Sweet Potato, Walnut and Blue Cheese Salad

This was a late night comfort dinner after a very long day at work.  It was a hasty effort which turned out better than planned.  The idea was to indulge in two garlic butter rolls, but a brainwave turned one roll into a sweet potato sandwich for the next days lunch - highly recommended.  Saint Augur blue cheese worked perfectly because it's so creamy, but any blue cheese would do.  The salad leaves and parsley came from our roof garden in Peckham - will post on that soon.


Fed 2 for dinner & 1 for lunch: 95p per person, per meal.

Ingredients:

75g Walnuts 75p

1 Large sweet potato £1

1/2 Packet blue cheese £1.10

Total: £2.85

Store Cupboard:

Bread

Butter

Garlic

Parsley

Salad leaves

- Peel and chop the sweet potato into equal size chunks and put them on to boil. Use a pan with a lid if possible. It will take abound 25 minutes.

- Put the butter into a dish with crushed garlic and parsley (enough for as many garlic bread rolls as you want - or you could make extra garlic butter to store in the fridge). Set aside.

- Cut the blue cheese into chunks and set aside.

- When the sweet potato is cooked through (push at a big piece with a knife to see if it's soft), drain it. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes.

- Put the bowl of butter inside the now empty pan with the lid for about a minute. The heat will soften the butter enough to mash the ingredients together.

- Put the walnuts, blue cheese and salad leaves in a serving bowl. Add the sweet potato chunks and mix it up.

- Serve with the garlic bread and a big glass of red wine.

If you are really pushed for time, you could try microwaving the sweet potato and have it cut open with the salad on top.

Courgette and Butter Pasta

We put this meal together one quiet Monday evening.  We were exhausted and couldn't be bothered to cook anything which required more effort than walking down the road for a Vietnamese.

Inspired by a vague memory of a River Café recipe printed years ago in the Guardian, the limited contents of our fridge led us to this dinner.  The courgette, cooked slowly in butter and its own juices, becomes so soft and creamy that there is no need for a sauce.

 

This meal is surprisingly satisfying for how simple it is and has a decidedly lower cost than the aforementioned alternative.

 

Fed 2: 43p per person.

Ingredients:
1 courgette 40p
Half packet of farfelle 45p
Total: 90p


Store cupboard:
Extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves
30g butter
Parmesan

- Halve the courgette and slice fairly thinly, about 1cm thick.

- Gently fry the garlic in olive oil until soft and then add the courgette. 

- Season the courgette with salt, stirring until the courgette slices begin to soften.

 - Add half of the butter to the courgette, stir in and reduce the heat.

- Cook the pasta in salted boiling water.

- Continue stirring the courgette slices for another 10-15 minutes while the pasta is cooking.  They should be really soft and starting to collapse.  Add a little of the pasta water if they start to become dry or stuck to the pan.

- Stir in the rest of the butter and remove from the heat.

- Drain the pasta and tip into the courgette and butter sauce.  Toss well to coat.

- Serve in bowls, topped with black pepper and plenty of parmesan.

Grana Padana and Pecorino are good alternatives to Parmesan and are often a bit cheaper too.

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with Thyme

Scrambling eggs is an art in itself, the key is to not overcomplicate it.

We have tried an array of different methods and combinations, including scrambling duck eggs which ended in an over whisked grey mound with a grainy consistency.  Not recommended.  This recipe keeps it simple.  The butter and thyme give the eggs a creamy aromatic flavour.  Dried thyme holds its flavour better than most herbs, working just as well if you don't have access to fresh thyme like we did.

These eggs make a great breakfast dish on their own or with a couple of rashers of crispy grilled bacon.

Fed 2.

Ingredients:

3 medium sized eggs

A dash of milk

A couple of sprigs of Thyme

Knob of butter
Salt and pepper

- Crack the eggs into the bowl, adding a dash of milk (about 4tbsp), salt and pepper and the thyme.

- Gently whisk the mixture for about 20-30 seconds until all combined.  

- Heat a large knob of butter in a frying pan on a moderate to low heat.  Once melted add the egg mixture and leave for about 20 seconds. 

