A Diary of Dinners

Korean Chilli Squid

2011-03-17T07:24:00.000-07:00

6 smallish Squid, cleaned

5 Tsps Chilli Powder

2 Tsps Sugar

2 Tbsps Sesame Oil

2 Tbsps Fish Sauce or Light Soya Sauce

1 clove Garlic, crushed

1 Tsp Sesame Seeds

4 Spring Onions, finely sliced

Mix all of the ingredients in a small bowl to make a thickish paste.

Cut the squid into 1" squares.

Heat a little cooking oil in a frying pan over a high heat.

Add the squid and cook for 2 or 3 minutes until just opaque. Add the sauce and fry for another 10 seconds.

Serve over rice.

Thai Curried Prawns with Scrambled Egg

2010-02-21T06:05:00.000-08:00

3 Eggs

100 ml Milk

3 Tbs Fish Sauce

2 Tsps Sugar

1 Tbsp Thai Chilli Paste

1 Tbsp Black Peppercorns

2 Cloves Garlic, sliced

Equivalent quantity of ginger, sliced

1 Onion, sliced vertically

Raw Prawns, peeled

4 Spring Onions, shredded

4 Red Chillies, julliened

Combine the milk, eggs, sugar and fish sauce in a bowl and mix well. Bash the peppercorns, garlic and ginger into a paste with a mortar and pestle. Heat a little oil in a wok and add the peppercorn paste. Stir for a minute then add the onions. Cook for a couple of minutes until just softening. Add the prawns and stir until just cooked. Add the egg mixture and the spring onions and chilli. Stir until thickened and serve over rice.

Lentil Stew with Smoked Chicken

2010-02-21T05:59:00.000-08:00

And not a chilli in sight:

1 Onion, finely chopped

1 Large Carrot, finely chopped

1 Pint Chicken Stock

1 Leek, chopped

1 Smoked Chicken Breast, chopped

2 Cloves Garlic, finely chopped

Salt

Puy Lentils

Olive Oil

Heat some olive oil over a medium heat. Add the onions, carrot and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes until just softening. Add the chicken stock and bring to the boil. Add the lentils and simmer until they are soft - about half an hour. Add the leek and chicken and salt to taste. Cook for another couple of minutes and serve.

Chipotle Ketchup

2009-11-22T08:18:00.000-08:00

3 Tbsps Chipotle Paste (qv)

1 Tsp Sugar

1Tbsp Sherry Vinegar

3 Tbsps Tomato Puree

Combine ingredients and mix well.

Sichuan Peas

2009-07-29T00:52:00.000-07:00

This one couldn't be simpler, nor more delicious.

Fresh Peas, as many as you want

Sichuan Chilli Oil (I'll put in a recipe for this one day)

Sesame Oil

Salt

Bring a pan of water to the boil. Add the peas and cook for 1 minute. Drain in a colander. Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle on a little chilli oil, sesame oil and salt to taste.

Sichuan Beef with Black Bean Sauce

2009-07-29T00:40:00.000-07:00

Beef Fillet, thinly sliced

1Tbsp Black Bean Sauce

100ml Xiaosing Wine

1 Red Pepper or same quantity of long red chillies

200 Water or Stock

1 Tsp Sichuan Peppercorns

1 Tsp Cornflour dissolved in 2 Tbsp Water

Groundnut Oil

Chop the red pepper or chillies into chunks. Heat a little groundnut oil in a wok or frying pan. Add the beef and fry very briefly until just browned. Remove and set aside. Return the pan to the heat with a little more oil. Add the black bean sauce and fry for 30 seconds or so. Deglaze with the wine. Add the water or stock and the peppers and peppercorns. Cook for a few minutes until the peppers have softened. Add the beef and cornflour mix, stir briefly and serve with rice.

Dill Pickle

2009-07-29T00:34:00.000-07:00

1mg Salt

5ml White Wine Vinegar

15ml Water

Dill

Gherkins

Garlic, peeled and halved

Increase volumes of salt and liquid in proportion depending on how many gherkins you want to pickle. Bring the liquid to boil with the salt. Pack the gherkins into a jar along with some fresh dill leaves and a few halved cloves of garlic. Add the hot liquid and seal. Leave for at least a week.

