General Tso's chicken - a real crowd pleaser!

Now this is one recipe that I should have blogged a long time ago, as I've made it countless times since I discovered it on La Table de Nana.  As you may have guessed from the name, it sounds as though it should be of Chinese origin and to quote Wikipedia, "General Tso's chicken is a sweet, slightly spicy, deep-fried chicken dish that is popularly served in most Chinese and Asian themed American restaurants. The dish is most commonly regarded as a Hunanese dish.  The dish is named after General Tso Tsung-tang, or Zuo Zongtang, a Qing dynasty general and statesman, although there is no recorded connection to him".  So now you know.

I have to first deny all knowledge of deep frying my chicken.  You would have to pay me quite a lot to get me to deep fry anything, these days.   Not just from the health point of view, but um ~koff-blush~ I'm actually scared of deep frying.  I know.  I write a food blog and I'm scared of deep frying.  What can I tell you?  I think all those Public Information Films about the dangers of chip pan fires back in the seventies are still playing out in my head.

As a consequence, after velveting the chicken I just heat up a tablespoonful of oil in a wok and shallow fry to my heart's content.  The chicken still gets lovely and golden and I don't have a nervous conniption.  It's all good.

Served with coconut rice

The combination of goodies in the sauce is just an inspired thing.  Each contributes something to the final flavour(s) and it just wouldn't be right without any one of the ingredients.  Mind you, I do have to say that I don't use fresh ginger - as was recommended by the original recipe.  Both hubby and myself react badly to fresh ginger these days, whereas if I use ground (powdered) ginger, we're fine.  Yes, the flavour is slightly different, but we still get the ginger kick and flavour - so I'm not arguing.  I put the small amount of ginger into the sauce, where it incorporates nicely.

Something I would recommend highly to you - and yes, it could almost be construed as a Cook's Tip, is to invest in some authentic soy sauce.  If you can get them, both light soy and dark soy, as the difference in flavour to the small amounts of Blue Dragon, or even Kikkoman, is just incredible.  Once I'd invested in a large bottle of both, I wouldn't ever go back to "Westernised" soy sauce.  It's just a whole different ball game and you'll find you use far less as the flavour is so much more intense.

Cooked together with sliced green pepper

Okay, so while we're doing the tips, you absolutely must have everything chopped before you start.  This recipe moves so quickly once you begin cooking, that you definitely don't have time to leisurely chop a half a dozen spring onions.  It's a case of grab it and cook it so you need to have everything ready!

Oh, and it is nice to keep a certain amount of chopped green onion back for sprinkling over the top once served.  It definitely helps the dish to look fresh and tasty.  Unfortunately, I can't cope with raw spring (or green) onion, so I restrict myself to some toasted sesame seeds.

Served with a spring roll and some prawn crackers

Son and heir consistently finds the texture of the velveted chicken a surprise and requires reassurance that it is the cooking process, not the chicken, that has made it feel that way on the tongue.  As if I'd feed him dodgy chicken!  *tut*  The very idea.

Hubby and I, however, just love the recipe.  I've cooked it with toasted sesame seeds and without, with a sliced green pepper or mushrooms and without - in all sorts of incarnations - and we've loved them all.

As a super-quick meal to cook, you really can't do better than General Tso's chicken.  It's almost one of my favourite "bung it in the wok in order and serve" recipes.  If it wasn't for the fact that you cook the chicken first, then reserve it for later, it'd qualify.  But then, it's just another bowl to wash up and what's another bowl when dinner tastes so good?

GENERAL TSO'S CHICKEN    (serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

½ cup soft brown sugar
3 tbsp hoisin sauce
3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
3 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 flat teaspoonful of powdered ginger
a good pinch of dried red chili flakes (optional)
½ cup water
3-4 tablespoons cornstarch
500g boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil
6-8 spring onions chopped
toasted sesame seeds (optional).

Method :

If you are intending on using toasted sesame seeds as garnish, now is the time to toast them.  Heat up your wok or frying pan and place the seeds in dry.  Keep an eye on them, as once they start to toast it happens quickly!  Once nicely brown and toasty, decant into a ramekin to use later.

Next, mix the brown sugar, hoisin sauce, rice wine vinegar, tomato ketchup, soy sauce, ginger powder, chili flakes (if you're using them, which I recommend you do!) and water together in a bowl.  This is your sauce, so set aside - but within reach!

Dredge the chicken chunks in the cornstarch and shake off any excess.

