There were only 2 options on the menu – vegetarian or meat. After we’d washed our hands with water poured over us by a waiter from an elaborate silver jug, they would bring out a huge injera (a slightly sour, lemony pancake) with neat piles of different stews spaced out on top. You’d just get one injera to share between you – the more people the bigger the pancake! I love sharing food, especially when there’s lots to go round, and it was a perfect way to eat with friends.

I’ve yet to find an Ethiopian restaurant in the UK, so if you see a good one please let me know. However I have got a couple of recipes for wat (stew) and injera.  They don’t come out nearly as well as the restaurant but still taste pretty good.

I’m currently experimenting with going vegetarian again but Matt can’t survive without meat occasionally so my latest attempt included a Doro Wat (chicken) and a Vegetable Wat. I combined two different recipes to make these – one for Doro Wat from a beautiful book called the African Kitchen by Josie Stow and Jan Baldwin, and the World Food Cafe book by Chris and Carolyn Caldicott.

The most important ingredient in any wat is berbere paste, recipe below.  You are also supposed to use Niter Kibbeh, a sort of spiced, clarified butter.  I’ve never actually bothered to make this and just replace it with butter and extra spices.  There are some niter kibbeh recipes online if you are keen.

Part 1: Make the Berbere Paste

Ingredients:

• 4 cardamon pods
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 0.5 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 2 cloves
• 1 onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 cm/0.5 inch root ginger
• 3 tbsp red wine
• 7 dried red chillis
• 4 tsp ground paprika
• 2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
• Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• Ground black pepper
• Sunflower oil
• Salt
• Sterilized jar + label

This looks complicated, but it makes quite a lot of paste, which will keep for about 6 months.  You can also do this well in advance of making the Wat.

1. Toast the cardamon, coriander, fenugreek and cloves on a dry frying pan over a low-medium heat for a few minutes until fragrant.  Then transfer to a pestle and mortar and grind to a powder.
2. Put the onion, garlic and ginger into a food processor with the toasted spices, 0.5 tbsp of salt, and blend.  Slowly add the wine as you blend.
3. Toast the paprika, cayenne, some black pepper, the nutmeg and cinnamon with 1 tsp salt in a dry saucepan, stirring constantly until fragrant.
4. Remove from the pan from the heat, add the onion-spice mixture, and gradually stir in 310ml/11floz of water.
5. Place over a low heat and cook, stirring constantly, for 10-15 minutes.
6. Transfer the mixture to a sterilized jar, pressing down to remove any air pockets.  Allow to cool.
7. Cover the spice paste with oil, put the lid on and most importantly put a label on the front saying Berbere Paste and when you made it. (I always miss this step and end up with lots of jars of nondescript pastes in the back of the fridge that I’m too scared to use).  Store in the fridge for up to 6 months.

It really is worth preparing the spices properly like this, rather than just adding them direct to the stew.

Part 2: Making the Wat

Serves 2

• 2 tbsp Niter Kibbeh (or butter)
• 1 onion, very finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 inch of fresh ginger, grated
• 4 cardomom pods
• 1.5 inch cinnamon stick
• 1 clove
• 0.5 tsp fenugreek seeds
• Pinch of nutmeg
• 2 tbsp berbere paste
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 4 tbsp red wine

And for doro wat (chicken):

• 2 chicken drumsticks or thighs (with the bone and skin).  Pat the chicken dry with kitchen towel and rub all over with lemon juice and salt.  Cover and leave to marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• 2 boiled eggs

Or for the vegetable wat:

• Range of cubed or chopped vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, courgettes, green beans, spring greens etc
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 100ml vegetable stock

Both Wats start with the same process:

1. Put the onions in a large casserole dish over a low heat without any oil. Stir constantly until they are soft.  If they start to stick remove the dish from the heat for a short while.
2. Add the niter kebbeh or butter.  When it starts to splutter add the garlic, ginger, cardamon, cinnamon, fenugreek and nutmeg, stirring constantly.
3. Add the berbere and paprika, stir and cook for 2 minutes.



4. Pour in the wine and 185ml/6.5floz water, then bring to the boil, stirring regularly.
5. Boil until the liquid reaches the consistency of double cream.

At this point the two recipes diverge.

