Chocolate Pomegranate Tart

In a break from my normal practice I am lifting this recipe straight out of Jamie Oliver's new book, "Cook with Jamie". Why? Well, for one thing it's delicious. The real reason though is that I have added an extra ingredient, pomegranate molasses, which transforms it into something sublime. A further reason is to correct an error in the book. Jamie, usually pretty reliable, must have had his mind elsewhere when he wrote up the quantities in this recipe. This was the first recipe in the book that I had tried and I felt fairly sceptical when, for the purposes of lining an 11" tart tin, the pastry required 1.25 lbs flour + 11.5 oz butter plus various other ingredients. I went ahead and did as I was told though. Who am I to question Jamie Oliver? I ended up with a ball of pastry the size of a baby's head. Enough to fill my 11" tart tin twice over, let alone lining it. At least I've now got enough for a couple more tarts in the fridge. I halved the quantities given for the filling, and that turned out about right. So here's the sane version:

For the Pastry:
160gms Butter
110gms Caster Sugar
Pinch of Salt
280gms Plain Flour
2 Eggs
30gms Cocoa Powder

For the Filling
100ml Milk
280ml Double Cream
30gms Caster Sugar
175gms Dark Chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
1 Egg
3-4Tbsps Pomegranate Molasses

Grease an 11" tart tin. Cream the butter, sugar & salt then fold in the flour. eggs and cocoa powder. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and refrigerate (is this really necessary?) for an hour, then roll it out and line your tart tin with it. Put it in the freezer for half an hour (another step I would be happy to omit).

Preheat your oven to 180C then cook the pastry base for 12 - 15 minutes. Leave to cool.

Meanwhile put the milk, cream and sugar into a pan and gently bring to the boil, stirring. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate broken into bits. Whisk smooth, then add the pomegranate molasses and the egg and whisk again. Pour this into the pastry shell and cook the whole lot for 15 minutes at 170C.

Pomegranate and chocolate: you heard it here first.

J.O. phrases it differently and doubtless better, but you'll have to buy the book for his version.

Mexican Roast Chicken with Stuffing

5 Slices White Bread
3 Tomatillos, Finely chopped (optional)
2 Tbsp Chipotle Paste
1 Spanish Onion, Diced
1 Egg
1 Handful Diced Chorizo
1 Handful Sweetcorn
1 Chicken

Remove the crusts from the bread, put it in a blender and turn it into crumbs. Fry the onion and chorizo until the onion is soft. Tip everything (except the chicken and half of the chipotle paste) into a bowl and mix well. Season to taste. Put this stuffing inside the chicken. Smear the remaining chipotle paste over the chicken and roast. Cooking time will depend on the size of the chicken, but 1 hour at 200 C is usually not too far off.

Crab Bisque

This is a simpler variation of the Prawn Bisque posted previously. It's no less delicious though.

Discarded prawn heads / shells leftover from peeling prawns in other recipes - Lots
1 bulb Fennel, cut in half
2 Carrots
1 White Onion, peeled
Small handful Tarragon, finely chopped
400gms brown and white crab meat
4 Tbsps Tomato Puree
200ml Single Cream
200ml White Wine

Put the prawn heads into a large pot with 4 pints of water. Add the fennel, carrots and onion and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for about an hour, then strain through a sieve.

Freeze half of the liquid for later use, or boil vigorously to reduce liquid by half. Add the tomato puree and the wine to the remaining liquid and return to a simmer. Season to taste, then add the crab, tarragon and cream. Stir well and serve.

Mexican Mayonnaise

2 Egg Yolks
Juice of 1 Lime
300 ml Olive Oil
Handful of Coriander Leaves, finely chopped
2 Red chillies, finely chopped
Salt

Put the egg yolks and the lime juice in a blender. Very slowly dribble in the olive oil until the mayonnaise thickens. At the end, add the coriander, chillies and salt and blend again. Delicous with fried skate wings.

Broad Beans Sichuan Style

Broad Beans
1Tbsp Sichuan Peppercorns
1 Tsp Sesame Oil
Salt

Boil the beans for a couple of minutes until just softening. Drain and rinse with cold water. Heat the peppercorns gently without accompaniment until they begin to smoke. Keep them moving to avoid burning. Put them in a spice grainder or blender and grind them to a powder. Sprinkle this over the beans along with the sesame oil and salt to taste.

