Bacon & Banana French Toast

The boy loves Marmite. He spotted The Marmite Cookbook in a charity shop for £1.99. He’s sweetly anxious that we make something from it.  We only have breakfast at weekends, when we are going to be spending the day in museums.

4 rashers unsmoked back bacon

4 slices rustic white bread – a day old

Marmite for spreading

2 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed

Pinch of cinnamon

2 medium free range eggs

50ml milk

50g butter

The boy has just woken up and is in a T shirt and boxers. He’s got his priorities right as he has the coffee going.

Grill the bacon until crisp. Spread one (thick) slice of bread with marmite and then some banana. Add a sprinkle of cinnamon and then 2 pieces of crispy bacon. Add the other slice of bread and press down firmly. By now the boy is looking very lovingly at this. You are looking very lovingly at him in his boxers.

Do the same for your sandwich.

Whisk the eggs and milk. Dip both sides of the sandwich in the mix. Melt the butter in a frying pan and cook on each side until golden.

Serve with coffee and Radio 4. Make the most of every minute until he gets dressed.

Marinated Buffalo Mozzarella & Tomato

We have some fresh buffalo mozzarella from Dorset. It’s very special so we have fresh knobbly tomatoes from Borough Market. It’s nice to cook food with two Zeds in its name.

250g Buffalo Mozzarella

2 ripe tomatoes

1/2tsp fennel seeds

Grated zest of a lemon

15 basil leaves, shredded

2tsp extra virgin olive oil, plus lots more for drizzling

2tsp chopped oregano

2tsp rapeseed oil

1 clove garlic, crushed

½ tsp flaky sea salt

Black pepper

Sourdough bread for toast

This is so light and fresh. I think sweet yellow tomatoes would go well with this, though the boy always thinks they can’t quite be ripe. If you don’t have rapeseed oil, use more olive oil – rapeseed is overpriced anyway.

Make the marinade – which is all the ingredients except the mozzarella and tomatoes. Put Lucia Di Lammermoor on the CD player – especially if you have Maria Callas’ live version with the Berlin Philharmonic. The kitchen should be an exhilarating place.

Dry roast the fennel seeds in a frying pan and then get the boy to bash them in a pestle and mortar. Admire his muscles.

Tip into a bowl and add the rest of the marinade. Tear the Mozzarella and coat it with the marinade and leave it to do its work for 40 minutes.

Cut the tomatoes into wedges and serve on the toast with the mozzarella and lots more olive oil drizzled over. The dish promises Summer.

Strawberry Salad

This is from the great cookbook, Recipes from an Italian Supper. The boy and I both like the idea of an Italian Summer.

150g ripe strawberries, hulled and sliced

1 curly lettuce, shredded

150g mixed salad leaves

5tbsp olive oil

3tbsp balsamic vinegar

Salt & pepper

The best salads are simple, and sometimes the skill is in not over complicating them. It goes without saying that the strawberries must be perfect. The boy will want them with cream and sugar but the crisp sourness of the lettuce and rich sweetness of the balsamic will take this to a good place.

Not really a recipe- put everything in a large bowl and toss. I think white china will justify itself.

Serve with a chilled bottle of white Grenache and some Haydn string quartets. Stroke his hair. Love him.

Southern Heritage Cream of Chicken Soup

We’ve been listening to Arnold Wesker’s play, Chicken Soup with Barley, as it’s Radio 3’s Sunday play. It’s put us in mind of chicken soup. This is from a cookbook I picked up in a thrift store in the States, part of a series called The Southern Heritage.

1 large chicken(2kg) -or two small ones

3 ½ litres water

1 onion, quartered

1 stalk celery, halved

½ cup rice

2tbsp chopped parsley

2tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

500ml single cream

¼ cup flour

Apologies for the mix of cups and metric! Poach the chicken in the water with the onion and celery for 3 hours, uncovered. This is easily enough time for a game of Monopoly with the boy. How does he always manage to win?

Remove the chicken, and when cool, get the boy to remove all the flesh from the bones, discarding the skin and bones. Save the dark meat for his sandwiches tomorrow.

Reheat the stock and add the rice, salt and pepper and cook for 20 mins, until the rice is tender.

