Tag: Recipe

One-Week Meal Plan, Part Two (Winter 2020)
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As we all start another period of “stay at home” safety measures across the UK and with winter weather and dark evenings firmly set in, evening meals are going to become a focal point for many families.  We’ve had plans in place for the possibility of a second lockdown that we’ll be sharing over the next week, but the first thing that I know I can do to help, in some small way, is to lean on my skills as a chef and share some more menu planning tips and another one week meal plan.

What follows is a suggested meal plan for a week of dinners (similar to the one that we shared in the spring).  For our vegetarian, vegan, dairy and gluten-free followers or those with other dietary needs, I apologise that not all of these dishes will work for you however I hope that you can still perhaps adapt some of these meals to your requirements or take inspiration from the core concept of carrying over key ingredients or leftovers into other meals.

Please click each link to be taken through to the web page with ingredients and instructions.

Sunday – Roast Shoulder of Pork, with roast potatoes and vegetables

Monday – Pork Tacos (using leftover meat from your Sunday roast)

Tuesday – Dosa (using leftover vegetables from your Sunday roast) (V)

Wednesday – Jamie Oliver’s Laksa (make vegetarian by leaving out the chicken)

Thursday – Lentil Ragu with pasta (V)

Friday – Nduja and Mascarpone Mussels (add mascarpone to this recipe!)

Saturday –Miguel Barclay’s Easy Veggie Paella (If you had chicken leftover from the Laksa then you could roast it, shred it and add to this)

Autumn Classic: Mushroom Stroganoff Recipe
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October is peak mushroom here in the UK. Whether you have the knowledge to forage (which is important, especially for hunting wild fungi as there are plenty of poisonous ones that look almost identical to edible varieties) or you get your mushrooms from the shops like most people do, at this time of year you should be able to get hands on some amazing mushrooms. Thanks to their firm texture and rich, earthy flavour they make an amazing substitute for meat in a lot of dishes – a favourite of mine being this mushroom stroganoff.

If you’ve got a vegan in your household then it’s really easy to turn this vegetarian dish vegan by using a vegan sour cream instead of the classic crème fraîche, or even to divide it into two pans right at the end before adding the crème fraîche and serve up both vegetarian and vegan options.

mushroom stroganoff

Ingredients

  • 500g mixed mushrooms (sliced) – white closed cup are fine, but choose chestnut, Portobello or flat for more flavour
  • 1 onion (chopped)
  • 2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
  • 4 small pickled onions, thinly sliced
  • ½ tbsp Dijon mustard
  • ½ tsp paprika
  • ¼ tsp smoked paprika
  • 200ml vegetable stock
  • 200 ml crème fraîche (or vegan sour cream if you want to turn this vegetarian dish vegan)
  • Lemon cut into wedges
  • Handful of fresh parsley

Method

  • Add a splash of oil to a heavy pan and gently fry off the onions over a medium heat for five minutes.
  • Add the garlic and pickled onions and fry for another couple of minutes until it’s all softened but not coloured, then remove from the pan to a plate and set aside.
  • Add another splash of oil to the pan, turn up the heat and fry the mushrooms until they are going golden brown.
  • Return the onion and garic to the pan, turn the heat down to medium, and stir in the paprika and mustard.
  • Pour in the stock, bring it up to a gentle simmer, and leave uncovered for five minutes or so.
  • Just before serving, reduce the heat and stir in the crème fraîche (or vegan sour cream), and some chopped parsley.
  • Serve with rice or potato rosti, sprinkled with more chopped parsley.

Cooking With Children: Gingerbread People
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Schools may be back, but with the darkening evenings and limits on gatherings still in place, and so many options for entertaining kids still off-limits, plenty of parents are still in need of activities to keep their little ones entertained.

