Shakshuka

This dish of eggs baked in tomato sauce is found all over the Middle East and north Africa, where it's usually eaten for breakfast. I first tried it back in the mid-80s when I was thumbing my way round Israel and had pitched up in the small northern town of Safed. I stopped at a café to get a beer and got chatting to an elderly man called Jack, who seemed to know absolutely everyone - he kept telling me, "this is Jack's town". He very kindly invited me to his home for a late lunch, which consisted of shakshuka and more beer, followed by coffee.

It took me a while to track down a recipe or two when I finally got home, in those pre-internet days - there are so many variations you could eat a different version every week for a year at least. The basic ingredients are eggs and tomatoes, obviously, and usually peppers - the variation is in the added spices and other flavourings. It's simplicity itself and if you don't fancy it for breakfast, it makes a great brunch, lunch or supper. This is my take on it.

What you need:
1/2tsp fennel seeds
Olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 peppers (red/green) sliced very thinly
2 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
1/2 preserved lemon (optional)
1 small bay leaf
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp muscovado sugar
2-3 sprigs of thyme, just the leaves
Pinch of saffron (optional)
1 egg
Seasoning
A little paprika

What to do:
Dry fry the fennel seeds in a heavy sauteuse over a medium heat until they start to toast and release their aroma then pour in a generous splash of oil and fry the onion until it starts to soften and turn translucent. Add all the other ingredients except for the egg, stir it through, put a lid on and let it cook down gently for about 30 minutes.

Put the tomato sauce in a small ovenproof dish. Break the egg into a small dish, make a well in the tomatoes and gently slide in the egg. Sprinkle with the paprika and bake in a hot oven (180-190C) for about 20 minutes until the egg is fully set.

Cook's tips: 
I like my eggs well cooked, so my shakshuka always goes in the oven but it's just as usual to cook the egg on the hob. Keep the mix in the pan, make the well as before and slide in the egg. Put the lid back on the pan to help the top cook - this method will produce a runnier yolk.

A lot of versions pack in the heat, so don't be afraid to add red chillies to the tomatoes if you like it spicy.

This is also a great way to use up leftover peperonata. Just reheat on the hob and add the egg.

Steamed lime haddock with mango and pepper salsa

This chilly wet summer has sent me scurrying back to favourite dishes I'd never normally cook between May and September. On the rare nice days we've had, though, I've been buying the best seasonal veg at my local market and seeing what's on the slab at the fishmongers. In warm weather I don't want heavy food that lies like a stone in my stomach fish is my first choice for something light and healthy as well as versatile. Whatever fish I buy, I usually steam it or bake it en papillote, as it traps all the flavours and juices and you don't need to add oil.

What you need: 
For the fish
Haddock fillet
1 lime
2 spring onions
1 small stalk of fresh lemongrass
a few slivers of sliced fresh ginger

For the salsa
1/2 a ripe mango
1/2 a red pepper, deseeded
2 spring onions
A few sprigs of fresh coriander

What to do:
Put the fish on a large sheet of tin foil and pull the edges up slightly to start making a pocket. Zest the lime and scatter it over the fish. Shred the spring onions lengthways, slice the lemongrass finely and scatter these and the ginger slices over the fish. Squeeze the juice from the lime and drizzle half of it over the fish. Close the foil parcel tightly.

Bring a pan of water to the boil and then pop a steamer over the top and steam the fish for 10-12 minutes, depending on the size and thickness of the fish.

Make the salsa. Cut the mango into cubes, dice the red pepper and slice the spring onions on the diagonal. Chop the coriander finely and add, then pour over the rest of the lime juice. Season to taste then mix well.

Plate up, keeping the spring onions and ginger with the fish (if, like me, you plan to eat them) and pile the salsa alongside.

Cook's tips: 
En papillote means "in paper", but tin foil works just as well as baking parchment. 

You don't need a special steamer pan to steam food. One of those Chinese bamboo lidded steamer baskets works just as well in a pan as in a wok. Or you can improvise, as I do - I use a metal sieve over the top of the pan, which also makes lifting the food out very easy.