Heat the pan again and add the olive oil.  Cook the chicken in the olive oil briskly on a high heat until golden brown on at least two sides.  Remove the chicken and retain in a warm place.

Add a little more olive oil if necessary, plus the sesame oil and green onions (and any other veggies you might have thought to include). Cook until softened, then add the sauce and quickly bring to a boil.

Allow the mix to boil gently for as long as it takes for it to thicken slightly, then add the chicken and coat with sauce.  Reduce the heat and simmer until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has reduced to a glossy, syrupy consistency.

Serve with white rice, garnished with the toasted sesame seeds and some raw spring onion pieces.

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Roast Spiced Hedgehog of Pork with Gooseberry sauce

Roasting a hedgehog?  Whatever next!  Oh, don't panic - I've not gone THAT exotic - my "Hedgehog" was a piece of hedgehog cut pork - i.e. hatch marks had been cut across the top surface of the piece of pork topside.

Farmer's Choice (Free Range) Ltd  contacted me again and asked whether I would like to devise a recipe for them to use on their new Facebook page for the Dorset and Bournemouth area (Farmers Choice Bournemouth & Dorset).  Naturally, I said yes please!  After all, the produce from Farmer's Choice is so good, why would anyone in their right mind turn them down?

Perfectly roasted and ready to carve

I, pretty much straight away, knew what I was going to go for.  I had been playing about in an imaginary way, with a recipe for spiced roast pork with a gooseberry sauce.  I'd been hoping that our little gooseberry bush would come up with the goods, but regrettably the birdies got there first.

Ready for the oven

I had also been waiting for a suitable piece of pork to turn up in the supermarket for a reasonable price, but that hadn't happened either.  So immediately I went to the pork joint section of the Farmer's Choice website and my eye was caught by the Pork Topside Hedgehog.  As it turned out, I couldn't have asked for a better cut.  With absolutely no waste and as lean as they come, this joint was perfect for everyone in the family and with careful but easy roasting, resulted in a super tender and flavoursome roast which wasn't dry at all.

My order, in the end, became the pork, some gooseberries, a bulb of fennel (also for the sauce) and a wild card entry of a bag of game meat for a game pie which I haven't made yet.  That's what happens when you give me the pick of a site full of produce, you see.  Personally, I think I was very restrained and I'm sure there are many who would have asked for a whole lot more.

The pork recipe was really incredibly simple.  I just wanted something to flavour the outside of the meat with and give it a lovely colour, rather than something to marinate the joint in for hours and provide a more overall kind of flavour input.

As such, the oil-based rub that I came up with - of olive oil, thyme, sweet smoked paprika, garlic, lemon juice and ye olde salt and pepper - was just perfect.  It was able to sink easily into the cut marks across the top of the pork and gave a beautiful colour once roasted.  The flavour was subtle but very much there, depending on how much of the outside of the pork you had on your fork.  Subtlety, folks, I'm all about the subtlety (and poetry, looking at that last sentence).  Well, where roast pork is concerned, anyway.

The roasting was as easy as falling off a log (and I've fallen off a few in my younger days, so I know how easy that is).  For a 1155g piece, I gave it one and a half hours at 180degC (350degF/Gas 4), then gave it a baste and checked the internal temperature was in the range of 77degC - 80degC (meat thermometer - SO useful!) and as such was likely to be done, but still fairly firm.  I then covered the roasting dish with a good layer of aluminium foil and put it back at the much reduced temperature of 130degC for another hour.  Once the hour was up, the whole package was rested for 20 minutes in a warm (but not hot) place.  The meat wasn't fall-apart tender, but I don't much like that in a roast pork joint.  It held together, but you could easily cut it with just a fork.  It was perfect.

You little beauties!

The gooseberry sauce was just wonderful.  The sharpness of the gooseberries cut through the richness of the pork and refreshed the palate, ending on a soft note of fennel which left you ready for the next bite.  The sauce is a little more time-consuming to make, but if you tackle it ahead of time (which I recommend, to give it time to cool) it really doesn't impinge on your day much at all.

The two recipes are really so simple that I don't even have any COOK'S TIPS for you, other than to recommend you keep hold of the fluffy tops and offcuts of your fennel to include in soup or stock, for which they are invaluable.

The finished gooseberry sauce, hiding its zing behind a benign appearance

Gooseberries and pork.  Mmmnnnn, our new favourite thing.  In fact, my hubby was so taken with the combination, he remarked that he hadn't ever had a better piece of roast pork in all his forty-mumble years.  Now that's quite a compliment.

