Lucky find ~ a tatty little gem of a cookbook!

You may remember I referred recently to my lovely one day a week sorting books for charity – it’s so exciting. As you can imagine lots and lots of cookbooks come through but these days I am not much of a one for reading about cooking, I feel I know  ... well, not “it all” exactly but enough already! If I do like the look of a cookbook I apply a stringent test – I open it at random a few times and if I know I can make the dishes thus revealed I go no further.

I did buy “My Life in France” by Julia Child a couple of weeks ago (which was great – what a character and what a boon to cooking and eating in the States) and then this week I bought a seriously dilapidated little book with the pages falling out, it was so tatty I almost threw it into the discard container without looking at it. Glad I didn’t though – it is lovely and makes me grin every time I think of it!

“Mangoes & Monsoons – the best of tropical cooking”  by John Kenyon published in 1964. 

When I applied my “test” I almost bought it out of sheer sneeriness – I have lived in the tropics and was not impressed with the first few recipes I looked at...

Hot Tomato Dip – which is a small bottle of tomato ketchup spiced up with garlic salt, ground red pepper and brandy to serve with potato chips.

Frozen Rainbows – three different tinned soups set with gelatine, layered up and frozen (which is actually an interesting idea which could be played with).

Sardine Cocktail – soak toast fingers with oil from a can of sardines, dip the sardines in gin (yes, gin) and lay them on the toast. Sprinkle with pepper and bake or grill, serve hot.

Banana Cutlets – lamb chops with mashed banana pressed onto them, breaded and deep fried.

I flicked on through and then suddenly “I fell in” so to speak, and realised that this isn’t a book on how to cook wonderful exotic and exciting tropical foods (well most of it isn’t but more about that in a minute), this is about how to make the most of what was actually available in many tropical places 50 years ago; mostly imported tinned and packaged goods from the UK

I have experienced this myself; firstly in Dominica in the early 70s, where the shop was full of Heinz tomato soup, Horlicks, Ovaltine, baked beans and other warming homely stuff from Britain. I found the same thing in Asia in 1991 and when I  moved to the British Virgin Islands a few years later it was the same again. Things there have, of course, improved a great deal, the imported stuff is now a lot posher – here is a picture of one of the aisles in Riteways, the main supermarket in Tortola.

Mr. Kenyon seems to have been very well travelled, he mentions Australia, India, Malaya, the Gold Coast, Uganda, Pakistan, Ceylon, Siam, Borneo, Panama, The West Indies and so on. His book, Mangoes and Monsoons, is full of useful advice gleaned from his travels, such as ...

“If you are rich enough to employ a cook ... learn to look angry without feeling so inside – it helps”

“If you are the type to get ‘het up’ then have a good stiff drink early in the evening before you begin – I find cooking with a drink on the draining board helps”

And from his Ghanaian cook, Mousah ...

“Some people they no savvy the chop palaver. You give ‘um fry, you give um boil, and palaver finish”

... by which he obviously means don’t just fry or boil stuff, strive for variety in food, cut it up and make something interesting. A man after my own heart.

Of course some of the recipes use fresh local ingredients such as pawpaws, bananas and lotus nuts and even things I’ve not heard of such as under curries one recipe contains ¼ tsp each of metic and funch and a whole teaspoon of jiva! (If anyone know what these are please leave a comment!) There is one small chapter on “Peculiar Things” such as Porcupine in Okra Soup and Blood Stew from Ghana. This is from his directions for Fried Grasshoppers ...

“Having collected your grasshoppers during a minor “plague’ ... use as little oil as possible as the flesh itself is  very oily and rich”

Liver Dust

I think it is this recipe that persuaded me to save the book from pulping!

1lb lambs liver
3 tablespoons soya sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon brandy
1 crushed clove of garlic
red pepper and oil

Soak the liver in salted ware for 2 hours then remove the skin.  Heat 4 tablespoons oil in a frying pan and put in the liver whole with the garlic and quickly brown both sides. Then add the soya sauce, sugar and brandy, and simmer until all the liquids are absorbed.

Remove the liver and put on a rack to drain and dry. When really dry it will literally be as “hard as rock” and you can then grate it on a fine cheese grater like Parmesan cheese. Heap in bowl and sprinkle generously with red pepper.

Excellent for using as a topping for soups, over rice or noodles, with Chines food or as a side dish to curries.

A bit like my Bacon Salt,  I might (or might not) try it sometime!

It’s not all either outrageous or boring, a previous owner has ticked many recipes (and made notes such as to use tinned mushroom soup instead of dehydrated in the recipe for Malidadi Kuku; chicken, frankfurters or saveloys, the said soup, vegetables and paprika). There are lots of perfectly normal recipes, several quite appealing and a few I might try for instance at the end of the books is this ...

