Fennel Saffron Pilaf

This is one of my favourite accompaniments to Indian curries - so I thought I would give it a post of its own instead of sharing with another dish!

I made this last night to go with my left-over curry - excuse the rubbish dark photo, I don't know why it turned out like that... but was so hungry I was rushing too much to try to fix it!

You can use a stock instead of water - but I am usually too lazy - and it doesn't really need it!

Fennel Saffron Pilaf

• Basmati rice
• 1 tsp fennel seeds per portion
• 1/2 tsp tumeric per portion
• 1 tsp salt
• pinch saffron (it is a strong flavour, be careful not to go overboard with this!)
• Olive oil
• ghee

Heat the ghee and olive oil in a saucepan with a tightfitting lid. (Using ghee on it's own can be a bit overpowering, but it's nice to use a bit!)

Add the fennel seeds and fry until they start to brown. Add the basmati and fry for a couple of minutes. Keep it moving so all the grains get coated, and to stop it sticking or burning.

Add the tumeric, saffron and salt then mix well. CAREFULLY pour boiling water over the rice (it will spatter!) In my pot the water should come about an inch above the surface of the rice - you might need to experiment a little til you get it perfect with your pot. Don't worry if you add a bit much or little - it can be fixed later!

Cover and leave to cook for 10 minutes. After this time is up, remove the lid and check how cooked the rice is. You also want to check the water situation - using a fork, pull the grains away from the side of the pot and see if any water is left at the bottom.

Hopefully the rice is perfectly cooked and the water is pretty much gone (a little bit left is ok). In which case, mix well, replace the lid, turn off the heat and leave for 5 minutes. This really helps the rice fluff up.

If the rice isn't cooked yet, add a bit more water if required, replace cover and cook for another couple of minutes.

If its cooked but there is water left, pour the excess off, mix rice well, replace lid and leave for 5 minutes.

Voila!

No Croutons Required: Chillies, Spice and All Things Nice

Hmmm...

So yesterday I realised that the deadline for No Croutons Required is fast approaching. Spicy vegetarian soup. I can do that. In fact, I make spicy soup pretty much every week - at least once. I had already made spicy Thai soup in the last week for Presto Pasta Night. Yay - an excuse to make more soup!

I considered various options. Asian soup was out - I made some pretty recently and I had it for lunch yesterday! Hmmm... spicy lentil soup, tomato soup? Nah, wasn't feeling the lentil/tomato love...

I realised that what I actually wanted was curry. A thick, smooth, spicy, rich curry soup...

So I have adapted one of my favourite curry recipes, and turned it into a soup. It is still pretty much a whole-meal soup - the potatoes and chickpeas add some real bulk. Serve with some nan bread, and you're sorted!

It wasn't until I took the pictures that I realised that my soup looks very similar to last month's NCR entry... So now I feel like I'm being dull and unoriginal... Am I a one-soup pony?? Tune in next month to see if I can escape the spinach!

Curried Chickpea & Spinach Soup with a Cilantro and Chilli Drizzle

Makes a lot of soup! Probably 4 big bowls - or 6 normal ones...

• 400g tin tomatoes
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 medium/large onions
• 3 tbsp ghee
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 piece fresh ginger (about 2 inch long)
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tbsp ground coriander
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1 tbsp tumeric
• 500 ml vegetable bouillion
  
• Large bag spinach, washed
• 3 green chillies
• small handful of chopped cilantro
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 medium potatoes, diced
• 400g tin chickpeas
• 1 tsp garam masala

Heat the ghee, chop both the onions, and fry over a medium for about 15 minutes, until soft.

Meanwhile, peel and roughly chop the ginger and garlic. In a liquidiser or blender, blitz the ginger and garlic with the tomatoes and about a quarter of the stock. Once the onions are ready, add them to the tomato mix and blitz it all to a smooth puree.

Return the puree to the pan, add the salt and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the chilli powder, paprika, turmeric, ground cumin and ground coriander and mix thoroughly. Simmer for another 15 minutes.

Add the diced potatoes and chickpeas, then gradually stir in the stock until you get the consistency you want. (I kept it pretty thick - it was going to be my dinner!) Continue to cook until the potatoes are soft.

Meanwhile, wilt the spinach and blend to a puree. Add to the soup, taste and adjust seasoning if required. Add the garam masala.

To make the cilantro chilli drizzle, blend the cilantro with the chillies and olive oil.

Serve the soup with a drizzle of ... erm... drizzle (!) and garnish with a few cilantro leaves and a sprinkle of cumin!

Moroccan Marinated Chicken with Tabbouleh

I'm a bit late in actually publishing this one - considering I started it at the same time I wrote up my Tabbouleh recipe! And it is barely even a recipe - more just a bringing together of components!

This was my effort for last week's girlie night in - a taste of summer despite the rain that poured down for most of the week...

Moroccan Marinated Chicken with Tabbouleh

• Chicken breasts - one per person
• chermoula - one tbsn per person
• a little olive oil for frying
• tabbouleh - as much as you want!

