The Mexican Meal I Made for the 'Family Sports Day'

Every year the Foster family get together for s sports day. The original idea was that we would go for a walk, a run, a cycle.... then eat. Mostly now we just eat.....

This year the theme was Mexican. Most of what I cooked is described under Mexican To Impress Your Friends. I made a few changes.

Chiles en Nogada - or stuffed peppers

I sourced some Poblano Chiles online. These are a similar size to capsicum peppers - but they are mild chile flavour. Roast the chiles over a gas flame until the skin is blistered and black then drop into a plastic bag, close up and leave it to cool a little. By then you should be able to rub the skin off easily. Slit gently down the side and remove the seeds.

Stuff the peppers with picadillo, then cover and bake in a hot oven.

Make a walnut sauce - soak 80g of walnut halves in milk for a few hours. Drain and mix with 100g soft cheese, 150g creme fraiche, 1tsp sugar, 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon in a food processor and blend until smooth. Pour over the peppers and put back in the oven for a few minutes. 

Garnish with pomegranate seeds and chopped coriander to serve.

Chicken Fajitas

4 small chicken breasts, sliced

1 red onion finely sliced

1 red pepper, sliced (although I sometimes mix both red and green peppers)

1 red chilli, sliced finely

1 heaped tbsp smoked paprika

1 tbsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp cumin

2 medium cloves garlic, crushed

lug of olive oil

juice of 1 lime

Mix all the ingredients and leave to marinate - anything from 10 minutes to 24 hours.

Cook on a very hot griddle until chicken is cooked through and the onions and pepper have softened.

Serve with soft tortillas and all the trimmings.

Daal

I think Daal is one of my favourite foods. It's my go to dish if I'm on my own, and I try to include it in every Indian meal I cook. It's packed with protein, and it's vegan. Oh, and it's simple... Chop an onion and soften it (fry gently) in oil. Add a heaped teaspoon each of ground coriander, cumin and turmeric. Toss in around 6-8 handfuls of red lentils. Stir quickly, then cover in vegetable stock (I use Margigold vegetable bouillon). Simmer for 20-30 minutes until the lentils are soft and the stock is absorbed. Drain a can of chick peas and add to the daal. And... that's it.... Sometimes I may add peppers, or bacon, or server with a swirl of mayo. It's good as a spread on a wrap too. I's my favourite. Did I mention that?

Sweet and sour noodles

I only really discovered noodles recently, but they are so easy to use that this is now one of my favourite recipes. Use packs of 'ready for wok' pre-cooked noodles.

Mostly when I cook I 'prep' as I go along, but for this recipe, everything has to be chopped in advance. Put all the ingredients in separate bowls so you can see what you have - but don't have too much of any one ingredient since it is easy to end up with too much. Go for a variety of colours and textures. All veggies should be chopped to around the same size - the aim is to allow everything to cook quickly when you stir fry but keep a bit of crunch - so think 2-3cm batons.

The ingredient list is a bit random. Can be summed up as 'some vegetables'. I always include something oniony, plus garlic, ginger and chilis. Other ingredients include some of the following: peppers, potatoes, cabbage/greens, squash, beans, peas, mushrooms, sweetcorn, carrots, aubergine, bean sprouts etc.

This works well as a vegetarian dish, but is also good with prawns or pre-cooked chicken. I've also been known to use leftover roast lamb or pork.

Final job before starting to cook is to make the sweet and sour sauce - this is what I do for 2 people. Mix 1 tbsp runny honey, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 2 tbsp wine vinegar, 2 tbsp dry sherry, 2 tbsp light soy sauce, 2 tsp cornflour. Stir together with about 100 ml water.

And now to cook....

Put 2-3 tbsp olive oil in a wok and heat until jolly hot. Start adding the ingredients and stir fry briskly. Begin with the hardest veg and work through to the softest, adding each one as the one before begins to soften. The heat should be high and you need to keep everything moving. Once almost ready, add the noodles from the pack, breaking the strands apart. Then stir in the sauce, giving it a minute of two to cook and soften. Stir in the meat or prawns at the last minute.

Enjoy your noodles - you will have to go back later and clean up the oil splatters, but it will all have been worth it.

Thai Curry

Thai Curry is pretty simple. Take some curry paste, cook it up with meat / vegetables and some coconut milk, serve with rice. Easy.

You can buy your curry paste in a jar, but for a healthier, better tasting, more satisfying option, it is pretty simple to make your own. You will need a blender / food processor / hand blender, or worst case chop everything very finely and be willing to use a pestle and mortar.

