Sunday Lunch - with not too much effort!

I cook lunch most Sundays.  I like taking the time in the middle of the day to sit down with friends and family and spend a couple of hours eating, drinking and talking.  So, what do I cook?

   

It's never anything very complicated - after all, Sunday mornings come after Saturday nights and it's often not the best time to experiment! I might start with an Italian cold seafood salad with big prawns, scallops and mussels, briefly cooked in a little garlic and oil, all bathed in olive oil, spiked up with lemon juice, chilli flakes and lots of finely chopped parsley; seared scallops wrapped up in Parma ham then grilled and served with a rocket salad; or a prawn cocktail with frisee as the base, tiny cubed tomatoes and cucumber, prawns fried in garlic before cooling and binding with the mayo mixed with tomato ketchup, smoked hot paprika and a dash of Tabasco. Mains include roast chicken cooked with lemons and sage with roast potatoes; slow cooked lamb shoulder served with boulangere potatoes, or a slab of slow cooked pork belly with crackling. As for puddings I love tarts above all - perhaps a pear frangipane, or lemon, or plum….

So, what did I do this Sunday?  To start we had smoked salmon, torn into strips, piled up on a salad of baby salad leaves and finely shredded fennel. This was dressed with a citrussy olive oil dressing and I added tiny capers and cornichons.  Pudding was a simple chocolate mousse, made with Elizabeth David’s recipe of 1 oz chocolate and I egg per person.  Melt the chocolate then stir in the egg yolks.  Beat the egg whites until soft peak then fold into the cooled chocolate mixture. Spoon into glasses then chill.  I added a dash of brandy and decorated with a swirl of cream and toasted flaked almonds.

The main event was designed to do away with the hassle of roast potatoes, last minute carving and gravy making.  Chicken baked with wine then served in a creamy mushroom sauce:

  

Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

I medium sized chicken, free range and organic if possible

1 lemon, cut into 8

Bunch of thyme

Glass of white wine

400g mixed mushrooms – I used oyster, shitake and chestnut

2 shallots

Glass of dry vermouth

Glass of white wine

250 ml chicken stock

150ml double cream

Lemon

Chopped fresh thyme

Chopped fresh parsley

Untruss the chicken, bring the wings from under the body and fill the cavity with the chopped up lemon and a handful of fresh thyme.  Smear some butter over the chicken, season and put into a roasting tray.  Pour round a glass of white wine, cover with foil, and cook at about 180 for an hour or until the legs wiggle easily (technical term) and juices run clear.

While the chicken is cooking slowly fry the shallots in 25g butter until transluscent.  Add the vermouth and white wine, bring to the boil and reduce by half.  Push through a sieve making sure you pulverise as much of the shallot as possible. Return the stock to the pan.

Once cooked remove the chicken onto a plate in a warm place.  Strain off the cooking juices and skim off the fat.  Add to the stock in the pan and make up to about 500ml with the chicken stock.    Fry the mushrooms off in some olive oil over a high heat until cooked and slightly browned. Bring sauce up to simmer and add the cream, then, once it has come to the boil and reduced slightly, add the thyme and mushrooms.  Taste and season, adding a little lemon juice to cut the cream and heighten the flavours.

Joint the chicken and place in a shallow warmed serving dish.  Pour over the sauce and sprinkle with lots of parsley.  I served it with new potatoes tossed in butter and chives, and purple sprouting broccoli.  Lovely for a slightly chilly Spring Sunday!

MMM....LAMB AGAIN!

SPICED LAMB CHOPS

Mmmm – More Lamb!

I love lamb – I think it is probably my favourite meat.  It stands up to all kinds of robust flavouring, and yet is delicious and flavoursome enough to be enjoyed simply grilled, fried or roasted.  Most of the time when we feel the need for a pile of lamb chops I just brush them with a little mix of wholegrain mustard and runny honey and grill them quickly, to serve with mash and greens. 

But it was too summery for that treatment last week so I decided to veer toward the Mediterranean again and do something a little bit spicier.  All very simple – just rub them with a mixture of spices, let them marinate for a couple of hours and grill.  

