Tweak week 2: Recipe Help

Your MTM….

...and recipe help

(For the uninitiated see the original Multi-Tasking Morning post!)

Pre-heat your oven to 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Make your Asian Spiced Salmon marinade and submerge your fillets – enough for a lunch and a supper – set aside.

Wrap your jacket potatoes in foil and pop into the oven.

Make your chilli and cook on the hob. The chilli is a “throw it all in” recipe and is really quick – if you're being really strict don't add the chocolate at the end of the recipe and avoid high fat sides. You could try a blob of mango chutney for a change.

Put your salmon in the oven – don't forget to set your timer.

Make your meatballs and tomato sauce. The meatball recipe is straight forward and not too time consuming. When made seal the meatballs on all sides in a frying pan with a drop of rapeseed oil – leave to cool and then “fridge” - these are then ready to use. Pop into a pre-heated oven on a baking tray for 15 minutes.

Tomato sauce – see below.

Prep your raw slaw – see separate post – Salad or Slaw.

Low fat cream cheese and cashew nut paté to go with Tuesday's lunch.

Low fat cream cheese and cashew nut paté

1 carrot, finely grated

225g low fat cream cheese

100g roasted cashew nuts, crushed to a rubble – not

to a dust!

tbsp of chopped chives

salt and black pepper

Mix all the ingredients together, box and fridge – you can if you wish use the individual baby pots if you are transporting your lunch – an ideal use. If you are feeling really virtuous have a side of raw carrot.

Prep your San Choy Bow. Have a glance at the recipe – chop your chilli, chestnut mushrooms, spring onions (sorry – salad onions – oops!) and water chestnuts. Wrap or bag as you wish. Make up your sauce mixture and that's all the advance prep done and dusted.

I realise that this MTM list looks to be out of order with the grid. I'm just making the best use of your time – your chilli is cooking whilst you're moving on to the next task and you'll not be hanging around twiddling your thumbs waiting for stuff to cook!

Tomato Sauce

If you've the time and inclination you can spend a morning making a sauce from scratch – if you'd rather not, here's a shorter route :

500g passata or the equivalent in cans of chopped tomatoes

1 medium/large onion, chopped finely

1 garlic clove crushed or tsp of garlic paste

1 tbsp of rapeseed oil

knob of butter - optional

1 vegetable stock pot and 250ml of boiling water

Good pinch of oregano or garlic Italian seasoning

salt and black pepper

1 tsp caster sugar

Melt the oil and butter in a saucepan, add the onion and fry gently until soft then add the garlic. Add the oregano or garlic Italian seasoning, salt and black pepper. Then add your stock pot and boiling water so that it melts, add the tomatoes and sugar. The sugar is meant to balance out the acidity that one sometimes gets with tomatoes. Simmer the sauce for about 20 minutes. The sauce will improve with “standing” so if you want to make it a couple of days ahead and refrigerate so much the better. You can also freeze it.

N.B. If you want to add extra depth you can add a tbsp of tomato paste. I would suggest that you taste your sauce before you simmer for 20 minutes. If you add paste then the simmering process will cook it out and its important that you do this - it tastes horrid and bitter if you don't. A lot depends on personal taste and how good your tomatoes are.

A basic carton or jar of passata is not expensive, i.e. 68p for 680g.

Just before I go, consider this. Why not substitute the mince element in either the San Choy Bow or the chilli in this week's grid with the Quorn version – it's a healthier low fat option and because of the nature of these two recipes i.e. they both include lots of different flavours even if you're not a convert give it a try – you might be pleasantly surprised!