Sweet Chilli Sauce

Sweet chili sauce is an excellent accompaniment to many oriental dishes, fish, prawns, or even just as a dip. In this recipe you can adjust the heat of the sauce by strategic use of the chili seeds. A really spicy sauce has all the seeds in it, as the seeds are where the majority of the heat in a chili lies, whereas a milder sauce will have few, if any, seeds. Also note that increasing the amount of sugar will make it sweeter, but will also lessen the spiciness of the chili.

3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 chili peppers
chili seeds of 1 chili pepper (optional)
200ml water
60ml white wine vinegar
10g ginger
2tsp salt
5tbsp sugar
1tbsp cornflour
2tbsp cold water


Step 1
Mix the cornflour and cold water into a paste, then set aside. Place all the other ingredients into a blender and purée them. Pour the contents of the blender into a saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil on a medium heat.  Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 2-3 minutes. Slowly whisk in the cornflour paste and simmer for another minute.

Step 2
Remove the mixture from the heat and allow to cool, then serve or pour into a container to store.



Another way to make this sauce is to create a syrup with sugar and water to serve as the thick suspension for the chili. Done in this way you would not need to create a cornflour paste.

Spicy Barbecue Sauce

A barbecue sauce can be very versatile if you get the consistency right. You can have it as a marinade, in which case it needs to be a little more runny, a dipping sauce, where it should be sticky and thick enough to coat the food, or anywhere in between. A good barbecue sauce can go on anything, be it chicken, hot dogs, or pizza, and this is a good barbecue sauce.


2 medium onions, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2tsp paprika
2tsp cumin
1tbsp tomato puree
1x400g tin chopped tomatoes
350g tomato ketchup
1 red chilli, finely chopped
10g fresh ginger, finely chopped
300g soft brown sugar
1tbsp cooking oil
200ml water
200ml cider vinegar
Salt and pepper to season



Step 1
Heat the oil in a large saucepan, and when hot add the onion, garlic, ginger and half the chilli. Reduce to a medium heat, and stir well. Add the paprika, cumin, tomato puree, water, vinegar sugar and ketchup and mix, then pour in the tinned tomatoes through a sieve, pressing the pieces through with a wooden spoon. Reduce on a medium heat for 30 minutes.


The barbecue sauce is now ready to be used as a marinade or in cooking, or reduce it down some more and use it to coat foor for a barbecue, or reduce it a bit further to make a barbecue dip. Ther sauce is also easy to customise, so if you like it stronger or weaker in terms of spice you can put in more or less chilli. You could also try customising the sauce for specific meats, trying mint in it for lamb, or sage for chicken.

Basic Tomato Sauce

This is a great basic tomato sauce and it can be used on many things, like pizza or pasta, or added to to create a more exciting sauce. This is something that everyone should know how to cook as it's simple and easy to do.

2 medium onions, chopped
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
2 medium garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp tomato puree
2 tsp fresh basil, chopped
2 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to season


Step 1
Heat the oil in a saucepan on a medium heat, and add the onion and garlic. Heat slowly over a medium-low heat till translucent. Add the tinned tomatoes and tomato puree, and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat and leave to simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Step 2
Add the herbs and seasoning to the sauce, and add to the dish.




How long this sauce is cooked for can vary depending on what dish it is to be used with, as a pasta sauce can be fairly 'wet', while a sauce used for topping a pizza would be better as a thick sauce.

Toad in the Hole with Mustard and Spring Onion Mash and Onion Gravy

Toad in the hole is a classic dish that goes well with mashed potato. When the batter is cooked to perfection it's just so crisp on the outside and light on the inside, but it needs a hot oven.

6 pork sausages
1tbsp oil

for the batter
75g plain flour
1 large egg
75ml milk
55ml water
salt and pepper to season

for the gravy
2 large onions, sliced
2 tsp oil
1tsp caster sugar
1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1tsp mustard
1tbsp plain flour
425ml vegetable stock
salt and pepper to season

for the potato
4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
25g butter
50-100ml milk
2tsp wholegrain mustard
2 spring onions, finely chopped
50g double Gloucester cheese


Step 1
Sieve the flour into a large bowl, then make a well in the centre of the flour for the egg. Add the egg, and salt and pepper to season, and beat into the flour. As you mix the egg and flour, slowly add the milk and the water to the mixture, making sure to whisk the flour from around the edges until the batter has a smooth consistency. Cover with cling film, and leave to rest.

Step 2
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220°C place the sliced onions in a bowl with one teaspoon of the oil and sugar, then mix gently to coat the onions before spreading on a baking tray. Arrange the sausages in a roasting tin and place the onions on a high shelf in the oven and the sausages on a lower shelf. After 10 minutes remove the sausages, after another 5 remove the onions. Heat the sausages on the hob and add the tablespoon of oil if there's not much fat in the pan. When the tin is really hot and the oil is searing hot quickly pour in the batter and return to the hot oven, on the highest shelf, for 30 minutes.

