spiced chicken with pineapple and tomato salsa

Fry 2 chopped small onions with some chopped garlic (about 1 tbsp) in lots of olive oil over a gentle heat until soft and beginning to brown. Raise heat and add 2 tsp ground coriander, 1½ tsp ground chili, 1 tsp ground ginger, ½ tsp ground cumin, and a generous amount of salt. Stir and cook the spices until oil begins to separate (about 3 minutes). Remove from heat and allow to cool completely. Meanwhile, thoroughly chop about 6 whole coriander plants - continue chopping until they are practically liquid (or better still, use a mortar and pestle to crush the plants). When the spice mixture is completely cool, add the crushed coriander and a squeeze of lemon, then rub over some halved chicken thigh fillets (about 3 whole fillets if free-range grain-fed) and leave to marinate at room temperature for about 2 hours.
When you are nearly ready to cook the chicken, begin preparing some rice by placing 2 cups of long grain white rice into a saucepan with a little under 800ml water. Bring to the boil, cover, then reduce heat to as low as possible, and simmer for about 20 minutes without stirring or lifting lid.
While the rice is cooking, prepare the salsa by mixing a cup each of diced tomato and diced fresh pineapple with 1 chopped red onion, a generous amount of roughly chopped fresh coriander, and the grated rind of 1 lemon. Sprinkle over salt, extra virgin olive oil, and a little lemon juice, and mix thoroughly.
After rice has been cooking for 20 minutes, check to see that all the water has been absorbed, then stir with a fork, place a clean tea towel over the rim of the saucepan, replace lid, and leave to stand for 5-15 minutes.
To cook the chicken, pre-heat a char-grill pan or barbecue to high heat and char the pieces well on each side before turning down heat (or moving to a cooler part of the hotplate) and cooking through.
To serve: arrange the chicken over the rice then spoon over the salsa.

eggs with cubes and little leaves

Dice some potatoes (Desiree are ideal) and place in a pot in a single layer with just enough cold water to cover. Add salt and bring to the boil, then simmer uncovered until potato is tender. Drain and set aside. Melt over a small piece of butter and mix through with some salt and pepper. Break three eggs into a mixing bowl with a small amount of milk (no more than ¼ cup), whisk until mixture is an even yellow colour. Chop a handful of dill leaves and set aside. Melt some butter (about 20g) over low heat in a non-stick pan and whisk in eggs. Continue stirring over gentle heat with a wooden spoon until eggs are solid but still soft (not overcooked). Seconds before eggs reach the desired consistency, fold through dill then potato and a little more salt. Transfer to a plate and grind over pepper.

tamarind fish curry

First, make a paste by crushing lots of garlic with salt in a mortar, then add whole coriander plants and fresh green chili and continue pounding. Roast coriander seeds until dark, then do the same with cumin seeds (about ¼ the amount), and then again with a few fenugreek seeds. Grind the spices and add to the paste with a little ground turmeric - set aside. Cut your fish fillets (320g) with the skin still on (rainbow trout is good) into largish chunks and place them into a plastic bag with some salt and ground turmeric. Shake the plastic bag so the fish pieces are covered with the spices - set aside. Finely slice some onion (3 medium) and fry in vegetable oil or ghee until well caramelized (about 20 minutes). Remove onion and set aside to drain on some paper towel. Meanwhile steep a good chunk of tamarind pulp in some boiling water. When onions are done, briefly fry the fish pieces in remaining oil (adding more if necessary) and remove to a plate. Now, using the same pan, fry your paste gently in more oil or ghee, cook well stirring all the time and adding a little fish stock or water when the mixture sticks. When well cooked, strain tamarind liquid into the pan with some more fish stock, salt, and a little brown sugar (or better still: palm sugar) and simmer over low-medium heat until gravy has reduced a little (5-10 minutes). Add fish pieces and almost all of the reserved fried onion and simmer over low heat until fish is cooked. Garnish with remaining fried onion.

lamb stew

Using a large heavy-based pot, sweat 1 large onion (chopped) with about a tablespoon of finely chopped garlic in plenty of good olive oil. Keep this covered and cooking over gentle heat until onion is soft but not browning (stir occasionally). Throw in some diced red capsicum (about 2 medium-small), cover and continue cooking over low heat until capsicum is soft and onion is browning (25-30 minutes). Add 1-2 tablespoons Hungarian paprika, increase heat and stir-fry for a minute or two. Now add some cubed lamb (about 500g of leg or shoulder) as well as a little butter. Stir to coat meat with mixture and cook for a few minutes. Then add 1 cup of chopped tomato and cook briefly before adding some stock or water (about 1 cup to just cover meat) and a generous amount of salt and pepper. Reduce heat to as low as possible, cover and simmer for 2-3 hours.

