Posts filed under 'Food'
I’ve made this stunning, simple stew a number of times but finally got round to taking a pic before serving it so thought it was time to post.
Persian lamb stew
The original recipe is by Neil Perry from his tome The Food I Love. My variations are minor. This is Neil’s recipe:
• 700g lamb shoulder
• 80ml extra virgin olive oil + extra
• 2 brown onions, cut into 1cm dice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 4 cardamom pods, split, seeds removed and crushed
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 375ml chicken stock (I used 500ml)
• 110g (½ cup) pitted prunes (I used more)
• 1 teaspoon caster sugar
• juice of 2 limes
• ¼ teaspoon saffron threads, dissolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water
• 1 large handful mint, roughly chopped
• roasted almonds or pistachios to garnish
For the pumpkin
• 400g butternut pumpkin, peeled and cut into 3.5cm dice
• sea salt
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
To make the lamb stew, cut the lamb into 4 cm dice. Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a heavy-based saucepan. Add the lamb in batches, stir over medium to high heat until browned, then remove from the pan. Add extra oil to the pan if need be, then add the onion and stir until lightly browned. Add the spices and sea salt and stir for 1 minute, or until fragrant. Add the stock. Return lamb to the pan and simmer over low heat, covered, for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Add the prunes, sugar, lime juice, and saffron water. Cover and simmer for a further 30 minutes, or until the lamb is very tender.
Meanwhile, for the pumpkin, preheat the oven to 200°C. Combine the pumpkin pieces with some sea salt and the extra virgin olive oil. Put in a roasting tin and bake for about 20 minutes, or until just tender and lightly browned all over.
Add the pumpkin and the mint to the stew.
Serve the stew in a large bowl, with a bowl of rice in the middle of the table. Garnish the dish with the roasted almonds or pistachios if you like. Serves 4.
The choice of lamb seems to have the greatest influence on the dish. The first time I made this I used the shoulder as Neil suggests. In subsequent preparations I was lazy and used either leg or pre-cubed lamb from the butcher. Although it took some time to bone and prepare the meat from the shoulder the result was far superior. As well as the more intense flavour, the larger cubes that you can cut yourself seem to work better and I think the shoulder gave a better overall texture to the dish.
I used a few more prunes than the recipe indicates but this should be offset by leaving out the sugar if they are very sweet.
Adjust the stock to the amount of liquid you like in the final stew. I think it needed 500ml.
Be careful not to overcook the pumpkin - it needs to retain its form in the stew (however undercooked pumpkin is a deeper sin).
The photo at the top of this post does not have the roasted nut garnish. (I find that if I don’t prepare the garnish before I cook the dish I’m inclined to not bother at the end.)
Neil suggests rice as the starch but of course it works very well with couscous. Hope you enjoy it.
August 31st, 2008
Well I do love potato cakes! Mixed with salmon or fennel or brussel sprouts or just a sharp cheese - love ‘em! So I couldn’t resist a recipe in a recent edition of my local rag The Canberra Times and it was soooo good I wanted to share with those of you who don’t regularly read my local paper.
These contain feta and parsley and are served with a garlic yoghurt. Yum! The recipe is courtesy of Diana Lampe who writes a column called vegetarian kitchen (but I read it anyway). Her short description reads:
Patato-keftethes, or potato and feta patties, are comforting home-cooked food from Greece. They are easy to make and will disappear quickly. Serve them with yoghurt sauce or tzatziki, hummus, salad and flat bread for a delicious meal.
Patato-keftethes (potato and feta patties)
Makes 12 patties
3 medium (500g) potatoes
extra-virgin olive oil
1 free-range egg, lightly beaten
125g feta cheese, crumbled
3 tbsp chopped dill or flat-leaf parsley
freshly ground black pepper
plain flour
lemon to serve
Yoghurt sauce
250g Greek yoghurt
1 clove garlic, crushed
sea salt and hot paprika or cayenne
Boil the unpeeled potatoes in salted water with a bay leaf until tender. Peel them while hot. Hold each potato with a tea towel as you peel it so you don’t burn your hands. Mash or pass through a ricer. Mix in a tablespoon of olive oil. When cool, add the egg, feta, herbs and pepper and mix well. Prepare the yoghurt sauce by whisking the yoghurt with garlic and seasonings. To make the patties, scoop up the potato mixture with an oiled 1/4 cup measure. Form into round flat cakes or fingers and roll in seasoned flour. Pan-fry in olive oil over medium heat until golden brown. Serve hot with a squeeze of lemon and the yoghurt sauce or tzatziki.
