Very refreshing cold soup for hot days. Really easy to make. 

It's a bright colour, and a nice fresh taste, with a hint of warmth in the aftertaste from the curry paste. 

• Prep time, five to ten minutes
• Cooking time, ten minutes
• But also allow 2-3 hours in the fridge to chill if serving cold, or time to re-heat if serving hot and you made it earlier.

(I've not made it hot as a winter soup but I don't see why it won't work! )

This will serve six to eight. 

Ingredients

• Carrots - about .75 kg
• Lemongrass - one stalk. (If you can't get this, try the zest of a lime - won't be the same but a reasonable alternative.) 
• Coconut milk - 1 can
• Red thai curry paste - I like the small plastic "1 dose" pots from Blue Dragon, I use the whole pot. Otherwise, to taste. 

Reserve about 3 tablespoons of the thickest coconut milk, or use coconut cream. You need it to be about the consistency of not-whipped double cream, so it'll pour, but only slowly. This is merely for presentation, so optoinal. 

Note I use a steamer, as I do with most of my veg. I've not tried it by boiling in a pan, I don't see why it won't work. 

How to...

Peel and cut up the carrots, big chunks, just need to fit your steamer (or pan). Pop the carrot bits in.

Chop the root end off the lemongrass, peel away one tough outer layer and discard. Pop the rest in in one piece with the carrots. 

Steam until the carrots are still firm but not crunchy/raw. 

Allow to cool, pop carrots and the lemongrass stalk in a blender, along with most of the coconut milk (all of it if you're not saving some for presentation), and the red curry paste, and blitz. You want it to be very smooth, so you may need to pulse it for a while, and you may need to add a little water.  You may find it's firm enough that the blades are blitzing what's at the bottom but it's not circulating so there's more at the top not fully blitzed. Take the time to make sure it all gets evenly smooshed.  Taste, and if you think it needs it add a little salt and blitz again breifly to mix. I find that if I steam the carrots, no salt is needed. 

That's it. Put the blender bucket in the fridge if it'll fit or decant contents to a bowl. Give it a couple of hours to chill nicely - longer doesn't hurt. To serve, just transfer it to bowls, and pour a little of the reserved coconut milk or cream on top to give a nice colour contrast. 

Ingredients

• 250ml pineapple syrup (drain from tin of pineapple chunks)
• 120ml rice vinegar
• 100ml tomato puree
• 100g white sugar
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 2 tbsp water

Instructions

Mix all the ingredients together in a pan on medium heat, except for the cornflour and water. Bring to a gentle boil. At this point, mix the cornflour and water together to make a slurry, and then add this to the rest of the ingredients, stiring well. Simmer for another 5 minutes. Now the sauce is ready to be used.

Thoughts...

There's nothing remotely "chinese" about this. The bright orange/red sauce you get in the takeaways here was purely invented for the western palate. However my daughters challenged me to make this after lunch at one of those all-you-can-eat buffets. I did remember the pineapple syrup "cheat" from a friend of mine who worked in a chinese restaurant in town. The rest was a little trial and error but I think it hits the nail on the head. I usually throw the leftover pineapple chunks in with some chicken into a wok, and then throw about half the quantity of this sauce on top and let it simmer for 5 minutes- Sweet and Sour Chicken. Other hacks you can try is adding a little shiracha to give the sauce a little kick; swap out the salt for MSG for a better umami hit, or replace some of the puree with ketchup if you can't bring yourself to add MSG to your food (it's fine BTW, it's just suffered from an unjustified bad reputation).

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Ingredients

• 1 white baguette
• 50-75g softened butter
• 1 tbsp minced garlic or 2-3 finely chopped garlic cloves

Instructions

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Slow cooked sticky pork.

Marinade

• 1.5 tbsp brown sugar
  
• 4 tbsp honey
• 4 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
  
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
  
• 1 tsp five spice powder
  
• 2 tsp red bean curd (opti

Ingredients

• 1 - 1.5kg pork neck or shoulder

Instructions

Mix the marinade ingredients together. Butterfly the pork and coat with the marinade. Stick in the fridge and leave for 24-48 hours.

