Recipe XLIII - Salmon with Stir-Fry Noodles

Can you believe it? It's been about 10 months since I started these recipes, and in that time, no fish. So I'm putting this right with this post. To be frank, I am not a fan of fish, but fresh river salmon I can handle.
The Japanese are probably the best in the world for their imagination with fish dishes, and this one is like a bad detective novel - it starts off pretty slowly and remains rather uneventful until the very last part, when everything happens at the same time.

Ingredients:
500g fresh river salmon
1 long red pepper
2 onions
7 button mushrooms
4cm ginger
7 cloves of garlic
4 tablespoons of brown sugar
4 tablespoons of sake or white wine
4 tablespoons of soy sauce
400g egg noodles




Instructions:
Slice the salmon into appropriate pieces. To cut it, you need an incredibly sharp knife. Slice the fish with the skin facing upwards.
Slice half the ginger and 4 cloves of garlic, and put them in a bowl along with the sugar and wine. Stir it until the sugar has dissolved and then pour it over the salmon.



Marinate it for about an hour.



In the meantime, cut up the vegetables.



Take the salmon out of the marinade and fry it in butter. Keep the marinade for later. In another frying pan, fry the vegetables. Cut up the rest of the ginger and garlic and fry it too.
Put the noodles in boiling water, take it off the boil and let it rest for 5 to 7 minutes. Taste it to be sure the noodles are ready, then pour them into the vegetable mix.



Take the salmon out of the frying pan and cover it to keep it warm for a few minutes while you finish the rest off. Pour the remaining soy sauce from the marinade into the frying pan. Once it thickens, pour it into the pan with the noodles and vegetables, giving the whole thing a good toss.



Finally, serve up the noodles and put the salmon on top.



Enjoy!

Recipe XLII - Roast Belly of Pork, Red Cabbage and Roast Potatoes

It's Sunday, it's freezing outside, I've swum 40 lengths in the pool, there's Sherlock on TV this evening and I want a warm, glowing feeling inside whilst I'm watching the final of the professional darts on BBC2. I need something that cooks itself, so I can watch the opening rounds of the darts without spending too long in the kitchen. The oven is the perfect tool for my lazy evening. Here's a true winter warmer!

Ingredients for the Pork:
600g belly of pork
5 medium to large cloves of garlic
10 whole peppercorns
A large pinch of salt
A nob of butter
Some cooking fat
7 medium-sized potatoes

Instructions for the pork:
Take a deep and large baking tray and put some butter and/or oil in it, and switch on the oven to 175°C, putting the baking tray in to heat up. Peel your potatoes, cut them into manageable pieces and parboil them for 10 minutes.
While this is going on, with a very sharp knife, cut off the pointy bits of the pork and give them to your cats/dogs, then slice through the skin of the pork. This stops your meat getting singed round the edges, and gives you manageable slices of pork crackling (my favourite part of a pig!), but it also means your meat will cook more effectively.
Then cut some holes in the pork and fill them with half-slices of garlic and a whole peppercorn.



Before putting it in the oven, don't forget to salt the skin very well by rubbing it in. Put some on the meat underneath too. To avoid using too much salt, take little but sprinkle it in the right location.



At the same time as you put the pork in, your potatoes should be boiling nicely, and in ten minutes you can transfer them to the same baking tray.
When you do this, make sure you splash the oil all over the potatoes, to give the skins a truly crispy outside, and a soft interior.

Ingredients for the red cabbage:
1 small to medium red cabbage
10 peppercorns
2 glasses of red wine
1 onion
Some butter
1-2 apples (cored and chopped)

Instructions for the red cabbage:
Take the red cabbage and cut it into thin strips. Salt and steam it until it is almost soft (20 minutes with the lid on should do it). In a high-sided frying pan, heat some butter and fry a thinly-sliced onion until it sweats. Take it off the cooker, turn the heat right down, give it a minute to cool, add the red wine, the apple, the cabbage and the peppercorns to the pan and simmer it for as long as you wish with the lid on. Some add raisins, some add nutmeg, but I chose not to this time.



