Three of the Best - Salad Days # 9, 10 & 11

Out there in blogland I often hear some of you talk about dishes in your "regular rotation", but I seriously don't have any kind of regular rotation going on in my household.  I sometimes think it might make life a little bit easier if I did, but I just don't.  Truth is, even though I often say things like "this was so great, I'll definitely be making this again" - I usually don't.  I get seduced by some new idea and seldom make the same thing twice.

That said, there is a small selection of salads in my repertoire that I really have made several times because they were that good, and so I thought that it bears reintroducing them to you.

Roasted Eggplant, Mango & Soba Noodle Salad

This is a salad, unsurprisingly, from my food hero - Yotam Ottolenghi - and with mangoes (albeit imported ones) and eggplant being in abundance right now, this is a great time for this salad.  Because we don't grow mangoes in New Zealand, they are one of the few imported items in the fruit and veggie department in which I allow myself to indulge over summer, and I really make a feast of it.  Lush, juicy mangoes alongside smokey, roasted aubergines is not a combination I would have ever thought of, but it really works.

Green Tea Soba Noodles with Soy Roasted Salmon & Broad Bean-Radish Salad

Adapted from a recipe by Donna Hay, this is probably one of my favourite dishes I've posted of all time, and one I really have repeated numerous times.  Try this once, and I'm sure it will become one of your regulars too.  A visually stunning dish, packed with great punch of flavour from the wasabi-ginger dressing, and yet quick and easy to prepare.  This is the perfect maximum impact - minimum effort dish.

Baby Spinach Salad with Dates & Almonds

When we had our time over at I Heart Cooking Clubs cooking with Ottolenghi, this was one of my favourite dishes I made.  I know several of my fellow participants, and several of my friends in the Tasting Jerusalem group also loved, so don't just take my word for it - this is a salad you definitely need to have in your "rotation".

This is salad numbers 9, 10, and 11 in my Salad Days, 28 days of salad project.   What's that you ask?  Well,  I've said it here a dozen times or more ... I love salads.  A big bowl, substantial salad is hands down my favourite meal any time of the year.  Such is my love of salad, that I'm challenging myself to come up with a different salad every day for the month of February - that's 28 days of salads - and I plan to share as many of them as I can with you.  I'll also be doing some flashbacks to some of my favourite salads I've shared in the past.

What's more, I'm giving you the opportunity to share some of your favourite salads with me too.  Have a favourite salad you'd like to share?  Simply link up your salad recipe using the linky tool at the bottom of this post.  The linky will be open all month, and you can join in any day or every day, and link as many recipes as you like.  Feel free to grab the Salad Days badge from the sidebar to include in your post if you'd like to.  There's really no rules around linking up, other than please, use your manners and link your post back to this one.  Linking old posts is fine too, just please edit them to include the back link.  Thanks for sharing your favourite salad with us.

Burmese Chilli Prawns with Hot & Sour Asian Slaw - Salad Days # 8

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs we're exploring the theme "East Meets West", choosing Diana Henry fusion dishes with a global influence.

Living here in New Zealand, I'm no stranger to fusion food - I'm sure the same can be said for most of my "neighbours" on the Pacific Rim.  It has always fascinated me, in just about any country, the influence that its immigrants has on the local food culture.  When I was growing up, Chicken Chop Suey at the local Chinese restaurant was about as exotic as it got.  In the last 20 years, however, increasing numbers of Asian immigrants has had a huge influence on the New Zealand culinary landscape.  Previously unheard of ingredients are now readily available;  Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Malaysian, Burmese, Bangladeshi, and Indonesian restaurants abound;  and even the pantries of this nation's most unadventurous cooks would boast a bottle of soy sauce at the very least.

Looking through Diana Henry'd book A Change of Appetite, I thought her Burmese Chilli Fish with Hot & Sour Salad was the perfect dish to fit the brief.  The hot and sour salad, which is essentially an Asian take on a classic cole slaw seemed like the epitome of fusion food to me.  I made quite a few changes to the recipe ... For a start I replaced the fish with prawns, and tweaked the curry paste a little.  And I rang a few changes to the salad as well - adding in some red cabbage along with the white, and adding carrot, green papaya, cherry tomatoes, mint and peanuts to the slaw, and as I did with the curry paste I tweaked the dressing a bit.