Preparing a mango can be a bit fiddly but I've always found the easiest way is to quarter it with a sharp knife then insert the knife blade inside to cut round the stone and ease each quarter off it. Once the stone's out, cut the flesh lengthways and across then carefully cut the cubes off the skin.

Globe artichokes

I absolutely love globe artichokes - I usually have a jar of artichoke hearts in oil lurking in my fridge somewhere as they make a great addition to a deli plate supper. But I love them fresh too and they are in season right now so I'm making the best of them while I can.

Eating them freshly cooked reminds me of happy times eating al fresco in the French countryside with friends and Parisian Boy, a huge platter of globe artichokes piled in the middle of the table and extra bowls to hand for the discards. Small bowls of French dressing and homemade mayonnaise, plus crusty baguette and dry white wine.

I suspect a lot of people pass up on them in the shops, unsure what to do with them when really they are unbelievably easy to prepare. They are a bit fiddly to eat, but that's half the pleasure. I love to eat with my fingers and if you live alone there's no one to see you sucking away at the fleshy part of the leaves, while dressing dribbles down your chin. Really, they are perfect for solo dining. 

What you need: 
2 globe artichokes
Olive oil
Vinegar
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

What to do: 
Trim the long stalks off with a sharp knife, cutting them as close to the base as possible.They should sit up right after trimming. Don't worry about any brown outer leaves - they are still edible.

Put a very large pan of water on to boil, with a pinch of salt added. Boil the artichokes for at least 30 minutes and up to an hour - they are done when you can easily pull out a leaf.

While they are cooking, whisk up a very light French dressing of olive oil, vinegar and seasoning, and pour it into a small bowl. When the artichokes are cooked, drain them and put on a plate, with the bowl of dressing. Have paper napkins and a second plate to hand.

How to eat:
Pull the leaves off one by one and dip the fleshy inner at the base of the leaf into the dressing and suck the flesh off, using your teeth. Use the second plate to discard any very tough inedible outer leaves and the leftovers of the ones you've eaten.

Don't choke on this bit

When you've eaten all the leaves (the innermost ones being the smallest and tenderest), you'll reach a fibrous mass called the choke. You can't eat this so pull it off with your fingers or cut it away with a knife. Discard. What's left is the prize -  the artichoke heart, a soft and fleshy disc that makes all the previous effort so worthwhile.

The prized heart

Put this lot on the compost

Cook's tips:
Cooking time varies depending on how fresh the artichokes are and how late in the season it is. I usually bet on a good 45 minutes, but very young ones will need less time and older, bigger ones will need around 60 minutes. The only way to tell is to keep trying to pull a leaf out.

White wine vinegar is traditional in a French dressing, but a light fruity one such as raspberry or apple works well too. Keep the proportion of vinegar to about a third.

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.

Larder larks no. 4

It's been a funny old month. GastroClub on hold (and much missed). A sick computer. A work project that saw me doing 12-hour days for 3 weeks. The weather... I've not done much cooking - the volume of work meant that for the last 10 days at least I've been living on snatched sandwiches and delivered takeaways.

But then a few days ago, this lovely parcel arrived.

It was, of course, a #foodiepenpals parcel and it came from Becky, who had thoughtfully sent me a lovely batch of storecupboard goodies. And I loved the purple packing paper too!

Some of it was scoffed fairly quickly. The olive tapenade survived barely a day - as a topping for rice cakes, it made a tasty snack while I was buried in work. The dried fruit breakfast topper was a welcome addition to my breakfast granola, until it ran out...

Alas, the pickled garlic (something I really love - how did Becky know?) leaked in transit. Becky's handwritten card was a soggy mess on opening the parcel. But, hey, the garlic is pickled, right? I figured it would be fine and as it happened I had a bottle of it in the fridge that was almost empty but was still full of pickling juice. So Becky's garlic went into the fridge with my garlic. Sorted.

