Sausages and beans with kale

Very quick to make and quite healthy (if you use good quality sausages).  Serves about four (assuming two sausages each) but you can stretch it out by adding another can of beans and some crusty bread on the side.

Extra virgin olive oil - a little for frying and some for drizzling
8 sausages, chopped into pieces a few centimetres long.  Any flavour but I tend to use pork-based ones.
Big bunch of kale, trimmed and chopped
2 or 3 cans of cannellini beans, chickpeas or borlotti beans
Zest and juice of 1 lime (you can use lemon but I prefer lime)
Salt and pepper

In a large frypan, saute the chopped sausages in a dash of oil, over medium heat, until lightly browned. Add the kale - it will seem like a mountain, but don't worry, it wilts down.  Cover the frypan for a few minutes to steam the kale.  Add the beans and a drizzle of oil and stir.  Pop the lid back on again until everything is cooked through - it won't take long.  Add the lime zest and juice, stir through and serve well seasoned.

Recipe adapted by me from the many online recipes featuring these staple ingredients.  You could adapt this further by using spinach or some other greens instead of kale and adding a sprinkling of chopped nuts just before serving.

Meal plan for week beginning 11th November

Monday: Dhal with basmati rice, poppadums, fruit chutney and sour cream

Tuesday: Chicken and mushroom special

Wednesday: Sausage and beans with kale

Thursday: Rissoles, baked potatoes in their jackets, sour cream and salsa, served with a side salad

Friday: Chilli con carne topped with grated cheese, sour cream and salsa, served with corn chips

Saturday: Roast vegetable salad with feta and bacon

Sunday: Takeaways from Yok Thai

Dhal

You can dial down the heat for children - we call this "Roald Dahl Dhal" in our house.  Just omit the chilli.

Serves 6 (or a family of four with leftovers for lunch the next day).  I sometimes serve this with Prue's beef curry to make a curry banquet for a crowd.  I often double the recipe and freeze half.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 long red chilli, finely chopped OR 1 teaspoon crushed chilli from a jar
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
400g can diced tomatoes
1 1/4 cups vegetable stock
1/4 cup split yellow peas - soak for 30 minutes, rinse and drain
1/4 cup red lentils, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup green split peas, rinsed and drained


Method:

Half an hour before you start, soak the yellow peas.

Heat oil in a large saucepan over high heat.  Saute onion, garlic, chilli and ginger for 3-4 minutes until onion is soft.

Add the cumin, coriander and turmeric.  Stir for one minute.

Mix in tomatoes, stock, split peas and lentils.  Bring to the boil.  Reduce heat and simmer, covered about 30 minutes until dhal is tender.

Top with fresh, chopped coriander if you wish.  Serve with basmati rice (you won't need much), sour cream or unsweetened yoghurt, fruit chutney and poppadums.

Meal plan for week beginning 28th October 2013

Monday: Pork sausages, potato and sweet potato mash, steamed asparagus and green beans
Tuesday: Leek, potato and bacon soup with fresh bread rolls
Wednesday: Caesar salad
Thursday: Lamb and barley stew in the slow cooker
Friday: Dhal, basmati rice, poppadoms, sour cream and fruit chutney
Saturday: Burgers with homemade barbecue sauce
Sunday: Nachos

Meal plan for the week beginning 14th October

PIE away for the week so chicken features often on the menu (he won't touch it).

Monday:  Goulash with slabs of warmed Turkish bread
Tuesday: Vegetable, split pea and barley soup
Wednesday: Chicken and mushroom special
Thursday: A hot barbeque chicken from the butcher at our local Harris Farm, served with a jacket potato (with sour cream and fruit chutney) and steamed green beans
Friday: Leftover chicken, in a salad with some garlic bread on the side
Saturday: Sausage casserole - an old family recipe, will post next week
Sunday: Takeaway pizza over an early evening DVD with the kids

Goulash

A simple, tasty stew from the Destitute Gourmet, adapted ever so slightly by me.

Serves 4 to 8

2-3 tablespoons of oil
1 kg stewing steak, cubed
2 medium onions in chunks
1 tablespoon paprika
2 large tomatoes, or substitute tinned tomatoes
3 or 4 potatoes, cubed
1 capsicum, sliced
1/2 teaspoon thyme
bay leaf
salt and pepper
750 ml stock
Sour cream to serve

Optional thickening: 2 tablespoons of flour, 1/2 cup tomato paste

Heat oil in large saucepan, brown meat and onion.  Add paprika, stir until meat is coated (don't let paprika burn).  Add tomatoes, potatoes, capsicum, herbs, salt and pepper and stock and bring to the boil.  Simmer gently for 1 1/2 hours.
If you need to thicken, combine flour and tomato paste and add to saucepan.  Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some nice bread to mop up the juices.

