We’ve been up and running for a week now so thought we would go for a whole meal!  And because I am so mean we are going to cook two courses in the oven so as not to waste energy!  You might want to invite a friend over as both of these dishes can be easily doubled up.

Chicken Thigh in a creamy leek sauce

• 1 -2 chicken thighs (depending on their size and how hungry you are) skin left on
• 2 -3 small potatoes, halved or quartered
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 6 tablespoons double cream
• 50 ml stock (cube) or white wine if you have it
• 1 garlic clove crushed
• 1 small leek

Preheat oven to 200oC.

Put the chicken and potatoes in a roasting tin and toss with the olive oil.  Arrange the chicken skin-side up and season generously. Roast for 25 minutes until the skin is crisp and turning golden

Combine all the other ingredients in a jug with 50 mil of boiling water.

When chicken is roasted, pour the mixture into tray, turning the chicken in the liquid to coat it, returning the chicken to skin-side up

Roast for another 20 -30 minutes until chicken thoroughly cooked and the sauce is bubbling.

As everything is going to be in the oven, bake a potato alongside and some roasted tomatoes (halve and toss in olive oil with some sliced garlic (if liked) and a tiny bit of sugar, cooking for about 20 minutes until caramelized.

And to follow:  Bread and Butter Pudding

The beauty of this dish is that you can really mess around with the ingredients and use what’s to hand.  You can use fresh or stale bread, brioche or leftover pannetone from Christmas.  I also like to spread the bread with apricot jam or marmalade.  You can use whatever dried fruit you like, too – raisins, sultanas, dried apricots.

• 2 -3 slice bread depending on size
• butter – just spread the butter as you would a sandwich, putting jam or marmalade on if wanted
• 1 oz/25 grams dried fruit
• 100 mls of milk ( you can use some cream if you have any left over from the chicken sauce – or keep it to pour over at the end!)
• 1 egg
• 1oz/25 grams of sugar – I like dark brown sugar best but it’s up to what you have
• Pinch of cinnamon/nutmeg or mixed spice

Cut the buttered bread into triangles and put in an overnproof dish. Add dried fruit, interlacing the layers.

Warm the milk, add the egg and sugar and mixed spice if liked and pour over. Leave to stand for about 20 minutes. Grate some nutmeg or sprinkle of cinnamon on top.

Now stand the dish in another dish of water coming up to about halfway of the pudding dish – this is a bain marie and gives a much gentler way of cooking.

Put into the oven about the same time as you put the chicken back into the oven with the sauce ie it needs to be baked for about 20 – 30 minutes. It can be on a lower shelf.

NB it may collapse at the end of cooking but will still taste delicious!

 

 

 

Wow! Blue sky and and sunshine and NO rain!  However, with this has come a sharp drop in temperature so we really need something warm and sustaining – and what could be better than soup?  I know it’s easy to open a tin, a packet or a carton, and, yes, some of them are very nice – but wouldn’t you like to make your own with fresh ingredients and no preservatives?

Of course, you can’t really make soup for one but this is one of those occasions when you do want to make more than you need for one sitting – a pot of soup sitting in the fridge when you want it should last the week – and you can vary it in lots of ways by what you add to it.

Extra touches you can add to Soups

Parsley    Sage         Rosemary        Thyme           Oregano            Basil         Coriander      Mint         Kaffir Lime Leaves              Chervil              Chives

• Single or Double Cream
• Crème Fraiche
• Yogurt
• Sour Cream

Croutons – cube some bread and fry in butter

Croutes – French bread of slices of bread, brushed with olive oil and toasted in the oven

As above but rubbed with garlic

As above but covered in cheese and toasted

You can make your own stock, boiling up the carcass or bones of a roast dinner with some vegetables – but stock cubes are perfectly acceptable – there lots of good ones in the shops now

Canned Beans eg cannellini / pulses eg dried beans and lentils / grains eg rice, pearl barley and couscous can all be added to bulk out simple soups.

How about you make one of the below, go for a walk in the lovely crisp air and come home to a bowl of soup.  Don’t forget to pick up a nice crusty bread to go with it – and you definitely want some nice butter to go on it – no margarine!

Broccoli and Stilton Soup

Cooking time: less than 10 mins   Serves 4

• 12oz broccoli, cut into small pieces
• 14fl oz vegetable stock
• 1 oz butter
• 4 spring onions, sliced (or 1 leek)
• 1 3/4oz Stilton, crumbled or to taste
• 3 ½ fl.oz double cream
• Salt and pepper
• Pinch nutmeg

Put broccoli pieces into a glass bowl. Pour over stock. Cover the bowl with cling film and put in microwave. Cook for 4 minutes till tender.

