Liver pate

Something I used to make often, but haven't in a long while now. A more detailed post over on my other blog here, but the basics are as follows:

Fry a finely-chopped onion in about 4oz butter. When it's soft, add a few chopped cloves of garlic and 1lb liver. We usually use lamb's liver, but chick or beef will also do.

Once the liver changes color, add 1/2 pint of stock and seasoning (salt, black pepper, and a generous dash of Italian seasoning). Bring to the boil, cover, and then simmer gently for a couple of hours. You need the liver soft, and the stock reduced to a thick sludge.

Blend, add a dash of cream - just enough to make a thick paste - and blend again. Pour into a bowl, leave to cool, then refrigerate until set.

Gache Melee

I don't often do sweet stuff, but this is a traditional Guernsey recipe, an apple dessert.

Peel and core cooking apples and cut into rough chunks in a large mixing bowl - about 1 1/2 lbs in total. Sprinkle over 3 oz granulated sugar (I actually used demerara sugar). With a sharp knife chop the apple into smaller pieces until the sugar has dissolved into the released juice.

Thoroughly mix in 2 oz suet, 4 oz self-raising flour, and a pinch of cinnamon, and then 1 beaten egg.

Pour the batter into a greased baking dish, sprinkle with a bit more sugar, and bake for 30 to 40 minutes. The top should be nicely browned. Ideally, the top should end up slightly crisp and chewy while the middle is soft and juicy.

Eat hot or cold, with cream or ice cream.

Clam chowder

I can't believe I haven't posted this recipe yet. Maybe we went a little while without making it, but it's a tasty warming bowl for a chilly evening.

Start by making up a roux sauce, adding some chicken stock along the way - either paste, or in liquid form instead of some of the milk. You can also add a splash of white wine for extra flavor. Either way, you want to end up with a sauce that is thin enough to pour but not too thin.

Add a tin of drained clams, some finely-diced and pre-cooked potatoes and carrots, and optionally a handful of peeled shrimp. You can also throw in other veggies such as sweetcorn if you wish. Season with salt and pepper, serve with toast (or garlic toast).

Spinach and ricotta lasagna

A delicious variant on lasagna, using a white sauce rather than tomato sauce. Follows the basic procedure for lasagna, with a few differences:

For the meat sauce, use a white meat like ground turkey or chicken instead of beef. Instead of the tomato pasta sauce add a jar of Alfredo sauce.

Make up the cheese sauce as normal, but use equal parts mozzarella and ricotta cheese instead of regular cheddar.

When layering the lasagna, put a layer of the meat sauce, then pasta, then a thin layer of chopped spinach before adding the cheese sauce.

Greek salad

Easy, tasty, and a perfect accompaniment to pork souvlaki.

Mix together in a bowl: 1 cucumber (peeled, seeded and chopped), 1 tomato and 1 red pepper (seeded and chopped), black olives, and a sprinkle of finely-chopped red onion. Crumble over some feta cheese and top with a simple vinaigrette.

Pork Souvlaki

A summery recipe we discovered this year ...

Combine 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup lemon juice, a couple of cloves of chopped garlic, 1 tsp dried oregano and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper. Add cubed pieces of pork and leave to marinade in the fridge for a day.

Skewer and season the meat and grill.

Serve with tzatziki sauce, rice, salad, pittas, retsina, and sun. Also tasty at any other time of year :)

Cornbread

Cornbread is not something we ever encountered the other side of The Pond, and I only tried it relatively recently and decided to hunt down a recipe. I was delighted with how easy it was to get good results on a first try!

The recipe comes from this site: https://cafedelites.com/easy-buttermilk-cornbread/
But I'll repeat the basics here as the site is very cluttered with ads and you have to scroll down half a mile to get to the actual recipe.

In a bowl, combine 1 cup flour, 1 cup yellow cornmeal, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt. Mix well to remove any lumps.

Make a well in the center and add 1 cup buttermilk, 1/4 cup honey, 2 eggs. Mix to combine ingredients, then add 1/2 cup melted butter. Whisk until the batter is smooth, but don't over-mix.

Heat the oven to 400F, and preheat a greased 9" baking dish. Pour in the batter and cook for about 25 minutes. The top should be slightly browned, and the toothpick test will tell you when the middle is cooked. Leave to cool a bit before cutting and serving.

Rice

Given that rice is such a staple for us, maybe even more so than potatoes, I thought I would share our easy, no-fuss approach to cooking plain boiled rice. This is adapted from a pilau rice recipe, but without the spices.

Heat a thin layer of oil in a pan, and add the rice. Stir around for a few seconds to coat the grains. Add salt and either stock or water. If you had the pan warm enough the liquid should hiss when you pour it in. You want about 1 1/2 to 2 times the volume of liquid to rice.

Bring to the boil, give one last stir, and put the lid on. If you're cooking on gas, you want to turn the heat really low for about ten minutes and then switch off for the remaining time. If you use an electric hob it's even easier - when you put the lid on, switch off the ring and just leave the pan where it is. The residual heat in the ring will do the rest.

Twenty minutes later, you have beautifully cooked, hassle-free rice. Don't be tempted to lift the lid and check on it. You need to keep the steam in the pan to cook the rice. Just trust the process.

