Photo: French's mustard

I’m a big mustard fan. I always make fresh English mustard (Colman’s) from powder when we are having steak. I also have a passion for French’s mustard – with sausages ideally. I like the little sombrero hat that acts as a lid and the funny windy, squishy sound when you squeeze the pack.

In fact one day when we were preparing lunch one day – soup and sandwiches – I thought Danny’s table matters had really gone downhill. When I heard that sound I thought that he was sampling the soup rather than adding some zing to the sandwiches!

Today Steve Ott the editor of Kitchen Garden magazine came to visit. Lunch was supposed to be an easy meal – just cold chicken, ham, warm potato salad and coleslaw. We’d roasted the chicken the night before and when I started to carve it I discovered that it was still pink so we could only eat a little of the breast. Luckily I still had some bacon and egg pie. Then the potatoes cooked unevenly and had to be reboiled. Finally, reaching for the mayonnaise to make the coleslaw dressing I realised that the jar was nearly empty.

So I busked with ingredients that I found in the fridge and made this one. It was a big hit with Danny who declared afterwards.
“Delicious and much, much better than your usual coleslaw dressing!”

And the secret ingredient is French’s mustard that just happened to be sitting on the side twinkling at me.

A new coleslaw dressing

Ingredients:
3 heaped tablespoons of Greek yoghurt
1 tablespoon of mayonnaise
1 teaspoon of French’s mustard
A good dash of ground white pepper
Half a teaspoon of orange vinegar or white wine vinegar

Method:
Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl and add the sliced vegetables – I used a Spring cabbage from the garden, an onion and a large carrot. Mix well and serve.

Photo: Savoury rice with cold meat

Simple boiled rice, such as good basmati, or a dish like frittata can be a joy, especially if you add a little something to lift it above the ordinary. In my wilder years, I learned to cook by trial and error after accepting a position in a Chelsea, London household even though I did not have the foggiest idea of even how to boil an egg.
Nowadays I would probably be summarily fired after Day Two but this couple were exceptionally kind people. On this blog I call them Smart Wife and Kind Husband. In England, the term Smart means relatively wealthy, well educated and well connected, rather than just intelligent. This couple were movers and shakers and way ahead of their time.
Kind Husband taught me how to make a simple dish, like baked egg, into a triumph of texture and flavour. Smart Wife showed me how to make a vichychoisse to die for, how to tart up macaroni cheese and a host of nifty shortcuts that would turn a basic dish into something superb.

“If all else fails feed your guests loads of expensive treats and some really good wine. After a few glasses they will guzzle whatever you put in front of them.”

My one regret about living with Danny is that he doesn’t like macaroni cheese – prinked up or the bog standard that I adore.

The  Chelsea expert tips and tricks were something that I forgot over the intervening years. I was totally focussed on my career and rarely cooked.
It is only in the past few years that we have rediscovered the joys of simplicity when it comes to cooking and how easy it can be to turn a plain dish into a memorable treat. It did take many experiments but each experience taught us a great deal, mainly about combinations that work  and how to pull around semi failures.

Photo: Fritatta with the special mixture

Dannyis very keen on developing these building blocks and has come up with a great combination addition to add to many dishes, like rice and frittata. He has not tried freezing it in batches yet but I cannot think of any reason why it should not work. Just thaw and reheat before adding. The combination of onion, garlic, bell peppers and romano peppers is sweet and delicious.

Ingredients
1 medium red onion (white will also work) about 100g to 150g unpeeled
50g approx each of red bell pepper, yellow or green bell pepper and romano pepper – that is a slice off each pepper
One or two cloves of garlic, approx 4g to 5g unpeeled
100 ml of boiling water
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp of either oyster sauce, mushroom sauce or red wine at a pinch
half tsb vegetable stock powder (or veg or chicken stock cube)
quarter tsb ground black pepper

Method
1. Pour the olive oil into a frying pan and heat it up at a quite low setting to avoid burning the ingredients (our ring goes from 1 to 9 and D sets it to 2 for 10 minutes while he prepares the veg)
2. Meanwhile peel and chop the onion, reasonably fine
3. Peel the garlic cloves and chop finely
4. Wash and slice the peppers into cubes about 1cm square
5. Add the onions to the heated oil in the frying pan and stir
6. While the onions are frying, in a jug or mug, mix the stock powder, balsamic, soy, oyster sauce, blavk pepper and the water and mix together
7. 5 minutes after the onions started to fry, add the garlic
8. After 5 more minutes add the peppers
9. After 10 more minutes add the liquid mix and cover the pan
10. Cook for another 10 minutes.

That’s it.
If you are cooking boiled rice, just add the rice to the frying pan, mix well and serve. A few cherry tomatoes added now are a great addition in season.
When we  cook frittata, we just add the beaten egg and stir it all together.

Photo: Veal schnitzel

“How about Wiener Schnitzel for supper tonight?”
Danny looked unimpressed.

Picking through the freezer I had found some small veal escalopes that I’d picked up from the Tesco *CFC a few weeks ago. One was a little smaller than my hand and the other barely reached across my palm. Wiener Schnitzel seemed the sensible option. I had never made schnitzels and was keen to have a go.

Danny perked up when I mentioned that I was going to marinade the meat.
“Great idea. Veal can be so tasteless.”
Between you and me I like the subtle flavour of veal and the blandness of traditional Wiener Schnitzel but I was keen to switch D onto the delights of schnitzels. In the end I was delighted that I took this route.

So the veal marinated in the fridge all day and during my breaks I sniffed about the Internet for recipes. I discovered that all sorts of meat are used for making schnitzels from pork to chicken – it’s a great way of stretching meat (literally) to go a bit further. I watched a video of a man making 20 chicken schnitzels from two chicken breasts and my mind raced – if my schnitzels worked this could be a whole new way of eating less meat and still feeling satisfied.

These schnitzels were delicious. The key was the marinade – the veal was packed with flavour. And they were quick and easy to make too.
Veal Schnitzels (Wiener Schnitzel) for two

Ingredients:

200g -250g of veal escalopes
1 egg (beaten)
2 tablespoons of plain flour
2 – 3 tablespoons of dried breadcrumbs (we make our own by baking stale bread and then crushing it with a rolling pin – it lasts well in an airtight jar)
1 tablespoon of olive oil to fry

For the marinade:

3 tablespoons of red wine
Half a teaspoon of garlic granules
Quarter teaspoon of dried tarragon

Method:

Prepare the marinade and add the veal (I use a small plastic bag wrapped tight around the meat so that the marinade is in contact with all surfaces) and put in the fridge for 5-6 hours.

Drain off the marinade and place each escalope between 2 sheets of cling film. This is the fun bit – bash the escalopes gently with a wooden hammer or rolling pin to a uniform thickness (of about  a quarter of an inch/ 6 millimetres).

Take three plates. Spread out the flour on the first plate, the beaten egg on the second and the breadcrumbs on the third.

Coat each schnitzel with flour, and then dip each side in the egg and finally the breadcrumbs.

Fry the schnitzels for three minutes each side. Let them rest in a warm place for five minutes and serve with a wedge of lemon.

*Condemned Food Counter