Malay style chicken & peanut curry - silky, spicy and delicious

Well, this one worked out well!  

I think I shall call it a Malay style chicken & peanut curry as the basis of it was the recipe as below, but I halved the Thai curry paste and added the other half in Indian curry paste (a Korma paste) - so it wound up being a fusion of the two.  Knowing what a fusion of races now call Malaysia home, I think that represents Malaysia quite well.  

Original recipe : http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2838670/thai-pork-and-peanut-curry

I deviated from the original recipe in several different ways, the first being the addition of the Korma paste as I've already mentioned.  I added a red pepper, chopped into smallish dice, for colour and interest and a white sweet onion cut into eighths, the sweetness of which meant I could leave the soft brown sugar specified in the recipe, out.  I'm always keen, where I can, to reduce the amount of added sugar in dishes.  The sweet red pepper, the sweet onion, the baby sweetcorn, the coconut milk all have an inherent sweetness and I felt that the soft brown sugar would just take it too far.

It was mildly spiced so easy to pep up if you like it hotter and was jolly tasty.  Everyone said they'd be happy to have it again, only with rather less coriander, next time!  LOL  (I'm a bit heavy handed with the coriander, because I like it so much.  I forget that others aren't as keen!).

I've reproduced the recipe with my alterations below, but feel free to cook the original if you prefer the look of that!  I'm not precious about my recipes - they're there for you to use, change, adjust and develop as much or as little as you wish.

MALAY STYLE CHICKEN & PEANUT CURRY   (serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 skinless & boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized chunks
ground black pepper 
1 sweet white onion, cut into eighths
bunch spring onions, sliced
small bunch coriander, stalks finely chopped, leaves chopped
1 red pepper, cored and cut into dice
130g baby sweetcorn, halved lengthways
2 tbsp Thai red curry paste
2 tbsp Korma curry paste
2 tbsp peanut butter
400ml can coconut milk
1 tbsp soy sauce 
juice 1 lime.  

Method :

Heat the oil in a large and deep frying pan until very hot and carefully add the chicken chunks.  Fry them until lightly golden on at least two sides and season with black pepper.  Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add the sweet onion, spring onions, coriander stalks, red pepper and baby sweetcorn to the pan and stir fry (adding a little more oil if necessary) until softened.

Return the chicken to the pan and reduce the heat slightly.

Add the Thai curry paste, the Korma curry paste and peanut butter and stir to combine.  Cook over a moderate heat for some 3 minutes or so, until well combined.

Add the coconut milk and soy sauce and stir gently.  Simmer for some 10 minutes or so until the sauce thickens to your preference.

Just prior to serving, add the lime juice (Half a lime at a time, then taste.  If necessary, add more) and stir in the chopped coriander leaves.

Serve with plain white rice, or jasmine rice.

Printable version

 

Roasted leg of kid goat with almond & orange blossom sauce

Do you recall the Seco de chivo (or Goat with Green Peppers) that I cooked some while ago?  Well, I was talking to Jason at Farmer's Choice via Twitter about the results and how the fattiness of the stewing goat pieces wasn't to my family's taste - although I liked it well enough.

He very kindly arranged to send me a boned leg of kid goat, so that I could try a leaner cut on the menfolk and see what they thought.

The joint arrived and looked fantastic, with light marbling through the meat that said it would be succulent and tasty, without the huge lines of fat that put my menfolk off the whole thing.

I'm really dead keen to use kid goat as and when possible - and it is becoming easier to get hold of and a little bit more affordable than it was.  By rights, it should be extremely affordable, so as to avoid the terrible wastage of the boy kid goats that aren't useful to the goat milk trade.

Now this whole thing happened around the time that Yotam Ottolenghi's t.v. programme "Jerusalem" was out on television for the first time.  (It's been around again since - yes, that's how long ago this was!).  I'm sure you all know my opinion as to just how much of a god Yotam Ottolenghi is to me - and we'd been watching "Jerusalem" alternately salivating like mad and watching with our mouths wide open in astonishment at the ingredients and combinations.

So when the kid goat meat arrived, it seemed right to consult Ottolenghi's genius as to what to do with it.

I recalled seeing a completely amazing Ottolenghi recipe involving young lamb - what we'd term, here in the U.K., as "spring lamb" - and as kid goat can be treated in the same way - in cooking terms - as spring lamb, I didn't look any further.

Now, it has to be said that I was a bit hamstrung where following the recipe to the letter was concerned, as the meat should have been barbecued.  We do have a barbecue, but it had been pouring with rain for the last three weeks and seemed set to continue for the next three weeks, so being able to barbecue was unlikely.  I do have a griddle pan - and I suspect I could have used that to better effect - but hindsight is a marvellous thing, as is experience.  Having done this recipe the once, I would be a bit braver the second time around.  However, I was very conscious that I may not get the chance to use kid goat again for a while (it was really very expensive then) and just didn't want to be too robust with it and wind up making it inedible.

