Final roast of the season? A herb and garlic paste for roast lamb.

Is there a finer feast than the 'Great British Roast', I wonder? I enjoy so many different styles of food but a traditional Sunday roast delivers comfort like no other. I would be hard pushed to choose a favourite meat to roast. Would it be beef, served pink with billowing yorkshire puddings and creamy horseradish sauce? Or lamb which reminds me of my childhood (it was the family favourite) and of Spring? Perhaps chicken with bread sauce and a sage-scented stuffing - the ultimate comfort food, surely? Pork with crunchy crackling and apple sauce takes some beating too. Game, when in season, is frequently on the menu is our household too.

At this time of year though, I'm always drawn to lamb. I love to roast it with strong, woody herbs like rosemary and thyme and love it too, slightly charred, on the barbecue once the weather allows. Recently, rather than stuffing slivers of garlic and sprigs of rosemary into slits in the meat, I have been making a delicious herby paste to smear all over the lamb before roasting. I push it deep into slits in the meat to ensure the flavours really penetrate the meat. A little goes a long way and the recipe below was plenty for a sizeable half-leg of lamb. I know many who claim not to like anchovies, but I defy anyone to recognise the flavour here. They simply add a lovely salty, savoury tang which goes brilliantly with the distinctive sweet meat.

Throughout the Winter and early Spring we have a 'roast' most Sundays. Usually in the evening once Master LBG is tucked up in bed, it is our way of enjoying the very last bit of the weekend and banishing the Sunday night blues. Accompanied by a decent bottle of red, it is a tradition that we love and always insist on a 'proper' pudding afterwards. Sometimes, the feast will move to lunchtime so that our son can join in or friends can join us too. A lunchtime feast is always jolly and tends to be followed by a dog walk and an evening film with cheese on toast if we have space.

This weekend we enjoyed what I suspect may be the last 'proper' roast for a while. Mr LBG would probably like us to have a roast with all the trimmings every Sunday throughout the year but I'm afraid I simply can't bring myself to sit down to gravy and roast potatoes once the warmer weather arrives (ever hopeful). Instead we'll enjoy roast chicken with roasted vegetable couscous, butterflied leg of lamb barbecued with an array of salads or rare roast beef with a Thai-inspired salad. Mr LBG may be disappointed but I look forward to the fresher and lighter flavours of late Spring and Summer. Do you sit down to a traditional roast or special meal on Sundays? Do you adapt your Sunday feast according to the seasons or stick with the traditional accompaniments year round?

Herb and garlic paste for roast lamb

Enough for half a leg of lamb (approx 1.5kg)

4-5 decent sprigs of fresh rosemary

Small handful fresh thyme

2 medium cloves garlic

2 anchovy fillets

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper

1. Strip the leaves from the rosemary and thyme sprigs. Roughly chop the rosemary.

2. Roughly chop the anchovy fillets and garlic.

3. Using a pestle and mortar, grind everything together until you have a smooth-ish paste.

To prepare lamb:

Using a sharp knife, make deep slits through the fat and into the meat of the lamb. Rub the paste all over the lamb, pushing it down into the slits where possible. Roast as usual.

I am entering this herby paste into this month's Cooking with Herbs blogging challenge hosted by Karen over at the fabulous Lavender and Lovage. This month she has asked that we try to use fresh herbs in our recipes so I hope that she will approve as these herbs came straight from the pot outside my kitchen door - from pot to paste in all of five minutes. I love to grow fresh herbs but am hopeless at remembering to water them. Rosemary and thyme always seem to survive my very erratic watering habits and I therefore use them both a great deal in my cooking!

New take on an old favourite: mini pesto fish pies

Fish pie is one of my ultimate comfort foods. I very rarely deviate from my favourite combination of cod, smoked haddock and salmon with plenty of parsley sauce and a fluffy mashed potato topping. Occasionally a few leeks will make it into the pie and, rarer still, a layer of spinach. 

