A Curry Weekend

I have spent the day making curry in preparation for a curry feast on Saturday. If I am satisfied with the results the recipes will be posted.

• Lamb with Plums believed to originate from the Veeraswamy Restaurant
• Lamb with coconut & potato a traditional Punjabi dish
• Pineapple Curry
• A dal (not sure what sort yet)
• Walnut, mint & yoghurt relish
• Red onion relish
• Home made lime pickle
• Home made orange pickle

Coppers' Mussels

Coppers’ Mussels
This is a really cheap and delicious dinner best eaten with your fingers

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Fresh Mussels. I allow 500g per person for a main course. This is a generous serving
½ bottle good dry white wine.
½ onion finely chopped
1tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 chilli (optional)
Large handful curly parsley - chopped
250ml double cream

Method:
Clean the mussels thoroughly in cold water. Pull off the beards. This is the hairy looking part poking from the shell. I am very fussy about preparing mussels and I insist on scraping all barnacles etc from the shell. The can be done with a blunt knife. You don’t have to be this fussy but I think the effort is worthwhile for looks and presentation and it helps to keep the broth grit free. Make sure you discard any broken shells.

Heat a large stock pot or very large saucepan. Add the oil. Then add the chopped onion and sauté until soft. Add the garlic and the chilli and fry for a couple of minutes.

Raise the heat to hot and add the mussels. Now add the wine. Put the lid on and allow to steam for about four minutes or until the mussels begin to open. When they just begin to open add the cream and the parsley. Replace the lid and toss the pan to bring the mussels on the bottom to the top and vice versa. Have a peek at them they are ready as soon as the shells open.
**Do Not Overcook**
Serve immediately. Ladle into bowls with some of the broth.

Serve with lots of fresh crusty bread and butter and lots of good dry white wine.

Wine Choice
Rueda, A white Spanish wine from Valladolid region

Note
I always clean mussels ahead of time and then keep them in a bag in the fridge.

Roast Stuffed Peaches & Amaretti

Roast Stuffed Peaches
Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 yellow peaches, skinned
2oz Amaretti (or Macaroons)
1 egg yolk
1oz butter
10z sugar
¼ pint dry white wine


Method:

Cut the peaches in half and remove the stone.
Make the hollow where the stone was a bit deeper with a teaspoon. Reserve the removed flesh
Crush the Amaretti and mix with the reserved peach flesh, egg yolk, butter and ½ oz of the sugar.
Use this stuffing mix to fill the hollows of the peach halves.
Place peaces in a lightly buttered ovenproof dish and sprinkle the rest of the sugar over. Pour over the white wine.

Bake in oven at 180 degrees C for 25-30 minutes.

This can be served hot or cold

Lamb & Cumin

A big shout for the ancient tradition of combining lamb with cumin. Despite what some TV programmes may opine, lamb and cumin work like fish & chips, strawberries & balsamic vinegar, poached pears with rosemary or lobster & vanilla (yes trust me, it's a French thing and very very good).

Cumin is much cheaper bought wholesale. Pan roast it to release the best flavour and do try black cumin. This has a much deeper far more intense flavour than ordinary cumin.

Try grinding some cumin seeds with rock salt and using as a sprinkle for your BBQ or grilled lamb cutlets served with real home made chips, very Spanish and exceptionally tasty. You could partner with a rioja or cold beer on a hot day or better still a cold Palamino Fino sherry. You will not be disapointed. Just close your eyes and you could be in a Spainish mountain town.

Slow Roast Belly of Pork

Slow Roast Belly of Pork with Potato & Celeriac

Serves 4
Pork
Ingredients:
5lb Belly of Pork. Ask the butcher to score the skin for you. This helps the crackling.
2 tsp fennel seed ground to a powder.
2 tsp salt
1 large onion
2 -3 large carrots

Pre heat oven to 240c

Potato & Celeriac
Ingredients
12 oz potatoes peeled and cut into even sized pieces
12 oz celeriac peeled and cut into even sized pieces

Method:

Skin the onion and cut into three evenly sized thick rings. Depending upon how big your carrots are you may want to cut them into large chunks.
Lay the 3 thick onion rings and carrots on bottom of a large roasting tray.

Rub the fennel and salt into the skin of the pork forcing it between the scores in the skin. Rub some into the underside of the belly.

Place pork on top of onion and carrot in roasting tray. Place in the oven, which should have been pre-heated to its hottest setting. Cook on maximum heat for 25 minutes then turn the oven to 180c

Cook at 180c for at least 3 to 3 ½ hours. A rough guide for belly pork is 30 minutes to the pound plus 30 minutes. You will need to check after 3 hours to see how its doing. On a moderate oven it really is difficult to over cook this pork.

Once cooked remove the pork from the oven. With a sharp knife remove the rib bones from the underside of the pork. Run your knife as close to the bones as you can when removing them so as not to strip away too much meat. Cover the pork with foil and leave to rest for 15-30 minutes. Make sure you rest it crackling side up otherwise the juices will drain down through the crackling and soften it.

Now with a potato masher or wooden spoon mash the vegetables in the roast pan to squeeze the goodness out of them. Add some pork stock or white wine to the pan) about ½ pint. This should help get all the blackened caramelised pieces of the roasting pan. Now add the rib bones from the pork to the roast pan. Bring it all to the boil and then turn to simmer. This is the gravy.

I always prefer to strain my gravy through a sieve and into a sauce pan and reduce a little more to concentrate the flavour

For the potato and celeriac

Put the potatoes into a pan of water. Add a little salt bring to boil and simmer until potatoes are soft and ready to mash. Drain the potato’s and return to the pan. Add some black pepper and butter and mash.

Put the celeriac into a pan of water. Add a little salt bring to boil and simmer until celeriac is soft and ready to mash. Darin the celeriac
and return to the pan. Add some black pepper and butter and mash.

Now combine the mashed potato and celeriac and mix well.
This can be made ahead of time an put in an oven proof gratin dish or similar and reheated for 30-40 minutes in the oven.


Notes:
Leave the pork a room temperature for at least an hour before cooking if it has been in the fridge.

I like to add a cup or so of dry cider or white wine to the pork after an hour or so. Just pour it into the roast pan not over the pork.

Wine Note:
This dish goes very well with Amarone. But I would think a good white burgundy or white Rioja would also work.