Home cured trout – Gravadtrout?

Trout and watercress are plentiful in our area of Hampshire.  The farmshop I make watercress bread, soup, & pesto for have large trout for £1.25 each.  They are pink like salmon, so I just had to give curing a go.

1 trout, filleted
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
2 capfuls of gin, whiskey or vodka (optional)
1tbsp chopped dill (optional)

Curing trout, or salmon is just so simple.  Lay the fillets flat side by side on a large piece of cling film.  Stroke your hand from the tail end up to feel for any bones and pull these out with a pair of tweezers.  Mix the sugar and salt in a small bowl then pat this all over the flesh of the fillets.  Dribble over any alcohol if using then sandwich the two fillets together and wrap tightly in cling film and place in a tupperware container (as the curing liquid will leak out).  After 24 hours turn the package over so both sides get fully cured.

After 2 days rinse the fillets and pat dry.  Slice finely if at all possible. Keeps for up to a week

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry
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Finished off the last of last year’s Damson Brandy last night to clear out the kilner jar to start this year’s Blackberry Brandy.

The process, roughly based on the recipe for Sloe Gin in my mum’s Food for Free book by Richard Mabey, is 1 cheap 75cl bottle of brandy, 500g of berries, 250g of sugar.  Leave to stew for a month or so then get sampling.

Last year’s brandy soaked damsons will be pitted, pureed, and frozen in ice cube trays to be added to vanilla ice cream as the mood takes me.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry

Curried Currant, Cashew Nut & Carrot Couscous Salad

All the C’s.  Just realised as I typed it out.

 ——-

With an hours notice, my brother-in-law who does not cook, rang yesterday to ask me to knock up a couscous salad with some cashews in.

A quick google, whilst feeding my disabled daughter breakfast, and I turned up an enticingly sounding curried cashew nut and currant salad.  I simply added carrots to give it a little more colour, and possibly would add some thinly sliced fried or raw onion next time to give it a little more kick.

As it is an American recipe, and me being me, I altered the original recipe to suit what I have at home.  The recipe was in US cup measurements.  I do have these, but I’ve just discovered making it that a mug is pretty much the same as a cup if you don’t have cup measures to hand.

Serves 4-6

1 cup couscous
1/2 cup raisins, currants, or sultanas
1/2 cup cashew nuts, roughly chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp curry powder or paste
2 medium carrots, grated

Place the couscous, currants, cashew nuts, curry powder, oil, and salt in a warmed serving dish with a lid. Pour over the same amount of boiling water as couscous i.e. one mug or cup.  Cover and leave to stand for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes fluff the couscous up with a fork and add the grated carrot.  Taste to check  seasoning, adding more salt, oil, or curry powder as required. The original recipe only said one teaspoon of curry powder but I found that I could not taste it a tall in this amount of initially bland couscous!

My brother in law was very impressed and claimed some of the leftovers for a weekday lunch.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry

Spiced Plum Jam

Joining a Facebook conversation about the amount of fruit falling unused on the pavements around our town, I ended up with 5lbs of free plums on my doorstep last week. I made Spiced Plum Chutney with half, and was so taken with the flavour I decided to make a sweet spiced jam with the other half.
tesco.com has a very simple recipe and the jam has a lovely autumny/wintery spice taste to it.

900g stoned and chopped plums
900g granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp butter (to clarify)

Place a saucer in the freezer.

Put the stoned and chopped plums in a wide stainless steel pan or preserving pan with 150ml water.  Bring to the boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the fruit is soft.  As I had frozen my plums, they were soft enough to skip this step.

Wash and sterilise your jars and lids as soon as the jam goes on.  I reuse the ‘pop up’ style lids as these help seal the jam and allow you to keep it in a dark place for 1+ years. Wash jars and lids in hot soapy water, rinse well and drain.  Place the jars in a cold oven, let it heat up to 140C and then leave for 10 minutes at this heat or until your ready to pot up.  Place the lids in a pan with boiling water and boil for 10 minutes to sterilise.

Add the sugar and stir over a low heat until all the sugar has dissolved.  Stir in the cinnamon and ginger and bring to a rolling boil.  Boil rapidly for 10 minutes without stirring.  With a spoon, pour a little onto the chilled saucer.  After a few seconds push the jam with your finger.  If it wrinkles, it is ready.  If not, return to the boil for another 5 minutes and test again, stirring from time to time.  It took about 20 minutes when I made this jam this afternoon, and I did have to stir it to stop it catching on the bottom of the pan especially towards the end of cooking.

When ready remove from the heat.  Stir in the butter which should make any scum ‘vanish’.  Take your jars out of the oven and fill right to the brim.  Seal immediately with your sterilised lids and leave to cool.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry

Madhur Jaffrey’s Green Bean Curry

A glut of green beans, even though I didn’t manage to grow any of my own this year, together with the decision to have a curry night this week had me googling bean curry.  But in the end the recipe I chose was from my mother’s 1987 edition of Madhur Jaffrey’s ‘An Invitation to Indian Cookery, first published in 1976.

