Another quick and easy: Chilli crab linguine

Last week's post on the quick and wasy smoked trout pasta seems to have gone down well (and I certainly enjoyed eating it) so I thought I'd add another standby for when I need supper to be fast, furious and filling. This one is something I have been cooking for over ten years, my Dad and I came up with it once when we were there over a weekend and I go through phases of cooking it regularly and others of forgetting it exists.

It's not quite as cheap and cheerful as many of my usual recipes - even tinned crabmeat is expensive, and although I'd love to, I've never tried it with fresh crabmeat as that to me is something really special. Again it's something that cooks up really quicklywith limited prep time too.

Chilli crab linguine (serves 2) 

1 tin fresh crab
1 red chilli, finely diced (or equivalent of lazy chilli)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 large handful parsley, chopped
1 lemon - zest grated, and juiced
3 Tbsps virgin olive oil
Linguine (or any pasta) enough for 2
Salt and pepper

Put the water on to boil and when it's ready put the pasta on - you've got the length of time it takes to cook to prepare the sauce
Crush the garlic and chop the chilli and add these to a splash of olive oil in a frying pan
Drain the crab meat and fork in the lumps breaking them up a bit as you go
Finely chop the parsley and add this and the lemon zest to the pan
Keep all of this warm while you drain the pasta
Add the pasta to the frying pan and stir through the sauce, adding the lemon juice and olive oil before you serve

This is lovely with a green salad and traditionally for me a large glass of white wine - it's a really light summery supper. And works equally well if you can pick up some prawns on special offer instead.

Quick and easy wins the race: Smoked trout and green veggie pasta

These last weeks of pregnancy - combining working full time with growing a person full time have completely wiped me out. If you read my meal plannning Monday posts you'll have no doubt noticed the ever growing reliance on chicken kievs, leftovers, and fresh pizza - all purchased with the sole purpose of getting a meal on the table in less than 30 minutes. However, despite having been a favourite since my teens, I'm starting to get a bit bored of chicken kiev. I know, who'd have thought it!

I thought I'd try and pop a few recipes (in the loosest possible way of describing them) up here for when I have even less time but also for anyone else who needs cooking and eating to be quick and easy but doesn't see why that has to mean forfeiting taste.

With all due respect to Mr Oliver who has 2 books on this very subject, this is nothing to do with his lovely recipes, which I can cook in just under an hour for the most part. Entirely my fault and not his I'm sure, but hopefully this one has a bit less erm... well... faffing?

Smoked trout and spring veggie pasta (serves 2)

Wholewheat pasta - I have a mug I fill up, but it weighs out at around 150g
10 (or so) brocolli florets
1 packet sugar snap peas (less any I snaffle whilst cooking)
2 smoked trout fillets
1 lemon
Pepper

3-4 tablespoons cream

Bring a pan of water to the boil and add your pasta, this will take 10-12 minutes to cook which will be all the time you're cooking as such
Flake the trout fillets into a bowl (I use the one I'm going to eat from to save washing up)
Grate some lemon zest - about half
After the pasta has been cooking for 5-6 minutes add your brocolli to the pasta pan and continue to cook
At 9 minutes add your sugar snap peas
Check how cooked your pasta is at 10 minutes - leave it to 12 if you prefer it less al dente
Drain the pasta and veg into a colander and put it back in the hot pan
Add your lemon zest, trout, cream to taste and lots of black pepper

Serve. You can have it with salad, or fresh crusty bread - but to be honest I'm quite happy with it as it is, eaten from a bowl resting on the bump.

Next time, chilli crab linguine - another 20 minuter.

Mucking up Meat free Monday

To be honest I'm not religious about sticking to meat free Monday - but I do try to ensure that we have a few days each week that are veggie - although M is a confirmed carnivore he's always been very open to veggie dishes and never complains (although occaisionally looks longingly at bacon). For me, meat free days are less to do with healthy eating - although that's terrific - and more to do with being thrifty. Like so many people we can't afford to eat meat daily, and even when we do eat meat dishes I bulk them out with veggies or lentils.

One of my go-to veggie dishes is courgetti spaghetti - I make it most often in the summer when courgettes are cheap and plentiful and if veggie friends come over my discovery of Sainsbury's Basics hard cheese as a substitute for parmesan means it is an appropriate option. Courgettes were discounted this week in the supermarket and as I'm trying to eat lots of veggies after a week of bread and ham in France my mind immediately jumped to courgetti spaghetti.

I started off as I usually do:

2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 red chilli, chopped
1/2 teaspoon Gran Luchito smoked chilli paste
3 big courgettes grated
100g parmesan grated

I sweated off the garlic, chilli and chilli paste and quickly stirred in the grated courgettes. So far so good.

And then, I got distracted and somehow chopped up half a chorizo and added that to the pan. Nope, no idea why - I wasn't even really thinking about what I was doing. So then I thought to hell with it and added about 10 cherry tomatoes (I didn't count them, just used everything we had).

At which point I looked into the pan and realised that I had, irrevocably screwed up Meat Free Monday. There was now no point in going on as usual so I decided to abandon my original plan, and cook everything down really slowly to make less of a fresh and light dish, and more of a soothing and hearty one.

After 15 minutes over a low heat, the courgettes had really started to cook down with the tomatoes and the paprika scent from the chorizo was lovely. At this point I added the parmesan, stirring the pan until it had melted. At this point I made the executive decision to omit the lemon and pine nuts as I didn't feel like either of these would add anything to the finished dish.

As this was a bit of an experiment, I instagrammed the whole process - if you don't follow me on there and don't mind pictures of nail polish, endless cups of tea and the odd recipe pictures, I'm http://instagram.com/penjy

As always this was stirred into wholewheat pasta, eaten from bowls on our knees as the lounge still *still* wasn't (note the tense) finished yet.

Have you or do you ever change up an old favourite and discover you enjoy it just as much if not more?

