Category Archives: Main Courses

Spanish Rice Dishes – Arrozes

15 Sunday Jun 2014

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The Spanish take their rice very seriously, and the other day I was discussing with a group of friends which their favourite rice dishes were, their favoured cooking methods, what variety of rice is best and should you include garlic and onions or not it? Can a good paella be made without rabbit? We all agreed, no.

It occurred to me that I had not shared any Spanish rice recipes with you. I am about to rectify that lack.
The one thing that all rice dishes here have in common, is that the rice is cooked in a flavoured liquid, and so the short to medium grain varieties of rice which absorb much liquid without disintegrating, are the ones used.
The best rice we all agreed is Bomba from Calasparra. The only rice cultivated here not at sea level, but in the flood plains of several rivers in the mountains where it grows slowly in the cool water, letting it develop lots of flavour. Consequently it is more expensive than other rice, but you get what you pay for.

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Cooking the rice outside on an open fire is unanimously the favoured cooking method preferred by my friends, although whether this is more to do with the atmosphere of gathering friends and family together and all pitching in with either ingredients to go in the rice or little starter dishes, rather than the actual flavour of the rice, I am not sure.

The paella illustrated above and cooked by my camera shy neighbour Paca, was made with rabbit, pork ribs, artichoke quarters and red and green peppers.

Obviously this method of cooking rice is not available to most of us, and is best suited to cooking for a good number of people, but that does not mean that a good paella for as few as one person cannot be successfully prepared in your own kitchen. The flavour of the fire can achieved by the addition of a pinch of good smoked pimenton or paprika.

There are as many paella recipes as cooks, and many are simpler and have fewer ingredients than the celebratory Paella Mixta with its several varieties of seafood plus chicken, rabbit, and pork ribs for the meat. I am going to start with my favourite which has as its two main ingredients, rabbit and butifarra sausage. The sausage is quite highly spiced, so if the butifarra is not available, use any other peppery sausage.

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PAELLA DE CONEJO Y BUTIFARRA
For Six
1 rabbit – cut into chunks with the bones in
1 Butifarra sausage of aprox 350 grams
1 onion – cut into small dice
1 red pepper cut into strips or small squares
1 -2 green peppers – cut into small squares
250 grams short grain rice – La bomba or any of the risotto rices
1 – 1.25 litres light stock
Saffron – 2 good pinches
Pimenton – 2 pinches
Salt and freshly ground black pepper.
300 grams French beans – cut into short lengths

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Peel the sausage, cut into quarters lengthways and then into thick slices.

Put into a shallow pan on a low heat for the fat in the sausage to render out. If you are using a very lean sausage, then add some olive oil in which to gently fry the sausage.

Add the onions and fry slowly until transparent.

Add the peppers and again fry slowly for about 10 minutes.

Add the rabbit pieces and fry turning from time to time until sealed all round.

Now add the rice and stir in to make sure that it is coated with all the fat and juices from the other ingredients. Fry for about five minutes to let the rice absorb the juices.

Crumble into the pan the saffron and add the pimento. Stir well.

Now add the stock. Start with about three quarters of the amount stated.

Bring to a simmer and keep the heat low. Cover and let cook for about ten minutes.

Stir the rice. Add the beans.

Add more stock if needed. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed.

Leave to cook until the rice is cooked but still slightly firm in the centre and the stock has been absorbed.

Turn off the heat and leave the rice covered to rest for about ten minutes.

Serve.

Next time – Arroz Negro – Black Rice made with seafood and a hint of chilli………

Polenta………& learning to love it.

01 Thursday May 2014

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I know that there are plenty of you out there who are as I previously was with Polenta. You started off curious so tried it in various restaurants and found yourself underwhelmed. It was allright, but you couldn’t see what the fuss was about.

Not types to give up, and armed with the opinion that Italians know about food, so it would be worth giving it another chance, you have a go at cooking it at home. Armed with an authentic Italian recipe from a reliable source you boil, and stir, and stir, and cool, and cut and reheat with a sauce………and still find yourself unexcited.

