Monthly Archives: May 2010

soy, ginger and garlic prawns with cashews and noodles

Posted by Gary in cashew nuts, food, noodles, prawns

soy, ginger and garlic prawns with cashews and noodles

I found myself in the rare event of travelling home knowing I was going to cook for myself and not having a clue what to do. As luck would have it, I step through the door and Pureety have sent me a clutch of marinades. So why not.

I go for a Soy, Garlic and Ginger marinade and chuck it over some prawns I have knocking about, and then knock up a stir fry. It worked pretty well – sweet prawns and savoury notes, backed with the aniseedy tang of fennel and celery finishing with the crunch of cashews. Not bad for an improv.

A couple of tips: keep the pan mega, mega hot, and keep everything moving. For this reason, stir-fries are all in the prep, or mise en place if you prefer. Get everything chopped, assembled and to hand so you can just stand round the pan throwing stuff in and stirring. Makes all the difference.

Soy, ginger and garlic prawns with cashews and noodles (serves 2):

1 sachet Pureety soy, garlic and ginger marinade

A handful of cooked, peeled prawns

½ teaspoon fennel seeds

1 tablespoon rapeseed oil

1 celery stick, chopped

1 red onion, sliced

½ red pepper, chopped

5 baby sweetcorn, sliced

1 tablespoon chilli dipping sauce

1 pack of straight to wok flat noodles

1 tablespoon coriander, chopped

1 egg, beaten

Handful of cashew nuts, toasted and slightly crushed

  1. Pour the marinade over the prawns and leave while you prep the veg.
  2. In a dry pan, toast the fennel seeds for 1 minute or until they start to pop. Add oil and fry the celery and onion for 1 minute.
  3. Add the pepper and sweetcorn and fry for another minute or two until tender. Chuck in the prawns, noodles and chilli sauce and continue to stir until the noodles are ready. You may need to add just a splash of hot water to loosen everything up a bit.
  4. Add the egg and coriander and stir continuously for 45 seconds so the egg never sets – it will pick up the stray liquids and make a silky sauce. Serve immediately, topped with toasted cashews.

honey and pistachio cake

Posted by Gary in cake, food, honey, pistachio, polenta and tagged with

honey and pistachio cake

The recent Jamie Does… series has thrown up some delicious recipes. This cornmeal cake, from his Athens trip, is light, fluffy and stuffed with gooey honey. If I had one criticism, there’s not quite enough honey. I’d up it to 150ml next time. The flavours are still there though, it’s great for sharing. It also lasts for days with no noticeable drying out. Result!

Honey and pistachio cake:

225g caster sugar

75g ground almonds

150g plain flour

200g semolina / cornmeal / fine polenta

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

Zest of 1 lemon

Zest of 1 orange

225g Greek yoghurt

5 eggs

200ml olive oil

150g pistachios

100ml honey

Juice of 1 lemon

Juice of 1 orange

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
  2. Combine the sugar, almonds, flour, cornmeal, baking powder in a bowl. Add the eggs, zest, yoghurt and oil and stir well until you have a thick, gloopy batter.
  3. Pour this into a lined baking dish or cake tin (it will be quite large), or drizzle with oil and dust with cornmeal as an alternative lining. Bake for 30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool for 1 hour.
  4. In a dry frying pan toast the pistachios, lightly crushing them with a wooden spoon. Pour in the honey and juices and get everything fluid. Pierce the top of the cake many times with a knife and pour the honey nut mixture all over. Serve in wedges with more Greek yoghurt and some sliced strawberries.

chickpea and bread soup

Posted by Gary in bread, fennel, food, tomato and tagged with

chickpea and bread soup

Another corker from Ottolenghi’s Plenty. In many ways it reminds me of Jamie’s minestrone and is no worse for that. It’s full-flavoured and packed with vegetables, the chickpeas and bread giving it real sustenance beyond starter-course fare. I also toasted a few extra pieces of bread to float as croutons on top, because I can never get enough bread. (Incidentally, Morrisons supermarket do an amazing sourdough loaf – amazing).

