Category: Dad makes best

If you have left over bread, then preserve it by turning it into croutons. It’s like pickling bread. You will need croutons for Caesar salad.

A handful of croutons added to a bowl of tinned cream of chicken soup works really well.

You can use any kind of bread, but an open textured bread makes the best croutons. Adjust the quantities of salt and garlic to taste.

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Ingredients

Bread

2 tbsp Olive Oil

4 cloves of garlic, crushed

Maldon Sea Salt

Equipment

A roasting tin, lined with tin foil

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Method

Pre-heat the oven to 160ºC

1. Cut the bread into crouton sized pieces

2. In the tin, mix the garlic with the oil and salt

3. Add the bread and mix so it soaks up the oil and the gralic and salt stick to the croutons

4. Bake in the oven until golden and crunchy. Be careful – they are easy to burn and nobody wants burnt croutons

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A British classic. You can use any suasages, but nothing works quite as well as a top quality Cumberland ring. Serve with peas and gravy in a dish.

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Ingredients

1 egg

75g of flour

125ml of semi-skimmed milk

1 Cumberland sausage ring

2 tbsp of  oil

Salt and pepper

Equipment

A roasting tin

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Method

Pre-heat the oven to 220ºC and the grill on a high heat.

1. First make the batter – mix the flour, egg and milk together with a little salt and pepper. Either use a belnder or an electric whisk to make a smooth, even batter.

2. Put the sausage under the grill.

3. Add the oil to the roasting tin and place in the oven

4. As soon as the sausage starts to colour, turn it over and cook until it starts to colour.

5. You need to do the next  steps very quickly. Take the roasitng tin out. The oil should be smoking hot.

6. Add the suasage to the roasting tin.

7. Pour the batter over the sausage and return quickly to the oven.

8. Do not open the oven door during cooking.

9. Its ready when it looks right – you will know when this is. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

 

 

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The surprise is you’ll need to have made Maria’s roasted tomato sauce beforehand.

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Ingredients

Medium onion

Cubes of pancetta

Olive oil

Mummy’s roasted tomato sauce

Pitted black olives

Italian salami – such as Napoli or Milano

Mozarella cheese

Equipment

A heavy bottomed pan

A pan for cooking pasta

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Method

1. Heat the oil in the pan and when hot add the pancetta and onion, fry until the onion is a deep brown and reduced in size.

2. Add the tomato sauce to the pan and stir, bringing to a boil, then reduce the heat and allow to simmer.

3. Quarter the salami slices, rinse the olives and then add to the pan, return to a simmer.

4. Meanwhile cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet.

5. Drain the pasta and mix with the sauce.

6. Add the mozarell and stir well then place a lid on the pan and allow to stand for 5 minutes so the cheese begins to melt.

7. Serve immediately.

You can use any kind of sausage for this (e.g. plain pork) but it is traditionally made with Italian Lucanica Sausage which is why it is also known as Lucanica Sausage Pasta (LSP). To find Lucanica sausage you will probably need to visit a specialist Italian food shop. (Or just a normal food shop if you happen to be in Italy.)

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Ingredients

A medium size onion

Olive oil

A packet of Lucanica sausage (or six normal pork sausages)

1/2 tsp ground cloves

Sprig of rosemary, finely chopped

Glass of white wine

150 ml Chicken stock

Spinach

Parsley, finely chopped

Parmesan cheese, grated

Casarecce pasta

Equipment

A  heavy bottom pan with a fitting lid for making the sausage sauce

A large pan for making the pasta

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1. Chop the onion finely while heating olive oil in the heavy bottom pan.

