Mmmm, look at that bowl of health- proteiney, vitaminey, health. And it was delicious too – what more do you want? Dark green lentils and quinoa together, rather than one or the other, have proved to be a textural treat, and the salty mackerel mixed with sweet, juicy squash make for a great flavour balance too.

Tastes good hot, tastes good cold, and wouldn’t be too bad with some pomegranate either.

Click through for recipe.

Ingredients – serves 4

100g quinoa (dry)

100g dried green lentils

1 butternut squash, cubed

2 smoked mackerel fillets

1teaspoon of chilli flakes

a few sprigs of thyme

1 clove of garlic

half a bag of Italian salad leaves

a few green beans, chopped into bite-size chunks

2 small spring onions, sliced

salt/pepper/oil

Directions

Toss squash in a little oil and chilli flakes and stick in the oven at 180C for 45mins.

Meanwhile, add the lentils, thyme and garlic to a pan with at least double the amount of water, and simmer for however long the packet says (probs about 20-25mins) until tender. Drain. Set aside, reserving the garlic, but discarding the thyme.

Cook the quinoa according to packet instructions. Set aside.

Give the green beans a couple of minutes in boiling water and drain.

Put the quinoa, lentils and green beans in a big dish with the spring onion. Squeeze garlic out of its skin into the bowl.

Flake the mackerel fillets into the bowl.

By now the squash should be roasted. Throw that in too along with the oil it roasted in. Give it a good stir to combine well.

Taste, add salt and pepper and a dash more olive oil should you so desire. You don’t want it to be mega oiley, but it is nice if it feels a bit dressed.

Add the leaves, stir well again. Serve.

I cannot bang on enough about how easy and delicious this meal was. And it was created in less than half an hour, with ingredients that would have cost a few mere pounds per portion – I shit you not.

The inspiration for having a tomoatoey, sausagey mix came from Spuntino’s unbelievably good sausages with cheddar grits. Eff knows what they put in that to make it so amazing, but my simpler polenta and toulouse sausage version is a more than adequate every-day substitute.

I used Toulouse sausages for easy instant flavour and cooking them in a can of tomatoes with a spoonful of dried chipotle gave the dish the smoky sweetness it required. Omitting the cheese from the polenta made it much healthier without particularly compromising on flavour, though I don’t doubt a handful of strong cheddar would be a decadant but satisfying addition. For a vegetarian version, some sauteed aubergine, courgette and peppers would make a fine substitute. A smoky ratatouilleif you will.

Served with a load of wilted garlicky spinach, you could say it was like having exotic sausage and mash, and ended up feeling like a real treat dinner in the wasteland of January budget-health cooking.

Click through for recipe

Ingredients (serves 2)

3 Toulouse sausages (chopping them up means this is well enough for 2, and makes a packet of 6 go way further)

1 can of chopped tomatoes

1 teaspoon of chipotle chilli (dried or paste. Add more if you want it more smoky/spicy)

100g polenta

1 veg stock cube

Half a bag of spinach

1 clove of garlic

oil/salt/pepper

Directions

Brown sausages in a frying pan. Remove and chop into bite-size chunks.

Add a can of tomatoes and chipotle to the sausage pan. Return the sausages, along with half the tomato can of water. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 10mins. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring 400mls of water to the boil with the veg stock cube and a splash of olive oil. When boiling, whisk in the polenta, reduce slightly and simmer for a couple of mins to get a rich mash potato consistency.

As the polenta simmers, add spinach, garlic – crushed, and a dash of oil to a frying pan and stir until wilted.

Spoon the cooked polenta onto a plate and make a well in the middle. Fill the well with spinach and top with the tomato sausage mix.

Pork, apples and mustard are like the food equivalent of Cher, Dionne and Tai (AKA BFFs) and this comforting casserole goes to prove it. So it looks like a bowl of sick, what of it?

Using tart cooking apples and fiery english mustard prevents it from being too sweet and the apples cook down as it simmers away to give it a nice thickness. That combined with the rich pork and creaminess make for a satisfyingly warming winter dish, that is both cheap, quick and easy to make. Plus, adding just a couple of spoons full of low-fat creme fraiche to achieve said creaminess means it’s not so unhealthy either.

Would probably be nice with a bit of leek thrown in (as you fry the pork) should you have any knocking around.

Serve with a hunk of bread and/or some green vegetables.

Click through for recipe

Ingredients (serves 3-4 with accompaniments)

400g pork chopped into bite-size chunks – stewing cuts like rib steaks and belly (with the really thick fat removed) are best.

3 cooking apples, peeled and chopped into rough chunks

2 tablespoons of english mustard

1 tablespoon of wholegrain mustard (you could leave this out if you didn’t have it already)

1 teaspoon of fennel seeds

1 litre of chicken stock

2 tablespoons of low fat creme fraiche (or actual cream if you’re feeling wild)

oil/salt/pepper

Directions

Heat a little oil in a flame-proof casserole dish and fry the pork for 5mins to brown.

Add the apple and fennel seeds and fry for a further 5mins to begin to colour them.