My son is similarly fond of this thoroughly British classic and I usually make and freeze mini portions in large ramekins for him. As Winter eases into Spring, I can't help but feel that making fish pie is a bit labour intensive and perhaps more suited to the cooler months. This speedy version is much more in keeping with the season and a doddle to make. You don't need to pre-cook the fish or make a white sauce - you simply assemble a few ingredients, make a bit of mashed potato and pop the pie/s in the oven. The 'sauce' is simply a mixture of crème fraîche and pesto and gives a distinctly Spring-like feel to comforting dish. I have yet to discover a toddler who doesn't like pesto so wasn't surprised that it went down well with mine. I loved this too and would certainly make it for the whole family if it weren't for Mr LBG's strange aversion to pesto.

The idea for this dish came from the latest issue of 'Feel Good Food' magazine - one of my favourites. Their recipe is for a full-sized pie and contains hard boiled eggs and peas but I decided to make mini pies for my son and adapted the recipe slightly (no eggs, extra 'hidden' vegetables, a different mix of fish and full fat dairy). The recipe is very flexible - you could use any mix of fish (though I'd probably leave out smoked fish as I'm not sure it would go well with the pesto), add prawns, add softened leeks or blanched florets of broccoli according to taste.

My son has a fairly hearty appetite and my Le Creuset mini cocotte dishes are bigger than most ramekins and so I made four pies but you could easily make 5 pies using slightly smaller ramekins. Apologies for the rather rushed photos - my son has little appreciation for the art of food photography and was distinctly unimpressed by having to wait for his lunch. He was most vocal about the situation so I had to dish up in haste!

Mini pesto fish pies

Adapted from 'Feel Good Food' Spring 2014

Makes 4-5 mini pies (dependent on size of ramekins/containers)

For the mash:

500g floury potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

4 tbsp milk

Knob of butter

200ml crème fraîche

4 tsp fresh pesto

400g mixed fish, cut into small chunks (I used salmon, cod and haddock)

4 tbsp frozen peas

small handful spinach, very finely chopped

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C. Make the mash; peel and chop the potatoes and boil or steam until soft. Mash with milk and butter and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, mix 4 tbsp of the crème fraîche with the pesto. Add the chunks of fish, frozen peas and spinach. Stir gently to combine.

3. Divide the fish mixture between four or five large ramekins or mini pie dishes. Ensure you scrape out all the sauce! Add the remaining crème fraîche to the mashed potatoes and use to top each of the pies.

4. At this point, you could freeze the pies to cook another day. Alternatively, bake for approx 25 minutes.

Toddler teatime: salmon and pea frittata

Years ago my mother (or was it Father Christmas?) gave me a very small frying pan. At the time, I cooked on gas and was unable to make the flame small enough to go underneath this miniature pan. It languished at the back of the cupboard unloved and unused. Since moving to the sticks and waving goodbye to modern comforts like gas, it has finally found great favour in my kitchen for all sorts of small jobs. It is the perfect size for a fried egg. Ideal for toasting a few nuts to sprinkle over a salad. Just right for sizzling a few cocktail sausages for my son. It is also the ideal pan for an individual frittata or Spanish omelette for my boy.

Thank goodness for eggs. When time is short, five 'o clock has been and gone and my son is getting fractious, there is nothing quite so useful an egg. In the time it takes for bread to toast, I can scramble an egg and tea is on the table in an instant. I am so relieved that he likes eggs (for the moment - we all know how fickle toddlers can be). If I have leftover potatoes in the fridge, I sometimes make a smidge more effort and turn his teatime egg into a frittata. Add a few vegetables and perhaps a sprinkling of cheese on the top and a balanced meal is yours in moments. On this occasion, I had some cold leftover salmon in the fridge too so I added this along with some peas and a new teatime favourite was born. 

Making this with leftovers makes for a super speedy meal but it wouldn't take long to boil up a couple of baby potatoes and poach a few small cubes of salmon in water before adding to the pan. I made an individual portion for my son in my mini frying pan but scale up the quantities to make one larger frittata for the whole family.  

Salmon and pea frittata

Serves one toddler

Ingredients:

Knob of butter

2 baby potatoes, cooked al dente

1/4 spring onion, very finely chopped (or a few snipped chives)

1/4 fillet of cooked salmon

1 tbsp peas

1 egg

Optional: a small grating of cheese, if you like a browner top

1. Pre-heat the grill.

2. Melt a small knob of butter in a mini frying pan (if you have one!) and add the potatoes, fry for a few minutes along with the spring onion.

