Man Salad (Pigeon, Pear & Walnut Salad)

Salad for men. Or women who also like meat in
 their salad (**puts hand up**).

Haven't blogged for a long time. But don't worry, I have been eating. Just not much in the way of new recipes as we were still doing building work. And I had a baby. Keeps you on your toes but now have my cooking mojo back. Whoop! Here's a nice new one to ease us into Autumn...

Many men balk at the idea of a salad. Throw some meat in and suddenly they are interested. Throw in some perfectly seared, just on the right side of pink, tender as anything pigeon breasts and they will barge you out the way before you can say 'I thought you didn't do salad'. This is so quick to put together, properly seasonal for right now and substantial and delicious enough to keep both hungry boys and the girls happy.

Feeds 4. Boil approx 400g of baby new potatoes in salted water until just cooked. Next do the pigeon breasts as they need a little time to rest after cooking. Take 8 breasts and season really generously. Get a heavy bottomed frying pan super hot and heat some olive oil or butter. Sear the breasts for no longer than 2 minutes each side, you want caramelisation on the outside but still pink in the middle, without blood running all over your greens. Give them a squidge, cut one open, better to have to put them back in than over cook and ruin them). Take out and put aside to rest.

Now make the dressing. In a pestle and mortar bash a small clove of garlic and a few sprigs of thyme, leaves picked, with a pinch of salt to make a paste. Stir in 2 tsp of sherry vinegar (can use whatever type you want, I just love sherry) and 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil. Chop two quite firm pears into small cubes, no need to peel.

Slice each pigeon breast into about 3 strips. In a large bowl combine your salad leaves, (I like to use chicory, romaine, rocket, watercress and little gem, any combo, just one type is fine, do what you like) with the pear, two handfuls of either walnuts or toasted hazelnuts and pigeon. Toss with the dressing at the last minute, go easy, as you can always add more.

Get stuck in and feel good about your lunch choices. Until the cheese comes out that is...

Lamb with Braised Little Gems & Peas

That's summer, right there.

This is a less is more recipe. Something quite refined which I've never been very good at (see my lamb tagine recipe). This is I don't know why but I feel like this is quite grown up. It is super springy, a celebration of everything that is green and fresh, super light to eat, but in a sophisticated dinner way, not a salady way. Cooking lettuce feels a bit special, it's my new favourite thing, transforming a crisp tight bundle of bright green to something a little more mellow and soft, but still with a little refreshing bite. I'm still reeling from how easy and quick it was so make, it would be perfect for a dinner party served up in a massive shallow dish. I want to cook it again, now. 

Serves two. Heat oven to 200c. Slice four spring onions, half a fennel bulb, two garlic cloves finely, and quarter two little gems lengthways, removing the very end but leaving root so you get nice wedges. Rub approx 450g lamb neck fillet (a little goes a long way) with olive oil and season. In a hot oven-proof frying pan, sear the lamb really well on both sides, about 5 minutes each side, no more. Put straight into the oven for about 7 minutes, remove from oven and cover in foil. Meanwhile melt a generous knob of butter in a saucepan and saute the spring onions and fennel until softened but not browned. Add garlic and stir for one minute. Throw in a small glass of white wine, and perhaps take a slurp yourself. Once this has bubbled for a minute or so add the lettuce and two handfuls of fresh peas. Don't bother with frozen ones here, just don't. For the lazy (me) you can buy fresh podded peas, so no excuse. Add 300ml chicken stock (sooo much better with home-made) and let this simmer for about 5 more minutes, until the peas are cooked and the lettuce has wilted a bit. Season. Slice up the lamb and serve on top of a pile of the green vegetables and their now amazing brothy sauce. Stick a wedge of lemon on the side for good measure. 

This is so simple that it's kind of baffling how good it is, but you let the ingredients speak for themselves and they have a lot to say. Not in a loud shouty way, more of a pleasant soft murmering way. Don't overshadow them with too much garlic or lemon (I am the first to overdo flavours normally), stick to the recipe and enjoy summer on a plate. 

Chicken & Harissa One Pot (tray) Wonder

Camping but not camping

Oh how I feel bad about complaining about my tiny kitchen...that tiny kitchen was knocked down a month ago and oh how I long for my tiny kitchen again! Now I have a teeny tiny house, which is getting smaller by the minute, the husband assures me it will get bigger again (the builders come every day and do stuff outside but I can't help thinking this might be a nasty trick), and for now I am making do with enough space to stand in and that is all. The flip side is that  clever husband has managed to literally transplant the kitchen into our living room, so even though there is only enough room for a couple of hobbits (to be fair, I am roughly hobbit sized) I still have my oven, sink, dishwasher and hob. I say hob, but what I really mean is the CAMPINGAZ 200S!!! It's pretty sweet, it has too settings, high and very high, and after a bit of adjustment I'm getting used to it. 

Crap pic, but you get the idea. 

Cramped conditions call for easy cooking, more specifically one pot wonders. Nothing better than a delicious dinner that involves ramming a few key ingredients into a roasting tray and slamming in the oven. This is one of those. 

