Beautiful burritos

Posted on Friday 4th September, 2009 by headchef

Me and the children made these tonight. Fantastic. They took it in turns to help me cook and take photos… (photos to follow!)

We made veggie ones and steak ones. Both use the sneaky salsa (below) though this time we left out the ketchup and used lime juice instead of lemon.

Veggie burrito filling:
Get a carton of black beans from Sainsbury’s. Fry an onion, garlic and finely chopped fresh red chilli until the onion is translucent. Add the beans with the juice. Simmer for 20 mins. I can’t begin to explain how tasty these simple ingredients are – this is culinary alchemy of which Frank Bath would be proud (Georgina knows what this means even if no-one else does!)

Carnivore burrito filling:
Fry a chopped onion. Thinly slice steak, garlic, fresh chilli and chuck them in, fry until brown. Add a dash of Worcester sauce, Tabasco sauce and a pinch of cayenne pepper.

Assemblage
Warm some soft tortilla wraps in a dry pan. Add sliced lettuce, your filling of choice, grated cheese, sneaky salsa, sour cream, rice, whatever you fancy. Enjoy. We did.

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Smug and sneaky salsa

Posted on Friday 4th September, 2009 by headchef

I knocked this tasty salsa up mostly from things grown on our allotment (hence the smug bit).

smug'n'sneaky salsa

  • Tomatoes
  • A red onion
  • Fat clove of garlic
  • Squeeze of lemon or lime juice
  • pinch of salt
  • Slug of tomato ketchup
  • Slug of olive oil
  • Fresh coriander (we keep a bunch in the freezer)

Gently whizz in a blender or chop finely by hand. Serve with tortilla chips. And cold beer. Yum.

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Crispy Aromatic Duck

Posted on Friday 26th December, 2008 by headchef

We had duck for Christmas dinner and still had some leftovers. Crispy Aromatic Duck is my favourite food in the whole wide world but I was missing some vital ingredients: hoisin sauce and Chinese pancakes. Time to improvise…

Mock hoisin sauce

  • home-made duck pancakes2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons soft dark sugar
  • 1 teaspoon runny honey
  • half a teaspoon Chinese five spice
  • 1 teaspoon sweet chilli dipping sauce
  • 1 teaspoon peanut butter

Combine the ingredients in a jar, warm gently in the microwave and shake, shake, shake.

Pancake mix

  • 4 parts plain flour
  • 1.5 parts boiling water
  • er, that’s it

I used this recipe but used sunflower oil instead of sesame oil. You make dough out of the flour and water, roll it out into pancakes and quickly fry them in a hot pan. I didn’t bother steaming them.

Combining the pancakes

I reheated the left-over duck in the microwave and shredded it. Then spreaded one side of the pancakes with my hoisin-style sauce and piled on duck, thinly sliced spring onions, cucumber and a little lettuce. I rolled them up as best I could (I am always crap at this but for me it’s all about the taste not about making something beautiful – they don’t stay on the plate long enough to be admired!)

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Peanut Butter Cups

Posted on Wednesday 24th December, 2008 by headchef

Nigella’s gold disco glitter version of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups which Pippa used to get people to bring back from the States and which she got me hooked on. Recipe stolen outright from the Google cache as the BBC have removed this from their web site. Sosumi.

We used edible gold and white hologram glitter rather than single gold stars. They turned out even tastier than Reese’s and just as addictive.

Makes 48

Ingredients
For the base
50g/2oz soft dark brown sugar
200g/7oz icing sugar
50g/2oz butter, softened
200g/7oz smooth peanut butter (not wholenut)
For the topping
200g/7oz milk chocolate
100g/3½oz dark chocolate
gold buttons and edible gold stars to decorate, or other decorations of your choice

Method
1. For the base, place all the ingredients for the base in the bowl of a food processor. Blend the mixture until the mixture takes on a sandy texture.
2. Place 48 gold petit four cases in sets of miniature tart tins or mini-muffin tins (each indent about 4.5cm/1¾in in diameter).
3. Use one teaspoon of the base mixture to fill the bases of the petit four cases. Press the sandy mixture down into the cases as best you can to form a layer at the bottom of each paper case.
4. Place the milk chocolate and dark chocolate together into a heatproof bowl. Suspend the bowl over a pan of simmering water (the water should not touch the bottom of the bowl). Melt the chocolate gently while stirring.
5. Spoon teaspoonfuls of the melted chocolate onto the top of each of the sandy bases of the petit four cases.
6. Decorate the tops of the chocolate covered peanut butter cups with either a gold button or gold star in the middle of each and transfer them to the fridge. Let them set in the fridge, for about half an hour.
7. To serve, arrange the chocolate peanut butter cups in their cases on a clean plate.

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Mulled cider

Posted on Saturday 20th December, 2008 by headchef
mulled cider ingredients

mulled cider ingredients

The best mulled cider I ever had was last Christmas when I stumbled upon the heavenly Somerset Cider Brandy caravan – truly a caravan of love – in Covent Garden in London. I’d love to know how they make it, but I guess this recipe from Vigo Presses must be close:

  • 1 litre cider
  • 3 cinnamon sticks
  • 3 cloves
  • 1 star anise
  • pinch nutmeg
  • small bit of bruised stem ginger
  • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • lemon juice to taste
  • slug of Somerset Cider Brandy

Combine and simmer for 20 mins but do not boil.