Parsnip and bacon pasta

I was asked on Twitter if I'd posted this recipe ever. And whilst I was sure I had - some googling and checking of tags informs me that I haven't. Which is odd, as soon as parsnips come into season (usually after the first frost) it pops up on our menu. it's a quick and easy dish to make, and if you have parsnips arrive in a veg box, and lingering in the veg tray of the fridge it's a great way to use them up.

I'm not sure how, or why this works - the sweetness of the parsnips that start to caramelise seems to meld with the melted parmesan and the garlic just sort of lingers in the background. You could use a shedload of herbs to give this more oomph, but I have to say that this is how I prefer it. If I had herbs in the garden (next year hopefully) then I would probably add them, but I'm not buying those piddly packs from the supermarket in order to tart this up. I have plenty of other places that 90p could be spent.

Parsnip and bacon pasta

Butter - a fair bit, I'd say about 50g
Garlic - to your taste, I normally use 3 cloves
4 biggish parsnips
1 pack of smoked bacon, snipped into strips
About half a pack of parmesan (you know the pre-packed triangles you can buy.) If you're a veggie, Sainsbury's Basics hard cheese is veggie friendly as I know parmesan isn't
Pepper
I don't add salt to this because of the salt in the cheese and bacon, but it's entirely up to you
Pasta - normal portion size is fine. We tend to use fusili or penne, but that's just personal preference. I think this would be nice with taglietele but again, I wouldn't buy special pasta for a mid week supper.

Put the water for your pasta on to boil - the sauce takes about 10 minutes to cook so you probably want to start cooking the bacon now, and the rest as the pasta goes in
Snip the bacon into strips and cook in a frying pan. You want the fat to start to render down so that you're just left with the crispy bits. If you're watching your weight, then just cut the fat off and add the bacon in with the rest of the ingredients
Peel the parsnips. Then with your veg peeler, continue to peel them in strips until you just have the core left. I don't use this in this recipe but save it to add to soup.
Pop your garlic in your press to squish, or finely chop
Grate the cheese
Add about half the butter to a biggish pan (the one you've got the bacon in if you've already started) Let this melt down, then add your parsnips. Stir so that the parsnips are all mixed in with the butter and bacon and turn the heat down so that this continues to cook gently
Once your pasta is cooked, dunk a ladle or mug into the pasta water (you want about half a mugful) and pour that into your frying pan
Drain your pasta and add that to the frying pan, along with the rest of the butter and cheese. Stir again so the cheese melts
Season with pepper to taste and serve in bowls

I hope you enjoy, as I say it's a bit of a staple for us, and a nice different way to use up those parsnips.

Salad Days - a warm spring salad

Today's lunch. Well, with the sun finally putting his hat on I thought it was time to crack out the salad. Not in their true sense, but a variation thereof. So here we have a warm salad. After all, there's still a nip in the air, and whilst this sates my need for something healthy (I use the term loosely) it does still have strong flavours and a sense - from the oil in the dressing of being luxurious. 

This was one of those recipes that came to me whilst looking in the fridge, and just putting things together in my head. In terms of a recipe it's more of a loose approximation of what needed using up and would go relatively well together. Despite having a surfeit of parsnips and carrots, they didn't make their way in as I didn't fell they fitted with the other veg. 

Warm Spring Salad

1 bulb fennel sliced so it's still relatively chunky

2 courgettes, cubed

1 yellow pepper, cubed

1 orange pepper, cubed (by the way, Sainsbury's Basics peppers are brilliant, and much much cheaper than their regular ones)
1 leek sliced finely

1/2 a chorizo sausage, skinned and cubed

1 bulb garlic, smashed

Drizzle of olive oil

Dried thyme, sprinkled (probably about a teaspoon)

2 bay leaves

2 glasses white wine/ veg stock

Salt and Pepper

Balsamic vinegar

Rocket or watercress to serve

Aubergine, celery, cherry tomatoes would all be good additions, it's just I didn't have them.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees

Chop your vegetables so that they're roughly the same size and put them in a roasting tin. Try to keep them in one layer so that they cook relatively evenly

Add the chorizo, garlic cloves, herbs and salt and pepper

Drizzle with some olive oil and pour the white wine/ veg stock (about half a pint/ 2 wine glasses of either) over the veg

Cook in the preheated oven for about half an hour. Or until the veg is soft and starting to caramelise on the edges

Take out of the oven and leave to cool for about 10 minutes (so it's nice and warm but neither hot nor cold)

Serve in a bowl with lots of rocket or watercress (the pepperiness cuts through the dressing)

Pour off a little of the oil and cooked down wine into a jam jar, add some balsamic vinegar (sherry or white wine vinegar would be fine I imagine) put the lid on and give a good shake. Pour this over your warm salad and either toss through or if you're lazy like me, do some work while it sits on the side. 

Serve with some crusty bread, it's an idea working from home lunch in that it feels a bit more decadent than sandwiches or soup, but as it's basically a fridge bottom recipe is cheap and uses up veg that might be slightly past it's best. 

Alteration:

I would use the veg base for this as the basis of a sausage bake and serve with baked potatoes for an evening meal. It would be lovely, and you could spoon off some of the oils, and make a kind of gravy with any burnt bits of veg on the bottom of the pan. Lovely. 

Doorbells, and sleighbells and schnitzel with noodles (ish): Worldfoods Challenge no 2 - Pad Thai

I'm now happily singing My favourite things while I type this out, sadly I'm not in my nighty, nor am I surrounded by many small children harmonising beautifully with me. Still, you take what you can get.

Last week I was visited by my friend Louise, this week it's Lauren's turn, and last night I made us the second of my Worldfood fusion taste team challenge meals. Pad Thai. I was slightly concerned again as to the sweetness of the sauce, and the inauthenticity (it's a word) of my recipe, but without blowing my own trumpet it was fab. And made whilst exhausted, so doubly impressive when you think about it.

I should add a disclaimer here. I love Pad Thai. A lot. It's my favourite thing to order in Thai restaurants, and I never make it because I just think it won't live up to my expectations. Plus the ingredient list to make it from scratch is more offputting than sugar syrup ever was.

