Scones of Wild Garlic

Today was a day to unwind and relax after an action packed few days. It started on Friday with a very sober bar crawl round three local pubs, then continued the next day with a trip out round town to catch up with some good mates and wound down today with a long walk with the dogs that included some excellent views and healthy dose of setting the world to rights.

We had called time on the trip round town on the Saturday night relatively early, compared to the old days of staying out until three in the morning, and I was in bed by half one in the morning. These days if I stay out too late it wipes me out for the whole of the following day and if I have a really late night then I need to book a few tactical days off work after the night out.

Luckily an early(ish) night meant some time for a good long walk and also chance to do some more cooking projects. This said I decided to make something that you can only really make at this time of year due to the availability of one of the ingredients; Garlic Scones. The reason why you can only make them at this time of year is because rather than using garlic bulbs you use the leaves of wild garlic plants in the recipe which are only really edible at this time of year.

The soundtrack to cookery today was The War on Drugs' recent brilliant album "Lost in the Dream" which includes great tracks like "Red Eyes" "In Reverse" and "Under the Pressure" a song that describes adequately my mind-set since the start of the new year.

I first put in a mixing bowl 225 grams of self-raising flour and fifty grams of low fat margarine. I cut the butter into small, misshapen cubes and then rubbed it in with my hands until the flour and margarine were combined together and shaped like breadcrumbs.

The next job was cut up eight wild garlic leaves. Wild garlic grows commonly near where I live, mainly along the side of riverbanks and footpaths and fortunately some was available in the garden of the house I am currently living at. I sliced the garlic leaves horizontally using a sharp knife into narrow strips. I added the strips of garlic leaves to the flour and margarine together with 100 grams of grated, lactose free extra mature cheddar. I also added one beaten egg and one hundred millilitres of semi-skimmed milk to the bowl and stirred them together until they formed a thick paste.

I realised that I needed to dry the mixture if it was going to cook properly and so I added to the bowl about seventy-five grams of self-raising flour. I then stirred the mixture into a ball and kneaded it like bread dough into the flour until I had something that had the dry, dusty consistency of pastry. I rolled it out on the worktop until it was about a square foot in width and about a centimetre deep. I cut the pastry up into five centimetre square pieces and baked it in the oven on 200 degrees, 210 for non-fan ovens, for about fifteen minutes.

After taking the scones out of the oven and letting them cool down a little I had a taste of them and found the wild garlic to be less potent than garlic bulbs would be. The wild garlic leaves did not overpower the taste of the mature cheddar either. The scones were best served with a spot of margarine melted onto them and proved to be an enjoyable starter to tonight's tea.

Butter would melt: these scones are delicious if halved and then margarine is spread on top of them.

Changing to chicken

Last weekend was one where it seemed that different ways of doing things crossed paths in successive days; the part of me that still likes a good night out and the part of me that wants to knuckle down to the task of settling down and taking on  a lot more responsibility.

The first half of the weekend saw me enact the first role at a loud bar in a big city for a birthday party. The live entertainment needed a volunteer from the audience to embarrass for one of their routines and, as seems to be my lot in life sometimes, I was the volunteer. That said people thought I was a good sport in acting as a volunteer and even though inside I wanted to jump on the first train home in embarrassment at the situation, I held my own as best I could for the sake of everyone watching.

The next morning we had a lie in the peace and quiet of the flat and thoughts turned to cooking a healthy but filling Sunday lunch as well as having some much needed downtime. These days weekends are becoming a lot more about having the time to re-charge batteries through walking in the country, have relaxed visits to quiet restaurants and pubs and friends' houses and looking for a property to buy rather than having heavy nights out all the time. This new approach to weekends was one of my New Year resolutions while the other was to have some dishes that were healthy with more protein in and more meat as well.

The meal we decided to make was a chicken stew with all the ingredients prepared from scratch. I first cut up into halves four medium sized chicken breasts which I added to a non-stick pan which I had first sprayed the bottom of with some very low fat cooking spray. I fried the chicken on a medium heat and turned it constantly with a wooden spoon for around fifteen minutes until it began to turn a golden brown. When I cooked it I added a teaspoon of paprika to the chicken and made sure that I combined the paprika fully with all the chicken.

The trick with cooking any raw meat is making sure it is done all the way through and not undercooked. To help ensure that this meat was cooked through I cut the pieces in half part way through cooking and if the middle part that had become exposed through cutting was uncooked I pushed the uncooked part down onto the hot surface of the pan.

