Mark's Family Cooking

29/09/2026

If you're anything like me, deciding what to cook each week is a royal pain.

These little beauts from take that hassle away. Their frozen pots, made from natural ingredients, make quick and tasty midweek meals a piece of...

They've got 3 new flavours Korean Bulgogi, Vietnamese Lemongrass and Thai chilli & basil (Kra Pao) coming to in October.

Each pack comes with 2 pots (1 pot will serve 2 people) and the full list of ingredients you need to buy and cooking instructions on the box.

I cooked up the Korean Bulgogi with chicken and it was bang on.

*ad/gifted

22/09/2026

Feed a cold starve a fever.

We've all got the various stages of a cold. A Chinese fakeawy meal is always going to lift the spirits.

This is one of my favourite recipes to cook from Kath Symes | Easy Asian Recipes

Beef in black bean sauce. Salty, hint of sweet and umami.

20/09/2026

16/09/2026

Easy beef quesadilla.

I saw cook these up, so I gave them a go. I served with some fried rice and simple lettuce and avo

For the quesadilla
Brown off 500g lean beef mince.
Add a sachet of taco seasoning. I used paprika and garlic. Fry until the beef is well coated in the seasoning and fully cooked.
At a large spoonful of mince to a mini tortilla. Add grated cheese and roughly chopped onion.
Fold in half and place in a hot pan. Griddle on both sides to brown and crisp up.

Fried rice
Use day old 1.5 cup of cooked basmati rice.
Fry some chopped red and green pepper in 2 tbsp oil. Add a cup of sweetcorn.
Add some smoked paprika and some all-purpose seasoning. About 1 tbsp of each.
Stir to coat, then add the cooked rice.
Continue to stir and fry the rice until it's heated through and the grains are all separated.

Serve with some chopped lettuce and avo and loads of chilli sauce.

08/09/2026

I cooked this once before, sometime ago, and forgot how tasty this was.

A jerk spiced sweet potato stew, a recipe from the Dirty Vegan Mathew Pritchard

Sweet potato, black beans and spinach with a warming spiced tomato based sauce. I added a few split red lentils because, well, I like red lentils.

Served with basmati rice. A tasty, easy to make vegan meal for a midweek tea.

05/09/2026

I'm not saying this is a traditional paella de valenciana but I think it's pretty close.

On a holiday in Majorca I bought myself a nice big paella pan, which I put to good use. I also bought these little sachets of paella seasoning. They give the paella a nice taste and thanks to a couple of E numbers, a nice yellow colour.

I made this for 4 and there was plenty left over. I believe a traditional paella de valenciana has rabbit, but I used pork. I didn't add any prawns or seafood as not everyone eating it was a fan of seafood.

How I made it

Fry in oil 600g diced chicken and 500g of diced pork fillet, with a grind of salt, until starting to take on some colour.

Push the meat to the edges then add 150g trimmed and halved green beans and a tin of drained butter beans. Fry for a couple of minutes.

Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, 2 tsp smoked paprika and a sachet of paella seasoning. Give it a good stir.

Add 1.6 ltr of water. Let this simmer for 30 minutes. Check the seasoning.

Add 400g paella rice. Add evenly to the pan, making sure its added around the edges and in the middle. Do not stir.

Leave to bubble away gently until the liquor is absorbed by the rice, around 15 to 20 minutes.

Lay a quartered lemon on top 5 mins towards the end.

Then you're done. You should have a nice socarrat on the bottom (a crispy bottom), which must be eaten.

01/09/2026

Cheats Katsu chicken, courtesy of Kath Symes | Easy Asian Recipes

I saved this easy Katsu Curry sauce recipe ages ago when I saw it and finally made it tonight. Super easy and tasty. I do quite like a sweeter curry at times so added a bit of sugar.

The crispy coated chicken was also a tip from Kath's page. This was bang on. Mel asked if I'd fried the chicken first to get it so crispy. I didn't.
Served with some simple stir fried veg and basmati rice.

