Colcannon

This is a very strange dish to me, but definitely comfort food. Fat, starch and bacon, with some cabbage to say there's a healthy veg in there, lovely on a cold, rainy night.

2 healthy portions or 4 smaller portions

1 lb potato, peeled and diced (about 4 potatoes)
½ cup (4oz/114gr) + 2 Tbsps (1oz/28gr) +2 Tbsps (1oz/28gr) butter
up to ½ cup milk
¼ tsp salt
⅛ tsp pepper
⅛ tsp mace
6 oz bacon, roughly chopped
1 lb cabbage, cut into ½" strips
1 leek chopped
Fresh parsley (optional)

1. Steam the potatoes in their skins for 30 minutes, allow to cool and then peel them before mashing them thoroughly to remove all the lumps. Add a ½ cup of the butter; mash a bit more, then slowly stream in the hot milk until the desired consistency is achieved, stirring all the time. Season with a few grinds of black pepper and add the salt and mace.
2. Meanwhile, set some water to boil and add the bacon. Simmer for 20 minutes, then add the cabbage and steam in the bacon pot until it's thoroughly cooked, another 20 minutes. Drain thoroughly in a colander.
3. Cut up the bacon into pieces and roughly chop the cabbage.
4. Poach the leeks in 2 Tbsps of butter over low heat until well done.
5. Add the potato and the bacon/cabbage mix to the poached leek and mix everything together thoroughly.
6. Dole out onto individual soup plates. Make an indentation on the top and plop in about 1 tablespoon of butter into each indentation. Sprinkle with parsley.

NOTE: if you have any leftovers, make easy potato patties. Just beat an egg (no matter how much is left over), thoroughly mix until uniform, then add flour at a rate of 1 part flour to 2 parts colcannon. Fry in about 1/4 cup oil (or oil and butter mix) until nicely browned on both sides.

Pesto Mac and Cheese

Some may feel that toying with a classic is aberrant, but I think this tastes pretty darned good! You can also omit the pesto just for a regular old tasty mac&cheese.

8 oz dry chunky pasta like macaroni, fusilli, etc
2 (1oz/28gr) + 2 (1oz/28gr) Tbsps butter
¾ cups (75g) panko
1 small onion (4oz/115g)
1 Tbsp flour
¼ tsp dry mustard
⅛ tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
1½ cups milk
1 cup (about 2.5 oz) grated sharp cheddar
1 cup (about 2.5 oz) grated gruyère cheese
Optional 1.5 oz chèvre cheese
2 Tbsps to ¼ cup pesto

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Boil the pasta in some salted water until just al dente; tender but firm (it will cook more when baking, and mushy pasta isn't great).
3. Meanwhile, in a hot pan, melt 2 Tbsps of the butter and mix in the breadcrumbs, stirring until evenly combined, and set aside.
4. Melt the remaining 2 Tbsps of butter and cook the onion until perfectly tender, about 5 minutes.
5. Blend in the flour, mustard, pepper and salt.
6. Stir in the milk and whisk until it thickens into a sauce. 
7. Remove for the heat source and stir in the cheese until well combined.
8. Add the pesto and combine, followed by the pasta. Mix until the pasta is uniformly covered.
9. Pour the pasta into the baking dish and sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the surface.
10. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling and the top is toasted and golden.

Baked Stew with Sausage, Potatoes and Cabbage

This has been most successful using small Charmant cabbages slightly under 1 lb. It's relatively simple and quick to put together, then you just have to sit back with a cocktail until it's done.

¼ cup olive oil + more for drizzling
1½ Tbsps balsamic vinegar
2 tsps caraway or fennel seeds
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1 to 1¼ lb fingerling baby potatoes, or larger potatoes cut into chunks
1 onion, cut into quarters (don't cut out the basal plate)
8 oz to 1lb cabbage, cut into wedges (don't cut out the heart to keep the leaves together)
¼ cup chicken broth
2 bay leaves
1½ pounds sweet Italian sausage, cut into chunks
4 garlic cloves, pressed

1. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 425°F. 
2. In a large bowl whisk together ¼ cup olive oil, vinegar, seeds, salt and pepper until emulsified.
3. Throw in the potatoes and onions and toss until covered in oil. 
4. Layer the cabbage at the bottom of a deep baking dish (Corning ware 4L casserole works well) and drizzle with some extra olive oil (optional). 
5. Pour in the chicken broth.
6. Layer the coated potatoes and onions on top. Nestle the bay leaves in among the veg.
7. To get the rest of the sauce out of the bowl, throw in the sausage chunks and toss. Put the sausage on top of the veg mix and pour over any extra marinade. 
8. Sprinkle the pressed garlic on the very top.
9. Cook, covered, for about 45 minutes. 
10. Uncover and cook until light golden brown and fully cooked, about 20 minutes. 

