Author: Gary @ BigSpud

A bit of a geek who loves food.

macaroni cheese

macaroni cheese with broccoli and hot dogs

Utterly unpretentious, and a standby for all American moms, the mac and che’ is immense pleasure in a pot.

For me I boil up some macaroni, then when it’s nearly cooked chuck in broccoli florets and chopped hot dogs for a couple of minutes, so they are all tender at the same time.

Whilst this bubbles away I knock together a roux-based white sauce. That’s butter and flour smooshed together and allowed to form a paste, then when pale add milk until smooth. A bay leaf, a spoonful of English mustard and salt and pepper are added to give some flavour, then cheese grated in until it tastes right.

Then I chuck it all in a pot and bake in an oven until bubbly and brown. Not very spring-like, but pure comfort food.

food jam

scones

It was my birthday today, and as tradition-that-no-one-knows-why-it’s-this-way-round, I got the cakes in. Pshaw to buying them though, it’s baking for me. And scones are easy crowd-pleasers.

For me the scone (scowwwwn? skon?) has to be puffy, airy and crumbly. The key to it is to trap as much air as possible in the dough and plenty of butter to encourage the pastry to fall apart. So tons of butter, some well-sifted flour, baking powder, milk and eggs then. And lightly pressed into a large pancake. No rolling, it’ll squeeze the air out. Then cut out into shapes, brush with sugary milk and into a hot oven.

I brought some jam and clotted cream in, as there’s no finer way to top a scone.

carrots chorizo courgettes food peppers rice

paella

…Or it might be jambalaya. I’m not sure what the criteria is. It’s rice ‘n’ stuff in one pan, anyway.

My old chum chorizo makes a special guest appearance, but it’s the vegetables that do the work in this one. I fried the chorizo a bit to char the edges and encourage their spicy-sweet juices to leak out, then put them to one side. Then in go the veg: red onion, celery, carrot. After they’ve tenderised a bit, in go a courgette, some garlic and a pepper. After a couple of minutes I added some basmati rice and tossed that around to get up to heat. I wanted an alcoholic flavour so I added some Cinzano of all things at this point – slightly bitter, slightly sweet.

Then the chorizo went back, along with a pint of veg stock, some saffron and some paprika. Lid on, and left it for 20 mins or so. I came back to find a pan full of sticky rice and tender veg. Garnished with a little fresh parsley and shovelled away heaped spoonfuls at a time. Dinners in one pan rock!

food lamb leftovers potatoes

shepherd’s pie

Thanks to yesterday’s roast, I had a heap of leftovers. A few additions later and dinner’s ready.

I started by baking some potatoes until they were, well, jacket potatoes. I’m a big fan of mash done in this way. Meanwhile I took the cold, yummy, gummy lamb and chopped it into bits. I also had some leftover carrots and chopped those up too. I fried these bits in a pan until warmed up, then added some lamb stock and frozen peas. When the juice had reduced down a bit, I chucked them in a dish and topped with fresh mash, carved from the flesh of the baked potatoes mixed with a few leftover roast potatoes. I couldn’t resist a little cheese on top and left it in the oven for a few minutes until golden and bubbly. Lovely.