Butter Chicken

A friend of mine once said to me that every dish has a story, and butter chicken certainly has a story in my life. One of my best friends is Indian (actually I have a few Indian friends – I’m including Sri Lankan in that category!!!), and we’ve been friends since the first year of highschool. I think it’s generally agreed that everyone believes that their mother’s cooking is the best, and that’s certainly the case with my mother. However, the first time I ate my friend’s mum’s butter chicken, I fell in love with it straight away. It was definitely one of the most delicious meals I had ever eaten in my life, so wonderfully fragrant and authentic. It became a standing arrangement that whenever I went to my friend’s house, his mother would cook butter chicken – I just NEEDED it! So, while I’m obviously biased towards my mother’s cooking and the dishes I grew up with, my friend’s mum came to have a special place in my heart through her beautiful Indian food.

At lunch time at highschool, I would often see my friend’s lunch and want to smack him down with pangs of jealousy. Most of the time he would have delicious-looking Indian food that I presumed were leftovers from dinner the previous evening. Although I must admit that by the last two years of highschool, he seemed to have an inordinate amount of leftover pizza. I suppose I was still envious then, though. Whenever I was at my friend’s house in highschool, I was always waiting for his mum’s food. One of my favourite memories involves when I stayed at my friend’s place overnight as we both undertook the 40 Hour Famine. We were absolutely pathetic! After only a few hours or so, we were already thinking of ways around the ban on eating, and even came up with some alternatives. The two favourite alternatives, to the best of my recollection, were not talking for 40 hours, or not writing for 40 hours. We were particularly excited about the latter, as what would we bloody write on the weekend? Not to mention the fact that it wouldn’t have stopped us from typing something on the computer, not that we were going to do that either. We vacillated and our stomachs grumbled, but we decided to stick it out and we made it through the 40 hours. I remember looking at my watch and waiting for his mum’s food. In a way, I was glad that it wasn’t butter chicken, because I think the sudden switch from no food to the addictive butter chicken would have put me into shock and maybe have even shut down my nervous system. His mum made us a beautiful Chicken Spaghetti Bolognese, and I thought that I would wolf it down within five minutes. As it turned out, I didn’t actually eat that much of it because my stomach had obviously shrunk even within that small period of time. It was still one of the most satisfying meals I have ever eaten, though.

So butter chicken was one of the first recipes that I cooked in this cooking journey. In a way, it’s similar to my Thai red curry with chicken. Red curry is my favourite dish of all time, and trying to cook it to the standard that I was used to in Thailand was virtually impossible. I knew that I would never be able to achieve the same degree of perfection as my friend’s mum, but I now have a lifelong love affair with butter chicken because of her and I was determined to cook it for myself from scratch. I love now making all my pastes and spice mixtures from scratch rather than purchasing pre-packaged jars. I’m sure that there will be times in my life again when I will used jarred sauces, obviously when I’m busy and stressed, but I have enough flexibility in my life at the moment to put a lot of effort into my cooking. This recipe for butter chicken attracted me just by the picture – I had looked for quite a few recipes, and this seemed to look like a very rich and traditional recipe. It was very delicious, and, although Lamb Rogan Josh is also one of my favourite dishes, butter chicken will always be my favourite Indian recipes. I wonder if my friend’s mum will give me her recipe? I suspect he won’t let her. I’m just fortunate to have experienced it, and hope to experience it again soon!

Recipe (serves 2-3):

500g chicken, cubed

1½ tsp garam masala

1 pinch cayenne pepper

1½ tbs cornflour

1/3 cup water

Peanut oil

Sauce

Peanut oil

1 shallot, chopped

½ onion, chopped

3 tbs butter

3 tsp lemon juice

4 garlic cloves

½ tbs ginger

1½ tsp garam masala

1½ tsp chilli powder

1½ tsp ground cumin

1 bay leaf

1/3 cup plain yoghurt

1 1/3 cups cream

1 1/3 cups tomato paste

1 pinch salt

1 pinch pepper 

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Sauté the shallot, garlic and onion until soft and translucent.

