Pork Sausage wrapped in Bacon, with Spicy French Fries

I picked up a bargain pack of 'pigs in blankets' at Sainsbury's. Often served as a component of Christmas lunch, they are just as delicious as the main part of a meal.

I made the French fries first, dicing one large potato. The chipped potato was doused in a bowl containing about one dessert spoonful of a mixture of sunflower oil, tomato ketchup, vinegar, chilli powder, paprika, salt, black pepper, and coriander. Mixed together thoroughly and allowed to stand for fifteen or twenty minutes, with occasional further stir-throughs.

Coat a roasting tray with sunflower oil, and place the chips evenly across the surface. Place on the middle shelf of an oven preheated to 190 deg C. Cook for between 35 and forty minutes, turning the chips halfway through.

The sausages were cooked for about sixteen or seventeen minutes in an oiled roasting tray on the middle shelf, also at 190 deg C (watch them closely and judge their readiness by eye). You can put the sausages into the oven with the chips about twenty minutes before the chips are ready, so they are both piping hot at the same time. If the shelf isn't big enough for two roasting trays, transfer the tray of chips to the base of the oven.

Served with half a can of Aldi brand baked beans, dressed in a dusting of coriander leaf and black pepper. Delicious!

Vegetable Soup with Red Camargue Rice

Soup made with carrot, celery, red Camargue rice, red onion, split peas, tomato puree, sunflower oil, and vegetable stock.

The split green peas were soaked overnight. The carrot, celery, red onion were stir-fried for fifteen minutes in sunflower oil, and then I added half a pint of boiling water. I added the soaked split peas, the camargue rice, and the bay leaf. Cooked for at least forty minutes under glass at a low heat.

At this point I added a couple of squirts of tomato puree, and some vegetable stock.

 Cooked for another forty five minutes at a low heat under glass. Add herbs, according to preference. Serve with black pepper. But delicious as is!

Beef Chilli with Bell Peppers and Spinach

We are now in winter, and I wanted

to make a slightly different take on a beef chilli. Ordinarily I would add kidney beans and a tin of Italian tomatoes, and serve the dish with yoghurt.

So, I browned 500g of Scottish ground beef (minced beef) in some sunflower oil, for twenty minutes stirring frequently. After fifteen minutes I added diced red onion, and batoned carrot.

After the twenty minutes I added three quarters of a pint of boiling water, plus the fresh green chillies (deseeded and diced), the garlic, the diced whole red pepper, and two squirts of tomato puree.

The dish was simmered for an hour under glass at a low heat. Then I mashed the carrots a little, and added diced mushrooms (in this case both white and chestnut varieties), and some shredded spinach leaves. Simmered under glass for another hour. After which I added the beef and vegetable stock, plus a generous pinch of basil. Simmered for another ten minutes or so.

Served with wedges of boiled semi-skinned potatoes, and black pepper.  Delicious, and not as hot as you might think, since the chillies were deseeded. A winter-warmer dish, nonetheless!

Tomato and Smoked Ham Soup

A second soup, made with the meat and juices from one smoked ham hough, which had been slow cooked over eight hours.

So the ingredients came from the fridge - some ham, and the rich juicy jelly which provides a rich and flavoursome stock for the soup.

I began by stir-frying some onions (red) and some chopped celery in sunflower oil. After the onions and celery had softened (about fifteen minutes, stirring regularly at a medium heat), I added a tin of Italian plum tomatoes, which I diced up with a spatula.

After that, add about half a pint of boiling water and stir together. Add the jelly/stock, which will dissolve quickly. Once that has happened, add the ham, and stir again. Allow to simmer for up to two hours for maximum flavour.

Add the Basil just before serving. I served the soup with a little black pepper, and a toasted seeded flatbread from Aldi. Delicious!

Jarlsberg Cheese Salad

A simple and healthy cheese salad, made with red camargue rice, split peas, grated carrot, small baby plum tomatoes, herbs, and authentic Norwegian Jarlsberg cheese, served with some Greek style yogurt infused with a (very) little English mustard.

