Spicy Harissa Prawns

Quick and easy one here. Was not in the mood for anything substantial or that would take a long time.


Ingredients:

Raw prawns - 100g per person is usually a decent portion.
200G spinach per person, washed and drained.
2 large tomatoes
1 small Shallot
2 cloves of garlic
2 heaped tablespoons of Cumin seeds
Lemon Juice, from half a large lemon
3 teaspoons of Harissa paste (see below)
1/2 teaspoon of Balsamic Vinegar
Handful of chopped fresh Coriander
2 tablespoons of good Olive Oil.
Seasoning to taste.

This is so simple. You should end up with a nice spicy and tangy prawn dish! Adjust the amount of Harissa paste to your desired level of heat.

Start by toasting the Cumin seeds in a hot pan. You will smell within 90 secs that the seeds have toasted.
At this point add in the olive oil and the Spinach, cook until wilted.
Whilst the Spinach is frying, chop your Tomatoes, Garlic Cloves and the Shallot finely.
When the Spinach has wilted down, add in the Tomatoes, Onion, Garlic, Lemon juice, salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Turn down the heat to a medium heat, and stir the mixture until it reduces down. Then add in the Balsamic vinegar.
Briefly rinse your Prawns, and devein them if necessary.

When the spinach and tomato sauce has thickened, pour this into a bowl, and put the raw prawns directly into the same pan. Cook these for a few minutes until they just turn pink, then add in the 2 spoonfuls of Rose Harissa Paste. If you have not used this before, i urge you to try it. Fairly hot, it adds loads of flavour.








Toss the Prawns in the paste, then add the spinach and tomato sauce back in and stir well for 30 seconds on a high heat to warm through again. Throw the Coriander leaves in at the last second then serve with Cous Cous or some really crusty bread, or as i have done tonight, some toasted Muffins!

Something green and garlicky

Feeling a little under the weather again today, so after my earlier protein craving was sated by some roast chicken in a lovely sandwich, felt the need for something green.


Spinach and Garlic Pasta

Serves 2 people

300-400g of Spinach, washed and drained
4 large cloves of garlic, chopped
1 large squeeze of fresh lemon juice
50g of Pancetta, finely diced
1 tsp of Harissa paste
75g per person of pasta of your choice


Place the pasta in boiling water and cook; the sauce will only take 4-5 minutes to make so this might even suit fresh pasta.

Warm some olive oil in a pan on a medium heat,  place in the pancetta so that it sizzles and starts to crisp up.
When the pancetta starts to look golden, add in the garlic and spinach, grind in some black pepper.
Salt is not necessary as you get this from the pancetta.
When your pasta is ready, drain, and leave to one side.
Stir in the Harissa paste, finely chopped garlic, and squeeze in the lemon juice to taste and mix in the pasta with your sauce.
Serve immediately.

I know the garlic might sound excessive, but cooking it at the last minute and having it really strong does work.

Feel free to add in other vegetables and fresh herbs, but this simple recipe stands on its own.
I ate it so quickly i forgot to take a photo, so will do that next time.

Chilli !

What better on a winters day to cook a nice chilli? This should make enough for 8-10 hungry people.
Have a large pan ready, capable of 4-5 litres capacity.

Ingredients:
Stage one
3 packets of quality Steak Mince (1.2-1.5kg) , I used Aberdeen Angus mince.
3 large strong white Onions
2 large banana Shallots
1 red Onion
2 large pinches of Saffron.
1 Tbsp of dried Cumin
1 Tbsp of dried Ginger
4-6 small chilli's - this is a medium spice level.

2 tbsp of Smoked Paprika
2 tsp of Chilli powder
2 large cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
1 large squeeze of good Tomato Puree
Stage 2
1 litre of Beef stock (fresh if possible)
100g of dark Chocolate (70% solids is fine)

4 large Red peppers
3 tins of chopped plum Tomatoes
4 tins of Kidney Beans
1 glass Red wine
1 tbsp of Cognac
Stage 3
Juice of 6 Limes
6 drips of sesame oil
1 tbsp of good Soy sauce
1x 300ml tub of Creme Fraiche
50-100ml of Vinegar
3 large sprigs of Thyme
Good quality salt, like Maldon salt, to be added at the very end.

Stage 1
This is actually a very easy recipe as you cook the ingredients in 3 stages ( labelled above).
First start of my preparing all of the onions, roughly chopped.
Put olive oil in a large pan, allow to heat to medium temperature.
Add the onions, garlic and mince steak into the pan, let it sizzle away together until the meat is browned . Depending on the size of the pan, you might want to add the beef in stages, put it is important that it cooks with the onions so it can absorb the onions juices. This should take about 5 minutes, constantly stirring the mixture.
Add the remaining ingredients from stage one and stir in well for another 2-3 minutes.

