Author: Sophie

Spinach and ricotta cannelloni

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Sometimes you just need tubes of pasta full of iron-rich spinach and creamy cheese, enveloped in a rich garlicky tomato sauce. And of course topped with melted toasty cheese

  • 400g spinach
  • 6 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 egg
  • 30g parmesan, grated
  • 250g ricotta
  • 30g basil, roughly chopped
  • 150g (around 15 tubes) dry cannelloni
  • 4 cloves garlic, finely sliced
  • 400g passata
  • ½ tsp sugar
  • Salt and pepper
  • 40g cheddar, grated
  1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large deep pan
  2. Sauté the spinach until it wilts then tip into a sieve – you can do this in stages if the spinach doesn’t doesn’t fit at once
  3. Press and squeeze out all the liquid from the spinach
  4. Then leave to cool for a bit, and then chop the spinach
  5. Put the spinach in a bowl, add the egg, parmesan, ricotta and half the basil
  6. Stir together well and set to one side
  7. Heat the other 4 tbsp oil over a medium heat and add the garlic slices
  8. Sauté until garlic is golden and then add the passata, sugar plus half a tin of water
  9. Stir together, season with salt and plenty of black pepper
  10. Heat to a bubble, cook for 5 mins and then stir in the rest of the basil
  11. Turn off the heat and set to one side
  12. Pre-heat the oven to 170C fan/190C
  13. Use a teaspoon (or, if you’re fancy, a piping bag) to fill the cannelloni tubes one at a time. There should be enough mixture to the fill each one to overflowing
  14. As you fill them, place the filled tubes neatly in rows in an ovenproof ceramic dish
  15. Pour the tomato sauce over the top and sprinkle with grated cheddar
  16. Bake for 45 mins until the top is browned and the pasta is soft when you stick a sharp knife into one of the tubes
  17. Leave to stand for 5 mins before serving so as not to burn the inside of your mouth off with molten sauce

Thai green curry paste

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Fresh, spicy, the basis of a delicious green curry. It’ll poke you in the tongue and leave you wanting more. Makes enough for 4 or 5 curries, keep it in the fridge

  • 1 tbsp coriander seeds
  • 2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp black peppercorns
  • 6 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 5 stalks lemongrass, trimmed and roughly chopped
  • 1 inch ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 2 inches galangal, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 shallot, roughly chopped
  • 20g fresh coriander
  • Zest of 2 limes
  • Juice of ½ lime
  • 7 green birdseye chillis
  • 3 green medium chillis
  • 1 tbsp fish sauce
  1. Toast the coriander and cumin seeds in a dry pan until fragrant
  2. Use a spice grinder to finely grind the coriander, cumin and black peppercorns
  3. Then use a mini food processor to finely grind and combine all the other ingredients, stirring in the powdered spices at the end

Japanese-style sesame salad dressing

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Tangy, creamy, deeply delicious. Japanese flavours with no pretentions of authenticity – but it makes the perfect dressing for a salad to eat alongside a katsu curry.

  • 2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted in a dry pan
  • 1 tbsp tahini
  • 2 tbsp mayo
  • 2 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • ½ tsp sugar
  • ½ tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp mirin
  1. Thoroughly mix all ingredients
  2. Use to dress a salad of crisp lettuce, pickled ginger, cucumber, radish and spring onion

Potato wedges (again)

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Big fat chunky wonky chips. Dip into ketchup and mayo (yes both). Feeds 2

  • 3 big potatoes (or 4 medium/2 massive)
  • 2 tbsp veg oil
  • 1½ tsp pul biber
  • 1 tsp garlic granules
  • Salt and pepper
  1. Pre-heat oven to 190C fan (210C)
  2. Cut the potatoes into chunky wedges and collect in a big bowl
  3. Add the oil, chilli, garlic, salt and pepper and mix through with your hands until the wedges are evenly coated
  4. Tip onto a baking tray and into the oven for 30 mins
  5. Turn them gently and bake for a further 15 mins until completely soft inside and gently crunchy on the edges

The other potato wedges are here, compare and contrast!

Child-friendly chicken

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Although this is of course delicious for everyone, it’s a dish that gets a lot of requests from kid visitors. It’s super-simple, savoury and scrumptious over rice, atop pasta or wrapped in wraps. All bases covered! And no-one will complain because it’s ‘too spicy’…

  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • 2 tsp butter
  • 1 tsp garlic oil
  • 1 small onion, diced as fine as possible (very very tiny pieces so fusspots can’t see them)
  • ½ chicken stock cube
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2 tsp tomato puree
  • 300ml boiling water
  1. Heat the butter and garlic oil in a lidded frying pan over a medium-high heat
  2. Brown the chicken thigh fillets and then remove them from the pan
  3. Turn the heat down and add the diced onion
  4. Cook the onion over a low heat until soft, then crumble in the chicken stock cube, adding paprika, salt and tomato puree
  5. Stir in and cook for a minute then pop the chicken back in and add enough boiling water so the meat is half submerged
  6. Bring the liquid to the boil, then simmer on low with the lid on for 30 mins
  7. Then stir, remove the lid and simmer for another 20-30 mins
  8. By this time, the sauce should be almost gone and the chicken should be soft enough that you can pull it apart with forks
  9. And then you pull it apart with forks. And that’s it

Bakewell cookies

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Cherry and almond, springtime flavours. Squidgy inside with a crisp, cracked shell outside. Makes 20

