Fast food for the working week

Time is our greatest enemy – or rather lack of it - whether its a commute, long hours, collecting and ferrying children there's very little left to think about food and meals and in this case lunches. It doesn't matter where you work – home or at the end of a commute - temptation looms large in both instances. If you're at home you'll raid the biscuits if you're at the end of a commute or on the run because you're ravenous you pick up the nearest “meal deal” which usually includes a tasteless but calorific sandwich, crisps and a sugary drink.

Here's my antidote which does require some prep but it's well worth the effort.

The basic raw slaw

For me a coleslaw is not just a summer side for a BBQ. I like the flexibility of having the raw ingredients, prepped and ready to use. This type of “salad” is delicious all year round.

You can use any dressing that takes your fancy with the cabbage, carrot and onion - whatever else you throw in a bowl is entirely your own choice. There is an added advantage too – if you like to eat sensibly say, during your working week, then making up a batch of raw slaw will be your best friend – so often we set out with the best of intentions - it's not as easy as it sounds when you're hungry and your resistance is low. The answer is to have your ingredients ready and waiting to assemble quickly.

How much you prep is up to you – as a guide :

110g white cabbage, finely sliced – approximately

one third of a medium size cabbage – a “cheek”

use a paring knife – see hints and tips to follow

1 carrot – peeled and sliced with a

julienne peeler – see hints and tips to follow

1 spring onion – 15g finely sliced

salt and black pepper

Slice your cheek of cabbage as finely as you can using a sharp paring knife – bag, clip and fridge.

Julienne your carrot – bag, clip and fridge.

Spring onions are mild, you could use a Spanish onion if you prefer or a red version. You can get a sweet, mild variety too. Slice, bag, clip and fridge.

The ingredients are deliberately bagged separately – they keep fresh longer and carrots “bleed” into other veggies so unless you love orange cabbage I'd definitely recommend!

If you're at home then stash the bags in the fridge. If you're on the run or at the office then box and use a small cool bag.

If you'd like to see a photo of “a cheek of cabbage” check out the Veggie label Saturday 15^th April 2017 – The Coleslaw Conundrum – the raw slaw principle – Coronation Slaw gives the photo.

Hints and tips for the slaw prep up next …

The old ones are the best!

Here are two more variations on the theme of Bubble and Squeak – they are all “much of a muchness” as we say – they are all delicious, made from leftovers or, as I prefer to say, “deliberates”.

Pea and Spring Onion Champ

1.5kg Potatoes, scrubbed

100g butter

500ml/18 fl oz milk (or if a richer consistency

75% milk to 25% double cream)

450g frozen peas

75g spring onions, chopped

4 tbsp chopped parsley

salt and black pepper

Cook the potatoes in salted water until tender, drain, peel and mash. You could use a ricer for absolute “lump free”. Add half the butter – 50g, after mashing or ricing. Place the milk/cream in a pan with the peas and onions and boil, gently, for 4/5 minutes. Add the parsley, take off the heat.

Add the potatoes, keep some of the milk back – you may not need it all. Season to taste and beat until creamy and smooth – add more milk if required.

Serve piping hot with a knob of butter melting in the centre.

P.s. If you wish you could add grated mature cheddar cheese.

Colcannon

Savoy cabbage, finely shredded – half a cabbage

approximately 350g in weight

30g butter

Bunch of spring onions finely chopped

1.5kg Maris piper potatoes,

Salt and black pepper

There are no exact weights here – you may have leftover mashed potatoes and cabbage – it really doesn't matter.

If you've not got leftovers, cook the potatoes in salted water until tender, drain, peel and mash. You could use a ricer for guaranteed lump free.

Put the cabbage in a pan with the butter and cook over a low heat for 2-3 minutes until tender, stirring frequently.

Add the spring onions and cook for another minute or two. Mix with the mashed potato and season well.

If you've cooked your potatoes ahead or are using leftovers, pop the completed dish into a pre-heated oven 180fan/200c/Gas6 for 20 minutes. You could use oven-proof ramekins and serve straight to the table.

Coming up – more fast food ideas for your working week and it's time to get organised and plan!

The squeak photos

the bubble and squeak in the pan

the pan measures 29cms/11½”

the chorizo in the smaller pan – before

and after the pan measures 23cms/9”

the larger “Jackson Pollock” version

the smaller “posh” version – use a ring

8.5cms/3¼” in diameter x 3cms/1¼” deep – first layer is the

Squeak, packed firmly into the ring

next layer is the chorizo, again packed

tightly – see the oil oozing through the Squeak,

remove the ring

with the crowning glory, the poached egg

You don't have to use chorizo – stir fry another layer of your favourite mixed veggies (finely diced) instead. You could sprinkle a layer of grated cheese over the Squeak as it goes into the oven and melts before topping with the poached egg.

The old ones are the best …

Bubble and Squeak (Squeak)

This is a “fly by the seat of your pants”/”live dangerously” recipe! Normally I wouldn't give a recipe, it depends on what you've got leftover, how many mouths you are feeding and how big are their appetites!