I opted to leave the meat in its rolled state and seared the outside using the griddle pan.  That gave us a degree of charring effect that added to the flavour - but done again, I'd cut the meat into smaller chunks and just griddle the lot (assuming I didn't have a barbecue available, that is!).  Having marinated the goat in garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, thyme and rapeseed oil, you can just imagine the mouthwatering smells that were issuing forth from the griddle pan.  Just gorgeous.

Having seared the meat, I then oven roasted it in the same way as you would spring lamb.  I opted to go for well done - with no pink in evidence - purely because I knew that son & heir wouldn't be able to eat kid goat if it was at all rare.  He was having trouble enough getting his head around the fact that what he had on his plate was a bit of a baby goat, as it was.

Now, I will say - straight away - that my almond & orange blossom sauce was a bit of a disaster.  I admit it.  However, not in flavour - which was completely and utterly fabulous - but in texture.  I used our food processor to grind the cooked almonds - which was where I went wrong.  All it seemed to achieve is grinding a certain amount of the almonds into a virtual flour, while the remainder stayed in huge lumps.  Not good at all.  As a consequence, any liquid was slurped up by the finely ground nuts and the whole thing turned into a beautifully flavoured almond butter type mixture.  Nowhere near sauce consistency!

So - if you're considering following this recipe yourself, I recommend that you use a pestle and mortar for grinding your nuts!  At least, that way, you can be more in control of what degree of pulverisation you give them.

Now, a special mention has to go to the almonds.  Just straight almonds - not blanched - were what I used and the revelation of how they turned out after spending a few minutes in hot oil in a frying pan, was immense.  I was very tempted to just eat the lot and pretend I'd dropped them into the sink or something.  Try it sometime (not dropping them in the sink - but frying some to nibble on), even if you don't make the recipe.  Just heat up a nice oil - olive or rapeseed - and cook some almonds until they're turning golden, then toss them in something nice like sea salt or a combination of herbs and spices.   I can imagine that lemon zest and black pepper with the sea salt would be amazing.  No, it's not low fat, but yes it is good for you - especially if you use an oil that is low in saturated fat.

So, getting back to the sauce.  The alchemy that goes on, just by mixing the few seemingly odd ingredients together, is just stunning.  Oh and yes, I use the word "stunning" in the full knowledge of its meaning.  I tasted the nuts when they were cooked and they were lovely.  Very moreish.  I tasted the sauce once I'd added and combined the lemon zest, juice, honey, orange blossom water, salt & pepper and rapeseed oil - to test for seasoning - and it was just incredible, without even having had the fresh herbs included.   Once you add the mint and coriander, it just takes you to a hot and dusty atmosphere, with cool shady colonnades beneath big airy villas, the smell of donkey, dust and humanity in the air.  How does he do that?  So, as I say - stunning.

We all loved the roasted kid goat.  It was succulent, the flavour of the marinade serving to accentuate the delicate sweetness and earthiness that is uniquely kid goat.  Coupled with the chargrilled red peppers and the almond & orange blossom sauce, this is one of the most jaw droppingly good dishes I've cooked since starting Rhubarb & Ginger.  Even with a sauce that had an incorrect consistency!

I served it with a jacket potato dressed with coriander and lime chilli yoghurt, which was amazingly well suited.  The only thing I would have added would be some green leaves of one sort or another.  Ottolenghi suggest fresh parsley, which I can imagine would be very good indeed.

I would dearly love to have another crack at this one - and I'll be keeping my eye open for kid goat leg, in future!

ROASTED LEG OF KID GOAT WITH ALMOND & ORANGE BLOSSOM SAUCE

Ingredients :

1kg piece of boneless kid goat leg
2 long red peppers, cut into quarters and seeds removed
olive or rapeseed oil
sea salt & black pepper

Marinade :
  2 garlic cloves, crushed
  grated zest of 1 lemon
  45ml lemon juice
  one and a half tbsp fresh thyme leaves, woody stems removed
  45ml olive or rapeseed oil

Sauce :
  50ml olive or rapeseed oil
  80g whole almonds
  grated zest of half a lemon
  2 tbsp lemon juice
  half a tbsp of runny honey
  quarter of a tbsp of orange blossom water
  10g fresh mint, finely chopped
  10g fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped.

