Peppered Chicken and Brocolli Spears

Line a casserole dish with julienned red onion. Add 100g of water, and some chicken stock. Place the chicken thighs on top. Dress in a drizzle of olive oil, some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Cook on the middle shelf of an oven preheated to 190 deg C for fifty-five minutes. For the last ten minutes remove the dish cover, which allows the chicken to brown.

The brocolli spears were cut in half and fried in a buttered  omelette pan for ten minutes under glass.

Add a little extra butter to the spears on serving. Excellent dish!

Pork Meatloaf Salad, with Hummus

A meatloaf salad, with grated carrot, diced spring onion and half a yellow pepper, with two dessert spoonfuls of hummus. The carrot salad was dressed with olive oil and two dashes of smoked paprika.

The pork meatloaf was made with finely ground pork sausage meat (500g), a cupful of porage oats, one egg, and a whole diced red onion. Cooked in a metal roasting tray for 40 minutes at 190 deg C on the middle shelf of a preheated oven.

Allowed to cool, and cut into six squares.

Mushroom and Chorizo Casoulet

Sixteen whole white mushrooms, four chopped chestnut mushrooms, around 200g of sliced chorizo sausage, 100g of chopped green beans, eight chopped spring onions, two shredded salad tomatoes, and half of a roughly cut swede. The chorizo and the swede were cooked in a little bacon fat under glass at a moderate heat for around 15 to 20 minutes. I added six whole garlic cloves which were in a chilli suffused sunflower oil. Then boiling water was added to the pot, along with a couple of squeezes of tomato paste, and two ham stock cubes. The casoulet was allowed to simmer for two hours, at the end of which white pepper and two generous pinches of thyme and rosemary were stirred into the stew. Naturally this dish could be made with potatoes instead of a swede. But I had a swede which needed to be used, so I chose to use the swede. The combo is fine. The other half of the swede will find its way into a soup.

Banana, Date and Almond Fruit Salad

A gorgeous and simple fruit salad made with chopped banana, stoned dates, and a handful of whole almonds.

Topped with three or four dessert spoonfuls of plain yoghurt, and dressed with a sprinkling of ground nutmeg. An excellent breakfast dish.

Minestrone, with Yellow Peas and Coriander

A simple minestrone soup made with diced coriander, dried whole yellow peas (hydrated overnight), broken pasta, carrot, diced spring onion and dwarf beans, plus half of  a green pepper, a couple of squirts of tomato puree, and one clove of garlic.

Cooked for forty-five minutes under glass at a low heat. After which the herbs (basil, parsely and oregano) were added, along with the chicken and vegetable stock. I also added half a teaspoonful of fish sauce (Asian nam pla, which resembles the fish sauce used by the ancient Romans), and a few shakes of ground white pepper.

Simmered under glass for a further forty minutes or so, before serving.

Roast Pork in Gravy with Dwarf Beans

Sliced roast pork from a shoulder joint weighing 1.5 kilogrammes, cooked at 200 deg. C for two hours on the middle shelf of the oven. The joint was covered in aluminium foil, which was removed for the final twenty minutes.

The gravy was made with the juices from the joint, along with some vegetable stock, and the herbs basil and sage. The gravy was allowed to cool so the fat could be removed. Reheated before serving.

Served with boiled unskinned Gem potatoes, and topped and tailed dwarf beans, grown in Warwickshire. The beans were steamed for about seven minutes.

Dressed with freshly ground black pepper.

Strawberry and Walnut Salad

Quartered Scottish Strawberries,  soused for four or five hours in granulated sugar, which produces excellent juices.

Decant to a serving bowl and add two handfuls of walnut pieces.

Add three or four dessert spoonfuls of plain yoghurt (or single cream if you prefer). Chill in the fridge for half an hour before serving. A fabulous dish!

Chickpea Stew

A simple chickpea stew, made with diced fresh coriander, green chilli, and cardamom seed.

Dice a medium-sized red onion, and caramelise it in a pan with sunflower or olive oil. Add batonned carrot, three green finger chillies, and some cubed potato. Stir-fry at a medium heat for fifteen minutes, and then add boiling water.

The chickpeas were soaked overnight. Add to the pan along with tomato puree and the seeds from three crushed cardamom pods. Add some vegetable stock. Simmer under glass for at least half an hour.

Dice a large handful of fresh coriander (including the stems) and add to the pot. Stir through. Cook for another twenty to twenty-five minutes, and then add the other herbs - a generous pinch each of oregano, basil and parsley.

Serve with skinned or semi-skinned potato. Healthy and delicious!

Cranberry and Wensleydale Cheese Salad

A bargain wedge of Cranberry and Wensleydale cheese from the local co-op prompted this simple dish, made with halved baby plum tomatoes, green pepper, Iceberg lettuce, and potato, plus the Wensleydale cheese.

The lettuce was chopped and decanted into a glass bowl, along with finely sliced green pepper, and drizzled with olive oil and vinegar. Plus a squeeze of lemon juice. The salad leaves were tossed several times before serving.

The potato salad came from the fridge (commercially bought, and flavoured with chives). Refreshed with a couple of spoonfuls of fresh mayonnaise.

That's essentially it. The dish was dressed with some coriander leaf before serving. .

Peppered Ham Omelette, with Buttered Potato

Breakfast omelette with Scottish peppered ham.

The omelette was totally plain, made with two beaten eggs, a couple of dessert spoonfuls of water, and a dash of salt. Cooked in a knob of butter, melted and then swirled around the omelette pan.

Cooked very slowly over ten minutes, without a lid, and without turning. It was briefly turned after nine minutes.

The omelette was turned again, and placed on the serving plate. The peppered ham was folded into the omelette.

Served with boiled Gem potatoes, unskinned, which were cut into three pieces on the plate, with slivers of butter placed on each.

Ground Beef, Spinach and Onion, with Spaghetti

The wonderful Italian dish, spaghetti bolognese, which isn't Italian at all (look up Ragu alla Bolognese instead).

Made with Irish ground beef, browned for twenty minutes or so in a little olive oil. After that, I added chopped spinach, diced carrot and onions, and a little later some diced mushrooms. Ten minutes later I added boiling water to the pan, and allowed the dish to simmer for an hour or so.

Added the beef stock and the tomato puree, and stirred through. Cooked for another twenty minutes, and then added the herbs oregano and basil, also stirred through..

Ready to serve in five minutes. Served with wheat free spaghetti, cooked in salted water with a little olive oil to prevent sticking. Stirred constantly for the first five minutes (takes ten minutes altogether).

Dress with freshly ground black pepper.