Cyder with Eloise

I’ve been making curry again!

Putting all my recipes onto a blog instead of just typing them up on a database has made me realise exactly how much I eat curry. I don’t think that’s a bad thing some people eat it everyday, but I do eat it a lot. I don’t enjoy curry when eating out much now, I think I have spoilt myself and having never been to India have probably invented my own strain of the dish!

Today I took a simple Hugh F-W recipe, my small amendments are listed below, and served with some refreshing lemon balm cordial.

Spicy Lamb Curry:

Ingredients:
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
1kg shoulder of lamb, trimmed of excess fat and cut roughly into 4cm cubes *1
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
6cm piece of fresh ginger, grated
2 tsp curry powder (medium hot)
500g jar of spicy apple and medlar chutney (see recipe below) *4
Water *3
250g butternut squash, peeled and cut roughly into 3cm cubes *2
250g Crown Prince squash, peeled and cut roughly into 3cm cubes *2
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:
Grind the cumin and coriander together in a pestle and mortar.
Heat a little rapeseed oil in a large, heavy-bottomed frying-pan over a medium-high heat and brown the meat evenly all over. Don’t overcrowd the pan – you may need to do this in batches. Transfer the browned meat to a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan or casserole.
Add a little more oil to the frying pan and add the onion, garlic, ginger, crushed cumin and coriander seeds and curry powder, and sauté for 4-5 minutes to release the aromas.
Tip the spiced onion mixture into the pan with the meat, along with the chutney and enough water or stock just to cover. Bring to the boil, lower the temperature and simmer very gently, uncovered, for an hour.
Add the chopped squash and cook for a further hour until the lamb is very tender. Adjust seasoning if required and serve with spelt tortillas.*5

© River Cottage

*1 – 500g Mutton
*2 – 300g Butternut Squash
*3 – Lamb Stock
*4 – 200g Mrs Balls Chili Chutney
*5 – Basmati Rice

Lemon Balm Cordial

Ingredients:
60g Lemon Balm Leaves stripped from their stalks
250g Sugar
1 Unwaxed Lemon
700ml Boiling Water with a pinch of salt

Method:
Rinse the lemon balm gently to remove any bugs. Put in a food processor and using the pulse button roughly chop the leaves (It’s better to have some large leaves left over then have too fine a leaf).
Put in a bowl (with lid), add the sugar, add the zest of the lemon and then cut the lemon in half and squeeze all the juice out and pop the remaining lemon into the container, pour over the boiling water.
Store in a cool place for 24 hours.
Pour though a fine sieve into a pan and bring almost to the boil, slowly simmer until the liquid has reduced slightly.
Pour through a funnel lined with muslin into a sterilised bottle.

To serve use as a cordial, with some ice and a slice of lemon. – Great drink to take camping, to add to a refreshing Gin and Tonic.

I first discovered Lemon Balm when I visited Jimmy’s Farm in Suffolk a few years ago. It has such a calming effect on you, sometimes when walking past the plant in the garden I just grab a leaf and squash it in my fingers and the smell is so soothing. It grows much like mint, very easily but unlike mint does not tend to spread it’s roots all over the garden so easy to maintain.