Lamb Saag Balti

We had guests for the weekend and for the first time we couldn''t just skip off to the beach with gay abandon and lashings of ginger beer. I mean we did go to the beach, but our expeditions required planning, waterproofs and a little more thought - mainly to prevent smaller members of the party being blown off the coastal path into the sea.

The problems would not have been insurmountable - and worst case scenario there are always the water slides at Bluestone - a heady attraction some 50 minutes drive from here - to which we have not yet succumbed to (well the weather has been too good) - but, you know, part of the reason people come to this part of the country is for the wild beauty of the coast (of course, the guests have, we hope, come to see us too), and 'wild beauty' we hope we gave them.

As is often the case, the weather forecast's gloomy outlook did not entirely prevail. Yes it was windy, but the rain held off, during the day (mostly) at least. It was warm, and occasionally there was a peek of blue sky.

On Saturday, we ventured south from  Ceredigion into North Pembrokeshire and walked the ruggedly spectacular section of the coastal path south from Ceibwr Bay to check out the Witches Cauldron - a pool accessible from the open sea via an interesting looking cave/tunnel. Something to explore in more detail on a lower tide and, we decided,as the waves crashed round us, echoing up the cliffs like thunderclaps, a calmer day... 

We refuelled on tea and cake (and milkshakes and ice creams) at the fabulous Pavillion Cafe that you should seek out in the Penrallt Garden Centre above Moylegrove should you find yourself in the area, then headed home for sausages and chunky chips for the kids, and this delicious curry for the grown ups.

I found this beauty in Simon Rimmer's book "Men Love Pies, Girls Like Hummus". Not entirely sure I approve of the title, even though in the introduction, Mr Rimmer does defend against accusations of culinary misogyny. For the record, I love pies as much as the next man (and given that the next man is the Husband, quickly followed by Blue, that means I love pies ALOT). I do also like hummus, but given the choice, I'd probably have a pie.

Anyway, enough of this silliness. Whether you approve of the title or not, I first stumbled across Simon Rimmer in the form of "The Accidental Vegetarian" when I was looking for inspiration and veggie food to serve to my mother in law that is colourful and full of flavour - not just brown and over-salted - and have been a bit of a fan ever since. 


I hadn't heard of this book, but I picked it up in The Works when I was looking for something else entirely, and it was only £2.99 - bit of a bargain really when it is full of absolutely rocking dishes. Corned Beef Pot Pie, Wild Boar & Coriander Burgers with Sweet Roasted Peppers, Beetroot & Celeriac Filo Pie (mother in law is visiting again soon), Pork Empanadas and Baked Cuban Spiced Chicken with Rice have all rushed onto my 'must try' soon - like really soon - list.That's the things with cookery books, isn't it? There are some which are beautiful, listing wonderful dishes, gorgeously photographed, that in reality are never going to make it on to your table, and others which you know you will cook from time and time again. Nigella's Kitchen is one of these for me, as is River Cottage Every Day. Of course, which books fall in to which categories will change depending on the cook and his or her circumstances at the time, but Men Love Pies, Girls Like Hummus is absolutely spot on for me right now.

I used lovely Welsh lamb from one of the butchers in Cardigan, and the amazing chilli the Husband grew. I also made this on Friday and left it overnight - I think curries and casseroles often benefit from this as the flavours develop, and also I didn't want to be tied to the cooker once our friends had arrived and there was wine to be drunk...

Lamb Saag Balti

Serves 4 (along with dahl, rice and poppadums - we'd had a lot of fresh air, OK?)

1 large onion
3 garlic cloves
a thumb sized piece of fresh ginger
1 large green chilli (check out this bad boy)
1 tbsp each of cumin and coriander seeds
2 cardamom pods
6 large tomatoes
750g diced lamb shoulder
1 tsp turmeric 
I lamb stock cube 
300g baby leaf spinach (or normal spinach, stalks removed)
Vegetable oil for frying

Peel & quarter the onion, peel the garlic cloves, peel and roughly chop the ginger and depending on the heat of your chilli and how much you like, deseed it - and then roughly chop it.