The turmeric has gone into my spice cupboard, of course. And the Welsh whisky grain mustard is in the larder (I had a little taste and it's mighty fine).

Most intriguing was the rosemary jelly.

I've never come across this before but I thought it would be good with lamb. A quick chat with Becky on Twitter confirmed this. I've not eat any lamb since its arrival, but I have a good excuse to drop into my butcher this week so I can try it out.

Meanwhile, with the big project finally signed off I'll be getting busy in my kitchen again...

Tsimmes

This dish of carrots cooked sweetly for a long period is a Jewish classic and there are probably a zillion ways to prepare it - every Jewish mother and grandmother has their own recipe, often handed down the family. As a child, I ate this sometimes at my grandparents' house to which we travelled once a month for a weekend feast, the whole family gathered round a long dining table. It was only years later that I actually had a go at making my own version.

The commonest way to prepare the basics is to cook the plain carrots alongside a beef brisket joint, simmering for ages, the meat then fished out to finish making the tsimmes and then bringing the meat and carrots together again on a serving platter. Delicious as this is, it's not practical for a solo diner, and anyway there are plenty of recipes for cooking tsimmes separately. Most versions involve simmering first then baking.

Sugar or honey is essential to boost the natural sweetness of the carrots and some people also add dried fruit - raisins or sultans, or perhaps some chopped apricots or prunes. Which way you go will depend on how sweet your tooth is. I like to keep it simple, though. In the absence of a large joint of brisket and half a dozen friends round to help you eat it, tsimmes still goes best with some sort of salty meat. Heresy, I know, but I like to pair it with a grilled gammon steak or bacon chop - a match made in heaven for my own palate.

 What you need:
250g carrots
1 very small onion
Unsalted butter
1/4 pint vegetable stock
1 heaped dessert spoonful light demerara sugar or honey
Lemon juice
1 heaped dessert spoonful ground almonds
1 egg, beaten
Black pepper

What to do:
Heat the oven to 180C. Grate the carrots very coarsely and chop the onion finely. Melt a knob of butter in a sauteuse and gently fry the onion until soft and starting to caramelise. Add the carrots, stock and sugar or honey, bring to the boil then turn the heat down and simmer gently for 10 minutes.

Tip everything into a small oven-proof casserole. Grind in a little black pepper and a tiny squeeze of lemon juice. Taste the liquid to check the balance of sweet and sour and adjust if needed. Stir through the almonds thoroughly. Now add the beaten egg and stir through again. Bake for 30 minutes.

Cook's tips: 
Keep the ingredients to a minimum. A pinch of ginger can pep up the tsimmes - traditionally this is the only spice acceptable to use. And while coriander is a popular partner for carrots, bringing it in here would mean it's no longer a tsimmes.

Use a good quality stock powder, such as Marigold vegetable bouillon which is much less salty than a stock cube, and don't make it too strong - a heaped teaspoon should be plenty for a quarter pint of stock.

Don't leave out the egg - a baked tsimmes should be set firm like a pudding and it needs the egg to bind it together. Be very quick beating it through so it doesn't start to scramble before you put the dish it in the oven.

Some recipes include potato or breadcrumbs for extra padding. I find potato only adds blandness. The breadcrumbs should be stirred through but you could sprinkle them over the top for a gratinée.

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!

Chocolate chilli macaroni cheese

My last #foodiepenpals parcel contained a box of chocolate pasta. I was intrigued enough to do some research into the kind of dishes people usually make with it. I've used flavoured pasta before - squid ink, tomato, basil, etc - but I could see the possibility here to go two ways. Sweet or savoury.

I ended up bookmarking a few recipes to try later but as Ruth, my parcel donor, has also included a packet of pasilla chillies it seemed to logical to use them together - there's a long culinary history of using chilli and chocolate together, or even just chocolate with savoury dishes generally (the Mexican chicken in chocolate sauce I once ate in Antwerp was pretty memorable, for all the right reasons).

