Kitchen basics… perfect, not soggy at all, brussels sprouts.
How to… cook perfect brussels sprouts
Kitchen basics… perfect, not soggy at all, brussels sprouts.
Kitchen basics, for those who need them. Here’s how to make perfect gravy from scratch.
Okay, let’s get one thing straight. There is far too much stress about cooking The Turkey on The Big Day. I know the food (and especially the turkey) are important on Christmas day, but PLEASE, it’s essentially just a big roast for more people than usual. We (and I include myself) need to keep some perspective and treat it as such! Christmas is the sum of so many things; family, nearest and dearest, a little time off work if we can get it, maybe some games and presents if we’ve been good boys and girls and of course delicious food and drink. The turkey is not the star of the whole day for me, my family are, but it should still be succulent and taste amazing.
Hazelnut and cranberry stuffing is both soothingly nutty and berrry-sharp, satisfying my tart loving tastebuds. The wholesome, crunchy textured hazelnuts marry perfectly to the sour cranberry pocketed explosions. Great with the turkey and possibly even better in the obligatory turkey sandwich later on. Here’s a little video if you’d like to watch and the full recipe with all the nutritional info is here.
*To test whether the turkey is cooked, insert a skewer into the thickest part of the leg – the juices should run clear.
Get experimenting with any dried fruit you have in your cupboard. Cranberries are colourful and Christmassy, but dried apricots or prunes will also work well.
I bucked the trend as a student. I spent the first year of proper student halls life being the designated driver and cooking from scratch. Odd I know. No AfterShock chasers or donor kebabs for me.
I was just so incredibly excited to have a kitchen to call my own (well mine and 20 others) and a budget for food. Second year was spent in a house of 7 people where myself and one of the other greedy inhabitants used to regularly peel a bag of potatoes the size of a small toddler. We’d boil them, mash them to within an inch of their lives and finish with scalded milk, salted butter and lashings of black pepper. Whilst all 7 of us ate well through this devotion, our portion control was a little suspect. I now know that when you need a break mid meal it might be time to put the cutlery down, defeated.
This frittata recipe is great. It’s easy, economical and nutritious. Plus it doesn’t need lots of fancy equipment so it’s perfect for students who I believe are starting their new terms about now. Serves 4 people or two with a great breakfast the day after. There’s even a little video to watch of me making this with the rather lovely, polite and handsome Ed:
Ingredients:
I’m not very keen on being judged or competing, which might sound like a huge lie for someone who chose to compete in a televised competition. It’s true. I didn’t like competitive sports as school and exams made me so nervous at uni I had to sit them in a special room for people who freak out and faint. I can only blame the post-natal hormones on my Bake Off application. It’s back on air next Tuesday and whilst I am hugely excited about the prospect of watching the show without wincing at my double chin, I’m also terrified at the thought of the judging.
Every week of the Bake Off I felt the judging ruined what had become a very enjoyable meeting of minds. 12 people hanging out in a tent, baking like crazy and then trying each others food and being awfully complementary about it. Now I know that wouldn’t have made great telly, but the judging felt like a grubby aside. An unnecessary spoiler. Sure, there was the relief when you got to stay in, but losing someone each week was awful. And, well, asking someone to leave what felt like a party isn’t very British. Don’t we just moan about people rather than speak our minds in this country? My how we’ve changed.
Recently I was invited to a barbecue where foodie types all bring a dish. I had no idea when I accepted the invitation that this was the deal. I may not have said yes; I can smell competitiveness even through the medium of text message. I took a lemony, minty salad full of broad beans, peas, asparagus and grilled halloumi. It’s my kind of salad; full of flavour and bite without relying on a huge chunk of seared fish or grilled chicken. As I removed the lid I couldn’t help but feel disappointment from the foodie folks. No cake. No pastry. No bread. Nothing baked. Just a cold, healthy salad. Well, I wasn’t about to enter another Bake Off…
Ingredients (very rough quantities)
– half a bag of frozen petit pois
– half a bag of frozen broad beans
– 2 bunches of asparagus spears
– 1 pack of halloumi
– 1 lemon, zested and juiced
– 10 mint leaves, finely chopped
– olive oil
– black pepper
This is easy but time consuming if you go the whole hog and shell the beans. Boil the kettle and then pour into a large saucepan to about half way. Pour the broad beans into the pan then boil on the hob as per packet instructions. Just before they are ready add the peas. They only need a couple of mins. You just want to defrost rather than cook them. Drain boiling water away from the beany/pea mountain, swish some cold water over the lot, drain again and leave to cool.
Take a large frying pan and add a glug of olive oil. Heat for 2 minutes then add slices of the halloumi and fry until golden brown. Turn using tongs and fry on the other side, then set aside in a bowl to cool a little. Then chop the asparagus spears into 1 inch chunks and fry in the pan until they are kind of charred and a sharp knife goes through the thickest stem easily. Take off the heat and transfer to the serving dish. Add the zest of your lemon, then the lemon juice, a good glug of olive oil, loads of black pepper and the finely chopped mint leaves.
Now for the boring bit. Start to pick through your beans and peas. Every time you see a bean press it between your thumb and index finger and pop the bean from the tough outer broad bean shell. Then add the bean to the asparagus sitting in all the tasty flavours and throw away the empty shell. Repeat, repeat, repeat until you’re finished. Tip the left-behind peas in. Give it all a good stir and then pop the halloumi on the top. If you can’t be bothered to shell the broad beans you could skip this stage, but be warned that people will most likely judge you for it.
What do these things have in common?
