my salad
toasted avocado sandwich
lime chess pie
sand tarts
baked butternut squash

gwai lo (foreign devil) rice
Lan Yin's magic mushrooms
shepherd's pie
cawl
cornbread dressing

my salad

First, toast the pecans. Grab a fistful of them and bung them in a pan in which you've melted a pat of butter. Trust me. Toast over medium heat and just before they begin to burn, remove from heat and throw in two teaspoons of sugar and a couple of glugs of worcestershire sauce. Stir - the W sauce should caramalise nicely - and set aside in a bowl to cool. On a large plate, assemble some roquette, radicchio, butter lettuce and cos (romaine). Peel and slice a meltingly tender pear, either conference or comice, and scatter it on top of the lettuce. Break up some gorgonzola or stilton, about a half cup, on top of the lettuce. Grill a chicken breast, it's nice if you can get some of those little dark lines on it, basting with Newman's Own Oil and Vinegar dressing (or your favourite vinaigrette) as you go. When it's done, slice it up and sprinkle it on the salad. Throw on the cooled pecans. Drizzle a dressing of equal amounts olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the top. Tuck in.

toasted avocado sandwich

get a really nice loaf of ciabatta. Split in half, top and bottom. If you are alone, use the top crust. If you are making it for someone you are trying to impress, give them the top crust. Scoop out the boring white middle bit to leave a shallow depression down the length of the bread. In a bowl, mash one avocado (per person) with a couple of tablespoons of mayonnaise, some chopped spring onions, juice from one large lime, generous cayenne pepper and italian (french in the UK) dressing. Blop this in the scoop of the bread. Top with thinly sliced sweet red pepper rings and then shaved slices of Gruyere cheese (Jarlsberg in a pinch) on top of the peppers. Pop in the oven at 325F (200C) for about half an hour. Have it with frosty German Coca Colas (The best cokes in the world - don't know why, they just are.)

lime chess pie

I made this pie yesterday for the first time since my childhood and it was not only as good, but way better than I ever remembered. I think it's become my new favourite sweet.

Not to demystify an ancient tradition, but all my life people who know this pie often remark upon the name and where it came from.The history of this pie was addressed by Elizabeth Hedgecock Sparks, in the book North Carolina and Old Salem Cookery, who says it is "an old, old tart which may have obtained its name from the town of Chester, England." Others believe that "chess" is a corruption of the world "chest" (as in a pie chest) and then there is the story, possibly apocryphal, about the cook who was asked what sort of pie it was and she replied, "Oh, it's jes' pie."

There is also the cheese theory. In old cookbooks, cakes and pies with cheese in their names often referred to cheese in the textural sense - lemon curd, for example, is often referred to as lemon cheese. A selection of cheeseless "cheese" pastries in Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879) are made with egg yolks, sugar, butter, milk, and lemon juice - very similiar to chess pie filling.

Regardless of the reasons, make it and taste it - about an hour out of the oven when it's slighly warmer than your tongue. Creamy sweet and sumptuously rich, one slice will do you. For an hour or so.

This pie is even better with a cup of hot, black and nicely bitter chicory coffee.

pie crust without fear

I learned to make piecrust from my stepmother. It is the most wonderful thing and contains a very surprising ingredient. It is so wonderful that I save all the pieces from the big circle cut for the pie pan and bake them separately sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. This crust is that good.

The two rules for making crust so flaky it tends to shatter when you cut it with a fork is

1. keep the egg, the butter and the water very cold. In fact, if you're making this on a hot summer day, put the flour and vinegar in the fridge as well for an hour or so before you make it

and

2. handle it as little as possible. Mixing should be done as briefly and as delicately as possible and only roll it out once.

The three indespensible tools you need are a pastry blender

American cup measures (I love these so much, they are Nigella's and they are beautiful.)

and a fat wooden rolling pin. The heavier, the better.

The ingredients:

1 cup butter
1/2 cup lard
3 cups flour
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vinegar
1 tsp salt
6 tablespoons ice water

First, a word about lard. Did you know it's less saturated as a fat than butter? Amazing. So get over it and use it. It's fabulous. Okay, if you're in America, use Crisco then. Sigh.

Get the cold lard and butter and measure it out. Here's a good trick: if you have a very large glass measuring jug, fill it with two cups of cold water and spoon the lard in until the water level rises by a half cup and then take the lard out and put it in the mixing bowl and there you have a half cup of lard without cramming it into a measuring cup. Displacement is a beautiful thing. Do the same with the butter till the water level rises by a cup and so on.

