Category Archives: coriander

spiced chorizo and chickpea stew

Posted by Gary in chickpeas, chorizo, coriander, cumin, food, nigella seeds, recipes, tomato

spiced chorizo and chickpea stew

I’ve made variations on this before, but the one killer ingredient I’ve added here that I wanted to shine a spotlight on is nigella seeds. I saw a Tweet from the excellent @pearcafe, and thought the addition of nigella seeds to their soup of the day was inspired. So I threw some into this stew and it was ace. Thanks ‘E’! I’ve never been to Bristol but if I do The Pear Café will be first on my list of places to visit :-)

Spiced chorizo and chickpea stew (serves 4):

1 teaspoon nigella seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 onion, diced

200g chorizo, in chunks

1 tin of chickpeas

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 tin tomatoes (I’ve got a bit of a thing for tinned cherry tomatoes at the moment)

250ml chicken stock

2 slices of brown bread

1 clove of garlic, peeled

  1. Get a large casserole on a high heat and add a splash of olive oil. When hot, throw in the seeds and allow to pop and sizzle for a minute. Add the onion and chorizo and stir often until the chorizo starts to bleed.
  2. Add the chickpeas (don’t bother to drain), tomatoes, paprika and stock. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 15 minutes.
  3. While that simmers throw the brown bread and garlic in a food processor and whizz to a powder with a pinch of salt.
  4. In a separate pan melt some butter and when foaming add the breadcrumbs. Toss often until browned all over, then drain on kitchen paper until the stew is ready.
  5. Check the seasoning on the stew. You may find in addition to salt and pepper you may need some red wine vinegar to balance it all out. Ladle into serving dishes and top with the breadcrumbs. If you have any, a drizzle of pumpkin seed oil would be brill.

empire chicken with indian gravy and bombay roasties

Posted by Gary in carrots, chicken, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cucumber, cumin, curry, food, garlic, ginger, lemon, nigella seeds, potatoes, red onion and tagged with

empire chicken with indian roasties

What a triumph this is. Just when I was feeling a bit indifferent to Jamie Oliver’s Great Britain along comes this absolute belter. Jamie introduces this by saying most people when asked about their favourite foods will mention roast chicken and curries, and this utterly unites the heart of both of these.

With blackened, tangy skin the chicken comes out juicy and tickling on the tongue, although be warned it will make a mess of your oven as it sits on the rack.

Being the kind of blog this is though, I have to talk about the roast potatoes. They are a triumph. I used to get “spicy spuds” from a dubious takeaway near me and these are very, very close to those – crispy, spicy and fluffy.

I’ve made a few changes to the spices in the potatoes based on what I had, and used floury over new pots to get them really crispy. I’ve served mine with a refreshing salad.

I cannot recommend this recipe enough.

Jamie’s original recipe is here.

Empire chicken, Bombay roasties, Indian gravy and refreshing salad (serves 4):

For the chicken and marinade

1.4kg free-range chicken

1 heaped tablespoon each finely grated garlic, fresh ginger and fresh red chilli

1 heaped tablespoon tomato purée

1 heaped teaspoon each of ground coriander, turmeric, garam masala and ground cumin

2 heaped teaspoons natural yoghurt

2 level teaspoons sea salt

For the gravy

1 stick of cinnamon

2 small red onions, peeled

10 cloves

3 tablespoons each of white wine vinegar and Worcestershire sauce

3 level tablespoons plain flour

500ml chicken stock

For the Bombay-style potatoes

800g new potatoes

sea salt and ground pepper

1 lemon

2 or 3 tablespoons olive oil

a knob of butter

1 heaped teaspoon each of nigella seeds, ground coriander, garam masala, fenugreek and turmeric