So you abandon Polenta for a number of years…..

…….then when you have forgotten all about it you are served in a restaurant to accompany the meat, a golden cake lightly browned and crisped on the edges and creamy in the centre. Filled with tiny strips of fried bacon and diced vegetables, flavoured with garlic and chicken stock. It is absolutely delicious. It takes you some time to realise that the main ingredient is the polenta that you have up to now been unimpressed by.

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A re-evaluation is obviously in order. This is where the path to loving Polenta starts, let me lead you through my trials to success and enjoyment.

Firstly the Polenta itself. I read somewhere that it is only good during the first six months after it is milled. I have tried fresh and It does have a slightly more corn flavour, but not so much that it makes that much difference. Having said that any dried goods – beans, lentils, quinoa, rice, flour, and polenta should not be kept for more than a couple of years and preferably used within a year. These are products where the use by dates should be taken note of, you won’t get food poisoning but the grains lose their ability to reconstitute and stay dry and hard and of course the flavour of them slowly fades.

Cooking liquid. I have read debates as to whether water or milk are the best and most authentic cooking liquids, but I am not impressed with either. Let’s face it, polenta is a pretty bland grain, and so any extra flavour that can be added should be. I like to cook the polenta in a light stock, either chicken, veal, or if you are vegetarian, a vegetable stock.

Stirring. Every recipe I have come across, and the instructions on the polenta packet, tell you to bring the liquid to the boil, whisk in the polenta, stir until boiling again and then keep stirring for forty minutes with the heat turned low. Well, I haven’t got the time or patience to stand around stirring for forty minutes and I suspect neither do Italians or you. I find that stirring from time to time during the first ten minutes will do, then turn off the heat, cover with a well fitting lid and leave it to continue cooking in its own steam for forty minutes. Alternatively once it is back boiling after adding the polenta, pour into a slow cooker and continue cooking on a low setting for half an hour, then turn of the cooker and leave the polenta to cook in the residual heat for another half hour.

BASIC RECIPE – for 8-10 servings

350 grams polenta

1.75-2 litres light stock

salt and freshly ground black pepper

If you want a very firm polenta for leaving to cool and form into a cake, use the smaller amount of stock, and if you want a softer puree consistency for eating immediately, then the larger amount of stock.

Put the stock in a thick based saucepan with half a teaspoon of salt and bring to the boil.

Pour in the polenta in a steady stream stirring continually. Turn down the heat and keep stirring as the polenta thickens, this should take about 10 minutes.

Either put a lid on the polenta and turn of the heat leaving the polenta to continue cooking in its own steam or transfer the polenta to a slow cooker on the lowest setting and leave to cook for 30 minutes before turning off the heat and giving it a stir.

Continue with your chosen recipe.

POLENTA AND VEGETABLE CAKE – Pictured above

I make this when I have a lot of people to feed as almost all can be prepared the day before, all that has to be done on the day is slicing the loaf and putting it onto a hot tray in the oven. Plus it is the vegetable and starch all in one.

It is great with something saucy like a stew. Last time I made it was to go with Pork Bourgignon – see previous post on Pigs Cheeks.

If you want to make a vegetarian version of this substitute nut pieces for the bacon and use olive oil for the frying

100 grams streaky bacon – cut into small dice

30 grams bacon fat – cut into small dice

1 clove garlic – finely chopped

1 small onion or half a large one – finely chopped

200 grams vegetables – cut into small dice – choose three or four from the following – carrots, parsnips, peppers, mushrooms, sweet peas, Florence fennel, broccoli, celeriac, butternut squash. Try to mix the colours to make it interesting.

Thick polenta as master recipe – cooked in vegetable stock if making the meatless version.

Heat a thick based frying pan and add the dice bacon fat. Cook on a low heat until it has rendered down and released its fat.

Add the bacon and cook for five minutes.

Add the onions and garlic, stir in and fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the diced vegetables and fry for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are about half cooked and have lost some of their moisture.

