Ingredients

Marinade:
Juice of 1 lemon
200g chicken, cut into 1.5 cm cubes
1 large clove garlic, crushed or finely chopped
5 tbsp low fat plain yoghurt

Rice to serve

Equipment

1 medium size non-stick sauce pan

Method

Mix chicken with the yoghurt, lemon juice and garlic in a bowl and put in the fridge to marinade for at least an hour. You can leave this overnight if you have time.

Add vegetable oil to the non-stick saucepan and heat on the stove.

Add the onions and fry on quite a high heat for about half an hour. Make sure that you stir often, until the onions are well cooked and go brown.

Add the garlic and cook for another minute and continue stirring.

Add the ginger, fresh chilli, coriander, cumin, turmeric and a pinch of chilli powder. Cook all the spices together for a further 5 – 10 minutes, adding a tiny bit of extra oil if necessary.

Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for a further 10 minutes. The tomatoes should gradually cook down and disintegrate into a paste.

Take the chicken out of the of the fridge. Remove the pieces of chicken out of the marinade and wipe off most of the marinade on some kitchen roll. Add the chicken pieces to the curry.

Add the olives and dried cherries and 100ml of water, stir, then cook for another 20 minutes. If you are serving the curry with rice, this would be a good time to put on the rice.

When the curry has finished cooking, sprinkle garam masala on top of the curry without stirring it in, cover it and let it cook for a further 5 minutes.

Serve immediately with rice.

You can listen to this recipe’s podcast on the player or alternatively you can save the mp3 by right clicking and “saving as” on the download link below.

Ingredients

1 medium onion, chopped finely
½ oz (15g) butter
1 tsp olive oil
8 mushrooms (optional)
1 tsp Bouillon powder or half a vegetable stock cube
150ml of white wine
juice and peel of 1 lemon
ground black pepper
1 large clove garlic, crushed
250g (9oz) haddock or other white fish such as cod
150g (5 ½ oz) risotto rice (such as Arborio)
a handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
Parmesan to serve

Equipment

a medium or large sized non-stick frying pan
a medium sized saucepan with a lid

Method

Fry onion, butter and olive oil in a frying pan over a low heat, stirring frequently for around 10 mins until onion is soft.

Add the mushrooms after 5 minutes (if you are using them).

Meanwhile, pour 450ml of boiling water into a saucepan, add Bouillon or stock cube and stir to combine, then add wine and lemon peel and bring this stock up to a simmer. Season the stock with pepper, I don’t add salt as the vegetable stock will add a salty flavour.

Add the whole piece of fish, skin and all, to the stock. Poach the fish for about 7 mins, keeping it simmering, until it is no longer translucent. Poaching the fish to makes it a little easier to cut it up and gives the stock a full fishy flavour.

Once poached take the fish out of the stock and set aside. Bring the stock back to a simmer.

When the onion is soft, add the garlic and cook for just another minute, then add the rice, stir and cook for a further 3 minutes.

Turn the rice mixture down to a fairly low heat, add a ladleful of stock and stir until absorbed.

Continue adding ladlefuls, ensuring all the liquid is absorbed before adding more and keep stirring constantly.

The stock should be kept covered and simmering while you are doing this and the risotto pan should remain on a low heat.

When the rice is cooked it should be soft on the outside but still have a little bit of ‘bite’, this should take about half an hour.

While the risotto is cooking, roughly chop or flake the fish into 1-inch square chunks, removing any large bones if necessary.

Once the risotto mixture is ready, add the fish, lemon juice and coriander to it. Continue stiring and cooking for a few minutes until the coriander has wilted, the lemon juice has been absorbed and the fish is warmed through.

If it requires more liquid, add some boiling water and cook for a couple more minutes.

Serve straight away, sprinkled with parmesan and pepper and accompanied by a side salad such as the one in our sides section.

You can listen to this recipe’s podcast on the player or alternatively you can save the mp3 by right clicking and “saving as” on the download link below.

Ingredients

8 slices brown bread, crusts removed
70g (2 ½ oz) butter (or margarine)
3 eggs
50g (2 oz) brown sugar (replace with white sugar if you prefer)
450 ml semi skimmed milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1 ½ tbsp extra brown sugar
1 ½ packs of Rolos, cut into quarters (use 2 packs if you like a lot of chocolate). You can replace with Mars Bar or other caramel and chocolate based sweets if you prefer

Equipment

1 lb loaf tin

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 c. (gas mark 4)

Grease your 1 lb loaf tin.

Butter the bread on both sides.

Using half of the chopped Rolos, make sandwiches by sprinkling a slice of buttered bread with Rolos and then covering it with another slice. Do this with all the bread and then cut these sandwiches into four diagonally, to make little triangles.

Arrange the triangles in overlapping rows in the tin.

Whisk together eggs, sugar, milk and cinnamon, pour this over the bread in the tin.

Sprinkle the remaining Rolos and additional tbsp of brown sugar on top and bake in the preheated oven for 40 mins until golden and crispy on top.

Serve warm, with bananas as an accompaniment if you wish. You can refrigerate the leftovers and eat the following day.

Ingredients

Sausage Casserole:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium to large onion
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 large clove garlic, crushed
250ml beer
pinch of salt
6 sausages, pierced
5 savoy cabbage leaves, very finely chopped
½ tsp pepper
1 ½ tsp dried herbs: sage, rosemary or thyme or a combination of these
bay leaf (optional)

Topping:
4 spring onions, finely chopped
1 heaped tbsp mustard
1 tsp olive oil
1 heaped tsp lemon rind – rind of approx ¾ a lemon.
1 handful flat leaf parsley (approx. 20g), finely chopped

Equipment

Casserole or any pan with a lid that is non-stick and oven-proof

Method

Gently fry the onion, celery, carrot and salt in olive oil until soft and onions are translucent (for about 15 mins).

When the onions are translucent add the garlic, stir and cook for a further minute.

Add the sausages and fry until they have a little colour (for about 10 minutes).

Add the beer and allow to bubble for a minute or so. This helps to loosen all the gooey, caramelised bits of onion on the bottom of the pan.

Add 200ml boiling water, herbs and pepper and bring the casserole up to a boil again.

Put the Savoy cabbage on top of this, cover the pan and leave to simmer gently for at least 30 minutes, longer if possible. Stir occasionally and add a little more water if it appears to be drying out.

To prepare the topping, finely chop the spring onions and mix together all the topping ingredients in a bowl.

Once the stew has finished cooking, take off the heat, serve into bowls and sprinkle 1 teaspoon of the topping over each. Serve immedietly with mashed potatoes and vegetables of your choice.

You can listen to this recipe’s podcast on the player or alternatively you can save the mp3 by right clicking and “saving as” on the download link below.