CORIANDER SAUCE

Been for a couple of days in Mexico, really short time, but enough to sample the delicious Mexican food. This is a sauce that works with pretty much everything: grilled chicken, grilled fish (both white and blue), salads, most raw veggies, boiled potatoes, or just as a dip with plain tortilla chunks or, as they do in La Mar in San Francisco, as a dip with chips (addictive), in which case you should make it more spicy by adding a few drops of tabasco sauce.

You need:
- two handfuls of fresh coriander (leaves and stalks)
- 200 g greek yogurt
- 200 g sour cream
- juice of one and a half limes (I love acidic flavours, but if this is two much for you just cut down on it)
- a good pinch of salt (I prefer sea salt for this, probably because it reminds me of margaritas, but fine salt works well too of course)
- one and a half green chile peppers (without seeds)
- a tiny pinch of ground cumin
- one and a half cloves of garlic
- 5 tablespoons of (not too strong) olive oil

Just put it all in a blender and blend until you get a smooth sauce. You can keep this for 5-7 days in the fridge.

SAFFRON ALI-OLI

This is a lovely sauce for any Spanish rice dish. It also goes really well with fish. Or indeed just on its own on lots of crusty bread if you have had a bad day.

All you need to do is to prepare a mayonnaise as per our 2 minutes mayo sauce recipe http://www.mumandsons.com/2011/04/2-minutes-mayonnaise-sauce.html with one egg, 200 ml sunflower oil, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of lemon juice using a hand held blender.  Separately, add 10 stems of saffron to two tablespoons of boiling water and let it infuse for 5 minutes. Add the saffron water and a clove of garlic to the mayo and blend well. It has raw egg so keep it always in the fridge and never longer than a day.

VINAIGRETTE

I normally dress the salad by just pouring some salt, olive oil and red wine vinegar on top of it (in this order). If you get enough practice you will not even need to measure the ingredients. The rule in Spain is that the salad should be oily, salty and not too vinaigry -  but I love vinegar (and I also love breaking rules) so my salads (which I eat pretty much every day) are always on the vinaigry side. The alternative to this rudimentary way of dressing salads is to prepare a proper vinaigrette and keep in in the fridge for a few days. You need:

- 200 ml of light olive oil
- 40 ml water
- a tablespoon of mustard (dijon is best)
- a teaspoon of salt
- 2 tablespoons of red wine

Whisk the olive oil and mustard. When the mixture is emulsionated (i.e. it becomes a thick sauce) add the water, then the salt and vinegar. Whisk it a bit more and keep in a jar in the fridge.

You can also do a variation of this by replacing the mustard by a tablespoon of shop-bought mayonnaise and increasing the amount of water to 60 ml.

Whatever you do please do not add any sugar or honey to it - that is the easiest way to ruin any salad.

It keeps in the fridge for a week.

BROCCOLI MAYO

You can make mayonnaise with any food rich in lecithin: from eggs to milk, brussels sprouts of broccoli. My children like this as a dip, or on the side of grilled chicken and salad, as a sauce. It also goes well with boiled eggs and white fish.  You need:

-500 gr broccoli

- 200 ml sunflower oil (or a very mild olive oil)

- salt

- two or three tablespoons of lemon

Boil the broccoli for 15 minutes until it is really soft. Put the boiled broccoli in a tall beaker and add the oil on top.  Blend it all with a hand held blender - start with the blender at the bottom of the beaker without moving it for a 40 seconds or so and then bring the blender very slowly up while keeping a steady hand. Then add the lemon and salt and blend for a couple of seconds again. You can also do this with a normal blender by blending the broccoli first and then adding the oil little by little.

SERBIAN RED PEPPER RELISH - AJVAR

I was in Serbia this week to start the Inspiring Girls campaign there.  Seriously impressive (and strong!) women and girls. Great discussion with MPs, leading civil society groups, top business women, actresses, former ministers, diplomats… You can see some pictures in the campaign’s website www.inspiring-girls.com

By the way, apparently Boris Johnson was in Serbia that day too (though not at the Inspiring Girls event!) despite it was the day after Trump was elected, when the new US President was failing to call the UK Prime Minister first and with Brexit falling down the list of EU priorities by the minute. An outstanding display of wisdom on foreign policy priorities... 

