King Prawn Madras Curry - sampling Patak's curry products

As I write this blog, it just happens to be National Curry Week (8-15 October).

We do like a curry in our house.  We're obviously not alone in this, as there seems to be a great love for curry across the country, these days.

It's not surprising then, that there is a big market for curry pastes, cooking sauces and ancillary products.  There are a few names out there that are relied upon to bring great results - and Patak's has always been one of the most popular.

I can remember, way back in the late 1970's/early 1980's when I began fending for myself and started to try and cook, finding a pot of Patak's curry paste and being overjoyed that making curry had suddenly become a lot less scary (huge lists of ingredients! Waah!) and a lot more do-able.

Over the years, Patak's have vastly increased their range of ingredients and moved away from the generic "curry" style, to the more focused types of curry.  So hence, you will now find several different types of curry paste, depending on what sort of curry you wish to make.  Not only that, but they now produce cooking sauces for people in a hurry, jars of incredible pickles and various bread products like naans and pappadums for you to eat alongside.

So when I was contacted and asked whether I would like to receive some Patak's products to review, I naturally said yes.

Now, this wasn't without some trepidation on my part.  I have recently moved on from using the Patak's curry pastes to spicing my home made curries myself.  In fact, when I - for some obscure reason that eludes me now - decided to go back to Patak's quite recently, I made such a botch job of using the curry paste that I'd decided not to go there again.

However, when someone offers you curry - it's a difficult thing to say no.  Anyway, I thought I should be able to produce a good curry with the Patak's products, so long as I followed the instructions on the jar and didn't try to tamper with the spicing.

So for our first attempt, we decided to use the cooking sauce.  Now, for some reason, the majority of the products we had been sent were all either hot or blisteringly hot (as in a Phaal cooking sauce - *gulp*).  However, chilli is no stranger to us and we're all game.  We thought we'd start relatively gently though, with the Madras Cooking Sauce.

Following the advice on the jar, we bought some King Prawns to use in the curry - and freelanced a bit by adding a chopped onion and some peas.

Hubby was in charge of this one and reported back that the cooking sauce was easy peasy to use - he just followed the instructions on the side of the jar, which were easy to understand.  Because he was using pre-cooked King Prawns, it was a simple matter of cooking the onion, adding the sauce and the peas, then adding the prawns and giving them long enough to heat through.

He served the curry with some plain boiled basmati rice and added some of the Patak's Mixed Pickle and a handful of mini Pappadums alongside.

a.k.a. Dynamite!

The flavour of the curry was spicy-hot, fruity and quite tangy - although the flavour didn't have a lot of longevity on the palate.  The real star of this particular show, however, was the Mixed Pickle.

Now hubby and I had only recently been discussing Lime Pickle and how we liked it very much.  With this Mixed Pickle, you have all the benefits of the Lime, along with Mango and Karamda (which is a sour fruit, apparently).  However, it's that salty, spicy chilli hit along with the lime flavour that is the complete winner.

Hubby and I cried, sniffed and gasped our way through our meals, enjoying every minute of them.  The curry itself was hot enough - but when you add the Mixed Pickle to the equation, the chilli factor just goes through the roof.

Patak's Mixed Pickle - Branston, this stuff ain't!

There is, however, a bit of a note of warning that I must sound here.  Both hubby and son & heir have been fine and dandy since their curries, but I haven't.  Something in either the cooking sauce or the pickle (and my feeling is, that it was the pickle), just didn't agree with me, as I've had eosophagitis ever since (inflammation of the gullet).  Right at the moment, I'm reduced to eating scrambled egg and mashed potato in an attempt to heal the damage and settle everything down again.  I have a horrid feeling that I may have eaten my last really hot chilli meal.  *sob*

So - all those of you out there with Irritable Bowel Syndrome or with a tendency towards heartburn and indigestion - be cautious!

Still, I really enjoyed both the curry and the pickle at the time - and can't fault the ease of preparation for the curry.  The pickle is just magnificent and I can't recommend it highly enough - and the mini pappadums were a lifesaver for those moments when you'd over-pickled your spoonful!

