World Cooking Archives - Page 17 of 30 - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: World Cooking

13
Oct
2019

Use By: Roast Vegetable Bubble and Squeak

categories: England, Great Name, Leftovers, Roast Vegetables, Use By

What can you do with a load of leftover roast veggies? Make one of the best-named dishes ever – Bubble and Squeak! Bubble and Squeak is a British recipe which is traditionally made from the leftovers from the traditional Sunday roast. It is supposedly called Bubble and Squeak due to the noises made during the cooking process. I think this last bit may be apocryphal. My Bubble and Squeak neither bubbled or squeaked. It was totally delicious though!

So what’s it all about Alfie? Given the Britishness of this dish, feel free to use your best Michael Caine cockney voice as you read that too!

Well, get your leftovers – I had some Ottlolenghi Harissa Potatoes and some Brussels Sprouts. You can use pretty much whatever veg you have as long as you have one that can be mashed up. Mashed potato will also work a treat in this.

Mash up your veggies and add a beaten egg. The rest is up to you. Add some of your chopped up leftover roast if you like, throw in some herbs or some cheese. Add some chill or a dollop of mustard. Be as fancy or as simple as you like. I kept these pretty simple, just the veggies and egg because the potatoes already had some harissa and spice seasoning.

When you are ready, pan fry your Bubble and Squeaks to make delicious patties. These are delicious as a side dish, make a great vegetarian burger patty or are good just by themselves.

Topped Bubble and Squeak

My favourite way to eat Bubble and Squeak is to pan-fry the little cakes until they are all crispy and brown on the outside and then top them with all sorts of delish things. These are one of my go-to’s for lunch (or breakfast) when I am working from home.

Breakfast Bubbles

No, I’m not talking about champagne although, having just come back from Europe where a glass of sparkling is de rigueur with your brekkie I’m totally on board with bubbles in the AM. Hmm…if you had some sparkling wine with your breakfast Bubble and Sqeak I guess that’s double bubble!

Bubble and Squeak with an egg makes a for a super breakfast. You could pan fry some bacon as you heat the bubble and squeak if you wanted to have some meat but I like to have mine just with egg. Grilled cheese on top of your B&S is another delicious breakfast option.

Lunchtime Squeaks

Come lunchtime, I like to top my Bubble and Squeak with some chilli labneh and pickled red cabbage or hummus and tomato salsa as per the top picture.

I love the combination of the crispy roast veggies, the creaminess of the yoghurt and the bite of pickle!

Bubble and Squeak can become quite addictive and now I routinely cook extra veg just so I can have them over the next few days!

Here’s a recipe but feel free to experiment as you wish with herbs, condiments etc. My version does not include cheese in the mix but, if you were going to add it, you could play around with different types. Having said that, now I desperately want to have Bubble and Squeak with some blue cheese crumbled through it!!!

Tell me, what is your favourite way of using up roasted veg?

Have a great week!

27
Sep
2019

Chicken Curry Mildura – A Sight for Sore Eyes

categories: Australasia, Chicken, Curry

Coming home from vacation is always bittersweet. One of the best parts for me is being able to get back into the kitchen. My head is always buzzing with ideas of how to recreate the food I ate on holiday back at home. But before any of that, there is the first meal at home. This is usually some sort of comfort food. I crave something that is both utterly of home and different to what I’ve been eating. After time in Asia this might be meatballs or shepherd’s pie. This time after a month in Europe, the item I most wanted to cook was something spicy. Chicken Curry Mildura fit the bill perfectly!

Chicken Curry What?

Chicken Curry Mildura. Now the only Mildura I know of is a country town in northwestern Victoria about 6 hours drive from where I live. It is situated on the banks of the Murray River. It is famous for olde worlde paddle steamers and is a centre of fruit growing, particularly citrus and grapes.

The name Mildura is thought to have come from an Aboriginal word meaning either “sore eyes caused by flies” or “red rock”

Let’s go with the red rock shall we? Because it really is a delightful country town! And a beloved vacation place for many Victorians.

After researching it for this post I’m quite keen to go spend the next long weekend up there!

What I could not find at all was why, out of all the Victorian country towns, Mildura alone gets to have an eponymous chicken curry.

Now, the aspiring Sherlocks in the crowd may be thinking “might this curry contain some of the fruit for which Mildura is famous?” No, there is not so much as aa peep from any of those stalwarts of the 1970’s curry – apples, bananas and sultanas. (Thank goodness).

Chicken Curry Mildura does contain one odd, to me anyway, ingredient which is Oyster Sauce. I have never used Oyster Sauce in a curry before! It does not taste at all of oysters or seafood of any kind. I think what it brings to the curry is a lovely deep umami flavour that makes this rather simple curry taste a lot more complex than it is!