This is a traditional Serbian recipe. You need:

- 3 red peppers
- an aubergine

- 1 large onion

- a clove of garlic(grated)

- 2 tablespoons of olive oil

- salt

- half a chilli pepper
- a tablespoon of red vinegar
- a pinch of paprika 

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees. Put the peppers and aubergine on a roasting tray and roast them for 30-40 minutes, until they are charred. Take them off the oven and when they are cold, peel the peppers and take out the pulp of the aubergine. Put it all in a food processor with the chilli pepper and pulse it a few times.

In a pan heat the olive oil. Add the vegetables mixture,  the garlic, paprika, vinegar and salt and let it all simmer under very low heat for 20 minutes (stir it every now and then)

We ate it with bread but you can have it as  a sauce with meat or with chicken too. The children approved.

ROMESCO SAUCE

This is a great sauce for vegetables, boiled eggs or grilled white fish. You need:
- 3 tomatos
- an onion
- a head of garlic
- 10 almonds
- a slice of bread (preferably stake)
- a tablespoon of red wine vinegar
- salt
- half a glass of water
- half a glass of oliver oil
- a pinch of sweet paprika (pimenton) - the flavour of pimenton is very strong, so you need only a tiny pinch.

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees. Cut the tomatoes and onion in half and put them on a baking tray, add the head of garlic and roast it all for 35-40 minutes. When this is ready put it in a food processor (but squeeze the garlic paste out of the garlic head and discard the skin before you do so). Toast the almonds in a frying pan for a couple of minutes. Then add a tablespoon of oil to the frying pan, pour the tablespoon of vinegar over the bread and fry the bread in the oil on both sides (less than a minute on each side). Add the bread, almonds and all the other ingredients to the food processor and blend.

It is nicer if you pulse it so that you get a rough texture, but children may prefer it smooth - mine do.

MAYONNAISE WITH MILK

Mayonnaise contains raw egg so you have to be really careful to avoid food poisoning. Making the mayonnaise with milk instead of eggs is a good trick if you are using it for a picnic on a sunny day or if you want it to keep for two or three days.

You need:
- 200 cl of sunflower oil
- 100 cl of milk
- a pinch of salt
- a teaspoon of vinegar
- a hand held blender

Put the sunflower oil and the milk into a tall beaker. Put the handheld blender into the beaker and switch it on. Keep it running for a minute or so without moving it at all. Do not get worried if it looks like if the sauce has split. After about a minute start moving the bender up very slowly. You will see how the thick sauce starts coming up. Once all the oil and milk has mixed up add the salt and vinegar and mix it all.

You can try variations of this sauce with the children:  add some mustard (though my children prefer the mayo without mustard). Or add half a clove of garlic and bled it all together so that you get 'ali-oli' sauce (which goes well with fish or rice). Or add a tablespoon of tomato sauce, a few drops of tabasco and two tablespoons of orange juice and it becomes a cocktail sauce (to be eaten with cucumber sticks or prawns). Or add very thinly chopped pickles and capers and becomes a tartare sauce (with fish) Naturally you can also do this with proper egg mayonnaise (see our recipe)

APPLE SAUCE

My children like this on its own as a winter dessert, with yogurt, cream, with pork chops...

You only need apples and a little bit of water - do not add sugar.

Peal, core and chop eight apples (in big chunks). Put them in a pan with  little bit of water (4-5 table spoons) Put the pan over medium heat, wait until the water boils, then cover the pan with a lid, reduce the heat to minimum and wait for 5-8 minutes. Then turn the heat off but keep the lid on for 15 minutes more or less. If you want a thin sauce you may want to mix this in a food processor, but we like it with chunks.

VINAGRETA SAUCE

This sauce is really healthy. You can have it with prawns, green salad, radishes, boiled eggs or (small) pasta.

You need:

1/2 onion

1 red pepper

1/2 green pepper

half a clove of garlic
1/2 teaspoon parsley
1 hard-boiled egg
olive oil (plenty)
white or red wine vinegar ( to taste)
salt
In a food processor chop thinly the onion, peppers, garlic, parsley and the hard-boiled egg white. Dissolve the egg yoke into a little bit of olive oil. Add this to the vegetables. Topple it with more olive oil. Add the salt and vinegar and serve.

