Mushroom and Bacon Stroganoff (serves 2)

This is one of those recipes that sprung up from having a look & using up what was in the fridge, ie. half a tub of sour cream, a little left over chicken stock, and a couple of rashers of bacon. Turned out nice though! Just serve it with some simply boiled rice (but it would also work well with pasta or mash, or even have it on toast as a breakfast treat).

Ingredients: 
- 150g sliced mushrooms (we used Portabellini which give a nice colour aswell as flavour, but you can use any you like, as long as they're not button!)
- 2 rashers of good quality back bacon, sliced
- 2 shallots, finely chopped
- 2 garic cloves, finely chopped
- 200ml chicken stock (homemade preferably. I'd really rather you didn't use a stock cube. If you don't have homemade, or good quality bought stock, just replace with half the amount of water or white wine)
- 75ml (about 1 big tbsp) sour cream
- small handfull of finely chopped parsley
- squeeze of lemon
- 3/4 tsp smoked paprika
- 3/4 tsp dijon mustard


Preparation
- Fry the bacon in a hot frying pan with a little olive oil until they are as golden & crispy as you'll want them in the finished dish.
- Add the mushrooms & do the same. We had to add a little butter at this point as the mushrooms got quite dry, this will be less likely if you use closed cap mushrooms.
- Add the shallots & garlic & fry until they're translucent, but without colour.
- Add the stock, paprika & mustard & reduce until all the flavours have mingled (about 5mins).
- Add the sour cream & lemon & cook for a minute more.
- Add parsley & serve.

 

Shepherd’s (but technically Cottage) Pie: Serves 2 (loads)

Sometimes one just wants some honest hearty English fare. Failing that, one could do worse than Shepherd’s Pie. Although, it must be said I make it with beef, which I gather means its Cottage Pie. I understand that shepherds – sheep-herds- tend flocks of sheep, so I am a little stumped as to the use of the term ‘cottage’ for the collective pronoun for cattle – but there you go – this recipe has been handed for generations by my family of cottagers ? No. That really does not work – let us call it ‘Shepherd’s Pie with beef not lamb’.

I love bolognaise. I love Italian food in general, but, like so many home kitchen schooled boys, bolognaise was the first and only dish I learned to cook whilst living at home. Nowadays it’s a little different, and I like to try to keep a clear distinction between my sheph... cottage... pie and anything that bears an even passing resemblance to Italian cuisine. The same is true for chilli-con-carne. These three dishes are so similar that I am at pains to keep them distinct I think of them as different points of an equilateral triangle and the area they define encompasses the scope of what they could be. For this reason I do not put red wine in this dish, nor do I put garlic or bay leaf or oregano (but like bolognaise, they both have beef, onion celery and carrot. I think it’s important to try to maintain a these distinctions so one can develop an identity for each dish and can explore the uniqueness rather than its common ground. Anyway, I can cook a killer bolognaise in my sleep, and to be honest I am still working on the cottage pie – here is the current version (and it’s still damned tasty – even though sarah reminded me I totally cocked it up last time – make sure you let the veg sweat down properly and the alcohol cook off – jeez that was bad)

INGREDIENTS:
500gms minced beef (It’s better to have less meat of higher quality – you really can taste it)
1 lrg  to 3 sml onions.
1 lrg carrot
1 stick of celery
1 bottle of stout
1 large baking potato
dollop crème freich / splash of double cream / splash of milk
50gms mature cheddar
Seasoning
half tin of tomatoes
err... I think thats it – read through the recipe for surprise additional ingredients.

THE MEAT

First off mix some black pepper (and possibly some finely chopped parsley) into the minced beef. Form this into small patties and fry in reasonably hot pan that is just skimmed with a little fat (I would use butter or left-over fat drained from a different dish – in this case it was leftover fat from the roasted Pork belly we made two nights ago). We form the meat into patties to create a level of texture within the dish – there is a bit of bite to the meat and a gradation in colouring between the edge of the patty meat and the meat inside the patty. The meat is cooked at a reasonably high temperature to ensure that the edges of the patty ‘brown’. This is ‘grey’ but actually a slightly crispy real ‘brown’ colour. Doing this allows various sugars in the meat to caramelise and that will give it a sweet rich and distinctly ‘brown’ note. The meat inside the patty is effectively steamed and will yield a different flavour – the two combined basically double your money!