Chop and blend together the ingredients into a paste. If you don't have one or more of the ingredients, then experiment.... try something that tastes similar, or leave them out altogether.

a little coconut milk taken from the tin you are going to use later
an onion or a couple of shallots
a couple of garlic cloves
red or green chilis to taste
a stalk of lemon grass (or Bart's lemon grass in oil)
a teaspoon of galangal or ginger
a couple of tablespoons of olive oil
a tablespoon of fish sauce
two tablespoons of lemon or lime juice
a couple of kaffir lime leaves
a teaspoon of ground pepper
a teaspoon each of coriander seeds and cumin seeds
half a teaspoon of nutmeg
a few blanched almonds

... and now .... depending on whether you want red of green curry paste ....

a green pepper and some chopped coriander leaves
... or
a red pepper and some tomatoes (fresh or tinned)

And that's it. See, I told you it was easy!

Muesli Smoothies

Smoothies - healthy, taste fantastic, but are a lot of effort for something that doesn't really fill you up. Until that is, my Runners World magazine suggested including muesli.....

So for an energy giving healthy breakfast that you can wander round the house with whilst getting dressed for work (surely I'm not the only one that does that), here is my recommendation.

A banana
A tablespoon of natural yogurt (I don't think this is strictly necessary, but adds protein, calcium and a lovely creamy taste)
A handful of muesli
A splash of cranberry or orange juice (about 150ml probably - I haven't measured)

Blitz it all in a blender then drink.

A note on muesli - I'm not a fan of currants, raisins etc but muesli makers seem to like them (note to self, should really make my own muesli). However the joy of this recipe seems to be that they somehow miss the blender blades and I end up with a pile in the bottom of the blender that I just throw away.

Soft bread rolls

I take filled rolls to work everyday for my lunch. They are always beautifully fresh because I make the bread, add the fillings, then freeze them, all within a space of 6 hours on a saturday. Each morning I take a couple of rolls out of the freezer and they are defrosted in time for lunch.

With a bread machines, making bread is ridiculously easy - anyone can do it! This recipe is for soft rolls, no crispy crust for me!

420g water
500g strong wholemeal flour
200g strong white flour
25g powdered milk (or replace around 100g of the water with milk)
1 sachet quick yeats (7g)
50g butter (I use olive oil spread)

Put the ingredients in the bread maker and have it knead and allow the dough to rise (this takes 90 minutes in mine).

Empty the dough onto a floured board and knead for 30 seconds or so to let the air out. Break into 12 pieces (halve and halve again, then divide each lump into 3). Shape each piece into a ball and flatten slightly onto a baking sheet, allowing a few centimeters between each one. Sprinkle with flour from the board - this will help prevent a crust forming. Allow to rise.

[I have a wonderful setting on my oven that I can use for bread proving - takes about 45 minutes].

When the rolls have doubled in size, place into a hot oven (220 degrees) for 10 minutes. Take out and leave to cool, resisting the temptation to start eating straight away (although you have made 12 and you only actually need 10 for a week of lunches.....).

Also good for bacon rolls, to serve with soup etc.

Barbecue Chicken Kebabs

Firstly confession time. I'm not a big fan of barbecues. Too much poorly cooked cheap meat, warm cheap wine and beer, and creepy crawlies. However I recently made these chicken kebabs, and they were beautiful cooked by the host and received many compliments. So I thought I'd share with the group.

Chop some (good quality!) chicken breasts into large bite size pieces - around 8 pieces per breast. The pieces need to be small enough to cook through without the outside burning, but not so small that they fall apart over the heat. Cut up some red, green and yellow peppers into chunks to match the chicken. You can also add some button mushrooms. Others may suggest onions, but as these kebabs cook pretty quickly, you may find the onion isn't cooked enough.

Thread chicken, peppers and mushrooms onto the end of 20 cm wooden skewers. Try and leave half of the stick free so that there is a good length handle that will not go over the heat and can be used for turning. Don't leave gaps between the pieces of food as that will just mean the stick burns.

Now make the sauce - this was enough for 13 kebabs made from 5 chicken breasts. 2 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp whole-grain mustard, splash of tabasco, a crushed garlic clove (or cheat and use a teaspoon of garlic powder), 1 tbsp soy sauce, and the secret ingredient (inspired by a comment on my Chilli Vodka recipe) 2 tsps horseradish. Warm the ingredients in a saucepan to blend together without boiling.