ROAST SPICED HEDGEHOG OF PORK with GOOSEBERRY SAUCE   (Serves 4-5)

Ingredients :

For the gooseberry sauce :
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tbsp olive oil
1 bulb of fennel, sliced finely and tops discarded
1 large banana shallot (or equivalent), diced finely
small pinch of salt
quarter of a tsp dried thyme
quarter of a tsp finely ground black pepper
quarter of a tsp vegetable stock powder
1 tbsp & 50ml water
125g dessert gooseberries, tops and tails removed
25g granulated sugar.

For the pork :
1kg or thereabouts topside of pork, mine was hedgehog cut
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
1 tsp dried thyme
1 clove of garlic, grated
2 tsp lemon juice
pinch of sea salt
half a tsp freshly ground black pepper.

Method :

1.  Begin, ahead of time, by making the gooseberry sauce.  Heat a small pan and once hot, add the mustard seeds to toast.  Once they start to pop, decant into a small bowl and reserve.

2.  Heat the olive oil and add the fennel and shallot, plus the sea salt.  Cook gently until the shallot is transparent and the fennel has begun to soften.

2.  Add the pepper, dried thyme, vegetable stock and water.  Bring to a simmer and cook until the fennel is tender.

3.  Taking a stick blender, carefully blend until thoroughly combined, but still retaining texture.  Decant into a bowl and reserve.  Replace the pan onto the heat.

4.  Add the gooseberries directly to the pan and add a tablespoonful of water.  Cover the pan and allow the gooseberries to heat through, giving the pan a little shake every now and then, to prevent them from sticking.  This should only take around 5 minutes if the gooseberries are ripe.

5.  Once the berries are softened and their juice is beginning to escape, add the fennel mixture and mustard seeds and stir to combine.

6.  Add the sugar and remaining 50ml of water.  Stir well, then bring to a simmer and cook until the sauce has reduced to a loose jammy consistency.  Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary, likewise if you think the sauce needs more sugar, correct that too.  Be cautious with the sugar, as you want the sauce to stay tart and not become jam-like.

7.  Once you are happy with the flavour and consistency, decant into a bowl and allow to cool.

8.  Remove the pork from the fridge a good half hour ahead of time.

9.  Place into a roasting tin and mix the seasoning ingredients (oil, paprika, thyme, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper) together.

10.  Spoon the seasoning mix over the top of the pork and rub into all the cracks and crevices.

11.  Put into a pre-heated oven at 180degC/350degF/Gas 4 for an hour and a half.

12.  Remove the pork from the oven and baste it with the juices, then cover with tinfoil and return to the oven.

13.  Turn the oven down to 130degC/250degF/Gas 2 and cook for another hour.

14.  Remove the pork from the oven and baste it again, then replace the tinfoil and leave it in a warm place to rest for 30 minutes, before carving.

Printable version

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.

Printable version

British Rose Veal & Cauliflower Dhansak

This curry was really never meant to happen.  You see, we were doing a freezer audit yesterday when out came a plastic bag with what appeared to be meat in it.  The appearance looked for all the world like as though it was the other half of a roasted joint of meat, that we'd forgotten about and had been pushed to the back of the freezer.  I decided to defrost it and use it up over successive lunches, whatever it was.

Well, it turned out to be two lovely but raw British rose veal steaks.  Oops!

I was planning a lamb & cauliflower curry this week, so it occurred to me that to make it veal instead of lamb was no bad thing.  I'd never had a veal curry before and the thought appealed to me.

It had been ages since I made a home-spiced curry - that is, one where I choose the type and amounts of spices used, instead of one where we just use a Sharwood's curry paste for speed - and for all that the results can be a bit hit and miss, I thought I'd give it a go.

I had been intending to make the lamb curry one that was finished in the oven, rather than the speedier "on the hob" type of curries that we so often make and continued with that for the veal.  British rose veal is naturally very tender and as such not really suited to the more hurried "on the hob" type of cooking, which can either dry it out or toughen it.  You really need one of two ways with it - either quick cooking in a frying pan which doesn't allow it to toughen or longer, slower cooking that softens the fibres and gently encourages them to become tender, whilst retaining all the natural moisture in the meat.  So the long, slow, oven based cook was perfect.

One aspect of currying British rose veal did concern me, which was that I didn't want to lose the delicate flavour of the meat by bashing it over the head with curry spices.  However, for all that the sauce is right up there in the flavour department, the meat withstands it exceptionally well and if anything the flavour was enhanced rather than overpowered.  To make sure that your veal doesn't become swamped, make sure to cut your pieces into a decent size.  Ours were a decent forkful sort of sized and I'm quite sure that smaller pieces would easily have succumbed to the powerful flavours going on in the sauce.

