Marcia's cheese on toast !

For almost 20 years I have been making cheese on toast the same old way - toast a slice of bread under the grill, turning it over, placing cheese on it, waiting for it to melt, then sprinkling Worcestershire sauce over it, and watching most of the sauce fall onto the plate. Then one day Marcia made herself some cheese on toast, and it looked perfect. I tried it, it was great. This is what she did: Get a small non-stick frying pan, place the sliced cheese in it, add the Worcestershire sauce, and heat. Toast the bread in a toaster. Then when the cheese is melted and the bread toasted, pour the cheese over the toast. This method means that the Worcestershire sauce is mixed well into the cheese, and you get no burnt edges on the toast, there is less washing up to do too. Fantastic, well done Marcia !

Kibe (aka kibi, quibe, deep fried meat balls)

This is a recipe for kibes, which are Arab/Lebonese meatballs. I first discovered them in Brazil where they are very popular in snack bars and delis. They are usually served on their own with some hot chilli sauce and a squeeze of lemon. They take more preparation than burgers due to the bulgar wheat. Adjust bulgar wheat to meat ratio as you see fit. You could even leave it out completely. 200g bulgar wheat 500g of minced beef 1 chopped onion 4 chopped cloves of garlic fresh mint leaves (about 12 branches) 4 teaspoons of salt 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground black pepper. Soak the bulgur wheat for at least 3 hours, then drain and press in a colander or sieve to remove the water. Remember water and oil don't mix, so be sure to remove as much water as possible to avoid an explosive situation in the kitchen ! Mix in a food processor the onion, garlic and mint to make a coarse paste, and pour this into a large mixing bowl. Add the bulgar, meat, spices, salt and pepper. Knead the mixture as if you are making bread to make one large mass. Then mould from that small rolls, approximately 5cm long, into rugby ball shapes. Deep fry the meat balls at about 180 degrees C for about 10 minutes, or until they brown. Drain and serve with lemon and chilli sauce.

Bacon Burgers

450g minced beef 2 tablespoons chopped parsley salt and pepper 4 rasher of streaky bacon Dijon mustard oil 50g butter 4 long / finger rolls Mix together the beef and parsley with plenty of seasoning. Divide the mixture into four sausage shapes. Remove the bacon rinds and stretch the rashers. Spread each one on one side with some mustard. Wrap the mustard-spread rasher around each burger and secure it with a wooden cocktail stick. Fry them in the pan with oil and serve in the rolls hot dog style with your favourite burger sauce.

Grilled Blue Cheese Burgers

100g Danish blue 1.5kg minced beef 4 spring onions, finely chopped 1 teaspoon (or more if you like) Worcestershire sauce salt and pepper pinkch of dry mustard 12 buns ! Crumble the cheese into a bowl and mix in the beef, onionsm Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and mustard. Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for at least an hour. Divide the mixture in 12 burgers and grill / griddle. Serve in warmed buns. Ofcourse, there is no reason why this should not serve 6 instead of 12 people.

Wine-glazed Burgers

Another classic burger recipe, to serve 4. This can be made as a nice meal. Serve with some salad, or even have as a starter. Use 675g minced beef 2 tabelspoons chopped parsley salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 tablespoon of oil 50g butter 2 buns 4 spring onions, chopped 1 clove of garlic, crushed 1/2 teaspoon of French mustard 150ml red wine Mix together the beef, parsley and s&p. Divide the mixture into 4 equal sized burgers. Heat the oil and butter together in a frying pan and fry the burgers for about 4 minutes on each side. Keep them warm in an pven at about 140 degrees C and put the buns in the over to heat through. Add the onions, garlic and mustard to the pan and saute for 2-3 minutes. Pour in the wine and boil until reduced by half. Serve as open burgers, with a burger on each half of a bun. Spoon the wine sauce over the burgers and garnish with a sprig of parsley.