Add the butter, lemon juice, ginger, garam masala, chilli powder, cumin and bay leaf. Stir for 1 minute.

Add the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in the cream and yoghurt. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Season with salt & pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.

Heat oil in a large, heavy skillet over a medium heat. Cook the chicken for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Reduce the heat and season with garam masala and cayenne pepper. Stir in a few spoonfuls of sauce and simmer until the liquid has reduced.

Add the chicken to the sauce. Add the cornflour and water (pre-mixed) and cook for 5-10 minutes, or until sauce has thickened.

Serve with Jasmine rice and garnish with coriander leaves.

Cuisine: Indian

Source: www.bigoven.com

Rating: Four stars

Beef Rendang

Beef Rendang is one of my favourite dishes, and, at least since I’ve returned from Sydney, I eat it at least once a week, although this was the first time that I cooked it myself. It is one of the most popular dishes in Malaysian cuisine, and it seems to have a level of complexity that Malaysians, or at least those in the know, are able to easily overcome. For instance, there are two great Malaysian restaurants (more life fast-food places if you know what I mean) in the city that I get food from often, specifically Beef Rendang, Laksa and Malaysian Chicken Curry, which I plan to cook next week for my parents. The first one is Laksa House on the bottom level of the Queen Victorian Building (QVB), which I’m sure many of you would be familiar with. The second place, which I think is slightly better than Laksa House, is Malay Chinese Takeaway on Hunter Street near the corner of Castlereagh St. It’s an absolutely no-frills type of place, sort of hole-in-the-wall which you often find the best dishes in when you travel throughout Asia. Indeed, if you get there at 11:55, you can go straight up to the counter and order, but ten minutes later there is a queue of at least 20 people because it’s so popular. Their dishes are authentic and just so delectable, and their Beef Rendang just falls apart.

I do believe that that is the key element, or at least one of the key elements, of Beef Rendang. The beef in all the great rendangs that I have tasted have obviously been slow cooked and are melt in your mouth. There is absolutely no toughness in the meat, and as such the texture is probably my most favourite texture for a meat. One of the other key elements in the dish is the gravy. Firstly, the gravy needs to have those authentic Malay flavours such as lemongrass, chilli, galangal and palm sugar, echoing many of the flavours of Thailand and South-East Asian cuisine in general. The cuisine in South-East Asia is at the same time remarkably diverse and yet reliant upon the same primary herbs and spices. Malaysian cuisine is particularly similar to Indonesian cuisine, and they both have similar but unique versions of well known and much loved dishes such as Nasi Goreng and Laksa. Throughout my cooking adventures to come, I plan to cook the Malaysian, Indonesian and even Bruneian versions of Nasi Goreng so that I can gain a perspective of the different approach to this dish. Anyway, returning to the gravy for the Beef Rendang, it also needs to be thick and sufficient to provide enough moisture to accompany the beef. Sometimes, due to the slow cooking method of the beef which can leech out much of the moisture from the beef, the gravy needs to be close to perfect – too thick and it can make the dish dry; too thin and the richness of the spices is lost and the beef won’t achieve the right texture.  

