Vietnamese Beef Stew – Bo Kho

Leave a comment June 2, 2016 chilliandmint

As those who have been following my blog for some time will know, I ADORE Vietnamese food. It is fragrant, spiced but not hot spicy like Thai food. It is also very versatile and is equally loved by young and old alike. As such, my Bo Kho – Vietnamese Beef Stew – is a great meal to serve the whole family.

It reminds me of the stew my grandmother made the whole time when I was a child, albeit without the spices and fresh herbs, although she may have added fresh thyme. The potatoes and carrots in the stew make it satisfyingly filling and I love the taste of the fresh herbs and crunchy beansprouts. Texture, taste and zing.

It’s comforting and equally enjoyable on a hot summers eve or a chilly autumn day or, in the case of us Brits, a rather chilly June day (come on sunshine you can come back now!). My girls love it as well as adult guests. I often choose to eat mine with flat rice noodles – medium or thick, but it would work equally well with steamed rice.

Vietnamese Beef Stew – Bo Kho

serves 4-6

2 tbsp ground nut oil

1 large white onion, finely chopped

1 tsp salt

1.2kg stewing/braising beef, cut into 1.5 inch cubes

1 can of chopped tomatoes/400g fresh tomatoes chopped

1.5 tsp Chinese five spice powder

3 tbsp fish sauce

1.5 tsp brown sugar

3 star anise

1/2 tsp paprika

2 tbsp ginger paste/minced fresh ginger

1 tbsp garlic paste

1 bay leaf

2 lemongrass, halved and stalks removed, gently bashed

300ml coconut water (not cream or milk)

100ml beef stock

2 large carrots, cut into into 1 inch pieces on the diagonal

2 medium/large sized potatoes, cut into 4/6 pieces

300g medium or thick rice noodles

large handful of fresh mint leaves

large handful of fresh coriander leaves

large handful of fresh Thai basil leaves

100g beansprouts

2 fresh limes, quartered

large handful of fried shallots

1 fresh red chilli, finely sliced – optional

In a large cast-iron pan gently heat the oil and when it is hot, but on a low heat, add the onion and salt and allow the onion to soften for 5 minutes.
In batches, brown the beef and then add the tinned or fresh tomatoes and gently simmer for a further 5 minutes.
Add star anise, Chinese five spice, lemongrass, ginger, garlic, paprika, fish sauce, bay leaf, brown sugar and move around the pan before adding the coconut water and beef stock. Gently simmer for 45 minutes on a low heat.
Add the carrots and potatoes and cook gently for a further 30-45 minutes, until soft but not falling apart.
In a separate pan heat some water and when boiling add the rice noodles and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Drain and then run under cold water until ready to use.
If you are making the fried shallots, thinly slice a couple of banana shallots and allow to crisp up in vegetable oil. They take a few minutes and will burn easily so do not walk away from the pan when crisping them.

To serve:

In deep bowls add a handful of rice noodles to each bowl. If the noodles are stuck together run them under some water to loosen them up. Add the beef and a couple of ladles of the gravy to each bowl. Add the fresh herbs, beansprouts, quartered lime, crispy shallots, fresh chilli (if using) and serve immediately. Equally you could let guests add their own fresh herbs, beansprouts and shallots by placing them in the centre of the table to help themselves.

Miso Aubergines and Harissa Asparagus – Vegan Feasting

2 Comments May 20, 2016 chilliandmint

I really hadn’t planned for this to be a blog post. There is only this one photo that was taken in a hurry, with my iPhone and not my usual food photography camera. I hadn’t given much thought as to food presentation or back boards or table cloths. It was very much in the moment, what my family were eating one evening. The feedback I had from this photo on Instagram however convinced me that I ought to share the recipes.

Whilst I added my own twist to the recipes both are from two wonderful cookbooks that are worth investing in, if you haven’t already got them. The plate on the left with the aubergines comes from a similar recipe by Anna Jones’s book ‘ A Modern Way to Cook‘. It is one of my favourite vegetarian cookbooks and one which I regularly dip into it. The asparagus on the right is from Sabrina Ghayour’s ‘Persiana’ cookbook, which is equally fabulous and worth purchasing.

Dark Miso and Honey Aubergines

Adapted from ‘A Modern Way to Cook’ by Anna Jones

Serves 4 (if served with other dishes)

1 large aubergine (or 2 smaller aubergines), halved and then cut into 1 inch slices

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 tbsp dark miso (I get mine from Korea Foods)

2 tbsp runny honey

2 tbsp mirin/rice wine

pinch of Kashmiri chilli powder

1 tbsp white sesame seeds

First wash and then half the aubergine and cut into slices lengthways – approx 1 inch thickness and cut slice marks across the flesh (not the purple skin).
Place on a lined baking tray.
Meanwhile mix the dark miso, runny honey, mirin (you can get this from all large supermarkets, as well as Asian specialist shops) and a pinch of Kashmiri chilli powder.
Heat the coconut oil in a pan if it is solidified and then gently brush the flesh of the aubergines.
Place in a grill for 5 minutes before turning over for another 5 minutes.
Using a spoon spread the miso honey paste over the aubergines equally and place into an oven at 180 degrees for 15 minutes.
Scatter with white sesame seeds and serve.

Harissa, Lemon and Honeyed Asparagus

Serves 4 (if served with other dishes)

Adapted from ‘Persiana’ by Sabrina Ghayour

1 large handful of fresh asparagus, trim the ends

2 tsp harissa

2 tbsp runny honey

1 lemon, rind and juice

pinch of salt

Trim the ends of the asparagus so that the rough ends are removed.
In a bowl add the harissa, lemon rind and juice, honey and salt. Mix together then add the asparagus so that all the stalks are coated.
Heat a heavy based griddle pan and when it is hot add the asparagus and allow to soften and form black ridges from the griddle pan. Turn over at intervals. The asparagus will be cooked within 10 minutes.
Place on a serving plate and pour over any remaining juice from the marinade.

With these dishes I also served steam basmati rice and pak choi. To cook the pak choi I added a little coconut oil to a pan and then added the pak choi leaves. After a minute the leaves will soften so add a splash of soy sauce or tamari and a tablespoon of yuzu or lime juice and allow to wilt a little further for a couple of minutes.

Let me know how you get on. There is so much flavour coming from all the citric, spicy and cleansing notes and I like the way how the rice balances it all out nicely.

Wild Garlic Pesto Linguine with Sausage Crumb

1 Comment May 12, 2016 chilliandmint

Continuing with the same theme as last week’s post I decided to use up the remaining fresh wild garlic that my mother had given me by whizzing it up to create a pesto. It stores so easily in the fridge, for at least a week, and the whole family love it so its a win win. Making pesto in general is easy and versatile. You can alternate the nuts from pine to walnut to pistachio and add a host of herbs and vegetables: basil, coriander spinach, wild garlic, tomatoes, peppers. I love the look of these varieties that Saveur has come up with.

I thought the addition of a sausage crumb scattering would be a nice touch and balance well with the wild garlic. I used one sausage per person and then made a little incision into each sausage so that the outer ‘skin’ could be taken off. With the sausage meat I then broke it down and gently fried it, so that it crisped up.

It took far less time than cooking a sausage normally would so again this whole meal was created in a very short space of time. I found I had lots of pesto leftover so popped it in the fridge in a sealed jar to use over the coming days.

If you are unsure about foraging wild garlic you might like to check out the Royal Horticultural Society guide on how to recognise it – see here.

Wild Garlic Pesto Linguine with Sausage Crumb

Pesto

200g wild garlic leaves washed and roughly chopped, flowers removed

100g parmesan cheese, finely grated

100g pine nuts/walnuts

150ml olive oil

squeeze of lemon juice

salt

pepper

****

1 tsp ground nut oil

sausages (1 per person)

linguine

First you need to wash the wild garlic leaves thoroughly and remove the flowers (these are edible but best put on as a garnish re my last blog post).
Roughly chop the leaves and then place them into a food processor and blitz so that they are broken down.
Next add the parmesan cheese and blitz again before adding the pine nuts.
Gradually add the olive oil so that a paste forms. Add more or less olive oil depending on the thickness you require for your pesto.
Season to taste and add a dash of lemon juice.
Boil a pan of water and add the linguine and cook according to packet instructions – just under 10 minutes should be perfect.
To make the sausage crumb all you need to do is remove the outer covering of the sausage and discard. With the sausage meat, break it down using your hands.
Heat a frying pan and add the ground nut oil. Add the sausage meat and move around the pan until it browns and begins to crisp. This should be done within about 5 minutes.
Strain the pasta and place back in the pan. Add a generous amount of pesto and stir into the pasta.
Serve into bowls and scatter with sausage crumb.

