Thursday 25th of April 2013

Tonight we ate Toad-in-the-Hole for supper,  with gravy and a buttery mound of sweetcorn.  The toad was hugely boosted by the presence of a pack of pancetta languishing in the 'fridge, the slices just waiting, begging, to be wrapped around the chipolatas before they started their toad-ly journey... Pop the sausages in a roasting tin with some lard or dripping,  heat until sizzling and then pour over a simple batter; a pint of milk beaten with two eggs, then mixed with 200g of plain flour and a good pinch of salt. 40 minutes in a hot oven and clean plates all round!

Cath xx

Thursday 14th of March 2013

Tonight, largely owing to the exhaustion brought on by a marathon baking session to provide dozens and dozens of gingerbread men for the children's school tomorrow, I decided that a simple and homely supper was on the cards.  My recipe for  Toad in the Hole is a great favourite with the whole family, and it is a suppertime stalwart that I return to often.  It is especially good with a good slosh of onion gravy; you can make a quick(ish) one by gently frying a halved and sliced onion in 40g butter until very soft, stirring in 1 tbsp flour to make a sort-of roux, and then, still stirring, adding a pint or so of stock (I used pork stock because,happily, I had some in the 'fridge, but use what you like).  Bring to the boil and then cook on the lowest heat possible until you are ready to eat.  Toad in the Hole, by Husband's decree, must be served with sweetcorn.  Sometimes I sneak in a dish of steamed cabbage too, but tonight I was, frankly, too lazy.  The serried ranks of the gingerbread army have defeated me...

Cath xx

Trés Bon-Fire

"Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot
I see no reason, why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot." Traditional.

Good old Bonfire Night was tonight, once again, let down by our Welsh weather.   Plaaning ahead, and rather than attempting any 'outside' jollity in the face of biting winds and lashing rain, we opted for a night in front of the fire. Indoors.

Food for Bonfire Night is a pretty easy piece, really; things along the lines of bean casseroles, sausages, chili, cheesy toast, baked potatoes and always, always, something really sweet and sticky to follow.  Tonight, and (voluntarily) housebound, I prepared a pot of chili and some rice for supper.  I also added, for later, a plate of my special Bonfire Hotdogs to munch while we watched a fireworks display on the television, before letting the children loose with a couple of dozen glowsticks in lieu of sparklers; a truly wonderful idea as it turns out; no buckets of water, no stress about potential injuries nor any (imagined?) need to constantly lecture the poor kids AND more gratification time than your average sparkler!

 'Bonfire' Hotdogs

These are great for bigger gatherings or parties on a budget, as the treatment you give the sausages somehow manages to make even cheap bangers taste a whole lot better than they really ought to.  Good sausages can be transformed into an almost-gourmet trea; great for barbecues or even for eating cold as part of a 'posh picnic'.

8 thick pork sausages
8 rashers streaky bacon
4 tbsp barbecue sauce (e.g. HP)
finger rolls, to serve

Skin the sausages.  This is easily done by scoring lightly along the length of each sausage, then peeling away the skin and it really makes a difference, trust me!  Wrap each sausage in a rasher of streaky bacon, then place on an oiled rack over a baking tin.  Brush each sausage, quite liberally, with barbecue sauce.  Bake at a low temperature (130°c fan, 150°c conventional ovn for 30-40 minutes until well cooked.  Slip the sausages into top-sliced finger rolls and return to a very low (i.e. as low as possible) oven to keep warm and crisp the buns slightly in the meantime.

Cath xx

'Banging' Nachos

Nacho platters are becoming a big favourite with us, midweek, for a fast, slightly 'treaty' supper that doesn't break the bank (and see my recipe for Loaded Beef & Bean Nachos as well).  They are also a great way to get children to eat more pulses and vegetables.  I prefer to make my own tortilla 'chips' for these; I feel that the method I give here makes for a more filling base to the plate than a bag of bought tortilla chips provides, plus you can avoid all the extra added salt of the commercially fried chips.  Just take some corn or flour tortillas, cut each disc into six wedges and spread out on lightly oiled baking sheets.  Bake at 200°c for 5 minutes, then turn them and return to the oven for another five minutes.  You can make these in advance and keep them in a tin if you like, but  they aren't a great deal of effort even if you do everything for this meal just before you eat it.  

