Category: food and drink

Prepare the marinade and marinate the chicken well in advance. This dish tastes great and looks even better.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 lemongrass stalks (there are only two in a Waitrose pack!)
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1 pink grapefruit – zest and juice
• 1 tbsp nam pla
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1½ tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 4 chicken legs or leg quarters (skin on)
• 300g tenderstem broccoli (cut thicker ones in half lengthways)
• 2 x 250g pouches of ready-cooked Thai black rice
• 8 spring onions or salad onions, finely chopped
• 25g pack coriander leaves, roughly chopped

METHOD:

• Blitz two of the lemongrass stalks (reserve the other two) together with the garlic, nam pla, soy sauce, maple syrup, grapefruit juice and sunflower oil. (Be generous with these liquid ingredients).
• Pour this marinade into a large baking dish (large enough to hold the chicken in one layer). Add the grapefruit zest.
• Deeply slash each chicken leg three times with a sharp knife and lay in the baking dish. Spoon over the marinade so that they are well coated. Cover and leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, preferably much longer.
• Preheat the oven to 200C. Lightly crush the two remaining lemongrass sticks with a rolling pin and add to the baking dish. Turn the chicken skin side up.
• Roast until cooked through and juices run clear (at least 45 minutes, perhaps 60 minutes, depending on size of the chicken pieces). Baste with the juices halfway through this time.
• Meanwhile, put the broccoli in a large bowl or saucepan. Pour over with freshly-boiled water from the kettle. Leave for 5 minutes, then drain.
• Lift the chicken from the roasting dish, rest on a plate and keep warm.
• Discard the whole lemongrass stalks. Stir the rice into the juices. Add the broccoli and return to the oven for 8 minutes until piping hot.
• Stir in the spring onion and coriander, then divide the rice between serving plates. Lay the chicken on top and arrange the broccoli artistically.

Modified Waitrose recipe. Serves three heartily, perhaps with some green beans or fine broccoli. Goes well with a good red wine. Takes two hours to prepare and cook.

Ingredients:

• 450g – 500g lamb leg steak, cut into large dice
• one large onion, finely chopped
• two sprigs of rosemary – leaves finely chopped
• half teaspoon ground allspice
• two bay leaves
• one can chopped tomatoes
• two garlic cloves
• 200ml chicken stock
• three teaspoons honey
• 250g orzo
• 150g spinach leaves
• 100g feta, crumbled
• salt
• olive oil for frying

Method:

• Heat some olive oil in a large casserole pan and brown the lamb in batches until golden; set aside.
• Sauté the onion in the pan for 5-10 minutes until soft.
• Return the lamb to the pan, then stir in the rosemary, allspice and bay leaves. Cook for a minute.
• Crush the garlic and stir in.
• Add the tomatoes, honey, stock and several twists of the salt grinder.
• Bring to a boil, then reduce to a very gentle simmer and cook for 60-90 minutes, the longer the better.
• Rinse the orzo under cold water and then cook according to the packet. Then rinse again before adding to the casserole. Remove the bay leaves and stir.
• Rinse the spinach and stir into the casserole, then put the lid on and leave for 2-3 minutes until the spinach wilts.
• Divide into bowls and then sprinkle over the crumbled feta. Serve.

A modified BBC Good Food recipe.
Serves 3.
15 minutes to prepare, 40 minutes to cook.

This would also work well with mixed seafood (squid, mussels, prawns, etc).

Ingredients:

• 350ml white wine
• 450ml vegetable stock
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
• 250g risotto rice
• 250g peeled prawns (raw – but you can used cooked too).
• zest and juice of a lemon
• a handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 bag rocket (80g)
• butter for frying
• salt and pepper

Method:

• Prepare the stock.
• Melt the butter in a large pan and add the onion and garlic. Sweat over a low heat for ten minutes until softened, but not coloured.
• Add the rice, and stir for 2 minutes until the grains are hot and may begin making a cracking noise.
• Increase the heat to medium and begin adding the stock and wine, one ladle at a time. Begin with the stock, and start using the wine when perhaps half the stock has been used. Stir constantly and ensure that the liquid is absorbed by the rice before adding more.
• When the rice is almost cooked, add the prawns and lemon zest. Season with salt and pepper. Continue adding more liquid for another 3 or 4 minutes until the prawns and rice are cooked.
• Remove from the heat. Stir in the lemon juice, parsley and rocket. Leave in the pan for 2 minutes and then serve with crusty bread.

A Gordon Ramsay recipe from The Times, but don’t let that stop you.

Serves 3 normal people, or 4 with small appetites. Serve with rice or sautéed potatoes, plus some green vegetables, and a glass of cold white wine.

You will need a heavy sauté pan with a lid. Also, warm the oven to a low heat (50C), just to keep things warm (hey, put your plates in to warm up!).
15 minutes prep, 45 to 50 minutes to cook.

