Avacado Dressing

I can’t remember where I found this recipe. I think it is based on Green Goddess dressing, but without the anchovies which the boy and I can’t stand.

1 large ripe avocado

2tsp lemon juice

½ cup Greek yoghurt

1tsp hot sauce

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic

¾  tsp salt

The boy is hungry after cricket practice, so he’s getting more than just a salad. We’re having cold meats and salamis as well, with some nice crusty bread.

It’s a robust dressing so the salad needs to stand up to it – we’re having green beans, tenderstem broccoli, baby sweetcorn and chantenay carrots, all lightly blanched (one minute maximum)  and then cooled.

The avocado needs to be ripe and soft, and the oil and salt should be good. We like Tabasco, Cholula or Crystal for the hot sauce.

The recipe is just one word – blend! (Add more oil or yoghurt if it looks to thick. A quick taste will tell you which)

Sweet & Sour Sauerkraut Salad

The boy likes this as it is quite sweet. It is packed full of vitamin C so it will ward off colds and the unlikely chance of scurvy. It’s a German recipe

1 large jar/can of Sauerkraut (about 900g)

1 large carrot

1 red pepper

½ an onion

2 stalks celery

½ tsp caraway seeds

½ cup sugar

¼ cup olive oil

First empty the sauerkraut into a sieve over a bowl. You need to save about half a cup of the brine. Press it down to get all the excess out. Lightly bash the caraway seeds with a pestle and mortar and sprinkle them over.

Put it in a bowl and mix in the sugar. Give it about 20 minutes to rest, so the sugar completely dissolves. Just turn it from time to time.

Coarsely grate the carrot and dice the celery and red pepper. We are actually using roasted red pepper from a jar, Turn it over so you get a good mix.

Make a dressing from the half cup or reserved brine and the oil, and season well. It does need a few hours for the flavours to combine and mellow.

The boy is persuading me to let him have hot dogs with this. Only if he buys and cooks them.

Chinese Chicken & Sweetcorn Soup

This is the boy’s favourite Chinese soup (mine is Wonton soup). It is really easy to make – the only hard part is sourcing the creamed sweetcorn. It almost certainly has to come from a Chinese grocer. Regular frozen or canned sweetcorn just don’t do it. This is perfect for finishing off the remains of a roast chicken.

800ml chicken stock

1 400g can creamed sweetcorn

1 free range egg

75g cooked chicken meat, shredded

1/2  tsp white pepper

Salt to taste

1 spring onion finely chopped to garnish

A few drops sesame oil

Warm up the stock. Ours is shop bought. Add the salt and pepper and drop in the chicken. Shredding it is the boy’s job so he is the one who has greasy hands. Pour in the creamed sweetcorn and give it a good stir.

Bring it to the boil. Meanwhile beat an egg. You’re only using one so let it be a good one. Give the soup a vigorous stir so you get a whirlpool effect and tip the egg in. Keep stirring. You will end up with tiny threads of cooked egg through the soup. It’s ready as the chicken is already cooked.

If it isn’t thick enough, add some thickening granules or some cornflour slaked in water. I love the word slaked.

Snip the spring onions – scissors is quickest. Pour into bowls, garnish with the spring onions and add a few drops of sesame oil. It took us 10 minutes.

Lunu Miris Sambal

I quite like a recipe that is so simple, it’s barely a recipe. We got some pot sticker dim sum dumplings and I came across a version of this recipe a while ago in The Guardian and wanted to try it out. It’s good. The boy likes it too but only dips the tiniest corner in. It is hot!

1 red onion

2tbsp dried chili flakes

2 fresh red chillies

2tbsp lime juice

½ tsp salt

The onion and fresh chilli need to be finely chopped. I’m using the food processor for this as it can get it much finer than I can. I’m putting the chilli flakes in at this point too. We’re listening to a Brazilian Lounge CD which is entirely inappropriate.