To put it althogether, lay the kebabs in a single layer on a backing tray or plate, and use a pastry brush to cover them with the sauce, turning to make sure all sides are covered. Cover and keep in the fridge until ready to cook - overnight if you like.

Cook quickly over the coals, and don't let them burn. Enjoy with some well chilled white wine.

Chilli Vodka

Take an bottle of vodka. Drop in 2 or 3 whole dried chillis. Leave for a couple of months. Take chillis out and keep bottle in the freezer.

Any time you can't sleep, help yourself to a single shot, and sip.

Fiery yet comforting.

And very funny when friends help themselves to vodka when you aren't around!

Whore's Pasta

Also known as Pasta Puttanesca, this is one of those dishes that takes just a few minutes to make, but is full of flavour and is ideal for a last minute 'back to mine' meal. Having googled the name, I discover that I missing some of the 'correct' ingredients (eg tomatoes and capers) - feel free to add them yourself, but what follows is the recipe I enjoy.

1 clove of garlic per person, crushed with the flat blade of a knife then chopped
1 - 2 anchovies per person - use 1 first time you do this as anchovies can be really strong, but you may want to add more to balance the flavours next time, depending on what you like
finely chopped chilli - again, to taste - today for 4 people I used one large red chilli with a quarter of the seeds left in
some roughly chopped olives
olive oil
pasta

Warm some olive oil and add garlic, allowing the garlic to soften very slowly - do not let it brown. Add the anchovies, and as they begin to melt (ie disintegrate), add the chilli and olives. Let the flavours meld together very slowly.... from warming the oil until ready to serve will take 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta.

Drain the pasta and mix with the sauce. Add a slug more of good olive oil to make sure that the pasta is all coated - don't be worried if there doesn't seem to be a lot of sauce, the flavours are quite intense.

Serve with parmesan, warm bread, salad, icy white wine, red wine, beer, a sunny day, a cosy fire in the middle of winter.... just about anything really.

Chocolate Chilli Flapjacks

Chocolate and chilli are the perfect combination for almost any occasion. Add a couple of squares of dark chocolate to a stew with a few chilli seeds and your friends will be asking for the recipe from the first mouthful. Chocolate adds a richness and depth of flavour that you can't get any other way. Don't overdo it though - there is a story about Steve and Cinnamon that is a lesson to us all!

These flapjacks are adapted from a recipe in an ancient Marks and Spencers cook book - to be clear, M&S go as far as using desiccated coconut as an ingredient - the chocolate and chilli is all my own.

I recommend Green and Black's Maya Gold chocolate as that is really special! But any dark chocolate will do - don't use milk as it will be too sickly with the sweetness of the flapjack.

100g demerara sugar
100g butter
3 tbsps golden syrup
175g porridge oats
40g dark chocolate, broken up very small
1 red birdseye chilli, chopped really small (if you use other chillis you may need to experiment a bit, but make sure it is really finely chopped)
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg

Mix oats, chocolate, chilli, baking powder. Add the egg, lightly beaten.
Gently heat sugar, butter and syrup in a pan until just melted.
Mix everything together - the heat will melt the chocolate.
Pour into a 20cm square brownie pan (this should be well greased and lined with greaseproof paper).
Cook for 20-30 minutes at 180 degrees until firm to the touch.
Leave to cool for a few minutes then cut into squares whilst still in the pan. Leave in the pan until totally cool to prevent the flapjacks from crumbling.

Eat with a big smile on your face.

Spag Bol

Everyone has their own recipe for Bolognese Sauce. I'm not going to claim that mine has any authenticity (and it is subtly different everytime I make it), but it can be quite yummy!

olive oil
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
1 or 2 sticks celery (optional)
500g minced beef
3 or 4 rashers of streaky bacon (optional)
1 green pepper (any other colour will work, but green is best visually)
150g mushrooms (actually the weight is a guess, but I didn't think you'd like me to say 'some mushrooms')
1 tin chopped tomatoes
around 1 tablespoon tomato puree
a slug of vermouth
dried mixed herbs

Gently fry chopped onion, sliced celery (if using) and crushed garlic in some olive oil. Add chopped bacon (if using). As onion begins to soften, add the minced beef and turn the heat up high. Stir until the mince has browned (make sure you break up all the lumps). Add the chopped pepper and tin of tomatoes.

