Cauliflower Renaissance

Cauliflower ... Not the most popular of vegetables (I think we all have memories of cauliflower that was boiled for an hour and was totally waterlogged - vile) but definitely enjoying something of a renaissance these days. I saw a programme a year or two ago now, championing foods that have fallen out of favour (I was pinned to the chair, with a sick child asleep on my lap and the TV remote control just out of reach) and watched the Hairy Bikers singing the praises of cauliflower. There was a really interesting looking cauliflower cheese that they did; a ramped up, "posh" cauli-cheese that would be substantial enough for an evening meal. It has since become a regular on the dinner rota here, it's a great midweek dinner and also really inexpensive, definitely a bonus - I even wrote a post on it here!

Anyhow, I turned on the evening news on TV one night recently, and caught the last ten minutes of a cookery show on RTE1, and there it was again - the cauliflower. Kevin Dundon was extolling the virtues of the cauliflower, specifically a recipe for green bean and cauliflower biryani. His recipe was really quick and easy and he was really, really enthusiastic about about how fragrant his dish was, so I thought we'd give it a go. I have to say, I was pretty sceptical because it did not look pretty. But my word, Kevin was right - it was SO delicious. Really different and really easy, incredibly fragrant and just fantastic. I even mentioned it on the DinnerLadies Facebook page, I was so excited.

Here's the link to the actual recipe on the RTE webpage, but I've also posted it below too.

Kevin Dundon's Cauliflower and Green Bean Biryani

Cook the onion & spices slowly

• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 - 6 cardamom pods
• ½ tsp chilli powder
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• 150g green beans, cut into 2cm long pieces
• ½ head of cauliflower, cut into bite-sized florets
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 220g basmati rice
• 600ml vegetable (or chicken) stock, warmed
  To serve
• 150g natural yoghurt
• 50g flaked almonds, toasted
• Bunch of coriander, chopped

1. Heat the oil in a large heavy based saucepan over a medium heat. Add the cumin, chilli powder, cinnamon and cardamom pods and cook for a minute or two. Add the onion and garlic and cook slowly (this is critical, you don't want the garlic to burn and you want the onion to soften slowly) and cook until softened - about a further 3 or 4 minutes.
2. Add the rice and stir to coat in the flavoured oil. Pour in the stock and then add the cauliflower and green beans. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 12-15 minutes, until the liquid has been absorbed.
3. Remove from the heat and leave to stand for 5-10 minutes, then pour into a serving dish.
4. Sprinkle with the flaked almonds and chopped coriander, and drizzle with a spoonful of the natural yoghurt.

We've had this twice now, once just alone for a midweek supper (it was fabulous) and again last Saturday night when we served it with a pork chop, to make a slightly more substantial meal. Both were equally gorgeous. It truly is a very fragrant and tasty dish, I really do urge you to give it a go.

PS - we had no dessert as a couple of the apples I'd been planning to turn into a crumble were gone off and I then didn't have enough. So I rustled up some buns quickly, and the DinnerHusband found a punnet of frozen raspberries in the freezer. He chucked half of them into a small saucepan and heated them through with a sprinkle of icing sugar, and he chopped in some large chunks of white chocolate. We served the buns with the raspberry and white chocolate sauce

Two Cakes - Moroccan Spiced Orange Cake, and Damp Lemon and Almond Cake

It's a while since I did some cake.... So I thought I'd give you another one. I didn't know I was so concerned with cake, nor ate so much of it, but it appears I am and I do!

Just over a year ago, on holiday in Schull in Co. Cork (or "Pirate Schull", as the DinnerBabies call it), we were brought to the marvellous Blairscove House and Restaurant near Durrus in west Cork for dinner. It still lives in the memory, it was absolutely fabulous - glorious setting, excellent food, good company; a really enjoyable night.

Anyhow, the starters and desserts at Blairscove are served buffet style so you can help yourself. The desserts were particularly gorgeous; there was a super tasty little raspberry mousse served in a small kilner style bottle, a jelly of summer fruits that was so delicate, and a spiced Moroccan style orange cake that my brother felt was the star of the show.

