Knead for Speed

 The February rain was unrelenting in a way described by one of the classic cricket broadcasters and writers of the second half of the twentieth century. There is something different about the rain at this time of year. It seems to create more floods and leave people more drained from having to travel in it. Almost as if it is the final boss to get through before the spring and summer seasons arrive following a long winter.

There was not much to do on the Saturday just gone then but stay indoors and sort out life admin and plenty of cooking projects. I decided to make some homemade Rosemary Bread to power us up for the week to come.

On the player was Paul Weller’s debut album. This eponymous record, released in 1992, appeared after three years of inactivity following the disbandment of his previous group The Style Council. His disappearance from the music scene allowed him to return refreshed with this album and reach great heights from thereon. 

It reminded me of my four year hiatus from my beloved cricket club, triggered largely by spending more and more time in tedious committee rooms and less time actually playing the game I loved. The time away allowed me to grow as a person and so return in a position to contribute meaningfully to matches with bat and ball, and captain on occasions, in a way I could only have dreamed of during my first stint with the club. 

With these happy thoughts on my mind, I turned to the ingredients for this bread which go like this:

500 grams of bread flour.

1 sachet of yeast 

200 millilitres of warm water 

50 millilitres of milk 

Some sprigs of fresh Rosemary from the garden.

Pinch of pink Himalayan salt.

Sunflower oil and Plain Flour to soften and harden the dough as required.

The method went like this:

1. Stir together the Bread Flour, Yeast and Pink Himalayan Salt in a mixing bowl.

2. Gradually add the Warm Water and Milk plus the Rosemary until all the ingredients are absorbed and you have a pliable mixture.

3. Sprinkle a liberal amount of Plain Flour on the worktop and knead the dough on the worktop for around ten minutes absorbing the Plain Flour as you knead. 

4. Add some Sunflower Oil to avoid the Dough getting too dry and if it gets too sticky add some Plain Flour to make sure the dough is easy to manipulate but isn’t excessively sticky or moist. Practice makes perfect here.

5. When the dough is properly kneaded, roll into a sausage shape and cut lines across it.

6. Leave on a greased baking tray to rise for around thirty minutes.

7. Bake in the oven on Gas Mark 4 for around thirty to thirty five minutes.

The end result was a loaf of bread that was thick and slightly crunchy on the outside with a soft fluffy interior. It worked equally as well as a sweet dish with coffee or as a savoury dish acting as a sandwich for a corned beef cake with cucumber and lettuce. Another recipe on the list for the fasting month that would soon be upon us.

Sushi City

 The first day of February set the seal on an action-packed January, which had seen plenty of spiritual growth, some resetting of important things and the prelude to a month of intermittent fasting to come. I was on the lookout for some quick, easy and filling recipes that could serve to power us up before fasting sessions and revitalise us after we broke our fasts. I looked no further than a homemade sushi recipe.

I realised music too would be out of the equation during the month of fasting and so took the opportunity to listen to one of my current favourites in the shape of the Style Council’s 1989 album “Modernism; a new Decade” . The final effort from this group, which was not released until 1998, sees messrs Talbot, Lee and Weller embrace wholeheartedly the burgeoning acid house club and trip hop scene with a record that is satisfying and as essential as similar contemporary efforts from the likes of the Happy Mondays and Soul II Soul.

Sushi has long been a love of mine since a trip to a now defunct restaurant in one of the big cities near home back in 2008. I’d never made it from scratch but now seemed as good a time as any. 

The ingredients were as follows:

One cup of Sushi Rice.

A small tin of Red Atlantic Salmon.

A cucumber.

An avocado.

Some fish sauce.

5 seaweed sushi roll wraps.

The way to make the Sushi is like this:

1. Boil and simmer the Rice for 25 minutes. Then leave to cool down.

2. Take a wooden sushi rack and put a sushi roll wrap on the rack.

3. Spread the rice over the sushi roll wrap so it covers three quarters of it and is half a centimetre deep.

4. Spray in a vertical line down the part of the rice immediately to your right the fish sauce.

5. Put the Avocado, Salmon and Cucumber on top of the line of fish sauce in a straight, vertical line.

6. Roll the contents up to form a tube, use two or three roll wraps if there’s a lot of filling in your sushi, and leave it in the tube to set.

7. Once set, remove and cut into slices and serve with Soy Sauce. 

This was a recipe that was filling and very flavoursome and it took my mind back to a recent rewarding trip to Asia. Next time I’ll improve it even more by spreading the rice more thinly through several tubes and using more cucumber and avocado to make more bite-sized sushi pieces.

World of Cupcakes

The Holiday Season brought much time to reflect, unwind, be thankful and focus on the future. Not to mention to try some new recipes. This time round it was an opportunity to make some cupcakes with the ingredients below:

Ingredients

For the Sponge:

225 grams of Self-Raising Flour

Half a teaspoon of Baking Soda

Four Beaten Eggs.

225 grams of Salted Butter, softened at room temperature.

200 grams of Sugar, 100 of Brown Sugar and 100 of Caster Sugar.

1 teaspoon of Vanilla Essence. 

If you want a coffee sponge, add three tablespoons of instant Coffee of your choice. 

For the Icing

50 grams of Unsalted Butter, softened at room temperature

5 tablespoons of icing sugar

Food Colouring of your choice

Dolly Mixture, ensure it is made with Beef Gelatine, rather than pork, to keep it healthy and Halal. 

The Method

1. Cream the Butter and Sugar for the sponge until fluffy. 

2. Add the eggs and stir thoroughly into the mixture.

3. Add the flour and baking soda, plus the vanilla essence and, if desired, instant coffee granules. Stir into a thick paste.

4. Divide the mixture between bun cases, the mixture should make about sixteen or more cupcakes depending on how liberal you are in distributing the sponge mixture.

