Lincolnshire Sausage Hotpot

Eight Lincolnshire sausages, delinked and cut into four pieces, cooked in a large flat glass lidded pan.

I cooked the sausage pieces at a medium heat for ten minutes, stirring occasionally. I diced a large onion, and added the onion to the pan. After another ten minutes I added the lid and turned down the heat.

I turned up the heat and added a 400g tin of chopped Italian tomatoes to the pan, along with a little water. The dish was cooked under glass for another half an hour at a low heat, towards the end of which I added some vegetable stock, and two pinches of dried sage.

Served with semi-skinned boiled potato. Delicious! Will feed two or three people.

Ham Salad with a Garlic, Olive Oil and Lemon Juice Dressing

Scottish mature ham from Asda, served with a four leaf salad (chard, spinach, green and purple lettuce), sliced red onion and spring onion, yellow and red pepper.

The dressing was made with one minced clove of garlic, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a teaspoonful of olive oil, and a dash of white pepper.

The dressing was placed in a glass bowl, followed by the vegetables, and the mix tossed together for several minutes. Allow to stand for a couple of minutes, and toss again.

Served with a garnish of sliced lemon. Takes around ten to fifteen minutes to prepare!

Fried Chicken Stir Fry

 Chicken breast chopped and fried at a medium heat in sunflower oil the previous day.

The vegetable stir-fry comprised red pepper, yellow pepper, red onion, bean sprouts, two varieties of green cabbage, chopped carrot, sweetcorn.

Add the vegetables to a wok with sunflower oil at a high heat, and stir for a couple of minutes. Then turn down the heat and add the chicken pieces. Stir together for another couple of minutes.

Continue the cooking under glass for another three or four minutes in order to ensure thorough heating.

Decant the stir-fry onto a plate with a spiral of dark soy sauce, and a dusting of white pepper.

Breaded Basa Fish (Catfish) with Oven-roasted Potato Chips

Another bargain from Morrison's: two Basa fish fillets, lightly breaded with herbs. Cooked for eighteen minutes in the middle of a preheated oven at 190 deg C.

Served with chipped potatoes which had been marinaded for three or four hours in a mixture of vinegar, sunflower oil, tomato puree, chilli sauce, white pepper, salt, plus some thyme and coriander.

 The chips were then roasted in the oven for about 25 minutes at 190 deg. C (watch them carefully, and remove from the oven when they look as though they are ready).

Served with two teaspoonfuls of tartare sauce, and some white pepper. A delicious dish!

Honey Ham Salad with Garlic Dressing

A simple salad made with honey ham cut into strips, and served with red pepper, five leaves - purple cabbage, green lettuce, rocket, spinach and chard, plus thin strips of carrot, dressed with a mixture of olive oil and vinegar, with minced garlic.

Simple and quick to prepare!

Breaded Cod with Oven-roasted Potato Chips

Thursday is a good day for bargains in UK supermarkets, and I picked up a pack of two breaded cod for half-price in Sainsbury's. Baked in the middle of the preheated oven for twenty minutes at 190 deg C.

I chipped two Maris Piper potatoes, and dressed them in a spicy sauce, made with tomato puree, vinegar, sunflower oil, paprika, white pepper, salt, and some dried thyme. These can be cooked in twenty minutes in the middle of the oven at 190 deg C. Check frequently to check how they are doing, and remove from the oven when they are ready.

So. Fish and chips! Served with a little cranberry jelly. Delicious!

West Indian Style Sweet Potato Curry

The original recipe can be found on the BBC Good Food site at:

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/west-indian-sweet-potato-curry

I modified the recipe, because I had stuff in the fridge which needed to be used. The substitutions work very well.








Here is the original list of ingredients, and the substitutions I made:

1 tsp rapeseed oil (cooking stage skipped)
2 red onions, halved and sliced (white onion)
thumb-sized piece ginger, finely chopped (substituted by powdered ginger)
2 tbsp Madras curry powder (substituted by Garam Massala)

1 tsp allspice (substituted by some nutmeg)
400g can chopped tomatoes (yes)
200g sachet coconut milk (substituted by Greek yoghurt)
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves (I used dried thyme)
1 tbsp gluten-free vegetable bouillon (I used vegetable stock)
3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes (yes)
325g white cabbage, roughly chopped (substituted with some diced brussels sprouts)
2 red peppers, chopped (yes)

I also added half a diced courgette, and some cajun seasoning, which resembles garam massala seasoning. Plus three green chillies, marinaded in vinegar. 

