Grilled veges and Thai dressing

You may have noticed, I am not very good at naming dishes. So the title of this dish is exactly what it is - some grilled vegetables, with some Thai dressing. Easy. Oh, and it's just enough for 2 people. 

Grilled Veges

1/2 capsicum 

1/2 courgette

1/2 red onion

1 spring onion

1 big handful baby spinach

Thai Dressing

1 clove garlic

1cm piece ginger, peeled and roughly chopped

1 teaspoon chopped red chilli

1 teaspoon lemongrass

1 tablespoon soy sauce

zest and juice of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon canola oil

Slice up your veges (apart from the baby spinach, which you can leave to one side) and cook either on the barbecue or under the boring old oven grill for around 5 minutes, when they should be nicely coloured and charred. 

In a mortar and pestle, smash up your garlic, ginger, lemongrass and chilli. Stir in the soy sauce, lemon juice and zest, and canola oil. 

Fill a bowl with the spinach, and cover with the grilled vegetables - their heat will wilt the spinach a little. Pour the dressing over the veges while they're still warm. Yum.

Thai-style fish

I used to be a little intimidated by cooking whole fish, but then I realised that the fish is already deceased, so can no longer judge my cooking skills. That took the pressure off a little. This chap is a trevally - he cost just under $7, so was reasonably cheap, and provided enough fish for 4 servings. Hello, little fellow!

My boyfriend is a big fan of the whole fish they cook at Phu Thai Esarn, so this was my attempt to recreate their Thai flavours.

1 whole fish

1 handful fresh coriander, stalks and all

1 handful mint leaves

2 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon chopped lemongrass

1 teaspoon chopped red chilli

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon canola oil

Make a long slit along the belly of your fish, and rinse out the cavity. Pat it dry with kitchen paper. 

Roughly chop the garlic with a big knife. Make it into a little pile, and add the lemongrass, chilli and salt. Continue chopping in a see-saw motion over the pile, so everything gets nicely mixed together. Sprinkle the salt over the top, and give it another little chop.

Fill your fish with alternating hands-full of herbs and garlic-lemongrass-chilli mixture. Finish off with some of the coriander, because that will help keep the fillings in. If you're feeling a little nervous about the fillings staying where they ought to, you can close up the fish using a couple of cocktail sticks to hold everything together. Rub the outside of the fish with the canola oil. 

Now it's time to cook! Fish is really easy to cook on the barbecue, although you can retreat back to the kitchen if the weather doesn't cooperate. Heat up the grill, and place your fish on - carefully though, so your filling doesn't escape. Cook for 2 minutes on each side over a high heat, then turn the heat down. Transfer the fish to a large piece of tinfoil, and wrap it up tightly. Put it back on the barbecue  - if you're using a charcoal barbecue, put it on a cooler spot than before.

Cook for another 5-10 minutes - open the tinfoil and have a peak. If the meat is easy to flake away from the bones, then it's ready. Pull off all the tasty morsels with a couple of forks, leaving all the bones behind - this makes you look like a real expert, and means you don't have any dodgy "Oh gosh, did I just swallow a bone?" moments at the dinner table. 

Chickpea and tomato... jumble?

This is a sort of chickpea stew, but the word "stew" sounds so wintry and heavy, while the dish is actually summery and light. Oh, and really easy to make, without any of that waiting around that "stew" usually involves. It's a good dish to have by itself, but it also goes well with roast beef and lashings of Dijon mustard (I know this because I tried it!).

1 can chickpeas
1 can chopped tomatoes
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 courgette
1 carrot
4 fresh tomatoes (I used Roma tomatoes)
1/2 red capsicum
3 fresh sage leaves/ 1 pinch dried sage
1 handful fresh oregano/ 1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 handful flat leaf parsley
1 lemon


First of all, you need to scorch the fresh tomatoes and capsicum to blacken the skins. Heat a frying pan up over a hot element, and throw them in, without any oil. Cook for around 5 minutes, turning occasionally, then put to one side to cool down. 


