PUMPKIN GRATIN

This is a good way to use all those leftover halloween pumpkins.

You need:

- 400 gr pumpkin
- 2 onions (diced thinly)
- 4 tablespoons of olive oil
- salt
- 4 handfuls of stale bread
- 2 handfuls of grated cheese

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan. Fry the onions over medium/low heat for 10 minutes. Salt the pumpkin. Add the pumpkin to the onions and let it fry over high heat for 4 minutes and then lower the heat to minimum and fry it for another 15 minutes. Transfer to an oven-proof shallow dish. Separately make thick breadcrumbs with the stale bread in a food processor (just pulse it 3 or 4 times). Mix the breadcrumbs, cheese and two tablespoons of olive oil. Sprinkle this over the pumpkin. Put it all in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for 10 minutes and then under the grill for three minutes or so until golden.

TAPENADE

This is a great French dip that booths kids and adults seem to love. It tastes great on crostini like toast but can be also eaten with grilled fish, goat cheese, roasted vegetables or just eaten with Ryvita Thins (such a great invention). Dips are good ways to get children to try ingredients that otherwise they will not even touch such as capers or anchovies.

You need:
- 2 jars of pitted black olives (strong flavour olives are best for adults, but that means you have to pitt the olives, which in fairness takes only five minutes, but for some reason those five minutes seem like an eternity - so if you like me, do not have a patient disposition and do not mind a bit of imperfection, just use to tins of pitted olives) - 300 g
-1 small tin of anchovy fillets (without the oil) - 30 g
- 2 handfuls of capers
- 1 handful of parsley
- 7 tablespoons of olive oil
- two handfuls of ground almonds

Put all the ingredients in the food processor and pulse them until you get a paste. This keeps for 7 days in a jar (cover the top with a if of olive oil)

CHICKEN WINGS

It is party mood with my children and their friends when I make this.
You need:

- 500 gr chicken wings (kids love them, and teenagers can go through a mountain on these, so you may want to double the quantities…)
- two and a half table spoons of tomato ketchup.
- five table spoons of dark soya sauce
- three table spoons of honey

Mix all the ingredients together, put the wings in a roasting tray, cover the wings with cling film and leave them in the fridge (I normally make this in the morning and cook them at night). When yo are going to cook the wings preheat the oven at 200 degrees and cook for 45 minutes to an hour. Eat immediately.

PIG's CHEEKS IN WINE SAUCE

This is a truly gorgeous dish, and for very little money. Pig's cheeks are a very underrated cut - half a kilo of pig's cheeks feeds five people and costs under five pounds but if you cook it properly the meat is a real delicacy.

The best manner to each pig's cheeks is roasted, but that would require roasting a whole pig's head, which I think might be one step too close to the food chain for my kids.  Anyway, if you do want to try this, preheat the over at 200 degrees, put the pig's head in your sink and clean it well, pour boiling water over the head at least three times to get rid of any germs, dry it well, add salt (all around), cover the ears with foil and then put it into the oven for 1.5 hours (ears side down). After that time turn the head around, uncover the ears and roast for another 1-1.15 hours.

If the head is not for you, then try this much more civilised recipe which is divine. You need:
- 10 pig's cheeks
- salt
- flour ( 3-4 tablespoons)
- 2 carrots (diced)
- 2 onions (diced)
- 1 clove of garlic (sliced)
- a stick of celery (sliced thinly)
- a red peper (diced)
- a leek (chopped thinly)
- a pinch of parsley leaves (chopped thinly)
- a bay leave
- half a litre of red wine though I prefer to use 250 ml of red wine and 250 ml of sweet wine, like Malaga, Pedro Jimenez, Marsala or even port.
- one glass of water
- one and a half tablespoons of vinegar
- 4 tablespoons of olive oil

 Salt the cheeks, dust them with flour and fry them in the olive oil on both sides until they get golden (a couple of minutes on each side). Take them off the pan and reserve them. Then add all the vegetables, fry them for 5 minutes over medium heat, add the checks, pour the wine and water, wait until there are bubbles in the sauce, cover with a lid, reduce the heat and let it simmer for 1 hour. Then add the vinegar and let it simmer for another 45 minutes.  The result should be really tender, buttery meat with a thick sauce.

This tastes better if you eat it the following day. I serve it with potato cubes fried in olive oil (just heat the oil, fry the potato cubes for 3 minutes on each side, put them on kitchen paper to get rid of excess oil and add salt).

