Month: Feb 2021

Cheese scones

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

Crunchy on the outside, soft and pillowy on the inside, savoury and gorgeous. Makes 12

  • 450g plain flour
  • 6 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp English mustard powder
  • 100g cold butter
  • 250g strong cheddar, finely grated
  • 2 tbsp finely chopped chives
  • 120ml cold milk
  • 100ml cold water
  • 1 egg, beaten with a splash of milk
  1. Heat the oven to 200C fan (220C)
  2. Put the flour, baking powder, salt and mustard powder into a large mixing bowl and whisk together until well combined
  3. Grate in the butter, then rub it in with your fingertips until it looks like breadcrumbs
  4. Add 225g cheese and chives, stir in
  5. Mix in the milk then the water until the dough just comes away from the edge of the bowl. Don’t mix or handle it any more than necessary
  6. Tip onto a floured surface and flatten gently to about 2.5cm thick
  7. Cut out circles with a 6cm cutter
  8. Place on a baking tray and brush with the egg and milk mixture
  9. Sprinkle over the last of the cheese over the top and bake for 12 mins until well risen and golden. Allow to cool slightly on a rack before eating one immediately and then putting two in your pockets for later

If using to top a cobbler (beef and ale stew, chicken casserole, root vegetable stew?), place the scones on top, press slightly into the surface of the stew and bake at 200C fan for 25 mins

Mucver

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Turkish courgette fritters, small and perfectly delicious. Good enough to convert courgette-haters and an excellent start to a Mediterranean feast

  • 2 medium courgettes
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 4 tbsp plain flour
  • 100g feta, crumbled
  • 1 tbsp dill, finely chopped
  • Salt & pepper
  • Veg oil
  1. Open out a tea towel and place a box grater in the middle of it. Grate the courgettes directly onto the tea towel, then gather up the edges around the little mountain of green gratings and squeeze as much liquid out of them as you can
  2. In a bowl, mix all of the ingredients together. It should form a stiff batter
  3. Heat veg oil in a large frying pan and drop in spoonfuls of the mixture. Flatten slightly with the back of a spoon and fry the mucver until they’re golden on each side (keep cooked ones warm on a rack in a low oven as you cook them)
  4. Serve straight away with some plain yogurt on the side

Chicken and sweetcorn soup

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A takeaway favourite, surprisingly simple to make at home and doubly delicious. Feeds 4

  • 1.2 litres decent chicken stock
  • 300g sweetcorn (fresh, frozen or tinned) – or a combination of creamed corn and whole kernals
  • 1 tbsp of shaoxing rice wine
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • ¼ tsp white pepper
  • 2 tsp cornflour blended with 2 tsp water
  • 250g cooked, shredded chicken
  • 1 egg whisked with 1 tsp sesame oil
  • Spring onions, finely sliced
  1. Bring the stock to the boil in a large pan
  2. Add the sweetcorn, lower the heat and simmer gently for 10 mins
  3. Add the shaoxing, soy sauce, sugar and pepper and stir through. Taste and add salt if needed
  4. Pour in the cornflour slurry and whisk in
  5. Bring the soup back to the boil and then turn down to a simmer
  6. Add the chicken and then, in a steady stream, pour in the egg mixture. It will set as it hits the broth and give you those lovely trailing tails of egg through the soup
  7. Serve immediately, sprinkled with spring onion

Carnitas in the slow cooker

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Juicy, intensely flavourful pork, just begging to be wrapped in a torilla and put into your mouth. Incredibly easy to make, amazing for a party. This will fill your house with mouthwatering smells all day – then it’s just a quick 15 mins to pull it all together when you’re actually ready to eat. Feeds 6 generously

  • 1.4kg boneless pork shoulder, cut into large cubes
  • 180 ml orange juice
  • Juice from ½ lime
  • 7 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 small onion, grated
  • ½ tbsp salt
  • 1 tbsp cumin
  • 1 tbsp paprika
  • ½ tbsp dried oregano
  • Small bunch coriander, chopped (incl the stems!)
  • 60ml chicken stock
  • Ground black pepper
  • Veg oil
  1. Place all the ingredients except the oil in the slow cooker and stir to combine
  2. Set slow cooker to high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours
  3. Once the pork is done, it should be tender enough that you can shred it with a spoon.if its not quite there, give it a little longer
  4. Heat a large, ideally non-stick, frying pan with 2 tbsp oil over a high heat
  5. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the meat from the slow cooker to the pan and fry it until the edges go brown and crispy, breaking it up as you fry it. For best results, cook it in batches so you don’t crowd the pan

Serve with flour tortillas and any combination you desire of salsa, chopped tomato, jalapenos, diced avocado, finely chopped onion, sour cream, slaw, fresh coriander, black beans and lime wedges to squeeze over.

