'Kitchen basics'

When thinking about setting your kitchen up you need to have some basic key ingredients and equipment. A well stocked 'pantry' with the right equipment will enable you to cook anything in hurry!

Seasoning is essential when cooking. I use Malden sea salt. These salt flakes are perfect for straight seasoning direct onto any food product. When cooking say mashed potato or cooking vegetables I always season the water with normal table salt. I use ground white pepper when making something like mashed potato. I would use freshly cracked black pepper for seasoning meat, fish or serving fresh vegetables.

Spices need to be kept away from sunlight in sealed jars. Having the right spices is essential. I have the following spices in my cupboard: Madras curry powder, curry powder, cardamon pods, cloves, vanilla pods, ground cumin, ground ginger, ground coriander, paprika, ground cinnamon, nutmeg,coriander seeds, mixed spice, chinese five spice. There are so many more spices out there you might want to experiment with choices of your own.

Vinegars are used usually to de glaze pans as well as to make vinegarettes, dressings etc. I have malt, raspberry, balsamic & white wine vinegar.

Rice and pulses. I only use basmati rice for my curries. I also have aborio risotto rice and short grain rice for my 'rice pudding'

Chocolate. You have to have a good quality solid chocolate and cocoa powder at all times. There are so many different types of chocolate I'm not going to give you a brand but suffice to say only buy a chocolate with at least 70% cocoa solids

Oils. As much as extra virgin olive oil is great I think it is too strong for dressings so I always add a touch of vegetable oil. I use pommace oil which is the second press of the oilves for all my frying. Walnut oil is another oil I have in my store. You can use other flavoured oils for many other things just play with them and see what you like best.

Baking: Self raising flour, plain flour, Wholemeal flour, Tipo '00' flour (for pasta), arrowroot, sugars; caster, soft light brown, icing & demerara, honey, maple syrup, dried fruits, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder. When looking at cooking with nuts or any other fruits buy and use straight away, fresh is best.

More essentials: Stock cubes meat, veg & chicken, bovril cubes, gravy thickner chicken and beef, worchester sauce, tabasco, mustards; english, dijon, coarse grain & french, capers, maple syrup, treacle, soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, mayonnaise, ketchup, brown sauce....any others you can think!

Equipment: When buying your equipment please do not buy the cheapest thing you can buy. It just doesn't pay in the end. Look at buying good quality equipment from your pans to your knives. Pans should last  lifetime and come with a good warranty. Look out for the warranty as this will give a clue as to what the manufactuere thinks of there product. The most expensive doesn't mean the best. You need a good steele to keep an edge on your knives. The diamond steele is what I have in my kitchen or you could buy one of those automatic knife sharpning machines (bit expensive though). Working with a blunt knife is dangerous keep them sharp.

Minimum equipment list:
Sauce pans non stick x 4 varied sizes
Casserole dish x1 large
Frying pan non stick small and large
Roasting trays various sizes
Wok
Pestle & mortar
Chinois (conical sieve)
Sieve
Food prosessor
Kitchen blow torch
Speed peeler
Pastry brushes
Digital scales
Hand held stick blender
Mixing bowls plastic and stainless steel
Zester
Grater
Rolling pin
Yorkshire pudding tray
Pasta machine
Hand held electric whisk
Muffin tin
Whisk various sizes
Pie dishes enamel
Loaf tins x1lb & 2lb
Cooling racks
Lose based sandwich tins 18 cm, 20cm & 23cm

Knives you will need:

Paring knife 5-7cm blade
Cooks knife 10cm & 15cm blade
Serated  / carving knife 25cm blade
Chopping knife 20cm blade

There are many other types of specialist knives but the list above will cover you for pretty much all work carried out in you home kitchen.

Mondays'

Well its Monday and the start of the week. When planning what to cook I always try to make my life as easy as possible. I've got the children till Thursday yeah.....So i've worked out a few simple dishes that won't take up much time and ensure the children have a balanced diet for the week.

This weeks menu will be:

Leek and potato soup for home lunch - Tuesday

Beef stew with mashed potato - Monday

Chicken and leek pie with vegetables - Tuesday

Turkey pasta (this one is a version of the 'Simple beef pasta' I posted last week) - Wednesday

Plum crumble (only £1 for the plums really cheap dessert) Monday & Tuesday

Breakfast time in the Mason household generally starts with panackes!! so thats breakfast out the way. For school lunch if they don't do home lunch I try to vary this as much as possible. Try making simple cold pasta salads or even cous cous salad. Really easy to make and take to school in a little plastic pot. You can put so much into these salads you'll be surprised how healthy they can be.

Todays recipe is 'Simple leek and potato soup'

Ingredients:

450g Potatoes skin on small diced
300g Leeks washed and cut in half then sliced
1 Onion diced
1 Clove garlic crushed
1 Vegetables stock cube
2 sprigs of lemon thyme (optional)
1.5 ltr hot water

Method:

•  Fry all ingredients except stock cube and lemon thyme, in pan with a little olive oil
• Cook until ingredients have softend a little
• Add the stock cube and a liitle salt and pepper to the pan and stir in
• Add the water bring to boil (at this point add the lemon thyme if using)
• Simmer for about 30 minutes and serve with warm crusty bread

Yummy.....

'Simple beef pasta'

I'm always looking for new pasta dishes for the children. This dish was a massive hit yesterday when I made it for the children.