Preheat oven to 160C (fan oven, 140C). Line a tray with foil and place a rack on top. Remove pork from the marinade (save the marinade, you'll need it later). Place the pork on the rack and stick in the oven for 30 minutes.

Put the marinade in a saucepan and simmer until it thickens.

After 30 minutes, take the pork out of the oven and brush/baste throughly with the marinade, then return the pork to the oven for another 20 minutes and repeat the marinade. Do this for a further 2 times. If it is looking like the marinade/pork is starting to blacken, cover with foil.

Remove pork from oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes, then slice- the meat should be tender and not falling apart. Serve with rice.

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Relatively quick and easy (you can skip the marinade if you are in a hurry). I usually serve with Udon noodles which take about the same time to cook as this recipe does.

Marinade

• 1 tbsp dark/regular soy sauce.
• 1 tbsp sake or chinese rice wine.

Ingredients

• 4-5 chicken breasts, sliced thinly.
• 4 tbsp dark soy sauce.
• 4 tbsp mirin.
• 4 tbsp sake or chinese rice wine.
• 1 tbsp brown/moscavado sugar.
• 1 tbsp honey.
• 1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger.
• 1 tsp cornflour.

Instructions

Marinade the chicken for at least half an hour. Then heat oil (groundnut preferably) in a wok until it starts to smoke, add the chicken and cook until it turns white. Mix the rest of the ingredients together and add to the chicken. Cook until the sauce starts to bubble and thicken. Serve with udon noodles. Garnish with seasame seeds and/or chopped spring onion greens.

Optional.

What I like to do is prep the noodles so they are ready just as the sauce starts to bubble. I then add the noodles to the wok and lightly toss them until the chicken is well incorporated and the noodles are coated with sauce.

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Eggs baked in a spicy tomato sauce, originates from North Africa where the name shakshuka means to mix or shake up.

Ingredients

• Cooking oil (I prefer rapeseed but olive is okay).
• 1 medium onion, finely diced.
• 1 red pepper, finely diced.
• 6 cloves of garlic, crushed.
• 2 tsp sweet paprika.
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds.
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper.
• 800g (2 tins) chopped tomatoes.
• 2 tsp brown/moscavado sugar.
• 4 eggs.
• Fresh coriander or parsley to garnish.

Instructions

In a frying pan, heat the oil on a medium heat.Throw in the onion and peppers and cook until soft. Then add the garlic and the spices, and cook for another couple of minutes.

Add the tinned tomatoes and sugar. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Taste and season if needs.

Make 4 "holes" in the sauce, roughly equal distance from each other, and then crack the eggs into these "holes". Light season with salt and then cover the pan and cook for 10 minutes- you are looking to set the eggs without over-cooking the yolks. Sprinkle with herbs (coriander or parsley) and serve.

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This comes from my friend Denise.

150 g of rye
125 g of spelt
2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
4 tsp of mixed spice
3 tsp of cinnamon
3 eggs
160ml olive oil
160 ml maple syrup
240 ml milk or coconut milk
2 grated apples
some chopped ginger pieces

Sift dry ingredients together.  Beat the eggs for a minute or so, add rest of wet ingredients while still beating, including the grated apples.

Mix carefully into the dry ingredients add the ginger pieces. pour into muffin cases and bake at 200C for 18 to 25 minutes. I adapted a different recipe that uses chocolate instead of the apples, ginger and spices and the apple recipe is wetter once baked than the chocolate one. So 25 minutes is more like it. Like I say, it's a bit hit and miss at the moment. The chocolate one has 6 tablespoons of cacao in the dry ingredients instead of the spices and 100grams of a dark chocolate bar broken into small pieces and stirred into the batter. Also yum

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This is a malt loaf that our ace baker friend Piers served us last Sunday. I'm ashamed to say that, between five of us, we scoffed the lot. It was *delicious*. Thanks to him for the use of the recipe.

