Arford Books Cooks

Easy recipes from Apple Tree

Category: Main courses (Page 10 of 13)

burger

Daddy Burgers

22/11/2016 / / 0 Comments

So called because Aedy and Josh loved these from an early age. I like making my own because you can make nice thick juicy burgers and know what is in them. Here’s what you do.

Buy mince to make enough 150g burgers for your needs (i.e. 600g makes 4 large burgers). Preferably buy fatty mince (10-18%) because lean steak mince (5%) will be a bit dry. Put the mince in a bowl with a tablespoon of tomato ketchup per burger, plus salt and pepper. Mush up with your hands and when mixed, form burger shaped burgers. You don’t need anything more special than your hands to do that. Lakeland keep your burger presses! What makes a true Daddy Burger is hidden cheese. Take a chunk of cheese and hide it completely inside each burger – best do that before you flatten it out. Now fry or grill each side until the burger is cooked through. The cheese will melt and ooze out spectacularly when cut.

Serve with all the trimmings – in a burger bun with your choice of tomato relish, iceberg lettuce, sliced tomato, mayo, sliced gherkin, grilled bacon, large flat grilled mushroom, more cheese or all of the above. If you do that spear it with a kebab skewer to look cool. Skin on fries, sweet potato fries or wedges are all legitimate accompaniments.

Salmon

Salmon and Spinach Pasta

22/11/2016 / / 0 Comments

Super quick pasta dish. I like any pasta sauce that cooks in less time that the pasta! For two (easily scales up):

  • 2 skinless boneless salmon portions
  • 4 sun dried tomatoes, sliced,  and their oil
  • 175g pasta of your choice (I like shells for seafood)
  • 1/2 pack of fresh spinach
  • A blob of creme fraiche (optional)

Here’s what to do. Boil the pasta according to the instructions. Meanwhile, heat the tomato oil in a pan and cook the salmon and tomatoes until the salmon looks cooked and flakes easily. Add the spinach and put a lid on the pan for a couple of minutes until the spinach is wilted. At this point you can add the creme fraiche if you like, or just stir about to mix, and adjust the seasoning. Mingle with the pasta and serve.

Chicken

Chicken and Mustard Traybake

20/11/2016 / / 0 Comments

All-in-one bake, you don’t need anything else for a meal.

  • 1 chicken jointed, or the equivalent in thighs
  • 300g new potatoes
  • 1 tbs wholegrain mustard
  • 1 tbs honey
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 1 lemon, zest and juice
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 150g frozen peas
  • 200g fresh spinach
  • Salt and pepper

Find yourself a nice big metal roasting tray. Spread the jointed chicken and potatoes evenly around. Mix the mustard, lemon, oil, garlic. salt, pepper and honey, and coat the chicken and potatoes. Roast for one hour at 190C basting occasionally. Add the spinach and peas, and toss around. Roast another 5 minutes and swirl around again. Job done: serve the chicken, potatoes, vegetables and amazing juices.

Lasagne

Ultimate Lasagne

20/11/2016 / / 0 Comments

After many years of trialling difference recipes, the method I use from memory seems to work reliably so here it is, committed to posterity. This makes four huge portions or six sensible ones.

  • 750g lean beef mince
  • 1 onion
  • 1 stick of celery
  • 2 carrots
  • 3 rashers of bacon
  • 3 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped
  • 1 tin chopped tomatoes
  • 1 Oxo cube
  • 1 tbs tomato paste
  • 8 basil leaves (or 1 tsp dried)
  • 1 wineglass of red wine
  • 450ml milk
  • lump of butter or equivalent
  • 30-40g plain flour
  • 1 bay leaf
  • another carrot and stick of celery left whole
  • 200g cheddar cheese grated
  • 9 sheets dried lasagne
  • oil, salt, pepper

First chop the onion, celery, carrots and bacon finely. Heat the oil in a large pan and stir-fry until soft but not coloured. Add the mince and garlic, and continue stir frying until all pink has gone from the mince. Add the tinned tomatoes. Crumble the oxo cube into the tin and fill the tin with boiling water. Tip into the pan. Add the basil, red wine and tomato paste. Simmer covered for one hour.

