Beef Mince (Ground Beef), Chickpeas, Turmeric Rice and Parsley

 A simple dish of beef mince, chickpeas, rice and parsley. The mince was cooked for an hour and a half (along with the chickpeas) until it was tender. The turmericed rice was cooked for twenty minutes or so before being drained. The parsley was added last as a garnish. 

Milano Salami Sausage, with Olives and Tomatoes

Some Milano Salami from the local Co-op, served along with stuffed green olives, baby plum tomatoes, diced flat parsley, and spiralised apple. Grate your apple if you don't have a spiraliser. 

According to wikipedia, Milano Salami is "a very common and traditional Italian sausage made from equal portions of minced beef, pork and fat. The salami is seasoned with garlic and pepper, moistened with white wine and dry cured."

Not bad at all. 

Cullen Skink (with Leek)

Made with I tablespoon butter, half of a medium sized leek,
2 smallish potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes, 300ml water, 250g of dyed smoked haddock, 250ml milk, salt and (white) pepper to taste, Plus a little parsley.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat, then add the diced leek and fry gently until transparent. Cook for about 10 minutes at a low heat.

Add potatoes and water and bring to boil. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.

In another pan, cover the haddock with the milk and poach it gently for about five minutes until  tender. Remove from the milk and, when cool enough to touch, flake gently into large pieces, removing bones.I used a plastic fork to flake the fish, in order to avoid scratching the non-stick surface. 

Add milk and flaked fish to saucepan containing the potatoes and the other ingredients. Cook for a further 5 minutes. Serve with salt and pepper and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Fabulous 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.

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!

Blended Tomato and Lentil Soup

Blended tomato and lentil soup. Made with celery, Bramley apple, tinned tomatoes, red onion,  red lentils, and vegetable stock, plus oregano, basil and parsley.

The vegetables were boiled first until tender. Then the tomatoes were added, and the red lentils. After ten minutes or so, the herbs and the vegetable stock were added.

After another ten minutes of cooking at a medium heat under glass, everything was thoroughly blended using a hand blender.

Cooked for another ten minutes, by which time the soup was ready to serve.

Cullen Skink

Possibly the finest soup recipe in the world. Made with I tablespoon butter, 1 medium onion
2 smallish potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes, 300ml water, 250g of undyed smoked haddock, 250ml milk, salt and (white) pepper to taste, Plus a little parsley.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat, then add the julienned onion and fry gently until transparent. Cook for about 5 minutes at a low heat.

Add potatoes and water and bring to boil. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.

In another pan, cover the haddock with the milk and poach it gently for about five minutes until  tender. Remove from the milk and, when cool enough to touch, flake gently into large pieces, removing bones.I used a plastic fork to flake the fish, in order to avoid scratching the non-stick surface. 

Add milk and flaked fish to saucepan containing the potatoes and the other ingredients. Cook for a further 5 minutes. Serve with salt and pepper and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Pork and Leek Meatloaf

Bargain sausagemeat from Sainsbury's, so I made a meatloaf with it, using oats, cornmeal, diced leek and herbs (rosemary in this case, but sage is also a good choice).

The ingredients were mixed initially by hand in a large pyrex bowl, until the vegetables and meat were thoroughly mixed together. I also added a little sunflower oil, and one large egg.

The mixing can take up to ten minutes. I added a little salt and the rosemary during this process.

After that I continued the mixing process using a medium sized wooden spoon for another seven minutes or so.

Then the mix was decanted into a silicon bread tin, patted down and textured with a fork. Cooked for one hour at 190 deg C on the middle shelf of the oven (check progress occasionally). The meatloaf will shrink a little during the cooking process, so there is no problem getting the loaf out of the tin in one piece after it has cooled.

Served in this case with Brussels sprouts and some cranberry jelly, and some sliced yellow pepper. Dusted with a little parsley. 

Scrambled Egg with Pastrami

Made with peppered pastrami trimmings, two medium sized eggs, shredded tomato, flat parsley, butter, and milk (or single cream).

The pastrami was chopped into small pieces and fried in a skillet with 25g of butter, until cooked through. Then a quarter cup of milk was added to the pan, along with the two eggs. Stir thoroughly until the yokes are broken. Add a pinch of parsley, and continue to stir occasionally until the egg separates from the liquid, which begins to run clear.

