Stuff yer bake

I don’t mean an actual baby but a new addition to my family of cook books. I got a book voucher for Christmas so what else would I buy? After much deliberation I decided on Bills Food by Bill Granger which is full of yummy looking, simple and light and mostly healthy recipes.

One of the long list of new years resolutions I made was to stop going out for lunch so much at the weekend and making something tasty at home instead. Potato cakes (much like a Rosti) with smoked salmon and mustard dressing was the recipe I plumped for as it seemed light, quick to make and relatively cheap.

It turned out nicely but I think it could do with a bit of tinkering. I made the potato cakes a little too thick and I liked the mustard dressing but I think a dressing made with creme fraiche, lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper would be just as nice, if not better. You could also oven bake the potato cakes so you use less oil.

Ingredients :

3 large potatoes

2 tblsp chopped fresh chives

60g butter melted

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

60ml olive oil

8 slices smoked salmon

For the mustard dressing:

2tsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tblsp white wine vinegar

60ml canola oil

Grate the potato coarsely and squeeze out the excess liquid. Put the potato in a bowl and season, then add the chopped chives and melted butter. Heat the oil in a pan to a medium to high heat. Drop a tablespoon of mixture into the pan and flatten out a bit and cook until golden on both sides. Take out of the pan and drain on kitchen paper then place in a warm oven while you cook the rest. Make the dressing by combining the salt, sugar and vinegar until the sugar has dissolved then drizzle in the oil and whisk to combine. Serve the potato cakes topped with the salmon and drizzled with the dressing.

Serves 4

Unlike the vast majority, or so it seems to me, I love Brussel Spouts. It’s like declaring that you enjoy wading knee deep in manure, when you get that sour-faced, nose turned up look of disgust when they are mentioned. Infact I don’t know why I don’t have them more often. I think I just tend to forget about them, or maybe I don’t want to own up to my distasteful 20 a day sprout habit and simply pretend that you only have them on Christmas day when your mother tries to force them down your throat and the only thing you can do to stop the ever rising tide of bile is to hold you nose.

Instead of having just sprouts for Christmas day, which don’t get me wrong would make me just as happy, we tend to boil them and then fry them in butter with white breadcrumbs and chopped brazil nuts or we slice them raw and fry them with pine nuts and pancetta.

Just before Christmas I thought it would be nice to try sprout soup. I thought it turned out very nicely. If you don’t like sprouts, I’m not gonna lie to you, you may heave at the very sight of it.

I simply boiled the sprouts in a saucepan filled with weakish vegatable stock, a clove of garlic and a bay leaf. When the sprouts were tender I reserved the cooking liquor, refreshed them in cold water and blended them to a smooth soup with the cooking liquor, a little grated nutmeg, salt and pepper and a little butter. The soup ended up a little thick so I just thinned it out with a little water, but the consistency is, of course, entirely up to you. I then swirled a little creme fraiche into the soup and topped with ciabatta croutons that I cooked in the oven with olive oil, salt, a clove of garlic (which I removed before serving) and a handful of pine nuts.

I can never quite decide whether I like soup. If I’m ever in a restaurant and there is soup for starters on the menu, I never order it as I tend to think soup is rather boring. Don’t get me wrong, I have had some really nice soups and I have actually decided to do soup next week for an evening meal so I don’t know why I feel that way about it. It is generally a cheap quick and healthy meal, although I do tend to have a slab of bread with it, so it is ideal for a mid-week meal. Despite my indifference to soup I quite like this one.

I apologise for not giving quantities here as I never bothered to measure the ingredients and employed a slap-dash approach as usual.

Simply soak some butter beans overnight, then rinse and drain them and put into a saucepan with a couple of bay leaves, a sprig of thyme, an onion peeled and halved, pepper, a couple of garlic cloves and a potato and cover with water. Boil the beans until tender. Whilst the beans are cooking, cut pancetta into slices and fry until golden. Once the beans are cooked, remove the bay leaves and thyme and blend the rest of the ingredients (with the cooking water), seasoning with salt and a little more pepper if required. If the soup is too thick add a little water and if you want to be more indulgent add a drizzle of cream. Serve the soup in warm bowls topped with the bacon and drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and eat with crusty bread.

This simple concoction was originally intended to be a plain sweetcorn soup, but the only bread I had in the house was naan bread and I thought adding a hint of spice might compliment the bread very well. The soup is cheap, easy to make and reasonably healthy so it probably ticks most peoples boxes.

Ingredients:

• Two 400g tins of sweetcorn, try and get good quality stuff that hasn’t had salt and sugar added. Leave a tblsp aside to decorate
• Two large potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1 inch dice
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 1 red chilli pepper, deseeded if you like, and chopped
• 1 litre of chicken stock
• 4 heaped tsps of cumin seeds
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tblsp yoghurt to serve
• a small sprig of parsley or coriander to garnish
• naan bread

Method

Heat a small pan on a medium to high heat and dry fry the cumin seeds until they release their aroma and slightly colour, (keep an eye on them so they don’t burn) then grind them with a pestle and mortar. Heat a small amount of oil in a large saucepan on a medium heat then add the onion and garlic. Fry for a few minutes until slightly softened then add the potatoes, chilli and ground cumin. Stir for a few minutes then add the chicken stock and simmer for about 15 minutes before adding the sweetcorn and cooking for a further 5 minutes. Check the potato and onion are soft ,then take off the heat and blend until smooth. It is quite a thick soup but if you find it too thick add a little water. Season the soup and then ladle into warm bowls, with a spoon of yoghurt, a small heap of sweetcorn and a sprig of parsley on top. Serve with warm naan bread.

Serves 4