Thai beef salad

This is based loosely on the Jamie Oliver Thai beef salad from his 15 minute meals series. By 'based loosely' I mean based on whatever notes I scribbled down whilst watching the programme, as well as being dependant upon what food we had in the fridge. I have purposely left quantities approximate as we tend not to use specific measurments in recipes like this.

 - marinade steak (we used two rib-eye steaks)  in a good pinch of salt, pepper, crushed szechuan peppercorns, chinese 5 spice/mixed spice and a slug of oil for at least 30 mins


- dry fry a mixture of nuts and seeds (we used sesame seeds, pine nuts, mixed nuts) and set aside

- make the dressing... lime juice and zest, fresh and/or pickled ginger, soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce, sesame oil, fresh chopped chilli, thai fish sauce - and set aside

- fry a sliced red pepper and a handful of sliced shallots until soft, add a splodge of oyster sauce if you have any

- cook/soak a portion of noodles and mix in with the fried peppers and shallots
- griddle the marinaded steaks on each side until medium rare, leave to rest for a few minutes and then slice thickly

- chop up a romaine lettuce, spring onions, coriander, parsley and scatter on a large platter. Add halved cherry tomatoes, rocket and sliced radishes if there are some to use up.

- pile the hot peppers, shallots, noodles and sliced steak on top of the leaves and finish off with the toasted nuts and seeds

- serve the bowl of dressing and a few extra lime wedges on the side

Spanish salad

Mixed leaves with thinly sliced red pepper and red onion, sliced chorizo and cubed manchego cheese. Make a dressing with 2 parts Spanish olive oil to 1 part white wine vinegar with 1 heaped teaspoonful of quince paste stirred in.

Warm chicken, squash and pesto salad

Use left over chicken from a roast dinner for this.

Ingredients (serves 2):

1 small squash or two sweet potatoes

cooked chicken

mixed salad leaves

2 tbl sp pesto (fresh pesto is best for this)

1 sprig of rosemary

small bunch of thyme

1 clove of garlic

olive oil

- Peel the squash and dice into chunks. Place in a roasting dish with the herbs, whole garlic clove and a splash of olive oil. Roast in a pre heated oven for about an hour.

- Mix the cooked chicken with the pesto so it's evenly coated and add it to the roasting pan with the squash for the last 5 minutes of cooking time to heat through.

- Serve the warm chicken and squash on mixed salad leaves and garnish with some shaved parmesan if you like.

Caesar salad

This is our version. We've not added anchovy fillets here but you could.

Ingredients (serves 2):
A couple of handfuls of cos and romaine lettuce
1 cooked chicken breast, diced
2 rashers of smoked bacon
4 quails eggs
croutons
caeser dressing (bought or homemade)
shaved parmesan

• Mix the sliced cooked chicken with the lettuce leaves
• Grill the bacon and cut it into bite sized pieces before adding to the salad
• Meanwhile, cook the quails eggs in boiling water for one minute, then remove the pan from the heat and leave to stand for one minute
• Remove the eggs from the water. Peel them carefully and slice them in half
• Add the halved quails eggs, croutons, parmesan and dressing to the salad
• Eat whilst the bacon and quails eggs are still warm
  

Tomato and feta salad

This is almost a Greek salad, but as I don't like olives I prefer to serve them separately so Ross can add his own!

Ingredients (serves 4):

4 large tomatoes
1/3 cucumber

1 red onion

2/3 pack of feta

good olive oil

pepper

basil or parsley (if you like)

1. Roughly chop the tomatoes, red onion, cucumber and feta.


2. Dress with olive oil and season with black pepper. Leave to marinade for about an hour before you want to eat it. The raw onion should be much milder in taste after an hour of marinading.


3. Sprinkle with herbs (if using) just before serving.


4. Best served at room temperature.