(Sort of) Borscht

You've probably realised that I'm a pretty transparent, heart-on-my-sleeve sort of person. I'm no good at dissembling (and have no interest in acquiring the skill, either, come to that). So if you are connected to me in other spaces, you will know the brutal truth that the reason that I have not been posting many recipes here, lately, is that I simply can't afford the ingredients. It occurred to me that, if I was being so up-front about it on Facebook and Twitter, there was no reason to be coy about it here.

We are currently in a fairly difficult financial position that is set to get immeasurably worse within the next few months. Of course, we continue to hope for a miracle and to work hard at making sure we have left no stone unturned, but, for now, it is what it is. We have been blessed by friends who have given us food hampers, which has been wonderful and kept us all fed, but I have been uninspired recipe-wise. I hope you understand.

Be all that as it may, my local supermarket has a shelf where they sell fresh produce that has passed its best. I decided to pull my head out of my... erm... navel and get creative with what was on offer there. This is what I did yesterday, with a bag of no-longer-firm beetroot (beets, to you Americans) I found. Variations of beetroot soup (probably best known as borscht) are very popular in most East European countries.

The thing you need to know about this soup is that it is extremely low in fat (apart from the soured cream, that is, and you could always choose to leave that bit out) and highly nutritious.

Ingredients
15ml olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 stick celery, sliced (optional - I leave this out because I have one son who loathes it)
3 or 4 beetroots, peeled and grated
1 large potato, peeled and grated
1 carrot, scraped and grated
1.25l stock - meat for omnivores, vegetable for veggies
Black pepper
Splash of red wine
Generous pinch of sugar
Soured cream

Method

• In a large saucepan, heat the oil and saute the onion and celery until the onion becomes slightly translucent.
• Add the carrot, beetroot and potato just briefly.
• Add the stock and bring to the boil.
• Reduce the heat and simmer for about 40 minutes.
• Season with black pepper (and salt if you feel compelled) to taste.
• Add the red wine and sugar. Stir until the sugar has dissolved.
• Serve, with a dollop of soured cream and crusty brown bread.

Some things you can try with this soup:

• Add a sprig or two of dill - it's surprising how well dill works with beetroot!
• Add about 15ml of freshly grated ginger root (instead of the dill, not as well as).
• Instead of either of the above, about 5ml horseradish will put hairs on your chest, if you like the stuff (I don't).

Chicken madras

Since I appear to have deleted my photos of this dish, I have opted to use a photo of coriander leaves/cilantro. Image by beglib.

The Indian foods I have eaten since moving to the UK have been so very different from the Indian foods I used to get in Durban, South Africa. It makes one realise what a large, multicultural country India is.

The Indian descendants living in South Africa are largely Tamils, whose forebears hailed from from the southern parts of India. The food they now eat in South Africa has of course been adapted over the generations based on the ingredients available to them.

It didn't occur to me at the time, but I never ate at an 'Indian' restaurant all the years I lived in Durban. I don't even remember seeing one. I guess it would be a bit like having an Italian restaurant in Rome, since Durban is often referred to as 'the capital of India', boasting over a million people of Indian heritage (possibly the largest in the world outside of India itself).

Nevertheless, while I was teaching at a performing arts school in the Indian sector of town, I got to know all the take-away places and greasy spoons nearby. My students, to whose parents a white teacher at the school was still something of a novelty, used to bring me Tupperware dishes of this or that "my mother made for you, mem." Sadly, I never got the recipes of all these wonders. In many cases, I didn't even get the names. But, as a struggling student, I was enormously grateful for the free meals!

I always knew when there had been a wedding in the family, because then I'd get burfi or jalebi. Maybe both! My housemates used to love that!

The Indian foods on offer in England usually owe their heritage to Kashmiri or Punjabi traditions. So it's naan bread instead of roti, more meat, less beans... and in general the food is more aromatic. Oh, and I haven't seen a chilli bite in aaaaages!

There are of course, 'Indian' dishes which have been invented in both England and South Africa, just as macaroni cheese is an American dish with a nod to Italian roots. But even those tend to follow the patterns of the cultural heritage of the local populations.

Over the years, my palate has become less hardy, and there is no way I could eat the fiery hot samoosas I used to scoff after the final class on my way to a singing gig 'back in the day'.

Today's dish has a bit of bite to it, but is still within what I would consider a reasonable range. It's one I learned to make in the UK, even though it hails from the more southerly parts of India (Chennai).

