Everything but Beetroot

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As I’m having a month without drinking alcohol I’m not sure if I’m cheating by using it in cooking.

Anyway this was a simple dish to prepare after an exhausting week.

You start by searing the pork in a little olive oil for a couple of minutes each side, then remove the steaks. Then fry an apple (cored and sliced into thin wedges) and half an onion (thinly sliced) for 4 – 6 minutes; when they are golden brown take them out and keep with the pork.

Now pour in 200ml of cider and boil until reduced by half. Add about the same amount of double cream and return everything else you’ve cooked to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes turning the steaks half way through.

Remove the pork again and then add as much spinach as you feel like eating to the sauce and allow it to wilt.

As you can see I served with mash potatoes, which allowed me to add the remaining cream to the mash, which was another small indulgence.

This really isn’t difficult to make once you’ve got the ingredients and it’s just delicious.

Some of the individual ingredients – the shrimp paste and fish sauce – smell truly dreadful before they’re combined with the others. Don’t be put off they do add to the flavour and not in a bad way!

Paste Ingredients:

• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 2 red chili, deseeded
• 2 green chili, deseeded
• 2 lemon grass stalks, chopped
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• 5 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp Shrimp Paste
• 2 tbsp chopped coriander stalks
• zest and juice of 2 limes

Blitz this in a food processor, looks like a lot but you can freeze half if you want.

Other ingredients:

• 220 ml coconut cream
• 400ml coconut milk
• 100g green beans
• 400g cooked chicken, cubed
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 3 tomatoes quartered
• Coriander leaves to garnish

Method

Heat the coconut cream in a large saucepan over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Stir in the curry paste and cook for 5 minutes. Add the coconut milk and green beans. Cook for 3 minutes. Add everything else (except the coriander leaves) and warm through.

Serve over rice.

The Daily Mail tells me that as part of the new compulsory cooking classes that the government are looking to introduce, shepherd’s pie is likely to be one of the things that young people are going to be asked to make.By happy coincidence that’s what I made for dinner last night.

Ingredients:

• 400g of mince
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 tin haricot beans
• 1/2 teaspoon tamarind paste
• 2 cloves garlic
• Tabasco sauce
• 2 tablespoons thick tomato soup
• 2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed

Method:

Set a large pan of water to boil. Once boiling put the potatoes in to cook.

Heat a large dry frying pan and add the mince and onion. Break up the mince and stir constantly for 3-4 minutes until meat is browned. Add a dash of water, the beans, garlic, tamarind, Tabasco and soup and heat through.

Mash the potatoes once they are soft.

Transfer the mince to an oven-proof dish cover with the mash and put under the grill until the potato is golden brown.

Serve with peas.

Adapted from a new Moro cookbook that was previewed in The Metro.

Method

Cut up the squash into cubes.  Drizzle with oil and salt and then put on a baking tray and put into the oven (220C) for 30 to 40 minutes.

Fry a sliced onion, add 3 sliced garlic cloves, 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon, and a pinch of chili flakes.  After a minute or two put in a cubed potato and fry for 5 minutes.

Pour in 1 litre of chicken stock and add the now roasted squash and cook for 20 minutes.

In the meantime fry 30g of pine nuts in 50g of butter and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.

When the soup is ready blend it and add a large handful or two of chopped coriander.

Method

The salmon sprinkled with lemon zest and juice and left for 5 minutes before it is put in the oven for 10 minutes (at 220C).  Once cooked set aside.

Meanwhile, fry a chopped onion, a handful of thyme and a clove of garlic for 5 minutes.  Add 200g of risotto rice and stir for a minute. Pour in a glass of white wine and allow it to be absorbed into the rice.

Then pour in 250ml of chicken stock one third at a time.  Only adding more when the previous lot has been absorbed.  Allow to simmer for 15 minutes (or more) until the rice is soft and tender.

Serve the rice and flake the salmon on top.

