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Arroz Negro con Calamares

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This is a black rice dish. It is basically a seafood paella in which the rice is blackened with squid ink, which can be bought in sachets. In Spain, the seafood content is often chopitos/chipirones (baby squid) but, that being more or less impossible to buy in the UK, you can do it with fresh squid cut suitably instead.

Squid is one of those ingredients that should either be cooked very little, or quite a lot; it’s the “anything in between stages” that cause people to wine, “it’s rubbery”. So, cut your squid reasonably small but not so small that it becomes unrecognisable, about 1cm strips/rings.

Planning

serves: 2
preparation time: 20 mins
cooking time: 45 mins

Ingredients

  • 500g fresh squid, whole
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp sweet smoked paprika (pimentón)
  • 3 medium tomatoes, skinned, deseeded & finely chopped
  • 150g paella rice (Bomba or Calasparra)
  • 500ml fish/seafood stock
  • 2 sachets squid ink
  • juice of ½ lemon
  • Salt & pepper

Method

Preparing the squid. Holding each squid body in one hand and the head in the other, pull the head away. Do this over a bowl as much of the body contents will come away with the head. Put the head down while you use your fingers to remove the remaining body contents, including the translucent quill. With your fingers, peel/rub off the purple-ish membrane on teh outside of the squid bodies. Back to the heads; cut the tentacles off immediately in front of the eyes, which you can now discard. Don’t shorten the tentacles but, if the squid are larger, divide them into 2 or 4 lengthwise as necessary for bite-sized pieces. For modest squid, slice the bodies into 1cm rings; if the squid are large slit the body to lie flat, halve it lengthwise and slice into 1cm strips.

Now we can start cooking. To a paella or good sized skillet, add a good glug of olive oil and fry off the squid rings and tentacles over moderate heat. This is a longer cooking approach to squid so we can cook them well and brown them a little. Remove the squid onto a plate with a slotted spoon.

In the same pan, adding more olive oil if necessary – it probably will be – fry the onion and garlic over medium heat until soft and translucent. Stir in the smoked paprika and fry for a minute more. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook them down until they break up and form a mush. (Yum!)

Now lower the heat and stir in the rice. Cook gently for a couple of minutes to allow the rice to absorb some of the flavours and oil. Return the squid to the pan before adding the stock and ink mixture, together with the citrus juice. Hopefully, you are using home made stock. If so, season well with salt and pepper. If you are using anything else, one of the stock jellies, say, it is probably already seasoned so be careful about adding more. Increase the heat to moderate again and bring the liquid to the boil. Cook reasonably briskly for about 5 minutes before lowering the heat and simmering gently for 20 more minutes or until the rice is cooked.

The trick with paellas is to time the cooking such that all the liquid is absorbed by the rice just as the rice is cooked. If your pan is much wider than your burner/heat source, it helps to move the pan around on the burner as you cook it, say 5 mins in each of four positions. The rice should not be wet. The Spanish like a toasted bottom to the rice in their paellas so you can have a go at that. They also generally use a gas burner whose diameter is matched to the pan.

It is suggested that this is served from the pan with garlic mayonnaise (alioli), either dolloped in the middle of the dish or as a side accompaniment. A little green salad wouldn’ go amiss, either.


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Posted in Seafood Tagged with:

Chimichurri

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Chimichurri is a traditional Argentinian salsa [sauce] used to accompany barbecued or grilled meat. It is quite like a spicy version of my favourite, Salsa Verde, which also accompanies steak very well.

Planning

serves: ?
preparation time: 15 mins
cooking time: n/a

Ingredients

  • 3 garlic clove, crushed
  • 2 salad onions, finely sliced
  • 1 tbs chilli flakes
  • 1 jalapeno chilli, finely chopped
  • 3 tbs white wine vinegar
  • 25g flat leafed parsley, finely chopped
  • 10g coriander, finely chopped
  • 3 sprigs oregano (stalks included), finely chopped
  • ~5 tbs olive oil

Method

Mix all the ingredients together and chill for at least an hour, or prefereably overnight.

Serve with barbecued/grilled steak/côte de boeuf/prime rib.


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Posted in Accompaniments Tagged with:

Duck Confit

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This is my generation II of a duck confit recipe, this being based on one from the master, Raymond Blanc. Some duck confit recipes seem to end up too salty; this one did not and tasted terrific. It makes a fine meal in its own right (simply reheat the duck legs skin side down in the oven) but it is also the starting point for a classic French Cassoulet .

