The results are a win, win, win: I enjoyed the process, my dinner companions were complimentary and, for once, I didn’t blow the food budget.
These meals are extremely flexible, allowing the cook to use vegetables and proteins that suit diners’ tastes and what’s in abundance or available to them. I have quite possibly added courgette to every meal cooked at home this week and, because of the diversity of the dishes, I have had no objections.
Use these simple recipes as a blueprint to create same-but-different meals. Change out sausages for chicken legs or thighs. Two favourite vegetables rather than a medley. Swap noodles for pasta and spoon in your favourite jarred sauce. Any canned, smoked, or fresh fish will make fishcakes, or if fish isn’t your thing, grated courgette (there they are again), feta and mint is delightful.
So, this is for you Margie and all those whom, after decades of putting dinner on the table, have understandably lost the will. This is also for your grandchildren who are moving into student flats and their own homes and are now having to think about the cooking of dinner and food budgets.
All three recipes generously feed two with enough leftovers for a lunch the next day, no heating required, which is a good thing because we all know that reheating fish in the staffroom never ends well.
Sausage and vegetable tray bake
Tray bakes are the epitome of easy cooking with very little clean up. I like to take the tray from oven to table for diners to select what they like — a great way of incorporating ingredients you like that others may not. Use the best, flavoursome sausages you can afford; their flavour will flow through the entire dish. Mixing different types works well and I nearly always include Cromwell-made Martinez chorizo fresco because of the flavour they impart. Nectarines or peaches bring a touch of sweetness, apples also work well, but fruit is not a requirement.
Serves 3-4
Ingredients
4 medium potatoes
1 large beetroot
1 kumara
8 small, bunched carrots, (peeled and chopped if regular carrots)
2 red or yellow peppers, deseeded and sliced into eights
1 medium onion, quartered
Olive oil, for roasting
2 courgettes, chopped into large chunks
200g beans
2 nectarines, quartered
¼ cup balsamic or red wine vinegar
6-8 sausages, halved
Herbs, to serve
Method
Heat the oven to 200°C.
Scrub the potatoes, beetroot and kumara, if necessary, and chop into even-sized (about 3cm) pieces.
Place in a large bowl with the carrots, peppers and onions and drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Toss to coat.
Place the vegetables on to a large baking tray (lining with baking paper makes for easy cleanup) and roast for 30 minutes.
Toss the courgettes, beans and nectarines into the baking tray, giving all the vegetables a turn and evenly distributing across the pan. Sprinkle with more salt and pepper and drizzle with vinegar.
Place the sausages on top, drizzle with more olive oil and roast another 20-30 minutes, giving everything another stir and turning the sausages halfway through.
Sprinkle with chopped herbs (I used parsley and oregano) to serve.
Hoisin chicken noodles
Here I have narrowed my usual seven-plus ingredient Asian sauce down to one jar of hoisin and the result is just as delicious. Use whatever greens are in the fridge or well-priced on the day. One of the first things I encourage younger cooks to perfect is a roast chicken and this is a lovely way to use the leftovers.
Serves 2-3
Ingredients
150g dried egg noodles
200g cooked chicken, shredded or chopped into pieces
2 Tbsp cooking oil (I used grapeseed)
3 Tbsp hoisin sauce
2 small sticks celery, sliced
2 small bok choy, sliced
100g broccoli florets, sliced
¼ cup orange juice
2 spring onions, sliced
¼ cup chopped coriander leaves
Method
Cook noodles according to packet instructions. Drain into a sieve and set aside in a bowl of water to prevent the noodles from sticking together while cooking the chicken and vegetables.
Heat 1 Tbsp of the oil in a large frying pan and fry the chicken to give it some crispy edges. Turn off the heat and stir through 1 Tbsp of the hoisin sauce. Remove to a plate, wipe out the pan with a paper towel and turn the heat back on.
Add 1 Tbsp oil and stir-fry celery, bok choy and broccoli for 5 minutes.
Add orange juice and stir-fry 1-2 minutes.
Add chicken and noodles (discarding their water) and stir 2-3 minutes to heat everything through. Stir through 2 Tbsp hoisin sauce.
Serve scattered with spring onion and coriander.
Fishcakes
Mix these up and bang them in the oven — it’s hard to go wrong. A serving of vegetables on the side is appropriate here, salad works too. Dill and capers complement fish, but if that’s two ingredients too many, add extra parsley.
Serves 2-3
Ingredients
4 medium-sized potatoes
Light olive oil, for cooking
1 onion, finely chopped
210g can salmon
Zest of ½ lemon
1 Tbsp chopped dill
1 Tbsp chopped parsley
1 tsp chopped capers
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ tsp salt
Method
Boil potatoes in well-salted water until tender. Drain, mash and set aside to cool.
Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a small frying pan and fry onion with a pinch of salt over a medium heat until opaque. Set aside to cool.
Place drained salmon (removing any larger bones) in a bowl with lemon zest, dill, parsley and capers. Add the egg, potato, onion, salt and a good grind of black pepper and mix well.
Heat the oven to 200°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper and drizzle with oil.
Shape the fishcake mixture into patties, roughly 5cm diameter and 1cm thick, and place on the baking tray. Drizzle with more oil and bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Turn and bake another 10 minutes until golden.
Serve with lemon wedges for squeezing.
