Braised Pork with Prunes

800g Pork Belly or Loin or whatever, diced

10 pitted prunes

1 tblspn lard

6 juniper berries, crushed with the side of your knife

Fresh thyme

1 med onion, peeled and sliced

1 clove garlic, crushed

150ml dry cider

1 large granny smith apple, peeled cored and sliced

a little sugar

1 large Desiree or Pontiac potato, sliced

Butter

Pepper and Salt

Preheat your oven, 170 for a slow cook or 200 for loin or similar.

Fry the pork in the lard in an oven-proof pot so they brown nicely (you may need to do this in 2 batches) then remove to a bowl.

Fry the onions and garlic in the same pan, once they’re cooked add the pork back, season with salt and pepper, tuck a prune here and there and sprinkle with the stripped thyme leaves and juniper berries.  Pour over the cider.

Artistically arrange (or just throw) the apple slices over the top and give them a very light sprinkle of sugar. Finally, arrange the potato slices on top, making sure they overlap.

Season with some more pepper and salt and dot with a few splodges of butter.

For prime cut pork cook uncovered for 1 hour.

For a secondary cut, cover the dish with foil and bake for 1½ hours then remove the foil and cook for a further 50 minutes or so - or until the potatoes have turned a lovely golden brown.

Enjoy!

Dal Tarka

I love dal! it's delicious and a great quick side dish for all your curry needs.

1 cup masoor dal (split red lentils)

1/4 cup moong dal (split yellow lentils)

2 green chillies, slit

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp grated garlic

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

salt to taste

3 tbsp ghee

1 tsp mustard seeds (black or yellow is fine)

1 1/2 tsp nigella seeds (make sure they don’t sell you black sesame! Indians call nigella kalonji)

1 whole dry red chilli, chopped up finely (remove the seeds if you don’t like it too hot)

1/2 a sliced onion

1 chopped roma tomato

coriander

Rinse the dals in water (about 3 – 4 washes, strain through a sieve).  Drain and put in a pot with the chilli, ginger, garlic, turmeric powder and 3 cups of water.  Bring to the boil then turn down the heat and simmer uncovered until the dal is tender (about 25 min).  Remove the chillies and give the dal a brisk stir so it goes all mushy and delicious.

In a separate pot, heat the ghee and add the mustard seeds and nigella seeds. When the mustard seeds start to spit, add the red chilli and onions and sauté until the onions turn golden and crispy (but don't burn them!)

Add the tomatoes and sauté for a further 3-4 minutes.  Add to the dal and mix well.  Start adding salt.  You want to keep adding until you can really taste the buttery ghee – this is the point of dal perfection.  Stop then or you’ll ruin it and just have salty dal – but not enough salt and it will be bland dal.  It’s a fine dal line you’re walking here, so be careful. Serve hot garnished with coriander.

Gosht Vindaloo

1 kg Braising Beef (F&B Chianina is of course best)
6 green cardamom pods
1 tsp black peppercorns
4 dried Kashmiri chillies
1 tsp cloves
10 cm piece of cinnamon
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
4 tbsp clear vinegar
1 tbsp dark (molasses) vinegar (balsamic is a good substitute)
4 tbsp oil
2 onions finely sliced
10 garlic cloves finely sliced
5 cm piece ginger cut into matchsticks
3 ripe tomatoes (or half a tin)
4 green chillies, chopped
1 tsp jaggery or soft brown sugar

Get your delicious F&B braising beef out of the freezer and thaw.

Grind up all of the whole spices, add the turmeric and stir through the vinegars to make a nasal cleansing spice mix.  I don't even bother shelling the cardamom to be honest (God, I live life on the edge).  Add your beef and go do something cultural for the afternoon.

Heat your oil in a heavy based pan or karhai* and fry the onions until they're deliciously brown.  Add the garlic, ginger, tomato and chilli and cook for a bit then add the beef. Pump up the heat and fry for a bit.  Add the remaining marinate and 250 ml of water.  Bring back to the boil and add the sugar.  Cover and simmer until the beef is meltingly tender.  Add salt to taste and enjoy with your favourite Indian sides, breads, pickles and raita.

N.B. I do a quick raita by adding some sugar, salt and garam masala to some thick yoghurt; for when I invariably forget to buy cucumber and mint...

*Incidentally, did you know a karhai is a wok like pot that is used in Indian cooking - and where the English word 'curry' is derived from? There's actually no such thing as a curry in India... See what you learn reading my blogs?

Two Bs French Toast (for Two)

2 eggs

100ml thickened cream

½ - 1 tsp sugar

A small pinch of salt

A big pinch of cinnamon

An unsliced white rustic loaf

A splash of olive oil

2 bananas

3-4 rashers of bacon

butter

Maple syrup (the real deal – not flavoured!)

Slice your bread into 4 really thick pieces (2 – 2.5 cm).  get out a lasagne dish or similar flat long dish.  Into the dish break the eggs and add the cream, sugar, cinnamon and salt.  Whisk together and taste for seasoning.  Adjust sugar, salt and cinnamon if necessary.  You don’t want it too sweet.  Put the bread in the dish and nestle into the cream mixture then leave to soak.  The best kind of French Toast is not just dipped, it’s left to soak so once cooked, the outside is crispy and the inside is soft and cakey (mmmm).

While the bread is soaking cook the bacon to your preference (mine’s crispy) and also cut the bananas lengthways in 2 and fry them as well (in the same pan, it’s all good).  Halfway through cooking turn your bread so the other side gets to soak in the eggy creamy mix.  Make sure when you pick up the bread you slosh the egg mix back around the dish so you don’t have a dry patch when you put the bread back in.  Once the bacon and bananas are cooked, put them out to drain and keep warm.