Add the vegetable and bacon mix to the polenta while both are still warm and gently mix the whole together. Season with plenty of freshly ground black pepper and check if it needs more salt.

Turn into a small loaf tin lined with cling film. Gently flatten to make sure that there are no pockets of air and smooth out the top. Fold the cling film over the top and put the loaf in the fridge to cool and firm up.

About 45 minutes before you need to serve the loaf, heat the oven to 180 centigrade. When the oven is hot, put in a shallow baking tray containing a couple of tablespoons of tasty dripping or olive oil.

Take the loaf out of the fridge and remove from tin. Peel off it’s cling film and cut into slabs about one and a half centimetres thick.

Put onto the now hot fat in the baking tray. Put back In the oven and roast for about 15 to 20 minutes until browned and crispy at the edges.

WHITE POLENTA PURÉE WITH FENNEL AND ORANGE.

Salmon, White Polenta, Saffron Sauce

White polenta is traditionally eaten with fish in Italy. It has a slightly softer smoother texture. Don’t worry if you can’t find white polenta, this is still good with the more easily available yellow.

Master recipe soft polenta made with white grains.

100 grams Florence fennel – cut into small dice

25 grams butter

Grated zest and juice of one orange

Salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Fry the diced fennel slowly in the butter until cooked but still with a little firmness.

Cook the polenta as the recipe. Add the orange zest and juice. Stir well to mix in.

Add the fennel and stir gently to mix in.

Serve with fish of your choice.

SOUFFLED POLENTA

Use either white or yellow polenta

Firm polenta as master recipe

3 eggs

50 grams finely grated Parmesan cheese

Cook the polenta as recipe and leave to cool a bit.

Heat the oven to 170 centigrade.

Grease an ovenproof dish about the right size to take the soufflé, individual ramekins can be used if you like.

Separate the eggs. Add the yolks to the polenta and beat to mix in.

Add most of the cheese to the polenta keeping back enough to sprinkle on the top of the soufflé. Mix well.

Beat the egg whites until very firm and white.

Fold into the polenta mix trying not to lose too much air about of the egg whites.

Turn into the greased dish and bake for about half an hour until risen and golden on top.

Serve immediately.

 

……….More Cheek!

04 Saturday Jan 2014

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Following on from the previous post, when you serve the Pork Cheek Stewed in White Wine with Wild Mushrooms remember to leave yourself a bit in the pan so that you can behave like a proper Bourgoine and treat yourself to Oeuf Murette or Baked Egg with Pork and Mushroom Gravy.

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During the lunch where I served the Cheeky casserole, we were discussing the merits of this cut of meat, and my friend Jane recounted how she not eaten the cheek stewed before, but had been served it in a local restaurant, butterflied open and grilled. So I thought I would give it a try.IMG_0881

I slice the meat across to be able to open it like a book, and then gave each piece a good hammering with the smooth side of the meat tenderiser.

I then made a salt marinade by crushing a clove of garlic in the mortar with half a teaspoon of salt and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper. Coat the meat in this and leave to further tenderise for several hours.

Grill and enjoy. It was super succulent and tasty.

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The Cheek of it!

03 Friday Jan 2014

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PIGS CHEEKS BRAISED IN WHITE WINE WITH WILD MUSHROOMS – CARILLADA DE CERDO GUISADO CON ROVELLONES

Keith Floyd was the inspiration behind this recipe. I was watching afternoon TV while catching up on a huge pile of ironing, and there was Keith from at least twenty-five years ago, in Burgundy making  Boeuf Bourgignon, a, dish for which he was insisting the best cut of beef to use is cheek.

This got me thinking about the pigs cheek that is so popular here, and which I had eaten several times in restaurants and enjoyed immensely, but never cooked with myself. A group of friends were coming to lunch, and I was thinking about what to cook for the main course. With a large group, a casserole is always a good idea as it is better cooked the day before.

Instead of beef and red wine, how about pork and white wine? Being autumn there are rich wild mushrooms, Rovellones, in the shops which would add musky richness to the dish.