Sichuan Peanuts

2009-02-04T06:54:00.000-08:00

This one is my attempt at one of the dishes at the Snazz Sichuan restaurant near Euston in London. It's my favourite Sichuan restaurant, not that there are many serious contenders outside of China. I have been trying several different methods for recreating this dish and this is the best. I dislike recipes which include branded ingredients, but I can't avoid it here. Sorry.

Groundnut oil for deep frying
A couple of large handfulls of raw peanuts
4 Spring Onions, Finely sliced
1 Heaped Tbsp Hot Diced Radish
Salt
3 Sichuan Chillies
1/2 Star Anise
1 Tsp Sichuan Peppercorns

Bash the chillies, star anise and peppercorns in a mortar until they are powdered.

Heat the oil and fry the peanuts at 100-130C for 20 minutes. Drain. Mix the peanuts with the spring onions, radish and salt to taste. Add as much of the powdered spices as you can handle.

Delicious

Arbroath Smokie Fishcakes

2008-12-03T01:33:00.000-08:00

The inspiration here was kedgeree. This was an attempt to recreate that dish (minus the rice) in the form of a fishcake, and I think it works very well.

1 Arbroath Smokie - Skin removed, flaked and bones removed
1 Onion - Chopped
2 Potatoes - Peeled
1 Egg
2 Tsps Curry Powder
Milk
Salt
Plain Flour
Mustard Seeds
Cumin Seeds

Boil the potatoes until they are of mashable consistency. Fry the onions for a few minutes until softened. Hard boil the egg then chop into small pieces. Mash the potatoes and mix in the fish, onion, egg and curry powder. Add salt to taste. If the mixture looks too dry to work with, add a little milk. Form the mixture into four patties. Put some flour on a plate along with some mustard and cumin seeds. Use this to coat the sides of the patties then fry them over a fairly high heat for a few minutes until browned on each side.

Redcurrant Fruit Leather

2008-07-10T09:24:00.000-07:00

Not much of a recipe, but a great way of dealing with a glut of redcurrants:

Redcurrants
Honey

Put all of the redcurrants in a saucepan and put them in a very low oven for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and pour them into a sieve. Mash them through the sieve with a wooden spoon collecting the juice and residue in a bowl. Add honey to taste.

Grease a baking tray with butter and pour in just enough juice to cover the bottom. Place in an oven at its lowest setting with the door ajar for several hours. The time will depend on the heat of the oven and the depth of the juice. The leather is ready when it is soft but firm to the touch, not sticky (underdone) or brittle (overdone). Peel it off the tray, roll it up and store in a cool place.

Thai Chicken with Basil

2008-05-30T02:06:00.000-07:00

4 Chicken Thighs
1 small Spanish Onion, finely sliced
1 clove Garlic, finely sliced
6 red Thai Chillies (or to taste), sliced
3 Tbsps Dark Soy Sauce
1 Tsp Sugar
3 Tbsps chicken stock
1 bunch Basil, leaves picked from stalks
Oil

Chop the chicken into tiny pieces. This is tedious and time consuming but worth the effort (it might work just as well, and be a lot easier, with minced chicken, but I haven't tried it).

Heat a little oil in a wok or saucepan and add the onions and garlic. Cook for a minute until the onion has softened a little. Add the chicken and cook until it has all coloured. Add the chillies, soy sauce, sugar and stock. Cook for another minute and adjust seasoning to taste. Add the basil and cook until it has softened.

Serve over boiled rice.

Pepper Crab

2008-04-10T03:07:00.000-07:00

This one is a Work In Progress. It was delicious, but I feel that it wasn't perhaps the ulti,ate Pepper Crab.

Crab Claws or Quartered Crabs
Handful Peppercorns, ground in a spice grinder
2 Cloves Garlic, thinly slice
6 Red Chillies, thinly sliced
Dark Soy Sauce
150 gms butter

Melt the butter. Add the garlic and chillies. Stir for 30 seconds. Add the crab and a good splash of soy sauce. Stir to coat the crab then add the pepper and stir again. Cover and leave to simmer for 5 minutes.

