A bit on the side

What does Sunday lunch mean to you? Steamy windows, expert timing and congealing fat? A lazy booze-fuelled, chat-fest with friends, or a fraught encounter with the family?

The Sunday lunches of my childhood were preceded by a trip to church. Thus spirituality and roast meat have always been inextricably linked in my mind. At first I found mass unintelligible, then I moved on to bored, but my divine interest started to pick up as I became interested in boys and church became a good scouting venue.

There's no need to be slaving over a hot stove on a summer Sunday. Instead, get your meat in the oven when you're having breakfast and give it (and you) time to relax before serving for lunch with cold salady vegetabley dishes - such as crunchy and colourful coleslaw or tastebud-tickling wasabi potato salad. Both recipes serve 4-6.

Wasabi potato salad

Wasabi Potato Salad

500g new potatoes
6 tablespoons mayonnaise
½-1 teaspoon wasabi powder*
6 spring onions, sliced

Mix together the mayo and wasabi powder. Cook the potatoes, allow them to cool a little, then cut into chunks and mix them carefully into the wasabi mayo while they are still warm. Add the spring onions.

*Remember that the flavour and heat of the powdered stuff develops slowly!

Coleslaw

Coleslaw

Half a small white cabbage (outer leaves and stalk removed), sliced finely
3 or 4 carrots, peeled and grated
8 spring onions, sliced

100g mayonnaise
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon cider vinegar

Mix together the wet ingredients then add the cabbage, carrot and spring onions and mix some more. I like to add a handful of raisins, though my children spit with disgust if I do.

Carrot and Nut Salad

Another one you can knock up in a few minutes is my Carrot and nut salad. Again, I like it with a handful of raisins thrown in.

Beef stew and dumplings

Pesky guests landing themselves on you this Christmas? The holy grail of entertaining at any time of year is a dish which tastes good, is reliable, and which can be made in advance. This rich and tasty beef stew ticks all those boxes, and just needs a green vegetable to go with it (and maybe some mashed potatoes to soak up the gravy). What's more, it's one of those elusive dishes which is equally well received by adults and children.

Whip it out with a "Here's one I prepared earlier" flourish: Make the stew and leave it to cool, or freeze it. The dumplings can be made several hours in advance and kept in the fridge (but for best results allow them to come to room temperature before cooking), or made as needed - they only take a few minutes. Heat the stew slowly on the stove, dropping in the dumplings when it starts to boil. Cover with a lid and cook for 20-30 minutes. Alternatively, prepare the stew on the hob, then tip it into a slow cooker and leave for about 5-6 hours on a low setting, throwing in the dumplings half an hour or so before you are ready to eat.

Beef stew and dumplings - serves 6

2 onions, chopped
1 kg casserole beef
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 x 500ml can Stella Artois
2 beef Oxo cubes
1 large leek, chopped
5 carrots, chopped

75g Atora vegetable suet
150g self raising flour

Pre-heat oven to 150/gas 2. Fry the onions in a splosh of olive oil in a cast iron casserole dish. Remove them when they are translucent and sweet. Add a bit more oil, turn the heat up and brown the steak in a couple of batches. Reduce the heat to medium and return the onions to the pan with the meat, sprinkle over the flour and stir well, slowly adding the beer. Crumble in the Oxo cubes, then add 250ml cold water and the leek and carrots. Season. Stir well and bring to the boil, then cover with a lid and transfer to the oven for a couple of hours.

To make the dumplings: Put the suet and flour in a bowl together, season generously and add 6 tablespoons cold water. Mix well to form a sticky dough and shape it into 12 balls. Place these on top of the casserole and return to the oven for another 20-30 minutes.

Sunday munch

I'm going retro today, and making a couple of recipes from the archive for lunch: creamy chicken and bacon pie with crisp filo pastry, and a pear and ginger cake studded with chunks of juicy pear and smothered in ginger syrup. Click here for the pie recipe and here for the cake.

I've always loved filo pastry, but shied away from the hassle of dealing with it. When making this pie I had a lightbulb-pastry-moment: simply take up the filo and scrunch it onto the pie filling, then brush all over with melted butter and bake. Less fat, less faff. 

One sheet at a time

This recipe feeds 4 generously. I often hive off a bit of the mixture and freeze it to make a child-size portion for another day. If you are making it ahead, cook the filling and allow it to cool (it will sit happily in the fridge for a couple of days), then add the pastry and butter just before you bake it.

Everyone loves a ginger

The pear and ginger cake is baked in a loaf tin and won't win prizes for its looks. Mine often ends up concave instead of beautifully domed - but that's because of the pear and the syrupy bits of ginger weighing it down. Serve it warm with thick cream or ice cream, or cooled and sliced. 

Sunday - a day of rest

Not for most mothers, who are busy washing school uniform/kit, polishing shoes, ferrying to and from sports clubs, supervising homework and generally putting on an unrivalled show of domestic excellence. Here's a couple of ideas for some lazy food to help redress the balance:

Pancakes

 

For breakfast - quick to make & cook, and even quicker to eat if you roll them up and cram them into one mouthful, as my daughter did. This recipe (from St Delia) makes about 10:

110g plain flour
a pinch of salt
2 large eggs
200ml milk mixed with 75ml water (or 275ml skimmed milk)
2 tablespoons melted butter

Mix everything together in a blender. It's ready to use straight away. Wipe the pan with a bit of melted butter between each pancake, and serve with lemon juice & sugar, jam, maple syrup, bananas, Nutella... After so much industry, I recommend retiring to bed for at least an hour with a cup of tea.

Important - leave the clearing up to someone else

Our lunch today is a ready-made steak pie from the local farm shop. Serve it with a 2 or 3 veg (no need for potatoes, as there's plenty of pastry). Or you could push the boat out and roast a chicken.

Quicker roast chicken

Abandon your normal thinking of a carefully timed Sunday roast, and serve instead with something quick and easy - new potatoes, couscous, salad, oven chips, baked potatoes, any veg. In the absence of gravy, Thai chilli dipping sauce and garlic mayonnaise are good accompaniments.

At the risk of coming over a bit Nigella, I think it's a good idea to stuff a couple of quartered, peeled onions in the orifices and rub some butter into the breasts before cooking. Pre-heat the oven to 190C/375F/gas 5 and cook for 20 minutes per lb (450g) and up to an extra 20 minutes at the end (when you can also turn up the heat a bit to crisp the skin). Let it rest/cool until you are ready to eat it. Basting is good, but not essential.

Chicken stock

After the chicken has been devoured, make chicken strock (tomorrow?). Put all the inedible bits into a large saucepan, cover with water, add a veg or chicken stock cube, and bring to the boil. Let it simmer, uncovered, for about an hour then strain and refrigerate. When it is completely cold you can carefully lift off the fat which has solidified on the surface.

Chocolate orange brownies

Such is my lack of food management that we have just one piece of fruit in the house - an orange.
The best (and most edible) way to eke it out is to make chocolate orange brownies:

100g unsalted butter
100g plain chocolate
300g caster sugar
pinch of salt
1tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
130g plain flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
grated zest of 1 orange and 2 tablespoons of its juice

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4 and butter & line a square 7" cake tin.  Melt the butter and chocolate over a pan of simmering water. Cool slightly and add sugar, salt, vanilla, zest and orange juice.  Add the eggs one at a time, stirring well. Add flour and cocoa and beat for a minute until smooth. Bake for 40-45 minutes until the top is evenly coloured and a cocktail stick comes out almost clean. Let it cool, and cut into whatever size pieces suit you.