Parsee Red Curry

This curry is adapted from the "Parsee Red Chicken Curry" recipe from 50 Great Curries Of India by Camellia Panjabi, for making in the Instant Pot. I have added vegetables and chickpeas to it to fill it out for use as a bulk cooking recipe for portioning out and freezing.

Slow Roast Belly Pork Slices and Vegetables

I've made this dish a couple of times now, so this article is to record how I've been modifying the original recipe, which is here. This also works if you replace the belly pork with chicken thighs and drumsticks.

Slow-cooker Lamb Curry

I fancied a curry, but needed something I could pop in the slow cooker all day whilst doing other things. So I adapted a recipe for Seyal Gosht from "50 Great Curries of India" by Camellia Panjabi - by simply throwing everything together and slow cooking.

It turned out deliciously spicy, and was really easy to prepare. I will definitely be making this again!

An attempt at something vaguely resembling Pho

This morning's experiment turned out as a good light lunch for a hot sunny day.

In the meat box delivery this week were a pair of chicken legs and a pair of gammon steaks, so I decided to make a chicken and ham pie. Having roasted the chicken legs, and cut up and cooked the gammon ready for the pie, I had sufficient chicken bones, skin, cartilege and gammon rinds to make a small batch of stock.

I threw it all in the pressure cooker along with a quartered onion, a sliced carrot, a couple of bay leaves, 4 peppercorns and a tsp or two of celery seed in the usual way. Pouring over a litre and a half of water, I brought it to high pressure and let it cook for an hour or so whilst wandering off to decide on what sort of soup to make for lunch.

I ended up looking at some Vietnamese Pho recipes. This is normally made with beef stock, but hey, chicken and gammon stock is what was in the pot.

The packet of Thai rice noodles in the cupboard looked close enough. Plenty of fresh herbs in the garden for the garnish. Just needed some spices to have gone in with the stock...

So, a quick cooldown of the pressure cooker under the cold tap later, I added:

• 6 cloves
• 4 green cardamon, crushed to split the pods open
• 2 black cardamon, crushed to split the pods open
• 3 star anise
• a couple of inches of cassia bark
• a tablespoon of coriander seeds
• a tsp of fennel seeds
• an inch or so of fresh root ginger, sliced

Got it back up to high pressure and gave it another half hour whilst I rounded up and prepped everything else.

• The rice noodles simply went in a bowl, pour over boiling water to cover and leave for 4 minutes before draining and dividing between the serving bowls.

• A bundle of coriander leaves and chives and a sprig of fennel leaves, all roughly chopped together and divided between the serving bowls.

• A small onion, peeled and thinly sliced, and divided between the serving bowls.

By this point, the pressure cooking time was up, so back under the cold tap with it for another quick cooldown.
I strained the soup through a plastic sieve into a large bowl, then added to taste:

• a couple of tablespoons of fish sauce
• a dash or two of light soy sauce
• a dash or two of bottled lime juice

Pouring the soup over the noodles and herbs in the bowls, and it was ready to serve.

Not having actually ever eaten the real thing, I have no idea how close I got to the right flavour, but my daughter said she had had pho at a Vietnamese restaurant with her Dad once, and it tasted pretty close.

She then drowned it in sriracha sauce.


Categories: Vietnamese  Soup

Pumpkin Pie

It's just gone Hallowe'en, and I had bought two pumpkins - one to make into a lantern and one to bake pumpkin pie with.

The lantern went down a storm with the local kids, but I didn't have time to make pumpkin pie from the other one until today.

My cooking pumpkin was quite large, and I ended up getting two pies' worth of filling from it.

Kedgeree

The classic English fried rice dish. This works well with pretty much any kind of smoked fish - kippers, yellow fish (smoked haddock), smoked mackerel, or even smoked salmon.

It is as good cold the next day as it is served warm from the pan, so I usually make a big batch and pack half as the main part of a bento style lunch

Spicy Red Tomato, Pepper and Squash Chutney

The last of the tomato and pepper plants in the greenhouse are fading now that the days are getting shorter. So we've picked what was left, ripe or no.

Time for another batch of chutney.

I've been looking at recipes for indian tomato pickles, and so whilst this recipe is based on the Red Tomato Chutney from Home Preservation of Fruits and Vegetables, I have completely changed the spices used, and substituted peppers and squash for some of the tomatoes.

Green Tomato Chutney

Last year I made what turned out to be an excellent Green Tomato Chutney, from a recipe I found in the DK Encyclopedia of Herbs, Spces and Flavourings, of all places. I made a few modifications to the recipe as I went along, in order to increase the spiciness, and to work around running out of some ingredients.

Of course, now I need to remember what I changed in order to recreate it this year - which is one reason for writing this blog - so I remember to record my experiments!


I think this is what I did last year - we'll find out once it's cooked!

Mincemeat

I have an aversion to citrus - specifically orange peel. So I have never really eaten things that have candied peel in - which includes many traditional Xmas cakes.

However, one Xmas when I was growing up, Sainsburys decided to stock citrus (peel)-free mince pies. They tasted great - but they didn't stock them again, ever.

So, if I want to have mince pies for Xmas that I can eat, then I need to make my own mincemeat. Which means that I need to get round to making it in September to give time for the flavour to mature.

Fortunately, mincemeat is so easy that it really barely counts as cooking!