I really didn't want to have to shop specially for this, but have to recommend Waitrose's Thai section. Bearing in mind that the Whetstone Waitrose is tiny, I managed to pick up rice noodles, dried galangal, fish sauce and palm sugar. I then failed to use any of them save for the rice noodles. Fail. But I was pleased I picked those up, as the need for beansprouts, limes and peanuts escaped my tiny brain entirely, so as you will notice this recipe is utterly without them.

Pantry Pad Thai

2 cloves garlic
1 red chilli chopped
4 spring onions, whites finely chopped, greens sliced up like you would green beans
1 red pepper sliced
1 sweetcorn
300g mushrooms sliced
3 chicken thighs thinly sliced
flat leaf parsley
1 head brocolli
1 bottle Worldfood Pad Thai sauce
Juice of 1 lime
2 eggs, beaten
200g rice noodles cooked as per pack instructions

Stir fry the garlic, chilli, and spring onion whites in a flavourless oil until you can start to smell them
Add the chicken to the pan and cook until browned
Add the vegetables and cook lightly, stirring all the while
Shift the contents of your pan to one side and pour the eggs in and cook, then stir through
Add the cooked noodles, and stir through
Add the sauce, parsley and lime and serve. I kept the fish sauce and palm sugar on the side meaning to add them if I felt it needed a bit extra but it really didn't, the sauce had enough tang from the tamarind to mean that I didn't need to adjust the seasoning.

Quick and easy, and as I used the end of my veg box as well as some chicken in the freezer, a really well priced meal. What I made served three of us generously with a large tupperware of leftovers for Mark's lunch today. Perfect.

Despite loving this (and I actually hesitated to offer Mark the leftovers as I would have quite happily demolished them) I would like to try it again with prawns, coriander, beansprouts and peanuts as it was so tasty that I think the additions would really set it off. It's rare you'll see me say this, but I would happily go out and buy this again purely to the ends of adding Pad Thai this way to my simple suppers, as even with a bought sauce it's cheaper and healthier than my local Thai takeaway.

Meal Planning Monday: Leftovers galore

As anyone who follows me on twitter will know, Mark and I harvested (is that the word?) his homegrown potatoes today, and as a treat I roasted some tonight with a chicken, and basically the works, butternut squash, steamed spinach and brocolli, and stuffing. It was yum. However, I'm working away from Wednesday so we have basically half a chicken (and then some) to use up before then. Cue immediate flailing panic!

Here's the potatoes - the margarine tub is what we thought we would fill - the hastily located washing up bowl is what we did fill!

So this week's meal plan, will take us up to Wednesday and then pick up again on Saturday morning.

Monday: Leftover roast chicken, in sandwiches with leftover sweet potato and ginger soup. (I made this on Saturday, it is also known as Lifechanging Soup (TM) in this house - it's a Skye Gyngell recipe that I adore)

Tuesday: Was going to be butternut squash and chorizo chilli with cornbread, but I think more leftover chicken with buttered and minted potatoes and veggies. I also need to make the stock from the chicken carcass after Guides.

Wednesday: I may take chicken salad with me to save me from hotel food.

Friday: I'm meeting a friend to go out, but as I'll be coming straight into London and out with her I'm not sure what I'll get to eat.

Saturday: There's every possibility that I'm going to be flat out exhausted on Saturday - yesterday I looked and felt dreadful, and the housework alone wiped me out, so we're going to see - if I'm shattered, I'll probably do the chilli and we'll watch trashy tv/ DVDs but if not we're going to the theatre. Ghost and Rock of Ages are on my shortlist. Mark is going to kill me if we end up with tickets to see Ghost.

Sunday: I honestly don't know. Leftover chilli maybe?

Lunches for me will be chicken salad, and lots of fruit.
Breakfasts - well I'm still trying to finish up the neverending box of the world's dullest museli, but should I ever finish that then it's back to fruit with Total Greek yoghurt and a little bit of raw honey. Which is officially my favourite breakfast. Ever.

Which takes us into next week - thankfully a week at home.

Global Fusion Taste Team: Garlic, chilli and ginger

There's been a little bit of excitement in the Pantry of late, which should hopefully produce some interesting posts going forwards. Today is the first in a series of posts in my role as a member of the Global Fusion Taste Team. I answered a callout on Twitter for team members (I'm always a bit reticent to do that as I'm never sure I'm 'good' enough - well that's not true, I know I am, I just know that this blog and it's little following *waves* aren't up there with the big hitters) Anyway, this week a big box arrived, which had he been here would have led Mark to roll his eyes and ask if I've been online shopping at Lush again. In it was, a pinny, a recipe notebook (stationery and a pinny - can Worldfoods read my mind?) as well as a huge range of sauces and dips for me to try, work with and feed Mark with over the coming weeks. Excited? I am.

So Wednesday night loomed and courtesy of a meeting at work being cancelled we had a night in together. Off to Sainsos we went with the first challenge looming in my mind. It involved a garlic, chilli and ginger, dipping, or stir fry sauce. Having spent much of the recent weeks in hotels a stir fry really appealed, with lots of veg and some brown basmati rice.

Ginger, garlic and trinity are often hailed as the 'holy trinity' (apologies for the blasphemy) of Chinese cooking, and if I'm just doing a bog standard stir fry I will press or chop a couple of cloves of garlic, grate variable amounts of ginger and chop up a chilli as my base. Initially I thought the jar would work as a sub for these, but on sniff test and finger taste I felt it needed a bit more oomph for my tastebuds. On investigation, the recipe suggestion was to add more, so lesson learned - READ things in advance Penelope. I should also say that the last time I did a stir fry out of a jar it was about 10 years ago and I intially worried that it was going to be that incredibly cloying sweet synthetic taste I remembered, however this was light, fresh and not at all syrupy.

I should point out here that Mark likes things significantly milder than I do so I actually made two generous dishes from one jar of sauce, and both those dishes did two solid meals. Mark had his leftovers for lunch the next day, and mine went in the freezer for a later date.

