The sun shone in my corner of Rayleigh this weekend, and with family coming over for dinner a roast or stew didn’t seem right for the occasion. I was browsing the ol’ recipe book shelf and a skinny little booklet fell out: Jamie Oliver’s Red Nose Day Recipes 2009. I was bought it as a gift, which is great, but it’s so slender it disappeared between dusty volumes in my collection. Mrs. RoastPotato took one look at this salad recipe and that was it, it was on the menu.
It’s a fairly simple affair, a celebration of tomatoes matched with milky mozzarella. I managed to pick up some arancia variety at the Co-op, and they were beautiful – sweet grape-sized amber tomatoes with bags of character. Paired with some more luscious vine toms they were a pleasing mix. Unusually there was only vinegar on the salad items, with the oil component coming from a punchy basil dressing, and as a combination it was brilliant. Lots of bright, sunny flavours and a celebration of it’s core ingredients. Dust this one off for a barbecue this Summer, it will be an instant hit.
Salad from Capri (serves 6 as a side-salad):
600g mozzarella, torn into chunks
A few handfuls of mixed tomatoes
A handful of baby salad leaves
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
For the basil dressing:
Large handful of basil leaves
Large pinch of sea salt
Extra virgin olive oil
For the basil dressing, bash the basil and salt together in a pestle and mortar. In seconds it will turn to a spinach-y mush. Add enough oil to make a vibrant green paste.
Strew most of the mozzarella over a large serving dish. Hold some back for another layer.
Toss the tomatoes and salad with the vinegar and a sprinkle of black pepper, and drape over the cheese.
Top with more mozzarella, and put splodges of basil dressing around the salad – these will provide big hits of salty basilness through the salad.
I fancied meaty, tomatoey and deep flavour so threw together a bolognese first thing in the morning for the slow cooker. Ten hours later a rich stew awaits me. YUM.
Spaghetti bolognese for the slow cooker:
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stick, diced
500g beef mince
1 tablespoon flour
1 tin tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato puree
A little bay, thyme and oregano
100ml red wine
100ml beef stock
Cook the veg in a frying pan for a couple of minutes. Add the mince and brown, then add the flour and cook for a minute.
Add the rest of the ingredients. Bring everything to the simmer then add to the slow cooker. Leave for at least 8 hours, and serve with pasta, shredded basil leaves and grated cheese.
I’ve got a bit of a thing for curries at the moment, helped by recent repeats of Floyd’s India on Five. There’s tons of Keith Floyd’s typical ease, wit and of course plenty of great recipes. He tours the country and attempts to distill the tastes of the region into a handful of recipes. It never fails to impress me how different the techniques are around India yet still maintaining similar techniques: crackling, tempering, masala, gravy etc. I recently enjoyed a chicken tikka masala made at home and just had to do something from this series. The one that stuck out to me was a lamb rogan josh. That was the recipe sorted, what about the meat?
I was fortunate enough to be sent a boneless lamb leg by Abel & Cole. Their specialty is weekly veg boxes, serving up a random assortment of organic, locally-grown produce delivered to your door. Unfortunately this service doesn’t quite suit me; I’m a weekly planner who organises food for the week and getting a bunch of stuff I have to plan around just doesn’t fit. In addition to this however they also act as a butcher and grocer; including this lovely joint. I opened it out so I could cube it, trimming away the excess surface fat (if I was roasting this would have been extremely welcome, but not suited to the pot-roasting I was about to do). Cutting first into strips it was clear this was great-quality meat; an even marbling of fat within, a healthy ruby colouring and a loose texture.