Scoop it out into a bowl. Rub a lime over the worktop with the palm of your hand, quite hard, so it will release more juice. Squeeze the juice in to the onion and chilli and add the salt. See if it needs more lime juice.

Let it sit for 20 minutes and give it a stir. Happy dipping! The boy adds that this would be brilliant with grilled chicken wings.

American Bread & Butter Pickles

The boy and I have been pickling this year’s shallots so they will be ready in time for Christmas. He keeps telling me not to cry as we will grow more next year. Har Har!

We had some spiced vinegar left over and rather than chuck it away we made bread and butter pickles with regular onions and cucumber. The boy will polish these off with corned beef sandwiches in no time.

4 cups thinly sliced small cucumbers

2 cups sliced onions

¼ cup flaky salt

A handful of ice cubes

2 cups white vinegar

1 ½ cups sugar

2tsp celery seeds

2tsp mustard seeds

1 ½ tsp turmeric

Mix the cucumber, onion and salt in a bowl. This does two things – it draws out the water and means that the mix will just suck in the vinegar. Cover with ice. I have no idea what this brings to the party but I have looked up three recipes for this and they all use it.

After 4-8 hours, drain and rinse in a colander.

Combine the vinegar, sugar, celery seeds, mustard seeds and turmeric in a pan and get it to the boil.

Sterilise the jars and pack the onion and cucumber in. Pour the hot vinegar over to cover. The turmeric makes it go a very special golden colour.

Leave it for at least two weeks for the pickling gods to do their magic.

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By the way our pickled shallots were even easier. Once peeled, we salted them overnight. Then boiled up malt vinegar with dried chillies and bay leaves – roughly 3 chillies and 2 bay leaves per jar (our bay tree died so the boy pinched them from the potted ones outside our local pub). Packed the shallots into the jar, burned our fingers fishing out the bay leaves and chillies and stuffed them in. Poured over the vinegar and sealed. They need 6 weeks, so just in time for Christmas. No matter how many times we wash our hands they still smell of shallots and the kitchen smells of boiling vinegar. It will be worth it when the Christmas cheese board comes out.

Spiced Pumpkin Soup

I haven’t posted in a while, My Bad, as young people say. It’s cold and wet outside and supermarkets are rolling with cheap pumpkins, getting ready for Halloween. So – pumpkin soup. It’s the boy’s favourite.

900g pumpkin (doesn’t have to be exact)

Knob of butter

1 large red onion

500 ml vegetable or chicken stock

1cm ginger root

1 stem of lemongrass

1tsp sugar

Half tsp dried chilli flakes

Salt & pepper

Pumpkin is a nightmare to peel so quarter it and roast it first. (Remove the seeds and stringy bits) That way you can just scoop out the soft flesh.

Soften the onion in the butter. Grate the ginger and finely slice the lemongrass and sauté it altogether. The boy is not a chilli fan so I add it at this stage so it has a chance to mellow a little.

Add the stock and pumpkin. It doesn’t need long as the pumpkin is already cooked. Maybe 20 minutes. Season and add the sugar. I’m using demerara but I’m letting the boy adjust the salt, pepper & sugar. He is heavy on the pepper. I approve.

Blend with a stick blender. Blend it well as lemongrass and ginger are very fibrous.

Pumpkin soup is often so thick that it can be a pumpkin puree. It’s not the way we like it so thin it down with more stock until it has the consistency you like. 

The boy likes a swirl of sour cream swirled through his (or creme fraiche if he's feeling posh). His suggestions as accompaniments – cheese on toast using baguette slices – a plain pizza cut into circles with a cookie cutter – garlic bread. We went with the cheese on toast. 

Bangladeshi Karela (Bitter Gourd)

The boy has wanted to try Karela (Bitter Gourd/Bitter Melon) for ages. I think it I the knobbly skin that appeals to him. It’s an acquired taste but I love it. This is a Bangladeshi recipe.

