The Perfect Yorkshire Pudding

My grandmother always made wonderful yorkshire puddings, light and crispy they are a must with any roast dinner, and are a quintessential comfort food for many people.

You'll have to forgive me the slightly hyperbolic title, of course there is no such thing as a perfect yorkshire pudding, everyone's tastes will be slightly different, but these are pretty good nonetheless.

There are a few secrets to follow when making yorkshire puddings, and if you follow these you should have no trouble making them, and your puddings should rise every single time.

Start by making your batter, this is very simple as it contains basically three ingredients. Eggs, milk and flour, with a dash of salt. Recipes vary on how many eggs to use, I say that 2 eggs for about 12 yorkshire puddings is right, not too rich, but enough to give them lift.

My first tip is to let the batter rest before you cook it. About half an hour minimum, what I generally do is make the batter before I start cooking a roast, and leave it in the fridge until it needs cooking, this usually gives it about an hour of resting.

Fill the wells of a muffin tin with about a centimetre of sunflower oil, or alternatively with beef dripping. My second tip is to heat the fat in the tin until it gets really really hot, and starts to smoke. It needs to be so hot that when the batter is poured in it starts to bubble and spit, and rises up the sides of the wells.

Put the tray with the batter into a hot oven, for 20 minutes. My third tip is to leave the oven door closed until they are fully cooked otherwise they will start to sink, the batter will fill with grease and they won't become crisp.

Remove them from the tray with a fork, and serve with a roast, filled with gravy.

ingredients

115g plain flour
pinch of salt
2 medium eggs, beaten
290ml milk
vegetable oil or dripping for cooking

Pea & Leek Pasta Risotto

This is a little gem of a recipe, and part of the reason that it is so wonderful is that everything that you need for this dish is non perishable, and will keep for at least a month in the fridge. This makes this a great standby dish. You will need a specific type of pasta for this recipe, often called orzo, which is often used in soup, and which is shaped similarly to large grains of rice. This pasta is cooked in a frying pan, rather than a saucepan, much like a risotto, but it has an advantage over risotto because it doesn't require stirring. I must credit Nigella Lawson for the inspiration behind this recipe, as I often do, which I have adapted slightly since I discovered it a couple of years ago.

Firstly chop your leek finely, and fry it in a scant amount of oil in a hot frying pan, seasoning lightly. Add two large handfuls of frozen peas to the pan, and stir allowing them to soften slightly in the hot oil. At this point, if you like you may add some pancetta, finely chopped to the pan, and allow it to brown. Pour the orzo pasta into the pan, and put the kettle on to boil, stirring the frying pan to mix. Add the boiling water to the pan and turn the heat down to a medium low heat.

After about ten minutes most of the water will have evaporated and the pasta will be tender, start stirring to ensure that the pasta doesn't stick and take the pan off the heat. Add a large knob of butter to the top of the pasta, and allow it to melt, making the pasta slight and glossy. Finally add some parmesan cheese and some freshly crushed pepper, stirring to combine.

I can't state enough how charming this recipe is, it's perfect for a weekday dinner curled up on the sofa and eaten out of a bowl in front of the television.

Ingredients

olive oil
1 leek
150g pancetta cubes (optional)
150g frozen peas
boiling water
250g Orzo pasta
salt & pepper (to taste)
parmesan cheese (to taste)
large knob of butter

Red Lentil and Lemon Soup

There are few things as comforting or as nourishing in the dead of winter as a bowl of warm soup, with bread and cheese to soak up the excess. This morning with little else to do I decided to spend my time pottering around the kitchen making soup for lunch, which is an oddly perfect way to spend a tranquil monday morning.

My mother had recommended to me a soup featured in the New York Times some months earlier, but I find making soup only for myself a terrible bother, and I always end up making too much, and eating it three meals a day for the next week.

I started by lightly sweating some onions and garlic in a large saucepan. When I’m staying with my parents I generally use a cast iron Le Creuset pan for making soup, they allow an incredible diffusion of heat, ensuring that nothing sticks, and you can put them in the oven, so they are great for casseroles. Yes they are pricey, but the one I am currently using was bought over two decades ago, and is still going strong today.

Another tip I always follow when cooking garlic, is to add it to the pan while the oil is still cold, and to heat the garlic and oil up together, this ensures that the garlic won’t burn as easily, and nothing ruins a dish more easily than burnt, acrid and bitter garlic.

After sweating these down I stirred in a little tomato paste and some spices, I always sweat tomato puree in the pan for a few minutes, and I find this helpful to rid it of some of its acidity. Then I stirred in cumin, slightly bruised in a pestle and mortar, salt and pepper and cayenne. For more exact measurements see the recipe below.

Finally I added diced carrots and stock, bringing the mixture to a rolling boil before adding red lentils and turning down the heat.

Some cooks loathe the idea of a thin blended soup, and I tend to agree with them in most cases, the vast majority of soups should be a little chunky, and this soup is no exception. So I remove half of the soup and blend it, leaving the rest untouched, and pouring the liquidized soup back into the pan and combining.

The soup is best served hot with both lemon juice and zest, with a little chopped fresh coriander. It was delicious, with the lemon providing freshness and brightness, and the spices creating a beautiful warmth underneath. I have in the past found red lentil soups to be rather gloopy and challenging, but this soup is warming, fresh and fragrant. The recipe in full can be found below.

Ingredients:

• Olive oil, for frying
• 1 large onion
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• salt & pepper to taste
• pinch of cayenne
• 2 pints chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 cup of red lentils
• 1 large carrot, diced
• juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
• 3 tablespoons of chopped coriander

Method

• Sweat the garlic and onion in a little olive oil, and add the tomato paste and spices, stirring with a wooden spoon
• Add the diced carrot and the stock to the pan, and mix in the red lentils, simmering the mixture until the lentils are cooked and the carrots are tender
• Before serving grate the zest of a 1/2 lemon and add the juice, and season to taste
• Serve garnished with chopped fresh coriander and with fresh bread