Kid's mock-Middle Eastern Medly

Ok the kids really liked this. Yes, I know, it's pork, but you could use whatever if you want to be in theme.

Loin of pork, sizzled skin side down first, baked slowly slowly at 150 in the oven until it's juuust cooked. Please don't overcook it.

Apple sauce. Grated apple, microwave with sage and mint. At some point give it a bit of a mashing. If you want to be even less Middle Eastern dollop a bit of brandy in there to finish it off. Not for the kiddies, obviously.

Mint yoghurt. Well you don't need a recipe for that. Add some lemon. You could go the whole hog and add cucumbers as well. Your choice.

Jeweled rice. Sautee onions, corn, the usual suspects. Whatever you've got. Make it colourful.

Falafel. Well we've got these in our freezer but they're made with chickpeas and tahini, I'm not going to bother to give  recipe here. I shallow fried them in Panko which made the kids very happy. Serve with salad and lemon.

Happy days, man. Happy days.

Caulifower Dippers

Great after-school snack, vaguely pizza flavor.

Get a whole cauliflower, chop it up, then puree it in a mixer. Yep, blitz the whole damn thing. Until it's like weird cauliflower snow. It gets everywhere.

Then boil up about an inch of water, dump in the cauliflower snow, cook it for 5-10 minutes until it's sort of soft. Then drain in a fine sieve. Let it cool a bit or you'll be injured in the next step.

Get a clean tea-towel and wring out the drained cauliflower like mitigating a disaster at the seaside. It'll be powdery and super-weird. Put it into a bowl.

Add a couple of eggs, LOTS of Italian herbs, or if you want some chili and stuff. Also add a good couple of handfuls of cheese.

Press into a flat tray-bake, bake at 180 for as long as it takes for it to take colour and dry out. Add a couple more handfuls of cheese on top, bake to finish off golden.

Let them cool a bit, chop them up, serve.

This goes really well with a dip of sour cream with paprika and lemon, seasoned.

Couldn't be healthier.

Grilled chicken with dukkah pasta

Dukkah - mixed nuts, lots of green herbs, in a blender, with olive oil and lemon juice (plenty of it). Make a large dukkah to the pasta ratio - in fact more like a paste than dukkah.

Grill the chicken, slice and serve absolutely plain apart from salt. (Breast.)

Boil pasta, with broccoli at the last moment. Mix dukkah in, season and add olive oil and lemon juice to taste.

Serve side by side.

Kids verdict: 'Fresh'

Super healthy.

Oriental Soba Mooning

Ok so this is fish and noodles, oriental flavours. We used moonfish today and it was delicious.

Sauce: Onions finely chopped (thinking of doing without them next time), kaffir lime leaf (sliced), lemongrass stalk (finely chopped), white wine. Simmer and boil down. Add a spoon of ginger marmalade. Then simmer, wiz in a blender, add fish sauce, lemon juice, butter, finish to a good zingy consistency.

Soba: Boil soba, add broccoli florets at the last minute, drain, dress with soy sauce and sesame oil.

Moon fish: Steam with a bit of salt.

Serve. Really good.