Feeds 2, but oh so easily doubled, tripled etc. Pre-heat the oven to 180c. Rub two free range chicken legs all over with a tablespoon of harissa each. You can buy it but if you can, make it (recipe here) as it keeps for ages and is so good in and with lots of things. You can cut some slits in the chicken to really let the flavour in. Put the legs in a roasting dish and add 8 cloves of garlic (skin on). I tend to tuck the garlic under the chicken, using the flappy bits as a weirdo kind of blanket for the garlic to stop it burning. Also add a couple of handfuls of baby potatoes, a big handful of cherry tomatoes, some thick wedges of lemon, season very well and pour over a glug of olive oil, giving it all a rattle/turn in the pan to coat. Throw it in the oven and once the chicken skin has gone all delicious and crispy you're done, between 30 and 40 minutes depending on how big they are. Give it all a shake halfway through to brown the spuds evenly and break up the tomatoes a bit. I served this with some spring greens tossed in butter and caraway seeds (TRY IT).

There were no leftovers and only one roasting tray (and one saucepan for the veg)  to wash up so I'm declaring it a success. Even if you have a massive kitchen, you should still cook this. 

Pork Chop For Wurzels Fans

No pink bits here

I haven't blogged for ages, and my Dad noticed and took the trouble to tell me that I hadn't done anything since the pizza post in September, so I thought I'd better pull my finger out. Especially since I have been cooking lots recently. I got a puppy and got married, both pretty time consuming past times, but now the wedding is over and I can turn by back on my puppy for more than 0.158 seconds before something terrible happens, I'm back, cooking more, and will try and blog more often. For selfish reasons really, it's easier to google a recipe on my blog than find the recipe book or remember how to make something. But I hope you can make good use of it too. 

This recipe, pork chops braised in cider, is somewhat perfect for the chilly weather we've been having recently (HELLO! IT IS FEBRUARY!) and is far easier than cooking a pork chop quickly, to perfection. Done quickly and perfectly it is a delight to behold, but all too easy to over-cook to the texture of a flip flop, or under-cook, in search of juicyness and serve up raw. We have an on-going hilaaarious joke in my house that I can't cook a pork chop, EVERY time I cook one for the Husband (that still feels so weird) there are pink raw bits and he won't listen to me when I tell him that all the fancy restaurants cook it slightly pink these days, I just get cries of 'But it's bleeeding'. Whatever.

Anyway, no danger of that here, the pork is slowly braised to forkable (is that a word?) softness, with a gorgeous cider sauce, just the right balance of sweet and tangy.

Feeds 2. Season two pork chops and brown really well in a little olive oil in a  casserole dish that fits them fairly snugly. Remove the chops, set aside, and soften a small sliced onion, adding more oil if you need it. Don't burn. Add a chopped clove of garlic after 5 minutes and after that has had a minute to cook put the pork back in and pour in approx 200ml of cider. I use Wild Wood, best cider ever, but it sometimes makes me scrimp on the cider in the recipe because I like to drink most of it. Add a good splash of water, give it a stir, and simmer on a low heat with lid on for about 45 minutes, turning the chops over half way. At this point the pork should be really soft, if not cook a little longer. If you have too much sauce then just quickly bubble on a higher heat for a bit. Add a big blob of creme fraiche and check seasoning, sprinkling with a little chopped parsley to lift it a bit. Perfect with mash, or wet polenta as pictured (easier than mash and no peeling, wooo!).

By this point you will almost definitely be slightly marinaded in cider as you had to do something productive while the pork cooked right? 

'Nduja Linguine - Pasta Sauce for grown-ups

The day I discovered 'nduja (en-doo-ya) was a very happy day indeed. There was a stage when every food writer/journo/blogger was banging on about it so I thought it's probably worth a try. It was worth many tries and I implore you to give it a go. 'Nduja is a spicy, spreadable sausage from Calabria, Italy, and it is made with potentially undesirable parts of a pig's head with a firey whack of chilli. You can buy it in chunks, wrapped in its casing,  (see left) and you can melt chunks of it in purpose made clay erm, melting devices, you can stuff rolled pork belly with it, make scotch eggs with it (I will be soon,) or you can do as I have done here, and very simply melt it in a pan and toss through some pasta. The flavour is unique and really quite punchy, a little goes quite a way.

Feeds one: This is a quick dish so start by getting your pasta on the boil, I like to use linguine, something about how it feels on my toungue, ooh err, I just love it, but use what you have. Gently fry half a finely chopped onion and a small minced clove of garlic in a little olive oil, in a medium saucepan and cook until nice and soft. Break off a thumb sized piece of 'nduja and push it round until it have broken up and melted, leaving you with vibrant red oil and tiny nuggets of pork. Drain the pasta when al dente and add to the 'nduja pan along with a handful of chopped flat leaf parsley, I like the freshness of it, although it's not essential. Mix the pasta and sauce really well and flop it into a bowl, topping with plenty of grated parmesan. In 8 or 9 minutes you have a bowl of pasta to be proud of, so twirl away and don't worry about the fact you're eating pig's head. 

