Pork Stew with Creamed Potatoes

The ingredients are: chopped white onion, red and yellow pepper, roast pork shoulder, mushrooms,  spring onion, pork stock, rosemary, and creamed mashed potato.

The pork shoulder joint was roasted in the oven for two hours at 200 deg C under aluminium foil, with the final fifteen minutes with the foil removed. It was allowed to rest for an hour (fifteen minutes will do) before carving.

The pork slices were cooked in a pot with the juices from the joint, and some additional pork stock. Add the onion, the chopped peppers, the mushrooms and the spring onion, and simmer at a low heat under glass for an hour until tender. Add the rosemary towards the end of this process.

The potatoes were cooked for twenty minutes in boiling salted water, after which they were drained and mashed in a pyrex bowl with three dessert spoonsful of single cream, and then served with the pork stew. Dress with a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper.

Mango and Apricot Salad with Wild Rice

Peeled and sliced mango, chopped fresh apricots, red camargue rice, black wild rice, served with a babyleaf salad.

The chopped mango and apricots were added to a glass bowl and soused in a glassful of white wine. Plus a dessert spoonful of granulated sugar. The fruit was stirred until the sugar had entirely dissolved in the wine, and then put in the fridge overnight.

The red and black rice (a quarter cup of each) was cooked for thirty minutes in a small pan under glass and a low heat. Drained and rinsed in cold water, and then added to the fruit salad. Delicious!

Cream of Mushroom Soup

A simple soup made with chestnut mushrooms, carrot, onion and single cream.

Stir-fry the chopped onion (two), mushrooms (eight) and carrot (two) until the onion begins to brown.

Add boiling water, and the vegetable stock. Cook for an hour at a low simmer under glass. Add white pepper.

Blend the vegetable soup, and add the single cream. Cook for another fifteen minutes before serving.

Apricot and Chestnut Mushroom Curry

A delicious apricot and mushroom curry, which can also be served as a dressing for chicken pieces.

The ingredients are: three fresh apricots, basmati rice, haricot beans, cashew nuts, red chilli, grated coconut, single cream, cumin, cumin seed,  garam massala, garlic, root ginger, onion, Californian raisins,  turmeric, vegetable stock, and yellow pepper,

A dish such as this would normally be made with dried apricots, but diced fresh apricot works just as well, particulary when paired by raisins, which add sweetness. Destone the apricots, and chop finely. Chop the onion (two small), the chestnut mushrooms (two), and half a yellow pepper. Stir fry in sunflower oil at a high heat until the onion begins to brown.

Add deseeded chilli, root ginger, and three crushed cloves of garlic.Turn the heat down to medium and stir-fry for another three or four minutes. then add boiling water to the pan. Add the haricot beans (half a tin of baked beans will do just fine), a handful of cashew nuts, another handful of the raisins.

Add the spices - a teaspoonful of turmeric, half a teaspoonful each of garam massala and cumin, and a pinch of cumin seed. Simmer for forty-five minutes to an hour at a low heat under glass.

Finally, add a generous cupful of single cream, and a dessert spoonful of ground coconut, and stir together. Simmer for ten minutes, and serve with white basmati rice.

 

Roast Pork Stir Fry, with Spring Onion and Oyster Sauce

Made with oyster sauce, spring onion, roast pork, cabbage, beansprouts, brocolli, onion, red pepper, and carrot,

All the vegetables were chopped with the exception of course of the beansprouts. The beansprouts were blanched in boiling water for a couple of minutes.

The vegetables were stir-fried in sunflower oil at a medium heat for about eight minutes, then the beansprouts were drained, and were added. Cook for another seven minutes at a medium heat, stirring frequently. Judge progress by eye.

The pork came from a roast shoulder joint. Sliced into strips, and added to the Spring Onion and Oyster Sauce in a small pan, and brought to the boil.

Decant the vegetables to a serving plate, and top with the pork and the oyster sauce.

Red Pepper and Sweetcorn Soup, with Pasta

A soup made with half a red pepper, half a tin of sweetcorn, one large chopped onion, two handfuls of broken spaghetti, some chicken stock, and two pinches of coriander.

Add the chopped pepper and onion to a pan of water brought to the boil. Add the sweetcorn and the chicken stock (vegetable stock will do instead). Turn down the heat, and cover the pan. Simmer for ninety minutes, stirring occasionally.

After the ninety minutes add the broken pasta, and stir together for five minutes or so, adding one pinch of coriander leaf, then cover the pan, and cook for a further half an hour. Add the second pinch of coriander five minutes before serving. Serve with potato bread, panini, or garlic bread.