Forget onion jam - here comes Rhubarb & Apple Relish!

This is one of those recipes that has jumped the queue of recipes waiting to come to you, just because it is SO good.

With rhubarb leaping out of the ground in abundance (well, it is in our garden), you might be looking for something new to do with it - and this relish is a thing of rare beauty that deserves to be made.

My hubby is going through a bit of a purple patch with regard to cooking at the moment.  He's bored rigid with cooking dinners, but interesting little challenges like making a relish out of our gorgeous rhubarb still have the capacity to fire him up.  We were discussing what to eat for the week (also known as "making the menu plan") and had decided to go for a Ploughman's Lunch (or Ploughman's Dinner, as it shall be).  Now of course, a Ploughman's requires some tasty pickle or another.  "Perhaps piccalilli?", said hubby.  "Or, or - rhubarb chutney!" he amended, with obvious keenness.

Well that was it.  He was out in the garden, laying waste to the nearest rhubarb, before I could say "great idea!".

The end result is truly one of those pickles/preserves that you taste at a Farmer's Market and think "I'll never be able to afford some of that", before finding out that a small jar costs about a million quid.  Here, you wind up with about four times the amount, for a fraction of the price.  I think that probably, the most expensive item was either the sugar, vinegar or ginger (presuming you've got the rhubarb in the garden already), but if you've a well stocked larder you may well find that you can come up with the ingredients without a trip to the shops.

The relish is jammy, dark and sticky with a most delicious crunch from the mustard seeds and a delightful warmth from the chilli.  The rhubarb flavour is very definitely right up there and is supported by the tart apple.  As I said to hubby, I'll have mine on my ice cream please!

In fact, we've tried it on chicken sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, cheese with biscuits, tinned mackerel, off a teaspoon and of course as part of the aforesaid Ploughman's.  In every context it has been flipping gorgeous.

I have no Cook's Notes for you, as there are so few instructions - just put it all in a pot and cook - there is very little that can go wrong!  Just don't overheat it and allow it to burn.

Oh and incidentally, if you're wondering what makes it a relish instead of a chutney, a relish is a chutney that isn't made to be able to store for long periods.  For this little lovely to be a relish is absolutely 100% appropriate, as I doubt it is going to stay in our fridge for very long at all. 

RHUBARB & APPLE RELISH  (Makes a large (12oz) jar or around 2 cups)

Ingredients: 

250g rhubarb, chopped into 1 inch chunks
250g soft dark brown sugar
125ml good quality cider vinegar (Aspall's is great)
200g Granny Smith apple, peeled and cut into half inch chunks
100g onion, chopped
20g stem or crystallised ginger, finely chopped
50g sultanas
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
half a tsp of sea salt
a pinch of dried red chilli flakes - to taste
pinch of ground cloves
half a tsp of allspice
pinch of freshly ground nutmeg.

Method:

1.  Put everything in a non-reactive saucepan.  Bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 1 hour - stirring regularly - until the relish is good and thick.

2.  Pour into a sterilised jar (or jars), seal and leave to cool.

Refrigerate, the relish will keep for approximately 1 month.

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Pork steaks in satay style sauce

I blame this one on hubby.  Of course, he'll say that I blame everything on him, but that's not exactly true.  In reality, it's just most things.  *chuckle*  However, this one is all his fault, because he's been swerving my lovely pork steaks in mushroom sauce meal for weeks, eventually coming up with the suggestion that "you know what I'd really like?  Pork done in a Satay style sauce".  So I did some research and came up with this recipe, which worked very nicely.

In the course of my research, I discovered that there are three styles of satay sauce and each style harks from a different part of the world.  One is the thick style that you would dip marinated and grilled chicken or pork on a stick into, another is a thinner, less robust but fiercely hotter version.  I went for the Thai version, which seemed to suit my plans for the pork, better than any of the others.

For varying reasons that I won't bore you by going into here, I needed to poach or otherwise cook in liquid, the pork steaks so as to render them tender and ensure they weren't in any way dry.  Now it made sense - in my mind if nobody else's - to capitalise on the meaty flavours by cooking the pork in the satay sauce.  However, I knew that once the peanut butter is included, you have a very short time before it starts to catch on the bottom of the pan - and nobody likes a burned satay sauce.

So I could have seared the pork, cooked the onion and then poached the meat in stock - but then how would I have included the red Thai curry paste?  The obvious answer was to sear the pork, cook the onion, add the curry paste, the stock (for which I used the beautiful chicken stock powder from Essential Cuisine) and coconut milk - and then poach the pork in the lovely curried coconut flavours.  Basically, create a pork red Thai curry, then add the ingredients to turn it Satay.

Would you believe it, it worked.  The poaching liquor, of onion, red Thai curry paste, chicken stock and coconut milk tasted divine and the pork steaks simmered away very happily until they were cooked through, staying moist and tender.  I realised that, even with the Thai curry paste, the chilli heat wasn't going to survive the not-very-tender mercies of being hammered by a great dollop of peanut butter, so quickly added a teaspoonful of dried red chilli flakes to bolster the chilli ratio.  After that, it was a simple matter of adding the peanut butter and the all-important cider vinegar.

