Proscuitto and melon salad

This was one of those random, chuck-the-bits-together sort of dishes that ended up tasting much better than I thought it was going to. Not the most photogenic though, it has to be said.

I'd bought a beautiful, ripe melon and some proscuitto with the notion of making an old-school starter for our dinner one night. But then we ended up going straight to the main course. So I decided to turn it into a salad for lunch the following day. I crushed a clove of garlic and whisked it up with a little olive oil and a splash of balsamic. Then I crumbled in some feta, torn proscuitto and shredded mint leaves before adding the melon.

Recently I was rummaging in the drawer for a cherry-pitter - which it turns out I do not have - and was reminded that I own two melon-ballers. It was fate! I had to go a bit kitsch on the presentation. But if it wasn't just for us, I'd cut the melon into cubes like a normal person.

Meat Free Monday: Burmese Egg Curry

We've been watching the new Rick Stein series on the BBC - Rick Stein's India. To be honest, it hasn't grabbed me in the same way that some of his previous series have. Despite several conversations where he asks people about the word "curry", and being firmly told that he isn't using it appropriately, he insists on referring to all Indian dishes he tries as curries. Irritating. He's also really quite patronising, repeatedly saying how happy and smiley all the poor people are and reciting bits of colonial literature that may be meaningful to him but aren't particularly pleasant to modern ears... Plus, and this is a gripe I have with a lot of food TV at the moment, the editors have no grasp of continuity. He'll use his spice grinder in the first segment and then 10 minutes later do a segment where he introduces the spice grinder and explains the importance of it.

However, the food he is cooking and eating still looks really appetising and is sending me off on another curry cooking binge. Or it would, if it wasn't too hot to do anything but barbecue.

In the first episode he showed an egg curry in a coconut sauce. Much to my surprise, Paul thought it looked delicious and asked why I had never made him an egg curry. The answer to that is that I never thought he'd like it, so egg curries, sambal eggs and that sort of thing have been solo treats when he's been working away.

Having his go-ahead gave me the opportunity to make Meemalee's Burmese egg curry - a very simple, extremely delicious tomato and tamarind curry. I left the sauce quite lumpy, out of laziness and Paul's preference for chunks, and served it with a little rice and a lot of salad. Definitely worth repeating.

BSFIC: mojito sorbet

Rumour has it that this weekend is going to be the hottest of the summer so far. Which, to be honest, isn't that difficult. We've had some very nice days (I managed to get sunburnt last weekend in just an hour in the beergarden - my poor skin has hardly seen sun in three years) but it hasn't exactly been a scorcher.

Not that a lack of sunshine has ever held me back from eating ice cream, but a nice warm day does make a frozen treat that bit more appealing!

This came about as a way of using up some lovely fresh mint - and very conveniently fits right into Kavey's current herbal BSFIC challenge. Of course, as it's me this doesn't need an ice cream machine

Cooling syrup

Frozen mojito (makes a dainty portion for 3)

3/4 cup caster sugar
1 cup water
15g mint
zest of 1 lime
juice of 3 limes
sprig mint, extra
2tbs white rum
1 egg white

Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and dissolve the sugar completely over a low heat before bringing to the boil. As soon as it comes to the boil, remove from the heat and add the first quantity of mint. Cover and steep for 10 minutes.

Strain the mint from the syrup, then add the finely grated zest of a lime, the juice of three, the rum and another sprig of mint, cut into the finest possible chiffonade. Allow to cool completely, then pour into a plastic box and freeze for about 3 hours, stirring with a fork every hour.

At the end of that time it should be mostly frozen, but be a bit slushy.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg white to soft peaks, then tip in the slush and beat it all together until combined. Pour the mixture back into the plastic box and freeze for another 3 hours or until you want to eat it.

The egg white gives it a lovely velvety texture while the mint and lime make it really fresh and vibrant.

Ask Foodycat: braised veg

On my last post, Kavey wrote "Would love you to post some more about your vegetable braise recipe, or guidelines. Not done that before, I think."

As it happens, I was planning to do a post on the veg, because it is a really good technique. But I am delighted to turn this into an Ask Foodycat, in order to have an excuse to use the picture. Lovely Mac, the beautiful boy in the picture, has recently left us, which is going to leave a terrible gap when I go back to Oz next month.