As something to keep in your food cupboard and whip out on those nights when you're back home late, have to go out early or just can't be bothered to get creative - you can't fault it.  Just be careful if you're prone to digestive conniptions - and maybe go for a milder version!

 

 

Spiced Rhubarb Foolish

Being the beginning of October, it isn't altogether surprising to hear that our rhubarb bushes are beginning to shut up shop for the winter.  Now, because they are so abundant, we had a complete triffid in the shape of Ruby (the original bush) and a triffid-in-training in the shape of Ruby 2 (her daughter).

Thanks to some high winds the other night, Ruby had suffered a little bit and hubby was required to go out there with his No.1 Slasher (i.e. a big knife) and harvest everything harvestable from her, before the rot set in.  We've yet to tackle Ruby 2 who survived unscathed being as she is, cuddled up in the corner of the garden, yet the freezer is full already and a good many of the neighbours are catered for.

So the requirement was to find good uses of Ruby's bounty.

Now son & heir has been rabbiting on (ever hopeful!) about my making Rhubarb Fool.  For all that I love the idea, I have been resisting it simply because a cream-laden Rhubarb Fool really isn't the type of dessert that any of us should be eating.  However, then I had a blindingly good idea.

You see, Rhubarb Fool can be made in two ways.  Firstly, there's the the cream and fruit variety and secondly, there's a custard and fruit variety - in which case the cream goes into the custard.

My brilliant idea was to use both cream and custard, but separately.  Yes, I know that seems a bit counter-intuitive if you're trying to cut down on the amount of cream that's involved - but hang on.

I had already trimmed the sugar content in the fruit, by using Splenda 50/50 with sugar when I made the rhubarb compote for the fool.  Said compote was, by the way, simply chunks of rhubarb, 1 heaped teaspoonful of mixed spice, a drizzle of ginger syrup and a tablespoonful of water with a 50/50 mix of Splenda and sugar, simmered until the fruit was soft, but not broken up, and retaining some of its tartness.  It is good to have the texture of a soft chunk of rhubarb running through the dessert.

Rhubarb, spice and syrup - just beginning to cook

So - getting back to my bright idea - it occurred to me, that instead of using an entire pot of double cream to whip up and then stir the rhubarb into why not use half the amount of cream - and a carton of Ambrosia light custard?  Inspired!

So, I whipped up a small amount of cream and folded some of the rhubarb compote into it, leaving just enough plain unadulterated cream for a blob on top of the Foolishes (as they had then become known).

I then began to assemble the desserts by spooning some of the rhubarb compote into the bottom of a sundae dish.

Then, it was a blob of the fool mixture, then a blob of custard, side by side.

Drizzle over more rhubarb compote, then add a blob of fool mixture and a blob of custard - except at different angles to the original, so that the difference in colour and texture can be seen.

Add a touch more compote and finish with a blob of the reserved whipped cream.

Oh yes.

The Spiced Rhubarb Foolish dessert was born.  Take me home, country roads - it was gorgeous.


SPICED RHUBARB FOOLISH (serves 3)

Ingredients :

450g fresh rhubarb, sliced into half inch chunks
1 tsp ground mixed spice
200g granulated sugar (use 1 dessertspoonful of Splenda & 100g sugar, if you prefer)
2 tbsp ginger syrup
250ml double cream, softly whipped
250ml Ambrosia light custard.

Method :

1.  Taking a medium sized saucepan, add the rhubarb, spice and ginger syrup and begin to heat on a medium heat.

2.  When the rhubarb has begun to soften around the edges, add the sugar and the tbsp of water if required.  You may not need the water, depending on how much is naturally in the rhubarb.  Stir gently until the sugar has dissolved.

3.  Simmer until the fruit is soft throughout, but not broken up, and retaining some of its tartness.  It is good to retain the texture of a soft chunk of rhubarb, instead of just mush.

4.  Set aside to cool thoroughly, until stone cold.

5.  Whip the cream to soft peaks and reserve three teaspoonfuls separately.

6.  Gently fold some of the rhubarb compote into the cream mixture, until it is softly pink and obviously contains rhubarb.