Method

Brown the lamb (which has been rolled in flour) then remove it and fry an onion, a garlic clove and a teaspoon of fennel seeds.

Return the lamb along with the zest and juice of two oranges, a small red chili, and 300ml of chicken stock. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes (until the potatoes are cooked).

This is has minor adaptations from a Jamie Oliver recipe, largely to meet the dietary needs of one of our guests who can’t eat fennel.

Ingredients:

• One red onion, thinly sliced
• One onion, thinly sliced
• One large sea bass
• Salt and pepper
• A handful (or more) of herbs – parsley, dill and tarragon
• 3 lemons
• 6 glugs of olive oil

Method:

Clean the fish.

Get a piece of tin foil – about 5 times the length of the fish – and fold it in half.

Place the sliced onion on the foil. Put the fish on top and season the fish – inside and out – with salt and pepper.

Stuff the herbs into the cavity of the fish.

Pour the juice of two of the lemons on top of the fish, and slice the remaining lemon and place it round the fish.Add the olive oil and make the foil into a package to go into the oven (200C). The fish will need 20 min per kg.

We served with dauphinois potatoes and sugar-snap peas.

Sea Bass Stuffed with Herbs [pdf]

This is a South African take on moussaka, with apple instead of aubergine. I worried that the use of curry powder was going to put the kids off, but actually it was the yogurt that they didn’t like. Despite that they both came back for seconds, which is a pretty good sign.

Ingredients

• 1 slice of white bread – soaking in 125ml of milk
• olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 500g minced lamb
• 1 tbsp of tomato puree
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1.5 tbsp curry powder
• desert apple, cored and chopped
• 40g ground almonds
• 25g raisins
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 250ml water
• 300ml yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 15g flaked almonds

Method

Heat a some olive oil over a medium heat and fry the onion and garlic for 5 minutes. Brown the mince for a further 5 minutes. Then sieve to remove the excess oil and return the meat to the saucepan. Add the tomato puree, cinnamon, curry powder, apple, ground almonds, raisins and water and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the bread and milk and if your saucepan isn’t oven-proof pour everything into something that can go in the oven.

Mix the yogurt and eggs and spoon on top of the meat. Top with the flaked almonds and put into a pre-heated oven (200C) for 30-40 minutes.

Bobotie [pdf]

This is a slight reworking of a Nigel Slater classic. Just so easy to do and with such a good result it’s a real winner.

Ingredients

• Pasta for 2 people
• 4 sausages
• a glass of white wine
• 2 small chillies, finely chopped
• 1 small handful of basil, chopped
• 3 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
• Natural yoghurt

Method

Put the water on for the pasta and when boiling add the pasta.

Heat up a little oil in a large frying pan.  Cut off the skins of the sausages and crumble the meat into the frying pan.  Fry the meat for about 5 minutes then add the wine.  After about a minute add the chilli, basil and mustard.  Stir in the yoghurt and allow to simmer for about 2 minutes.

Drain the pasta and serve.

Sausage and Pasta [pdf]

This was supposed to be something different, but necessity changed about half the ingredients. I quite enjoyed the result, but my partner wasn’t as enthusiastic.

The original recipe called for borlotti beans, thyme and kale none of which were in our kitchen or the local shop this evening, so they went out the window and in came potatoes, broccoli, blackeyed beans, dried thyme, and baby spinach, and a dash of sherry.

Ingredients

• Chicken thighs
• half an onion, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• a tin of blackeyed beans
• 250 ml of chicken stock
• new potatoes
• broccoli
• cooking sherry
• baby leaf spinach

Method

Boil your potatoes until almost done. At the same time either fry or roast the chicken until browned. Once done set aside.

Fry the onion over a medium heat for about 5 minutes, add the garlic and after about 1 minute the beans, dried thyme and chicken stock.

Add the chicken and potatoes and simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes.  10 minutes before the finish add the broccoli.

Stir in the sherry and wilt the spinach.

Serves 2.

Chicken with Blackeyed Beans [pdf]