Luckily, autumn is baking season (every season should be baking season really, but autumn particularly so thanks to bake off and our patisserie masterclass course), and getting your children involved in the kitchen is a lovely way to spend time together and start to develop some important life skills. This recipe for gingerbread people is an easy win because of the options for cutting out different shapes and decorating the biscuits after baking, even if that last stage can get a bit messy. But isn’t that half the fun? (It’s certainly more fun than the cleaning up!)

child cutting out gingerbread people from dough

Ingredients

  • 175g dark muscovado sugar
  • 85g golden syrup
  • 100g butter
  • 400g plain flour
  • ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tbsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 egg

Method

  • Place a saucepan over a medium heat and melt the butter, then add the syrup and sugar and stir until melted. Little people can help with this if you have a step for them to stand on, but supervise them the whole time. Bring to a gentle boil for a couple of minutes, then take off the heat and set aside to cool.
  • Get a large bowl and tip in all of the dry ingredients, then make a well in the middle. Beat the egg in a cup and pour into the well, followed by the cooled butter and syrup mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon, then once it has pulled together into a dough, knead it in the bowl. This can get difficult for younger children as the dough forms, so you may need to take over. You can add a bit more flour if the dough is too loose, but don’t worry about it being overly soft.
  • Cover the bowl with cling film or place the ball of dough in an old plastic bread bag or similar, and place in the fridge for about an hour.
  • Preheat your oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6
  • Take the dough out of the fridge and leave it for ten minutes or so to warm up a bit so that it is soft enough to roll out.
  • Dust your work surface with flour and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until 5-8mm thick – no thicker than a pencil. Use a cutter to cut out your gingerbread people (or any other shapes – Christmas trees if you’re doing this recipe later in the year, perhaps?), nesting the shapes close together to get as many biscuits out of your rolled dough as possible. Then bundle up the scraps and offcuts of dough, roll into a ball and roll out again so that you can cut out more biscuits. Repeat until you’ve used all of your dough.
  • Place your gingerbread people (or shapes) on baking trays lined with baking paper, being sure to leave some space between each biscuit so that they don’t merge together as they puff up in the oven. This recipe will easily make enough to fill two baking trays.
  • Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes. If you have two trays in the oven then swap them around half way through.
  • Take the trays from the oven and set aside to cool, then transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to cool completely, especially if decorating.
  • If you have any icing sugar or ready-made cake decorating icing (the little squirty tubes) then you or your small person can decorate the gingerbread, and you can also use it to stick on small sweets or chocolates for eyes or buttons, then leave it to set.

*When Christmas comes around, you can use this recipe to create six flat panels of gingerbread (two rectangular wall panels, two gable ends and two roof panels) and stick them together icing as mortar to make a gingerbread house. Children can decorate the house, and you can make gingerbread people and trees that they can use to create a wintery scene.

Recipe: Carrot, Orange and Cumin Salad
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This tasty salad is really easy, can be prepared in advance (like, the day before) and works amazingly as an accompaniment to so many dishes, particularly at barbecues. This recipe makes a large quantity, perfect for a socially-distanced barbecue with family and friends, but you can easily halve the quantities to make less.

Ingredients

  • 10 carrots, peeled and grated
  • 2 oranges Zest and juice
  • 3 tsp cumin seeds
  • 100g Sunflower seeds (optional)
  • 2 tbsp runny honey
  • 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 6–8 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 4 tbsp coriander leaves
  • 4 tbsp mint leaves
  • Sea salt

Method

  • Peel and grate the carrots and zest and juice the oranges.
  • Mix the carrots and orange juice and zest in a bowl.
  • Toast the cumin seeds in a dry frying pan for a few minutes.
  • In a pestle and mortar, grind the cumin seeds with a pinch of sea salt, then stir into the carrot mixture.
  • In a jug or bowl, stir the white wine vinegar into the sunflower oil.
  • Tear the coriander and mint leaves into the dressing.
  • Pour it over the carrot salad and mix well, then serve or cover and store in the fridge.
carrot, orange and fennel salad

Eat Well For Less: Pangrattato
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Honestly it’s a game changer…

Also known as “poor man’s Parmesan”, pangrattato is a penny-pinching classic from southern Italy makes a great pasta “sauce” in its own right but can be used in or on pretty much anything.  It takes a few minutes to make, and costs next to nothing.

Ingredients

  • Stale Bread
  • Garlic
  • Herbs – rosemary, thyme, oregano or sage are great
  • Olive Oil

Method

  • Blitz stale bread in a food processor, the drier the better and tip it out.
  • Blitz a handful of garlic cloves… if you like garlic then throw more in!
  • Grab any herbs you like. Woody ones are best, such as rosemary, thyme, oregano or sage. Blitz again.
  • Add the breadcrumbs back in. Whizz a few times.
  • Heat a frying pan or if you have made lots then spread it onto a baking tray.  Dress with plenty of olive oil and then toast until crispy and golden.
  • Leave it to cool and then put into a container. It lasts ages!