Slowly add the cream to the flour and whisk well until there are no lumps. Stir it into the broth and when it’s well mixed, add the torn up chicken and stir it all through. Cook for 10 minutes. The boy loves this with garlic bread.

Cold Penne with Vegetables

The boy and I have been invited to a street party to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. It’s on a junction of two roads, just behind our house. I'm not 100% certain that this is what we’ll be taking but it does satisfy our criteria of being plentiful and cheap. We will scale it up 3 times if we settle on this.

300g penne pasta

2 yellow or red peppers

1 large aubergine, sliced

3 courgettes, sliced

1 sprig basil, torn

½  tsp ginger, grated

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Salt & pepper

Get the oven hot – 230/Gas8. Halve the peppers and place them skin side up on a baking tray and cook for 15 mins or until the skins are blackened and charred. Place them in a plastic bag and seal it. The steam will make it easier to remove the skins.

Put the courgette and aubergine slices on a tray, drizzle with olive oil and pop them into the oven for 10 mins. Set aside.

The boy is cooking the pasta in plenty of salted water. He looks like he knows what he's doing and after 10 minutes, he's fishing a piece out and biting it to check that it;s al dente. He repeats every 2 or 3 minutes until he's sure. I'm feeling rather proud of him. Meanwhile I’m peeling the skin from the peppers. I’m getting 90% of it off, which will have to do. Cut into short slices.

The boy is halving the courgette coins and cutting the aubergine into similar sized pieces.

The pasta is done. We drain it and rinse under cold water. It’s spread out on clean tea towels to dry out. We ignore everything for half an hour and listen to a comedy on the radio.

When all is cool, combine everything in a large salad bowl. Let it sit for 2 hours. Mix again and taste.

Does it need more oil? I think it may need some sharpness. This could come from a handful of capers, a squeeze of lemon juice or a splash of wine vinegar. The boy is going for red wine vinegar. I love it when he gets involved like this.

Feta & Grape Salad

I like to make the most of the Greek and Turkish shops in Wood Green. I think we get better yoghurt, Feta cheese and olives than you can buy in supermarkets. I also like salads and think that if I can make them interesting, the boy is more likely to eat them. He loved this one. It’s from The New York Times Cookbook. I guess New York has its own Greek neighbourhoods.

A 3 inch sprig of rosemary

4tbsp olive oil

450gFeta cheese

400g seedless black grapes, halved

Black pepper

3 handfuls torn romaine lettuce leaves

2 handfuls rocket

2tbsp raspberry vinegar

The rosemary comes from the garden. I’m picking it myself, as last time the boy was sent out to pick it, he came back with a handful of lavender. Warm it in the oil and then let it cool.

Crumble the feta in a bowl and toss with the grapes and the scented oil. Season liberally with pepper.

In another bowl toss the lettuce and rocket with the vinegar. Place it on plates and top with the cheese and grape mix.

I’m serving with slices of toasted sourdough bread, spread with cranberry jelly. This was intended to be a starter, followed by soup. We never got around to the soup.

Vietnamese Pork Chops

The boy normally doesn’t like anything done to his pork chops, preferring them plain, but a new Asian cookbook has arrived through the post and he has been busy bookmarking all the things he would like to try. This is a simple recipe to start with.

1tbsp sugar

2tbsp Nam pla (fish sauce)

4 garlic cloves, bashed

1tbsp oil

4 butcher’s pork chops, fat-on

Nuoc Chanh (see below)

2 carrots

3 small cucumbers

2 tomatoes

1 lime

Jasmine rice

Chopped coriander to garnish

Mix the sugar, Nam pla, garlic and oil in a shallow bowl. Slash the chops with a knife and mix well with the marinade and let it sit for half an hour.

The boy is getting the rice on. Even though Jasmine rice is meant to be sticky he’s rinsing it three times before getting it going in the rice cooker.

In a hot frying pan, cook the chops well. Use tongs to hold them fat side down in the pan so it crisps up nicely. There isn’t a diet version of this. It will take about 10 minutes. The chops should look caramelised, not flabby and white.