5. Cook in the oven for around 35 -40 minutes on gas mark 2.5. That way the sponge is moist and not excessively dry.

6. At the end of the cooking period, you will know the buns are ready because the sponge comes out clean when a fork is stuck into them and the sponge will spring back slightly when pressed. 

7. Place the buns on a wire rack to cool. 

8. Make the topping by creaming together the remaining butter and icing sugar. Add food colouring of your choice and decorate the cupcakes, once cooled, with the icing and the Dolly Mixtures. 

This recipe was one that was a hit all over the local region as we distributed cupcakes to loved ones for them to savour as 2026 approached us. 

King Kenny's Muffins

 It seemed almost like a dream, two weeks in a tropical paradise with the family sandwiched between two life-affirming stops in the Arabian Desert. In between, there was a break at the seaside at a resort featuring the bluest and clearest of seas and sand that was whiter than white. On the seafront was one of a chain of restaurants founded by the late country star Kenny Rogers. While there we sampled healthy fast food, if that is not an oxymoron, that included corn muffins. These were the muffins that inspired today's dish.

Having absorbed more Taylor Swift by osmosis, I found her 2019 album "Midnights", featuring the undeniably defiant "Karma" was on the player as I prepared this recipe.

These were the ingredients:

2 eggs Beaten

140g Cream Cheese

Half a tin of Sweetcorn.

Pinch of Mustard

Pinch of Tarragon.

Pinch of Pepper.

Pinch of Nutmeg

4 tablespoons full cream milk.

400g Self-Raising Flour.

Method

1. Stir the wet ingredients, eggs, cheese, milk and sweetcorn, together to form a paste.

2. Add the dry ingredients, being the flour herbs and spices, and stir them into the mixture.

3. Divide the mixture into balls around the size of a golf ball. 

4. Cook for 20 minutes on Gas Mark 6 on a greased and flat baking tray. 

5. Remove from the oven and put the muffins on a wire rack to cool.

Savoury met sweet on this dish while the pastry had a light and fluffy vibe to it that made it very textured and flavoursome. 

Cake it to the limit

It was the penultimate day in November and the rain just would not stop. That was a feeling that once would have left me exhausted and willing to hibernate until the first of January. Those days are gone though, brighter thoughts have ensued and a better way of growing and doing things naturally has followed. 

One way to feel thankful for that was to use the indoor downtime to make a cake that was inspired by a recipe from a couple who had, by taking matters into their own hands in the appropriate way, contributed towards new growth and happiness.

The cake was a coffee cake, the music on the player was an album taken from Fleetwood Mac’s  spirited 1997 comeback tour called “The Dance” and the mood in the kitchen was decidedly groovy.

Here’s the recipe:

For the Sponge 

225g Self-Raising Flour.

225g Sugar

225g soft unsalted Butter. 

4 beaten eggs

Two teaspoons of instant coffee.

For the filling

Five tablespoons of Icing sugar.

A tablespoon of Cocoa Powder

50 grams of Melted butter.

A tablespoon of instant Coffee. 

The method goes like this:

1. Cream the butter and Sugar until they are fluffy.

2. Mix the Eggs in.

3. Then add flour and the two teaspoons of  instant coffee and stir until there is a thick paste.

4. Divide the mixture evenly between two baking tins containing greased baking paper.

5. Cook in oven on Gas Mark 4 for 35 minutes.

6. Remove the sponges from the oven and leave to cool on one side.

7. Make the filling by mixing the tablespoon of instant coffee, 50 grams of  melted butter and five tablespoons of icing sugar together in a bowl to make a smooth paste.

8. Once the sponges have dried, remove from their cases and put on plates. Spread the icing mixture over the top of one sponge and then place the other atop it to form the cake.

The strength of the coffee was, in this cake, balanced out with the sweetness of the sugar. It proved a hit on the day and again when it was made, this time with some vanilla extract in the mix, for a special party on an equally rainy day just over a week later. 

Upper Class Beef

 An inspired, tasty meal at what is hoped will become the new "local" helped me in creating this beef meal recently. Thanks to the Peak Edge Hotel and Red Lion Restaurant for inspiration. Check out their website and amazing menu at: Red Lion Restaurant in the Peaks - Peak Edge Hotel 4* and the beef steak with Shallot and Chive sauce below:

One of the the best things about dining out is discovering new recipes and taking the inspiration from those recipes back home to apply to your own cooking. It is a bit like living someone else's dream and then borrowing its contents to help you live your own dream. The recipe in question was venison with green vegetables and blackberries and I felt I could create something similarly tasty using some Beef steak from the freezer. 

The ingredients of this dish are :

1 piece of Rump Beef Steak.

5 leaves of Kale.

2 Parsnips, peeled, topped, tailed and cut into batons. 

For the Shallot Sauce

1 Shallot, peeled, topped and tailed and then cut thinly.

5 chive stems diced thinly. 

10 ounces of melted, Salted Butter.

A tablespoon of Cornflour 

A pinch of Mustard.

The music on the player for this one was 10cc's 1978 record "Bloody Tourists". I first encountered this record on a rack between several Genesis albums at the house of the father of a good friend of mine at the turn of the century. Released two years after the departure of important founder members Godley and Creme, the two remaining original members and a core of session men are on good form with the big hit "Dreadlock Holiday" and plenty of other quality numbers on the record to bolster its brilliance. 

Let's now find out how to make this recipe, it is like this:

1. Fry the Rump Steak. For rare, which isn't really Halal, 2-3 minutes per side but to keep it Halal try frying it for closer to 6-8 minutes per side on a medium heat.

2. In a separate frying pan, heat some butter and then fry the Kale on a medium heat for around 10 minutes to create a crunchy texture and a sweet taste. 

3. Steam the parsnips for 15 minutes and add into the frying pan with the Kale when that is finishing cooking.

4. To make the Sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan and add the Shallot cooking it on a medium heat for about five minutes. Turn off the heat and add the Cornflour, Chives and Mustard and stir them thoroughly together. Re-heat and cook on the hob for a further five minutes ensuring the sauce is quite runny. 