Use pangrattato to add taste and texture to dishes.  Eat it with pasta as a Parmesan substitute, perhaps adding a grating of lemon zest and some chilli flakes. Use it as an additional topping for any other pasta dish, to add texture to salads, as a topping for any stews and sauces, or as a breadcrumb mix for coating meat or veg such as roast cauliflower.  It’s quick, easy, and delicious.  You’ll wonder how you ever existed without it.

Live Well in Lockdown Recipe: Focaccia
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If you’re going to bake bread during lockdown, then bake great bread. Flour continues to be in short supply, so if you can get hold of strong bread or 00 flour then please, put it to good use; you won’t have any problems buying a loaf of regular sliced sandwich bread from the shops anymore, so push the boat out and bake something special. Like, focaccia:

Ingredients

  • 250g strong bread flour
  • 125g polenta
  • 125g 00 flour
  • 310 ml water
  • 10g salt
  • 80g olive oil
  • 7g sachet yeast or 14g fresh yeast
  • 1 tsp sugar

Method

  • Place the flours, salt, yeast, olive oil into a large bowl and then add 310ml of the water bit by bit. Gently stir with your hand or a wooden spoon to form a dough, then leave to stand for 5-10mins. This just allows the water to be absorbed.
  • Then, knead the dough in the bowl for five minutes
  • Stretch the dough by hand in the bowl, tuck the sides into the centre, turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat the process for about five minutes.
  • Tip the dough onto a well-oiled work surface and continue kneading for five more minutes. Return the dough to the bowl, cover and leave to rise until it’s doubled in size.
  • Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Tip the dough out of the bowl and flatten the dough onto the prepared tray, pushing to the corners. Cover with a large plastic bag, making sure it does not touch the top of the dough, then leave to prove for one hour.
  • Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7.
  • Drizzle the loaves with oil, sprinkle with fine sea salt. At this point, you can stud your loaf with rosemary and/or garlic, should you wish.
    Then use your fingers to poke some indentations in the top of the loaf, and pour a little bit of water over the loaf to create a bit more steam and give a nice crisp top. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. When cooked, drizzle your focaccia with a little more olive oil and serve hot or warm.

If you’re enjoying baking bread and wish to expand your repertoire, then when we’re out the other side of lockdown and it’s safe and sensible to run our cookery courses again, why not join us for one of our Bread and Baking courses?

Live Well in Lockdown Recipe: Gnocchi Al Forno
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If you don’t try this, you are missing out! An easy one-pan Italian classic using standard ingredients, if you’ve never made gnocchi al forno before then it is bound to become a regular on your menu, it is that good.

Ingredients

  • 250g beef mince
  • 1 red onion
  • 2 garlic
  • 1/2 carrot
  • 1 tbsp tom paste
  • 1 tomato
  • Glass red wine (good stuff)
  • Beef stock cube (optional)
  • Mixed herbs
  • Vac pac gnocchi, or freshly made if you have the time (check out our leftover root veg gnocchi recipe or Jamie Oliver’s potato gnocchi recipe.
  • Cheese to grate over – I used a mix of mozzarella, cheddar and parmesan, but you can use any of these on their own
  • 1 pan with an oven-proof handle

Method

  • Heat frying pan. Brown mince, colour is flavour. Finely dice veg.
  • Add veg, season. Sweat off 2 mins. Add wine. Then tom paste
  • Cook off, then add diced tomato. Cook for 2/3 mins. Add just enough stock/water to cover bottom of the pan.
  • Simmer 5 mins until reduced. You are looking for a “dry” bolognese.
  • Put sauce into a container, use a silicone spoon to get all the bits off.
  • Splash of oil in the pan. Put the gnocchi in and fry until you have mega colour.
  • Spoon the mixture over the gnocchi, cover with cheese (I mean cover) and grill until golden brown.
  • Consume your gnocchi al forno. Red wine to accompany is strongly suggested.

