All posts by Beck Laxton

Hot savoury

Thai-style soup

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Combine 1.25 litres stock, one or two red chillies (optional), two garlic cloves, and a thumb of fresh ginger, all finely sliced, with the grated zest of one small lemon and one small lime, and two tablespoons Thai fish sauce. Simmer for five minutes.

Add a large carrot cut into matchsticks, 350g chicken in 5cm x 0.5cm strips, and 250ml coconut milk. Simmer for five minutes, then add 70g finely shredded kale or cabbage, and any leftovers of cooked meat. Simmer until just tender then add 60ml lemon juice or lime juice or both and handful of coriander leaves.

You can also add noodles – you might need to pre-cook them at the start.

Hot savoury

Spiced lentils

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400g split red lentils
large bunch fresh coriander
large onion, peeled
80g ginger, peeled
six cloves garlic, peeled
two mild green chillies or dried chilli flakes
three teaspoons black mustard seeds
four tablespoons sunflower oil
a tin of chopped tomatoes
two teaspoons sugar
three teaspoons ground coriander
two teaspoons ground cumin
one teaspoon ground turmeric
one teaspoon smoked paprika
twenty curry leaves
one teaspoon fenugreek
asafoetida
salt
140g butter
three tablespoons lime juice

Wash 400g split red lentils in plenty of water, drain and soak in 700ml water for thirty minutes. Finely chop a large onion. Put three teaspoons of mustard seeds in a heavy-based pot and place over medium heat. When they begin to pop, add the onion and four tablespoons of sunflower oil and cook on low heat. While the onion is frying, finely chop 80g root ginger, six cloves of garlic, and two mild green chillies if you’re using them, and add to the pan. Cut a large bunch of coriander somewhere around its centre to get a leafy top half and a stem/root bottom half. Roughly chop the stem half and add to the pan.

Add three teaspoons of ground coriander, two teaspoons of ground cumin, one teaspoon of ground turmeric, one teaspoon of smoked paprika, and twenty curry leaves, plus a lidful of chilli flakes if you prefer these to fresh chillies. Continue cooking and stirring for five minutes longer. Now add the lentils and their soaking water, a tin of chopped tomatoes, two teaspoons of sugar and a large pinch of salt. You can also add one teaspoon of fenugreek and two pinches of asafoetida but I’m not sure they make any difference.

Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes, until the lentils are fully cooked.

Before serving, stir in 140g butter, three tablespoons of lime juice and most of the leafy half of the coriander, chopped; taste and season generously with salt. Divide into bowls and garnish with the last of the coriander.

Yotam Ottolenghi: Plenty or Guardian website – double the quantities.

Sweet

Nicety cakes

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Mix 8oz soft brown sugar with 1/2lb self-raising flour, sifted. Rub in 8oz butter. Stir in 8oz currants, 5floz sweet sherry, a teaspoon of lemon juice and two lightly beaten eggs. Bake in paper cases for fifteen to twenty minutes at 190°C.

This makes around thirty cakes. Or you can halve the quantities:

Mix 4oz soft brown sugar with 8oz self-raising flour, sifted. Rub in 4oz butter. Stir in 4oz currants, 2.5floz (sweet sherry, half a teaspoon lemon juice and a lightly beaten egg. Bake in paper cases for fifteen to twenty minutes at 190°C.

What’s the difference between currants and raisins?

Hot savoury

Quick onion soup

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Slice four large onions thinly. Melt 1oz butter plus a bit of olive oil in a pan, add the onions and fry slowly. If it’s a cast-iron pan, turn the heat up gradually until the onions caramelise. In a normal saucepan, add half a tablespoon of white sugar to help the onions caramelise. Then pour in 1.75 pints water, a stock cube and a dash of vinegar. Simmer for a quarter of an hour then season to taste.

