This all began with a curry. A curry that was neither heavily spiced nor very hot. A curry that didn’t come from India or Thailand and that contained neither huge amounts of cumin nor coriander nor curry leaves. This curry made me look at it and say out loud, “What the hell makes this a curry?”

Goon, who as usual wasn’t interested in probing the definitions of various food types, looked at me suspiciously and said “Well, you make curry at least once a fortnight. You should know!”

But in spite of being brought up on curry, I didn’t know. This bothered me. After a short spree of looking through various dictionary definions, the vast majority of which were about grooming horses, I found the origins of the word curry. It is the Dravidian (that’s classical Tamil) word for ‘vegetable in sauce’. 

I think of all the curries I’ve made, possibly only a quarter involve vegetables in sauce. Have I been a terrible curry cook all this time?

I like to think not. I imagine what happened was that European settlers in India, who probably weren’t too keen on the whole veggie lifestyle, took the word they thought meant ‘generic vegetable stew’, turned it into the word that meant ‘generic stew with anything’ and expanded it  to mean ‘generic anything with spice that has an origins in Asia’**.

It’s an exceptionally wide definition and as I looked through the list of curries I’ve made in my short cooking life, I can see that even they are remarkably varied. There’s everything from the hot and pungent vindaloo to the delicate monkfish curry I made last night.

This dish was so delicate that it needed an accompaniment with kick so I made a sambal to go with it. A sambal is another thing that is hard to define. In short it is a side dish made with chilli or a hot pepper. In Sri Lanka the most popular ones seemed to be seeni sambal, (sweet onions with chilli) or pol sambal which is a bright orange dish made with dessicated coconut and chilli. The sambal I opted for was of Malaysian origin (to match the fish dish) and was made of pineapple and thinly sliced cucumber in a dressing of lime, shrimp paste and pounded red chilli. 

Malaysian Fish Curry with Sambal Nanas (for two generous portions)

• 400g monkfish fillet (or other firm white fish), cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 small onion, peeled and roughly chopped 
• 2 inch piece of ginger, roughly chopped
• 3 fat garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 2 red and two green chillies, deseeded and chopped
• A level tablespoon of flaked almonds, roughly crushed
• 2 lemongras staks, outer leaves removed, trimmed
• 3 heaped tablespooons dessicated coconut
• a pinch of turmeric
• 400g can coconut milk
• 100ml unherbed fish stock
• salt and pepper to taste
• chives or spring onion to garnish
• Plain boiled basmati rice to serve

For the Sambal

• 4 pineapple rings, chopped into small pieces.
• 1 quarter cucumber, sliced into short thin strips
• 1  teaspoon shrimp paste
• 20g dried shrimp
• 1 large red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• brown sugar to taste

To make the sambal, use a food processor to blitz the dried shrimp, chilli, lime juice and shrimp paste. to pound the chilli and dried shrimp. REmove the mixture from the processor and mix well with the pineapple and cucumber slices. Add sugar and more lime juice to taste. Set aside while you prepare the curry.

1. Brush a medium saucepan with vegetable oil. Stir fry the dessicated coconut gently until it is a uniform golden brown. Scrape into a food processor and process to a smooth oily paste. I needed a touch of the coconut milk to help it alon.
2. Scrape the processed coconut into a bowl and rinse out the food processer.
3. Chop the lower halves of the lemon grass stalks roughly. Place the chopped lemongrass in the food processor with the onion, garlic, ginger, almond and three quarters of the chilli. Blitz to a smooth paste.
4. Brown the monkfish pieces briefly, remove from the saucepan .
5. Add the garlic paste to the pan and cook for afew minutes. Don’t let it brown. Then add the turmeric, coconut milk, remaining lemongrass and stock. Allow to reduce by half but don’t turn the heat up too high because coconut milk may curdle.
6. Return the fish to the pan with the dessicated coconut paste. Stir well and allow the fish to cook through (this should take about 5 minutes over a low/medium heat).
7. Taste, adjust seasoning and transfer to a serving bowl. Garnish with the remaining chillies and the chives. Serve with plain boiled rice.