This dish definitely had the wow factor - an absolute explosion of flavours and textures, and just enough heat to leave my lips tingling at the end of it ... in a good way.  If you like Asian flavours, I urge you to give this a try the next time you have cole slaw on your mind.

Burmese Chilli Prawns with Hot & Sour Asian Slaw Recipe
Inspired by recipe from Diana Henry
from A Change of Appetite
Serves 2 as a substantial meal

For the Burmese Chilli Prawns:
300g raw prawns, shells removed and deveined
1x clove garlic, roughly chopped
generous pinch of salt
piece of fresh ginger about the size of your thumb, grated
1/2 red chilli, roughly chopped (deseed if you like less heat)
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon lime juice

For the Hot & Sour Asian Slaw:
1x cup finely shredded white cabbage
1x cup finely shredded red cabbage (plus extra leaves for serving)
1x carrot finely shredded (a julienne peeler is ideal)
1x cup finely shredded green papaya
2x radishes, thinly sliced (a mandoline works perfectly if you have one)
12x cherry tomatoes, halved (use different colours if you can)
generous handful of mint leaves, roughly chopped
large handful of roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
1/2 red chilli, roughly chopped (deseed if you like less heat)

For the dressing:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon lime juice

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).

Place garlic, salt, ginger, chilli, turmeric, olive oil, sesame oil and lime juice in a mortar and pestle, and grind to a paste.  Add paste to the prawns, and toss until all the prawns are well coated in the paste.  Put prawns in a single layer in an ovenproof dish, and bake in the preheated oven until cooked through - depending on the size of your prawns this will take between 5 and 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the dressing ingredients in a small jar and shake vigorously until well combined.  Taste and then adjust to your liking - you want a good balance of sweet-sour-salty, so play around with the ingredients until you get the flavour just right.

Place all the slaw ingredients in a large bowl, drizzle liberally with the dressing, and toss gently until everything is well combined.

Serve immediately piled into red cabbage leaves, and arrange prawns on the side.

If you would like to get to know Diana Henry a little better, and to see what everyone else has cooked up this week, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links (who knows, you might even want to join the journey and cook along with us) ...

... or check out A Change of Appetite and Diana's many other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, or Fishpond NZ.

I'm also sharing this at Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays, hosted by my very lovely friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen, and at Weekend Cooking, hosted by the lovely Beth at Beth Fish Reads.

This is salad number 8 in my Salad Days, 28 days of salad project.   What's that you ask?  Well,  I've said it here a dozen times or more ... I love salads.  A big bowl, substantial salad is hands down my favourite meal any time of the year.  Such is my love of salad, that I'm challenging myself to come up with a different salad every day for the month of February - that's 28 days of salads - and I plan to share as many of them as I can with you.  I'll also be doing some flashbacks to some of my favourite salads I've shared in the past.

What's more, I'm giving you the opportunity to share some of your favourite salads with me too.  Have a favourite salad you'd like to share?  Simply link up your salad recipe using the linky tool at the bottom of this post.  The linky will be open all month, and you can join in any day or every day, and link as many recipes as you like.  Feel free to grab the Salad Days badge from the sidebar to include in your post if you'd like to.  There's really no rules around linking up, other than please, use your manners and link your post back to this one.  Linking old posts is fine too, just please edit them to include the back link.  Thanks for sharing your favourite salad with us.

Tropical Fruit Christmas Cake

Every year since I started this blog it's been on my mind to post a Christmas cake recipe but, best laid plans and all of that, some years I just didn't get around to making a cake, other years the cake got made but planning for a blog post was off and somehow posting a Christmas cake recipe in the middle of January just didn't make sense.