Method :

1.  In a large bowl combine all the marinade ingredients and season well.  Divide the goat meat into several large pieces and add them to the marinade.  Using your hands, massage the marinade into the meat and leave for a minimum of 2 hours, or preferably, overnight.

2.  Pre-heat the oven to 220degC/425degF/Gas 7.

3.  Whilst the oven is heating up, and for the sauce, heat 3 tbsp of the oil in a small frying pan and add the almonds.  Cook - stirring often - until the nuts are golden and evenly cooked.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

4.  Place the nuts into a pestle and mortar (or any other method of crushing them that doesn't involve a food processor!) and pulverise them until they are broken, but not powdery.

5.  Decant into a bowl and add the remaining ingredients.  Stir well and taste for seasoning. 

6.  Heat a griddle pan until blisteringly hot.

7.  Drizzle the peppers with a little rapeseed or olive oil and a pinch of salt, then cook on the griddle until charred on all sides and softened.  Set aside to cool.

8.  Place the goat meat pieces onto the griddle pan (you will probably need to do this in batches, so as not to overcrowd the pan) and sear for 2-3 minutes on each side until starting to caramelise.  Transfer onto a roasting tray.

9.  Place the goat meat into the oven for a minimum of 4-5 minutes, leaving it longer depending on how thick the pieces are and how you like your lamb.  (Use lamb as a measure for pinkness.  If you like your lamb pink - you'll like your goat pink).

10.  Once done, cover with foil and set aside in a warm place, to rest.

11.  Add the freshly chopped mint and coriander to the sauce and stir to combine.

12.  Slice the goat meat into thick slices and serve with the peppers and the sauce drizzled over the top.

Heaven.

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Hot Punjabi King Prawn Curry - and it is hot, too!

Sometimes, a recipe just works so well and is so tasty, that it needs to be blogged ahead of the queue.  This is one such.

I found this recipe in the latest BBC Good Food magazine and you can find the original recipe - which deals with raw King Prawns as opposed to cooked King Prawns - if you click here.  The recipe apparently comes from a lady called Jagdish Kaur who hails from the Punjab'n de Rasoi cafe in Edinburgh.  I liked the recipe as it looked awfully easy to make (which is always a good thing) and had interestingly few ingredients.  So many curry recipes have ingredient lists as long as your two arms, that it was intriguing to find one working along such minimalist lines.

I won't deny that the notion of using three live chillis and some dried chilli flakes caused several ominous gyrations of my stomach, but the "Taste Team Comment" indicated that the heat was agreeable.  However, in the interest of self preservation I changed one of the chillis to a milder red version and removed all the seeds from it.

I also included a little fish stock - in my case, the lovely Essential Cuisine fish stock and have reflected these changes in the recipe below.  I think that adding just water to a recipe is often missing a golden opportunity to inject a little more flavour.  I accept that, in some curry recipes, the addition of stock would be inconsistent with the integrity of the style.  However, in this instance it worked very well.

In fact, we very nearly didn't have the curry at all.  I completely forgot about marinating the prawns on the night before and again first thing the next morning.  Even worse, we had a breakdown in communications and only got one bag of prawns out of the freezer, needing to defrost the remaining pack at the last minute, in a sieve, under the tap!  So, it may be worth bearing in mind that the marination of my prawns only took place for around a half an hour!  Oops!

The actual cooking of the recipe lived up to my expectation and was easy peasy.  I think it took longer to chop up the onions, tomatoes and coriander, than it took to do the cooking.

One cook's note that is worth bearing in mind, is that once the water is added it is worthwhile cooking the sauce until all the water has evaporated and the sauce is really thick - which is contrary to how the original recipe goes.  The reason for this is because as soon as you add the yoghurt and prawns, the yoghurt is going to melt to a certain degree and - no matter how well you've dried the prawns - they're going to release moisture.  If you haven't reduced the sauce to begin with, you're going to land up with a really dilute sauce which if you then try to reduce, you'll end up with rubbery prawns and split yoghurt.  Not good!  So make sure your sauce is reduced as far as it can go, before you add the marinated prawns.

Very definitely a hit with the family, I'll be making this again - perhaps with chicken next time.  Hubby declared it the best curry he'd had in many a long year (which is enormous praise, especially considering he was concerned about it turning to "pond water").  Son and heir didn't say anything, just sat stolidly moving his spoon from plate to mouth until it was all gone.  I think he liked it.  For me, I loved the flavours that were bright and fresh - and although the chilli effect made my nose run and the tip of my tongue hurt, I'd have it again tomorrow - and you don't get to say that about every recipe you make!

HOT PUNJABI KING PRAWN CURRY   (serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

For the marinade

600g cooked, peeled king prawns
6 tbsp full fat natural yoghurt
2 green chillies, finely sliced, with seeds
half a tsp of sea salt. 

