Loco Moco Dinner

 

First you take great big dollops of carbs, seen here in the form of deliciously fragrant jasmine rice. Add two beef burger patties (M&S finest Aberdeen Angus 1/4 pounders with merest hint of black pepper were my patties of choice) and add a laddle full of smooth brown gravy (Bisto does a lovely beef flavour - made with real meat juices claims the label on the bottle). Top with a fried egg, I like mine sunny side up with crispy edges but over easy would do just as well. And finally, another laddle of that delicious brown stuff over the egg and rice. 

Dig in making sure you get a big bite of the egg yolk, gravy, beef pattie and rice combination. Thank you Hawaii for such belly happiness!

East Meets West

Roti canai topped with a fried egg and a side of caramelised onion sausages and red onion chutney

Why the utterly marvelous meal combination? Just because I could .... and because there was no better combination I could dig out from the depths of my freezer/larder that I could be bothered to deal with. I can't claim it was utterly delicious. It was certainly.... utterly interesting ....

Pineapple with Mint Sugar

A little warm sunshine and I've gone into summer mode (between you and me I think the British weather optimism has finally rubbed off on me). I have Jaime Oliver for the inspiration for this dish - pieces of pineapple sprinkled with mint sugar. Oh so freshing. So very, very summery.

Mint Sugar
About 20 mint leaves
4 tbs golden caster sugar (or white is fine ... but I like the slight caramel flavour)
Zest of 1/2 a lime

• Put the mint leaves, lime zest and sugar into a food processor. Blitz. It's done once the sugar has turned green, is the texture of fine sand and there are no large pieces of mint leaves.
• Sprinkle over large slices of pineapple. Tuck in and feel (imagine) the summer sun on your face.
  

Mint and Parmesan Crusted Rack of Lamb

Mint and Parmesan Crusted Rack of Lamb

• Two large French trimmed racks of lamb- I personally like to trim some of the fat off but it's just a preference
  
• 4 tbsp Dijon mustard
• Large handful of white course breadcrumbs
• Small handful of grated Parmesan cheese
  
• Small bunch of fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
• 2 teaspoons of dried mint
• Small spring of rosemary
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
  
• 2 anchovy fillets in oil

Put the breadcrumbs, Parmesan, fresh and dried mint, rosemary, garlic and the anchovy fillet (including the oil) in a food processor and pulse. Stop once the mint, rosemary, garlic and anchovies are finely chopped and well incorporated into the rest of the mix. Set aside.

Heat an oven proof griddle pan until hot (smoking if you dare), sear the racks of lamb starting with the fat side down (don't oil your pan or you'll very likely set your smoke detector alarm off). You don't necessarily have to sear your meat but it does give it a nice colour and I like the fact it gets rid a bit of the fat. Once lightly seared, take the lamb off the heat.

Spread the Dijon mustard over the fat side of the rack of lamb. Sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture over and pat down gently when all the mixture is used up. Drizzle a little olive oil over the top - this will help the breadcrumbs crisp and golden. Cook at 200°C/fan 180°C for about 30 - 40 minutes depending on how well you like your meet cooked. I cooked mine to about medium, which was about 40 minutes. Rest before carving the lamb into cutlets. Serve with your sides of choice. Mine were steamed broccoli, green beans, roasted parsnips and a rather lumpy gravy made from red wine, beef stock, lingonberry jelly and a little leftover breadcrumb mixture.

Miso Marinated Salmon Fillets with Vegetable Noodle Soup

Ultra quick dinner last week - flash marinated salmon fillets in miso, soy sauce and mirin. Grilled for about 5 minutes.

Served with a large bowl of vegetable noodles in miso soup, scattered with toasted black sesame seeds and coriander leaves.

Grilled Pork Chop with Vegetable Mash

Spurred on by my crisp frying, I decided to go for the full whack and make dinner as well. Pork chops marinated in soy sauce, oyster sauce, shao hsing rice wine, sesame oil and a dash of white pepper. Grilled to glistening perfection (if I may say so myself). The slight chewiness of the meat had nothing to do with either my marinating or cooking abilities. It was the pig! Or the farmer.

