This turkey is no flop

After the high-fat treat that was dumplings in my last post Leave it to stew, I have gone all healthy and low fat this time. Actually, it wasn’t so much by design, but more by coincidence. A little while ago I cooked a lovely quick, super-low-fat curry and side dish that I wanted to share, but at around the same time the UK government stated that individuals need to be “more honest about what they’re eating”. This made me think about the issue of modern eating. In the UK the average girth of the nation has been expanding for some time and is allegedly among the greatest in Europe. While I appreciate the government’s sentiment to some degree, I can’t help thinking it smacks more of a need to be seen to say something than of a belief that it’ll do any good. 

Food-related habits in the UK have changed enormously over the past 50–60 years. Even with very little thought I can think of a good few reasons for these changes, such as vast improvements in home refrigeration and freezing and in commercial food preservation; altered shopping habits owing to the rise of large supermarkets and decline of local specialised shops; massive increases in the availability and varieties of ready meals and convenience and snack foods; women going out to work; a decline in the transfer of cooking and food knowledge; and a shift in spending habits towards buying meals made outside the home (from the humble sandwich for lunch to takeaways and restaurant meals). There are many more, I’m sure. With the current state of affairs, I imagine that unless eating habits are at the extremes of the spectrum, it can sometimes be pretty hard to keep track of and be “honest” about they are.

Goodness knows I like something indulgent once in a while (as said dumplings illustrate). I could quite happily, for instance, eat a takeaway curry every single week, but I know they can have very high levels of fat (especially saturated fats), salts and sugars (isn’t that what makes them taste so good?). One of the things we try to maintain, therefore, is balance. A favourite trick to keep decadence at bay is to to get a fix by cooking homemade versions of our favourite indulgence foods. This might involve some pre-made elements, such as a shop-bought sauce (I don’t advocate giving up convenience entirely!), but partnering that with healthy ingredients (eg lean meat, fresh vegetables, boiled rice, wholemeal pasta etc) means it’s still a much better choice.

So, you can tell that home-cooked curry is going to be a firm favourite. To help us knock one up whenever we want, we keep the cupboards stocked with the following core kit: curry paste, ground cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon and garam masala, fresh onions, garlic and root ginger, tinned tomatoes and fresh or dried chillies. Additional options include whole cumin and coriander seeds, curry powder, cardamom, paprika, fenugreek, fennel, curry leaves and various other bits and bobs, but you can certainly get by without these.

For curry in a hurry we would use shop-bought paste or pre-prepared curry base sauce that can be prepared at any time, stored in the freezer in batches and defrosted at the time of cooking. Just add meat, vegetables and/or fish of choice, tinned tomatoes and any enhancements desired, such as chickpeas, lentils, spinach, additional spices, chillies (or chilli powder), yoghurt or soaked ground almonds or cashew nuts. If more time is available we might marinate meat with freshly made paste and yoghurt, if required, for several hours or over the night before cooking.

I’ve provided three recipes below that have health, speed, economy and flavour in mind. The first is a base sauce for freezing. The amounts of spices suit our tastes, but can be easily altered. I’ve also provided recipes for a turkey curry and a side dish. I suggested using turkey because it’s extremely lean and it’s cheaper than a lot of other meats. I know people are often put off turkey because they think it goes dry, but in this recipe it stays moist and tender. Chicken breast would, however, be absolutely fine as an alternative. Serve with a little boiled basmati rice, and naan bread if you have a big appetite, for healthy comfort food (hmm, is that an oxymoron?).

Curry base sauce

Two large onions

1 inch root ginger peeled

Fresh chillies or chilli powder to taste

2-3 cloves garlic

2 tbsp ground cumin

2 tbsp ground coriander

1 tsp cinnamon

Half tsp turmeric

3 cloves

200 g tin chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato puree

Salt to taste

6 dstspn water

In a food processor mince the onions, garlic and ginger (and fresh chillies if using) and place in a large frying pan with the oil. Gently heat for about 10 min until the mixture has turned golden brown, being careful not to let it burn. Add the dry spices (add the chilli powder at this stage if using) and cloves and stir in the pan for about 10 seconds to heat. Add the tinned tomatoes, the tomato puree and salt and stir through. Add the water and cook down until it has all reduced away. Leave the mixture to cool and chill in an airtight container (keeps for a few days) or freeze in sealable plastic bags until use. This mixture provides enough base sauce for four portions of curry.

Tip:

A good way to peel the root ginger is to gently rub the skin off with the edge of teaspoon.

Turkey curry with chole chaat

Serves 4

For the curry

75 g red lentils

350 ml chicken stock

1 heaped tbsp curry powder

2 tsp cumin powder

3 tsp coriander powder

2 tsp garam masala

1 medium onion finely chopped

450 g turkey breast steak chopped into large pieces

100 g closed cap mushrooms cut into large chunks

200 g spinach leaves shredded

1 tbsp lemon juice

Salt and pepper

For the chole chaat

Half an onion finely chopped

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp garam masala

¼ tsp turmeric

2 red chillis finely chopped

2 cm piece root ginger grated

200 g tinned tomatoes

50 ml water

Salt and pepper

For the curry

Put the lentils, stock, onion and all spices except the garam masala into a large, heavy-based saucepan, bring to the boil then turn down, cover and simmer for 10 min. Stir in the spinach a little at the time until it wilts, then add the turkey, mushrooms and lemon juice, season and re-cover and simmer for 20–30 min. Just before serving add the garam masala and check the seasoning and adjust as necessary.

