The Fresh Food Cook Book

My Light Keyes Lime Pie

2012-02-24T15:29:00.000Z

Last night I decided to make key lime pie - I had no idea what it was, but thought it sounded delicious if possibly somewhat rich (being US based). I read various recipes, and it actually seemed very simple in its basic form, so I adapted what I read to suit what I had in the house.

2 egg whites whisked until quite stiff and glossy white
1 tin light condensed milk (much lower in fat)
3 limes (take zest off with grater and squeeze thorougly)
Half a pack digestive biscuits
a dsstspn butter

Smash up or otherwise crumb the biscuits and combine with melted butter. Press the mixture around a pie dish or I used a shallow cake tin lined with one of those lakeland pleated tin liners for easy lifting out. Whisk eggwhites until stiff and combine with whole tin of condensed milk, whisk in the juice. Then stir in the zest. Pour this unctuous mixture into the crumb base and bake at 180C for about 20 minutes, until just firm to touch and very slightly golden. Eat cool or hot. Unbelievably good. Many sighs of pleasure around the table.

Southern Fried Chicken

2011-06-20T15:18:00.000+01:00

As we walked back from the rain drenched local carnival, we talked about what was for dinner. Small son said he didn't want a tray roast with vegetable and lemon, would I fry the chicken instead. So then I thought, what about the REAL thing that KFC tries to emulate?

Had some lovely Oakham free range chicken thighs thawed out. Drenched them in plain yoghurt mixed with a half tsp salt and five crushed garlic cloves, and left them to marinade for an hour or two.

Mixed flour with a teaspoon each of: herbes provencal, cumin, chilli powder, black and white pepper, ground ginger, freshly grated nutmeg. A dessertspoon of smoked paprika and a shake or two of dried basil, plus more salt. It's really up to you what you use, just don't use too much cumin as it is overwhelming and won't have the right US style nuance.

Then pulled each piece of chicken out of the yogurt and shook it a bit. Dipped in seasoned flour and fried three at a time in hot vegetable oil until golden brown and cooked through. The boys absolutely loved it. Gave a cold piece to Small to take in his lunchbox. He smiled at me brightly and said, 'Everyone will be so jealous, they'll think you've given me KFC! And then....' 'I'll tell them you made it!'

Hanwell Chocolate Cake

2011-06-19T12:22:00.000+01:00

Seized by a desire to make chocolate cake today:

For the cake:
200g butter
200g flour
1 bar dark chocolate (half is for the icing)
2 tblspns cream
3 eggs
200g self raising flour
chocolate or vanilla essence

Melt the chocolate with the cream in the microwave, careful not to burn. Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy, beat in the eggs one at a time. Fold in the flour and half the melted chocolate plus essences. Grease and line two 8in sandwich tins. Divide the mixture between them and bang on the table to even out. Cook at 180C for about 25 minutes - check to see if they are cooked by gently pressing with your finger in the middle. Also the cakes should have shrunk away from the sides of the pans slightly.

Turn out and remove baking paper. Cool completely.

Icing:
Rest of melted chocolate
200g icing sugar
100g unsalted butter

Now I made a mistake and tried to soften the butter in the microwave, where it promptly melted. So I beat in the sugar and chocolate regardless - the result being rather oily - and put it in the freezer to chill and set. Then when thoroughly chilled, I took it out and beat it with the electric whisk until it became paler and fluffy. Perfect chocolate butter icing in fact.

When the cake was completely cold, I sandwiched it with the icing and whirled the rest of the icing around on the top. The result was a light rich delicious cake.

How to Make Porcetta

2011-06-05T22:10:00.002+01:00

Have you ever been drawn to one of those high vending vans in Italy, with smells of heavenly meat, garlic and herbs pouring forth? Have you had handed down to you from on high, like food from the local gods, a slice of warm, fragrant pork in a nice crispy bun? Have you supped off this heavenly dish in a square with dusty trees and hot sunlight bouncing off the front of the local chiesa?

Well now you don't have to, because this is how you make porcetta. At least it isn't really. To do the real thing you have to hose a large dead pig down with sea water for some time. But with the hosepipe ban.... anyway, this is a nice approximation.

