Goat and Chickpea Stew

The second in a series of recipes invented to use up a small glut of under ripe tomatoes from the garden. In this case we had had a very tasty half-leg of goat slow roasted after being rubbed with a paste of garlic, pepper and rosemary and had some left over. Goat is like lean lamb and I could have made a curry, or shredded it for wraps but instead decided on this ragu which was very nice with saffron rice.

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

A generous pile of left over roast goat (or lamb or beef) cubed.

1 400g can of chickpeas, drained

250g of unripe tomatoes (you could use ripe ones but you would then need the juice of a lemon at the end to balance the flavours) diced.

2 medium onions thinly sliced into half moon rings

2 garlic cloves crushed

2 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 stick of cinnamon 

500ml of stock (I used mushroom as that was the cube that came to hand)

Method

Preheat the over to 160c

Fry the onions and garlic in a splash of oil in a over proof casserole dish. A the tomatoes and fry for a few minutes. Add the cubed meat and fry for a few more minutes. Then add the spices, the chickpeas and the stock. Bring to the boil, cover the casserole with foil. This will keep the steam in. Put in the oven and bake for an hour and a half.

A Simple Fish Traybake

It's Autumn and we pulled up the last of the tomato plants at the weekend. We had a good crop of small cherry tomatoes (Gardener's Delight) and larger salad tomatoes (Black Russian) but the weather has changed and the fruit still left on the trusses won't ripen so I picked about a kilo of them in various states of ripeness.

Now there are only so many fried breakfasts you can have and I'm not a chutney maker so this week has involved some experimentation, one of those is this simple traybake.

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 medium size potatoes sliced into 4mm slices

2 medium sized green tomatoes (or half a lemon sliced thinly

2 fillets of sea bass or sea bream

A small bunch of parsley

Olive or Rape Seed Oil

Method

 Preheat the oven to 180c. Scatter the sliced potatoes and tomatoes on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper then drizzle with a little oil. Bake in the oven for 20 mins. Pinch and slash the skin side of the fish a couple of times rub on a little oil and season with salt and pepper. Place on top of the potatoes and bake for 10-15 minutes depending on how thick the fish is.

Serve with peas or runner beans or a green salad.

 

Ealing Farmers' Market Harvest & What to Grow

It's been a while since I wrote anything here. I've not stopped cooking - no sir - nor eating! Partially in the winter both Liz and I crave comfort food and I fall back onto the staples that I've already written about; stews, casseroles, roasts and so forth. Now that the grey, but mild, Winter seems to be passing and Spring is in the air with blossom on the trees and daffodils flowering thoughts turn to what to grow in the garden and a walk around the Farmers' Market in Ealing is a more attractive prospect as rain won't be trickling down my neck.

So on a sunny Saturday morning we took up our reusable grocery bags and visited the market. First up was a pair of red mullet from the fish stall. They had some nice looking crabs, mussels, oysters and clams as well but shellfish doesn't agree with me (apart from scallops for some reason which I love). Mackerel, fresh and smoked, monkfish, hake and gurnard also looked good on the ice. I chose the mullet because I'd never cooked with it before and it looked good and fresh so two of those were filleted and popped in my bag.

Next up was a cheese stall where Liz chose, after much sampling, a piece of Wife of Bath, a mild creamy semi-hard cheese. Bread next, a loaf of fig sour-dough, crusty and not too dense, an inspiration for my next baking session perhaps.

Two meat stalls, both from the Chilterns to the north-west of London supplied us with a rolled venison shoulder, some sausages (hickory smoked and Lincolnshire varieties), a kilo of beef shin (possibly the best cut for slow cooking) and a pheasant pie.

Some purple sprouting broccoli, winter purslane and land cress from the vegetable stall along with two punnets of  mixed tomatoes (red, yellow, green, striped and deep purple) from the Isle of Wight (stretching the local aspect of the market there me-thinks!) would provide an accompaniment to the pheasant pie and the fish later. Last up a mixed half kilo of apples; Egmont Russets, Braeburns and the wonderfully named D'arcy Spice to see us through the week.

After a lunch of pie, salad and apple at home we strolled down our street to the where the local allotment centre was having their Spring Show. I had no idea there were so many types of daffodil! From pure white to deepest golden yellow. From simple trumpets to frilly doubles. From single large blooms to multiple small ones there must have been at least thirty on display!

