sausage and mash

Sausage and mash is a simple pleasure. It's not a complicated meal to prepare, and so invites a development of family ritual around it. In this house the mash verges on the mousseline, with lots of milk and butter. The sausages must be high meat content, and we're happy to have merguez or other spicy sausage. I like some Dijon mustard, preferably served with a small wooden mustard spoon. Others indulge themselves with pickles and chutneys, and sweet chilli sauce has graced the table alongside the sausage at times. But the main thing is the mash.

Vegetable accompaniments with family approval include green salad with family dressing, carrot with onion (also called caramel carrots) and cabbage. Savoy cabbage, spring greens or finely shredded white cabbage, braised with a little finely sliced onion, some butter, a pinch of salt and a few vigorous grindings of black pepper. The only liquid needed is what the cabbage brings with it from having been washed.

Onion gravy also has its place - especially for those evenings when hunger strikes hard.

For the mash I favour a white potato, a little over cooked and drained. Milk is then brought nearly to the boil in the potato pan, the drained potatoes are added, and the mashing begins. I start with a push down masher and finish with a fork. Butter is included, a couple of pinches of salt, several grindings of black pepper and a pinch of nutmeg - I grate it into the pan. My dad used enough to cover the tip of a sharp knife, but I use more. The potatoes are mashed to a smooth consistency, then turned into a heatproof bowl and popped under the grill until the top gets toasty.

Serve with sizzling sausages of choice.

Grilled chicken salad with cheese nachos

On a recent family outing we ate cheese nachos at a bar, with jalapenos, guacamole, and salsa. I fancied a lazy meal last night, and bought some low salt tortilla chips and got on with conjuring up my own version. For the hungry I swapped salsa for chicken and added shredded lettuce.

The result was tasty and tangy, and went well with some tv. The heat came mostly from the jalapenos, which also had a nice vinegary edge, that complimented the creaminess of the guacamole. The tang is balanced by the cooked capsicum. The colours were nice and lively for a cold winter’s evening, and would also work on a summer’s day or night, when you could do the chicken on a bbq.

The chicken needs marinading for about an hour.

The capsicum pepper is cooked over the flame of a gas cooker. I’ve never tried it on an electric cooker. I shall experiment with a dry frying pan and report back.

For the more lazy, buy the guacamole.

Quantities are for two people who like their food. The only straight carbs are the tortilla chips.

Ingredients

For the chicken salad

Two skinless chicken legs (thigh and drumstick) or equivalent

Two handfuls of chopped lettuce

Small jar jalapeno peppers

1 capsicum pepper

For the marinade

Juice of 1 orange or similar (about ½ mug)

2 tbsp vinegar

2 tbsp tomato ketchup

1 crushed chopped clove garlic

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp of sugar

1 large pinch of salt

Generous grindings of black pepper

·        Mix everything together in a bowl large enough to hold the chicken.

·        Slash the flesh of the chicken.

·        Mix the chicken and the marinade, coating the chicken completely.

·        Leave to marinade for about an hour or at least as long as it takes to prepare the rest of the meal.

·        Char the skin of the pepper thoroughly over a gas ring, wrap in foil or baking parchment and set aside until cool.

·        Wash and dry the lettuce and shred finely, spread around a large plate.

·        Drain the jalapenos and scatter over the lettuce.

·        Scrape charred skin off the pepper and roughly chop the flesh (chucking seeds and stem away), sprinkle over lettuce and jalapenos.

·        Grill the marinaded chicken for 7 minutes a side.

·        Wrap in foil and allow to sit for at least five minutes

·        Take the cooked meat off the bone and slice into bite size chunks.

·        Put sliced cooked chicken into the middle of the plate of lettuce and peppers.

For the guacamole

2 ripe avocados

1 tomato

10 sprigs of coriander

½ an onion

1 mild chilli

Salt and pepper

Juice of ½ lime

·        Chop the tomato, onion, coriander and deseeded chilli as finely as possible with the pepper and salt – or blitz in a mini processor/bash about in a pestle and mortar.

·        Cut the avocados into small bits and mash the lot together with a fork.

·        Add the lime juice and stir – adjust seasoning to taste.

Cheesy nachos

1 pkt tortilla chips

Cheddar or similar

Set the oven to medium heat.

·        Get a large heatproof dish and put the tortilla chips on it.

·        Grate enough cheddar over the lot to give a thin covering.

·        Heat for 10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted.

Tuck in.

salad dressing - a lift on a winter's day

I had salad as usual yesterday, green leaves with the family dressing. Absolutely great on a grey day. The garlic is good for you and at the moment I seem to love anything that is that vibrant spring green, and lettuce hits the spot.

Try it.

salad dressing recipe

salad dressing

There is only one salad dressing. Well, there may be other dressings, but this is THE ONE to remember. It's the Long Family salad dressing. It's more than Elizabeth David could manage, to write this down. Her likely source book, by the marvellous Jean-Noel Escudier, doesn't list it.

What's it good for then? Well it's good for everything. It's great with any green salad. Other favourites of mine are sliced tomatoes, any lightly cooked veg, and pain bagnat.

So, everyone should have a pestle and mortar. Wooden. Hardwood is best. However, research tells me that they don't. So I'm giving two methods to make the dressing. Oh, and Jamie Oliver sells a strange thing with a ball in it - you could use that too, just make sure you mix the first batch of the ingredients before adding the olive oil. It does make a difference.

1 clove garlic (peeled)
salt (preferably maldon) hearty pinch
pepper several good grindings
1 tbsp red wine vinegar

3 to 4 tbsp best olive oil

with pestle and mortar
pound the garlic, pepper and salt together to make a fine puree, don't stint, really mash it up
add the vinegar
mix to a uniform paste
add olive oil and mix well

without pestle and mortar

finely chop the garlic (as small as you can, crushing it with the side of a knife first will release the delicious juices,and help get the skin off)


mix chopped garlic, pepper and salt together

add the vinegar
mix well
add olive oil and stir
use to dress your salad, shortly before eating it

If you don't like the smell of garlic on your fingers there are some gizmos to help reduce contact with the garlic, but don't buy ready peeled garlic - the fresher the better. Still garlic is good for you, whether cooked or raw, but in the battle with cholesterol raw is best. 

tips

you can make a larger batch and keep it in the fridge for around a week - remember, the longer it keeps, the stronger the garlic flavour, so you might want to use slightly less garlic

you can use this as a marinade, but then halve the quantity of oil

My friend Alex makes the dressing with balsamic, which is nice but sweeter. Kitty has taken to this, and waits until everyone has eaten their fill, then adds balsamic to my dressing and eats straight from the bowl, which is slightly embarassing.

I like to dress green salad just before serving it. If you put the dressing on and let the leaves sit they don't look the same.

don't
Use dressing as a suntan oil, as an old flatmate used to, well it was lemon and olive oil, she explained that you can't have too many freckles. I have no idea how her skin has fared because we've lost touch.