Prepare the veg – it’s all raw. Cut the carrot into very fine julienne (or grate longways if you haven’t the patience). The boy seems to think we have a julienne-ing machine. For this reason our julienne may end up more like carrot ‘french-fries’ as he attempts to do it himself.  If the cucumbers are small, quarter them lengthways. If not, keep going until they look elegant. Cut the tomatoes into eighths.

Rest the chops. Add any leftover marinade to the pan and bring to the boil. Tip any of the resting juices into the pan.  Place the chops on plates, pour the marinade over and serve with the rice. Add the prepped veg as a kind of deconstructed salad, sprinkled with fresh lime and a little salt.

Garnish the plate with coriander and serve with dipping sauce in tiny bowls on the side. The boy likes this as it seems to him quite sophisticated. It is too.

Nuoc Mam Chanh

This is a Vietnamese dipping sauce- it’s less heavy on fish sauce than Nuoc Cham.

2tbsp lime juice

25g sugar

5 red chillies

4 garlic cloves

1 tbsp nam pla

Grind everything but the lime and nam pla in a pestle and mortar until smooth. Add the lime and nam pla. Add a tbsp. of rice vinegar if it is too thick. It improves with a rest in the fridge. Serve to dip bites of pork chop into.

Ears & Beans Salad with SunBlush Dressing

Beans & ears! It’s warm enough to eat outside so we’re laying a table on the patio and having this with chilli & garlic bread and a chilled off-dry bottle of Italian white wine.

200g orecchiete pasta

2 tsbsp olive oil

1 bunch flat leaf parsley

1 sprig rosemary

1 clove garlic

1 red chilli, chopped

6 sun blush tomatoes, chopped

3 tbsp parmesan cheese, grated

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

400g butter beans (canned)

Salt & pepper

Cook the pasta, drain and cool, moistening with some olive oil.

If you can’t find sun blush tomatoes, you could use sun dried tomatoes in oil, though these will have a stronger flavour.

In a food processor, add the parsley, garlic, rosemary, chilli and tomatoes. Whizz until finely chopped. Add the parmesan and olive oil and whizz again.

Drain the butter beans, rinse well in cold water and add to the pasta. Place in a large bowl and coat with the parsley/tomato dressing.

Serve with watercress, dressed in olive oil & lemon juice, and this garlic bread:

1 cross cut Batard

100g butter

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 small handful coriander

1 red chilli, finely chopped

Get the oven to 220/Gas7. Beat the butter with the chilli, garlic & coriander.  Cut about 12 deep slits into the bread and force the butter into these gaps.  Spread a little leftover mix on the top of the bread and bake, wrapped in foil for 25 mins (the last 5 mins uncovered).

This is carb-heavy, but it’s the first night we’ve eaten in the garden this year. A CD of Masses from Lobo & Cardoso is playing is still playing in the kitchen.  The boy is happy. He laughs a lot and that’s all you need. A chilled bottle of Soave has probably helped.

Vietnamese Courgettes & Spring Onion

Many Vietnamese dishes are complicated and involve lots of ingredients, some of which are tricky to find. This is an exception from Bobby Chin. Courgettes are plentiful and the boy likes them. There are many vegetables that cannot be said the same of!

500g courgettes

30g spring onions

2tbsp vegetable oil

2tsp sliced shallots

2tsp crushed garlic

1tsp soy sauce

1tbsp oyster sauce

1tbsp Chinese rice wine

Cut the courgettes into 1cm slices and 2/3 of the spring onions into thin rings. The rest of the spring onions are in 5cm lengths. Heat the oil and cook the shallots and garlic. Throw in the courgettes and keep everything moving in the pan.

Add the soy (I do like Kikkoman) and oyster sauce and a couple of teaspoons of water. You’ll just have to judge this. Add the rice wine (it’s kind of like un-drinkable sherry) and most of the chopped spring onions.

Simmer for 2 or 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and garnish with the rest of the spring onions, regardless of size. You want it fresh and as it comes. There is no doubt he would like this with a beef dish but I’m tired and this is what we have and it’s what he’s getting.

Serve with basmati rice (the rice cooker is close to being a kitchen god and we only have a really cheap one). If the boy is making it (unlikely), remind him to rinse the rice 3 times first. Also needed are cups of jasmine tea. I think little cups topped up frequently seem right.

