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Simple Venison Couscous

Warm and wonderful on a cold night. A one pot dish that takes very little prep and is packed with flavour. Best cooked in a Tagine, or failing that a wide risotto pan with a lid.

Prep: 5min Cook: 10min

Ingredients

200g couscous

200g venison rump cut as batons

1 pepper chopped as small slices

1/2 onion finely sliced

50g chopped dried fruit (apricots, dates, figs, sultanas – any or all)

1 dstspn cumin

1 dstspn rose petal paste

1 or 2 chillies finely chopped

500ml stock (ideally venison)

Salt and pepper

Method

  1. heat some olive oil in the pan, when it’s really hot sear the venison for 10-15 sec before turning – be brave. reserve the venison.
  2. Add the onion and pepper, cook in the olive oil until softening, then add the spices and fry for a further 30sec.
  3. Add the stock, fruit and couscous, turn the heat down and cook for 5-6 min until the couscous is cooked and the juices are all absorbed.
  4. test for salt, add the venison and some fresh black pepper and serve immediately.
Venison Couscous ready to eat

This is a basic and very tasty couscous. The rose adds a lovely flavour, you can use rose harissa instead of the rose and chillies – up to you. If you want more bulk you can add some small cubes of squash. For a bit of crunch you can mix a few pine nuts through hat the end, or for a richer nuttier flavour add a dstspn of ground almonds with the couscous.

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Flour

Flour comes in a huge range of types, and is a pretty basic ingredient. Unlike some other things where I try to minimise choice and just rely on one or two types, flour is something where you need several.

Things to think about. Firstly how much will you use? like any ingredient you want to have a reasonable turnover. Especially for things like wholemeal or rye you might use them less so be sensible how much you buy at once.

The second is about choice and taste. I do make fresh pasta, but I don’t use tipo 00 flour, I find I can make excellent pasta without it. I could also live without rye flour quite easily, but I like the taste. So there is a compromise – I need to use it enough to make it worth having. For most people it’s probably not an issue, but I have to buy rye flour online, about 6kg at a time.

So what’s in the cupboard and why:

Plain Flour

A basic workhorse. Plain white flour is for white sauces, tortillas, samosa, gyoza wraps, part of a mix for pasta, pastry, cakes. I only keep one bag in at a time, and when I use it it’s in 50 – 75g batches normally. But I use it a few times a week. Even if it’s just as a base to mix spices into then coat meat before sealing in a pan – it’s my go-to thickener. I don’t have arrowroot or cornflour in the house, and most of my gravies are stack based rather than bisto based.

Self Raising

I use this much less than plain, typically in cakes and muffins. In muffins I’ll often use it instead of baking powder and plain flour, because I prefer the rise I get. I don’t use it that often, so I tend to keep one bag in, it’s still a 1.5kg because just a few trays of muffins during soft fruit season and it’s all gone…

Strong White Bread Flour

Okay so there are loads of types of bread flour. I use strong, not very strong. Why – well because it’s plenty good enough. You can read lots of good articles on the difference, but to my understanding it’s about a higher gluten and protein content in very strong flour.

Strong white flour is the backbone of my baking, it’s 50% of my pasta mix, by pizza dough, naan, pitta, ciabatta, basic white. I buy it by the 16kg sack and it’s about 3 months before my next order. It’s worth noting that from October 2022 (I think) all UK flour (except wholemeal) will be fortified with 4 key things – Iron, Calcium, Thiamine and Niacin (Vit B1 and B3). Some flours also contain extra folic acid, but many (most?) do not. My understanding is that wholemeal and gluten free flours are more often fortified with folic acid than other types. For most people it’s invisible, but for some they will want the extra folic acid and for others it can cause issues. I’m no expert, but if you are going to bake your own bread find something that’s right for you and then stick to it, or at least know what your looking for if you change.

Wholemeal Bread Flour

For basic brown bread, brown baton and for brown pastry pie toppings. In a shortcrust pie topping it adds a great nutty rich flavour that goes well with red meats. I don’t use to much so I only keep one bag in at a time.

