Articles Tagged with "Recipes"

06/04/2008: Tagliatelle with Fennel and Asparagus

It is nearly asparagus season in the UK (although you can buy imported asparagus all year round). Here’s a recipe I made up tonight…

Ingredients

250 g saffron tagliatelle, or plain tagliatelle
10 asparagus spears
¼ fennel bulb, finely sliced
2 tbsp fennel pesto
lemon-infused olive oil, or plain olive oil
zest of 1 lemon, or 2 lemons if using plain olive oil
1 tsp saffron, if using plain tagliatelle
30 g butter
salt

Method

Boil the asparagus and tagliatelle in separate saucepans of salted water. The asparagus will take about 5 minutes. The tagliatelle may take from 3 minutes to 10 minutes, so consult the packaging. You want to time things so that the tagliatelle finishes cooking about 5–6 minutes after the asparagus.

When the asparagus is nearly cooked, heat the butter and a generous glug of olive oil in a griddle pan. Drain the asparagus and add it with the fennel to the griddle pan.

When the pasta is cooked,…

09/03/2008: Monkfish with Pancetta, Fennel & Saffron

Here’s a recipe I’ve reverse engineered after having eaten it at the Jolly Sportsman last month.

Ingredients

2 monkfish fillets
8 slices pancetta
2 medium potatoes
¼ savoy cabbage
½ bulb fennel
½ tsp ground saffron
30g butter
2 tbsp olive oil
100 mL milk
100 mL chicken or vegetable stock (optional)

If monkfish is not available, any other white fish will make a reasonable substitute. Haddock works well. What is important is that the fillet must be long and thin, with a cross-sectional area of about a square inch (say, 2 cm by 3 cm), and should be boneless.

Method

Clean the fennel and slice very finely. Heat about a quarter of the butter and a tablespoon of the oil in a small frying pan, and sauté the fennel until it starts to brown. Stir in the saffron, then add the stock, or a little salted water. While the other parts of the meal are cooking, keep an eye on the…

10/02/2008: Mince & Dumplings

Ingredients

Mince

450g minced beef
250g beef stock or water
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 large carrot, finely chopped
1 tbsp tomato puree
4 strands thyme
small bunch parsley
1 tbsp Worcester sauce
1 tbsp sunflower oil

Dumplings

150g plain flour
75g suet
salt
pepper

Method

Heat the sunflower oil in a pan and fry the onion and beef until brown. Add the carrot, tomato puree, Worcester sauce, herbs and stock. Leave to simmer while you prepare the dumplings.

Preheat an over to 200°C.

Mix the suet, flour and seasoning in a large bowl. Add a little water and work into a heavy dough. The dough shouldn’t be particularly sticky — add a little flour if it is.

Divide the dough up into eight pieces and roll them into balls.

Transfer the beef mix to a casserole dish. Place the dough balls on top of the beef mixture. They shouldn’t sink in too far. Bake for about 35 minutes, uncovered.

29/01/2008: Chicken & Chorizo Pasta

Ingredients

2 skinless chicken breast fillets
100g Spanish chorizo sausage, chopped
150g dried penne or similar dried pasta
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
small handful parsley, chopped
2 tsp paprika
1 tbsp olive oil

Method

Chop each pepper into 4–6 sections, discarding the stalks and seeds. Grill the chopped pepper, skin side up until the skin is charred and blackened. Place the grilled peppers in a plastic bag, seal and set aside to cool.

Prepare the pasta according to the directions on the packet.

Meanwhile, finely chop the chicken. Fry in olive oil until brown and then add the chorizo and garlic.

When the peppers have cooled enough to be handled, remove from the bag. Peel off the charred skins and discard. Chop the flesh of the peppers and add it to the chicken and chorizo. Also, add the paprika and stir well.

Once cooked, drain the pasta. Add the parsley and pasta to the chicken and chorizo mixture and stir together. Heat through and serve.

26/01/2008: Fennel, Sausage and Bean Casserole

This recipe is ideally made with plain pork sausages, or pork & leek. Try to avoid overly seasoned sausages. If peeling the tomatoes is too much bother, using half a tin of tomatoes would probably work fine.

