Patatas Bravas

We love these as a tapas with lots of other dishes.  This is my recipe, not so different from others but this is simple and we like it.  I hope you do too.

Ingredients
6 cloves garlic
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tsp oregano
a pinch of sugar
4-5 tbsp olive oil
3-4 medium old potatoes
1 large onion
1 large red pepper

Method
Heat the oven to 200C. 

Prepare the potatoes by peeling and chopping into 1cm cubes.  Now boil them in salted water for 4 minutes then drain well leaving them in the pan. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil and shake them in the pan to coat thoroughly.
While the potatoes are boiling, line a roasting tin with foil.  The tin should be big enough to take the potato cubes plus chopped pepper in one layer.  Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to the tin and place it in the oven.  De seed the pepper and cut off the white veins, slice into 1cm wide strips, then cut into 2cm long pieces.  Finely slice 2 cloves garlic.  Add these to the pan in the oven and give them a shake to make sure they're coated with the hot oil.  If the potatoes are ready, add them too, if not, put the pepper in the oven and add the potatoes when they're cooked.

Make the tomato sauce while the potatoes and peppers are roasting. Heat 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in a small saucepan.  While the oil is heating, chop the onion and add it to the pan over a medium to high heat.  Now, peel 2 cloves of garlic and slice finely, then add this to the pan.  Fry the onion and garlic until they are lightly browned, then add the tinned tomatoes, a pinch of sugar and the oregano.  Mix well together and cook over a medium to high heat to reduce to a thick sauce.

The potatoes and peppers are cooked once the potatoes are nice and golden.  When this happens, take them out of the oven and tip them into the tomato sauce, then mix well and serve.  They're best served hot, but almost as good cold.

Summer bean and courgette salad

I wanted a nice light salad for the summer weather.  Well, the weather is hardly summery, yes we have beautiful sunshine but the temperature hasn't really got above 20°C today, still, we're having this anyway as it turned out so well!

Ingredients
175g podded broad beans
140g frozen peas
400g tin butter beans, drained and rinsed
1 courgette
1 tbsp chopped thyme
1 pack feta cheese, crumbled

For the dressing
3-4 dessert spoons extra virgin olive oil
1 dessert spoon white wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp sugar


Method
First, prepare the courgette by topping and tailing it, then slice thinly using a potato peeler.  Add a little salt to the strips and gently mix them together making sure you don't damage the strips.  Cover and leave until you cook them.

Cook the broad beans in boiling, unsalted water for 2-3 minutes or until tender, drain them and leave to cool.  While they're cooling cook the peas in the same way.  While the peas are cooking, make a start on podding the broad beans - it's easy to do, just use a thumb nail to pop the grey outer skin, then pop the bean out and throw the skin away.

This takes some time, so you can also cook the courgette while peeling beans.  To cook the courgette, place a little olive oil on a griddle, heat it and add the strips in batches, cooking them on one side only until they start to brown, then fish them out and put them aside, doing this until all are cooked.

Now crumble the feta into roughly ½ cm cubes.  When the peas are cooked, the broad beans peeled and cooked and the courgette fried mix them all together in a bowl with the butter beans and thyme and mix well together.

Make the dressing by adding all the ingredients to a bowl and whisking together.  Drizzle the dressing over the salad and serve with some nice, crusty bread, I use some Corn Bread from Tesco that's lovely. 

Stir-fry the courgettes in 2 tbsp of the olive oil for five minutes, tip into the bean mixture and season well with salt and pepper. Add the thyme leaves. Whisk the remaining olive oil, white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and sugar together, and season with salt and pepper. Mix into the bean salad along with the crumbled feta cheese. Pile into a serving bowl and chill until required.

Layered houmous, tabbouleh & feta salad

This is a fabulous summer dish and can be taken on picnics too really well.  Serve with some flat breads or crusty bread if you prefer.

Ingredients
2 x 200g tubs hummus
400g can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
200g pack feta cheese, broken into chunks
handful pitted black olives
1 crisp Romaine heart
flat breads, to serve

For the tabbouleh
85g bulgur wheat
80g bunch mint, leaves finely chopped
80g bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves finely chopped
2 large ripe tomatoes, de-seeded and chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
zest and juice 1 lemon
4 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

Method
First, make the tabbouleh. Tip the bulgur wheat into a saucepan, cover with water, season with salt, then bring to the boil and simmer for 15 mins until tender. Drain in a sieve, rinse under cold running water, then leave to drain over the pan. Mix the mint and parsley with the tomatoes, onion and drained bulgur. Whisk the lemon zest and juice and oil together with seasoning, then toss with the bulgur.