750g Wessex Mill Malt Loaf Flour (I got mine from Tim & Jane's Tasty Flavours on Donny Market)
5g instant yeast
10g salt
500g cold water
400g(ish) mixed dried fruit (I used lots of sultanas, lots of raisins, and a few currants, but whatever floats your boat)

Whack everything but the fruit in a bowl and mix well, then work the fruit into the dough. This dough will be _wet_. Don't worry.

Pour a little oil on your work surface and spread it around, then scrape the mixture out of the bowl. Wash the bowl out, dry it and rub round with some oiled kitchen towel. Give the dough a quick knead (maybe a minute). DO NOT ADD MORE FLOUR, it's supposed to be that wet and sticky.

Manoeuvre it back into the bowl, a scraper will be a godsend here) and cover (I just shove the bowl into a bin liner). Clean the work surface. After about 15 minutes, oil the work surface again, give the dough a quick knead, return it to the bowl and clean the work surface. Wait 15 minutes and do it again. The dough should be starting to feel more like dough and less like thick batter by now. After another hour, oil up your work surface again and tip the dough onto it. You're not going to knead it this time, just push it out into a thick disk of dough and fold in thirds north/south, then east/west and return to the bowl, smooth side up.

I left this overnight in a cold kitchen to rise (time = flavour) but if things are warmer where you are, you might want to do the next stage after another hour or so.

Flour the work surface with as little flour as possible. Tip the dough out and flour your hands over the dough (so the cloud of flour falls onto the dough, making it slightly less sticky - the less flour you use, the better). Shape your dough. I baked mine in a tin, so I pressed it out into a rough square and folded into thirds vertically and horizontally, then flipped it over to relax on a freshly floured bit of the worktop for 5 minutes (this helps stop the dough tearing during the next bit. You can grease your bread tin while you wait). Flip the dough back over and flatten it out into a square with a side about as long as your bread tin, then start to roll it up tightly, working from the far side towards you, using your thumbs to really push the roll in tightly - you should get a sense of the outside of the dough really tightening up as you do this. Shove it in your tin, seam side down and leave to prove for about an hour. Heat your oven to 200C.

After it's proved, slash the loaf with a single cut along its length and bang it into the oven for about 50 minutes. Turn the heat down to 180 after about half an hour.

It's going to be sticky. It's going to be fruity. It's going to be _amazing_ with runny cheese (we had it with Mont d'Or from Neil's cheese stall on the market, but it'd be fabulous with Stinking Bishop too) or just spread thickly with salted butter.

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I saw these on Jack Monroe's blog, and they are just *delicious*! Adapted slightly to suit our house pancake style.

100g wholemeal flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of sode
a pinch of cream of tartar
a pinch of salt
100ml milk (approx)
1 egg
1 large banana, or 2 medium
1 tbsp groundnut oil

Mash the banana(s) with a fork in a large mixing bowl. Add the flour, bicarbonate, cream of tartar and salt. Then add egg and milk, and mix together with a fork till you have a batter. You might need less or more milk, depending on juiciness of the banana.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and add a tablespoon of batter. Cook on a medium heat for a minute or two on each side. Scoff.

You could, if feeling adventurous, spread these with butter, or a dollop of cream or creme fraiche. You could add dried fruit, such as sultanas. Or chocolate drops. Or a pinch of cinnamon. We just eat them as they come out of the pan - they're fab.

I ate this at a friend's house at the weekend, and it is utterly delicious. Thanks so much to Liz Davenport for the recipe! I think I might give it a try with bramble jam.

175g butter, really soft, plus extra for greasing
250g caster sugar
4 large eggs
200g self-raising flour
50g ground almonds
75g full-fat natural yogurt
2 tsp vanilla extract
250g strawberries, hulled and sliced
handful flaked, toasted almonds

for the cheesecake blobs
200g full-fat cream cheese
25g caster sugar
1 large egg

Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line the base and sides of a deep 23cm cake tin with baking parchment. Mix the ingredients for the cheesecake blobs together in a bowl until just combined – be careful not to overmix or it will become runny. Set aside. 

