Sausages And Balsamic Onions
I cooked these the Lindsey Bareham way last night and I’m putting the guts here for ease of access.
For myself, I use three Black Farmer sausages and an onion of about 120 grams.
I cooked the sausages like this.
Fry the sausages in a tbsp oil over a low heat, turning every so often, until crusty and done to your liking. Mine took 30 minutes.
The onion is finely sliced then cooked like this.
Heat a tbsp oil in a second frying pan and add the onion. Cook briskly, tossing constantly for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring often, until slippery soft. Add a measure of balsamic vinegar and two of water. Let it bubble away. Turn off the heat.
The result with some microwaved small potatoes is shown.
Sausages And Balsamic Onions
It may take a bit longer than a quick fry, but it is a lot nicer.
A Meal To Pair With Lindsey Bareham’s Pasta
I like meals that pair up, where you use the same ingredients in separate meals, so that one purchase does two totally different meals. I cook the pasta with pulled ham hock, peas and yoghurt regularly and always have pulled ham hock in the fridge and frozen peas in the freezer.
So when Lindsey Bareham published this Dijon Ham And Pea Gratin, with the same main ingredients of pulled ham hock and frozen peas. I just had to give it a go.
I started by switching the oven on to 200°C and making a sauce for the first time.
I melted about 15 g of butter in a saucepan and stirred in some flour and mustard. Milk was added gradually, stirring constantly to make a thick smooth sauce, which I simmered gently for 5 minutes.
Grated Emmental cheese was then added and a smooth sauce was made. As Lindsey said, I seasoned it with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
The Mustard And Cheese Sauce
The ham hock and the peas, were then stirred into the sauce and thoroughly mixed.
I then put it in an oval dish and covered it with a mixture of gluten free breadcrumbs and grated cheese.
Ready For The Oven
After 20-30 minutes in the oven, it was ready for eating.
Dijon Ham And Pea Gratin
I enjoyed it immensely.
Last Week Was Chocolate Week
last week was Chocolate Week and Lindsey Bareham celebrated with five recipes using chocolate of which four were savoury.
I cooked this Catalan Lamb Stew With Almonds on the sixteenth.
Catalan Lamb Stew With Almonds
I had a problem in that I couldn’t find any blanched almonds, so I had to use plaked ones and it was a bit gritty. My little chopper also made a bit of the mess with the sauce, so I can’t say it was a great success. I’ll try it again sometimes, with the blanched almonds.
And then on the nineteenth, I cooked Chicken Chili With Chocolate.
Chicken Chili With Chocolate
It was good and I put half in the freezer for later. I did cheat though, by using microwaveable rice.
Next time I’ll cook it with proper rice.
Learning With Lindsey Bareham
I’ve been meaning to put this up for some time, and only now I’ve had a bit of a think, have I found a handle to hang the post on.
It started by Lindsey’s recipe for bangers and mash.
Her method for frying sausages worked well.
Four Of The Black Farmer’s Finest
I just fried them in a little oil for thirty minutes. I think in the past, I’ve always tried to cook them too quickly.
I used four of the Black Farmer’s finest, as like all good sausages they are gluten free. I met the actual Black Farmer once and what a gentleman he is. Long may he continue to be successful!
Lindsey also taught me how to cook the onions.
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a second frying pan and add the sliced onion. Cook briskly, tossing constantly for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring often, until slippery soft. Add 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar and 2 tbsp water. Let it bubble away. Turn off the heat.
They were delicious, but so was it all.
Bangers And Mash A La Lindsey
Perhaps, I did cook too much potato, but it was the first time I had cold apple sauce with hot sausages.
If the recipe had one problem, there was a lot of washing up.
Too Much Washing Up!
But I’ll forgive Lindsey that!
Portuguese Pork
This is one of Lindsey Bareham’s recipes that I did last night. It’s here on The Times web site.
I cooked half quantities to give me enough for a good supper.
I started by taking a pork fillet, which Waitrose had cut in half. Each half was about 200 g.
Pork, Cumin And Lemon
I cut it into small pieces and then sprinkled it was half a teaspoon of cumin. I also put some lemon juice over it and mixed it up. I then chopped up a medium onion and softened it in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, stirring every now and again. It took about ten minutes.
Cooking The Onion
I used my new Le Creuset shallow casserole and after cooking this dish, I wish I’d bought one earlier.
I then put two peeled garlic cloves and a small red chilli without the seeds and filament into my Little Chopper.