Serve by arranging the Steak, Kale and Parsnip in a creative way on a plate and then drizzle the Shallot Sauce over the Steak. 

The richness and fresh ingredients of the Sauce coupled with the crunch of the Kale and protein of the steak made this feel like a restaurant quality dish was being served at home. 

Field of Breams

To quote a vintage 1980s episode of Doctor Who, it was a wet November on Earth. The day never seemed to get light due to the short daylight hours and heavy cloud with relentless rain. It's weather like this that makes the moods of many British people see-saw between elation during the long sunny summer days and sadness during the winter months. However, a wider perspective on faith, the world we live in and some good quality food can chase seasonal sadness away. 

It was the philosophy above that was taken into the making of today's recipe of Sea Bream with Greens.

The ingredients for this dish are:

1 Sea Bream, gutted and thoroughly washed.

1 bag of Spinach

8 Ounces of pre-cooked Boiled Rice.

12 Peanuts.

1 Large Parsnip, peeled, topped, tailed and cut into the shape of some batons.

Small Chunks of Fresh Cucumber

On the player was Taylor Swift's current offering "Life of a Showgirl" . Taylor's career before this album has been stellar and in her own she has been as iconic to the current generation as the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Michael Jackson were to their own generations. The album finds her moving beyond the bittersweet songs of lost love and distrust and into a glorious technicolour of a wider lyrical range and varied arrangements. This is, perhaps, in no small part due to her finding a genuine romantic partner in her life. 

So to the method of this dish:

1. Fry the Sea Bream on a medium heat turning frequently for around 35-40 minutes. The goal is to make the skin crisp as a potato chip while ensuring the flesh inside the Bream is cooked.

2. Steam the parsnip for around twenty minutes until soft but still retaining a bit of crunchiness.

3. Fry the Spinach, Rice and Peanuts on a medium heat for around 10 minutes until the Spinach has softened and the mixture has compacted. 

4. Remove the Bream from the pan once cooked and remove the flesh from the bones and the gills . 

5. Serve and garnish with the Cucumber Cubes.

It was the first time I had made this dish and the Nuts with Spinach provided important iron while the Bream had a fresh but quite rich taste to make this a filling treat on a wet winter's night. 

Beef of the Fall

 "After hardship comes ease" a quote that was very relatable to present events just as for me the quote "after the first recipe using apples from my wise guide's garden comes the sequel to that recipe" is equally relatable. This recipe is one for a distinctly Autumnal Beef Stew. Time to delve deeper into how to make this one happen.

Heavy cloud and no rain for what seemed like days served to lower the mood and leave many seeking brightness in faraway lands. That meant some solid comfort food was needed to protect ourselves against the cooling of the weather and less than light nights. 

On the player to inspire the cooking project was the last, and perhaps the greatest, album by Roxy Music in the shape of their 1982 effort "Avalon". Slick song-writing, cold but efficient synth work, mannered vocalising and one of the best opening tracks of all time with "More Than This" make this record a winner.

Ingredients

The ingredients to this stew come like this:

600 grams of diced Beef.

5 Carrots, washed, topped and tailed- but not peeled- and sliced thinly.

6 small Cooking Apples, similar to those from my friend's garden which I used, that are around the size of Pool Balls.

3 Shallots, topped tailed, peeled and then sliced thinly. 

Half a small Swede peeled.

Fresh Thyme, an amount to suit your personal taste.

Fresh Chives, an amount to suit your personal taste.

Black Pepper to season to your personal taste.

2 teaspoons of Malt Vineger.

2 tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce. 

1 pint of Vegetable Stock.

Method

1. Melt 100 grams of Salted Butter in a Le Cresceut or other oven proof dish that has a removable lid.

2. Add the Beef, Carrots, Apples, Swede and Shallots and mix thoroughly while stewing on a medium heat for around ten to fifteen minutes to ensure the Beef is browned. 

3. Add the Chives, Thyme, Black Pepper, Vinegar and Worcestershire Sauce and stew for another five minutes. 

4. Add the Vegetable Stock and ensure it covers all things in the dish.

5. Put the lid on the dish, take off the heat of the hob and insert into a pre-heated oven.

6. Cook on Gas Mark 3 for around two hours before serving.

The result of this dish was a sweetness from the apple that was enhanced by the Vinegar and Worcestershire Sauce while the Beef and root vegetables gave plenty of savoury flavour. To give it even more of a fortifying taste of the Fall, try serving with dumplings and/or thick freshly baked bread.

Above: with enough for several meals, this dish can be blocked cooked and frozen to enjoy when you are in a rush but need a good feed.

Scone Alone

 Last Tuesday in town, on an evening after another day of energy and excitement at work, some scones of a new kind were born. It was recipe making its debut on the blog and in the kitchen. It contained one of the delicious apples my wise mentor had provided me and some home grown herbs. Let's find out how to make this recipe below.

Earlier in the summer, a trip had been taken to Devon to the home of sweet scones, Jam and clotted cream. Indeed, this recipe-called a cream tea- is one the classic foods many think of when asked to name English Cuisine. Another sweet scone I once sampled, in another life, was lavender scones. However, I decided to put a twist on the traditional sweet scone recipe by making something sweet and savoury. 

On the player was the Kinks' 1967 masterpiece "Something Else by the Kinks" that opens with the schoolboy drama of "David Watts" and closes with the timeless masterpiece "Waterloo Sunset". In between; the wistful music hall revival "The End of the Season" that could have been sung by Bud Flanagan in the summer of 1939 and the ode to cigarettes of "Harry Rag" are two of many highlights. 

The ingredients for the scones went like this:

Eight Ounces of Self-Raising Flour.

Two Ounces of Salted Butter, softened at room temperature. 