1 bulb of garlic

Pinch of chilli flakes

For the salad

½ a cucumber, peeled

3 carrots, peeled

1 red onion, peeled

½ lemon

    1. Slash the chicken’s legs a few times right down to the bone. Mix all the marinade ingredients together and smear all over the chicken. Leave to marinate overnight.
    2. Preheat the oven to 200°C and organize your shelves so the roasting tray can sit right at the bottom, the chicken can sit directly above it, right on the bars of the shelf, and the potatoes can go at the top.
    3. Cut the potatoes into golf-ball size pieces then parboil them in a large pan of salted boiling water with a whole lemon for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through. Drain the potatoes then let them steam dry. Stab the lemon a few times with a sharp knife and put it right into the chicken’s cavity.
    4. Roughly chop the onions and add to a roasting tray along with the cinnamon stick, cloves, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce, then whisk in the flour. Pour in the stock or water, then place this right at the bottom of the oven. Place the chicken straight on to the bars of the middle shelf, above the roasting tray. Cook for 1 hour 20 minutes.
    5. Put a roasting tray in the oven for five minutes to get hot. Add the olive oil, butter, the spices, halve a bulb of garlic and add it straight to the pan. Add your drained potatoes to the tray, mix everything together, then season well. After the chicken has been in for 40 minutes, put the potatoes in.
    6. Once the chicken is cooked, move it to a board to rest. Pass the gravy through a coarse sieve into a pan, whisking any sticky goodness from the pan as you go. Bring to the boil and either cook and thicken or thin down with water to your preference (I had to add some boiling water to deglaze the surface and make a sauce out of it.
    7. For the salad, use a vegetable peeler to make thin strips of the carrot and cucumber. Then finely slice the onion and add this to it. Add a pinch each of salt and sugar, then squeeze over the lemon and toss to combine. Leave for 15 minutes while everything else finishes off.
    8. Get your potatoes out of the oven and put them into a serving bowl, then serve the chicken on a board next to the sizzling roasties and hot gravy.

cod rye fingers

Posted by Gary in cod, coriander, fish, food, rye bread

chunks of white cod coated in rye breadcrumbs

When I think of “rye bread” I think of “pastrami on…” and that’s about it. Yet I can’t think I’ve even tried it or not. So I was sent some Village Bakery Rye Bread recently and looked at it with arched eyebrows. Mrs. Spud jumped on it, being a fan of the German bread of this type.

I tried some with a little cream cheese at first – it was the savouriness that really got me, and deep flavour. I really enjoyed it. I tried some lightly grilled too and the crispness gave it an interesting texture.

I was sent some with a view to promoting the Try Rye challenge - replacing regular wheat bread with rye bread to lose weight and / or feel less bloated. It’s definitely an interesting alternative, head over to the Facebook page for more information.

I’m always looking for the recipe angle – and it was the flavour possibilities of the rye bread with coriander that interested me. Combined with some superb Farmer’s Choice cod I had the idea of making chunky fish fingers. With a few extra spices and flavourings the rumbling rye flavour and silky cod are brought together to create a great combination.

Cod rye fingers (makes 8):

1 cod fillet

4 slices of Village Bakery Rye Bread with Coriander

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 tablespoon flour

¼ teaspoon paprika

1 egg, beaten

A lemon

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C, and have a baking tray in there already warming up.
  2. In a hot dry pan toast the cumin seeds until popping and then tip on to a plate. Whizz the bread in a food processor to crumbs and then tip on to the cumin and mix together.
  3. Mix the flour and paprika together and season well.
  4. Slice the cod into 8 pieces. Roll the cod in the flour, dip in the egg and then press the breadcrumbs on to the fish. Brush with a little olive oil and place on the baking tray. Bake for 10 -15 minutes until the crumb is crispy and the fish cooked through. Serve with a drizzle of lemon (and pretend it’s fish & chips & peas like in my pic above).

11 minute chilli

Posted by Gary in beef, chilli, coriander, cumin, food, onion, oregano, tomato

11 minute chilli con carne

I’m a big fan of chilli, I’ve probably cooked it more than anything else. I particularly like ones that sit there and blip away under their own steam for hours. I was looking forward to cooking a chilli tonight.

But I’d had a rotten evening. Little Miss Spud was rotten sick and was in no mood for going to bed. There were many changes of clothes (for me and her), things to wash, bottles to fetch… Eventually she dozed off, and it was time to cook. I reached for the takeaway menus… but didn’t. I had planned on doing a chilli and gosh darnit, a chilli I was going to make.