Making this sauce by mixing spices and herbs with a drained can of chopped tomatoes was something of a revelation for me when I first tried it out (necessity being the mother of invention, as they say) and I share it with you now. It gives you a lovely thick, spicy sauce just perfect for nacho-type dishes or just as a dipping sauce; no need to shell out for long-life jars of incredibly salty, yet suspiciously sweet, 'salsa' ever again!

Sausage Nacho Platter

6 flour tortillas, cut and baked as above
6 sausages
400g can chopped tomatoes
2 tsp mild chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
400g can mixed beans, drained
100g sweetcorn, defrosted if frozen
4 fat spring onions, chopped
1 small red pepper, diced
150g Edam, grated

Skin the sausages and divide each into three.  Heat some cooking oil in a non-stick pan and fry the sausage pieces until well cooked through (about 3 minutes a side).  Meanwhile, drain the excess juice from the tomatoes, discard it and mix the chili powder, cumin and oregano in with the tomato chunks.

Spread the tortilla chips out across a very large plate, then top with the beans and the sweetcorn.  Scatter over the red pepper dice and the chopped spring onion.  Nestle the sausage 'nuggets' atop the vegetables, then dollop and drizzle the spicy tomato mixture all around the surface.  Cover everything with the grated Edam and pop the plate in a hot oven until everything is covered in molten, oozing cheese.  Serve with a crisp green salad on the side.

Cath xx

Summer Lovin'

I just adore this sort of meal in the summer months; simple to throw together in the suicide hour, but not sacrificing anything for that.  It's really tasty, full of flavours that suggest the season, without being too obviously contrived.  I also love this for using only things that anyone might have in store at any time; the only thing might be the fresh basil, for which you could easily substitute a tablespoonful of pesto, let down with a little extra olive oil, stirred in at the same point in the recipe.  Similarly I use chipolatas, because my butcher sells beautiful ones, but you can (obviously) use whatever you prefer; just please bear in mind the meat content of sausages and look out for ones with a high percentage - some can be terrifying low in meat content, once you look at the label.

Summery Sausage Traybake

4-6 tbsp olive oil
2 red onions, halved and sliced thickly
10 chipolatas
8 new potatoes, quartered
4 tomatoes, quartered
handful fresh basil, torn (and see above)

Pour the olive oil into a roasting tin and add the onions, sausages and potatoes, mixing well to coat everything.  Cook in a 180°c oven for 10 minutes, then add the tomatoes to the tin, toss well and return to the oven to cook for a further 30 minutes.  Stir in the torn basil (or the oil-and-pesto substitute mentioned above) and cook just 5 minutes more.  Serve straight from the tin at table, you need nothing else at all (though a glass of red does go down beautifully with it, if you insist).

Cath xx

Forgetful, moi?

OK, so this is basically supper made with what I had in the fridge.  I had planned to make a risotto tonight; we had a roast chicken yesterday and I used the slow cooker to make some stock last night, while we slept.  Mid-afternoon, though, I had a mini-panic attack when I realised that I had completely neglected to take any bacon or similar out of the freezer to use in the risotto and that, having all had chicken rolls at lunch, it was unlikely in the extreme that the cold, cooked chicken would cut it .  On its own, in any case...  

Necessity being the mother of all invention, come suppertime, I opened the fridge and began unloading 'possibles' onto the counter.  Decision: chorizo would boost the bit of chicken we did had and spinach is always a winner in this household.  Result: possibly the best risotto I have ever made.  Very inauthentic, very unItalian, but very delicious nonetheless.

