Hot smoked salmon

Ingredients

2 salmon fillets, skinless or skin on, doesn't matter
50g sea salt
50g sugar
Olive oil

Mix the salt and sugar and cover the fish in it. Refrigerate for 30 minutes

Wash the cure off and pat dry with kitchen roll. Leave the fish uncovered in the fridge for an hour until completely dry.

Rub the fish with oil.

Soak the wood chips for ten minutes before draining and adding to the smoker.

Place the fillets on a wire rack, skin side down if not skinless.

Smoke for 10-12 minutes over a medium heat.

Chilli con carne

 Everyone has a chilli recipe, right? Here's mine.

Serves 4

For the chilli

500g pork mince
1 red pepper, diced
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 sticks of celery, chopped
300g of San Marzano/fresh plum tomatoes
200g of passata
½ - 1 teaspoon of smoked habanero chilli flakes
1½ teaspoons of cumin
1½ teaspoons of paprika
1 teaspoon of dried oregano
A couple of sprigs of fresh thyme
A fresh bay leaf
1 stick of cinnamon
½ teaspoon of mushroom powder
1 teaspoon of Marmite
2 squares of unsweetened dark chocolate
A small glass of red wine
½ litre of beef stock
Rapeseed and olive oil
Salt and pepper

For the grains

1 teacup of 50:50 bulgur wheat and quinoa
½ litre of chicken stock
1 clove of garlic, smashed and peeled
1 teaspoon of tomato purée

For the guacamole

1 large ripe avocado, finely chopped or mashed
4 small plum or cherry tomatoes, chopped
½ small onion or shallot, grated or minced
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded to taste and thinly sliced
A large pinch of paprika
A teaspoon of sour cream
1 teaspoon of chopped fresh coriander
A squeeze of lemon juice
Salt and pepper

Fry the onions in a generous amount of rapeseed oil till golden, then add the pepper, celery and garlic and sweat for around five minutes. Remove from the pan then add the olive oil; when sizzling, add the mince and cook on a high heat for 5 - 10 minutes, breaking up and turning till well browned. Return the vegetables to the pan and pour in the red wine, bubbling till reduced. Mix in the herbs, spices and chopped tomatoes, then cover for around ten minutes, till the tomatoes begin to break down. Stir in the passata and add stock to just cover; simmer uncovered till the stock has reduced by about half, then add more stock and repeat.

While the chilli is reducing, put the grains, puree and garlic in a small saucepan and stir in 1.5 times the volume of chicken stock. Bring to the boil, cover the pan tightly and cook on a very low heat for ten minutes. Remove from the heat and stand for twenty minutes. Prepare all the ingredients for the guacamole and mix together, seasoning as needed.

Now stir the Marmite and chocolate into the chilli and cook for another ten minutes, adding more stock or water as needed. Season to taste then serve with the grains and the guacamole.

Smackshuka

 On the morning of Madame's 40th she was leafing through one of her presents, Yasmin Khan's beautiful Ripe Figs (ISBN 978156609724), when she saw a simple dish of eggs fried with sliced, spicy sausage. This sent her on a trip down memory lane to childhood leftovers, and set me thinking about lunch. Fast forward a few hours and a vaguely shakshuka-like thing took shape from what presented itself in the fridge. Although it's definitely a mixture, it doesn't quite clear the bar for shakshuka because the tomatoes are absent, the eggs are more fried than poached in sauce - and it has a chunk of pork in there. Still, the flavours are similar and it smacks you in the chops, so "smackshuka" it is.

Serves 2

A length of chorizo (this was about 50g but you know best how much you want), diced
Half a brown onion, thinly sliced
Three eggs
A tablespoon or two of hot sauce (like this kimchi one from Aye Pickled)
A gherkin, roughly chopped
A small slice of feta
A tablespoon of sour cream
A good pinch of aonori and another of paprika
A dribble of white wine vinegar
Oil for frying (I used rapeseed)

Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the onion and chorizo till the onion is soft and golden and the chorizo releasing its oil. Add the hot sauce and stir fry for 30 seconds, then tip in the gherkin, closely followed by the eggs - you want the yolks to break a bit - and tip around to coat the pan. When the eggs are just set, crumble over the feta and the seaweed and cook for a couple of minutes until the cheese begins to soften - plus a couple more if you like your eggs crispy underneath - then drizzle on a little vinegar. Top with dollops of sour cream and sprinkle with paprika. Serve with crusty bread.

Aonori sprinkle is dead easy to make if you can get to a clean beach - just snip some (cardinal rule of foraging, only what you need) off the rocks, take it home, wash it and dry it in a low oven. Crumble and there's instant seaweed tastiness, that'll keep in a wee jar for a month or two: always awesome with eggs.

Daal balls

½ cup toor daal (yellow split peas)
½ cup masoor daal (red lentils)
½ teaspoon fenugreek
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon salt
Small handful of shredded wild garlic leaves or a minced garlic clove
Small handful of shredded coriander (if not using wild garlic)


Put the toor daal into a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, then add the masoor daal and stand for 30 mins - 1 hour until the lentils are slightly tender.

Toast the fenugreek and cumin seeds in a frying pan.

Drain the lentils and blitz in a food processor. Grind the fenugreek and cumin and add to the lentils with the other spices and the salt, followed by the herbs and garlic/onions, mixing well. If the dough doesn't hold together add a little gram flour till it does.

Form large teaspoons of the mixture into balls. Deep fry for six or seven minutes.

