Pepper and Bean Sprout Stir-Fry

Beansprouts, red, yellow orange and green pepper, carrot, purple or red onion, dark cabbage, white cabbage, red chilli, garlic, stir-fried in sunflower or groundnut oil.

The peppers were added to the wok first, at a high heat for two minutes, then the heat was turned down low and the rest of the vegetables were added. Stir-fried for four minutes, and allowed to rest for a further minute before serving.

Served on a spiral of dark soy sauce. Also good when served with a red chilli sauce.

Chorizo Sausage, with Baby Plum Tomato and Scrambled Egg

A variation  on a favourite dish: Scrambled Egg with chorizo - in this case with fried baby plum tomatoes..

Two large eggs were cracked into a bowl with 300 mls of milk and a pinch of salt, and stirred thoroughly.

The Chorizo was diced and fried slowly in its own fat in a skillet. The tomatoes were diced and added to the pan, and cooked together for five minutes or so.

Then the eggs and milk mixture was added to the pan. and allowed to cook for two minutes before being broken up with a spatula. Stir occasionally. The dish is ready after about five to six minutes at a moderate heat. Serve on a little ground pepper.

Black Olive Salad

Two colours of lettuce, with chopped red onion, a quarter of a red pepper, and a chopped carrot, dressed in olive oil, salt, and vinegar. Mixed in a bowl, and allowed to stand for ten minutes or so. Then decant to the serving plate.

Add around twenty black destoned olives.  Cut ten cherry or baby plum tomatoes in two, and serve with the ensemble.

 Serve with black pepper.

Chocolate Muffins

Chocolate muffins for New Year's Day.

I made these on the spur of the moment, and didn't follow a recipe as such (I've made them before). I used 250g of spelt flour, three teaspoonfuls of baking powder, a dessert spoonful of sunflower oil, six dessert spoonfuls of drinking chocolate powder, six teaspoonfuls of black treacle, a dash of nutmeg and half a teaspoonful of mixed spice. Plus two large eggs and two pinches of salt.

I added the eggs to 300 mls of cold water, the treacle, and the salt. Beaten thoroughly. Then I began to add the dry assemblage of the spelt, chocolate powder, baking powder, plus the nutmeg and the mixed spice. Beat thoroughly together along with the sunflower oil. Allow to stand for ten minutes or so.

The oven was preheated to 180 deg C. Add three dessert spoonfuls of the muffin mixture to each muffin case. Cook for thirty minutes, watching progress carefully.

Chorizo Sausage with Baked Beans and Hash Browns

A fabulous breakfast. The potato slices were cooked in a pan with sunflower oil. Ready in around 18 minutes, depending on the thickness of the slices. If the potato pieces are cooked with the chorizo, then you require very little sunflower oil.

The beans were prepared in a separate pan, and dressed with some basil and black pepper.

Done in twenty minutes.

Honey Ham Omelette

A simple omelette, garnished with rolled up honey ham, cut into pieces.

The omelette mixture was made with some paprika and salt (plus a little water), and decanted into the omelette pan with diced green beans and pre-fried onion. Cooked under glass until it began to firm up (five to ten minutes).

The rolls of honey ham were added, and the omelette pan was put under the grill for a couple of minutes.

Placed back on the hob for a further two or three minutes, under glass. Dressed with the coriander leaf and the oregano.

Simple, delicious, and quick to prepare. Other vegetables can be substituted for the green beans, such as diced mushrooms, peas, diced brocolli or spring onions, or chopped red or green peppers.

Chestnut Mushroom Stir Fry

Mushrooms cut into eight pieces, and fried in a little butter in a small pan. The stir fry vegetables include two kinds of cabbage, carrot strips, bean sprouts, diced onion, plus three red chillies and a crushed clove of garlic. Cooked in a wok with a little sunflower oil for five minutes at a medium heat, stirring every thirty seconds. 

Served on a bed of dark soy sauce. Ten minutes preparation, hot and delicious!

Beef Bourguignon

One of the most famous French dishes, though it is lacking documentation before the nineteenth century. Essentially it is a beef stew, cooked with diced onions, mushrooms and garlic, and simmered for a couple of hours in beef stock and some red wine. Often cooked with a little chopped bacon, but this addition is an uneccessary detail. I added a little diced carrot to lend some sweetness.

The onions were fried in some olive oil until they began to brown, then the diced beef was added and browned for twenty minutes, stirring frequently. Add the quartered mushrooms and the diced garlic. Cook for another ten minutes. Add the beef stock and half a glass of red wine. Mix some cornmeal with water, and add to the pot, stirring for five minutes. Add the herbs.

Simmer under glass for between one and two hours, according to preference. Served in this case with brocolli spears, boiled in salted water for seven minutes under glass. More usually served with boiled potatoes or rice.

Chicken and Potato Pie

A Boxing Day dish, using up unused slices of chicken breast. The chicken had been cooked on a bed of sliced carrot in a lidded casserole dish, and the juices and carrots were decanted and stored in the fridge.

I chopped three spring onions and placed them in the bottom of a traditional pie dish. Then I added the carrots and chicken juices, plus a little seasoning (pepper). I diced the slices of chicken, and added those on top.

The pie topping was made with mashed potato and butter, plus a little paprika. The surface was textured with a fork.

Roasted on the middle shelf of the oven at 190 deg. C for between 40 and 55 minutes. The dish will be thoroughly cooked after 40 minutes, but the golden appearance of the pie topping is something which needs to be judged by eye.

Served with a dressing of black pepper, along with some American mustard.

White bean Mediterranean Salad

A delicious salad made with cannellini beans, stoned black olives, cherry tomatoes, orange pepper, spring onion, garlic, and dressed in olive oil and vinegar, with a small drizzle of lemon juice.

The dried beans were allowed to soak overnight before being boiled for twenty five minutes, allowed to cool, and then drained.

All the vegetables (minus the olives and the lettuce salad) were diced and mixed together in a bowl with the oil and vinegar, the lemon juice, and then dusted with some coriander leaf and paprika.

Served on the bed of baby leaf salad, with a little black pepper. 

Chicken Broth with Sweetcorn

A delicious broth made with brocolli, celery, chicken, garlic, mushroom, spring onion, sweetcorn, diced cherry tomato, and tomato puree. Plus herbs (oregano and basil), and flavoured with a little cardamom and vegetable and chicken stock.

The vegetables (diced) were cooked at a low heat under glass for forty minutes or so, before the pieces of chicken were added.

The cardamom and the vegetable and chicken stocks were added to the pot, along with the herbs (two pinches, plus some tomato puree. Cook for a further twenty-five minutes at a low heat and under glass.

Serve with freshly ground black pepper.