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Simple coconut chicken curry and a fine way to drive
No doubt in retribution for the gentle mockery in my last post, I received a speeding fine this morning in the post. Or to be precise, my husband received a speeding fine, which absolutely thrilled him. The irony is that I was flashed coming back from a very active skiing weekend and traffic cop-in-the-making, Léo, was fast asleep and not in a position to attend to his functions. Of course, the problem with radar tickets is that you can’tflirtnegotiate your way out of them. If I’m stopped by an actual live policeman, I play the ‘oh gosh I’m so sorry officer —it must have been a slip of the foot during a fleeting blonde moment’ card. Shiny grey metal boxes, however, are not nearly as indulgent with lame excuses.
I like my curry the way I like my driving: fast and hassle-free. It is none the less delicious for it though.
Ingredients (serves four)
1 tablespoon coconut oil
4 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 carrots, peeled and cut
2 green chillies, chopped
1 tablespoon of peeled, grated fresh ginger
1 kaffir lime leaf (or bay leaf)
1 cinnamon stick
½ teaspoon turmeric
3 teaspoons cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
100ml chicken stock
100ml coconut milk
Gently fry the onion, garlic and chicken in the coconut oil for a few minutes in a medium-size casserole dish. Add the seasoning and spices (cumin seeds, salt, pepper, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon stick…) and continue to brown, stirring frequently. Add the carrots and chillies and then the chicken stock and coconut milk. Simmer for about 20 minutes and then serve with basmati rice, naan bread, chickpea pancakes or just a green salad. -
Pot-au-feu (French beef stew) and disruptive mothers
Tennis tournament season is back and, once again, I’m in the market for a gag. If I don’t find one (and let’s face it, there seems to be a dearth of reasonably stylish ones), I’ll have to stop accompanying Léo to matches until I learn to control my gratuitous and unhelpful comment reflex, which never fails to kick in. I can only be thankful that the majority of the other spectators don’t understand English; I won’t go into details as I wouldn’t want to sully reputations, particularly mine. The strange thing is that neither Léo nor I are particularly competitive, but there’s something about people either criticising or applauding (I don’t know which is worse) my son’s ‘faults’ that brings out the devil in me.
This is a simple version of ‘pot-au-feu’, a traditional French dish which, strictly speaking, should include several different cuts of meat as well as oxtail. In any case, it is very comforting after a day spent in the cold having your nerves ripped to shreds! It used to be that the pot containing the stew would stay cooking over the fire nearly all winter, with bits and pieces being constantly replaced. Usually the ‘bouillon’ or sauce is eaten as soup and the vegetables and meat as a main course with mustard and pickles, although I like to eat the two together.
Ingredients (serves 4)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 onions, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
Vegetable stock (roughly 500ml)
1kg stewing beef, cut into large cubes
4 leeks, washed and sliced
1 red pepper (optional), cut into slices
1 stick of celery, cut into four pieces
6 small carrots, cut into 3cm pieces
2 swedes or turnips, peeled and quartered
¼ white cabbage, sliced
4 small potatoes, peeled
Bouquet garni (parsely, thyme, bay)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon piment d’espelette (or paprika)
Preheat the oven to 150°C. In a fairly large casserole dish (Dutch oven) brown the onions and garlic very briefly in the olive oil. Add the beef and continue to brown for a couple of minutes. Add all the vegetables (except the potatoes) and then enough vegetable stock to cover. Add the seasoning, herbs and spices and bring to a gentle boil. Transfer to the oven and cook for about three hours, checking from time-to-time that there is sufficient liquid (the vegetables should be covered). Add the potatoes and cook for a further hour. -
Leek crumble and Hugo’s story
by Hugo, Canine Correspondent
I’m not a naughty dog. I do have my limits though and when Bossy and Noisy recently loaded their bags into the car and made it clear that I wasn’t going to accompany them, I reached mine. I dragged my rug out to the car and made myself a little nest amongst the suitcases, but they ended up leaving without me all the same. The trouble is this: no Bossy, no proper meals! (He gets invited to eat with the neighbour). Worse still, no camembert at lunchtime (I have my own special supply). So I ran away. Actually I ran further than I meant to and ended up getting lost. Apparently I was about 6 kms away. A very nice lady found me and made me a big bowl of pasta — I must have looked very thin, sad and hungry, which was almost certainly due to ACD (acute cheese deprivation). 🙁 The kind lady also took lots and lots of photos of me and kept stroking me and saying how handsome I was. It took her quite a long time to track down Bossy’s husband, because I’d also lost my collar with my ‘phone number on it. Anyway, Bossy and Noisy reappeared quite soon after I had arrived back home and, going by the look on Bossy’s face, she’ll think twice before heartlessly abandoning me in a camembert-free environment again *manipulative snigger*.
This savoury crumble is an adaptation of a Marcus Wareing recipe. It’s a meal in itself really, although it could also be served as an accompaniment.
