My gran used to cook a lot. She always seemed to be in the kitchen making a meal or cake of some description. She was a proper home cook, and would never buy expensive cuts or experiment much.
She used to boil onions in her pressure cooker on cold winter nights and serve them with a good knob of butter and white pepper, which gave me an idea for a modern-day starter, in her memory.
She would also make bread pudding as a teatime snack or to wrap up to take to school. It’s an ideal way of using old bread, and though you used to see it in old-fashioned cake shops and cafés, these days it’s rare.
A plate of alliums
There’s an array of alliums you can use in this dish, so don’t worry if you haven’t got all of my suggestions – it will be great with just three varieties.
Timings
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
Serves
4
Ingredients
- 2 long banana shallots or 4 large shallots, unpeeled
- 2 red onions, unpeeled
- 2 medium leeks, trimmed
- 8 small or 4 large spring onions
For the dressing
- 1 tbsp cider vinegar
- 3 tbsp rapeseed oil, plus a little extra for frying
- 1 tsp Dijon or Tewkesbury mustard
- 16-20 chives, finely chopped
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas mark 5. Put the shallots and red onions on an oven tray; bake for 45 minutes until tender, removing the shallots after 20 minutes. Leave to cool; remove the skin from the red onions, quarter them and pull apart the natural layers. Remove the skin from the shallots and cut them in half.
2. Meanwhile, cook the leeks in a pan of well-salted water for 15-20 minutes or until tender, then leave to cool in the water.
3. Whisk the vinegar, rapeseed oil and mustard together, season and add the chopped chives.
4. Heat about half a tablespoon of rapeseed oil in a pan, add the spring onions and cook on a low heat for 2-3 minutes until wilted.
5. To serve, halve the leeks lengthwise and cut into 4-5cm lengths. Cut the spring onions into similar lengths. Arrange all the alliums on plates then spoon over the dressing.
Tarragon chicken
For this style of dish, or a curry, I always use the legs. Using breast is a waste of good meat, as it won’t stay moist with long cooking. You can serve this with buttery mash, rice or a nice selection of roasted or mashed root vegetables. Braised salad onions are also good.
Timings
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 50 minutes
Serves
4
Ingredients
- 4 large, good quality chicken legs
- a little vegetable or corn oil for frying
- 2 large or 4 medium shallots, peeled, halved and finely chopped
- 100ml white wine
- 40g unsalted butter
- 40g flour, plus a little extra for dusting
- 1 litre chicken stock (a couple good cubes will do)
- 100ml double cream
- 1-2 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon
- mash or roasted vegetables, to serve
Method
1. Cut the chicken legs in half at the joint and remove the knuckle from the drumstick and discard. If the legs are very large you can cut the thighs in half through the bone. Season and dust the chicken legs with flour.
2. Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the chicken for 2-3 minutes without colouring. Remove from the pan and put
to one side. Add the shallots and wine to the pan and simmer on a low heat, removing any residue from the base of the pan then remove from the heat.
3. In a separate, heavy-based saucepan or casserole, melt the butter, stir in the flour then gradually whisk in the chicken stock to make a smooth sauce.
4. Add the shallots and wine and the pieces of chicken, season, bring back to a simmer then cover with a lid and cook on a low heat for 35-45 minutes or until the chicken is tender. The sauce should be fairly thick at this stage. If not, remove the pieces of chicken with a slotted spoon and simmer the sauce until it’s thickened.
5. Add the cream and tarragon, check the seasoning and serve.
Gran's apple and prune bread pudding
Considering it’s made of leftover bread, this really does work a treat. You can posh it up by serving it warm with ice cream or clotted cream, and in the past I’vepan-fried slices of it in butter. I’ve substituted the traditional water for apple juice to give it a West Country accent and replaced the sultanas with prunes. Apples and prunes are a great marriage, rather like the classic prunes and calvados.
Timings
Prep time: 20 minutes, plus soaking and steeping
Cook time: 35 minutes
Serves
4-6
Ingredients
- 450ml apple juice
- 200g caster sugar, plus extra for dusting
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 120g dried prunes, chopped and soaked overnight in warm water
- 400g brown or white bread, torn into small pieces
- a couple good knobs of butter
- 3 apples, cored and thinly sliced
- 4 eggs, beaten cream or ice cream, to serve
Method
1. Place the apple juice, sugar, mixed spice and soaked prunes in a large pan and bring to the boil. Place the bread in a heatproof bowl and pour in the warm apple juice mixture. Stir, leave to cool, then cover and chill overnight.
2. Melt the butter in a frying pan and cook the apples on a medium heat for 3-4 minutes then fold into the bread mixture with the eggs.
3. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas mark 4. Line a 20cm- to 22cm-square baking tin with greaseproof paper. Transfer the mixture into the tin. Bake for about 15 minutes, then dust the top with caster sugar and continue baking for another
20 minutes until firm and golden.
4. Leave to cool then carefully turn out and slice. Serve warm with ice cream, thick double cream or clotted cream.
Read last week's column: Mark Hix's low-cost seafood recipes
