LEMONGRASS AND COCONUT PORK LARB

Lemongrass and coconut pork larb with rice

Serves 4

240g basmati rice

1 tsp sesame oil

1 red onion, very finely chopped

2 sticks lemongrass, tough outer layers removed, grated

1 inch piece ginger, peeled and grated

1 thai red chilli, sliced, plus extra to serve

500g free-range pork mince

1 tbsp fish sauce

1/2 tsp palm sugar

1/2 tbsp Mirin rice wine

1 tsp rice wine vinegar

2 tbsp creamed coconut

small handful Thai basil, torn

small handful coriander, chopped

4 spring onions, sliced, to serve

2 limes, quartered, to serve

1. Soak the rice in cold water for 30 minutes then drain and rinse. Add it to a small saucepan with 300ml water, and cover. Bring to the boil, then leave on a very low heat, tightly covered, for 20 minutes, without checking.
2. Meanwhile, heat the sesame oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat and add the onion, lemongrass, ginger and chilli. Fry for 5 minutes, then add the pork mince. Cook for 10 minutes, breaking up with a wooden spoon until browned. Drizzle in the fish sauce, palm sugar, Mirin wine, vinegar and creamed coconut and stir. Fry for another 5 minutes.
3. Remove the lid from the rice pan and fluff the rice with a fork. Spoon onto a platter and top with the pork larb. Scatter with the Thai basil, coriander, extra red chillies, if you like, and spring onions. Serve with the lime wedges and crunchy, sesame dressed, gem lettuce leaves.

ASIAN BRAISED BEEF

BRAISED BEEF WITH COCONUT AND SPICE

SERVES 2-4

1 red onion, roughly chopped

2 sticks lemongrass, peeled of a layer

1 garlic clove

1-2 red chillies, roughly chopped

15g ginger, grated

1 tbsp light oil, for frying

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tbsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground turmeric

500g beef shin, bone in

400ml tin coconut milk

200ml water

1 tbsp fish sauce
1 cinnamon stick

In a food processor or pestle and mortar, blend the red onion, lemongrass, garlic, chillies and ginger together until you have a rough paste.

Heat the olive oil in a deep frying pan and add the paste. Stir in the ground spices and fry for 1 minute until fragrant. Add the beef shin and coat in the spiced paste. Fry for 2 minutes over a high heat so the beef begins to brown, then add the remaining 5 ingredients. Gently simmer for 2-3 hours until the beef is falling apart and the liquid has reduced. Serve with wilted greens and sticky rice.

RED PRAWN AND PAPAYA CURRY

After a heavy day on the food - testing three giant roasts in a day and and eating most of them - a supper of fruit and fish proved sufficiently antidotal. This serves perfectly as a simple midweek winner, bright and lively, and takes no time at all. 

RED PRAWN AND PAPAYA CURRY

serves 2

ingredients

2 tbsps olive oil

180ml coconut milk

2 tbsps red curry paste (this is a good quantity for Thai Taste Massaman Red Curry, but brands can vary hugely - taste before you paste)

1 tsp fish sauce

1 tsp palm sugar (or caster if you can't find any)

150g raw king prawns

100g mangetout

1 papaya, peeled, deseeded and cubed

2 tbsps chopped coriander leaves to serve

150g rice

Rinse the rice and add to a large sauce pan with 1 1/2 the amount of water to rice. Bring the rice to the boil and turn to a gentle simmer. Cover with a lid, tilted so the steam can escape, and cook for approximately 15 minutes. Drain any excess water and fluff up.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a deep frying pan or wok and add 1 tablespoon of the coconut milk. Stir and add the curry paste. Add the fish sauce and palm sugar. Pour in the the rest of the coconut milk, bring to the boil, and add the prawns. Turn down to a gentle simmer and cook for 2 minutes to reduce the sauce. Add the mangetout and papaya and cook for another minute.

Serve the curry with the rice, and the chopped coriander leaves.

DHAL CURRY AND CARDAMOM SPINACH

This is such a delicious dish to eat in the heat. Two simple core ingredients that don't necessarily scream sunshine and picnics but, unusually, I find them beautifully refreshing.

Put earthy lentils with fresh ginger, curry leaves, cumin, mustard seeds, turmeric and tomatoes, together with delicate spinach and cardamom, and you're diverted to instant summer comfort; as the spices give off warmth, they relax and cool you down. The punch of the sweet and smokey spices grabs tongue and nostrils with one powerful spoonful: fragrant, light, and freakishly moreish.

Serve with natural yoghurt and freshly chopped chilli, a sprinkle of fresh coriander and - for a real dip in the pool - a slice of lime.