My PSA

The recipe, which you can access here calls for 6 birdseye chillies. I need to be careful when I cook because although I love my chilli, The Fussiest Eater in the World who has a white boy palate extraordinaire. However, even I feel that 6 birdseyes is a step too far.

I used two chillies in mine and it was PLENTY hot enough. Add your chillies with discretion so you can enjoy the taste of a very delicious curry!

. Have a great weekend all!

22
Jul
2019

Pakistani Scotch Eggs

categories: 1970's recipes, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, Pakistan, World Cooking

Hello, people of the internet!

Arrrgghh, it’s been such a long time between posts due to a long period of lethargy following the flu and a dying, then dead, laptop. But, at long last, we can continue our journey around the world 1972 style as we enter the Indian subcontinent and taste test these delights straight out of Pakistan. During this leg of the trip, we will visit, Pakistan, India and the country of my birth, Sri Lanka. I am very excited about what lies ahead. But first, let’s talk about these Pakistani Scotch eggs I made…or, more correctly, let’s talk about the Nargasi Koftay I made.

I love Scotch eggs. Not those horrible store-bought things you buy on holiday in England and spend the next few weeks regretting…but proper homemade Scotch eggs. My mum used to make them regularly when I was a child and like most things, in my mind, mum’s Scotch eggs are the BEST! But surprisingly, given our Sri Lankan heritage, we never had them with a spicy mince coating the egg.

Let me tell you….mind blown!!!! Such a good innovation.

That is…until I started to do a little bit o’ digging into the history of the Scotch egg and realised that maybe it is not an innovation at all…

Fortnum and Mason claim to have invented the Scotch egg in 1738 as a luxury travelling snack for wealthy Londoners departing the fog and funk of the city for the fresh and crisp air of their country manors. The idea being that plain old hard-boiled eggs were far too stinky for these posh folk to have to deal with.

Wow…imagine that world!

I had never thought of Scotch Eggs being posh people’s food. I would have put money on it originating in a working-class scenario, much like a pastie. The crumb coating protecting the meat from the dirt and dust of a coal mine while the egg was added as a cheap and quick protein boost and to eke out the meat.

Let’s throw another scenario out there

Way back in 1592, the Moghul Empire was founded…and those dudes had a long history with Persia. How about those Moghuls found a recipe for an egg wrapped kofta from the Persians and, in turn, and over centuries, that was given to the British in the days of the Raj…

And turned into a lux travelling snack due to its popularity with the returning sahibs and memsahibs?

Not totally out of the realms of all probability I think.

Here’s the recipe!

Pakistani Scotch Eggs

Print Recipe

A spicy take on a British Scotch Egg.

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

6 eggs, boiled and shelled, aim for soft boiled
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1cm piece of ginger, grated
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Garam Masala
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp ground coriander
4 sprigs of coriander or mint, finely chopped
500g beef mince
1 cup flour
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cups dried breadcrumbs
Sunflower oil to deep fry
Kasundi, coriander leaves to serve (optional)

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Carefully shell the eggs and place aside.
Heat the coconut oil in a pan over a medium heat
Add the onions and cook until translucent.
Add the garlic, ginger, salt, chilli powder, Garam masala, turmeric, cumin and coriander. Cook for 2 minutes until the spices become aromatic.
Put aside to cool.
Once the spice mix is cool add the minced beef and the coriander and mix well.
Wet your hands with water and divide the mince mixture into 6 equal parts.
Wrap one of these around an egg, ensuring that there are no cracks or uncovered spaces.
Repeat with the remaining eggs.
Season the flour with salt and pepper and spread on a plate.
Put the beaten egg in a bowl
Add the breadcrumbs to another plate.
Roll the covered eggs in the flour, dip in the egg and roll in the crumbs.
Repeat for all the eggs.
Place in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 170C.
Half-fill a deep-fryer or a large pan with oil and heat to 190°C (a cube of bread will turn golden in 30 seconds when the oil’s hot enough). Fry the eggs, in batches, for 2 minutes or until golden. Place the eggs on a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes until the meat is cooked through.
Serve warm or cold with tomato kasundi and coriander leaves.

Nargasi Kofta is traditionally served in a curry sauce. I decided to crumb and fry mine simply because I wanted them to be portable. Sadly no country manor just a commuter train to work!

I served my Pakistani Scotch Eggs with a tomato kasundi from Kylee Newtons’ The Modern Preserver, which is a book I can heartily recommend. You can also find the recipe for the kasundi here.

