 

To give it an extra bit of awesome, while you're on stage 4 and it's simmering away, chop a few slices of bread into cubes along with some sun-dried tomatoes (or a few chopped cherry ones) and put into the baking dish the peppers were roasted in. To this, add a bit more salt and pepper, and if you have it some garlic/basil/nicely flavoured olive oil (normal olive oil is fine), then stir to coat and stick in the oven at 180°C. You need to stir this every 10 minutes or so to make sure they crisp evenly, and after about 20-30 minutes you should have some fancy homemade croutons to go along with your soup.

Voila. Super simple, and super tasty. 

Pizza Time

As well as being a crowd-pleaser, pizza is very easy to make and really doesn't take that long. You can even buy ready-made bases if you want, though I prefer to make the lot from scratch. For an extra 15 minutes of work it's more than worth it.

For the base, I stand by Delia's recipe which is scrumptious and has yet to go wrong for me. The quantities are also easy to adapt - for example, our round baking tray (you could use a rectangular one!) is 12" rather than 10", so instead of 6oz flour I used 9oz, and so on. Also, I used half white flour and half wholemeal, just to make it a bit healthier and less heavy.

I basically roll it out as much as possible, then put it in the middle of the tin and punch it into shape. Works for me.

For the tomato sauce, I adapted a recipe from 'The Vegetarian Student Cookbook' by Hamlyn, which is as follows:

- 3tbsp olive oil

- 2 red onions

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 2x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes

- 1 tsp red wine vinegar

- pinch of sugar

- generous sprinkle dried oregano

- salt and pepper

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Chop the onions and garlic as finely or roughly as you like, and then add. Fry for a couple of minutes and then add the oregano, and any other herbs you fancy. Cook for another few minutes, until the onions are beginning to caramelise slightly.

2. Add the tomatoes, vinegar*, sugar and seasoning. Turn up the heat (or, if you have an annoying electric hob like we did in halls last year, have another ring already heated up so you can switch between the two) and simmer. You're looking to reduce it all by about half to get a good thick sauce.

*When I made this last, I used a glass of red wine and a splash of balsamic instead of the red wine vinegar, partially because that was all we had but also because I thought it would give it more depth. 

This recipe makes enough sauce for 4 hungry people and is more than enough for a pizza, so put any you don't use into a tupperware box and put in the fridge/freezer to have with some pasta at a later date. Two meals in one. You're welcome.

Now, toppings. You really can use anything you like. For mine I had red and yellow pepper (chopped and dry-fried for 5 minutes), fresh basil, whole cherry tomatoes, grated mozzarella, half a packet of soft goats cheese and lashings of green pesto. 

Tell me that doesn't make your mouth water. You're lying.

Bake at 230°C for about 30 minutes. It's hard to judge the time purely because it depends on how many toppings you use - the more toppings, the longer it'll take to cook. Keep an eye on it: when it's ready the crust should be golden, the tomatoes should be splitting and the cheese should be bubbling. 

Leave it on the tray to cool for a couple of minutes, then cut and serve up. We had it with a green salad, but potato wedges or cous cous would be scrumptious.

I'm admittedly not the best at slicing it up. But still, LOOK at it

What to do when you win a coconut

First of all, I'm sorry for being a bit MIA recently. Life is mad, especially since I got a job at my local fruit and veg shop (yay vegetables), but I will make it up to you. Starting with this.

Because at the Royal Holloway Summer Ball this year, I won a coconut on the coconut shy. Here is a picture of me with my coconut.

Zosia would like to add here that she really reallllly was very very excited.

I named him Tarzan. I was very very excited and full of ideas of what to do with it... but a month later it was still sitting on my shelf, though at home now as we'd left uni. And then my sister suggested I used it to make some sort of Thai curry. AN IDEA WAS BORN. And my coconut became this:

Which was pretty darn good really.

What you need for a Bryony-style Thai green curry:
- 1 coconut
- 8 spring onions
- 2 cloves garlic
- half a red pepper
- half an aubergine (a whole one would be fine)
- a thumb-size piece of ginger
- 2 chillies (I used 1 red and 1 green, but it's up to you)
- 6-8 new potatoes
- handful green beans
- handful mange tout
- 1 1/2 tsp soya sauce
- 1 tbsp soft dark brown sugar
- 350ml water with half a knorr stock pot or 1 oxo cube
- zest and juice of 1 lime
- fresh coriander
- jasmine or sticky rice, to serve

And the SECRET ingredient (less secret now I put it on the internet in capital letters) is a 'Thai Taste: Easy Thai Green Curry Kit'. Which sounds like a massive cheat, but actually it isn't and is also the best money-saver ever. It includes coconut milk, Thai green curry paste and herbs - which, if you bought them seperately, would come to about £5-6, and I think this was £2ish. So no complaints.

It's quite a lot of ingredients, but I promise nothing is lost and it's totally worth it. This amount served three, but it would be a good one for bulking up and cooking en-masse, too - especially if you get people to pitch in for cost.

1. Start by getting into your coconut. We used a hammer and chisel, but the internet is full of suggestions. Once you're in, cut the fleshy bits into small, thin pieces and dry-fry them in a wok or frying pan until they're toasted. This alone is amazingly nice. Put the coconut water aside, and put the toasted coconut pieces in a bowl to cool down. Meanwhile, put your new potatoes on to boil for about 15 minutes.

2. In the now-empty wok heat up some oil, and then add the spring onions, garlic and ginger. Stir-fry these for a couple of minutes, and then add the aubergine, followed shortly by the green beans.

