Curry

Cooking a good curry at home is really simple if you break it down to 1, 2, 3.

1. A good base sauce
2. Marinate in spice and cook
3. Finishing touches


A couple of things to make in advance...

Garlic and ginger paste (if using)

Just blitz equal amounts of these in a blender to a smooth paste. You can add a little water to loosen if needed. Store this in jars in the freezer, or fridge if you're going to use it in a week. It's a shortcut for when you come to marinating your meat.



Curry powder and garam masala

See my post from 4th March

I'm going to do 2 curries: a lamb rogan josh and an almond infused chicken. Both use the same base sauce but the spice mix and finishing touches are different.

1. Base sauce

The base sauce is versatile and can be used in any of your curries. So make a big batch and make it good, then freeze it in individual portions. I'm making sauce for 2 curries here, about a litre of sauce which I'll freeze in 2 X 500ml batches.

You will need:
2 onions (big juicy white ones)
75g butter or 2-3 tbsp ghee
A stick of celery
2 carrots (or one massive one as these are pretty small)
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped coriander
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp mace
1 tsp chilli powder
2 heaped tsp of your curry powder
500ml chicken stock



Use the slow cooker for this, or a big saucepan if you don't have one. Start by cooking the onions in the butter until they've sweated down a bit.



Then grate the carrot and dice the celery and add them. When they've cooked off a bit throw in the rest of the ingredients apart from the stock. Cook for another 10 minutes on a high heat and add the chicken stock.



Then turn it down to medium and leave it to simmer away for a few hours. Leave the lid off and let it reduce and thicken. The final step to your curry sauce is to blend it until smooth, after which you can decide whether it needs further thickening by reducing.



Right now you have a perfectly good sauce, just like the one you pour over your chips (you bloody heathen), but today separate it into 2 storage tubs, let it cool and freeze it.

On to the curries...

Lamb Rogan Josh

2. The spice mix and the cooking

-2 cloves of garlic
- 1 thumb sized piece of ginger
(Or 3 teaspoons of ginger and garlic paste)
- 1/2 tsp of chilli powder (more or less depending on how hot you like it)

And...
- 1/2 tsp asafoetida
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 3 cloves
- 3 cardamom pods
- 1 inch of cinnamon stick

Or...
2 tsp your home made garam masala



So if you haven't made garam masala split the cardamom pods and grind everything up in a pestle and mortar. I did all the dry ingredients first before mincing the garlic and ginger and smashing them into the ground spice. If you have made garam masala and garlic and ginger paste then just add the two together.



Mix in with a tablespoon of tomato purée and coat the lamb completely with the paste.



I used diced lamb leg for this, but if you're cooking for a long period of time any cut will do to be honest. Neck especially is a great cut.

3. Cooking

Seal the lamb by frying it in butter or ghee. I cooked my curry in the slow cooker so I rinsed out the hot frying pan with a little bit of water once the lamb was out and added it to the slow cooker, as I don't want to leave any of that flavour behind in the pan. If I was cooking in a pot on the stove I would seal the meat in that and just add the sauce straight in on top of it.



Now pour in your curry sauce and mix in another tablespoon of tomato purée. Turn the slow cooker on, walk away and wait for the house to smell amazing.

3. Finishing touches

When the lamb is falling apart tender it's time to finish this dish off. Fry some curry leaves in a little ghee and add them to the pot with some fresh chopped coriander. Stir in a spoonful of yoghurt and you're done.



Almond Infused Chicken

2. The spice mix and the cooking

Nice and simple one. You don't want to overpower the dish and that amazing base sauce and home made garam masala is going to do most of the talking.

2 tsp garam masala 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

Cut 2 chicken breasts into cubes about an inch thick and marinade it in the garam masala and paste over the course of the day.



While you're at it finely chop some fresh mint and add about a tsp to 2 tbsp Greek yoghurt. That can infuse in the fridge too.

For the rest of this dish you will need:

2 tbsp ground almonds Some veg oil Butter 1/2 red onion, finely chopped 1 green chilli

Before you get started add a little water to the almonds to make a paste.

Heat 2 tbsp oil and a tbsp butter together in a big pan, add the onion and fry it until translucent. Add the chicken and all its marinate and sear it so it's white all over.

Prick holes all over the chilli with a sharp knife and throw it in. Pour in the base sauce and almond paste and bring it up to temperature before covering and turning down to a simmer.



3. Finishing touches

After 10 minutes add the yoghurt and stir with the lid off for another 10 mins.