For the curry

2 tbsp sunflower oil plus 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
half a tsp of cumin seeds
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped garlic
1 tsp turmeric
1 red chilli, finely sliced
2 tsp Garam masala
2 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
half a tsp of sea salt
half a tsp of fish stock powder, or half a fish stock cube
half a tsp of dried red chilli flakes
2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped.

Method :

1. For the marinade: Rinse and drain the prawns.  Pat them dry and put into a non-reactive bowl.  Add the yogurt, chillies and ½ teaspoon of salt.  Mix well, cover and marinate overnight in the fridge.

2. For the curry: Pour the oil into a deep sided wok or frying pan and set it over a medium heat.

3. Once the oil is hot, spoon in the cumin seeds, swirl and brown for 10 seconds.  Add the onions and sauté for about 10 minutes, or until golden all over.

4. Add the garlic, reduce the heat to low and stir and fry for 2 minutes.  Mix in the turmeric and stir for 1 minute.

5. Add the red chilli, increase the heat to medium and stir for 1 minute.  Mix in 1½ teaspoons of the Garam masala and stir for 1 minute.

6. Add all of the tomatoes, a pinch of sea salt and the chilli flakes.  Cook until the tomatoes have broken down, then add 120ml boiling water and the fish stock powder or cube.  Stir to combine.  Allow the curry to boil and reduce until all the extra liquid has gone and the sauce is really thick.

7. Stir in the prawns and their marinade plus the chopped coriander and cook over a high heat until they are heated through.

8. Sprinkle the remaining Garam masala over the top and stir.

Serve.

Printable version

Chilli Marrakech with Lime & Chilli Yoghurt

Well, this recipe couldn't have arrived on a better day for it.

At around 3 a.m. the night before, it started snowing - and continued throughout the day.  Eventually, we had around 4-6 inches of snow on the garden - which is really quite deep for Dorset!

Now ordinarily, I'd have been having successive batches of kittens over this happening.  However, I'd seen the weather forecast and we'd been out and done our weekend's shopping the day before, so it was just a matter of having to drive son & heir to school.  I used to not really bother about driving in the snow, but since moving to Dorset where no road exists that doesn't involve either climbing up or going down a hill, it's a different matter.  One experience of sliding down a hill whilst slowly spinning until hitting the car at the bottom of the hill (and missing all the parked cars - which was a singular miracle) is quite enough and I don't mind admitting I've lost my snow nerve where driving is concerned.  Especially now I own a nice car.  The thought of stoving in one of Alfie's sides (Alfie the Amalfi Lemon coloured Skoda, that is) by crashing in snow is just terrifying.

However, all was peace and tranquillity when at 7 a.m. we had a message from school to say that the school was closed for the day.  And breathe!

That's a lot of snow, for us!

So we spent the day sitting in the warm, watching the snowflakes fall - and trash our baby Olive tree.  Yeah, thanks snow.  Poor little chap, we should have brought him in under cover, but forgot.  I don't think he's ever going to achieve "tree" status, he'll for ever be a bush instead, because of several mishaps involving dogs paws and now the snow.

What a perfect day, therefore, to have a warming Chilli on the menu.  So often, I find myself booked to make a stew when suddenly it's like the Sahara outside, or alternatively, we're booked for a salad on a day like yesterday.  For once, however, I got it right.

The Chilli Marrakech is a recipe taken from the BBC Good Food Magazine.  You can find it here.  (Thanks for pointing me to it, Angela!).  The recipe I detail below contains all the original recipe's ingredients, it has just been a bit re-organised to suit my cooking methods better.  For instance, I make sure to drain all the fat from the meat and so as to not lose too much flavour, I brown the meat before cooking the onions.  It's a small point, but it makes a lot of difference in the eating.  The lamb fat is brilliant mixed with some bird seed and left to solidify.  If you line the container with cling film before filling, it make it easier to get out.  Put it on your bird table and watch the birdies tuck in!

We all really enjoyed this dish.  It is very aromatic and a lot lighter than your usual Mexican style Chilli Con Carne.  In fact, I think to compare it to Chilli Con Carne is a bit daft as they are, really, completely different in just about all ways other than the fact that it's minced meat with spices and a bean.  In this case, it uses lamb, Harissa and chick peas to great effect.  I'm not sure how authentically Moroccan this recipe is - but it uses flavours that originate from Morocco, so if nothing else, it is Moroccan style!

Now I really like Harissa - and most especially the Sainsbury's Speciality Ingredients Harissa paste.  The ingredients are very similar to Ras al hanout spice mix, in that they include rose petals, paprika and cumin.  Obviously it differs in that it is a paste as opposed to a dry spice mix and it also contains rather more chilli - but if you know Ras al hanout, then you will know Harissa.