Ingredients (serves 4)
2 red onions, quartered
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
4 leeks, washed and sliced into 2 cm rounds
4 mushrooms, peeled and sliced
50g butter
50g spelt flour
200 ml chicken or vegetable stock
200ml milk
50g roquefort cheese, crumbled (any blue cheese will work)
1 tablespoon French mustard
Sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
For the crumble topping:
100g spelt flour
75g chickpea flour
25g butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
100g comté cheese, grated (or another hard cheese)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Gently fry the onions, garlic, leeks and mushrooms until lightly cooked (about 5 minutes). Place in an ovenproof dish and set aside. Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan and then add the flour, combining well to form a paste. Gradually add the stock and then the milk, whisking well all then time to prevent lumps from forming. Continue to cook until,the sauce is quite thick and then add the mustard, seasoning and cheese. Mix well until the cheese has melted and pour over the vegetables.
To make the crumble topping, mix the flour and seasoning together and rub in the butter and then stir in the olive oil. Add the grated cheese, mixing well and spread over the leeks and sauce. Bake for about 25 minutes until the topping is golden brown. -
France : Chili Pepper Market in Basque Country ( 80 photos ).
I wanted to reblog this as it’s quite close to us and because I use ‘piment d’Espelette’ all the time.
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Sweden gets is right
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French lentil salad with egg and Feta and big noisy puddles
by Hugo, Canine Correspondent
Yesterday we went to visit a huge, noisy puddle. I don’t totally understand how the puddle came about as it hasn’t rained very much recently. Still, I’m only a dog – I can’t be expected to understand everything. They sometimes visit the puddle without me after the first time when I refused to get out of the car. Obviously I wasn’t frightened or anything (I’m a big black scary dog after all), but I didn’t see what there was to get excited about and I’m not a fan of loud noises.
Here is a photo of me in front of the puddle (if I look a bit sad it’s because I had just been told off for spraying sand into their lunch). I wanted to swim but, unlike the puddles near the house, this one moves too much and I find that annoying – it should decide where it wants to be and stick to it. I had great fun chasing away all the noisy white hens though (I assume they were hens – they made an awful racket)…
Everyone seemed to find this lentil salad delicious, although it’s not my bag at all. If dogs were meant to eat lentils they’d be born with big floppy ears and a fluffy tail.
Ingredients (serves 4)
250g Puy lentils, cooked according to instructions
2 tablespoon virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 red onion, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 stalk celery, finely diced
2 tablespoons of diced cucumber
100g feta cheese, crumbled
4 free-range organic eggs, softly boiled
4 anchovies
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon paprika
Place the cooked, drained lentils into a salad bowl with the onion, carrot, tomatoes, celery and cucumber. Add the olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper and toss well. Crumble the Feta cheese over the top, followed by the halved eggs and anchovies. Sprinkle with paprika and serve. -
Crab, chilli and grapefruit salad and unfortunate associations
I used to hate grapefruit until my friend, Lucie, recently put me straight. One of the things I love about Lucie is her enormously resolute talent for ‘putting people straight’; now I’m Team Grapefruit, especially if served with crab. Crab and grapefruit is a marriage made in heaven, even more so with a bit of chilli for ‘zing’. I am big on harmonious combinations and for me one of the biggest culinary sins is the confounding Surf ‘n’ Turf. When I’m trying to decide if two ingredients will go together, I think about their natural habitats and how far-fetched it would seem for them to find themselves on the same plate. Lobster and beef? I don’t think so. As we plunge headlong into cep (porcini) season, I find myself once again skating on thin ice. Given the chance, my reckless anarchist of a husband will happily add ceps to absolutely everything. I sometimes have to resort to my ‘Flavour Thesaurus‘ to convince him that ceps and chocolate, coconut or crab do not, in fact, make for a palatable union.
Crab is a healthy source of protein, calcium, magnesium and selenium and grapefruit is rich in vitamins A and C. This fresh and fragrant salad is adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe.
Ingredients (serves 4)
2 pink grapefruits
200 g white crabmeat (I used tinned)
1 tomato, chopped
2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
6 fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 handfuls crispy green salad
Carefully peel and segment the grapefruits. Place the crabmeat in a bowl with a tablespoon of grapefruit juice, the chopped chilli, basil leaves, salt and pepper and olive oil. Mix well. Add the salad and tomato to the bowl with the grapefruit segments, add a little more olive oil and salt and pepper, tossing well. Arrange the mixed salad and grapefruit segments in a bowl with the crab over the top. Sprinkle the remaining basil leaves and serve.
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Sardine and tomato tart and terribly vain dogs
We recently bought Hugo a new collar and since, he has become more conscious of his appearance than might normally be expected of a dog. He keeps creeping upstairs, which is not really allowed. At first I thought he was coming to remind me to take him for a walk, but quickly realised that he wasn’t looking for me at all; he was looking for the big handsome dog in the mirror at the end of the upstairs hallway. Who knew that a new collar and a mirror could provide so much entertainment? I must hide my camera from him or he’ll be doing ‘selfies’ next! 😉
We still have a steady supply of tomatoes and this was a delicious way to use some up.