The Zurich Burger

This is the method used by my mate Rich out in Zurich. I have not tried it myself, but he informed me that he got very good results. Here is what he said: "Sifu, you would have been proud of me yesterday; made some tanfastic beefburgers! In fact, they were so good I had some more for breakfast this morning. My Burger-Fu is a slightly different style to yours, though... I used a lot more beer, mixed the spices and worcester sauce into in and then broke up and mixed up the beef into it to soak about an hour before I cooking. I was a bit worried that they would break-up in the pan, but they held up just fine. They also had an unique shape which would, perhaps, disqualify them in an official burger tournament: I forgot to buy burger buns and only had little mini-baggettes so I made the burgers almost kibi-shaped. It worked well." So that's the Zurich Burger. It worries me slightly, this breaking the mince up, as it goes against the rules set out in the Mighty Mince Cookbook (Jane Todd, 1980), but I am tempted to try it sometime. I also must add a recipe for kibe, as they are great Arab influenced Brazilian meat ball.

Brazilian milk pudding - Pudim de leite

Hi, this is Márcia's recipe for pudim de leite, which is a classic Brazilian milk pudding made from condensed milk, fresh milk, eggs and sugar. To make a family sized pudim, with plenty left over for breakfast... use the following: 2 tins of condensed milk an equal amount of fresh milk (use tins to measure) 4 eggs white sugar First mix the condensed milk, milk and eggs in a food blender or liquidiser. Then cover the bottom of a glass oven dish with white sugar and caramalise on the hob. Once the sugar is bubbling and browning, remove from hob / turn gas off and leave to cool. Don't panic if you hear loud cracking noises, that's just the sugar, not your dish, hopefully. Once the sugar has cooled, pour in the milk and eggs mix. Place in an oven for approximately one hour at 200 degrees Celsius. To check if cooked place a fork straight down in the centre and if it comes out clean it is ready. Remove the dish and leave to cool down. Serve plain or cover with fresh strawberries, and more cream. Personally I think pudim always tastes better the next day, and makes a great breakfast !

My favourite Thai Chicken Green Curry

This recipe is from a small book called Hot and Spicy Floyd (Penguin 60s), by Keith Floyd. It was part of the Penguin 60s collection, called that because they were only 60p each. It has some of my favourite curry recipes in it. All easy to make. The book was a gift from my old pal Woody on my 22nd birthday. For 4 people: 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil 600g of boneless chicken breasts, sliced thin 450ml thick coconut milk 2 medium green chilli peppers, seeded and chopped (leave the seeds in if you like it spicier) 2 tablespoons of green curry paste 2 blade of lemon grass, bruised and finely chopped 2 tablespoons corainder leaves, chopped (I first cooked this with coriander powder - fresh coriander really is essential, don't bother with powder) 1 tablespoon basil leaves chopped 1 tablespoon of fish sauce salt and freshly ground black pepper To make it, just cook the chicken in a pan for a few minutes (with the oil) until sealed. That means white, Chuck in most of the cocobut milk and all the chilles, green curry paste and lemon grass. Bring it to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 15-20 minutes. Add the coriander, basil (you can use mint instead too) and fish sauce. Stir in the remaining coconut mil and bubble for about 5 minutes. Taste it, add salt and pepper if required. Serve it up with plain bolied rice and garnish with corainder leaves. Easy and delicious. To make spicier add more chillies.

Tomato Bruschetta

Bruschetta is a fantastic starter. It is easy to make and very healthy. There are various types of bruschetta, but I prefer to stick with tomato. All you need is some Italian bread (such as Ciabata), salt and pepper, a clove of garlic, olive oil, ripe tomatoes, pesto sauce and fresh basil. To make the topping peel the tomatoes and remove the seeds, then chop them up. Mix with the pesto and fresh basil, add salt and pepper. Then toast the bread lightly until golden, press the garlic cloves gently and then rub them on the top side of the toast. Drizzle the toast with olive oil and spoon the toppings onto the bread. Drizzle more olive oil and garnish with fresh basil. Easy and tasty. Use the best pesto you can find as this makes a real difference. And fresh basil too. Or make the pesto yourself if you have the time.

