Month: November 2010

sausage & sauerkraut

This particular Bavarian feast was inspired by EssexEating wandering through a German Christmas market and being tempted by the wurst and sauerkraut on offer. I could take his Tweets no longer, and dove off to the supermarket to build it up. I’ve not made true sauerkraut, but dressed cooked white cabbage in a sharp and tangy sauce instead. I’ve tried to amp up the notes by introducing a few foreign elements too: horseradish to add fiery depth, and soy sauce for hits of umami goodness.

Sausage & sauerkraut:

1 Matheson’s smoked pork sausage , sliced on the diagonal

1 white cabbage, shredded finely

2 floury potatoes, diced

For the sauce:

2 tablespoons creme fraiche

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon creamed horseradish

1 teaspoon dark soy sauce

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

To serve:

Soy sauce

Balsamic vinegar

Get the cabbage and potatoes on to boil until both are tender.

While they cook stir together all the sauce ingredients and adjust the seasoning as required.

In a frying pan heat some garlic oil (if you have it, normal oil if not) and fry the sausage slices for a couple of minutes aside.

To serve, mix the sausage, cabbage and potato with the sauce. Grind over a nie bit of black pepper and drizzle with soy sauce and balsamic vinegar.

cheese chicken tortilla

chicken tortilla melt

I could take EssexEating’s taunting Tweets on the subject no more. I needed a crispy, cheesy tortilla fix on the quick.

A big pile of cheesy chips like this reminds me of my student days. I would microwave for an instant result, but when I have time I like to bake this so the tortillas have a hollow, crisp edge. I’ve made this one have the pretence of a real meal by adding a protein and a veg but let’s not kid ourselves: this falls squarely in the ‘treat’ category. Ticks loads of feel-good boxes though.

Chicken tortilla melt:

2 chicken breasts, chopped very small

1 pepper, diced

½ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon coriander

A large bag of tortilla chips, whichever flavour you like

Piles of cheddar cheese

Get your oven on as hot as it will go. Get a frying pan on the hob to pretty hot.

Toss the pepper and chicken in the spices with a pinch of salt and pepper and fry in a little oil. Once the chicken has coloured all over remove to one side. The chicken’s going in the oven too so it can be a tiny bit under.

Scatter a baking tray with tortilla chips and top with cheese. Add a layer of chicken and peppers, then repeat the layering until you’ve used everything up. Try and save some cheese for later.

Place in the oven and bake for 3 – 5 minutes until the cheese has melted. Out of the oven top with the remaining cheese (the combination of melted cheese and barely warm cheese is really interesting). Grind over some black pepper and serve with sour cream, guacamole and salsa.

cauliflower curry lentils

quick cauliflower dhal

This dinner was made super-fast by the addition of two dead handy ingredients: Waitrose Cooks’ Ingredients Onion Curry Base and Patak’s Balti paste. This wiped so much time off the cooking, all I was waiting for was the cauliflower to get tender. The Waitrose onion curry base is particularly great; sweet, spicy and tender onions, garlic, ginger and chilli in a jar sweated down. Look out for them.

Quick cauliflower dhal:

Half a jar of Waitrose Cooks’ Ingredients Onion Curry Base

Half a jar of Patak’s Balti paste

1 head of cauliflower, broken into florets

1 litre vegetable stock

1 tin green lentils, drained

1 tablespoon double cream

Heat a little oil in a deep pan and add the onions. Cook for a minute and stir in the curry paste. Add the cauliflower and cook for another minute stirring to coat the cauli in the pastes.

Add the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. After five minutes add the lentils and continue cooking until tender. Just before serving stir through some cream.

baked beans beans

baked beans [poll]

Back when discussing the perfect jacket potato, I hit on my least favouritest food ever: BAKED BEANS (the ones from a tin). I really don’t care for them, the smell makes me gag. But everyone else in the house loves them. Who’s right?

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