Curry Con Carne

This mimics my definitive chilli con carne recipe, with just a few substitutions like chickpeas in place of kidney beans. Enough for 2 small portions or to feed one gannet.

Fry 200g mince in a hot wok. Add a big handful of finely chopped onion and mix well. When the meat begins to brown add 2 tsp of crushed garlic, followed by 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp ground coriander and 3 heaped tsp Madras Curry Powder (hot). Fry for a minute or two and stir in half a tin of tomatoes, broken up with the back of a spoon. Season with 1 scant dstsp tomato puree, a scant tsp salt, 1 tsp veg bouillon, 1 heaped tsp ginger puree, a dstsp lime cordial and a pinch of sugar. Check flavour, add a handful of chickpeas and heat through.

 

What I fancied experimenting with was cutting a pappadom into mock-tortilla chips but the supermarket was closed so I shallowed-fried some actual tortilla.....

For the pseudo-pilau rice I add a little oil to the cooking water and Chinese yellow colouring - not turmeric which changes the flavour.

Baked Belly Pork with Apple & Ginger

For the sauce mix together 1 dstsp apple sauce, 1 tsp ginger puree, 1 tsp crushed garlic, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 dstsp Soy and a pinch of S+P.

Slather 4 pieces (6 oz?) of belly pork with soy sauce, an hour before you're ready to start cooking. Sear in a hot wok, skin side down until browned, turn and seal each side quickly. Pour the sauce over and transfer to closed casserole dish. Top with 3-4 cored slices of tart eating apple.

Bake on mark 5 for 25 mins. Uncover, turn up heat to full for 7-8 minutes. I had mine with plain basmati rice and stir-fried vegetables.

Wiener Schnitzel via Turkey

I was on a bit of Viennese Waltz yesterday - started when I began to dip into the recent Observer Food Monthly online and got engrossed in an article on Austrian cuisine by Rachel Cooke

This virtual trip continued when I googled "Skopik & Lohn", one of the restaurants mentioned. A former flatmate once described Vienna as very Fin de siècle, and said I'd love it; last night on the phone, one of my sisters, who lives in Germany, said she wasn't that impressed - she loves Prague and Budapest for that historic-feel. My online search brought forth a mouth-watering picture of the cake display at Hotel Sacher's new cafe, featured in The Independent last year. Then, later, I got into some Facebook chat about Freud and phallic vegetables.....

So, to Wiener Schnitzel - which is now protected in Austria and Germany, and has to be made from veal - improvised from turkey breast. I'm trying not to repeat myself as I did something very similar back in November 2010, "Christmas is coming" . This uses about half the quantities of breadcrumbs and flour - 50g of each, and just a pinch each of salt and pepper for seasoning. Potato salad and sauerkraut are traditional.

Cheat's Sauerkraut
2 small handfuls of shredded white cabbage, in 100ml of boiling water, with a pinch of salt (less than half a teaspoon) and the same of sugar. Add 1 dstsp malt vinegar, simmer on low for 3 mins, covered. Take off the lid, turn up the heat and bubble vigorously until all the water evaporates. Chill.


Quick potato salad
2 smallish (large egg-size?) potatoes, scrubbed and diced. Microwave for 4 mins and poke. Some varieties may take 30 secs-1 minute longer but you want them firm still - hence not cooked in boiling water. Plunge into a bowl of cold water, drain and then mix with a little mayo and a good shake of fine black pepper. Chill.

The spicy tomatoes are here



Now for some Schlagsahne!

Pot-roasted Mediterranean chicken & tomatoes...

....with lazy Lyonnaise potatoes and mashed carrot & swede

Pre-heat oven to hot and in a closed casserole dish put a small handful of sliced green peppers and a medium button mushroom, sliced, and sprinked with a tsp of dried basil,  half a tsp salt and 50 ml of tomato juice. Cover and bake for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, sear a boned-out chicken thigh, skin-side down, in a hot wok. Turn and seal the other side for a minute or so. Halve 3 cherry tomatoes, place on top of the peppers and mushrooms, and lay the chicken, skin-side up, on top. Cover and bake for 10-12 minutes, remove lid and cook for the same again.

For the lazy Lyonnaise
Peel 2 medium-sized potatoes (small handful each) and microwave in a closed dish for 4 minutes. Plunge immediately into cold water. In the meanwhile, soften half a medium onion, sliced, in oil and butter, on low.