Chicken Schnitzel - Because everything tastes good crumbed and fried right?

Well maybe not everything tastes better crumbed and fried, but many things do, and this includes chicken

breasts. I almost never buy chicken breasts, tending to favour thighs, for flavour and price reasons, but I wanted to try out a sexy looking recipe involving stuffing the skin of chicken breasts with nduja. So like a complete moron I bought skinless ones by accident. I was genuinely annoyed I couldn't make what I had planned, but then I remembered the old classic Schnitzel. The method of bashing the hell out of the poor unwanted chicken breast, covering it with bread crumbs and frying, keeps the chicken moist and delicious. Apart from using lots of plates, it's very quick, great for week-time suppers when the last thing you want to be doing is faffing around the kitchen with some complicated recipe best saved for an idle Saturday.

Feeds two. Take two unwanted (or indeed wanted) skinless chicken breasts, and between two sheets of clingfilm, bash like you've never bashed before. You want the finished article to be no thicker than 2cm.  Choose your weapon wisely, a thick rolling pin works well, as does an empty wine bottle. You could use a meat tenderiser too, I just remembered I had one and will be using that next time. Doh. Have one shallow bowl at the ready and lightly whisk an egg into it. Put a handful of seasoned flour on a plate, and on a third plate put a couple of handfuls of bread crumbs mixed with a tbsp chopped thyme leaves and the chopped zest of a lemon. Heat up a non-stick frying pan and add a tbsp olive oil. Meanwhile take one steam-rollered breast, dip first in the egg, then the flour and finally the breadcrumbs, making sure you have good crumby coverage. Over a medium heat fry this bad boy, not forgetting about the other one. They only take about 4 minutes each side so do watch that they don't burn, golden is the aim, not charcoal. Flip over once golden and fry the other side. Serve with something green and maybe some spuds* of some description. Really nice with a squirt of lemon.

You could do this with pork loin, or veal would be great too. Just make sure there is lots of flavour in your breadcrumbs, don't burn it and you can't go wrong. 

*I asked the Boyfriend if he wanted some sort of carbs with dinner and he said 'What are carbs?' Oh to be a boy!

And a partridge in a... roasting pot.

I have a confession. I've shot partridge many times, but never really got into eating them. A surplus of pheasant is the usual happy situation and so, when faced with a freezer full of partridge, I was keen to do the pretty little birds proud. Each bird feeds one person perfectly, and makes a great alternative to a roast chicken on a Sunday evening. This recipe is super simple and surprisingly quick, a one pot wonder (apart from veg) which is perfect when cooking dinner having had a few sharpeners down the local before hand.

Feeds two. Pre-heat the oven to 200c. In an oven proof casserole or deep baking tray, heat a glug of olive oil and brown two oven-ready partridge all over, seasoning as you go. Take the birds out and add two large hand-fulls of baby potatoes, or diced normal ones, along with a  couple of bashed garlic cloves. Move them around in the oil and give them a blast in the oven for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, stuff each partridge with a big knob of butter, a few sprigs of thyme and sage (or rosemary if you'd rather). Return them to the pot/tray, nestling them in with the potatoes and roast for 15-20 minutes, basting occasionally and give the potatoes a bit of a roll around. Prepare whatever veg you want with it and get stuck in. I kind of forgot to make gravy from the pan but the meat was so moist it didn't really matter.

You might need to go a bit caveman on the partridge, especially to get the meat off the legs, but it should be juicy and delicious. Pick it up with your hands and just go for it.

Pre Party Rabbit

Gone are the days when eating before going out for a night on the lash was unnecessary. 'Eating is cheating' was the mantra. I secretly never liked this, as I just love eating too much, but there was always the kebab on the way home to look forward to. These days I like to line my stomach. Eating is not cheating, but a way to lessen the likely-hood of ending up face-down on the dance floor (but not a guarantee) and will certainly add a bit of longevity to the evening's festivities. 

I was on holiday with two girlfriends in Spain recently, Lanzarote to be precise, and determined that we were not too old to impersonate the teens on 'Sun, Sex & Suspicious Parents' we partied like 17 year olds on day release from dull summer jobs. I reckon it was all down to this rabbit stew but apparently the helpful barmen had something to do with it too. 

Eating is most definitely not cheating

Feeds three for dinner with enough sauce for a restorative pasta sauce a few days later. 

Take one jointed rabbit and brown well in some olive oil in a big saucepan. Remove and set aside. In the same pan gently fry one finely chopped onion for five minutes, then add a couple of cloves of finely chopped garlic and continue until softened. Add more oil if you need it. Pour in a glass of white wine and let it bubble away the alcohol for a minute or so (don't worry, there will be plenty of booze later). Return the rabbit to the pan along with a tin of passata or chopped tomatoes and a big teaspoon of hot paprika. Simmer gently with the lid on for about 40 minutes, or until the rabbit is very tender and easy to remove from the bone. Add a tin of drained chickpeas 10 minutes before the end of cooking, add a decent slurp of single cream or creme fraiche and season well. Slop into bowls with some crusty bread and top with some chopped flat leaf parsley. If you're a bit of a wuss with bones, by all means take the meat off the bone, but we had horrible cocktails beckoning us so I didn't have time. 

