So with at-least 10 years cooking under my belt I think I can safely say I am confident in the kitchen. The trick I have decided is not to be afraid of it and just go with your instincts. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t but… if you pretend what you have cooked is exactly what you have planned then there really is no problem is there?!

Being English I always find it hard to categorise true ‘English food’, I think one of the best things about being British is that we really do enjoy a whole host of food from all over the world. I love trying out new recipes and challenging myself to learn about different food and where it comes from.

When it comes to deciding what to cook of an evening I rarely cook the same thing twice so what better way to find inspiration than to just look at what the rest of the world eat.

Here I plan to post as many different ‘Foods of World’ to help get you inspired.. starting with..

Japanese:

Me and Jase (the BF) had our very own Sushi making night last week. Our local Deli has started selling little lunch boxes of Sushi on a Saturday and charging £4.25 for the privilege. While it is lovely sushi I do think that is rather a lot of money for what you get. Therefore with my new ‘frugal-world-food’ head on I decided to give it a go. Problem was though.. while £4.25 seems expensive for 6 pieces of sushi it ended up costing me nearly £35 to get all the ingredients to make our own! It was top fun though and such a great idea for a dinner party. We ended up making enough food for about 6 people. The whole process took a few hours but really made for a very enjoyable evening. We started off by making the sushi rolls with a mixture of raw tuna, fresh prawns, cream cheese, roasted courgette, chives, cucumber and pepper. While Jason cleared up the mess I quickly fried up 2 salmon steaks which had been marinating in Teriyaki sauce for a few hours, adding in a handful of asparagus at the end. We then feasted on the hot Teriyaki dish, fresh sushi and lots of wine before it was time to give the dog some exercise….. which consisted of drunkenly laying on the bean bag in the kitchen skillfully trying to bounce the ball into the open washing machine and letting Thomas play ‘ball boy’!

Next on my list of World food treats is.. Moroccan.. watch this space..

This recipe is just great if you need a good healthy vegetable kick. It’s extremely cheap, very good for you and is really tasty. The reason I have not taken a picture of the cooked final version is because it does end up looking like a pile of brown school dinner slop on your plate! I am sure most children would look at you as if you were mad if you served them up this, so save it for the grown ups and tuck in with a lovely bit of Nan bread, some rice and a bottle of beer… …well you can’t be healthy all the time.. and what is a curry without a beer?!

1 red onion
2 gloves of garlic
1 red chili (optional.. depending on how brave you are!)
Good selection of chopped vegetables (what ever you have in fridge, although good example would be: 2 Carrots, half a broccoli, handful of green beans, pepper and mushrooms)
3 – 4 large handfuls of red lentils (ready to use)
2 vegetable stock cubes
3 tablespoons of Pataks Balti curry paste

Fry all the veg in a large pan with the garlic, onion and chili for 5 minutes. Add the curry paste and the lentils and continue frying for a few minutes. Add the stock cubes and then completely cover the whole mixture with water. Leave to simmer for 30 – 40 minutes adding a little water every 10 minutes if necessary. You will know when it’s ready when the lentils are soft and not chewy. Lovely yubbly.

Things like Caserole are so easy and so cheap everyone should know how to cook it. I love it with my own home made bread.

Left overs can be frozon and you can easily feed a family of 5 for less than £10.

Sometimes going back to basics is just so satisfying, especially on these cold and windy summer days!

For the bread:
2lb wholemeal bread flour
1 pint of warm water
1oz of dried yeast
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of salt
Handful of fresh rosemary (chopped)
Handful of Sesame seeds
2 x handfuls of Sunflower seeds.

Combine the flour, yeast, sugar, salt and half of the sesame and sunflower seeds.
Add the water and mix together. Shake a load of flour onto your work surface and plonk the mixture on top. Now is time to get stuck in with the kneading for at least 5 minutes. roll, slap, fold and push around and then do it all some more! Place back in a bowl with a wet tea towel on top and leave it to rise for 30 minutes, or until it has doubled in size. Then mold into shape and cover the whole of the outside with the remaining seeds. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

For the Chicken and Veg casserole:

2 x chicken breasts (cut up)
1 large onion
Varied assortment of veg: Potato, sweet potato, cabbage, carrot, peas, broccoli (whatever you have basically)
2 Pints of hot veggie and or chicken stock.
Salt and pepper.
3 rosemary stalks (chopped)

Brown the chicken in a frying pan with the onion and transfer to a casserole dish, add all the uncooked veg and completely cover with stock. Add salt and pepper and chopped up rosemary. Cover and cook in oven on medium to high heat for around an hour or you can leave this is in the oven to cook on a low heat for hours if you wish. I am sure back in caveman times this used to be cooking all day!
Serve with the lovely chunky bread and real butter

Fish is good, Fish is nice, Fish is just a healthy dish. Eat it hot, eat it cold it in your marigolds!

Ok I will never be a poet but i am not bad at cooking!

I thought it would be nice to share my favourate Fishy Dish with you……

You will need:

2 Sea Trout fillets (salmon fillets also work well)
Half a tin of chopped tomatoes
5 roughly chopped sundried tomatoes
Handful of chopped green olives
Half a red onion
2 gloves of garlic
Handful of fresh basil.

Start by frying the onion and garlic in a small amount of oil on a medium heat. Add the Sea Trout fillets face down (so the skin is facing up!) and cook for 3 - 4 minutes. Add all the tomatoes and olives and flip the fillets over. Continue cooking for a further 8 - 9 minutes spooning the sauce over the top of the fish as you cook. Stir though the basil right at the end. Serve with steamed green veg and boiled potatoes.
I think this meal is relatively fat free, apart from perhaps the olives but they are a good fat aren’t they?!

I am just a sucker for cakes and biscuits and blueberry muffins are right up there in my favorites.
I was extremely pleased to find out just how easy they are to make and even more pleased when they turned out just perfectly and in just half an hour. Here is how…

You will need:
6oz blueberries (I always prefer them after 3 -4 days as they get sweeter)
9oz self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2oz butter
3oz caster sugar
grated rind of 1 lemon
2 x large eggs
250ml milk

Put the flour, baking powder and sugar in a big bowl and mix together.
Add the butter and using your hands combine it all together so you have a kind of bread crumb consistency. Stir in the blueberries and lemon rind. In a separate bowl mix together the milk and eggs and then pour over the dry mix. Stir it together but not for long as it is supposed to be a lumpy mixture Spoon the mixture into muffin tins lined with baking paper and cook for around 25 minutes in a pre heated 200C oven. They should rise beautifully out of the tins and go all nice and brown on top.
I love to eat them with thick and creamy custard.