Not losing recipes since 2009
250g soup mix ( barley, lentils, peas)
2 medium potatoes- peeled and diced.
2 pints chicken stock (fresh home made)
2 carrots, peeled and dice
1 large sleek, diced
2 sticks of celery
1 cup fine chopped roast chicken
2 rashers bacon
Salt and pepper to taste
Soak the soup mix overnight, and boil in water for 40 mins to get it going
Fry the bacon and leeks
add the stock, soup mix, potatoes celery, carrots, boil for 30 mins
Add add the chicken, and boil for 10 mins. Stir well and season.
I found this recipe in an old 1930’s cookbook, and thought this is one to rescue.
Line a shallow pie plate (7 1/2 inches across) with sweet flan pastry. Filling:
For a brown stock, use the skin and carcus of a roast chicken? Break it into 3 or 4 big pieces so it takes less room in the pot. Add an onion, a couple of carrots and a couple of sticks of celery.talked halved). Cover with water, add a bay leaf and simmer for 90 mins.
This will give you a greasy, cloudy stock.Cool it in the fridge overnight.
Filter it using a sieve with cloth or kitchen paper in. This will remove the solidified fat, and any bigger bits from thestock.
Next, add 1-2 egg whites to the cold stock and whisk in. Put it in a pan and bring Botia simmer. A thick scummy crust will form on top as the egg whites cook. Don’t mix it in, orshimmer too hard. Let it cool a little, the re filtthorough acloth lined sieve.
Bingo, clear brown stock, with no fat.Salt to taste.
Serves 3-4
quantities below can vary a little – depending what you’ve got. If you’re short of pancetta/bacon then you may need a pinch of salt to season.
Pancetta, diced (100g tub max)
Mascarpone cheese (1 small tub)
parmesan chesse (1/4 cup, grated)
Pecorino cheese (1/4 cup grated)
1/4 pt double cream
1 clove garlic
1 tbl course ground black pepper
Dash of dry white wine
pasta of your choice – fusilli or fettuccine work well.
Get the pasta cooking. However long that takes to cook is how long you have left to cook the sauce. 6 mins maybe? you need to be prepared and ready! Fry the pancetta in oil, add the crushed whole garlic clove to the pan to flavour it all towards the end. Don’t let the garlic brown, but make sure it infuses the pancetta and oil. add a good dash of wine to the pan to deglaze, and remove the garlic (bin it). Once reduced to a syrup, add the mascarpone and melt gently. Once fluid, add the double cream. you should add enough cream to make the sauce the right consistency. add the cheeses and black pepper and mix till melted but not boiling. Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce.
The pasta will go in hot, so it will continue cooking for a few minutes – which means your sauce will go from perfect to thick and claggy really quickly. To combat this, you can either make the sauce a little runnier than you want it, or let the sauce cool for a couple of minutes before adding pasta, or (my favourite) retain a little of the starchy water when you drain the pasta, and add this back in to the sauce to loosen it off just before serving. (Remember a real carbonara uses eggs not cream/mascarpone, and uses the heat of the pasta to cook the eggs – so this is a workaround if you’re avoiding eggs)
I’ve been making bread on and off for years, but I’ve never made sourdough. So, here’s the first of the adventure in sourdough.
I’ve been reading up on it though, and have been brewing a starter for the last week. It’ll take a couple of weeks to get the starter ready, then I have to look after it every day until you need it again.
My starter is a 50/50 hydrated starter, 1 cup of strong flour, 1 cup of water. I mixed it and left it for 3 days (giving it a stir every now and then).
It seemed to be developing nicely. It bubbles gently, and smells of a mix of flour, bananas and pear drops. (from the reading I’ve done, this is apparently the right smell.)
On day 3 I fed it. I took out a cup of mix and binned it, then added just over 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water. On day 5 I fed it again.
I used a white bread flour for the starter, but have been feeding it a little Spelt too.
Tomorrow, I make bread..
At Christmas, my sister-in-law, Fran always makes a honey glazed ham, and it’s fantastic. The cleverness is in the glaze.
So, here’s my best guess at something like it.
Ingredients
Honey- about 3 tablespoons (clear, runny)
brown sugar- about 3 tablespoons
English mustard- I used 3 teaspoons of dry powder
Worcestershire sauce-again, about 3 tablespoons
A handful of maraschino cherries
A can of pineapple rings
Makes about 12
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup sr flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed, divided
1 large egg
1 cup (8 ounces) buttermilk or yogurt
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped
Preheat the oven to 200c
Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well. Mix in the buttermilk gently. (If you over-mix, the buttermilk will cause the mixture to curdle.) Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks.
Put into muffin tins and sprinkling the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar on top and bake.
I’m not sure how original this recipe is, Because I’ve been tinkering with it for years. According toWikipedia Fricassee is a ‘type’ of stew rather than an exact recipe – so I guess I’m fine. Anyway, here it is..
Coat the chicken with flour and put into a really hot Oiled pan.Turn once when browned-this. Gives it the deeply chickeny taste.
Add the wine garlic, just smashed, not cut or crushed, and fry for a moment.
Add the wine, salt and a little water so that the chicken is nearly covered.simmer gently till the chicken is tender (90mins +)
Remove the chicken from the stock, let it cool a little and remove the skin and bones.
Sieve the stock and put aside to let the fat float to the top (so it can be skimmed off)
In a pan, fany the shallots and mushrooms, add the stock with the fat removed. There should only be about 1/2 pint of stock. Reduce a little if theres toomuch.
Add back in the stripped chicken, and add the cream.
Check it’s seasoned properly, and serve. It’s good with rice or a baked spud. Mmmmmmm.
Pork belly, skin on, in a roasting pan, with foil on top.
cider (enough to cover the pork)
1 tblspoon sugar (less if using a sweet cider)
1/2 tsp salt
tightly wrapped, cook the pork for about 5 hours in a low oven (160c).
Take the pork out of the stock and into a plastic bag. but the pork between 2 chopping boards with a weight on, so that it cools perfectly flat. It’ll keep in the fridge for several days.
When you need it, you can cut a piece of pork and roast for 15 mins in a hot oven. The skin will crisp up and bubble (crackling) and the meat warm through again. serve immediately.
6 oz good dark chocolate
1/3cup butter
3/4cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup all plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup chopped nuts – hazelnuts or walnuts.
1/4 cup white chocolate chips
In a bowl, melt the chocolate and the butter together, stirring until smooth. Let cool slightly, then stir in the sugar, followed by the vanilla.
Stir in the eggs 1 at a time, then add the flour and salt. Stir until no traces of flour are visible, then add the nuts. Pour into a lined 8×8 baking pan, then bake for 22 to 25 minutes.
Let cool, then cut into squares.
(I’ve not made this yet, but it’s on the list to try soon!)