HAM AND CHEESE EMPANADA

This is so easy that it hardly qualifies for a recipe, but it makes a nice quick 'comfort food' lunch. You need:
- a roll of puff pastry
- ham (enough slices to cover half of the of pastry, normally 4 or 5)
- cheese (cheddar or edam or alike - again 4 or 5 slices. You can also do this with grated cheese)
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons of creme fraiche or three tablespoons of double cream

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees. Cover a tray with baking paper. Put the puff pastry on top and prickle it with a fork all over the surface. Put ham slices on top of half of the pastry. Then put the cheese slices on top of the ham. Beat the egg with the creme fraiche and pour it on top of the cheese. Fold the uncovered half of the puff pastry over the cheese. Press the borders with a fork (as in the picture) so that the egg and melted cheese does not get out of the pastry. Prickle the top of the pastry with a fork (you can also paint the pastry at this stage with a beaten egg if you want it shinny). Bake for 20 minutes. Eat warm.

The children helped with it all except for handling the trays in and out of the oven.

CAPONATA

You need:
- 2 aubergines
- 1 onion (chopped into small cubes)
- three cloves of garlic (chopped)
- 3-ish tablespoons of olive oil
- salt
- 1 tablespoons of capers
- a handful of green olives - you can use black olives if you prefer them.
- 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley
- a handful of pine nuts
- 2 peppers
- juice of half a lemon
- 1 tablespoon of (good) red wine vinegar

Preheat the oven at 220 degrees. Put the aubergines on a tray and rub them with a little bit of olive oil. Put the peppers on the tray as well and roast them all for 40 minutes. Take them out of the oven, peel the aubergines and the peppers and chop them into small cubes.
Separately fry the onions on some olive oil until they start getting golden. Add the garlic to the pan and continue frying them for another 5 minutes or so until they start getting brown. Add this to the aubergines (including the frying oil).
Toast the pinenuts on a pan and add them to the aubergines too. Then add the capers, olives, parsley, lemon juice and vinegar. Taste and add some salt of necessary.

The flavours of this dish are very strong, but children seem to like it (though my children, understandably, fish out the cappers). You can keep the skin of the aubergines on (which makes a nicer and prettier dish) but children seem to prefer it without the skin. 

COURGETTE AND CARROT CAKE

This is a hybrid between a quiche and an omelet. It works very well for lunch with a salad.

You need:
5 eggs
200 ml of  creme fraiche ( or 150 ml of double cream)
2 grated courgettes
3 grated carrots
a handful of grated cheddar ( or any other hard cheese)
salt and pepper
a tablespoon of flour
a little bit of butter (one little cube)

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees.
Grease a quiche mould (or any round mould) with butter and sprinkle it with the flour.
Whisk the eggs with the creme fraiche. Add the courgettes, carrots, salt and peppers. Put the mixture into the mould. Sprinkle it with the cheese. Bake fit or 30-35 minutes (or until the top is golden).

It is meant to sink a bit after it could down.

Children can help with it all but be careful with the grating as it is difficult for them  to understand that a grater can be as sharp as a knife.

ROAST PEPPERS

It takes a while for children to like this taste, but it really is the taste of the mediterranean sun. The peppers go well with any grilled meat, grilled tuna, fried eggs, omelet or just with bread... and they are full of vitamin C.

Just get 6 big peppers (the bigger the better). Preheat the oven at 200 degrees. Put the peppers on a tray and add a bit of water on the bottom of the tray (half a glass more or less). Put the tray into the oven and roast the peppers for 35 minutes. Then turn them around and roast them for another 30 minutes. They should come up rather black.  Let them cool down and then peel them (it is easier if you put them into a pastil bag as they are cooling down). Add 3 tablespoons of the liquid that the peppers have produced while you were roasting them, 3 table spoons of olive oil, one and a half tablespoons of good vinegar and salt.

You can keep them for a few days in the fridge or freeze them  provided you do not add oil and vinegar.

SALTY CAKE

This is a very simple salty cake that you can adapt as you wish.

You need:

250 gr flour

one teaspoon baking powder

150 ml sunflower oil

4 eggs

150 ml buttlemilk ( or 100 ml milk with 4 spoonfuls of yogurt)

150 cubes of butternut squash (you can get rid of this if your children do not like it but it makes it is about the only healthy bit of this cake)

150 gr of cubes bacon

75 gr grated cheese

salt

(you can also add peppers, paprika, or any other spice you like)

Preheat the oven at 185 degrees and grease and line the cake tin ( we used a loaf cake one but you can use any shape you wish). Mix all the dry ingredients. Then mix separately all the wet ingredients (i.e. eggs, buttermilk or milk and yogurt, and oil). Last, mix dry and wet ingredients together. Put in all into the cake mould and bake for 40 minutes. 

HAM AND CHEESE ROLL

This seems more difficult than it is. You need:

- 80 gr self raising flour
- 80 gr sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tub of philadelphia cheese
- 250 gr of ham

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.  Beat well the eggs and sugar until the mixture gets foamy. Then fold in the flour trying not to loose too much air. Pour the mixture on a swiss roll tray ( we use a silicon tray, but if you use a normal one then grease it and line it). Bake for 9 minutes. As soon as you take it out of the oven turn it onto a wet kitchen towel and roll it. Let it cool down (rolled with the wet towel) for 15 minutes more or less.

When it has cooled down unroll it, spread Philadelphia cheese on top and then put the ham slices on top of the cheese. Roll it again pressing it firmly so that you get rid of any air pockets inside. Cover the cylinder with cling film or foil and let it chill in the fridge until you eat it.

 

'BOLITAS' SOUP

This soup is heaven. The smell when you are cooking it will make anybody go hungry. We call it 'bolitas' soup because in Spain it is normally prepared with pasta shaped as tiny balls, a bit like cous-cous. It is my children's favourite soup. We cannot find the little balls in the shops o we do it with pasta shaped like 'little stars' which is great too.

You need:
- the left overs from a roast chicken (or a chicken thigh and leg)
- 200 gr 'serrano' ham (it is not worth spending a lot on this so just ask for any left overs of a ham in the supermarket  - the bone is actually very good for this)
- one onion
- one leak
- one carrot
- 6 green beans (you can miss this if you wish)
- one bay leave
- one handful of chickpeas
- one quarter of a pepper ( preferably green, but red is fine too)
- a little bit of parsley (half a teaspoon)
- salt
- water (1.5 l)
- pasta shaped like starts.

Put all the ingredients but the pasta into a pan with the water. Bring it all to the boil and then lower the heat to its lowest setting and let it all simmer for 2 hours (if you do this with a pressure cooker one hour will be enough).

Get the soup though a colander and dismiss all the solid bits (if you have used proper chicken rather than left overs you can use it in a chicken salad) This liquid keeps for a week or so in the fridge.

Whenever you want to use it, bring the liquid back to the boil (if you find the taste too strong you can solute it with water), add the pasta (a handful for two persons) and let it boil for 8-10 minutes until the pasta is soft.