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(All Recipes have Gluten-Free Options)

Welcome to Menu Mistress…

I love cookbooks and have an extensive collection! The idea of Menu Mistress is to share recipes from these books, that I have tried and tested. All you have to do is add the ingredients to your shopping list and follow the recipes, thus injecting some fresh flavours into your home cooking. This blog is essentially for people who love food but don’t have the time, energy or patience to find that winning recipe – that’s the job of Menu Mistress!…

(Recipes are updated every week – sign up at the bottom of this page to receive a weekly reminder!)

Tuesday Treat

Old Cuban Cocktail (Serves 1)

This cocktail is a fantastic twist on the classic Mojito. With the addition of Prosecco it has a lighter, more elegant finish. Perfect on a summer evening…

25ml sugar syrup

½ a lime, juiced

70ml dark rum, such as Havana

1 sprig fresh mint, leaves picked

Angostura bitters

A handful of ice cubes

50ml Prosecco

1. Place the mint leaves in a cocktail shaker and lightly bash with the back of a wooden spoon. Add the sugar syrup, lime juice, rum and a couple of dashes of Angostura bitters plus the ice cubes. Shake for about 15 seconds until the shaker is cold.
2. Strain into a chilled glass and top with the Prosecco… Enjoy!

‘Blast From the Past Recipe’

Pan Fried Plaice with Shrimp & Lemon Butter Sauce served with Samphire (Serves 4)

As it’s the season for samphire, I thought it would be a good idea to re-share this recipe – it’s one of my favourite simple fish dishes. It’s delicious with or without the samphire, but if you can get it, it will add a subtle salty flavour which complements the lemon butter sauce beautifully.

100g unsalted butter

2 lemons, juiced and zest finely grated

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 large plaice fillets, skinned

180g brown shrimps

1 tablespoon chives, chopped

1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

80g Samphire (optional)

Sea salt and black pepper

1. First prepare the sauce. Place the butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat, then cook until the butter starts to turn to a nutty brown colour. Remove from the heat and add the lemon zest and juice, then season with salt and pepper. Keep warm whilst you cook the fish.
2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Season the plaice fillets with salt only and add to the pan, cook for 1½-2 minutes on each side. (You will probably have to cook the fish in batches, adding a little more oil to the pan, keeping the fish warm whilst you cook the second batch).
3. Meanwhile place the samphire in a pan of boiling water and simmer for 2-3 minutes, drain and set aside.
4. At the same time add the shrimps to the lemon butter sauce and reheat gently until the sauce is boiling, boil for 1 minute, remove from the heat and add the parsley.
5. Place the plaice fillets on plates, sprinkle over the cooked samphire and spoon over the shrimp and lemon butter sauce. Serve simply with some steamed new potatoes.

Tuesday Treat

Lemon Angel Pie

This is the most delicious dessert ever!… Ok, I admit that I’ve said this before about numerous other desserts, but seriously you ‘must’ make this, it really is a little piece of heaven! It has the wonderful flavours of its better-known relation, ‘Lemon Meringue Pie’, but is much lighter as it has no pastry thus is also much easier to make, plus of course, it’s totally gluten-free. Be warned, it’s not the prettiest of desserts – you’ll be rather dismayed when minutes after removing the meringue base from the oven it starts to sink and crack, but fear not, once you add the lemon curd and cream you cover a lot of these undesirable looking cracks. The important thing is that it tastes incredibly good!…

(I’ve found that the size of the dish really does make a difference with this recipe, use a 9” round deep pie dish – I use one which is available from amazon here)

200g caster sugar

4 eggs, separated

¼ teaspoon white wine vinegar

Butter to grease dish

For the Filling:

100g caster sugar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Grated zest of 1 lemon

¼ teaspoon salt

500ml double cream

To Serve:

Grated zest of 1 lemon (optional)

(9” round, deep pie dish – buttered)

1. Beat the egg whites until white and fluffy. Add the sugar and white wine vinegar and beat until stiff and glossy.
2. Pour into a buttered pie dish, using the back of a spoon push the meringue up the sides of the dish so it looks a little like a pastry case and will hold the filling after it’s baked.
3. Bake in a preheated oven, 150’c, for 50 minutes until puffed and lightly browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool – don’t be dismayed when the meringue sinks and starts to crack, the filling will cover the multitude of sins!
4. Meanwhile, make the lemon curd by placing the egg yolks in a bowl and beating lightly. Stir in the sugar, lemon juice, grated lemon zest and salt. Then put the bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water (don’t allow the base of the bowl to touch the water) and continue to stir until thickened into a ‘curd’, this can take up to 10 minutes. Allow to cool.
5. Whip the cream until stiff.
6. Gently fold the lemon curd into half of the whipped cream, pour this lemon curd mixture into the meringue pie shell. Top the pie with the remaining whipped cream and sprinkle with the grated lemon zest.
7. Chill in the fridge before serving – serve cold.

