Relishes

Escoffier’s “Piments pour Viandes Froides”
I actually found the recipe in Elizabeth David’s “Salt and Spices in the English Kitchen”, and she gives it as being from Escoffier’s “Ma Cuisine”, which I happen to have in the English translation published by Hamlyn. Enough of that – they both like currants or raisins, which I think are horrid in this sort of thing. They do not have either the ginger or the chilli, which I think are important, or the orange peel. Everyone has been polite about it so far anyway. It was first made to go with baked camemberts at the Foxes on Boxing Day 2007. It looks very attractive in pots – amber gold and bright red.

2 very large round white onions (between the size of a cricket ball and a croquet ball
4 or 5 ripe red peppers
2 x 3” red chillis – the sort that the Singaporeans use – not blazing hot – or a dried hot red chilli that you will fish out at the end
A piece of dried orange peel (or fresh if you have run out of your dried)
1 heaped dessertspoon of sugar (I use demerera but caster will be fine)
2 big fat cloves of garlic or a big fat chunk of fresh root ginger
About half a 200gm tub of chopped stem ginger (messy job to do yourself – best use Sainsbury’s
Teaspoon of coriander seeds
White wine vinegar
Glass or two of Rose
Olive Oil – a couple of tablespoonfuls – Escoffier uses 1¼ pints, which I tried the first time and had to pour most of it away at the end
Salt
A lime (if you have one)


• Peel and halve the onion and cut it into neat matchsticks by cutting it downwards as finely as you can then across about three times.
• Cook it slowly with about a coffeespoonful of salt very slowly in a stainless, enamel or non stick pan – not aluminium! Keep stirring – it must not catch.
• Take the stalk off the peppers, deseed and chop into similar sized strips, and add to the onion.
• If you can be bothered to roast and skin them, the flavour will be even better
• Do the same with the chillis (do NOT wipe your eyes during this process!)
• Slice the cloves of garlic or the root ginger as thinly as you can (don’t use a garlic press – horrible things!) and add
• Stir stir stir
• Add the sugar, allspice, orange peel, the dried chilli if you didn’t have any fresh, the chopped stem ginger and about a coffee cup of vinegar (taste for the sweet sour ratio)
• Cook for 1 ½ to 2 hours over the lowest possible heat. I use a Bain Marie as the gas hob is too hot and I don’t have a pot for the oven with a lid that is the right size.
• Allow to cool, squeeze in the limejuice (optional but good) and stir well.
• Put into pots and label. Make good prezzies at Christmas time as it would be very good to jazz up cold turkey or ham or cold roast pork.

My own Onion and Coriander Salsa
This was made at the same time as the Pepper, Onion and Ginger one above. Quite different. Unexpectedly, most of it disappeared before lunch as a dip with Pringles (it wasn’t in my house!), but it would also do well with cold meats.


1 very large round white onion (between the size of a cricket ball and a croquet ball
1 x 3” green chillis – the sort that the Singaporeans use – not blazing hot
White Balsamic vinegar (Sainsbury’s) or white wine vinegar sweetened with a bit of caster sugar
A big bunch of fresh coriander
A teaspoonful of Salt
The juice of 1 lime


• Dissolve the salt in the liquid
• Peel and chop the onion as finely as you can.
• Chop the coriander leaves as finely as possible. I destalk first.
• Mix together and leave in the fridge for at least two hours. There should be just enough liquid at the end so that you see some if you tilt the bowl to 45.
• Done!

Oversize Broad Beans

I love broad beans but they can be a bit floury bitter and flavourless if allowed to get big. Two packs of beans from Sainsbury's was enough for two people!!!

Boil the beans, run them under cold water in the colander and skin them by making a nick on one side with a fingernail and pinching them out from the other side. Easy and quick when you get the knack. Chop half a small onion very finely indeed - almost to a puree if you can be bothered, and shred a very few tips of sage leaves into the tinyest filaments that you can. Stir these into the beans (which are a lovely and unusual green). When you are ready for them, heat some butter in a small saucepan, pop beans et al in and warm through - now what could be easier than that? (The sage needs to be only just detectable - be careful - it can easily take over. You are not a heavy handed Venetian!)