Tablespoon of Chives from my garden that are chopped finely.

Tablespoon of Tarragon leaves from my garden that are chopped finely. 

A pinch of Mustard Powder.

An apple from the bag given to me by mentor, de cored and then cubed but not peeled. 

Four Ounces of grated Cheddar Cheese.

Milk to bind the mixture together, around 100 millilitres should do it.

These scones are made like this:

1. Knead the Self-Raising Flour and Butter until it resembles breadcrumbs.

2. Stir in the Chives, Tarragon, Cheese, Mustard and Apples. 

3. Gradually add the Milk, stirring it in steadily until the mixture resembles a ball of dough that is pliable. 

4. Grease a baking tray and split the mixture into around nine equal balls. 

5. Bake on Gas Mark Six for around twenty minutes until they are golden brown. 

6. Turn onto a plate and leave to cool. 

The scones followed me to work later that week, there the flavoursome taste containing sweet Apple and a genuine savoury nature from the Cheese and Herbs proved a winner with colleagues. 

Dales' Cake

On the blog today, a recipe that was born out of inspiration from the cakes of the Yorkshire Dales and filled with an exotic Jam that was made in the Derbyshire Dales. Let me fill you in on this stirring recipe. 

Change is all round us. As inevitable as taxes and the way the longer days give way to shorter ones, different weather and the plants producing crops that reflect the change in the seasons each year. This recipe was inspired by that process as it contained ingredients that are more commonly found in the Fall Season and serve as comfort food during those days when colder weather and darker evenings become commonplace. 

As always, there was music on the player. Today we were going quite old school but in some ways looking to the future too with the latest release by seminal Manchester Band The Chameleons. Their music could properly be classed as the missing link between the bleak, beautiful post-punk gravity of Joy Division and the bright guitar pop with dark and sardonic lyrics of the Smiths.

The Chameleons' last album was released in 2001 and before that they produced records in 1983, 1985 and 1986 with the odd EP and live record thrown in. The new release, Arctic Moon, which was preceded by an EP earlier in the year, features the classic Chameleon traits of attention to sonic detail in the guitar department, considered lyrics and new musical experiments. In other words it is outwardly something fresh and new but beneath the surface it is in every way the band we all know and love. The same could be said for my life; apparent changes on the face of things don't take away from the fact that, for those who choose to understand, underneath that is same the person they have always known and is now hoping to be a better version of what came before.

So the ingredients for today's recipe, which is a cake. They are as follows:

For the sponge

3 beaten Eggs that are medium sized. 

3 tablespoons of treacle. 

4 ounces of Caster Sugar

2 ounces of Ground Ginger.

8 ounces of Self-Raising Flour.

8 ounces part melted, Salted Butter. A good trick is to put the butter near a warm window for a short time to soften it up to the consistency of margarine. 

For the filling

Quince Jam. 

Method

1. Cream the Butter and Sugar together until you get a fluffy mixture that looks like the Butter has grown hair. 

2. Add the Eggs and Treacle and stir them into the mixture. 

3. Add the Flour and the Ginger and mix until a thick paste is created. 

4. Grease two cake tins and put half the mixture in each. 

5. Cook in the oven on Gas Mark 4 for 30 minutes or until putting a skewer into the cake brings it out clean. 

6. Put the two pieces of cake out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

7. Spread a large amount of the Quince Jam onto one side of the cake and put the other on the top to create a sandwich.

The cake tasted of something different but with a familiar sweetness. The Quince Jelly gave it the sweet and savoury taste of traditional Fall recipes as did the addition of the Treacle and Ginger also. The cake proved a real hit with an old friend I was blessed to reunite with after some years and workmates who have a warmth that matters. 

The Sunday Afternoon Seafood Project Part Two: Prawn Curry

One of the best things about the far east's cuisine is the amount of curry recipes over there. They can usually be divided into two categories, Thai Red Curry and Thai Green Curry. The Green flavour tends to be mellower while the Red carries fire and spice in its ingredients. It was the former I chose to make. 

These curries tend to rely on either Beef, Chicken, Pork-a bit Haram that- and Seafood for their protein. Inspired by the seafood of the Pacific Rim, I went for an option that involved utilising Prawns as the protein.

There was music on the player. This time round it was Jerry Goldsmith's excellent soundtrack to the first Star Trek Movie. The music bristles with tension, epic moments, feelings of salvation and elation, as well as articulating through the music the chemistry the original crew of the Enterprise displayed to allow them to survive their missions. 

So to the ingredients, which are as follows:

300 grams of pre-cooked and peeled Prawns. 

4 medium sized Sweet Peppers, de-cored, topped, tailed and sliced finely. 

1 Red Onion, peeled, topped, tailed and diced.

1 tablespoon of Ground Ginger. 

140 grams of Thai Red Curry Paste. 

1 can of Coconut Milk 

An amount of Rice to suit your needs to boil until it is sticky and then serve as a side dish. 

The way this one is put together is as follows:

1. Fry the onions on a medium heat for around ten minutes until they are translucent, stirring them regularly to avoid them burning. 

2. Add the Sweet Peppers and stir in before adding the Ground Ginger and cooking for another five minutes.

3. Add the Prawns and then fry for a further ten minutes on a low heat. 

4. Add the Coconut Milk taking care to remove the water from the can leaving only the pure milk to ensure the curry mix is rich and creamy. 

5. Simmer gently for another five minutes. 

6. Serve with the Rice and garnish with some Spring Onion leaves.

There was a certain saltiness to this recipe that contrasted nicely with the sweetness of the Coconut flavours and the curry paste had a fire to stop the recipe from being too rich. Certainly a recipe to have as a "go to" for block cooking for the working week ahead or a delicious Saturday Night Treat. 

Mean Tegine in the Homeland

 A trip to Morocco in late April and new-found knowledge of peninsula thousands of miles to the east helped inspire a recipe that was very much made in England. 