Essentially, what I'm trying to say is, if you don't follow Kath Symes | Easy Asian Recipes then you really should, you'll learn stuff.

25/08/2026

Chicken stuffed with cheese and mustard wrapped in bacon.

On the face of it, a tasty and easy dish. But there were lessons to be learnt from this. There was a lot of seepage. The cheese leaked out a fair bit, but there was also alot of moisture. This will have come out of the mozzarella and supermarket bought chicken and bacon.

But, alas, it's a meal and I made the effort to film it so here you go.

Ingredients

50g grated cheddar cheese
125g mozzarella ball, torn into small pieces
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
4 chicken breasts
8 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
Salt and pepper

If you can afford it, by good quality chicken and bacon.

Method

🧀 Mix the cheeses and mustard in a bowl to combine

🐔 put a slice in the side of the chickens, open up like a book and divide the cheese mix between the breasts

🥓 wrap each chicken breast tightly with 2 rashers of bacon. Season with salt and pepper. I used a baking sheet, but I would recommend using a baking dish. Line it with baking paper, put the chicken breasts in the tin. Place in a pre-heated oven at 180c for 20 to 25 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve. I served mine with diced roasted potatoes, carrots and peas.

18/08/2026

Halloumi and courgette flatbread with slaw.
Enough for 4, let's go!

For the Halloumi and courgette

Ingredients
2 blocks of halloumi
2 courgettes
Garlic powder
Cumin
Smoked paprika
Lemon
Olive oil
Salt
4 flat breads
Mango chutney

Cube the halloumi into large-ish chunks, getting about 8 cubes from the cheese. Half and slice the courgettes, about 2xm thick. Put in a bowl. Add a tbsp each of the garlic, cumin and paprika. A squeeze of lemon. 1 tbsp oil and season with salt. Put aside while you prep the slaw.

Slaw ingredients
Half a sweet heart cabbage, thinly shredded
3 spring onions, thinly sliced
1 large carrot, grated
1 apple, diced in 1cm cubes
3 celery sticks, sliced
4 ghekrins, finely chopped and reserve 1 tbsp brine.
3 tbsp mayo
1 tbsp American mustard
1 tbsp chia seeds
Salt

Mix all veg in a large bowl. In a small bowl mix the brine, mayo and mustard and mix well. Pour the mayo mix over the veg, season with salt and add the chia seeds. Mix well.

Cook

Remmove the courgette from the halloumi and add the courgette to an airfryer. Set to 200c and put on for 15 mins. After 6 mins, add the halloumi and continue to cook for the remaining time (9 mins). If you don't have an airfry, do it in an oven and double the time ( keep an eye on it, as I'm kinda guessing the oven cook)

Warm the flatbread, I did mine in a toaster.

Assemble

Place the warmed flatbreads on a plate.
Spread on a thin layer of mango chutney.
Divide the slaw between the 4 flat breads, placing on one half.
Divide the halloumi and courgette between the 4 plates and place on the other half.
I added some peri peri sauce to the halloumi and courgette, this is optional.

Enjoy

Thanks for the ❤️

16/08/2026

A Ploughmans lunch of sorts. I'm pretty certain there is a proper definition of what a Ploughmans is. I don't think it has lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes or gherkins. Google or Ask Jeeves will be able to confirm that.

I had some gammon cooked in the airfryer until it reached 75c. Cheddar, apple, celery, boiled pots, a bit of lettuce with tomatoes and cucumber and gherkins. And of course sweet pickle.

Also for this I bought some pickled onions and pumpkin sourdough from Three Trees Farm Shop & Cafe
The sourdough is made by Pete's micro Bakery and was excellent.
The picked onions are made by Drivers Pickles They had a decent crunch and sharpness, with a chilli kick. Decent enough for a bought pickled onion but you pay the price for it ( over a fiver). In my opinion you can't beat making your own

A proper British meal for summer.