Cabbage And Bacon Soup

Back to that cabbage I mentioned earlier, I had no chance of using it before the weekend so I made a soup out of it with some streaky bacon. Cabbage soup doesn't sound that exciting but great things happen when some crispy bacon is thrown into the pot. Making a soup is easily the best way to use up leftover veg. Especially when you're cooking for one and you only need two leaves of savoy cabbage for dinner.

Cabbage and Bacon soup

25g buitter
1 small onion, chopped
8 rashers streaky bacon, cut into bite-sizzed pieces
1 450g savoy cabbage, shredded
1 litre vegetable stock
2 tablespoons of creme fraich
1/2 tsp caraway seeds
2 tbsp creme fraiche
1 potato, peeled and diced

1. Melt the butter in a large pan and fry the onion and 6 rashers of bacon together for ten minutes.
2) Next add the cabbage, the stock, potato and caraway seeds. Bring to the boil and turn down the heat to simmer for 30 minutes until the vegetables are soft.
3) Finally fry the remaining two rashers of bacon that that have been cut into pieces. Meanwhile add some creme fraiche and top the soup with crispy bacon.

Now this is a tasty soup - so much better than anything you can buy in the supermarket. Cabbage soup sounds a bit worrying but it is full of flavour and is brilliant with bacon. I'm looking forward to my lunch tomorrow already.

Herring With Beetroot and Apple

Tonight is leftovers night. I'm going to Bath for the weekend and I have a cabbage and some bacon that needs using up and I've also got a bowl of chunky beetroot and apple chutney that I made the other night to go with my roast mallard. As for the mallard, it didn't got that well. For starters I overcooked it slightly (it was bloody after 35 minutes and overcooked after 40) but I also thought it would be a good idea to slice the potatoes and try to quickly roast them in the fat. Bad idea. Unfrtunately the potatoes were digusting but at least the beetroot was nice. There is still some left and I thought it would go well with herring which, at £1.24 for a whole fish, was a bargain.

Herring with Beetroot and Apple (serves 2)

4 small beetroots
1 bramley apple, cored abnd cut into chunks
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small red onion, sliced
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
Juice of one clementine
2 Herring, gutted and scaled
Salt and pepper

1) first put the beetroot onto boil for 30 minutes oor until soft. Peel the beets and cut them into cubes.
2) Fry the onion in a little olive oil for 10-15 minutes until light brown and realy soft. Now add the sugar, red wine vinegar, clemintine juice and the apple and cook until the apple is softened but still holding it's shape. You don't want it to stew.
3) Meanwhile you should put some potaoes onto boil and grill the herring. Just season both sides and stick it under a grill for four minutes on each side. Serve with the hot beetroot and apple mix ands some buttered boiled potatoes.

I really like Herring. Mackerel is relatively cheap but at £4.50 in Fishworks it seems very posh when compared with herring which must be one of the cheapeest oily fish around. It tastes so good though and works with powerful and slightlly piqaaunt flavours like this hot beetroot chutney.

Three Bean And Lentil Chilli

Last time I watched an England game I had Jim, Andrew and Steve over for a curry. Jim commented that it was all a bit Jamie Oliver and he had a point but, seeing as we had won 3-0 against Russia, I decided to do the same again, only this time I made a chilli as it's a bit easier. This time it was just a case of putting everything in a pot and stirring. I've probably made more chillies than anything else in my life and although it might not be particularly sophisticated, no other food quite sums up autumn for me than a pot of bubbling chilli.


Three Bean And Lentil Chilli (Serves 4-6)

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large red onion, finely chopped
1 green and 1 red pepper, thickly sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4 small green chillies, sliced with the seeds left in
2 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tins chopped tomatoes
1/2 pint vegetable stock
1 tin black beans
1 tin haricot beans
1 tin kidney beans
100g red lentils
Salt and pepper

1) Heat the oil in a large pan (I used my 3 litre capacity Le Creuset casserole dish) and fry the onion for 15 minutes until reallly soft. Then add the peppers and chillies and continue cooking for five more minutes. Next add the garlic and fry for a few more minutes.
2) Add the chilli powder and ground cumin to the pan and cook for a couple of minutes, taking care not to let the spices burn. Next add the tomatoes, stock, beans and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and turn down to gently simmer for 30 minutes.
3) Meanwhile put the red lentils in a pan of boiling water and cook until they're very soft. This should take about ten minutes. Stir the cooked the lentils to the chilli.
4) Serve with plain boiled rice or a baked potato.

I've made a lot of chillies in my time. Sometimes with meat, sometimes veggie. I don't actually think it makes much difference because the flavour is in the sauce rather than the mince. I have messed about with it too - I've added chocolate, baked beans, a can of guinesss and used fresh tomatoes rather than tinned. Yet this is probably my definitive chilli - it is the best I've made. Not too hot yet with a slight kick and I like all the different beans. The lentils are actually there to thicken the chilli rather than flavour it. Unfortunately the chilli was the highlight of the evening as England failed to qualify for Euro 2008 with a 3-2 defeat against Croatia. It looks like I won't be having another one of these evenings for a while.