DAL CURRY WITH CARDAMOM SPINACH

SERVES 4

200-300g red lentils, previously soaked (though just a good rinse is OK if time is short)
500g water
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 large tomato, deseeded and peeled and chopped
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp cayenne pepper
4 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
3/4 tsp cumin seeds
1 shallot, finely chopped
20 fresh curry leaves
thumb-size knob fresh ginger, finely grated
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1kg spinach leaves, rinsed, dried and roughly torn
2 cardamom pods, crushed and ground

to serve:
handful fresh coriander, chopped
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
4 tbsps natural yoghurt
1 lime, cut into four

Heat a large pan with the water and add the lentils. Cook for 15-20 minutes until the water has been absorbed. Be sure to stir the lentils as they cook, to avoid sticking to the pan. Stir in the turmeric, cayenne pepper, chopped tomato, puree and set aside.

Heat up a saucepan and add the crushed cardamom. The light aroma of the seeds will release with heat. Add the spinach and cover. Spinach contains enough water within its leaves, so no needs to add water. Add a touch of olive oil, season, and stir. Keep in the pan, off the heat, until ready to serve.

Meanwhile, heat up a frying pan with the mustard and cumin seeds. When the mustard seeds begin to pop, add a little oil and the chopped shallot, and fresh curry leaves. When the onions have softened, add the garlic and ginger. Fry for another minute, making sure the garlic does not burn.

Stir the shallot mix into the lentils and gently heat through.

Serve the lentils on a bed of the wilted cardamom spinach. Garnish with the coriander, fresh chilli and yoghurt and wedge of lime.

Best eaten in the garden at sunset after a hot day with a cool beer. (Well, any excuse, really).

POZ'S PEANUTS

A recipe (mildly adapted) from my dear friend and super cook, Clare.

PORK AND PEANUT CURRY


serves 2
ingredients
1 1/2 tbsp groundnut oil
1 large butcher-bought pork loin steak, thinly sliced into strips
6 spring onions, thinly sliced (leave one onion, sliced length ways, for a garnish)
1 tbsp red curry paste
1/2 tin coconut milk
1 tbsp organic, smooth peanut butter
1 tsp molasses
1 tsp fish sauce
juice of 1/2 lime

200g 3mm rice noodles (Gueytow)

Heat 1 tbsp groundnut oil in a large wok and add the slices of pork. The oil should be hot enough to make the pork sizzle as it touches the pan. Let them fry for 2 minutes on each side so that the meat is light brown all over. Remove the pork and leave it to rest.

Add the rest of the oil and add the spring onions, and the curry paste. Let the spices fry and the onions soften. Then pour in the coconut milk, the peanut butter, the molasses, fish sauce and lime. The sauce should be relatively thick. Let it simmer on a medium-low heat for 8 minutes to thicken the sauce further.

Add the pork and stir. Taste. Add more lime juice if the peanut butter is overwhelming - a little goes a long way.

Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. Add the rice noodles and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain and serve in a shallow bowl. Pour over the curry and garnish with raw spring onions and a sprig of coriander.

A right porker.

BANGLADESHI-STYLE HAKE CURRY

Working in a cookery bookshop makes you hungry. All day.

The nostril-tickling smells of the cafe; the good-enough-to-lick-if-I-could pictures in the books; the cooking hot line which seems to hit promptly on a Wednesday morning as if by clockwork, flipping open the recipe book in the back of my brain, wishing I could be eating what they're cooking. But there's no complaints here.

It's one of those jobs that, in the best possible way, stays with you after hours. From the haven of the sofa - half of me engrossed in the long slow camera shots of The Song of Lunch, zooming into a large glass of much-needed red wine; and the other tied to my new orange and pink Madhur Jaffrey Curry Easy book - I can think only of my stomach. Again. There's no escape.

Fortunately, for risk of becoming belly-bound, Miss Jaffrey's book opens on a page which gives me the satisfaction of full-flavour but with half the gluttony. Her curry is light, perfumed and completely un-greedy but leaves you feeling perfectly full - enough to say no, I think I'll leave it, to the dry naan bread in the centre of the table.

Having forgotten to buy the ginger, I added a few more ingredients to soften and sweeten the spice.

BANGLADESHI-STYLE CURRY adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's Curry Easy

Serves 2-3

3 large hake fillets

2 medium sized shallots

1 clove crushed garlic

1 tbsp crushed ginger

2 tbsps olive/mustard oil

1 tsp red paprika

1/2 tumeric

1/2 cayenne pepper

3 kaffir lime leaves

half a lime

250ml water

1 tbsp honey

2 handfuls of fresh coriander

1 handful of mint leaves

300g basmati rice

In a large, deep frying pan, heat up the olive oil. Add the shallots and fry gently until a soft brown colour. Meanwhile, mix the ginger, garlic and spices with 3 tbsps water into a paste.

Boil a pan of water and add the rice, having rinsed it through with water to remove excess starch. Cook for 20 minutes or as the packet advises. When cooked add half the coriander and the mint.

Add the spice mix to the shallots and simmer off the water. Then add the 250ml water and simmer adding the lime and kaffir leaves to infuse into the sauce. Simmer for 2 minutes. Pour in the honey. Gently lie the hake fillets into the pan and cook on a gentle heat. Turn over after 2-3 minutes and cook them for another couple of minutes until cooked through.

Put the rice in bowls and place the fillet on top, pouring over the sauce, and distributing the shallots in equal measure for each bowl. Garnish with coriander and serve with a spoonful of natural yogurt.

If you like more sauce, add a tin of coconut milk just before adding the fish, and follow the process as normal.

This would work well with any other white fish, or chicken if you prefer two legs to no legs. A quick and detoxifying treat for the under-nourished and over-fed.

PINK SKY AT NIGHT

It's Turkish Delight, it's strawberry sherbet and it's diving into a pool of Daiquiri...

That's what happens after you eat James Ramsden's Pork Madras Curry, turn beetroot into muffins, and crane your unswan-like neck through your window to hum at the sunset. All powerful, all highly recommended, all rather narcotic. Time for bed.

BEETROOT MUFFINS:

A bizarre combo, an experiment, I know, but beautiful little cheese-boards, surprisingly scone-like and damn fine with a chutney and red wine.

Makes 6

75g softened butter
150g self raising flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 egg, whisked
1/2 orange, zested and squeezed
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 medium raw beetroot, grated
1/2 carrot, grated

75 ml milk

Preheat the oven to 165 degrees C. Wipe a little butter around the muffin moulds if not non-stick.

Rub the butter, flour and baking powder between the fingers until you reach a crumbly /pre-pastry like consistency. Beat the egg, orange juice and zest into the mixture, and stir with a blunt knife. Then fold in the sugar, beetroot, and carrot. Finally pour in the milk and quickly mix until all combined. The muffin dough should not be too wet, nor too dry.

Equally divide the mix into the moulds. You want them to fill just over half way.

Place them in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Check with a thin skewer to see if cooked. If it is sticky, the muffins need a little more love, if dry, they are ready to gobble.

Leave to cool slightly and serve with a good cheddar, and some in-season fig chutney.

WASTE NOT WANT NOT.

Having a fridge full of leftovers is my fortnightly joy. It is the only time you can scrape the mould off the yogurt and no-one knows the difference. The stew has lost its freshness but tastes better than it did the first time. The wrinkly apples are screaming to be put into a crumble. The stale bread in the bread bin looks the perfect friend to welsh rarebit or pappa al pomodoro. And the old cheese is at its best.

Leftovers let you be frugal yet still generous. Using them up makes you environmentally friendly without giving it a thought. And, best yet, you can be as creative as possible. And who will mind if it goes wrong? It would have only gone in the bin.

So it's time to give the old dears a second chance...

This weeks fresh(ish) leftovers are as follows:
Half a Roast Chicken, Eaten yesterday, Taken off the Bone (approx. 300g)
Stock made from the Bones
1 Rasher of Smoked Bacon
Last Batch of Homemade Yogurt
Broccoli
Three Boiled New Potatoes
1 Browning Banana
Half a Mango

And here are the old pots in the fridge that should have been used a LOOOONG time ago:
Harissa Paste
Tom Yum Soup Paste
Very Lazy Red Chillies
Thai Green Curry Paste
1 Scraping of Pesto

I'm going to try to whip as much of a dîner délicieux as I can using as many as these as possible - the fridge has been rather kind this week, I must admit. So that means the bacon and pesto will have to be left til tomorrow's sarnie, and the Harissa should probably be thrown.

So, who's for giving some life to a Thai chicken curry?

No coconut milk, you squeal? No rice? Rice we have. There is always rice. Coconut milk is also something that must always be in the larder. NEVER let it run out. Leftovers NEED coconut milk.

Curry is a great one for using up what you've got and need to get rid of. It's in the same category as soup: chuck it all in and boil it up. (But do check the sell by date just in case. Most of the time it's there for a reason).

LEFTOVER GREEN THAI CHICKEN CURRYSERVES 3

300g torn chicken
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsps green curry paste
1 450g tin of coconut milk
1 ladle of chicken stock
2 scantily chopped shallots
2 broccoli stalks, broken into smaller trees
1 tsp very lazy red chillies.
3 cooked, chopped new potatoes
half mango, sliced
three large tablespoons of natural yogurt - homemade
200g dry basmati rice

sliced banana

Warm up some olive oil, stir fry oil or sunflower oil (see what you've got) in a heavy based pan or wok. Throw in two tbsps of green curry paste, and fry for about 2 minutes, with regular stirring. Now, add the coconut milk and stock.

Make sure the chicken is skin-free and torn into medium sized strips. Add to the coconut mix. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes(If you are using raw chicken, bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through).

Add the broccoli.

Boil a pan of water and cook the rice - cooking times vary so check the packet.

Add the red chilli.

Once the broccoli is cooked, throw in the chopped new potatoes to the curry - if they are already cooked they only need a short simmer to heat up, and they are lovely in their original new potato (or old in this case) form.

Add the mango to sweeten it up - it works deliciously with chicken.

Once the rice is cooked, drain and serve in a large bowl. Ladle the curry over the rice. If you have lime, use it. Give it a good squeeze over the curry. Serve with chopped banana - trust me it's good. Dollop the leftover yogurt on top and devour.

Can't wait until next fortnight's luxury leftover load!