The cheeks I bought were on the bone, and as soon as I started to trim the flesh away from the bone, I could see why this cut is considered so highly. The meat is finely streaked throughout with fat, which would make it moist and succulent.

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Prepare the casserole at least one day in advance.

These amounts are for the nine people I fed on the day –

For the stock-

The bones from the cheeks or if you buy the cheeks of the bone, then roughly 500 grams pork bones

2 carrots – peeled and sliced

1 onion – peeled and sliced

1 clove garlic – cut in half

1 bayleaf

Fat for frying

For the stew –

7 pigs cheeks

2 tablespoons flour

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Duck fat/ dripping/ lard /olive oil for frying

350  grams  streaky bacon – plain or smoked – cut into lardons

750 grams Rovellones or other full flavoured mushrooms

butter for frying

6 cloves garlic – finely chopped

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Start by removing the flesh from the bones of the cheeks unless the butcher has already done that for you.

Make the stock. In a saucepan warm the fat, and then add the vegetables and fry until golden brown.

Add the bones and continue frying, turning them over from time to time, until they are browned too.

Add the bay leaf and enough water to cover and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer very slowly for and hour and a half.

When the stock is about half way done, you can start the stew.

Heat some of the fat in a large casserole and add the bacon lardons. Cook over a medium heat turning them over from time to time until they are nicely browned. Remove the lardons to a dish.

Cut the meat into pieces roughly 2 x 2 x 5 centimeters.

Put the flour into a shallow dish and season with salt and a generous amount of black pepper. Toss the meat pieces in the flour.

Turn the heat up under the casserole, add more fat and then some of the meat pieces. The meat wants to be in a single layer and not too closely packed so that it can brown. Once on side of the meat is brown and sealed turn the pieces over to another side.

Once all that batch of pieces are brown, remove them to the dish with the bacon. Add more fat and continue browning the other batch of meat. You will need a decent amount of fat so the meat doesn’t stick and browns well, don’t worry about this we will deal with the surplus later.

Once all the meat is browned, return all to the casserole and add enough stock to just cover the meat. Gently bring to a simmer and then turn the heat down to a very low simmer. Leave to cook for an hour.

Meanwhile prepare the mushrooms. I used Rovellones which are from the same family as Ceps, but any good flavoured mushrooms can be substituted.

Wash the mushrooms if necessary and dry them with a tea towel or paper towels.

Heat the butter in a shallow pan and add the mushrooms together with the chopped garlic. Fry over a brisk heat for about 10 to 15 minutes until the mushrooms are almost cooked.

Add the mushrooms to the casserole and gently stir to mix them in.

Continue simmering the stew slowly for a further 15 minutes.

Turn off the heat. The meat will continue cooking as it slowly cools.

Once cool put into the fridge for several hours or overnight.

Most of the fat in the stew will have come to the surface and solidified, and so you can easily lift it off to make the stew less greasy. It is for this reason that I specify to fry with a fat that will set rather than olive oil. But do keep the tasty  fat to use later in another dish. It will keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge.

Reheat the casserole slowly and serve.

French Style Shepherds Pie

02 Saturday Nov 2013

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????????????????????This recipe came to me from Jean-Jacques De Bruin many moons ago. Since then whenever there is any leftover lamb, or in this case goat, from a roast, it is my first choice of dish to make with the meat. In fact it is that tasty that I have been know to deliberately buy a joint bigger than needed so that I can make this dish a couple of days later.

This pie differs from the Anglo version in that the moisture is provided by a copious amount of onions with no added liquid. A sauce is served on the side and is made more piquant by the addition of capers.

FRENCH STYLE SHEPHERDS PIE

Cooked lamb or goat – cut into small cubes

An volume roughly equal to the meat of onions cut small

lamb fat or dripping or olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Mashed potatoes to match the volume of meat and onions

Grated cheese for topping the potatoes

Having cut the onions, melt some fat in a shallow pan. If you have tasty lamb fat left from the roast, use this otherwise use dripping or olive oil.

Slowly fry the onions until starting to change colour to a light brown.