Ancho Chilli Gravy

A lovely mild chilli gravy that is delicious for dipping chips (French fries) or pieces of roast chicken into. This is from a cookbook I bought in California, so the measurements are in cups. Two Christmases ago I was given a set of measuring cups that look like English teacups. I’m using them here.

2 Ancho chillies

½ cup warm chicken stock

¼ cup shortening or lard

1 onion minced

4 cloves garlic minced

¼ cup flour

1tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1tsp ground cumin

1/2tsp oregano

1tbsp chilli powder

1 ½ cups beef stock

This will be really nice with rice. I’m using Knorr stock pots for the beef stock, though my local butcher occasionally offers bones for free. The sign over the bowl with the bones says “No chop chop!”

The boy can cope with this as a dipping sauce for chicken or lamb kebabs’ His pile of rice can be nudged towards this.

Ancho chillies are broad and relatively mild (They are a dried Poblano with the flavour of tobacco and dried fruit. I get mine from the Cool Chile Company at Borough Market). Tear them into pieces and discard the stem. Put in a food processor with the stock and allow it to sit for 10 minutes. Buena Vista Social Club would not be unforgivable on the CD player. After 10 mins, blend until smooth.

Melt the lard in a saucepan and cook the onions and garlic until transparent. Add the flour and stir until it is golden brown. Maybe 5 minutes or so.

Add the salt, pepper, cumin, oregano and chilli, along with the ancho chilli puree and beef stock. Simmer for 20-30 minutes or more, until thickened. It needs to be really thick. He loves the chicken gravy from KFC, so you know what you’re competing with,

I had Tomato gravy with rice in Malawi, and I think this is today’s new world version. If you can get it the right thickness he will buy into it. 

Brooklyn Devilled Eggs with Warm Vinaigrette

A light lunch from a Brooklyn restaurant called Relish. The boy likes eggs so this is perfect. Slightly show-offy but still quite easy.

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled & halved

1tsp wholegrain mustard

3tbsp mayonnaise

1/4tsp paprika

Salt and freshly ground pepper

4 slices streaky bacon

6tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2tsp Dijon mustard

2tbsp white wine vinegar

1tbsp very finely chopped red onion

2tbsp chopped chives

2tsp chopped fresh tarragon

2 small heads frisee lettuce, cored and chopped

10 cherry tomatoes, halved

Frisee is the pretty frilly lettuce so try not to substitute it.

Start with the devilled eggs. Put some early Madonna on to get into the New York state of mind. Scoop out the yolks and mash them with the mayo, paprika, grainy mustard and salt and pepper. Pile it carefully back in the egg halves and put them in the fridge to chill. Don’t let the boy eat them. This may be mission impossible, but try.

Fry the bacon until crisp, American style, drain on kitchen paper and chop. It probably should be smoked.

Add the Dijon, olive oil, vinegar, half the chives, onion and tarragon to the bacon pan and stir around. Warm on a low heat – add the salt and pepper – plenty.

Put the lettuce in a bowl with the other half of the chives and the tomatoes. By now you should be bopping to Open Your Heart.

Pour over the warm dressing. Divide amongst your plates and place the devilled eggs on top. Serve with Bloody Marys. Persuade the boy to pretend you’re living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Wanting, needing, waiting, for you, to justify my love.

Gujerati Tomato Soup

The boy’s favourite soup is Cream of Tomato – and I can’t blame him. We often make our own version in the Summer when our garden tomatoes are ripe and plentiful. This is a mildly spicy version that we can make from a carton of passata

3 tbsp olive oil

¼ tsp asafoetida

½ tsp brown mustard seeds

½ tsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp chickpea flour (Besam)

1 litre chicken or veg stock

500ml passata

6 Basil leaves, torn

¼ tsp turmeric

¼ tsp cayenne

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

By now you’ll know that I’m bound to choose Cirio brand Passata but due to the spicing it’s really not essential for this recipe– Shops-own will do. For the stock I’m using Knorr stock pots, though Marigold vegetable bouillon is also very good. Asafoetida (Hing, in Asian stores) has a sulphurous odour but it soon disappears on cooking. I’m not letting the boy near it as he’s easily prejudiced.

