vegetable mousaka

based on Jamie Oliver recipe.

1 large lasagne dish
Preheat oven to normal temp.
Potatoes, sliced. Enough to cover the dish 1.5 times.
1.5 large eggplants.
2 medium zuchini
Brown all veg in a large pan (or two). I found that doing this dry was just as good as with oil. Need the heat quite high. They stick at first, but as the surface dries they unstick.

Whilenthis is going on, fry two onions and two cloves of garlic in some olive oil, then add 2 tbsp vinegar, two tins of tomatoes, and one tin on lentils, having drained most but not all the water. cook for 15 minutes or so, as you continue to brown veg.

Now layer up the dish with all the prepared stuff, plus some crumbled feta (1.5 packs).
Bake for 25 minutes while you make the topping.

3 tbsps flour, and enough butter to make a roue. Add nearly 1 pt milk to make a white sauce. flavour with nutmeg and salt, then allow to cool before beating in two beaten eggs.

Add topping to the mousaka and finish with grated parmesan.
Bake for a further 30 minutes.

This was a really heary vegetarian meal. The lentils added a meaty consistency. I wll try with cheddar instead of feta next time. This took a long time to prepare, but was done and dusted by the time our guests arrived, so quite convenient.

Chicken stew

1 pound diced Chicken coated in 2 tbs flour and 1 tbs paprika. Fry then make a stew with a base of onions and celery, and pieced of parsnips and carrot. Add stock. I really enjoyed this. The chicken was nice and juicy, and the paprika added a different dimension.  

Boiled egg with spinach and mash

Simplicity itself. Blanched spinach, drained and squeeze then added to onions fried in olive oil. Served with mashed potato and boiled egg. Its a great combination.

Chorizo and fennel stew

I tried to make this as a vegtable bake, but it was too dry. I think it would be better as a stew.

Fry onions and chozizo. Boil a tin of toms, and add potatoes, punkin/butternut and a bulb of fennel. Slow cook the lot.The fennel brings lightness to the rich tomato and chorizo. Serve with grated cheese.

Make a standard stew with whatever veg and meat you have, but add half a can of coconut cream and a good splash of soya sauce. This was a hit!

Fry pork and onion in a little butter in a frying pan, add cabbage and cook with lid on until tender, then add a tin of butter beans and half a jar or tomato sauce (I used Dolmio this time) and some ground almond. This was great.

Sprouting beans and root veg salad.

Every now and then, we get a bag of mixed sprouting beans in our veg bag. I am never sure what to do with them, but today I hit on a winner. Salad of bean sprouts, grated carrot and grated beetroot with a sate style dressing. The dressing was based on this one http://sproutpeople.org/recipes/entrees/hunanmungs.html with a fair few substitutions. It was quite spicy due to the raw garlic and ginger, but lovely! Roughly equal proportions of vinegar and peanut butter or tahini and oil, then add soy, minced garlic and ginger and a bit of ceyan pepper. I left out the cup of stock, as I wanted a dressing rather than a soupy sauce.

The salad was so bright and beautiful and the dressing made it so morish that we got through a whole bag of spouts and a large carrot and a beetroot in one sitting.