In the end, I decided to reinvent an old favourite. For who can resist macaroni cheese, one of the ultimate comfort foods? I wouldn't normally eat it at this time of year but the weather's been iffy enough for nippy evenings. I've used all the regular add-ons I throw into mac cheese - the challenge was to see if they were a good match for my parcel ingredients. They do - both the chocolate and the pasilla bring subtly exotic notes to the macaroni cheese, adding a pleasing extra dimension to it without overpowering it. You can taste all the different ingredients.

What you need: 
100g chocolate macaroni
1 pasilla chilli
150g lardons
1 small onion, finely chopped
100g cheddar cheese, grated
About 200g crème fraiche
Butter
Seasoning

What to do: 
Soak the chilli in hot water until it's soft, about 10-15 minutes. Boil the pasta for 8-10 minutes until it's al dente, drain and set aside.

While the pasta is cooking, make the sauce. Sauté the onion gently in a small knob of butter until it's soft and transparent. Add the lardons and fry until cooked. Chop the pasilla finely and add to the pan then stir in the crème fraiche. Mix well. Add about two-thirds of the cheese and stir again. Season to taste.

Tip the macaroni into a small ovenproof dish, pour over the sauce and stir it through. Top with the rest of the cheese and bake at 180C for about 30 minutes until the top is golden, crispy and bubbling.

Cook's tips: 
The pasilla packaging warned it was hot, hotter than chipotle, so I was wary at first. On cutting open the rehydrated chilli I was shocked at the number of seeds inside and left them aside. On tasting the fruit, though, I discovered it's not so hot after all - all the seeds went into the sauce. If you want heat, add some fresh chilli but tread carefully.

I rarely bother to make a bechamel sauce for pasta. It's just extra carbs - crème fraiche alone works just as well to coat the macaroni in creaminess, even the low fat version I usually buy. The cheese also helps make the bechamel redundant.

Be sure to use a decent cheddar with a robust flavour. Anything like a mild Cheshire or Wensleydale will get lost among the competing ingredients.

Larder larks no. 3

My #foodiepenpals parcel arrived mid-month and I can only say that I was overjoyed at the contents. Ruth, my benefactor, really pulled out all the stops to send me a truly exciting and inspiring box of goodies in the midst of a double house move.

Inside was a good mix of treats and snacks plus what I love to experiment with - ingredients! I wasn't disappointed with the latter and indeed went rushing off to research some of the more unusual items.

Among the treats and snacks were a packet of mini grissini - perfect for the solo snacker parked on the sofa in front of the TV, a tasty raw fruit bar that was free of all the usual additives (and I really like that the company supports some very worthwhile charities), a packet of organic instant miso soup - one of those items it's really handy to have in the larder, and a tiny pot of Barnet honey, local to the north London district. With spectacular timing, Ruth had also popped in a small pot of garam masala - mine had just run out so I was happy with that.

Perhaps the most unusual snack (in the long red packet) was the Iranian fruit roll - a long thin strip of pressed apple and barberry. I had to look up the barberry fruit as I'd not heard of it. The strips were encased in plastic film, which took some prising off and then, time to taste! The texture was very chewy, not unlike liquorice, and the fruitiness was intense, with a short burst of sweetness and a tarter after-taste lingering on the palate that pleased me as I don't have a hugely sweet tooth. Thumbs up. I have an Iranian deli near to me so that's something I'll look out for.

I use chipotle chillis quite a lot, as I prefer their smoky flavour to the searing heat of fresh varieties, so I was delighted to find a pack in the box. On closer inspection, they were not chipotles at all but a variety of dried chilli called pasilla. This is also smoked when dried but is much hotter than chipotle and the pack comes with a warning to wear gloves when preparing them.

I was also very excited to receive a packet of artisan pasta produced in the oldest traditional manner - with an unusual twist. It was flavoured with cocoa (at nearly 10% of the ingredient list). There was a recipe on the box for a sauce made with mascarpone, parmesan, pine nuts and parsley - almost a pesto - but I've been experimenting...

Here's my twist on a much-loved favourite.