Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
What do you do when handed a pile of cheap pork chops and you dont want to simply grill them yet again? The answer is to get them off the bone and do something imaginative.
Generally speaking, Stroganoff is a dish made with fillet streak – it is fast, luxurious and easy. If any recipe tells you it takes ages, then it isn’t a proper Stroganoff – after all, it was one of the staples of many a top hotel in London in the 60s, and they do not want recipes that take forever!#
I have never seen why I have to limit the technique to beef only, and really, this could be applied to just about anything, maybe even fish, as long as it was something like Tuna. Anyway, here is a pork version. For this I have reduced the amount of paprika and added black pepper – it seems to suit the meat better. (more…)
Monday, February 14th, 2011
Eggs, Haddock and Bacon cooked with butter
The French have a dish called Oeuf Sur Le Plat, which translates as Eggs on the Plate. However, this dish is not simply an egg put on a plate, but a baked delight often mixed with other ingredients such as bacon, cheese, tomatoes and so on. I remember this being served in round glass dishes on the ferry when we travelled to France from Newhaven to Dieppe many, many years ago, and again on a train in France when I was small. This is easy to cook, and even easier to eat – here I have made it with Haddock and Bacon.
For just one person you will need a metal or glass dish about 15cm in diameter. I used an Indian curry dish, which was just about perfect.
Take a large slice of unsalted butter and grease the dish leaving the remainder of the slice in the middle.
Layer into the dish 3 slices of good smoked bacon and about 150gm of smoked haddock cut into strips. Bake this in a medium hot oven till the bacon is only just cooked (not going brown.)
Remove from the oven and very carefully crack two eggs into the middle – you have to be careful as the eggs will easily break and once they have you cant get them out again! Give a good grind of black pepper and a sprinkling of parsley and put back into the oven.
Bake for about 10 minutes until the eggs are cooked to your liking. It is best if the yokes are still soft.
Remove and serve, warning the diner to be careful of the hot dish! This is a very simple, one dish breakfast or lunch which you can vary as much as you like, really – as long as you keep the eggs, of course.
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
I love mushrooms, even the ordinary ones you get from supermarkets, though I admit I can be bribed with a nice fresh Cep. Mushrooms on toast might seem like a bit of a boring dish, but it is truly wonderful as long as you keep it simple. Part of the trick is plenty of mushrooms; there is nothing worse than a bit of bland bread with a couple of grey-brown lumps on top. No, mushrooms on toast should be overflowing!
Grab a pile of mushrooms and slice to a medium thickness – around a centimetre perhaps. Get the best loaf of bread you can find, preferably something good and coarse and rustic. Cut your self some nice thick slice. Now, take a very large frying pan. Mushrooms, like meat, cook best when they have some elbow room; pack them too tightly and the liquid that comes out of the mushrooms will just boil the mushrooms rather than evaporate straight away. Get your pan very hot and add a couple of table spoons of olive oil. Throw in the mushrooms and fry till soft and there is very little liquid. At some point, get your bread toasted! Salt and pepper the mushrooms and add a teaspoon of good unsalted butter and some fresh chopped herb – a bit of sage might be nice, or a simpler taste like parsley. Be careful not to over do the herbs, we want to taste those mushrooms. Stir the mushrooms for a couple of minutes till the butter is stirred in and then plonk them on the toast.
Go and hide from the rest of the world and eat!
What do you do when handed a pile of cheap pork chops and you dont want to simply grill them yet again? The answer is to get them off the bone and do something imaginative.
