Devilled Kidneys

A UK dish in its heyday in the nineteenth century as a breakfast, often in gentlemens clubs.

Kidney (about 270g), butter, spelt flour, mustard, Worcester sauce, red currant sauce, white pepper, tomato puree, and one medium onion.

Made in this case with beef kidney. Chop the kidney into chunks, removing the white tissue with a sharp knife or kitchen scissors. Add two teaspoonfuls of the flour to a freezer bag, along with the Worcester sauce (four dashes), mustard (teaspoonful), white pepper, and the red currant sauce (half teaspoonful). Add the kidney pieces to the bag, seal, and shake and manipulate the bag until all the chunks are evenly covered in the mixture.

Heat a pan with two knobs of butter. Chop the onion and fry for five minutes at a medium heat. Add the kidney chunks, and stir fry for four minutes, stirring frequently. Add about 75g of boiling water, along with two squeezes of tomato puree. Cook for ten to twelve minutes until the gravy thickens, stirring every thirty seconds.

Serve with toast or potato bread (illustrated here with a toasted panini), dressed with a sprinkling of parsley (optional).

Tomato, Red Onion and Celery Soup

One 400g tin of Italian plum tomatoes, two sticks of celery, and one medium sized red onion. Plus vegetable stock, Coriander, Basil, Turmeric, Japanese malted rice extract, and white pepper.

The tomatoes were mashed, the onion and celery chopped, and then the main ingredients were blended in water in a saute pan (about one and a half minutes altogether).

Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 45 minutes under glass, stirring occasionally.

Add two pinches of chopped basil, and one of coriander leaf. Add a quarter teaspoon of turmeric, and half a teaspoonful of the malted rice extract (for sweetness).

An easy and tasty dish to make with a standard tin of tomatoes. Fine as it is, but you can add a little cream to make a creamed tomato soup.

Chorizo and Red Onion Cassoulet

Made with red onion, green and yellow peppers, carrot, potato, sugar snap peas, haricot beans, spring onion, chestnut mushrooms, celery, tomato puree, plus ham and vegetable stock.

The onions were stir-fried first, and the rest of the vegetables were added as prepared (chop everything!). I used some oil left over from a jar of grilled peppers, but sunflower oil would be fine. The last thing to be added was the chorizo sausage. Turn down the heat and stir everything together. Cook for fifteen minutes.

Add boiling water to the mix, and stir together. Add the haricot beans (soft), the tomato puree, and the ham and vegetable stocks. Simmer under glass for at least half an hour.

Serve with black pepper, or just as it is.

Lamb, Cabbage, and Root Vegetable Soup

Made with the remains of a lamb and root vegetable stew, originally made with neck steak, with parsnips, potato, onion, spring onion, celery, plus yellow and green pepper. Plus lamb stock, but no herbs.

The Lamb Stew - Brown the steak. Add the other vegetables plus boiling water, and stir together. Cook at a low simmer for two hours until the lamb is tender. Add the lamb stock in the last fifteen minutes or so to retain the strongest flavour.

The Lamb Soup - Green cabbage was added to the remains of the lamb and vegetable stew, plus some tabasco sauce, some red chilli sauce, and rosemary. Cook at a medium heat for twenty minutes. You can mash or blend the vegetables if you prefer. Serve with ground black pepper.  Delicious!

Egg and Potato Salad

A simple egg salad, with a potato, onion and shredded tomato accompaniment, in mayonnaise. Two eggs were boiled for six minutes, and then cut into pieces, using an egg slicer.

The potato was pre-prepared, and then sliced into chunks, cold. The tomato was shredded, and the raw onion sliced. All mixed with mayonnaise. Chervil was added, but this is not a necessary ingredient. Much white pepper was added.

The eggs were rapidly cooled in the sink, and then sliced. Served with leaves of Romaine lettuce. Quick to prepare, and delicious!

Lamb Neck Steak with Root Vegetables

Braising neck steak, with parsnips, potato, onion, spring onion, celery, plus yellow and green pepper.

Lamb stock, but no herbs. Served with black pepper. Other root vegetables can be used according to what you have in your fridge.

Brown the lamb steaks for ten minutes on each side at a medium heat, in a little sunflower oil. Add a chopped onion and fry for another ten minutes or so.