Sichuan Chicken / Beef

2008-04-10T03:02:00.000-07:00

1 Chicken Breast per Person
Handful Sichuan Peppercorns
3 Dried Sichuan Chillies
Dark Soy Sauce
Sesame Oil
Groundnut Oil

Roast the peppercorns and chillies gently until smoking (but nor burnt). Grind them in a spice grinder and tip out onto a plate. Coat the chicken breasts well in the pepper mixture. Meanwhile heat up a dry frying pan very hot. Add the chicken and cook for about 3 minutes each side. Finally splash with soy sauce and sesame oil. Turn over and repeat the process. Turn over once again and serve.

Thai Tomatoes

2008-01-23T09:37:00.000-08:00

This works well as an accompaniment for fried fish.

2 Dozen Cherry Tomatoes, Halved
5 Spring Oinions, Sliced
1 Lemon
Fish Sauce
1 Tbsp Sugar
Coriander
4 Red Chillies, Sliced
2 Stalks Lemon Grass, Finely Sliced

Put the tomatoes, spring onions, lemon grass and chillies in a small baking tray. Juice the lemon. Add an equivalent quantity of fish sauce to the lemon juice, mix together and add the sugar. Stir to dissolve then pour this mixture over the tomatoes. Place in a pre-heated oven (200C) for 20 minutes. Remove, stir and add a good handful of chopped coriander leaves. Stir again and serve.

Sichuan Chicken

2008-01-12T11:40:00.000-08:00

The idea behind this was to use up some leftover roast chicken. It worked well, I think.

1 Handful Dried Sichuan Chillies
1 Tbsp Sichuan Peppercorns
3 Tbsps Ya Cai (Sichuan Preserved Vegetable) - optional
1 Tbsp Chilli Bean Paste
4 Spring Onions, chopped into 1cm sections
Cooked Chicken, enough for 2 people, shredded
1 Tbsp Shaoxing Wine
1 Tsp Sugar
Groundnut Oil

Cut the chillies in half. Heat a little of the groundnut oil in a wok. Add the chillies and peppercorns and stir for 20 seconds or thereabouts. They chillies should have begun to turn brown, but take care not to burn them. Remove with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Add a little more oil if necessary and repeat with the ya cai. Once the ya cai has begun to crisp up, remove with a slotted spoon and add to the chillies and peppercorns.

Add the chilli bean paste to the oil and heat for another 20 seconds, stirring. Add the spring onions and chicken. Stir for another 20 seconds then add the wine and sugar. Cook briefly then add the cooked chillies, peppercorns and ya cai. Stir together and serve with rice.

Tomato & Smoked Mussel Soup

2007-11-04T08:41:00.000-08:00

6 Tomatoes
1 White Onion
1 Red Pepper
2 cloves Garlic
1 pint Chicken Stock
1 handful Smoked Mussels
Olive Oil

Chop the onion and red pepper coarsely. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and add the onion and pepper. While this is softening, chop the tomatoes coarsely and thinly slice the garlic. Add the tomatoes, garlic and chicken stock to the onions and pepper and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the mussels. Tip everything into a blender and blend till smooth. If you're fussy you could then strain out the tomato skins with a sieve (or you could peel and deseed the tomatoes to start with) but there's no real need.

Spicy Chorizo & Mussel Stew

2007-09-07T03:52:00.000-07:00

1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 White Onion, thinly sliced
2 Cloves Garlic, thinly sliced
2 Chorizo Sausages, cubed
White Wine
1 Tin Tomatoes
1 Tbsp Chilpotle Paste (see recipe)
1/2 Pint Chicken Stock
1lb Mussels

Heat the oil in a caserole dish and add the onions. Stir for a minute or two then add the garlic and the chorizo. Stir until the chorizo has cooked through. Splash in a little white wine to deglaze then add the chicken stock. Open the tin of tomatoes and wave a knief around inside to chop them, then add them to the caserole along with the chilpotle paste. Season to taste. Leave this to simmer while you debeard and clean the mussels. Steam the mussels in a little white wine for two minutes in a separate pan, then remove the mussels from their shells and add them to the stew.