You can store the remaining pesto in the fridge in a sealed jar for over a week.

Wild Garlic, Courgette and Lemon Soup with Poached Egg and Crispy Panko Breadcrumbs

3 Comments May 6, 2016 chilliandmint

At this time of year British woodlands are filled with carpets of bluebells and wild garlic. The fragrant smell from the purply-blue tinged bluebells is absolutely heavenly, it genuinely makes me happy to stroll through a wood filled with these gorgeous flowers. In addition there is always a certain excitement when the overwhelmingly pungent smell of wild garlic hits you. To me it translates as FOOD or rather free food. Foraging for it is pretty easy and like all foraging there is a wonderful sense of achievement in having found something to eat.

The broad elliptical leaves (see bottom photo) are similar to the toxic lily of the valley, however, the smell is so screamingly obvious I think it would be pretty difficult to get it wrong. If you are unsure about foraging wild garlic you might like to check out the Royal Horticultural Society guide on how to recognise it – see here. Wild garlic is from the allium family and is also known as ramps, ramsons, wood garlic, bear’s garlic, devil’s posy, onion flower and stink plant. It can first be seen in April where there will only be a few white flowers, most will still be in bud form. The white flowers are edible and are a nice adornment on the plate so make sure to pick a few of them as well if you can. By June the harvest will be over, so you still have a few weeks window left to go searching.

My mother kindly gathered a large bag of wild garlic from the woods – slightly larger than I had anticipated – so I have enough wild garlic to eat it in all it’s guises for sometime.

For those who have not eaten it before it has a lovely – you guessed it – garlicky taste although less full on surprisingly than regular garlic. There are resemblances of chives and spring onions to the taste, but with a unique quality that is completely it’s own. It wilts just like spinach when exposed to heat, so a large amount can reduce quite substantially.

I have another wild garlic recipe up my sleeve that I will post next week but in the meantime try making my recipe below, which is a lovely lunchtime treat.

If you are into foraging you might also like to take a look at my post on foraging for cockles and samphire.

Wild Garlic, Courgette and Lemon Soup with Poached Egg and Crispy Panko Breadcrumbs

Serves 4

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small white onion, finely diced

4 courgettes, roughly chopped

1/2 lemon zest and juice

1 large handful of wild garlic, washed thoroughly

1 tsp salt

freshly ground black pepper

3 tbsp panko/sourdough breadcrumbs

1 tsp white wine vinegar

4 eggs

drizzle of lemon olive oil

In a large deep pan heat the olive oil and then add the onion and move around the pan at intervals for 3-4 minutes before adding the courgettes.
Add the lemon zest and juice, salt and pepper and stir into the ingredients and simmer for a couple of minutes, before adding water to cover the vegetables and bring to the boil and then simmer gently for a further 6-8 minutes.
Add the wild garlic, which will wilt, like spinach, immediately.
Blend the ingredients until smooth. Add more water, depending on how thick or watery you like your soups. Leave to one side.
Place the panko/sourdough breadcrumbs in a frying pan and add a dash of olive oil and move around the pan for a couple of minutes to allow the breadcrumbs to bronze slightly. Keep your eyes on them as they will bronze quickly.
In a separate pan bring water to the boil and add one tsp of white wine vinegar. Stir it with a spoon in the centre so that a small whirl pool is created. Drop the egg into the water and allow to simmer gently for 2-3 minutes. If you leave it for over 3 minutes the egg with harden. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and place on kitchen roll whilst you prepare the next egg.

To serve, place a ladle or two into a soup bowl and then add the poached egg, a sprinkling of panic breadcrumbs and then drizzle some olive oil or if you have it some lemon infused olive oil. If you have any wild garlic flowers you can place one on top of the soup.

Have a good weekend. It’s going to be a scorcher.