The mash was courtesy of the inspirational 4 episode Jaime Oliver special I watched whilst huddled in bed (see my last post). Inspirational as in I blatantly ripped it off and messed around with the original. But hey, isn’t that what cooking is all about? I will, however, cite the wonderful Jaime and fully acknowledge that my version may or may not be tastier than the original =)

Vegetable Mash

2 large baking potatoes, skin on cut into small chunks
2 medium sweet potatoes, skin off cut into small chunks
1 medium head of broccoli, florets separated from the main stem. Cut the main stem into roughly the same size as the chunks of potatoes
2 small handfuls of frozen peas
generous knob of butter

Basically you’re making a normal mash with a few extra bits thrown in.

Boil up some water (however you may normally do this – straight in a pot over the stove or like me in a kettle and then into a pot sitting on the stove). Salt the water and add the potatoes, sweet potatoes and the broccoli stem. Leave to boil for about 10 minutes before poking the end of a sharp knife into the middle of one of the potato chunks. If the knife comes away easily but the potato is not breaking up just yet, add the rest of the broccoli and peas. Bring to a boil and take the pot off the heat once the broccoli florets are tender (yup, that means sticking your knife into the pot again but this should be about 2-3 minutes from the time the water comes up to the boil again).

Drain. Leave contents to draining in the colander sitting over your pot for a few minutes. You want to let some of the steam escape. You don’t want watery mash.
After a few minutes, tip the potatoes and veg back into the pot. Add the butter, season well and mash the hell out of it with a sturdy wooden spoon or if you have a poncy potato masher sitting around the kitchen like I do (technically it’s SM’s – mash is usually SM’s territory, along with the washing up).

Serve with a stonkingly large piece of grilled meat – SM style. Or eat with a spoon out of a soup bowl with nothing on the side – Luscious Temptations style.

Root Vegetable Crisps with Rosemary and Sea Salt

I've had absolutely no inclination or desire to cook lately. Other than my mechanical forays into the kitchen for my beloved instant noodle soups and bits of burnt toast smothered in butter and dripping with homemade peach and vanilla jam (oh and cups and cups of steaming tea) I've steered clear of the one room in my flat I usually quite like spending time in (other than my bedroom where I'm usually found under my heap of a duvet).

Then one Saturday afternoon, whilst peeking out from under said duvet, I caught a few episodes of Jaime Oliver's 30-Minute Meals (4 back to back episodes to be precise). Good ol Jaime ... Justine finally got her inspiration back! OK so I spent another week or so under that duvet (I quite like it under there - it's cosy) but I've navigated my way out and dragged SM to a supermarket. Poor sweetie .. We haven't done a proper shop since mid Dec (uh huh yeah that long) but to be honest I think we were both secretly rubbing our hands in glee over the amount of money we were saving - ?

The next day I even made it to the my corner fruit and veg stall. Stocking up on beetroot (as I have never cooked with them before, it is rather curious why I even gave them a second glance), sweet potatoes and the usual run of the mill white spuds, I was left with no other option but to slice them up and chuck them into a pot with lots of hot fat. Lo and behold - crisps! Deep fry a few spring of rosemary and scatter over the crisps and sprinkle over some sea salt. Good crunchy all natural goodness.

A Half Cheat's Fish and Chips

So the tale of Miss Grumpy Pants continues ....

I've been eating more than what's good for me and had room for more. Plus dessert. Hopefully I'll be up and running soon. I have a yoga session today - with some luck I'll survive to tell the tale. Until then I leave you with a super large dinner that I made recently - my odd version of fish and chips.

I lightly dusted some sprats (bought right off the fishermen when I was down on the Kentish coast right after the new year) in equal parts plain and cornflour. Deep fried until lightly golden - 2-3 minutes. The "chips" were your run of the mill supermarket hash browns. I did make sure I bought the smallest bag possible, simply because there was no space in the freezer for any leftovers. *Tah dahhh ..... * Fish and chips :) Hope your weekend isn't as painful as my yoga session!

Tempura Udon

I think I might just have found myself a winner batch of batter! Whoop whoop! A big thank you to the Japanese and their technique of using ice/cold water - I should never have doubted you. I have to say my fritters or should I say tempura was bloody fantastic. Light and crisp ... sigh ....