Ingredients (serves 6)
Pastry
80g spelt flour
50g chickpea flour
50g butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
Pinch of sea salt
Roughly 6 tablespoons of cold water
Filling
150ml fresh tomato sauce (recipe here)
1 onion (sweet if possible), peeled and sliced
2 tomatoes, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
6 sardine filets
6 anchovy filets
Freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
15g parmesan, grated
Fresh rosemary to garnish
To make the pastry, begin by cutting the butter into small cubes. Sift the flours and a pinch of salt together into in a mixing bowl, also adding the cubes of butter. Rub in and blend by hand until the mixture becomes crumbly. Add the olive oil, combining well and then add the cold water, mixing rapidly with a spoon. Remove the mixture from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until you obtain a ball of pastry (if the mixture isn’t ‘sticky’ enough to form a ball, you may need a drop more water). Wrap in a clean cotton tea towel or some cling film and leave to ‘rest’ in the fridge for about two hours. This relaxes the dough and makes it easier to use.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Roll out the pastry and line a tart tin . The pastry will be quite crumbly so you’ll need to be gentle and patch up the holes. Blind bake the pastry for 12 minutes and then fill with the fresh tomato sauce, onions and sliced tomatoes. Add the sardine filets and anchovies on top. Finally sprinkle with the parmesan, black pepper and paprika and and bake for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and add a little fresh rosemary. Serve hot. -
Cream of cauliflower and walnut soup and karmic boomerangs
Hugo has fallen victim to the karmic boomerang and he’s not a happy bunny. His great pleasure in September is to run wild in the corn fields lifting pheasant (and anything else that might be in his wake; he’s not fussy). Of course pheasant and big black monster dogs appearing out of nowhere terrify the horses who carelessly deposit their cargo on the ground and make a run for it, but Hugo doesn’t let this bother him. His latest lifting episode was frenetic enough to cause him what I can only describe as groin strain (I’m assuming that dogs have groins?), poor thing. The good news though is that he’s now housebound for the time being and banned from ‘lifting’, which increases our chances of staying in the saddle for at least the next week or so.
Ingredients
10g butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium cauliflower, trimed and broken into pieces
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
3 tablespoons walnuts, broken into pieces
500ml organic vegetable stock
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon paprika
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
30g cream cheese (such as Boursin)
Parsley and chopped walnuts to garnish
Fry the onions in butter and olive oil in a medium casserole. Add the cauliflower, carrots and walnuts and fry gently for a few more minutes. Add the stock and seasoning and simmer for about 25 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Add the cream cheese and then purée until smooth. -
Sweet onion and tomato tart and horses in custody
Owning our horses is, I would imagine, similar to parenting four high-spirited and obstreperous teenagers. I’m always expecting the ‘gendarmes’ to roll up to inform us that they’ve been detained for questioning and would we like to come and bail them out (I’d have to think about that one ;-)). Our neighbour invited them to graze on her field recently to keep the grass down. In the middle of the field is (or was) an impeccable grange full of hay. Obviously I’m not a horse, but given the choice, I would think that fresh green grass would trump dusty, year-old hay any day. Apparently not so; by yesterday evening one of them (I’m not naming names) had head butted the door to the grange (it boasted a horse’s head-shaped hole) and was calmly helping himself to the meticuously stacked hay inside. Oh the shame!
Ingredients (serves 6)
Pastry
80g spelt flour
50g chickpea flour
50g butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
Pinch of sea salt
Roughly 6 tablespoons of cold water
Filling
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 leek, washed and chopped
1 small courgette, peeled and chopped
5 onions (sweet if possible), peeled and sliced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons of honey
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
2 tomatoes, sliced
6 slices of goat’s cheese
8 leaves of fresh basil to decorate
To make the pastry, begin by cutting the butter into small cubes. Sift the flours and a pinch of salt together into in a mixing bowl, also adding the cubes of butter. Rub in and blend by hand until the mixture becomes crumbly. Add the olive oil, combining well and then add the cold water, mixing rapidly with a spoon. Remove the mixture from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until you obtain a ball of pastry (if the mixture isn’t ‘sticky’ enough to form a ball, you may need a drop more water). Wrap in a clean cotton tea towel or some cling film and leave to ‘rest’ in the fridge for about two hours. This relaxes the dough and makes it easier to use.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Fry the leek, onions, garlic and courgette in the olive oil until soft (about 15 minutes). Add the seasoning and honey and set aside. Roll out the pastry and line a tart tin . The pastry will be quite crumbly so you’ll need to be gentle and patch up the holes (I’ve become quite an expert ;-)). Blind bake the pastry for 12 minutes and then fill with the onion mixture, adding the sliced tomatoes, goat’s cheese and basil on top. Sprinkle the top with black pepper and little more paprika and bake for about 20 minutes. Serve hot.
