Recipes

Mirepoix

Ingredients:

    Carrots

Onions

Celery

Olive Oil (not Virgin or Extra Virgin it’s a waste)

Chop as finely as possible, or blend if you have a machine and in a rush, peeled carrot, onion and celery.  With the celery you may want to split it crossways manually and then you can get some of the fibrous stands off, do this as much as you can be bothered to....

In a medium heavy pan, add a good glug of olive oil, the chopped veg, stir it a little and put the lid on tight.  Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, if it looks like it might stick, add a drop more oil.  It should never burn, if it does it’s will be too bitter and no good.  For many dishes you may choose to add some garlic once the veg has started cooking.  Don’t add the garlic at the beginning, as it may burn.

Ragu (bolognase sauce)

Ingredients:

    Mirepoix

    Lardons / chopped streaky bacon / diced fatty Italian sausage

    mince usually beef, but can be a beef / pork mix

    One or two anchovies (once you open a tin, don’t pour off the oil and wrap it in plastic, it will keep in fridge forever)

    Glass of red wine (rule is always to cook with wine you would drink, i.e. not crap and not been open for more than a day - but I’ll use crap wine that’s been sitting for weeks)

    Tinned tomatoes

    Oregano, basil (dried and / or fresh - dried herbs go into a meal early, fresh herbs are chopped or torn and added nearer the end)

Parmesan cheese

Fry the lardons in a little oil, once they begin to sweat and release fat, add the mince, stir and crush until it’s all the lumps are gone.  Remove meat from pan, turn up heat and add wine to pan to ‘clean’ the fat and juices from pan, let it reduce, by about half.

Add mirepoix, anchovies, cooked meat and wine reduction to a pan, over a medium heat, stir until its all incorporated.  Add tinned tomatoes, dried herbs and pepper, but on lid tightly and let it cook.  You may want to add the heel of a Parmesan, if you have one.  (if you don’t use Parmesan or the anchovies you will have to add salt).

Let this cook for as long as you want, if it begins to dry out you can add more tinned tomatoes or water.

Pasta

Ingredients:

    Pasta - dry (Barilla or De Cecco, much, much nicer than supermarket, especially if you are only putting a few flavours on it) ,fresh or home made (more later)

    Water

Salt

Olive oil

Boil salted water add pasta and a splash of oil to prevent sticking, most important with homemade.  Boil until pasta rises from fresh or 8-15 minutes for dry, depending home you like it.  Drain almost all the water out, add a bit more oil then dd the pasta to the sauce, over a low heat and stir it in.  Always add pasta to sauce and cook for a minute rather than pouring sauce onto pasta.

Fresh Pasta

Ingredients:

    10oz “00” flour - you can use plain flour, but the softer the better, old flour is bad.

    2 fresh large eggs plus 1 yolk

    splash olive oil

Sift flour onto clean work surface, make a well in centre put in eggs and yolk, stir egg with a fork, slowly incorporating flour, once you have most of the flour in, knead it with your hands, bit messy to start with.  (You can use a dough hook on a food processor / bread machine if you had one).  Knead for 10-15 minutes until silky, smear olive oil on pasta, wrap in clingfilm and put in fridge for an hour.

Put a golf ball sized lump of the pasta dough, onto a floured board, roll as flat as possible with a floured rolling pin.  This is all a lot easier, if you have a pasta machine.

This is now lasagna, you can make ravioli by putting a teaspoon of filling every 2” on one sheet, encirle the filling with egg wash (beaten egg, applied with a brush or your finger), lay another sheet on top, press down and cut out with a cup / glass.

ravioli fillings

    Cream cheese and salmon (mashed up)

    Ragu (as above)

    Blue cheese and walnut

    roasted veg (onion, courgette, aubergine, garlic, peppers tossed in olive oil and salt, top of hot oven for ½ hour)

   

Starting at one end, roll the thin sheet of pasta onto itself, then with a sharp knife cut through the roll at ¼” intervals, roll each of these out and you will have tagliatelle.