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 24 hrs
cooking time: 2½ hrs

Ingredients

  • 2 fresh bay leaves, finely sliced
  • 4 sprigss fresh thyme, finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoons rock salt
  • 4 garlic cloves, finely sliced
  • 4 duck legs
  • 750g duck fat or lard

Method

Mix together the bay, thyme, salt and garlic – the marinade mix. Lay the duck legs on a baking tray, flesh-side upwards, and distribute the marinade mix evenly over. Cover with cling film and leave to marinate in the fridge overnight. The next day, rinse the marinade off the duck legs and pat them dry with a cloth.

Preheat the oven to 140°C/275°F/Gas 1. On the stove top, gently melt the fat in a pan in which the duck pieces just fit comfortably. When hot, add the duck, which must be covered with fat; if it is not, add lard until it is fully covered. If you have a thermometer, bring it to 85°C; sans thermometer, this is when it is just trembling but not boiling. Transfer it uncovered into the oven and cook it for 2¼ hours.

If you do not plan to use the confit within a day or two, transfer the confit to a plastic container or sterilized preserving jar. Ladle the fat over the confit through a fine sieve, being careful not to ladel any of the juices from the bottom of the cooking dish. Allow to cool completely then seal with a lid and refrigerate for a good couple of weeks (to allow the flavour to develop) until needed. You will then be set to make a wonderful Cassoulet .

Alternatively, you could use the Duck Confit in its own right. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6. To serve, remove the duck from the fat and place on a baking tray for 1 hour to come to room temperature. Pour off any melted fat from the tray and roast, skin-side down, for 20 minutes, turning it skin-side up to serve. It goes well with braised red cabbage or with a pulse such as flageolet, haricot or cannnelini beans.

[You can melt the stored fat from the container and bring to the boil before straining back through a sieve into a bowl to keep in the fridge to use for another confit. It can be used 3 times before it becomes too salty.]


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Posted in Poultry

Prawns with Cardamom, Vanilla & Coconut

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This sounded like an interesting starter, perhaps to begin an evening of spicey food. I got this from the Wine Society blog.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 15 mins
cooking time: 30 mins

Ingredients

  • 16 tiger prawns, defrosted if frozen
  • 2 tablespoons of sunflower or similarly neutral oil
  • a scant teaspoon of toasted sesame oil
  • 4 banana shallots, finely sliced
  • 200ml coconut milk
  • 150ml full fat crème fraîche
  • a vanilla pod, split
  • 5 whole green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
  • 1 green medium chilli, deseeded & finely chopped
  • 1 lime
  • 16 coriander leaves, washed & dried
  • Salt & pepper

Method

Firstly, deal with the prawns. If they’re shell-on, remove heads, all shells and tails. De-vein htem and rinse them in well salted water. Pat them with kitchen paper and leave them on a plate until completely dry.

Preheat the oven to 200?C/Gas 7. Put the prawns in a small roasting dish. Add half the sunflower oil and all the sesame oil and season well with salt and pepper. With clean hands, make sure every prawn is well coated. Roast for just 6-8 minutes until the prawns are pink, opaque and firm to the touch. Set them aside to cool, and once they have done so, refrigerate them until you are ready to assemble.

In a frying pan, heat the rest of the sunflower oil and brown the onions or shallots. They should be golden and crisp. Lift them out and let them drain on kitchen paper.

Now wipe the same pan with kitchen paper before adding the coconut milk, crème fraîche, vanilla and cardamom, along with half the diced chilli. Bring up to a simmer and let this mixture reduce gently to half its volume, tasting as you go. It may need a little seasoning, but remember that the prawns will be quite salty and toasty. Once it tastes right (rich, creamy, subtly spicey and slightly sweet) fish out the vanilla pod and cardamoms. Stir in the rest of the diced chilli and finish with the juice of half a lime, adding a little more if you feel it’s needed.

Divide the mixture into 4 ramekins. Sprinkle with the reserved onion ringlets, and put in the fridge to chill and thicken.

An hour before serving, remove your components from the fridge to assemble. Arrange four prawns on top of the sauce, interleaved with the coriander leaves (or inter-coriander-leaved, I suppose).


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Posted in Starters, Untested Tagged with:

Parsi Chicken with Apricots

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One as yet to be tried – seems a bit like a sweet and sour chicken tagine.