Risotto with Chicken, Chorizo & Spinach

25g butter and a drizzle of olive oil
1 onion, diced
200g risotto rice
50ml dry vermouth
800ml hot chicken stock
800g chorizo sausage, diced
100g cold, cooked chicken
couple of handfuls spinach leaves
25g fresh parmesan, grated

Melt 15g of butter with a drizzle of olive oil in a deep, heavy frying pan. Soften the onion, then tip in the rice, stirring to coat all the grains with the fat. Pour in the vermouth and cook for a minute or so to evaporate the alcohol. Then, still stirring all then time, add a ladleful of chicken stock at a time and allow it to be absorbed by the rice each time before adding the next. After you've put in all but 2-3 ladlefuls, add the chorizo and chicken and continue cooking in the same way. . When the last of the stock is absorbed, fold in the spinach, then add the parmesan and the last 10g of butter, cut into pieces. Give it all a good stir, then take the pan off the heat, cover it and leave it for a couple of minutes.  Throw a green salad together, set the table, pour a drink and serve, smugly...

Cath xx

A Very Porky St. Patrick's Day

James and I had a lovely St. Patrick's Day lunch today, cooked for us at the Aberystwyth family centre by some Irish friends.  Coddle is not so very dissimilar to the Welsh favourite, cawl;  a casserole of bacon and sausages cooked in stock with potatoes, parsnips, swede and carrots.  Served with some gorgeous soda bread it was, truly, a meal to make you sit up and beg!

Wanting to offer the rest of the family a little of the culinary comfort they had missed out on at lunchtime, tonight I opted for an easy midweek roast; potatoes, parsnips and (unpeeled) carrots, chopped up and roasted with a small, 1kg joint of pork loin.  I added a glass'-worth of chicken stock (as I had no pork stock) and cooked it all at 200°c for an hour.  Served with some stuffing balls and some steamed broccoli (plus the inevitable sweetcorn), it made a meal with very little work on my part. Result!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Cath xx

There's a Leek in the Pot!

Another day, another quickly assembled pasta meal with whatever ingredients are handy...  This one went down really well tonight and I suspect it will now become one of my regular supper standbys, and a bit of a bargain supper too, really.  We (almost) always have the ingredients in stock, especially now that I have discovered the advantages of keeping a bag of frozen,sliced leeks in the freezer.  I first picked them up as a bit of a novelty purchase (see how rock 'n' roll my life is..!) but am now devoted to them for dishes like this, where you want a touch of allium flavour but not a whole load of onion getting in the way.  For casseroles and such I just bung them in from frozen, but when I cook them in dishes like this, I give them a quick whizz round in the microwave, to just defrost them.  You could just as easily soak them in some boiling water to defrost, refresh them under the cold tap and drain them really well.   A lifesaver, nonetheless.

Mustardy Sausage Pasta Pot

300g pasta

4 sausages (I like Porkinson's), skinned

1 leek or equivalent frozen (and see above)

1 tbsp mustard (use your favourite)
100g créme fraîche
handful of watercress, roughly torn up

50g parmesan, grated

Put the pasta on and heat some fat in a wide frying pan.  Break the skinned sausages into chunks and fry them, with the leeks, until the sausages are browned and everything is nicely cooked through.  Stir the mustard into the créme fraîche and swirl this into the pan with the sausages. Reserve a cupful of pasta water, then bung in the watercress in with pasta, stir and  then drain it immediately.  Return the pasta and watercress to the pan, tip the saucy sausage back in and throw in the parmesan.  Mix well, adding some of the reserved pasta water to keep the sauce nice and liquid, so it clings to the pasta without being 'claggy'.

Cath xx

Dearth (of ideas) Row

Sausage Casserole. Not necessarily an imaginative dinner, but a good one nonetheless. Ever since we had a sausage casserole like this at my parents' house a few weeks back, Christopher has been obsessed with it; in fact it feels like nearly all questions of "what would you like to eat?" have been answered with "that sausage casserole with potatoes on top like Granny makes" ever since. When he doesn't want "fish and chips" or (whisper) "sweets", that is.