Ingredients:

• Either, a large chicken jointed into eight pieces or, to make life easier, 8 or 10 chicken thighs, bone in and skin on.
• 150g smoked bacon lardons.
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and bashed.
• 150g or a bit more of chestnut mushrooms or tasty wild mushrooms. In the case of chestnut mushrooms, these should be halved. For other mushrooms, cut into large chunks (not small pieces – they get lost).
• 100ml brandy. Ramsay doesn’t put enough in for my liking (he calls for less).
• 450ml chicken stock.
• 1 bay leaf.
• 2 or 3 sprigs rosemary.
• 2 or 3 generous sprigs of thyme – you just want the leaves, discard the stems.
• A handful of parsley, roughly chopped. Flat leaf parsley works best.
• Salt, pepper.
• Olive oil for frying.

Method:

• Using a large sauté pan over a medium to high heat, heat the oil. Season the chicken and add to the hot pan, skin side down. Sauté for 5 or 6 minutes without turning until golden (just shuffle it a bit to stop it sticking).
• Turn the chicken, add the lardons, garlic and mushrooms and mix well.
• Add the bay leaf, rosemary and thyme.
• Add the brandy. Then, carefully, set fire to the brandy (I use a kitchen torch) and flambé the chicken. Take great care, as you may get a big whoosh of flame, set fire to your eyebrows and burn the house down.
• Allow the flames to subside, then reduce the heat and allow the pan to simmer gently for 2 or 3 minutes.
• Pour over the chicken stock, then return the pan to a simmer. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes, then cover and cook for a further 15 to 20 minutes. Check that the chicken is cooked through (no pink meat in the middle).
• Remove the chicken pieces to a plate and put in the oven to keep warm.
• Crank up the heat on your sauté pan for a few minutes to reduce and slightly thicken the sauce.
• Remove the rosemary, garlic and bay leaf from the sauce and discard.
• Add the chicken back to the pan, and spoon the sauce over it.
• Serve immediately.

This is a slightly modified Waitrose recipe. You will need a frying pan and a griddle pan, or perhaps two frying pans. Read the whole recipe before starting, because you need to have both pans cooking simultaneously.

Serves two as a lunch, or four as a pathetically small starter. Takes ten minutes or so to prepare and a further fifteen minutes to cook.

Serve with a little good quality bread – wholemeal sourdough would be great. You need something to mop up that sauce.

Ingredients:

• 15g unsalted butter
• leaves from 10 sprigs of thyme, maybe a little more
• half teaspoon pul biber. No, I’ve no idea, so I used a quarter teaspoon of paprika and a quarter teaspoon of chilli flakes. You really don’t want more chilli than that, otherwise it swamps the other flavours. If anything, you could use a little less.
• 8 fresh figs, cut in half
• 250g halloumi, cut into fairly generous slices (I got 8 slices from 250g)
• 3 teaspoons clear honey. Don’t skimp on this.
• 3 teaspoons of sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar.
• 25g walnuts
• small pack (~100g) rocket leaves, washed
• half a lemon
• a little olive oil for frying

Method:

• In a dry non-stick pan over a medium-high heat, toast the walnuts. If they are large pieces, you might want to break them up a bit into pieces roughly the size of large peas. You want them to be lightly browned, not burned. Remove from the pan and reserve.
• Heat the butter over medium-high heat until it begins sizzling. Stir in the pul biber or paprika and chilli flakes and then immediately add the figs, cut side down and sprinkle over the thyme leaves. Cook the figs for 3-4 minutes, then turn over and cook for a further 3-4 minutes until golden.
• Meanwhile, brush a griddle pan/another frying pan with a little olive oil. Heat the pan over a medium-high heat and then add the halloumi. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden, taking care that it doesn’t catch or burn. A griddle pan will give you the nice stripes on your halloumi.
• Add the honey and vinegar to the figs and cook for a further minute.
• Whilst that is happening, put the halloumi on a serving platter. Then add the figs and pour over the sauce. Add some rocket (put the rest on the serving plates), sprinkle over the walnuts and squeeze the juice from the lemon over the finished platter.

You can use only dates, only figs or maybe experiment with apricots or other moist dried fruits. Your bananas should be really ripe, with spotty skins and maybe a few black bits.

Ingredients

• 125g butter
• 150g caster sugar
• 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed (4 if small)
• 190g self raising flour
• 60ml milk
• 150g dates, chopped into chunks
• 150g semi-dried figs, chopped into chunks
• walnut pieces for decoration
• a little demerara sugar to sprinkle over

Method

• Pre-heat the oven to 150 C (fan).
• Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.
• Melt the butter, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan over a medium heat.
• Remove from the heat. Add the bananas and mix well.
• Add the egg, mix well.
• Stir in the flour and milk.
• Mix in the dates and figs.
• Pour the mixture into the loaf tin.
• Decorate with walnut pieces and sprinkle over a couple of spoons of demerara sugar to give a golden crunchy topping.
• Into the oven and bake for 35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean and there is a golden brown crust. Cooking time can vary according to the quantity and moisture content of the banana and fruit, sometimes up to 45 or 50 minutes.

