Lasagna Bolognese

This is the standard lasagna I always make, written down so I no longer have to depend on Barilla's packaging for the proportions. The recipe is very simple, just make a Bolognese sauce and a Bechamel, and layer Bolognese, lasagna plate, Bechamel and cheese until you can't fit any more.

Meat sauce

Ingredients

• Mince meat (usually beef/pork mix when we make it), 500g
• Canned tomatos, 2 cans
• Two onions
• Garlic
• Fennel seeds
• Herbs - oregano, rosemary, bay leaf, etc.

Method

1. Chop onions and garlic.
2. Fry meat on high so it browns.
3. Remove meat. Add fennel seeds and bay leaf to the oil and let them fry a bit.
4. Add onions and fry until translucent. Add garlic after a bit.
5. Add back meat, add tomatoes.
6. Add herbs, salt and pepper.
7. Let bubble for maybe 40 minutes.

Bechamel

Ingredients

• Flour, 50g
• Butter, 50g
• Milk, 0.9 liters
• Salt
• Nutmeg

Method

1. Melt the butter in a thick-bottomed pan.
2. Add in the flour. Mix and stir it around until you have a really nice and dark roux.
3. Meanwhile, heat the milk. Add in the milk while whisking. Add salt and nutmeg.
4. Bring to a boil while stirring, until the sauce thickens.

Lasagna

Methods

1. Set the oven for 220 'C.
2. Grease a big pan.
3. Add bechamel and meat sauce. Cover with lasagna sheets. Repeat (and add cheese) until dish is full. Put lots of cheese and bechamel on the final layer.
4. Bake in oven for 20 minutes.

Ottolenghi's Chicken Pilaf

This is from Ottolengi and Tamimi's book Jerusalem which we bought a few years ago but didn't actually like until we found this recipe recently! For modifications on the recipe I looked at this and other pages but ultimately came up with my own proportions.

The recipe calls for bone-in, skin-on chicken but I've used boneless skinless chicken thighs both times I've made this and its worked very well. I suspect bone-in would work better. I don't like chicken skin. The original recipe calls for about 2 cups of rice and 1.8 times the amount of water cooked for 30 minutes on low, but I've found I've needed to add a little more water and cook for a little longer, averaging 45 minutes both times.

Ingredients

• 75g Cranberries
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 3 onions, finely sliced 
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1.5 kg chicken thighs
• 14 cardamom pods
• 0.5 tsp whole cloves
• 2 long cinnamon sticks, broken in two
• 2.5 cups basmati rice
• 5 cups boiling water
• 5 tbsp parsley, chopped
• 5 tbsp  dill, chopped
• 5 tbsp coriander, chopped
• 100g Greek yoghurt, mixed with 2 tbsp olive oil (optional)
• 1/2 cucumber grated and drained
• Salt and black pepper

Method

1. Marinate the chicken with the cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, a tsp of salt and 1.5tsp of pepper and the olive oil
2. Fry the chicken in a dutch oven or large cooking dish for about 5-7 minutes on each side until you get a nice brown crust and the meat is about half cooked (Medium-high heat 7).
3. Remove the chicken leaving behind the oil and most of the spices.
4. Add the onions to the oil and fry for about 10 minutes, adding the garlic about halfway through (medium heat 5)
5. Now add in the cranberries and rice and fry around for a few minutes. 
6. Now add in the hot water and the chicken and about 2.5 tsp salt.
7. Push the chicken into the rice, cover the pot and lower the heat (3) and leave for ~ 30 minutes
8. Check a few grains of rice and if needed add a few tbsps more of water and cover and cook for another 15 minutes.
9. Once done, quickly place a clean dish cloth over the top of the pot and recover with the lid and leave for 10 minutes
10. Add the dill, parsley and coriander and turn the rice and meat over gently to incorporate evenly
11. Add the cucmber and a dash of olive oil to the yogurt and each on the side

Sausage and Lentil stew

This was ridiculously good and despite the meat content, didn't feel greasy at all. Fall perfect and worth a definite repeat. We followed this and this recipe among others but mostly for procedure since I used neither the type of lentils nor the type of sausages they recommended.