On with the recipe then, the few unusual quirks to it were: onions (plus a couple of garlic cloves) were fried first to get a little colour, before being blitzed and added to the pan. After an hour or so in the curry this left a lovely sweetness that I really enjoyed. Also it’s in two parts; the lamb is cooked down with the spices first until it goes fairly dry – much like a rendang (or is it penang?) from Thai cooking – before adding the remainder of the ingredients. This caked the flavour right on to the meat in a very pleasing fashion. Towards the end I added ground almonds and possibly overcooked them a touch – they came out gritty and slightly bitter. That said the overall flavour of the dish was tremendous, giving and giving as a good curry should, with fragrant cloves to begin with, sweet onions and tomatoes, leaving with a slightly peppery finish. I love to eat a curry with a decent naan bread, pushing the meat ‘n’ sauce around and scooping up. This was perfect for that, as it had a quite thick gravy with which to mop. Next time however I’ll add a little more cardamom, and perhaps not let the almonds cook out so long – in face I might be tempted to leave them out altogether.
And the meat? Superb. It yielded beautifully in chunky flakes, and despite being up against the strongest of flavours you could still taste that it was lamb underneath all the spices. About half an hour into cooking I had a sneaky sample of the sauce and you tell that the lamb had started to release fats into the mix, as the slightly greasy – yet delicious – unmistakeable lamb flavour started to seep through. It was a beautiful piece of meat from Abel & Cole, and while I might not personally consider them for weekly veg (I have a friend who swears by their boxes) I will definitely go back to them for special joints of meat. In fact, I think I’ll be ordering my Christmas gammon from there any minute now…
Lamb rogan josh:
2 onions, sliced
4 garlic cloves, peeled
4 cardamom pods
2 cloves
1 tablespoon ginger paste
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon paprika
300g plain yoghurt
1.5kg lamb leg, diced
1 tin tomatoes
2 tablespoons ground almonds
2 tablespoons coriander, chopped
Fry the onions and garlic in a little oil until softened and starting to colour. Transfer to a food processor and blitz until smooth.
Add some oil to a pan and fry the cardamom and cloves over a high heat until a fierce crackling noise is heard (about 2-3 mins).
Turn the heat down and add the ginger and onion pastes. You should stir continuously to avoid sticking and burning. Add the chilli, turmeric and paprika and stir well to avoid the powder clumping together.
Add the yoghurt and stir until combined, then add the lamb and a good pinch of salt. When everything is well mixed transfer to your lowest hob heat and leave to bubble gently, uncovered, for about an hour and a half. Stir every half an hour or so.
When the the mixture has gone quite dry add the tomatoes and ground almonds and simmer for another 30 minutes. Check the seasoning and stir through coriander. Serve with rice, naan, a vegetable side or all three.
Tapas excites me. There, I said it. What other eating style allows you to order half a dozen dishes each and survey them like a greedy child? A dizzying array of little terracotta pots sit before you, deep with spice, wine and aroma.
I had a craving for this the other day so boshed together a couple of tapas style dishes, a meaty, sweet meatball dish and some pokey, chewy patatas bravas.
Albondigas in almond sauce:
500g pork mince
½ nutmeg, grated
Parsley, roughly chopped
½ teaspoon paprika
Lemon zest, grated
Flour
1 onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
Chicken stock
2 tablespoons ground almonds
Combine the mince, nutmeg, paprika, lemon and half the parsley in a bowl. Wet your hands and form into small meatballs, about the size of a ping-pong ball. If you have time leave in the fridge for half an hour to firm up.
Roll the meatballs in a dusting of flour, and fry in butter until lightly browned all over and put to one side.
In the same pan fry the onion and garlic. When softened add the chicken stock and simmer briskly to reduce and thicken. Add the almonds and stir well.
Reduce the heat, add the meatballs back to the pan and continue to cook for a further ten minutes. Serve with parsley.
Patatas bravas:
1 large potato, diced
1 chorizo sausage, diced
1 tin tomatoes
Preheat the oven to 200°C. In a large baking tray add the chorizo and potato and cook for twenty minutes. At this point the chorizo will start to leak it’s peppery juice, so toss everything together well to coat.
Add the tomatoes and continue to cook for another twenty minutes until the potatoes are tender. Check for seasoning and garnish with parsley.