Tempura
Prawns - I could only get hold of a packet of pre-cooked teeny weeny prawns so I went with that
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup corn flour
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup cold/ice water
Oil for deep frying

• Mix the plain and corn flours and the salt in a mixing bowl. Add in the water and mix the batter lightly. You don't want to over mix it and definitely want it a bit lumpy. Tip the prawns into the batter
  
• Heat the oil in a deep pan until a breadcrumb sizzles and turns brown when dropped into it.
• Add a tablespoonful of prawns and batter into the hot oil. Cook the batter in batches of 2-3 fritters per batch for 2-3 minutes each, or until crisp and golden. When cooking in batches, ensure you leave enough space between them to ensure they don't merge into a large fritter.
• Carefully remove each fritter from the oil and drain on kitchen paper. Serve.

I served my prawn tempura with udon and broccoli.

Buttermilk Pancakes, Crispy Bacon and Butterscotch Bananas

A breakfast to induce a heart attack and add inches to those pudgy thighs, just what I need this Sunday morning.

Serves 2 hungry people or 3 slightly less hungry people

Buttermilk Pancakes
100g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
284ml tub buttermilk
pinch of salt

Butterscotch Bananas
100g butter
100g caster sugar
100ml double cream
2 large bananas

Crispy Bacon
6 rashers streaky bacon

• For the pancakes, sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sugar and a pinch of salt into a bowl. Mix together the eggs and buttermilk and whisk into the flour mixture until the batter is thick and smooth.
• Heat a large frying pan on low-medium heat, preferably non-stick, and brush lightly with melted butter. Drop 2 or 3 large spoonfuls of batter into the pan to make pancakes about 10cm in diameter. When bubbles begin to appear on the surface, after about 3-4 minutes, carefully flip the pancakes over and cook on the other side until browned. Cook in batches of 2-3 pancakes in the pan until all the batter is finished.
  
• Whilst you're cooking the pancakes, make the butterscotch by heating the sugar and butter in a pan on medium heat. Be careful when heating sugar - it gets really hot and burns pretty fast as soon as the sugar melts. As soon as the sugar crystals have melted into a medium brown colour, add the cream. Let the mixture boil until it turns a lovely golden butterscotch/caramel colour. Peel the bananas and slice on diagonal into half inch thick slices. Add the bananas into the sauce and stir. Remove the mixture from the heat and set aside.
• Just before you cook your last batch of pancakes, put the bacon on an oven try and put the meat under a pre-heated grill. Grill for about 3-4 minutes on each side or until crisp.
• Plate up with 3-4 pancakes a person. Laddle on the butterscotch bananas and top with the bacon.

Wantons - Weekend Cooking

A visit to my uncle and his family always means one thing - food ... and lots of it. My last trip up I made wantons. Or should I say, we made wantons. It's always nice to have a few helpers about the kitchen :)

We decided on a mix of pork and prawns for our wantons. Minced pork, diced prawns, water chestnuts, chives and a dollop of grated ginger.

A good mix of all the ingrediants with a good splash of soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame seed oil and white pepper. The mixture was then left to rest for an hour or so to let the flavours fuse.

I also mixed up a batch of wanton filling minus the pork for my cousin LH who isn't at all that keen on meat.

The wantons all prettily wrapped up and the sides sealed shut with a paste made with a touch corn starch and a drop or two of water.

The extra pork and prawn wantons were rolled into little balls to be cooked in a broth along with the soup wantons.

Deep fried to golden brown gorgeous-ness. There was a ton more wantons, some prettier than others but all just as delicious. No photos of the wantons and meatballs in the soup, I'm afraid. They were not at all photogenic.

Summer Dinners

Tom Yum Mussels with Garlic and Chili Pasta

The mussels were a spur of the moment purchase from a Chinese supermarket one weekend. I cooked them up with a tom yum spice mix I had brought back with me from Malaysia and tinned tomatoes. Loads of herbs I also picked up from the Chinese supermarket went in - coriander, dill and mint. Served with pasta simply tossed in olive oil, garlic and chili.

Chedder Stuffed Burgers with Courgette Crisps

I stupidly didn't consider the size of my roll when I shaped out these patties. Amateurish mistake! I was so focus on getting the meat to encase the ball of cheese I forgot about everything else. The patties turned out pretty darn good though - oozy melting cheese. Yum. The meat was flavoured with a myriad of different things I found in my cupboard, which is possibly why none of my food ever tastes the same twice :) The courgette crisps were made by deep frying thin long strips of corgettes coated in cornflour.