Cakes, jams, marmalades, sausage rolls and handicrafts were also on display for judging all crammed into the church hall. We bought some seeds from the HAAGA (Horsenden Allotments And Garden Association) stall and trundled home with a copy of the show schedule where Liz seemed quite keen for me to enter one of the classes in the Summer Show.

As to what to grow this year in the garden. The same as usual for the most part. Runner and broad beans, tomatoes (several kinds), Jerusalem artichokes (mainly because once you have them you can't get rid of them!). Courgettes, herbs, rhubarb (already 15-20cm tall and may be ready for harvest soon), apples and salad greens. If I see something interesting in the garden centre later this month I may stretch this list a bit more but let's see. 

A Quick Lunch

Couldn't resist pairing some very ripe figs from the Pitshanger Lane greengrocer's with some ripe tomatoes and courgettes from the garden in a quick lunch before heading into London for a bit of 'culture'. Serves 2

Ingredients
3 Ripe Figs
Small chunk of blue cheese
Parmasan shavings
6 Cherry or small plum tomatoes
1 Small round courgette (or a normal one)
Fresh Thyme
1/2 a lemon
1 tbsp Olive Oil
Balsamic Vineger

Pre-heat the oven to about 150C.
Slice the courgettes length about the thickness of a pound coin (about 3mm for all of those who don't have Pound coins). Mix together the thyme, lemon juice, salt, pepper and olive oil. Griddle courgettes in a ridged pan for 5 or so minutes on each side, adding the tomatoes towards the end.

Meanwhile cut a cross in the top of each fig (to about half-way down), squeeze gently and put 1/3 of the blue cheese in each. Put in the oven for about 7 minutes until the cheese has melted.

Arrange nicely on plates with a few parmasan shavings, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and any marinade that is left.

A Fishy Farmers' Market Feast

Paid a visit to the almost local farmer's market in Ealing at the weekend, been too long since I went there. Was only planning on picking up a nice loaf of bread and perhaps some bacon but ended up with a bag of assorted vegetables, cheese, bacon, sausages and a nicely filleted grey mullet. Now I've not cooked this fish before but vaguely remembered that it had a good reputation from my various fish cookery books. So the fish became the centrepiece of tasty summer supper. Would definitely get Grey Mullet again - very tasty, nice thick fillets and not too expensive.

Ingredients
2 Fillets of Grey Mullet (or Sea Bass)
1 small Aubergine (diced) - I used a pale stripy lilac one
Large handful of fresh tomatoes (halved) (nice selection from the market red, brown, purple and gold)
1 medium red onion finely chopped
1 red pepper finely chopped
1 courgette diced
Small bunch of fresh basil
1 clove garlic - crushed
salt and pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tblsp seasoned flour
2 tblsp olive oil
4 tblsp vegetable oil

Method
Heat the olive oil in a pan. Add the onion and fry until softened. Add the pepper, garlic, aubergine and courgette and fry until softened and starting to colour at the edges. Season and add the tomatoes, stir and cook over a low heat while you cook the fish.

Coat the fish in seasoned flour. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan until hot then fry the fish on both sides, about 2-3 minutes each side. Chop the basil and add to the tomato sauce, serve alongside or under the fish.

Tomato and Beetroot Soup

Beetroot. I always associated it with the vinegary stuff in jars that stained your lettuce and potato salad purple. So for some reason I decided to plant some this year and now I have a row of purplish lumps in the vegetable bed looking at me through the mud, hence this soup which serves 3 for lunch along with some fresh bread and Lancashire cheese.

Ingredients:
1 medium beetroot (about 200-250g) but beetroot don't come in nice regular sizes do they?
1 medium onion
1 garlic clove
large knob of butter and a splash of olive oil
1 can of chopped tomatoes
600ml vegetable stock
1 tablespoon tomato purée
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Salt and pepper

Grate the beetroot. This will make a mess and will make your hands and kitchen look like you've killed a horse with a chainsaw. Fry the beetroot and the onion in the butter and oil for about 10 minutes until they have softened. Add the spices, the tomatoes, purée and stock. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Blend with a stick blender and add the Worcestershire sauce and season to taste.

A dollop of sour cream or yoghurt on top and or some chopped chives would make it look pretty.