What's for dinner?

Chips are one of the nation’s favourite dishes and there are some wonderful ways you can spice up your chips to give them a new, fresh twist.

Try these three recipe ideas for an original twist on National Chip Week:

1. Spicy Chips: Cook your chips as normal then sprinkle ready mixed spices such as chaat masala; squeeze over a little lemon juice and sprinkle finely chopped coriander for a really tasty treat.

2. Chip Kick: Finely chop fresh onions, add mixed spices and fresh coriander and mix into the chips to make a snack with a kick. If you want a real kick, chop fresh chillies and add to the mix.

3. Nice & Saucy Chips: Mix chopped tomatoes, coriander, cumin, turmeric and chilli powder to make a delicious sauce, add cooked chips and simmer for a couple of minutes to create a wonderfully rich and spicy side dish.

Or why not try serving your spicy chips with some fried fish dusted in flour, chilli powder, black pepper, turmeric and garlic puree, and you have created your very own Indian fish and chips!

If, like me, you enjoy your food at it’s freshest and tastiest, you should ‘eat the season’ and plan your meals around seasonal produce – check out What’s in Season – a guide to seasonal food in Britain. I find a calendar of the seasons showing what to eat and when, really helpful stuck to the fridge as inspiration when I’m planning meal times.

Not only is seasonal veg, fruit and meat at it’s best in season, but this is also when you can get the best deals for your favourite ingredients. Simply add seasonal veg to customise your favourite recipes, how about adding spinach to your Balti to give it a bit of a seasonal twist.  Or take inspiration from the ingredients of the season. Potato, cauliflower, garlic as well as spinach are all in season this month – the perfect ingredients for one of my favourite dishes: Gobi Aloo Saag.

Now may also be the ideal time to think about what produce you can grow at home throughout the year. This is an ideal way of planning ahead and getting the whole family involved. Chilli plants are quick and easy to grow and are ready for planting February/March time so why not have a competition amongst your family for who can grow the biggest chilli.

Let me know how you get on – and happy eating.

As promised, I would like to share with you the recipe for one my favourite Indian salads – perfect for all those with New Year’s Health and Diet resolutions.

‘Kachumber’ literally means to cut into small pieces. This salad is a favourite of mine as it is quick, easy, healthy and the ingredients can be substituted for whatever salad/veg you have in your fridge, or would like to use up.

Serves 2 as a main meal/ 3 or 4 as an accomp to a main meal or starter

Ingredients:
2 Large Jubilee Vine Tomatoes (225g)
1/2 Cucumber (250g)
2 Small Red Onions (150g)
3 Spring Onions (40g)/Coriander (40g)
2 Fresh Red Chillies
2 Fresh Green Chillies

For the dressing:
1 Lemon
Chaat Masala (5g)
Sugar (7g)

Baby leaf salad, naans/chappatis, raita to serve

- Dice the tomatoes, onions and cucumber into small chunks
- Thinly slice chillies and spring onions/coriander (NB: the heat of chillies varies hugely so you can adapt quantities as necessary, removing veins and seeds to reduce heat – I like mine really hot so leave the seeds in)
- Add to the tomato/onion/cucumber mix and stir well
- For the salad dressing, in a seperate bowl, squeeze the juice of one lemon
- Add the sugar and chaat masala to the lemon juice and stir

Before serving, add the dressing to the salad mix and stir; the salt in the chaat masala makes the salad release water so the later you leave this, the fresher/crisper the salad will be.

This salad is delicious as an accomp to a main, starter or simply served with a baby leaf salad and served with chappatis/naan and raita. For extra punch, add juliennes of ginger.