Shakshuka

I've been from one extreme to the other recently, a week of chickpeas, lentils and hunger followed by a few days in Lyon where I ate and drank far too much... Which ended in being terribly ill on the way home, I think I picked up some bug from somewhere, or it was my body just telling me to calm down with the 3 course meals and the wine... I fainted in the end! But have recovered to tell the tale... Lyon was beautiful, a lovely picturesque city. We ate in some amazing Bouchons and drank in some lovely cocktail bars. It is a city of offal and wine, my kind of city... We enjoyed black pudding, chicken liver cakes, cheese and praline tarts all day long. It was sunny and generally delightful. I hear summer happened here while we were away, but it's back to a grey cold day out there today.

This is one of my new weekend favourite breakfast brunches, especially on a cold damp morning like this. A bit of heat and spice with your morning eggs, courtesy of Ottolenghi, who's book Jerusalem is still one of my current favourites. It is a Tunisian dish of baked eggs nestled in tomatoes, soft peppers, and garlicky harissa spice. Comfort and spice...

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan, I just have one large one which I scooped the eggs out of to serve, if you have smaller ones it's nice to be able to serve individual portions in the pan.

 

Add 2 tablespoons of harissa, I used an amazing rose harissa I discovered recently, 2 teaspoons of tomato purée, 2 diced red peppers, 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped, 1 teaspoon of ground cumin and ¾ teaspoon of salt, then cook for about 10 minutes. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes then simmer for another 10 minutes until the peppers are soft and you have a thick sauce.

 

Then make little dips in the sauce to add your eggs, I used 4 eggs, you can add up to 8 depending on how many you are feeding and how many eggs you like. Swirl the whites of the eggs into the sauce a little bit and simmer for about 8 minutes or until the whites are set and the yolks are still runny.

Serve with a big dollop of yoghurt and some fresh bread. The runny egg yolks in the spicy tomato sauce are delicious, with fresh tangy yoghurt and soft sweet red peppers. A perfect start to a cold Spring day.

Roast Cauliflower, Cumin and Yoghurt Soup

I have long taken inspiration from Claudia Rodan, her book Arabesque is never far from hand and I'm still discovering new amazing things in it that I have never cooked. A three hour roast lamb was the most recent with cinnamon couscous, chopped dates and almonds, delicious.

So when Carruthers and Kent, Gosforth's lovely independent fine wine company, suggested we team up and put together an evening of food and wine inspired by the Middle East I was instantly planning the menu. It will be a lavish tasting feast with matched wines on the 19^th July as part of the EAT! Festival. So if you fancy trying that lamb and many more tasty treats please click here for more details...

My menu planning has taken me cover to cover in lots of Claudia's books as well as experimenting with lots of my own ideas. This is a little soup that came about one lunchtime when trying to balance the lovely sunshine with the fact that I was still freezing cold. It is a roast cauliflower and spicy cumin soup but using yoghurt instead of cream adds a freshness that makes this soup summery and light as well as deep with spice and warmth, and it is also very simple.

I used half a cauliflower and made enough to serve 2-3 people. Simply chop the cauliflower into small florets and place in a baking tray, add 5 peeled shallots, a big glug of olive oil, some salt and 2 teaspoons of ground cumin. Shake it all up and roast in the oven for about 30 minutes at 180°C, until golden brown, after about 15 minutes throw in a couple of cloves of garlic, giving it a stir at the same time. When it is ready throw it all in a pan with 300ml of chicken stock and a bay leaf and simmer until everything is very soft, about 20 minutes.

When it is ready remove the bay leaf and puree until smooth and add 2-3 tablespoons of yoghurt. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper to suit. To serve scatter with some toasted cumin seeds and a little drizzle of olive oil. It is a fresh light soup that is warming and spicy at the same time, perfect for this changeable weather we're having...

Baked Eggs with Wilted Spinach, Wild Garlic and Chilli and Sage Butter

There's a little man with an allotment opposite mine who is always there if I go early before work to water. Last year he gave me some rhubarb to plant and loads of spinach to eat. I accidentally stood on the rhubarb and thought I'd killed it, but it seems to be coming back to life this year, thank goodness, I couldn’t look him in the eye for a while in case he asked about it... He handed me huge armfuls of spinach on Friday morning, he seems like a good one to know...

The amount of meat I have been eating, basically moving from one BBQ to the next over the past few days, required a little spinach based brunch this morning. I flicked through Plenty by Ottolenghi looking for inspiration, and came across a lovely little recipe for baked eggs in rocket that I adapted to suit what I had. Wilted spinach and wild garlic, with eggs baked in the oven, then drizzled with hot chilli and sage butter and a dollop of garlicky yoghurt. Sitting in the sunshine in my little yarden this morning was a pretty delightful way to start the day...