Chilli Lamb burgers

We have had this a couple of times recently; its really easy and just different enough to be worth pushing out to the world I think!

Chilli Lambburgers

1 lb Minced Lamb
Smallish Red Onion (golf ball?)
A Red Chilli and a Green Chilli or dried chilli flakes
Black peppercorns, salt.
Olive oil

· Cut the chillis lengthways and remove the seeds. Slice crossways as finely as you can.
· Peel and chop the onion into the smallest dice that you can manage

Unless you want the burgers blazing hot….if you do – omit this bit….
· Boil the kettle. Put the sliced chilli in a mug with a teaspoon of salt. Pour over the boiling water, add the chopped onion. Leave for 5 minutes. Drain.

· Grind as coarsely as possible about a level teaspoon of black peppercorns. (if not using fresh chillis – add about dried chilli flakes – a coffeespoon would be enough for me, though I do the wussy chilli soaking thing. Fresh chillis rather than dried will make the result prettier and taste better but they may not be available
· Mix the minced lamb with the pepper, chillis and onion
· Make into neat fat cakes, about 1” thick and 3” across
· Put them into the fridge to firm up for ½ hour (not essential but makes them easier to handle)
· Either – Brush with oil and grill 3 minutes each side then a further 2 minutes per side. Timing depends on how you like them. I prefer to …..
· Fry them in very hot oil, carefully turning several times. Easier to see when they are cooked!
· Or (3) cremate on a BBQ. They may have a tendency to break up. Be careful when turning them.

Serve with a yoghurt/mint/cucumber mix and / or a freshly made tomato sauce

To go with the slow cooked lamb...

Spinach with Pine Nuts

In the lightest smear of oil (in a small saucepan!) brown a dessertspoonful of pine nuts. Taste one first to make sure that it isn't rancid. I add nutmeg and a little coarsely ground black pepper at this stage. Set aside till almost ready to serve.

In a large pan, heat a dessertspoonful (err towards less not more) of olive oil, but it mustn't get to the mother-in-law stage (thats spitting and smoking to you!). Off the heat, put in half a packet of spinach, preferably baby leaf. Turn it and mix it quickly (a wooden fork is good for this, and a useful thing to have); as soon as it just starts to wilt and reduce, add the other half. Keep stirring and turning it over. Add the nuts and spice. Mix well. Ready to serve.

If not using it elsewhere, I sometimes put a big pinch of dried chilli flakes in with the nuts at the end of the browning stage, but up to you. Better, is to accompany the spinach with.....

Jane Grigson's Red Hot Cauliflower

Which you will find in the recipes for other people, posted in February 2008. If you dont want it very spicy, put the chopped and deseeded chilli with some salt into a teacup, pour boiling water over it and let it soak for two or three minutes, then strain. Leave out the sweet red pepper if you are doing the roast peppers as below. You can use quite a lot of chilli, say two of the long (3 or 4" south east asian ones) but watch it - they vary enormously in oomph!

Mixed Rice and Lentils

Seems to me to be an altogether better accompanying carbohydrate for the lamb than potatoes.

In a big pan of boiling salted water, cook a good handful of wild rice - that's the 1/2" long black grains. They take ages, so they go into the pot a quarter of an hour before you add - a couple of tablespoons of brown or red rice. After another 15 minutes, add the same amount of Puy lentils. If you are using white rice (prettier, maybe, but won't taste as good, or be as good for you), leave the wild rice to cook for half an hour, and add rice and lentils together. They will need about 20 minutes, but vary so you will need to keep checking to see if they are ready. Meanwhile, chop a red onion (size is up to you) into very neat dice.

When you deem the rice/lentil mix to be cooked, drain it, rinse with boiling water and put it into an ovenproof serving dish with the chopped onion ans a tablespoon of olive (or I suppose you might try walnut) oil. Keep it warm for about ten minutes or so to let the onion soften a little in the heat of the rice.