For the chole chaat

Drain the chickpeas. Crush half the chickpeas with a fork and leave the others whole. Cook the onion in a saucepan until it starts to brown. Add the dry spices and cook gently for 1 min, then add the ginger, chilli, tomatoes and chickpeas. Season and simmer for 10 min.

Tip: dried chickpeas are cheaper than tinned, so consider rehydrating them then storing batches in the freezer until use; weight more or less doubles during rehydration, so use half the final weight desired.

Leave it to stew

Well, all, it’s been a while. The past couple of months have been a heady whirl of short trips, colds and crazy work deadlines. Consequently, cooking-wise I’ve relied on easy old favourites and the contents of the freezer. Finally, though, I’ve clawed my way back to the cooking trail.

After the last-ditch effort of summer to show itself, which led to the hottest October day ever recorded in the UK, autumn seems now to be just around the corner. Like a lot of people, the cooler weather and darker evenings at this time of year make me start to think about food that warms the body and the heart, such as a steaming bowl of nourishing beef stew.

During my teenage years my mother taught me some basic cooking skills. Among those were the slow-cooking methods stewing, casseroling and braising (sometimes also called pot roasting). The first two seem to have become amalgamated as one method, but traditionally stews have been cooked on the hob with plenty of liquid, casseroles in the oven with plenty of liquid and braised dishes in the oven with only a little liquid so the meat cooks in steam. Generally, stews and casseroles involve small pieces, such as cubes, chops or steaks, whereas braising is used for larger pieces of meat, from large steaks up to roasting-sized joints.

Slow-cooking meat has several benefits. First, it can be a thrifty option. The meat doesn’t have to look pretty and often contains some fat, sinew and possibly bone, so can cost quite a lot less than the so-called prime cuts. Secondly, said fat, sinew and bone lend loads of flavour. Thirdly, tough cuts of meat can become wonderfully tender. Fourthly, the judicious addition of vegetables, pulses and grains can make the meal go a long way.

Essentially, if you have the time and patience it’s pretty difficult to go wrong with stews – aside from burning them to the bottom of the pan! What seems more relevant is to discuss them in degrees of rightness for you. This article in The Guardian illustrates that there are as many approaches as there are cooks. The key things are to cook it long enough to break down the collagen, which will provide richness and make the meat tender and easy to eat, and to create plenty of flavour.

How slow a slow cook is will depend somewhat on the meat. For instance, chicken pieces on the bone might take about 1 h to 1 h 15 min, whereas a beef or mutton stew could take 2–3 h. This type of cooking, therefore, is not generally suitable for a rushed weekday supper. Taking the time to slow cook properly, however, is worth it. Stews and casseroles can be made in advance and easily reheated. They also freeze well. Another alternative is to invest in a slow cooker, prepare the ingredients in the morning and set it to cook throughout the day. I don’t own one of these, so I can’t vouch for the results. From the accounts of people I know who do have these devices, though, they can take a bit of getting used to, the results seem variable, and the published recipes need quite a lot of tweaking. I prefer being able to watch and amend.

As well as picking up flavours from the meat, the gravy will benefit from additions such as Worcestershire sauce, mushroom ketchup, herbs (eg bay leaf, bouquet garni etc; dried herbs are fine), yeast extract and salt and pepper. Other useful flavours might be tomatoes, wine, cider, celery, cinnamon, ginger... Even apricots are popular in Moroccan-type lamb stews.

Thickening the stew offers its own challenges. I tend to use plain flour, stirred in before the stock is added, and some additional corn flour paste towards the end of cooking if the gravy isn’t thick enough. Don’t add the corn flour too early, though, as the breakdown of collagen and the reduction of liquid during cooking will cause some thickening. Other popular methods are to add arrowroot, lentils, pearl barley or floury potatoes or to add a roux at the end of the cooking. I do like the pearl barley option, but it’s difficult to know how much it will expand and it does sometimes soak up rather a lot of the gravy rather than merely thickening the stew.

Barley and potatoes also serve to stretch the meal. The use of other vegetables will help this cause further as well as creating a tasty-one-pot-meal experience.  I like carrots and swede (also known as rutabaga) because I enjoy the sweetness they lend, but other good options are turnips, beans, celery, peppers, squashes, leeks, mushrooms – whatever is available, really. Add them at different times to prevent them all disintegrating into slush or to get the best flavour out of them

Finally, an optional extra is dumplings. In the recipe for beef stew I’ve provided below, I’ve included cheese and herb dumplings. These should probably, however, be included as a treat rather than every time you cook stew, as they have a high fat content.

Since it looks as though we’re finally heading into autumn, perhaps now is the time to break out that stewpot.

