Ingredients (serves 3-4):

Burgers:

• 1 small onion – finely chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves – finely sliced
• 1 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes
• 400g of beef mince
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon of garam masala
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 egg

Herbed yoghurt:

• 200g of Greek-style yoghurt
• 30g of fresh coriander leaves – finely chopped
• 15g of fresh mint leaves – finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste

Other stuff needed:

• 3-4 burger buns
• 1 onion – sliced into large rings
• Slices of cheese to top the burger
• Crunchy lettuce leaves (optional)
• 2 tablespoons of oil

Start off by combining all of the ingredients for the burgers in a large mixing bowl.  Use your hands to squash together the mixture until consistent.  Once mixed well together take handfuls of the mix and pat into burger shapes.  Make them as big or as small as you like.

Next, make up the herbed yoghurt by mixing together the yoghurt, coriander, mint and chilli flakes and season with a little salt and pepper.

Heat up some oil in a pan over a medium heat and place the burgers into the pan.  Cook for 3-5 minutes each side or until cooked right through (or to your preference).  If you’re having cheeseburgers place a couple of slices of cheese on each burger a few minutes before they’re finished cooking and cover with tin foil to help melt the cheese.

Serve up the burgers on the buns topped with the sliced onions and herbed yoghurt.  You can have them with fries etc.  These burgers would work really well on a BBQ, just make sure that the mixture isn’t too wet.  Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 2 beef steaks – sliced into strips
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1/2 green pepper
• 1/2 yellow pepper
• 3-4 spring onions – sliced
• 1 pack of egg noodles
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon of chilli flakes

Mix together the soy sauce, ginger and chilli flakes and marinate the steak strips in it for up to 30 minutes.

When you’re ready to cook, heat up some ground nut/olive oil in a wok to a high heat and add in the beef.  Cook until browned off, stirring constantly.  Add in the peppers and stir for a further couple of minutes or until the peppers just start to lose their crunch.  Finally, add in the noodles and half of the spring onions and stir through the beef and pepper mix.  Continue to cook for a couple of minutes until the noodles and heated right the way through.  If you find the mixture getting a little dry simply add more soy sauce.

Serve up straight away and sprinkle the remaining spring onion over the top of each dish.  Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 2-3):

• 50g butter , softened, plus extra for greasing
• 1 ripe banana – sliced
• 50g light muscovado sugar
• 50g self-raising flour
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon of milk

Melt the butter in a baking dish for 30 seconds until melted (the dish you’ll be cooking the pudding in).  Add 1/2 of the banana to the dish and mash into the butter.  Then add the egg, sugar, flour, cinnamon and milk.  Mix together thoroughly until you have an even consistency mixture.

Make sure the mixture is spread evenly in the dish and top with the other half of the banana slices.  Cook on high in the microwave for 8 minutes or until the pudding is nicely risen and golden coloured on top.

Allow to rest for around a minute before serving up and tucking in.  You can serve it with ice-cream, cream or custard.  A really quick and easy pud!  Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 3-4):

• 1 large or 2 small courgettes – sliced
• 1 red pepper – sliced
• 1-2 onions – sliced
• 6-8 mushrooms – roughly chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic – finely sliced
• 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 1 teaspoon of dried basil
• 1 teaspoon of dried parsley
• Some grated cheese to top
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Enough pasta to feed how many people you’re cooking for

Pre-heat the oven to around 180 degrees C.  Bring a pan of water to the boil and start cooking the pasta.

Heat some oil in a pan and fry off the onion and garlic for a couple of minutes.  Next, add the courgette and pepper and stir for a further minute or so.  Add the tinned tomatoes, mushrooms, stock cube, basil and parsley.  Bring to a gentle simmer and leave for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Season to taste and then pour in the cooked and drained pasta and mix together.  Transfer the mixture to an oven dish, cover with grated cheese and cook in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until the top is just browned off, but not burnt.

Serve up straight away with some garlic bread and/or salad.  Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 1):

• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
• 3 cloves of garlic – squashed and finely sliced
• 1 decent sized sirloin, rump or ribeye steak
• Olive oil
• 1 knob of butter
• 6 mushrooms – sliced
• 1/2 onion – sliced
• Dash of red wine

Start by taking a bowl and mixing together the soy sauce, worcester sauce and garlic.  Place the steak into the bowl making sure that you cover it with the marinade, cover with cling film and leave for 30 minutes.  Heat some olive oil to a high heat in a pan/skillet and cook the steak to your liking.  It’s nicer to char the steak if possible for this recipe.  Once cooked, remove the steak from the pan and loosely wrap in tin foil to rest.

While the steak is resting put the knob of butter in the pan along with the mushroom and onion.  Cook for a few minutes until the mushroom and onion are soft.  Add the red wine and stir around the pan, picking up any scraps from the bottom of the pan.  Simmer for a minute or so until it’s reduced to a nice jus.

Serve the steak(s) up with the sauce spooned over the top.  I had mine with some wedges and oven roasted tomatoes, yum!

Ingredients (serves 3-4):

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 4 baking potatoes – cubed
• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
• 1 garlic clove – finely sliced
• 1 red onion – finely chopped
• 3 celery sticks – finely chopped
• 1 red pepper – deseeded and finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 tablespoon tomato purée
• 1 x 400g cans chickpeas – rinsed and drained
• 200ml tub half-fat crème fraîche
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C.  Put a glug of oil onto an oven tray and place it into the oven for around 5 minutes until smoking hot.  Remove the tray and carefully pour the potatoes onto it.  Shake around to coat in oil and season well.  Place the tray into the oven for 15-20 minutes before adding the cumin seeds and garlic to the pan, shaking again and cooking for a further 15 minutes or until golden and crispy.

