Plain scones

 The secret to a good scone, in my opinion, is to knead the dough lightly and shape by hand. If you don't knead the dough enough, the scone will be too crumbly; knead it too much or - heaven forbid! - roll it out, and your scone will be too heavy.

Ingredients

300g self-raising flour
50g caster sugar
75g butter
160ml milk

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200oC. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, add the sugar, cut the butter into small pieces and add to the flour and sugar mixture, rubbing it gently with your fingertips until it is the texture of breadcrumbs.
2. Add the milk, mix with a spoon, and then knead gently until you have a smooth dough.
3. Divide the dough into eight even pieces, form each piece into a ball, and flatten slightly to form a fat, rough disk. Any cracks and folds will add texture to the finished scone.
4. Place the rounds on a lightly floured baking sheet and bake for 14 minutes.

I've been making scones for years but I have to confess that it took me a while (okay, years!) to realise that, while not rolling and cutting them was fine, I'd gone too far in the other direction and that by barely kneading the dough at all my scones were crumblier (and heavier) than they should have been. Nonetheless, I have lots of happy memories of making scones with my kids for friends and family, so here are a couple of photos from the archive.

Stir-fried cucumbers with peanuts and black bean sauce

 Now that I don't always have other people to cater for, my daily cooking often consists of a quick and simple vegetable dish served with noodles. I had never even thought of cooking cucumbers until I had them in a Chinese restaurant with chicken but it struck me that the European aversion to doing so is quite irrational - a low-level taboo even.

Ingredients

1 cucumber
2 tbsps black bean and garlic sauce
1 tbsp minced ginger
2 tbsps vegetable oil
50 g peanuts
1 tbsp soy sauce
6 spring onions

Method

1. Cut the cucumber into thick matchsticks.
2. In a wok or large frying pan, combine the  black bean sauce and the ginger with the vegetable oil, and fry gently.
3. After a minute or so, add the peanuts, fry for another 30 seconds or so, then add the cucumber.
4. Turn up the heat and fry for another 3 minutes, add the soy sauce and chopped spring onions, cook for a further 30 seconds and serve.

Sweet potato, green bean and coconut curry

 I'm not sure if my spice tolerance has gone down over the years or if I've just come to my senses and realised that too much chilli gets in the way of other flavours. Whatever the reason, I use far less chilli in my own cooking and studiously avoid anything excessively spicy when eating out. This is a very simple mild curry that can be prepared from beginning to end in about 30 minutes.

Ingredients

1 onion
500g sweet potato
200g green beans
2 tbsps vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp minced ginger
mild curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
400 ml coconut milk

juice of 1 lemon
small bunch of fresh coriander

Method

1. Peel and chop the onion. Peel the sweet potato and cut into small chunks. Top and tail the green beans and cut into 3 cm lengths.
2. Gently fry the onion in the vegetable oil until it is translucent.
3. Add the finely chopped garlic and minced ginger and fry for another minute or so.
4. Add the curry powder and salt, fry for another 30 seconds.
5. Add the sweet potato and the coconut milk, and simmer gently until the potato is almost done (about 15 minutes).
6. Add the green beans and cook for another 5 minutes, until they are done.
7. Add the lemon juice and chopped coriander, mix and serve.

Curry powder

Lots of recipes call for huge numbers of individual ground spices - and even roasting and grinding spices from scratch. It's the kind of detail that can turn preparing a simple dish into an unappealing chore. It's often quicker and easier simply to use a ready-made spice mix and it may be better, too: using spice mixes means you can cook with a far wider range of spices, and your spices will probably be fresher too. 

Steamed spicy sour aubergine

 It's the sign of a good dish when it evolves in your kitchen over the years. I first started making a version of this as 'yu hung aubergine' about 15 years ago but since then I have simplified it and also pushed it in a spicy sour direction.

Ingredients

1 aubergine
2 tbsps vegetable oil
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tsp chilli sauce
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsps light soy sauce
4 spring onions

Method

1. Cut the aubergine crosswise into 3 pieces, then cut each piece lengthwise into 6 or 8 wedges. Steam the aubergine for 8 minutes, until cooked but still firm.
2. Combine the oil, ginger and chilli sauce in a frying pan and cook gently for a couple of minutes. (I avoid adding minced ginger to hot oil as it will spit.)
3. Add the aubergine, mix well to coat in the sauce, and fry for another minute or so.
4. Add the vinegar and soy sauce, stir well and simmer for another couple of minutes.
5. Finely chop the spring onions, add to the aubergine mixture and cook for another 30 seconds or so.