I made so much of the main part of the dish that I skipped everything in the rice accompaniment. I boiled some white basmati rice and added some dried thyme during the last two minutes of cooking.  For the record, the ingredients of the recommended accompaniment are as below.

125g brown basmati
1 red onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp vegetable bouillon
400g can black-eyed beans

And the originally recommended method:

Heat the oil in a very large nonstick frying pan, add the onions and ginger, and cook for 5 mins. Add the curry powder and allspice, then pour in the tomatoes plus a can of water, the coconut milk, thyme and bouillon.

Add the sweet potatoes, cabbage and peppers, cover the pan and simmer for 20-25 mins or until all the vegetables are tender but with a little bite, topping up with a little water if looking dry.

Meanwhile, tip the rice into a pan with the onion, garlic, thyme and bouillon. Pour in 600ml water, cover and cook for 25 mins or until the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is tender – check towards the end to make sure it isn’t catching. Stir in the beans and heat through.

Pork Chilli with Basmati Rice

A pork stew made with pork from a roast cooked earlier and kept in the fridge. The pork was recooked in a little sunflower oil for ten minutes, before  strips of red and yellow pepper were added, along with chopped onion, and diced carrot. After another ten minutes I added some boiling water.

I mixed together a level dessert spoonful of cornmeal, and a level teaspoonful of paprika with some cold water. Stirred until a smooth paste.  The sauce was added to the pan with the pork and peppers, etc., and stirred at a medium heat until it began to thicken.  It took about twenty minutes.

I added half a can of chopped tomatoes, some vegetable stock, two dried red chillies, and some herbs (oregano, coriander and basil).

I diced half of a medium sized courgette, and added the cubes to the pan, and added these to the mix .As well as a little chopped celery. The dish was cooked for another half an hour.

Stuffed Olive Salad

Stuffed olives halved, with a lettuce, carrot and onion salad, dressed in olive oil, vinegar and garlic.

Add some olive oil and vinegar to a bowl, plus some finely diced or minced garlic. Whisk together.

Dice lettuce, onion and carrot, and add to the dressing. Stir together.

Halve the pimiento stuffed olives, and add to the bowl. Add some white pepper.

Pork Chilli with Courgette, Peppers, and Wheat-Free Pasta

A pork stew made with pork from a roast cooked earlier and kept in the fridge. The pork was recooked in a little sunflower oil for ten minutes, before the strips of red and yellow pepper were added. After another ten minutes I added some boiling water.

I mixed together a level dessert spoonful of cornmeal, and a level teaspoonful of paprika with some cold water. Stirred until a smooth paste.  The sauce was added to the pan with the pork and peppers, and stirred at a medium heat until it began to thicken.  It took about twenty minutes.

I added half a can of chopped tomatoes, some vegetable stock, two dried red chillies, and some herbs (oregano, coriander and basil).

I diced half of a medium sized courgette, and added the cubes to the pan, and a medium sized carrot, and added these to the mix .As well as a little chopped celery. The dish was cooked for another twenty or so minutes. Served with wheat-free pasta boiled with a little salt and some turmeric, and some freshly ground black pepper. Delicious!

Pork Stew with Diced Courgette and Red Pepper

A pork stew made with pork from a roast cooked the day before. The pork was recooked in a little sunflower oil for ten minutes, before the strips of red pepper were added. After another ten minutes I added some boiling water.

I mixed together a level dessert spoonful of cornmeal, and a level teaspoonful of paprika with some cold water. Stirred until a smooth paste. The sauce was added to the pan with the pork and peppers, and stirred at a medium heat until it began to thicken. In this case it took about twenty minutes.

I added some vegetable stock, and some herbs (oregano, coriander).