Add the three cups of flour and the teaspoon of salt to the fats in the mixing bowl and grab your pastry blender.

Begin cutting the butter into the flour while turning the bowl -you'll find your own rhythm and it will become rather...soothing. Enjoy this. It's rare to reach a hypnogogic state while standing. Enlightenment through fat manipulation. Don't get too carried away though, because you are aiming for pieces of fats the size of a pea floating through a sea of buttery flour.

Whether you are making puff pastry for croissants or layers of filo and butter for baklava, the whole theory behind successful pastry making is to support layers of dough between layers of fats. These layers are as stable as bricks and mortar at cold temperatures but when heated rapidly in the oven the layers of fats bubble away allowing the layers of dough to bake while still floating apart from one another, thus forming flaky layers.

Now that you have your flour/fat/salt mixture ready, crack the egg and separate out the yolk. Plop the yolk on top of the flour, then sprinkle the vinegar (surprise!) over the flour as well. Add the six tablespoons of ice water, then get a fork and gently mix it all into a fairly raggedy mess that still wants to adhere to itself, even though somewhat loosely. Now divide it in half and pop one half of the raggedy dough in a freezer bag for the pie you make tomorrow because you ate this one up before bedtime tonight. The half remaining should do fine for one pie. Take that half and lay it out on a floured surface. Flour your hands and form it into a rough circle. Flour up your rolling pin and - letting the weight of the pin do the work - roll it to a thickness of between 1/4 and 1/8 inch.

To transfer the circle of dough to the pan, you can fold it in half and then into a quarter-circle and gently pick it up and place it in the pie pan. Unfold it and cut away the bits that overhang. Save them, place them on a baking sheet, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake 'em up along with the pie. Finish the edges of the pie crust with an artful pinch if you like. Put it in the fridge.

Now turn your oven on to 350F or 180C.

the filling

The reason I use limes is because I love them. They smell like flowers. In America, people traditionally used lemons. Despite its possible British antecedents, this is A Very American Pie and the reason lemons were preferred is that limes were associated with the enemy; the sea-faring, butt-stomping, red coat-wearing Limeys. But this is a pie, not a political statement, so use what you like. In colonial times, if lemons were not available, people used vinegar. If they had a cow, they used buttermilk. Whatever is chosen, an acid is absolutely essential to counteract the brain-bending sweetness of the custard.

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 tablespoons white cornmeal
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream
the juice from 4 fresh limes

Dump all the ingredients in a large bowl and beat or whisk till mixed and foamy. Easy.

Take your chilled piecrust out of the fridge and pour in the filling. Place it in the oven and check it after 30 minutes. If the crust is too brown, turn it down to 325F or 165C. Keep checking every ten minutes - what you are looking for is a point where the centre has the slightest wobble and the rest is just gently set. about 45 to 50 mins should do it. You'll develop a feel for just how long and how your oven cooks after about your third or fourth pie.

When you're happy with it, take it out and refrain from tasting. If it's too hot, it will take off the top layer of your tongue and an uninterrupted cooling process helps it set even further. After an hour of cooling you should be able to cut a clean wedge. And then another wedge and another and another.

sand tarts

1/2 lb. butter or margarine
1/2 c. confectioners sugar
2 c. sifted flour
1 c. pecans, chopped fine
1t. vanilla

Cream butter and sugar. Add flour, nuts, and vanilla. Mix well. Take tablespoons of the mixture and roll into crescents. Place close together on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 325F (200C) for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely, then roll in additional powdered sugar.

Gwai Lo (Foreign Devil) Rice

I make this once a week. Sometimes twice. Before I launch into the recipe and method, I'd like to talk about some of the ingredients, why I chose them and why they are worth the effort to obtain.

Basmati Rice. It smells lovely and, unlike Chinese rice, it's got way more backbone when it's still hot, so it's not necessary to let it get completely cold before you chow it. This is gwailo rice. I break the rules.

Dried Bean Curd. This is worth the effort it might take to find. Fried rice is about texture as well as taste and dried bean curd adds a chewy, springy, bouncy fried-squid effect to the whole enterprise.