Rye Flour

Rye is a dark strong tasting flour, it has less gluten than white flours and therefore makes denser bread. The taste is fantastic and I always add some rye to a brown loaf for that reason. However, because it has less gluten the bread doesn’t rise as much or as quickly – so a longer rise is sensible. Occasionally I’ll make a 100% rye loaf, cut into wafer thin slices it is great with meats and cheese – stronger cheeses and smoked meats can be just superb with rye. Not to everyone’s taste but I’d not be without it.

Semolina Flour

Perhaps the most unusual choice for my selection. Semolina is a must have for me. It makes pasta awesome as it is milled from durum wheat kernels, unbleached – it has high gluten and protein ensuring the right texture to a fresh pasta. I use it to fortify breads as well. My sourdough starter is 60% semolina, my naans 25% – you get the picture… My pizzas just wouldn’t be the same without it.

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Basic Breads

I bake pretty much all my own bread, except bagels (so far). And for basic bread (loaves for toast), I use a bread maker. It’s a Panasonic that’s all singing and all dancing. I use it for basic breads, rye, sourdough starters, dough of all sorts as well as jams. I use it a few times a week and it quickly paid for itself, not least because the bread tastes amazing and making ciabatta or french baton fresh makes the world of difference.

However, as with most things I don’t quite follow the recipes in the book. It’s not that they don’t work – they do, but these are slightly modified for my taste. I use a 4 hour cycle for the white and a 6 hour cycle for the brown, you can set most bread makers to pause before starting so it’s ready when you get home, or fresh for the morning.

Basic white loaf

350g strong white flour

50g semolina flour

tsp salt

10ml olive oil

tsp sugar

280ml water

1/2 a 7g packet of yeast

Brown’ish loaf

60g rye flour

100g wholemeal bread flour

240g strong white flour

10ml olive oil

tsp salt

1 egg

280ml water

1/2 a 7g packet of yeast

I use sugar in the white to get the yeast started, but the longer brown cycle doesn’t need it. I do fortify the brown with an egg (for texture and rise) and the white with semolina for a crumblier texture I prefer.

Basic white bread loaf
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Roasties

I defy you to find someone who doesn’t like roasties. I cook them the way I like them, it’s not chefy but it’s how I want them…

Prep: 5min Cook: 15min then 35min

Ingredients

500g potatoes, halved-ish – in 7.5cm chunks

2-3 beetroot peeled and in thirds/quarters

2-4 decent sized chunks of squash, peeled

vegetable oil

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 225c (fan)
  2. Start cooking the beetroot in salted boiling water, set the timer for 7min.
  3. When it beeps, put a heavy pan in the oven with a covering of about 5mm of veg oil, put the potatoes in a pan of salted boiling water. Set the timer for 8min.
  4. When it beeps drain the veg, give the potatoes a gentle rattle around the pan.
  5. Take the hot oil pan from the oven and place it on a medium/high heat (7/10 induction). Add all the veg and turn to coat with oil.
  6. Cook for 35min in the oven, turning once after 20min.

Oil choice is important. Veg oil is lighter, and needs a higher temperature. If you use olive oil the potatoes get crispier, but are also more heavily oiled on serving – up to you. Add an extra 5 min cooking time if you want more crisp, or make the potatoes a bit smaller.

Roasties

I serve roasties with rosemary salt so I don’t add salt or herbs to the pan.

You’ll notice I leave the skins on my potatoes – I like them like that, but if you want fluffy crispy roasties, peel and use a floury potato like King Edwards or Sharps Express. If you prefer a waxier potato the par boil them for 10min not 8.

If I roast carrots or squash I add them raw to the hot oil, and if I do want to add something extra I’ll put a whole garlic halved in to roast as well.

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Fat Boys Breakfast

The cooked breakfast – ‘fat boys’ to me – is, as they say, a moveable feast. There are endless combinations and every part of the UK claims it’s own variation. The key to cooking it is:

  1. One frying pan for every two people if you want everyone to be served at once
  2. Work out a cooking order so you can keep everything that keeps warm without spoiling the flavour in the oven, and always the potato scone last immediately after the eggs.

Cook: 15min

Mini-fat boys, with room in the middle for sauce.

