Recipes

Rough sort of recipe - I tend to wing it without very accurate measurements of things:

Serves 4 adults.

• Cook 500g of macaroni or other appropriate pasta shape to al dente (I generally go about 2 minutes under the recommended packet instructions)

• Fry up 150g of well-diced chorizo and reserve.
• Melt 125g of butter in the same pan (there should be some oil left from the chorizo)
• Chuck in some flour (I guess about half a cup) and stir to a roux which is roughly the consistency of wet sand
• Stir until not lumpy
• Add some minced garlic, a level teaspoon of English mustard powder, a pinch of nutmeg, a bay leaf, stir and then immediately start adding the milk to bring the temp down a bit and make sure the garlic doesn't burn in the roux/napalm.
• Total of about 2 1/2 pints of whole-fat milk. You have to add it in dribbles to start with and stir vigorously. The roux will glump up into a claggy mess at first but gradually combine with the milk. Once it's a reasonable consistency you can pour in the rest of the milk.
• Bring the milk to about 85-90'C (185-195'F) then stir in some grated cheese. I used a mix of Emental, Extra Mature Cheddar, and Monterey Jack.
• Season with black pepper

• Once that's all thick and cheesy and gooey and nice, return the chorizo to the sauce, then stir in the cooked pasta.
• Pour the cheesy pasta into an oven-safe dish or pot, sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top and bake for 20 minutes at 180'C / 360'F.
• Check it's bubbling nicely under its breadcrumb hat then grill for 5 minutes to get those breadcrumbs golden.

• Let it cool for 5 minutes while whipping up a simple green salad.

  I like it with some OG Tabasco to taste.

Made this earlier and I always forget how quick and easy it is (despite the name) but also his tasty it is. Only variation I use is Asda's caramelised onion turkey sausages as I don't each much red meat.

Slice or dice some good quality (not smoked) pancetta and gently fry it to release some of that delicious fat, about five minutes or so should do. If you don't have pancetta some unsmoked steaky bacon will do. I like to use an enamelled Dutch oven for this (I use a Le Creuset, other brands are available).

Finely dice a large onion, a carrot, a rib of celery, and a few fat cloves of garlic and add to the pancetta. Add a little olive oil if you feel it needs it. Very gently fry for about ten minutes.

Side note: onion, carrot, and celery make a soffritto, the cornerstone of Italian sauces and soups. This is very similar to a French mirepoix, and only a little different to a Cajun or Creole 'holy trinity' which switches out the carrot for a green bell pepper.

Meanwhile, fry 500g or so of beef mince to get some colour on it. I tend to take the block of mince and sear it hard, on both sides, in a cast iron skillet, then break it up before adding it to the soft veggies.

Add a big ol’ glass of wine. White or red. Let’s face it, no nonna ever thought “I only have white wine in the cupboard, let’s get KFC instead”.

Simmer on a medium-high heat, stirring often, until most of the wine has evaporated. About 10 minutes. You could probably just simmer on a low heat for longer but I’m a very impatient man.

Add 500 ml passata, 250 ml whole milk, 250 ml beef stock. Yup. Milk. Trust me. Whole milk, obv. And go easy with the passata. This is a meat sauce with tomato, not a tomato sauce with meat.

Bring it back to a simmer and turn the heat right down to the lowest you can. Wait three to four hours while it simmers, checking and stirring every twenty or so minutes. If it starts to dry out, add a little more stock.

Test for, and adjust, seasoning, with salt and pepper, obv.

Then cook some pasta - I much prefer tagliatelle to spaghetti for a ‘bol’. Drain the pasta and add to the pan with the sauce. Mix it up good and proper, then serve with slightly more freshly grated Parmesan than seems sensible.

Nice.

That will make enough sauce for about 8 people. I usually ladle out half of it into some Tupperware and freeze it. If I’m making a double batch to freeze for several meals, I’ll add 500g of minced pork to the beef, and double all the other ingredients.

Now then. Let’s talk real. Italian food is gate-kept (gate-keepered?) more than pretty much any other cuisine in the world. But ‘spag bol’ is now an international dish and there are more variations of it cooked around the world than there are people in Italy, and that’s absolutely okay. If you want to add mushrooms, dried herbs, chorizo, or even – and I’ve seen it recommended – peanut butter, that’s up to you and if the people you’re serving it to like it then hurrah! One piece of advice though (and this is advice for life, not just for spag bol) avoid Worcestershire Sauce if you can. Henderson’s Relish is infinitely superior.

But if you do want to try the official recipe for Ragù alla Bolognese, you can find it here.

