It's up to you what you do ...

The burgers don't take long to prep and seal, ready to freeze or to cook and serve immediately. If you are freezing a batch seal them in the pan then transfer onto sheets of kitchen roll to cool then bag and freeze as you wish – they are an excellent addition to your treasure chest – aka your freezer!

Serve with whatever floats your boat – in a brioche bun, lightly toasted, with a cheese slice, loaded with avocado, onion, slaw and/or mayo and loads of salady stuff on the side.

Another thought - slice an onion, a sweet variety or Spanish is good too, slice a beef tomato and place on top of the onion and add a generous drizzle of Balsamic glaze – salt and black pepper to suit.

You could serve with wedges. If you've baked jacket potatoes and grated a bag or box of grated cheese ahead - part of your cooking stash and this is where it comes into its own! Slicing cooked jacket potatoes into wedge shapes and placing on a baking sheet covered with baking parchment and then sprinkling with grated cheese isn't too taxing.

Your burgers and your wedges need 20 minutes although if you like your wedges crispier then pop them in for 10 minutes and then add the burgers for 20 – don't forget to set your timer. You can reduce the cooking time if you like your burger medium – it depends on the size of burger. As a guide if you pan fry for 3-4 minutes each side you'll get slightly pink.

any size to suit any appetite

Friday night supper anyone?

If you prefer meatballs then the second version of the recipe is why not Indian with all the sides?

Back to Autumn mains …

… and one of my oldest recipes that has stood the test of time and been tweaked along the way into Indian and Italian – whatever takes your fancy, its versatility knows no bounds!

Its first version is that old favourite – Burgers – who doesn't love a burger?

Burgers

Makes 5 x 100g/4oz burgers

500g minced beef

or Quorn mince

*salt and black pepper

*garlic – either 2 tsps of paste or 2 cloves, crushed

*mixed herbs or garlic italian seasoning – a generous sprinkle

*half a tsp of chilli or smoked paprika

*heaped tbsp of tomato paste

*1 egg

sprinkle of plain flour plus extra to flour

a tray for shaping the burgers

gloves or damp hands!

Rapeseed or vegetable oil for shallow frying

Place the mince in a large mixing bowl then add the remaining ingredients marked *, mix well. At this point your mixture may be too wet. If it is, sprinkle a little plain flour over the mixture and fold in gently.

The easiest way of making uniform burgers is to weigh whatever amount you wish – in this case 100g/4 oz and then shape using gloves or damp hands. The least messy way is to place an amount of minced beef onto a sheet of cling film and add or subtract to the correct weight required. You can then use the cling film to bring the burger into a ball and then transfer to the floured tray, pat it down and form into a circle. Heat the oil gently and seal the burgers on both sides.

At this point you have a choice, you can continue to cook the burgers in the pan on a low heat turning regularly for 15 minutes and then serve or if you're cooking ahead, cool, cover and fridge in an oven-proof dish and pop into a pre-heated oven on 170fan/190c/Gas 5 for 15/20 minutes when required.

Next … it's up to you

Here's another …

... cheap and cheerful recipe, using your slow cooker and, other than minimum prep, the rest is done by magic!

Steak Pie Filling

Serves 4/6

1kg/2.2lbs braising steak or stewing steak, cubed

glug of rapeseed or Canola oil

2 x Knorr beef stock pots

2 heaped tbsp tomato paste

2 heaped tbsp small chunk Branston pickle

Brown the meat in a frying pan, using a drop of rapeseed oil – do this in small batches – if you don't you'll get grey looking meat - it'll take ages and will stew. Using a slotted spoon pop the browned meat into the slow cooker.

Dissolve the stock pots in the residual pan juices, then add the tomato paste – make sure the paste is properly melted and “cooked out” - if you don't do this you'll get a bitter taste. Add your Branston, then add 250ml water, bring to the boil and tip over your meat. Slow cook on low for 4 hours. If your gravy is too thin then add a little slaked cornflour and thicken to taste.

You can make this filling ahead and freeze it, should you have a spare 30 minutes.

All that remains is your choice of lid – you could cheat and use a puff pastry sheet or create a “hot-pot” style, sliced potato lid from your ready-baked potato stash or leave as is and serve with potatoes and other veggies of your choice.

By adding the tomato paste it enriches the gravy. By adding the Branston Pickle it gives a zingy flavour – ordinary it is not.

Life is so much easier with a slow cooker, especially in the Autumn and Winter months – the ultimate in comfort!

There's photos too!

Choose any of your favourite pizza toppings to create your own Stromboli – the fastest pizza ever – anything goes!

Asda for the prepared pizza dough - £1.34 per 400g pack – Ready rolled pizza dough.

I know it's a tired cliché but here are a couple of photos of the one I made earlier :

Delicious – everyone loves it!