Putting it all together:
With the last 5 minutes of cooking, you might wish to turn up the oven to 200°C, just to brown the potatoes and pork skin. Upon removing the pork from the oven, you will find it easier to divide into pieces, because you cut the skin earlier on.



Having put the pork and potatoes on the plate, take the oil and spoon it into the pan with the red cabbage. This will make the basis of your gravy, along with the juice and red wine still in the bottom of the pan. Swirl it around a little, add the red cabbage to your plates and spoon the gravy over it. Serve in front of the TV and don't be scared to pour yourself a glass of sweet red wine - Greek, Bulgarian or Croatian red wine goes down perfectly!

Recipe XLI - Fennel and Potato Gratin with Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

Fennel: one of the most underrated vegetables you can find. I simply adore fennel - it needs no seasoning if you don't want, it has its own distinct flavour and compliments so many other dishes. In this recipe, I wish to illustrate how to entice reluctant visitors or children to eat this sadly ignored yet adorable bulbous vegetable.



Ingredients for the gratin:
1 or 2 bulbs of fennel
5 medium-to-large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1.5cm³-2cm³ pieces
1 onion
1 pot of cream
250g of a decent yellow cheese (e.g. Gruyère, Emmental) - I used sliced Fol Epi
10 ground peppercorns
A couple of knobs of butter
Some olive oil

Instructions:
Switch on the oven to 180°C and put a ceramic baking dish in it. Parboil the potatoes, drain them and let them rest for a few minutes. While that is going on, put some butter and olive oil into a deep frying pan and add the fennel. Fry on a medium heat for 5 minutes before adding the onion. Add the ground pepper and some salt, and continue to fry on a medium heat for another ten minutes. Take the baking dish out. Put some fresh olive oil in the bottom and a knob of butter. Add some potatoes, then some fennel, then some cheese. Repeat the process, until all the ingredients have been used up, not forgetting to put a layer of cheese on top (see below).



Pour the cream into the dish and put it in the oven for about an hour.



Ingredients for the meatballs:
500g minced beef
1 shallot
4 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of oregano
1 egg
Half a carton of tomato passata
A glass of red wine

Instructions for the meatballs:
As soon as the gratin goes in the oven, you will have exactly enough time to get this bit ready, and a bit of time to spare.
Crush and chop the garlic, slice the shallot into very small pieces. Put the minced beef, the garlic, the oregano and the chopped shallot into a bowl. With a fork, work all the ingredients together until they form a homogeneous consistency. Add the egg and mix that in to act as a binding agent. If you have done your job well enough, you may think you do not need the egg. Using both hands, pick up a piece of the mixture and make it into a round shape, as below, as big or as small as you would like. Repeat until all is used up. Remember how many guests you have, and make the balls accordingly. I made 12 in the end, for three guests.



Using the frying pan you had previously for the fennel, heat some oil and fry the balls on a medium heat until all the balls are sealed on the outside. Add some tomato passata, some red wine and some herbs. Once the liquid has heated up, turn down the heat, cover and cook for twenty minutes, stirring occasionally. Add some herbs to taste.



Enjoy!

Recipe XL - Venison in Guinness

To celebrate my 40th recipe, and the fact that it's Yule, I would like to present my own recipe. Most things have already been done before, so at the risk of coming across like the man who goes to a desert island and invents the wheel, I would just say that I found some general ideas on the Net, but adapted them to my own preferences. This meal is for my three guests today. I was wondering what to call it - "Deer Raymond" seemed a bit too pretentious. So I settled on "Deer in Beer", and I hope you like it.

Ingredients:
1kg cubed venison
2 bottles of Guinness
A glass of Port wine
5 small red onions, quartered or 7 shallots, halved
A handful of porcini mushrooms
5 cloves of garlic (crushed and chopped)
A handful of raisins and/or sultanas
2 Braeburn apples, chopped (leave the skin on - only chop one apple, a the other one is needed the next day)
At least a tablespoon of cinnamon
20 whole black peppercorns
7-10 crushed peppercorns
1 bay leaf
Some salt

Instructions:
Put the venison in a large bowl. Sprinkle a handful of salt onto it and then add the crushed peppercorns. Mix together well with a spoon. Put a tablespoon of cinnamon into the mixture and again, stir well. Add the onions (or shallots) and one of the apples, the dried fruit and the whole peppercorns and mix them all in. Very carefully, pour one of the bottles of Guinness and about two shot glasses of Port into your mixture. Put some clingfilm over the top and put it in the fridge overnight.