Next pour in the slug of vermouth. It was my aunt that taught me that vermouth was a better choice than wine (although a small glass of red or white wine will also work if you don't have vermouth). I can heartily recommend Noilly Prat - it has a fantastic aroma when you add it to hot dishes.

Add the mushrooms - cut in half if button mushrooms, otherwise quartered or sliced depending on the size. Now add enough boiling water to give a pleasing consistency. It's ok if you add too much because you can always reduce the sauce a little (ie bring to a slow boil until it has thickened up). Add 1-2 teaspoons of mixed herbs and the tomato puree.

Simmer for at least 10 minutes or up to a couple of hours. And taste it!!! You can adjust the taste by adding salt, pepper, more tomato, more herbs etc, until it is exactly as you like it.

Serve with spaghetti (cooked as pasta) and freshly grated parmesan.


If you have children who are used to eating spag bol made with a bought sauce, firstly: Shame On You! This recipe is so quick and simple and tastes a hundred times better. Secondly though, many children will object to the visible vegetables in the sauce and won't want to eat it. You can cut the vegetables really small: I normally cut to around 1cm squares, but if you chop really finely they often don't 'notice' what they are eating - this techniques works well with children who don't like the texture of vegetables. Alternatively leave the vegetables as large as possible, then give your kids permission to pick the vegetables out - less work for you, and after a while they may find it easier just to eat them anyway.

Oyster Mushrooms with Leeks in Marsala Sauce

Long ago and far away (Christmas 2006, Rotterdam) we invited some friends to come and stay for Christmas. Then they happened to mention that they had all become vegetarian... Eeeek! Thanks Alex! So I had to learn how to cook vegetarian food worthy of Christmas dinner. And because I was in Holland, that necessitated cooking in Dutch.

My bible for this period of my life became 'Vegetarisch Fijnproeven' by Fon Zwart - Recipes from Nederland's top restaurants. All my vegetarian cooking tends to involve cream or alcohol, and is general pretty rich and extremely full of flavour. There are also occasional cooking terms that I prefer in Dutch to English - don't you think 'pruttelen' is so much more fun than 'simmer'?

A favourite dish (which I haven't cooked in it's entirety for ages, but I do steal the sauce for other dishes) is Oyster Mushrooms on a bed of Leek with Marsala Sauce. Serve this as a starter, it is fantastic.

4 large, or up to 12 smaller Oyster Mushrooms
1 untrimmed leek - the recipe only uses the green bits, so a trimmed one won't work
50ml Marsala (this is a fortified wine, a little like port)
125ml strong vegetable stock
1 desertspoon creme fraiche
100-200g butter, cut into 1cm dice and keep chilled (do not use any sort of substitute)
8 green peppercorns (optional)

Trim the mushrooms to remove any ugly bits of stalk and wipe clean. Cut the light and dark bits of the leek into matchstick thin strips about 5cm long. Melt a little butter in a frying pan and add the leeks, allowing to soften very slowly without browning - this will take about 10-20 minutes. Add a little salt and pepper then spoon onto a warm plate and keep warm.

Bring the vegetable stock to a gentle simmer, warming the mushrooms in a seive above the steam for a minute. Melt a little more butter in the frying pan and cook the mushrooms quicky until they are soft. Keep them warm with the leeks.

Add the marsala to the cooking pan. Add half of the vegetable stock, the creme fraiche and the peppercorns. Bring to a gentle boil and reduce by half. Now comes the clever bit....

Add a cube of chilled butter at a time to the sauce and whisk until melted, keeping the sauce close to simmering. After a few cubes the sauce will start to thicken - you should be able to achieve a creamy texture that coats a spoon. If it gets too thick add a little more vegetable stock. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed.

Serve on individual warm plates. Arrange the leek in a pile in the centre and the oyster mushrooms around the leek. Gentle spoon the sauce into the empty spaces.

Hit and Miss

There are some things I cook that sometimes work and sometimes don't. I do the same thing every time, and have taken advice from any number of successful chefs, but am obviously missing that little extra that takes me from 'ok' to 'perfection'. If I make a list of these dodgy dishes then you can set your expectations next time you come for dinner. So in no particular order...

Pork Crackling
Roast Potatoes
Yorkshire Puddings

And if I've missed anything, be sure to let me know.

Nigel's Mummy's Cookies

Nigel always had tins of homemade cookies to share and we had his mummy to thank for that (and she was a mummy - never mum or mother). She let me have the recipe and I have been sharing it round ever since. These cookies never fail to please. (And I should point out that Steve is better at making them than I am... can't quite work out why.

