Moussaka

There are probably some short cuts to this. I have only one - more later - but this is a terrific, warming tasty winer warmer that can be made well ahead and will sit happily in the fridge for 24 hours till you want it. Additionally, you can make more of the mince and use it for two dishes without much moaning about "but we had this yesterday". I'll put some ideas at the end. Everything except the mince comes from the storecupboard, so there is no real shopping to speak of, assuming your cupboard has all the basics.

Lets go. Stage 1 will take you about 45 minutes, and will cook for a couple of hours needing a stir form time to time. Stage two should take no more than 15 minutes. When you are ready, it will cook in 45 minutes. I have a large round sided non-stick frying pan like the child of a wok and a saute pan - these are really excellent for a huge range of jobs!

You will need: for four people, double for two meals as above.

Minced beef or lamb - 400gms

An aubergine and (optional) a large courgette

1 cricketball sized and one billiard ball sized onion - say 125gms unpeeled

Good home made (please) beef or chicken stock - or a tin of consomme

1 head of fresh garlic. As Patience Gray says - once it has sprouted - better to plant than cook it!

Storecupboard: Black peppercorns, soy sauce (preferably dark), balsamic vinegar, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, plain flour, red wine, a 400gm tin of chopped tomatoes, dried thyme, dried oregano, olive oil, plain yoghurt, parmesan.

Chop the big onion as fine as you can, and cook it over a moderate heat with a big pinch of salt, in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil or so, stirring every five minutes or so - ypu will want it to gently brown. Meanwhile, peel half the cloves of garlic and slice them as thin as you can. Do not put them in the garlic press (unless you only have a single clove). you want the garlic to be subtly pervading not overpowering so use a lot cooked gently. A pinch of sugar will help the browning process. When the onion has started to brown, add the garlic and stir well. It may need another 5 minutes or so after that; it wont matted if the garlic is not coloured but it must be transparent and cooked. Take the onion and garlic out and put it in a bowl.

In a little more oil, fry the beef till well browned. Sprinkle over a good teaspon of plain flour, stir in well and cook, stirring, for a minute or so. Add 1/2 a bottle of good robust red wine and let it bubble for a couple of minutes then add some whole black peppercorns - say a dozen - 1/2 a coffee spoon, a coffee spoon of fennel seed, of coriander seed, of dried thyme and a couple of bay leaves. Tip the onions and garlic back in. Stir well and add enough stock for the top to be not quite submerged. Stir well, add a splash of soy and one of balsamic and leave on the slowest heat for a couple of hours. If you have a heat diffuser, it can be slower and longer. It will need a stir and a scrape of the sides every so often. You could put it in an ovenproof dish with a lid and cook it overnight at say 80 - 90C.

If you did a double quantity, you now have a basic mince that you could add a tablespoon of ground cumin (and some seeds too, if you have them), a teaspoon of ground cinnamon and tabasco to taste, add some more liquid, cook it slowly for 1/2 an hour with the extra flavour, and serve with sour cream and baked potato skins as a chilli.

But for the moussaka, now chop the last onion as fine as you can, cook it in a splash of oilwith a pinch of salt, slice and add the rest of the garlic as before, add it to the onion with a big pinch of dried chilli flakes and the same of dried oregano or marjoram (or thyme). Cook for a couple of minutes and add 1/2 a 400gm tim of crushed tomatoes (preferably plain) and a good half glass of red wine. Reduce by half at least till it is thick and concentrated. You can either do this slowly or over a quicker heat, but you will have to keep an eye on it and stir a lot!

Remove the green end and slice the aubergime longways, ideally to half the thickness of a pencil. You will need a big and very sharp knife. Discard the outside slices with the skin on. Put some olive oil in a teacup and with your (silicon is eaasier) pastry brush, brush both sides of each slice and put aside. I dont bother with all that presalting business. Get a large frying pan hot with nothing at all in it - no oil - and put the oiled slices in - you will probably need two batches - they must all be flat on the surface of the pan. Turn them a couple of times until nicely brown and remove.

If you are using a courgette, top and tail it and slice it longways with a potato peeler. It takes a while to get the knack - it is easier if the courgette is on a board. Unlike some other recipes using this (and it is a very useful trick for lots of things) it doesnt matter at all if you have any casualties. Discard the skin slices from top and bottom.

Now, take an oven proof dish with sides no less that 5cms / 2.5inches. I have an oval one about 10 inches long. If using courgette, put a layer, using about a half of it, sparely across the bottom. Add a layer of half the mince. Spread that with half the tomato, then a layer of fried aubergine, another layer of tomato, one of raw courgette, the last of the mince and finally the last of the

aubergine.

Now for the short cut that you have been patiently waiting for. Thanks to Pru Leith, instead of making a bechamel or a custard, put a 500gm tub of Greek yoghurt into a big bowl, beat two egg yolks into it, and then much parmesan cheese as you like - we like it quite cheesey. If you are not using a lot, then some chopped fresh herb is good (if not very authentic) chives, parsley or chervil. Spread this on the top of your dish, sprinkle well with more freshly grated parmesan and it can sit in the fridge for up to 24 hours.

When you are ready, put it into a cold oven and turn it up to 170c fan. have a look after 30 minutes. The top will need to be brown and bubbling. If that hasn't started yet - turn it up to say 190c or (better) to the grill/fan option for another 15 minutes, et voila

Hot Spiced Broccoli

I have just looked in the current Cook's Diary, and found that the Broccoli recipe below was actually hot. I bet it would be good cold too - but perhaps the yoghurt might be a little cloying.