Squeak

Serves 2

250g (ish) cooked potatoes, sliced or cubed

125g cooked sprouts, finely sliced

1 medium onion, finely diced

Salt and black pepper

20g unsalted butter & glug of rapeseed oil

125g of diced chorizo

1 egg per person

Glug of malt vinegar

Water for poaching eggs

You'll need one large frying pan for the Squeak

- preferably one that can be transferred to the oven

One small frying pan for the chorizo

One small saucepan, with water and a glug of

malt vinegar

Melt the oil and butter in a large frying pan, add the diced onion and sauté on a medium heat for 2/3 minutes. Add the potato and mix together, sauté for a further 2/3 minutes fold in the sprouts and cook for a further 2/3 minutes. Transfer the Squeak to a pre-heated oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Heat the small frying pan then add the chorizo and fry on a medium heat.

Bring the water to the boil, add the vinegar and turn down to simmer, ready for the poached eggs.

As soon as the chorizo begins to crisp immerse the eggs bring to the boil and set your timer for three minutes – long enough to heat your serving bowls!

You can serve this dish as large or as small as you like – Jackson Pollock style or posh – photos up next …

Time to clear the decks …

… it's not that long ago that we were “decking the halls”, now it's time to clear the decks – literally. If you ever want to fit into those jeans start the way you mean to go on. Have you still got Christmas food and treats left over?

If you've got boxes of biscuits and chocolates give them away – a Food Bank would be a good shout. If you can't bear to surrender the chocolates then freeze them.

Do a stocktake of your freezer – if you've got frozen party food use it or commit it to the recycling. Your freezer is about to become your best friend – not just a storage unit for all the deals you can't possibly live without. Home-made ready meals here we come!

I hate to be a party pooper but we're all now addicted to sugar, salt and fat and have to set about weaning ourselves off any or all of the above.

I have a plan … it's not rocket science. It's get organised, do some planning and the results will you save time, money and stress and hopefully have you back in those jeans in no time at all!

I'll come back to the organisation and planning – in the meantime, to show you where I'm coming from - do you have leftovers? If you don't you might want to reconsider and create them deliberately as I do.

One of the greatest “leftover” dishes has to be Bubble and Squeak, (Squeak) which began life as leftover cabbage and potato from Sunday lunch. It has since morphed into whatever leftover veggies you might have.

Read on for my version … and a few photos

Radio Recipes – 13th January, 2020

As promised here are the recipes and the bits and pieces mentioned during my chat with Bernie Keith, on his Radio Show, The Bernie Keith Show, BBC Radio Northampton on Monday 13^th January, 2020 at 10.10am

Bubble and Squeak (Squeak)

This is a “fly by the seat of your pants”/”live dangerously” recipe! Normally I wouldn't give a recipe, it depends on what you've got leftover, how many mouths you are feeding and how big are their appetites!

Squeak

Serves 2

250g (ish) cooked potatoes, sliced or cubed

125g cooked sprouts, finely sliced

1 medium onion, finely diced

Salt and black pepper

20g unsalted butter & glug of rapeseed oil

125g of diced chorizo

1 egg per person

Glug of malt vinegar

Water for poaching eggs

You'll need one large frying pan for the Squeak

- preferably one that can be transferred to the oven

One small frying pan for the chorizo

One small saucepan, with water and a glug of

malt vinegar

Melt the oil and butter in a large frying pan, add the diced onion and sauté on a medium heat for 2/3 minutes. Add the potato and mix together, sauté for a further 2/3 minutes fold in the sprouts and cook for a further 2/3 minutes. Transfer the Squeak to a pre-heated oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Heat the small frying pan then add the chorizo and fry on a medium heat.

Bring the water to the boil, add the vinegar and turn down to simmer, ready for the poached eggs.

As soon as the chorizo begins to crisp immerse the eggs bring to the boil and set your timer for three minutes – long enough to heat your serving bowls!

You can serve this dish as large or as small as you like – Jackson Pollock style or posh :

The old ones are the best!

Here are two more variations on the theme of Bubble and Squeak – they are all “much of a muchness” as we say – they are all delicious, made from leftovers or, as I prefer to say, “deliberates”.

Pea and Spring Onion Champ

1.5kg Potatoes, scrubbed

100g butter

500ml/18 fl oz milk (or if a richer consistency

75% milk to 25% double cream)

450g frozen peas

75g spring onions, chopped

4 tbsp chopped parsley

salt and black pepper

Cook the potatoes in salted water until tender, drain, peel and mash. You could use a ricer for absolute “lump free”. Add half the butter – 50g, after mashing or ricing. Place the milk/cream in a pan with the peas and onions and boil, gently, for 4/5 minutes. Add the parsley, take off the heat.

Add the potatoes, keep some of the milk back – you may not need it all. Season to taste and beat until creamy and smooth – add more milk if required.

Serve piping hot with a knob of butter melting in the centre.

P.s. If you wish you could add grated mature cheddar cheese.