It's hardly rocket science, and I feel kind of daft even typing it out as a 'recipe', but them's the breaks, kiddo. So here's what I did tonight to get supper on the table...

4 medium potatoes (child's fist-sized?)

1 onion, halved and sliced

8 sausages, your choice

2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes

butter

Slice the potatoes (I can never be bothered to peel them for this) and put them in cold water. Bring them to the boil, then drain. While that's going on, fry the onion, in a little oil, and brown the sausages. Tip in the tomatoes, and one can of water, and bring to the boil. Top with the drained sliced potatoes, cover the pan and bake in the oven at 180­°c for half an hour. Go and see what the kids are doing. Watch 'Superted' on YouTube (Christopher's new black) with them. When time is up, remove the pan's lid, dot the potatoes with a little butter and return to the oven (still uncovered) for a further 30 minutes. Set the table, referee a fight over a half-deflated balloon, trip over the cat (again) and get drinks for everyone. Serve the casserole straight from the pan at the table, with some green veg on the side - frozen peas, for sanity's sake.

Stories and Sausage

Today was a hugely inspirational day; I took James to an event at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, called (rather naffly) "Check It Out!", aimed at giving parents access to a number of local organisations with an interest in helping them out in various ways. We met some really interesting people and went away with a lot to think about. There was also the usual haul of freebies to be had - promotional balloons, keyrings, pens and the like.

After lunch, we listened to a talk from the author and inventor of StorySacks, Neil Griffiths. The only word is WOW - that guy can sure tell a good tale! Such a simple thing, and he makes it look so easy to do it really well - but did you know that 1 in 9 children have never been read to at home? Or that in some ares of the U.K. that figure increases to 1 in 2? That's right, HALF. I bought a couple of books while we were there, picking up Neil Griffiths' Itchy Bear and a (bilingual) Welsh book, Tynnu llun gyda sialc from a local company @ebol.

When we'd finished for the day, and picked Christopher up from nursery school, we pootled home. I started dinner faily swiftly when it became clear that I had two hungry, over-tired boys on my hands. Why is it that the more tired children get, the more active and obstreperous they become? So I was really glad that, not only was I feeding the children and we adults separately tonight, but that theirs was to be a simple and quick pasta dish.

Spicy Sausage Pasta

I defrosted a package of my homemade tomato sauce, but use a favourite bought one if you'd rather. Equally, replace the saucisson with any other 'slicing' sausage or salami.

100g pasta shapes
200g tomato sauce (and see above)
40g saucisson sec
4-6 pitted black olives
scant pinch chilli flakes
chopped fresh parsley

Put the pasta on to cook in lots of boiling water. Meanwhile, chop the sausage and olives roughly and put them into a pan with the tomato sauce. Reheat slowly, stirring in the chilli flakes and parsley. Drain the cooked pasta and toss with the sauce, topping it with parmesan to serve.

Pulse Rate

Lentils are so useful in the kitchen. I add the little red split ones to all sorts of things to bulk them out, stretch them further or just to add a different dimension of texture. A spoonful or two in a stew thickens the gravy nicely as it cooks, without the need for any artificial jiggery-pokery, and you can stretch a small quantity of minced beef further if you add half the quantity of lentils to whatever you're cooking and simmer with some stock. Pulses are cheap, especially if you buy the bags of dried ones which you soak and cook for yourself. More and more, too, I find that my children adore pulses of all kinds and will enthusiastically devour just about anything that is accompanied by lentils, chock-full of chickpeas or studded with red kidney beans.

For a meal or side dish, though, you'd be hard pressed to beat the beautiful, pebbly, French lentilles de Puy. Once a recherché resident of upmarket and continental grocers, they can now (thanks largely to Merchant Gourmet) be found in even the smaller supermarkets. This little one-pot meal shows them off to their best, cooked simply with sausages for an unfussy, but still somehow rather special, family supper.