Yoghurt with Mint and Cucumber

...is just what it sounds! Finely shredded mint leaves and neatly cubed, deseeded but unpeeled cucumber, mixed with youghurt and put into the fridge an hour before serving to let the flavours mingle. Taste it - you might want to add a bit of salt.


Roasted Red Peppers

...are also as they say they are. Remove the seeds from a couple of ripe red peppers (do not be tempted to substitute green - an altogether different taste and too bitter for this). Cut them into strips lengthways and half a finger wide. Toss in oil and cook in a hot oven for about 20 - 30 minutes until just blackening around the edges a tiny bit.



The point of all this are all the contrasts. You will have the hot lamb against the cold minty yoghurt, the dark green of the soft spinach and crisp nuts, against the sweet bright red of the peppers and the white cauliflower sprinkled with the little strips of red chilli. Very pretty and, believe me, utterly scrummy.



Enjoy!!
PS - it's worth having a bit of a plan, as the timing of each dish is very different, though they are all quite tolerant about being kept warm in an oven with the door ajar.

A Lamb recipe for Bel Aire

Slow and Easy Lamb

Anna has just asked for this - here goes:

A joint of Lamb - leg or shoulder, or a half of either

An oven-friendly dish with a tight fitting lid, into which the lamb will just fit. I use an oval Le Cruset.

Preheat the oven to as hot as it will go.

(a small aside here - I did this for the first time last week, with a half shoulder. I would prefer to use shoulder as it seems rather a pity not to roast a leg in the conventional way. A shoulder, however, has plenty of bone and fat in proportion to the meat, so you will get a yummy result, and avoid the problem of it being bugger to carve, as it is if cooked normally. This way, the meat will fall off the bone and will utterly melt in the mouth).

Next, something to slather over the joint. I used sundried tomato paste, harissa, olive oil, honey and white balsamic vinegar. Soy, regular balsalmic, olive oil and honey would do. You need a balance of salt sour and sweet, maybe spicy too. Whatever you decide upon (or have to hand) - about two tablespoons full will be about enough.

Put some olive oil into the bottom of your pot - enough so that you can see it move over the surface if you tip it. Into that, a bay leaf or two, a dozen or so whole black peppercorns, maybe fennel seeds, perhaps coriander seeds (one recipe says a dozen juniper berries, lightly bashed and not much else). Or just a sprig of rosemary if you are a rosemary fan. Next, some sort of braising vegetable(s) - I used a dozen cloves or more of peeled garlic, but a chopped onion, and/or a few bits of carrot and or celery would do. Chopped bulb fennel will be a good one, on its own. Now add about a wineglassfull of water or dry white wine.

With your hands (and, yes, it is a messy job) rub your slather well into the joint, top, bottom and sides, and put it into the dish. Cover the underside of the lid with foil, so that when in place it acts as much of a sealant as possible. Grown-up cooks would use a flour and water paste to seal the lid but the foil works pretty well and is much less bother.

Pop it into the oven for 10 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 130C (fan) or 140C (conventional) and leave it for about 4 to 5 hours. No peeking. If preferred, give it up to 8 hours at 110C.

To serve, take it out of the pot, remove as much of the fat as you can. There will be plenty of juice - strain it and - hey presto - gravy.

Watch this space for the veggies and side dishes that make this really out of the ordinary (and, yes, they too will be really easy!). I'll try to post them tomorrow.

Bye for now!

Recipes for other people

Somehow, its always difficult to choose what other people might like. At the end of lunch yesterday, I was asked for a couple of contributions to a charity recipe book. Easy, I thought, yet it took ages this morning to decide, tidy, reformat and all that. Anyway the final decisions were these.