Ingredients
800g chicken, skinned and cut into bite sized pieces
1 large onions, finely chopped
6 tomatoes, finely chopped
2-3 small green chillies (adjust to taste), chopped
2.5cm piece of ginger root, peeled and grated (or just use the 'very lazy' kind in a tube)
4 cloves garlic, crushed
5ml chilli powder
2.5ml ground cumin
2.5ml ground coriander seeds
5ml turmeric
5ml nutmeg
2 cloves
3 cardamom pods
Garam masala (some)
Bunch coriander (cilantro) leaves
Pinch salt
75ml oil

Method

• Heat the oil over a moderate heat in a heavy-based saucepan. Pop in the cloves and cardamom pods.
• Add the onions and fry them well. Not just to the translucent stage you may be used to, but until they are well browned.
• Stir in the green chillies, ginger, garlic, red chilli powder, cumin, coriander and turmeric. Stir for a couple of minutes.
• Season with a pinch of salt and stir some more.
• Add the chicken and stir for about 3 minutes to seal it. If it sticks a bit, add just a little water (no more than 50ml).
• Add the nutmeg and tomatoes and cover. Simmer for about 20 minutes over a medium heat.
• Sprinkle with garam masala and fresh coriander leaves to serve.
• Serve with rice, naan bread, roti....or whatever starch your little heart desires.

Risotto with an eastern twist

This is based on another recipe from my 200 veggie feasts book. In the original version were ingredients of the sort not found in the average kitchen (most people I know have never even heard of mirin, for example... and Blogger's spellchecker certain doesn't seem to know what it is!) and I was not about to send you on wild goose chase for the sake of a few mls of this (30mls in the case of the mirin, for example) and a dash of that.

So I adapted.

As you would expect.

Ingredients
1200ml of veg stock (alright, you can use chicken if you must!)
15ml soy sauce
30ml white wine (or use sake or mirin if you have it)
60ml sunflower or olive oil (or replace 15mls with sesame oil, if you have some)
A few spring onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2.5cm piece of root ginger, peeled and grated (or a tablespoon of the 'very lazy' kind in a tube or bottle - don't use dried ground ginger if you can avoid it - it's nowhere near as nice)
375g arborio/paella rice (or bog standard rice, if it's all you have)
4 kaffir lime leaves, ripped up, or the grated zest of 1 lime
250g mushrooms (shiitake if you can get them, otherwise - you know - whatever), sliced
About 30ml chopped fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves with a few extras for garnish

Method

• Warm up the stock, wine and soy sauce, but don't let it boil.
• Heat 45ml of the oil in a saucepan or large frying pan and throw in the spring onions, garlic and ginger and stir fry on high for about a minute.
• Lower the heat and add the rice and the lime leaves. Stir for about a minute until all the grains of rice are coated.
• Add about 150ml of stock and stir until absorbed. Keep stirring and adding stock until you have about half a cupful left in the jug. You might like to turn the heat off on the rice while you do this next bit.
• Use the remaining oil in a different panto fry the mushrooms for about 5 minutes.
• Add the coriander and mushrooms to the rice, with the remaining stock. If you turned the heat off before, turn it back on now, but keep it low.
• Stir until the liquid is pretty much absorbed.
• Garnish with a few bits of fresh coriander leaf.

What do I do with... green beans?

You very probably already know this, but in case you don't: you're supposed to eat the pod part of a green bean, too. Unlike other beans, you don't eat just the seed-bit and throw away the outside.

Green beans are readily available in frozen or canned form, but they're so easy to cook, and no initial faff is required, so you might as well buy them fresh and score all the extra nutrients.

I was always non-plussed by the fact that the package labels on green beans in UK supermarkets advise one not to eat them raw. All through my childhood, it was the norm to help ourselves to the green beans and carrots growing in my grandfather's vegetable garden. The beans were eaten as is. The carrots were first given a wash under the garden tap.

I can only think that fears of some dread foreign disease were behind the caution (witness the recent E-coli hoo-ha). But I live dangerously and carry right on eating raw green beans - even those that come from the supermarket!

So, if you're ready for a life on the edge, you can eat them raw, too. Just like that, or chopped up into a salad. Or dipped in houmous. Mmmm. Hust give them a good rinse first.

Otherwise you can boil or steam them (whole or sliced). You can steam them in your microwave or on the hob. Give me a shout if you're not sure about how to do either of those. Don't keep going until the life and goodness have been cooked out them, though! Ugh - the memories of grey beans at boarding school.... shudder.

Some people struggle with the fact that cooked green beans 'squeak on your teeth'. And it's true - they sometimes do. I have a son with tactile issues and green beans were always a challenge for him. I found that cooking them just that little bit longer solved the problem (as does eating them raw).

I once knew a woman who had worked as an au pair in Greece where she had learned to prepare green beans like this:

Blanch them (dip them in boiling water for a couple of minutes), then stir fry them with some crushed garlic in olive oil. Add a little lemon juice for zing. Verrrrry nice!

Then an Afrikaans friend used to mix them up with roughly mashed potato, which she sprinkled with pepper. I have to say, though, that she boiled the poor beans to death first.

Another very popular Afrikaans dish is groenboontjiebredie (green bean stew - and oh boy, did I struggle to find a decent English recipe for you!), which you might like to try one cold evening.

Bean and olive salad

Since it's the weekend (yayyy!!), and we're (finally) promised some decent weather here in the UK (I'll believe that when I see it!), I thought I'd do a salad recipe today. This is a recipe I cut out of a magazine donkey's years ago and have adapted.

This should be made up in advance, because it needs time to chill. Don't we all?