This delicately sweet-and-sour dish of chicken cooked with dried apricots is apparently from the Parsi community, of Persian descent within India. It is supposedly generally served with a mountain of very fine, crisp potato straws, for which I must go looking, but rice is an acceptable simpler alternative.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 20 mins
cooking time: 40 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 whole chicken, cut into 8 serving pieces
  • 12 dried apricots
  • 3 tablespoons olive or rapeseed oil
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • ½ teaspoon whole cumin seeds
  • 2 medium onions, cut into fine half-rings
  • 3 teaspoons peeled and finely grated fresh ginger
  • 1 tablespoon tomato purée
  • 1½ tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon garam masala
  • ½-¾ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • Salt & pepper

Method

Pat the chicken pieces on all sides with ½ teaspoon salt and generous amounts of black pepper. Set the chicken aside.

Put the apricots in a small pan with 250 ml/8 fl oz water and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and gently simmer for 15 minutes or until the apricots have softened but remain firm enough to be cooked again later. Leave them in their liquid.

Put the oil in a large pan and set over a medium-high heat. When hot, put in the cinnamon sticks and cumin and let it sizzle for 10 seconds. In the spicey oil, brown the chicken pieces on all sides ( do it in two batches if necessary to avoid over-crowding the pan). Reserve the chicken in a bowl.

Add the onions to the sauté pan. Stir and fry until the onions are brown at the edges. Add the ginger and stir for a few seconds. Add the tomato purée and stir again. Now return the chicken and all its accumulated juices to the pan, along with 350 ml/12 fl oz water and 1 teaspoon salt. Cover and bring to the simmer. Lower the heat and cook gently for 15 minutes, turning the chicken once during this time.

Remove the cover and add the sugar, vinegar, apricots with their cooking liquid, garam masala and cayenne pepper. Stir and cook over a higher heat until the sauce is slightly syrupy.


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Posted in Poultry

Murghi aur Masoor Dal

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In English this was called Bombay-style Chicken with Red Split Lentils when Madhur Jaffrey published it. I suppose it would now be called Mumbai-style. Such is fashion, or is it political correctness?

Anyway, fed up with plain chicken on a Sunday? This delightful recipe is simplicity itself and could be a taste-bud-tickling alternative. As written, this is not over spicey but I’m sure you could adjust the quantity of the spice ingredients to your liking. The original recipe used more water (2½ pints) which I found too much so I’ve reduced it. You may want to stand by with a little more boiling water as you cook it, just in case.

Being cooked with lentils, of which I am big fan, the healthy vegetable content is already present so this really just needs some Basmati rice to complete the dish.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 20 mins
cooking time: 90 mins

Ingredients

  • 250g red split lentils [masoor dal]
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 1 fresh green chilli, finely sliced
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • ½ tsp ground tumeric
  • 1 in/2½ cm piece fresh ginger, peeled & finely chopped
  • 35 fl oz/1 ltr water
  • 1 whole chicken
  • 2 tbs vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 2 tbs lemon juice
  • ½ tsp sugar
  • ½ tsp garam masala
  • 3 tbs chopped fresh green coriander
  • Salt

Method

I try never to buy chicken pieces because a whole chicken is always better value. Cut the chicken into the tradtional eight serving pieces: legs divided into thighs and drumsticks, breasts halved. I also throw in the wings, divided into their two useable joints. Skin the leg and breast pieces and as much of the wings as you can. (If you prefer,an equivalent amount of chicken pieces is obviously perfectly fine. Skin those instead.)

Combine the lentils, onion, green chilli, ground cumin, turmeric and half of the chopped ginger in a big, heavy pan. Add the water and stir. Bring this lot to a simmer and cook gently for 45 minutes covered with a lid left slightly ajar. Add the chicken pieces and salt, then mix and return to the simmer. Now cover completely and simmer for 30 minutes or until the chicken is tender.

Put the vegetable oil in a small frying pan and set over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds. When the seeds sizzle (just a few seconds), add the remaining chopped ginger and the chopped garlic. Fry until the garlic takes on a light brown colour and tip the pan contents into the chicken and lentils. Now also add the lemon juice, sugar and garam masala. Stir to mix and cook on low heat for a further 5 minutes.

Serve sprinkled with the fresh coriander together, of course, with Basmati rice.


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Posted in Poultry Tagged with:

Chicken Biryani

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Proper Biryanis do not have hot spice in them. Why, then, do most of the recipes out there in Internet-land toss in chillis of one colour or another?

Madhur Jaffrey is usually a reliable source of recipes which approach genuine. This is one from her that I tried and enjoyed. A relatively involved process using a daunting list of ingredients but worth the effort.

(Timings do not include the marinading.)