Beef stew with cheese and herb dumplings

Serves 4–6

For the stew

1 large onion chopped

1 large stick celery finely sliced

1 tsp dried thyme

500 g stewing steak diced into 1 inch pieces

150 g baby button mushrooms (optional)

1 heaped tbsp plain flour

1 beef stock cube dissolved in 500 ml water

100 ml red wine (optional)

2 large carrots cut into large chunks

Half a medium swede cut into large chunks

2 dstspn Worcestershire sauce or 1 dstspn Worcestershire sauce and 1 dstspn mushroom ketchup

1 tsp yeast extract (if required)

For the dumplings

100 g self-raising flour

50 g vegetarian suet

25–50 g mature cheddar

1–2 tsp dried herbs of choice (eg thyme, oregano etc)

Pinch salt

Water to mix

In a large heavy-based saucepan, soften the onions and celery until the onion is translucent but not browned. Meanwhile, brown the meat in a hot frying pan then turn down the temperature and gently fry the mushrooms whole until they start to turn golden. Add the beef and mushrooms to the onions and celery then stir in the flour. Deglaze the frying pan used for the meat and mushrooms with red the wine (if using) or water and add to the saucepan. Add the stock, Worcestershire sauce and mushroom ketchup (if using) and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil then turn down, cover and leave to a simmer for around 1 h. Add the carrots and swede. Taste the gravy. If required, add the yeast extract at this point. Re-cover the pan and leave to simmer for a further 1 h.

To make the dumplings, put all the dry ingredients into a bowl and gradually mix in the water until they form a firm dough. Roll the mixture into eight equally sized balls. Place them in the pan so they are floating on the top of the stew. The dumplings will double in size, so ensure there is enough room to allow for expansion. Replace the lid and leave to simmer for a further 20 mins. Serve immediately with some potatoes or fresh crusty bread.

Tip: brown the meat a few pieces at a time to ensure it actually fries, which will ensure the meat is seared, rather than steamed, and enhance the flavour.

Cramming in the cooking

Goodness, I can’t believe it’s been so long since my last post! With a busy few weeks on the paid-work front and a visit from the delectable Mr M’s parents one weekend, things have been getting away from me. I have managed to do quite a lot of cooking, but it’s been crammed into the weekends, so there hasn’t been time to write about it too. It’s a shame, because there were many things I wanted to share, but time has passed and I am getting forgetful. Here, then, I’ve jotted down a summary of the things I’ve enjoyed making the most over the past month.

I mainly cook savoury dishes, so for change, and as a treat for my in-laws, I made some little chocolate chip cupcakes. I say ‘cupcakes’, but aren’t they fairy cakes? This long-serving, traditional British name seems to have been usurped, but under whichever name, they were super easy and quick to bake. I used a straightforward Victoria sponge mix – equal weights of fat, sugar and flour, and half the number of eggs as ounces (in this case, four, four, four, two, which makes 12–14 cakes). I spent the whole time basking in fond childhood memories of weekend baking with Mom or friends, and particularly of scraping the cake-mix bowl. I decorated the cakes with butter icing, although I balked at the potential sickliness of making it almost as thick as the cakes are deep, as seems to be the wont of commercial bakers these days. Even with restraint, there was plenty of icing.

The bread maker came into its own again to make the dough for white bread rolls. I have used it brown bread rolls before with very good results, but I think the white rolls turned out even better. They very were light with a really good, quite open texture. I tweaked the manufacturer’s recipe a bit (less sugar and skimmed-milk powder) as we have found the white loaves made in the machine a tad sweet, and the balance seemed improved. I think this change might have helped the texture as well. The rolls also kept quite well, but were great toasted when started to get a little stale.

Visitors for the weekend constituted the perfect excuse for me to make my legendary lasagne. I don’t blow my own trumpet that much but my lasagne has been greatly appreciated by all who have eaten it – or that’s what they tell me, anyway ... It is truly a labour of love, taking 3–4 hours to prepare. I gently cook a Bolognese sauce for 2–3 hours and make fresh pasta sheets and béchamel sauce. By the time it’s served, the sauce is rich, the pasta is silky soft, and the béchamel has melded with everything else to provide a satisfying creamy roundness. A bit of grated cheddar, bubbling and golden, on the top lends savoury finesse. The only downside to the lasagne is that it takes mere minutes to demolish.

To finish off the in-laws’ weekend visit, I cooked a Sunday roast with chicken. This in itself was not anything very special, but what I enjoyed about it was breaking with tradition and cooking Yorkshire puddings instead of stuffing. I wanted to show off, really, as finally, after years of being disappointed by my attempts, I recently managed to pin down the ingredient proportions that work for me. Much utter tripe is talked about how to make the perfect Yorkshire pudding, but the recipes are numerous and all seem “guarantee” perfect results. Even the Royal Society of Chemistry has got in on the act. Well, I don’t use their recipe but I still end up with well expanded, air-light, crispy, golden-brown puddings. The only gripe might be that they are not always the perfect shape – they sometimes spread out a little more than up, but when they’re served within the confines of my home, who cares? Four inches tall? Pah!

Last weekend I took advantage of some lovely seasonal produce. I had noticed marrows in the vegetable aisle and felt inspired. Marrow has a mild flavour and a high water content, so they provide a innocuous container that can take on pretty much any flavours, but stay refreshing, which is always helpful if the stuffing ends up a little dry. This time I made a beef mince stuffing. With the remainder of the mince I made meatballs for the freezer (always handy for a quick pasta dinner in the week). As I also had some marrow left, I added it to aubergines, courgettes, peppers and tomatoes to make ratatouille. We used that a couple of times with pasta as a chunky sauce, but it makes a really good hot accompaniment where you might use salad instead.

