Gnocchi and Peppers

... or capsicums, as I need to learn to say! This was just a quick modification of my usual pasta-and-peppers fallback, with a little shredded cooked chicken mixed in at the end for extra protein. And some wonderful grated Parmesan that makes me salivate just looking at it!

Post-Deli (Octopus) Salad

We went food-shopping in the morning - I love the market near us - and bought loads of lovely food. We were heading out again later for a heavy meal so I whipped together a quick and tasty salad for lunch. I doubt anyone would have all of these ingredients to hand midweek, so it's very much a post-weekend-deli-shop kind of meal.

Ingredients:

• a few handfuls of small pasta (I used tiny macaroni)
• a handful of asparagus
• one ripe tomato
• a heart of lettuce or a small gem lettuce
• a handful of olives
• 150g marinaded octopus
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 generous tsp dijon mustard
• a few shavings of Parmesan cheese

Boil the pasta according to its packet instructions, until al dente. Cut the asparagus into bite-sized pieces and steam above the pasta for 4-5 minutes, until green and tender. Chop the tomato into small pieces and shred the lettuce. Pit the olives and halve (or halve and pit, if you don't have an olive pitter!). Cut the octopus into bite-size pieces. Whisk together the oil, vinegar and mustard, taste, adjust and season. Toss the salad with the dressing and serve with a few shavings of Parmesan scattered over.

Shark with Spiced Rice and Orange and Avocado Salsa

Terrible person alert: I saw shark at a fishmonger and bought it. Then ate it. Argh. But it was such a delicious apex predator! I can only hope I'm so delicious when our insect overlords finally arrive. I don't know how to cook shark, so I had a look round on the internet, then invented my own recipe. It was pretty awesome.

Ingredients:

• For the shark:
• 300g of shark fillets
• half a cup of orange juice
• 1 red chilli, finely chopped
• For the rice:
• a handful of cashew nuts
• 200g basmati rice
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• two bay leaves
• two lime leaves
• a handful of frozen peas
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds
• butter
• For the salsa:
• 1 ripe avocado
• 1 ripe orange
• juice of half a lime
• a handful of fresh coriander, finely chopped
• a little finely chopped red onion (optional)

Marinade the shark for 1-24 hours in the orange juice and chilli.

Halve, peel and cut the avocado into chunky pieces. Peel the orange with a sharp knife and cut segments out, leaving all the pith behind. Squeeze the juice from the remaining core and combine with the orange segments, avocado pieces, chopped coriander, lime juice and onion, if using. Stand for 30min-2 hours before serving.

Toast the cashew nuts, either in a non-stick pan on the hob or in a 200C oven for five minutes. Put the rice, turmeric, cinnamon, coriander, bay and lime leaves in a small saucepan and add hot water at a 2:1 ratio. Simmer gently for 10 minutes, until the rice is cooked but still has form. Fry the mustard seeds in butter for thirty seconds then stir through with the peas. Chop the cashews and just before you serve.

Brush a cast-iron ridged griddle pan with vegetable oil and heat until it is just beginning to smoke. Fry the shark fillets for 90 seconds each side, until charred with grill marks and cooked through. Serve on top of the rice, with a dollop of salsa on top and more in a bowl to serve.

French Toast

Now here is a GREAT way to start the weekend. Coffee not optional (unless you're a picky Welshman...)

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• half a cup of milk
• 4 slices of bread
• butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp sugar

Break the eggs into a shallow dish and whisk gently with the milk. Heat butter in a non-stick frying pan. Dip as many slices of bread as you can fry at one time into the egg mixture and ... fry. They should take about a minute per side. Dust with cinnamon and sugar, and serve with maple syrup and strawberries.

Mango Lassi

This time I came home to a lovely pumpkin and chickpea curry, courtesy of my excellent significant other. I thought it would be super helpful for me to get in the way at the crucial last stages of preparing the meal and make us a couple of mango lassis. These are really, really simple. And delicious.