This particular rendang recipe is from Neil Perry, and given that he is arguably Australia’s best chef, I was excited that I had finally found the perfect recipe for rendang that would give me the beef texture and gravy consistency that I love to buy from places like Malay Chinese Takeaway. Let me say firstly that the dish was quite delicious and I enjoyed it as I do all Asian food. Having said that, it didn’t live up to my expectations, as the gravy was thick but was not voluminous enough to accompany the beef, and the beef didn’t achieve that soft, crumbling texture that is involved with beef rendang. Further, the flavours, while still delicious as I said, were sometimes overwhelmed by the amount of chilli used in the dish, whereas beef rendang is usually not a spicy dish at all. The curry paste calls for 12 long red chillies, and even though they are de-seeded, they provided too much spice for a rendang recipe. Next time, I will cut the amount of chilli in half, and increase the amount of liquid involved in the cooking process. As for the beef, the recipe is ambiguous on the cut of beef required. Obviously, I presumed that a cut of beef suited for stewing or slower cooking, such as blade or chuck steak, were ideal, but the beef didn’t tenderise to the degree that I had wanted. I’m not sure if there are more suitable cuts of beef for a dish such as this. I’m starting to wonder if these Malaysian kitchens have access to a secret type of beef that I have no idea about!!! Can anyone help me out with this? I did see that there is a cut of beef called ‘Gravy Beef’ which seems to imply that it would be suitable for a recipe like this and might tenderise to the point of breaking down, but no matter how long I seem to cook chuck or blade steak, I can never reach that melting consistency in the beef.

While my cooking adventures are about constantly discovering new dishes from different parts of the world, they are also about finding and perfecting recipes that I love. So, I will be looking for another Beef Rendang recipe and will keep cooking it until I find a recipe that I’m happy with it. As ever, I will keep everyone up to date on my cooking travails, and invite comments and suggestions from all.

Recipe (serves 2-3):

800g beef, cubed

150g rendang curry paste (see below)

600ml coconut milk

1½ tbs tamarind paste

6 kaffir lime leaves, crushed

1½ tbs grated palm sugar

Rendang curry paste

15g shrimp paste

1 red onion, roughly chopped

5g fresh turmeric, grated, or 1 tsp ground turmeric

Finely grated zest of 1 lime (kaffir lime best)

40g ginger, finely chopped

40g galangal, finely chopped

1 lemongrass stem, white part only chopped

12 long red chillies, deseeded & chopped

8 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Wrap shrimp paste in foil and roast for about 10 mins in a medium oven or until fragrant.

Blend all paste ingredients together until a smooth paste is formed.

Heat a large wok or pan then add the curry paste and fry for around 3 mins or until fragrant.

Add the beef, coconut milk, tamarind and kaffir lime leaves. Simmer, uncovered, for 1-1½ hours until the meat is tender and the gravy has thickened, stirring frequently.

Finally, add the palm sugar and salt to taste. Serve with Nasi Lemak or steamed rice.

Cuisine: Malaysian

Source: “Good Food” by Neil Perry

Rating: Three and a half stars

Equatorial Guinean Grilled Fish with Three Sauces

When I started this cooking adventure, I wanted to cook food from some of my favourite cuisines, especially Asian and Italian, but as the adventure has progressed I’ve become even more curious about international cuisine and what it says about different cultures all throughout this world. So, through this blog, I plan to cook recipes from every country in the world, while continuing to return often to my favourite cuisines. After all, I really don’t think I can go three meals in a row without one of them being Asian! I now have a list of recipes to cook from every country in the world, and when possible, I’m going to cook what is considered to be the national dish of each country. For instance, I have recipes for Bulgogi from Korea, Bobotie from South Africa, Kormeh Sabzi from Iran and Bacon and Egg Pie from New Zealand. It’s an exciting thought of everything that I have ahead of me, and I really think it lives up to the title of this blog – Dishing Up The World.

This recipe, Equatorial Guinean Grilled Fish with Three sauces, is one of the traditional and staple recipes of that country. As I’ve researched recipes from all around the world, I’ve come to notice many patterns and tastes in various regions. In this case, the importance of peanut butter in Central African cooking has stood out to me. I’d already cooked a dish from Benin that also uses large quantities of peanut butter (Lamb and Peanut Stew), and this dish is yet another example of how common peanut butter, or what Africans often call groundnut, is in their cooking. I’m assuming it’s because it’s quite easy to obtain, it’s native and it’s cheap, as we all know that African cuisine is quite earthy and “of the land”. One of the things that I loved about this dish is that, on one hand it has that very simple, earthy element to it, and yet the three sauces provide such an interesting dimension to the fish and provide so many flavours of Africa.

