El Cid Pizza

Dad spends 10 minutes for a memory stick to store important powerpoint for tomorrow's school assemby to no avail. Decides to go a bit leftfield and ask the kids - middle boy: "Oh, I think it's on the floor under the breakfast bar." Did he think of picking it up?

A few years ago there was a pizza restaurant called Pizza One Pancakes Too, on Tombland in Norwich. This is my version of their El Cid pizza. It's a little unusual but absolutely sublime. I added anchovies because they taste so good on pizza. Served with chips (which the restaurant failed to put on the menu in favour of salad).

Ingredients:
Serves one or two

• pizza dough (I used a packet mix for convenience), enough to make a 10" base
• 1 tin tuna
• a few anchovies
• 2 mushrooms, sliced
• 2 tbs mayonaise
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• salt and pepper
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1 small red onion, finely sliced
• shake of dried oregano
• olive oil to drizzle
• 200g hard mozzarela cheese, grated

1. mix all the ingredients except the cheese, anchovies and mushrooms
2. oil a baking sheet lightly and place the rolled out base on it
3. spread the tuna mayonaise mixture over the base leaving a 1/2" border
4. top with cheese, then mushrooms and anchovies
5. sprinkle with a little more oregano and drizzle with oil
6. bake in a reasonably hot oven, according to base instructions

vegetable curry with coconut cream

Back to school demands easy teas and this curry fits the bill pretty well. I'd love to say that the vegetables came out of the garden but, sadly, the supermarket could provide where we could not. This curry is deliciously light and fresh. Youngest boy said that it smelt 'lush' whilst middle boy merely stated that the nan bread made up for the lack of chicken. Suffice to say that neither cleaned the plate but what can one expect.

peppered steak with stir-fried spring greens

Adam Ant still has an abundance of charm and talent. To watch and listen to Stand and Deliver (see on you tube) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFNKxYFROHo

Perhaps this dish should be dedicated to the artful ant. In truth, it's a tenuous link - we were hungry and this is the best the cupboard could offer. It has nothing to do with said singer!

When the waves have been pretty good fun, the evening meal shouldn't take forever to prepare.

Ingredients:

served 5 (3 large plates, 2 smaller)

• 720g rump steak (half price justifies the amount)
• 1 head of spring greens (other cabbage, savoy maybe, would be just as good), thinly sliced
• 2 carrots, thinly sliced
• 1 clove of garlic, even more thinly sliced
• sunflower oil
• glug of dry sherry
• splash of soy sauce (probably light but I prefer dark)
• freshly ground black pepper and sea salt
• 1 birdseye chilli (youngest boy would omit this late entry), chopped

1. the steak needs to be oiled and peppered liberally and salted before griddling to taste
2. stirfry the carrots over a really high heat, in a little oil, then add the cabbage, then the garlic
3. add the sherry and then the soy sauce to taste

Meanwhile...

1. the steak has been cooked and briefly rested before slicing it reasonably thinly
2. sprinkle the chilli over the steak before serving
3. (if it was in the cupboard I would have...) drizzle with a little sesame oil

We ate with copious amounts of boiled rice.

the forgotten courgettes

Itrained for a couple of days so nobody picked the courgettes - now we have marrows! Expect no recipes for stuffed marrow.

absolutely perfect yorkshire puddings

Sunday mornings can present something of a problem with the day's meal times - up too late and breakfast slowly meanders ever close to lunch, knocking tea (dinner for some) further into the evening - shifting bed time for youngest boy into 'wobbly' time. Get up too early and Sunday will be broken. Miss breakfast and tempers are short. It is tricky. A chicken sits at the bottom of the fridge, ready to roast but I am thinking about the Yorkshire puddings. Perfect Yorkshire puds - fit to be eaten as starter, main and dessert.

On a different note - we'll be seeing Adam Ant tonight, now well into his 50s. Let's hope he can remember the words to Stand and Deliver.