June 2022

June or should I say ‘Jubilee Month’, as of course, in the UK, we are starting the month with an extended weekend to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The Queen will officially be the first British monarch to serve for seventy years – quite a feat. And of course, it gives us all the chance to have a few extra days off! This is particularly good for my family as it also happens to be my Dad’s Ninetieth birthday, which will be another feat that I shall be celebrating!

To celebrate the Jubilee, the street on which I live will be having a Street Party, it will be a relaxed affair with neighbours bringing along their own dishes to eat as a picnic at long tables along the road. Naturally, I have been thinking of a dish that I can bring along which is hands-off; one which will sit in a warm oven happily, whilst we enjoy a few aperitifs with neighbours before we all sit down. I have been thinking of serving ‘Lemon Chilli Chicken’, a recipe that I first shared back in 2020 and then again last month as a ‘Blast from the Past’ recipe, it’s as good straight from the oven as it is at room temperature and only needs a crisp green salad on the side (I really don’t want you to forget this recipe!). The other dish I’ve been contemplating is a recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi for ‘Roast Chicken with Saffron, Hazelnuts and Honey’ ; Felix particularly likes this dish so that may end up swinging the vote! Consequently, this Ottolenghi recipe is this month’s Menu One. It’s not only easy to make but looks stunning and has a delicate and exotic combination of flavours (rosewater, saffron and cinnamon), I like to serve it with rice and a simple salad. Menu Two, ‘Prawn and Mango Curry’, is another recipe that Felix favours, it’s a very mild curry made with coconut milk, I’ve found that it’s popular with adults and children alike. Menu Three, ‘Rigatoni with Artichoke and Pancetta’, is a lovely light pasta dish which is made with preserved artichokes so is both quick to prepare and cook. Finally, a vegetarian recipe, an old classic from Delia Smith and one which you can’t beat! ‘Vegetarian Moussaka’ is a lovely dish for the warmer summer evenings, which I’m hoping we’ll be enjoying in June…

Thinking about those warmer summer evenings, I’ve been feeling rather relaxed and have been listening to some smooth, chilled tracks in my kitchen… you can listen to ‘Music to Cook to…MenuMusic Nineteen’ here!

Click here to go straight to this weeks Recipes

Music to Cook to….what I’ve been listening to in my kitchen!….Click on this link to listen to my playlists (listen without judgement – it’s just a bit of fun!)

Any feedback or recipe ideas? Leave your comments at the very bottom of this page… or feel free to contact me personally here!…

Have you made one of the recipes from Menu Mistress?…Why not take a photo and share it on Instagram, please mention @menumistress or tag menumistress!

A little bit of housekeeping…

To find all the recipes from my blogs go to the Recipes page, where there is a link to print them off. 

Oven Settings – All my recipes presume that you are cooking with a fan oven, increase the temperature by 20’c for conventional ovens without a fan.

‘Staple Side Dishes’ – when you see this beside a recipe, it indicates that I have previously published this side dish on Menu Mistress. I have re-published it so that you don’t have to trawl through my old recipe blogs to find it – Menu Mistress is about making your life in the kitchen easier!

Gluten-Free – I am gluten-free, so all of my recipes have gluten-free options, although I must stress that if you have an allergy please double check all ingredients. If flour is used you can substitute it with gluten-free flour (I use Dove’s Free From range) and likewise with other ingredients such as pasta or soy sauce, you can use gluten free options.

Most of the recipes on Menu Mistress are courtesy of the creativity of cookery book writers, old and new. The recipes are an ‘amuse-bouche’ for those available in the books. Please go to my Cookbooks page for more information.

Menu One

Roast Chicken with Saffron, Hazelnuts and Honey (Serves 4)

This recipe is from Yotam Ottolenghi’s first book, ‘Ottolenghi: the Cookbook’. As he says himself, ‘it is so easy to make, yet looks stunning and has the most delicate and exotic combination of flavours (rosewater, saffron and cinnamon)’. It really is a winning dish and is one of my family favourites! You can either make it with a whole chicken or, as I prefer, with chicken thighs. Serve with rice or couscous.

1 large chicken divided into quarters or 8 chicken thighs

2 onions, roughly chopped

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

A generous pinch of saffron strands

Juice of 1 lemon

4 tablespoons cold water

2 teaspoons sea salt flakes

1 teaspoon black pepper

100g unskinned hazelnuts

70g honey

2 tablespoons rosewater

2 spring onions, roughly chopped

1. In a large bowl mix the chicken pieces with the onions, olive oil, ginger, cinnamon, saffron, lemon juice, water, salt and pepper. Leave to marinate for at least an hour or overnight in the fridge.
2. Spread the hazelnuts out on an oven tray and roast in a preheated oven, 190’c, for 10 minutes until lightly browned. Chop roughly and set aside.
3. Transfer the chicken and marinade to a roasting tray. Arrange the chicken pieces skin-side up and put in the oven for 35 minutes.
4. While the chicken is roasting mix the honey, rosewater and nuts together to make a rough paste.
5. Remove the chicken from the oven and spoon a generous amount of the nut paste onto each piece and spread it to cover. Return to the oven for 5-10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the nuts are golden brown.
6. Transfer the chicken to a serving dish and garnish with the chopped spring onions.