(If you don’t want to waste the cooking juices, deglaze the frying pan with stock or a slosh of Corona and combine with the pork cooking juices for an excellent tortilla soup base)

Dried apple rings

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I like making these on a drizzly day. They make the house smell of cosy, appley happiness. Excellent for using up a glut of apples, whether it’s because you have a prolific tree or you just pressed the wrong button on your online grocery shopping

  • Apples (probably no more than 4 unless you have a big oven…)
  1. Peel and core the apples. As much as I don’t advocate for buying unecessary gadgets, this is MUCH easier if you have an apple corer
  2. Slice the apples thinly into rounds about 3-5mm thick
  3. Arrange the apple slices on a baking tray (probably a number of baking trays) in a single layer
  4. Heat the oven to 50C fan (60-70C)
  5. Bake for around 6 hours, turning the slices over every hour or so
  6. They’re done when they’re still bendy but leathery in texture without any spongy, damp bits. Smaller, thinner slices will be done first, so you can take them out as they are done
  7. Cool completely before sticking them smugly in a jar on a prominent shelf because they look so pretty and you just made them yourself

These will last for ages as long as no-one in your house sneakily scoffs them when you’re not looking. An excellent snack on their own or an excellent addition to apple cinnamon muffins.

Nusstorte

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Nut cake. Possibly Swiss in origin? Who knows. I’ve never seen a recipe for this version of it anywhere but my grandmother’s handwritten notes and my typed-up-and-converted-to-metric copy. This is another family tradition that goes back generations. Always my mum’s birthday cake. Incredibly light, moist, and flavourful.

  • 6 eggs
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 200g ground hazelnuts (if poss, grind them yourself from whole – it gives a better texture and moisture)
  • 3 tbsp dry, white breadcrumbs (you can use plain flour instead, or rice flour if you want to keep it gluten free)
  • 1 tsp almond essence
  • Apricot jam
  1. Pre-heat oven to 160C fan (180C). Grease and line 2 round baking tins (or a single springform tin)
  2. Separate the eggs and whisk the whites into stiff peaks
  3. In separate bowl, beat together the sugar, yolks and almond essence until mixture turns pale yellow
  4. Alternating, fold in the breadcrumbs, egg whites and hazelnuts a spoonful at a time
  5. Pour into the tins and bake for about 40 mins. (If making as a single cake, not 2 layers, bake for an hour)
  6. Once baked, risen and golden on top, remove carefully from tin and leave facedown to cool on a rack
  7. Once cool, warm the apricot jam slightly to loosen it and use to sandwich the layers together
  8. Ice with the chocolate glaze below and decorate with toasted almond slivers arranged in flower patterns

Serve with schlagsahne (whipped cream) and a strong coffee

Chocolate glaze

The only chocolate icing recipe you’ll ever need.

  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 3 tbsp milk
  • 30g butter
  • 80g dark chocolate
  • 3 drops veg oil
  1. Melt together and dissolve all ingredients until smooth (bain marie or careful microwaving equally legit)
  2. Remove from the heat, stir well and add the oil
  3. Cool slightly and spread over the cake – this quantity will do the top and sides

Moroccan chicken and cous cous

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A fragrant, gently spiced, one-pot dish. Makes a straighforward, comforting, warming weeknight dinner when you’re feeling a bit tired and emotional. Feeds 4

