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Preserved Lemons

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Preserved lemons are, in my view, indispensible in the making of tagines. You can buy them bottled in supermarkets but these are a pale shadow of those you make yourself. Fortunately they are very easy to make requiring no more than lemons, salt, water, a suitable preserving jar and time.

This recipe is for 3 preserved lemons because that’s what fits most of my Kilner/Parfait jars. They need to fit the jar snugly otherwise they float and don’t remain submerged. The recipe is basically 25g/1oz salt for each preserved lemon so you can scale it according to what will fit your jar.

Once made, leave them for at least a month. They will keep indefinitely so you won’t waste them.

Planning

serves: n/a
preparation time: >1 month
cooking time: n/a

Ingredients

  • 4 fresh lemons, unblemished & preferably unwaxed
  • 75g/3ozs salt
  • water

Method

First of all, I sterilize a Kilner/Parfait preserving jar by washing it then drying it in a 125°C oven. Let it cool down before proceeding.

Cut each of three lemons almost into quarters lengthwise – leave the quarters attached at the stem, though. Splay each lemon and spread salt liberally on all the cut surfaces before squeezing it back together and cramming them tightly into the jar. I usually find it necessary to split one lemon completely in half and use these two halves to wedge the other two lemons. However you do it, make sure they are tight. Tip the remaining salt into the jar. Juice the remaining lemon and pour the juice into the jar. Now top up with water to just above the lemons – they should be completely submerged.

Seal the jar and leave it for at least one month.

When using preserved lemons, it is traditional to use only the skin. Remove and discard the flesh.


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Posted in Accompaniments Tagged with:

Sea Bass with a Black Olive Crust

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This recipe is based upon one in Nico by Nico Ladenis. My main change is to use wholemeal breadcrumbs instead of white and, rather than pressing and refrigerating the crust mixture before use, just to press it roughly straight onto the fish by hand; the result seems to be a better texture to me. This would work on many fish fillets but it is particularly good on sea bass.

You can, of course, use white bread if you prefer. Also, the herbs are just a guideline so feel free to mess with those to your liking.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 20 mins
cooking time: 10 mins

Ingredients

  • ~7cms/3ins thick chunk of wholemeal loaf, crust removed
  • 20 black olives, pitted
  • 1 tbs fresh parsley, chopped
  • ½ tsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
  • ½ tsp fresh basil, chopped
  • 1 small clove garlic, peeled
  • 50g butter
  • juice of ½ lemon
  • olive oil
  • 4 sea bass fillets, pin bones removed if possible
  • Salt & pepper

Method

First make the black olive breadcrumb mixture. Blitz the bread into breadcrumbs, preferably in a food processor and turn it out into a glass bowl. Chop the olives reasonably finely and add them to the breadcrumbs followed by the chopped herbs. Crush the garlic clove and add it to the breadcrumbs together with a few twists of salt and pepper, then stir all together to mix well.

Heat the butter in a small frying pan to make a beurre noisette. When it is nicely nutty brown, turn off the heat and add the lemon juice to stop it cooking further. Pour the beurre noisette into the breadcrumb mixture and mix well with a fork. You should be able to form the mixture into a reasonably firm mass. You can do all the preceding ahead of time and leave the flavours to blend a little.

When you are ready to cook the fish, get your grill blastingly hot. Lightly oil the skin side of the fish fillets before putting them skin side down. Season each fillet lightly with salt and pepper, then coat the flesh side with the breadcrumb mixture. Just press a modest coating all over with your fingers.

Get a cast iron griddle (plain, not ridged) or a shallow cast iron skillet hot and place on each fillet skin side down. You want the griddle/pan hot enough for the skin to sizzle a little. Place the hot griddle/pan under the blastingly hot grill and brown the crumb topping for about 5 minutes. Make sure it doesn’t burn – your grill may be more powerful than mine. Brown is good, black is bad! The residual heat and grilling will finish cooking the fish through.

This is good served with a green vegetable and, perhaps, some finely sliced fresh fennel sautéed and flamed in a little Ricard.


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Posted in Fish Tagged with:

JC’s Seafood Risotto

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I just love risottos and this is one of my favourites. The trick with risotto is to adjust the cooking heat such that the stock, added gradually, is absorbed over a period of about 20 minutes to make sure that the rice is cooked.

This needs a mixture of seafoods; three different kinds is good. I like to get fresh and raw seafood whenever possible but you can do it with ready prepared stuff. Supermarkets now sell very reasonable frozen packs of mixed seafood if you are either in a hurry or stuck for fresh ingredents. Naturally with the fresh option more preparation time is required.