The recipe has been around since pre-decimalisation days. Although I have updated the temperature to metric I have kept quantities faithful to the original. I suggest you do the same, since inaccuracies in measuring results in the cookies being somehow 'not quite right'.

I have replaced marge in the original recipe with butter, since it is no longer possible to buy the same sort of marge as we used to get. Spreadable butter, olive oil spreads, and those utterly unbelievable butter substitute spreads just will not do!

4 oz sugar
4 oz butter
6 oz self raising flour
1 level teaspoon bicarb (don't leave this out - both flavour and texture will be wrong)
1 level tablespoon golden syrup
a handful of sultanas (or chopped nuts, or chocolate, or dates, or...)

Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.

Add syrup and sultanas, the flour and bicarb. Mix to form a stiff paste.

Using plenty of flour on you hands, roll into balls the size of a walnut and place onto a baking sheet allowing plenty of space between them. The original recipe suggests flattening slightly, but the balls collapse into cookie shapes when you put them in the oven so there is really no need.

Cook at 180 degrees for 10 minyes, keeping a close eye on them near the end as they will burn quickly if overcooked.

When you take the trays out of the oven, drop them from a few inches so they bang down on the work surface. This helps give a attractive professional cracked looking appearance to the cookies.

Loosen cookies quickly with a broad knife, but leave on the tin to cool - if you try to move them too quickly you will end up with a plate of crumbs.

Enjoy. But try not to eat them all at once. Steve usually makes a double batch just in case...

Pasta

There is only one way to cook pasta!!!!

Boil a large quantity of water in the biggest pan you have. I don't care if it for only one person, still use the biggest pan you have - it will make all the difference.

Add 1/4 teaspoon salt per person.

When really boiling, throw in the pasta, quick stir, then keep boiling with the lid off. Time it for a couple of minutes less than it says on the packet, then try a bit to see if it is ‘al dente’ – you know, firm but not crunchy and definitely not soggy.

As soon as it is ready, drain it through a colander, then tip back into the saucepan while there is still water in it (this is what stops it sticking together, not olive oil or butter). Immediately add in the sauce that you have been preparing while the cooking was going on.

Fresh or dried?

Think about it. By the time it is on the supermarket shelf it is already a day or two old. Then you take it home and leave it another day or two. Really, how fresh is it going to be?

Unless you are going to make it home-made (and I will come back to that one day), or have a proper deli that makes it locally, then you may as well stick with good quality dried.

Try a few different types until you find the brand you like. Pasta should taste good enough to eat with just a dribble of olive oil and some salt and pepper. If yours doesn't taste good, then maybe you need a different brand... or maybe you need to check that you have a big enough pan, enough salt, and aren't overcooking it....

Fishy Pasta

This is a dish that only takes 20 minutes to make but is full of flavour and has become a favourite for when I get home late from work.

Serves 2, but scale up as needed

150-200g pasta.

Small pack of precooked oily fish - we use peppered mackerel of hot smoked salmon slices with mustard seeds - but almost anything with a bit of flavour will do, even leftovers from a buffet that you have doggy-bagged.

Small onion - red adds to the colourfulness of the dish, but any will do.

A couple of tablespoons of frozen peas.

2 to 3 tablespoons of creme fraiche.

Slice the onion, and soften in some olive oil in a big frying pan.

Depending on whether you are using fresh or frozen pasta, either cook the pasta for half the time specified on the packet, add the frozen peas, bring back to the boil then finish in a minute or two less than specified (dried); or, add the peas to boiling water, bring back to the boil, then add the pasta and cook for the specified time (fresh). Steve says he prefers fresh pasta, but I think it is just the shape he likes, otherwise he would not be able to tell the difference.

Just before the pasta is cooked, break up the fish and add to the onions along with a tablespoon of creme fraiche. Swirl around to heat through.

Drain the pasta and peas, then tip into the frying pan. Add another tablespoon of creme fraiche and toss everything together gently. Serve.

Note that you should not add parmesan to this. Parmesan enhances most pasta dishes, but not when there is fish involved. If you are in a restaurant and they offer you parmesan on your pasta with prawns you can tell them from me they don't know what they are doing!

Spicy Spinach

Serves 4 as a side dish

Pack of young leaf spinach
Olive oil
Garlic
Pine nuts (about a tablespoon)
Raisins (about 2 tablespoons)

Warm some olive oil. Soften garlic in olive oil. Add pine nuts and raisins, stirring for about a minute over a low heat. Stir in spinach until wilted (3-4 minutes). Finished.