Sausage & Lentil Braise

The pork chop was added really because I had one that needed to be used; you could easily leave it out, though I do think it adds to the flavour of the juices and to the 'feastliness' of the meal as a whole.

1 leek, shredded

fresh thyme

50ml vermouth (or white wine)

250ml Puy lentils

1 or 2 pork chops, bone-in please

6-10 coarse pork sausages

Heat a little fat in a flameproof casserole and soften the leeks with some finely chopped fresh thyme. Add the lentils to the pan, stirring to coat them in the fat, then pour in the vermouth or wine and allow the alcohol to bubble away. Pour in 500ml water, then lay the pork chop and sausages in the pan. Bring to the boil, then cover the pan and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve straight from the pan, possibly (if you can stand the extra carbs) with some nice bread for mopping up the juices.

Ace of Kings

I've already mentioned our lovely January King cabbage - today I finally got around to using it, in a recipe that has been slowly forming in some deep, reptilian part of my brain for ages. I love cabbage, and always enjoy it most with plenty of good meaty juices to soak it right through, so baking it with sausagemeat seemed like a good idea; thankfully I was not wrong. This is in no way an elegant dinner, but good family fillers are what we cooks need most, I feel. Believe me when I say that if this can fill my Hubby up, it'll satisfy even the heartiest of appetites.


Sausage & Cabbage Bake

As always, this will only be as good as the ingredients you put in. A nice dark green cabbage with large leaves (Savoy would be just as good as January King, I've no doubt) and some quality coarse sausages will make this into a real feast.

1 cabbage, shredded
1 onion, halved and sliced
fresh thyme leaves
800g sausagemeat
500ml hot chicken stock
100ml single cream
grated cheese (I used a mixture of Cheddar and Parmesan)

Mix the cabbage, onion and thyme together in a big bowl. Press half of this into the bottom of a large, deep, ovenproof dish or casserole. Make a layer on top of this with all the sausagemeat, then top with the rest of the cabbage mixture. Mix the hot stock and cream and pour this over the cabbage. Cover the dish or pan and bake at 160°c for 30 minutes. Uncover the pan, top with a thin layer of grated cheese and return to the oven for a further 20 minutes.

There are some lovely juices in the bottom of the pan when this has cooked so, not wanting to waste them, I think the dish is best served with some bread. I didn't have time today to make a proper loaf (this was nothing noble; I went to playgroup with James, had lunch with a friend then went out again for coffee with same friend and others). Instead I whipped up a batch of these wholemeal scone wedges while the bake thing was in the oven. You can, of course, use a cutter to cut out 'proper' scones if you'd rather, but this is a faster, dare I say lazier, way to approach things.


Mustard and Herb Scone Wedges

The amount of mustard you use really depends on your constituency; because I'm cooking with the children in mind, I err on the 'safe' side.

150ml milk

1 tsp lemon juice

200g strong wholemeal flour

1-3 tsp English mustard powder
3 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
30g butter
1-2 tsp dried mixed herbs


Mix the lemon juice into the milk and set aside. Sift the flour, mustard and baking powder into a bowl. Add the salt, then rub in the butter (fine breadcrumbs, yada yada...). Stir in the herbs, then use as much of the milk-and-lemon mixture as you need to bind it all into a soft dough. Pat it out to some kind of roundish shape and cut into 8 wedges. Dust with flour and bake at 200°c for 15 minutes or so.

