Pad Thai (well sort of)

Ingredients:

• Chicken fillets
• Rice noodles
• Spring Onions
• Capsicum
• Pad thai sauce (previously made, but basically mixed keecap manis, dried prawns, chilli, palm sugar, ginger and salt)
• Onion
• Bean shoots (couldn't get fresh used canned)
• Baby sweet corn
• Water chestnuts
• Bamboo shoots
• Fried shallots
• Peanuts
  

Method:

1. Slice chicken and veges up into small slices.
2. Stick noodles in boiling water to soften up.
   
3. Stir fry hard veges in a oil until soft, set aside in bowl.
   
4. Stir fry chicken in batches in a little oil and some sauce.
5. Chuck everything in wok and sprinkle with peanuts.
6. Serve with garnish of crunchy fried shallots

Time to prepare: 20 minutes
Cost per serve: $5
Recipe inspiration: Side of a bottle of pad thai sauce that I was stealing the ingredient list from.

Pumpkin and Sage Risotto

Ingredients

• Arborio rice
• Pumpkin
  
• Sage
• Parmesan cheese
• Herb bread
• Salt
• Onion
• Garlic

Method

1. Chop half the pumpkin into largish bits and boil until soft in 1 litre of lightly salted water.
2. Chop other half of pumpkin into small even sized cubes and fry over low heat until carmelised on all sides. Patience is the key, just let 'em sizzle away on one side until they are nicely browned and sweet.
   
   
3. Once the first batch of pumpkin is soft, blitz it with a stick blender and add water to make up to 1.5 litres or so.
   
   
4. Stick herb break in hot oven to heat.
   
5. Chop onion and garlic and sweat for a little while.
6. Dump in rice and swirl around until covered with the oily goodness.
   
   
7. Add the pumpkin stock bit by bit whilst stirring.
8. Half way through the stock add most of the chopped sage (retain a little for garnish)
9. Risotto is done when it mostly squishes between your fingers.
10. Add the grated parmesan cheese and stir to melt in.
    
11. Serve with herb bread, garnished with left over sage.
    
    

Time to cook: 45 minutes
Cost per serve: $4.00
Inspiration: An Andrew Blake recipe from one of those newspaper inserts.

Quick spaghetti bolognese

Ingredients:

• Minced pork
  
• Minced beef
• Canned tomatoes (I prefer whole and smoosh 'em myself)
• Garlic
• Onion
• Olive oil
  
• Salt
• Oregano (dried)
• Spaghetti
• Herb bread to accompany.
  

Method:

1. Chop onion finely (I've had good results grating it too, just more tears) and fry it and the garlic in some olive oil.
2. Chuck in the mince and brown it.
3. Smoosh up the tomatoes and chuck them in.
4. Sprinkle in some oregano
5. Head oven to 220 degrees C
   
6. Simmer until thick
7. Cook spaghetti as per packet, whilst heating herb bread.

Time to cook: 35 minutes
Cost per serve: $5
Inspiration: Very little

Fajitas

Ingredients
Fajitas

• Chicken strips
• White onion
• Capsicum
• Chilli flakes
• Coriander (ground)
• Chilli powder
  
• Lemon Juice
• Pepper
• Salt
  

Condiments

• Kumato tomatoes
• Shredded Cheese
• Avocado
  
• Soured cream
• Tortillas
• Coriander
• Lemon juice
  

Method

1. Remove avocado flesh (it's icky so dragoon a volunteer if you can)
2. Squeeze lemon for juice (use a helper if you can)
3. Combine the two to make guacamole
4. Chop onions into segments, capsicum and chicken into thin strips.
5. Chuck onions capiscum and a little oil in pan. Find something else to do so you don't disturb 'em. You want them a little charred. Once they have started going sprinkle some of the seasoning over them.
6. Chop the coriander.
7. Fry the chicken in small batches in the same pan as the onions and capsicum where done. Again you want it charred so don't move the chicken about too much.
8. When the chicken is done return the onions and capsicum to the pan, chuck in any leftover seasoning and the coriander and stir through.
9. Put the condiments in dinky little bowls and have your helper ferry them to the table.
10. Mix and match as you will to make yummy (if monotonous) fajitas.

Time to cook: 35 minutes (50 with helper)
Cost per serve: $8
Inspiration: Very little

Lamb Kofta, Cucumber Salad and Raita.