Blend the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli to make a smooth, wet paste.

Dry fry the cumin and coriander seeds in a small frying pan for a couple of minutes till they smell delicious and fragrant, then grind up in a pestle and mortar and set aside.

Bash the cardamom pods a little, then quarter the tomatoes, removing the tough core bit.

Make up the stock cube with 300ml boiling water.

In a large pan,  heat about a tablespoon of vegetable oil and then brown the meat in batches. Set aside.

Add a little more oil to the pan and gently cook out the onion paste till the liquid has evaporated - it will take 10-15 minutes. Stir regularly and make sure the paste doesn't burn.

Once the paste is cooked out, return the lamb to the pan along with the dry seeds and turmeric, the tomatoes and the stock. Bring the pan to the boil, then reduce the heat as low as you can to ensure a gentle simmer and leave to cook for 45 minutes - 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

If you're serving straight away, add the spinach about 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time. If you're serving the next day (or another day entirely) leave the curry to cool and keep in the fridge over night, or freeze. Gently reheat, add the spinach leaves and cook for 5 minutes till the spinach has cooked.

Serve.

Not Quite Veg Everyday, but trying: Simple suppers

This weekend has been a bit chaotic already, and here, now in the calm before the storm that will commence at 11.00 a.m. when a hoard (well, may be 12 - I'm not quite sure how many are coming) 5 & 6 year olds descend on us to celebrate Pink's 6th birthday, I wanted to quickly blog about last night's supper.

We were at friends' for lunch (and delicious it was too) but my mother in law was coming later on for the night (and above-mentioned celebrations) so I knew I needed to produce something more than a boiled egg for an evening meal. She is vegetarian, and although I have been cooking much more veggie food generally, I always feel a challenge to cook something other than the heavily lentil and garlic based dishes that we tend to have at her house. With an eye to the fact that I had to ice a pink heart birthday cake and make the werewithal to 'pin the crown on the princess' last night, it had to be easy. I also made extra on the basis that when the apocalypse is over, we (adults) might actually want something more substantial than cheese sandwiches and fairy cakes for lunch.

Summer Vegetable soup

The soup is based on one out of the current Good Food mag,. The recipe doesn't appear to be up on the website yet, so no link to the original, and here is my version:

3 sticks of celery, finely chopped
3 leeks, finely sliced
3 courgettes - quartered lengthwise and chopped
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
11/2 litres of vegetable stock (I use marigold bouillon powder)
125g asparagus spears, woody ends removed and cut into inch long pieces (leaving the lovely tip bits intact)

Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a big pan, and gently cook the celery and leek till soft - about 8-10 mins. Add the courgette and garlic and continue to cook for 5 mins or so, then add the stock, bring to the boil and simmer with the lid on for 10 mins. Throw in the asparagus about 4 minutes before the end of the cooking time, season and serve.

If you've got the magazine, the recipe is called Summer Vegetable Minstrone. I was a little confused as to the minestrone tag because there didn't appear to be any pasta or other carbs in it, and another time, I might add some little pasta in as soon as the stock started to boil. It would need to be little pasta though (quick cooking) because you wouldn't want to over cook the veg.

Sinple Tomato Tart

The tart was really good and dead easy. I got The Accidental Vegetarian secondhand on Amazon and it's definitely worth a read. I didn't quite follow his recipe, adding in some thyme, and I used more pastry to have a little left over for lunch today (although it was so good that there's not much left...). This could also be called 'How frozen puff pastry can save your life' - there are many, many variations on a theme of just topping a sheet of puff pastry and whacking it in the oven for 25 minutes. Genius.

