Butter Chicken Curry (Murg Makhani)

Butter chicken curry is a rich, creamy, tomato-based curry. It's not particularly known for it's spiciness, but you can adjust this how you like. Though I'm a firm believer that not all curries need to have chilli heat (mostly because I'm not good at handling it). 

Miso Pork Ribs with Korean Glaze

During the coronavirus pandemic, local companies around my area have been adapting - as I'm sure they have around the world. My favourite being local restaurants temporarily turning into takeaways (which I obviously support, triple fried chicken burger with triple cheese and triple bacon anyone?). A very close second favourite conversion, is butchers doing deliveries. Every couple of weeks, me and my housemate place an order for the likes of sausages, steaks, burgers, koftas and beef mince. This week, we decided to get a rack of ribs for our Saturday night dinner and the butchers did not disappoint. We got a rack of very meaty ribs. 

Soy & Honey Lamb Shank

Turkey Katsu

Egg Foo Young (Cantonese Style)

Korean (Not)Fried Chicken

Chicken & Oyster Mushroom Stir Fry

Asian Pulled Pork

This is a rather unique way of using red bean paste; something usually reserved for Chinese desserts. But not having much of a sweet tooth myself, I found another use for it: Asian-inspired pulled pork. This pulled pork is rather sweet, but that's off-set by the saltiness of the soy sauce and tangy acidity of the vinegar. 

Toulouse Sausages

I'm reposting this recipe as Toulouse sausages are one of my favourite tubular meats. Here, I've served them simply, with carbonara with homemade pasta. But, they'd have a great starring role in a sausage casserole and are a key ingredient in one of my favourite French dishes: cassoulet. 

Kung Pao Chicken

After doing a bit of research into Kung Pao chicken, I found that there are a few different versions depending upon the region of origination in China. So this has become a bit of a mix up of those recipes and I've omitted some of the chillies - my heat tolerance is still pretty low - but feel free to throw in a few dried chillies along with the chicken. My recipe will give you an almost sweet and sour flavour with a background note of heat from the chilli sauce.

Zha Jiang Mian (Fried Sauce Noodles)

This recipe came about after I found some beef mince in the freezer and did a bit of research into Chinese noodle dishes using minced beef and pork.

Sweet Soy Glazed Pork Ribs

This recipe is delicious. I know that sounds sort of big headed. But it is. It's sweet, salty, moreish.
Don't be limited to pork ribs though. The glaze is also good with fried chicken, salmon or prawns.

Cantonese-Style (sort of) Chow Mein

I've included "sort of" in the title of this post because I'm referring to the cooking style, not the ingredients themselves. Rather than throwing all the ingredients into the wok together, they're separated out and cooked individually, then combined at the end. This gives greater control over how each one is cooked and you're less prone to mistakes (like uneven cooking or burning). 

Chicken Gyros

Everyone loves a good (or dirty) takeaway; I refuse to believe that there's one person that doesn't! But, they can be expensive and possibly a tad unhealthy to say the least. But making your own can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be (think rare breed meats, heritage vegetables, etc.). And, damn, making it yourself tastes so good.

DIY Doner Kebab

Takeaways may be an easy (and tasty?) option on a Friday night, but they're so expensive. Especially compared to making your own versions at home which are almost guaranteed to taste better.

Pizza Bianca Funghi (white pizza with mushrooms)

White pizza has fast become a favourite of mine. I first had one when I went to the Italian restaurant Zizzi and fell in love. It comes away from the classic tomato flavour that crosses between all other pizzas, whether they're thin and crispy or deep and fluffy, but it certainly doesn't lose anything. What I've done here it to really simplify it but it can be easily adapted and played around with to incorporate other ingredients and tastes. 

Easy Egg Fried Rice

For me, egg fried rice is one of the regular dishes I feast on when I order Chinese takeaway on a Saturday night. But it's so simple, cheap and versatile to make yourself. It can be made simply as a side dish (as I've done in these photos) or spruced up to make a meal in its own right.

Salami with fennel (final week)

They're ready! And a lot sooner than I expected it to be. Originally, I thought it'd take 6-10 weeks but in less than 3 weeks the salami had lost over 30% of their weight through moisture loss - meaning they're ready for nomming on. 

Salami with fennel (week 2)

Week 2 of my salami project and they seem to be doing well. I had a little scare with some green mold appearing on the topside of the bend. So, straight away I wiped it off with some vinegar and kitchen paper. Then I set about doing a little bit of research. 

Salami with fennel (week 1)

So after the disappointing failure of my venison prosciutto, I wanted to try something that was maybe a bit more realistic and not quite as expensive. So, I chose salami. I've made regular pork and beef sausages before, so I was fairly comfortable with using a sausage maker and there's something strangely satisfying about making these sorts of products using it.