Garlic Hassleback Potatoes

These Swedish style potatoes are the perfect alternative to garlic bread. Simple to make and the flavour is the cross between a roast and baked potato, crispy edges and creamy interiors. You can fill them with any flavour you want by flavouring the butter you spread while they're still warm. These garlic ones are perfect with roast lamb.

Ingredients
500g Potatoes, scrubbed clean
1 tbsp Butter
2 cloves Garlic
Salt & Pepper

Recipe
Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees. With a sharp knife make thin slices into your potatoes, be careful not to slice all the way through. I normally leave 1-2cm on the bottom to keep them together. Put them in a roasting pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour depending on how big your potatoes are. The edges of the slices should be slightly browning and crisp while the inside is soft and fluffy.

Grind garlic with salt in a pestle and mortar to make a paste, then add the butter. Spoon this mixture over the hotel potatoes and season with pepper. Serve.

Pork Pibil

 

Originating from the Yucatan peninsula, this dish is traditionally made with a whole suckling pig cooked by burying the meat in a pit. Today, you can try pork pibil tacos at Wahaca, a Mexican restaurant chain with branches all over London. It has a delicious floral, tangy and yet mildly spicy flavour that entices the taste buds, the primary source of this unique taste comes from the Annatto seeds. This dish is perfect for cooking for a party, be it as part of a three-course Mexican themed menu for four with plenty of leftovers, or part of a Cinco De Mayo festive table. Best served with rice, tacos, salsa and re-fried beans.

Before cooking

Served with Coriander Rice

Ingredients
3-4 lbs (1.8-2kg) Pork shoulder joint

2½ tbsp ground Annatto (achiote) seeds
1 tsp Cumin seeds
2 tsp black Peppercorns
¼ tsp Allspice
¼ tsp Cloves
100ml Orange juice
3 cloves of Garlic, crushed
Juice of 3 lemons
1/2 tbsp white wine Vinegar
Banana Leaves (optional)

Recipe
First you need to dice your pork joint. I got a de-boned shoulder and diced it myself, but you could ask the butcher to do it as it does take some time if you have the bone-in. I discarded a lot of the tough skin but not too much of the fat as this renders off during the cooking time. Add your meat to a large non-reactive container.

Place the black peppercorns, allspice berries, cloves, cumin seeds and garlic in a pestle and mortar and grind to a fine paste. Sprinkle this over the meat with the annatto and salt, give it a good rub first and then add the liquids. Refrigerate overnight to get the maximum flavour into the meat.

On the day you're ready to cook, pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees. If you were able to acquire banana leaves, line your casserole dish with the leaves. If not, use a double layer of aluminium foil instead, place the meat onto the lining of your casserole and use the excess to seal your meat in. It should look like a snug package in your casserole dish. You don't need the lid on, but I put it on anyway to retain the heat inside the casserole. Cook on a medium shelf for 3-5 hours, depending on how late your guests are! But seriously, the longer the better as you want the meat to fall off your fork as you spoon it out.

Enjoy with rice, or on a nice taco with red onions.

Leftovers

Mushroom and Pecorino Pizza

Pizza baked in the oven with a well prepared and cared for dough has a superb taste far superior to any supermarket ready pizza base. Assembled and baked in frying pan to ensure a crispy bottom using utensils every owns. Then topped with buttery mushrooms, a thick reduced tomato sauce and two types of cheeses; one packing salty flavour and a creamy cheese to give you those cheesy strands with each slice. Simple flavours that keep you coming back for more.

Ingredients
Enough to make 1 pizza.
1 cup of plain Flour
1 tsp quick-acting dried Yeast
100 ml warm Water
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp Salt
250g Chestnut Mushrooms, thickly sliced
1 tbsp Butter
50g Pecorino, shaved
50g Mozzarella, torn
1 clove of Garlic, crushed
fresh Parsley to garnish
Salt & Pepper
Cooking Oil
Tomato Passata

Recipe
Start by making the pizza dough. In a bowl, sieve the flour, yeast and salt and mix well. Then make a well in the centre to add your olive oil and half of the water. Start whisking the water and oil with a fork and gradually include the flour from the edges until it is all combined, use your hands to pull all the flour from the edges. If it's too dry, add some more water but you don't want it too sticky. Knead the dough on a floured surface until the dough bounces back when you poke it and is smooth. Leave it to rest in a floured bowl until it doubles in size.

