It feels like summer is almost here, so while I was tidying up the garden I got a lamb stew on the go. It’s a bit like this one that I made a while back, with a few twists.

For the stew:

• 500g lamb
• 400g tin tomatoes
• harissa paste
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 6 – 10 dried apricots
• salt & pepper
• half an onion
• a few garlic cloves
• 4 small carrots
• water

Put the oven on at about 170C. Cut the lamb into big chunks – about the size of a piece of meat that you’d say ‘ooh lovely’ if it was served to you in a posh restaurant, but secretly you’d be disappointed. Rub a couple of tabelspoons of harissa paste, salt & pepper all over the meat and leave to marinate at room temperature for an hour or so.

In a casserole dish, quickly brown the meat, add the onion thickly sliced, garlic and whole carrots. When it’s looking brown all over, add the tomatoes and a can and a half of water. Add the apricots, halved, and bay leaves. Put in the low oven for a couple of hours, topping up the water after an hour if required.

For the cous cous:

• 250g cous cous
• salt & pepper
• 1 tsp vegetable stock powder
• dash olive oil
• half a teaspoon of sumac

Cover all the ingredients with boiling hot water, stir & leave until cooked.

For the roast veg:

• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1 red onion, quartered
• 12 cherry tomatoes
• sliced butternut squash, skin-on
• 1 aubergine, diced

Coat the veg in olive oil, salt & pepper and roast along with the stew – keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t catch.

This was lovely in the garden with a glass of cold Riesling, with fish for the pescatarians. The lamb was sweet & spicy & melty. Delicious.

Only 2 of us for supper in the ever-diminishing household tonight – I had a chicken breast and a couple of steaks. I know my daughter often finds steak a bit tough, and a grilled chicken breast sounded boring, so I thought I’d have a go. I didn’t look it up, I just made it up as I went along. Serves two. If you have two chicken breasts.

• 2 chicken breasts
• some polenta – 6 tablespoons perhaps
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried marjoram
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp paprika (not smoked)
• 1 egg

Bash the chicken breasts flat with the end of a rolling pin. I ended up with something covering about twice the area of the original chicken breast.

Mix the polenta, herbs, salt, pepper & paprika well on a plate. One a separate plate, whisk the egg. Coat each flattened chicken breast with egg, and then cover really well in the polenta mix. Fry each escalope on a fairly high heat until crisp & golden. Delicious and very child-friendly.

Ok – not a recipe, but this was so tasty I had to share. A BLT with melted cheese. Slice crusty bread in half, spread with a little mayo. Add ketchup & American mustard to one side. Slice sweet small tomatoes on one side & cover with black pepper. When you flip the bacon over, add a thin slice of your cheese of choice to the cooked side & let it melt in the frying pan. When the cheese is gloopy, add the bacon to the bread and stuff in some leaves – rocket would be good but I used lettuce & baby spinach. Assemble and eat. The weather justifies it.

• 1 large egg white
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 1 tsp salt
• splash of mirin (optional)
• splash of clear  rice vinegar (optional)
• chicken breast meat
• 1 cup of peanut oil or similar

Whisk the cornflour and salt into the egg white with a fork. I added a bit of mirin and rice vinegar purely because I had some in the cupboard and hadn’t found a use for them yet.

Cut the chicken into stir-fry-sized chunks and marinade in your gloop for up to half an hour. Then fry the chicken in quite a lot of oil – I used sunflower oil with a dash of toasted sesame oil added. Once the chicken pieces are white on the outside, you can drain it and add it back to the main stir fry wok to continue cooking – or in our case we cooked it longer in its own pan as we were making separate veggie and meat stir-fries.

The chicken was a huge hit – beautiful texture, and it stays moist inside.

• Half a white cabbage
• 5 carrots
• 4 spring onions
• 6 radishes
• half a red onion
• 3 small apples
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 large fresh green chilli, seeded
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp plain low fat yogurt
• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• salt & pepper

Shred the veg in a food processor. Mix the wet ingredients in a jar, shake and combine with the veg. Treat with caution. But you’ll be back for more.