Full English

Well, not really a full English since I decided against eggs and bread but I got the hash browns that I had been thinking about. I won't take any credit for this meal as Stuart knocked it up in about 10 minutes flat.

Bacon Fried Rice

I had some rice sitting in the fridge, a pack of bacon I couldn't find room for in the freezer and a whole load of bits and bobs lying around. So fried rice it was and bacon just goes so well with just about anything, doesn't it?

Sweetcorn Fritters with a Tomato and Cucumber Salad

Someone mentioned sweetcorn to me in passing one day and I just knew I had to have sweetcorn fritters for dinner that very evening. I mixed up a batch of batter of flour, corn flour and an egg, seasoned it and added some cayanne pepper. I then added as much sweetcorn as the batter could hold. On hindsight I should have defrosted the sweetcorn before I added it to the mixture to avoid the huge sweetcorn clump. Yes, I know it's summer with an abundance of sweetcorn but sometimes I just want a pain free evening that frozen food offers. Served with a simple salad of chopped tomatoes and cucumber topped with olive oil and chili pepper flakes.

Roast Teriyaki Chicken Legs

I marinated a batch of chicken legs in teriyaki sauce, honey, black pepper and spring onions overnight. All I had to do the next day was to shove it all into the oven and dinner was ready 40 minutes later. Served with steaming hot rice, of course.

Grilled Mackeral with Thai Inspired Salad

The mackeral fillets were quickly grilled (about 3 minutes each side) and served with what I like to call a Thai inspired salad (thinking along the lines of the Thai papaya salad, som tam). Long shreds of courgette, carrot, red onion, tomatoes and coriander tossed in a dressing of fish sauce, chili, lime juice, sugar and garlic.

Macaroni in a Fresh Tomato Sauce with Burger Patties

I love summer for it's abundance of fruit and veg and none makes me smile more than the tomato. My tomato love affair is intensely passionate and if I could, I would probably add tomato to all the dishes I cook. I bought a huge batch the other week and I'm desperate to eat them before they go bad. What better way than a fresh tomato sauce with olive oil, garlic and basil. I also added some spinach to my boiled macaroni and fried up some sun dried tomato burger patties (cut up into bite size chunks) to serve with it.

Fried Kway Teow (Thai Style)

My food is frequently Thai style but never truely Thai. I just like borrowing elements from Thai cuisine - I love the freshness, the herbs, the flavour. This is a lot like phad thai but minus quite a few of the essential ingredients like tamarind juice, crushed peanuts, lime juice, etc. I boiled up some flat rice noodles (which I love over and beyond any other kinds of noodles and know it as kway teow or hor fun), fried up some chinese leaf, thinly sliced tomato, spring onion, shredded chicken, prawns and egg. I added the softened noodles to the mixture before flavouring the dish with fish sauce, oyster sauce and my secret ingredient, ketchup. I guess I'm just a big kid who never outgrew her taste for ketchup with almost anything :) Some rough torn basil leaves went in just before the final toss of the noodles for extra flavour.

Summer Jams

My new obsession in the kitchen this summer is jam. Two years ago it was ice cream, last summer I was too busy stocking up on my personal levels of vodka to seriously notice anything I did in the kitchen except to fix myself a salad or two but this year my new hobby has taken over. It all started when a few friends and I headed to The Rose Lounge at Sofitel St James for my birthday tea in April and we tasted some magnificent raspberry and rose jam. Oh it was absolutely delicious and I don't say this lightly. I'm not usually a fan of floral tones in my food ... I absolutely detest lavender anywhere near my mouth and none too keen on rose tea but rose in jam I love. It's brilliantly offset by the tart and intense flavour of the berries. Sadly The Rose Lounge don't sell their jams and it's curiously difficult to find that particular flavour combination on sale anywhere.