4 bitter gourds

4 tbsp salt

3 dried red chillies

3 fresh green chillies

50g onion, chopped

½ tsp panch poran

2 garlic cloves finely chopped

4tbsp oil

1tsp turmeric

Salt to taste

Panch poran is a mix of five spices – in this case it is even amounts of cumin, fennel, fenugreek, mustard seed and nigella seed.  It has a slightly aniseed tone.

Chop the dried chilli and slice the green chilli into fine rings.

Trim the ends of the karela. Halve them lengthways and remove the seeds with a teaspoon. Chop it lengthways into little half-moons. Sprinkle with salt and then just cover with water, to create a brine. This will get some of the bitterness out. The boy approves. Why, I don’t know, since he has never tasted them. Leave for an hour and listen to some Haydn string quartets.

Drain the karela. Add the chillies, onion, garlic, panch poran and mix well.

Heat the oil in large pan. Add the turmeric and when it is warmed through; add the karela mix and more salt.

Stir fry for about 4 minutes on a fairly high heat.

We are having this with rice and an onion and tomato salad with plenty of coriander.

The boy is not 100% sure about karela. He doesn’t dislike it though and that has to be counted as a success.

Tomato & Coriander Salad with Soy

I love coriander. The biggest pot outside my kitchen door is devoted to growing as much of it as I can. It’s way too early for any this year, but I’m blessed with local shops that offer huge bunches for about half the price supermarkets offer. I’m making the boy a sandwich lunch and he’s having this on the side. It’s a Bill Grainger recipe.

1tbsp light soy sauce

1tbsp Chinese black vinegar

2tsp light flavoured oil

1tsp caster sugar

6 ripe tomatoes, chopped

2 small crook cucumbers chopped

1 small red onion sliced into fine rings

A handful of fresh coriander leaves

These days it’s hard to know which tomatoes to get as supermarkets seem to offer so many with enticing names. It is hard though to find ripe ones so the trick is to look in the reduced section as these will almost certainly fit the bill and be cheaper. Win-win.

Mix the soy (I like Pearl River Bridge brand, which comes in satisfyingly large bottles), vinegar (BG says Balsamic will do), the oil and sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves.

Chop up the veg. If the tomatoes are ripe, you will get a good deal of juice. Add this to the dressing.

Toss the veg and add the dressing and the coriander. I have roughly chopped the coriander.

The boy announces he’s hungry so he is getting some salted kettle chips with the sandwiches (one roast beef and horse radish with watercress and one double Gloucester cheese and tomato). The salad is the star though.

BG does a tomato salad with green chilli which I would like but the boy will not. Essentially sliced tomatoes, a deseeded, finely chopped green chilli with vinaigrette and salt & pepper. I’m not even telling the boy about it.

New Year's Borscht

In our house, new year would not be new year without soup. It brings us luck.  We are going away tomorrow so have decided to bring our good luck a day early. This is a New York recipe so the measures are American. I haven’t translated them as I think you can be fairly flexible with soup.

2lb beef shin, on the bone

6 cups water

1 onion, peeled and halved

2 carrots

3 beetroots

6tbsp tomato puree

4 garlic cloves, crushed

½ lb red cabbage, shredded

2 medium tomatoes, roughly cut up

1 bay leaf

2tbsp red wine vinegar

3tbsp sugar

1lb waxy potatoes

2tsp flaky salt

1/3 cup chopped dill

Freshly ground black pepper

Garnish

Sour Cream – at least a tablespoon each

Chopped dill

This takes all afternoon but it’s worth it.

Put the potatoes on to boil. When just cooked, but still firm, set them aside. The boy can dice them when they are cool.

Cut one carrot into quarters and get the boy to grate the other one. Put Mozart’s Prague Symphonies on the CD player. Put the quartered carrot, the halved onion and the beef in a large pot. The beef can go in whole. Bring to the boil and skim off all the fat or scum that comes to the surface. Lower the heat to a bare simmer and give it 1 and a half hours. You will run out of Mozart. The boy has chosen to move on to what might or might not be The Killers.

