Smoked Bacon, Baby Plum Tomato, and Spring Onion Breakfast

Great breakfast, which is simple to prepare. Baby plum tomatoes, diced into three pieces, halved button mushrooms,and spring onion, cooked slowly in a skillet for 25 minutes in some sunflower oil. Stirred frequently. 

The cured and smoked bacon was also cooked slowly, but in another smaller pan, until it was on the edge of being crispy. 

The chipped potatoes were parboiled for ten minutes, and then grilled in the oven with a little sunflower oil until browned (turn once). Watch progress by eye. Served with tomato ketchup. 

 

Stilton Cheese Omelette

 A simple two egg omelette made with some stilton cheese. Cooked really slowly in some sunflower oil, to allow the cheese to melt (about twenty minutes). Dressed in some ketchup and coriander leaf.. Delicious!

Lorne Sausage and Roasted Parsnips

 A simple dish of Lorne Sausage (a Scottish favourite, also known as 'square sausage'), with chipped parsnips, fried baby plum tomatoes, and raw spinach. 

The sausage was slow-cooked in a little sunflower oil for twenty minutes, mostly under glass, along with the chopped baby plum tomatoes. Turned once. 

The chipped parsnips were dressed in tomato ketchup, sunflower oil, and vinegar, plus the herbs oregano, basil, and coriander leaf. Also some ground white pepper. Grilled for about fifteen minutes (judge progress by eye). 

Chickpea and Sweet Potato Stew, with Spicy Chips

A chickpea stew with diced carrot, sweet potato and green beans. The chickpeas were soaked overnight in unsalted water until soft. Drained, and decanted into a pot of boiling water, along with the carrot, sweet potato and the green beans. Add some chicken or ham stock, and ground white pepper. Add a teaspoonful of gravy granules and stir through the stew. Cook at a low heat on the hob for an hour.

Served in this case with spicy chipped potatoes, grilled in the middle of the oven for around fifteen minutes. The chips were allowed to stand in a marinade beforehand for a couple of hours The marinade was made with sunflower oil, malt vinegar, tomato ketchup (or puree), salt, garlic, red chilli, dried coriander leaf, tarragon and oregano (the choice of herbs is up to you). When grilled the chips don't need to be turned, and they are less likely to stick to the roasting tray, compared to oven roasting.

Peppered Gougons of Chicken, with Oven-roasted Potato Chips

Pan-fried goujons of chicken, in a peppered chicken gravy (chicken stock), thickened with cornflour or gravy granules. The gravy was prepared separately, and spooned over the goujons, along with a generous dressing of freshly ground black pepper.

The chipped Maris Piper potatoes were dressed in a little vinegar, tomato ketchup, olive oil, and dried basil. Cooked for fifty minutes on the middle shelf of the oven at 190 deg C. Watch progress carefully.

The chips were served with another dusting of basil.

Chicken and Sage Stew with Chorizo

A chicken and chorizo sausage stew, cooked in a casserole dish in an oven heated to 180 deg C., with leek, potato and carrots.

Two chicken thighs were on top of the vegetables and the diced chorizo, and 100 mls of water was added to the covered dish.

The vegetables were finely diced, and around 100 mls of tomato passata was added, plus some sage. Cooked for an hour.

The chicken thighs were removed and allowed to cool, after which they were placed in the fridge. The sauce and vegetables were removed from the dish and placed in a lidded pot.

Later, the meat was removed from the chicken thighs, and added to the vegetables.

The dish was served with deseeded raw green chilli (not nearly so hot!), and french fries/chips made with herbs (oregano and rosemary), worcester sauce, ketchup, white pepper, turmeric, and dressed in sunflower oil. The chips were cooked for twenty minutes in a casserole dish placed in the oven,  lidded and at around 180 deg C, and then for another fifteen minutes without the lid. Perfection! But watch progress carefully.

Smoked Haddock Poached in Milk

Poaching smoked fish in milk used to be a very common practice in Scotland. The flavour of the dish is out of this world, if you haven't tried it before.

The Fish:

An undyed block of haddock (both fillets from the same fish) was bought from Morrison's supermarket and fried in a little melted butter in an omelette pan for one minute. The heat was turned down to the lowest level, and two tablespoons of whole milk were added. Allowed to simmer in the milk for eight to nine minutes under glass, without turning. Watch the pan carefully in case the milk bubbles up to the lid. Decant the haddock fillets to the serving plate with a fish slice, and pour the mixture of milk and butter over the fish.

The French Fries:

The chipped potato pieces were boiled for fifteen minutes in a small pan of salted water. The pan was drained, and the chips were decanted to a glass roasting tray, brushed with sunflower oil. Each of the chips was brushed with a mixture of sunflower oil, tomato ketchup, white pepper, coriander, oregano, worcester sauce, and a little salt. They were turned, and brushed again on the other side. Cooked under the grill for between ten and fifteen minutes, or until they begin to crisp around the edges.

Spanish Potato Tortilla (Tortilla de Patatas)

Chefs can be very partisan about the right and wrong way to make a particular dish. Currently there is a row going on about whether or not Spanish potato tortillas (AKA Spanish omelettes) should be made with or without onion.

I'm happy to learn what the right way is, if such a thing can be established. But I treat traditional recipes as points of departure. All of these 'traditional' recipes were invented by someone, and that someone was experimenting with what did and didn't work. I'm doing the same.

And as everbody knows, there are always many regional variations on the same dish. So the current row is more about publicity for the partisan chefs involved than anything else.

