Tunisian Food

From my research I see that Tunisian food is not the greatest in the world, so it's a good thing that my holiday is in an all inclusive hotel in Hammamet. Or maybe not. Actually the food is good enough and everyday comes in a buffet format with fresh bread, a salad bar...

A selection from the salad bar

...mains counter and a desserts area. The mains are an approximation of Tunisian food, typically a tasty beef stew most nights with rice or couscous, some kind of baked chicken and roasted vegetables, usually peppers or aubergine. Tunisian food, I'd imagine would be a lot more spicy.

Mains

The most genuinely Tunisian dish we had on our travels was some kind of egg fried so the yolk is still runny, inside a thin fried pastry. A bit strange and I can't say I'm overly enamoured with it.

Bolognaise

This is the first time I've dared cook Italian since returning from Rome; how can my cooking match up to the true professional dining we ate in the Italian capital?
I can't, but it doesn't mean I don't care, so treating it like a stew I make a Bolognaise which I have with wholewheat tubey-type pasta and a generous grating of parmesan cheese. It's edible but a tad watery, however it will be better after an overnight rest.

Bolognaise

Chinese Stewed Pork & Stir Fried Veg

It wasn't intentional but I have managed to go through a whole weekend without cooking dinner myself and I'm not on holiday! A success!
I only intended to have a bit of a chat when I pop in to see my folks, but they persuade me to stay for dinner. My Mum does this beautiful Chinese Stewed Pork in a dark sauce flavoured with ginger, star anise and soy sauce among other things that she serves with Stir Fried Veg and white rice. The pork is beautifully tender and with the rice soaking up the flavoured sauce, I have to have seconds. And steal a last piece of pork from the serving bowl while I think no one is looking... Tasty.

Same as yesterday

Stews whether sweet or savoury are always better the next day aren't they?
I'll stop you there - yes they are. I lose some of the excess water from the savoury and thoroughly enjoy the more fully fused flavours of the sweet.

Beef Paprikash

 

 

 

 

 

Blackberry, fig and ginger crumble

Beef Paprikash & Blackberry, Fig & Ginger Crumble

I usually hate tomatoes, the only way I tolerate the shiny, scarlet buggers is through a long, slow cooking process so that the aspect of them I really hate - the texture - is completely obliterated. None more so than in a Beef Paprikash, where cubes of stewing beef are quickly browned and removed from a casserole dish, then onion and garlic softened slowly in the same dish, before returning all the ingredients to the dish with paprika, chopped tomatoes and beef stock, before leaving to simmer for nigh on 3 hours, adding rings of red pepper halfway through cooking.

Beef Paprikash

I dish up with rice and apply a half dozen blobs of soured cream. Tasty, but disappointingly the paprikash is still a bit too watery as can be seen by the water underneath the rice. The flavours were there, but just a bit too watery.
Since it's Sunday, a pudding is in order: Blackberry, Fig and Ginger Crumble. Her and I spent a few hours yesterday in the dappled afternoon sunlight beneath the trees by the lake in Milton Country Park, stretching into the brambles to collect hundreds of shiny blackberries, enough to fill a cake tin in anticipation of today dish. We fill a large glass dish with our washed catch before nestling in a few quarters of fig and finely chopped ginger as well as sprinkling with sugar. To the usual crumble topping we add flaked almond and slide it into the oven for half an hour until golden on top with bubbles from the blackberries, now a deep shade of red, visibly pipping through the glass. It was seriously worth the wait too. Subtly fragrant figs matching with the blackberry fruitiness with hints of ginger and almond punctuating the sweetness on the tongue - beautiful.

Blackberry, fig and ginger crumble

Beef Rendang

Dinner at Mum and Dad's today and she treats my aunt, uncle, sister and I to her excellent Beef Rendang, which is a Malaysian beef curry.

Mum had already par boiled beef shin and brisket for an hour before I arrived and reserved the stock

Next she adds chopped garlic, shallots, sweet pepper and chilli...

...then she adds seasoning (can't remember what this is!)...

...and a few spoons of chilli sauce...

...before the all the ingredients are mixed together...

...and a few tablespoons of dark soy sauce are stirred in.

In a separate pan sliced garlic & shallots are fried with cinnamon...

...before adding the beef and stirring...

...and adding the reserved stock...

...with a couple of tablespoons of vinegar...

...and top up with water. From now the dish is treated as a stew.

A couple of hours later, the dish is served up.

This is one of Mum's classic dishes, but it could have done with a few more chillis for my taste; excellent nonetheless.

Braised Oxtails

Rain, rain and more rain equals stew in my book with something to soak it up with potato or bread being my preferred options. Today's stew is Braised Oxtails.

To start, I braise the oxtails, making sure each side is browned.

 

Next, I set aside the meat and brown medium diced onion, celery, leek and carrot in the same pan before adding tomato, crushed garlic, bay leaves and rosemary and cooking for a few minutes more.

Sitting the oxtails into the saucepan, I add the vegetables on top of them before pouring over half a bottle of red wine which I boil off until there's almost none left.

I then top up with chicken stock until it covers the meat, bring it to a simmer and cover the pot before putting it into the oven at 160 degrees Celsius (fan assisted) for 2 hours.

After 2 hours, I lift out and set aside the oxtails and then reduce the stew to a thick consistency. At the same time I boil some new potatoes.

