Food on sticks – keeps hands clean, makes food fun! I’d like to dedicate this post to Catty who has left our shores this week for Australia and inspired me to make this recipe from her food on sticks post.

Forigve me, I’m trying to write this with the taste of soil in my mouth. I had a bit of a disaster with dinner. I picked some spring onions from the garden and boiled them with some chicken. Those spring onions tasted strongly of soil it seems and tainted my chicken with soil flavour. It was gross…so now I’m redirecting my mind to nicer foods. Deep fried food. Food on sticks.

I’ve become a bit obsessed with potato dogs…I used to get them from the village shop where my maternal grandmother lived. There was something quite pleasurable about removing the potato dog wrapped in a now-greasy paper bag from the microwave. I’ve looked on the internet, can’t find them anywhere, except one photo. I heard about these corn dogs from Family Guy and The Simpsons and looked them up. No, they weren’t the same thing. Corn dogs are coated in cornmeal batter. Potato dogs are coated in hash browns. Lovely oniony potatoey sausages. Did I mention they’re on sticks?

Can I make a recomendation? Maybe it’s because I’m totes lazy, but my food processor has a grater on it. Instead of risking boredom and taking my fingers off, I just put the potatoes and onions through the grater and it took a few seconds! I’m all about efficiency (read: lazy).

You really need to strain the grated potato and onion mixture well – or it ain’t gonna stick chicks! Strain, strain and strain some more. Then grab a small handful and see if it sticks together, if it does then you’re good to go. I added some parmigiano reggiano into the potato mix for a bit of extra flavour, y’know, just because. I also used frankfurters (wiener!) but you could use proper sausages, just cook them first!

{Makes 6}

35mins – Prep time: 20 mins – Cooking time: 15mins

Ingredients

• 6 large potatoes (I used maris piper, the starchier the better)
• 6 frankfurters
• 1 large onion
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 80g parmigiano reggiano
• 1½ tsp salt
• ¾ tsp pepper
• Kebab sticks
• Deep fat fryer

Instructions

1. Peel the potatoes and onions, then grate them. Place the mixture in a clean tea towel and make into a bag, squeezing out as much excess moisture as you can. Then squeeze some more. Leave for a couple of minutes, then try squeezing again.
2. Grate the parmigiano reggiano into the potato and onion mix, add the salt, pepper and beaten eggs. Mix well.
3. Preheat your deep fat fryer to 170°C
4. Slide your frankfurters onto the sticks. Take a handful of the mixture and gently squeeze it onto the frankfurters.Keep going until each one is covered evenly. If it doesn’t stick, you haven’t strained enough water out!
5. Depending on how big your fryer is, put in two potato dogs at a time, cooking for around 5 minutes. They’re cooked when they’re golden brown.
6. Place on a piece of kitchen roll to cool a little. Dip in a little ketchup and eat whilst still warm.

Saturday night is curry night in our household as it is for many people in Britain. This is usually a chance for me not to cook and put my feet up, but this time I’d spotted a recipe I was desperate to make a Brazilian dish I ate at las Iguanas. It’s called Xinxim de galinha and I found the recipe on the fabulous the lemurs are hungry blog – it’s one of only two recipes in english that I’ve come across for it. Another dish I ate at Las Iguanas as a starter is rioja chorizo and it seemed like a simple enough dish to make so I thought I’d give it a go myself.

We’re very lucky that our local Morrisons is their experimental “lab store”. Here you can find over 600 types of fruit and vegetables from all over the world plus an extraordinary delicatessen with varieties of charcuterie to rival what you might find in an upmarket London store. Here I found Iberico chorizo and I just had to have it. It works great in this dish, and the flavours are absorbed into the rioja, which should be enthusiastically mopped up with fresh slices of crusty bread.

{Makes about 2 starter sized portions}

25 minutes – Prep time: 10 mins – Cooking time: 15mins

Ingredients

• 180ml rioja
• 120g Iberico chorizo
• 1 small onion
• 1tbsp tomato paste
• 15g butter
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed with a knife

Instructions

1. Half the onion then slice finely. In a saute pan, melt the butter over a medium/low heat and soften the onions by covering the pan and stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes, then add the garlic.
2. Slice the chorizo into bitesize chunks and add to the pan, cooking for another 3-4 minutes.
3. Pour in the wine and tomato paste and stir well to combine with the juices, cover and simmer gently for about 10 minutes until the sauce has thickened.
4. Serve in ramekins with crusty bread.

I fell in love with lebanese omelettes since I visited Mazar in Battersea High Street. As I don’t get to London very often I have to make up my own version of their delicious omelette. I didn’t have any Lebanese spicy sausage so I replaced it with chorizo. I used Mr Singh’s chilli sauce for a little kick but you could use fresh chilli instead if you’re feeling brave!

