Paleo chilli

I never really use recipes for most of my cooking unless there's one I come across that I really want.
That said, here's what I usually throw into a slowcooker in the morning and come home to delicious chili in the evening
(even if it's always a tiny bit different in taste)
2-4 lbs of ground meat. Turkey, pork, beef, chicken, or any combination. More meat if I want more leftovers.
2 chopped medium-sized onions
couple stalks of celery chopped
1 chopped green bell pepper (or other colors)
4-5 tomatoes chopped, about half of them blended with a stick blender till smooth-ish
salt and pepper to taste
Some cumin (I'd guess 2 teaspoons)
Some cayenne powder (I start with maybe half a teaspoon when
I start it, and add more when
I get home from work if it needs more of a kick) Some cinnamon (I'd say "two dashes", so maybe around a teaspoon)
Sometimes, some dark chocolate or cocoa powder. Maybe two teaspoons.
Set it on low, let it go 8-10 hours.

Pompeii bread 2000 years old

My reconstruction
For those of you who don’t know the back-story, when the Pompeii Live exhibition
was staged at the British Museum, one of the items on display was a carbonized loaf of bread
found in a bakery oven. On the day of the eruption in 79AD, it received a slightly longer and higher temperature bake than the baker intended.
Not that he cared any longer. Apart from surviving the eruption, the loaf is notable for three things.
There's the bread stamp on it which reads Property of Celer, Slave of Q. Granius Verus.
It is also wrapped in a cord. And it's divided into eight wedges.
Ingredients
345 g spelt flour
345 g rye flour
172 g sourdough starter
14 g sea salt
347 g lukewarm water
172 g barm
2 tbsp olive oil
Okay, why the twine? First, as you can see from the bread selfie above,
it helps to carry a solid 1.3 kg bread. Handy for the Roman shopper/house slave.
Then there's the division of the loaf into wedges. They're deep cuts but, if you tie the cord around the loaf first,
bread keeps the shape it would lose if it was sliced without the cord.

Irish coddle

Onions
Potatoes
Carrots
Sausages
Rashers
Gammon
1 pack of Knorr Potato Soup
Stick it all in a big pot, cover with water,
bring to a boil and simmer until the potatoes are cooked.
Serve it with some crusty bread, lashings of butter and a pint.
Sprinkle some parsley over if you are feeling a bit fancy.
As with most stewy things it always tastes better the next day
so make a big pot while you’re at it.

Hot and sour soup

Ingredients:
Quarter pound of good pork belly.
half a cup dried shitake mushrooms
cup button mushrooms
cup or two of bamboo shoots
2 eggs
three or four dried chilis
pack of firm tofu
1 quart chicken stock
1/2 quart beef stock
half a cup white vinegar
cornstarch slurry (half cup water half cup corn starch)
pinch fried garlic
1 scallion
1/8 cup soup base
soup base:
2 part dark mushroom soy sauce (most important part)
1 part light soy sauce
2 part white pepper, 4 part if not fresh ground
1/2 part salt
1 part sugar
1/2 part chili oil
1 part sesame oil
1/2 part garlic powder
quote him: Make a bunch of it cause it is good for everything.
I used 1 tbsp as 1 part and made enough for two batches.
Prep:
Start by freezing the pork for half an hour so it iys easy to cut.
Slice into tiny strips and toss in a bit of corn powder slurry.
Cut all the veggies into tiny slices.
Matchsticks for the bamboo and tiny slices for the mushrooms.
Tofu into quarter-inch by one-inch chunks,
and dice the shit out of the chilis.
Keep the seeds from one pepper.
Beat the egg with a splash of sake or vinegar.
Cook:
Bring the chicken and beef stock to a boil, then toss in the pork strips.
Once it gets back to boil put in the soup base.
Add the mushrooms and bamboo, let it get back to a boil. Add the tofu and let it cook for a minute. Then add vinegar.
Let it all get back to a boil then slooooooooooowly stir in the cornstarch till
it just starts to firm up. You wont need to use all of it. It should be sticky to the back of the spoon if you did it right.
Taste it now. More hot? More white pepper and chili oil. More Sour? More vinegar.
Let it get to a good boil, like seriously bubblin before you make the soup into a whirlpool.
spin it around with the ladle in your left hand while you slooooowly
stir in the eggs you beat with the little wine. They’re gonna make beautiful lil ribbons.
toss in scallions at the end with a little fried garlic.