The other thing to avoid – a crime which we have observed on numerous occasions – is the ‘stir-fry temptation’. When cooking meat, and particularly mince avoid stirring it! The more it is moved the more it releases its water creating steam and not only drying the meat out, but effectively steaming it rather than frying it – this will make the meat go grey, it will cook away considerable flavour and will not benefit from proper browning. When cooked (do not cram the pan – if necessary do it in two batches) lift out and set to one side. I suggest placing the patties in the bottom of whatever dish is being used for the final construction – this means you can still keep any residual juices that drain from the patties – it is all good flavour. 
There should now be some fat in the pan that has rendered out of the beef patties.

THE SAUCE

Whilst the patties are cooking, finely chop the three standard veg’s: onion, carrot & celery. When the patties are cooked, fry these veg in the residual fat in the pan. Add more butter if necessary. As this cooks i will chuck in some fresh thyme. This needs to be cooked on a fairly low heat – we want the veg to slowly caramelise – unlike the meat, I turn this quite frequently releasing a bit of steam. As the veg dries slightly and begin to go translucent I might add a splash here and there of stout. If you put too much in reduces the overall temperature and the pan will have to heat up considerably. Eventually the whole bottle goes in, and a half tin of tomatoes we had left over from some dish cooked earlier this week. The tomatoes go really well with beef, but I do not want too much of their flavour – I do not want this dish to resemble a bolognaise sauce. I will probably add the patties pack to the pan around now
Once the alcohol has had time to cook off and the entire thing has married slightly we can put it in the final dish. In today’s case, because we took the fish pie around to my others, we have not got the shepherd’s pie dish and so I have to make do with two small and fairly shallow dishes – I am writing this as I cook so I do not know quite how the final bit will manifest – but it will be lovely I am sure – although I will honestly report if it is not!

THE MASH

Mashed potato is a filling vessel for cream, cheese and butter. Why not include some herbs and mustard for a bit of diversity?
I have chopped my large making spud into small chunks. I am going to steam the spud skin and all. I actually like the nutty flavour that the potato skin gives after mashing, and apparently its where whatever vitamins are presents in potatoes, like to hide. Cutting into smaller pieces increases the surface area and should mean shorter cooking (it’s about heat transference and entropy – a fascinating subject but not directly suited to this blog – basically the insides will get hot faster the smaller the pieces are, and the less cooking time the less the goodness of the sups will have been cooked away.)
At this junction I am sorely tempted to combine this with celeriac mash for a double whammy. It’s so delightfully savoury. But, I am also using celery in the sauce and there is no need to double up on the flavour. 

I take the spuds out and leave them to stand for a moment on a chopping board allowing clouds of steam to be released – helping this dehydration means the potato will suck up all of the milk, crème frieche and butter I am about to put. Return to their now emptied steaming pan and mash the shit out of them. Keep adding small slugs of milk and butter etc if it is drying out, but only in small doses. Now chuck in a healthy dose of white pepper and for this dish a good tsp of English mustard. It must be English mustard – there is extra fire in English mustard and the yellow colour will help make the spuds seem golden. If you want to – and frequently I do – add a small amount of grated mature cheddar. (if you want to go continental because you don’t have any English mustard, use Dijon and add some Roquefort...). I also mixed in some finely chopped fresh parsley – you know, it counts as healthy ‘greens’ doesn’t it?

RE-COMPOSITION:
When the lower portion of the dish – meat and sauce – has cooled slightly dollop the mash onto the meat and sauce

Asian Steamed Trout (serves 1)

When I eat alone, I often take the opportunity to indulge the a culinary treat of fish! Orlando isn't so keen, so we don't cook it together much (with the exception of fish pie of course!). Plus, its always good to top up on the old omega oils. This dish is another addition to our ever expanding Asian repertoire. I know wanky TV chefs say what I'm about to say next all the time, but this really could not be simpler to make.

Ingredients
-   1 whole trout
-   1 red bird's chilli, sliced
-   2/3 garlic cloves, sliced
-   1 shallot, sliced (or an onion is fine)
-   1 lime, sliced
-   roughly 2cm square piece of galangal, cut into julienne (or ginger if you don't have it)
-   a generous bunch of coriander
-   sea salt

Preparation
-    Place the trout on a piece of tin foil that is at least double it's length.
-   Take all the other ingredients and stuff under, on top of and inside the fish.

