Pork Chop with Cauliflower Salad

I know, crazy combination right? But the caulis looked so cheerful in the market: nestled in a crate with cheeky white florets poking out from within a cocoon of emerald green leaves. I always preferred broccoli or carrots as a child, but with the right seasonings, the slightly nuttier flavour of cauliflower can be delicious. It's just important not to overcook it!

As for the pork chop, I ended up with a huge thick slab from the butcher, and it has kept quite well for a few days. I like to flour and fry it, but grilling a monster like this would also be fine as it would probably stay quite juicy. No marinade, no spices, just seasoned flour and a slow caramelisation in the pan. The juices ran all over the plate with the salad dressing, and one could certainly use some soft white bread to mop them up.

Ingredients:

• a small handful of raisins
• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• a good handful of cashew nuts
• 5-6 florets of cauliflower, and a few of the small leaves if desired
• a handful of peppery salad leaves (I like watercress) or flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• One large pork chop
• a few tsp plain flour
• juice of half a lemon
• a splosh of really good olive oil

First, put the raisins in a pyrex bowl and pour a small amount of boiling water over them, and leave them to soak. Dry-fry the seeds in a non-stick frying pan until they are hot and smelling fragrant, then tip them into a mortar and pestle and gently crush a little. Dry fry the cashew nuts, tossing around frequently on a low heat so that they don't burn, then remove from the pan.

Dip the pork chop in seasoned plain flour and fry in olive oil over a moderate to low heat. Thin cuts will need a higher temperature and less time, but the slab I was given took a good five minutes on each side before the juices no longer ran red. Don't overcook your chop: it should still have a hint of pink, and it's fine if the middle of the bone is still red, as it does not conduct heat well.

Slice the cauliflower florets into half-cm slices, maintaining their essential shape - I'm sure there is a name for this technique but neither my recalcitrant brain nor Google seem to be able to help me. Steam them for 3-4 minutes, until al dente. Drain and run a little cold water over them, and also drain the raisins. Toss together the cauliflower, leaves, spices, raisins, cashews, lemon juice and olive oil, and tip over the sizzling pork chop on your plate. Enjoy!

Portabella Bun with Taleggio

I popped into the Cambridge Cheese Company at the weekend, and bought some painfully expensive but excellent taleggio, partly inspired by the Stickybeaks supper club I attended a few weeks ago. I thought it would go very well on a couple of juicy portabella mushrooms in between some soft buns. I was right!

Two buns served me for dinner, and one would serve one person for lunch. Very hungry people might want some chips and/or salad on the side.

Ingredients:

• 2 large portabella mushrooms (they shrink when cooked)
• 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp mixed herbs
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 tbsp water or chicken stock
• a few thick slices of taleggio
• lettuce, tomato, or your favourite sandwich leaf
• nice soft buns or ciabatta rolls
• HP sauce (optional)

Combine the vinegar, sugar, salt, herbs, Worcestershire sauce, garlic and water or stock, and pour over the two mushrooms; marinade at room temperature for at least half an hour, preferably more.

Preheat the grill to a moderate heat, then grill the portabellos about 5 minutes each side: do the round sides first and finish with the gills upright, so as to capture the juices. I've tried frying them in the past, and it works ok but tends to sear the outsides before the inner meat is properly cooked.

Combine on a toasted bun with the rest of the ingredients; I know my youngest sister would then slather with HP sauce and I can't say I blame her :)

Smoked Crevettes, Sauteed Potatoes and Sharp Salad

Yet again I sing the praises of the market fishmonger, who smokes his own crevettes and sells them at five for £2. These are fat fingers of prawny goodness, and five is plenty for me. I needed something fairly quick to prepare tonight as I got back a little late after helping friends to make a giant papier-mache fish. I also had a huge craving for sauteed potatoes, which conveniently are much much faster to prepare for one person than two.

Here I offset the smoky fattiness of the prawns with sweet sauteed potatoes, and balance those against a sharp, peppery salad with a lemon-mayonnaise dressing. The combination of flavours is exquisite: one of those meals where you move rapidly from one side of the plate to another, trying the combinations and enjoying the contrast of flavours.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium potato
• Five fat smoked crevettes, or 150g smoked trout
• a generous handful of watercress
• a small handful of fluffy lettuce
• a few leaves of fresh basil
• a handful of spinach or chard
• 1 ripe tomato
• 1 tsp capers
• juice of half a lemon
• 1 1/2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp dijon mustard

If you have time, you can very gently boil the whole potato for 15 minutes, then allow to completely cool and slice. I was in a hurry, and find that it's much faster just to slice the raw potato into thick (~8mm) slices, layer at the bottom of a small saucepan, and just cover with water. Simmer for 10 minutes, until the surface barely begins to give.

