Perfect roast beef

Ingredients:

1.5 kg quality topside of beef 

2 medium onions 

2 carrots 

2 sticks celery 

1 bulb garlic 

1 small bunch fresh thyme, rosemary, bay or sage, or a mixture 

olive oil 

sea salt 

freshly ground black pepper

Method:

To prepare your beef: 

Take your beef out of the fridge 30 minutes before it goes into the oven. Preheat your oven to 240°C/475°F/ gas 9. There's no need to peel the vegetables – just give them a wash and roughly chop them. Break the garlic bulb into cloves, leaving them unpeeled. Pile all the veg, garlic and herbs into the middle of a large roasting tray and drizzle with olive oil. Drizzle the beef with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper, rubbing it all over the meat. Place the beef on top of the vegetables.

To cook your beef:

Place the roasting tray in the preheated oven. Turn the heat down immediately to 200°C/400°F/gas 6 and cook for 1 hour for medium beef. If you prefer it medium-rare, take it out 5 to 10 minutes earlier. For well done, leave it in for another 10 to 15 minutes. If you're doing roast potatoes and veggies, this is the time to crack on with them – get them into the oven for the last 45 minutes of cooking. Baste the beef halfway through cooking and if the veg look dry, add a splash of water to the tray to stop them burning. When the beef is cooked to your liking, take the tray out of the oven and transfer the beef to a board to rest for 15 minutes or so. Cover it with a layer of tinfoil and a tea towel and put aside while you make your gravy, horseradish sauce and Yorkshire puddings.

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Fish Pie

Ingredients:

1.2kg ideally waxy potatoes, peeled and chopped into large chunks

750g mix of fish including cod, salmon and prawns or similar and cut into 1 inch chunks

1 carrot, grated

2 sticks celery, grated

168g reduced fat cheddar (4 HEAs), grated

2 tomatoes, diced

100g baby spinach

Half a red chilli, very finely chopped

2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

Juice of 1 lemon

salt and pepper

Method:

Boil the potatoes until cooked through and then mash with some seasoning - use a couple of spoonfuls of the cooking water or some stock if you need something to moisten it.

While the potatoes are cooking, put all of the remaining ingredients into a large ovenproof dish and mix with a little seasoning.

Add the mashed potatoes on top of the fish mixture.

Place in a 200C oven for 30-40 minutes or until the top is golden.

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Spanish Omelette

1 medium potato - cut into 1cm cubes

1 small onion - diced

1 tub quark

4 eggs

Fry off the potato cubes and onion in a pan using frylite, until beginning to soften. 

Remove from the heat and stir in the quark, followed by the eggs. Mix well and season.

Transfer to shallow oven dish and bake at 180° until browned on top.

Free food. Delicious hot or cold from the fridge. I've served mine with salad, left over salmon from last night and dressing made with fat free natural Greek yogurt, garlic, herbs, salt, pepper &  sweet chilli.

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olive garden zuppa toscana soup recipe

1 pound spicy Italian sausage

1/2 pound bacon, chopped

7 cups water

3 chicken flavored bouillon cubes

2 large russet potatoes, scrubbed clean and cubed

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cups chopped kale

1 cup heavy whipping cream

salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

In a dutch oven or large soup pot over medium-high heat, brown sausage, breaking into small pieces as you fry it; drain, set aside.

In the same dutch oven or large soup pot over medium-high heat, brown bacon; remove and set aside. Leave two tablespoons of rendered bacon fat in the skillet.

Saute the potatoes, onion, and garlic in the rendered bacon fat over medium or low-medium heat. Saute until the onion begins to be translucent and the potatoes have are still a little firm, but are beginning to soften.

Add the sausage, bacon, 7 cups water, and 3 chicken bouillon cubes to the pot. Simmer until the potatoes are tender.

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