This just makes a vegetable a bit more exotic, and cuts through the bitterness of the spinach.


This can also be adapted to a Thai or Indian dish by the addition of spices. Chilli or paprika for Indian, ginger or Chinese Five Spice for thai.

Mexican to Impress your Friends

No, don’t panic, you can do this!

Picadillo from the previous recipe. Note you can freeze this, so make loads and freeze two or four portions at a time. Defrost, then heat through in the microwave or a saucepan (make sure the product is piping hot before serving, and do not refreeze defrosted food).

Onions and/or spring onions
Chillis
Tomatoes
Lemon juice
Sour cream (or use crème fraiche but beat it for a minute or two first)
Tortilla chips
Soft flour tortillas (come in packs from supermarkets, near the spaghetti)
Tinned tomatoes
Cheese
Avocado (one per 3-4 people) (optional, but does make it seem more authentic)
Tinned refried beans or tinned kidney beans (this is optional), but I thought I’d do the whole lot
Rice

Starter

Chop up some tinned tomatoes (quite finely). Add finely chopped onion and chillis. Drain off excess juice, then serve as a dip with tortillas.

Don’t buy dips. Or if you have to, serve them in proper bowls, not in plastic containers. But really, don't buy dips.

To be really flash, spread the tortillas out on a baking sheet, sprinkle over slices of mild chilli (optional) and add some grated cheese. Warm in the oven for 10 minutes. Call them Nachos, and voila. Or you can add the nachos to the main course.

Main Course

Roll some picadillo in the tortillas, tucking in the ends. Place into a large flat dish or baking tray so they don't unravel. Optionally grate over some cheese. Warm through in the oven.

Soften some finely chopped onion in olive oil in a frying pan – add a small amount of chilli if you want. Add the refried beans, or mashed kidney beans. Stir together until hot and sludgy (like mashed potato, or a little sloppier). Add more oil if it gets too dry.

Cut a tomato per person into quarters. Roughly scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon and throw away. Cut into ½ cm squares. Cut a spring onion per person into ½ cm lengths. Optionally chop the avocado very roughly into 1cm cubes. You can also chop a couple of chillis very small, but you may want to leave this dish mild as a bit of mouth relief. Mix all this together with a teaspoon of ground coriander per 2 people (or some chopped fresh coriander) and a generous splash of lemon juice.


Give each person a burrito (soft tortilla with meat), some fresh salsa (salad), a spoonful of sour cream, some frijoles refritos (refried beans) and some arroz blanco (white rice).

Dessert

Forgot to mention this in the ingredients bit. Serve fresh fruit with mango sorbet. Easy.


Serve with margaritas if at all possible (you will probably need to buy the frozen type, or make your own from a cocktail book – it’s mainly tequila, cointreau and a little lime). As many as possible.

Alternatively, start on the Mexican beer (such as Sol) with a piece of lime in the neck of the bottle. Get in a bottle of tequila, and by dessert, start on the shots of tequila. Ideally, provide salt and pieces of lime for people who claim to know what they’re doing.


Before you go to bed, drink lots of water (at least a pint and a half) and have a pee. This is nothing to do with the meal, it just makes it less likely that you will be hung over the next day and you will be able to enjoy the exhilaration of your successful dinner party to the full.

Quick Mexican (Picadillo)

Serves 4

8oz mince (should be half beef, half pork, but who cares?)
1 tablespoon malt vinegar
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 green pepper
chillis (2 mild ones, or more if you prefer)
1 chicken stock cube
1 potato
18 pimento stuffed green olives (but I use whatever olives I have in the house – they can be left out if you don't like them, but chop them small, and you won’t notice they’re there)
2 tablespoons flaked almonds
2 tablespoons raisins
3 tablespoons tomato puree

Put vinegar on the meat with a little salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar. Leave to stand.

Dice the potato into 1cm cubes, and boil for about 10 minutes.

Dice the onions, garlic, pepper and chillis. Heat some cooking oil (olive or ground nut or sunflower). Saute the onions etc for a few minutes. Add the meat and stir until browned.

Add all the other ingredients including the cooked potato and about half a pint of hot water. Simmer for about 15 minutes.

Serve with white rice.


