Aubergine & Eggplant

Grandma Lena's Chicken Fricassee

My Grandma Lena was one of those people who churned out masses of food every time we visited, and I loved it all. The Jamaican hostess in her I suppose. She made me toast that was like warm bread soaked with butter and spiced cakes that were complicated with allspice and cloves. I don't remember her main courses as well, except for this one because my mum got the recipe and made it at home.

It's deceptively simple this one, the end result tastes like there should be about four more ingredients than there are. If you can't get hold of scotch bonnet peppers, don't worry, it's not critical. You must use chicken thighs though - breast meat doesn't work here. We've found that skin-on thighs go a bit slimy, so it's best to skin them first. Finally, this isn't a quick recipe, so make sure you've got a good hour and a half free.

Grandma Lena's Chicken Fricassee
(serves 2)

6 chicken thighs - boneless or bone-in, preferably skinless
4 medium onions
handful of fresh thyme
olive oil
1 scotch bonnet pepper, whole
Half pint of chicken stock

1. Chop the onions into half moons, and add to a medium frying pan with some olive oil on medium-low heat. A cast iron pan is best, but I don't have one at the moment and use non-stick - it's fine. Cook them down gently until you have a sticky, brown mess.

2. Add the thighs flat side down and turn up the heat a bit to brown them, flipping after a couple minutes.

3. Add the chicken stock, scotch bonnet pepper (DON'T pierce it, we're going for flavour here, not heat) and the fresh thyme to the pan, and turn down the heat. Leave it for an hour, flipping the chicken every so often to keep it moist. 

4. Serve the thighs with the gooey onion gravy on top immediately, with rice, mashed potato or noodles. 

 

Quick Roast Lamb Leftovers Solution

Just over a month ago I had my first child. Which is lovely and magical and all those things, but it also means the time available for cooking has shrunk to five to ten minute windows that can be interrupted at any time. Researching, prepping and fussing over finnicky recipes is out, for now. Anything I can bung in a roasting tin for long periods of time with some veg is featuring heavily on the family menu at the moment. Which is great, but it also means there are odd bits of meat leftover - not always enough to recreate the meal as a rerun for two people.

So, inspired by a Donna Hay recipe I couldn't quite remember, I threw together this quick dish. You could use any leftover roast - chicken, beef, pork. In this case, I had a chunk of roast leg of lamb. It's nothing earth-shattering, but the combination of textures makes it something a bit more than the average stuff-in-a-tortilla thing.

Quick Lamb Wraps
(serves 2)

Leftover roast meat of some sort, cut into bite-sized chunks
Hummous
1 each orange & yellow peppers, sliced
2 carrots, peeled and finely grated
4 flour tortillas
Olive oil

1. Heat a pan over medium heat, and add a small quantity of olive oil, whatever you need to keep things from sticking, but no more. Stir fry your meat so it colours a bit, but be careful not to overcook it. 

2. Add the peppers to the meat for a moment or two - we want to keep the crunch in the peppers, so don't go overboard. Turn off the heat.

3. Heat the tortillas in the microwave by putting them on a plate between two pieces of kitchen paper for 20 seconds. 

4. Spread each tortilla with a tablespoon of hummous, then the meat and peppers, and top with the grated carrot. Roll up and eat!

Balti lamb burgers

I've been trying to prepare extra food and freeze it for the impending birth of my first little one, as everyone tells you you should. However, it taunts me there in the freezer, yummy lasagna, curry sauces in little containers.

So needless to say we've nearly eaten it all, already. But I have a few weeks to replenish it. One of the things I have stashed in there are quantities of a basic curry sauce that can go several different ways quite easily by adding ground almonds and cream for korma, chopped tomatoes and some spices for balti or rogan josh. I had defrosted a container for a chicken curry that didn't quite happen, and then happily decided to get some mince lamb from the Ginger Pig the other day. The balti lamb burger was born. 

I would definitely make the curry sauce at some other point, freeze it in batches, and then whip one out for the burger recipe. Making it just for this might be just too much faffing. Follow the basic curry sauce recipe here at delicious. magazine, definitely worth using a frozen then defrosted one for the intensity of flavour. I split my curry sauce into 6 quantities as there's only two of us I usually cook for.