Chicken Liver, Watercress/Spinach, Orange SaladFor four

500gms chicken livers
200gms of butter
Balsamic, sherry or good red wine vinegar
A couple of slices of Bread, preferably a bit stale (optional)
Three oranges
A bag of watercress or spinach, or baby spinach if available, or a mix
Optional - A bulb of fennel (plus lemon juice or white wine vinegar

and / or - splash of Pastis

·The first jobs are a bit boring!
·Over a bowl (you want the juice), peel 2 oranges with a sharp knife, cutting all the pith away, then .
· Cut the flesh from the segment membranes.
· Squeeze the other orange.
· Pick over the chicken livers, cutting away any stringy fatty bits and anything that looks at all greenish. Cut them into halves or quarters.
· Cube the bread into croutons, and fry in butter and oil till golden. Out of the pan and onto kitchen paper.
· Slice the fennel (if using - it does provide an additional texture), and toss the slices in a little water and lemon juice of white wine vinegar to stop them going brown.
· Melt the butter, cook the garlic slice slowly till soft but not browned. Do not let the butter brown either.
· Remove the garlic.
· Remove the worst stalks of the watercress, and toss with the orange pieces, the fennel and the croutons.
· Bring the butter to foam, chicken livers in and try to brown them so that they are just crispy but just pink inside.
· Hopefully the butter will be almost but not quite brown.
· Add the orange juice and a good splash of vinegar, and the Pastis if you have/like it.
· Pour the hot dressing over the salad, toss, top with the livers and serve immediately. This will not wait!

Alternative – serve with a cold orange vinaigrette but without the chicken livers alongside roast duck.
If you have some handy, chilli sherry works well as a substitute to the vinegar or mixed 50/50.

Shelagh’s Roasted Red Peppers with Goats’ Cheese
For every two people:
2 Red Peppers
4” Log of goat cheese or soft crottins
Bacon or pancetta
Rocket
Olive oil
Balsalmic vinegar
Salt and pepper

· Preheat the oven to 200c
· Halve the peppers lengthways and remove stalk, core and seeds
· Put them in an oiled roasting tray. cut side up and drizzle with olive oil
· Roast for 20 minutes, then….
· Lay bacon or pancetta on a separate tray and put into the oven for ten minutes, then….
· Cut cheese into 1” lengths, place on the red peppers and continue to roast for another 5 minutes.
· Lay the rocket on a large flat dish and sprinkle with an olive oil / balsalmic vinegar dressing.
· Take the peppers from the oven and lay them on the rocket
· Break up the crispy bacon over the top and drizzle with dressing and serve.


Hints:
o The cheese should be just at the point of melting and maybe browning round the edges but no more.
o Waitrose Balsalmic Glaze for drizzling is excellent for this
o Goats cheeses need to be medium to soft
o Raw spinach would be a substitute for rocket if none available, or possibly Cos Lettuce (Romaine in French)
o 3 halves each is a moderate lunch, one each would be a pleasant small starter before dinner
A little pesto brushed round the insides of the peppers before they go into the oven is a pleasant addition.

Very Ginger Lamb
Conceived and born at Lamont Road 23.1.06

For 6
3lb lamb leg or rump in 3cm cubes
2 medium onions
½ bottle white wine
Good stock
Flour
Olive oil
Big piece fresh ginger (the size of a baby’s fist - guess 1-2 ozs)
Dried orange peel, bay leaves, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, black and pink peppercorns, paprika, salt or anchovy sauce. You could also consider Quatre Epices or cardamom seeds. Could substitute a fresh Lemon for the dried orange peel if you don’t have it, or preserved lemon skins (instead of ginger? Please do not be tempted towards adding garlic or tomato!

· Fry onions and spices slowly without browning in a big saucepan
· Flour the meat in a bowl or a bag
· Sear in a very hot sauté pan
· Add meat to onions
· Deglaze sauté pan with white wine – boil fast for two minutes
· Add to meat and onions
· Add stock and wine 50/50 to just cover
· Chop ginger into cubes the size of giant peas
· Add ginger to pan
· Add salt or anchovy (which I prefer)
· Cook over lowest possible gas (slow bubble) 1½ hours. Allow to cool. Cook again for another 1½ hours next day and serve.

