Chicken Paella

This is one of my signature dishes. It's kind of involved, but well worth the effort. Your classic paella is full of seafood, but it can be made with anything and I'm not a fan of shellfish. I usually use chicken, but sometimes substitute game.

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
250g chicken breast or thigh, cubed
1 red pepper, roughly diced
2 green pepper, roughly diced
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
100g diced chorizo
100g diced pancetta
20g flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
200g chopped tomatoes
1/2 tbsp paprika
180g bomba rice
500ml chicken stock
Pinch of saffron
200g peas

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large, heavy-based frying pan on a medium-high heat.

Fry the chicken and peppers until the chicken is browned, then remove from the pan and set aside.

Add the saffron to the stock to infuse.

Clean out the pan and heat the remaining oil on a medium-high heat.

Fry the onion, chorizo, pancetta, parsley and garlic (the sofrito) until the onion begins to soften.

Add the tomatoes and paprika, then cook on a medium heat until the liquid from the tomatoes is mostly evaporated.

Restore the chicken and peppers and add the rice. Stir so that the rice is coated in the other ingredients.

Add the peas and then the stock. Cook at a high simmer for c. 10 minutes without stirring or covering.

Simmer gently for 10-15 minutes, until all of the stock is absorbed and the rice has just a little bite left. If the liquid is used up too quickly, top up with a little boiled water.

Cook on a high heat for a minute to scorch the bottom of the paella.

If cooking game - pigeon, pheasant etc - instead of chicken, omit the pre-cooking, as the meat will end up too dry.

Spaghetti Carbonara

This is a good standby, both because it's quick to make and because my daughter reliably eats it. I have added peas to the standard recipe because Arya eats them and it puts at least some vitamins in what is otherwise a carb-and-protein dish.

Ingredients (per person)
100g spaghetti
1/2 cup peas

2 eggs
2 rashers bacon
2 tsp grated Parmesan
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tbsp olive oil

Bring a pan of water to the boil. Add the spaghetti and peas, bring back to the boil and then simmer until the spaghetti is cooked.

Once the spaghetti goes in, heat the oil in a large saucepan.

Fry the bacon until cooked to preference.

Beat together the eggs, cheese and pepper.

Drain the pasta, add to the saucepan and toss together with the bacon and oil.

Remove from the heat, add the egg and stir though.

Camembert with Chorizo

Get one Camembert of baking size (6"-8" across) and about 50g of diced chorizo.

Place the Camembert in a baking container and slice the top rind. Push chorizo cubes into the slices and scatter the rest on top of the cheese.

Bake at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Eat with hot bread, carrot sticks and chutney.

Christmas Ham

Ham is a pretty simple thing to cook, but I had never done it before. Now I've done it twice. In both cases, the essential process was the same:

1. Take a ham (or gammon, if you will).
2. Place in a pan and cover with cold water.
3. Bring to the boil; drain.
4. Cover with cold water, adding vegetables and spices to the pan.
5. Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer for about 20 minutes per 1/2 kilo.
6. Drain and transfer to a roasting dish.
7. Glaze and bake in a hot oven for 10 minutes.
8. Turn, glaze, and bake for 10-15 minutes.

In the first instance I used fresh vegetables and black pepper for the boil. In retrospect, since I wasn't reserving the stock due to lack of freezer space, it would have been as good to do what I did in the second instance and use vegetable stock to season.

The Christmas Day ham had a half-and-half honey and mustard (English) glaze, but Arya didn't go for that. Since honey and mustard mix up nice and runny, the glaze could be applied cold.

The New Year ham had a variation on a marmalade and brown sugar glaze, using a couple of tablespoons of good marmalade and one of black treacle, heated to mix and bring to a good consistency for painting onto the ham with a brush.

Spicy Pumpkin and Potato Soup

This was a recipe improvised to make use of a lot of leftover pumpkin. The end result could pretty much stand a spoon.

1 medium onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, crushed and chopped
4 rashers of bacon, cut into small strips
1 tbsp olive oil
1.5kg of diced pumpkin and potato
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried coriander
1 tsp garam masala
1 litre water
2 stock cubes (chicken or vegetable) or equivalent

Heat the oil in a large stockpot.