Baked Chicken with Tarragon

2007-09-04T04:58:00.001-07:00

5 Slices White Bread, preferably a little stale
1Tsp Salt
2 Tbsps Tarragon Leaves, finely chopped
1 Egg
2 Chicken Breasts, skinless

Remove the crusts from the bread. Put it in a blender or food processor and whir it into crumbs. Put them in a bowl with the salt and tarragon and mix well. Beat the egg in another bowl and then dip the chicken breasts in the egg. Roll the chicken in the breadcrubs until they are coated all over and place on a rack in a baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes in an Aga hot oven (240C ?)

Korean Beancurd Stew with Prawns

2007-06-07T06:22:00.000-07:00

1 pt Chicken Stock
2 Tbsps Korean Chilli Soya Paste
1 block Beancurd
6 Chinese Dried Mushrooms
1/2 Courgette, split lengthways
2 Tbsps Kimchi
1 Leek
200gms Peeled Prawns
1 handful Coriander, roughly chopped
3 Spring Onions, thinly sliced
Sesame Oil

Dice the beancurd to whatever size you like. Dice size works well. Scoop out the seedy part of the courgette with a teaspoon so you have a canoe shape. Slice the leek. Soak the mushrooms in a little boiling water for 20 minutes, then slice thickly removing the stalks if they are still hard. Bring the chicken stock to the boil and add the soya paste. Add the beancurd and mushrooms and simmer for 10 minutes. Cut the courgette into thick julienne slices. Add the leeks and the prawns to the stock. Simmer for a further two minutes until the prawns are almost cooked. Add the kimchi and courgettes and cook very briefly so that the courgettes are al dente. Serve in soup bowls garnished with the coriander and spring onions. Sprinke a little sesame oil over each bowl.

Sichuan Chicken with Chillis - Version 1

2007-04-08T05:57:00.000-07:00

4 deboned Chicken Thighs
2 Tbsps Cornflour
4 Tsps Sichuan Peppercorns
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Rice Wine
1 Tbsp Light Soy Sauce
A couple of handfulls of dried Facing Heaven Chillis
2 Cloves of Garlic
An equivalent quantity of Ginger, sliced
5 Spring onions, cut into 1cm lengths
Pinch of Sugar
Sesame Oil

Chop the chicken into small pieces and put them in a bowl. Add the wine and soy sauce. Roast half of the peppercorns in a small saucepan, then grind them in a pepper grinder. Mix the ground pepper, cornflour and salt. Heat enough oil for deep frying in a wok. Coat the chicken in the flour mixture and fry briefly until crisp on the outside. Remove from heat and set aside. It will probably be necessary to cook the chicken in several batches to avoid the oil temperature dropping too much.

Cut the chillis in half. Clean the wok and heat a couple of tablespoons of groundnut oil. Add the ginger and garlic and cook briefly. Add the chillis and remaining peppercorns and cook for 30 seconds taking care that they do not burn. Add the chicken, spring onions and sugar. Cook briefly. Sprinkle on a little sesame oil and serve.

Chocolate Pomegranate Tart

2006-11-07T05:09:00.000-08:00

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

2006-10-13T03:40:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-10T04:26:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-02T05:04:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-23T05:04:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-24T09:56:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-06T09:05:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-11T07:46:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-05T01:21:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-01T10:01:00.000-08:00

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)

2006-03-09T05:10:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-31T02:18:00.000-08:00

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.

Lamb Kebab

2005-12-06T05:33:00.000-08:00

Pitta Bread
Lean lamb
Good handfull of mint leaves
2 Tbsps Plain yoghurt
2 Tbsps Olive Oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 Tomato, sliced
1 Red onion, thinly sliced
Rocket

Comboine the mint, yoghurt, oil and lemon juice in a blender in mix into a green paste. Chop the lamb into 1" cubes and impale on a skewer. Heat a griddle until very hot, then place the lamb skewers on it. Turn after a couple of minutes and cook for another two minutes. Meanwhile warm the pitta bread, put in some rocket, tomato and onion. Remove the lamb from the heat, take it off the skewers and put it in the bread. Spoon some of the sauce over it and serve.

