Pork Chilli with Spaghetti

A one pan dish, made with a pork chilli and spaghetti.

Dice a couple of pork steaks into small chunks, and stir fry in a little sunflower oil, until they brown. Once they do, add finely chopped leek (cut lengthways first, and then crosswise). Add diced red and yellow pepper, spring onion, a clove of garlic, and some drained sweetcorn.

Continue to stir-fry the dish for another ten to fifteen minutes, and then add boiling water and a little tomato puree. Add dried red chillies according to taste. Simmer under glass for twenty minutes.

Break a handful of spaghetti in two, and scatter round the pan. Add more boiling water and stir the spaghetti in to the pork chilli sauce. Bring to the boil, and stir the spaghetti until it is soft. Cover the pan and simmer slowly for fifteen to twenty minutes, stirring the mix occasionally.

Serve with black pepper. 

Pork Steak with Gluten Free Toasted Sourdough Bread

A straightforward breakfast of toasted sourdough bread,  surmounted with squashed fried tomato quarters and half a teaspoonful of English mustard. A slow cooked pork steak (low heat, twenty minutes under glass, turned twice), along with some diced chestnut mushrooms, and a fried egg - all cooked in a light drizzle of sunflower oil.

I didn't bake this sourdough bread. It was made by Warburtons. It keeps really well in the fridge.

Sweet and Sour Chicken with Fried Rice

Chicken pieces in a sweet and sour sauce, with added dried red chilli, bamboo shoots, diced onion, sweetcorn, and diced button mushrooms.

Cooked for half an hour under glass, with some vegetable stock.

Served with fried basmati rice. Dress with some dark soy sauce.

Want to make your own sweet and sour sauce? It is pretty straightforward, and is describe here.

Chicken and Sweetcorn Salad

Two chicken drumsticks from the fridge needed to be used, so I made this salad for the purpose.

Made with basmati rice, cooked with a teaspoonful of turmeric. Ten minutes at a lowish heat under glass (the lid at a jaunty angle),  and some sunflower oil to prevent sticking, half a red pepper, and half a small can of sweetcorn from Aldi. Three diced spring onions. Plus a couple of dessert spoonfuls of mayonnaise. Stirred together thoroughly. Drain the rice and allow to cool before adding the other ingredients.

Add the chicken pieces, and serve. Delicious, without herbs or salt!

Prawn Stir-Fry with Bean Sprouts

A simple stir-fry with prawns from the freezer, which I steamed first for 8 or 9 minutes till they were properly thawed. The other ingredients were batoned carrot, diced red pepper, a couple of chopped spring onions, some Savoy cabbage, beansprouts, some Thai red chilli sauce, and dark soy.

The carrots were pre-cooked in sunflower oil (five minutes), then I added the cabbage, red pepper, spring onion, the prawns, and the beansprouts. Cooked at a high heat for four minutes, then I turned the heat down low, and cooked for another three to four minutes, stirring every ten seconds or so.

During this last stage I drizzled the chilli sauce and the dark soy into the wok. Stir-fries are best judged by eye, and when I judged it was ready, I decanted the contents of the pan on to a serving plate, on top of a spiral of dark soy sauce.

Chicken and Bean Sprout Stir-Fry

Bargain price bean sprouts, Savoy cabbage and chicken thighs from Sainsbury's yesterday, hence this dish.

The chicken thighs were cooked in the middle shelf of the oven for forty five minutes at 190 deg C in an open roasting tray. Turned once. Allowed to cool a little before cutting the meat into strips.

The vegetables were chopped while the chicken thighs were cooking.Three leaves of cabbage, one small leek, cut lengthways and then diced, one half yellow pepper.

Added were four finger chillies, topped, a few grammes of chopped root ginger, and two cloves of garlic.

Stir-fried at a high heat in some sunflower oil. I added some Thai red chilli sauce and the chicken pieces, I turned the heat down after four minutes. After another minute on an electric hob, I turned the heat off altogether. I continued to stir.

Serve on a spiral of dark soy sauce. Drizzle a little more over the dish. A fabulous meal!

