Recipe: Fifteens

I've mentioned before that Mr F is from Northern Ireland. Aside from the stereotype of eating lots of potatoes, and being partial to a decent pint of stout, foodwise there are very few things that he requests or makes to remind him of home. This occasionally strikes me as strange - Northern Ireland is (like my native Yorkshire) a land of comfort food - a land of Veda bread, soda bread and wheaten bread. It's also the land of traybakes.

Northern Ireland seems to treat the traybake like the rest of the UK treats a piece of cake. I'm only just getting used to walking into a cafe there and having to settle for a traybake over a piece of lemon or carrot cake. I'm still not completely convinced by them.

The cafe that does our event catering at work is run by a lady from Northern Ireland, and therefore specialises in traybakes rather than cakes - a frequent point of contention with some of the team. One of the things which regularly pops up on our conference lunch orders is a Fifteen slice. It's a classic, a typically Northern Irish treat, and it's incredibly easy. You don't even need an oven (or a tray). You will need a cup of tea to go alongside a slice.

Fifteens all sliced up. Not big, clever or particularly photogenic, but very easy and tasty. 

Fifteens
Makes about 25 slices

15 digestive biscuits
15 glace cherries
15 marshmallows
15g dessicated coconut
1 can of condensed milk

Firstly, bash up your digestives. Not too fine - still with a bit of texture, but grainy rather than broken biscuits. I do this with a rolling pin in a sandwich bag, doing a couple at a time. Pop them into a big bowl.
Mix in your cherries and marshmallows - you can cut them in half to make it easier.
Pour over the condensed milk. Go slowly, a bit at a time, and mix like mad. It depends how much you've bashed your biscuits as to how much you'll need, but essentially enough to make it all stick together. Don't worry if it's a bit lumpy or a little bit wet. Ideally you want it slightly under wet rather than over. I used about 300g of the condensed milk.
Roll the mixture into a long sausage shape on a chopping board, and then roll in dessicated coconut. Wrap in clingfilm (aavoid tin foil - it's a nightmare to unwrap). If it's quite wet and sticky, put the clingfilm onto the chopping board and sprinkle with coconut. Use the clingfilm to help you form the sausage shape.
Chill it in the fridge for a couple of hours (ideally overnight), before cutting into slices with a very sharp knife.

Best stored in an airtight container in the fridge, to stop it going gooey. It'll keep for 3 or 4 days. If you're feeling adventurous you could probably change the ingredients around - nuts, jelly sweets or a variety of dried berries would all be mighty tasty (although make sure you use fifteen of each!)

Recipe: Duck Dim Sum

I've probably mentioned before my love of dim sum. I adore pretty much any type of food that involves a little bit of everything, whether it's called a picnic, a smorgasbord, a tasting platter or an antipasti selection. I am irritatingly indecisive when it comes to food, so it's not really a surprise that I am a fan of   being able to avoid it.

One of the best things about living with my old flatmate was that we'd regularly share meals. She is just as indecisive as me and always game for trying something new. We still tend to get together over food - chatting and catching up while cooking together, or trying a new cafe or restaurant after work. It just so turned out that neither of us had plans for Saturday night, so we decided to resurrect the old tradition of food and a film. Dim Sum was suggested, and we thought we'd venture out of our comfort zones and attempt to make our own dumplings.
A note for the purists - I have no idea how "authentic" these are. They're probably more like a cross between a Chinese guoti potsticker dumpling and a Japanese gyoza than a true version of one or the other, but either way they were delicious, and incredibly easy to make.

Most of the ingredients are fairly easy to find in large supermarkets, with perhaps the exception of the wrappers. I found these in the frozen section of my local chinese supermarket. We bought both the large square ones and the small round ones. If you can, get the latter as they're much easier to seal the filling in. We used a food processor, as it was infinitely easier but if you're desperate you could dice the meat very finely into very small pieces with a large knife - or you could use high quality pork mince.