7.  Begin to assemble the desserts by spooning into the bottom of a sundae dish, some of the rhubarb compote.

8.  Next, add a blob of the fool mixture, then a blob of custard, side by side.

9.  Drizzle over more rhubarb compote, then add a blob of fool mixture and a blob of custard - except at different angles to the original, so that the difference in colour and texture can be seen.

10.  Add a touch more compote and finish with a blob of the reserved whipped cream.

Cover with cling film and keep in the fridge until required.

Printable recipe

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Really Lamby Shepherd's Pie

I really enjoy writing my blog here - I'll say that straight away.  However, sometimes I find that I'm looking for excuses to not get on with it - which is what has just happened.  "I'll just check my Facebook pages", or "wonder if I've any new email" or the favourite, "I'll just show my face on Twitter (and so waste another hour)".  I kick myself every time I do it, as I just lose writing time - but getting started seems to be so difficult to do!

I've got into the habit now, of typing out the ingredients and method to a new recipe on the evening that I've made it.  Simply because the old grey matter ain't what it was and I have trouble remembering what I did, otherwise.  I thought that might break the "stark white empty page" thing that goes on when I sit down to write (or type, that should be), but no.  It's still the same - prevarication R us.

So, having said that, here I am in full blogging mode and perfectly happy about it.  Bizarre.  Please submit answers to my condition, on a postcard.

Now then.  When I made my Rich Beef Cottage Pie the other week, it went down so well with the assembled throng - that's you, that is - that I resolved to make my Really Lamby Shepherd's Pie so as to complete the pairing and to drive home the differences between the two.  You see, not everyone who reads this blog originates from the U.K. and so there has been some confusion expressed over what is a Shepherd's Pie and what is a Cottage Pie.

So, for those who are still scratching their heads - it's easy.  Shepherd's Pie (think shepherds tending their sheep) is made with lamb mince - and Cottage Pie (think cottages and cows) is made with beef mince.  You can put just about anything in your pie after that, without changing it from either the Shepherd's or the Cottage variety.

Now, when I began thinking about how to make my Shepherd's Pie really, really lamby, it dawned on me that there aren't that many (and in our local Asda, that'll be none) lamb gravy products out there.  I had the benefit of the Knorr Stock Pots for the Cottage Pie, but didn't have any lamb versions as they don't yet exist!  Even on the Knorr website's collection of recipes, Marco Pierre White appears to use chicken stock for lamb - which is something of a missed opportunity, I'd have thought.

I did have the benefit of some Essential Cuisine Lamb Stock Powder though - and cannot stress in strong enough terms, how much of a boon this stock powder is, when you're cooking lamb.  Yes, you can get lamb stock cubes - but I've yet to be able to find low salt versions in lamb.  The Esssential Cuisine one isn't a low salt version - it's just naturally low in salt.  So there's no having to be cautious about the seasoning - and finding out when it's too late, that you've overdone the salt because of the stock cube, or even worse (which has happened to me) find that the stock cube alone has made the dish too salty.  As I've said before, being a powder, it is an easy matter to just add a teaspoonful more if you find your gravy needs a bit of a flavour boost.  I am very definitely going to be ordering some more of these stocks, when I need to - and it's rare for me to take on a new product like this.  In fact, I think the only other time it's happened was with the Mic's Chilli El Loco BBQ sauce - which we're now completely wedded to.

Minced lamb at the start of the process

So right from the word go, when making this Shepherd's Pie, you need to be thinking about how to achieve the most flavour from the ingredients you have.  It is no good getting right to the end of the process, tasting and thinking "oh dear, that's a bit pale pink, what can I do now?" because by then it's far too late.  Right from when you're cooking the onion, think about what would increase the flavour layers throughout the dish.  In fact, if you take the onion as a good example - you can fry the onion until it's transparent and it will be acceptable in the dish.  However, if you have patience (or time) enough to be able to fry it right through to being golden brown and beginning to caramelise, then you already have a rich, well-developed flavour right there.