Go out and party, safe in the knowledge that your Mother would be happy with the sensible dinner you have just eaten, and don't worry too much about falling in a cactus round about 6am on the way home. 

To Sear or Not To Sear? A Beef Carpaccio Dilemma

For many meat lovers, a beautiful beef carpaccio is a sight to behold. Ruby red wafer thin slices of raw fillet beef artfully displayed, ready to almost dissolve on your tongue, with some kind of crunchy vegetable adornment slicked in a tangy vinaigrette, pure heaven. To others, it's simply raw beef, and un-thinkable. Well think again. Never one to go cheapo on his guests, my Dad loves to 'make' carpaccio and it's always divine. Last week however, he took Jamie Oliver's  advice and seared the fillet first. He was rather concerned about this, but I thought it was a great idea. The beef would still 99% raw, but you get the divine flavour from searing it which simply does not exist with the fully raw one. If you want to get technical, read this about the 'Maillard' reaction which goes to some lengths to explain why you sear meat for a casserole, why it tastes good, and why it is important.

Or you could just cook take a very decent fillet of beef (you only need a little per person so no need to go overboard, Dad), rub a little olive oil all over it, season really well, and sear on all sides in a very hot pan, no need to add any more oil as you've oiled your beef already. If the pan is hot enough it should only take a minute or two per side, you want a deep golden brown colour all over. Slice as thin as you can and serve on a pretty place, sprinkled with shaved fennel, a little grated orange zest, rocket, shaved Parmesan, a dribble of extra virgin olive oil and a little more salt and pepper. 

Searing the beef makes it much less 'scary' even though it is still essential raw. The searing troubled Dad for some reason, he couldn't slice the beef as thinly as when it's all raw and semi frozen (helps you slice it thinner as it stays firm), but I can't see the harm in freezing it once seared and then slicing it.

What Dad should have been worried about was how much his head would hurt the next day, after staying up well past his bedtime with my Godfather, un-supervised, with a bottle of brandy. The beef was delicious, his hangover was not.

Daube Provencal, snow food at its best

Check out the fancy pasta!

If there was ever a time to use food as a hot water bottle, it is NOW people! We need to be warmed from the inside out and this recipe for beef daube provencal really hits the spot. There are many different versions of this very classic French dish but this is mine and it works nicely. Perfect for entertaining as the hard work (not even mildly strenuous actually) is done the night before.

Feeds 4. Take a kilo of beef braising steak, and if not done already, cut into smallish chunks. Put in a big bowl. Add to the bowl the following ingredients in no particular order: a bouquet garni of parsley, bay and thyme, two onions, finely chopped,  three cloves chopped garlic, one hot crushed dried chili, two celery stalks finely chopped, a couple pared slices of orange zest, half a bottle of red wine, a decent glug of brandy, salt and pepper, one large finely chopped carrot and mix well. Stick in the fridge overnight. When you are ready to cook pre-heat the oven to 160c. Carefully remove the beef from its marinade and pat dry on kitchen roll. Take a big casserole and brown the meat well in some olive oil. Remove and put to the side. In the same pan fry a decent handful of diced smoked bacon or pancetta and when crispy and coloured, scoop out all the veg from the marinade bowl, add to the pan and cook for 10 minutes until softened. Add the meat back, along with the rest of the marinade and a tin of chopped tomatoes. Mix well, bring to the boil and place covered, in the oven. Cook for at least three hours but keep checking that it hasn't dried out, add more wine or some water if it does. When finished the beef should have really broken up, not in chunks anymore, more an appetising meaty mush, that tastes mush nicer than anything called mush. When you dish up, remove the herbs and orange zest. It's great with mash but I think it works best with some nice fat fettuccine, or even better, exciting fancy multi-coloured pasta I got for Christmas from my Auntie!

The French might be furious that I eat this with pasta but who cares, it tastes divine. The orange is subtle but sets it apart from a normal ragu. You can jazz it up with a gremolata of chopped parsley, raw garlic and a little lemon zest, but you might not notice the lovely soft flavours so much. Either way it will warm your bones.

Chorizo & Chickpea Stew (to put it simply)

Yawn yawn yawn. How many times have you seen a recipe like this? It's in every cookbook entitled something like '100 quick and easy meals'. It's so simple and store-cupboardy and BORING, but I had a load of chorizo and chick peas and decided I'd make something with them. What a revelation, it was so bloody delicious I couldn't believe I hadn't bothered in the past! With chorizo, a little goes a long way and how cheap are chick peas? Um very. It's super quick, easy and simple. AND it's a one pot wonder. So all in all a winner.

