Tomato curry

Serves 4

If I found myself in a life where meat wasn't readily available, I guess vegetarianism wouldn't be the end of my world just as long as I had easy enough access to some great Indian ingredients and techniques from which some of the finest vegetarian food comes.

40g butter
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
50g fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 large hot green chilli, chopped (remove the seeds if you like)
6-7 curry leaves
1 tsp ground cumin
Seeds from 5 cardamom pods
10 tomatoes, cored and split in two widthways
Salt
75g creamed coconut dissolved in 5-6 tblsp boiling water
Squeeze of lime juice, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
Fresh coriander, chopped, to garnish

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed shallow pot or frying pan. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli, curry leaves (if you have them), cumin and cardamom. Allow the spices to stew gently before laying the tomatoes on top, skin side down. Lightly salt their surfaces and spoon over the coconut cream.

Loosely cover and set over an extremely low heat. Much of the juice from the tomatoes will form a sauce, helped along by the creamed coconut. When this is coming along nicely, baste the tomatoes with the sauce to amalgamate the coconut cream.

When the dish is ready – after about 30 minutes – the tomatoes should still have their shape and the sauce will be slightly separated but creamy in parts (if it seems too dry, add a little water).

Squeeze over the lime juice, grind on the pepper and sprinkle with coriander. It’s best served at room temperature as a first course, or with devilled chicken, perhaps should this vegetarian nonsense prove all to much...

Bolani flatbread

Makes 6-8

Bread seems to be the bomb right now, after a myriad of Lebanese treats last week, here's something so easy, but just that little bit different. Bolani is a delicious flaky flatbread, originally from Afghanistan, but is something popping up all over the shop now. Can be cooked and served just as it is, but is also pretty fine stuffed with anything from cooked and choppe spinach to some gorgeous simmered lentils.

500g plain flour
1 tsp salt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
150ml olive oil, plus extra for cooking

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Make a well in the centre, and add the eggs, olive oil and 250ml water. Bring together to make a ball of dough. Knead on a floured work surface for 10-15 minutes until very soft and elastic. Roll the dough into balls, each roughly the size of a tennis ball.

Cover with a damp cloth, and leave to rest for 30 minutes. Oil the work surface and spread out one of the balls of dough, gently pulling the edges to stretch it as thin and wide as possible.

Dust the surface with a little flour, and pleat the pastry over and over like a fan. Roll up this pleated piece of dough to make a curled ball. Repeat with the remaining balls of dough. Leave to rest for another 15 minutes.

Heat a heavy frying pan over a medium-high heat. Use your hands to pat a curled ball of dough into a circle 20cm in diameter. Add a little oil to the pan, and cook the flat disc of layered dough so that it is golden brown on each side. Repeat with the remaining balls of dough.

Serve the flatbread warm, either as they are with dips such as hoummus or tzatziki, or with pickles and yoghurt. Alternatively, folded and filled with anything that comes to mind.

Manakeesh

Having just come back from the most amazing weekend in Beirut, I can now safely say that a properly made manakeesh for breakfast is one of the true culinary finds I've made this year. If you don’t have time to make your own bread, I guess you can use a pita instead, but trust me on this one, if close to perfection is sought, you might as well gloss over this recipe and plan your next holiday in Lebanon, the only way to do this kind of food justice is to go to the source.

250g all purpose flour
20g fresh yeast or 2 tsp dry yeast
2 tsp sugar
½ tsp salt
about 125ml warm water
2 tblsp olive oil

In a large non-metal bowl, mix together the flour and salt. Form the mixture into a mound and create a well in the centre. Pour the warm water and sugar into a bowl and when the sugar has dissolved, crumble in the yeast.

When the yeast is frothy, pour it into the well in the flour. Mix it together with your hands or a wooden spoon. You’ll end up with a dry, crumbling mixture that isn’t much like dough. Cover and set aside in a warm place for 10 minutes.

Now add 2 tblsp olive oil and knead it into the dough. Add a little more warm water and knead it in to create a more dough like consistency. You’re done when the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl.

Form the dough into a ball, place in a lightly greased bowl and turn it over again to make sure the top is greased. Cover and leave in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.