Ingredients

• a mango
• 1 1/2 cups natural yoghurt
• 1 tsp sugar (optional)

BLEND! Add a little water or milk if you prefer yours runnier. BLEND AGAIN! Serve :)

Katsudon

This is one of my favourite Japanese dishes; I often order it in restaurants because it's the sort of thing I figure would be fiddly to make at home. But after buying the deep-fat-fryer, I wanted to give it a try! I followed this helpful youtube video, and made a couple of slight changes for my kitchen and tastes. Also I served it with some stir-fried pak choi with garlic and sesame oil, so that I would have some greens with it. Still very much a treat of a recipe, I'd balloon if I ate it every night :)

Ingredients

• 300g pork fillet or loin, cut into two big pieces, or two deboned pork chops 
• plain flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 fat slice of bread, whizzed into breadcrumbs
• white rice
• half a white onion
• 300ml hot water
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp fish sauce
• 1/2 vegetable stock cube
• 2 tbsp mirin or cooking wine
• 1 tsp raw or demerara sugar

Set your white rice cooking according to its packet instructions. Lay the pork out on a breadboard and cover with a plastic bag. Beat with a rolling pin until 1cm thick or less all over. Put a few tbsp of flour on a plate, put the breadcrumbs on another one, and break an egg onto a final one, whisking gently with a fork to break up. Dip the pork in the flour, then the egg, then finally the breadcrumbs, shaking off any excess at each stage. Deep-fry at 180 C for 8-10 minutes, until the breadcrumbs are golden and the pork is just pink in the middle.

Meanwhile, peel and finely slice the onion into half-moons. Break the remaining egg into a small bowl. Put the rest of the ingredients in saucepan and bring to a simmer, then add the onion. Cook for ten minutes, until the onion is soft and the pork has finished deep-frying. Take the pork out of the deep-fryer and lay it out on a (clean!) breadboard. Slice it thickly, diagonally, then use a spatula to transfer the whole thing to the saucepan with the stock and onions. Drizzle over the egg and immediately cover. Simmer for one minute, then use a big spatula or slotted spoon to serve the whole thing atop a mound of freshly cooked white rice. Pour over the onion and egg sauce. YUM!

Barramundi and Pepper Curry

This is roughly based on a taste.com.au recipe, but with red pepper (capsicum, as they call it here) substituted for the chick peas. Personally I would cut them a lot smaller than the SO did, but he was cooking while I was out exercising, so I can't complain :)

Ingredients:

• a fresh long red chilli, deseeded, coarsely chopped
• a stem lemon grass, white part only, finely chopped
• 1small white onion, peeled, chopped
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 thumb fresh ginger
• 2 tsp chopped fresh coriander root
• 1 red pepper (capsicum), deseeded and cut into small pieces
• 1 tin of coconut milk
• 125ml chicken stock
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 300g barramundi fillets, cut into large pieces
• a handful of frozen peas

Blend the chilli, lemongrass, onion, garlic, ginger and coriander roots in a blender until minced. Fry paste in a wok over medium heat for 1 minute, then add the diced red pepper and fry, stirring, for another 2-3 minutes. Add the stock, fish sauce and sugar and cook, stirring occasionally, for another couple of minutes. Add fish and cook for 2-3 minutes or until flesh flakes easily when tested with a fork. Add chickpeas and frozen peas and heat through; serve with plain rice.

Lamb Kebabs

Just lovely to come home to a sight like this:

Pre-marinaded lamb chops from the butcher, pitta from the supermarket, our classic fall-back Greek salad and a lovely beetroot tzatziki from this very blog! Thanks man :)

Asparagus, Bean and Peanut Pasta

At the weekend I made a humungous batch of chicken satay for the Australian family, including my awesome satay sauce. There was a little left over at the end, and I needed a light meal to use it up. Oddly enough, I spent a few hours today going through some of the massive stock of recipes we shipped over from the UK, and found all of these ancient Sainsbury's recipe cards. Many of them were guides to creating things I could cook in my sleep nowadays, but some caught my eye, including a recipe for 'asparagus and bean strangozzi, with peanut sauce'.

Strangozzi is a kind of pasta from the Umbrian region of Italy; the name means 'priest strangler noodles', which of course I couldn't find anywhere. Not to be deterred, I substituted some linguine, added a tin of bortolli beans for bulk and protein, and used my satay sauce instead of theirs. It was surprisingly balanced and tasty - I wouldn't put together a peanut sauce specifically for this recipe, but it was a great way to use up the extra from the barbeque.

