The Vicar’s Wife’s Cook Book

Stir-fried Pak Choi with Sesame Seeds (#ulink_80c20131-9cdd-5b5a-8471-f983179d08f8)

1 tablespoon sesame or groundnut oil

1 head of pak choi

1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed

1 tablespoon sesame seeds, lightly toasted in a dry frying pan

Heat the oil in a wok, or similar, and chop the pak choi into slices. Throw it into the smoking pan with the garlic and toss for 3–4 minutes. Serve with the sesame seeds sprinkled haphazardly over the top.

Mincemeat-stuffed Baked Apples (#ulink_1f1939bb-ad5e-5206-913e-2670b823cb5f)

Plan the cooking of these apples so that they can be served straight away, as they will collapse if they are left to stand. Old-fashioned this pudding may well be, but sometimes the old ways are the very best.

2 Bramley apples

For the mincemeat filling:

4 tablespoons good-quality mincemeat

20g toasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped

20g dried cranberries or 20g ready-to-eat apricots, chopped

finely grated zest of ½ orange

2 teaspoons brandy (optional)

custard or single cream, to serve (optional)

First, make the mincemeat filling by mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas Mark 6.

Core the apples with an apple corer and then open up the cavity a little more with a swivel potato peeler, making sure that the resulting hole is at least 2.5–3cm across so that there is plenty of room for the filling. Then score a horizontal line around the centre of each one, just through the skin, to prevent them bursting whilst they’re in the oven. Place the apples in a shallow, lightly buttered ovenproof dish. Generously fill the centre of each one with the mincemeat mixture. Pour 6 tablespoons of water into the bottom of the dish, cover it loosely with foil and bake for 30 minutes. After this time, remove the foil and bake for a further 15–20 minutes or until the apples are soft and tender right through to the centre.

Serve straight away with the syrupy juices and lashings of custard.

Bargain-basement Lunch

You don’t have to be penny-pinching to cook this, but if you are, it will only add to your enjoyment of it. This lunch gives you comfort food to be proud of; so cheap to make that you’ll want to tell all your budget-minded, bargain-hunting friends about it.

All too easily we overlook the cheaper cuts of meat, nervous that, unlike our wartime predecessors, we don’t know what to do with them. However, we ignore these cuts to our loss as, even for the most incompetent cook, they are a breeze to get the best out of and will save us money to buy new shoes.

We didn’t actually have this for lunch on the day we cooked it because we had to go to a child’s birthday bash after church. Instead, we had it with family members in the evening, bowls on knees, eyes glued to the rugby (the boys) while chatting aimlessly (the girls). It all felt wonderfully relaxed and cosy. On a chilly Sunday this would make a really fabulous lunch. Ideally, you would prepare it the day before and gently reheat it when you want to eat it. Or, if that’s not possible, cook it on the day, stick it in the oven, go out in the fresh air and come back to a feast full of cheaply gained flavour.

BEEF STEW (#ulink_fba6e21d-b154-5a6b-8915-b8297d0f299d)

RAREBIT TOASTS (#ulink_5ab07748-3180-5d91-9dab-b45911816d95)

LEMON RICE PUDDING (#ulink_6a48c968-dfe5-55b2-b32e-8297e7c6d7b4)

Beef Stew (#ulink_04042c24-1b5b-5704-90d8-277d5e08cdfb)

2 tablespoons plain flour

salt and pepper

850g brisket of beef, cut into 2.5cm chunks

2 tablespoons olive oil

6 small, or 3 large, carrots, cut into 2cm chunks

3 parsnips, quartered, cores removed and cut into 2cm chunks

2 onions, peeled and thickly sliced

3 celery sticks, thinly sliced

500ml Guinness

6 sprigs of thyme

1 × 400g tin plum tomatoes

8 pickled walnuts (that’s a jar’s worth)

2–3 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

Preheat the oven to 160°C/Gas Mark 3. Put the flour into a bowl, add salt and pepper and toss in the pieces of brisket. Now heat the oil in a large, flameproof casserole dish on the top of the stove and throw in the beef, in batches if necessary, to brown off the pieces. You’ll need to be on hand to stir things round, as the meat may stick. Return the meat to the pan, add all the vegetables and then the rest of the ingredients. Let it all come to the boil, put the lid on the casserole and put it in the oven.

Leave it in there for 2½ hours or until the meat is tender. If the juices look too liquidy when you take it out of the oven, you can put the casserole on a high heat on the hob and let the stew bubble away, uncovered, for a few minutes. Test for seasoning, then serve in bowls with the rarebit toasts floating on top.

Rarebit Toasts (#ulink_4c2f81f5-843b-5b60-8d02-3d5166e2bfc1)

These aren’t real rarebits, but rather something far simpler. But they do the trick.

4 tablespoons grated cheese (Cheddar, Lancashire or Wensleydale)

2 teaspoons wholegrain mustard

1 egg, beaten

4 thick slices of good-quality bread (white or brown is fine)

Preheat the grill to high a few minutes before you are ready to eat. Mix the cheese, mustard and beaten egg together in a bowl. Put the slices of bread onto the rack of the grill pan and toast on both sides. Remove and spread each one with some of the cheesy egg mixture. Put the toasts back under the grill until bubbling and brown in places. Cut the toasts in half and float them on top of the stew.

Lemon Rice Pudding (#ulink_383dbb83-80d9-5ffb-9591-4b36ad8267b7)