Potato & Mushroom Dauphinoise

I made this to accompany simple baked salmon and steamed oriental vegetables.

For the Dauphinoise (and blue cheese sauce):
Two medium potatoes and one handful of sliced mushrooms per person. To soften the spuds you can either par-boil them or follow my cheat's tip and slice them first and then nuke for about 3-4 minutes in a closed casserole dish. They do not require any additional water as they steam in their own moisture.

Grease an ovenable dish and put in one layer of potatoes, followed by a layer of mushrooms, finishing with another of potatoes.

A friend - one of the most inspired chef-restaurateurs I have ever come across - had given me a tub of blue cheese and mushroom sauce, made with dolcelatte; it was getting close to the end of its natural life.

If I'd cooked this from scratch I would have made a basic white sauce - milk and cornflour, probably - and crumbled in some blue cheese; as the sauce I'd been given was quite strong I diluted 3 dessertspoons of it with an equal amount of double cream and poured this over the potatoes and mushrooms, making sure it seeped into the gaps. This was then baked in a hot oven for about 45 minutes.

When I first met Hannah she had a lifelong aversion to fish and carrots - she's still allergic to shellfish - but is now happy to eat salmon (and battered fish from the chippy).

The salmon was wrapped with one rasher of bacon each, secured with a cocktail stick, and baked in a hot oven for about 20 minutes.

 

Hannah also knew there was some shredded carrot in the vegetable bed but did not insist I pick the bits out before serving hers. I marinated a stir-fry mix from the supermarket  in 1 dessertspoon of olive oil, the same of sesame oil; 1 dessertspoon of soy sauce, 1 tsp of ginger puree and 1 tsp of balsamic vinegar. After about half-an-hour I drained the veg and steamed for about 10 minutes (washing my steamer reservoir out afterwards).

Braised Beef Casserole

I had some button mushrooms in the fridge which had seen better days; I also had some (pickling) onions - picked up at a reduced price on the first day of trading at the new Morrisons - plus some cauliflower, broccoli and some carrots given to me by Hannah's ma. Real stew (or casserole) fare...... What did suprise me, when I popped the 200 yards to the supermarket, was that silverside was a £1 cheaper per kilo than skirt. I cut the meat into 2cm-thick slices, sealed the steaks in a hot pan, deglazed with some lightly salted water, and into a closed casserole on a bed of mushrooms. Cook in a medium oven (Mark 5) for about an hour, add the peeled onions and top with sliced potatoes.

After a further hour, check that everything is cooked; drain the cooking liquor into a saucepan, season with gravy granules and thicken with cornflour. Return the gravy to the dish and serve. Yum!

Garlic Mushroom & Carrot Salad

I bought the mushrooms thinking that October was going to be stews and casserole weather......

The recipe itself was devised after being served something very similar recently by my old friend (and chef extraordinaire) Pete Horsley.

2 handfuls of button mushrooms, wiped clean, in a marinade of 1 dstsp of olive oil, 1 dstsp of sesame oil, 1 tsp crushed garlic, 1 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp balsamic vinegar and a pinch of S+P.

Marinate in the fridge for a couple of hours and add 2 heaped dstsp of grated carrot about 15  minutes before service. Enough for 2 people.

Basket Case

The-girl-who-came-to-dinner was back on the unposh side of the Mersey tonight - scrounging tea off some old friends - so I was able to indulge myself with shellfish and carrots: one she's allergic to, and the other she simply has a phobia about! This was really just scampi and chips with coleslaw - but everything with a twist.

I can't take any credit for the breaded prawns with coconut - Hannah introduced me to this wonderful cut-price emporium in Old Swan, which I now find irrestible. I mean, 50p for a bag of scampi!

Instead of chips I went for home-made crisps, served hot. In one of those "do as I say, not as I do" commands, if you're not as impatient as me you will lightly-salt the cut potatoes about an hour before eating.

 Drain and pat dry before deep-frying on about 130 for 3 minutes, shaking well to separate the crisps. Drain again, whack the heat up to 180-190 and fry until golden-brown and crispy. Mine were a little too starchy and some of them stuck together.

