Moussaka

A delicious and easy-to-make dinner using beef or lamb mince. Substitute gluten-free flour and lactose-free milk for dietary needs.

You can also use turkey mince for this dish, just add 1/2 tsp oregano, 1 tsp soy sauce to boost the flavour.

Ingredients:

1 aubergine, sliced into 1cm slices

Olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 lb/500 g mince beef or lamb

1 tablespoon flour

1 beef stock cube

pinch cinnamon

Salt and pepper

1 tin tomatoes, chopped

1 pint milk

25g plain flour

25g butter

2 egg yolks

Method

Heat a frying pan and add enough olive oil to cover the base of the pan. Add the aubergine, don't panic it will soak up all the oil, but persevere and fry until golden brown, turn over and the oil will start to release as the other side browns. It is important that you fry off the aubergine until it has a golden brown colour on both sides. Remove the aubergine to a plate.

Fry the onion until soft, add the mince, continue to fry until browned. Add the flour, stir and fry until all the meat is coated. I add the stock cube, either crumble or melt into the mince, add about 1/2 cup of hot water until the meat is moistened. Drain the juice from the tinned tomatoes and add to mince, fry for a couple of minutes, season and add cinnamon.

Pour the mince mixture into the bottom of a lasagne dish.

Arrange tomatoes over the mince.

Arrange the aubergine over the tomatoes.

Put the milk, flour and butter into a pan and stir over a medium heat with a whisk. Continue stirring until the sauce is thickened. Cooke for a couple of minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the sauce from the heat.

Separate the 2 eggs and add to the sauce, whisking in until thorough mixed. Keep the whites for some meringues, you can freeze them.
Pour sauce over the aubergine.

Bake in the oven gas 4 for 45 minutes until golden brown.

Read More

Rake's pasta - a twist on Pasta puttanesca

My kitchen is full of food including fruit & vegetables, tins, packets, plus the contents of the fridge and freezer, but with all this food it's still difficult to decide what to cook for lunch.

Pasta is our "go to" for lunches, as it's so quick and easy, from the simplest tossed in pesto, or carbonara, to those that involved a little more preparation.

During lockdown, my husband likes to make his own lunch, so my daughter and I take it turns to cook and today it was my turn. I put on a boiling pot of spaghetti and grabbed some basics, but no fresh parsley, so my normal "Slut's pasta" wasn't possible. I tweaked it and as we have been watching Bridgerton, so I decided to call this "Rake's pasta".

Making the sauce takes as long as the pasta takes to cook.

Ingredients

1 large shallot, finely chopped

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tin anchovies, drained

1/2 to 1 tsp dried crushed chillies

1 clove garlic finely chopped

2 large tomatoes, chopped

10 pitted black olives, sliced into 4

1 large tablespoon capers

freshly ground black pepper

Method

Put the spaghetti on to cook.

Heat a saute pan and add the olive oil. On medium heat add the shallots and gently fry until soft. Add the drained anchovies and bash with the back of a wooden spoon so that they dissolve into the oil, add the garlic and dried chillies, fry for a couple of minutes. Add the tomatoes, olives and capers, fry until the tomatoes start to break down, stir regularly. Season with black pepper.

Drain spaghetti reserving some of the cooking liquid, toss the spaghetti with the sauce and add a little of the cooking liquid to loosen the sauce.

Serve

Read More

Super simple paella

I’ve always used my traditional paella recipe, starting with making a sofrito, but this needs fresh tomatoes. A couple of weeks ago, I didn’t have any fresh tomatoes, but we still fancied a paella so I used tomato purée instead with the chicken flavour soup mix as stock and it tastes amazing.

https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/kosher/osem-chicken-soup-400g

Ingredients (serves 3)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1/2 chorizo, chopped

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Large pinch saffron

2 large breasts chicken or pack chicken thighs

3 handfuls of paella rice (1 handful per person)

1 heaped dessert spoon chicken flavour soup powder

2 tbsp tomato purée

500ml boiling water + additional

Prawns (optional)

Peas (optional)

Fresh parsley, chopped

Lemon but into wedges

Method

In a large frying pan or sauté pan, heat the oil over a medium heat, gently fry the onion until soft. Add the chorizo and fry until it starts to release the oils. Add the chicken pieces and fry until starting to brown. Sprinkle over the paprika and saffron and rice, mix well.

In a jug mix the soup powder into the boiling water and whisk in the tomato purée, pour this over the rice mix, add additional boiling water until chicken is just covered, stir well, then turn to low simmer.

Keep an eye on pan and turn chicken after 10 minutes. Cook for another 10 minutes, add peas and prawns and make sure you stir gently to stop it catching on bottom. If using thighs, check by inserting sharp knife through to bone and seeing if cooked (you shouldn’t see any pink/blood if cooked).

Leave cooking until liquid has evaporated. When chicken is cooked, check if rice is cooked by tasting, you may need to add more water if rice isn’t cooked. It normally takes about 30 mins in total.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with a wedge of lemon on each plate.

When I use the soup mix, I don’t need to add any extra salt, if you substitute normal chicken stock, you may need additional seasoning.

Read More

Turkey and mushroom supreme - an easy way to use up cooked turkey or chicken

Left Over turkey/chicken

You've roasted the turkey for Christmas or perhaps you have the remains of the chicken from your Sunday roast, what can you do with it? Now I adore curry, but unfortunately, my hubby can't eat an Indian style curry, so instead, I make my Thai curry. If there is too much leftover turkey at Christmas though you don't want to eat curry every day, so I like to make my turkey and mushroom supreme as an option.

This is a very simple dish to make but has a couple of options, you can either serve with plain rice or pop some puff pastry into the oven and make a deconstructed turkey and mushroom pie instead.

I've discovered Osem chicken soup mix makes the best stock, plus it's vegan too. I now use it in all of my dishes where I need stock. It's a powder that you can mix with hot water and add straight to your dish, don't add additional salt until the end though when you taste as there is a high salt content. My tip is to add 1 tsp to 125ml hot water for this dish.

Ingredients

1 tbs olive oil

1 onion, chopped

25g butter

25g flour (I use gluten-free) - use plain or self-raising, no difference in the end result

125ml chicken stock (see tip above)

125ml milk

sliced mushrooms

leftover cooked turkey or chicken

salt & pepper to taste

1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Method

In a medium pan, gently heat the olive oil and butter (the olive oil will prevent the butter from burning) and add the onion, fry over medium heat until the onion has softened. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute stirring continuously. Gradually add the stock stirring continuously to help stop any lumps forming, then add the milk gradually, keep stirring. You can remove the pan from the heat as you add the liquid, then return to heat to cook. You can add a little more milk if the sauce is too thick.

Let the sauce cook for a couple of minutes, keep stirring.

Add the sliced mushrooms and cooked turkey/chicken. Continue to cook gently for 5 minutes until the mushrooms have softened and the meat is piping hot. Season to taste.

Serve with plain rice and sprinkle over the fresh parsley to serve.

Optional extra - add a small tin of drained sweetcorn when you add the mushrooms.

If using puff pastry to make a deconstructed pie, take a roll of puff pastry, cut the sheet into the number of people you are serving (4) works well, put them on a baking sheet and brush with milk. Pop them in a hot oven (check packet instructions), bake until golden brown. These can then be served on top of the supreme when plating your meal.

Read More