Recently Added Recipes

Makaronilaatikko | Finnish Pasta Casserole
Makaronilaatikko is probably the most popular meal in Finland. It features macaroni, minced meat and cheese baked in eggy milk. That's it. Astoundingly simple and surprisingly tasty. Move over mac and cheese, you have a rival.

Minced Beef and Onion Pie
Minced beef and onion is one of the classic savoury pies. It's fantastic hot or cold, and it really isn't difficult to make. This recipe uses a rich shortcrust pastry.

Base Curry Sauce
This is one of the base curry recipes used by Dan Toombs, The Curry Guy. If you cook lots of curries, make up a batch of this and store what you don't use in the freezer. On it's own, this is actually a bland-tasting liquid, but it adds terrific depth to finished curries. Because it can be used in something as mild as a korma or as ferocious as a phal, it doesn't contain any real chilli heat.

Easy Lamb Bhuna
The Curry Guy, Dan Toombs, recently sent me his latest book, Bible. Dan is well-known for reproducing the techniques and methods developed in British Indian Restaurants. The dishes he produces are not really authentic Indian, but they are very tasty. I chose to make his Lamb Bhuna, and this also includes a method for pre-cooking the lamb. You will need some base curry sauce, but I'm doing that as a separate recipe.

Potatoes Parmentier
It's hard to believe, but until the 18th century, potatoes were thought to be unfit for human consumption and were fed to animals. The French agronomist Antoine-Augustin Parmentier made them popular and this tasty little dish is named after him. So when you're fed up of chips, fries, mash or roasties, or even if you're not, try this - it's lovely.

Cumberland Sausage
Cumberland sausage must be one of the UK's most popular types of sausage. Traditionally made in coils and sold by length or weight, you can also identify Cumberland sausage by its strong spicy and peppery seasoning.

Jamaican Ginger Cake
McVities make the 'definitive' version of this cake in the UK. It was a weekly treat when I was a kid. But homemade Jamaican ginger cake is seriously easy to make - it has a wonderful crumb texture, a sticky outside and a delightful flavour. Try making your own Jamaican ginger cake - you'll be surprised how easy it is.

Chicken Maryland
This is one of those dishes that was wildly popular in the 60s and 70s, but is rarely seen now. In 'The Prawn Cocktail Years', Simon Hopkinson and Lindsey Bareham describe it as 'frankly weird'. It's basically chicken fried in a spicy batter with a creamy gravy, corn fritters, fried banana and bacon. To traditionalists the banana is an abomination that started appearing in the 50s when Baltimore began importing bananas.

Steak Diane
This steak - actually the sauce for it - is possibly named after Diane, the Roman goddess of hunting. I can't see the connection myself, but there ya go. There are other theories for where the name comes from, and also competing ideas of the origin of the dish - London, New York, Belgium and Australia can all lay claim to it. Whatever - it's really tasty and stupendously easy to make.

Waldorf Salad
This salad was invented in 1893 by the Maitre D' at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. And then made beloved to us Brits by John Cleese in Fawlty Towers - the chaos created by an American guest asking for a simple Waldorf Salad is a true gem. As is the salad itself - it couldn't be easier to make, and it's really fresh and tasty.

Beef Wellington - Cheap Sous Vide Method
Beef Wellington is a favourite celebration dish. If it's made well, it's bound to impress, but it's not easy to get the beef fillet cooked right while maintaining a firm and crisp pastry shell. Plus the fillet of beef is frighteningly expensive. As an experiment, I decided to try making beef wellington with a cheaper cut of beef (I ended up with topside, which cost less than half the price of beef fillet), and pre-cooking it using the sous vide technique. It turned out really well. Some versions of beef wellington have the meat wrapped in Parma ham, and some include a layer of pâté de foie gras. I think the dish is plenty rich enough just with the meat coated in mushroom duxelles, so that's what I'm doing, along with crêpes to stop the bottom going soggy.

Beef Bourguignon | Boeuf Bourguignonne
Beef bourguignon is a bit of a retro classic. It was hugely popular in the 70s, but has since almost sunk without trace. The phrase 'a la Bourguignonne', by the way, refers to a style of dish from the Burgundy region of France that involves meat (not always beef!) cooked slowly in red wine and garnished with mushrooms and tiny onions.

Prawn Cocktail
Prawn cocktail (or shrimp cocktail) is something the Boomers will remember fondly, while wondering whatever happened to it. In the 70s and 80s, this was on menus everywhere and was the de facto starter for many a dinner party. A well-made prawn cocktail is a wonderful thing, and it's actually devastatingly simple to make. This recipe is borrowed from The Prawn Cocktail Years, by Simon Hopkinson and Lindsay Bareham.

Tater Tot™ Casserole
Foodie snobs (like me) might not regard this as proper cooking, but when it's the middle of the week, you need to get food on the table in a hurry and don't want a takeaway, this is quick, easy, and deeply satisfying. Tater Tots™ were invented in 1953 by Ore-Ida Corp as a way to use up scraps of spud from making chips etc. They never really made it across the pond, but there are any number of similar things in the freezer cabinets of British supermarkets. Or if you watch the linked video, I actually made my own.

Pitta Bread
Have you ever bought pitta bread from a supermarket and wondered if the creators have even tried the real thing? I'm not someone who thinks that supermarket bread is always bad, but I've never had a decent pitta from a supermarket. Anyway. not to worry, it's quite easy to make your own.

Tzatziki
Tzatziki is one of those Greek things that always seems to find its way onto the table along with hummus, taramasalata and other little dippy treats. It's crazily easy to make from only 3 or 4 ingredients.

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