3. Flake the salmon and add to the pan, along with the peas. Whisk the egg with a fork and pour over the mixture in the pan. Cook gently for a few minutes until the egg is nearly set, sprinkle with a little cheese if desired and then transfer to the grill to cook the top (cover the handle of the pan in foil if it is not ovenproof).

Loving your leftovers: pistachio and raspberry clafoutis

There is something peculiarly satisfying about creating a meal from nothing. Or rather, creating food from 'what is there' rather than having to shop for specific items. I particularly like using 'leftovers' to create dishes which are just as delicious as (yet totally different to) their original incarnation or purpose. Most Sundays, Mr LBG and I end our weekend with a proper feast. At this time of year it is usually a roast followed by a 'proper pud'. I love this simple ritual and also love the ritual of inventing creative dishes with the leftover meat on a Monday. I am not a fan of repetition and have never enjoyed trying to re-create the previous night's roast the following evening with cold meat. Instead I like to create something completely different; a curry, a creamy pie, a tagine or hearty casserole for example.

Whilst I am fairly good at creating new dishes from the ingredients in my fridge, I must confess that my larder cupboard is overflowing with half-used packets of this-and-that. Nuts, seeds, flours and baking ingredients which have been purchased with a specific recipe in mind and the remainder left to sit unloved until a spring clean deems them past their best. I hate wastage and have been trying to make more effort to love all my leftovers - not just the fresh ones. 

Ground pistachios

Mr LBG cooked a fantastic feast for a friend and I on Saturday night and finished with a delicious dessert of pistachio meringues with fresh raspberries and cream. I could see that the half-used packed of shelled pistachios was just the sort of thing that would sit in the cupboard for a while and that by the time I decided to use them, they would no doubt have lost their charm and be on the stale side. Pistachios are expensive and I was determined that these beauties would not go to waste! Leftover raspberries were also available which was great news as I think the two go so well together. I wanted to make a warm, comforting sort of pudding and wondered how to combine the two into something homely without loosing the fragrant and slightly exotic flavour of the pistachios. What else could I find? There were egg yolks left over from the meringues and - as luck would have it - the remainder of the cream that Mr LBG had bought for his dessert. 

Arrange the raspberries in a greased, shallow dish

I wanted to create a more comforting, warm and homely dessert to follow our roast pork. Using (almost) the exact same ingredients as the night before, I came up with something completely different. I turned to a favourite clafoutis recipe and decided to replace the ground almonds with ground pistachios (a few extra to ensure the flavour of the nut shone through) and replace the mixed fruits with my raspberries. The result? A definite success and a recipe that I know I shall repeat. 

Here is my version of the recipe. It serves two with enough for a second helping each or three with no second helpings! It would be easily doubled for a larger group. It is good served warm rather than hot, I think. Also - I didn't have quite enough double cream and topped up to 125ml using single cream. This was not a problem and I think that milk would have worked fine too - next time I might try half cream and half milk in an effort to lower the naughtiness somewhat.

Pistachio and raspberry clafoutis

Adapted from this recipe by BBC Good Food

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

Butter or oil for greasing

150g fresh raspberries

30g shelled pistachio nuts

1 tbsp plain flour

50g golden caster sugar

1 whole egg

1 egg yolk

125ml double cream

1. Make the batter ahead of time, if you can. I made mine an hour or so before cooking. First, grind the nuts in a small food processor or coffee grinder. A few nibbly bits is fine but try to get them as fine as you can. Whisk or blend together all ingredients except for the raspberries until you have a smooth batter. Set aside.

2. Pre-heat oven to 180C. Grease a small gratin or other ovenproof dish. Arrange the raspberries over the base and pour over the batter. Bake in the oven for approx. 40 minutes until the batter is risen, golden and just firm (a little wobble is good). Remove from oven and rest for a while - best served warm.

Variation: Next time, I might consider adding a few little chunks of dark chocolate for added naughtiness.