A modified recipe from Waitrose Food magazine.

Serves 4, or 2 normal people with hearty appetites.
Preparation – 15 minutes
Cooking – 30 minutes
Note – where the recipe says “finely sliced”, it means sliced, not chopped.

Ingredients:

• 2 shallots, finely sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 Thai red chillies, finely sliced – more if you’re up for it.
• 1 and a half peppers, finely sliced. Yellow and orange work best for appearance
• 400g chicken breast, cut into cubes of about 1.5cm
• 200g spring greens, sliced into ribbons
• 1 bunch spring onions, sliced on an angle into 2cm pieces
• 3 tbsp ketjap manis, maybe a little extra
• half tbsp nam pla fish sauce, or perhaps a little more
• 2 x 250g pouches of cooked basmati rice
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 50g salted cashews, roughly chopped or broken
• coriander leaves for garnish
• oil for frying

Method:

• Heat a tbsp of oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat and fry the chicken until thoroughly cooked and just a hint of golden brown. This should take 6-8 minutes.
• Meanwhile, heat about a tbsp of oil in a very large wok or frying pan over a medium-high heat.
• Add the shallots, garlic and chillies. Fry for 3 minutes, stirring to stop any burning.
• Add the pepper with 1-2 tbsp water and fry for a further 3 minutes until soft.
• Add the spring onion, and fry for a minute.
• Add the spring greens, ketjap manis, fish sauce, 2-3 tbsp water and the rice to the shallot mixture. Stir everything together and ensure it is all heated through.
• Season the beaten eggs. Push the rice/vegetable mixture to one side of the pan and pour the eggs into the space.
• Cook until the egg is almost set, stirring gently all the while (watch the rice/vegetable mix to ensure it doesn’t burn). Then break up the egg and mix it together with the rice/vegetable mixture.
• Stir in the fried chicken.
• Serve in bowls, sprinkled with the cashews and coriander.

Serve with crisp white wine, or a full red wine. Or crisp cold beer.

INGREDIENTS

• one ham hock. Morrisons usually have them on the butcher’s counter, labelled as “gammon shanks”.
• 2kg frozen peas (petits pois will make it sweeter)
• 2 large shallots, peeled and chopped
• 2 sticks celery, chopped
• 2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 bay leaves
• black pepper
• 1 litre of vegetable stock (I make mine using Swiss bouillon powder)
• fresh mint – about 25 to 30 leaves to put in the soup plus more to garnish.
• sour cream
• Note that you need a stick blender for this recipe. You can use a food processor, but it’s a bit of a faff.

METHOD

• Place the ham in a very large pan and cover with cold water. Add the potatoes, celery, shallots, bay leaves and about 15 turns of the pepper mill. Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 90 minutes. You will need to turn the ham over a couple of times to ensure that it is evenly cooked and cooked through – if in doubt, let it cook a bit longer.
• Remove the ham from the stock (leave everything else in the pan). With a sharp knife, remove the skin from the ham and discard. Then remove the meat from the bones, discarding the bones plus any fatty or gristly bits.
• With two forks, tease the meat apart into small shreds. This should be very easy if you have thoroughly cooked the ham – in fact, sometimes you can just tease it apart with your fingers. Reserve the shredded meat.
• Remove the bay leaves from the stock and discard them. Then bring the stock back to a gentle simmer.
• Add roughly 1.5kg of the peas and simmer for 7 or 8 minutes. Then add the mint leaves.
• Remove from the heat. Blitz the soup with a stick blender until smooth.
• The resulting soup will be quite thick, so make up the stock and add it, along with the remaining peas. Blitz again until smooth. (If you like your soup very thick, you can leave it as it is. Simply vary the amount of stock and extra peas you add so that you get the consistency you like).
• Taste. Add extra pepper or mint if necessary.
• Add the shredded meat back to the soup. You can then cool the mixture and store it in the fridge.
• To serve, gently reheat the soup. Serve with a swirl of sour cream and a few mint leaves for garnish.

 

 

 

This recipe is from the “everyday meals” section of the February 2017 Waitrose magazine. It was so badly written that I couldn’t bear the thought of putting it in my recipe files as-is, and vowed to re-write it. Come on Waitrose, who would weigh peanut butter?

 

Serves 2, generously.

The recipe claims 10 minutes to prepare, 10 minutes to cook. My experience – at least double the prep time.