*The corruption of words reminds me of ‘fish bisteck’. This is a Sri Lankan recipe my Dad used to try to impress me with when I was a teenager. The story goes that this was inspired by beef steak made by European settlers. Meat went off quickly in the hot weather, so beef steak was heavily spiced to disguise any gamey flavours. The locals picked up the idea and used the heavy spicing as a coating for fish  (Buddhists aren’t big on eating beef). Beef steak –> bisteck–> fish bisteck 

From the one or two encounters I had with fish bisteck I can promise that it was grim.  

It’s 8am and I’m awake even though I’m not working today! It’s a miracle!

Well, actually it’s more of an accident. London woke to around 4 inches of snow this morning which meant, of course, that nothing worked. Buses and tubes all stopped running. Schools closed. My head of department rang me just as I was leaving the house to tell me I could go back to bed. Sadly, by then, I’d already consumed a two very strong cups of coffee so sleep wasn’t really an option.

Generally I don’t like the snow. I detest being housebound and already the boredom of being stuck inside has resulted in me scoffing most of a big block of cheese, several slices of toast and a significant amount of a giant Hotel Chocolat slab. But then again, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to teaching the Lower Sixth a lesson on data representation. At least now I can put that topic off for another few days and can blog and play the very silly facebook game that I seem to have become addicted to. Anyone want to be my hunting buddy? No, I thought not.

Another first for me was this bottle of Resposada Tequila I bought over the weekend to use in an interesting looking dish from my Mexican recipe book.

I know what you’re thinking, ‘Any excuse,’ but please note that I have refrained from drinking more than one double shot over the whole of Saturday and Sunday.

This tequila has bas a slightly smoky, woody taste from being aged in oak casks. It is rounder and fuller than standard tequila but still works best when paired with citrus. It was this fullness of flavour that as called for in the recipe for salmon with avocado and tequila cream sauce. 

Salmon with Avocado and Tequila Cream Sauce 

Quantities for 2 people  

• 2 salmon steaks about 180g each
• a little vegetable oil for frying
•  a touch of flour to dust the salmon skin (optional)
• 1 small, ripe avocado, peeled, pitted and sliced into thin strips
• half a small onion, very finely diced
• 2 jalapeno peppers, cut in half and deseeded
•  zest and juice of half a lime
• 150ml fish stock
• a splash of single cream
• salt and pepper 
• strips of green pepper and chopped fresh parsley to garnish

1. Put the halved jalapenos, skin side up under a medium/high grill. When the skin is blistered and charred, turn off the heat and allow to cool. Peel the skin off and chop the flesh finely. 
2. Sweat the onions gently in some butter or vegetable oil.
3. Add the fish stock and bring to a gentle bubble.
4. When the stock has reduced by one half, stir in the cream, lime zest and jalapeno and continue to bubble until it has thickened.
5. Brush the salmon with a little oil and pan fry skin side down until golden brown. Dust a little flour and salt onto the skin side (if it has skin) then turn over and fry until the skin is crispy and golden.
6. Stir the tequila  and lime juice into the sauce, season to taste and warm through for a minute ior two.
7. Pour the sauce onto the centre of a large serving plate. Arrange the avocado and salmon on top, then garnish with the green pepper and chopped parsley. This meal worked well with sides of fried potatoes and roasted red peppers dressed in olive oil.

***************

I think salmon is too often served with bland flavours. It has a farily robust flavour, especially if it’s wild, and it is a welcome change to pair it up with a stronger sauces like this one. The jalapeno and tequila played equal parts in the flavour of this sauce and the lime gave it a light and fresh aftertaste. It would suit a white meat like chicken very well too.

New potatoes, cubed, par boiled then fried in olive oil made an excellent accompaniment to this. We also had roasted sweet red peppers dressed in a little olive oi.

Regrettably, I’ve never been to Japan. I hope to one day. It sounds like an amazing place and the little bits I hear about the culture fascinate me.

Of course, the cuisine captivated my attention as soon as I heard about it. Raw fish! How many other cultures will serve this up? Ok, there’s the cured salmon we have in Europe and things such as ceviche in Mexico, but not such a range as you’ll find in Japanese cuisine.

Having said that, I remember being unimpressed the first time I was introduced to sushi. Those little rice rolls from M&S in the mid nineties did nothing for me. But then, sometime during my student years, I was at a certian popular conveyor belt restaurant and discovered sashimi. My fellow mathmos raised their eyebrows slightly as I devoured several plates of raw salmon and tuna and then they indiscreetly pointed ot that I was now responsible for most of the bill.

