SPINACH BALLS WITH CHEESE

We did this some weeks ago to use spinach leaves that we had seeded months ago in a tiny corner of the garden. As we did not pick them in August the leaves were far too tough to be eaten on their own.  The children really liked this dish and it should be even better with properly tender spinach leaves.

You need:
- 500 gr spinach
- 2 handfuls of pinenuts
- salt
- a teaspoon of parsley
- 2 spring onions
- 2 eggs
- salt
- a tablespoon of milk
- two tables spoons of plain flour
- two table spoons of chickpea flour
- olive oil

for the sauce:
- 250 gr creme fraiche
- 50 gr milk
- 200 gr of grated cheese (you can also do this with blue cheese, but since I am happy every time my children agree to eat spinach I though adding the blue cheese would be pushing my luck a bit)
- salt and pepper

Clean the spinach leaves. Put them in pan with a lid with a tablespoon of oil and wait until they are wilted (turning them around a couple of times). This should take 2-3 minutes.  Take them off the pan and put them on kitchen paper or a clean tea towel twisting them as much as possible so that you get rid of all the moisture. Put the leaves in a food processor with the parsley, spring onions and pine nuts and pulse them 5 or 6 times. Then add the eggs, milk, flours and salt (not too much as the sauce has the saltiness of the cheese) and let the mixture rest in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

Make little balls (the size does not matter much) with the mixture. Heat a generous amount of olive oil  and fry the balls on all sides until they are golden ( one or two minutes per side). Take them off the oil and reserve.

Separately mix all the ingredients for the sauce and heat it until the cheese dissolves. Put the balls into the sauce and serve ( you can also make a light béchamel for this, but it will make the dish heavier)

By far the most successful way to get my children to eat spinach.

ROSEHIP SYRUP

We picked a lot of rosehips last week and have made syrup with them. It tastes great and it is meant to have a lot of vitamin C as well (provided you can close your eyes to the enormous amount of sugar this has…which is pretty difficult as 'the whole world' is now talking about sugar ... and I agree with 'the whole world' on this)

You need:

- 1 Kg of rosehips
- 1 l of water
- caster sugar
- pectine
- sterilised bottles/jars

Clean the rose hips and boil them in 1 l of water for 25 minutes. Then strain the liquid through a muslin cloth (a paper coffee filter will do as well). Measure the remaining liquid and add 300 g of sugar and 40 ml of pectin for each 500 ml of liquid. Bring back to the boil for 10 minutes and decant in the sterilised jars (see the way to sterilise jars in any of our jam recipes)

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.