Pantry Prawns; courtesy of Worldfoods

1 clove of garlic, pressed
Large peice of ginger grated
(to my shame) teaspoonful of lazy chilli
250g prawns (Mark had 2 chicken thighs finely sliced, and cooked until brown)
Red pepper chopped
Courgette chopped
Onion finely chopped
Spinach
Sweetcorn
(I forgot I had edamame beans and green beans in the freezer, but had I remembered I would have added those too)
Half a jar of Worldfoods Chinese ginger, garlic & chilli sauce

In a large pan or wok, heat up some flavourless oil and add your garlic, chilli, ginger and onion. Sweat the onion off, stirring constantly
Add prawns, and cook until they turn pink,
Add vegetables and cook until they just start to soften
Add sauce and reduce down

It took, less than 10 minutes to cook this, bearing in mind I also did a chicken one that was missing the extra spices, and rice as well. Perfect for a quick, easy supper when you've been at work all day and done battle with Mr Sainsburys to boot. You'll see from the pic, that I had got out soy sauce to use as a condiment as I hadn't added salt at any point, but really didn't feel that the dish needed it - I'm terrible for underseasoning things though so do a taste test yourself, and add soy or salt to taste.

The only thing I think I would do different again, would be to add some coriander at the end to freshen it up.

So, there you have it, my first challenge as a member of the Global Fusion Taste Team... watch this space for more installments, including my favourite - Pad Thai!

Salad Days: Beetroot, green bean and feta salad

The eagle (owl) eyed amongst you will notice that there is, no photo of this meal. That is because this is quite possible the least photogenic thing I have ever made. Literally. I always thought that casseroles with their brown colours and squishy ingredients were unattractive, but that was before I made this salad. To read the ingredients you would think (as did I) that it had the potential to be stunning, that the verdant greens of the leaves and beans would contrast stunningly with the white goat's cheese and ruby beetroot, all annointed by the faint pink blush of the dressing.

However what I ended up was a tasty mush of goats cheese squished over the beans and leaves, with the beetroot that bloody red that's almost black. The Chanel Rouge Noir of vegetables. I would absolutely recommend you make and try this salad as it is gorgeously tasty, but photograph the ingredients beforehand - do some tasteful arranging on a wooden chopping board, or worktop.

This recipe is a Riverford veg one. I came to it following the second delivery this season of beetroot. I cooked the first batch and left it in the oven to cool, wrapped in foil. At which point I promptly forgot about it for the best part of the rest of the week. Yes, my name is Penelope and I have scatty, slatternish tendencies. What a waste! I was so cross with myself as I love beetroot - there's something about the earthiness of the flavour that seems such a contrast to it's sweetness - which is why I've often used it in cakes, in a similar way to the courgette brownies I made here - which, oddly was also a Riverford recipe.

On a side note, what's quite nice about going back to that post is that my photography skills are actually beginning to improve - at least slightly!

So today Penelope's Pantry brings you... the world's least attractive salad:

Summer salad with beetroot, goat’s cheese + Frenchbeans

Roast or boil the beetroot - to do that, wash and trim them (keep the leaves for the salad) then place in a dish in a preheated oven (200 degreesish) for about 45 minutes. Riverford suggest adding water to the dish and covering with foil - but in the Pantry we fly by the seat of our pants and just wallop them in and take them out when they're softened. This will take about 45-60 mins, depending on size Oh and if you don't want to go out looking like you've committed murder, then wear clean marigolds, or latex gloves. Scrubbing with salt and lemon juice works if you ignore this advice. Said as one who knows!

Ingredients

300g mixed summer salad leaves

150g French beans, trimmed

200g cooked beetroot, cut into 2cm cubes

4 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp good-quality red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

Salt + pepper

100g soft goat’s cheese, crumbled

Salad leaves - I used the beetroot tops and some bagged salad that had come in my Riverford box last week.

Method

1. Wash the salad leaves and dry well. Cook the beans in boiling salted water for 3–4 mins, until just tender, then drain, refresh in cold water and drain again.

2. Put them in a large bowl with the salad leaves and beetroot.

3. Whisk the olive oil, vinegar and some seasoning together to make a dressing.

4. Toss with the salad then sprinkle with goat’s cheese.

Step 4 is where I came unstuck. My goat's cheese didn't exactly sprinkle per se. More squished. Maybe you have a more gentle touch than me. Here's hoping yours doesn't turn out mushy as it's lovely, really fantastic contrasting tastes and textuertures.

I used the beetroot while still warm, partly due to time pressures, partly because that was what I fancied. As the other ingredients were fridge cold or room temperature this again made for a nice contrast.

The Riverford recipe suggests that this serves 4 as an accompaniment to lamb - but I had it as a standalone dish, but this meant it did 2 portions instead of the 4.

Other suggestions are to swap out the beetroot when it's not in season for butternut squash and I'll definitely be trying that, although I'll have to ask a beauty blogger for some help with nail polish names to match that!

Next up - some jams and excitingly my first jellies; plum, and crabapple and mint.  

Home is where the heart is meant to be: Couscous salad

The thing about working away from home and eating restaurant food is that I find I crave vegetables (yes I know I'm weird), food I can eat from a bowl on my lap, in my pyjamas. I just don't think they'd be down with that in a Harvester. Although I should say - Harvester for the win at being able to eat what you want as it suits you - sadly though, still not in your pjs.

So, it probably makes me something of a sad loser to admit that I spent a large part of Friday daydreaming about a couscous salad. Yes, I know. Something spiked with brightly coloured, fresh veggies, with lots of protein and flavour that tasted - wholesome. I know that's not a flavour, but that's what I wanted.

So Friday afternoon came and I popped up to Waitrose, as my fridge was almost completely bare - I would have added a picture here, but that would have entailed showing you the fact that it also needs a clean out with some bicarb in hot water and I'm not keen on my slatternly tendencies being on show for the whole world to see. I picked up some couscous and feta (both from their essentials range), working on the basis that I was sure I had odds and sods to use up in a fridge-bottom style...

