Beef it up: Mango, avocado and steak salad

Looking at me today eating, well, anything that doesn't still have a pulse, you'd never know how much of a fussy eater I once was. Bananas? No, funny texture. Apple crumble? Ew, hot fruit. Red meat? Yuck, chewy (my ten-year-old self had a bit of a thing about BSE). It caused many dinner time row and almost a whole primary school career of no lunchtime playtime as I was forced to stay behind in the dinner hall eating rice pudding grain by grain in protest until that bell rang. So fruit in a salad with red meat would have never passed my tight lipped seal of approval, but trust me it's a winner and the perfect summer combo.

I ripped Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's mango, avocado and beef salad out the Guardian Weekend back in February... the lush red, yellow and green photography almost had me stuffing the page in my mouth. Rolling it out again this week for the second time with the sun shining, it really hit its stride.

Mango, avocado and steak salad

(serves 4)

For the marinade

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1tbsp oyster sauce

1tbsp dry sherry

2tsp soy sauce

1tsp light muscovado sugar

1tsp grated frsh ginger

black pepper

For the salad

350g sirloin or filllet steak

1 large, ripe mango (or if you are a cheater like me, 2/3 a pre-prepped pack)

1 large, ripe avocado

2-3 hanfuls rocket leaves

1 small bunch coriander

For the dressing

2tbsp Thai fish sauce

1tbsp sesame oil

juice 1 lime

1tbsp soy sauce

1tsp light muscovado sugar

1 small chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, finely minced

salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients for the marinade, add steaks and rub it up and leave for 30mins to 1 hour.

Mix together the ingredients for the dressing, slice mango and avocado.

Heat a griddle pan til smoking (does anyone else hear Jim Carrey in the Mask when they see that in recipes?). Sear the steak 2-4minutes per side to taste and thickness, you can probably take it a bit rarer than usually as it make the salad more tender and light. You want it crispy, BBQ style on the outside and gorgeously pink on the inside. Leave to rest for 5 minutes while you arrange rocket, mango and avocado on plates. Top with beef, scatter with coriander and dress. Mmmmmm...

Can you keep a secret? The Boy's Chilli Con Carne

Everyone needs a secret ingredient, a recipe passed down from great great grandmothers or at least something that when cooked and friends 'ooh' and 'ahh' over it and ask what it is that makes it so goooooood you just smile sagely, rub your chin (a beard would help at this moment) and say 'ah that'd be my secret ingredient'.

Everyone has one: Coca Cola, Irn Bru, erm, other people who aren't soft drink companies. I've read many a chef admit their secret ingredient is often ketchup (a damn fine addition to any curry). So if you don't have one, get one. Or at least add a quick dash of something to pretend you do.

The Boy likes to thing his chilli has many, it definitely has many ingredients, often ever evolving, and it does taste damn good. But I've always been rubbish at keeping a secret. So here goes...

Chilli al Pedros
1 packet of mince
1 can canned tomatoes
1 onion
1 cinnamon stick
Pinch coriander seeds
Pinch cumin seeds
Crushed dried chilli
2 cloved of garlic
Grating of nutmeg
About 1 tbsp tomato puree
1 chopped fresh chilli
1 red pepper
Handful of mushrooms
1 beef stock cube
Beer
1 can kidney beans
Grating of dark chocolate

So ok, it's not just one secret ingredient but an ever evolving motley crew of them: the spice belnd, the dark chocolate, the beer, the cinnamon and nutmeg... you never know what he's going to add next. But come or go, whatever it includes it tastes good, and hot.

Kick it off in classic style by frying up the beef mince and garlic. Once it's cooked, put aside and add some tomato puree and mix it up.

Now fry up the onion, red pepper and mushrooms.

Add back the browned mince and the chopped fresh chilli and crack on with the sauce. Bash up the fresh spices with a pestle and mortar or handy Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker (I admit I'm usually the first person to be skeptical about celebrity chef endorsed kitchen gadgets but this one is a winner, so much easier than grinding away with that pestle). Add the can of chopped tomatoes, beef stock (to reduce simmering time just make it up with enough water to dissolve it) and a good few manly glugs of beer. Turn the heat down to a simmer stir in your spices and add the cinnamon stick.

Simmer for as long as you need to get the right consistency, but at least 15 minutes. Once it is almost there add the drained kidney beans. Right before you serve grate in some dark chocolate and whole nutmeg and serve.

Rice, nachos, sour cream, some great homemade guacamole or salsa. However you do it, just remember, never reveal your secret...

For the love of Green Tabasco

There are some things in life that just make everything better. Waking up and seeing it is sunny, finding that fiver in the pocket of your coat when you put it on for the first time in ages, when the train draws in just as you make it to the platform. And green Tabasco.

I'm a relatively new convert. Its out-there red big brother has been a staple in scrambled eggs for, oh, as long as I've been eating scrambled eggs. When I started going out with The Boy he introduced me to the smoky brown daddy of Tabasco that we hunted out in Selfridges (though I've now discovered that they sell in Waitrose) which gives bacon and chilli a deep down and dirty southern drawl. But green? Green was too wishy-washy and girly for The Boy. Mild? He doesn't do mild (I blame teenage years of smoking for the spice obsession). But I was intrigued. It looked so pretty and green. I started with adding a kick to tuna salads. Nice. On grilled salmon. Goooood. Scrambled eggs. Hmm, good, red is better. But this week, I made my greatest green discovery: broccoli. I never thought to put it on green food! It was a revelation. Steamed tenderstem broccoli, good shake of green Tabasco, grind of pepper. It's all you need. Simple pleasures.

With this awakening I thought about all the other delicious green Tabasco adventures this little bottle might be able to take me on and discovered that those nice people at Tabasco have dedicated a whole webpage to recipes. Top of the list: Toasted Coconut Cake, Double-spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake, Hearty Pork and Parsnip Stew, Cajun Fish Stew and Caribbean Crab Cakes with Pineapple Salsa. I better stock up.