This year, with family coming (from near and far) to stay over the Christmas holidays, it's an even bet that my hostessing skills will be called into serious question if I don't produce said cake.  Serendipitously, it's our monthly Pot Luck week at I Heart Cooking Clubs, and I felt sure that at least one of our IHCC chefs would have a Christmas cake recipe I could try.  I was pretty certain that if I looked hard enough Nigella Lawson, Donna Hay, Nigel Slater, Jamie Oliver and our current chef, Diana Henry, would probably all offer something suitable.

As it turned out, the first place I searched was Donna Hay's website, and on finding her Christmas cake recipe, I needed look no further.  Because we celebrate Christmas here in New Zealand in the height of summer, I decided to give my cake more of a tropical vibe than the traditional, rich, dark cake.  I used Donna's recipe as a basic template for quantities of eggs, butter, sugar, flour, etc, but I replaced most of the fruit with more tropically inspired dried fruit.  In keeping with my tropical theme I soaked the fruit in ginger beer instead of sherry, and replaced almonds with macadamia nuts.  I also added some rose water, orange flower water, and almond extract to the soaking liquid, as well as adding some ground ginger and nutmeg in with the spices.

I'd love to show you a slice of this cake and tell you how it tastes, but what you see in the picture is the cake straight out of the oven.  It has several hours of cooling in the tin ahead of it, before it could be sliced, and anyway, you know that it's bad luck to cut the cake before Christmas.  Of course, there's always a few spoonfuls of the mixture that don't make it into the cake tin, and if what I tasted out of the bowl is anything to go by we are in for a wonderful cake.

I think this cake will be delightful as it is, without any further adornment, but if you like to go the whole marzipan and royal icing route that would be great too.  Personally, I'm thinking that Christmas Eve this cake will get a liberal blanket of a white chocolate, ginger and cream cheese frosting - what do you think?

Tropical Fruit Christmas Cake Recipe
Inspired by this recipe from Donna Hay

1.1 kg (2-1/2 lb) mixed dried fruit
(I used a combination of jumbo raisins, cherries, mixed peel, apricots, pineapple, figs, prunes and rock melon)
100g (3-1/2 oz) macadamia nuts
300 ml (1-1/4 cups) ginger beer
2 tablespoons rose water
2 tablespoons orange flower water
1 tablespoon almond extract
300g (10-1/2 oz) butter, room temperature
220g (7-3/4 oz) soft brown sugar
2x vanilla beans
4x eggs
375g (13 oz) plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon each ground cinnamon, ground ginger, mixed spice & nutmeg
1/4 cup ginger beer, extra

Place all the mixed fruit and nuts into a large bowl, cutting larger pieces of fruit as you go - I cut everything into pieces about the size of the cherries.  Pour the first measure of ginger beer over the fruit, along with the rose water, orange flower water and almond extract.  Mix everything together well, cover bowl with a clean tea towel, and place in a cool, dark place to soak for 24 hours.  Give it a stir occasionally if you think of it.

Preheat oven to 140 degrees C (275 degrees F).  Grease a 20cm (8 inch) square cake tin, and line with two layers of non-stick baking paper, greasing each layer of paper as you go.

Place butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Split the vanilla beans lengthwise down the middle and scrape out the seeds, adding the seeds to the butter and brown sugar.  Set the machine running, and beat the mixture for 5 to 8 minutes, until light and creamy.  Add the eggs to the mixture, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Sift together flour, baking soda and spices.  Add to the soaked fruit, and stir well to ensure that all the fruit is well coated with the flour.  Lastly add the butter and sugar mixture, and stir until everything is well combined.

Spoon the mixture into the tin (reserving a couple of good spoonfuls for the cook), smooth the top, and place in the preheated oven.  Bake for 2 hours 25 minutes to 2 hours 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean - I'd suggest you start testing after 2 hours 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven, and brush the top of the cake liberally with the extra ginger beer while still warm.  Allow to cool in the tin completely before removing and wrapping well in plastic wrap to store.  Should keep for at least four weeks.

If you would like to get to know Donna Hay a little better, or any of our other IHCC chefs, and to see what everyone else has cooked up this week, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links (who knows, you might even want to join the journey and cook along with us) ...

Soy Chicken

I love Asian food, of all varieties, and almost invariably if we decide to dine out we will opt for something Asian ... Thai, Indian, Japanese.  Vietnamese or Malaysian would feature on that list too if such cuisines were available where I live, but sadly that isn't the case.

