Cheesy Wheels

Apparently these are very a popular part of school dinners here in Devon, although I’d never heard of them until a friend from work passed on the recipe. Mashed potato and cheese, baked in a puff pastry case, these are a quick and easy tea. Just don’t be tempted to eat them straight out of the oven – not only will you risk burning your tongue, but the taste really develops if given just ten to twenty minutes to cool.

The original recipe calls for mustard powder, but I can’t resist adding cayenne to cheese and pastry dishes. I’ve added plenty of fresh ground black pepper as well, but you can leave this out if you wish. I’ve not tried adding onion, but I think a little would probably be delicious, as would chives.

Just a couple of tips, these can be a be a bit unwieldy, so don’t add too much liquid to your mashed potato (I just used a bit of butter, and forwent the usual milk) and allow it to cool a bit before you use it. Pre-rolled puff pasty comes on a sheet of paper – leave it on this when you roll it out flat, that way you can lift the paper to begin rolling the pastry which will give you a bit more control.

Cheesy Wheels

Makes 12

Ingredients:

230g ready rolled puff pastry

200g mashed potato

175g grated cheese

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper to taste

50ml semi skimmed milk

Method:

This recipe is great for using up mashed potato, but if you make it specially for this dish then be careful not to make it too loose. Perhaps omit most of the usual amount of milk you would use. The cheese will stop the end pastry from being too dry.

In a large bowl, mix the potato with the cheese, cayenne pepper and seasoning. Roll out you puff pastry with the long side towards you, leaving it on the greaseproof paper it was rolled in. Spread the potato mix evenly on top, leaving a small gap along the edge furthest from you. Brush a little milk along this edge, which will become your seam.

Begin to roll the pastry away from you. It might be easiest if you lift the pastry by the paper that it sits on. Roll it gently like so that it resembles a Swiss roll and then cut into 1 inch/2.5 cm slices.

Place the sliced on two lightly greased baking trays and bake at 200°C for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool for 10-20 minutes before serving.

Roast Pepper and Tomato Soup

I’m on a bit of a soup kick at the moment. By kick, I mean that I have every intention of making and serving a lot of soup and have, since coming to this momentous decision, made it once.

Why soup? Well it’s easy to make it chock full of vegetables for a start. Most soups are also very quick and simple to make, and this Roast Pepper and Tomato soup is no exception. It also makes a very rich and satisfying meal.

Just look at this vat of rich tomatoey goodness!

With it’s deep, vibrant red colour and tomato, pepper, basil flavour, it looks amazing and tastes delicious. I’m very proud of this one!

We seem to be racing into Autumn at the moment. After a gloriously long summer the nights have started drawing in. It’s getting dark earlier and earlier, and the nights have a chill to them. It’s time for fruit crumbles, golden crusted pies, and warming bowls of soup.

This batch will serve 4 – 6 as a meal, maybe even up to 8 if you serve this as a starter, or serve it with bread etc.

Ingredients:

1 large onion, chopped

490g jar roast red peppers, drained

400g (1 tin) chopped tomatoes

500g passata (with basil, if you can get it)

500ml vegetable or chicken stock

1 tsp dried basil

2 tsp red pesto

salt and pepper

1 heaped tsp light brown sugar (if tomatoes are sour)

A sprinkle of cayenne pepper (optional, but advised)

Method:

This makes a lot, so use a large saucepan or stockpot. Heat a little olive oil and fry your onions until soft. As this cook, rinse and drain your peppers before roughly dicing them.

Add the peppers to the onion, and allow them to cook for a couple of minutes before adding your tinned chopped tomatoes and your passata. I used basil passata as I had it in the cupboard and because I love the depth of flavour it brings to the dish. If you use regular passata, just add an extra tsp of dried basil to the soup.

You can use fresh basil in this dish. Mine suddenly went to seed while I was away for the weekend, which has changed its taste. I knew it was in danger of happening and had plans to pick and freeze the leaves for later use, but I didn’t get round to it, and now I’m too annoyed with both the plant and myself to either bring on another plant or buy one. Silly really, as I’m the one missing out on fresh basil as a result. Anyway, if you are organised enough to have fresh basil, 4-6 leaves should do it, although I’ll leave it to you to judge.

Add stock (made using a stock cube is just fine), dried basil, red pesto and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper to add a hint of extra warmth. Pause to taste your soup just here as you might want to up the pesto or basil, and to season with salt and pepper. I sometimes find that tomatoes can be slightly sour due to their acid content. If you find this to be the case, add a tsp of sugar – white is fine, but I use brown for a slightly richer taste.