Duck Dim Sum Dumplings
Makes 35

2 duck breasts, or 3 thighs
3 spring onions, or half a leek
1 teaspoon Chinese 5 spice
1 teaspoon ginger
1 medium hot chilli
2 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely diced
1 generous tablespoon hoi sin sauce
1 egg
pre-made dumpling wrappers
oil, for frying

Skin your duck breasts or thighs and remove any visible fat. If you're using thighs, pull off all the meat, leaving behind the bone, tendons and any sinew. Chop into rough pieces, and pop into the food processor.
Chop up the spring onions or leek into thin rounds, and add those in to the food processor - blitz with the duck for a few seconds, until the duck is starting to become like mince in texture and the leek is finely diced.
Add in the remaining ingredients - except for the wrappers or oil - and blitz again to mix through.
Next up: the assembly stage.
Place your wrapper onto a nonstick surface. Using two teaspoons, place a small amount - about half a teaspoon - into the centre of the wrapper. Dip the end of your finger into a mug of water and run it around the edge of the wrapper - that will help it to stick together. Fold the circle over into two, to make a half moon shape, and squeeze the edges together. Set aside and repeat.
To cook: there's a couple of ways to cook them but I find using a really good non-stick frying pan or wok with a lid (you could improvise with a wooden chopping board if needed!) is easiest and reduces likelihood of them sticking as they steam.
Heat up a small amount of oil - about half a teaspoon, tilting the pan so that it covers as much of the surface as possible.
Using chopsticks or tongs so you don't burn yourself, add the dumplings to the pot. Move them around a little so they don't stick, then fry for a minute. Carefully - throw a cup of water into the pan. It will sizzle and spit. Allow the dumplings to steam for 2 or 3 minutes with the lid on (add more water if needed) before removing the lid and boiling the water off. They will start to stick to the pan once cooked, going crispy on one side. Don't let them burn!

Best eaten straight away, but if you need to keep them warm while they are batch cooked, keep them on a hot plate in an oven at it's lowest temperature.

Serve with a dipping sauce made of half rice wine vinegar, half soy sauce, with garlic and fresh chilli to taste.

Recipe: Pea and Ham Hock Soup

I love Autumn. It's my favourite of the seasons: knitwear, boots, colourful trees, fireworks, and the promise of Christmas when it turns really cold. What's not to like? Mostly though, it signifies the start of Proper Food. I'm not a salad girl (I like my carbohydrates) and I love a comforting hot lunch on a blustery day.

This soup is a perfect autumn comforter. Ham hocks (or houghs) are incredibly cheap, mostly because they are time-consuming to cook. They've fallen out of fashion because of their association with poverty food, but like so many cheap cuts of meat, they're full of flavour. Mine was under £1.50 for an outdoor reared one (I'd strongly suggest getting a British outdoor reared, free range or organic one if you can - partly because of welfare standards, but partly because you really do want something with a high meat content for this recipe). I've adapted this recipe from half a dozen variations. If you can't be bothered faffing with the hock to make stock, then you could miss out that step, and use good quality liquid ham stock and rashers of bacon or diced gammon. If you have a slow cooker though, it's especially worth the effort, as it would quite happily bubble away overnight.

Pea and Ham Hock Soup

For the stock:
1 smoked ham hock
2 carrots
1 large onion
2 bay leaves
10 peppercorns
a bouquet garni (if you have any handy)

For the soup:

10g butter

1 diced clove garlic

1 finely chopped large onion

2 diced carrots

400g dried split peas

1 litre fresh ham stock

175g ham, finely diced 

To make the stock:
Soak the hock for about 12 hours, or overnight in cold water, changing the water a couple of times if you can. This will help to draw out some of the saltiness from the smoking. 

Roughly chop the onion and two carrots, and add to a large pan.
Add in the ham hock, bay leaves, peppercorns and bouquet garni and cover with fresh cold water, about 2.5 litres.
Bring to the boil, skim off any froth, and then simmer for an hour. Make sure that the hock stays covered, adding more water if needed (if you have a slow cooker, this would be great to do overnight).

Drain, reserving the liquid. Cool at room temperature until it stops steaming, then refrigerate for 2-3 hours (or overnight).

Allow the ham hock to cool to holdable temperature, before picking off the meat and setting aside. Discard as much fat as you can, along with the skin.

When the stock is cold, skim off the fat and strain before use.

To make the soup:

Rinse the split peas (check that the packet doesn't require overnight soaking - mine didn't but some apparently do).

In a large pan, melt the butter, and fry the onion, carrots and garlic. 