The recipe also includes additional cumin, paprika and cinnamon, along with fresh ginger, garlic and coriander - so you'll begin to see the kind of level of spicing we're talking about here.  Very aromatic, very flavoursome.

However, none of the spices overtook the lamb - you could very definitely tell it was lamb and not beef involved there.  The addition of chunks of sweet red pepper was great, too - as it gave interest, colour and the occasional burst of lovely sweetness - which always helps when you're eating an intensely spicy (but not hot) combination.

In fact, speaking of spicy heat, I added a pinch of red chilli flakes to my version as I felt that the Harissa just didn't have the punch that the family would be looking for from the dish.  It was a long way from the nose-running kind of hot and spicy that a good Chilli Con Carne should be, but that additional pinch just bolstered the chilli in the Harissa.

Now, the thing that absolutely made the dish - from my perspective - was the Lime & Chilli Yoghurt.  This wasn't included in the original recipe but I would very definitely recommend you make it to accompany this dish.  It only takes a moment or two to make and is just so good along with the chilli.

I didn't serve the chilli with any rice or couscous, but with some sundried tomato & onion flatbreads that came from Asda.  Yes, I know I could have made them - but I could also have wound up incapable of movement by the end of the cooking process - and I'd really like to be able to get from kitchen to chair to eat my meal!  The Asda flatbreads are very nice indeed.  I put them onto a baking tray and give them a little sprinkling of water, followed by 4-6 minutes in a hot oven - and they're perfectly soft but with a crunchy edge.  Just right for dipping and eating alongside.  Yum.

So the next time we've got snow on the horizon, off you go to Sainsbury's for lamb mince and Harissa paste!  You can't go wrong.

CHILLI MARRAKECH with LIME & CHILLI YOGHURT   (serves 4)

Ingredients :

600g minced lamb
1 onion, chopped finely
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tsp fresh ginger, chopped finely
1-2 tbsp Harissa paste (use less if you like less spicy heat)
1 heaped tsp ground cumin
1 heaped tsp ground coriander
1 heaped tsp ground cinnamon
1 heaped tsp paprika
1 pinch chilli flakes (omit if you like less spicy heat)
400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 long sweet red pepper, de-seeded and cut into chunks
400g tin chick peas, drained (and washed, if in brine)
150ml lamb stock made using 1 stock cube or 1 tsp powder (I used Essential Cuisine lamb stock powder) 
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
15g fresh coriander, chopped.

For the yoghurt :

1 lime, zest and a little juice
a pinch of chopped fresh coriander
finely chopped red chilli, to taste
4-5 tbsp greek yoghurt
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper.

Method :

1.  In a large saucepan, dry fry the lamb mince until the majority of the liquid has burned off and all the meat is brown.  Spoon the meat out into a bowl using a slotted spoon, so that the fat drains out of the meat and back into the pan.  Drain off all but 2 tbsp of the fat.

2.  Add the onions and cook on a moderate heat until softened.  Add the garlic and ginger, then cook for another minute or so.

3.  Return the meat to the pan and stir through.

4.  Add the Harissa paste and all the spices and stir thoroughly as it cooks, to make sure the paste is distributed evenly throughout the mixture.

5.  Add the chopped tomatoes, red pepper, chick peas and stock.  Again, stir through well to combine.

6.  If you have used a low salt stock, taste to check for seasoning and add as necessary.  Otherwise, add a pinch of sea salt and a good quantity of freshly ground black pepper to taste.

7.  Add three quarters of the chopped coriander and bring to a simmer.  Cook for around 30 minutes, or until the chilli reaches your preferred consistency.

8.  While the chilli is cooking, make the Lime & chilli yoghurt by grating the zest of a lime into a bowl.  Add a pinch of the remaining chopped coriander, the finely chopped red chilli (quantity depends on how spicy you like it - so be cautious when adding and taste before adding a little more), the juice of one third of the lime, the yoghurt and a tiny amount of sea salt & black pepper.  Stir to combine and taste.  Add more lime juice or more chilli, as you prefer. 

9.  Serve the chilli in warmed bowls with the remaining coriander sprinkled over, the Lime & Chilli yoghurt and warmed flatbreads.

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Frittering away - Gordon Ramsay's Sweetcorn Fritters

I don’t know about you, but I find I am becoming increasingly susceptible to suggestion.  No don’t go raising your eyebrows like that – not THAT kind of suggestion – I’m thinking more along the lines of suggestions regarding food.