Next to plate up. Potatoes and oxtail positioned on a plate with the stew poured over. Beautiful. The meat falls off the bone and today's addition of raw tomatoes rather than canned tomatoes seems to make a difference giving the stew a sweeter but not overpowering finish.

Braised oxtails

I can't remember what this is...

You know when something in the freezer loses it's label and you can't remember what it is? I'm in that situation today. So let's see... The meat is chunky so it's probably a stew of some kind, there are clearly carrots involved, another stew staple and mushrooms. Mushrooms. They usually pair with beef. This must be a Beef Casserole! I wish I'd though of this before making the accompanying couscous...

This is a...

Beef and Guinness Stew

How can you not have Guinness or something containing it on St Patrick's Day? Today's dinner is Beef and Guinness Stew which contains the following ingredients:

• 1 pack of braising beef (400g);
• 1 stick of celery;
• 1 leek;
• 1 onion;
• 1 carrot;
• 2 garlic cloves;
• 1 bottle of Guinness Stout (330ml);
• 1 beef stock cube;
• 1 large sprig of thyme;
• flour; and
• salt and pepper.

The method for this is extremely simple, firstly I dice the beef and dust in seasoned flour, before browning in an ovenproof pan.

1. Browning the beef

While the beef browns I preheat the (fan) oven to 160 degrees Celsius and roughly chop all the veg apart from the garlic cloves which I crush. Next I set aside the beef and brown the veg for a short while in the same pan.

2. Browning the veg

Following that I return the beef to the pan with the veg and add the Guinness, stock cube and thyme. I also add enough water to just cover the ingredients at this point and bring everything to the boil while stirring.

3. Adding the Guinness

4. Adding the thyme and the stock cube

5. Topping up with water and stirring while bringing to the boil

I lid the pan before putting it in the oven and leaving well alone for at least 2 hours.

6. The stew served with new potatoes & green beans

After two hours the stew has a wonderfully velvety consistency as the meat falls apart when pushed with a fork. You can taste a slight bitterness from the stout, which may not be to everyone's taste; indeed I may add a little sugar or increase the carrot quotient (with it's natural sweetness) next time I make this.

Summer Chicken and Basil Stew 2

Two days later after sitting in the fridge the Summer Chicken and Basil Stew is better. More flavour infused with a thicker consistency it has a beautiful quality that soaks wonderfully into hand-cut bread. The only component that waned after 48 hours and a reheating are the now limp basil leaves, but that's a small price to pay.

Summer chicken and basil stew

 

Summer Chicken and Basil Stew

A beautiful Spring day accompanies my drive from west to east today with hazy sunshine lighting the mild air; something of an early Summer feel to the day inspires me to make Summer Chicken and Basil Stew using this recipe.
Basil is a very delicate herb which I don't usually use, especially a whole packet worth (around 25 grams) like today, but it's light flavour does add that summery characteristic to the stew. However, for my taste it needs to be cooked for longer with a thicker consistency than I have here. I use Friday's remaining gnocchi to soak up the stew.

Summer chicken and basil stew

Spaghetti Bolognese Recipe

There is famously no definitive recipe for Bolognese sauce, though in 2010 there was some effort to define it; however many edible variations exist, including the Guardian's perfect recipe. I've based today's dinner on this recipe in the Telegraph.


My Ingredients for Spaghetti Bolognese:

• Olive oil;
• 180g of lardons (1 pack);
• 1 chopped onion;
• 3 crushed cloves of garlic;
• 500g of beef mince (1 pack);
• 1 glass of red wine;
  
• 1 chopped carrot;
• 1 stick of chopped celery;
• 400g of chopped tomatoes (1 tin);
• Bay leaves;
• 1 small mug full of beef stock (using half a stock cube);
• 1 tablespoon of tomato puree;
• A dash of Worcestershire sauce;
• Grated Parmesan cheese and ground pepper to serve.

So this is what I did:

1. Brown the lardons in the oil

2. Soften the onion and garlic

3. Turn the heat up and brown the mince

4. Add the wine and reduce for 5 mins

5. Add the carrot, tinned tomatoes, celery, beef stock, tomato puree, bay leaves & Worcestershire sauce

6. Bring to the boil, cover & simmer for 1.5 hours

7. The consistency should be stew-like, not watery!

8. Serve with spaghetti, grated parmesan and pepper

Lamb and Apricot Stew

The dried apricots in my cupboard have persuaded me to do something with them and catching my attention amongst potential recipes is a Lamb and Apricot Stew. There are a few ingredients which I need to pick up, so I coincide this forging activity with an afternoon walk. Most of these are store cupboard classics like tomato puree, but one of these is a spice mix that I am less familiar with called Ras El Hanout (which I’m guessing is essential to the dish), which leads me to follow my nose to the Al Amin store on Mill Road, a veritable treasure trove of spice and suchlike. I listen to the whole of Loveless on the way, but my despite picking up the other items here, my search for REH is fruitless. Sainsbury’s in town also seems equally fruitless at first, but between the returning students I manage to find a pot of REH on the bottom shelf. I celebrate by listening to Suck It and See on the way home.

The resulting stew is well balanced between the heat of the spices, the sweetness of the apricots and savoury of the lamb. It is very moreish when soaked up with couscous. And at 45 minutes from worktop to table, it’s a good addition to the arsenal.

Lamb and apricot stew