Month: Jun 2022

Squished and roasted new potatoes

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

All crunchy edges and soft insides. Serve with the protein of your choice. And pep up by drizzling over salsa verde, persillade or chilli oil and fresh coriander once cooked

  • 500g small new potatoes, cleaned and left whole
  • Salt
  • 4 tbsp veg oil
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C fan (200C)
  2. Bring a half-full pan of salted water to the boil and tip in the potatoes
  3. Boil for 15 mins until nearly cooked through
  4. Drain and then squash each one lightly with a potato masher – not until completely flattened but moderately crushed without breaking into pieces
  5. Put a roasting tin with the oil in it into the oven for 5 mins
  6. When the oil is hot, pop the potatoes into the tray and flip them over gently in the oil
  7. Scatter over a pinch of salt
  8. Roast for 40-45 mins until golden and crisp

Lamb pinches

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

A Middle Eastern-spiced play on Spanish pinchos. Perfect with a toothpick stuck in, served alongside beer or bubbles. Or use these little nuggets of joy to top a crunchy Israeli-style chopped salad… or as a punchy accompaniment to a delicate pilaf. Literally never not delicous.

  • 500g lamb
  • 2 tsp pul biber
  • ½ tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp ground allspice
  • 1 tsp dried mint
  • 1 tsp onion granules
  • ½ tsp garlic granules
  • ½ lemon (or 3 tbsp lemon juice)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • Black pepper
  • 2 tbsp veg oil
  1. Dump the lamb mince into a bowl and enthusiastically scatter over all of the spices
  2. Squeeze in a small amount of lemon juice (keeping the rest of the half lemon for later)
  3. Mix thoroughly with your hands, making sure the spices are well-distributed and squeezing the mixture together into a firm-ish ball
  4. Heat the oil in a large non-stick pan over a medium-high heat
  5. Pinch off small pieces of the minced lamb mixture (just using your thumb and two fingers, don’t compress them or roll them – uneven and rough around the edges is the name of the game). This amount of lamb will make 24-26 pinches
  6. Pop them into the pan one after the other as you quickly pinch them
  7. Fry on one side for about 5 mins then flip and cook for a further 2 mins
  8. Turn the heat down and squeeze over the remaining lemon and a tiny splash of water
  9. Turn the pinches over in the dressing, scraping the brown off the bottom of the pan and combining the lamb fat and lemon juice into a savoury, glossy glaze to coat your lamb
  10. Turn off the heat and serve immediately. Try not to eat them all on your way from the kitchen to the living room.

If you’d like to spice these little bites in other ways, go for your life. Replace the cinnamon and allspice with turmeric and fenugreek for an Indian take. Or just cut out everything except the garlic, onion and paprika for the fuss-pots.

Egg curry

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No, stay with me! This will surprise you with its rich tenderness. A velvety coconutty curry sauce, deep in flavour, enveloping perfectly-cooked boiled eggs. Served with a heap of fluffy basmati rice and sauteed greens. Such a good weeknight dinner. Feeds a hungry 2.

  • 2 tbsp veg oil
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • ½ tsp fenugreek seeds
  • 3 cm ginger, minced
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 birdseye chillis, slitted with a knife but not fully split
  • 6 curry leaves
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 2 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
  • 2 tomatoes, whizzed up with a hand blender or grated
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tin coconut milk
  • 4 ‘6-min’ hardboiled eggs, peeled (put in cold water in a small pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 6 mins. Cool under cold running water for 1 min)
  1. Heat oil in large pan pan over low heat and fry the fennel, cumin and fenugreek seeds for 2 mins until fragrant
  2. Add ginger, garlic, whole chillis and curry leaves. Cook, stirring, for around 20 seconds
  3. Add the onions and stir in, cooking over a low heat for 10 mins until completely soft
  4. Stir in ground spices and cook for 1 min
  5. Then add tomatoes, 150ml water and salt
  6. Stick the lid on and cook for 5 mins until the tomatoes are soft and the sauce has combined
  7. Pour in the coconut milk and gently stir to combine until the mixture bubbles
  8. Cook for 5 mins then add the whole boiled eggs and gently poke under the surface
  9. Cook for a further 5 mins and then serve

Hoisin pork puffs

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Puffs of delight. A delicate shell of shiny puff pastry encasing a deeply rich, soft, sweet/savoury barbecue pork, tender and succulent. I dare you to just eat one. The perfect thing to eat with a beer in the garden at a party or as part of a dim sum spread. Or just for lunch.

  • 350g pork fillet, trimmed and cut into 1-2cm cubes
  • 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 3cm ginger, peeled and finely chopped
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
  • 4 tbsp hoisin sauce
  • 3 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • ½ tsp Chinese 5 spice
  • 1 tsp cornflour mixed with 1 tsp cold water
  • 320g ready-made and rolled puff pastry
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • Sesame seeds to sprinkle
  1. In a bowl, combine the pork with the garlic, ginger, soy sauce, hoisin, oyster sauce, sesame oil and 5 spice
  2. After it has marinated for at least 30 mins (and up to 12 hrs), heat a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat
  3. Tip in the pork mixture. Stir and cook until the pork is cooked through and starting to brown, and the marinade is sticky and thick, almost completely disappeared. This will happen pretty quickly, in 5-10 mins
  4. Tip the cooked pork out onto a plate and add 100ml cold water to the pan, scraping all the bits off the bottom
  5. Pour in the cornflour slurry and stir in, making sure it’s well-combined
  6. Turn the heat down and continue to stir until it makes a thick sauce
  7. Pour this over the pork and mix through
  8. Let the pork mixture cool to room temperature before making the pastries
  9. Preheat the oven to 180C fan (200C) and take the pastry out of the fridge to let it come to room temp
  10. Unroll your pastry and cut into 9 rectangles
  11. Place a heaped tsp of the pork filling in the centre. Then bring together the corners and pinch closed, then the edges, folding together to seal. The parcel should be roughly round-ish
  12. Flip the bun over so the edges are underneath and gently place on the lined baking tray
  13. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds
  14. Bake for 20-30 mins until the pastry is golden

Custard

~ Sophie ~ 1 Comment

Easier than I had imagined to make from scratch. When you planned an apple crumble but forgot this essential accompaniment, you can whip up some creamy, thick, unctuous custard in between the main course and pudding (while the crumble is cooling from volcano temp to something edible). Feeds 4.

  • 300ml whole milk
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 tbsp corn flour
  • 1 tbsp caster sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  1. Put the milk in a small saucepan and heat gently until it starts to bubble around the edges
  2. While the milk is heating, whisk together the egg yolks, corn flour, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl
  3. Pour the hot milk in a stream over the egg mixture, whisking constantly (potentially a 2-person job, depending on how stable your bowl is)
  4. Then give the saucepan a quick rinse and pour the egg mixture back into the pan
  5. Cook the custard very gently over a low heat, whisking constantly, until the custard thickens. You’ll think it never will and then suddenly it will be thick and everyone will be happy!
  6. Take the pan off the heat and serve warm