Appendix: Recipes

• Preheat the oven to 200C.
• Peel & chop up the sweet & white potatoes into chunks. Fill a pot with water & wait for it to boil, add the chopped potatoes.
• Dice celery, garlic & onions.
• Drizzle olive oil into a pan, add diced onions, garlic & let them soften & sweat. Then add the diced celery until they begin to soften.
• Add lentils, tomatoes & into the pan stir until thoroughly mixed. Add tomato paste, oregano, stock cube, salt & pepper.
• Check the potatoes – poke the chunks with a fork. If the fork goes through. Turn off the heat & drain the potatoes. Mash up the softened potatoes with some butter, salt & pepper.
• In a baking tray, add the cooked lentil mix, followed by the mashed potato. Spread the mashed potato with a fork. Add the shredded cheese until it covers the top.
• Bake pie until the top turns golden brown, approx. 15 minutes.

• Mix marinade and cut lamb neck fillet into chunks allowing for shrinking during cooking
• Marinade lamb neck chunks for an hour or longer if possible
• Soak wooden skewers in water
• Prepare accompanying veg into chunks
• Assemble the skewers, alternating between veg and meat or other combinations
• Place under medium to high grill for 15-20 minutes, turning over once until cooked

Salted egg with pork mince

• Season the pork mince with light soy sauce, corn flour, salt and pepper
• Mash the salted egg yokes
• Add salted egg yokes to the pork mince

Butter sauce

• Melt butter in a pan and sautee the shallots
• Add garlic to the pan and lastly the spring onions

Assemble the pork mince over the body of the reassembled crab and drizzle over the butter

• Bake crab in a pre-heated over at 180C for 15-20 mins depending on the size of your crab

• Prepare all ingredients before cooking
• Cook chicken thigh in hot wok, remove from wok
• Heat 1 tbsp of vegetable oil in wok, fry onion/shallots and soften
• add preserved radish, beansprouts to wok and fry for a couple of minutes
• Add cooked chicken and softened noodles to wok and mix well
• add Pad Thai sauce to wok and mix well
• Serve with toppings

• Prepare all ingredients ready to cook
• In a hot wok, fry shallots in 1 tbsp of vegetable oil for 2-3 minutes
• Add pork mince and fry for 2-3 minutes
• Add the leaves, chilli, palm sugar and fish sauce and keep stir frying for a couple of minutes
• Squeeze lime juice and mix. Ready to serve in lettuce leaf boats.

• Preheat oven to 220C. Remove leg of lamb from the fridge about 30 minutes before cooking
• Using a deep roasting tray, line the tray with sliced onions
• Make a number of incisions into the lamb approx. 3cm deep using a sharp knife. All over the surface of the leg of lamb
• Using a longer, sharp knife, make a few deeper incisions into the thicker parts of the leg approx 10cm deep
• Into each of the smaller incisions, insert a sprig or two of rosemary, slither of garlic and anchovies each. Repeat all over the leg.
• In a small bowl, mix together the finely chopped garlic, anchovies, rosemary (dried if using) and capers, ready for use
• Into each of the deeper incisions, spread the finely chopped stuffing throughout the leg
• Place the prepared leg of lamb on top of the bed of onions
• Drizzle the oil from the anchovies onto the leg of lamb
• Roast the leg of lamb for 20 minutes at 220C
• Turn the temperature down to 180C and add the water to the roasting tray. Cook for the remaining time at 25 minutes/500g.
• Remove lamb from the roasting tin and rest on a pre-heated baking tray for 15-20 minutes.
• Whilst resting, prepare the gravy by pouring all the juices from the roasting tin into a saucepan. Add the flour and red wine and bring to the boil whilst constantly stirring. Add more water to volumise the gravy. Adjust taste with salt and pepper then keep warm on a low heat.
• Carve the lamb and serve with roast potatoes and vegetables of choice.

• Preheat oven to 160C
• In a bowl, mix together plain flour, garlic granules, onion granules and black pepper. Coat each piece of oxtail with thee flour mixture.
• In a heavy bottomed pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil and brown each piece of oxtail and set aside.
• In the same pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil and sautee the garlic, onions and celery until softened.
• Add the browned oxtail pieces, tomatoes, carrots, courgettes and any vegetables being used and fry on a medium heat for a couple of minutes.
• Add the tinned tomatoes and water and bring to the boil with the lid on. Keep it boiling for about 5 minutes
• Place in the pre-heated oven for 2 hrs 30 minutes.
• If not preparing for next day, the stew is ready.
• Otherwise, remove from oven and allow to cool with lid on overnight at room temperature.
• Reheat before serving either on the hob or in the oven at 180C for 45 minutes to an hour.
• Serve with cous cous or rice.

Beef and tomato filling

• In a large, deep bottomed pan, sautee the onions and garlic with olive oil until soft
• Add minced beef and brown throughout
• Add the tinned tomatoes, stock cube, thyme and pepper then allow to simmer for around 15 minutes. Then turn heat off ready for use

White sauce

• Whilst the beef and tomato filling is simmering, make the white sauce by creating a rue in a separate saucepan with the butter and flour on low heat. Melt the butter first then add the flour a spoonful at a time and mix with the melted butter
• Then add the milk slowly whilst making sure the rue dissolves in the milk. Add more milk if more white sauce is needed
• Continue cooking on low heat and keep stirring for about 5 minutes. The sauce will thicken then turn the heat off ready for use

Assembly

• In a large rectangular baking tray with high sides, spoon a layer of beef on the bottom, followed by sheets of lasagne. Break the sheets up to ensure an even coverage
• Spoon white sauce onto the lasagne sheets then repeat with beef, lasagne and white sauce
• End with a layer of white sauce
• Bake in a preheated oven at 200C for 30 minutes. Then sprinkle cheese on top and bake for a further 15 minutes at 180C

Pre-cooking prep

• Find a heavy bottomed pot with a lid. If using the oven method, make sure it's oven safe!
• Get everything chopped up

Let's start cooking

• Add your olive oil into your pot on medium heat. Add the chicken and cook until all pieces are not quite cooked through but cooked on the outside
• Use a spatula or slotted spoon, remove the chicken and set aside leaving the juice/oil in the pot
• Add the onions and fry for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and chorizo and fry for a further 5 minutes or so stirring regularly until the onions have softened
• Add the rice and fry for a couple of minutes to allow the grains to be coated with all the flavoured oil within the pan
• Add the chicken back into the pot before adding the tinned tomatoes. Stir to ensure it is well mixed
• Add water and stir (If you don't want your rice to be very soft then just follow the side of the paella rice packet for volume of water to use)
• Add pimenton (if using) and stir for a couple of minutes
• Add the seafood and remaining ingredients except the prawns and stir
• Once everything is added, arrange your prawns on top in a pattern (or just add the prawns in the previous step if you wish)
• Lid on and move onto the following steps.

If you're prepping ahead, stop now. Restart before you want to serve up

• If using hob, bring the paella back up to a boil and turn the heat down.
• Simmer for about 20 minutes whilst keeping an eye on the water adding a splash more if needed. You should get to a point when most of the water has evaporated and your rice is not al dente (try it!)

Alternate method if not using hob just before serving (needs more time before serving)

• If you don't have time to watch the hob just before you need to serve (eg little one's bed time!), then put the whole pot in a pre-heated oven at 180C fan for a good 45-60 minutes before serving
• If your rice is still a bit al dente, the paella may need finishing off for 5-10 minutes on the hob right at the end. Keep an eye on the water, may need to add a splash and stir so it doesn't burn on the bottom