Bill Farmer

Stuffed Peppers

Lunch for two.

Ingredients

• 4 bell peppers
• 1/2 cup cous cous
• 6-8 slices chorizo cut into four pieces
• 2-3 cloves garlic, sliced
• small onion, chopped
• 1/4 vegetable stock cube
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• boiling water
• olive oil

Method

1. Trim the stems of the peppers, cut the tops off, and remove the seeds and pulp from inside.
2. Cover the bottom of a small pan with oil and add the garlic, onion, chorizo, paprika and oregano, place on a gentle heat and cook until the onions are transparent.
3. Add the cous cous and the stock cube, crumbled, stir to mix it together and allow to cook for another few minutes. You should begin to notice a toasted cous cous aroma.
4. Add half a cup of boiling water and turn off the heat. Put the lid on and let it sit until the water has been absorbed. Stir it up and add a bit more hot water.
5. Arrange the peppers in a tin so they hopefully don’t fall over.
6. Spoon the mixture into the peppers and put the lids back on.
7. Put in a medium hot oven (175 °C) for about 20 minutes.
8. Serve with salad or bread.

Unobtainium

unob·ta·ni·um (unob-tayn-ium)

Ingredient not available on the shelf at your local major supermarket.

If you attempt to use any celebrity or TV chef recipe, you will find at least one ingredient is unobtainable locally. You will also find a healthy disregard of the cleaning up operation afterwards. Usually most of this nonsense can be safely ignored and locally available ingredients used instead, and the recipe converted from an N-pot recipe to a one-pot recipe.

Coarse Ratatouille

This is slow cooked vegetables using whatever comes to hand.

Ingredients

• Onions, sliced
• Potatoes, sliced
• Carrots, sliced
• Whatever else is going, sliced or chopped
• Oil
• Large heavy frying pan or skillet with lid

Method

1. Warm up your skillet and put a dollop of oil in it
2. Arrange a layer of sliced onions, making sure to spread the oil around
3. Next a layer of sliced potato
4. Next a layer of sliced carrots
5. Add layers of whatever else is to hand to fill up the pan
6. Pour a bit more oil over the top
7. Put the lid on and cook gently until the carrots are cooked. The onions should caramelise on the bottom and add some delicious flavour

Faggots and Peas with Onion Gravy

When I was a teenager the chippy at Preston, Weymouth, Dorset used to serve faggots and peas with gravy in those aluminium foil containers that take-away Chinese used to come in. Enough for 2.

Ingredients

• 3-5 faggots
• Frozen or fresh peas
• Truly Evil Onion Gravy

Method

1. Start the gravy first as it takes a while to render the onions down.
2. Once the onions are well done, put the faggots in a tin and place in a medium hot oven – 180° C, until they are starting to brown.
3. Cook the peas in accordance with the instructions. When they are done, use the cooking water for the gravy.
4. Serve, pouring the gravy over the faggots and peas.

Truly Evil Onion Gravy

Black onion gravy to go with faggots, sausages or whatever takes your fancy.

Ingredients

• 3 medium onions, sliced
• 1 tablespoon plain flour or cornmeal (polenta)
• 1/2 vegetable stock cube, crumbled
• Boiling water or cooking water from vegetables
• Vegetable oil

Method

1. Cover the bottom of a small pan with oil and place on medium heat.
2. Put the onions in the pan and cook, stirring with a fork until reduced to brown/black sludge.
3. Add flour/cornmeal and stock cube and continue to stir over the heat until combined.
4. Turn down the heat and pour in the boiling water carefully. It will bubble violently and give off extremely hot steam.
5. Keep stirring as it thickens and add more water if necessary.

If using with sausages, if the sausages are cooked in the oven in a grill pan, pour off the fat when the sausages are done, pour the vegetable water into the pan, try to get as much gunge off the bottom of the pan as you can before pouring it into the gravy.