We had the cauliflower and potato puree which was perfect. Otherwise baked, mash or rice. Crisp plain green beans or courgettes to accompany.

This is really good!

Cauliflower and Potato puree
Adapted from Leaves from our Tuscan kitchen, page 121
At Lamont Road 23/1/06

For 6
8 medium potatoes
1 medium cauliflower
2 eggs
2 slices bread, crust removed, soaked in milk
A wineglassful of milk or half as much cream
2 ozs butter
Salt, pepper, nutmeg

· Peel a strip around the potatoes.
· Boil in a big pan with plenty of salted water.
· After 20 minutes, add the cauliflower cut into big pieces
· Soak the bread in as much milk as it will absorb.
· Turn oven on as hot as it will go (or the grill)
· Whiz bread milk eggs and seasoning
· Drain potato and cauliflower well, and add to magimix
· Add 2 ozs butter and milk or a little cream if you have it
· Whiz MAX 1 minute – do not over whiz!
· Into a gratin dish
· Sprinkle with grated cheese
· Brown
· Serve!

The recipe does not include the cauliflower. It says to sieve the potatoes, which I think is an unnecessary refinement. It also says to separate the eggs, mix the beaten yolks with the sieved potato and bread, beat the whites (I assume to soft peaks) and fold them together. This will make a more delicate dish, but I think is more work and washing up than I would want.

Potato in the magimix can be tricky. Overwhiz and it takes on a nasty starchy gloopy texture, though a vegetable and potato mix is more stable. Absolutely not the liquidiser! You could simply mash them with the bread and milk, mix in the butter and then the well beaten eggs.

Crusted Lamb Cutlets, Leek, Pea and Mint Puree, Celeriac MashLots of people have recipes along this theme; Merilees Parker on the BBC Saturday Kitchen, 29th April 2006 for one and Anna del Conte for another. La Famiglia in Langton Street (out local Italian) have had something like it on the menu for years and years – they call it Costatine Monteverde. It is fiddly but utterly delicious if you can get it right.

For 4
8 lamb cutlets – not chops!
Fresh parsley or sage or thyme (rosemary is too strong)
Dried Breadcrumbs
Freshly grated parmesan
An egg

Two leeks
A few frozen peas
A good bunch of mint
Butter
Flour
Full cream milk
Cream, or crème fraiche


A couple of hours before you want to serve them, take the cutlets off the bone, remove all the fat and beat them out to ¼” thick. Magimix the herbs or chop very finely and mix with the breadcrumbs. The mixture should look twice as white as green with parsley, but be more sparing if you are using sage and more so still with thyme (the only acceptable dried herb to use for this).
Spread the grated parmesan onto a large plate and press both sides of the cutlets onto it. Egg and breadcrumb the cheese covered cutlets and put into the fridge for an hour to set.

Cut the leeks into fine slices and cook slowly in plenty of butter. (As I wasn’t watching all the time, some of them caught on the bottom of the pan a little and I had to fish out the burnt bits). Add a teaspoon of flour and cook for a minute or two, then add enough full cream milk to make a consistency about that of thick cream. Add a few frozen peas (only enough for a hint – say a dessertspoonful – they seem to bring out the mint flavour). It can wait a bit now if you want.

Just before serving, get it really hot, probably with a little more milk and a couple of spoons of cream, and magimix with the leaves of a bunch of mint (the amount you get if you buy a pack in Waitrose, say a dozen good stems).

Take the cutlets out of the fridge 15 minutes before you want to cook them. Fry in a very hot pan in olive oil for a minute and a half, perhaps two, per side. Because of the crust, it is a bit tricky to judge the cooking time. The crust needs to be crunchy and crispy to complement the creamy leek puree.

The celeriac was boiled with a bayleaf and rather less than half its much potato as celeriac. It then went into a big mixing bowl with some fromage frais I had lurking in the fridge and cut into as small chunks in a mixing bowl as I could be bothered to do with a sharp knife. It gets to puree with lumps, which is the texture I like. I think two purees at once is a mistake, so keep a bit of bite in the consistency, but it’s a matter of taste. Unusually, I managed to resist nutmegging it. The mix then goes into an ovenproof dish, the top forked flat with lines and put into the bottom of a hot oven for 15 minutes to brown the top.