Meanwhile start the white sauce by putting the milk, bay leaf, extra carrot and celery stick into the milk with four whole peppercorns. It helps to chop the carrot and celery very roughly into big chunks. Bring the milk to the boil then switch off and leave until you make the cheese sauce.

After the meat has been simmering 40 minutes, make the sauce. Strain the flavoured milk and discard the vegetable bits. Heat the butter gently in another pad until melted, add the flour and cook away until it bubbles. Add the strained milk and stir like crazy to mix, then heat the sauce, stirring constantly, until it thickens. You want it to be a thick creamy consistency. You might need to adjust the amount of flour used with practice. Add three quarters of the cheese and melt it in to make a smooth creamy sauce.

When your meat is ready, assemble the lasagne thus: take a lasagne dish and put a thin layer of meat sauce on the bottom. Put three sheets of lasagne over to cover. Repeat three times. Pour the cheese sauce over the top and spread it out. Sprinkle over the remaining cheese and bake at 190C for 30 minutes. Awesome.

 

Thai Fish Curry

Quick Thai Fish Curry

16/11/2016 / / 0 Comments

You can use any white fish for this, preferably firm and chunky. Serves four but easily divided down to two or even one.

  • 450g white fish skinned, boned and cut into bite sized chunks
  • 25g seasoned flour
  • 1 clove garlic crushed, or paste
  • 2 tbs red Thai curry paste
  • 1 tbs fish sauce
  • 1 tin coconut milk
  • handful cherry tomatoes
  • 20 Thai basil leaves or our own if they are not available
  • Oil

Heat oil in a wok or frying pan. Toss the fish in the flour to coat and fry in hot oil for 3-4 minutes turning to seal. Remove the fish and keep warm. Mix the coconut milk, fish sauce and curry paste. Stir fry the garlic then add the sauce mixture. Bring to a simmer then add the fish back in, with the cheery tomatoes. Simmer for five minutes. Meanwhile stir fry some fresh vegetable and cook some Thai Jasmin or Basmati rice. When all is done, add the basil leaves to the curry and serve.

Lamb with Peppers and Aubergine

15/11/2016 / / 0 Comments

My favourite way with lamb – shoulder or leg.

  • Lamb joint
  • 50g butter
  • 1tbs wholegrain mustard
  • 1 tbs fresh chopped marjoram
  • 500g red peppers approx, chopped into chunks
  • 500g aubergine approx, chopped into chunks
  • Olive oil

Mix the butter, mustard and marjoram. Cut slits in the lamb fat and smear the surface of the joint with butter rubbing into the slits. Put the vegetables in the bottom of your roasting tray and swill about to coat in olive oil. Put the lamb on top on a rack or tuck in if you don’t have a rack. Roast according to weight  ( probably 190C for 20 minutes plus 25 mins/500g ). Watch the veg don’t burn. Stir around from time to time so they don’t char too badly. When the meat is cooked let it rest for 15 minutes before serving. The taste will be amazing and the veg will make a fabulous accompaniment. New potatoes and green beans would be perfect.

Sweetcorn and Broccoli Fritters

14/11/2016 / / 0 Comments

Ingredients (For two) – easily halved except for the egg!.

  • 140gms broccoli florets ( about one small head, cut off florets and throw the stems away)
  • 150gms tin of sweet corn, drained
  • 140gms flour (about 140 ml or half a US cup rounded()
  • 75gms Cheddar cheese grated
  • 1 beaten egg
  • 75ml milk, more or less
  • 2 tbs sweet chilli sauce
  • 2 tbs chopped basil leaves
  • 2 tbs chopped spring onion
  • sunflower oil for frying

