Alternative Spag Bol!

Spag Bol is not Spaghetti Bolognaise. Spag Bol is a British institution, a dish done quite wrong what with the sauce not being incorporated into the pasta, but so what? It's Spag Bol and the sauce on top of the pasta is how it's done. Deal with it ...

Spag Bol is: beef mince, onion, garlic, tomatoes, tomato puree, oregano, carrots, mushrooms and stock.

Carrots and mushrooms, neither of which I have in so I went with butternut squash and courgette, both of which I did have in.

It worked out well ...

Same drill, beef mince, onion, garlic, tomatoes, tomato puree, oregano, butternut squash, courgette and stock. Serve over pasta - in my case, a rice noodle which is a bit like tagliatelle. Fresh basil to garnish.

Fast & Furious! Turkey & Mushroom Stroganoff

I've shown you this a good number of times in various guises, but it's worth showing again ...

... and to emphasise just how fast a good meal can be made using this recipe.

Turkey & Mushroom Stroganoff

Clock is ticking ...

Skillet on, coconut oil in, sliced turkey meat in.

Maybe a minute or so later, shredded onion in, sliced mushrooms in, garlic powder, black pepper and a little sea salt.

Rice noodles in boiled water ... 60 seconds. Retrieve and add to the skillet.

Cream and chopped herbs, dill in this case for a nice Russo-Scandic feel, toss together and turn out into a bowl.

Shredded spring onions to garnish.

Done! Four minutes? How quickly can you make it?

Cauliflower Stalk & Potato Soup with Crab Beignet

Crab Beignet? Not the traditional French type from choux pastry, but a quick and easy with three ingredients: canned crab, cottage cheese and tapioca flour.

The soup is simply cauliflower stalks (I never throw away trimmings) and cubes of potato with onion, garlic and some bouillon. Cook through, soup done.

Back to these Beignets ...

Take a can of crab meat, drain and squeeze out thoroughly. Combine with equal portions of cottage cheese and then start to add in tapioca flour until the mixture turns dry enough to roll out into long sausages without it sticking to hands or the rolling board.

Cut into inch long sections and roll each piece in a large bowl with more tapioca flour.

Shallow fry in coconut oil, say in a milk pan. Good and hot, or they'll simply stick together.

Ready? Serve out ...

Soup in a bowl with a good mount of beignets in the middle.

Squid Kedgerish

... sort of Kedgeree.

I bagged a couple of good sized squids on Friday night, going cheap and thought it would make a great breakfast!

Cook some rice or use leftovers.

Boil a couple of eggs.

While the rice is cooking and the eggs boiling, prepare your ingredients:

• Squid
• Spring Onions
• Tomato
• Oyster Mushrooms
• Chillies, Ginger & Garlic
• Spices
• Fresh Coriander
• Chilli Sauce* or Condiment

Washed, cleaned and prepared, the squid should be sliced thinly into noodles.

Thinly chop up a few spring onions, mince a clove of garlic, a little ginger, de-seed and chop a chilli.

Once the rice is cooked through and steamed off, drop it into a large skillet with some ghee and fry off ... adding in the squid once the rice is starting to get a little crispy from the frying, along with the oyster mushrooms.

Add spices: turmeric, ground coriander, ground cumin, fenugreek and asafoetida.

Add the ginger, the garlic and the chilli.

Cook through for three or four minutes ...

Just before serving, add in chopped tomato and some fresh chopped coriander.

Serve out and garnish with boiled eggs.

*The sauce I slathered over is my own chilli sauce: red chillies, powdered ginger, powdered garlic, sea salt, white pepper, cider vinegar & lemon juice. Purée well and pass through a sieve. Thicken with a little arrowroot if necessary.

Spicy Duck Breast

Who doesn't like a good pair of breasts?

With a couple of duck breasts, some leftover mashed potato and a huge cucumber from a friend's allotment it might sound like the start of a joke, but it is the formation of an idea for dinner.