By the way, do you have problems getting rice right? It seems to work pretty well for me, and although I'm not sure what the magic factor is I can tell you what I do. Rice in pan with a pinch of salt; add plenty of boiling water (none of this equal quantity malarkey); bring back to the boil quickly, then reduce heat, put a lid on at an angle so the steam can escape; leave it alone for the time it says on the packet; drain and serve. I always use basmati rice if I can (because I read somewhere that it is lower GI than other rice), but normal long grain works as well.

Spaghetti with Spinach

Spaghetti with Spinach

Serves 2 as a main dish or 4 as a side dish

200g spaghetti
Pack of young leaf spinach (to serve 3 – 4)
Olive oil
Garlic
Pine nuts (about a tablespoon)

Steve doesn’t like this much, but what does he know?

Cook the spaghetti as described in Chilli Pasta.

Meanwhile warm some olive oil (about a tablespoon per person) in another large pan. Add garlic and pine nuts and allow to cook a little. Just before the pasta is ready, tip the spinach into the pan with the olive oil etc and stir around a little, allowing the spinach to wilt a bit.

Drain the spaghetti and put back into it’s pan. Add the spinach etc, and mix a little.

You can eat this as a light supper on its own, or use it as an accompaniment to grilled lamb chops – you then don’t need another vegetable.

The Best Mashed Potato

Serves as many as you want

Potatoes (not peeled!! – new or old)
Red onions (or any if you don’t have red) (1 medium onion for 2–4 people)
Egg (1 per 2-3 people)
Olive oil

Boil the potatoes until soft but not soggy.

Meanwhile, slice onions into half rings. Cook in olive oil quite fast until a little crispy.

Mash potatoes with raw egg. Stir in onions with their cooking oil. If too dry, add a little more oil, but not too much as the potato will become slimy.
Serve immediately with chops, sausages, whatever. For a dinner party, put the mash into an oiled serving dish (not too flat, a souffle dish would be ideal, but don’t get hung up on this), and put into a medium oven for 10 – 20 minutes until risen and golden on top. Your guests will be impressed, and only you will know how simple it is (my aunt took this recipe and used it at her guest house to popular acclaim).

Walnut Pasta

Serves 2

200g pasta shapes
2oz butter
One egg
2 oz walnut pieces
Some grated parmesan

Cook pasta as described in Pasta.

Meanwhile, soften butter in the microwave until almost melted (if it is melted, that’s ok, but the point is you don’t want it to start cooking, or to be too hot). Beat the egg into the butter. Add walnut and parmesan, and leave to stand.

Drain pasta, stir in sauce.

Steve loves this. Serve with a salad and again it’s a really easy dish for surprise guests.

Chilli Pasta

Serves any number of surprise guests you can think of

100g pasta shapes per person
Black or green olives (or other stuff, see below)
Garlic
Chilis
Olive oil
Salad leaves
Olive oil, wine vinegar for salad dressing (and mustard powder if you have it or mixed herbs)

Cook pasta.

For the pasta sauce:

Warm some olive oil in a pan – tablespoon per person maybe. The quality of this is not important – I usually use Sainsburys own for this bit. Add some crushed garlic and chopped chilis – as much as you want, thinking how much each person gets, and depending on how strong the chilis are. Allow them to soften a little.

Keep the heat low, and add some roughly chopped olives. If you don’t like olives, you can add finely chopped onion, pine nuts, anchovies, almonds, cashew nuts or whatever you feel like.

For the salad dressing:

Use the best olive oil you have for salad dressing (extra virgin and all that), although any olive oil will do ok. Mix ratio of 5 tablespoons olive oil to 1 tablespoon wine vinegar (any vinegar but NOT malt will do), Add ¼ teaspoon mustard powder if you have it, ½ teaspoon herbs or garlic powder if you want to. Put all the bits in a jar and shake them together thoroughly.

Use a bag of mixed salad leaves, put them in a bowl, and no-one cares if there are no other ingredients.


This whole dish can be put together in about 15 minutes, and everyone thinks you’re fantastic.

Easy and Impressive Salmon

Serves 2

Just multiply ingredients up for more people

2 salmon steaks
2 shallots or one small onion
3 tablespoons crème fraiche
lemon juice
butter for frying (olive oil spread is good cos it can handle higher temperatures)

Melt large lump of butter over a medium heat in a frying pan – enough to have a thick layer. Add a splash of lemon juice. Add finely chopped shallots and soften a little.

Put in salmon steaks. Up the heat so that they brown slightly, then turn over and do the other side. Reduce the heat so that the steaks can cook through. Splash a little more lemon juice onto the salmon.