Strain it through a sieve and when it’s cool enough, fish out the beef (still whole). Put the stock back in the pan, with the saved beef and the beetroot. The boy has scrubbed off all the dirt first. Bring it back up to the boil and simmer for another 30 minutes.

There is a lot of stop start with this recipe. Luckily The Killers CD has finished. Bach’s Art of Fugue now.

Once it is cool rub the beetroot skin off with your fingers and grate it coarsely. Put the grated beetroot back in the soup.

Dissolve the tomato paste in ½  a cup of water – this is pretty much a tube full so use the best brand you can find – I prefer Cirio. Stir this in. Add the grated carrot, garlic, bay leaf and cabbage. I’m giving the cabbage an extra chop as the boy has done it very coarsely. Add the tomatoes, sugar and vinegar and simmer for another hour and a half. I appreciate this is almost 4 hours plus all the chopping time, but it will be worth it.

Remove the beef and strip the meat from the bones. Slice or shred it – it will be so soft it will be a combination of both. The boy’s little black cat is asking prettily so he gets a scrap or two.

Add the cooked potato and beef back to the soup, along with the dill and salt & pepper and warm it through. At least 3 minutes as this is a lot of dill. Get the boy to check the seasoning. It’s winter so he wants more of both.

Ladle into bowls and serve with a big spoonful of sour cream and chopped dill.

I would serve with a light salad but the boy points out that it has enough veg in it already.

Harissa & Preserved Lemon Butter

I’m a big believer that a steak is improved with the addition of a thick disc of flavoured butter, after serving. This one makes up in advance. Surprisingly the boy likes it – I guess a steak is robust enough to stand up to it.

A third of a pack of salted butter - about 8 tbsp

1 tbsp harissa

1 preserved lemon

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 tbsp flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

There are recipes for harissa and preserved lemons on this blog. I have preserved lemons in the cupboard from the summer and as this only uses a little harissa, I’m using shop bought. As always I favour the Phare Du Cape Bon brand.

Cut the flesh away from the preserved lemon and discard it. Finely chop the skin.

Put the butter in a food processor to break it up a bit and add the lemon peel, harissa, garlic and parsley. Whizz it until it is basically all butter again.

Spoon it out onto a piece of greaseproof paper and roll it up into a sausage, twisting the ends. Chill in the fridge until you are ready for it.

When it goes on the steak, I like to sprinkle on just a few caraway seeds to accent the harissa - and besides, it looks pretty. 

The boy thinks this would be great over barbecued chicken. I can see he is looking wistfully at the frost covered garden – I fear it is many months before he will get to try it.

Hot & Sour Prawn Soup

It’s Christmas week. The boy is only working a half day today so I want to make him a lunch that is both light and warming.

1tbsp oil

3tbsp Thai red curry paste

750ml chicken stock

1tsp grated lime zest

1tbsp shredded ginger

1 head pak choy, quartered

500g raw king prawns, peeled

3tbsp lime juice

1tbsp Nam Pla (fish sauce)

1 red chilli, thinly sliced

Coriander leaves to garnish

Jasmine rice to serve

It’s a dark grey day, so I’m putting on some misattributed Haydn string quartets to lighten the mood. This recipe is so quick, that I should barely get through one quartet.

The boy usually needs filling up so I’m serving this with rice on the side. I’m not rinsing it, so that it remains sticky. It just goes in the rice cooker (aka the kitchen god).

 Start by gently frying off the curry paste in the oil, to release the aroma. A decent brand, will be thick and almost dryish. Add the stock, lime zest and ginger.  If the prawns were whole and unpeeled I would add some heads and shells too. Bring to the boil and simmer for just a few minutes. If you have been lucky enough to use prawn heads and shells, fish them out.