Add boiling water to the pan. Add the other vegetables, and stir together. Cook at a low simmer for another two hours until the lamb is tender. Add the lamb stock in the last fifteen minutes or so to retain the strongest flavour.

Roast Chicken in Hoisin and Garlic Sauce Stir-Fry

Chicken breast from the freezer. Allow to thaw thoroughly, chop, and then cook in water for ten minutes.  Then add a Hoisin and Garlic Sauce, and cook at a high heat for five minutes.

The stir-fry vegetables included white and green cabbage, bean sprouts, onion and carrot. A cheap Thursday evening purchase from Sainsbury's.

The vegetables were cooked for eight minutes at a moderately high heat, stirring frequently. I used the oil from a jar of roasted peppers, rather than sunflower oil (waste not, want not).

Served on a spiral of dark soy sauce. Delicious!

Bacon, Pepper and Spinach Stew

Made with potato, red onion, red pepper, spinach, garlic, ham stock, and coriander. You can add chopped mushrooms also.

All the vegetables were chopped into thin strips, and the spinach leaves were rotated after each cut so that they became very finely chopped.

The potato pieces were stir fried in a saute pan first, followed by the red onion after a couple of minutes. After that the chopped bacon strips, the spinach, and the garlic. Stir fry for seven minutes at a medium heat. Add boiling water to the pan, the ham stock, and two squeezes of tomato puree, and a pinch of coriander. Stir together.

Cook for a further thirty minutes under glass at a simmer. Serve with a pitta or another flatbread of your choice.

Black Grape and Strawberry Salad

A simple fruit salad made with whole black grapes, and chopped strawberries, served with single cream.

Add the seedless black grapes, and chop the strawberries. Add white pepper (a Scottish detail). Mix together, and add single cream.

You can if you prefer souse the fruit in some table or caster sugar first, but this is not necessary.

This is a combination which works particularly well. Delicious, and prepared in minutes!

Bacon and Mushroom Omelette

Made with two large eggs, two rashers of smoked bacon, cut into thin strips, and half a dozen white mushrooms, finely chopped. Served with savoury brown pickle, and a chopped salad tomato.

Cook the bacon strips first in a little sunflower oil, until it begins to brown. Move the strips around the pan frequently, and turn them.

Wash the mushrooms, and cut them in half along the line of the stalk. Then dice each half as finely as possible. When the bacon has browned, add the mushrooms to the pan and stir them together. Cook until the mushrooms have shrunk and also begun to brown.

Add the two beaten eggs and cook for five minutes at a medium heat, until the top of the omelette is no longer liquid. Add a couple of pinches of chervil to the top of the omelette. Then turn the omelette n the omelette pan and cook for a further two minutes.

Turn the omelette over again and decant to the serving plate. Add black pepper to taste.

Spicy Chicken Enchilladas

Made with the remains of a Chicken Parmigiana, made a couple of days earlier on the hob  Made with one small chopped leek, one onion, chicken meat from three chicken drumsticks, a 390g pack of chopped tomato with basil and oregano from Sainsbury's, grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (about 100g), two garlic cloves, some chicken stock, and a little olive oil.

To recap on the creation of the salsa, I started the leek and onion off in the pan with a drizzle of olive oil, and removed the meat from the drumsticks, stirring the vegetables occasionally. Then I added the chicken and some hot water, and added the chicken stock. I turned up the heat, and added the chopped tomatoes. I added half of the grated cheese (you can use mozarella instead if you prefer), and stirred it into the sauce. Cook for twenty minutes under glass at a low heat once it comes to the boil. Stir occasionally.

To create a salsa for the spicy enchilladas, I added a couple of chopped green chillies, with all of the pith and seeds removed, and a dessert spoonful of sweet chilli sauce. Plus some finely chopped white onion. Stirred together cold. I dampened two garlic flavoured wraps and left them to stand for two minutes, and then spooned in the spicy sauce. The enchilladas were rolled, and placed in a roasting dish which had been brushed with some sunflower oil. The surface of the wraps was also brushed with oil.

Finally, grate about 150 g of cheddar cheese on top of the enchilladas, and grind some black pepper on to the cheese. Cover the dish with aluminium foil, and wait until your oven has reached 190 deg C. Place above the middle of the oven, and cook for 50 minutes. Remove the aluminium foil during the final five minutes.