Planning

serves: 6
preparation time: 30 mins
cooking time: 2 hrs

Ingredients

  • 6 medium onions, peeled
  • 4 garlic cloves, peeled & coarsely chopped
  • 2 inch piece ginger, peeled & chopped
  • 6 whole cloves
  • 20 whole black peppercorns
  • seeds from 8 whole green cardamom pods
  • ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp poppy seeds
  • ¼ tsp mace, ground
  • 3 tbs lemon juice
  • 8 oz plain yogurt
  • 2 fresh bay leaves
  • 4 large black cardamoms
  • 2 x 1¼-ish kg chickens, breasts and legs of
  • 1 tbs saffron strands,
  • 2 tbs milk
  • 500g Basmati rice
  • 2 tbs golden raisins (optional)
  • 3 tbs flaked almonds (optional)
  • 2 eggs (optional)
  • Salt & pepper

Method

First make the marinade for the chicken. Peel and coarsely chop 3 of the onions. Place chopped onion, garlic, and ginger in an electric blender, along with the cloves, peppercorns, the seeds only from the 8 cardamoms, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, poppy seeds, mace, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and the lemon juice. Blend all of these at high speed until you have a smooth paste. Place this paste in a large bowl. Add the yoghurt and mix well.

Now for the remaining onions. Peel the remaining onions three and halve them. Slice each half onion finely. In a heavy-bottomed skillet, heat the oil over a medium flame. Once hot, add the bay leaves and 4 black cardamoms, frying these for about 10 to 15 seconds. Now put in the half onion rings and fry them, stirring, until they get brown and crisp (but not burned). Remove them carefully with a slotted spoon, squeezing out as much of the oil as possible. Reserve all the onion-flavoured oil, the black cardamoms, and the bay leaves; you will need them later. Mix two-thirds of the fried onions into the marinade paste. Place the rest of the onions on a paper towel to drain and set aside for garnishing the final dish.

The chicken. Remove the skin from the chicken legs and breasts. Madhur leaves the bone in the legs and divides them into thighs and drumsticks; I cut the meat off so my guests weren’t messing with bones. You go whichever way you prefer. Quarter the breasts. Pierce the chicken pieces with a fork and place in the bowl with the marinade paste. Mix well. Cover the bowl with cling film and refrigerate for at least 2 hours turning occasionally. (I left mine for four hours.)

Begin cooking. Remove the bowl from the refrigerator and place all its contents into a large heavy-bottomed pot. Bring slowly to a simmer, cover, lower heat, and cook gently for 15 minutes. Remove only the chicken pieces, place them in a large casserole dish (you need room for all the chicken topped with all the rice), and cover. Set aside. On a medium flame, reduce the marinade paste, stirring frequently, until you have a reasonably thick, stiff paste left. Spoon the paste over the chicken. Cover again.

Preheat oven to 150°C/gas 2.

The rice. Soak the saffron in 2 tablespoons hot (not boiling) milk. Bring to the boil a good sized pan almost filled with water. Add three teaspoons of salt then add the rice. Bring it back to the boil again and cook for 5 minutes, timing very carefully (the rice must not cook through).

Drain the rice in a colander, then place it on top of the chicken in the casserole. Streak the rice with the saffron milk. Sprinkle the reserved onion-flavoured oil over the rice, together with the reserved black cardamoms, and bay leaves. Cover the casserole dish with aluminium foil cut 2 inches wider than the rim of the dish. Now put the lid on and use the protruding foil edges to seal the dish as best you can by crinkling it and pushing it against the sides. Bake 1 hour.

Preparing the garnishes. (Use as many of these as you wish in addition to the fried onions which are essential.) If you wish to use raisins, fry them in a tablespoon of the onion-flavoured oil just after you have fried the onions. Hard boil two eggs, peel and quarter them. Lightly toast three tablespoons flaked, blanched almonds in a dry frying pan over moderate heat.

Serving. Lift the cover off your casserole dish and spoon the rice and chicken out onto a large platter. Sprinkle over the fried onions together with the raisins and almonds, if you are using them. Nestle the quartered eggs around the side of the mound and serve hot.

I served this accompanied by blanched cauliflour, browned together with some more fried, finely sliced onions – sort of a cauliflour bhaji.


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Posted in Poultry Tagged with:

Tea-Smoked Chicken

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One that I’ve had on this site for a while to try out. It was from James Martin. I’ve finally tried it out and wanted to post it again with a public health warning, in the hope that, if anyone searches for such a recipe, they may stumble into my experience and think again.