A treat for tiny tastebuds: Moroccan lamb

Moroccan lamb tagine - a treat for tiny tastebuds

I have never really understood the notion that young children prefer bland food. It is often assumed that when cooking for babies or toddlers, you hold back on the garlic, spices and herbs. I know that I am lucky that my boy is a 'good eater' (so far) but I think that it is important to introduce children to as wide a variety of flavours as possible in their first few years of life. How dull to have the same things over and over again! There are plenty of the usual staples on my toddler's menu (cottage pie, pasta with tomato sauce, fish pie, chicken casserole) but I do try to inject as much variety as possible and make a habit of regularly trying new recipes for him. From mild fruity curries to fish chowders via barbecue pulled pork and basil-heavy pesto: I love watching him discover new flavours for the first time. For the record, so far grapefruit and spinach are the only two flavours that have had a resolute thumbs down.

Where practical, he eats the same things as us but, as we generally eat at different times (not ideal, but hey ho), this is not always do-able. I also like to have good stash of homemade 'ready meals' stashed away in the freezer for him so tend to do a lot of batch cooking.  At the weekend, we indulged in a fantastic lamb curry and there we had some lamb left over. Rather than cook up the usual casserole (Master Greedy is a huge fan of all slow cooked meat and vegetable combinations), I decided to inject a little Moroccan flavour into his diet. I slightly toned down the spices of my favourite lamb tagine and simmered the meat with tomatoes, carrots and dried fruit. The combination of sweet spices and a touch of honey was a winning one which he wolfed down.

I made the classic error of starting the cooking without actually checking to see that I had the relevant ingredients. I do this fairly often - you'd think that I would have learnt by now. Normally I use tinned tomatoes for a tagine and these would be fine if you can't be bothered with all the peeling and chopping. I also had to use sultanas rather than dried apricots as I didn't appear to have any. Master Greedy didn't mind but I think I would prefer apricots myself. Dates would be an alternative too.

He tried that tagine alongside plain couscous and yes, I did sprinkle a little fresh coriander on top. You may laugh (I almost laughed at myself) but I do think that we all eat with our eyes as much as our tummies. If the flash of green made the dish look more appealing to me, then perhaps it would to him too. Besides, fresh coriander is so delicious. 

This is a great dish for toddlers but also for babies once protein is well established. The sweet flavour will appeal to their palates and you can simply purée to the desired consistency. Honey should be avoided for the first 12 months so just leave this out or perhaps use a little maple syrup instead. You could also add extra sweet vegetables such as sweet potato or butternut squash.

(Incidentally, I find couscous to be a great standby for a hungry toddler when waiting for rice to cook simply isn't going to happen.)

Moroccan Lamb

Makes 4 toddler portions

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, finely diced

1 carrot, finely diced

1 clove garlic, crushed

250g leg or shoulder of lamb, diced into small pieces

4-5 large tomatoes, peeled, seeds removed and chopped* (mine were small - I used 8) or 200g tinned tomtsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp ginger

small pinch saffron, soaked in 1tbsp warm water

1 tsp runny honey (omit for under-1s)

1 tbsp tomato purée

6 dried apricots, quartered (or use dates or sultanas)

4-5 large tomatoes, peeled, seeds removed and chopped* (mine were small - I used 8) or 200g tinned tomatoes

500 ml low-salt lamb stock or water 

Couscous and fresh coriander to serve

*To peel tomatoes, score a cross on bottom of each tomato with sharp knife, pour over boiling water and leave for 5 minutes. The skins will peel off easily.

1. Pre-heat oven to 170C.

2. Heat oil in a small casserole and brown the lamb. Set to one side.

3. Add a touch more oil if necessary and sweat the onion and carrot together until starting to soften at the edges. Add the crushed garlic and cook gently for a minute.

4. Add the dry spices and stir to coat onion mixture. Next add the saffron along with the soaking liquid, tomato purée, honey and apricots. Return lamb to the pan. Cook for a minute or so, stirring to coat.

5. Finally add the tomatoes and stock. Bring to a gently simmer and transfer to oven. Cook for 1.5-2 hours or until the meat is very tender. Check after an hour and add a little more water if it is drying out.

6. Serve with couscous and a sprinkling of fresh coriander!

A greedy Christmas ahead: the tale of two cakes

It has been an eventful few days in the littlebitgreedy household involving a trip to A&E by ambulance and a night in the paediatric ward. Fortunately, all is now well and despite much coughing, sneezing and wheezing we are packing up the car to head off for Christmas with family.