Ingredients
45ml olive oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced or finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
250ml cooked haricot beans
30ml Balsamic vinegar (I'm sure you could use 'ordinary' vinegar - I'm just a fan of Balsamic)
15ml tomato puree
12 olives, stoned and halved
45ml chopped fresh herbs - I used a mixture of chives, mint and coriander leaves. I'd say the chives are fairly important, but experiment for yourself.

Method

• Heat oil over a low heat in a heavy-bottomed pan, and saute the onion and garlic lightly.
• Cover and allow to 'sweat' for a couple of minutes.
• Uncover and add beans, vinegar, tomato puree and olives. Stir for a further couple of minutes.
• Remove from heat and stir in herbs.
• Chill before serving.

Notes
You could turn this into a main course by adding a tin of tuna.

Roast butternut and pine nut risotto

This is another one of those veggie dishes that are so good you don't find yourself thinking, "All this needs is a bit of meat, and it would be perfect." Even my carnivorous elder son wolfed it down and came back for seconds!

This recipe uses coriander leaves, but sage is just as good with butternut, so try that as a variation.

Oven temperature
200C

Ingredients
1 large butternut, peeled and cut into largish cubes
1 clove garlic, crushed
10ml fresh coriander leaves, chopped
Olive oil
30ml butter
1 onion, chopped
250ml arborio rice
250ml white wine
750ml vegetable stock
Pine nuts to serve
Parmesan cheese, grated, to serve

Method

• In a large bowl, mix up about 25ml olive oil with the garlic and chopped coriander leaves.
• Toss the butternut cubes in this until they are well coated, then place them on a baking tray in the oven for about 45 minutes until soft right through and just starting to darken along the edges.
• Cut the cooked butternut into smaller cubes (when it is cool enough to handle, obviously!). Don't worry if some pieces get a little mushy. If any little bits got stuck to the baking tray, rescue them - you're going to want those babies in the risotto, too - they have a wonderful toffee-ish taste!
• Heat 15ml of the butter and another 25ml oil in a  heavy-bottomed frying pan and saute the onion until it softens and becomes translucent.
• Add the rice and stir until the grains are coated and shiny looking.
• Add the wine and stir until the liquid has been absorbed.
• Now add the stock. The proper way to do this is to add a little stock at first and then keep adding a little at a time as it is absorbed by the rice. I tend to just add the whole lot in one go... because I'm a lazy Philistine.
• Simmer until done. Don't let the rice cook for too long - it is supposed to be al dente, like pasta.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the butternut and the rest of the butter.
• Place into serving bowls and top with a sprinkling of pine nuts, a little Parmesan cheese, a twist of black pepper and the rest of the coriander leaves.

Tuna steak - the fish for non-fish-eaters

Some years ago, I discovered the wonder that is tuna steak. I ate it at a wonderful Italian restaurant called Mulinos in Milton Keynes. It wasn't on the menu, but the chef had sourced some fresh tuna steak that day. My elder son ordered it, and I was surprised when the waiter asked him how he would like it done. I mean, it's fish, right? Everyone knows that fish needs to be cooked right through, right? Wrong. Oh, so wrong.

My son ordered it medium rare, which is the way we all prefer our beef steak... and it was sheer bliss. I know. I tasted it. If I hadn't known it was fish, I would certainly not have guessed it from the taste (or the texture). Not that I have anything against fish, mind, but some fish has an overwhelmingly 'fishy' taste. Fresh tuna steak does not. Not even slightly.

Tuna steak should be cooked pretty much the same way you cook a beef steak - very hot pan, and then just a couple of minutes on each side (for a succulent, medium rare steak).

This is what I did with ours last night:

Ingredients

Two fresh tuna steaks

1 kaffir lime leaf, shredded

Juice of half a lime

1 small chilli, finely chopped

5ml grated ginger root

5ml chopped fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves

2.5ml finely chopped lemon grass

5ml olive oil

Method

• Mix all the ingredients (apart from the fish) together to form your marinade.
• Place the steaks in the marinade, turning a few times to ensure that it is well coated.
• Leave for about 10 minutes.
• Heat a heavy-bottomed frying pan over high heat until it is very hot.
• Give the pan a quick spray of fry light or a light brushing with olive oil if necessary. If it's a really good pan, this won't be necessary.
• Remove the steaks from the marinade and fry for two minutes on each side.
• Serve with potato wedges and a garden salad.

Cabbage bredie

'Bredie' is roughly the Afrikaans word for stew, but somehow there is a different nuance to it. Maybe that's just my imagination, though, with my dual heritage.

I cook mine in a pressure cooker. If you don't have one, you will need to watch those fluid levels and add more if necessary. You need to know something about cabbage: it is so full of flavour that when it is such a dominant ingredient in a stew, you need very little by way of seasoning. Honest. Try it yourself.

