Hummus (Humous? Hummos? Hoummus?)

Everybody has their own way of making this Mediterranean/North-African staple - the only non-contentious point being that it contains ground chickpeas. Some people insist that it should be mixed with tahini - the sesame seed paste - but I truly believe that the taste of mine (with my Jewish ancestry) is the kosher deal!

I buy dried chickpeas in kilo bags - about 80p - and cook the lot off in the pressure cooker, which has lost its weight! Without any pre-soking this takes a little over an hour; rinse under cold water and what I don't require immediately I spread on a tray and freeze.

For this recipe put 500g of chickpeas into a food processor and whizz. For best results I now transfer them to a liquidiser and mix with 1.5 dstsp Garlic purée, half a dstsp Salt, 1 dstsp ground Cumin and 2 dstsp Lemon Juice.

With the motor running  drizzle in 300ml Olive Oil. To finish, if the paste is a little dry I add  1 dstsp of warm water. For the best taste chill overnight.

For lunch today I had a bowl of this with salad, olives, pitta bread and a hard-boiled egg and cress with tarragon & lemon mayonnaise.

Tunisian Turkey with Carrot & Coriander Purée

Ok, so the dish is about as Tunisian as Sidney Greenstreet's fez in "Casablanca" (one of my top-five favourite movies). A time to use up little bags of things in the freezer: a while ago I made the mistake of taking out  a red block of what I thought was chopped tomatoes, only to find it was (home-made) carrot and coriander soup. This time it was intentional. My geography is not that good so I'm not even sure if they grow carrots anywhere in North Africa but the flavours were, in my own opinion, spot on.

Soften a handful chopped onion and  one of mixed peppers in butter and oil, add a handful of diced turkey (or chicken) and a small handful of diced aubergine.  Colour slightly and add  2 tsp crushed garlic, 1 heaped tsp paprika,  1 tsp each of ground coriander and cumin,  a pinch of chilli powder and 1 tsp ginger puree. Stir in 200ml carrot & coriander puree/soup followed by 1 tsp lime cordial and 1 scant tsp sugar. Mix in a  handful cooked chickpeas and 2 diced dried figs, heat through - bubbling vigorously if the sauce is too thin - and serve.

I had rice but this would work equally well with couscous.

Pot-roasted Belly Pork, Oriental Barbecue Sauce and Vegetable Fried Rice

I had four pieces of meat all to myself - it seemed a bit greedy at the time but this batch of pork was fattier than usual and I had to leave some. I served the barbecue sauce more like a Western gravy rather than cooking the meat in it.

Preheat the oven to hot and  a wok to smoking. Sear the meat on all sides, fat side first,  and put in closed casserole dish. Deglaze the pan with 100ml of water mixed with 2 tsp Soy and 1 tsp sweet chilli sauce. Add to the casserole and cover.

Cook on high for 30 mins, lower the heat to medium and turn the meat. Cook for further half hour.  in the meanwhile cook your rice - generally, I always use Basmati - in lighly salted water; rinse when cooked. 

The Oriental, Barbecue Sauce is one I've been making for about 25 years, and which I've featured before: Sauce Recipe

For the vegetables I used a small sliced carrot (blanched first), some broccoli florets, a few quartered mushrooms and a handful each of mixed peppers and chopped onions. Soften the veg in a wok and add 1 tsp crushed garlic and 2 tsp Soy.

Remove the lid from the pork casseole and whack the heat up to full again. Stir in the rice into the vegetables with 1 dstsp Sesame oil, and shake the pan to cook.

Serve as artfully as you like, with the sauce - still steaming in my picture - poured over the meat.

 

Tuna Tapenade Tribute

Very fishy: one round of classic smoked salmon and cream cheese, together with an open sandwich of my tapenade-inspired paste. The original that I developed uses black olives (more authentic) but today I used stuffed green ones.

Method:
Mix together half a tin of tuna chunks, 5 chopped olives, 1 scant tsp garlic puree, 1 tsp finely chopped red chilli pepper, 1 scant tsp lemon juice, 2 dstsp olive oil and 1 tsp mayo. Blend with the back of a spoon.

