Chickpea And Potato Stew

After having a mixed grill at Ishtar, a Turkish Restaurant near Baker Street, I felt like I needed a break from meat this evening. The grill came with a little bit of salad and a few spoonfuls of rice and the rest was made up of kebabs and chops which must have come to more than a pound of meat. I followed this with a beef topside baguette for lunch and at about mid-afternoon I started getting chest pains. I'm not sure if this was linked with my consumption of red meat but I went home on the dot and made this vegetarian stew.

Chickpea And Potato stew (serves 2)

3 tbsp olive oil
350g red onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 green chilli, sliced
2 tsp paprika
250g tomatoes, chopped
1 can of chickpeas
1 large potato, peeled and cut into large chunks
salt and pepper
220g couscous
A large pinch of saffron

1) First peel the potato, cut into largeish chunks and par-boil for around five minutes. Drain and then fry them in 2 tbsp of sunflower oil until slightly brown and crispy. Pat them dry with kitchen roll.
2) Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and add the sliced onions. Cook for about 15 minutes, by which time they should be really soft. Now add the garlic and chilli and continue cooking until the aroma mellows.
3) Next add the paprika and cook for a further couple of minutes before throwing in the tomatoes and the chick peas. Add 1/4 pint of water to loosen it a touch, season with salt and pepper and cook until the tomatoes have gone mushy. About ten minutes.
4) Put 220ml of boiling water in a small saucepan with a large pinch of saffron. Add the couscous and leave for five minutes until cooked. Add a knob of butter to the couscous to make it taste nice!
5) Finally stir the potatoes into the stew and warm through. If you'd prefer the sauce to be a bit thinner you can add a little more water at this stage.

Despite being Spanish in flavour, this recipe is inspired by two curries I made in India. You've got the tomatoes and onions of the Egg Masala and then the fried potatoes from the Aloo Gobi. But instead of adding coriander and garam masala I flavoured it with smoke paprika and added some garlic. I reckon this is as hearty a vegetarian dish as you could make for a winter evening and you do want some meat you could add some chorizo or even serve it under a fillet of cod or haddock.

Lamb Kebabs

Damn Sainsbury's. Do they do it deliberately? Do they sell their lamb mince in 400g portions, knowing that you need 500g to make a proper Shepherd's Pie? This means that I had to buy two packs of lamb mince and, after making Sunday's Shepherd's Pie I had more lamb mince leftover. What to do? I could freeze it for a later day but I know it would be left there for months until it's time to throw away. I'm not very good with freezers, see. For me they're like cupboards to hide food in and forget about. So, in the end, I decided to have more lamb the following evening. This time in the form of koftas. I served them with a tomato, shallot and lime salad and a carrot thoran.

Lamb Koftas with carrot thoran and tomato and onion salad (serves two)

300g lamb mince
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
1 green chilli, chopped
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp chopped coriander
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
3 tsp lemon juice
salt and pepper
2 carrots,grated
1 shallot, chopped
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
Pinch of turmeric
30g dessicated coconut, mixed with 2 tbsp water.
1 tomato, cut in half and sliced
1 shallot, sliced
Juice of 1/2 lime

1) The lamb koftas are easy. First dry fry the coriander and cumin seeds until they give off an aroma. Then crush them all and put in a bowl. Next chop the garlic, coriander and ginger and add these to the bowl with the chopped coriander, lemon juice and the meat. Mix around into a big ball.
2) Now pick large chunks from the meat, roll into a ball, flatten it out into a log shape so it is about an inch thick and put it onto an oiled skewer Refridgerate for 30 minutes.
3) Put the grill on and put the koftas onto a baking sheet lined with foil. Grill for five minutes on either side.
4) While you are grilling the koftas, make the carrot thoran. For this you need to heat 1 tbsp of groundnut oil in a frying pan and pop the mustard seeds. Then add the shallot and the green chilli and fry for five minutes until softened. Add the carrot and coconut and continue cooking for a few minutes.
5) Finally the salad. Slice the tomato, alternate withe a slice of shallot, sprinkle with salt and squeeze over some lime juice. Serve it all up.

This would have been better had I not overcooked it but at least I can now say that there is no need to cook koftas for 20 minutes. Nor is there any need to have three yourself but they were really tasty, fragrant and mildly spiced. That's a good excuse isn't it?

