King Prawns and Egg Noodles

 The ingredients are: 250g of cooked king prawns, egg noodles, green beans, spring onions, red pepper, yellow pepper, diced chestnut mushrooms, two cloves of garlic, a dessert spoonful of red chilli sauce, and some toasted sesame seed oil.

The egg noodles were prepared first, in a pan of boiling water. Leave to soften for fifteen minutes, with some salt.

The prawns were steamed first of all, for twelve minutes. The vegetables were stir-fried in the sesame oil at a medium heat for fifteen minutes. Then the drained noodles were added to the pan, followed immediately by

the king prawns.

Stir-Fry the noodles, prawns and vegetables for two minutes, and add a dessert spoonful of red chilli sauce.  Stir together. Then decant to a plate. Dress with a spiral of dark soy sauce.

Peppered Pastrami and Haricot Bean Casoulet

Some left over diced peppered pastrami combined with haricot beans, onion, shredded tomato, mushroom, tomato puree, boiled potato, plus two pinches of basil, one pinch of oregano, and two dashes of worcestershire sauce.

The pastrami was stir-fried in some sunflower oil for about ten minutes, until thoroughly cooked. Chopped onion, shredded tomato and mushroom was added and stir-fried at a low heat for a further ten minutes.

After that the haricot beans were added (in this case I had half a tin of baked beans in the fridge, and I used those), along with boiling water and tomato puree. Simmered for a further fifteen minutes.

Add pre-boiled potato pieces, plus the basil, oregano, and the worcestershire sauce. Stir thoroughly, and serve piping hot!

Pastrami Cheese with Penne Pasta

The ingredients are: peppered pastrami trimmings, red pepper, mushrooms, onion, garlic, cornflour, 50g of a soft cheese (in this case camembert), and two pinches of marjoram. Plus 30g of penne pasta (wheat free if preferred).

Cook the pastrami in a little sunflower oil until cooked through (start with a high heat, then turn it down to a low heat). Add half a chopped red pepper, and the onion (diced). Add two crushed and chopped cloves of garlic, and finely sliced mushroom (3 small). Stir frequently until the vegetables are cooked.

Make up a quarter-cup mixture of a teaspoonful of cornflour and water. Add the mixture to the pan containing the pastrami and vegetables. Stir frequently and turn up the heat. Once the sauce begins to thicken, turn down the heat to a simmer, and continue to stir. Cut the cheese into thin strips and add slowly to the sauce. Stir until the cheese has dissolved. Add the marjoram to the sauce.

Boil the pasta in slightly salted water for 8-9 minutes, and drain. Add to a pasta bowl, and then add the pastrami and camembert sauce. Delicious!

Scrambled Egg with Pastrami

Made with peppered pastrami trimmings, two medium sized eggs, shredded tomato, flat parsley, butter, and milk (or single cream).

The pastrami was chopped into small pieces and fried in a skillet with 25g of butter, until cooked through. Then a quarter cup of milk was added to the pan, along with the two eggs. Stir thoroughly until the yokes are broken. Add a pinch of parsley, and continue to stir occasionally until the egg separates from the liquid, which begins to run clear.

Served on unbuttered wheat free bread. 

Shred half of a salad tomato as a garnish.

Basa Fish with Green Beans

Basa fish, from Morrison's,  farmed in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, with Kenyan green beans, plus some boiled potato, grown (probably) somewhere close to my house. An excellent Sunday lunch.

I've cooked Basa fish before, and it is otherwise known as 'river cobbler' or catfish. The fish is delicious, and it can be cut (as here) so that generally the fillet is bone free.

The potatoes were cooked earlier in the day. I used a flat bottomed pan to cook the fish in a little sunflower oil. The pan was on a high heat when I put in the fish, then I turned the heat down to the lowest level. The fillet was turned at seven minutes (under glass), and cooked for another seven minutes, with the lid at an angle to allow steam to escape.

The potatoes were added to the pan just before the fish: their sizzling told me the pan was at the right heat.

The green beans were simmered in a separate pan for fifteen minutes at a low heat under glass.

Dust the plate with some white pepper before serving.