There were several recipes for beans (Green Beans with Ginger and Green Beans with Mustard) in this book, but I settled on ‘Green Beans with Onion Paste’ as I wanted a curry with more of a sauce.

1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans (I used 500g and this was plenty)
1 medium-sized onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
A piece of fresh ginger, about 1 inch square, coarsely chopped
1 medium-sized canned tomato, coarsely chopped (I used a tin of chopped tomatoes)
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
10 tablespoons vegetable oil (Err, used about 2 tbps)
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon whole black mustard seeds (I couldn’t find any so used onion seeds)
Optional – 1 or 2 whole dried red peppers OR 1/2 hot fresh green chili sliced in half OR 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I used 1/2 tsp hot chilli flakes)
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
2 teaspoons lemon juice (I did not add any, yet the curry had a surprisingly light lemony taste?!)

Slice the beans into 1cm thick slices.

Peel and roughly chop the onion, garlic, ginger, and turmeric and blend together with the tomatoes to a smooth paste.

Here Madhur Jaffrey’s recipe fries the onion paste and beans separately, frying the paste in 6 tbsp of oil for 5 minutes adding 1 tbsp of water at a time if it starts to stick and then adding the ground coriander and cumin.  She then fries the cumin and mustard seeds in the remaining oil until they pop then adds the beans and onion paste from the other pan together with the remaining ingredients to taste.

Having cooked all day, I could not be bothered with two pans and opted for a one pan option, choosing to fry the green beans as above with the cumin and what turned out to be black onion seeds, and then poured over the paste and added the other ingredients.  I also added a can full of recently boiled water to make more sauce.

I simmered the sauce for about 20 minutes.  Madhur Jaffrey’s recipe, however, says 35 minutes, saying “In India we tend to overcook [green beans]…mainly to kill germs and because we love spices.  We like our spices to permeate a vegetable and this cannot happen unless a vegetable is allowed to become fairly tender.  When you finish this recipe, your beans with not look bright green, nor will they be very crisp.  They will be a brownish dark-green, smothered in spices, and utterly delicious.’

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry

Homemade Creme de Cassis or Blackcurrant Liqueur

Should start off by saying that this is still Work in Progress as I only started my first ever attempt at making Creme de Cassis at the weekend, and it’s going to be another few months before I can try it.

I am following this recipe from The Telegraph, but I scaled it down for the 35cl bottle of vodka, and amount of blackcurrants, I had.

When ready, pour a dash into white wine to make Kir, or into Champage/Prosecco to make Kir Royale.

******

2.5 lb/1.1kg blackcurrants
20 very small blackcurrant leaves
1.75 pints/1 litre spirits (eg, gin, vodka or eau de vie)
1.5 lb/675g granulated sugar
5fl oz/140ml water

Wash the blackcurrants, discarding the stalks. Allow them to dry throughly, then put them into a large glass jar and add the blackcurrant leaves. Pour over the spirit, which should cover the fruit completely. Leave to steep for 4-5 months or longer.

Strain the contents of the jar (keeping the alcohol) and remove the leaves. Whizz the blackcurrants in a food processor and strain through muslin. Mix the strained fruit with the purple alcohol.

Dissolve the sugar in the water over a low heat, then simmer gently for 5 minutes to make a thick syrup. Cool. Pour slowly into the blackcurrant mixture, stirring continuously. Taste and stop adding syrup when the liqueur seems sweet enough. Pour into bottles and seal.

It will improve with age.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry

Sweet & Sour Vegetables with Noodles

A quick Sweet & Sour dish I learnt in Thailand. It’s a great way to vegetables into kids, even if you have to resort to selling it as ‘it’s got ketchup in’.

Below is the recipe as taught to me but I often use different vegetables depending on what I have left over. I always use carrot and pineapple, plus sometimes pak choi, cabbage, kale, red pepper. The list is endless. And again I usually add noodles, but you could serve this over rice.

Serves 2 greedy adults or 4 children

1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
100g cauliflower, cut into bite sized pieces
1 carrot
1 cucumber
8 baby corn
220g pineapple chunks (keep the juice)
70g snow peas or green beans
1 chopped red chilli (optional) or 1 tsp hot chilli flakes
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped (optional)
1 tbsp cooking oil
2 layers of noodles

Sauce
2 tbsp lime or lemon juice
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
6 tbsp tomato ketchup
50ml reserved pineapple juice + water or stock

Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet. Drain when cooked and leave in cold water to stop them cooking and sticking.

Mix the sauce ingredients together in a bowl apart from the juice/water.

Prepare the cauliflower, carrot, snow peas, and baby corn and chop into bite sized pieces.