With all the dashing about, festivities are a little bit behind yesterday and my cake icing timetable went out of the window. A frantic bit of rolling, moulding and cutting out and tah-dah: two very rushed Christmas cakes!

Why two, you may well ask? Well here at littlebitgreedy HQ, we take Christmas greediness to a whole new level. Tasked with providing 'the cake' for our family gathering in London, we were concerned that once we returned home on the 27th, there would be no cake to last us through the season of gluttony Goodwill. As such, it was decided that I would simply have to create a second cake to fulfil our needs upon return home.

I am very much a novice when it comes to decorating cakes (I leave it to my sister who does so professionally) but I have picked up a few tips along the way which stand me in good stead. I enjoy deciding how to ice my cake each year but must admit that doing two did challenge me somewhat. For the round cake (for home), I decided on a snowman theme as I thought it might appeal to my little boy. Not that he really knows what a snowman is really. But hey-ho. The men were easy to create out of fondant balls, secured with a trusty cocktail stick. The arms were a little fiddly - again the cocktail stick came in handy as I moulded the icing around one and secured in position. I dusted the top with 'edible snow' that I stumbled upon in a certain upmarket supermarket. You can't really tell in the very hastily snapped photos, but it does look rather nice.

The square cake proved more of a challenge. I am not a great one for precision, unlike Mr Greedy who was horrified that I placed the 'ribbon' on my parcel cake without the aid of a ruler. As such it is not central. Overall though, I am pleased with the overall effect and think it will go down well at the family gathering.

Time to dash now - the presents are loaded in the car (as are the million and three other items required when travelling with a small child) and it is time to load myself in too with the cake precariously balanced on my knee.

I wish everyone the happiest of Christmases. May your days be merry, your wine be sparkly and your cakes be tasty!

A hint of festive spice: Rhubarb and ginger crumble

The decorations are up, the cards are posted and the dining table is awash with wrapping paper, ribbon and tags. Christmas is well and truly here in the littlebitgreedy household. Although Mr Little Bit Greedy spends much of November (and a good part of December) Bah Humbug-ing, he does actually love Christmas and once we hit the home straight he gets suitably merry and jolly. I love Christmas too for so many reasons and it has to be said that the level of greediness goes up quite significantly around here at this time of year. The feasting angle is an important one to me - we feast together with immediate family, with extended family, with friends and with neighbours. Any excuse really!

I try not to indulge in festive foods too early - a month of non-stop mince pies tends to take the edge of this annual treat. But it does seem that as we creep ever-closer to 'the big day', my cooking does take on a little seasonal flavour. I got a little over-excited when I spied some of the first forced pink rhubarb in the supermarket last week. Not British yet, but from Holland which, for now, will have to do. Forced rhubarb is such a treat during the dark days of winter - it is lovely to feast on something so bright and vibrant in the months where we are otherwise weighed down with root vegetables and cabbages.

Forced rhubarb: a vision in pink

I love most rhubarb-based desserts but my favourite simply has to be a classic rhubarb crumble with thick vanilla-scented custard. On this occasion, I decided to spruce my crumble up with the addition of ginger (both stem and ground), cinnamon, a little orange zest and ground almonds. Ginger goes so well with rhubarb and the flavours here really lift this crumble without taking it too far from the traditional original (I can't bear a crumble with ideas above its station - no granola-topped fruit compote for me!).

The recipe is, essentially, one from Annie Bell's fantastic book 'Gorgeous Desserts'. This seems to be out of print in this country currently although second-hand copies are available. I have tweaked the recipe to include the orange zest and also the spices in the crumble itself. I have also halved the original recipe which makes enough for six.

Rhubarb and Ginger Crumble

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

350g forced rhubarb

1 knob stem ginger

finely grated zest from 1/2 orange

100g self-raising flour, plus 1 tbsp

1tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

100g demerara sugar

50g ground almonds

90g butter, chilled and diced

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C.

2. Wash rhubarb and chop into 3cm pieces and chop the stem ginger into small pieces. Toss both together in a bowl with orange zest, 1 tbsp of flour and half the sugar. Place in the bottom of a shallow ovenproof dish.

