Hoisin Chicken

Hoisin sauce is a thick sauce often used in Chinese cuisine as a glaze for meat, for stir fries (as here), or as dipping sauce. It is dark in appearance with a sweet and salty taste. There are of course regional variants across the vastness of China, but hoisin sauce usually includes soy beans, ketchup, maple syrup, red chillies and garlic. I bought mine ready made from the local Aldi store (cheap and ready to go). 

This is a very simple dish to prepare.  Cut breast of chicken into chunks and stir fry in sunflower oil at a medium heat until the chunks begin to go golden brown (twelve to fifteen minutes depending on the heat applied). After around seven minutes I added chopped spring onion to the chicken. Stir often to prevent burning. 

Add the hoisin sauce to the wok, and stir in thoroughly. Cook for three to four minutes at a medium heat. Serve with boiled basmati rice. Delicious!

Hoisin Chicken

Beetroot with Wild Boar Salami

This dish is a simple casoulet, made with chopped onions, red-skinned potato (2), chopped beetroot (4), and some wild boar salami (a special purchase from Aldi), ham stock, and a little tomato puree. 

Casoulet is a style of cooking in which everything goes into the same pot, and is cooked slowly, as you do when making Irish Stew. I cooked this one under glass for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. It can be cooked longer if preferred. I added some pepper and some oregano to the dish. 

Easy to make, and the salami adds great flavour.

Beetroot with Wild Boar Salami

Bacon in a Neapolitan Sauce

 Lots of odds and ends of vegetables in the fridge, along with bacon, so this dish, based on a Neapolitan style sauce (chopped tomatoes with pepper, oregano and basil), consists of peas, green beans, green pepper strips, celery, chopped shallots, carrot, grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, chopped bacon rashers, ham stock, and garlic. 

The shallots, carrots, pepper strips, peas, green beans, bacon, garlic, and celery were stir-fried for ten minutes at a medium heat in olive oil. If you prefer the bacon to be crispy, stir-fry it first and then add the vegetables. 

Add boiling water, turn down the heat to a simmer, add the chopped tomatoes and the herbs, and cover the pan with glass. Simmer for forty-five minutes to an hour. Served with basmati rice and a sprinkling of grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

Bacon in a Neapolitan Sauce

Basa Fish with Minted Peas

Basa fish is a form of catfish found in parts of Indochina, including in the Mekong river. This pair of Basa Fillets came from a fish farm in the Mekong Delta. The fillets were bought at Sainsbury's, and came coated with a batter made with wheat flour. 

Basa fillets are often boneless, which these were. The oven was preheated to 220 deg. C., and the fillets were placed into a roasting tray after the tray was brushed with sunflower oil, and placed in the middle of the oven for 18 minutes, as recommended. Minted peas were suggested as an accompaniment, but I had none of those. But I did have dried mint, and some garden peas, so I minted my own. I allowed the peas to heat slowly in water with the mint over twenty minutes, and the result was perfect.

Served piping hot with a little white pepper.  

Basa Fish with Minted Peas

Potato Pie with Spicy Vegetables

The filling was chopped brocolli, carrot, spring onion, haricot beans, tomato sauce, fish sauce, chilli, a chicken stock cube, plus pepper. The potato was mixed with some butter, and dusted with paprika and ground pepper.

The spicy vegetables were prepared the day before, when they were served with Pilau rice. Cooled in the fridge overnight. Layered into a roasting tin, and covered with mashed red skinned potatoes (semi-peeled), with a knob of butter added during the mash.

The potato was textured with a fork, sprinkled with paprika and ground white pepper. The pie was cooked in the oven at around 190 deg C, for between 45 and 50 minutes (near the top of the oven), depending on how brown you want the potato crust to be. Served with boiled green peas. 

Potato Pie with Spicy Vegetables

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Fried chicken pieces in a sweet and sour sauce, served with basmati rice and green peas, cooked with some pilau spices, and some sumac. Also some chopped onion and yellow pepper, added after the chicken was cooked..  I cheated with the sauce, since it was bought ready made from Aldi's. 

