Week 59. Algeria. Meatball Tagine & Coriander Salad.

I’m not allowed a Tagine. Our house is too small apparently and our cupboards are full of cooking equipment I “use once and then forget about”. It’s a fair comment and living in a two up two down terraced house in London there isn’t a lot of room for anything. When I have my huge Victorian house with the island kitchen and tri-fold doors which open onto the vast garden I’ll get me a tagine and I’ll impress at dinner parties by using it as the centerpiece and unveiling the food by lifting off the chimney.

Living in London in your 30s means for most that you have to live in a pretty small house. For what we paid for our house, with one downstairs room, you could buy a 4 bedroom house in the country but I wouldn’t want it any differently – especially with my love of food. Within 3 miles of my kitchen there is a Thai Supermarket, a Chinese Supermarket an Indian Supermarket and a generalist supermarket with African and Caribbean sections. There is a Polish shop at the end of my road which covers food from most of Eastern Europe and if I need anything from Sweden I go to Ikea. I learned once in Holland that their dish Hotchpotch is called so as it is a many different ingredients all thrown together in the same pot and they all combine to produce one wonderful result. I see the food scene in London very much on the same lines. We have British cuisine in the background but on top of that we have world cuisine and we can tap into it whenever we please.

I drew Algeria this week and the Meatball Tagine stood out.  For those who is not sure what a tagine is, here is a pic.

Without having Tagine and cooking a dish which required one, it meant I needed to improvise, so I used my casserole. Instead of constantly checking during the cooking process, as I usually would, I put the lid three quarters on and let it steam away. It produced a decent dish.

I love meatballs in most forms. There’s something about the texture which improves the overall taste somehow. These meatballs were the best I have ever made. It’s a big statement but they contained some really bold flavours which didn’t overpower and the undercurrent of harissa is wonderful. I would usually eat meatballs in a thick sauce and put them with rice or pasta, but with this dish there is not much sauce left at the end of the process and I ate it in a flatbread with homous and a fragrant coriander salad. It was rich, spicy, floral, meaty and fresh all at the same time. It’s brilliant food for when you have people round but you don’t want to sit all around the table in an smart dinner party way. You need to eat this with your hands and it’s quite messy.

I often get comments from people who have read this blog which say “that looked great, I really should make one of your dishes”.  All I would say in response, is perhaps you should, but if not then definitely cook something this week which is completely new for you. You will probably like it, it will certainly teach you something and overall you will be a better cook for it.

Meatball Tagine.

• 500g Beef Mince
• 1 Tbsp Paprika
• 2 Cloves Garlic
• 1 Tbsp Cumin
• 1 Tbsp Turmeric
• 2 Tbsp Chopped Fresh Parsley
• 5 Tomatoes (skinned)
• 2 Tbsp Harissa
• 2 Shallots
• 2 Cups Water

Mix the beef mince with the Paprika, Garlic, Cumin, Turmeric and Parsley and divide into about 10 large balls. Add in salt and pepper to taste.

Heat some oil in a frying pan. Roll the balls all around just until they are browned all over and then set them aside.

In a casserole gently fry the shallots for 5 minutes and then add the chopped tomatoes and the harissa. Gently fry for another 5 minutes and then add the water and bring to the boil. Add in the meatballs, stir and then put the lid on the casserole, turn the heat down to a gentle simmer and leave it for 30 mins with one stir half way.

Coriander Salad

• 1 Diced Red Onion
• 1 Diced Cucumber
• 5 Handfuls of Chopped Coriander
• A drizzle of Lemon Juice

Combine!

Week 56. Turkey. Ispanakli Pide

I think I need I need a holiday. In fact I know I need a holiday. The winter has been here for a long time now and this morning walking out of the house to minus 5 degrees was the last straw. My body needs to get into the sun and drink a long soothing cocktail of vitamin D. I need my skin to tingle, not crumble. I need to sweat because the sun is too hot, not because I am curled up next to a radiator. I need to wear shorts outside (I wear them inside throughout winter). I need to drink cold crispy Sauvignon Blanc with beads of condensation rolling down the side. I need to jump into a swimming pool to cool down, not jump into the shower to warm up. I need to be covered at night in a sheet and to hear a fan in my room and I want to eat Moules Marinières – outside.

I just don’t want to be in winter any more.

When I drew Turkey this week and began my usual trawl of the potential recipes available to me I came across how to make the red pepper paste which is used in this dish. One of the instructions was to “leave the paste out in the sun for 8 hours to further reduce”. To what?  The sun probably popped out for 8 minutes today, not 8 hours and the power it contained could reduce nothing more than a man to tears. Had I left it outside it would have grown not reduced, as ice would have built up on it. My sun jealousy was starting to build…..but then I thought that we should get away. Why couldn’t we head off to Turkey for some early summer sun in a couple of months? Why couldn’t we walk down the sun drenched streets and look at all the plates of reducing red pepper paste. Well we could – and we are going to and that is thanks to my jealously of some paste.

