Salmon 5-spice Stir-fry

~ serves 2. Invented in my kitchen tonight, based on every stir-fry I have ever made!

• 2 salmon fillets
• 1 small onion, sliced in half then sliced into rings
• Mixed stir-fry vegetables, I used baby corn, halved lengthwise, mangetout, green beans, mushrooms and red cabbage, but there are lots of different vegetables to chose from bell peppers would also be a great addition, and I have heard kale is amazing in stir-fries.
• 3 teaspoons of Chinese 5-spice powder.
• 1 tablespoon of tomato ketchup, I used a reduced sugar and salt version.
• 2 tablespoons of Dark Soy Sauce
• 1 tablespoon of White Wine Vinegar, but Rice Wine Vinegar would probably be better.
• 2 packets of easy cook noodles

Add the onion and salmon fillets to a frying pan or wok under a high heat. I often don’t add oil when cooking a stir-fry, which I guess is a little strange. However with a good non-stick pan you should only have to add a very small amount, if any at all.

Leave till the Salmon is starting to brown around 5 minutes, on the top (uncooked side) sprinkle 1 tsp of 5-spice powder on each salmon fillet. Make sure to coat the top side of the fillet evenly, then once the bottom is browned flip each fillet over.

You can now add the vegetables and the remaining 5-spice into the pan. Occasionally while the vegetables are cooking move them around the pan, so they don’t burn, but be careful to not break up the salmon fillets.

After around 3 minutes add the tomato ketchup, the soy sauce and vinegar. Turn down the heat and continue to cook for another 5-8 minutes until the salmon is cooked through and the vegetables are cooked. If the sauce begins to dry out add some water (I added about 1/4 of a cup to mine).

While the salmon and vegetables finish cooking cook your noodles as per their packet instructions.

Remove the salmon fillets from the pan and place on a plate. For the last 2 minutes of cooking add the noodles to the pan, and stir so they and completely coated in the sauce.

Add the noodles and veg to each plate and top with a salmon fillet. Voila!

Wholewheat Hot Cross Buns

~ makes 12 small buns. Taken from April’s edition of “Good Food”

• 450 grams of Strong Wholewheat flour
• 14 grams of easy blend yeast, if you don’t have easy blend yeast then add the yeast to the warm milk and leave for 5 minutes until frothy instead of just adding to the flour.
• 50 grams of Caster Sugar
• 150 ml of warm milk
• 50 ml of warm water
• 1 egg beaten
• 50 grams unsalted butter melted
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of mixed spice, I don’t have any mixed spice so I added 1/4 tsp of ginger and 1/4 tsp of allspice
• 1/4 tsp of nutmeg
• 100 grams of currants, I used sultanas
• 4 tbsp plain flour
• 2 tbsp caster sugar

Add the flour, yeast, sugar, along with the spices and the sultanas into a bowl and mix throughly. Create a well in the centre of your mixture and pour in the warm milk, water, beaten egg and melted butter. Mix to form a dough, if it is too dry you may want to add more water.

Knead the dough for around 5 minutes until it is smooth and springy, transfer to a clean oiled bowl. Leave to rest, in a warm place, with a damp tea towel for an hour.

Once it has doubled in size, knead for a few seconds to de-gas and then split the dough into 12 pieces. Shape each piece into a sphere and then slightly flatten on to a baking tray. Try to leave space between them as they may expand as they heat up.

Use a sharp knife to slice a cross into each bun and leave to rest for 20 minutes.

While the buns are resting, first put the oven on to preheat at 180oC, then make up the flour paste for the crosses of your buns. Mix 4 tablespoons of plain flour with water, be careful too much water and the paste will drip off the bun, not enough water and you won’t be able to pipe it. I know this because I kept flip flopping between once extreme and the other. In the end mine was a little watery so the cross didn’t stand out as much as I wanted it to.

Once you have made your paste to the correct consistency add the paste to a piping bag and pipe along the cut in each bun, filling the gap.

Once the oven is preheated place the buns in the oven and leave to cook for 12 to 15 minutes, till they are browned and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Mix the 2 tbsp of caster sugar with water and melt together. While the buns and still warm brush each bun with the syrup.

Slow Cooked Beef Bourguignon

~ based on Simplified Boeuf Bourguignon. Originally from Julia Child.

Serves 4.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes (45 if you need to peel the small onions).
Cooking Time: 8 hours, plus 20 minutes to reheat (or 10 minutes to thicken the sauce).
Cooking Temperature: Low.