I diced half of a medium sized courgette, and added the cubes to the pan, and cooked the dish for another twenty minutes. Cooking the courgette cubes for longer will result in them starting to dissolve.

Can be served with potato, rice or pasta.

Pork Sausage Stew with Tomato and Blue Stilton

A pack of outdoor-bred pork sausages close to the use-by date, so I delinked the sausages and roasted them in a casserole dish in the oven for forty minutes at 190 deg C. I allowed them to cool before slicing them into elliptical roundels.

I made a sauce with 200g of tomato passata, with chopped onion and diced green pepper. The sauce was allowed to simmer for forty-five minutes before I added the sausage pieces. I also added about 100g of crumbled blue Stilton cheese, and stirred the sauce for about five minutes until all the cheese dissolved.

Finally I added some herbs (oregano, basil) and some vegetable stock.

Served with a chipped potato hash. I cut two Maris Piper potatoes into chips, and par-boiled them for ten minutes. Once cooled, they were dipped into a bowl containing a dressing made with vinegar, olive oil, tomato puree, oregano and thyme. Then they were placed into a roasting tray, spaced out, and cooked under the grill for twenty minutes or thereabouts. Check their status by eye is always the golden rule for grilling anything.

A fabulously tasty and cheap to prepare meal!

Smoked Haddock with Shredded Brussels Sprouts

A simple dish: Smoked Haddock with shredded Brussels sprouts, with white pepper.

The Brussels sprouts were boiled in salted water for around eight minutes. The haddock was cooked in a flat saute pan in a little sunflower oil for eight minutes - four minutes on each side. I started off at a high temperature, and reduced it to the lowest when the fish was added to the saute pan. Cooked under glass, and turned once.

That's it! Completely delicious! Bought from Morrison's, who are pretty good with fish.

Fried Mustard Ham and Pepper Omelette

You can fry ham as you can bacon. The result will not be the same, but it is just as delicious, especially as a component in an omelette.

In this case I had some some mustard ham to use up, and so decided on a three egg omelette, with chopped red and green peppers, semi-caramelised white onion, oregano, paprika, and salt.

Start with the onion and the chopped peppers in a saute pan, with some sunflower oil. Once the chopped onion starts to brown, add the pieces of mustard ham. While the ham and onion is frying in the saute pan at a lowish heat under glass, beat the three eggs in a bowl.

Cook the ensemble for at least ten minutes before adding the beaten egg (the eggs should be beaten twice, with a little added salt, and the paprika, to contain as much air as possible). Add the oregano. Turn up the heat for the first two minutes, then down to low. Cook under glass for a minute on each side to ensure thorough heating without burning. After that cook for three minutes on each side before serving. Fine with a side salad, or just by itself!

Ham Hough with Green Beans and Potato

Ham hough is one of those difficult joints, which need a long slow cook, but which is well worth the effort. Ideal for preparation in a slow cooker, especially if it is left overnight.

If you want to have the ham with onions, cook them separately, and add them later in the process. This is because the temperature in a slow cooker is too low to soften or dissolve the onions.

I cooked the ham joint in a slow cooker, and added a little vegetable stock (not too much, since the joint is likely to be salted), and some herbs (rosemary).

Make sure you pick out all the bones from the joint. There are some quite small pieces which need to be removed before serving!

Served with some of the juices mixed and thickened with cornflour,  boiled flat cut potatoes, and green beans boiled for seven minutes. Delicious!

Minestroni Soup, with Brussels Sprouts

Minestroni soup, served with minimal wheat brown bread.

The soup ingredients were: Spanish onion, Brussels sprouts (diced), and carrot. Plus some diced yellow pepper and garlic. Stir-fried in olive oil, before boiling water was added.

After simmering for a while, I added about 200g of tomato passata, and some vegetable stock.Plus a portion of broken spaghetti.  Cooked for about an hour.

Add herbs according to your choice (Basil and Oregano in this case). Plus half a teaspoonful of smoked paprika.

The bread used was from the loaf recently baked (scroll back). Keeps for a fortnight in the fridge. Quick and easy!