-   Fold the foil in half so the trout is completely covered, then fold over all of the open edges at least twice to seal the fish in. Lift up the edges once they're crimped to stop any juices escaping.

-   Put on a baking tray & cook for about 20mins in a 200C oven.
-   Tear open the bag & serve with steamed jasmine rice, making sure to pour the limey, fishy juices all over the rice.

Fishy pie (Serves 4 piggy people)

A classic dish...& what a gem! The thing about fish pie is that, unlike similar sorts of dishes like lasagne & shepherd's pie, it has an element of luxury & decadence but is just as simple if not simpler to cook. We've made a few little tweaks to personalise this one & you should feel free to do so yourself. You can use any firm fleshed fish in this, but if you're particularly wealthy or its a special occasion you can add cream, saffron, monkfish, prawns or even lobster to the sauce. But please use sustainably sourced fish if you can get it!

Ingredients
-   250g each of salmon, smoked haddock and whiting
-   400ml milk
-   a thick slice of onion
-   2 cloves
-   2 bay leaves
-   4 large baking potatoes & 1/2 medium celeriac chopped into cubes (we don't bother to peel the potatoes because they are the most nutritious bit...also we're lazy, but you can if you want to)
-   50-100g of mature cheddar grated
-   50g butter
-   dessertspoon of plain flour
-   1 large leek thickly sliced
-   white pepper
-   salt
-   juice of 1/4 lemon
-   some chopped dill & parsley (about 2 parts parsley to 1 part dill)
-   small handful of breadcrumbs (optional)

Preparation
-    Lay the fish in a large, deep, frying pan. Cover with the milk and add the cloves, bay leaves and onion. Bring to a gentle boil, simmer for a minute or two then turn the heat off & cover the pan with a lid or a plate & let it gently poach in the residual heat for 10 minutes.
-   Meanwhile, steam or boil the potatoes & celeriac in salted water. When they are cooked through, (very important, you don't want lumpy mash!) add half the butter & a splash of milk & mash until smooth. Add most of the grated cheese & white pepper to taste & mix in until the cheese is melted.
-   Once the fish it only just cooked, drain off the milk (which is now flavoured with all the fishy loveliness) into a jug to be used in the sauce. Flake the fish into large pieces & carefully lay them on the bottom of a baking dish, trying to get the different pieces of fish equally distributed.



-   Melt the other half of the butter in another frying pan & saute the leeks until just soft. Take off the heat & add the flour, stirring constantly. Put back on the heat & gradually add the milky fish liquor, stirring constantly until the sauce comes up to the boil & has thickened. Turn the heat down very low & cook out for a few minutes to remove any floury taste & give the sauce a velvety quality. Once cooked, add the herbs, a pinch of white pepper & lemon juice.



-   Pour the sauce over the fish & give it a very gentle mix in. Most people mix the fish into the sauce, then pour it all into the baking dish, but this way you keep the big pieces of fish & its easier to make sure the fish is evenly distributed across the dish. At this point it is actually a good idea to let everything cool down if you have time because the potato will spread more easily, but its not essential.
-   Spread  the mash over the fish, starting from the edges of the dish & working inwards, this should stop the potato sliding over the sauce & everything getting messy. Sprinkle over the remaining cheese & the breadcrumbs if you're using them. (Tip: Whenever we buy a nice loaf of bread, there's always an end piece that ends up being too stale to use, instead of throwing it away we blitz it up & keep it in a sealed jar in the kitchen cupboard, its amazing how often it comes in handy!) You can also add a few small knobs of butter at this point if you like, it'll really help the 'engoldening' process.



-   Put on a preheated oven at 180C for about 40-45mins until it is heated through & the top is golden & crunchy.

Goulash - a recipe for overeating

Lets start with the simple fact that this dish is taken straight from an episode of Jamie Oliver’s ‘At Home’ series. We recorded the episode just because of this dish, and we generally re-watch the section on goulash every time before we make it. Its not so much that we need to see how to do it – the dish basically makes itself – but because it looks so damned delicious. It rivals the voluptuous siren Nigella by way of food-porn. I am genuinely salivating right now just thinking of it.

So why is it worth blogging about someone else’ recipe? What is the big deal?

