Serves 2
Ingredients:
1 small onion, sliced
1 lemon
2 salmon fillets (or one big enough for two people)
1/8 cup (30ml) of white wine
1 tbps fresh dill, chopped (or 1 tsp dried)
1 clove of garlic, thinly sliced
Freshly ground salt & black pepper

Preparation:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Fry the onion in some oil for about 5 minutes until softened.

2. Slice 4 thin slices from the lemon and squeeze 1/8th cup (30ml) of juice from it.

3. Line an oven-proof dish with foil, leaving enough to fold over the top. Place the onions and half the sliced garlic in the bottom, and the salmon on top of that (skin side down). Season the salmon with salt and pepper, sprinkle with dill, and lay the lemon slices and the rest of the garlic on top.

4. Pour the lemon juice and wine over the salmon and fold the foil over the top, making a good seal. Put in the oven and cook for 15-20 minutes (or until cooked through).

5. Serve with vegetables (new potatoes and mange tout (aka ’snap peas’, I think) go well with it).

Serves as many people as you make sandwiches. But not vegetarians.

Ingredients:
2 slices of your favourite bread
Pâté
3 slices of good salami or your favourite cured meat product
Spinach or other salad leaves
Rocket
Brie or your favourite soft cheese

Preperation:
1. Add the ingredients to the sandwich in this order: pâté, salami, cheese, salad and rocket.
2. Eat.

The quantities are a bit vague I’m afraid - I didn’t realised how good it was until I started eating it, so I didn’t note down how much of everything I used. The exact amounts aren’t that important anyway - you can experiment with whatever ingredients you have to hand; the essense of this recipe is that noodles + crispy tofu + spring onion + hoi sin sauce = awesome.

Serves 2
Ingredients:
Enough noodles for 2 people
1/2 a 350g block of tofu
2 spring onions (I think you American-types call them green onions) cut into long, thin pieces.
Hoi Sin sauce
Sweet chilli sauce
Light soy sauce
Vegetable oil
Toasted sesame oil (optional)

Preparation:
(If you don’t have an extra 30 minutes to spare, skip steps 1 and 2. The rest of the recipe is pretty quick.)
1. Wrap the tofu up ina clean tea towel, and put something reasonably heavy on top, e.g. a few plates. Squeezing the water out of the tofu makes it extra crispy when you fry it.
2. Right after you’ve done that, cook the noodles according to the packet and drain. Rinse with cold water until they aren’t warm any more. Toss with a bit of soy sauce and sesame oil if you have any, and set them aside. Wait half an hour or so.
3. Unwrap the tofu (the tea towel should be pretty wet from soaking up all the water) and cut into 1cm x 1cm x 2cm oblongs (or whatever shape is convinient). Heat some vegetable oil in a wok over a medium heat, and add the tofu (careful, it will spatter). Cook for 8-10 minutes, making sure each side of the pieces of tofu gets cooked. When the tofu is nice and crispy, remove from the wok and drain on some kitchen paper.
4. Add the noodles to the wok and heat while stirring for a minute or so. Add a few dollops of Hoi Sin sauce (enough to coat all the noodles), a about half that amount of sweet chilli sauce, and a few dashes of soy sauce, and stir it all together.
5. Add the tofu to the noodles and mix together.
6. Add the spring onions and stir. Cook for a further couple of minutes until everything is heated through, but not so long that the spring onions get too cooked.
7. Serve!

edit: haha, I was looking up the tofu I used to figure out how much I had used, and I found this recipe. I swear I made this one up on my own! They read my mind! From the past!

You need:

2 large flatbreads, or flour tortillas ( pita bread would probably work as well)
1 tablespoon regular or reduced fat mayonnaise
4 leaves of lettuce ( I like to use romaine)
1 avocado - peel, remove pit and slice
1 sliced tomato ( you can use salsa in place of tomato)
1/2 pound cooked and peeled shrimp/prawn
4 slices cooked bacon

To Prepare:

1. Spread the flatbread or tortillas with mayonnaise.
2. Lay a lettuce leaf on each and top with avocado and tomato slices.
3. Divide the shrimp and bacon evenly among the sandwiches.
4. Top each with reamaining lettuce.
5. Roll each flatbread/tortilla tightly into a tube shape and serve.

This makes 2 servings.

Tips: You can cook bacon and shrimp the night before and refridgerate or buy pre-cooked shrimp. Also you can use any salad dressing in place of the mayonnaise if you like. (Ranch or Peppercorn dressings are delish with this!)