However, the fridge wasn't completely bare - here's what I found in it:

A handful of dried up fresh mint
Two handfuls of equally dried up parsley
A tomato
Half a red romano pepper
Some spring onions that were only slightly wilted
Garlic
Lazy chilli
Half a cucumber that was looking very sorry for itself
A centimetre or so of homemade salad dressing in an old jam jar
And a bottle of rose with one glass left in it!

Also in the pantry I found the end of a packet of pine nuts, and some Marigold bouillon

I boiled the kettle and measured out 1 cup of couscous into a salad bowl
I added 2 teaspoons of bouillon and 2 cups of boiling water, stirred it all in, covered with a clean, dry tea towel and left for 10 minutes
Meanwhile, I chopped up the tomato, cucumber, pepper, spring onions and feta up into a small dice
I finely chopped the mint, parsley and garlic
I toasted the pine nuts in a dry pan until lightly browned

When the couscous was cool I added all the ingredients above, a teaspoon of lazy chilli and the leftover (shaken up) vinagrette. Everything was stirred in and served in a large bowl with the rose. It was exactly what I wanted - and made loads - which meant both Mark and I had it for dinner on Friday, and lunch on Saturday and Sunday.

On Monday I did a discount run around Waitrose, picking up a packet of prawns and a packet of feta, and a bag of peashoots - I added half of each of these to the remaining cous cous and had it for dinner on Monday. As an added bonus, packed lunches on Tuesday and today were the remains of all of those and some cherry tomatoes and alfalfa/ radish sprouts as an undressed salad. Yum.

I know it's not exciting to talk about those meals we make at the end of the month to make the budget stretch further, to use up the odds and ends from a veg box or a shop, and it's not a recipe per se as you could use anything languishing in your fridge but this is real life - we can't all be knocking up Jamie's 30 minute meals or Delia's suggestions every day - sometimes we just need something that nourishes us, that is tasty and that doesn't cost the earth. I know I do.

Coming up... Mark's mum sent me back a whole load of plums from their tree, mint from the garde and crabapples she was given, so for the cost of some sugar I'll be presrving madly this week. Also a long awaited foray into a nasi goreng inspired by something I saw on the Food Channel when I was off sick before I changed jobs.

Meal Planning Monday: A week at home!

I feel like I should preface this post with saying just how much I'm loving my new job. It's taking me to different parts of the country, meeting new people and trying new things. In this economic climate I recognise just how lucky I am as for so long I've been so miserable and stayed in a job that continued that. What it hasn't done thus far is let me have time to cook. This weekend however, I've blitzed the house, and whilst I have an empty fridge, the clean, ironed washing, and clean, tidy rooms will allow me the time over the next few nights to make some jam and jelly, turn museli into cookies for the office, and try some new recipes. Exciting stuff!

Breakfasts: fruit, yoghurt and a sprinkling of Grape nuts.

For lunches this week I'm going to make a rice salad with tofu, soy sauce and veggies.

Monday: Leftover cous cous salad (blogpost should be up on Wednesday) mixed in with prawns, pea shoots and feta

Tuesday: Beetroot, goats cheese and feta salad with roast chicken (peices if I get to the butcher)

Wednesday: Leftover roast chicken/ Sausages, sweetcorn and baked potatoes and salad

Thursday: I'm out Thursday night, but depending on when I get home and if I've eaten will either have an omlette or toast and marmite

Friday: We're off to Mark's parents for the weekend

I'm waiting on delivery of some Gourmet Raw brownies that I ordered last week. I know it's probably not the best introduction, but I've really got into Nakd bars of late and have been reading up on raw food. I eat a lot of fruit as you can probably tell and for snacking they're tasty, convenient and don't have that horribly processed aftertaste I find in a lot of cereal bars. I'm hoping the Gourmet raw brownies are similar, only slightly more decadent. Review to follow when they arrive. Not that I'm impatient or anything *taps foot*

Whatcher gonna do? Make courgette fritters...

I can't believe that actually scans... clearly I missed my vocation. Anyway, when not listening to the National theatre cast recording of Oklahoma! or catching up on all the Groff based episodes of Glee I've actually managed to do some cooking. I know, I was shocked too.

It's that time of year again when the veg are glutting (is that even a word?) but inevitably whatever you choose to grown in your allotment, veg plot, the pots on your balcony, patio or drive has gone mental. Courgettes, runner beans tomatoes all seem to pick the same time and just produce loads and loads of veg. Normally I do a lot of blanching and freezing, but that demands you pick things just as they're ripe and as I've mentioned recently I've just not been around enough to be able to time that well enough.
Instead I've found myself looking for new ways with old favourites - courgettes normally become courgetti spaghetti or get used up in ratatouille that I then freeze as a base for bolognaise or pasta bakes when it's colder and I need the comfort of carby, cheesy goodness.

However, even in my house there are only so many times you can rustle up aforementioned pasta dish before Mark looks at you with despair in his eyes. So with four courgettes languishing, unloved in the veg drawer I turned to recipe books with no luck - well I did contemplate resurrecting courgette brownies, but as I keep harping on, I'm trying to be healthy and as Mark can't eat dark chocolate (don't even ask) that would have meant either foisting more cake off on my landlord, or eating it myself. Such hardship. Well, not fitting into my jeans is.

So to google it was - and surprisingly Courgette fritters were the answer to my prayers. The web is practically teeming with recipes for them - who knew? Allrecipes was the recipe I chose, and despite not having half the ingredients (more on this presently) they were an indupitable success.

The other thing that's going on for me at the moment, is a shortage of funds. I've been in my new role for a month but am yet to have a full salary, that plus this being the first time ever I've had to work with expenses (or expensives as they're known in our house) and it's meant I'm cutting costs. So, my fridge is currently bare save for some Greek yoghurt, a bottle of cider left over from the Hertfordshire County show, 2 Lush solid perfumes and an eye mask that helps with my migraines. Anyway, this has meant aside from bare essentials I'm trying not to shop.