The cheap cut of pork – shoulder or belly - yields the most delightfully flavoursome savoury-piggy-goodness. The tang of tomatoes and splash of vinegar cut through the fat, and accentuate the sweetness of the sweated onions and peppers. But the fun is only just beginning!

Into the mix we also find the supporting role of other herbs and spices. There is bayleaf in there – that is for the pork – there is oregano in there – that is for the tomato – and there is caraway. This last is a curious spice – we use it only occasionally and so it taints each dish with a unique eccentricity, bringing something not dissimilar to a fennel seed or liquorice note, with a perfumed edge lightening a dish that runs the danger of being too heavy. Sarah, in her most ludicrously Master Chef homage describes the anis-like aromatic element of the caraway as a mid-note, above which are striking sharps of vinegar and lemon, and beneath which is the smokey magma-esque base-note of the paprika. It may be a base-note, but the volume is turned up to eleven, and there is an immense and potent paprika reverb going on.

Without a doubt this is the star of the show, and, to continue the musical analogies, the paprika feedback is perhaps best described with reference to Pete Townsend’s loving relationship with his amplifiers. There is not just a party going on in ones mouth and nose, but a massive stadium rock concert whose pyrotechnics illuminate the grinning visage of a massive inflatable devil hovering above the stage. Yes the analogy does go that far – maybe further, for this dish is devilishly good.

 The whole dish is an exhibition platform for the alchemy of the paprika– infact it is the defining element – its not goulash if don’t got paprika.

Whilst it is quite a popular spice, it does not go with everything. I once made a grated carrot apple and beetroot ‘power-salad’ (recipe will have to wait for another time) and decided that a dash of paprika might just transform the salad into something alluring and exotic. Certainly it transformed the salad, but into something unbearably inedible, which I took to work and forced myself to eat – like rubbing a dog’s nose in its own deposits of naughtiness. I learned something important of spices that afternoon. Paprika needs to be cooked… and my-oh-my when it is, and particularly slow cooked over hours it becomes this unique flavour not dissimilar to chilli, but without the brazen ferocity – there is heat, but for every iota of fire there is more and more flavour.

This is the dish – and I start eating it before it leaves the pan, and, yes, I burn my mouth every single time. Eventually when I pause for breath – or sarah enters the kitchen – the dish is served with a passing gesture of nutty rice.

Finally, and to literally top it off, a massive dollop of crème fraiche laced with finely chopped parsley (or coriander as I mistakenly bought), lemon zest and juice. (I say a massive dollop because you know in advance that you are going to over eat with this dish – perhaps put on some jogging bottoms in preparation.)

This accompanying creme cuts through the heat of the paprika, cooling the fires, but not extinguishing them, and soothing the various burns that line my mouth. But wait, there’s more, this zesty balm cuts through the fattiness of the pork whilst also lightening the whole dish, and as the photograph hopefully demonstrates, it offers the intense reds and oranges of the dish a snow white canvas on which to delicately curdle in the most salivatory satisfying way. And let us not overlook the delight of a good-looking dish – if it makes you salivate your mouth becomes alive with the pre-digestive enzymes that are going to intensify all of the flavours.

I hate to say it, but thanks Jamie, this one is a show-stopper.

Chestnut, sprout & black pudding stew

Bit of an experiment this one, its totally one of those; its January, we're skint, lets use up some of the stuff we have lying around. Sprouts were reduced to 29p a stalk, we've loads of carrots that are starting to go soft and we'd kept the chicken bones we used for the pie on Sunday and as anyone whose ever cooked for me knows; if there's one thing I hate its wasted food!
Expect more along these lines...there are still plenty of odds and ends that need using up.

Ingredients
chicken bones
1 onion chopped into small pieces
3 or 4 carrots thickly sliced
1 stick of celery roughly chopped
5 black pepper corns
3 bay leaves
a few sprigs of thyme
2 floury potatoes chopped into chunks
a handful of ready-shelled chestnuts
15 or so sprouts
2 inches of cubed black pudding sausage
a garlic clove
salt & pepper

-   Put the chicken bones in a pan with the peppercorns, 2 of the bay leaves & 1 sprig of time. Cover with cold water, bring to the boil then turn down & simmer for 2 hours. After 1.5 hours, put the onion, celery, & 1 or 2 carrots (depending on the size) into the stock pot for the last half an hour.
-   Strain the stock into a bowl put back on the heat and season with salt & pepper.
-   Add the potatoes, the rest of the carrots & thyme and the other bay leaf & simmer until they are all cooked, then grate in the garlic clove on a fine grater & add the sprouts, chestnuts & black pudding & carry on cooking until the sprouts are just tender & the flavours all have mingled together.
-   Serve up and scoff!