By now your bread should have sucked up most the eggy mix.  Using the same frypan on med-high add a knob of butter and fry the bread until golden brown and crispy, then turn and do the other side.  Keep going until all your bread is cooked.  I have a very large frying pan so get it done in two batches.

Place the bread artistically on the plate, top with the bacon and banana and trickle with some real maple syrup (none of that maple flavoured stuff thanks!) – I would use ‘drizzle’, but Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall corrected me last night on Three Go Mad – drizzle is what rain does, you trickle! LOL

Serve with tea or coffee and enjoy.

Mayonnaise

1 egg yolk from a happy, organic chickie

1 tsp Dijon mustard

Squeeze of lemon juice or dash of white wine vinegar

Salt & Pepper

Half a garlic clove, finely grated

Peanut Oil

The only trick to mayo is to add the oil SLOWLY at first.  If you add it too quickly it won’t emulsify and you’ll need to start again (what a drag!)  Once you've cracked it you’ll never buy mayo again (unless you’re feeding a pregnant friend or someone with a weird, raw egg allergy)

Whisk together the egg yolk, Dijon, lemon or vinegar, garlic and a little bit of salt and pepper.  Be careful with the salt as mustard can be quite salty.  Now VERY SLOWLY dribble in a bit of the oil, whisky whisky until the oil is incorporated.  Keep doing this for a while until the mixture starts to hold together and look like mayo. Now if it stays all loose and runny, you've added your oil to fast, so don't complain to me if you've been impatient; this is a labour of love, my friends.

You can then add the oil more quickly, but to be honest, I’m fairly careful as I go, it’s not like it takes a long time.  When it’s quite thick, have a taste; if it’s too eggy add a bit more oil.  If you want it a bit whiter, add a tiny bit of boiling water and whisk again, this should whiten it up (I never bother).  Taste for seasoning and lemmonyness; when you’re happy with it, liberally spread on everything.

Summery Spaghetti Bolognaise

Olive oil

1 large onion

1 stalk celery

1 carrot (preferably pulled fresh from your vegie patch)

1 bunch basil

Fresh bay leaves

2 cloves garlic

2 – 3 anchovy fillets

500g pork mince (pasture raised of course)

¼ bottle old, undrunk red wine

2 cans of tomatoes or your latest crop from the garden whizzed up in a food processor

A big squirt of pizza sauce (or tomato paste if you have it)

1 ½ diced capsicum (any colour)

Mushrooms might be nice

A splash of balsamic vinegar

1 beef stock cube

Salt & pepper

Grated Cheddar (stay with me)

Parmesan

Heat the oil over a medium heat in a very large frypan.  Very finely dice the onion, celery, carrot and basil stalks.  Slice the garlic.  Put the diced vegies, herb stalks, bay leaves and anchovies in the saucepan and cook gently, without colouring for about 15 minutes until the anchovies have disappeared and the vegies are very soft.  Once they are soft, push to one side, turn up the heat and brown the pork and break up any lumps.  Once the pork is cooked, mix through the vegies and pour over the wine.

Simmer the wine down to next to nothing and add the stock cube.  Pour over your whizzed tomatoes and squirt in your pizza base (or tomato paste).  Give it a nice mixy-mixy then add the capsicum, torn basil leaves and slosh in some balsamic vinegar.  Add a large pinch of salt and then taste for seasoning.  Grind in your pepper and then let it simmer gently until it becomes rich and unctuous.

When you’re about 15 minutes off awesomeness cook up some spaghetti in a large saucepan of salted water (yes, you do need lots of salt, or your pasta will be BLAND).

A trick I learned from Himself (I know, right‽) is to sprinkle some freshly grated cheddar in the bottom of your bowl, add your hot pasta, then the sauce on top.  Grate some parmesan and more pepper over the top and enjoy!  Finding the gooey cheddar down the bottom is always a highlight when eating the dish.

Mapo Tofu - But Not As We Know It

Adapted from Not Quite Nigella's Iron Chef Chen's Recipe

Serves 4-5

2 large eggplants cut into 1cm dice

500g minced lamb

A small handful dried shitake mushrooms, reconstituted in boiling water for 10 minutes then sliced into small pieces

Vegetable oil

Spicy paste mixture:

2 tablespoon Chinese chilli bean sauce

2 tablespoons Chinese ground bean sauce

1 tablespoon fermented black beans, finely chopped

Stock mixture:

2 teaspoons chilli sesame oil

1 ½ cups chicken stock

2 tablespoons dry sherry

2 teaspoons light soy sauce

To finish:

3 tablespoons cornflour mixed with 3 tablespoons cold water

1 -2 tablespoon Szechuan pepper, toasted

Boiled white rice to serve

Fry the eggplant in a hot wok with some oil until it’s going brown and softening.  While it’s cooking combine the chilli bean sauce, ground bean sauce and chopped fermented black beans. In a jug combine the stock, sesame chilli oil, sherry and soy sauce and set aside.

When the eggplant is done remove from the wok and set aside.  Re-heat the wok on high and add 1 tablespoon of oil and swirl to coat the pan. Add the lamb and brown, stirring to ensure there are no lumps.  You may have to pour off some oil/water once it’s done as lamb can be quite fatty. Then add the spicy bean paste above and cook for 1 minute.

Add the stock mixture as well as the eggplant and shitake mushrooms. Stir fry for 1-2 minutes.

Turn down the heat and add the cornflour combined with the water and stir until thickened. Stir through the Szechuan pepper and serve with white rice.