Shepherd's Pie

For some reason I've been asked this question a few times recently: what would be your final meal. Once again this topic came up on Friday evening and I find it amazing how many people go for food from their childhood. Mine is always my Grandma's shepherd's pie. Hers was special because she always made it when we visited as she knew it was my favourite. As soon as we arrived we'd be down the beach hut and then after a game of football in the back garden we'd be called in to eat shepherd's pie. I can't say I always fancy a curry but I could always eat a shepherd's pie. Here's mine. It's got garlic in it. Grandma wouldn't approve.

Shepherd's Pie (Serves 6)

1 oz butter
500g lamb mince
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery stick, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tbp flour
1 tin of tomatoes
1/2pt lamb stock
1 tbsp chopped rosemary
1 tbsp thyme leaves
1 tsp Worcester Sauce
1.25kg potatoes
1 egg, beaten

1) Melt the butter in a large heavy-based saucepan and fry the lamb until browned all over. Remove the lamb from the pan and drain all but a couple of tablespoons of fat.
2) Gently fry the onion, carrot, celery and garlic for around five minutes. Return the lamb to the pan, add the flour and mix around in the pan. Cook for a further minute to cook the flour and then add the tomatoes, stock, herbs, Worcester sauce and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer, put the lid on and cook for 45 minutes. Put the lamb into a casserole dish and refridgerate
3) Meanwhile make the mash potatoes. Cut them into large chunks and boil in salted water. When cooked mash with about 75g butter, 55ml warm milk and a beaten egg yolk. Season with salt and pepper. Leave to go cool.
4) Take the cassserole dish out of the fridge, top with the mash potato and put in the oven at 200g until the topping is golden - should be around 30 minutes. I served it with kale and carrots.

Leek, potato and bacon soup

I made this on the Friday of my birthday weekend. I'd had a rotten cold all week and had to tidy my mess of a room before my friends arrived from Bath on Saturday. So that meant no time to go to do some food shopping. In the fridge was three rashers of bacon and I had two leeks and some potatoes in my veg bowl. So I put it all in this soup.

Leek, potato and bacon soup (Serves 4)

2 tbsp butter
2 leeks, sliced
3 maris piper potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 pint chicken stock
3 bacon rashers, cubed
1 tbsp chopped parsley

1) Melt the butter in a saucepan and coook the leeks until soft. This will take about ten minutes.
2) Add the potatoes and mix around with the buttery leeks. Next add enough chicken stock to cover the potatoes and cook until the potatoes are cooked (around 15 mins).
3) Meanwhile cut the bacon into cubes and fry until nicely browned. Add to the soup with the chopped parsley.
4) Pour everything into a blender and blitz until smooth.

I'm not a big fan of creamy soups so thsi is great. Leek and potato soup can be quite bland so the addition of bacon adds a bit of flavour. I was still hungry after eating this though. Soup never really does the business for me if I need filling up. I thought about buyings ome chips from around the corner but was a good boy and just went to tidy the room instead.

Pork And Lentils

This is a good recipe when you've got some leftover roast meat. This time I had plenty of pork letfover so I put it with a few of my favourite things: Puy lentils, mustard and mashed potato.

Roast Pork With Lentils (Serves 2)

A bowlful of leftover roast pork leg (apologies for the lack of accuracy!)
200g puy lentils
1 carrot, cut in three
1 celery stick, cut in three
Half an onion
1 bay leaf
parsley stalks
1 tbsp butter
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 heaped tbsp creme fraiche
1 tbsp parsley leaves, finely chopped


1. Cut the roast pork into cubes. Put the lentils in a pan with the carrot, celery, onion, bay leaf and some parsley stalks, bring the the boil and cook for 20 minutes. Drain, making sure you reserve some of the cooking liquor. Remove the carrot, bay leaf, onion and celery.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the garlic and saute for a few minutes. Then add the pork to heat through. Now add the lentils to the pan with the mustard, creme fraiche, parsley and season with salt and pepper. Add some of the water you cooked the lentils in to slacken to your desired consistency.
3. Serve with mashed potato and boiled savoy cabbage flavoured with a teaspoon of caraway seeds.

This is quite heavy, stodgy fare but just what I needed on a cold, rainy night. The savoy cabbage flavoured with caraway seeds wasn't bad either. Puy lentils really are amazing - they keep their shape, have loads of flavour and only take 20 minutes to cook. Puut them together with sausages or leftover meat and you've got a quick, hearty dinner that's almost as good as the previous day's roast.

