Sarah Venning’s recipes

Heat 2 tablespoons of a light oil in a wok. Add a sliced red onion and half a sliced red pepper and fry for 3-4 minutes until golden.

If using prawns, stir in 150g of raw prawns now and stir fry them until they’re pink.

Add 200g cooked ribbon noodles and fry quickly to heat them through, then add two eggs and stir fry quickly to mix them up.

Add either a handful of beansprouts or broad beans or shredded cabbage, plus 1 tablespoon of caster sugar, 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, the juice of a lime and 4 tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce.

If you’re using cooked chicken, add 150g now (if you are mixing chicken and prawns, you need about 150g of protein in total so swap them around as you like). Stir fry to heat it all through for another minute.

Just before serving, sprinkle with two or three chopped spring onions, lots of fresh coriander and a small handful of roughly chopped roasted peanuts.

This is a mucked about recipe from a Sharwoods packet but it works pretty well.

Packet of smoked mackerel
Tub of cream cheese
Juice of one lemon
Teaspoon of horseradish

Whizz it all up in the blender. I tried lots of mackerel pate recipes, then just asked Lucy to text me. This is the best and a really good hors d’oeuvre.

250g dried Pardina lentils
1 litre chicken or veg stock
1 tin of chick peas
6 shallots sliced
1 red pepper, cut into chunks
2 garlic cloves sliced
3/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp chilli
3/4 tsp ground cumin
olive oil
sea salt and black pepper
15 slices of chorizo
handful of fresh coriander, chopped
handful of fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

Bring stock to the boil and add the Pardina lentils and simmer for c.20 minutes.

Fry the shallots, red pepper, garlic, paprika, chilli and cumin in a little olive oil until nicely brown.

Drain the lentils, add a splash of olive oil and the drained, rinsed chick peas, return to the heat and warm through, stirring continuously so they don’t stick.

 Carefully mix everything together, check the seasoning and serve - NB it’s also really delicious cold the next day for lunch.

This is surprisingly good despite being v quick and basic.

http://www.waitrose.com/recipe/Beef_and_Black_Bean_Chilli_with_Toasted_Corn_Tortilla_Strips.aspx

• brown first in pan to seal juices
• roast in pre-heated oven 275/450/Gas 7 for 10 mins
• allow to rest for 10 mins

2 oz margarine
4 tbsp Worcester sauce
2 tbsp tomato sauce
2 level tsp made mustard
1 level tsp anchovy essence
Cayenne pepper
Turkey

Mix. Heat through.

Finely chop a quarter of a clove of garlic. Take the heads and outer coating off six large raw prawns (or use frozen raw tiger prawn tails). Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan and add garlic. heat briefly then add the prawns and tir around to cook through - it takes about a minute. Add a shake of Portuguese piri-piri sauce, a short squeeze of lemon and a little salt and chopped parsley. Serve on bread.