Favourite Recipes (and weird ones too!)

I have great memories of my mother’s baking, and I’d like to pass on one of my favourites from her repertoire. Her Jock’s Loaf was a firm favourite of everyone in the family. It’s a kind of flapjack from long before anyone this side of the Atlantic heard that word. You’ll need:

170 gr (6 oz) butter
170 gr (6 oz) brown sugar
225 gr (8 oz) oatflakes/oatmeal
pinch of salt

1. Grease a baking tin
2. Heat oven to 180º C (360º F)
3. Melt the butter very gently in a saucepan
4. Add the sugar, oats and salt, and stir well
5. Turn the mixture into the greased tin and bake till golden (30-35 minutes)
6. Cut into squares as soon as it comes out of the oven, but leave to cool before removing.

Tip: Substitute Golden Syrup for some of the sugar to achieve a softer result.

For four people you’ll need:

vegetable oil
8 sausages
half a black pudding, thickly sliced
half a white pudding, thickly sliced
6 rashers
2 eggs
soy sauce
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
(optional: a chunk of ginger root, and a chilli pepper, both chopped)
a few cups of cold cooked rice, crumbled to remove lumps
vinegar
(optional: sesame oil)

1. Fry the sausages, black and white pudding, and rashers. Put to one side.
2. Beat the eggs with a dash of soy sauce. Fry as an omelette. Put to one side.
3. Chop the fried items coarsely.
4. Heat oil in a wok or large pan, over high heat.
5. Add chopped garlic (and ginger and chilli if using) and stir till it just starts to colour.
6. Add chopped onions and stir till they soften.
7. Add the previously fried items (sausages, omelette etc.) to the wok and stir till reheated.
8. Stir in a dash of vinegar (and sesame oil if using)
9. Lower heat and add the cold rice. Stir till heated through.
10. Stir in generous dashes of soy sauce and serve!

You'll need (for 2 people):
2 sirloin (short loin) steaks
2 fresh figs, sliced in half lengthwise
butter
balsamic vinegar
salt & black pepper

Here's how you make it:
Rub salt and pepper into the raw steak and leave for 5 minutes
Melt a generous amount of butter in a pan.
When hot, add the steak. Cook till it's the way you like it.
Remove steak, lower heat a bit.
Fry the fig halves gently in the butter for a couple of minutes each side.
Splash in balsamic vinegar generously.
After 1 minute turn off heat.
Plate the figs on top of the steak, then drizzle with the melted butter-balsamic mix.

Yeah. It's good 😀

- Sirloin steaks (American: short loin)
- fresh pineapple chunks
- salt & pepper
- thickly sliced onion
- olive oil
- pomegranate molasses (condensed pomegranate juice)

1. Marinate the steaks overnight with the pineapple and seasoning. The pineapple tenderises the meat, so it really just needs to be browned on the outside.
2. Fry the onion in olive oil, on high flame at first to caramelise, then lower to soften through. When done, mix in some pomegranate molasses.
3. Fry the steaks on a high flame, till coloured.

I served this with steamed young potatoes, lathered in butter, and a salad dressed in walnut oil that, along with rocket, baby spinach and watercress, included dill brought from Morocco. It is worlds apart from its flavourless European counterpart. Tiger and pussycat different. Now I know why I once penned this verse:

dill—
missing it so much
that even when I get it
I still miss it a little

You'll need: Ginger root, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, instant tea (for that authentic Indian touch!) + the usual: eggs, milk, cream and sugar.
For this recipe, pulverise/liquidise/blend all the ingredients, then place in the freezer, mixing every now and then before it freezes fully. Or use an ice cream maker if you have one!

For the sauce you'll need:
* 1 can chopped tomatoes
* a small bunch scallions (spring onions), chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, chopped
* 250 ml (half a pint) fresh cream
* 1 good squeeze of tomato purée
* 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
* 1 teaspoon horseradish sauce
* 1 teaspoon dried oregano
* salt & pepper
* olive oil

- Heat olive oil in a pan
- Add the tomatoes, scallions and garlic and cook about 5 minutes till reduced somewhat
- Add the remaining ingredients and cook a further 7-8 minutes, till thick, stirring often

Now for the noodles:
* 400 grams fresh Schwäbische Spätzle

- While making the sauce, bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add the noodles. As soon as they float to the surface, remove and drain well.
- Mix well with the cream sauce and plate up. (3 generous servings)
I served with Wiener Schnitzel ?

First, fast-freeze your bugs to murder them humanely. They'll just doze off and never wake up.
Then roast them. They'll gain a yummy nutty flavour and aroma.
Next, stuff the mushrooms with garlic, soy sauce, olive oil and roasted bugs, and roast in the oven.
De-lishus!!