Within the last week or two I visited a nice Japanese retaurant in Westminister, heard a friend wax lyrical about his amazing new life in Tokyo ad was told about a nice restaurant in Barcelona that I must visit if I ever got around to going there. I take this all to be a sign that I should learn more about Japanese food. So my starting point was to buy some Japanese ingredients I hadn’t used before.

In the dish below, which is an amalgamation of various ideas I found online, we have my new purchases of mirin and soba green tea noodles. I used these and some wasabi powder and pickled ginger to create something which is probably not much like a real Japanese meal but at least is a step in the right direction. I’m not confident enough in my knife skills to atempt tuna sashimi yet. I go for the next best thing- tuna just seared so it’s practically raw but the very outside is cooked.

Tuna ‘almost sashimi’ with Soba Noodles, Mirin dressing and Raw Vegetables with Wasabi Dip

• 350-400g fresh tuna steak in one piece. I find that it is best to let it come to room temperature before searing it.
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds( I think black would look good but I couldn’t get any) plus a bit extra to garnish 
• Sesame oil (2 tbsp should do)
• salt and pepper to season the steaks
• about 175g soba noodles
• half a cucumber, finely diced
• 4 small spring onions, sliced thinly on the diagonal
• 1 tbsp finely chopped coriander 

For the dressing

• 4 tbsp mirin
• 2 tbsp light soy
• 2 tsp ginger, finely grated/crushed
• 1 heaped tsp brown sugar
• a squeeze of lemon

Accompaniments

• 8 baby carrots, sliced into thin strips
• 2 stalks celery, sliced into thin strips
• wasabi and pickled ginger to serve, plus perhaps extra soy

1. Prepare the vegetables and coriander. 
2. Rub the tuna steaks all over lightly with sesame oil. Season and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Sear over a high heat until just cooked on all sides, Wrap in kitchen foil and leave to rest in a warm place.
3. Make up the mirin dressing. Combine the dressing ingredients as listed above. Taste and adjust to your liking.
4. Cook the soba noodles according to packet instructions, drain and refresh in cool water.
5. Toss the noodles with the spring onion, cucumber and coriander, then toss the mixture in the dressing. Place a portion of the noodle mixture on each serving plate.
6. Thinly slice the tuna steaks amd arrange over the noodles. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
7. Serve with the matchstick vegetables and the wasabi and ginger.

************

I did a bit of research on my two new ingredients. 

Mirin is an ingredient I haven’t knowingly encoutered before, although no doubt it was one of those flavours in plates of sushi unidentifiable to me. True mirin apparantly is about as alcoholic as sherry, although versions with less than 1% alchohol are produced now which have the same flavour. The flavour is unique and very strong, but dominated by a heavy sweetness. 

The word soba can refer to any noodle of medium thickness- i.e. not an udon noodle. Usually they’re eated cold with a dipping sauce or dressing  or hot in a broth. Mixing them with salad vegetables like this is a fairly modern idea. My soba noodles were flavoured with green tea but the flavour was barely discernible even before the dressing was added.

Also, Goon says the noodles don’t taste good raw. He should know, he ate a quarter of a pack. You probably guessed that yourselves without trying them.

We are now on a tighter budget than ever before. In a couple of weeks I will be putting down a deposit for a rented flat. I suspect that many of you are lucky enough to not have to deal with the London rental market at the moment. To give you an idea of what it’s like, a small studio flat suitable for one person, that is not near any tube station requires an up front payment of just over £2,100. The ones near tube stations were approximately 30% more expensive.

This is why Goon and I will not be living together next year. He is still looking for a job and there is no way I can afford a flat to fit two people, especially not after I’ve supported both of us through the first year of my career.

Needless to say, I’ve spent most of this week with my head buried in various bargain bins around Hackney and Islington. Apologies to the peaople that I’ve hissed and/or snarled at for getting to the best deal before I could fight my way forward. Hunting for cheap food brings out the killer instinct in me. To make things even more exciting, as soon as the hot weather started, our ancient freezer let out a final wheeze, fell over and died. No more hoarding bargains for me- everything is now bought on the day. Of course, we’ve been having a lot of vegetarian food (more on that when camera is fully fixed) and eating meat only when it’s on offer.

