Coq au Vin

How traditional can you get – and what a smashing winter warmer this one is.

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What you’ll need (to feed four) –

4 “cuisse” or leg portions of chicken

2 tablespoons of plain flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

25g butter

100g smoked streaky bacon, chopped into small pieces (lardons)

400g shallots – get nice small ones – they’re cooked whole

600ml red wine

1 chicken stock cube

2 tablespoons tomato purée

2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped.

1 teaspoon dried thyme

250g mushrooms, halved

Freshly ground black pepper

What to do –

Season the flour with salt and black pepper in a bowl.

Toss the chicken portions in the flour, coat them well.

Heat the olive oil in a flame proof casserole and fry the chicken pieces for about 10 minutes – until they’re browned all over. Remove chicken pieces from the pot and keep to one side.

Peel the shallots and and add them together with the chopped bacon (lardons) to the casserole, fry for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Pour in the wine and allow to bubble for a minute or two.

Stir in the crumbled stock cube and the tomato purée and some freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Add the garlic and the thyme.

Bring to the boil and then pop the chicken pieces back into the pot.

Lower the heat, put a lid on the pot and simmer gently for 40-45 minutes.

Add the mushrooms and then simmer for a further 15 minutes.

Serve with mashed potatoes or simply plenty of crusty white bread.

Beef Olives

I was guided to this recipe by Mr B, one of Millbrook’s best amateur cooks, who found it online and I must say it’s blomin’ lovely.

Ideal for when you want to serve something up a little more showy than your average Sunday roast. I’d certainly count this as “posh cooking”.

What you’ll need (to serve four):

2 x 1.5-2cm thick piece of topside of beef, about 200g each. (each piece should then serve two people)

2 or 3 tsps English mustard (more if you like it hot)

Salt

Black pepper

Paprika

Garlic, crushed

Onions (red or white) finely chopped

Gherkins

5 or 6 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, chopped into small pieces

Vegetable oil

Beef stock (cheat - use a stock cube and boiling water)

What do to:

Lay out slices of beef and spread the English mustard over the beef as if buttering bread.

Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with paprika and crushed garlic.

Spread evenly, finely chopped onions, gherkins and smoked bacon.

Roll up strips of beef and tie in place with string or use a skewer to keep in place.

Seal the outside of the “Olives” until just brown in some oil, transfer to a

shallow baking tray and cover with stock until bottom 2” are covered, pop them into the oven at 180˚C/Gas 4 and cook for 45-50 minutes.

Have a look at them, if you reckon they need more time try another 10 minutes and keep checking – you don’t want cinders!


Serve with creamy potatoes and your favourite vegetables.

Mr B's Legendary Curry

Good for Lamb, Beef or Chicken

My thanks to Mr B of Millbrook who is something of a local legend when it comes to conjuring up outstandingly good curry.

This is how he does it.

What you’ll Need:

Meat to feed four (so…. about 400-500g of lamb, chicken or beef)

Enough ordinary cooking oil to cover the base of a medium to large saucepan

½ Level teaspoon chilli powder (standard not hot )

1 Level teaspoon Turmeric

2 Level teaspoons Garam Masala

1Teaspoon Salt

(Add to the above, Pinch of Cinnamon for lamb

A Bay leaf for chicken, Nothing extra for Beef)

3 Cloves fresh Garlic,crushed

1 Large onion,chopped

1¼” piece of fresh Root Ginger peeled and finely chopped or grated

1, 14oz tin of tomatoes (chop them yourself it’s cheaper)

1 Fresh Lemon cut in half ready to squeeze over the meat when serving, or cut into quarters and placed on the plate.

What to do:

Fry off the onion, ginger and garlic until just starting to turn brown

Add the remaining spices, tomatoes and chosen meat and bring to the boil (you may need to add a little water if it looks too dry)

Reduce the heat, pop a lid onto the pan and simmer for 1½ - 2hrs until the meat is tender, if the sauce is too wet reduce until required thickness by removing the lid and allowing the liquid to evaporate.

TOP TIP from MR B: instead of simmering as shown in above, try simmering for an hour and then cool and refrigerate until the next day for a better curry.

Serve with basmati rice, a fresh salad, chapattis and/or papadoms

Spicy Coucous

A meal in itself, suitable for vegetarians, but also great served with a meat accompaniment (we often serve it with a couple of decent quality sausages or a simply grilled pork chop).