    Simple pasta sauces

Sage and pine nut butter with salami - Chop fresh sage, lightly fry in olive oil for a few minutes, add a big dollop of butter and a handful of pine nuts.  Toast for a couple of minutes, add thinly sliced salami.  Add in hot pasta, give it a stir, sprinkle on parmesan, black pepper and serve.

Meat (leftover roast chicken, lamb etc) and roasted tomatoes (in an oven dish, put down a later of salt, slice tomatoes in half, lay fave up on salt, put in oven when your cooking something, they can stay in for a few hours, keep them low in oven, if it’s hot, or high on a low temperature When they’ve dried a good bit they’re lovely. - Roughly chop tomatoes and meat into a pan with a bit of oil, once it’s heated through, add some roughly chopped basil, then warm pasta.

Blue cheese and nuts (walnuts, pinenuts even cashews) warm the walnuts in a little oil, add warm pasta and teaspoon sized drops of blue cheese.

Chili

Ingredients:

    Diced chorizo

    mince (usually beef, but pork, lamb or a mixture is good)

    onion

sliced fresh chili

    crushed garlic

    ginger batons (matchstick shaped)

diced peppers

ground cumin & coriander

    tomato puree

tinned tomatoes   

    dried oregano & basil

    beans - kidney, black eyed, adzuki, borletti, Spanish white, cannelli are all good, softer beans such as haricot and butter may go a bit mushy, chickpeas are a bit hard

    small tin of sweetcorn

    good dark chocolate

In a large pan, fry the chorizo cubes in oil, once the oil has taken on some of the chorizo colour and the chorizo has started to change colour, add the onions, ginger, garlic, chili, mince, cumin, coriander, salt and pepper, cook until all the meat is cooked.  Add the tomato puree and the peppers, cook for a few minutes until the peppers are beginning to soften.  Add tinned tomatoes and dried herbs. Bring up to boil, then simmer for at least 10 minutes, adding some grated dark chocolate.  Add beans and corn, taste, add more spices, herbs or seasoning as required, you may  want to add chili powder if it’s not hot enough.

Serve on tortilla chips with melted (in microwave) cheese or rice (as below)

    Rice

Ingredients:

    cup of rice

    vegetable oil (groundnut is best)

    2 ½ cups of boiling water

    optional:

    pinch of saffron strands

    or

    cinnamon bark and cardamon pods

heat a little oil in a pan, add the rice (with cinnamon & cardamon if using) and stir for a couple of minutes to get the rice all coated in oil and starting to cook.  Add boiling water with a big pinch of salt, put on lid (add saffron) and cook on a low heat until all water has gone.  Remove lid, stir, put doubled-over tea towel over pan for a few minutes.  Rice will be softer, fluffier and cook quicker if you pre-soak it for ½ hour or so, especially brown rice.  Change the water a few times if you are soaking it.

Tom yum goong soup

Ingredients:

    Red curry paste (Mae Ploy is the best)

    chopped chilies (birds eye)

    sliced garlic

    ginger batons

    dried (mixed asian or shitaki) mushrooms

fish sauce

soy sauce

fish stock

    tin coconut milk

    spring onions, chopped, separate white from green parts

    prawns

    chopped fresh coriander

Soak dried mushrooms in cold water for at least an hour, drain mushrooms, but reserve a few tablespoons of the liquid.  In a wok heat the curry paste, add white spring onions, chillies, garlic and ginger, keep stirring to prevent burning, add a splash of fish sauce and of soy sauce.  Add fish stock and mushrooms, bring to boil, add coconut milk and simmer, once heated through add prawns and green spring onions leave on heat for 1 or 2 minutes, turn off heat, add coriander and more chopped chilies (to taste) and server.

Garam Masala

Ingredients

    cardamon seeds

    coriander seeds

    black onion seeds

    cumin seeds

    nigella seeds

fenugreek seeds

    turmeric powder

    cinnamon bark

    star anise

   

Heat a dry pan, add the seeds above, moving the pan all the time to prevent the seeds burning, it should take only a minute or two to get the essential oils release by the heating.  When the seeds have cooled a little, grind -I use a coffee grinder  (but never for coffee) or a mortar and pestle, the seeds, then add the turmeric.  This with a few pieces of star anise and cinnamon bark is a basic garam masala (spice mixture).  The cinnamon and aniseed are kept whole, so they can be fished out of the curry, as they can be a strong.