The children did it all, except for boiling the egg. They like this with prawns.

SALMOREJO

This is a very typical soup from the south of Spain. It is a bit like a thick gazpacho, except that the gazpacho is done with cucumbers while in the salmorejo there is nothing but tomatoes. My children eat this as a cold soup in the summer but they also like it on top of crusty bread, preferably with a bit of ham on top.
You need:
- 1 kg tomatoes (as red and ripe as possible)
- 200 gr stale bread
- 200 ml olive oil
- 2 cloves of garlic
- salt
- red wine vinegar

Cut the tomatoes in quarters. Put them in a bowl with the bread, the olive oil and the peeled cloves of garlic. Mix it all well with your hands squeezing a bit the tomatoes. Cover the bowl with cling film and let it marinate for at least 3 hours. Then get rid of the cloves of garlic and blend all the other ingredients in a blender. Add salt and vinegar to taste. Serve with little bits of cured ham or with chopped boiled egg or just on its own.

The kids like helping with all of this and particularly enjoy squeezing the tomatoes and the bread. It is indeed a very satisfactory feeling.

2 MINUTES MAYONNAISE SAUCE

All you need is:
a hand held blender and a tall beaker.
1 egg
200 ml sunflower oil (you can do it with olive oil but then it may taste a bit bitter)
1 tbspoon vinegar
a pinch of salt

Put the egg in the tall beaker. Add the oil. Cover the egg with the blender without moving the blender for 30 seconds. It really is important that you do not move the blender at all. You will see how a think ribbony mayonnaise starts appearing at the bottom of the beaker. Start moving the blender up really-really slowly. If you do it slowly enough the mayonnaise will never curd. When the blender is at the top of the beaker you can then move it up and down with no worries. Add the salt and vinegar and blend again (you can now do this fast) and job done.
You can add anything to mayonnaise: mustard, garlic, tomato ketchup, tabasco and orange juice for cocktail sauce, capers and cornichons for tartare sauce...
The kids can add the ingredients to the beaker but do not let them handle the blender or you will end up with lots of curd sauce...

TOMATO SAUCE

There should be no kitchen (or freezer) without this. We have been discussing how many dishes we could prepare with this sauce and have counted no less than 15 from pasta with tomato and chorizo to cod with tomato and peppers, meatballs, lasagna or peas with tomato. You can prepare 3 or 4 kilos of tomatoes at the same time and freeze most of the sauce. It lasts a couple of months in the freezer and around a week and a half in the fridge.

You need
2 kg of tomatoes (either fresh or canned - in winter it is better with canned tomatoes anyway)
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
3 medium onions
3 cloves of garlic
1 bay leaf
olive oil
you also need a hand food mill (this is very useful also for vegetable pures, mash potatoes and baby food). You can buy them for £18 at John Lewis or for £13.27 in Amazon.

Coat generously the base of a large pan. While the oil is heating cut all the vegetables into large chunks. Once the oil is hot add all the other ingredients. Let it fry for 10 to 15 minutes and then reduce the heat to its lowest setting and let it bubble for 1 to 1.15 hours. If you are using a pressure cooker you only need 25 minutes. Blend all the mixture with the hand food mill. Taste it and adjust the seasoning. If you let it bubble for the indicated time the sauce should not be acidic. However, if you think it is not sweet enough you may add a teaspoon of sugar (or even better, add a carrot next time you prepare it)

The children love getting the sauce through the mill - but beware of this because your kitchen may end up looking like a battlefield!

GREEN PESTO

You can eat this sauce with pretty much anything: all types of pasta, rice, grilled chicken, roast fish, as a dip with raw vegetables... or simply over a piece of crusty bread.
You need:
50 gr basil ( if you want to make it cheaper use 50 gr basil and 25 gr spinach instead)
a handful of grated cheese (ideally parmesan, but for a cheaper version use strong cheddar)
a handful of pine nuts
half a clove of garlic
olive oil ( 1 glass and a bit more to cover the sauce after it is ready)
Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend them well. That is all.
You can store this for a week and a half in the fridge covering the top of the sauce with some olive oil (around 1 cm) to prevent discolouring.
The children can do this on their own except that you need to supervise them while they use the blender.