So, to the vegetables (the cooking thereof Mac knew nothing about, although he was very keen on helping in the veggie garden). It's similar to the spring vegetable stew I have blogged about before, but I'll give a specific recipe this time! It's very adaptable to whatever is in season though.

Braised veg (serves 4 as a side dish)

Knob of butter
1 large leek, thoroughly washed and chopped
150g broad beans (podded & peeled weight)
150g peas
350g asparagus, cut into inch long pieces
1 baby gem lettuce, cut into shreds
250ml vegetable stock
handful of mint, sliced into a chiffonade

Melt the butter in a shallow pan that has a lid. When it starts to foam, add the leek and soften gently for about 10 minutes. If you are trying to be organised, this is a good point to get to early on in the day, then you can turn off the heat, leave the lid on and let it wait for your convenience.

Add the broad beans, peas and the asparagus stalks (hold the tips back) and vegetable stock and simmer with the lid on for about 5 minutes. Then add the shredded lettuce and asparagus tips. This is another good point to turn the heat off and let things wait if you need to! Otherwise, simmer another few minutes with the lid off until the asparagus tips are tender, the lettuce is wilted and the stock is reduced to a light sauce around the veg.

Sprinkle with the mint, season with black pepper.

For a vegetarian main course, toss through some orecchiette and top with grated parmesan or combine with boiled new potatoes and chunks of a melty cheese.

Outside asparagus season use some fine green beans, or baby courgettes. Maybe use sliced, fresh artichoke hearts or some spring or savoy cabbage leaves (add cabbage towards the end, sliced very finely - if I use cabbage I add a grating of nutmeg). I wouldn't use fennel because it overpowers everything else, but most other green veg are fair game. If you have what some people know as "leftover white wine" or a bit of vermouth, you can use half wine and half stock later in the year when the veg is less beautiful.

Sunday roasts

We love a Sunday roast. Not always on a Sunday. It's pretty much the easiest thing in the world to prepare and it can be adapted to almost any number of people. People talk a lot of rubbish about tricky timing to get everything ready at the same moment but unless your palate is sensitive enough to discern just a degree or two difference in temperature, it really is nothing to worry about. One or more elements will comfortably hang around until everything is ready.

The big things about making a roast good are choosing good quality meat and not being a slave to it. If your roast tastes of fatigue and resentment because you've been up since 7am preparing ten different vegetables, then no one is going to enjoy it. We tend to take a few shortcuts.

We'll make a slightly sauce-y braise of vegetables, and not make a gravy. Or we'll skip the roast potatoes in favour of a creamy gratin and keep everything else very plain and simple. Or we'll do several different roast vegetables and steam a single green veg. Each way is delicious, and it mixes things up a bit.

Roast lamb saddle, roast potatoes, spring vegetable braise

Beef roasted in the barbecue, potato gratin and snow peas and runner beans

Roast chicken, roast potatoes and pumpkin, mushroom gravy, asparagus and bread sauce

I had a weird hankering for bread sauce a while ago. It's one of the traditional accompaniments for roast poultry but it isn't something I have often had. My step-father is a huge fan of it though, so I got my mother's recipe.

Cat's Mother's bread sauce (makes lots - it's delicious)

Infuse about 400ml milk with onion / bay / cloves. i.e warm the milk in small saucepan, add halved onion etc and then leave to one side for a couple of hours.

Soon before serving the meal retrieve flavouring bits (strain if you want but I don’t), reheat milk and add a good handful of breadcrumbs (4 slices of a stale shop loaf with crusts trimmed. Give trimmed crusts to Jake & Watson.) Stir until bubbling and then I add grated nutmeg & ~ 15g butter to enrich. Serve.

Watson - one of the enthusiastic recipients of trimmed crusts

Full English bread pudding

This is one of those prepare-ahead dishes that the Americans tend to call casseroles, or strata. But really, it's a bread and butter pudding, made savoury with a layer of all the delicious elements of a full English breakfast. For a brunch or special breakfast where you don't want to be jumping up and down frying eggs for 6 people, make it the night before and refrigerate it. We had it for dinner over a couple of evenings - reheating it didn't totally destroy it, although it was nicer fresh, of course.

