Apple Pie (Serves 2 to 3)

Difficulty: easy

Time: 40 minutes (if making own pastry)

This is an easy and quick recipe for a weekend night treat, it can be made even quicker if used with ready-made pastry (although, pastry is A LOT quicker than you think, give it a try!) The filling is my own recipe and the pastry recipe is courtesy of Rosie Liddell, baker extraordinaire!  

Ingredients

Filling

Three apples (bramley apples are traditionally use but eating apples also work well)

Tablespoon of cinnamon

200ml water

Tablespoon of brown sugar and a little for sprinkling

Pastry (if making your own)

4oz/113g plain flour

2oz/56g margarine ( you can use half lard and half margarine if you do not need the pie to be vegetarian)

2 tablespoons of water

Milk (a small amount for brushing onto the pastry

Step One

Peel and core the apples before chopping them into pieces (don't worry about size or uniformity).

Step Two

Put apples into a pan with the cinnamon, sugar and water. Simmer the apples until they are soft and the water has reduced, this takes about 10 minutes.

If using ready-made pastry, skip to step five.

Step Three

Place the flour and margarine into a food processor and mix until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Continue mixing, adding water, until the mixture sticks together in a lump.  Wrap the pastry in foil and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Step Four

Remove pastry from fridge, cut into two pieces and roll out both pieces on a floured surface, making the pastry slightly larger than the dish you are using.

Step Five

Grease the dish you are using before laying on piece of rolled pastry into the bottom of the dish.

Step Six

Put the cooked apples onto the pastry lining (do this with a slotted spoon if there is liquid left in the pan).

Step Seven

Cover the apples with the other piece of pastry, sprinkle some sugar on the top and brush milk. Make a slit in the top and cook at 200C/gas mark 6 for around 15 minutes or until the pastry is golden.

Serve hot with ice cream, cream or, my personal favourite, condensed milk.

Spicy Pasta Sauce (2 generous servings)

Difficulty: easy

Time: 30 minutes

This is a homemade creation and a regular star of our weeknight meals!

Ingredients

2 tins of chopped tomatoes

2 peppers

1 onion

Bunch of coriander

2 cloves of garlic

2 chillies (you can add just one for a milder taste or, indeed, none at all if you're not keen on spicy food)

Cumin

Paprika

If you don't have spices, you can use some fajita mix (as shown in the picture)

Salt and pepper

Step One

Roughly chop the peppers, onion, garlic and chillies. Don't worry about size and uniformity – it will all go into the blender anyway. 

Step Two

Add all of the chopped ingredients, coriander and the tinned tomatoes to a large pan. Add enough water to ensure the chopped ingredients are just covered (about 100ml). Season well and bring the contents of the pan to a boil and then leave to simmer for around 20 minutes, or until the sauce has reduced and there is little water left.

If you need to make this meal in less time you can omit the extra water and reduce the simmer time. Equally, if you have more time, you can roast the peppers, garlic and onion first, this gives the sauce more depth and a richer flavour – just do what time allows!

Step Three

Once the sauce has reduced, transfer the contents of the pan to a blender (I use a basic hand blender at this works fine) and blend until smooth.

Step Four

Stir sauce into cooked pasta and finish with grated cheese, black pepper and fresh coriander (optional).

Step Five

Enjoy!

Welcome to Fresh and Fast Food

In a country where  weight loss companies try to assign 'points' to food, packaging description aren't what they seem and convenience is valued over quality, it appears that the relationship between people and food is at breaking point.

The UK if flooded with dieting and weight loss programmes that attempt to defy the laws of nature and science by attributing currency, in the form of points or sins, encouraging 'calorie fasts' and supplying recipes for curries made out of tinned mushy peas. Perhaps these do contribute to weight loss, mostly short term, but, in some cases, perhaps long term but they do not promote the essential ingredients of a healthy lifestyle. With fresh ingredients, wholesome meals, moderation and self-control it is possible to gain and maintain a healthy weight without promoting such companies.  

The food industry is in a situation where the consumer wants food that is convenient and cheap, quality is not important. In the UK, we have to go a point where the price of food has been driven down to such an extent that something has had to give and that something is quality. When people value price of quality there is only one inevitable outcome – nutritionally poor food and poor levels of food manufacturing. The country is in a financial crisis that cannot be ignored, there are many people trying to raise families on very little money and food is a major expense, however, time after time, families chose the convenience of a ready meal over the more economical, more nutritionally rich fresh food that is on offer. Of course, time is an issue, however, there are plenty of nutritious meals that can be prepared easily and quickly, and that is what this blog is about: food that is both fresh and fast.  

Eating fresh food has been important to me for many years but recently it has become a passion (don't go thinking I never eat take-away pizza or a packet of crisps, there are times when even the thought of cooking is just too exhausting and denying yourself something never works out in the long term but these are 'treats' and occur occasionally) and I want to share some of the quick, easy and satisfying recipes I have created and found. Many of the recipes are my own and are very simple – I'm certainly no professional chef – they are things that I make at home during a busy week at work. Our lives are constantly becoming busier and busier and it is easy to allow food to suffer, but it shouldn't and it doesn't have to.  There are also recipes that I have gathered and tried from various places; books, the Internet, family and friends etc. and where possible I have acknowledged the author.

These recipes are not about dieting (I don't know or want to know the nutritional values of a carrot) they are about fresh, honest and enjoyable homemade food. Where possible, ingredients are purchased from local farmers, of course, there are some ingredients, such as bananas and certain spices, that aren't suitable for cultivation in the UK's climate and these are purchased from the supermarket, organic and free range where possible.