Cumberland Sausage in Gravy with Chervil

Cumberland sausage is a favourite dish, though I've noticed the level of herbs diminishing in the actual sausages over the past ten years.

The sausages were fried in a skillet for twenty minutes or so at a medium to high heat, in a drizzle of sunflower oil, and turned frequently.I prepared the onions and the gravy in a separate pan, cooking the onions first, before adding the pork stock, water, and the gravy granules.

The gravy was added to the pan of sausages, and allowed to simmer under glass for another twenty minutes. The herbs were added last (sage, chervil) 

Served with boiled potato pieces.

Beetroot and Red Pepper Salad

Made with four small beets, pickled in vinegar and sliced, boiled potato (cold from the fridge), diced red pepper, five sliced button mushrooms, a large spring onion, chopped, and a dessert spoonful of mayonnaise.

Before serving, dust with fine ground white pepper, two pinches of paprika, and a generous pinch of chervil. Ten minutes to prepare, and ready to eat. Delicious!

Fresh cooked beets can be used instead.

Egg and Potato Salad

A simple egg salad, with a potato, onion and shredded tomato accompaniment, in mayonnaise. Two eggs were boiled for six minutes, and then cut into pieces, using an egg slicer.

The potato was pre-prepared, and then sliced into chunks, cold. The tomato was shredded, and the raw onion sliced. All mixed with mayonnaise. Chervil was added, but this is not a necessary ingredient. Much white pepper was added.

The eggs were rapidly cooled in the sink, and then sliced. Served with leaves of Romaine lettuce. Quick to prepare, and delicious!

Bacon and Mushroom Omelette

Made with two large eggs, two rashers of smoked bacon, cut into thin strips, and half a dozen white mushrooms, finely chopped. Served with savoury brown pickle, and a chopped salad tomato.

Cook the bacon strips first in a little sunflower oil, until it begins to brown. Move the strips around the pan frequently, and turn them.

Wash the mushrooms, and cut them in half along the line of the stalk. Then dice each half as finely as possible. When the bacon has browned, add the mushrooms to the pan and stir them together. Cook until the mushrooms have shrunk and also begun to brown.

Add the two beaten eggs and cook for five minutes at a medium heat, until the top of the omelette is no longer liquid. Add a couple of pinches of chervil to the top of the omelette. Then turn the omelette n the omelette pan and cook for a further two minutes.

Turn the omelette over again and decant to the serving plate. Add black pepper to taste.

Mustard Ham Omelette

Cooked with a base of small onions and shredded tomato, stir-fried until soft. The mustard ham  was steamed for twenty minutes before being added to the onions and tomato.

I used one onion, one salad tomato, and three eggs for this dish. The mustard ham offcuts were about 200g altogether.

Cooked in an omelette pan for five minutes after adding the ham. The eggs were whisked with chervil and paprika and salt, and added to the pan.

Cooked under glass for around ten minutes at a medium heat. Then transferred to the grill, and cooked for another ten minutes or so, until puffed up.

Served with a sweet brown pickle. Excellent!

Lamb and Vegetable Stir Fry

The lamb was from a joint cooked and sliced the previous day. Cut into strips and set aside. The vegetables were cooked first from raw, including red pepper, yellow pepper, Chantenay carrots, fresh peas, chopped spring onion, and shredded tomato. Add Rosemary and Oregano, and shortly before serving, stir in some Chervil. 

Once the carrots were soft, after cooking under glass at a low heat (in sunflower oil, and stirred occasionaly), the strips of lamb were added to the pot and the heat was turned to high for three minutes. The contents of the pot were stirred twice a minute during this period to ensure even heating. The heat was turned down to zero (I have an electric cooking hob which retains a lot of heat) and the pot was left under glass for another three minutes, stirring twice more.  

Lamb and Vegetable Stir Fry

Effectively this dish is a ratatouille without the aubergine, courgette, garlic, and the sauce. If you want it to have a sauce, add a litte tomato puree or passata, and some boiling water, and simmer for five minutes before serving (add the chervil at the very last minute, since its flavour is quickly damaged by cooking).

Chorizo and Potato Frittata

Made with potato, spring onion, chicory, bacon, chorizo, three eggs, black pepper, paprika, and cheddar cheese.

Roughly cubed potato fried in some sunflower oil. Diced bacon was added, and stirred for a few minutes, then the heat was turned down, and the contents of the pan allowed to cook under glass for twenty minutes, occasionally stirred. The potato and the bacon was transferred to a cake tin with a removable base, and allowed to cool under a cover. Half a head of chicory and diced spring onion, was stir-fried for a couple of minutes, and added to the potato and bacon.

Three eggs were beaten with a little paprika and put to one side. Chopped chorizo was added to the contents of the cake tin, with a dusting of oregano and black pepper. Then the beaten eggs were added to the tin. Squares of cheddar cheese were arranged around the top of the frittata.  Then placed into a glass roasting dish (in case of leakage from the cake tin), and cooked for twenty minutes in a preheated oven at 200 deg C.

The frittata was allowed to cool, and was served with a side salad of sliced red onion, shredded tomato, and sliced green pepper. The side salad was dressed in a little lemon juice, olive oil, and a dusting of chervil.

Chorizo and Potato Frittata

Spanish Omelette with Bacon and Mushroom

A three egg omelette made with cooking bacon, eight white button mushrooms, a small onion, and half a salad tomato. Herbs added were tarragon, oregano, and chervil.  Served with black pepper and some tomato relish. 

The bacon was cooked at a moderately high heat under glass in its own juices for ten minutes until it started to brown. The mushrooms were halved and added, along with the sliced onion and the shredded tomato for another ten minutes. Stirred every minute or so. 

The eggs were whisked in a bowl three times during the cooking process, along with a large pinch of chervil. Before the whisked eggs were added to the bacon and vegetables, I added a large pinch of tarragon to the pot, and a smaller amount of oregano. 

The heat was turned down and the dish continued to cook under glass. After five minutes a skillet brushed with sunflower oil was placed upside down over the top of the pot in which the omelette was cooking, and the two pots turned the other way up, allowing the omelette to drop into the skillet. The omelette was allowed to cook on the other side for  five minutes at a low heat, before being slid out onto a plate, 

Spanish Omelette with Bacon and Mushroom

Chicken, Bacon & Leek Soup

Main ingredients are: chopped chicken breast, and chopped cooking bacon, celery and two leeks. Ingredients cooked in water, brought to the boil, then simmered for two hours. Added some chicken stock, and some Tarragon and Chervil.

Shortly before serving, add some single cream, and simmer for up to ten minutes, stirring regularly.

Chicken, Bacon & Leek Soup

Pork Fillets with a Blue Cheese Sauce

 Pork fillets cooked slowly in a saute pan until browned and tender, served with a sauce made with Danish Blue cheese.

The ingredients of the sauce: 200g of tomato passata, four stoned and liquidized plums (purple red or yellow), and a selection of herbs: a pinch of Basil, two pinches of Oregano, two pinches of Tarragon, a pinch of Fines Herbes, and a pinch of Chervil (a constituent of Fines Herbes). Plus some black pepper. The sauce was cooked slowly for fifteen minutes before the Danish Blue was added (about 4 grams), and allowed to cook for another fifteen minutes, stirring frequently to prevent any of the cheese sticking to the pan. 

Serve with flat-cut boiled potatoes, black pepper, and a slice of Danish Blue. 

Pork Fillets with a Blue Cheese Sauce