Mix in the split peas, and cover with stock. 

Bring to the boil, and simmer for an hour until the peas are soft and starting to break up. You may need to add a bit more hot water to keep the peas just covered.

Take off the heat and allow to cool before blending until smooth. You will need to add more water as you continue to blend - it's a matter of preference how thick you want the soup, but add the water slowly, blending to mix it in before adding more.

Mix in 125g of the ham to the soup and bring back to the heat.

Serve with a sprinkling of the remaining meat, freshly ground pepper, and crusty bread and butter.

Recipe: Rice Noodle Salad

I first had this kind of salad when Mr F's mum made it as a side dish for a help-yourself family lunch. I've since adapted the recipe, from a Good Housekeeping magazine, to make it a bit more interesting and it's become a favourite.

We like it in a lunch box, just as it is, or as a super quick, easy and healthy dinner with a bit of hot smoked salmon or mackerel flaked in. The edamame beans (also known as soya or soybeans) are optional, but are a great way of adding protein and keeping it veggie. Most supermarkets keep them near the frozen peas.
Because it can be prepared in advance, kept in the fridge for a couple of hours and is great at room temperature, it's perfect for taking along to a BBQ or for serving with Hoisin duck at a dinner party. 

Vermicelli rice noodle salad

Serves 2 generously.

300g cooked vermicelli rice noodles (fresh ones from the supermarket are ideal)

125g - about 4 inches - cucumber

125g - or 1 - red pepper

125g edamame 

1 red chilli, deseeded, finely chopped

2tbsp rice wine vinegar

3tbsp soy sauce

pinch sugar

1tbsp lime juice

1tbsp sesame oil
Small handful fresh coriander, finely chopped

Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions, and allow to cool slightly.
Deeseed the cucumber and pepper, and chop into pieces about 1cm square.

Stir together the rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, lime juice and sesame oil. 

In a large bowl, and using a large spoon, tongs or chopsticks to avoid slicing the noodles too much, mix together the vermicelli noodles with the vegetables, chilli, coriander and dressing. 

Recipe: Vietnamese Spring Rolls

My obsession with the Chinese supermarkets in Edinburgh continues. Moving towards Leith has increased the amount of Tom Yum soup in our lives, and dumplings are becoming a bit of a staple alternative Sunday lunch.
We debated doing a Dim Sum evening with friends for a flat warming dinner but as the weather has been so very lovely, something a bit more summery seemed appropriate, which led us to...

They are so delicious, so healthy, and so tasty. They're also really pretty simple once you get the hang of the folding. We make ours with prawns and noodles, but you can leave the noodles out if you like to make them less filling for a starter. They'd be great as a way to use up leftover roast chicken or pulled pork. If you're veggie, marinated tofu or edemame beans would be great to add a bit of protein. Experiment, see what you like, and use what you have in the fridge.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls (gỏi cuốn)

Beansprouts
Spring Onions, very thinly slice
Carrot, julienned into matchstick sized pieces
Cucumber, julienned
Baby gem lettuce leaves or cold steamed green cabbage
Cooked king prawns
Coriander, mint or Thai basil leaves, finely chopped
Cooked vermicelli fine rice noodles
Rice papers

Large bowl filled with warm water
Plastic chopping board or large flat plate

Firstly, cover the beansprouts with boiling water to blanche them. It's worth bearing this FSA advice in mind.
Assemble your ingredients.
The rice paper wraps are the hardest part - make sure you don't over soak them. I used a bowl that was big enough to put them in whole - put one hand at the bottom of the bowl (so that it doesn't stick to the bottom!), drop the wrap in, and count to three. The wrapper should feel wet, and flexible, but still be a bit firm. It'll keep absorbing the water for a few seconds once you've taken it out of your bowl so don't leave it until it's very flexible!
Put the wrapper onto a plate or plastic chopping board. Avoid using a wooden one - they stick and are more likely to rip as the water is absorbed into the board
Layer up your wrap. Start at the edge closest to you, and take a couple of pieces of each of the ingredients. A couple of websites I read suggested using cabbage or lettuce leaves as a base, to stop the vegetables poking through the rice paper and it does seem to help. Don't get too overexcited - we're not talking Fajita's here - if you overfill them, they'll rip.

