Sunday 13 December - Sri Lankan Cashew Nut Curry

We've never tried a Sri Lankan Curry before, and found this one in one of Rick Steins books after spotting him making it on TV. We were an ingredient short, and strangely were unable to source Pandan leaves in Gosport - so we just left them out, figuring we wouldn't know what it was supposed to taste like anyway.

The first stage was to make the roasted curry powder - I did half quantities as it seemed to make a huge amount. The first stage was to toast some rice

Then the spices were toasted - cumin, coriander, fennel, fenugreek, cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, cardamom and mustard seeds

 



Finally the dried chillies went in the pan, then all the spices and rice were ground up

The main body of the curry was cashew nuts, and these were soaked in hot water, almost as if they were pulses, so soften up prior to cooking.

Then the curry sauce was made in the usual way, with onion, ginger, garlic, lemon grass, curry leaves and coconut milk - it was all left to simmer for around 30 minutes

Then in with the soaked nuts, and another 30  minutes to soften them up

 

 

The final addition was some green beans. We served this with plain boiled rice, and some homemade naans. Quite tasty, but could have done with a lot more heat for us.

 



Friday 11 November - Pearl Barley Risotto

I made pearl barley risotto once before, and George hated it, so I was surprised when he asked me to make some again - the reason he hated the last lot though was because I used mushrooms in it. A quick google came up with a recipe for Chorizo and Rosemary risotto which met with approval.

This was really easy to make, but did take a while for the barley to cook.

The recipe started of with slicing the chorizo and frying until crisp, with no added oil.

As with a normal risotto onions and garlic were softened, and then the grains were added, and stirred until coated in fat.

Then in with a tin of tomatoes, some chicken stock and some chopped black olives, and it was left to cook until the barley was tender - no need to add the stock a bit at a time as you have to with rice.

Just before serving the fried sausage was added along with some chopped fresh rosemary.

Will definitely be experimenting with different flavours in the future, absolutely delicious, and three completely clear plates.

Saturday 29 October - Devilled Crab Mousse

This is one of Mums recipes - the one I requested for every birthday or special event. I've tweaked her original recipe slightly, as it was all mayonnaise and cream, so I've replaced some of this with yoghurt to make it a bit lighter - it's the sauce that really makes this dish though .

Tinned crab is perfect for this dish - we've tried making it with fresh crab, and it's nowhere near as nice, and also makes it rather expensive .

I couldn't find anchovy essesnce, so replaced this with anchovy paste.

The eggs were hardboiled and chopped, and then the yoghurt, creme fraich and mayonnaise were mixed together with some cayenne, anchovy paste and Worcestershire sauce. Then the crab and eggs were stirred in Finally, in with some gelatine soaked in a bit of chicken stock.

This was poured into a mould and left to set in the fridge.

The sauce, which is the 'Devilled' part of the recipe, is very simple.

Tinned tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, tomato ketchup and salt and pepper, all blended in the liquidizer and then chilled.

We ate this as a starter, but Mum used to serve it with salad and new potatoes - it's delicious either way

Wednesday 7 September - Pork and Apple Shepherds Pie with Rosti Topping

This is a recipe from a Waitrose recipe card, that my Mother made several times. I borrowed it from her as it was something that she had persuaded George to eat back in the days that she used to look after him.
My only change the recipe was to make my own rosti, rather than using the long life one recommended in the recipe.

Onion and garlic fried in oil, then a pack of pork mince was added and browned off

Then peeled cored and grated eating apple, and some sliced mushrooms were also cooked through.

In with some flour, then a tin of tomatoes and some stock, and it was simmered. I always think you can never simmer mince for too long, so it was left for around an hour, then added to the serving dish

While this was cooking I made the rosti, I used the Delia Smith method of parboiling the potatoes in their skins, then peeling and grating. I added melted butter, and lots of mature cheddar to the potato, along with seasoning

This topped the mince, and it was baked for about 40 minutes.

I had actually forgotten about this recipe, but one to add to the regular list as it all got eaten!

Tuesday 6 September - Butternut Squash Risotto

We have a bit of a glut of tiny butternut squash off our allotment, having made an interesting beetroot risotto last week, we thought we'd try a butternut squash one. This was based on a recipe by Tom Kerridge, but I roasted the squash cubes with some sage, rather than frying them.

The recipe was just a basic risotto, made with vegetable stock and white wine, but then all the extras were stirred in at the end.

I roasted cubes of squash with olive oil, and finely chopped sage, until tender.

Then made the risotto.

Once this was cooked in went cubes of mozarella, toasted pine nuts, the squash, chopped sage and grated parmesan.