Another trick with raw meat, which I had confirmed as being a good trick if you fry anything savoury when I had a meal in early December with a talented local artist, is that early on you should get the spices mixed into the dish to give it the flavour. This was the reason why I added the paprika to the chicken at an early stage.

Next I diced up one large white onion and finely sliced two cloves of garlic. I took the chicken out of the pan and put it on a plate while then adding the onion and garlic plus another teaspoon of paprika to the pan. I fried the onion and garlic until the onions became translucent.

After this I added a can of Borlotti Beans and a can of tin tomatoes to the pan with the chicken and around a pint of water. I simmered the contents of the pan for around thirty minutes with the lid covering the pan. So as to keep the contents from drying up I added water to it periodically.

In the meantime I boiled some rice in a pan for around half an hour.

After simmering the contents of the pan for thirty minutes I took the lid off and simmered the contents for another twenty or thirty minutes. Towards the end of the cooking I added 100 grams of spinach and two tablespoons of chopped parsley all of which combined very easily with the rest of the mixture.

Once the contents of the pan were ready I added the rice to it and served it with some white cabbage. The chicken was succulent and rich while the spice of the paprika and the Borlotti Beans gave a real depth of flavour to the dish. Certainly this was a good meal to have on a cold Sunday morning in winter.

Tatty Beef

On the last weekend before Christmas Week I went up to my grandparents for a long overdue visit. They are both well into their eighties and both been unwell as a result this has meant that each time I see them I wonder if it will be the last time. Negative thoughts I know but that's what the passage of time does to you.

I knew that they were not quite enjoying the high standard of cooking they used to when my Gran was well and were relying on instant meals so I thought it only right that I cooked them a proper meal when I dropped in to visit.

The recipe I chose is one of my granddad's favourites and one as a child I remember Gran making for him on many occasions. It is basically a variation of corned beef hash and in the part of North East Scotland where my Granddad originates from it is known as Corned Beef and Tatties.

With the sounds of Jethro Tull's song "This is not Love" from their 1991 effort "Catfish Rising" thrusting through my mind, as a result of it being on the car stereo on the drive up, I took four white potatoes and peeled them. I then sliced them in half lengthways and put them in a pan of water. I fired up the hob and brought the pan to boil before simmering the potatoes for around half an hour until they were soft.

While the potatoes were simmering I covered the bottom of a frying pan with rapeseed oil and heated the oil gently on the hob. I added to the hob three large shallots that I had first peeled, topped and tailed and diced. I fried them with a hint of black pepper until they became soft and see-through. I then cut up around eight slices of corned beef into small squares and stirred them into the oil and shallots in the pan until the beef was coated in oil. I find that rapeseed oil is the best oil to use when frying beef.

After the potatoes were ready I drained them and then mashed them with a bit of margarine. After they had been mashed I added the mash to the frying pan and mixed it with the beef and shallots to make a thick paste. The meal was now ready to serve.

This type of food is quite basic and easy to throw together quickly but despite this it is a substantial meal that is very filling. Normally it is made with onions but I decided to use shallots to give it a unique twist.

It was certainly something my grandparents appreciated as they ate their helpings quickly and seemed happy at having a dish they explained they had not eaten for a while. I personally find that corned beef has a wonderful savoury taste sadly lacking in other types of beef and this taste is only enhanced with the use of the potatoes; definitely making it a simple but delicious dish.

The shallot pieces shine out of this recipe

Scrambled Soya

The snow over the last few days has thwarted some of the plans I have had over the Christmas period and meant that I have needed to stay closer to home than first thought. Today was no exception as I was able to get out a short walk however although the main roads near my house had improved, traversing the side roads nearly resulted in a number of slips that would have seen me end up flat on my back if I had been less lucky.

After I got home I stuck my new Christmas Present on the playlist; it was Genesis' last studio release 1997's Calling All Stations which features vocalist Ray Wilson and lots of languid songs like "Shipwrecked", "If that's what you need", "Uncertain Weather," and "There must be some other way" that matched my tired midwinter mood. The album is a little bleak but very atmospheric and despite being disliked by many I think it is a key part of the band's often brilliant and multifaceted catalogue.

As I watched the weak winter sun caress the crisp snow covering the back garden I realised that I needed to make something quick and easy that was comfort food so as to make me feel a bit more motivated. The inspiration for this recipe came from a trip to Verdo Lounge Café in Sutton Coldfield in the summer. This café has a wonderfully innovative approach to its recipes and often puts interesting twists on traditional dishes using spices and sauces as is evidenced in their excellent 'Dirty Beans on Toast' dish that is found on their breakfast menu.

