Cheat's chicken cacciatore

This Italian classic of chicken baked with tomatoes and olives is a perennial on restaurant menus and it's not hard to see why - the chicken and tomatoes are reassuringly familiar while the olives add a touch of exotic. The full-on version involves baking chicken joints on the bone in the oven for an hour and a half to extract their full flavour, then enriching the sauce with mascarpone. Great if you're eating out or cooking for your friends. Not so practical for one.

A stove-top version for one can easily be rustled up within half an hour. And it's a good storecupboard standby as most of the ingredients are the sort of thing you'll have in the fridge and larder.

What you need: 
1 chicken breast, skin off
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
Olive oil
1/2 tin of tomatoes, or fresh equivalent (quartered)
Glass of red wine (optional)
1 tsp tomato purée
Half a dozen black olives
1 dessert spoonful half-fat crème fraiche
Pinch of rosemary 

What to do:
Heat a little oil in a sauteuse and fry the onion and garlic gently in the oil until soft and translucent. Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces and add to the pan. Turn the heat up a notch and fry it for a couple of minutes until it takes a little colour on. Add the tomatoes, the purée, the olives and the wine, plus the rosemary. Put a lid on and let it simmer for 20 minutes or so.

Stir through the crème fraiche and warm it for 2 minutes, then dish up with some cannellini beans

Cook's tips: 
You can use yoghurt instead of crème fraiche - just stir it through at the very end and don't cook it else it risks curdling.

For the cannellini beans, use a half-size tin - rinse them well under the tap, then heat gently in a saucepan with a dribble of olive oil, a dribble of water and some seasoning.

This dish also goes really well with rice or roasted potatoes, the traditional accompaniment in its home country.

Butternut squash and parma ham salad

I love the versatility of butternut squash. It's a fine key ingredient for a soup and makes great mash. Halved and roasted, it's a worthy main dish in its own right if you add a few extra ingredients to star alongside. And it's cheap as well as tasty. so what's not to like?

The downside for solo dwellers is that even the smallest butternut squash will merrily feed two. If you're making soup, you can freeze half, of course. Otherwise you need to be inventive to use it all up. It's best to cook it all in one go then use up the leftovers in something else - curry, a stir-fry, or even make banana bread using the squash instead of the bananas.

I like it in a salad, where the sweetness contrasts well with the other ingredients - the salty ham, sharp tomatoes and crunchy leaves.

What you need: 
1/2 a butternut squash
Mixed salad leaves
2 slices of Parma or other air-dried ham
A handful of cherry tomatoes
A few black olives
Seasoning
Olive oil
White wine vinegar

What to do:  
Deseed and peel the squash, then cut it into bite-sized cubes. Spread on a baking sheet, drizzle with a dribble of oil and toss well, then bake for about 40 minutes at 180C. Leave to cool.

Wash and dry the salad leaves and put them in a bowl. Halve the cherry tomatoes and scatter them and the olives over the leaves. Shred or tear the ham into small pieces and tuck into the salad. Lastly, add the squash cubes. Whisk up a light dressing of olive oil, vinegar and a little black pepper, pour it over the salad and toss everything together.

Cook's tips: 
Don't use too much oil to roast the squash - you only need just enough to stop it sticking to the baking sheet and no more. Cooked, the cubes should be quite firm and dry, almost like oven chips.

If you don't eat meat, replace the ham with slices of salty goat's cheese or feta.

A ripe avocado works really well too as an extra ingredient.

I don't bother adding salt to the dressing - the ham has plenty.

Downtime and deli plates

It's been quiet. Behind the scenes, though, there have been tears, cursing and not much cooking. And that was just the computer. I got an infection on it just over a week ago, leaving me unable to work or do much else - my "fixer" worked exceptionally hard to get me up and running again and then I had to go through the process of reinstalling all my software.

There's not been much cooking at all on the hob either.

Not much cooking here...

I was away on a work overnighter two weeks ago and came home with a badly damaged foot and an empty fridge. Only one thing for it - get a takeaway delivered.

Ten days ago, I also decided to clear out my freezer. Meat gets something called freezer burn if it's not packed properly at time of freezing, but it will also start to deteriorate gradually if it's kept frozen for a year or more (meat should generally be eaten with 3-6 months of freezing). I rely on my freezer a lot as it's useful for splitting meat packs into smaller portions (a 6-pack of sausages is 2 portions for a hungry lone gourmet, for example) but turnover is important. Most of last week's meals used up older meat and I also ate up some home-cooked frozen meals. The goat stew had survived well as had the Thai curry I knocked up with a homemade spice paste but had forgotten to label.

Mother Hubbard's freezer

And then there were the lazy evenings - supper on the sofa in front of the TV with beans on toast or what I call a deli plate, compiled from whatever's in the fridge. There's usually some cheese and some cold cuts such as parma ham or a slice or two of smoked salmon, olives, a couple of artichoke hearts from a jar, peppadew peppers, fresh tomatoes and salad leaves if I have some. A rummage in the larder may produce some anchovies and a tin of stuffed vine leaves. This sort of feast just needs some crusty bread, pitta or oatcakes to complete it.

