Recipe Help

Puzzledbubbles

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post on the O/S board, im all nervous, lol.

Im really hoping you guys can help, in an endeavour to sort ourselves our financially and health wise and are going to go back to doing a weekly meal plan. :beer:

We have done this before and normally it works fine until we reach week three which ends up being exactly the same as week one due to my limited repetoire (sp) of recipes.

Can you lovely guys let me know your best recipie or your favourite meal that meets the following criteria (sorry to restrict it)

Relatively simple to make, (i can bake, make pastry etc but not for a while so simple is always good)

For two people

Not what OH calls Stew (over the years ive established that this means pretty much anything cooked in one pot with some kind of gravy or sauce and apparently also covers hot pots, pasta bakes, stews, coq au vin and casseroles but not bolognaise lol) :rotfl:

Anything that you guys can help with would be great, apart from the above we arent fussy, fish, veggie, meat we dont mind, healthy is good but not essential as the idea is ANYTHING is better than take aways
Thank you so much for any advice you can give :T

(im at work now but will check in as i can over the afternoon and will be on tonight)

Puzzled

JailhouseBabe

Prawns with Tagliatelli:

Put pasta on (we like this with tagliatelli, but others would do)
Heat 1 tin chopped tomatoes in a frying pan (I 'mash' mine at this stage with a potato masher)
Season to taste
After 4 or 5 minutes, add prawns (I use supermarket value pack for about £1 - can't remember weight)
After 2 minutes add a little cream (just enough to turn tomato sauce pink)
Pour over pasta and serve with crusty bread

Cheap and cheerful
JB x

10past6

Hi

If you take a look here, you may find something of interest.

r.mac_2

what about making a huge pot of bolognase (say on a sunday afternoon) and then portion it up as follows:

have some with spaghetti as bolognase

make a shepherds pie - add some peas/chopped veg to mince and top with mashed potato.

add chillis/hot chilli powder and serve with rice and grated cheese for chilli con carne

these all freeze well and keep in the fridge a few days so you don't have to eat mince 3-4 days in a row!!!

On standby I always have a tin of chopped tomatoes and some soft cream cheese - mix together over a low heat and serve mixed into pasta (goes particularly well with stuffed pasta). add some sauted onion and other veg for variety

other failsafe recipe is to marinate chopped chicken breasts and thighs in a little olive oil and lemon juice. grill/bake in oven/griddle/fry until cooked through and serve with couscous made with chicken stock which has chopped springonions and corgettes in it with a squeeze of lemon on top. I throw in anything I can find in the fridge

Stephen_Leak

Welcome to the asylum. I hope that this isn't classified as a "stew". It's more complicated than difficult. Each step (spuds, fish, sauce, assembly, oven) isn't rocket science. Even if the sauce isn't as smooth as it should be, it all seems to get sorted out in the oven!

If I see any "tail ends" of suitable fish on my local supermarket fish counter, I tell them that I'm looking for stuff for a fish pie, and offer to take them off their hands if they can knock a bit off the price!

FISH PIE

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

375g of old potatoes*
1 onion
250ml of water
½ a teaspoon of salt
250ml of milk
350g of white fish**
2 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of flour
½ a tablespoon of parsley
Salt and ground pepper to taste
½ a tablespoon of butter
½ a tablespoon of milk
Ground pepper to taste

METHOD

Peel the potatoes and chop them into quarters. Peel the onion and chop it into tiny pieces.

Put the water and salt into a saucepan on a medium heat. Add the potatoes. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat until it is just boiling (simmering). Put the lid on the saucepan and cook for 20 to 25 minutes until soft. Check the water level from time to time and top up if it starts to dry out.

While the potatoes are cooking, put the 250ml of milk, fish and onion into a frying pan on a medium heat. Cook for about 10 minutes until the fish is firm and opaque.

Strain the milk through a sieve or colander into a bowl. Put the fish and onion onto a plate. Break the fish into small pieces. Throw away the skin and bones.

Drain the potatoes and mash with the ½ a tablespoon of butter and the ½ a tablespoon of milk until it is smooth and lump free. Season with the pepper.

Put the 2 tablespoons of butter into the saucepan the fish was cooked in on a medium heat. Melt the butter. Add the flour and cook for a minute, stirring all the time. Take off the heat. Add the milk the fish was cooked in a bit at a time. Stir each time to make sure it is smooth. When all the milk has been added, put the pan back on the heat. Bring to the boil. Keep stirring. Turn down the heat until it is just boiling (simmering). Cook for 2 minutes, stirring all the time.

Add the fish, onions and parsley and stir. Season with the salt and pepper.

Put the fish mixture into an ovenproof dish. Level off the surface. Put the mashed potato on top. Spread to cover the fish mixture. Make artistic swirls in the mashed potato. This increases the surface area and makes the top crisper.

Cook in a preheated oven at 200°C, 400°F, gas mark 6 for about 30 minutes until golden on top.

ADDITIONS & ALTERNATIVES

Use a packet of white or parsley sauce mix according to the instructions on the packet, but substituting some of the liquid for the milk the fish was cooked in. Use 100g of cooked prawns instead of 100g of the fish and add them to the fish mixture when you assemble the pie. Add a chopped hard-boiled egg to the fish mixture when you assemble the pie. Sprinkle 50g of grated Cheddar cheese on top of the potato, or even into it as it being mashed.

* New potatoes make rubbish mashed potato. Use old ones like King Edward’s or Desiree Reds.

** Use cod, coley, haddock, hake, ling, plaice, pollack or whiting fillets. I like to include some smoked and/or dyed fish, because the smoked fish makes it taste nicer and the dyed fish makes it look prettier.

PS. You can also de-construct this recipe, and just do the mashed potato, poach the fish and boil some peas, and do a very healthy version of fish & chips!

Puzzledbubbles

Oh Wow,

Thanks guys, the Fish pie sounds fab, will definately be trying that one (Even if OH classess it as stew ill eat it all myself lol)

jail house babe - Do you use fresh or frozen prawns?

r.mac - i hadnt thought of doing batches, am i right in thinking that one well planned sunday afternoon could mean a weeks worth of home made ready meals?

10 past 6 thanks for the link, i feel really silly now that i didnt do a search!!!!!! Definately loads of help on there.

Thanks guys (must carry on with the work now)

Puzzled

Mappygirl

Hi puzzled and welcome!

You'll get loads of really good recipies here from lots of imaginative people! I'm pretty simple when it comes to cooking lol but I find sausage egg and chips always goes down well in the mappy house! Would a sausage casserole count as a stew? You don't have to add much veg to it. Or sausage and mash with onion gravy? Blimey I sound sausage mad!lol!!!

Or maybe homemade burgers?
Or HM pizza?

HTH x

belfastgirl23

My standby is spaghetti. Either with pesto and green beans (frozen green beans are fine) or with a basic tomato sauce (fried onion, two tins good tomatos, pinch salt and sugar, tbsp olive oil and tbsp dried basil, cooked down). Good storecupboard dinners

Puzzledbubbles

Thanks guys, im going to go off and read the link that 10past6 gave me and see what else i can find.

Puzzled xx

JailhouseBabe

Puzzledbubbles wrote: »

jail house babe - Do you use fresh or frozen prawns?

I use fresh prawns, but I'm sure frozen would be the same. I've never used them, so not sure if you'd have to defrost first - or if not, would they make the sauce go watery?

Puzzledbubbles

thansk jailhouse, ill give it a try next month (we are going to start out plan from next week) and ill see what happens, if all else fails we have some mr t's super noodles lol