Cuppa cuppa cuppa

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
111 grams butter
2 teaspoons of baking powder

Heat oven to 190. Melt butter in a 9-in baking dish in the oven. Mix flour, sugar and baking powder with a pinch of salt in a big bowl. Beat in the milk. Slice some peaches or rinse some blueberries. When the butter is very hot in the dish, pour over the batter. Place the fruit on top, away from the edges. Bake for 45 minutes.

Blueberry muffins

 

210 g flour
100 g sugar
6 g baking powder
2 g baking soda
4 g salt
6 g lemon zest
150 g bluebos

Birthday cake

 

Cake
58 g chocolate
330 g plain flour
95 g baking block
400 g sugar
bake at 170 for 20 min

Filling
150 g sugar
21 g cornstarch
13 g zest
42 lemon juice
21 g butter

Frosting
43 g butter
112 g chocolate
200 g sugar

Mrs Appleyard's meat pie

 

1 kg stew beef
5 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon chilli powder
6 dried shitake, rehydrated in 3 cups warm water
1 big tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon marmite
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 bag shallots
2 biggish carrots
1/2 cup peas

Soak the mushrooms for a while. Dredge the beef in flour and spices. Brown the meat in butter in a dutch oven. Chop the mushrooms. In their broth, dissolve the tomato paste and marmite. Pour this over the beef, adding the mushrooms, herbs and salt. Simmer for 2 hours. Meanwhile peel the shallots: top and tail, then douse in boiling water for 2 minutes to loosen the skins. Square the sides of the carrots and cut them into nice dice. Half an hour before the end, add the onions and carrots. Ten minutes before the end, add the peas. Pour this into a large glass casserole and top with biscuit dough. When the biscuits are golden, pour over some melted butter.

Chicken with jujubes

1 small chicken

2 red onions

tablespoon of flour

2 cups (?) red wine and/or stock

teaspoon of tomato paste

handful of dried jujubes, chopped in half

Cut up the chicken into four pieces plus the back. (Use the back to make stock or whatever.) Brown the pieces in a nonstick skillet. In a medium saucepan, sweat the onions in oil. Turn down heat, add the flour and stir, letting it cook a few minutes without burning. Pour in the wine/stock and mix in the tomato paste. Stir in the jujubes, some salt and pepper. Place the chicken pieces in one layer on top of the sauce. The sauce should come halfway up the meat. Cover and cook about 40 minutes. Serve with mashed potatoes.

Party quiches

330 g butter
660 g flour

10 eggs
600 mL double cream
625 g mushrooms
500 g baby spinach
15 g tarragon

Make 48 tartlet shells and bake blind. Slice the mushrooms and saute, seasoning with lemon juice and black pepper. Sweat down the spinach. Beat the eggs with the cream and chopped tarragon. Check seasoning. Put a mushroom or two and some spinach into each tartlet shell. Pour the egg mixture on top. Try not to let all the tarragon pour into the first five tarts. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 180.

Spicy cauli and green beans

1 cauliflower
pack of green beans
1 tin tomatoes
1 onion
1 carrot
laoganma

Make a thick tomato sauce: sweat the onion and carrot in a small saucepan, then tip in the tomatoes and add a splash of water. Stir in a tablespoon of laoganma. Put the cauliflower florets in a dutch oven with a bit of water over medium-low heat to let it steam. When it's half cooked, add the green beans and steam them as well. When it's all cooked, add in the tomato sauce and simmer for a minute. Serve with potatoes.

Sorrel soup

1 onion

1 jar sorrel (300g)

4 jars water
1 potato

stock cube or Polish soup seasoning

Sweat the chopped onion in a bit of oil. Tip in the sorrel and wash it down with 4 jars of water. Bring to simmer and add diced potatoes. Simmer until potatoes are tender, then blitz and correct seasoning. Garnish with a dollop of thick yogurt and a quartered hardboiled egg.

Potato and egg rolls

1 great big potato
cumin seed
fennel seed
fenugreek seed
smoked paprika
ground turmeric
2 flour tortillas
3 eggs
fresh chilli
2 green onions

big tablespoon mayo
big tablespoon yogurt
big teaspoon chutney
chopped parsley or coriander

Cut the potato into small chunks. Boil in salted water until well tender and then drain. Dry toast the cumin and fennel seeds in a nonstick pan, then put them in the spice grinder. Toast the fenugreek next; it won't take half as long. Put the fenugreek with the cumin and fennel and grind them all to powder. Mix this with the ground paprika and turmeric. Toss the potatoes in the frying pan with a bit of oil over medium heat. When they are hot through, toss them with the spices, check seasoning and set them aside.

Chop some parsley. Make a sauce with mayo, yogurt, chutney and herbs. 