Ingredients
1 whole cabbage, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
700g stewing beef or lamb, cubed
3 carrots, peeled and sliced (my 'slices' are always very large, because that's the way my husband prefers them - carrots are his favourite part of any stew)
45ml tomato puree
Salt to taste (I add none at all)
5ml caraway seeds
250ml stock
A little oil

Method

• In a large saucepan/pressure cooker, saute the onions in a little oil until they become soft and translucent.
• Add the caraway seeds and the meat. Saute until the meat is browned on all sides.
• Add the entire cabbage, carrots, tomato puree and stock.
• If you're using a pressure cooker, close it, bring it to pressure and cook for 20 minutes. If you're not, cover, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 2 hours, checking the liquid level every now and then so that it doesn't dry out and burn.
• Serve with rice, polenta (which is what you can see in my photo above) or quinoa. Alternatively, you can add potatoes into the stew and then serve it without the additional starch.

Stuffed potato skins

For a few years while I was in high school, my mother dated a real loser who caused such problems and divisions in our family that I was only too glad to see the back of him. At least I got to escape him during term time, because I was at boarding school. My poor sister lived at home and had to bear the brunt of him.

However, he had a few speciality dishes that were memorable, this being one of them. And it is a favourite of my own family, so I guess the loser wasn't a complete loss. ;o)

Oven temperature
220C and grill

Ingredients
Baking potatoes, one or two per person
250g pack of bacon
1 onion, diced
250ml sweetcorn
Butter
Milk
Hard cheese such as Cheddar, grated or thinly sliced
Paprika

Method

Cover with cheese and sprinkle with paprika

• Stab the potatoes quite deeply once or twice with the point of a sharp knife and sling them in the oven for a good 40 minutes to an hour until they are baked, and the skins have become hard. Don't be tempted to nuke them. That doesn't harden up the skins, which is essential for this recipe.
• While the potatoes are baking, grill the bacon until crispy. If you aren't able to grill one thing and bake another at the same time because of the way your kitchen is equipped, add the bacon to the next step instead.
• Saute the onion and sweetcorn together until soft (if you need to, you can add the bacon in here).
• Chop the cooked bacon up quite finely.
• When the potatoes are done, cut them in half through the longest median and scoop out the flesh, taking care not to break the skin. Place the skins onto baking trays and set aside.
• Place all the potato flesh into a large bowl and mash it well, adding a little butter and milk as necessary to get a smooth, soft consistency.
• Add the bacon, corn and onions and mix well.
• Spoon the mixture back into the potato skins. Remember that you have added a fair amount of volume, so you should wind up with a convex surface.
• Cover the mixture with the cheese and sprinkle liberally with paprika.
• Pop under the grill until the cheese bubbles.
• Serve alone or with a salad. Oh, and do eat the crunchy skin - it's the best part!

You can of course leave out the bacon for a veggie option. You could also add other leftovers to the mix to use up your fridge fallout.

Fudge

Just in time for the weekend, I thought I'd share a recipe for fudge. I have had many recipes for fudge over the years, but this one is my favourite. It comes from my sister in law. It is thoroughly decadent, but then you weren't expecting a health food recipe when once you'd seen the title, were you?

For years, I had absolutely no success with fudge or jam or any of those things that involve boiling sugar mixtures for ages on end. Then I bought myself a sugar thermometer and everything changed. I highly recommend them!

Ingredients
250g butter
250ml milk
25ml golden syrup (Americans can try golden syrup or corn syrup)
1kg sugar
397g tin condensed milk
10ml vanilla extract

Method

• It's best to use a heavy-bottomed saucepan for this recipe. Melt the butter, then add the milk, syrup and sugar.
• Bring to the boil over a medium heat, stirring frequently.
• Boil for 15 minutes, still stirring frequently.
• Add the condensed milk and bring back to the boil, stirring continuously.
• Boil until soft ball stage is reached - roughly 115C. Ann reckons this takes 12 minutes. I find it takes much longer than that. Perhaps she uses a higher heat than I do.
• Remove from the heat and add the vanilla. Beat well with an electric beater.
• Pour out into a shallow dish or baking tray.
• Leave to stand until cool. When the fudge has begun to set, but is still warm, score it deeply so that you can cut it into squares later without it breaking (if that matters).

If the fudge doesn't set, this is probably because you didn't bring it to a high enough temperature and you know what? You can either heat it up and use it as a sauce for ice-cream, or you can bung it back into the saucepan and bring it back up to the right temperature. I've done both in my time. The great thing about cooking for your family is that they are usually more than happy to devour your 'flops' without a murmur...as long as said flops are sweet treats, that is!

Cinnamon glazed butternut

When I was a child, my Afrikaans granny had a tendency to cook with a lot of sugar. So did a lot of Afrikaans ladies of that vintage. It was just 'the way it's done'. And I'm not talking about cakes and sweets. I'm talking about vegetables. A spoon of sugar in the green peas. A teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of butter in each half of a gem squash (a tennis ball sized squash that looks like this) as it was placed on the plate. Sugar in this, sugar sprinkled over that. Astonishingly she and my grandfather both lived into their 80s.

I loved my Gran's cakes, but I was never a fan of her vegetables. I have never been much of a one for adding sugar to the deliciously natural sweetness of vegetables.