Salmon Fishcakes

2005-12-01T05:38:00.000-08:00

2 Salmon fillets, skin removed
2 Potatoes
1 Tbsp taragon, chopped
1 Tbsp chives, chopped
1 Onion, chopped
2 Cloves garlic
100g Butter

Peel and boil the potatoes for 10-15 minutes until soft. Mash with the butter, taragon and chives. Crush the garlic into the mixture. Fry the onion in a little oil and just beginning to soften. Mix in with the potatoes. Fry the salmon gently until cooked through. It speeds things up if you flake it as it cooks. When cooked, flake it and add to the potato mixture. Form this into patties, dust with flour and dry for a couple of miutes on each side. Serve with lemon wedges.

Prawn Bisque

2005-11-27T02:16:00.000-08:00

If you try any of these recipes, or even if you don't, feel free to add some comments.

For this one, which is based on a crab recipe by Rick Stein, you will need to have saved the heads and shells from uncooked, unpeeled prawns used in other recipes. Put a load of these (at least a couple of dozen prawns) in with a couple of pints of water and simmer for 45 minutes. Strain out the resulting stock (which is delicious in all sorts of recipes). Heat a little butter in a pan and add one chopped onion, a couple of stalks of celery and a carrot, also chopped. Cook for 5 minutes or so, until softened. Splash in a little brandy and cook for another minute. Add a handfull of chopped taragon and the stock and simmer for 20 minutes. Give it a quick blast in a blender then strain it into another saucepan. Add salt and a small carton of double cream. Serve with a garnish of chopped chives.

Very delicate.

Mexican Stuffed Marrow

2005-11-09T04:13:00.000-08:00

1 Marrow
1 Small onion, chopped
3 Tomatoes, chopped
200 grms Lamb mince
1 Tbsp Chipotle paste

Slice the marrow in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Mix together all the other ingredients and add salt to taste. Place the mixture in the hollowed-our marrow halves, wrap with foil and bake for 45 mins - 1 hour in an oven at 200C.

Nothing simpler.

Chicken Enchiladas with Green Salsa

2005-11-02T03:15:00.000-08:00

Quick, simple, delicious and you can substitute pretty much anything for anything else.

2 Chicken breast fillets
3 Tomatoes, quartered
1/2 Spanish onion, sliced
1 Clove garlic, sliced
1 bunch Coriander, roughly chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
1 TbspChipotle Paste
4 Corn tortillas
Grated cheese (Cheddar)
Corn

Place the chicken in boiling water and cook for 12 minutes. Drain and leave to cool.

Put the tomatoes, onion, garlic, coriander, lemon juice and chipotle paste in a blender and blend to a coarse sludge.

Shred the chicken. Divide the chicken and green sludge between the four tortillas. Sprinkle some corn on each, then roll them and place in a baking dish. Cover with cheese and bake in an iven at 200C for 20 minutes.

How Not To Wind-Dry a Duck

2005-10-30T02:32:00.000-08:00

One of my most frequently used cookery books is Fuchsia Dunlop's excellent Sichuan Cookery. At the moment though, I don't feel there is much point in reproducing her recipes here. Unless you live near a good Chinese supermarket, you won't be able to find many of the ingredients. Even if you do, there are two key ingredients, Sichuan peppercorns and Facing Heaven chillis, which are almost unobtainable in this country. To be fair, it is fairly easy to get hold of the former, but they are almost tasteless, and they bear as much resemblance to the real thing as tinned spagetti hoops do to handmade pasta. Facing Heaven chillis can seldom even be found in ersatz form. In theory The Spice Shop (see my links section) both items, but in practice they rarely have the chillis and more often than not sell the easily obtainable inferior peppercorns. Luckily for me my brother lives in China and brings me lethally strong peppercorns, and I have had some success growing the Facing Heaven chillis myself.