• optional extras - lightly toasted pita bread, hummus, wedge of lemon

Place the chicken breast between 2 sheets of clingfilm and use a rolling pin/ jam jar/ bottle of wine/ shoe to flatten it out to about 2 cm thick. (Though don't really use a shoe...)

Spread the chermoula onto the chicken breasts and massage in. (Garlic and chilli alert: wash your hands straight away! Or try this tip - massage a little olive oil into your hands and nails before you handle the sauce - this will stop the chilli/garlic oil being absorbed into your skin)

Cover and place in the fridge for at least a couple of hours - I left mine overnight.

Heat a little olive oil over a medium heat and fry the chicken for 2/3 minutes each side. Make sure there is no pink left - but be careful not to overcook or it will go tough and stringy!

Serve the chicken on top of the tabbouleh, with a wedge of lemon and some hummus and pita bread.

Yummy Scrummy AND healthy! Mmmm... Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh - the first time I tried it, I found it so-so. Nice idea, nice ingredients... but in the end, wasn't it just a bit.... bland? Some years later I visited a local Lebanese restaurant - where Tabbouleh formed part of an amazing mixed starter plate. I was shocked with it arrived. Instead of a pile of bulgar wheat, it was full of herbs, beautifully soft parsley - with just a hint of cilantro. Mmmm... I can still remember even bypassing my beloved hummus to eat it. it was that good.

So when I was deciding what to do with the rest of my chermoula, I decided to stick with the North African theme and even though the weather was cold outside, go for this beautiful salad.

It isn't entirely authentic - I do add a touch of garlic - just because I like it! And I wasn't too happy with how it turned out - there was too much tomato (and it was chopped too big), the parsley wasn't chopped quite finely enough, and my local greengrocer was out of cilantro. But after 2 hours resting in the fridge it still ended up tasting lovely!

Tabbouleh

Serves 4

• 1 cups bulgar wheat (I used the medium grade)
• 1 large bunch parsley, thoroughly washed
• 3 large tomatoes (I used 5 - too much!)
• 1 small clove of garlic (optional)
• 1 red onion
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of one lemon
• Salt and pepper

Cover the bulgar wheat with cold water, and leave for 20/30 minutes. If you have a thicker grade bulgar wheat you may have to leave it longer!

Blanch and remove the skins from the tomatos. Quarter them and discard seeds before dicing finely.
Finely chop the garlic and red onion.
Using a knive, finely chop the parsley - including the stocks. I think I left about 2 inches of stock left from my bunch - you don't want the really tough bits.

Mix the herbs, tomatoes, onion and garlic with the bulgar wheat, add the lemon juice and a couple of glugs of extra virgin olive oil. Add a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper.

Cover and put in the fridge for a couple of hours to let the flavours mingle. After this time, give it a good mix, taste and adjust seasoning if required.

Serve with Moroccan chicken like I did, or with hummus and pita bread for a light lunch or supper!

Spicy Moroccan Chermoula

Chermoula is a North African marinade, commonly used to flavour fish in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. There seems to be loads of regional variants - I didn't find two recipes the same when I was looking for ideas! The main basis always seemed to be lemon juice, cilantro and garlic - then I took my favourites from the other to make my own Brighton variation... hot, spicy and very garlicky! Feel free to adjust quantities to taste. I also did this using both my mortar and pestle (for the dry) and mini-blender (for the wet) - but it could be done by hand or in a blender - whatever you would usually use to make pesto I guess!

It can be used as a marinade for fish, veg or meat. I also used it as a basis for a sauce (recipe to follow!), and heard the some people use it as a seasoning! If you follow my quantities, be careful though - there is a fair whack of garlic there, and if it isn't cooked out you'll keep more than the vampires away...

Spicy Moroccan Chermoula

• 1 large bunch cilantro
  
• 5 cloves garlic
• 2 red chillies
• 1 lemon
• a couple of glugs of olive oil
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
• 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
• 1 pinch saffron
• 1 tsp paprika

In a pan, fry off the coriander and cumin seeds until you can smell the aromas being released. Transfer to the mortar and pestle along with the salt, and grind to a fine powder.

A couple of the recipes I saw suggested picking the leaves from the cilantro, and discarding the stalks, but the Scot in me baulked at this waste - they have so much taste! Instead, I picked most of the leaves from the bunch, then blitzed the stalks to a fine purée in my mini-blender (Add a few drops of olive oil to loosen if required.)

Transfer the blitzed stalks to a small mixing bowl, along with the spices.

Now, pulse the chillies and garlic to a fairly fine purée and add to the mix. I left the seeds in because I wanted it HOT. But feel free to take them out and save your palette!

Grate the zest from the lemon, and add that, along with the juice from the lemon to the bowl.

I then finely chopped the cilantro leaves by hand. I wanted to keep some roughness to the marinade - and it only took a minute - but feel free to do this in the blender to save time :)

Now mix all the ingredients together, adding olive oil until you get the consistency you want. Again - this seems to change depending on recipe - but I decided to make mine to pesto consistency.

Very carefully, taste and adjust seasoning as required.

I read that this should keep for 3 days in the fridge - but that it is also freezable. If I'd had enough left after 2 days I would have tried to freeze it in ice-cube trays for easy defrost!