Duck breast with celeriac and beetroot hash

A change of plan meant we had a head of celeriac to use up. In the interests of not wasting £1.40 of root veg, I went out and bought a bunch of beetroot, a duck breast, eggs, bacon and parsley. I will never learn - but this was good.

Aonori is the Japanese (and rather more palatable) name for gutweed - abundantly available on UK beaches and a fine condiment when dried.

½ head of celeriac, roughly grated
½ head of savoy cabbage, shredded
1 small raw beetroot, roughly grated
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 rashers of unsmoked streaky bacon, chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 duck breast fillet, skin on, halved lengthways
2 eggs
Worcestershire sauce
Light soy sauce
A sprig's worth of fresh thyme leaves
A sprig of fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
A big pinch of aonori (optional)
Salt and pepper
Olive oil, butter, sunflower oil

Heat the oven to 200C.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil and a thin slice of butter in a large frying pan for which you have a lid. Fry the sliced onion over a medium heat until soft and starting to caramelise, the add the chopped bacon. Cook for five minutes, then add the garlic, celeriac, beetroot and thyme leaves and stir well. Add a good dash of Worcestershire sauce and another of light soy sauce, a splash of hot water, then cover.

Score the duck skin and season all over with salt and pepper. Heat a skillet over a high flame and sear the duck, skin side down, for 3-4 minutes until the skin is brown and crispy. Transfer to the oven, skin side up, to cook for 10-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the breast and how pink you like it.

Fry the shredded cabbage in the duck fat till it's starting to caramelise, then add it to the hash pan, together with another splash of water and more Worcestershire sauce if needed (check and adjust the seasoning here), then cover again.

Heat a tablespoon of sunflower oil on a low heat in the duck pan.

When the duck is ready, remove it to a plate in a warm place to rest for 5 minutes. Take the lid off the hash pan and turn up the heat to crisp the bottom.

Fry the eggs in the sunflower oil until the whites are set but the yolks still runny, seasoning with a little salt and pepper. When ready, sprinkle with aonori.

Sprinkle the parsley on the hash and spoon onto warm plates. Top with a fried egg and slide the duck breast on the side.

Chicken paprikash

Our trip to Budapest was memorable for, among many other things, out first chicken paprikash, and the nokedli were a revelation. Here's a slightly tweaked version of what we were fed.

Serves 2

For the paprikash:
Four pieces of chicken, skin on, on the bone
A small green pepper
A medium onion
Three cloves of garlic
Two medium, ripe tomatoes
A tablespoon of tomato puree
A tablespoon of sweet paprika
A tablespoon of smoked paprika
A small pot of sour cream
Half a litre of chicken stock
Half a glass of dry white wine
Two tablespoons of flour
A thin slice of butter and two tablespoons of oil for frying
Salt and pepper

For the nokedli:
125g white flour
One egg
75ml water
¼ - ½ teaspoon of salt
Pepper

Preheat the oven to 190C.

Thinly slice the onion and pepper, and peel and chop the tomatoes.

Heat the butter and oil in a casserole on a medium flame until the butter foams. Season the chicken well and brown until the skin is golden, then remove and pour off half the fat. Fry the onions until soft and golden, then add the garlic and peppers and cook for three or four minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and tomato puree, then mix in the flour and paprika; cook for a couple of minutes. Whisk in the white wine, followed by the stock. Bring to the boil, then lay the chicken pieces on top and place the pot into the oven for 45 minutes.

Now sift the seasoned flour into a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs and stir them into the flour. Beat in the water until you have a lumpy, pourable mixture somewhere between a batter and a dough. Rest for half an hour or so.

Bringing it all together, remove the chicken from the casserole and keep warm. Stir the sour cream into the pot, check the seasoning and heat over a medium flame as the sauce thickens. Meanwhile bring a pan of water to the boil and press half the batter-dough through a large grater or a späetzle maker and simmer for three minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon. Repeat with the other half.

Serve with the sauce spooned over the chicken and dumplings.

Ragù for pasta

This is a variation on Carluccio's ragù from 'An Invitation to Italian Cooking'. We miss you, Zio.

Serves 3
A lamb shank
Pork ribs (the pork and lamb combined should come to about 2 lbs)
A big handful of diced pancetta
A large onion
Two cloves of garlic
Two 400g tins of tomatoes
A stick of celery
A couple of sprigs each of fresh thyme and parsley
A sprinkle of dried marjoram
A bay leaf
A small handful of dried porcini
A glass of red wine
Olive oil
Salt and black pepper

Soak the porcini in a small dish or a teacup, in enough water to cover them.

Heat a little olive oil in a large, heavy, lidded saucepan and fry the pancetta till golden, then remove to a plate. Meanwhile thickly slice the onion and finely chop the garlic and celery.

Brown the lamb shank and pork ribs on a medium heat, then add the onions, stirring occasionally until they soften and begin to catch. Stir in the celery and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes, then turn up the heat, pour in the wine and bubble for a while until the raw alcohol smell disappears. Meanwhile drain and chop the porcini, keeping the soaking liquor, and add the mushrooms and the liquid to the pan.

Nudge in the sprigs of thyme and parsley and stir in the marjoram. Season with a little salt and a lot of pepper. Add tomatoes to cover (you may not need all of the second tin, or you may need to top up with a little water), bring to the boil then part cover and cook on a very low heat for at least two hours.

When the sauce is coming together, remove the meat. Turn up the heat and reduce the sauce with the lid off while you strip the lamb and pork from the bones. Add the morsels of meat back to the pan, adjust the seasoning, remove the herbs and then serve with your choice of pasta.