Buy a piece of pork - I actually had a bargain chunk with scored skin of a rather awkward shape. Doesn't matter a bit. I divested it of its string vest, and slice deeply into the flesh with my wicked little curved knife, into the cuts I pushed garlic, rosemary and fennel from the garden. I also put stupendous amounts of the same fennel fronts into the roasting dish, with a slice onion and some water (wine is nice too, but we wanted to drink what we had).

I laid the pork on top, and rubbed olive oil into the scored skin, followed by salt, rubbed well in. Then I roasted it for about an hour (20mins per lb is usual) until the skin was bubbling and golden and the flesh hot and cooked through, imbued with the fresh herbs. You then strain off the delicious liquid that accumulates underneath, and discard the herbs and onions. And there you have it, porcetta. The boy will have it in his sandwich tomorrow. Tonight we had it hot with braised red cabbage, white Belgian asparagus (a special from Lidl) and new potatoes. Very good indeed everyone agreed.

I wonder if human skin crackles? Only the defunct cannibals would know. They did call us Long Pig after all.

Lemon and Raspberry Muffins

2011-06-03T21:47:00.001+01:00

I went to the market today and bought four punnets of slightly suspect raspberries for £1. Taking them home, I picked them over and discarded about 15% for suspect patches. The rest I rinsed thoroughly and dusted with sugar. I heated the oven to 180C.

Then, I mixed
4 tablespoons sunflower oil
200 ml milk
2 eggs

in a bowl, and added

300g self raising flour
200g sugar
Finely grated zest of a lemon
Stirring gently together.

When it seemed a bit dry, I added 2 tblspns plain yoghurt, and then tipped in the raspberries.
There was 3/4 full pint Pyrex bowlful by the time I had finished picking them over.

Stir quickly and lightly so as not to break the fruit up more.

I lined 2 bun tins of 12 with paper cases and filled them 3/4 the way up (roughly). I cooked them for about 20 minutes until golden and risen. I tried one when very hot, but it didn't come neatly out of its case. After ten minutes cooling on a rack, it came out neatly. Perfect breakfast food for tomorrow.

Chicken Liver Pate with Wine

2011-05-22T18:24:00.000+01:00

Chicken livers can be converted rapidly into a kind of first course ambrosia, with the help of stuff you will have by you.

I roughly chopped a couple of red onions, a couple of cloves of garlic, and soften them in butter. Added a good dessert spoon of herbes provencal, and let the whole thing sweeten. Added two rinsed tubs of chicken livers and cooked briskly until firm.

Add a good glug of red wine and a tsp of sugar, large pinch of salt, grind of pepper, and cook off the alcohol.

When cooked through, tip into Magimix or similar and pulse until pale brown and smooth. Taste of seasoning and beat in a little more softened butter if you want a smoother texture.

Pour into a glass bowl or whatever you have, and bang its bottom to flatten the pate.

Pour over melted buter, and scatter some fresh bayleaves over the top. And chill.

Long ago when I was flat sharing, I left the pate in the fridge when it was broken. It rose like some sinister souffle - disgusting! And I was trying to educate my flatmates away from a diet of ox heart and cheesie wotsits.

Lime Madeleines

2011-05-22T17:36:00.001+01:00

I was listening to Women's Hour yesterday, when I heard something about Proust and his madeleine moment that intrigued me. Nothing to do with madeleines looking like women's undercarriages, you understand, more about making them with buerre noisette, or 'nutted' butter. ie butter that has been cooked until golden brown before being used in a batter very similar to the tricky Genoise.

Lime Madeleine Recipe
120g butter (melt and then allow to brown, set aside and cool a bit)
2 eggs
100g sugar (I used granulated)
60g flour (I used self-raising as that is all I had)
40g almonds (I ground them finely in small bowl of magimix with a dsst spn of the sugar for grinding powder)
Zest of a lime (you can use lemon, I didn't have one)

Put eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk until frothy and pale yellow, ie like a pale rather slack meringue. Fold in very briskly but gently the flour and ground almonds, and then stir through the butter - making sure it is room temperature but not solidifying. When making a genoise, where you use normal melted butter, there is a danger it can split at this point, but I didn't have any problems.

The guy on the radio suggested letting it sit for a bit, but as it was the most delicious cake batter I have ever tasked, I chose to cook them in batches of eight, using a non stick pan of my mother's.

