Category Archives: Food for One

Patatas a lo Pobre – Poor Mans Potatoes – with Broken Eggs – con Huevos Rotos

17 Friday Dec 2021

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This is a very common dish down here in Andalucia, especially at this time of year when, in the old days, the ingredients for it were pretty well all that was in the larder. Potatoes, good olive oil, onions, garlic and green peppers. It can then be fortified with whatever you have, chorizo, fresh sausages, a slice of pork, or my favourite, eggs, or if you are really hungry, all of those.
All sorts of other ingredients can be added to this basic recipe to vary it. Mushrooms work well, red peppers of course, olives for a different flavour.
Per person you want

150 grams more or less of waxy potatoes – scrubbed and cut into thickish slices

1/4 of a large onion – cut into slices

2 cloves of garlic – cut into thin slices

1 green horn shaped pepper – cut into bite sized pieces

extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

one or two free range eggs

Traditionally the potatoes are fried with the rest of the ingredients from raw, but as you have to use a generous amount of olive oil to ensure that they don’t stick in the pan, I prefer to par boil them for five to seven minutes until half cooked, then I drain them and put them to one side while I cook the rest of the ingredients. You can do this or go the traditional method, the choice is yours.

Put two tablespoons of oil into a shallow pan, add the onions, garlic and green peppers. Fry on a low heat stirring regularly, until lightly browned at the edges.

Add the potatoes and continue frying and stirring, adding more oil if you think you need to.

Season well, and continue cooking until the potatoes are cooked.

Either poach or fry the eggs.

Serve the potatoes with the eggs on top cutting into the eggs so that the lovely warm yellow yolks dribble into them.

Enjoy!




Chickpea & Potato Cakes with Whole Spices

28 Sunday Nov 2021

Posted by in Food for One, Main Courses, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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These spicy cakes are so quick and easy to make and use only two main ingredients.

Per serving you need –

100 grams cooked chickpeas

medium potato

pinch fennel seeds

pinch cumin seeds

pinch coriander seeds

salt and freshly ground black pepper

olive oil for frying

Put the chickpeas in a bowl and mash them to a coarse paste.

Grate the potato into the chickpea mash and mix thoroughly.

Add all the seasonings and mix well.

Form into three cakes and fry for a few minutes each side, I turned mine twice, until they are golden brown and cooked through.

Serve with greek yoghurt and a spicy sauce.

Globe Artichoke & Burrata Pasta

18 Tuesday May 2021

Posted by in Food for One, Main Courses, Starters, Vegetable Dishes

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A super simple dish today. Most of the tastiest pasta dishes have few ingredients, and this one is no exception. Good olive oil, garlic, fresh cooked artichokes and Burrata cheese are all that’s needed for the sauce. For the pasta I used my favourite dried pasta, Maccheroni al Ferreto, which I know is not always easy to get hold of. Any of the more substantial pastas will work, tagliatelle, penne, orecchiette or pappardelle.

Per person

tablespoon olive oil

2 cloves garlic – finely chopped

3 globe artichokes

1/2 a Burrata cheese – roughly cut up

salt and freshly ground black pepper

50 grams dried pasta

Bring plenty of salted water to the boil and add the pasta. Let cook at a fast simmer.

Prepare the artichokes by removing the tough outer leaves, then the top tough part of the flower and the stem. Cut into fine wedges.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and throw in the artichokes. Fry them over a moderate heat turning them as they cook.

After five minutes of cooking add the garlic. Continue frying until the artichokes are cooked.

If your pasta isn’t yet cooked turn off the heat under the artichokes and cover them.

Once the pasta is cooked drain it saving a little of the cooking liquid. Add to the artichokes and stir well to mix. Reheat the artichokes if necessary and add a little of the pasta cooking liquor.

Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, then add the cheese. Stir once to mix and serve.

Enjoy!

Spicy Omelette Breakfast Wrap

10 Saturday Apr 2021

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This recipe’s origins lay with one of the supermarkets local to here being taken over by South American’s, who know a good flour tortilla and stock the best ones you can buy around here. I have made my own, but these are better than I can do, so why bother. Burritos are the first recipe I made with the tortillas, and I’ve used them as Chapatis with Indian dishes, but one morning fancying a change from my poached egg on toast I made a thin omelette with spices in it, drizzled it with a spicy chilli sauce and rolled it in a hot tortilla. Fab!

Since then I’ve made different variations depending on what vegetables or sauces I’ve had. I’ve added mange toute peas, sweet garden peas, blanched broccoli, sweetcorn or peppers and I’ve put a spread of hummus or aubergine pate on the tortilla before the omelette. The recipe below is for the plain spiced omelette, which is lovely and tasty as it is, or you might want to add vegetables for a more robust omelette.

