Easy Pasta.
100g fresh or dried pasta per person
2 - 3 tbspns Olive Oil
black pepper
Grated cheese to taste - Parmesan or cheddar is fine, but you can be as adventurous as you like.
1tspn salt
This recipe is so easy, it's a brilliant one for the kids to try out and tastes great too!
Take a large pan, and fill with water, then put on to boil.
Once at a rolling vigorous boil, add the salt, and the pasta.
If using dried pasta it will need approximately 15 minutes to reach al dente. Fresh pasts will need much less.
Once the pasta is cooked, drain well and return drained pasta to the pan.
Add the oilve oil and black pepper and stir through.
serve into bowls/plates and sprinkle the cheese on top.
Eat and enjoy whilst hot!
Great with some plain crusty bread. For a tasty alternative some lightly fried bacon or chorizo can be added.
Please watch kids when cooking with boiling water!!
Cottage Pie
Will serve 4
For the meat filling
400g Lean mince beef
1 onion
1 carrot (you can use more depending on how robust you want the filling to be)
1 tbspn worcestershire sauce
1 tspn salt
1/4 tspn black pepper
1 beef stock cube
1 Good handful of frozen peas
250ml boiling water
4-6 potatoes
Chop the onions into thin slices or dice as preferred.
Either slice or cut the carrots into small 1/4 inch cubes.
In a seperate pan, boil some water, then add the onions and carrots and boil for five minutes.
Heat a frying pan, but add no oil. Once up to heat add the mince beef and cook until no red meat remains.
Drain the liquid off the beef and return to pan along with the onions and carrots and frozen peas.
Add the worcestershire sauce, 1/2 tspn salt and pepper and stir through.
Crumble the stock cube into the mix, then add the water and bring back to the boil for five minutes before turning the heat as low as it will go to simmer for ten minutes. Once ten minutes is up, remove from the heat and put to one side.
Peel and chop the potatoes into roughly 1 1/2 inch cubes and boil until tender adding 1/2 tspn of salt to the water.
Once cooked, remove from heat and mash, adding a little butter to taste if required.
In an oven proof dish of a suitable size spread out the mince mixture, and layer the mashed potato over the top. At this point you could add a sprinkle of optional cheese...bit naughty, but very tasty.
Put the oven dish into a preheated oven (180) and continue to cook until piping hot throughout, and the cheese has melted and turned a golden brown.
We serve this with some steamed vegetables and a little gravy (and perhaps another splash of worcestershire sauce over the top) Yum!
Easy gingerbread men
1/4 cup (90 grams) golden syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 1/2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 egg yolk. lightly beaten
125 grams (4 ounces) butter
2 1/2 cups plain flour
glaced cherries
sultanas
Prepared Icing
Cream butter and sugar together.
Add egg yolk. Mix well. Gradually add sifted flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger, then the golden syrup.
Mix to a dough. Knead lightly. Roll out dough.
Cut out Christmas gingerbread man shapes with a cutter or cut around paper templates. Place cut out Christmas gingerbread men on a greased cookie tray.
Bake in a moderate oven (approx 350 degrees F) for about 10 minutes.
Allow to cool, then add decorations with icing and sultanas and cherries.
These look absolutely brilliant on the tree if you also use edible glitter and silver/gold balls as decoration. The kids love making these.