So here are Penelope's penniless Pantry courgette patties.

4 courgettes, grated (I use the food processor)
2 eggs, beaten
1 red onion, peeled and chopped
8 tablespoons of plain flour
200g mature cheddar grated
Pinch of salt
Teaspoon of chopped red chilli
2 tablespoons of light olive oil

I prepped the courgettes, cheese and onion in the food processor (you could easily chop and grate but it was Friday and I was tired), and tipped them out into a big mixing bowl
Add the eggs, flour, salt and chilli and stir until you get a thick mixture
Heat the oil in a non stick frying pan, when hot, drop heaped tablespoons of mixture into the pan, and leave for about 3 minutes before turning over and cooking on the other side.
As I finished each batch of three, I popped these in the oven on a low heat until we were ready to eat.

We had them with Greek potato salad, sausages and regular salad.

This easily made 12 large fritters, you could use a dessert spoon and probably nearly double this if you wanted more, smaller patties, or make one large fritter that fitted the pan, and slice it up. I had all these ingredients in the house, so this was incredible economical for me. You could follow the original recipe and use a mix of mozzarella and parmesan, and omit the chilli but for me these were tasty and moreish.

Apologies for the lack of picture, the camera has gone a bit strange and a whole load of pictures I took have just vanished. I'm bound to make these again soon and will update when I do. Guides honour.

Meal Planning Monday: A place to lay my head

Well it's good that my first week has gone well. Not so good that so much new information and learning to take in has meant that I'm exhausted and sleeping when I should be cooking and blogging. This is the first time in a while I've only managed one post in a week. That said, last week's meal plan went largely to, well, to plan really. At times of chaos is when I think they come into their own really, meaning that I don't have to think, to do extra shopping or even contemplate a takeaway. Although I did, seriously consider a pizza on Wednesday, but I knew that there were the delights of something in tupperware waiting for me in the fridge.

This week, now today is done, should be easier as I'm mainly London based, although I'm anticipating the tiredness from taking in so much new information will still continue. I've also got what I suspect are the beginnings of a sinus infection so am doing my damdest to keep that in check with a small case of fruit overload.

Anyway, so this week's meal plan... I'm still waiting on my first payday so the freezer is still my shopping trolley.

Monday: leftover chicken curry with brown basmati rice. This is my Dad's recipe and I really must blog it soon, I've been cooking it for years and it seriously never fails.

Tuesday: Salmon and greens (pointed cabbage this time) - an attempt to bludgeon the oncoming infection with garlic, chilli and ginger.

Wednesday: Leftovers for me, for M, sausages and wedges

Thursday: Some kind of salad I think. With griddled courgettes, mint from the plant I'm reviving and maybe some feta

Friday: If I'm back from work in time, then maybe some steak? It's something I rarely cook but we had some at a friend's barbecue this weekend and I really enjoyed it. Hopefully the butcher has something tasty in.

That all goes with fruit and yoghurt for breakfast and either fruit or salad for lunch. Yes, I'm still eating healthily, although I'm letting myself have the odd treat.

Make sure you head over to At home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to this week.

Meal planning Monday: my week as a headless chicken (not for eating either)

Hello all, I know I'm late again, I do have a(nother) good excuse, this is my first week in my new job. Truth be told I had intended to just schedule posts for this week, but last week I was ridiculously busy and disorganised and utterly failed to do that.

This week I'm not anticipating having loads of time to cook, plus being between jobs for a few weeks has meant that money is tight(er than usual), so it's a bit of an empty the freezer week in the pantry. I'm lucky in that I keep the staples for things like Pantry pasta in my storecupboard so it's not as if I'll be going hungry and I'm a thrifty soul, good at freezing my leftovers, making stock out of chicken carcasses and the like so I have a healthy freezer. It's just a case of using that up rather than making fresh.

So this is what the week looks like in the Pantry:

Monday: Leftover Broadbean risotto

Tuesday: I'm at Guides, so possibly the last of the salad in the fridge with some cheese.

Wednesday: Baked potatoes, with defrosted ratatouille and grated cheese

Thursday: Sausages, homemade potato wedges and beans

Friday: we're at M's parents this weekend so I'm not sure.

Hopefully it's a nice cheap week for the Pantry, and then we'll look at next week. My main expense this week was fruit and yoghurt for breakfasts and lunches. My aim is not to do a top up shop and ideally to only need essentials (as in milk) next week. Fingers crossed.

Be sure to pop over to At home with Mrs M to see what else everyone else is up to this week.

Meal Planning Monday: Better late than never

*scooting in, trying to remain unnoticed*

Well that didn't work did it? Sorry for the late post, but yesterday was M's birthday, and amongst other things we spent much of the day trying to sort the car out. Anyway, veg box is here - M is back to work, I am getting ready to go back to work and so meal planning is back at the fore.

Monday: Spaghetti carbonara (Nigella's recipe, but without the whole packet of spaghetti she reckons on.)

Tuesday: Was supposed to be risotto, but has ended up being a hot chocolate and 2 biscuits.

Wednesday: Risotto - using my bianco recipe, but adding chorizo and roasted butternut squash

Thursday: Sausages, corn on the cob and baked potatoes

Friday: We're hoping to catch Harry Potter, homemade pizza

Saturday: I'm at camp training all day, so right now I'm not sure... maybe Salmon and greens?

Sunday: I'm quite fancying Pasta Puttanesca, there's a Jamie Oliver recipe I like so I think I will whack a pot of that on.

Lunches are smoked salmon and cream cheese, or Greek salad.

Breakfasts for me are fruit.

Don't forget to pop over to At Home with Mrs M for more meal planning inspiration from all of this week's participants.

Beans mean(s) risotto?

No, wait, that's not right. One of the reasons I'm drawn to the concept of a veg box is the way it pushes me to try new things, either vegetables I haven't cooked previously or ones I wouldn't necessarily buy if left to my own devices at the shops.