When I'm at home too, and need to turn out dinner in a hurry, I will often look for a bit of Asian inspiration.  I adore the way Asian dishes seem to really wake-up jaded taste buds with their bright, vibrant flavours;  I love that most often Asian dishes deliver maximum flavour with minimal time and effort applied;  my dishpan hands (actually I don't have dishpan hands because I use a dishwasher, but you get my drift) love the fact that Asian dishes (apart from maybe a pot to boil some rice or noodles) are usually "one-pot wonders";   and my wallet is happy that Asian food is usually very budget-friendly to produce.

This week, at I Heart Cooking Clubs, our theme is "Passport to Asia" - a theme I've been eagerly looking forward to for ages.  Our current chef, Donna Hay, has literally dozens of fresh, simple Asian-inspired dishes in every one of her books - the hardest part of this challenge was narrowing it down to just one dish to cook.  In the end I thought I would share this Soy Chicken dish from Donna's book "Seasons".  It's one of my favourite dishes, and one I've made several times, so it seemed only fair to share it with you.

A whole chicken is firstly poached in a mixture of Chinese cooking wine, soy sauce, star anise, cinnamon, ginger, garlic and orange, then transferred to a hot oven to crisp up the skin.  This is absolutely delicious served straight out of the oven, with some steamed rice, and a drizzle of the poaching liquid over the top - some steamed broccoli or bok choy would make a great side.  My other favourite way to serve this is to simply shred the chicken, and serve on a large platter with some carrot and cucumber juliennes, maybe some crisp iceberg lettuce and avocado, some rice vermicelli noodles, even boiled egg wedges and radishes are good too - alongside serve some rice paper wrappers and a bowl of water and let everyone dig in and make their own fresh spring rolls.

Soy Chicken Recipe

Adapted (very slightly) from recipe by Donna Hay

from Seasons

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

640ml Chinese cooking wine

8 cups water

3/4 cup dark soy sauce

1 cup brown sugar

1 stick cinnamon

4 star anise

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

5cm (2 inch) piece of ginger, sliced

4 strips pink grapefruit peel (or orange peel)

1.6kg whole organic, free-range chicken

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C (390 degrees F).

Meanwhile, put the Chinese cooking wine, water, soy sauce and sugar into a large pot.  Set the pan over high heat and stir constantly until the sugar has dissolved.

Remove from the heat and add the cinnamon, star anise, garlic, ginger, citrus peels, and chicken.  Return the pan to the heat and bring to the boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the poaching liquid, place on a rack in a baking dish, and cook in the preheated oven until the skin is golden and crispy - about 15 to 20 minutes.

Cut into pieces and served with steamed rice.

If you would like to get to know Donna Hay a little better, and to see all the fabulous Asian-inspired dishes my friends have come up with, then do go visit I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links.

I'll also be sharing this post this week at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the lovely Michelle at Ms. enPlace, Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth at Beth Fish Reads, at Cook your Books hosted by Joyce at Kitchen Flavours, and at Foodie Fridays hosted by Designs by Gollam.

              

Tea Cup Steamed Ginger Coconut Cakes

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs our theme is "Time for Tea" - creating Donna Hay recipes which are perfect to enjoy with a cup of tea, are inspired by tea drinking, or even use tea as an ingredient.

I have to say that Donna has literally dozens and dozens of recipes that would fit the bill, so narrowing the choice down was by far the hardest part of this challenge.

Leafing through my copy of "Dining" (which is now published as "Entertaining"), I came across these Tea Cup Steamed Coconut Cakes.  Donna prepared hers in little Chinese tea cups, but I chose to use a selection of these gorgeous little demi-tasse cups which used to belong to my mother.

I made a few minor changes to the recipe:  I replaced the 1/2 cup of white sugar and 1/4 cup of palm sugar called for in the original recipe with 1/2 cup of coconut sugar, and I added some ground ginger for a little extra flavour.