Ingredients:

Kofta

• Lamb mince
• Fresh coriander
  
• Coriander seeds
• Cumin Seeds
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Salt
• Chillies
  
• Egg yolk
• Yoghurt
• Onion

Salad

• Cucumber
• Coriander leaves
  
• Capsicum
• Red Onion

Raita

• Yoghurt
• Mint
• Cucumber

Method:

1. Mince together all the kofta ingredients in a bowl. Remember when scaling down a recipe to scale all of the ingredients especially the yoghurt, otherwise you get:
   
   
   strange liquid things that don't stay on the skewer as they should (solve this by pan frying them for a little while to form a crust before skewering)
   
   
2. Form sausages of the mush on skewers and char grill for about 8 minutes.
   
3. Meanwhile, finally slice the red onion, capsicum and 1/2 a deseeded cucumber and chuck in a bowl with the coriander leaves.
   
4. Finely chop the mint and mix with 1/2 a grated cucumber (don't peel it!) and yoghurt, to make the raita.
   
5. Plate it up thusly:

Time to cook: 45 minutes (15 minutes less if you don't stuff up)
Cost per serve: $8
Inspiration: A taste weeknight recipe

Risotto with broccoli and chicken balls.

Ingredients:

• Chicken mince
• Coriander
• Arborio rice
• Vegetable stock
• Garlic
• Onion
• Broccoli
• Parmesan cheese
• Prosciutto
• Olive oil
• Salt

Method:

1. Heat oven to 220 degrees C.
   
2. Chop coriander leaves into tiny bits
3. Grate onion
4. Chop coriander stems into really tiny bits, mix with onions
5. Chop broccoli into florets
6. Heat the vegetable stock (I nuked it as I killed my last saucepan not too long ago)
   
7. Mix half the coriander leaves, a tiny bit of grated onion and the chicken mince.
8. Form into balls and fry in batches until brown. Shaking the pan makes rounder balls that using tongs.
9. Stick garlic bread in oven.
10. Heat olive oil in pot and chuck in garlic, rest of onion and coriander stems.
11. When translucent, chuck in rice and stir to coat rice with all the oily, oniony goodness.
12. Chuck in the florets to soften
    
13. You know the drill, whack in stock and stir until absorbed, repeat until bored and rice feels right when you squish it between your fingers.
14. Just as you are about to serve chuck in the rest of the coriander and stir.
15. Crumble prosciutto over the top and remove garlic bread from oven.

Time to cook: 45 minutes
Cost per serve: $7.50
Inspiration: None

Steak with herb sauce, salad with dijon honey vingairette

Ingredients:

• Steak (fillet)
• Prosciutto
• Rocket
• Spinach
• Cucumber
• Apple
• Orange
• Celery
• Parsley
• Mint
• Coriander
• Olive oil
• White balsamic vinegar
  
• Dijon mustard
• Honey
  
• Salt
• Almonds
  

Method:

1. Heat char grill to stupid hot.
2. Fry prosciutto in pan until crisp.
3. Chop and toast almonds.
4. Oil and season steak and whack on grill.
5. Make mixture of 1 part vinegar, 3 parts oil
6. Add 1 tbsp dijon, 1 tbsp honey, shake vigorously.
7. Taste and salt if required.
8. Turn steak after 5 minutes (or so). Season just before you turn it.
   
9. Segment orange, core peel slice apple. Whack in bowl
   
10. Make thin slices of cucumber with speed peeler or mandolin. Whack in bowl
11. Slice celery thinly (peel if it's stringy)
    
12. Chuck leaves in bowl
13. Break prosciutto up into bits and chuck in bowl.
14. Press steak and when it feels right (Should feel like the meaty part of your hand does when you touch your thumb to forefinger) remove it from the grill and let rest.
15. Whack herbs, inner leaves from celery, a little olive oil, some grated Parmesan, Salt and almonds in a blender and blitz.
16. Plate up salad and steak. Drizzle salad with vingairette and steak with herb sauce.

Time to prepare: 25 minutes
Cost per serve: $12
Inspiration: This one is all mine.

Tomato and Sausage Risoni

Ingredients:

• Beef sausages
• Risoni
• Tomato passata (is that a tautology?)
• Onion (half, finely sliced)
• Capsicum
• Garlic
  
• Rocket
• Parmesan slivers
• Oregano (dried, I think it's better than fresh)
  
• Salt

Method

1. Cook sausages and then slice.
2. Stick garlic bread in 220 degree C oven
   
3. Fry onions, garlic and capsicum until soft.
4. Add oregano
   
5. Pour in passata and 4 cups of water, bring to the boil
6. Dump in risoni
7. Boil the crap out of it for 10 minutes until risoni is soft.
8. Serve topped with rocket, Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil and a couple of bits of garlic bread.

Time to cook: 35 minutes
Cost per serve: $7.50
Inspiration: A 30 minute recipe from taste website.