POTATOES BOULANGERES

This comes from a Delia recipe and we have done this countless times. They always turn out well and they are a good side dish for the pork with dried fruit.

You need
- potatoes ( we use one potato per person)
- onions (a large onion for each Kg of potatoes)
- milk (200 ml for each Kg of potatoes)
- water (Delia calls for stock but that masks the flavour of the potatoes)
- 30-40 gr butter
-salt and pepper
- rosemary or thyme (we used with thyme)

Peel and wash the potatoes. Cut them into thick slices - we do this with the food processor- and add salt and pepper.  Peel the onion and cut it into half moons. Take a roasting tray and arrange: a layer of potatoes at the bottom, a bit of the rosemary or thyme, then a layer of onions, another layer of potatoes, more rosemary or thyme, a layer of onion and a last layer of potatoes. Sprinkle thyme or rosemary on top. Add the milk and then add water until you cover three quarters of the roasting tray. Cut the butter into small cubes and put them (randomly) on top of the potatoes. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for an hour. You can prepare this well in advance and then reheat it in the oven.

The children enjoyed cutting the veggies in the food processor. They also helped arranging the layers and pouring the milk and water.

PORK WITH DRIED FRUIT

The children like the colours and flavours of of this recipe.

You need:
- 500 g pork loin (this is purely indicative)
- a handful of prunes (stones)
- a handful of dried apricots
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 medium onions cut in big chunks
- olive oil
- salt
- water
Preheat the oven at 250 degrees. Score the skin of the pork. Make a hole shaped like a cross through the middle of the pork loin with a long knife (you may need to pierce both sides but it is very easy to connect both holes) Stuff as many apricots and prunes as you can into the hole (we normally make a pork loin with prunes and another one with apricots but you can mix both or just use one of them). Rub the loin with the salt and the oregano. Put it in a - not too big- roasting tray with the onion. Throw in a few more prunes and apricots  if you wish. Drizzle a bit of olive oil on top and put it all into the oven for 15 minutes. After that time add a glass of water to the tray (not on top of the pork) and reduce the temperature to 190 degrees. Let it roast for 1.30 hours more or less adding more water to the tray if it dries off. When you take it out you may want to cut off the skin and get it back on its own into a very hot oven to make it even crispier. Cut the loin into even slices. You do not need any gravy on this as there is normally enough sauce left in the roasting tray.

Though the children do not like touching raw meat they had no problems stuffing the dried fruit into the loin. Be very careful with all the long knives that are needed for this recipe.

CARROT CAKE

We have managed to do the cooking and the blog for a whole year! It is the first time my children stick with something (out of pleasure and without any bribes) for such a long time. We are seriously proud of this and have celebrated it with a carrot cake. The recipe is from Delia (we have only altered it slightly by simplifying it a little) and it is sinful. It seems like a lot of ingredients but it is actually rather simple to make.

You need:
-200 gr wholemeal flour (Delia calls for wholemeal self raising but we did not have any, so we added baking soda and bicarb)
- 1.5 tsp bicarbonate
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3 tsp all spice
- 175 g dark brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 150 ml sunflower oil
- 200 g grated carrots
- 100 g raisins
- 50 g desiccated coconut
- 50 g pecan nuts
- zest of one orange
For the syrup you need the juice of the orange, juice of a lemon and 75 gr dark brown sugar.
For the frosting: 1 tub 250 g mascarpone cheese, 150 g philadelphia cheese and 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees.
Toast the pecan nuts over a frying pan on low heat for 3 minutes (watch it carefully as it is very easy to burn them). Whisk the sugar, eggs and oil with a blender. Add the flour, bicarb, baking soda and all spice by folding it all in. Then add all the other ingredients. You can bake this on a lined tin (for 45 minutes) or on two (in this case you only need 30 minutes). 

While the cake is being baked mix the juice of the orange lemon and brown sugar. As soon as you take the cake out of the oven prick it a few times with a toothpick or skewer and pour the syrup on top. Wait until the cake is cold to get it out of the tin.

Mix the Mascarpone and Philadelphia cheese with the sugar and cover the top and sides of the cake ( if you use two tins then use the frosting to fill in the cake as well. The cake is actually very nice without frosting as well. 

BURGER

There are thousands of ways to make burgers. This is ours.

-300 gr minced beef meat (we use 5% fat - burgers would probably be nicer with more fat but burgers are unhealthy by nature so happy to compromise on flavour)
- 1 small onion ( chopped finely)
- 1 garlic ( pureed)
- 1 tablespoon parsley
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
- 1 table spoon vinegar
- 2 tablespoon Worcerstershire sauce
- salt
- pepper
- olive oil
- 6 buns (if you are using toasted bread you may want to cut it into round shapes with a cookie cutter)

Fry the onion with a table spoon of olive oil over very low heat until it becomes soft and translucent. Mix well all the ingredients (except  for the oil and the buns of course) in a bowl. Let the mixture rest for 10 minutes more or less in the fridge. Heat a griddle pan until it is very hot. Make hand size balls with the mixture and flatten them a little. Brush them with olive oil on both sides and fry them for 4 minutes on each side ( reduce the heat after a couple of minutes) Meanwhile toast the buns and serve (with onion, gherkins, slices of tomato, cheese...all up to you)

The children were happy to help with it all except for mixing the ingredients with their hands, but they did it with a spoon. They agreed to use rocket as decoration for the picture. I then suggested they should eat the burger with the rocket but this turned out to be widely over optimistic. They replaced the rocket with (tonnes of) tomato ketchup - who can blame them...