Archive for the 'vkcb' Category

bashed new potato and wilted ramson salad with news season asparagus and lemon butter

Wash your freshly dug (or freshly purchased) new potatoes, making sure all the soil is scrubbed off, but trying to keep some of the delicate and tasty skin intact.
Place in a pan of cold salted water and bring to the boil.
Cook for about 15-20 minutes until just soft
In the last five minutes of cooking time [...]

farfalle with parmesan and wild garlic butter, and roasted tomatoes

Wild garlic can be foraged for in the countryside in Spring and early summer.  Pick the youngest tender green leaves, avoiding any that are going yellow or are damaged or browned.
Wild garlic benefits from softening slightly in butter or olive oil then being added to all sorts of dishes.  The smell is quite pungently delicious [...]

Saffron Seafood Soup

  

Clean one monkfish, or thick white fish such as cod, by skinning, deboning and rinsing it in fresh water.
Chop into chunky bite-sized pieces.
Add the bones to a stock pot.
Wash and clean 500 g of mussels, debearding them, scrubbing their shells clean and discarding any that don’t close when tapped.
Wash and trim the coral from your [...]

Buttermilk rusks

One of my daughter’s favourite treats, and despite the fact that this is one of the best recipes I have seen for rusks, she still doesn’t think they are as good as the ones we get at the little coffee shop in Greyton, Cape Town, where my parents have a holiday cottage. Shows [...]

Free range Steak and Mushroom Pie

Make sure you have either made or bought your puff pastry in advance.

Mix a handful of plain flour with some fresh ground pepper, maldon salt and celery seeds.
Chop your braising steak into bite sized pieces and toss them in the seasoned flour.
Put the meat in a sieve and give it a good jiggle to [...]