Menu Two

Prawn & Mango Curry (Serves 4)

This is a very mild curry made with coconut milk, I’ve found that it’s popular with adults and children alike.  It’s an extremely easy recipe from Angela Hartnett’s cookbook ‘A Taste of Home’. It is certainly home cooking at its best – it will be on the table in less than 30 minutes!

2 x 400ml cans of coconut milk

800g raw prawns, shelled and deveined (defrosted if frozen)

1 mango, flesh diced

1 tablespoon chopped coriander

2 tablespoons chopped Thai basil

For the curry paste:

2 red chillies, seeded, roughly chopped

Zest and juice of 1 lime

2 lemon grass stems, roughly chopped

1 tablespoon chopped ginger

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1. Pour the coconut milk into a saucepan and boil until it is reduced by half.
2. Put the curry paste ingredients into a blender and blitz until smooth.
3. Add the paste and prawns to the pan of reduced coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes until the prawns are cooked then add the mango, followed by the chopped coriander and Thai basil. Serve with rice.

Menu Three

Rigatoni with Artichokes and Pancetta (Serves 4)

This is a lovely light pasta dish. I use preserved artichokes, but you could use fresh globe artichokes, just prepare them and cook for 20 minutes in boiling water before using in the sauce.

400g rigatoni (gluten-free if required)

6 tablespoons olive oil

100g diced pancetta

½ onion, finely sliced

2 garlic cloves, finely sliced

½ teaspoon chilli flakes

300g artichokes in olive oil, drained and sliced into quarters (or fresh artichokes – see note above)

1 lemon grated and juiced

2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

Parmesan cheese

Sea salt and black pepper

1. Heat a large frying pan with the olive oil. Add the pancetta and some salt and fry for 2 minutes. Add the onion, garlic and chilli flakes. Reduce the heat and cook for about 10 minutes.
2. Add the artichokes and lemon zest and cook for a further 3 minutes.
3. Meanwhile cook the pasta until al dente, according to the packet instructions.
4. Add the drained pasta to the sauce, then toss through the lemon juice to taste – you may only need ½ of the lemon. Sprinkle over the chopped parsley, some Parmesan cheese and a good grind of black pepper, and serve!

Menu Four

Vegetarian Moussaka with Ricotta Topping (Serves 4-6)

This is such a good vegetarian recipe! It’s from Delia Smith’s ‘Winter Collection’ cookbook. Yes, I know it’s June, but I think that this recipe is good whatever the season – I know from experience that it is perfect on a summers day with a crunchy green salad!… In the original recipe the aubergines are purged (salted) before cooking, I don’t do this as having read that these days due to the varieties of aubergines being less bitter there is no need, I am inclined to agree and of course, it saves time.

2 aubergines, chopped into 1 cm dice

275ml vegetable stock

50g Puy lentils

50g green lentils

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, finely chopped

1 large red pepper, chopped into small dice

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

400g tin chopped tomatoes, drained

200ml red wine

2 tablespoons tomato purée

1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Sea salt and black pepper

For the topping:

275ml whole milk

25g plain flour (gluten-free if required)

25g butter

¼ whole nutmeg, grated

250g Ricotta cheese

1 egg, beaten

25g Parmesan cheese

Sea salt and black pepper

1. Pour the stock into a saucepan together with the Puy lentils, bring to the boil and simmer with the lid on for 15 minutes before adding the green lentils. Cover again and cook for a further 15 minutes by which time most of the liquid should be absorbed and the lentils will be soft.
2. Meanwhile heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan and fry the onions until they are soft and tinged brown, about 5 minutes. Then add the red pepper, cook until softened for 4 minutes or so. Next add the garlic, cook for a further minute then transfer to a plate.
3. Now fry the aubergines in a further 2 tablespoons of olive oil (you may need a little more), turn up the heat and toss so that the aubergines get evenly cooked. When they are softened and browned add the drained tomatoes and the onion and pepper mixture.
4. In a bowl mix the wine, tomato purée and cinnamon together, then pour it over the vegetables. Then add the lentils, chopped parsley. Season well and let everything simmer gently whilst you make the topping.
5. For the topping, simply put the milk, flour, butter and nutmeg in a saucepan and whisk until it comes to simmering point and thickens into a smooth sauce. Remove for the heat and season with salt and pepper, let it cool a little before adding the Ricotta cheese, followed by the beaten egg.
6. Transfer the vegetable mixture to a baking dish and spoon over the cheese sauce, using the back of a spoon to take it right up to the edges of the dish. Sprinkle over the Parmesan cheese and bake in a preheated oven, 180’c, for a hour.
7. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes before serving.

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