The recipe is basically two medium sized fresh eggs, one potato, cut into slices, and then chip shapes, and then the chips are diced into squares. I added a little salt to the eggs once they were beaten together.

The diced potato was fried slowly in a little sunflower oil in an omelette pan. Stir and turn the pieces occasionally. Cook for about twenty to twenty five minutes at a low heat until the pieces start to brown. Distribute the potato evenly across the pan, and add the beaten egg. Cover the pan with a glass lid, and cook at the lowest heat for about ten minutes, or until the surface becomes firm enough to flip the tortilla for another three minutes cooking on the other side.

That's it. Except that another traditional thing about tortillas in some quarters is how runny the egg is. Mine isn't runny, and that's the way I like it. Served with a drizzle of tomato ketchup, and freshly ground black pepper.

Beefburgers with Fried Onions and Hash Browns

A long day, with a lot of travelling. I took the beefburgers out of the freezer, and put them into a bowl to defrost before I left.

On returning, the preparation was relatively quick (chopping the onion, and flat-cutting the potato). I heated a flat-lidded pan with sunflower oil, and placed the vegetables in the pan.

Then I added the defrosted beefburgers, and cooked them at a high heat for five minutes. After that the beefburgers were turned, along with the potato and onion, and then they were further cooked for fifteen minutes under glass. Occasionally the potatoes were turned along with the onion.

The beefburgers were turned again, and cooked at a high heat for a further five or ten minutes or so (judge by eye).

The burgers, potato, and onions, were decanted on to a serving plate dressed with black pepper, and then slathered with some tomato ketchup. Quick and delicious!

Pan-fried Mushroom and Chorizo Frittata

There's a lot of discussion from time to time about what a frittata is, and what shape it ought to be. I'm way past that discussion now, but generally it is round, cooked in the oven, and made with eggs and other ingredients. How you make it largely depends on how many people you intend to serve.

In this case, the frittata was pan-fried, because I was not using up pre-cooked left overs, and I was cooking it for myself. I used no cream in the recipe, just a little  water, as if I was cooking an omelette.

I chopped the chorizo, the potato, two spring onions, and the chestnut mushrooms first, and added them to a preheated flat and lidded pan. Initially at a high heat, all the oil for the cooking process came from the chorizo sausage. Once the potato started to brown, I turned down the heat and covered it with a glass lid. Cooked for 25 minutes, stirring the ingredients frequently.

Normally I would have beaten two eggs together for a minute before adding them to the pan, but decided not to do that in this case. I cracked the eggs into the pan and stirred the vegetables through the egg thoroughly. When the egg had become firm enough I grouped all the ingredients together in one part of the pan, and cooked it slowly for about another twelve minutes under glass. I added two pinches of herbes de provence. I removed the frittata from the pan with a silicon fish slice. Served with a squeeze of tomato ketchup. Altogether delicious!

A lot of variations can be rung on this dish (cream, cheese, yoghurts, leftovers, etc), and it is fun to cook. I will revisit this one from time to time.

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!'

Chestnut Meatloaf, with Parsnip Chips and Cranberry Sauce

Made with outdoor bred pork sausage meat from Sainsbury's, one diced apple, one diced onion, three medium handfuls of porage oats, one beaten egg (actually optional, and it was skipped in this case), 100g of diced cooked chestnuts, and 40 g of salted butter, Mix together thoroughly by hand in a large glass bowl.

Herbs used were a pinch of nutmeg and a generous pinch of rosemary.

 Cooked in the oven on the previous day at around 180 deg C, for forty minutes (watched carefully). Sliced when cold, and stored in the fridge.

Because the meatloaf contained pork sausage meat it was important to make sure it was thoroughly heated. Reheated in a flat, lidded pan.

Served with brussels sprouts (6 to 9 minutes in boiling water under glass),  and with roast parsnip chips in a salsa of tomato ketchup, tomato puree, marinade from a jar of red peppers, oregano, black pepper, smoked paprika, etc. Roasted in the oven for about 35 minutes at 180 deg C. Watch carefully, and turn halfway through. Plus a dessert spoonful of cranberry sauce.

Omelette with Cheddar Cheese

Made with two eggs in a standard omelette pan. Includes red onion, shredded tomato, cheddar cheese, and lots of rosemary.

Fry chopped red onion and the shredded tomato, until the onion begins to brown. Turn down the heat and add two beaten eggs. Cook for five minutes.

Fire up the grill, and add thinly sliced cheddar cheese, and three or four pinches of rosemary.

Transfer the omelette pan to the grill, and cook until the cheese is melted and the surface of the omelette is a pleasing golden brown. Turn the pan left and right occasionally to ensure even cooking. Watch it closely!

Can be served as it is, or with ketchup or a brown pickle.

Hoisin Chicken

Hoisin sauce is a thick sauce often used in Chinese cuisine as a glaze for meat, for stir fries (as here), or as dipping sauce. It is dark in appearance with a sweet and salty taste. There are of course regional variants across the vastness of China, but hoisin sauce usually includes soy beans, ketchup, maple syrup, red chillies and garlic. I bought mine ready made from the local Aldi store (cheap and ready to go). 

This is a very simple dish to prepare.  Cut breast of chicken into chunks and stir fry in sunflower oil at a medium heat until the chunks begin to go golden brown (twelve to fifteen minutes depending on the heat applied). After around seven minutes I added chopped spring onion to the chicken. Stir often to prevent burning. 

Add the hoisin sauce to the wok, and stir in thoroughly. Cook for three to four minutes at a medium heat. Serve with boiled basmati rice. Delicious!

Hoisin Chicken