Ingredients

• enough pasta for two - really, any kind will do, but if you find strangozzi, well done you
• a small bunch of asparagus, ends snapped
• a generous handful of green beans
• a 340g tin of borlotti beans, drained, or the equivalent freshly podded and boiled
• 4-5 tbsp satay sauce

Boil the pasta in plenty of water until al dente. Slice the asparagus and green beans into long, bite-sized pieces, and steam for 4-5 minutes, until green and tasty. Drain the pasta, return to the pan, and stir in the vegetables, beans and sauce. Heat through, but don't bring up past boiling temperature or the borlotti beans will toughen. Serve!

Satay Sauce

This is a brilliant sauce for grilled chicken - but it works with any barbecued meat or vegetables. Just marinade them in some citrus juice and soy sauce for up to 24 hours beforehand, skewer and grill, then serve with this great sauce and some rice and salad. This is enough for a barbeque with eight people.

Ingredients

• 1 white onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• half a thumb of ginger
• 1 tin of coconut milk
• 1 red chilli (optional, or deseeded if you like)
• juice of three limes
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp dark brown sugar
• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• half a jar of crunchy peanut butter

Finely chop the onion and fry in vegetable oil over a very low heat for 10 minutes, then crush in the garlic and finely dice in the ginger, and fry gently for a further five minutes. Blend everything except the peanut butter together in a blender. Remove and smoosh in the peanut butter, in order to retain the crunchiness. Taste and adjust flavours as necessary - you may like it sourer (more lime or lemon juice), sweeter (more sugar), runnier (more water) or more peanut-y (guess!).

Quesadillas

A yummy Mexican fast meal - although these might not bear much resemblance to anything actually prepared in Mexico! They're great for using up a last bit of cheese and some leftover vegetables. I like them with a dollop of refried beans or some guacamole.


Ingredients:

• 4-6 soft corn or flour tortillas
• 100-200g grated medium cheddar
• roasted, peeled red peppers, torn into strips
• finely chopped spring onions, blanched or lightly fried
• (or any other cooked vegetables or meat you have!)

Get your fillings ready - they should be at room temperature. Lay out a flour tortilla and add about 1cm height of fillings, leaving about 1cm gap around the edges. Put another tortilla on top. Carefully place in a heated, unoiled, non-stick pan, and dry-fry over a low heat for about a minute, until the tortilla is golden-brown and toasted. Using a large spatula, and a plate if you need to, flip the quesadilla over onto the other side. Toast again for a minute, then remove and cut into wedges. The cheese should be runny and delicious!

Deep-fried Tofu

Another of our fun purchases from GumTree: a deep-fat fryer. I experimented with the salt 'n pepper tofu recipe I love, this time deep-frying the tofu for about 8 minutes at 180 C. Not bad - it's a little too easy to over cook the cubes, even when I made them quite large. I think 5 minutes at 190 C would be better, or perhaps flouring them very lightly first. I will experiment again and see how it goes :)

A French-ish Salad

The weather has taken a turn for the hotter - MUCH hotter. Yesterday we feasted on Thai beef salad in a comfortable 28C; today the mercury hit 34C and we took beef satay to a riverside barbecue. All beefed out and sunstroked at home, we wanted nothing more than a super veggie hit - preferably with a salty, mustardy dressing. I whipped up a French "ish" salad; all of the ingredients are as  you'd expect to get in Provence... but I'm not sure the serving style there would be quite so "rustique".

Ingredients

• 10 quails eggs, or two hen's eggs (Yes, yes, I'm the sort of person who just has quail's eggs lying around in the pantry. Deal with it.)
• two white potatoes, scrubbed
• half a bunch of asparagus
• a tomato
• a few giant leaves of lettuce
• a handful of olives
• a couple of anchovies
• a handful of sprouting seeds or other mild lettuce
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• juice of half a lemon
• one generous tsp dijon mustard
• one flat tsp grain mustard
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• salt and pepper

Simmer the eggs for 5-10 minutes, until hard-boiled, then run under cold water, peel, and slice in half. Slice the potatoes into thick rounds, and simmer for 10-12 minutes, until tender. Snap the asparagus and cut into bite-sized pieces, and steam for five minutes, until tasty and bright green. Halve the tomato, slice again lengthwise, then cut into thin slices. Pit and halve the olives (olive-pitter from the wedding list is AWESOME). Roughly shred the lettuce, and add with the anchovies and the rest of the solid ingredients to a nice big salad bowl.