While they are cooking, finely slice the onion, and dice the courgette and carrot. Chop up the garlic as small as you can. 


Add the olive oil to the hot frying pan. Throw in the onion, and cook until it just starts to colour. Toss in the courgette, carrot and garlic, give everything a stir, and leave to cook for 5 minutes or so. 


Roughly chop the scorched tomatoes and capsicum. (I used a fork to hold them still while I did this, to avoid either burning or cutting my own fingers. And yes, that is exactly the kind of thing I am likely to do.)


Open your can of chickpeas, drain, and throw into the pan. Roughly tear up your fresh sage, if you can find any - if not, the dried stuff is fine, just a lot stronger - and add to the pan.If you're using dried oregano, add that now too. Give everything a stir, then add your tin of chopped tomatoes, and the scorched tomatoes and capsicum. 


Cook for about 10 minutes, simmering away so that the sauce thickens. 


Finely chop the flat leaf parsley, zest and squeeze your lemon. Throw these, along with your fresh oregano, in at the last minute before serving. Fancy. 

Irish soda bread

The super-thoughtful boyfriend gave me Emmanuel Hanjiandreou's "How To Make Bread" for Christmas - the gift that says "oi! womanfriend! I appreciate your cooking, but, you know, do more of it!" (Jokes, I know he wouldn't dare say such a thing). I do love making bread though - all the fun of baking but none of that messing around trying to make everything look picture-perfect. Chuck a bit of flour over a bread, and it instantly looks fantastic. The book is really good, actually, and there are heaps of photographs showing the different techniques. This is one of the simplest recipes. Soda bread has a texture a bit like scones, but lighter, and a nice salty flavour that makes it great with salads. Eat it the day you make it. 

250g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

260ml buttermilk (or regular whole milk)

oil spray

Heat up your oven to 200C. 

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt and baking soda. Pour the buttermilk/ milk over the top, and  mix everything together with a metal spoon until it just forms a dough - you don't want to overmix it. 

Dust a chopping board or counter with flour, and scoop your dough out of the bowl and onto the board/counter. Shape the dough into a ball, flatten slightly, and sprinkle with plenty more flour. Cut a deep cross in the top using a serrated knife for maximum rustic-ness. 

Cover a baking sheet with baking paper, and give it a spray with oil. Slide your dough onto the tray, and bake for 25-35 minutes. When it is cooked, it should make a hollow sound when you tip it over and tap the bottom. 

Summertime ragu

It's too warm for a good old fashioned Spaghetti Bolognaise, but my love of pasta means I had to get creative, resulting in this, a slightly more summery ragu recipe. It uses chicken and sausage, and as many fresh herbs as you can find. Serves 4.

1 onion

4 cloves garlic (or more, because garlic is pretty great)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 yellow or red capsicum

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 cup cherry tomatoes

1 handful fresh rosemary

1 handful fresh thyme

1 handful fresh oregano

1 chicken breast

2 sausages

1 handful fresh basil

300g fettucine or spaghetti

Finely chop the onion and garlic. Heat the oil in a large frying pan, and fry them until soft. Chop the capsicum roughly, and add to the pan. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes until the capsicum starts to soften.

Finely chop the rosemary, and throw that into the pan too, along with the tin of chopped tomatoes. Simmer for 5 minutes or so with the heat up quite high, until it starts to reduce slightly. Now would be a good time to start boiling a large pan of water and cooking your pasta as well. 

Cut a slit in the side of your sausages, and squeeze out the sausage meat, throwing away the casing. Chop up the chicken up into small-ish pieces, and add the chicken and sausage meat to the pan. Cook for another 5 minutes or so until the chicken has started to brown. Give everything a stir occasionally, and the sausage meat will break up slightly, thickening your sauce and just waiting to coat all your pasta. Finely chop the thyme, and strip the oregano leaves from their stalks, and add to the pan. 