When the dough has risen, turn in out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until the dough becomes firm again. Now you’ll need to decide whether you want one big manakeesh or several small ones. Take the amount of dough you want (a small section or the whole thing), and roll it out with a rolling pin until it’s a little less than half an inch (about half a centimeter) thick. Move the dough rounds to a lightly greased baking sheet and pinch all the way around the edges to form a raised edge.

Now add your toppings, place in an oven pre-heated to 200c and bake for barely a few minutes.

Manakeesh toppings should be applied fairly thinly, for an authentic taste, don’t pile them on thick.

Olive oil and za’atar. Spread a thin coating of olive oil over the top of the bread and then spread on a layer of za’atar.

Cheese - jibne and akkawi or ricotta will work fine. Avoid Greek feta, though, as it tends to be too salty. Another option is to spread on some labneh after baking, while the bread is still warm.

Vegetables - a mixture of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, and olives.

Minced lamb - sauté the lamb in vegetable oil until lightly browned, then add finely chopped tomato, along with pepper and parsley if you like, spread it on the bread, and pop it in the oven.

The TLT

Serves 4

The BLT has become one of the most popular sandwiches on both sides of the Atlantic. Here, for some blasphemers, this actually might be an improvement on the original. The trout offering the same salty smoky role as the bacon, but with more interest in its flavour and texture. As with a regular BLT, the very best bread and tomatoes you can find are a must.

8 broad thick slices from a good sourdough loaf

500g smoked trout

A good few dollops of mayonnaise

12 medium thick slices of perfect deep red tomato

Crisp green lettuce, little gems are ideal

Slather the mayonnaise over the bread; construct the ingredients in no particular order on one slice, and top off with the other.

Weighing down for 10 minutes or so will do no harm whatsoever, and may actually prove slightly easier to eat.

Decent potato crisps, even better chilled white Burgundy, and I think perfection is just around the corner.

Seafood falafel with chermoula dip

Makes about 25 canapés, or serves 5 as a main course

Comfortable and satisfying - falafel making sits in the same category as fishcakes and scotch eggs for me. Something you can get all the messy work out the way nice and early, then as and when you're ready to eat it's 10 minutes worth of cooking and you're good to go...

Falafel

125g dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnight

¼ large onion

1/8 bunch parsley

1 spring onion

1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped

1 tsp cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

75g prawns, finely chopped, plus extra, whole and cooked, for canapés

50g scallops, finely chopped, plus extra, whole, for canapés

4-6 tblsp vegetable oil, for frying

Chermoula dip

50ml olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

3 large tomatoes, roughly chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

1 chilli

¼ bunch coriander

Juice of 1 lemon

First, prepare the falafel. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Roughly chop the onion, parsley and spring onion. Place in a food processor, along with the soaked chickpeas and garlic, and pulse for 30 seconds.

Place the chickpea mixture in a large bowl and add the spices, salt, bicarbonate of soda and chopped prawns and scallops. Mix gently for a minute. Roll the mixture into small balls, each about 3cm in diameter.

Next, make the chermoula dip. Place a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the olive oil and onion and cook for 10 minutes to soften. Put in the tomatoes and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Then add the chilli, coriander and lemon juice and 250ml water and cook for 35-40 minutes, until the mixture has been reduced by two-thirds. Purée with a hand blender or in a food processor, then, if you want it particularly smooth, pass through a sieve.

Heat 2 tblsp of the vegetable oil in a frying pan over a high heat and cook the falafel in batches (with fresh oil as needed) for about 3 minutes per batch, until browned. Serve the chermoula either warm or cold, with the warm falafel and pitta breads.

If making canapés, cut the extra scallops in half and sear for a minute on each side. Skewer together a scallop, falafel and prawn, arrange on a plate, then serve.