Refried Beans

I am not Mexican, nor have I spent any appreciable amount of time in or near Spanish communities, but I love the food! This is my interpretation of the ubiquitous and delicious refried beans recipe. Any kind of large, pinto-like bean will do with recipe. So far, the most successful has been Neabel's Ukrainian pole beans, which just fell apart with the extra long cooking in this recipe.

1 lb dried beans (2lbs 5oz when cooked), soaked overnight and drained*
1 bay leaf
4 cups of broth
½ cup (4oz/114gr) bacon fat (or lard or butter or olive oil or any combination of these)

1. try peanut oil

1 large (10oz/280g) onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 to 2 Tbsp chilli powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
½ tsp cayenne (or ¼ tsp chipotle pepper and ¼ tsp cayenne)
Mild white cheese to serve

Excellent with Red Rice and thin sliced cabbage

1. Bring about 4 cups of broth to a boil and add the beans with the bay leaf. Lower the heat and simmer the beans for about an hour. 
2. When the beans are soft, remove pot from heat.
3. In a large, heavy skillet, melt the bacon fat (or whatever combination of fat you choose to use - if going vegetarian, add a few dashes of soy sauce for depth of flavour) and gently cook the onions and garlic until soft. With this much fat and low heat, you're poaching the onion. Note that the garlic may well caramelize - not a bad thing! 
4. Add the spices and salt. Cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute.
5. Remove the bay leaf from the beans. Pour the beans and their liquid into the onion-garlic mixture. 
6. Leave uncovered and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, until the beans are very tender and falling apart, about ½ to 1 hour more, adding more broth or water as necessary to create a thick pasty sauce with the starch from the beans. Some beans are more firm, you may need a potato masher to break them up. 

*A soaking shortcut is to cover the beans with water, bring to boil, boil for 2 minutes, turn off the burner, cover, and let them soak for 2 hours. Drain, rinse, and then start recipe.

Peanut Butter Cookies - the United Nations of cookies

There is an amazing amount of agreement for peanut butter cookie recipes. This is not my recipe, but, apparently, a recipe from the global community. You might find variation on how the instructions are written, but the ingredients stay pretty much the same, in the vast majority of online and book sources.

1 cup (8oz/228gr) butter, room temperature
1 cup (9oz/255gr) creamy peanut butter
1 cup (7 ounces/200 grams) packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
2½ cups flour

1. Cream butter, peanut butter and both sugars together.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well.
3. Add baking soda, powder and vanilla.
4. Stir in flour.
5. Wrap and put in the refrigerator to rest for 1 hour and up to 72 hours.
6. Preheat oven to 375°F.
7. Roll into balls, place on an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten, using a fork, to create a grid pattern.
8. Bake for 10 minutes depending on the size of your cookies (bottoms should just start to colour if you wanted to check).

Tomato Chèvre Omelette

As Dorothy Hartley says, an omelette is a friendly dish. I've tried, every so often over the years, to make the perfect folded omelette only to have it split along the side when I'd try. I'm not sure where or how, but I made the connection between omelettes and antique cooking salamanders, which are a device heated over the fire and placed over the dish to finish cooking from above, which in modern North American ovens is called the broiler. And voila, the recipe below describes how to make the perfect omelette, where the bottom isn't overcooked and the top is just cooked enough to allow for perfect folding.

1 Tbsp (½ oz/14gr) butter
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
6 eggs
A generous pinch of salt
½ tsp ground black pepper
⅓ cup (2.7oz/76gr) chèvre cheese
5 large cherry tomatoes in thick slices (approximately 4 slices)
1 Tbsp minced fresh Oregano
½ cup grated Gruyère cheese

1. Melt butter with oil in a 10" oven-proof fry pan or omelet pan.
2. Whisk eggs with salt and pepper until frothy.
3. Pour eggs into hot pan and start cooking at medium heat. Lift the egg and tilt the pan to let uncooked egg get underneath.
4. With the oven rack at the mid-way setting, start the grill (or use a salamander if you're so lucky to have one).
5. Crumble to chèvre across the surface of the omelette, then do the same with the tomato.
6. Sprinkle the oregano over all of this, followed by an evenly distributed layer of Gruyère.
7. With the egg still uncooked on the surface, (not just slithery but actually jiggly), slip the pan into the oven and broil.
8. When the egg is set and the edges puff up a little, take it out of the oven and carefully fold the omelette (I do this by first cutting the segments and then folding - more manageable size).

Blackberry Slumpie

This sounds too much like a dessert from Ankh-Morpork to pass up. Turns out to be pretty tasty, too. I've made it many times and every time I feel like there is not enough butter for the dumpling dough, and every time the dumplings come out light and delicate, clouds in a sweet dark syrup.