The split peas were soaked in unsalted water overnight, then cooked for twenty minutes until soft. The red camargue rice was cooked for thirty-five minutes at a low heat, also in unsalted water, with a drizzle of sunflower oil to prevent sticking.

Rinse the rice, and allow both ingredients to cool. Set aside. 

The carrot was grated and mixed with a little coriander leaf.   Then the baby plum tomatoes were cut diagonally in half. 

I chose not to grate the Jarlsberg, but instead cut it into wedges. The cheese is mild in flavour, and resembles Emmental, but with fewer holes. 

Add the cooled split peas and the rice to a bowl, and stir together with some Herbes de Provence. Decant to the serving plate along with the grated carrot and coriander, the tomato, the cheese, and the mixture of English mustard and yoghurt. Dress the dish with black pepper, and a small (optional) squeeze of lemon juice (I chose not to add lemon juice). Delicious! 

Garlic Chicken, with Roast Potato Hash

A garlic chicken stew made with the meat from two chicken drumstics, chicken stock, onion, tomato, and a yellow pepper.

The sauce was begun with the onion, half a tin of chopped Italian tomatoes, the garlic (three cloves, crushed) land a diced yellow pepper. Brought to the boil, I added the chicken meat, and the chicken stock,  and then the heat was turned down. The dish was simmered for half an hour under glass. The oregano was added five minutes before serving the dish.

I boiled some potato wedges for twenty minutes, then brushed them with some goose fat (sunflower oil or similar will do just as well) and shook them up in a covered bowl. The resulting fluffy potato pieces were transferred to a roasting dish, and put into the middle of an oven preheated to 190 deg. C for twenty minutes or so. Watch carefully, and remove them once they have become golden brown.

Serve with a dusting of black pepper.

Winter Vegetable Stew with Beetroot and Chilli

Beetroot and chilli? It actually works. I'd already made a borscht earlier in the week, so decided to do something different with some beetroot which needed to be eaten.

Essentially this is a vegetable stew made with carrot and onions, turnip and tomato puree. Plus the diced pieces of beetroot. The vegetables were stir-fried in some sunflower oil. The haricot beans came from a can of baked beans which had been in the fridge for a couple of days.

I added water to the stew, three finger chillies, and some vegetable stock. Allowed to simmer on the hob for about an hour at a low heat under glass, stirring occasionally. Add a little oregano before serving.

Served with half a toasted naan bread, or another flatbread of your choice. Delicious!

Smoked Ham Hough Soup

A soup made with a ham hough, simmered at a low heat for eight hours under glass.

The vegetables cooked with the ham joint were: carrot, celery, onion, potato, half a red pepper cut into strips, and one diced red-skinned apple (Braeburn).

The meat falls away from the bone after cooking for several hours. The joint was carefully removed from the soup pot, and all the bones were fished out. Then some of the ham was returned to the pot.

The bones were discarded, and the rest of the ham was allowed to cool, and stored in the fridge for another meal. A delicious soup, and a great winter warmer. Excellent for using up surplus vegetables in your kitchen.

Ham Hough Pie

Made much the same way as cottage pie/shepherd's pie. The meat is from the joint (cooked for about eight hours the preceding day), and there is also a mixture of winter vegetables and liquor from the ham in the pie.

I used a small oval ceramic pie dish, and lined it first at the bottom with the vegetables and a little of the ham liquor. Then I added pieces of ham on top of this mixture.

Finally I added a layer of mashed potato, mashed together with a little butter and white pepper. Textured with a fork.

I cooked this on the middle shelf of the oven along with a ham hough green bean casserole, at around 190 deg C. Cook for twenty five minutes, and check the dish to see how the potato topping is coming along. If a significant amount of moisture is in the filling and rises through the body of the pie, the textured surface of the potato will take longer to become golden brown. This one took around forty minutes altogether. Check its progress frequently!

The dish works well served with peas, and/or with a sweet mustard.

Banana, Date & Walnut Fruit Salad

Instant fruit salad to go. Stone six to eight dates and cut in half. Dice one whole banana. Sprinkle with walnut pieces. Stir together with half a teaspoonful of maple syrup. Add two dessert spoonfuls of Greek yoghurt and lightly stir together.
Done!