Spoon the hummus into the bottom of a portable picnic bowl or large Tupperware (or use a large plastic mixing bowl, as you can cover it tightly with cling film later). Scatter with the chickpeas, then sprinkle with seasoning and drizzle with a little oil. Spoon the tabbouleh on top. Now top with the feta and olives, then tear over the lettuce leaves.

Cover the bowl tightly with its lid or some cling film. Put a little more olive oil in a sealed container to take with you, then chill the salad for up to 24 hrs.

To eat, drizzle the olive oil over the leaves, then scoop the salad onto serving plates, making sure everyone gets a bit of each layer. Serve with the flat breads for everyone to tear and share.

Thai style fish patties with lightly pickled salad, sweet chilli sauce and boiled rice

Had this today as it's a really hot day and Thai food works so well in the heat.  Naomi chose the original but she had chosen food all week and we wer going to have chicken 6 days in a row, so I decided to change things around!  So, this is Haddock instead of chicken and it worked really well.  I got the salad from a Thai cookbook I have and it works brilliantly on a hot day as it's fresh and crunchy.

Ingredients
400g haddock, from a sustainable source if possible
175g raw king prawns
3 tablespoons Thai red curry paste - less if you don't like it hot
3 cloves crushed garlic
1 whole egg
75g breadcrumbs
180g frozen sweetcorn
2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
4 spring onions, finely sliced
2 tablspoons cooking oil

Chilli sauce
4 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
1 dessert spoon Thai fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon caster sugar
juice of 1 lime

Lightly pickled salad
125ml rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 red chilli
1 carrot
3 shallots, peeled and finely sliced
5cm piece cucumber

Method
Put the fish, prawns, red curry paste, egg and garlic in the food processor and whizz it until it's a smooth paste.  Put this into a large bowl with half a teaspoon of salt then add the rest of the ingredients except the cooking oil and mix well together.  Wet your hands and then shape the mixture into 12-16 patties, putting them on a large piece of cling film so you can cover them and leave them while you prepare the rest of the meal.

Now make the chilli sauce by putting all the ingredients in a small bowl and mixing them together.  If it's too bitter with the lime juice, adjust it by adding more caster sugar.

Finally make the pickles.  Put the vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan and heat gently to dissolve the sugar,  then boil rapidly for 7 minutes to form the dressing.  Put this in a bowl to cool and prepare the vegetables.  Finely slice the chilli including the seeds.  Cut the cucumber into 4 pieces lengthways then slice finely.  Cut the carrot in half lengthways then slice finely.  When the dressing is cool, add the vegetables and mix to coat them all.

Finally, start the rice and while that's cooking, heat the oil in the pan and fry the fish patties for about two minutes each side until they're nicely golden on each side.

Serve the fish patties and rice with the pickle and chilli sauce on the side.

Caramelized banana bread and butter pudding

This is another recipe that I've slightly modified from the Gilbert Scott cookbook.  So far, everything has been divine and this is no exception.  As the cookbook says, a combination of brioche, custard and banana is irresistable.  It must be, because I don't like bananas, but this is really good!  When you choose the bananas, the riper they are the better they taste, but I found left over black ones taste good but were nigh on impossible to slice.  Also, don't bother making the brioche, it isn't worth it.  I use Tesco finest, it's too big at 400g so if you can get smaller 2-300g that will do but 400g seems to be the "standard" size.  Slice it and freeze the rest for breakfast, or make two at a time :)

Ingredients
120g golden syrup plus extra for drizzling
60ml brandy
3 ripe bananas
unsalted butter for greasing
400g brioche loafcut into 1cm slices
clotted cream to serve

Custard
4 free-range eggs
300ml double cream
300ml whole fat milk
60ml brandy

Method
Make the custard first by beating the eggs until they are smooth, then add the cream, milk and brandy.  Pass the whole lot through a fine sieve and set aside for later.

Preheat the oven to 150°C, then using one of the silicone liners that are widely available, grease the inside generously with butter and then line a 900g loaf tin with it.  Place two of the slices of brioche in the bottom of the tin so that they are tight with no gaps, then pour in enough custard to cover them slightly.  You may need to add more if the bread soaks all the custard up, that's fine.

Next, heat the golden syrup in a large frying pan until it boils well, then add the brandy and stir well and reduce the heat slightly to medium/hot.  Peel and slice the bananas lengthways then place them in the hot caramel.  Check after a few minutes to see if they are well browned - this does take some time so be patient.  Once one side is well browned, turn them over and do the other side in the same way.  Turn the heat off and put the pan on a cold part of the hob while you prepare the rest of the pudding.