I made these, substituting gluten free flour for the wheat flour. It was DELICIOUS but very gooey. I struggled to get it out of the pan and to keep the slices together. However, they firm up nicely in the fridge. I'll definitely try them again, and put the whole batch in the fridge before I slice them.

Another of my staples - you can prepare the tuna ahead of time and let it marinate, then make the harissa potatoes, throw the tuna on a griddle pan and perhaps throw some green beans on there for an extra vegetable.

I found a couple of good recipes for chuck roast, so I combined them and made it myself. I never used a braising pan before or cooked a beef roast before.

Here's what I did:

1 pack of bacon, diced and cooked in olive oil on medium high until the edges were brown, then removed.

In the same pan, 2 diced carrots, 2 diced celery stalks, 2 diced Walla Walla sweet onions. Cooked on medium high until carmaelized, then removed.

3.37 pound (1.5 kg) boneless chuck roast. Patted dry, heavily salted and peppered, seared on one side for 5 minutes, flipped and then seared on the other side for 5 minutes and removed.

Added back 1/2 cup (118 ml) Grand Marnier and 2 cups (473 ml) of Malbec Wine. Deglazed the pan scraping up all the brown bits.

Put the bacon back in, put the veggies back in, stirred until well distributed. Added bay leaves, thyme and rosemary, several cloves of minced garlic, topped with the meat.

Brought to a boil then placed in a pre-heated 325° F (163° C) oven for 3 hours.

After 3 hours, beef was to temp and easily shreddable. (Finally! A reason to use the meat claws!) Resting on stove top while I cook some pasta to go with it.

Pasta was super simple. Boiled water and salt, cooked a bag of egg noodles for 8 or 9 minutes. Drained, removed, then melted a stick of butter in the pot, added a small container of heavy cream, added rosemary and thyme, brought it to a simmer then popped the pasta back in and cooked a couple of minutes.

About twenty-five chicken wings, marinaded overnight in yoghurt, lemon juice and a Tandoori spice mix.

I put these on a Kamado Joe barbecue at 120'C for about half an hour.

Then raised the temperature to 180'C for another, maybe half an hour, flipping the wings every five to ten minutes to make sure they got some char but didn't burn.

Meanwhile, I washed, soaked, and drained some basmati rice. Then I toasted some cumin and coriander seeds, then crushed them in a pestle and mortar. I added some turmeric and a pinch of kashmiri chilli powder, a couple of bruised cardamom pods, and gently fried the spices to let them bloom. I added half a chopped onion, a couple of cloves of garlic, and a little grated ginger. I continued to fry that gently for about five minutes then turned up the heat and added the rice, frying it in with the oil and spices for a couple of minutes.

Then I added 1.5 times as much vegetable stock, added a good pinch of salt, brought it to a boil, covered the pan, and turned the heat down as low as possible. I left it for just over 10 minutes until all the liquid had been absorbed, then put a piece of kitchen towel over the rice, lid back on, and let it rest for 10 minutes.

I also made some Cucumber Raita (grated cucumber, yoghurt, mint, and coriander), but the only photo I took of that makes it look horrid, so you'll just have to imagine it!

Nice.

Jamaican Curry Chicken

Feeds 6 or so, I reckon.

• A dozen boneless chicken thighs, each cut into about 3 pieces
• 2 large carrots, sliced
• 1 large potato, diced
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup coconut milk

Marinade

• A hefty glug of oil
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, grated
• 1 bunch spring onions / scallions, chopped
• 1 scotch bonnet, chopped
• 1 tbsp Jamaican curry powder
• 1 tbsp Jamaican all purpose seasoning
• 1 heaped tsp ground allspice
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• A few decent grinds of black pepper

1. Mix all the marinade ingredients in a bowl, combine with the chicken, leave to marinate ideally overnight.
2. In a large skillet or dutch oven, heat some oil then fry the chicken in batches so as not to crowd the pan.
3. Return the chicken to the pan with the carrots, potato, and stock, stirring to deglaze. Mostly cover and simmer for 30-40 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked and the liquid reduced to a gravy.
4. Reduce the heat, add the coconut milk, stir and warm through for 5 more minutes.
5. Serve with rice and peas.

It's a simple recipe that I have simplified.

• Fry the chicken
• Add garlic and let it dry for a bit
• Add stock
• Add a tin of Campbell's condensed mushroom soup
• Add the thyme and tarragon (I just used the dried stuff
• Tip in a bunch of frozen mushrooms
• For an added vegetable, I tip in some frozen sweetcorn
• Want more veg? Do green beans on the side

Serve with brown rice if you want some more carbs with that.