Heat a frying pan with a little olive oil, add a few large handfuls of spinach, a handful of rocket, some torn wild garlic and a pinch of salt and wilt until all the water has bubbled away. When it is ready scoop it all into an oven proof bowl and make two little wells, crack a free range eggs into each and bake in the oven at 150°C for 10-15 minutes until the egg whites are cooked.

While the eggs are cooking mix up a few tablespoons of yoghurt with a pinch of salt and half a clove of crushed garlic. Then melt about 20g of butter, add half a teaspoon of chilli flakes and a few shredded sage leaves, cook for a few minutes until it bubbles.

When the eggs are ready dollop on the yoghurt and then pour the spicy sage butter over everything. It made a delicious little brunch sitting in the sun. The eggs were soft and runny with lovely wilted greens, a tangy fresh yoghurt and warm spicy buttery juices mingling into everything.

Lamb Shish Kebabs with Smoky Aubergine Yoghurt

It was a lovely, sunny, warm Friday evening last weekend, which called for the trusty bucket bbq to be brought out of hiding. I remember lots of bbq's last year but we seem to have got to June without one this year strangely. So I invited a few friends round and welcomed them with cold fizzy wine and salty cashew nuts in the yarden (not quite a yard not quite a garden)...

This is by far my favourite bbq meal. Lamb shish kebabs with salads, sauces and toasted pittas. A spicy thick tomato sauce, a smoky aubergine yoghurt and a sweet cumin yoghurt. They all compliment each other perfectly, alongside the lamb and a simple chopped salad.

Prepare the chopped salad in advance, small cubes of cucumber, tomato and red onion, with a large handful of chopped flat leaf parsley. Seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Put the cubes of lamb into a big bowl, allowing enough for about 5 pieces per skewer. Add a splash of olive oil, salt and pepper, a teaspoon of finely chopped fresh rosemary and a pinch of allspice and leave to marinate until you are ready to grill.

The tomato sauce is made by sweating half an onion until soft, add a chopped clove of garlic, a pinch of chilli flakes and a tin of tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and add a teaspoon of caster sugar. Allow to simmer on a low heat for about 15 minutes, until the sauce is thick sweet and spicy.

While the bbq is heating up you can put on the aubergine. It needs to char and smoke so it is perfect to pop it on when the bbq is still flaming and getting hot, before it is ready for any meat. Turn it now and again so it is blackened all over and soft all the way through. The smoky flavour that comes from cooking it this way is delicious. When it is ready take it off the BBQ and slice it open to allow it to cool. When it is cool enough to handle scoop out all of the soft insides into a bowl, avoiding the black charred skin. Chop the flesh finely and add 3 large tablespoons of yoghurt and the juice of half a lemon and mix it all up.

Finally put the lamb onto some wooden skewers that have soaked in water, to stop them burning. Grill on the bbq for about 5 minutes, until they are browned all over and still a bit pink in the middle. Add a big pile of pitta breads to the bbq while everyone is helping themselves to kebabs, sauces and salad. Remove when warm and toasted. The cool smokey aubergine yoghurt with the charred soft lamb is delicious. Pile a little bit of everything into a pitta and away you go....

Leek Fritters

This recipe for leek fritters comes from the Ottolenghi book 'Plenty', it is an old Turkish family recipe that is really delicious. I was in Turkey twice last year, once for a few days in Istanbul and earlier in the year on the south Mediterranean coast for a very relaxing week. It is a beautiful area. We were staying near the coast which is very dramatic with huge cliffs dropping to tiny little pebble coves that you have to walk down hundreds of steps to reach. But drive twenty minutes inland and we were up in high mountains covered with huge pine trees, with fast rivers full of fresh water trout.

The mountain drive took us home through huge rocky dry mountains surrounding low lush green plateaus of farm land, growing millions and millions of tomatoes as well as corn, aubergines and chickpeas. When we eventually found our way back to the coast, after a few hours longer than planned, we came across a tiny little road side fish restaurant... They had one little boat moored on the rocks, a few chickens and some funny looking dogs, we were brought a green salad with pomegranate seeds and a syrupy pomegranate dressing, thin fried potatoes and a big tray of different sized, shaped and coloured fresh fish to point at which ones we wanted. I can't even remember which ones we went for, but everything was delicious, sat in the sun after being a bit lost in the mountains for most of the day...

To start the leek fritters chop 3 leeks into 2cm thick slices. These amounts will serve 4 people. Finely chop 5 shallots and sauté them together in a pan, on a low heat, with about 60ml of olive oil until they are soft, for about 15 minutes.

While they are cooking you can make the herb yoghurt sauce. Add 100g of Greek yoghurt, 100g of soured cream, 2 crushed cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, half a teaspoon of salt, 20g of parsley leaves and 30g of coriander leaves to the blender and blitz for a few minutes until it is a green creamy sauce. If you don't want to make the sauce, or don't have a blender, the fritters are still delicious with just a squeeze of lemon.

Take a large bowl and add all of the following: one chopped red chilli, 25g of chopped parsley leaves, ¾ teaspoon of ground coriander, 1 teaspoon of ground cumin, ¼ teaspoon of ground turmeric, ¼ teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of sugar and half a teaspoon of salt. When the leeks and shallots are really soft add them to this mix and let them cool down.

Now whisk one egg white to soft peaks and add it to the cooled leeks. In another bowl mix together 120g of self raising flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, one whole egg, 150ml of milk and 55g of melted unsalted butter and mix everything together to make a light batter. Then stir this batter into the leek mix.

Finally heat 60ml of olive oil in a large frying pan. Spoon four large dollops of the mix into the pan to form four fritters, you will get about eight in total from the mix. Fry them for 2 or 3 minutes on each side until golden. Serve them warm with the sauce and a pile of salad...

Lamb, mint and pinenut meatballs

Middle Eastern type meals are the ones I really love. All their spices and flavours, long stews, fresh salads, tangy yoghurt, toasted flat breads, saffron, almonds, pomegranate salads, dried fruit and meat combinations, grilled fish, mint teas, honey soaked pastry... The list goes on...

We took a trip to Istanbul last Autumn and just ate and drank and tasted and smelt interesting and lovely things the entire time. Highlights were grilled mackerel fillets in a piece of fresh bread from a man fishing and grilling by the river, sitting on the harbour on the Asian side eating sticky baklava watching huge cruise ships, hot sweet milk flavoured with orchid root after a complicated ferry trip up the Bosphorus, amazing sesame flat-breads, grilled lamb, smoky aubergines and dips in a very smart kebab house of sorts, grilled chicken and yoghurt drinks on plastic stools in the Spice Market... I loved every second of it and the list of places to visit in that part of the world is steadily growing... Damascus, Syria, the Bekaa Valley...

This recipe brings a few of those flavours and spices together. Starting with the spicy tomato sauce so it can simmer away while you do everything else. Chop half an onion finely and a clove of garlic, then cook them in a tablespoon of olive oil on a low heat until they are soft, about 10 minutes. Then add a tin of tomatoes, a pinch of chilli flakes and some salt and pepper and allow it to simmer gently until you need it. Keep stirring it now and again to make sure it doesn’t stick.

Chop the other half of the onion finely, along with a few sprigs of mint and another clove of garlic. Add this to 500g of lamb mince. This makes enough for 2 to 3 people. Add half a teaspoon of cinnamon and half a teaspoon of allspice and another pinch of salt and pepper, and mix everything up thoroughly. Roll the mince into little balls about the size of a ping pong ball and roll them around on a plate you have covered in olive oil.

Add all the meatballs to a roasting tray and put them in the oven at 180°C for about 15 minutes. Give them a shake half way through. They should just be browned a little but not too much, you don't want them to dry out.

While the meatballs are cooking measure out 200g of couscous, put it in a pan that can go in the oven and add the same volume of boiling salted water, so 200ml. A teaspoon of salt will be sufficient. Leave it to rest with the lid on, to absorb the water for 10 minutes.

When the meatballs are at the correct stage of brown add the tomato sauce and mix them all together, put them back in the oven for another 15 minutes. At the same time you can take a fork to your couscous and break it all up, it will have become solid as it has absorbed all the water, you need it to be loose in little grains and full of air. Add a large glug of olive oil and mix it through. Put the pan in the oven with the lid on and leave it in for the same amount of time as the meatballs.

I made a sweet cumin yoghurt to go with the meatballs, which is really delicious. It came from The Salad Club originally, but I can't find it on their website, and I kind of make it up a bit differently each time now until it tastes right. Add 4 tablespoons of yoghurt to a small bowl, to this add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil, a heaped teaspoon of ground cumin and a heaped teaspoon of caster sugar. Then whisk this all together. Add a pinch of salt and pepper too.

It is really good on a BBQ-ed lamb kofta, or a lamb skewer, with some spicy tomato sauce, smoky charred aubergines, pitta bread and chopped salad. I'm longing for summer BBQ's on my little bucket BBQ in the yarden...

Take the meatballs and the couscous out after about 15 minutes. Chop a couple of knobs of butter into the couscous and allow it to melt through. It will be soft and steamy underneath and crunchy around the edges, mix it all up evenly.

 

Serve a big mound of steamy couscous topped with meatballs and tomato sauce, some fresh chopped mint scattered about and a big spoon of sweet cumin yoghurt. Buttery couscous, spicy tomato sauce, rich minty lamb and sweet spiced yoghurt...