Now, if you make this recipe, don't ever be tempted to leave the cider vinegar out. It is essential and changes your sauce from being a chilli/peanut combo, into a Satay sauce.  It provides that sweet/sour thing that so many oriental dishes have.  The coriander is optional, in that if you don't like it, it won't hurt the dish to leave it out.  I have heard that sweet Thai basil would be good instead, but never having tried it can't recommend it.  However, it's worth a go if you really dislike coriander.

One more thing, from the cook's perspective, is to make sure that you don't continue cooking and trying to reduce the sauce, once you've put the peanut butter in.  As I've said up there ^^^ somewhere, it will burn easily but not only that the peanut butter releases its oil and you'll wind up with a pan full of oil with the over reduced, thickened sauce hiding somewhere underneath.  At that point, all you can do is retrieve the meat and throw the sauce away.  So, be sure that your meat is ready, before you add the peanut butter.

All the family were very happy with this recipe.  Son & heir declared it to be "meaty, very very meaty!" (which is always a good thing in his book, as he's a young caveman in training).  Hubby wasn't too struck on the pork, but loved the sauce and ventured the opinion that it would be as good if not better, with chicken or large prawns.  By jingo, I think he's right, too!  I loved the pork (predictably) and really enjoyed the sauce's relationship with the meat.  I felt the flavours complemented each other very well.  The sauce was also really good with the rice and I had designs upon decanting the leftovers of both into a bowl for lunch today, right up until I discovered that the remains of the sauce had done the releasing its oil thing and was unusable.  Hey ho.  I'll have to remember to cool it quickly the next time.

I also enjoyed the sugar snap peas with the pork and sauce.  The rice is there to bulk out the meal, but the peas just added that light and refreshing crunch with accompanying sweetness, making them a perfect palate cleanser between mouthfuls.  Now, where sugar snap peas are concerned, can I make a plea?  Can everyone - restaurants included - please make an effort to remove the strings from either side of the pea pod?  Please?  It really only takes a second to do - and makes such a difference to the eating experience.  Thanks.  Appreciated.  *wink*

So anyway, all in all, I'll be doing this one again!

PORK STEAKS IN SATAY STYLE SAUCE   (serves 3)

Ingredients:

2 tbsp sunflower oil
6 pork steaks, trimmed of 95% of their fat (assuming 2 each)
1 onion, chopped finely
3 dessertspoonfuls of red Thai curry paste
400ml tin of coconut milk
200ml chicken stock
1 teaspoonful of dried red chilli flakes (to taste)
2 dessertspoonfuls of peanut butter
2 dessertspoonfuls of cider vinegar
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander.

Method :

1.  In a deep frying pan or wok, heat the oil until really quite hot, then sear the pork steaks on both sides.  Once the steaks are golden brown, remove and reserve to keep warm.

2.  Add the onion to the pan and cook on a moderate heat until softened and golden brown.

3.  Add the Thai curry paste and stir to combine.  Cook for some 3-4 minutes until the oil is separating from the paste.

4.  Add the coconut milk and stir well to combine.  Make sure you get all the bits from the bottom of the pan, as these are all flavour.

5.  Add the chicken stock and stir to combine.

6.  Once the sauce is bubbling, return the pork steaks to the pan and simmer - uncovered - for some 10-15 minutes, or until the pork is cooked through.  It is at this stage that you can taste the sauce and decide whether or not to add the dried red chilli flakes, but just remember that the peanut butter will do its best to wipe out every other flavour, so be brave!

7.  Add the peanut butter and stir gently to combine.  The sauce will thicken at this stage, so take care to stir regularly to prevent it catching on the bottom of the pan.

8.  Add the cider vinegar, stir to combine.  Give the vinegar 5 minutes or so to simmer and amalgamate with the other flavours, then taste for seasoning and adjust.  I found the dish required a fair amount of salt, to bring out the flavours of the peanuts. 

9.  Just before serving, add the chopped coriander, saving a little back to sprinkle over the plated up dish.

Serve with plain white rice (basmati is good) and a light, green vegetable such as sugar snap peas.

Printable version
 

Honey Sauced Chicken - simply scrummy

Last Wednesday was a bit of a busy one for us, as we'd fixed to go over to my parents' place in Hampshire (just the next county - not a million miles away!) to collect their compost bin.  As they are getting on in years, Mum (the gardener of the family) has decided that the sheer muscle power required to distribute said compost is just too much for her.  She won't let my Dad do that job (quite rightly!) as he's waiting on heart surgery this year.  So, they had a lovely big compost bin - complete with trapdoor at the bottom for ease of access, going spare.

We had to pick a day when son & heir was at school, as we weren't sure whether we could get the bin and the boy in the back of the car at the same time!

So, off we went - and were treated to some completely gorgeous home made soup for lunch.  It was a bacon & celeriac soup which went down very well indeed - and I shall pick up the recipe for it next time we see them.