Feeds 4. Take the skin off a medium sized ring of chorizo and slice to roughly the thickness of a £1 coin. Get  a casserole dish on the hob and when hot, throw in the chorizo (note that no oil is needed). Keep it moving and cook until it starts getting crispy and releases all it's lovely orangey paprika-ry oil. Add one big finely sliced onion, some chilli flakes, three chopped cloves of garlic and a couple of finely chopped celery sticks. Cook for about 10 minutes, a little more gently until softened. Add two tins of tomatoes, a tsp of sugar and two tins of drained chickpeas (or the equivilent of dried ones that have already been cooked, even cheaper). Season well and let it bubble away for about 10 minutes until thickened. Check for seasoning and serve with a bit of chopped flat leaf parsley artistically scattered over the top.

For some girls (I'm including myself here at the moment as I'm trying to reduce my general intake of er, everything) this is enough on its own (I actually plonked the stew on top of a bowl of wilted baby leaf greens), but to man it up a bit some cous cous adds some bulk. This was so tasty I didn't even add any Tabasco. That's saying something.

Pigeon Wellie

Living up to expectations is something we all attempt at times, and I had a request to cook pigeon wellington for a little dinner party I put together for my old Dad. Having never cooked it before, even with beef, I turned to my friend Google who came up with lots of annoyingly different versions, so I came up with my own (although I am aware this is hardly break-through cooking as it is a very simple dish to make). One of Dad's favourite things in the world is the delectably controversial foie gras, so it made sense to use that to add both sweetness and depth, and a bit of moisture for those little weeny pigeon breasts. I made six but you  can very easily change the recipe to make as few or as many as you need.

Take a dry frying pan, get it hot and dry fry one finely sliced chestnut mushroom per person, sprinkling over a little salt. This will draw out the moisture to help avoid soggy welly syndrome. Put the mushrooms to the side, once they have dried out again, In the same frying pan, heat a splash of oil and flash fry two pigeon breasts per person and season as you go. Literally just seal the meat, but make sure the pan is hot enough to get a nice colour very quickly. Put the pan to the side and DO NOT WASH IT UP! You need those juices for your sauce later. You will need one roll of puff pastry for two wellingtons, and it's just a matter of construction now! Cut an un-rolled piece of pastry into two pieces. Put a single layer of mushrooms towards the bottom of the piece, in the middle, put two pigeon breasts on top and then place slices of foie gras pate on top. Brush egg wash around your little pile and fold the pastry over. Gently push the edges down and cut away any excess pastry, and brush the whole package with egg wash to make sure it goes golden brown. If you really want to test your creative skills, cut out a little pigeon shape from the pastry trimmings and place on top of each welly. When they are all ready, cook in a pre-heated oven at 180c for about 20 minutes (really it's as soon as the pastry is cooked as the pigeon wants as little cooking as possible). De-glaze the pigeon pan with a splash of red wine and make a nice little gravy (or jus if you have your fancy pants on). This is magic with celeriac remoulade which I will post later.

Don't be too shocked, as I was, when the wellingtons have almost doubled in size, the clue is in the name, puff pastry.

Slightly Greek Slow Roast Lamb

A carving-free zone, thank God. 

Carving meat has never been my strong point. I have been known to reduce a perfectly roasted chicken into undignified smithereens, a mess on the carving board that looked anything but appetising. I always feel a contradiction of emotions when the time comes to carve; pride that I have cooked dinner, but a teeny amount of disappointment in myself that although I have cooked it, I can't carve it properly, and even more shame that I don't really mind and kind of like hollering for The Boyfriend to come and do his job. It has always been that way though in my family, Mum would slave away only to call Dad to carve (and get clawed by the cat until he succumbed and gave him tit bits). The point of this little insight into my Sundays is to announce that I can't carve, and to give praise for the gift of the slow cooked joint, in this case lamb. After 5 or 6 hours, even I can take two forks or even two pairs of tongs and rip away to my heart's content, tearing the soft threads of meat and pulling the bone clean away with minimal effort. I cooked this yesterday and started out wanting to cook Klefitico ( I love a Greek theme) but I didn't want it to be all tomatoey, so, er, I left the tomatoes out and improvised.

Feeds 6. Pre-heat the oven to 180c. Take a large deep roasting tin and double line with long pieces of foil in both directions. Now line again with a long piece of baking parchment. Slice three onions thickly and take a whole bulb of garlic and cut in half horizontally. Put all this in the tin with a few bay leaves. Place a leg of lamb in the tin and rub with a mixture of seasoned olive oil and oregano (dried is fine). Pour a generous glass of white wine into the tin. Bring the baking parchment up over the lamb and then the foil, making a nice parcel that won't let the juice out. Put in the oven for about 5 hours. Then you...oh, that's it.

I cooked this for a Saturday night supper with friends, and roasted some chopped skin-on potatoes which I then put in a massive dish with the lamb and poured all the juice and onion over. I made a yoghurty garlicky sauce to go with it. Or you could do proper roasties and have this on a Sunday. Either way, give the meat a good 15 minutes rest with some foil on top before you shred the meat to pieces and grin with satisfaction as you grab the bone and it comes away in your hand.