Colcannon

Savoy cabbage, finely shredded – half a cabbage

approximately 350g in weight

30g butter

Bunch of spring onions finely chopped

1.5kg Maris piper potatoes,

Salt and black pepper

There are no exact weights here – you may have leftover mashed potatoes and cabbage – it really doesn't matter.

If you've not got leftovers, cook the potatoes in salted water until tender, drain, peel and mash. You could use a ricer for guaranteed lump free.

Put the cabbage in a pan with the butter and cook over a low heat for 2-3 minutes until tender, stirring frequently.

Add the spring onions and cook for another minute or two. Mix with the mashed potato and season well.

If you've cooked your potatoes ahead or are using leftovers, pop the completed dish into a pre-heated oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6 for 20 minutes. You could use oven-proof ramekins and serve straight to the table.

Dorset Apple Cake

225g cooking apples, peeled and chopped

slice an extra apple to decorate the top

juice of half a lemon – 1 tbsp

225g plain flour

1½ tsps baking powder

115g unsalted butter, diced

165g dark muscovado sugar – gives a dark

Chrismassy style cake or use light for a lighter

version – golden demerara too – reserve 50g of this

for the topping

1 egg beaten

2-3 tbsp of milk

½ tsp ground cinnamon

25g ground almonds

Preheat oven to 160fan/180c/Gas 4.

Grease and line a 8” round cake tin.

Toss the apple with the lemon juice and set aside. Sift the flour and baking powder together then rub in the butter until you get breadcrumbs then add the ground almonds.

Stir in 115g of the sugar, the apple and the egg, mix well, adding a drop of the milk at a time to make a soft doughy mix.

Transfer to your tin.

Finally, mix the reserved 50g of soft brown sugar, sliced apple and cinnamon and arrange on top of the cake mix.

Bake for 45-50 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack.

As is obvious this cake uses cooking apples – you'd never know – they are soft and taste like plump pieces of squidgy toffee apples.

More pluses - this cake is good warm or cold – serve with vanilla ice cream, clotted cream, custard or a combination of all three. It keeps well. I made it on a Friday and double wrapped in foil when cooled. By Tuesday it was as good as Friday – just that there were only two portions left!

I'm not a huge cake eater but I loved this. It's a perfect Winter comfort blanket with a cuppa on a chilly afternoon which is why it's now known as Comfort Cake!

If you want to see a photo or three, check out the Cake label on the blog 5/10/19.

Calvados Dessert Sauce

as a drizzle over the Dorset Apple Cake

50g caster sugar

20g unsalted butter

40g Cox apple, peeled, cored and

diced

80ml of pressed apple juice

½ tsp of arrowroot, diluted in a drop

of water

1 tsp Calvados

Heat the sugar in a small non stick frying pan (I used a pan measuring 23cms/9” approximately) until it's a dark golden caramel. Stir in the butter and the diced apple. Cook for 30 seconds – do not interfere with the pan – resist the urge to prod. Add the apple juice and bring to the boil. Add the slaked arrowroot, a drop at a time until it thickens. Remove from the heat and add the Calvados.

This is a perfect drizzle for the Dorset Apple Cake. If you want more than a drizzle then make double the recipe!

The drizzle will keep – I covered the pan when cooled and fridged it. When I wanted to serve the sauce I warmed it gently.

Enjoy!

Whilst I'm on the subject of cherries …

Here's another addition to your speedy dessert recipe section but before I begin, you have a choice of cherries :

Frozen cherries create their own juice.

I use frozen Dark Sweet Cherries which I get from

Sainsbury's - they come in 500g bags.

Tinned cherries have syrup or juice

Fresh cherries will need extra juice – you can

get cartons of cherry juice from either Waitrose or M&S.

Bear in mind their season is short and they are expensive

for jamming

Cherry Jam

250g black cherries, stoned

2 tbsps of arrowroot

2 tbsps Kirsch or Cherry Brandy - optional

4 tbsps maple syrup

If using frozen cherries defrost and set aside the juice. If using tinned cherries drain and set aside the syrup. Using a blender, blend half of the cherries with 120ml (4¼ fl oz) of the juice from the defrosted cherries or the cherry syrup from the tinned, arrowroot, 2 tbsps of Kirsch or Cherry Brandy and the maple syrup. Blend until smooth then pour into a saucepan, add the remaining cherries, bring to the boil and let it reduce for 10 minutes until it becomes jam like. Pour into a bowl and leave to cool and thicken.

I'd not recommend using cornflour as a thickening agent – your jam will be cloudy. Arrowroot gives you a glossy finish.

The “cherry jam” will not last for ever and has what I call a soft set. A soft set jam makes for a perfect layer in a cherry version of the emergency desserts.

Use either raspberries or cherries and layer with the compote and/or jam, using the crushed Amaretti biscuits and meringues in the December thoughts … as mentioned in the previous post. If you want a grown up version add Cherry Brandy or Kirsch to the cherries or Chambord Raspberry Liqueur or Framboise to the raspberry. The almond in the Amaretti goes well with both fruits.

The time has come to measure your waistline or try on those jeans that did fit and discover how much damage you've done over the holidays!