Place a single layer of the bananas on top of the brioche you've already prepared covering as much of the layer as possible.  Now add another layer of brioche and follow that with more custard, again covering the bread.  Once that's been absorbed, place the rest of the bananas on the brioche and repeat the process until you've reached the top of the pan.  I find this takes 3 layers of bread and two of bananas, but make sure you finish with a layer of brioche.

Once the last lot of custard has soaked in (you may have a little left over), place it in the oven nad bake for 30-35 minutes until the pudding is just set.

To serve, slice it across and plate it, drizzle with golden syrup and put it in the microwave on high for 2 minutes to heat through and serve with a dollop of clotted cream.  Yum :)

Mediterranean Potato Salad

As the weather is getting sunny and (almost) warm my thoughts turn towards more Mediterranean food.  We had a lovely, light evening meal tonight, a lamb steak sautéed in olive oil with garlic and a little salt and pepper along with a potato salad made with new potatoes, onion, garlic, cherry tomatoes and plenty of chopped basil.  Delicious.  Here's my recipe for the potato salad, enjoy!

Ingredients
500g new season potatoes
1 small to medium onion
2 cloves garlic
15 small, ripe cherry tomatoes
A good bunch of basil
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil plus a little for drizzling
salt and freshly ground pepper
A squeeze of lemon juice

Method
Wash the potatoes and remove any imperfections leaving most of the skins on, then chop into 1cm cubes.  Boil them in salted water for 6 minutes and drain and leave to cool slightly.  While the potatoes are boiling, skin and chop the onion then crush, skin and slice thinly the garlic cloves.

Heat the oil over a medium heat in a sauté pan then add the onion, garlic and potato cubes and sauté until they are nicely browned.  Don't move them around the pan too much as this dissipates the heat, much better to turn them every 1-2 minutes and let them develop the colour.

Once the onions, garlic and potato mix re golden brown, drain them in a sieve and leave to cool until warm or even cold.  While these are cooling, prepare the tomatoes and and the basil by slicing the tomatoes in half, then separating the leaves from the stalks of the basil, then chopping the leaves  finely.

To finish, mix the tomatoes and basil with the potatoes, garlic and onion, add a splash of lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.

Pork Pie

I've been keen to make my own pork pie for some time and have seen a number of recipes, sadly the first time I tried it I minced the pork too finely and they turned out more like sausage rolls.  I've finally managed to perfect it and this has got the seal of approval from Suzanne and Rowena, the two top pork pie aficionados in the house.  I hope you all like it too - why not try it with some home made chutney from this recipe :)

Ingredients

For the filling
600g diced pork cut into small, bite sized dice.
2 sausages of your choice (I use Cumberland), skin removed.
4 rashers smoked back bacon, chopped finely
3/4 tsp ground mace
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 dessert spoon fresh chopped sage
1 tsp fresh chopped thyme
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground white pepper

For the pastry
290g plain flour
100g goose fat
110ml water

To finish
1 egg, beaten
2 gelatine leaves
200ml stock, I used reduced stock from boiled ham hock, but good chicken stock is fine.

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180C. In a large bowl mix together all the ingredients for the filling.

2. Make the pastry by putting the flour in a large bowl, then put the goose fat and water into a small pan and heat gently until the fat melts. Now stir into the flour using a wooden spoon. When the mixture is cool enough to handle, (almost immediately, it should still feel very warm) knead well until smooth.

3. Cut off 1/4 of the dough and reserve for the lid. Roll out the remaining dough to a rough circle and then place in the base of 3 well buttered 10cm ramekins. Working quickly while the dough is warm and pliable, press the dough evenly over the base and up the sides of the tin, making sure there are no holes. Fill with the meat mixture and pack down well.

4. Roll the dough out for 3 lids then Place one on top of each pie. Use the handle of a knife or fork to pinch around the edge to seal the pie. Make a couple of holes in the centre of the lide for steam to escape while cooking.

5. Cook in the oven for 30 mins then reduce the heat to 160C and cook for a further 60 minutes. Brush the top of each pie with beaten egg and return to the oven for a further 20 mins.

6. While the pies are cooling, soak the gelatine in cold water for about 5 mins, then remove and squeeze out the excess water. Heat the stock until lightly steaming then remove from the heat and stir in the gelatine.

7.When the pies have cooled (don't do this too quickly or the gelatine and stock soaks into the pastry) use a teaspoon to pour the stock and gelatine into the pie through the hole in the top (you may need to enlarge them) allowing the stock to soak into the pie. Place in the fridge to set overnight.