Ingredients

4 Sausages
2 × 440g tins of cannellini beans, drained
¼–¾ bulb of fennel
4 medium tomatoes
300 mL chicken stock
olive oil

Method

Submerge the tomatoes in boiling water. Simmer until their skins split. Remove the tomatoes from the pan and run under cold water. Peel their skins off and chop the tomatoes.

Grate the fennel with a cheese grater, or chop very finely.

Chop each sausage into 6–8 segments. The skin may tear or come loose — discard any loose bits of sausage skin.

In a casserole dish, heat a generous amount of olive oil. Fry the chopped sausages, stirring continuously to prevent them from sticking. Cook for 5–10 minutes, until they are browned.

Add the beans, tomatoes, fennel and stock. Stir until well mixed. Simmer gently for about 30 minutes.

Serve with focaccia or a similar bread.

17/01/2008: Ham vs Bacon vs Pork

Many people are unsure of the difference between pork, bacon and ham. Pork is, quite obviously, the meat taken from a pig. But where do bacon and ham come in? Mrs Beeton’s Everyday Cooking supplies the answer…

15/01/2008: Gnocchi all'Amatriciana al Forno

This is a very easy Italian-style meal of my own creation, combining gnocchi with a simplified sugo all’amatriciana. If you prefer, macaroni or another small, cut pasta could be used in place of gnocchi.

Ingredients

500g pack of gnocchi
400g tin of tomatoes
6 rashers of pancetta, or 4 rashers of unsmoked streaky bacon
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2–3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
a small handful of parsley, chopped
black pepper
150g mozzarella

Method

Preheat an oven to 190°C.

Prepare the gnocchi according to the instructions on the packet. Drain and set aside.

Dice the pancetta or bacon and fry with the onion, garlic and chilli. When cooked through, add the tomatoes, black pepper and parsley. Simmer for ten minutes.

Stir the gnocchi into the sauce and then transfer the mixture to a large ceramic baking dish, such as one suitable for making lasagne. Pat down and flatten the surface using the back of a wooden spoon.

Scatter torn mozarella over the top of the dish and bake for 30–40 minutes.

09/01/2008: Mushroom and Tarragon Stuffed Chicken

Ingredients

2 skinless chicken breast fillets
4 large mushrooms
1 baby leek, finely sliced
75g ricotta or Philadelphia cream cheese
40g butter or margerine
20g dried porcini mushrooms
small handful of tarragon, roughly chopped
4 cloves of smoked garlic, or 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or crushed
2 tbsp mushroom ketchup (optional)
salt & pepper
4 cocktail sticks

Method

Put the porcini mushrooms into a mug or cup and fill the cup with boiling water to rehydrate the dried mushrooms.

Chop the fresh mushrooms very finely (pieces should be about the size of peas) and fry them with the leek and garlic in about 30g of butter. When brown, transfer mixture to a small mixing bowl. Allow to cool slightly.

Drain the porcini mushrooms and chop them. Add the porcini mushrooms and cheese to the mushroom and leek mixture and stir together. Place in the fridge to cool and set.

Preheat an oven to 180°C. Grease a small baking try with the remaining butter.

With a sharp knife,…

08/01/2008: Recipes

I spent a while the other day re-arranging the old recipes on this site and moving them into the “blog” bit rather than the “articles” bit. Hopefully they’ll now be a bit easier to find. Sorry for breaking their URLs.

01/09/2003: Pork a'l'Orange

This can be served with the same accompanying vegetables mentioned in my
recipe for Pork Dijonaise or with some crusty French bread.

Ingredients

2 pork steaks
1 orange
250mL orange juice
2 sprigs of parsley
thyme
salt and pepper
butter

Method

Heat a little butter in a frying pan. Fry the pork in the oil for about 8 to 10 minutes on each side. When the pork is done, take it out of the pan and leave it somewhere to keep warm.

Add the orange juice and a little thyme, salt and pepper to the frying pan. Heat ferociously, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile cut thin cresent-shaped slices of orange. Arrange them on serving plates with the pork.

When the volume of orange sauce has reduced to approximately half, pour it over the top of the pork. Decorate with a sprig of parsley and serve immediately.