Using a dessert spoon, I carefully filled the little shell shaped dimples in the pan.

Then bake at 190F for less than 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them as they cook fast. Turn out onto a cooling tray.

Then beat off your family with a bat. The nutty butter flavour was less pronounced in the cooked cake - but delicious. Floppy when carefully flipped out with a blunt knife, they quickly became crisp with a soft centre.

Found teenage son lurking with intent just now. There were 26.... no longer. Hope it fuels his A Level revision.

Tablecloth by www.annabelgrey.co.uk

Original story found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/womans-hour/cooktheperfect/perfect/madeleines/

Easy Irish Tea Bread

2011-03-22T10:13:00.000Z

Take your loaf tin and fill it up half way with mixed dried fruit. Tip into a bowl and pour over left over tea to cover. Leave to plump up nicely. A couple of hours should do it. Then mix in an egg, a pinch of any spice you like, and enough flour to make a very thick batter. Grease your loaf tin (although I have just discovered silicon and have a floppy blue one that is so non stick that you just rinse out with cold water). Put the mixture in the tin and bake for about 40 minutes at Gas Mk 4 180 C. Test with a skewer in the usual way, and tip out to cool. You can eat warm as well, and it is delicious spread with a little butter. Honestly, it is astonishing how delicious this tea loaf is, and so simple and low in fat.

Quick Chicken

2011-03-08T10:54:00.000Z

Tip into a roasting pan, chopped unpeeled potatoes, chopped onions, garlic cloves in their skins, branch of rosemary, chicken thighs and legs, salt and pepper. Add a glass of wine and some stock, and put in the oven to roast at 200C for 30 - 45 minutes. Turn it from time to time until everything is golden and cooked through.

You can also add paprika if you like, to give it a Spanish flavour. If you have some French bread left over, you can toss torn up chunks in olive oil, paprika and seasoning and add that near the end, browning it. Adds a nice crunchy texture.

Serve with a green salad.

Stuffed Peppers a la Ptolemy

2011-03-06T08:43:00.004Z

I am greatly inspired by my 10-year-old son, who is very interested in food, but not in a greedy way. More gourmet than gourmand. He asked me to stuff some peppers with spiced meat, and top them with mozzarella and 'a slice of tomato' so I came up with this recipe. Our helpful guest had crumbed some dry French bread and it was still in the Magimix, so I added a pack of low fat beef mince, a tsp of cinnamon, a large handful of flat leaf parsley including all the stalks, salt and pepper, a strong chopped onion, about five garlic cloves, and a couple of eggs to bind, and processed it.
Then I cut three peppers in half and removed the seeds. I filled the cavities with the meat mixture (there was too much for three peppers - the rest will be rolled into balls and poached in stock or tomato sauce. I poured a tin of chopped tomatoes around the peppers, and some left over wine.
I baked them for 30 minutes at 180C. Then I took them out and added a slice of tomato and some slices of mozzarella to cover and put them back for another 15 minutes. I served them with rice and salad and everyone looked pleased.
They were eaten before I could photograph them....

Osso Bucco with Gremolata

2011-03-02T09:58:00.000Z

There are some rather complicated recipes for osso bucco out there, but I go for simplicity every time. The end result seems no different to me.

I bought pork osso bucco (osso is bone, buco means hole - so clearly it just means meat bone with a hole) this time, as pink ethical veal is not so easy to get (although classic). The meat is slices of shank or leg, with the bone in the middle.

Chop a strong white onion finely and heat a little olive oil in a big stewing pan, with finely chopped celery and carrot. Added the pork in one layer and brown on both sides as the vegetable caramelise. Add rosemary and bay, pour over white wine, a tin of chopped tomatoes and some stock if you have it (I had it but used a stock cube) plus plenty of crushed garlic, pepper and salt to taste. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and put a lid on it. Allow to simmer until the meat is tender. If the sauce is too sloppy boil it down a bit.

The gremolata is essential. Like sherbet for grown ups, this is a finely chopped mix of parsley, lemon zest and fresh garlic and seasoning, that you sprinkle over the top before serving. Almost incredibly delicious to the point of addictiveness, and essential. I remember ordering osso bucco with gremolata in one of Anthony Worrell-Thompson's restaurants, and the restaurant manager (when I asked where the gremolata was) patronisingly telling me that it was stirred into the dish of course! VERY disappointing. And of course wrong.