With one occasional exception.

Every now and again, when I am cooking a bobotie or a biryani, I make cinnamon glazed butternut to go with it. It is utterly, utterly sinful. But I am not advocating that this recipe should take the place of the way you normally cook your butternut.

Oh... and it works just as well with pumpkin. I just prefer the taste of butternut.

Ingredients
125ml cold water
500g butternut, peeled and cut into thick pieces
30ml butter
5ml ground cinnamon
10ml soft brown sugar

Method

• Pour the water into a heavy-based saucepan first.
• Spread the butternut over the base of the saucepan in no more than two layers.
• Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon evenly over the butternut.
• Dot the butter on top.
• Cover and cook over a low heat until the butternut is soft (about 20 minutes or so). Keep an eye on the water level. If the water all boils away, the butternut will burn.

Citrus fruit cake filling

No photo today.

About a week ago, I baked a chocolate cake, and decided to try something a little different between the two layers. Since I love chocolate and orange together, I made this really simple orange filling using a recipe out of my trusty Cook and Enjoy it (Kook en Geniet). It's a bit like a curd (which I also adore), only it doesn't have eggs in it. I made a little too much, and had masses left over, which I have been eating on my toast every morning since then. Just yum!

It occurred to me that you could do exactly the same thing with lemons or limes, and I have every intention of trying it with lime very soon because, as you know if you're a regular reader, I'm deeply passionate about limes, and I'm thinking that a lime version of this filling between two layers, with coconut icing on top would be a highly respectable treatment for a sponge cake to get!

Ingredients
250ml sugar
2.5ml salt
60ml cornflour
250ml orange (or lemon or lime or a blend thereof) juice
Grated zest of one orange (or lemon or lime)
15ml lemon juice
45ml butter

Method

• Place the salt, sugar and cornflour together in a saucepan and gradually stir in the orange juice.
• Stir over a medium heat until the mixture becomes glossy and thick.
• Remove from the heat and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir well.
• Allow to cool completely before spreading on the cake or it will sink in to the sponge rather than forming a filling between your layers.

Tuna and asparagus bake

A truly yummy combination of flavours that could use up some fridge fallout in the process. The original recipe is stuck in my do-it-yourself recipe book, having been cut out of some or other magazine at some or other point in my life.

Oven temperature
180C

Ingredients
750ml cooked rice (as in 750ml after cooking, not 750ml rice which is then cooked)
90ml butter
15ml lemon juice
15ml chopped parsley (I leave this out, because my husband loathes parsley)
410g tin of asparagus salad cuts
1 onion, finely chopped
2 courgettes/zucchini/baby marrow/whatever you call them, sliced (roughly 4mm slices)
Half a green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
25ml cornflour
60ml water
60ml sour cream
200g tin of tuna, drained and flaked
15ml fresh mint, chopped
250ml grated cheddar (or similar) cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

Bake, uncovered for about 30mins

• Combine the rice with 30ml of the butter, lemon juice and parsley in a large bowl, then spoon over the base of a large ovenproof dish. Press this rice base down to pack it tightly.
• Drain the asparagus cuts, but keep about 125ml of the juice. Arrange the asparagus on top of the rice.
• Heat the remaining butter in a saucepan over medium heat and saute the onions lightly.
• Add the courgettes and green pepper. Stir fry for about a minute or until the veg begin to soften a bit.
• Stir in the cornflour and cook for a further minute.
• Stir in the reserved asparagus juice and water and keep stirring until a smooth consistency is achieved.
• Remove from heat and add the sour cream, tuna, mint and seasoning.
• Spoon this mixture over the asparagus and spread gently.
• Sprinkle with cheese and bake uncovered for about 30 minutes.
• If you like, you can top it with croutons after baking, but I have never found it necessary.

The rice forms a sort of 'crust'. I tend to mash the rice a bit to achieve a 'mealie rice'/grits texture.

A note about my comment about fridge fallout - you could add leftover vegetables to the tuna mixture, and I reckon peas and/or sweetcorn would be no bad idea!

Chicken biryani

This recipe is fairly time consuming, but the results are oh-so-worth it! I am utterly in love with chicken biryani, so much so that it is a challenge for me to choose something else from the menu when we visit an Indian restaurant.

I should point out that this recipe is almost certianly not authentically Indian, since it is based on one drawn from a book of Cape Malay recipes. South Africa has an enormous 'Indian' population. These are people descended from the Indians brought out to work on the sugar cane farms in what was then known as Natal. In the apartheid era, 'Indian' was one of the four racial classifications and the term is still in use today. Most South African Indians remain in the KwaZulu-Natal area, as a result of which, Durban (the city in which I was born) is often referred to as the 'capital of India'.

The Cape Malays (as the phrase suggests) are largely concentrated in the Western Cape, which is where I spent twelve years of my life, and where both my children were born.