2a. Doro Wat (chicken)

1. Remove the chicken from the lemon juice marinade and pat dry.  Add the pieces to the simmering sauce. Make sure each piece is coated on all sides and then cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Prick the boiled eggs all over with a fork and add to the chicken – making sure they are coated all over in sauce.
3. Cover and cook for a further 10-15 minutes until chicken is tender.

2b. Vegetable Wat

1. Add all the vegetables to the simmering sauce and mix well.
2. Simmer for 10 minutes with the lid off.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes and stock and simmer until all the vegetables are cooked. Add more water if needed.

3. Making the injera

While the Wats are simmering, you can get the injera ready.  These are large savoury pancakes that you use to scoop up the stew.

Ingredients (for 2 hungry people):

• 300g/10.5 oz self-raising flour
• 75g/2.5oz wholemeal flour
• 0.5 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 250 ml/ 18floz soda water – it is really important to use soda water not tap water

Method:

1. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Gradually beat in the soda water and 0.5 litres plain water until you have a thin, smooth batter.
3. Heat a crepe pan/large frying pan until really hot.
4. Add a little vegetable oil and coat pan.
5. Pour in a ladleful of batter and swirl it round to form a thin layer like a pancake.
6. Cook until bubbles appear all over the surface, then turn over and cook for 2-3 minutes on the other side.



7. Place the cooked injera on a plate and keep warm.  Putting the plate over a saucepan half full of water over a low heat is a good way to do this.

4. Eat!

Wat tastes best eaten with your hands. Rip off a piece of injera and use it wrap up some stew and sauce.

The very reasonably price Mackerel fishing trips on Lyme (£8) were too good an opportunity to turn down!  In Lyme, different numbers of boats operate each day, depending on season, day and weather.  Blackboards and signs at the entrance to the Cobb (harbour wall) give information about various fishing trips, including Bassing trips, all day fishing trips and the ever popular Mackerel/sight seeing trips.  We wandered down to the end of the Cobb one sunny day to await the next boat trip.  The Frances Jane is a delightful little boat, operated by Doug and Amanda (both of whom are also diving instructors).  The boat is a converted Crabber from Cornwall, built in 1952 with a mahogany hull and was easily the prettiest boat in the harbour.

We chugged out into the bay, with beautiful views on show in the calm sunshine.  Using slithers of Mackerel as bait Amanda handed out the lines (long lines on a hand spool, with a large weight to take the line down and a bright coloured bead marking the leader line with the baited hook on the end).  Once the spool is tied onto the railings (to avoid mishaps) its a case of waiting till you feel the tug on the line before winding in the line and checking if there’s a shiny silver green/blue/black mackerel on the end.  Our haul wasn’t huge, apparently due to the hot weather and increasingly choppy seas.  The views were fantastic and the time was up before we knew it.  We’d both caught “one for the pot” and headed back to shore.

We popped into The Old Watch House fish monger at the start of the Cobb and bought a couple of Herring to supplement the Mackerel and pick up some ice packs to keep the fish cool while we walked back to the campsite.  I love the marbled silver green/blue/black pattern Mackerel have and the non slymey, not scaley feel of the fish (like you have with Trout for instance).  We gutted/cleaned the fish and opened the vino! 

I got the BBQ going and we polished off a dressed crab which we bought in The Old Watch House.  In the evening sunshine, the fish looked great.  The Old Watch House didn’t have any Sardines, but instead I bought Herring (essentially just large sardines).  Herring is more sustainable than Sardines, although I’m not sure if this is purely because Sardines are so much more popular.

We were a little low on provisions, so it was just the fish, with some black pepper corns crushed between 2 bricks.  We gave them about 3 minutes on either side, before serving up with crusty bread and salad.   We cooked the Herring in exactly the same way.  The fish skin went beautifully crisp on the barbecue and the smells during cooking were great.

Although the bones came out of the fresh fish very easily, lots of people are put of Mackerel because of the many small bones.  My tip is to always eat fresh crusty bread with small fish – so you don’t notice any little bones remaining.  All in all, the fish made a great dinner.  It left us wondering why we don’t eat fish more often?