An Accidental dinner: Chermoula Trout with Puy Lentil Veggie Stew

As I had bought a huge bunch of cilantro (just so I could garnish my thai soup) I was determined to not waste it, and went on a cilantro-rich recipe hunt! I typed in "coriander recipe" (having briefly forgotten my lesson) into google, and my googlepedia found me this Wikipedia article on Chermoula.

Yuck, I think that is quite enough links for now...

So anyway, I was initially planning to use a decent piece of white fish with my chermoula marinade, and make a cous cous salad to go with it.

But I saw an amazing piece of Scottish trout at the fishmongers - rich pink with the finest marble lines. And was reminded how much I love trout. I much prefer it to salmon. My grandfather used to be a fisherman, and my childhood holds many memories of whole trout (along with the occasional rabbit - never worked that one out actually). I don't think I appreciated it enough at the time though!

I had a think - and decided that the trout could hold the strong flavours of the marinade - and the unlikely (yet delicious!) combo of Scottish trout with Moroccan marinade was born! If you can't get a hold of trout, I'm sure salmon would work similarly.

I got home, and hit a set back. The cous cous that I need to make my vegetable cous cous side... was gone! No idea where. I definitely don't remember eating a whole packet of cous cous. So I decided to go for bulgar wheat instead.... but was similarly denied. I think there is a grocery thief with very precise requirements at work in my kitchen. Alternatively, it was fate, because although i finally decided on puy lentils through lack of choice - the earthy lentils with the slightly gamey taste of the fish and the super spicy and garlicky flavours of the marinade were really, really good!

What I'm trying to say, is this is not a dish I would have chosen to put together, but it's definitely one I'll put together again!

Chermoula Trout with Puy Lentil Veggie Stew

This gave me enough fish for one big meal - though there was loads of veggie lentils left over - I had that the next day - I added a handful of black olives, and ate with hummus and pita bread. So it may not have been authentic, but it tasted great!

• 250g piece trout (or salmon!)
• 1 cup puy lentils
• 1 small courgette, halved and sliced
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 1 medium carrot, grated
• 1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 1 red chilli, sliced
• a couple of handfuls of mushrooms, quartered
• 2 tbsp chermoula
• 2 cups stock - whatever flavour takes your fancy
• Olive oil to fry

Rinse and drain the puy lentils, before placing in a pan with the stock. Bring to the boil, simmer for 15 minutes. add 1 tbsp of the chermoula and continue to cook until al dente. The stock should not be completely evaporated - we want this to help form a sauce with the vegetables.

Meanwhile, heat a glug of olive oil in a pan, and fry the onion for a couple of minutes. Add 1 tbsp chermoula, the chilli and mushrooms and fry until mushrooms are done. Add the pepper and courgette and cook for a few more minutes - the pepper should still have a bit of bite!

Add the carrots and lentils to the pan and stir to mix. Allow to cook for another couple of minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning as required.

Serve the fish atop the lentils - and enjoy!

Home Coming Thai Noodle Soup!

I survived!

I have just returned from a week's skiing in Obertauern, Austria - and have made it home pretty much in tact... although I do have some very attractive bruises. Especially on my butt from where A pushed me off the chairlift... (apparently it was an accident...)

So now I'm home, washing done, cats treated and mollycoddled to make up for the neglect. It's after midday, and I'm in my PJs, about to start looking through my Google reader to see what new fabulous recipes have been concocted in my absence. (Current unread sat at 237!)

But before I do, here's a quick post of some thai noodle soup I made last night when I got home. After the stodge of Austrian cuisine, I was desparate for something light and spicy! Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy the stodge - more to follow on that later (homemade cheese spatzel with roast onions anyone??)!
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Oops... I got sidetracked! And now it's no longer Sunday, but Monday night - and I have even survived the first day back to work! Still not had a chance to catch up on my food blogs though...

Anyway - back to the recipe... and I'm going to send this over to Ruth at Once Upon a Feast for Presto Pasta Night!

Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

Makes one huugge bowl - or two normal sized ones...

• 1 large banana shallot, halved and finely sliced
• 1 small clove garlic, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger, grated
• 1 tbsp thai curry paste (I used green, but anyone would do!)
• Half a red pepper, sliced
  
• 1 chicken breast, finely sliced
• Handful of mushrooms, quartered
• 1 small courgette, sliced and halved!
• 165ml tin coconut milk
  
• 350ml chicken stock
• 1 portion rice noodles
  
• 1 thai red chilli, sliced
• Small handful cilantro, roughly chopped
• fishsauce to taste
  
• light soy sauce to taste
• lime juice to taste
  

Heat a small glug of olive oil in a pan, then gently fry the shallot, ginger and garlic for a couple of minutes, then add the mushrooms and thai curry paste and fry til done.

Meanwhile, cook noodles according to packet, drain and rinse.

Chuck in the rest of the veg, the stock, coconut milk and the chicken. Bring to the boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook for 5 minutes, or until chicken is done.

Add noodles, taste and adjust seasoning with fish sauce and soy sauce. Dish up and garnish with the red chilli and cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice!