I adapt Atul Kochar’s black lentil sauce recipe. He calls it a sauce but you can eat it as a curry. It’s worth making twice as much and freezing it. The herb pulao is good too.

Ingredients:

200g red or yellow lentils
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp cumin seeds OR mustard seeds for tempering
3 tbsp fresh ginger and garlic paste
1 whole green chilli, finely chopped without seeds
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
½ tsp each ground coriander, ground turmeric, garam masala and fenugreek leaf powder
2 tbsp tomato paste
30g/1oz butter
2 tbsp single cream, optional
½ green chilli, chopped for garnish
chopped coriander leaves
1/2 tsp salt

Notes:.

1 small fresh, deseeded chilli provides enough heat. I always add turmeric to make it look appetising.

I have used the following variations:
– start with 1 medium chopped onion, fried until translucent
– add 2 tbsp pulverised Indian pickle for an extra kick. No more than this as it becomes overpowering.
– use smoked chipotle instead of dried or fresh, but a little goes a long way; 1/4 is ok for 400g dry lentils
– add acid (little by little, tasting as you go) such as tamarind or 1/2 of the juice from a lemon and possibly sugar/1.5 tsp finely chopped jaggery
– add a little butter instead of single cream
– add some jaggery shavings dissolved in water

I’m trying to perfect the recipe for tomato sauce for pasta. I’ve started by adapting one I found online.

Ingredients:

2 onions or 8 shallots (sweeter), finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
4 fat cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 400g tins peeled cherry tomatoes
200ml red wine
1 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
50g finely grated parmesan (as recommended by Jamie Oliver: http://www.jamieshomecookingskills.com/recipe.php?title=bolognese-sauce-with-pasta)

Method notes:

Fry the onions (sprinkled with 1 tsp salt) on their own before adding the carrots, celery and garlic. Then add the other chopped veg and garlic and fry until everything is soft. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer for an hour. Taste for seasoning then liquidize. Best way to make ‘ready meals’ to store in the freezer is to add the finished sauce to freshly cooked pasta. It’s best to add a bit more than just to coat it because pasta is bland and needs a lot of flavouring. This amount of sauce is enough for about 600g dry pasta, cooked.

I think this makes a tasty tomato sauce but it is definitely basic. Further experimentation would be a good idea e.g. the addition of sausage meat like the Jamie Oliver sausage fusilli recipe, or a Spanish style sauce with chorizo in it.

About a month ago I made a tomato sauce for meatballs and spaghetti based on Heston’s tomato fondue recipe. It needed more star anise flavour, more tabasco and maybe more Worcs. sauce too. I cut down the amount of oil, which was fine but I suppose it would have tasted better with more oil. Anyway, that’s another direction I could go in.

Certainly there is more work to be done here.

Used this recipe: http://rasamalaysia.com/braised-pork-belly-dong-po-rou/2/

with the following adaptions:

780g whole piece pork belly

Verdict: too salty; I should have gone with my instinct to cut the amount of soy by half. Also be careful when reheating as the pork may get too chewy: cut the pork into chunks and reheat very slowly on a low heat. There are better pork belly recipes out there.

To make crispy potato wedges, wash or peel floury potatoes and cut into slim wedges (about 6 from an average size potato). Parboil in salted water for 5 mins, then toss in olive oil with an optional flavouring (such as paprika, ras al hanout or jerk seasoning) on a sheet of baking parchment Leave space in between each wedge to ensure airflow for crunchy edges. Bake in the oven at 175C with fan for about 45 mins, turning every 15 mins.

Warning: do not put balsamic vinegar on during the baking as it burns. Mark doesn’t like balsamic on them anyway.

Used Ching’s recipe from Chinese Food Made Easy: Ching’s chicken chow mein but added dry sherry, garlic & ginger paste, chilli bean sauce and more veg.

Also adapted the method: it’s best to fry the coated chicken over a medium (not high) heat, otherwise it just sticks to the wok. Then remove and add back in at the end to prevent the chicken from overcooking. Then if there is anything stuck on the bottom of the wok, deglaze with dry sherry. When some of the water has evaporated add the garlic and ginger paste and chilli bean sauce (enough to flavour the veg and noodles). Added veg and cooked noodles (I used Waitrose dry egg noodles), tossed with sesame oil to prevent sticking and seasoned with the light soy sauce. Then I added the chicken back at the end just to heat it through.

Adapted this recipe: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-spicy-roasted-pecans-50400000116410/

90g pecans (about 1 cup)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin & coriander mix, toasted and ground
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon melted butter
2 teaspoons light brown sugar

Preheat oven to 175 deg C.

Verdict: They were good although Mark found them a little sweet.

2 medium onions /equivalent quantity of shallots, finely chopped
Filippo Berio cooking olive oil
2 x 400g Waitrose cherry tomatoes
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Pinch of chilli powder
Glass of red wine
Splash of balsamic vinegar
1/2 Kallo organic chicken stock cube
Dried oregano/chopped fresh basil

8 Mar 20
The other night I replaced one third of the chapatti flour in Rick Stein’s recipe with kamut flour. The rotli didn’t rise quite as well but tasted quite nice. I will try the same again but experiment with the heat level to get them to puff up more.