The coleslaw used red cabbage as the base and was nicely spicy: one handful of shredded cabbage with one medium carrot grated or shredded - I use a potato peeler - and half a red onion, thinly sliced. For the dressing mix 2 dessertspoons of mayonnaise with 1 dessertspoon of Tommy K, 1 dessertspoon of sesame oil, 2 shakes of Worcestershire sauce and 2 shakes of Tabasco.

The dip for the prawns/scampi was created from 1 dessertspoon of sour cream blended with a few drops of coconut essence.

There you have it: bachelor's dinner for one!

Pot-roast rump steak & fake-fondant potatoes

Rump steak is one of those cuts that I don't think is usually good enough to grill or fry so I only tend to buy it when it's reduced - this batch from the Co-ey was £2.29 for about a pound; the potatoes and the green beans were heavily marked-down too!

The simplest dishes are often the best - I'd pot-roasted the meat two days earlier, kept it in the casserole dish in the fridge, and then cooked for a further half hour before serving with sort of fondant potatoes, braised celery and sliced runner beans.

Seal the meat in a hot wok, lightly oiled

 Put on top of some sliced onion and deglaze the pan with a little salted water. 

Cover and bake for about one-and-a-half hours

On the day of eating I set the meat on one side, fried some mushrooms in a little oil, added the cooked onions and stock before topping up with some thick gravy. Return the meat to the casserole dish, cover with gravy and with the lid on bake for half an hour in a hot oven. 

The potatoes were scrubbed, topped and tailed and cut into thick slices. They were baked (uncovered) in some fatty chicken stock, enough to just cover, for about an hour in a hot oven. I had to top the liquid up a couple of times. The celery was braised in a little water with added veg bouillon, covered, in a hot oven for about 45 minutes. The beans were just cooked to al dente in hot water. 

Another success!

Shepherd's Moussaka Delight

I've rather neglected this blog recently - too busy cooking and eating the results with my unpaid dessert-chefess, I guess. I do have the gastroporn pictures, however!

Dinner last night was constructed from leftovers - "the-girl-who-came-to-dinner" was back on her own side of the Mersey, with other fish to fry (metaphorically-speaking) - though I knew it was a dish she would have loved too. On Saturday night we'd had a duo of lamb - braised Barnsley chop and minty mince - with roasted new potatoes and a selection of fresh veg, but there was some mince left.

 
I fried up some more onions with a small handful of diced aubergine and sweet red peppers, and a good dollop of minced garlic.

When the veg were softened I added added the mince, a pinch more dried mint, some tomato puree and a little water to moisten. In the meanwhile I had boiled up some sweet potatoes in a little salted water, and when soft had drained and mashed them.

With the mince on the bottom, a layer of sweet potato above, I topped the whole lot off with some grated cheddar (as in Shepherd's Delight) and baked in a hot oven for 30 minutes.

Salad was built around olives and chick peas with a simple lemon, olive oil, garlic and sea-salt dressing.

Seared garlic sausage & a trio of salads

With the sausage de nos jours being "pan-fried chorizo", to be contrary I went back to the exotic wurst of childhood delicatessen shops. For a contemporary twist, however, I seared the thickish slices in a smoking hot wok.

 
The white beetroot and horseradish salad was, again, a response to my childhood: on my yiddisher grandmother's table at every meal was a condiment called "Chrain", made from a coarse puree of beetroot and horseradish. The taste has remained with me, one of my favourite vegetable dishes being beetroot and horseradish dauphinoise. The salad is simplicity - skin the beetroot with a potato peeler or a knife, cut into small dice and nuke for 3 minutes in a closed casserole dish. Refresh under cold water and mix with equal parts of mayo and creamed horseradish sauce.

To pep up a simple potato salad - Jersey Royals scraped after boiling and refreshing - I added to the mayonnaise a spoonful chives preserved in olive oil that I keep as a staple in the larder.