Black pepper beef stir-fry

Tender and succulent beef strips with a black pepper flavoured sauce,
Chinese black pepper beef stir-fry can be made at home to a restaurant standard.

Prep time 15 minutes
Cook time 5 minutes
Total time 20 minutes

Ingredients
For the marinade
350 g flank or skirt steak 12oz (see note 1 & 2)
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp Shaoxing rice wine
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp ginger julienned
For the sauce
3 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp sugar
1 pinch salt
1 tsp cornstarch
3 tbsp water
You also need
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 onion julienned
1/2 red bell pepper julienned
Instructions
Slice the beef into strips (against the grain). Mix with the ingredients for the marinade. Leave to rest for 10 minutes.
Mix all the ingredients for the sauce then set aside.
Heat up the oil in a wok over high heat. Sear the marinated beef until it turns brown (should still be pink inside). Transfer it to a separate plate.
Add onion and pepper to the remaining oil in the wok. Cook for a minute or so.
Put the beef back into the wok. Stir fry for another 1-2 minutes until the beef is fully cooked.
Pour in the sauce. Stir until it becomes thick enough to coat the beef and vegetables nicely.
Sprinkle more ground black pepper for more intense flavour (optional). Serve hot with steamed rice.
Notes
1. Flank steak and skirt steak are the best cut of beef for quick stir-fry. Slicing it across the grain is the key to tenderness.
2. Using a cheaper cut of beef (for braising) is not ideal but acceptable. You need to tenderize it before marinating:
Mix 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda with sliced beef then leave for at least 30 mins
Rinse the beef in 500ml / 2 cups of water with 4 teaspoons of vinegar. Then rinse again under running water
Drain well before adding to the marinade mixture

Victorian soup for the poor (my favourite soup ever)

Ingredients:
Bacon - 3 rashers, streaky
Butter - 1 tbsp
Onion - x1, large
Carrots - x2
Celery - x2 sticks
Yellow split peas - 300g / 11oz / 1.5 cups
Mint - 2 sprigs
Stock - 2 litres / 4pts, vegetable or meat stock
Salt and pepper, to season
Method
Soak the peas overnight in plenty of cold water, then drain.
Peel and chop the vegetables, and dice the bacon.
Fry the bacon in butter, and add the vegetables to the pan.
Cook for a few minutes and then add the peas and stock.
Bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes until the peas have split.
Add chopped mint and seasoning to taste, and cook for a further 5 minutes before serving hot.

Yorkshire pudding

Ingredients
140g plain flour (this is about 200ml/7fl oz)
4 eggs (200ml/7fl oz)
200ml milk
sunflower oil, for cooking
Instructions
Heat oven to 230 c, fan 210 c, gas 8
Drizzle a little sunflower oil evenly into two 4-hole Yorkshire pudding tins
or two 12-hole non-stick muffin tins and place in the oven to heat through.
To make the batter, tip 140g plain flour into a bowl and beat in 4 eggs until smooth.
Gradually add 200ml milk and carry on beating until the mix is completely lump-free. Season with salt and pepper.
Pour the batter into a jug, then remove the hot tins from the oven. Carefully and evenly pour the batter into the holes.
Place the tins back in the oven and leave undisturbed for 20-25 mins until the puddings have puffed up and browned.
Serve immediately. YoHu can now cool them and freeze for up to 1 month.