After a couple of minutes you will begin to panic that the steaks will burn. This is good (the burning effect, not the panic), because the brown stuff makes the sauce rich - don't overdo it though! Add 2 tablespoons of the crème fraiche to the sauce, stir around, and leave to simmer.

The aim is for the salmon steaks to go light pink all the way through. If they are a bit thick, I put a saucepan lid over the steaks (because I don’t have a lid for my frying pan) to keep the heat in. This should take about 10 minutes.

The sauce is probably a bit see-through now, so just before serving, stir in another tablespoon of crème fraiche to make it look creamy.

Serve with the sauce poured over the salmon and either rice or new potatoes, and peas or leeks cooked in butter (obviously, the amount of butter used is terribly bad for you, so drink with a glass of chilled Chardonnay to assuage your guilt).

Sausage and Lentil Surprise

Serves 6

2 x 454g packs nice sausages (16)
275g pack Puy or Green Lentils (or even orange ones)
1 x 130g pack cubetti pancetta (italian bacon) or pack of 8 slices back bacon, or whatever
4 shallots, finely chopped, or 1 – 2 onions
thyme (2 teaspoons dried, or 6 sprigs fresh, or use mixed herbs)
2 x 425g tins beef consomme with sherry, only I have never found this, so I use pint of water with two beef stock cubes, and half a glass red wine
4 tablespoons crème fraiche (or use any cream, but only put it in right at the end)

Use large casserole or very large saucepan.

Fry the bacon with a little olive oil – as much as you need to stop it sticking.

Lift the bacon out with a draining spoon and put in a bowl for later.

Add the onion to the pan and cook until soft (about 5 minutes on a medium heat).

Meanwhile, brown the sausages under a grill (the recipe says to do this in the bacon fat in the pan, but I have never been very successful doing it that way).

Add the lentils to the onions and stir around. Add the cooked bacon, sausages, stock and herbs. Bring to a boil.

Now either simmer on the hob for about 40 minutes, or put in an oven (200, gas mark 6) for 45 minutes (both with the lid off). If it looks a bit dry (if the lentils aren’t in liquid), add more hot water – not too much, but you can always boil it hard for a bit to get rid of some.

Just before you are ready to serve, stir in the crème fraiche.


Serve with a crisp green salad.
Or baked potatoes
Or new potatoes and a green vegetable
Or just on its own with a glass of red wine in front of the TV

What I always have in

This list does change over time, but having a good selection of flavours that can be thrown into food to give a little extra makes sure that every meal is a pleasure.

Olive Oil – Cheap stuff for most things, plus extra virgin stuff for salad dressings, relishes etc.

Crème Fraiche – Lasts for about a month longer than sell by date. Use in any cooked recipes that need cream, because it doesn’t separate when you cook it.

Onions – Shallots, Red Onions, Garlic, Chilis – can always be used to zing up a dish.

Nuts – Pine nuts, Almonds (flaked and ground).

Stock - Cubes for chicken, lamb, beef plus Marigold Vegetable Bouillon powder.

Herbs – Dried: Mixed, Thyme, Parsley - Fresh: Basil and Coriander in a pot when in season.

Spices – Pepper Corns for grinding, Flaked Sea Salt, Coriander, Mustard Powder, Turmeric, Cumin, Curry Powder, Chili Powder, Ginger - actually this list could go on for ever...

Sauces -Soy sauce, Mushroom Ketchup, Thai Fish Sauce.

Tomatoes - Tomato Puree (in a tube in the fridge so it doesn’t go off) and Tinned Tomatoes. Don't use Ketchup - please - it's the devil's food!

Why Foster's Food?

We all have to eat, so lets make sure we like what we eat. I like to cook, and people like to eat what I cook. I am often asked for a recipe, and frequently promise to supply a recipe, but rarely get round to writing anything down. This blog is the fulfilling of that promise to share my creations. Mostly it will be descriptions of what I cook, hopefully couched in terms that will allow others to produce similar meals.

Cooking is easier than a lot of people think, yet there are many people out there who find it complex and intimidating. The meals that I describe here don't need any special skills, and shouldn't take you hours to create. If you try them and have any problems cooking from my descriptions, let me know and I'll do what I can to help.

I'm going to start with a "recipe book" I wrote several years ago. Some of the meals I still cook, and some I haven't returned to for years. I may just have to rediscover some of those recipes....

Laura