The boy is looking forward to this – it’s spicy, but not overly so, and perfect for the season as it’s really not as warm as it could be. Heat the oil and add the asafoetida, cumin and mustard seeds. As soon as they start to crackle, add the chick pea flour and stir it until it darkens. Stir it enough so you don’t get lumps.

Slowly add the stock, stirring constantly. When it’s well mixed and smooth, add the passata. Add the basil, cayenne, turmeric, salt and sugar and let it simmer slowly for 25 minutes.

Pour through a sieve to get any bits out. For the best flavour, let it go cold in the pan before sieving and then reheat it. This is an hour or so to spend with the boy.

Adjust the flavouring – sugar and cayenne will be the likeliest culprits. A squirt of tomato puree is also a possibility.

The boy has his Christmas jumper on. We’re standing in the kitchen, chatting, holding deep bowls in our hands, enjoying this.  It doesn’t occur to us to sit down. We’re just enjoying the soup and each other’s company.

Aloo Tikki

At the weekend, the boy is greatly in favour of snacks. Some weekends tend towards grazing rather than proper meals. These potato cakes depend on having something to dip them in – though not having a dip rarely stops the boy.

400g floury potatoes, peeled and quartered

1 ½ tsp cumin seeds

1tbsp chopped ginger

½ tsp chopped green chilli

2tbsp chopped coriander leaves

2tbsp oil

Perfect for lazy Saturdays when the Guardian is spread all over the living room and Handel’s Saul is playing a little too loudly. Oratorios are made for weekends. The boy and I have Bloody Marys and are ready for some cooking.

Parboil the potatoes – about 7 minutes. Drain them and grate when cool. Add everything but the oil. Shape into cakes about 1cm thick and 5cm in diameter. Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes so they firm up. This is 20 minutes to spend with the boy. He has quite coarse hair so we’re letting an expensive conditioner do its work. It seems to have an effect. It smells of Tea Tree.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the cakes on each side until browned and crispy. Serve with any chutney or raita. The boy has made a raita of finely chopped cucumber with mint leaves and salt, stirred into thick yoghurt. The sweet, hot mango chutney is bottled.

There’s a great play on the radio. Stroke his hair. Dip the tikki. Enjoy the slow pace of the weekend.

Roast Pork Belly with Peas & Fino Sherry

This is one of Skye Gyngell’s recipes – I usually find her food over complicated but this is very good. We have fresh peas in the pod in the veg box and this is a great way of using them – not that I usually need an excuse for fatty belly pork.

2kg belly pork, skin on

500ml olive oil

2tbsp sea salt1 tbsp fennel seeds

2 red onions, roughly chopped

4 carrots, peeled

1 small bunch thyme

2 bay leaves

3 cloves garlic, peeled

300ml dry white wine

The peas

50ml olive oil

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic

250g peas

120ml Fino sherry

400ml chicken stock

Sea salt & freshly ground pepper

60g unsalted butter

1 small bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped.

Frozen peas are fine if you don’t have fresh. The boy is podding ours and I’m hoping enough end up in the bowl as he does seem to like eating them straight from the pod. This is a big piece of meat but it is moreish. "Famine or feast" the boy says, mock wistfully.

Heat the oven to 200/Gas 6. Score the pork skin and rub with olive oil and then the salt and fennel seeds. Put in a roasting tin and cook, skin side up for 50 minutes. Reduce the heat to 160/Gas 3 and take the pork out of the pan. Share the rest of the bottle of white wine with the boy.

Put the onions, thyme, carrots, bay leaves, garlic and wine in the pan and mix it around. Put the pork on top and cover with foil and cook for another 2 hours. It will be incredibly tender with crunchy crackling. Give the boy a piece of crisp crackling to keep him going. 

Let it rest while you make the peas. Warm the oil and add the onion, cooking until soft. Add the garlic, peas and sherry and tun up the heat to allow the wine to bubble. Add the stock and cook until it reduces by a quarter. Not long at a proper boil. Season and add the butter. Stir in the parsley.

Cut the pork into long slices, 2 inches across and serve on top of a ladleful of the peas. The boy won't need calling to dinner - he has been watching like a hawk for the past half hour.