Stewing Liquid
3 cup blackberries
⅓ cup sugar
1¼ cup water
1 tsp finely grated lemon peel
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Dumplings
1 cup flour
2 Tbsps sugar
2 tsps baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 Tbsp (½ oz/14gr) cold butter
½ cup cream (I used light 18% cream)

(optional) Cream or Whipped Cream to serve

1. In a large saucepan, combine all of the stewing liquid ingredients and bring to a boil, then simmer for about 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. With your fingers, mash the butter into the flour until it resembles a coarse meal. Add the milk and only stir in until it's combined, and no more, or you'll have tough dumplings!
3. Divide the dough into 6 even portions and drop into the simmering berries.
4. Cover and cook for 10 minutes and do not lift the lid until they're done. The dumplings cook by steam and won't cook as well if you let the steam out by lifting the lid.
5. To serve, spoon out into bowls and serve warm with cream or whipped cream on top.

Baked Italian Sausage and Potatoes

This is delicious simple and quick to throw together. Great with bread.

2 Tbsps balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsps olive oil
2 tsps fresh rosemary, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
3 (a little under 1 lb) Italian sausages (sweet or hot), squeezed out of their casings and divided into quarters
3 (a little over 1lb) medium old potatoes, quartered (peel if you feel like it)
1 onion cut into 8ths (optional)
Salt and pepper, to taste
½ cup water

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Whisk together in a large bowl the vinegar, oil, rosemary and garlic.
3. Throw in the potato and sausage and stir until well covered in the marinade.
4. Place mixture into a ceramic or glass gratin dish lined with parchment paper (it sticks terribly to the dish without lining) and bake for 30 minutes, then turning and bake another 15, until sausage and potatoes are cooked through.

Plum Compote

My wonderful mom and sister are visiting and it's early spring. Not a lot of fresh stuff to eat on the farm. However, I still have a bunch of frozen plums in the chest freezer. My mom likes fruits and veg and my sister likes desserts. So I made this, which we ate with plain cake and it was plate-licking good. I've also made it to eat with sweet dumplings and on toast and it's still tasty!

2 lbs Italian prune plums, pitted
½ to ¾ cup sugar (quantity depends on sweetness of plums, and personal taste)
2 cinnamon sticks
2 tsps vanilla extract.

1. Stew the plums in a pot with the sugar, cinnamon sticks and vanilla with the lid on, mixing occasionally for about 20 minutes.
2. When the plums have released their juices remove the lid and keep at a medium simmer until enough of the liquid has evaporated to thicken the juice into a sauce, about another 15 to 20 minutes to my taste, but maybe more or less for yours.

Deviled Eggs

A classic! How could I not have a recipe for this when we've got chickens!

6 large eggs
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 to 2 dashes Tabasco sauce, to taste
Salt, to taste (I never add it because the mustard and mayo is enough)
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp snipped fresh chives
3 Tbsps mayonnaise
Paprika, for garnish

1. Rinse eggs with warm water, and place in a small saucepan. Cover with cold water, place the pan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Turn off heat, cover and let sit for 10 to 12 minutes. Drain, rinse under cold water and peel. Cool in the refrigerator, loosely covered, for 15 minutes.
2. Halve eggs lengthwise, and carefully scoop out yolks. Place yolks in a bowl, and mash with a fork. Add mustard, Tabasco, salt, pepper and snipped chives. Stir in mayonnaise.
3. Fill each egg white with about 1½ teaspoons of the egg-yolk mixture and dust the top with paprika. 

Fried Egg Pesto Pasta

It's all about the timing which makes it a bit tricky. I finally got it right, and it's really all about getting the pan off the heat at the right time - when the yolks are still runny and glistening.

1 lb dry pasta
2 Tbsps olive oil
¼ tsp crushed red pepper, or to taste
Pinch of salt
¾ cup (6oz/170g) + (42g) ¼ cup pesto
6 eggs

1. The watchword for this recipe is 'timing'. Things need to be lined up just right for the recipe to work, otherwise you get scrambled egg pasta instead of a silky pesto sauce.
2. Cook pasta with a pinch of salt until just al dente. This is important because overdone pasta will be too soft and break easily.
3. Get a large serving plate ready.
4. Break the eggs into a bowl and set aside.
5. When the pasta is cooked, heat the oil in a pan and when very hot add the crushed pepper and the pinch of salt.
6. Add the cooked pasta and pour over the ¾ cup pesto. Mix well by tossing and get the pesto nice and hot.
7. Pour the eggs over the hot noodles and leave to start cooking, giggling the pan a bit to get the whites down into the noodles.
8. When the whites start to form, take the pan off the heat source and break the yolks with a wooden spoon or spatula, and quickly mix up the contents to fold the frying pasta over the eggs.  Mix quickly to distribute the egg and allow the whites to cook a bit in the residual heat, but do not leave long enough to let the yolks cook.
9. Immediately slide onto a large plate and pour over the remaining ¼ cup of pesto, and  and serve. The egg should be soft and creamy.