Baked risotto - the easiest meal you'll make!

I've never made a baked risotto before but I went to a pampered chef night at my friend's house on Friday and they made one there. It took minutes to put together and then the oven did the rest. 

I've been in the veg garden all day and came in absolutely shattered and desperate for a bath so I literally chopped a few things up and chucked it all in an oven dish and stuck it in the oven while I had my bath. It was ready when I got out and was the perfect comfort food, which I troughed while I caught up on Call The Midwife! 

Ingredients

1 mug of risotto rice. I used arborio. 

1 pack of dried porcini mushrooms

A couple of inches of chorizo, sliced 

1 leek, sliced ( I just had small leeks, from the garden, so used 3)

A handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

A couple of knobs of butter

A good grating of hard cheese. I used grana padano. Any cheese, even cheddar, would be nice. 

Method

Cover the mushrooms in boiling water and let them hydrate. 

Put the leek, rice, tomatoes and chorizo in an oven dish. 

When the mushrooms are ready, add them to the dish. 

Put the mushroom liquor into the mug that you measured the rice in. You'll need  2.5 mugs full so if you haven't got enough, top up with hot water. 

Give it a stir and put the butter on the top. I used some of the wild garlic butter that i made last week. 

Put it in the oven at gas mark 5 for about 45 minutes. Do check it after 30 mins though. If it needs more water, feel free to add. 

Grate cheese over and stir it in. Grate some more over the top. Pop it back in the oven for a couple of mins. 

Serve with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar over it. 

Love leftovers...eat curry! Lamb Rogan Josh. Versatile and family friendly!

Well, this is the second time I've written this because I managed to delete the last one, by accident. Grrrr. Technologically challenged, clearly :-(

So, I've been delving in my freezer to get me through my £50 month! To my delight, I had a small joint of lamb. I roasted it last week and we had it with Yorkies (eggs from my hens) and roasted veg. Anyway, to make the most of my leftovers we had a luscious rogan josh made with storecupboard ingredients and remnants of bits and bobs in my fridge. 

You really can just use what you have to hand with this as long as you have some spices and tinned toms!  I've made this so many times and I pretty much never have the same ingredients.  It's a brilliant mid-week supper. 

What I used last week....

1 tbsp groundnut or veg oil

1 onion, chopped

Half a red chilli, chopped (you can use dried chilli flakes)

1 clove of garlic, crushed

A handful of mushrooms, quartered (these are easily omitted)

2 tsp garam masala

1 tsp mild curry powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp salt

1 aubergine, chopped into inch size cubes

1 tin tomatoes

Lamb stock (vary this if using a different meat). I use the tomato tin to make this. 

Any leftover gravy 

Leftover lamb, chopped

I used some cream, but I prefer natural yoghurt or you could use coconut milk. Use whatever you have

Fresh herbs, chopped. I used a mix of coriander, mint and parsley, whizzed up. 

(All spices are heaped teaspoons)

Method

Heat up a large frying pan or wok. Add the oil. 

Fry the onion, chilli, mushrooms and salt until softened. 

Add the spices and mix. 

Add the aubergine and fry for a few minutes until covered in the spices and a bit softer. Add the tomatoes, stock and any gravy. Bring to the boil then lower the heat and leave it to simmer for about 15 mins. 

Mix in the fresh herbs and add the cream (or whatever you're using) and take off the heat. 

Serve with basmati rice. I use 1 mug of rice and 2 mugs of boiling, salted water. I pop a star anise or a cinnamon stick in with it. Bring to the boil, stir, turn the hob down to low, cover and leave until the rice has soaked up all the water and has the right amount of bite. 

It is so tasty that you'll want to make it all the time with any leftovers and I also do a variation of it with no meat. I just do everything as above but when the aubergine softens I add the rice directly to the pan with all the liquid and and have it as a one pot rice dish instead. Cheap, easy and gorgeous and the whole family loves it. Very child friendly! 

Wild garlic and chilli hummus

Another super-simple, super-speedy one. And it's freezable so you can be prepped ahead of time if you've got guests coming round! Mine went straight in the freezer for future consumption!

Ingredients

1 tin of chickpeas, drained

Juice of half a lemon (use the other half for the pesto!)

Approx 100g wild garlic

As many chilli flakes as you can handle! About quarter - half a tsp is good. 

Approx 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Approx 4 tbsp water

Method

Stick everything, except the water and oil, info the food processor. Add a little oil and water and whizz. Keep adding the oil and water until it is smooth but still thick. Serve in a nice dish and sprinkle chilli flakes over the top. 

Serve with flat breads or breadsticks. Or crudités. Or anything that you can get your hands on. A spoon is good ;-)

Wild garlic and hazelnut pesto

This is fab stirred through pasta or swirled into homemade tomato soup or on bruschetta. Loads of options! 