Childhood memories – Japanese Chicken Katsu Curry

1 Comment April 29, 2016 chilliandmint

CHILLI & MINT

This post is dedicated to my sister who has always adored Japanese Chicken Katsu Curry. That’s not to say that I don’t, because I certainly do, but not in the same way as my sister. A few years ago when I visited her in Vancouver she ordered it in a Japanese restaurant hoping that it would bring back the same happy childhood memories of the dish. Sadly the disappointment on her face when she tried their offering was plain to see, so I made it my mission there and then to try and find the recipe of our youth.

You may be wondering why we were eating such cosmopolitan food at such a young age in 80’s rural England. Our blessing was that my family had close links with a Japanese boarding school called the Rikkyo School. Most half term holidays we would welcome a couple of Rikkyo students, who were…

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Indian Inspired Cucumber, Apple and Red Onion Salad

7 Comments April 20, 2016 chilliandmint

I’ve just returned from 10 glorious days in the Schwarzwald – or German Black Forest to you and me.

Days were spent hiking through dense forests where gentle streams turned into ferocious waterfalls.

We climbed many a hill and marvelled at all the spruce and pine trees peppering the landscape. Dramatic scenery at every turn.

Picnic lunch stops afforded us spectacular vistas, stretching for miles and the best thing was that we were completely alone – over the time we were there we passed only a couple of other walkers, one of which was a nun from the local nunnery. We live in such a frenetic, fast paced world that taking time out and spending time with nature away from the crowds is wonderfully cleansing for the mind and soul.

Upon returning to our gasthof we would often treat ourselves to the local speciality…….Black Forest Gateaux, because when in Rome…..

After resting our weary limbs we prepared for serious dining in the evening. The food was exquisite, refined and yet hearty – the lemongrass creme brule and the wild garlic soup being highlights.

Upon returning back in the UK however, I was ready to have a vegetarian spell. I began to crave green vegetables (I eat a lot of spinach) and fruit with a spice injection and simple Asian food. In fact the first thing I cooked for myself when we returned to Blighty was this.

With the bambinos having just returned to school and the sun giving us a lovely, welcome dose of vitamin c – check out the blossom and blue skies

I wanted to eat a lovely salad that I was given recently when I was in Kerala. It’s lovely on it’s own or eaten to accompany all manner of Indian, meat, fish or veg curries – see my recipe library. The crunch from all the different textures and the flavours sing sweet notes as you dive into this salad. Give it a whirl and let me know if you agree.

Indian Inspired Cucumber, Apple and Red Onion Salad

Serves 4 with another dish or 2 on it’s own

2 crunchy green apples, cored, skin removed, quartered and chopped into 3

1 cucumber, skin removed, halved and chopped into half moons

1 red onion, finely sliced

1 handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp agave nectar/honey

Skin, slice and cut the ingredients as specified above and mix altogether along with the honey and salt. Simple and utterly delicious.

This salad would also be perfect with meat, fish or vegetables off the BBQ.

Coconut, Coriander and Mint Cod and an exciting competition

1 Comment April 7, 2016 chilliandmint

Being an island nation we tend to be more conscious of our seas and the fish within them than perhaps landlocked countries. That said I have always wondered why, like the Japanese, we don’t eat more fish in our diet. Growing up my parents would always have fish on Friday, which was pretty typical of Christian families of their generation. Today however, I don’t wait for Friday to have fish and on average we probably eat seafood a couple of times a week.

I try to be as innovative as possible (see here for my post on foraging for cockles) in the way that I prepare and cook it. Grilled or baked fish with a squeeze of lemon or fish pie is all very delicious but there are so many other ways to cook seafood that I hope the recipe that I will show you today will encourage you to give it a try and that it will become part of your culinary repertoire.

Recently I was contacted by LOAF App, (short for ‘love of all food’), to come up with an exciting recipe focusing on the theme of ‘fusion’ that will go onto the app and be part of a competition (more about that in a moment). For those of you who have not yet heard of LOAF, it is a fabulous new recipe app, that is free to download, that has a wide range of recipes from bloggers and chefs, in a standardised format that is easy to follow and replicate at home. You can even add your own recipes and share them with other users. (Write ups on the app here and here).

