Stir fried rice

A special twist on rice to accompany any Chinese style dishes.

Cook plain long-grained white rice as per normal instructions. If we're having rice with something else, we'll sometimes do extra and set aside for a stir-fry later on in the week.

Crack open and lightly beat three or four eggs. Pour the eggs into a large frying pan with a little oil. Stir gently, spreading the eggs thinly over the pan until they start to cook. Allow them to cook in a thin sheet, then scrape up into  bowl and set aside. This is basically scrambled eggs, but rather than scrambling them to a light and fluffy mass, you want to end up with thin layers.

Prepare whatever "extras" you want to add to the rice. If you're cooking anything, like finely-diced pork, do this now in the same pan. We usually go for a handful each of shrimp, peas, and sweetcorn which only needs defrosting rather than actual cooking.

Add the rice to the pan and heat through. Season with salt and black pepper. Add the toppings and stir in, breaking up the eggs into smallish pieces.

Beef stroganoff

Although many of the recipes here mention beef, many of them involve ground beef and in practice we often substitute turkey. In a typical week we eat far more poultry and fish and very little red meat. However, this is one tasty meal we do enjoy that is unashamedly red and carnivorous!

Fry a chopped onion in a large saucepan. Add sliced steak - a reasonably good cut to make it tender, or just simmer for longer if using a cheaper cut. Once the meat is browned, add a spoonful of beef stock, a generous sprinkle of paprika, a squirt of tomato ketchup, and a good dash of brandy. Mix well and simmer for about 1/2 hour, stirring occasionally to make sure the mix doesn't catch on the bottom of the pan. Near the end of the cooking time, stir in a dash of cream and continue cooking to thicken.

Separately, fry a sliced red pepper and some sliced mushrooms. You can add these in to the pan early on instead, but we like to do these separately and mix in at the last minute. They hold their individual crunch and flavor better that way.

Serve with rice and a nice Chianti  :)

Fish cakes

There's a bit more preparation for this dish that makes it more suitable for when you have a bit of time and patience, but home-made fish cakes are delicious any time of year.

Quantities (as always) depend on how many people you want to feed, but I reckon on using two small tins of salmon (200g/8oz size) to feed four people. You then want enough potatoes to end up with somewhere between two and three times the amount of potato to salmon.

Boil the potatoes until mashable, and mash with an egg and a knob of butter. You want the mash to be fairly dry at this stage because it will get liquid from the fish, and you don't want it ending up sloppy.

Drain the salmon and remove any bones. Mash into the potatoes.

Where you go from here depends on taste. You can make the cakes plain (just potato and salmon) but we zing it up with the following: A bunch of spring onions (salad onions/green onions), a bunch of coriander (cilantro) and we used to include a couple of red chilis but nowadays found a tablespoon of pickled ginger instead adds a wonderful flavor. Chop everything very finely and mix in.

Form the mixture into patties, flour, and fry until the outside turns golden. This is where you don't want the mixture too moist or the cakes will collapse when you try to turn them in the pan!

Serve with salad and relish.

A richer variation for a special treat, instead of canned salmon use some picked cooked crab meat and shrimp (in roughly equal quantities).

Hot dogs

This is hardly a recipe, more like a simple menu idea when you want something light and easy.

We like to "gourmet" our hot dogs by frying Bratwurst sausages and putting them in fresh sub buns rather than standard wieners and hot dog buns. Slap on some fried onions, mustard, relish etc. and serve with coleslaw.

Couscous

A great alternative to rice or potatoes with many dishes and salads.

In butter, fry a small very finely-chopped onion and a handful of flaked almonds. Keep to one side.

Measure out the required amount of couscous and keep to one side - I usually use about 2oz per person.

Measure the same amount of water into a saucepan. I don't often bother with measurements, but the ratio of couscous to liquid is moderately important or it will either not cook properly or come out mushy. There is some leeway though. Whether you measure by volume or weight doesn't matter too much.

Add to the water a spoonful of chicken stock (dry or paste, or you can simply use liquid stock or broth instead of water), a spoonful of dark soy sauce, and a tablespoon of olive oil.

Bring the liquid to the boil, add the couscous, stir, cover, and remove from the heat.

Leave to stand for 5 to 10 minutes. The liquid should be absorbed and the mix not too dry. Add a knob of butter and stir in, breaking up any lumps. Put back on the heat, stirring in the onions and almonds.

Serve warm or cold.

Moroccan lamb

This lamb curry follows the general instructions for Whatever You Want Curry

The specifics for this variety are as follows:

Use lamb pieces for the meat. When adding spices, be especially generous with the cumin - a couple of table spoons. I find that lamb tends to tone down the spices so you can afford to be generous to avoid the dish ending up bland. Once the onions are soft, the spices are in and the lamb pieces are nicely browned, add a couple of large chopped tomatoes. These should provide plenty of liquid to cook the dish.

Cover and simmer on a very low heat for at least an hour.

Add a generous handful of green beans, and stir in a cup or so of cream. Continue cooking for another half an hour. Long and slow is the trick with this dish.

A few minutes before serving, thicken the sauce with ground almonds.

Serve with couscous.

Seafood pasta

Quick and simple.

Fry a small onion very finely chopped. Add some diced white fish and a chopped tomato. Add a generous quantity of cream and a dash of tomato ketchup. Bring to the boil and simmer to cook the fish and thicken the cream. Add some peeled shrimp.

Separately, fry some finely-cut slivers of bacon until crisp, and cook your pasta of choice (penne, fusilli, linguine, macaroni ...).

Serve the seafood sauce and bacon over the pasta.