As anyone who has been following this blog knows, I started it to encourage people back in the kitchen when they find themselves having to cook for one, for whatever reason. It’s particularly difficult if they have been used to preparing meals for many and I really hope that over the last few months, you will have found these recipes to inspire you!  However – come the summer and the infrequent sunny days we can have, even I want to be out in it and not inside!  So, today, we are going to look at pancakes – which can be made in advance, frozen between sheets of greaseproof paper so you can just take out as you fancy, and can be savoury or sweet. And there will always be some sitting there if you have a friend come round or you have been out all day and want something quick – you can even freeze the following 2 recipes as they are!

Basic Pancake Recipe

• 110g plain flour                   pinch of salt                   2 large eggs
• 200 mls milk mixed the 75ml water                         50g butter

Sieve the flour into a bowl with the salt.  Beat the eggs into the milk and then into the flour.  Take a small frying pan and melt half of the butter, then tip into the pancake mix and beat altogether.  Pour enough mix into the bottom of the pan to cover and cook for a few minutes before flipping over and repeat. Empty on to a plate, stacking as you go.  Use a little of the remaining butter each time to grease the pan when making the rest of the pancakes.

Chicken and Bacon Pancakes

• 1 tablespoon olive or rapeseed oil
• 1 chicken breast
• 100g smoked bacon, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 100g chestnut mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1 ½ tbsp flour
• 200ml milk
• handful parsley, chopped
• 1 beaten egg
• Handful of breadcrumbs

Heat 1/2 tbsp oil in a large frying pan. Cook the chicken breast for 5-8 mins each side until golden brown and cooked through, then transfer to a plate. Tip the bacon into the pan and sizzle for a few mins until crispy, then tip out onto the plate with the chicken. If the pan looks dry, add the remaining oil, then the onion. Cook for 5 mins until softened and translucent, then stir in the mushrooms and some seasoning. Cook for 5-10 mins until the mushrooms are soft and most of the liquid in the pan has cooked. Stir in the flour, mixing it into the mushrooms to make a chunky paste, then pour in the milk, a little at a time, whisking continuously until you have a smooth sauce. Bubble for 2-3 mins until thick. Chop the chicken into small chunks and add back to the pan along with the bacon and any juices from the plate. Check the seasoning, stir in the parsley, then leave to cool and chill until you’re ready to fill the pancakes. Heat oven to 200C and line a baking tray with baking parchment. Take one pancake and brush a circle of beaten egg around the edge. Pile a quarter of the chicken mixture into the centre of the pancake (the sauce should have thickened while chilling), then fold the pancake over and press the edges together to make a pasty shape. Transfer to a baking tray and continue assembling however many pancakes you want. Brush the top of each one with more egg and scatter over the breadcrumbs, then bake for 20-25 mins. Leave to cool for 5 mins before serving.

Everyone has a favourite sweet pancake (mine is nutella chocolate spread and crème fraiche!) from simple lemon and sugar, to syrup to stewed fruit so below is just another option you might like to try.  Make the whole amount and either freeze what you don’t use or have it as part of breakfast with yogurt and/or cereal.

Apple Compote

Knob of butter              4 – 5 apples, peeled and sliced                1 cinnamon stick                    3 cloves                           1 star anise                                                 1/2 teasp ginger                       a drizzle of maple syrup (optional)

Melt the butter in a pan, add the apples, cinnamon, cloves, star anise and a good splash of water.  Cover and cook for 5 minutes over a medium heat, then drain any excess liquid (put it in a glass and drink later!) .  Fill as many pancakes as you want  with a spoonful of the compote and a drizzle of maple syrup.

What a lovely weekend we have had full of sunshine!  Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did (apart from a fox hit who took 2 of my hens whilst they were dust bathing).

And now appears the quintessential vegetable of England – Jersey Royals Potatoes.  They have been grown on the island for 140 years and today there are approximately 20 island farmers who grow them (and often no other crops) on approximately 7,300 acres.  They are one of the few remaining seasonal foods and can only be grown on Jersey to have the name – so lets make the most of them!