I always thought that it should be something I should be able to recreate, as it wasn't a million miles from Nigella Lawson's damp lemon and almond cake that I make regularly, as it is similar in style. So I was quite excited to hear Ray D'Arcy interview the chef Clodagh McKenna on his radio show on TodayFM earlier this summer and waxing lyrical about the spiced Moroccan orange cake she'd brought in!

So, I got googling and I found the recipe, and it is now a firm favourite in the repertoire. Again, like the lemon and almond cake, it is a great dessert (especially as you can keep the leftovers of both cakes to enjoy after the guests have disappeared, wrapped in tinfoil and they actually get nicer over a few days). The orange cake is great for those guests who are less fond of the distinct almond flavour of the lemon cake. I made the orange cake to bring for this year's trip to Schull, with that very idea in mind, that we could have it for dessert across a few days. However, greedy guts that we are, it didn't make it past the first day as the four of us sat down and ate the whole thing in one sitting! No higher praise than empty plates though, so that was good. And I did get a couple of runs in, to offset some of the damage - and as a result of that, I've got back to running slightly more regularly and have now entered some runs as a goal, so all in all it was a good result.

Here's the recipe, it's simple and gorgeous.

MOROCCAN SPICED ORANGE CAKE
(Clodagh McKenna, from her website)

Clodagh says, on her website: "We made this deliciously moist Moroccan Spiced Orange Cake last Saturday in the cookery school – it’s fab served with Greek Yogurt or Creme Fraiche and lasts for 1 week!"

Ingredients:

• 50 g slightly stale white breadcrumbs (about 2 slices of bread, crusts cut off - you don't want dark flecks in your cake!)
• 200 g caster sugar
• 100 g ground almonds
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 200 ml sunflower oil
• 4 eggs
• Finely grated zest of 1 large unwaxed orange
• Finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
• Whipped cream or Greek yogurt, to serve (optional)
  For the citrus syrup
• Juice of 1 unwaxed orange
• Juice of 1 unwaxed lemon
• 75 g caster sugar
• 2 cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick

Method:

1. Line the base of a 20.5cm (8in) round and 5cm (2in) deep tin with greaseproof paper, then grease and flour the tin. Mix the breadcrumbs with the sugar, almonds and baking powder. Whisk the oil with the eggs, then pour into the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the orange and lemon zest. Pour the mixture into the tin, place in a cold oven and turn on the heat to 180C, 350F, Gas 4.
2. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the cake is golden brown. A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before turning out onto a plate.
3. Meanwhile, make the citrus syrup. Put all the ingredients into a saucepan and bring gently to the boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved completely. Simmer for 3 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick and cloves from the syrup.
4. While the cake is still warm, pierce it several times with a skewer, then spoon the hot syrup over the cake, allowing it to run into the holes. Leave to cool. Spoon any excess syrup back over the cake every now and then until it is all soaked up. Serve with whipped cream or a dollop of thick Greek yogurt, if wished.

And it now occurs to me, as I try to link to the lemon cake - I haven't posted that recipe here ever! As this is the most common dessert I make these days, I feel I have to remedy this, so here's that recipe too.

Damp Lemon and Almond Cake

(Nigella Lawson, “How to be a Domestic Goddess”, pg. 12)

Nigella says, in the book:- "I love lemon, I love almond, so this for me is cake nirvana. Perhaps it should be in the fruited cakes section, but the citrus element, though intense, just melds with the almonds to give a slab of damp, dense, sharp-toned meltiness. It is a plain cake, but gloriously plain.

If you can, leave this cake wrapped in a double casing of foil for a couple of days before eating it: both its sharpness and its melting dampness will increase in the waiting."

Ingredients:

• 225g soft unsalted butter
• 225g caster sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 50g plain flour
• 225g ground almonds
• ½ teaspoon almond essence
• Grated zest and juice of two lemons
• 21-23cm Springform cake tin, lined on the bottom
• Preheat the oven to 180°C / gas mark 4.