No-cook sofa supper

And that's it, really. Normal kitchen service is about to resume (yay!), I'm about to restock my freezer and I'm busy planning the food box I'll be sending to this month's #foodiepenpal.

Oops, nearly forgot - I'm on BBC Radio Manchester tonight, talking about this very blog to Matt White on Gourmet Night at 9pm. Hope you'll find time to tune in!

Souvlaki with khoriatiki

I can't claim any ownership of these two classic Greek dishes, but when the weather's hot the simplicity of both makes the perfect meal. Some of the best dinners I've ever enjoyed have involved sitting on a restaurant terrace in Greece somewhere, eating grilled souvlaki with a traditional salad on the side and either some chips or pita bread with hummus. Not forgetting the bottle of chilled retsina.

You can rustle up the pair within minutes but you do need to give the meat at least 30 minutes to marinate, several hours if you have the time. I don't have any "twist" on these, unlike many well-known chefs - they are not dishes to be tinkered with, in my opinion.

What you need:
150-200g lamb fillet
A handful of ripe cherry or baby plum tomatoes
1 green pepper
5-6 cm piece of cucumber
7-8 dried black Greek olives
1 very small red onion
Olive oil
I lemon
A clove of garlic, crushed
Dried oregano
Seasoning
A small slab of feta cheese

What to do: 
First prepare the lamb. Trim off any excess fat and cut into about 12 2cm cubes. Zest the lemon and juice it. In a bowl, whisk up a marinade of a generous tablespoonful of olive oil, half the lemon juice and all the zest, garlic, a pinch of oregano and some freshly ground black pepper. Put the lamb cubes in, mix thoroughly, cover the bowl with clingfilm and chill in the fridge for as long as possible.

Make the salad. Halve the tomatoes (if you use regular tomatoes cut them into wedges). Halve the cucumber lengthwise, halve it again then cut into chunky quarters. Deseed the pepper and remove any white pith, then cut it half vertically and slice it horizontally into thin strips. Peel the onion and cut it into slim wedges. Put all the vegetables in a bowl and add the olives.

Grill the souvlaki. Thread the lamb cubes onto skewers, grind some sea salt over them and cook for about 9-10 minutes, turning them a couple of times.

While the meat is cooking, make the salad dressing. Add a good glug of olive oil to the rest of the lemon juice - about 3/4 oil. Add a pinch of oregano and some black pepper. Put the feta cheese in one piece on top of the salad and pour the dressing over.

Plate up - put the skewers on the plate, pile some salad next to it and add an extra lemon wedge for squeezing over the meat if you like. If you're very hungry, toast a pita bread for on the side - it's handy for mopping up the juices.

Cook's tips: 
Any of the lean lamb cuts can be used - neck, leg or shoulder fillet are all equally tender and grill well. If you can cook outdoors, do so as there may be a lot of smoke from the oil in the marinade. It's not worth firing up a full-on barbecue for one person, but the disposable ones are just the right size for this. If, like me, you don't even have a balcony then a ridged cast-iron grill pan on the hob is the best option - make sure it is scorching hot. You can also use the grill on your cooker, but the results won't be quite as good. 

Skewers - wooden or metal? I prefer metal myself as it conducts a little heat into the inside of the meat. I've never had much luck with wooden skewers - you need to soak them for at least an hour so they don't burn during cooking, which they always do when I use them.

There are only six ingredients ever in a Greek salad - tomatoes, peppers,olives, cucumber, onion and feta. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. There should be no lettuce of any sort, although even in Greece you might occasionally see a few sprigs of flat-leaf parsley - about the only permissible variation.

If you use an English cucumber for the salad, use a teaspoon to scoop out the seeds first so they don't make the salad watery - the small Mediterranean sort have very few seeds and are much firmer, if you can find them (they look like raw gherkins). Crespo do really nice dried Greek olives in a jar - most supermarkets stock them, but if you can't find any get some kalamata olives instead.

The Greeks always use fresh feta, which is softer, creamier and a lot less salty than the packaged sort. Unfortunately, it's really difficult to find here unless you are lucky enough to have a good cheese shop or deli nearby. If you're using packaged feta, as is most likely, make sure it says feta on the wrapper and not "salad cheese", which is inferior. About a quarter of the slab is enough. I rinse it under the cold tap first to get rid of some of the saltiness, then pat it dry carefully with a little kitchen roll.

Dried olives are salty too - I never add salt to the salad dressing for this reason.

A fruity goat tagine

By now you're probably aware how much I love goat meat. It's not eaten just in Greece, but all round the Med - I've never quite managed to erase the memory of the sight of a row of skinned kids' heads lined up on a butcher's stall when on a stroll through the Arab market in Jerusalem's walled old city. Their eyes were blue and, like the Mona Lisa's, they seemed to follow me as I walked past. Creepy eyes aside, I'm sure the heads were delicious when cooked.