Anyway, back to that duck: Sichuanese Roast Duck to be precise. This calls for some advance planning, not normally a feature of my cooking. Having bought the duck a day in advance, you stuff it and leave it to marinate overnight. The next day you pour some boiling water over it, dry it off, brush it with a glaze mixture and "hang it up in a cool place to wind-dry (I hang mine outside a north-facing window)... ...Leave the duck to dry for at least 6 hours until the skin feels papery". Our house doesn't have a north-facing window, but it does have some east-facing guttering. I hung my duck from this with a meathook, worrying about what the neighbours might think. The day was overcast and without wind, but at least it was dry. However, six hours later the duck was no more dry than when I had hung it up, although it had attracted a few flies. I then decided that wind was the missing component and brought the duck in to the conservatory. Here there is an electric fan heater. I hung the duck from a mop resting on two chairs and placed the fan heater nearby. When I returned an hour later to check on progress, I found a pool of fat under the duck. The fan heater was too hot and was gently cooking the duck. At this stage I gave up and proceeded with the rest of the recipe, ie put it in the oven. Happily it turned out quite well, so maybe all that wind-drying is unnecessary.

Chicken with Preserved Lemons

2005-10-24T09:08:00.000-07:00

An easy and delicious Aga recipe.

2 chicken breast portions with bone and wing
2 pints good chicken stock
1 Spanish onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
Generous pinch of Saffron
1 Glass white wine
1 preserved lemon (I'll post a recipe for these some other time, or you can buy them from good delis). Slice the lemon and removed the insides.
A few pieces of dried orange peel, soaked in hot water and thinly sliced
A handful of green olives, seeds removed.

Heat some olive oil in an ovenproof casserole. Add the chicken and brown on all sides. Remove and set aside. Put in the onions and cooked until softened. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Deglaze with the wine, then add the stock, saffron, orange and the chicken. Put in the hot oven of an Aga for 1/2 an hour (or a normal oven pre-heated to 200C). Remove from the oven and add the lemon and olives. Cook in the oven for a further half hour then serve on couscous.

This is very popular with both of the children,

Thai Prawns with Basil

2005-10-21T04:05:00.000-07:00

K has been away for the last few days in New York, leaving me with the children. I can't usually be bothered to cook just for myself, hence the silence. She returned yetserday and described this as "very, very nice":

Uncooked prawns, peeled and de-veined
1 large handful of basil, roughly chopped (preferably Thai holy basil)
2 stalks lemon grass, finely sliced
2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
6 red chillies (or to taste), chopped
1 small white onion, sliced vertically
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp chicken stock or water
2 Tbsp cooking oil

Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan. Add the onion. Cook for a minute or two, then add the garlic, lemon grass and chilles. Cook for a further minute, then add the remaining ingredients. Cook until the prawns have cooked through and server over rice.

Langoustines with Garlic Butter

2005-10-16T05:51:00.000-07:00

We've just come up to our house in Scotland for a week. The house has an Aga, which is nice for warming ones bottom on, but takes some getting used to as a cooker. I'm still at the early stages of the learning process. The house is on the edge of Loch Fyne, so you might have thought that a wide variety of excellent seafood would be available. Not so, alas. However one of the few exceptions is that we can usually get fresh langoustines. They're expensive, but we usually treat ourselves the first evening we're here. This is another "recipe" which it's scarecly worth writing down, but here it is anyway.

Spread the langoustines (1.5kg for 2 people) on a baking tray. Bake in a hot oven for 10 minutes. In the meantime, warm 200g butter over a low heat. Peel 6 cloves of garlic and crush into the butter. Allow to cook for a couple of minutes. Stack the langoustines on a bed of boiled rice, then pour the garlic butter over them. Serve with finger bowls and lots of paper towels as this is messy to eat.

Save the langoutine heads and shells. These can be used to make an excellent stock.

Spicy Tangerine Chicken

2005-10-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

This one is loosely based on a recipe from "Chinese Food" by Kenneth Lo.

2 Boneless chicken breasts
Shaoxing wine
Cornflour
6 Dried Thai red chillies (or to taste)
1 Tbsp dried tangerine peel broken into small bits
Sugar
Black vinegar
Light soy sauce
Groundnut oil
Sesame Oil
1 bunch spring onions, trimmed and cut into 1cm chunks.