If you are cooking brown or wild rice, increase the cooking time. You can also leave the pan on the stove for a while longer if you're not yet ready to serve. This approach is very forgiving.

Ginger beer

We just started making our own ginger beer this summer. Cost-wise I don't think it's much of a saving on shop-bought pop unless you buy bulk ingredients, but it's a darned sight tastier and recalls a less commercial age.

The recipe we use is here, but it's very easy.

This makes a 2-liter bottle. We usually double everything up.

Place 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of water, and 2 tbsp grated ginger in a pan. Heat until the sugar is dissolved (yes, it looks a frightening amount, but it does dissolve, honest). Let the mixture steep for an hour or so until it cools.

Strain the syrup to remove the bits.

Get a cleaned-out 2-liter bottle and pour in 1/8 tsp dried yeast, the strained syrup, 3 tbsp lemon juice, and top up with cold water. Put the lid on and shake, then leave in a cool spot for a few days. Check it daily and crack the lid to let off pressure. There should be a bit of a fizz. It is now ready. Keep refrigerated to stop the fermentation.

Note - plastic bottles are probably safer than glass. Also you can feel the pressure building up by giving the bottle a squeeze. If there's no 'give' it's time to let off some steam!

Christmas pudding

This is a traditional English treat - a moist and rich steamed fruit pudding. We usually try to make these at the start of the year to give them plenty of time to mature before eating, and if you make more than you can eat in one Christmas they will comfortably keep until the next!

We are late this year, and only just got around to it last weekend.

This is an old family recipe that I blogged about in detail over on my other blog, including cooking instructions and pictures. Check it out here:
https://thebaldpatch.blogspot.com/2011/09/christmas-pudding.html

Pasta with creamy chicken and mushrooms

A really simple but tasty dish.

Fry some chicken pieces and sliced mushrooms in a generous knob of butter until cooked. We actually like to fry the mushrooms first to brown them, then set them aside while we cook the chicken so they don't go soggy. Add a good portion of cream and boil until it thickens. Having butter in the pan helps to thicken the sauce.

Serve over pasta of choice.

Pork in creamy mushroom sauce

This was an off-the-cuff concoction that worked pretty well. Not our normal light summer fare, but then this is hardly a normal summer :)

In a large frying pan, fry pork loin chops until browned both sides. Add a generous handful of sliced mushrooms - we usually go for the chestnut button mushrooms rather than their white cousins, for extra flavor. Once the mushrooms have browned a bit on a high heat, add a healthy slosh of brandy and let it bubble until most of the liquid has evaporated. Stir and turn things over from time to time to make sure they don't stick. Reduce the heat and add a cup or two of thick cream, then bring back to the boil until the sauce is thick and creamy.

Serve with choice of carbs and healthy stuff. We had this with mash and corn on the cob this evening.

Sweet & sour pork

We gave this recipe a try this evening, and it was fabulous.

I'm only posting the link here, and skipping my usual quick reference summary of ingredients and method because there's a lot of bits to it - the marinade for the pork, the coating, the sauce, and other bits to add to the pork - https://thewoksoflife.com/2015/12/sweet-and-sour-pork/

Suffice it to say, there's a fair bit of preparation and cooking involved, but we elected to have a lazy day and take it slowly this evening. Preparation and cooking time overall was over 2 hours rather than the 1 1/4 suggested on the website. In part that was because we had other dishes to make as well (stir fried rice and spring rolls) and we weren't in a hurry. We could have shaved off some time if we'd been more focused and organized. We also did a lot more pork - about twice the recipe - which made for more frying. Having said that, don't underestimate the time it takes to bring a pan of oil up to temperature, and to coat and fry batches of meat.

Not something to do if you're in a hurry, but if you enjoy being in the kitchen the effort was well worth it.

Curried shrimp and spinach

A very simple side dish I made up on the fly last week, just to add a little something special alongside the more regular chicken curry that I made.

Fry a sliced onion long and slow until it caramelizes nicely. Add spoonfuls of ground spice (cumin, coriander, chili, and some curry paste), then a couple of chopped tomatoes. Cook until the tomatoes mash down and mingle with the spices. About 10 minutes from serving, add some generous handfuls of fresh baby spinach leaves. Stir carefully to bring them into contact with the heat and let them sweat down. Stir in a handful of shelled cooked shrimp and make sure everything is mixed in and coated with spices.

Minestrone

Fry a finely-chopped onion in a large saucepan. Chop some Pastrami into fine slices and add to the pan. We use about 7 to 8oz. Stir and fry a while to let the flavor of the Pastrami come out.

Add a couple of chopped tomatoes and cook until the juice starts to come out.

Add a jug of stock, salt to taste, a healthy squirt of tomato ketchup and a dash of HP sauce for extra flavor. Stir in a can of drained red kidney beans, a similar quantity of finely-diced carrots, and a few handfuls of macaroni.

Bring to the boil, cover and simmer until the pasta, carrots and beans are cooked.

Baked and breaded chicken

I think this started as a camping dish, but it comes out once in a while at home for a change. A favorite with the kids.

Lay out chicken pieces on a baking tray. Coat with a few generous dollops of mayonnaise. Sprinkle a mixture of breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan over the top. Pop in the oven and bake until the chicken is cooked (about 40 minutes).