The only downside of eating Mackerel and living in London is that inevitably you will be reminded of the tube game “Mackerel” which goes along the line of “there’s only one underground station on the whole of the network which doesn’t contain any of the letters of the word Mackerel – which one?” and then every time you see a tube map while waiting for a train, you’ll be staring and staring and cursing Dr Kate for ever telling you about the game in the first place.  Even worse, you’ll spend hours studying the map, feel let down when you realise the answer and then 2 years later, go fishing for Mackerel in Dorset and remember that you’ve forgotten which underground station it was and have to do it all again!  For the answer and many other random London Underground facts, click here.

What drew me to the recipe, was how differently it’s made to other curries I’ve made in the past. I’ve made other curries consisting of a base ‘gravy’, but generally the meat tends to be browned and/or marinated first. In this, you just add it to the sauce uncooked and cook very slowly. I’ve never encountered the spinach puree either.

Ingredients

Serves 2

• 4 oz Ghee (I made an alternative by clarifying butter and adding Bay Leaves)
• 2 medium Onions, chopped
• 1/2 ” Ginger, peeled
• 3 Garlic cloves
• 400 g Chopped Tomatoes
• 1 lb Diced Lamb (leg or shoulder)
• 2 tsp Paprika
• 2 tsp Tumeric
• 2 tsp Cumin
• 2 tsp Chillli Powder
• 6 oz Fresh Spinach
• Fresh Green Chillies (up to you)
• 1/2 tsp Garam Masala

Method

Cook the Chopped Onions with the Ghee/Butter for about 20 minutes, until well cooked, but not burnt.

When their cooked, blend the Ginger, Garlic and Onions into a smooth paste. Add the Chopped Tomatoes and blend again. Add a touch of water if necessary. You should have a mixture slightly thicker than Tomato soup.

Return to the pan and add the Diced Lamb, add some salt. Leave to simmer for 30 minutes.

Wash the Fresh Spinach. Add 3/4 of it to a pan to wilt, the water from washing the Spinach should be enough to cook it. It always amazes me how it shrinks to nothing.

Blend the cooked Spinach into a puree.

After the 30 minutes, the colour of the curry will have changed a lot. Less tomato soup, more curry. Add the Paprika, Tumeric, Cumin and Chilli Powder and cook for another 20 minutes. Keep an eye on it and add water if needed.

If you have Fresh Chillies, make a puree from them with a dash of water. I didn’t have any so I soaked a chopped dried one. After 20 minutes add the Spinach Puree, Chilli Puree (to taste), remaining Fresh Spinach, Garam Masala and Salt and Pepper and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Mr Stein suggested serving with Basmati Rice cooked with Cinnamon and Cardamom. I opted for Naans this time round.

Verdict

The Karachi Restaurant and Mr Stein are definitely on to a winner here. The slow cooking makes it so rich, yet without over-doing the meat. Unfortunately, since Jenny was away and she’s trying to be veggie, I had to eat it all myself.

In the end, tired of missing out on the aspargus love-in going on various food blogs I follow, I caved in and opted for an Asparagus, Broccoli, Mushroom and Blue Cheese Pie. Unfortunately, our veg box still hasn’t supplied any asparagus so we had to opt for the supermarket stuff which was passable – nowhere near as tasty as the farm shop stuff we tend to get this time of year.

As when making any form of pie, I tend to turn to Pie Minister for inspiration. This one was loosely based on their great Wildshroom and Asparagus. I read somewhere in an interview with one of the PM guys that his top tip would be to experiment with the pastry, in this I decided to try it with a twist of Nutmeg.

Ingredients

When I made this, I did it all by eye so I’m not entirely sure of the amounts I used. If I’m honest this probably could have fed 3-4 adults. I won’t tell you how many it did – ‘We only had salad with it’ was Jenny’s defence though.

• 8 oz Purple sprouting broccoli
• 6 Asparagus Spears, 1″ long chunks
• 8 Button mushrooms, sliced
• 4 Shallots, sliced
• 2 Garlic Cloves, sliced
• 2 oz Butter
• 2 tbsp Plain flour
• Soya Milk (Unsweetened)
• 2 oz Blue Cheese
• Ready made pastry
• 1 tsp Ground Nutmeg
• 1 Egg, beaten

I tend to use soya milk because I prefer the slightly nutty taste in cooking, cow’s milk would be fine too. We ended up using Danish Blue cheese since we didn’t have a huge selection and it’s not quite as strong as some of the other choices.

