Red Cabbage

For four helpings.

Ingredients:

1 oz dripping or oil
1 lb red cabbage, shredded
1 large onion peeled and sliced
1 cooking apple peeled and sliced
2 tbsp stock, or water, or apple or orange juice
2 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp salt
a little pepper
1 tbsp brown sugar
(raisins, sultanas or a little spice can be added if desired)

Method

1. Choose a large pan (not uncoated aluminium).
2. Melt the dripping in the pan and add the chopped onions.
3. Add all the other ingredients.
4. Put on the lid and cook gently for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Serve hot, with pork, sausages, steak and kidney pudding or other traditional fare.
   

Basic Bread (wholemeal)

For wholemeal bread, one rising is enough. Fresh yeast can be bought from specialist grocers and whole foods shops, and from real bakeries where they bake on site, or ask for it for free from the Tesco in-store bakery.

Ingredients

for three large loaves:

4 1/2 lbs wholemeal flour
6 tsps salt
2 oz lard
2 1/4 pints of warm water (see below)
1 oz of fresh yeast creamed with 1 tsp of sugar (see below)
Optional: a spoonful of malt extract or molasses

or for two large loaves:

3 lbs wholemeal flour
4 tsp salt
1 1/2 oz lard
1 1/2 pints of water
1 oz of fresh yeast creamed with sugar as above
Optional: a spoonful of malt extract or molasses

Method:

1. Put the yeast in a small cup and add a teaspoon of white sugar. Stir the sugar in firmly and put it aside. It will become runny after a few minutes.
2. Put the flour into a large mixing bowl (it needs to be very large, i.e. washing up bowl size, for the larger quantities)
3. Add the salt
   
4. Rub in the lard.
5. Measure up the water as follows: boil the kettle and pour approximately one third boiling water and two thirds cold water from the tap into the measuring jug (or each time you fill the jug if it takes more than one filling).
   
6. Pour most of this water into the flour, reserving a small amount to add to the yeast.
   
7. Pour the small measure of water into the cup of liquid yeast/sugar. Stir and add this yeast and water to the flour. (The water added directly to the yeast MUST not be too hot. The other water can be a little hotter since it will be cooled by the flour before the yeast gets there, especially on a cold day, and making the dough quite warm will speed up rising).
8. Roll up your sleeves and wash your hands. Put the bowl on a table at a comfortable height for working. Starting with a knife and then using your hands stir and then knead the mixture until the water is all absorbed and the dough is smooth and springy, forming a clean ball. Drag and pummel it about in the bowl. It should clean all the dough off your hands in the process, though you may need to assist it by using a knife to scrape your fingers off and on.
9. Take the dough out of the bowl and knead it on a smooth surface for a bit, pulling, stretching and folding it and hitting it down hard with your knuckles.
10. Grease the loaf tins.
11. Divide the dough into the right number of pieces, by rolling the side of your hand back and forth across the dough ball like a bread knife at the cutting points.
12. Put the dough pieces into the tins, put the tins into a huge plastic bag and arch the bag up over them so the bread has room to rise inside. Leave the bread to rise in the kitchen or some other warm place.
13. An hour later, check the bread to see if it is well risen.
14. Heat the oven to 450ºF, 220ºC, Gas mark 8. On the fan oven, make it about 200º or the bread setting if there is one.
15. When the oven is warm, put the loaves in and set the clock for 42 minutes. You can glaze the top of the loaves with milk or egg if you like, before baking them.
    
16. Remove the bread from the oven and take the loaves out of the tins. Cool on a wire rack (put a tea towel over the top to keep them slightly moist, if the loaves are to be left out cooling overnight).
    

Whole lemon pudding

Ingredients:

1 lb plain flour
8 oz shredded suet
1/2 - 1 tsp salt
1 egg mixed with milk (or plain cold water)
1 lemon
4 oz Demerara sugar
pinch of grated nutmeg
pinch of ground allspice
1/2 tbsp of cold butter, cut into bits (not obvious how you measure this in tablespoons mind you).

Method:

1. Grease a large pudding basin before you get your hands in the flour.
2. Put a large saucepan of water on to heat.
   
3. Tip the flour gently into a mixing bowl and add the suet. Grate a bit of the lemon rind into this, and add 3 teaspoons of the sugar. Mix these ingredients with a knife and then add the liquid (egg and milk, or water). Add enough liquid to mix to a soft dough with the knife and/or your hands.
4. Put the blob of dough into the pudding basin and dig a hole in the middle of it. Continue to dig it out and pull it up the sides of the basin until you have a big cavity in the middle of the dough.
5. Into the hole, place the lemon (cut in quarters), the rest of the sugar, the spices and the butter.
6. Close up the hole by dragging the sides together and make sure it all seals across the top with no cracks or holes.
7. Put a lid on the basin or tie it up with greaseproof paper and string.
8. Put the basin in the pan of water (water should come two thirds up the basin) and boil over a low heat for 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
9. Lift the pudding basin out of the pan, remove the lid and turn the pudding out onto a serving plate (use a dish with sides, e.g. a flan dish because the juice will flow out when you cut it).
10. Serve with custard, lemon sauce, golden syrup or cream.
    