For a dinner plate sized tortilla you want –

1 free range egg

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

1 tablespoon water / vegetable stock / milk

pinch salt

freshly ground black pepper

fresh coriander roughly chopped

olive oil for frying

Mix all the ingredients together.

Heat the oil in a small frying pan, add the egg mix and cover. Cook slowly until just set.

Turn the omelette onto a warmed tortilla, drizzle with a hot chilli sauce of your choice, roll and enjoy!

Sauerkraut Soup with Mushroom & Hazelnut Mash

01 Monday Feb 2021

Posted by in Food for One, Starters, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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This is a vegan version of a traditional recipe that I had in a little Polish restaurant in Doncaster. The soup was a thin clear broth with sauerkraut in it, and on the side of the dish a pile of mashed potatoes that you mixed into the soup as you ate it to thicken it.
The original version was made with a meat stock, and the mash thickener had finely chopped ham in it and maybe some fried onions as well. The additions to the mash can be changed depending on what you have in your cupboard, just fried onions and or garlic would work well, finely chopped fried peppers too.

For 1 portion

250 – 300 ml clear stock

70 grams sauerkraut plus a tablespoon of its salty liquid

1 medium potato – peeled and cut into smallish cubes

1 medium sized strongly flavoured mushroom – chopped into small dice

1 clove garlic – finely chopped

20 grams hazelnuts – roughly crushed

1 tablespoon olive oil

freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a small saucepan and once hot add the garlic and mushrooms. Fry stirring regularly for about 5 minutes.

Add the potatoes, stir to mix in, the add enough boiling water to only just cover the potatoes. Cover and simmer until the potatoes are cooked and soft.

While the potatoes are cooking, put the stock and sauerkraut in another pan and bring to a simmer. Check the seasonings adding salt and black pepper as needed.

Once the potatoes are cooked pour off any excess cooking liquid into the soup. Mash the potato mix. Add the crushed hazelnuts and mix in.

Serve the soup with a little mound of the potato mix to one side.

Mixed Greens & Tofu with Chilli Bean Sauce

22 Friday Jan 2021

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The vegetable garden has slowed down production in the cooler weather, so there’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but if you add all the bits together there’s enough for a tasty dish. I’ve got chard, spinach, mizuna, Russian kale, coriander and bok Choi, broccoli and a few mange toute peas.

For 1 portion

1 clove garlic – finely chopped

small piece of fresh ginger – finely chopped

few slices of red pepper

peanut oil

130 grams tofu – cut into dice

mixed green leaves – sliced

few mange toute peas

few sprigs broccoli and their sliced stems

1 tablespoon chilli bean sauce

1 tablespoon Kejap Manis – this is an Indonesian sweet soy sauce, if you can’t get it use regular soy sauce and a teaspoon of brown sugar

1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce Nam Pla

2 tablespoons water

Juice of a small lime

Firstly in a small bowl mix the last five ingredients together, all the wet ones, and put to one side.

Heat a tablespoon or two of peanut oil in a wok and add the ginger and garlic. Fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the red pepper and fry a minute more.

Add the tofu and fry, tossing it regularly, with the ginger and garlic until well coated with the other ingredients and starting to become golden on the corners.

Add all the greens and stir fry for five minutes or so.

Add the spicy liquid in the bowl and continue stir frying and tossing the ingredients to mix. Cook until the vegetables have brightened and just cooked but still with bite.

Serve with rice noodles. Yummy! This is one of my new favourites!

Mushroom Dumplings in Clear Soup

18 Monday Jan 2021

Posted by in Food for One, Starters, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

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My plan when I thought about making these was to have little tasty high protein dumplings that I could add to a stir fry, but once I had poached them in stock the resulting soup with dumplings was so good I left it as it was. Next time I make this I will add some finely sliced spring onions and some shredded greens. Thinking about it, a few bean sprouts would be good too.

For 2 portions

10 grams dried mushrooms – I used oriental Camelia mushrooms but any dried mushrooms will have the depth of flavour needed for this.

1 clove garlic

piece of fresh ginger 1 cm square approximately

4 tablespoons / 60 ml powdered gluten

1 tablespoon/15 ml rice flour

1 tablespoon peanut oil

pinch of salt

500 ml light stock

Fresh coriander – finely chopped

Remove any roots from the mushrooms then cut up the mushrooms roughly. Put in a small food processor and blitz to a powder.

Roughly chop the garlic and ginger and add to the mushrooms. Process to cut and blend all together.

Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse to mix.

Add some of the stock teaspoon by teaspoon pulsing between spoonfuls until you you have a dough that holds together.