- With a wooden spoon lift and fold the mixture from the bottom of the pan and leave for about 10-15 seconds, then stir again.  Repeat this process until the eggs are almost cooked through, as they will continue to cook for a couple more seconds after removed from the heat. 

- Serve however you wish, with a piece of toast or as part of a full english.

Kohlrabi, Orange and Watercress Salad

Always exciting to find an interesting vegetable in your (parents’) organic veg box, especially when it comes with a helpful recipe suggestion.  Thanks Riverford!

Although we can’t claim this salad idea as our own it’s definitely one worth passing along. 

We made one very slight adjustment and just used extra virgin olive oil in the dressing rather than the suggested mix of olive and sunflower.  We also ignored their fussy presentation suggestion and just threw the whole lot in a big bowl.

Kohlrabi is coming into season now.  You may struggle to find it in supermarkets but should be able to get your hands on some in grocers and vegetable shops.

Ingredients:

1 kohlrabi (2 if small)

2 oranges

100g watercress

Dressing:

Juice of 1 orange

Zest of ½ orange

90ml olive oil

½ tbsp fennel seeds

1 tsp caraway seeds

Lemon

Salt and pepper

- Grind the seeds in a pestle and mortar. 

- Mix together the orange juice, zest, oil and ground seeds.  Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.

- Peel the kohlrabi.  Cut in half and slice thinly.

- Add the sliced kohlrabi to the dressing and leave to steep.

- Cut away the peel from the oranges and slice into thin discs.

- Add the watercress, sliced oranges and kohlrabi to a big bowl along with the dressing and toss so that everything is coated in the dressing.

Chicken with Tarragon, Vermouth and Cream with Potato Boulangere

This is a good recipe for a nice, informal meal.  After the initial preparation it doesn't require much attention so you can relax with a glass of wine.

We made this for 9 and allowed 2 chicken thighs per person.  The great thing about this dinner is that the  quantities can easily be adjusted according to numbers.  The chicken alone would make a good light supper for 1 or 2 people, served with salad and crusty bread.

The recipe for the chicken is adapted from Real Food; an old Nigel Slater book.  If we made this again we'd use less cream than he states and have adjusted our ingredients list accordingly.  Potatoes boulangere is a good alternative to potatoes dauphinoise, which can be quite heavy, certainly if paired with another rich dish.

We used organic chicken thighs from our local butcher which made it expensive, our priciest dinner to date, but it could be done cheaper.  We've listed the vermouth as 'Store Cupboard' because it's worth investing in to use in other dishes, like risotto.

Fed 9: £2.22 per person

Chicken with Tarragon, Vermouth and Cream

Ingredients:
18 organic chicken thighs £15
75g butter approx. 35p
400ml double cream £1.30
1 1/2 bunches of fresh tarragon £1.20
Lemon 20p
Total: 18.05 

Store Cupboard:
300ml dry vermouth
4tbsp white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper

- Pre-heat the oven to 180/gas mark 4

- Season the chicken thighs on both sides with salt and pepper.  Finely chop the tarragon.

- Melt the butter in a large shallow flameproof oven tray, add the chicken (skin down) and cook until the skin is golden.  Make sure the butter doesn't burn.

- Remove the tray from the oven, take out the chicken and put to one side.

- Put the tray on the hob over a low heat and add the vermouth and vinegar.  Bring to the boil.  Scrape at any sticky bits of chicken that may be stuck to the bottom of the pan and stir into the vermouth for a minute or two. 

- Pour in the cream, add the tarragon leaves.  Return the chicken and any juices to the pan and put back in the oven for 20 minutes.  Check from time to time.

- Once the chicken is cooked through, check the seasoning, squeeze over the lemon and serve. 

Potatoes Boulangere

Ingredients:

8 potatoes £1

2 large onions (or equivalent) 40p

50g butter 50p

Total: £1.90

Store Cupboard:

Stock cubes/bouillon

300ml milk

Salt and pepper

- Pre-heat the oven to 180/gas mark 4.

- Peel the potatoes and slice thinly.

- Peel and chop the onion.

- Using some of the butter, grease a shallow oven tray.

- Arrange the potatoes and onions in layers and season as you go. Finish with a layer of potatoes.

- Mix 300ml of hot stock and pour into the tray along with the milk. Dot the top with butter.

- Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes. The top should starting to brown.

We served these with a kohlrabi, orange and watercress salad, tomatoes and bread to mop up all the juices. 

Apple Crumble

Last Friday we all headed to Oxford, where two of us are from, and spent the long weekend catching up with family and friends.  We went for walks in the woods, visited a few of our favourite haunts, and got busy in our family kitchens.

Our meals were definitely influenced by our location, access to different fridges, recipe books, and seasonal organic veg boxes. We'll post more of our meals later in the week.  For now though, whilst the rain is still heavy, we want to share this crumble recipe.

This crumble is made with fallen apples from one of our parents' garden.  They stew tons during autumn months and freeze plenty to keep the crumbles coming year round.  However, not everyone has an apple tree in their garden, we definitely don't in London, where we use Bramley apples instead.

Most people have an opinion on the fruit to crumble ratio and the general sweetness.  Our preference is fruit heavy and not too sweet, but you can amend the quantities to fit your taste.

We added a bit of gentle spice to our topping with a mixture of powdered ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cassia.  Ours came out of a packet but you could do something similar if you have any of these spices in your cupboard.

Due to dietary needs we used gluten free flour, but this could be replaced with plain. 

Fed 9

Store Cupboard:
Topping:

160g flour

50g oats

80g unsalted butter

40g soft brown sugar

Filling:

Approx. 6-8 Bramley apples
2/3 tbsp dark brown sugar


- Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas Mark 6

- Peel and core the apples, then chop into chunks (approx. bite-sized) and put into a bowl of water to keep from going brown.

- Once all your apples are chopped drain and tip into a pan.

- Sprinkle the sugar on top.  The apples will be wet from soaking and you shouldn’t need to add any extra water.

- Cook over a gentle heat until pulpy - approx 15/20 minutes.

- Remove from the heat and add to an over proof dish or pie tin.

- Put the butter, flour and oats into a bowl and mix well with your hands.  You may need to add a bit more butter if the mixture hasn’t gone crumbly enough.

- Add the sugar and mix thoroughly.

- Cover the apples with the crumble topping and bake in the oven until golden brown on top; approx. 20/30 minutes.

- Serve with cream, custard, ice-cream or on its own.  We had ours with vanilla custard. 

Chicken Noodle Soup

It’s been a whirlwind month of unexpected hospitalisations, interviews, revision, night shifts and never-ending torrential rain but We Are Fruges is finally back.

When one third of Fruges ended up spending several days at the Royal London Hospital we celebrated her return to health and home with this classic healer and a nod to her Jewish heritage.

With a somewhat wobbly constitution and the mere mention of some of her favourite dishes turning her pale we decided to keep things fairly basic.  A squeeze of sharp lemon and the sweetness of corn sliced perfectly through the salty chicken stock base.  A light shaking of dried chilli flakes gave the soup a gentle warmth as opposed to a full on blow.

We ate these steaming golden bowls of soup on the sofa, wrapped in blankets and watching another downpour through the window.

Fed 2: £1.44 per person

Ingredients
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast £1.81
A thumb sized knob of ginger 9p
2 tbsp sweet corn 15p approx (from a 59p tin)
4 mushrooms 40p
1 lemon 25p
2 spring onions 18p
Total: £2.88

Store Cupboard
2 Knorr Chicken Stock Pots
2 cloves of garlic
2 bundles of vermicelli rice noodles
Soy sauce
Dried chilli flakes

Black pepper

-  Finely chop the ginger and garlic.

-  Dissolve the stock pots into a litre or so of boiling water.

-  Tip the stock into a large pan and add the chicken, garlic and ginger.

-  Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat.  Cover and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.

-  Slice the mushrooms and one of the spring onion into rounds.

-  Lift the chicken out onto a chopping board and shred a couple of forks.

-  Squeeze in half a lemon and add a large pinch of black pepper, a tablespoon soy sauce, and a small pinch of dried chilli or to taste.

-  Return the chicken to the pan and add the noodles, sweetcorn, mushrooms and chopped spring onion.

-  Simmer until the noodles are tender, this should only take about 3 minutes, then ladle into large bowl.

-  Add the remaining spring onion (sliced lengthways), some fresh coriander, an extra shake of chilli flakes and a final squeeze of lemon and serve.