Minced lamb, demonstrating the level of caramelisation

It is the same with the minced lamb.  When the recipe calls for the mince to be "browned", don't just take the mince to the point where it has changed colour and has lots of water and fat bubbling around it - and don't drain off that water and fat at that stage.  Yes, the meat has browned and yes, I can understand your wanting to reduce the fat content by removing the grease - but hang on for a bit longer.  If you wait until all the water has evaporated and the mince starts to really fry in its own fat, then begins to caramelise (you need to have the heat really quite high for this and to be there alternately turning and leaving it to fry - no dashing off to the loo, or you'll come back to a disaster involving charcoal), you'll wind up with so much more flavour originating from the star of the show - the lamb mince.  Equally, don't be tempted to take the mince too far into caramelisation, or it is unable to soften once the gravy is added.

Before.  Pallid, but delightfully ridged.

This is why my Shepherd's Pie (and indeed the Cottage Pie) takes around an hour to cook and assemble, then three quarters of an hour minimum in a moderate oven.  It is not a "quick" dish.

After.  Just hand me a fork and leave me to it.

Now if there's ever a flavour match that's made in heaven for lamb - it's mint.  Unless you're repulsed by the flavour of mint, please don't be tempted to leave out the teaspoonful of mint sauce (that's the vinegar-based version, not the sweet mint jelly).  The difference that this hint of mint adds to the Shepherd's Pie is just incredible.  Again, you see, it adds another layer to the flavours.  It's another layer that your taste buds pick up at a different moment to the others, which helps the overall flavour of the Shepherd's Pie to travel for longer across your palate.

Who'd have thought anyone could wax this lyrical about the humble Shepherd's Pie, eh?

Om, nom, nom - mashed potato

Oh, and one last word about a very fundamental part of the pie - the mashed potato.  I heartily recommend the lovely Maris Piper potatoes for this as they're wonderfully floury and with the addition of a little milk or cream, a hunk of butter and liberal salt & pepper, they make a beautiful mash.  Don't be tempted to stint on the butter for the mash, as you aren't using cheese (as you would for a Cottage Pie) and it's the butter that will cause the mash to brown in the oven.  Nobody wants a pallid Shepherd's Pie, now do they?

So there you are - my tips for an amazingly Really Lamby Shepherd's Pie. Yum.  I wonder if I could get away with making another one this coming Sunday? 

REALLY LAMBY SHEPHERD'S PIE    (serves 4)

Ingredients :

500g lamb mince
1 onion, chopped
10 cherry tomatoes, quartered
2 sticks of celery, trimmed and diced finely
1 medium carrot, peeled and diced finely
4 chestnut mushrooms, chopped finely
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 large tsp mint sauce (the vinegary kind)
3 large tsp lamb stock powder or 2 lamb stock cubes (in which case, don't use any additional salt)
600ml hot water
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped finely
sea salt & black pepper
2 tsp cornflour.

For the mashed potato :

4-5 large floury potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks
a large knob of butter
2-3 tbsp single cream (or milk will do)
sea salt & black pepper.

Method :

1.  Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add the chunks of potato.  Replace the lid and simmer until the potato chunks fall easily from the point of a knife.  Drain them well and replace into the warm pan.

2.  Whilst the potatoes are still hot, add the butter, cream (or milk) and a good pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper.  Mash until the potatoes are smooth and creamy.  Set aside (trying not to eat too many of them!).

3.  In a deep frying pan, add the minced lamb and dry fry on a high heat until all the water has evaporated, the fat has rendered down and the meat is beginning to caramelise (around 10-15 minutes).  Remove the meat to a bowl and set aside.  Drain off all but 1-2 tbsp of the fat.

4.  Reduce the heat to medium and add the onion to the lamb fat in the pan.  Fry gently, until the onions have turned transparent, then have begun to gain colour, then have turned golden brown and are beginning to caramelise, all of which should take 10-15 minutes.

5.  Add the cherry tomatoes and continue cooking for another 3-4 minutes or until the tomatoes are softened and beginning to fall apart.

6.  Add the celery, carrot and mushroom and increase the heat slightly.  Cook until the vegetables have softened slightly and are beginning to take on a little colour.