Ingredients

• Smallest packet smoked pork belly, chopped or pancetta
• 2 packets fresh and cheap sausages (high meat content), sausages cut into 1" pieces (We used salsiccia for this first attempt
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 large carrot, chopped into small pieces
• 8 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 2 Tbsp dried rosemary 
• 300g dried green/ brown lentils, soaked ~ 30 minutes. 
• 850ml chicken stock
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 400g can diced tomatoes
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh or frozen flatleaf parsley or scallions

Method 

1. Add the chopped pork belly/ pancetta to a heated dutch oven. Once some oil is released add the sausages and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until nicely browned. Transfer the sausages out on to a plate.
2. Add the onions, carrot and garlic to the pancetta/pork belly and continue to cook for 10 minutes until the onions soften. 
3. Return the sausages to the pan and add the rosemary, lentils, stock, vinegar and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and simmer rapidly for 5 minutes, then lower the heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring every so often until the lentils are tender. 
4. Check the seasoning, scatter over the parsley or scallions.

Chicken, Kale and Mushroom pot pie

This recipe is from here. It was unexpectedly brilliant and I think it is going to make it to our regular rotation of dishes. The main changes from the recipe that we made were that we made more for leftovers, we will add more cornstarch next time, since it was runny and that we will make it with more puff pastry on the top.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 Tbsp dried or frozen thyme
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped
• 900g chicken breasts, cut into small chunks
• 500g mushrooms (brown or white, but brown preferred for colour), sliced
• 600ml chicken stock
• 200g crème fraîche
• 2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
• 300g kale
• 4.5 tsp cornflour, mixed with 2.5 tbsp cold water
• 500g pack puff pastry, laid out in sheets and thawed
• 1 egg yolk, to glaze

Method

1. Heat oven to 200C. Heat oil at medium heat in a large vessel. Add the onion and cook for 5 mins until transparent and soft. Scatter over the thyme and garlic, and stir for a few minutes. 
2. Turn up the heat and add the chicken, frying until golden but not fully cooked. 
3. Add the mushrooms and the remaining oil and fry for a few minutes. 
4. Add the stock, crème fraîche, mustard and kale, and season well. Add the cornflour mixture and stir until thickened a little. If this doesn't thicken, add more cornstarch, this is how runny the final pie filling will be. 
5. Remove from the heat and transfer to a baking dish. Cover the top of the dish with the puff pastry lid, pressing into the sides of the dish. Bake for 40 mins until the pastry is puffed up and golden.

Brazilian Feijoada

I've made this recipe 3-4 times now and it is this rich, fatty stew that is perfect for cold fall or snow days. It is very flavourful but has very little spice. I followed a couple of different recipes for this over the years but this is a good basis. Major differences are that I usually use this recipe as a vehicle for goan sausage and I use canned black beans instead of fresh. We also love the braised kale/collard greens recipe that is traditionally served with this.

Ingredients

• 3-4 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 pack streaky smoked bacon, cut into slices or 1 pack of smoked pork belly, cut into chunks
• 500g-1000g pork rib or pork shoulder or some other cheap, tough cut of pork
• 3 chorizo cooking sausages/ 1 pack goan sausages/ 1 pack chorizo
• 800g-1.5kg brined bone-in pork leg (rimmat fläsklägg), soaked in water for a few hours, skin removed, cut into a few large pieces
• 3 onion, chopped
• 8 garlic clove, smashed
• Few pinches of chilli flakes
• olive oil, for cooking
• 4 bay leaf
• 4 tbsp white wine vinegar
• To serve: steamed rice, chopped parsley or spring onions and wedges of oranges

Method

1. Heat a large heavy-based dutch oven and add the bacon/ pork belly and fry until crisp. Remove and keep the oil in the pan. In batches sear the brined pork, sausages and pork shoulder/ribs. Season with pepper, but because of the brined pork, do not salt until the very end. 
2. Remove the meat and set aside. Add the onion, garlic and bay leaves to the dutch oven and fry for 8-12 mins or until soft. 
3. Add the meat, bay leaves, white wine vinegar, chilli flakes and half the beans. Cover with just enough water to cover, about 1000ml. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to a low simmer. Cover and cook for 2 hrs, or until the meat is tender. If there is too much liquid in the pot take the lid off in the last hr. Add the remaining beans for the last hour. 
4. In the last 15 minutes, remove the meat pieces and shred them into large chunks and remove the bones and bay leaves. Spoon a few table spoons of th
   e beans into a bowl and smash with a fork or pulse in a blender and add back to the stew. 
5. Taste and add salt as needed (I've never needed to add salt) 
6. You can also use a slow cooker (4 hr) starting at the end of step 3.