Balti lamb burgers with quick cucumber raita

Makes 5 burgers

For the burgers

1/2 medium onion

2 garlic cloves

1 quantity of basic curry sauce, defrosted

1 tsp of garam masala balti (mine comes from Seasoned Pioneers and I'd highly recommend them)

500 grams good quality lamb mince

Groundnut oil

For the cucumber raita

(These quantities are approximate, taste as you go)

plain Greek yoghurt

cumin seeds

cucumber

Pitta breads and halved cherry tomatoes to serve

1. Whizz the half an onion and the garlic cloves in a food processor until they're essentially finely chopped, whatever size you're happy to find in a burger. 

2. Add the onions, garlic, curry sauce and garam masala balti into a bowl and mix it with your hands until it's well combined. Form into 5 burgers and leave on a plate to settle down. Put a grill pan on high heat.

3. Chop the cucumber into small chunks and add to the plain yoghurt in another bowl. Dry fry the cumin seeds until they smell fragant, tossing them often - this should only take two minutes or so, so don't wander off. Add cumin seeds to the yoghurt and cucumber.

4. Your grill pan should be nice and hot by now. Pour some groundnut oil into your palm and massage the burgers gently. Brush them if you're squeamish about this kind of thing. Put them on the grill pan and leave them alone for a good 4 minutes. Flip once, leave them for another 3-4 minutes. Cooking time depends on the thickness of your burgers, so adjust as necessary.

5. Take the burgers off the heat and let them rest for a couple minutes, and use the flaming hot grill pan to heat up the pitta breads, push them down on the pan using your hand if you're brave or whatever tool is to hand. You'll have to do this in batches. 

6. I served this with a pitta per burger, with cherry tomatoes and the cucumber raita in two bowls and we went at it. Make sure you have plenty of napkins to hand, these are messy.

Edgware Road Yoghurt Sauce

I used to live in Paddington, around the corner from the mainline rail station and a quick walk from the hundreds of Lebanese restaurants on Edgware Road. We always meant to visit them more than we did, but every time we made it into one, I fell a little bit more in love with the tongue-numbing garlic sauce served with the grilled meat. Somehow it didn't have that sharp edge that hummus can have, and it goes so incredibly well with well-spiced grilled lamb or chicken. 

I tried to recreate it in spirit, more than texture, because the sauce you're served in those places is much denser than this is. I use my version to marinate chicken and pork in as well, serving a fresh batch on the side. And really, the coriander is my own addition... so you're seeing how far this is from the original but trust me, it's a bbq/picnic staple in my house and once you try it you'll be shocked how good yet how simple it is.

This is a taste-as-you-go recipe, so adjust to your needs.

Edgware Road Yoghurt Sauce

200ml of plain yoghurt (I like using Greek yoghurt, but runnier kinds work too)

1 lemon, both for zest and juice

1 tsp granulated freeze-dried garlic (in London, I buy this at Whole Foods - adjust this to your taste)

3 tbsp whole cumin seeds

1 bunch fresh coriander

Sea salt to taste

1. Pour the yoghurt into a bowl and zest the lemon into it. Then juice the same lemon into the bowl as well and mix it to loosen the sauce.

2. Smash the coriander seeds and cumin seeds with a mortar and pestle until the seeds are smashed up a bit and you're smelling the heavenly scent of cumin. Dump it in the yoghurt bowl. 

3. Chop the fresh coriander and add to yoghurt mixture. Taste it and see if it needs more garlic or salt. 

Serve it with warm flatbread, alongside grilled meats or use it as a marinade. 

It's really flexible and I add chopped cucumbers sometimes, chives, mint, finely chopped red onion. It's the lemon-cumin seed-garlic triumvirate that gives it that wonderful taste. 

Taking it slow

I've always wanted a casserole dish. Hang on, when I say casserole, I mean what some call a dutch oven, a camp oven or a cocotte. 

As much as I wanted a lovely flame red Le Creuset, I just can't afford it, so Ikea came to the rescue with a nice blue one half the price. It's first day in our house it's busy braising some lamb shanks. I'm not as familiar with this slow cooking recipes as I've never had the equipment, so I started simply with this recipe from Anthony Worrall Thompson to get the quantities right. I know everyone goes on about how these cuts are cheaper, but I have to admit I was really surprised to get two nice sized shanks from Waitrose for £5. And boy have I fallen in love....

The basic recipe is here. I think next I'll try this one for Braised Lamb Shanks with Ginger and Five Spice. Any other slow cooked casserole recipes I should try?

Three ingredients, two pots

One pot, if you can manage to cook rice in a frying pan. Personally, I wouldn’t go there. You’d have to take the rice out to cook the beef anyway, so that would be one pot and a bowl. Forget it, two pots.