Chicken Pasta Bake

A simple dish made in two parts. First the pasta was prepared in salted boiling water, but not cooked to the full extent. This is because the pasta will be the base of the bake, and will cook further once the other ingredients are added. Drain and allow to cool, and add evenly to the base of the roasting tray.

Stir fry the mushrooms and the onion for ten minutes at a medium heat, and then add a third of a pint of water. Add tomato puree and the chicken stock, and then the meat from two chicken  drumsticks. Stir together and cook for half an hour until the sauce is considerably reduced. You can add a mixture of water and cornmeal to thicken, it, or some onion gravy granules.

Add the chicken salsa to the roasting tray lined with pasta. Spread evenly. You can add the Cheddar cheese in grated form, or in thin rectangles, according to preference. Bake in the oven at around 190 deg C until the cheese has melted and has begun to brown. This could be anywhere between twenty minutes and forty minutes on the middle shelf in the oven. Watch it carefully, at least once every five minutes! Take it out when it looks right. Serve with freshly ground black pepper.

Potato, Carrot and Green Bean Soup

A great winter soup, made with potato, carrot, onion and diced green beans. Flavoured with some vegetable stock, some fresh rosemary, and some dried oregano.

The vegetables were prepared by dicing. The potatoes came ready boiled from the fridge, so were added last, after the rest of the vegetables had been stir-fried for fifteen minutes, along with about half a pint of boiling water, and the vegetable stock.

Simmer under glass for an hour to an hour and a half, stirring frequently. Add the rosemary leaves (pluck from the hard stem), and the dried oregano. Serve with a dusting of freshly ground black pepper.

Mushroom and Bacon Omelette, with Spring Onion

Diced white mushrooms (3), spring onions (3), half a salad tomato (shredded), and one strip of smoked bacon, diced into small pieces.

Cook the mushrooms and spring onions first in a little salted butter at a high heat, stirring frequently (use an omelette pan). After two minutes turn the heat down low. Add the bacon, and cook for a further two minutes. Then add the shredded tomato. Cook for a further three to four minutes.

Prepare the beaten egg (2 large), adding a generous amount of water, which makes the omelette fluffier. Add a pinch of salt, and a pinch of Herbes de Provence. Allow to stand for a minute, and then beat again.

Pour the beaten eggs over the evenly spaced vegetables and bacon. Turn up the heat. Cover the pan with a glass lid. Cook for a minute or so, then turn the heat down low. Cook under glass for four to five minutes, then flip the omelette with a fish slice or similar. Cook at a low heat under glass for another four minutes or so before serving.

Serve with a drizzle of tomato ketchup, and a sprinkling of white pepper. An excellent Sunday morning breakfast. Simple and delicious!

Chicken and Mushroom Soup

A simple chicken and mushroom soup, made with red onion, chicken from drumsticks, and stir-fried white mushrooms. Plus some diced boiled potato.

I diced the red onion and stir-fried it in sunflower oil until it began to brown. Then I added the mushrooms, which were quartered. Cooked for twenty minutes at a medium heat.

The chicken pieces were prepared and added to the dish at this point, along with half a pint of boiling water, and some chicken stock. Add the potato pieces. Simmer for half an hour to forty five minutes. I added Quixo onion granules to thicken the soup a little, and the herbs tarragon and oregano. Sage would also be a good choice.

Served with a flatbread - in this case two quarters of a plain naan. Delicious!

Chicken Stir-fry with an Oyster and Spring Onion Sauce

This is a variation of the chicken stir-fry I had yesterday, with additional spring onion.

A basic mix of stir-fry vegetables from the local co-op - bean sprouts, red and yellow pepper, two colours of cabbage, red onion, and sliced carrot. Supplemented by a handful of unsalted cashew nuts, some bamboo shoots, and a little sliced water chestnut. Stir-fried in a wok for around seven minutes, starting at a high heat, and a middling heat for the rest of the time. Stir frequently. Watch its progress carefully, and judge readiness by eye.