Look up online what the national dish of Turkey is and you get flooded with Kebab options, but I wanted to go past that and look at something I hadn’t eaten before. Pide is a form of Turkish Pizza which is topped differently and shaped differently to the pizza we know in the UK, but taste wise wasn’t too dissimilar.

I opted for a vegetarian dish and I was largely swayed by loving the combination of spinach and feta. I love the salty flavour of the cheese amongst the vitamin powered spinach. Added this were two staples in garlic and onion and the special red pepper paste. I didn’t add (as I don’t think it is traditional) black olives or pine nuts, but they would have even further enhanced the dish I believe.

The result of the dish was somewhere between a pizza and a calzone  but allowed far greater quantities of filling than either of the aforementioned. It was delicious and the poached egg on top worked fabulously. I don’t often make pizza at home, as I don’t think they compare to the taste you get form a Pizza oven, but this really wasn’t far off. Take careful note of how I basted the dough with butter as this made an enormous difference.

Make this. It’s not as difficult as it looks, and it tastes great. It will impress.

Recipe (to make for 4)

Red Pepper Paste.

1. Take 4 Red Peppers and 1 Red Chilli
2. Boil them for 25 mins
3. Take out the seeds and core
4. Remove Skin
5. Blitz in a Blender.
6. Add salt and a glug of olive oil and “leave in the sun for 8 hours” or simmer for 10 mins.

Pide

• 2.5 Tbsp Dry yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 + 3/4 cup warm water
• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil + 1 tsp olive oil

1. Disolve the yeast in ¾ Cup Warm Water
2. Leave for 15 mins
3. Mix everything else together in a bowl and then kneed for 15 mins on a floured surface.
4. Leave to prove for 1 hour.
5. Cut into 4 and then leave for another 15 mins.
6. Shape into ovals and then turn up the sides and tie the ends in a knot.
7. Filling:

Filling:

I used frozen spinach, boiled it and then drained and squeezed all the water from it. Set aside

I gently fried 1 Onion and 3 cloves of garlic and once done I added the red pepper paste and then stirred through the spinach.

Preperation

Once the pide and filling is complete, brush the pide with warm butter (all over) and then spoon an equal measure into each, followed by crumbled feta over the top. Mix it in a bit so it doesn’t all sit on top, but be liberal.

IMPORTANT

You need to bake this on very high. Pretty much as high as your oven will go. The pide will dry out unless you brush a lot of butter on it at the start.

It will need to bake for about 15 minutes so with 5 mins to go poach an egg for each one.
When you take out the final dish, brush with butter again. It will make a huge difference.

Week 24. Tunisia. Spiced Lamb Shank w/ Harissa Couscous

I’ve been to Tunisia and it rained all week, bar one morning when the sun popped out and scorched me. I came home a rested, sunburned and about 8 kilo- heavier. I ate, you see, -  all the time.

We had gone to an all-inclusive resort on the coast near Hammamet and whilst the sun was supposed to be included I easily replaced what I was missing by gorging at the hotel buffet. I munched through plate after plate of slow roasted spiced meat and whilst I personally steered clear of the dried fruit which seems to find itself into most dishes (not for me) I couldn’t get enough of everything else.

Preparing for the dish this week was really difficult due to this unbelievable weather we have been subjected to. Instead of spending time thinking about dishes, we have been spending time working out how to keep the house warm and keep our balance when we step out onto gritless pavement – shame on you Richmond Council. This weeks dish actually very nearly didn’t happen as when I turned into our road with two bags of food shopping my top half moved into the road and my legs continued forwards, slipping and skidding until I smashed into a snow-covered BMW. To the owners of that BMW I checked for damage and there was none, but you do now have a Joe shape snow dent on your passenger side. When you look at the picture of the Lamb Shank, notice how it thins to the top; that is where my leg pinned it to the car.

Week 21. Peru. Papas a la Huancaina

The dish this week looks odd. Let’s break it down. Cold boiled potatoes on a bed of lettuce with olives, hard-boiled egg and a spicy cheese sauce. Why would you want to eat cold potatoes with a slushy cheesy sauce (also cold) and all on a slapdash garnish of lettuce?

In reality, there is so much more to this dish than what meets the eye. This dish is Auntie Rita – horrible to look at but gives you a present every time you see her. I found the dish after being contacted by Chilli Pepper Pete on Twitter who offered help in my research into Peru. Pete can get his hands on any chilli you like and he told me I must use Aji Amarillo chillies if I was to even consider cooking a Peruvian dish. He sent me some overnight so I got to work on the best possible dish. The reason I chose Papas a la Huancaina is that it didn’t sound incredible, but the reviews online suggested the absolute opposite, so I needed to taste it.