• 4 slices of bacon, in strips. Cut the rind off but use in the cooking process
• 500 grams of cubed beef, suitable for a casserole. I used rump steak.
• 1 sliced carrot
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 tsp of flour, plus another 2 tablespoons for sauce thickening
• 1 and 1/2 cups of Red Wine, conveniently I had a bottle of French Red Wine for Burgundy
• 1 and 1/2 cups of Beef Stock, I used a bouillon cube
• 1 tablespoon of Tomato Paste / Puree
• 2 cloves of garlic, pureed.
• Few sprigs of fresh Thyme
• 2 Bay Leaves. The recipe I used suggested crumbling them, I would advise against this. I did this the first time and I got left with crumbled bay leaf in my mouth – which was not great.
• 10 – 18 small white onions. These small onions are hard to get hold of in the UK, they are the ones used for pickling onions. I used shallots instead which are much bigger, and I used two per person, after choosing the smallest I could find.
• 4 large quartered mushrooms, although whole button mushrooms may look better presentationally

If you know Julia Childs recipe you will see that I have cut out some of the ingredients, the extra butter and cognac, you can add them back in if you wish.

If your slow cooker needs it pre-heat it, I turn mine on to max heat, while preparing the contents.

Heat a frying pan under a medium heat and add the bacon and the rind fat with around 30 ml of water.

Cook for 5 minutes until the bacon is starting to brown and the water mostly evaporated. Add the bacon, not the rinds, to the slow cooker.

With the bacon fat still left in the frying pan place back on heat and add the cubed beef, start to brown.

Once the beef is browned all over, add the teaspoon of flour and coat the beef in it. Again add the beef to the slow cooker, leaving the bacon rinds in the frying pan.

Removing the worst of the leftover flour from the pan, again put it back on the heat, this time adding the sliced, onion and carrots. Cook them stirring to ensure they don’t burn for around 5 minutes. (You can add more oil if you think it is necessary).

Once the vegetables are beginning to soften, remove the bacon rinds, add the red wine, beef stock, bay leaf, thyme sprigs, small onions, mushrooms and tomato paste.

Heat until the liquid is starting to bubble, making sure all your ingredients are hot when entering the slow cooker is the key to using it correctly – especially if cooking at a low temperature.

Add the mixture to your slow cooker, turn the heat down to low and place on the lid.

Leave for 8 hours. The first time I made this I put it on in the morning before work and left it till I came home, after which I immediately followed with the last section. The second I finally put the lid on at midnight and turned it off at 8 o’clock in the morning. I then left it for several hours before continuing.

Once you are ready to eat this dish add the entire contents of the slow cooker to a pan under a medium heat. In a slow cooker it is hard to create a thick sauce because no water evaporates (this is why the recipe uses less beef stock and wine than the non-slow cooked version). Twenty minutes in a pan if from cold, and 10 if from heated should be enough to evaporate some of the extra water out of the sauce, if you wish to thicken further remove some of the liquid maybe around 4 tablespoons and add to a bowl, then add the 2 tablespoons of flour mix until smooth and then add back in.

Stir the sauce occasionally to keep all the meat and vegetables covered with sauce, so they don’t dry out. Once your sauce is suitably thick and warm, serve, either with new potatoes and veg, or with noodles.

No Knead Bread

The Mix

• 15oz Strong White bread flour – I tried wholewheat flour and it turned out fantastic
• ¼ tsp instant easibake yeast (out of a sachet)
• 1 tsp table salt
• 10.5 fl oz of lukewarm water

Stir together well then add the lukewarm water (a mugful).
Slosh it round into a gooey lump of dough with a fork.
Leave in a big bowl and cover with cling film or put the bowl in a bin bag.
Leave it in kitchen for 16-18 hours – or more if you forget.

The 16hr Sloosh

Use a dough scraper/cutter or your fingers, to scrape the wet porridgy dough away from the sides, using plenty of flour to stop it sticking, and shuffle it back into a nice round shape. Don’t be tempted to knead it.

Cover with a tea towel and leave for 2 more hours.

The Bake

Preheat oven to 200-220 and put in a lightly oiled Le Creuset or other large cast iron casserole with a lid on until the oven and the pan are super hot.

