Home Made: Good, honest food made easy

HOME MADE
Tana Ramsay
Good, honest food made easy

To Meg, Jack, Holly and Tilly — my four babes x

Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Cook’s Notes

Introduction

Soups

Comforting chicken soup

Spicy fish soup

Cullen skink

Pearl barley, Savoy cabbage and chorizo soup

Sweetcorn and coconut soup

Spicy lentil and cannellini bean soup

Green minestrone soup

Gazpacho

Mushroom soup with truffle oil and chives

Sweet potato and carrot soup with a chilli oil sprinkling

Chicken & duck

Gremolata chicken

Lemon chicken stew

Stuffed chicken breasts with mozzarella and basil

Coq au vin

Chinese duck stir-fry

Chicken and mushroom pie pots

Indian-style chicken kebabs

Roast chicken with chilli, garlic and lemon

Duck breasts with blackcurrant sauce

Beef

Sesame beef salad

Carpaccio of beef with Parmesan and rocket

Stuffed veal wraps

Perfect telly-supper steak sandwich

Fillet steak gratin

Thai beef green curry

Old-fashioned, amazingly delicious lasagne

Beef Rendang

Cinnamon beef stew

Beef stir-fry with noodles

Fish & seafood

Smoked fish pâté

Scallops with parsley and lemon vinaigrette

Fresh sardines warpped in vine leaves with chilli and lemon butter

Tuna Niçoise with pan-fried quail eggs

Rosemary-infused monkfish

Grilled cod with home-made red pesto

Pan-fried salmon with chunky guacamole

Tiger prawn stir-fry

Sea bass with vine tomatoes, olives and capers

Lamb

Balsamic lamb salad

Bobotie

Rack of lamb with olive tapenade crust

Irish lamb stew with dumplings

Leg of lamb with pancetta, rosemary and tomato sauce

Sticky hoisin lamb

Lamb rogan josh

Lamb kofta

Fruity lamb shanks

Pork

Figs wrapped in prosciutto

Bacon, egg, avocado and Little Gem salad

Ham and asparagus toast

Ham spinach and Gruyère croissant ring

Savoy cabbage, apple and pork chop en papillote

Cauliflower cheese and bacon quiche

Herb-crusted pork fillet with creamed leeks

Roast pork loin with cannellini beans, pancetta and thyme

Chorizo sausage tortilla with grilled pepper salad

Pork escalopes with spicy prune chutney

Sausages with apples and juniper berries

Vegetables

Fresh peas, flageolet beans, red onion and mint salad

Asparagus spears with pecorino

Pruple sprouting broccoli with chillli and garlic oil

Spring greens with nutmeg butter

Spaghetti of carrots with cardamon butter

Beetroot and clementine salad

Cucumber pappardelle with dill

Courgettes with tomato sauce and chopped coriander

Buttered sweetcorn niblets with fresh marjoram leaves

Green beans with sun-dried tomato paste

Potatoes

Potato gnocchi

Bacon rösti cake

Bubble and squeak

Mashed potato with leeks and capers

Baked potatoes with succotash

Traditional dauphinoise potatoes

Sweet potato with mushrooms on toast

Crushed new potatoes with feta and mint

Roast potatoes with Taleggio and red onion

Cheese, spinach and potato pie

Pizza & pasta

Cavatappi pasta with Parma ham, petits pois and sun-dried tomatoes

Spaghetti with cod in a chilli, garlic and white wine sauce

Linguine puttanesca

Penne with fresh tomato, chilli and prawns

Rigatoni with purple sprouting broccoli and pancetta

Pappardelle with butter, mushrooms, parsley and garlic

High summer spaghetti

Linguine with crab and chilli

Seafood pasta

Ciabatta bruschetta

Mini pizzas

French bread pizza

Fruit

Clementine tart

Peach cobbler

Oranges in red wine

Pineapple and mint sherbet

Lemon and meringue puddings

Tasty apple tarts

Banana tarte tatin

Maple syrup nectarines and warm raspberry sauce

Roast plums with cinnamon and lemon

Apple snow

Easy blueberry tart

Chocolate

Chocolate and beetroot cake

Chocolate and vanilla fancy biscuit bites

White chocolate cake with dark chocolate topping

White chocolate-coated strawberry ice-cream balls

Chocolate soufflé cake with cherries and mascarpone

Chocolate bread and butter pudding

Chocolate pancakes

All-purpose chocolate sauce

Chocolate Malteser ice cream

Chocolate caramel slices

Acknowledgements

Index

Copyright

About the Publisher

Cook’s Notes

Butter: The type of butter is specified where it is critical.

Citrus fruit: If you’re using the zest of oranges and lemons, buy unwaxed fruit. If you can’t find this, wash the fruit in hot water before use.

Eggs: These are medium size unless specified otherwise. I use free-range eggs.

Poultry: I buy free-range wherever possible.

Salt and pepper: Generally I use sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper; sometimes white pepper is more appropriate and a finer or coarser grade of salt is required, and the recipe will tell you this.

Spoon measures: All spoon measures are level unless otherwise stated.

Introduction

Home has always been the most important place in my life – from my earliest childhood memories when home was the farm I lived on with my parents, brothers and sister, right up to today when home is where Gordon, the kids and I retreat to from the chaos of our busy lives. Even the word ‘home’ conjures up so many emotions for me – happiness, love, security; it’s my haven from the world outside.