To wrap:
Making sure that you keep the filling in tightly, turn the wrap over once.
Tuck in the right hand side.
Tuck in the left hand side.
Continue rolling until the end.
Using your fingertips, dab a small amount of water on to the edge to help it stick, and place edge down on a serving plate.

Great served with satay, hoi sin or sweet chilli dips.

Recipe: Pan-fried Gnocci with Spinach, Cherry Tomatoes & Pine Nuts

This is easily one of my favourite week night meals - it's a Mr F concoction that has become a bit of a comfort food staple. It combines several of my favourite foods (spinach, butter and potatoes), and the act of frying carbohydrates means it is probably bad for you. I tell myself that the cherry tomatoes and spinach count as two of your five a day, so that makes it ok.

Serves 2

500g gnocci (roughly one packet, unless you can be bothered making your own)
1 clove garlic, finely diced
1 generous pinch mixed dried Italian herbs
50g butter
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 large handfuls (about 75g) baby leaf spinach
2 handfuls (about 12) cherry or baby plum tomatoes, halved

Pre-heat your oven on low (to use to keep things warm).
Cook the gnocci according to the packet instructions. Meanwhile, in a frying pan, melt half of the butter and add in the pine nuts and garlic. Toast in the butter until golden, taking care not to burn them. Add in the cooked and drained gnocci, adding more butter if necessary to prevent it sticking to the pan, and stir gently. The gnocci should fry slowly for a minute or so on each side, until golden and crispy. Transfer the gnocci and nuts into an ovenproof dish, and keep warm in the oven. Make sure you pour over any butter that's been left behind to keep the flavour!
In the same pan, pop the other half of the butter in. Stir in the spinach, sprinkle on the mixed dried herbs, and wilt away the liquid. This may take a minute or so. When the spinach liquid has evaporated, mix in the cherry tomatoes, stirring only occasionally, to soften the flesh and char the skin slightly.
Remove the gnocci from the oven, stir through the spinach, tomatoes and pine nuts, and serve on hot plates. Season with pepper, or, if you fancy, a little parmesan.

Recipe: Pan-fried Duck with Pea and Pea Shoot Risotto

There are a lot of things that I've not cooked before. Some of them I'm too lazy to attempt (anything that involves starting it the day before), some of them I'm too stingy to mess up (lobster, truffles) and some of them I'd love to, but I've never got round to it (mussels). I have, however, ticked another thing off my list - I have cooked duck. Mr F and I treat ourselves to nice meat from the Stockbridge Farmers Market every now and then, and although I've been a bit scared of cooking the duck and left it in the freezer for a couple of weeks, I am now a convert.

We debated what to have the duck with. I had a flick through my alarming number of cookbooks, but couldn't find anything that we fancied. Although I'd usually go straight to an Asian recipe and get the 5 spice out, I wanted to get this right, and actually taste the lovely meat. In my mind, I had an image of it nestled on top of a pile of risotto, but I couldn't find a suggestion I fancied online, so I did the geeky thing and tweeted Nigel Slater. His reply? "maybe think about a classic risotto with masses of peas and peashoots in. Duck is always happy with peas". He was right, it was good.

Pan-fried Duck Breast with Pea and Pea Shoot Risotto
Serves 2

2 skin-on duck breasts (preferably free-range)
150g Risotto rice
1 leek, sliced into rings
25g butter
500ml hot chicken stock
150g peas
50g pea shoots
50g parmesan, finely grated