Peeled, cored and thinly sliced, cucumber is lovely with a splash of rice wine vinegar, a little sea salt and some shredded spring onions to accompany. Finished with fresh coriander, it'll make a spritely accompaniment to the fatty duck.

Mashed potato, chilled, chives and chilli, small egg to bind, a good starchy base for the meal is quickly formed.

... and onto cooking.

Duck breast takes about 10 minutes in total. The potato patties will take about 10 minutes to cook through.

10 minutes, then ...

In a skillet, dry, place the duck breasts skin side down and press down for about 30 seconds. Leave them in place for a further 6 minutes. Flip them over and leave them for 4 minutes, during the last of which use tongs to sear the sides. The meat should be cooked through, but remain pink inside.

In another skillet, coconut oil to shallow fry, drop the patties in. Five minutes each side and they're done.

Meanwhile make up the cucumber side and a sauce.

I keep a few select bottles of sauces in the fridge, sauces with minimal lab ingredients that can be used as condiment to really pull out a punch in a dish ...

Today, I mixed Maggi Chilli Sauce with Worcestershire Sauce, some white pepper, celery salt and a splash of lemon juice. Yum!

Ready?

Plate up, potato pattie down, duck breast just rested for a few minutes and sliced through placed over the top. Sauce and salsa alongside, give the dish a quick crowning with sauce and perhaps some fresh herbs. Don't forget the sesame seeds over the cucumber. I did.

Sea Bass with Sauté Potatoes, Chorizo, Fennel & Onion

Not a million miles off the Scallop & Chorizo dinner I made the other evening ...

While some sliced salad potatoes par-boiled, over a low heat I warmed through some chorizo in a skillet. Once the fat started to wet up the pan, in went some chopped onion, sliced garlic, shredded fennel and then the potato slices. Freshly podded peas, too, and finally, some cherry tomatoes just to warm through.

Serve out onto plates.

Butter in the skillet, sea bass fillets fried off skin-side down for a couple of minutes, flipped and flesh side cooked through in the residual heat for maybe a minute, serve on top. Garnish with herbs - chives, in my case.

Scallop & Chorizo Salad

Monday ... back to work after a great weekend and I'm not much into a heavy or complex dinner, so how about a quick plate of salad?

Lettuce leaves, delicious tomato, radish, boiled egg, squirt of salad cream, capers, black pepper and a little Icelandic ash salt.

Now, the rest of it ...

Chorizo gently warmed through in a skillet, par-boiled salad potatoes sautéed in the oil from the chorizo and in another skillet, some butter and scallops just cooked through, 60 seconds or so.

Dinner is served!

Three Minute Dinner! Turkey Stroganoff

Ready? Go!

Skillet on ... goose fat in.

Peel and chop onion ... in.

Slice turkey breast ... in.

Vegetables ... in.

One minute left ...

Pour boiling water over rice noodles ... 60 seconds.

Back to the skillet ... stir soured cream in ... add herbs ... done!

Quicker than a fucking microwave!

Real food, not nuked ...

Steak Salad

After a long day competition Fencing ... home, I just want a few beers and a good, wholesome dinner.

I have steak, I have some leftover German Potato Salad (made by a bona fide German) leftover from a picnic we had the other day and I've got some samphire.

Super! So, onion, mushroom and samphire, cold German Potato Salad and steak.

That hit the spot!

Coconut Chicken Curry

Hell froze over!

I'm going to give you a recipe ...

No, really, I'm not kidding, it's not April Fool's Day, I've not been possessed, just that I made up a really cool (well, hot) curry last night and I while I followed no recipe, making it up on the spot, I think it's worthy of writing down.

I know, I know ...

I've been down on recipes for, well, forever, what with all the "what if my dodo eggs are larger than yours?", "what if I can't get Tibetan goat tears?", "what can I use instead of Guatemalan psycho-ward chillies?" ... you get my drift ... and I still don't think it worthy of a recipe, it is worth writing down.

So, here goes ...

