ANISEEDS BISCOTI

These are easy to make, but the dough is very sticky  - my youngest son tried to mix it and his hands got 'trapped' in it.
You need:
- 220 gr plain flour
- 220 gr sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- a pinch of salt
- a 100 gr pack of peeled almonds
- 2 heaped teaspoons of aniseeds

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl with a table spoon or with your hands. Preheat the oven at 200 degrees. Make three thin cylinders with the dough and bake them (preferably on two trays as they expand when they bake) for 25 minutes (until they get golden). Take them out of the oven, wait for 5 minutes and then cut the cylinders diagonally in thick slices. Put the biscotti back on the tray (with their unbaked sides looking up) and bake them for another 10 minutes. Get them out of the oven and let them cool down on a cooling tray so that they become crunchy.

QUICK POTATOES

If you need some quick potatoes to accompany a meat dish this is what you can do. You need:

- 2 or 3 potatoes cut unto small cubes
- salt
- one and a half tablespoon of olive oil
- a teaspoon of dried oregano

Mix all the ingredients well with your hands so that all the potatoes are coated in the oil. Put them on a microwave dish, cover it with cling film ensuring there are no gaps and microwave it at 700W for 4.30 minutes. By this time they should be soft (otherwise get them back in for another couple of minutes). Then heat a pan (without any oil), put the potatoes in and let them fry for one or two minutes until they get a bit of a colour.

Easy.

LEEK AND EDAMAME SALAD

You need

- 3 leaks (chopped into 3 or 4 cm thick chunks) 

- edamame beans (2 handfulls)

- for the sauce: 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 teaspoons of vinegar, salt, a quarter of a red pepper, a quarter of an onion, a quarter of a garlic clove and parsley

Steam the leaks during five minutes (or boil them for 3-4 minutes) and put them on a dish. Add the edamame beans on top of the leaks (we buy them already boiled. If you buy raw beans just boil them in salty water for 4 minutes). Put all the ingredients of the sauce in a food processor and blitz it until all the ingredients are very thinly chopped and the oil is emulsionated (it normally takes 5 seconds) Add the sauce to the leaks and beans and serve. Add a little bit of olive oil on top of it all just so that the salad gets a nice shine. 

SALMON IN PEPITORIA

This is a recipe from my grandmother. Very easy but also very tasty, and yet rather delicate. She used to do this with conger (which was always full of fish - bones) as at the time salmon was simply unaffordable - she could have never imagined that salmon would actually become cheaper than conger or even sardines.

You need:

- four skinless steaks of salmon (the better the fish the better the flavour - but if you actually get hold of really fresh wild fish then just grill it or roast it and  eat it without any sauce)
- two eggs
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 teaspoon of parsley
- 1 clove of garlic
- half a glass of white wine
- one glass of water
- a bay leave
- salt

Boil the eggs for 10 minutes. Peel them and separate the yokes from the egg whites. Chop the egg whites into small squares and reserve.
In a pan mix the olive oil with the egg yokes with a fork (without any heat). Put the pan on the heat. Mash a garlic clove (with the pester and mortar), mix it with the white wine and add it to the egg yokes. When you see bubbles (after a minute more or less) add the water and the bay leave.
Sprinkle the salmon steaks with the salt and put them into the sauce. Let them simmer for 3 to 4 minutes (if you like the salmon well done leave it in for another 2 to 3 minutes) You may need to add a bit more salt to the sauce. Right at the end sprinkle the parsley and then the egg yoke.

COURGETTES SOUP

This is not only very easy to make but also a good 'skinny dish' - and children like it too.
You need:
- 5 courgettes (cut into not too small chunks. We peel them only because the children prefer this not to be 'too green' but if you do not mind the colour then leave some or all of the skin in)
- 2 leaks, cut into not too thin slices
- a table spoon of oil
- 500 ml of boiling water (you can alter the amount of water depending on how thick you like this soup to be)
- salt

Heat the oil in a deep pan (under high heat). Add the leaks and fry for 5 minutes, then add the courgettes and the salt and fry for another five minutes. Then add the water, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Finally blend the soup with a hand held blender (or in a food processor). Serve on its own or with parmesan cheese.

DULCE DE LECHE

It is interesting for the children to see the changes of texture in the condensed milk, but if you cook this in a express cooker be very careful with the tin, as the tin can explode if you do not handle it carefully.

You only need a tin of condensed milk and water.

Put the tin into an express cooker (or a normal pan). Cover it with water and cook for 35 minutes on really low heat (or longer if you want a thicker dulce de leche). If you cook this in a normal pan (again on very low heat) you will need to simmer it for 3 hours.

Open the tin and there is the dulce de leche.

You can it this as a spread on bread or with ice-cream.

It is seriously sweet so a small tin goes a long way...

LENTILS AND TOMATO SALAD

This is a very easy (no cook) side dish. You need:

- a tin of lentils ( you can also cook them from scratch but tinned lentils and chickpeas are really good nowadays)
- 4 tablespoons of tomato sauce
- a pinch of salt
- two tablespoons of olive oil
- one and a help tablespoons of wine vinegar

Mix all the ingredients together and serve with any pork or poultry dish.