Method:

1. Cream together the butter and sugar until almost white. 
2. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding a quarter of the flour after each addition. When all the eggs and flour have been incorporated, gently stir in the ground almonds, then the almond essence, lemon zest and juice. 
3. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake at for about 1 hour. I say “about” only because ovens seem to vary so violently, I’ve cooked this in one oven when it was finished after 50 minutes; in another when it needed 1 hour and 10 minutes. Whichever, after about 30 minutes you may well find you have to cover it loosely with foil; you don’t want the top of the cake to burn. 
4. The cake is ready when the top is firm and a skewer, inserted, comes out cleanish: you want dampness, but no battery goo. Take the cake out and let it stand for 5 or so minutes in the tin. Then turn it out onto a wire rack and leave til cool. (NB – loosen with a palate knife before opening the spring)
5. Then, preferably, wrap well in tin foil and leave it for a couple of days. Push some icing sugar over the cake through a fine sieve or tea strainer (I don’t bother) when serving. I can’t stop myself murmuring “raspberries” to you, either.

Serves 6 – 8

The recipe above is verbatim from the book – here’s my note, the smaller springform tin is better, the one I use is 8½” / 20½cm

With many thanks to Nigella Lawson and Clodagh McKenna!

Sarah xx

Summer Risotto

I am quite excited, as this is truly the first dinner I have ever made from scratch with absolutely no recipe of any type to follow (spaghetti bolognaise does not count!).

The raw ingredient

We never have risotto, mostly because you normally think of mushroom risotto and I always find that a little one-dimensional and bland - all mushroom flavour and nothing else.  Although I was well aware that I have a bag of arborio (risotto) rice lurking at the back of the cupboard. I actually dragged it out recently to make rice pudding (honestly, the absolute easiest dessert I have ever made, ever. Just possibly a bit unseasonal in July!) so I was reminded of it. And I am also sick to the back teeth of our summer menu. We have alternated tuna salads ever other week (the pasta one and a nicoise), a lot of BBQ food and a lot of stir fries have been eaten, and frankly it is all getting a little predictable. I have been longing for some different vegetables, but our usual repertoire of semi-veggie midweek dinners are a bit heavy for the warmest July in about a million years.


So I hit on a plan to do a risotto. Asparagus and courgette were the main flavours I am went with today, but being me I have also added bacon bits and used chicken stock - of course it would be the simplest thing in the world to leave out the bacon and use a good vegetable stock instead and then you have a proper vegetarian meal.

Another thing I love about this is that is a total movable feast, based on what vegetables / meat / fish you have to hand.

Here's the concoction I came up with tonight; experiment and enjoy your own version!

• 1 onion, finely diced
• Slightly less than 1 stalk of celery, diced

  

  Fresh green veg, frying

• Half a 125g pack of bacon bits
• 1 x 125g pack of asparagus tips, chopped into pieces about an inch long (halved, once you take the woody bottom off)
• Half a courgette, cut into batons
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• A handful of frozen peas (well, I intended to include them, but it turned out that we didn't have any!)
• Arborio rice - 75g of uncooked rice per person
• About 1 litre of chicken stock, made with 1½ chicken stock cubes and boiling water
• Oil, for frying
• Plenty of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, to serve
• You also need a deep frying pan

1. Start by heating some oil in the pan to a medium heat, then add the onion and celery and start to

   

   Getting a nice sheen, as the starches release

2. Add the bacon bits and asparagus (I like to keep the heat reasonably high for this, so the bacon and asparagus gets a bit charred around the edges) and fry
3. Add the courgette and garlic (I add the garlic last, so it doesn't burn)
4. Add the rice and give the whole thing a good stir, so the rice gets nicely coated with the oil (this is actually really important, to ensure the rice releases it's starch properly so the whole thing thickens - according to Himself, anyhow, and as he has been head chef in an Italian restaurant, who am I to argue?!)
5. Start to add the stock, ladle by ladle, keeping the rice moving (my pan is non-stick, so I didn't have to completely stand over it, but you do need to keep it moving). Let it simmer, then add the next ladle-full of stock (I don't have a ladle, I used a pyrex jug)
6. Keep going until most of the stock has been added. It should take about 15 or 20 minutes (I find that the full 20 minutes recommended on the pack leaves the rice slightly overdone for me). How much stock the rice absorbs can depend, so as you get near the end taste as you go to see if you need to use it all or not
7. If I had peas, I would have stirred them in with just a few minutes to go
8. Serve in pasta bowls with lashings of freshly grated Parmesan