I heated the roast chicken pieces (diced chicken breast), two diced spring onions,  and the cashews in a high sided pot at a high heat,  along with a drizzle of sunflower oil. Stirred for a couple of minutes until the chicken and the cashews began to brown, then the heat was turned down substantially.

I added the Oyster and Spring Onion Sauce (ready made and sourced from Aldi) to the pot and stirred the ingredients thoroughly together. Simmered under a glass lid for five minutes, stirring occasionally.

There is no garlic or chilli in this stir-fry. Why buy a deliciously flavoured sauce only to risk wrecking the result with additional strong flavours?

Decant the vegetables to a serving plate. Add the chicken pieces with the sauce, cashews and spring onion on top of the stir fry, and serve. Fifteen minutes from start to finish, if you are used to using two cooking vessels simultaneously. And delicious!

Chicken and Cashew Stir-Fry

A basic mix of stir-fry vegetables from the local co-op - bean sprouts, red and yellow pepper, two colours of cabbage, red onion, and sliced carrot. Supplemented by a diced breast of roast chicken, and a handful of unsalted cashew nuts (cheaper in Asda than in Sainsbury's).

I heated the roast chicken pieces in a wok at a high heat, with some garlic and three green finger chillies, toppedl along with a drizzle of sunflower oil. Stirred for a couple of minutes, then the heat was turned down substantially. I added the cashew nuts, and half of the bag of vegetables. Another light drizzle of sunflower oil, and cooked at the lower heat for another seven or eight minutes (judge by eye is always the golden rule with a stir-fry).

Served on a spiral of dark soy sauce. Hot and delicious!

Root Vegetable Ground Beef Casoulet

The ground beef was browned at a medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring frequently, and then I added a diced red onion, and finely diced carrot.

Stir-fried for another fifteen minutes, and then boiling water was added, plus some beef stock and two bay leaves. Simmered for one hour under glass.

Some of the ground beef stew was used for another dish, and the other half spent a day in the fridge. The second half was brought to the boil, and I added more carrot, with larger chunks this time, plus most of a medium sized turnip. Cooked for half an hour, and then I added diced green beans, a teaspoonful of capers, some fresh rosemary leaves, black pepper, paprika,Worcester sauce, and dried oregano. Simmer under glass for twenty minutes before serving.

Smoked Cheese with Apple and Bell Pepper Salad

Great cheese dish. German smoked cheese, served with a four leaf salad, and (mixed together in a separate bowl) diced apple, red green and yellow diced bell pepper, along with two finely chopped spring onions, dressed in mayonnaise, a little splash of Tabasco, and black pepper. Delicious!

This salad would work well with other cheeses, such as feta, blue stilton, and danish blue cheese.

Smoked Cheese Salad

Half of a 125g round of German smoked cheese from the local Co-op, cut into strips, with sliced salad tomato and raw mushoom, served with a four-leaf salad, some freshly ground black pepper, and a little Tabasco sauce.

Can be served on a plate, or in a bread wrap. The sliced mushroom can be sauted in a little butter for five minutes or so, and allowed to cool before adding the pieces to the salad.

Orange and Mango Fruit Salad with Bourbon

I'm partial to slightly alcoholic fruit salads, and this is an example. Made with segments from three easy-peel oranges, and a selection of red, yellow and green mango pieces. Mix the fruit together in a serving bowl.

Add two measures of Bourbon whiskey (according to taste), and stir together. Allow to stand (covered) for twenty minutes.

Add two dessert spoonfuls of Greek style yoghurt. Stir a couple of times, and serve. Also good served with walnuts, and a pinch of nutmeg. A great pick me up if you are slightly under the weather.

Beetroot and Parsnip Soup

A simple borscht style soup made with fresh boiled beetroot (2), 2 medium onions, about 100g of turnip or swede, and one medium parsnip.

All the vegetables were peeled and diced, and cooked in boiling water for about 40 minutes. After that they were mashed. I added some vegetable stock (salt will do instead), and a pinch of marjoram.

Served with a plain flatbread, or one flavoured with some diced coriander, and black pepper. Fabulous!

Date, Walnut and Mango Salad

A great way to start the day - Stoned 'Deglet Nour' dates, an assortment of mango pieces, and walnuts. Mixed with a couple of dessert spoonfuls of Greek style yoghurt. Quick to prepare, and an utterly delicious combination of elements!