Fry the onion, garlic and bacon.

Remove the bacon once cooked, then add the vegetables to the pan. Stir well, pour over the spices and continue stirring to mix evenly.

Add the stock, bring to the boil and turn down to a simmer.

After about 45 minutes, when the potato is soft, blitz the soup with a stick blender, restore the bacon and cook for another 5 minutes.

Serve with grated cheese and bread.

Apple, raisin and cinnamon porridge

Serves 3

1 apple, finely sliced or chopped
100g raisins*
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp hot water

150ml jumbo rolled oats**
150ml cold water
150ml semi-skimmed milk***

Finely slice or chop the apple. Add to a pan with the raisins, cinnamon and water and heat on a medium ring, simmering until the apple is softened and the liquid largely evaporated.

Add the remaining ingredients and stir together.

Bring to a gentle boil, stirring regularly. Once the porridge is bubbling vigorously, reduce to an easy simmer for 1 minute.

* This is very approximate; adjust to preference.
** I find that the jumbo rolled leave a pleasant bite to the finished porridge.
*** Whole milk (or skimmed, if you're a monster) could be substituted. Scots may prefer to use another 150ml or water, but if you're that much of a Scots porridge purist, I probably lost you at 'apple'.

Veg Box

This weekend, we mostly cooked using Hannah's organic veg box. Ingredients from the box are marked with an asterisk (*).

Friday - Chicken Casserole
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
3 medium carrots*
350g chicken breast fillet, cubed
500g mushrooms, chopped*
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp oregano
2 medium leeks, sliced*
1/2 glass white wine
2 chicken stock pots
1 red pepper, sliced*
1/2 cup rice

Heat the oil in a large stockpot over a medium-high heat.

Add the onion, garlic and carrot. Stir well, cover and sweat until the onion begins to soften.

Add the chicken and mushrooms and the paprika and oregano. Keep turning until the meat is sealed on all sides and beginning to brown.

Add the leeks, stir, then add the wine and one of the stock pots, stirring until it melts. Melt the other stock pot in 500ml of boiling water.

Add the stock, stir and cover. Bring to an easy boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add the peppers and the rice and simmer until the rice has absorbed enough liquid to be al dente.

Saturday - Lamb Tagine
This is the same recipe as my last entry, but with lamb shoulder from the local butcher. Being mostly fruit, we didn't use the box veg.

Sunday - Chicken Soup
1/2 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped*
1 leek, sliced*
200g chicken breast fillet, cubed
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp black pepper
500ml chicken stock
2 nests rice noodles

Heat the oil in a saucepan.

Sweat the onion, garlic and carrots for a few minutes, then add the chicken and leek. I was using the chicken from frozen, so I actually sweated the vegetables in a separate pan until the meat was defrosted and sealed.

Add the herbs and stock. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the carrots are almost cooked through.

Add the noodles and cook for 5 minutes.

Sunday - Sausages and new potatoes with cabbage and bacon

1 tbsp olive oil

6 sausages (I used Fen Farm venison and pork, which at 100% meat are also entirely gluten free)

6 medium new potatoes, roughly chopped*

2 small carrots, roughly chopped*

1 tsp rosemary

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 cloves garlic, halved

1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

3 rashers unsmoked bacon, chopped

1 medium cabbage, shredded*

Coat the base of a large roasting dish in oil. Arrange the sausages, potatoes and carrots in the dish and season with the garlic, rosemary and pepper.

Place in a preheated oven at 180C, turning the food in the dish every 10-15 minutes for 30-40 minutes.

After 30 minutes, heat the oil in a saute pan. 

Sweat the onion, garlic and bacon until softening, then add the cabbage a few handfuls at a time, stirring and adding more as it reduces in size.

Cook the last of the cabbage for about 5 minutes and then remove from the heat. Cover the pan while cooking if you want to soften the crunch.

Serve the sausage and potatoes on a bed of cabbage. The carrots in this recipe were the last in the box, included mostly for show (and because we know that our baby daughter will eat them), but they could be scaled up easily.

The veg was excellent quality. The carrots and cabbage were notable for their flavour, and the richness of the mushrooms created a much darker and earthier casserole than I had been expecting.