 

INGREDIENTS

• 300g pack of Amoy straight to wok udon noodles. I’m sure other udon noodles are available, but these do nicely and are quick, which is ideal for a midweek meal. You’ll find them in black packets in the noodle aisle.
• 2 skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1cm slices (not too long slices either – you’ll want to pick them up with chopsticks).
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce.
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin.
• 3 dessertspoons crunchy peanut butter. The recipe calls for 75g, but I reckon three spoons is about right and a dessert spoon fits nicely in the jar. Make sure you have crunchy peanut butter – with nice chunks in it. Spend a few pennies and get some good quality stuff, like the Whole Earth one.
• generous pinch dried chilli flakes.
• vegetable oil for frying – a dash of sunflower oil is probably best.
• 1 large onion, cut into bite sized chunks. Red onion works best because the colour is pretty, but that isn’t essential. It took me a while to work out how best to cut this to get the right effect, but for an average sized red onion, if you cut it into six or eight radial segments after removing the skin, you will get pieces that are about right.
• about 2.5cm of fresh ginger, finely shredded. The recipe calls for 20g – again, who weighs ginger? I shred mine using a coarse cheese grater, which gets the right result. You can always increase or decrease the amount of ginger according to taste.
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced.
• 200g pack of cavalo nero, finely shredded. Waitrose offer cavalo nero in two forms – either whole leaves or chopped. The whole leaves are better, because you want to remove the midrib from the bottom part (bottom third?) of each leaf, as it is not tender enough to cook in the short time this stuff is going to be in the pan. Just slice the leaf crossways after removing the midrib to give thin slices no more than 1cm wide. I’m sure that you could use Savoy cabbage instead of cavalo nero – we also did it with pak choi, which was ok, but not quite as good.
• You will also need a large frying pan or wok, a microwave dish, two bowls, tongs and a little water just boiled in the kettle.
• You can dress the dish with sweet chilli sauce and/or toasted sesame seeds.

 

METHOD

• This recipe is quick to cook, so make sure that you have done all the chopping first and have all ingredients at hand. Once you get started, you won’t have time to stop and slice an onion.
• Put the chicken in a bowl with 1tbsp soy sauce and 1tsp cumin. Stir so that the chicken is coated and leave to stand for a few minutes whilst you do the next steps.
• Heat the noodles in a microwave according to the pack instructions and set aside after giving them a little stir so they aren’t one big slab!
• In  a small bowl, mix the remaining 1 tbsp soy sauce and 1 tsp cumin with the peanut butter and chilli flakes. Add a few spoonfuls (about 5 tbsp) of freshly boiled water and stir to help you get a good sauce consistency.
• Heat a little oil in the pan/wok over a high heat. Fry the chicken until golden and just cooked through. Remove to a plate and set aside.
• Heat a little more oil in the pan, keeping the heat high. Fry the onion pieces for about 1 minute (don’t worry if they fall apart). Add the garlic and ginger and allow to sizzle for 15 seconds or so, then add the cavalo nero, chicken and noodles. Turn over a few times using the tongs – you want the cavalo nero to still have all its texture and not have gone soft/sloppy – really you’re just warming it through.
• Add the sauce to the pan, stir everything one more time and then serve, with your sweet chilli sauce and/or sesame seeds if you have them (not essential).

Eat with chopsticks for added sauce-on-shirt value.

Dug out by Dad. I’m going to have to try them both and see which works best. I’ve preserved the Imperial measurements.

Ingredients for recipe 1:

• 8 oz self raising flour
• 4 oz black treacle
• 4 oz golden syrup
• 3 oz butter
• 2 oz demerara sugar
• 2 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 egg
• a pinch of salt
• 2.5 fl oz milk

Melt the butter, syrup, treacle and sugar together in a pan – not too hot.
Meanwhile, sieve the flour, ginger and salt together in a bowl. Beat the egg together with the milk in another bowl.
Combine all the ingredients and pour into a greased loaf tin.
Bake for 45 minutes at gas mark 3 on a low shelf (that’s 160C in a conventional oven, 140C in a fan oven).

 

Ingredients for recipe 2:

• 12 oz self raising flour
• 4 oz dripping (I wonder if butter could be used instead?)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 5 fl oz milk (that’s a quarter pint)
• 3 oz golden syrup
• 3 oz black treacle
• 7 oz granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp ground ginger

Grease a 8 inch square tin (Mum’s notes say “or round”, but I’m not sure how that would work).
Warm the syrup, treacle, fat and sugar together in a pan until it dissolves together. Allow to cool.
Meanwhile, sieve the flour, bicarb and ginger together in a large bowl. Beat the egg and milk together in another bowl.
Make a well in the middle of the flour and carefully pour in the sugar/treacle mix. Then add the egg/milk mixture.
Beat the mixture until smooth and put into the tin.
Bake for 30 minutes at 325F (160 Celsius) and then reduce to 300F (150 Celsius) for a further 30 minutes.