Herbed Omelette Wrap (Oregano, Tarragon & Coriander)

A one egg omelette in a wrap makes an excellent snack, or a part of a portable lunch. This omelette was made with a trio of herbs - oregano, tarragon and coriander leaf, along with white pepper, and a pinch of paprika.

The wrap was prepared by drizzling water over both sides, and then being left for five to ten minutes to soften. It was then decanted to a serving plate. Some tomato ketchup was smeared over the surface, with some white pepper.

The egg was beaten in a soup bowl after adding  some water, along with the herbs, some white pepper, the paprika, and some salt.

An omelette pan with sunflower oil was heated to a high heat, but not so high to cause the  oil to smoke. Once hot, the heat was turned right down, and the beaten egg was added. The pan was then covered with a glass lid.


The omelette was allowed to cook on the hob for five minutes before it was turned. Once turned, the heat was increased for two minutes (an electric hob with rings with great heat latency), and then turned off altogether. After a further three minutes, the omelette was ready, and was decanted on to the surface of the wrap.

Fold in the sides of the wrap, and roll it up from the front. Make sure the rear of the wrap is tucked in as you complete the roll. Cut the wrap in two at an angle of 20 degrees. Voila!

Ground Beef with Roast Potato Wedges

5% fat ground beef (400g) from the local co-op. Browned at a medium heat in some sunflower oil for twenty minutes or so, stirring frequently.

I diced a large leek, after topping and tailing, and then cutting it into four lengthwise. Easy to prepare this while the beef is browning.

Turn up the heat and add the leek,  and stir together with the beef. After five minutes turn the heat down to medium, and stir-fry together for another ten minutes, until the diced leek begins to brown.

Add three quarters of a pint of boiling water, along with the vegetable and beef stock, and one large bay leaf.

Simmer under glass at a low heat for ninety minutes. Add more water if necessary.

The carrots (two small) were diced into chunks and boiled in water for thirty minutes, after which I added some dried coriander. Allow to cool while you prepare the roast potato wedges.

The potato wedges were peeled and cut into shape, and then parboiled for ten minutes. Then they were put into a bowl and covered with a plate. I shook them up for a minute or so to make the surface fluffy. Then I drizzled them with two teaspoonfuls of goose fat, and shook them again for another minute or so (the goose fat is not an essential ingredient, and any cooking oil can be substituted). The potato wedges were placed on a roasting tray in an oven preheated to around 190 deg. C.

Roast for fifteen minutes, checking them every seven minutes or so. Turn after fifteen minutes and allow another fifteen minutes. They may be ready by this time, or even after twenty minutes, but it depends very much on the kind of potato you use. Mine took a bit longer than thirty minutes. Watch them carefully, and remove them from the oven when they are golden brown.

An utterly delicious meal which was well worth the preparation time.

Beef and Mushroom Curry, with Garlic and Coriander Naan Bread

The cubed beef was browned in a saute pan with a drizzle of sunflower oil. Started at a high heat, and then lowered, stirring regularly.

After ten to fifteen minutes I added two medium sized diced onions, and two diced carrots. Stir-fried for fifteen minutes or so until the onions became semi-transparent.

I added half a green bell pepper, cut into strips. Cooked for another five minutes before I added about half a pint of boiling water, a little tomato puree, and vegetable and beef stock. I added diced pieces of three large mushrooms.

Stirred thoroughly, and simmered under glass at a low heat for another hour and a half, until the beef is deliciously tender.

I added some powdered cumin and cardamom, some turmeric (teaspoonful), a dessert spoonful of hot curry powder from ASDA, and some dried coriander leaf. Simmered for another half an hour before serving.

The Garlic and Coriander Naan bread was made commercially. It had been in the fridge for a few days, so I dampened it on both sides, and allowed it to stand for ten minutes on a drainer, while I fired up the grill. Cook for three or four minutes on both sides, watching carefully to prevent burning the naan.

The combo was served with a dusting of coriander, and a teaspoonful of lime pickle. Delicious!