LOAF is working in partnership with the MSC Fisheries Standard (Marine Stewardship Council) on an exciting campaign, which gets the public cooking whilst being more informed on which seafood we should be buying. As part of the competition I have focused on fish that has the MSC Fisheries Standard blue label (see photo above). My recipe is now live on the LOAF app site for you to cook at home. You then need to photograph your efforts of my recipe, put them up on the LOAF site and I will then judge the winner of who I think made my dish best. The winner will be awarded £75 worth of free food shopping from either Sainsburys (UK), Wholefoods (US) and Coles (Australia).

85% of the worlds’ seafood are either at capacity or over fished. Buying seafood therefore that has the MSC blue label sticker on it is something that we all need consciously to do if we are to protect our oceans for future generations. The label tells the consumer that the seafood product you are buying is ‘certified sustainable seafood’. Fisheries are assessed to check if they are well-managed and sustainable. I urge you to look at the following Youtube video explaining the Fisheries Standard’s principles and scoring.

The standard has been developed in consultation with scientists, the fishing industry and conservation groups. Today we are all more conscious of food origin and therefore by buying MSC blue label food is a no brainer as it is fully traceable to a sustainable source. The MSC Fisheries Standard have also put together a product finder so that you can find sustainable fish and seafood wherever you are in the world. Take a look here to see how it works.

So the recipe that I have come up with takes 15 minutes max to prepare and half of that is making the paste. It’s origin is from Kerala and I recently watched a similar recipe being made. I have been doing something similar for years, albeit without the coconut addition. It is steamed as opposed to baked, grilled or fried. If you want to be truly authentic you can source a banana leaf to wrap it in, failing that baking parchment works just fine. Rice would be perfect to accompany this dish. So what are you waiting for? Give it a try and post your photograph up on the LOAF app site. EASY.

Coconut, Coriander and Mint Cod

Paste ingredients

2 large handful of fresh mint leaves, stems removed

1 large handful of fresh coriander leaves, stems can remain intact

1 tsp of fresh grated ginger

1 tsp of grated garlic

1 green chilli, finely chopped

50g either freshly grated coconut or desiccated coconut

1 limes, juice only

salt, to taste

******

1kg cod loins (MSC blue label)

baking parchment

Put all the paste ingredients together in a blender to make a fine paste. Add salt to taste at the end.
Cut the baking parchment so that it wraps over the cod loin completely.
Place the paste all over the top of the fish and lay it in the centre of the baking parchment.
Carefully wrap the fish so that the ends are completely enclosed.
Warm a frying pan (or Indian tawa if you have one) and when it is hot lay the cod parcel onto the pan. It will cook by the steam that will be created within the parcel. After 4 minutes turn the fish parcel over for another 4 minutes. If it looks as if it needs a little longer leave it for another minute and it should be ready.

Note: You can also use banana leaf instead of baking parchment. If using a banana leaf you need to hold the leaf carefully over a gas flame in a sweeping motion so that it softens. Do this on both sides and then cut it down to size so that the fish can be completely covered by the leaf.

You can bake the fish in the oven (180 degrees) for 15 minutes if you prefer but I suggest wrapping the fish in baking parchment papillote style – see here so that it does not dry out and steams itself whilst cooking.

Almond Milk and Vanilla Panna Cotta with a Strawberry and Black Pepper Coulis

6 Comments April 2, 2016 chilliandmint

Panna cotta is a delightful pudding. Sweet but not too sweet, relatively light and ridiculously easy to make, but shhh don’t tell anyone. Instead of using cows milk I opted for delicious almond milk to give it a slight nutty undertone to accompany the vanilla.

The Pressery has just relaunched with a pure, long-life organic almond milk, which is utterly delicious and perfect for this recipe. The list of London locations where you can purchase the milk is growing by the week so I am sure there will be somewhere near you where you can pick up a carton. Take a look here to find out the locations.

I love the combination of strawberries and black pepper, so thought I would accompany the panna cotta with a smooth coulis made from the two ingredients. Equally you can simply just serve the panna cotta with fresh strawberries with a pinch or two of black pepper.

This sweet delight is perfect after a number of dishes from my recipe library – here are a few to point you in the right direction.

slow cooked lamb with tomatoes, dried fruit and spices, warm lentil and goats cheese salad with a fresh basil dressing, chickpea, chorizo and cod stew, umami rich portable mushrooms, sun dried tomato and black garlic pesto

Let me know how you get on. Do you like the strawberry and black pepper combo?

Almond Milk and Vanilla Panna Cotta with a Strawberry and Black Pepper Coulis

Serves 4-5 (depending on the size of your ramekins)

250ml almond milk

250ml double cream

2 tbsp agave nectar (or 25g white sugar)

2 vanilla pods or 1 tsp vanilla extract with seeds

3 gelatine leaves

******

60ml water

30g caster sugar

150g fresh strawberries, stems removed and sliced

1 tsp of freshly ground black pepper

Place the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water for 4 minutes.
In a pan gently heat the almond milk, cream, agave nectar/sugar and vanilla (if using pods split them lengthways and scoop out the seeds and leave the pods in the milk to infuse). Let it simmer gently for 5 minutes.
Squeeze the water out of the gelatine leaves and place in the pan with the almond milk. Stir well so that it dissolves into milky liquid.
Sieve all the liquid into a jug and discard the vanilla pods if using, and then pour even amounts into your ramekins. Allow to cool before placing in the fridge for a couple of hours.
In a new pan add the water, caster sugar and fresh strawberries and gently heat so that the sugar dissolves.
Use a hand blender to create a smooth sauce. If you find the sauce is too thick do add a little more water at this stage. You are aiming to have a sauce that is the same thickness as a single cream.
For the final stage you have two options. Either sieve the strawberry coulis into a serving jug or if you prefer to have the black pepper bits in the coulis do not strain. Both ways work well, that latter naturally having more pepper bite, which I personally love.
Place the coulis in a serving jug and when it is cools place in the fridge.

To serve the panna cotta, gently use a sharp knife to loosen the top rim of the panna cotta. Then place the bottom of the ramekin in a bowl of hot water for a couple of seconds maximum. Place the serving plate on top of the ramekin and then turn over and gently shake the ramekin so that the panna cotta gently slips onto the plate.

Either allow guests to serve the coulis themselves or place a little around the edge of the panna cotta. Equally you can add fresh fruit as well as the coulis or instead of. Strawberries or blueberries would work beautifully.

As an alternative idea to turning the panna cotta out onto a plate you could serve them in vintage mismatched tea cups.

Vietnamese Prawn, Mango, Lemongrass and Coconut Curry

8 Comments March 25, 2016 chilliandmint

Don’t ever throw away coriander stalks as they are bursting with flavour and are perfect for making a delicious paste to go in all manner of curries. Today I wanted to show you one of my Vietnamese inspired prawn curries that combine lemongrass, ginger, garlic, chilli, coriander stalks, jaggery (palm sugar – or you can just use caster sugar), fresh mangoes and coconut milk. To say it’s sublime would be an understatement. It is so downright delicious that you’ll be wanting to make it on repeat.

I always seem to have frozen prawns in my freezer as, once thawed, they are hugely versatile to make all manner of curries or prawn cakes and generally speaking I find that most people like prawns. I had some fresh mangoes and lemongrass that were needing to be eaten so I thought that I would work the recipe around my three main ingredients – prawns, mangoes and lemongrass.

My hand blender is back in action (rejoice – how I missed it) so it took no time to whizz up a paste that tasted of the exotic Far East. By adding a little coconut milk allowed the paste to become smooth, whilst retaining its thickness.

My mother-in-law modelled the mangoes and I bought king prawns that had already been deveined and peeled to save time. So all in all from start to finish this is definitely a 15 minutes tops kind of meal, unless you are slow at peeling and cutting up your mangoes, which in that case might add on another 5 minutes or so.

If you love prawns you might also like Bengali Chingri Maach or perhaps Keralan Prawn and Kokum or my Prawn and Tamarind Curry or if you buy prawns with shells on don’t forget to keep the shells and heads so that you can make a heavenly Prawn Bisque

Happy Easter All.