Last Sunday, I was doing my usual rounds when I found a pack of two decent sized salmon fillets for just over £2. It was carried to the tills in a vice like grip. Salmon cheap! Salmon mine! Since it was the end of the week, I had spent all but £1 of our budget and so the salmon would have to be paired solely with things I had in the house already or could be bought at practically no cost. 

I carried out a cupboard and fridge audit and discovered that I have a lot of very useless stuff: little that could help me with the salmon. However, with a quick trip to the Turkish Grocers across the road, my remaining £1 bought me some coriander, three chillies and a red pepper, which combined with storecupboard stuff, made this.

I’ve heard it said that, in order to enjoy salmon, you don’t need to do much to it at all. Just grill it until the skin is crisp and the fillet is slightly pink in the middle before serving with a wedge of lime and some buttered new potatoes. Not this salmon. This salmon was from a farmed fish, a touch fatty and just about to go out of date. Simplicity would merely accent it’s lack of freshness. But this is what strong marinades were made for. The fish was subjected to a burst of honey, soy, garlic and ginger, coated in sesame and fried untll golden. Then i contrasted the sweet saltiness with some earthy, spicy noodles. 

Crunchy Marinated Salmon with Hot Coriander and Peanut Noodles 

For the marinade… 

• 1-2 tablespoons honey
• 1 level tablespoon light soy
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 teaspoons grated fresh root ginger
• 1 teaspoon five spice
• a touch of dry sherry or rice wine- enough to make this into a thin paste

and the rest….

• 2 skinned salmon fillets (around 175g each)
• sesame seeds- around 100g
• 2 portions egg noodles, cooked.
• half of a large bunch of coriander
• 1 large green chilli 
• 1 tablespoon peanut butter
• 1 red pepper, cored and sliced
• 100ml sesame oil

1. Mix together the ingredients for the marinade
2. Cut the salmon into bite sized pieces. Toss in the marinate and refridgerate for at least an hour.
3. Scatter the sesame seeds into a thick layer over a small plate. Keep another small plate at its side.
4. Take a piece of salmon, shake off the marinade, then roll it into the sesame seeds, pressing down firmly, until it is well coated., Put it on the spare plate and repeat with the rest of the salmon.
5. Heat a little vegetable oil in a frying pan. Fry the salmon pieces over a medium heat, turning every 30s or so, until they are golden brown. You may need to do these in batches, so keep a side plate handy.
6. Put the salmon pieces on a plate, cover with kitchen foil and keep warm.
7. Put the corianderand chilli into a food processor and blitz until smooth. Adding a little oil, at a time, continue to pulse until you have a medium thick paste. stir in the peanut butter and mix until smooth. This will prbably thicken the mixture, so you may want to blend in some more oil.
8. Quickly stir fry the noodles woth the paste until heated through and well coated. Keep warm while you finish up.
9. Sautee the red peppers in a little vegetable oil until they have softened slightly.
10. Pour over the excess marinade from the salmon and let it bubble down to a glaze.
11. Serve the crunchy salmon on the noodles with the peppers, pour over the reduced marinade and garnish with coriander leaves.

I have a problem. It has affected me for some time and now I think it is about time I spoke openly about it.

I am addicted to calamari.

This addiction has taken many forms over the years. At first, i could only satisfy my cravings on the odd occasion when in a pub or restaurant with squid on the  menu. Then I discovered thjat Tesco sold packets of battered calamari, which I would nibble on on an almost daily basis, After moving to the East side of town this supply was suddenly cut off. It took me weeks to recover. But then I found a better source. My fishmongers sells cleaned, frozen squid tubes for a reasonable price and I will frequently be seen on a Saturday morning, queueing for the best part of half an hour just to get my hands on one of these bags.

It would appear that not everyone shares my passion for cephalopod. While popping into my fishmongers to buy a couple of swordfish steaks,  I saw three local school-girls gathered around the squid and octopus in the window, squealing and making yuck noises.  One of the fishmongers was watching and being quite noble in trying to educate them about where the squid came from and how you eat it. The kids weren’t paying much attention, prefering to dare each other to touch the tentacled monsters. Eventually one lived up to the challenge and gave the smallest squid a tiny prod

“Eeeergh!” they all squealed simultaneaously. The fishmonger didn’t look terribly pleased at this.