3. Mix together the remaining sugar and flour with the ground almonds, ground ginger and cinnamon and rub in the butter until you have large crumbs. Sprinkle over the top of the fruit and bake for approx 35 minutes until the crumble is golden and crisp.

4. Serve with lashings of custard or good vanilla ice-cream.

A taste of Summer on a cold evening: tapenade crusted salmon

I love living in a village. 

I loved living in the city too but I can't imagine going back. There are things that happen in rural England that simply can't be matched by the bright lights and sophistication of urban life. Much as a small dose of glitz and glamour is good for the soul, I adore the simpler pleasures of village fetes and fairs. Today was a case in point. I was summoned invited to attend the Christmas meeting of the village 'Coffee and Chat' at the church. Being somewhat younger than those likely to attend, I can't say that I was filled with delight although the promise of a mid-morning sherry did gladden the heart somewhat.

Black olives, capers, anchovies and garlic: tapenade

Upon arrival (small son in tow), I was greeted with all that is best about English village life. The church was festooned in festive displays of greenery from villagers' gardens arranged artfully by a group of amateur flower-arrangers. There was a sales table groaning with homemade chutneys and jams plus various gifts no doubt found at the back of donators' present drawers. The raffle table was piled high with prizes including a tin of tomato soup and a bottle of Blue Nun (!). Ladies wearing flashing antler hairbands made tea and coffee and handed round mince pies. After half an hour or so of chattering, carol sheets were handed out and we romped our way through verses of Hark the Herald, Good King Wenceslas, The Holly and the Ivy, The First Noel and others. Unaccompanied but all in good voice thanks to the 11.30 am glass of sherry! My son was cooed over by everyone, much to his delight, and his Christmas jumper was admired by all. The raffle tickets were drawn and a buzz of excitement and anticipation filled the air; Doris* had lost her tickets, Frank* didn't want the beautifully-iced Christmas cake and asked for another ticket to be drawn and Edith* was thrilled to win twice-over. Simple pleasures, as I said. But ones that can't help but raise a smile and warm the heart.

(*Names have been changed to protect the lucky winners!!)

All this has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with today's recipe. In fact, this recipe is about as far from seasonal as you can get. At this time of year, I tend towards the comfort of hearty casseroles and meaty pies but occasionally, I crave something suffused with the sunshine of warmer months. Last night was one such occasion. Salmon fillets feature regularly on our weeknight menus and I am always looking for new ways to serve them. This time, I created a delicious tangy tapenade to spread on top and then roasted the salmon to form a tasty crust. 

Tapenade is easy to prepare and relies mainly on storecupboard ingredients so it is a handy one for whipping up to serve alongside drinks when unexpected guests call at Christmas. Keep a couple of part-baked baguettes up your sleeve so that you can make some quick crostini and bingo; instant canapés to impress your visitors. There are lots of variations of this tasty snack but all include black olives, capers, garlic and anchovies. I like to add a few fresh herbs too - flat leaf parsley and a few fresh thyme leaves by preference. Obviously, the better the olives the better the tapenade but I just used a tin of regular supermarket pitted black olives here and it still tasted pretty good! Traditionally, this would be made with a pestle and mortar but I use a mini-processor on the pulse setting. You are not looking for something totally smooth here - a bit of texture is a good thing.

I served this with roasted courgettes and broccoli as that is what I had but in the past, I have made a sort of roasted vegetable ratatouille of courgette, red pepper and cherry tomatoes. The tapenade is also great with cod too!

The recipe here makes enough tapenade for 4 servings. If serving two, I would advise making the same quantity of tapenade (a smaller amount is tricky in a processor) and save the rest as a snack the next day.

Tapenade crusted salmon

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Tapenade:

150g black olives

1 tbsp capers, rinsed

1 large anchovy (or 2 small - mine were huge!)

1 small clove garlic

2tbsp lemon juice

2.5 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves

Salmon:

4 tbsp breadcrumbs

4 salmon fillets 

1. Place all the ingredients for the tapenade into the bowl of a small processor and pulse until blended but not smooth. Alternatively, pound with a pestle and mortar. If time, set aside for 30 mins or so for the flavours to mingle.