7.  Reduce the heat back to medium and re-introduce the meat to the pan.  Stir to combine.

8.   Add the tomato ketchup, mint sauce, lamb stock powder and water.   Stir gently to combine and bring to a simmer.  Allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until the flavours are well combined.

9.  Add the parsley and some pepper and stir to combine.  Taste and adjust the seasoning if needs be.

10.  Place the cornflour into a small bowl and add the minimum amount of water to get it moving as a paste.

11.  Remove the pan from the heat and add half the cornflour mixture, stirring furiously to prevent it coagulating into a solid mass.  If you stir successfully, the mixture should begin to thicken.  Add as much of the remainder of the cornflour as is necessary to achieve your preferred texture.  I like my mixture to be quite thick.

12.  Taking a deep casserole dish, decant the meat mixture into the dish and smooth the top.

13.   Add small blobs of mashed potato across the top of the meat mixture, taking care not to press the potato down into the meat.  When in the oven, the meat mixture will expand and marry up properly with the potato, so if you press it down now, you may well find your potato disappears in the oven!  As a final flourish, run a fork lightly over the top of the potato, creating a rough texture that will brown easily in the heat.

14.  The pie can now wait until you are ready to put it in the oven.  Alternatively, place into a pre-heated oven (turn it on just before stage 3 above - 180degC/350degF/Gas 4) for a minimum of 45 minutes or until the gravy is bubbling up around the edges and the potato has browned.

Serve with steamed vegetables.

Printable version
  

Big thanks and a tricky meal plan, this week!

A cake for everyone!

First of all, before we talk about the meal plan for this week - I must tell you how proud I am of you all and thank you for being brilliant readers, commenters and loyal fans of Rhubarb & Ginger.

You see, at the end of September, Rhubarb & Ginger had registered a new all time high for page views of 18,953!  In one month!  Wowser!  Yes, I know - how close did we come to hitting the 19k mark?  But then, there's always next month.  *wink*

Great big thank you's go out to you all - across the globe - for coming back and reading my ramblings and salivating (or I hope you salivate!) over my recipes, before trying some of them at home yourselves.

~ applause! ~

Now then, to business and this week's meal plan.

It's a tricky one, because my parents are likely to call us at short notice to come over and put together my Dad's mobility buggy, which they've ordered and which should be delivered some time this week.  They just need some muscles to help put it together and deal with all the packaging - so it's not an onerous task, but it will probably mean we will need a quick and simple dinner for that evening.  Plus, of course, we don't know which day we'll be called on - which has made planning the meals a bit more complex than normal.  After all, we don't want to be committed to doing a recipe that will take several different stages over the course of a day, if we're not going to be here!

I think we've wound up with an interesting collection of meals, that are flexible enough to be cooked by pretty much either of us and which can be moved around (barring Sunday!) to suit.

Here's the plan :

Tues : Stir fried black bean beef, with noodles & vegetables

Weds : Pasta bolognese

Thurs : Oriental pineapple pork, with chinese style kale and rice

Fri : Smoked haddock & leek risotto

Sat : Creamy tomato soup with bacon & cheese muffins

Sun : Chicken Biryani

Mon : Rarebit sausages, mash and vegetables.

Now I don't guarantee that any of these (other than Sunday and maybe Thursday) will happen on the day that they're scheduled for - as it all depends what happens regarding the delivery of the buggy.  The plan is that the Pasta Bolognese is the wild card that can be moved on down the menu - to be had on the day we'll be out.

So fingers crossed, it'll work that way!

Photo c/o www.back-mirror.com

Tonight's Stir fried black bean beef is using the remaining third of the whopping great lump of Silverside that we bought a couple of weeks ago.  It's been in the freezer ever since, just waiting for a good idea like this one.

I found two sachets of black bean sauce in the larder cupboard - still in date, amazingly! - and so hubby volunteered to make a noodley stir fry with them.  The beef is a beautiful piece of lean meat and should be a complete doddle to cut into thin slices.  Just show it a blindingly hot wok and it'll be done - and stay wonderfully tender.