Add the pak choy, chilli and raw prawns and cook until the prawns are pink – just another few minutes. Season with the fish sauce and lime juice. I’m not as keen on fish sauce as the boy is, though I do like Worcestershire sauce, which surely has the same derivation.  Taste and adjust to suit. Sometimes a little sugar will rebalance it. Sprinkle with coriander.

The boy is happy to have a two bowl lunch – one of the soup and one of rice. He has found an oily garlic pickle to have with the rice. We have grown our own this year – far too much and it has put me in mind of trying to pickle some of it Asian style….. 

Home Made Marzipan

The boy adores marzipan and has been known to just nibble it straight out of the packet. Frankly, Christmas cake is just an excuse to have marzipan.  He has no concept of being able to make it, or how easy it is.

500g blanched almonds

100g icing sugar + more for dusting

50ml water

A couple of drops of rosewater (optional)

You can use almonds with the skin still on, but I think this gives it a flecky look and the boy will be more impressed if it looks like what comes out of a packet. I never feel this is a good yardstick for food quality, but it is his treat. The almonds should be fairly fresh as they will have more oil in them – pick the ones with the most distant sell-by date.

You need a food processor for this. Put the almonds in until they become a paste. That is the oil working. Pour in the icing sugar and whizz again. Add the water (and rosewater if using – but don’t overdo it), and whizz again. If it feels too sticky to work, add more icing sugar.

Dust your surface with yet more icing sugar and knead it like bread dough for a few minutes . It won’t take on the elasticity of dough but it should start to feel like a big firm lump of marzipan. After this it is ready to go.

I’ve pinched a big cube off for the boy to nibble but the rest is going in the fridge for the Christmas cake. It will keep for 2 weeks .

Constance Spry offers a version that contains beaten eggs, sherry and orange flower water but I’m not convinced that it needs them, or about trying to keep something that uses raw eggs. I’m sticking with this version.

Incidentally, if you don’t like Christmas cake, it is probably because you haven’t had it with Wensleydale cheese!

Grilled Cucumber & Walnut Salad / Cucumber Slush

I’m including both of these recipes because I crave fresh tasting foods in cold weather, almost as much as I do, warm and hearty ones. I wouldn’t include these in the same meal, but am showcasing cucumbers as the boy thinks they are only for salads. I got both of these recipes from the Guardian and found them fascinating.

Chargrilled Cucumber with Walnuts

1 cucumber – a long thin one would be best

25ml white wine vinegar

25g Dijon mustard

5g salt

100ml extra virgin olive oil

30g walnut halves

I always think, that with so few ingredients, you should go for the best you can get. Get a ridged griddle pan really hot.  Peel the cucumber and then cut it into four roughly equal cylinders.

Toast the walnut halves  in the oven at 180 for five minute. If you have a two skillets you could do it that way. Chop them roughly.

Put them in the griddle pan and slowly roll them around so that they get lovely black char marks all over them. Use tongs to up end them so they get char grilled all over. You’re not looking to cook them through. Set them aside until cool enough to handle.

Cut them into coins, appropriately about pound coin thickness (5mm) or so. Whisk the oil, vinegar, salt and mustard together. And stir in the walnuts. Pour this over the cucumber, give it a quick mix to coat and just let it all socialise for 10 minutes.

I’m letting the boy taste for extra salt as it can often take it.

Frozen Cucumber Slush

The boy is making this as puddings are more his thing than mine, though I’m reading him the recipe.

2 cucumbers

Caster sugar (see below for volume)

Lemon juice, to taste

So a lot of discretion here, Freezing mutes flavours so again I’d go organic if you can so that the cucumber taste more of cucumber than water. Oh and you need a juicer.

Juice the cucumbers. If you don’t have a juicer, peel them, blend them and wring as much juice out of them by wringing the results out in a clean tea towel.

Next, weigh the cucumber juice – odd instruction I know! Add 10% by weight of caster sugar. Ours weigh 220g, so it needs 22g of sugar so we have  a net weight of 242g. The boy is doing the maths, not me!

