Eating on 'Rosy' - Recipes

1. Rice
2. Staffordshire Oatcakes
3. Wok Food
4. Potatoes
5. Standard Mush
6. Dhal

RICE

This, for me, is a staple.  I’ll admit to using the best - basmati, long grain rice really is good.

I used to put plenty of water into a pan, salt it, bring it boiling point, chuck the rice in, get it simmering, leave it for 12 minutes, strain off the liquid and eat the rice.

This system works OK, but there are two problemettes.  The first is that the liquid which is poured away contains some nutrients which are, hence, wasted.  The second is that any flavourings added to the rice are also lost when the liquid is poured away.  These problems also affect the (more expensive) 'boil in a bag’ rice that is now so widely available.  Hence there is a need to know how to cook rice by boiling to dryness.

At home, a rice cooker is a good idea, but on 'Rosy' a straightforward saucepan is used.

Take a tea cup or a mug (or what have you).  This is your basic measure.  Two of these measures of water are required for one measure of rice.  The rice needs these two measures of water, so if you lose any water (either via steam or by the water boiling over) then the rice will be spoiled.  Hence the saucepan must have a close fitting lid.

So, place two measures of water into the saucepan, add some salt, bring to the boil.  As soon as it starts to boil, chuck in one measure of rice and turn the heat down so that the mix is barely simmering, and put the lid on.  You might have to turn the heat down a smidgen more, to stop the pan from boiling over.  After 12 minutes, turn the heat off.  If the rice is still slightly damp, leave it in the pan for a few minutes, with the lid removed, whilst it dries off.

Rice can be enlivened in many ways, for example by the addition of coriander powder, curry powder or a stock cube to the boiling water as you add the rice.  In these cases you need to add a splash more water to the two measures of water.

STAFFORDSHIRE OATCAKES

These are delicious.  They are like pancakes, and are especially good if they are eaten with cheese whilst they are still warm.  This is an old recipe.

• 4 oz fine oatmeal
• 4 oz plain (or wholewheat) flour
• Salt (half a teaspoonful?)
• Sugar (half a teaspoonful?)
• Yeast (half an ounce of fresh yeast, or a foil packet of the dried stuff)
• 3/4 pint of warm water and milk, mixed half and half.

1. Mix the yeast with a little of the liquid and add the sugar.  After a bit it will froth up.  This is good.  Meanwhile ....
   
   
2. Mix the flour, oatmeal and salt together.
   
   
3. Mix up (with some sort of whizzer, if you have one) the dry ingredients, with the rest of the liquid and all of the frothy yeast mix.  This should mix up to a batter.
   
   
4. Cover the mixing bowl with a cloth or a piece of kitchen roll, and leave in a warmish place for an hour.
   
   
5. Then pour some of the batter onto a well greased griddle (or heavy based frying pan), sufficient to make a cake 6 - 9 inches in diameter.  As the cake cooks, its surface will become holey.  After 2 or 3 minutes, the upper side will seem to be dry.  Turn the cake over (hoping that the revealed underside is a nice golden brown) and cook for another 2 or 3 minutes.

Note:  If oatmeal is not directly available, then porridge oats, whizzed up in a food processor turn, magically, into oatmeal.

WOK FOOD

Wok cooking has the advantages of being very fast (and hence not using very much fuel).  I’m not very adventurous, believing in keeping things simple.  The basic cooking requirements are:

• Some cooking oil (I suggest corn or sunflower);
• Some seasonings, such as sesame oil (for its taste), five-spice (bought ready mixed from a Chinese grocer), soy sauce, and chilli bean sauce;
• Cornflour. 

I tend to stick to veggies, and will make a meal from three or four, probably chosen from carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, chicory, fennel, leeks, mushrooms, lettuce, spinach, mangetout, celery, bean sprouts etc.  Whatever veggies you use, they need to be finely sliced and shredded.