Coq Au Vin Risotto

Pink risotto, what more could you ask for?

Yeah, you heard me. I love a risotto made with red wine rather than white, but normally I slather it in a sinful dollop of melty blue cheese sauce and feel guilty for, oh, about 5 minutes. This does what it says on the tin. I like coq au vin, I like red wine with my roast chicken and I like risotto. A happy French-Italian partnership. Perfecto! I nearly always make chicken and tarragon risotto with Sunday roast leftovers and it was nice to have a change. I used spring onions instead of normal ones for a slightly different taste and the green flecks looked pretty. And I like pretty.

Genius rice box

Feeds two. Melt a knob of butter and gently fry the white bits of 5 spring onions that have been finely chopped into rounds. Save the green bits. After they have started to soften, add a big finely chopped clove of garlic or two. After a further minute of cooking add approx 2 big hand-fulls of Aborio risotto rice (the packet always says 75g per person but as a greedy mare I don't think this is enough). With risotto I always end up with too much, but far worse things can happen in life. Stir well and make sure all the rice is coated in butter and glistening, and pour in a glass of red wine. You know the rest, let it absorb, stirring all the time, then add hot chicken stock (don't be lazy, make your own, it takes all of 3 seconds after a roast and you end up not wasting anything) ladle by ladle, making sure it is absorbed by the rice before adding more, until the rice is plump and cooked, but not too mushy. You will need about a litre in total, possibly less. About two ladles before it is done, add the finely chopped green parts of the spring onions you were dealing with before. In a separate little frying pan, fry a hand-full of diced pancetta until super crispy and add to the rice (it's crispier this way rather than frying it with the spring onions at the beginning). One ladle before it is finished add shredded leftover roast chicken and some mushrooms if you like (for real coq au vin you need them but they are on the very long list of dislikes belonging to The Boyfriend). Before serving stir in a hand-full of freshly grated Parmesan and top with some chopped parsley and more Parmesan.

Devour, curled up on the sofa and tease The Boyfriend that his has been thrown in the bin due to his lack of presence at dinner time. I would never be that wasteful, but I did make him panic for just the right amount of time which is until he nearly had a hungry nervous breakdown and nearly resorted to a Burger King at Waterloo.

Paella, the clever person's risotto

Paella Valenciana

Why clever you ask? Well, the Spaniards, as opposed to the Italians, in my opinion have the upper hand with their most famous rice dish as you don't have to stand there for 20 long minutes stirring and adding stock, ladle by ladle, patiently waiting until the moment it is cooked perfectly. Which can be easily missed, if like me, you can't cook risotto without adding wine, ladle by ladle to yourself. I would never cook risotto for a dinner party as it's just pointless as you really need to give it lots of attention, you can't just leave it. I always shout NOOO when on Come Dine With Me I see risotto on a menu, predictably the poor starving guests will be left alone while the 'chef just pops to the kitchen to START cooking his main course. Aargh! Risotto is amazing for a comforting supper when timing doesn't matter and The Boyfriend doesn't want to see you until dinner is ready anyway (hmmm that's every night), but Paella on the other hand is a genius dish. Dinner party friendly it can be started in advance, and those plump little grains of bomba rice actually don't like being stirred, preferring to cook all by themselves, leaving you free to fill up wine and forget to put the olives out for your guests.

Not all paellas are full of expensive seafood and I think this one, from Valencia (where I believe Paella is originally from) which is full of land-dwelling beasts instead, namely chickens and pigs, is better suited to being cooked and eaten in the UK when the sun isn't shining. It is an excellent dinner party dish, is a one pot wonder and you get lots of oohs and aahs when you plonk it on the table.

Feeds 6. Take a large pinch of saffron and make a little foil parcel for it, fully enclosing it.  Take your largest frying pan and dry toast the package for 2 minutes then set aside. Turn the heat up to max, sprinkle salt around the edge of the pan and add a splash of olive oil. Brown 6 chicken thighs and 6 pork spare ribs really well. This provides a lot of flavour so do it properly. Stir about a bit and add 2 grated tomatoes*, 1/2 tsp sweet smoked paprika and the saffron (not the foil, obviously). Cook for 5 minutes, evaporating most of the water from the tomatoes. Add 2 litres of chicken stock and bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Now add about 2 big handfulls of chopped runner beans and 500g bomba paella rice, and seasoning, making sure it is all evening spread. Cook on a high heat for 12 minutes, don't stir, have another glass of wine instead. The rice will sort of steam itself. So clever. Place a rosemary spring on top, turn to lowest setting and cover with foil for 5 minutes. Then turn the heat off, remove the foil and leave for another 5 minutes before serving.

It's nice to plonk the pan on the table and let people help themselves. No dodgy sangria required.

*Most genius cooking tip I ever read, if you grate a tomato, the flesh and juice gets pushed through and the skin, which you don't want anyway gets left behind, try it!

