Sweet Ham with Red Cabbage

I even ate the fat

getting closer to christmas and i start to crave that deep salty cloviness that finds it's way into every dish - time for ham. classic and festive, with little musty twangs of heat and a glossy cryalised honey finish - the parsnips cook in the ham fat and absorb all those lovely salty juices while camamalising ever so slightly from the melted honey. the sweet and fresh crunchiness of the red cabbage cuts through the saltiness of the ham and adds a nice bright lift to the dish.

Ham

650g Smoked gammon joint

10-12 cloves

3 tlbsps honey (manuka)

3-4 tbsp mustard

2 shallots

100g sliced parsnips

1 pear (quartered)

fresh tymne

1 tsp salt

black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180degrees. Chop the ends of the shallots and cut them in half width wise. Place on baking tray with sliced pear and some oil. Pierce the ham with little holes - put a clove in each hole. Cover the ham with a little olive oil, mustard, honey, sprinkle with tymne and salt and pepper.  Place on top of the sliced shallots on the baking tray (shallots should act as a platform). Place the parsnips around the ham, drizzle with Olive oil. Cook in the oven on the middle shelf for 35 minutes. Check a couple of times during cooking, add a little more honey and mustard if looks dry. Let stand for 20minutes before carving.

Red cabbage

2 handfuls of finely chopped red cabbage

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp salt

50g butter

2 sprigs of fresh tymne 

2 handfuls of spinach

Heat butter in a pan. Add red cabbage and salt and pepper. Cooked with lid on pan for 5minutes. Add spinach and balsamic vinegar and a drop more butter. Cook for 2 minutes. Serve.

Steamed Mussels

I ate a kilo of mussels

Every menu I came across in my 24 hours in France last week had em on it, and now that I've noticed, they're everywhere. It's mussel season. 1 kilo later, I'm still craving drinking white wine sauce out of tiny  crescent shell. Super quick but with that visage of fancy, cooking mussels is a sinch. Especially good if you make a big bucket full to share.

1 kilo of mussels 

175 mls white wine

5 shallots (finely chopped)

2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

2 tblsp butter

100ml of single cream (this is controversial)

handful of parsley

squeeze of lemon

Scrub the mussels in cold water and pull the beards (thin stringy bit) off. Give any open ones a hard tap. If they close and stay closed keep them, if they stay open chuck them out. Heat the butter in a big pot, when it starts to foam add the chopped shallots and saute for 10mins (ish). Add the garlic. Turn the heat up. Add the wine (it should sizzle). Add the cream. Add the mussels. Cover with a lid and cook for 5 minutes. They should all have opened. Squeeze with lemon and sprinkle with parsley. Ready.

Marinated Aubergine

I need food to wake me up

The sprightliness of the lemon and chili gives a lovely little wake up call on a Sunday afternoon. The aubergine which just came into season gets all tender and smokey in the oven and after being doused in the marinade for a couple of hours makes the most tangy and heartwarming post all nighter hangover cure.

 

1 large aubergine (sliced in half width wise, then each half in half again and sliced into crescents)

Marinade

Juice of 1 1/2 lemons 

2 cloves of garlic (thinly sliced)

1 red chili

handful of fresh basil

4 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 220 / gas mark 7. Cut up the aubergine and put on baking tray, drizzle with some olive oil. Bake for 15-18minutes, should turn golden on top. Make the marinade by combining all the ingredients in a big bowl. Add the cooked aubergine and leave for 2 hours. Eat whenever

Lemon Drizzle Cake

It's probably wrong to give a cake as a birthday present and then sneak a slice for the road.

Summer tastes like lemons. The only way to eat cake in summer is to make it so light it floats and so sweet and tangy you squint.  This cake is just like that.

115g unsalted butter
2 cups caster sugar
3 medium eggs
Juice and Zest of 2 lemons

2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Lemon Drizzle
Juice and zest of 2 lemons
1 cup Castor sugar

Lemon Icing
Juice and Zest of 1 lemon
2 cups icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Butter a 9inch cake tin. Cream the butter and sugar in a blender until fluffy. Add the eggs and 2 lemons and their zest. In separate bowl sift the flour and baking powder and salt. Fold this into your wet mix. Pour into cake tin and put in the oven for 30-40mins (until golden on top and a skewer comes out clean). Take out of the over and prick all over with a cocktail stick or a fork. Pour over the lemon drizzle. Let the cake cool out of tin. After 30 Min's add the lemon icing on top.