Roast Pork Leg

Just catching up on My Christmas cooking at the moment. I usually go out drinking on Christmas Eve with my friends, but mindful of the nightmare it was to get back to Costessey from Norwich on the night before Christmas I decided to stay home this time and make a nice dinner for my parents. I wanted to make the stuffed pork tenderloins from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's book but Pickerings, the local butcher, didn't have any. So I picked a nice piece of boneless leg for three. It's really important to get a good piece from a decent local butcher. I bought some for New Year's Day from the supermarket but it was a bit lop-sided and the fat wasn't completely covering the meat so one end went a bit dry. I've always gone for Hugh FW's 20 minute sizzzle method but the sticker on the wrapping for this said "for perfect roast pork, smear in olive oil season with salt and pepper and put in the oven at 200c for 25 minutes for 500g). I cooked it for slightly longer than that but it came out juicy with a crispy layer of fat.

Roast Pork (Serves 3)

1kg Boneless Leg Of Pork
Olive Oil
Small handful of thyme
4 sage leaves
1 red onion, thickly sliced
4 garlic cloves
salt and pepper
splash of Aspall's dry cider
1 tsp flour
1/2 pt chicken stock

1) Pre-heat the oven to 200c. Smear the bottom of your roasting tin with olive oil. Place the onion slices in the middle of the pan and put the sage leaves on top. Now smear the pork in a little olive oil, sprinkle over some thyme leaves and put a few sprigs in the pan along with the unpeeled garlic cloves. Put in the oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Check to see if it's done after an hour though. The juices should run clear if it is.
2) As the meat rests for 20 minutes, make the gravy. Spoon off the fat from the roasting pan, mash the garlic cloves and put your pan on the hob. Deglaze the pan with a splash of cider. Then add a teaspoon of plain flour and mix around before gradually adding the chicken stock. At this stage I find it easier to transfer the gravy to a saucepan. Pass it through a sieve in a pan and keep it warm on the hob or reduce it to your desired consistency.
3) Now it's up to you. I think roast pork is great with mashed potato and savoy cabbage flavoured with a sprinkling of caraway seeds but you can go for the full works and have roast potatoes. For these I would par-boil the potatoes for five minutes, scrape them with a fork, give them a good coating in hot olive oil, sprinkle with more thyme leaves and season with salt and pepper. Stick them in the oven for 45 minutes.

I really like roast pork leg. It's far easier to carve than the last roast I had (lamb shoulder) and the fat prevents it from drying out. My Dad annnounced after he'd eaten it that he'd gone off pork but I don't know if that says anything about my cooking or not.

Lamb And Aubergine Curry

I made this one Saturday before Christmas. I seem to remember it being cold outside and Norwich were playing Colchester on the telly. For some reason I wanted something that reminded me of going to Norwich matches when I was young in the days when there was always a hearty one-pot dinner waiting for us boys. For this one I took the base from the tomato and onion masala I learned on my Indian course and slow cooked it like a stew. A meeting of English and Indian if you like.

Lamb And Aubergine Curry (Serves 3-4)

750g cubed lamb (either from the shoulder or leg)
25g plain flour, seasoned with a large pinch of cumin
1 large aubergine, cut into bite-sized chunks
3 tbsp vegetable/sunflower oil
350g red onion, sliced
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
2 1/2 tsp ground coriander
250g tomato, chopped
1 tsp sugar

1) Pre-heat the oven to 140c (gas mark 1/2). First deal with the lamb. Just toss it in the flour and heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a large casserole dish and fry in batches until nicely browned.
2) Remove the lamb from the pan and fry the sliced onion for around 15 minutes until light brown and really soft. Next add the spices and temper over a medium heat until the spices have released their oils and the aroma has mellowed. Then add the chopped tomatoes with a teaspoon of sugar and cook until it has gone mushy.
3) Return the lamb to the pan, cover with water and place in the oven for three hours.
4) Half-way through cooking time, cut the aubergine into bit-sized chunks. Place in a colander, sprinkle with salt and leave to bleed. Rinse the aubergine, pat dry and with an hour to go until the lamb is ready, add to the casserole dish.
5) Remove from the oven and serve with plain boiled rice.

This is a really fine English-style winter curry. That's not to say it's greasy but it is very gently spiced with all the hallmarks of a good British casserole. Mild curries are often full of cream and butter but this isn't yet it's still slightly sweet and rich.