I know that the spice list seems a bit daunting and over-long, but bear with it.  The riot of all those different flavours - coupled with the onion, garlic, veal and cauliflower - is really lovely and well worth the effort of digging them out of your spice rack and working your way through them.

The other thing that is very well worth doing, is toasting the three types of seed.  I know this seems like a faff and you find yourself thinking "well it can't affect the flavour THAT much, surely!", but it does.  It really does!  As such, you would be well advised to make the curry earlier on in the day, when you have more time to spare and aren't watching the clock so badly as at dinner time.  That way, you can take your time and carry each process out with care and a little bit of extra love, which will all tell when it comes to the eating.  At dinner time, just switch the oven back on, pop the casserole dish back in and give it a half hour to heat up.  In the meantime you can be cooking the rice and everything will happen in a relaxed and easy manner.  Perfect.

The end result is not a saucy, wet curry - but a hearty, filling curry that is best eaten with rice and maybe some poppadoms with chutney.  Definitely not a naan bread, dipping style kind of curry.  It is also quite light on the tummy from a fat point of view, as British rose veal is naturally very lean and no extra yoghurt or cream goes in.  However, it definitely isn't light on the tummy from a spices point of view!  So many of the spices used here are good for you in various ways, however, that instead of leaving you feeling heavy and sluggish, this curry can leave you feeling rather energised and you can almost feel it doing you good.

As the recipe stands, the curry is not a spicy hot one.  There is very little actual chilli goes into it - just a pinch of red chilli flakes and however much there is in the curry powder and Garam Masala.  So, if you like your curries rather more in the nose-meltingly spicy range, you might need to up the quantities of chilli flakes you add.

Also, please don't be tempted to drop the jaggery goor or brown sugar at the end of the curry.  The sugar is quite fundamental to the sweet/bitter flavour balance of the spices and without the added sugar, the curry might taste too bitter to your palate.  You can always add the sugar to taste and if you like it with less, or want to add more, then go ahead!  Everyone's taste buds differ.

I thoroughly enjoyed creating this curry - and I hope you enjoy it too.

I'm really quite proud to announce that this recipe has been awarded eRecipe.com's "Recipe of the Day"!




BRITISH ROSE VEAL & CAULIFLOWER DHANSAK   (serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

1.5 tsp whole cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
0.5 tsp fennel seeds
1.5 tsp ground coriander
0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground fenugreek
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground ginger
3 tsp mild curry powder
a pinch of red chilli flakes
2 tbsp groundnut oil
500g British rose veal, trimmed and cut into cubes
2 cloves garlic, chopped
5 baby onions, peeled & halved
1 large onion, chopped finely
1 tomato, chopped
1 potato, peeled and cut into cubes (a waxy potato such as Jelly is best)
1 baby cauliflower, divided into eight pieces
500ml veal stock
3 tbsp red lentils
1 heaped tsp Garam Masala
1 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves
1 tsp jaggery goor, or light brown sugar.

Method :

1.  To begin with, make the spice mix by taking a small frying pan and adding the cumin seeds, mustard seeds and fennel seeds.  Dry fry the seeds until they are toasty, slightly coloured and fragrant.  Decant them into a pestle & mortar and grind them into powder.  Add the ground coriander, ground cinnamon, ground fenugreek, ground turmeric, ground ginger, curry powder and chilli flakes and mix to combine.  Set this mixture aside.

2.  Take a large high sided frying pan and add the oil over a high heat.  Once the oil is smoking hot, gently add the veal pieces and fry until caramelised on at least two sides.  Decant, using a slotted spoon, into a casserole dish (with a lid) and add the potato and cauliflower to the dish.

3.  Add the onion, baby onions and garlic to the pan and season with a pinch of sea salt and a good quantity of freshly ground black pepper.  Cook slowly over a moderate heat until the chopped onion is transparent but a light golden colour and just beginning to caramelise on the edges.  Beware of burning the garlic, so don't try to hurry this process by increasing the heat.

4.  Add the tomato and cook for a few moments to soften.

5.  Add the spice mix and stir to combine.  Cook, stirring often, for 3-4 minutes until the raw edge has gone and the spices are smelling fragrant.

6.  Add the veal stock and stir to combine.

7.  Add the lentils, fenugreek leaves, Garam Masala and jaggery (or sugar).  Stir to combine, then once the sauce begins to thicken, taste for seasoning and add more if necessary.