I followed Verdo's example by making some scrambled eggs with my beans on toast that included soya milk and paprika in the ingredients. I did this by first beating together two eggs in a bowl with a whisk and then in a saucepan melting twenty five grams of margarine while also adding half a tablespoon of paprika to the melting margarine. Once the margarine was melted I added the beaten eggs and two tablespoons of unsweetened soya milk. I turned up the heat on the saucepan and stirred the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon.

I saw that despite the extra heat the mixture was not thickening, probably because there was not enough egg in the pan. This said I poured the yolk and white of another egg into the mixture and slowly but surely it began to thicken and the eggs and paprika absorbed the melted margarine and soya milk. Once this happened I served the scrambled eggs by putting them on top of some baked beans, that I had laced with paprika, and toast.

The use of the paprika gave this traditional dish a really distinct flavour and adding a much needed warmth to it. The meal was made healthier through the use of the soya milk, as opposed to full fat dairy milk or cream, and the melted margarine also added a richness to the eggs that helped make this snack into more of a main meal.

Above: the scrambled egg was nearly ready to serve when it had absorbed all the soya milk and melted margarine.

Perfect food for a winter's day with some beans on toast.

Festive Foccacia

The weekend before last I was starting to feel in a festive mood as we had put the Christmas decorations up and to match the upsurge in festive cheer that had started to seep through my body I decided to make some Focaccia Bread with a particularly seasonal twist.

There was more Jethro Tull on the playlist while making this bread; this time it was 1987's "Crest of a Knave" which beat Metallica to a Grammy Award for best heavy metal album around the time it was released.

Focaccia Bread is something that reminds me of my childhood as my parents would often buy it from the supermarket to have as a side dish to a salad. The key to making decent Focaccia is to make the dough soft and give it plenty of flavour and with this in mind I mixed together fifteen ounces of wholemeal bread flour, a tablespoon and a half of yeast and two teaspoons of dried sage. As with all the best breads it is important to get some flavouring into the mix early on by mixing it with the dry ingredients and this was the reason why I added in the sage at this time.

I next added in six teaspoons of olive oil with nine fluid ounces of cold water and stirred the whole mixture until the dry ingredients had become part of the wet ingredients and there were no loose parts of the dry ingredients left in the mixing bowl. 

I then kneaded the dough heavily for about five minutes until I had a soft piece of dough that was as easy to shape as Plastecine.  I placed the dough on a greased baking tray and made an indent in the middle of it that was around five centimetres deep and two or three centimetres wide. Either side of the indent I used the other end of a wooden spoon to poke holes in the bread that I filled with dried sage. I also added raw red onion to the indent in the dough and then glazed the bread with Olive Oil using a brush.

I then cooked the bread in the oven for around twenty five minutes at 190 degrees (or 200 degrees if you don't have a fan oven). The bread had a real taste of Christmas Dinner about it with the sage and onion and the wholemeal bread flour provided it with a more savoury taste than it would have had if I had used white bread flour.

Above before putting in the oven the bread was strewn with onions and olive oil.

Sliced and ready to serve.

Kurly Kale

Friday night had been an evening of excitement and luxury; we had checked into a plush hotel, that incidentally fifty years earlier had been the venue where my late great aunt had held her wedding reception, and that evening I had night that involved a four course meal and lots of quality conversation with new colleagues all in the name of the work Christmas Party.

The next morning after a suitably fortifying breakfast and a walk round the picturesque grounds of the hotel we went our separate ways; variously to do Christmas shopping and have a haircut and much needed rest. When I returned home I had a short rest and then thoughts turned to a making a meal to revitalise me. As I my circumstances have changed recently I have begun to split my weekends between my hometown and the West Yorkshire town of Huddersfield. One of this town's many qualities is that it has a good number of curry  houses and therefore the evening's meal was one I wanted to remind me of those places. As those I was cooking for were vegetarians no meat was allowed and although the best curries in my opinion need to contain meat I found a decent compromise in a Kale and Green Lentil Curry.

As darkness began to fall and flocks of gulls wafted south over the house on the late afternoon breezes I began preparing the food. The album I listened to Jethro Tull's was underrated 1982 offering Broadsword and the Beast. It was unfairly criticised by reviewers on its release for its over reliance on synthesisers but this is unfair as the synth work is atmospheric and fits well into the band's overall sound. The album also shows a willingness for the band to evolve from earlier records; a hallmark of all the great bands. The version of the record I chose to listen contains the original album which includes the defiant title track, the frosty, claustrophobic "Clasp" and the hard-rocking "Seal Driver". It also has a number of excellent bonus tracks including the festive "Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow" and the bouncy, earnest "I am your gun".

