Fishy Risotto

INGREDIENTS

2 carrots

2 onions

1300g fish (I used haddock, pouting and smoked salmon)

2 peppers

Garlic

500g arborio rice

A handful of frozen peas

A handful of grated cheese

METHOD

1. Peel and quarter an onion and the carrots.
2. Fill a pan with 900ml of water and place the onion and carrots into it, along with salt, pepper and herbs.
3. Leave to boil for 10 - 15 minutes, and then strain it to remove the ingredients. Put the stock back on to boil.
4. Once the water is boiling, put the raw fish into the stock and then take it off of the heat. The fish will cook as the stock cools.
5. Dice the peppers and the remaining onion, and crush a clove of garlic.
6. Put oil in the bottom of a new pan, and fry until the peppers, onion and garlic until cooked but not coloured.
7. Add the arborio rice, and cook until the rice is slightly translucent around the edges.
8. Add enough of the stock (not the fish) to the rice to cover it, and wait for it to boil  and for the stock to be absorbed by the rice. Repeat until there is no stock left.
9. Add a handful of peas.
10. Once the stock is completely absorbed, add all of the fish to the pan and take it off the hob. Leave for 5 minutes with a lid on top.
11. Add the cheese, stir the rice until the fish is evenly distributed, and serve!

Buns (makes 6)

INGREDIENTS


300ml of tepid water
tsp of yeast
150g of strong white flour
dsp of fat (we used margarine, but you could use butter or lard)
tsp of salt
A good squirt of "Reggae Reggae" sauce (optional. Can omit, or substitute with other sauces.)

1. Mix the yeast and the water in a jug, and leave for 10 minutes. It should start frothing.
2. Mix the flour, fat, salt and sauce in a bowl until it looks like breadcrumbs.
3. Add the yeast/water solution to the bowl and then knead it. You can do this by either using a planetary mixer with a dough hook, or by hand. The former will take 10 minutes, while the latter will take longer. The dough should be elastic and very slightly sticky, and to achieve this it may be needed to add either more water or more flour.
4. Lightly oil a baking tray.
5. Lightly flour a work surface.
6. Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces, and then roll it on your work surface until they resemble buns.
7. Put the balls of dough onto the baking tray, and then lightly oil some cling-film. Cover the buns with the cling-film with the oiled side facing downwards.
8. Leave them somewhere warm until they have roughly doubled in size.
9. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.

Leaving the buns to rise...

Potato Wedges

These are easy peasey.

INGREDIENTS


1 baking potato per person
Seasoning

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Lightly oil a baking tray.
3. Chop the potato into wedges, and put onto the tray.
4. Season the wedges.
5. Cook in the oven for 1 hour, until they are soft and golden. This may not take an hour in your oven, as ours is a little bit pants.

Pork and Apple burger

INGREDIENTS

600g pork mince

2 onions

1 clove of garlic

2 apples

100g plain flour

1 tsp cinnamon

A dash of Worcester sauce

Salt and pepper to season

1 ball mozzarella  (optional)

Salad to garnish (optional, but suggested)

METHOD

1. Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees C.
2. Dice your onion into small cubes, peel and crush the garlic, and peel, core and grate the apples into a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the pork mince and flour to the mixing bowl, along with the salt, pepper, cinnamon and Worcester sauce.
4. Now it's time to get your hands dirty! Mix the ingredients together thoroughly. Some intense squishing of the mince may have to be done here! Alternatively, if you have a planetary mixer with a "K" whisk, you can use that instead.
5. Divide the mixture into 6 equal pieces, and then shape them into burgers. Don't worry if they aren't perfectly round, it gives them a rustic edge.
6. Cook in the oven for 20 minutes

If you're in need of a cheeseburger, grate some cheese and put it on top of the burger about a minute before it's time to take them out. Then it should have melted nicely. I used mozzarella in the one in the photo, but to be honest, it's not the best cheese to put on top.

Serve in a bun, with salad and potato wedges.

HELLO WORLD!

Hello there fellow earthlings! This is my Duke of Edinburgh cookbook - a record of all the tasty morsels I have created while completing my gold DofE.

The main goal that I want to achieve  is to expand my repertoire of yummy, yet affordable, food so that when I (hopefully) go to uni, I will not be totally lost behind a stove. Which I know happens to some people.

So enjoy these recipes, and note that not all of them have exact measurements! If it says season to taste, it means add salt and pepper, and herbs if you're feeling adventurous. And sometimes a handful is as good a measurement as any.

Enjoy your food, and most of all, enjoy cooking it!

Hannah

PS. All my food is being served for a family of 6, so if you want to make it for more or less, divide the quantities by 6 and then multiply it by the number of serving you wish to create.