Stir fry with skirt of beef, green pepper and spring onion recipe
Sometimes we need a hefty meat fix. For years it was steak every Friday night, then it was an occasional steak when we found them on sale. Now it will be skirt of beef. Not only is it economical at about £3.50 for 500g it’s tastier than steak and has a wonderful texture. In the UK skirt is generally a largely undiscovered cut of beef. So thank you Jo and more recently Paula for pointing me in the direction of the broad range of ways to cook this superb cut. Having already made a skirt of beef casserole in the slow cooker I thought that...
read moreThe slow cooker chef: Broccoli and watercress soup recipe
“I bet we’re the first in the world to be having broccoli soup and flash fried squid for breakfast.” Danny dunked a chunk of crusty bread in his soup. With me still at home we tend to have a late brunch these days but yesterday was the first day that we’d gone wild and had soup and seafood. I’d bought the broccoli in the market. Two giant heads for a pound. As the vegetables don’t have a long shelf life we ate broccoli with the skirt of beef stew and the rest was chopped and popped into the slow cooker to make soup. I’d also...
read moreThe slow cooker chef: Warming winter stew with skirt of beef and baby carrots recipe
Last year my friend Jo mentioned skirt of beef. I’d never even heard of the cut before let alone spotted it in the butchers. “If you slice it very fine, it’s wonderful in a stir fry. And even better it’s so cheap.” I’ve since discovered that it’s the traditional meat used in Cornish Pasties. Although my Cornish pal Tessa uses chuck steak. Last week I went to the market to buy some vegetables – they are always knocked down in price at the end of the day. I bought two large bunches of baby carrots for a pound – these would...
read moreChristmas piccalilli recipe
For years I was tempted by the cheap jars of yellow piccalilli on the supermarket shelves. I’d take one head clearing taste and the jar would be put smartly at the back of the cupboard to wait until it was swept away in a hearty Spring clean. Last year we tasted Magic Cochin’s homemade piccalilli. It was everything that I’d imagined piccalilli could be and more. It is so good that they are only allowed a jar a month to salve that certain piccalilli yearning. And I’m ashamed to say I had two helpings from the January jar. This...
read moreDelicious saffron spaghetti with a cream prawn and squid sauce recipe
This is my all time favourite prawn recipe. Quick and easy to make and a deluxe treat. And there’s the rub. Prawns are expensive so whenever we see North Atlantic prawns on sale we grab them and bung them into the freezer. Where they wait in limbo to finally be teamed with squid and guzzled with glee. The saffron is pricey too. We get round this by adding saffron to our Christmas lists. Generally we get enough to see us through the next year. One day I plan to do a Magic Cochin and grow my own. Delicious saffron spaghetti with a cream...
read moreFried fillets of plaice with a nasturtium and mustard seed cream sauce recipe
“Do you mind if I experiment with Duncan’s pickled nasturtium seeds to make a sauce for the fish tonight.” I had found some cut priced fillets of plaice on the Tesco CFC. “That’s fine as long as we’ve got some mayo.” What Danny didn’t know was that we’d finally run out of the mayo that Miles and Jocelyn bring back from France. And as I didn’t have time to rustle up some homemade mayonnaise, this had to be a good sauce. What I wanted was both taste and texture that would not overpower the delicate fillets of plaice. The...
read moreDelicious classic British food: Best Toad-in-the-Hole recipe
When the weather starts to get chilly I have a longing for a really good Toad-in-the-Hole. Not the rather chewy offering that I munched as a child but a light and puffy one. A dish that would have Danny pleading for more rather than the slightly suspicious response, “I don’t think that I’ve ever eaten Toad-in-the-Hole.” Long pause. “I’d be interested to try it.” The problem was that I didn’t have a recipe. Then I twigged that our Yorkshire Pudding recipe probably would be good. So I used Delia’s version as a guide for...
read moreBest recipe for leftovers: orange and lemon chicken stir fry
This summer I stopped at the Marshalls stand at Hampton Court flower show and bought a selection of salad, radish, spring onion and stir fry leaves for a fiver. The overall saving was about £12 and I’m a bit of a sucker for a bargain. The seeds have been sown every few weeks and have done well. For the first time I have grown three varieties of pak choi, Shungiku, spicy greens, large mustard leaves and baby Chinese cabbage – the slugs have been particularly delighted with the latter. So we have an abundance of leaves crying out for a...
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