Add the meat cubes and stir to mix well. Season well.

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Continue cooking until the meat is hot.

Put the meat and onions in the base of a shallow ovenproof dish.

Top with the mashed potatoes and sprinkle with the grated cheese.

Put in a hot oven – 180 Centigrade – for half an hour or so until golden brown on top.

Meanwhile make the sauce. If I have gravy left from the roast, I start with this and add half a teaspoon of chopped capers per person. Reheat the gravy and capers, then add cream to enrich the sauce and add extra volume.

If you don’t have gravy, then you can make a classic caper sauce. I will warn you that this involves what seems a large amount of butter, but then it is so rich that you don’t need too much on your pie.

CAPER SAUCE – enough for about 4 people

1 Egg yolk

1 tablespoon vinegar from the capers

1 tablespoon water

100 grams butter at room temperature

2 teaspoons chopped capers

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Find a bowl that can fit into a saucepan without touching the bottom. Put boiling water in the pan to a level where the bowl sits into it by about a centimetre. Put onto a low heat.

Add the egg yolk, vinegar and water. Whisk to mix.

Cut the butter into small cubes. Add a cube to the egg yolk mix and a stir with the whisk until it is dissolved. Continue adding the butter a cube at a time and stirring until it is dissolved before adding the next.

Season with salt and pepper and add the capers. Keep stirring.

The sauce is ready when it is thick and glossy and warm.

Take the bowl out of the hot water with a tea towel and dry it underneath.

Pour the sauce into a warm sauce boat and serve with the Shepherds Pie.

A Late Summer Sunday Lunch – Main Course

26 Thursday Sep 2013

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SALMON STEAKS WITH RASTA SAUCE

It is purely the colours in this sauce that have earned it its name. Yellow saffron with black and red fish eggs. The green being provided by beans to accompany.

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I started with a whole salmon and having removed the fillets made stock from the head and bones. The stock I then reboiled and reduced by half to concentrate the flavour. I let it cool completely so that I could remove any fat from the top.

For 6

350 ml concentrated fish stock

Large pinch of saffron

2 teaspoons black fish roe

2 teaspoons red fish roe

1 heaped teaspoon cornflour

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

6 salmon steaks

Olive oil for frying

Dry the saffron in a thick based shallow pan over a low heat. This will not take long and will burn easily, so as soon as you get a faint odour of the spice, whip  it off the heat and into a mortar. Add a small pinch of salt and grind to a powder.

Add a ladle of the stock to the mortar into which the saffron will dissolve. Return this to the rest of the stock. Add the fish eggs and put to one side while you cook the salmon.

Put the teaspoon of cornflour into a small container and add just enough cold stock to make a thin cream.

Fry the salmon in a small amount of oil over a medium heat for about seven minutes each side until nicely browned.

Put on a warm serving dish and keep warm while you heat the sauce.

Drain any excess fat from the frying pan and add the stock sauce. Heat quickly to boiling. If it is a bit thin then thicken with the cornflour mix, stirring the mix first to make sure that the cornflour is evenly pourable.

Serve the salmon on a bed of white polenta or creamed potatoes surrounded by the sauce and some steamed green beans.

Potatoes Anna

21 Saturday Sep 2013

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Every few weeks myself and some girlfriends get together to have lunch and exchange books that we can recommend to one another. What started as a literary meeting with lunch has now evolved into a culinary exchange as well. Each person contributes a dish, and with the minimum of consultation it all works well together.

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This week our hostess Doris decided to salt a loin of pork for the lunch and suggested I bring a potato dish. I immediately thought of Potatoes Anna. Similar to the better known Dauphinoise, but lighter and with a flavour as strong as the cheese that is used in it.

Lynda made a tangy salad of prawns, mango, red onions and leaves, dressed with sweet chilli sauce and lime. Corrine courgettes with a spicy rice and tomato stuffing. A beetroot jelly to go with the ham completed our main course. All delicious.

Dessert was a plum pie made by Pat served with vanilla ice cream.