Karahi Panneer & Lamb Bhuna

Midweek Feasting Not Advised

Lately I've got all obsessed with Madhur Jaffrey and Anjuman Anand their dishes are all brilliant yellows and pomegranate dew but with a homeliness and warmth that shines through as though the dishes have a history back to forever. Time to learn how to cook Indian food (although I wouldn't recommend making the amount I have listed here, unless your ready for some serious overeating mind highs, where you literally roll around and squirm on the floor pathetically for about 1 - 2 hours post feasting)

Naan Bread (makes 6)

Cucumber Raita 

Mango Chutney

Their recipes are really easy to follow, Madhur Jaffrey's naan bread was so mellow it was almost creamy in taste. My Raita didn't work out as well as planned, but I didn't quite follow the recipe as I was really craving cucumber and went for it instead of the beetroot twist.

Karahi Paneer

The Karahi Paneer, is heavy on oil. Which was kinda of exciting (8 tbl spoons). There's hardley ever a recipe I use that's not for cake that actually allows me to use that amount without niggling guilt. It looked fantastic, the oil draws the flavour out of the spices and it became rich and glossy. Unless you are serving it as a main as a vegetarian dish I would ditch the paneer (if it's shop bought like mine, kinda bland) and add some more peppers in.

Lamb Bhuna

Lamb Bhurna. Star of the show. So I learnt that Bhuna is a method where a sauce is cooked and cooked and cooked (1 hour 1/2 ) until it reduces and becomes so thick it just clings to the meat and you end up with a dry-ish dish. It really works, the lamb was cooked to perfection and packed right the way through with flavour and wowness. I'm speechless.

In no way does this photo do justice to the food
(I promise it did taste kinda out of this world)

Chorizo and Butterbean Stew

I got home from Valencia a few days ago, full of food gossip, but all my mum wanted to talk about was Rick Stein's Spain (BBC2, Wednesday's 8pm). I can't really blame her, I caught my first glimpse this evening, and within a few minutes I could smell pimento spice and taste that Iberico ham melting in my mouth, I got pang's for the salty sticky bit that attaches itself to the paella pan and you have to scrape off with a spoon. So, all swept up in his enthusiasm I made this lovely little stew, and if you close your eyes (for a second) while it's cooking you could be right there leaning over your table in a tapas bar, with loud chatter and red wine, as this is set down before you and you tuck in with a sweep of bread and a dollop of alioli.

2 tblsp olive oil
2 -3 cloves of garlic
1/2 hot red chili
2 tblsp paprika
2 tblsp pimento powder (key ingredient)
1 tin of black eyed beans
1 tin of butter beans
1/2 aubergine (finely diced)
2 cups of chicken stock
50mls boiling water
1 tblsp tomato puree
200g thick sliced chorizo

Heat olive oil, add garlic and chili. sizzle. Add paprika, add pimento powder. Add the black beans and the butter beans. Then add the aubergine. Add the stock, water and puree. Cook down for 10-15minutes. Then fry up the chorizo separately and add that to the pan leave to cook for another 15-20minutes, or as long as you can bare. As the flavours cook and the sauce thickens is created smokey depth and infused the beans with heaps of flavour, so the butter beans slightly darken in colour and creates a lovely sweet and spicy kick.

BBQ Shack, Worlds End Pub, London Road, Brighton, UK

Reviewed 05/08/2011
World's End pub, 60-61 London Road, Brighton (01273 275 757)

Well, I'd been hearing these rumours for a while, slowly I was building up this weird ' I wish I knew' crush for BBQ shack. I'd talk to total strangers about how 'I'd heard' they did these mouthwatering 18 hour slow cooked ribs. Homemade BBQ sauce. The best slaw this side of 'the pond'. It was getting desperate. The final blow, Jay Raynor from the gaurdian writes a review - I felt left out.

QUICK. The ques will be un heard of.

Well, nah, not really. BBQ shack run's out of the Worlds ends pub,  up London Road, you'd feel out of place with anything other than a flat shoe and even wearing a clean t-shirt felt like I was pushing it. But who cares. I'm in a pub. It's gonna be good and it's gonna be straight to the point, no prissiness's just really good meat, cooked to perfection.

Well. I was half right. The 18 hour slow cooked ribs, smoked over apple and hickory arrived and they were dam good, the meat fell off the bone with a little bite and they tasted sweet and sticky - but they arrived nearly an hour after my boyfriends dinner (pit smoked beef burger) did. So we ate separately except for the slaw when 3 arrived at once, each bland, in need salt. The dumb waiter broke down during service, but there was no compensation or words from the staff, they mostly just mumbled and tried to avoid eye contact, which leaves you feeling kinda of cheated. It's a shame because when these things happen you don't get a true indication of how good a place can really be and that moment when I bit that first bite of rib I knew something great was happening on my taste buds. I couldn't appreciate it though, and ended up just being glad to finish.

Maybe another time, eh.