375g pre-rolled sheet of puff pastry
8 plum tomatoes
a couple of sprigs of thyme (leaves only)
2 tsp of caster sugar
salt & pepper
1 good knob of butter, melted

First, peel the tomatoes. yes, I know, I wasn;t going to either, but then I thought I would just do it and I think it was worth it. So put on the kettlr, put the tomatoes in a bowl and as soon as the kettle is boiled, pour the boiling water over the tomatoes and leave them for a couple of minutes. One by one, get a tomatoes frm the water (you can spear them with a fork if the water is still too hot) and using a knife, make a slit in the skin. You should find that the skin just kind of shrinks back and you can just pull it off  quite easily. Slice them into pound coin thick slices.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees fan.

Lightly grease the baking sheet you are going to use and put the pastry onto it. Lay the tomatoes onto the pastry, leaving a rim of uncovered pastry all round the edge. Youc an slightly overlap the tomato slices and it will look quite pretty! Sprinkle over the thyme leaves, and caster sugar and grind over salt and pepper, then brush with the the melted butter - or you could drizzle with olive oil - and then bake in the oven for around 25 minutes till the tomatoes are looking cooked and caramelised and the pastry is golden and puffed.

I did serve, as suggested with rocket, dressed with 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar (shaken together in a jam jar first).

Does infidelity pay?

I have a confession. I have been unfaithful. Last Friday, the Husband went out to the pub and I snuck to bed early for a cosy threesome with two new men. Even when the Husband and I were planning our romantic weekend in Venice, I was contemplating the possibility. At the same time as I was ordering my Rough Guide, I was tempted and fell... And of course, it led to no good.

So there I was, tucked up with Simon Rimmer (The Accidental Vegetarian)

and Plenty (Yottam Ottolenghi)

The Ottolenghi book is beautiful – I will read it and read it, but it was The Accidental Vegetarian that really got me going, in particular a recipe for gnocchi with a ragu and garlic mushrooms. I’d been eyeing up the Veg Everyday recipe, but was seduced by the throw away comment by Simon that the gnocchi could be frozen. With half an eye on the fact that in a couple of weeks I will be hosting ravenous hordes (well, my French exchange and her family and my parents) and a tonne of floury potatoes languishing in my veg drawer, I couldn’t resist. Double quantities…

After a busy morning in town doing jobs with the kids, I got home ready to set down to work to find that the reliable teenager I’d organised to entertain the kids for the afternoon had got her days mixed up so I spent a stressful few hours working while the kids ‘entertained themselves’ (read – watched TV till their eyes turned square and started to bleed), and then we regrouped in the kitchen to get on with it.

”It’ll be a breeze! It’ll be fun!” Famous last words.

I’d already boiled the potatoes (whole and unpeeled) and peeled them. Next to mash, mix egg into the mash then add flour and seasoning.

check out the ridges

Blue broke the second egg all over himself, and retreated to his Asterix books. Pink lasted a little longer. I realised that I didn’t really have a big enough bowl to mix the double quantities (we’re talking mash from over a kilo of potatoes and 900g of flour) but soldiered on. Kneading. Hooray. The instructions said knead until dry to the touch. In the end I chucked in a bit more flour and pretended I’d got that far. You can imagine, though that it was taking far longer than I’d imagined, just because of the bulk of dough I was dealing with. The rolling out and cutting up, then the boiling, refreshing, draining and patting dry. Very labour intensive. In other circumstances, I would have probably enjoyed it, but it was getting late, there was flour everywhere, the  kids were getting fractious, and at the back of my mind was the fact that at 7.30 the Husband was hosting the scout leaders and various hangers on to start planning this summer’s camp. Pink was helping by finishing off the gnocchi with the back of a fork to put the ridges in it. Slowly. I was desperately trying to be encouraging, but I was really feeling up against it and as if I had just bitten off more than I can chew – I was definitely feeling like the thrill of the new was not worth it…

In the end of course, it all came together. The gnocchi cooked, the ragu was easy and delicious (I had made it at lunchtime), the garlic mushrooms to finish it off were delicious (no mystery – sliced large filed mushrooms, olive oil and garlic). The thrill of a new meal to feed the family.  And I have enough in the freezer to feed a small army. Will I stray again? Almost certainly: Hugh – you have competition.