If using fresh mussels, clean and steam them before removing the meats from their shells. If I have fresh scallops with roe, I separate the roe so I can cut the scallop meats into two thinner discs. I use only quite small fresh squid; clean and cut the bodies into rings but leave the tentacles whole. Fresh whole prawns are great because you can use the heads and shells to make the seafood stock.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 15 mins
cooking time: 45 mins

Ingredients

  • 100g butter
  • 1 large onion, finely chopped
  • 1 rib celery, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 320g risotto rice, preferably Vialone Nano
  • 1 wineglass dry white vermouth
  • 2 tomatoes, skinned, deseeded & finely chopped
  • 900mls – 1l seafood stock, very hot
  • ~600g mixed seafood (eg. prawns, mussels, scallops, squid), prepared
  • ~15g fresh basil leaves
  • Salt & pepper

Method

Keep the stock hot in a separate pan ready to add to the risotto in batches. In your chosen risotto pan, melt half the butter over moderate heat. Reduce the heat to low, add the finely chopped onion, celery and garlic and fry gently for about 10 minutes to soften without colouring. Now add the rice; increase the heat slightly and, stirring constantly so as not to burn it, cook the rice for about 2 minutes when it should begin to look a little translucent. Toss in the vermouth and let the alcohol bubble off so the angels can have it. 🙂

Once the rice has absorbed the vermouth, start adding the stock, which should be very hot so as to keep the simmer going. Add the hot stock a ladle at a time. With the first ladelful, add the finely chopped tomatoes together with about half a teaspoon of salt and a good few grindings of black pepper. Adjust the heat so that the stock simmers and the rice does not cook too quickly. Stir the rice frequently to help release the starch and make the traditional creamy consistency of risotto. As each ladelful of stock is absorbed, add another and continue simmering and stirring.

The amount of stock required varies a little, maybe because of the rice but also depending upon the size of your wineglass and the tomatoes. You will learn to tell when not to add any more because it wont get absorbed. Don’t add it all if you don’t need it.

Add any raw seafood as you add the final ladelful of stock – the time taken to absorb the last stock will be sufficient to cook the seafood. Stir in any cooked seafood, together with the chopped/torn basil leaves, when the last of the stock is pretty much absorbed.

Finally stir in the remaining butter, adjust the seasoning, cover the pan with a lid and let it sit for two minutes. The resting both reheats the seafood and makes the risotto rich and silky.

Parmesan is traditionally NOT used with seafood risottos.

This really just needs a good leafy salad, appropriately dressed, for accompaniment.


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Posted in Fish Tagged with:

JC’s Octopus Salad

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We got lucky when Morrisons took over our Safeway and we won a reasonable fish counter; they frequently stock octopus which makes for an interesting change and talking point.

This recipe is based upon an octopus salad in Sophie Grigson’s Fish , modified by the eminent Mr. Stein’s tenderizing/cooking method. I also thought, “why waste the flavour in the cooking juices?” and amalgamated some into the original dressing.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 2 months!
cooking time: 2 hrs

Ingredients

  • 750g octopus
  • olive oil
  • 1 shallot, finely chopped
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 tbs finely chopped fresh parsely
  • Salt & pepper

Method

Having purchased your rarely-seen-in-the-UK octopus, prepare it for cooking. Basically this means turning the body inside out and gutting it, cutting out the eyes and beak, then washing it. I find a mushroom brush (got one?) handy for getting any bits of dirt out of the suckers.

Having cleaned your octopus, pop it into a freezer bag, label it and freeze it for about two months. Many people acuse squid of being rubbery; I strongly disagree but octopus can be. Freezing is said to help tenderize it and I’m not about to argue with Mr. Stein.

When you have a suitable audience and the day arrives to use your octopus, thaw it out. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/gas 2. Oil a shallow casserole that has a tight-fitting lid and pop in the octopus. Drizzle more olive oil over the top of the octopus. Don’t season it; cover it with the lid and pop it into the warm oven to cook for 2 hours.

Remove the casserole from the oven, take off the lid and let the octopus cool. Magically, quite a bit of cooking liquid will have been produced.

Octopi have a purple-ish skin, much of which will have split, contracted and clumped during cooking. Remove the octopus to a chopping board and, without being too finicky (it’s perfectly edible), rub off the worst of the skin. Many of the suckers will come away with the skin. Chop the now largely white octopus into chunks about 2½cms/1in long.

Make a dressing based on the octopus cooking liquor. The liquid will be a mixture of octopus juice and the olive oil you added. Whisk it into an emulsion and grab about 4 tablespoons of it. Whisk in further olive oil to get to the consistency of a vinaigrette dressing. Whisk in enough lemon juice to give it a pleasant, lemony tang. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, being careful with salt because the juices are already quite salty.