Ready to serve, just add parmesan cheese

The whole thing took less than half an hour to make from scratch and it was really delicious and satisfying, risotto really does fill you up. I will be experimenting more over the next few weeks with lots of different vegetables and flavours, it is a great meal and can be adapted for any season.

Sarah xx

Just a Baked Spud - and a little dessert!

It's obviously the Irish in me, but I adore spuds. All sorts of spuds, in any format. Boiled, mashed, chips, roasted, rösti, gnocchi, all have a place. But for sheer completeness of a meal in a single spud, nothing beats a properly baked potato. In fact, a baked potato and chicken curry from the Bannside Restaurant in the University of Ulster at Coleraine for 66p (if memory serves me right!) saw me through college.

On the other hand, I really have no time at all for those horrid little spuds you get from the microwave. When it comes to a baked potato, there is only one option for me, and that is a long slow baking in a proper oven. For a BBQ, I wrap them in tinfoil and stick them in the BBQ for the last ten or fifteen minutes, to give it a smokey flavour. But often, we just have a baked potato as our evening meal on a random mid week night - like tonight.

I know the carb police are climbing the walls, but it is not a massively calorific meal, especially as I usually only have a little creme fraiche and chive and maybe a mixed salad with it. And how simple a meal it is - it totally fits the DinnerLadies ethos of an easy midweek supper!

Gorgeous fluffy baked potatoes

However, in order to get a "proper" baked potato with a nice crunchy skin and a fluffy inside, it is useful to have some basic instructions.

Firstly, I used to have the oven too hot and do it too quickly - 220C is too much. I consulted Delia Smith, and now I preheat to 180C (Delia suggests 190C, but mine is a fan oven).

Secondly, get the biggest spud from the bag - this is great for using up those big turnip sized ones you get at the bottom of the large sack! Again, Delia suggests a slightly waxy potato, whereas I (being Irish) prefer a fluffier, floury type.

One important factor is to ensure the potato is as dry as possible, so if they are ready washed, there is no need to wash them again. If not, wash and dry as thoroughly as possible. Then prick all over with a fork, then rub in a few drops of olive oil. Lastly, rub in some crushed sea salt (Maldon is ideal, I often just end up using finely ground table salt though, depends what is near to hand when I realise the Maldon is at the back of the cupboard and my hands are covered in oil!). Pop straight onto the shelf of the oven and bake for a nice long time - I give them at least 1½ to 1¾ hours, even sometimes two hours. Delia suggests you learn to embrace the length of time they take to cook to do something else, like popping out for a bit. Personally, I find "putting the children to bed to have a supper on my lap alone / with Himself in front of the TV" is an excellent use of time!

Ready to eat; with melted cheese, bacon & mushrooms

Serve them with fish or your BBQ or have them on their own - tonight I am going to cook of some bacon bits and maybe mushroom and scatter them on top, maybe scatter on some grated vintage cheddar and pop them under the grill for a minute, and then serve with some "sour cream" and chive sauce (see below) and a mixed salad. I even have some coriander in the fridge, so I will probably chop that into the salad too. It will be regular curly lettuce, some rocket and coriander, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, celery, scallions and chopped red pepper with some dressing. Or not, as the case maybe - there is no lettuce after all that.

"Sour cream" & chive sauce

• 1 tub of soured cream or creme fraiche (hence my inverted commas! I didn't have enough creme fraiche today so I used the last half tub with a spoon of mayonnaise and a half tub of Philadelphia cheese!)
• 1 bunch chives
• Salt and pepper

1. Chop the chives into the creme fraiche, season with plenty of salt and pepper and leave to infuse for at least an hour

PS - the reason I had half a tub of Philadelphia is because I made a cheesecake.... Instructions below! I really need to row back on all these desserts - I got "Run, Fat Bitch, Run!" out of the library today, I need to swallow it and not the cheesecake!