Beat three eggs with a bit of water. Chop the chilli and the green onions. Sweat them in butter in the pan over medium-low heat. Add half the eggs and lay a tortilla over them. Wait about 30 sec and flip the whole thing. Spread half the sauce over it, line up half the potatoes across the middle and scatter over some chopped herbs. Slide this out onto a board and roll it up. Repeat with the rest of the eggs and other tortilla.

After Nadiya Hussein. Kinda like a kati roll.

Green beans with leeks

1 leek
dried marjoram
3 spring onions
500 g green beans
1 teaspoon white miso

Sweat the leek for a minute in a dutch oven. Then add a big splash of water and a big pinch of marjoram, cover the pan and lower heat. Let it simmer until the leek is completely soft. Uncover and stir in the green onion and blend in the miso paste. Let the water mostly cook off, raising the heat if necessary. Remove from heat when you have a nice goop. Cook green beans separately, either by steaming or blanching. To serve, toss the beans with the leeks and reheat if necessary.

Plum jam

2 kg wild plums after pitting
400 g sugar
lemon zest and juice
star anise

Put on to boil and stir regularly until it is thick enough.

Carrot pink onion salad

carrots peeled into ribbons
pink pickled onions
toasted sesame seeds
chopped mint
olive oil

Mix it up and season to taste. Use plenty of onions for the punch. Garnish with a little pile of more pickled onions. How civilised.

Asparagus + timbale

600 mL milk
200? g soft goats cheese
6 eggs
bay leaf
40 asparagus spears (for 8 ppl)

Greek yogurt
sour cream
tarragon
dill
parsley
honey

Scald the milk with the bay leaf, then let it cool a bit. Put the goats cheese in a large metal bowl. If the milk is still hot, add it to the bowl a little bit at a time so the cheese doesn't curdle. Beat in the eggs one by one. Season to taste. Pour into a well-buttered one-liter souffle dish, and bake in a bain marie in the oven at 160 C for about 55 minutes. The internal temp should be 80 C. Meanwhile, mix up a sauce of yogurt, sour cream, honey and herbs, with water to thin. Then peel and cook the asparagus. When the timbale is done, unmold it on a serving platter and garnish with lamb's lettuce and flowers. Spoon some sauce on the top and serve the rest in a dish. Pass the asparagus around.

Tomato miso soup

1 tablespoon fennel seeds

1 full thumb ginger, minced

6 garlic cloves, chopped

3 medium onions, chopped
3 celery sticks, chopped
bit of sugar

3 tins tomato

1 tablespoon red miso

In a soup pot in hot oil, temper the fennel seeds for a few seconds. Add the ginger and stir for half a minute. Add the garlic. Before it browns, add the chopped onions and celery. When they are soft, turn down the heat, add sugar and cook gently for 20 min to let the onions get some colour. Then add the tomatoes, plus 2-3 tins of hot water. Cover and bring to simmer for 15 minutes. Put the miso in a small bowl and mix it with some of the broth, stirring until the miso dissolves. Pour this back into the soup and let it simmer gently for 5 minutes. Do not boil miso. Blitz it in a blender and season to taste. Serves 6.

Red rice

This is a vegetarian combine of Lowcountry red rice and hoppin' john. Serves 12-16.

1 lb field peas
2 bay leaves
4 black peppercorns

4 onions
2 celery stalks
4 cups rice
6 cups bean cooking water
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 small tin tomato paste

fennel seed
cumin seed
mustard seed
celery seed
chopped onion and celery
6 cloves garlic
ground ginger
madras curry
smoked paprika

Rinse and pick over the field peas, or use black-eyed peas in a pinch. Boil them with one bay leaf and peppercorns for 20-30 minutes until they're just tender. Take off heat and let them cool in the liquid. They can be stored overnight in their liquid in the fridge.

Strain the beans from their liquid, reserving 6 cups for cooking the rice. Bring this liquid to boil in a saucepan with the chopped tomatoes and paste. Meanwhile, chop the onions and celery, setting aside a handful for the tarka later. Sweat the rest in oil in a large dutch oven. Then fry the rice until it turns translucent. Add the hot bean-tomato broth and a bay leaf, scraping up the rice from the bottom of the pan. Add a scoop of salt, stir once and cover. Cook it in the oven for 30 minutes until the rice is ready.

Spread the drained peas on a large baking sheet and pop them in the oven for 10 minutes. Then stir them around and cook for another 5-10. The goal is to toast them lightly, so that they don't go to mush when mixed in with the rice.

In a saucepan in hot oil, temper the seeds and spices, following the order above. Be generous with the paprika to bring the smoke. When the tarka is cooked, mix it with the beans. When the rice is ready, fluff in the beans.