The coconut sugar brought beautiful caramel flavours to these little cakes, which were very easy to put together (even for a non-baker like me), and they made a delicious afternoon treat with a cup of jasmine tea.  I also loved that, by virtue of these little cakes being steamed, I didn't need to use the oven on a hot and sunny afternoon.

Tea Cup Steamed Ginger & Coconut Cakes Recipe

Adapted from recipe by Donna Hay

from Entertaining

Makes 6-8 (depending on size of your cups)

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

4x free range eggs

1/2 cup coconut sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1-1/4 cups self raising flour

3 tablespoons dessicated coconut

Place eggs and sugar in a medium sized bowl and, using an electric mixer, beat mixture until it is light and thick - about 8-10 minutes.

Gently fold the sifted flour and ginger, along with the coconut, into the mixture.

Spoon the mixture into lightly greased small tea cups, and place cups in a steamer over boiling water.

Cover and steam until the cakes are puffed and firm - 10-15 minutes depending on the size of your cups.

Serve with jasmine tea.

If you would like to get to know Donna Hay a little better, and to see all the fabulous tea-inspired dishes my friends have come up with, then do go visit I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links.

I will also be submitting this post to Sweet New Zealand.  Inspired by Alessandra Zecchini, Sweet New Zealand is an event for all Kiwi bloggers (whether living at home or abroad), or all foreign bloggers living in New Zealand, to link up their sweet treats.  This month, the event is also hosted by Alessandra.

I'll also be sharing this post this week at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the lovely Michelle at Ms. enPlace, Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth at Beth Fish Reads, at Cook your Books hosted by Joyce at Kitchen Flavours, and at Foodie Fridays hosted by Designs by Gollam.

              

Green Tea Soba Noodles with Soy-Roasted Salmon and Broad Bean & Radish Salad

"In Season" is our theme this week at I Heart Cooking Clubs, where we continue our journey with Donna Hay, the queen of wonderfully quick and simple, yet sensationally flavoured food.  This is our opportunity to prepare a dish which represents the best of local, seasonal produce, wherever in the world you might live.

I have to confess this leaves me feeling a little smug, because right now in my part of the world it's spring.  Now I know that there is almost no limit to the wonderful and imaginative things that those of you living in the northern hemisphere can do with a pumpkin and pot roast, but really is there anything more exciting than fresh, crisp, green spring produce.  To me the joy of spring food lies not only in all its glory in its own right, but somehow also as the harbinger of what's to come in the summer ahead.  Quintessential spring food in my part of the world includes asparagus, broad beans, radishes, new potatoes, juicy Nelson scallops and West Coast whitebait.  If you were a keen fisherman that might also include salmon, the season beginning in spring and running through to autumn.

After picking up a well-priced side of salmon at the fishmonger's the other day, and some new season broad beans at the market, I knew my dish would have to include these two ingredients.  After searching through my copy of Donna Hay's "Fast, Fresh, Simple", I came across a recipe for Salmon & Soy Bean Noodle Salad with Wasabi Dressing.  In the latest issue of Donna Hay magazine I also came across a recipe for Green Tea Noodle and Smoked Salmon Salad with Pickled Ginger Dressing.  Both looked wonderful, and what I finally decided on was something of a marriage of the two.  In one recipe Donna used raw, sashimi-style salmon, in the other smoked salmon - I went with my own favourite way of preparing salmon, oven-roasted in a soy marinade.  I also mixed together a dressing which included the pickled ginger from one of Donna's recipe and the wasabi from the other.  The final dressing packed a real flavour punch.

This dish was the perfect combination of fresh spring ingredients, put together in a light and healthy way, and best of all ... preparation was quick and simple - whole thing on the table in less than 30 minutes.  I'll definitely be making this again a few times before spring passes into summer.

Soy-Roasted Salmon Recipe

A Couscous & Consciousness original

Serves 2

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

2x pieces of salmon fillet (skin on, pin bones removed)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).

While oven is heating, mix oil, and soy together in a shallow, ovenproof dish which is big enough to hold both pieces of fish in a single layer.  Add salmon to the dish and turn it over in the oil and soy mixture several times, until it is thoroughly coated on all sides.  Add a liberal grinding of black pepper over the top, and set aside to "marinate" until the oven is hot.

