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.

Sausage & Cider Casserole.

Fairly straightforward casserole.

6-8 Pork & Apple Sausages (good ones).
250g Bacon - chopped.
500ml dry cider
2 apples (try to get cooking apples, but they are so hard to find these days I had to settle for eating apples) - peeled, cored & chopped.
4 carrots - chopped.
1 lrg onion
Flour
Sage (6 leaves)
Lemon Thyme (handful of sprigs)

Cook up the sausages and bacon on a low heat for 10-15 mins, then set aside.
Fry up the onion in the same pan, until starting to turn transparent. Add more oil if necessary - don't burn it. Add in the carrots after a few minutes, and the apple just before done.
Return the sausages and bacon to the pot and dust with flour. Stir in.
Add the Cider and herbs. Bring to the boil.
Cover, and simmer for 1 hour.

I imagine this could serve 4 if accompanied by mash.

Tasty / Healthy Snack

3 Tomatoes
1tsp green pesto
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar

1 Slice of Fresh bread


Slice Tomatoes
Cover with the tsp of pesto, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Mix up well.

Use the bread to mop up the remaining dressing.

Thai style Chicken with Basil.

1 large onion
2 chillies (type to taste)
2 chicken breasts
sm tin of coconut milk
Basil Leaves (about 1 large pot worth)
Fish Stock (2x knorr stock cubes in 1 mug of boiling water will do)
2 cloves garlic
Rice Wine
Thai 7 spice
Worcestershire sauce
Rice (Thai)

Serves 2


Fry up onion in a little groundnut oil in a wok.
Once starting to go translucent, add chillies (finley chopped) and garlic (crushed).
Add the chicken (diced) and cook until browned.
Splash in 3 tablespoons (or so) of rice wine, a couple of dashes of worcestershire sauce and the fish stock.
Sprinkle 7 spice across the wok.
Add the coconut milk.

Put the water on to boil and once done, cook the rice as accoring to the packet.

Cook down until much reduced and starting to thicken.
Add the basil. Stir and cook for another minute or two.

Serve.

Creamy Mushroom Pasta.

Serves 2.

250g Pasta (3-4 Handfuls). Posh as you like.
Tin Tomatoes.
4 or 5 of manky mushrooms
1 handful porcini
2 heaped desert spoons of sun dried tomato pesto
1 sm pot sour cream (1/4 pint?)
Chicken stock cube
Italian herbs
2-3 cloves garlic

No Worcestershire!
No Ketchup!
No Cheese!
No Wine!

That said, a good bottle of Italian (Chianti?) or Spanish (Temparillo) goes well.

Soak the porcini in a little boiling water. Add the chicken stock cube to this. Leave for about 10-20 mins, unless in a real hurry.
Chop the 'shrooms, but not too thin. Only 3-4 slices from the average 'shroom.

Fry up the mushrooms in a little olive oil. In a non-stick pan, you don't need any oil to cook up mushrooms, but this recipe is hardly stingy on the grease.
Add the garlic (crushed) when almost done. The mushrooms don't want to be crispy, but do need to be sealed.
Add in the tomatoes (tinned & pesto), the cream, a good dusting of the herbs. Stir & mix well. Let cook for a few mins before adding the porcini & stock mixture.

Let it reduce down for a while. Enjoy the wine?

Put a pan of water onto the boil. Splash a bit of oil on the top.
When boiled, cook the pasta for the recommended time.

[I used some giant pasta shells bought in Windermere. It said cook them in 6 litres of water per 500g. They weren't joking - Obey the cooking instructions, otherwise it might go awry.]

Reduce the sauce down until nice and saucy. Drain pasta, cover with sauce and serve.

You may wish to finish the pasta off in the sauce if it's too runny, and you have a large enough saucepan.

Not bad for a veg dish

Vegetable cannelloni. Finding Cannelloni is hard work these days - why is that?

Serves 6, but you'll probably want something to go with it.

Cannelloni pasta
2 tins tomatoes,
1/3 bottle red wine,
4 peppers,
3 carrots (chopped),
1 sm broccoli
1 lrg onion
block cheddar
1 mozzarella,
1/2 tub mascepone
basil leaves
green pesto

Chop the peppers into quarters, deseed and drizzle with Olive Oil. Roast in the oven for 30 mins or so, until the edges are just starting to turn black.
Fry up the onions, add carrots after about 10 mins, and then the broccoli after another 5 mins. Fry together for another 3-5 mins, and then take off the heat.
Meanwhile, in another pan, cook up the tomatoes and wine with some lea & perrins and ketchup. Add herbs & seasoning to taste. Reduce down until a nice saucy consistency. Might need to thicken with cornflour - you will need a fair bit of sauce.

When the vegetables are ready, put in the food processor. Add mascepone, basil and about 5 teaspoons of pesto. Whizz together until a slightly lumpy paste.

Cover the bottom of your biggest Pyrex dish with olive oil, and add in a layer of the tomato sauce (use half of it). Fill as many cannelloni as will fit with the veg paste, and place in the dish. Cover the cannelloni with the remaining paste, and then the remaining tomato sauce.
Cover with a good layer of grated cheese, and slice the mozzarella on top.

Bake in a hot oven for 1/2 an hour - 40 mins.