I won’t go into ingredients or technique here; the whole thing is listed on the Guardian’s website.

chicken and chorizo kebabs

Posted by Gary in chicken, chorizo, food, paprika, peppers, red onion

chicken and chorizo kebabs with red onion and red pepper salad

As England melted under the usual immediate and surprising burst of sun + heat, I retreated to the paddling pool. Lovely it was too. Dinner has to feature a BBQ though. What’s in the fridge?

This is the result. A smoky and meaty BBQ skewered treat accompanied by a tangy and sweet pepper and onion salad. Marvellous. Make sure you really scorch the chorizo – the burn really accentuates the smoky flavour and encourages it to give up it’s powerful juices.

And a piece of advice when using chicken breast on the BBQ: it’s extremely likely all the juice will disappear from the breast meat before it’s cooked all the way through due to the not-so-controllable heat of the grill. Always brine poultry before barbecuing to ensure tender, juicy meat, powerful flavours and consistent cooking.

Chicken and chorizo kebabs with red pepper and red onion salad:

For the kebabs:

2 chicken breasts, sliced into strips

10cm chorizo, coarsely diced

For the salad:

1 red onion, sliced

1 red pepper

5 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 tablespoon chopped mint

  1. Make a 8% brine solution for the chicken. Add whatever aromatics you like to this, I used black peppercorns, a tablespoon of honey and a star anise. Leave the chicken to soak in this for at least a couple of hours and preferably more than 6.
  2. Just before you make the kebabs, get the salad started. Mix the red wine vinegar with paprika and a pinch each of sugar and salt. Leave the onion in this to tenderize and mellow.
  3. Leave the red pepper directly on the flames of the barbecue until charred all over. Seal in a freezer bag for ten minutes to steam and soften.
  4. Skewer the chorizo and chicken on to sticks and barbecue over a medium-high-heat, turning occasionally.
  5. Remove the pepper from the bag and scrape down with a spoon to remove the skin. Dice and add to the red onion and add a splash of extra virgin olive oil, and adjust the seasoning.
  6. When the chicken is cooked all the way through, serve with the salad and drizzle over the rest of the dressing left in the bowl.

tagliatelle with mushrooms and asparagus

Posted by Gary in asparagus, food, mushroom, pasta and tagged with

tagliatelle with mushrooms and asparagus

Well lookee here, another Ottolenghi recipe. And yes, it’s from Plenty, since you ask. It’s one of those kind of throw-it-in pasta recipes that I like, where the sauce is made in the same time as the pasta boils. In Ottolenghi’s original recipe it’s not explicit but you work out that you need four pans going at once which is a little mean. I’ve simplified mine down so you have a far-more-acceptable 1 frying pan + 1 saucepan combo. The crunch provided by the breadcrumb topping is a winner, I will certainly use it elsewhere.

Based on Yotam Ottolenghi’s crunchy pappardelle recipe.

Tagliatelle with mushrooms and asparagus (serves 2):

Handful of breadcrumbs

Zest of 1 lemon

1 garlic clove, grated

4 tagliatelle nests

Small bundle of asparagus, chopped into pieces

250g chestnut mushrooms, quartered

3 thyme sprigs, leaves picked

100ml white wine

150ml double cream

A tablespoon of chopped parsley

  1. Combine the breadcrumbs, garlic and lemon and fry in a hot, dry pan until the breadcrumbs are browned and toasted. Toss often to ensure they don’t catch on one side. Remove from the pan to one side and wipe it down with kitchen towel.
  2. In the same pan, add a little olive oil and fry the mushrooms and thyme until they start to soften. When tender add the white wine and bubble hard until this reduces by half.
  3. Boil the pasta according to the packet instructions. When there’s 4 minutes to go, chuck in the asparagus pieces. Drain the lot together but reserve a little cooking water.
  4. Back in the pan, add the cream and allow to come to a simmer. Check for seasoning and add a splash of pasta water, then stir the lot together thoroughly so the sauce coats the pasta and asparagus. Chuck on some parsley and serve topped with the crispy breadcrumbs.