Heat a frying pan till hot and add butter. When it starts to foam, add onions and cook for 1 minute.

Put cooked broccoli and stock in a bowl/blender.

Add onions, stilton and cream and blend together.

Transfer mixture to a pan and bring gently to a simmer.

Red Lentil and chilli soup

Serves 4

• 2 teaspoons cumin seed
• pinch chilli flakes
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1chopped red onion
• 140g red lentils
• 850ml vegetable stock
• 400g can tomatoes
• 200g can chickpeas*
• Small bunch of coriander chopped
• Greek yogurt to serve

* optional

Heat a large saucepan and dry fry cumin seeds and chilli flakes for 1 minute. Add oil and onion and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the lentils, stock and tomatoes and bring to boil.

Simmer for 15 minutes

Whiz the soup with stick blender or food processor until rough puree. Put back in pan and add chickpeas if wanted.

Heat and stir in coriander.

Serve with a dollop of yogurt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If Comfort Sundays are all about you, how about a little bit of naughtiness does you good?

Below are some very simple puddings you can rustle up in a matter of minutes – to go with the pasta – or any other time!

Simple Puddings

•  Spoon some greek yogurt into a small dish.Cover either with brown sugar or demerara sugar.
• Put in fridge for several hours.
• Serve on its own or with poached fruit.

 

• Crush some biscuits and put into small dish
• Beat some cream cheese, icing sugar and lemon juice to taste
• Put ontop of biscuits and leave in fridge to set

 

• Put some berries (fresh or frozen) into a small dish
• Make up half a jelly with ½ pint water (or leftover wine)
• Pour on top and leave to set.

 

• Take some tinned or rice pudding and fold in an egg yolk.
• Put into oven proof dish
• Make a meringue (whipped egg white with 2 oz sugar) and put ontop
• Bake in oven 180oC for about 10 mins till brown

 

• Break up some bought meringues and fold into whipped cream and berries

 

• Make a crumble mix – 2 oz butter rubbed into 4 oz plain flour. Add 2 oz sugar (also oats or nuts if you want some texture)  Spread onto a baking tray and bake 180o for about 10 – 15 mins until golden.  Allow to cool then break up and put in an airtight jar till wanted. Poach any kind of fruit in a saucepan or microwave and top with as little or much of the crumble mix as you want.

Sundays on your own can be the pits.  Seems everyone else is doing something with someone and you are home alone.  So I thought we could make Sundays Comfort Sundays – where you can do anything YOU want and eat easy.  When I was about 9 or 10, after Sunday lunch if the weather was a bit sad, my mum and I would curl up on the sofa with the BBC film – nearly always started at 2.00pm and nearly always black and white. This is what we are going to do – although if it’s sunny and fine you have to go out and do this in the evening – make a bowl full of comfort food, put on a DVD or catch up TV and have a TV meal – because you can!

The following recipe I made up myself purely from what I had in the fridge – but now I actually make sure I have everything to hand. And its (mostly) very healthy!

Vegetable Pasta

• Pasta of your choice – I use Linguine as the flat strands absorb the sauce better
• 1 leek
• 1 courgette
• 1 clove of garlic
• spinach – fresh or frozen, defrosted  and/or broccoli cut up small
• crème fraiche
• parmesan preferably – but you can use ordinary cheddar

Melt a knob of butter in a pan and cook the chopped leek and minced garlic till soft

Add sliced/cubed courgette and again cook till soft.

Add spinach and cook till goes flat if fresh. You may like to put a little water in at this point if it looks a bit dry.

Add a dollop (how big is a dollop – as much as you like!) of crème fraiche and keep stirring until a lovely soft saucelike mixture.

Cook pasta to soft. Drain and put into a deep eating bowl.

Top with the sauce, folding it in a little with a fork and grate over some parmesan/cheddar and lots of black pepper.

Curl up and enjoy!

ps I have made this a really simple dish – takes about 20 minutes all in as the pasta can be cooking whilst the sauce in BUT if YOU think perhaps Sundays should be about taking the time to make something out of your comfort Zone, let me know.

Sundays are now all about you.