  • 6-8 boned chicken thighs (with or without skin, up to you)
  • 2 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tbsp garam masala
  • 1 tbsp veg oil
  • Salt
  • 2 onions, finely sliced
  • 4 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 2 large carrots, cut into chunky slices
  • 1 red pepper, cut into pieces
  • Handful of dried apricots, chopped into quarters
  • 500ml chicken stock
  • 1 preserved lemon, flesh discarded, skin finely chopped (don’t worry if you haven’t got this, just leave it out)
  • Handful of green olives, left whole
  • ½ lemon, juiced and zested
  • 250g cous cous
  • Handful of pine nuts, toasted
  • Bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped
  1. Mix the spices and a couple of big pinches of salt in a small bowl
  2. Coat the chicken in half of this spice mix
  3. Heat oil in a big saucepan with a lid and fry the chicken (skin side down first) until brown on both sides. You’ll need to do this in batches.
  4. Remove from the pan and set to one side
  5. Add the onions and garlic to the pan and cook for a couple of mins, stirring them together until coated with the spiced oil
  6. Add the red pepper and carrots and cook for another couple of mins
  7. Tip in the other half of the spice mix and the dried apricots. Stir together and cook for 1 min
  8. Pour over the chicken stock, add the preserved lemon and olives. Stir to combine everything, scraping any brown bits off the bottom of the pan
  9. Bring to the boil, then nestle the chicken on top, (skin-side up if your chicken has skin)
  10. Turn the heat down to a low simmer, stick the lid on and cook for 30 mins
  11. Turn the heat off, take the chicken out and stir in the lemon juice, zest and cous cous
  12. Cover the pan and leave to stand for 5 mins
  13. Fluff the lovely, yellow cous cous and stir through the parsley and pine nuts
  14. Serve with the chicken on top, crowned with a dollop of harissa yogurt (3 tbsp plain yogurt + 1 tsp harissa paste)

This recipe is very forgiving. Which is what you need when you’re feeling a bit tired. Go ahead and add more of what you like, less of what you don’t. Don’t use olives. Change the meat. Don’t use meat at all. Add other root veg – celeriac or baby turnips work well – or runner beans. Exchange the apricots for prunes. Whatever suits.

Garlic parsnips

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My mother-in-law’s recipe, extremely garlicky and the very best way to eat parsnips. Seriously, she converted me from roasting them and that’s saying something.

  • 4 parsnips, scrubbed but not peeled, cut into chunky batons
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 30g butter
  • Salt and plenty of black pepper
  1. Melt the butter over a medium heat in a saucepan with a lid
  2. Once sizzling, add the garlic and stir fry in the butter for a minute until it turns golden. Don’t take your eyes off it or it’ll burn
  3. Tip in the parsnips, turn the heat down and turn them through the garlic and butter. Season well
  4. Add a splash of water, stick the lid on and cook for about 15 mins, taking the lid off every now and again to stir, check on their progress and hungrily inhale the delicious smell coming out of the pan

Once cooked, they should be soft with crispy, golden edges. Some bits may be more crispy, some may not be golden at all, some may be starting to fall apart completely. This is all fine.

Any leftovers make the most brilliant soup. Just heat through, add a little stock and cream and whizz up.

Indian-spiced masala baked beans

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Baked beans are obviously brilliant as they are, but this takes them up a level! Incredibly quick to make, and spicily delicious on top of almost anything. Thick slices of sourdough toast with a dollop of yogurt perched on top, or a fried egg and a sprinkle of fresh coriander. Or just scoop it up with hot, flaky parathas. Feeds 2.

  • 2 tbsp veg oil
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 large garlic clove, minced
  • 2 cm fresh ginger, minced or finely chopped
  • 1 large red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
  • 2 tsp tomato puree
  • Pinch dried chilli flakes
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • ½ tsp ground cumin
  • ½ tsp ground turmeric
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp sugar
  • 1 tin Heinz baked beans (I know it shouldn’t matter what brand they are but it does!)
  • 100g baby spinach (if you fancy it)
  1. Heat the oil in a saucepan on low and add the onion, ginger and fresh chilli
  2. Cook for 5 mins, stirring, until golden and soft
  3. Add the garlic and stir in. Cook for a couple of mins then add the tomato puree, spices and salt
  4. Stir until well combined, cooking for another minute
  5. Then add the beans and a couple of tbsp water, and heat through
  6. If using the spinach, stir through at the end until just wilted

Quick pickled chillis

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Spiky, spicy, piquant. The perfect topping for a cheese sandwich, pizza, jacket potato. Anything.

  • 120ml white vinegar (or cider vinegar)
  • 120ml water
  • 1 clove garlic, left whole but squashed
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 5-6 large (120g) chillis, thinly sliced
  1. Put the vinegar, water, garlic, brown sugar and salt in a small saucepan and bring to the boil
  2. Add the chillis, stir in and remove from the heat. Allow to sit for 10 mins
  3. Pour the chillis and pickling liquid into a clean, sterilised jar, leave to cool and then store in the fridge

This will keep in the fridge for a couple of months, getting more pickled as time goes on