Again use the scraper and a good sprinkle of flour to detach the dough from the bowl without puncturing it’s airy goodness. Then quick as you can, without losing the heat from the oven and pan, tip the dough onto one hand then flop it into the hot pan the right way up again and put the lid back on and get it back in the oven immediately.

Bake for 30 minutes lid-on
Then cook for 10-12 minutes more, lid-off until golden brown

If it’s not hollow sounding on the bottom put it back in, without it’s tin for an extra 5 minutes. Tip out and cool well before trying to slice

Chicken Pilaf with Sun-dried Tomatoes

~ serves 4 (taken from Ultimate Slow Cooker by Sara Lewis)

• 4 chicken breasts
• 150 grams of Basmati Rice
• 50 grams of Brown Rice, or wild rice
• 1 large Onion, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 1 red pepper, diced (optional)
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 50 grams of sun-dried tomatoes
• 2 tsp of Pesto
• 600 ml of hot Chicken stock

Cooking time: 3 – 4 hours (I left mine 3 hours, and by this point the rice was beginning to disintegrate, so I would try to keep it short, or add the rice to the pot after 1 hour).
Cooking Temperature: High.

Preheat your slow cooker. Brown the chicken on one side in a hot frying pan. I browned both sides of my chicken as I wasn’t really paying much attention to the recipe. I don’t think it did any harm browning on both sides, but perhaps only browning one side would keep the chicken more moist. Once browned remove the chicken breasts and reserve on a plate.

Next add garlic and onions to the pan and leave until lightly browned, which should be around 5 minutes.

Then add the red pepper, canned tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, pesto and season with salt and pepper. Heat the mixture until starting to boil. Add the mixture to the slow-cooker along with the hot chicken stock.

Rinse the rice in cold water until it runs clear, then add to the slow-cooker. Stir the rice so it is evenly distributed. Lastly add the chicken fillets to the slow-cooker, push them under the waterline (browned side uppermost) so they don’t dry out during cooking. Leave for 3 – 4 hours.

Before serving, check that the rice and chicken are cooked thoroughly. Spoon on to plates and enjoy!

Celeriac Mash

~ serves 3 – 4

• 1 Celeriac bulb, peeled and chopped into chunks
• 1 tsp of French Mustard, optional

The idea is simple you get a celeriac, peel and chop into chunks. Place them in boiling water until they break easily with a fork. Then you mash the life out of them!

And keep mashing until you get a creamy consistency. You could add butter, cream or milk, but I just like to add some french mustard – but each to their own.

Sweet and Sour Pancakes

~ serves 2, as dinner.

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1/2 thumb sized piece of ginger, minced
• 1/2 medium onion, sliced
• 2 chicken breasts, sliced into strips
• 1 tablespoon of White Wine Vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of tomato puree
• 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne powder, optional
• 1/2 a red bell pepper, sliced into strips
• 3 – 4 cabbage leaves shredded
• 4 mushrooms, sliced
• 115 grams of flour
• 200 ml of milk, I used semi-skimmed
• 2 eggs, I used large ones

Add the olive oil, garlic, ginger, chicken and onion to a saucepan, with a lid, under a medium heat. Stir to avoid sticking.

Once the ingredients have begun to soften and the chicken to brown, add the white wine vinegar, sugar and tomato puree. Mix the ingredients so all the chicken is coated with the flavours. Leave for 5 minutes with the lid on.

Add the remaining vegetables to the mixture, and replace the lid, add extra water if the mixture starts to burn.

While the sweet and sour sauce is cooking now make your pancakes (these can also be made ahead of time if necessary). Whisk together the eggs, flour and milk, until there are no lumps.

Heat a non-stick frying pan under a high heat, once hot add enough of the mixture to coat the bottom of the pan. It should not be too thick, and you may need to swirl the mixture around the pan to evenly coat it. (Expect your first pancake to be a disaster – mine certainly was!)

Cook the pancake waiting until it becomes firm, and it is easy to remove from the bottom of the pan. Flip it over, you can use acrobatics if you wish, but I just use a spatula. Both sides of the pancake should be browned, but still soft, as you will be folding the pancake.

Repeat until you have used up all the mixture. I served two pancakes per person (but the mixture made enough for three).

To serve, place a pancake on a plate, add around 3 tablespoons of the sweet and sour mix to the pancake. Fold over the top and bottom of the pancake and then roll.

To create a pouring sauce for the top of the pancakes I used the tiny amount of left over mixture I had, a further tablespoon of tomato puree, one of water and one of soy sauce. Heat and pour.