I’ve not done it, but I think that if one was to use a boned fillet of lamb, cut into ¾” slices and beaten flat, that would be a lot less work. The other vegetable that would go well with this is Jane Grigson’s Red Hot Cauliflower.


Jane Grigson’s Red Hot Cauliflower – from “Vegetable Book”½ sweet red pepper
1 large cauliflower
2 dried chillis (bring with you?)
Olive or walnut oil
Boil the cauliflower until just cooked, drain and run under the cold tap, cut into florets. Chop the chilli finely (or use chilli flakes).
De-seed and dice the red pepper into neat cubes about ¼ inch
Warm the oil in a frying pan, so that there is a thin covering rather than a smear! There should be enough to coat the cauliflower but not so much that you leave any behind when you have finished. Olive oil is traditional but walnut is delicious if you like it and can get it. Gently heat the chilli and peppers for about 10 minutes to flavour the oil.
Bring the temperature up and immediately add the florets. They should stew rather than colour and once they have taken on the flavour of the chilli oil and heated through they are ready.
JG says this is her favourite recipe for cauliflower “in fact the best way I know with cauliflower, which can be a disappointing vegetable.”

I have also tried this as a very successful salad with a cold roasted fillet of beef. Parboil the florets in masses of fast boiling salted water so that they stay crisp and put them immediately into a big bowl of iced water to stop the cooking. Gently heat a coffeespoon of crushed chillies (or more less to taste) in a little walnut oil, remove from the heat and add more walnut oil and some white balsalmic (Sainsbury’s is the only place I have ever found it – very useful stuff). Dress immediately and put into the fridge for an hour or so for the flavours to develop.

Another Diana Henry recipe, from “Roast Figs, Sugar Snow”.
Roast Fruit

As usual, my version is somewhat different. Diana Henry includes vodka in the syrup, which seemed to me to be odd as there is little flavour left if the spirit is driven off by the heating process. She also does’nt use the pear (and/or apple) base, or the cinnamon, orange peel and bay. I based the idea more on a very concentrated mulled wine flavour. The blackberries seem important, but I guess blueberries would do. Raspberries would change the character of the dish I think. It was to have been figs and plums but I couldn’t buy any figs that day!
Ingredients: (probably enough for six)

6 ripe Apricots
3 ripe Dark Plums
2 ripe Pears
1 punnet Blackberries
150gms/5oz Demerera Sugar (Caster sugar is OK if you havn’t any)
1 Bay leaf
250ml/½ pint Red Wine
½ a coffee spoon of Ground Cinnamon or a cinnamon stick
1 piece Dried Orange Peel (or fresh)
1 tablespoon of Sloe Gin (Kirsch might be an interesting substitute)
Kit needed:
oSmall saucepan
2” deep ovenproof dish attractive enough to go to the table
·In a small saucepan, heat the wine, sugar, cinnamon, orange peel and bayleaf.
·Preheat the oven to 200c (conventional), 180c (fan) or gas mark 5
·Cut the pears into eighths longways, and poach for about 5 minutes in the syrup. They should remain a bit crisp. If they are not very ripe – cook longer. Remove and put them in the dish
· Reduce the liquid till it will coat a spoon – probably by about half.
· Cut the apricots and plums in half and remove the stones. Cut half of them into quarters and put them in a layer over the pears. Dot the blackberries about in the gaps or the dips where the stones were.
· Drizzle with the syrup so that each piece is coated but the dish isn’t swimming in syrup, and then with the Sloe Gin.
· Into the oven for about 35 minutes. A baste with more syrup half way through is a good idea if you can be bothered.
· Serve with cold Petits Pots de Crème (see next recipe), or a flavoured whipped cream (orange blossom?), or even vanilla ice cream.
Petits Pots de Crème – I used Prue Leith’s version from her “Kitchen Bible”