Left over gremolata can be stirred into spaghetti with a little olive oil.

I served it with delicious Middle Eastern pale coloured courgettes, which really taste like the ones my mother grew, instead of disappointing like the darker green ones. Plus some rice. Classic is white risotto, but this was family dinner, not a party!

Saltimbocca

2011-03-01T18:29:00.002Z

In the supermarket there were some organic chicken thigh fillets with those enticing yellow labels on them, four for £1.49p. I picked up a ball of mozzarella, and remembered some bacon at home that needed eating, and that the sage had survived the winter nicely. I unrolled the thighs, and put a piece of the mozzarella inside, and a couple of sage leaves. Then I bound the little parcel up with smoked streaky bacon and pinioned it together with a toothpick.

Heating a little olive oil in a non-stick pan, I put the bundles in and browned them on all sides. Then I poured over a little red wine, to which I added a splash of maple syrup, and left the whole thing to cook down over a moderate heat. Served it with mashed potato, and frozen broad beans, just cooked and dressed with a little olive oil and toasted poppy seeds. Marsala is more usual, as is veal and prosciutto, but I had none of those things. I don't even think mozzarella is correct. But it was a delicious dinner for four hungry people.

British-style Rainbow Cake

2011-02-28T10:47:00.006Z

I saw a picture of the famous Rainbow Cake online, and wanted to make it for Small's birthday. Looking up the recipe, I was unhappy to discover that it required something called white cake mix. It really is blindingly white, and I imagine you could do something similar with a classic angel cake mix (egg whites only). I decided instead to use the Hummingbird bakery cupcake batter which is very pale, multiplied by two. I didn't want to make a huge cake as the party was a small group of friends I was taking to the skating rink. But you could multiply by four, enough to create a slim layer for each colour: red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, indigo, violet.

240g plain flour
280g caster sugar
3 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
80g unsalted butter, at room temperature
240ml whole milk
2 eggs
splash of vanilla extract

I use a Magimix, and blend sugar, butter, salt and flour until breadcrumb texture, although you can rub in like pastry with your fingers. Then mix eggs, milk and vanilla, and pour in through the feed tube until you have a smooth batter. Don't overmix.

I bought gel colours red, yellow and blue, and blended them to create the different colours of the rainbow. ie red with yellow for orange, yellow with blue for green, blue with a touch of yellow for turquoise, blue with a touch of red for indigo, and with more red (and using less colour) for violet.

I divided the mixture into eight little bowls and coloured each one. Then I poured the batter carefully into two separate sandwich tins lined with baking parchment. The first four in the one, the second in the other. I baked them at 180C for about 20 minutes until they sprang back when gently pressed in the middle.

Meanwhile, I had melted a bar of white chocolate, and beaten it with icing sugar and unsalted butter until pale and fluffy. When the cake was cold, I sandwiched it with apricot jam, and coated it in the icing. Using a large tube of Smarties, I made a rainbow on top, and finished it with 10 candles, and sparklers in the shape of 1 and 0.

Great pleasure all round.

Chocolate Roulade

2011-02-25T13:58:00.002Z

My no 2 son is 10, and is the only one of my three children genuinely interested in food and cooking. This is gloriously inspiring, as he wants to taste new things, try new combinations and make complicated things himself. We are really enjoying Australian Junior Masterchef at the moment, and he is desperate to take part.
Yesterday as it is half term, we had time to do something quite elaborate.
A flourless roulade quite a tough call even for experienced cooks, but before we knew where we were, he was separating eggs and wielding the electric beaters.

Here is the recipe. I made some chestnut jam for him by cooking one of those rather tasteless tins of whole chestnuts with sugar and vanilla. But he did the rest.

For the roulade:
Heat the oven to 180 C Gas Mark 4. Line a swiss roll tin with baking paper.

150g plain dark chocolate
3 tbspn hot water or coffee
5 eggs
100g sugar
Caster sugar to finish

Pour the hot coffee or water over the broken up chocolate and microwave for about 40 secs to melt. Stir until smooth. Separate the eggs, and beat the yolks with the sugar until thick and pale yellow. In another bowl whisk the egg whites until stiff and glossy.