Stir until the sugar dissolves. Squeeze in the lemon juice to taste, remembering that the flavours will tone right down after freezing.  We’re using half a lemon.

Pour into a plastic tub and put it in the freezer. The tedious part is that every half an hour I have to prod the boy to whisk it with a fork until it is frozen and grainy. You've got time to listen to the whole of Meistersingers while this freezes. Make the most of it.

When you sere it you can make it extra special by pouring a tablespoon of liqueur over the top. I don’t add it to the mix as the alcohol just inhibits the freezing. My two recommendations would be  Gordon’s Cucumber Gin, or St Germain which is an elderflower liqueur. Anything goes really but I think delicate flavours would work best.

Lebanese Chick Peas with Chard

This is properly a mezze, but it makes a really good side dish. Swiss chard is one of the best things about the colder months.

800g canned chickpeas (probably 2 tins)

3tsp harissa paste

2tbsp oil

1 red onion, thinly sliced

8 cherry tomatoes

1 bunch Swiss chard

Juice of 1 lemon

Small handful parsley, chopped

No idea what size of bunch the chard should be, so I’m just going with what I have got. Remove the leaves and shred them. I’m keeping a few of the stems and slicing them very finely, as they will take longer to cook and it seems a shame to waste them.

I really favour the Harissa brand called Le Phare du Cape Bon. The boy told me it translates as The Good Hope Lighthouse. No idea what that has to do with anything. Anyway its packaging is iconic, though I think it needs loosening down with a little olive oil if you’re using it as a condiment.

Onwards! Drain the chick peas and warm them through in the oil with the harissa paste. Add the onions and tomatoes and cook for another few minutes, until the tomatoes start to blister and split. Add the Swiss chard leaves and let them cook for a further 3 minutes until just starting to wilt.

Squeeze in the lemon juice and sprinkle with parsley – ideally flat leaf.

The boy is cooking the steaks, that this will accompany. His cat is wrapping himself around his legs. Good luck kitty! I think a big spoonful of thick set yoghurt would also not go amiss. I’m having a little more harissa for dipping. The boy decidedly isn’t.

Polish Pot Roast with Sour Cream

Amongst all the winter stodge I crave a hint of sharpness and freshness, and thought this would fit the bill. It’s from a book called The Old Warsaw Cook Book. I have kept the measurements as they are in the book.

3-4lb chuck or rump steak

3tbsp butter

1 bay leaf

½ cup beef stock

2 onions, cut

2 carrot, cut

Flour

Salt & Pepper

1 large dill pickle

2 cups sour cream

The boy doesn’t much like dill pickles, but as these will cook with the meat, they will mellow. I’m cutting it into very small dice. I sought his opinion as to how fine the “cut” vegetables should be and reckons very coarsely, as otherwise they will disintegrate during cooking. Very wise.

Get a large flame proof casserole and brown the beef all over in the butter. Add the bay leaf, carrots, onions and salt and pepper. Once it’s all coated with the melted butter, add the dill pickle.  Cook over a low heat for about 3 hours, basting with water from time to time so it doesn’t burn. This gives me plenty of this Sunday afternoon to enjoy with the boy. We’re making Christmas wreathes out of dried orange slices, dried chillies and cinnamon sticks. Very foodie! I have to admit his is better than mine, so we will keep my one and give his to his Mum.

So keep basting and 30 minutes before it is done, sprinkle the beef on all sides with the flour. Add the stock, to make a sauce.  Once it is bubbling away. Mix a tbsp. of flour with the sour cream and whisk it well so it is smooth. Pour this in and stir it in as well as you can. Cook for the final 30 minutes so the flour cooks through and it all combines and thickens.

We are having this with boiled, buttered potatoes and green beans. The boy is agonising over red wine for the beef or white for the cream sauce. He goes for an unstructured Chilean Chardonnay.

It’s good – it chases out the winter chill, but still has a fresh taste. I’d like to try a version of this in a Crock pot/Slow Cooker some time. I also think a little chopped dill sprinkled over when serving would be good, but I don't have any.

