Lunch party

Dad's coming over for lunch today. Here's what we're having ...

• roasted peppers (see Starters page)
• lemon, rosemary & garlic chicken (see Mains) with mashed potato and braised cabbage with bacon bits
• lemon cheesecake with summer fruits (see Cakes and puds)
  

Carrot cake

Like the banana cake (see Cakes and puds page), this is a sort-of healthy cake in that some of the fat is replaced with fibre - in this case, carrots.

You will need:

• 150g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 150g butter or margarine
• 200g gf flour (I used Doves Farm plain flour and added 1.5 tsp baking powder)
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1-2 tsps ground mixed spice
• 200g carrots
• 170g raisins or sultanas (I also added some dried cranberries left over from Christmas)

1. Heat the oven to 170C.
2. Butter and flour a cake tin (I used a round one with a removable bottom)
3. Grate the carrots into a large mixing bowl. Add the sultanas.
4. In a food mixer, cream the sugar and butter until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and blitz briefly.
5. Sieve in the flour, mixed spice and bicarb a little at a time and blitz briefly.
6. Pour the flour mixture into the carrot mixture and fold until well combined.
7. Pour into the cake tin and bake until a skewer comes out clean. Mine took 40 minutes at 150C in a fan oven.

I made a not so healthy or low fat(!) butter cream topping for mine using the juice of an orange, 100g of butter, 100g icing sugar and 100g unrefined caster sugar. Cream the butter with a hand mixer until smooth, sieve in the sugars a little at a time and mix well. Add the orange juice and then chill until the cake is cool enough to ice. (It went a bit runny but tasted good!)

Cottage pie

An economical Sunday lunch! A cottage pie used to be made from left-overs but it's usually made from scratch these days. I use a quarter pork mince to three quarters beef mince - I just find it tastier. We had our first Riverford organic vegbox delivery this week for 3.5 years - it was delicious! I really appreciate the reasonably-local (Devon) seasonal veg delivered to our door and that's what I used in the pie. To make it even more economical I used the slow cooker for both parts of the pie. We recently got a gadget from the electricity company that shows how much we're using - it's scarily high when the oven's on! I'm shopping for a slow cooker on Amazon right now ... if only I hadn't car-booted ours years ago!

You will need:

• mince
• a chopped onion
• a clove of garlic (chopped)
  
• optional: root veg (a parsnip and a carrot or two adds flavour and vits)
• potatoes (mashed)
  
• worcester sauce (check it's gluten free - I use Life's)
• a thickener such as arrowroot (see Thickeners page)
  

1. Put the mince, onion, garlic and root veg into the pressure cooker. Add enough water to make a paste. Cook on low for 10-15 minutes.
2. When cooked, season the mix with worcester sauce, salt and pepper to taste and thicken it with arrowroot or cornflour (dissolved first in a little water).
3. Pour the mix into a casserole dish, top with the mashed potato (and I like some grated cheese on top) and bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes.
4. Serve with a green vegetable - we're having broccoli.
   

Pork baked in cider

Happy new year! Tonight we're having a slow-cooked winter casserole that's really tasty. It also works well with sausages or pork chops. Great served with mashed potato and a green vegetable.

You will need:

• 500g pork (shoulder, chops or fat sausages)
• 2 large apples - peeled, cored & quartered
  
• 1 large onion - sliced
  
• 2 cloves garlic - chopped
  
• 6 juniper berries - crushed
• 2 pinches of dried or fresh sage
  
• cider (or apple juice or stock)
• arrowroot or cornflour to thicken (see Thickeners page)
  

1. Lightly fry the pork or sausages in a little vegetable oil to seal the outsides. Put them in a large casserole dish with a lid.
2. Add the sliced onion to the pan and fry until beginning to soften, add the garlic and fry for a minute longer. Add these and the apples to the casserole.
3. Sprinkle over the crushed juniper berries, sage and some salt and pepper.
4. Pour in the cider until about halfway up the casserole contents.
5. Bake in the oven (or simmer on the hob if using a pan) as slowly as possible - until the meat is completely tender.
   
6. Thicken with a dessertspoon of arrowroot or cornflour dissolved in a little water. Return to the oven until ready to serve.