Okay – I have actually made this now and it wasn’t as nice as the stuff I had last Christmas off Julian Temperley’s caravan in Covent Garden – but I was using an old bottle of Cornish scrumpy not fine Somerset cider. When most of it was gone I made a new batch with the same spices and used apple juice as well. It was delicious – especially with a nip of the aforementioned Somerset Cider Brandy.

We shared it with Marian the Custard Tart who spookily had just brought us the largest cinnamon stick I have ever seen – it must be 12 inches long. I was tempted to stir the spiced apple juice with it but will have to ponder on uses for it.

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Nigella’s Stalking Soup

Posted on Tuesday 16th December, 2008 by headchef

Watched Nigella’s Christmas last night – the way it’s filmed makes you feel like a pervy stalker peering in through her kitchen window and lurking behind the light fittings… “phoar, come on Nigella, kneed yer dumplings”. Etcetera.

Anyway, I managed to just about filter out the infuriating camerawork and we made her Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato soup – it’s fab.

You just roast a load of chopped sweet potato and butternut squash with an onion and some wintery spices – cinnamon and nutmeg for example. Then when cooked whizz them in a blender with some veg or chicken stock, season and serve. We did make the buttermilk & blue cheese sauce (you whizz up buttermilk and blue cheese) but it’s very nice without.

Nigella recommends pouring the soup into things called ‘bowls’. I’ll have to investigate those, they sound quite useful.

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Chicken Pasta Bake

Posted on Tuesday 18th November, 2008 by headchef

This is a really really bastardized version of a Jamie Oliver recipe – basically so I could use up left over roast chicken from Sunday without making curry again.

You will need:

    Chicken pasta bake

  • left over roast chicken meat
  • half a box of mushrooms
  • 250ml double cream or just over
  • garlic
  • 150g parmesan cheese
  • 250g or more of linguine or spaghetti
  • a glass of white wine or Noilly Prat vermouth
  • basil

(Made enough for 2 adults and 3 small children).

Cook the pasta. Put the grill on.

Thinly slice the mushrooms and fry in a little oil with the chopped garlic. Add the cooked, diced chicken and fry for a bit to warm it through. Turn up the heat and throw on the wine or vermouth. Inhale deeply. Reduce the wine a bit then pour on the cream and brink to the boil. Add some salt and a lot of freshly ground pepper.

Take the pan off the heat. Stir in most of the grated cheese and the chopped basil. Mix in with the pasta in an oven dish sprinkling some parmesan on top. Zap under the grill until golden brown on top.

2 out of 3 of my children wanted seconds.

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Quick and Cheap and Easy Nachos

Posted on Tuesday 18th November, 2008 by headchef

Okay these are a bit naughty and this isn’t really cooking, but I’ve made these a few times recently and they vanished very quickly indeed.

You’ll need:

    cheap and easy nachos

  • 2 or 3 small packets of tortilla chips – Sainsbury’s Basics ones are only 17p per packet
  • 1 jar of salsa – eg Sainsbury’s Basics, 69p for 200g jar
  • A few handfuls of grated cheese
  • A spring onion

Spread the tortillas on a baking tray or dish. Smother in salsa. Sprinkle with cheese and the chopped spring onion and grill until bubbling hot. Great with chilli or even Buzz Burgers.

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Eggy bread

Posted on Friday 11th April, 2008 by headchef

Or French Toast, which I made for the kids ages ago and they all hated it. Except now Henry loves it and wants it every day. Makes 1 portion.

  • 1 egg
  • 1 thick slice of soft bread
  • splash of full-fat milk
  • pinch of cinnamon – more if you fancy
  • maple syrup to taste
  • knob of butter
  • heart of gold

Beat an egg and cinnamon with a splash of milk – and a fork. Put the butter in a hot frying pan. Put the eggy mixture on a plate and soak each side of the bread in it. Put the bread in the pan and fry until a beautiful mottled brown colour. Eat immediately with maple syrup – bacon on top is perfect too!

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Lentils & Cabbage

Posted on Friday 9th November, 2007 by headchef

Okay, doesn’t sound that appetising, but this went down a treat with a bottle of the excellent ginger-spiced Blandford Fly beer. I didn’t even grumble about the brown rice – it was totally like being back in a cafe in Bristol in the 1980s… Recipe adapted from Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery, BBC, 1982, serves 4.

  • 200g red split lentils
  • 1 litre water
  • half teaspoon ground turmeric
  • vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
  • 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 250g finely chopped cabbage
  • dried flaked chillies
  • tomato puree
  • half teaspoon dried ginger

Boil the lentils in the water, removing scum and add the turmeric. Cover and simmer gently until tender. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan and sizzle the cumin seeds. Add the garlic and onion, cabbage & chillies. Fry until cabbage starts to crisp. Add salt if you want. When the lentils are cooked, add the tomato puree and ginger and the cabbage mix. Simmer for 2-3 minutes and serve with brown basmati rice.

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