We served this with ready made olive bread, but as it was quite filling this wasn't really needed.

Sunday 28 August - Beef Rendang

George requested this, and after a hunt through a few books, I settled on the Rick Stein version from his Far Eastern book.

The basis of the curry paste, is grated coconut, so I was rather pleased to find this frozen in our local Thai supermarket.

The coconut was fried in a dry pan, until golden.

 

 

This was then added to the food processor with garlic, onion, galangal, chopped red chillies and a spice mix of cumin, coriander and dried red chillies ground together until fine.

 

 

 

 

The spicy pasted was added to fried beef cubes, along with coconut milk. At the same time lemon grass stalks, whole kaffir lime leaves and cinnamon sticks were thrown in to the pan, along with some tamarind water made from the pulp, soaked for about 20 minutes

 

 

 

 

 

This was all simmered for a few hours, until reduced and the meat was tender.

 

 



 

 

We ate this with a cucumber salad, dressed with lime and fish sauce, steamed jasmine rice and a few spring rolls - it wasn't very spicy, but very fragrant and absolutely delicious

 

 









Monday 13 August - Prawns and Scallops with Tomato and Feta

An eventful few weeks during which I became 50, got married, and lost the two most important women in my life, mean that cooking, eating and blogging have not been on my mind too much. A new project is going to start when I go through all my Mothers recipes that she saved over the years, and cook and write them up for the rest of the family.

While all this has been going on, the garden and allotment have still been hard at work, and we have found ourselves with huge quantities of courgettes and potatoes, and the start of the tomatoes

 

A recipe I have cooked several times over the last few months is this simple dish of fresh tomatoes and fish - the recipe is from Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi, but I have adapted it slightly, leaving out the clams as they are difficult to find, and also rather expensive - I make do with frozen scallops and raw prawns.

Peeling tomatoes is probably a job no one likes, but I think it's pretty essential for this dish, and I find this better than using tinned - when I've made this before I have also deseeded the tomatoes, but I have come to the conclusion that this is not necessary and is also pretty wasteful!

 

 White wine was added to sliced garlic which was fried gently in olive oil

Then in with the chopped tomatoes, some lemon peel, and chopped fresh oregano. This was all reduced down and seasoned with sugar, salt and pepper.

 Once the sauce was thickened and reduced, in with raw scallops (these were huge so I sliced them into four pieces) and some deveined raw prawns

The dish was finished with feta cheese, and some chopped sping onions and popped into the oven until the fish was cooked and it was all bubbly.

 

We ate this as a main course with some crusty bread to dunk in it, although I've previously served it  with orzo

Friday 27 May - Salade Nicoise

The weather is gorgeous at the moment, so summer food is called for (although we haven't actually eaten outside yet)

I was surprised to find fresh tuna steaks in Aldi, to make things easier their cheap vegetables this week included green beans and Jersey Royals - so Nicoise seemed the obvious thing to make.

I don't follow a recipe for this, as they seem to differ so much. One thing I don't do is add garlic to the dressing, as if I eat raw garlic it keeps me up all night!

The dressing was a mustardy vinaigrette, but I used olive oil and added some chopped chives at the end

I took great pleasure in popping out to the bottom of the garden to find some lettuce to add.

The tuna was fried until pink in the centre, and then broken up, and dressed while still warm.

The potatoes were also dressed while they were still warm.

I then built up layers of lettuce, tomatoes, the potatoes and beans, some marinated artichokes, olives and the tuna. Although anchovies are traditional I added some salted capers.

The layers were then tossed together.

Finally, when it was served it was finished of with boiled eggs

I'm looking forwards to making this again in a couple of months when we have potatoes, beans and tomatoes from our allotment!

Wednesday 18 May - Spaghetti with Tomato, Capers and Mint

This is from a Rick Stein book, and on first reading I thought it sounded very strange - tomato and mint aren't always the first things I think of putting together with pasta. Had to be worth a try though, and this is actually the second time I've made it in a week!

Fresh tomatoes are the thing to use  here, and the first stage is rather tedious, skinning and deseeding - the recipe called for cherry tomatoes, but I use big vine ones, chopped up.

Once chopped, I always lightly salt them, and leave to drain to remove excess liquid

The sauce starts with infusing olive oil with whole garlic - I did a bit extra to use the oil to brush over the bread I made to go with the dish.

Then in go some dried chilli flakes and the tomatoes, followed by salted capers and chopped mint.

Add to Spaghetti, and toss

Quick, and very delicious - can't wait for our tomatoes to be ready now!