Broth with Diced Saucisson Sec Supérieur Sausage

A broth made with diced Bastides Saucisson Sec Supérieur. Ingredients are: onion, carrots, potato, the Bastides French spiced and cured sausage, diced pan-fried pork loin steak, ham stock, and two pinches of oregano. 

Onion, carrots and potatoes chopped while the water in the cooking pot was coming to the boil. Once the vegetables were added, plus the ham stock, the spiced sausage and the pork steak were diced into thin pieces. The pot was covered with a glass lid and allowed to simmer at a low heat for about forty minutes. The contents of the pot were mashed for about a minute, and allowed to simmer again for another twenty to forty minutes. 

The two pinches of oregano were added in the final ten minutes of cooking. This particular sausage, though French, closely resembles some traditional Spanish spiced sausage (it's a product of South-West France, at Aveyron, and is a traditional recipe). So Spanish spiced sausage could be substituted, including Chorizo, or German or Polish sausage. I used what I had in the fridge. 

Soup with Diced Saucisson Sec Supérieur Sausage

Blueberry and Date Salad

A simple and delicious fruit salad, which can be prepared in two or three minutes. 100 grams of blueberries, 8 stoned dates, and two or three dessert spoonfuls of double cream.

Blueberry and Date Salad

Pan-fried Pork Loin Steak in a Smoked Paprika Sauce

Pork loin cooked in a little bacon fat for 20 minutes at a moderate heat, under a lid covering 90% of the pan. The steaks were turned after ten minutes. 

The sauce was made with cornflour (half a dessert spoonful), tomato passata (about 100ml) , a teaspoonful of smoked paprika, a sprinkling of thyme, a pinch of powdered ginger, and a large pinch of white pepper. Bring to the boil and turn down the heat. Stir for four minutes till the sauce has thickened. Four fresh basil leaves were shredded into the sauce a minute or so before serving. 

Served with two raw chopped spring onions, and a thinly sliced vine tomato. 

Pan-fried pork loin steak in a smoked paprika sauce. 

Pollo Arrabiata

Pollo (Chicken) Arrabiata. Closely modelled on a meal I had at Vittoria's Restaurant in Edinburgh a couple of years ago. The ingredients are: pan-fried chicken breast pieces, tomato passata, green chilli, one yellow pepper, cut into thin strips, shredded fresh basil, chicken stock.

Pan-fry the chicken pieces until cooked and lightly browned. Add the pieces to the passata, the chopped chilli and yellow pepper. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes. The basil and the chicken stock can be added shortly before the dish is served. 

Serve with flat cut boiled potato. 

Pollo Arrabiata

Chicken in Oyster and Soy Sauce

A very simple dish to prepare, and very tasty. Steamed chicken breast, cut into rough pieces, stir-fried in a wok until hot. Then a mixture of oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, and a splash of chinese rice wine, is added to the contents of the wok. The cooking continues until there is no liquid left around the chicken, but the chicken should still be moist. 

The chicken pieces are decanted from the wok into a small bowl, and dressed with chopped raw spring onion. 

The rice dish is made with long grain rice or basmati, and can be cooked so that the grains remain separate, common in the west, or until the rice is sticky and glutinous, which is the most common way it is served in China, since it facilitates eating with chopsticks. 

No herbs, no garlic, no ginger, and no chilli. Absolutely delicious!

Chicken in Oyster and Soy Sauce

Chilli Beef with Tortilla Chips and Cheddar Cheese

Ground beef was browned along with carrots and sliced onion. Once browned, boiling water was added, plus a whole thinly sliced green pepper, red and green chopped chillies, some chopped leftover mange tout, two bay leaves, beef stock, two shredded salad tomatoes, half a spoonful of powdered chilli, and a squeeze of tomato puree. The saute pan was covered with its glass lid, and the temperature lowered to a simmer for ninety minutes to two hours. 

Tortilla corn chips (from Aldi) were spread around the outside of a pasta dish, and 100g of Cheddar cheese was grated on top. The ground beef, piping hot, was spooned into the centre of the dish.

The dish can be put under the grill until the cheese has melted, but it isn't necessary to do this, unless you prefer toasted cheese. Can also be served with a spoonful of plain yoghurt.

I often prepare components of a dish the day before it is to be served, particularly if some of the cooking time is long, as in this case. So on the day of serving, the preparation time was 15 to 20 minutes, depending to some extent on how fast you can grate the cheese.

Chilli Beef with Tortilla Chips and Cheddar Cheese

Cashew and Mushroom Stirfry

Whole cashew nuts and chopped chestnut mushrooms stir fried at high heat for five minutes in sunflower oil, dark soy sauce and some oyster sauce. After that the following ingredients were added to the wok: green chilli, whole garlic cloves, chopped cabbage, beansprouts, carrot, red and green peppers, onion, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, and a sprinkling of ginger powder (out of fresh ginger root!)