8.  Decant the sauce into the casserole dish and stir gently to make sure everything is coated.

9.  Add the lid and place into a pre-heated oven at 160degC/325degF/Gas 3 for 2 hours.

10.  Once the two hours are up, remove the lid and very gently stir the contents.  If necessary, add a little more boiling water to loosen the sauce - and serve with steamed basmati rice.

Printable version

"Woodsy Quiche" - a creation for hubby's birthday

It was dear hubby's birthday this last weekend and he'd agonised for weeks - literally - over what to have for his birthday dinner.  Finally, the night before we went shopping for it and in what amounted to something of a desperate moment of being backed into a corner over the whole thing, he decided upon a quiche.

Not just any old quiche though.  He wanted a quiche that contained tiny sausage meat meatballs, along with chestnuts and a British white cheese.  Something of an artisan quiche, it seemed like!

Now I'm not exactly a dab hand with quiches, but I have made some creditable attempts at them in the past.  So I had a good idea of what to put with these ingredients to make a proper quiche-like texture and the additions of some curd cheese (bought from our local Polish shop), creme fraiche, a shallot and chives seemed to me to have the potential of doing the job.

We debated over adding mushroom, but didn't want the filling to become squishy.  Mushrooms are such a high percentage of water, this seemed highly likely unless they were fried off first and with the sausage meat, we were a bit leery of everything becoming too fatty.  Mind you, the sausage meat was 90% pork - so not much room for fat there.  As it turned out, I had a last minute good idea and added a couple of mushrooms as decoration - which because they were on top of the filling mix, were able to dry out under the fan of the cooker and so not cause any soggy problems.

Cooking and combining the ingredients for the filling was a simple matter of a bit of cutting and a-chopping, a little bit of rolling and frying and a lot of mixing - so no great difficulty there.  For some reason, the pastry had turned to concrete in our fridge (I think it may be turned up a little too cold) and it took a good few minutes of heaving and grunting over the rolling pin before it succumbed (warmed up, more like) and rolled out.  I was using a large quiche dish and had literally just enough pastry to line it, rolled really thin.  However, the thin pastry was a good thing, as it gave the filling lots of room to shine without having a mouthful of thick shortcrust pastry to contend with.

The flavours matched up really well.  The sausage meat loved the chestnuts, the chestnuts loved the cheese and the cheese loved the well seasoned egg mixture.

I don't recommend eating the quiche when it has just come out of the oven, as it is too bubbly then.  Allow it to calm down and cool to warm before you serve and it will be a lot more agreeable.  In fact, I ate the remainder for lunch today - cold - and it was excellent, so I can see the recipe would be well suited to a picnic or as a pot luck contribution, too.

I served ours with hubby's choice of vegetables; minted new potatoes, buttered asparagus and mange tout and it ate very well.  Cold, it would be just as nice with a potato salad and any number of green leafy or garden salads.

Summer is just around the corner, so why not tuck this recipe behind your ear for then!

I'm happy to announce that this recipe was "Recipe of the Day" for 1st April 2015 with eRecipe.com - and as such we have a badge to prove it!  Yay!



WOODSY QUICHE    (serves 5-6)

Ingredients :

Pastry

165g plain flour
pinch of salt
75g butter (if you're using salted butter, leave the pinch of salt out), at room temperature
100ml or so of cold water.

Filling

3 eggs
100g curd or cottage cheese
100g creme fraiche
pinch of sea salt
half a tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp olive oil
1 small shallot, chopped finely
100g chestnuts, halved
250g (4 sausages) of 90% pork sausage meat
100g good Wensleydale cheese, crumbled into pieces
10g chives, chopped
2 mushrooms, sliced, to decorate.

Method :

1.  Begin by mixing up the pastry.  I use a food processor for this, but you can do the entire process by hand if you wish, in which case rub the butter into the flour until the mix resembles breadcrumbs.  If using a food processor, add the flour, salt (if using) and butter and process for as short a time as possible, or until the mix resembles breadcrumbs.

2.  Add the water little by little, mixing it through or by pulsing the processor and adding water in between pulses, until the dough has come together in a fairly dry, sandy, ball.

3.  Wrap the pastry in cling film and place into the fridge to rest for 20 mins minimum.

4.  In the meantime, mix up the filling.  Begin by rolling the sausage meat into tiny meatballs the size of your thumbnail.

5.  Then, pour the olive oil into a small pan and add the shallot.  Cook on a gentle heat until the shallot is beginning to soften, then remove it with a slotted spoon and reserve.

