Easy recipes from Apple Tree

Tag: quick (Page 1 of 3)

Sausage and leek pie

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Indulgent Porridge

Why pay a fortune for porridge in little packets? It is cheap, quick and easy to make your own. You can embellish this with a variety of flavourings or just make plain.

Per person, put half a cup each of porridge oats, water and milk in a pan. Heat until it starts blurping. Turn the heat down to its lowest. If you like , add a handful of blueberries or raspberries and continue heating for two minutes, stirring occasionally. Or make plain and just heat a bit more. Turn into a bowl and add flaked toasted almonds and Argave syrup.

Alternatively, make plain then add a spoon of jam, or a drizzle of honey, Golden Syrup, cream, sprinkle of demarera sugar….the choice is yours.

*** Update! *** We watched Nigel Slater making porridge the other night with a Scottish gent, who would know, obviously. His method was subtly different. He used three measures of water, not two of milk and water, and simmered for five minutes not two. He then added a pinch of salt. We tried this and I have to admit, if you can take the extra three minutes it is worth it. We are divided over the salt issue, Olwyn does not approve but I liked it. By the way, Hugh F-W in an earlier programme soaked his oats for 30 minutes before cooking. I haven’t tried that but will do and report back later.

 

Quick Thai Fish Curry

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.

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