Meanwhile, if you like, shell the crevettes; I like to leave just the tail ends on to hold them by, preserving a little, but not all, of the messy fun of eating seafood and salad together. Roughly chop the leaves and combine in a bowl or on your plate. Slice the tomato across and in halves so that the seeds stay in. Put the rest of the ingredients in a jar, grind over a good amount of black pepper, and shake to emulsify. Taste; it should be sharp and punchy.

When the potato slices are done, drain and cover again with cold water, leave for a minute and then drain, to bring their temperatures down a little. Leaving them in the cold water is fine, but be very careful when you fry them, as the water will cause the oil to spit. Speaking of which, heat a heavy-based frying pan (not necessarily non-stick, but it helps) over a moderate heat and add a few tbsp of olive oil. When it is shimmering and fragrant, carefully add a few slices of potato. If you can fry them all at once, fine, but if you're going to need to split into batches, then you might as well split them evenly between batches, and make your life less complicated!

Fry for 2-3 minutes each side, until dark golden brown. Scatter with salt while still hot and sheened in oil. When done, arrange around the salad and drizzle this with the dressing. Serve immediately - and don't burn your tongue on the amazing potatoes :)

Squid with Angel-hair Pasta

Mmm, squid are lovely. The fishmonger in Cambridge market does a nice selection; today he had both tiny ones and enormous ones! Cooking as I am for one, I bought two small ones. They'd be very usefully-sized for stuffing and roasting, but I find that kind of food a little fussy. Here I combine them with some Italian flavours for a light and refreshing pasta dish. I think traditionally the greens would form a separate course rather than part of the dish, but I wouldn't have been able to juggle two dishes and watch the final two episodes of Being Human!

This is a meal where there's a fair bit of preparation, then the actual cooking is lightning-fast, so do have everything ready before you fry the squid.

Ingredients:

• 2 small, 1 medium, or half a large squid per person
• 1 red bell pepper
• 5 sundried tomatoes in oil, or dry, rehydrated
• 5-6 green olives
• 2 stalks of swiss chard
• generous handful of fresh parsley
• 1 fat clove of garlic
• a chunk of parmesan
• 3 balls of dried egg vermicelli
• juice of 1/3rd of a lemon
• 1 handful fresh basil

Prepare the red pepper as for ruby salad: slice into halves or thirds, roast at 200 C for 35 minutes, skin side up, then remove from the oven and put in a pyrex bowl with a plate over the top, allowing to steam in its own heat for at least 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, clean the squid thoroughly, removing the skeleton and internal organs, and giving it a good wash inside and out. Detach the tentacles and body, throwing away the mid section around the eyes. As finely as you can, slice the squid body into rings, and then the tentacles into slightly larger pieces. If you have an extremely large squid, you might want to slice it into thin strips rather than rings.

Roughly chop the sundried tomatoes and reserve in a pyrex bowl. Slice the olives lengthways into fat segments and add them to the tomatoes. Slice the stalk of the chard into thin segments and add to the same bowl, reserving the billowing green leaves. Finely chop the parsley and add to the bowl.

Skin the cooked red pepper and tear into long pieces, in the bowl in which it was steaming so as to keep the smoky juices. Put the garlic in a garlic crusher, ready to crush. Likewise, put the parmesan chunk in a mouli grater, or pre-grate if you don't have one. Put the vermicelli on to boil, as per the cooking instructions. Add 1 tsp olive oil to a heavy-based non-stick frying pan and raise to a high heat. You are now prepared!

When the oil begins to shimmer, but before it begins to smoke, throw in the squid rings and toss around to colour - cook in batches if you need to, so as not to overcrowd the pan. When the squid rings are all done, remove them, turn the heat down and add a touch more olive oil if you need to. Gently fry the chard mixture for 2 minutes, until the stems have just brightened. Roughly tear the chard leaves in and add a splash of water, stirring them around until they wilt, then return the squid and peppers to the pan and heat through.

Tear the basil into the pan and squeeze over the lemon juice, and a good grind of black pepper. Immediately serve over the drained angel-hair pasta and top with grated parmesan. YUM!

Chinese Chicken and Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Another spring mainstay! When the first purple sprouts come out I love to base meals around them. They're delicious in tempura but I felt like something a bit lighter tonight. One chicken breast and a few storecupboard bits and pieces later, and you have a tasty balanced meal. Aaand I'm still cooking for one.