Step 3
Add the Worcestershire sauce and mustard to the stock, then add the onions and remaining oil to a saucepan and stir in the plain flour using a wooden spoon. Stir it in, on a medium heat, until it starts getting too thick, then switch to a whisk and slowly add the stock, whisking until the liquid is smooth. Turn up the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Step 4
Meanwhile boil the cubed potatoes until par-boiled then drain. Add the butter and mash with a masher, then slowly add the milk and mix well with a fork until the potato is the desired texture, a more creamy mash will need more milk. Then add the mustard and spring onions and mix into the mash before spooning the mixture into a small oven-proof dish and topping with the cheese. Place this into the oven with the toad in the hole for 15 minutes.

For a slight variation on the dish add chives to the batter in step 1. For a more flavoursome gravy you can drain off the fat from the sausages and use it in the gravy, use in place of the an equivalent amount of oil, in step 4, so as to not make the gravy too fatty. You can use any cheese on the mash instead of the double Gloucester, but the colour of it looks really striking against the white of the mash.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

For this recipe you can have either spaghetti or another long pasta, I made mine with long strips of homemade pasta.

Spaghetti

1 onion, finely chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
400g tin of chopped tomatoes
1tsp tomato puree
1tsp fresh basil, chopped
1tsp fresh chives, chopped
1glass white wine

250g minced meat
50g breadcrumbs
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1tsp fresh chives, chopped
1tsp paprika
1 egg
plain flour
salt and pepper to season


Step 1
Add the chopped onion and garlic to a saucepan with a little oil and sweat on a low heat. When the onion becomes transluscent add half the wine and reduce on a high heat. Add the tin of tomatoes and the tomato puree, and simmer on a low heat.

Step 2
Put the meat, 1/2 an onion, chives, egg, paprika, breadcrumbs, and seasoning into a mixing bowl and use your hand to mix the ingredients well. If the mixture is a little sticky add a little plain flour to help bind it. In a deep fryingpan heat a little oil, meanwhile shape the mixture into small balls, using a little flour on your hands to prevent the mixture from sticking, and place the balls into the oil. Brown one side then turn.

Step 3
Add the tomato sauce to the frying pan with the last half a glass of wine and salt and pepper. Cook on a medium-high heat to finish cooking the meatballs and to reduce the sauce. Once reduced add the chives and basil and stir through before removing from the heat.

Step 4
Meanwhile have a large saucepan with slightly salted boiling water at the ready. If using home-made pasta add to the water when reducing the tomato sauce with the meatballs, otherwise leave sufficient time to properly cook the pasta. Once cooked serve immediately topping with the sauce and meatballs.

I used beef for the meatballs, but you can use any other meat, or even meat subsititute.Using the amounts given, and assuming a diameter of about 1 inch for the meatballs, you should be able to make about a dozen meatballs.
This dish would be enhanced with a delicious side of garlic bread, or even just a side of bread and garlic butter cooked in the oven for a few minutes until crisp, like these

Pasta with Three Herb Sauce

This recipe calls for spaghetti, but you can use whatever pasta you have lying around instead. it's quite a light dish, so you may want a side of something with it, perhaps a bit of garlic bread.

3 tablespoons parsley
1tablespoon taragon
2 tablespoons basil
30ml chicken stock
juice of half a lemon
1 large garlic clove, crushed
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons dry white wine
salt and pepper to season
100g pasta per person

Step 1
Chop the herbs and add to a food processor with the oil, wine, garlic, stock and seasoning. Puree until smooth. Meanwhile boil some lightly salted water and add the pasta and cook until tender.

Step 2
Drain the pasta well and set aside, add the sauce to an empty saucepan and cook on a high heat for just about 1 minute. Add the pasta, shake or mix to coat well, and serve.

The pasta with Garlic Bread

Basic Tomato Sauce

This is a very basic tomato sauce recipe, and knowing how to make it is really useful as once you can do this then you can make little changes to suit the meal you're having it with.

400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 large (or 2 small) onion
salt and pepper to taste
1 clove of garlic
2tsp olive oil
2tsp fresh herbs, chopped

Step 1
Finely chop the onion and garlic. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, and add the onion and garlic reducing the heat. Sweat on a low heat for about 5 minutes and stir with a wooden spoon until the onion goes translucent.

Step 2
Add the tomatoes to the pan, and increase the heat to bring to a simmer and reduce. Add the salt and pepper towards the end, then take off the heat and add the herbs. Stir well, then serve over pasta.


Basil is the most common herb used for tomato sauces, but you may want to vary it depending on the recipe. You can also add tomao puree to the sauce to give a bit more flavour and colour.