Ingredients

2-3 Large Chicken Thighs (see, I've already broken the recipe - is it two? is it three?)

1 Large Onion (yes, define "large")

30g Butter/Ghee (or more, if you like more)

1 tsp Turmeric Powder

6-8 Red Chillies (milder chillies are best - we want colour and flavour, and heat)

3-4 Garlic Cloves (three if they're huge like mine, four, otherwise)

Inch Ginger (erm ... yeah, an inch from a thinner part? or thicker, if you like ginger)

2 tsp Poppy Seeds (I guess Nigella Seeds might do ... Mmmmm! Nigella!)

Half tsp Fenugreek Powder

Half tsp Asafoetida Powder

Halt tsp Black Pepper

Pinch Sea Salt

4 Cloves (more, if you like a powerful aromatic blast, less, if you don't want to feel like you've just been to the Dentist)

Can Coconut Milk (how big a can? I don't know ... 200ml?)

2 tbsp Desiccated Coconut

Method

Forget what's written below and do your own thing ... I did.

I jest ...

Peel and chop the onion in half, shredding each half and committing to a large lidded skillet with a damn good knob of butter or ghee. 30g is good. Turmeric over, low heat, let it caramelise and colour in the turmeric.

Take the chillies (seeded), garlic (peeled), ginger, poppy seeds, fenugreek, asafoetida, black pepper and sea salt, and mash into a paste. If you're like me and don't have (space for) one of those heavy pestle and mortar things, a bowl with the business end of a baseball bat will do ya!

Once the onions are caramelised, pour in the paste, fry off for a short while and then add in the coconut milk and the cloves. Sprinkle in the desiccated coconut and bring to the boil.

Lay your chicken pieces in (skinned), lid on and gently simmer for 30-40 minutes, topping up with a little water as necessary, but in the end you want a reduced, thick and sumptuous dish.

Ready to eat?

Serve on the bone into bowls with rice alongside ... or whatever your favourite rice substitute is. For a full dish, no rice or substitute necessary, cubes of squash or sweet potato will do just perfect.

Serves 2

Naturally, I didn't to any of this and my ingredient list did vary a little ... but, who's counting?

Enjoy!

Now, who's going to be the first to say, "sod chicken, I went with some firm white fish and it was delicious!"?

Lamb Chipolata [Anglo-Italiano]

Cruising through the supermarket on Friday night for a nice bottle of wine, I noticed big reductions on gourmet sausages. Selecting a number of high/total meat content packs, I have some venison sausages, some beef sausages and some lamb chipolatas.

Looking for something quick and easy on a Saturday night, I opted for the lamb.

What goes with lamb? Well, it's a heavy meat, often very fatty and really liked spikey flavours to cut through - balsamic vinegar, asparagus, feta cheese, mint sauce, all classic combinations.

I decided to go with a sort of Anglo-Italian approach: mint and peas, but also spinach and balsamic. Vegetable accompaniments are mashed potato, asparagus and shitake mushrooms.

When building up a simple dish like this, consider the ingredients. Consider how you can make each element special, full of flavour and an integral part of the experience.

Simple sausages can be sensational ...

• Sausages - gently fried in olive oil
• Mushrooms - very lightly fried in olive oil
• Mashed Potato - boiled until soft, mashed with minced butter and lots of butter
• Asparagus & Peas - immersed in boiled water, nothing more
• Mint Sauce - Chopped mint, balsamic vinegar and sea salt
• Spinach - raw

Yeah, that mint sauce is interesting, isn't it?

So, pretty much do that ...

Each element is made up in its own pan and kept warm so that the symphony rises to a crescendo when it hits the plate.

Simple guide, sausages on first, next potatoes, pour boiled water over asparagus and peas, make up the sauce, lightly fry the mushrooms, mash the potato, dress the plate with spinach ...

... and plate up, intermingling the cooked ingredients. Sea salt and pepper, mint sauce applied generously. Glass of good red alongside, heaven.