Ingredients:

240g Sirloin steak (I used Aberdeen reared steak)
200g Dry Fuesli pasta (Pasta as rule doubles in weight once cooked. Adult portion of cooked pasta is about 200g and a 100g for a child)
1 packet of baby asparagus
1 red pepper
10 Basil leaves
I banana shallot diced
2 cloves of garlic crushed
25g butter
Paremsan

Method:

1. Start by putting a pan of water onto boil for he pasta and asparagus
2. Trim the steak of the fat an cut into thin strips across the beef and then cut thise strips into 2 strips
3. Diced the shallot
4. Peel and crush the garlic
5. Thinly slice the pepper
6. By this time the water will be boiling - cook the asparagus for about 3 minutes.
7. Now start cooking the rest of the ingredients in a wok or big non stick frying pan
8. Fry the sliced pepper on a medium heat then;
9. Garlic & onion sweat for a futher 2 minutes
10. Then flash fry the beef strips just so the beef are brown on the outside
11. Turn heat down and attend to the asparagus - take out of water and put to one side
12. Then using the same water cook the pasta. The pasta will only take about 6-8 minutes to cook.
13. Chop the asparagus into 3 pieces each
14. Shred the basil leaves finely
15. Once the pasta is cooked strain keeping hot and add straight into the pan
16. Then add the shredded basil and cut asparagus
17. finsih with the butter and season
18. To serve shave or grate parmesan to taste



Pear Frangipane tartlets

Pear frangipane Tart (serves 6)

Sweet pastry

Ingredients:

225g plain flour

110g butter

160g caster sugar

1 egg

Method:

Soften butter; rub together with flour & sugar

Add the egg and bring together to form a ball

Chill in fridge for 30mins

Roll out to 3mm thick and press into 5” individual tartlet cases

Prick the base and bake in a pre heated oven @ 160*c until golden

Frangipane

Ingredients:

120g Butter

120g icing sugar

4 eggs

120g ground almonds

25g Plain flour

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

Cream butter & icing sugar

Add one egg at a time mixing well

Sift flour to mixture then add the almonds

Add vanilla extract

Tinned half pears need to be fanned ready to top tart

Constructing the tart:

Add two large tbsp of the mixture to each tartlet case

Top with the fanned pear half

Bake in a preheated oven @ 180*c for 13-17 minutes

Serving suggestion:

Melt a little rind less marmalade with the pear juice to make a glaze. When the tart come out of the oven brush with the glaze and serve with vanilla pod ice cream

Scallops & black pudding

This dish is just amazing and maybe a little restauranty, but if you want a little treat try it.

Ingredients:

• 3 Large scallops in the shell per person (ask the fish monger to take them out of the shell for you)
• 1 slice of black pudding (preferably stornaway black pudding) cut into small cubes
• 1 Cauliflower (this will give about 4/5 servings)
• 1 ltr Milk
• 12 Mini capers per person
• Micro herbs
• Seasoning malden sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper

Method:

• Cook cauliflower in the milk until mushy strain and puree with hand blender
• Fry your capers in a little olive oil until crispy (this takes about 30 seconds)
• Cut your black pudding into small cubes and grill until hot
• Season and Cook you scallops in a frying pan with olive oil. 2 minutes on each side on a medium heat
• Now your ready to plate as you can see from the picture the dish is just garnished with the micro herbs. I've used chard as this gives a slight bitter taste to contrast against the sweet scallop flavour. 

   Tips & hints: when the scallops are just about ready squeeze a little lemon and a knob of butter and spoon over each scallop.

Simple flat bread

Lemon thyme, garlic & parmesan flat bread.

Ingredients:

• 250g Self raising flour
• 300g Natural low fat Yoghurt
• 3 sprigs of lemon thyme
• 2 cloves of garlic sliced
• Shaved parmesan
• 25g Butter

Method:

• Pre heat oven 180*C/ Gas mark 4/350*F
• Mix the flour, yoghurt and 2 picked sprigs of thyme together to form a dough
• Turn the dough out onto a flour surface and flatten with your hands (do not use a rolling pin)
• Dimensions 1/2 inch thick by 10 inches wide.
• Top with the chopped garlic, the extra picked thyme, butter and 4 or 5 shavings of parmesan
• Place in frying pan and brown the base. This only takes 2 minutes on a medium heat then place in oven and cook for 12-15 minutes

Tips & hints:

The flat bread recipe of flour and yoghurt is just the base. You can use this and top with any flavours. Suggestion: Rosemary, sunblushed tomato and walnut oil. 

This is great with pasta. I had friends round the other night and I made this for my 'Linguine de palou' (recipe to follow) and a lovely glass of DINO selezione NO5 Italia pinot grigio amazing wine by the way.  

Frosted lemon cake

Olivia loves making this cake! & I love eating it....

Ingredients:

Cake:
100g margarine
175g caster sugar
175g Self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
4 tbs milk
1 lemon zested

Frosted topping:
Juice of 1 lemon
100g caster sugar

Method:

Cake

• Pre heat oven 180*C / Gas mark 4 / 350*F
• Grease a 1lb tin loaf and line bottom and sides with grease proof paper
• Weigh all cake ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth (cheffy tip: I would use an electric whisk other wise it takes ages!)
• Turn into tin loaf & level out
• Bake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes
• Check if ready my pressing the top of the cake this should spring back or a wooden skewer by poking in the centre of the cake should come out clean

Frosted topping

• Melt the sugar over a medium heat with the lemon juice until the sugar has disolved

To finish the cake simply poor the frosting over the top of the cake once cooked and still in the tin. Allow to cool then turn out. Right, now the best bit!! make yourself a cup of tea and get stuck in :-)