I floated the idea on Twitter about cooking a chilli in 10 minutes. “Not enough time”, scoffed Gary Dickenson. “It can’t be done!” wailed Food Urchin. “Keep us posted” urged Simon Loves Food. Well, that was that – no turning back now. I had to do it.

The problem is to develop those flavours does take time. There needed to be some sneaky shortcuts in there to amp it up and cut down the cooking time, hence the ingredients list is fairly long – but generally full of store cupboard stuff. The hard bit is that it’s one of those dishes where you keep adding stuff but by bit and each part needs to come back to the simmer. So I drew together some ideas that I’ve flirted with before: frying mince to release the oils and then add the onion to that, and creating a thick tomato paste packed with flavourings to form a flavour base. So I cooked these parts separately and combined them at the end.

And I have to say it was really tasty, and really worth it. Of course it’s not the same as a slow-simmered chilli ticking away for hours, and it would’ve been nice to stick some kidney beans in there (I just didn’t have any to hand) to nod back to the ‘usual’ recipe. But it’s a good alternative and great for busy weekday evenings. Oh, and it came out at 11 minutes rather than 10, but I can live with that.

11 minute chilli (serves 2):

400g beef mince

Two cloves of garlic, crushed

1 tin of tomatoes

1 tablespoon tomato puree

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 onion, peeled and sliced into half-moons

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon coriander

1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

1/2 teaspoon oregano

A large handful of tortilla chips

150ml boiling hot beef stock

Mushroom ketchup

Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (or other chilli sauce you like)

  1. Preheat your oven to top whack, and get two frying pans over a high heat.
  2. Add a splash of oil to both pans. Pop the mince in one of them and let sizzle and stir occasionally to colour all over. Meanwhile in the other pan crush in the garlic and 10 seconds later throw in the tomatoes, puree, and paprika. Keep stirring this too when you have a minute. Both pans should be bubbling fairly furiously.
  3. When the mince is coloured all over it will probably have released some fat. Throw the onions into this along with the cumin, coriander, chilli powder and oregano. Add a pinch of salt and keep stirring.
  4. Scatter the tortilla chips in one layer and pop in the oven for a couple of minutes to warm through and become really brittle.
  5. Now add the beef stock to the mince and again keep stirring and shaking. By now the tomato paste should be quite thick and pulpy, so add this to the mince mixture.
  6. Keep the heat high as you bring it all together and allow it to reduce naturally. Add a shake or two of both mushroom ketchup and hot sauce and check for seasoning. When you’re happy with it serve with the tortillas, grated cheese, soured cream, guacamole, etc. etc. whatever things you like to serve with chilli.

curried lamb breast with onions

Posted by Gary in coriander, cumin, curry, lamb, onion, turmeric

curried lamb breast with onions

Flushed with the success of Simon Hopkinson’s stunning lamb breast dish, I felt the only way it could be improved is with the addition of curry spices. The Indian flavours I felt would surely go well with rich lamb. At the same time I stumbled upon other people doing the same dish, such as Girl Interrupted Eating. She’d chosen to do this in the slow cooker so I thought I’d do the same. I asked if she’d fried the onions off beforehand, as in my experience onions aren’t good at breaking down in a slow cooker. However in my haste I got on and cooked them off anyway, before Becky could reply that she didn’t!

Mine turned out very nice – warming and spiced and just breaking through the fatty lamb. It kinda tasted like it had been baked in mango chutney. Juicy and filling, not what you’d call a light dinner! Good fun though.