If you want to make your own sweet and sour sauce, it is essentially 1 part sugar, 1 part vinegar, and 3 parts tomato sauce or ketchup. Plus tinned pineapple chunks in juice, and sometimes spring onions.

So the ingredients might be something like below. 

2 oz/ 50g brown sugar
2 oz/ 50g malt vinegar
6 oz / 150g tomato sauce or passata
1 small tin of pineapple chunks in juice
1 tbsp light soy

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Egg Fried Rice

I made this dish of egg fried rice with vegetables in the evening of a day, where, because of events, I had no breakfast or lunch. A great catch-up meal in such circumstances. 

I boiled just over a quarter cup of brown basmati rice for 35 minutes while I prepared the vegetables. I added a little sunflower oil to the water to prevent sticking. No salt, which would lengthen the cooking time.  

 Egg Fried Rice

I added vegetables which were available in the fridge, including carrot, chilli, green pepper, a quarter head of brocolli, green peas, spring onion, chestnut mushrooms. I also added a chopped clove of garlic, and some ground ginger. The carrot was cut into thin slices with a peeler. The vegetables were stir-fried for about twenty minutes at a medium heat - I added some boiling water to the mix halfway through. Once the water had evaporated I added the drained basmati rice to the mix and turned up the heat. 

From this point the dish requires frequent stirring and your attention. I cracked an egg on the side of the wok, and stirred it in. Cook for another seven minutes at a medium heat. 

Serve on a plate with a spiral of dark soy sauce.

Penne Pasta with Tomato and Green Pesto

A simple dish, quick to make. Penne pasta, cooked with salt and for 9 to 10 minutes in boiling water (Dove's Farm wheat free version). Stir frequently to avoid the pasta sticking together. Drain and place in a bowl.

Mix in a couple of teaspoonfuls of green pesto sauce (in this case Sacla brand), which is essentially a mix of ground basil leaves and a soft white Italian cheese. Add chopped or shredded salad or vine tomatoes, and mix together. Serve with black pepper. Can be eaten hot or cold, or in between. Delicious!

Penne Pasta with Tomato and Pesto

Lamb and Vegetable Stir Fry

The lamb was from a joint cooked and sliced the previous day. Cut into strips and set aside. The vegetables were cooked first from raw, including red pepper, yellow pepper, Chantenay carrots, fresh peas, chopped spring onion, and shredded tomato. Add Rosemary and Oregano, and shortly before serving, stir in some Chervil. 

Once the carrots were soft, after cooking under glass at a low heat (in sunflower oil, and stirred occasionaly), the strips of lamb were added to the pot and the heat was turned to high for three minutes. The contents of the pot were stirred twice a minute during this period to ensure even heating. The heat was turned down to zero (I have an electric cooking hob which retains a lot of heat) and the pot was left under glass for another three minutes, stirring twice more.  

Lamb and Vegetable Stir Fry

Effectively this dish is a ratatouille without the aubergine, courgette, garlic, and the sauce. If you want it to have a sauce, add a litte tomato puree or passata, and some boiling water, and simmer for five minutes before serving (add the chervil at the very last minute, since its flavour is quickly damaged by cooking).

Beef Burger with Beans and Spring Onion

A quick to make and satisfying meal, with simple ingredients. Two quarter pounder beef burgers (bought from Sainsbury's, so not wheat free), with baked beans, chopped raw spring onion, and German or American mustard. Made more interesting by the addition of paprika and basil to the baked beans while heating. 

The burgers were cooked in a saute pan for seven minutes each side at a medium heat, mostly under glass. The burgers contain enough fat to cook in their own juices (as all burgers should, as an invention for the barbecue), so it is not necessary to add oil if the pan is teflon coated. Alternatively, the burgers can be cooked in the oven for about the same time (or until browned) at 180 degrees, turning once.  

Beef Burger with Beans and Spring Onion