We called this Hamburger and Rice when I was growing up. No cutsey euphemisms and actually none needed. It’s straight on comfort food.  It’s simple, nutritious, and any kid will eat this – promise.

It's ground beef [mince], tomato sauce, and rice, that's it. Put the rice on, and while it’s cooking, brown the beef. Add Italian seasoning and the tomato sauce to the beef and simmer a bit, and then add the cooked rice when it’s ready. Proportions are to your own taste, I like it a bit on the runny side. No ‘eeeuuuw’; wait till you taste it.

These days I use extra lean ground beef and yesterday, fearing that I had found a way to screw up the simplest recipe on earth, I used brown rice. Sigh. H& R for dinner and the world tilted back into place- I’ll bet you were wondering why that had happened. 

When I was growing up it was one of the few things we would eat on Hallowe’en night. And you had to eat before you could put your costume on and go begging for candy from the neighbours. It was a Mom Rule. No running up and down people’s walks dressed like a pumpkin until you’d had your dinner.

The other good thing about H&R is that I got to pass on “ the method” to Erin.
The right way to eat it. When you’re little it always seems to arrive on your plate way too hot to eat. And because you’re little, you are really, really hungry. Dilemma.

The trick is to flatten it out on your plate till it’s almost level and then make “roads” in it with your carrot sticks. Straight across one way and then back across at an angle, and then you can make a bunch of shorter ones if you’re really getting into municipal planning.

By the time you’ve done this with enough care to keep the rice bits from falling off the plate, it’s cool enough to start eating around the edges of your roads. Erin watched in complete fascination the first time I showed her this. Big brown eyes looking at me in amazement; license to play with food.

When I’ve eaten too much rich food or just eaten out too often and crave something simple, this is at the top of my list. Well right under sushi. And steak.

Crunchy thyme and pancetta pork fillet with roast carrots

Some self-flagellating urge took hold of me this evening, to think I could invent a new dish, with a cut of meat I've not cooked with before, slightly less than an hour to go before my hairdresser arrives.

Yes, well, why do things slowly when you can freak out and do it quickly with an absurdly short time limit.

So. I quick google revealed most people either cut their pork fillets into medallions or roast the whole thing. Delia says a pork fillet comes from the lower back of the pig, and the Pork Marketing Board has a slightly crazy looking diagram about where all the cuts come from, in case you're curious.

I decided to go for the roasting approach, and then went a little crazy with wrapping it up. I had some nice pancetta crying out for a purpose, fresh thyme and crunchy pre-made breadcrumbs. And a shedload of carrots.

Crunchy thyme and pancetta pork fillet with roast carrots
30g dry breadcrumbs
70g pancetta
380g pork fillet
handful fresh thyme
Carrots, sliced into batons
Olive oil
Maldon salt, or kosher salt

1. Dump the carrot batons into a casserole dish or similar, just try and get them into a single-ish layer. Toss with some olive oil and the Maldon salt. Bung into a preheated oven at 220ºC for about 30-40 minutes. You'll want to pull them out halfway through and push them around so they're evenly cooked. Keep an eye on them, depending on the size of your batons it may take more or less time. They will start to look all caramelised and begin to blister when they're finished.

2. While the carrots get going, mix your breadcrumbs with the fresh thyme on plate large enough to accommodate your pork fillet (I didn't, and ended up with a quarter of my breadcrumbs on the floor, but a helpful little terrier-shaped vacuum cleaner hoovered them up for me). Then, wrap your pork fillet with the pancetta, covering the whole thing. Press the fillet in the breadcrumb mixture firmly, flip it over (gently!) and press again. If you're not getting good coverage, try using your hands to dump the breadcrumbs on top and push down with your fingers. It should be fully covered now.

3. Put the carrot dish on the top shelf and push it to the back, putting the pork on a cookie sheet in the middle shelf. You probably don't have to take it out and rotate it halfway through, as I have a crazy oven, but there you are.Leave it in there for about 35 minutes, depending on how done you'd like your meat, and how big the fillet is.

4. Let it rest for 10 minutes. No really, don't touch it. After you've waited 10 minutes (really, I mean it) slice it into medallions and serve with the roasted carrots.

Post-cooking note: it tasted wonderful, but the outer crust wasn't as crispy as I would like. Maybe try browning the fillet wrapped in pancetta briefly in a pan first, getting rid of some of the fat, then rolling in breadcrumbs, then baking, for a shorter period of time.