There are really two parallel approaches to preparing curries that ultimately converge into one; the first is the cooking of the main ingredients, the second is making the curry paste and the final part is combining the main ingredients and the curry paste. I first placed around two hundred and fifty grams of green lentils in a pan of water with a teaspoon of powdered Turmeric. I put the pan on the hob, brought it to boil and let the lentils and Turmeric boil for twenty minutes.

While the lentils and Turmeric boiled I sliced up around twenty green beans into small pieces and topped and tailed a carrot before peeling it and dicing it. After the lentils had been boiling for the requisite time I added the carrots and green beans to the boiling pan with one hundred and twenty five grams of pre-washed Kale, half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper and two teaspoons of coriander. I left these items to boil with the rest of the contents of the pan for another twenty five minutes.

Next I prepared the other part of the curry; that is the curry paste. I took two shallots and three cloves of garlic and cut them up finely. I put them in a Le Cresceut on the hob and fried them with some olive oil on a medium heat for around five minutes with a teaspoon of cumin and one of coriander. I find that the tastiest curry pastes are those where the fresh ingredients are combined with the spices early on in preparation. Next I added two tablespoons of tomato passatta and stirred them hard into the garlic, shallots and herbs. I turned the hob down to the lowest light possible while I waited for the ingredients in the pan to boil for a sufficient time.

Once the contents had boiled enough I poured them into the Le Cresceut with the curry paste and then combined the ingredients. After it all had been heated through it was ready to serve with some white rice I had boiled up. Despite the lack of meat the curry still had plenty of strength and taste with the Kale adding a robustness to the dish the combined well with the varied spices.

All the ingredients in the Le Cresceut warming through

Ready to eat with a side order of rice

Spanish Omelette Incident

It wasn't just recipes for Mojos that I picked up when we went to Fuerteventura in October; there were plenty of other dishes that inspired me during our time out there and one of these was a Spanish Omelette. It was a regular meal of choice when we dined at the hotel in Fuerteventura.

This weekend was a good one; I caught up with some good friends on Friday after I had driven to their place straight from my new job, on Saturday I had some enjoyable frames of snooker with an old workmate who now is employed in a well-deserved role at a quality organisation and the weekend was topped off today by having a walk with my travelling companion to Fuerteventura. Even though we had an enjoyable walk the weather was cold and we were hungry by the time we had finished it. Therefore we decided that to buck us up we would have something to eat that reminded us of our holidays.

As I was cooking I decided what music we should listen to while I prepared the food and I chose Steely Dan's well-produced, highly polished and perfectly sung album " Can't Buy a Thrill," which includes the jazzy funk of "Do it again," and the ever popular "Reelin' in the years,"

Spanish omelettes differ from others in that potatoes are one of their primary ingredients. For this omelette I peeled three white potatoes and sliced them length ways into circular pieces that were about 5 centimetres wide and 1 centimetre thick. I then steamed them in a steamer so that they were subsequently soft enough to fry in a frying pan without them burning. The potatoes took about fifteen minutes' steaming to be soft enough to add to the frying pan. I checked they were soft enough by putting a fork through them.

While the potatoes were steaming I topped and tailed two white onions and then sliced them up into 1 centimetre by 1 centimetre pieces. I fried them lightly in olive oil and after they had started to become translucent, which was after about ten minutes, I added the potatoes to the frying pan that I had previously steamed them. I stirred the mixture regularly to stop it getting stuck to the pan or burnt. I also added a tablespoonful of dried basil to the mixture and a pinch of black pepper.

In the meantime I whisked five eggs together in a bowl and as soon as they were properly whisked together I added them to the onions and potatoes. I tilted the pan a little to be sure that egg mixture covered all parts of the pan and fried the mixture on a medium heat for five minutes while ensuring it did not stick to the bottom of the pan by regularly thrusting a wooden spatula underneath it.

After around five minutes I placed the frying pan containing the omelette under the grill checking it regularly; once the egg yolk atop it had dried and the omelette began to brown I knew it was ready.

I served the omlette with some baked beans, another Spanish Staple Food, and it certainly revitalised us after our walk. The potatoes gave the omelette both an unexpected sweetness and made it much more substantial than many omelettes are.

The omelette in a frying pan not long after its grilling

It was delicious with baked beans.