The fish itself in this recipe is the easy part. The marinade doesn’t take long to prepare. The important thing is to try to achieve the colour that is produced by Palm Oil. I say this because many people refuse to use palm oil for conscientious reasons (deforestation of palm trees) or health reasons (it’s very high in cholesterol, accounting for the wonderful taste of Thai street food!), and it’s extremely difficult to find. I looked in my local Asian and Indian food stores, and they didn’t have any. The reason why you need to think about how to substitute palm oil effectively rather than with just a random oil is that it has a very unique, rich red colour, and this provides a wonderful red/orange sheen to the food. There are two options for substituting palm oil. You could make a simple swap with coconut oil, which I found in my local Indian spice shop, which is rather close to palm oil in terms of flavour, but not colour. Or, and this is the option that I chose, you can use the equivalent amount of peanut oil but stir in some turmeric and paprika to the oil in order to achieve the colour. As you can see from the photo, this did provide the fish with a crisp, orange skin that looked, in my opinion at least, rather appetising.

The fish aside, the real ‘cooking’ involved with this dish is preparing the three sauces, all of which provide a distinct and appetising accompaniment for the fish. Something that has come to annoy me is the lack of availability of scotch bonnet chillies in Australia. This recipe calls for lots of scotch bonnet chillies and habanero chillies, which are much spicier than regular red or green chillies or even bird’s eye chillies. Scotch bonnet chillies seem to be easily available in Europe and North America, but not in Australia. To substitute scotch bonnets, you should use double the amount of green chillies with the seeds in. I still think this doesn’t provide the heat factor that scotch bonnets and habaneros would, as this recipe was surprisingly not spicy, although very delicious. Prior to making the recipe, I anticipated that I would enjoy the peanut sauce the most, followed by the avocado sauce and the spinach sauce coming in last. As it turned out, the spinach sauce was my favourite by quite a clear margin, I think because of the beautiful smoky flavour provided by the smoked salmon. The peanut sauce was also nice, and was much thicker and drier than I thought it would be. While the avocado sauce provided a relatively flavoursome alternative to the other sauces, I did find it rather bland compared to the other two. So it was wonderful to enjoy the tastes of Equatorial Guinea and many elements of their daily cuisine, and recipes such as this that provide a genuine insight into traditional food and preparation are extremely enjoyable to make.

Recipe (serves 4):

4 firm fish steaks, about 200g each (eg kingfish, swordfish, mackerel, barramundi or tuna)

2 garlic cloves, crushed & finely diced

1 scotch bonnet, minced or pounded to a paste (or 2 green chillies)

125ml lime juice

3 tbs coconut oil or palm oil

Salt & pepper to taste

Guinean Peanut Sauce (see below)

Guinean Spinach Sauce (see below)

Guinean Avocado Sauce (see below)

Guinean Peanut Sauce

500ml chicken stock

½ onion, diced

Pinch of oregano

2 garlic cloves, finely diced

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tbs tomato paste

Pinch of cayenne pepper

200ml peanut butter

½ habanero chilli, pounded to a paste (or 1 green chilli)

2 bay leaves

Salt & pepper to taste

3 tbs oil

Guinean Spinach Sauce

300g spinach, de-stemmed and finely chopped

100g smoked fish, flaked

½ large onion, chopped

30ml peanut butter

350ml warm water

180ml palm oil (or peanut oil with some turmeric and paprika for colour)

1 scotch bonnet chilli, left whole but scored (or 2 green chillies)

Guinean Avocado Sauce

200ml beef stock

200ml water

½ chilli, pounded to a paste

½ tomato, chopped

1 tbs lemon juice

1 large avocado, thinly sliced

2 tbs peanut butter

Rinse the fish then drain and pat dry with paper towels. Season the fish liberally with salt & pepper then place in a glass or ceramic baling dish. Add the garlic and chillies, then pour the lime juice over the top. Turn a few times to ensure they’re evenly coated, cover with foil, then place in the fridge to marinate for 1½ hours.