Add the egg mixture to the chocolate, and beat, then fold the egg whites in carefully trying not to knock out the air. Pour the mixture into the tin, and tap gently on the surface to flatten. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, pressing the centre with your finger to check it is cooked. It should bounce gently back.

Take out of the oven, and leave to cool in the tin. then turn out gently onto a piece of baking paper that you have strewn with either caster sugar or icing sugar. Peel off the baking paper from the tin and trim any harder edges with a sharp knife.

We beat some of the chestnut jam into cream until thick and used that for a filling, but you could just use plain cream, or all a layer of raspberries.

Spread your filling over the roulade and begin carefully to roll up, using the paper to help you. Then wrap the paper right round the roulade firmly and put it in the fridge to set properly. To serve, slice and lay on a plate. We did a bit of sprinkling with cocoa and icing sugar, but a raspberry coulis would be nice too.

Junior Masterchef here he comes!

Roasting Peppers

2011-02-24T13:15:00.001Z

There is something utterly delicious about a roasted red peppers. You can simply chuck them, halved and deseeded, in the oven, sprinkled with a little olive oil and seasoning, leaving them to soften and blacken at the edges. Very good for sandwiches with cream cheese and a little chopped parsley. Always choose red peppers for maximum nutrients and flavour.

You can also pop all kinds of other things into their inviting cavity. Half a tomato and crushed garlic; a sliced mushroom with red onion (in the picture); tomato, mozzarella and an anchovy - are all good. Having them in the vegetable drawer means a first course or slightly more exciting vegetable dish are almost immediately to hand.

Guacamole

2011-02-23T11:33:00.000Z

I bought these avocados while still green, and kept them for a couple of days to darken, sweeten and soften. There are many ways to make guacamole, but a very simple one is to mash or process the flesh with salt, pepper, lemon or lime juice, a little zest and some sweet red onion.

You can also add paprika, chilli powder, a tiny touch of cumin and some yoghurt as well. But it is not necessary. Choose warty avocados, in England they seem to have the best flavour. The shiny green ones can be watery and tasteless.

Thai Cucumber Salad

2011-02-22T19:12:00.000Z

This is so gorgeously fresh and delicious.

Peel and slice a whole cucumber. Put in a sieve and sprinkle with salt. Leave to drain for 1 hour. Prepare a green chilli by removing seeds (don't rub your eyes) and slicing finely. Add 2 tsps caster sugar (or to taste) to 4 tblspns white wine or rice vinegar and stir to dissolve.

Add finely chopped chilli to dressing. Put the cucumber in serving dish and pour over dressing. Leave to absorb flavour for 30 mins, and serve cold.

Very good with sate skewers and rice.

How to Gussy Up Cauliflower

2011-02-21T14:25:00.000Z

Make this dressing in a pestle and mortar as there is too little to make in a processor. Combine 6 anchovies with an egg yolk or two and about 4 tblspns seedy mustard and black pepper. Pestle away until it has made a paste. Then stir in lemon juice and olive oil to taste.

Break the cauliflower into florets and steam until just cooked but still firm. Spread on a serving dish and drizzle (I don’t like this word, but it is hard to think of another in this context) over the dressing, serving at once.

If this is too much trouble, try drizzling over some melted butter and scattering with toasted almonds. Or melted butter and grated Gruyere. The flavour of organic cauliflower is excellent on its own as well.

Black Eyed Peas and Other Pulses

2011-02-20T13:02:00.001Z

Dried pulses do require a little basic forethought, but I urge you to make a point of including them in your repertoire regularly. Great source of protein and fibre, while being low in fat, they carry lovely savoury flavours in a very delicious way. Cooked and cold, dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, seasonings and lots of parsley - a good quick lunch. Add chopped tomatoes if you like. Also worth stocking up on all kinds in tins for your store cupboard.

Black eyed peas have a very particular flavour, but you could use other beans or chickpeas that you have by you – you could even use a tin of cooked black eyed peas etc. To cook peas (or dried beans), soak them in water overnight, then bring them to the boil in plenty of water (without salt which toughens the skins). For red kidney beans in particular, do be careful to boil them hard for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat, drain, and return to pan with fresh cold water. Bring to the boil again, lower to a simmer, and cook, tasting after half an hour to check whether they are done. Check again every five minutes, as black eyed peas do not need as much time as beans and chickpeas.