Put the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, ground almonds, yogurt, vanilla and a pinch of salt in a large bowl, and beat together until smooth using an electric hand whisk.

Scrape half the cake mixture into the tin, then scatter with half the strawberries. Use the back of a teaspoon to create dips in the surface of the cake and dollop in spoonfuls of cheesecake mixture – saving about half for the top. Cover with the remaining cake mixture, being careful not to disturb the cheesecake and strawberries below. Scatter with the remaining strawberries and spoon on the remaining cheesecake mixture, using the same method as before.

Scatter with almonds and bake for 50 mins-1 hr ( takes even longer in my oven ) or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool for 20 mins in the tin before turning out. Delicious served warm or cold.

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1 large onion, chopped

1 medium celeriac, chopped or rough grated

1 pear, roughly grated

1 sweet apple, rough grated

3 tbsp soured cream

vegetable stock

Chop the onion roughly and fry gently in butter until soft. Add chopped celeriac and continue to fry for a minute or two, then add the grated pear and apple, cover with stock and simmer for about 20 minutes.Puree in whateer fashion you prefer, I used a stick blender. Season with salt and lots of black pepper. Add 2tbsp of soured cream to the soup, mix the rest of the cream with just enough milk to make it pourable and serve with the soup.

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100g butter 
1/3 cup brown sugar 
1/2 cup condensed milk 
225g dried chopped apricots 
250g crushed plain biscuits
dessicated coconut

Melt the butter, brown sugar and condensed milk. Remove from heat and cool slightly, then add the chopped apricots and crushed plain biscuits 

Mix thoroughly and press / roll spoonfuls in the coconut. 
Freeze or store in fridge

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100g Wholemeal Brown self-raising flour
75g White self-raising flour
1tsp Baking powder
Pinch of salt
175g Unsalted butter at room temperature
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
2-3tsp Orange extract
50ml Earl Grey tea
175g Golden caster sugar
3 eggs

For the buttercream
50g Unsalted butter softened
150g Icing sugar, sieved
1tsp Orange blossom water

For the icing:
2-3tbsp Earl Grey tea
150g Icing sugar

For the Earl Grey tea: 
2tsp (level) or 1 teabag Earl Grey tea
100ml Boiling water

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Make the Earl Grey tea.

Prepare two 20cm (8 inch) sandwich tins, by lightly greasing and lining the base with baking parchment.

Sieve the flours, the baking powder and salt together. If too much bran remains in the sieve, weigh the remains and replace with more white SR flour.

Beat together the butter, orange zest and sugar to a cream, until light and fluffy. Next beat in the eggs one at a time, putting in 1 tablespoon of the flour mix in after each egg. Then stir in the Earl Grey tea and orange extract.

Finally, fold in the remainder of the flour mix. Divide the mixture into two, spooning into each of the cake tins. Smooth into the tins.

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the cakes are springy. Leave the cakes in the tin for a couple of minutes before turning out.

Make buttercream as usual. If no orange blossom extract, orange would do.

To make the icing for top, sieve the icing sugar into a bowl. Add 2-3 tablespoons of the Earl Grey tea into the icing sugar and mix in with a spoon, then spread evenly over the top of the cake. It will drip down the sides a bit but this looks rather rustic. No need for any other decoration but you could sprinkle some orangey-yellow sugar crystals over the top.

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Very like the blackberry cake, but tweaked a little, for the better, I think.

1 punnet raspberries
230g caster sugar
200g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 eggs
2 teaspoons lemon juice
200g marg or butter
about 2 tbsp plain yogurt

Grease and line a 22cm springform pan, put the raspberries in the bottom.

Whizz all the other ingredients in a food processor, and pour on top of the fruit. Bake at 180c for 40-45 minutes.

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batter:
300g caster sugar
200g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
200g marg or butter
about 2 tbsp milk
some blackberries

22cm springform cake tin, greased and the bottom lined with parchment. Although you could use any tin that size.