Quiche Lorraine

I use two different recipes for this pie - Annabel Langbein's food processor pastry and a modified classic Quiche Lorraine filling.  It makes two quiches so I cover one with cling film and put it in the freezer.  To reheat, remove from the freezer at least one hour before serving and and bake at 160 C until warmed through (15-20 minutes).  You could use two sheets of store-bought savoury shortcrust pastry instead, but this pastry is seriously easy and quick to make.

Annabel Langbein's Food Processor Pastry

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
150g butter
About 4 tbsp of cold water (I find it usually needs a bit more)

Preheat oven to 200 C and line two quiche dishes with baking paper.

Place the flour, salt and butter in a food processor and whizz to fine crumbs.  With the motor running, add the water a little at a time, until the mixture comes together in a ball.

Halve the mixture and press into the base and sides of the quiche dishes, cover with baking paper, weight with baking beans or rice and bake blind until lightly golden (about 12-15 minutes).

While pastry cooks, prepare the filling:

Quiche Lorraine filling

2 onions, finely chopped
6 bacon rashers, chopped
6 eggs
2 cups milk
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups grated tasty cheese

Cook onion and bacon in frying pan until onion is soft.  Drain excess fat, cool slightly before spreading into cooked pastry cases.

Beat eggs in a bowl with whisk, add milk, sour cream and cheese, whisk until just combined.

Pour half into each pastry case, bake at 180 C for about 35 minutes or until filling is set and golden brown.  Stand quiche for 5 minutes before removing from tin.

Variations: sometimes I will sprinkle a little crumbled blue cheese or feta over the top, or throw in some asparagus spears

Meal plan for the week beginning 7th October 2013

Kids back to school this week so easy dishes on the menu.


Monday (public holiday): Roast lamb, roast potatoes, steamed asparagus and frozen peas, with gravy and mint sauce

Tuesday: Warm salad with leftover lamb (doused in gravy then re-heated and piled on top of the salad).  Using cos, and assembling everything at the last minute, means the lettuce stays crisp
Wednesday: Vege and bacon soup from the freezer (book club tonight)
Thursday: Nachos
Friday: Another salad - this time with bacon, feta, asparagus and avocado
Saturday: Maybe a quiche with the leftover bacon?
Sunday: Goulash with Turkish bread

Meal plan for the week beginning 16th September

Best friend coming to stay this weekend!

Monday: Left-over beef curry
Tuesday: Pasta with a stir-fry sauce of new season asparagus, bacon and garlic, topped with grated parmesan
Wednesday: Twice-baked potatoes with Greek salad on the side
Thursday: Roast vegetable salad or a vegetable stir-fry with udon noodles (depending on what's left in the fridge)
Friday: Fish tacos again.  This time, serving it to best friend and her partner, who are on a paleo diet, so will tweak my usual dishes and serve the meal buffet-style.  Will post the details
Saturday: Taking BFF out to our favourite Japanese restaurant in the city
Sunday: probably eggs on toast after our guests leave.

Prue's Beef Curry

I love this cookbook.  Leith's Cookery Bible, by Prue Leith and Caroline Waldegrave, published in 1991 and bought by me for three pounds at a car boot sale in London on the day Princess Diana died.  I was just learning to cook - out of necessity, as we were poor backpackers and needed to make a roast chicken last all week.  It has all sorts of useful tips, including catering for large parties, a dictionary of cooking terms and kitchen French, and how long to cook your pheasant or hang your grouse.  Each recipe is accompanied by a wine recommendation.  When I'm looking for a traditional recipe, it's the first place I go.  This simple recipe is the one I use most often as I always have the ingredients on hand and I can increase or decrease the heat depending on who I am cooking for (i.e. if I want the kids to eat it for Sunday dinner).  I have adapted it ever so slightly by leaving out Prue's recommended one teaspoon of flour as thickening.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of lite olive oil
900g of chuck steak, cut into 5cm cubes
2 onions, sliced
2.5cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (I often leave these out)
1/2 teaspoon ground chili
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons ground cumin
3 teaspoons of ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
400g tin of chopped tomatoes
salt and pepper

Heat the oil and fry the steak pieces, a few at a time, until well browned all over, removing them to a plate as they are done (don't rush this bit - you can chop up the veges and measure out the spices while they cook).