Finally, I had some pork loin in the freezer. My quest to come up with a range of sauces for pork dishes coupled with a seasonal offer on plums led to plum and ginger sauce. This is very simple to make and can be used as a dipping sauce or in stir fries. The sugar content is quite high, with natural sugars from the plums plus dark brown sugar, but once in a while that’s not going to do much harm.

In the coming weeks I hope to have a bit more time to write as well as cook. In the meantime, if you want a recipe for anything in this post, let me know.

Pick a peck of piquant peppers

Please excuse the misuse of this line from the old nursery rhyme, but it was crying out to be adapted for this post. It’s quite a short entry this week, but I was rather pleased with the stuffing recipe I recently created for stuffed peppers and wanted to share it.

I had fancied doing stuffed peppers for a while. When refilling the cupboards in my newly fitted kitchen I discovered an open bag of couscous that had been ignored in the old kitchen. Couscous is something I tend to buy for a specific recipe then leave to languish because it seems difficult to make it exciting enough to serve with any frequency. I also had some pork left over from making a batch of pork in mustard and mushroom sauce (A pig and a poke in the taste buds). Peppers, pork and couscous? I felt some Moroccan flavours coming on.

We have a healthy spice cupboard so I had everything I needed to hand. 

I decided to marinade the pork, but I think that this recipe would work well if the spice mix were used immediately, so long as the seeds etc are toasted before use to help release the full flavour. This recipe is also easily adaptable to a vegetarian version, and I’ll be trying it out with cubes of butternut squash instead of the pork.

I have cooked stuffed peppers before as they’re very easy to do, but I seldom serve them because I dither so much about what to serve with them. To serve two peppers per person seems a bit much or possibly just lacking variety, but one pepper seems to need some kind of accompaniment. I would normally supplement a dish with a carbohydrate product, but in stuffed peppers rice, couscous or similar is already included.

In the end I opted for sweet potato wedges. Sweet potatoes are sometimes called “yam”; to clarify, I mean the orange-fleshed sweet potato not the white-fleshed yam. Despite belonging to the carbohydrate group, I find sweet potatoes less dense than potatoes and the sweetness seemed particularly complementary to the spiced pepper stuffing. The wedges can be roasted at the same temperatures as the peppers in only 20 min or so, without par boiling. I just tossed them in a little olive oil and sprinkled them with dried rosemary, although fresh rosemarry would be fine, especially if cooking a larger amount. I also served a few spears of broccoli for colour contrast. Other suitable, less starchy accompaniments might be pearl barley or quinoa, but I suppose they can present the same conundrum as couscous in that they require an injection of flavour.

There is, of course, a seemingly endless variety of fillings for peppers. I thought I would just add one more!

Moroccan stuffed peppers

Serves 4

300 g lean pork

1 medium onion finely chopped

100 g mushrooms roughly chopped

1 stick of celery finely chopped

120 g cherry tomatoes halved or quartered, dependent on size

4 large peppers

150 g couscous

For the marinade

2 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

3 cloves

4 black pepper corns

4 green cardamom pods

Half tsp turmeric

Quarter nutmeg grated

Half tsp cinnamon

Half tsp allspice

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp dried oregano

3 hot dried chillies (alter number according to taste)

2 cloves garlic

2.5 cm fresh root ginger peeled

2 tsp vegetable oil

Dice the pork into 1 cm cubes, removing any fat, and put in a bowl or dish. In a dry frying pan gently warm the coriander and cumin seeds, cloves, pepper corns and cardamom pods until the coriander seeds start to colour slightly and release their aroma. Grind these and all the other marinade ingredients into a paste with a hand blender. Spoon the mix over the pork and stir around until the pork is well coated. Cover and set aside in the fridge for a few hours to overnight.

Heat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas mark 4. Soak the couscous in 125 ml boiling water and leave for around 5 min until all the water has been absorbed. Cut the tops off the peppers, remove the seeds and membranes from inside and stand them upright (open end up) in an ovenproof dish.

In a frying pan gently cook the onion, celery and mushrooms until the onion has softened and started to turn translucent. Add the cherry tomatoes and cook for a few minutes. Chop up the flesh from the discarded pepper tops and add to the pan. Add the pork and all the spice mix and cook until the pork has cooked through (this should only take a few minutes). Stir in the couscous.

Spoon the mix into the peppers until full, drizzle with a little olive oil and bake in the oven for 35–40 min until the peppers are tender. Serve immediately.

Salad days

When I started writing this post it looks decidedly unlike summer. The rain had been pouring half the morning and the skies were a grim mottled grey. That it’s warm while raining, though, gives away the fact that it is surely the good old British summer. The increasing temperatures have meant moving away from my winter soups and trying to get creative with cold lunches.

Last winter was one of the hardest in the UK for years. It was a pleasure, therefore, to make soup every week, as there’s something comforting about a bowl of hot soup when it is freezing outside. Soups are also a handy way of getting an additional portion or two of vegetables into the daily diet. They were abandoned, however, when the heat ramped up suddenly and the UK launched apace into one of the driest springs on record.

For cold lunches the options pretty much come down to salad or sandwiches. Although within those categories the sub-options might be myriad, I never feel the latter offers much chance to keep up the midday vegetable fix. Additionally, I’m partial to toast for breakfast, so prefer to avoid a second bread-laden meal on too many days. So, we took up the salad challenge.