Preheat the oven to 180C Gas 4.

Line the bottom of the tin with the blackberries.

Now, you can do this like I do – I just put all the batter ingredients in the Magimix other than the milk and whizz it up. Or you cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs and flour and baking powder bit by bit, stir in the vanilla essence, then the milk. Up to you entirely.

The milk I leave to the end because you want a sort of dropping consistency, and it’s better to add it bit by bit.

Pour the mix over the blackberries, bake for 45 minutes-ish. The blackberries all rise through the cake. It’s lovely.

Leave it to cool for about half an hour, then turn onto a plate. It made eight quite generous portions, and I don’t know how well it would keep. So we sent half of it over to some friends that Pete was visiting last night, and they seemed to like it too!

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This was to use up some leftover haricots, and I didn't think it would be particularly nice. But it was!

serves 2

one can's worth of haricots, drained and rinsed. I always used dried, myself, and cook them in the slow cooker
⅓ of a cabbage - I used a pointy one
30g of chorizo
1 chopped onion
a little olive oil
assorted herbs to taste, fresh or chopped

Chop the chorizo quite small, and cook it down with the onion in a little olive oil in a heavy based pan.

Finely shred the cabbage, and steam in a little water and black pepper for about six minutes.

Add the beans to the chorizo and onion mix to warmed through, with the herbs, and a tiny splash of water - about a dessertspoon will do.

Drain the cabbage and add it to the bean mix.

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Easy and versatile pickle (goes with cold meats, patés, cheeses and gamey meats like duck). Makes about a 750ml jar, depending on cherry size.

350g cherries
2 sprigs tarragon
a bay leaf
420ml white wine or cider vinegar
180g caster sugar
100g light brown sugar
Grated zest of a lemon
Big pinch of salt
1/2tsp fresh ground black pepper
A bit of fresh-grated nutmeg

Sterilise a 750ml jar.

Wash and dry cherries, cutting the stalks short. Don’t stone them.

Closely pack them in the jar, without crushing, to the ¾ full level, tucking tarragon and bay among the cherries.

Put rest of the ingredients in a pan and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Boil for a minute or two, then take off heat and let it cool.

Pour in the cooled vinegar until the jar is full.

Seal and place in a cool, dark cupboard for AT LEAST 3 weeks, and pref 10. When the cherries are gone the juice is a very good cherry vinegar for dressings, marinades, deglazing meat residues etc.

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Fry off some cubed beef with chunky cut onion, carrot and swede.  Add in a couple of oxo cubes and a can of stout.

Put mixture in a crock pot on "high" at lunch time.  Throw in some cooked green veg left over from the night before around tea time and turn down to "warm" whilst you sort out plates, bottle of wine, crusty bread etc.

Serve.

Voila, tasty wholesome beef.

Nom.

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Groundnut oil
Chopped ginger
Fivespice, ground allspice, black mustard seeds
Four spring onions
Mushrooms
A courgette
A red and an orange miniature pepper
Pork, left unchopped and unmarinated in the meatsafe aka oven
Heaped teaspoon of smooth peanut butter
Rice Wine
Fish sauce
Shoyu
Lime juice
Tabasco

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Smack the spatchcock into the roasting pan, stick in the oven.

Come back about 15 mins before it is due out and boil/steam the cauliflower and any other veg you want as sides.

Once the cauli is cooked, drain and put back in to the hot pan to steam off the remainder of the water - don't want the end result watery.

Add a dollop of garlic pureed, a good handful of grated cheese, mature cheddar is perfect, and some milk and freshly ground black pepper then either mash or liquidise as per your preference.

Put back on the heat whilst you get the plates out and drain off the other veg (we had simply steamed chantenay carrots.

Place big dollop of creamed cheesy cauliflower onto the middle of the plate, place half the poisson on top and arrange the carrots around the dish.

We also had some little sausages wrapped in bacon left over from another meal so had those too.