The Pasta Bolognese is, as I say, the wild card.  It'll be just a bog-standard version.  No singing or dancing involved and one of son & heir's favourites, so he'll be happy!

Something like this - c/o BBC Good Food.com

Thursday's Oriental Pineapple Pork is hubby's choice - he's still continuing with his "thing" about pineapple.  Keeps trying to include it in the weirdest of combinations, so hopefully this rather more predictable combination will be a) yummy and b) soothe the savage pineapple monster.

I'm looking forward to the Chinese style kale, as I absolutely adore kale.  Hubby isn't so convinced about the stuff, but this was his choice again - so hopefully it will be presented in such a way that it changes his mind.  It's actually a very simple dish - stir fried kale with garlic, soy sauce and oyster sauce, but I can just imagine the flavours and they're very nice indeed.  They'll go well with the sweet pineapple pork.

Hubby features highly in this week's meal plan, as Friday's Smoked haddock & leek risotto was his idea, too.  I love his risotto's - and so does son & heir (finally), so we're all dead keen on this one.

Little muffins of deliciousness

I thought we'd have an early Bonfire night on Saturday.  Son & heir's birthday is on Halloween, so we never seem to "do" bonfire night in any great way, as we're either all partied out, or financially broke, or both, by then.  I love the idea of a thick creamy tomato soup with bacon & cheese muffins (which are, universally, voted as "my favourite muffin") to dip with.  Who knows, if it's not pouring with rain (yeah, right - the forecast is for rain all week) we might even break out the fire basket and have a mini bonfire on the patio, just to make it perfect.

Sunday's Chicken Biryani isn't going to be one of those "quick" biryani's.  This is one that will be started the day before with a marinade and then move on into long slow cooking in a low oven.  I'm hoping that we'll be able to get the most flavour out of the chicken and spices by trying our hardest to follow the "authentic" way of cooking biryani.  I'll probably do a raita to accompany it, along with mango chutney and some flatbreads.  My mouth is watering already!

No!  Not RABBIT sausages - RAREBIT sausages! ~rolls eyes~

Hubby saw a recipe for rarebit pork chops and wondered whether it was possible to do the same thing, but with sausages.  His plan is to open each sausage out - butterfly it, effectively - and then cover with the rarebit mixture and bake.  I'm intrigued!  I can see how it would work on a pork chop, but with a sausage I'm a little unsure.  However, if it does work, it'll be a fabulous mid week dinner and just perfect for a Monday.  Oh, and it's an excuse to make some mashed potato - and I'll never turn down an opportunity for mash!

I haven't got any plans for any additional makes or bakes for this week, but I am anticipating the cropping of Ruby 2 (the second rhubarb bush) - so we'll be busy freezing the rhubarb in advance of some pre-christmas chutney making!

Small batch chutney making : Spiced Rhubarb Chutney

Ever since Ruby our rhubarb plant, started to get really (no, really) big, hubby has been saying "we should make some rhubarb chutney".

Now I had a go at it, waaay way back when, which wasn't all that successful.  It tasted fine at the time, but I always know when something hasn't been as successful as it first seemed, because a) nobody eats it beyond the first day and b) nobody asks for it again.

So I'd been on the lookout for an "interesting" rhubarb chutney, but to no avail.  Everything just seemed like ordinary chutney, or was a "something else and rhubarb chutney", which would meant that the rhubarb took a back seat instead of being the star of the show.

Rhubarb, shallots, vinegar & spice - just starting to cook

As the year progressed, I was running out of time.  Ruby had burgeoned and been cropped twice and her growing year was coming to an end.  Then, sudden high winds overnight (no chortling, please - not THAT kind of "high winds"), left her battered, bruised and in desperate need of cropping.  Oddly, her daughter (Ruby 2) was left untouched by the gusty conditions, so we've got more rhubarb to come yet.

Cooking down and smelling amazing!

Hubby took the mighty kitchen knife and went out there last week and cropped a vast amount of rhubarb from Ruby.  We gave huge amounts to a neighbour and kept a small mountain for ourselves.  So far, that mountain has made this Spiced Rhubarb Chutney and a delicious Spiced Rhubarb Fool (yes, I'm big on spice at the moment).

