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.

Roast Pork with Crackling

A medium sized pork joint with crackling fat, cooked for an hour in a casserole dish in the oven (190 deg C, on the middle shelf), and then for a further fifteen minutes without the lid, to brown the crackling. The dish was brushed with sunflower oil, and the crackling was dressed in a dusting of sea salt.

The gravy was made with the juices from the joint, augmented by some ham stock, and some Bisto gravy granules.

The pork was cut into slices with a sharp knife, running with the grain of the meat.

Served with batonned carrots, cooked for twenty minutes along with the Maris Piper potatoes, and halved Brussels sprouts, cooked for eight minutes.

Beef and Apple Tikka

I'd prepared ground beef beforehand, browned it in some sunflower oil, and cooked with spring onions, diced apple and carrots for twenty minutes, stirring frequently. Afterwards I added boiling water to the pan and cooked the dish under glass for an hour and a half at a low heat.

After which I added tomato Puree, Cardamom seed, Tikka spices, diced garlic, and one large deseeded and diced red chilli. Cooked for another half an hour at a low heat, adding some coriander and oregano.

Served with long grain rice, or basmati if you prefer. Dressed in this case with some diced and steamed curly kale (five minutes), or with some diced fresh coriander leaf.

Salmon and Cod Potato Pie

The base of the pie was a thick vegetable stew (from the fridge) of sweet potato, potato, carrot, diced mushrooms, and spring onion, plus kamut grains, a little chopped red chilli, chopped garlic, and cardamom seed, fresh from three crushed pods.

The fish pieces were placed on top of the vegetable stew in a roasting dish, distributed evenly.

On top of that, a layer of potato mashed with a knob of butter was added (and a little salt and pepper), and textured with a fork.

The roasting tray was placed on the middle shelf of an oven preheated to 190 deg C, uncovered. Depending on the depth of the roasting dish, the cooking time will be somewhere between 45 minutes and one hour (it will be properly cooked after 45 minutes, but it may take longer for the desired browning of the potato topping - judge by eye!).

Served with a little American or German mustard.

The fish pieces were sourced from Sainsbury's, who often make up inexpensive packs for making this kind of dish.

Cumberland Sausage Stew, with Sweet Potato and Spring Onion

Chopped Cumberland (pork) sausages, with a vegetable stew of sweet potato, potato, carrot and spring onion, plus kamut grains, red chilli, chopped garlic, and cardamom seed. What is the best and tidiest way to get cardamom seeds out of cardamom pods? I use a metal garlic press.



The sausages had been cooked for an earlier meal, and came with a spring onion and vegetable stock gravy. They were added to the vegetable stew, which had been simmered for about forty five minutes. Chilli, garlic and cardamom seeds had been added, along with more vegetable stock, and two pinches of oregano and one of sage.

Cooked for at least twenty minutes before serving. Serve hot!