2. Pre-heat oven to 180C. Mix the breadcrumbs into the tapenade and spread the mixture onto each of the salmon fillets.

3. Roast for 20 minutes until salmon is cooked.

Weeknight only-fork-required supper: subtly spiced kedgeree

Kedgeree spiced with cardamom, cinnamon and curry powder

Kedgeree is one of my favourite weeknight suppers. It is comforting, full of flavour and can easily be eaten with just a fork in front of Masterchef. This is currently an important element of my cooking Monday-Thursday as the BBC have inconsiderately scheduled my favourite programme at a time which clashes with our evening meal. Next time, I hope they will consult me first!

I have been making kedgeree for years and have pretty much stuck with the same recipe, using long-grain rice, curry powder, undyed smoked haddock and hard boiled eggs. Recently, however, I have discovered a much more interesting recipe which uses a more complex combination of whole and ground spices and basmati rice for a more authentically exotic flavour. I have absolutely no idea why I have never thought to do this before! 

Colourful spices

The subtle flavours of cardamom and cinnamon and joined by curry powder, turmeric and a little kick of chilli. Chopped fresh coriander completes this delicious dish. Key to a good kedgeree is to use the poaching liquor to cook the rice. The milk is infused with the flavour of the fish and really adds to the depth of the kedgeree. 

I found this recipe in the Feel Good Food magazine produced quarterly by Woman and Home. I follow it pretty much to the letter so I won't republish it here. You can simply hop over here if you wish to try it out. I made a couple of very minor tweaks - I stirred in a tablespoon or so of half fat creme fraiche to add a little richness and sprinkled with a touch of cayenne pepper. I had also run out of peas and added some sweetcorn instead. A mistake. Stick with peas!

My proustian moment: simple rock cakes

A taste of childhood - the humble rock cake

Food can so often evoke powerful memories. Whether it be the aroma of freshly ground coffee, the sensation of biting into a soft, ripe peach or the taste of a homely apple crumble; what, when and where we eat food can transport us to another time or place in a moment.

The French author Marcel Proust was famously moved to reflect upon his childhood memories when taking a small bite from a madeleine. The madeleine is a pretty, delicate French cake, baked in a special mould. It is indeed a lovely treat but Proust can keep his madeleines. The treat which takes me on a nostalgic journey to my former years is slightly less elegant. In fact, elegance is nowhere to be seen. It is not even desirable here! You see, I have an inordinate fondness for the humble rock cake.

Rock cakes are craggy, ugly little cakes but beneath their rugged exterior, they are actually rather delicious. A rock cake is probably one of the first things that I baked and, as they are very forgiving, they are ideal for a kitchen project with small children on a rainy afternoon. 

We have had builders working on our house for the past week and, in need of some comfort amidst the chaos, I decided to take a jaunt down memory lane and recreate the cakes of my childhood. As I stirred the mixture together, I recalled helping my mother (and grandmother) make these treats standing on a stool in order to reach the mixing bowl and then dolloping the blobs of mixture onto the baking tray.

A rock cake is part cake, part scone. The exterior should be slightly crusty and crunchy with sugar and the interior delicately spiced, generously fruited and have a fairly robust texture (you are not aiming for 'light and airy' here!). You can choose dried fruit and spice to suit but I favour currants and mixed peel only as this is how I remember them from my childhood. Other plausible additions include dried cranberries, chopped glace cherries, lemon or orange zest. The cakes are at their best when eaten warm from the oven or on the day of baking but you can store in an airtight tin for a couple of days. Warming them for a few minutes in the oven does revive them somewhat!

My son gets very little sugar in his diet but I have to admit that I couldn't resist giving him a rock cake to sample. No surprise that he absolutely loved it and I look forward to making these with him when he is a little older.

Rock Cakes

Makes approx 9

Ingredients

200g self-raising flour

1tsp baking powder

1 tsp mixed spice

75g demerara sugar, plus extra for dusting

100g butter, diced

1 egg, beaten

2-3 tbsp milk

100g currants

50g mixed peel

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170C and butter or line a couple of baking trays (I use reusable silicone sheets).