In Dreams

Now, I know this is not the way that normal people do things, but the other night I had a dream in which I was cooking something along these lines, so after a bit of thought I decided to try it out! The dream did also includeC hristopher tap-dancing on the kitchen worktop, but I thought we'd give that a miss - he has school tomorrow and that sort of accident could be hard to explain! I based the recipe loosely on my regular recipe for a Sausage Supper, but tinkered with it a little to get the effect I imagined. I used some cocktail sausages which were still languishing in the freezer after Christmas, but I think next time I'll do this with some well seasoned coarse bangers, perhaps cut into chunks after browning. Regarding the stock, use what you like; chicken, vegetable or beef all work well with the sausage supper, so I should think they'd all be equally good here too. If I have any leftover gravy from a beef stew, I like to save it, and freeze it, to use in dishes like this. It's a big "if", though, having married a man whose familial reaction to leftover gravy is to fetch a mug and a hunk of bread


Sausage Suppertime Bake

1 large onion, halved and sliced
450g sausages
500ml stock (and see above)
mixed dried herbs
black pepper
1 heaped tsp cornflour
4-6 potatoes, depending on size

Heat some oil in a large frying pan and fry the onions over a low heat until soft and just golden. Turn up the heat and add the sausages, browning them a little all over. Pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Add a good pinch of mixed dried herbs and grind over some black pepper, then remove from the heat . Remove a little of the gravy to a measuring jug and blend with the cornflour. Stir this mixture back into the sausage-and-gravy mixture, then transfer it to an ovenproof dish. Cover with slices of potato (I didn't bother to peel them) and bake at 200°c for 30-40 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked through and crisp on top.

It tasted great. I rather love the way it looks, too, with the overlapping potato slices just scorched and crunchy at the edges and the gravy bubbling up around them. The children, particularly, couldn't wait to get stuck in, and I'm pleased to report clean plates all round this evening. We had a big, gorgeous head of grey-green broccoli delivered in the vegetable box this morning - and we all adore broccoli - so I cut that up and steamed it to go with the bake. The cabbage we also got would have been just as good, I'm sure - but I have other plans for that...

Hot Scotch

Tonight I finally got around to trying the little deep-fat fryer that I was given at Christmas by my folks. It's the perfect size for a single Scotch egg, so guess what I made... you got it! Scotch eggs are one of those traditional foods that have acquired a bit of a bad reputation, probably because the manufactured versions are so widely available and therefore nothing to look forward to. The meat is cheap, the crumbed exterior mushy rather than crisp and the egg rattles around in a central void. A homemade Scotch egg, still warm from the fryer, is an entirely different matter and we've been horribly deprived since our old fryer packed in after being dropped (don't ask).

You can get great sausagemeat for this recipe by slitting open some good porky bangers and seasoning the meat to your own taste. I don't like a pronounced flavour of herbs in a Scotch egg, but I do like plenty of black pepper and a good pinch of ground mace, which somehow gives pork pies, Scotch eggs and the like that authentic 'British' flavour you just can't replicate without it.

Scotch Eggs

4 eggs
450g sausagemeat (and see above)
seasonings of your choice
fine breadcrumbs

oil, for deep-frying

Hard-boil the eggs, but err on the side of them still having a bit of 'squidge' in the middle; after all, they're going in the fryer as well, aren't they? Season the sausagemeat and divide it into four. Pat each portion of meat out flat in your wetted palms, then place a shelled egg on top and bring the sides up to encase the egg completely. Roll in the crumbs, then repeat for the rest of the eggs and meat. In my fryer (a Moulinex Minuto), the eggs took about 5 minutes each to be cooked, with the oil at 170°c.

As Scotch eggs are one of the best traditional picnic foods, I served them in that style, with some crudités and a few pickles on the table. Christopher wanted ketchup (bien sûr), but James preferred just to wolf down his egg at lightning speed with no additions.

A word of advice: The recipe will only make four, so hopefully you'll have no leftovers, but try, if you can, not to put these Scotch eggs in the fridge. I find that if you chill foods like this, they go a bit woolly and end up with a texture no unlike the plastic packaged ones (though the taste, still, is quite different).

The Tidy War

Well, it's been a week since my last post and what a week! After a fab long weekend staying with my friend, the boys' godmother it was back down to Earth with a serious bump today, as I looked around me at the state the house was in after a good few weeks of neglect. So the children and I have been waging the tidy war in every room today. Some of us more than other, it has to be said.


