You will need For the dough 200g of plain flour 60g fat (I used some lard) About 6 tablespoons of cold water For the filling In total it should add up to a couple of big handfuls
Instance I joined the Cult of Instant Pot I’ve become a fulltime convert. The thing I love about it most is having everything in one pot which does everything.
This is an enriched bread dough, with a bunch of seasonal fruit, a dose of spice and some light brown sugar. I threw in a tangarine too, which lead to too much moisture and to load sinking in the middle, but it tasted great.
Roughly this time last year I made 5 ingrediant tomato meatballs for the first time and it is excellent, we’ve had it numerous times. Tonight I decided to enrich it a little with some leftover double cream and tweak the spice mix a bit.
Yet more Completely Perfect for a Saturday tea, but this time I went off piste when following the perfect sausage rolls. I love a sausage roll, they’re much better than the sad limp party food they are thought of as.
I’m continuing to work my way though Felicity Cloake’s excellent Completely Perfect and for a Saturday night what’s more fitting than the perfect chicken tikka masala with the perfect naan.
I got a copy of Felicity Cloake’s Completely Perfect for my birthday and I’ve been working through it for the last few months. It’s brilliant, you should absolutely buy a copy.
The airfrier came into its own this week when I discovered I could use it to make tiny cubed roast potatoes. Delicious in their own right, but excellent as part of the bulk of a meal.
Another Friday night fake takeaway, though this time probably just as unhealthy as the bought variety. I realised I’d never had a vindaloo before, always writing them off as too hot (and thus generally not very flavoursom), but the combination of pork and mustard always sounded good.
I love Chinese food, especially dim sum and Sichuan hot pot, but when it comes to takeaway, naff English style dishes are my weakness. There’s something about crispy fried things in a slightly gelatinous sauce that really hits the spot.
Tonight was one of those nights where I wanted something quick, tasty and passingly healthy. “Vegetable corner” of the kitchen looked like it needed a clearing out, so it was a good excuse to roast it all.
This year I’ve had more success than last year growing chillis, so it was high time I made a chilli with them. I also managed to grow a tonne of herbs, so I thought I’d make use of them too.
Many years ago, whilst watching Buffy, Spike (the best Buffy character) mentioned Blooming Onions. The idea piqued my interest, and then I forgot about it.
Recently I’ve been cooking a lot of spiced spinach dishes. It’s a tonne of green vegetables, full of spicy goodness and if you squint you can convince yourself it’s healthy.
After a busy week mostly fuelled by snacks and black coffee we needed a dinner full of vegatables than was also satisfying. The combination of a tonne of spinach and cheese fitted the bill.
Reasonably often we make flat breads, pile them full of tasty things and hot sauce and at them with our faces. It might be a bit formulaic, but it’s always tasty.
In a recent tweet my friend Branden mentioned making his own yoghurt to reduce the amount of single use plastic in the house and it reminded me that I’d always meant to have a go.
I love bread and butter pudding and I love hotcross buns, so when I left a pack of hotcross buns out and they went stale there was only one option - another using up combo recipe.
A super quick tea with lots colour, crunch and spice. The rare steak melts in the mouth.
You will need A small steak of of high quality as possible (this was a 300g filet between two) A block of noodles A big handful of beansprouts 3 spring onions, green parts finely slices, white parts sliced into battons 1 carrot grated A few inches of cucumber, cut into fine battons 1 red chilli finely sliced 1 teaspoon of runny honey 2 teaspoons of soy 1 teaspoon of fish sauce 2 teaspoons of toasted sesame seeds Half a teaspoon of grazed ginger The juice of half an oranges A hard handful of peanuts, ideally unsalted but salted will be ok.
For April is still unfeasibly cold and grey, so I fancied some sunny flavours. Nothing tastes more like the sun that jerk with is sweat chilli, bright thyme and fragrent spices.
I love fresh pineapple. Recently we’ve been eating it in salsa a lot (grill until blistered, mash with chilli and corriandar), and it made me thing of something I heard years ago but can’t source, that ripe pineapple is great with salt and chilli powder.
Another using up meal which turned out really well. I firmly believe that food you put togehter with your hands at the table is always the most fun, this being no exception.
The weather turned cold and miserable today, so I decided to kill four birds with one stone:
Steamed suet pudding, to help get though the weather Use up some oranges that were going past their best Answer the question: can you make suet pudding in a slow cooker Answer the question: can you use clingfilm instead of muslin and safe yourself a tonne of time.
This was inspired by a Nigel Slater recipe that involved a lot of standing at the stove and stirring. Being a lazy and busy man, I shoved it all in the oven and relied on a bit of vigerous stirring at the end.
After seeing deep fried halloumi on TV this week, I wondered whether it could be airfried. Good news, it can!
You will need A block of halloumi cut into chunky chips.
Yep, it’s still winter, so it’s still legally required to eat stew once a week. Shin beef always slow cooks brilliantly but the probelm is you can’t do dumplings in the slowcooker (I’ve not tried it yet anyway), thus this was slow cooked for 8 hours, then finished in the oven.
After Christmas sprouts are still in the shops and excellent. Fine sliced they can be used in loads of places. I’d not thought of having them in pasta but the combinate with sausage is great.