Harira - Warming food for erm, July

Proper Summer food...(English summer)

Well last week was glorious and full of sunshine and barbies, but as I watch the men's beach volleyball in the rain (from the safety of my dry sofa) it's time for a reality check, and something hot and lovely for supper. Officially a soup from Morocco, harira is a divine slow cooked one pot wonder that is big on flavour, meat and pulsey goodness. It's cheap, using the thriftiest of cuts of lamb and bulked out with chickpeas and lentils, making it rather good for you (watch out for a bit of bum trumpet action later though). Make it in bulk so you have something gorgeous to call on from the freezer as you trudge home from work in the rain. In July. Again. This dish almost has me hoping for miserable weather as it's just that good. Thank you Moro cookbook, once again.

Soft and melty meat

You will need approx 350g lamb, use neck (fillet chopped up into large chunks or use neck chops) or shank. Put the meat into a large saucepan, cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Skim off the manky scum which appears. Throw in a finely chopped onion, 3 finely chopped celery sticks, a pinch of saffron, 1/2 a tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp turmeric and 1tsp ground ginger, a large bunch of coriander, chopped and 5 grates of fresh nutmeg. Give it a good season and simmer for 30 minutes. Now add 100g small green lentils and 120g cooked chickpeas (you can add more if you want to stretch the soup out a bit) and simmer for another 30 minutes. Remove the meat and shred it up, removing any nasty membrane/fat and taking everything of off the bones, if there are any. Return the meat to the pan with a decent squirt of tomato puree. Mix 3 tbsp flour with 50g water and add that along with the juice of a lemon (this gives the harira a wonderful tang). Taste for seasoning, it can take a fair bit of salt, and keep cooking until the lentils are really soft. Melt in a few knobs of butter, scatter over another bunch of chopped coriander and serve with a wedge of lemon. 

Dig in, eat way too much and laugh at The Boyfriend, who now can't move as he thought he needed cous cous with it. You don't.

Putting 'Possibly the Best Chicken Recipe' to the test: Tarragon Chicken

Oooh lala!

Having woken from my second snooze on the 15 minute train journey home, I opened my Metro to the foody bit (the only bit I like after 'Guilty Pleasures') and was faced with a recipe claiming to be 'possibly the best chicken recipe in the world'. Wow, what a claim. Call me fickle but I was sold. I also liked the fancy French name: Poulet A L'Estragon. The fact that I cook tarragon chicken all the time didn't matter. This was different. French. Posher. And more importantly it was simple, looked delicious and I had chicken legs, tarragon, creme fraiche and white wine at home. No post-work trip to the supermarket for me. Smug. I changed the method a bit just for ease.

Feeds 4. Pre-heat the oven to 180c. In a big oven proof proof casserole dish, brown 4 chicken legs really well in some olive oil, get them nice and golden. Throw in a very large glass of white wine, and treat yourself to a slurp, Floyd stylee. Add 5 sprigs of tarragon. Stir well to mix the wine with the juices and move to the oven for half an hour, uncovered. Now remove the chicken to a plate and keep warm (I find that if you cover with foil the skin can lose it's crispness, so just put it in the oven which is now turned off). Get the pan on the hob and bubble up the juices, stir in 3tbsp creme fraiche and stir to melt it all in, along with another 5 sprigs of tarragon. Serve the chicken with the sauce on top. If entertaining, you can make it pretty by getting a big shallow platter, throw in some boiled new potatoes, arrange the chicken legs on top and pour the sauce over everything. It drips down over the potatoes, covering them in delicious creamy winey goodness.

Enjoy with friends, plenty of wine, and make the most of the final few weeks of not having neighbours. A little Edith Piath might have suited the dinner, but instead we had Cyprus Hill and Aphex Twin. Tres bien.

Spring Lamb Stew (Stews aren't just for winter)

AND you get 3 of your five a day...

Don't be put off by the word stew in the title. This is the most heavenly light concoction imaginable, yes it's a stew and yes there is red meat but this is super light and flavoursome, with a sort of herby broth that the lamb sits in, with it's pea and asparagus friends bringing the humble stew out of it's heavy comfort zone and into one of refreshment and delicate flavour. The lamb provides so much flavour and the freshness of the lemon zest and tarragon really let it sing.

Feeds four. In a casserole dish, brown 500g of diced lamb in a splash of olive oil (neck is good for this). Remove and set aside. Now gently fry a large sliced onion and a couple of peeled and diced carrots until slightly softened. Add a glass of white wine (one for the stew, one for chef) and let it reduce down to half. Tie together five sprigs of thyme, a small handful of parsley stalks (you use the leaves later) and two bay leaves and add to pan. I didn't have any string so just bunged it all in. Return the meat and any juices to the pan, season really well and add enough water to nearly cover the meat. Cover and simmer gently for about an hour. At this point check the meat, it needs to be really soft and tender, if not it needs longer, and if it's drying out a bit just add more water. When the meat is 10 minutes off being perfect throw in a big handful of peas, frozen or fresh. 5 minutes later add a big bunch of asparagus, woody ends snapped off and cut diagonally into little pieces. Stir well and give it a final 5 minutes. Chop up the parsley leaves from earlier,  a handful of fresh tarragon, two fat garlic cloves and zest of one lemon. Add half of this to the pan, stir well, serve up, and sprinkle the rest over the bowls to serve. Great with cous cous (none of the lovely juices are wasted) but potatoes, gnocchi, anything would be good.