Watercress Soup with Jersey Royals

• 25g butter
• 1 large banana shallots, roughly chopped
• 50g Jersey Royal potatoes, washed, scrubbed and thinly sliced
• 225ml chicken stock (vegetarians can substitute vegetable stock)
• 110g watercress, roughly chopped
• 75 ml double cream
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• pinch freshly grated nutmeg

 For the Jersey Royals

• 200 g Jersey Royal potatoes, washed
• 50 g butter
• 2 tbsp chives, finely chopped
• 60 mls double cream
• ½ lemon, juice only
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• watercress, to garnish

For the soup, heat a pan until hot, then add the butter and shallots and fry for 2-3 minutes over a low heat until softened, but not browned. Add the potatoes and stock and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to simmer for 8-9 minutes, until the potatoes are just tender. Add the watercress and continue to simmer for two minutes, then remove from the heat and leave to cool for 2-3 minutes. Pour the soup into a food processor and blend until smooth. Return the soup to the pan and add the cream. Season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper and grate in a pinch of nutmeg.

For the Jersey Royals, place the potatoes into a pan over a medium heat and cover with water. Bring to the boil, then cook for 8-10 minutes, or until tender. Drain the potatoes, then return to the pan. Add the butter and chives and roughly crush the potatoes with the back of a fork. Meanwhile, pour the cream into a bowl and add the lemon juice, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Whisk the cream until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed.

 To serve, place a large spoonful of the crushed potatoes into the centre of each of four shallow soup bowls. Ladle the soup around the crushed potatoes, leaving islands of potato visible. Top each pile of crushed potatoes with a spoonful of soured cream and a few sprigs of watercress.

Coconut Potato Bowl with Lime and Ginger

• 100g (or as much as you like) Jersey Royal potatoes, roughly chopped
•  75g cauliflower florets
•  1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
•  Sea salt and pepper
•  50g (or as much as you like) asparagus
•  ½ tsp olive oil
•  6 cherry tomatoes, halved
•  1 spring onion, sliced
•  500g superfood salad
•  15g coconut flakes, toasted , to garnish

For the dressing;    1 tbsp olive oil      finely grated zest and juice of 1/2 lime                          1 cm grated ginger

Preheat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas mark 6. Place the potatoes and cauliflower florets in a roasting tray, drizzle over the coconut oil and toss to coat. Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper and roast for 30 minutes until tender and beginning to brown. In the meantime, prepare everything else; brush the asparagus with ½ tsp olive oil, heat a griddle pan until hot and cook the stems until charred and tender. Set aside. For the dressing, whisk together the olive oil and lime juice, then stir in the zest and ginger and season with some salt and pepper. To assemble, arrange the potatoes and cauliflower to one side and place the other ingredients round the bowl (or how you prefer), drizzle with the dressing and scatter over the coconut flakes, or serve on the side.

Bank Holiday Saturday and the sun is shining!  Looks like being a wonderful weekend – so you don’t want to be spending too long in the kitchen!  The main fish dish should take you about 5 minutes to assemble, 15 minutes to cook – and  pudding is the easiest ice cream recipe you will ever find, with no need for an ice cream maker!

My lovely niece, Nicola, who lives in Glasgow, sent John some bottles of chilli sauce to add to his collection.  He thinks its one of the best and I’ve been wondering how to use it in a recipe – and here it is!  For those of you can’t find it , I have given an alternative – or you could just use your favourite.

Baked Cod Loin with sizzling spinach, ginger and chilli

• 1 piece of cod loin
• 1 tablespoon rice wine   )
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce   )  or a smear of Glasgow Death/alternative chilli sauce
• 1 garlic clove, crushed    )
• 150g spinach leaves
• 2 salad onions
• 5 grams fresh root ginger  ) don’t forget the frozen ones you can buy to save waste
• 1/2 red chilli                          )
• 1 tablespoon sunflower oil

Preheat the oven to 200oC.  Place a large sheet of foil on a baking tray and sit the cod on top.  Drizzle over the rice wine, soy sauce and crushed garlic – or smear, to taste, with chilli sauce.  Massage into the fish and tightly seal the foil parcel.  Bake for 12 minutes. Cook the spinach till just wilted and drain,  Cut the salad onion, ginger and chilli  into thin slivers.  Arrange the spinach on a serving plate top with the cod and any cooking juices.  Pile onto the fish the chilli, ginger and onion.  Heat the oil until smoking and pour over it all so it sizzles! Serve with stir fried vegetable and bean sprouts.

Lemon Ice Cream

• 1 large lemon, juiced and zested
• 200g Castor sugar
• 250 ml milk (semi or whole)
• 250 ml double cream

Combine zest and sugar in a bowl. Put in milk (not heated) and stir till dissolved. Stir in juice. Whip cream till stiff. Fold into the lemon mixture. Line a loaf tin with cling film. Pour mixture in and cover. Freeze.  Tip out and slice to serve.

Bon Appetit!