No heads for needed for this recipe, just some diced shoulder. And don't be put off by the long list of ingredients - this is simplicity itself to make. It takes just 5-10 minutes to prep. Makes enough for two portions, so you can eat one and freeze one.

What you need:  
A good glug of olive oil
About 300g goat meat, cubed
1 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
About 3/4 pint chicken stock
1 orange, juiced and zested
Piece of cinnamon stick, about 3cm
Piece of fresh ginger, about 2cm, peeled and very finely chopped
Half a preserved lemon, finely sliced
Handful of pitted green olives
Handful of dried apricots
Handful of finely chopped fresh mint leaves
2 dessert spoonfuls of ground almonds
About a dessert spoonful of flaked almonds
Seasoning
A little chopped coriander

What to do: 
Using a heavy sauteuse, brown the goat in the olive oil over a high heat then scoop it out and set aside while you fry off the onions and garlic in the same oil until translucent and giving off aroma. Return the meat to the pan and pour in the stock, plus the orange zest and juice, cinnamon stick, ginger, preserved lemon and green olives. Grind in some black pepper. Turn down the heat until it's just simmering and leave for about 2 hours. (You can transfer it to the oven if you prefer - about 160C.) Check on it occasionally and top up with boiling water if it looks like it might dry out.

After 2 hours, add the apricots, mint and ground almonds, stir through and let it cook for another half an hour or so. The meat should be tender by now and the juices thickened by the almonds. If the meat's not quite ready, just cook it a while longer - it won't spoil.

Season to taste, stir in the flaked almonds and scatter over the coriander then dish up with some cous-cous and a side salad of tomatoes, cucumber and mint dressed with a little olive oil and lemon juice.

Cook's tips:
If you can't get goat meat, use mutton - it'll need about the same cooking time, but be sure to trim off the fat first. If you use lamb, it will only need about an hour to 90 minutes in total to cook.

Tagines are very flexible - if you don't have any apricots, use some dried figs or dates. Black olives can be used instead of green.

If you freeze a portion, do it before you add the flaked almonds and coriander.

Cous-cous doubles in size when it's ready so measure out about half of what you want to eat. Dump it in a heatproof bowl and cover with the same amount of boiling water. Put a plate over the bowl to trap the heat and steam and leave it for 5 minutes. It should have fluffed up - fork it through to break up the grains. If it looks too dry, add a little more water and leave for another minute or so (it's better to have too little water and top up than too much, which will make it soggy). If you have leftover cous-cous, cover it with cling film and chill in the fridge - it makes a good base for a salad.

Vegetable tagine

I tweeted in passing the other week that I'd rustled up a vegetable tagine and someone tweeted back to ask for the recipe. Alas, I hadn't taken any photos or made any proper notes of what I was doing.

I'd originally planned to make a vegetable curry - the night before, I'd had a Spanish takeaway and ended up with half a carton of leftovers from a chickpea and spinach dish. I also had a sweet potato that needed to be eaten and a red pepper in the fridge. Then I discovered I had no curry paste in the cupboard, but I remembered I did have a jar of tagine paste. And voila, dinner!

The recipe here is for is my original dish from the other week, the photo is what I knocked up last week, with slightly different vegetables. I must say, the original looked prettier - with lots of contrasting colours - but for me tagine is as much about the flavours as the look and sometimes the tastiest flavour combinations don't necessarily look attractive.

What you need:
1 onion, roughly chopped
A clove of garlic, chopped
1 small sweet potato
2 small carrots
1/2 tin chickpeas
1 red or green pepper, deseeded and sliced
A small bunch of spinach
Tagine paste (Al'fez, from most supermarkets)
A handful of stoned olives
1 preserved lemon (can buy in most supermarkets)
Small handful fresh coriander 

What to do:  

Boil the kettle. Sauté the chopped onion in a glug of olive oil. When it's soft and translucent, add half a small jar of tagine paste and fry for 2 minutes. Add the diced sweet potato, sliced carrot rounds, sliced red pepper and the chick peas. Throw in 3-4 lumps of frozen spinach (or use a small bag of washed fresh). Stir through and add the boiling water to make a sauce). Add a handful of stoned black olives and a preserved lemon, sliced finely. Put a tight lid on and turn down the heat. Simmer until the root vegetables are tender. Finish with a little chopped fresh coriander and eat with flatbreads.

 
Cook's notes:
Tagine is a Moroccan dish and can be made with meat too. It's also the name of the clay pot it's cooked in - a round, flattish dish with a tall, conical lid. The pot goes in the oven at a low temperature to braise slowly and the lid acts as a funnel to keep the steam circulating, ensuring the food won't dry out. A decent sauteuse will do the job well on a hob, or transfer the ingredients to a casserole once before you add the hot water and pop it into a moderate oven for an hour or two.

Olives are pretty much an essential for any kind of tagine and many recipes include preserved lemon, a staple in Moroccan cooking. Dried fruit of all sorts is often added - apricots, figs, dates and prunes all pop up regularly, making a good sweet/savoury contrast with the other ingredients - particularly if you're using meat (lamb and chicken being the most common).