However, there are commonalities in their cuisine, and some fusion has been inevitable...especially in my kitchen, with my exposure to both! Purists will argue one way or the other, of course, but I'm not enough of a connoisseur to get embroiled in that wrangling. I enjoy recipes from both cultures, and I hope that you will enjoy this one. It is one I make fairly often for guests.

So here goes...

Oven temperature
Low (for reheating)

Ingredients
1kg chicken portions
2 onions, diced
A little oil
500ml lentils
500ml uncooked rice (I use Basmati, because my husband is addicted to the stuff!)
10ml butter
2 cinnamon quills/sticks/whatever you like to call them
4 cardamom pods, split open
3 red or green chillies chopped (increase or decrease this number to taste, but biryani is generally not very hot)
4 hard boiled eggs
10ml ground cumin
2.5ml turmeric (if you're feeling flush, you can use some saffron strands instead) plus another 7.5ml
250ml pouring yoghurt
10ml red masala powder
15ml peri-peri oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
5ml finely chopped fresh ginger (or you can use the 'very lazy' bottled kind, but avoid the powdered ground ginger)
5ml ground cinnamon
10ml salt

Method

• Combine the following ingredients and marinade the chicken for two hours: yoghurt, red masala, 7.5ml turmeric, peri peri oil, garlic, ginger, ground cinnamon and salt.
• Set the lentils to cook in boiling water until more or less soft. While they're doing that, you can get on with the next steps. When they are cooked, drain and set aside.
• Boil the rice in boiling water as well, until done, drain and set aside. To be honest, I cook the rice and lentils together, because it frees up one hotplate and means one less saucepan to wash!
• Heat a little oil and saute the onion and chilli. Set aside.
• Over a medium heat, melt the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan and add the cinnamon quills and cardamom.
• Brown the chicken in this saucepan, taking care not to burn the yoghurt. If necessary, add a (tiny) bit of water, so that the chicken doesn't stick.
• When the chicken is brown, add about half a cup of water and 2.5ml of turmeric (or saffron) and cook, uncovered until done through and soft. Remove from heat.
• In a large bowl, mix the rice, lentils (if they aren't already mixed, that is!), onion-and-chillies and chicken.
• Transfer half the mixture into a serving bowl, and sprinkle with half the cumin and spread half the egg slices over it.
• Add the other half and sprinkle with the rest of the cumin. If you have rose water to hand, you might like to sprinkle some of that over, too (yum!). Spread the rest of the egg slices over the top. Cover and place in the oven to heat through.
• Serve with vegetable curry (for an Indian slant) or Cape Malay style vegetables (recipes for which will be added to this blog at some stage, but can be downloaded from all manner of sites in the interim).

Vetkoek

This is a South African traditional dish that has its roots deep in the country's Dutch heritage. I suspect that it owes much to Dutch oliebolle. It has, however, gained a wider market than just those of Dutch descent in the country (if it were at all possible to draw a ring around that subset these days!). My husband has fond memories of bunking out of his high school hostel to buy what is called a curry bunny, a vetkoek, filled with curried mince.

I use a breadmaker to make these, but you can use pretty much any bread recipe and pick it up at the point where we shape it into balls.

Balls that will fit in your hand

Ingredients

500ml bread flour
7.5ml fast acting dried yeast
5ml salt
2.5ml sugar
250ml lukewarm water
Oil for deep frying

Method

• Pour the water into the breadmaker pan.
• Add the dry ingredients, yeast last of all.
• Set your breadmaker to the 'dough' setting and start.
• With wet hands, shape the dough into balls that fit easily into the palm of your hand.
• Heat the oil in a saucepan - you don't need more than about an inch deep or so, the dough will float on top of the oil anyway. Don't use a high heat, or the vetkoek won't cook through.
• Pack the dough balls fairly closely together in the oil. Fry them for about 5 minutes until they're golden brown (roughly doughnut coloured).
• Flip them over and cook on the other side.
• Take them out of the oil and place them on a cooling rack with paper towel underneath.
• They're best eaten while still fairly hot. They're delicious with cheese and apricot jam (yes, together - be adventurous!) or with curried mince.

  

  Roughly doughnut coloured

Beetroot risotto with cream cheese and pine nuts

Today, I'd like to share with you a delicious, delumptious, recent discovery. A couple of weeks ago, I came across a little paperback book going for half price in my local supermarket. It's a Hamlyn book by Louise Pickford, called 200 veggie feasts. I was attracted to it because our current straitened circumstances mean that we have to cut back on meat, which tends to be rather costly. Let me tell you, I could happily work my way through the entire book! We have already sampled several of them, and today's recipe is based on one such. It is one of the tastiest meals I've had in a long time.

Ingredients
1200ml stock (I made this up using my old standby Vecon)
4 cooked beetroot, peeled and diced
60ml cooking oil (okay, the book calls for extra virgin olive oil, but in the light of yesterday's post...)
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
10ml fresh thyme (or 5ml dried)
300g arborio/risotto/paella rice (you could try ordinary rice, if you like)
125ml red wine
150g cream cheese (the original recipe calls for either mascarpone or soft goat's cheese, but cream cheese works a treat!)
Small bag pine nuts (you could substitute pecans if you prefer - just chop them)
Salt and black pepper to taste

Method

• Bring the stock to a gentle simmer in a saucepan
• Heat the oil in a separate saucepan and stirfry the onion, garlic and thyme over a low heat, until the onion is softened and translucent. Add salt and pepper to taste (I added a twist or six of black pepper, but no salt).
• Add the rice to the onion mixture and stir until every grain is coated and shiny looking.



