Category: cumin

beef chilli

Sometimes you see a recipe on TV and you have to do it immediately. And so it was with Jamie Cooks Summer, where Jamie Oliver cruises around a festival and cooks a bit. He made a chilli with a big slab of brisket as opposed to mince, rubbed it with spices and then braised it in tomatoes for hours. Watching the tender meat pull apart with a spoon is guaranteed mouth-watering.

I couldn’t find reasonably priced brisket (what’s happened to the price of brisket?!) so I used a large chunk of casserole steak instead, which still gave the same loose texture and great taste. I also added peppers and kidney beans to mine to round it out a bit. I left out the absurd amount of chillies that Jamie puts in every recipe, but still left plenty of tongue-tickling heat in there. It’s a great fun recipe though and a big hit for a party.

Beef chilli (serves 6):

800g casserole steak, scored

Paprika

Oregano

Cumin

Chilli powder

2 tins of tomatoes

2 large onions, sliced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 red peppers, sliced

1 tin kidney beans, drained

Get a large lidded casserole dish on a low hob, and a large frying pan on a high heat with a splash of oil.

Rub a dusting each of oregano, paprika, cumin and chill into the meat with a sprinkle of salt. Make sure it’s well massaged in and sear the meat all over in the frying pan to get a lovely spicy crust on it.

While this is searing, add the tomatoes to the casserole and half as much water again. Remove the meat to the side for a minute while you fry the onions and garlic until softened, then chuck the onions, garlic, meat and peppers into the pan. Stick the lid on, turn the heat down and simmer for 2 hours.

Add the beans and cook out for another hour, or until the beef just falls apart. Serve with wraps, guacamole, salsa and rice.

Tags jamie oliver

coriander cumin garlic red onion tomato

red onion & tomato 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

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.

beef burger crackers cumin mayonnaise nigella seeds

golden seeded burgers

Ryvita sent me some of their new Ryvita Crackers for Cheese recently. They’re in two flavours: golden rye and black pepper, and are apparently very low in calories. They’re very tasty and great with cheese. For more information, take a look at their Facebook page. But the sweet, almost honeyed flavour of the golden rye set me thinking…

I’ve used crackers in a burger mix before and they came out great, so I tried them here. And they work absolutely great, filling the mouth with rounded flavours, and combining with the warmth of the seeds for a really different tasting burger.

Golden seeded burgers (makes 6):

For the burgers:

6 Ryvita golden rye crackers

1 teaspoon nigella seeds

1 teaspoon sesame seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon smoked sea salt

Few grinds of black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

500g beef mince

1 tablespoon mushroom ketchup

Oyster sauce

For the spicy mayo:

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 tablespoon tomato ketchup

A pinch of paprika

Juice of ½ lemon

Combine the crackers, seeds, salt and pepper in a pestle and mortar and grind to dust. Mix with the oil, mince and mushroom ketchup and form into 6 even patties. Chill in the fridge for an hour before cooking to firm up.

For the mayo, mix all the ingredients in a bowl and set to one side.

To cook the burgers, get a griddle or frying pan very hot and grill the patties for 4 minutes on one side. Flip the burgers over and baste the cooked sides with a glaze of oyster sauce. Cook for a further 4 minutes (or until done as you like – note the burger will look very dark brown due to the seeds) and serve with mayo in a soft white bun.

cauliflower cumin turmeric

crispy roast cauliflower

Another delight tweaked from Leon Fast Food. A quick and easy side dish. I suspected roasting cauliflower would render it quite dry, but surprisingly it’s still nice and juicy in the middle. I ran this one past one of the authors, who offered the following advice. I am going to make it again this weekend!

Crispy roast cauliflower:

1 head of cauliflower, slashed into florets

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon turmeric

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Scatter the ingredients in a large roasting tray and toss with plenty of oil, salt and pepper. Roast for 30 – 40 minutes, until you get “crispy brown bits at the edge.”

Tags henry dimbleby