Once oven is ready, put the dish of salmon into the oven, reduce heat to 160 degrees C (320 degrees F), and cook for around 8 minutes or until done to your liking.

Green Tea Soba Noodles and

Broad Bean & Radish Salad with

Wasabi Ginger Dressing Recipe

Adapted from recipe by Donna Hay

from Fast, Fresh, Simple

Serves 2

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

100g (3-1/2 oz) green tea soba noodles

1x cup broad beans, blanched, refreshed & skins removed

2x medium-sized radishes, very thinly sliced

generous handful of peppery salad greens & edible flowers

black sesame seeds (optional)

Dressing:

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

1 teaspoon sesame oil

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1 teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon light soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon wasabi paste

1 tablespoon finely chopped pickled ginger

Set a medium sized pan of water over high heat and bring to the boil.  Once boiling add the soba noodles to the water, and cook according to packet directions (usually around 5 minutes).

Note:  This would also be the ideal time to put the salmon in the oven.

While noodles and salmon are cooking, prepare dressing by simply whisking all ingredients together in a small jug.

Once noodles are cooked (like pasta, they should be al dente), remove from the heat, drain and refresh under cold running water.  Drain well and toss noodles with half of the dressing.

To serve arrange noodles in a serving bowl or platter, and strew liberally with broad beans, radishes and salad greens.  Add salmon, pour over the remaining dressing, and finish with a sprinkle of black sesame seeds (if using).

If you would like to get to know Donna Hay a little better, and to see all the wonderful seasonally inspired dishes my friends have come up with, then do go visit I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links.

I'll also be sharing this post this week at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the lovely Michelle at Ms. enPlace, Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth at Beth Fish Reads, Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays hosted by my special friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen, at Cook Your Books hosted by the lovely Joyce at Kitchen Flavours, and at Foodie Fridays hosted by Designs by Gollam.

                    

Yellow Tomato & Ginger Conserve

I need to make a small confession.  I’ve spoken much in recent posts about our fabulous tomato crop, which might lead you to believe that I’m quite the gardener.  In truth, I have a profound fear of pretty much anything bigger than an ant and smaller than a cat.  Not only does this include any rodents and rodent-like critters (e.g. hamsters, rabbits, ferrets, etc), but all manner of insects and garden creatures.  Creepy crawly things, such as spiders, cicadas, worms, caterpillars, earwigs, and so on, while seemingly harmless to most of you I’m sure, fill me with abject terror.  I also have quite a phobia about the feeling of dirt on my skin - yes, I know you can wear gloves in the garden, but I seem to have smallish hands and gardening gloves (even the small size ones) always seem so large, so that my hands seem to flop around in them like the proverbial in a bowler hat!

So, the long and the short of it is that my gardening prowess extends to supervising (something for which I’m convinced I have an absolute gift), staking up the tomato plants (it’s creepy and scary, but I can just manage that bit), and harvesting, which is of course the great joy of any vegetable garden.

As part of my harvesting duty, I’ve been gathering bowl after bowl full of these babies ...

Little yellow, tear-drop shaped, cherry tomatoes.  I like to eat these straight off the vine while I’m harvesting other things - it’s kind of like eating candy and feels like a bit of a treat for being brave enough to go into the garden.  I love them also tossed into salads and pasta dishes, and I’ve discovered that they make great jam.

I came across a recipe for Yellow Tomato Conserve in A Passion for Preserves by Frederica Langeland, which seemed like a great way to use up some of the surplus.  I adapted the recipe only slightly, adding some crystallised ginger in at the end, and the results were so good I couldn’t wait to make a second batch, which I made without the ginger (since not everyone is a ginger lover).  Both variations are exceptionally good.  The colour is gorgeous and I’m loving it on crumpets in the morning for breakfast, although I think there are enough savoury notes in the flavour that it could be paired with other foods in the same way you might a sweet chutney.  I’m thinking that this could be quite a nice accompaniment to Indian food.  Either way, I hope you’ll give this a try.

Yellow Tomato & Ginger Conserve Recipe

Adapted from recipe by Frederica Langeland from

A Passion for Preserves

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

1kg (2lb) yellow tear-drop cherry tomatoes

1 lemon

4 cups sugar

1/2 cup water

knob or two of butter

1/4 cup crystallised ginger, very finely chopped (optional)

Trim the stem ends from the tomatoes and cut them in half.

Cut the lemon into quarters.  Flick out any seeds, and then cut the quarters into very thin slices.

Put water and sugar into a large pan, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved and you have a syrup.

Add the tomatoes and lemon slices to the pan, and cook until thick about 40-45 minutes.  Towards the end of the cooking time, stir in a knob or two of butter to disperse any scum.

Remove from heat and stir in the crystallised ginger if using.

Fill hot, sterilised jars to within .5cm (1/4 inch) of the top.  Using a damp cloth, wipe the rims of the jars clean, and put on the lids and screw on firmly.  Turn jars upside down for a couple of minutes, then turn upright again and leave to cool completely.

Sour Chickpeas (Khatte Chhole)

What with one thing and another over the "stupid season", I haven't managed for the last couple of weeks to join in with my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs where we are cooking the food of Madhur Jaffrey.  Time now that all the busyness is out of the way to join back in.

Our theme this week is "Appetisers", and it seemed like the perfect time to try this recipe for Sour Chickpeas that I've had earmarked for sometime now.  These sour, spicy chickpeas are classic street snack food found all over northern India.  Madhur says, in her introduction to the recipe, "although Khatte Chhole are generally eaten as a snack in India, I serve them at my lunches and dinners, with vegetables, meats and rice".  I'm inclined to agree.  I enjoyed them as a bit of a snack served with some crisp triangles of toasted pita bread, but I liked them best over rice for a light lunch.

Now, you will have observed already that this dish suffers photographically from the DBFS (dreaded brown food syndrome), but trust me when I tell you that it tastes a lot better than it looks.  There is certainly plenty of spiciness in this dish, and the sourness (although I think initially somewhat foreign to European palates) works really well with the delightful nuttiness of some steamed Basmati rice.

Sour Chickpeas (Khatte Chhole) Recipe

Adapted slightly from recipe by Madhur Jaffrey from

Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cookery

Would serve 4-6 as a snack or accompaniment or

Serves 2-3 as a light meal

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

2 cups cooked chickpeas

(canned are fine, but if you cook your own save the cooking liquid)

2x shallots, peeled and very finely chopped

salt

1x green chilli, finely chopped (deseed if you like less heat)

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

juice of 1x lemon

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1x large or 2x medium tomatoes, finely chopped

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

2 teaspoons garam masala

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Put one of the chopped shallots in a small bowl, together with the chopped chilli, grated ginger, lemon juice, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Mix together well and set aside.

Now heat oil in a heavy based, deep pan over medium heat.  Once oil has heated, add the remaining chopped shallot to the pan and fry, stirring from time to time, until the shallot becomes fragrant and begins to turn golden brown.  Add the chopped tomato and continue to cook for several minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomato has "broken down", and has become like a thick sauce.  Add the coriander, cumin and turmeric, and stir to combine everything well.  Add the chickpeas to the pan, and stir to coat well with the spice and sauce mixture.  Now add 400 ml (14 fl oz) of water, or reserved chickpea cooking liquid if you have it.  Add the garam masala, cayenne pepper, and 2 teaspoons of salt.  Stir to combine, and then bring up to the boil.

Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook gently for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Stir in the mixture of shallots, chilli, ginger and lemon juice.  Mix well and remove from heat.

Serve immediately, or cool to luke warm.  (I actually liked it best at room temperature).

If you would like to get to know Madhur a little better, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and see what they've all cooked up ...

... or check out Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking and many of Madhur's other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK or Fishpond NZ.

         

I'm sharing this post at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the lovely Michelle at Ms. enPlace; at Gallery of Favourites hosted by the equally lovely April at The 21st Century Housewife and Alea at Premeditated Leftovers;  and at My Meatless Mondays hosted by Chaya at My Sweet and Savory.