Remember calories don’t count in quarantine 🤫

Cooking With Children: Oat and Raisin Cookies Recipe
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If you are staying at home and have children, then you will no doubt be looking for ways to keep them entertained and occupied, even if they are school age and being set work by their teachers.  Cooking with children is a wonderful way to spend time with them and teaches valuable life skills, and simple baking using store cupboard staples is a great way to start.  And, if they’re young enough to make a game out of cleaning the kitchen afterwards, then all the better!

These oat and raisin cookies are easy to make and the method is quick enough that it should keep short attention spans engaged.  Including resting the dough in the fridge for half an hour and cooking time, you’ll have a batch of cookies within an hour.  You can swap out the raisins for other dried fruit such as cranberries, or a mix of dried fruit, or even chocolate chips if you like.

oat and raisin cookies

Ingredients

  • 125g  plain flour
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 115g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 100g brown sugar
  • 50g granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 150g rolled oats (porridge oats)
  • 150g raisins

Method

  • Preheat your oven to 180 (fan)
  • Combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl and whisk together, then set aside.
  • In another bowl (or in a food mixer with a paddle attachment), cream together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar for 1-2 minutes with an electric mixer or with a wooden spoon and some elbow grease.  Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until fully combined.
  • Add in the flour mix and combine, then mix in the oats and raisins.
  • Cover the dough and put it in the fridge for half an hour.  This will make sure they turn out nice and thick.
  • Line two large baking trays with greaseproof paper.
  • Take the dough out of the freezer and divide it in two, then divide those two pieces into two, and continue until you have 16 small lumps of cookie dough.  Roll them into balls and gently squash in your hand to make a nice thick cookie.
  • Place them on the baking trays, leaving a bit of space between each cookie as they’ll spread a little.
  • Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookie is set and the edges are starting to turn golden brown.
  • Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

One-Week Meal Plan
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If you have limited access to the shops at the moment then good meal planning and having a menu that makes the most of all of your ingredients is going to help enormously. As a chef, planning menus to create a variety of dishes using minimal ingredients is an ingrained skill, and it’s one that I can share easily. What follows is a suggested meal plan for a week of dinners. For our vegetarian, vegan, dairy and gluten-free followers or those with other dietary needs, I apologise that I haven’t had time to prepare a meal plan with options for specific diets. If that is you, then I hope that you can still perhaps adapt some of these meals to your requirements or take inspiration from the core concept of carrying over key ingredients or leftovers into subsequent meals.

Please click each link to be taken through to the web page to find ingredients and instructions.

Sunday – Roast chicken with thyme and onion gravy (Nigel Slater’s recipe), served with roast potatoes and vegetables.

Monday – Creamy chicken and thyme risotto, using leftover chicken and stock made from carcass.

Tuesday – Cauliflower cheese (Philleigh Way’s comfort food recipe)

Wednesday – Jamie Oliver’s chorizo hash, using leftover roast potatoes and with a handful of spinach added.

Thursday – Spinach and mushroom gnocchi frittata (BBC Good Food).

Friday – Hot smoked mackerel and potato salad (Waitrose Magazine)

Saturday – Mushroom Stroganoff with rice (Sainsbury’s Magazine)

Frugal February Recipe: Dosa with Coconut Sambal
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After Christmas credit card bills and annual tax returns at the end of January, February can be a frugal month for some. But how to reduce your food bill whilst still eating well? There are plenty of great recipes and £1 meal ideas out there, utilising cheaper ingredients, store cupboard staples and making the most of leftovers. This dosa recipe from our Indian Cookery Course is a great option, and makes for a fantastic brunch dish too if you put a fried egg on top.

Dosa’s are basically Indian pancakes, so you could always make these on Shrove Tuesday?

Coconut Sambal (Sort Of)

Ingredients

  • 1 shallot or small red onion
  • 1 red chilli
  • 1 large tomato
  • 1 tsp red wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp lime juice plus zest
  • 1 tsp mint sauce
  • small handful coriander
  • small handful flaked or desiccated coconut

Method

  • Finely dice the shallot and chilli
  • Add the red wine vinegar, lime juice and zest, and a pinch of salt
  • Heat a dry frying pan and toast the coconut until golden brown
  • Dice the tomato (you can do this with or without the seeds)
  • Add the mint sauce to your onion mix
  • Roughly chop the coriander
  • Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl, season, taste, and serve

Dosa

Batter Ingredients

● 1 cup of gram flour
● 1 cup of plain flour
● ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
● 2½ teaspoons mustard seeds