01/09/2003: Quiche Lorraine

Leave out the bacon for a vegitarian option! This recipe is based on one by Andreas Wohr.

Ingredients

Pastry

200g flour
150g butter/margerine (not low fat!)
1 teaspoon baking powder
salt
6 tablespoons water

Filling

250g–300g medium chedder
4–6 rashers smoked bacon, grilled and chopped
4–6 eggs
30g butter, melted
1 small onion, finely chopped
2–4 mushrooms, chopped
125mL milk
salt and pepper
ground nutmeg

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Mix together the flour, butter, baking power, salt and water in a bowl into a doughy pastry. Put this into a flan dish and blind bake it until
it is golden brown.

While it is cooking, stir the eggs, cheese, bacon, butter, mushrooms and milk in a second bowl until thoroughly mixed. When the shell is cooked, spoon the filling into it and smooth it down. Sprinkle it with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Place back in the oven.

The quiche will probably take between 30 and 45 minutes to cook. When done, it should be golden brown on top and set (it shouldn’t wobble too much!). A final check is to put a knife into the quiche and withdraw it - if the knife is clean, then the quiche is cooked!

01/09/2003: Pork Dijonaise

Ingredients

Pork

2 pork steaks
2–3 tablespoons of dijon mustard
150g single cream
1/2 glass dry white wine
butter

Accompanying vegetables

about 10 new potatos
green beans
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
salt and pepper
butter

Method

Put 2 saucepans of water on to boil for the vegetables. Heat a little butter in a frying pan.

Fry the pork in the oil for about 8 to 10 minutes on each side. Meanwhile, put the new potatos in one of the saucepans to cook.

When the pork is done, take it out of the pan and leave it somewhere to keep warm. Add the cream, mustard and wine to the frying pan, stirring continuously. When thoroughly mixed, put the green beans into the second saucepan.

After about 4 minutes cooking, drain the beans. Put them back into the dry sauce pan with some butter and the garlic and fry for about 30 seconds. Put the beans and pork onto a plate. Pour the mustard sauce over the pork. Drain the potatos and put them on the plates as well. Put a large knob of butter onto the potatos and then season them with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

31/08/2003: Chocolate Cheesecake

I found this recipe somewhere on the Internet, but I can’t remember where. All I can remember is that it’s by a guy called Glenn. I’ve changed it slightly (metricised the units, added a little more in-depth explanation).

31/08/2003: Toad in the Hole

Toad in the Hole is a classic British meal which thankfully contains neither frogs nor potholes.

Ingredients

6 pork sausages
2 eggs
100g flour
50g butter/margerine, melted
100 mL water
50 mL milk
a pinch of salt
1 onion
¾ teaspoon of sage
a little oil

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

There are too many complicated recipes for batter out there. Try mine – it’s easy! Pop the eggs, flour, butter, water, milk and salt into a blender. Blend. Set aside. You now have batter.

Fry the onion in the oil until transparent. Add sage and fry for a couple more minutes.

Arrange the sausages in a casserole dish and pour the batter over them. Pour the onion mixture on top.

Bake until the mixture has set (usually at least 40 minutes!). Serve plain, or with a rich gravy.

Variation

Wrap each sausage in a rasher of smoked bacon first!

31/08/2003: Shepherd's Pie

For some reason, there seem to be a bunch of recipes out there for Shepherd’s pie that use beef. Obviously, a real shepherd’s pie must use lamb or, at a push, mutton! Recipes involving beef, while delicious, are properly called “Cottage Pie”.

Serves 4.

Ingredients

650g minced lamb (fresh or forzen — doesn’t matter!)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 handful of peas
1 carrot, chopped
mixed herbs (see below)
2 tablespoons of Vegemite/Marmite or 1 tablespoon of Worchestershire Sauce
2 tablespoons of tomato pureé (optional)
2–3 servings mashed potato, made a little runnier than normal with milk and butter
gravy powder or cornflour
1 stick of celery, chopped (optional)
100g grated cheddar (optional)

Which Herbs?

I tend to use either a lot rosemary, balenced out with a little parsley, sage and thyme; or plenty of mint with a bit of parsley. I’ve heard good things about lavender though!

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Fry the onion, celery and carrot until…