It is no secret that I am quite a Jamie Oliver in the kitchen (and not just because I cook for 37p a head), so I thought I would share my secrets with the world - most of my recipes have been stolen from elsewhere anyway, but hey.
I'm very much a 20 minute meat and two veg man, but some of my meals take a little longer to prepare.
Skinless Soggy Sausages
This was the best sausages and mash I have ever tasted - but it did take probably a good 40 minutes cooking, it was a fun meal to make mind. I made it with white wine but I'm sure it could be made with beer or Rose.
Ingredients
300ml dry white wine
500g pack Lincolnshire sausages
50g butter
1 onion, grated
2 green crisp apples, peeled, cored and sliced
150g pack of mushrooms
1 vegetable stock cube, made up with 200ml boiling water
2 x 15ml spoons unrefined dark brown soft sugar
½ x 5ml spoon ground cinnamon
Method
Bring the wine to the boil in a large frying pan and cook the sausages in this for 10 minutes. Remove the skins which will sometimes fall off easily, but just be prepared to get your hands dirty! I used a knife to loosen the skins then got my fingers underneath and peeled it off. Keep the wine in the pan, and put the sausages on a plate.
Heat half the butter in another frying pan and cook the sausages until golden brown - approximately 10 minutes.
Add the onion to the white wine along with the apples, mushrooms, stock, sugar, cinnamon and remaining butter. Bring the mixture to the boil and cook until the apples are tender and the liquid is reduced to a thin syrup.
Serve the sausages with the apple sauce on a bed of mashed potato. Yum!
Thai Pork Burgers
This is what I call fun food - and although it takes about 30 minutes when you are a beginner you can make far too much and freeze them, and they make a great treat when you get them out again a year later.
Ingredients
500g pork mince
1 small red onion, very finely chopped
2 x 15ml spoons Thai curry paste (try not to use the cancerous one)
4 x 15ml spoons plain flour
Optional
6 x 15ml spoons mayonnaise
20g pack fresh coriander, finely chopped
4 burger buns, split
1 big fat tomato, cut into 4 thick slices
120g herb salad
4 x 15ml spoons chilli dipping sauce
Method
Place the pork mince, onion and Thai curry paste in a bowl and mix to combine, with floured hands shape into 4 burgers, or more if you are making some to freeze - I found actually that even 500g of mince produced large burgers! Place the burgers on a grill pan and cook for 18-20 minutes, turning every 2-3 minutes or when you can be bothered. If you want a sauce with it then combine together the mayonnaise and coriander. Lightly toast the burger buns if you want then spread with some of the mayonnaise, top with a burger and tomato slice. Serve immediately with a crisp green salad, drizzled with some chilli dipping sauce.
This is equally good without buns. I wouldn't go for anything too spicy with the sauces, but whatever you like.
Tiffs Quick Tomato Pork
This is nice and quick, and very good to use up that root vegetable that is sitting in the veg tray slowly growing cultures (just slice off the mould, should be fine underneath). Probably 20 minutes or less unless something goes wrong. Can also be done to chicken and beef.
Ingredients
Pork loin steaks, chicken breasts or Beef steaks
1 or 2 Onions, chopped as you like it
1 tin chopped or plum tomatoes, the cheaper the better
Oregano or coriander
Rice, small or medium grain is best
Any root vegetable that needs eating up, eg. yam,
Lettuce Leaf
Method
First thing is the rice, get that put on as fast as possible. Best way to do rice is to measure out 50g per person, usually rinse it in a sieve depending on what the packet says, then put one and a half cups of cold water in the saucepan, cover and put on a hot hob, and keep an eye on it. Hopefully you won't have to sieve it at the end, and you will know when it is ready because there will be very little water left in 15 minutes.
In the next 5 minutes chop your onion and root vegetable, quickly and without precision, and shove it in a hot oily frying pan. Fry that for 5 minutes, mixing around occasionally. You don't have to stand over it if it is on a sensible heat, you can still watch a few minutes of the simpsons.
Then get out your chicken, or pork or whatever (leave a bit longer for steak) and make a space in your frying pan for the steaks, and shove them in, so that the onions are surrounding them. Cook it quite aggressively for 5 minutes then turn them over, taking care not to get onions stuck underneath.
Check on the rice and if necessary turn off the hob or put somewhere to cool down. After a few minutes, check the pork is cooked through (chop of a small bite at the end and see if it is white through) and open the tin of tomatoes. Shove them in, along with oregano or coriander, and some salt. Put the hob on the highest heat and mix it all up, so the tomatoe sauce heats up and hopefully gets into the pork.
300ml dry white wine
500g pork mince
Pork loin steaks, chicken breasts or Beef steaks