Pour in the chicken stock and add the mustard. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer gently for 30-40mins, stirring occasionally. Stick the lid on about 20-30 mins in if it seems to get as thick as you’d want it when served.

Add creme fraiche. If using low-fat, stir in a little bit at a time to prevent it from splitting.

Season, taste, add a little more english mustard if it seems a bit sweet, serve.

My life is ruled by soup. It’s cheap, portable, healthy and I have more carrots than I can shake a stick at. This one was a winner because it tasted amazing on the first day I had it and didn’t make me want to kill myself by the third day I had it (more than can be said for a half-arsed French onion soup the following week).

The roughly equal mixture of carrots and lentils meant it wasn’t as sickly as standard carrot soup can be, whilst having a definite point of difference from a straight-forward daal. The lentils also made it more filling, while the warming spice mix made it just what you need on a dour winter day.

Click through for recipe

Makes about 4-5 mugs-full

Ingredients

(all of the below spices are preferable, but a couple of tablespoons of medium curry powder will make a perfectly acceptable soup if you don’t feel like getting them all. HOWEVS, it is worth getting them as they’re cheap and you can use them in loads of things).

2 cardamom pods

1 cinnamon stick

3 cloves

1 teaspoon of ground corriander

1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon of chilli powder

1/2 teaspoon of garam massala

1/2 an inch of fresh ginger, chopped finely

1/2 an onion finely chopped

5 medium carrots,  roughly chopped into big chunks

100g of red lentils

1litre of chicken or vegetable stock

Directions

In a pan that has a lid, slowly fry the onion and ginger on a low heat with the whole (not powder) spices, until they are soft and lightly browned.

Throw in the carrots, and a splash of water if it looks like it is sticking, and continue to fry on a low heat for another 5mins.

Add the lentils and powder spices and stir to combine. Pour in stock, stick on the lid and simmer gently for 20-30 mins, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and pick out as many of the whole spices as you can find and blend until smooth.

Serve with a sprinkling of chopped fresh coriander and a squeeze of lime if you fancy it.

Frozen fruit blended with booze was never going to taste shit was it? I recently tried Nigella’s Watermelon Daquiri and was inspired to try other spirit/fruit combos and thus happened upon the following berry and gin based treat. The alcoholic slushy possibilities are endless I reckon: frozen strawberries and vanilla vodka, frozen pineapple with dark rum and a splash of coconut cream.

Frozen berry and gin martini recipe after the jump…

Ingredients (for 2)

100mls of gin

half a punnet of frozen mixed berries

lime for squeezing

1 teaspoon of icing sugar

Directions

Add all to a jug. Blend. Serve. Squeeze lime. A splash of champagne/prosecco/cava would do no harm at this stage either.

It recently occurred to me that as a jerk marinade has a fryable base of blended onion, it would probably make a pretty good paste for a jerk-flavoured Carribean curry. It turns out it does, simmered slowly with coconut milk, stock and some on-the-bone (for extra flavour) chicken, so here’s the recipe.

The paste is adapted from Food Stories’ amazing jerk marinade, with normal rather than spring onion to retain full flavour when fried, and considerably less sugar, since the sticky glazed finish it produces with barbequed meat isn’t needed here. I used an on-the-bone chicken breast quarters which was nice served sliced and off-the-bone, but thighs or drumsticks would be good too.

Eat with rice and peas, a slice of lime, and a rum-based drink.

Recipe after the jump…

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

Any combo of 2x chicken/thighs or drumsticks each, or 1 breast quarter per 2 people

1 can of coconut milk

1litre of chicken stock

1 red pepper thinly sliced

1 tablespoon of cornflour

For the paste

2 scotch bonnet chillies

1inch of fresh ginger

4 cloves of garlic

a few sprigs of fresh thyme

1 onion

1.5 tablespoons of all-spice

1/2 a teaspoon of cloves

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of nutmeg

1 teaspoon of chipotle powder or paste (optional, but gives heat and smoky flavour of BBQ jerk)

1 glug of dark rum

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

Juice of 1 lime

salt/pepper

Directions

Roughly chop any solid paste ingredients, season and blend with the rest until smooth.

Season and brown the whole chicken pieces in a flameproof casserole dish (or any lidded pan you plan to cook the curry in). Remove and set aside.

Add the paste to the same pan, now with the chicken fat from the pieces and fry gently for 3-5mins, ensuring it doesn’t stick/burn.

Pour in the coconut milk and stock and add in the chicken and sliced pepper. Put on a lid and simmer gently for 45mins-1hr.

Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside, slicing any breast pieces to serve.

Mix a ladle-full of the sauce from the pan to a paste with the cornflour and add back to the pan. Simmer for a few mins to thicken. Serve the sauce poured over the chicken with rice and peas and a wedge of lime.

American crayfish are taking over the Thames. Fact. But, good old Crayfish Bob is putting a stop to it, and catching the bastards before they can wipe out the native white-claw crayfish entirely.

