Herby Potatoes

Right, here's a nice easy one for you to try. Personally I love it, unfortunately my other half is not so keen so I've had to mix and match the ingredients to suit. What I have here is what I consider to be the classic recipe, but have a go at experimenting with it yourself, add different veggies and change the herb for different flavours.

Put the oven on to a nice high heat, around 400f/200c, chuck a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of Balsamic Vinegar into a baking dish, get a teaspoon and add 1 spoonful of Garlic Salt and another of crushed Dried Rosemary, season it all with a good shake of Black Pepper and combine the lot by giving it a good stir.
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Next up you need to chop a couple of small onions into wedges, then slice a few good sized carrots and chop two or three potatoes (preferably Red) into rough inches. Drop the veggies into the baking dish with your mixture and toss the lot to coat the veg.

Pop it in the oven, remembering to give it a good shake or turn with a spoon every so often, until the veggies are tender, it should take around 40 minutes. Serve piping hot with just about anything you fancy as part of a main meal, alternatively serve them on their own, topped with grated cheese and with a selection of dips (or just your favourite) for some tasty evening movie munchies.

Chunky Onion Rings

There's a bit of a procedure to these and strangely enough the explanation of why we do these things makes more sense if it's explained back to front. So here goes:                                                  

The finished rings will be coated in Breadcrumbs but the problem is the crumbs won't stick to the Onion Rings, so we need something to go in-between, to give the crumbs something to stick to; we're going to use Batter, although the batter has a double purpose because it will also form a nice textured layer itself. Unfortunately though the batter will have difficulty staying on the onion rings without a bit of help, so we need another layer for it to stick to, and for this we're just going to coat the Onion rings in flour.

So here's what we do:           Click Here!

First of all heat a good depth of oil in a pan, I would suggest at least a couple of inches. Top and Tail some large onions then slice them horizontally so they can be separated into rings, I like the rings to be at least half an inch deep, but adjust to taste.

Mix a couple of cups of Plain Flour with a teaspoon of Baking Powder and a good sprinkle of Salt, then coat the separated onion rings with the mix. Next using the same flour mix, whisk a beaten egg and some milk into it to make a smooth creamy batter.

Coat the Onion Rings in the batter by dipping and set them to one side on a wire rack to drain the excess batter off. Meanwhile scoop a few cups of Breadcrumbs into a shallow dish.

When the bulk of the batter has drained off, take one Onion Ring at a time and coat thoroughly in the Breadcrumb, giving it a good shake as you remove it from the dish to make sure the crumb has a good grip.

Deep fry the rings just a few at a time for 2 or 3 minutes, or until you get them exactly the right shade of golden brown. Drain them on a paper towel and season before serving.

Potato Cheese

Here's one of my family favourites, it's relatively quick, reasonably cheap and ridiculously simple.

You'll need: 

• Spuds
•  Cabbage
•  Cheese
•  Salt + Pepper

First of all boil the spuds, the trick here is not to boil them too much because we don't want them too soft, I suppose the experts would say “par boil them” but to be honest I've never had much of an idea what exactly is meant by 'par boil', so the best advice I can give is to say that when you prod them there needs to be a good bit of resistance as the knife goes in.

As the Spuds begin to soften put the pan of Cabbage on. All we are aiming to do with this is to take the stiffness out of it. I think boiling the Cabbage is fairly optional, but this is the way I like to do it.

When the Spuds are ready take them from the pan and drain them well, I usually dab them with kitchen paper at this point, but maybe I'm just fussy. Next, chop them with a knife, basically we need to almost mash them, that's why they are only lightly boiled. Using a Potato masher is likely to over-do it, we are aiming to have big soft lumps of Potato in the finished product, so take care with this part.

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Then drain the Cabbage, again make sure the job is done thoroughly leaving no excess water. Add the Cabbage to the Potato and mix it all up with a wooden spoon.

Next we need the Cheese, I will usually grate it but I also like to have a dozen lumps of Cheese about 1cm sq just to throw in to the mix.

Season the whole thing with Salt and Pepper and press it down into a casserole dish. Score the top with a fork, making lines that will go slightly crispy in the oven, and give a light sprinkling of grated cheese on top.

Pop it in the oven for half an hour or so, and serve piping hot.

The great thing about this meal is it's versatility, vary the ingredients to see what you like best, one of my favourite alternatives is Corned Beef and Beans replacing the Cheese and Cabbage. Try Ham and Leek or Cheese and Tomato, whatever takes your fancy.

The only limitation is imagination.

An English Breakfast

An English Breakfast


What you put on the plate is entirely up to you, there are so many different possibilities with an English Breakfast that everybody has a different idea of what the plate should be full of, though one thing that most people agree on is that the plate should be FULL.



So I’m gonna list a few favourites and tell you how I cook them, the rest is up to you…


1. Bacon
Everybody likes bacon kinda specific to their own tastes. For me it has to be un-smoked Middle Bacon, with the rashers cut thick, the thicker the better! The result I’m looking for with my bacon is that it stays limp on my plate.
A generous amount of oil in your frying pan, and cook over a low to medium heat for I would say about 10 minutes, but remember, if your idea of low – medium is different to mine we’ll get a different result, I guess the key is to cook to taste.
As your bacon cook you will see a reddy-brown residue on the pan, the trick with this is to ‘clean it off’ with the bacon. Using a wooden spatula push the cooking bacon over the residue, rubbing fairly firmly, this residue will make the cooked bacon look and taste great. Turn the bacon often during cooking.