While the potatoes are cooking you can do the chickpeas.  Fry off the onion, celery, pepper and chilli in a pan with a little oil in over a medium heat for around 10 minutes.  Add the paprika and tomato puree and stir for a few minutes before adding the chickpeas and creme fraiche.  Stir it all together well and cook for a further 5 minutes before seasoning with salt, pepper and thyme.

Serve up the chickpeas and cumin potatoes straight away and enjoy this lovely meal!

Ingredients (makes a nice 8″ pie):

Pie

• 1/2 to 2/3 of a pack of shortcrust pastry
• 2 level tablespoons of cornflour
• 100g of golden caster sugar
• Juice of 2 large lemons
• Juice of 1 orange
• 85g butter – cut into pieces
• 3 egg yolks and 1 whole egg

Meringue

• 4 egg whites at room temperature
• 200g of golden caster sugar
• 2 level teaspoons of cornflour

Start by rolling out the pastry on a lightly floured surface until it’s large enough to line an 8″ flan tin with a 3mm thick layer of pastry.  Line the flan tin and ensure that the pastry is pressed into the flutes all the way around.  Leave any excess pastry hanging over the edge as this will help prevent the pastry sinking around the edges.  Prick the base of the pastry in the tin with a fork and then chill for an hour unless you’ve used pastry fresh from the fridge.  Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C and blind bake (cut a disc of baking paper out, place it into the base of the pastry and cover with baking/dried beans.) the base for 15 minutes and then a further 5-8 minutes after removing the baking beans and baking paper/tin foil.  Bake until pale golden.  Set the pastry to one side and allow to cool.  Trim off any excess pastry from around the edges now.  Reduce the temperature of the oven to 160 degrees C.

While the pastry is cooking you can prepare the filling.  Mix the cornflour, sugar and lemon juice in a pan.  Top up the orange juice with water to make 200ml of liquid and pour this into the pan also.  Heat the mixture up and stir constantly until it’s cooked and slightly thickened.  Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the chunks of butter.  Once they’ve all melted into the mixture beat in the egg yolks and the whole egg.  Return to a medium heat and stir quickly for a couple of minutes until the mixture has thickened enough to stick to the stirring spoon and ‘plop’ if allowed to drip into the pan.  Remove from the heat whilst you make the meringue.

Pour the egg whites into a large bowl and whisk until soft peaks appear.  Add half of the sugar a spoonful at a time whilst whisking in between.  Whisk in the cornflour and then finish adding in the rest of the sugar whilst whisking in between spoonfuls.

Reheat the lemon filling for 30 seconds or so and pour into the pastry.  Then take the meringue and start placing spoons of it around the edge of the meringue.  If you can get the scoops to just touch the edge of the pastry it will help the meringue stay up rather than sink into the filling.  Pour the rest of the meringue mixture into the middle and use a spoon or other implement to smooth the meringue off in a swirl style.  Place the pie into the oven and cook for 15-20 minutes or until the meringue is crisp and slightly coloured.  Remove from the oven and let it sit in the tin for upto 30 minutes.  Remove from the tin and leave to sit for a further 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Then you can finally take a slice of your home baked lemon meringue pie!  Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 1):

• 1 rump/sirloin steak
• 40ml red wine
• 40ml Worcestershire sauce
• 1 large clove garlic – peeled and crushed

Combine the ingredients for the marinade and place the steak into the container and allow to marinate for at least a couple of hours.  When you’re ready to cook the steak heat some oil up in a pan to a high heat.  Remove the steak from the marinade and fry for 3-5 minutes on both sides or to your preference.  Once the steak is cooked remove it from the pan and leave to one side to rest for a couple of minutes.  While the steak is resting pour the marinade into the pan and simmer for a couple of minutes to reduce to a lovely juice.

Serve up the steak and and top with some of the sauce.  I had my steak with mashed potato and some watercress salad but you can have fries/new potatoes/veg etc.

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 3 garlic cloves – finely sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon of chilli flakes
• 20g breadcrumbs
• Zest of 1/2 lemon
• 150g dried spaghetti
• 125g tenderstem broccoli – cut into short lengths

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan and add the garlic and chilli flakes.  Stir for a minute or so until the oil is infused then pour out into a small bowl.  Return the pan to the hob and add the breadcrumbs and cooking over a medium heat, stirring regularly, until they’re nice and golden brown.  Pour them into another bowl and stir in the lemon zest and season well.

Cook the spaghetti to your preference and add the broccoli for the last 3 minutes of cooking.  Drain off almost all of the water and return the spaghetti to the pan.  Pour over the chilli and garlic oil.  Shake the pan to evenly distribute the chilli oil.  Serve up into bowls and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.  You can also grate a little parmesan over each of the dishes if you like.  Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 2-3 chicken breasts – cut into chunks/strips
• 4 tablespoons of smooth peanut butter
• 100ml of soy sauce
• 6-10 wooden skewers

Mix the soy sauce and peanut butter together until it’s a smooth paste.  You may need to do this in a food blender or put the peanut butter in the microwave for 5-10 seconds first.  Pour the paste into a snap lock container and take each piece of chicken and rub it well into the paste.  Repeat this until all the chicken is well coated in the paste.  Wash your hands and then put the lid onto the container and allow to marinate for at least an hour.

When it comes to cooking the chicken take a wooden skewer and push on some of the chunks or strips of chicken.  Repeat this until all the chicken is used.  The amount of skewers used will depend on the size you cut your chicken up and also how generous you’re feeling with the servings.  You can cook the satay skewers on the bbq, under the grill or simply in the oven.  I’d recommend the bbq or grill option as this will enhance the flavour and appearance.  Cook evenly on both sides until the outside of the chicken is nice and crispy.  Enjoy with some salad and fries!