Whisk the olive oil, lemon juice, mustards and vinegar together in a jug or jar, then taste and season. Pour over the salad and toss well, then serve immediately.

Potato and Rocket Soup

Our shipment from the UK arrived at last, and after half a day spent supervising and unpacking, I was absolutely exhausted. This was a quick throw-together to use up the last of the chicken stock and the very spicy rocket I bought earlier in the week. It turned out ok, but like all blended potato-based soup, it was really quite bland. I cheekily spiced it up with a bit of pesto and creme fraiche.

Ingredients

• half a white onion
• three white potatoes, scrubbed
• 500ml of good chicken stock (vegetarians obviously substitute vegetable stock)
• 200g rocket
• green (basil or rocket) pesto
• creme fraiche

Finely chop the onion and potatoes and fry them in a little olive oil for five minutes. Add the stock, and simmer for ten minutes, until the potatoes are cooked. Add the rocket and blend with a hand blender. Taste and season - it may well need a fair amount of salt, and maybe a splash of lemon juice. Serve swirled with green pesto and creme fraiche.

Pumpkin and Rocket Risotto

The carcass of the chicken from the other night boiled down to some great stock, and I used a good half of it in this lovely risotto, full of flavours I was simply craving. The rocket I bought turned out to be very spicy, so it needed a little more cooking time than a milder leaf like watercress.

Ingredients:

• 250g pumpkin, peeled and diced
• 100g feta cheese (optional)
• two sprigs of rosemary
• half a white onion
• a stick of celery
• half a carrot
• two bay leaves
• 200-300g of risotto rice, depending on how hungry you are
• 500-700ml of good chicken stock (vegetarians obviously substitute vegetable stock)
• a generous handful of rocket
• pumpkin seeds, to scatter over

Roast the pumpkin, rosemary and feta (if using), drizzled with a little olive oil, at 220 C for half an hour, until golden and tender. Meanwhile, finely chop the onion, celery and carrot, and fry for a few minutes, until the harshness of the onion has cooked away. Add the bay leaves and rice, fry for a further minute, then add the stock a third at a time every five minutes, stirring well with each addition, to bring the gluten out and make the risotto creamy.

When the rice is cooked to your liking (I prefer mine with just a tiny bit of bite), stir through the rocket and roasted pumpkin mixture, carefully so as not to break up the pumpkin. Serve immediately, scattered with pumpkin seeds.

Peri-Peri Chicken and Sweet Potatoes

Tuesday - telecon day - and the lovely SO cooked again: he rubbed jointed chicken wings and thighs in spices and roasted with sweet potatoes for 40 minutes, then served on a bed of lettuce. A nice simple meal that admittedly, I'd have done slightly differently, but still lovely.

My advice would be to slice the sweet potatoes into long wedges, rather than cubes as shown here, so you can dip them in sour cream with your fingers, since you're going to be eating the chicken with your hands anyway. I also prefer to remove the skin from my chicken, and rub the spices directly onto the meat; since I don't eat the skin, that means I get to keep all the nice flavour. Also, we used a little spice rub from a new market we discovered, and while it was ok, it really needed a bit more saucy heft, so I think next time I'll whiz up a little peri-peri sauce to go with.

Souvalaki Lamb

The butchers here make lots of prepared meats, like satay kebabs and thai chicken. This one caught my eye as a nice marinaded lamb that should be good for a quick weekday meal - it was advertised as good bbq'd or fried. While the marinade was nice, I think they used the wrong cut of lamb for such quick treatment. Ours was heavily marbled, almost gristly, and although the meat in between the fat was tender, it wasn't the best eating. The sharp Greek salad I made to go with helped cut through to some extent, but this cut would have been a lot nicer simmered in a tomato-based sauce for a couple of hours. Next time!

BBQ'd Lemon and Herb Snapper

Just a quick meal on a Sunday evening- a few snapper fillets marinaded in lemon juice and a finely chopped mix of mint, coriander and parsley for a couple of hours. Whacked them on the barbie with a couple of sweetcorn - so we were able to test our shiny new corn-on-the-cob holders! Rounded off with yummy barbcue-side rice.

