Rocket and Feta Salad

Fresh Rocket leaves, garlic, yellow pepper, spring onion, Feta cheese, stuffed olives, olive oil, lemon juice, and ground black pepper. 

Wash the rocket, and rub the plate (in this case a pasta bowl) with a clove of garlic. Chop the garlic into thin slices, and dice. Add the rocket leaves to a mixing bowl, and add a little olive oil. Chop up a third of a yellow pepper, one spring onion, and about 40g of Feta cheese. Add all the vegetables and the cheese to the mixing bowl. Add the stuffed olives. All to stand for ten minutes or so. Stir again and decant the contents of the mixing bowl into the serving bowl. Add two splashes of lemon juice, and dress with black pepper. 

Rocket and Feta Salad

Polska Surowa Smoked Sausage in a Cheese Sauce

Thinly sliced Surowa smoked and peppered sausage, fried with onion, until the onion begins to brown. The cheese sauce was made with cornflour, water, milk, a quarter teaspoonful of mustard powder, vegetable stock, two squeezes of tomato puree, and 80g of Sage Derby cheese. Stir continuously until the sauce thickens.  A pinch of oregano was added to the sauce before it was added to the onion and the sausage. 

Serve with boiled potatoes, or penne, or fusili pasta. 

Polska Surowa Smoked Sausage in a Cheese Sauce

Vegetable Omelette

Made with the vegetable leftovers from a chicken stew. The original stew was made with a tin of chopped tomatoes, chopped green beans, a quarter each of red and green peppers, sliced, chopped spring onion, a little chilli flavouring (the chilli was removed before making the omelette), with some basil, oregano, bacon fat (optional - the pan was brushed with sunflower oil), and chicken stock. 

I drained the juice from the vegetables, and beat two eggs in a bowl with a whisk. Then I added the chopped vegetables to the mix. Beat for at least a minute, and allow to stand while the omelette pan heats up. Add the omelette mixture, and turn down the heat. Add a couple of pinches of grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Cook for ten to eleven minutes at a low heat, turning halfway. Cook under glass to ensure thorough heating. Slide the omelette onto a plate, and serve with freshly ground black pepper.

Vegetable Omelette

Chicken in a Tomato and Ginger Sauce

Made with pieces of pre-cooked stir-fried chicken breast, a tin of chopped tomatoes, chopped green beans, a quarter each of red and green pepper, sliced, chopped spring onion, thin slices of ginger, a topped and tailed whole green chilli, with some basil, oregano, bacon fat, and chicken stock. Served with boiled potato. 

Since the chicken breast pieces were already cooked, this was a fairly quick meal to prepare. The chicken, tomato and chopped vegetables were added to a saute pan, along with the bacon fat (just a scraping - this ingredient can be skipped) and the chicken stock, along with a little water. Bring to the boil and then simmer for twenty to twenty five minutes under glass at a low heat. Stir occasionally.  Add the herb pinches five minutes before serving. The potatoes can be cooked during the same time. So, five or six minutes to prepare the vegetables, and twenty to twenty five minutes before serving!

Chicken in a Tomato and Ginger Sauce

Chicken in a Black Bean Sauce

Chicken, Basmati rice, sliced green pepper, spring onion and pak choi leaves, plus black bean and sweet chilli sauces. 

The chopped pieces of chicken breast were fried slowly, until golden brown, earlier in the day and stored in the fridge. The basmati rice was cooked in boiling water in the bottom half of a steamer (ten minutes). The vegetables were steamed in the upper tier for seven minutes. The chicken pieces were reheated in a wok, and coated with two spoonfuls of black bean sauce. Cooked for ten to fifteen minutes at a medium heat, part of the time under glass. 

Serve as shown, with a little sweet chilli sauce. Leaves a wonderful smell in the kitchen for a couple of hours!

Chicken in a Black Bean Sauce

Omelette with Crumbed Ham

Some bargain crumbed ham from Tesco yesterday prompted me to make a ham omelette for breakfast, and American style, without browning. I beat two eggs together in a bowl, with a dash of water, and added the mixture to a pre-heated omelette pan. The pan was brushed with a little sunflower oil, and was at a medium heat. I turned the heat down to the second lowest setting once the mixture was in the pan. Cooked for three to four minutes on one side, flipped, and for another three to four minutes on the other side. 

Decant the omelette onto a plate, and place a folded circle of crumbed ham on one half of the omelette, and fold the omelette over it with a spatula or fish slice. Serve with American or German mustard, and freshly ground black pepper. 

Omelette with Crumbed Ham

Chicken and Rice Noodles

Gluten free rice noodles, with green pepper, onion, celery, pak choi, garlic, green chilli, sezchuan pepper, rice wine, sunflower oil, nam pla fish sauce, steamed chicken, soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce. 

The vegetables were prepared first, as the frozen chicken drumsticks were steamed. The flesh was stripped from the drumsticks, and both the chicken and the vegetables were added to the wok at the same time. Cooked at a middle to high heat for about seven minutes (not as hot as in a traditional Chinese kitchen). 

The noodles were cooked in boiling water, for ten minutes, without further heat.  Drained and added to a plate with a spiral of dark soy sauce. The chicken and vegetables were added on top of the noodles, and drizzled with a sweet chilli sauce. 