They are all promised to help entice overdue babies out. And in my opinion none of them work. As anyone who’s ever gotten anywhere near their due date (and/or gone past it) will tell you, helpful people start to offer advice as to how to get the baby to make his/her appearance as you near 40 weeks. Go past 40 weeks and people fall over themselves to ask you highly personal information about how much sex you’re getting and gulp… if you’ve tried nipple stimulation. The lack of privacy starts before the labour ward.
My lovely, dear friend Alison is about to give birth to her second baby. She’s due this weekend. This one’s for you Alison. Though you need to add more chilli as I’ve heard that it might help induce labour… especially if you eat it whilst having sex and bouncing on a ball and with a pineapple chaser…
Ingredients:
Heat a splash of oil in a large frying pan and fry the paneer until starting to sizzle and brown. Once it’s done scoop it out and set aside on some kitchen roll. Turn the heat down and add the peeled and chopped onion with the salt. Fry on a low heat until soft and almost translucent. Then add the spices including the chilli (finely chopped including the seeds) and the ginger and chilli. After another 5 mins add the tinned tomatoes. Fill the tin back up with water and add this to the pan. Turn the heat up and give it a really good stir. When it starts to thicken a little add the paneer back in and also the frozen peas. Leave to simmer away for around 15 minutes until you have a yellowy cheesy pea stew. (I think it might need to be renamed cheesey peas given that our local curry house would likely laugh at my interpretation of mutter paneer.)
Day 8 of No-Show-Baby-Bell-II-Gate. I crave all things strong in flavour. The more garlic, ginger, chilli, salt and sugar the better. This poor baby might be staying inside for fear of the switch to a diet of bland milk. Or maybe it’s just a laid back baby? Or maybe it knows we still haven’t sorted out the wiring or the blackout blind in the nursery. Or maybe it knows I’m just plain scared of giving birth again and is staying inside to give me longer to come to terms with the inevitable. Who knows.
This recipe was dreamed up after my in-laws gave us a huge glut of green beans. I love green beans but not so much in their virgin form. I toyed with making some green bean relish a la Delia but decided I’ve made enough chutney for Christmas already. No need for any more preserved goods. So I needed to make something strong in flavour and hearty and moreish. Moreish is good when there’s a Sainsbury’s bag full to the brim with beans.
Ingredients:
Preheat the oven to Gas 5. Pop the green beans, garlic, tomatoes, water and sugar into a large saucepan and place on the hob. Simmer for about 20 mins until the mixture starts to reduce down a little. Then check the green beans to make sure they’re starting to tenderise. Transfer to a white oven proof dish and add the crumbled feta to the top then pop in the oven for around 25 minutes on the top shelf. The tomatoey, watery, garlicky mixture should have reduced down in the oven proof dish by now. Mr B and I enjoyed ours with roasted chicken and oregano potatoes. He seemed to like our faux Greek meal which I think is a good result. He went out with a Greek girl once you see, so he should know.
Charlie surprises me on a daily basis, such are his whims. His fave supper of Baghdad beef stew, carrots and pasta was recently rejected in favour of this cous cous. He eyed the adults eating it with slight suspicion, then after a little spying, made his move and pounced. Initially picking out the chickpeas, then moving on to scooping up cous cous with his chubby, slightly yoghurty fingers. Even the coriander was devoured. The only sounds from his mouth: ‘yum yum mummy.’
This recipe makes LOADS – a huge bowl to be left in the fridge and dipped into whenever peckish. It lasted about 3 days in this house which just shows how much there was as we’re greedy Bells. It’s not too highly spiced or lemony which makes it a good accompaniment to spicier dishes, Mr B thinks.
Ingredients:
Get the onions cooking in the oil and sugar on a low heat in a frying pan. They need about 20 mins to get to that caramelly look and taste. Then add the aubergine, garlic and mushrooms and fry until cooked through.
Meanwhile make the cous cous by taking 500g, putting it into a large bowl and then adding 600ml of boiling water. Cover the bowl with a large dish or plate and leave for 10 mins. Don’t disturb! You need the steam to stay in the bowl. After a good ten mins have elapsed take the plate or lid type utensil off the top and use a fork to fluff the cous cous up.
Add the drained chick peas, crumbled feta, spring onions and onion-y, aubergine-y mix to the cous cous and fork through until combined. Then add chopped coriander and mix through gently, using serving spoons.
My husband’s house was a work in progress when I moved in and continues to be. However, this weekend marked the unveiling of the garden as a usable space. Until then is was a wilderness, overgrown and inhospitable to humans. Only tempting to frogs and bugs.
The lovely Olivia and Big Stu kick started the metamorphosis when they offered to help us clear it. Lots of people offer help but it never materialises, however they were true to their word and spent an entire day labouring hard – emerging bramble-scratched and with sore backs.
It felt only right then that our maiden BBQ was enjoyed by our garden angels. Little did I know but Olivia is a sweet potato fiend – here’s the recipe (can you call it that? Not really…)
Ingredients:
Wash the potatoes under a cold tap, then cut in half length ways, then into quarters, then into eighths. You want the wedges to be about 1cm in thickness. Take a freezer bag or any other plastic bag you have without holes and pop all the wedges into it.
Add all the other ingredients and tie the bag tightly. If you can leave overnight in the fridge, if not, for about 30 mins. The longer the better though really.
Once the BBQ is up and running (coals white and hot etc), remove the wedges from the bag, place on the BBQ and give them 5 mins each side until they’re blistering and starting to slightly char. Serve immediately with dips and other BBQ type fodder.
Holly Bell 