Bring your soup to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook gently for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the mixture to cool slightly before blending. You don’t need the soup to be perfectly smooth, so an immersion blender is probably the best route for this. Plus, it means less washing up then getting the blender out.

This is a substantial soup so it can be served by itself, but its Mediterranean flavours pair nicely with ciabatta or olive bread.

This soup freezes well for up to 3 months.

Courgette & Spinach Ricotta Cannelloni

Remember Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni? It used to be on every menu back in the 90s, and I loved it! The additional of courgette (zucchini) brings this up to date, and adds a little robustness to the dish.

Long story short, my uncle and his partner came to say with us for a couple of nights. We planned on takeaway for the Friday, but Thursday night still needed to be catered for. My aunt is vegetarian and I needed something that a) could be made in advance and left in the fridge overnight and b) everyone would enjoy.

I also have a lot of courgettes at the moment. And spinach does have a tendency to disappear once cooked, making it hard to stretch four ways. I may have raided the fridge, and come up trumps.

Most courgette lasagne and cannelloni dishes use lemon and mint – and can you blame them, it’s a delicious combination – however I already have one go-to lemon-mint-courgette dish in the form of lasagne roll ups, and wanted this to be different.

There are a few parts to this dish, however you can cut corners by using premade tomato sauce for the base. I made this midweek, to be eaten the following evening, however if you don’t demand an early dinner this can easily be made and eaten the same day.

The tomato sauce is not complex, but is all about the basil. Often I will use pesto to achieve this, but this time I went with both fresh and dried basil for real depth of flavour. The sugar in the recipe is optional, but I find that tomatoes can often have an acidic sourness to them, and the addition of sugar is there to round these off. Brown sugar, with its caramel flavours, gives a bit more depth.

Last up, I somehow managed to take plenty of process photos, but not a single picture of the completed dish. I also managed to drop my phone in the bath, so there is also a chance that I did take photos, but lost them somewhere in the bubbly depths of the bathtub. Enjoy the random shots of grated courgette instead!

Tomato Sauce

1 medium onion diced

1 tin chopped tomatoes

500 ml pasatta

1 dessert spoon brown sugar

1 tsp dried basil

3-4 leaves fresh basil, finely chopped

Method:

Fry the onion until soft, but not browned. Add all other ingredients and bring to a gentle boil. Cook for 15 minutes, reduce the heat, and check the seasoning. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes before using an immersion blender to blend into a smooth sauce. If the sauce is too loose you can continue to cook over a gentle heat until needed.

Ricotta Filling

1 onion

1 packet fresh spinach

1 medium courgette, roughly grated

250g fresh ricotta

1 tbsp parmesan

handful grated cheddar (optional)

1 egg

salt and black pepper

Method:

Cook the spinach in a dry frying pan until completely wilted. Remove from the pan and allow to cool enough to handle before squeezing out the excess liquid. Grate the courgette and squeeze out the excess liquid from this as well. Fry the onion until soft, then add the courgette and cook down. Add the spinach and stir well. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

In a separate bowl, mix all the other ingredients, seasoning to taste. Add the cooled vegetable mix and stir well. Season to taste.

Cannelloni, 12 – 16 tubes

Cheese sauce

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp plain flour

300 ml milk

1-2 tbsp parmensan

Cheddar cheese, grated, to top

Method:

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the flour and allow to cool, stirring constantly. Add the milk and stir together. If lumps appear, whisk until smooth. Heat the milk until almost boiling then remove from the heat and add the cheese.

To assemble:

Be aware, this will probably make more than one dish’ worth, more like a dish and a half. I like to make a mini cannelloni to freeze for later.

Pour a thick layer of tomato sauce into a 8″x12″ dish, or thereabouts.

Using a teaspoon (and probably your fingers) carefully fill the uncooked cannelloni tubes with the spinach mixture. You will want 2-3 filled tubes per person. Sit these in the tomato sauce in a single layer. If you have extra filled tubes left over, make a smaller cannelloni – it freezes well and can be cooked from frozen.

Cover the pasta with cheese sauce and sprinkle over grated cheddar. Bake at 200°C for half an hour. Serve with salad and garlic bread.

Cheese and Bacon Twice Baked Potatoes

A super easy midweek meal, these potatoes begin their journey in the microwave which cuts down on the cooking time. Once soft, their innards are scooped out and combined with crispy bacon and tangy cheddar cheese before being reassembled and baked in the oven.

