Lockdown Cooking
Our plans to go travelling this winter have gone well ……
We were planning to travel. We were going to tour Western Europe this winter. The original concept of this blog was to follow those travels focusing on what real people cook using the fresh local produce available to them.
Well, travel has been impossible this time around. Nobody’s fault, but none the less frustrating. I have built a foodie travel blog site but I don’t have anything to write about!
In the interests of posting something, this article is going to cover lockdown cooking featuring some of the dishes I have cooked for us in the caravan over this lockdown. I have not included recipes, although a few of the recipes are already on the site. I don’t really want to clutter the site up with recipes I haven’t developed on my travels. Having said that, if you would like me to add a recipe for anything you see in this post then leave me a comment and I will add it as soon as I can.
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Colcannon Mash
A lovely colcannon mash with bacon and thyme.
Colcannon traditionally uses a dark green cabbage or kale, but I only had some savoy available so unfortunately, it isn’t very visible. Nevertheless, that doesn’t make it any the less delicious.
Bacon and thyme add a tasty twist to this Irish classic. The addition of spring onions is another delightful alternative.
Beetroot
Beetroot is an underrated vegetable. The earthy flavours are not to everyone’s taste. Indeed, Carol doesn’t like it in its’ pure form. So I have to include other favours to make it more to her palate.
In this dish, the addition of cumin and lemon helps to lighten the earthiness of the beetroot. The harissa yoghurt, which also had lemon juice and zest in it, adds a velvety creaminess.
Moussaka
If I’m brutally honest, this dish isn’t really ideal for cooking in a caravan. There are just too many stages and it uses too much in the way of resources.
As we are on an electric hook up I cooked this using a single induction hob and finished it under the grill for a couple of minutes, but if you were wild camping it would simply use too much gas. Still, the one thing I have in abundance at the moment is time!
The cavolo nero with rosemary and chilli was definitely a success.
Steak
Steak. Mmmmmm steak. A rare treat for us (pun intended). Difficult to get the pan hot enough to properly sear the outside without setting off the smoke alarm in such a small space!
Pasta and Bits
This is one of our go to meals. Its nothing fancy. It is almost akin to a stir fry with pasta instead of noodles.
I like to use onion, garlic, bacon, chorizo, peppers, fresh chilli, basil and tomatoes. But you can use whatever your favourite ingredients are or whatever you have laying around. They are quickly fried in olive oil and the cooked pasta is thrown in at the end – the olive oil becomes the sauce so be reasonably generous.
Other additions could be pesto, parmesan, green beans, olives, kale, mushrooms – at the end of the day it doesn’t matter! Just so long as its something you like!
Minestrone
A birthday present from dear friends Tim and Fiona. Some real Italian pasta which they brought back with them from the Abruzzo region last year. This was the driving force for this soup.
The pack mentions a Virtu Teramane Minestrone. A little research revealed the recipe to be somewhat vague …..
- In a big pot (caldaio) cook the many qualities of vegetables
- In another pot boil cotiche, pork ears and legs, big pieces of ham that you will deprive of the bone and cut in smaller pieces when cooked.
- In still another pot boil in abundant water all the dry beans (fagioli, ceci, lenticchie) and, when they are nearly cooked, add fresh peas and broadbeans.
- Prepare a “soffritto” of minced lard, garlic, fresh onions, maggiorana and mentuccia, drain the beans, and add the soffritto to their pot
- Add the meat with its broth to the beans, then the cooked vegetables, and if necessary some salt, and then leave the soup to boil.
- In still another pot cook different qualities of pasta, also some hand-made, drain when they are “al dente”, and add to the soup, cooking for some more minutes.
Source: italyheritage.com
Needless to say, I didn’t have all of that in the caravan. I don’t think I did too bad a job with the ingredients I had to hand. The result certainly tasted delicious. Probably made even better with the rather nice bottle of wine that came with the pasta.
Can’t wait to get out to Italy and try it made properly!
Sausage, egg, chips and beans
I know, I know. Everyone loves this type of comfort food. But it’s just not something we normally eat. Not the least because cooking chips in a caravan is something that just isn’t done.