Chicken and Rice Noodles

Red Onion and Salami Salad

A simple salami salad made with a quarter of a red onion, halved green seedless grapes, sliced yellow pepper, garlic, and shredded salad tomatoes. Plus, in this case, some roughly cut pieces of Wild Boar salami, though any salami sausage will do. Mixed together in a bowl, with some sunflower oil, tomato puree (just a dash), and two dashes of lemon juice. Allow to stand for an hour or so, stirring occasionally, and serve with black pepper. 

Red Onion and Salami Salad

Chicken Cambozola

Fried pieces of chicken breast in a spicy chilli and Cambozola sauce, served with wheat free fusili.

The chicken pieces were cooked the day before the dish was prepared, and stored in the fridge overnight. The sauce was made with stir-fried chilli, red onion, yellow pepper, red pepper. After cooking at a medium heat for ten minutes, stirring occasionally, I added tomato passata, and some boiling water to the saute pan. I cut about 100g of Cambozola cheese into strips and added them to the sauce, stirring constantly until the cheese melted (you might want to remove the rind of the cheese first). Add the chicken pieces and allow the dish to simmer under glass for twenty minutes or so. 

Prepare the fusili ten minutes before the dish is to be served. I used ASDA's own brand wheat free fusili, and cooked it in salted water, stirring frequently.  Add oregano and basil to the sauce, stir, and decant the chicken pieces and the sauce into a serving bowl. Add the fusili on top, and stir once with a fork. Add freshly ground black pepper to taste. 

Chicken Cambozola

Salted Pancakes

Made with brown wheat-free flour (Dove's Farm), milk, two eggs, salt, coriander leaf and oregano. 

Mix two heaped dessert spoonfuls of the brown flour into 200 mls of whole milk until the batter is smooth, then add the two eggs, and beat thoroughly. Allow the batter to stand for half an hour, then add a teaspoonful of salt, a large pinch of coriander leaf and a small pinch of oregano. Whisk the mixture thoroughly. 

Cover the base of a large saute pan in a thin coating of sunflower oil, and bring to a medium heat. Pour some of the mixture into the centre of the pan, until it reaches the edge of the base. Turn the heat down if you do not want to brown the pancake, and cook slowly for five minutes each side. At a medium heat the pancake will cook in a shorter time, and should be cooked for at least two minutes on each side. Repeat the process until the batter mixture is used up. 

These pancakes are ideal for eating with ham and cheese pizza-style, raw or grilled, and are thin enough to use as savoury wraps. 

Salted Pancakes

Ham Omelette with Grilled Cheese

 A simple omelette made with ham, chopped tomato, sliced red pepper, and spring onion, Topped with a cheese of your choice, Cheddar, mozarella, Parmigiano Reggiano, blue stilton, etc. 

Chop and slice the vegetables and the thin slices or squares of ham, and stir-fry in sunflower oil in a small pan with high sides, until the tomato and spring onion start to lose definition. Beat together three eggs in a bowl, and add to the pan. Cook at a low heat until the bottom half of the omelette has cooked. Preheat the grill. Chop cheese into squares, or grate, and cover the surface of the omelette. 

Put the omelette pan under the grill, and near the front, with the handle facing outwards. Grill for 5 or 10 minutes until the surface properly grilled, turning the pan to the left for a few minutes, and then to the right, to ensure all the cheese has melted, and the result is golden brown. 

Serve with freshly ground black pepper. Delicious!

Ham Omelette with Grilled Cheese 

Chilli Chicken with Brown Basmati Rice

A simple dish which can be made with a range of vegetables. In this case, tomato, green beans, spring onion, mushrooms, peppers, chilli, and garlic. With chicken, chicken stock, peppers, and some tomato puree. 

The brown basmati was cooked with some camargue wild red rice. Takes thirty minutes to cook. 

Leek and Potato Soup, with Cumin

A simple winter soup, made with two medium leeks, four carrots, and two peeled potatoes, all roughly chopped. Cook in water in a lidded pan at a low simmer, until all the vegetables are soft. Mash. Cook again for at least twenty minutes, and puree with a hand-blender. 

Add some coriander leaf, a couple of pinches of ground cumin, a pinch of nutmeg, chicken stock, a dash of Tabasco sauce, and some Worcestershire sauce. Cook for another ten minutes, and serve. A real winter warmer!

Leek and Potato Soup, with Cumin

Peppered Salami Salad

Four slices of German peppered Salami, cut into strips, two shredded salad tomatoes, a dozen halved black seedless grapes, two chopped spring onions, and half a green pepper, cut into strips. The salad was dressed in olive oil, a dash of lemon juice, and one squeeze of tomato puree. The mixture was stirred together in a glass bowl, and some coriander leaf, and oregano added. Decanted into a serving bowl, with a dusting of freshly ground black pepper. 

Peppered Salami Salad

Aberdeen Angus Beef Chilli

500g of lean Aberdeen Angus ground beef, fried in its own fat until browned. Then add the chopped vegetables, which are: red and yellow pepper (capsicums), one shredded tomato, one large purple onion, garlic, fresh red and green chillies. Stir-fry with the beef for twenty minutes, stirring frequently. 

Add a cupful of boiling water, two squirts of tomato puree, beef stock, and four bay leaves. Stir together, and cover with glass, reducing the heat to a simmer for at least an hour. 

Remove the bay leaves if you can, and serve with basmati rice. 

Aberdeen Angus Beef Chilli