I have no idea what to do with the remainder of the mountain, except make some more chutney, perhaps!

You see, this chutney is good.  No, it's very good.  The rhubarb is, without doubt, the star of the show and the mixed spice has served to warm it up beautifully.  The combination of the shallot, garlic and cider vinegar has had an amazing effect upon the tang and sharpness of the rhubarb.  Instead of being rendered a savoury version of a rhubarb jam, this is very definitely a tastebud tingler of a chutney.

The recipe had been in my hands all along.  I'd been given a book - The Complete Book of Preserving by Marye Cameron-Smith - a long time ago, by the lovely Laura Cousins.  I'd looked through it at the time, but it has since sat on the shelf doing nothing.  So when faced with a mountain of rhubarb, my thoughts became rather more focused and I suddenly remembered the book.  A quick peek inside led me to the Rhubarb Chutney recipe, which was so simple it just begged to be made.

It is, however, a very British chutney.  It's not the kind of chutney that you would have alongside a curry, for instance.  It is very definitely best with some salty, strong cheddar cheese - and in fact, when taste testing this batch (before it was cold, even), we'd got through a good percentage of our block of cheese.  Yup, it was that good.  I'm sure it would be fabulous with a pork pie, or some sausage rolls, too.

Because we don't have oodles of empty jars, nor oodles of empty cupboard space for the filled jars, I went for the "small batch" approach, in the same way as my jam making.  Being just a scaled-down version of the original recipe which made 6 pounds of the stuff (yes, I had to get the calculator out - my maths just isn't up to being able to work those sorts of sums out - and even then, I had to ask how many grams there was in a kilo), I saw no reason why it shouldn't work - and it did.

Next time, I'm going to make rather more and - ssssh! Don't tell! - use them as Christmas presents for those people who have everything and you just can't think of what to get them.  As hubby commented, well, money can buy just about everything - but it won't buy you this chutney!

Oh, and as a "cook's note" - I used the ultra-deliciously-gorgeous Maille Cider Vinegar.  If you should decide to have a go at this one, I heartily recommend you use it too - and why not have a teaspoonful neat while you're at it.  Your saliva glands will go into overdrive, but it's an experience that just has to be sampled.  I drink it by the tablespoonful now, as it seems to do good things for my arthritis.



SPICED RHUBARB CHUTNEY  (makes one large jarful)

Ingredients :

230g fresh rhubarb, sliced
38g shallot, sliced finely
a tiny grate of garlic (one third of a clove and no more!)
1 heaped teaspoonful of mixed spice
pinch of sea salt
85ml cider vinegar
85g granulated sugar.

Method :

1.  Into a small stainless steel pan, put the rhubarb, shallot, garlic, spice, salt and half the vinegar.

2.  Bring to a boil and simmer until the rhubarb is very soft.  I added a teensy tablespoonful of water as my rhubarb was resisting softening and the pan was running out of juice.

3.  Add the sugar and remainder of the vinegar and stir gently until chutney has thickened.

4.  Decant into a container and leave to cool.

Store in the fridge.

Printable version

Jamie Oliver's Minced Beef Wellington - my version thereof!

I have been promising you all that I'd blog this one - and since all the excitement of the photograph being shown to Jamie on Zoe Ball's programme on BBC Radio 2 today, I thought there might never be a better time!

It had been a while since I'd made this recipe and I'd forgotten the finer details.  However, just a quick look at the blog post from the last time (which is here) and it all came back to me.  So I put the mince back in the fridge, as I wouldn't be needing that until later!

Just the sheer fact that this is, quite probably, around the fourth or fifth time I've made this one should tell you that it is well worth doing.  In the last couple of days, with all the Radio 2 thing going on, I've received a couple of comments along the lines of "it just looks like a big pastie".  Well, I suppose you could think of it in that way, but in truth, it is a lot more than that.

