Sign in Subscribe

Cookery

I've been around a family of cooks so it was only a matter of course before I developed an interest in cooking and food.

My parents ran a restaurant business in London for 30 years and in my youth I would learn a lot about Chinese cooking, even if I didn't want to. Reason being I helped out in the restaurant, first taking orders and then working in the kitchen preparing food and cooking meals.

When I went to university, this was the first time I got to experiment with cooking other types of food and so I began to experiment with all types of food, in particular Italian, Thai and Mexican.

Since then I have developed a love for fine dining and I'm often found frequenting some of the best restaurants in London, sampling their delights. Having done a lot of cooking and experimenting, I've managed to collect a sizable collection of recipes which I can happily call my own.

All my recipes are variations on classic dishes where I've mixed up the ingredients and flavours to create a more fusion menu of east meets west.

My hope is that one day I'll be able to produce a book with all these recipes in them. In the meantime if you want to sample my food you'll have to get yourself invited to one of my famous dinner nights.

In the meantime, here's one of my recipes for you to enjoy.

Butternut Squash Chicken and Mint Lasagne with a black pepper coating

serves 6
 prep time: 30mins
 cooking time: 90mins

Ingredients

  • 1 x medium sized Butternut Squash
  • 6 x chicken thighs
  • Big handful of fresh Mint Leaves (depending on how minty you like it)
  • 8 x Bacon rashers
  • Cheese  100g
  • Flour 40g
  • Butter 40g
  • chopped tomatoes 800g
  • oregano to taste
  • pepper
  • salt
  • 3 x medium cooking onions
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 2 chillies
  • 1 pint milk
  • nutmeg
  • Lasagne Pasta sheets

Lasagne Filling

  1. To prepare the butternut squash, skin and cube it, and place in a bowl and drizzle with some olive oil and place in oven in non stick dish. Roast for 25 mins on 200c or until golden brown with a semi crispy coating.
  2. Chop the onions, garlic, chop the chicken into fairly small pieces, chop the chillies too.
  3. Put the onions & garlic into a frying pan with a little oil, fry until golden brown.
  4. Throw in 1 heaped tablespoon of plain flour and then mix into onions then put in chicken and fry until golden brown.
  5. Throw in the chopped chillies and fry some more for another few minutes.
  6. Add the chopped tomatoes and season the mixture with the oregano, salt and pepper to taste.
  7. When the butternut squash is done roasting, put that in too and cover and cook for another 25 minutes on low heat.

White Béchamel Sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a pan and when melted, sift flour into it and mix up into a paste.
  2. As soon as the paste is formed, start adding milk a bit at a time and mix in thoroughly each time.
  3. Add a little seasoning here to taste and also a couple of pinches of nutmeg.
  4. Add cheese and melt all the way.
  5. Heat up until thicken and take off the heat.

Construction

  1. Get a lasagne dish and start layering. Start with a filling layer and apply loose and sparse.
  2. Apply a layer of lasagne sheets.
  3. Add some white cheese sauce, not too much, (leave plenty of white sauce for the topping later).
  4. Add filling and keep repeating this layering process until you are on the final layer.
  5. On the final layer before you layer the last layer of lasagne, get your mint leaves and liberally create a layer of mint on top of the last layer of filling.
  6. Layer the last layer of lasagne.
  7. Pour over the remaining white béchamel sauce, which there should be plenty of so you cover the whole lasagne top.
  8. Now finally place bacon on top with good in-between space, about 8 rashers would be nice, just to add flavour.
  9. Dust very liberally with crushed black pepper.
  10. Put into over for 30mins on 200c

There you have it! A different sort of lasagne for a more summery feel!