The final salad was a sort of kitchen sink one: lettuce, tomato, cucumber, celery, onion, mixed peppers and baby sweetcorn with a bog-standard French dressing (home-made, of course!).

Full now!

Pork & Beef Arrabbiata with Cannellini Beans

What was going to be a quick and simple "High Tea" before going out to the theatre to see the new musical "Life" by Brian McCann turned into a full-on three course dinner.

Hannah said she'd been put off avocado by her mother's method of using it in salads - but she was willing to try mine; as she has a shellfish allergy, the staple with Prawns Marie Rose was out. However as my guest had (pleasant) dreams about my tarragon and lemon mayonnaise I decided to do another variation - with tomato ketchup - and diced crispy bacon. I think I went a bit overboard on the salad garnish!

The options for the main course were a chilli, a bolognese or a curry. In the end - to surprise - I went for a cross between the first two: pork and beef mince hotted-up with arrabbiata spices, rounded with bolognese herbs, and finished with cannellini beans.

For enough to serve 4: Soften 4 handfuls of chopped onion with 1 big handful of mixed peppers. Add 500g of beef and pork mince (Asda), a handful of diced courgette, 2 handfuls of chopped mushrooms and  2 dstsp of crushed garlic. Stir-fry until the meat begins to colour and add 1 dstsp of Arrabbiata spice mix (salt, tomato powder, garlic, pepper, pimento, sugar, cayenne, paprika, oregano, basol and cloves) and half a tsp of cayenne pepper. Stir in 250 ml of tomato juice and add 1 dstsp of tomato purée, 1 dstsp oregano, 1 dstsp basil, 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp sweet chilli sauce, 1 scant tsp sugar and a little salt to taste. Simmer on low for about 10-15 minutes.

Add  2 big handfuls of cooked cannellini beans, heat through and serve. We had ours with plain rice, though in retrospect I think tagliatelle might have worked even better.

My unpaid patisserie chef/baker had arrived with some meringues made overnight, a big tub of double cream and some amaretti biscuits. Plus a loaf of her home-made wholemeal bread, which we ate throughtout the meal. She turned a couple of fresh peaches of mine - on their last legs - together with some of the crushed biscuits and stiffly whipped cream into a stunning pavlova each.

The play was absolutely brillliant!

An Impromptu Summer Dinner

She came for afternoon tea, bearing a tub full of home-made banana muffins .....

.... and ended up staying for an impromptu dinner.

My default setting for this time of year is "burnt meat and salad" - though in truth I cooked the chicken for twice as long, I think, as I should have. My basic Mediterranean-style marinade is olive oil, lemon juice, crushed garlic, oregano, mint, a pinch of cinnamon and S+P. For a more North-African flavour I'll add cumin and coriander, sometimes chilli too. I'd bought 2 packs of reduced-price chicken thighs the previous day which I hadn't yet boned and frozen so that was easy-peasy.

The bones and trim went in a pot with water to make stock, though as I told Hannah, I'll probably freeze that too. Leave the chicken to marinate for at least an hour, heat a hob-to-oven pan to smoking, sear the meat on both sides - skin first and then transfer to a hot oven for 5-8 minutes.

My favourite salad of the moment - which I didn't make because she doesn't like them - is blanched new crop carrots with red onion, spinach leaves, baby corn and courgettes, dressed with a little crushed garlic mixed with balsamic vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil. I had that for lunch today with a round of smoked salmon, olives and fake-feta butties.

Hannah and I had a simple mixed salad with my own French dressing, Jersey Royals and basmati rice. And my secret red onion marmalade!

Tha banana muffins, incidentally, were lovely  - but Hannah's famed banana bread is even more heavenly! I've got one chunk left for today's imminent afternoon tea!

Pigging Out with Hannah & Phil

I hadn't intended, when I started to think about the menu for this dinner, of going particularly porky - it just happened that way. Perhaps because Hannah is allergic to seafood? Home-made pork scratchings as amuse-gueule, dinky scotch eggs made with quail eggs (plus an extra one in a tarragon & lemon mayo); and, for the main course, pot-roasted gammon, thinly sliced, and served with a creamed mustard and parsley sauce. Our pud, as far as I'm aware, contained no pork-products - the three little piggies simply gorged themselves on the Chocolate Banoffee Pie that Hannah had made and brought with. Dee-licious!