Baked Cheesecake
(Adapted from a couple of recipes from the BBC Food website)

• 200g digestive biscuits
• 100g butter, melted
• 500g full fat cream cheese (such as Philadelphia)
• 3 eggs
• Juice of ½ a lemon
• 75ml double or whipping cream (unwhipped)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 60g plain flour
• 200g caster sugar
• Preheat the oven to 140C
• Line the bottom of an 8" springform tin with parchment paper

1. Pop the biscuits into a food processor and blitz to fine crumbs, then add the melted butter and mix well
2. Put the biscuit mixture into the tin and use a glass tumbler to roll over it and level it out, then leave in the fridge to chill while you get on with the rest
3. Mix the cream, lemon juice and eggs in a jug, combining lightly
4. Beat the cream cheese and vanilla together til smooth (I used the electric hand whisk on a lowish setting for this), then add half the egg mixture and beat in
5. Add the flour and sugar, beating in again, then the rest of egg mixture, beating all to a smooth consistency
6. Pour over the biscuit base then bake for 40 - 50 mins, you will need to check after 40 mins, and take it from there; it is done when lightly golden on top and firm but with still a slight wobble on top
7. Ideally, when done, prop the oven door open and leave the cheesecake in til the oven cools completely, taking it out and leaving to fully cool then; apparently this will stop it cracking. However if - like me - you need the oven for something else (such as baking some fine spuds!), leave it cool in the tin, running a palate knife round the edge after about 5 minutes, to loosen

If only I had a little berry coulis of some flavour to go with it - raspberry would be perfect for me!

Sarah xx

PS - many thanks to the lovely reader who spotted that I had forgotten to mention the quantity of cheese required in the cheesecake; d'oh! Amended now, S

An Old-fashioned Rice Pudding

Rice Pud, with a lovely nutmeg skin

Now I have to admit to a love of an old fashioned pudding, and rice pudding has always been my favourite, my mother would often make it as a mid-week dessert, it was great to come in from school and discover that treat waiting for us after dinner.

I've always been under the impression that is is something very tricky to make, that it fails more often than not. Well, I'm delighted to tell you I found the world's easiest rice pud recipe ever - honestly, it was even easier to make than the lemon posset!

What happened was I was cleaning out a cupboard and found a packet of arborio rice, for making risotto. Obviously I had great plans once for risotto, but never got round to it. I had a notion that you can use arborio rice for rice pud as well as traditional "pudding rice", so I thought I'd check the net, find a recipe and give it a whirl. Especially with the cold and windy day we had yesterday, I thought it would be a lovely comforting end to our roast chicken dinner (ps, here's a link to my favourite roast chicken recipe too, Delia Smith's fast roast chicken with tarragon and lemon - it's divine).

The Delia Smith site failed me, as her recipe uses evaporated milk and I didn't have any. The excellent BBC Food website though and pages and pages of recipes from every celebrity chef ever. Some were quite complicated, but actually the second listing - totally uncredited - turned out to be simplicity itself so I went for it.

The only issue was that when I weighed out the 55g of rice the recipe recommended, I knew instantly it wasn't enough, presumably because I didn't have "official" pudding rice and was going a bit off piste with my arborio rice. So I increased the amount of rice to the official portion size for two people of about 120g, and that was the perfect amount.

Preparation time on this is a max of about five minutes, then you simply stick in the oven for an hour. BONZA, as Himself would say!

Rice Pudding (from the BBC Food website)

• 55g/2oz pudding rice or 120g/4oz arborio/risotto rice
• 55g/2oz sugar
• 600ml/1 pint full-fat milk
• A good grate of fresh nutmeg
• Small amount of butter
• Preheat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3

1. Mix the rice and sugar together in a baking dish and pour on the milk
2. Grate plenty of fresh nutmeg on top, and then dot with/float 3 or 4 small bits of butter
3. Bake in the oven for at least an hour - you can also cook it for longer at a lower heat, if you wish

Now, how easy is that?! And the kids loved it. Although I did find it on the sweet side, so next time I will reduce the sugar a bit, I would think 35 or 40g of sugar would be plenty.