The sun shone. The leaves on the trees in the park were fading to gold while others had been shed by their owners to lighten the toll taken on them by the long drought of the summer. Fall had officially begun and it was a time to reflect. It had been a summer of holidays, exciting firsts on the cricket field and positive growth. 

The third Sunday in September came at the end of a weekend of laughter, badminton, hiking and nature walks with a spot of housework thrown in. I thought back to the delicious Tegine recipes found on the holiday in Morocco and with the righteous angst of the Smiths' 1985 number one album "Meat is Murder" on the player, I embarked on making an Aubergine and Prawn Tegine. The use of Prawns was inspired by my knowledge of the seafood found in that peninsula far away in the East. 

The ingredients were as follows:

For the Tegine

Two Aubergines, topped, tailed and sliced thinly. 

One Red Onion, topped, tailed and sliced finely. 

Two diced Sweet Peppers with their seeds and tops removed. 

One tablespoon each of ground Cumin, ground Cloves, ground Coriander, Harissa Flakes and pieces of Saffron.

The juice of one Lemon. 

Two tablespoons of Honey. 

Sixteen shelled Prawns that are pre-cooked and ready to eat. 

0.1 litres of boiling water.

100 grams of Red Lentils. 

For the Loaded Rice

150 grams of dried Rice.

0.5 litres of boiled water.

1 tin of Kidney Beans.

The method of this recipe is as follows and very simple:

1. Add all the ingredients ,except the water, to an ovenproof dish, such as a Le Cresceut, with a lid on it. Put the lid on and shake the dish to combine the ingredients and leave them for about an hour to marinate. 

2. Add the water and cook the ingredients in the dish on the hob for ten minutes on a low heat. 

Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 5 and once it has warmed up, put the dish in the oven and cook for one hour. 

3. Meanwhile, boil the Rice until it is sticky and has absorbed the water. Add the Kidney Beans and stir them together with a pinch of Harissa. 

4. When everything is cooked serve it. 

The combination of sweet and sour together with the protein of the Kidney Beans to bolster the rice makes this dish irresistible and it tastes even better when kept overnight and eaten the next day. Such much good British Cuisine is based on sweet and sour flavours from other countries but adopted and appropriated to create dishes inspired from abroad but made in this country. Much like British cuisine, our country would not be half as successful without all those things that have come from other places to enrich and enhance. 

Power to the Pontack

It was early, too early really, in the morning at the start of the working week when I picked up a package of some value that was created in the mid-nineteen eighties and had been delivered to the local corner shop. It was a shop adjoining a housing estate containing memories of sports entertainment, made by many long gone, from the 1980s and  early1990s and a certain kind of edge and danger that raised itself at the end of the noughties. 

However, opposite the shop was a park where daffodils with flowerheads the colour of bright turmeric bloomed and butterflies with tangerine wing-tips flitted effortlessly in late April to mark the arrival of a new summer. The park led to a building that had a slanted roof and a construction that was akin to the design of houses made of Lego that first went on sale nearly forty years ago. It was there, just four clear days later, where I joined a holy host of others for some much needed calmness over a continental breakfast. 

The day in question was the first Saturday in September, a date where historically a physical and mental re-set after the end of summer normally takes place. This first Saturday was no exception after what was, from a career, sporting, social and emotional point of view, a successful summer. However, due to changes in people far and near old and new, it all felt different this time. Such feelings however were tempered by a familiar chat, with one of my oldest friends, about foraging and the multitude of exciting and wonderful recipes that can be found in the wild, wild woods at this time of year. 

One such recipe is to make a savoury sauce out of elderberries. Elderberries are at their best at the end of August and the start of September. As I have done on many occasions since 1988, the same year I met my friend, I found myself wandering towards the woods near my childhood home. It was not long before I stumbled into a field soaked in mist at the edge of which hung a clump of Elderberries that glistened like wet leather and hung from iridescent red stems. I grabbed them gratefully and headed home to get away from the claustrophobic fog. 

Inspired by my good friend's recommendation, I settled upon a recipe that Henry VIII used to put on his venison meals. Pontack sauce, which is made with elderberries and can include shallots. In the days before tomatoes reached our shores, this sauce was the aristocrat's choice to go to in flavouring their meals. 

It is often made by baking the ingredients in the oven for a number of hours. However my recipe was a shortcut that  reduced my carbon footprint considerably. As I commenced cooking; on the player was some music of apparent blackness, that in fact hid in plain sight swathes of sardonic humour and life affirming goodness. The music was Leonard Cohen's set at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. Walking out onto the stage in the small hours to a tired and increasingly hostile crowd; Cohen's dry authority and impeccable timing in his introduction to the setlist blunted their anger and his set, brought to life by a sparse backing band and Cohen's unmistakeable baritone, had the audience eating from the palm of his hand as they clapped and sang along like they were his best friends hanging out with him down the pub. 

Against this backdrop, the recipe was as follows:   

200 grams of the fresh Elderberries I had foraged earlier that day.

2 tablespoons of Onion Salt. 

Quarter of a pint of White Wine Vinegar.

A teaspoon of ground Black Pepper.

The first job was to remove the stems from the Elderberries. They are neon red for a reason, to advertise their toxicity and eating more than a couple of them will give you an upset stomach. Having removed the stems, I washed the berries thoroughly and placed them in a saucepan with all the other ingredients and mixed them together. 

The next job was to place the pan on the hob and bring the mixture to boil. Once this had happened, I simmered the mixture for twenty minutes. The next task was to set the Pontack to one side and let it cool. Once it had cooled I placed it in a sterilised jar; but not before sniffing it to realise that it had a rich smell that leant itself to being enjoyed with an indulgent joint of meat, such as venison or rump steak, as comfort food on a gloomy Autumn Sunday. 