This spicy relish complements the taste of the Scotch Eggs. If, however, you did not want to go to the bother of making it, you could serve with mayo, or Greek yoghurt – ideally with a swirl of Sriracha through it but plain would also be fine!

Enjoy and have a great week!

02
May
2019

Name Plates: Eggs Benedict

categories: Breakfast, Brunch, Classic Recipes, Eggs, Name Plates, United States of America

Hello brunch! Eggs Benedict is one of my favourite brunch dishes. Mind you, I would also eat them for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I’m not that fussy! But today’s project is to uncover the eponymous Benedict,

What Are Eggs Benedict?

Okay, so…given this is such a brunch favourite, I know many of you will already know exactly what Eggs Benedict entails. And all of you are quite welcome to skip to the next section.

For those who are in the dark, Eggs Benedict is a dish typically served at breakfast or brunch which consists of two halves of a toasted English muffin, topped with bacon or ham, a poached egg and Hollandaise Sauce.

Who Was Benedict?

Larousse names Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans as one of the possible birthplaces of Eggs Benedict. And there is certainly an amazing looking Eggs Benny on their website.😍 However, all the other research I have done points to New York as being the birthplace of Eggs Benedict.

Delmonico’s in New York is a contender. A regular customer, one of the Le Grand Benedict family, got bored with the regular breakfast and asked for “poached eggs on toasted English muffins with a thin slice of ham, Hollandaise sauce and a truffle on top” as a more exciting alternative.

In 1967, a letter to the New Yorker said that Commodore E.C.Benedict, a yachtsman and retired banker was the inventor of Eggs Benedict.

My favourite story, however, and so the one we are going to go with, suggests that the recipe was devised by one Lemuel Benedict in 1942 when he strolled into the Waldorf Hotel with a raging hangover and asked for “buttered toast, poached eggs, crisp bacon, and a hooker of hollandaise”.

Instead of looking askance at him and saying in a very stern manner, “We Sir, are a classy establishment and hence not familiar with the practice of measuring our sauces, Hollandaise or otherwise in units of sex workers”, the kitchen complied and Eggs Benedict was born!

Can we just take a step out to talk about how delicious Hollandaise Sauce is?

OMG..it’s the best thing in the world. Sometimes, when I really don’t feel like cooking? I will buy a jar of Hollandaise sauce, heat it up in the microwave and just dip vegetables…asparagus, broccoli, beans, etc right into the jar for my dinner!

And do you also know that it was only very recently that I reaslised Hollandaise is just French for “from Holland”? I mean, it’s totally damn obvious when you think about it but….at the time?

The Recipe

Given it’s likely New York origins, I used the recipe from the New York Times for my classic version of Eggs Benedict.

Some variations are below.

Variations

The interwebs abound with variations of Eggs Benny. You can change the meat:

This Naughty Benny swaps out the ham for mortadella and adds an onion jam.

You can change the base:

This one swaps out the English Muffins for Potato Rosti.

You can combine it with other brunch favorites such as this Benedict BLT.

Or add some Italian Pizzazz with an Eggs Benedict Pizza.

You can also swap out the sauce

For those who like a bit of booze with their Benny, this one has a beer-based sauce.

I guess the only constant is the eggs…

Oops, scratch that. Here’s a vegan version.

A myriad of other versions can be found here

Modern Day Benedict

In my mind, there can only be one:

What’s your favourite version of Eggs Benedict?

And to whom would you dedicate a modern dish of poached eggs, ham and hollandaise sauce on an English Muffin?

Have a wonderful week!

26
Apr
2019

Sri Lankan Lamprais

categories: Curry, Rice, Sri Lanka

I had a different post planned for today but after the events of Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka, I thought I would change things up and share some Sri Lankan food. Lamprais is a dish from the Dutch Burgher community of Sri Lanka, which is my heritage. The name is derived from the Dutch word “lomprijst” which translates into “parcel of food”.

For English speakers, the closest pronunciation is “lump rice”.

So this is our “parcel of food”. It is Sri Lankan comfort food at it’s best – hearty, spicy, flavoursome. Lamprais is something that I have eaten for as long as I can remember – from being a small child who would only eat the fish cutlets (the meatball type things you can see in the picture above) and the rice because everything else was too spicy to nowadays loving the fact that I can have a delicious, satisfying, complex meal on the table within about 45 minutes and using either one baking tray or a steamer.

For the last, we think four years, (maybe five) Mum and I have been making our lamprais at Easter and it has become a little tradition for us(just like chocolate eggs)! We were planning our timetable over a very non Sri Lankan roast lamb dinner when we heard the horrible news of the Easter Sunday Isis bombings in Sri Lanka. Thankfully no one in our family or friends was injured in the horrendous act of violence but over 300 innocent people have lost their lives.

