Tag: quick (Page 1 of 3)

Buckwheat Pancakes American Style

19/04/2025 / Neville

Simple foolproof recipe.

3 heaped tbs plain flour
3 heaped tbs buckwheat flour
1/2 tsp baking pwder
pinch of salt
1 beaten egg
300ml milk

Stir well until a thick creamy consistency. Heat a pan and oil sparingly. Drop a 1/4 cup of mix onto the hot pan. When bubbles form and the gloss goes from the edge of the round, flip over and cook for a similar time. That’s all! This recipe makes six pancakes. You can fit three at a time on a large frying pan, so keep them warm whicle you make the rest.

Serve as you prefer, I like bacon, maple syrup, berries and a dollop of Greek yoghurt.

Crab Orzo

19/04/2025 / Neville

Really simple and tasty summery dish that could be mistaken for risotto. Takes about 15-20 minutes end to end. Serves 2:

1/2 an onion, chopped
Dash of oil

Gently saute until soft but not scorched.

150g orzo pasta
300ml vegetable stock

Add to the pan and simmer 5 minutes

Cut a bunch of asparagus into 1cm lengths, except leave the tips whole

Add asparagus slices except for the tips to the pan.

Simmer 4 minutes.

Add the tips. Simmer 3 minutes. Check how liquidy it is, if it is too dry add a splash of water, you want a creamy consistency. Check how done the pasta and asparagus are, simmer a little longer until tender if necessary.

1 tin of crab meat drained, or 100g crab meat fresh or frozen, thawed
2 tbs creme fraiche
zest of one lemon
Juice of half a lemon
2 tbs fresh parsely, chopped (optional)

Add to the pan, stir and heat through.

Serve!

Sausage and leek pie

04/09/2021 / Neville

Good comfort food. From a BBC freebie calendar. Serves four.

4 large or 8 small potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

Boil in salted water for 15 minutes, then mash with a dash of milk and a little butter. Set aside. While the potatoes are boiling you can make the filling. Heat a pan with a dash of oil.

8 sausages, squeeze the sausagemeat out into blobs

Fry in the oil turning until brown all over.

3 leeks, cleaned and sliced thinly

While the sausages are cooking, do a similar thing in another pan with the leeks, only more gently. If you put a lid on their pan they will soften nicely.

1 tbs plain flour

Add to the sausages and stir around. Add

450 ml chicken or vegetable stock, or leftover gravy.

Heat together until it thickens

200g washed spinach or 150 g shredded kale.

I don’t like kale. Add spinach (or kale) to the gravy and heat until it wilts. Now go back to your leeks and potatoes. When the leeks have softened, stir into the potatoes. Add

2 tsp wholegrain mustard

Mix all together. Now spread the potato mixture over the sausage mixture. Sprinkle over

50g grated cheddar

and brown under a grill. I forgot to mention you need to have a grill-proof pan for your sausage cooking. If you didn’t read ahead or haven’t got a suitable pan just decant the filling into a pie dish and add the potato topping to that. Grill for 3-5 minutes until the top is nice and brown and crispy. This is a meal in itself, meat, gravy, veg and potatoes!

Prawn Pasta

02/02/2020 / Neville

Very quick and tasty. For two people:

170gm pasta of your choice

Get it boiling according to the packet instructions. Meanwhile…

dash of olive oil
Half a chilli deseeded and sliced
1 garlic clove sliced

Add to a frying pan and saute gently for 3 minutes.

100g chorizo, sliced (or bacon, or salami)
half tsp fennel seeds

Add to the pan, fry for one minute

150gm cherry tomatoes, halved

Add to the pan, cover and simmer for 8 minutes. Keep an eye on the liquid, if it dries out add a splash of water.

150gm raw prawns

Add to the pan, fry until pink (about two minutes)

Juice of half a lemon
Chopped parseley

Add to the pan, stir in. Adjust any seasoning. The pasta should be done by now. Drain the pasta, stir into the sauce and serve.

Vietnamese Turkey Mince

22/10/2017 / Neville / 0 Comments

Finger food.

500g turkey mince (or chicken thigh mince)
dash of oil

Stir fry until it looks cooked.

1tbs fish sauce
1 tbs rice wine vinegar
zest and juice of 2 limes
1tbs brown sugar
1 red chilli de-seeded and chopped
3 spring onions chopped

Add to the mince and keep cooking another three minutes

small handful mint leaves chopped
handful of fresh corainder leaves

Chop the herbs and add to the mince

Cooked noodles
Lettuce leaves
Chopped peanuts

Scoop mince into a lettuce leaf, add some noodles and peanuts. Roll up and eat. Add sweet chili sauce or any oriental hot sauce if you like.

Turkey and Chorizo Burgers

03/06/2017 / Neville / 0 Comments

This is my favourite non-beef burger. You can make this with turkey leg mince or chicken thigh mince. Breast mince will be too dry.

500g turkey or chicken mince
120g diced chirizo
1 tsp smoked paprika

Whizz skinned, boned thighs in a food processor with the chorizo, or if using mince, finely dice the chorizo and munch to mix. Form into burgers. Grill, fry or BBQ. Best served in a brioche bun with lettuce, mayo, tomato and melted cheese.

Smoked Pollack Hollandaise

16/12/2016 / Neville / 0 Comments

This is a bit of a cheat but dead quick. You can use any smoked white fish or hot-smoked salmon. For two:

Two fillets of smoked pollack or equivalent, 400-500gms total
Half a packet of fresh spinach
Two thick slices of real bread – sourdough is excellent
Packet of hollandaise sauce
two eggs.

Get yourself ready, this is going to be on the table in five minutes. Make the sauce according to the packet. Wilt the spinach in a pan for three minutes. Poach the eggs until soft. Toast the bread. Heat the smoked fish in the microwave for a couple of minutes (it is already cooked). Assemble: base layer of toast, the spinach, fish, egg and sauce poured over. As an alternative to the toast I have also used sliced boiled new potatoes.

This can be a supper dish or a great brunch or lunch dish.

Cod and Chorizo Stew

10/12/2016 / Neville / 0 Comments

This is a really quick one-pot dish and one you could easily do camping or in a boat. You don’t need to be at all precise with quantities, but for two we used:

2 cod steaks or fillets
1/2 onion chopped
100g chorizo, chopped into small chunks
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tin of white beans – butter, haricot, borlotti etc.
Chopped fresh parsely
Olive oil

Simply fry the chorizo and onion in a pan until the onion is soft and the chorizo makes everything red. Add the tin of tomatoes, cover and cook for five minutes. Add the cod and cook for another five minutes. add the beans, and cook for a final five minutes. Adjust seasoning, sprinkle with chopped fresh parsely and serve in a bowl with crusty bread.

Daddy Burgers

22/11/2016 / Neville / 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 and Spinach Pasta

22/11/2016 / Neville / 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.