Chicken Sausage Stew with Kopytka Dumplings

Polish chicken sausage (Morliny) from Asda. This stew isn't based on a traditional Polish recipe, but the dumplings are.

The other ingredients of the stew are: shredded carrot, half a red pepper, one red onion, celery, haricot beans (actually half a standard tin of baked beans), tomato passata (about 150g), spinach and coriander. Plus chicken stock and vegetable stock.

Start with the vegetables. Stir fry the carrot, pepper, onion and celery in sunflower oil at a medium heat until tender. Shred the spinach and the coriander and stir into the pan. Add about 200g of boiling water, then add the passata and the haricot beans.

Slice a six inch length of the sausage into thin slices (about half a centimetre) and add to the sauce. Add the chicken and vegetable stock, plus a little pepper. Stir for a couple of minutes, and then simmer under glass for twenty minutes to half an hour. The smoked paprika flavour of the sausage will suffuse the sauce during that time.

The dumplings are made with boiled and mashed potato (two of them), half a cup of cornmeal, some salt, and one beaten egg. Cool the potato and mash. Add to a glass bowl. Add the beaten egg, the cornmeal and the salt (two pinches), and work together by hand. When the ingredients are properly mixed, take out small handfuls, and roll into cylinders about half the length of a standard cigar. When they are all prepared, cut them in half crossways. Cook six at a time in an omelette pan, with a little sunflower oil at a middling heat for about ten minutes, turning once. Allow to brown.

Serve the dumplings with the chicken stew. Delicious!

Smoked Haddock in a Cheese and Pepper Sauce

Pan fried angel cut smoked haddock (uncoloured), with traditional cut runner beans, and a cheese sauce.

The sauce was prepared first, with four dessert spoonfuls of Greek style yoghurt (instead of the more usual milk), plus two heaped teaspoonfuls of cornmeal (instead of the more usual cornflour). Add water. Stir the ingredients together, and bring to the boil. Add a quarter teaspoonful of Dijon mustard, and a quarter teaspoonful of black pepper. Add two pinches of salt. Add a quarter teaspoonful of turmeric powder. Stir together. Finally, add about 80g of medium strength cheddar cheese, sliced into squares. Stir together until the cheese has dissolved into the sauce. Turn down the heat, and allow to simmer for ten minutes, stirring regularly.

Drizzle a flat non-stick pan with some sunflower oil, and heat it untl the oil is hot. Add the haddock fillet, and cook for seven minutes, turning once (carefully!) after three and a half minutes. Turn down the heat, and allow the cooking to take place mostly under glass.

The runner beans were cooked in a small pot in water. They should be cooked for around seven minutes in boiling water.

Decant the fish to the serving plate first, then drizzle it with a little of the sauce (the instructions above are for a sauce which will accompany several meals). Add the runner beans with a slatted spoon so that they are drained.

Truly delicious! The combination of smoked fish with a cheese sauce is rarely bettered!

Ham and Eggs, with Hash Browns

A guilty pleasure. Breaded ham trimmings bought from Aldi, with hash browns made from flat cut raw potato, fried in a little sunflower oil under glass.

Normally hash browns are made from potatoes which have been boiled previously. Which means they are already cooked, and it is a matter of heating and browning. Cooking the raw potato from scratch can take up to twenty minutes at a medium heat. So start with those before beginning to fry the eggs. Turn the potato pieces a couple of times.

The ham was served cold. The ham was taken from the fridge a couple of hours before the meal was prepared, and allowed to reach room temperature.

Serve with black pepper and mustard according to taste.

This works as well with poached or scrambled eggs.

Venison Casserole with Chestnuts

A completely delicious dish, made with six venison sausages, each cut into four, and about 150g of halved chestnuts.

Other ingredients are:: chopped celery, two chopped red onions, two finely chopped chestnut mushrooms, tomato puree, beef stock, two large
splashes of red wine, a heaped dessert spoonful of cornmeal, and about 400g of water.

Begin the vegetable component of the dish first, by frying the red onion and the celery in half a dessert spoonful of sunflower oil, until the onion begins to brown. Stirring frequently. Then add the diced chestnuts, and the mushrooms. Cook for another seven minutes or so at a medium heat.

Add boiling water, the tomato puree, and the beef stock. Add cold water to a jug containing the cornmeal and stir together. Add the mix to the pan of vegetables. Stir continuously for at least three minutes.

Preheat the oven to around 190 deg C. Decant the casserole gravy into a ceramic lidded pot.

Cook the venison sausage pieces in half a dessert spoonful of sunflower oil, initially at a high heat, which should be considerably reduced. Cook the sausage pieces for at least twenty minutes, turning frequently until they are browned. Add the venison to the casserole, and place in the middle shelf of the oven. Cook for 100 minutes, lidded.

Now you have time to prepare the potato mash. Boil chopped potato for twenty minutes, then decant to a bowl with a slatted spoon. Add three spoonfuls of plain yoghurt, and half a teaspoonful of Dijon mustard. Mash together. Keep the mash hot in a bowl in a steamer.

Serve together, with or without pepper.

Pepperoni in a Neopolitan Sauce

A simple pepperoni dish served with wheat-free spaghetti.

The ingredients are sliced and diced pepperoni sausage (about 150 g), sliced onion, garlic, hot finger chillies, half a green pepper, sliced, spelt grains, half a carton of tomato passata, diced fresh basil, diced fresh spinach leaves, and some onion gravy granules.

Fry the onions until golden brown, then add the diced pepperoni sausage and the green pepper, and cook for five minutes at a medium heat.