Chop the chicken breasts into small pieces not much larger than the spring onion bits. Marinade the chicken in 2 tbsps wine, 1 tbsp soy sauce and 1 tsp cornflour. Chop the chillies into 0.5cm lengths.

I expect you can buy dried tangerine peel in Chinese supermarkets, but it's easiest to make your own by leaving your tangerine peels on a windowsill untill they dry out.

Mix 2 tsps sugar, 2 tsps vinegar, 2 tsps soy sauce and 1 tsp sesame oil. Set this sauce aside.

Heat 3 tbsps groundnut oil over a high heat in a wok. Add the chillies. Stir until they are dark brown. Add the tangerine and stir for another 15 seconds. Add the chicken and spring onions. Cook until the chicken is cooked through (not very long). Add the sauce, stir and serve with rice.

K's comment was that it was too delicate for her tastes and that it lacked sauce. It's meant to be a dry dish, so the latter comment is unfair. As for delicate, hardly.

Seared Tuna with Pommes Dauphinoise

2005-10-03T10:12:00.000-07:00

And not a chilli in sight. I saw Rick Stein make this (the potatoes) on TV a few days ago. It's not the healthiest way of eating potatoes, and I remember disliking the dish as a child, but I've changed my mind on that.

Peel the potatoes and slice quite thin. Grease a casserole dish with butter then crush some garlic and smear onto the base of the dish. Add a single layer of potatoes then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Repeat this until all the potato slices are used up. Mix 100ml of double cream with 100ml milk and pour over the potatoes. The liquid should not cover the potatoes, but should come close to doing so. If necessary add more milk. Bake at 170C for an hour or so, then sear your tuna on a hot griddle.

K away in Japan until the end of the week, and I'm too lazy to cook anything interesting for myself, so I'll post nothing more until Saturday.

Thai Mussels

2005-10-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

Another very simple dish:

Juice of 3 lemons
Fish Sauce or light soy sauce
3 Tbsp sugar
1 Onion peeled and sliced vertically
6 Red chillies, chopped
Handfull of basil, shredded
One stalk lemongrass, finely sliced
2Kg mussels

Mix together the lemon juice, an equal quantity of fish sauce and the sugar. Bring to boil in a small saucepan and remove from the heat. Put the mussels in casserole dish or large saucepan. Sprinkle the rest of the ingredients on top. Pour the lemon juice mixture over the mussels, then cover and boil until the mussels open.

Trifle

2005-09-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

Andrew and Jo for dinner tonight. Lamb stew from last week (because it's easy) to start, followed by a trifle from Gordon Ramsay's Just Desserts, possibly the first time I've used the book. It was splendid but over fussy in his detail. It's just: crushed Amaretti biscuits soaked in Framboise covered in a layer of sliced peach (he would have you skin them, but life is surely too short), then a layer of raspberries. Top with Creme Anglais and a dollop of thick double cream.

Harissa Chicken with Leeks and Garlic Mash

2005-09-27T03:05:00.000-07:00

So straightforward is the chicken that if I were writing a cookbook I would be embarassed to include this as a recipe. That said, the recipe comes from Moro by Sam & Sam Clark (a book I do recommend):

Smear harissa on a chicken. Put it in a roasting tray, sprinkle with olive oil and roast it. An hour at 200C should put you in the ballpark. Baste with a little more oil after half an hour.

The leeks are my own invention:

Cut the leeks into 1cm clices. Melt some butter in a frying pan and add the leeks. Add 2 tsp harissa. Splash in 2 tbsp sherry vinegar and a little salt. Cook until the leeks are just beginning to soften.

The garlic mash doesn't deserve instructions. It's obvious.

Use the oil / juice from the bottom of the roasting pan as gravy for the chicken and potatoes.

No Dinner

2005-09-25T05:08:00.000-07:00

A very late lunch of heated-up pre-cooked nibbles from M&S, so couldn't get up enough enthusiasm for dinner.

I should mention that yesterday's recipe for chipotle paste is derived from a recipe in Mexican Kitchen by Rick Bayless. It's not a book I could recommend wholeheartedly. I find it terrifically overcomplicated.