For instance.  There we were, the other day, sat in the car outside the supermarket discussing whether to go for tiger prawns or chicken for our meal that evening.   Suddenly there’s a great waft of seaside fish & chips smell from some fast food joint or another.  There and then, we gave up all ideas of a healthy meal and were lusting after a piece of cod in golden crispy batter, chunky chips and lots of salt and vinegar.

In fact, common sense prevailed and we opted for tiger prawns and had a very acceptable home made curry – but that quiet yearning for crispy fish & chips is still there in the background.  Sooner or later it’s going to rear its ugly head in a moment of weakness.

I suppose a lot of it has to do with the fact that I’m continually working with food – be it looking for recipes, thinking about what flavours will go with what and considering what alternatives I can substitute in recipes I like but that have elements that I know wouldn’t suit our palates.  I can bring to mind what a flavour is like very easily once I’ve sampled it – so whenever a delicious aroma occurs, I am instantly analysing it for the component parts.

It’s the same with cooking shows on the t.v.  There are times when I can totally imagine how a finished dish would taste.  Now this is sometimes  very useful, as I can “tuck the recipe behind my ear” and bring it back out again when assembling the menu plan for the week.

Take this week, for example.  I had a little bank of five recipes that I’d accumulated for consideration.  Ultimately, I only went with two of them (a Chicken Buttermilk Stew and a Cumberland Pie), but we were also required to devise something yummy to go with a couple of interesting sauces that I’d managed to pick up en route.  Add that to a couple of dishes that had fallen over from last week – and bingo, the menu plan is done.

However, there are some occasions when something so apparently delicious and wonderful attracts my attention in a way that says “Eat me! Eat me now!” – and such was the case with Gordon Ramsay’s Sweetcorn Fritters – as demonstrated on his Ultimate Cookery Course show (Ch.4) a couple of weeks ago.

I paid attention to what he was using by way of ingredients, because I’m perpetually interested in what goes with what by way of flavours.  However, I didn’t exactly pay attention to the quantities.  So, when I eventually buckled and thought “I’m having those for lunch today”, I was a little bit stuck as there was no evidence of a recipe on the internet.

The recipe isn’t difficult – which might explain my being able to remember it.

You quite simply take a small amount of flour (around 100g) and add a small amount of baking powder (which I couldn’t be bothered to hunt for, so I used self-raising flour), an egg and a small amount of milk.  Whisk them together to form a fairly thick batter, then add a couple of sliced spring onions, a tin of drained sweetcorn, a chopped chilli and a small amount of freshly chopped coriander.  Add a little seasoning and fry gently in small spoon-sized dollops.

Fix yourself up with a pot of sweet chilli dipping sauce (or just tomato ketchup would do, in a pinch) and hey presto – lunch is served.

Now here’s your test.  Are you as susceptible to foodie suggestions as me?  Because those fritters are just To.Die.For.  So simple, so easy to make, relatively good for you too (especially if you use rapeseed oil to cook them in, as I did) – and they kept the hungry wolf away right up until dinner time.

I have a feeling that the fritter is going to become the new flan.  You may well be seeing many, many different versions appearing over the ensuing months!  After all, how’s about a griddled courgette, cherry tomato & feta cheese fritter?  Or a chorizo, potato & pea fritter?  Maybe even a curried chick pea and prawn fritter?

Uh oh!  That’s done it - where’s that frying pan?

(Previously published at Bournemouth Echo's Taste Section : "Jenny's Week" blog)

GORDON'S SWEETCORN FRITTERS   (makes approx 10)

Ingredients :

100g self raising flour
1 egg
2-3 tbsp milk
3 spring onions, trimmed and sliced diagonally
1 chilli (red or green) seeds removed and chopped finely
a small handful of coriander, chopped roughly
326g tin of sweetcorn, drained
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp rapeseed oil.

Method :

1.  Into a bowl, place the flour, egg and milk.  Using a balloon whisk, mix them well until combined into a sticky, thick batter.

2.  Add the spring onions, chilli, coriander and sweetcorn, plus a little seasoning.  Stir until all the vegetables and herbs are covered with a light coating of the batter.

3.  Pour the rapeseed oil into a frying pan on a medium heat.  Once the oil is heated through, add tablespoonfuls of the fritter mixture - four usually makes a good number without cooling the frying pan and stopping the cooking process.

4.  Once the underside of the mixture has set slightly, spread the blob out a little and continue to cook until golden brown.

5.  Turn the fritter and press down with the back of the spatula, just for a moment or two.  Continue to fry until this second side is also golden brown.

6.  Place the fritters onto kitchen paper and keep in a warm place until they are all cooked, then serve with some sweet chilli dipping sauce - or whichever type of sauce you fancy!