Shredded Black Fungus and Dried Black Mushrooms. Very traditional and once again, worth the effort to try and obtain. Chinese food is also all about presentation and the black of these vegetable sets off the rest of the ingredients beautifully. And they taste nice as well.

Preserved Salted Black Beans. One of the greatest and best tasting seasonings I know. They also last for absolutely always. 10,000 years from now, archeologists will dig some up and they'll still taste great.

Tamari Sauce. I like Wakama. Yes it's Japanese. It's made with soybeans while soya sauce is made with a blend of soybeans and wheat. The chinese stuff just tastes salty while tamari tastes like a fine wine in comparison. Trust me.

T:h:e: :R:e:c:i:p:e

2 Cups Basmati Rice
6 or 7 sticks of Dried Bean Curd
a big pinch of Shredded Black Fungus
7 Dried Black Mushrooms
1 humongous Carrot
1 enormous Yellow Onion
3 huge or five small cloves of Garlic
3 finger size knobs of Ginger
1 bunch of Spring Onions
1 cup Frozen Peas
4 Eggs
3-4 tablespoons Vegetable Oil
Fire at will!... Tamari Sauce, Sesame Oil, Meat, Salted Black Beans, Cashews

First, you need to soften up the dried stuff. Boil up some water. I do this in my kettle. Take the dried bean curd - I buy it in sticks instead of sheets - take about six sticks, break them in half if you need to and place them in a big mixing bowl. Pour boiling water over them and set them to one side. Now do the same in a smaller bowl to one healthy pinch of fungus and seven dried mushrooms.

Start the rice. Two cups of basmati in a saucepan with three cups and an extra splash of water. Put it on the highest heat and bring it to the boil. Let it boil hard for one minute, clap a lid on and move it to the smallest burner you've got on the lowest flame you can get. Let it stay on the flame five minutes, then turn off all heat and let it sit, still covered, while you prepare the rest of the veg. Do not do not do not at any time lift the lid. Just don't or you'll bugger it completely and will have to start over.

Take one large carrot and top and tail it, then peel it. Chop lengthwise in strips, then in small squares. Set this in a bowl. Then get an enormous yellow onion and do the same, placing it in the same bowl as the carrot. Then do the same with four peeled sections of garlic and enough ginger to match three fingers held up together. Place them all in the same bowl, carrot, onion, garlic and ginger because you will tip them all into the wok at the same time.

Top and tail a bunch of spring onions and cut them into fine rings. Give them a bowl of their own. Add one cup of frozen peas to the spring onion bowl because they, as well, will go in at the same time. Why wash more bowls than you have to?

Now do your eggs. Chinese cooks sometimes scrape a hole in the middle of the rice in the wok and cook the eggs there. I always find everything else starts to burn while you are getting the eggs to cook and if you inadvertantly mix the eggs with the rice it looks like dog food, so do the eggs with a little butter or oil in a separate non-stick pan. You don't have to get fancy, just turn the heat way up and keep the eggs moving, scrambling to the dry instead of the creamy point. Dump them in a bowl and continue to chop them into bits with the edge of a wooden spoon. You don't have to pulverise them, go for pieces about the size of your thumbnail.

Chop up a couple of handfuls of leftover cooked meat, if that's your thing. Chicken's good, pork is better, beef will do and prawns are always lovely.

Now drain all the water off the bean curd, fungus and mushrooms you've had soaking. The bean curd might need some tough bits removed and the remainder cut into quarter-inch rings. The mushrooms only need slicing and the fungus is pre-sliced so no worries there. All in their own bowl together, please.

Okay, the wok. Size matters. Nothing's more depressing than too much food in a too-small wok. Ya got to have plenty of room to sling it around with impunity. So get yourself a roomy wok, a proper cold-rolled steel chinese wok, a foot and a half wide is good, bigger is better. Put it on your biggest burner, I am lucky to have a wok ring at home, I chose the cooker specifically for it. Did I mention that you need a flame for this? You need a flame. Electric...I wish you all the luck in the world. So, you have your wok, flame turned up, let the metal get smoking hot, about one minute, and then add three tablespoons of vegetable oil. Wait about 30 seconds and tip in the bowl of carrot, onion, garlic and ginger. Nice sound, eh? Now get your spatulas, spoons, small shovels or chinese scoopy thingys and keep it moving in there. Let it cook, these are the sturdiest bits so they need the longest. The garlic's going to brown first because it has the highest sugar content, so keep an eye on it and turn the flame down if you need to, but not too far down because we are about to cool it all off big time by adding...

the bean curd, fungus and mushrooms. Tip them in. Keep stirring and if the wok seems to cool off too fast, turn up the flame. flip, stir, listen to the sizzle. This is the nice part of chowing, comparable to kneading bread. Be Here Now. Revel in the moment: the sizzle, the hiss, the smell and the activity. Keep it moving.