Spice Paste

Ingredients

    chilies

    garlic

    ginger

    sea salt

    veg oil

In a pestle, with a mortar or in a blender put all the ingredients and crush or blend until there is a smooth paste.

(Lamb) Curry

Ingredients:

    Diced lamb, lamb pieces (on or off the bone, even very fatty - will cook down), same for other red meat, white meat / fish will not need browning, so skip the first cooking of the meat.

    spice paste

    garam masala

    onions

    (optional) peppers, celery, aubergines, courgettes, okra

    tinned tomatoes

    natural yogurt

    spinach

Marinade lamb in half the yogurt, spice paste and garma masala, for at least an hour, but maybe overnight, or through the day when at work.

In an ovenproof metal pot, heat a little oil, add lamb and brown, remove lamb, add onions (peppers / celery) and cook until start to soften, return meat to pot (with aubergines, courgettes, okra) and tinned tomatoes.  Cook in oven forever, for last ten minutes add rest of yogurt and spinach.  Serve with rice and chapatis (below)

   

Chapati

Ingredients:

    Brown flour

    water

Pour a mound of flour on the surface, make a well, add cold water, mix, once you have a dough, knead for a few minutes, then leave to rest.  Tear off a ½ golf ball sized piece, roll out as flat as possible.  Heat a dry pan until very hot, drop on the flat chapati, press down with a heavy wooden thing if possible (this makes it bubble and blister), turn and cook other side.

(Chicken) biryani

Ingredients:

    Chicken off the bone

    natural yogurt

    garam masala

    spice paste

    rice (with  turmeric)

    2 or 3 bay leaves

    unsalted peanuts / cashew nuts - smashed up

    sliced mushrooms

    thinly sliced onions

milk

Make rice, as above, with a heaped teaspoon of turmeric powder, when cooked, spread out on large plate or oven dish to dry out.

Fry nuts in spice paste, add chicken and garam masala (you can marinade chicken for a while) and cook until sealed, then add mushrooms, cook until they are soft.  In a hot frying pan quickly fry off onions.

In a greased oven dish, layer the bay leaves, some rice, chicken & mushroom and fried onions and repeat until dish is full.  Pour over some milk and cover in foil, cook for about ½ hour.

This can be served with a a vegetable curry.

Chicken risotto

Ingredients:

    Finely diced celery

    finely diced onion

    crushed garlic

    risotto rice

    glass of white wine

    chicken stock

    cubed chorizo

    olive oil

    chicken breast on the bone

grated parmesan

baby broad beans / peas / chopped asparagus

Heat the chicken stock in a pan, once it’s hot, turn heat to minimum and keep the lid on.  

In a heavy  pan (all metal, so it can go in oven), cook the chorizo in olive oil over a medium heat, when the chorizo is cooked, take it out turn up the heat on the now flavoured oil and add seasoned chicken skin side down.  Once it’s cooked, turn it over, until all 4 sides are cooked.  Put the pan into a medium oven.

Gently fry the celery and onion in olive oil, until soft, add garlic and then the rice, turn up heat slightly.  Once rice is coated in oil and shiny, add a good pinch of salt and the wine.  Turn heat up to burn off the alcohol, and stir.  Once the wine has nearly gone, turn the heat down and add a ladle of hot stock, continue adding stock, as it dries until rice is cooked.  Stir in chorizo, cooked beans and parmesan.

De-bone chicken, slice and place on top of rice.

