One list five meals: Gnocchi with a Creamy Blue Cheese Sauce
600g of waxy potatoes
A large knob of butter about 1½ tbs
1 onion, finely sliced
300g of wild mushrooms
4 cloves of garlic
8 rashers
2 tbsp cider vinegar
A bunch of parsley, chopped
A bunch of thyme, chopped
I use a mixture of wild mushrooms that are available in my local vegetable shop at this time of year. If you do not have access to them you could substitute for button mushrooms or slice up some large portobello ones.
Put the potatoes on to boil in lightly salted water and cook until tender but not mushy or soft. Set aside until they are cool enough to handle, then cut them into bite size chunks.
Melt the butter in a large pan and add the onions, sauté over a low heat until they are turning translucent.
Add the garlic, bacon and mushrooms and fry until the mushrooms are golden and the bacon is cooked. Set aside.
In the same pan heat another small knob of butter and fry the potatoes until golden. Stir in the cider vinegar.
Toss the two mixtures together and stir through the parsley and thyme, season and serve.
Rice for four
Four chicken breasts on the bone
A dash of rapeseed oil
1 onion, finely sliced
6 anchovy fillets
100 mls of white wine
A bunch of tarragon, removed from the stalk and chopped
Juice of a small lemon
2 handfuls of rocket leaves
Put the rice on to boil in lightly salted water and drain when cooked through.
Heat your oven to 300 degrees. Toss the chicken breasts in some oil and seasoning.
Place in an oven proof dish and cook on the high heat for 10 minutes turning once. They should be starting to golden on the outside.
Add the onion and turn down the heat to 280. Cook for another 10 minutes.
Add the anchovy, white wine, tarragon and lemon juice and place back into the oven for another 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
Serve the chicken with the rice and pour any juices from the pan over them. Toss the rocket in a little more rapeseed oil, some seasoning and a squeeze of lemon juice and serve on the side.
Gnocchi for four
A dash of rapeseed oil
400 mls of milk
200g of blue cheese, crumbled up small
2 handfuls of walnuts, toasted
2 handfuls of baby spinach
2 handfuls of rocket
You can use this sauce with a different type of cheese if you wish.
It works well on most pasta shapes if you prefer that to gnocchi but like the softness of gnocchi with the crunch of the nuts.
Put the gnocchi on to boil in lightly salted water and drain when cooked.
It will only take about three to five minutes. They will float to the top of the water when they are cooked.
Heat the oil and add the milk and blue cheese. Stir in the cheese until it has melted completely. Taste and season.
Add the gnocchi, walnuts and leaves to the pan and stir.
Serve with a sprinkling of freshly cracked black pepper while still hot.
Rice for four
A dash of olive oil
6 cloves of garlic
600g of prawns in the shell
A bunch of rosemary, removed from the stalk and chopped
250 mls of pale ale, I use 8degrees ale
3 dashes of worcester sauce
½ tsp of chilli powder
2 large handfuls of baby spinach
Put the rice on to boil in lightly salted water and drain when cooked.
Heat the oil over a low heat and sauté the garlic. When it is just starting to change colour add the prawns.
Fry until they are pink then remove from the pan.
Add the ale, worcester sauce and chilli powder to the same pan that the prawns were fried in.
Scrape all the flovour the prawns left on the pan by stirring well. Taste and season, add a little more of any of the flavourings if you wish.
Place the prawns and spinach on the rice and pour the sauce over the whole lot.
A dash of rapeseed oil
1 cooking apple, peeled, cored and roughly grated
300g of red cabbage, sliced
A handful of sultanas
75 mls of cider vinegar
1 tsp of honey
Floury potatoes for four
600g of centre cut loin of venison, ask your butcher to trim any sinew
A large bunch of rosemary, removed from the stalk and finely chopped
2 tbsp of black pepper, freshly cracked
75g of butter
100 mls of milk
At this time of year venison can be very good value, far cheaper than most cuts of beef.
Heat a dash of oil in a heavy based saucepan and sauté the onion until translucent and add the apple, cabbage, sultanas, vinegar and honey.
Simmer with a lid on over a low heat for 30 minutes. Stirring every now and then.
Put the potatoes on to boil in lightly salted water and drain when cooked.
Mix the rosemary and pepper together with some salt. Roll the meat in the mixture so it is completely covered
Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees. Heat a dash of oil to hot and sear the meat all over.
Place into an oven proof dish and put it into your oven degrees for ten minutes if you like your meat rare.
For an extra five minutes for medium and another five for well. Set it aside to rest for 10 minutes before serving.
Mash the potatoes and add in the butter and milk as you do so. Season them to your liking
Taste and season the cabbage and make sure it is cooked to your liking.
Slice the venison and serve with the potatoes and cabbage on the side. Pour any juices from the pan over the whole lot. If it is too rare when you cut into it you can flash the slices onto a hot pan for second on each side.
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