OK, the biggest problem in my view with this recipe is that it just isn’t suitable for a domestic environment. I cooked this in a wok, with the lid on, following the instructions and, although my house did not appear to be filling up with smoke, the smoky aroma was intense. When I awoke the following morning and walked out of the bedroom, my hall, stairs and landing, as well as the more obvious kitchen, all reeked of smoke. I’d never smelt anything like it. I tried an old trick burning candles to get rid of the aroma – I had four candles burning all day – but the following morning I continued to smell nothing like it.

I was annoyed. I was annoyed largely with myself because, in hindsight, I probably should have realized I was heading for trouble. Admittedly, my cooker does not have an extractor hood but I seriously doubt that one would have made sufficient difference.

To add insult to injury, the second problem is that I didn’t even like the finished dish. I disliked it so much that I threw it away and this is despite my being a long time fan of smoked food. I frequently smoke food in my Weber kettle BBQ out in the garden which, I would venture to suggest, is where smoking really should be done.

I have just finished washing down the kitchen cupboard doors, walls and ceiling in an attempt to eradicate the unpleasant odour. I have also washed down the walls in the adjoining hall, stairs and landing. I hope the house will now return to its former, fresher scent.

Naturally, since this has now become a non-recipe in my book, I am deleting the details just for safety. It is, of course, possible that I screwed up (though I can’t think how) but I wouldn’t want anyone else to suffer a similar fate.

Posted in Poultry

Caramelized Duck Breasts

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I recently learned the best way of cooking duck breasts with the fat on is from cold. My suspicion is that it lets the fat run better. This recipe uses that method and adds a little extra flavour with an oriental twist, along with an oriental style vegetable accompaniment. This is clearly Chinese in spirit, if not in actuality.

Planning

serves: 2
preparation time: 15 mins
cooking time: 25 mins

Ingredients

  • 2 duck breasts
  • juice & zest of 1 large orange
  • 1 tbs caster sugar
  • 2 tbs soy sauce
  • 250g broccoli spears (purple sprouting works)
  • 2 cms fresh root ginger, peeled & finely chopped
  • 1 medium red chilli, seeded & finely sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic, skinned & finely sliced
  • 200g Puy lentils
  • olive oil

Method

Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas 7. Mix together 1 tablespoon orange juice, 1 tablespoon soy sauce and tablespoon of caster sugar, then set aside.

Cover the lentils with cold water in a small pan, bring to the boils and simmer unsalted for 20-25 minutes until just tender. Strain and reserve the lentils.

Score a diamond pattern in the duck skin and fat (not the flesh) with a sharp knife. Place the scored duck breasts skin side down in a cold heavy roasting pan. Put the cold roastng pan over medium heat. Let the pan come up to temperature and cook the skin side of the breasts for 6-8 minutes until the skin is nicely golden brown. Flip the duck breasts over and brush the skin with the orange, soy and sugar mixture. Bang them in the top of the oven until the skin is crisp and golden, basting occasionally with the pan juices. About 15 minutes should have them done medium – still pink in the middle. Remove the breasts from the oven and rest them for 5-10 minutes in a warm place.

While the duck is roasting, steam the broccoli for 3-4 minutes until just tender, then cut into 3-4cm lengths. Heat a glug of olive oil in a small frying pan and add the ginger, chilli and garlic. Stir for a minute before adding the lentils and cooked broccoli. Stir through the remiaining orange juice, soy sauce and the grated orange zest. Heat gently until hot.

Slice the rested duck breasts on the diagonal and serve alongside the vegetable mixture. Drizzle over any accumulated pan juices.


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Posted in Poultry Tagged with:

Salmoriglio

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Salmoriglio is a bit like a variation of Salsa Verde from Sicily. Like Salsa Verde , it goes very well with plain grilled fish. The eminent Mr. Stein does it with swordfish, which I am sure is very good. I’ve tried it with grey mullet which was also very good.

The original recipe says that the addition of celery herb/celery leaves is optional but I rather think it would miss something without it. I’ve increased the lemon juice a tad in place of a splash or two more of water.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 10 mins
cooking time: n/a

Ingredients

  • 6 tbs olive oil
  • 2 tbs water
  • 2 tbs lemon juice
  • 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
  • 1 tbs chopped oregano
  • 1 tbs chopped celery herb/leaves
  • 1 tbs chopped flat-leaf parsley
  • Salt

Method

Whisk together the oil and water until emulsified. Stir in the lemnon juice and a pinch of salt to taste. Add the garlic and chopped herbs and stir well.

Reserve until you’ve grilled your fish and serve with it.


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Posted in Accompaniments, Sauces Tagged with: