Strawberry cheesecake in a mug

Quantities are per mug or cup

• 2  1/2 tablespoons icing sugar
• 2 1/2 tablespoons cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 tablespoon lemon (or lime) juice
• a small handful fresh or frozen strawberries or raspberries 
• 1/2 egg beaten well
• 1 biscuit in a zip lock bag to crush -I used Maria biscuits which would be rich tea in England
  
  
  Step 1 - In a bowl, mix cream cheese, sour cream, egg, icing sugar and whisk well until very smooth. Add lemon juice and raspberries.
  
  
  Step 2 - Spoon into cup or mug and place on a plate in the microwave. Microwave for 1 minute on medium. Once done, check it for doneness (it shouldn't be cooked). Microwave for 45 seconds on medium again. Jiggle it gently, the centre should be slightly wobbly and it will firm up once refrigerated. If it's still liquidey give it another 30 seconds on 50% power.
  
  
  Step 3 - Bash the cookie in the ziplock bag with a rolling pin (this is great therapy if someone is proving particularly annoying). You can use a food processor. Sprinkle the bashed up cookie crumbs on top of the cheesecake.

  
  

  Step 4 - Place cooled cheesecake in the fridge for a couple of hours. When cold and set, eat greedily and smugly knowing that this only took you 5 minutes to cook it and it is low fat.
  
  

Baked camembert

Stuff a sprig of rosemary and one garlic clove into the centre of an unwrapped camembert. Heat up in a medium over for around 20 minutes until all the cheese is gooey and served with warm bread and a glass of red wine for a perfect starter at dinner parties.

red bean and chorizo stew

Cook one pound of red beans in the pressure cooker with half a red onion for 35-40 min until the beans are cooked.
fry half a red onion in a tbs of oil until soft,
add 3 cloves of chopped garlic and continue to fry for one minute
add 3-4 chorizo sausages roughly chopped and fry with the onion and garlic until browned and almost cooked (4-5ish min)
add one chopped red pepper and 5 chopped tomatoes and cook for 3-4 minutes to soften
add two tbs of red wine and stir for a couple of minutes
add the beans and enough water to almost be covering the beans
stir well and cover until the stew comes to the boil
add a shake of dried thyme, basil and oregano to taste
partially cover the pan and cook for around 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

This stew is delicious served with cheesy mashed potato.

Broad Beans with a bechamel sauce

boil 1lb of broad beans for 3-5 minutes until cooked
wait until cooled and unshell the beans
make a bechamel sauce - melt around a tbs of butter in a small saucepan,
add 1/2 tbs of flour and mix in with a whisk
add a drop of milk at a timing whisking constantly to avoid lumps, add around 1/2 pint of milk in total and keep stiring.
When the sauce has thickened add a few chopped basil leaves, parmesan, salt and pepper.
Mix in broad beans, heat for a couple of minutes and serve.

Serve as a side or a light main.

delicious :-)

Easy Pear Tea Cake

• 3/4 cup plain wholemeal flour
• 3/4 cup self raising flour
• 3/4 cup caster or superfine sugar
• 1 egg, at room temperature
• 125g/4ozs melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 400g/14ozs. pears or apples, diced (you can even use tinned and I don't bother peeling them)
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon or vanilla sugar
• Icing sugar to serve (optional)

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Grease and line an 20cm/8inch springform tin with parchment paper.

Step 2 - Mix the two flours, sugar, butter, egg and vanilla in a bowl. Press three quarters of the mix into the base of the tin-it will be like a sticky, buttery dough. Scatter the diced pears on top. Then place small pieces of the dough on it in a patchwork pattern so that the pear is not entirely covered up.

Step 3 - add 2/3 of the mixture to the bottom of the greased pan

Step 4 - then add the pears

Step 5 - then the rest of the dough scattered in pieces

Then the sugar

Step 6 - Sprinkle with cinnamon or vanilla sugar (I prefer vanilla sugar for pears and cinnamon sugar for apples). Bake for 40-50 minutes. Sieve some icing sugar on top. Allow to cool before slicing as it is very delicate when warm.

Chirmol

toast one lb of tomatoes and a small handful of chile coban (less if you want to be less spicy) brown on all sides, this will take around 15-20 minutes, the chile will take less time
Take the chile and put into a chirmolera or pestal and morta and grind until a fine powder.
Add the tomatoes one at time and crush with the chile.
Add 2 tb spoons of chopped cilantro and half an onion finely chopped
add salt to taste and 2-3 tb spoons of water depending on how thickness you want the salsa to be.

Perfect for a special breaskfast, churrasco or celebrating the independence celebrations!

salsa for veggie tacos

one red pepper
one red jalepeno
one red onion
2 chiles chiptoles (I used chiles from a can)
2 tomates
1/2 tp of cumin seeds

Put all the above in a blender to make a sauce, add a little water if needed.

Add to a pan and heat with chopped coriander, add some sweet corn and 1/2lb of cooked black beans. Heat through a serve on corn tortillas as tacos, cheese and avocado go well :-)