Filling Ingredients

● 2 baking potatoes, leftover baked potatoes or leftover mashed potato
● 2 sweet potatoes
● 1 dried red chilli
● 1 fresh red chilli
● 1 cm piece of ginger
● olive oil
● 1½ teaspoons mustard seeds
● 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
● 4 spring onions
● a few sprigs of fresh coriander
● 1 lime

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6.
  • For the dosa batter, add the flours to a large bowl with the bicarb, mustard seeds and a good pinch of salt. Gradually whisk in enough water, about 400ml, to make a loose batter.
  • Scrub and prick the potatoes and sweet potatoes, then bake until soft, Once cooked, cut the potatoes open, then scoop out the flesh and roughly mash. Alternatively, use up leftover baked potatoes, roasties or mashed potato.
  • Crumble the dried chilli and finely slice the fresh chilli, then peel and finely chop the ginger.
  • Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan over a medium heat, add the chillies, ginger, mustard seeds, turmeric and a good pinch of sea salt and black pepper. Fry until smelling fantastic and the mustard seeds start to pop, shaking the pan regularly.
Fry off your spring onions, chilli, shallot, ginger and salt.
  • Meanwhile, trim and finely slice the spring onions, and pick and roughly chop the coriander leaves.
  • Pour the spice mixture over the potatoes then gently mix together with a knife. Taste and season, if needed. Squeeze in the lime juice, add the spring onions and coriander, then mix together.
  • Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat, then wipe around and away with a ball of kitchen paper.
  • Add a spoonful of batter to the pan and immediately twist so the batter coats the base and slips up the edges. As soon as the moisture on top starts to cook away and there are lots of bubbles, add a few heaped teaspoons of potato filling and gently spread across the dosa.
Cook your batter mix in a hot pan, as you would a pancake.
  • Once the base is crispy, loosely roll up the dosa in the pan and you’re ready to go.
  • Delicious served with minted yoghurt, chutney and wedges of lime for squeezing over.
Flip the pancake, add a dollop of filling, and roll.
Serve with coconut sambal. You’re probably not going to only have one, though...

For more fantastic Indian cuisine and street-food recipes, techniques, tips and hacks, book on to our next full-day Indian cookery course (20th June or 23rd September 2020) or half day Street Food course on April 17th 2020.

Christmas Leftovers: Swede, Sprout and Paneer Curry
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If you’ve got a freezer full of leftovers and cupboards full of produce that you enthusiastically ordered too much of in the run up to Christmas, then here’s another recipe to help you make the most of it. Think of it as a “When Cornwall meets Calcutta” curry….via Christmas. Just trust me:

Ingredients

  • 2 x brown onions
  • 2 x cloves of garlic
  • 1 x thumb sized piece of ginger
  • A handful of red lentils
  • 1/2 swede
  • A handful of spinach
  • 1 x block paneer Indian cheese
  • A handful of brussel sprouts
  • 1 tbsp Tomato puree
  • 2 tsp garam masala
  • 1 tsp all purpose seasoning
  • 1 tbsp cider vinegar
  • 1 veg stock cube
  • 1 tbsp cherry tree hot garlic chutney (optional)
  • Small handful of mint & parsley

Method

  • Peel the swede and dice into large cubes, then trim the sprouts. Put a pan of boiling water on and drop the swede in. After 5 minutes, put the sprouts in and boil for a further 3 minutes. Then drain and pick out the sprouts.
  • Place the swede on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and season. Put into an oven at 180c.
  • Then roughly chop onions, garlic and ginger and heat a large saucepan with some oil. Put the onion mix into the pan and season. Soften the veg gently for 3/4 minutes. (if getting to hot, splash a bit of water on them)
  • As the onions start to turn translucent, add the spice mix then cook for a further minute. Then add the chutney, puree and vinegar.
  • Pour in the lentils and crumble in the stock cube. Stir thoroughly then add water a bit at a time.
  • Once the lentils are cooked and you are happy with the viscosity, begin to heat a frying pan and cube the paneer. Once hot, place the paneer into the pan with a touch of oil until nicely coloured. Transfer into the curry along with the swede, sprouts and spinach. Stir in (add more water if necessary).
  • Sprinkle in the herbs and serve with rice and naan bread.
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