There’s plenty of opportunity to play around with the fillings, but this cheese and bacon affair is always a winner.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 baking potatoes

4 rashers of streaky bacon

2 cups of grated cheddar

1/2 cup of milk

1 tbsp mayonnaise

fresh ground black pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Wash the potatoes and remove any ‘eyes’ or obvious imperfections; prick with a fork. Place in a covered microwavable dish and cook on high for 5 minutes. Check the tenderness and continue to cook in 2 minute stages until tender.

Fry the bacon until crisp. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Carefully halve your potatoes and scoop the insides out of the skins into a large bowl. Leave half a centimetre of potato within the skin to help them keep their shape. Place the empty potato skins in a shallow oven dish on an oven tray.

Roughly chop the cooked bacon to the bowl with the potato, half a cup of grated cheese, and all other ingredients. Use a fork to break up the potato and mix everything together. If the mix seems a little dry, add more milk.

Use a spoon to refill the potato skins with the mashed potato mixture. Sprinkle over the remaining cheese. Bake in a hot oven for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling.

Simply Marvellous Vegetable Chilli

This recipe if something of a Godsend. Firstly, it makes a lot and it freezes well, making it handy for midweek meals. Secondly, it contains a tonne of vegetables (none of them expensive,) but unobtrusively, meaning that you can easily help your family on their way to their five-a-day without making it obvious what you are doing. It’s incredibly versatile and can be served in a number of ways. It’s a crowd pleaser. If you cook it without fat or with a low calorie cooking spray, then it’s Syn free for Slimming Worlders.

It also just happens to be vegetarian. Well, vegan, I suppose. I can’t imagine it without cheese in some form, but that’s a personal limitation and should not be blamed on the chilli.

This recipe makes a big batch that will easily feed six, maybe even eight depending on how you serve it. I freeze it in two-man portions, and it reheats just fine. I always feel a little better about things in general when I know that I have a tub or two of this tucked away at the back of the freezer.

You can serve this chilli in all the same ways that you can a regular chilli – with rice, spooned over a jacket potato, with Nachos – all of them good.

I used to chop the vegetables as I went, but battoning the carrots always takes longer that I expect, and the onions tend to get a bit overcooked as a result. As such, this is one of the few dishes where I tend to prep the ingredients before I start cooking, but it does mean that the actual active cooking side is incredible quick.

I have to admit, there is no reason to baton the carrots other than personal preference. When I was little, any meal with disks of carrot in it was always considered rather suspect, and I tend to avoid adding them to meals now. It’s also an aesthetic thing, as they roughly match the long slices of bell pepper.

The real secret ingredient of this dish, as with a lot of the more casseroley things I make, is passata. It makes the sauce richer, thicker and altogether far more enticing.

The spices listed below are a guide only – you might decide that you like your chilli far hotter.

Ingredients:

1 large or 2 small onions, diced

1-2 celery stalks, sliced lengthways then finely sliced

2 medium carrots, sliced into batons

1 red bell pepper, in strips

1 green bell pepper, in strips

small handful button mushrooms, sliced

1 400 ml tin chopped tomatoes

1 400 ml tin kidney beans, rinsed

1 400 ml tin baked beans

500 ml pasatta

500 ml vegetable stock

1 tsp hot chilli powder

1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp ground cumin

Method:

Treat yourself, and get all your vegetables prepped before you start cooking. Fry the onions and celery until soft (about five minutes) but not browned. If they look like they might be about to stick, add a splash of water to loosen them. Add the carrots and cook these for another 3-4 minutes. Add the peppers and soften, then add the mushrooms. Allow everything to cook together for a couple of minutes, then add your tinned tomatoes and beans (both baked and kidney.)

Add your pasatta and stock (made using a stock cube is fine.)

Add your spices and allow the chilli to simmer together for at least half an hour. The spices listed above are a starting guide. I will always taste again after the first 20 minutes or so and top up if needed. Some chillies are thirstier than others when it comes to spice, and will need a lot more. Cinnamon and coriander are also nice additions.

This dish is best made the night before and left to sit and develop its flavours overnight. Unless it’s an exceptionally warm night, you can leave this out on the side, as long as its covered.

The following day, bring back to a simmer and heat it for a further 5-10 minutes before serving.

Can be frozen for up to 3 months.

Cajun Pasta

I love Jambalaya. I love the spice, the depth of flavour, the mix of peppers, onions and celery. All the colours. The smokiness – all of it! This quick supper takes some of that flavour and turns it into a simple sauce for pasta.