It is SO easy. It takes all of about 5 mins to make and keeps in the fridge for flippin' ages. Just be sure to make sure that there is oil covering it in the jar. 

Ingredients

Approx 50g hazelnuts

Approx 50g Grana Padano (this is what I had in the fridge - you could use Parmesan instead)

1 clove garlic

Approx 80g wild garlic 

Approx 100g olive oil 

Juice of half a lemon

Salt and pepper

Method

Toast the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan. Put them and all the other ingredients except the oil in a food processor. Add about half the oil. Whizz it all up and continue to add more oil until you have the desired consistency. I prefer it a bit chunky and less oily but it's personal preference. 

It's as easy as that! Put it in a sterilised jar, top with a little oil to ensure it's all covered and put it in the fridge until you're ready to use it! 

Buon appetito!

Wild Garlic Pasta

This is so worth the initial kneading. It's so tasty and really easy. And really, you can't get much more frugal than this so your piggy bank will thank you too. 

Serves 2 people. Easily doubled. Approx 350 calories per serving. 

Ingredients

150g Plain flour

1 egg

1 tbsp oil

Handful of wild garlic

Salt and pepper

Method

Put all the ingredients in the food processor and whizz. It should be a nice green dough now. 

Pop it on an oiled surface and stretch it, turn it over and stretch it again to make it more workable. Then knead until your dough is nice and smooth and elastic. 

Roll the dough out as thinly as you can (if you have a pasta machine, you're luckier than me! Use it!) and slice it into the shape of your choice. I like long fat strands, a bit like tagliatelle. 

Pop it all in a pan of salted, boiling water and cook until the desired texture. About 5 mins should do it. 

As it's already flavoured, I would favour either no sauce or a scant sprinkling of Parmesan. If you were desperate for a sauce, a tomato base would prob work the best. 

12 ways with wild garlic

Like free food? Of course you blinkin' well do! Well, it's wild garlic season so get yourselves down to the woods and fill your boots!

As I've mentioned, I'm working with a £50 food budget this month so any free food is even more welcome than normal! 

I LOVE wild garlic and use it loads every year. I actually still have some pesto in my fridge left over from last year, unbelievably! And it still tastes great!

There is an abundance of these lovely garlicky leaves at the moment so I've compiled a list of my favourite things to do with the little lovelies. And they're all cheap as chips and delicious!

• Wild garlic pasta
• Wild garlic and hazelnut pesto
• Wild garlic butter
• Wild garlic oil - use it over homemade focaccia - it's to die for!
• Cheesy, wild garlic bread
• Wild garlic and chilli hummus
• Wild garlic pizza
• Wild garlic and feta omelette 
• Wild garlic mashed potato
• Sun-dried tomato and wild garlic scones (thanks to my lovely friend, Gail for this suggestion)
• Wild garlic pancakes
• Wild garlic soup

Other ideas 

• It is also a lovely addition to salads and stir fries. 
• The oil is fab drizzled over soups or breads. 
• Melting a knob of the butter on a piece of steak will jazz it up amazingly. 
• Swirl some pesto through soup, as well as pasta. 
• Use pesto to make fab and easy canapés - twin with pastry/ tomatoes/ goats cheese. The world's your oyster!!

I made pesto for the fridge, pasta for my supper and hummus for the freezer yesterday and made garlic butter and oil today. I made focaccia and smothered it with the oil. The most moreish thing I've eaten in a long while! I had roast chicken for supper and i rubbed the garlic butter over it.

I'll post recipes for everything I've made later!

Happy foraging! 

£50 food challenge!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned but I've set myself a challenge this month of spending a max budget of £50 for household groceries.  This is proving quite tricky but I am determined! 

I regularly set myself these types of budgets but I think this is the smallest so far. 

I do have a pretty well stocked store cupboard and freezer but I certainly didn't stock up before I started the challenge. Whenever I see a great offer on meat, or I'm a bit flush, I stock up. We also have hens so eggs will, as they always do in our household, play a large part in keeping the budget down. 

I'm going to post a list of recipes that I've cooked up over the last few weeks and some that I intend to make. I know that I'm very lucky that I've got some nice bits of meat in the freezer but I'll show you how I stretch them out by making good use of leftovers. 

I bet that most of you will have a whole host of fab ingredients hidden away at the back of your cupboards and the bottom of your freezer so why don't you join me and challenge yourself to use these up and get adventurous with your menu!  

I've pretty much spent the £50 already and I've got just under 2 weeks left to go but I've not ventured too far into the freezer yet so I am feeling, probably stupidly, fairly confident. 

Wish me luck!! 

Ps. If you are going to join me, I would advise you get £50 cash so that you can keep a track of what you've spent more easily.