3. Once the vegetables are starting to colour and the aubergine is beginning to shrink, add the pepper, chillis and Thai herbs. Stir-fry all this for another 5 minutes or so, before adding in the boiled new potatoes (chopped), the curry paste and most of the toasted coconut. Cook for another few minutes.

4. Next, add the mange tout, the coconut water (the stuff that was inside your coconut), the coconut milk, the water and the stock pot/cube. It should be beginning to look more like a curry. Turn up the heat slightly and stir, and add in the sugar and soya sauce. Now is also a good time to put your rice on to cook, though it depends what sort of rice you're using.

5. After 15 minutes or so, your liquid should have reduced by about half, and should now be thicker and more sauce-like (although it isn't a particularly thick sauce, so don't worry). When you're happy with the consistency, add in most of your fresh coriander, the lime juice and most of the zest. Cook for another couple of minutes and then try the sauce and adjust whatever you need (if you need to) until you're happy with it. 

Serve with the rice, and the rest of the coconut, coriander and lime zest. You won't be disappointed.

Goats Cheese Stuffed Peppers

As Zosia said in her explanation of Life Lately, everything has been manic. I have been running through poppy fields in France for a week (expect posts about French food in the near future), so I have something of a blogging-backlog which I shall now attempt to sort out - especially as before I went away I was on cooking duty at home for a fortnight. LOTS OF COOKING.

Things were a bit mad in the week before we went away too, what with millions of people having birthdays (cake post also coming up) and trying to pack, so we were trying to use up things we had in the fridge and think of things to make that didn't take much effort but would still be lovely. Enter stuffed peppers.

 These are brilliant to make at uni too for the same reason - and you can pretty much stuff them with anything you like. You don't even have to use peppers - Zosia tends to hollow out tomatoes and use the filling as part of the stuffing, and if I liked mushrooms (don't judge me) I would use those too.

These are the quantities for 1 person, so you can multiply to however much you need:

- 1 large pepper

- 75g goats' cheese

- 2tbsp creme fraiche

- 1 small red onion

- 1 clove of garlic

- 3 spring onions

- 4 cherry tomatoes

- 4 sundried tomatoes

- 2 tsp red pesto

- fresh herbs. I used thyme, parsley and chives

- salt and pepper

1. Start by preheating your oven to 200°C. Wash the peppers, remove the stalks and cut them in half, then stick them on a baking tray and put in the oven for about 15 minutes while you make the filling. This will make them softer and, in my opinion, more yummy. That's a technical term.

2. For the filling, start by chopping up your red onion and garlic and frying them in a bit of butter for about 5 minutes, until they're soft and smelling amazing.

3. In a bowl, put the goats' cheese (you can use more if you like - 75g was all we had) and creme fraiche and mix thoroughly to create a sort of goats' cheese mousse. The more you mix the more air will get in and the moussier (also a technical term) it will be, so it's about how long you can be bothered to mix really.

Two stages of the moussey filling. Basically, a bowl full of lovliness.

 4. Prepare the rest of the ingredients that need it - wash and chop the spring onions into small pieces, half the cherry tomatoes, chop the parsley and chives and strip the thyme leaves. Add everything (including the red onion and garlic) to the goats' cheese mixture and stir well.

5. Take the peppers out of the oven and STUFF. You CAN get it all in. Have faith. And determination. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil, add a tad more seasoning and put back in the oven for approximately 30-40 minutes - until the peppers are wrinkled and the filling looks set and cooked.

Before and after cooking. Basil garnish not necessary, but I thought it made it prettier.

6. Serve with something salady like leaves or cous cous, or just eat by themselves.

Fajitas

These are very easy to make and immensely satisfying, and wonderful if you have friends over as Zosia and I did on Friday.

Fellow students, it's a win-win situation!

To make enough for four, you need:

- 1 large onion (or 2 small)
- 2 red chillies and seeds (depending on the type/your preference)
- 3 or 4 peppers
- 1 bag Quorn fillets or 'chicken style pieces'
- 1 sachet 'Old El Paso' fajita seasoning
- 1 tbsp cumin
- sprinkle of Tabasco
- squirt of lemon juice
- handful of fresh coriander

Chop your onion into long-ish strips and throw into a large frying pan or wok with a generous amount of olive oil. Then chop your chillies (the best way to do this is to make one cut from the stem to the bottom, and then slice into small pieces, cutting in the direction of the stem. This means you can hold onto the stem at all times, and so avoids getting chilli all over your hands and having to deal with the consequences of rubbing your eyes later in the evening). Add to pan.

Chop the peppers into strips - by the time this is done you can add them to the pan. Stir and take the opportunity to talk to your friends/esteemed dinner guests and food critics (depending on your chefy fantasies), as these need a good five minutes before you can move on.

The next step depends on what type of Quorn you're using - if it's the fillets, you'll need to defrost them in the microwave enough to chop them into small pieces. If it's the 'chicken style pieces' you can just throw them straight in the pan - they'll defrost in there as well as cook, and it makes life so much easier. Once they start to colour you can add the seasoning, cumin, Tabasco and lemon juice. You're now pretty much done - cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure nothing catches at the bottom of the pan, and add your fresh coriander before serving.

Best served with corn tortilla wraps, grated cheddar cheese, sour cream, salsa, guacamole and Tabasco.

The delicate art of how to fill your fajita in order to successfully make it close

YUM. Tesco also just so happens to sell all the dips together in a 'Tex Mex' dips set, which is a brilliant money saver.

Word to the wise - do not expect to be able to eat them without making a mess. It's half the fun.

Enjoy!