Meanwhile, prepare the sauces. To prepare the peanut sauce, fry the onion and garlic in the oil until soft. Pound the tomato and chilli together into a paste and add to the pan. Fry for a few minutes then add all the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 30 mins or until desired consistency is reached.

To prepare the spinach sauce, fry the onion in a little of the palm oil until softened. Mix the peanut butter with the water and add to the pot along with the other ingredients. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 mins or until well thickened. Add the palm oil, remove the chillies and cook for a further 10 mins.

To prepare the avocado sauce, bring the stock to a boil and add all the ingredients except the peanut butter. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 mins. Extract 6 tbs of the broth, mix with the peanut butter and return to the pot. Cook for a further 10 mins, and serve warm.

When ready to cook the fish, heat a grill or barbecue. Drain the fish, pat dry and then brush with the palm oil and season with salt & pepper. Cook for about 4 mins per side, arrange on a plate and serve with the sauces.

Cuisine: Equatorial Guinean

Source: www.healthy-life.narod.ru

Rating: Four stars

Squid stuffed with Ricotta, Breadcrumbs, Chilli and Marjoram

Squid is one of the more unique ingredients that you can cook with. I often find that it’s one of those very divisive forms of food – either you love it or you hate it. I know many people that dislike it because it seems ‘weird’, maybe because of the way it looks or because it can sometimes have a rubbery consistency of not cooked well. Indeed, squid needs to be cooked properly and served with other ingredients and spices for it to be appetising. The worst thing is for squid to be overcooked – it then forms an extremely rubbery consistency that makes it difficult to bite through. If eaten on its own, let’s admit it, it’s pretty bland. However, not much is needed to lift it to something delicious. I’m sure many of us will recall wonderful days during our summer childhood having crumbed calamari with lemon squeezed over the top of it, and dipping it into tartar sauce. That’s certainly how I fell in love with squid. I absolutely loved calamari. The only thing that I found annoying was sometimes the chefs would forget to cut the squid properly, and as such there would be a tight ‘elastic band’ of squid that I nearly choked on innumerable times!

Another form of squid that I love is found in Chinese cooking – salt & pepper squid. Whenever I go to yum cha with friends, there has to be salt & pepper squid. Once again, the flavours aren’t extravagant, but the seasoning and the chilli really lift the squid to a different dimension. The last time I went for yum cha at the Marigold in Sydney, I found my arm constantly reaching out to the salt & pepper squid plate so much that I’m quite confident I had at least three-quarters of it! So I knew that my mouth and my heart were telling me that I needed to cook a squid dish, and I had previously been drawn to this recipe, from Tobie Puttock, because of the idea of cooking the squid whole and stuffing them with wonderfully fresh and delicious ingredients, not to mention the added spiciness that I love from chillies in a dish. I’ve recently cooked quite a few of Tobie Puttock’s recipes, including my first gnocchi dish ever, and I’ve become a very big fan. His recipes display great modern Italian food and provide twists that traditional recipes often lack.

I recall seeing on a television cooking show the process of chopping up a whole squid, with the ink sac attached, and nine times out of ten the ink sac would puncture and black ink would gush all over the squid. So, I decided that I would actually just buy the squid tubes themselves, and I was pleasantly surprised at the price. The first process of the recipe is to make the breadcrumbs. The old me would have used pre-packaged breadcrumbs, but now I cringe at that thought. When I combined all of the ingredients and the ciabatta and put them in the oven, the smell was amazing! It was nearly impossible to resist eating some of the bread when it came out of the oven. As I’ve mentioned before, I often marvel at how people, such as myself, can overcome their dislike for certain foods. I majorly hated onion when I was young, to the point where I would pick out the smallest bits of onion from the spaghetti Bolognese for around ten minutes before I would start eating. If I was really sick and I knew throwing up would do me good, all I had to do was think about French Onion soup (that’s a nice passage for a cooking blog isn’t it!). Now I love the stuff. In the case of this recipe, it’s anchovies. I now love them, and they provide beautiful saltiness and oiliness to the dressing. One thing I’m still a bit tentative about is ricotta. I recall cooking a pasta dish with ricotta around eight years ago that I disliked quite intensely, but now I just find it rather bland and unappealing. I’m sure it added flavour to this recipe, but I don’t think I’ll ever be a great fan. I think one of the reasons why this recipe is so good is that, while it looks complicated, it’s actually quite simple. There are only three elements – the stuffing, the dressing and the squid. When combined, it’s a taste explosion. The squid was so tender – absolutely no hint of any rubber! I think this dish would convert many people that are a bit equivocal regarding squid.