Firstly, prep your duck breast. On the skin side, cut through the fat with a sharp knife in a diamond pattern. Make sure you only cut through the fat, not the meat underneath. Pop the butter, and leek into a saucepan. Cook gently until the leeks start to soften and turn translucent, then add the rice. Stir through and toast the rice for a minute before adding a small amount of the chicken stock. Continue to add the stock, stirring regularly, and adding more as needed.
While the risotto is simmering away fairly comfortably, in a large skillet (if you have one), or in a large frying pan, place the two duck breasts skin side down, and cook on a meduim heat. You don't need to add oil - so much fat will come out of the duck that you'll have to spoon it out to stop it spitting and burning the sides of the duck (if you're feeling frugal, or can't bear the thought of throwing it out, stick it in a ramekin and use it to cook roast potatoes in). Cook gently for 10 minutes or so, until the skin has started crisping up - use tongs or a fish slice to check it's not burning. Turn them over when they're nice and crispy. Cook for a further 4 minutes (although this will depend on how thick the meat is, and how rare you like it. We went for pink, which was 4 minutes, but we did have to push it down a wee bit with the tongs every now and then to make sure it was cooking evenly). Turn it back onto the skin side and poke it, to make sure it's cooked. Do the thumb muscle test - you want it ideally middle finger to ring finger bouncy.
Take it out of the pan, and rest it on a wooden board until the risotto is cooked - this should be about 5 minutes. When the risotto is cooked to your liking, stir in the pea shoots and allow to wilt slightly - a bit of texture to the stalks is nice though. Mix through the cheese, reserving a little for a sprinkle on top, and add a good sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper.
Serve as you wish - to keep the duck skin really crispy, it's probably best served on the side, but it does look pretty nestling amongst the green risotto!

Further ideas:
* To make a vegetarian risotto, use a veggie parmesan-style cheese and vegetable stock.
* This would be a great base for pan-fried fish, using a fish stock instead - a sustainable white fish with a crispy skin would be great.
* If you're feeling frugal but fancy the idea of having it with fish, smoked salmon trimmings or smoked mackerel are both very cheap, and are both delicious flaked with this risotto towards the end.

Recipe: Pork, Sage and Apple Meatballs in a Creamy Cider Sauce

Mr Foodie and I recently combined freezers, which has resulted in an epic amount of sausages. We're talking a kilo of organic sausagemeat, and four or five packets of sausages. I have no idea how, seeing as we're not massive meat eaters, but there's only so many bangers and mash and toads-in-the-hole that a girl can eat, so I've started to diversify.

Pork, Sage and Apple Meatballs in a Creamy Cider Sauce.
Serves 4.

For the meatballs:
500g sausagemeat or minced pork, blended until smooth in texture
generous teaspoon dried sage
1 egg
1 small cooking apple
salt and pepper

For the sauce:
1 onion, finely sliced
300ml dry cider
100g crème fraiche
teaspoon plain flour (if needed)
2 teaspoons grain mustard (or more to taste)
salt and pepper

For the meatballs:
Peel and grate the apple. Squeeze out as much liquid from the gratings as you can - setting the juice aside for the sauce. Pop the meat into a large bowl, along with the egg, sage, and apple. Mix through thoroughly - this will take a while and a fair amount of arm effort. If you think that you've got a bit much egg in to begin with, keep mixing, it'll blend through.
Using two teaspoons to help, break up the sausagemeat into mouthsized balls. Place them onto a lightly floured chopping board while you do this.
Next up, fry the meatballs in a wide non-stick frying pan. Use about a tablespoon of oil - don't forget that pork can be quite fatty so it'll let out some more fat as you fry. You might have to do it in batches if you've only got a little pan, just pop them in the oven in an oven-proof bowl to keep warm if you want to. Try not to move the meatballs around too much as you cook them, or they run the risk of breaking up. When the meatballs are bouncy, rather than squashy, and browned all over, cut one in half to check they're cooked. If no pink remains and they're hot in the middle, they're done. Avoid overcooking, or they'll go dry.

For the sauce:
In the same pan that you cooked the meatballs in, and without washing the pan, fry an onion until transluscent.
Slowly and carefully tip in your cider and any apple juice you may have saved from the squeezing, stirring the bottom of the pan to release all the sticky burnt on bits. Sprinkle on the flour and mix in the crème fraiche.
Add in the meatballs to the sauce and wait for it to simmer down until thickened.
Season with salt and pepper, adding a pinch of sugar to counteract any tartness if you wish, and serve.

 It's hard to make brown food look appetising, but it is, honest.

 Tips:
* I'd suggest serving simply, with potatoes and steamed veggies because the sauce is rich. We went for spinach and lightly fried mushrooms, which was great.
* If you want to bulk out the sauce or stretch your meat for more people, you could add sliced mushrooms - just make sure you fry off any mushroom liquid before adding the cider and cream.
* The sauce would be great with pork of any type - especially chops.
* Cooked meatballs are great in the freezer. Just make sure that they're well cooked and cooled completely before portioning and freezing.
* If you're making for non-alcohol drinkers, you could use a crisp, fresh apple juice. Cloudy type would be best - not too sweet.

Recipe(s): Ghee and Paneer

There are a couple of occasions in life which are irrationally scary. I’m not talking starting a new job scary, or buying a new car scary – they’re both highly sensible things to be wary of, because they both involve the fear of the unknown. I mean the times like wearing new shoes out for the first time. Using your annual bus pass for the first time.  Having a dinner party and introducing your new bloke to your best mate and her chap. You know the type of things. Luckily though, unlike the really genuinely terrifying occasions, the irrational ones can be got through with the crutches of wine and food.
Seeing as one of my guests was veggie, I decided to go for the easy option, and make for a curry. Mine tend to be largely vegetable and pulse based, mainly because they’re cheap and cheerful, and because the spices hide a multitude of pre-payday back-of-the-fridge sins. And, lets face it, when you’re trying to impress people – you can’t go wrong with a curry.

It's fair to say that I’m a sucker for punishment, and therefore decided that rather than take the easy option and buy my ingredients for my curry, I’d make them. If anyone else fancies being daft enough to make their own Paneer and Ghee the morning of a dinner party, this is how…

Paneer
(4 pints of milk makes about 350g)

Ingredients and equipment:
Full fat cows milk
Lemon juice, about 50ml - or - 250ml natural yoghurt. 
Muslin or cheesecloth (mine was £1.75/metre from John Lewis. You could use a sterilised pillow case cut up though, if you need to)
A colander
Clean tea towels 



In a pan you don’t mind scrubbing (in case of burn!) slowly heat the milk, until it begins to simmer. 
When it begins to bubble, quickly add a teaspoon of lemon juice (or several tablespoons of yoghurt), and remove from the heat. 

The milk should begin to separate – slowly at first, looking slightly like cottage cheese on the surface. Stir gently with a wooden spoon, until the solids are completely separated, and floating in a pale watery liquid. 

Strain the liquid through a sieve lined with cheesecloth (muslin), and allow the liquid to drain out.

If you have time, hanging the cheesecloth from a tap will allow extra liquid to drain off.

Place the parcel on a clean hard surface such as a wooden chopping board, and weigh down to flatten and drain any final liquid out, for approximately 2 hours. A large, heavy pan filled with water - the one you cooked the milk in - is ideal for this. Quite a bit of extra liquid will come out over time, so it's worth popping a tea towel under the chopping board to absorb any extra milk.

Rinse, and store under water until needed for use.

Ghee
Ingredients and equipment:
500g unsalted butter
heatproof storage container
strainer
muslin
(makes about 350g - a jam jar full)

Take two blocks of unsalted, preferably organic, butter and melt slowly over a low flame. I’d use a steel pan, or one that you don’t mind scrubbing. 

When the butter has melted, keep it on the flame, but don’t stir it. It should slowly start to bubble away – this is a good thing. Allow it to bubble. It’ll make a ‘whooshing’ noise, as it gets really hot – a sign that the water from the butter has started to split away from the milk and fat and is evaporating off. 

It will continue to do this for about 30-45 minutes (depending on the size of your pan). Skim off any white scum that develops on the top as necessary while it is bubbling away. When the noise has subsided, and the water has evaporated, you should be left with a pale golden liquid, the colour of golden syrup. If the liquid is darker, towards a brown or caramel liquid, it has burnt, so keep an eye on it.

Pour the liquid, still without stirring, through a strainer. I used a tea strainer lined with a couple of layers of cheesecloth. 

Decant into a heat-proof, clean, dry container (an old jam jar is perfect), and allow to cool slowly. It will solidify when cooled. 

Ghee keeps fairly indefinitely and doesn’t need to be refrigerated – some schools of thought say it’s better if it isn't as it prevents condensation which is bacteria's best friend.

I'll admit, after a morning of being rather productive, I was a little lazy in the afternoon and followed other people's recipes for my curry selections - a rather marvellous saag paneer, a surprisingly easy pea and tomato curry with paneer (although I chucked in a tin of tomatoes instead of the fresh ones), and a slightly dull chana dal (I didn't have tamarind. Who does?!). 
Easy, cheap, and fun - give it a bash.

