TBK cooks- Time for some British Recipes, with a twist

My favourite Christmas gift was from Miss Andrea

My favourite Christmas present last year was a recipe book from Miss Andrea, a colleague at Bapco. My regular readers will know I love cooking food from all around the world and on each vacation I attend a cookery class in whichever country I am staying, and then buy a recipe book from that country. So my repertoire includes Malaysian, Cambodian, Thai, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, Vietnamese and Filipino food amongst others. I will be sharing these recipes with you over the coming months- just email me your requests or add a comment.

Chef Neil is dressed up and ready to go with his recipes from around the world

When I took the decision to leave the UK in 2009 it was on the basis that I would never return there and I never have , for 11 years. Ok well I did stay for 4 days for a conference where I stayed in a hotel in London with my work colleagues and did not tell my friends and family I was there! In Bahrain I rarely mix with Brits or cook English food so it was quite a change to have this recipe book join my collection. However I have always been a big Jamie Oliver fan and so I really enjoyed reading through the book and selecting dishes to cook. First up was Chicken Kiev with Broccoli mash- amazing. Believe it or not, age 60, its the first time I made the dish from scratch, usually buying frozen Kiev and heating it in the oven. But Jamie makes it all very simple with lots of pictures and clear instructions.

In another blog, where they review Jamie's Recipe book they say:

" In the introduction, Jamie describes the book as being the antithesis of his 15 and 30 minute meals. It’s designed to encourage slow, indulgent cooking; cooking for the love of cooking, not just eating. Though the eating to be had from Comfort Food looks pretty great too! The recipes are more involved than in many of his other books, and it’s kind of refreshing to go through a recipe book that isn’t full of shortcuts and time-saving tips.

Both the artworking and photography in the book are divine- David Loftus"( is the photographer)

Source: Cider with Rosie

Accessed 9.1.21

An example of how well the recipe book is laid out with great photos

Sadly I sent the charger for all my cameras to the Philippines at the start of December and now all the camera batteries have run out so I cannot add photos of my cooking!

Chicken Kiev

Chicken Kiev is a chicken breast filled with butter and garlic and bacon and parsley and then covered in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, fried and then baked and served on a bed of broccoli mash. As you cut into it the garlic butter explodes out and it is an amazing combination of tastes.

Toad in the hole with onion gravy

The next morning I cooked another British Favorite- Toad in the Hole ( sausage in batter) . Jamie explains the three secrets:

Use good quality sausages
Add beer to the batter ( I did not and it still tasted fine)
Get the oven really hot and do not open it for 30 mins

I followed all his instructions and used 14 eggs and 9 sausages and the result was amazing. Jamie recommends using a beef stock cube and boiling water for the onion gravy but as I had some homemade frozen beef stock in my freezer I used that. It was soooo good I had one portion for breakfast, one for lunch and one for dinner. But I did save some for my houseboys on Friday!

Since my belongings were shipped to Palawan at the start of December cooking has been challenging. In my house in Awali I just had two old frying pans, a shallow pan for poaching eggs and an old saucepan left. ( Now in Juffair I am down to one pot- see my One pot challenge blog) . There are no mechanical aids ( mixers and blenders) and my extensive herb and spice collection has gone. Imagine whisking 14 eggs by hand with flour and milk for the batter and making the breadcrumbs by hand for the Chicken Kiev! Joshua taught me to use a Perrier bottle as a rolling pin which helped when I made my all time favorite- Beef Wellington!

My Beef Wellington ( Photo by Corleen)

One thing to note about this recipe book is that these are not quick and easy, or cheap recipes, but complex recipes ( some take 4 hours, never less than an hour) and full of rich ingredients. The 1 Kg Beef fillet cost me 28 bd which is 55 GBP or 3,500 pesos ( enough to feed a Pinoy for a month). However they give you a sense of achievement when complete and are ideal for sharing with friends.

My Nasi Goreng ( Photo by Corleen)

Next up was an Indonesian favourite ( The British diet is now very cosmopolitan, see my Curry Nation Blog here Curry Nation Blog )

"Nasi Goreng, literally meaning "fried rice" in both the Indonesian and Malay languages, is an Indonesian rice dish with pieces of meat and vegetables added. "

Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasi_goreng

( accessed 12.1.21)

I remembered eating this for Breakfast, lunch and dinner when I stayed in Malacca in Malaysia.

Jamie Oliver's Duck Lasagna

Another dish from Jamie's recipe book that I tried was a special request from Miss Andrea- Duck Lasagna. Challenge number one was to find a Duck. Vincent , who I met in Alosra, offered to send out out a request on a what's app group he uses and Andrea promised to search on her travels but my Kuya at Alosra found the last one they had in the freezer and I left it a few days in my fridge to defrost. Then I cooked it in the oven ( 2 hrs.) and had to go to work so I left Corleen to take it out and remove the bones and separate the flesh from the crispy skin. He took a photo after be seasoned it and covered it in Olive oil ready for the oven ( I always give him all the messy jobs!)