To start us off, I am recommending Encona Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce, available from most big supermarkets in the UK for under £1 (don’t know about the availability in other countries I’m afraid). I’ve used the sauce in burgers, etc, before, but the other night I made a very quick meal by frying some green peppers and sliced chicken breast with a good dollop of the sauce and a little bit of Thai fish sauce and light soy sauce. I fried the chicken and pepper until almost done, and then added the sauces and cooked until the sweet chilli sauce had thickened a bit. I then served it on some microwaved “Thai rice with lime & coriander” and it surprised me by being really good, especially for a meal that required zero fore-thought and only took about 10 minutes to make.

You Need:
One tin of sweetened condensed milk
A few bananas
Half a pack of Digestive biscuits (or something similar - Digestives here are imported, which means you’re paying around $5 for them, I picked up a similar Australian brand for 85c instead, but Digestives are the way to go)
Three tablespoons of butter

Ideally it need to be served with cream just to take the edge off the sweetness of the toffee, but it’s not necessary, it’s beautiful any way it comes.

Edit - The following day: I just went to grab a few spoonfuls of this for breakfast an it occurred to me that I hadn’t mentioned just how short a time you can keep this. Two days is the maximum, unless you want a black pie. If you are desperate to make it in advance then don’t mix it before the last minute, prepare the toffee, and the base and keep them separate in the fridge, then a short while before you want to serve it simple combine it all together and chop the bananas up fresh. TBH, if you’re keeping this in your fridge for two whole days without consuming it in one sitting then I’m of the firm belief that you’re doing something very, very, wrong.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
Enough linguine for 4 people (I always say this instead of x grams since I don’t trust the measurements they give for the amount of pasta to cook. It never seems like enough.)
3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
200g cooked, peeled prawns
4 close garlic, finely chopped
100g packet of rocket
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
A 5-6 leaves of fresh basil ripped into little bits (or 1/2 tsp of dried)
Freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:
1. Put the linguine on to cook (refer to packet for cooking time, usually takes about 5-6 minutes) in a large pan of salted boiling water.
2. In a seperate saucepan, gently heat the olive oil, prawns, garlic, rocket and basil for 2-3 minutes.
3. When the linguine is done, drain and put back in the saucepan. Mix the lemon juice and zest into the olive oil/garlic/prawns and then pour over the linguine and stir well until it’s all coated with the sauce. Add black pepper to taste.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
Enough angel hair pasta (alternatively: spaghetti or linguine) for 4 people
1/2 7oz can of ‘chipotle in adobo’ (smoked chipotle chillies in smokey BBQ sauce) - might be tricky to find in the UK, but I the stuff I got was made by Cool Chile Co and found in Sainsburys in the ‘world food’ section (although you can order from the CCC website as well). It’s a bit expensive but lasts a while.
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cups of basil and coriander (cilantro)
3/4 cup of pine nuts
1-1/2 tablespoons of salt
1/2 jar of sliced sundried tomatoes
170g Cotija cheese (if you can’t find this in the UK (I couldn’t), feta is a good alternative, but you’ll want to use a bit less since feta is very salty)
4 tomatoes, deseeded and chopped
1 fairly large bag of baby spinach (may seem like too much but it shrinks a LOT when cooked)

Preparation:
1. Put the pine nuts, basil and most of the coriander (the remainder should be chopped) in a large food processor and process until it looks like pesto:

2. Add the chipotle peppers (with sauce), sundried tomatoes, olive oil, parmesan, and salt and process until mixed and set to one side:

3. Break up the cheese into chunks with your hands so it fits in the food processor, and process until it looks like this:

4. In a large frying pan, pour about 1/4 cup of water and around three large spoonfuls of pesto (around half of what you have*). With the heat on low, add a full bag of fresh baby spinach and stir. Sprinkle about a handful of the cotija in the pan. Cover and allow the spinach to steam:

5. Cook your pasta for about 3 minutes, and drain. Add the pesto/spinach/cheese mixture to the pasta and stir well.

6. Garnish with chopped tomatoes, the chopped coriander, and the remaining cotija cheese. Serve with crusty bread and salad.

Apparently this dish was originally made with chicken and this version is just the vegetarian way of doing it. If you want to make it with chicken, start by sauteing chopped chicken breast prior to steaming the spinach.

* Leave the rest of the pesto to cool, and then put in a ziplock bag in the freezer for later use. I originally made this recipe in February and only recently defrosted the rest of the pesto, and it still tastes great.