Sarah xx

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The Perfect Picnic Snack - Flapjacks

Golden Flapjacks

Oh how I love the humble flapjack. Not cool or sexy in any way, but really simple to make, very easy to transport to a picnic (weather permitting) and oh, so yummy. And they always sound so wholesome and have that slightly worthy feel to them, don't they?

All I can say, lovely blog fans, is don't be fooled. Unfortunately, something that tastes that sweet and tasty is of course not good for you! At it's heart, it is a mix of porridge oats (okay, I grant you, that's healthy), butter (lots of it), sugar and golden syrup. Gorgeous.

Of course, you can make them in a variety of different ways, and add what you like. Today, I am making them for my daughter's sponsored walk from her creche, so as the audience will be mostly aged between 2 and 4 years of age, I've plumped for the straightforward option. You can, of course, make them with honey instead... But this doesn't make them any healthier, as honey is exactly the same glycaemic value of sugar, and I find the taste a bit strident, so sugar it is for me.

The recipe I am using today is a hybrid of some internet research and the recipe from Nigella Lawson's book "How to be a Domestic Goddess".

Firstly, you need to line a tin. The easiest way to do this is to cut a piece of parchment paper larger than required, then snipping the corners so that you overlay the corners, making it neater. Delia Smith explains it reasonably well here, with pictures.

Next up, the recipe -a s I say, simplicity itself.

Basic Flapjacks

• 300g butter
• 75g brown sugar (light brown would be ideal, today I have a mix of dark soft brown and a little caster sugar - needs must. Fingers crossed)
• 5 or 6 tablespoons of golden syrup
• 450g rolled oats (porridge - this can be a mix of jumbo or regular oats, or ideally a mix of both. I prefer the 250g regular to 200g jumbo proportion myself although again today, it's just regular)
• Preheat the oven to fan 180 (or a little less, depending on how chewy you like them)

1. Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup gently over a low heat and stir well to combine
2. Add to the oats and mix thoroughly (make sure to mix well, no one wants to find a big lump of dry oats in the middle of a bite)
3. Press into the prepared tin and bake for 25 minutes (again, 30 minutes if you prefer a crunchier texture)
4. Allow to cool in the tin; although do cut into squares in the tin about 5-10 minutes after they come out
   Variations
1. Add chopped sultanas to the dry oats before adding the melted butter and sugar
2. Add chopped dried cherries and a generous sprinkle of desiccated coconut
3. Sprinkle a spoon of sesame seeds on top of the flapjacks before they go in the oven
4. Add a pinch of ginger or other spices to the mix 
5. Dip one side in melted chocolate after they have cooled, and then leave to dry on greaseproof paper

Perfect with a picnic - now, just pray the rain stays away!

Sarah xx

Lunchtime Choices

I don't know about you, but I actually find lunch to be one of the more challenging meals for the children. My Number 1 girl, who is only 6, is an extremely slow eater and if her school lunch is not fairly basic, it comes home uneaten. She really only likes hard crusty brad rolls with either ham or roast chicken, so that is what she gets. But come the weekend, I try and mix it up a little.

Scrambled egg on toast and beans on toast are both very popular weekend options, as is a sausage sandwich. The adults however, like something a little different every now and again. So here are some options that we fall back on in our house.

When I feel very organised, I make a quiche from scratch (as per a previous post, Quiche Lorraine). However, that does take quite a lot of effort so I was excited to come across an idea on the Rollercoaster website for mini-quiches. A great idea, as you can use the shop-bought pre-made shortcrust pastry and there is no need to bake blind, so very handy. A normal cupcake bun tray is the ideal tin.