Rub/marinade for 6 lamb chops

1 tblsp ground cumin

1 tblsp smoked paprika (hot or sweet, whichever you prefer)

1 tblsp Ras-El-Hanout – the yellow one with lots of fennel in is nice for this

Good couple of grinds of black pepper

Mix spices together, add a glug of olive oil, and rub into the chops, getting into all the nooks and crannies.  Leave them in the fridge for at least an hour.  When ready to cook crank your grill up nice and hot and grill for five minutes a side, or until done to your likeness.  They will also barbecue well but I don’t have a garden!

I served them with couscous.  For two people put 100g of couscous in a measuring jug and put the same amount of hot water in – you can also use chicken stock or vegetable stock if you wish.  Once the couscous has absorbed the liquid turn it into a large bowl, let it cool a little, and then stir in a handful of finely chopped cucumber, the same of tomatoes, a big bunch of chopped mint, season then dress with lemon juice and olive oil – not too much, you don’t want it to go soggy, just to glisten a little.

I also coated some sliced aubergines in dry polenta and shallow fried in olive oil.  The polenta adds a nice crunch to the otherwise voluptuous aubergine!  Then all you need is a spoonful of creamy yoghurt and some harissa on the side.  Lovely summer food - let's hope the weather holds!

MOROCCAN MEATBALLS - OR KEFTA

MOROCCAN MEATBALLS

One of the things I always have in my freezer is a pack (or two) of minced lamb – either to make into an easy keema curry, spice up and spread on wraps with yoghurt and coriander ‘Peckham Pizza’ stylee (thanks Helen at Food Stories) or to make into these meatballs.  I was reminded of them seeing Rick Stein on his Mediterranean travels recently on ‘Saturday Kitchen’ so decided to cook them again last night.  They don’t take long to prepare then just need a little time to cook in the sauce and for all the flavours to meld.  Ideally this would be cooked in a tagine but I don’t have one, so I use a wide deep sauté pan with a lid.

And apologies for the photo - was too hungry to wait....

I serve this with rice or couscous, pitta bread and harissa – I buy a particularly yummy one from Borough Market, which I often eat on its own with pitta bread!

Meatballs

450g minced lamb

2tsp ground cumin

2tsp ras-el-hanout rouge powder

2 tblsp chopped parsley

1tsp hot smoked paprika

Salt and ground black pepper

1tblsp olive oil

Sauce

1 medium onion finely chopped

1 clove garlic crushed

2 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp hot smoked paprika

2 cans chopped tomatoes

Salt and ground black pepper

2 tblsp olive oil

Coriander

To serve: Pitta bread, rice or couscous, harissa and yoghurt

Put the minced lamb and all the other ingredients for the meatballs in a bowl and scrunch together.  Add a little more salt than you think necessary and lots of black pepper.  Dampen your hands and make the mix into small balls – about 1” diameter.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and lightly brown the meatballs all over. Remove from pan and set to one side.

For the sauce, heat the oil in the frying pan and fry the onions and garlic gently for 5 – 10 minutes until soft and golden.  Add the cumin and paprika and lightly fry for a minute then add the tomatoes and seasoning.  Simmer gently for 20 minutes until the flavour has intensified add a little water if it is getting too thick.

Finally add the meatballs and simmer for a further 15 minutes. Sprinkle with coriander and servce.

And more Indian treats...

I lived in Edinburgh for nearly 20 years and most of the Indian restaurants in Scotland have pakora high up on their menus – something not reflected to the same degree in London.  I love pakora – onion and potatoes (and anything else) fried in a gram flour batter then dipped into a spicy yoghurty minty sauce – what’s not to like?  So, as I have become the proud new owner of a deep fat fryer, I present my pakora recipe.  I added a little beetroot as I love it – you can also add courgette or aubergine. Enjoy!