I followed this pretty closely. I used desiree potatoes, lots of fresh-picked parsley and a Bulgarian feta. I used two bay leaves when boiling the potatoes but then I’m always pushing the envelope :-). The oiled measuring cup was bypassed as this doesn’t seem to be in the spirit of potato cakes to me. (If you’re a serious internet foodie you will know that there’s a whole internet sub-culture based around cupcakes - perhaps it’s time for the potato cake revolution!)
We had these with sautéed courgettes, grilled lamb cutlets crusted with whole cumin, the yoghurt and a slice of lemon.
These will be made many more times (and maybe I’ll get some slightly sexier photos in the future).
June 11th, 2008
You know how you hear of something for the first time in your life and then it just keeps popping up in everything you read? Well it happens to me anyway!
I heard of quinoa flour for the first time recently - I think it was on the UK food show Masterchef. Within days I’m browsing the excellent blog La Tartine Gourmande (as much for the inspirational food photography as the recipes) and I discover a tart using quinoa flour.
The tart, Celeriac and Long Pepper Tartlet, Olive Oil and Brown Rice Flour Crust, has a crust of brown rice flour, tapioca flour (arrowroot) and quinoa flour bound with an egg and olive oil and given extra crunch with the addition of poppyseeds. I was tempted to try this and was finally sold when I realised the main flavouring was long pepper.
Long pepper is also something I discovered relatively recently. I found it when putting together the 50 whole spices for my spice sampler. So I have a large bag of the attractive little catkins but had never cooked with them.
Both ingredients were highly successful.
I am not familiar with the Italian washed rind cheese, Taleggio, that Béa used to top the tart (no doubt I will come across it everywhere now!). I used small cubes of Bulgarian feta which worked very well indeed. I omitted the hazelnut flour from the filling.
The pastry is crisp and nutty and a great base for a vegetable tart. (Also handy if I need to cook for any of the growing number of people who exclude gluten from their diet.) However after some consideration I decided the pastry would be better without the poppyseeds. They provide an interesting crunchiness that is not unpleasant but is hard to ignore. On balance for me it distracted from the lusciousness of the tart and I will exclude them next time.
Highly recommended and thanks to Béa for the recipe.
June 9th, 2008
I just re-discovered this sensuous image when browsing my food photos and felt the need to share it.
Those who had ‘alternative’ taste during the early seventies might remember the King Crimson song (and album) Larks’ Tongues in Aspic. Always a Crimson fan, this song has particular memories because I (with some conspirators) used it as the introductory sound track for my first and only film.
Fascinated by feast dishes of the past and being a keen maker of pies and terrines, aspic has always held a romantic aura.
I have made traditional hand-raised pork pies at Christmas for many years (based on the sage advice of Jane Grigson). I love the degree of construction involved (like making a chair only edible!) and the revelation of the contents (a recurrent theme in almost all my other posts) when the cold pie is eventually cut open.
Of course the jelly is an essential part of a pork pie. It provides the required moisture and should also contribute significantly to the flavour. I make mine in the way described by Jane Grigson - 2 pig’s trotters boiled in a large amount of water with a clove-studded onion and some carrot, celery, bouquet garni and peppercorns. This gives a flavoursome stock which will set very firm. A little experience is required to reduce the stock to a volume that will set well but still be soft and glutinous rather than firm or even chewy.
Traditionally the jelly is clarified before use. I must admit that I rarely do this - partly fear of losing flavour and partly laziness. This pic shows a pie filled with a very opaque jelly that has loads of flavour.
However some occasions require more refinement. When clarified in the trad. way with egg whites, a trotter jelly can look pretty fine.
For my 50th birthday I cooked a degustation of 13 of my favourite dishes for myself and 12 friends. (For me any excuse to cook is a great present.) One of the dishes was my pork pie. In this case I wanted a refined jelly and chose to clarify it. (Some day I will post the full menu for this event - plus the even longer wine list!)
The process is pretty simple. Just whisk egg whites into the stock and simmer it until the egg white coagulates the particles in the stock and forms a raft on the surface. As the filthy-looking raft sets on the surface you get glimpses of golden, clear stock underneath. Order emerges from chaos! The clear stock is strained through a fine cloth.
I had plenty of jelly left over after filling the pies so I set it in a mould and chopped it into the dice you see in the picture. Be sure to click to look at the larger photo to appreciate its sublime amber beauty.