Peppered Salami with Carrot and Coriander Salad

A simple salad made with grated carrot (two small carrots), diced fresh coriander leaves, Spring onion, orange zest, a large salad tomato cut into two lotus shapes, one sliced pickled beetroot, Mayonnaise, and slices of German peppered salami.

Instructions are probably unnecessary for this one, except for cutting the tomato. The trick is to cut a crenelation pattern along the equator of the tomato with a sharp knife. Once you get the hang of it, it is easy to do. the whole dish can be prepared in ten minutes.

The grated carrot, the diced fresh coriander, and the spring onion were mixed in a glass bowl with some orange zest (a small squeeze of juice will do as an alternative, as will some lemon juice). Serve the dish with freshly ground black pepper.

Cauliflower in a Cheddar Cheese Sauce

Half a head of a medium sized Cauliflower, steamed for twenty to twenty five minutes until tender.

The cheese sauce was made with cornflour and water, with 150g of finely sliced pieces of mature cheddar cheese. Bring the cornflour and water mixture to the boil until it begins to thicken. Turn down the heat. Add the cheddar pieces and stir in thoroughly. Stir more or less continuously to prevent sticking or burning, until most of the cheddar cheese has dissolved. Add some turmeric. Add coriander leaf to the sauce. Ready in around fifteen to twenty minutes.

Serve with a dressing of freshly ground black pepper. Simple, nutritious and delicious!

Beef and Potato Chilli

Made with 400g of ground beef, around 12 per cent fat content. Other ingredients are - boiled chunks of potato, chopped carrot, three small white onions, half a chopped yellow pepper, four deseeded chillies, beef and vegetable stock, one tin of chopped tomatoes, diced white mushrooms, and three crushed and diced cloves of garlic.

Served with white basmati rice.

Brown the ground beef in a little sunflower oil for around fifteen minutes, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Add the vegetables, the chilli and the garlic, and stir fry together until the vegetables begin to soften. Add boiling water (about half a pint), and the chopped tomatoes (I used a tin), and stir together. Bring to the boil again, and turn the heat down to a simmer. Cook under glass for an hour to an hour and a half.

Delicious as is, and needs no herbs added. But you could add a little basil and coriander to the dish.

Beetroot and Red Pepper Salad

Made with four small beets, pickled in vinegar and sliced, boiled potato (cold from the fridge), diced red pepper, five sliced button mushrooms, a large spring onion, chopped, and a dessert spoonful of mayonnaise.

Before serving, dust with fine ground white pepper, two pinches of paprika, and a generous pinch of chervil. Ten minutes to prepare, and ready to eat. Delicious!

Fresh cooked beets can be used instead.

Cauliflower and Cumin Soup with Cream

I made a delicious cauliflower cheese with one half, and decided to make a soup with the other.

The cauliflower was steamed, which means it is more likely to keep its integrity during cooking. This soup was always going to be blended however, so boiling in water is fine.

The other ingredients are: one carrot, a medium onion, green lentils (one handful), vegetable and chicken stock, one deseeded green chilli, coriander leaf, a teaspoonful of cumin powder, and a pinch of cumin seeds, plus a quarter teaspoonful of turmeric, and a dash of white pepper.

boil the vegetables for half an hour, and then mash. Add the stock. Cook for another half an hour, and then blitz the contents of the pot with a hand blender for two minutes. Serve the soup with two dessert spoonfuls of single cream in a swirl. Delicious!

Chicken Medallions in a Kicap Manis Dressing

Made with chicken breast, chicken stock, carrot, onion, peas, mushrooms, red and green pepper, chopped and deseeded red chilli, and Malaysian Kicap Manis sauce.

A chicken breast from the fridge was chopped laterally into medallions, and the pieces were stir-fried in sunflower oil at a medium heat until properly cooked. Partly under glass, this will take around twelve minutes, during which the pieces should be moved around the pan and turned.

Add the chopped vegetables, and stir-fry for a further ten minutes at a medium heat, Add boiling water, and the chicken stock. Turn the heat down to a low heat, and simmer under glass for a further fifteen to twenty minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve hot, and drizzle the Kicap Manis over the top of the dish.