Method

1. Heat just less than an oz of Butter in a pan, add the Shallots and Garlic for a couple of minutes.
2. Add the Broccoli, Asparagus and Mushrooms, cook for ~8 minutes or just before the Mushrooms get juicy.
3. Meanwhile, make a roux with the remaining Butter and Flour. If you’ve not made roux before, heat the Butter until fully melted then add the Flour gradually until fully blended (stir thoroughly!).
4. Make sure the mixture isn’t too hot before adding the Milk, mix in.
5. Crumble the Cheese slowly into it. You may need to play with the portions of milk/flour to get the right texture and amount.
6. Pre-heat the oven to 180 C.
7. Get Jenny to roll out the Pastry for you, telling her to mix in the Ground Nutmeg (you can see some in the photo above). Separate into two pieces – one for the base and one for the lid.
8. Lay the slightly bigger one on the bottom of your dish, add the filling, brush some beaten Egg around the edge to help it seal, cover with lid. Make pretty patterns around the edge with your fingers.
9. Get child/Jenny to make decorations out of remaining pastry for the lid. Glaze with Egg.
10. Cook for ~25 mins or until golden.

Although, the recipe wasn’t particularly revolutionary, Jenny’s unique mushroom and ‘asparagus’ pie decoration certainly was.

The filling was just right – the veg still had some sort of texture to them rather than turning into mushy pulp, there was plenty of the cheese sauce to keep it moist without being overly blue-cheesey. The pastry was pretty good, the nutmeg worked well but was still some way off from a PM pie.

Sundried Tomato, Spinach & Feta Filo Pastry Pie

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Vegetable Mousakka with Greek Salad, accompanied with Black Olive & Rosemary Flatbread.

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Orange Passover Cake with Orange Cheesecake Topping

The night went really well and when the guests arrived, we were able to sit and drink the vino while the oven did all the work!

Sundried Tomato, Spinach & Feta Filo Pastry Pie

I picked up this recipe from BBC Good Food online.  It was very easy – just mixing feta, sundried tomatoes and spinach with whisked egg.  You then line a tin with pastry, add the filling and fold over the top.  Those of you who have read my previous blogs about pies will realise that my version (see photo) does not qualify as a pie as it does not have a complete lid.  I made the mistake of overlapping the filo pastry too much so it would not close completely.  However the guests commented about how pretty it looked, so all was not lost.  This pie is served cold, so can be baked in advance and chilled.

Vegetable Mousakka with Greek Salad, accompanied with Black Olive & Rosemary Flatbread.

The vegetable Moussaka recipe came from a Greek cook book – the Olive and the Caper which to be honest, is not a very good book.  I find the recipes a little bland and the text a little wordy.  The book is by an American not a Greek and all the ingredients are listed in cups and farenheit.  A translation is below.

• 2 medium aubergines
• Olive Oil
• 1kg white potato, peeled and cut into 1/2cm thick slices
• 150g fresh breadcrumbs
• 2 large tomatoes
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 600g grated kefalotyri cheese (we used Pecorino as we couldn’t get this cheese)
• 100g butter
• 100g plain flour
• Generous pinch of freshly ground nutmeg

If you’re cooking this straight away, preheat the oven to 180°C.  Cut the aubergine lengthways into 1/2cm slices.  Fry the aubergine in a pan until golden – take care not to overload the pan; do this in several batches.  Continue adding oil with each batch, as the aubergine soaks up so much of it!  Repeat the frying process with potato slices.   To free up that all important vino time, you could prepare the white sauce (see below) whilst frying the aubergine and potato.

Prepare the “besamel sauce” by melting the butter until foaming.  Add the flour, whisking briskly as you do so, until you get a smooth paste, or as the French would say, a rue.  Continue whisking for 2 mins until the mix turns golden.  Whisk in the milk and season with salt (if you add pepper, the black flecks can spoil the look of the sauce).  Cook over a medium heat for 12-15 mins.  Whisk in the nutmeg.