The concept of salad in the UK seems to have shifted during my lifetime. In my memory the salad of the 1970s comprised round or iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and a variety of mayonnaise-slathered temperate-climate vegetables, such as potatoes, cabbage, carrots and peas. Things remained fairly similar throughout my teenage years except that little gem (baby Romaine/Cos) lettuces became ridiculously popular. From my early adulthood onwards, though, the diversity developed until many varieties¸ such as Romaine endive/chicory, frisée, radicchio, lollo rosso, rocket, chard, lamb’s lettuce, watercress, spinach, have become widely available, and all we have to do is grab a bag on the way home.

In restaurants I’ve noticed changes too. In the 1970s and 1980s, I only remember salad being used to any great extent in starters - a few lettuce leaves under prawn cocktail, the garnish on the side of a plate, or perhaps even a mixed salad as a starter in its own right. Salads have, however, ascended to the role of main course, especially Caesar salad and salade Niçoise. Most versions, though, seem unworthy of this accolade as they are nearly all leaf couple with only a smattering of the more-expensive protein ingredient ­– two if you’re lucky. On the plus side, though, salads have become more adventurous. I recently had a beautiful smoked duck, walnut, pear and blue cheese salad as a starter.

At the other end of the scale, anywhere you can buy pre-packed sandwiches these days you can buy pre-made salads. The cheaper ones contain mainly pasta, with lots of sauce or mayonnaise, which keeps the price down and the full-belly feeling up. Those that do feature the more-traditional salad vegetables can cost a small fortune for a small sized portion with a narrow range of ingredients, and frequently seem rather unsatisfying.

Our homemade salad lunches fall somewhere pleasantly between these points on the spectrum. They have something of a retro feel because the leaf constituent is pretty simple – generally iceberg or Romaine – but this is only a small part of the whole. We use a range of ingredients to achieve a lot of flavour, colour and texture and to provide a balance of fibre, protein, fat, carbohydrate etc. Thus, as well as vegetables, we include a few spoonfuls of a pulse and a protein item, such as cold cooked meat or a slice of quiche. Anything that is pleasant cold is probably fair game, really. Enhancements have included a mustard vinaigrette (3 parts extra virgin olive oil to 1 part red wine vinegar, a good pinch of sugar and Dijon mustard to taste), noodles with a soy sauce dressing and chopped fresh chillies, and a curried mayonnaise or yoghurt dressing for the chicken.

The salads fit neatly into an average sized sandwich box, which makes them ideal for the delectable Mr M to take to work. I’m hopeful that there’s plenty of warm weather still to come so we can come up with new salad ideas, but whatever happens I won’t be going down the route of ‘posh’ gastro-pub-like salads. They’re just not my style!

 Basic salad with mustard vinaigrette and noodle salad with soy sauce dressing

Closed caps and crumpets

How I arrive at deciding what to cook can sometimes take a slightly odd or circuitous route, or even both, as illustrated in A soupçon of experimentation. Last week my mind’s wandering led me to some more new cooking experiences.

For the first time in ages, it seemed, I was able to work a part-time week. When I left my permanent role last year and became a freelancer, I claimed that I would work 3 days per week and would spend the rest of the time sorting out house and home. Of course, as other contractors will know, freelance jobs can be like buses – they don’t always follow your prescribed timetable and sometimes several will come along at once. Consequently, a working week can stretch and shrink almost as much as Lycra leotard. For the preceding few weeks work had been pretty full on, and with that, having the kitchen fitted and having a stinking cold that lasted for 2 weeks, domesticity had fallen pitifully low on the priority list. When I realised that I finally had 24 h to myself, I grabbed the chance to some time in the kitchen.

My first new cooking inspiration stemmed from a sudden yearning for mushroom pâté during a trip to the supermarket. I adore pâtés, although I generally favour meat varieties. Every so often, though, I fancy something different. When I viewed the tub of mushroom pâté on the shelf, though, it appeared upsettingly small for the price. What did I do? Why, decided to make a homemade version, of course. After all, compared with chicken liver pâté it would surely be a doddle. I looked up the ingredients listed on the product label (a handy method for formulating on-the-spot recipes) and went to pick up what I needed.

The pâté turned out to be incredibly simple and quick to make, although a food processor was a massive bonus here, as cutting up the mushrooms by hand would be something of a pain. I made double that in the shop for half the price. In addition, it froze quite well. I generally split pâté into four ramekins and take one out the day before I want some to defrost in the fridge overnight. NB A little liquid gathers in the bottom of the dish when this pâté is left to sit for a while, but just give it a stir before use and it’s fine. I’ve put the recipe below. I opted for a bit of a cheat and used garlic and herb cream cheese, but using plain cream cheese, finely chopped fresh garlic and whatever herbs are preferred would enable tweaking of flavour.

So, I had my pâté, but what to eat it on? I am particularly fond of crumpets as the vehicle for any pâté. Toast is good, but not so much of a treat. Normally, I am perfectly happy with shop bought crumpets. After all, until my recent revelation about how to successfully prove yeast breads, crumpets were pretty much written off. These days, however, I’m feeling a little more adventurous.