Oven ready, some with egg mix, some without

I happened to have some of my own shortcrust pastry in the freezer, so I just de-frosted it. and found I had enough for 24 mini-quiches. According to my Rollercoaster source however, one sheet of bought shortcrust pastry should do 12. Grease the tin lightly, then use a suitable sized cutter to cut out the shapes and line the bun-indents with them. For the filling, lightly beat 3 eggs with 125mls of milk or cream (I used all cream, due to a glut of it in my fridge leftover from Easter and rapidly going out of date!), and grate in 60g of cheese (I used an extra-mature cheddar). Then you can use whatever toppings you like - I fried off some bacon lardons with a couple of scallions in one pan, and some diced red pepper and mushroom in another. I left some bacon only, and some pepper & mushroom only, and I combined the two in a few more. You can use whatever you like however - courgette, goat's cheese, cherry tomatoes, chorizo sausage, olives; whatever takes your fancy.

Bake for "about" 20 mins at 200°C. I say about, because my oven is very hot and a fan oven, so I gave them 15 mins and took it from there - I'd advise you to do the same, first time out. Mine took about 17 minutes. Also, make sure to grease the bun tray well, I only did one tray, and the other one stuck quite badly, especially where I was a bit too generous with the egg mix and some leaked, effectively welding a few of my wee quiches to the tin!

A DinnerLady follower commented early that she made these after seeing the same Rollercoaster post as I did and found that the egg to pastry ratio was too low and therefore she prefers a full quiche. I have to say, I do prefer the full large quiche too but it is a lot of effort with baking blind etc., I found these handier to make (I don't mind fiddly so much), so I will try again. But I would make sure to use the biggest pastry cutter possible and to fill each pastry cup with as much egg mix as possible without letting it spill over.

These also freeze brilliantly, so are great for school lunchboxes according to the Rollercoaster poster who put the recipe up - she tells me that she just takes them out of the freezer and pops them straight into the lunchbox, and they have defrosted by lunchtime. I'd imagine they'd be pretty good on a picnic too.

Today, I am serving them with a very quick potato salad - last night's left over potatoes cubed up with some diced onion, capers and a little of the left over bacon and scallion mix.


Another favourite is prawn cocktail - I generally make either brown or white soda bread for the weekend and, as Himself says, frozen prawns appear to be breeding in our freezer (but they are so handy! For quick mid-week stir-fries, with a tin of tomatoes, some garlic and spaghetti, or for a weekend prawn cocktail). Just take out as much as you want, run some cold water over them to de-frost, then mix in a large bowl with a good dollop of mayonnaise, a squeeze of tomato ketchup, a dash of tabasco and a shake of cayenne chilli powder, a good spritz of lemon juice and a grind of black pepper - serve with fresh soda bread or in the hollow of an avocado. If you have a bag of rocket or leaves in the fridge, then dress with a quick dribble of oil and vinegar, chop in some scallion or red onion and few halved cherry tomatoes, some olives if you have them - and there's a tasty lunch in ten minutes!

Of course, a "cold meat" selection of hams, salamis, cheeses and cherry tomatoes is always popular, as is a straight forward omelette - Delia Smith has the definitive omelette cooking instructions here.

Another big favourite (and it works well as a starter too) is griddled mushrooms. My Dad does these directly on the plate of his range, but as my suburban hangout didn't come with a handy Aga, I use an iron griddle pan. Heat the pan to smoking hot - no oil. Get hold of some large mushrooms; the ones that are usually sold as portobello or breakfast mushrooms. Remove the stalk and into that cavity pour some salt - this is essential, as it draws the moisture out. Leave on the hot griddle for several minutes, til cooked. Before serving, crumble some Cashel Blue cheese over the mushroom gills. Serve on a crusty ciabatta roll (I am very fond of the par-bake ones sold in most supermarkets now), with some dressed leaves. This is actually a "home made" version of one the most memorable starters I ever had, in the Winding Stair restaurant in Dublin where the mushroom was served on a potato rosti and with some barely wilted garlicky spinach on the side. I don't even like cooked spinach, and it was great.

Anyhow, enjoy your lunch.

Sarah xx