It was all a bit of a rush because we were going to the "Sunset Dawn" Music & Poetry event at Fort Perch Rock - although I only live 150 yards away, we were the last to arrive!

 

The scratchings are made by simply roasting the gammon rind in a hot oven, every now and then decanting the liquid fat which is excellent to fry with.

The recipe for the scotch eggs is one I developed about 10 years ago when I was supplying a butcher's in West Kirby with full-sized ones. Price-wise I could never compete with a factory-made product, but taste-wise - I have been told - there is NO comparison.
NB: Measurements are approximate because I was working to roughly a tenth of my original. 250g of sausagemeat, 30g of puréed/very finely chopped onion, 50g of mixed breadcrumbs and plain flour for binding; half a tsp of salt, an pinch of pepper, a scant tsp of mixed herbs and a little beaten egg to moisten. Mix well. Boil a dozen quail eggs for about 10 minutes and refresh under cold water. Dredge the eggs in a tray of flour, take a golf-ball-sized handful of the meat mixture and roll it well between your hands before squashing it flat into a thin patty, wrap the egg in it and roll well again to seal the join. I always have a bowl of luke-warm water to moisten my hands and prevent sticking. Repeat until all the eggs are covered. Dip each in a tray of beaten egg (hen's!!), shake off the excess and then roll in a tray of 50/50 breadcrumbs and plain flour seasoned with a pinch of S+P.

Deep-fry in hot oil (180) until a light golden colour and then transfer to a preheated hot oven and bake, on a tray, for 10 minutes. I served mine with a supermarket own-brand mayo, mixed the previous day to infuse, with a dash of lemon juice and a good shake of dried tarragon. Hannah tells me she had dreams about it!

The ham came from Birkenhead Market as what are known as "Gammon Corners", weighing about 1.2Kg for £5.30 - I love bargains! Half was chilled and cut for bacon (18 thick rashers) and the remainder - rind still on at this point - was pot-roasted in a closed casserole dish with about 150ml of water. Cooking time on med-high was about an hour and a half - which roughly complies with the old "20 minutes per pound and 20 minutes extra" guide.

Leave to cool covered and then strip off the rind to make pork scratchings. Slice the meat when cold - to re-heat for service I still use the old, pre-microwave, banqueting method of dunking the meat for a minute or two in a shallow pan of lightly-salted, fast-boiling water.

The sauce is simplicity itself: finely chop a good handful of curly parsley, simmer in the water the ham was cooked in for about 25 minutes and then add double cream to taste. Keep just below boiling point and stir in a tsp of made english mustard.

I had intended doing new-crop carrots as one of the vegetables but remembered at the prep stage that one of my guests is not a lover of them; the white beetroot - which is actually pink - was a palpable hit, though.

Skinned with a potato peeler, I could have boiled it but I find that microwaving in a closed casserole dish produces the same effect as steaming. The vegetable stays firm all the way through.

Scrubbed Jersey Royals, with garlic courgettes and fresh peas, completed the main course.

And so to pud!....... It was delicious.

 Hannah did tell me what was in it - crushed hobnobs, banana, chocolate, butter and cream, conny-onny milk, more butter and cream, sprinkled with drinking chocolate and crushed nuts (I think). And did I say: it was delicious!

Mussel Stroganoff

This was one of my best bits of inspiration yet!

Soften a good handful of chopped onion in oil and butter with 2 scant tsp of crushed garlic. Add 2 handfuls of sliced mushrooms and stir-fry for a minute or two. Stir in 1 dstsp of Paprika and coat well.

Fold in a good handful of shelled mussel meat - mine were still frozen, so I allowed a minute or so extra cooking time - and then slowly add 120ml of sour cream (I used 120ml fresh whipping cream mixed with 1 scant tsp lemon juice). Season with a pinch of salt and pepper and half a tsp of tomato puree. Heat through and serve.

