Ottolenghi

Turkey and sweetcorn meatballs with roasted pepper sauce.

The Ottolenghi cookbook has been on my Amazon wish list for a while, I finally succumbed and it was well worth it. The cake section of this book had my daughter drooling, she has a list of teacakes I must bake soon.

This recipe caught my eye, and as I had everything to hand, decided to give it a go.

Turkey and sweetcorn meatballs with roasted pepper sauce

serves 4

100g sweetcorn kernels (fresh or frozen)

3 slices of stale white bread, crusts removed

500g minced organic turkey breast

1 free range egg

4 spring onions, finely chopped

2 tbsp finely chopped parsley

2 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 1/2 tsp black pepper

1 garlic clove, crushed

sunflower oil for frying

Roasted pepper sauce

4 red peppers

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

25g coriander, leaves and stalks

1 garlic clove, peeled

1 small mild chilli, de-seeded

2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

tbsp cider vinegar or white wine vinegar

1. Preheat the oven to 200c/ gas mark 6. To prepare the peppers for the sauce, quarter them with a sharp knife and shave off the white parts and the seeds. Put them in a roasting tray and toss with 2 tbsp of the olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, then roast in the oven for 35 minutes or until soft. Transfer the peppers to a bowl and cover with cling film. Once they have cooled down a little, you can peel them, although it isn't necessary for this sauce. In any case, place them in a blender or food processor with their roasting juices and add the rest of the sauce ingredients. Process until smooth, then taste and adjust the salt if necessary. Set aside.

2. For the meatballs, place a heavy, non-stick frying pan over a high heat and throw in the corn kernels. Toss them in the hot pan for 2-3 minutes until lightly blackened. Remove and leave to cool.

3. Soak the bread in cold water for a minute, then squeeze well and crumble into a large bowl. Add all the rest of the ingredients except the sunflower oil and mix well with your hands.

4. Pour a 5mm depth of sunflower oil into your heavy frying pan. Allow it to heat up well and then fry about a teaspoonful of the mince mix in it. Remove, let cool a little and then taste. Adjust the amount of salt and pepper in the uncooked mixture to your liking.

5. With wet hands, shape the mince mix into balls, about the size of golf balls. Cook them in small batches in the hot oil, turning them around in the pan until they are golden brown allover. Transfer to an oven tray, place in the oven at 200c and cook for about 5 minutes. When you press one with your finger, the meat should bounce back. If unsure, break one open to check that it is cooked inside. Serve hot or warm, with the pepper sauce on the side.

Simple, tasty food, what more could you want. The roast pepper sauce was fantastic, bursting with colour and flavour, a great recipe.

Curry puffs

This recipe comes from my favourite food writer's column, Tom Norrington-Davies, writing for delicious. Talking about snobbery towards curry powder, yes I am guilty too, we all seem to have a tub of the stuff lurking at the back of the cupboard, yet tend to use a array of delicious spices to achieve that hot, aromatic base for 'curry' in it's place. I use 'curry' as the word we British in particular use for anything even slightly spiced and not really authentic.
This recipe for a simple cheats samosa really caught my eye, if I can give in too curry powder I can live with a puff pastry style samosa.





Chicken curry puffs, from Tom Norrington-Davies.
450g potatoes, cut into 1 cm dice
3 garlic cloves
2 shallots
3 -4 sprigs fresh coriander
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp mild curry powder
1 tsp tomato puree
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp groundnut oil
250g coarsely minced chicken
500g block puff pastry
1 egg

Cook the diced potatoes in a pan of boiling salted water until they are just tender. Drain and cool.
Chop the garlic, shallots and coriander to a near paste using a food processor, place in a small bowl and season with the curry powder, sugar, tomato puree and soy sauce.
Heat the groundnut oil in a frying pan, and fry the curry paste over a medium heat for 10-15 minutes until it is a deep golden brown colour.
Add the minced chicken and a couple spoonfuls of water to moisten and continue frying until the meat is cooked through.
Fold in the cooked potatoes and check the seasoning, you might one more soy or a pinch more sugar. The flavour should be spicy-salty-sweet. Cool completely.
Preheat the oven to 200c / gm 6, roll out the puff pastry. Use a saucer as a guide and cut out 8 smallish discs; the size is up to you really, they could be canape or snack size. I use a 13cm saucer.

Make a egg wash by beating the egg with 3 tbsp water. Egg wash the edges of the pastry discs and fill the centres with the curry filling. Fold the discs into turnovers and crimp the edges before egg washing the pastries.
Line a baking tray with baking paper. Place the curry puffs on the tray, bake for 125minutes or until they are golden and fluffy. Rest for 5 minutes before attacking.

I was unsure how the curry puffs would live up to my beloved samosa but the filling of cooked potato and spiced chicken, tasted absolutely divine, so good that I almost did away with the pastry and had the filling as a side. Combined with buttery, flaky pastry these were a real treat along side my Saturday night 'curry' definatley a keeper. I will make these time and time again.

Bringing home the bacon

You can buy bacon just about anywhere nowadays, in desperate times the key ingredients for a bacon sandwich i.e bacon and white bread can be bought in any corner shop. I prefer my bacon to come from my butcher, not just because I care about where my meat comes from but the fact that mass produced shop bought bacon just doesn't compare to butchers bacon.

First of all no white gunk leaking out the meat into the frying pan and second of all it actually tastes like bacon.

So if my butchers bacon is so good and easy to get a hold of, why on earth am I planning on curing my own bacon, in fact I thought it was such a strange idea that it has took me best part of a year to get round to it, and I am only doing so now out of amused interest.

It could be a complete waste of time, then again it could change my bacon eating life for ever.

This recipe comes from Hugh Fearnley - Whittingstall's 'The River cottage family cookbook'
I halved the quantities in this recipe.

Free range piece of pork such as loin (I used organic), about 1.5kg
for the dry cure mix:
bay leaves,
2 juniper berries, 10
Coarse salt, 500g
Soft brown sugar, 100g
Coarsely ground black pepper

First prepare the dry cure.

Finely chop the bay leaves, lightly crush the juniper berries and add both to a non-metallic bowl along with the salt, sugar and pepper. Mix thoroughly together.

Rub a handful of the salt mix into the pork, when all the surfaces are covered put it in a Tupperware box, cover and put in the fridge.

After 24 hours drain any water that the salt has drawn out of the meat and rub another handful or two of the salt cure into the pork. Return to the fridge.

Repeat this process everyday, after 4 days the bacon will be 'lightly' cured (ready to use as bacon sandwiches) although you could cure it for up to a week, this will make it too salty for bacon rashers though so more suited to using in cooking such as soups.

When you've finished curing your bacon, rinse off the excess salt and pat the meat dry with kitchen paper.

Ideally the meat should be hung for 24 hours.

Wrap the finished bacon in greaseproof paper, to let it breathe, and slice as needed.







The 'cure' mix, rubbed into the pork.

So was it worth it, 4 days wait for a bacon sandwich, well, yes it was.

I sliced lovely rashers and fried them (a treat in itself) and served them on fluffy homemade white bread with chunky oven chips.

It was the most delicious bacon, I was quite unsure how it would taste actually, especially as I have such a soft spot for smoked bacon, and while I am not yet ready to attempt smoking bacon just yet as I was surprised at how 'bacon-ey' it tasted.

And while it produced no white gunk in the frying bacon it did produce lovely juices perfect for dipping my bread into.

The only down side I can see to this is that the bacon was slightly over salty for my liking, next time I might cure it for a day less, although the salty bacon will be perfect as a flavour base in many meals.

A long wait but well worth it.