Toss the octopus in the dressing then stir in the chopped parsely. Serve with crusty bread and butter.


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Posted in Starters Tagged with:

Skorthaliá

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Summertime means that Greek food should be tried on a regular basis. This version of garlic sauce is basically (very) garlicky mayonnaise with ground almonds added for body and texture. It makes a good dip, along with the usual suspects, for pitta bread. It is also supposed to work well as an accompaniment for fish and vegetables.

Planning

serves: ~ ½ pint
preparation time: 10 mins
cooking time: n/a

Ingredients

  • Yolks of 2 v. large eggs
  • 2 tbs lemon juice
  • 1 tbs white wine vinegar
  • 5 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 8 fl oz olive oil
  • Salt & pepper
  • 3 ozs ground almonds

Method

Put everything except the olive oil and ground almonds into a food processor and blend for 30 seconds. With the food processor running, add the olive oil in a slow, steady stream. The sauce will thicken. If it seems too thick, slacken it off with a little water.

Transfer the sauce into a storage container or serving dish and stir in the ground almonds. It tastes quite lemony at this stage but read on. Refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving. The almonds will thicken the sauce/dip a little more and the lemony flavour will soften.


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Posted in Accompaniments Tagged with:

Shrimp Etouffée

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This is basically Paul Prudhomme’s crawfish etouffée from his Louisiana Kitchen made with large prawns, which are a more readily available substitute for rarely seen freshwater crayfish. (One day, I must make a crayfish trap for use in the local canal.) I’ve also calmed down the heat a little by reducing the cayenne pepper. If you would like it hotter, you know what to do.

I’ve reduced the amount of flour in the roux a little and it still seems very high. Fear not; there is a reason: the more (i.e. darker) the flour gets cooked, the more it looses its thickening properties. Since this should be a dark roux, it needs more flour to thicken it. Making a darker roux without burning the flour takes a little faith and practice but do have a go. Try a little less at first, if you want. Once experienced, you could try increasing the flour content to the original recipe level of 75g.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 15 mins
cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients

  • Seasoning mix:1 tsp sea salt1 tsp cayenne pepper½ tsp white pepper½ tsp black pepper2 tsp dried basil1 tsp dried thyme
  • 40g onions, finely chopped
  • 40g celery, finely chopped
  • 40g green pepper, finely chopped
  • 5 tbsp groundnut oil
  • 60g plain flour
  • 700ml seafood stock
  • 40 large prawns, raw & prepared
  • 200g butter
  • 1 bunch spring onions, finely chopped

Method

Start by combining the seasoning mix and dividing it evenly between two small containers. Then combine the chopped onion, celery and green pepper in a bowl.

Now the tricky part – making the roux (a.k.a. cajun napalm). A cast iron skillet is best, preferably of a light interior colour so you can see the colour change. Be very careful not to splash yourself or anyone else. Heat the oil over high heat almost to smoking point. Prepare to stir immediately with a wooden flat bladed spatula and toss in the flour. Stirring constantly and making sure to scrape all the flour from the bottom of the pan all the time, continue cooking while the mixture darkens to a red-brown colour which should take about 3 – 5 mins, depending upon how brave you are with the heat. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the chopped onion, celery and green pepper mix together with one portion of the seasoning mix. Continue stirring until the mixture cools.

Bring the seafood stock to simmering point and stir in the roux mixture whisking constantly to avoid lumps. Reduce the heat to low and cook the thickened mixture for a few minutes, stirring constantly, to cook out the flour taste. Remove from the heat and set aside.

In another pan, melt 100g of the butter over medium heat and sauté the prawns and chopped spring onions for a minute. Add the thickened stock mixture and the remaining portion of seasoning mix. Stir well and cook gently for about three minutes; the prawns should be just cooked. Add the remaining 100g butter and stir or shake the pan gently until the butter dissolves (about a minute).

Serve surrounding mounds of cajun rice.


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Posted in Seafood Tagged with:

Cajun Rice

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My version, Anglicized, freshened up (real garlic instead of garlic powder) and cooked differently, of Paul Prudhomme’s “Basic Rice” in Louisiana Kitchen . This is a very necessary accompaniment to Shrimp Etouffée. I like to mould it in ramekins lined with cling film and make a neat mound of rice surrounded by the Shrimp Etouffée.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 10 mins
cooking time: 15 mins

Ingredients

  • 8 oz long grain rice, washed to remove starch
  • 16 fl oz stock (seafood if accompanying shrimps)
  • 1 tbs onion, very finely chopped
  • 1 tbs celery, very finely chopped
  • 1 tbs green pepper, very finely chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, very finely chopped
  • pinch cayenne pepper
  • pinch black pepper
  • salt
  • 1 tbs butter

Method

Bring the stock to the boil in a small/medium pan and add all the ingredients except the butter. Bring the rice back to the boil and simmer very gently until the rice is cooked. (Take care not to burn it – add a little more stock if necessary.) Gently stir in the butter trying not to break the grains.

