Ingredients (serves 4):

• 2 onions – sliced
• Knob of butter
• 2 garlic cloves – crushed and finely sliced
• 400-500g of spinach – roughly chopped
• Grated nutmeg
• 200g of feta cheese
• 2 eggs – beaten
• 4 large sheets filo pastry

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C.

Melt the butter in a pan over a medium heat and slowly fry the onions until soft; for roughly 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook for a further minute.  Add the spinach a little at a time until you’ve added it all and it’s wilted.  Cook until the spinach takes up any excess liquid and then pour into a bowl and allow to cool for a minute or so.  Add the eggs and some grated nutmeg along with some salt and pepper to taste.  Brake up the feta and mix everything together.

Melt a little extra butter ready for brushing the pastry.  Grease a medium sized oven dish.  Lay the first sheet of filo pastry in the oven dish and brush it with the melted butter, allowing the pastry to hang over the side of the dish.  Keep adding the filo pastry sheets, alternating which way they face so that you have an even distribution ready for when you fold it over.  Butter the pastry in between in layer.

Tip the spinach and feta mixture into the pastry lined dish and spread evenly around the dish.  Brush the pastry lightly again if required and fold over the sheets to cover the mixture.  Brush the top of the folded pastry with a final coating of melted butter and then place the whole thing into the oven for around 20-30 minutes.

Remove from the oven when the pastry is golden and crispy and leave to rest for a couple of minutes before serving.  Lovely with some fresh salad and crustry bread.  Enjoy!

Ingredients (makes 1 bowl of salad):

• 4 large vine tomatoes – cut into wedges
• 1 cucumber – peeled, deseeded and sliced
• 1/2 red onion – sliced
• 1 teaspoon of dried oregano
• 85g feta cheese
• 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

Place the cucumber, tomatoes and onion in a large salad bowl.  In a small bowl, mix together the olive oil and oregano along with a grind of salt and pepper.  Pour the herbed oil over the salad.  Break the feta into pieces and scatter around the salad.  Gently toss the salad to distribute the dressing evenly.

Serve up alongside a pasta dish and enjoy this refreshing salad!

Ingredients (makes about 4-6 skewers):

• 500g boneless skinless chicken breasts – cut into 1″ cubes
• 1/2 teaspoon dried coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seed – roughly ground
• 1/2 teaspoon of fennel seed – roughly ground
• 2 teaspoons of smoked paprika
• 2 garlic cloves – crushed and finely sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf – crumbled
• 2 teaspoons wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 4-6 pre-soaked wooden skewers

Mix together the coriander, ground cumin and fennel seeds, paprika, garlic, salt, oregano, bay leaf, wine vinegar and olive oil in a container or bowl.  Add a little more oil if the mixture looks a little dry.  Pour the cubes of chicken into the mixture and ensure that all of the pieces are evenly coated in the marinade.  Cover and put into the fridge for at least 2 hours.

When you’re ready to cook the chicken heat up your grill or barbeque.  Slide pieces of the chicken onto the skewers until all of the chicken is used up.  Cook under the grill for 4-6 minutes per side depending on how hot you have your grill or barbeque set.  Make sure you don’t overcook the meat.

Once cooked eat straight away and serve with fries and/or salad.

Ingredients:

• 500g of shortcrust pastry
• 1 whole nutmeg – grated
• 4 large eggs
• 140g of golden caster sugar
• 300ml of double cream
• 300ml of whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Pre-heat the oven to around 200 degrees C.

Roll out the pastry to about 1cm thick and grate over some of the nutmeg, fold over the pastry and roll out again, but this time to about 4-5mm thick.  It should be rolled out big enough to line the pastry tin plus leave a little to hang over the sides.  Place the pastry over the tart tin and press it gently into all of the grooves around the edge.  Line the pastry with baking paper and pour over a decent amount of baking beans or dry butter beans.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes then remove it from the oven and lift the baking paper with the beans on out of the tin.  Bake the bare pastry in the tin for a further 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool before cutting off all of the excess pastry from around the edge using a serrated knife.

Turn the oven down to about 140 degrees C.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a large mixing bowl.  Get a pan and add the cream, milk and vanilla extract and bring to a gentle simmer then remove from the heat and allow to cool for a moment.  Slowly pour the vanilla’y cream into the bowl with the egg mix in and whisk it all together until consistent.

Open the oven door and half pull out one of the oven trays and place the pastry tin onto it.  Pour the egg custard mixture directly into the pastry until right up to the top of the pastry.  Grate a nice coating of nutmeg all over the top then carefully slide the oven tray into the oven.  Bake in the oven for around an hour.  It will be done when it is nicely coloured on top and shows just the merest tremor when moved.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.  Remove from the loose bottomed tray and cut into slices.  Enjoy this classic dessert! 🙂

Ingredients (serves 1):

• 1 rack or 8-10 ribs
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano

Mix the paprika, sugar, pepper, garlic powder, cumin, salt, cayenne pepper and oregano together in a large bowl.  Add the ribs to the dry rub mix and coat each of the ribs well in the marinade.  Cover with cling film and allow to marinate for at least a couple of hours.

Switch your oven on on a very low temperature; around 100-120 degrees C.  Pour the ribs and dry rub into an oven tray, cover it with tin foil and place in the oven.  Place the tray in the oven on the middle shelf and leave for about an hour.  Turn the ribs over and allow to cook for a further hour.  Remove the train from the oven after the first two hours and drain off any oil that has come off the ribs; a LOT came off mine.

