Author: Sophie

One pot pork adobo and rice

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Deeply savoury, incredibly soothing and mind-bogglingly easy to make. All you need is 10 mins at the beginning and then a couple of hours of doing nothing. Adapted from the Filipino-style pork recipe in Rukmini Iyer’s brilliant book The Roasting Tin. Feeds 2 hungry people.

  • 500g pork shoulder steaks
  • 3 tbsp veg oil
  • 6 cloves garlic, peeled and squashed firmly with the flat of a sharp knife
  • 10 black peppercorns
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 300ml chicken stock (or 300ml water + ½ a chicken stock cube)
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp black vinegar
  • 130g basmati rice
  1. Pre-heat oven to 130C fan (150C)
  2. Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed lidded pan over a high heat
  3. Brown the pork on both sides and remove from the pan
  4. Add the squashed garlic cloves, bay leaves and peppercorns
  5. Sizzle until the garlic is golden and add the stock, soy sauce and vinegar
  6. Scrape the delicious brown off the bottom of the pan as you bring the mixture to the boil
  7. Add the pork back in, pop on the lid and put into the oven for 1½ hours
  8. Take the pot out of the oven, add the rice and stir in
  9. Put the lid back on and return to the oven for a further 45 mins
  10. Remove from the oven, fish out the peppercorns and leaves and break the pork into generous chunks. Check seasoning and add a pinch of salt if needed

Serve with something zingy for contrast, like smacked cucumber salad or spicy slaw. Yum!

Salad bag pesto and butternut squash lasagne

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It’s got stripes of orange and green! And it’s flipping delicious! There’s literally no down side. Feeds 4.

This recipe is multi-stage, but every step is very simple and the end result is fully worth it, promise.

It’s also endlessly adaptable, so the perfect way to use up leftover odds and ends of nuts, fresh-but-floppy herbs and a slightly-past-its-best bag of salad. Especially as bagged salads are one of the most wasted foods in Britain, with over half of them ending up in landfill. This recipe is inspired by and dedicated to the bloody extraordinary Jack Monroe.

  • 1 butternut squash, deseeded and peeled
  • 1 head of garlic, cloves separated but unpeeled
  • Nutmeg
  • 3 tbsp veg oil
  • 100g bag of salad (I like a rocket, spinach and watercress combo, but anything will work as long as it’s not iceberg)
  • 100g nuts, toasted gently in a dry pan until golden (I prefer a combination of almonds and pine nuts but, again, it can be anything you like/have leftover)
  • Handful of fresh herbs (parsley is good, or basil, a bit of dill or mint. Not so much the hard herbs like rosemary)
  • 2 tsp garlic oil
  • 50ml olive oil
  • 30g parmesan, grated
  • 200g mascapone
  • 100g cream cheese
  • 60ml milk
  • 7 pucks frozen spinach, defrosted and liquid squeezed out through a sieve
  • 50g cheddar, grated
  • 250g fresh pasta sheets
  • Salt and pepper
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C fan (200C)
  2. Quarter the butternut squash from top to bottom, and slice into thin pieces around ½ cm wide
  3. Chuck the slices into a baking tray with the unpeeled garlic cloves, then drizzle over the veg oil and season with salt, pepper and a few scrapes of nutmeg
  4. Mix well and then stick in the oven for 30-40 mins until the squash is tender and soft
  5. Take out and pop on the side to cool a bit. Then squeeze the garlic out of its skin and back into the pan. Use a potato masher to roughly crush the squash and garlic together. You’re after a chunky mash, not a smooth puree
  6. Meanwhile, tip the salad into a bowl, add the herbs, toasted nuts, garlic oil, olive oil and a large pinch of salt
  7. Use a hand blender to whizz it into a bright green, fragrant pesto – don’t blitz it into oblivion, you still want a bit of texture
  8. In another bowl, mix the mascapone, cream cheese, spinach and milk. Season with salt and pepper (and a bit more nutmeg wouldn’t go amiss here too)
  9. Now you’re ready for construction! Get yourself a deep oven dish roughly the size of your lasagne sheets – I like glass so I can see the layers through the side, but ceramic would work just as well. (My lasagne sheets need soaking in cold water for 2 mins before using, so do that too if you need to)
  10. Spoon half the crushed squash and garlic into the bottom of the dish, smoothing out to an even layer. Top with a lasagne sheet. Then half the pesto, spreading it out to a fairly even layer. Then a lasagne sheet. Then half the mascapone spinach mixture, smoothing that out fairly flat and sprinkling with half the grated cheese. Then a lasagne sheet, press down gently and start all over again. Squash – pasta – pesto – pasta – mascapone + cheese – until you’ve finished everything up and ended with a layer of grated cheese on top.
  11. Stick in the oven for 40 mins until the pasta is silkily soft, the sides are bubbling enticingly, and the top is crusty and bronzed
  12. Leave to stand for 5 mins before eating if you can bear to, just to avoid burning your mouth.

If you want to make it in advance, you can make it earlier in the day all the way up to the final stint in the oven. Cover and keep in the fridge til you’re ready for it.

