Cheesy Cottage Pie

The humble cottage pie isn't the most glamourous of dishes, but it is the perfect antidote to a miserable Sunday evening. Mash potato is the ultimate comfort food, add melted cheese and juicy beef into the mix and you've got yourself a delicious dinner!

Serves 4-6

500g beef mince

1 onion, chopped

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

4 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tbsps tomato puree

250ml red wine

500ml beef stock

1 tbsp plain flour

A couple of bay leaves

Worcestershire sauce

For the topping:

900g floury potatoes

Butter

Milk

100g cheddar, grated

1. Fry the beef in a little oil for 10 minutes until it has begun to brown. Add the onions, garlic and carrot and cook for a further 10 minutes until softened. Add the flour and fry for a few minutes, next add the red wine. Bubble away until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add the beef stock, tomato puree and bay leaves. Turn the heat down, cover and simmer for 1 hour. Taste and add the Worcestershire sauce and seasoning
2. At this point you want the sauce to be nice and thick, so that mash can sit on top of it rather than just melting in. If you need to reduce it further, remove the meat & vegetables with a slotted spoon, you can discard the bay leaves at this point. Then put the gravy over a reasonably high heat and simmer until it has thickened
3. Meanwhile, boil the potatoes for 20 minutes or until soft. Mash with the butter and milk and season. Pour the meat and gravy into a large dish and top with the mash - make sure you rough the mash up with a fork so it goes nice and crispy. Grate the cheese over the top and bake for 45 minutes. Serve with your vegetable of choice, I went for stir fried cabbage with caraway seeds

Chorizo, Butternut Squash & Spinach Risotto

Ah Valentine's Day, possibly the least romantic day of the year. Flowers and a nice meal shouldn't be a once a year occurance; if you're lucky enough to be in a happy relationship, you should do something romantic for the person you love all the time. If you're single, you shouldn't be made to feel bad about it by the tedious status updates of the 'OMG, just received an embarrassingly large bunch of flowers' variety.

Last year Chris managed to dislocate his shoulder on Valentine's Day, so this year I was just glad he wasn't high on morphine with his arm hanging off. As Valentine's Day is renound for being the absolute worst day to go out for dinner, we stayed at home and I cooked us chorizo, butternut squash and spinach risotto. Packed full of flavour from my favourite ingredients, it's simple enough for a midweek meal but special enough for a treat.

Serves 2 hungry people!
150g risotto rice
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
500ml vegetable or chicken stock
100ml white wine
50g chorizo, skinned and chopped into small chunks
Half a butternut squash, peeled, deseeded
1 tbsp half fat creme fraiche
1 tbsp milk
2 handfuls of spinach

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. Peel, deseed and cut the butternut squash into small chunks. Roast with a little oil and pepper for 45 minutes, until the flesh is soft
2. Meanwhile, gently fry the onion in a little butter until soft. Add the garlic and chorizo and cook until the chorizo has started to go crispy. Add the rice and cook for a further minute
3. Stir the wine into the rice, let it bubble away until it has cooked off completely. Gradually add the stock by the ladelful, stirring regularily, making sure all the liquid has bubbled away before you you add more
4. Once the butternut squash is done, add half to a blender with the creme fraiche and plenty of black pepper, wizz until you have a smooth paste. You don't want the paste to be too thick, so add a little milk to loosen it if necessary. Keep the rest of the squash warm in the oven whilst you finish the risotto
5. Once the rice has plumped up and only has a little bite left, stir in the butternut squash puree and spinach. Cook for a few more minutes, until the spinach has wilted. Divide between two warm bowls, topped with the roasted butternut squash and Parmesan

Toffee Apple Pastries

Last Wednesday was Dydd Santes Dwynwen, the Welsh equivalent of Valentines Day. As Chris is a Welshman I decided to cook us a special meal (any excuse for a celebration in dreary January). I made roast duck legs with a red wine sauce, followed by toffee apple pastries topped with toasted almonds and boy were they good. They take 5 minutes to put together if you use ready rolled puff pastry, so are perfect for a mid-week treat. If you're feeling particularily romantic you could always cut the pastry into hearts...

Serves 2
1 cox or granny smith apple, peeled, cored and sliced
Small tin of carnation caramel - trust me on this!
Ready rolled puff pastry (I used Jus-Rol)
A small handful of flaked almonds
1 egg or a little milk to glaze the pastry
Creme fraiche or custard to serve

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees and pop a baking tray in to heat up. Cut your pastry into 4 inch squares and add a tablespoon of the caramel to the middle of each, spread outwards in a circular motion
2. Peel, core and slice the apple, then fan over the caramel. Cut around the apple, leaving at least 1cm of pastry at the edge and top with the flaked almonds
3. Brush the edges of the pastry with a little milk or egg and bake for 25 minutes until the pastry is golden and the apples are soft. Serve with a dollop of creme fraiche or custard

Mexican Fiesta!

In November my bestest bud from school, Rhiannon, came to visit. We organised a dinner party to celebrate the fact that she is getting married to the lovely Tom! I decided to cook Mexican food as it's easy for everyone to just dig in and eat what they like. Also my housemate is a vegetarian and allergic to wheat (troublemaker) so Mexican food is perfect for her as she can have corn tortillas and lots of beany goodness.

