The Captain's Table

Time for something a little more... exciting.  Stretch your legs a bit.  Half this plate I made for the first time on Sunday, so don't think this is hard or anything.  This rich and hearty hunters' sauce is a great accompaniment for meats and is usually paired with schnitzel (more on those later), but it's delicious so have it with whatever you want. Ingredients: For the chops: Pork chops For the sauce: Onion Garlic Mushrooms Rosemary Sage Stock Plain Flour Method: Timing is crucial, as ever.  The sauce will take a small amount of time, so my advice is to make that first.  Use a pan with a lid (I've got an 8"/20cm skillet), and cover it when you're done until you're ready to serve, basically. Dice your onion and garlic.  I used one mid-sized red onion and three cloves of garlic; use at least this amount of garlic, if not more. Slice up your mushrooms.  I had chestnut closed cup mushrooms, so split head and leg and sliced pretty...

Right then.  We might as well start at the top. This is it, the cornerstone of my cuisine. The sine qua non  of dinner, the ne plus ultra. So good, yet so utterly basic that it beggars belief. Ingredients: Chicken thighs Rice (long grain or basmati) Hot sauce Method: Make some rice.  Make however much rice you think you'll need, but make sure all the water is cooked out.  Here's my foolproof method that I inherited from my mother that works every time: Decide how much rice you want, and double the amount of water ready to boil (fill a kettle, basically; or if you have a  fancy boiling tap, use that). Heat oil or butter in a saucepan on high heat - choose a pan with a lid that fits. Coat the rice in the hot butter and keep it moving so it doesn't burn. When the rice is coated, add the water (which is twice the volume of the rice). Stir, making sure that any rice that made its way up the sides of the pan is all incorporated. When the liquid star...