• 1 large courgette, coarsely grated
• 1 large carrot. coarsely grated
• fresh coriander, leaves and stalks, chopped
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 3 dessertspoons plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 an egg (yes, I know that’s seems difficult but beat a whole egg and just use enough to mix – and use the rest in the following recipe or keep covered in the fridge to add to scrambled eggs!)

Put the grated courgette and carrot into a colander with a little salt and leave to drain for about 15 minutes.  Tip on to a dry tea towel, wrap and wring out all the water.  Put into a large bowl and add the dry ingredients, mix well and add enough egg to mix.  Put a little oil in a frying pan and using floured hands, shape into about 6 patties and fry until crisp and browned on both sides.  Use on their own as a side vegetable or to scoop into a dip of your choice.

Courgette Frittata

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 75 grams (or so!)sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 small onion
• 100g courgettes, thinly sliced
• 100g fresh spinach
• 2 eggs
• grated parmesan to taste
• some torn basil leaves
• 50 grams mozzarella

Heat the oil in a frying pan.  Add mushrooms, onion and courgettes and cook for about 5 minutes until tender.  Add spinach and cook till wilted.  Lightly beat the eggs and the parmesan and basil and season.  Pour into the pan and stir to distribute evenly.  Tear the mozzarella into pieces and put on top.  Cook over a low heat until the base is set but still a film of liquid on the top. Heat the grill and put frittata under it until the top is golden and the egg is set.  Add extra parmesan (if liked) and serve!

I am very lucky to live in the heart of asparagus country – and even more within walking distance of a lovely farm shop which grows its own.  By the time I have walked there, bought and walked back I have more than justified the butter that simply has to go on it! There are lots of ways to eat this delicious vegetable other than just boil and serve,  – from risottos to soups (our farm shop sells bits that have come off when picking which is ideal for soup so ask your local shop) to using cooked stalks to dip into runny boiled eggs.  Try wrapping parma ham around each stalk and putting under a hot grill for a few moments.  Make the most of the British season – it is all too short!

Salmon Rolls with Asparagus and Butter Sauce

• 2 thick or 4 thin asparagus spears
• 1 thin salmon fillet
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 small shallot, finely chopped
• 3 peppercorns
• 60 mls white wine
• 2 tablespoons double cream
• 100g butter, cut into small cubes
• fresh parsley

Steam the asparagus for 6 – 8 minutes till tender, refresh under cold running water.  Lay on top of the salmon fillet and roll up.  Place on a rack over a pan of boiling water, sprinkle with lemon juice, cover and steam for 3 – 4 minutes till tender (I use one of those cheap bamboo steamers on top of a saucepan).  Sauce: Put the shallot, peppercorns and wine into a small saucepan and heat gently until the wine is reduced to a tablespoonful. Strain and return to the pan.  Add the cream and bring to the boil then lower the heat.  Add the butter to the sauce in small pieces, whisking all the time.  DO NOT ALLOW THE SAUCE TO BOIL AS IT WILL SEPARATE! Season to taste, add a little parsley and serve with the salmon roll, some new potatoes and tenderstem broccoli and/or spinach.

Green baked eggs with asparagus

• 1 – 2 teaspoon olive oil
• 200g asparagus , cut into 4 cm lengths
• 2-3 salad onions, roughly chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1/2 pointed spring (sweetheart) cabbage, shredded
• 1/2 green chilli, sliced
• few drops lemon juice
• 10 grams feta cheese (or as much as you like!)
• 2 eggs

Heat a frying pan over a high heat.  Add some oil, season the asparagus and fry, turning now and then, until slightly charred, for about 3 minutes.  Take out and set aside.  Lower the heat and add remaining oil, cooking the onions and garlic for a minute.  Add the cabbage and chilli and fry for 3 – 4 minutes, turning regularly.  Add lemon juice, some feta and the asparagus.  Turn heat to medium-low.  Make 2 holes in the mix and crack in the eggs and leave to for about 5 minutes till the white is set but yolks still soft.  Serve with some sourdough toast to mop up!

Cauliflower – one of those vegetables that you either love or hate – mostly thanks to the soggy offerings at school lunches. However, cauliflower is a member of the cancer-fighting cruciferous family of vegetable, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant-rich, and may boost both your heart and brain health!  Eating cauliflower will provide your body with impressive amounts of vitamin C, vitamin k, beta-carotene, and much more while supporting healthy digestion – so perhaps worth looking at again? 

The weekly supermarket sweep finds that they are all selling at about £1.00 each (72p if you have a wonky one from Morrisons!).  I am going to cut one in half for 2 recipes – so at 50p a meal (plus a few pennies for the extras), surely a winner!