 

Do you like receiving parcels? I do. O the anticipation of what could be inside – opening  it up – and finding just what you wanted!  Did you know you can cook food in parcels?  You can – and how lovely it is to open, smell the lovely aromas and taste the gently cooked food, full of flavour.  I’ve done this a few times and it has just occurred to me that these are the perfect recipes for us because, of course, they are all individual!

For the parcel, you will need some baking parchment – or if you haven’t got this some greaseproof paper and kitchen foil, folded together, foil outside.  The size will be determined by the size of fish or chicken piece but I would say about a 30cm square or A4 piece of paper should definitely do it.

Two recipes – a fish one and a chicken one.  I’m sorry no photographs – but hey – you’re getting the hang of this now!  You could send me yours?

Lemon and Herb Fish in a Bag (if you want to be posh that’s en papillote in French!)

• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1 clove of minced garlic
• 1/2 tablespoon minced lemon peel and 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 spring onion
• a fillet of fish – this can be salmon, cod, haddock – your favourite
• 1 tablespoon butter

Heat the oven to 200oC

Mix the parsley, garlic and lemon peel together and put to the side.

Cut the spring onion into small pieces and slice lengthwise.

Season the fish with salt and pepper and the lemon juice and spread the top with butter

Put the spring onion in the middle of your parcel and top with the fish.  Put some of the herb mix on top of the fish.  Fold the packages up – each long side to the middle then sides brought inwards to seal.

Place on a baking sheet and bake about 8 minutes.

Put the parcel on your dinner plate with whatever vegetables you like best and open – be careful all those lovely juices will seep out and you don’t want to waste them!

Spicy Chinese Chicken Packet

• 1 chicken thigh = bone in or out
• small piece of ginger
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 spring onion
• some fresh or frozen chilli – to taste (remember that most supermarkets now sell them frozen so you will have no wastage if you only use a little)
• 1/2 tablespoon fish sauce (smells disgusting tastes nice)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice wine or sherry

Put ALL of the above in a plastic bag and give it a good shake then leave to marinade for about 45 minutes

Preheat the oven to 200oC

Prepare your parcel as above. Take out the chicken and put in the middle. Add a spoonful of the marinade and fold up. On to a baking tray and into the oven for about 15 minutes.

Sauce: Put the remaining marinade into a saucepan and add:

• 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice wine or sherry (optional but you will need to use the measurement of water)
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Simmer altogether to melt the honey.  If you like heat, you could add a little chopped chilli to taste. It’s ready when it has thickened slightly.

Serve the chicken parcel on a plate with a side of rice and pok choy with the sauce to pour over when opened.

The above recipes may contain some ingredients you may have had to buy specially eg rice wine or fish sauce – but don’t worry, over the next few weeks you are going to using them a lot more!

As they say at all the best restaurants – ENJOY!

 

 

She’s not really into cooking – but she does like to be involved!  Thought you might like to see how difficult it can sometimes be typing away with a furry creature draped over the keyboard!

I am a Scot (albeit with an English mother) who has lived here since the mid seventies and whilst I am very happy here there are two things which always take me back to my roots and like to celebrate – Hogmanay and Burns Night.  The former has no particular culinary history (other than clootie dumpling and black bun (another story), a lot of alcohol and emotional singing of Auld Land Syne). The latter, of course, has the Burns Supper. Haggis, neeps (why do you English call the orange veg swede and the wee white ones turnips when everyone knows in Scotland it’s the other way round? ) and tatties are a given and can really only be served one way – but you may not know the following 2 recipes – and which can be eaten any time of the year.

Cullen Skink – a hearty soup made from leeks, onions, potatoes and smoked haddock

• 50 grams butter
• 1 small onion and 1 small leek, finely chopped
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
• 150 mls water
• 200g (ish) smoked haddock
• 200 mls milk

Melt butter and leek in a saucepan and cook for about 5 minutes without browning. Add potatoes and cook till soft.

In another pan cover the haddock with the milk and cook gently till tender (you can also do this in the microwave).Remove from milk when cool and and flake gently into large pieces, removing bones.

Drain the potatoes (keeping the water), take out some of them with some leeks and onions and mash the rest. Return the vegetables to the pan with the liquid and add the milk and haddock.  You may need more liquid – you can add some more milk, white wine and/or cream or creme fraiche – whichever takes your fancy! You can also add some chopped parsley and/or chives for a bit of colour. Serve with lots of crusty bread to mop up!

 

Now for the pudding : Cranachan – a delicous mix of raspberries, cream, whisky, honey and toasted oats.  What’s not to like?

• 50 grams porridge oats
• small pot of double cream
• 2 – 3 tablespoons honey to taste
• 2 tablespspoons whisky (I personally hate whisky but somehow can take it here!)
• raspberries – fresh or frozen

Heat a heavy based frying pan up and toast the oats until nutty and pale brown (I sometimes add a little demerara sugar so they caramelize but you do have to keep moving them around!). Put to one side to cool.

Whip the cream till soft peaks and fold in the honey and whisky.

Layer up the cream, rapsberries and oats and eat immediately whilst the oats are still crunchy!

 

 

 

My husband is away just now so I got up early and by midday I’d done a mini spring clean – and starving!  So this is one of my favourite breakfast/brunch recipes – something I always make when my daughters come home.

Scotch pancakes with bacon and maple syrup – there’s something yummy about soft pancakes, crispy bacon and sweet syrup so I thought this would be a good place to start.

• 10 tablespoons self raising flour
• 3 tablespoons castor sugar
• 1 egg with 4 tablespoons of milk
• large knob of butter

Put the flour and sugar in a bowl and make a well.  Pour in the egg and milk mixture

Melt the butter in the small flat frying pan or griddle you are going to cook the pancakes on and then tip out into the mixture beating well.

Spoon a little of the batter onto the hot pan, usually about 4 – 5 pancakes at a time – they will spread a little but not much. Continue till they are all made – obviously the last one you just have to spread immediately with butter to taste they are ok!

Fry some bacon until crisp.  Put 3 or 4 pancakes on a warm plate, top with bacon and drizzle over some maple syrup.

If you’ve been following, you will realise that there will be some pancakes left over!  This is good – for you’ve got the beginning of another breakfast for another day.  Wrap them up in a tea towel and put in the bread bin.  With a bowl of porridge topped with some berries ( you can try your maple syrup over this too), they are delicious toasted. My brother always used to say they taste better that way anyway – see what you think!

 

Obviously, we need ingredients to cook with and keeping a store cupboard and the fridge and freezer stocked with some staples will all help when its time to start.

Below are a few ideas of goods to keep handy – over the weeks we can add some more adventurous/unusual stuff (and tips to keep them fresh if not used often).

Packets, jars and tins: pasta – spaghetti, macaroni and any other shapes you fancy! / rice (I prefer basmati) / medium egg noodles / lentils / flour – plain, self raising and cornflour / cooking oils – vegetable or sunflower plus olive and sesame / soya sauce / vinegar – wine and malt / mustard – English and Dijon /  stock cubes – beef, chicken, vegetable and fish / tomato puree (buy it in a tube for less waste) / tomato sauce (Heinz do a lovely fiery one which is great for zapping up the bland!)

Tinned: tomatoes / beans  red kidney, cannellini, butter / tuna

Herbs – dried – thyme, basil, oregano, coriander and mixed.

If you buy herbs in season in a packet and you think they are beginning to look a little sad , you can pop them in the freezer as are and just crumble them over your recipes when you want them. Alternatively, Waitrose do a wonderful range of frozen herbs including chopped garlic, ginger, jalapeno chillies, shallots, coriander – and some mixes such as Italian or Thai – keep them in the freezer and you will always be able to add flavour to whatever you are making – they’ve even got frozen lemon peel!

Spices: ground ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, paprika, cumin, coriander, chilli powder nutmeg.

Fridge: Butter / eggs / cheese – cheddar and parmesan / milk / yogurt

Freezer: peas / beans / spinach / beans

 

 

Cooking for one may not initially be fun – particularly if it’s not from choice.  However, we all have to eat and take care of ourselves and our diet is our first line of defence. Many recipes are for four or more and whilst you can cook and freeze or divide amounts, sometimes it doesn’t produce the same results.

With this blog, I hope to bring back the enjoyment of cooking with a weekly set of recipes. I shan’t use obscure ingredients, and if you have to buy a special pot of herbs or spice, I will make sure we use it all in that week.  I will use shortcuts when we can and will cover everything from breakfasts to mains to treats, with at least one thing in the week that you may not have thought of trying. I want you to enjoy exactly what you like best for every meal – and with confidence you may have find yourself doubling up recipes to invite your friends to share. So take time to read what will follow – pour yourself a glass of wine (aren’t screw top bottles wonderful?) – and look after YOU with some excellent food!