mushroom and herb polenta

Posted by Gary in food, mushroom, polenta, rosemary, thyme and tagged with

mushroom and herb polenta

My poor snap is a billion times worse than the one in Ottolenghi’s new book, Plenty. I didn’t trust my polenta to keep still on a wooden board though. This is mighty good, powerful in flavour and the mushrooms give it a real meaty presence. The original calls for a whole bunch o’ mixed mushrooms, but to save foraging and potential fungal-induced death I used good old chestnut mushrooms supplemented with a jar of Sacla antipasto mushrooms. This takes a lot of graft out of it (not that it was difficult in the first place) however the pickled flavours can unbalance the seasoning, so taste well. Otherwise feel free to use any mushrooms you can find for an interesting mouthful.

Adapted from a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi

Mushroom and herb polenta (serves 2):

500ml vegetable stock

80g polenta

2 tablespoons rosemary, chopped

2 tablespoons thyme, chopped

50g butter, melted

50g parmesan, grated

200g chestnut mushrooms

200g jar antipasto mushrooms

1 clove garlic, grated

1 tablespoon truffle oil

100g comté, grated

  1. Get some oil heated in a pan and begin frying the chestnut mushrooms. Don’t move them too much, let them colour. Let them cook down for about ten minutes, until they have some give when prodded.
  2. Get the grill on hot while you make the polenta. Bring the stock to the boil and whisk in the polenta in a steady stream. Keep whisking until the polenta starts to come away from the edge of the pan. If you’re using old-school polenta this will take a ruddy lifetime. Use the quick-cook stuff and it will take about 3 minutes.
  3. Take the polenta off the heat and beat in the parmesan, butter and half the herbs. Spread into a baking dish into an even layer and pop under the grill for a minute. Let’s return to the mushrooms.
  4. Add the garlic, fry for a minute and then add the remaining herbs and mushrooms. Give it a good stir to warm everything through and taste for seasoning. Add the truffle oil. Get the polenta out, pour the mushrooms on top and grate a thin layer of comté over. Return to the grill and cook for another minute or two until the cheese bubbles.

leek fritters

Posted by Gary in egg, food, leeks and tagged with

leek fritters with coriander and garlic yoghurt

This is a cheeky treat from Ottolenghi’s latest, Plenty. I picked it out to cook expecting something quite nice but it simply floored me how good it was. There’s a lightness there, provided by the egg white I guess. Paired with a potent, tangy yoghurt this makes a pretty filling but very tasty brunch (or dinner when helped along by a salad – the brown specks on mine are a balsamic dressing!).

(It should be noted my method is adapted from Ottolenghi’s according to store cupboard and mood)

Leek fritters (serves 4):

3 leeks, sliced

1 onion, finely diced

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon coriander

Handful of chopped parsley

150g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

50g butter, melted

1 egg

Some milk

1 egg white, whisked to soft peaks

For the garlic and coriander yoghurt:

300ml Greek yoghurt

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Handful of chopped coriander

1 garlic clove, grated

  1. Fry the onions and leeks gently until tender, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a bowl to cool, adding the spices, parsley, some seasoning and a pinch of sugar.
  2. Combine the flour, whole egg, butter and baking powder and add enough milk to make a thick batter. Combine the leek mixture with this batter and fold in the whipped egg white.
  3. Cover the base of a pan with oil and get over a medium heat. Add large dollops of fritter mix to form pancakes and allow to brown underneath before flipping. This will take about 4 minutes on each side. Fry in batches until all done, draining on kitchen paper until needed.
  4. To make the yoghurt sauce, combine all the ingredients. Taste often, adding more lemon / oil / salt and pepper as required. A squeeze of lemon over the fritters wouldn’t go amiss either.

crispy halloumi

Posted by Gary in food, halloumi, polenta

fried crisp halloumi cubes

Not much of a recipe here – cubed halloumi basted with egg, then turned in fine polenta, fried golden – but just yummy. You feel like you could eat a mountain of them. It turns out you get enormously stuffed after three.