Cauliflower and Blue Cheese soup

• 1/2 cauliflower, florets separated
• 1/2 litre of water with a vegetable stock cube
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 dessertspoon of butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 stalk of celery (did you know that if you keep celery in the fridge wrapped in tin foil it lasts for ages?)
• 1 potato, peeled and diced
• 1 -2 tablespoons crème fraiche or cream
• 1 – 2 tablespoons blue cheese, crumbled (buy some and keep in the freezer and just grate straight from it)  – you can use a strong cheddar if you prefer.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and add onion, celery and potato and sweat for about 10 minutes. Add the florets (leaves, too, if you want) and the stock and simmer gently for 20 – 25 minutes till the cauliflower is cooked. Remove the bay leaf and blend until smooth and return to the heat, adding the cheese and crème fraiche.

Roasted Cauliflower with Punjabi Seasonings

• 1/2 cauliflower, florets separated
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice    1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric   1 teaspoon grated ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt            1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper           1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander         1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves
• 2 tablespoon olive or rapeseed oil
• 1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds

Put the cauliflower florets in a large bowl.  Combine the lemon juice, turmeric and ginger and pour over the cauliflower.  Add salt, cayenne, ground spices and coriander and mix well.  Set aside for 2 hours or more tossing now and then.

Preheat the oven to 220oC.  Put the oil in a small frying pan and set over a medium heat.  When hot, add the cumin seed and let them sizzle for a few seconds.  Pour the spiced oil over the cauliflower and toss well.  Spread out the florets in a roasting tin and put in the oven for 25 minutes, turning half way through.  Serve alongside any meat of your choice, any curry – or just on its own with some chutneys to dip into!

Just spent all morning (well, it seems like that!) updating the site so that soups, main courses and desserts have their own titles.  Save you reading all my accompanying waffle when all you really want to do is cook! I’ll continue to do the posts but will also add them to the relevant headings.

Back to cold and rain today (hence the time to do above) – let me know if you’ve found it useful! x

Summertime (has hopefully arrived) and the living is easy.  So this weekend the recipes are easy, full of lightness and energy and giving you plenty of time to be out in the sunshine! Make the most of it – you know in the UK it won’t last!

Warm Chicken Salad

• 1 chicken breast boned, skinned and cut in half
• 1 orange or red pepper, deseeded and cut in to chunks
• ½ – 1 little gem lettuce, leaves separated
• 50g/1¾oz watercress, tough stalks removed
• 2 ripe medium tomatoes, cut into small chunks
• ⅓ cucumber, sliced
• 1 tsp thick balsamic vinegar
• ½ small lemon, juice only
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Put a little oil into a frying pan and place over a high heat. Cook the chicken for three minutes on each side or until lightly browned and cooked through. Transfer to a plate. Add a little more oil to the pan and cook the pepper for three minutes on each side or until lightly charred and beginning to soften. Arrange the lettuce leaves, watercress, tomatoes, cucumber and pepper on two plates. Slice the chicken breasts and scatter on top of salad. Drizzle with the balsamic vinegar and squeeze the lemon juice over. Season with black pepper and serve. If you want to serve your salad cold, let the chicken and peppers cool completely before adding to the salad. Cover and chill. Dress with the balsamic vinegar and lemon juice just before serving.

Hot-smoked Salmon salad

• A few new potatoes halved (I haven’t specified a weight as it’s up to you how many you would like!  You can always cook a few more and make a potato salad later)
• ½ pack asparagus tips (use the other half tomorrow for breakfast with boiled eggs to dip into)
• bag mixed salad leaves (including young beetroot leaves and watercress)
• 1/2 bunch each parsley and mint, leaves picked and roughly chopped (again, you can use the remainder to mix with your cold potatoes)
• a few radish thinly sliced
• 1 hot-smoked salmon steak, skin removed
• 1 spring onion sliced diagonally

For the dressing    1 tbsp lemon juice       60 mls olive oil       1/2 teasp wholegrain mustard   1 red chilli

Boil potatoes in salted water for 10 mins until tender, adding the asparagus tips for the final 2 mins of cooking. Drain and allow to cool. Whisk together the salad dressing ingredients. then season to taste. In a large bowl, toss together the potatoes, asparagus, salad leaves, herbs and radishes. Add two-thirds of the dressing, thoroughly mix through the salad, then spread the salad over a large platter. Break the hot-smoked salmon into large chunks, then scatter over the top along with the spring onions. Finish by pouring remaining dressing over the top.