“Don’t touch them too much, darling,” he said. The girls didn’t listen and the bravest went in for a second prod. The fishmonger huffed and turned to deal with a customer with a particularly long order.  I felt really sorry for the guy and for the customer who would eventually end up with the squid.

“I wouldn’t do that,” I said, “I doubt they’re all properly dead. Maybe they bite!”

The three looked at with a mild uncertainty combined with the eyebrow raised, smirking disdain that is common to so many 13 year old girls, before turing back to the squid. By some quirk of fate (or more likely by the relentless prodding that it had been subjected to) one large squid slid forward off the pile and its tentacles flopped onto the ice at the front of the display. The girls screamed and pelted down Essex Road. The fishmonger turned around and looked confused.

“Where’d they go?”

I shrugged and ordered my swordfish.

Anyway, enough about the ‘youf’ of Islington. I love having squid in lots of different forms, stir fried in a Thai style dish and in a seafood paella  but I think there’s something especially satisfying about making deep fried squid rings. True, it does make my hair smell of oil and I’ve almost caused kitchen fires a couple of times but I think it’s worth it for the end result. My latest homemade calamari was inspired by my favourite local gastropub, which I promise to review soon.  My squid rings were dipped in a light tempura batte with added lime zest and crushed chilli flakes. I accompanied them with some noodles stir fried with ginger and coriander and some crudites with wasabi mayonnaise. The wasabi was made with a tub of powder which I’d bought at Whole Foods.

After reading the instructions on how to make wasabi paste, I doubled the quantities of powder because I assumed that the recipe would be too conservative for me. I tasted it to see if it was strong enough.

Fifteen minutes later, when my nose had stopped bleeding, I binned that batch of wasabi mayo and made another, this time paying attention to the instructions on the pack.

Lime and Chilli Calamari and Sweet Chilli Sauce

For the Sauce

• juice from a small tin of pineapples (150ml)
• 3 tsp sugar dissolved in 100 ml water
• 1/2 level tbsp tomato puree
• 2-3 capfuls white wine vinegar
• 1 large red chilli, chopped very finely
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• dash chilli oil
• up to 2 tbsp cornflour paste (2 tbsp flour with just enough water to make it into a paste)

1. Put the juice and sugared water into a small saucepan. Warm gently and stir until the sugar is totally dissolved.
2. Add the puree, garlic and the chillies, stir and allow to infuse for a few minutes
3. Add the flour paste a little at a time, stirring vigourously until you have a medium-thick sauce.
4. Trickle in the vinegar, tasting as you go along to make sure it doesn’t become too tart.
5. Finally, trickle in a tiny bit of chilli oil and stir until smooth.
6. Keep warm while you make the calamari and accompaniments 

For the Calamari 

• 2 medium squid tubes (around 200g each)
• 5 tablespoons corn flour
• chilled soda water
• zest and juice of two limes
• teaspoon of finely crushed chilli flakes
• oil for deep frying

1. Cut the squid tubes into rings, about 0.5cm thick. Toss in the lime juice and leave to marinade for around 15 minutes 
2. Make the batter. Put the flour in a small bowl and stir in the chilli and lime zest. Mix in the soda water a little at a time until you have a smooth batter with the consistency of double crream.
3. If you don’t have a deep fryer (I certainly don’t) Get a wide, deep  saucepan and fill it around half full with sunflower or vegetable oil. Heat this until the oil is very hot but not smoking. A good test is to chuck in a small piece of day old bread, which should brown in around 1 minute.
4. Have some kitchen paper ready (a plate covered with a layer of paper 3 sheets thick is what I use) for draining
5. Take 4 rings of squid,pat them dry with dome kitchen roll. Dip them in the batter and, use a wooden spoon to lower them into the hot oil. Be wary of spluttering, although this shouldn’t happen if the squid was dry before you battered it.
6. Use the wooden spoon to move the rings around gently until they are golden brown.
7. Use a slotted spoon to remove the squid from the pan and drain it on the kitchen paper.
8. Repeat with the rest of the squid, frying in small batches.

 *********************

Recipe Notes 

The squid is best served as soon as it is drained. Make the sauce and accompaniments first and keep them warm while you deep fry the squid. 

Citrus appears to tenderize squid. I don’t know why. Perhaps a food scientist would like to tell me? 

The colder the soda water, the thinner the batter. For the lightest tempura, use iced water.

Well, I’m back at school now and it seems that the first day of the summer term has been a lot easier than the previous two terms. The kids are mostly revising now, meaning that there’s a lot less lesson prep to do and, to my astonishment, I left work today at 5pm! Previously I would have rarely left by 7:30.

I’m taking full advantage of these easy days before revision clinics take off and I’m thrown back into the crazy-busy schedue I had before. There has only been one problem with work these last two days. Apparently someone in the finance department decided it was a good idea to turn the heating off in the maths block and boy, is it cold!

I feel the cold badly anyway. You know the type of girl who insists the flat is kept permanatly at 25 degrees, doesn’t care about the heating bill and then still sits right next to the radiator all the time? That’s me. Any degree of cold makes me lose concentration remarkably quickly, and on these sunny but chilly spring days it is marginally warmer outside in the quad than it is at my desk.

After about half an hour of pacing up and down the office during my first free period and grumbling to anyone who’d listen, I decided I couldn’t take it any more and went and took refuge in the photocopying room. I didn’t need to photocopy at that point, but those printers don’t half keep the place warm!

Even my colleague Luke admits its freezing and he’s Northern! In fact, he  was the man who said last term that I was a weed for adding extra layers to go outside in February and that I should be made to live in a freezer for a week to make me understand the true nature of cold.

So for these last two days, I’ve been craving really warming food and, for a change I have had the time to make exactly what I wanted for dinner. After our initial training  day, when I spend all day sitting in the office with my coat and scarf on, I felt what I needed was this.

Marinated, Griddled Squid on Pepper, Tomato and Chickpea Stew with Smoked Paparika, Bacon and Chorizo

• About 200g baby squid, cleaned with hoods and tentacles seperated and heads discarded
• The juice of half an orange 
• 1 cubic inch ginger, crushed 
• a small onion, minced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 yellow pepper cored, deseeded and chopped, roughly into 1 inch squares
• 300g drained tinned chickpeas
• 3 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp cayenne
• 300g chopped tomatoes
• 200ml fresh vegetable stock 
• 3 links spicy raw chorizo, chopped into small chunks
• 4 rashers smoky bacon, chopped 
• large handful of coriander, roughly chopped

1. Make a slit down the side of each squid hood and open it out, score in a cris-cros pattern over the outer side.
2. Mix the orange and crushed ginger. Toss the squid hoods in the mixture and leave to marinate while you prepare the stew
3. Sweat the onions and garlic gently until the onion is beginning to soften. Add the cayenne and paprika, stir well, cover and leave to cook for another few minutes.
4. Add the bacon. pepper and chorizo, stir and allow to cook for a further 3-4 minutes turning the heat up to just below medium.
5. Add the tomatoes, stock and chickpeas, stir well and bring to a gentle bubble. Leave uncovered to bubble down to a thick stew consistency.
6. Taste, adjust seasoning and when ready to serve, stir in the coriander.
7. Griddle the baby squid over a high heat for about 90s per side or until just cooked through. Serve the squid on the chickpea stew. I accompanied this with roast cherry tomatoes, wilted green spinach and a glass of rioja.

This holiday it struck me how many bargain cookery books I have. There are more than two shelves full of those £3 Borders reduced paperbacks which specialise in cuisine from a certain country or continent. They look cheap, they feel cheap, heck, they ARE cheap, but I find these little books very useful.

I’d love to be able to go out and spend £25 each time I fancied trying out something new but sadly, if I did that, I probaby couldn’t afford the ingredients I needed to make good use of the books I bought.  Still, a book entitled “The Best Ever Curry Cookbook” isn’t likely to fill you with confidence about its contents but, rather suprisingly, it turned out to be quite informative and inspiring. Most of the book focuses on cuisine from the Indian subcontinent but around a third of it is devoted to curries from Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, the Phillipines and Indonesia. There are several very unusual recipes in this section of the book which I’m determined to try. The first on my list was the prawn and quail egg curry.