The pies were sliced and served on a silver platter surrounded by the amber aspic - god I wish I’d had time for a photo! - but when you’re serving 169 plates of food with one helper out of a small kitchen you don’t have too much time for reflection.
I hope to describe the making of pork pies in a later post.
April 19th, 2008
Melissa from The Traveler’s Lunchbox posted her version of smoked-salmon pasta that she calls The Little Black Dress of Dinner due to its versatility. 
This prompted me to put forward my variation of this great dish.
My “little black dress” is simpler and uses salmon saithes rather than slices. Saithes are effectively offcuts that do not have the elegant texture of good quality smoked salmon but have a much more intense flavour and are preserved in a light oil that also takes on a vibrant salmon flavour. The oil coats the pasta in flavour, moistness and the stunning pastel orange/pink of salmon.
When I can get them both, I use a mix of the packet type shown and a variety that is sold in a jar. The style shown still has smoked salmon texture and plenty of oil. The jar variety (I’ll post a photo when I next get one) is cut much finer but has a stronger taste both in the flesh and the oil. I find mixing the two gives the best balance of flavour and texture.
I always use fresh-made pasta for this dish. The elegance and subtlety of flavour demands a soft pliant pasta. I cut the pasta into tagliatelle size. The pasta is drained while the saithe oils are warmed in the pasta pan. The pasta is returned so that it can be well coated with the oils before the more delicate saithes are added. A bonus is that the amount of cream can be widely adjusted to taste without undermining the effect of the dish. I suspect you could get away with no cream at all if you really wanted to avoid it - perhaps add a fraction of the pasta cooking liquor back into the dish to create some creaminess. Otherwise it works well with just a tablespoon or two of cream but can take a whole container if you really like your cream.
Be careful with seasoning. The saithes can be quite salty so I use a minimum of salt in the pasta and cooking water and adjust as required at the end.
In my home this dish is always known as Salmon Rushdie.
Here is my recipe as it was published in The Canberra Times about 3 years ago (in Jenna Price’s Domestic God series on blokes who cook).
Tagliatelle with smoked salmon and cream (Salmon Rushdie)
fresh tagliatelle
1 x 100g tin or packet of smoked salmon saithe slices in oil
1 x 125g jar of smoked salmon saithe cuttings in oil
100-200ml cream
freshly ground black pepper
—————————–
Jars and packets of salmon saithes are often available in delicatessens (try Belconnen Markets if you can’t find them). These are preferable to smoked salmon as they contain oils that help flavour and colour the pasta. I use one packet and one jar to get both textures but you could use just one variety.
Either make your own fresh pasta or buy quality recently dried tagliatelle. Boil this in plenty of water - very lightly salted.
While the pasta is cooking open the container of saithe slices being careful not to lose any oil. Remove the saithe slices to your chopping board allowing most of the oil to drain back into the packet. Slice the saithes crossways into small (2cm) pieces.
Drain pasta when al dente (about 4-8mins if fresh). Return the pan to a low heat and add all the saithe oil. Add the jar of saithe cuttings. Once the oil has warmed through, throw in the drained pasta and toss gently. As you toss the pasta it should take on a slight pinkness as it absorbs the oil. Throw in the saithe pieces and add coarsely ground black pepper. Toss until all the pasta is pinkish and well covered in oil. Add as much cream as you wish to moisten the dish. I usually add 100-200ml. Be careful with the salt balance. The saithes vary in saltiness so it is best to keep salt to a minimum and adjust at the end.
Serve immediately with a small garnish of basil tips or other green herb. Reheats well for the next two days.
Pasta: Add a small amount of salt to 200g plain flour and break in 2 large or 3 small eggs. Mix with a fork and then by hand adding more flour until you have quite a stiff dough. Roll out in a pasta machine and cut as tagliatelle.
This gorgeous dish will always be in my top five favourites. It certainly belongs to that group of special meals that is nowadays known as ‘comfort food’.
As Melissa says ‘Recipes like this are, unfortunately, all too rare’. Even with making the fresh pasta the whole dish can be prepared in 15mins. If you keep a few jars/packets of saithes in the fridge it can be made at any time. And it is always a hit. A true little black dress. (Like Melissa I don’t have the real thing.)
April 13th, 2008
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Be careful not to overcook the pumpkin - it needs to retain its form in the stew (however undercooked pumpkin is a deeper sin).