Armed with a tiny bottle of pure rose oil I bought from Turkey especially for this recipe (I smelt fab after dabbing some on my pulse points too but it got a wee bit cloying after while) I boiled up a vat of jam. I have to admit I modified the recipe a little - using strawberries to bulk up the jam but it still tastes lovely with the strawberries giving it another berry dimension to the overall flavour. So far I've made 2 batches of my strawberry, raspberry and rose jam with slightly different results. The first batch came out very well - with a little help from this blog post by One Girl in a Kitchen where I learnt that apple peel is full of pectin, that all important ingrediant to helping jams set. The lemon, on the other hand, works well with the sugar to jell the pectin (whatever that means .... but it looks like I'm full of useful information today). I wasn't so lucky with my second batch. Not so much luck but an attempt to over complicate things on my part. Instead of just using sugar, I substituted half the sugar for argave nector. A silly move on my part since I have never manage to master the substitution ration of nector to sugar. So my second batch of jam is not as sweet as it should be, which is a no no since ... well, jam is all about being sweet, isn't it?

On the other hand both batches of my peach and vanilla jam came out very nicely. Lush soft chunks of peach encased in thick sweet vanilla scented syrup. Beautiful on toasted sourdough with lots of butter. My one batch of gooseberry and elderflower jam (yes, I'm seeing the floral tone throughout all three jams but it seems I can't get enough of it) didn't quite fare so well. I've somehow managed to avoid gooseberries these many years - never tasting it in a fool or a crumble - and didn't quite know what to expect. I know enough to avoid them raw (but I suppose a little nibble won't have done me any harm) but a little research pointed to them cooking down well with the likely seasonal partner of elderflowers. Feeling a little over confident with my jam making skills at this point I let the jam cook a little too long and in the infamous manner of Kylie Kwong, I let my jam "caramelise". It's still very much edible - it tastes fine (not that I would know any better since I've never eaten it before) but it looks a little darker than it should be ... I think.

Jam is such a homely thing to make ... it's simple enough to make but it does take that bit of love and patience. Something of which I seem to have in abundance this summer :)

Strawberry, Raspberry and Rose Jam
1.5 kg of strawberries - hulled and cleaned
500g raspberries - cleaned
1.5kg sugar - most recipes call for granulated sugar but I quite like the set of my jam when I use caster
Lemon juice from 1.5 - 2 lemons - depending on the size
Apple peel from 3 small apples - depending on the size
3-4 drops of pure rose oil

• Halve or quarter your strawberries if they are too big but leave them a little large. It's quite nice to have little chunks of fruit in the finished product.
• Place all the ingredients, except the rose oil, into a large pot and mix well. The sugar will disolve as the mixture comes up to a boil. Skim off any scum as it appears.
  
• When the mixture has come up to a boil, lower the heat and let it simmer until it has reached a nice thick consistency. Skim off any scum every so often and give the mixture a stir every now and then to ensure none of the jam has caught at the bottom.
  
• Meanwhile, sterilise your jars. Preheat your oven to 100°C. Wash your jars hot soapy water, rinse well and on a rack over a baking tray. Place in the oven for at least 15 minutes.
  
• Add the rose oil as the mixture thickens.
  
• Once your jam has reached a thick-ish consistency, test the setting point by placing a drop of jam on a cool plate. After a few seconds run your finger down the middle of the drop. If the mixture remains separated, the setting point has been reached. If the liquid returns to form one puddle, leave the jam to simmer for a little while longer.
  
• When the setting point has been reached, switch off the heat. Discard the peel. Remove your jars from the oven and fill with the jam. Be careful not to touch the insides of the jars with your kitchen gloves, etc as you don't want to introduce any unwanted bacteria to your clean jars.
• Seal and store in a cool dark place. It should store well for about 6 months to a year.
  
  
  
  
  
  

Peach and Vanilla Jam
1.5 kg just ripe peaches
1kg sugar - caster or granulated
1 vanilla pod
Lemon juice from 1 - 1.5 lemons - depending on the size
Apple peel from 3 apples - depending on the size

• Skin the peaches as you would tomatoes - making a 't' shaped slash at the bottom of the fruit. Put the fruit into a bowl and pour over boiling water. Drain after about a minute and the peach skins should slip off easily. Another reason to use ripe peaches is that their skins peel off a lot easier compared to slightly under ripe fruit.
• Remove the stones from the fruit and slice the peaches. Each fruit should give you about 8 slices. Don't cut them too small as you want to maintain a bit chunk to your jam.
• Place the fruit into your jam pot and add the other ingredients. Slice the vanilla bean in half and scrap out the vanilla seeds before adding both the seeds and pod into the pot.
  
