Savoury Pancakes

Sometimes you want to eat something delicious and comforting and quick. That's where this recipe comes in. It's not the best diet food but it's all good wholesome ingredients.

1. 200g self raising flour
2. 2 free-range eggs
3. 1/2 pint of milk (I used semi-skimmed)
4. 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
5. 70g rocket or watercress (or however much is in the bunch or bag that you buy)
6. 75g of grated strong cheese (more if you are looking for a cheesy hit, up to 100g will work)
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the baking powder. Add the milk and eggs and beat until smooth with no lumps at all. Add the cheese, the chopped leaves, a generous few twists of freshly-ground pepper and a pinch of sea salt and mix. Put a ladleful at a time onto a griddle or greased frying pan and cook on a moderate to high heat for until golden brown on each side and cooked through. Eat as they are or spread with a little tomato relish or home-made chutney.

Serves two if you are ravenous or three or four as a light lunch or snack.

If you're making it just for yourself, as I was, you can put the leftover mixture into the fridge in a covered bowl and cook it the next day. It will be just as good the second day (maybe even better).

This recipe can be made with any vegetables you have in the house. It's good with grated courgette, grated carrots, finely chopped spring onions or cooked spinach. I'd like to try it with beetroot too!

Fudge

There are days when the smell of cooking fudge, in all it's vanilla-ey goodness, just makes the world a better place. I don't know if standing over a saucepan of boiling sugar is good for the complexion, but breathing in the clouds of butterscotch-scented steam is certainly good for the soul.

Making fudge is actually ridiculously easy, though you do need to be careful as boiling sugar is up there with napalm on the dangerous substances list.

I made this yesterday with a friend's eight-year-old, by which I mean she weighed out the ingredients and then I stirred for twenty minutes whilst she went and played a cooking game on the computer. Modern life eh?

If you don't have the time or inclination to make your own, you can buy delicious Fair Trade Fudge here http://www.devoncottagefudge.co.uk/fudgemade.php

• oil, for greasing (I used one of those Frylight sprays and it worked really well)


• 300ml milk (You can use semi-skimmed but if you're buying it specially go for the full fat)


• 350g caster sugar


• 100g unsalted butter (to be honest I always use salted butter and it's never been a problem)


• 1 tsp vanilla extract or Camp coffee

1. Grease an 18cm square cake tin. Luckily my friend does a lot of tray bakes for school and had tin-foil cake tins so I didn't have to worry about ruining her bakeware.

2. Put the milk, sugar and butter in a heavy-based saucepan. Heat slowly, stirring all the time, until the sugar has dissolved and the butter melted.

3. Bring to the boil and boil for 15-20 minutes, stirring all the time.

4. When the mixture reaches the soft-ball stage * (115°C on a sugar thermometer), remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract or Camp. Leave to cool for 5 minutes. Use this time to eat some of the fudge mixture on chopped up bananas as a sauce.

5. Beat the mixture with a spoon for a few minutes until it starts to thicken and the gloss disappears.

6. Pour into the prepared tin and leave to set at room temperature (do not put it in the fridge).

7. Once set, cut the fudge into small squares and store in a sealed container eating any pieces that are irregular just to neaten it all up nicely.

* Soft ball- have a bowl of cold water next to the cooker and after about fifteen minutes drop a little of the mixture into it. If you can form it into a soft (and yummy) ball it is ready.

Scones

Short o or long?  I'm a soft southerner so when I eat a scone it rhymes with Ron.  However you say it. they're easy to make, quick to cook and delicious.
There was no bread in the house this morning- again- so I made a quick batch whilst I waited for the bread to cook. 

• 8 oz self raising flour
• 1  1/2 oz butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons caster sugar
• pinch of salt
• milk

Preheat the oven to 220 C.

1. Sift the flour into a large bowl and add a pinch of salt.
2. Cut the butter into pieces and put into the flour, rub in until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.  You don't need to be quite as light fingered as with pastry but the less you mess with the mixture the better.
3. Add the sugar and mix through lightly.  You can make the mixture up ahead of time and stop at this point as long as you leave it in the fridge, it will keep for a few days and can be finished off when you have guests (who will be madly impressed) or for breakfast.
4. Add milk to make into a firm but pliable dough.  This is the point where it can all go wrong as it is very easy to add too much.  Start by adding no more than a tablespoon and add just a tiny bit at a time so that your mixture isn't too wet.  I have deliberately left out a quantity from this recipe as measuring it does not work; you need to do it by eye.
5. Roll on a floured board (or work surface) with a floured rolling pin (use a wine bottle if you don't have a pin) until it is about 3/4 of an inch (2cm) thick.
6. Cut out the shapes and place on a non-stick baking sheet.  Put them all bunched together (don't worry, they won't stick to each other) so that they rise better.
7. Cook near the top of the oven for 10-15 mins depending on the size and shape.

Best eaten warm from the oven with butter, but jam and cream, cheese, even Marmite are all delicious on them.  They aren't particularly sweet so they can be served as sweet or savoury as you chose.  Eat them on the day of baking (the fresher, the better); they don't keep well.

Broad Bean Pate

This is the easiest recipe I've ever posted and probably one of the most delicious. I made it as I had left-over beans due to my propensity to cook enough for a tribe.

You will need:

Broad Beans
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Fresh Mint
Salt
Pepper

1. Cook the broad beans until soft- I admit that I use frozen broad beans these days as they're so convenient and delicious.
2. Dress the warm beans with the balsamic vinegar. Serve some of these with your dinner, they're lovely.
3. Let the beans sit and absorb the vinegar for an hour or overnight if you're using leftovers.
4. Using a food processor or sick blender start to puree the beans, add a generous sprig of fresh mint and salt and pepper to taste as you blend.
5. Add some good quality olive oil (avocado oil would be delicious too). I'm currently living with a dieter so I used less than normal, about a two teaspoons of oil per handful (not heaped) of beans and this gave a stiff paste.
6. Serve as on toast or as a side dish with cold meats or fish. We had it with salmon and I made a sandwich out of it.
   

I didn't worry about taking the papery skins off and they were invisible in the finished pate. This will keep in a screw-top jar (a use for those Bon Maman jam-jars we all hoard) for a couple of days in the fridge. You could pour a layer of olive oil onto the top to stop it from discolouring, just pour the oil off before serving.