Slice the cherry tomatoes in half, and add to the sauce along with the basil leaves. Cook for another 5 minutes. Drain your pasta, saving a little of the water in case you want to thin out the sauce. Add to the frying pan, give everything a good stir to coat the pasta, and you're ready to eat. If it seems too thick, add a little of the water. Great with a little parmesan on top and a salad on the side. 

Florentines

Nothing says "Christmas" and "eat me" better than biscuits filled with caramel and cherries, and covered in chocolate. In my opinion, any way. Florentines are delicious, and can be made even more festive than usual by using a mixture of red and green glacé cherries, and a pinch of cinnamon.

50g butter

 125ml cream

125g sugar

50g glacé cherries rinsed in hot water and quartered

50 g slivered almonds

1 pinch cinnamon (use your discretion as to the size of your pinch, but remember, the bigger the pinch, the more festive the biscuit)

100g peel

50 g plain flour

250g Whittakers chocolate (preferably at least 60% cocoa solids)

Turn the oven on at 180C and leave to heat up for a while. Maybe treat yourself to a festive tipple while you wait.

Melt the butter, cream and sugar together in a small saucepan over a low heat until it starts to brown and caramelise.

In a large mixing bowl, combine your cherries, almonds and peel. Sprinkle the flour over the top and mix it up.  Pour the melted butter mixture over the top, and give everything a good stir.

Cover a baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Use two dessert spoons to scoop out a spoonful of the mixture and pour onto the baking paper. The florentines will spread, so leave plenty of space in between. You may need to do your florentines in a couple of batches.

Pop your baking tray into the oven, and leave to bake for around 5 minutes. At this point, take them out and use your spoons to push them gently in to circles -the mixture will be quite runny and loose, because of the caramel mixture.

Bake for another 5 minutes or until they start to brown slightly around the edges. Take the florentines out of the oven, and leave to cool for around 3-4 minutes, until you can move them without them falling apart. The biscuits are still quite malleable at this stage, so you can make them into perfect circles if you're a bit of a perfectionist. Pop onto a rack to cool.

Smash the chocolate up into small pieces, and melt gently in a bowl placed over a pan of simmering water. Be gentle with chocolate, it is quite delicate when it comes to heat. Brush the melted chocolate over the smooth sides of the florentines, making sure you get a nice thick layer. If you feel like being super fancy, gently drag a fork through the chocolate to create wavey lines.

Chicken Korma

I would never order a korma in an Indian restaurant - it just seems wimpy - but at home, I'm quite happy to cook a pleasantly mild curry, because that means I can eat more of it. This may look like a long list of ingredients, but it's actually quite easy to put together, and will only take about half an hour to cook. Makes enough for 2 generous portions - which you should scoop up with poppadoms or naan bread, ok?

1 / 2 cup blanched almonds
1 / 2 cup cashews
1 onion
1 tin tomatoes
4 cm ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp fresh chilli
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 / 4 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp garam masala
1 chicken breast
1 capsicum (any colour is fine, or you could use a mixture of different colours)
1 spring onion
1 cup water
1 handful fresh coriander
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
salt


Right, first of all, the chopping. Finely chop the onion, garlic and fresh chilli, and roughly chop the almonds and cashews. Chop the chicken breast into bite-size chunks, and the capsicum and spring onion into 1cm pieces.

Blitz the almonds, cashews and tin of tomatoes in a food processor or blender until almost smooth - a few chunks is fine.

Mix together the spices - ground coriander, cumin, turmeric, garam masala and chilli powder. Grab a large frying pan, pour in the tablespoon of vegetable oil and put on a high heat to warm up. Once hot, add the onion, garlic and ginger, and cook for 5 minutes or so until everything starts to brown. Pour in the spices, stir, and cook for a minute more.

Add the chicken pieces and cook for 5 minutes or so until they're starting to colour. Pour in the tomato and nut mixture, and a cup of cold water. Add the capsicum, turn the heat down slightly and simmer for 10 minutes. Taste, and add salt.

Stir through the spring onion and coriander, and eat.