Lamb kofta with millet seed, cherry tomato and watermelon salad

Some people say you shouldn't trust a slim chef. Well I'm sure my chef jackets shrunk in the wash recently.

When I'm talking to the guests I cook for one of the most common things they say is along the lines of 'do you cook for yourself as well' or 'when do you ever get time to eat yourself' or 'you can't want to cook for yourself after all this.....'. But it's when you cook for yourself you throw things together and come up with new flavours or combinations, or quicker, more efficient techniques. 24 hours a day, 363 days a year (there was one day - the first day of holiday last year when I didn't cook) you eat, sleep (I've done a record number of functions in my sleep this week) and live food so not cooking would be like not breathing.

I cracked the 5 minute lunch when working at Claridges - if there wasn't a queue in the canteen I could be away from the larder, grab lunch and be back in 5 minutes. There was no time for lunch yesterday really - Adam who was helping me pack up and then cooking at Wellacres was stuck in traffic getting back from Wales, but I knew I had to fit in lunch somehow because it would be so long till I could get time to stop again (and sure enough it was after 2am), so it was 2 minutes of getting it together and 3 minutes eating while answering an email at the same time. Busy.

I'd been experimenting with millet seed earlier in the week (I've really become a new fan of grains & pulses this year) and still had some left so combined it with left over cherry tomatoes, watermelon and basil from the goats cheese starter. Added some sesame oil and coriander. It needed some acidity - lime zest/ juice would have been good, but as I put the sesame oil back on the shelf I passed over the rice wine vinegar so added this instead. Millet, being similar to cous cous, worked well with the left over lamb kofta.

Related posts:

Pork tenderloin curry in a hurry

Ratatouille macaroni cheese

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Ratatouille macaroni cheese pronto

Courgette, cheese, onion and tomato, as it was called, was a summer staple in the Benson family when I was young and the courgette plants were proliferating daily. On the days when the sun was strong you could watch them grow by checking them at various points from the morning till the evening.


In Devon my grandparents had a warmer, sunnier climate so they could grow aubergines too - which at that time was quite exotic as we were just on the verge of globalising our food tastes as a country. Aubergines were added to their ratatouille, when they weren't being used for aubergine fritters.

Hunger is the mother of food invention. This dish was cooked up in less than 5 minutes, and is a take on our old Courgette, cheese, onion and tomato with a few extra Mediterranean additions.



What I added:

• Courgette sauteed (leave them without stirring to colour - that is where the flavour is)
• Cooked frozen red onion
• Parma ham
• Tomatoes (fresh, tomato sauce, or left over cooked tomatoes from breakfast)
• Sun dried tomatoes (if they come with capers in the oil for flavour add those too)
• Cooked macaroni (Cook day before or in the morning and refresh under cold water before leaving in fridge to save time)
• Water (to make a little steam to heat the macaroni. By the time it has all reduced the pasta is hot)
• Grated cheese
• Fresh herbs - depending on what you have - chives, basil
  
  

What you can add:


Anything you like.

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Kitchen tips # 13 - Cooked onions pronto

It has been interesting reading, the recent output from Delia Smith. Tinned mince, frozen mash, tinned cooked onions, jars of roasted peppers et al.

I had noticed tinned cooked onions at the supermarket a couple of weeks before the latest Delia bandwagon - obviously the supermarkets get tipped off early. Whatever next I thought.



Most meals you cook at home are bound to have an onion in, so of course you end up chopping up an onion every day. That's OK if you have unlimited time to cook, but the reality is that for many it's more like half an hour than half a day. So that's where your frozen onions come in.


No - not brought from the shop, but every once in a while (chopping is good for venting anger) you can go in to producton mode and chop up a whole pile of onions.





Then cook them all in one pot



Fine chopped red onions for mixing into french beans



Sliced red onions for red onion and St. Agnes cheese tarts

Then portioned out, chilled and either kept in the fridge for 3 days, or frozen. Frozen they can be defrosted in the microwave on defrost for 3 - 5 minutes, or stirred in directly to a cassrole after browning the meat.



Maybe it's time to use up those onions stored at the back of your garden shed.....

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Pork tenderloin curry pronto - curry in a hurry

Baked beans. The various nationalities looked on in amusement as we ate baked beans for breakfast, but that's what we do in England, and as ex-pats in other countries too.

"So do you cook at home?" is an often asked question. After a long day cooking the finest food for our finest clinentele, feeding oneself is another matter. It's well known, thanks in part to AW T, that baked beans can be a chef's best friend when cooking at home in the hours after midnight that we are used to. There's also many a fried chicken or kebab house that would suffer without the patronage of after hours chefs on their way home after a long day. Happily though, leaving London, I can leave that crazy way of life behind.

As we know, good food can be fast food. So what can you do with pork tenderloin (raw), the remenants of a mango and a decimated coriander plant in under ten minutes?

Fast food demands fast heat. Boil chicken stock and a little cream (you could use coconut milk of course if you had it - and this would have more flavour). Add a spoonful of curry paste which is always sitting at the back of your fridge. While this is coming to the boil, cut the pork tenderloin (which I get from the local farm) in thin slices (the thinner it is, the faster it cooks). Add to the 'sauce' and let the pork cook in the sauce just below boiling point. When the pork is cooked, thicken the sauce with a little cornflour. Add some diced fresh mango, some ripped coriander, and you're ready to serve with rice, bombay potatoes, naan bread, or anything left from the day's cooking.

