Veggie Frittata

It's been a while! The end of summer always gets a bit hectic - making sure you see all the friends and family you can before you go to uni. Anyway, here's a recipe that will you set you up nicely for a day of fresher's. Frittatas are similar to omelettes, but this one is made in the oven as it uses roasted vegetables - I've taken inspiration from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Veg Everyday book here.

Eggs are cheap and valuable sources of protein. Try and buy free-range if you can, think of the poor chicken!

We're now moving on to autumn and winter vegetables - sticking with the old seasonal veg, so basically use whatever you have in your fridge at the time. Sticking with the general rule of the harder the raw veg, the longer it will need to roast. In this case, cut the harder ones up smaller so they roast more quickly.

Ingredients: This will serve two or three people, or one then cold for lunch another day!

• 300g (roughly) of vegetables - root veg are probably better in this case, so sweet potato, butternut squash, carrots, parsnips, potatoes,. Courgettes and peppers will also work as will celery, but don't cut them up so small. The others should be cut into roughly 2-3cm cubes as an idea.
• 1/2 an onion - red is probably nicer here, also cut into slices/cubes.
• 3 dessert spoons of olive oil
• A handful of herbs if you have them - fresh parsley, thyme, chives etc.
• 3-4 eggs more if you end up having more vegetables.
• About 10-15g of hard cheese (parmesan, cheddar etc), grated.

All that colourful veg

Recipe:

• Preheat the oven to 190 degrees (Gas 5).
• Prepare your veg - peel the carrots, parsnip etc. cut the skin off the butternut squash, chop and chunk it all!
• Place them in a roasting dish - baking tray, glass or ceramic dish - whatever you have that fits all the veg so they're in roughly one layer.

Couldn't rotate it - but you get the even-layered veg idea...

• Toss them in olive oil and season well with salt and pepper then roast in the oven for 40 minutes, giving them a stir halfway through and adding mushrooms if you fancy.
• 30 minutes in, if you want to serve your frittata with roasted tomatoes (a good combination I promise), place two in a small dish and drizzle a little oil over them. Cut a slit in the top of each and place some fresh basil on top. Bung them in the oven and they'll be done at the same time as everything else. 
• When the veg is nearly done, beat the eggs, chopped herbs and more salt and pepper in a bowl and when the 40 minutes is up (or the veg is soft and looks done), pour the mixture into the roasting dish and wiggle until it's all evenly distributed. 

Whisky whisky (check out that colour coordination)

• Scatter the grated cheese on top, and put it back in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until the egg is set and it's looking golden brown round the edges. With 5 minutes to go, put some peas on to boil if you fancy - add some green to the plate!

Scattering cheese after pouring in egg

You could eat this with a chunk of wholemeal bread, or put potatoes in it for carbs. You could also have it with jacket potato. The beauty of a frittata, is that you can eat it cold the next day for lunch - just put it in the fridge wrapped in clingfilm when it's completely cool.

The finished thing in all its puffy golden glory - yum yum.

Complimentary Tune: Fleet Foxes - Mykonos (I know it's old but I love it)

Tip of the day: Fresher's week is coming up for a lot of people, and if you're moving in to new accommodation and meeting new flatmates - one of the most important tips I can give you is prop your door open and get to know your flatmates and talk to them. They might end up being your best friends or they might not, but either way you'll appreciate having people to go out with and do stuff during the day in freshers week before you meet other people in your clubs or course.

---K

Sausage Rolls

So two comfort food recipes in a row may seem a bit extreme, but we've both been in need of it at the moment!

Kitty's been working herself silly harvesting on her farm and I've been at death's door for the past week so homely yumminess was definitely in order (especially in this weather)!

In saying that, this recipe is 100% healthier than any sausage roll you can buy from supermarkets (each only uses a third of a sausage) and soooooo much better value for money.

This is my Mum's recipe (creds to Jennie B), and is traditionally something she'll give us on Christmas Day around lunchtime to keep us going until the big dinner much later. It's great for her as she can make them well in advance of the rest of the Christmas preparation and then get someone to bung them in the oven when needed.

I would advise serving with a side salad (coleslaw recipe to come #watchthisspace), and/or baked beans. No further carbs are needed because of the pastry and the sausage obviously provides some decent protein (although more can be added if needed through the baked beans).

The actual technique of making these is very easy, but if you choose to make the maximum amount it may take a while. In this way, I would suggest making these when you have an hour free, and then freeze a lot of them to eat another time. To freeze, cook until they are nearly ready and then put them in the freezer, this means they can be browned and crispy (rather than soggy) when you choose reheat them in the oven. Equally, if you don't eat all of the ones you cook fully, just put them in the fridge and microwave them when needed.

As I'm at home, I used my Mum's homemade chutney, but plan on using Sainsbury's plum chutney (£1.30 for 300g) when back at uni as a decent alternative. However, any fruit-based chutney is fine (or even just plain if you've already got some in the cupboard).

A jar of yumminess

Ingredients (makes 12 or 24)

200g puff pastry

12/24 large tsp chutney

1 egg (if not a tbsp or two of milk works fine)

8 sausages

A small quantity of flour (any type apart from self-raising)

Recipe

• First off set up all your ingredients, if you're making 12 sausage rolls divide the pastry into 4 and for 24 make it into 8 (24 is best for value and for general pastryness)

In case you can't count..

• Whisk the egg in a mug and cut all the sausages into three lengthwise with scissors and set aside.
• With raw meat (and especially for this recipe), I would suggest running a large bowl of soapy washing up water before starting, so you can wash your hands after touching it and moving onto the next activity and so you can throw in the contaminated utensils straight away.
• Flour your surface and the rolling pin before rolling out the pastry, aim for a regular rectangle shape with proportions of about 35cm by 15cm (3 sausages should be able to fit easily along the longest side).
• Place the pastry landscape on your surface and line up the sausages comfortably along the side furthest from you (try not to let them touch).
• Add a decent tsp of the chutney slightly in front (but still touching) the middle of the sausage. It's important the chutney is central to minimise leakage (no-one likes a leaky sausage roll).
• Brush a line of your egg/milk along the edge closest to you and then start to roll the pastry.

An excellent layout

• Start the sausage side and carefully manipulate the pastry towards you, n.b. make sure the sausage and chutney are in the same 'roll' for optimum taste.
• Once rolled, divide pastry into three by making diagonal cuts with a knife between the sausages. If you feel like it, neaten off the ends with a similar slicing movements.
• Before placing on the oven tray add 3-4 diagonal slits on top of each individual roll and lightly brush some more of the milk/egg mixture across the top of them.
• Repeat for the rest of the pastry until you are ready to cook them (only put a maximum of 12 on each oven tray each time).

A non-bakers dozen

• Heat the oven to 200 degrees and wack in your sausage beauties, they should only take between 10 and 12 minutes to cook but it depends on your oven so keep checking them.
• Take them out when nicely browned across the tops and leave to cool for a bit before eating them as the chutney will be VERY hot.
• Serve warm and yumminess awaits you!

Jennie B herself

Complimentary tune: Sam Smith - Lay Me Down little bit in love with this song and this man's voice.

Tip of the day: The Great British Bake Off has started! An excellent way to keep you going through a long hard week is to watch this on a Wednesday! #Normanforthewin

---C