2. In a food processor, whizz together the butter with the flour, baking powder and mixed spice until it resembles fine crumbs and tip into a mixing bowl. Alternatively, rub the butter into the flour mixture by hand. Stir in the sugar and fruit.

3. Mix in the egg and just enough milk to make a thick, firm and sticky dough. Try not to over mix.

4. Dollop heaped tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto the baking sheet, leaving room between each one as they will spread a little. Do not worry about shape - they should be rustic-looking! Sprinkle the top of each with demerara sugar.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

I am entering my rock cakes into the Tea Time Treats Challenge hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Kate at What Kate Baked.  Karen is hosting this month's challenge and has chosen the theme of dried fruit - a great way to use up some of the fruits left over from making Christmas cakes and puddings. There is already a most fantastic list of entries and I am looking forward to browsing through and getting inspired. Being greedy, we love teatime in this household and always feel slightly bereft when the cake tin in empty!

Speedy toddler lunch: roast chicken quesadillas

When we moved house a few years ago, we were delighted to be leaving behind the freezing and falling apart mess that was our rented home for the year that we spent making sure that a 'move to the country' was indeed for us. We were excited about our new home but very sad to be leaving behind the ancient, solid-fuel fired Aga that we had come to love. We were both new to Aga cooking and, after a few disasters, soon learnt to love its versatility. Our favourite Aga treat was the fabled 'Aga toastie'. For those not lucky enough to have been acquainted with the culinary sensation that is the 'Aga toastie', it is essentially a toasted cheese sandwich. It is better though. I cannot explain why really. It just is.

To make an Aga toastie, you simply make a cheese sandwich according to your tastes (Cheddar and onion marmalade for me please). Grab some of that clever silicon baking sheet stuff and pop it on the hot plate. Pop your sandwich on top and lower the lid over the whole thing. Moments later, open the lid and flip the sandwich over and repeat. In just a couple of minutes flat, you have the fluffiest, toastiest toastie you have ever eaten. No need for butter on the outside so you could almost argue it is healthy.... Well, perhaps not. Maybe just 'less bad for you'.

Anyway, no more Aga toasties for us. Instead, we have discovered the joy of the quesadilla. Almost as speedy (you have to preheat the pan rather than having the instant heat of the Aga, but needs must!), and equally versatile and tasty. We all love them and I found them to be an instant hit with my son which is handy as I am always in need of a speedy lunch that can be whipped up in moments after a hectic morning of singing, clapping and waving at Jo Jingles. Yes, my life really is that glamorous!

My son could eat little mini-wedges of these at around 10 months but they would probably suit baby-led-weaners earlier than this.

Being a creature of habit, I like the cheese and onion marmalade or chutney combination best. Sometimes I throw in a slice of two of ham for added excitement. But you can fill your quesadilla with almost anything, though cheese is a fairly essential element (queso meaning cheese, after all). For my son, I sometimes do cheese and grated apple or tuna, sweetcorn and cheese (think 'tuna melt'). Today I used shredded leftover roast chicken, chopped tomatoes and Cheddar. Mushrooms and onions work well if they are fried off a little to soften before adding to the filling. My husband likes a few jalapenos for the authentic Mexican kick. The fillings really are as diverse as your imagination. Vary the cheese according to the fillings - I once tried an Italian perversion of this Mexican snack with pesto, grated courgette, tomatoes and mozzarella. It worked a treat!

Here is how to make one...

Quesadilla

Serves 1

1 flour tortilla

Fillings of choice (e.g. shredded chicken, tuna, ham, mushrooms, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, spring onions, pesto with grated courgette and mozzarella etc...)

Handful grated cheese - Cheddar, Gruyere, Mozzarella (match the style of cheese to your filling)

1. Take a griddle pan or even a large non-stick frying pan and set it on the hob to heat up to a medium heat.

2. Lay your tortilla on a chopping board and add your fillings to one side of the tortilla only. Sprinkle with the cheese. Fold the 'empty' half of the tortilla over the fillings (don't overfill) so that you have a semi-circle.

3. Fry the filled tortilla in the dry pan on a medium heat for a minute or so on one side before flipping over and cooking the other side. You are aiming for a nice crisp tortilla and melty cheese goodness on the inside. Watch closely as they do burn easily!