Cheese Salad

A simple dish which is quick to prepare. Ingredients are: 4 babyleaf salad leaves, three spoonfuls of coleslaw, spring onion, shredded vine tomato, grated cheddar cheese, olive oil dressing, oregano and black pepper. 2 minutes preparation time! Delicious!

Cheese Salad

Egg and Bacon, with Spelt and Buckwheat bread

Not wheat-free, with a spelt-buckwheat loaf under the bacon. But easy to substitute wheat-free bread. 

Egg and bacon is a reminder that it is not the end of the world if you have to change your diet if you have an intolerance to wheat, or have an immune response to gluten. Some delightful things you can still eat. 

This dish is made with strips of smoked bacon, hash browns, spring onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, a slice of toasted spelt and buckwheat bread, a fried egg, French's American mustard, and black pepper. 

Spelt and Buckwheat Loaf

Bread loaf made with 500 grams of flour: 400 grams of spelt, and 100 grams of buckwheat. The flour was mixed in a glass bowl, together wth 7 grams of Allinsons' yeast, two teaspoonfuls of table sugar, two teaspoonfuls of table salt. 

350 mls of warm water was folded into the roughly mixed flour over three or four minutes. Two dessert spoonfuls of olive oil were then folded in to the dough, The dough was mixed with an electric hand mixer for five minutes, gradually increasing the speed of the blades.  

The dough was allowed to stand for an hour in the glass bowl, which was long enough for it to double in size. It was beaten down, and allowed to stand for another thirty minutes. Then the dough was poured into a silicon bread tin. 

The top of the loaf was given a little texture with a fork, and poppy seeds were sprinkled on to the surface. When the oven was at the correct temperature the loaf was placed in a metal roasting tin to keep the silicon bread tin flat. Into the oven!

Baked for 40 to 45 minutes. 

Spelt and Buckwheat Loaf

The bread ready to go into the oven preheated to 195 - 200 deg. C

Beef and Mushroom Stew

Half a kilo of casserole beef, with onion, spring onion, carrot, a shredded vine tomato, yellow pepper, mushrooms, paprika, cornflour, thyme, oregano, 3 bay leaves, black pepper, a dash of Lea & Perrins sauce, some beef stock, and served with boiled Charlotte potatoes. 

The day before serving, the beef was casseroled for three hours in a saute pan (after browning for twenty minutes in olive oil), along with the vegetables. Stirred occasionally. The bay leaves, the cornflour, the Lea & Perrins, and the paprika and the herbs were added about twenty five minutes before serving. Brought to the boil and then the heat was turned down to a low simmer. Stirring often to ensure the thickened gravy did not stick to the bottom of the pot. 

This dish is often made with the addition of some beer during the cooking, or some white wine. These impart different flavour to the recipe, but the dish is fine without either of those. 

Beef and Mushroom Stew

Mayo Chicken with Salad

Roast chicken breast pieces in mayonnaise, with a vegetable salad of shredded vine tomato, two spring onions, and one yellow pepper. The salad was dressed with two twists of lemon and some freshly ground black pepper. 

The chicken breast can be served with or without the roasted skin. Shredded iceberg lettuce can be added to the salad ingredients, which adds more bulk but no calories. Serves two. 

Mayo Chicken with Salad

Beef, Kidney Bean and Potato Casoulet

Made with the same basic ingredients as the recent beef and kidney bean stew (May 2016). This time the potatoes and the other ingredients are all cooked together, as in an Irish stew. 

Stew made with strips of silverside beef, tinned kidney beans in juice, red pepper, shredded tomato, tomato puree, smoked paprika, garlic cloves, chopped spring onion, oregano and black pepper. 

The beef was browned a little in a pot for four minutes, then I added the tomato and sliced red pepper, along with some boiling water and some beef stock. After five minutes, the kidney beans were added, the puree, the garlic, the pepper, the spring onion, the herbs, the carrots. and the potatoes (Charlotte). 

Simmer in a glass-lidded pot for about one hour. Easy!

Beef, Kidney Bean and Potato Casoulet

Pea and Ham Soup

Actually made with some chopped gammon. The other ingredients are: course cut carrot, two white onions, garden peas, and some smoked paprika. 

The gammon steak was roasted in the oven the day before. The soup itself is easy to prepare - just add the ingredients to boiling water in a glass-lidded pan and the dish looks after itself, with the occasional stir. Simmer gently for about ninety minutes. Mash at one hour. The paprika can be added last. 

Served with black pepper and a sprig of basil.

Pea and Ham Soup

Stir-Fry Roast Chicken

Made with skinned roast chicken pieces, carrots, spring onion, mushroom, red pepper, celery, pak choi, garlic, finger chillies and fresh ginger. The ingredients were soused in oyster sauce and rice wine for half an hour before cooking in sunflower oil. Since the chicken had been cooked earlier in the day, it was not fried in the wok for a while without the other ingredients. The leaves of the pak choi were separated from the stems and added whole. The stems were diced. About twenty minutes of preparation, and about twelve minutes of stir-frying, at a high heat until the wok began to smoke, and at a medium heat the rest of the way. Served on a question mark of dark soy sauce and freshly ground black pepper. 

Stir-Fry Roast Chicken

Pineapple Chunks with Cream and Pomegranate Molasses

At last, I've found the ideal use for Pomegranate molasses! I cut up a whole pineapple with a breadknife. First it was topped and tailed, then the outer covering was cut away. I used an apple segmenter to cut out the centre and to divide the body of the pineapple into eight pieces.  The eight pieces were then cut into chunks with the breadknife,  two at a time.

The pineapple chunks were soused in a little white wine and left to stand for twenty minutes, stirring occasionally. Then the chunks were placed in a serving bowl, single cream was added, plus a dash of pomegranate molasses.

The flavours complement each other beautifully, and the result is completely delicious!

Pineapple Chunks with Cream and Pomegranate Molasses

Chicken, Mushroom and Black Bean Soup

Found some cheap chestnut mushrooms in town this afternoon, so this dish is the result.

I had some leftover roast chicken in a black bean sauce, to which I added chopped red chilli, a chopped clove of garlic, two spring onions, and 300 grammes of chopped chestnut mushrooms. I also added some water, a handful of khorasan wheat (also known as Kamut), and two dessert spoonfuls of oyster sauce. Cooked for forty minutes at a low heat under glass. Delicious!

A note from 20 May 2018. This is my most popular dish by a mile, and I don't know why. Sometimes I withdraw the recipe for a bit, to see what else might take its place at the top of the list. I did that over the past month, before restoring it. And it is back at the top in just a few days! It is a really delicious soup, which I've made a number of times since posting the recipe. Enjoy!

Chicken, Mushroom and Black Bean Soup

Beetroot and Cherry Tomato Salad

Quick and simple salad, which can have various permutations. according to what ingredients you have available. Six whole chopped beetroot, soused in vinegar, two finely chopped spring onions, half a dozen quartered cherry tomatoes, about thirty grammes of grated cheddar cheese, and a couple of twists of freshly squeezed lemon. Served with chopped iceberg lettuce, and freshly ground black pepper. Serves two. 

Plain beetroot is an alternative, and other kinds of cheese. Can also be served with a dusting of herbs. 

Beetroot and Cherry Tomato Salad