Pasta Carbonara - far too lovely to be healthy!

Blame for this one, quite firmly, lies with son & heir.

You see, every week we ask him whether he has any requests for the menu plan.  Ordinarily, he immediately responds with "pizza", closely followed by "steak and chips".  However, on this one instance, he suggested Pasta Carbonara - which was so unusual, that we just had to reward his suggestion by following through and making the dish.

Well, you couldn't not!  I mean to say, we'd asked for the suggestion hadn't we?  It would have been rude to have turned it down flat (much as we do for the "steak and chips" suggestion - but we'll skip lightly over that fact).

Now it had been over a year since I'd made a Carbonara - and this was because of hubby's egg sensitivity.  The last one I'd made, he just couldn't cope with both the raw egg taste and the knowledge that what he was eating was basically, raw egg.  Albeit raw egg mixed with cream, bacon and parmesan - and thrown over hot pasta which was supposed to cook the egg.  I was always dubious about that - and hubby's reaction confirmed my suspicion that the "hot pasta" didn't do a terribly good job.  Plus the fact that the cold cream/egg mixture always took the heat out of the pasta and everything wound up a little bit cool.

So, having agreed to a Carbonara, I started to worry about hubby's reaction to it - and how I might get around the raw egg problem.

Now I'm no genius, as it took a good three or four days of worrying, before I hit on the solution.  A bain marie.

Using a bain marie would not only solve the raw egg problem, but also solve the cold pasta problem!  Aha!

What you do - and you're probably way ahead of me now - is get the shallot and bacon cooked off in a frying pan, then when a separate pan of salted water boils, dunk in the pasta.  Get a small pan going, with a little bit of water inside, simmering away.  Place a large bowl over the top - making sure the water doesn't touch the bowl.  Into the bowl, add the cream, eggs, parmesan and black pepper - and whisk gently but consistently while the gentle heat cooks the eggs without turning them into scrambled and the whole beautiful emulsion gets slowly warmed through.  The end result is a simply gorgeous, slightly foamy, warm mixture that coats the hot pasta perfectly - and it remains that way, i.e. hot!

The worth of this new (well, it's new to me) process for making Carbonara was summed up by hubby, who declared he had never - get that, "never" - had a better tasting, more unctuous, positively sinful Carbonara.  Now that, is truly high praise.

We aren't all that keen on spaghetti and, since the arrival of Mafalda Corta pasta in our local supermarket, haven't looked back.  I've used this shape of pasta in lots of other dishes recently and it was most acceptable in this Carbonara.  Because of the ruffles that each flat noodle length has along its edge, the pasta is able to pick up the coating sauce without leaving any behind - which makes for a very satisfying mouthful.

The dish was made all the better by our fabulous butcher's bacon.  The rashers are huge - and not only that, but are thick too.  Just perfectly robust for a good bacon hit in amongst the richness of the cheese, cream and egg.

If only it wasn't so bad for you, it'd become a staple on the menu plan.  However, with the use of copious amounts of butter, cheese and cream, it can only be a "once in a blue moon" dish.  Oh, but what a dish!

I'm sure a blue moon is imminent - so stock the fridge up with bacon, cream, eggs and parmesan.  You know you want to!

PASTA CARBONARA (serves 3)

Ingredients :

375g pasta (I used Mafalda Corta)
knob of butter
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
9 rashers of back bacon, trimmed of fat and chopped fairly small
2 whole eggs, plus 1 yolk
220ml single cream
40g parmesan cheese, finely grated
freshly ground black pepper.

Method :

1.  Heat a frying pan over a medium heat and add the bacon pieces.  Cook until the fat has rendered out, then add the butter and shallots before the bacon can brown.

2.  Cook on a gentle to medium heat until the shallots are softened and transparent, but don't let them brown.

3.  Set aside to keep warm, but not cook any further.

4.  In a large saucepan of salted boiling water, add the pasta and cook for 9-11 minutes or until tender, with a slight bite.  Once done, drain and return to the pan.

5.  While the pasta cooks, heat a small amount of water in a small saucepan until simmering.

6.  Into a large, preferably pyrex, bowl add the eggs, cream, parmesan (leaving a small amount to sprinkle over the finished dish) and a good amount of freshly ground black pepper.

7.  Place the bowl over the simmering water in the small saucepan, making sure the water doesn't touch the underside of the bowl.  Whisk and stir, whisk and stir, until the mixture is demonstrating signs that the cheese has melted into the warmth of the liquid ingredients and the whole emulsion is becoming slightly foamy.

8.  Once the pasta is done, decant into a large serving bowl and add the sauce.  Toss the pasta in the sauce, ensuring every piece of pasta is covered - and finish with a sprinkle of the remaining parmesan cheese.

Serve.

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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

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.

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