Another “extra” idea - chocolate sauce anyone?

You've made the orange ripple ice cream and it's in the freezer. The following chocolate and orange sauce can be made in minutes. The ingredients are in your fridge and your pantry and it takes only minutes to bring the cream and milk to the boil, add the sugar until dissolved and then tip over the chocolate and orange zest.

Chocolate and orange sauce

120ml double cream

80ml milk

50g caster sugar

225g dark chocolate (70%) broken into small pieces in a large bowl

zest of 1 orange

Put the cream and milk into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Remove pan from heat and pour over the chocolate, stir until melted. Add the orange zest, then set aside to cool in serving jug or if you'd prefer it warm, pour over a portion of ice cream.

I'd suggest serving the ice cream and sauce with fresh orange segments. You could add an extra element and crush amaretti biscuits and sprinkle over the top – another excellent store cupboard stand by.

Here it is :

Perfect!

Snug or Cosy?

Depending on what you fancy, the following is for either a “Snug Shepherd” or a “Cosy Cottage” – minced lamb for the shepherd and minced beef for the cottage – pie that is!

A Shepherd or a Cottage

700g minced lamb or beef (or Quorn)

1 tbsp rapeseed oil (Canola USA)

2 tbsps Madeira

2 tbsps Ruby Port

2 tsps Worcestershire Sauce

2 tbsps tomato paste

2 lamb, beef or veggie stock pots

50-100 ml water

Using a large frying pan and preferably one that is suitable for transfer to the oven. Heat the oil and then add the mince and brown, turning until thoroughly browned. Add the Madeira and the Port and bring to the boil for 2/3 minutes. Add the tomato paste and the stock pots and mix well until absorbed and melted.

Your filling should not be too dry but not too wet either. You should be able to see tiny puddles of liquid. If you need to add water then add it gradually – you can add more you can't remove it!

It's difficult to predict how much fat there'll be in minced meat. Lamb, generally speaking, will have more than beef.

You can transfer the filling into a foil tray or, as I did, leave it in the frying pan.

As a guide, my frying pan that is suitable for hob and oven is 28cms in diameter – 3 very large appetites or 4 normal.

I feel the need to describe the “puddles” :

See them glistening – not too wet but definitely not too dry.

Next - to mash or not to mash, that is the question!

Cheat's Chilli

This is a speedy supper that won't break the bank and thrifty too – it only takes 20 minutes!

Cheat's Chilli

650g minced beef or Quorn mince

glug of rapeseed oil

*½ tsp each of cumin, coriander

and cinnamon

*500g carton of passata

*1 can of red kidney beans

60ml sweet chilli sauce

l large onion, finely chopped

1 Knorr garlic flavour pot

*¼ tsp chilli powder

Only piece of kit required – a large frying pan.

Heat the rapeseed oil, add the onion and garlic and soften on a moderate heat for 2/3 minutes. Add the cumin, coriander, cinnamon and chilli and cook to allow the spices to release their umph!

Add the minced beef and break up and mix thoroughly to ensure that the mince is browned. Add the passata and the sweet chilli sauce, mix again, finally add the beans – bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally .

Variations

Add 50g of dark chocolate broken into small

pieces and drop into simmering chilli to enrich

Use spiced mixed beans instead of red

kidney beans

Add 150g of diced chorizo – (remember you can

get Plant Chorizo Puppies) (reduce the amount of minced

beef to 500g). Fry off the chorizo first until it begins

to crisp and set aside - the rapeseed oil is not necessary since

you're making use of the oil released from the chorizo – continue

with the recipe adding the onion, garlic and spices

as above, add the chorizo back when the mince is

browned

Add a topping of sour cream

Serve with bread of your choice or wraps or how about tacos?

Why not serve with a raw slaw!

If this doesn't disappear it'll be a miracle. If by some chance there are any leftovers, freeze portions in microwave boxes.

By the way those ingredients marked * are great store cupboard items!

OR … perhaps you'd prefer a Shepherd or a Cottage?

Bombay side … or main!

Although this is used as a very popular “side” it can morph into a stand-alone veggie meal by adding a selection of other stuff – cauliflower and chick peas to name but two!

Back to the recipe – for those of you who follow the blog you'll know I always have baked, jacket spuds in my fridge, so you could use two of them.

Bombay Aloo – aka Bombay Potatoes

2 large jacket spuds from your stash, peeled if you prefer

OR

500g of cooked potatoes – I use Charlottes – whatever you use it should be a waxy potato that holds its shape, so any new potato will be just the job

1 medium onion, finely diced

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

250g passata

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp caster sugar

1 tsp ginger paste or 1” fresh, grated.