The next day, take it out of the fridge and set the venison on some kitchen paper to dry. Take some cinnamon and roast it in a rounded pan until it goes a little darker. Put it in a casserole dish to wait.



Fry some onion strips in butter and then add the venison for five minutes, constantly turning, to seal it.



Put part of the venison in the casserole dish. Add some of the ingredients from the marinade then the rest of the venison, followed by the last of the marinade, so they are nicely mixed in. Give it a stir.



In a very little oil, fry the other apple and the garlic for a couple of minutes maximum, constantly turning.



Pour over some more fresh Guinness until it covers the rest of the ingredients, cover the pot and cook for about two hours.



Serve with potatoes, red cabbage and Brussels sprouts.

Recipe XXXIX - Mince Pies and Mincemeat Vodka

Christmas wouldn't be complete without several essential items: a decorated tree, a few presents, some strong, unctuous alcohol and Bing Crosby. But there's one item which has become so vital to my perfect Christmas, that I fear I wouldn't feel right without it: the mince pie.

Mincemeat: Mincemeat is called mincemeat, because back in the 16th century, there was minced lamb or beef in the recipe. Fortunately, today there isn't such a combination, but the name lives on. This recipe makes approximately 20 to 24 mince pies.

With the remaining mincemeat, don't chuck it away - get a merry drinke out of it!




Ingredients for the mincemeat:
250g dark brown sugar
1 kg chopped apples (some unpeeled for flavour)
A teaspoon of allspice
A teaspoon of cinnamon
180g-200g raisins, sultanas & currants according to taste
75g glacé cherries
6 to 10 chopped dried apricots (optional)
2 or 3 pieces of chopped candied peel (optional)
70g-90g blanched or ordinary almonds, finely chopped
Grated rind of half a lemon + its juice
3 shot glasses of rum or brandy, but put more or less in depending on your taste
Some sterilised pots to contain them (if storing for a later time)


Instructions for the mincemeat:
Put the chopped apples in a bowl, add the lemon rind and juice to stop the apples going brown, then add the sugar and spices, followed by the dried fruits. Mix them together well. Add your alcohol. Mix further.
Put them in the sterilised pots and remove when needed. If immediately, go straight on to the instructions below. Normally you should make the mincemeat at least a month before Christmas, but as it's Christmas Eve, just go straight onto the next part!


Ingredients for the dough:
250g flour
60g cold butter - the butter must be cold or the dough will go gooey
60g shortening (optional)
The juice of one orange
1 pinch of salt


Instructions for the pies:
Put the salt, flour, shortening and butter into a bowl and turn into a fine crumble dough (below)

Add the orange juice and knead it into a moist, putty-like consistency similar to biscuit dough. This should take no longer than ten minutes. At this point you can break it into two or three parts, wrap it in a sheet of thin plastic and put it in the fridge for 15 to 30 minutes to get stiffer. But if you don't have time, move on. Roll it out as thinly as possible. I did this in two parts, as it saved space on the work surface. Turn your oven on to 200°C.

Take your Yorkshire pudding or muffin tray, grease it with butter (essential) and with the aid of a glass or a round cutter, cut out the base crust for the mince pies.

Take a spoon and place a dollop of mincemeat in each one. With some other shapes, put a pastry roof on top, sprinkle with sugar or glaze with an egg, and slide it into the oven for about 10 minutes.

With a knife, carefully remove from the tray and get the next batch ready. Repeat this process until as much of the dough as possible is used up.

Put them on the cake rack or in a tin and hide from all gluttonous people.