I've also been sorting out baby clothes to go to a bring-and-buy sale in a couple of weeks' time. A little sad, but they can't stay here forever and I've kept some of the 'favourite' items for posterity. Quite a few of the favourite actually, but I plan to revisit the pile in a week or two and edit it again when the initial separation anxiety has worn off. It seems odd to be so attached to things, but some things hold such happy memories of my babies when they really were babies. Christopher is 3 now, James 1. I can't believe how fast the time's gone - surely I only brought them home for the first time a few days ago!



Because it's getting nearer to December, I started to clear the freezer this week, using up as much frozen food as possible, so that I could defrost the small freezer in the kitchen and begin to make way for the festive freezing in a few weeks. Tonight's supper was therefore the first of several hotchpotch meals; a tray of roasted chicken thighs and sausages (cooked with red onion and rosemary) and a big pan of succotash, because I found THREE bags of frozen sweetcorn and had to start dealing with it all somehow... Wish me luck!

Use Your Loaf!

I'm taking the boys to my parents' house for a week tomorrow, so most of today has been spent preparing for that, either packing bags or stocking up the cupboards with user-friendly food for Karl who - shock horror - has to cope on his own for a bit.

Tonight I made a sausage loaf for our dinner. It's another one that takes a while in the oven but isn't much work to put it together. The original plan was to save the leftovers for a mid-journey picnic tomorrow but, as there were no leftovers, I shall have to rethink that one...You can use whatever herbs you like; whatever will complement the sausages you've chosen. I had some good old-fashioned butcher's pork sausages, so I chopped some sage and thyme together.

Sausage Loaf

8 good-quality thick sausages
1 onion, diced
fresh herbs (see above)
4 tbsp fine semolina
1 large egg
8 rashers streaky bacon

Line a 900g/2lb loaf tin with 7 of the bacon rashers, reserving one for later. Fry the onion in a knob of butter until soft and golden brown, then whizz the fried onions to a purée in the blender (stay with me here). Split the sausage skins and squeeze out the meat into a bowl. Add the herbs, semolina and the beaten egg, then scrape the onion purée into the bowl and mix everything together really well.. Spoon the sausage mixture into the bacon-lined tin and spread out evening, smoothing the top. Lay the reserved piece of bacon centrally along the top of the loaf, then fold the edges of the other bacon rashers inwards to completely cover the surface. Bake at 200°c for 50 minutes until the loaf is cooked right through to the centre. Turn out onto a plate and garnish with a fresh herb sprig to serve.

Serve with steamed potatoes or mash and a green vegetable. Tonight I cooked some of my Savoy Cabbage Braised in Chicken Stock, which we really enjoy with this, but a mixture of peas and sweetcorn goes down well too.

Good Old Pasta Bake

I love a pasta bake, I do. They're so simple to throw together, satisfying to eat and genuinely comforting. The versatility of this kind of dish, adaptable to suit what's in the cupboards and fridge, is what makes it so hard to imagine cooking for the family without it, at least once in a while. You really only need a green salad to accompany a pasta bake like this, though I often gild the lily by making garlic bread as well. You can use whatever tomato sauce you like, either homemade or your favourite ready-made variety. Just get 500g or 500ml in total, however you measure it. A little fun at dinner is always welcomed by the children so, given the ingredients; frankfurters and sweetcorn, I couldn't resist this -may I introduce my friends Frank and Maisy?

Frank & Maisy Pasta Bake

200g dried pasta
550g jar frankfurters, drained
340g can sweetcorn, drained
500g tomato sauce (see above)
grated cheddar cheese

Cook the pasta. Meanwhile, heat the tomato sauce and stir in the sweetcorn. Slice the frankfurters into roughly 2cm lengths. When the pasta is al dente, drain and mix with the tomato and sweetcorn sauce. Tip it into an ovenproof dish and add the frankfurters, poking them in and amongst the pasta. Scatter over a handful of grated cheese and bake at 200°c for 15-20 minutes.

