Clam chowder

I can't believe I haven't posted this recipe yet. Maybe we went a little while without making it, but it's a tasty warming bowl for a chilly evening.

Start by making up a roux sauce, adding some chicken stock along the way - either paste, or in liquid form instead of some of the milk. You can also add a splash of white wine for extra flavor. Either way, you want to end up with a sauce that is thin enough to pour but not too thin.

Add a tin of drained clams, some finely-diced and pre-cooked potatoes and carrots, and optionally a handful of peeled shrimp. You can also throw in other veggies such as sweetcorn if you wish. Season with salt and pepper, serve with toast (or garlic toast).

Spinach and ricotta lasagna

A delicious variant on lasagna, using a white sauce rather than tomato sauce. Follows the basic procedure for lasagna, with a few differences:

For the meat sauce, use a white meat like ground turkey or chicken instead of beef. Instead of the tomato pasta sauce add a jar of Alfredo sauce.

Make up the cheese sauce as normal, but use equal parts mozzarella and ricotta cheese instead of regular cheddar.

When layering the lasagna, put a layer of the meat sauce, then pasta, then a thin layer of chopped spinach before adding the cheese sauce.

Greek salad

Easy, tasty, and a perfect accompaniment to pork souvlaki.

Mix together in a bowl: 1 cucumber (peeled, seeded and chopped), 1 tomato and 1 red pepper (seeded and chopped), black olives, and a sprinkle of finely-chopped red onion. Crumble over some feta cheese and top with a simple vinaigrette.

Pork Souvlaki

A summery recipe we discovered this year ...

Combine 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup lemon juice, a couple of cloves of chopped garlic, 1 tsp dried oregano and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper. Add cubed pieces of pork and leave to marinade in the fridge for a day.

Skewer and season the meat and grill.

Serve with tzatziki sauce, rice, salad, pittas, retsina, and sun. Also tasty at any other time of year :)

Cornbread

Cornbread is not something we ever encountered the other side of The Pond, and I only tried it relatively recently and decided to hunt down a recipe. I was delighted with how easy it was to get good results on a first try!

The recipe comes from this site: https://cafedelites.com/easy-buttermilk-cornbread/
But I'll repeat the basics here as the site is very cluttered with ads and you have to scroll down half a mile to get to the actual recipe.

In a bowl, combine 1 cup flour, 1 cup yellow cornmeal, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt. Mix well to remove any lumps.

Make a well in the center and add 1 cup buttermilk, 1/4 cup honey, 2 eggs. Mix to combine ingredients, then add 1/2 cup melted butter. Whisk until the batter is smooth, but don't over-mix.

Heat the oven to 400F, and preheat a greased 9" baking dish. Pour in the batter and cook for about 25 minutes. The top should be slightly browned, and the toothpick test will tell you when the middle is cooked. Leave to cool a bit before cutting and serving.

Rice

Given that rice is such a staple for us, maybe even more so than potatoes, I thought I would share our easy, no-fuss approach to cooking plain boiled rice. This is adapted from a pilau rice recipe, but without the spices.

Heat a thin layer of oil in a pan, and add the rice. Stir around for a few seconds to coat the grains. Add salt and either stock or water. If you had the pan warm enough the liquid should hiss when you pour it in. You want about 1 1/2 to 2 times the volume of liquid to rice.

Bring to the boil, give one last stir, and put the lid on. If you're cooking on gas, you want to turn the heat really low for about ten minutes and then switch off for the remaining time. If you use an electric hob it's even easier - when you put the lid on, switch off the ring and just leave the pan where it is. The residual heat in the ring will do the rest.

Twenty minutes later, you have beautifully cooked, hassle-free rice. Don't be tempted to lift the lid and check on it. You need to keep the steam in the pan to cook the rice. Just trust the process.

If you are cooking brown or wild rice, increase the cooking time. You can also leave the pan on the stove for a while longer if you're not yet ready to serve. This approach is very forgiving.

Ginger beer

We just started making our own ginger beer this summer. Cost-wise I don't think it's much of a saving on shop-bought pop unless you buy bulk ingredients, but it's a darned sight tastier and recalls a less commercial age.

The recipe we use is here, but it's very easy.

This makes a 2-liter bottle. We usually double everything up.

Place 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of water, and 2 tbsp grated ginger in a pan. Heat until the sugar is dissolved (yes, it looks a frightening amount, but it does dissolve, honest). Let the mixture steep for an hour or so until it cools.

Strain the syrup to remove the bits.

Get a cleaned-out 2-liter bottle and pour in 1/8 tsp dried yeast, the strained syrup, 3 tbsp lemon juice, and top up with cold water. Put the lid on and shake, then leave in a cool spot for a few days. Check it daily and crack the lid to let off pressure. There should be a bit of a fizz. It is now ready. Keep refrigerated to stop the fermentation.

Note - plastic bottles are probably safer than glass. Also you can feel the pressure building up by giving the bottle a squeeze. If there's no 'give' it's time to let off some steam!