For a simple, delicious way to eat greens - or spring cabbage, or in fact any leaf including stinging nettles. Bring another pan, this time of salted water, to the boil, and throw in the finely sliced greens for about 30 seconds. Drain. Fry a couple of shallots gently, with a couple of garlic cloves, until translucent, in olive oil. Add to the beans and stir in the greens. Season with salt and pepper. Serve sprinkled with lemon juice and more olive oil if you like.

Mashed Potato Ideas

2011-02-19T11:51:00.000Z

Choose floury potatoes such as Estima, King Edward, Maris Piper or Desiree. Unless you are making wallpaper paste, in which case you are on your own.

Peel potatoes and cut into quarters. Cover with cold water and a large pinch of salt and bring to the boil. Simmer until soft then drain, but not too completely - they should be wet. Add a wine glass of milk and a knob of butter; cream is lovely, but good potatoes don’t necessarily need it, and you can use skimmed milk and low-fat spread, for a lower fat version. Mash the potatoes or you could push them through a sieve or potato ricer. I break them up in the pan, and then whisk them to a fine puree with a wire whisk.

For Mustard Mash to serve with sausages or ham, stir in a good tblspn of hot English mustard or grainy Dijon mustard.

For Garlic Mash, a tblspn of olive oil and 3 cloves of garlic which you have pureed either with a sharp knife and salt (Elizabeth David looks down frowningly on the garlic crusher) or with a garlic press. Serve with something in a fresh tomato sauce, or grilled chicken breasts and tomatoes.

For Orange Mash, cook potatoes with carrot, sweet potato, butternut squash or swede, top with chopped parsley, chervil or coriander.

For Colcannon, add shredded and steamed greens and top with chopped spring onions and melted butter.

Season all the taste.

Whatever you do to, mash is comfort food par excellence, and can be eaten on its own, or as a topping on a Shepherd's or Cottage Pie. Wonderful at this time of year.

Salads for February

2011-02-18T10:01:00.000Z

You've heard the expression wet lettuce? Well there is something about lettuce and February that simply doesn't fit. OK, for my teenage son - a serious salad addict - yes, but for the rest of us, bulking up a salad is essential to meet the challenge of chill grey days. So, start with potatoes and beans - fresh or frozen:

Steam potatoes in their skins, and peel while still warm because it is easier. Chill and then cut into rough cubes. Dress them in a bowl with olive oil, lemon juice and finely chopped parsley and chives if you have them. Trim and cut up the beans and steam them until just done but still firm. Wash dry and tear up any leaves you might have like lettuce or frisee. Grill or fry a couple of slices of smoked bacon until crisp and crumble it, if you like – but the salad is very nice without. Make a dressing with a crushed clove of garlic, red wine vinegar, olive oil and seasonings. Combine beans and potato and dress them. Serve on a bed of lettuce leaves, with crumbled bacon over the top. Crumbled salty fetta cheese would be an option as well.

An extension of this would be Salade Nicoise. Combine lettuce, cooked beans and potatoes, slices of onion, hard boiled eggs, anchovy fillets and best tinned tuna. Toss in the same dressing. Or you could sear on a hot griddle pann some thin slices of fresh tuna and serve them on top of the bean, potato and lettuce salad with a few fine slices of onion.

All about Salsa

2011-02-17T12:13:00.001Z

I learned salsa for a while. The teacher was small and quite round, and I rode about on his belly, my feet seldom touching the floor. I realise I am fine freestyle, but frankly trying to learn choreography is not for me. Once a singer in a Cuban band jumped down off the stage and whirled me around the floor when I was doing my freestyle thing - the thrill of it! - so it can't be too bad.

Anyway, this is a different kind of salsa as this is a food blog! These piquant mini-salads provide a delicious counterpoint to grilled meats and sausage. They can also stand as a first course on their own - scooped onto slices of sourdough bread, which you have either barbecued or toasted, and then rubbed with the cut edge of a garlic clove. The key to the flavouring is sweet and sour - combinations of vegetables, fruit and seasonings, chopped small and kept distinct, but not pureed. Below is a blue print: Vegetable element Peel (by pouring over boiling water to the count of 12 - the skin just slips off when you slice through it with a sharp knife) and dice tomato, cucumber, peppers, (which you have peeled by singing them on an open flame and removing charred skin under the cold tap). Also radishes, celery etc.