Curry of Many Parts

 One of the things I have continued to try and perfect during my hiatus from compiling this blog is the perfect curry mix. The are two key tips I've learned the first, which I feel take the best traditions from Bengali meat curries on which many "traditional" British Curries are based and vegan curry recipes, are to give equal precedence to the meat and the vegetables. The second is to always marinate the ingredients for some time before cooking them. 

With this in mind, I recently made a Chicken and Broccoli Curry that I had left the ingredients of to marinate for most of the day before I cooked them. This curry was a product of my recent quiet weekend which involved much rest, reflection and re-setting together with important reading of papers. 

On the player for the preparation was music, which matched the temperamental spring storm out of doors, in the shape of disc two of Pink Floyd's The Early Years Box Set. This disc covered 1968, a year that could have broken them with losing their lead singer and key songwriter. However the trend towards more expansive pieces that were by turns more reflective and mellow while still allowing space for power and intensity showed them on the first steps to securing their ultimately illustrious future. 

The ingredients for the Curry were as follows:

Two Chicken Breasts cut into cubes

Two 4cm x 2cm pieces of Root Ginger, peeled and sliced finely. 

Six cloves of Garlic, peeled, topped, tailed and sliced finely.

A teaspoon of Tomato Puree. 

A teaspoon of dried Chilli Flakes of your choice. I used hot and smoky Chilli Flakes. 

A tablespoon of Sumac.

A tablespoon Garam Masala.

A tablespoon of Fenugreek. 

A teaspoon of Turmeric.

A tablespoon of Fresh Mint well chopped. 

A head of Broccoli well diced. 

One hundred grams of Cashew Nuts.

A quarter of a pint of Chicken Stock.

One Bell Pepper, de-seeded, cored and sliced into small squares. 

One hundred grams of Rice of your choice 

The method goes like this:

1. Take all ingredients, save the Rice, and combine together in a deep bowl. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and hold the sides of it to stop the clingfilm slipped off. 

2. Shake the bowl hard for a couple of minutes while holding the clingfilm in place to ensure none of the ingredients escape. 

3. Put the bowl of ingredients, still covered with the clingfilm, in the fridge or somewhere else cool and leave to marinate for 8-12 hours. 

4. Melt some Salted Butter in Le Cresceut or other similar dish/deep pan. 

5. Add the ingredients and cook on a medium heat on the hob for around half an hour stirring them frequently to avoid them sticking to the bottom of the man. 

6. After half an hour add the vegetable stock and stir this in cooking for another half an hour. 

7. While the above is happening, boil the Rice for around fifteen minutes until soft and add extra Turmeric to the Rice if so desired. 

8. When the Curry mix is cooked, add the Rice to the dish and stir through before serving. 

The good thing about this Curry was that there were three main flavoursome ingredients to it as the marinating of the Broccoli and the Cashew Nuts meant it was not just the tender chicken pieces that made this dish a flavoursome experience. 

Who has the beef?

When someone asks me whether "I got beef" I have to think carefully about my response as there could be a number of possible answers. Depending upon who I am speaking to, I might wish to reassure them I have no problem with them and I also might want to enlighten them that I extol the virtues of a certain ingenious pop-up restaurant in the locality. The organisation in question is known as "Got Beef" and I can give no better reference than to commend you to check out this review in a local newspaper at: Derbyshire chef hopes to bring pop-up American style street food venture to more Chesterfield pubs (derbyshiretimes.co.uk) 

The architect behind the organisation takes his inspiration primarily from beef recipes from the United States of America while, as should be the way with all great creative minds, adding something uniquely and wonderfully his own to the recipes. 

During the recent weekend of storms, nature, gardening, life admin and Pink Floyd binging I took my inspiration for today's blog entry from the O.G Got Beef. 

There was a break in the Floyd bingeing and a break in the weather as I, in light of volunteering to support my parents at a forthcoming gig of his, I gave Paul Weller's 1995 album "Stanley Road" a proverbial spin. I knew well the soaring, slightly synthetic, shimmering eighties soul of his work with "The Style Council" and could not have made it to this stage in life without prolonged exposure to the punchy and deceptively eclectic offerings of "The Jam". 

This record was different gravy however as it was a ramshackle collection of quasi Clapton numbers with smattering of Blue-Eyed Soul and a shot of Stevie Winwood. It felt like the sound of a man wanting to run as far as he could from the laser-sharp work of his earlier bands. 

As with lots of dishes the first job was to marinate long and hard. I took a pack of diced beef and threw it into a bowl with the following:

Two tablespoons of Ground Cumin.

Six diced cloves of Garlic.

A teaspoon of Chilli Flakes.

A teaspoon of Pink Himalayan Salt.

A tablespoon of Cayenne Pepper.

A tablespoon of Tomato Puree. 

Two Leeks, topped, tailed, their outer skins removed and then sliced finely.

A Bell Pepper that had been cored, de-seeded and sliced into thin strips. 

I then put cling film on the bowl and shook it hard for a couple of minutes before leaving it in the fridge overnight to marinate. 

Next I poured it into a Le Cresceut and melted some seventy five grams of Salted Butter into the mix. I cooked it in the oven for around thirty five minutes on Gas Mark 4 before adding a tin of Tex-Mex Mixed Beans and a tin of Chopped Tomatoes plus seventy five grams of Lentils Vertes I'd boiled for  thirty minutes. I then turned off the oven and left the mixture in the pot in the oven as it cooled down to help it all ferment together. 

The result was a spicy, tender and rich dish with a diverse set of ingredients and flavours that in, some ways, represented the diversity of American Culture. 

The dish can be frozen for later consumption as is shown with this helping that is ready to de-frost and warm up. Therefore it is a dish ideal for block cooked meals eaten during the working week. 

Dating Sight

It was a weekend of storms, but in the house it was somehow still and peaceful. A time of oneness and just "being". The previous weeks had been action packed and featured, amongst other things, a St Patrick's Day double-header, my first fraternal black tie dinner since 2019 and a long weekend deep in Eastern Countryside to celebrate an important milestone. 