Add boiling water and the tomato passata, and stir together. Add the basil and the spinach, and stir through the sauce. Add the garlic and the finger chillies (remove the stems). Add half a handful of spelt grain, and finally two teaspoonfuls of onion gravy granules. Stir thoroughly until the gravy granules have dissolved.

Simmer under glass at a low heat for about twenty minutes until the sauce is reduced to the required consistency. Serve with spaghetti and freshly ground black pepper.

Brisket Beef with Carrot, Courgette, and Brussels Sprouts

A sliced brisket joint with vegetables. The brisket was reheated in beef stock along with two bay leaves for flavour. .

The Brussels sprouts were boiled for seven minutes under glass. The carrots and courgettes were steamed for twenty minutes.

That's it. Serve with some freshly ground black pepper!

Thai Ham with Rice Balls

Ham from a Ham Hough (joint) cooked with onions, yellow and green peppers, plus tomato puree and Thai spice, with Korean style Basmati riceballs.

Cooking the ham joint is described elsewhere. The ham was stored for a few days in the fridge, in its jelly. I browned the onion in some olive oil, and added the strips of two half peppers. After ten minutes or so, I added the ham and jelly. After another ten minutes I added the tomato puree and about half a pint of boiling water. Stir occasionally, and simmer under glass for half an hour or so.

You might guess that the rice balls were created using an ice-cream scoop, and you would be right. Squeeze as much as you can into the scoop with the back of a spoon, before adding to the serving plate.

Smoked Haddock poached in Milk

A simple and very Scottish way of cooking fish. Half a cup of whole milk was decanted into a flat non-stick lidded pan, and brought to the boil. A little olive oil was added to the pan (a knob of butter can be used instead).

When the milk came to the boil, the haddock fillet (angel cut) was added to the pan and covered with the lid. The heat was turned down low. Cooked for ten minutes under glass at a low to medium heat. The beauty of cooking the fish under a lid is that it does not need to be turned during the process, and so there is less chance of the fillet breaking before it is decanted to the serving plate.

Green beans were cooked for seven or so minutes in a steamer (judge by eye).  Decant the fish, and spoon two tablespoons of the milk over the fish, Add the green beans, garnish with some fresh coriander leaf. Dress with white pepper. Delicious!

Brisket Beef with Green Beans

A 1.6 kilo joint of Brisket beef was oven cooked at around 180 deg C for two and a half hours in the middle of the oven (actually inside a casserole dish intended for a whole medium size chicken).After the first hour I added half a cupful measure of boiling water to the dish.

Once cooked the joint was allowed to cool overnight on the hob inside the casserole dish.

The joint was carved with an electric knife, and stored in plastic containers in the fridge until required.

The basis of the gravy was beef stock, vegetable stock, water, and some finely ground cornmeal, as a thickening agent (a flat dessert spoonful in about half a pint). The water and cornmeal were first mixed cold, in order to get a smooth gravy with frequent stirring when the gravy was in the saute pan. Plus the herbs Rosemary, Thyme and Oregano. Finally, one dessert spoonful of tomato puree was added to the gravy.

Once boiled and thickened, I added the pieces of beef and simmered under glass for up to half an hour. Stir occasionally.

The potatoes were semi-peeled and cooked for twenty minutes. The trimmed green beans were added for the final seven minutes, under glass. Serve with a little black pepper. Fabulous!

Pork Sausage with Shredded Brussels Sprouts and Sage

An Italian style dish. Pork sausage pieces with shredded or shaved Brussel's sprouts, sage and garlic, topped with a little grated cheese.

Cut four pork sausages into between six and eight pieces each. Add to a pan of hot olive oil, and cook until evenly browned (about fifteen minutes or so, partly under glass at a medium heat). Turn the pieces occasionally.

Shred about fourteen Brussel's sprouts and add to a bowl. Add three crushed or chopped garlic cloves to the bowl. Heat a second pot drizzled with a thin layer of olive oil. Add the sprouts and the crushed garlic and stir frequently. Allow the sprouts and garlic to brown slightly, and then add about two tablespoonfuls of boiling water. Add half a teaspoonful of dried sage. Continue to stir. Turn the heat down when most of the water has evaporated (five to seven minutes depending on the heat).

Decant the shredded sprouts to a pasta bowl. Add the sausage pieces and stir together. Add about thirty grammes of finely grated cheddar cheese. Parmigiano Reggiano is another option.

One of the best dishes I've enjoyed! Cooked this way the strong flavour of the sprouts is considerably muted. Sometimes served also with some pasta.

Garlic and Black Bean Soup

This simple and tasty soup takes very little preparation time (about ten minutes), and is ready to serve in an hour.

Some cheap leeks from the Co-op prompted this dish. Cut a large leek in two length wise, and divide each half into four strips. Gather the strips together, and cut into centimetre lengths with a large bladed knife. Add to a saute pan of hot olive or sunflower oil, and cook until the leek is soft and translucent.

Add half a teaspoonful of powdered cumin, then add about half a pint of boiling water. Add either chicken or vegetable stock, and some tomato puree. Add three desert spoonfuls of garlic and black bean sauce (I used Lee Kum Kee brand - this saves a lot of time with mincing garlic and blending black beans in a soy sauce). Add some onion gravy granules (about a desert spoonful). Stir together thoroughly. Allow to simmer at a low heat under glass for an hour.

That is the basic process. At the end of of it, add either some fresh coriander, or dried coriander (about half a teaspoonful). It is ready to serve!