Supper on Standby

Having neglected even to think about our supper tonight, I had to raid the freezer this afternoon. We had some packs of small sausages and cartons of my batch-cooked tomato sauce, so I defrosted one of each to make a version of my Sausage and Tomato Pasta. Favourite dishes like this one quickly become regular standbys for family meals, cooked slightly differently every time, adapted according to what we've got. That’s the way it should be; I keep cookery notebooks to scribble records of what I cook and how things change over time, but I don’t have the time (or the inclination) to start scouring recipe books for every evening meal.

So, while the penne was boiling briskly, I broke up the sausages a bit and fried them until they were cooked through and nicely browned, then poured the tomato sauce into the pan and let it reheat gently. The sausage-studded sauce could then be quickly tossed through the drained pasta. As always, I reserved a cupful of the pasta-water to stir in. This really does help all sorts of sauces to combine with the pasta, though sometimes you only need a spoonful or so, it’s still a habit worth getting into.

I serve ‘big’ pasta dishes like this one straight from the pan at the table, spooning out as much as everyone wants. Garlic bread, a green salad and some grated cheese to scatter over the pasta were just the right accompaniments for a damp and rather chilly evening. We all had a slice of Christopher’s birthday cake for pud.

Bang Bang

A miserable rainy day like today always calls for comfort food of one kind or another. We all love sausages and, since there were some in the fridge, sausages it was. I toyed briefly with the idea of Toad in the Hole, but decided instead on good old Bangers and Mash. Brilliant family food, nice and simple. This way of cooking the sausages keeps them from drying out and gives you a lovely, and very easy, gravy to go with them. I'm not a huge fan of gravy as a rule, but with a Great British meal like this, it's a must!

Sausage Supper

butter and oil
1 large onion, halved and sliced
6-8 sausages
500ml chicken or vegetable stock
mixed dried herbs
black pepper

Heat a large knob of butter and a little oil in a large, deep-sided frying pan. Fry the onions over a low heat until soft and just golden. Turn up the heat and add the sausages, browning them a little all over. Pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Add a good pinch of mixed dried herbs and grind over some black pepper. Reduce the heat once more and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Serve with mashed potatoes. I steam the peeled and halved potatoes for 20-25 minutes, then mash them with a large dollop (or two) of créme fraîche.

Breakfast for Supper

While we were at the butcher's the other day I picked up some sausages, bacon and black pudding. I can only rarely face a full English breakfast; the timing of it all, the mountain of greasy pots to wash and the guilt of eating so much, so early in the day. I do, however, love all the flavours in a 'proper' breakfast, so I like to combine them in evening main meals when I can. I'm a relatively recent convert to black pudding and like all those converted to something late in life, suddenly evangelical about it.

This rice dish (finally) went down very well with all of us and James particularly enjoyed his first little taste of black pudding. I wanted to cook this a couple of days ago but Karl's overdosing on breakfast-related meals put paid to that. The quantities in this can be rejigged as you like; if you want to add some cooked mushrooms, great. I would have done, but I didn't have any.

Breakfast-for-Supper Rice

250g brown rice
1 onion, quartered and sliced
4 sausages, cut into chunks
4 rashers bacon, chopped
100g black pudding, cut into chunks
1 large tomato, diced
2 hardboiled eggs, cut into wedges

Put the rice on to cook. I used my electric rice machine as usual, but do as you like. Heat a little oil in a large frying pan and cook the onions gently, until soft and just starting to colour. Throw in the bacon and sausage and cook through, before adding the pieces of black pudding. The tomato should be stirred in as soon as the black pudding is cooked, then the whole pan (oil and all) tipped into the (drained) cooked rice. Carefully stir in the wedges of egg and serve immediately. Hubby, as a good Sheffield man, likes some Henderson's Relish with his.