Breakfast Squid Curry

Watching Chef Rick Stein on the BBC's 'Saturday Kitchen', he's in India. Podicherry, to be precise, and he made a lovely looking vegetarian curry of potato and peas.

Duly inspired, I headed to the kitchen for breakfast. I had all the ingredients in, as well as a bag of squid pieces at the back of the freezer. I've no idea if squid is even remotely a curry ingredient, but I don't see why not.

Great! So, a seriously good paleo+ breakfast shall ensue ...

You'll need:

• Seafood - Squid, here, prawns or firm fish would do admirably
• Vegetables - Potato, courgette and peas
• Spices - Ground coriander, ground cumin and turmeric, fenugreek and asafoetida are optional
• Bulk - Onion, garlic, ginger, chillies and tomato

Amounts?

Well, I never weigh or measure ... "sufficient", is my usual answer.

For one (my Mrs abhors curry), I had about 250g of seafood, one large baking sized potato, half a red onion, one small salad tomato, one garlic clove, two chillies (I like heat), slice of ginger, three inches off a courgette, small handful of peas and about a teaspoon of each of the core spices, half a teaspoon of the optional. Pinch of sea salt and a little black pepper. Okay?

Quick tip: Frozen seafood can be defrosted under running cold water and will be ready to cook within a few minutes for things like prawns and squid, maybe 10 minutes for a small fillet of fish, longer for larger.

Let's get to it ...

Curry like this should not be overthunk! It is simply vegetables and spices. There is no secret to this, no hidden method, no acquired technique, just vegetables and spices.

First, peel and cube some potato and par-boil it.

Might as well boil an egg, too. It is breakfast, afterall.

Now, we'll make the curry ...

As a bare minimum, you'd want ground coriander, ground cumin and turmeric. I also like fenugreek and asafoetida, and that's pretty much my spice mix. I use real chillies, sea salt, black pepper and if tomato based, I like some paprika in there, too.

Curry is best with ghee, but butter will do if you keep the heat down to keep it from browning.

So, in a skillet, melt some butter or ghee, adding in some shredded onion - this is a quick and easy breakfast style curry so no need for all that low heat, half hour of caramelisation.

Add in the potatoes and sprinkle over the powdered spices.

Add the courgettes, the peas, a chopped tomato, de-seeded and shredded chillies, minced garlic clove and a little ginger, shredded.

Add the seafood, gently fold together and cook through for a few minutes. I like to add a good knob of butter just towards the end - it makes all curry so much better.

Serve out, sea salt and black pepper to taste, egg to garnish, fresh herbs too if you have them.

Mid-Week Bolognese

Just to prove you don't need four hours of simmering and all the other guff that Italianistas seem to advocate in order to elevate what is essentially ordinary to the level that it is ...

You'll need minced beef, onion, garlic, Worcestershire Sauce, chopped tomatoes, tomato purée, dried oregano, mushrooms, carrots, beef stock, sea salt and black pepper, and pasta.

Your pasta can be any veg spiralized or julienne grated, perhaps something gluten-free which is what I'm doing tonight with Mama brand Instant Rice Noodles.

Take a large skillet and brown off your minced beef - no fat needed, just enjoy the fat that is already minced into the meat. If you bought extra-lean, well, shame on you; drop in a good blob of dripping to get it moving. Give it a damn good splash of Worcestershire Sauce.

While the meat is browning, chop up an onion, peel and slice some garlic, quarter some mushrooms and dice up a carrot. Bolognese seems to enjoy a lot of garlic, so for a pound of meat (for two), give it four or five cloves.

One the meat is browned, soak up all the lovely juices with the mushrooms, add the chopped onion and sliced garlic, stir through, add the carrots and cook on for another couple of minutes. If the spirit takes you, add a generous glass of red wine.

Pour in a carton of chopped tomatoes, a good squirt of tomato purée, some sea salt, black pepper and pour in a good pint of beef stock. Sprinkle the dried herbs over - I don't measure, just sprinkle over.