Update 2023: I have now made this many times, most recently with sausage I picked up in Lisbon, fresh sausage, without rimmat fläsk, just fläsk karre. Also, apple cider vinegar instead of white wine. Made no difference, it was still delicious. 

 

I followed this recipe and we had yummy collard greens on the side with slices of orange.  

Slow cooker lamb Rogan Josh

Our grocery store had a sale on lamb and so I picked up a 1.6kg (3.5lb) chunk and didn't know what to do with it. My problem with lamb is that it can taste overwhelmingly of...lamb? wool? Not sure. It doesn't always taste strongly but when it does I'm not a huge fan. So, I decided to go with strong spices and the slow cooker. I combined two different recipes. Recipe 1 which did lots of things that sounded good and Recipe 2 which sounded really authentic. My combined recipe is below. It was super spicy, so I would reduce the number of dried red chillis when I make it again.

Ingredients

• 1.6kg boneless lamb leg, cut into large chunks
• 3 large potatoes (totally optional), cut into large chunks
• 1-2 red onions, chopped
• 1 cup Yogurt
• Vinegar
• Ginger chopped or paste
• Garlic chopped or paste

Masala 

• 1"-2" piece of cinnamon
• 5 whole green cardamom pods
• 3/4 teaspoon whole cloves
• 3/4 teaspoon whole fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 5 dried red chillies
• 2 large or 3 small star anise
• 1 black cardamom pod
• 1 teaspoon paprika powder

Method

1. Grind together ingredients for the masala
2. Add the lamb chunks, the spice powder from above and salt to a bowl and shake around until the lamb chunks are coated well. This sat for about an hour and I guess it marinated, but that wasn't intentional. I was mostly chopping other stuff and being lazy.
3. Fry the onions and once they are caramelized, add ginger and garlic chopped or paste and fry for 5 minutes on a low to medium heat. I added about 5 cloves of finely chopped garlic and a tablespoon of ginger paste. The ginger paste was probably about 2" worth.
4. Add the lamb chunks and fry until some of the chunks get some surface. (This is to get some flavor out of the Mallaird reaction, but I wasn't thorough about browning all the lamb)
5. Splash in some vinegar. I had some red wine vinegar. I'm fairly sure the type of vinegar won't matter.
6. Add everything to the slow cooker and toss in the potato chunks and stir to coat and cook on high for 6 hours.
7. An hour before completion, stir in the Yogurt.

I think 5 or 5.5 hours would have been better, not because it dried out, at all, but because the pieces were almost too falling apart. I ate it over rice with Yogurt because I needed Yogurt to cut the heat of the chilies. It was hot and yummy and kept us warm during the snow.

Update October 2016: We have now also made this with pork shoulder as well and it tasted excellent. So either protein is fine to use with this recipe. 

Slow cooked Beef Panang curry a la Madam Mam's

This started out as an attempt to recreate Madam Mam's slow cooked beef panang. It is the best thing ever and I've always wanted to try to replicate it. This was a pretty good attempt and it was seriously delicious. We ate it with quinoa, but it will definitely be awesome with white rice too. I used beef chuck for this attempt, but I suspect brisket would actually be a better cut for it. The last three ingredients are added to taste. The basil, especially, develops over time, so it will get stronger in the left overs, keep that in mind when you are adding the leaves.
This dish was a complete experiment and I'm pretty sure it would actually be ok even with just throwing everything into the slow cooker together, but I tried to replicate the beginning of thai curries in pots and used the slow cooker for the long low heat step.

Ingredients

beef chuck, sliced into thick slices
Panang curry paste (from the store, Mae ploy brand) (~3 Tbsp)
two onions, finely chopped
can of coconut milk
brown sugar
thai basil, fresh
fish sauce/salt

Method

1) Heat about a tablespoon of oil and fry a couple of table spoons of the panang curry paste in the hot oil (I had about a kilo of beef) for about two minutes (The smell of the paste will change from raw and thats when it is ready)
2) Add half the can of coconut milk to the paste and cook for a few minutes
3) Add the chopped onions to the sauce for a few minutes
4) Add the sliced beef in and coat in the sauce and add to the slow cooker and cook on high for 6 hours
5) After 5 hours add the rest of the coconut milk, fish sauce/salt, brown sugar, lime juice and sliced basil leaves till it tastes right.
6) After a little more bubbling we ate it served over rice. It was delicious.