Pizza dough

Ingredients:

    Flour (preferably “00”)

    sachet yeast

    warm water

    ½ tsp sugar

½ tsp salt

splash olive oil

Bread machine is ideal here, add all ingredients, wet then dry (salt first, yeast last).  If not, sift flour on to a work surface, add salt, sugar, and yeast, make a well and add water. mix until it’s all incorporated, knead for 10 -15 minutes cover in oil, then leave to rest in a warm-ish place until doubled in size.  Put pizza stone in at the top of a very hot oven. Knock the air out, break into small fist sized pieces and roll flat.  put on a circle of greaseproof paper on the hot pizza stone, add toppings (below) and bake until ready, turning once or twice.

Pizza toppings

tomato

Ingredients:

    onions

    garlic

    olive oil

anchovy

    tinned tomatoes

    herbs (basil, oregano, sage, rosemary) dried or fresh

Gently fry the onions, add garlic, then tinned tomatoes, anchovy, any dried or woody herbs.  Cook for as long as possible, add fresh soft herbs. Allow it to cool down.

    chili beef

Ingredients:

    Cubed chorizo

beef mince

diced onion

crushed garlic

grated ginger

chopped chili

ground cumin

ground coriander

tomato puree

sweetcorn

mozzarella

Fry chorizo in oil, once the oil is coloured, add the beef and onion, once the beef is cooked through, add garlic, ginger, chilies, cumin and coriander.  Once it’s all incorporated, add tomato puree and some water.  Cook through and let cool, then add sweetcorn and mozzarella.

    black olive and anchovy, cheese

Use olives with stone in them, crush them and take out the stones, as they taste much better than the pre-stoned ones.

    lamb, sliced artichokes and feta

Either fry tiny balls of lamb mince or shred previously roasted lamb, cubes of feta cheese, olives, some fresh oregano added after taking it out of the oven

    tuna, sliced red onions, sweetcorn, mozzarella

    grilled peppers, thinly sliced tomatoes, mozzarella

Calzone

Calzone is simply a folded over pizza, particularly good a bit smaller (~6”) for lunch.  Roll out as pizza dough, add topping on one side, not going all the way to the edge.  Fold the other side over and crimp the edges together with you fingers.  Cover the top in egg or milk wash to help glaze and cook in a hot oven.

Quiche

Ingredients:                                   

175g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

salt

75g, plus extra for greasing

(alternatively use ready made pastry)

5 beaten eggs

100ml milk

200ml double cream

cheese (good strong cheddar) / fried bacon / sliced tomato

cooked broccoli / smoked or cooked salmon

thick sliced ham / emmental cheese

Sift flour and salt into a large bowl, rub butter in, until the texture is like soft breadcrumbs. Add just enough cold water (teaspoon or 2) to bind into a firm dough.  Leave to rest in fridge for at least 30 minutes.  Roll out pastry, until slightly larger than your buttered flan dish, don’t trim edges of pastry.  Put back into fridge for 30 more minutes. Preheat oven to gas mark 5 (190C).

Put a sheet of baking paper onto the pastry and cover in baking beans (I use dried chickpeas) and bake (this is blind baking) for 20 minutes, remove beans and parchment and cook for a further 5 minutes. Reduce temperature to gas mark 3 (160C).  Put flan dish onto a flat over tray, as it might spill when full.

Prepare the solid ingredients and let cool, put  onto pastry, combine cream, milk and eggs and pour over the flan until at very top.  Then bake for 30-40 minutes or until set. Allow to cool then trim edges, cut into wedges and serve.                                       

Cottage pie

Ingredients:

    minced beef

chopped onions

diced carrots

peas

    beef stock

herbs (thyme, marjoram, dill)

    tblsp cornflour (mixed with a little cold water to form a paste)

    mashed potatoes

    cheddar cheese

Fry mince in a little oil, once browned, add onions until softened, then carrots.  Add stock and bring to boil, once boiled, simmer for 15 minutes, thicken with cornflour add herbs and peas then put into an ovenproof dish, cover with mashed potatoes and sprinkle on the cheese. Bake in a medium oven until top is golden and crunchy.