On a medium to high heat, cook on, topping up with water as necessary. Cook it for at least half an hour, or until your minced beef is not chewy. A good hint here is to cook through well at the beginning.

Once the Bolognese is reduced, cook your noodles. Mine just need 60 seconds with boiling water poured over.

Serve out, noodles down, Bolognese over; none of that proper Italian stirring the pasta into the pan, this is the British method. We don't do it wrong, we just do it our way. Fresh herbs, if you like; parsley, in my case.

So, reasonably quick mid-week meal.

If you added wine to the Bolognese, enjoy a glass with your meal. If you're just opening a bottle to enjoy with the meal, shame on you for not opening it earlier and pouring a good slug into the dish.

However you do it, remember, it's simple, quick, rules are there to be broken, but do enjoy it afterwards, slurping it down hungrily, noisily and with a huge smile on your face!

Smoked Mackerel Savoury Rice

Breakfast ...

What a fantastic day! Mid-winter, the sun is shining, it's bright, great visibility and a crisp in the air. What a day to get out there and enjoy sun, views and a damn good walk in the hills.

Best get prepared, eh?

I love smoked mackerel. I love mackerel, but smoked, it's cheap, smells great, tastes great and is one hell of a good punch of protein and fat dropped into any lunchtime salad. Today, I'm going to warm it up and enjoy it for my breakfast.

I've also had some bags of par-boiled rice in the freezer for some time, intended for taking to work and nuking at lunchtime. I gather from our man at Free the Animal that this method increases the resistant starch within rice - a good thing, apparently.

Let's put the two together ...

So, in a large skillet, I melted some goat butter, softened some chopped onion, celery and garlic, added in some ginger and chilli, then some turmeric, ground coriander and asafoetida, next some chopped bell peppers, some sweetcorn and peas.

Water, finish off the cooking process and drop in flaked smoked mackerel at the end, folding in.

Serve with some leaves and a boiled egg ... not pictured, since I forgot it, so ate it afterwards. I guess I made a kind of Kedgeree.

Now, to the hills!

Moules & Frites

What a great day fencing! Two competitions, third place in one and last 16 in the other.

Home, I want to eat something quick, awesome and relax into the evening ...

It's Moules & Frites.

Practically an institution in Belgium where there are a number of set recipes: Moules Marinière, Moules Parquées, Moules à l'Ail and so on, then the range of Chef's Signature pots of mussels.

I have my own favourite, which is a blend of Moules Marinière and Moules à la Crème: butter, onion, fennel, garlic, parsley, white wine and cream.

Frites should be Skinny Chips, or fries, par-boiled to fluff up a little and fried off in duck fat for that authentic Belgian flavour. I love goose fat, as you know, and that will be my fat of choice.

Frites

Take a couple of potatoes, peel and cut into fries. Skinny Chips, for us Brits. Par-boil for three to five minutes, drain and allow to cool a little.

Don't "do" white potatoes? Well, pretty much any root will do the trick. For lower carb, leave 'em out and enjoy some greenage alongside - tenderstem broccoli would be ideal.

Moules

Take your mussels, wash them and discard any that are not closed.

Remove the beards and set aside.

Prepare your mise en place - getting all the ingredients cut and ready on a board: onion, fennel, garlic, parsley, white wine and cream. I tend not to drink white wine and didn't have a complimentary one in, so use Noilly Prat; posh Vermouth.

Don't "do" wine? Well, water will do just fine. It'll just be a bit bland, but you will get the real taste of the mussels as is, not enhanced.

Cook

You need a skillet and a lidded pan.

In the skillet melt some of your favourite paleo fat - goose fat, for me - and drop the frites in. Keep the heat on medium. Too low and they won't crisp, too high and they'll burn; along with the fat.

Turn frequently.

In the lidded pan, drop in a generous slab of your favourite butter. Bathe the onion and the fennel in it, dropping in the garlic, and as the heat rises, give the pan a generous slosh of wine (or Vermouth), pour in the mussels and get the lid on fast.