Griddle bread

~ Sophie ~ 2 Comments

All praise and thanks to my lovely friend Danny for this corker of a recipe. A quick, straightforward flat bread for wrapping and scooping. Recommended with spiced lamb and hummous. You may never buy a packet of pittas again.

  • 350g plain flour
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 270g plain yoghurt
  • 1 tsp salt
  1. Mix together all the ingredients, initially with a spoon and then with your hands into a ball of dough
  2. Knead for a couple of mins until stretchy (Danny says it’s nothing too strenuous!)
  3. Cut the dough into 8, then roll each piece out into a rough round about the size of a small side plate.
  4. Heat a dry non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat
  5. Throw in a bread and cook for a couple of mins on each side, using tongs to turn them. They should puff up as they cook

Squash(ed) scones

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Courtesy of the ever-delightful, always delicious recipes of Nigel Slater. These scones are savoury, cloud-like mouthfuls flecked with orange. An autumnal breakfast/brunch/snack/lunch. Just put it in your mouth. Makes 18 or so.

  • 250g squash (pumpkin, butternut, anything you like) flesh, cut into 2cm chunks
  • 400g plain flour 
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 85g butter, cold from the fridge
  • Black pepper
  • 80g parmesan, grated
  • 100ml milk
  • 100ml water
  • 2 tsp wholegrain mustard
  1. Pre-heat oven to 200C fan (220C)
  2. Steam the squash for 8-10 mins until tender, then tip into a bowl and crush roughly with a fork
  3. In a separate big bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt
  4. Grate the cold butter into the bowl and rub in with your fingertips until it’s the consistency of breadcrumbs
  5. Add the parmesan, crushed pumpkin, mustard, milk and water. Grind in some black pepper
  6. Mix it all together quickly, gently and carefully, taking care not to overmix or your golden pillows will go stiff and dry
  7. I’ve always found the dough too loose to use a rolling pin and cutter, so my version makes more splodges than neat cylinders. I use a tablespoon dunked in cold water to spoon untidy, tall blobs onto a baking sheet with a bit of space between each one.
  8. (Nigel also egg washes his scones, which will undoubtedly be glossy and lovely, but always feels like a bit of a waste of egg to me)
  9. Bake for 14-16 mins until they are golden and just catching around the edges
  10. Cool on a rack before scoffing whilst still warm, slathered with salted butter

They don’t keep well, so eat them up the day you make them. This won’t be a problem. Or stick them in the freezer for later

Blackberry vodka

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Forget jam, THIS is what you want to make with your blackberry glut. Fruity, sweet and deeply purple, it’s almost too easy to drink.

  • 750g blackberries
  • 200g granulated sugar
  • 700ml vodka
  1. Wash the blackberries and tumble them into a sterilised giant kilner jar (or 2 smaller jars)
  2. Then tip in the sugar and lightly mash the blackberries with the sugar
  3. Pour over the vodka, seal the jar and shake to dissolve the sugar
  4. .Leave in a dark, cool cupboard for 3 weeks, taking out to shake it up every couple of days
  5. Strain the beautifully purple vodka through a sieve lined with muslin into a jug, then through a funnel into a clean bottle
  6. Seal and keep in the fridge to serve cold (if you put it in the freezer, it will form a delicous boozy slush, which I definitely not a terrible outcome)
  7. (And eat the vodka-infused blackberries over vanilla ice cream)

Vanilla extract

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What a wonderful, beautiful way to use scraped-out vanilla pods, resulting in a deep, dark, sweet vanilla extract to add to cakes, cookies and pancakes.

  • 500ml vodka
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 5 or 6 used, split vanilla pods, more if poss (add more as you use them)
  1. Put everything into a bottle (use the vodka bottle if you like) and seal firmly
  2. Shake every day for a week then store in a cool, dark place. It’ll be ready to use after a month, but the longer you leave it (and the more vanilla you add), the stronger it will get

Romesco

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Sauce or dip? Sauce or dip?… Either way, it’s nutty, sweet, savoury and more-ish. This is the postbox red Spanish cousin of muhammara. Highly recommended with paprika crisps or roast cauliflower or a grilled pork chop.

  • 100g blanched almonds
  • Handful breadcrumbs
  • 2 red peppers
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 50ml olive oil
  • Pinch of salt
  1. Pre-heat the grill to high
  2. Halve the peppers, remove the seeds and lay skin-side up on a baking tray. Pop the whole garlic cloves beside them
  3. Grill the peppers and garlic for 15-20 mins until the skin is blackened
  4. While the peppers blacken, toast the almonds in dry pan for 4-5 mins until golden
  5. Transfer the peppers to a bowl and cover with a plate. Leave to steam for 10 mins and then peel the skin off
  6. Peel the papery skin off the garlic cloves
  7. Put the roasted peppers, almonds, garlic, vinegar, smoked paprika, oil and salt into a bowl and blitz to a chunky paste. Add more oil if you’d like it looser

Smacked Sichuan cucumber

~ Sophie ~ 1 Comment

Spicy, sweet, salty, tangy and crunchy – a veritable feast for the senses. Super-simple to make AND you get to smack a cucumber. What more could you want?

