New year, new pie

So, it's a new year and we've all survived the Christmas come-down again. We're a few pounds heavier, a few pounds poorer. And what have we learnt?

Well, I've learnt that chestnuts are delicious and that a jar of them at Christmas will leave me with a few left over in January. Cue frantic hunting through my recipe books and files for interesting ways to use them up. And just look what I found (erm, and adapted)! Yes siree - it's pie-shaped.

The pie-ness of it is actually beside the point. What I made to begin was a rich and creamy mushroom and chestnut sauce/filling. Chop a few shallots and fry them in a large pan until they're going a bit transparent. Add a good slosh of brandy and let it reduce a little before adding plenty of chopped mushrooms. Any kind will do - I used half chestnut mushrooms and half shiitake. Add the chestnuts themselves to the pan, broken into pieces. Finally add a little double cream to bind the whole thing into a creamy whole. You'll probably need a decent old grind of black pepper in there too.

With this base the world's your lobster. I piled it into an ovenproof dish and topped with readymade puff pastry*. Bake it for 20 minutes and eat it with steamed broccoli, sugar snap peas or asparagus (or all three). I think filo pastry may work instead, if you prefer it.

If pies aren't your bag, baby, stir it through some penne pasta. Or serve it with grilled polenta. Or heap it on topp of jacket potatoes. Like I say - world, lobster. It's fereezable for a couple of months, too. And if I screw up my eyes and go 'la la la' I can probably ignore the calories in the cream, too!

*Twee pastry decorations, as depicted, are optional.

Cottage with an orange roof

I've just discovered cottage pie with sweet potato mash on top. Yes, I know I'm well behind the times!

Folk say it's better for you, but I'm not sure exactly why. In my book it just makes a nice change and tastes more interesting.

Cottage pie is surely one of the easiest and most satisfying things to cook. Just bung lean mince, chopped onions, carrots, beef stock and a bit of red wine in a frying pan and fry it until the mince is cooked. At the same time peel a couple of sweet potatoes, chop them into small cubes and boil them until soft and squishy. Mash the potato (on its own - no need for butter or any of that malarkey). Then you layer it all in an ovenproof dish with the potato on top and shove it into an oven for 20 minutes.

It makes great lunch leftovers too, and I've got a cunning tip for transporting it effectively. Set aside a small portion of each (mince mixture and potato) before it all reaches the oven. Place them side by side in a tupperware container to make sure it doesn't all go mixed-up and soggy. The next day, microwave the whole thing for a few minutes and layer it onto a plate, like a little orange-roofed cottage!

Just brie!

It works just as well without the bacon, too. Just brie and the cranberry sauce. I'm just quality-checking it as I type!

I can't remember anything by The Cranberries

I can't be alone in my cranberry sadness. Every time I open the kitchen cupboard in January (sometimes even February and March) I look glumly at a languishing half-full jar of cranberry sauce, collecting dust.

I can't not buy it for Christmas dinner - roast turkey just wouldn't be the same with one trimming missing - but what does one do with it afterwards?

Well, never fear: I've discovered the delights of a brie, bacon and cranberry panini. Slice up some brie, add small pieces of cooked smoked bacon and smear on a dollop of cranberry sauce. Toast the whole thing in a sandwich or panini toaster and chomp it up! If you don't have a sandwich toaster, you could have the same filling in a baked ciabatta or just a sandwich.

And if you haven't got any leftover cranberry sauce? Make your own - it's incredibly simple. Put two handfuls of fresh or frozen cranberries into a saucepan with the juice of half an orange and one dessert spoonful of caster sugar. Heat it until the cranberries burst and it starts to look 'saucy'. Let it cool down a bit, then have a taste and add as many squirts of honey you need to make it sweet enough.

In fact this whole blog post has been a sham: I made my own cranberry sauce last Christmas and I don't even have an abandoned jar in the cupboard. But I can still sympathise with my former, cranberry-sad self.

Bog right off

I was more than a little bit annoyed that the government recently criticised supermarkets for offering 'buy-one-get-one-free' offers. An MP complained that this increases the amount of food we throw away, and said we shouldn't "be tempted by buy-one, get-one-free, three-for-two or two-for-ones".

Well, who asked her?! I'll be tempted any time I feel like it, missy. The general public should be grown-up and self-sufficient enough to decide what food they need to buy and withstand a bit of blatant sales temptation every now and again.

I love BOGOF offers and I'd really miss them if they stopped. I buy quite a similar batch of things each week, so it makes a lot of sense for me to get two at the same time and store them. That's what cupboards, freezers and tupperware containers are for!

Rather than penalise those of us who make use of the offers, how about providing recipes for the others to use up their spares?

Thai curry again and again!

Y'know, there's been talk. I haven't been talking, but there has been talk* concerning my fantastic new green Thai curry recipe.

One of the best things about the Taste of London festival was the free brochure, featuring recipes from some of the attending restaurants. I've been interested in learning how to make a good green curry for a while (because I like it but find restaurant versions too hot for my preference). So I was pleased to see that the Blue Elephant had published their recipe in the brochure.

Of course, I shamefully adapted it and took a few ideas from delicious magazine's 'freeze ahead' version too. This recipe should make enough for four modest portions, so if you're cooking for two you can freeze one batch and easily heat it in the microwave later.

I make mine with chicken, so my first step is to cut two large breasts (no comment) into chunks and fry it over a low-ish heat in a big wok, with a bit of vegetable oil. Once it's starting to look a bit cooked, I add three tablespoons (45ml) of green curry paste. This is the only cheaty bit of the recipe: I use ready-made paste, to save all the effort of grinding and blending! The quality of shop-bought pastes varies quite a bit, as does the amount of chilli they use, so shop around until you find one you like.

Anyway - once the paste and chicken starts sizzling happily I add four or five chopped spring onions, half a chopped red onion and one stalk (stem?) of lemongrass cut very finely. You can also add some aubergine or other appropriate vegetables at this stage. After another couple of minutes, add a 400g tin of coconut milk and let the whole thing simmer for 5-10 minutes.

At this stage, add the juice of a whole lime, one torn kaffir lime leaf, a handful of basil leaves and a pinch of fresh coriander. Give it a stir - at this point it should be rather thin. My 'freeze ahead' addition here is to add 100g of ground almonds to thicken and make it go further, but this is a bit calorie-tastic! Without the almonds it may only make two portions rather than four, but it won't be as fattening. If it looks a bit gloopy once you've added the almonds, stir in a few splashes of water until it looks about the right consistency.

And that's you done: serve it with some steamed rice and Thai crackers.

*A bun for anyone who recognises the film reference and isn't ashamed to admit it!

Every little helps

No, I'm not on commission from Tesco. Yet!

It's the month of diet and detox, so I thought I'd throw my two penn'orth into the ring. I'm not a fan of 'proper' diets of any kind, but I firmly believe that small, manageable changes make a difference. So here's my top tips for small changes to create a better way of eating.

1. Don't peel potatoes before roasting them or making oven chips or wedges. The skin is the best bit! Worms won't grow out of your face.
2. Use reduced-fat olive spread instead of any other kind of butter or butter substitute.
3. Add pine nuts, pumpkin seeds and sultanas to food as often as possible. Sprinkle them on top of salads or pasta, for instance.
4. Don't buy salt. Most food is salty enough without it and you can't be tempted to add it if there's none around!
5. Eat soup as an easy way to consume more fruit and vegetables.
6. Have crumpets for breakfast, with a bit of peanut butter or honey. They're relatively low in fat and calories, quite filling and also yummy.
7. Buy loads of plastic storage containers so that you can easily save and freeze leftovers rather than feeling obliged to eat them!
8. Make a low-fat apple cake on a Sunday morning and have a small slice whenever you want a snack or treat. It should last until elevenses on Wednesday!
9. Mash potatoes with a tiny bit of wholegrain mustard instead of adding milk, butter, cream, cheese, etc.
10. Go out for dinner frequently - it gets you out of a food rut, can inspire new recipe ideas and usually means you'll eat a balanced meal rather than a lazy home-cooked one.

Stick a fork in me - I'm done.

Crunchy Christmas

Everyone keeps saying the words credit and crunch in conjunction as if it makes a well-known saying. I'm not entirely convinced that 'credit crunch' really is a proper thing, or that I actually need to economise, due to the extraordinary sales taking place everywhere. I may be the exception, however, so here's some thoughts on having a crunchy Christmas!

Now - turkey is a fairly low-cost meat (as well as being low-fat) and can be eaten for about a week after the event, so we're already off to a good start. Choose an extra-massive turkey for Christmas day and you're already economising on meat for the festive period. Buy a jar of Stokes Coronation sauce to whip up some tasty Coronation turkey sandwiches, salads or jacket potato toppings.

Christmas dinner seems to be made up largely of vegetables, which you can buy in large quantities in most supermarkets, making the most of the 2 for 1 deals. Either stick them in the fridge drawer in bags, or freeze them. If you cook vast mountains of vegetables all in one go for Christmas lunch, you can also enjoy bubble and squeak for the next couple of days, either with cold meat and pickles or with omelette and baked beans.

For me. Christmas is all about being able to eke out the supplies for days on end until the shops open again. I don't care if they're open all the way through these days - it's the spirit of the thing! Who cares if lunch is one sausage, some crackers and the last of the brie? It's Christmas!

Waste not, want not

The whole 'don't waste food and use up the leftovers' thing seems to be snowballing even more just lately!

Since my last post on the topic I've seen a snippet in one of the free London newspapers about leftover recipes, an article on BBC Breakfast News about food waste and landfill sites and, just this afternoon, an article in the Tesco magazine.

It seems that the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has recently launched an awareness campaign entitled Love Food Hate Waste (which has a fantastic website full of tips, recipes and statistics).

I've been posting to this site like a crazy with my tips and comments - let me know if you spot any of mine on the homepage!

In the meantime, here's my own personal five top tips to eliminate food waste:

1. Make a shopping list when you visit the supermarket and stick to it
   
2. Don't buy larger packs or special deals just because they are cheaper unless you're sure you will use them
   
3. Have loads of sandwich bags, foil, plastic pegs, airtight containers and cling film handy for storing things
   
4. Make sure you keep vegetables and salad in the crisper drawer thingie so that they don't wilt too soon
   
5. Always consider the possibilities for making the next day's lunch out of dinner leftovers (I might even post a few recipes for this sort of thing in the near future, because I'm awfully nice!)
   

It's amazing how much we all throw away and how much money we probably spend, not only on wasted food but also on buying new stuff to eat when there's perfectly good ingredients in the cupboards or fridge. So please let me know your own tips and recipes so that we can all be smug, thrifty, resourceful types now and again!

Nothing left over

Clayton-style bubble and squeak

It seems suddenly fashionable again to make the most of food leftovers and to shop and cook 'for the week'. This is probably part due to the fear of a recession, partly a concern about being green and sustainable, part reaction to the over-elaborate style of buying and cooking we've seen in the past few years and largely nostalgia!

I thought I'd throw my bit in since I love making the most of leftovers and spare odds and ends of food. The daddy of all leftover cooking, for me, is bubble and squeak. But not the proper nonsense (a sort of mashed-up and fried cake of potato and cabbage) - that's nice enough, but not a patch on the version my mum used to make!

So here's my mum's and now my own version:

Cut up loads of leftover roast potatoes, parsnips, Yorkshire puddings, sprouts (or cabbage, or whatever other similar vegetable) and even sage and onion stuffing if you have some left after roast chicken or turkey. Bung it all into a massive frying pan with a little bit of olive oil and fry it. That's all. It's just loads of nice things that are too good to throw away and taste fantastic re-fried!

I normally eat it with cold meats, baked beans and pickles. It's also good with eggs cooked however you like. It's the most comforting meal in the world and makes every day feel like Boxing day! If you can arrange to watch Herbie Rides Again, Moonraker or The Great Escape at the same time you'll be sound as a pound!