[Depending on the rice, all or most of the liquid should have been absorbed. If not, leave it to stand while cooling and it see if that absorbs it. As a last resort, drain it and adjust the liquid for next time.]

If you’re feeling fancy, line four ramekins with cling film and pack them (not too firmly) with rice. Fold the excess cling film over the top. The ramekins can be prepared ahead of time and very successfully reheated in “the dreaded microwave” when required. To serve, use kitchen scissors to snip off the covering cling film, invert a plate over the top of each ramekin and flip both right side up. The moulded rice should release cleanly onto the plate with no more than a gentle tap.


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Posted in Veggies Tagged with:

Caramelized Red Onion

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There are various recipes flying around for so-called Red Onion Marmalade or Caramelized Onion. The thing that seems to vary most is the sweetness or otherwise of the recipes. This version was my smashing together of a couple of recipes for a tapas meal. It is slightly sweet and goes very well with chicken or duck livers, either whole or made into a paté.

Planning

serves: lots
preparation time: 10 mins
cooking time: 45 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 tbs butter
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 2 large red onions, halved and finely sliced
  • 150ml red wine
  • 50ml sherry or balsamic vinegar
  • ~8 tsp golden caster sugar
  • Salt

Method

Melt the butter and olive oil together in a heavy-based pan. Add the finely sliced onions and fry gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, to soften but not colour. Add the red wine, vinegar and a little salt. Set this mixture simmering gently until all the liquid has evaporated (it will take about 30 minutes).

While it is cooking, add the sugar a spoonful at a time to adjust the sweetness to your liking. As the evaporation progresses, watch the heat so that it doesn’t catch and burn.

Put the caramelized onion in a bowl and allow to cool.

This is a wonderful topping for live ras part of a tapas meal but it also works with some cheeses and cold meats.


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Posted in Accompaniments Tagged with:

Sloe Gin

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This is my own adaptation of a recipe which works well for me. What you end up with is liqueur-like but not too cloyingly sweet. The flavour of the fruit should shine through and, perversely, is enhanced by the use of cheaper, less strongly-flavoured gin. Aldi, here we come …

Planning

serves: 1 (joke)
preparation time: 6 months
cooking time: n/a

Ingredients

  • sloes, washed and pricked with a fork.
  • sugar
  • gin (the cheaper the better)
  • almond essence

Method

Your bottles must be clean and dry to start with. Half-fill each bottle with pricked sloes (I prick them as I go and get my fingers in a terrible mess). Depending upon bottle size, add sugar as follows: 750ml bottle – 2oz, 1000ml bottle – 3 oz. (I know those proportions are not quite consistent but it seems ot work.) Top each bottle up with your cheap gin and stopper them.

Find somewhere cool to store the bottles. For the first week, agitate the bottles well daily by inverting them a few times. After the first week leave them well alone (as in, don’t drink them) for at least 3 months and preferably 6 months. Just try to forget them, though further occasional agitations would not go amiss.

After 3/6 months you should have a very appealing deep red liquid. Strain the gin into a single container so as to distribute the sweetness evenly. Using fresh, clean, sterilized bottles (preferably clear glass), bottle and cap the gin. Now drive yourself completely nuts by standing it and leaving it well alone for at least another month, preferably 3 months.

OK, have at it!


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Posted in Drinks Tagged with:

Dukkah

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One triggered by Paul and Liz’s trip to New Zealand in 2009. It made such an impression that Paul had to write about it so there’s clearly a need to make a note of it. The idea is to dip bread in olive oil, then into this Dukkah mixture.

This version comes from Claudia Roden’s, A New Book of Middle Eastern Food .

Planning

serves: An army
preparation time: 15 mins
cooking time: n/a

Ingredients

  • 500g sesame seeds
  • 250g coriander seeds
  • 125g hazelnuts
  • 125g ground cumin
  • Salt & pepper

Method

Dry roast the ingredients separately, so as not to overcook any). Pound them together until they are finely crushed but not pulverized to a powder. A short blast in an electric blender woudl seem to save a lot of effort. Too long will release oil from the seeds and nuts forming a paste which we don’t want.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

This mixture can apparently be stored for many weeks in covered jars.


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