It's pretty adaptable, and I have said that the black pudding is optional, but I thought it was the best bit. So maybe this should be the first, non-threatening introduction to black pudding for the squeamish? Anyway, it's delicious and actually demands making in advance, so it needs a bit of pre-planning but once it is in the fridge you can suit yourself when you bake it.

Full English Bread Pudding (serves 6-8 for brunch, 4-6 large appetites for supper)

500g stale bread (I used a poppyseed bloomer)
olive oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
450g pork sausages, removed from their casings and rolled into walnut-size balls
100g bacon, cut into small pieces
200g mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 spring onions, sliced
1 big handful parsley, finely chopped
150g black pudding, crumbled (optional, but really good)
handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
4 eggs
800ml milk
150g grated cheese (something that melts well. I used gruyere)
Black pepper
Nutmeg (optional - but I am almost incapable of seeing cheese without reaching for nutmeg)

The first bit is the most difficult - figuring out how many slices you need to cut your bread into in order to make two layers of bread slices. That will determine how thickly you need to cut it. Slice the bread and set aside.

Saute the onion in the olive oil until translucent, then add the balls of sausage meat and brown well. Add the bacon, mushrooms and garlic and saute for another few minutes or until the sausage balls are cooked through and the mushrooms have given off some of their liquid and reduced a bit. Stir in the spring onions and parsley, season with black pepper and allow to cool.

Place a layer of bread slices on the bottom of a deep-ish ovenproof dish (I used a pyrex lasagne dish). Spread the cooled mushroom and sausage mixture over the bread, then scatter with the black pudding and cherry tomatoes. Top with the second layer of bread.

Beat the eggs into the milk. If you have some on hand and you are making this for supper, you could add a slosh of vermouth at this point. It's a good addition but I didn't have any. Carefully (because it's going to want to skate off the top of the bread and make a mess) pour the eggy milk all over the bread. It should come up to the top of the sausage mixture.

Sprinkle with grated cheese, a grating more black pepper and a grating of nutmeg. Cover with clingfilm. Now, gently but firmly, press it down with both hands so that the top layer of bread gets pushed down into the custard mixture. Leave in the fridge for a bit - an hour, two hours, overnight, whatever suits you, but it does need a little rest to allow the custard to soak into the bread.

When you are ready to cook it, remove the cling film and bake it at 180 for 45 minutes or until it looks bubbly, golden and set. Serve hot.

Ottolenghing - barbecued lamb and flatbreads

In the weekend's FT (you might need to sign up to view this link) Tim Hayward wrote a great piece on the cookbooks that define eras of dinner party entertaining. He concluded that Yotam Ottolenghi's "fantastically eclectic vision of Middle Eastern street and home food has seized the imagination of the fooderati" and suggests "to Ottoleng" as a verb. He's not wrong. Within minutes of me reading the article, Paul suggested that we re-watch an episode of Ottolenghi's Mediterranean Feast to gain inspiration for our Sunday night supper.

This provided the starting point for our meal. I marinated some lamb shoulder steaks, using the skin of two preserved lemons instead of the fresh rind and zest called for in the recipe. Then I made the almond and orange blossom sauce, using a little less honey and the parsley which I inexplicably bought instead of coriander.

We had a couple of courgettes in the fridge that wanted using, and I thawed a ball of bread dough.

Then everything went on the barbecue. I would have preferred to use my pizza stone for the breads, but there wasn't room for that and all the veg, so skillet it was.

Look at me using my left hand like an ambidextrous person!

While the lamb rested, I scraped the flesh from the charred aubergine skin and mashed it into some yoghurty dip that was lurking in the back of the fridge, soon to hit its use-by date. That went into the middle of my platter, surrounded by the flatbreads, courgettes, peppers and sliced lamb. Then the fragrant mint sauce (left quite thick, like a pesto) went on top of that.

The main criticism of Ottolenghi's recipes is that they usually have a lot of ingredients - some hard to come by - in them. While this was pretty involved, the complexity of the flavours made it worthwhile. It definitely was not your mother's Sunday lamb and mint sauce.