I have always wanted to share this dish but have baulked at it because it’s just so involved…but given we were down to make them, now seemed like a perfect time.

Let’s break down what goes into our version of lamprais. This will vary slightly, each family will have their own variation. For instance, many people add an egg into their lamprais which is not something we do. Also, traditionally in Sri Lanka many people add fried ash plantains.

Here’s what goes into ours:

Here is Charmaine Solomon’s recipe for Lamprais – there are some slightly different spellings / terminology but this is the closest version to ours that I could find.

We do not however, pour that final bit of coconut milk over the dish before cooking.

Lamprais Base – Ghee Rice

Ghee Rice is the foundation of every lamprais. (Except for last year when we ran out and had to sub in some microwave brown rice for our last two lamprais).

Ghee rice is long grain or basmati ricecooked in ghee (duh) with spices such as cardamom, cloves, curry leaves and cinnamon. This gives a lovely flavourful base for your lamprais.

The Main – Lamprais Curry

So, in our breakdown of labour, mum always cooks the ghee rice because she does it really well and I can’t cook rice for shit. Making the lamprais curry? That’s my job.

Lamprais curry is like no other curry, I know for two reasons. Firstly it’s a mixed meat curry containing beef, lamb, chicken and pork. I mean have you ever? It’s also delicious. Like seriously who knew mixing ALL the meats would taste so good?

Second, in most other curries, you cook the meat from the start in the gravy. Not so with this one. You boil the beef, lamb and chicken first, then tip the cooked meat into the curry gravy to simmer away for a couple of hours.

If you make this, be prepared to chop things for HOURS. Four onions, eight garlic cloves. And around two kilos of meat into a pea-sized dice.

Did I say labour of love?

Did I say this is why we split this between two people and only cook it once a year? On a long weekend?

Also, you can use the water used to boil the mix of meats as stock to flavour the rice.

Lamprais – My Favourite Bit – Fish Cutlets

Usually, in a lamprais, you get two fish cutlets. So, they are always the first thing I eat. And the last thing I eat. These are little crumbed meatballs you can see in the photo. Or should that be fishballs? Either way? They are delicious. If you are averse to fish, you could sub these out with frikkadels.

Mum makes these – she made around 60 of them this year. Which was handy because I ate my weight in them as we were going!

This recipe is from S for Sri Lanka. All other recipes are from Charmaine Solomon via the The Great Australian Cookbook.

In the above photo, you can also see our first condiment or sambol – Prawn Blachan

Lamprais Accoutrements 1 – Prawn Blachan

Blachan is made from dried prawns and spices. It is spicy, salty, pungent and a little goes a long way.

Lamprais Accoutrements 2 – Seeni Sambol

Seeni Sambol is a caramelised onion relish that adds a touch of sweetness to your lamprais. You could make this yourself. If you feel like chopping up another four onions after you’ve chopped up four for the curry….or you could find your local Indian / Asian / Sri Lankan grocery store and just buy a jar of it.

You have to make the rice, you have to make the curry, the meatballs and the blachan. Trust me, unless you want to end up sobbing on the floor, buy the seeni sambol.

Or make it just because it’s delicious a couple of days before you want to make the lamprais.

Here is our process in motion!

Lamprais Accoutrements 2 – Brinjal (Eggplant) Moju

Now, normally I make our brinjal moju but this year, I decided to use some ready made. Not so much because of my recently diagnosed allergies, but more so because I just didn’t have the time. The purpose of the eggplant moju is to add a little sour into the dish, to cut through the richness of the curry. And possibly also to add a vegetable that is not onion into this dish!

I also have no concerns about eating the moju despite the allergy. It is, after all, only a spoonful per meal

Which brings us to the end. We made 16 lamprais. We make ours big so one is enough for a meal.

Now you might have been wondering about the preponderance of aluminium foil in this post. Lamprais are traditionally wrapped in and steamed in a banana leaf. This also adds another layer of flavour/aroma to this dish. Here is a traditional lamprais that I had at the DBU (Dutch Burgher Union) in Colombo when I was there in 2015.

As much as I would like to go traditional, we use aluminium foil so we can pop our “parcels of food” straight into the freezer. You can either bake your frozen lamprais in the oven for around 40 minutes or steam them for around the same amount of time. I personally like to cook them in the oven because the bottom of the rice goes a little crispy like in claypot rice.

So that’s it…our lamprais….I don’t expect any of you to be crazy enough to make it, but if you have somewhere that sells Sri Lankan food near you, why not try some!

Stay safe, be kind to each other, take care and have a wonderful week!