Roast Chicken, Pancetta & Leek Pie (serves 2)

It’s cold. It seems to be dark all the time – you basically get up at dawn with just enough time to watch the sun set. Did I mention that it’s cold? At times such as this the immensely heart warming chicken comes to mind. It’s the culinary warm hug. It was one of those days. 
We had been going to make a fairly standard Sunday roast: chicken, roasties, carrots, sprouts (your standard meat, spuds and two veg), but somehow we left the supermarket with a leek.
It was then that Sarah suggested we make a pie. We have not really tried to make pie from scratch before, and are always up for a little culinary experimentation. Chicken and leek pie! Oh, and we have some pancetta in the freezer. It was sounding pretty good: The three champions of savoury flavour were conspiring to create a gastronomic delight. Then we realised we still had some fresh thyme – it’s almost a constant kitchen companion that one...and mustard...and lemon. It’s often the little pinches of things – well placed and in a sparing manner - that really serves to bring out depth of flavours in your principle ingredients. Chicken and thyme, mustard and pig-meat, cheese and leek... suddenly, everything came together... This is the story:

Ingredients:
Pastry
250g plain flour
65g cold lard
65g cold butter
pinch of salt
pinch of mustard powder
generous tsp of dried thyme
1/2 tsp of white wine vinegar
cold water
1 free-range egg, beaten

Filling
2 organic, free-range chicken legs
a pinch of salt
1 tbsp olive oil
70g cubed pancetta
1 large leek
a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme
1/2 tbsp plain flour
200ml whole milk
50g grated mature cheddar cheese
black pepper
1 tsp Dijon mustard
squeeze of lemon

Preparation
The Pastry
-    Cut the lard & butter into small cubes.
-    Rub into the flour, thyme & salt in a mixing bowl until it resembles breadcrumbs.
-   Add the vinegar & small amount of cold water & mix in. Keep adding more water bit by bit until you have a dough. Try and work it as little as possible.
-   Put in the fridge to chill until the filling is ready.

The Filling
-    Put the chicken legs in a baking tray & cover with the olive oil & salt. Roast in a hot oven (about 200-220C) until they are cooked & the skin is crispy (its about 45 minutes). Eat the skin! (At this point, we tend to strain the roasting pan to get all the lovely savoury fat.) Then let the legs cool a little and take the meat off the bones.
-   Fry the pancetta in a large frying pan until golden & crispy. Add the leeks and fresh thyme, cover and cook until the leeks are tender (not stiff, but not completely translucent either), remove the lid & cook until the moisture has evaporated. Then add either some of the chicken roasting fat, or some butter to lubricate.
-   Take the pan off the heat, add the flour & stir in. Add the milk bit by bit over the heat to make a bechamel sauce. Once all the milk has all been added, bring to a boil, then put the heat down very low to let the sauce cook out, stirring occasionally. Add the mustard at this point.
-   After 5 mins take the pan off the heat & add the cheese. Once this has melted, add the chicken, black pepper & the squeeze of lemon. You don't need to add salt to this as there is already plenty in the pancetta & the cheese. Leave to cool slightly.

To Make the Pie
-     Preheat the over to 180C.
-    Cut the dough in half, roll out one of them thinly to use for the base and drape it over a greased baking dish. Make sure its big enough to cover the whole dish when carefully nudged right into the corners. (I have no idea what size baking dish to use; like anyone follows those guidelines anyway! Just use whatever you have that looks about the right size. We used a small loaf tin & that worked fine.) Egg wash the pastry base all over to help stop it going soggy.
-   Pour in the chicken filling.
-   Egg wash the edges, roll out the other half of dough to the right size & lay over the top. Crimp along the edges with a fork or your fingers & cut off the excess dough and generously egg wash the top. Cut a small hole in the middle of the lid to let steam escape.
-   Bake in the oven for 35-40 minute until the top is golden & crispy. Once out, let the pie rest for a few minutes before serving.