Prawn / white fish / chicken stir fry

Ingredients:

    crushed garlic

    sliced chilies

    ginger batons

finely sliced peppers

sliced spring onions (separate green and white bits)

    five spice

soy sauce

fish sauce

    bean sprouts

    prawns / white fish or chicken cubes

    sliced pak choi or similar green veg (sliced mange touts, sugar snaps, chard)

fresh coriander

soft noodles

sesame oil

Make sure all prep work is done before you start, chop everything and put in separate bowls, speed is important in a sit fry.

In a very hot wok start with veg oil, drop in chilies, garlic and ginger, peppers and white spring onion, add five spice and fish sauce, stirring the whole time, add some soy sauce and reduce heat, add beansprouts then the meat, add a little water if it beings to stick.  Add pak choi and noodles, cook for a further few minutes until the noodles are done.  Take off heat add coriander and a drizzle of sesame oil.

Thai fishcakes

Ingredients:

    Thai curry paste

    fish (white and / or salmon, or even prawns, crab etc)

    cooled mashed potatoes

    fresh parsley

    Flour (or polenta or breadcrumbs)

In a blender mix Thai paste fish and parsley.  Stir mixture into mashed potato.  Put flour into a shallow dish, take a ball of the mixture, cover in flour and shape into a fishcake, leave on a floured board.  Repeat until all fishcakes are made, fry in batches in a large frying pan, keep warm in low oven if required.  Serve with salad.

Chicken Thai red curry

Ingredients:

    Thai red paste

    sliced onions

    sliced peppers

    batons of carrots

    soy sauce

    fish sauce

    cubed chicken breast

    mange touts / sugar snaps

    can of coconut milk

    sliced chilies

    sliced spring onions

    fresh coriander

In a wok, fry the paste in a little oil, add onions, a little fish sauce and soy sauce.  Add peppers and carrots, keep stirring, once all coated in the sauce, add coconut milk and bring to boil, reduce to simmer and add chicken.  Once the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has reduced a little, add mange tout and cook until tender.  Garnish with spring onions, coriander and chilies.

Tuna Nicosia salad

Ingredients:

    free range eggs

    good tinned tuna

    lettuce

    sliced tomatoes

    stoned black olives

anchovies

vinaigrette (see below)

put eggs into a small pan on COLD water, just covering the eggs (the freshest eggs stay at the bottom, slightly less fresh will go onto end, rotten eggs float).  Put on lid, set timer for exactly 10 ½ minutes, bring to boil, lower heat to fast simmer.  When 10 ½ minutes are up, pour off hot water immediately and plunge into a full pan of cold water - this stop the yolks edge blackening.

Assemble salad ingredients on a plate, add quartered eggs, hopefully they will be ever so slightly still runny and tuna, drizzle on vinaigrette.

Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

    good extra virgin olive oil

    Vinegar white wine / cider for a light salad, red wine or Jerez for more strength or even balsamic, but it may overpower.

    crushed garlic

    chopped rosemary

    mustard power

Ratio of oil to vinegar 4:1, add all ingredients into a jar with a tight fitting lid, shake until emulsified.  Shake again just before serving, will keep in fridge forever, put will solidify, so will need to be take out ½ before use and shaken again before serving.

Arancini

Ingredients:

    risotto rice

    flour / polenta / breadcrumbs

    beaten egg

    grated parmesan

Filling:   

mozzarella and chard

ragu

peas and ham

anything really - will try rocket and pinenuts

lightly fry rice in a pan, add 2 ½ times as much boiling water, salt, put on lid and cook until water is gone, leave to cool.  Add egg and parmesan to cooled rice and mix well.

Cook and cool filling.  Put rice onto hand, make a well, add some filling, cover with more rice and shape into ball, roll in flour, repeat until all is used.  Shallow fry in an inch of hot oil, try and keep ball together.

Aubergine, courgette, tomato and feta bake

Ingredients:

    Aubergine, sliced and salted on both sides

    courgette sliced and salted on both sides

    large heritage or beef tomato(e) sliced

    shallots

    garlic

    tinned tomatoes

chopped fresh oregano and rosemary

cubed feta

   

    lay salted aubergines and courgettes on kitchen paper to let the water soak out, add more salt and change paper as required until they are dry to touch. smear olive oil on them and put them, in batches, on a (pre-heated) very hot griddle pan, turn over once they have char lines, then reserve until all are done.  Griddle the sliced tomatoes until they are marked on both sides.