rice noodles with minced chicken

First throw some wide flat rice noodles into plenty of boiling salted water. Stir initially then boil until just cooked (about 5 minutes). Drain noodles and rinse under cold running water to stop cooking - set aside to drain completely. Using a motar and pestle, roughly crush a handful of roasted unsalted peanuts - remove from mortar and set aside. Now pound the following together to make a paste: 2 cloves of garlic, 2 roughly chopped medium red chillis (including seeds), some roughly chopped ginger, and a generous pinch of sea salt. Now assemble the following ingredients: 1 red capsicum (chopped), 1 tomato (cut into wedges), 1 spring onion (finely sliced), some minced chicken (about 150g), fish sauce, peanut oil, bean sprouts, coriander leaves, sliced cucumber and lemon wedges. Heat wok over high heat until v. hot, pour in some peanut oil and heat until smoking (it should smoke straight away), then throw in the drained noodles and stir-fry briefly - set aside (may omit this step). Wipe wok surface and reheat. When hot, pour in some more peanut oil and stir-fry the minced chicken with the garlic paste until cooked through - set aside. Wipe and reheat wok again. Stir-fry capsicum in more scorching hot oil and add tomato after about a minute. Moisten with fish sauce (about 1 tbsp) then add reserved chicken and noodles and heat through. Transfer to a large plate and surround with cucumber slices and lemon wedges. Cover with sliced spring onion, coriander leaves, bean sprouts and crushed peanuts.

fenneled chicked

The following recipe is based on a dish described in The Medieval Kitchen, which is a fantastic collection of French and Italian Medieval recipes compiled and adapted by Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, and Silvano Serventi (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998). Fenneled Chicken is typical of Medieval cooking, particularly with its use of ground almonds as a thickening agent, an ingenious idea that yields a sauce so utterly different from the heavy flour-thickened sauces more commonly prepared today. Try your best to get free-range/grain-fed chicken (unless you actually want to grow a third breast).

Cut some free-range grain-fed chicken thigh fillets (about 750g) into large serving pieces and remove all excess fat. Brown the chicken in hot olive oil or lard, then add about 2 cups of water and a good amount of salt. Lower the heat, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, or until chicken is very tender. While chicken is cooking, grind about 2/3 cup of raw unblanched almonds in a blender, then add a generous handful each of parsley and fennel (herb) or dill, and continue grinding until mixture is paste-like. Transfer the cooked chicken to a warm serving dish and cover loosely with foil. Quickly add the almond and herb mixture to the remaining broth, raise heat and allow to boil and thicken briefly. Check the sauce for salt, then strain over chicken. You could then dust this with a mixture of ground spices such as black pepper, cinnamon, and ginger.

galette with egg, tomato, and cheese

A galette is a savoury pancake made with buckwheat flour. Be liberal with the salt in this recipe (buckwheat flour seems to need it), but don't waste your money on table salt - use salt from the sea and be proud.

First, make the galette batter by mixing into some buckwheat flour, a little olive oil and water. Have ready some very thin slices of cheddar cheese, some finely sliced spring onion, butter, sea salt, thinly sliced tomato, and an egg. Heat a small non-stick pan to scorching heat, then spread the batter fairly thinly onto the pan. When bubbles appear on the surface and underside is brown, flip the galette and quickly cover the browned side with butter and salt. When the second side is cooked, flip once again and top with cheese. Leave on heat for a minute or so to begin melting the cheese, then remove to a plate and add spring onion and tomato and a little more salt. In the same pan, heat a mixture of olive oil and butter and fry the egg to your liking. Quickly place the egg on top of the galette and add more salt if necessary.

rice, yoghurt, nuts, dried fruit, lentils, and spices

Heat a small dry pan over medium heat and throw in a large handful of semsame seeds. Shaking the pan every now and then, toast the seeds until they turn brown - do not burn. Transfer the toasted sesame seeds to a mortar or blender and grind to a fine powder.
To prepare a yoghurt sauce: grate some cucumber and squeeze out some of its excess moisture, then add it to an equal amount of natural yoghurt (Jalna is the best yoghurt you can buy, otherwise make your own). Stir through some pounded fresh garlic, sea salt, and finely diced white onion. Set sauce aside.
Heat some ghee (clarified butter) in a large pan until very hot, then add some crushed cardomom pods, crushed cloves, and cummin seeds, and fry until browned and fragrant. Add some slivered almonds, roughly crushed walnuts, and raisins, followed by some cooked basmati rice, cooked brown lentils, and sea salt. Toss until well mixed and heated through. Remove from heat and stir through reserved sesame powder. Transfer to a plate and cover with reserved yoghurt sauce and some ground dry-roasted cummin.

szechuan bean curd

Briefly blanch or steam some broccoli and cubed bean curd (tofu). Set aside. Heat your wok well and add a good amount of canola oil. Throw in lots of finely chopped garlic and some fine strips of ginger; fry momentarily (do not brown). Add some minced beef (about half the quantity of the bean curd); stir fry until browned (try and incite flaming by tilting the wok). Now add some sliced mushroom and zucchini and continue cooking until zucchini is just tender (keep it flaming if you can). Stir in a very small amount of bean paste (or miso), then add the broccoli, bean curd, and a mixture of soy sauce, brown sugar, stock (or water), corn flour, cayenne pepper, and Chinese sesame oil. Quickly let the sauce bubble and thicken.

All recipes (except Fenneled Chicken) © Alex Carpenter (2001)

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