This was a really delicious meal. The flavour of the curry is delicate but earthy, dominated by garlic, ginger and turmeric with subtle heat (which could be increased if desired) and the lemongrass coming through right at the end. The sauce is thin, almost like a broth, which made it a nuisance to carry to the table but was wonderful mixed up with the rice. It pays to go easy on the fish sauce as its pungent flavour could easily overpower the other ingredients.

A note on the use of stock here: As far as I’m aware most ‘wet’ curries don’t traditionally call for stock and instead get their flavour from the meat being braised slowly. For this reason I assume the use of chicken stock in this meal is not authentic. However, I find the right stock can be really useful in making ‘quick cook’ curries like this one. I’d use a light fresh stock that isn’t flavoured with herbs. I always make stocks like these from the carcasses from my roast dinners because they are so wonderfully versatile. 

I have come around to the idea of egg in curry. As a child, there was nothing more I hated than finding half an egg in an overpoweringly hot and salty Sri Lankan dish but the quail eggs suit the delicacy of flavours here. This is definitely a meal I will make again, especially since it is quick enough for a schoolnight dinner!

Indonesian Style Prawn and Quail Egg Curry

(Adapted from “The Best Ever Curry Cookbook” by Mridula Baljekar, published by Hermes House)

Ingredients (for two people with big appetites) 

• 400-450g shelled  and cleaned king prawns
• 9 quail eggs, hard boiled, peeled and halved
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 3 fat cloves garlic, crushed
• 3 cubic inches of ginger, chopped finely and crushed
• 2 red chillies, finely chopped
• half a level tablespoon ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon sugar (I assume palm sugar is authentic- I had to use demerera)
• one half inch cube of shrimp paste or up to 1 tablespoon fish sauce  
• 1 small stalk lemongrass, tough outer layer removed, trimmed and shredded.
• 300ml thin coconut milk (pass 350ml normal coconut milk through a sieve)
• 200ml unherbed chicken stock
• 110g pak choi, or similar leaf, roughly shredded
• shredded spring onion green part only) to garnish
• plain boiled basmati rice to serve

Method

1. Sweat the onions, garlic and ginger together gently until the onions are soft but not coloured.
2. Add the chilies, shrimp paste/fish sauce and lemongrass. Fry for a minute so they release their favours.
3. Add the strained coconut milk, stock and sugar and stir well. Bring the mixture to a gentle bubble. Let the mixture reduce by about 40%.
4. Stir in the prawns and leaves and turn the heat down so the curry is at a simmer. 
5. Stir gently until the prawns have just turned pink all the way through. This should ony take a few minutes and the leaves should also wilt in this time.
6. Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning
7. Stir in the quail eggs. Turn the curry out into a serving bowl and sprinkle over the shredded spring onion.
8. Serve immediately with plain boiled basmati rice. 

I think this might be called ‘having too much time on your hands’.

After 12 weeks of school canteen meals, scrounging processed cheese sandwiches from the kids’ lunch time maths clubs and, at worst but most frequently, skipping lunch altogether, I’m ready for some good home-cooked food at lunchtime. I may have gone a little over the top this time, but can you blame me? This is the first time since the Christmas break that I’ve had time to spend in the kitchen.

The dish pictured above is a tuna nicoise. Like most contemporary restaurants, I have foregone the traditional use of flaked tuna and replaced this with a seared tuna steak. I’ve also replaced the boiled hen’s egg with three soft (in theory) boiled quails’ eggs. Everthing else remains the same apart from a little (in theory) drizzle of balsamic reduction to dip the cherry tomatoes in. Yes, I know there is too much reduction and two of the quails’ eggs are overcooked. I’d like to see you make this perfectly first time around. :p

I first encountered a tuna nicoise made like this in a lovely little tapas bar in Leamington Spa. The dish didn’t stay on the menu for long but the memory lingered with me and I’ve never found a nicoise as good since then. So, what better to do on the first of my 21 days off work than recreate it as closely as possible in my own kitchen while Goon and our new pet looked at me as if I was crazy. 

Goon accused me of over-cooking the tuna.

Yeah, right, like that’s ever going to happen. I might forget to cook it at all one day, but overcook it? Never!