    In a separate pan saute the shallots and garlic, add the tinned tomatoes and herbs until cooked through.

    In an ovenproof dish alternately layer the vegetable with the sauce, put the cheese on top, bake on high for 20 minutes and finish under a hot grill

Soups

Ingredients:

    Well anything

    liquid (water, milk, stock)

    seasoning

    croutons (if it suits)

Assuming its a soup made from vegetables, dice the veg, sweat them in a little fat - oil or butter, add liquid and seasoning (and herbs), blend or not.  If meat is added, generally use diced cooked meat, or shredded raw chicken or crab, or prawns or cubed fish.

    For croutons - best  to use homemade or at least good bread, stale is good, coat in crushed garlic, rosemary and olive oil, parmesan can be good as well.  Lightly fry and dry on kitchen paper, add to soup at serving.

Stews

Ingredients:

    Meat (lamb, beef, pork, chicken....)

    aromatics (pieces of carrot, celery, onion, even whole baby onions or shallots)

    liquid (water, stock, wine)

    plain or corn flour

vegetables

    seasoning / herbs / spices

As Stew is just a soup’s big sister, bigger pieces of meat, cooked for longer.  Generally, chop up meat into sizes ranging from cubes to whole chicken legs / breast, on or off the bone.  Seal meat (read below on thickening) in a very hot frying pan, take out of pan, brown the aromatics.  While the empty pan is still on the heat, clean it with wine or stock, scrapping the pan vigourously to get any bits into the liquid.  Add meat, aromatics and liquid into an oven-proof dish with a lid, cook on a medium low heat until meat is soft.  If it requires thickening do this is one of two ways, either coat the meat in plain flour before frying, or mix cornflour with cold water to produce a paste and add now.

Add green vegetables, potatoes can be added a bit earlier unless par-boiled, dumplings are another option.

Baking

    Baking is completely different from cooking, and I’m not very good at it, baking is chemistry, it requires exact amounts to make the chemical reactions take place in the required way.  A couple of recipes below, but I’m just copying from some one else, with some additional extras and modifications....

Carrot cake

Ingredients:

    175g soft brown sugar

    175ml vegetable oil

    3 large eggs - beaten

    3 medium carrots grated

    100g raisins

    grated zest of an orange

    100g chopped nuts (I use walnuts, flaked almonds, pecans, pine nuts - whatevs)

    175g self raising flour (self raising flour goes off, so throw it away after 3 months or so)

    1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg (freshly grated if you have it)

Preheat oven to gar mark 4 (180C) for large cake, gas mark 5 for cupcakes.

Sugar, oil and eggs into a mixing bowl and stir until mixed, add carrots, raisins, nuts and orange rind.  Sift flour, bicarb and spices and then fold in.  Mixture will still be runny.

Pour into a greased loaf tin, or into cupcake cases in a cake tray, bake for 40-45 minutes for loaf or 25-30 minutes for cupcakes.

Put onto wire rack to cool, once cool, ice with Philadelphia cheese and chopped walnuts.

Muffins

Ingredients:

310g (11oz) plain flour

4 level teaspoons baking powder

55g (2oz) caster sugar

28g (1 oz) dessicated coconut (optional)

2 eggs - beaten

375ml (13 fl oz) milk (full fat)

160g (5 and 3/4oz) melted butter

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Preheat oven to gas mark 6 (210C).

Add milk, butter, eggs and vanilla into a bowl, stir together, sift flour, baking powder, caster sugar and coconut into another bowl.  Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients.  Mix lightly and spoon into muffin cases in a muffin tray.  Cook for 20-25 minutes until a skewer comes out dry.

I use the recipe above, but I always add more sugar, I also add other things, mixed summer fruit, nuts, raisins, chocolate chips, depending on what I add I adjust the wet or dry ingredients, sometimes even successfully.