Cold Weather Drink

Cover 6 peeled and quartered tangerines (although he says tinned mandarins can be used instead) with 1 tablespoon of sugar till and when the sugar has melted putting fruit and juices into a muslin bag and simmer in a quart of cider for 10 minutes. You then add half a bottle of rum and allow to stand for several hours. Sounds yum!

As Mr. Kenyon says at the end of his book ...

PALAVER FINISH!

In Other News ~ the Mary Berry bit ...

I picked the last orange off our tree the other day and decided to make an orange drizzle cake with it. I have reams of recipes in my computer, notebooks and head but had heard from a friend that Mary Berry’s easy peasy Lemon Drizzle recipe on Good to Know was a useful one. The measurements seemed both small and odd to me but it was “well tested” with good reviews and seemed a doddle so I did it. It was a doddle and worked really well but was tiny, which didn’t surprise me at all but think it should have been mentioned.  The recipe says it serves six but not six of the sort of people I know! 

So here is the recipe using a lovely homegrown orange and doubled up to make a decent sized and delicious ...

Orange Drizzle Loaf à la Mary Berry

3 large eggs
175g self raising flour
1½ tsp baking powder
175g caster sugar
175g margarine
finely grated zest of 1 orange
100g granulated sugar
juice of said orange

~   Preheat the oven 180ºC/350°F/160ºC fan/gas 4.
~   Lightly grease a 1lb loaf tin (even when doubling the recipe – see photo above!).
~   Put everything but the last two ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat till smooth.
~   Decant into the loaf tin and bake for about 35 minutes till risen and golden and bounces back when you lightly press the surface with your finger.
~   Remove from the oven but leave in the container.
~   Mix together the granulated sugar and the orange juice and pour it over the warm cake – the juice will be absorbed and the sugar make a crunchy topping.
~   When cool carefully remove from container.

I understand from Good to Know that the original recipe is taken from Mary Berry's Stress-Free Kitchen by Mary Berry.

21 Ways Chorizo can Enhance your Life!

Cooking and eating is more fun if you always keep in stock, as I do, a few long keeping ingredients that you love and which can used to add deliciousness to your spontaneous (or routine) creations.

I often turn to chorizo, actually a recent addition to my stores which is turning out to be invaluable. A pack of about 30 slices from Tesco costs £1.20 and the pack I bought a couple of weeks ago, at least, is dated “use by 6^th April” so that’s about 5 weeks shelf life. Mostly I only use 2 or 3 slices at a time to enhance my dishes so that’s about 10 meals for lucky old me (my real man being so conservative in his tastes).

Here are 21 of the many ways I have enjoyed chorizo  …

1.   When sautéing potatoes crispen a little chopped or shredded chorizo in the oil first then set it aside whist cooking the potatoes and stir back in towards the end

2.   Add to pizza, this is one I ate earlier topped with roasted butternut squash  (incidentally, the charred bits are on purpose!) and chorizo.

3.   Add to pasta dishes, obviously, either by cooking it into the sauce or adding to a bake. Ditto for gnocchi.

4.   Mix finely chopped chorizo into breadcrumbs to top a gratin.

5.   Chorizo Croutons 

Tear bread into pieces (better than dicing as you get lots of crispy points and edges), toss with a little shredded chorizo, a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper and bake in a hot oven for a few minutes till crisp.  Good with both soups and salads. See here for lots of useful tips when making croutons.

6.   Many egg dishes benefit from a smoky spicy addition, add a little to omelettes, frittatas or scrambled eggs, baked eggs  and, of course, Spanish Omelette.

7.   White Fish with Beans and Chorizo

Finely chop a small red onion and soften in a tablespoon of olive oil.  Add come coarsely chopped chorizo and continue to cook till they have exuded some pretty red oil.  Now toss in diced white fish (cod or haddock or even monkfish if you are that lucky) and turn in the oil to colour. Add a few spoons of cannellini beans, a splash of white wine and 2 or 3 tablespoons of chopped tinned tomatoes (with chilli are good). Simmer all together till the fish is tender.  I love this topped with roasted garlic mayonnaise (something else I always have in stock, sometimes homemade, sometimes bought in).

This recipe is the meal I alluded to when interviewed by The Independent (I’m very slightly almost coming up to might be a bit famous one day!) 

8.   Baked Chicken with Chorizo and Tomatoes

~    Preheat oven to 400ºF/200ºC/180C fan/gas 6
~    Toss together chicken pieces (eg. thighs, drumsticks, quarters etc.), diced red onion, garlic, a little olive oil, salt, pepper and coarsely chopped chorizo. 
~   Roast till the chicken is tender and brown. 

    Tomatoes are also good in this so maybe add few cherry tomatoes for the last 10 minutes of cooking.

