RED FETA DIP

This is hardly a recipe, but it makes a really tasty dip. You need:

- a packet of feta cheese
- a jar of piquillo peppers
- juice of half a lemon
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- half a teaspoon of parsley

Mix all the ingredients together by pulsing them in a blender. Any kid can do it provided you supervise the blender.

SWEET WINE JELLY

This is a nice home made present for Xmas. It goes well with ham, any cheese (though in my view it is better with cream, cheddar and manchego-type cheeses than Stilton or blue ones). It also goes well with pates and foie.

You need:

-1100 ml sweet wine

- 800 gr sugar

- one bottle of liquid pectin (177 ml)

- juice of a lemon

Put the wine and sugar in a pan and heat it until the sugar is dissolved and it starts to boil. Add the pectin and lemon jounce and boil again until the mixture raises 105 degrees (it takes around 20 minutes). Pour into sterilised jars (see our jam recipes for the sterilisation method - we normally turn them upside down as they are cooling down). 

Be very careful if the children help with this as they can easily burn themselves. The alcohol of the wine evaporates with the boiling so there is no problem for them to eat this. 

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.