Printable version

Mediterranean style giant couscous with barbecue pork chops

If you're me, you'd look at that title and have to come and see what it's on about!  After all, giant couscous?

It really isn't so long ago that I was bewailing not being able to get enough flavour into normal couscous, without venturing into giant couscous - or Mograbiah, to give it its proper name.

Mograbiah does bear plenty of similarity to ordinary couscous in that both of them are round in shape, made from pasta dough and are vehicles for other flavours.  However, where they differ (apart from the obvious size) is that where ordinary couscous is prepared by putting in a bowl and pouring a small amount of boiling water onto it, giant couscous is prepared by putting into a saucepan, pouring a slightly larger amount of water (or stock) on and heating gently or simmering until the majority of the water is absorbed, then you can leave it to soak up the remainder of the liquid.

It has a different texture too, well okay each grain is a lot larger so that would follow, but it also has a slightly slippery texture that can make eating it a bit of a challenge for youngsters who haven't yet learned that they eat with their mouth closed.  Son and heir had no problem with it, but then there's little that disappears into his maw that ever sees the light of day again.

As with all couscous, its own flavour is very bland and it is entirely reliant upon what you put with it, for flavour.  As such, cooking it in stock is a very good start.

With our Mograbiah, I decided to go for one last mediterranean style dish and roasted some courgette, aubergine, butternut squash, red pepper and red onion and dressed the lot with fresh mint and coriander plus a lemon juice and olive oil dressing.

For a welcome zing, I baked the pork chops in some of the excellent Mic's Chilli El Loco BBQ Sauce.  The highly flavoured pork went so well with the calming influence of the roasted vegetables and zesty dressing.  A real ying/yang thing was going on there!

Of course, it isn't essential that you put a barbecue pork chop with your giant couscous - you can use it however you fancy and with whatever you fancy.  I found my pack of Mograbiah in my local Asda, which has a particularly good World Foods section.  However, I'm sure you would be able to find some at your local ethnic food store - for instance, I know that Makkah's on the Ashley Road, Poole, definitely carries it.  For me, it makes a nice change from ordinary couscous - and as I often have problems trying to decide upon the carbohydrate element in a meal, anything that extends my options can't be bad!

MEDITERRANEAN STYLE GIANT COUSCOUS (MOGRABIAH)  (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

1 tablespoonful of giant couscous pearls per person, plus a little for luck
vegetable or chicken stock (home-made, powder, cube or Knorr stock pot - all are good)
half a butternut squash, cut into half inch dice
a red pepper, seeds removed and cut into one inch sheets
a courgette, cut into half inch dice
half an aubergine, cut into half inch dice
a red onion, peeled and cut into thin wedges
olive oil
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
juice of half a lemon
a handful of mint leaves, shredded
a handful of coriander, chopped finely.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 180degC/350degF/Gas 4.

2.  Check the cooking instructions on the side of the packet of Mograbiah and follow them, substituting stock for water.

3.  While the couscous (Mograbiah) is cooling, place the vegetables (without the herbs) onto a baking sheet that has been lined with non-stick silver foil.  Drizzle the olive oil over and season well.  Toss the vegetables in the oil and seasoning, then place them into the oven to bake for 25-30 minutes or until tender.

4.  Just before the vegetables are finished cooking, mix together the dressing for the couscous by placing the extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and some seasoning into a small bowl and whisk together.

5.  Shred the mint leaves and chop the coriander.

6.  When the vegetables are cooked, tip them from the baking sheet directly onto the couscous.  Stir through gently, taking care not to break up the pieces of vegetable.

7.  Add the dressing and herbs and gently stir through again and serve before the herbs have a chance to wilt.

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So simple! Spicy minced lamb

Although the recipe for this Spicy minced lamb is incredibly easy, it is definitely worth blogging about.  Any recipe that takes as little as this one does - yet turns out an appetising and delicious result, is always worth passing on.

The "recipe" is one which has evolved over the years and is a great stand-by for those moments when you want something homey and warming, but don't want to spend ages creating it and equally don't want anything too challenging on the tastebuds.

I served it with Ottolenghi's Green Couscous, which was a stroke of brilliance on my part and provided us with a welcome injection of green food, but without having to think about it being palatable or what sauce to go with it!  The mince contains all the right kinds of flavours to go with the Green Couscous and the two of them were very comfortable bedfellows (or should it be "platefellows"?).

SPICY MINCED LAMB  (feeds 3-4)

Ingredients :

500g minced lamb
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 garlic clove, grated
a pinch of chilli flakes
400g tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
400g tin of chick peas
1 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped.

