Chicken Fricassee

I’d normally cook this in the winter, it suits a beautifully rainy, cold winter day. However it is August Bank Holiday, so rubbish weather guaranteed! Lo and behold, as we tucked into this for lunch, the heavens opened outside. A fricassee sounds like a really poncey term, but what it means is to cook meat…

Liver & Bacon With Glazed Chantenay Carrots

There are few things you can say that sound more middle class or poncey than ‘Chantenay carrots’, but I really don’t care. They’re a beautifully sweet, and also they’re cute and look good on a plate, but most importantly you don’t need to chop them up. Glazing the carrots is really easy, but has a…

Koftas with Hummus

I did Kofta kebabs recently with some turkey mince, and I passed these flatbreads while doing food shopping on Saturday and thought, ‘yeah, they’d go well with koftas and some home made hummus’. So that’s what I did, and while this is not a low calorie dish, I used some sneaky tips to slim it…

Coffee Caramel Cake

I’m not a big baker, and I don’t make beautiful tidy cakes. I make cakes which are ‘rustic’, which is a nice way of saying it’s a little imperfectly presented, but tastes bloody awesome. This uses dulce de leche, a caramel sauce made by heating sweetened, usually condensed milk. I got mine from a tin, as it…

Peanut & Sesame Turkey Kofta Kebabs

I adore kebabs, they are massively diverse, and cooked in so many ways across the world. Don’t be a kebab snob, you’re not too good for them. Humans have been cooking this way for thousands of years. Kofta is something you’ll find quite commonly in supermarkets when you buy pre-made kebabs, it comes from the classical…

Boeuf Au Bleu With Chimichurri

Steak is smashing isn’t it, and so many ways to cook it!  If you order steak in France, and ask for ‘au bleu’, it’ll be cooked, at most, a minute on each side, it won’t be warm in the middle. I know, it sounds disgusting, and in the middle of winter when you want something…

Balsamic Egg Salad

Egg salads appear to have been forgotten over the years, and they can prove unpopular with colleagues in the office, but there’s nothing better for filling you up on a weekend lunchtime. Eggs are relatively dieter friendly, fill you up, and contain very little fat. Serve with a slice or two of sourdough or rye…

Sticky Chicken with Lemon Yogurt Salad

This was Hairy Dieter inspired, though I have made some changes. I don’t think you need any more than two fillets per person, so I did six and kept some back for lunch during the week. For salads I like to go to town in terms of veg, the more variety the better. Rarely do…

Pot Au Feu De La Mer

Literally, a hot pot from the sea. This is a really simplistic, and yet quite extravagant dish to cook. Definitely a treat, and lovely on a summer’s evening. I remember family holidays in Brittany, and remember the wonderful seafood on display in the town markets. I didn’t particularly like seafood back then, but oh how…

Herby Roast Pork Loin

I am a big fan of sourcing meat from a butcher, but I always seek out bargains at supermarkets. I picked this this smashing bit of pork loin for about £2, and made it into a lovely dinner on a Saturday evening. Pork loin is known as tender loin for a reason, it is remarkably,…

Fillet Steak With Harissa Vegetables, and Baby New Potatoes with Cider Vinegar

Nothing is better than a good steak, I chose fillet because it is fairly lean, and beautifully tender. Season well with salt and pepper, fry for a minute or two on both sides, and boom, done. I like my steak rare, it is safe to eat, so why not? The best thing to go with…