And what better way to wipe them out than to eat them? This week, at East London’s Two Degrees festival, Crayfish Bob is serving up the juicy creatures, caught from the Thames, with a locally grown salad and a glass of Rose made in Tooting, all for just a fiver.

Side note on the salad: Hogweed in salad = delicious, who knew?

Bob’s crayfish dinners at Two Degrees are sadly (especially for the crayfish!) sold out for the rest of the week, but that man’s got a job to do, and I trust in him to keep cooking up those snappy bad-boys until he’s killed them all dead, so keep an eye on his (pretty amazing) website for more dates. PS: I heard a rumour he’ll be at Glastonbury.

Bob – Killing them crayfish for the good of the Thames. Bob photo by Toby Smith – probably not on his iphone.

Cheap, relaxed restaurants in North London are a bit of a black hole in my good places to eat knowledge. Since being invited to eat at The Hideaway Neighbourhood Bar & Kitchen last week however, I now have at least one place I will be able to recommend or visit on excursions north of the river.

The menu focusses on pizza and calzone, with classic toppings and fillings, proving that it is better to do one thing really well than offer up a jack-of-all trades mix of options. Indeed, both the Puttanesca (with rich, salty olives, capers and anchovies, and sweet, juicy cherry tomatoes) and Parma (slivers of parma ham with peppery fresh rocket) that we ordered, both boasted fresh, flavoursome toppings, crisp bases and gooey mozzerella, making them fine examples of proper, home-made pizza. The pungent pot of aioli that accompanied, for the purpose of dipping the crunchy, doughey crusts, was certainly worth bonus points too.

A selection of simple salads, bursting with generous portions of fresh ingredients, provided the perfect accompaniment.

True to its name, The Hideaway has the perfect neighbourhood ‘home-from-home’ feeling. A huge fairy-lit garden, informal decor, welcoming staff, and alluring cocktail list mean that when you’ve finished your pizza, whiling away the rest of the evening, as I did, with a margarita, seems only right – especially, as if often the case, there is live music on.

Prices are reasonable, food is good, drinks are strong and the atmosphere is warm and friendly – what more could you want? Well, other than a branch in South East London…

The Hideaway

020 7561 0779

114 Junction Road

London,

N19 5LB

The best tapas is Barcelona is not the easiest thing to find. I always want to find somewhere that the locals would go to, and isn’t too tourist-ridden, but those places are often the most hidden and unassuming, and thus impossible to find.

Thanks to the good old internets though, I found El Xampanyet, nestled in the Barceloneta area and it was a treat. Obviously I can’t claim to be enough of a connoisseur to call it the best in the city, but if you’re after something a bit more authentic than ketchupy Patatas Bravas, you could certainly do worse.

The bar itself is pretty small, with a lot of tiny tables, and hungry people squashed together enjoying anchovies, meats and Catalan favourite, pan con tomate with a cool beer or Cava.

There was no menu when we went. You just sit down and let them bring you a surprise selection of dishes until you can take tapas no more. As well as delicious oily fishes with juicy sun-dried tomatoes, we had four or five different cured meats and chorizo, a cold roe based dish, pickled-pepper and sour-cream topped potatoes, dense tortilla and to finish, nutty biscotti and pastries dipped in sweet, sticky Catalan cider.

Apols for lack of food pics, was too busy scoffing to manage to take many, so instead enjoy these of the bar itself, and trust me that it was the shit.

Bill was about 76 euros for four, with a good few Cava top ups and a couple of beers.

Go:

Montcada, 22
08003 Barcelona, Spain
933 197 003

Rather than offering identical menus, each restaurant has a particular focus, and Da Polpo’s thing is meatballs, and small, sharable, ‘pizzettes’, which are served alongside a seasonal selection of salads, meats and other mini Italian dishes.

Having been to and loved the orig, Polpo, a few times, I got myself along to Da Polpo yesterday and left impressed and pleasantly full. I had little doubt that the food would be fresh, full of flavour, and amazing, which it was. I also loved the relaxed, informal atmosphere and the friendly and attentive service. With tables over two floors, and seating at the bar, getting in doesn’t look like it will be too much of a problem even on busy evenings, and I will defs be returning.

Here’s what we had:

Complimentary focaccia with whipped ricotta – light, tasty, and a great start to a meal.

Whole mozzarella with broad beans – doused in olive oil and loads of salt and pepper. Summer on a plate – defs order.

Traditional beef and pork meatballs – rich, tangy sauce, tender melting meat laced with loads of herbs. Pork and fennel version also sounded really good.

Fennel, endive and almond salad – big fat toasted almonds were a particular treat.

Courgette, mint and chili pizzette – mega-hot chili (in a good way), crisp base and fresh light flavour from the courgette and mint. Perfect for a sunny afternoon.

All Italian meals should end with an affogato. Good coffee, good ice cream – win.

The bill came to £42 for two, with four plates, dessert and a caraffe of house wine, which is not bad at all.

Check out Eat Like a Girl for some great pics of the interior and some more dishes.

Da Polpo

6 Maiden Lane London WC2E 7NA

020 7836 8448