The mussels will cook through in the steam from the wine, taking on all those lovely flavours.

Give the pan a shake and toss in chopped parsley. Shake again. After a few minutes, the mussels will be cooked through - they will have opened and they'll be warm.

Remove the mussels into a bowl and remove any which have not opened.

Pour some cream into the juices in the pan. Raise the heat and reduce.

Don't "do" cream? Whisk in butter and reduce. Don't "do" butter? Well, just reduce to concentrate the flavours.

Serve

Once reduced, pour over the mussels, add a grind of freshly milled black pepper (no sea salt, since the flavour is delicate and already salty enough) and some more chopped parsley.

The sweetness of the mussels will be enhanced by the Vermouth, onion, fennel and garlic with the cream laying down a velvet backdrop, parsley just perfuming through.

Serve the frites alongside.

Eat

Dig in and enjoy, scooping out the mussels with half of the shell, slurping down the gorgeous sauce and mopping up with frites.

Enjoy!

Absolutely gorgeous and a great end to a fantastic day! Now, to melt into a hot bath with a favourite single malt ...

Liver, Onion, Bacon & Mushroom Salad with Waffle Crisps

Breakfast ... and just starting to get back to normality after the Christmas break and a first week back at work.

I've been shopping, so we have a fresh haul of food in and what better than a hearty breakfast to start the weekend?

Liver, bacon, onion, mushrooms and tomato over a leafy salad with pickled chillies, paprika, black pepper and Icelandic ash salt.

There's a waffle in there, too! Bird's Eye brand.

Potato waffles are pretty much just starch, in fact, the ingredients list as: Potato, Vegetable Oil, Potato Granules, Potato Starch, White Pepper, Salt & Stabiliser (E464).

So, pretty much all potato, no sugar, which is rare for processed foods and the role of E464 prevents the potato from being saturated with vegetable oil.  In fact, the vegetable oil is probably the only "bad" thing in there ...

... but let's just read a little more about E464.

From Wikipedia: "Use in whole grain breads Agricultural Research Service scientists are investigating using the plant-derived HPMC as a substitute for gluten in making all oat and other grain breads. Gluten, which is present in wheat, rye and barley is absent (or present only in trace quantities) in oat and other grains. Like gluten, HPMC can trap air bubbles formed by the yeast in bread dough, causing the bread to rise. Although it has not been widely studied, it is predicted that whole grain breads made with HPMC will have cholesterol-lowering effects."

Okay, so a gluten alternative ... akin to xanthan gum, or other such stabilisers?

I'm waffling on a bit here, but wanted to investigate these fully. Processed food? Yes, but "sometimes it is better to eat the wrong food with the right attitude than the other way around" Chris Kressler.

I'm not making excuses and certainly not trying to squeeze this in as "paleo" in the way that you see "Paleo Cookies" and so on. The paleo template is large enough an hegemony for each person to take as far as the want to, personally.

If this is a step too far ... don't! Leave it off the plate, but if you want some potato in there, simply slices of sautéed potato will do perfectly.

Let's get cooking ...

Grill the waffle. It wants to become crispy.

In a large skillet, fry off the bacon and once cooked through, toss in some shredded onion and cook through.

Pull to the side of the skillet while you soften some butter in the cleared space and fry off pieces of liver.

While one side is frying, pop a few mushrooms in cap side down. These will cook through and soften.

Retrieve the mushrooms, slicing into quarters and return to the pan on top of the onion and bacon mound. Flip the liver and cook on with half a tomato, fleshy side down also just taking on a little colour and warming through.

Retrieve the tomato, quarter and return to the skillet, folding all the food together.

Serve out over a handful of salad leaves, pepped up with a little black pepper, paprika and Icelandic ash salt (sea salt will do fine); cut the waffle through the middle to make two thin waffles, then corner to corner giving four crisps. Push into the dish.

Brown Sauce over, you've got breakfast. Gorgeous!