Kit needed:
Small saucepan
Conical sieve
1 Large Mixing Bowl
1 Medium Mixing Bowl
6 Small Ramekins
A Baking tray into which they will fit
Foil

Ingredients:
5 egg yolks
(I used 6 as the eggs were small)
½ pint Full Cream Milk
½ pint Pourable Double Cream
1oz Caster Sugar
A vanilla pod

My mother had bought 100 chickens and we had a lot of eggs! This recipe looks odd as I would have expected more sugar, and Mastering the Art of French Cooking gives three times the amount. As all my small ramekins were full of Chicken Liver Pate, I used Chinese teacups which worked well. Prue Leith also uses single cream and 4 yolks plus one whole egg.

· In a small saucepan, heat the Cream and the Milk with sugar and the Vanilla Pod to just below boiling. Take it off the heat and let it infuse for at least 15 minutes
· Preheat the oven to 150c
· Reheat the Cream/Milk mixture
· Beat the egg yolks
· Fill and boil the kettle
· Pour the Cream/Milk into them, beating all the time
· Strain into the smaller bowl (I think this may be quite important to get the right consistency.
· Put the Ramekins into the Baking Tray, ladle the mixture into them and put the tray into the oven. Fill the tray with boiling water to half way up the pots, cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes.
· Remove the foil carefully to avoid any drops of water falling onto the custards, lift the pots out of the tray and allow to cool before refrigerating them.

I was in quite a quandary about whether to turn them out or not, solved by our guests who did it themselves. They could have been turned out, but safer to serve them in their pots.

Chilli Sherry
Ingredients:
A bottle of cheap supermarket amontillado
Dried Chillies – 2 or 3 big ones, half a dozen if small.
As many other dried spices that you have, about a dessertspoonful in all. I use:
Coriander seeds
Fennel seeds
Allspice berries
Cardamom seeds
A piece of dried or fresh root ginger
A piece of dried orange peel
Black peppercorns

This is an essential condiment (which, by the way, only became a lower middle, non-U word because of John Betjamen; I prefer to think back to Sidney Smith who was a good, solid, reliable chap). It is useful in lots of things, and once tried, essential in a Bloody Mary or a Bullshot.

· Open the Sherry
· Stuff in the chillies
· Pour in the spices (use a funnel if you can)
· Recork and shake
· Shake once a week for 4 weeks minimum, 6 weeks max.
· Strain through a port funnel into a clean bottle.
· Use with a little reticence until you are used to it.

We usually keep ours in the fridge. It is better if it is clearly labelled. There was a bit of an incident in the early days of making this stuff. My Pa (since departed to the Great Wine Bar in the sky, very sadly), was staying, and was partial to an 11 o’clock eyeopener. He helped himself to what appeared to be a refreshing glass of chilled sherry, and the first big swig was rather a surprise.

That said, I do have chums who strongly recommend it as a palliative for manflu.

Dried Orange Peel
Since I keep referring to it – here is how you make one of the more useful additions to the spice shelf.

Two or three large, firm oranges
A vegetable peeler

· Peel the oranges so that there is a very thin strip of pith under each strip.
· Put them on a baking tray
· Into an oven at about 100 for three hours or so till dry and crisp
· Store in an airtight jar

I have just done a search through the recipe book, and Dried Orange Peel crops up all over the place. It is particularly useful in beef or lamb casseroles where a Mediterranean accent is being sought. My beef daube has orange peel, fennel seeds, dark chocolate, anchovies and balsamic in it, amongst other little helpers, for instance.

Thats it for now!

THE VERY FIRST POSTING!

The very first one...

Well, here it is folks! There will be those occasional recipes that have won particular praise from the little Ginger Boss, a rambling thought or two and, eventually, when I've mastered all the quirks, an illustration or two. Where to start? Over that last week or so, there have been new forays into the world of jam making, some slightly runny marmalade, an entirely new fillet of pork dish, some chicken liver pate, with sloe gin and sherry , and a cake or two. But lets roll back to boxing day, and a request for an onion relish to go with some hot baked camemberts.