Grease an oven dish and sprinkle the breadcrumbs into the bottom.  Arrange half the potato in a layer and place a few tomato slices ontop.  Add a layer of aubergines.  Repeat the sequence. Nearly there.  Whisk the egg yolks and cumin into the sauce and pour over the vegetables.  Sprinkle grated cheese over the top.  Bake in the oven for 1 hour.  Allow 15 to 20mins to rest before serving.

We prepared this early on, to allow us to bake just before we needed it.  To be honest, I was a little disappointed.  I felt that although it looked quite authentic, it was a little plain and could have benefitted from some other flavours.  It would perhaps been  better with one really thick layer of aubergine s and tomato, and one of potato.  I might try mashing the potatoes next time.

We served this up with a greek salad (Kos lettuce, white salad onion, feta, olives, cucumber, red pepper, dressed with olive oil and oregano).  Yum.

 Black Olive & Rosemary Flatbread

This was a flatbread by nature, but with no yeast was a little dense.  The idea was that the bicarbonate of soda and “acidic” olives would react to lighten the bread.  I don’t really feel this worked.  However, it was golden, fragrant and delicious -everyone enjoyed it.  The smell of fresh baked bread was great.

I wanted something a good deal lighter than this bread turned out.  I would welcome any suggestions/alternative recipes to achieve this. 

Orange Passover Cake with Orange Cheesecake Topping

The astute amongst you will have spotted that my Greek Feast includes a rather Jewish sounding dessert.  Apparently Orthodox Greeks always celebrate Easter after passover has occurred, because Jesus is supposed to have celebrated Passover before the events of Easter.  Given that we cooked and ate this cake before Easter, I suppose we can get away with it!

We opted to bake this cake, which we had made before, as it is straight forward and it would seem, reliable.   It is one of Rick Stein’s Food Heroes Recipes and uses ground almonds not flour.

• 2 oranges
• 6 eggs (medium)
• 225g caster sugar
• 225g ground almonds
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Icing Sugar for dusting

For the Citrus Cheesecake Cream topping

• 200g cream cheese (e.g. Philadelphia)
• 50g caster sugar
• grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1 small orange
• juice of 1 lemon
• 300ml double cream

To make the cake is quite straight forward.  Boil the oranges for 3 hours. Make sure they are covered with water and use a lid.  After 3 hours drain the oranges and allow to cool.  Remove the flesh and blitz in a food processor to make a smooth puree.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together until thick and moussey beore folding in the ground almonds, the orange puree and baking powder.  Pour into a lined and greased tin and bake at 180°C for 55 to 60 minutes until cooked. Leave to cool.

To make the topping, beat the cream cheese with the sugar, lemon zest, orange zest and lemon juice.  Whisk the cream into soft peaks and gently fold in.

This recipe makes a lovely light and moist cake.  It’s straightforward and quick.  although I didn’t get a pic of the finished cake, you can see one here.

The meal was a great success – the plan of preparing in advance so we could have time with the guests worked brilliantly.  A good time was had by all.

Meat

The meat used in Chilli seems to vary a lot. The most common is beef steak, but venison is also fairly popular. Some people like theirs in chunks, others like it ground. Prime beef or veal tend to be avoided though because they’re not suited to the long cooking times. I’ve also experimented with some recipes with various cuts of pork which work pretty well. I’ve spotted some more with Turkey and Chicken too, but that’s a step too far beyond my Chilli boundaries.

Chillis

For me, the key to a good Chilli Con Carne is the right Chillies. I’m fairly fussy about chillies most of the time. I get a little irritated when people seem to think of chillies as just one type of ingredient for making food hot. A lot of chillies aren’t that hot and many can add a great deal of flavour. To paint a better picture, I’ll discuss the three chillies I used in this chilli recipe: Cascabels, Anchos and Pastillas. First however, I’ll feed you some chilli trivia:

• You shouldn’t eat chillies whole (unchewed), they can do serious damage to your stomach.
• The ‘hotness’ of chillies can be measured with the Scoville rating. Something like a Bell Pepper is somewhere between 100-500 SU (Scoville Units) whilst a Scotch Bonnet measures 100,000–350,000  SU.
• Although chillies are today inherently linked with curries, chillies didn’t make it to India until the introduction by the Portuguese in the 16th century.
• India grows over twice as much chilli as the next largest chilli grower (China), roughly the weight of 300,000 Range Rovers every year.