Roasted Beetroot and Pepper Salad

One of those throw-the-random-fridge-contents-together meals. Worked out really well!

Ingredients

• 2 red bell peppers
• 3 medium-sized beetroot
• 2 soft Australian chorizo sausages, or 1 proper Spanish
• 6 medium cloves of garlic
• a few sprigs of rosemary
• 1 tsp paprika
• several large leaves of lettuce
• a 340g tin of chick peas
• 75g cous-cous
• half of a vegetable stock cube
• juice of a lemon

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Deseed the peppers and slice them into large strips - about six to eight per pepper. Top and tail the beetroot, then peel or scrub well, and slice into thin wedges - about eight to ten per beetroot. If using Ozzie sausages, cut into fat pieces. If using an old-school dry chorizo, slice into 3mm pennies. Remove the majority of the paper from the garlic, but not all. Add all of these ingredients to a big roasting tray, and toss with the rosemary, paprika, and a little olive oil. Roast for 45 minutes, until the beetroot are tender and the peppers are just beginning to blacken around the edges.

Meanwhile, prepare the cous-cous by soaking it in hot vegetable stock in a 1.5:1 stock:cous-cous ratio. Shred the lettuce and drain the chick peas. When the roasting vegetables are done, toss everything together in a big bowl with the lemon juice. The beetroot juices will run over the cous cous and turn everything a lovely pink colour.

Lasagne

Mmmm, hearty food. We made this on Tuesday night, ready to be baked on Wednesday, after we got home from swimming. Worked out well, although I wish I had an oven with a timer so that in future it could be waiting for us as we arrive! It's always worth making a big quantity of lasagne; we're limited by the fact that our kitchenware hasn't yet arrived so we only have the one Le Creuset tray. But we certainly made enough for two meals - so this serves four.

Ingredients:

• 500g good quality beef mince
• 1 white onion
• 1 red onion
• 1 carrot
• 2 sticks of celery
• 250g of white mushrooms
• 4 small cloves of garlic
• 2 340g tins of diced tomatoes
• 4 bay leaves
• a handful of fresh oregano, or 1 tsp of dried
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 2 tbsp butter
• 500ml milk
• 10-12 sheets of lasagne; enough for three layers in your tray (you can lay them down and test it out beforehand)
• grated cheese, to top
• salt and pepper

Dice the onions, carrots and celery, and cut the mushrooms into 1/2-cm wide slices. Fry with the beef mince for 10 minutes, until the beef has browned and the onions have softened. (For years I fried everything separately, as I was taught, and I've found that for a sauce that then goes on to cook for ages, it makes absolutely NO difference.) Crush the garlic into the mixture, then add the tomatoes and herbs. Stir well to combine, then cover and simmer for an hour and a half, stirring occasionally so as not to let it stick to the bottom.

Meanwhile, prepare a white sauce - I prefer to melt the butter in a pyrex jug in the microwave, stir in the flour, slowly add the milk, then microwave for four minutes, stopping every minute to stir well. Season the white sauce and tomato sauce to taste. Soak the lasagne sheets if they are the kind that need it.

When you're ready to assemble the lasagne, add the ingredients in layers; my favourite is: tomato, lasagne, tomato, white sauce, lasagne, tomato, lasagne, white sauce, cheese. At this point it keeps perfectly well in the fridge for a couple of days. When you're ready, bake it for 45 minutes at 200C; if adding straight from the fridge, put it in while the oven is cool and start timing from when it reaches 200C; this will allow your tray time to heat up without cracking. Serve with a green salad or some steamed veggies.

Pad Thai

Tuesdays I have an evening telecon, so the lovely husband takes over the reins in the kitchen. I find the best results are achieved by giving him a detailed recipe, and placing all of the ingredients out where he can find them. And giving him about twice as long as I would need ;) Tonight he absolutely excelled with this recipe, again from taste.com.au. Although we halved the proteins, this was still a generous quantity of food, and I took some to lunch the next day. So cut down on the noodles if you're not super-hungry.