Mincemeat vodka:
With the leftover mincemeat, don't throw it away - put the mincemeat into a jar, get a cheapish bottle of vodka and pour it over the top. Add a little cinnamon and whatever else you feel like (brown sugar, allspice, more raisins, etc...) and serve to the neighbours when they spring over. Stir every day.

Recipe XXXVIII - English Muffins: Christmas Breakfast

There are several glories of the English kitchen: the puddings, pies and pastries being three, the good old English fried breakfast another, but for its simplicity, taste and convenience, nothing comes close to the English muffin. It is the highlight of my year, as I hold them in such high esteem, that I have them but at this time.



Ingredients:
About 280g of flour
1/4 of a teaspoon of salt
1 1/4 of a teaspoon of dried yeast
1/2 of a tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of shortening / butter, at room temperature
somewhere between 180ml and 240ml of milk

Instructions:
Take a large bowl and put together the flour, sugar, salt and yeast.
Mix in the milk and butter, knead for about ten minutes, remembering to start with 180ml of milk and then add a little more until the dough is consistent.



Transfer the dough to a surface which has been covered in flour and leave it for one hour to rise. Make it into a sausage shape and divide it into six pieces of an equal size.



Roll them into balls, flatten them to about 2.5cm in height and cover them in parchment paper or plastic foil and allow them to further rise for about 30 minutes.



Now preheat the oven to 180°C and switch on the frying pan to a medium strong heat. Brush the frying pan with oil, then brush one side of the muffins with oil and sprinkle a little light flour on top, and place it with the oiled side facing downwards into the frying pan, repeating the oiling and flouring process on the other side.



Fry until both sides are browned. Theoretically, they should get flatter as they cook.



Finally, put them in the oven for 5 to 8 minutes then let them cool for 30 minutes. To preserve them, put them in the bread bin or a Tupperware container overnight, but as I've done, put them on a cake rack ready for consumption in the morning! When serving, slice them in half and toast the inside for a short time. Serve with butter, a nice young Cheddar, a Maasdamer or jam.

Recipe XXXVII - Meat Korma: spice up your Yuletide

Yuletide is coming, the only thing to worry about is if the guests enjoy the food you prepare. For the day itself, you'll do whatever, but the day after, when you realise you've got a load of chopped meat in the freezer, there are only two possibilities: a stew or a curry. I know what I'd choose, and here it is...



Ingredients:
500g pork/chicken/beef/whatever
20 coriander corns, crushed in the pestle & mortar
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp dessicated coconut
3 onions
A piece of ginger, about 3cm long, 4cm wide
2 tomatoes
2 bay leaves
5 to 7 peppercorns (whole)
5 cloves (whole)
7 pods of cardamom (whole)
1/2 tbsp ground turmeric
7 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1 stick of cinnamon (6 cm long)
2 pots of ordinary yoghurt
A sprinkling of garam massala
A handful of chopped green coriander
1 red pepper (optional)
A cup of coconut milk (optional)

Instructions:
Heat a frying pan to a red hot temperature with nothing in it. Take the coriander, cumin and coconut, and dry-roast them for 2-4 minutes or until they go darker. Put the dry-roasted spices in a bowl to wait for later.



Put the onions, garlic, ginger, tomato and turmeric into a blender and turn them into a pulpy paste. Put these in another bowl and wait for later.



Heat some oil at medium power in a frying pan. Add the peppers, cinnamon, bay leaves, cardamom, peppercorns and cloves. Once they are nicely browning, turn up the heat, add the meat and seal it in the oil. Remove the meat and cinnamon from the pan and leave it for later.



Building up the sauce:
Put a dribble more oil in the pan, add the blended paste and let it reduce slowly for 10 or so minutes at a medium heat. Keep stirring. Put in some water now and again to keep it moist and stop it sticking to the bottom of the pan. Now you can add the dry-roasted spices.



After 5 to 10 minutes, add the yoghurt. After another 5 to 10 minutes, sprinkle some salt on the meat and add it and the cinnamon to the pan again. Add some garam massala and green coriander and if you want some water or coconut milk, and leave it to simmer for up to an hour, or until it is done.



Serve it with boiled basmati rice, roast cauliflower and/or some chapatis.