9.   I used to make a fabulous pork burger (basically just minced raw pork seasoned and formed into a burger) into which I munged a lot of crispy bits of bacon. I recently discovered that this is just as good with crisp bits of chorizo!

10. When making Bubble and Squeak or other hash gently fry some chorizo in a little oil to start the dish, it will release some delicious red oil.  Set the chorizo aside, make the hash in the pan and add the crispy set aside bits of chorizo at the end.  Try sweet potato and chorizo hash with salmon (for instance)!

11.  Chorizo Butter

Mix finely chopped chorizo and red onion into soft butter together flavourings of your choice (for instance garlic, orange zest, black pepper, paprika) and see here for lots of info on making and using flavoured butters. Depending on what else you have included try serving pan fried chicken or fish with a couple of slices of chorizo butter melting over it. Mash into jacket potatoes or use the butter to sauté prawns or scallops. Another idea is to make chorizo bread, like garlic bread only different!

12.   With cheese I am partial to sliced tomatoes and a little red onion drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, dribble of balsamic vinegar – that sort of thing.  This is extra special with a slice or two of chorizo chopped into it.

13.  Add some to stuffing for chicken etc.

14.   I think in Britain we tend to think of chorizo as Spanish which, of course it is and should be pronounced tchoreetho (and maybe accompanied by a glass of sherry!). It is also, however, a major player in South American food so add it to nachos, tacos, burritos, quesadillas etc. according to your will and pronounce it tchoreezo.

15.  Add chorizo to bread dough – fry a small red onion, diced, and a few slices of chorizo, shredded, in a dry pan. This is because chorizo is oily and you don’t want to add too my fat to the dough.  When the onion is soft cool a little and then knead into the dough.  Continue with your bread.

16.  Use in paella, of course, and risottos (risotti?).

17.  Chorizo Puffs

       These are a great way use for puff pastry scraps (for more ideas for passtry scraps see here.) 

~     Preheat the oven to 400ºF/200ºC/180C fan/gas 6.
~     Roll out puff pastry and cut into rounds. 
~     Mix together about equal parts of coarsely chopped chorizo an grated cheese (strong cheddar is good).
~    Put a spoonful of this on each pastry round, brush the edge with egg, fold and seal into crescents.

17.  Cheese & Chorizo Bread Pud aka Strata - serves 4

150g stale bread, torn into pieces
4 slices chorizo – shredded
120g grated mature cheddar + a little more
(or other cheese of your choice)
salt and pepper
200ml milk
100ml double cream
3 eggs

~   Put the bread, 120g cheese and chorizo into a greased shallow ovenproof dish, season and toss all together.
~   Whisk together the eggs, milk and cream and pour over the bread mixture pushing the bread under the surface to soak thoroughly.
~   Set aside for half an hour or more (quite a lot more will be fine, even overnight in the fridge).
~   Preheat the oven to 350°F/180ºC/160ºC fan/gas 4
~   Sprinkle the strata thingy with the rest of the grated cheese and bake for 40 minutes until risen, golden and wobbly when nudged.

18.  A little chorizo adds a lovely smokiness to chilli of any persuasion; bean, beef, chicken or turkey.

19.  Salad of course – chorizo is good with cheese, tomatoes, avocado, beans and more so see what you’ve got and take it from there.

Pin for easy reference!

20.  Chorizo Oil

lll
1 small red onion – finely chopped
1 crushed clove of garlic
3 slices of chorizo – coarsely chopped
100ml olive oil

~   Gently fry the onion, garlic and chorizo in a tablespoon of the oil till the onion is softening.
~   Stir in the remaining oil and allow to warm through.
~   Cover the pan and set aside to cool and take flavour.
~   Drizzle (with or without the lumps!) on things such as this fine bean soup which I just had for my sudden lunch.

21.  Mussels and Chorizo in Saffron Garlic Broth – serves 4

a pinch of saffron threads
1 medium onion – finely chopped
2 finely minced garlic cloves
2 tbsp olive oil
100g shredded chorizo
120ml chopped tomatoes – the ones with chilli are good here
(tinned or from a carton)
1 kg fresh mussels

~   Firstly toast the saffron threads for a few seconds in a dry pan, this helps it yield more of its expensive flavour and colour.
~   Set the saffron aside, add the olive oil to the pan and soften the onion and garlic in this.
~   Stir in the chorizo and cook a couple of minutes then crumble in the saffron and add 250ml water (or fish stock if you have some) and the tomatoes.
~   Bring to a boil and add the mussels. 
~   Cover the pan and cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes by which time the mussels should have opened.  Any that haven’t should be discarded.

Serve with crusty bread, a glass of wine and a grin.

Preparing Mussels

This post is long enough so if you need to know how to prepare mussels go here and the lovely people from Waitrose will explain it to you.