Ingredients (all optional per person)

75g Mushrooms cut into pieces

1/2 tin baked beans

1 slice toast, buttered

2 rashers back bacon unsmoked

1 pork sausage (I use chipolata)

1 lorne (square) sausage

1 slice black pudding

1 potato scone

1 slice white pudding

1 round of haggis

1 egg

Method

  1. warm a large heavy metal dish in the oven (about 60c fan) and warm the plates. If you are cooking for 1 or 2, just warm the plates in a proving oven and serve onto them as you go.
  2. Heat veg oil (1tblspn) in a frying pan (7/10 induction), add the mushrooms. If you want the extra washing up you can cook them separately in butter.
  3. Add the pork sausage to start cooking and after 4 min add the black/white pudding, haggis and lorne sausage.
  4. Turn everything after about 2 min,
  5. Put the bread on to toast. Start the beans on a lowish (4/10) heat.
  6. After 2 min put the mushrooms onto a paper towel to remove the excess oil, move everything else into the oven, then the mushrooms once they’ve drained.
  7. Cook the bacon, with the thin end towards the middle of the pan – where it will crisp better. This will take about 90sec, more if the bacon gives up brine in the pan.
  8. Turn the pan down to 6, move the bacon into the oven.
  9. Add more oil to the pan and then the eggs. While they are cooking butter the toast. Use a spatula to coat the eggs and cook the top (removing any wobbly white).
  10. When the eggs are almost done start serving, and if there is room in the pan add the potato scones. The potato scones only take 30 sec each side and they do soak up oil, I dish up the eggs then turn the scones, and finish dishing everything else up before the scone, which I put on a paper towel for a few seconds first.

Okay so it sounds rushed, stressy and complicated – it’s not. After a couple of goes you get a real sense of the rhythm and timings, and it’s just a simple organised thing that always wins big brownie points for the day ahead.

For me a fat boys is best the morning after a hard physical day, when you know you’ll have an hour or two to let it go down and your muscles are gently aching from the day before.

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Roast Chicken (or partridge)

a roast chicken is a lovely thing. Either with roasties, or ciabatta – always feels like a treat.

Prep: 2min Cook: 90min (depends on bird)

Ingredients

1 Chicken or 2 Partridge

50ml sherry

olive oil, salt, water

Method

  1. preheat oven to 200c (fan)
  2. pour the sherry into the body cavity(s), add about 100ml of water to the base of the pan, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
  3. Cook and baste. For partridge cook for 30 min, baste every 10 and turn the oven down to 175c after 15min. For Chicken, baste every 20min, cook for 45min/kg + 20min and turn the oven down to 175c after 20min.
A roast chicken, 15min to go…

I put water into the pan to keep a moist atmosphere while the bird cooks. The high initial temperature and the use of olive oil and salt means the bird will still brown, but will also be succulent. I use sherry to flavour the bird, and because unlike using herbs or spices it doesn’t overly distort the flavour from the stock I make from the bones.

If you like you can use a bit of thyme, then the stock is excellent for paella. Or Cumin, then the stock is ideal for couscous or curry. you can also drape a partridge with a couple of slices of streaky bacon and leave the oven at 200c, but you still need to baste to get the best from it.

To serve I simply joint the bird, parsons nose, legs, wings, breasts. Then pull the remaining meat off. Leftovers are for breakfast or the following days tea.

I will very occasionally roast a partridge, but normally stick to chicken. I think you can do much better with partridge in other dishes, and plucking is a pain! I don’t roast pheasant for two reasons, firstly you have to pre-pull the leg tendons with pliers, and as I said – plucking is a pain,

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Venison Chilli

One of the few ‘ready meals’ I make in big batches and freeze. While it does rob it of a little heat, you can always add fresh chilli either at the end or during the reheating, and it’s best cooked for a long time – so making batches is the right thing to do.