Cascabel are my favourite chilli. They look a lot like cherries. They are full with seeds and make a rattle noise (which is the meaning of their name). They’re really smokey in taste with a slight nutty edge. They’re hot, but not hot enough to really register any discomfort, 1,000-2,500 SU.

Pasilla along with Ancho and Mulato form the Holy Trinity of Mexican chillies, which you often find in Mole. The Pasilla is quite large by chilli standards with a hint of grape and cherry. I’d rate them as mild-medium at 1,000-2,000 SU.

Ancho chillies are dried Poblanos, they’re very dark in colour and the most popular in Mexico. They’re often the size of peppers, quite round too. They’re very mild in heat, only 1,000-1,500 SU.

If you give this recipe a go, you’ll get a good idea of all my raving of chillies when you make the paste in step 2 below, it’s soo rich, almost like being in a coffee factory or inhaling some really strong chocolate.

There is a nice page on Chillies Galore with an overview of a huge variety of chillis.

Secret Ingredients

In addition to the standard ingredients, many people often add extra ingredients to provide more flavours. I quite often use red wine, cinnamon or bay leaves. On the rare occasion I’ve added some things like beer, honey or sugar. Some people however, do use some pretty unusual additions – bananas, peanut butter, coffee or whisky. In the recipe below, I’m taking a gamble with a little bit of Chorizo which will hopefully infuse it’s flavour.

If you’ve got any other strange things you add, it’d be interesting to hear.

Ingredients

Serves 3/4 people.

• 5 sundried tomatoes
• 1 dried ancho chilli
• 1 dried pasilla chilli
• 2 dried cascabel chillies
• 400 g minced beef
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 stick of cinnamon bark
• 1 tsp ground corriander
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tbsp sundried tomato puree
• 400 g chopped tomatoes
• 300 ml vegetable stock
• 1/2 red pepper, sliced
• 1/2 green pepper, sliced
• 1 oz chorizo, cubed
• 1 tin kidney beans (drained)

Method

I’m sure a lot of people will be looking at the ingredients list and be thinking of cutting back on the amount of chilli. When I made it Jenny had her sour cream at the ready, but in the end it was mild enough not to warrant any sour cream.

1. Remove most the seeds from the Cascabels – not because of heat, mainly because they have so many.
2. Soak the chillies and sundried tomatoes in some hot water for ~ 10 minutes. Stuff them in a blender with just enough of the leftover chilli/tomato liquid to make a paste.
3. Brown off the beef in some olive oil, do it in stages if necessary. Once browned, add the onion.
4. Once the onion is semi-translucent, mix in the cumin seeds (with some more oil if needed) and the garlic.
5. After a couple of minutes add the spices, chilli/tomato paste and tomato puree, mix in with the meat for a few minutes.
6. Once it’s all mixed, add the chopped tomato and cook for 10 minutes after which add the peppers and chorizo.
7. Keep cooking for ~ 1 hour covered, you want it to be constantly simmering, so if it starts to dry out keep adding the vegetable stock.
8. Leave to mature, ideally at least 10 hours. If the weather is hot, it may be best to put in the fridge.
9. When you’re ready to eat, put the pan back on the stove and let it simmer for ~ 15 minutes. Add the kidney beans and cook for 15 more minutes.

Serving

No matter what variation I’m cooking, chilli always seems to taste best the day after. Even, letting it mature in the freezer seems to improve it.

When I serve up the Chilli, I tend to go the whole hog with cheese (I like mature cheddar, but I’m sure some more purists will say you need Monterey Jack), refried beans, sour cream and guacamole/avacado. I’m equally happy with rice (as long as it’s brown), chips or tortillas. To really top things off though, a bottle of McEwan’s Champion really does it for me. It’s really strong and bitter, a good match to a feisty Chilli.

Ingredients

• 200g Tortiglioni Pasta
• 125g Purple sprouting broccoli (florets)
• 100g Wiltshire ham, coarsely chopped
• 2 tbsp Pesto rosso
• 3 tbsp Crème fraîche
• 2 tsp Fresh Basil, finely sliced
• 1 tsp Fresh Rosemary, finely sliced
• 1 Onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 Garlic Cloves, finely sliced
• 1 glass Pinot Grigio

Serves 2 big portions.