Mackerel With Lentils

So this week I've started a food diary, writing down everything I eat. The plan is to make sure that after a few weeks of eating terribly - pizza, cornish pasties, supermarket curry - I start eating fruit and vegetables. I also want to make sure I get enough fish. It never fails to make me feel better and today I went to Kensington Church Street in search of fish only to find it closed. So I went to the expensive Fishworks where I wanted to buy some Haddock but wallked out with a plump south coast mackerel. It's rare that one dish will contain so many of my favourite things but grilled mackerel, roasted tomatoes and puy lentils are probably in my top ten. So I put them all together.


Mackerel With Lentils (Serves two)

2 large mackerel fillets
2 plum tomatoes, halved
100g puy lentils
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small red onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 tbsp creme fraiche
Handful of flatleaf parsley, chopped
Savoy Cabbage

1) Pre-heat the oven to 180c. Cut the tomatoes in half, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper annd place in the oven for 45 minutes
2 Put the puy lentils onto boil for 20 minutes. Meanwhile heat the olive oil in a frying pan and lightly brown the red onion. Then add the garlic and cook for a further minute or two. Drain the cooked lentils, add them to the frying pan and stir in the mustard, creme fraiche and parsley.
3) With five minutes to go until the lentils are done, season the mackerel with salt and pepper. Place under the grill, skinside up, for five minutes. Serve on top of the lentils with the roast tomatoes and steamed savoy cabbage on the side.

I just love the sweet flesh of a mackerel - it goes so well with tomatoes and can take hot flavours like mustard. My one portion of oily fish this week was an absolute pleasure to eat.

Squash And Sage Risotto

I was flicking through Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries this morning as I put off going to work until the last possible moment. The picture of the roast squash in the November section really looked appetising and tempted me even at 8:50 in the morning It also had the effect of inspiring me to make my favourite risotto - Squash and Sage. Now this is a bit of an experiment for me. I want to see if a risotto can still taste nice without wine. I realise that a glass of wine in a risotto isn't that bad, especially seeing as the alcohol is cooked off. Yet I'm not worried about the glass of wine that goes in the risotto, the three quarters of a bottle of wine leftover is the problem as it all too easily finds its way into my mouth. Not good for someone who is attempting to cut down on booze.

Squash And Sage Risotto (serves 3)

1 Butternut Squash, peeled and cut into chunks
1 tbsp creme fraiche
large pinch of chilli flakes
1 celery stick, finely chopped
1 small carrot, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
A knob of butter
1 garlic clove, crushed
10 sage leaves
200g arborio rice
1 litre vegetable stock
50g parmesan cheese, grated
Handful of pumpkin seeds

1) First preapre the squash. Put the chunks of squash in a pan of boiling water for five minutes or until soft. You want tos top the cooking process here so drain the squash and refresh with cold water. Now put half the squash in a food processor with the creme fraiche and chilli flakes and process to a puree. Set aside.
2) Heat the olive oil and melt the butter in a large saucepan. Saute the onion, celery and carrot with four of the sage leaves. When softened add the garlic to the centre of the pan and continue cooking until you lose the raw garlic smell.
3) Next add the arborio rice to the pan and cook for a minute of so or until the grains are transluscent. Then add a ladel of warm vegetable stock and stir your risotto until the liquid has been absorbed. When this happens add another ladel of water and repeat until the rice is cooked. It should take around 20 minutes.
4) Heat some butter and olive oil in a pan and fry the four remaining sage leaves. Set aside and then roast the pumpkin seeds in a dry frying pan for a minute or two.
5) When the rice is cooked you can stir in the pureed butternut squash, bit-sized squash chunks and heat through. Then add the parmesan top with a couple of sage leaves per person and some pumpkin seeds.

So obviously risotto is a bit richer with wine but I made up for the lack of booze with some more flavour. In the past I've pureed all the vegetables but left some chunks. Not only does it mean the risotto has more texture but you still get the pure sweet squash flavour. Lovely stuff...

Sea Bream And Tomato Stew

Aside from the curry I've been eating pretty poorly recently. I've been so busy since I got back from India that I've barely had a moment to cook and my usual diet has suffered. Leftovers for lunch have been replaced by cornish pasties and I've been going out to eat a lot. Shockingly I have actually lost weight during this period but Suzanne told me that this wasn't necessarily a good thing as I'm not getting enough vitamins and she should know as she writes a diet and fitness blog. So to kick the week off I've decided to have some fish served with a hearty spanish-style tomato and potato stew. I bought some Sea Bream from Fishworks as I couldn't be bothered to go to the good fishmongers in Kilburn at lunch. It was expensive but that's what you get for food shopping on Marylebone High Street rather than Kilburn High street.