Until the liquid is absorbed

• Stir in the wine and bring to the boil. Keep stirring until the wine is absorbed.
• Stir in the beetroot.
• Add the stock, a little at a time, stirring after each addition.
• Cook over a medium heat until the liquid is absorbed. You will need to keep stirring, or it will stick. This should take about 20 minutes. Ideally, the rice should be slightly al dente.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese. Cover and leave to stand for a couple of minutes.
• Sprinkle each portion with pine nuts as you serve (don't forget this bit, it makes such a difference!)

Köttbullar med gräddsås (Swedish meatballs and...erm... 'gravy')

Being married to a Swede, it was inevitable that I should have to learn to make these early on. Of course, when we moved to the UK and had access to Ikea, we were able to buy frozen meatballs by the bag. Home made ones are still better, though! When I make them, I make a double batch and freeze half for later use.

They can be fried (my mother-in-law fries hers... in lashings of butter, of course), but I find that takes forever when you are cooking large enough quantities for three viking appetites, so I do mine in the oven. Sacrilege!

Oh, and remember what I said about the traditional Swedish diet not being healthy? You have been warned.

First let's get those meatballs going, then we'll make a start on the sauce (which, by the way, translates as 'cream sauce').

Meatballs
Oven temperature
200C

Ingredients
500g minced beef
500g minced pork
1 egg
200-300ml cream-and-water mixture (or the slightly healthier option of just using milk, as I do)
1 small onion, finely chopped
100ml breadcrumbs (or rusk flour if it's available in your area)
2 cold, boiled potatoes
Butter, margarine or oil for frying/baking (we'll come to that in a bit)
Salt and white pepper to taste
5ml ground allspice (this, dear friends, is the critical ingredient that gives the meatballs their 'Swedish' taste)

Method

I roll them in flour as I go

• Traditionally, you're supposed to saute the onion in butter until golden, but a healthier option is to sweat them in the microwave (place in glass bowl, cover with pierced clingfilm and nuke 'em for about a minute or so). You decide.
• Peel and mash the potato.
• Moisten the bread crumbs (or rusk flour) with a little water.
• Mix the meats, egg, breadcrumbs, potato, flour and seasonings.
• Add a little of the cream-and-water/milk at a time, until you get a manageable consistency. You might not have to add all of it, but don't despair, you can use what's left for the gräddsås.
• Shape it into balls with wet hands (so that the mixture doesn't stick too much). You're looking for something about the size of a golf/squash/table tennis ball.
• Place on a lightly floured chopping board. I tend to roll each ball in flour as I go. I use a small tupperware container for the purpose.



I top each one with a tiny knob of butter

• Traditionally, you are now supposed to fry them slowly in butter (yes, butter, I kid you not!). But I tend to place them in a baking tray. I spray the tray first with Fry Light, but you could grease it, or cover the bottom with a thin layer of oil. Then, if I'm feeling decadent, I top each one each with a tiny knob of butter. I bake them in the oven for about 20 or so minutes, turning every now and then, to ensure even(ish) cooking. Because you have used pork, it is vital that the meatballs are cooked right through.

While those are in the oven, let's get cracking on the sauce, shall we?

Gräddsås
Ingredients
100ml cream or milk (or half of each)
200ml beef stock
15ml cornflour
Salt and white pepper to taste

Method

• You're supposed to include the scrapings from the frying pan, but since we don't have any, we will make do without. If, however, you've decided to go the traditional route, make up the sauce in the frying pan, starting by swirling the (boiling) beef stock in the pan to loosen up all those little loose bits that remain in the pan.
• Bring the beef stock to the boil in a small saucepan.
• Add a little water to the cornflour and mix into a smooth paste. Add this to the stock and stir until thickened.
• Remove from the heat and add the cream.
• Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve with boiled baby potatoes and lingonsylt (if you can get it). If you can't get your hands on lingonsylt, cranberry sauce makes a fair substitute.

Michèle's chocolate loaf

I'm afraid there's no picture for today's recipe, for the simple reason that I haven't made one myself on this occasion. You see, many of my Facebook friends shared pictures of their melted Easter eggs over the weekend, so I thought I'd share an idea of what you might do with those. I only got one small Easter egg this year, and it didn't melt. And, after all my complaints about my burgeoning butt, I was not about to dash out and buy tons more chocolate in order to produce this recipe, so you're going to have to take my word for it and use your imagination.

You can substitute the chocolate specifications below with whatever melted Easter eggs you have.

It takes quite a while to make, with all the chilling of each stage, but it's not labour intensive... and you can get on with other things while the chilling is going on.