Served on unbuttered wheat free bread. 

Shred half of a salad tomato as a garnish.

Pork Salad, with Apple Sauce and Beetroot

Roast pork slices, with a beetroot salad, comprising beetroot, very finely chopped onion and carrot (proportions approximately 70:20:10), soused in balsamic vinegar, with honey; plus a baby leaf salad, comprising red baby leaf lettuce, chard, spinach, and rocket, dressed in freshly squeezed lemon juice.

A pork and apple sauce was made with some of the pork fat and juices from the joint, with ten to a dozen spring onions, one large carrot, half a bramley apple, chopped, pork stock, vegetable stock, parsley, oregano, rosemary, thyme, two pinches of paprika, and a pinch of smoked paprika. Plus a couple of dashes of Nam Pla fish sauce and a squirt of tomato puree.

The sauce was simmered for an hour and then mashed. Cooked for another twenty minutes to half an hour, and then blended with an electric hand blender. Allow to cool to room temperature. 

Beef Burger in a Beer and Shallot Gravy

Commercially bought beef burgers (from Sainsbury's), so not a wheat free dish. The gravy was made with one red onion, six shallots, a dash of  Deuchars IPA beer, a teaspoonful of black pepper, parsley, some tomato puree, and beef stock, Served with half a head of brocolli.

The beef burgers had been fried the day before, so they were reheated in a steamer,  The head of brocolli (cut into four sections) was cooked in another level of the steamer. 

The gravy was made by frying the red onion and the shallots, both chopped, until they were browned. I mixed some browned cornflour with water, and added the beef stock. Then added this to the pot and allowed to thicken over ten minutes, stirring regularly. Then the tomato puree, the parsley, and the pepper was added.  

I learned the art of cooking with beer from Pamela Vandyke Price, who wrote a whole book about cooking with wine, spirits, beer, and cider. Well worth digging out if you can. 

Beef Burger in a Beer and Shallot Gravy

Vegetable Soup

Made with cubed potatoes, carrot (3), sliced onion (2), sticks of celery (3), plus mushroom stock, a spoonful of tomato puree, and 1 or two chopped vine tomatoes. Dashes of paprika and fenugreek added, and two pinches of basil and parsley, and a small quantity of olive oil or butter. Black pepper to taste.

Vegetable Soup

Fig & apple salad, with Red Leicester cheese

 In addition to the main ingredients, there's chopped cucumber, vine tomato, garlic, a small amount of beetroot, chopped red onion, and fresh parsley. Dressed in olive oil, of course, with a twist of orange.

Fig & apple salad, with Red Leicester cheese

Faux Borscht with Wheat Free Croutons

Beetroot, shredded tomato, tomato puree, chopped carrot, leek, and potato, a vegetable stock cube and a handful of parsley and a pinch of nutmeg. Plus black pepper.  Bread cubes were fried (slowly) in a little butter

There seems to be some disagreement about exactly what constitutes a borscht. This was not a sour dish, and sourness appears to be part of the definition. Delicious nonetheless! The croutons were wheat free.

 I avoid wheat and barley gluten as much as possible, since regular consumption of it makes me feel unwell (as I starkly discovered in 2003, after a couple of days eating  in airports and railway stations, though looking back the symptoms were starting to show in 1997).  I can also eat bread made with Spelt occasionally, which is an unimproved wheat eaten during the Iron Age

Faux Borscht with Wheat Free Croutons

Semi-vegetarian Cottage Pie

Semi-vegetarian Cottage Pie. Made with textured vegetable protein (TVP), lentils, browned onions, carrots, paprika, pepper, bay leaves and parsley, and beef stock. Topped with mashed potato mixed with butter, browned in the oven. Served with petit pois and a dash of Lea & Perrins sauce. Next time I will use vegetable stock.

The faux-beef and gravy was made the day before, so the finished item was ready in 30 minutes. It was really tasty, and seemed like a proper meal. TVP is very hard to use convincingly - this recipe works pretty well, and is adaptable.

Semi-vegetarian Cottage Pie