The terminology for certain baked and bread products, it seems, causes confusion across nations, and sometimes within them. The understanding of and the range of names for pancakes, breads rolls, crumpets, muffins, biscuits, cookies, scones and muffins is positively mind-boggling. For clarification, I am referring to crumpets that are made from a thick batter with yeast as the raising agent, are cooked on a griddle or in a frying pan, and are meant to be full of holes. In fact, according to many cooks the cardinal sin in making this type of crumpet is to end up with no holes (referred to as ‘blind’). These are sometimes called English Crumpets.

Crumpets are traditionally round owing to being cooked in rings (crumpet, egg or muffin rings), but can be free-form or cooked in adequately sized cookie cutters to make any shape you like. They come out amazingly light and have a completely different texture to the shop-bought versions I’ve tried, which have a more-rubbery finish. Crumpets are best when they’re absolutely fresh and still warm, but I found that they keep very well for a few days when wrapped tightly in cling film and then lightly toasted to warm them through. They should freeze very well, but so far I’ve made small batches and eaten them fresh or from the fridge.

Several important points should be remembered about the cooking method. First, the temperature of the pan must be kept low. Crumpets cook from the bottom up and the batter slowly solidifies, which takes around 5 min. The heat must, therefore, be low enough to avoid burning the base before the top is cooked; on the finished crumpet the base should be a mid to dark golden colour. Second, do not overfill the crumpet rings. For a 3 in/7.5 cm ring 1–1.5 dessert spoonfuls is plenty. The crumpets rise while cooking and if overfilled they take a long time to cook, which increases the risk of burning the base, they can end up a little doughy, and can be difficult to get out of the ring to flip over and cook the top. Finally, the crumpet rings should be oiled before use to prevent sticking as much as possible. I found that even with oil the crumpets always stick to some degree and, therefore, the rings they should be washed as well as re-oiled before every new crumpet. On the plus side, you don’t have to get up at 5am to make the batter if you want the crumpets for breakfast (breakfast versus teatime is a source of hot debate). Just put it in a warm place until bubbles begin to form on the top, then cover the bowl with a cloth, put it in the fridge overnight and it’ll be ready when you want it in the morning.

I do hope you’ll give these things a go, but if you end up thinking you’ll cook crumpets with any frequency, I recommend getting a set of three or four rings, or it takes a long time to cook even half a dozen.

Crumpets are made from a thick, wet, very elastic batter. During proving the batter will double in size and lots of air bubbles will form

While cooking holes will become visible at the top of the batter then the sides will begin to dry out and solidify. At this stage, remove the crumpets from the rings. Flip them over and cook the remaining wet batter on the top.

Lovely, golden crumpets.

Mushroom pâté

600 g closed cap mushrooms or mushrooms of choice

1 medium to large onion

1 vegetable stock cube

2.5 tbsp dry sherry

150 g low fat garlic and herb cream cheese or plain cream cheese plus 2 cloves finely chopped garlic and herbs of choice

1 tbsp lemon juice

Salt and pepper to taste

Pulse all the mushrooms and the onion in a food processor until finely chopped. Fry them on a high heat until most of the liquid has come out of the mushrooms and evaporated and the volume has reduced by half. Turn down the heat, crumble the stock cube into the pan and mix will. Season the mix with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the sherry and cook gently until the last of the liquid has evaporated from the pan.

Put the mushroom and onion mix in a food processor with the cream cheese and lemon juice and blend until quite smooth. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper seasoning if necessary.

 

Crumpets

Makes 12

225 g strong white bread flour

1 level tsp salt

3.5 g (half a sachet) or 2.5 tsp fast-action dry yeast

1 level tsp caster sugar

280 ml milk

Half level tsp bicarbonate of soda

50 ml water

A little oil for greasing the crumpet rings

Warm the milk gently in a saucepan until it is hand hot. Add the sugar and yeast to the milk and set aside for 10–15 min until it starts to foam on the top. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk, sugar and yeast mix. Beat or whisk the ingredients together to make a batter. Put the bowl in a warm place (eg, an airing cupboard or an oven warmed to a very low temperature then switched off) for 45 min to 1 h or until the batter has doubled in size and bubbles have started to form on the top. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the water and beat into the batter and leave it to rise again for around 30 min.

Heat a griddle or heavy-based frying pan to a low heat. Use a pastry brush and oil the crumpet rings well (or pastry cutters 3 in/7.5 cm in diameter will suffice), place them in the pan then spoon in 1–1.5 dessert spoonfuls of batter. Use spoons to ease the batter to the edges of the rings if necessary. Cook for around 5 min or until holes appear in the top and the batter at the edges has dried out slightly and solidified. Gently remove the crumpets from the rings and flip them over. Cook the tops for 1-2 min then put them on a cooling rack. Re-grease the rings before cooking each batch of crumpets.

Serve the crumpets straightaway or wrap them in cling film, store them in the fridge, and toast gently them to warm them up just before eating later.

A pig and a poke in the taste buds

The popularity of bacon and ham seem continuously high. Indeed, last year the former was reported to have gained in popularity in the US despite steeply rising prices. Is pork afforded the same enthusiasm? Well, I have noticed that in the UK the inclusion of slow-roasted belly pork on restaurant menus has risen exponentially compared with maybe 5 or 6 years ago. I am very happy about this – my mouth is watering just at the thought of it – but for home cooking pork is a meat I don’t really hear many people raving about.