I made a chorizo & butternut squash taco filling and refried black beans from Thomasina Myers' excellent Mexican Food Made Simple. The refried beans or frijoles are perfect for dipping tortilla chips into or spreading on tacos. They are quite time intensive to make, as the beans need boiling for several hours, but it's well worth the effort. I also cooked my spicy bean chilli, one of my favourite vegetarian dishes.

For the meat eaters I cooked 'Starlit Chicken Wraps' from The Londoner blog (warning: do not look on this blog unless you are prepared to have some serious life envy). Lots of juicy, spicy, sweet chicken with whole cherry tomatoes, one of my new favourite things to cook.

And finally I made a huge vat of guacamole, which I'm slightly concerned I'm addicted to. I like my guac super chunky, with lots of coriander and lime to zing the avocado up. Here's my recipe:

Serves 4
2 ripe avocados
1 lime, juice only
Half a bunch coriander, finely chopped
Plenty of seasoning
Tobasco
2 spring onions, finely chopped
4 cherry tomatoes, finely chopped

1. Cut the avocados in half, remove but do not discard the stones and scoop the flesh into a bowl. Use a fork to mash the avocado, you want it to be nice and chunky so don't go too crazy
2. Next add the lime, coriander, spring onions, cherry tomatoes and LOTS of seasoning. Taste to check the seasoning, adding more if necessary. Now add a few drops of Tobasco to spice it up a little, you can leave this out if you like your guacamole cool
3. Apparently putting the stones back into the guacamole helps prevent the avocado from turning brown, I'm not sure if it actually works but it can't hurt to do so. If you're making this a few hours ahead of time, I find the best way to keep the avocado a nice bright green is to cover with cling film and press it down lightly so there's no air between the film and the guacamole

Black beans boiling away

Chicken with cherry tomatoes

Butternut squash & chorizo

Three bean chilli

Guacamole

Wrap and chilli

Spicy Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

I made this winter soup in December and froze half which we ate for dinner on new year's day. There's nothing more comforting than homemade soup, it's simple and cheap to make and so much nicer than the watery, bland versions you can buy in the supermarket. I served this with a little fried chorizo on top as I had it in the fridge. You can play around with the toppings using whatever you have availiable to you. My mum made something similar over Christmas topped with finely sliced spring onion & red chili, some whole cumin seeds gently dry fried until they begin to release their spicy aroma would also make a good addition to this simple soup.

Serves 4
Butternut squashed, peeled, deseeded and cut into small chunks
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
100g split lentils, rinsed
2 bay leaves
750ml vegetable or chicken stock
1 or 2 tbsp Pataks curry paste (I used madras)
1/2 tin low fat coconut milk

1. Roast the squash in a pre-heated oven for 45 minutes, or until soft. Meanwhile soften the onion and garlic in a little oil for 10 minutes. Add the lentils, stock, bay leaves and seasoning, cover and simmer for 30 minutes until the lentils are soft
2. Add the butternut squash to the soup and simmer for a further 5 minutes. If the soup is too thick add a little extra stock. Remove the bay leaves, then blend the soup until smooth. Return to the hob and add the curry paste (to taste) and coconut milk, make sure the soup is warm and serve with warm crusty bread and a swirl of creme fraiche

Beef & Mushroom Pie with Parsnip Mash

I made this beef and mushroom pie for our pre-Christmas day, it's one of my favourite recipes as it's easy and doesn't have too many ingredients. The recipe is originally from Good Food, but I made a few changes (mainly more wine, garlic & herbs). It's easily the best pie I've ever made, largely due to the excellent meat I bought from Meat N16. I normally just pick up beef from the supermarket, but it is often a little tough, even when cooked for hours. If you live anywhere near Church Street, I'd definitely recommend heading to Meat N16. Their braising steak is beautifully marbled, when cooked it is perfectly tender and adds an incredibly rich flavour to stews or pies.

I served the pie with parsnip mash; simply boil parsnips in salted water until tender, mash with a little milk, butter and a dollop of horseradish to perk it up. Parsnips can be a little stringy, so I like to add a little potato to improve the consistency. I also served braised leeks, but any greens would be lovely.

Serves 4

500g beef braising steak

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

250g mixed oyster & chestnut mushrooms

A few sprigs of rosemary & thyme

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp flour

250ml red wine

300ml hot beef stock, use one of the Knorr stock pots

350g potatoes, peeled

25g butter, chopped into small pieces

1. Pre-heat the oven to 130 degrees. Cut the beef into cubes a couple of centimetres across. Using a heavy based pan, brown the meat in batches using a little oil. Once all the meat has been browned, remove from the pan
2. Add a little extra oil, turn down the heat and fry the onion until softened. Now add the mushrooms and garlic and soften for a further 5-10 minutes. Mix in the flour and tomato paste, and gently fry for a few minutes
3. Turn the heat up and add the red wine, simmer until most of the liquid has cooked off. Now add the stock, beef, herbs and seasoning, bring to a gentle simmer. Cover and cook in the oven for 2-3 hours until the meat is tender
4. For the topping, boil the potatoes whole, leave to cool, then grate. Transfer the beef to a pie dish, top with the grated potato, dot with butter and sprinkle over a little paprika if you fancy. Pop in the oven at 170 degrees for 30 minutes. Finish off under the grill to make the topping super crispy