Ça va, mon chou?

Savoy cabbage, quickly cooked, with butter and pepper is pretty good as it is. But if you want to pep it up to serve as a side dish with south-east Asian food it may not quite cut the mustard.The trick with cabbage is to not cook it for a whole school term. A flash in the pan to soften it is enough, so be careful and be quick. This is fiery and comforting at the same time and goes really well with some steamed fish with lemongrass and lime leaves.Ingredients1/2 Savoy cabbage, shreddedCoconut oil for frying2 hot red birdseye chillies, sliced1tbsp red Thai curry paste1tbsp dessicated coconut1tbsp coconut aminos or soy sauce1tbsp lime juice100ml coconut creamSalt to seasonMethodSauté the cabbage in some coconut oil, letting some of the shreds almost burn. Add as much chilli as you like, my chillies were surprisingly hot, so be careful.Add the curry paste to the pan (home made if you can be bothered) and add a little more coconut oil. Cook for a few minutes, stirring well so it doesn't burn.Pour in the coconut cream and heat through. Tip into a bowl and blowtorch the top of the cabbage if you have one to give it a little bit of a dramatic char. Add a little more sliced red chilli and some hazelnuts sprinkled on top if you fancy, and serve.

Raising the steaks

Sometimes on the weekend I can spend the afternoon in the kitchen, prepping lots of ingredients and dishes, enjoying the calm of a Saturday or Sunday.Tonight, however, we have many episodes of Trapped to watch so it's a quick steak, grilled and blowtorched with some roast spiced carrots, early season British asparagus and this classic Argentinian accompaniment.It's really just a herb oil, but the chilli and garlic (not the Chilean garlic) give the steak a real lift. And it only takes a couple of minutes to make. Fewer if you use a food processor. It's also really good with monkfish or lobster.