Fish & Chips

Fencing night ...

I need a quick, easy meal, earlier on and so tonight, we like to have Fish & Chips from our local Chippy.

Fish & Chips are an institution in Britain and not at all the junk food you might think, so long as a few observations are made.

First, and probably most important, is the batter. Batter is made from milk and flour. Wheat flour. We absolutely know how bad for us wheat flour is, but this is a one-off, so it's alright, right? No! Actually, this is quite a regular one-off, so caution is needed, especially for folks who show an intolerance to wheat.

Interestingly, batter was originally intended to be discarded. Batter protects the fish from the intense heat of the fat and should be cracked open, the fish eaten and the batter ignored. That's how we do it.

Second, fats. So many Chippies now use so-called healthy fats which have poor resistance to oxidisation when heated. Luckily, our local uses beef dripping and only beef dripping, proudly displaying this behind the counter.

Dripping is traditional, and it's great to see that here in the north, particularly, this tradition is being upheld.

So, we have good fat, some slow-releasing carbs to fuel the evening's activity and a great pack of protein. It's a good meal by any standard. You know what? I'm going to have a can of D&B with it!

Best of all ...

Our local bags up all the fish scraps, tail-ends and so on to see at cat food. Three bags for a quid! Each bag over a pound in weight. Our kitten absolutely loves it! I say kitten, he is, he's just over nine months old, but just shy of 10 pounds and measured half an inch short of three feet!

He gives us a sound reminder to Eat Like a Predator.

Right! Off to go stab some friends ...

Pesce-Poutine?

... probably the last post of the year and we're having a late breakfast cum lunch: brunch, then. We're out later and will no doubt get to eat a little later than usual and there'll be a lot of drink, so wise to get our stomachs lined!

We're having a Poutine, of sorts.

Poutine is a French Canadian dish of fries, gravy and cheese curd. We have some smoked salmon left over from the Christmas period which needs using up and some cottage cheese which really wants eating. Potatoes, goose fat and a heavy based skillet ...

Presenting: the Pesce-Poutine!

If you were to have a go at this, you'll need:

• Smoked salmon
• Boiled egg
• Cottage Cheese
• Potatoes, goose fat and a skillet
• Red cabbage and rocket leaves
• Paprika and Tabasco

Peel and cut up the potatoes into chips, fries, frites, or whatever your language dictates, par boil for a few minutes and then fry off in a skillet in lots of goose fat. Lovely job!

Meanwhile, shred up some red cabbage and mix with rocket leaves.

Chips ready? Shove a handful in a bowl with the salad over, mounding cottage cheese over, smoked salmon on top and a boiled egg to crown.

Sprinkle a little paprika over the egg, splash a load of Tabasco all over it and season with a little black pepper and sea salt.

Sorted! Now, on with the New Year celebrations! Cheers, all ... Happy 2014.

Tenebrio Molitor Noodles

"No way! You dirty git!" ... or words to that effect when a consignment of mealworms arrived in the post this morning.

"Don't you dare! DON'T YOU DARE!" ... as I chased her around the house, mealworms in hand.

These are boiled and dehydrated mealworms. High in protein, fat and little else. Protein. Fat. Simple as ...

No need to be squeamish. It's not like they're wriggling.

Having eaten these, I have to say, I'd be quite happy with live mealworms ... as is ... or flash fried.

These, I simply added as a topping/garnish to some Singapore rice noodles warmed through in goose fat with some chillies on top.

Very nice, indeed!

Again? Definitely.

Nutrition

Mealworms are the pre-pupae of Tenebrio Molito, a species of darkling beetle. Mealworms are perfectly good for human consumption, although typically you'll find them in pet shops as food for reptiles, fish and birds.

They're protein. Protein and fat ...