While you're waiting, pre-heat oven to 220 degrees and heat a frying pan. Add some cooking oil to the pan and half the butter. Fry the mushrooms in batches so they get nicely coloured, when you're done, add all the mushrooms to the pan, with the remaining butter and the garlic clove. This will ensure the mushrooms slightly pick up the flavour of the garlic which works really well with the pecornio.

If your tomato passata is too watery, reduce it down in a saucepan with a touch of seasoning until it becomes a thick heady tomato paste. Now you're ready to construct your pizza. Turn your dough out on a floured surface and knead gently to remove the air. Roll into a ball and then flatten with the palm of your hand. Place the disk onto a large round frying pan and with your fingers, gently push the dough to the outer edges of the pan, the dough should be thick enough to avoid making holes. But if you do make holes, pinch the dough back together again.

Spoon on some passata to the edges, then add the torn mozzarella, then the mushrooms and shaved pecornio and finally garnish with half the parsley. Cook in the oven for 15 minutes until golden brown at the edges. Slide out onto a wooden board and tuck in.

Banoffee Pie

There is something wonderful about this desert that makes it irresistible. Whether it's the saltiness from the crushed biscuits and pecans on the base, the sickly sweetness from the caramel, the smooth texture of the just past ripe bananas, the heavenly thick whipped cream on the top, or the slight bitterness from the dusted chocolate. I don't know what the secret is, I just know that this combination of ingredients is perfection!

Ingredients
3/4 cup unsalted Butter
1/2 cup caster Sugar
1 can condensed Milk
1/2 pack of Hobnobs, or your favourite Biscuits, crushed
1 cup of Pecans
3 large Bananas, sliced
1 cup double Cream,
Cocoa powder & Icing Sugar, for dusting

Recipe
Start with the caramel. Place the sugar and 1/2 cup of butter in a saucepan on a low heat. Stir until the the butter melts to combine with the sugar and starts to dissolve. Add the condensed milk and turn the heat up to bring to a boil, as soon as the mixture starts to thicken and smell of caramel, turn the heat off and leave to one side.

Melt the remaining butter in a separate pan. Crush half of the pecans, and place these in a bowl with the crushed biscuits. Add the melted butter and mix well. Spoon the crushed biscuit mixture onto the base of a round cake tin, pressing down to compress the biscuit mix. Then layer the sliced bananas on the bottom. Spoon the cooled caramel over the top, then transfer to the fridge to let everything set for 30 minutes.

When you're just about ready to take them out of the fridge, pour your double cream in a bowl and whisk until soft peaks form. Spoon the whipped cream onto the banoffee pie and top with pecans. Dust everything with cocoa powder and icing sugar. Enjoy.

Roasted Prince Squash Cannelloni

Roasted squash is so much more flavourful than squash which is simply fried or boiled, so why not roast to get the flavour, then purée it so it can be easily piped into the cannelloni tubes. I served mine with a simple tomato sauce and three different cheese, because I love cheese. The squash oozes out during cooking so this dish is best accompanied with garlic bread to soak up that sauce.

Ingredients

1 large prince Squash, peeled, de-seeded and cubed

50g Feta Cheese, crumbled

Pecorino Cheese, shaved

1/2 ball of Mozzarella Cheese

Olive Oil

1 tin of Tomatoes

2 cloves of Garlic, crushed

1 small Onion, diced

1/2 pack of Cannelloni tubes

Salt & Pepper

1 tsp dried Sage

1/2 tsp dried Rosemary

2 tsp fresh Parsley to garnish

1/2 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

1 tsp Mushroom or Anchovy Paste

Recipe

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees. Season your squash and drizzle generously with olive oil, roast in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until softened. Heat some oil in a small saucepan, then fry your onions gently, add the garlic and dried sage and rosemary until fragrant. Add tinned tomatoes, balsamic, mushroom paste, salt and pepper and leave to simmer on a low heat for 20 minutes to concentrate the flavour. 

Once the squash is cooked, put it in to a blender, or use a hand blender to purée it. Spoon into a piping bag, and pipe into the cannelloni tubes, stopping halfway to drop a small piece of feta. It really helps if you have a willing volunteer to help hold the tubes while you do the piping at this stage. In a large preferably square dish, add a layer of tomatoes, then your piped cannelloni, then some more sauce, continue until you have filled your dish end with a layer of sauce. Finally break away pieces of mozzarella and add this to the top along with the shaved pecorino. Sprinkle with parsley and baked in the oven for 20 minutes until the cannelloni has softened. Enjoy. :)

Roasted Butternut Squash Polenta Chips

This dish may take some time, but it's the kind that you can prepare part in advance leaving the frying to the last minute - these chips taste best warm. They're perfect to serve to guests while they're waiting for starters, to accompany a juicy steak or as a snack alongside beer. 