{Serves 1}

15 mins – Prep time: 10 mins – Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients

• 3 free range eggs
• 50g chorizo cut into cubes
• 1/2 red onion, finely sliced
• A handful of fresh parsley, chopped roughly
• 3tbsp hot chilli sauce
• A knob of butter
• A good dash of black pepper
• A dash of salt

Instructions

1. Over a medium/low heat, soften the onions in a frying pan with a little of the butter (with the lid on) for about three minutes then add the chorizo cubes and cook for another couple of minutes. Set aside.
2. In a bowl, whisk the eggs with the salt, pepper and chilli sauce. Warm the frying pan on a medium heat and use the rest of the butter ensuring its spread all over the pan.
3. Pour the egg into the pan and whisk a little before allowing it to nearly (about half cooked). Sprinkle the onions and chorizo and parsley over. Allow to cook a little more until almost set (I like mine to be a little bit runny on the top), then serve.

I got sent a box of British onions a couple of weeks ago along with various condiments like mushroom ketchup, Colman’s mustard, posh ketchup and Marmite along with a letter asking if I would like to try and make some gravy with the ingredients. Now, living here in the North, gravy is almost a staple dietary requirement. Chris and I like to joke that in Morrison’s there’s two aisles for chips and one just for gravy!

Seriously though, I love good gravy, where would we be without it on a Sunday roast, or filling your toad in the hole? As I had so many onions I thought there was no better way to use the onions than to caramelise them first. A mixture of red onion and white onions gives you a sweeter flavour from the red onion and fuller flavour from the white. Knowing my onions didn’t travel a long way to get to my plate and helping our British Farmers is always a good thing too!

I loved how sweet the British onions made the gravy once they’d been caramelised; I prefer mine dark and quite thick (like warm custard) but you can always add more if you like. This recipe’s vegetarian, though you could add a bit of the meat juices if you’re making this for a roast dinner!

Ingredients

• 1 red onion
• 1 white onion
• 450ml cold water (preferably from boiling veg)
• 4 tbsp gravy browning/powder (not instant!)
• 25g butter
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1tsp Marmite
• 5 splashes Henderson’s relish (or Worcestershire sauce if you don’t have it)

Instructions

1. Slice the onions into 1/2 onion rings. Melt the butter over a low heat in a saucepan and add the onions and garlic. Put the lid on and cook for 20 mins, stirring occasionally. The onions will soften and gently brown.
2. Uncover the pan and leaving it in the low heat, let the onions cook for another 10 minutes to go more brown.
3. Mix the gravy browning with a little of the water to make a paste and then gently add the rest of the water. Add this to the caramelised onions and stir to prevent lumps. Add the Henderson’s relish and Marmite (and meat juices if you’re using any) and continue to stir until the gravy thickens. Patience is the key here – gentle heats makes much better gravy. When you’re happy with the consistency it’s ready to go!

When it comes to risotto, I have little patience standing over the pan stirring in the stock, that’s why I love oven baked risotto: you can just fry everything off in the pan and then bung it in the oven. Job done. Risotto for me is perfect recovery food – extremely comforting and homely.

This recipe is adapted from BBC Good Food’s Oven-baked risotto.

{Serves 4}

40 mins – Prep time: 15 mins – Cooking time: 25 mins (18 mins unattended)

Ingredients

• 600ml hot chicken stock
• 300g arborio risotto rice
• 150g frozen peas
• 8 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 8 slices chorizo
• 2 slices of bacon
• 1 small onion
• 1 small head broccoli
• 70g stilton
• 25g butter

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°c.
2. Make broccoli florets, cutting any large ones in half. Blanch broccoli for a 3 minutes to soften a little. Then run under cold water and shake off any excess water.
3. Chop the bacon and chorizo into small pieces. Finely chop the onion and sweat with the butter on a medium/low heat in a heavy-bottomed pan (like a Le Creuset) for 3-4 minutes with the lid on to soften it.
4. Add the bacon and chorizo and cook for another 2 minutes, then add the risotto rice and cook for further 2-3 minutes, stirring to ensure all risotto is coated in the butter.
5. Add broccoli florets, cherry tomatoes, frozen peas and hot chicken stock. Season well, stir, then put the lid on and place in the oven for 18 minutes.
6. When done, crumble the stilton into the risotto, leaving a little for garnish and stir through.

We’ve packed away the decorations and laid the Christmas songs to rest for another year, but what’s left in your fridge? Admittedly, I didn’t have the stilton left in the fridge, it was on the clearance shelf at the supermarket and I do so love blue cheese!

27mins – Prep time: 15mins – Cooking time: 12mins

{Makes: 12}

Ingredients

• 1 pack ready rolled puff pastry (375g)
• 180g bacon lardons
• 60g stilton
• 1/2 red onion

Instructions

Oven temp: 140°C/390°F

1. Grease 12 hole bun tin and cut out circles just larger than the holes in the tin. Gently push the circles into the holes using your knuckles.
2. Gently fry off the bacon and onions in a pan over a medium heat. The onions will cook in the lardon fat and will soften. Don’t overcook the bacon, the oven will finish the job!
3. Divide the bacon and onions evenly between the 12 holes.
4. Crumble the stilton over the tops of the tartlets.
5. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes, until the pastry starts to brown a little and the stilton has melted down.