Curried lamb breast baked with onions (serves 4):

800g lamb breast

3 onions, sliced

1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled

3 garlic cloves, peeled

1 large bunch of fresh coriander

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon chilli powder

6 curry leaves

  1. Pre-heat your slow cooker to low.
  2. Heat a little oil in a large frying pan and sear the lamb on each side. Put to one side while you fry the onions gently.
  3. Remove the leaves from the coriander bunch and reserve for later. Put the stalks on a chopping board with the garlic and ginger and chop together to a chunky paste. When the onions have softened add the coriander / garlic / ginger mix. Fry for a minute and then add all the spices, frying for another minute.
  4. Add half the onion mix to the slow cooker, pop the lamb on top then add the remaining onions. Add a splash of water and pop the lid on for about 6 hours, or until the lamb can be pushed apart with a spoon.
  5. Remove the lamb to the side for one minute so you can remove any bones or gummy bits of skin ‘n’ stuff that lamb breast can have. Pop a sieve on a saucepan and put the onions into the sieve. Put the lamb and drained onions with a sprinkle of salt back into the slow cooker while you work on the reserved liquid.
  6. Simmer the liquid until reduced by half, add a dash of white wine vinegar and the coriander leaves. Dish up the lamb and onions, spoon over the sauce and serve with crispy cauliflower.

red onion & tomato salsa

Posted by Gary in coriander, cumin, garlic, red onion, tomato

red onion and coriander salsa

Mrs. Roast Potato was upset – I’d forgotten to go to the shops for her favourite Old El Paso salsa on chicken taco night. So it’s time to rummage the cupboards and come up with a decent enough substitute.

And it came out nice. Fresh-tasting, fruity and spicy, the way tomato salsa should be. The red onion was really harsh at first but after letting it sit for an hour it had mellowed to a really nice spiky flavour. Another ingredient that really made it was Tiptree tomato ketchup, not as sweet as the omnipresent Heinz but richer and fruitier, closer to tomato puree. It gives lovely rich depth to the salsa, and does a lot of the leg work.

Goes great with a taco, and I’ve enough left for a rump steak and salad tomorrow.

Red onion & tomato salsa  (makes about a pint):

1 red onion, quartered

1 clove garlic, peeled

Small bunch of coriander, leaves and stalks

3 bog-standard but ripe tomatoes

¼ teaspoon chilli powder

Sprinkle of Maldon salt

Big splash of red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons Tiptree tomato ketchup

  1. Whack everything in a food processor in the order above. Add a splash of water to loosen it and check for seasoning. You can eat it straight away but if you have time leave it to sit for a couple of hours the flavours develop further.

indian pot roast chicken

Posted by Gary in chicken, coriander, cumin, curry, onion, potatoes, spinach, yoghurt and tagged with

indian pot roast chicken

This meal represent a confluence of good fortune: I receive a job-lot of Total Greek Yoghurt one minute and a copy of Leon Naturally Fast Food the next. I’ve never been so instantly bowled over by a cookbook, it’s extremely wedded to the way I cook and makes perfect sense. It’s beautifully presented in a scrapbook style, and packed with a very real voice. It’s utterly charming.

I was drawn to the pot-roasts, and had a curryish state of mind going in. So this seemed like the one to use as a starting point. I’ve added a few bits and pieces.

It was very satisfying, but personally I underseasoned it. It will be utterly delicious the next time.

Indian chicken pot roast (serves 4):

4 chicken quarters

300ml 0% Total Greek yoghurt

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon garam masala

2 potatoes, sliced into thick discs

1 lemon, sliced into thick discs

1 onion, sliced into rings

1 large bag of spinach

  1. Brine the chicken in enough water to cover with 8% salt for 6 hours. Afterwards, rinse under a cold tap and pat dry.
  2. Mix the yoghurt and spices together with a pinch of salt and pepper. Marinate the chicken in this lovely pink mix overnight.
  3. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Layer the potatoes in the bottom of a large lidded casserole dish. Lay the onions on this, then the lemon slices. Season well, then plop the chicken on top of this with any leftover marinade.
  4. Bake for 1½ to 2 hours, until the chicken is done. Get the chicken out carefully with tongs, tip the spinach in and pop the chicken back on top. Cook for another 10 minutes, until the spinach has wilted and is tender.

pickled cabbage

Posted by Gary in cabbage, coriander, fennel

pickled cabbage, kebab-shop style

A guilty pleasure of mine is a kebab from a kebab shop. I don’t even get drunk to have them. Part of the fun is reeling off the list of accompaniments you want with yours. One of my favourites is the pickled cabbage. As such, I’ve perfected my own kebab shop-style pickled cabbage.