This is the current favourite 🙂

One of my go-to vegetarian (technically vegan) - very quick and easy to get together using very few ingredients and it is very tasty indeed.

So warm and comforting. Every mouthful a hug. It was cobbled together a bit from other recipes but approximately this:

1. Make a roux. I took it to a dark hazelnut level of colour.
2. Add finely chopped onion, celery, and green pepper to the roux and fry, stirring often for a few minutes..
3. Add chopped garlic and fry, stirring often. I was going to add some anchovies at this point, but couldn't find them, so I didn't.
4. After a couple more minutes, push the veggies to one side then add a decent squeeze of tomato puree to the clear half of the pot, stirring it to release the aroma, then mix it in with the rest of the veggies.
5. Add spices and aromatics. I went with a Cajun spice mix (called 'Slap Ya Mama'), salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, and a couple of bay leaves. But really you could do pretty much anything at this point depending on the spice profile you fancy - saffron or smoked paprika would both work really well here to give a more Spanish feel for example.
6. Add some dry white wine, or beer, slowly, stirring. The roux will glob up, but just keep gently stirring and adding liquid until it's started to loosen. I'd guess I used about 250-300ml. Keep on the heat, stirring, for about 5 minutes to let the alcohol cook off a bit.
7. Add chopped tomatoes - fresh or canned.
8. Add more liquid. I went with a bottle of beer and 500 ml of fish stock, but just fish stock would work fine.
9. Gently simmer for an hour, or so, stirring every 15-20 minutes, letting it approach the consistency you want because it'll thicken over time.
10. Adjust the seasoning.
11. Add chopped fish / prawns / other shellfish. Stir gently because you don't want the fish to break up. I gave it about five minutes and the fish was perfect, but adjust depending on what you're adding.
12. Garnish with finely chopped parsley and spring onion, and plenty of lemon for people to squeeze over.
13. Serve with fresh baked, crusty bread to mop up the juices.

Hi all, if you’re interested in cooking over fire please consider joining and posting to /c/cookingwithfire!

It's a community for anyone who loves cooking over fire, whether that’s antikristo, asado, barbacoa, barbecue, barbie, bbq, braai, chichinga, churrasco, inihaw, jerk, lovo, pachamanca, parrillada, or a sausage sizzle!

This is fantastically fresh and lively and goes great with slow-cooked barbecue, or smoked meats. The feta provides a contrasting texture and saltiness to the sweet fruit.

The recipe is the name of it really.

1. Cube some ripe watermelon and some cantaloupe or orange honey-dew
2. Likewise some mango
3. Peel, deseed, and chop a cucumber
4. Half some cherry tomatoes
5. Dice or crumble some feta (I know, I used one of those tubs of cubes... it's really not the best, but it was in the fridge. I'd like to blame my wife but I do all the grocery shopping so I must have been feeling exceptionally lazy)
6. Finely slice a small red onion
7. Finely chop a fistful of mint and an equal amount of basil
8. Drizzle over some olive oil, a restrained splash of fresh lemon juice, salt (not too much because of the feta) and freshly ground black pepper

You can prepare this up to a couple of hours in advance. Much longer than that and the mango, in particular, starts to lose its texture and is a lot less pleasant.

I'm not a massive fan of complex, sweet, fruity coleslaws. This is very simple and very good.

• 1 small red cabbage
• 1 large red onion
• Olive oil
• Lemon juice
• Mayonnaise
• Salt
• Pepper

1. Slice the cabbage and the onion as finely as you can. A sharp knife will really, really help here.
2. Mix the cabbage and onion in a bowl.
3. Add a good drizzle of olive oil, a fair splash of lemon juice, and a restrained squirt / dollop of mayonnaise (I use the Hellmann's squeeze bottle - homemade mayonnaise would obviously be better but this is the super quick and easy recipe).
4. Salt and pepper to taste.

You can serve it immediately for maximum crunchy texture, or up to 24 hours later for a creamier, softer, more luxurious texture (though you will want to drain some of the liquid that will naturally accumulate in the bottom of the bowl).

If you're serving it with something very rich and fatty, add a little more lemon juice to give it some extra zip to cut through.

This is what I will be cooking soon. It's always a winner.

The official recipe for ragù alla bolognese, known throughout the anglosphere as the bolognese in spaghetti bolognese - which was been held on record at the Bologna Chamber of Commerce since the 1980s - has just been updated to reflect changing tastes.