Method :

1.  In a dry frying pan, brown the minced lamb until all the water has been burned off and the mince is beginning to caramelise on the pan.

2.  Add the ground cumin, ground coriander, garlic and chilli and continue to cook for a minute or two, mixing to ensure all is well combined.  You may need to add a little olive oil at this stage, depending on how fatty the mince was.

3.  Add the tomatoes, tomato ketchup and chick peas and stir to combine.  Add a little water to let the mixture down, if it needs it.  Simmer for around 10 minutes (or as long as it takes to make the Green Couscous!).

4.  When the mixture has reduced and combined, stir through the fresh coriander and serve.

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Ottolenghi's Green Couscous : a revelation in flavours!

So.  Couscous.  When hubby suggested we have couscous with our devilled sausages (recipe to follow), I laughed.  I laughed because every single attempt at injecting flavour into couscous, to date (as was) has been a catastrophic failure.

I've gone down the herbs & lemon route, I've gone down the cumin & eastern spice route.  I've even gone down the "Ainsley's couscous in a packet" route, just in case I was missing something there.  ~shakes head~  All have been devoid of the kind of flavour that makes you look forward to couscous appearing on the menu.

Until now.

Now let it be said and agreed that Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi are magicians.  Certainly with food, they are.  I'm not sure about the "produce a penny from behind your ear" type of magic, but I wouldn't put it past Yotam Ottolenghi - he looks the sort who could do that.

The moment hubby suggested couscous, I knew I had to take some serious advice on the subject - and where better to go for couscous advice than the two Ottolenghi cook books, "The Cook Book" and "Plenty".

I will admit that I rejected the first couscous recipe I found therein, but that was largely because the ingredients were hugely expensive and wouldn't particularly have sat well beside a sausage.  "Green Couscous" (page 255 for those who have "Plenty" on their bookshelves) didn't appear - at first reading - terribly hopeful.  However, having scanned the ingredients I discover that we had almost everything barring a couple of the herbs.  As I'm always keen (and even keener, now) to try another Ottolenghi recipe, we were on.

As with a lot of couscous recipes, it's not that difficult to make - provided you have a good blender/processor that will chop herbs down to a fine paste.  We've got one of those hand blenders (left over from when son & heir was a baby) that has a tub which you can plug the blender into - that did the herbs perfectly.

As for the flavour, well it'd be more true to say that it's a case of flavours, not flavour.  Everything combines most beautifully yet each and every flavour stands out in multiple layers of surprise.  I'd recommend using coarse sea salt for it, as the grains when they are tumbled through the couscous leave delicious trails of saltiness behind them.  Hubby was amazed to discover that there was only a quarter of a teaspoon of coarsely ground sea salt involved (not counting the stock cube, of course).

It turned out that my pack of dill had decided to dissolve into green slush, so that's one difference from the original recipe, as is the lack of fresh tarragon (which I couldn't find anywhere).  I substituted a teaspoonful of dried tarragon and nobody noticed it, so that's fine.  I wouldn't recommend doing the entire recipe in dried herbs of course!  Another difference is that the original recipe demanded a green chilli and all we had in the fridge were red ones, but again I suspect that it didn't really matter.


So the recipe you have here is the recipe that I made and that hubby and I enjoyed so much.  Son & heir, needless to say, took a teensy tiny forkful and decreed he didn't like it and left all of his.  ~shrug~  Hey ho, it was expected and his Dad and I polished it off for him, so no harm done.  If you're lucky enough to have a copy of "Plenty" on your bookshelves, the original recipe can be found on page 255.

Just how "Ottolenghi" does that look?

HERBY COUSCOUS (after Ottolenghi's Green Couscous)  Serves 4


Ingredients :


150g couscous
160ml boiling vegetable stock
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp olive oil (for frying)
quarter tsp of sea salt
quarter tsp of ground cumin
3 spring onions, trimmed & finely sliced
1 red chilli, top & tailed, most seeds removed and finely sliced
30g rocket, coarsely chopped.


Herb paste :
20g fresh parsley, roughly chopped
20g fresh coriander, roughly chopped
1 tsp dried tarragon
3 tbsp mint, roughly chopped
90ml extra virgin olive oil.


Method :


1.  Place the couscous in a large bowl and cover with the boiling stock.


2.  Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave for 10 minutes.


3.  Meanwhile, fry the onion in the olive oil on a medium heat until golden and completely soft.  Add the salt & cumin, mix lightly and leave to cool slightly.


4.  Make the herb paste by placing all the ingredients in a good processor and blitzing until smooth.


5.  Add the herb paste to the couscous and mix well, fluffing it up with a fork.  Next, add the cooked onion, spring onions, chilli and rocket and mix through.


Serve.

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