Teriyaki

I made this with sausages, we’re on a budget right now and in Australia sausages are a lot cheaper then chicken (sausages out here are beef rather than pork and there’s so many cattle farms that beef is very cheap), but it would work just as well with pretty much any meat. My measurements may not be very exact, just taste it as you go and work out how you’d make it better.

This serves two very hungry people or three normal people, you can always stretch it out by adding more rice.

*Not pictured, like I said, this is harder than it looks, you didn’t really expect me to remember to get all the ingredients in the photo did you?

1.Boil the water and start the rice cooking according to instructions, it should take about fifteen minutes depending on what type.

2.Chop the onions and start them cooking in a bit of oil, start chopping up whatever meat you’re using, chuck them in the pan along with the garlic, a sprinkle of sugar, and the salt and pepper and let them cook for a while.

3.When the meat has started to brown throw in the sauce ingredients, let everything heat up and taste it, if it’s needs to be sweeter than throw in some more honey, if it needs more salt then add more soy, self explanatory really. At this point add the peas to the rice water so that they’ll be done just as you’re serving.

4.Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes then at the last moment add the bean sprouts and sesame seeds, I prefer these crunchy so they hardly get cooked at all. If the sauce isn’t very runny then add a few spoons of the rice water, the starch in the means that it will smooth without getting too runny and needing to be reduced further.

5.Strain the rice, portion it into bowls and split the meat and sauce between them, sprinkle a few remaining sesame seeds and some pepper on top for presentation and you’re all done!

If you like it with a bit of a kick then adding some chili never goes astray, although I personally don’t think it needs it, it does sometimes make a nice change.

Ingredients:
A note to Americans: I’m using UK measurements, and UK teaspoons/tablespoons/etc are slightly different to the US versions, so I’ll put the measurements in ml as well so you can work it out yourselves, rather than give you amounts like “1.83 US teaspoons”.

4 chicken thighs, skinned
A pinch of saffron (or alternatively 1 tsp/5ml of tumeric)
Half a chicken stock cube
2 tbsp/30ml olive oil
1 small onion
Half a red (or green or whatever) bell pepper
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp/5ml ground cinnamon
2 tbsp/30ml honey
0.5 tsp/2.5ml mild chilli powder (or more if you like it spicy, I use 1 tsp/5ml)
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
100g of cous cous
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

A note on the cous cous: I used a packet of Ainsley Harriot’s Spicy Sensation Cous Cous, but you can just as easily use plain cous cous or a packet of flavoured cous cous. Brits, you can probably find Ainsley Harriot cous cous in your local supermarket, and Sainsburys, at least, do a packet of Morrocan style cous cous. But it doesn’t really matter if you use the plain stuff, as there’s plenty of sauce left over to flavour it.

Preparation:
1. Crumble the half a stock cube into a measuring jug and add the saffron (or tumeric). Pour in 300ml/half a pint of boiling water and leave to one side.
2. Peel and finely chop the onions and garlic, and de-seed and chop the bell pepper into roughly 1 inch squares.
3. Skin the chicken thighs if they are not already, and season them with the salt and pepper. Wash your hands after handling raw chicken!
4. Heat the olive oil over a medium-low heat in a large frying pan or saucepan. Add the chicken thighs, being careful of spitting oil. You might want to wear an oven glove to avoid getting burnt by the oil, as I found it can spatter quite a bit.
Cook the chicken for 5-10 minutes, turning occasionally, until golden brown:

5. Add the onions, garlic, and bell pepper (not shown because I’m a moron and forgot to use it) to the pan. Cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent:

6. Add the cinnamon, chilli powder, chicken stock, and honey. Bring to a simmer (i.e. barely boiling), cover (my frying pan doesn’t have a lid so I used a pizza tray thing), and cook for 15 minutes.
7. While the chicken is cooking, make your cous cous (about 100g of the dried stuff, i.e. roughly enough for 2 people) according to the instructions on the packet, and leave in a covered saucepan/bowl to keep warm (not over heat, though).
8. Once the chicken is cooked (check inside to see if the juices are clear, if so the chicken is done), remove the thighs from the pan and keep warm. I put them in with the cous cous:

Raise the heat under the frying pan to boil the sauce, and reduce it by about a 1/3. This will take 4-5 minutes and you should notice the sauce become thicker and more syrupy:

9. Mix the lemon juice into the sauce, and serve.

[see this recipe with a whole load more photos and a few extra words here]