For starters, there's an awful lot more meat than vegetable (which in your average pastie, is exactly the opposite), there's an awful lot more filling than pastry (which again, in your average pastie is exactly the opposite) and I've yet to find a pastie that can feed 3 people for a main course dinner, then three people for lunch the day after!


Yes, it does involve two cooking instalments - one to make the vegetables for the filling, then another to finish the Wellington and cook it - but neither of those instalments are particularly taxing.  As a great mid-week dinner, you just can't beat it.

With this particular incarnation, I made a couple of changes from a) Jamie's original and b) my last blogged version.  I added some leftover Celeriac that had been diced finely, used mushroom ketchup instead of Worcester Sauce and had run out of frozen peas, so substituted sweetcorn instead.

The end result was just as good, just as tasty - and well worth doing!.

MINCED BEEF WELLINGTON (serves 4 with leftovers)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

1 medium onion, chopped finely

1 carrot, peeled & cut into fine dice

1 stick of celery, washed, trimmed and cut into fine dice

1 potato, peeled & cut into fine dice

a large chunk of celeriac, peeled and cut into fine dice

1 clove of garlic, minced or grated

2 large chestnut mushrooms, chopped finely

4 sprigs fresh rosemary, removed from the stalks and chopped finely

2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce or Mushroom Ketchup

a big handful of peas or sweetcorn niblets (frozen is fine)

500g good quality minced beef

sea salt & black pepper

500g puff pastry

1 large egg, lightly whisked.

Method :

1.  In a frying pan, heat the rapeseed oil over a medium heat and add the onion. Fry until light golden brown, then add the remainder of the vegetables and the garlic and continue to fry until the veggies are showing signs of softening.

2.  Add the rosemary and the Worcester sauce or Mushroom ketchup and stir to combine.

3.  Add the frozen peas or sweetcorn and cook for another couple of minutes until thoroughly defrosted and mixed in.

4.  Decant the vegetables into a large bowl to cool completely.  I find that if I smooth them as far up the sides of the bowl as possible, it allows them to cool more quickly than leaving them in a lump.

5.  When cool, preheat oven to 180degC/350degF/Gas 4.

6.  Add the minced beef to the bowl with salt and pepper and half the egg.  With your hands, scrunch everything together until thoroughly mixed.

7.  On a clean worktop, roll out the pastry to the size of small tea towel and place the mince mix along one long side, in a sausage shape, but leaving a small area of pastry, so that you have something to start the rolling with.

 

8.  Brush edges of pastry with egg and roll pastry to cover mince completely.  Tuck any escapees into either end, then fold the ends together and squeeze the joins so that they hold.

 

9.  Flip the Wellington over so that the pastry join is underneath and transfer to a baking tray that has been lined with either non-stick silver foil or baking parchment.  

 

10.  Use a knife to cut a couple of holes in the top to let any steam escape, then brush with egg.

 

11.  Bake for approximately one hour (I'd check it after 30 minutes and turn it to ensure an even bake) until golden.

 

Serve with steamed vegetables and gravy.

 

Printable version

 

 

Rhubarb & Ginger on Radio 2? Whatever next!

There is the slightest possibility that Jenny Eatwell's Rhubarb & Ginger might get a mention on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show (which Zoe Ball is hosting at the moment) tomorrow morning!

Exciting!

I was listening to the radio this morning, while hubby was rambling around Sainsbury's looking for a tin of red kidney beans to go in tonight's dinner, when she started telling her listeners that Jamie Oliver was going to be on the show tomorrow morning (28th September 2012).

She suggested to listeners that they might like to send in photographs of their dinner - Jamie Oliver inspired dinners particularly - and they would put them up on their Facebook page.

Never one to miss an opportunity, I immediately thought of the Jamie's Minced Beef Wellington that I'd made for dinner the week before last.  It is blogged here on Rhubarb & Ginger (see link above), but I haven't got around to posting up the new and improved recipe for it yet - but I will!

So as soon as we got home, I sent the photograph of it off to Zoe - and received a lovely note back, giving the link to the Facebook page and inviting me to put the link to Rhubarb & Ginger on there too.

The photograph album for the feature can be found here.  You never know - we might get a mention!