While Jambalaya is something of a labour of love, this version is super fast. The sauce is cooked separately to the pasta so it can be made ahead, and even frozen. Another time saver is using already cooked prawns (shrimp). These can be added at the very end, which is great if you are nervous about re-heating or freezing them, you can just add them before serving – just make sure they get heated through.

Although this sauce cooks in one pan, there is a lot of ingredients, so you will want to cook it in batches. I used a Cajun spice mx then beefed it up with some additional cayenne, oregano and paprika, however the level of spiciness is up to you – just use my quantities as a guide for medium spicy, then up it as much as you wish.

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 stick of celery, finely chopped

1 large onion, finely diced

1 red bell pepper, finely diced

1 yellow bell pepper, finely diced

1 green bell pepper, finely diced

2 tsp Cajun Seasoning

1/4 tsp Cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp Oregano

1/4 tsp Paprika

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

6 boneless skinless chicken thighs

150g sliced chorizo (or other spiced sausage)

1 tin chopped tomatoes

500 ml chicken stock

100g cream cheese

150g cooked, peeled prawns

Method:

Place the diced vegetables in a large bowl and sprinkle over the seasoning. Fry in two batches, then fry chicken and chorizo until the chicken is cooked through (again, you may need to do this in two batches.)

Return everything to the pan and add the chopped tomatoes and the chicken stock. Allow to simmer over a low heat for ten minutes, then check the taste and add additional spice if required.

Remove from the heat and stir in the cream cheese. If serving immediately, stir in the prawns and allow them to heat through.

To serve, cook 75g of linguine or preferred pasta per person. Drain, then spoon the sauce over the pasta and stir well.

Tip: To turn this into a mid-week Jamalaya, forgo the pasta and stir into a heated pouch of microwave rice instead.

Cheat’s Pizza Sauce

Love the rich, basil-infused taste of fresh pizza sauce? Don’t have the time to make it from it from scratch, but find the jarred stuff overly sweet and a bit bland?

This version takes about 15 minutes to make and tastes great. It’s also a complete cheat, made with store cupboard ingredients. Such a cheat, that you probably shouldn’t show this recipe to anyone who regularly makes their own pizza sauce as it might just make them cross.

No pictures yet, but I’ll add some next time I make this.

This makes enough for 2-3 pizzas, but can be frozen for up to 3 months with no issues.

Ingredients:

500g passata

3 tsp basil pesto

1 tsp brown sugar

Method:

Place the passata in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Stir in the pesto and the sugar and allow to simmer gently for 10-15 minutes until slightly reduced. Check the taste, salt and pepper to taste. Add more pesto if wanted. If the sauce has a slightly sour taste from the tomato, add a little more sugar.

If the sauce seems to loose, allow it to cook for another 5 minutes.

That’s pretty much it!

Peach Salsa

Sweet, sharp and spicy – I’m loving fruit based salsas at the moment. I’ve made pineapple salsa with both fresh and tinned pineapple, and fresh mango salsa, but this is the first time I have attempted it with peach.

I used tinned peaches in light syrup for this recipe because a) the syrup means I didn’t need to add any additional sugar and b) they’re available from about 40p a tin, a fraction of the cost of fresh peaches without the need to pit or peel them. If you would like to use fresh peaches however, you will need about 250g of them once the skins and pits have been removed.

Drain your peaches and reserve the syrup. Dice the peaches nice and small because you are fussy and don’t like large bits of fruit in things. Place these in a nice big bowl.

Finely dice a small red onion and half a red bell pepper (or do as I did and use the leftovers from making some enchilada sauce.) Dice some jalapeno – either cut up a fresh one, removing the seeds and membrane, or fish some slices out of a jar of jalapenos in brine and give them a rinse.

Stick everything into the food processor along with the juice of a lime (or two if they’re small or dry), half a bunch of coriander, chopped, and 1/8 teaspoon of chilli powder. Blend everything until smooth. Give it a try, salt and pepper to taste, then add some of the reserved peach syrup to sweeten. Pulse till everything is mixed the pour your diced peaches and stir.

Cover and leave in the fridge for at least an hour in order for the flavours to develop.

This is can be quite hot depending of the strength/about of the chillies you add, so proceed with caution.

Peach Salsa

A (410g net weight/250g drained weight) tin of peach slices in light syrup, drained and diced

1 small (half a medium) red onion, diced

half a red bell pepper, diced

1 fresh jalapeno, seeds and membrane removed, diced OR sliced jarred jalapenos in brine, rinsed and sliced

1/8 tsp chilli powder

half a bunch fresh coriander, finely chopped

Juice of 1-2 limes

salt and pepper – optional

peach syrup – optional