Indian spiced cauliflower

This mildly spiced cauliflower makes an excellent side dish to an Indian meal, and it is ideal served with curry, basmati rice or naan bread. Panch puran is a blend of five spices: equal amounts of brown mustard seeds, nigella seeds, fenugreek, cumin and fennel. If you’re mixing the spice blend yourself, it is worth making enough to set aside a small jar for future use

1 small head of cauliflower, about 600-650g, washed

2 tblsp vegetable oil

1 tsp ground turmeric

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

1 tsp ground cumin

Small pinch of dried chilli flakes

2 tsp panch puran

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

25g butter

100ml water

Remove the leaves around the cauliflower and trim off the base and most of the core. Cut into small florets and set aside.

Heat a large wok or frying pan until hot. Add the vegetable oil, turmeric, cumin, chilli flakes, panch puran and a pinch of sea salt. Stir and gently fry the spices over a low heat for less than a minute, until fragrant but just before they threaten to burn.

Add the butter to the pan and heat until melted, then quickly tip in the cauliflower florets, along with a little more seasoning. Stir-fry over a medium-to-high heat for a couple of minutes until the florets are evenly coated in the buttery spice mixture and are lightly golden.

Pour the water around the pan and cover. Steam the cauliflower for 2 minutes, then remove the lid and stir-fry for another minute until the water has mostly been absorbed. The cauliflower should be just tender when pierced with a knife.

Transfer to a warmed dish and serve while still hot.

Spicy pork and chilli pepper goulash

Serves 4-6

The idea of cooking a tough piece of pork in a lovely pepper stew to make it extremely tender and melt-in-your-mouth is something I find quite exciting. This dish, in particular, is one of my favourites and, unless you’ve got a strange aversion to chillies and peppers, you’ll definitely end up making it again and again. It’s also one of those dishes that tastes great when reheated the day after it has been made. You’ve got a whole range of chilli and pepper flavours going on, from smoked paprika to fresh chillies, and fresh peppers to sweet grilled and peeled ones.

2kg pork shoulder, off the bone in one piece, skin off, fat on

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil

2 red onions, peeled and finely sliced

2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped

2 generously heaped tblsp mild smoked paprika, plus extra for serving

2 tsp ground caraway seeds

A small bunch of fresh marjoram or oregano, leaves picked

5 peppers (use a mixture of colours), sliced

1 x 280g jar of grilled peppers, drained, peeled and sliced

1 x 400g tin of good-quality plum tomatoes

4 tblsp redwine vinegar

400g basmati or long-grain rice, washed

1 x 142ml pot of sour cream

Zest of 1 lemon

A small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180c/gas mark 4. Get a deep, ovenproof stew pot, with a lid, and heat it on the hob. Score the fat on the pork in a crisscross pattern all the way through to the meat, then season generously with salt and pepper. Pour a good glug of olive oil into the pot and add the pork, fat side down. Cook for about 15 minutes on a medium heat, to render out the fat, then remove the pork from the pot and put it to one side.

Add the onions, chillies, paprika, caraway seeds, marjoram (or oregano) and a good pinch of salt and pepper to the pot. Reduce the heat and gently cook the onions for 10 minutes, then add the sliced peppers, grilled peppers and the tinned tomatoes. Put the pork back into the pot, give everything a little shake, then pour in enough water to cover the meat. Add the vinegar – this will give the flavour a nice little twang. Bring to the boil, put the lid on top, then place in the preheated oven for 3 hours.

You will know when the meat is cooked, as it will be tender and sticky, and it will break up easily when pulled apart with two forks. If it’s not quite there yet, put the pot back into the oven and just be patient for a little longer.

When the meat is nearly ready, cook the rice in salted, boiling water for 10 minutes, until it’s just undercooked, then drain in a sieve, reserving some of the cooking water and pouring it back into the pan. Place the sieve over the pan on a low heat and put the lid on the pan. Leave to steam dry for 10 minutes – this makes the rice lovely and fluffy.

Stir the sour cream, lemon zest and most of the parsley together in a little bowl. When the meat is cooked, take the pot out of the oven and taste the goulash.

You’re after a balance of sweetness from the peppers and spiciness from the caraway seeds. Tear or break up the meat, and serve the goulash in a big dish or bowl, with a bowl of the steamed rice and the flavoured sour cream. Sprinkle with the rest of the chopped parsley, and tuck in.