Recipe (serves 4):

500g squid tubes, with tentacles

4 tbs ricotta

1 tbs marjoram, roughly chopped

Finely grated zest & juice of 1 lemon

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tbs freshly grated parmesan cheese

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Extra virgin olive oil for flavour & dressing

Olive oil for greasing

3 anchovy fillets, roughly chopped

2 fresh red chillies, finely chopped

1 tbs flat-leaf parsley, chopped

A small handful of feathery fennel tops or celery leaves

Breadcrumbs

1 small loaf ciabatta bread

1 tbs rosemary leaves, finely chopped

1 tsp dried chilli (optional)

3 tbs olive oil

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C.

To make the breadcrumbs, break the ciabatta into 5cm pieces. Place on a baking tray and scatter with rosemary and dried chilli. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt & pepper. Bake until the bread turns a rich golden colour. Shake the tray from time to time so the bread cooks evenly.

After the bread has cooled, place it in a food processor and pulse it to the consistency of coarse sand. You can also rub it between the palms of your hands. Set aside.

Bring a saucepan of salted water to a boil. Cook the squid tentacles for about 10 mins; drain, then rinse in cold water. Chop roughly then set aside.

Reduce the oven temperature to 180 degrees. In a mixing bowl bring together the ricotta, breadcrumbs, marjoram, lemon zest, garlic, parmesan and chopped tentacles. Season for taste and add a good splash of extra virgin olive oil. Use a spoon or piping bag to fill the squid with the ricotta stuffing, then secure the ends with toothpicks.

Place a sheet of greaseproof paper on a baking tray, and smear it with some olive oil (it’s easiest if you use your hands to do this). Place the stuffed squid tubes on the baking tray and cook in the oven for 8-12 mins or until the squid turns white.

In the meantime, get the dressing going. Put the anchovies, chillies and parsley in a bowl large enough to accommodate the squid. Pour in just enough extra virgin olive oil to make a rough paste. Season with salt & pepper and add a squeeze of lemon juice. Transfer the squid from the baking tray to the bowl; use tongs to rotate the squid to coat it with the mixture.

Arrange the tubes on plates and drizzle with the remaining anchovy dressing. Finish with cracked pepper, another drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a scattering of fennel tops or celery leaves.

Category: Italian

Source: “Daily Italian” by Tobie Puttock

Rating: Five stars

Baghdad Eggs on Simple Flatbread

This is a perfect breakfast dish to make on a lazy, Sunday morning. I had intended to make it on the Saturday, but I hadn’t read the recipe carefully, and as such didn’t realise the amount of time required to make the bread and to let it prove before the main part of the breakfast, namely the eggs, can begin to be prepared. So on a sunny Sunday morning, I rolled up my sleeves and began making my first ever form of bread. From the many recipes I’ve read so far, I’ve gathered that it’s very important not to try to make the dough in a food processor – it just doesn’t knead properly. You need to manually knead the dough on a counter in order to make the dough tough. Many times during the process of making the dough, I realised the importance of having a well-floured counter! The dough would stick to the counter and I would begin to think that it would never form a rubbery consistency, but then I would add some more flour to the bench top and the kneading would take off again! I was really happy with the final product, and when I eventually tasted the flatbread on its own, it was of a much superior quality to pre-made breads in a supermarket that are full of preservatives (the bane of modern food!).

