first, steal one egg

Strangely juicy picnic omelette

This is my attempt to recreate a delicious tortilla we enjoyed at a recent meal at The Sun Inn, Dedham.  Richly meaty and herb filled, it was a world away from the all-too usual dry and uninteresting potato based offerings...  This is a great one to make on a weekend when you've roasted a chicken, with leftover meat and salad.

Ingredients - serves two to four as part of a nibbly lunch or picnic
Tablespoon of chicken dripping - the rich, dark juices that solidify to a jelly when cool.
knob of butter
clove of garlic, crushed
small onion, finely chopped
6 eggs
small handful of sage and thyme leaves, chopped (or a couple of good pinches of dried mixed herbs)

Method
Melt the butter and dripping together in a 6 inch omelette pan over a low heat.  Add the garlic and onion and fry gently until softened and starting to colour.
Break the eggs directly into the pan and stir briskly with a wooden spoon until well combined.  Season with salt and pepper.
When the eggs are starting to set round the edges add the herbs and mix well again. Continue to cook over a low heat until almost set.  If your pan has a metal handly finish in a warm oven.  If, like me, your pan has a plastic handle remove from heat when the top is no longer runny and cover the pan with a heatproof plate.  Carefully turn the omelette onto the plate before sliding back into the pan upside down (so the top is now to the base of the pan).  Cook for another minute or two and remove to a clean plate. 

The omelette can be served hot or cold, cut into wedges.

herby omelette

Ingredients - serves one
generous knob of butter
three medium eggs - ideally at room temperature
fistful of chopped herbs - I like thyme and flat-leaf parsley
dash of milk

Method
Melt the butter in a small (six inch) non-stick pan over a gentle heat until it starts to foam.  Crack the eggs directly into the pan and stir briskly with a wooden spoon, season with salt and pepper.  After a minute or two, when the mixture is starting to set, add the herbs and a dash of milk, stir again to break up the eggs.
When the omelette is almost set - it should still be slightly loose but not runny on top - turn onto a plate, folding in half as you go.

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quick, simple, tasty... just add a crisp green salad.

spiced cauliflower soup

This was the result of a fridge crisis after a busy week when I haven't been in much: another bit of use-it-or-loose-it cooking!  The result is one of the tastiest soups I've had for a while: very subtley spiced and somehow both light and creamy.

Ingredients - for four generous servings
Generous knob of butter and a splash of olive oil
heaped teaspoon of garam masala (or similar fragrant spices)
large clove of garlic, finely chopped
small onion, finely chopped
two small pototoes, peeled and diced
one cauliflower, roughly chopped
litre of good chicken or vegetable stock (boiling a carrot, onion, fist of thyme and sage, and a bayleaf with a stock cube for 15 minutes adds depth to the flavour if you have the time/inclination)

method
Heat the butter and oil in a large pan until the butter is starting to foam.  Add the spices and cook for a minute to release the aroma from the spices, add the onion and garlic and fry over a medium heat until softened and lightly coloured but not browned.

Add the chopped vegetables to the pan and stir thoroughly to coat in the spiced butter.  Season with salt and pepper, cover and leave to cook gently for 4-5 mins until the vegetables are starting to soften and take on the colours of the spices. 

Add the hot stock, cover and simmer gently for 1-20 mins until the vegetables are soft.

Blend until smooth and serve.

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Adding a spoonful of creme fraiche and good twist of pepper to the bowls would make this even creamier for a more luxurious finish.

The problem with weights and measures

Apart from the very earliest days of babyhood, when my mother assures me I wasn't a good eater, I have always had a passion for food.  I love everything about cooking and eating, and as a child would beg mum to take me with her on the weekly shop - something that, due to the incompatability of a small over-excited child with her commando raid approach to the supermarket, she was very reluctant to do. 

I was equally eager to get down and dirty in the kitchen as often as possible, usually all too literally... that this early enthusiasm didn't extend to the washing up probably explains mums' reluctance to let me loose in her kitchen too often.  Despite that, some of my happiest early memories involve being elbow deep in flour making gingerbread men (which I never much liked but loved making), cakes or crumbles with my mum, grandmother, and sometimes my friend Karl's mum - a home ec teacher and a formidable force in the kitchen and beyond.

The upshot of all this early experience, and years of happy trial and error, is a fairly lacksadasical approach to the kitchen scales. Unless absolutely necessary I cook by eye and by instinct, chucking in a pinch of this and a handful of that until it tastes about right; which is all well and good, but it makes it the devils own job to put together a meaningful recipe!

Really tasty muesli

Despite - or perhaps because of - my poor mothers' best efforts to encourage healthy eating by replacing the requisite penguin biscuit in our packed lunch boxes with a healthy mix of unroasted peanuts and dried fruit, I've never been a big fan of currents and raisins. 

This has proved a bit of a stumbling block with regard to shop-bought muesli, as eyebrows tend to raise when I carefully pick through a bowlful removing any offending fruits.  They also seem to be oversweet for my tastes - one area where mum's good ministrations did pay off was in fostering a dislike for sugary cereal (cocopops being an honourable exception).  A bowl of muesli does set a girl up for the day however, and how hard can it be to mix a load of dry stuff in a bowl? 
The addition of the spices, together with the soaking option, was a top tip from my good friend Justine - a whiz at make-and-do in all its forms.  The spices, with their hint of cosy kitchens and baking cakes, add a really comforting edge which is particularly welcome as I eat my muesli at my desk on a sleety February morning.

Ingredients - enough for 2 generous bowls
Four fistfuls of rolled oats
Two fistfuls of mixed unsalted nuts, rougly chopped.  Hazlenuts, almonds and walnuts work very well
One fistful of mixed pumpkin and sunflower seeds
One fistful of bran (optional, but healthy)
One heaped teaspoon of mixed spice

Method
Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. 

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I generally have this with milk in the usual way, perhaps adding a chopped apple or banana.

If I remember the night before it is particularly good soaked in soya milk overnight in the fridge (you can use normal milk of course, but soya seems to add an extra silkiness), when the oats become plump and luscious.

Quick chicken liver salad

My introduction to offal came courtesy of the, then centralised, school dinner service in Islington.  It very nearly put me off for life.

Then, in my mid twenties, I worked briefly but very happily as a waitress in a bar/restaurant in Birmingham.  Quite apart from the exciting new late night lifestyle, this opened up a whole culinary world to me - not least the radical discovery that offal could actually taste good.  Not only that but it's also good for you, inexpensive and quick.  Bonus.

Ingredients - for two people
Approx 125g tub of chicken livers (preferably organic.  As the liver plays such a crucial role in processing toxins, and particularly as they are so inexpensive, its worth spending a bit more to get livers from healthy birds reared without chemicals)
A little milk, for soaking
One small onion or two or three shallots, roughly chopped
A large knob of butter
A good pinch of thyme
A generous splash of brandy
One fat clove of garlic, halved
Four slices of good bread - preferably sour dough
Four handfuls of salad leaves, roughly torn - rocket, spinich and watercress work well
Good olive oil, for drizzling

Method
Soak the livers in enough milk to just cover them for five or ten minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small frying pan and fry the onions on a medium heat until they soften.

Drain the chicken livers and add to the pan with the onions.  Add the thyme and a few good twists from the pepper mill.

Meanwhile toast the bread and rub thoroughly with the cut surface of the garlic.

Add a good slug of brandy to the livers and increase the heat or - if you're feeling brave/dramatic - flame off. 

The livers should be pretty much cooked now, so arrange the toast on your plates and drizzle with olive oil before topping with the salad leaves.

Divide the livers, onions and pan juices between the plates.  Finish with another drizzle of olive oil if you fancy, salt and plenty of black pepper. 
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Makes a great summer lunch or light supper dish, with a glass of cold, crisp white wine to cut the richness of the livers.

Francsics family goulash soup

This delicious goulash is a thin broth-like soup rather than the better known stew.  A family recipe passed on by my Hungarian friend, it was a staple of my diet at university as it is cheap, easy and even better for a day or two in the pot - in other words, the perfect food for the lazy student.

In times of extreme poverty, usually towards the end of term when drinking funds were dwindling, we dispensed with the beef and enjoyed the spicy soup simply with potatoes, supplementing one of the pints of water for a pint of beef stock to give a bit more substance.

Ingredients
Two large onions, finely chopped
One heaped tbsp sweet paprika and one heaped tbsp hot paprika (ideally Hungarian.  If you can't find hot and sweet variants use one and a half tbsp of normal paprika and half tbsp of Cayenne pepper)
Two pints of water
One pound/500g of braising steak, cut into one inch chunks
Four black peppercorns
Two dried chilli peppers (optional)
Two tbsp, for frying.

One pound/500g of potatoes, peeled and quartered.

A heavy-based metal casserole or saucepan.

Method
Fry off the beef in half the oil to seal, remove from the pot and set aside

Add the remaining oil to the pan and fry the onions over a medium heat until they are soft and translucent, but not coloured.

Take the pan off the heat to stir the paprika into the onions, forming a thick paste.

Add the water, peppercorns and dried chilli's, and return the beef and any juices to the pan. 

Return the pan to the heat.  Bring to a low simmer, cover and leave for an hour.

Add the potatoes to the soup, replace the lid and cook for a further 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are ready.

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Particularly good served a dollop of sour cream and plenty of crusty bread, for mopping.

Why steal an egg?

When I was a student I had a couple of close friends of eastern European parentage - one Polish, one Hungarian.  They rubbed along pretty happily, aided - not unlike the countries themselves - by a lack of common borders and a shared love of strong liquer.

Both are foodies, and between them they introduced me to the robust delights of the region.  I forget which of them told me the typically arch 'first, steal one egg' quip - the supposed first line of any communist era recipe.  It made me smile.  It also reminds me of the necessarily inventive approach to cooking engrained in my grandmother, and to an extent in my parents during the post war years of rationing, and which informs my own approach to gluttony: there are few things as satisfying as creating something delicious from an unpromising cupboard.