Jocasta Innes: The Pauper’s Cookbook, page 120

Hot savoury

Pork chops with cheese and mustard crust

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Brush the two pork chops with oil and season, then put in the oven at 170°C for 15 minutes. While they cook, mix 25g (1oz) breadcrumbs, 25g (1oz) grated cheese, a tablespoon of Dijon mustard and two teaspoons oil. Take the chops out of the oven, turn them over, spread the mixture on the uncooked side and put them back in the oven for ten to fifteen minutes, until browned.

Sophie Grigson: Meat Course, page 123 (weirdly misprinted as pork and mushrooms)

Hot savoury

Peach and chickpea curry

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Drain a tin of chickpeas and rinse well. Boil vigorously in water for ten minutes.

Meanwhile finely chop an onion and a clove of garlic (plus a chilli if you like them) plus a teaspoon each of ground cumin, ground coriander and smoked paprika, plus crushed chillis if you’re not using fresh. Fry gently.

Drain a tin of peaches (or apricots) into the pan and add the fruit chopped into small chunks. Turn the chickpeas down to a simmer.

Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, a handful of fresh coriander, chopped, and a stock cube. Stir together then simmer for thirty minutes, adding water if needed.

Drain and rinse the chickpeas then add them. Serve with rice.

Adapted from Jack Monroe: A Girl Called Jack, page 74

Cold savoury

Sardine rillettes

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Finely dice an onion: very very finely. Teeny tiny pieces.

From two 90g tins of sardines in oil, take out the sardines . Open them carefully along their backs and take out the backbones and any other bones you can see.

Put them in a bowl and mash them up with a fork, add the onion, and the zest and juice of one lemon.

Season and serve on toast.

Jack Monroe: Tin Can Cook, page 112. She says to keep the oil from the sardines, but doesn’t say what to do with it…

If you only have sardines in tomato sauce, those are good mashed up and spread on toast, and you can do the same trick with adding finely diced raw onion to give them a bit of pizazz.

Cold savoury

Lentil salad

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  • 250g dried Puy or green lentil, rinsed
  • juice ½ lime and juice ½ lemon
  • one tablespoon white wine or cider vinegar
  • one red onion thinly sliced into rings
  • two tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • one teaspoon ground cumin
  • a small garlic clove crushed
  • two tablespoons  mango chutney
  • handful of coriander roughly chopped
  • 250g cherry tomatoes halved
  • 85g rocket or baby spinach (rocket is better – if you use spinach teare the leaves into bite-sized pieces)
  • Set the lentils cooking following the instructions on the packet.
  • Meanwhile, mix the citrus juices, vinegar and a pinch of salt in a salad bowl, then toss in the onion rings – after a few mins they will soften and turn pink. Whisk together the oil, cumin, garlic and chutney, then toss into the onions with the cooled lentils, coriander, tomatoes, spinach and plenty of seasoning.
  • Drain the lentils, rinse well and drain thoroughly. This should cool them down, but if not leave to cool before adding to the mixture.

From the BBC Good Food website.

Sweet

Chocolate espresso cake

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The pages of our copy are stained with the residue of many cakes.

Nigel says when it comes out of the oven the cake should still be moist in the middle. As it cools it will sink slightly and the crust will crisp.

180g fine dark chocolate, chopped
a small espresso (about three tablespoons of very strong coffee)
140g unsalted butter, diced
five free range eggs, separated
200g golden caster sugar
one teaspoon baking powder
two tablespoons cocoa powder
90g plain flour

Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Line the base of a 21–23cm shallow springform cake tin with silicone baking parchment, buttering the tin lightly to hold it in place.

Melt the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water.  As soon as it starts to soften, add the coffee and leave it for two or three minutes.  Stir very gently, then when the chocolate has melted add the butter.  Stir until it has melted.

Meanwhile beat the egg whites till stiff, then fold in the sugar.  Mix the baking powder with the cocoa powder and flour.  Remove the chocolate from the heat, quickly stir in the egg yolks, then slowly, firmly and gently fold the melted chocolate into the egg whites.  Lastly sift in the flour and cocoa mixture.