Asian Virgin/Bloody Mary

My search for the perfect Virgin Mary/Bloody Mary recipe continues. The boy spotted this on in The Guardian and thought we should give it a go. Our local supermarket isn’t quite cosmopolitan enough for Wasabi powder, but we did find it an Asian grocer. If we hadn’t found it, the boy had sweetly offered to go into Chinatown.

750ml tomato juice

1tsp Wasabi powder

Juice of 1 lime

1tsp chilli garlic sauce

1tbsp Worcester sauce

A few drops light soy sauce

1 Jalapeno, very finely chopped

Pinch of celery salt

A big pinch of finely ground black pepper

4 spring onions to garnish

Cucumber to garnish

We are using Libby’s tomato juice, as it’s got more flavour than Del Monte, which is insipid, but less salty than Princes. I do love Princes, but I want to give the seasoning more chance to stand out. The chilli garlic sauce is Maggi.

The boy thinks this should be made by the jug full and I agree.

Mix the wasabi powder with the lime juice until it’s smooth and add to the jug with the other ingredients and some ice cubes.  Give it a good stir.

For the garnish, trim the spring onions and make a slits in the green part and curl them over the back of a knife, like you would do with ribbon, for gift wrap.  Ours are not perfect but it’s the garnish, not the main event. Add a strip of cucumber. You’ll need to judge the depth of your glasses to know how long the cucumber and spring onions need to be.

The boy is having his with vodka.,which surprises nobody. I will definitely be toasting the Chinese year of the sheep (or ram, or goat, depending on who you ask), with this.

Meanwhile, my search continues

Portuguese Eggs with Chorizo & Peas

This makes a lovely light lunch. Telling the boy he is getting eggs and peas for lunch won’t go down that well. Letting him know a Portuguese dish is on its way works better.

50g cooking Chorizo

2tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

400g peas

1tbsp chopped parsley

2 large free range organic eggs

A little paprika (the sweet kind)

Salt

It’s too late for fresh peas but frozen are good, as long as they are defrosted first. The eggs need to be free range organic. Unfortunately free range on its own just means “brought up in a shed”.  If your chorizo is whole, peel the skin off and slice it up into coins and then halve them.

Heat the oil and gently cook the onions until soft and golden. Add the chorizo and garlic. The chorizo should leach a lot more oil which will turn the entire pan orange, from all the paprika. After a few more minutes, add the peas and salt to taste.

Add a cup of hot water and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Give the bottom of the pan a good scrape so all the sticky goodness joins the broth. When this has almost evaporated make two hollows in the mixture and crack an egg into each one.  Cover the pan to raise the heat and check every few minutes. The boy likes his yolks runny but the whites completely cooked through.

When it’s ready sprinkle the eggs with the paprika and a little more salt. Serve with bread rolls for dipping. I tell the boy it is Ovos Com Ervilhas.

Vietnamese Coriander Chicken & Rice Casserole

I love the clean fresh flavours of Vietnamese food, and this recipe is especially good as it can all be done in one pot. You will need a 2.5l casserole – ideally one that can go on the stove top but use a frying pan for the first part, otherwise.

8 dried mushrooms

1tbsp coriander seeds

8 chicken thighs

1tbsp oil

400g long grain rice

2 onions, sliced

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1tsp turmeric

700ml chicken stock

2tbsp fish sauce

3tbs chopped coriander leaves for sprinkling at the end

Start by pouring water over the mushrooms and let them stand for 20 minutes. Drain and chop them. I’m saving a small ladleful of the soaking water to add a little depth to the stock. We’re using Shitake mushrooms, as they were the best I could get. I ignore the uual instructions to discard the stalks, but slice them thinly.

Give the coriander seeds a quick bash in a pestle and mortar. Our chicken thighs still have the skin on, so this needs to be removed – the boy’s cat gets one of them. Heat half the oil and brown the chicken in batches.  Ours are bone in by the way as it will add to the flavour. Drain on kitchen paper. The boy loves chicken and has come sniffing around the kitchen. Too bad for him that he has to wait about an hour.