I made them with garlic aioli but they will also taste great with a spicy tomato salsa. :)

Ingredients
1 cup Quick Cook Polenta
2 cups of Water
Salt & Pepper
Cayenne Pepper
Olive Oil
Frying Oil
1 Butternut Squash, peeled and cubed

Recipe
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees. Place squash on a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper for a bit of heat. Roast on a middle shelf for 25-30 minutes until softened. Leave on one side to cool enough to handle.

Pour roasted butternut squash into a blender or use a hand blender to purée. Add a bit more olive oil to make it extra smooth. Start cooking the polenta by setting the water to boil with a pinch of salt, note that I used less water than usual as I am adding butternut squash. When the water is boiling, add the polenta and stir well. Keep stirring until the polenta absorbs the water and thickens.  When the polenta sticks to your spoon, add the puréed squash. Mix well, taste and season if necessary.

Pour the polenta-squash mixture onto a baking sheet or large tray and spread until the whole thing is around an inch thick. Leave to cool completely (a good hour in the fridge or by a cool location should do it). Once the polenta has cooled, test the centre to ensure it has solidified all the way through. Then cut into 1 inch thick sticks. Heat oil in a pan and pan fry the polenta for a crispy exterior. If you prefer a lower fat version, bake it in the oven.

Enjoy with you favourite dipping sauce.

Curry Crusted Monkfish

This is quite an old recipe, actually I made it on New Years Eve. I love to eat out on special occasions, it's the joy of eating something amazing that was cooked for you to take a break from cooking. Recently however, my boyfriend and I have decided, every once in a while, to use the special occasional to buy an ingredient we wouldn't normally due to high cost of limited availability and make a special meal at home. 

I've always wanted to cook with monkfish and my boyfriend has always wanted to try it. So when we were in a fishmonger in Twickenham, we grabbed the opportunity to cook with this ingredient. My boyfriend went on a de-tour to get back home so I spent the 20 minute journey researching recipes to see what I should make with it. We wanted something spicy rather so I moved quickly away from the Rick Stein recipes and settled on the Great British Menu dish that Glynn Purnell made a couple of years ago. 

I adapted the recipe slightly, eliminated the pickled carrots and used green lentils instead of red. I also don't own a vacuum packing machine so decided to pan fry then finish my monkfish in the oven, which meant experimenting a little with the timing. This is still a wonderfully lightly spiced creamy dish and it really brings out the flavour in the monkfish. We felt it was the perfect choice for this special fish.

Ingredients
Salt
2x Monkfish fillets
Butter
1/2 cup of green Lentils
cooking Oil
1/2 Onion, chopped
1/2 tbsp Curry powder
1 cup of Chicken Stock
1/2 red Chilli, finely sliced
2 tbsp fresh Coriander
1 tin Coconut milk
2 tbsp Coconut flesh

for the Masala Spice Mix
1/8 Cinnamon stick
1 tsp Fenugreek seeds
1/4 tsp Fennel seeds
3/4 tsp black Mustard seeds
2 Cloves
1/2 tsp Coriander seeds
3/4 tsp Cumin seeds

Recipe
 Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Sprinkle the salt over the monkfish fillets and leave for 5-6 minutes to remove moisture. Wash the salt off thoroughly under cold running water. Wrap the washed monkfish in a clean tea towel and leave overnight in the fridge.

For the lentils, sweat the chopped onion in a drizzle of oil for 4-5 minutes, or until softened. Stir in the mild curry powder. Add the lentils, stir well, then cover with chicken stock and simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until the lentils are tender. When cooked, stir in the chilli and coriander and season, to taste, with salt. Set aside.

For the masala spice mix, place all of the spice mix ingredients into a pestle and mortar and ground to a powder. Transfer to a plate and then roll the monkfish pieces in the mixture.  Melt the butter in a frying pan until foaming. Sear fish on both sides for 2-3 minutes, or until golden-brown and crisp all over. Put the pan in the oven for 10-12 minutes, then cover with foil.

Now for the sauce, pour the coconut milk into a pan and add a pinch of salt. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until reduced by half. Heat a frying pan and toast the thinly sliced coconut strips until golden-brown and fragrant. To serve, spoon the lentils onto a serving plate and place the monkfish on top. Drizzle over a bit of the reduced coconut milk, then garnish with the toasted sliced coconut, fresh coriander.