Form the dough into small dumplings.

Heat the stock and once simmering add the dumplings and simmer for 15 minutes. Check your seasonings adding salt and pepper as needed.

Serve with fresh coriander scattered over.

Burritos with Seitan

16 Saturday Jan 2021

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I’m getting more confident now of how to make seitan that is light and tasty, but that still can be sliced and fried to a slightly crisp golden brown, with the texture similar to that of fried bacon slices. Burritos normally have thinly sliced spiced beef or chicken as one of the components, so I thought some spicy seitan should be a good substitute for the meat, then together with the guacamole and re fried beans you have a substantial filling.

For 2 portions – all spoon measurements are level spoons

4 tablespoons wheat gluten powder

1 tablespoon chickpea flour

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon Maggi vegetable stock powder

2 teaspoons garam masala spice

1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground white pepper

pinch of salt

3 tablespoons vegetable stock plus 1 litre for poaching the seitan

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl

Add the olive oil and mix well.

Add the 3 tablespoons of stock and mix to a soft dough. If the dough feels too firm add a trickle more liquid.

Form the dough into a neat log shape.

Bring the stock to a simmer, put in the seitan and cook at barely a simmer for 40 minutes.

Remove the seitan from the stock and let cool before slicing. You can prepare the seitan up to this point in advance, the seitan will keep several days in the fridge.

When you are ready to assemble your burritos, follow my previous recipe for burritos with their filling of refried beans and guacamole. Slice and fry the seitan until golden and a bit crisp round the edges and add to the burritos. Roll them up and slather with sour cream or a vegan substitute, then drizzle with chilli sauce. Enjoy!

Seitan Dumplings

08 Tuesday Dec 2020

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For my second try with making seitan, I thought I would see if it would make little protein rich dumplings to add to vegetable soup. This time I’ve added olive oil to the mix to lighten the texture of the seitan, and added herbs and vegetable stock powder for flavour. I was very happy with the result.

Dumpling mix – enough for 2 portions – measurements in level tablespoons

4 tablespoons gluten powder

1 tablespoon chickpea flour

1 teaspoon vegetable stock powder – I like Maggi the best

1 teaspoon very finely chopped mixed fresh herbs/ 1/2 teaspoon dried mixed herbs

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper and a pinch of salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 tablespoons stock or water

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a small bowl making sure you break up any clumps of the stock powder.

Add the olive oil and mix well to distribute.

Mix to a fairly wet dough with the water or stock.

Form into small dumplings.

Bring you soup to a simmer and gently drop the dumplings one by one into it.

After a few minutes of cooking, the dumplings will rise to the surface which indicates that they are cooked.

Enjoy your soup and dumplings!

Adventures with Seitan

07 Monday Dec 2020

Posted by in Food for One, Main Courses, Techniques, Vegan

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Seitan is made from the protein in wheat, in other words the gluten. All the starch is washed out of the wheat leaving pure gluten which consists of over 80% protein. Quite clearly this is not suitable for anyone who is coeliac or has an intolerance to gluten.
The resulting powder is then seasoned and mixed into a dough with water or stock before being poached. Frequently the Seitan is poached in flavoured stock to take on the taste of a type of meat. For me making a vegetable product taste like meat is not something I feel I need to do, I’m quite happy with vegetables tasting like vegetables. Having said that, Seitan, like tofu is a pretty bland product, so it does need flavour adding to it, I’m having fun experimenting with different flavourings and will share my successes and failures with you. Because seitan has a high protein content it’s texture is quite dense and it can be browned like meat or sliced and then fried to crispness, which can add some interesting textures to dishes.

This first seitan I made, I can’t say I was very happy with the texture, it was very dense and a bit rubbery. It needed fat in it to lighten up the texture. Not one to waste anything, I cut it into matchstick shapes, fried until crisp, which came out pretty good, and added it to oriental fried rice. As the seitan was quite bland this first time of making it, it needed the flavour of the ginger, garlic and chilli to perk it up.

SEITAN – FIRST TRY BASIC RECIPE – ONE PORTION – all spoon measurements are level spoons

4 tablespoons gluten powder

1 tablespoon chickpea flour

pinch of salt

vegetable stock

In a small bowl mix the dry ingredients together.

Add enough water to make a workable dough and knead to a smooth consistency.


Form into a sausage shape.

Heat the stock to a simmer and put the dough into the stock. Keep the heat low so that the stock is only just moving. I find cooking the seitan in a slow cooker on a low setting works well.

Cook for 40 minutes then remove the seitan from the broth.

Cool and cut into matchstick shapes, before frying and adding to the stir fried rice.

Tomorrow Seitan Herb Dumplings for soup.