Yes - it may not be the finest recipe, but it's very tasty fast food. You could also use cooked turkey which you're about to have an abundance of......

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1001 kitchen tips # 6 - crispy roast potatoes pronto

Raw to cooked in 21 minutes. Who said fast food can't be good food. I had fun a few years ago with my friend's oven to see how fast I could make roast potatoes with the desiree potatoes dug up from the garden. After a few attempts I got it down to 21 minutes from raw potatoes to being crispy roast. You need a combi oven/ grill setting, but most new ovens have these.

Rosemary roast potatoes

Boil potatoes for 10 minutes. While these are boiling set your oven to combination oven and grill on the top setting. Place a baking tray under the grill to heat up. When the potatoes have been boiling for 9 minutes, pour vegetable oil on to the tray, or goose fat if you prefer this, and place this under the grill to heat. Drain the potatoes and let them sit back in the pan for 1 minute to steam (they need to be dry on the outside to go crispy). Then (a Delia trick) put the lid back on the pan and shake so they go fluffy on the outside.



Slide the potatoes on to the tray carefully as the hot fat splashes scar you for a few weeks - chefs wear long sleeved jackets for a reason, and this is the time when you roll the sleeves down. You could wear oven gloves or roll a tea towel around your wrists. Roll the potatoes in the hot oil/ fat using a palette knife, and leave lots of space between them, otherwise they steam rather than roast.

I push the potatoes to the outside of the tray where all the heat goes - this means they cook more evenly and faster. Keep turning to prevent burning. This should take 8 - 9 minutes. If you smell burning turn the heat down.

When they are almost finished roll in chopped rosemary and place back in oven for a minute so the rosemary sticks to the potatoes.


FAQ


What if I don't have a combination oven/ grill?


If you don't have a combination oven - a normal oven is fine they just take longer.


Can I grill roast potatoes?

Yes - this works too. Instead of putting them in the oven once parboiled, dried (letting them steam for 10 mins) and rolling in [olive] oil, put them under the grill. You need to keep an eye on them though and keep turning them once they brown on each side.


Can I cook roast potatoes the day before?


Yes! This will make your Christmas cooking easy. Cook them completely as above. Let them cool and leave them in the fridge overnight. Then re-heat in the oven at 200 oC for around 15 - 20 minutes. See notes on dry heat below.


Can I freeze roast potatoes?

You can of course freeze these - and heat them in the oven for 25 - 30 minutes when you cook your Sunday roast.

How do I make roast potatoes go crispy?

DRY HEAT – Like yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes really like dry heat. When you open your oven door with the roast beef & roast vegetables cooking you’re likely to get a good head of steam escaping. If you try and put the potatoes in with the roast they always have trouble crisping up because there is too much moisture.
There are two solutions -
1 - Pre-cook the potatoes on the day or the day before and leave them chilled in the fridge, then re-heat them in the oven after the roast meat has come out to rest. Or you could freeze them (see above).
2 - Use a seperate oven - most cookers have two ovens.

HIGH HEAT - Roast potatoes like high heat to get them crispy, about 240 oC+. The high heat seems to work well - I cooked them at 240 oC the other day and they brown so well, as long as you remember to turn them.

FLOUR THE POTATOES - Another tip I picked up recently is to sprinkle a little flour over the par-boiled potatoes after being left to steam. Then toss them gently in the flour so it just coats the potatoes - you don't want a thick lump of flour - then add to the hot trays with hot oil, and roast as above.

What type of potato make the best roast potatoes?

Each type of potato has different properties - everyone says maris pipers, but I find these too floury. Personally in order of preference its:
i Desiree
ii King Edwards
iii Estima

Why don't my potatoes go crispy?

I read recently that if potatoes are kept too long the starch turns to sugar, so that obviously affects their browning/ staying together properties. I once ended up using some quite old estima potatoes from a veg shop and they fell apart before they even thought about browning - this is probably the reason. Supermarkets love to keep things as long as possble in warehouses, so again, if yours don't turn out so good this could be the reason.....

Also - see use of dry heat above, and remember it depends on what type of potato you use, again - see above. The cheapest bag of non-descript type of potato won't neccessarily give you the results you were after.

Also see high heat above - 240 oC for 20 - 30 minutes when there is nothing else in the oven making steam (e.g. your roast meat) gives you a crisp result, as long as you remember to turn them to avoid burning.

Related posts:

Dauphinoise potato
Boulangere potato
Rosti potato
Sunday roast
Yorkshire puddings

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Pronto cheese sauce - sauce & go

Take two pans to the stove when you only need one? [ref 1001 tip #3] Not you. Now you can just sauce & go.

True bechamel should take at least an hour to cook to allow the floury taste to be cooked out. What happens if you haven't got an hour? What happens if you've only got 5 minutes or less.

It is a total cheat, but when you're cooking at home cheating is not just allowed, it's the way forward.

Bring your milk to the boil. Whisk a little cornflour with water. Add cornflour to hot milk. Allow to thicken. Reduce heat (if the cheese boils now it will split). Add cheese and stir. Add a little dijon mustard (excenuates the cheese flavour), salt (if neccessary depending on how strong the cheese is, you could also use celery salt for more flavour) & pepper to taste.

There you have cheese sauce pronto.

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