When I was growing up in the country, life seemed much simpler than it does today. On non-school days my brothers, sister and I would leave the house early in the morning and run around the fields, making camps amongst the hay bales and only returning home when we were hungry. My children don’t have such freedom to roam in the modern city, but, just as we were, they are out at school and other activities from early in the morning and really active from dawn to dusk. And as they get older, life seems to get even busier.

Weekdays are usually pretty chaotic, and after all the rushing around, the place we all long to be is home, where we can have time out and find some sense of peace (as much as you can with four boisterous children bouncing around the house!). Home is the place where my family and I can switch off and just be. As a family of two working parents and four busy schoolchildren, coming home gives us the opportunity to be together, to take a break from the madness and pause long enough to catch up on everything that’s going on.

Once through the door, the coats and bags are put away and we all switch from working mode into a more relaxed atmosphere. We usually end up in the kitchen and talk about our days and all the things that made it good or bad – doing well at sport or lessons, something nice that someone said, not making the school team or play, or the friendship fall-outs and fights. All these things can be poured out within the comfort and security of our home, where we all know that none of us will judge the other, but just listen. This is home. This is where, for us, real life happens.

Even before I had my children, creating a sense of home was important to me; just as now it is a place for us to talk with the children, so it was for Gordon and me before they arrived on the scene. When we first met he was working late every night and I was working all day and studying to be a Montessori teacher in the evenings, but even then we would have a cup of tea in the small hours when he got home so that we could spend time together (something we still do now). Like any other mother, I want the best for our children; I want them to be happy and healthy and remember their childhood as fondly as I do mine. Even though my childhood in the country was very different to their urban lifestyle, the one thing that remains the same is having that sense of security and peace. And that’s what I believe a home is all about.

My mother is my inspiration for how to run a home; no matter how busy she was, she would always have time for us and would make sure that we had everything we needed. My mother puts me to shame: not only did she manage the farm, the home and cook all our food from scratch, but she also still made sure that she always had her lipstick on! When my brothers and sister and I would come home from school or play, tired from our exertions and having worked up an appetite, there would always be a meal ready and waiting for us, and I can even remember a time when everything on the table – from the butter to the wine – was made by her.

Like my mother, I have this idea that there are some things that only I can do for my children, and if you ask my friends and family about this they’ll tell you that I like to do everything myself. Unlike my mother, I have no desire to make my own butter, bread, or even wine, but I do feel passionately about providing the family with healthy, nutritious and home-cooked food. Before I had children, good soulful home-cooked food was something that I reminisced about; certain smells and dishes have always reminded me of places and people in my life and spark happy memories of growing up with my family and of my mother’s amazing cooking, but now I see it as an essential part of creating a sense of home for my own family.

Because my weekdays are usually spent juggling work and ferrying the children between school and post-school activities, I find that the best way of ensuring these meals are on the table every night is to plan them in advance. Getting ahead a few days at a time means that I always know what I’m going to be cooking and don’t have to think about it as the children spill through the door, tired, hungry and expectantly sniffing for the comforting smells from the kitchen that will reassure them their dinner is on its way. Sometimes this planning might only go as far as knowing that I’m going to cook chicken one night and fish or pasta another, and then it’s a case of raiding the cupboard or the fridge and perhaps using up what’s in there to go with it. But that’s often enough to make life easier, and I love being able to pull out various ingredients to produce something quick and delicious from a few odds and ends. Of course, I’ve cooked all the recipes in this book at some time or another, but if I’m honest, the majority were created just by experimenting with what ingredients I had at the time.

So that’s why this new collection of recipes is based around my favourite core ingredients: chicken and duck, beef, fish and seafood, lamb, pork, vegetables, potatoes, fruit and chocolate, and also essential dishes such as soups, pizza and pasta. My aim is to give you inspiration for those times when you stand staring into the fridge wondering what to do with the chicken thighs, pork, or salmon fillet that you want to cook tonight, and to give you a few new options for easy ways to pep up essential basic ingredients with just a few extra ones. Good honest home cooking doesn’t need to be complicated; even putting the simplest meal on the table should warm the heart and restore the soul, just because it gives you the opportunity to sit down together as a family.

My attitude to cooking – and to family life in general – is quite relaxed and not precious, and I suppose I’m more of a ‘chuck it all in the pan’ kind of cook. This is probably because, on busy weeknights when the family are all returning home at different hours, I don’t have time to mess around with complicated dishes and getting everything just so. If I do follow a recipe, I use it as the skeleton of a dish, and I’ll happily substitute one vegetable for another that I have in the fridge that needs using up, for instance, or use something that looked particularly appealing when I was out shopping. So when following any recipe, mine included, my advice would be to not get hung up on quantities – if there are three mushrooms left in the bag more than the recipe calls for, chuck them in too, or if the recipe demands two celery sticks and you have only one, don’t rush down to the supermarket to buy it. Getting a meal on the table for the family after a long day at work or doing other things can be stressful enough, so why make it more complicated than it needs to be?

So if, like me, you think about your meals in advance and like to have meat or chicken a couple of times a week, or pasta once, or keep desserts only for the weekend, then I hope this book will help you to make a few decisions on what you’re going to cook. The chapters here are divided up by the ingredients I cook with most at home and reflect how I plan the meals for my lot. Whether you’re cooking a revitalizing supper for a horde of hungry schoolchildren, a lovely, homely meal for the frazzled family winding down on a Friday night, a lazy weekend lunch for friends and extended family, or a cosy meal à deux after the kids have gone to bed, I hope you can find something here that suits your needs, keeps your family happy at the end of a day, and that the look on their faces as they tuck in will remind you just how good home cooking can be.