Looking through the books, I could'nt find much, then Elizabeth David came to the rescue. I know lots of people don't care for the way that she writes a recipe, but as inspiration - unparalled! Anyway, this was a suggestion of a recipe that was originally from Escoffier, and i happen to have a copy of the english translation of Ma Cuisine on the kitchen shelves. As you may discover, I am almost incapable of following a recipe; either I don't have all the ingredients or maybe the idea sounds great but there is something in there that I just don't like. In this one, it was the raisins. Not keen on raisins other than in a fruitcake (and there are better things to put in a fruity cake than raisins but more of that later!). So, raisins are out, but the sweet / sour mix is important, so what is in the cupboard that will do the job better? Chopped stem ginger from the cake baking shelf - brilliant!
By the way - it looks very attractive in pots – amber gold and bright red, great as little presents around Christmas as a way to zing up the interminable cold turkey.

Here you are:

Escoffier’s “Piments pour Viandes Froides”

1 very large round white onion (between the size of a cricket ball and a croquet ball)

2 ripe red peppers2 x 3” red chillis – the sort that the Singaporeans use – not blazing hot – or a dried hot red chilli that you will fish out at the end (these ain't in Escoffier either!)

A piece of dried orange peel (or fresh if you have run out of your store of home dried peel)

2 ½ ounces of sugar (I use demerera but caster will be fine)

2 big fat cloves of garlic or a big fat chunk of fresh root ginger

About half a 200gm tub of chopped stem ginger (messy job to chop it yourself)

Quatre epices or allspice (are they the same thing? – I am never sure)

White wine vinegar

Olive Oil – a couple of tablespoonfuls – Escoffier uses a pint and ¼ which I tried the first time and had to pour most of it off at the end

Salt

A lime (if you have one)

· Peel and halve the onion and cut it into neat matchsticks by cutting it downwards as finely as you can then across about three times.

· Cook it slowly with about a coffeespoonful of salt very slowly in a stainless, enamel or non stick pan – not aluminium! Keep stirring – it must not catch.

· Take the stalk off the peppers, deseed and chop into similar sized strips, and add to the onion.

· Do the same with the chillis (do NOT wipe your eyes during this process!)

· Slice the cloves of garlic or the root ginger as thinly as you can (don’t use a garlic press – horrible things!) and add

· Stir stir stir

· Add the sugar, allspice, orange peel, the dried chilli if you didn’t have any fresh, the chopped stem ginger and about a coffee cup of vinegar (taste for the sweet sour ratio)

· Cook for 1 ½ to 2 hours over the lowest possible heat. I use a Bain Marie as the gas hob is too hot and I don’t have a pot for the oven with a lid that is the right size.

· Allow to cool, squeeze in the limejuice (optional but good) and stir well.

· Put into pots and label.

Makes good prezzies at Christmas time as it would be very good to jazz up cold turkey or ham or cold roast pork.

Since I made this the first time I have aquired a heat diffuser, which is utterly fantastic and makes these slow cooked recipes a doddle. A "must-have"!

My own Onion and Coriander Salsa

This was made at the same time as the Pepper, Onion and Ginger one above. Quite different. Unexpectedly, most of it disappeared before lunch as a dip with Pringles (it wasn’t in my house!), but it would also do well with cold meats.

1 very large round white onion (between the size of a cricket ball and a croquet ball

1 x 3” green chillis – the sort that the Singaporeans use – not blazing hot.

White Balsamic vinegar (Sainsbury’s) or white wine vinegar sweetened with a bit of caster sugar.

A big bunch of fresh coriander.

A teaspoonful of Salt.

The juice of 1 lime

· Dissolve the salt in the liquid.

· Peel and chop the onion as finely as you can.

· Chop the coriander leaves as finely as possible. I destalk first.

· Mix together and leave in the fridge for at least two hours. There should be just enough liquid at the end so that you see some if you tilt the bowl to 45°.

· Done!