6.  Add the sausage meatballs and increase the heat a little.  Cook until the outer surface has turned golden on at least two sides.  There is no need to ensure the balls are cooked through.  Remove them and reserve to cool.

7.  Roll the pastry out and line your quiche dish.  Cover the pastry with some baking parchment cut to fit and pour in some baking beans or rice.  Place into a pre-heated oven at 180degC/350degF/Gas4 for 20 minutes or until the pastry has turned a light golden sandy brown.

8.  Remove the baking parchment and set the baking beans or rice aside to cool before going back into storage.

9.  Break the eggs into a large bowl and whisk to combine.

10.  Whisk in the curd cheese, creme fraiche, shallot, chopped chives and seasoning.

11.  Add the chestnuts, sausage meatballs and crumbled cheese to the mixture and stir to combine.

12.  Pour the filling mixture into the casing and gently spread everything around evenly.

13.  Add the sliced mushroom in a decorative pattern atop the mixture and press lightly into the mix.

14.  Place into the oven (still at 180degC/350degF/Gas4) for some 30-40 minutes or until golden in colour on top and, when pressed, the surface feels firm.

15.  Set aside to cool slightly and serve warm, not directly from the oven.

Printable version

Spanish style chicken & prawns

For absolutely ages, hubby has had a yen to make a paella-style dish.  Of course, he'd have absolutely loved to have made true paella, but I fear that's beyond our purse at the moment.

I've got to say, though, that the dish he made last night - Spanish style chicken and prawns - is so "after the style of" a paella, that he got as close as he could have done.

He'd obviously spent some time thinking about how he was going to approach the cooking of the dish, having decided to marinade the chicken and cook it separately, so as to preserve the flavours of the marinade.  He absolutely achieved that, as the chicken was discernibly flavoured differently to the rice.  This made for interest in a dish which could very easily have been one overall flavour.

He used pepperoni sausage, as we had some left over from some Calzones he was going to make last week.  I think I probably preferred the pepperoni, as the paprika from the chorizo, together with the two paprika's used in the dish could very easily have been too much for me.  I seem to have become quite paprika-sensitive in my old age!

We were both agreed that it would have finished it off perfectly to have had a sprinkling of chopped parsley to serve - so you may want to add that if you try this dish.

One thing that is worth saying about the meal, is that Son & heir started it suspiciously but was very soon tucking in and polished off the lot!  So that was a seal of approval as regards its kid-friendliness.

It is now March 2015 and I have just made the dish again.  (See photograph above).  It was a late addition to the menu plan, as son & heir's lady love was coming for dinner.  Everyone declared the dish was delicious, son & heir gave it the best accolade by having two enormous platefuls!

SPANISH STYLE CHICKEN & PRAWNS  (serves 4)

Ingredients :

2 tbsp olive oil, used separately
2 chicken breasts, sliced into small pieces

half a lemon, juiced

freshly ground black pepper

half a tsp smoked paprika
sea salt

a small knob of butter

1 large spanish onion, chopped

1 red pepper, de-seeded and chopped

1 yellow pepper, de-seeded and chopped
4 mushrooms, sliced

1 red chilli, de-seeded and chopped very fine

2 clove garlic, chopped fine
100g skinless chorizo, cut into small half moons

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp of paprika (not smoked)

300g long grain rice, rinsed in warm water until the water runs clear

1 litre chicken stock (2 stock cubes are fine)
pinch of saffron

2 handfuls of frozen peas, defrosted

200g prawns, defrosted

1 large de-seeded tomato, chopped.

Method :

1.  Place the chicken into a bowl and squeeze over the juice of half a lemon.  Add a few grinds of fresh pepper and the smoked paprika.  Stir and marinade for half an hour.

2. Add the olive oil to a frying pan and fry the chicken until golden brown all over.  Remove from heat and set to one side to keep warm.

3.  Add the knob of butter and more olive oil to the pan and saute the chopped onions, chopped pepper, sliced mushrooms, chopped chilli and garlic until soft.

4.  Add the chorizo pieces and cook for several minutes, until they have begun to release their oils.  Return the chicken to the pan.

5.  Add dried oregano and paprika, then add the rice and stir until coated with the seasoned oil.

6. When the rice is hot, add the chicken stock and saffron and stir through.

7.  Cook until the rice has absorbed almost all the liquid and add the peas.  Cook until the peas have warmed through.

8.  Add the prawns and tomato.  Stir and cook until the rice is tender and everything is heated through.

Serve.