Vietnamese Prawn, Mango, Lemongrass and Coconut Curry

paste

40g coriander stalks

2 lemongrass stalks, outer layers removed and finely chopped

1 red chilli

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp garlic paste

1 tsp jaggery/palm sugar or caster sugar

a little coconut milk from a 400ml tin

*****

2 tbsp vegetable/coconut oil

15g shallots, finely sliced

1 tsp salt

700g king prawns, deveined and peeled

2 mangoes, cut into bite sized pieces

the remaining coconut mil from the 400ml tin

Place all the paste ingredients into a hand blender and whizz them up to form a smooth paste. Adding a little of the coconut milk will loosen up the ingredients and help the paste to become smooth.
In a deep pan or karahi add the oil and when it is hot add the shallots and salt. Move them around the pan for a couple of minutes, being careful not to let them burn.
Now add the paste and simmer gently for 3-5 minutes before adding the rest of the coconut milk. Let the coconut milk heat up before adding the prawns.
Move the prawns around the pan until they become pink. This will take no more than a few minutes. Simmer for an extra couple of minutes before adding the mango.

Serve with rice with some fresh lime on the side and a sprinkle of fresh coriander on the top.

If you like this recipe I am sure you will love my Butternut Squash, Lemongrass, Coconut and Coriander Curry

Greek Stifado and Broth by Vicki Edgson and Heather Thomas part 2

Leave a comment March 19, 2016 chilliandmint

Continuing from lasts week’s post where I told you all about the book ‘Broth’ by Vicki Edgson and Heather Thomas and then made a fusion of their classic beef bone broth and rich bone marrow broth I wanted to show you a recipe from their book that used the broth as the foundation to another dish. There were so many options from ‘gulyas’ to ‘osso bucco with gremolata’ to ‘Chinese braised oxtail’ making the decision on what to cook really hard. In the end I opted for ‘stifado’.

It was a stew that was very similar to ones that I had eaten as a child at my maternal grandmothers, but this version was Greek and had some interesting twists that appealed to me. I liked the fact that cinnamon, allspice berries and raisins were added alongside rosemary, bay leaf and shallots. The beef broth that I had laboured over the few days previously also made the dish somewhat delicious. I also found that there was lots of broth left to freeze and use in the future. Result.

In Greece, Stifado is eaten all year round and is, according to Edgson and Thomas, often a permanent fixture on the menu of most tavernas. It is often made with rabbit or veal, but since we now have rabbits as pets, rabbit on the menu at home has become strictly off limits (understandably) and I wanted to follow the recipe that was in ‘Broth’. I loved the fact that other than a brief amount of cooking on the hob, the rest can be slow cooked in the oven, freeing me up to get on with other things.

The result was a really hearty and delicious stew, where the meat was tender and flaking and the sauce rich and delicately spiced from the herbs and spices. I chose to accompany the dish with Italian orzo, which is similar, albeit slightly larger, to rice in appearance, and found in Puglia in southern Italy. Equally a crusty loaf would work well with this dish, allowing for lots of dunking of the delicious juices.

Greek Stifado

Adapted from ‘Broth by Vicki Edgson and Heather Thomas, published by Jacqui Small’

4 tbsp olive oil

600g round shallots, peeled

1.5kg lean stewing/chuck steak

4 garlic cloves, halved

125ml of red wine

500ml of beef bone broth

3 tbsp red wine vinegar

3 medium sized tomatoes chopped

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 bay leaf

2 sprigs of rosemary

1 cinnamon stick

3 allspice berries

2 tbsp raisins

salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

orzo pasta to serve – optional

Heat the oil in a casserole pan – my Le Creuset is my trusted friend – and on a low heat cook the shallots for 10-15 minutes so that they begin to bronze. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Using the same pan, turn up the heat and add the beef so that it browns all over.
Then add the garlic and red wine and allow it to bubble away for a few minutes.
Add the beef bone broth, wine vinegar, tomatoes, tomato puree, herbs and spices. Stir all the ingredients together well and then simmer for 1 hour OR place in a preheated oven at 140 degrees (I did the latter)
Add the raisins and shallots and then continue cooking for a further 45-60 mins until the meat is tender and the sauce rich and reduced. Season to taste.

Edgerson and Thomas suggest serving with orzo pasta, which is a great idea. All in all it makes for a really wonderful, hearty dish that feeds the whole family.