Rick Stein « Cyder with Eloise

May 12, 2010

Rick Stein – Wet Fish Curry

Filed under: Recipies — Tags: Aubergine, Curry, Dal, Fish, Potatoes, Rick Stein — tamara @ 6:43 pm

Following on from the success of his Far Eastern Odyssey, Rick Stein is to appear at Taste of London as official ambassador for Malaysia Kitchen campaign 2010, celebrating Malaysian food in the UK, where he will complete live cookery demonstrations within the Malaysia Kitchen enclosure.

This recipe is from the book Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey. The recipe requires ‘panch phoran’ which is a five-spice blend used in Bengali and Bangladeshi cooking, I did not make up a full mixture but just used 1/4 tsp of each and that worked fine for the quantity of fish stated below.
For my fish I used a whole bream which I first filleted, although very tasty was a little too fiddly for this recipe, so next time I will stick to Rick’s suggestions and use a meatier fish such as haddock.

Ingredients
For the panch phoran
1 tbsp brown or black mustard seeds
1 tbsp nigella seeds (kalonji)
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp fenugreek seeds

For the fish curry
500g/17½oz thick white fish fillet, such as hake, haddock or snapper, skin on
salt, to season, plus 1 tsp
2 tsp turmeric powder
3 tbsp vegetable oil
200g/7oz small waxy potatoes, such as Charlotte, peeled and cut into 1cm/½in-thick slices
100g/3½oz moong dal (mung beans; you can get these pre cooked in tins if you don’t have time to soak them)
1 tsp panch phoran (see recipe above)
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
1 tsp freshly ground cumin seeds
1 tsp freshly ground coriander seeds
900ml/1½ pints water
150g/5oz aubergine, cut into 1cm/½in-thick pieces
4-6 green cayenne chillies, halved lengthways
4 tbsp roughly chopped fresh coriander

Method
For the panch phoran, place all of the panch phoran ingredients into a small screwtop jar and mix well. (The spice mix will keep for up to a year in this jar if placed in a cool, dry and dark area.)
For the fish curry, cut the fish fillet into pieces 2.5cm/1in thick, then season the fish pieces on both sides with some salt and dust with half the turmeric powder.
Heat the vegetable oil in a medium-sized pan over a medium-high heat. Add the pieces of fish a few at a time and fry for one minute on each side until lightly browned all over. Lift out onto a plate and set aside.
Add the potato slices to the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes on both sides, or until golden-brown. Lift out and set aside on a plate.
Add the moong dal to the oil left in the pan and leave to sizzle for a few seconds. Add the panch phoran, the remaining turmeric powder, the ground ginger, chilli powder, ground cumin seeds and ground coriander seeds and cook for a few seconds, or until aromatic.
Add the water, the fried potatoes, aubergine, green cayenne chillies and the remaining teaspoon of salt and bring to the boil. Cover the pan with a lid and simmer for ten minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.
To serve, add the pieces of fried fish and simmer for 2-3 minutes, or until the fish is cooked through. Stir in the fresh coriander and serve.

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January 16, 2010

Nonya Chicken Curry Kapitan

Filed under: Recipies — Tags: Chicken, Curry, Rick Stein — tamara @ 6:00 pm

Nonya is a description for the coming together of two cuisines, Chinese and Malay (nyonya). Coconut, chilli and ginger or galangal are the key ingredients, as are the sweet & sour flavours you get with lime and palm sugar or tamarind paste.

I have made a nonya chicken curry before from a recipe by Madha Jaffery, although it was quite different with tomatoes, potatoes and tamarind.

This recipe is adapted from Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey.

Ingredients
4 Dried red chillies, soaked till soft in hot water then chopped
200g Shallots, roughly chopped
2 tsp Chinese five spice powder
2 tsp Turmeric powder
25g Garlic, roughly chopped
1 inch Ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
2 Lemongrass stalks, chopped
1/2 tsp Shrimp paste
2 tbsp Vegetable oil
3 Chicken breasts, sliced
3 tbsp Desiccated coconut
300ml Coconut milk
1 Cinnamon stick
1 tsp Palm sugar
1 tsp Salt
Juice 1/2 Lime
Coriander, chopped to garnish

Method
Put the ingredients for the curry paste into a blender – Chillies, shallots, spices, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, shrimp paste and 1 tbsp of oil.
Heat a dry frying pan and add the desiccated coconut and stir until lightly golden. Transfer to a pestle and mortar and crush to a fine powder.
Heat the remaining oil in a large heavy based saucepan and add the spice paste and fry while stirring for 3-5 minutes. Add the chicken and continue stirring for 3 minutes.
Add the coconut milk, cinnamon stick, sugar and salt, simmer for 30 minutes to reduce the coconut milk. You can spoon off any excess oil that appears on the top.
Add the lime juice and ground coconut and simmer for a further minute. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with plain basmati rice.

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November 30, 2009

Pastitsio

Filed under: Recipies — Tags: Mince, Rick Stein — tamara @ 9:29 pm

Recipe slightly modified from Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes.

More traditionally made with Greek Kefalotiri cheese if you can get it, but otherwise you can use parmesan.

I made this dish a few years ago for New Years Day lunch, using Ricks original quantities. It is great comfort food and feeds a large group well.