31 Jan 2018
Using bread flour makes the chapatti too chewy because of the gluten. Use plain flour.

8 Aug 2014
The recipe in Rick Stein’s India is the best: 250g chapatti flour, 1/2 tsp salt & 2 tbsp oil. Mum’s advice to knead the dough well also seems to help with the puffing up.

23 Mar 2014
Used only 3 tbsp of oil to 250g chapatti flour.

23 Nov 2012
As a Middle Eastern flavoured alternative, I made zatar bhakri. Made just like bhakri but with olive oil instead of groundnut and just 4 tsp zatar and 1 tsp (1.5 was far too much) salt as flavouring ingredients. You can sprinkle a little zatar on at the end as well. Or it may be better to leave it out of the dough altogether and just sprinkle it on at the end, to get more impact. This would probably be good served with greek yoghurt.

9 Nov 2012
Add 1/2 tsp of chilli powder (doubled the amount) and also 1/2 tsp lemon juice. It was too hot so perhaps 1/4 tsp plus a pinch more next time. I couldn’t detect the lemon juice at all so I’ll leave that out.

9 Nov 2012
Add 1/2 tsp of chilli powder (doubled the amount) and also 1/2 tsp lemon juice. It was too hot so perhaps 1/4 tsp plus a pinch more next time. I couldn’t detect the lemon juice at all so I’ll leave that out.

24 Jun 2012
To my mind, bhakri are chapattis but with flavourings added to the dough and cooked with oil instead of dry heat in order to produce a bread to be eaten in its own right rather than as an accompaniment. My mum made bhakri as a weekend breakfast or a snack.

I learned how to make both chapattis from my mother. She doesn’t use recipes for Indian cooking, just ‘asro’ which roughly translates to ‘an idea of quantity’ or ‘approximation’. So I was very glad to find a quantity guideline that works in Gordon Ramsay’s Great Escapes: 250g flour makes 12 small chapattis or 6 large ones. (It must be noted that the recipe in the book is quite wrong though: it omits oil in the dough.) I find that I need approximately 4 tbsp of flavourless oil and enough boiling water to make a soft and malleable but not sticky dough. The feel of the dough indicates the texture of the finished chapatti. Don’t add too much water at once otherwise the chapattis will have to be rolled out with the addition of lots of flour to prevent it sticking while rolling. Then the flour on the surface burns on the tavi.

For the bhakri I made today I added the following to 250g of brown bread flour:

1 1/2 tsp Bart garlic salt
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
finely chopped fresh coriander

These dry ingredients were mixed into the flour thoroughly before a well was made in the centre. I then added the oil and them boiling water to make the dough. I cooked them on a tavi similar to chapattis but with about 1 tsp of oil put on the tavi before the bhakri. Ensure there is enough oil so that both sides get a decent coating.

I couldn’t detect much heat in the finished bhakri so perhaps I’ll up the chilli next time. And perhaps some chopped fresh mint and lemon juice too.

Veena’s recipe makes a very tasty rogan josh with a wonderful spectrum of flavour but it can take ages to make unless you get organised. I may adjust the recipe a little because I find there is too much black cardamom in it and I prefer the onion seeds to be roasted and ground rather than added whole.

30 Oct 2012

Mark and I made a rogan josh for the pool team using 2.3kg of (boned and fat-removed) leg of lamb and multiplying the sauce ingredients up to make enough sauce for 3kg of meat; it’s good to have plenty of sauce when serving with rice. I cooked the curry in a casserole dish in the oven with the dial at 125 degrees for two hours, intending to add the yoghurt, peppers, lemon juice, sugar and garnishes on reheating. On reheating we found that the meat started to fall apart to shreds before the peppers were cooked so next time, if reheating, we will cook the curry for 1 hour only, then another hour just before serving.

Also, although the yoghurt gives a good flavour and creamy consistency, it takes away the deep, dark, appetising colour of the curry (the same happened when I made moussaka-style pasta sauce – the addition of yoghurt made the sauce look like vomit!) so in future I will serve yoghurt on the side. This time I did grind up the onion seeds and halved the amount of black cardamom and those adjustments worked very well.

1 Feb 2013

I made this using lamb neck fillet, confident that 2 hours at 125C would result in tender and juicy meat. But actually, while some pieces were ok, some pieces were a bit chompy. Mark thought perhaps it hadn’t been cooked enough. It seems that lamb leg is ok with 125C but not neck. Next time, when using lamb neck fillet, I will cook it at 150C as I have done before.

I added 250ml chicken stock to loosen the mixture before putting in the oven but the sauce ended up too watery. So next time I won’t add any liquid until the end of cooking time. I may also add plain flour by coating the meat pieces in it before adding so that the sauce will be thickened.

I added salt, lemon juice and sugar to taste at the end. It’s best to add small amounts of lemon and sugar alternatively because they need to be balanced out.

I left out the peppers because I didn’t have any. I actually prefer to have my veg in separate curries.