BEANS WITH CLAMS - ALUBIAS CON ALMEJAS

This is a very typical dish from Asturias, one of the most stunning regions in Spain where we go every year on holiday. The logo of Asturias is 'a natural paradise', and it is one of the few places where you can find proper alpine-like mountains just forty minutes away from a gorgeous coast line.  If you like outdoor activities and sport, look no further. 

The dish is also the only way to make my youngest son eat clams. 

You need:

-       500 gr white beans 

-       1 onion (cut in two)

-       half a green pepper

-       2 cloves of garlic

-       a pinch of paprika

-       a bay leaf

-       water  - enough to cover the beans, around 1.5 l and then a couple of additional glasses of water (though if you have good fish stock this will be even better)

-       a pinch of saffron

-       a quarter of a teaspoon of parsley (chopped thinly)

-       salt

-       800 gr good clams

-       2 tablespoons olive oil

Soak the beans in water overnight. Then put them in a big pan with the water and salt,  green pepper, onion and garlic cloves (all vegetables should be whole) the olive oil and the bay leaf. Let it come to the boil and then reduce the heat to minimum and let it simmer. After on hour throw in the paprika, saffron, salt and also a glass of cold water (in Asturias this is said to ‘scare the beans’ and makes them softer). Add another glass of cold water after another half an hour. After that time take the pepper, garlic cloves and onion out with a bit of the cooking liquid and blend it. Then put the blended liquid back into the pan. Normally the overall cooking time is 2 hours (though it can take up to 2.45  hours depending on the size and quality of the white beans. As you can see in the picture ours were gigantic. In any case the final result should be silky beans, as soft as butter.

Separately (and after the beans are cooked) heat a frying pan, add the clams (clean them well beforehand) and half a glass of white wine. Wait until the clams open up (discard those that do not), put the clams on top of the beans and also add the clams liquids to it (put it though a sift first as sometimes clams have a bit on sand in them). 

Serve immediately.

Trust me on this one: it really is paradise food.

DUCK BREAST

Duck is always a winner with my children. Best if roasted and served with chinese pancakes and shop bought plum sauce.  But this recipe with duck breast is a big success too and  it is very easy to make.

You need:
-two duck breasts
- 1.5 onions (diced thinly)
- 250 gr red berries (either fresh or frozen)
- 100 ml red wine
- 20 ml balsamic vinegar
- 150 ml water
- a table spoon of honey
- two tablespoons of olive oil
- salt

First prepare the sauce: fry the onion in the olive oil until it is soft (12 minutes, firt medium and then low heat) Add the red fruit, a pinch of salt and the honey . After two minutes add the wine and vinegar and after another two minutes add the water. Let it all simmer for 20 minutes so that it reduces by half. Then blend it (I like this with the pips in, but if you prefer it smooth - as my children do-  then sift the sauce through a colander). If you prefer it sweeter then just add a bit more honey…simple!

For the duck, score the fat in a diamond shape and addsalt. Heat a grilling pan until it is almost smokey, put the duck on the pan (fat size down), reduce the heat to medium and let the fat melt for 8 minutes. Turn the breast around and cook for a further 5 minutes while pouring the liquid fat on top. Get rid of the fat and serve the breast cut in diagonal slices.  

You can serve this with raw apple slices (slice them very thinly and sprinkle them with lime juice) or put the apples in a pan with a tablespoon of butter and let them fry for a couple of minutes over medium heat (this is what my children prefer and therefor what you see in the picture). You can also serve it with a lentils salad  (mix a tin of lentils with a handful of chopped parsley, a handful of mint, a handful of basil, a handful of coriander, the juice and grated zest of half a lemon, salt, pepper and two tablespoons of olive oil; toss it all together)

RED FRUIT GRATIN

You need:

-       150 gr strawberries (cut in half)

-       150 raspberries

-       150 gr blueberries

-       3 tablespoons of sugar

-       3 tablespoons of port or sweet wine

-       3 egg yokes

Arrange the fruit on small baking dishes.

Separately mix the egg yokes, sugar and wine/port in a glass bowl. Put a pan with boiling water and put the glass bowl on top (ensuring that the bottom of the glass bowl does not touch the boiling water). Whisk energetically for 10 minutes until it becomes frothy and thick. Pour this over the red fruits and put the baking dish under the grill for a couple of minutes (or burn with a with a torch).

We did it with the torch and my older sons enjoyed it, but far too dangerous for my youngest.