Go for crisp and cold. Fruit element Peel and finely dice, mango, peach, nectarine, melon, apple, pear, pineapple. Seasoning element Salt, freshly ground black pepper, lime, lemon, orange zest and juice, white wine or red wine or cider vinegar or tarragon wine vinegar. You can add poppy seeds or lightly toasted sesame seeds, if it seems a good idea. Allium element Peel and dice, shallots, spring onions or mild red onion; plus garlic. If the onions are very strong use just a little. Hot element Deseed and finely chop green or red chillies - or use Tabasco or another chilli sauce. Herb element Chopped basin, tarragon, coriander, parsley, chives, mint.

For instance, a simple combination of peach, tomato, chilli, garlic, shallot, basic and lime juice and zest, with a splash of olive oil would go very nice with grilled chicken. Or, apple, cucumber, mint, lemon juice and zest, green chilli, and spring onion with seasonings would be nice with organic lamb or pork. Or apple, orange juice and zest, tomato, shallot, a drop of red wine vinegar, red chilli and a touch of garlic, would be good with grilled duck breast. Don't be afraid to experiment with what you have by you; the simplest, zesty, sweet and sour, little combination would lift an everyday grill into another level entirely.

Colonel Gore's Marmalade

2011-02-16T22:05:00.001Z

Seville oranges are coming to the end of their season. I have masses of marmalade left over from my last mega-marmalade session so won't be going into a frenzy of boiling. But here is the favourite family recipe:

Cut Seville oranges into four, remove pips and set aside. Slice oranges, weigh, and to every pound of pulp take 3 pints cold water. Mix and allow to soak for 24 hours. Before using the preserving pan, rub it with a piece of lemon ‘that the colour of the marmalade may be kept pure.’ Then simmer, with the pips in a muslin bag, approximately 4 hours or until the slices are quite tender. Turn into a basin, remove pips, and stand 12 hours or until the next day. Weigh and add 1 ¼ lb sugar to every pound of pulp. Bring slowly to the boil, then boil rapidly until the syrup jellies and the slices are quite transparent. Cool slightly and pot with plenty of the jelly.

Any surplus jelly may be strained off and potted separately. Pot when very hot. This marmalade sets considerably more after a fortnight in the pots.

Classic Irish Stew

2011-02-16T21:48:00.001Z

A subject which causes heated debate - I can only pass on two widely differing recipes given to me by two highly esteemed Irish women.
The first and most pure consists only of potatoes, onions and lamb (or mutton if you can get it) chops, best end of neck, or if following a low fat diet, trimmed stewing pieces. Peel and slice the vegetables, add the lamb and seasonings. Cover with cold water. Bring to the boil on the top, transfer to a warm oven and allow to cook for several hours or until suitably tender. Serve sprinkled with plenty of finely chopped parsley to improve the colour.
The second is basically the same, but includes carrots, and the gravy is thickened with pearl barley which has a delightful chewy texture. A stock cube isn't a bad idea.

Pink Veal Kebabs

2011-02-16T21:46:00.001Z

Veal is a fact of life if we are to have a dairy industry - as half the calves born are male, and therefore not useful to a milking herd. There are many Italian recipes which enhance the qualities of healthy, pink veal, and this is one of them.
Cut a pepper open, discard the seeds and core, and cut it into squares. Peel an onion, quarter it, and divide each quarter into 3 nearly equal pieces by separating the layers. Cut an aubergine into cubes. Place cubes of veal alternating with the vegetables on short wooden skewers which you have previously soaked for an hour or two, arranging them any way you like as long as you begin and end with aubergine, but don't put aubergine next to meat. Brown the skewers in olive oil in a large sauté pan with a lid, turning once or twice. Add a good splash of Marsala and let it evaporate for a minute or so, then cover the pan. Turn down the heat and cook until the meat feels firm (15 to 20 minutes). Turn them from time to time. Serve them with their juices over simple long-grain rice.