Spicy Crab Cakes

1 Stalk Lemon Grass
1 Tbsp Fresh Green Peppercorns, finely chopped
4 Dried Red chillis, finely chopped
Mixed meat from 2 Medium crabs, chopped
4 Spring Onions, green parts only, finely sliced
3 Slices White Bread
2 Tbsps Mayonnaise
Salt to taste

Remove the tough outer layers from the lemon grass as well as the tough bit at the end. Thinly slice, then chop. Turn the bread into crumbs with a blender. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Season with salt. Make the mixture into patties and fry in butter for a couple of minutes on each side. Serve with garlic mayonnaise and avocado salsa.

Cranberry Margarita

A drink, for a change. This recipe serves ONE.

3 Tsps Caster Sugar
4oz Cointreau
6oz Tequila
4oz Lime Juice
4oz Fresh, unsweetened Cranberry Juice

Mix all the ingredients and stir until the sugar has dissolved. If you want the frozen version, put the mixture in an ice cream machine (it's the only thing I ever use my ice cream machine for) and process until frozen.

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes with Mangetout

Cherry Tomatoes
Mangetout Peas
Spring Onions, finely sliced
Basil, roughly chopped
Thyme, finely chopped
Olive Oil

Preheat an oven to 200C. Put a few tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom of a baking tray. Halve the tomatoes and put them on the baking tray. Scatter everything else over the tomatoes and season well with salt. Roast for 10 minutes or until the mangetout are the way you like them.

Thai Scallop Ceviche

12 Scallops
3 Spring Onions, finely chopped
1/2 Red Onion, thinly sliced
2 Stalks Lemon Grass
12 Cherry Tomatoes, halved
2 Red Chillis, finely chopped
Handful of basil, chopped
Handful of Coriander, chopped
Juice of 2 Limes
Fish Sauce (same quantity as lime juice)
4 Tsps Sugar

Clean the scallops, removing the coral. Slice each one across the grain to a thickness of a pound coin. Mix the lime juice and fish sauce and marinade the scallop slices in this mixture for 1 hour. Remove the scallops and stir in the sugar. Peel the outer layers from the lemon grass and remove the hard parts at the base. Slice very finely. Add everything back into the lime juice mixture and stir.

Sage and Onion Stuffing with Pancetta

1 stalk Celery, chopped
1 Onion, chopped
4oz Pancetta
1/2 loaf white bread, crusts removed
Handful of sage leaves, chopped
1 egg
Olive oil

Put the bread in a food processer and turn it into crumbs. Fry the onion, celery and pancetta in the oil until the vegetables have softened. Add the sage and fry for another minute or two. Add the stuff you've been frying to the breadcrumbs. Season and add the egg. Mix well and stuff the lot into the chicken.

Pawa (or poha)

There's not much point in reading this unless you have access to a specialty Indian food shop. Pawa (or poha as Madhur Jaffrey spells it) is flaked (flattened) rice. This is a delicious snack food, if that's the sort of thing you like. My wife loves it, and I make it once a year on her birthday:

2 good handfulls pawa
2 Tbsp corn oil
2 tsps black mustard seeds
1 onion, finely chopped
3 green chillis, chopped
1 good handfull coriander leves, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp turmeric powder

Wash the pawa in a colander under cold water. Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the mustard seeds. When they begin to jump about, add the onion and chilli. Allow the onion to soften a little then add all the rest of the ingredients. Warm through, and season to taste. Can be eaten warm straight away, or cold later on.

Some might add diced, boiled potato; dessicated coconut; curry leaves - or, for that matter, anything else that takes your fancy.

Sage and Onion Stuffing

Another recipe scarcely worth bothering to post. Just put in anything that happens to be in your kitchen.

1 onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
2 leeks, sliced
1 good handful of sage, chopped
4 slices white bread crumbled to ... crumbs
1 egg
salt pepper

Soften the onion, celery, leeks in a knob of butter. Add the sage and cook for a minute or two. Put these vegetables in a bowl and mix in with the breadcrumbs. Add the egg to bind and season to taste.