Salmon with mustard butter and dill sauce

This is a great and simple recipe for salmon. It is very simple and makes a very juicy and tasty bit of fish. All you need to serve 6 (or 4 hungry people): 1.1kg of Salmon steaks, or a single piece of boned middle cut salmon 175g butter 45ml whole grain mustard 20ml (4 tsp) dried dill salt and pepper 300g fresh spinach, rocket or mixed salad leaves (I prefer to use rocket, and watercress works well too). Gently melt the butter in a pan with the mustard and dill. Place the salmon on a big glass dish, try to cover as much of a dish as possible. If you have steaks they should all fit together nicely. If you have whole salmon, plan with skin up. Once melted, pour over the mustard butter sauce. Spinkle of salt and pepper and cover with tin foil. Cook for about 20-25 minutes at 230 degrees C. Place the rocket/ spinach on a plate and place the salmon on top, straight from the oven. Obviously if whole salmon, slice first. When you place the hot salmon and sauce on the leaves is slightly cooks them which makes it all taste a bit better I think. Another easy meal.

Chicken lasagne

Chicken Lasagne Here's my chicken lasagne recipe. It was originally based on Terence Conran's Lasagne al Forno, but with chicken instead of minced beef, but I just looked at the recipe and it seems quite different now. So this is what I do. Sorry about lack of weights and measures, I usually just make up the recipe as I go along. I usually cheat and buy lasagne white sauce rather than make bechemal sauce, so this is just the recipe for the meat sauce. For a large lasagne (use big rectangular glass dish if you have one) use about 4 chicken breasts. Slice them up into rectangular pieces, keep them thinish (5mm ish). Chop up a large onion and some garlic (2 or 3 small cloves will do, add more if you like lots of garlic). Start frying the onion in a large saucepan in olive oil. Use plenty of olive oil to ensure nothing sticks down there. Once the onion starts to cook, after a few minutes, add the garlic and chicken. Spinkle over salt and black pepper, and leave to cook on a lowish heat. Start preparing the remaining ingredients. Chop some carrots (4 maybe) and a couple of stalks of celery. If you like sweetcorn and need to fill it out, open a tin. By now the chicken should be nicely cooked on the outside (you should have been stirring it a bit while chopping). Open a couple of tins of chopped tomatoes, chuck them in the pan, throw in the carrots and celery. Add a generous amount of mixed herbs (most supermarkets do mixed Italian herbs, which is perfect). If you have fresh basil etc. great, use that instead. Give it al la good stir. Add some cumin, and a tiny little bit chili powder. Add a generous splosh of red wine. Stir it well, turn the heat right down and put a lid on the pan. Leave it simmering for about half an hour. Taste for salt, pepper, etc. After half an hour switch the oven on to 200 degrees Celsius. Take the big glass dish, and cover the bottom with some of the sauce. Then place a layer of lasagne sheets (I like the green ones, as they seem healthier for some reason). Overlap each sheet slightly. Pour on some white lasagne sauce, spread it about. Add another layer of chicken sauce. Keep doing this until you either run out of sauce or run out of space in the dish. Make sure the last layer is the chicken sauce. If using a jar of lasagne sauce it is good to place a small amount of water in it (once the sauce has run out) and swish it about, then pour around the edges of the dish wherever some lasagne is showing. If the pasta is dry it will burn in the oven. Grate some cheese over the top, then place in the oven for about 30 minutes. The great thing about this meal is that you do not actually need to prepare anything with it, maybe just some salad. You can also prepare the dish early, leave in the oven, and then just cook in the oven when ready. So if you are having friends for dinner, or need to leave your husband, wife, children etc something to cook for themselves, you can just leave it in the oven with instructions to cook for 30 minutes. Easy. If you are lucky it should all hold together well even after cut and served. Oh, best to let it cool for about 5-10 minutes after taking out of the oven before serving. I think that is it.