Cut the potatoes into 1 cm-thick slices and add to the onions with a little salt, some milled black pepper and 1 tsp of lazy garlic - unless you live in a CH47 postcode, in which case you'll insist on freshly-crushed garlic. Up the heat a little, trying to avoid burning the onions. I served mine with mashed carrot and swede, for a bit of a change.

Spicy BBQ Pork and Pungent Mustard Salad

A spare-rib pork chop marinated in 50ml (olive) oil, with 1 tsp lazy garlic, a scant tsp Madras curry powder, 1dstsp of lemon juice, half a tsp salt, 1 level tsp ground cumin and 1 level tsp ginger puree.Leave for at least an hour to infuse.

For the salad: 1 heaped dstsp chopped celery, a quarter of a medium apple (green or russet) in small dice, 1 dstsp chopped onion - I used red - a small handful of shredded white cabbage, 2 dstsp cooked chickpeas, and 1 heaped dstsp each of carrot and swede blanched in boiling salted water for 2 mins and refreshed under running cold water.

For the dressing: a scant tsp of English Mustard powder dissolved in 1 tsp of balsmic vinegar, then blended with 2 dstsp mayo and  half a tsp sugar; a scant tsp tomato puree blended with a further tsp balsmic vinegar and 1 tsp olive oil, then mixed into the mayo. Toss the veg well.

Heat a ridged griddle pan to smoking hot, shake off excess marinade and cook one side for 2 minutes, flip and cook for a further 2 minutes; flip and turn through 90 degrees for another 2 minutes and flip again. Cooking times will depend on thickness of the meat - my chop was only approx 2cm thick. Rice would probably been more suitable.....

Liver & Onions, Mash and Mushy Peas

I feel sorry for people who don't like liver - put off, I daresay, by the shoe-leather dished up at school. I'm no fan of pigs liver (or kidney, come to that), but give me lambs', calves' or even slow-braised ox-liver.........And heart (for Valentine's day), which might not impress your beloved, though!

The first time I ever cooked liver was when I was at college in London - we had my flatmate's mother coming for lunch and I suppose I was out to impress. I never consciously LEARNED to cook at all - just found that I'd absorbed skills by mooching in the kitchen while my mother was making dinner, or "Supper" as she called it (being a southerner).

So, liver......she'd dip it in flour, fry it in a little oil with onions, add beef stock to cover, and simmer it while she cooked the potatoes and veg. Ox - which I don't  remember her ever buying - takes about an hour. I tend to batch-cook everything so this is enough for 3 meals - liver is much more filling than the  equivalent weight of meat: 500g liver floured and fried to brown. 3-4 handfuls chopped onions softened. Add liver and stir in 300ml hot water + 1 hpd dstsp beef bouillon (Oxo). Simmer on low for 10 mins.

Home-made mushy peas? Forget all the soaking with bicarb etc - I tip a whole packet into the pressure-cooker and cook for about an hour-and-a-half, take off the lid and boil vigorously until you've got the right consistency. Again, I portion (in washed-out Buttery tubs), and freeeze....
Yum!

Simple Suppers: Hamburg Steak on a garlic croute

OK, so it's a home-made burger on a piece of baked toast!

Cut a slice of good quality bread to about half-an-inch thick and use a bowl or similar, slightly larger than your burger, as a template to cut around. Spread with butter and 1 tsp lazy garlic. Bake in a hot oven for about 20 minutes.

With clean hands (!) knead about 200g of mince until it feels like a uniform consistency. Add a very little salt - I seldom salt raw meat because it draws the juices out - and a pinch of pepper. Knead again into a tight ball and then flatten into a round about an inch thick.

Chill the burger in the freezer for a max of 1 hour. Take out and leave at  room temp for 20 mins. Cook under a very hot grill for about 5-8 mins on each side for medium-rare - longer if you don't like your mince red still!

Just before the burger is finished whack the garlic croute under the grill for 30 seconds to crisp the top. I had mine with a jacket potato slathered with full-fat soft cheese and a salad of cos lettuce, shredded cabbage and carrot, peppers, cherry tomatoes, raw courgette and anchovy-stuffed olives. And my own recipe French Dressing which relies on lots of ENGLISH mustard.