Ingredients:

• 10 sprigs of purple sprouting broccoli
• 1 chicken breast (free-range at least)
• 3 tbsp flour
• 3 tbsp Chinese all-spice powder, or
• 3 tsp ground aniseed
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 generous tbsp runny honey
• 1 tbsp ume plum seasoning, or 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine, or normal white wine & 1/2 tsp sugar
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 small piece of ginger
• 1 packet of noodles, prepared according to the packet

Slice the broccoli in half lengthwise, if they are thicker than about 5mm across. Pop them in a steamer pan but don't start them off yet. Combine the flour and spices in a flat dish, slice the chicken into 1cm-wide pieces and cover them in flour, shaking excess off. Finely-chop the garlic and ginger, and combine the liquids in a small ramekin.

Fry the chicken pieces in just enough vegetable oil to keep them off the base of the pan, over a moderately high heat. They will take about 40 seconds per side to cook through and go a tiny bit golden. As you cook them, remove them from the oil and drain on kitchen paper.  When you're about 3 minutes from the end of the cooking process, start the broccoli steaming.

When the chicken pieces are done, remove any excess oil and wipe the burned flour out of the pan with some kitchen towel. Add a new splash of oil and fry the garlic and ginger for 30 seconds. Drain the broccoli - they should be al dente - and toss around in the pan for a minute, then pour in the liquid ingredients. Add the cooked noodles and chicken to the pan, heat through and allow the alcohol from the wine to evaporate off. Serve with lemon wedges and/or sweet chilli sauce.

Quick Roast Rhubarb

Mmmm, the first rhubarb is out: tiny pink stems which cook very quickly and are full of vibrant astringent juices. I make the most of this season; by the time the first English berries are out, I'm sick of rhubarb, but it's glorious when the season starts. It matches perfectly the cool bright days of spring.

Crumble is a fairly classic way of preparing rhubarb, but it is much more effort and not something I tend to whip together midweek. Roasting the rhubarb, especially these gentle first stalks, retains the flavour and texture, without weighing it down with oats, cinnamon and butter. For two people for a midweek dessert, you'll need:

Ingredients:

• Five ~10inch-long thin stalks of rhubarb
• 1 tbsp granulated or demerara sugar
• Optional flavourings such as:
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence, or
• 2 blood oranges, segmented, or
• 2 star anise, lightly pounded to break apart

Top and tail the rhubarb and slice into inch-long pieces. You can divide the fat end in two if it makes the pieces evenly-sized. Put in a pyrex baking tray: do not use metal, non-stick or even ceramic, as the rhubarb will react with these materials. Sprinkle over the granulated sugar and a flavouring if desired, and add just enough water to thinly cover the bottom of the dish.

Roast at 200 C for 20 minutes or until the rhubarb gives effortlessly when poked with a fork or knife. The water will have become a pink and delicious syrup. Remove the anise if used, and serve on yoghurt, with a little more sugar or honey to taste.

The Perfect Baked Potato

I've been baking potatoes like this for years now; I'm not even sure where the original idea came from. The Guardian recently ran a piece where they tried various different cooking methods and compared the results; my method is apparently the same as the BBC's, so maybe that's where I read it first. It is as follows:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C;
2. Wash the potato if needed, then dry thoroughly;
3. De-eye;
4. Prick all over: I use one of those little sweetcorn holders but a fork will do;
5. Put 1/2 tsp of table or flaked salt in the palm of your non-writing hand;
6. Pour 1tsp of vegetable oil on top of the salt;
7. Roll the potato round and around through the oil and salt, using the tips of your writing hand;
8. Open the oven door, pop it on the top shelf without a tray;
9. Wash hands and come back in 1hr 15 minutes, by which point the potato will be crisp on the outside and meltingly fluffy on the inside.

I know the instructions are patronising; who could possibly forget to prick or de-eye the potato before covering it in oil, or get both hands covered in oil and finding it rather messy to open the oven door...? Well - me for starters :) I've recorded my mistakes so you don't have to repeat them!

Tonight for a topping, I flaked a large mackerel fillet into a bowl, added 1 tbsp of capers, a dollop of mayonnaise, 2 tbsp of shredded parsley, the juice of 1/3rd of a lemon, and a good grating of black pepper. I love the contrast between the cool topping and the steaming-hot potato. The above method makes a delicious crispy skin and on particularly decadent occasions, I save this until last and top with grated cheddar, making it a two-course meal!