  • 1 cucumber
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp black vinegar
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp chilli oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, lightly squashed
  1. First make the dressing as it improves with standing for 5 mins. Just mix together the sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, chilli oil and garlic. Leave on one side til all the ingredients have made friends
  2. Put the whole cucumber on a chopping board and place a wide knife flat on top.
  3. Using the palm of your hand, smack the knife until the cucumber splits and breaks
  4. Chop it into bite-sized pieces and tip into a bowl
  5. Then tip the dressing over the cucumber and mix thoroughly. Give it a couple of mins to stand before serving, sprinkled with sesame seeds and finely chopped red chilli if you like

Serve with this teriyaki aubergine rice bowl, as part of a feast with Chinese spiced roast chicken, or alongside rich, spicy pork and carrots. So many delicious options!

Sachertorte

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Another traditional family recipe, my dad’s birthday cake of choice. Deeply, richly chocolatey. Make it the day before for best results.

For the cake:

  • 175g dark chocolate (60% cocoa)
  • 110g unsalted butter, softened
  • 110g golden caster sugar
  • 4 eggs, separated
  • 1 egg white
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 110g plain flour
  • ½ tsp baking powder

For the icing:

  • 175g dark chocolate
  • 150ml double cream
  • 2 tsp glycerin
  • 2 tsp smooth apricot jam
  1. Pre-heat oven to 130C fan (150C)
  2. Grease and line 20cm springform cake tin
  3. First melt the chocolate for the cake, then put to one side to cool slightly
  4. Beat the 5 egg whites in a large, clean bowl to stiff peaks
  5. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
  6. Into this pale yellow puff, beat in the 4 egg yolks one at a time, whisking well after each addition
  7. Whisk the melted chocolate and vanilla into the creamed butter mixture
  8. Sift over the flour and baking powder, gently folding in with a metal spoon
  9. Then add the egg whites, a quarter at a time, folding carefully into the cake batter until no white streaks remain
  10. Pour and scrape the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 50 mins to 1 hour, until firm and well risen
  11. Once cooked, allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 mins before turning out onto a rack. Cool completely before icing
  1. Make the icing by melting together the chocolate and cream
  2. Once melted, remove from the heat and stir in the glycerin
  3. Gently warm the jam to make it easier to spread evenly
  4. Brush the cake with jam all over
  5. Stand the cake on its rack on a tray or large plate
  6. Pour the icing over the cake to cover the top and the sides completely
  7. Leave to set, which will take 2-3 hours

Meat-free shepherd’s pie with cheesy mash

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A delicious alternative to lamb, deeply savoury and cosy in shades of autumnal brown and orange. The perfect weeknight dinner for when it’s raining and cold outside.

  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 small leek, chopped
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • ½ tsp garlic granules
  • 1 stock cube (1 used beef but you can choose what you like)
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • 200g quorn mince (such a handy freezer staple, use straight from frozen)
  • 1 tbsp plain flour
  • 200ml red wine
  • 300ml boiling water
  • 200g peas
  • 1 potato, peeled and cut into 2cm pieces
  • 1 large parsnip, peeled and cut into 2cm pieces
  • 1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into 2cm pieces
  • 100ml whole milk
  • 100g cheddar cheese, grated
  • Salt and pepper
  1. Melt 1 tbsp of the butter in a saucepan over a low heat
  2. Add the onion, leek, carrot and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, for 8-10 mins until everything is soft and golden
  3. Add the stock cube, garlic granules, black pepper and tomato puree and stir in
  4. Cook for a minute, then add the quorn mince and mix in
  5. Sprinkle over the flour and raise the heat to medium
  6. Stir and cook for 2 mins until no white shows then pour over the wine
  7. Stir in until the wine almost disappears, then add the boiling water and stir until combined
  8. Turn the heat to a simmer and leave to cook for 5-10 mins until thickened, glossy and rich
  9. Check the seasoning and then, off the heat, add the peas and mix through
  10. While the sauce is cooking, put a small pan of salted water on to boil
  11. When boiling add the potato, and perch the parsnip and sweet potato on top in a steamer. Cooking them like this stops the mash from being watery but if you don’t have a steamer, just add them to the pan 5 mins after the potato
  12. Boil and steam for 15 mins
  13. Drain the potatoes then put them back in the pan with the parsnip and sweet potato
  14. Add the milk and the other 2 tbsp of butter, then mash until its as smooth as you want (I like a few lumps!)
  15. Season with salt and plenty of pepper, then stir through the cheese
  16. Pre-heat the oven to 180C fan (200C)
  17. Layer the quorn mixture in the bottom of an oven dish and top with the mash
  18. Bake for 30 mins until the top is brown and the sauce is bubbling up the sides (leave to stand for 15 mins before eating if you can bear to, to reduce the risk of burning your tongue!)

Serve with steamed savoy cabbage or kale

You can make all of this in advance, up to putting it in the oven. Keep the components in the fridge or freezer, separately or constructed. Just do the oven bit when you’re ready for it