One Day Blinding Stew

Everybody’s talking about the one day blinding stew but how do you make it? This stew is also known as “stew that makes you blind”, “stew that makes you blind for one day”, or “Hunter’s sightless stew”. One day blinding stew is an ideal punishment for biting hair. Ingredients 3 blinding mushrooms (see image), roughly … Continued

Christmas Dinner 2008

Christmas dinner in the Inkster household this year consisted of: Roast boneless rib of beef Pigs in blankets with thyme Roast potatoes with horseradish Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s roasted red onions Sophie Grigson’s roast celeriac with marsala Mrs Beeton’s Yorkshire puddings Baby carrots Mange tout Gravy Followed by Chocolate Yule Log.

Wild Mushroom, Pancetta & Truffle Risotto

Wild Mushroom, Pancetta & Truffle Risotto Ingredients 200 g arborio rice (or other short grained, high starch rice) 850 mL ham stock (or chicken/vegetable stock) 150 mL white wine 250 g mixed mushrooms (such as button mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, porcini, etc) 50 g chopped pancetta (or unsmoked streaky bacon) 1 small onion, finely chopped 2 … Continued

Tagliatelle with Fennel and Asparagus

It is nearly asparagus season in the UK (although you can buy imported asparagus all year round). Here’s a recipe I made up tonight… Ingredients 250 g saffron tagliatelle, or plain tagliatelle 10 asparagus spears ¼ fennel bulb, finely sliced 2 tbsp fennel pesto lemon-infused olive oil, or plain olive oil zest of 1 lemon, … Continued

Monkfish with Pancetta, Fennel & Saffron

Here's a recipe I've reverse engineered after having eaten it at the Jolly Sportsman last month. Ingredients 2 monkfish fillets 8 slices pancetta 2 medium potatoes ¼ savoy cabbage ½ bulb fennel ½ tsp ground saffron 30g butter 2 tbsp olive oil 100 mL milk 100 mL chicken or vegetable stock (optional) If monkfish is … Continued

Mince & Dumplings

Ingredients Mince 450g minced beef 250g beef stock or water 1 large onion, finely chopped 1 large carrot, finely chopped 1 tbsp tomato puree 4 strands thyme small bunch parsley 1 tbsp Worcester sauce 1 tbsp sunflower oil Dumplings 150g plain flour 75g suet salt pepper Method Heat the sunflower oil in a pan and … Continued

Chicken & Chorizo Pasta

Ingredients 2 skinless chicken breast fillets 100g Spanish chorizo sausage, chopped 150g dried penne or similar dried pasta 1 red pepper 1 yellow pepper 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped small handful parsley, chopped 2 tsp paprika 1 tbsp olive oil Method Chop each pepper into 4—6 sections, discarding the stalks and seeds. Grill the chopped … Continued

Fennel, Sausage and Bean Casserole

This recipe is ideally made with plain pork sausages, or pork & leek. Try to avoid overly seasoned sausages. If peeling the tomatoes is too much bother, using half a tin of tomatoes would probably work fine. Ingredients 4 Sausages 2 × 440g tins of cannellini beans, drained ¼—¾ bulb of fennel 4 medium tomatoes … Continued

Ham vs Bacon vs Pork

Many people are unsure of the difference between pork, bacon and ham. Pork is, quite obviously, the meat taken from a pig. But where do bacon and ham come in? Mrs Beeton’s Everyday Cooking supplies the answer: Bacon is obtained from a side of pork from which the head and feet have been removed. The … Continued

Gnocchi all’Amatriciana al Forno

This is a very easy Italian-style meal of my own creation, combining gnocchi with a simplified sugo all'amatriciana. If you prefer, macaroni or another small, cut pasta could be used in place of gnocchi. Ingredients 500g pack of gnocchi 400g tin of tomatoes 6 rashers of pancetta, or 4 rashers of unsmoked streaky bacon 1 … Continued

Mushroom and Tarragon Stuffed Chicken

Ingredients 2 skinless chicken breast fillets 4 large mushrooms 1 baby leek, finely sliced 75g ricotta or Philadelphia cream cheese 40g butter or margerine 20g dried porcini mushrooms small handful of tarragon, roughly chopped 4 cloves of smoked garlic, or 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or crushed 2 tbsp mushroom ketchup (optional) salt & … Continued

Recipes

I spent a while the other day re-arranging the old recipes on this site and moving them into the “blog” bit rather than the “articles” bit. Hopefully they’ll now be a bit easier to find. Sorry for breaking their URLs.

Hummous

Ingredients 250g boiled (and cooled) chick peas 75g olive oil 50g lemon juice 50g brine (this can be obtained from a tin of “cooked chickpeas in brine”! Alternatively, just mix some salt and water) 50g Tahini (pulped roasted seseme seeds) 1 small clove of garlic Method Blend all ingredients in an electric blender. Done. Variations … Continued

Tabouli

This recipe is one I improvised, drawing on a bunch of different sources, notably Closer magazine. Ingredients 200g bulgar wheat, or cous-cous if this is unavailable 150g fresh parsley, finely chopped 75g fresh mint, finely chopped 2 tomatoes 1.5 lemons 1 red onion 3—4 spring onions 2 tablespoons of olive oil 1 vegetable stock cube … Continued

Pork Dijonaise

Ingredients Pork 2 pork steaks 2—3 tablespoons of dijon mustard 150g single cream 1/2 glass dry white wine butter Accompanying vegetables about 10 new potatos green beans 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped salt and pepper butter h1. Method Put 2 saucepans of water on to boil for the vegetables. Heat a little butter in a … Continued

Quiche Lorraine

Leave out the bacon for a vegitarian option! This recipe is based on one by Andreas Wohr. h1. Ingredients Pastry 200g flour 150g butter/margerine (not low fat!) 1 teaspoon baking powder salt 6 tablespoons water Filling 250g—300g medium chedder 4—6 rashers smoked bacon, grilled and chopped 4—6 eggs 30g butter, melted 1 small onion, finely … Continued

Pork a’l’Orange

This can be served with the same accompanying vegetables mentioned in my recipe for Pork Dijonaise or with some crusty French bread. h1. Ingredients 2 pork steaks 1 orange 250mL orange juice 2 sprigs of parsley thyme salt and pepper butter h1. Method Heat a little butter in a frying pan. Fry the pork in … Continued

Chocolate Cheesecake

I found this recipe somewhere on the Internet, but I can’t remember where. All I can remember is that it’s by a guy called Glenn. I’ve changed it slightly (metricised the units, added a little more in-depth explanation). Ingredients Crust 1 1/4 cups chocolate cookie crumbs 1/4 cup melted butter Filling 700g cream cheese 1 … Continued