Mexican Tuna

I went on a little picnic to Regent's Park the other day and took some home-made Mexican tuna sandwiches. They were a bit of a hit and I've been asked for the recipe, so here it is...

Ingredients

This recipe makes quite a lot - probably enough for about 6 rounds of sandwiches so scale it down if you want less.

Also, I like it quite spicy so put less chilli and cayenne pepper in if you prefer a milder taste.

Things you'll need are:

• 2 tbsp olive oil


• 1 clove of garlic, chopped


• 1 red chilli, chopped


• 1 small onion, finely diced


• 1/2 a red bell pepper, finely diced


• 1/2 a green bell pepper, finely diced



• 2 small tins of tuna in oil


• 1 small tin of red kidney beans, washed


• A few large dollops of mayonnaise


• 2 tsp chilli powder


• 2 tsp cayenne pepper


• 2 tsp dark soy sauce


• salt and ground black pepper

Recipe

• Heat the olive oil in a frying pan on a medium-high heat, add the chopped garlic and chilli for 30 seconds, then add the diced onion. Once the onion starts to soften add the diced red and green bell peppers, stir-fry for a couple more minutes then remove from the heat before the onion starts to brown. Allow to cool.



• Drain the tins of tuna and empty them into a bowl. Add the onion and pepper mix and all the remaining ingredients (kidney beans, mayonnaise, chilli powder, caynenne pepper and dark soy sauce). Mix together and season to taste.

If you've done it right it should look something like this:

Serving

My favourite way to serve is on fresh sliced bread with salad leaves and cucumber.

Fig Trifle

I met my parents at Borough Market at the weekend with my brother and while we were there we bought some fresh figs from one of the stalls. We weren't quite sure what we were going to do with them but they looked too nice to pass up on.

My brother found a recipe for a Spanish-style fig trifle so I made it:

The ingredients.

First, soak some sponge fingers. The recipe called for sherry, but I used the rumtopf I made last year instead as I've still got loads left.

The figs. Cut them in half, drizzle with honey then bake for 10 minutes until soft and caramelised.

The custard is made with milk which is heated in lemon rind and cinnamon. Strain the milk after heating.

The other half of the custard is egg yolks, sugar and cornflour. And yes, I broke a yolk - I managed to salvage it though.

Add half the figs to the bowl, then put more sponge fingers on top and soak in more sherry / rumtopf.

Arrange the other half of the figs around the bowl then pour in the custard and chill.

Finally, add some whipped cream and toasted almond flakes. Enjoy...