Cheat's tip: For the yellow rice I've never really liked the method involving turmeric - it is too strong a flavour so I use yellow powder fom the Chinese supermarket or just ordinary cooks' colouring (with all its e-numbers!). Served drizzled with sour cream. Yum!

Hummus (Humous? Hummos? Hoummus?)

Everybody has their own way of making this Mediterranean/North-African staple - the only non-contentious point being that it contains ground chickpeas. Some people insist that it should be mixed with tahini - the sesame seed paste - but I truly believe that the taste of mine (with my Jewish ancestry) is the kosher deal!

I buy dried chickpeas in kilo bags - about 80p - and cook the lot off in the pressure cooker, which has lost its weight! Without any pre-soking this takes a little over an hour; rinse under cold water and what I don't require immediately I spread on a tray and freeze.

For this recipe put 500g of chickpeas into a food processor and whizz. For best results I now transfer them to a liquidiser and mix with 1.5 dstsp Garlic purée, half a dstsp Salt, 1 dstsp ground Cumin and 2 dstsp Lemon Juice.

With the motor running  drizzle in 300ml Olive Oil. To finish, if the paste is a little dry I add  1 dstsp of warm water. For the best taste chill overnight.

For lunch today I had a bowl of this with salad, olives, pitta bread and a hard-boiled egg and cress with tarragon & lemon mayonnaise.

Tunisian Turkey with Carrot & Coriander Purée

Ok, so the dish is about as Tunisian as Sidney Greenstreet's fez in "Casablanca" (one of my top-five favourite movies). A time to use up little bags of things in the freezer: a while ago I made the mistake of taking out  a red block of what I thought was chopped tomatoes, only to find it was (home-made) carrot and coriander soup. This time it was intentional. My geography is not that good so I'm not even sure if they grow carrots anywhere in North Africa but the flavours were, in my own opinion, spot on.

Soften a handful chopped onion and  one of mixed peppers in butter and oil, add a handful of diced turkey (or chicken) and a small handful of diced aubergine.  Colour slightly and add  2 tsp crushed garlic, 1 heaped tsp paprika,  1 tsp each of ground coriander and cumin,  a pinch of chilli powder and 1 tsp ginger puree. Stir in 200ml carrot & coriander puree/soup followed by 1 tsp lime cordial and 1 scant tsp sugar. Mix in a  handful cooked chickpeas and 2 diced dried figs, heat through - bubbling vigorously if the sauce is too thin - and serve.

I had rice but this would work equally well with couscous.

Pot-roasted Belly Pork, Oriental Barbecue Sauce and Vegetable Fried Rice

I had four pieces of meat all to myself - it seemed a bit greedy at the time but this batch of pork was fattier than usual and I had to leave some. I served the barbecue sauce more like a Western gravy rather than cooking the meat in it.

Preheat the oven to hot and  a wok to smoking. Sear the meat on all sides, fat side first,  and put in closed casserole dish. Deglaze the pan with 100ml of water mixed with 2 tsp Soy and 1 tsp sweet chilli sauce. Add to the casserole and cover.

Cook on high for 30 mins, lower the heat to medium and turn the meat. Cook for further half hour.  in the meanwhile cook your rice - generally, I always use Basmati - in lighly salted water; rinse when cooked. 

The Oriental, Barbecue Sauce is one I've been making for about 25 years, and which I've featured before: Sauce Recipe

For the vegetables I used a small sliced carrot (blanched first), some broccoli florets, a few quartered mushrooms and a handful each of mixed peppers and chopped onions. Soften the veg in a wok and add 1 tsp crushed garlic and 2 tsp Soy.

Remove the lid from the pork casseole and whack the heat up to full again. Stir in the rice into the vegetables with 1 dstsp Sesame oil, and shake the pan to cook.

Serve as artfully as you like, with the sauce - still steaming in my picture - poured over the meat.