Now look to see that your flame is set to maximum and tip in the spring onion and the frozen peas. You don't need to cook them, just threaten them. Keep them moving and add the rice. Remember the rice? Just lift the lid on the saucepan and empty it into the wok. Here's where the muscle comes in. Add the eggs, and now would also be a good time for any meat you might like to add. Lift, fold and manhandle the rice into the rest of the ingredients and quickly add generous, generous amounts of tamari and sesame oil and blend it in. Add a few twists of fresh black pepper. Chinese people use white pepper because they think black pepper looks like dirt, but I like the taste of black.

Serve some up in two enormous bowls, add cashews (my favourite) and/or salted black beans (Huw's favourite), put on a good film, settle back and shovel it in. You will still have loads left for breakfast.

It has taken me four times as long, I swear, to type this recipe out as it takes to prepare. I can do Gwailo Rice now in well under half an hour and that includes all the chopping. This dish is good for colds, depression, writer's block, stubbed toes, insomnia, heartbreak, religious crises and general crankiness. It can change your life. Yum.

Lan Yin's Magic Mushrooms

Six enormous white mushrooms. Take the stems out. set aside. Start simmering three cups of port in its own saucepan. Peel and chop two cups of shallots and set to saute in several tablespoons of butter. Crumble two cups of stilton. Set aside.When the shallots are clear, add a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and remove from the fire. Spoon the shallots and stilton into the mushrooms, wrap in filo and bake at 325f (170c) for 45 mins to an hour. By this time the port should be reduced to about 1/2 cup and have quite a lot of body. Serve the mushrooms with several spoonfuls of the reduced port over each one. Eat, eat eat.

shepherd's pie

when I was growing up, this was called 'hamburger dish' and we ate it almost as frequently as we ate beans and cornbread. This is how my mother managed to feed us all (father in college, one child in high school, one in junior high, one in elementary school, one in kindergarten and one in the cradle) on short funds. It was served with bread and butter. In winter we drank milk and in summer, tall glasses of iced tea.

Now that Texas is far away, I make it here and it's called shepherd's pie. Mainly because I make it with lamb now instead of beef. Either way, it will always remind me of my childhood home.

the ingredients

one pound lamb mince
one large onion
one tin condensed tomato soup
two large carrots
1 cup frozen peas or one tin petit pois

chop onion finely and tip into a skillet with the lamb mince. Brown the mince, then drain all the fat. Add the tin of tomato soup, peas and topped, tailed, peeled and chopped carrots. Stir it up and pour into a large baking dish. Top with lovely mashed potatoes and bake at 325F (165C) for an hour.

lovely mashed potatoes

where I grew up there were four sorts of poatoes; idahoes, whites, new potatoes and sweet potatoes - aka - brown, white, pink and orange. Here in the UK there are many varieties, each with their own special personality and preferred uses. King Edward, Desiree, Maris Piper, Jersey Royal, Golden Wonder, Cara, Marfona, Maris Peer, Osprey...it seems endless at times. When I first came here all I wanted to know was where did they keep all the brown ones? After tasting every variety listed above, I've chosen Maris Piper for its floury texture and tendency to go bloof! when you stick a freshly baked one with a fork.

The only real secret to great mashed potatoes is to never add cold milk or cream, keep everything hot and you will avoid the lumpen, leaden, gluey texture of "shocked" potatoes.

Don't be afraid of the butter, either. If you want low-cal, go eat mung beans. If you want the best mash in the world then don't skimp on the goodies.

Cawl

the history of this soup and the supposed correct way to do it, and what it's supposed to be called and what you mean when you use the term... it's really like religion - it's a matter of individual interpretation. That said, what everyone can agree on is that cawl is a Welsh word for soup. How you take it from there is a journey of personal discovery.

The recipe below is the result of my own spiritual journey with this flavourful bowl of wonderfulness.