Another thing that I’ve discovered over the past few years when cooking breakfast and eggs in particular are methods to use in order to ensure the eggs don’t burn. I used to cook fried eggs simply with some oil, and obviously they would sputter everywhere and, when they weren’t burnt, they were invariably as dry as my humour often is. Now, I cook fried eggs by placing a bit of butter in the pan and, importantly, adding some lemon juice. The lemon juice stops the butter from burning, and so the eggs cook wonderfully and turn out exactly as you want them, whether sunny side up or, well, whatever the other types are called (for years and years I didn’t even know what sunny side up referred to – I thought it was maybe a special American sauce to go with the eggs!!!). So I used lemon in this recipe, and it is also used to provide further acidity by splashing some over the top of the finished product and flatbreads. The combination of the ground cumin seeds and mint leaves provides that wonderful Middle Eastern twist to what would be considered a relatively standard breakfast, and the lemon enhances these flavours. Another reason why this is a wonderful breakfast dish is that it isn’t heavy, and the flavours leave you feeling light and refreshed. I was very proud after cooking this dish, as it was the first bread I had ever made, and it gave me a great deal of relaxation and enjoyment to make this breakfast. I’ll certainly make it again!

Recipe (serves 1):

½ tsp cumin seeds

20g butter

1 clove garlic, thinly sliced

1 tbs lemon juice

2 free-range eggs

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

8 mint leaves, thinly sliced

Simple Flatbread

125g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

¼ tsp salt

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup tepid water

To make the flatbreads, put the flour and salt in a food processor. With the motor running, trickle in oil and enough tepid water to make a dough, processing for 1-2 mins (without breaking the machine!!!) until mixture forms a ball. If mixture is too moist, add more flour.

Turn the dough onto a workbench lightly dusted with flour and knead until it feels smooth and silky. Place in a bowl and cover with a clean tea towel. Leave at room temperature for at least 30 mins.

Preheat oven to 100 degrees celsius and put a baking tray inside to warm.

Divide dough into four pieces each about the size of a small egg, then use a rolling pin to roll into flat rounds on a floured workbench.

Heat a heavy-based cast-iron frying pan over high heat until very hot; there is no need for any oil. Slap a dough round into it. Cook for 2-3 mins or until little burnt blisters appear, then turn to cook the other side. Keep warm on the baking tray in the oven while cooking remaining flatbreads and eggs.

Dry-roast cumin seeds in a small frying pan over medium heat until fragrant, then tip into a mortar and grind with a pestle to a powder. Tip into a small bowl until needed.

Meanwhile, melt butter over medium heat in a small non-stick frying pan. When butter starts to foam, drop in garlic and cook for 30 secs until it just starts to change colour. Add lemon juice and eggs and fry gently until set. Sprinkle over cumin. Serve on warm flatbread or toast, seasoned with salt & pepper and sprinkled generously with thinly sliced mint.

Category: Iraqi/Middle Eastern

Source: “Kitchen Garden Companion” by Stephanie Alexander

Rating: Four stars

Roast Lamb with Beans

Lamb is probably my favourite meat, and I come to that conclusion not just because of how tender and delicious it can be in dishes, but because it was the food I missed the most while I was living in Thailand. You basically can’t find lamb anywhere in Thailand except for expatriate pubs, and I definitely didn’t go to Thailand to associate with drunken English ‘farangs’ who had no interest in immersing themselves in Thai culture and customs. So the first thing I always asked for from my mum when I paid visits to Sydney was Roast Lamb. It’s actually quite ironic, given that I used to hate roasts of any kind, finding them bland and boring. Maybe it’s one of those things that grows on you with age, such as wine and staying in rather than getting drunk and enduring a hangover the next day. I was even thinking to myself today how averse I’ve become to the thought of having a hangover – so much so that I really have no desire at all to get drunk at all! I suppose that’s a good thing, isn’t it, but I think it’s a sign that I’m approaching thirty.