Sea Bream with Tomato and and Potato Stew (Serves 2)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 red pepper, cut into thick strips
1 tsp smoked paprika
6 tomatoes, chopped
1 bay leaf
Handful of thyme (about six sprigs)
1 large potato, cut into chunks
2 Sea Bream, gutted, scaled and fins removed

1) Pre-heat the oven to 200c. Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a saucepan and saute the onions for around five minutes. Then add the pepper and continue cooking until softened. Next add the garlic and cook for a few minutes or until you can no longer smell the raw garlic aroma.
2) Add the smoked paprika, stir vigorously and cook a for a few minutes. Then add the chopped tomatoes, bay leaf and leaves from two sprigs of thyme. Cook until the tomatoes have gone mushy and you have a nice thick sauce.
3) Put the sauce into a casserole dish. Then season the sea bream on both sides, stuff the cavity with the rest of the thyme, place it on top of the toamto sauce and put in the oven for 20 minutes, flipping the fish half-way through.
4) While the fish is cooking, par boil the potatoes for five minutes. Then fry them in a tablespoon of olive oil until light brown and crispy on all sides.
5) When the Bream is done remove the dish from the oven and move the fish onto a plate. Then add the potato to the sauce. Stir it around and serve with the fish.

After a week of eating pretty poor food this was just what I needed. It was healthy enough to do me good but the tomato, paprika and potato stew made for a big-flavoured, hearty autumn dish. This stew is very versatile. I had half leftover at the end so I added a tin of chick peas and will have it for lunch tomorrow.

Indian Feast

I haven't written a blog since going to India in mid October for my cooking course. I learned to make so many dishes that I could never face writing them all down at once. It seemed like too much work after a day at work. So instead I've decided to do a bit at a time, starting with the four dishes I made at John and Helen's house in Banbury this weekend. I made five dishes - egg masala, aubergine vindaloo, okra thoran, tarka dal and vegetable rice. Be warned though: you'll need a bit of time to get this lot ready. The individual dishes don't actually take that long if you want to make one or two for a midweek dinner but when you put them all together there's a whole lot of chopping going on and if you've got a small kitchen like mine you need to be quite organised. All this food will be enough for four but if you only wanted to make one dish I think each one would be enough for two.

Egg Masala
8 eggs
2 tbsp vegetable/sunflower oil
350g red onion, sliced
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
2 1/2 tsp ground coriander
250g tomato, chopped
1 tsp sugar

1) Heat the oil in a pan and, when it is very hot, add the onions. Turn down the heat and cook until soft and lightly browned.
2) Now add all the spices and stir vigorously. When you add the spices the aroma will be intense and you need to carry on cooking the spices until the smell mellows and the spices release some of their natural oils. This will take around five minutes.
3) Add the tomatoes and sugar and continue cooking until it is mushy.
4) Meanwhile hard boil the eggs. Shell and cut them in half with some sauce spooned on top.


Okra Thoran
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp urad dal (optional)
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 dried kashmiri chilli (the wrinkly ones), broken
pinch of turmeric
30g fresh coconut, grated. Or use dessicated coconut soaked with 2 tbsp of water.
150g Okra, sliced at an angle

1) Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the urad dal and mustard seeds. When they stop popping add the onion and cook until lightly brown. Add the chilli, turmeric and coconut and stir around to mix.
2) Now add the okra and stir fry for around five minutes.

Tarka Dal
150g channa dal
100g red onion, finely chopped
150g tomato, sliced
1 tsp salt
2 cups of water
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp cumin seeds

1) Put the dal, red onion, tomato, salt and water in a pan and cook for forty minutes or until the pulses are soft. You might need to top up the water every now and then.
2) Next heat some oil in another pan, add the spices and cook for about a minute. Take care not to burn the spices.
3) Then you pour the dal into the pan with the spices, give it a stir and garnish with fresh coriander.


Aubergine Vindaloo
2 tbsp oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 large aubergine, cut in half and then sliced into strips.
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 inch ginger, grated
4 garlic cloves, crushed
3/4 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp vinegar.
150g sieved tomatoes (or passata)

1) First prepare the aubergine. It needs to be cut into short strips about one inch thick. Soak in water for around five minutes and drain, squeezing out excess liquid. 2) Heat the oil in a large saucepan and saute the shallots for five minutes.Next add the aubergine and put the lid on the pan letting them sweat for around 20 minutes until it is really soft.
3) While that's happening make a vindaloo paste from the vinegar, ginger, garlic, cumin and mustard seeds. Add this to the pan and cook until the smell becomes less intense.
4)Finally add the sieved tomatoes and heat through.


Vegetable Pullau
300g
lime juice
1 tbsp butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 inch of ginger
1 inch of cinamon stick
5 cloves
4 cardamom pods
10-15 black peppercorns
1/2 piece of mace
1 star anise
150g frozen peas
2 tomatoes, blanched for five minutes, skinned and chopped

1) First cook the rice as usual in some boiling water with a little lime juice squeezed in and a tablespoon of sunflower oil. Set aside.
2) Heat 2 tsp of oil in a saucepan, add the red onion and cook until lightly brown. Then add the garlic, stir around for 1 minute. Next cook 150g peas and add this with the rice and tomatoes to the big pan. Stir around until all the rice is hot.

That's all. I wanted to make a rice noodle desert but I bottled it on four curries. Also it was 9pm by the time the curries were on the table so I didn't fancy spending another 30 minutes stirring milk. Understandable really. All these dishes are really simple and fragrant without being hot, heavy or rich.