The heat was turned down to a medium heat and the whole dish stirfried for ten minutes before serving. 

Cashew and Mushroom Stirfry

Cheese Salad

A simple dish which is quick to prepare. Ingredients are: 4 babyleaf salad leaves, three spoonfuls of coleslaw, spring onion, shredded vine tomato, grated cheddar cheese, olive oil dressing, oregano and black pepper. 2 minutes preparation time! Delicious!

Cheese Salad

Egg and Bacon, with Spelt and Buckwheat bread

Not wheat-free, with a spelt-buckwheat loaf under the bacon. But easy to substitute wheat-free bread. 

Egg and bacon is a reminder that it is not the end of the world if you have to change your diet if you have an intolerance to wheat, or have an immune response to gluten. Some delightful things you can still eat. 

This dish is made with strips of smoked bacon, hash browns, spring onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, a slice of toasted spelt and buckwheat bread, a fried egg, French's American mustard, and black pepper. 

Spelt and Buckwheat Loaf

Bread loaf made with 500 grams of flour: 400 grams of spelt, and 100 grams of buckwheat. The flour was mixed in a glass bowl, together wth 7 grams of Allinsons' yeast, two teaspoonfuls of table sugar, two teaspoonfuls of table salt. 

350 mls of warm water was folded into the roughly mixed flour over three or four minutes. Two dessert spoonfuls of olive oil were then folded in to the dough, The dough was mixed with an electric hand mixer for five minutes, gradually increasing the speed of the blades.  

The dough was allowed to stand for an hour in the glass bowl, which was long enough for it to double in size. It was beaten down, and allowed to stand for another thirty minutes. Then the dough was poured into a silicon bread tin. 

The top of the loaf was given a little texture with a fork, and poppy seeds were sprinkled on to the surface. When the oven was at the correct temperature the loaf was placed in a metal roasting tin to keep the silicon bread tin flat. Into the oven!

Baked for 40 to 45 minutes. 

Spelt and Buckwheat Loaf

The bread ready to go into the oven preheated to 195 - 200 deg. C

Beef and Mushroom Stew

Half a kilo of casserole beef, with onion, spring onion, carrot, a shredded vine tomato, yellow pepper, mushrooms, paprika, cornflour, thyme, oregano, 3 bay leaves, black pepper, a dash of Lea & Perrins sauce, some beef stock, and served with boiled Charlotte potatoes. 

The day before serving, the beef was casseroled for three hours in a saute pan (after browning for twenty minutes in olive oil), along with the vegetables. Stirred occasionally. The bay leaves, the cornflour, the Lea & Perrins, and the paprika and the herbs were added about twenty five minutes before serving. Brought to the boil and then the heat was turned down to a low simmer. Stirring often to ensure the thickened gravy did not stick to the bottom of the pot. 

This dish is often made with the addition of some beer during the cooking, or some white wine. These impart different flavour to the recipe, but the dish is fine without either of those. 

Beef and Mushroom Stew

Mayo Chicken with Salad

Roast chicken breast pieces in mayonnaise, with a vegetable salad of shredded vine tomato, two spring onions, and one yellow pepper. The salad was dressed with two twists of lemon and some freshly ground black pepper. 

The chicken breast can be served with or without the roasted skin. Shredded iceberg lettuce can be added to the salad ingredients, which adds more bulk but no calories. Serves two. 

Mayo Chicken with Salad

Beef, Kidney Bean and Potato Casoulet

Made with the same basic ingredients as the recent beef and kidney bean stew (May 2016). This time the potatoes and the other ingredients are all cooked together, as in an Irish stew. 

Stew made with strips of silverside beef, tinned kidney beans in juice, red pepper, shredded tomato, tomato puree, smoked paprika, garlic cloves, chopped spring onion, oregano and black pepper. 

The beef was browned a little in a pot for four minutes, then I added the tomato and sliced red pepper, along with some boiling water and some beef stock. After five minutes, the kidney beans were added, the puree, the garlic, the pepper, the spring onion, the herbs, the carrots. and the potatoes (Charlotte). 

Simmer in a glass-lidded pot for about one hour. Easy!

Beef, Kidney Bean and Potato Casoulet

Pea and Ham Soup

Actually made with some chopped gammon. The other ingredients are: course cut carrot, two white onions, garden peas, and some smoked paprika. 

The gammon steak was roasted in the oven the day before. The soup itself is easy to prepare - just add the ingredients to boiling water in a glass-lidded pan and the dish looks after itself, with the occasional stir. Simmer gently for about ninety minutes. Mash at one hour. The paprika can be added last. 

Served with black pepper and a sprig of basil.

Pea and Ham Soup