• Mix the ingredients as it comes to a boil. When it starts to boil lower the heat and let the mixture simmer. Skim off any scum when necessary.
  
• Once the jam has reached the desired consistancy, test the setting point. Switch off the heat and discard both the peel and the vanilla pod before laddling the mixture into sterilized jars.
  
• Seal and store in a cool dark place.

Gooseberry and Elderflower Jam
1kg gooseberries
4 tbs elderflower cordial
500g sugar - caster or granulated
Apple peel from 2 apples - depending on the size

• Top, tail and clean the gooseberries.
• Place the fruit and other ingrediants into your jam pot and bring to a boil. Mix as it boils and skim off any scum when necessary.
• Once the jam has reached the desired consistancy, test the setting point. Switch off the heat and discard the peel before laddling the mixture into sterilized jars.
  
• Seal and store in a cool dark place.

It's A Long Ride Home

I hate travelling. Oh I don't dislike going on holiday, quite the contrary in fact, but I hate the journey. The waiting around, the boredom, the stress ... especially long journeys with transits when you're travelling alone. After awhile all airport transit lounges roll into one. This time it was Dubai International, the last it was Schiphol. Funny how I've been through these airports but have never visited the cities of Dubai and Amsterdam.

Long trips away mean cleaning out the fridge of any immediate perishables. There have been numerous occasions when I have been away only to return to find rotting veg - nice, eww! This time I smartened up (finally!) and cooked myself a big wokful of vegetable fried rice, dumping in all those bits and pieces that seemed to have built up in the fridge. Overnight rice, beansprouts (which I had always turned my nose up at in fried rice but it's actually quite nice if the crunch is maintained), broccoli, tomatoes, sliced ham, tinned tuna in oil - all mixed together with a good dash of fish sauce, oyster sauce and white pepper. This is my Everything Rice. Ingredients are, of course, seasonal :)

I guess it's not entirely true to say that if you've seen one airport you have seen them all. They are remarkably similar but some are a whole load nicer than others. I'll probably say the same thing about Starbucks. I'm sure I've said this before - whilst I'm all for the independent coffee shop I do love my Starbucks. There's something quite comforting in getting the same thing that tastes the same anywhere you are in the world. At Dubai International my Iced Mocha tasted good, the same, the usual .... but oh dear god ... that is not a muffin! It looked normal enough. You know muffin like. It smelt like what it said on the label - banana and choc chip. But I could have given someone a serious concussion if I had lobbed it at their head (not that I had reason nor occasion to). It was that solid. Hard and dry. Let's just say it gave for some interesting eating.

Back on the plane I was pleasantly surprised to find myself with three whole seats to myself. Since Emirates separated the KL and Jakarta legs, the KL flight has been a bit quieter. From the refreshments cart I got myself an orange juice and a glass of water. Got to keep those hydration levels up. Next up food - yay! I only managed to chip through a quarter of that muffin.

Sweet and sour chicken on fried noodles. Sounded promising, tasted disgusting. To be fair the meat was fairly tasty and moist. The sauce and and noodles, on the other hand, were so gloopy they just melded together and formed a large pool of mush.

The strangest Niçoise salad I have ever encountered. I thought the version I had in Paris last summer that was served with rice was a bit odd but this didn't even look like a Niçoise. If I hadn't checked the menu, I would have just brushed it off as a very untasty potato salad.

The saving grace of the meal was dessert. Tiramisu, halal style (minus the alcohol) with chocolate sauce. It wasn't traditional but more like a nice creamy dessert.

All that food and I still managed a good 4-5 hour sleep. Next stop - KL International. I'm going home!

Post Holiday Blues

It's been awhile since I posted anything - a jet set lifestyle leaves a girl with little time to blog about her eating adventures :) True, I have been traveling - a much needed break to Istanbul at the end of May with sister and mum and two weeks later it was back home to KL for the wedding of a very dear friend. But trust me, it's all been un-glamourous slogging at the office in between trips trying to make a decent penny to pay off my credit card bill.