At my time of life; the action packed days must be enjoyed and the opportunities realised, but the flipside of that is regular downtime needs to be taken to be at my best for those who are important to me. The weekend therefore of gardening, resting, reading, finding time for nature was much needed before the adventures begin again next week. 

With downtime comes cooking new and exciting recipes. Some to consume over the weekend, others to freeze and then microwave in the office so as to give something delicious and wonderful to fortify me during the working week. 

Yesterday's recipe was simple step back into the world of creating recipes for the food blog. It was inspired by trips to a wonderful Turkish Restaurant and an equally brilliant Persian Restaurant in a major city and links to both can be found at Zeugma Restaurants Sheffield (zeugmaiki.com) and QashQai Kitchen food review: A Sheffield heaven for Persian food just round the corner (thestar.co.uk) both of which serve wonderful sweet dishes, some of which are used when Muslims break their fast during Rhamadan.

I chose to make some stuffed dates and the ingredients to make this dish were as follows:

1. Eight Dates, with the stones removed. 

2. Around fifty grams of fruit and nut chocolate, melted to liquid in a sauce pan. The chocolate was a gift from my trip to the secluded East the previous weekend. 

3. Four tablespoons of Liquid Honey. 

4. Chia Seeds. 

On the player was Disc 1 of Pink Floyd's brilliant 1965-72 compilation called "The Early Years". The collection largely consists of re-mixes and rarities of most their output prior to their internal blockbuster "Dark Side of the Moon". Disc 1 is significant for showing how quickly they went from being a slightly quirky rock and roll and blues cover band to a world beating, transcending, force. It also has the bonus of a rare gig with their original and storied erratic genius Syd Barrett as frontman. 

With these still inventive sounds floating out of the player, I set to work by cutting a hole-about the size of my thumbnail- into the middle of each date. Then I melted the Chocolate, fruit and nut and left it to one side for a moment while I added the Chia Seeds and Honey to the centre of each date. 

While it was still cool and before it set, I topped the hole with the chocolate mixture. This soon set so as to keep the Dates together as well as ensuring the Chia and Honey Mixture remained in place. After it had all fully cooled, I placed it in the fridge overnight to help the Chocolate set. 

The next day, I removed the collection of Dates from the fridge to find the overnight cooling had done wonders to lock in the sweet flavours. A delicious treat during a relaxed weekend.

 

Spring into Sunday

Today was, much like a lot this July, a day that held weather not unlike how summers often were in my childhood in the 1980s; in that the temperatures were fresh, it was often wet and windy and the results of games of cricket, at all levels, often depended upon the weather. 

I was about to have a wander with a long-standing friend and our Doggs after coming off the end of a week chock-full of fraternal activities, a sunlit evening game of cricket against the Kashmir XI and quality time with the Most Important Person. All this said I decided I needed something substantial for the upcoming walk. 

A lot of much needed weeding on the back garden the day before had revealed I had some thriving Spring Onion and that the Chives and Russian Tarragon continued to grow. This, plus some spare eggs in the fridge, inspired me to make some Scrambled Egg. However rather just any Scrambled Egg I decided to use the things from my garden to make a butter sauce to drizzle on the Scramble Egg.

On the player was the Band's 1970 effort "Stage Fright". After the pretty much flawless brilliance of their rootsy, back to basics sounding first and second efforts, "Stage Fright" came to some as a disappointment. I remember my Dad recalling, when he was a fluffy Chemistry Student at a local University at the time of the record's release, the album being criticised in the student press as not being as good as the previous two. 

However in the fifty-three years that have passed since that review, time reveals the record to contain much that is worthwhile and illustrates that it is a collection of great songs rather than a great album. There's plenty to marvel at including the buoyant, nerve-ridden rocker "Shape I'm In" while "Time to Kill" and "Stage Fright" reveal a set of musicians still capable of making great music while being clearly fatigued by the constant pressures of touring. 

...And now back to the food; this is how to make the dish

For the Scrambled Egg

 2 Eggs Beaten

Tablespoon of Semi-Skimmed Milk.

Pinch of Nutmeg

For the Spring Onion Butter Sauce

1 Spring Onion from my garden, tailed and cut finely.

100 grams of Russian Tarragon from my garden sliced finely.

25 grams of Chives from my garden sliced finely. 

Half a teaspoon of Black Pepper.

A tablespoon of Cider Vinegar; I used one that was blended with Lemon Juice and Ginger. 

150 grams of Salted Butter.

Serve with:

5 Gluten Free cheese-flavoured oatcakes.

The Method

The method goes like this:

1. Beat the Eggs together in a measuring jug, then add the Milk and Nutmeg and stir together.

2. Melt the Butter in a Saucepan then add the Spring Onion, Chives, Tarragon, Black Pepper and Cider Vinegar and stir well together, while cooking on a very low heat on the hob, for around five minutes. 

3. Line another saucepan with Rapeseed Oil and add the Eggs, Milk and Nutmeg. Stir regularly over a low heat, to stop the contents sticking to the saucepan bottom, for around five minutes.

4. Place the Oatcakes in a pattern on a dinner plate. Add the Scrambled egg and then drizzle the Spring Onion Butter Sauce over the top and serve.

Afghan Adventures

It was the middle of January and the mild weather was slowly giving way to some Tundra type frosts. In order to prove that the January Blues were a mere urban myth we had booked to spend a long weekend in North Yorkshire. It was a weekend that was memorable, spontaneous and full of winter sun. On the Saturday evening of the trip we went a-wandering to downtown Pickering and stumbled upon a wonderful curry house for our evening meal. It seemed that anybody who was anybody in the village was there and I enjoyed an excellent Afghan Curry. It was, in fact, one of the best curries I had ever tasted. A link to the site of this tasteful restaurant is at: Noyon | 7 Eastgate, Pickering, YO18 7DU | 01751476969 / 01751477039 | (noyonindian.co.uk) 

A weekend later, with time on my hands due to the Dogg and I not wanting to walk far in the cold Sunday ice, I decided to make my own version of this curry. 