Fry the onion in the same oil (add some more if you need to), add the ginger and garlic and cook for two minutes.

Add all the ground spices and cook slowly for a further minute, taking care not to let them burn.

Add the tomatoes and bring slowly to the boil, stirring all the time.

Put back the meat, cover with a lid and simmer very slowly until meat is tender - about two hours.  Add a little water if it begins to dry out.  It can also be cooked in a very slow oven for about three hours.

I serve with sour cream or unsweetened yoghurt, fruit chutney and basmati rice.  You could also sprinkle with chopped coriander, but I'm not a fan.

Serves four but can easily be doubled.  I quite often cook up a big batch and freeze half.  Or you can stretch it to six by adding some side dishes - store-bought poppadums, naan bread, pickles and vegetables.  The other night I served it with a side dish of tinned chickpeas, spring onions, red capsicum, corn and cherry tomatoes, stir-fried with fresh chilli and garlic.

Prue's wine tip: a very full red.

Chicken and mushroom special

This recipe makes a big meal for one, but you can easily increase the quantities or split between two with a side salad.  It's low-fat and one-pot.  PIE doesn't eat chicken, so this is my go-to recipe when I am cooking for one.  It's spicy but not too hot so good for older kids too.

Ingredients

Quarter of a cup of basmati rice
Quarter of a red onion, sliced
Dash of lite olive oil
Two mushrooms, more or less
Half a teaspoon of cumin
Half a teaspoon of ground coriander
Half a teaspoon of curry powder
One teaspoon of chicken or vegetable stock powder (or a cube)
Half a cup of water
One medium skinless chicken breast
A couple of tablespoons of fruit chutney

Put the rice and onion in a medium saucepan and toss around with the olive oil for a minute or two - don't let it burn.  Put in the spices and the mushrooms and stir around for another half a minute.  Add the stock and half a cup of water (or twice the measure of rice if you want to increase quantities).  It will quickly be bubbling so turn down the heat to low.

Lay the chicken breast on top of the rice mixture and slather some fruit chutney (or pesto, or even tomato sauce in a pinch) over the top.  Put the lid on the saucepan and leave it for 20-25 minutes (depending on the size of the chicken breast).  Test the rice and if it's cooked then turn off the heat and leave it to steam for five minutes before serving.

Adapted by me from a Weight Watchers recipe circa 2000.

Meal plan for the week beginning 9th September

Early Spring menu

PIE out for a few nights this week, plus two tired kids post-holiday, so keeping it simple this week.

Monday: Pasta (large spirals) with bolognese sauce
Tuesday: Lamb and barley stew in the slow cooker
Wednesday: Chicken and mushroom special
Thursday: Probably vegetable and bacon soup from the big pot I made on Tuesday
Friday: Fish tacos
Saturday: Out to a sports club barbecue so sausages in bread for tea
Sunday: Curry night: beef curry, plus chickpea curry or dhal.  Served with poppadums, basmati rice, sour cream and fruit chutney.

Lamb and barley stew in the slow cooker

There's a bit of preparation involved but this is a tasty one-pot meal that, once cooked, sits happily on the "warm" setting of the slow cooker while family members help themselves.

Serves four

3 or 4 lamb shanks, lamb leg steak or shoulder chops (leave the bones in)
1/4 cup sherry
1 stock cube, dissolved in 3 cups of warm water
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Few shakes of worcestershire sauce
2 medium onions, chopped
1 large potato, diced
2 carrots, sliced
1 stick of celery, chopped
1/2 cup barley
3 bay leaves
1 large sprig of thyme
1 cup of frozen peas
A handful of parsley to serve

Heat a large frypan and brown the meat.  Place the browned meat in a large ovenproof casserole dish or pre-heated slow cooker.

Put the onions, potato, carrots and celery into the dirty pan and stirfry for a minute or two until slightly softened (don't let them burn).  Tip all the veges and herbs into the slow cooker on top of the meat.

Add sherry to the dirty pan, simmer for a few minutes, then add stock.  Bring to the boil then remove from heat and pour over the meat and veges.

Add everything else except the peas and parsley to the slow cooker.

Cook on high for 6 hours.  If you are cooking in the oven, cook for 2 hours on 180 degrees Celsius.

Twenty minutes before you want to eat, add the frozen peas and stir through.

Serve with the parsley and some buttered bread to mop up the juices.  Pick out the bones first if you wish.

Adapted by me from a recipe by Tracey Sunderland published in Taste magazine, May 2007 and retrieved from the website: www.taste.co.nz