Method

1. Heat a pan with olive oil, add the glass of wine. One heated, add the onion, garlic and ham for ~5 mins, or until the onion becomes translucent.
2. Heat the pasta in another pan. Steam the broccoli on top until cooked but slightly crunchy.
3. Add the broccoli, herbs and pesto to the onions. Mix thoroughly.
4. Once the tortiglioni is cooked, toss in a dash of olive oil. Add to the other pan.
5. Blend in the crème fraîche and stir until heated.
6. Serve with salad and a sprinkle of Parmesan.

First I thought about  the boundaries of the ingredients themselves – Leeks don’t vary that much that I know of. Cheese provides a lot of room to manoeuvre with. Eggs encompass many different types and a variety of cooked forms, I’m not that familiar with their tastes so I was slightly reluctant to experiment. On a side note, that reminds me of Andrew Zimmern’s show with Balut (don’t look if you’re squeamish about food!).

I eventually settled upon trying to recreate an egg curry we had for breakfast in on the backwaters in Kerala, with some stuffed leek and paneer kulchas. I might need to explain myself: Curry for breakfast? Yep, it’s not like British-style curry though – far easier on the taste buds. Egg in curry? You might not get it in that many Indian restaurants in Britain, it’s fairly common though (I think it’s more of a south Indian thing) – they’re usually hard boiled. What’s paneer? It’s an Indian cheese, although I see it as having a taste and texture closer to tofu. It doesn’t melt either. Kulcha? These are new to me too, they originate from the Punjab and are like small Naan (an Indian bread).

Shopping for ingredients was a little fun, I popped over to the nearest asian area to track down some paneer and curry leaves. I tend to make paneer myself (it’s dead easy), but I wanted to minimise my cooking time. In the shop I visited, I ended up finding some Welsh Paneer! I couldn’t find any curry leaves though so I asked the guy at the till, after which he pulled out a bag from under the till. Maybe it’s the asian equivalent of tofu in Chinese shops? When I got home I was a little bermused by the episode, and unsure if ‘curry leaves’ had another meaning. Looks like curry leaves though, I also noticed he didn’t charge for them!

Ingredients

Kulcha dough

• 5 oz wholemeal flour
• 5 oz plain flour
• 2 oz cottage cheese
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 2 oz butter
• water

Kulcha filling

• 2 small leeks (or 1 large), finely sliced
• 1 green chilli
• 3 oz paneer, grated
• salt

Egg curry

• 4 eggs, hard boiled, shelled
• 1 large onion, sliced into long strips
• 2 1/2 tsp corriander powder
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp tumeric
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• handful of curry leaves
• 2 tsp tomato puree
• 400 ml coconut milk

Method

1. Start with the dough. Mix all ingredients together until you’ve got a dough. Leave covered at room temperature for 1 hour.
2. Lightly fry the leeks, this will bring out their flavour. Once translucent, take off the heat and mix with other ingredients.
3. The dough will provide 4 kulchas. Divide the mixture into 8ths and mould into circles ~4″ diameter (beer mat size). Top with kulcha stuffing and cover with another piece, pressing edges together and removing any air inside.
4. Slowly cook the kulcha at a low heat in a lightly buttered pan until golden.
5. Mix the corriander powder, tumeric and chilli powder with water into a smooth paste.
6. Dry fry mustard seeds and curry leaves for a minute. Drop a dash of oil and add the onions. When transparent add the tomato puree. Cook for a minute and add the paste from before.
7. Add the eggs for a minute and mix to absorb the colours/flavours. Finally, add the coconut milk, allow to simmer for 10 minutes. 2 minutes before the end add the garam masala.

Verdict

I served it up with half a portion of rice each with the kulchas on the side. The curry was pretty nice but I’ve still got a bit of tweaking before it’s as good as the stuff in Kerala. I might slice the eggs in half to absorb more flavour. The kulchas turned out fairly well too but I think it would have worked better if I’d stuck to my initial idea of stuffed parathas which would have been a bit lighter. A lot of recipes for Indian bread mention using a Tava.

