your best ever recipe.

Callanish

If you like blue cheese but are watching the calories, this is a good recipe for a quick and easy starter that's tasty but relatively low in fat, and can be prepared in advance. You can use any leftovers as a sandwich filling - it keeps well for 2-3 days. You can substitute the stilton for any blue cheese you have to hand - great for using up any "bits".

Stilton and Mushroom paté

50g stilton cheese, grated (for a less strong flavour, you can reduce this by up to 25g)
125g quark (0% fat soft cheese)
2 large field mushrooms, grated
1 clove garlic, crushed (or more if you like it)
1/2 tspn dried sage
freshly ground black pepper
2 tspns olive oil

1. Coat the base of a non-stick frying pan with the olive oil and heat gently.
2. Add the garlic, sage and grated mushrooms, then cook over a low heat, stirring frequently.
3. When the mushrooms are cooked, remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool.
4. Mix the quark and the stilton together in a large bowl.
5. Stir the cooled mushrooms into the quark and stilton mixture.
6. Add a couple of twists of black pepper, to taste, and stir well until all the ingredients are well combined.

Serve as a starter or snack with toasted wholemeal bread or warmed pitta breads.

For a variation, it's nice with a handful of crushed walnuts mixed in.

poppycracker

My favourite recipe is Lentil Soup

Fry an onion and about five small carrots cut small in oil with a teaspoon of hot curry paste stirred in. When onions are browning and carrots feel softer, stir in about three handfuls of lentils and leave it on the heat while you boil a kettle of water. (Softens the lentils apparently). Pour water over and leave to simmer, adding water if it starts to get dry.

Cut up any other veg you have in the house; leeks, peppers, mushrooms etc (doesn't work too well with broccoli but might with cauliflower, haven't tried) and add to mixture once the lentils are soft. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes (and more water if its going dry) and leave to simmer gently until you're hungry.

As you can see, I'm a very 'a bit of this and a bit of that' when I'm cooking! But these 'quantities' will feed a hungry family of four. You can put more or less curry paste in according to how hot you want it.

cathybird

recipe for cheap & simple chocolate sauce, modified from another recipe I originally found elsewhere on the internet (shhhhhh)

1/3 cup cocoa
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup water

combine in saucepan until boiling, boil gently for a minute
add a couple of drops of vanilla

you can play around with the quantities if you want a thicker/sweeter/or whatever sauce

msmicawber

Bacon & Mushroom Risotto

This is really easy, and you can adjust the quantities and use cheaper or more expensive ingredients, etc. depending on what's to hand at the time, and there's only one frying pan to wash up.

6 rashers streaky bacon (or can use left over gammon or whatever you've got)
1 chopped onion
1/4 lb mushrooms (or tin of mushrooms; I've also used dried mushrooms)
6 oz rice (can use rissotto rice, or ordinary long grain rice)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1/4 lb frozen peas
3/4 pint stock (I use beef, but chicken or veg. is just as good)
2 oz grated cheese

1. Sweat the bacon and onion in 1oz butter/marg. and dessertspool of oil.
2. Add mushrooms and cook over low heat for about 5 mins.
3. Add rice, stir, and cook for 1 min.
4. Add peas, chopped tomatoes and stock and simmer gently, stirring occasionally until the stock is absored & the rice is cooked (adding more stock/water if necessary).
5. Sprinkle grated cheese over the top and cook for a couple of minutes until cheese is melted. If your frying pan has a lid, it makes this quicker.

Also, left overs can be reheated in the microwave.

msmicawber

dlb wrote:

Leeks in cheesy breadcrumb sauce!!!

2 full leeks, boil until soft
In another pan, cook milk, grated cheese, butter, wholegrain mustard and a little flour ( sorry dont know weights just do it from memory) until sauce thickens.
Wrap a good piece of ham around each leek, then put into oven tray, cover with sauce, and top with more grated cheese and breadcrumbs.

Cook until sauce bubbles, yummmy!!!!!!!!!!

Delicious - I do the same thing using a can of asparagus sometimes instead of leeks.

beachbeth

My kids have always loved this and still make and eat it now. Its nicer than simply melting chocolate and stirring rice krispies or cornflakes in:

Crispy Crackles:

50g (2oz) butter
2 x 15ml (2 tablespoons) spoons golden syrup
50g (2oz)drinking chocolate
50g (2oz) cornflakes

Put the butter and golden syrup in a saucepan and melt over a low heat. Then simply stir in the drinking chocolate, followed by the cornflakes and mix until completely coated. Leave to cool and they will set. Yummy!

beachbeth

Ive recently made this pasta dish, which is quite simple and my 16 year old daughter loves it! Its like a different take on lasagne.

Fry half an onion and a small garlic clove in a little olive oil until soft. Add 250g lean minced beef and cook until it is no longer pink. Add a 230g can of chopped tomatoes, 1 tablespoon tomato puree and half a teaspoon of mixed herbs. Cook this on a low heat for 30 minutes. (When I cooked it I didn't think there was enough liquid to do this but there is!)

Cook about 6oz fusilli pasta in some salted water and then add this to the above, mixing well.

Make a cheese sauce: Melt 1oz butter in a saucepan and mix in 1oz flour using a wire whisk until you have a thick, smooth mixture. Gradually add in quarter to half a pint of milk until it is a thin sauce consistency and add 2oz of parmesan or cheddar cheese until melted in.

Put the pasta and tomato mix into a serving dish or individual serving dishes and spoon the cheese sauce over the top, adding a little extra grated cheese on top of this. Grill until bubbling.