Beef Chow Mein with Rice Noodles

The remains of some bargain topside beef went into this dish. Finely chopped, and added to chopped spring onion and chestnut mushrooms, all the ingredients were cooked in a small lidded pot with the juice from marinaded red peppers (Polish style, mainly vinegar), and a sachet of chow mein flavoured sauce from Aldi.

Cooked slowly for about twenty minutes, while the rice noodles were cooking. The noodles were dropped into boiling water, and then the heat was turned down. Cooked at a low heat under glass.

The noodles were decanted into a metal sieve, and sifted with a fork to ensure separation. Added to the serving plate, and dusted with some Sumak powder, which imparts a lemony flavour. The beef chow mein was added to the centre, and then the dish was served. Delicious!

Aberdeen Angus Beef Burgers, with Chilli Sauce

Aberdeen Angus beef burgers, with a yellow pepper, spring onion, and a red chilli sauce. Bought cheap, because they were priced too expensively to sell quickly at the local co-op. A few years ago they would have shifted fairly quickly, but not any more.

Aberdeen Angus beef is one of the best brands of beef in the world. So if you use it to make beef burgers, what you are going to get is a superior product to what you will normally find in a burger restaurant, unless the manufacturer messes up. They didn't mess up with these. They were pan-fried for twenty five minutes, starting at a high heat and reducing to a low heat. No added oil. There was sufficient fat in the burgers to do the job, but the least amount I've ever seen in a burger. Not much shrinkage either. Excellent!

The burgers were turned three times, and they spent the last ten minutes at a low heat under glass.

I diced three quarters of a yellow pepper and two spring onions, and cooked them in a small lidded pan with some of the juices from a jar of marinaded red peppers (essentially vinegar), and some water. I added two and a half dessert spoonfuls of red chilli sauce, and stirred them together. Cook for 30 minutes under glass at a low heat, stirring occasionally. I added a pinch of paprika and a pinch of oregano also.

Serve with freshly ground black pepper. The sauce is a delicious compliment to the beef!

Beef and Potato Salad Wrap

The potato salad was made with chunks of boiled potato from the day before, plus chopped marinaded red pepper (Polish style), plus the sliced onion in the marinade, chopped spring onion, and shredded tomato. Add three dessert spoonfuls of fresh mayonnaise and some freshly ground black pepper.

The herby mediterranian style wrap was the last of eight in the packet in the fridge, so I freshened it up by soaking it in warm water and leaving it to flatten for ten minutes. Cooked very briefly under glass at a low heat in a flat pan under glass (don't overdry it!)

The topside beef came from the local co-op. 25 days matured, rubbed in salt, oven roasted, and thinly cut. I added two slices of the beef (altogether 50g), and spooned the potato salad across the width of the wrap. Carefully roll up the wrap, and cut diagonally to serve.

Endless variations can be wrung on this simple filling dish. It would be good with chicken pieces, or with roast pork. Good too with something like Wiltshire ham, Brunswick ham, or something similar. Also can be made with sliced pickled gherkins or salted cabbage mixed with the mayonnaise.

American Pancakes with Banana and Maple Syrup

I made this dish because some banana needed to be used, along with some single cream.

Add three medium eggs to a glass bowl, a heaped dessert spoonful of cornflour, and three desert spoonfuls of single cream. Add a pinch of salt, and a teaspoonful of maple syrup. Stir the mix together, until the cornflour is blended together with the other ingredients, then beat the mixture with a whisk for a few minutes. Repeat the process two more times.

Preheat a flat non-stick pan containing a brushing of sunflower oil, until a couple of drips of the pancake mixture begins to bubble and brown. Add a ladle full of the mix for each pancake. Cook for two and a half minutes each side. Turn down the heat until the pancakes are ready (if you are using an electric hob). Turn up to a high heat for each of the subsequent pancakes, and reduce the heat during the cooking process.

Serve with a drizzle of maple syrup (about two dessert spoonfuls). Delicious!

Black Pudding with Carrot and Cinnamon Mash

A simple dish of black (blood) pudding, served with boiled and mashed carrot, suffused with some ground cinnamon.

Scottish black pudding is sometimes flavoured with a little cinnamon, though these pudding slices were not.

Black pudding doesn't take long to cook. Generally I start them off at a high heat in order to sear the surface, and then turn the heat down low, and cook them for seven minutes on each side. The last seven minutes under glass, which stops them drying out.

Cook the carrots for at least twenty minutes in boiling water, and then drain. Add a quarter teaspoonful of cinnamoon to the bowl of carrots, along with a pinch of sea salt. Mash and serve with freshly ground black pepper..

Chilli con Carne with Potato

Ground beef, browned in a saute pan for twenty minutes to half an hour. Add sliced onion, diced carrot, and cook until the onions are softened and beginning to brown.

 Add some boiling water, plus six chillies with the stems removed, three chopped cloves of garlic, a tin of kidney beans in juice (add the juice), and six sliced mushroooms. Add three squirts of tomato puree, and four finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes, a pinch of paprika, beef stock, and some chopped basil leaves.

Turn down the heat and simmer the beef for two hours under glass, until tender. Stir occasionally. Remove the chillies before serving if you do not want to eat them. They provide lots of heat just by being in the dish while it is cooked.

Serve with boiled potatoes. Delicious!

Breaded Chicken with Spicy French Fries

The breaded chicken breast came from Sainsbury's supermarket. It had been in the freezer, but was thoroughly thawed before cooking.

The French fries/chips were made from two semi-peeled potatoes, sliced into ovals, and then subdivided into chips.

The chips were decanted into a bowl, and stirred through a spicy salsa, made with tomato ketchup, worcestershire sauce, paprika, oil from a jar of grilled red peppers (sunflower oil), oregano, coriander and rosemary.

Both the chips and the breaded chicken pieces were cooked in a large glass roasting tray. The oven was preheated to 200 deg C. and the tray was placed in the middle. Cooked for twenty-five to thirty  minutes.  Served with freshly ground black pepper and a squeeze of tomato ketchup.

Cumberland Sausage with Green Beans

Cumberland sausage (pricked) fried in a glass-lidded pan for twenty minutes, along with sliced onion, in a little sunflower oil. Cooked for the first fifteen minutes without the lid.

The potatoes were boiled in a separate pan for twenty minutes, along with the green beans.

Mix up the gravy browning with half a pint of water, and add to the sausages in the glass-lidded pan. Cook under glass until the gravy reduces and thickens (about thirty to forty minutes). Cumberland sausage contains herbs, and if the sausages are pricked, the flavour bleeds into the gravy.

Finally, add a pinch of paprika and stir it in to the gravy.

Serve with freshly ground black pepper.

A favourite dish!

Blueberry, Grape and Mango Fruit Salad

Mango and melon chunks, with seedless red  or green grapes, plus two handfuls of blueberries. Add to the dish.

Add eight dessert spoonfuls of double cream to the serving bowl (whipped or unwhipped according to preference), and a dessert spoonful of authentic maple syrup.

Simple, and completely delicious!

An alternative to the maple syrup is pomegranate molasses, if you have that to hand in your cupboard. A quite different flavour, but equally delicious with fruit and cream!