Put the oil into a wok and fry the garlic over a high heat until it starts to turn brown. Add the onion and stir fry. Add the cauliflower and carrot followed by the cucumber, baby corn and pineapple and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the chillies, tomatoes and peas and stir fry for another minute until all the vegetables are cooked. Add the sauce ingredients and noodles and stir to combine. Add as much or as little of the reserved juice/water to make it the consistency you like. Serve immediately.

Cooked chicken or pork can be added at the start with the garlic if wished.

The trick is to prepare everything before hand as once you start stir frying the dish is pretty much done in a matter of minutes.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry

Rhubarb & Ginger Jam

11 years ago we bought a house with an all but abandoned veg patch.  There were three large rhubarb clumps.  When I made three distinct raised bed around the crudely dug earth, I divided the rhubarb and replanted it in several places in my revitalised veg patch presuming it would not all survive.  It did, and so now I have more rhubarb than I know what to do with.  Usually I chutney it, marmalade it.  But this year in addition to selling it for a pittance, I have made jam with it.  To be followed by rhubarb syrup to have with prosecco.

Rhubarb & Ginger Jam
Makes 4x 450g jars

1kg rhubarb (forced pink rhubarb would give this jam a nicer pink colour!)
1kg sugar
1 lemon
40g root ginger

Trim, wash and chop the rhubarb into 1cm wide pieces.  Place in a large plastic or ceramic mixing bowl, grate over the zest of the lemon and the ginger, or puree the ginger with the lemon juice and a little water.  Keep the lemon pips!  Add the sugar and mix well.  Leave for 2 hours, stirring from time to time, for the sugar to dissolve into the rhubarb juices.

After 2 hours place the contents of the bowl, together with the lemon pips tied inside a piece of muslin, into a large saucepan.  Bring to the boil then simmer quickly for 20-30 minutes until the jam as reached setting point.  Test this by placing a little jam on a saucer that has been in the freezer and seeing whether it wrinkles when you push it across the plate with your finger.

The recipe I based mine on said use jam making sugar, which has added pectin which helps jam set,  as rhubarb is low in pectin and only simmer for 10-15 minutes.  But I simply used white granulated sugar and setting point seemed to be after about 30 minutes of simmer, and the jam is still slightly runny.

Pour into sterlised jars when both the jars and jam are still hot and seal immediately.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry

Indian Mango Chutney

9 year old Sprout has announced she likes Mango Chutney so I just had to try and make some.  Recipe is off the web but apparently from Madhur Jaffrey.  I didn’t have green mangoes, just overripe juicy ones.  Plus I used pickling vinegar as I forgot to get cider vinegar.  Oh well, here goes nothing…

2 large green mangoes
2 tsp salt
2-4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 inch fresh ginger, chopped
12 floz cider vinegar or distilled white vinegar
14 oz granulated sugar
4 tbsp golden sultanas
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Peel mangoes and dice.  Sprinkle 1tsp salt over and leave for 24 hours.   As my mangoes were very ripe I didn’t do this, but I am now wondering whether sprinkling my very soft mango with salt might help keep what little crunch it had.  If you do salt the mango, drain and pat it dry after 24 hours.

Put garlic and ginger into processor with a little vinegar and blitz into a smooth paste.  Add the rest of the vinegar, sugar, sultanas, turmeric, cayenne, 1 tsp salt, and the ginger and garlic paste and bring to the boil.  Simmer without a lid for 15 minutes or until slightly thick.  Add the chopped mango and simmer for a further 20-30 minutes until the mango looks translucent and the chutney has thickened some more.  Check seasoning and pour into sterilised jars.

Apparently this chutney can be eaten immediately, but most ‘British’ chutneys say leave for 3 months before eating.  Equally the instructions are to store this chutney in the fridge even before opening, but one will join my other varieties in the garage until it’s time comes.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry

Thai Jungle Curry with Pork

Unusually for nowadays the kids ate something different to us at their tea time because they had a friend round for tea. So that gave me the opportunity to try something new for the grown-ups. I am due to cook a Thai curry for my curry night in a few weeks so I thought I’d try a different Thai dish and jungle curry seemed just the ticket, with relatively few ingredients and a short cooking time. This is a soupy curry.

Serves 4
400g diced pork
2 tbsp cooking oil
2 tbsp red curry paste (recipe I based this on said 4tbsp!)
1 aubergine, diced (I didn’t have any so used spring greens!)
1/2 mug peas or sliced beans
10cm ginger, finely sliced
2 baby corn cut into about 3 (optional)
400ml chicken stock (or water)
4tbsp fish sauce
5 kaffir lime leaves , stems removed and finely sliced
1/2-1 tsp dried chilli flakes
Holy basil (optional)

Fry the curry paste in the cooking oil for a couple of minutes then add the pork and add for another couple of minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients, apart from the peas/beans and holy basil if using, together with the chicken stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes then add the remaining ingredients and simmer for another 5 minutes. Check the seasoning and add more salt/fish sauce as required. Serve over Thai fragrant rice.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry