Whilst I was more than happy with the original version of this Chinese curry sauce, there was something bugging me. Mainly the little bits of garlic and ginger. I wanted a smooth sauce, so here’s my new and improved version!

I hope you like it. Please leave your comments to let me know what you think!

Serves 4

• 2tbs plain flour
• 2tsp mild curry powder
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• 1 ¼ tsp garlic powder
• 1tsp sweet paprika powder
• 1tsp chilli powder
• 2tbs vegetable oil
• 400ml hot beef stock
• salt to taste

Put the flour, curry powder, ground ginger, garlic powder, paprika and chilli powders in a bowl and mix well.

Heat a little vegetable oil in a pan. Remove from heat, add the flour mixture and stir well.

Mix in a little of the hot beef stock, and continue adding in stages and mixing well after each addition, until a lump free sauce is achieved.

Put back on heat and bring to a boil, simmering for 1-2 minutes. Add more stock if a runnier sauce is required.

Give it a little taste and add salt if required.

Char siu is one of my favourite meals. It can be eaten in so many ways. My personal favourite is with chinese pancakes, slices of cucumber and spring onion. Spread the pancake with hoisin sauce (boiled up leftover marinade) add a little of each of the ingredients, roll up and devour.

Serves 6

• Approx 750g pork tenderloin
• 1 ½ tbs runny honey, mixed with 1 ½ tbs hot water

Preparing one of our lambs for the freezer on Friday someone mentioned faggots as a way of using up some of the offal. The recipes I read were so varied that I took the basic idea and used the ingredients available; so this is not a classic recipe but an encouragement to experiment.

The result was mouth watering: light, full of flavour, tender and succulent. So much better than my best memories of that succulent meat ball in rich gravy that we used to buy ready prepared in a foil container.

We ate them with courgettes and new potatoes straight from the veg garden. The rest are in reserve for dinner tomorrow evening, an English speciality for our French visitors. Is there a French equivalent? We will find out.

Serves 10

• 1 ½ large onions
• 2 crushed cloves of garlic
• 10g sheep’s caul (it should be possible to buy pig’s caul at the butchers)
• 300g rabbit’s liver
• 100g lambs heart
• 220g lamb trimmings, from the breast etc
• 360g belly pork
• 100g white bread without crusts
• fresh parsley, sage and thyme or 1tsp dried thyme and sage, 1 tbs dried parsley
• pinh of nutmeg
• salt and pepper
• ¾ pint of stock (I used a veal stock powder)
• 1tbs rapeseed oil

Gravy for 6-8 faggots

• ½ large onion
• ½ oz bacon fat or butter
• 1tbs plain flour
• Degreased stock from the braising
• water if necessary
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• small glass of red wine or sherry

Set the oven to 180ºc. Finely chop and sauté the onions in oil until translucent, add the crushed garlic and cook for another minute. Grate in the nutmeg.

Mince all the meats together. I used a hand mincer using the medium (¼”) holes. Make the bread into crumbs with the parsley, sage, thyme and nutmeg.

Add salt and pepper and thoroughly mix all the ingredients. Shape the mixture into 20 balls, about 50 grams each. Wrap each one in the caul if available. It is not essential but it provides a thin layer of fat that you can replace by basting with a little melted butter, lard or dripping.

Place in a deep baking tray and pour in the stock. Cover with foil and cook for 15 minutes, then remove the foil and cook for a further 15 minutes. Pour off some of the liquor and degrease. Taste to see if it suitable to use as a stock for the gravy, use fresh stock if the liquid is too salty. Turn off the oven and leave the faggots in there whilst you make the sauce if you intend to eat them at once. Otherwise remove the faggots into a covered dish, allow to cool then refrigerate and/or freeze.

To reheat: place the defrosted/fresh faggots in a pan with stock and simmer for ten minutes, serve with gravy.

Making the gravy

Finely slice the onion and sauté in butter, add the flour to make a roux, cook for a couple of minutes then add red wine, or sherry and some of the reserved cooking liquor from the braising or fresh stock to achieve a coating sauce (about the texture of double cream.) Check the seasoning. Place the faggots in a serving dish and cover with the sauce. Serve piping hot.

Tip: before shaping the faggots make a small ball, about the size of a large marble and press it into a patty and fry in a little oil. Taste it to check the seasoning and add more salt, pepper, nutmeg, and herbs to suit your palate. This is also a useful tip when making pate.

I go through periods of trying to clear my kitchen cupboards and the freezer. I’m a food stuffs hoarder you see and it always comes the time when I can’t even open a cupboard without having its contents tumble on top of me chaotically.

The fun part of these times is that you can experiment with flavours and textures matching whatever you have at hand and this salad was one of such experiments. Needless to say I loved it; it was flavoursome, filling and made a lot of space… Cupboard is full again of course.

Serves 1

• A handful of king prawns
• 200g purple sprouting broccoli
• 40g toasted pine nuts
• 1 small red onion finely sliced
• ½ green chili finely chopped
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

In a frying pan sauté the chili and onion in 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil.

In the meanwhile blanche the broccoli in a separate pan (put in boiling water for 2 minutes and drain)

Add the lemon juice and prawns to the frying pan and sauté for 1 minute.

Add the blanched broccoli to the prawns and sauté for 2 more minutes.

Take the pan off the heat, mix in the pine nuts and remaining oil and serve warm with nice hot pitta bread.

Enjoy!

This is another recipes that chef Christian Sandefeldt has created to celebrate the World Cup, using Scan Swedish meatballs. You can make it in just 10 minutes (perfect for half-time), it costs less than a fiver, feeds four and contains around 600 calories per serving, so it’s faster, cheaper and better for you than most takeaways! You can find other meatball-based recipes at www.scanfoods.co.uk

Serves 4

• 350g pack of Scan Meatballs
• 8-12 corn/flour tortillas
• 300g of grated cheese (ideally mozzarella)
• A few spoonfuls of Mexican salsa
• 2 avocados, sliced

Spread the salsa on the tortilla. Sprinkle cheese onto salsa, covering it like a pizza. Lay the meatballs and avocado slices on top of the tortilla. Put another tortilla on top.

Toast under the grill on medium heat until golden brown.

This is one of the simple and tasty recipes that chef Christian Sandefeldt has created to mark the start of the World Cup, using Scan Swedish meatballs. You can make it in just 10 minutes (perfect for half-time), it costs less than a fiver, feeds four and contains around 600 calories per serving, so it’s faster, cheaper and better for you than most takeaways! You can find other meatball-based recipes at www.scanfoods.co.uk

Serves 4

• 350g pack of Scan Meatballs
• A small jar of tomato pasta sauce
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp of pesto
• 800g of pre-cooked pasta
• Crusty bread

Pan-fry the meatballs and garlic for 2 minutes. Pour in the tomato sauce and bring to the boil.

Stir in the pre-cooked pasta. . Add a spoonful of pesto.

Serve with crusty bread.

A classic for the early summer may-fly season (when the trout are at their most ravenous/stupid and easy to catch!)

Serves 2

• 1 brown trout
• new potatoes
• 1 bag spinach
• cherry tomatoes
• spring onions
• broccoli
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• thyme or garlic chives

Boil up the new potatoes. Bung the thyme/garlic chives inside the fish with some olive oil and salt and pepper, then wrap in a foil parcel and bake in a hot oven for about 25 minutes.

Prepare a salad with the spinach, tomatoes, spring onions. Boil up the broccoli and add it to the salad, with the potatoes. Carefully take the meat off the fish skeleton and put it on top. Enjoy!

Wow, it’s been some time since I last posted a recipe! Things have been pretty busy, so I’ve been cooking quick or old favourites, most of which I’ve already shared with you.

However, with another batch of Total Greek Yoghurt to test I thought I’d better create something new. This is a healthier version of your usual Chicken Supreme, and makes full use of the thick and creamy 0% Greek Yoghurt from Total’s Fage range – add some low fat (but not too low, otherwise it’ll curdle) creme fraiche and it turns into something truly delicious!

This recipe is very quick to make, uses one pan (plus one for the rice!) and with the tender chicken and rich creamy sauce, you’ll want to go back for more.

Serves 2

• 1 medium onion, finely sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
• 3-4 tbsp white wine
• 3 heaped tbsp low fat creme fraiche
• 1 heaped tbsp 0% greek yoghurt
• 1 handful frozen peas
• 1 slice of ham, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
• salt and pepper
• knob of butter
• olive oil

Put a saucepan on a medium-low heat and add a little olive oil and a small knob of butter. Cook the onion and garlic with the lid on, until soft and glossy.

Turn up the heat a little and add the chicken pieces. Cook until they turn white. Add the wine and reduce with the lid off for 2-3 minutes, before adding the creme fraiche and greek yoghurt.

Add the peas and reduce until you have  a nice thick sauce.

Serve with rice, sprinkled with the ham and parsley.

It’s time to start those herbs growing, and if you haven’t tried already, coriander is a good one. It’s very easy to grow from seed on a windowsill, then plant outside in a sunny spot and keep watered.

It tends to go crazy, so you end up with a lot to use, which is why this easy recipe for Thai Green Curry Paste is so handy. You can make up a big batch of it and keep in the fridge for 2-3 weeks, or store in small batches in the freezer for up to a year.

You then have a good base for a really quick Thai Green Curry. Just add a tin of coconut milk, some green beans and some prawns or chicken and you’re done. Easy!

Serves 8

• 1 extra large bunch coriander
• 6 green chillies, seeds removed and chopped
• 3 stalks lemongrass, tough bits removed and finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
• 6cm piece ginger, chopped skin on
• 2 limes, juice and rind
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil

Wash and roughly chop the coriander and put into a blender. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse to as smooth a paste as possible.

Add a few extra chillies, or a few seeds, to make it extra hot.

Store in an air tight container in the fridge and use within 3 weeks. Add 1 ½ – 2 tablespoons of paste per person when cooking.

Sometimes there’s no need to over complicate something, especially when you want to keep the flavour of the main ingredient, in this case a lovely fresh piece of fish.

Here’s a really simple way to barbecue a whole seabass and add a little extra flavour that really compliments it. Now all you need is the sun!

Serves 2

• 1 whole seabass, gutted and washed
• dried dill
• salt and pepper
• ½ lemon, cut into thin slices
• 1 sprig of a fresh herb, such as rosemary or thyme

Cut a few slits on both sides of the fish and lightly sprinkle with the dill, salt and some pepper. Rub into the fish.

Lightly salt and pepper the inside of the fish, then stuff with the lemon slices and the sprig of herb.

Use a wooden skewer to ‘sew’ the fish together. This helps keep the lemon in place when you flip it over during cooking.

Place on your hot barbecue and cook for 10 minutes, turning over once, or until the fish is cooked through.

Serve with a salad or other barbequed goodies, or just pick at the fish as is.