Printable version

Pesto chicken with roasted tomatoes and Milanese couscous

"Milanese couscous" - cracking name, don't you think?  After a bit of research, it's what I've called the couscous dish that I made to accompany the Pesto chicken.

I made the Pesto chicken once prior to starting the Rhubarb & Ginger blog and it had become lost in the sands of time.  Well, until I noticed I had half a jar of pesto lurking in the fridge, waiting to be used for something.  A quick ponder and my normally unreliable brain threw out the "how about Pesto chicken?" idea.

As the chicken I'd used in the previous incarnation had been hugely inferior to the chicken breasts I can find these days, I could only think that the dish would be better than last time - and let me tell you, last time was pretty darned good!

I had one problem with the making of the dish, which was that as fast as I tried to spoon the filling into the chicken, it was coming straight back out again on the same teaspoon.  *sigh*  Losing sensation in my hands is really becoming a problem!  However, I shall sidetrack that next time, and buy a piping set.  That'll solve that particular problem and if you have one, I'd recommend using it when you make this chicken dish.  You WILL be making it, won't you?


For the breadcrumbs, I had unusually run out of my frozen breadcrumb stash, so just whizzed up a crust and a slice of Oatilicious bread which made the most lovely breadcrumbs.  So if you don't have oaty bread, it might be worth adding a tablespoon of rolled oats to the blender when you're making your next batch of breadcrumbs!


I've given the recipe for the Milanese couscous here as well, as it went so beautifully with the chicken that I thought it would be nice to give details for an entire course, as opposed to simply the meat part, or the vegetable part.


The couscous is based - loosely - on the Ottolenghi Green Couscous, but is dealing completely with Italian flavours such as Grana Padano cheese, basil and pine nuts.  In fact, that's where I got the "Milanese" bit from - as Grana Padano hails from near to Milan.  Don't worry if you don't have Grana Padano, because Parmesan will do just as well.


PESTO CHICKEN WITH ROASTED TOMATOES (serves 3)


Ingredients :


3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 tbsp green pesto
50g mascarpone
2 tbsp olive oil
100g breadcrumbs
9-12 cherry tomatoes on the vine
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper.

Method :


1.  Pre-heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.


2.  Cut into the thick end of the chicken breast, moving the knife around to create a pocket within, but with a small opening.


3.  Mix the pesto and mascarpone together, then carefully fill each chicken breast with the mixture (this is where the piping bag would come in handy!).


4.  Drizzle a little olive oil over each chicken breast, then roll them in the breadcrumbs and place onto a baking tray.  Press a little extra breadcrumbs into the top surface of each chicken breast, then season.


5.  Sprinkle the cherry tomatoes around the chicken, then place into the oven for 20-25 minutes.


Serve with :


MILANESE COUSCOUS (serves 3)


Ingredients :


1 onion, sliced thinly
a knob of butter
1 tsp olive oil
4-5 chestnut mushrooms, sliced thinly
100g fresh parsley, chopped roughly
100g fresh basil
a handful of pine nuts
30g Grana Padano, grated finely
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
150g couscous
150ml boiling chicken stock
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
2-3 tbsp lemon juice.


Method :


1.  In a frying pan, melt the butter and add the olive oil, then gently fry the onion until golden and just starting to caramelise.  Add the mushroom slices and cook for another 3-4 minutes.  Add a pinch of sea salt and put aside to keep warm.


2.  In a mini-blender, add the parsley, basil, Grana Padano, pine nuts and olive oil.  Whizz until you have created a herb paste.


3.  Place the couscous into a large bowl and add the stock.  Cover with cling film and set aside for around 10 minutes.  Remove the cling film and fluff up the grains with a fork.


4.  Then add the herb paste and stir through evenly.  Add the onions and mushrooms and stir through.  Season to taste - including with black pepper.  Add the lemon juice and serve.


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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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The best (and biggest!) Cornish Pasties

If I can remember that far back (last Tuesday - it's a close run thing, to be honest!), I seem to recall that I made some crackingly good Cornish Pasties.

Now, of course, one wonders whether they should in fact be called "Dorset Pasties" as we're in Dorset, not Cornwall.  However, I think we can safely leave that a moot point and in calling them "Cornish", I trust everyone will know what sort of pasty we're talking about.