Boil, microwave or steam the broccoli until soft, and chop  up into small pieces. Mush the sweet corn in a bowl with the bottom of a jar. Mix everything else together except the oil. It needs to be splodgy, not too runny. You can adjust with more flour (makes it less runny) or more milk (makes it more runny). Season with salt and pepper. If you don’t have the basil or chilli sauce it still works but is more bland. A condition easily corrected later with tomato ketchup! Heat a glug of oil on a frying pan to medium hot (shimmering but not smoking). Dollop big spoonfuls of your batter onto the hot oil and press out to a flat shape if they look like a lump. You are aiming for something like small burgers in shape and size. You will need two pans or do this in two batches. After a minute or so turn them over. The bottom should look brown, if not you turned too soon. Each minute turn again, cooking time will vary according to thickness of dollop and heat of pan but when they look brown (not black!) on each side they are probably done. You are aiming for crispy on the outside and set in the middle (a subtle mini autopsy on one of them will show if they are done.) Keep cooked ones warm while you finish the batches. Serve with grilled bacon, a couple of sausages or something like that. Vegetarians could just make a meal of these, with maybe a yogurt dip on the side.

Sausage and Broccoli Carbonara

14/11/2016 / / 0 Comments

Ingredients (for two) – easily halved

  • 4 chipolata sausages
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 small head broccoli cut into small florets.
  • 175gm spaghetti
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 25gm grated parmesan cheese
  • Oil

Squeeze the meat out of the sausages and with wet hands make little balls about  2cm diameter. Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a pan and fry the balls until they are brown and cooked through. Keep rolling them about. At the last minute add the garlic and keep cooking, but you don’t want the garlic burnt. Meanwhile boil water in a pan and cook the pasta. After 8 minutes boiling, toss in the broccoli. After another 5 minutes, drain the lot and put back in the pan with the sausage balls and garlic. Beat the eggs with the cheese and stir into the hot pasta. Add a dash of water or milk if it is too stodgy. Keep it on a gentle heat if the eggs don’t cook. After a minute all will be done and you can serve. Add more pepper and salt if you wish, it depends how seasoned the sausages were.

Spaghetti Carbonara

14/11/2016 / / 0 Comments

Ingredients (For One) – easily multiplied up for more people.

  • 85gms dried spaghetti
  • 1 egg beaten (or shaken in a jam jar!)
  • 1 garlic clove squashed
  • 2 rashers bacon
  • 25gms finely grated cheese (ideally parmesan but cheddar would do)
  • Tablespoon of sunflower oil for frying

In a frying pan fry the garlic gently. When it goes golden brown take it out and throw it away. Chop the bacon and fry until slightly crispy. Meanwhile put a pan of water on to boil and boil the pasta until done according to the packet. Take the pasta out and drop it in the frying pan. Don’t shake all the water off. Add the cheese and egg, and stir about over a gentle heat until the egg starts to set which will be very quick. It might need a spoon or two of the cooking water to make it more smooth and creamy and less dry and lumpy. Either way it will taste good. Adjust seasoning with a sprinkle of salt and pepper Enjoy.

P.S. for a vegetarian version use a handful of mushrooms instead of bacon.

Sausage and lentils

Sausage and Lentil Stew

14/11/2016 / / 0 Comments

A Quick Version and Longer Version. The quick version uses a tin of lentils but if you are making this for a bunch of people it is a lot cheaper to use dried green or Puy lentils and cook them. This takes another 30 minutes or so but it is no bother.

Ingredients (For One) – easily multiplied up for more people.

  • Tin of lentils (for quick version)or…
  • 75g dried green lentils (for slow cheaper version)
  • 150ml vegetable stock (for slow cheaper version)
  • 2 or 3 sausages
  • One small carrot
  • One stick of celery
  • A quarter of an onion
  • Sunflower oil for frying

Put oil in a frying pan and brown the sausages. When cooked take them out and put to one side. Chop the vegetables fairly small and add to the pan. Fry gently until soft and golden.

Quick version: add the tin of lentils and cooked sausages. Heat through for five minutes, if it is a little dry add a splash of water. Adjust seasoning and serve.

Longer version: add 75g dried green or Puy lentils per person and 150ml stock per person. Cover and cook for 30-40 minutes according to the instructions on the lentils packet. Keep an eye on it from time to time, if it is drying out add a bit more water. Adjust seasoning and serve. Very good with fresh French bread.

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