Prep: 30min Cook: 100min Cool: 90min

Ingredients

1.5 kg venison mince

3.5 l passata or 9 tins of chopped tomatoes

8 onions, diced

4 carrots, diced or grated

3 tins of kidney beans washed well

12 chillies, chopped, ideally two types

1 tblspn cumin

1 dstspn paprika

1 dstspn fresh ground pepper

1 dstspn salt

50ml olive oil

75g dark chocolate (optional)

Method

  1. Add the olive oil and onions and carrots to a large pan and cook until the onions start to turn translucent and soften.
  2. Add the venison, and cook until the venison mince is browned and starts giving up juices.
  3. put the cumin, chilli, pepper and paprika into the pot stirring well. After about 30 seconds you’ll smell the change in the cumin and chilli –
  4. Immediately add the pasata/tomatoes, stir, bring to the simmer then turn right down (3/10 on induction), with the lid nearly on and cook for 90min stirring occasionally
  5. If you’re adding the chocolate add it now grated and stir through.
  6. Add salt to taste, and check the depth of flavour, add more cumin if needed, and more chilli until it’s almost too hot for your taste.
  7. Place the pot to one side, off the heat, stir through the kidney beans and leave to cool before bagging as 400ml potions (you should have 10-12 of these)

Serve with rice (brown rice is good), sprinkle extra chilli if you want it or black pepper, then grated cheddar, then sour cream, and finally a dust of paprika.

Venison is the king of meat for chilli in my eyes, you can use beef mince, but venison packs a greater flavour. If you use beef add a couple of stock cubes and halve the salt to get more flavour in there.

The chocolate add an extra layer to the taste, it also tones down the chilli a little, so mix it before you test for heat. And talking of heat, I tend to use whatever chillies I’ve grown. My ideal is 2/3 cayenne and 1/3 a hotter variety like a pubescens chilli. Or if I buy them in then a couple of scotch bonnet. Mixing chillies really improves the flavour as each pepper is distinctive, but you have to taste it through the heat to really get that.

If you’re not a fan of hot you can reduce the chillies, but to keep the flavour I would add a couple of finely chopped sweet peppers with the onions. Marconi peppers for preference but red bell peppers will do just fine. That’s a personal taste thing, I think Marconi peppers go better with chilli hotness than red bell peppers, and green peppers would be the wrong taste.

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Tomato Basil Pasta

A super simple summer pasta.

Prep: 5 min Cooking: 12 min

Ingredients

4 deseeded tomatoes chopped into small (less than 1cm) squares

1 mozzarella cut into small cubes

a handful of fresh basil leaves roughly ripped

200g spaghetti or linguini

Method

  1. Cook the pasta in boiling salted water, add a drop of olive oil to stop it foaming.
  2. When the pasta is ready for your taste drain well, drizzle a little olive oil and serve.
  3. Sprinkle the tomato, then mozzarella, then basil on top of the pasta add a sprinkle of salt and fresh black pepper.

This dish is so simple – but incredibly fresh and tasty. I first had this in Rome as a tiny out of the way restaurant. With fresh tomatoes from the garden, still warm from the vine, and home grown basil (which is stronger and more pungent than shop bought), this is tangy and feels luxurious, like being on holiday.

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My Spice Shelf Part 2 (G-Z)

Garam masala: A mix of spices used in lots of Indian (and other) dishes. When I was growing up I found out that lots of families had their own personal mixes passed down through generations to make their families food their very own. Beautiful and romantic as that is, and while a basic mix is made up of other things on the shelf, the skill in the blend and the roasting is beyond my skill to make consistently and my own. So for simplicity I use the pre-mixed stuff.

Mixed Spice: As it says a mix of spices – it contains things I don’t keep on the shelf – like allspice and mace. Used in some spicy dishes but just as often in cakes and desserts.

Nutmeg (whole): Whole nutmegs keep for ages without losing their edge, even better if they have their kernels on – not only do they keep better but you can get the fresh mace, wrapped like lace, around them too. Even without this and in their inner case they keep for years. Fresh ground is an aroma that fills the kitchen and add to cakes, syrups, spiced food, tea, the list goes on…

Paprika: Dried and ground red peppers. It adds a taste of capsicum without the heat and colours dishes a deep almost oily red. For me it’s though some Spanish and Mediterranean dishes. It adds a depth and a pungency which is hard to get with anything else. I’ll sometimes add it to tomato sauces to spice them up instead of (or along with) chilli, and it goes amazingly well with shellfish, rice dishes, as a sprinkle on chilli and (of course) in sausages.

Paprika (smoked): The louder bigger brother of paprika – the smokiness works better when using a darker heavier meat, like goose or venison. It can add a hint of BBQ to kebabs from the oven and packs a real punch when added to a sauce.