Unless otherwise attibuted, the recipes which I describe are my own, or are as far as I can remember. They are also for two people unless otherwise mentioned.

Chipotle Potatoes

2005-09-24T05:29:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to Texas Lone Star in Chelsea with my sister's family to say goodbye to her daughter who is leaving for university tomorrow. The food was unexceptional, but the Margaritas were awful - sickly sweet with hardly any lime juice.

Anyway, as promised yesterday, with no recipe from last night I return to Chipotle Potatoes.

First you need to make the chipotle paste. This is a staple in my kitchen and keeps forever in the fridge provided that there is a layer of oil on top.

Heat half a pint of water and stir in 3 Tbsps soft brown sugar. In the meantime heat some (groundnut) oil in a frying pan. When hot, drop in 3 batches of 10 chipotles. When the chipotles have puffed up and softened (about a minute) transfer them with a slotted spoon to the sugar water. Once you have cooked all the chipotles transfer them, along with the sugar water into a blender and blend into a smooth paste. Return the paste to a high sided frying pan or saucepan. Add 500ml of groundnut oil and cook very gently for 20 minutes. Set aside to cool then drain off as much of the oil as you can into a separate container. You've now got some delicious chipotle oil as well as a container of chipotle paste. Pour enough fresh groundnut oil over the chipotle paste to cover completely then store in the refrigerator.

Now peel some potatoes and boil for ten minutes. Remove, drain and slice them about 5mm thick. Pour some chipotle oil onto a baking tray and add a Tsp of the chipotle paste. Lay all of the potato slices in the oil, not overlapping. Sprinkle salt over them. Bake in the oven at 200C for about 7 minutes. Remove and flip over the slices. Sprinkle with salt again and put them back in the oven for another 7 minutes.

The result should be crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and with a delicious chipotle flavour. They aren't as spicy as you might think.

Skate Wings with Hot Sauce and Chipotle Potatoes

2005-09-23T01:26:00.000-07:00

More appropriate for the time of year than yesterday's dinner, this was a success except that the hot sauce was too hot for any normal human being. It might have been a better idea to have seeded the chilies or to have used only one.

1 Skate wing chopped in half
2 Tomatoes
Juice of 3 Limes
1 Tbsp sugar
2 red Habanero chilies (these are lethal. Be careful!)
1 clove garlic
1" of garlic, peeled and sliced

Put everything (except of course the skate) in a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer to a saucepan and warm over a low heat.

Dust the skate with flour. Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry the skate, turning once. How long this will take will obviously depend on the thickness of the fish. Probably in the region of three minutes on each side. Serve with the hot sauce.

Delicious and simple. Skate is relatively inexpensive too. We had chipotle potatoes (K's favourite) as an accompaniment, but I'll leave the recipe for those until another day. Also a salad of rocket, spring onions and roasted cherry tomatoes - no dressing needed. The roasted cherry tomatoes came from Borough market (in London). At £3.50 a tub they are ludicrously expensive, but they are unspeakably delicious. Today is market day, so I'll be back for more.

Lamb Stew

2005-09-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

The idea was 'Coq au Vin' with lamb and it worked pretty well.

400gms of lamb neck fillet cut into bite size chunks
Shallots, peeled
Portobello mushrooms
Small carrots
Red wine (I used a quite drinkable Australian Shiraz, for what it's worth)
1/2 Ltr Chicken stock
1 clove of garlic, finely sliced
2 red chillies, finely sliced (these will be a recurring theme)
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
salt to taste

I heated up some olive oil in a casserole dish and put in the shallots. The garlic occurred to me at this stage and I sliced a clove while stirring the shallots. When they were beginning to turn brown, I added the lamb and the garlic. Once the lamb was browned, in went about a third of a bottle of the wine then everything else except about half of the chicken stock. I covered the dish and put it in a pre-heated oven at 170C.

After about an hour an a half I checked on progress and found that the liquid level was getting a bit low, so added the rest of the stock. Then it went back in for another hour.

K and I ate it without accompaniment. Delicious comfort food, perhaps better suited to a winter evening. Some good bread to mop up the sauce would have been nice, but a spoon worked fine.