Serve with a side-salad of chopped tomatoes, yoghurt or sour cream, and Romaine lettuce. 

Pork Marinade and Noodle Soup

Pork loin strips, marinaded in a mixture of oyster, soy, and sweet chilli sauce for a couple of days in the fridge. Cook for fifteen minutes in the sauce at a medium heat, till the sauce begins to thicken  through evaporation.

Serve with noodles in a chili soup. The noodles were prepared in boiling water, along with the soup powder, and the hob was turned down. I covered the pan while I was cooking the pork strips, and allowed the noodles to absorb most of the water in the pan. Stir and separate the noodles every few minutes until they are just the way you like them.

The pork strips can also be prepared under the grill. Quick and delicious!

Chicken Parmigiana

Chicken Parmigiana, made on the hob rather than in the oven. Made with one small chopped leek, one onion, chicken meat from three chicken drumsticks, a 390g pack of chopped tomato with basil and oregano from Sainsbury's, grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (about 100g), two garlic cloves, some chicken stock, and a little olive oil.

I started the leek and onion off in the pan with the drizzle of olive oil, and removed the meat from the drumsticks, stirring the vegetables occasionally. Then I added the chicken and some hot water, and added the chicken stock. I turned up the heat, and added the chopped tomatoes. I added half of the grated cheese (you can use mozarella instead if you prefer), and stirred it into the sauce. Cook for twenty minutes under glass at a low heat once it comes to the boil.Stir occasionally.

Serve in a pasta bowl with a sprinkling of the grated cheese on top, along with a generous helping of freshly ground black pepper. Can be served with a side of salad, with rice or pasta. A versatile and tasty dish. 

Lentil and Bacon Broth

Made with one leek, finely chopped celery, green lentils, half a turnip, three carrots, and two rashers of fried bacon, chopped into small pieces. I stir-fried the leek first (in a little bacon fat), then added boiling water, and then the chopped carrot, turnip the fried bacon pieces (crispy!), and then a third of a cup of green lentils.

Simmer for an hour and then mash. Add ham stock, black pepper, and simmer under glass at a low heat for another half an hour, stirring occasionally. Nutritious! Tasty!

Serve with some toasted potato bread, or another flatbread of your choice.

Chicken, Spinach and Runner-Bean Soup

Lots of cheap food on offer from the local Co-op yesterday, so I roasted some chicken drumsticks last night, and made a soup base today with one medium leek, about 250g of Moroccan runner-beans (blended once the water came to the boil).

I chopped up two handfuls of fresh spinach leaves and added them to the pot. Plus some chicken stock and black pepper.

Remove the chicken meat from three drumsticks, and cut into small pieces. Add to the pot, along with a small handful of red lentils.

Cooks in an hour or so under glass at a low heat (stir occasionally to prevent the lentils from sticking to the bottom of the pot).

Another version of this soup features a handful of fresh coriander leaves. Delicious either way!

Roast Potatoes

There are several ways to make good roast potatoes, but the target is always the same - potatoes properly cooked on the inside, and crispy and golden brown on the outside.

The easiest way to get good results is to par-boil the potatoes first, so that they are mostly cooked before the roasting process starts. Since the potatoes will cook in the steamer or in boiling water (with a little salt) in twenty minutes, you might choose to take them out at eighteen minutes.

Preheat your oven to at least 180 deg. C. That will take about twenty minutes, but a thermometer is recommended. Drain the potatoes and decant into a large glass bowl (preferably pyrex, because of the heat). Cover the bowl with a plate, and roll the potatoes around in the bowl, until they become fluffy on the outside. Allow to cool until the oven is at the right temperature.

Place the potatoes in a roasting dish, and brush them with sunflower oil, or another oil of your choice. Some people swear by goose fat, which works fine. But it really isn't necessary in order to get a good result. Turn the potatoes until they are coated on all sides.

Place in the hot oven. Turn them once during the roasting. They should be done in twenty minutes or so, but this part of the process has to be judged by eye, and according to how golden brown you want them to be. They will be properly cooked in the middle after the first few minutes, so you can take them out when you choose.