2 cloves of roasted garlic or 2 cloves of fresh, crushed

1 tsp each of ground cumin, coriander, garam masala and curry powder. Use a curry powder that best suits your palate and how much heat you like – mild, medium or hot

1 tsp salt or to taste

Use a medium size saucepan (21cms/8”).

Your potatoes should be cut to approximately 6-12 cms/¼” to ½” pieces.

Fry the onions in the oil until soft – 3-4 minutes. Add the ginger, garlic, spices and salt. Fry so that the spices are released. Add the potatoes and the tomato paste, fry gently so that the potatoes absorb the flavours and the paste cooks too – 3-4 minutes.

Add the passata and sugar and cook on a gentle heat for 10 minutes**. Taste the Bombay Aloo, adjust salt and sugar to personal taste. Cool, box and fridge. The longer you leave this dish the better it will be. It freezes well.

As a guide this recipe will give you 690g of scrumptious Bombay Aloo.

You can add a can of chick peas, drained and rinsed or tiny florets of cauliflower with the passata and sugar marked ** above - or anything that takes your fancy!

A photo-guide ...

The curry sauce!

This is a middle for diddle curry sauce, it won't blow your head off erring on the mild side – you could ramp it up by increasing the strength of the curry powder to your taste, if you prefer!

I use this all the time – it's quick, easy and above all it's yum!

Rendang Sauce

160 ml coconut cream

3 tsp brown sugar

2 tsp curry powder

(I used mild)

1 tbsp kecap manis

(also known as sweet soy sauce)

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan over a low heat for 3/4 minutes

and serve. Can be made ahead and re-heated.

Cool, then set aside alongside the koftas until you're ready to serve.

If you're a fan of “sides” here are two of my absolute favourites!

Store cupboard sweet – a photo and hints and tips

Here is the result :

You have options – you can choose to make one or all of the elements or you can opt for shop-bought!

Taking the recipe in order :

You have chapter and verse on meringue kisses – posted on 29^th July

You have the vanilla ice cream recipe posted on 22^nd July

You have both versions of the Sticky Toffee Sauce – the original posted with the ice cream on 22^nd July and the plant recipe “Plant your strawberries” posted on 5^th August.

The choice is yours!

Next … a variation on the theme

A store cupboard sweet

… and “store cupboard” includes your freezer too!

A Hodgepodge ...

… aka a mess. I just love to be able to pull ingredients for a speedy sweet straight from the store cupboard/pantry and freezer and serve a dessert worthy of the extra calories! I like to be prepared - what follows is a series of recipe ideas and variations - the components of which can either be made ahead and frozen or can be part of your store cupboard/pantry.

Hazelnut Hodgepodge

Serves 1

3 meringue kisses, crushed

1 scoop of vanilla ice cream

A sprinkle of toasted, chopped hazelnuts – 25g approx

30g frozen raspberries – defrosted – do not sweeten and keep the juices

1 tbsp sticky toffee sauce – loosen in microwave for

15 secs on medium

Assembly

A glass bowl or sundae dish makes this

dessert stand out, layer as follows :

crushed kisses

scoop of ice cream

sprinkle of hazelnuts

raspberries but reserve the juices

drizzle of sticky toffee sauce

drizzle of raspberry juices

Add a final sprinkle of hazelnuts

Coming up – a photo and hints and tips …

There are photos too ...

Take a look :

Here's the tin, greased and dusted

The filling in the tin, ready for the oven

Out of the oven, leave to cool

A slice of cake, with raspberries -

or strawberries!

A perfect summer treat!

Next up bits & pieces and hints & tips …

Chocolate cake!

For the chocoholics here's the first of three chocolate recipes that will hit the spot – you want easy – this is it – it does exactly what it says – in the tin!

Here it is :

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Serves 8

120g dark chocolate – choose a cocoa solid

of 50%

120g unsalted butter

150g caster sugar

50g cocoa

3 eggs

½ tsp vanilla bean paste or 1 tsp vanilla essence

You will need a small sandwich tin -

measuring 20cms/8” x 3cms/1¼”

a butter wrapper for greasing

an extra heaped teaspoon of cocoa

for dusting

a sheet of foil big enough to wrap the cake

Grease the tin with the butter wrapper and then sprinkle cocoa into the tin and carefully tilt the tin until the bottom and the sides of the tin are covered. A small tip – unless you are practised at this art you might want to tilt the tin over the sink!

Pre-heat the oven 130fan/150c/Gas 2.

Set a glass bowl over simmering water and melt the chocolate and butter – when melted, wearing oven gloves and with care, set aside on a heatproof mat or board. Stir in the sugar, cocoa, eggs and vanilla, mix well. Tip into your prepared sandwich tin and bake for 30 minutes.

Let the cake cool, in the tin for 15 minutes.

There are photos too …