Pasta Salad

A simple pasta salad with lettuce, yellow pepper and red cabbage. Plus shredded carrot, marinaded red pepper, and white onion. The onion, carrot and yellow pepper were marinaded in a mixture of vinegar, olive oil, and minced garlic, for about an hour.

The lettuce and red cabbage was dressed in olive oil and white pepper. The pasta was wheat free and added last of all to the dish.

Delicious, filling,  and quick to prepare! Served with a glass of red wine.

Cottage Pie with Mushrooms and Peppers

A bargain tray of ground (minced) beef, 5 per cent fat, encouraged me first to make a beef chilli, and then to make a slightly spicy cottage pie.

The beef was browned for about twenty minutes, with a little sunflower oil, together with white onions. During the last five minutes of this period, I added sliced chestnut mushrooms, and deseeded red and green chillies. After that I added some beef stock, a bay leaf, and some Bisto browning (cornflour), in order to thicken the gravy. That was served with basmati rice.

For the cottage pie, made subsequently, preheat the oven while the semiskinned potatoes are boiling (to 180 deg C or thereabouts). Mash the potatoes in a glass bowl. Add two dessert spoonfuls of Greek style yoghurt and blend together. Add a little white pepper. Spoon the mash over the ground beef base, and texture with a fork.

Cook for an hour at least in the middle of the oven, checking during the last half hour that the potato topping is not overbrowning.

Minimal Wheat Brown Bread

Made with Dove's Farm wheat-free brown bread flour, with 20 per cent of Khorasan wheat (Kamut), which is an ancient variety that is often ok for people with a wheat intolerance to eat. So this is not a wheat-free loaf, but eighty per cent of it is wheat-free.

Essentially the process is easiest if you use two glass bowls, one for the wet ingredients, and the other for the dry ones.

Weigh out 400g of the wheat-free brown bread flour and add to the dry bowl. Weigh out 100g of the Khorasan flour, and add to the bowl also. Add sugar (one dessert spoonful), and a teaspoonful of quick acting yeast. Blend together thoroughly with a wooden spoon.

Add 400g of whole milk to the wet bowl. Add one beaten egg, six dessert spoonfuls of olive oil, one dessert spoonful of vinegar, and blend together with a whisk.

Gradually add the dry mixture to the wet bowl, and stir together. When it gets stiff, use an electric blender the rest of the way. Beat the mixture for five minutes and allow it to rest for a while. Then beat the mixture for another five minutes.

Allow the dough to rest, and to begin to rise. Then decant the dough into a standard bread tin (silicon ones are the easiest to use), and allow the dough to rise to the desired level in a warm dry place.

Bake in the oven at 190 deg C for around 45 minutes (middle shelf), checking by eye frequently toward the end of the process.

Generally the bread will keep for around a fortnight in the fridge in an airtight container.

Chicken and Potato Pie

A chicken pie made to use up some Polish Marliny chicken sausage.

I cut the whole sausage into wedge-shaped pieces. I added some Polish style red pepper, marinaded in vinegar, and chopped onion. I added a little gravy to the ceramic pot in which it would bake, made with water, chicken stock, and cornmeal.

Preheat the oven while the semiskinned potatoes are boiling (to 180 deg C or thereabouts). Mash the potatoes in a glass bowl. Add a little white pepper. Spoon the mash over the chicken base, and texture with a fork. Add a little paprika just before you do this.

Cook for an hour at least in the middle of the oven, checking during the last half hour that the potato topping is not overbrowning.

Wensleydale and Cranberry Salad

Such a glorious array of  flavours in this dish!

 Made with a four leaf salad, dressed in a little olive oil, Queen olives in a green pesto sauce, shredded tomato and yellow pepper marinated in an olive oil, vinegar and minced garlic dressing, plus some slices of Wensleydale cheese made with real cranberries.

The stoned queen olives were bought already in a pesto sauce. I made the dressing for the tomato and pepper myself, with four cloves of garlic, pressed and diced. The salad leaves were chard, spinach, rocket, and purple lettuce. If you don't like rocket over much, dressing the leaves in olive oil removes a lot of the intensity of the flavour.

Served with white pepper. Delicious!