But her ladyship wanted chips, so chips she shall have. Just had to figure out a way to do it. Oh, and not just frozen oven chips. She wants proper homemade chips. Triple cooked.
Well, triple cooked didn’t happen, but they were close. Real close.
A lot of work for a few chips, and definitely not something you would do whilst wild camping. Next time she wants chips I might just pop down the local take-away – after all its less than 100 yards walk!
Tuna Steak, Mexican Rice and Asian Salad
We love the taste and texture of fresh tuna. Quickly seared on each side so that it is still pink in the middle.
Paired with the lovely fresh, crunchy Asian slaw. Any excuse really – we love this slaw.
Rumbledethumps
Burns night on the 25th January. Rather foolishly I left it too late to get a haggis. So we had another of my favourites from Scotland. Not least of which is because of the name – rumbledethumps – amazing! Has to be right up there as one of the best food names ever!
Potatoes, onions, swede, kale, butter and cheese go into this Scottish take on bubble and squeak. Delicious, but maybe not so good for the cholesterol!
Mustard glazed pork chop with Lemony Greek Potatoes
I love these lemony Greek potatoes.
These are usually roasted in the oven with chicken stock (or vegetable stock if you want them vegetarian), onions, garlic, lemon juice, oregano, seasoning and olive oil. Total cooking time is usually around 1 hour 15 minutes.
However, in the interests of saving gas, I part boiled the potatoes in the chicken stock first on the induction hob. Next, they were coated in olive oil, lemon juice and plenty of seasoning. They were then roasted in the oven with the other ingredients for about 15 minutes. I leave the garlic cloves in their skin as we like the delicious sweetness of roasted garlic.
Not the traditional way of cooking them but it worked almost as well. They were still divine!
Chilli mint salad
Good food doesn’t have to be complicated.
The addition of some fresh chilli and mint to a tossed salad with a simple vinaigrette dressing lifts it to a whole new level.
In this particular salad, we had mixed leaves, peppers, tomatoes, red onion and some red cabbage for added crunch.
Chicken Amatriciana traybake
Amatriciana is a traditional pasta sauce made using guanciale (cured pork jowl), tomatoes, onions, white wine and chilli.
For this traybake, however, I used pancetta instead and added peppers, rosemary and chorizo (because I can) to make it go a little further.
I flash-fried the ingredients in a little olive oil before laying on the tray and roasting them – to reduce the amount of time they needed in the oven. The chicken was cooked on the induction hob in a large stockpot – fried skin side down first, then turned and cooked a little longer with the lid on. It was then finished in the oven on top of the other ingredients on the tray.
More like a deconstructed amatriciana, I guess, but no less tasty for it.
Stir fry
Stir fry. Another staple dish in a caravan or motorhome kitchen. Quick and easy. Doesn’t create too much mess either. Even the noodles only take a couple of minutes to cook.
This particular one was made using chicken, mushrooms and pak choi. The sauce was made using balsamic vinegar, ginger, garlic, soy sauce and a pinch of sugar.
Seekh Kebab
Seekh kebab meatballs with brown rice.
I fancied making Seekh kebabs but didn’t want to use the grill. It isn’t terribly efficient and would be a devil to clean afterwards. How can I make them on an induction hob? Meatballs were the answer. And really tasty they were too.
Cooked in the pan with the onions, garlic and peppers and served with plain brown rice. Sumptuous. The only thing I would do differently next time is to serve a little fresh mint yoghurt with them.
Fried Rice
The title says it all really. Onion, garlic, fresh chilli and coriander. Chilli and coriander not only make this a treat for the eyes, but for the palate too.
Usually cooking rice in a caravan isn’t ideal as it requires boiling for quite a long time and produces a lot of steam. As we are currently on a hookup, however, and the weather was warm enough to have the window wide open it was justifiable.
And there you have it – some of the highlights of our dinners through January.
Whilst writing this I noticed a theme – it seems we really like spice! Particularly fresh chilli which seems to feature large! If you like less spice then leave it out – I usually deseed them so that we get the flavour rather than the heat anyway.
Hopefully, this gives some inspiration to you, As I said earlier, there are one or two recipes here on the site. If you would like me to put up a recipe for anything you like the look of here leave me a comment and I will post it as soon as I can.
Hope You Enjoy!
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