Recipe: Pig's Cheeks and Chorizo casserole

When I first discovered the joy of pigs cheeks, I did a little googling to come up with some ideas as to how to cook them. Most of the recipes were casseroled in some way, allowing the meat to tenderise to perfection over time (excellent for our new stainless steel oven-proof pans, hurrah!), and most involved alcohol of some type - I presume to tenderise. Anyway, there was a bit of a recurring theme of red wine, and several mentions of chorizo, so taking inspiration from various internet sources, I came up with this...

500g pigs cheeks
2 carrotts
2 sticks celery
1 red onion
1 white onion
2 x 400g tins of tomatoes
250ml red wine
150g chorizo sausage for cooking, sliced
1 bouquet garni
1tsp sugar
50g butter

Firstly, dice the carrotts and onions into small pieces, de-string the celery, and slice.

In a large and oven-proof casserole dish, melt the butter and use to lightly fry the chorizo to melt the fat.

When the oil begins to coat the pan bottom, add the pigs cheeks, slowly stirring to prevent sticking. 

After 2-3 minutes, or when the cheeks are lightly browned, mix in the diced vegetables, coating in the oil and butter, and allow to soften slightly. 

When the onions begin to become translucent, add in the wine, stirring right to the bottom of the pan to scrape off any sticky bits. Allow to simmer slightly, before adding in the tomatoes, bouquet garni, and sugar.

Cook in the oven for an hour and a half to an hour, until the tomatoes are reduced down and the sauce is thickened.

Perfect served with crusty bread and butter, and the remainder of the red wine bottle.

Not the best picture in the world, apologies!

Recipe: Stuffed Peppers

I have a slightly bad habit of impulse purchasing things that are interesting, cheap or unusual. Even better if it's a combination of all of the three.
Since moving to my new flat, I have the (mis?)fortune of having a Waitrose as my local supermarket. Is it actually possible to go in there without spending over a tenner? I'm not so convinced it is, especially as I have a love for it, partly because they do amazing discounts at closing time. An £8 sushi box for £1.99? Yes please. Or a £1.29 loaf of organic bread for 10p?! Well, I don't mind if I do.

And so, that sort of explains why I may have got a little overexcited in Waitrose at the weekend. And why I may have bought a whole mackerel for 50p, 775g of outdoor bred pigs cheeks for 92p, and 9 pink veal and outdoor bred sausages for £1.69. Whoops. Ethical and cheap - I think I can justify that!

I have decided (again) that I'm going to try new recipes for these, in an attempt to be fun in my frugality, and therefore stumbled upon this stuffed pepper delight. Due to it's American measurements, and slightly enormous quantities, considerable altering was done until I ended up with this ...

Stuffed Peppers
Serves 2

For the stuffing:
6-7 large peppers
teaspoon oil
an onion, finely diced
250g sausagemeat (ideally squeezed from 'posh' sausages with a high meat content)
400g cooked rice
50g cheese - cheddar will do!
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
For the sauce:
1 can tinned tomatoes
1 clove garlic, finely diced or crushed
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 small onion, finely diced
large pinch of sugar

The peppers:
Cut the tops from the peppers, de-seed, and de-rib.
Flatten the bottoms of the peppers if necessary, so that they will stand upright.
Lightly brush the outsides with a little oil.
Heat a small amount of oil in a frying pan, and add the diced onion. Fry until starts to become translucent.
Add the sausage meat, and stir while cooking to break up into small grounds.
When the sausage meat has started to brown, and loses pinkness, reduce from the heat, allow to cool, and drain of fat.
In a mixing bowl, combine the egg, cheese, seasoning and sausage mix. Stir thoroughly.
Stuff into the peppers, allowing a small amount of room for expansion (especially if your rice is freshly cooked or still slightly al dente). Leave the tops slightly mounded.
Place into a lightly oiled baking tray and surround with the sauce.
The sauce:
Heat a small amount of oil in a pan. Add in the diced onion and garlic, and heat until softened and translucent.
In a suitable container, purée the tinned tomatoes in their juices, until fairly smooth.
Add the tomatoes in to the onion and garlic, and simmer gently until reduced to a medium-thick sauce. Add small pinches of sugar to reduce the tartness as required.
Bake in the oven at 180C for 45 minutes.