Broad beans are just one of those veg - I love them (I'm a double podding fiend) they're so green, verdant in their freshness. Their presence introducing the start of the summer, yet even yesterday when pottering around Waitrose, I completely forgot to pick any up. Riverford had sent me lots so, on Wednesay evening I returned home from work and made a start on double podding the Elphaba-esque vegetable.

To cook these (at this stage of the season) I just add them to the dish late on, but towards July or even later, they will need bringing to the boil. Oddly, like gnocchi, once they're floating at the top of the water in the pan, they're cooked - normally it only takes a few minutes.

I love broadbeans, blitzed with some light olive oil and a grated clove of garlic as a side dish for any main meal, or spread on thick slices of french bread, lightly toasted as you would for  bruschetta. However, this week required more gutsy, warming food as the rain was pelting down as though it were still April. Comfort food was called for, and what is more soothing and comforting than risotto.

I always use the same recipe for risotto, just substituting the flavours and herbs depending on what way I'm going with it. If you think of a basic risotto recipe as a 'bianco' and then you change up what you add to it depending on what you fancy/ have in the fridge.

Risotto bianco

1 onion, finely chopped
1 cup/ 250g arborio rice
1 glass white wine, I use a fairly dry one
Olive oil
Chicken/ vegetable stock - 500ml(ish) I use chicken stock that I make myself - eeking out the frugalness of my roast chicken even further.
Parmesan
Salt and Pepper
Butter

Sautee the onion in a little olive oil, cooking until it goes translucent.
Add the white wine into the hot pan, and let it bubble down, stirring all the while.
Heat your stock through in a separate pan, bringing it to a gentle boil
Add the stock, ladle by ladle, stirring until each is absorbed, and only then adding the next
Once your stock is all absorbed, check that your rice is cooked, it should be soft with a little bite (not mush!)
Remove the pan from the heat and add butter, grated parmesan and pepper. Taste, and if it needs it add salt. Parmesan is quite salty so sometimes you only need a little.

For the Broad bean risotto, I added a little garlic to the cooked onion (if you add it earlier it runs teh risk of burning), and lots of shredded mint, a little thyme and then the broadbeans at the end, just with the last ladle of stock.

I didn't use pecorino, but whilst I was cooking I thought how well this would have gone with the broad beans. The sharpness of the sheep's cheese contrasting with the soft sweetness of the little beans. I also didn't have any white wine in, as I don't tend to have it in the house, I diluted half a glass of sherry with water and used this at the same point in the dish as I would the wine. Similarly you could just add an extra 250ml of stock.

I had intended to add bacon to this, as I think the salty crispness of well cooked, crumbled in bacon would have been lovely - but I think it must have evaporated as there was none in the fridge, instead, I chopped up a chicken breast that was leftover from the previous night's Guide Division BBQ. It wasn't quite the same, flavour wise, but did provide some extra protein, and an extra dimension texture-wise.

I made this risotto in less than an hour (and that includes double podding millions of broad beans) so it's a perfect midweek dinner; tasty, soothing and on a wet, cold June evening - just what the doctor ordered.

Meal Planning Monday: demob happy

Well, as anyone who follows me on facebook or twitter will know, Friday was my last day at work. In three weeks I start at a new organisation, specialising in working with people with Learning Disabilities. It's an exciting time for me, contrarily to my normal attitude to change I'm embracing this, closing my eyes and leaping into the new. Please keep your fingers firmly crossed for me, I'm really hoping that I'll enjoy the new role, that working closer to home will help with my wellbeing, volunteering, and naturally blogging.

This week is my first week off - today I've baked banana bread, started a sponge to turn into Scottish Morning rolls quite appropriately tomorrow morning. I'll blog about those later in the week.  Thursday is also going to be my day to do the cooking for holiday - we're off to Skye next week, and I'm already excited about the break.

This week will naturally be a busy one - my aim is to do all those things I've been trying to do since moving and just haven't had the time or the inclination to get around to.

Monday: Leftover sausages and spicy lentils

Tuesday: Courgetti spaghetti

Wednesday: Chilli con carne I think... it's a bit weather & veg box dependent at the moment. But if the forecast is to be believed, chilli with guacamole, soured cream and grated cheese.

Thursday: Something quick and easy - takeaway or leftovers maybe?

Friday: We'll be in Scotland... not quite at Skye but nonetheless, something holidayish

So that's my week - I'm leaving the weekend free but am planning on taking some bread, cake and a ham in coca cola (for sandwiches) up with us.

So, there we have it, my meal plan for the week - be sure to head over to At Home with Mrs M for some other inspiration.

The distance you have come: Harissa lentil salad

My second lentil based post in a week. Clearly they're like buses.

I really love the music of Scott Alan, his music allows one to be contemplative and is often what I listen to when I'm feeling low. Late last year when I was verging on homeless and things weren't great, friends Louise and Karen suggested listening to The distance you have come and it really seemed to sum up what I was thinking.

Anyway, this week I've left my job of nearly five years working for a local authority, for an opportunity to develop my skills and take some new chances working in the Learning Disability sector. It's a big jump, scary and exciting all at once and I hope it's going to afford me the opportunities for happiness at work, which in turn will mean for more settled, less emotional blogging. Fingers crossed and all that.

So this was my last week of work - as always Sunday night found me up later than planned, multitasking in my pyjamas: breaking in new shoes I wanted to wear on Monday, making lentil salad, talking to Mark on the phone - all of which I did with aplomb and finnesse, surrounded by a lot of wet washing (what IS up with the weather lately?). The lentil salad was another I'd offered to test for Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and I'm pleased to say it was without the drama of the spicy tomato lentils.

It was surprisingly low faff, and easy I popped half a cup of lentils into the stock in my big pan and let that reduce down for just under half an hour, then added chopped cucumber, finely shredded greens, red and green peppers, and some mushrooms (I like my lunches to be as good for me as possible - it justifies afternoon cake). I stirred this in until the greens had wilted, and added the amazingly scented harissa powder, lemon zest and juice and a tablespoon of olive oil. Suddenly what had seemed fairly plain and ordinary was lifted into something extraordinary, fragrant and lightly spiced, with the zing of the lemon behind the harissa. I'm really looking forward to trying it for lunch tomorrow, but I have to say, tasted from the pan in my pyjamas and heels I give it a thumbs up.