From: Mealworm Care

Live Mealworm Nutritional Values

Protein: 20%
Fat: 13%
Fiber: 2%
Water: 62% 

Dried Mealworm Nutritional Values 

Protein: 53%
Fat: 28%
Fiber: 6%
Water: 5%

Boiled and dehydrated, as you'll find in pet shops, they just want a quick flash fry to warm through and kill off any potential nasties. Beyond that, dropped into the human stomach, not much is going to survive that good vat of acid.

To that end, I reckon live mealworms should be my next target. Fishing bait, here I come ...

Sprats & Root Hash

Breakfast.

During the working week, I tend not to have anything in the morning and break my overnight fast around noon with a light salad, egg and some fish. Our main meal is in the evening.

Weekends are different ...

Eating well in the morning and enjoying a later dinner works well for us. With a breakfast meal ready, we enjoy a leisurely morning with the BBC's 'Saturday Kitchen' and then get about our day.

Today, is sprats.

Sprats, Latin Sprattus, a distinct genus within the same family as sardine and herring. These sprats are from the Baltic. Needless to say they are similarly oily and loaded with good omega-3. Highly anti-inflammatory, they make perfect partners with a light leafy salad and great bedfellows to a good, starchy hash.

Today is hash.

Hash is simply whatever veggies you have diced and fried. Root hashes can be from any sort of root: potato, carrot, parsnip, celeriac, daikon, beetroot, the list goes on. Today, I went with potatoes and carrot. Tomorrow (sprats, again) I may well go with beetroot.

Ingredients

Sprats. No sprats? Anchovies would be good, small sardines, small herrings or whitebait would do.

Potatoes, carrot, onion, garlic, chilli, black pepper, sea salt, goose fat and spinach. Marjoram to cook, parsley to garnish.

Yoghurt, mustard and lemon juice.

Hash

Dice up the roots and sauté off in your favourite paleo fat - goose fat, for me, carrots and potatoes as the roots in a cast iron skillet.

Give the skillet a good grind of black pepper, a pinch of sea salt and a sprinkle of dried marjoram. Oregano would do fine.

Continue to sauté over a medium heat until the roots are starting to soften.

Add a chopped onion, sliced garlic and a couple of chillies, shredded.

Sauté on until soft, which might take another 20 minutes, or so.

Lay a generous handful of spinach per person into the skillet and let it wilt.

Meanwhile, a sauce ...

Sauce

Let's stick to the classics, eh?

Mustard works so well with this kind of fish. From mustard vinaigrette with herring to mustard cream over sardines to ... yoghurt and mustard.

Per person, a couple of heaped tablespoons of your favourite yoghurt and a half teaspoon of mustard. Good squeeze of lemon juice and stir together.

Use whatever yoghurt you like. Greek, regular cow, perhaps goat, sheep, even. I used a gorgeous sheep yoghurt from Dorset, here in the UK. English mustard, too; none of that 'orrible French stuff or (Good Lord!) American. Puh! Mustard should be English and should be Colman's. Lemons? Amalfi, naturally.

Now the sprats ...

Sprats

Eat them whole. Heads, tails, guts, the lot. Eat them whole.

If you're at all queasy about heads, cut them off. Actually, from there you can gut the fish by squeezing the belly up to where the head was. The guts will come out. Wash and you're done.

Otherwise, just make a small incision behind the gills and squeeze the belly up to the head to draw the guts.

Or, leave them in ... it's all good flavour!

You can pan-fry sprats or you can grill them. I prefer the grill. You say tomato, I say tomato. I'm British, and a grill for me is an overhead heat source: broiler, salamander.

Pan frying can be quite violent, leaving your sprats broken up and the fats over-cooked. Grill 'em. Lay your sprats out on a piece of kitchen foil and place under the grill on high. Two or three minutes each side is perfect.

Timing is less important than how they look - the skins should be just bubbling. Watch the fish, not the clock.

Serve

Fold the wilted spinach through the hash and plate up.

Sauce over, then the sprats. More black pepper, perhaps some more sea salt, certainly some flat leaf parsley to garnish.

I popped a couple of figs alongside ...

Sprats over root hash with yoghurt mustard sauce.