Cawl

One leg of lamb, deboned and the meat cut into 1/2 - 1 inch pieces - save the bone.
three large carrots
four large leeks
three large potatoes
three large parsnips
three cups of ale
six cups of broth made from the lamb bone
vegetable oil
flour
salt
pepper
sharp cheddar cheese

simmer the bone in a large pot of water for hours and hours until you have a nice broth. Set aside.

Dust the meat with flour, then heat up your largest stewpot. Add several tablespoons of oil to the pot, get it hot and tip the floured meat in. Sear it well, then pour in the ale, then the broth. While it comes to a simmer, clean and peel the carrots, potatoes and parsnips, then cut into 1/2-1 inch pieces. Add them to the pot. Clean the leeks very, very well by top and tailing them, then making a vertical slit down the length of them and rinsing until you are certain there is no grit left. Slice into rings and add to the pot. Clap a lid on, turn the flame down and let it simmer all afternoon, checking every 30 minutes to an hour to see if it needs any water added. When it gets the way you like it - say after four hours or so - add salt and pepper. Don't add the salt before this or it will toughen the meat.

Serve in large bowls with cubes of sharp cheddar dropped in to get all melty. Bread is nice with this, too.

It's sleeting outside, the wind is howling, you are safe and warm inside a solid stone cottage and you are enjoying the best soup in the world. All four food groups in a bowl.

Baked Butternut Squash

shopping list:
2 large butternut squash
butter
cream
nutmeg
salt
pepper
maple syrup

cut both squashes into halves, then quarters, with a large chinese cleaver, if you have one. A small hatchet will work or - in a pinch - a machete or the biggest, butchest knife you can find. Scoop out the seeds, then peel both with a paring knife. This method is not for the faint-hearted but I do think it's easier in the long run than tweezering out tiny bits of baked flesh from the skin. Then chop the flesh and boil, covered, until soft enough to mash easily.

Alternatively, if you don't really mind the fiddly work, halve both squashes, scoop out the seeds and bake, covered with foil, at 170C (325F) for about 45-50 mins or until soft. Then scoop the hot flesh from the skin, making sure to separate every tiny bit of skin from the good stuff. Place the hot flesh in the bowl and immediately mash in 1/3 cup butter. When well mixed, add 1/2 cup cream with salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. Test it and adjust. Now add the maple syrup, the real kind from Canada or Vermont.

Maple syrup. All that smoky sweetness from a tree. This world is wonderful. The maple syrup alone is worth the trip.

Now mix it up and plop it in a baking pan. Grate more nutmeg on top and drizzle even more maple sryup on as well. Cover with foil or a lid and bake at 170C (325F) for half an hour.

Cornbread Dressing or Stuffing

shopping list:
cornmeal (polenta grind)
plain flour
cooking oil
plain yogurt
6 eggs
baking powder
sugar
salt
pepper
sage
onions
celery
butter
broth or stock, chicken or turkey

Method:
2 cups cornmeal (polenta grind)
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cooking oil
1 cup plain yogurt
2 whole eggs
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt

mix it all together together, adding more wet or dry as needed to yield a semi-stiff batter. Pour into a cast iron pan or skillet that you've had heating on the stove for a few minutes with a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil in the pan. What you're aiming for when you pour the batter in is a nice sizzle! as the cold cornbread batter hits that preheated oil. Mmm. Smells nice. Slide it immediately into the oven and bake at 180C (350F) for 30 - 45 mins or until the top is firm when pressed. Remove from oven.

While it's baking, chop two large onions and three big stalks of celery and sweat them in 1/4 cup of butter until the onion begins to caramalise. Remove from heat and set aside.

Tip the finished cornbread into a bowl and chop it to bits with the edge of a wooden spoon or crumble it with your hands if it's cool enough to handle.* Pour in the cooked onion and celery. Add two palmfuls (not closed fistfuls) of sage, in real terms, abou three heaping tablespoons.

Add enough pepper and salt to please you. Mix it up and taste it. Whisk the yolks of four eggs and add to the cornbread mixture, then add a further 2 cups of turkey or chicken broth. Mix it up. Put it in a large baking pan, cover with foil and bake for 45-50 mins at 170C (325F). Or use it to stuff the bird if you're brave. Serve with lots of gravy. Nearly everything in life goes better with gravy.

*You can also skip the making-cornbread step and use breadcrumbs from this point on but it won't be the almighty, sacred, traditional southern cornbread dressing.