Turn the heat up to about 180 degrees and return the ribs to the oven but this time without the tin foil.  Cook the ribs for a further 20 minutes or so until the skin has gone crispy.

Serve up with some fries and/or salad and enjoy these flavoursome ribs.

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 70g of pancetta
• 2 medium courgettes – grated
• 1 garlic clove – crushed and sliced
• 1 egg yolk
• 5 tablespoons of single cream
• 30g Parmesan – grated
• 150g of tagliatelle or fettuccine pasta

Start by frying the pancetta off with a very small amount of oil until golden and crispy, stirring regularly.  Add the grated courgette and garlic and stir it all together then cook for about five minutes or until the courgette is nice and soft.  In a bowl mix together the egg yolk, cream and parmesan cheese.

While you’re frying the pancetta and courgette cook the the pasta to your liking in a pan of lightly salted water.

Once the pasta and courgette are cooked, remove the pasta from the boiling water with tongs and place it straight into the pan with the pancetta and courgette.  Toss it all together and then pour over the creamy sauce and toss once more.  Add a little of the water that the pasta was cooked in if you need more sauce.

Serve up straight away and enjoy this lovely pasta dish!

TIP: This dish can be easily made vegetarian by leaving out the pancetta.

Ingredients (serves 2-3):

• 1 onion – chopped
• 2-3 carrots – sliced
• 1-2 large potatoes – cut into cubes
• 150g of button mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of dried thyme
• 1 glass of red wine
• 300ml of vegetable stock
• Dash of chilli flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat and fry off the onions for a couple of minutes.  Next, add the carrots and potatoes and fry for a further couple of minutes.  Next, add the thyme, chilli flakes and wine and simmer for 3-5 minutes until the alcohol has simmered off.  Pour in the vegetable stock and allow the stew to come to a gentle simmer.  Cook for 15 minutes or so before adding the mushrooms.  Taste the stew to see if it needs any seasoning and then allow to simmer for a further 5-10 minutes.

The stew doesn’t need to cook for too long as you don’t want the vegetables to go too mushy.  Once you’re happy with the flavour and thickness of the sauce and the vegetables are all cooked, serve it up along with some crusty bread.  Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 3-4):

• 450g of lamb mince
• 1 onion – finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves – finely sliced
• 2 tablespoons of tomato purée
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• A dash of ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon of dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon of dried mint
• 12 cannelloni pasta tubes
• 125g of ricotta
• 125g of Greek-style yoghurt
• 4 eggs
• Salt and pepper to taste

Pre-heat the oven to around 200 degrees C.

Heat some olive oil in a pan and fry off the lamb, garlic and onions until the mince has browned off.  Add the tomato puree, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir for a minute or so.  Then add the parsley and mint and stir for a further couple of minutes on a low temperature.  Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool for a couple of minutes.

Take one cannelloni tube at a time and stuff with the lamb mixture.  It’s up to you how much lamb you want in each pasta tube, but I wanted them quite well packed.  Repeat that process until all of the lamb is used up.  I found that the best technique was to hold a wooden spatula with one hand and run the cannelloni through the lamb mixture and press it again the spatula, which seemed to force the mixture into the pasta.

Lay out each cannelloni into an oven dish.  Try to keep the cannelloni on one layer rather than stacking them up as this prevents them from cooking evenly and also means not all of your cannelloni will be covered in the sauce.

To make the sauce, mix together the ricotta, eggs and yoghurt then season to taste.  Pour the sauce over the top of the filled cannelloni and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the topping is bubbling and golden brown.

Serve up straight away with salad or fries.  Enjoy!

Ingredients (serves 1):

For the salsa

• 1/4 mango – chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried mint
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried basil
• 1/2 lemon – zest and juice
• 1/2 lime – zest and juice

For the sweet potato

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 sweet potato – peeled and sliced into 1cm thick rounds
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the pork

• 30g butter
• 1 pork chop
• 1/2 orange – juice only

Mix the salsa ingredients together in a bowl and put into the fridge until you’re ready to use it.

For the sweet potato slices, heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat and gently fry the potato for 4-5 minutes per side.  Season the potato on both sides as you’re cooking it.  Cook until golden and tender.

While the potato is cooking get a separate pan and melt the butter over a medium to high heat and then pan fry the pork chop for 4 minutes or so per side.  Add the orange juice and continue to cook the pork for a further couple of minutes per side until cooked through and caramelised on the outside.

Serve up the pork with the potato on the side and top the pork with the chilled salsa.  Enjoy this different combination of flavours!

Ingredients (serves 3-4 as a starter):

• 1 large tomato – finely chopped
• 3 ripe avocados
• 1 large lime – juice
• Handful coriander – roughly chopped
• 1 red onion – finely chopped
• 1 chilli – red or green – deseeded and finely chopped
• Tortilla chips – to serve

Pour the tomato into the bowl that you’re going to serve up the guacamole in.  Cut each of the avocados in half and spoon out the insides into the bowl with the tomatoes.  Break the avocado up a bit if it comes out in to large a chunks.

Add the lime juice, coriander, onion and chilli to the bowl and mix the whole lot up with a fork, making sure that you blend the avocado and tomato together until mostly smooth but still chunky.

Serve up straight away or place one of the avocado stones into the guacamole to keep it fresh for later.  Enjoy with some tortilla chips! 🙂