This is yet another very quick and simple recipe for everyday eating – couscous is very inexpensive and is available in most supermarkets. Couscous granules are made by rolling and shaping moistened semolina wheat and then coating them with finely ground wheat flour. The finished granules are roughly spherical and about 1mm in diameter before cooking. Couscous can also be made from millet, but you’re more likely to find the “quick cook” semolina variety in the UK.

Unusually for me, this recipe is entirely microwave based. Our microwave is a truly ancient affair that began its working life in 1986. Yours is probably a newer version and therefore more powerful. The recipe below is based on 600W microwaving (the highest available nearly 25 years ago); you might need to adjust cooking times accordingly.

At Millbrooker Towers, we eat this at least once a week – we like it that much

What you’ll need (to serve 4 – 6)

300g couscous

1 tin of chopped tomatoes (or whole ones, whizzed with a hand blender)

Half can of water

2 carrots, chopped into dice

1 medium sized green pepper, chopped

1 courgette, sliced

200g mushrooms, halved

1 onion, chopped

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

1 tin of sweetcorn

a vegetable stock cube

Spices: 1 heaped tsp each

Ground Ginger

Ground Cumin

Ground Coriander

Ground Fenugreek

Turmeric

Quarter to half tsp cayenne or hot chilli powder to taste.

What to do

In a large microwavable cooking pot…

Plop the tomatoes, water, carrots, pepper, onion, garlic and all of the spices into the pot and microwave on full (for a 600W oven) for 10 minutes.

Take it out and stir well.

Then give it another 5 minutes.

Add the courgette, mushrooms, sweetcorn and stock cube.

Back into the microwave oven and cook for another 5 or 7 minutes until the courgette is cooked to your taste (we like it a bit crunchy)

Lastly, stir in the couscous and leave to stand for 5 minutes.

The couscous will soak up the liquid and will expand quite considerably.

After 5 minutes, break up the couscous with a fork and serve.

Pheasant in Brandy

I made this one up when someone kindly gave us a pheasant, I reckon it’ll work pretty well with any game bird. If I say so myself, it was very yummy.

I cooked it in France using very basic facilities, so all measurements are a bit on the approximate side.

A pheasant isn’t a large bird and we found that the whole bird made two goodly sized portions. I divided the carcass before cooking into two breast/wing portions and two leg portions using a heavy bladed knife and a cavalier disregard for the safety of my fingers.

What you’ll need (serves 2):

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pheasant, plucked, drawn and divided into quarters.

1 medium sized onion, coarsely chopped

2 carrots, sliced in half lengthways and then chopped into chunks

12 (or more) small button mushrooms

750ml chicken stock (as always, I cheated and used a stock cube)

4 or 5 tablespoons brandy.

What to do:

Par-boil the carrots on the hob in the stock, allow to simmer for about 10 minutes.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet or heavy bottomed frying pan

Brown the pheasant quarters in the oil for about 2 or 3 minutes on each side.

Remove the pheasant from the pan and keep to one side.

Sweat the onion in the oil and meat juices in the same pan until just transparent.

Heat the oven to Gas 4 (180˚C /350˚F).

Pour the stock and carrots into a casserole pot, add the brandy (if in doubt – be generous with the amount) and add the onion all the juices/oil from the skillet.

Put the pheasant into the liquid and scatter mushrooms all around the pot.

Put a lid on the casserole pot and cook in the oven for 90 minutes.

Serve with mashed potato and a big hearty red wine.

Tagliatelle 'Uddersfield

A recipe from my old mate BathNick who has recently taken to publishing some yummy recipes on his blog Bath'n'Stuff. Thank you, BathNIck.

A triumph of making a wonderful tasty meal out of stuff that’s lying about in the fridge.

The recipe’s title comes from the fact that the black pudding used was bought at Bath market and comes from Huddersfield which might irritate some purist blood pudding fans who could argue that the only true black pudding comes from Bury in Lancashire.

Here's the recipe and attendant chat between Simon Pauley and me as broadcast on Insight Radio (click on the podcast icon to hear it)):

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What You’ll Need (to feed 4):

350g Tagliatelle pasta (more if you’re very hungry)

1 complete black pudding ring (500g usually), half inch slices, then each slice quartered.

4 Banana Shallots, chopped

2 large cloves of garlic, chopped

8 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, cut into small pieces

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried sage

2 tablespoons of olive oil

150g mushrooms, thinly sliced

2 eggs

What to do:

Heat the oven to 190-200˚C (which is Gas 5-6 or 375-400˚F)

Put the black pudding pieces on a baking tray and stick in the oven to crisp up.

Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan and add the shallots, sweat them down until just transparent.

Add to the pan all the other ingredients except the mushrooms, eggs and pasta.

Cook together over a moderate heat for 8-10 minutes.

Plop the mushrooms into the mixture for the last 2 minutes.

Meanwhile boil up a pan of water and add the pasta to the boiling water, cook to taste (I like it al-dente, others prefer it more mushy).

Beat the eggs in a bowl or jug.

Once the pasta is cooked, add the bacon and shallot mixture to it an stir well, so the juices coat the tagliatelle.

Add the beaten eggs to the mix and stir well in – the heat from the mixture will cook the eggs.

Serve immediately with crispy black pudding pieces on the top.

Broccoli and Stilton (or Roquefort) Soup

Or, indeed, Stilton AND Roquefort as it was last time I made it; we had a little of each cheese in the fridge – so in the spirit of waste-not-want-not I chucked both into the mix.

A perennial favourite and something of a classic as soup recipes go, this is my version of it. I like to keep it very simple..

What you’ll need (serves 6 as a lunch or 8 as a starter):

2 large heads of broccoli, chopped up into small(ish) pieces

150g mature Stilton or Roquefort cheese, grated or crumbled into small pieces.

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 vegetable stock cube

a goodly sized knob of butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1.5 litres or water

1 medium sized potato, chopped into dice.

Freshly ground black pepper.

What to do:

Starting with the old trick that starts so many of my recipes….

Melt the butter in the olive oil in a large heavy bottomed pan.

Plop the onion into the butter/oil mix and give it a good stir around so the onion is coated in oil/butter – keeping it on the heat.

Reduce the heat to very low underneath the pan and put a lid on it; leave it on the every low heat for 5 or 6 minutes.

Remove lid and add the water, stock cube and broccoli and potato.

Bring the whole to the boil and simmer until the vegetables are soft and break apart easily.

Remove from heat.

Using a hand held blender (or whatever blending tool you favour), whiz the lot until it has a thick liquid consistency – no lumps. Add a drop more water if you think it’s looking too thick.

Slowly add the grated or crumbled cheese, stirring constantly – the cheese will melt into the hot mix.

Reheat until just before boiling point and serve immediately with crusty bread. 

The soup will keep in the fridge for several days and can be frozen.

Warm Spinach and Feta Salad

A starter or a main course

I learnt this recipe untold years ago, it’s a good one for vegetarians as well.

Like so many of the nicest recipes, it’s very simple and quick to make; served with crusty bread it makes a yummy main course in its own right. It’s also lovely with fresh minted new potatoes with a dab of butter on them.

Make sure everyone’s ready to eat before you begin cooking the spinach – it really is a very quick recipe!


This recipe was broadcast on Simon Pauley's Morning Mix on Insight Radio, you can listen to the chat and the recipe itself on this podcast - just click the play button:

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What you’ll need (feeds four as a main course or six-eight as a starter)

2-3 tbsp olive oil

450-500g fresh spinach leaves (buy them loose and wash thoroughly in cold water or it’s fine to use ready-washed “baby” spinach from the supermarkets)

200g/250g feta cheese cut into small cubes

2 red onions, cut in half and then thinly sliced

300-350g pitted black olives (chopped in half length ways)

15-20 fresh mint leaves, left whole or torn in half if they’re large

Balsamic vinegar

What to do

In a heavy bottomed pan, heat the oil and then plop the onion in.

Stir the onion and cook until just transparent and getting floppy.

Pour the onion and heated oil into a serving bowl.

Add a drop more oil to the pan if needed, reheat and add the spinach to the pan, keep stirring and turning the spinach; cook for only a minute or two until it has wilted.

Turn the spinach and any remaining oil into the serving bowl.

Add the remaining ingredients (except the balsamic vinegar) to the serving bowl and mix well.

Finally liberally sprinkle balsamic vinegar over the salad and serve immediately.

New Potatoes with Belly Pork

What you’ll need (to serve 4-6)

1kg new potatoes (do try Jersey Royals if the budget allows)

200g belly pork, finely chopped (use a French Poitrine block if possible – but that’s really just me being fussy)

2 Sprigs of fresh rosemary 

Black pepper to season 

3 Tablespoons of olive oil

What to do

Cook the potatoes and allow to cool

Slice the meat into into small cubes

Warm the frying pan and fry off the meat being, it should be browned but be careful not to burn

Strip the rosemary leaves off the sprigs over the pan (so the leaves fall onto the meat) 

Slice the potatoes and add to the frying pan and toss together with the meat and rosemary, cook over a gentle heat for a minute or two – just enough to warm the potatoes through.