Ingredients:

makes 12 individual yorkshires or one large one

• 4 oz plain flour
• a pinch of salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 pint of milk
• sunflower oil

1. crack the eggs into the flour and salt, in a basin, and beat with a fork
2. when the batter is reasonably smooth add the milk slowly beating all the time
3. when the fork looks fairly clean, switch to a balloon whisk and whisk briskly
4. set aside for half an hour or so
5. add a dessert spoon of oil to each 'cup' in a muffin tin and heat in a very hot oven until smoking hot
6. give the batter another whisk
7. use a ladle to fill each 'cup' about half way with batter - basically sharing the mixture between 12 puddings (alternatively add oil to a large tin and pour all the mixture in when hot)
8. cook for about 20 minutes trying to resist the urge to open the oven door to check
9. use a bunt knife to twist the finished puddings out and drain on a wire rack

mackerel with cucumber and radish

Brilliant; Doctor Who has returned to our screens! Yes it is too confusing for Ruth but that misses the point - it's all about the smart quips and new monsters. Simply the funnest (a Norfolk word if ever there was one) romp through history, past, present and future. All of the praise out of the way, it is a shame that ten past seven came about so quickly. In fact, due to the short gap between Skyline (middle boy's movie choice) and Doctor Who, I slightly undercooked the fish. Ah well, what the hell!

Ingredients:

serves 3

• mackerel, gutted and top and tailed
• 2 inches of cucumber, peeled, seeded and quite finely diced
• 4 radishes, topped and diced like the cucumber
• juice of half a small lemon
• tbs parsley, finely chopped (I think dill might work better)
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• generous pinch of sea salt
• glug of extra virgin olive oil
• twist black pepper
• 1 tbs good white wine vinegar

1. combine all the ingredients except the fish and set aside for at least an hour
2. griddle the fish (or, better still, bbq)
3. spoon the garnish over the steaming fish

...devour with salad and good television!



smoked haddock with parsley and cream

Well, the mist and drizzle failed to ever materialise; the Peak District remaining sunny for the entire visit. The chilli was a big hit, particularly with the inclusion of chicken! Tonight, the kids had pizza, bought and stored for yesterday's return but vetoed at the last minute because the fridge was full of sausages we had forgotten to pack in the cool box. Neither Ruth or I could face sausage casserole tonight so the trip to the supermarket was a quest for a bargain. On offer... smoked haddock. Beautiful fillets, undyed and full of promise. Despite not actually liking it, I had in mind parsley sauce. The original is too heavy for this delicious fish (and my stomach) so I have given it a twist and turned it upside down. Not really a parsley sauce but it does contain the said herb. Give it a try.

Ingredients:

• 2 large smoked haddock fillets (probably about 450g or so)
• 125g double cream
• 25g butter (slightly salted in my house)
• a glass of dryish white wine
• 1tsp whole grain mustard
• a handful of parsley, finely chopped
• 1 small onion, very finely chopped (I used one about as big as a pickled onion)
• 2 bay leaves
• 5 or 6 pepper corns
• milk and water (half and half to cover the fish, depending on the size of pan being used)
• parmesan cheese, freshly grated
• salt and pepper to season

1. cover the fish with the milk and water, bay leaves and pepper corns
2. heat the fish over a gentle flame until it begins to boil, then turn the heat off
3. in a small pan, heat the butter and cook the onion until translucent, stir in the mustard and cook until it just slightly splits
4. add the wine and reduce by two thirds
5. stir in the cream and parsley, bringing it to the boil before removing it from the heat
6. stir in a couple of dessert spoons of the cooking milk into the sauce
7. season the sauce
8. place the fish in a heat proof dish, spooning the sauce over the top
9. top with the grated cheese and grill under a hot grill until the cheese begins to brown

We ate this with new potatoes and some veg from the garden - french beans, peas and the very last of the broad beans.

Those sausages will just have to wait!