Thought you might like to see a picture of my hens, my lovely girls who give me such wonderful eggs! The black one is Topsy – she’s 7 years old now, doesn’t lay any more but keeps the youngsters in check! The other four, Eeny, Meeny, Miny and Mo are rescue chickens who are loving being out in the fresh air and scrubbing around in the soil for worms!
One of the most comforting bowl of food you can eat is risotto. Soft, silky and easy to eat, it slips down a treat leaving a lovely warm and satisfied tummy! It is one dish, however, which can’t be hurried – you really do have to “slave over a hot stove” for this one – and take it slow, adding liquid one ladleful at a time. So put the afternoon play on the radio and enjoy the making as well as the eating!
Basic Risotto
Prepare all ingredients, chop onions, grate cheese, etc.
Melt butter and olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 3-5 minutes until softened. Add garlic and cook for another minute or two.
Add rice and stir to coat with butter. Cook for 2-3 minutes to toast the rice.
Add white wine and stir until wine is absorbed.
Add stock a small ladle at a time and stir until most liquid is absorbed.
Continue adding stock a ladle at a time, stirring after each addition.
Taste-test a few rice grains after the 5th or 6th stock addition to test – it should not be crunchy or chewy.Continue adding stock ladle at a time until rice taste-tests done.
Add 2-3 tablespoons of cream or crème fraiche and stir until combined.
Remove from heat and add cheese. Stir until cheese is melted.
The above is lovely on its own – but you can have fun now and add lots of different other ingredients. Whichever one you choose, do BEFORE adding the cheese.
A dollop of Pesto
Gently fry some mushrooms ( and more garlic if you Like) in butter. When soft, stir all the mushrooms and buttery juices into the rice, add cheese and serve.
Poach some smoked haddock in milk with a bay leaf. Take out and again stir into the rice, then cheese. Even more lovely is a poached egg on top!
Fry some tomatoes in olive oil (more garlic?) and basil leaves if you have them. When soft but still holding their shape, stir in (again) into the rice
You can also add cooked spinach / cooked peas / parsley / tinned artichokes
I’ve tried all of the above at different times and they are all delicious – try them all until you find YOUR favourite – or, better still, keep experimenting and share what you come up with!
Now, if you opened a bottle of wine to add to the risotto, pour yourself a glass, take your lovely bowlful, put your favourite programme on the TV and settle down to a cuddle of food. You are allowed . . . x
You may have noticed if you have visited the site before that I have added a new heading – “Soup Collection” I thought it would be easier to find recipes by catagorising rather than have to scroll through all my meanderings to find one. In time, I may add Starters, Mains and Puddings. What do you think?
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
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.
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
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
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
* 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
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
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!)
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
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:
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
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?
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!
Ailsa cooks for One 