The crab is cooked and served in it’s shell. I’ve tried curries with just crab meat and they don’t work anywhere near as well. It takes a lot of effort to eat, generally you end up spending about 20 minutes extracting the meat before you can get round to finally eating – it’s all part of the fun though. The first time Jenny ate this she got a bit freaked out, she’s not the biggest seafood fan and the crabs looked like giant spiders.

We usually use British crabs which are all from the Cancer Pagurus species. Quite often we have Cromer Crabs which tend to be a little bit sweeter. Other types of crabs will probably work just as well.

Ingredients

These are rough amounts, mum just adds the ingredients by eye:

• 3 crabs
• 3 large onions
• 1 large tin of tomatoes
• 1/3 block of creamed coconut
• Salt
• Chilli powder
• Turmeric
• Garam masala powder
• Paprika
• Ginger
• Garlic

Method

1. Use a small hammer to break the crabs up. Remove all the non-flesh innards. Break into large chunks – walking/swimming legs, carapace (abdomen) and the claw. Crack big sections (but don’t separate) so that the sauce can get in and it can be broken when you get round to eating it.
2. Liquidize the onions. Add a bit of sunflower oil to the saucepan and brown the onions.
3. Once the onions are golden brown add the coconut and fry for a couple of minutes.
4. Add the salt, chilli powder, turmeric, garam masala, paprika, ginger and garlic and fry for another couple of minutes.
5. Add the tomatoes and a little bit of water and let it cook for a few minutes – until it is thick rich gravy.
6. Add the crab and let it cook for about 15 minutes.

Eating

We tend to serve this with Basmati rice. To eat it, you have to use your hands to start with. First you find a walking leg and break that apart. You then use the end of that leg to help extract the meat from the rest of the crab making sure to suck all the juices out of it. We tend to have a graveyard in the centre of the table to put any empty shells. Eventually you’ll end up with a pile of meat which you can mix into the sauce and use cutlery to eat with the rice. If you’ve been slow you might have to re-heat things before tucking in.

Ingredients

Roast Lamb + Marinade

• 45 oz / 1.2 kg lamb shoulder
• 400 ml plain yoghurt
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp tumeric
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cardamom seeds
• tbsp lemon juice
• 2 cloves of garlic, sliced

Chickpea Mash

• 400 g tinned chickpeas, drained
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Method

NOTE: Make sure to start this a long time in advance, the meat needs at least a day to marinade and also a few hours to slowly cook.

1. Score tiny holes into the lamb and stuff with slices of garlic.
2. Mix up the marinade ingredients for the marinade and thickly baste the lamb shoulder in a large bowl. Leave in fridge for 24-48 hours, turning and re-basting sporadically. We want the lamb to be infused rather than coated.
3. Preheat oven at 200 C.
4. Scrape the majority of the marinade off back into the bowl, leaving a thin coating. Place lamb onto a baking tray.
5. ‘Sizzle’ in oven for 15 mins. Meanwhile, dilute the marinade in the bowl with a little water.
6. After sizzle, let oven cool and reduce heat to 140C.
7. Pour some of the diluted marinade into the tray, no more than 1 cm deep. Use a spoon to use some of the liquid to moisten the lamb. Cover with foil. Leave to cook for 2.5 hours, checking and rebasting every 30mins.
8. 10 mins before the end of the cooking start on the chickpea mash. In a small saucepan heat the olive oil. Once warm, add the garlic and cook until almost golden.
9. Add the spices for a few seconds, making sure not the burn. Once the cloves are coated in a spicy paste add the chickpeas. Cook for 5 mins, adding a touch of water if things begin drying out. Mash.

The meat was pretty tender but turned out slightly pink and probably might have benefitted from 30mins (on top of the 2.5 hours) more for most people. Despite being pink it wasn’t bloody. The spices added an extra edge to the meat but didn’t dominate the taste of the lamb. The chickpea mash added a little bit more spice and soaked up any juices. I left Jenny in charge of any other veg to go with the dish, she opted for some steamed Pak Choi, which I probably wouldn’t have done but I think she was spot on. The Pak Choi had enough flavour to be happily eaten by itself but not add too much of another strong taste to the dish.