Indeed, I would cook lamb frequently if it wasn’t for the outrageously high cost of it. My mum was telling me a few months ago how much lamb used to cost just after her and dad had gotten married, and it amazed me! Roast lamb and the more prime cuts of lamb are becoming luxuries in our day and age. For example, I bought some lamb to cook an African Peanut Stew yesterday, and just pure diced lamb (not specified as shoulder or leg) cost me $25. I’m going to have to stretch that food for a while! This recipe, one of the earlier recipes in my cooking journal, is also a Jamie Oliver recipe (don’t worry – my sources are very diverse), and I decided to cook it because I’ve really come to enjoy leeks and I was intrigued about the combination of the lamb with the bean mixture.

As always, I enjoyed the preparation of this meal just as much, arguably even more, than the meal itself. I just find the process so relaxing, and I sit on a stool in my kitchen preparing the ingredients with a beer and some comedy on in the background – I’ve recently gone through the entire Seinfeld season again just during my cooking. I think the combination of relaxing with the food, the beer and the comedy has an effect on me, because when I looked back over my notes for this recipe, I saw this arbitrary entry that simply went “I wish I was Kramer!” I have absolutely no idea how, at the time, I thought that was somehow connected with the process of cooking this dish. Anyway, one of the techniques that infused the lamb with flavour was to stab it all over and to stuff it with the garlic, thyme and rosemary. It smelled absolutely beautiful. Preparing the bean mixture was also quite enjoyable, and seemed like an example of very rustic French cooking. The direction to blitz half of the bean mixture reminded me how Jamie Oliver loves contrasting textures, such as in his Mushroom Risotto with the contrast between the oozy mushrooms in the risotto and the grilled and crispy mushrooms on top of the risotto. Perhaps the most important thing that I learnt about cooking lamb from this recipe was how to get the meat right. In other words, there are only two ways to cook lamb – relatively quickly, or very slowly. Cooking it quickly results in red and moist meat, while cooking it slowly (my preference) makes it tender and allows it to fall apart. While I was very happy with the result, I think I became stuck in no-man’s land between these two methods of cooking. I was cooking it slowly, but I was becoming so tired and hungry that I decided to cut the cooking short and eat it as is. Nevertheless, the lamb was delicious and the beans gave it that satisfying accompaniment.

Recipe (serves 4):

2kg leg of lamb

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil

8 garlic cloves, peeled

Small bunch of fresh thyme

Couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary

3 medium leeks, peeled and sliced diagonally 2cm thick

2 onions, finely sliced

1 bay leaf

2 small bunches of fresh parsley

4 x 400g tins of flageolet (or cannellini) beans

1.5L lamb, chicken or vegetable stock

Preheat the oven to full whack. Stab the lamb all over with a small sharp life, then rub all over with a good pinch of salt and pepper and a lug of olive oil. Slice 4 garlic cloves and poke the slices into the incisions made, along with some small sprigs of thyme and rosemary. Put the tray on the top rack of the oven.

Add the leeks, onions and remaining garlic cloves to another roasting tray with a good lug of olive oil, along with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Place on a medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes or until the leek and onions have softened.

Add a bouquet garni of the bay leaf, remaining thyme and 1 bunch of parsley and add to the leeks, together with the tinned beans and their juices. Pour in the stock, give a stir and put in the oven.

Reduce the oven temperature to 180 degrees and cook for 1¼ hours. While the meat rests for 15 minutes, place the beans on a high heat and reduce to desired consistency.

Remove the beans from the heat when ready to serve and spoon a third of them into a bowl. Mush them up then stir them back through the rest of the beans to make them creamy. Finely chop the remaining parsley and stir through the beans. Serve the lamb over the beans.

Category: French

Source: “Jamie does...” by Jamie Oliver

Rating: Five stars