Serves 5-6

Ingredients:
250g rigatoni pasta
2 eggs, lightly beaten
50g parmesan cheese, grated
10g breadcrumbs
For the meat sauce:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
500g minced beef
100ml oz red wine
400g can chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato purée
cinnamon stick
¼ tsp ground cloves
2 tsp dried oregano
3 fresh bay leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the white sauce:
75g butter
75g plain flour
500ml whole milk
½ tsp nutmeg, grated
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4
Cook the pasta until al-dente, but take care not to overcook as it will cook a little further in the oven. Drain well, transfer to a large bowl and leave to cool slightly.
Make the breadcrumbs and grate the parmesan, mix 2/3 of the parmesan with the breadcrumbs and season with some black pepper.
For the meat sauce: Heat the olive oil in a medium-sized pan, add the onion, garlic and celery and fry until just beginning to brown. Add the minced beef and fry over a high heat for 3-4 minutes, breaking up any lumps with a wooden spoon as it browns.
Add the red wine, tomatoes, tomato purée, cinnamon stick, ground cloves, oregano, bay leaves, salt and pepper, to taste, and simmer for 40 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce has thickened but is still nicely moist.
Remove from the heat and discard the cinnamon stick and bay leaves.
For the white sauce: Make a roux from the butter, flour and gradually beat in the milk and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and leave to simmer for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add more milk if it gets too thick.
Season with the nutmeg and some salt and pepper to taste.
Stir about one-fifth of the white sauce into the warm pasta with the beaten eggs and 1/3 of the grated cheese.
Spread half the pasta over the base of the dish and cover with half the meat sauce.
Add the other half of the pasta and then the rest of the meat sauce, then spoon over the remaining white sauce.
Sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture ovet the top. Bake for 40 minutes until bubbling hot and golden brown.
Serve with a green salad, crusty bread and a gusty red wine.

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August 9, 2009

The early bird catches the Clanger

Filed under: Blog,Recipies — Tags: Beef, Cambridgeshire, Dessert, Rick Stein, Soup — tamara @ 4:41 pm

Another weekend and time to explore another local foodie delight – The Bedfordshire Clanger.

Gunn’s Bakery in Sandy has been making the Clanger since 1928.

The Bedfordshire clanger was originally the food of farm laborers. A suet pudding with a meat filling, portable cold or eaten hot on returning home. They were considered affordable, filling and very calorific. As the pudding could be left simmering away all day, ready for the family’s evening return, it suited an area where many of the women were employed outside the home in the 19th century.
For centuries hungry fieldworkers all over the county have tucked into their Bedfordshire Clangers as their lunchtime snack. We are very proud to have produced the Bedfordshire Clanger for the last 50 years, maintaining the tradition and supplying the county with a little taste of history.

However my verdict of the Clanger is going to have to wait as it appears you have to get there before midday to get one. So instead we stopped off at the Chinese supermarket on the way home to pick up some delicacies so we could start cooking from Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey. As usual our eyes were too big for our bellies.

Cambodian marinated beef: – Based on a dish from the Ta Ouv restaurant in Kampot, south-east Cambodia. This is a very simple recipe to put together and the marinade is so fresh I will be using it in a few other dishes in the future. This is the recipe taken from the new book

Ingredients:
500g Rump steak
1 Romaine lettuce, leaves separated
1 tomato, halved and thinly sliced
1 small onion, halved and sliced
50g peanuts, roasted and chopped
3 tbsp vegetable oil
For the marinade
1 red chilli, roughly chopped
1 tbsp chopped garlic
25g/1oz fresh root ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
½ lime, juice only
1 tbsp palm sugar
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
For the dipping sauce
½ lime juice
2 tsp ground black pepper
¼ tsp salt

Method:
1. Trim the beef steak of all fat, then cut into 2.5cm/1in pieces and place into a bowl.
2. For the marinade, place all of the marinade ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Pour the marinade over the beef and leave to marinate for at least 20 minutes, covered, in the fridge.
3. Meanwhile, arrange the lettuce leaves and sliced tomato and onion on a serving platter. Place the peanuts into a small bowl. Set both the platter and bowl aside.
4. For the dipping sauce, mix the lime juice, freshly ground black pepper and salt together in a bowl and divide among four small dipping saucers. Set aside.
5. For the beef, heat half of the vegetable oil in a wok or large deep frying pan over a high heat. Lift half the beef out of the marinade, add to the pan and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes, or until golden-brown all over but still rare in the centre (or until the beef is cooked to your liking). Spoon the beef onto a warmed serving plate and set aside. Add the remaining oil to the wok or pan and fry the remaining beef in the same way.
6. To serve, set the table with the plate of beef, salad platter and bowl of peanuts in the centre, and a small dipping saucer at each place setting. Instruct your diners to spoon some beef into a lettuce leaf and add the peanuts, sliced onion and tomato on top. Wrap up the beef, then dip the parcel into the dipping sauce before eating.

We also made:
Tom yam gung – Luckily we did not add the prawns too early as this soup had to keep till Sunday as we were so full from the first dishes.
Fresh Spring Rolls – These were quite delicious and have given me a new idea for some packed lunches, but remember once made you have to keep them damp until you eat them to stop the rice paper drying out. You can get the rice papers from any Asian supermarket.

And then if that’s not enough pigglyness for one weekend we have a friend popping in for coffee and cake tonight and it’s our turn to do cake. Chocolate Cheesecake. Never tried baking this before. It is a recipe I found in an Olive magazine booklet.

Chocolate Cheesecake
Ingredients:
125g Butter
250g Digestive Biscuits
400g Light Cream Cheese
180ml Low Fat Fromage Frais
250g Golden Caster Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1tsp Vanilla Extract
200g Dark Chocolate

Method:
Melt the butter and crush in the biscuits then press into a cake tin and chill in the fridge.
Melt the chocolate in a bain marie.
Beat the cream cheese, fromage frais and sugar. Stir in the lightly beaten eggs and vanilla extract.
Pour half the mixture over the biscuit base and then spoon on the melted chocolate and cover with the remaining cheese mixture. Use a knife to make the swirls.
Bake for 45 minutes and then turn off the oven but leave the cake in till the oven has cooled down. Once cold transfer the cake to the fridge and chill preferably overnight.

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