If you have sharp eyes and a good memory, you might have figured out that this recipe came from the same friend who gave me the granola recipe I shared some time back.

Ingredients
175g plain chocolate
100g butter
225ml condensed milk
175g shortbread biscuits, crushed
175g white chocolate
50g glace cherries, quartered
50g raisins (or candied peel)

Method

• Line a 450g loaf tin with cling film, pushing it well into the corners.
• Melt half the plain chocolate and a quarter of the butter in a double boiler (or in a jug in the microwave - use about 50-80% power), and add about a quarter of the condensed milk. Mix well.
• Pour half of this into the tin and top with half the biscuits.
• Pour the rest of the melted chocolate over.
• Chill for 45-60 minutes until firmish.
• Melt half the white chocolate with a quarter of the butter. Add a quarter of the condensed milk and half the fruit. Mix well.
• Pour into the tin on top of the previous layer.
• Chill again as before. Repeat this process for another two layers.
• Chill overnight.
• Turn out, peel off the cling film and slice.

Fish cakes

I hope you don't mind: you're going to get fish recipes twice this week. Ironic, considering my early disclaimer regarding a lack of fish in my repertoire. I guess I need to re-evaluate that perception of myself. It appears to be past its sell-by date.

When I was a child, my Mom used occasionally used to buy frozen fish fingers, which I loved (and still enjoy - no food snobbery, here!) and frozen fish cakes, which I loathed. They left me with such a negative impression of fish cakes, that I was well into adulthood with a family of my own before I even thought of trying to make them.

This is a great way to use up leftover fish and potatoes. I made these ones using the leftovers from the stuffed hake recipe I shared a while back, having monstrously over-catered on that occasion - forgetting that there would be just two of us at dinner.

Ingredients

200-400g cooked fish - you can use white fish, salmon, haddock, mackerel... you name it! You could even use shellfish, but you'd need to mince it.
1 large cooked potato
10ml chopped dill (I have explained about my Swedish husband and their addiction to this herb - feel free to use one you prefer, like chives or parsley)
2 eggs
10ml grated lemon zest
60ml flour
Fresh breadcrumbs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

• Mash the potato well.
• Mash the fish and stir it to the potato.
• Stir in the flour.
• Beat one of the eggs and mix that in.
• Add the zest, herbs, salt and pepper, and mix everything together well. If the mixture is too runny, add another mashed potato.
• Lightly beat the other egg and place it into a flattish bowl.
• Shape the fish mixture into balls with your hands. Flatten each ball into a patty shape and then dip in the egg, turning the fish cake over to coat each side. It's probably best to use and egg lifter/fish slice (whatever you call it in your neck of the woods) for this task.
• Dip in the breadcrumbs, and turn, coating both sides.
• Shallow fry in oil/Fry Light over a medium-high heat until browned on both sides.
• Serve with salad.

Pyttipanna

Pyttipanna translates roughly as 'little bits in the pan'. This dish is the Swedish (and Norwegian) equivalent of hash or bubble and squeak in that it's a way to use up leftovers. But, like both those comparitive examples, it has become such a favourite that it is of often made up from scratch with purpose-bought ingredients.

One thing I have come to realise about traditional Swedish cuisine (and I hope I'm not going to offend anyone here) is that it's not terribly healthy. There's a huge emphasis on animal protein and potatoes, an awful lot of frying in butter, and not a lot of green stuff to be had. It is not unusual to be served a mountain of prawns or langoustines and nothing else at all. Not that I'm complaining, mind - Rökeriet on Sydkoster that does the most delicious smoked prawns I have ever eaten, and I have very fond memories of late summer evenings spent there with various cousins and so forth. But it is small wonder that heart disease is so prevalent, and on the increase, in Sweden.

So I'm not going to suggest that you adopt a steady diet of pyttipanna, but every now and again, it's great comfort food, and it's a lot healthier if you make it yourself than if you buy the ready frozen kind brimming with salt and additives. I am going to suggest that you buck the trend and add a few green things to yours, which is as my husband remembers it from childhood, but not what you would find in the frozen kind or what you would be served in a cafe.

Ingredients
1 potato per person, cut into cubes of about 1cm
1 or more (to taste) onions, chopped
Bits and bobs of meat:
 - A couple of rashers of bacon, chopped
 - Ground beef
 - Chicken, cubed
 - Whatever other leftover meat you have to hand, cubed
Bits and bobs of leftover vegetables, chopped
Eggs - one per person (optional)

Method

The potatoes and onions need a head start

All the ingredients (except the eggs) are fried up in a pan. I use a little oil or Fry Light. If the meat is already cooked, you will need to cook the potatoes and onions first, and the potatoes will take by far the longest. If the meat is raw, you will still need to give the potatoes a bit of a head start, and then add everything else. Keep stirring and turning the food for even cooking.

Traditionally, you should also fry up an egg for each person, and place that on top of the pyttipanna as you serve it.

Whatever you do, don't tell the Swedes I said so, but pyttipanna tastes fabulous with a dash of Worcestershire sauce!