Stir the mixture tenderly with a large metal spoon, taking care not to knock out any air.  It should feel light and wobbly.  Do not over mix – just enough to fold in the flour.  Scoop into the lined tin and bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for thirty-five minutes.  Leave to cool in its tin then turn out.

Nigel Slater: Real Food, page 309

Hot savoury

Pan haggerty

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900g potatoes, two or three onions, 125g cheese

  1. Heat 15g butter and the oil in a heavy-based frying pan or shallow casserole, about 21cm base diameter. Add a third of the potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced, to the pan then half the onions, thinly sliced, and about 50g cheese, seasoning as you go. Repeat layers of potatoes, onions and cheese, then finish with a top layer of potatoes and the rest of the cheese. Dot the last of the butter on top.
  2. Crumple up a sheet of baking paper and lay it on top, tucking the edges inside the pan. Top with a tight-fitting lid (or use a heavy baking tray if you don’t have a lid). Cook on the hob over a low heat for about 40 minutes or until the veg are soft – pierce with a knife to check. Give the pan a shake occasionally, to make sure that the potatoes aren’t sticking.
  3. When tender, turn up the heat under the pan to let the base crisp up for five minutes.
  4. Then put the pan under the grill to brown the top. Let it settle for a few minutes before cutting into wedges. Serve as a side for sausages or chops, on its own with green veg or salad, or topped with a fried egg or bacon for brunch.

Learned at Naomi Cunningham’s house in Sussex. This is from the BBC Good Food website.

Hot savoury

Lentil soup

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Put two tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan on a medium heat, then fry 150g chopped streaky bacon until it browns lightly and the fat begins to render.

Add two onions, two large carrots and half a neep, and fry, stirring regularly, until the onion is golden and the other vegetables are starting to soften.

Wash 250g red lentils then stir them until they’re well coated in fat, then add half a teaspoon ground mace or nutmeg, a pinch of salt, a good grind of pepper and the bay leaf. Then add two litres of vegetable chicken stock.

Bring to a simmer, then turn down the heat, partially cover the pan and leave to cook for about 45 minutes, until the vegetables are soft and the lentils have mostly broken down.

Remove and discard the bay leaf. Scoop out about a third of the soup, whizz it to a puree, then stir back into the pot. Adjust the seasoning to taste, and enjoy.

Felicity Cloake’s Perfect lentil soup from her How to cook the perfect series in the Guardian.

Cold savoury

Cuchumba

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This is the salad that we always had alongside curries when I was a girl, but I was in my fifties before I saw the word written down.

Chop up tomatoes and onions. Mix with lemon juice and plenty of salt.

It sounds vile, but somehow all the harsh ingredients mellow each other.

Hot savoury

Flemish beer stew

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Trim the fat off 2lb stewing steak or shin of beef then cut into large chunks. Coat in seasoned flour. Peel and slice 2lb onions and fry in a mixture of butter and olive oil until soft. Remove to a plate then fry the meat in the same fat till brown all over.

Put half the onions in a casserole. Lay the meat on top with a clove of garlic, and a bayleaf tied up with sprigs of thyme. Cover with the remaining onions.

Mix half a pint of stout with half a tablespoon mustard, half a tablespoon brown sugar, a pinch of salt and some pepper. Pour over the onions and meat. Add enough hot water to cover them (or use the rest of the beer). Put on the lid and bake in a slow over (160°C) for three to four hours.

Jocasta Innes: The Pauper’s Cookbook, page 178

Hot savoury

Fish finger bhorta

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First, make pink pickled onions as for the lentil salad – a better recipe than Nigella’s – as far in advance as you can.

Slice a red onion thinly into rings, then shake it up in a jar with the juice of half a lime and half a lemon (or a few tablespoons of each) , one tablespoon white wine or cider vinegar, and a pinch of salt. After a few minutes they will go an incredible Barbie pink. Make them in a Kilner jar and they’ll keep for a few days.

  • two regular onions
  • two red chillies or use dried crushed chillies
  • two fat cloves of garlic
  • one tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger (a three-inch chunk)
  • 12 frozen fish fingers
  • three tablespoons cold-pressed rapeseed oil or vegetable oil
  • two 15ml tablespoons English mustard (from a jar)
  • one teaspoon salt
  • 125 grams young spinach
  • a lime
  • three tablespoons roughly chopped fresh coriander (plus more to serve)
  1. Heat the oven to 220°C/200°C Fan. While you’re waiting, peel and slice your into fine half-moons, deseed the chillies (or not if you prefer) and slice them finely, and peel the garlic. If the skin is tough, peel the ginger (using the tip of a teaspoon) then grate it finely to give 1 tablespoonful.
  2. When the oven’s hot, and your ingredients are assembled and ready, put the frozen fish fingers on a baking sheet and cook for 20–25 minutes, which may be slightly longer than the packet directs, but will ensure the breadcrumb coating is really crisp.
  3. Meanwhile, warm the oil in a large frying pan or wok, and cook the onions over medium-low for 20 minutes, stirring regularly, by which time they will be pale gold and soft.
  4. Add the sliced chillies and cook, stirring all the while, for three minutes, then stir in the grated ginger, mince or grate in the garlic, and cook, still stirring, for another two minutes. Spoon in the mustard and salt, stirring to combine, then add the spinach leaves and let them wilt in the pan for two to three minutes, stirring regularly, then squeeze in the juice of the lime.
  5. Take the pan off the heat while you get the fish fingers. Break them up a bit with a spatula then add them to the wok or frying pan. Toss everything together, breaking them up further and mashing them into the pan, then sprinkle over the coriander.
  6. Serve topped with the pink-pickled onions, adding extra chopped coriander if wished.

Nigella Lawson: Cook, Eat, Repeat, page 61

Hot savoury

Bobotie

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Fry a medium onion and a clove of garlic until lightly browned. Meanwhile, remove the crusts from a thick slice of bread and soak it in 150ml (5fl oz) milk for a few minutes. Then squeeze out the bread and keep both bread and milk.

Mix the fried onion with 450g (1lb) minced beef or lamb, half a tablespoon sugar, two tablespoons lemon juice, 25g (1oz) flaked almonds, 75g (3oz) raisins, and the soaked bread. Add spices: a tablespoon garam masala, ground cumin, turmeric, coriander, Worcestershire sauce, any soft apples lying around. Season, then beat in an egg. Spoon into a greased pie dish.

Beat the second egg with the milk, season and pour over the mixture. Bake for 55–60 minutes at 180°C.

Sophie Grigson: Meat Course, page 52

Hot savoury

Baked savoury roll

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Mix 6oz self-raising flour with 3oz suet and half a teaspoon salt. Add 3.5fl oz cold water and mix until soft. Roll out to a rectangle.

Chop an onion and mix with about 4oz bacon, chopped, and 2–3oz mushrooms. Seasona nd spread on the pastry; dampen the edges and fold it up. Glaze with milk.

Cook on a greased baking tray for 45 minutes at 200°C.

The only useful thing I learned to cook in a whole year of home economics lessons in my first year at secondary school.

Hot savoury

Baked camembert

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Take any wrapping off the cheese then put it back in its box. Peel and halve a clove of garlic, and smear the cut halves over the top of the cheese. Make half a dozen little holes in the rind and pour white wine into them (not much). Put the lid on and bake at 200°C for twenty-five to thirty minutes – it should be hot and bubbling.

Worth putting a tray underneath as it sometimes bubbles over.

Don’t make it in a dodgy oven – we tried it at an Air bnb in York and the oven was too hot – when we opened the door there was nothing left but charcoal.

Nigel says have it with boiled new potatoes but we like it with a baguette. Also pickles such as little gherkins. Also perfect with leftover cranberry sauce.