Heat up the remaining oil and gently fry the onions, garlic, coriander seeds and turmeric. This needs to be slow so nothing burns. I always add the garlic after the onions have had a couple of minutes as the onion steam slows things down a bit.

Put everything, including the rice and fish sauce, into the casserole. This is one of those few occasions when I recommend American long grain rice rather than Basmati – its delicate flavour would be lost here. The chicken goes on top of the rice mix. Pour in the stock and saved mushroom water. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook for 45 minutes at about 200/Gas 5, but just check that the rice is done.  Sprinkle the coriander leaves on top.

The boy seems as pleased with how little washing up is needed as he is with the dish.

Lebanese Butternut Soup with Almonds & Chilli

It’s been the first genuinely cold day of the year, which means it’s the perfect day for soup!

1 butternut squash

2tbsp oil plus more for drizzling

1 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed

¼ tsp chilli flakes

½ tsp cumin seeds

900ml chicken stock

2 apples, peeled and grated

100ml plain yoghurt

3tbsp flaked almonds, toasted

Salt and white pepper

The original recipe starts with peeling and cubing the butternut squash but as it is then going to be roasted, I’m not putting myself through this torture, and blunting my best knives in the process. Instead I get the boy to cut it in half and then into quarters. He does this in the most macho way possible with the cleaver. Still, job done. Remove the seeds and the stringy stuff in the hollow bit. Put in the oven at 190/Gas 5 for around half an hour or until the flesh is cooked through and soft.

Meanwhile heat the oil and gently soften the onions. Add the garlic chilli flakes and cumin seeds. The chili flakes are supposed to be smoked chilli but I can’t find this so am just using a mild Turksih variety called Pul Biber. Cook off for another 3 minutes, while you peel and grate the apple. If the almonds aren’t toasted just toss them in a dry skillet for a few minutes.

Pour in the stock and grated apple. Get the squash out and it should lift from the skin very easily. Chunk it up and add it to the pan.

Use a wand blender to get this into a smooth soup consistency. The boy likes soup to be soup and sometimes pumpkin soups are pretty much baby puree in a bowl, so I add more stock to thin it down if it needs it. It’s a good job stock usually comes in 1 litre pouches, so there is some left to top up with, but water would do.

Let it cook for a minute or so and then pour in the yoghurt. Turn the heat right down so it doesn’t split and add plenty of salt and white pepper.

Pour into bowls and garnish with the almond slivers and chilli flakes. I’m actually putting hot chilli flakes on mine and the mild Pul Biber on the boy’s. Drizzle with olive oil.

The Boy's Marmite Toast & Canned Spaghetti

I cannot believe the boy has persuaded me to post this recipe. It really isn’t a recipe. However he loves it and thinks it’s the perfect pre or post pub treat. In the name of a quiet life I have agreed.

2 thick slices wholemeal bread to toast

1 knob of butter

Marmite to spread on the toast

1 400g can Heinz spaghetti , in tomato sauce (ideally with sausages)

Freshly ground black pepper

His recipe:

Come home a bit drunk and absolutely starving. Put the bread on to toast – I like it quite well done so the spaghetti doesn't make it soggy.

Heat the spaghetti up but don’t let it boil. The kind with sausages is the best though I'm not sure what the sausages are made of. I think it has to be Heinz really.

Butter the bread and spread with Marmite. Quite thinly spread, usually. Put on a plate.

Pour the spaghetti onto the Marmite toast. Add a big knob of butter on top, allowing it to melt. Add loads of black pepper. This is apparently one of your five a day so it doesn't need a salad to go with it!

This works just as well with baked beans. Again Heinz, and again the ones with the little sausages are best. Also not the reduced sugar, low sodium etc….

I told you it wasn’t a recipe!