However - from the recipe below, after its sojurn on the fridge, put the dish into a hot oven (say 190c fan) for a little less than 5 minutes - hot through but no more. I might put a little smoked paprika in the yoghurt mix, too, perhaps.

Cold Broccoli, and / or Cauliflower and spiced yoghurt salad

In a pestle and mortar, crush as finely as you can and equal quantity of fennel seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, some salt, a good grind of black pepper and as much dried chilli flakes as you like. Put it through a sieve to remove the worst of the husks and stringy bits. Mix with Greek yoghurt. About a heaped teaspoon of ground mixture to 3 tablespoons of yoghurt is what I use but up to you.

In very fast boiling, well salted water, parboil some Broccoli and/or cauliflower till just cooked and still a bit crunchy. Mush is no good! Drain and cool under a cold tap to stop it cooking. Make sure that it is dry and toss with/pour over the yoghurt mixture. Into the fridge for at least 2 hours. Good as part of a salad lunch or with a cold chicken.

Source? I can't remember - it might have been an original by me. I found it this morning in the kitchen shopping list book. If it is someone else's - i apologise! ? It's jolly good!

Lemon Drizzle Cake

This cake has now become an old favourite, and I think, at last, it is about right. No recipe that I have seen has enough lemon. I shall ask you to be bold.
The easiest way to measure quantities for this recipe, and any other butter cake I believe, is simple. Weigh the eggs, preferably after shelling. Use the same weight of very soft unsalted butter, golden natural caster sugar, and whichever flour you have chosen. I make two at a time because it is just as easy as one and they always get eaten. Let’s get on. You will need….
An electric hand held beater, and a good one – there is a lot of rubbish about. Mine is a very old Krupps; I have bought several others since and ditched them all. A big mixing bowl – say 12” plus across. An electronic scale – cheap – mine was less than £10 in a supermarket. Several smaller mixing bowls. 2 x 1lb loaf tins – I use silicon now, which don’t need lining with greaseproof paper. A big silicon spatula – catering size is best. Cooling racks – not essential but helpful. A microplane – a very sharp grater on a stick – incredibly useful.
For two loaf tins:
4 eggs, shelled, threads removed as best you can, weighed
Their weight in very very soft unsalted butter
The same in Golden Caster sugar – we use Billingtons – white ordinary is OK but this is better
The same in self-raising flour
A teaspoon of baking powder
4 lemons
A good tablespoon of any cream, Greek yoghurt, or even full cream milk – in that order of preference
A 300gm packet of dried cranberries – optional

Heat the oven to 170c fan.
Sift the flour and baking powder through a sieve into a bowl to mix, remove lumps and aerate.
Beat the sugar into the softened butter very thoroughly. You are trying to beat in some air. Recipes say till light and fluffy. I’m not sure that I have ever achieved that and my cake is quite dense. Comments would be helpful!
With a Microplane, grate the zest off four unwaxed lemons into the butter and sugar.
One at a time, beat in the eggs, alternating with a tablespoon of flour after each egg.
Fold in the rest of the flour with the spatula, and do the same with the cream or yoghurt.
Spoon the mixture into the cake tins, bang them to get it to settle and push around a bit with the spatula till fairly even. It will sort itself out in the oven.
Bake for about 35 minutes until the top feels firm and sponge-like, and a skewer comes out hot and clean.
While it is in the oven, squeeze the juice from the four lemons and mix with about 108gms granulated sugar.
Leaving the cakes in their tins, and while still hot, spear all over with a skewer and pour the lemon juice and sugar all over to soak in. Leave to cool – overnight is fine. Turn out and serve. They won’t look much but seem pretty popular nonetheless!

It is a long while since I posted anything but the Cooks Diary gets filled in whenever there is anything interesting. I need to get going again, so here goes with some lesser known facts unlikely to help you in the kitchen at all, but interesting if, like me, you have a butterfly brain.

Five-spice powder is a seasoning in Chinese cuisine. It incorporates the five basic flavors of Chinese cooking sweet, sour, bitter, savory, and salty. One common recipe includes Chinese Tung Hing cinnamon (actually a type of cassia), powdered cassia buds, powdered star anise and anise seed, ginger root, and ground cloves. Another recipe for the powder consists of huajiao (Sichuan pepper), bajiao (star anise), rougui (cassia), cloves, and fennel seeds. It is used in most recipes for Cantonese roasted duck, as well as beef stew. It is also used as a marinade for Vietnamese broiled chicken. The five-spice powder mixture has followed the Chinese diaspora and has been incorporated into other national cuisines throughout Asia.
The formulae are based on the Chinese philosophy of balancing the yin and yang in food.
Although this spice is used in restaurant cooking, many Chinese households do not use it in day-to-day cooking. In Hawaii, some restaurants have it on the table.
A versatile seasoned salt can be easily made by stir-frying common salt with Five-spice powder under low heat in a dry pan until the spice and salt are well mixed.
Quatre épices is a spice used mainly in France, but also found in the Middle Eastern kitchen. The name literally means "four spices"; the spice mix contains ground pepper (white, black, or both), cloves, nutmeg and ginger. Some variations of the mix use allspice instead of pepper, or cinnamon in place of ginger.
The blend of spices will typically use a larger proportion of pepper (usually white pepper) than the other spices, but some recipes suggest using roughly equal parts of each spice.
In French cooking it is typically used in soups, stews, vegetable preparations and also in sausages and salamis.
Allspice, also called Jamaica pepper, Kurundu, Myrtle pepper, pimento[1], or newspice, is a spice which is the dried unripe fruit of the Pimenta dioica plant, a tree native to the West Indies, southern Mexico and Central America. The name "allspice" was coined by the English, who thought it combined the flavour of several aromatic spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.