Stage 2
Add the Beef stock all in one go, turn the heat up to get a furious boil going.
Then add the remaining ingredients of stage 2 and keep stirring. This will fill your pan quite nicely and don't worry if it looks quite liquid at this stage, we want it to reduce it for an hour or so to thicken up and concentrate those flavours. You will now need to turn this down to a light simmer, or En Tremblant as the French describe it. This is where the time element comes in, the contents of the pan now need to simmer for around 60-90 minutes, stirring occasionally to stop anything sticking to the bottom. We are trying to reduce the liquid down significantly so that we get a good thick meaty sauce.

Stage 3

The taste of a good Chilli in my opinion should be this; Meaty, salty, spicy and sour.
When the Chilli has reduced after 90 minutes or so ( dont be afraid to let it cook for longer on a low heat, just do not let it dry out) , we are going to finish off the sauce with some very tasty ingredients.
You need more limes and vinegar than you might imagine. Add all the remaining ingredients apart from the creme fraiche, this goes in at the very end.
Taste the Chilli now, see if it needs more salt, or if the sourness needs to be cranked up a notch by either adding more fresh lime juice or Vinegar.

When you are happy with the taste, turn off the heat and stir in the entire tub of Creme Fraiche.
Serve with jacket potatoes, warm garlic bread or rice. Also a nice bowl of natural yogurt, refried beans or guacamole goes down well.

The great thing about this recipe is that you can keep it in the pan for a day or so, thoroughly reheating it every time but bringing it up to temperature slowly. Trust me the flavours get better when you do this.
I usually freeze this in portions because i deliberately make too much.

Burgers

Fancied something quick this evening, so a tasty burger was in order.

Laverstoke Park Farm Buffalo burgers , a nice dollop of Tracklements strong mustard served with fresh avocado, sun dried tomatoes, rocket and home made mayonnaise, in a lightly toasted bun.

Very tasty, sometimes simple is best.

Al Dente

So i have been busy cooking the last 2 days, a great sausage and bean risotto, my maple and beer roasted ham, and now a nice rack of Lamb for late lunch. Pics and recipes to follow.

Definition> Al Dente

Recipe- Beer and Maple Syrup glazed Ham

So, it must be near Christmas if the butchers have lots of hams in stock, so how could i miss the opportunity to do one of my favourite recipes;

Ham cooked in Beer and glazed with Maple Syrup.

Ingredients:
Ham- preferably unsalted and unsmoked.  2-2.5 KG is a nice size to cook
6-8 bottles of Morlands Old Speckled Hen Ale - a full bodied beer.

2 large Shallots
2 large Sprigs of fresh Rosemary
1 Large Chilli

100 ml of good Maple Syrup
2 Tablespoons of strong mustard, i prefer Tracklements
Black peppercorns
Reduced cooking stock.

Take one large pan, and place the ham in the bottom. Roughly chop the chilli  (seeds and all) and both shallots and place in the pan along with the Rosemary. Cover the ham with the beer, top up a little with water if you do not quite have enough. Bring to the boil slowly, be careful as beer can bubble up very quickly if you let it. Turn the meet occasionally during the cooking to get an even spread of heat.
Let this simmer now with the lid on,  for about 1 hour per Kg of Ham.

The beauty of this recipe is that you do not have to do it in one go, at this stage the ham should now be cooked ( 2.5 kg takes about two and a half to 3 hours) . Let it cool for a while as you need to prepare the skin for the next stage. You could roast and glaze the ham the following day for example.

Take the outer hard layer of skin of the Ham, cut it off as thinly as possible to retain some of the fat.
When this has been done, score lots of lines in a diamond pattern into the fat- this is so the fat renders down further when we roast it later, and so that we can put on lots of the glaze too.

To make the glaze, reduce what is left of the cooking stock down to about 250-300 ml.
Pour this into a jug, along with the Maple syrup, mustard and crushed black peppercorns.

Mix this glaze until it becomes a nice sticky consistency, adding more Maple Syrup  ( or treacle if you prefer) and brown sugar if you want it really sweet. Spread this glaze firstly over the scored fat, and then over the surface of the ham.

If you want to finish the ham straight away, preheat your oven to 240 degrees. Place the ham on a foil lined baking tray and roast in this hot oven for about 30 minutes, or enough for the glaze to turn a nice deep colour.
Starts to colour very quickly-

You may need to baste the ham in the glaze a few times if you want the stickiest of skins *which you do*.  You will probably need to watch the ham to ensure the glaze does not burn during this time.

And here it is finished-

When this process has finished, take the ham out to cool, and serve warm with salad.  This ham keeps in the fridge for 3-4 days easily, or can even be frozen in chunks. Wrap tightly in foil then place in airtight container in either case.

Enjoy!

Entrée

What else could the first post be called? ;o)

So the first post should be an explanation of what i want to do here, which is share my love of good food.

And sharing is the key word is the sentence, because I firmly believe that food is something to be enjoyed, discussed, and tasted with other people.
I am going to post recipes that I like or make regularly. Also links to good pubs, bars, and restaurants that I have visited, or want to visit.

First definition of this post is Entrée;
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entr%C3%A9e