The rhubarb in my garden is growing really well (apart from the hens eating some of the leaves!) so I thought this week we would look at that.  It’s such a relatively short season that we really ought to make the most of it! Botanically, rhubarb is a vegetable (it’s related to sorrel and dock) but its thick, fleshy stalks are treated as a fruit, despite their tart flavour. It grows in two crops. The first, which arrives early in the year, is forced and grown under pots. Its stalks are watermelon pink, with pale lime green leaves, and it is the more tender and delicately flavoured of the two. The second, called maincrop rhubarb, is grown outdoors, and arrives in spring. Its stalks are a deeper red, tinged with green, and its leaves a brighter green. It has a more intense flavour and a more robust texture than forced.

I love mine lightly poached with my porridge in the morning (don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!), or with custard or in a crumble.  It also marries beautifully with ginger and strawberries (obviously not altogether).  And did you know, it goes really well with savoury dishes, particularly strong fish like mackerel?

Mackerel with rhubarb chutney

• 75g / 3oz castor sugar
• 25g/1oz sultanas
• few sprigs fresh rosemary
• 2cm/¾in piece root ginger peeled and finely chopped
• 1 shallot, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 sticks rhubarb
• 5 tbsp cider vinegar
• 1 orange, juice only
• salt and black pepper
• 1 mackerel – 2 fillets

For the chutney, in a heavy-based pan melt the sugar until a golden-brown caramel forms. Remove from the heat and stir in the sultanas, rosemary sprigs, ginger, shallot and rhubarb.Stir in the cider vinegar and orange juice. Bring back to the boil and cook gently for 8-10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and set aside to cool.

For the mackerel, place the mackerel fillet skin-side up on an oven tray. Brush with rapeseed oil and place the fillets under a hot grill. Season with salt and pepper. Serve a spoonful of chutney with the cooked mackerel fillets, new potatoes and a crisp salad.

Rhubarb Pudding Cake

This is one of my all-time favourite puddings!  I’ve tried it with other fruit but it doesn’t work nearly as well.  As the season is relatively short you really have to make the most of it – consequently, below is probably more for two than one – but you will be really happy tomorrow when you have another portion to eat!

• 4 dessertspoons plain flour                    1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 dessertspoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 lb rhubarb, chopped
• Sauce:  40 grams butter    2 tablespoons sugar    1 small egg

Preheat the oven to 200oC. Mix the flour and the  baking powder in a small ovenproof dish.  Add egg and milk and oil and mix together to a batter.  Place the rhubarb on top and put into the oven for 15 minutes.  Melt the butter and sugar together for the sauce, switch off heat  and add beaten egg -DON’T SCRAMBLE!  Pour on top of cake and put back in oven for another 15 minutes.  Yum!

You’ve probably thought that if you are on your own you have to say goodbye to the Sunday Roast – wrong!  Discover – a poussin!  It is a  small, immature chicken, sometimes called a spring chicken (so totally apt for today!) weighing about 400 – 500 grams.  As the bird is only four to six weeks old the flesh is young and tender – perfect for a single serving and just begging for lots of nice flavours and spices to be added!

You can, of course, just stuff it and roast it as tiny normal roast chicken – but I know you know how to do that so we are going to  learn a new skill and spatchcock it – and spice it up!

Place chicken breast-side down, with the legs towards you. Using sturdy scissors, cut up along each side of the parson’s nose and backbone to remove it, cutting through the rib bones as you go. Open the chicken out and turn over. Flatten the breastbone with the heel of your hand so that the meat is all one thickness.

Now for the spicing up!

• 1 – 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 dessertspoon grated ginger
• juice of 1/2 orange
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

Combine all of the above.  Put the flattened bird in an ovenproof dish and pour over.  Turn it a couple of times in the liquid and leave to marinade 2 – 3 hours or overnight. Pour off the marinade into a saucepan. Heat oven to 190oC and roast, uncovered, for about 45 minutes.  You could put a potato into bake alongside and some vegetable to roast – onions, peppers, carrots to make the most of the oven space (typical Scot – won’t put the oven on unless I am doing more than one thing!).  When cooked, put out onto a plate to rest and pour the juices into the saucepan with the marinade, heat together (you can thicken it a bit with some chicken or vegetable Bisto granules if you like) and serve as a sauce.

One of my favourite puddings at the moment is affogato – very simply, it’s a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a cup with a small espresso coffee poured over – and eaten immediately!  If you haven’t got an espresso machine just make a (very) small cup (even a large eggcup will do) of strong coffee.  And even better add a little tia maria to the coffee before you pour.  Be good to yourself!

  xxx