  • 150g unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
  • 150g soft light brown sugar
  • 100g golden caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • ½ tsp almond extract
  • 250g plain flour
  • ¼ tsp bicarb
  • Pinch of salt
  • 100g ground almonds
  • 100g glacé cherries, chopped – plus some just cut in half
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 170C fan (190C)
  2. Whisk together the melted butter with both sugars until fluffy
  3. Add the whole egg and beat in, then the egg yolk and the almond extract
  4. Whisk the mixture until thick and creamy
  5. Fold in the flour, bicarb, pinch of salt, ground almonds and glacee cherries into a stiff cookie dough
  6. Pinch pieces off, rolling gently into walnut-sized balls and flattening slightly
  7. Place spaced out onto a lined baking tray and pop a half-cherry on the top of each cookie
  8. Bake for 15-17 mins until golden and puffed up
  9. Cool on a rack

Chicken taquitos

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Crunchy tortilla outsides, gooey spicy insides. So good. Pile salsa and guac on top and get your munch on. Makes 6.

  • About 1 chicken breast-worth of cooked, shredded chicken
  • 100g grated cheddar
  • 2 tbsp cream cheese
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes
  • ½ tsp onion powder
  • ½ tsp smoked paprika
  • Pinch of salt
  • 6 corn/wheat tortillas
  • 1 tsp bacon fat (or veg oil)
  1. Mix together all the ingredients except for the tortillas and the bacon fat or oil
  2. Spoon a sixth of the mixture in a line along the middle of a tortilla
  3. Fold the tortilla around the filling like a spring roll, folding in the ends as you roll the tortilla
  4. Stop them from springing open by securing with a toothpick, or just pressing them gently with the fold-side down
  5. Repeat until all the tortillas and all the filling is used up
  6. Heat the bacon fat in a non-stick pan over a medium heat
  7. Place the taquitos into the pan and fry for a couple of mins on each side until the tortillas are brown and the filling is melted

Apple and honey cake

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A Passover classic but delicious any time of year. Pretty, moist, golden and beautiful, inside and out.

  • 4 small apples, peeled, halved and cored
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 75g sugar
  • 4 tbsp honey
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 3 large eggs, separated
  • 140g flour
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  1. Pre-heat oven to 160C fan (180C)
  2. Grease a springform tin and line the bottom with baking paper
  3. Place the peeled, halved and cored apples cut-side-down on a cutting board
  4. Use a sharp knife to cut a series of parallel lines 3-5mm apart to halfway through the apple pieces (so that the halves stay intact)
  5. Toss apple with lemon juice and 1 tbsp sugar
  6. In a scrupulously clean bowl, whisk the egg whites into stiff peaks
  7. In a separate bowl, beat together the butter and remaining 75g sugar until fluffy
  8. Add the honey, cinnamon and egg yolks and beat until combined
  9. Add the flour, baking powder and salt half at a time, mixing until just combined
  10. Stir ¼ of the egg whites into the batter, then gently fold in the rest
  11. Scrape cake batter into the tin, smoothing the top
  12. Arrange apple halves facedown on the cake batter – you don’t need to press them down, the cake will rise up to encase them 
  13. Bake for 35 mins until golden brown. Rest the tin on a rack for 5 mins before turning out to cool completely

Coconut curry pot-roast chicken

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The perfect dish for when you have someone to impress and you want delectable, fragrant curry, but you’ve got no time to spend prepping. All the work here is done by the oven, the only ‘cooking’ is frying onions. But the result is seriously impressive and incredibly delicious.

  • 1 tbsp veg oil
  • 2 onions, finely chopped
  • 300g packet curry kit (like those from Spice Tailor). Choose a highly-flavoured, spicy one for maximum effect
  • 1 tin coconut milk
  • 200ml chicken stock
  • 1.3kg whole chicken
  • Salt
  • Fresh coriander
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C fan (220C)
  2. Heat the veg oil in a saucepan over a medium heat and cook the onions until soft
  3. Add the spices from the curry kit and stir in, then add the base spice paste
  4. Cook for another minute before adding the curry sauce, coconut milk and stock. Stir together, heat to a bubble and then remove from the heat
  5. Place the chicken into a deep oven dish, pour all the sauce into the dish around the chicken (rather than over the top)
  6. Sprinkle salt over the chicken skin
  7. Cook in the hot oven for 15 mins then turn it down to 170C fan (190C) and cook for a further 1 hour. Baste every 15 mins with the sauce from the pan
  8. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for 10 mins
  9. Scatter with fresh coriander leaves
  10. Carve the chicken, serving over rice with the curry sauce on top. Maybe some garlic greens on the side

Peach and marzipan tart

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A simple summertime dream dessert, flavours of peach, raspberry and almond. Peach melba delight.

  • 320g ready rolled puff pastry
  • 200g marzipan
  • 2 large peaches, not too ripe and squishy
  • 2 tbsp apricot jam
  • 150g raspberries
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C fan (220C) and take the pastry out of the fridge
  2. Unroll the pastry onto a lined baking tray (maybe just use the paper that came rolled around the pastry)
  3. Score a rectangle around the pastry 1½ cm in from the edge
  4. Slice the marzipan finely, 1-2 mm thick – or grate it if it’s hard
  5. Lay or scatter the marzipan on the puff pastry in a single layer within the scored rectangle
  6. Halve and slice the peaches into 2 mm slices
  7. Place the peach slices over the marzipan in overlapping rows like fish scales
  8. Bake for 20 mins then turn the tray and give it another 7 mins
  9. Take the tart out of the oven, leave to cool for 5 mins
  10. Melt the jam in a small pan the brush it over the peaches until glossy and sticky then scatter the raspberries evenly over the top
  11. Serve warm with raspberry ripple ice cream on the side