Pork has a subtle, sweet flavour, it’s versatile, some cuts are very lean, which helps with keeping the fat down in everyday cooking and the fattier cuts can make delicious treats. It seems, though, to have a reputation of being tasteless and difficult to stop going dry or tough. When cooking chops, for example, it can be a very fine line between cooking the meat through and it passing the knife-bounce test. So, how can these drawbacks be avoided?

One way to a succulent roast would be to treat pork like beef and lamb and leave it a little pink in the middle. I expect that, like me, many of you were told that pork must be cooked thoroughly and that ‘rare’ meat is dangerous because of the risk of trichinosis. In developed countries, though, the risk of infection from commercially reared and properly kept and prepared meat is now very low. So, perhaps it’s not such a surprise that last month the New York Times reported that the United States Department of Agriculture issued new guidance on the cooking temperatures for joints of pork that allow for some pinkness. The restaurant chefs are allegedly delighted, but to an old-fashioned girl like me, it seems a little on the cusp for home cooking. For the time being I would like to know that the correct temperature had been reached and maintained for the appropriate duration and that this had been carefully checked with a working meat thermometer.

Given that I’m not inclined to cook or eat roast pork on any frequent basis – only because my love of crackling, stuffing and roast potatoes could easily get out of hand – I have been thinking about recipes for tasty, healthy pork dishes that keep the meat tender. I have come to the conclusion that cooking lean pork in sauces or using marinades that can be turned into sauces is the way forward. I have included below a couple of recipes that I particularly like.

The first, pork and mushrooms in a mustard sauce, arose from looking around for inspiration on how to work some classic combinations. The amount of mustard used can be altered according to personal preference, but it carries a hefty dose very well, and that comes from someone who didn’t even really like the stuff before cooking this. It works very well with very lean pork, such as loin steaks. It makes good comfort food when served with baked potatoes and some green vegetables.

The second, afelia pork, is a traditional Cypriot dish I had for the first time when on holiday last year. It’s very easy to make but a little time is required for marinading. This dish works really well with leg steak. The sauce is pungent from red wine and aromatic with lots of coriander seeds. I have read that traditionally this dish as served with pourgouri pilaf, which is made with bulgur wheat, but I was never offered that in Cyprus and haven't yet made it myself. I have included the recipe below, so do please post a comment about what you thought if you try it. If you don't fancy it, rice, especially brown rice, works really well. Just before serving I like to stir through a little onion and some frozen peas that have been gently fried.

Give pork a go. For more information, have a look at lovepork.co.uk.

Pork and mushrooms in a mustard sauce 

1 pound lean pork chopped into 1.5–2 cm chunks  
1 medium onion, finely chopped 
1 clove garlic  
8 oz mushrooms sliced  
2 tsp dried sage   
Ground black pepper (to taste)  
75 ml dry white wine  
25 ml dry sherry  
175 ml chicken stock  
1–1.5 tbsp Dijon mustard (according to taste)  
1 tbsp corn flour dissolved in a little water  

Fry the pork until cooked through then remove from the pan. Add the shallot/onion, garlic, mushrooms, sage, and ground black pepper to the pan and fry gently until the onion is translucent and the mushrooms have started to soften.

Add the wine and sherry to the pan and reduce until almost completely gone.

Add the chicken stock and mustard to the pan and boil until the liquid has reduced by around half. Add the corn flour mix to the pan, stirring constantly. The sauce should thicken noticeably. If it becomes too thick, add a little water and stir through. Repeat until the desired consistency is reached.

Replace the pork in the pan and warm through in the sauce, then serve.

Afelia pork with pourgouri pilaf

For the afelia pork 
1 kg pork leg steak, cut into 2cm cubed  
150 ml red wine  
2 tsp ground cinnamon  
1 teaspoon black peppercorns  
2 tablespoons coriander seeds  
Oil for cooking  
Salt and pepper to taste

For the pourgouri pilaf  
1 medium onion, finely sliced 
25 g vermicelli    
250g bulgur wheat  
300 ml chicken stock  
Oil for cooking  
Salt and black pepper to taste

Warm a dry frying pan on a low heat then gently dry roast the coriander seeds until they begin to release their scent. Coarsely crush the coriander seeds and peppercorns. Place the cubed pork in a shallow bowl along with the wine, cinnamon, crushed coriander seeds and peppercorns. Mix together well, cover and leave to marinate for at least 2 h but preferably overnight.

Remove the meat from the bowl, but reserved the marinade. Heat the oil in a saucepan and brown the meat. Add the marinade and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook for 20–30 min or until all the liquid has reduced to a thick sauce. If the sauce is not reduced enough, uncover for the pan and cook for a further 10 min.

While the meat is cooking, heat the oil for the pilaf in a heavy-based saucepan and saute the onion gently for a few minutes until it is softened but not browned. Break the vermicelli into small pieces and stir into the onion and continue to fry a little longer.

Rinse the bulgur wheat in cold water and add to the saucepan. Add the stock and seasoning then cover and simmer gently for 8–10 min or until all the stock is absorbed. Leave the pilaf to sit for 10 min, covered, before serving.

Phew!

Here we are, at the end of 2 weeks of disruption, mess, dust, noise and lots of cups of tea. Finally, the new kitchen is in and complete. I keep walking into the room and being a little amazed at how different two kitchens can look!