The original plan, with this pasty meal, was to have the Cornish Pasties with an accompanying salad.  I had thought that would be somewhat healthier (less fat & sugar, potentially) than baked beans and chips.  However, when I checked on them in the oven and saw what a humungous size they had reached, I quickly revised that idea.  It seemed to me that the pasty itself would be quite enough for a meal (as indeed, was the original idea behind them) with perhaps a few baked beans in order to provide something to lubricate the jaws.  Quite apart from anything else, I was beginning to feel distinctly peculiar - and the idea of putting together a salad was rapidly becoming less and less attractive both from a personal point of view and from a "not passing on whatever I've got" point of view.

So, the chaps had one each with some baked beans - and indeed, they proved perfectly adequate for a meal.  All of which leads me to suppose it might be better to draw 4" circles in the pastry, rather than 8" circles, in order to produce a smaller more manageable pasty!

I used shop-bought frozen puff pastry and it was brought home to me just how enfeebled I had become, because the simple act of rolling out the pastry was incredibly difficult.  When I'd done the first quarter - and cut out the first circle - I can remember thinking "OMG - I've three more of these to go!".  Which is crazy, when you consider that I used to think nothing of picking up 25kg of horse feed bag and slinging it over my shoulder.  How times change!

I kept the ingredients for the filling completely traditional, apart from the fact that I used some lovely steak mince, rather than cut up a piece of steak.  I felt this would rule out any pieces of steak being too "bouncy" and not tender enough, plus there was the outside chance that some fat would get through the net.  

Another interesting point regarding the pasties, is that I used the Mandolin to cut the potatoes, onions and swede.  This ensured that they were cut to the exact-same thickness and although each slice wasn't cut in the exact-same way, so some were bigger in diameter than others, it seemed to work beautifully where the cooking time was concerned.  I have, in the past, had pasties come out of the oven with the potato or the swede still really quite hard, where I've diced them instead of sliced them.

I put the slices into a bowl, which enabled me to balance the quantities of all three much more easily than taking a little handful for each pasty.  You could see, once you'd added the onion, how much potato you would need and likewise the swede.  It also enabled me to season with freshly ground black pepper - loads of it! - and sea salt, mixing the slices to ensure the seasoning was carried throughout the filling.  I did give each pasty a little extra grind of both seasonings just before closing them, but hubby reckons that although they were very nice, I could still have given them more pepper.

A note about the pastry.  I rolled the pastry out between two pieces of cling film (a la Rachel Allen), which is by far the cleanest way I know of it do it.  Now this has the added benefit, once you've cut out your circle, of providing you with some cling film to close over the top of the pastry and prevent it from drying out while you make the other three!  I found it was worth turning the pastry over before adding the filling, as it was easier to pick it up from the cling film, that way.

As for the crimping, well, in the past my pasties have looked rather like a rabid dog has put them together.  However, this time, I was quite pleased with the crimping and it looked even better once they'd cooked.  For once - faint! - none of them came undone in the cooking!

CORNISH PASTIES  (makes 4 x 8" circles = 4 pasties)

Ingredients :


1 pack with 2 blocks of Puff Pastry
300g steak mince
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 medium potatoes, peeled, thinly sliced
175g swede, peeled, thinly sliced
freshly ground black pepper
sea salt
beaten egg.


Method :


1.  Pre-heat oven to 220c/fan 200c/gas 7.


2.  Roll out the pastry, a half a pack at a time, in between two pieces of cling film and until you can place an 8" plate on top with extra to spare around the edges.  Remove the top layer of cling film and draw a knife around the plate to remove the extra pastry.  Close the cling film over the circle and leave it to one side while you prepare the remaining circles.


3.  Using a Mandolin - or by slicing as finely and evenly as possible with a knife - slice the onion, potatoes and swede.  Place the onion directly into a bowl, however with the potato and swede, cut each slice (you can heap them and cut a number at one time) into four, then place in the bowl.


4.  Add the seasoning - and go wild with the pepper, as these pasties can take a huge amount of black pepper - and mix through with your fingers.


5.  Take the first of your circles and peel the cling film from it, turn it over and place it back onto the cling film.  Add a handful of vegetable mix along the centre line and add a quarter of the steak mince, broken into pieces, along the same line and on top of the vegetables.


6.  Season again, then brush a little of the beaten egg mixture around the outside edges of the circle.  Bring the half furthest away from you up and over the top of the meat & vegetables, towards you, sealing it on its opposite side.  Then, starting from one end, crimp the edges - sealing as you go.


7.  Once done, cut three lines into the body of the pasty and place onto a baking tray.  Brush with the egg wash and place into the oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180c/fan 160c/gas 4 and bake for 45 mins or so until golden.


Serve warm.