The recipe is here, and I think really flexible - as you can see I upped the veggies considerably, and you could easily change them for ones you like -I just used what was lurking in the fridge.

So much better: Spicy tomato lentils with sausages

It's rare that I completely screw things up in the kitchen, but it does happen. December 2000 I rushed making my first ever creme brulee and my sister got food poisoning as the eggs weren't cooked through. No one else did though I hasten to add. It took until last year sometime, for me to try anything similar with eggs. Fortunately my lime curd was a raging success, and the courgette cake it went into poisoned nobody.

Cue Friday night. I got home early and decided to start making Fuss Free Flavours Spicy tomato lentils for our dinner. I was accompanying it with sausages so that our resident carnivore didn't feel too hard done by. That, it turned out was the least of my problems. Since getting meningitis and starting to get migraines I have become really sensitive to smell just before they set in, and whilst Mark assured me that the lentils smelled lovely, something about the scent of them cooking sent me off into a chaotic tailspin, convinced I had spoiled the dish. In the face of blind panic Mark did what any sane man would do when his partner is nearing hysterics about a pan of lentils - he suggested takeaway. I left the lentils in the pan to cool, convinced I would throw them away in the morning, took a sumatriptan and went to bed.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, and the headache from the night before had passed. I studiously ignored said lentils whilst having my breakfast and at lunchtime braved opening the pan. They smelled lovely, earthy, spicy with a hint of something deeper behind them (I love how cumin can add such depth to a dish) That night, I baked the sausages (as always Sainsbury's Taste the Difference - because I really can) and had two with the spicy lentils. I thouroughly enjoyed them, I like lentils at the best of time. Their low GI and general healthiness appeals to me and they go so well lentil ragu is one of my favourite batch cooks.

I would definitely cook these again (without the migraine induced freakout) I have frozen the leftovers and will be insisting Mark tastes them for Thursday night tea as per the mealplan.

You can find the recipe here at Fuss Free Flavours, the only thing I did differently was to add broccoli as that was what I had in the fridge and needed to be used up. Obviously the original recipe doesn't suggest pairing it with sausages (neither does it suggest flipping out and getting a migraine), but I'm guessing Helen doesn't have a hardened carnivore to contend with.

It's not easy being green: Salmon and greens

First of all, apologies for the shoddy pictures - I can't find the camera charger anywhere so am resorting to iPhone apps to try and make my pictures slightly less dreadful.

I've been promising to make this for, oh I don't know - weeks now? Faithfully putting it in each Meal Planning Monday post, then something cropping up - be it a migraine, hospital, Guides - well, you get the picture. Anyway, since discoverint that I'm allergic to one of the meds I was being given for the migraines, life has been considerably quieter *touch wood* and I've been afforded the opportunity to finally make salmon and greens.

It's not the most exciting of recipe titles, it does what is says on the tine I suppose, without there being any tins involved. It's one of those meals I have as a refular midweek feature as it's quick and easy. Contrary to the jams and the breads of this world it asks and requires little of me - yet pays back much in flavour. When I'm feeling like I've overdone the chocolate or the ice cream, I have it by itself. When more sustenance is required I add brown basmati rice. I've successfully substituted the salmon for white fish (when I'm being particularly frugal, whatever is being sold off at the end of the day) and also chicken. Similarly when the kales, and spring greens aren't in season, I've successfully supplemented or replaced greens with brocolli, shredded savoy cabbage, or a bag of spinach briefly wilted. This is one of those dishes you can cook when the day has asked that bit too much of you. When your head is throbbing, when work is stressful, when it's still only Wednesday these are the times that you need something that can be eaten from a bowl, something that feels healthy but still has flavour. I think there's nothing so sad as trying to be healthy and finding what you're eating tastes of cardboard.

So Salmon and greens - again it's one of those recipes that's evolved and I'm not sure where it came from - it's definitely not a recipe book, so it's entirely possible it was in a magazine, or even my own head.

2 gloves garlic chopped finely
Thumb sized piece of root ginger grated (I don't peel ginger, just grate it with a microplane *lazy*)
1 red chilli (or to taste) finely chopped
2 salmon fillets, skinned (Pantry tip: the easiest way to do this is to put the salmon, skin side down on a chopping board, at one end of the fillet the skin will seem slightly thicker and with a sharp knife you'll be able to prize it away. Wiggle your knife in a gentle sawing motion - keeping the blade flat - and the skin will come away from the fish easily. If I ever find out how to upload a video I'll show this, as people always seem to struggle with fish and I've been eating and cooking it since weaning so tend to forget that other people weren't peeling prawns before they could walk)
1 head of spring greens, or a similar quantity (about 6 handfuls or so?) of green vegetables, rinsed and shredded.
60ml/ 4 tablespoons dark soy sauce
The same of water
125ml sherry

Mix up the sherry, water and soy sauce with the garlic, chilli & ginger

Pour half of this over the fish - I chop the fish into finger sized bits - and cover with clingfilm. I tend to leave this for a while if I'm working from home, or if I've just come back from a hellish commute and need to eat I don't bother with leaving it to stand.

Either heat up a non stick pan so that when you hold your hand about 6 inches away from the base you can feel warmth, or oil a wok or similar and heat up.

Put the fish in it's marinade and cook quickly stirring until it's just about done - I cook it through until the finger sized pieces start to flake. The marinade/ sauce will bubble away - this is fine.

Add your veg and pour over the rest of the sauce whilst stirring until it's all wilted down (when I've used broccoli I steamed it lightly first). I recently got a fantastic tip for cooking greens from Helen at Fuss Free Flavours, to cook greens, put them in a colander and put the colander in a bowl, pour over a kettle of hot water - this starts the wilting process so they cook faster, and I find - stay greener.

Serve with rice, or not, as you like. In a bowl. Eat. Not like this...