Two lovely holidays and I should be raring to go, bursting with energy as I sit nine hours at my desk, five days a week. Instead I find myself bemoaning the injustice of another British summer washout. I look out the window at work and it's absolutely miserable - clouded over with that light drizzle that goes on for hours (yet as I write this today, the sun is out and shinning brightly but I'm stuck indoor with a sore throat whilst feeling hot and cold all at once).

So put the salad orders on hold and keep the stodge coming. I made cottage pie ... well, sort of anyway. The basic elements were there - mince beef and potato. Ahh ... so this is what deconstructed food is all about. In my case I was merely being lazy but I think it tasted pretty darn good.

Deconstructed Cottage Pie*

Mince beef (about 250g)
Jersey Royal potatoes (or any baby potatoes of your choice)
1 Red onion (diced)
4 Garlic (minced)
1 large Courgette (diced)
Peas (about 50g)
Milk (about 1 wine glassful)
Red wine (about 1/2 a glass)
Tomato purée (a generous tablespoonful or two)
Chipotle chili jam (a good heaping tablespoonful)
Olive oil (2 generous glugs)
A handful of grated Chedder (or any other good melting cheese)

• Heat your oven to about 170-180 °C. Wash and boil the potatoes until tender (you should be able to push a knife into a potato quite easily). Drain the spuds and let it stand for a minute or two. Transfer to an oiled baking tray. Using the back of a fork, crush each potato (or just slightly flatten each spud - no need for prettiness). Pour over the 1st glug of olive oil, season and put the tray into the middle shelve in the oven. It should take about 20 minutes ot until the potatoes are golden brown and the edges are crisp.
  
• Heat a large pan with the 2nd generous glug of olive oil. When the pan is decently hot, add the mince and breaking up any large chucks. Let the meat brown (I find draining the meat once or twice of the juices that come out during the browning process helps it cook faster - there is so much moisture in pre-packaged meat).
• Once the meat is nut brown (or thereabouts), add the onion and garlic to the pan. Cook for a few minute or until the aromatics are released from the onion and garlic. Mix the tomato purée in and let the meat cook for another minute or two.
• Pour in the wine. Let the alcohol evaporate before adding the milk, chipotle chili jam, peas and courgette. Season and mix. Cover the pan with a lid and let contents simmer for about 10 minutes.
  
• The meat is done when the veg is cooked through and the sauce has thickened. Serve with the potatoes and topped with some grated chedder. I put my bowl back into the still oven for a minute or two to let the cheese melt.
  

*As with most of my recipes (if you can call them that as I tend to make things up as I go along) I don't usually keep track of measurements. I'm a staunch beliver in personal taste - little more of this or none of that at all, it's all up to you. Everything I write is just a guide. Your tastebuds will lead you.

Chicken Cacciatore

I remember my mum making this dish way back in the day when having Italian food at home was a wee bit of a novelty. It's not a fancy dish. Just a hearty one pot dish with chunky bits of chicken on the bone with lots of punchy tomato sauce. Comfort in a bowl.

Chicken Cacciatore
6 pieces of chicken on the bone (I jointed a whole chicken and used the legs and wings for this dish)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 glass of red wine (anything drinkable is fine with me - I'm not fussy)
2 tsp tomato purée
1 onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
a good handful of black olives
generous splash of olive oil
salt and pepper

• Heat the pan on a medium to high heat and add the olive oil.
  
• Place the chicken into the pan and let it brown. Don't attempt to move the chicken around too much at this point as the meat will stick to the pan. Once a lovely golden brown, turn the pieces of chicken over to cook on the other side.
  
• After all the sides are browned, lift the chicken out of the pan onto a plate and keep warm. Drain the fat from the pan, leaving only a tablespoonful or two.
• On a medium heat, add the onions and garlic. Once the onions are translucent and the garlic is smelling gorgeous, add the tomato purée. Mix it into the onions and garlic. Let the tomato purée cook out for a few seconds before adding the chicken pack into the pan.
• Add the wine and tomatoes. Season.
  
• Stir and let the mixture come to a boil to cook out the alcohol from the wine. Once the acidic smell has evaporated, the alcohol has cooked off.
• Scatter the olives and put the lid on the pan. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

I served the chicken with a quick stir fry of spring greens and garlic flat breads from M&S. Rather delicious on evenings when the weather is still not quite warm enough for a salad.