Sausage Meat Loaf

An old family favourite; one of Mrs The Millbrooker’s repertoire which she’s kindly copied out for me to impart on these pages.

This is a great everyday recipe: quick, inexpensive and very very easy.

I love this served with rice and fresh vegetables; works well with mashed or baked potatoes, too. I especially recommend trying this with Jersey Royal (or other quality new potatoes) in a pancetta sautée (click here for recipe).

What you’ll need (to feed four)

1 pack (454 or 500g) sausage meat

1 large tin sweetcorn

1 heaped tsp ground cumin

1 onion

1 pepper of whichever hue you fancy

small amount of oil for frying

1lb loaf tin or similar receptacle

Set the oven to gas mark 6

What to do

1.      If using the optional ingredients: peel the onion, de-seed the pepper and chop both finely, then fry over a moderate heat until the onion is transparent.

2.      Break up the sausagemeat into a mixing bowl, drain the sweetcorn and add to the bowl with the ground cumin (and onion & pepper if using). Mix thoroughly.

3.      Transfer the mixture to the loaf tin and place in the middle of the oven for about 30mins or until the top is beginning to brown.

4.      Slice and serve.

Pollock in Pastis with Fennel

I made this one up a couple of years ago when I was cooking in France for the family; simple fresh ingredients and minimal preparation time make it a perennial favourite.

It’s damned decent as “posh cooking” for a dinner party, too.

Pastis is the aniseed alcoholic spirit beloved of the French and (under other names – Ouzo, Raki etc) by the inhabitants of many other European nations. The best known brand in the UK is probably Pernod; I’d recommend using a much cheaper version for cooking with, though.

I usually serve it with a skin-on mash of red skinned potatoes and a couple of roasted red peppers as garnish; the dish needs something red on the plate otherwise, truthfully, it looks a bit anaemic – all pale greens and off-whites.

Aniseed flavours are the order of the day and it’s remarkably easy to overdo it, so I’m very careful. I personally dislike aniseed sweets or liquorice, but this dish is very scrummy indeed.

Fish is very easy to overcook – watch the fillets carefully during cooking, you need them only just cooked through otherwise you lose that delicate fishy flavour.

What you need (for four people):

The Fish

2 – 3 tbsp olive oil

Pollack (or other white fish fillets). Fresh and entire, skin on. Choose your own fillet sizes to suit your own appetites.

6 or 8 tbsp pastis.

Juice of 1 lemon.

2-3 tsp cornflour, mixed with cold water.

The fennel

2 large bulbs of fennel.

Vegetarian stock cube.

150ml water.

What to do:

Start with the fennel.

Unless the bulbs are very fresh, remove the outer layer and discard.

Thinly slice the bulb lengthways.

In a large saucepan, boil the water with the stock cube and plop the sliced fennel into the pan. The water does not need to cover the fennel – it’s best if it doesn’t; you’re part boiling and part steaming the vegetable.

Simmer on the hob on a low heat for 15-20 minutes.

Once the fennel is nearly done:

Pat each Pollack fillet dry with kitchen paper.

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed skillet or frying pan until it’s just starting to smoke.

Plop the fish fillets skin down into the pan and leave for a couple of minutes.

Pour the pastis over the fillets – this will sizzle and spit, so be careful.

Pour the lemon juice over the fillets as well.

Remove the pan from the heat and plate up the fish fillets; keep them warm under a gentle grill fror a couple of minutes whilst you…

Put the fish pan back onto the heat, add the remaining water from the fennel pan (and, if necessary to make a sufficient volume of sauce for your taste, a small amount more water / I’ve used up leftover white wine instead and that’s delicious).

Thicken the sauce with the cornflour in water.

Serve with the fish on top of a bed of sliced fennel, sauce liberally poured over the top; mashed skin-on red skinned potatoes and a few slices of roasted red pepper.

Flowerpot Bread

There are a million and one recipes for home bread making out there.

Here at Millbrooker Towers we use a bread maker almost every day; apart from the occasional specialist loaf that we can’t be bothered to make ourselves, we’ve not bought ready made bread for years. I can’t recommend getting a bread maker and getting into the habit of using it enough. It might not save any money (in fact, it probably won’t), but you’ll know exactly what’s in your loaf and it’ll be more-or-less preservation free.

I rather like this non-bread-maker recipe; it’s a bit of fun and makes a real treat at barbecues or dinner parties.

Note – a terracotta flower pot needs to be “seasoned” before using it as described below or it might crack or break during the baking process. Simply grease the flowerpot well and bake it empty in the oven once or twice and then keep the pots clean and dry for future use.

Once you’ve got the basic recipe – try experimenting by using seeds and herbs to give extra flavour to the bread.

What you’ll need:

175g strong white bread flour

225g wholemeal (or malted) flour

a teaspoon of salt

One and a half tbsp olive oil or 15g lard

2-3 tsp sugar

1 sachet of dried yeast

300ml water

What to do:

Mix the flours, salt and olive oil in a bowl (if using lard, rub it well in)

Add the sugar.

Add the yeast and water.

Mix (use your hands, it’s easier and so satisfying) well into a soft dough – it should reach the stage of not sticking to the sides of the bowl.

Lightly flour a chopping boards or smooth tabletop.

Plop the dough onto the flat surface and knead well until it’s nice and smooth (about 2 minutes).

Divide the dough in half and place into 2 well greased (use butter or lard) 12.5cm/5in flowerpots.

Put the pots inside an oiled carrier bag (dribble some olive oil into the bag and rub the sides together from the outside) and loosely tie the top of the bag.

Allow the dough to rise to about twice its original size (I usually put the pots at this “proving” stage on top of the combi-boiler because it’s warm and conveniently placed, but any warm spot will do).

This will take about half and hour in a good warm spot, up to an hour and a half elsewhere or 24 hours in the fridge.

Remove the bag and bake standing upright in the oven at Gas 8 / 230˚C on the middle shelf for 30-40 minutes.

Fisherman's Best

This makes a very tasty starter – it’s a bit of what I like to think of as “posh cooking”, but it takes very little time to prepare.

I’ve used it as a starter for Christmas dinner, as a pre-barbecue nibble and as a light lunch dish when we’ve got guests around.

What you’ll need (to feed 4 – 6)

A large fillet (200-300g) of smoked haddock (or other smoked white fish)

375g cooked and peeled prawns

4 hard boiled eggs

1 large onion, finely chopped

3 tbsp chopped dill

3 tbsp chopped parsley

3 tbsp chopped chives

freshly ground black pepper

a pinch of celery salt (optional)

100g butter

juice of two lemons

50ml brandy

What to do

Skin the smoked fish if it’s not already been done

Chop the flesh into small pieces.

Roughly chop the prawns.

Shell and chop the eggs.

Mix together the fish (NOT the prawns), eggs, onion, herbs and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.

Season with the celery salt if using.

Heat the butter and juice from one lemon together in a saucepan.

Slowly add the fish, egg and herb mixture.

Cover and heat gently for 3 to 5 minutes– do not allow to boil.

Stir in the brandy.

Remove from heat and add the chopped prawns.

Divide the mixture into individual heat proof serving dishes (ramekins or small bowls)

Pour the juice of the other lemon, evenly divided, over each serving dish and top with a small knob of butter.

Pop the lot into the oven at Gas 4 / 180˚C for 5-10 minutes.

Serve immediately with wholegrain toast or slices of nice crusty baguette.

Rainbow Salad

This salad is best if you can make it an hour or two before it's eaten to allow the mushrooms to marinate in the dressing. If refrigerated, it will keep for two or three days, but is best eaten on the day it's made.

Note - the photo is illustrative only, I haven't got one of our recipe Rainbow Salad.
Photo courtesy guidingstar.com.


This recipe along with one for marinated lamb or pork kebabs has been broadcast on Insight Radio. To listen to the chat and the recipe, lick on the podcast icon below.

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What you’ll need

2 medium-size carrots

100g cheddar cheese

1 large can red kidney beans

1 large can sweetcorn

200g button mushrooms

a generous handful of sultanas

2-3 tablespoons mayonnaise (depending on how sloppy you want it!)

soy sauce or liquid vegetable seasoning to taste

What to do

1. Wash & trim carrots, then grate into a large bowl.
2. Grate the cheese in with the carrot.
3. Drain & rinse the kidney beans & sweetcorn, and add to the bowl.
4. Clean the mushrooms and chop if you wish - I like quite big chunks of mushroom in this salad. Add to the bowl with the handful of sultanas.
5. Add the mayonnaise, plus soy sauce or liquid vegetable seasoning to taste, and mix the ingredients thoroughly.
6. Ideally, cover and allow to stand for an hour or so before serving.