The ingredients were as follows:

Two Chicken Breasts cut into small cubes and supplied by the ever wonderful Stretton Hall Farm | Facebook 

Two tablespoons of dried coriander. 

Two tablespoons of dried mint.

Two teaspoons of dried Cumin.

Five crushed cloves of Garlic

Four Tablespoons of Coconut Oil.

Two teaspoons of Garlic Salt

Half a teaspoon of Black Pepper.

One well-diced Red Onion. 

A tin of chopped Tomatoes.

A tin of Kidney Beans in Chilli Sauce. 

One Vegetable Stock Cube

On the player was Sinatra, Frank Sinatra. On this particular release from 1968, he and Duke Ellington teamed up and travelled incognito by calling the record "Francis A and Edward K" being their first names and middle initials. The record finds the pair in the early Autumn, in the case of Sinatra, and the winter, in the case of Ellington, of their careers. They however handle the excellent choice of material assuredly to create an engaging album. 

So to the method of this dish, it goes like this:

1. Put half the Coriander, Cumin, Mint, Garlic Salt Coconut Oil and one of the Garlic Cloves into a bowl with the Chicken Pieces. Mix the ingredients well together, cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave in a cool place for a couple of hours to allow the mixture to marinate. 

2. When the marinated chicken is ready add to a Le Cresceut or large, deep frying pan with some melted butter. 

3. Fry together with the red onion on a medium heat for around twenty minutes then add the rest of the herbs and spices, Coconut Oil and half the chopped tomatoes before stirring them together and cooking for another fifteen minutes. 

4. Add the vegetable stock cube and the other half of the Chopped Tomatoes and mix together keeping the heat at just below medium for another twenty minutes.

5. Add the rest of the Garlic and the Red Kidney Beans and stir thoroughly while keeping a medium heat to ensure everything is cooked and blended together. After fifteen minutes of doing this the flavours should be blended and the dish ready to serve. 

On this occasion I served the dish with Rice that was mixed with Cardamom pods. The unique part of this curry is that the mint gives it a fresh flavour that contrasts with the spices to ensure it is strong tasting but has a rich creaminess behind the initial strong taste. It was a flavoursome replication of a meal that was part of a wonderful, memorable weekend. 

Broadbean Bazaar

 It was the wettest day of the month and rain drops hung like beads of sweat on the lush grass growing near the railway track running close to my home. It was the morning after some hard work in helping my cricket team to get a draw and the lion's share of the points to move ourselves off the bottom of the table. It was also the morning after some revelations, albeit ones that would naturally open the door to something wonderful and new, with the realisation that the love you take is always equal to the love you make.

Against these rather deep Sunday Morning thoughts it was time to get creative with the remainder of some delicious bacon sourced from Stretton Hall Farm | Facebook . I had three slices left and I slashed these into small cubes and fried them for around three minutes. Then I put them to one side on a serving plate. 

As I steamed the Broad Beans I had plucked from my garden, the Rolling Stones' excellent album "Exile on Main Street" blared noisy defiance on the player. It was just the inspirational music that was needed after some recent challenges I had faced. The record is one that despite containing sounds as old as the hills, remains fresh and vital. Those of you who haven't checked it out could do worse than take a listen at: Exile On Main St. - YouTube  

The Broad Beans were steamed for around ten minutes to ensure they remained flavoursome but not too al dente. After that I fried in the bacon fat left over from the earlier frying two diced Onions and a diced clove of Garlic. I fried them for ten minutes until the Onions were translucent. I then added the Bacon Pieces, the juice of one Lemon, six fresh Mint Leaves and three small heads of fresh Parsley and mixed all these ingredients together. Then I added the Broad Beans and warmed everything through. 

I served the mixture on a bed of fresh red lettuce leaves. With the use of a lot of fresh, green vegetables this dish had the positive tastes that summer meals bring. 

Pizza the Hutt

The Sunday before the jubilee found me on a wonderful walk with an old friend that saw us stumble across my parents and their ginger Dogg, lots of remarkable wildlife and a fistful of wild garlic that went into a gluten free pizza recipe.

After returning from my walk I opened the conservatory door and let sunshine slide in while I put on Status Quo's powerful and direct 2002 effort "Heavy Traffic". The Quo's music always sounds better on long, sunny days when cooking or going on a long drive. The record begins with the skilled shuffle of "Blues and Rhythm" and takes in along the way a strong cover of "Jam Side Down" with a good deal of trademark piledriving thrown in for good measure. 

For the Pizza dough I placed into a mixing bowl 400 hundred grams of gluten free bread flour, a heaped teaspoon of xanthan gum and five tablespoons of olive oil. I made a well in the middle of the mixture and gradually added in 250 millilitres of warm water. Then I added all the dry parts of the mixture into the water and then kneaded the dough powerfully to create a flat circle at the bottom of the mixing bowl. I covered the bowl with clingfilm and left it in the fridge for a couple of hours. 

When I resumed making the dish I took the pizza dough from the fridge and rolled it out on a greased baking tray. I spread evenly over the top of the dough, until it covered it, slices of charcoal cheese that I found at the wonderful Stretton Hall Farm | Facebook   . I used two of the five leaves of Wild Garlic that I had foraged locally to place on top of the cheesy base. 

Next I spread a tin of chopped tomatoes atop the pizza and the three other Wild Garlic leaves together with a diced, homegrown Cayenne Pepper. 

I cooked it in the oven for ten minutes on Gas Mark Seven and then served the Pizza with a side of homegrown lettuce. It proved to be a pizza that was spicy and rich with a dough that didn't make me bloated what with the lack of gluten.