Tomato & Garlic Pasta Sauce

Dead easy, and quick.

4 Large Cloves of Garlic
1 Tin Chopped Tomatoes
1/4 small basil plant
2 heaped teaspoons of green pesto
Lea & Perrins
Tomato Ketchup
Butter

Melt the butter in a pan. Crush the garlic into the pan and fry for about 1 minute. Add the tinned tomatoes. Roughly tear the basil leaves and stir them in. Add everything else, stir while cooking.
Let it reduce down to however thick you want it.

Serves 2

Hunter's Sauce

½ large onion (or, I suppose, a medium onion)
½ pack of chestnut mushrooms (~60g, I think)
1 sm glass red wine
1 beef stock cube made up in ~100ml boiling water
Sauce (Fine) Flour
Lea & Perrins
Tomato Ketchup
Garlic Italian Seasoning
Oil for frying

Chop onion into fine slices. Cook over a medium heat until starting to go translucent
Chop mushrooms into medium-thin slices (3-5mm) Add to the onion, and continue to cook over a medium heat. Mushrooms will produce liquid, the aim is not to boil it off at this stage.
After about 5 mins or so, dust with flour and add red wine and stock. Add a fair sprinkling of seasoning, a good squirt of ketchup (or dollop if you still have a glass bottle), and a generous dash of Lea & Perrins.
Cook over a low heat for 15-20 mins, stirring occasionally, or until it reaches a good saucy consistency.

Serve with Steak & Chips.

Serves 2-3.

Creamy Chicken with Beer

12 Chicken Thighs, boneless
2 Large Onions
4 cloves of garlic
2/3 small tub of double cream (1/3 pint, I think.)
1 glass Belgian Beer – I used Leffe Blonde, but most should do well.
2 Chicken Stock Cubes
Lea & Perrins
Thyme
Sauce (Fine) Flour.

Chop the onions and fry them up in a large casserole for 10-20 mins, until almost transparent. Stir often to avoid sticking to the bottom and burning. Towards then end, crush the garlic and add. Remove everything from the casserole and set aside.
Brown the chicken in 2 batches.
Remove everything from the casserole, and add in the beer. Scrape around a bit to get as much of the gunge on the bottom of the casserole. Add the onions and chicken back in. Dust with flour.
Make up the stock cubes in about 1 pint water and add to the dish. Add a generous helping of Lea & Perrins, and a fair bit of Thyme.
Chicken should be covered by the liquid – just. Add more beer (or water) if not enough.
Cook over a high heat for ½ hour. Keep stirring it to minimise it sticking to the bottom. Should be quite thick once done. Turn of the heat and allow to cool for a minute. Add the cream, stir in and return to the heat, although a medium – low heat this time. Cook for another 5-10 mins until the sauce is a nice consistency.

Serves 5-6 with mash, peas & sweetcorn.

Shredded Spicy Chicken

6 Legs of Chicken (with skin & bones)
3 Bell Peppers
1 ½ Large Onions
5 Red Chillies
Cajun Seasoning
Thyme
Lea & Perrins
Soy Sauce
Tabasco Sauce (chipotle)
1 chicken stock cube
6 Roast Tomatoes (from a jar)
¾ bottle cheap white wine
Olive Oil

Cover the base of a casserole dish with olive oil. Place the chicken in. Chop up the onions, peppers and chillies and place over the chicken. Put the Tomatoes in.
Cover liberally with Cajun seasoning & thyme. Splash in Lea & Perrins and Soy sauce (be generous). Tabasco to taste, but be generous again. Crumble the stock cube over the lot. Cover with more olive oil (I used the oil from the jar of tomatoes here).
Add the wine until it just covers everything. Stir the veg into the gaps between the chicken.
Leave overnight in the fridge.

Cook on low heat (150 C) for 4-5 hours. Add water (or more wine) if it looks as though it is drying out.

Take the chicken out of the casserole, remove the skin and bones. Tear the chicken into small pieces with a fork. Put everything into a large frying pan and cook on the hob for another 10-15 mins. Make sure there is enough oil in the pan.


Serves 6

Onion and Mustard Gravy

This one to go with sausages. Good, quick gravy.

3/4 Large Onion
2 beef oxo cubes
Splash sherry
Garlic Italian Seasoning
Mixed Herbs
Lea & Perrins
1 large teaspoon dijon mustard

Chop the onion into thin strips. Gently fry in oil until translucent.
Boil up 1/2 - 3/4 pint water, and add the oxo cubes.

When onion ready, splash in the sherry. Let it reduce down to almost nothing. Add the oxo stock, the Lea & Perrins and the herbs.
Cook over a med-hot heat until reduced down to the consistency you want it.
Stir in the dijon, and cook for a minute or so. Should lighten the colour and go a bit creamy.

Serve with real sausages and mash.

A sort of cheat's Canelloni

Not really sure if you can cheat with cannelloni - it's so much fuss to do in the first place. I didn't use any white / cheese sauce for this, but just piled on the cheese.

1 lb Hereford beef (not the lean stuff).
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1/2 jar sun dried tomato pesto (try to avoid the oil if possible)
2 beef oxo cubes
3 large cloves garlic
1 mozzarella
1 small pot (1/4 pint?) sour cream (Double cream should do as well, the shop had run out though).
9 - 12 Cannelloni.
Cooking wine (or real wine!) - about 1/2 glass
ketchup
Lea & Perrins
Mixed Herbs
The leaves of 1/2 small fresh basil plant. Chopped.


In a large saucepan;
Cook the mince until nicely browned (use as little oil as possible - none if possible). Add the tomatoes, wine, and pesto. I washed the jar and tin out with a little water and added that too - but then again I'm not afraid to thicken with cornflour and had enough time to cook it down. You should avoid if in a hurry.
Crumble the oxo cubes straight into the saucepan and stir in. Add the herbs, garlic (crushed) and cream. Simmer.

I had to spoon off excess oil at this point - if you've followed advice you might be able to get away with it.

Put the oven on hot.

Cook up until nice and saucy, or bored and then thicken with cornflour.

Take off the heat and leave for a few mins.

Cover the bottom of a small - medium pyrex dish with the sauce. Fill each cannelloni with sauce and put it in the dish, getting a good covering of pasta, but bear in mind you don't want to cut them when serving if possible.
Pour the remainder of sauce over the top.
Slice the cheese and cover the dish.

Cover the dish with tin foil. Pop in the oven for 35 mins.

Take the foil off, and return to the oven until the cheese is browned and crispy on the top. About 5-10 mins.

Serves 3-4

Moroccan Style Lamb

This dish does not, unlike all the ones in resturants contain coriander, or at least corriander leaf. I can't stand it.

Generously serves 2.

4 lamb steaks - chopped into about 1" cubes.
1 large onion - diced
1 red pepper, cut into about 1/3" squares
2 lamb stock cubes, made up in about 3/4 pint boiling water
1 large twig of rosemary, de twigged
1 heaped tbsp corriander seed, crushed finely
a little garam marsala
a tsp ground cumin
a little cayanne pepper, or to taste.
Lea & Perrins.
Sauce flour.
1/2 cup rice per person.

Fry up the onions, until almost transparent. Add the peppers until the onions are transparent. Set aside.
Add more oil and fry the lamb up until browned on all sides. Return the vegetables.
Give a good dusting of flour, and stir in. Add the stock and the spices.
Cook until nice and saucy; 40 mins should do it, but should really be left longer. If cooking for longer, use less flour, and put a lid on the pan.

Serve with rice.