As a result of all this, I didn't want to be spending a lot of time thrashing around in the kitchen making dinner that night.  I had chosen a recipe from www.mmmcafe.blogspot.com for Honey Sauced Chicken.  Initially, I had thought I'd use the slow cooker (crockpot) method that she detailed - right up until I realised that our slow cooker was just way too big for the amount of sauce she was talking about using.  I'm quite sure it would have shrivelled up and died, over the course of the day.

So then, I thought I'd go down the oven cooking route that she had detailed, right up until it occurred to me that you want the chicken to be completely covered in the sauce mixture, which should be thick and shiny - almost a glaze.  I wasn't completely convinced that I could achieve that with it out of sight in the oven.

Which is why I went completely off piste with the recipe and cooked it on the hob - with tremendous results.

Cooked this way, it became one of my most favoured quick and easy "sit and put things in order into the pan, hey presto, dinner!" recipes.  Well, except for the sacrilege (put your fingers into your ears people) of microwaving some frozen special fried rice to go with it.  Oh, for goodness' sake!  Surely you're not telling me that you don't use convenience foods like that from time to time?  No?  Oh well, I must just be a failure then.  *chuckle*

I agree to some extent - and given another day when I hadn't been so busy during the day, I'd have cooked the special fried rice from scratch.  Feel free to do so, by all means!  However, on this day, I was jolly glad to just heat up some frozen versions.

Son & heir was incredibly suspicious about this recipe.  He was convinced we'd already tried it - and he didn't like it - but I know that he's thinking of a stir fried recipe from quite a while ago, that contained vinegar.  He seems pathologically averse to vinegar in all its guises, shapes and forms.  In fact, the only vinegary thing that he does like - to my knowledge - is pickled onions and then only really nice ones.  I thought that we should be okay with this recipe as it didn't contain vinegar (note the "didn't").  In fact, because of the rampant honey sweetness that was partly balanced by the saltiness of the soy sauce, yet had no sourness to help combat it, I included a little cider vinegar which helped no end.  He declared the recipe "okay", by which I take him to mean "I ate it, wouldn't want it again tomorrow".  Fair enough.


Both hubby and I absolutely loved this dish.  I would quite happily have it again tomorrow, given the chance - and can see it becoming a good fall-back recipe for when son & heir is away on sleepover.


Next time, I think I'll include some kind of vegetable matter with it - maybe some steamed Bok Choi, or something along those lines.  Something that makes it more of a complete meal, as I can't help but miss my vegetables!


HONEY SAUCED CHICKEN  (feeds 3)


Ingredients :


1 tbsp olive oil
3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into thin slivers
sea salt & black pepper
quarter of a tsp of freshly ground black pepper
100ml of runny honey
50ml soy sauce
half a red onion, peeled and sliced
1 tbsp of tomato ketchup
1 tbsp of cider vinegar
1 clove of garlic, minced or grated
a quarter of a tsp red chilli flakes.

Method :

1.  In a small bowl, combine the freshly ground black pepper, honey, soy sauce, tomato ketchup, cider vinegar, garlic and chilli flakes.  Stir to ensure everything is evenly mixed.

2.  Heat the oil in a wide bottomed frying pan, then add the onion.  Cook on a gentle to medium heat until softened but not coloured.

3.  Add the chicken.  Sprinkle with black pepper and fry on a high heat until obviously browning - not just changing from pink to white.  You will need to stir well, but also leave the chicken to sit and brown, then stir well again to prevent the onion from burning.

4.  Once browned well, add the sauce and again stir to combine.  Turn the heat down to  medium and allow the sauce to simmer and bubble, reducing as it goes.  Keep stirring the chicken to prevent it catching on the bottom of the pan.


5.  Reduce the heat still further and allow the mixture to just chuckle gently in the pan until the sauce reaches a consistency that you are happy with.  Once the chicken is cooked through and tender, you can put a cover over the pan and turn the heat off while you get the rice onto the plates.


Serve.


Printable version

Spiced Plum Chutney

Saturday afternoon was taken up with making Spiced Plum Chutney.

It was my first go at any kind of chutney, but having had such success with the small batch jam, I was filled with hope that the results would be good.  I chose a basic recipe from James Martin which I got creative with and added a few things.  I have to say, that apart from it being rather more “soupy” than I wanted, the flavours are terrific and it goes marvellously well with a lovely strong cheddar.

It was remarkably easy to do :

Ingredients

2 shallots, chopped fine.
2 tsp olive oil.
500g plums, stoned and quartered.
50ml cider vinegar.
50ml balsamic vinegar.
Half a tsp cinnamon.
Half a tsp ground coriander.
Small piece of ginger, grated.
100g dark brown sugar.

Method

1.  Begin by sweating off the chopped shallots in the oil.  Once softened and transparent, add the plums, vinegar, cinnamon, coriander, ginger and sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves.

2.  Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 mins or so, stirring from time to time, until the mixture thickens slightly.

I didn’t go for the sterilised jars option, I just put mine into a lidded dish and now it lives in the fridge. I doubt very much that it will last long enough to go off!