Spanish
Spanish has three nationalities: British, Irish and Australian due to a series of accidents. Spanish is not one of them,
Mark Bradford was born in Australia in 1966 and has lived on a damp, cold island off the coast of France since 1970. Educated in the State School System (proudly), his teachers unanimously agreed he had raised indolence and mediocrity to world-class levels.
In sport, he excelled at outrunning the bigger kids to avoid a regular hiding. These traits have seen him through several aimless career changes and now, in his 50s, he finds himself wondering what he will do when he grows up.
But, he loves his family and he can cook a bit.
Follow him at www.bradfordfamilycookbook.uk
Sometimes you just need to make stuff
This is it, no need to mess with it at all, but you can obviously
Potatoes and bacon with wine, cream and cheese. And not just any old cheese - it's Reblochon!
You can make this as a side dish (this recipe) or you can beef it up a bit with chicken and make it almost like a fish pie (a bit more wine and cream) with the potatoes on the top of a creamy chicken and bacon base
Easy-peasy Lemon (or orange or lime or whatever you want or vinegar for that matter) squeezy!
Ahh, it trips off the tongue but you'll never eat mint sauce out of a jar again! So is it just a posh version of mint sauce? Not really. It has basil and parsley as well as mint and can be eaten with anything: try it with fish, it is fabulous.
It's what the mackerel would have wanted!
This is a very basic recipe which you can play with by adding different flavourings if you like: garlic, spring onion, chilli, up to you
Any excuse to use nuoc cham and rare beef
Use any salad you like - we are weird in Europe in that we make a salad from veg and variations on lettuce and then add a few herbs whereas in other parts of the world herbs are the salad. Tabouleh in the Middle East for example isn't parsley in salad, it's parsley as salad.
Like porridge but nice!
When I had it in Hong Kong it seemed as though the rice had been broken up which made it smoother. I just use rice
Named after one of Meg's school friends, its a bit like coq au vin but tarragon gives it a lovely fresh lift
Do this in a heavy-bottomed casserole and if you can get chicken with skin on so you can roast it and get it lovely and crispy on the outside and gives the stock a lovely flavour. Whole legs are good but if you don't like bones then skin-on breasts are ok
What a Pulava!
This started as a conversation with Meg about rice (I know).
Wouldn't be a Bradford Christmas without this!
Remember, there's more to life that Cheddar!
Much more!
It's lots of butter and is the basis of any Cheese Sauce, Parsely Sauce, or . . . you get the idea
It's simple but you can cock it up if you try to rush it. But then it only takes a couple of minutes anyway so why mess around? this makes about half a pint but you just increase each of the ingredients in this proportion. the important bit s that you have equal amounts (weight) of butter and flour