Serves 1.

• 2 lamb’s kidneys
• knob of butter
• tsp dried oregano
• slug of Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons crème fraîche
• half a teaspoon of smoked paprika
• salt and pepper

Wash and slice the kidneys in half. Remove the white bits with sharp kitchen scissors. Fry on each side for a few minutes in the hot butter. Add salt & pepper, a slug of Worcestershire sauce. When the kidneys are cooked, add the crème fraîche and serve on toast or crusty bread with a sprinkling of paprika. Offally good.

You can read more breakfast recipes here.

Praise be to @ginandting for alerting me to the savoury possibilities of chollah bread. I couldn’t find chollah buns locally, but Waitrose in Beckenham sell delicious big chollah loaves. Chollah is a sweet, soft bread, almost like brioche but a bit finer and firmer.

Tonight we used thickly-sliced chollah for our burgers – home-made, of course, topped with melted cheese, home-made dill pickles, secret sauce*, lettuce, tomato and a sliver of onion. By popular consent – the best burgers I’ve made yet.

@ginandting also tells me, chollah bread is amazing for a bacon sandwich. Not exactly kosher, but it’s got to be tried.

Only one problem – which IPA to wash them down with..?

We also tried making Byron-style courgette fries to this recipe from Domestic Sluttery. They were ok, but not as nice as Byron’s. I think they must use a herb or spice I haven’t yet identified.

*secret sauce is a mixture of mayonnaise, Heinz tomato ketchup and French’s American Mustard. It’s the business on burgers. But don’t tell anyone – IT’S A SECRET.

This is pretty easy and so so tasty.

• half a leg of lamb or 800g lean diced lamb
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 400g tin of chickpeas
• cinnamon stick
• small packet of ready-to-eat apricots roughly chopped
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 cloves of garlic roughly chopped
• salt & pepper
• water
• couscous – enough to feed your hoard
• vegetable stock cube or melt

Put the oven on to 190° C. If you have half a leg of lamb (rather than diced lamb), chop it into very large pieces – about 6 chunks maybe. I left the bone in for extra flavour. Remove as much of the fat as you can as you cut it – use a sharp knife or a pair of kitchen scissors if you like. I know fat adds flavour, but lamb is so fatty you can afford to remove a lot. Rub the ground spices (add more cumin and coriander if you like, but go easy with the paprika), salt & pepper into the meat and fry in a little olive oil in the casserole. When it starts to brown, add the garlic, apricots, tomatoes, cinnamon stick, drained rinsed chickpeas and enough water to cover the meat. Bring to the boil, cover, then put in the oven for about an hour.

Make the couscous up to the packet instructions – I like to add a veg stock melt or cube to the mix. Spread a layer of couscous over the casserole and bake or grill with the lid off for a further 10 minutes or so. Serve with some freshly-steamed green beans and crusty bread to mop up the juice.

This recipe from Waitrose Kitchen magazine was utterly delicious.

I’d use half the amount of star anise next time, and I substituted a small amount of nutmeg as I didn’t have any mace. I fished out the bay leaves, cinnamon and star anise before serving. Perfect for a firework night supper, and a great way of cooking cheap packs of diced pork shoulder. (Click on the image above to get a larger image of the recipe).

• Tin of chopped tomatoes
• small onion
• half a fresh chilli, or some dried chilli flakes
• Worcestershire sauce
• olive oil
• tin of kidney beans, drained & rinsed
• teaspoon of sugar or Agave nectar or something sweet

Chop & fry the onion in a little olive oil with the chopped chilli, until the onions start to colour & get a bit sticky. Chuck in the tomatoes, kidney beans a dash of Worcester sauce (or maybe soy sauce if you’re strictly veggie) and a tiny bit of something sweet – a tiny bit of sugar or agave nectar or whatever you have to hand.

Simmer for 20 minutes or so, while you cook sausages, bacon & eggs. Delish!