Miranda loved cooking for people. Here are some of her most well-loved recipes for you to try. She was more of a pinch and handful person than a precise-measurement follower. I’ve done my best with quantities and timings but you will have to rely on your instinct and taste more than you might usually have to. Quantities here will serve four hungry people.
Enjoy!
Apéro
Best enjoyed outside in the evening sunshine with a gathering of friends, neighbours and family.
Spicy Roast Almonds
Ingredients
2tsp butter
1tbs Worcestershire sauce
¼ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 ½ cups whole almonds
1 tbs salt
Method
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees
Melt the butter in a small pan. Add everything except the almonds and salt and simmer for three minutes. Add the nuts and stir until coated. Spread out on a baking sheet and roast for 15 to 20 minutes, turning halfway. Toss with salt and cool.
Starters
Baked Red Peppers
Ingredients
4 large red peppers
4 vine tomatoes
A log of soft goats cheese
Tinned anchovies
4 tsp herbes de Provence
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
Serve with a loaf of crusty bread
Method
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees.
Halve the peppers lengthways and deseed. Cut the tomatoes in half widthways and put one half inside each pepper half. Put a slice of goats cheese on each, criss-cross with two anchovies and sprinkle with the herbs. Season, drizzle with olive oil and bake for 40 minutes.
Melon and Presunto
Ingredients
1 small Cantaloupe melon
Four slices of presunto (or another kind of dry-cured ham)
Sprigs of fresh basil to garnish.
Method
Cut the melon in quarters and deseed. Lay the presunto over the pieces of melon with as much artistic flair as you can muster. Garnish with basil sprigs.
Mains
Lamb steaks with red wine & red current jelly
Ingredients
4 responsibly farmed lamb leg steaks
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 glasses of red wine (2 for the sauce, 1 for the chef)
Beef stock cube
2 tbs red current jelly
1 tbs crème fraiche
Fresh rosemary
Salt & pepper
Method
(Serve with dauphinoise potatoes & tenderstem broccoli or rocket salad)
Sear the lamb steaks for two minutes on each side (longer if you aren’t a fan of rare lamb) and remove from pan. Turn down the heat and fry the garlic for a few seconds. Pour in the wine, scraping up any meat juices stuck to the bottom. Crumble in the stock and stir in the red current jelly and the rosemary. You can add a bit of water if it looks like it needs it. Put the meat back into the pan and let it bubble away for around 5 minutes. Turn the stove off, late up the steaks, and then stir through the crème fraiche and season the sauce to taste.
Fish pie
Ingredients
One salmon fillet
One cod fillet
One smoked haddock fillet
A packet of prawns
Two eggs, hard boiled
Milk
1 tbs flour
2 tsp butter
1 bay leaf
Four medium sized potatoes
Method
(Serve with garden peas)
Cut the potatoes into chunks and boil until soft.
Place the fish and prawns in a pan and cover with milk. Add the butter and bayleaf and season. Simmer on a low heat for around 15 minutes, or until the fish is no longer translucent. Using a slotted spatula, take the fish out of the pan and arrange in the bottom of an over-proof dish. Quarter the hard-boiled eggs and lay on top.
Take the bay leaf out of the milk and gradually add the flour to thicken into a bechamel sauce. Pour over the fish.
Mash the potato and spread over the fish with a fork. Dot with butter and put in the oven for 30 mins, until the top is crispy and brown and the sauce bubbling.
Desserts
Homemade Strawberry Ice cream
Ingredients
A punnet of strawberries
200 mils double cream
50 grams icing sugar
Zest of one lemon
Method
Remove the leaves from the strawberries and blitz in a blender until pureed. Fold into the double cream, sieve in the iceing sugar and add the lemon zest. Pour into ramakins and freeze.
Peach upside down pudding
Ingredients
Two tins of peach slices
Two eggs
Self-raising flour
Sugar
Butter
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Weigh the eggs. Beat in the same weight of the flour, butter and sugar. Stir in around 3 tablespoons of the juice from the tinned peaches so it forms a smooth batter. Put the peaches in the bottom of an oven-proof dish with the remainder of the juice and pour over the batter. Bake in the oven for 30 mins if you want it cakey, or do what we did in our family and drastically undercook it so it is all gooey and delicious.
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