Salaric Cooking

*2 teaspoons of carraway seeds *1 carrier bag full of stinging nettles *4 large onions sliced *6 large potatoes peeled and chopped up *4 large garlic cloves *3 large suace pans of water

Divid the seeds, onionsl and garlic up between the three pans. Bring all three to a rolling boil Add the potatoes to the three pans Using thick gloves rinse the nettles Add a handfull of nettels at a time to each pan Ram the nettles down with a spatular Keep adding until the pans are full – they reduce down like spinache Reduce the heat whilst they cook down Keep adding more nettles everytime there is space Use a large spoon to place some of the veg and a little liquid from the pans into a blender – this is safest when the liquid is cold but can be done when hot Blend until you a a thick green liquid If you like thick soups just heat to taste and serve If you prefer thinner soups or have lots to feed you can either thin it with some of the left over liquid in the pots which is basically green tinted vegetable stock that makes a great base for other soups! Or milk

Serves 12-20 depending on how much you thin

Also I suggest you try to use only the leaves of the nettles as the stalks can be quiet fiberous

*4 handfalls of dried chickpeas soaked for 12 hours in cold water *1/2 jar of spicy pasta suace *3 tablespoons of vegetable oil *3 cloves of finially chopped garlic *finially chopped large onion *2 cups of ammerican long grained rice cooked up aldenta (slightly under done) *stone baked garlic flatebread

Salad *3 handfalls of ransom leaves(wild garlic) *Radish sprouts ~15 cm tall (these grow like cress or mustard on tissue paper on the window sill) *4 handfalls of mint *2 handfalls of baby spinache

Fry the onions and garlic in the oil in a wok or deep frying pan Add the rice turning all the time with wooden spatular Add the pasta suace Add the chick peas Cook the garlic bread according to its instructions Wash salad leaves mix leaves Serve as section of garlic bread, chick pea rice and salad Serves 3-4 people We eat it outside in the garden though the wind tries to steel the salad leaves!

I made my husband a Bee Hive cake for his birthday – I cheated and have a special cake tin which I got from Lakeland – it’s lovely!

I made the butter icing with goats butter and the like so there is no cows milk in it.

This was his post over on Snell-pym:

Sarah made me a nice cake for my birthday. It was quite an involved process:

It’s really nice – it tastes of honey! The icing came out runnier than we’d expected and ran straight down the sides and pooled around the base, but that was only a minor issue.

*Courgette *1/2 an aubergine *1 1/2 peppers *Quorn mince *2 jars of bolognese suace *White suace *Pasta sheets *Grated goats cheese

Put the bolognese sauce into a wok or large suace pan on a medium heat add the mince Cut up the veg into chuncks and add it to the pot Cook with frequent stirring until excess fluid has gone.

Layer in a baking dish with the pasta sheets and white suace. Make sure the last layer is white suace and add the grated cheese to the top. Cook in an oven for 45 minutes at 180 degrees C.

If you are making your own white suace you can use goats milk meaning the dish is ok for people who experience difficulties with cows milk. You should check the ingredients of the pasta suaces and pasta sheets though.

*3 handfuls of purple sprouting broccili *1/2 a jar of spicey pasta suace *3 handfalls of ransom leaves (wild garlic) *1 handfall of hawthron leaves *1 handfall of dandilion leaves *1 handfall of mint leaves *1 handfall of purple sprouting broccili leaves <5cm in size *1 stone baked cheese topped garlic flatebread

Preheat oven to the garlic breads specifications Whilst waiting for it to come up to temperature rinse all the different leaves Roughly rip the leaves up into a bowl Toss together to mix them up Once the oven is up to temperature put the bread in On the hob place a wok or deep frying pan Rinse purple sprouting broccili Chop any big pieces up – try to keep the broccili long but not ‘wide’ ie the heads should not have a diameter more than 3 cm Put the suace into the wok on a high temperature Throw in the brocolli once the suace starts to bubble Stir turning the broccili pieces over in the suace repeadedly Stir vigoursly for 5-10 mins Serve on a plate with the salad and a section of garlic bread serves 3-4 people *

One of my husbands favourite cook books is Thai Vegetarian Cooking by Vantcharin Bhumichitr. This was bought for him as he loved Thailand and was struggling to find many good veggi resturants in this country(England). It has some very nice dishes in it that he has cooked for me and he has even managed to avoid stuff that is too hot. The thing he tends to do most is the Fried Rice with Turmeric but that maybe becuase he’s obsessed with that particular spice – an unfortunate state of affairs when white cloth napkins are involved!

It gives you lots of background infornmation and has nice large pictures that get you salivating. However the dishes all tend to be to my mind – complecated and so I would not recomend this for a cooking beginner. But if your interested in diversifying your diet or your cooking this book is fantastic. We have done several dinner parties out of it too.

Toast a piece of bread then put slices of cheese on it and place it under the grill and until molten and slightly browning, preferably with cheese running down the sides meaning you will have to wash the grill pan!

This dish is also known as cheese on toast and there are a few squabbles about weather it has to contain onion under the cheese and the such like. But my Welsh nan called cheese on toast Welsh Rare Bit and she was born in 1902 – if you have something that pre-dates this then let me know please. (though my dad pointed out that just becuase its called welsh rare bit doesn’t mean it is welsh – more info would be appreciated thanks).

*2 courettes *1 aubergine *4 sweet red, green, and yellow peppers *6 cloves of garlic *2 large onions *mixed herbs *3 tins of chopped tomatos *White Lasanga sauce *Green pasta sheets *Grated Cheddar

Fry onions and garlic. Add tomatos and herbs Simmer Chop and add other veg Reduce down Once reduced to a gloopy consistancey that resembles bolonasge layer it with the pasta sheets and white suace Make sure the top layer is white suace Sprinkel grated cheese on top Cook in oven for 45 minutes at 180 degrees C

*2 large onions *2 Green peppers *1 Jar of morrisons cheap sweet and sour source *1 cup of rice

Start the rice by putting one cup into the suacepan with three cups of water, add a pinch of salt. Put on medium heat and bring to the boil. Once boiling, turn heat off and place a lid on it, leave rice to absorb the steam – this gives sticky rice that can be picked up with chop sticks.

Whilst waiting far the rice cut up the onions into large chunks which can be seperated out into ‘sheets’ of onion.

Put them in a large frying pan with the sweet and sour source on a high heat.

Cut up the peppers – again in large chunks and once the onions begin to look cooked add the peppers and stir continuously to prevent the sweet and sour source from burning to the pan.

Place the rice into large bowls and add the vegitables on top. Serve and eat!

Feed two with possibly too much veg.

This is one of my favourite lunches though it is really a convience food, almost a ready meal!

I buy stuffed pasta in the supermarket. They often have 3 for 2 deals and the like on them, my favourite is spinache and riccota. I also pick up tomato and mascopony suaces, they are generally next to the pasta.

I then put the pasta into boiling water for three minutes, heat the suace up, drain pasta and add it to the suace. Stir it around gently so as not to overlly break the pasta.

I then put it into two bowls and me and my husband eat it up whilst its still hot! Sometimes it stretches between 3 people though Al prefers eating an entire bag of the stuff to himself!