Check to see the chicken is tender and the sauce is reduced enough then serve.

West Quay Fisheries

The fishing industry in England used to be much larger than it is now. For the South Coast tourism took over, and once a railway line was laid to Newhaven it became a major ferry port to Dieppe and Calais. However, where there's sea, there's fishing, and the fishing fleet of Newhaven supply to my local fishmonger. It makes sense to me that if you want the freshest fish going you need to head to the source.



West Quay Fisheries is where it's at. I'm telling you now that this is the freshest trading point for Newhaven fish with the widest selection, at least that I know of.



It's hard to know where to start. This is a temple go Channel Island fish right here.



I settled for a mackerel, some skate and some scallops. The fish is top quality, the eyes are black and clear, there's no smell of fish and some mackerel are still stiff fresh.



I started with the mackerel, this is my favourite fish from the British Isles. Just look at this beautiful fish.



So to gut it take a sharp filleting knife and slice from under the head back to the anus. Make a shallow cut and try not to damage the organs. Once you have it opened up slice off the intestinal tract at its end and cut away the rest at the head end. Be gentle so you don't actually burst anything inside the fish. Fish guts make good compost, that's where these have gone.



Now slice down the back, cutting just to the left of the spine and make a cut as close as you can to the head to remove the fillet.



Cut off the head and the tail and you will be able to lift out the spine along with most of the other bones.



Now grab a pair of tweezers and pin bone the fillets. Once that's done all that remains is to neatly trim the fillets.



Sorry, I would have done a lovely complex recipe for these but they were so fresh and so good I really couldn't wait. I simply fried them in butter and ate them straight away.



Now it's the scallops turn. Just down the coast at rye you get some of the best scallops in England. Do them a favour, leave the roe on, it's just as tasty as the rest of the scallop.



I'm cooking mine in the pan and I need...

Scallops
1/2 clove garlic
2 knobs of butter
50ml sherry
150ml double cream
1 rasher pancetta or bacon




Mince the garlic and fry in half the butter. Then add the scallops and fry until they're firm when you gently squeeze them.



Remove the scallops from the pan and add the sherry. Stand back as it's going to catch fire! Once the sherry has burnt all its booze off throw in the rest of the butter and stir with a whisk until shiny and smooth. The butter you fried the scallops in should have burned slightly and given it a deep brown colour.



Now add the cream bit by bit, whisking in fast as you go. Whisk until smooth and bring the whole lot up to temperature so it's gently simmering. Something that goes stupidly well with scallops is bacon, it's a match made in heaven, you'd think pigs were aquatic. So grill a rasher of pancetta until crispy to put on top. Plate the scallops, the sauce and finish with the bacon. Amazing.



Last up is the skate.



To prepare the skate you need your knife and a pair of pliers (it's fine if you ask your fishmonger to to this bit, it's hassle). Make a small slit under the skin at the body end of the wing and use the pliers to rip the skin off.



Turn over and do the other side.



Now to cook it I suggest the classic way is the best. That is you slowly poach it in court bouillon. To make the court bouillon use 1.5 litres of water, 100 ml of lemon juice (about 1 lemon), a carrot, half an onion, 1/2 tsp parsley, 1/2 tsp thyme, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 clove and a bay leaf. Bring that to the boil then turn down and put in the skate.



When it's done it flakes away beautifully. Gently lift it out the pan and onto a hot plate. Finish with a beurre noisette (that is butter thats been burnt on the stove until it turns a nut brown colour) and some capers.



Obviously the best way to ensure you've got the freshesh fish available is to catch it yourself, and living by the sea thats something I can do, but I'll be leaving it till a little later in the year when the weather improves and the season starts. In the meantime I'm happy to leave it to the pros in Newhaven.

Pasta

I have to admit that not always do homemade versions of things that you'd probably ordinarily buy work out better, pasta however is definitely one of the things that does. I'm quite the carnivore, but when we feel like having a real treat dinner, the sort of sit at the table and light the candle type, then one of the tastiest meals we do is also one of the cheapest - pasta al pomodoro.

Now if you're lucky enough to have a pasta machine like me then you're probably pretty adept at making pasta already, for those of you without though there is the alternative method of using a rolling pin. I should stress though that the best results will come with a machine. Buy one, it's honestly a good investment.



Making the dough

All you need is eggs and flour. Get the 00 grade pasta flour. Weigh out 100g of flour, make a well in the centre and crack 1 large egg into it. I find that a 1 egg pasta will feed 2 people, so delicious home made pasta really is quite affordable.



Now scramble the egg and start working it into the flour, get your fingers in and work it into a dough. Kneed it as you would bread dough, a bit of worked gluten will make the pasta much easier to roll thinly. Keep adding flour to the surface and working the dough in it until it is not at all sticky or tacky. Pasta dough must be totally dry to the touch and not stick to anything.

Once that's done wrap it in cling film and leave it in the fridge to cool and rest. After 15 mins or so it'll be ready to get out and put through the pasta machine.



Cut the dough in half, take one of the halves, flatten it a bit and run it through the lowest setting a few times.



Now work down through the grades to however thin you want, if you're feeling dexterous try looping it. Eventually you should have a nice long thin sheet of pasta.



If you've rolled out a sheet of pasta that you're not going to work on just yet then flour the surface under it to stop it sticking and put some cling film over the top to stop it drying out. Any off cuts from your pasta can be bunched up together and run through the machine again. If you like, you can make pasta a couple of days in advance, leave it to dry (hanging over coat hangers is a good way) and store it in an airtight container. As it contains egg I tend to keep the container in the fridge.



Now here's a few of the things you can do once you've got a basic pasta down...

Tagliatelle

I find this to be the most versitile pasta. It's great with a simple sauce or with something a bit richer like carbonarra. To make it you just roll out your sheet, the fix the cutter attachment to the machine.



I've seen some pretty cool rolling pin type things as well that cut to size as you roll. So if you don't have a cutter, or you've chosen to roll the pasta out with a rolling pin then you could invest in one of these. If you've made your pasta well it'll just cut to a bunch of nice neat ribbons.



Mushroom and garlic tortellini

Finely dice some mushrooms and fry them in garlic butter with salt, some parsley, black pepper, a dash of lemon juice and a pinch of sugar.



Cook them right through, and when they're cooked turn off the heat a add a desert spoon of pasta flour to make it into a sticky paste. This will make it easier to spoon into the tortellini.

Roll out the pasta to quite thin. You should be able to see your hand through it. Take a round cutter and cut a circle out of the pasta sheet and add a small amount of the now cool mushroom mix in the centre.



Brush some beaten egg around half the outside and fold the other half over and on to it to make a semi circle. Don't use water to glue it by the way, it doesn't work.



Now bring the two ends of the semi circle round to meet each other and fold the top back to complete the tortellini.



Cook them straight away or dust them with a little flour to stop them sticking and keep them in a tub in the fridge ready to cook.



Oxtail ragu on pappardelle

For the pappardelle, roll out the pasta to your desired thickness. Quite thin would be good but this will be a fairly gutsy dish so don't worry about it being paper thin. Now cut into strips about 3/4 - 1 inch wide.



For the ragu you will need:

100g Pancetta
50g Butter
A carrot
A stick of celery
An onion
3 tsp dried oregano
3 tsp dried thyme
1 kg of oxtail, of beef short ribs, or if you can't get that 600g chuck steak
100ml white wine
450ml Beef stock
2 tbsp Tomato purée
Salt
Pepper
1/2 tsp nutmeg


For my ragu I used the slow cooker. I started off by cooking the pancetta in the butter on a high heat for about 10 mins.



Then I added the mirepoix (carrot, celery and onion diced) and the herbs. I cooked these until the onions were sweated. Then I stirred in the tomato purée.



The beef I seared in a frying pan until browned all over. This looks like a lot of beef but there is bone and fat in this and both those will be removed from the final dish.



After my oxtail had been seared I added it in to the slow cooker, then cleansed the pan with the wine before adding that as well.



I let everything get back up to full temperature before pouring in the beef stock and seasoning with the salt, pepper and nutmeg.



Then I let it get back up to temperature again and turned the heat down to medium. The ragu will need a good 6 hours. During cooking skim off any excess fat which will rise to the surface, remember to be responsible and put the fat in a container and bin it, don't pour it down the sink. As the beef cooks the meat can be shredded from the bone using a fork and spoon, I managed to remove 200g fat and 250g bone. The sauce will reduce if you leave the lid off for a bit. When it's done just cook the pappardelle in a bit of water with a spoonful of olive oil, which wont take long, and spoon the ragu on top.



Another one that's great to make with the kids is pasta bows

To make the pasta bows roll out the pasta and cut small rectangles that are twice as long as they are wide. Simply pinch the top to the bottom to make a bow. My daughter is a very fussy eater and she licks the bowl clean every time we make her pasta, there's nothing better than good homemade pasta.