I've probably eaten some version of this about once a week for the last five years, usually served with noodles for a quick lunch or supper, but sometimes as a side dish or pimped up with the addition of some firm tofu. The simplest way to vary this dish is by using a different chilli sauce. The aubergines above were made with a tablespoon of Laoganma's Crispy Chilli in Oil. It's not too hot, and includes crunchy soy beans and is flavoured with Szechuan pepper.

Pickled mushrooms in olive oil

This is a method of preserving vegetables called "sott'olio" in Italian (under oil). It consists of parboiling them in seasoned vinegar, then covering them with oil. It can be used for aubergines or courgettes as well.

Ingredients

250g of mushrooms

200ml of cider vinegar

1 tsp of whole coriander seeds

1 tsp of black peppercorns

4 bay leaves

1/2 tsp of salt

100 ml of olive oil

Method

1. Add the coriander, peppercorns, bay leaves and salt to the vinegar, bring to the boil, reduce heat to minimum, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
2. Wash and slice the mushrooms (not too thinly) and add them to the vinegar. Bring back to the boil, turn off heat and leave to cool.
3. Transfer the mushrooms to a jar or a small tupperware, adding oil between each layer and more to cover, and store in the fridge.

I wasn't sure whether to post this but then I got really hungry late at night, remembered I had a bowl of this sitting in my fridge and immediately ate half of it (with crackers and hummus) and it was absolutely delicious.

Risotto with fennel and courgette

I used to make a sausage version of this (and sometimes still do) but I've gone semi-vegetarian over the last few years so one of the key flavourings in the sausage version (fennel) gradually took centre stage. I often do variations on this - leaving out the fennel altogether, throwing in some peas or plenty of fresh basil, squeezing some lemon juice into it... A good recipe should have a method at its core, and the details should provide one way of implementing this. I'm always in favour of simplifying recipes where possible and also of taking advantage of whatever may be available - in your fridge or the local shops.


Ingredients
100g butter
1 fennel bulb
1 courgette
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
300g arborio rice
900 ml of boiling water
1 vegetable stock cube
freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated Parmesan

Method

1. Roughly chop the fennel bulb, slice the courgette, finely chop the garlic
2. Dissolve the stock cube in the boiling water
3. Put 50 g of the butter, the fennel, courgette, garlic and salt into a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan and fry gently for about 10 minutes, until the fennel and courgette have softened.
4. Add the rice and stir thoroughly.
5. Add a few ladlefuls of the stockwater to the rice, and stir gently until the liquid is almost absorbed.
6. On a low heat, add the rest of the stock, a ladleful at a time, stirring while you cook, until the rice is tender but not mushy. (This should take about 30 minutes).
7. Remove from heat, add the remaining butter, stir well, cover and leave to sit for 2 minutes. Serve sprinkled with black pepper and Parmesan.

Pickled herring

I like the seasonality of herring, the fact that it is only available for a few months during the summer. I was in the fishmonger the other day (Williamson of Portobello) and behind me was a large Russian lady with bright pink hair. We were both in for some fresh herring to pickle but unfortunately they had sold out. The fishmonger offered us some of their ready-pickled herring instead but we both turned it down ("too soft" I said, "too vinegary" the Russian lady said) and instead got to chatting about the best way to pickle herring (and why the shop-bought stuff was inferior). The Russian lady was originally from Odessa. She recommended adding some vodka to the marinade. It was another couple of weeks before I got back to the fishmonger. They had plenty of fresh herring this time but there was no sign of the Russian lady.

I eat and cook very differently from my grandparents, but there are a few overlaps and they have great emotional weight. This is one of them - there was always a jar in my grandparents' fridge (shop bought, though - suspect my grandmother would have thought this home-pickling of mine was madness).

Ingredients

6 herring, filleted
1/2 onion
20g of fresh dill

For the marinade

300 ml of cider or white wine vinegar
300 ml of water
2 teaspoon of whole coriander seeds
2 teaspoon of white mustard seeds
2 teaspoon of black peppercorns
2 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoon of caster sugar

optional: 3 tablespoons of vodka or gin

1. Place all the marinade ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to a boil, stir to make sure the salt and sugar are fully dissolved, and leave to cool.
2. If the herring fillets are still attached, separate into two halves, lengthwise. Finely slice the onion.
3. Place a layer of onion in the bottom of a rectangular tupperware (one that is just long enough for the herring), cover with some fresh dill, pour a little of the cooled marinade over it (through a tea strainer), then place a layer of herring fillets on top. Repeat until you have used up all the herring. If you have any onion and dill left, put some on top, pour the remaining marinade over the fish so that it is covered, put the lid on the dish and leave to pickle in the fridge for three or four days.