Eat while watching the rain come down and lament our interesting weather. At least you can eat like it's summer.

Zesty chicken thighs to make your BBQ swoon

Gas is for cissies

Oh, ok, so we skipped spring and went straight to summer. I have no problem with this at all, except for that moment of panic when I forgot what clothes I normally wear in hot weather (it's been sooo long!). I will ignore the fact that the rain is returning next week and pretend this is it for the next couple of months. Divine. I would put money on the fact that I'm not the only sun-lover planning BBQ based treats for what is set to be a magic weekend of sun. Therefore it was only right to share one of my favourite recipes for chicken on the barbie. I hope you like it as much as I do. Boneless chicken thighs are pretty much made for a charcoal grill. Don't be talking to me about gas ones, where is the fun in flicking a switch when you can play with coal, fire lighters and paraffin to your heart's content? However trying to pry the liquid paraffin from The Boyfriend's hands (for the sake of safety, for us, and surrounding trees) can be challenging. I served this with barbecued asparagus and some steamed courgette ribbons tossed with a bit of crumbled feta and a simple dressing of lemon juice and olive oil.

As this is a marinade it's all a bit loose in quantities, but the following recipe is enough for about 12 boneless chicken thighs. Add the following to a dish big enough to fit your chicken thighs in one layer: 6 chopped garlic cloves, either a load of dried chilli flakes or chopped red chillis, the grated zest and juice of four limes, a tbsp of  freshly crushed coriander seeds, a tbsp paprika (any type but smoked really), lots of salt and pepper and a decent glug of olive oil to loosen it up. Mix well, add the chook, coat it really well in the marinade for at least a couple of hours, and then cook on the barbie. The skin gets beautifully crispy and the dark thigh meat stays gorgeously moist, shun those chicken breasts immediately. When cooking, make sure you keep turning the meat though, otherwise you end up with crunchy carbon which is just gross. Of course you could do this with bone-in thighs or drummers or whole legs, but they are super easy to eat boneless.

And when you have a pair of tongs in one hand and a glass of wine in the other, easy to eat is preferable.

Curry goat, definitely NOT goat curry

I'm not sure how many people squeal with delight when they see their on line meat people have started supplying goat, but I was definitely one of them. Because it meant I could cook curry goat. Exciting times. You can use lamb or mutton but it won't be the same, still nice though. You've got to love Caribbean flavours, scotch bonnet heat, but also immense fragrance from cinnamon, cardamon, cloves and tang from tomatoes and the all important HP sauce (authentic according to Hugh F-W who I know isn't exactly Mr Reggae Reggae sauce but I threw it in anyway (this is based on his recipe). You need time and love to make this, time to let it marinade for 24 hours (you are allowed to peek at the pretty bowl of explosive flavour every now and again but do let it marinade properly). You need love to grind the spices, time consuming but oh so worth it. This is worth doing in large batches, not really extra work and like all curries it's great re-heated. You end up making more spice mix than needed but keep and use another time, would be an awesome rub for the barbie.

Good things come to those who wait

Feeds 5-6. Before you get meaty, make the Jamaican curry blend by dry roasting 12 cardamon pods, 1tbsp coriander seeds, 1tbsp black peppercorns, 1tbsp fenugreek seeds and a cinnamon stick, then pulverise in a pestle and mortar or spice grinder (that's the hard bit). Mix with 1tbsp each of ground ginger and turmeric. 

Cut 2kg goat into big chunks, bone allowing, and remove any big fatty bits (goat is reaaaally fatty). Take a big bowl, put in 2 big tbsp of the spice mix, 3 large chopped tomatoes, 3 chopped garlic cloves, 2 chopped onions and 1 or 2 scotch bonnet chillies, a tablespoon of thyme leaves, a big squirt of HP sauce and the chopped stalks of a biggish bunch of coriander (save leaves for later). Mix well and combine with the goat. Really rub it in to the meat, using gloves, if like me, you wear contact lenses, as it ain't fun when you come to take them out...Leave to marinade in the fridge, ideally overnight but at least 6 hours.

Time to cook. Brown the meat in a big casserole, in batches, knocking off extra marinade bits.Set aside. Now throw in the remaining chopped onion and tomato left over in the bowl and cook for a bit until softened. The smell should be making you behave very oddly by now. Add the meat, juices, a pinch of salt and enough water to cover the meat. Bring to the boil and then put in the oven, at 130c (you can cook gently on the hob if you like). Give it 2.5 to 3 hours. Serve with plain rice (I love rice and peas but I would find it a bit rich with this) and sprinkle with lots of coriander.

Throw the bones in a bowl in the middle of the table as you go, with a carnivorous flourish and marvel at how melty and full of flavour  Billy Goat Gruff can be.