Pour some cooking oil (less than an egg cup full) into the wok, and put the wok on the heat.  Keep it there until the oil starts to smoke.  Then take the veggie that is going to take the longest to cook (probably the carrots) and chuck them into the oil.  Add some seasonings, and add the other ingredients.  Carrots need to cook for 3 or 4 minutes, lettuce and bean sprouts need 30 seconds to a minute.  At the end of the cooking, if the mix looks a bit wet and watery, mix a teaspoonful of cornflour with a little water to form a paste, add it to the wok, reduce the heat, and stir things around until things thicken up a bit.

Serve with rice or noodles or even pasta.

POTATOES

I eat more potatoes in the winter, as the coal range is then alight, and I can bake potatoes in the oven.  I wrap them in tinfoil, and bake them for about 2 hours.

One of the best meals I have ever had was up in the highlands of Scotland.  Mine host, a crofter, went out to dig up some tatties.  He washed them and put them on to boil in some salted water.  He then went to the hen house, and brought back some 'hen fresh’ eggs.  These were fried, and two were put on each of our plates.  The boiled potatoes were put in a large bowl in the middle of the table.  They were sprinkled with a generous amount of oatmeal, and a large dollop of butter was placed on top.  We helped ourselves to these.  Eggs and potatoes - a brilliant meal.  These days, I substitute olive oil for the butter.

STANDARD MUSH

This recipe has been developed over time.  It is quite easy to prepare, and reasonably inexpensive, and only uses two saucepans.

Take a couple of good sized onions.  Peel them, finely chop them up, and pop them into a saucepan, together with some crushed garlic (if you like garlic).  Add some oil.  If you want some meat in the dish, this should be added at this time.  Suggested meats are a sliced up sausage or two, or a few chopped rashers bacon, or some chopped up spam or corned beef, or even some mince.  Put the pan onto some highish heat for a few seconds until things are hot, then put the lid on the saucepan, and turn the heat right down to a low simmer.  The aim is to soften and sweat the onions until they are soft and translucent, without browning them.

If some veggies are involved, these should now be put into a second pan, with some salted water, and boiled for no more than 8 minutes.

At this point, the pan with the onions etc. should be ready, so add some seasonings to them.  For one or two people, I'd suggest half of a small (70g) tin of tomato puree.  (I take the whole of the lid off the tin, spoon half the contents into the onions, flatten the remainder in the tin, and then (nearly) fill the tin with cooking oil, and pop it into the fridge.  It will keep safely for 2 or 3 days).  Curry powder or paste could be added, or some paprika and/or chilli powder.  If your taste buds appreciate subtleties, you could try some concentrated mushroom soup (either from a tin, or make up some from a packet using a half or a third of the suggested quantity of water).

Having seasoned the onion mix, scoop the veggies out of the veggie pan, and into the onion pan, mix the veggies and onions together, and turn the heat right down.  If the mix looks a bit dry, add an egg cup full of beer or wine.

At this point, the veggie water should still be in the veggie pan.  You should try to organise things such that there is a bit more than twice as much (by volume) liquid as there is rice.  Consider adding half a veggie stock cube to this liquid, then chuck the rice in, bring to the boil, stir, cut the heat down to a simmer, and simmer for 10 minutes.  At the end of the 10 minutes the rice should still have a little liquid showing.  Pour all the contents of this pan into the onion pan, and continue the onion pan on a very low simmer.

You now have time to wash up the veggie/rice pan, and any other dirty utensils.  After 2 to 4 minutes, the meal will be ready to serve.  It will be so hot that you'll have time to wash up the onion pan, and the serving utensils.

Munchy, munchy, munchy.

A TEENAGER'S GUIDE TO DHAL

Health warning!  Do NOT click on this link (which takes you to the Dhal recipes), if swearing offends you!  It is better that you should go without Dhal for the rest of your life than that I should upset you in any way.  I mean this most sincerely.