Serves 4 as a starter

600g gram (chick pea) flour

1 tblsp. oil

2 tsp. garam masala

1 tsp. nigella seeds

1 tsp. chilli powder

Salt and black pepper

2 medium onions cut into fine half moons

1 potato sliced into matchsticks

1 boiled beetroot cut into small dice

Sauce

3 tblsp. yoghurt

1tsp. chilli powder

1 dsp.  sweet chilli sauce

1 tsp. mint sauce

Sift the gram flour into a bowl, and then add the oil and enough water to make a thick batter.  Stir in the garam masala, nigella, chill powder, onions, potato and beetroot, a good shake of salty and a couple of grinds of black pepper.  Mix thoroughly – you should have a thickish batter filled with bits of onion and potato poking out.

Heat your fryer to around 170 degrees – drop small dessertspoons of the mixture into the fryer and keep them on the move so they don’t stick to the basket.  Cook for around five minutes until dark golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper.

For the sauce just combine all the ingredients.

Serve as hot as you can!

Indian eating...saag aloo....

One of the things I love about living so close to Rye Lane is the availability of endless supplies of fresh spinach, aubergines, okra, chillies, coriander and dill – amongst all sorts of other exotic produce – which let me indulge my passion for cooking Indian food.  I love Indian food – both in some of the great restaurants we have nearby like Jaflong in Lordship Lane, delivered to my door by the Honor Oak Tandoori or as cooked by me. 

I find cooking Indian food absorbing – roasting and grinding spices, grating ginger and garlic, slicing onions and preparing meat and vegetables, bringing it all together to make something aromatic and delicious.  I use very little oil so the results are often lighter than many ‘middle of the road’ Indian restaurants, but I think they have as much flavour.

I often make a big batch at one time – of a meat curry, and a dhal – and pack up what’s left to go into the freezer.  We all know the flavours develop and marry together during that resting period!  Once the basics come out of the freezer I decide what we’re having with it.  Always basmati rice, steamed with cardamom pods,  and parathas – occasionally I make my own but usually Khans on Rye Lane provides me with excellent frozen ones.  My current favourite vegetable side is is Saag Aloo – spinach and potatoes – and this is how I make it:

Serves 4 as a side dish 

3 bunches of spinach or 2 large bags – real spinach, not baby

I large potato, cut into 1” dice

1 tblsp. mustard oil

2” length of ginger, cut into very fine julienne

Clove of garlic, cut into fine slices

I medium onion, cut into fine rings

1 tsp. mustard seeds

1 tsp. fennel seed

2 tsp. turmeric

2 tsp. dried dill or handful of fresh dill chopped

Wash the spinach and wilt in a hot frying pan – you don’t need any oil, the water will protect the spinach until it starts to cook.  Drain and chop as fine as you wish – I like mine fairly rough. Boil the potato for 10 minutes in salted water – drain.

Heat the mustard oil in a frying pan or wok and, once hot, add the mustard seeds, turmeric and fennel seeds. Once they have started popping add the onions, ginger and garlic and cook on a high heat until the onions are browned.

Add the potatoes and toss until they have picked up colour from the turmeric and are coated with mustard seeds.  Add the chopped spinach, the dill, a splash of hot water, cover and let steam for five minutes.  A little bit of chopped dill over the top before you serve is lovely.

Hot Cross Buns

I am aware of many terrific bloggers in my area - Eats Dulwich, Bambuni Nunhead. Food Stories, Tehbus, Food Stories and Ginandcrumpets to name but a few - but the burning topic a coupe of days ago was Hot Cross Buns. I am not very experienced at yeast cookery but thought I should have a go.  I used the BBC Food recipe at http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/hotcrossbuns_397 adding a bit more mixed spice and a bit of candied peel.  They turned out OK, if a little heavier than the steam driven supermarket buns, but the flavour was delicious.  And they are delicious toasted.  A picture to whet you appetite:

Well, here we go!

I am at a loose end having taken voluntary redundancy from the civil service after 22 years.  I have realised that food and drink play a huge part of my life and want to join the food blogging community.  I can't afford to eat out much, so will mostly be posting my own concoctions.  I am so lucky living in SE15 where we have unrivalled access to the most exotic ingredients every day and I am also close to the so chi chi SE22 of Lordship Lane and East Dulwich.