The second week was much better than the first. Not only were there no new surprises, but progress could be seen on a daily basis. After all, the cabinet fitting bit is easy when there are non-crumbling walls to fit them to. Laying the flooring did apparently give a bit of trouble. Anyone who lives in a century-old house will, I’m sure, have experienced wonkiness in almost every surface, door frame and fitting. Our kitchen floor is no exception. In fact, it posed something of an issue when choosing what to put down. We had thought about wood or wood laminate, but it has a rather high risk of water damage. Stone tiles were out unless we wanted to spend an absolute fortune having the joists strengthened and plywood and packing laid to ensure a completely level surface. Vinyl was a possibility, but it wouldn’t necessarily have lasted as long as the kitchen and, as it’s better to have the flooring go under the cabinets, wouldn’t be easy to replace. In the end, our fitters recommended a laminate product that comes in tiles or planks and has a hard core that makes provides good water resistance, and which can be fitted on an uneven surface with underlay. Apparently, though, one corner was so uneven, fixing it provoked the utterance of choice swearwords. Luckily, I wasn’t present, because they would never have sworn in front of me, and I gather the fitter really needed to let of steam.

In fact, I can’t praise my fitters highly enough. They really were great. Not only were they polite, friendly and very funny, but they really seemed to know what they were doing, didn’t overcharge me for anything, left everything tidy every night, and managed to avoid getting a single mark on the new carpet! They drank plenty of tea – obligatory – but they also worked from 8am to 6pm every day without stopping for lunch.

Another major difference between week 1 and week 2 was the purchase of a combination microwave, grill and oven. We were both sick of takeaway food after 6 days, and the prospect having no means to eat anything but that for another week was a bit much. That said, we’ve never owned any form of microwave while cohabiting, and our collective experience before that stretched to heating tinned vegetables or cooking baking potatoes or scrambled eggs. The prospect of using it was, therefore, a bit scary, but we went for it, and I feel rather proud of that we managed to make two pasta dishes and a chicken Thai green curry with basmati rice.  We also were able to defrost and heat a lovely beef stew I’d made a while ago and have that with baked potatoes. I am, however, looking forward to having my pans and oven back this week!

More news from the new kitchen soon, but now I’m off to fill the cupboards and get on with some cooking. Day-by-day pictures of progress are below. 

Day 6, the flooring is down and the first cabinets are up on the walls.

Day 7, more cabinets are in and it’s really starting to look like a kitchen.

Day 8, handles, worktops, sink and an extractor make it look even more shiny and new.

Day 9, it doesn’t look like that much has happened, but there are around 250 tiles on those walls and the other invisible bits and bobs have been done

Day 10, the grouting is done, the appliances are in, the electrics have been connected and certified, and it’s mine, all mine! 

Can’t cook, won’t cook

So, you might have noticed that it’s been quite quiet on the blog front. But what could have happened in the meantime to warrant such a title for this post? Let me reassure you, I am not suffering from recipe amnesia. The title relates not to ability, but rather lack of facility.

Finally, after 5 years in the house we are replacing the kitchen. Now, as kitchens go, what we had could have been much worse and did serve enough of purpose to ignore it for a while. However, over the past 2 years, things have started to fray at the edges. As you can see from the before photo below, someone didn’t believe in cupboards. All our crockery, glasses and mugs etc have been living on a huge shelf. This isn’t so bad for anything used frequently, but for everything else the battle against grease deposits has been constant. The shelf in one of the cupboards collapsed a while ago, heat was available from only 60% of the hob, the ceiling was cracked and wobbly and, all in all, the bits we inherited with the house that hadn’t already been replaced had become a bit rickety. So, disruptive as it is, a replacement was called for.

 

The job hasn’t, however, been quite as straightforward as hoped. On day 1 the fitters ripped out the old units and with them fell substantial areas of the wall plaster, right back to the brick. In one area, although the brick wasn’t exposed, there were at least three distinct layers of plaster built out to a couple of inches in thickness, the reasoning behind and the solidity of which were in question. We had planned to have the ceiling replaced and the walls skimmed anyway, but this was a bit more than we bargained for. Nevertheless, we couldn’t continue without getting it fixed, so I threw caution to the wind and said “Do what you need to do”. Having been hiding back upstairs with my cup of tea, I was called back to the kitchen by the plea “Could you just come and have a look at this” – not the most welcome of phrases. This was followed by a conversation involving electrical jargon, such as ring mains, spurs and junctions, but which culminated in the word “bad”, so I threw caution to the wind and said “Do what you need to do”.

Thus, my 1-week kitchen fit (which I always thought was ambitious but about which I was pleased) has extended in duration and cost. On the plus side, I will know that we’re not going to burn to death or get a shock every time I switch on the hob or hand blender, and that the cabinets won’t fall off the walls. Plus, there’s something so pleasing about seeing a wreck become a newly plastered room!

Here are some pictures of the progress so far.

Day 1, the bricks are showing and the ceiling has been pulled down.

 

Day 2, the basis of a new ceiling is in place, but the electrics have been condemned.

 

Day 3, the holes are repaired, the walls are UniBond-a-go-go and the first layers of plaster have gone on the ceiling and one wall.

Day 4, plastering completed.

Day 5, new cabling is in, sockets and switches are fitted and the ceiling lights are in place.

In the meantime, I'll keep managing in the makeshift mini-kitchen and remembering that things could be one hell of a lot worse! Roll on Friday...