Garden Mint Sauce

The boy is sweetly very traditional. We’re having Spring lamb and he likes mint sauce with it. Buying a jar is easy but this is special. I can’t specify measurements exactly – it all kind of depends.

A large handful of fresh mint

Malt vinegar to cover

1 or 2 spring onions

1tbsp caster sugar

Mint grows like topsy in the garden. Ours is in a container to stop it getting out of control. As the boy knows what mint looks like he’s sent out to cut enough of it to go with the lamb.

This is very easy but you need to allow resting time. I use a wand blender that comes with a beaker. Roughly chop the mint leaves and spring onion and then cover with the malt vinegar and add the sugar.

Blend. It will end up frothy due to all the air you have introduced, which is why it needs at least an hour to rest. Taste after it has rested – it should be sharp but adjust the sugar or vinegar to suit. The boy likes it with a little more sugar than I do.

I always serve this in a cut glass stemmed cup that my grandma always served her mint sauce in. I guess it has held mint sauce since the 1920s. It’s seen a world war, the birth of rock and roll, the hippy movement, punk, the new romantics, hip hop and now us. The CD player in the kitchen is blasting out Owen Paul’s My Favourite Waste of Time (from the perfect summer of 1986). The recipe hasn’t changed much. Grandma made it looser but that made the vinegar mix with the gravy. I prefer it to hold its own and blend again with more mint if I think the vinegar is separating.

Resting it is everything. Make it first thing – while you’re having coffee and the morning papers. It will seem alarmingly thin at first, but will thicken into a perfect sludge over time.

I think a mild green chilli would be a great addition but the boy is having none of it. He’s probably right.

Garlicky Hummus

Hummus

I had a wine tasting fundraiser recently, for UNICEF. As well as just having crackers I thought I’d make a batch of hummus to line stomachs. I started the day before as the chickpeas need to soak overnight. This is a Lebanese version of the recipe. With extra garlic.

500g dried chick peas

6-8 tbsp tahini

Juice of 4 lemons

8 cloves of garlic, crushed

Sea salt – I probably used 2 heaped tbsp

8 tbsp olive oil

So on day 1, soak the chickpeas in lots of fresh water and just leave them to slowly double up in size. Check after some hours to make sure they are still covered by water. The boy thinks this would be easier with tinned chickpeas but a) that’s missing the point and b) dried chickpeas are so cheap.

On Day 2, drain the chick peas and add them to the biggest pan you have and cover with fresh water. Don’t salt them, just bring to the boil and simmer for about an hour and a half. Mine actually took 2 hours. You’re looking for them to be quite soft when cooked. Skim off any scum that rises in the early stages of boiling.

The boy complains that they smell when they’re cooking. He does have a point. I feel slightly guilty as I have fobbed him off with corned beef sandwiches while I’m making this. He does love corned beef and white bread and I have stuffed lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers in there but I do still feel bad. He doesn’t seem to mind.

Once cooked, you’ll be exhausted and on your knees – 10.30pm! Blend in a food processor in batches, then add the other ingredients. Taste and adjust. I want mine to be strongly garlicky and lemony, rather than chickpea-y. I’m doing this as 2 servings – one sprinkled with sumac and the other sprinkled with black sesame seeds.

This was served with Turkish flatbreads and was extremely garlicky. Not sure that was a bad thing.

Caribbean Hot Sauce

I’m going to a fundraiser brunch for UNICEF. It has a Caribbean theme so I’m taking along this hot sauce. It’s extremely hot so it’s just as well the boy isn’t coming. It keeps for ages.

225g Scotch bonnet (Habanero) chillies

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

6 cloves, freshly ground

2 tsp turmeric

Juice of 2 limes

275ml malt vinegar

2 tsp salt

1 tbsp (heaped) brown sugar

1 tbsp oil

Deseed the chillies. They will be quite hot enough without them. Roughly chop them. Fry the onions in the oil and add the chillies – give them about 5 minutes on a moderate heat so the onions don’t brown. Tip into a saucepan with everything else. Wash your hands to avoid chilli burn.

Bring to the boil and cook for 5 mins, then pour it into a blender and blend until really smooth.

Wash the saucepan out and then pour the blended sauce back in and boil it for about 2 minutes.