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POTATOES ANNA

Floury potatoes – about 150 grams per person

Chicken stock

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Firm cheese –  pecorino, emmental or parmesan

Peel the potatoes and slice as finely as you can. A mandolin or the slicer on the food processor is ideal for this.

You will need a shallow oven proof dish of the size suitable for the number of portions you are making.

Lay a single layer of slightly overlapping potatoes in the dish. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and grate over a thin layer of cheese.

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Continue with the layers of potatoes, seasoning and cheese. It is worth at this point putting on one side enough nice evenly sized slices for the last layer.

On the last layer concentrate on prettily overlapping the potatoes. Don’t season straight away.

Heat the stock until simmering. Pour over the potatoes until just level with the top layer.

Season and spread a thicker layer of cheese onto this last layer.

Cover with tin foil and put in an oven preheated to 200 centigrade. Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the tin foil from the potatoes and put the dish back into the oven for a further 20 to 30 minutes until golden brown.

Let rest in the dish for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

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Sweet & Spicy Fish with Pineapple

14 Saturday Sep 2013

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IMG_0533We have the first Yard Long Beans of the season ready in the garden. I get excited about these because even though in appearance they look like an extended French bean, the flavour and particularly the texture are quite different. These beans have a crunchy and crispy texture even when cooked, and a fresh flavour.

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The other crop now ready are the pale green mild chillis. I can eat these straight from the plant and they are super pickled in mild vinegar.

I have to cook a dish that can use both of these ingredients. I bought a fresh pineapple in the market this week, and that reminds me of a fish dish that I had in Thailand some years ago. It was spicy and sweet and a little bit sour from the pineapple. Here is my recreation of that dish.

SWEET & SPICY FISH WITH PINEAPPLE

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Per person

1 clove garlic

1 mild chilli

Piece ginger aprox 2cm x 1cm

1 cm Lemon grass stalk finely sliced

Olive oil

150 grams mixed fish and seafood – prawns, mussels, white meaty fish

Yard long beans

Bean sprouts

Half slice of fresh pineapple 1cm thick

Tablespoon sweet chilli jam/sauce

Teaspoon fish sauce/Nam Pla

20 grams dry roast Peanuts – roughly crushed

1 teaspoon chopped chives

Start with the aromatics, peel and finely chop the ginger and garlic. As thin as you can slice the lemon grass and chilli.

Prepare the fish. Peel and dehead the prawns, cut the fish into chunks, steam open the mussels if using them.

Heat some oil in a wok and add the above aromatics. Cook on a low heat for a few minutes.

Next the pineapple, cut out the woody centre and cut the rest into smallish pieces. Add to the pan and continue cooking .

Add the yard long beans cut into 3 cm lengths.

Add the bean sprouts

The pineapple by this time should have given out some of its juices. Add to these the fish sauce and chilli jam and mix in.

Add the fish, stir to mix with the sauce. Cover and leave to cook for five minutes.

Stir again and look at how cooked the fish is. It will most likely need a few more minutes but be careful not to overcook.

To serve, sprinkle with the crushed peanuts and chives and serve with plain boiled rice or noodles. If you want you can mix these into the pan of fish and pineapple to absorb the flavours in the sauce.

Almond & Garlic Sauce

11 Wednesday Sep 2013

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IMG_0520The almond crop is in for this year, and of course I want to eat some straight away. It has me thinking of dishes using almonds. There are several Spanish sauces that use almonds as one of their main ingredients. Romesco Sauce is a blend of red peppers, both sweet and picante and garlic, thickened with almonds and balanced with red wine vinegar. It is served with fish or grilled vegetables.

I went off to the market to buy fish, but the rabbit looked so plump and tender that I ended up coming home with one instead of the fish. Rabbit with Almond and Garlic Sauce is what I am planning to prepare. this richly flavoured sauce is super simple to make.

RABBIT WITH GARLIC & ALMOND SAUCE

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Per person

1 rabbit leg

20-25 grams almonds

6 cloves garlic

olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Generously season the rabbit on all sides.