My adaptation for 1kg lamb

Put the following onto a tavi on low heat and roast until the aromas come out. Be careful not to allow anything to burn!

2 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
8 cloves
8 whole peppercorns
5cm cinnamon stick
5cm strip mace
2 tsp onion seeds
2 tsp poppy seeds
2 black cardamom pods, seeds only

Then grind in a coffee grinder.

Use the tavi to toast the following until lightly coloured:-

2 tbsp dedicated coconut
2 tbsp ground almonds
0.5 tsp ground nutmeg

Chop 2 medium onions and put into a large casserole type pan. Sprinkle them with a little salt and enough groundnut oil to comfortably coat them, then fry until softened.
Add 8 cloves worth of minced garlic and 5cm worth of minced ginger.
When the garlic aromas are released add all the dry ingredients from earlier together with:-

6 bay leaves
0.5 tsp dried red chilli or fresh equivalent
1 tsp ground turmeric

When the dry spices have fried a little add a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes and 1kg lamb which has been trimmed and cut into 4cm chunks.

Cook in the oven at 150C with the lid on for the first hour, then if it needs reducing remove the lid for the next hour.

Check that the meat is done – if not return to the oven. Then test for salt. 0.5 tsp added at this stage should be enough. Also add lemon juice and sugar a little at a time. 1 tbsp lemon juice and 1 tsp sugar should be enough.

Serve sprinkled with finely chopped coriander and a small dish of yoghurt on the side.

I adapted my recipe from this recipe which I’ve used before.

For an Indian style HALF shoulder, the spice mix I used was

1 tsp cumin, ground
1 tsp coriander seeds, ground
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp (garlic) salt
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp cloves, ground
1 tsp fennel seeds, ground
1 & 1/2 tsp turmeric
fresh garlic and ginger, chopped finely
Enough groundnut oil to moisten the mix for it to adhere to the meat (not required if using garlic and ginger paste as it contains groundnut oil)
Yoghurt (optional)

I used 1.5 times the above for a whole shoulder and it was fine to cover the top and flavour it. In fact twice the marinade is too much and FAR too salty.

Method
Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius. Line a baking tray (for a half shoulder I used a small oven). Stab the skin-side of the shoulder all over. Rub a thin layer of spice mix on all the other sides, then use the remainder to form a thick layer on the skin side (which will be on top), rubbing well into the scores. Cover with foil and bake for 3 hours, removing the foil for the last hour. The aroma of spices while it cooks is heavenly. Lots of the lamb fat should melt out. Rest under foil for 15 mins before serving.

For a whole shoulder 3 hours at 150C works well.

An excellent addition is thinly sliced aubergine coated in a little yoghurt placed under the shoulder. I cooked a whole shoulder with 1 sliced aubergine under it, making sure the slices stayed underneath the lamb otherwise they are prone to burn. You could get 2 sliced aubergines under though; 1 aubergine goes to nothing as thye lose so much water. I guess sliced potatoes would work as well.

This is quite rich, so serve with some lemon wedges and plain yoghurt to cut through the fattiness. As it is dry, serve with veggie Indian side dishes with a bit of moisture e.g lentils or green beans cooked with tomatoes. Plain rice or perhaps chapattis are good carb options.

7 Jan 2013
125C is too low to melt the fat out. Also the shoulder needs to start out at room temperature to cook in 3 hours. Found this out the hard way when we had Mark’s family round for dinner last night. We couldn’t eat the lamb because there was still too much fat in it. A bitter disappointment, especially after all the effort that had gone into making the other dishes.

29 Jan 2013
Tried a slightly different recipe tonight: Anjum Anand’s honey-roasted lamb. It turned out wonderfully tender and juicy with a flavoursome crust.

I adapted it for my half shoulder of lamb in the following ways:
– I didn’t bother to marinade beforehand. The meat was still very good though and serving the crust with the meat was more than satisfactory
– I used ground almonds instead of flaked (?)
– I cut the amounts of lemon juice and honey by about half
– I cooked for 3 hours at 150C with the shoulder starting at room temperature, then rested before serving. I cooked it uncovered for half an hour to let the almond crust colour a litte, then covered with foil for the rest of the cooking time, basting with the rendered fat after 2 hours of cooking.

Notes for next time:
– The half shoulder was from Sainsbury’s. The meat was quite dark red to start with and turned out better than the pinker half shoulders I have bought in the past from Waitrose. So it seems that even for these cheaper cuts it’s worth buying quality.
– After 3 hours the meat was very tender but there was still a thick layer of fat on top which prevented the marinade flavouring the meat. Next time I’d like to try removing at least some of that fat before cooking.
– The garlic and ginger paste sill tastes a bit raw in the finished dish. Might be worth frying it off, even just a little, before mixing into the marinade.

25 Jan 2018

– 3 1/2 hours at 160C for a whole shoulder from Sainsburys trimmed of fat worked well.
– Don’t bother to marinade the bottom of the meat (which is in contact with the baking tray) because it just burns and the flavour doesn’t get into the meat. If it is possible to horizontally section up the meat and put a layer of marinade in that would probably work better.