For Lesley-Ann
Makes 4 hearty dinner portions that won’t leave you hungry. Total calories for the lot is 900, so each portion is 225 calories. Or, you could have 2 dinner portions + 3 lunch portions, giving you 150 calories for lunch. Freezes well, obviously.
Ingredients
- 1 onion (135g)
- 1 stick celery (90g)
- 240g chestnut mushrooms
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) sunflower oil
- 40g red lentils
- 150g yellow split peas
- 15g dried porcini (or other wild mushrooms)
- 3-4 cloves garlic (15g)
- 15ml dark soy sauce
- salt, pepper to taste
Directions
Use a large saucepan.
- Chop onion and celery finely, fry on low heat in oil until golden (10 mins).
- Chop mushrooms into small pieces and add them and the garlic and fry for 5 mins or so more. The mushrooms should release liquid, but if it all starts to stick and threatens to burn, add a bit of water.
- Wash yellow peas in 3 changes of water. Add to pan. Add enough water to cover and then about as much again. Bring to a simmer. Add red lentils and dried porcini.
- Cook until the peas are tender (30-45 minutes, depending on the hardness of your water).
- Use a wand blender to buzz it up to a consistency that’s to your taste – I like to keep a bit of texture in it rather than it being perfectly smooth.
Famous from the UEP Supply Chain Design team weeks for two years running. Following many requests, here’s the recipe in all its simplicity. It was tempting to give the quantities to serve 20, but a more family-sized serving is more practical.
The recipe serves six normal people (with some veg side dishes), or four hungry supply-chain consultants. You may think there is far too much soy sauce, but the quantity is correct. It mellows in the cooking process and the other ingredients take up the salt.
Ingredients
- 1.5kg pork belly
- 100ml dark soy sauce (I use Kikkoman)
- 450ml water
- 1 heaped tablespoon sugar
- 5cm long chunk of root ginger, peeled and thickly sliced
- 3 pieces star anise
- 60ml dry sherry or Chinese rice wine (e.g. shaoxing wine)
Directions
- Cut the pork into strips about 1 inch by 2-3 inches. You will need a very sharp knife to get through the rind. If your butcher has scored the rind, go with the flow of the score marks and that should make it easier.
- Bring a large pan of water to the boil and blanch the meat for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse the meat in cold water. This helps keep the sauce clear.
- In a clean casserole, put the blanched pork and all the other ingredients. The water should cover the meat – add more if necessary. Bring to the boil then turn the heat down low as possible and cook uncovered for 4 to 5 hours. The timing is very forgiving, but you will need at least 4 hours for all the stringy tissue in the pork to break down. Check regularly that the water is not running low and top up with boiling water from the kettle.
- Just before serving check for saltiness and sweetness – it sometimes needs an extra teaspoon of sugar or a dash of soy. Don’t do this until the very end though.
- Serve with plain rice and a veg dish. As the pork contains lots of soy, I usually cook the rice without salt to accompany this dish.
After the blanching stage, you could also do this in a slow cooker, in which case the water should be boiling when added to the pot. This would cook quite happily for 8 hours.
Ingredients
- 8 oz butter
- 8 oz caster sugar (or demerara for a crunchier vibe)
- 12 oz self raising flour
- 170g tube condensed milk
- 4 oz ‘whatever’- eg chopped nuts, chunks of chocolate, chopped stem ginger…
Directions
- Cream butter and sugar
- Squeeze in condensed milk
- Mix in flour and ‘whatever’
- Chill in fridge for at least 2 hours in a long sausage shape wrapped in clingfilm
- Cut into finger width slices and place on baking parchment, leaving space for expansion
- Bake for 10 mins at 190 C. They won’t look that done.
Ingredients
- 200g Slightly salted butter
- 200g Maya Gold chocolate (alternatively use normal 70% cocoa choc)
- 250g Muscovado sugar
- 5 eggs (or can use 4 whole eggs and 1 egg white for a lighter mix)
- 5 whole dried red chillies or 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1 rounded tbsp flour
Directions
200 degrees C for 10 mins if using a bun tray for lots of little bites, or 25 mins if using a cake tin for one big bite.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the dried chillies and turn the heat off, cover the pan and leave for 45 mins to let them steep. (alternative is to add chilli powder along with the flour at last stage before baking).
- Remove and discard chillies, squeezing the butter out of them.
- Add Maya Gold chocolate and melt it in with the butter. Transfer to mixing bowl.
- Stir in sugar and allow the mix to cool slightly.
- Beat in one egg at a time.
- Add the tablespoon of flour (and chilli powder if using this instead of whole chillies)
- Now pour into cake tin which you’ve lined with baking parchment. Or spoon into well greased bun trays.
- Bake in preheated oven. Cool on wire rack.
This comes from Claudia Roden‘s New Book of Middle Eastern Food. This recipe was requested by Mary! The recipe serves six, more or less
Ingredients
- 1 large chicken, jointed
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 finely chopped onion
- Half teaspoon of saffron
- Half teaspoon ground ginger
- Half teaspoon cinnamon
- Salt and pepper
- Large handful of coriander leaves, finely chopped
- Large handful of parsley leaves, finely chopped
- 1-2 preserved lemons, finely chopped
Directions
- Put all the ingredients except the preserved lemons and the coriander in a large saucepan and add water to half cover the chicken. Go easy on the salt at this stage because the preserved lemons will be quite salty.
- Cover the pan and simmer gently for about 90 minutes, turning the chicken occasionally, until the flesh is falling off the bones. The sauce should have reduced quite a lot.
- Add the lemons and cook 10 minutes longer. Finish with the coriander. Serve with steamed rice.
All things Caffie (& Martin)