Pasta Chicken

Chopped roast chicken breast in a tomato sauce with chicken stock,  garlic, chilli pepper, onion, red pepper, basil and coriander. Served with wheat-free pasta and black pepper, and without cheese.

First, fry chopped onion in sunflower oil with chopped red pepper, until the onion begins to turn golden brown. Deseed the chilli, chop and add to the pan. Add crushed and chopped garlic.

Prepare the tomato sauce. Chopped tinned tomatoes will do, or otherwise a tomato passata. Add some boiling water to the pan, and add the tomato sauce. Add the chopped chicken and stir together thoroughly.  Simmer under glass for at least twenty minutes. During which time you can prepare the wheat-free pasta (8-10 minutes in boiling salted water).

You can serve the pasta first if you prefer, but on this occasion I served the chicken salsa first, then added the pasta tubes.

Pork and Potato Curry

Pork strips from a leg joint, cooked with onion, spring onion, diced mushroom, and peas. With chilli (deseeded) two garlic cloves, and the spices garam masala, cumin, coriander powder, coriander leaf, sliced root ginger, and some ground black pepper.

Easy to prepare. Place all of the ingredients in a pan containing boiling water and cook for half an hour under glass at a medium heat, then reduce to a low heat for another half an hour. Stir occasionally, and check the consistency of the curry. 

During which preparation time you can peel some potatoes, cut them into wedges, and cook them in a steamer for thirty minutes or so at a low heat (put the potatoes into the steamer when the water has come to the boil).

Decant the potatoes on to the serving plate, and add the pork curry. May be served with garlic nan bread.

Leek and Chorizo Soup

A pretty simple soup, made with one large leek, three carrots, 100g of spelt grain, 50g of green lentils, and around 150g of chorizo sausage.

The vegetables were cooked for 45 minutes in water until all were soft. Then they were mashed for two minutes.

Diced chorizo was added, and the soup was cooked for another hour at a low heat under glass.

Add two pinches of rosemary, and a teaspoonful of Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce, ten minutes before the cooking is complete.

Serve with buttered bread (wheat free or otherwise).

Chicken in a Ras El Hanout (Moroccan) Sauce

A small chicken crown found in the freezer was steamed for 75 minutes to thaw completely and cook (add extra water halfway through the process). It was then skinned, deboned, and halved.

Semi-peeled potatoes were steamed for forty minutes in a different compartment.

The sauce was made with green pepper, red and yellow grilled peppers, two small onions, one deseeded large red chilli, and one large chestnut mushroom. Stir-fried at a medium heat for fifteen minutes in some of the oil that surrounded the grilled peppers.

I made up a teaspoonful of cornflour in cold water, stirred it thoroughly until mixed, and added it to the pot of vegetables. I added three spoonfuls of Greek style yoghurt, and stirred the mixture thoroughly. Also added was chicken stock, coriander leaf, and a teaspoonful of Ras El Hanout spice mixture. Cook until the sauce has thickened. Serve hot!

Can also be served with rice or couscous.

Chicken in Five Spice Sauce, with Mushroom and Cabbage Stir Fry

 Made with a bag of prepared vegetables from the local Co-op, which included, bean sprouts, chopped mushroom, chopped red onion, two different types of cabbage. Stir-fried in oil from a jar of grilled peppers. The five spice sauce was made with red pepper, yellow pepper, onion, tomato puree or passata, a teaspoonful of coriander, half a teaspoonful of  coriander leaf, a dash of rice wine, some more of the oil from the jar of grilled peppers, powdered chilli, three cloves of garlic, and a teaspoonful of five spice powder. Add water and simmer for at least fifteen minutes. Turn down the heat.

 The raw chicken was cut into strips and stir-fried in hot sunflower oil until the pieces begin to turn golden brown. Once the strips are ready, add the five spice sauce, and stir in thoroughly. Simmer for another twenty minutes or so.

Cook the stir-fry last of all, at a high heat initially, and then turn down the heat. Stir frequently for about seven minutes before serving with a spiral of dark soy sauce, and dusting of either black or Szechuan pepper. Hot and delicious!