Have a nice day at work, everybody!

Mini Tuna Nicoise  (enough for a starter or a midday meal for someone who’s not particularly used to eating lunch)

• 1 small tuna steak (100g or so), griddled to rare (or practially raw if, like myself, you’re that way inclined)
• a small handful frisee lettuce
• 5 or 6 green beans, steamed until just cooked and cut in half)
• Around 10 black pitted olives, halved
• 2 or 3 baby new potatoes, cooked and halved
• 3 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 3 soft boiled quails’ eggs, peeled and halved
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinaigrette
• 2 extra tablespoons balsamic vinegar, reduced to a thick syrup.

Toss the lettuce, beans, olives and potatoes in the vinigrette dressing. Pile into the center of a large, flat serving plate. Balance the tuna teak on top. Arrange the tomatoes and quail egg pieces around the main salad and drizzle the balsamic reduction around it.

At least, they have around here. I apologise to all of you that have attempted to e-mail me and contact me via comments during the last six months. I must have appeared very rude. 

It’s mostly my fault really. What kind of plonker starts a job before they’ve taken their PhD exam? Generally the kind of plonker who doesn’t understand that their job will take up 70 hours per week during term time. I possibly would have thought twice about it if I had known. I certainly would have delayed the start of my career if I knew I was going to write a grand total of 9 sets of reports during my first term and that my commute would total 2.5 hours a day. 

I have reason to believe that things will be very different next academic year. I really hope I’m right. As for now, I’ve just started a four week holiday and, now that all my thesis corrections are done, I’m properly free for the first time in nearly five years. So now I’ll try and catch up with everyone who I managed to ignore over the last two terms. 

And now that I won’t be spending at least 3 hours a day writing worksheets* and/or reports, hopefully my brain won’t have turned to mush by 8pm and I’ll be capable of creating some posts for this blog.

My cooking didn’t cease completely this term but time pressure meant that I couldn’t spend hours experimenting in the kitchen. I resorted to reasonably quick meals and, to my suprise some of them turned out to be quite good despite the lack of preparation. The reipe below was one of my favourite school-night suppers. It’s comforting, yet very healthy and doesn’t take much time to make. Plus there’s the added bonus that all the ingredients can be found in our depleted local Sainsbury’s or, more often, in the small Turkish stores across the road.

Salmon with Spiced Lentils and Minted Yoghurt

Ingredients

• two large piees of salmon fillet, skin on
• Enough seasoned cornflour to dust the salmon skin (I think any flour will work here)
• 3 handfuls puy lentils, rinsed
• fresh, unherbed vegetable stock (two to three times the volume of your lentils)
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons fresh, finely chopped coriander, plus some extra oursley chopped leves to garnish
• 8 heaped tablespoons of plain natural yoghurt you might want to scale this down- Goon REALLY liked the yoghurt)
• around 30g mint leaves, very finely chopped

Method

1. Fry the onion gently in olive oil with the cumin and ground coriander until the onion is soft. 
2. Add the garlic and continue to fry for another few minutes until the garlic is cooked.
3. Add the vegetable stock and lentils, stir well and bring to a gentle bubble
4. While the lentils are cooking, mix the mint and yoghurt and set aside 
5. Grill the salmon skin side down over a medium grill for three minutes.
6. Dust the seasoned flour over a plate and then turn up the grill to medium/high  
7. Lift the salmon of the grill, press the skin into the seasoned flour then return the salmon to the grill, skin side up, and grill until the skin turns a crisp golden brown.
8. Remove the salmon from the grill.
9. One they are cooked, drain the lentils. Stir in the fresh coriander.
10. Spoon the lentils onto a serving plate and top with dollops of minted yoghurt. Place the salmon fillet, skin side up, on top and sprinkle over chopped coriander.
11. While this meal was sufficient for me, if you are serving a carb fiend, you may want to have some basmati rice on hand to keep them satisfied. 

*I imagine that any teacher reading this is thinking ‘Why are you spending so much time writing worksheets?!’. In response, my school’s maths department has an unusual policy of not teaching through textbooks so all our resources are created by hand specifically for each lesson. This has a lot of advantages and I’m in favour of it 95% of the time. The other 5% of the time, I just want to sleep.