For a fish that is often overlooked mackerel has a physical beauty the likes of cod or salmon can only dream of. Their handsome shape perfectly in tune to the rhythms of the sea. And freshly caught, their oily skin shimmers in natural light. The problem is that mackerel should be eaten as fresh as possible. Too long on a fishmongers slab and their allure soon fades. But if you can't eat it fresh pickle it. A good way of preserving makerel is to make a Spanish escabeche. The fish is first poached, or fried, then immersed in a tangy vinegar. Great with some grilled sourdough.
Ingredients
4 fresh mackerel, filleted
200mls tarragon Vinegar
100ml water
1 small glass of white wine
150gs sugar
1 red onion
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 tumeric
olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 cloves garlic
1 tbls raisins
Heat some olive oil in a large pan big enough to fit the Mackerel fillets. When hot carefully slide the fish in, skin side down. After about 1 minute turn over and cook the other side for the same amount of time.Take out and drain on some kitchen paper. Cook the chopped onion in the oil till soft and coloured. Just as the end add some chopped garlic and chilli flakes. Drain and reserve the oil. Put the vinegar, water, wine, sugar and spices into a pot, bring to the boil and reduce a little. Add the raisins and season. Place the mackerel in a sterilized jar and pour over onions and the hot pickling liquor. Seal, let it cool and pop in the fridge. Eat cold or at room temperature.
Ken Doherty is a chef and journalist.
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Friday, 18 September 2009
Jaggery Spread
Jaggery or gur is one of those food items that comes cloaked in a little mystery. For the record, its unrefined sugar from the jaggery palm. Cooking with it gives food a molasses or caramel type quality. Usually used in desserts but equally good in savoury dishes chiseled from the block it comes in. This recipe is from journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown's The Settlers Cookbook her memoir on the little known Ugandan-Indian diaspora that settled and prospered in East Africa in the 19th century until Idi Amin expelled them in the 1970s after the military coup.
Ingredients
4 tbls Jaggery
4 tbls Butter
Heat up equal amounts of jaggery and butter. As soon as it starts to sizzel take off the heat. Immediately spread over warm chapatis or stir into a freshly made dhal. If the spread is left to cool for about 20 minutes it will turn into a delicious fudge to accompany some tea.
Ken Doherty is a chef and journalist.
Ingredients
4 tbls Jaggery
4 tbls Butter
Heat up equal amounts of jaggery and butter. As soon as it starts to sizzel take off the heat. Immediately spread over warm chapatis or stir into a freshly made dhal. If the spread is left to cool for about 20 minutes it will turn into a delicious fudge to accompany some tea.
Ken Doherty is a chef and journalist.
Thursday, 10 September 2009
Date Pickle
For Muslim's breaking their fast during Ramadan, Phoenix Dactylifera, dates to you and me, are a good source of energy and will slowly help restart the digestive process back to its pre-fasting norm after holy month. This pickle uses both the fresh kind and the dried. The fresh taste a little like a sweet coconut apple and the dried have that unique sticky and cloying moreishness.
Popular in Iran and Iraq this gooey pickle is great with fried or scrambled eggs or as a bracing accompaniment to cheese.
Ingredients
500g fresh and dried dates
150g sumac
200g tamarind brick
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon allspice
juice of 2 lemons
Seperately, soak the Sumac and tamarind in a little water overnight. Stone the fresh and dried dates and soak them foe a few hours. Then roughly chop them. Add the strained tamarind and sumac, the rest of the spices and the lemon juice. Spoon all the lovely gooeyness into sterilized jars and keep in a cool place. The fridge is a little too cool and the mixture has a tendancy to crystallize but the pickle will probably last longer if refrigerated.
Ken Doherty is a chef and journalist.
Popular in Iran and Iraq this gooey pickle is great with fried or scrambled eggs or as a bracing accompaniment to cheese.
Ingredients
500g fresh and dried dates
150g sumac
200g tamarind brick
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon allspice
juice of 2 lemons
Seperately, soak the Sumac and tamarind in a little water overnight. Stone the fresh and dried dates and soak them foe a few hours. Then roughly chop them. Add the strained tamarind and sumac, the rest of the spices and the lemon juice. Spoon all the lovely gooeyness into sterilized jars and keep in a cool place. The fridge is a little too cool and the mixture has a tendancy to crystallize but the pickle will probably last longer if refrigerated.
Ken Doherty is a chef and journalist.
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Pear Relish
Pomologist Edward Bunyard believed that “the duty of an apple to be crisp and crunchable, but a pear should have such a texture as leads to silent consumption”.
The new season pears will be ready for harvesting soon. So if you want to encounter a little of that “silent consumption” let them ripen for a few days after being picked. Or better still pickle them to make a zingy relish. This is great with some seriously strong cheese like an Italian Gorgonzola or our own Milleens from the craggy wilds of the Beara Peninsula.
This is adapted from a recipe by food writer and chef Skye Gyngell.
Ingredients
2 pears
1 apple
2 tablespoons currants
2 tbls barberries
50ml raspberry vinegar (or cider vinegar)
cinnamon stick
25g butter
2 tbls sugar
few sprigs of thyme
salt and pepper.
Soak the dried fruit in some warm water. Core and chop the pears and apple into small dice. Melt the butter in a pan, add the fruit and cook until starting to soften. Add all the other ingredients (except the salt and pepper) and cook for a further 5 to 8 minutes. Remove the cinnamon and season if necessary. Store in a sterilized jar.
Ken Doherty is a chef and journalist
The new season pears will be ready for harvesting soon. So if you want to encounter a little of that “silent consumption” let them ripen for a few days after being picked. Or better still pickle them to make a zingy relish. This is great with some seriously strong cheese like an Italian Gorgonzola or our own Milleens from the craggy wilds of the Beara Peninsula.
This is adapted from a recipe by food writer and chef Skye Gyngell.
Ingredients
2 pears
1 apple
2 tablespoons currants
2 tbls barberries
50ml raspberry vinegar (or cider vinegar)
cinnamon stick
25g butter
2 tbls sugar
few sprigs of thyme
salt and pepper.
Soak the dried fruit in some warm water. Core and chop the pears and apple into small dice. Melt the butter in a pan, add the fruit and cook until starting to soften. Add all the other ingredients (except the salt and pepper) and cook for a further 5 to 8 minutes. Remove the cinnamon and season if necessary. Store in a sterilized jar.
Ken Doherty is a chef and journalist
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Hibiscus Iced Tea
Dried edible flowers are a surprisingly aromatic addition to the canon of preservation.
The dried leaves and petals of the hibiscus flower make for a particularly tasty iced tea that is drunk all over North Africa and the Middle East. Soaking the leaves in hot water brings out the unique flavour of the flower, that is similiar to a more lemony cranberry juice. Once soaked the ruby petals leech a blood red colour into the water which depending, of course, on how sweet your tooth is needs sugar to offset the flowers tartness.
I picked up these Hibiscus leaves (Karkade in Arabic) in the vibrant food market in Toulon, in the South of France, where the atmosphere echoed the distinct bustle of a North African souk.
And if the health benifits of food is more your bag, well, hibiscus has been known to reduce blood pressure and help with weight loss.
Ingredients
50g dried hibiscus flowers (Karcade)
1½litres hot water
225g sugar
Soak the dried hibiscus in boiling water then add in the sugar. Stir to dissolve. After about 3 hours strain the liquid, pour into sterilized bottles, and refrigerate. Serve with ice.
Ken Doherty is a chef and journalist.
The dried leaves and petals of the hibiscus flower make for a particularly tasty iced tea that is drunk all over North Africa and the Middle East. Soaking the leaves in hot water brings out the unique flavour of the flower, that is similiar to a more lemony cranberry juice. Once soaked the ruby petals leech a blood red colour into the water which depending, of course, on how sweet your tooth is needs sugar to offset the flowers tartness.
I picked up these Hibiscus leaves (Karkade in Arabic) in the vibrant food market in Toulon, in the South of France, where the atmosphere echoed the distinct bustle of a North African souk.
And if the health benifits of food is more your bag, well, hibiscus has been known to reduce blood pressure and help with weight loss.
Ingredients
50g dried hibiscus flowers (Karcade)
1½litres hot water
225g sugar
Soak the dried hibiscus in boiling water then add in the sugar. Stir to dissolve. After about 3 hours strain the liquid, pour into sterilized bottles, and refrigerate. Serve with ice.
Ken Doherty is a chef and journalist.
Thursday, 20 August 2009
Blackberry Gin
Can a more profound and intimate relationship with our food be had than to be seen foraging in prickly brambles on the side of our roads?
A gentle introduction into to the world of wild foods is to pick the first blackberries of the season along the many uncultivated hedgrows and bushes around the country.
Once you become a nibbler of all things wild the temptation to become a full-time gatherer might be too hard to resist particularly when late summer and autumn promise such rich pickings.
This Blackberry Gin was inspired by Pam Corbin's Sloe Gin recipe in the River Cottage preserves handbook.
ingredients
1kg Blackberries
900mls gin
450 sugar
Tumble the freshly picked blackberries into a large glass container or jar, pour over the gin and add the sugar. Stir the ingredients together and leave for the next month and a half to two months. Taste, and once the blackberries have instilled their flavour its ready. Strain the blackberry and gin mixture through a fine sieve. Pour the liqueur in sterilised bottles.
Ken Doherty is a chef and journalist.
A gentle introduction into to the world of wild foods is to pick the first blackberries of the season along the many uncultivated hedgrows and bushes around the country.
Once you become a nibbler of all things wild the temptation to become a full-time gatherer might be too hard to resist particularly when late summer and autumn promise such rich pickings.
This Blackberry Gin was inspired by Pam Corbin's Sloe Gin recipe in the River Cottage preserves handbook.
ingredients
1kg Blackberries
900mls gin
450 sugar
Tumble the freshly picked blackberries into a large glass container or jar, pour over the gin and add the sugar. Stir the ingredients together and leave for the next month and a half to two months. Taste, and once the blackberries have instilled their flavour its ready. Strain the blackberry and gin mixture through a fine sieve. Pour the liqueur in sterilised bottles.
Ken Doherty is a chef and journalist.
Thursday, 13 August 2009
Papaya Chutney
Our anxieties over the provenance of our food and how far it has travelled will not be eased until the likes of citrus fruits, mangos and papayas grow this far north of the equator. Judging by July’s deluge that seems a long way off. So make use of the abundance of papayas from the many Asian delis around the country. This classic chutney, adapted from Simon Parkes’ and Udit Sarkhel’s cookbook The Calcutta Kitchen, is a delectable introduction to the cuisine of West Bengal.
It is usually served at weddings as a rite of passage, after a hot curry, along with poppadoms.
Ingredients
1kg Papayas
A walnut sized piece of seedless tamarind and/or 1 tbsp tamarind paste
2 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1 medium sized mango
2 tbsp groundnut oil
Teaspoon mustard powder
Tsp mustard seeds
100g raisins
6 medium sized chillies, chopped
100g sugar
Salt
1 tbsp flour
Peel the papayas, de-seed them and cut them into bit-sized chunks. Soak the tamarind in about 350mls of water, then rub through a sieve to extract the thick pulp and add the liquid. Add some tamarind paste, if you wish, for extra tamarind-ness. Blend the ginger and mango together to a paste. Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds and powder. When the seeds start to pop, add the raisins. When the raisins balloon, add the papaya and the sugar. Stir for a few minutes then add the tamarind pulp and liquid and salt to taste. Make sure there is enough water to cover. Simmer for about 8 to 10 minutes or until the papaya is just starting to break down. Dissolve the flour in a little water. Add to the pot and stir continuously to avoid lumps. Juts before removing from the heat add the ginger and mango paste. Cool, put into sterilized jars and refrigerate. Best served at room temperature.
Ken Doherty is a chef and journalist.
It is usually served at weddings as a rite of passage, after a hot curry, along with poppadoms.
Ingredients
1kg Papayas
A walnut sized piece of seedless tamarind and/or 1 tbsp tamarind paste
2 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1 medium sized mango
2 tbsp groundnut oil
Teaspoon mustard powder
Tsp mustard seeds
100g raisins
6 medium sized chillies, chopped
100g sugar
Salt
1 tbsp flour
Peel the papayas, de-seed them and cut them into bit-sized chunks. Soak the tamarind in about 350mls of water, then rub through a sieve to extract the thick pulp and add the liquid. Add some tamarind paste, if you wish, for extra tamarind-ness. Blend the ginger and mango together to a paste. Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds and powder. When the seeds start to pop, add the raisins. When the raisins balloon, add the papaya and the sugar. Stir for a few minutes then add the tamarind pulp and liquid and salt to taste. Make sure there is enough water to cover. Simmer for about 8 to 10 minutes or until the papaya is just starting to break down. Dissolve the flour in a little water. Add to the pot and stir continuously to avoid lumps. Juts before removing from the heat add the ginger and mango paste. Cool, put into sterilized jars and refrigerate. Best served at room temperature.
Ken Doherty is a chef and journalist.
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