Cooking Outside the Box: The Abel and Cole Seasonal, Organic Cookbook

The dumplings:

1 egg

1/2 mug of water

1 tsp salt

1 mug of plain flour

1 tbsp chopped rosemary

Gazza, aka Gazzman, aka Gary has been part of the furniture at Abel & Cole for almost as long as I have. He’s also one of the coolest guys I’ve ever met, and he has the charisma to make whatever he’s doing seem like the best thing in the world. Yes, even eating dumplings.

Heat a glug or two of olive oil in a large, heavy-based lidded pot, add the beef and brown it, then remove with a slotted spoon. You may have to cook the beef in batches so the pot is not overcrowded. Once the beef is out of the way, fry the onions for 3–4 minutes. Return the beef to the pot and throw in the garlic, paprika and tomato purée and give this a good stir around for a few minutes. Add the stock and bay leaves and simmer with the lid on for 45 minutes over a very low heat.

While the pot is boiling away, prepare your dumplings: mix the egg, water and salt together, and then add the flour, combine it and mix in the rosemary. Let the mixture rest for about 20 minutes or so.

Once the pot has been simmering for 45 minutes, add the potatoes and more stock if needed – you need the goulash to be quite wet for the dumplings to cook. After about 15 minutes, when the potatoes are tender, add the dumplings by dolloping one teaspoon of the mix at a time into the pot. Return the lid and leave this to cook for 10–15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve with a dollop of soured cream.

Hummus in a Hurry

VEGAN

This takes about 3 minutes from start to finish and tastes great. We always have a few cans of organic chickpeas in the cupboard just so we can whip this up as a healthy snack for the kids or even serve it up to guests while knocking back a few G&Ts before dinner.

1 can of organic chickpeas

1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

2 tbsp tahini (sesame seed paste)

Juice of a lemon (and another lemon for the G&Ts)

3 or 4 glugs of olive oil

A couple of pinches of salt

A couple of pinches of paprika

Drain the chickpeas, retaining some of the brine for later. Throw the chickpeas into a blender or food processor with the crushed garlic, tahini and lemon juice and start blitzing.

Slowly pour 3 or 4 glugs of olive oil in through the top of the blender with the motor still running so it all combines. You may need to scrape some of the mixture down the sides of the blender to get it all to combine. If it is too dry, re-blitz, adding a little of the brine to help it to loosen up to a smooth paste.

Season with salt and paprika to taste and serve with toasted pitta bread strips or sliced carrots.

Cauliflower and Three Cheese Comfort Supper

VEGETARIAN

Midweek easy comfort food. To make a children’s version, just leave out the blue cheese and go easy on the mustard – unless your children are very sophisticated, in which case add some more (mustard that is, not children).

WILL SERVE 6 VERY HUNGRY PEOPLE

1 large cauliflower, cut into chunky florets

2 onions, peeled and chopped

500g (1lb 11/2oz) dried short pasta, such as macaroni, penne or rotini

3 knobs of butter

3 heaped tbsp flour

2 mugs of milk

1 good dollop of hot English mustard

11/2 mugs of grated strong Cheddar

1/2 mug of crumbled blue cheese (optional, ask the children)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/2 mug of grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 205°C/400°F/gas 6.

Throw the cauliflower, onions and pasta into a large pot of boiling salted water and cook all together until the pasta is al dente, as per pack instructions.

While this is cooking, melt the butter in a medium or large pan. Stir in the flour to make a roux and cook for a few minutes, stirring over a low heat. Now turn the heat up to medium and slowly add the milk, constantly stirring until it all combines and starts to thicken to a creamy sauce – you may need to add a little more milk if it gets too thick and pasty.

Now stir in the mustard, Cheddar and blue cheese and season with salt and pepper to taste. Drain the pasta, onion and cauliflower and tip into a suitable-size baking dish. Pour the sauce over it and top with lots of Parmesan. Bake in the oven for 10–15 minutes or until the top gets nice and crispy, remove from the oven, serve and smile.

Spinach and Walnut Pasta

VEGETARIAN

This is comfort food that you can rustle up in 10 minutes when you get home from work or from something more fun late at night. Combining pasta water with the walnuts makes the sauce, and you end up enjoying the simple but delicious taste of walnuts, olive oil, spinach, Parmesan and seasoning. If comfort sounds like your idea of bland, though, fear not. Just chuck in some capers, sun-dried tomatoes or rocket instead of spinach, and you will be revelling in zingy refreshment instead.

SERVES 4

500g pack of wholewheat fusilli

1/2 mug of walnuts

2 mugs of finely chopped fresh spinach (or chopped wild rocket)

A glug of olive oil