As you like it Sausage and Bean Stew

Essential ingredients:

4 or 6 tasty sausages
3 small or 2 large leeks
1 or two red onions
at least 3 cloves garlic
2 tins of tomatoes, chopped
One tin of butter, kidney or haricot beans
Herbs, salt and pepper


Optional ingredients:

Half a red pepper
Five to ten mushrooms
A few rashers of bacon
A stick of celery
1 glass white wine
Some like it hot - chilli powder, mustard seed, cumin or other spicy spices

Instructions:
Prick the skins of the sausages and brown them in the bottom of a large pan. While they are sizzling, chop up the leeks, onions, garlic, pepper, mushrooms, celery and bacon. When the sausages are looking brown, take them out, leaving their fat in the pan. Throw the chopped vegetables (and bacon) into the pan and start them cooking in the sausage fat (with the lid on). Cut the sausages into chunks, and throw them back into the pan. When the vegetables are just soft, add the chopped tomatoes and white wine, and season with salt, pepper, herbs and spices. Simmer with the lid on for at least twenty minutes. Then rinse and drain the beans and add them to the stew, and simmer with the lid off for another twenty minutes.

Serve with mashed potato, rice, or a big chunk of crusty bread.

Cheese bread and butter pudding

Ingredients:

Six slices of mature bread
Butter
6 oz grated cheese
1/2 pint of milk
2 eggs
Salt, pepper and mustard powder.

Butter an oven proof dish. Butter the slices of bread thickly. Cut them into triangles.
Lay some triangles butter side down in the dish to cover the base.
Sprinkle thickly with most of the grated cheese.
Add the rest of the bread butter side up, and sprinkle with a little cheese.
Measure the milk into a measuring jug and break the eggs into it. Add a pinch of salt, pepper and mustard powder to taste. Beat well with a fork and pour the custard over the bread.

Leave to soak for an hour or more.

Bake at 425º F, 220ºC, gas mark 7, for 30 minutes.
Serve at once, piping hot.

Yorkshire puddings, large and small

Ingredients (to serve 4 - 8 people)

4 oz plain flour
1/2 tsp of salt

1 egg
1/2 pt of milk

(or 2 eggs, and enough milk to make 10 fluid ounces with the eggs).

For best results use the liquidiser:
Break the eggs into the liquidiser. Add the milk. Whizz for a bit.
Add the salt and spoon in the flour, a bit at a time.

Blend for 30 seconds.

Alternatively, make the batter by hand:
Measure the flour and salt together into a large mixing bowl.
Make a well in the centre.
Break the eggs into the centre and add the milk (or combine these in a measuring jug first).
Use a wooden spoon to beat the liquid gently at first and then more strongly, gradually drawing in the flour in which the pool of liquid lies, until all the flour has been drawn in and the batter is smooth. Then beat hard to create an airy bubbly batter.

Cooking instructions:
Using either a large roasting tin, or a patty pan with either four yorkshire pudding cups or 12 bun cups, place a little dripping or lard in each cup. Put the pan into the hot oven and heat until the fat is close to smoking.
Pour the batter into the tins (all of it into the roasting tin, or a little into each cup) and return to the oven quickly. Bake in a hot to very hot oven for about 30 minutes for the roasting tin size, or 20 minutes for smaller ones. The puddings should be well risen, light and crisp, but not blackened on the top!

Serve with gravy, with roast meat, or as a pudding with golden syrup, fruit, warmed jam and cream.

Parkin

Ingredients:

6 oz black treacle
4 oz brown sugar
5 oz butter
3/4 pint of milk

6 oz plain flour
10 oz medium oatmeal
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1. Put a pan on the stove and add the treacle, sugar, butter and milk. Heat until the mixture is melted.
2. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a bit.
3. Weigh up the dry ingredients together.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the pan and stir briskly.
5. Add the beaten egg to the pan and beat well until smooth.
6. Grease a large loaf tin or deep square tin (7" square), and line it with greaseproof paper.
7. Pour the mixture into the tin.
8. Bake for one hour at 350º F, 180ºC, Gas 4, Fan oven 160.
   

The parkin is supposed to be stored for two weeks before you eat it, but this seems rather unlikely to happen and really it doesn't matter that much.