AZ's Homemade KFC

Sometimes - particularly when you or I have come back from the pub with the munchies - only so-called junk food will satisfy. This is a dish I tend to batch-produce and freeze: only takes a few minutes of "ping", and my cheat's tip is to put it - and the microwaved jacket potato - under a hot grill to crisp up.

For enough crumb to make 6 pieces, mix together 100g breadcrumbs,100g flour, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp dried mint, 1 tsp parsley,1 tsp cracked black pepper and 1 tsp cajun spices (chilli/cayenne, cumin, garlic, thyme, oregano & pepper). Dip chicken pieces into a bowl of beaten egg and then into the crumb mix. Shake off excess, deep-fry to seal, and then bake in a hot oven for approx 20 mins.

Rather than chips I had a jacket potato stuffed with full fat cream cheese, home-made coleslaw and I used up some spinach leaves in a mixed salad.

Berber-style Stuffed Chicken Thigh & Salad

It was one of those days when I craved Middle-Eastern/North-African flavours but wasn't really in the mood for lots of couscous or rice - hence the accompaniment of spiced wedges. I don't know how many cuisines I raided to arrive at the final dish.

For the marinade:
1dstsp oil (Olive or Veg), a pinch S+P, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1 scant tsp cumin, 1 scant tsp crushed garlic and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Mix well and rub the skin of the boned chicken with the mixture and then marinate skin-side up. I had 2 thighs to myself which was a bit greedy - one large one would have been ample. Stand for at least an hour.

For the stuffing:
1 heaped tsp of couscous mixed with 30ml of boiling water. Add a pinch of salt and 1 tsp finely chopped red onion, 1 tsp finely chopped peppers, half  a tsp of ground cinnamon and 1 tsp dried mixed fruit. Leave to stand for about 15 minutes, fluffing occasionally with a fork.



With the boned chicken thigh skin down, spoon some filling into the middle, roll up, tucking the ends in, and secure with cocktail sticks. Roast uncovered in a very hot oven for 30 minutes.

For the spicy wedges:
A big  handful of potatoes - skin on - cut to desired size mixed with a little vegetable oil, a shake of sea-salt, a pinch of cracked black pepper, a pinch of chilli powder, a pinch of paprika and1 tsp of crushed garlic. Cook for the same length of time as the chicken.

The salad was just a bit of whatever I had in the fridge, with a tomato-flavoured dressing: 2 tsp tomato ketchup mixed with 2 tsp French dressing and couple of shakes of Worcester sauce. Simples!

Business in Birkenhead Buffet

 Last Thursday I had the pleasure of doing the catering for the third networking event held at Ashville Lodge, the home of The Wirral Society for The Blind & Partially-Sighted, overlooking Birkenhead Park.

The guest speaker was Geoffrey Prince - dubbed GuruGeoffrey by Ida Moos - who is always fascinating to listen to, whether yarning about his time on the New Brighton lifeboat, turning his house in New Brighton into  the Hollins Hey Hotel, scuba-diving in exotic climes or his boat-building business in Birkenhead. The glass is always half-full, never half-empty. As I type, he has just posted on Facebook another of his truisms: "Successful people are the ones who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others throw at them."

 Positive thinking is essential.

I try to balance familiar food with some new experiences: my chicken tikka kofte are always a hit, whilst the sausage and baked bean fritters were utterly new - but very well received, nonetheless.

Tikka Kofte ready to fry

Sausage & Baked Bean Fritters

I've been trying to buy dried haricot beans for about a month but neither Asda nor Tesco are stocking them so I've switched to pinto beans for my home-made baked beans. This recipe uses sausagemeat, minced onions, mashed cooked beans, seasoned with S+P, chives, Worcester sauce, tomato ketchup and puree, bound with a mixture of flour, breadcrumbs and beaten egg. I form them into little cakes, deep-fry to seal and then bake in a medium oven for about 15 - 20 minutes.

 

The other success of the evening for me was the "Chiantishire Bean" Crostini - a recent adaptation of my classic hummus recipe: 13th March 2011. My only disappointment was that nobody else seemed to be as addicted as I am to my new vegetarian dish, Spicy Mexican Refried Bean Dumplings.

Ah well!