Heat some oil in a shallow pan and when hot add the rabbit leg.

Fry until golden and then turn to fry the other side.

Meanwhile peel the cloves of garlic and add to the pan.

Next the almonds, these can be blanched or left with the brown inner skins on. Add these to the pan.

When the rabbit is nicely browned on both sides add about two tablespoons of water, cover the pan and turn the heat very low. Leave to cook for 20 minutes.

Turn the rabbit over and cook twenty minutes this side.

Remove the rabbit from the pan and keep warm. Put the juices from the pan together with the almonds and garlic into a food  processor and whizz until smoothish. I like to leave a few bigger bits of almond in the sauce rather than have it super smooth, but it is up to you how smooth you want to make  the sauce.

Return the sauce to the pan and reheat.

Serve poured over the rabbit leg.

An Indian Feast

03 Tuesday Sep 2013

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?????????????????It is a warm summers evening and I have friends coming for dinner. I am in the mood for something spicy and hope that my guests are too. I have a piece of loin of pork that I was going to salt to have as ham at a future date, I recall this recipe for pork cubes in a creamy sauce flavoured with honey and citrus, spiced with cinnamon, cardamoms and turmeric.

I cooked far too much rice yesterday, there may be enough, if I add some chick peas there will definitely be enough. I will fry some red onions and garlic, then add the rice and chick peas to heat them through. A garnish of chopped chives should finish off the dish.

A vegetable dish then. Not in a sauce as I already have one, and picante seeing as the sauce is mild and sweet. I have in my minds eye those lovely spicy vegetable fritters that you get in Indian cooking, but I want to make them lighter and less calorific. I have some courgettes fresh from the garden, in slices they will absorb the flavours of a marinade, then I plan to dust them with Gram flour and grill them.

Some Nan bread and Sweet & Sour Lime Pickle from the farm shop will complete the meal.

 

PORK BRAISED WITH HONEY – SHIKAR KORMA

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For 4
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic – finely chopped
2 tablespoons honey
30 grams butter
500 grams lean pork cubes
Half teaspoon Cardamom seeds
Heaped teaspoon Turmeric
1 broken quill of cinnamon
2 strips each lemon and. Orange peel
2 tubs full fat yoghurt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Salt
1 large onion – sliced
Cream
Fresh coriander
Peel the onion and cut up into small pieces. Put in a shallow pan with the garlic and half the butter. Fry until just starting to brown.
Put in the honey and continue cooking until the honey is thickened and starting to caramelise.
Add the pork cubes and the rest of the butter. Cook until the pork is sealed and browning.
Stir in the turmeric and cardamoms. Add the yogurt and stir in. Add the cinnamon and the strips of peel – use a potato peeler to remove the strips from the fruit.
Lower the heat to the minimum, cover and leave to cook for about 20 minutes.
The dish can be cooked in advance up to this point.
To finish peel and slice the second onion. Fry rapidly in butter until browned and dry.
Rewarm the korma if you have cooked in advance. Add the cream and continue cooking to thicken the sauce. You can remove the pieces of peel and cinnamon at this point in you want to.
Garnish with the chopped fresh coriander and the fried onions.
SPICY GRILLED COURGETTES for 4

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2 medium sized Courgettes – washed and cut into half centimetre thick slices

Marinade –

1 clove garlic

Half teaspoon salt

Piece ginger roughly 2×2 cm

Green chilli

1 tablespoon Olive oil

1 tablespoon Gram (chickpea) flour

Chop the garlic and put it into a mortar with the salt. Mash to a pulp.

Grate the ginger into the mortar and mash to blend with the garlic.

Finely chop the chilli and add to the mortar. Mash again to blend moistening with the olive oil as you go

Add the marinade to the courgettes and mix to make sure that the slices are evenly coated with the marinade. Leave to let the flavours seep into the courgettes for at least an hour.

Heat a griddle or thick based non-stick frying pan.

Dust the courgette slices with gram flour and grill or dry fry until turning from time to time until browned and cooked but still with some bite.