Chopping The Garlic And Chilli
This was then added to the casserole.
Onion, Garlic And Chilli
It was cooked for another five minutes, keeping it stirred.
I took a 400 g tin of chickpeas ans trained and rinsed them thoroughly. For this quantity of pork, I would only need half, but there didn’t seem to be any small tins of chickpeas.
I now turned up the heat slightly and added the pork stirring it constantly.
Cooking The Pork
After the pork had cooked, I added the chickpeas, half a chicken stock cube, 120 ml of boiling water and the remains of the cumin and lemon juice from the bowel.
Final Cooking
After simmering for perhaps 5 minutes, it was seasoned well and some finely chopped coriander was stirred in before serving.
Portuguese Pork
It was good and pretty spicy.
Chorizo Hash With Peas
When I returned from Liverpool, I was tired and didn’t really have time for shopping, so i rustled together a version of the chorizo hash by Lindsey Bareham, I cooked a couple of weeks ago.
Chorizo Hash With Peas
As I had a few peas in the fridge, I threw them in as well.
The supper was delicious.
Tarragon Chicken
This is another of Lindsey Bareham’s recipes from The Times. The original is here.
I started by chopping an onion in my little chopper.
An Onion In My Chopper
I continued by gently frying it in some butter in my frying pan.
Spftening The Onion
This should take about 15 minutes. Whilst it was cooking, I cut up three mini chicken fillets into small pieces.
A peeled, finely chopped and crushed garlic clove with a pinch of salt was added to the onion and cooked for a couple of minutes.
The chicken was then added, turning the pieces as they changed colour.
Cooking The Chicken
A teaspoon of flour was then sprinkled over the top and stirred. 150 ml. of chicken stock was added and the mixture was allowed to bubble up and thicken. Season as required, add one teaspoon of chopped tarragon and three tablespoons of thick cream and then stirring occasionally, let it cook for 10-15 minutes or until the chicken is tender.
Finally adjust the seasoning to taste, with salt, pepper and lemon.
Dinner Is Served
It was good and I served it as Lindsey suggested with green beans and new potatoes.
Chorizo Hash
This is a recipe based closely on Lindsey Bareham’s recipe of the same name, but for one person. i.e. me!
I started by assembling the ingredients.
Chorizo Hash – Ingredients
Note the small 200 g pack of Waitrose potatoes and the 120g double pack of chorizo.
I chopped the potatoes and then boiled them for five minutes, before draining them.
The onion was then softened in about a tablespoon of olive oil over a medium heat, ater which the potatoes and the chorizo was added and heated until the potatoes and sausage were nicely crusty.
Chorizo Hash – Cooking The Onion, Potatoes And Sausage
The mixture was then turned out on a plate, the tomatoes were then added and everything was topped with a fried egg and some herbs. Lindsey used chopped parsley, but I just sprinkled marjoram on the top.
Chorizo Hash
I enjoyed it and will cook it again.
Is This The World’s Fastest Pasta Meal?
Last night, I did the Lindsey Bareham pasta meal, which I described here.
I really do think, that if you cook it as fast as you can, it might be one of the world’s fastest pasta meals.
I started by boiling a saucepan of salted water. I used my 2.8 litre saucepan with a lid that has a built in strainer. I also put a plate in the oven to get warm.
When it was boiling hard, I threw in a tumbler of Carluccio’s gluten-free pasta, which cooks in eight minutes. After five minutes, I threw half a cup of peas, which can be frozen or fresh. Obviously, for more people you add more pasta and peas.
Whilst the pasta and peas was cooking, I’d taken half a pack of Waitrose pulled ham hock and taken out the bits with any fat and gristle, of which this time there wasn’t much. I also chppped a couple of tablespoons of chives. Note if you don’t like ham, it works equally well with smoked salmon.
When the peas tasted cooked, I just strained the mixture and that was the cooking done. With my saucepan, I just left the pasta and peas in the saucepan and then used it as a mixing bowl.
i added the ham, a good slug of Rachel’s Greek yoghurt with honey, the juice from one half of a lime, the chives and a teaspoon of marjoram to the mixture and gave it a good mix with some salt and pepper.
I then just turned it out onto the plate.
As you can see, it takes the time it takes to boil the water plus how long the pasta takes to cook and the time it takes to mix everything at the end.
I challenge anybody to properly cook a real pasta meal quicker!
Not Much Washing Up!
It doesn’t even require much washing up, as the picture shows.
The Anonymous Widower 