Button Mushroom Omelette

A fairly simple omelette with sliced button mushrooms, diced spring onion, and diced basil leaves. Cooked in a knob of butter.

The spring onion was cooked first in the butter, followed by the button mushrooms, sliced into three. Then the basil leaves. Cooked at high heat. then turned down. No more than ten minutes. Just enough to allow the mushrooms to brown a little.

Beat three small eggs together in a bowl. Add salt (a large pinch). Add to the omelette pan at a high heat, then turn the temperature down.

Cook for five minutes under glass. Turn the omelette, and cook at a low heat for another four or five minutes, also under glass.

Serve with a slice of potato bread, grilled in a toaster, and a couple of squeezes of German or American Mustard . In this case I used French's yellow mustard. Delicious!

Baked Potato with Ground Beef Chilli

Maris Piper baked potato, with a ground beef chilli, made with leek, red kidney beans, chilli, and basil. Plus grated cheddar cheese.

The potato was partially cut in two, and with a v-aped wedge in the middle. Brushed with sunflower oil, and then cooked in the oven at 190 deg C for an hour, wrapped in tin foil.

The ground beef was prepared first - cooked in sunflower oil for twenty minutes to half an hour, until browned. Then the (chopped) leek was added. After ten minutes, add boiling water, tomato puree, kidney beans, chopped basil, vegetable stock, and five topped finger chillies. Cook under glass for another 90 minutes.

Mix grated cheddar with black pepper, and chopped basil. Spoon the ground beef chilli into the groove of the potato. Add the grated cheese on top. Allow to stand for a couple of minutes. Garnish the dish with sprigs of basil, and serve.

Scottish Rump Steak with Hash Browns

Bargain rump steak from Sainsbury's. Cooked in sunflower oil for ten minutes at a medium heat in a lidded pan, and turned four times.

Served with hash browns, and fried salad tomato, cooked separately (ten minutes under glass, and turned a couple of times).

The steak sits on a couple of squeezes of tomato ketchup, and freshly ground black pepper.

Simple and delicious! A retired trucker friend in Michigan has described this meal as 'truck stop vittles!'

Roast Pork with Sage Stuffing (and Chips!)

Pork joint from Sainsbury's, rolled around a sage stuffing, made with oatmeal, breadcrumbs, and sometimes cornmeal, and of course a generous amount of sage.

Wrapped in tinfoil and cooked in the centre of the oven at 200deg C for an hour and fifteen minutes (the time varies according to the size of the joint. Check the label information). Fifteen minutes before the end, the tin foil wrap was opened.

Allowed to cool for twenty minutes, and then the joint was sliced with an electric knife.

The pork was served with a vegetable gravy made with blended onion, spinach leaves, and carrot, plus vegetable stock.

The chips were parboiled for five minutes, and then transferred to a bowl with Rosemary, tomato puree, a teaspoonful of sunflower oil, and vinegar. Stirred thoroughly together. Roasted on a flat tray in the middle of the oven for around twenty five minutes at 180 deg C. Judge if they are properly cooked by eye.

Stovies

A traditional Scottish dish made with boiled potato, diced sausage, onion and white pepper.

The dish is called 'stovies' since the way it is prepared is to add all the ingredients to a pot containing water, which then sits on the stove for a couple of hours (with occasional stirring) at a simmer under glass.

I used four cumberland sausages, which I diced into five pieces each. Four or five medium sized potatoes, deseeded, peeled and chopped, plus a chopped Spanish Onion. Plus a little salt, and a little more white pepper.

I've tried this dish in a slow cooker, and I don't recommend it. The temperature is just too low to properly cook the onion, and the dish has a tendency to brown. Two hours on the stove at the lowest setting is just fine. You can leave it longer if you prefer, but make sure it doesn't dry out.  Best eaten with a dessert spoon.

Spinach, Lentil and Turnip Soup

A really simple soup, conjured to use up half a turnip in the fridge.

Chopped turnip cooked for twenty minutes in boiling water. Then added half a cupful of red lentils. Boiled for half an hour, and then blended.

I added some vegetable stock, and some finely diced spinach. Cooked for another twenty five minutes or so. No herbs! Just dandy as it is!