 

2. Fry the onions until brown and startign to caramelise

3. While the onion is cooking take the skin of the sausage and mash the meat with a fork

4. Add the sausgae to the onions, season and cook through

5. Add the ground cloves and chopped rosemary to the sausage and stir well, coooking for a couple of minutes

6. Add the white wine and let it sizzle, followed by the chicken stock and cook until simmering

7. Then put it onto the lowest possible heat and cover. Then boil water for the pasta.

8. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet

9. Add the spianch to the sausage sauce and stir until it has wilted, replace the lid on the pan

10. When the pasta is cooked add the parsley and half of the parmesan cheese to the sausgae sauce and stir well.

11. Drain the pasta thoroughly, then mix the sausgae sauce into the pasta.

12 Serve, adding parmesan cheese to taste.

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CBWCG = Chicken baked with chilli and ginger

The source of this recipe was Madhur Jaffery’s “Chicken Breasts Baked with Green Chillis and Onions” from her seminal work “Quick and easy Indian cookery”. It’s a great book – buy a copy!

Over the years we have refined the recipe a little by improving the spicing, adjusting the quantities and adding spinach. More importantly we have refined the cooking method. This is a difficult dish to get right, and the way in which it is cooked, greatly influences the end result. However once learnt, never forgotten – its worth taking the time to get it right. The cooking method is described in much greater detail than Madhur ever had space for in her book.

We have experimented with numerous  variations – fish, beef steak, chicken thighs, lamb, pork, even burgers. The pictures below show it being made with chicken thighs and sea bass fillets. The receipe refers to making  it with chicken breasts.

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Ingredients

For the sauce:

2 tbsp of tomato puree

1 tbsp of water

1 tbsp of smooth dijon mustard

1 tbsp of ground cumin

1 tbsp of garam massala

juice of half a lemon

1/4 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of chilli powder

280 ml of water

140 ml of double cream

Main ingredients:

2 large onions

4cm piece of ginger

3 green chillis

Handful of baby spinach

Two chicken breasts

3 tbsp groundnut oil

1 stick of cinamon bark

15 cloves

15 whole green cardamons

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 clove of garlic

1 tbsp of groundnut oil

 

Equipment

Heavy-bottomed pan

Baking dish

Measuring jug

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Preparation

Sauce:

1. Add the  tomato puree to the measuring jug with the water then mix

2. Add the mustard then mix

3. Add the cumin and garam massala then mix

4. Add the lemon juice then mix

5. Add the salt and chilli powder then mix

6. Add the water then mix

7. Add the cream then mix. Put aside for later.

Main ingredients:

1. Half the onions and slice very thinly

2. Slice the chillis very finely

3. Julienne the ginger very finely

4. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper on both sides

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.

1. Heat 3 tbsp of oil in the pan on the highest heat, when hot add the cinamon stick, cardamons, and cloves, and fry for a couple of minutes.

2. Add the chicken and brown on both sides.

 

3. Remove the chicken from the pan and place in the baking dish.

4. Add the onions, chilli and ginger to the pan and stir well. Initially the onions will steam, stir occaisionally as they start to reduce in size.

5. While the onions cook (stir occaisionally to make sure they are not sticking) wilt the spinach (50 second in a microwave oven is enough), and top the chicken breasts with it.

6. The onions will eventually stop steaming and start to fry. When the start to fry turn the heat down to medium and continue to stir. You will need to almost stir continually now to stop them sticking and burning onto the pan. They are ready when they have reduced right down and are a deep brown colour, but not burnt!

   

7. Spread the onions on top of the chicken and spianch.

8. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in the pan and when hot add the mustard seeds and cook until they start to pop. Add the crushed garlic clove and fry until golden.

9. Add the sauce to the pan and scrap the pan with your spatuala as you stri the sauce, until the sauce is simmering.

10. Cover the chicken with the suace and bake in the oven for 25 minutes. (Now is the time to make some rice.)

11. Remove from the oven and serve immediately, garnish with corrainder.

Variations

The original and best variation uses chicken breasts.

We have also tried:

Chicken thighs (off the bone) – very good

Pork loin fillet – good

Lam neck fillet – can be tough

Duck breast – can be too rich

Cod, hake, haddock – good if you like fish

Sea bass fillets – very good, best if shallowed fried first on the skin side until crisp

Rib eye steak – can be too rich

Burgers – never tried it again!

Beef short rib – good but very rich due to the fat