Pickled cabbage:

¼ white cabbage, finely shredded

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

4 tablespoons white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons white vinegar

White pepper

Sea salt

  1. Combine all the ingredients and toss well. Pick up the cabbage and let it drop back into the bowl through your fingers to mix. Add a really large pinch of salt at this stage, and you’ll adjust it later.
  2. Leave for two hours or more, tossing every half hour. When it’s tenderised to where you like it (about two hours for me), check for seasoning. Use salt, pepper, more white wine vinegar and a maybe a pinch of sugar to get the flavour balance of salty and sharp. If it’s gone too far you can always rescue it by rinsing under cold water.

chicken hawaij quesadillas

Posted by Gary in cheese, chicken, coriander, cumin, food, tortilla

chicken hawaij quesadillas

Cultures collide in one of my favourite sandwiches: the quesadilla. Hawaij is a Lebanese Jewish spice mix, with a lovely cardamom perfume kick. Wedged into some tortillas with cheese and chicken, I could eat this kind of thing all day.

Chicken hawaij quesadillas:

For the hawaij mix:

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

Crushed seeds of 2 cardamom pods (discard pods)

2 chicken breasts, diced

4 flour tortillas

1 red onion, sliced

A couple of handfuls of grated cheese

Chopped coriander leaves

Creme fraiche and salsa to serve

  1. Mix all the hawaij ingredients together and marinate the chicken for at least an hour.
  2. Fry the onion in a pan for a minute, then add the chicken mixture. Continue to stir fry until the chicken is cooked through, then set to one side.
  3. Lay a tortilla out, sprinkle some cheese on it, add some chicken then top with more cheese and a blast of coriander. Sandwich another tortilla on top.
  4. In a dry pan fry the tortilla sandwich, pressing down to glue it together. Keep your nose peeled for burning smells, you want to catch it about a minute before this! Flip over and fry the other side.
  5. Cut into wedges and munch with a scoop each of creme fraiche and salsa, or guacamole if that’s your thing.

lamb keema sag with rosti topping

Posted by Gary in coriander, cumin, curry, food, lamb, potatoes
lamb keema sag with rosti topping

lamb keema sag with rosti topping

This is a recipe I’ve plucked from the pages of the April delicious magazine. I seem to be drawn to each every curry-style recipe at the moment – I’ve another planned for Sunday! This one seemed utterly irresistible, with spicy, rich lamb combined with a crisp potato topping.

I decreased the chilli for my version – we prefer it a little milder – and I’ve been off sweet potatoes since the awful barefoot contessa persuaded me that combining them with orange juice would be a good idea. Those changes made, the cook was on. I begins as a pan stir-fry, then finished in the oven to cook out the potato topping. The trickiest bit is draining the potato of excess water – I need to think of a way to squeeze them out without scalding myself. That aside, this was enormously satisfying. Filling, savoury, meaty and a dense mouthful on every fork. Very tasty indeed.

Lamb keema sag with rosti topping:

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

½ teaspoon turmeric

½ chilli powder

2 onions, sliced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon ginger, minced

500g lamb mince

300ml lamb stock

1 tin tomatoes

300g spinach

1 teaspoon garam masala

Juice of ½ lemon

2 maris piper potatoes, grated

  1. Fry the seeds in a dry pan for 1 – 2 minutes until fragrant. Grind to a powder and mix with the turmeric and chilli.
  2. In the same pan fry one of the onions with the garlic and ginger for a few minutes until softened. Tip the ground spices into this.
  3. Fry the lamb until browned. Tip away the excess fat and add the stock and tomatoes. Simmer for 20 minutes until the lamb is tender and the sauce has thickened. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
  4. Wilt the spinach in a colander by pouring over boiling water. Immediately run under cold water and squeeze off excess liquid. Add this to the mince with lemon and garam masala. Check for seasoning.
  5. Back in the colander repeat the boiling water trick with the potatoes and other onion. Tip onto a tea towel and squeeze out the excess liquid. Mix with a little oil and season, then spread on top of the mince.
  6. Put the pan into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes until browned in top.