2. Sausage
Sausages are wonderful things but these more than anything else in your English Breakfast are reliant on good quality buying. I would always say get a good quality sausage, preferably from a butcher that you trust, but the choice is yours, whatever you are happy with is what you should buy.
The sausage will generally take longer to cook than anything else so should go in the pan first. I’ve always preferred ‘reconstituted’ meat (sausages, burgers etc) to be fairly well done so I usually get my sausages thoroughly cooked before putting anything else on, then keep them warm in the oven for the last 5 or 10 minutes.
Cook them over a medium heat, turning them often, and don’t prick them it’ll only cause the skin to split.


3. Egg
Ah now in my house the egg makes the breakfast. We very rarely have scrambled egg with an ‘English’, for us it has to be fried, there are many ways to kill a fried egg but the good news is that like most things if you do it right it’s really easy to get it spot on.
Cooking has always been about time and temperature and the balance between the two, and when you get something that can be done very quickly (like a fried egg) the balance becomes very fine.
Fry your egg last, do it in a non-stick pan, one where the non-stick really works. Make sure the oil is not too hot before putting the egg in it, if it’s too hot the egg will start to bubble and the oil will spit as soon as the egg goes in it.
Crack your egg, then hold the un-opened egg over the pan, close to the oil. Tease the shell apart (thumbs at the top), as it begins to open it should be ‘rolled’ towards you through 90 degrees a point where the thumbs are almost straight in front of you, this way the yolk ‘rolls’ out and there’s less chance of breaking the yolk.
Use a spatula to prevent the egg spreading too far, when it has gone white around the outer edge it has found its shape, try to control any ‘overflowing’ with the spatula.
Once the bottom of the egg has solidified and gone white (there may still be clear stuff on top of this but don’t worry) it’s time to splash a little! Take your spatula and VERY GENTLY flick the hot oil onto the top of the egg, aim for the yolk. After a few flicks you should see the yolk turning kinda ‘misty’, what’s happening is that you are cooking the thin film of white on top of the yolk and firming up the yolk while you’re at it.
Once the yolk is sealed with the white the egg should be done, but remember it will take time and practise to get it just how you like it.


4. Mushroom
I have a big problem with Mushrooms, my problem is that I can’t stand them but my Wife loves them. Thing being as they are, this means that mushrooms end up on pretty much every plate in our house. Oh to be a man!
I think that the cutting of a mushroom is very important, I like them to be around 5mm thick, and I cook them fairly quickly over a medium heat so as to make sure they still have a bit of ‘body’ and don’t go soft and floppy.
When doing an English I usually do the mushrooms in the bacon pan at the same time as I’m doing the eggs, by using the same oil as the bacon you’ll ensure a nice golden brown colour to the mushrooms.


5. Tomato
Personally I like to use tinned plum tomatoes, open the tin, empty into a pan and stick it on.
If you want to use fresh tomatoes, slice them into halves and fry them with the mushrooms, or as I would prefer, grill them.

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6. Beans
Not much to say about doing the beans, a tin opener and a pan is about it, but make sure you have them on early enough so as not to need to rush them at the end.


7. Hash Browns
Wonderful things these are, grated potato lumped together with a few bits and bobs. The way you cook them depends on their size I guess, all I would advise is that they need to be reasonably well done otherwise they become soggy.


8. Diced Spud
Not considered by many people, but when done properly they add a great bit of texture to any fry up.
Get a spud, dice it into cm squares


9. Fried Slice
Ah the much maligned fried slice. Get a slice of bread and fry it off over a reasonably high heat, I usually end up turning it a couple of times.

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So there you have it, the perfect English breakfast will be found in a combination of some of those things listed above. My perfect combination is Bacon, Sausage, Egg, Tomato, Hash Browns and a couple of slices of fresh bread.

how to cook a turkey

Cooking a Turkey


This is one of the tasks that really causes stress in ‘new’ households, but it really needn’t be a problem, all we have to do is to follow a few simple and common sense gudelines.


Ok, straightforward stuff to start with. Buy a good one, fresh is best but y’know supermarket packaged or even frozen will do the job too. I think it’s fair to say that the better the bird, the better the feed.


If you get a frozen bird, make sure it is properly defrosted (don’t underestimate the importance of this!), if your bird was frozen or packaged it may come with little bags of innards and stuff stuck down its neck. Get your hand down there and make sure it’s all out before you prepare it for cooking.


Ideally your bird should be at room temperature when it goes into the oven, which generally means it should have been left overnight, this will mean a bit of planning depending on whether it was a frozen bird or chilled or fresh, but it’s worth taking the time to get it organised.


Right, here’s how I do it…


1. Stuff the Turkey. Make your stuffing, fresh of from a packet it’s up to you. Place about a third of it in the neck of the bird between the meat and the skin, and stick the rest in the body cavity keeping the stuffing fairly loose.
2. Blather the bird in Butter. Spread softened butter all over the breast, legs and wings. Don’t be shy, give it a real good coating.
3. Cover the breast with Bacon. Most people say this should be done with Streaky Bacon but either way will be fine, finally give the whole thing a quick scattering of salt and pepper.


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The Foil – Seal the bird in foil but leave a good bit of space between the foil and the skin. I would recommend a couple of sheets crossed under the bird and pinched and folded at the joins.


Then we chuck it in a hot oven (gas – 7, 425f, 200c) for about 40 - 45 mins to give it a good blast of heat, before turning the oven down low (gas – 3, 325f, 175c) to cook it through. Then to finish it off, take it out of the oven, remove the foil and clear the bacon, give it a good basting with the juices, get it back in a medium to hot oven and cook uncovered for another 40 mins.




Perfect!