Ingredients:

• 250g packet flat rice noodles
• 2 lemons, juiced
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 1 chicken breast, thinly sliced
• 250g prawns, peeled, deveined
• 3 spring onions, thinly sliced diagonally
• 1/2 inch of small red chilli (or more, to taste), deseeded, finely chopped
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 1/4 cup roasted peanuts, finely chopped, optional
• small bunch coriander leaves, roughly chopped
• lime wedges, to serve

Place noodles into a heat-proof bowl and cover with hot water. Stand until nearly tender - you still want a little bite to them, so that they stand up under stir-frying. Drain and rinse under cold water.Combine lemon juice, fish sauce and sugar in a jug. Heat a wok over high heat, with a little oil. Add the chicken.and stir-fry for 2 minutes until golden. Add the prawns, onions and chilli, and stir-fry for a further 2 to 3 minutes or until the prawns turn pink. Add the part-cooked noodles and stir-fry for another 2 minutes.

Add the lemon juice mixture to wok and toss to combine. Pour the beaten eggs over the noodles and stir into the noodles as they cook. Turn off the heat, add the bean sprouts and half the coriander, and toss well to combine everything together. Serve on plates topped with the remaining coriander leaves, peanuts, and lime wedges.

Aubergine and Peanut Stir-Fry

Another one of those recipes brought on by an excessive craving for certain flavours. This time: meltingly soft aubergines, crunchy peanuts, and a big pile of egg noodles - that last probably brought on by the quick cycle ride and run I went for, after work. The meal was roughly inspired by this recipe, but I made a few substitutions and didn't even try griddling the baby aubergines - it takes AGES compared to popping them in the oven and going out. Oh, and this is way better than it looks - sorry the photo isn't super-inspiring, but the ready-prepared tofu just isn't that attractive. Tasty, though.

Ingredients:

• 4-5 baby aubergines, or one large aubergine
• 1/2 tsp Chinese 5-spice or ground coriander
• vegetable oil
• half a head of Chinese cabbage
• three spring onions
• thin egg noodles (we used three bundles, two is enough if you're not super-hungry)
• 3 tbsp peanut butter
• juice of one orange
• juice of one lime
• 3 tbsp cooking rice wine or sake
• soy sauce
• 200g prepared flavoured tofu (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200C. Chop the aubergine(s) into bite-size pieces. Put in a baking dish and toss with the ground spice and enough oil to lightly coat - about 2 tbsp. Roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown and tender.

Slice the cabbage diagonally, and finely chop the spring onions. Soak the egg noodles in boiling water straight from the kettle, then drain. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl, adding enough soy sauce for your preferred degree of saltiness. Stir-fry the cabbage and spring onions for two minutes, then add the cooked aubergine, tofu, and noodles. Pour the sauce over the noodles- adding the sauce on top of the noodles ensures they will all be coated, and some sauce will sink down to the bottom and go on the vegetables. Turn off the heat, mix together as best you can, and serve.

Toad in the Hole

Here's an English classic I never got around to making while I lived there. Maybe because I wasn't doing enough exercise to justify the amount of dairy and animal fats in this. Not that I am now, but oh well! It tasted exactly as awesome as I hoped it would - soft, collapsing Yorkshire pud and crisp-skinned perfectly-cooked sausage. My only mistake was buying a slightly spicy sausage - this is very much a comfortingly bland sort of dish, so stick to classic mild flavourings. The inspiring recipe is pretty much straight from taste.com.au, except that their recipe serves four, whereas our exactly identical recipe serves two. What can I say, we were hungry! Also, our only accompaniment was a scoop of boiled broad beans and peas, dressed with lemon juice - the original was probably served with potatoes roasted in goose fat, or something equally... winter-warming.


Ingredients:

• vegetable oil
• 500g thick beef or pork sausages
• 3/4 cup plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 tablespoon rosemary leaves, chopped

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Place sausages in a 5cm deep, 25cm x 35cm (base) roasting pan, or even better, a Le Creuset baking dish. Fork a few times, and add a very little oil, turning to coat. Roast for 10 minutes, or less if your sausages are small, or until lightly browned. Flip them over for the next stage.

Meanwhile, sift flour and salt into a bowl. Whisk the eggs, milk and rosemary together in a jug. Add gradually to the flour mixture, combining with a fork or whisk to remove the lumps. Don't worry if there are a few smallish lumps left - you don't want to overbeat the flour and strengthen the gluten. Carefully pour the batter over sausages. Bake for 35 minutes or until puffed up and golden.