Sea salt (Maldon flakes and large granules): I like sea salt. It tastes stronger to me and therefore I use less. I use sea salt granules for salting water, and Maldon salt for everything else. I’ve tried other salts and basic table salt is so much less tasty – I end up over-salting everything. So I spend more and use less. It has the added advantage of (when sprinkled on top) of adding a crunch and intense shards of flavour. Some ingredients are worth the extra and to my mind sea salt in all it’s incarnations is definitely one of these.

Turmeric: A root, vaguely like ginger root in appearance (same family), and like ginger you can grow it in the UK with a little care. To my taste buds turmeric is a bitter drying taste, with a depth of almost overpowering earthiness, but on top (or underneath) that is a complexity – acid when fresh, acidic in aftertaste when dry. Brilliant with lime or lemon flavours and a colour that makes my potato curry look just right. Often overlooked in my opinion, a really versatile spice that brings out the flavours and adds contrast to a host of dishes.

So that’s it… Not too many, and all refreshed at least every year through use. I’m having a go at growing saffron, but we’ll see if that makes it onto the shelf, or not… I’ll keep you posted

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My Spice Shelf Part 1 (A-F)

I like to minimise the number of spices I have on my shelf as much as I can. The reasons? well mainly it’s so they don’t get too old before they’re used. And when I made the shelf I kept it small to enforce the rule.

The time was that I’d slavishly follow recipes, and buy herbs and spices especially for one dish, but no longer. Gone are the days when, reaching the end of the supermarket aisles I would still be missing one ingredient and would have to trapes back round replacing things and wondering what the hell I was going to cook now?

It’s also worth saying I don’t keep dried herbs on my shelf. I grow pretty much all the herbs I use and tend to freeze the tender ones as a paste or make flavoured oils to take me though the winter. The spices are ones I use often and I’ve found can substitute for others in recipes if I need too.

So, whats on the shelf…

Black pepper corns: In a grinder – used in just about everything and with a taste a world away from pre-ground pepper. I buy 500g bags and keep them in air-tight bags inside an air-tight box to keep them as fresh as possible.

Beef stock cubes: For when I don’t have the bones or the time to make fresh.

Bisto gravy granules: Because they are easy and work well for gravy in pies, but not used in anything else…

Boullion: An excellent veg stock powder that adds good flavour to other stocks without adding too much salt. I’ll often fortify my stocks with a teaspoon of boullion, or use it to add a bit more depth to a spice mix.

Cardamon pods: I buy these in bulk too, 250g bags. I use the seeds, but they keep better as pods. In rice, cous cous, curries and even in some cake recipes – love the aniseed flavour. I’ll use them interchangeably with Fennel seeds (which I collect from the garden in season). And of course anything that needs an aniseed edge gets them in as a substitute for star anise for example.

Chinese 5 Spice: Most of my Chinese style recipes have this in – it’s easy and smells like my earliest memories of Chinese food. Not sophisticated but a great staple flavouring.

Cinnamon: Who doesn’t like the smell? in muffins, cous cous, danish, some curries, syrups – awesome spice. Don’t use much but couldn’t be without it.

Cloves (ground): A strong pungent flavour – not for the faint hearted… As part of a rub on a roast ham, in some curries or pickles – packs a real punch. Typically added in tiny quantities but really makes its presence felt.

Cumin: A mainstay of my cooking. From Africa through to the far East. Cumin is at the heart of many, many spice mixes. Just try a roast chicken rubbed with cumin and olive oil and try not to drool as the smell fills the kitchen – go on I dare you! Again I buy in 500g bags and it lasts maybe 3 months…

Curry powder: A simple mix for basic curries. You can mix your own (and I sometimes do) but sometimes speed and ease is more important…

Fennel seeds: From the garden. I harvest some in the autumn, but the birds love them too. Most often used through naan-style breads (or similar) to add an aroma that, to me, turns bread into joy. I’ll only use a teaspoon through a bread, and this is the one ‘herb’ I dry to prolong the shelf life. But in reality 80% plus of the seeds are eaten by the birds and I only keep about 1 spice jars worth for us to use over the winter. Because as soon as it’s spring I’ll use the fresh fronds instead.