Midweek meals: Five low-effort family dinners ready in 30 minutes or less

Take the stress out of meal planning with these quick and easy dishes

Midweek meals: Five dinners for the whole family

Homemade burgers

recipe by:Darina Allen

Make these homemade burgers once and you'll never buy premade ones again

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 15 mins

Cooking Time

 10 mins

Total Time

 25 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 450g best quality freshly minced beef (flank, chump or shin)

• Maldon sea salt

• freshly ground pepper

• pork fat, optional

• olive oil

• hamburger buns (see recipe)

Method

1. Put the fresh mince into a chilled bowl, season generously with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Fry off a tiny bit on the pan to check the seasoning, correct if necessary.

2. Shape into burgers, 4-6 depending on the size you require.

3. Wrap each one loosely in pork caul fat if using.

4. Cook to your taste on a medium-hot grill pan in a little oil, turning once. Little tip: If the hamburgers are being cooked in batches make sure to wash and dry the pan between batches.

 

Fish fingers and chips

There is a new generation of oil sprays that don’t contain lots of extra additives and are a brilliant way of controlling the amount of oil you use. The spritz allows you to give everything a light, even coating of oil so that there is enough to crisp up

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 5 mins

Cooking Time

 30 mins

Total Time

 35 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 2 large baking potatoes (about 500g (1lb 2oz))

• rapeseed oil, for spraying

• 500g (1lb 2oz) firm white fish fillets, skinned and boned (hake, haddock, pollock or cod)

• 25g (1oz) plain flour

• 2 eggs

• 100g (4oz) panko breadcrumbs

• 1 lemon

• 200g (7oz) thick Greek-style yoghurt

• small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/gas mark 6). Cut the potatoes into thick chips and spread out in a baking tin lined with non-stick baking paper. Spray lightly with oil and season with salt. Roast for 20 minutes.

2. Cut the fish into 7.5cm (3in) strips, 2.5cm (1in) wide. Season the flour on a plate. Beat the eggs with a pinch of salt. Put the breadcrumbs in a bowl. Toss the fish in the flour, then using a tongs, dip in the egg and toss in the breadcrumbs.

3. Put the fish fingers on a baking sheet lined with non-stick baking paper and spray with oil. Turn the chips over, then put the fish on the top shelf and roast for 10 minutes. Turn over the fish and cook for another 5 minutes, until golden.

4. Cut the lemon into four wedges for garnish, then squeeze the rest into the yoghurt. Season and snip in the parsley with some scissors, stirring to combine. Put the fish and chips on plates with the yoghurt tartare sauce and lemon wedges.
   
   From Learn To Cook with Neven by Neven Maguire, Gill Books