World Cooking - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: World Cooking

07
Aug
2022

Fish with with Mulligatawny Flavours

categories: Curry, Daily News, Fish, Modern Times, Sri Lanka

The Daily News Cookery Book is a stalwart of Sri Lankan Cooking, first published in 1929. My mum was given a copy as a wedding present which we still have and I have a copy of the 2013 edition which seems to be a paperback copy of the 1964 edition without the vintage ads but with all the quirkiness. This quirkiness oftentimes means it is not the easiest book to cook from. The methods of cooking can seem outdated, the measurements can be odd. So, I often use it more as an inspiration rather than something to follow exactly. This is how my dish of Fish with Mulligatawny Flavours came about. It was so tasty and delicious that I wanted to share it – and after all, it is truly revamping a retro dish for modern times!

So, I hear you ask, why not just make this as a mulligatawny? I had some really nice roti and I wanted to dip that bread into something thicker than a soup. A curry gravy seemed like the perfect thing. So, why not just call it a fish curry? I wanted to recognise the OG recipe which was for a fish mulligatawny. There are also some very non-traditional ingredients here – for instance, you would never see Thai Basil in a traditional Sri Lankan curry. However, I love its flavour, particularly with fish! Roti is also not a traditional accompaniment for Sri Lankan food – we do have a coconut roti but this is not the flaky type of bread I am referring to here.

Fish With Mulligatawny Flavours – The Recipes

And now here is the OG recipe. You can, of course, choose to make this version if you wish. Please let me know how it turns out if you do! If not keep reading for my version!

Fish with with Mulligatawny Flavours

Print Recipe

A modern take on a vintage recipe for Fish Mulligatawny

Author: Taryn Nicole

Ingredients

Scale

4 red onions, 2 sliced, 2 chopped finely
1 sprig of curry leaves (about 20 leaves)
2 tbsp ghee or coconut oil, split
*450g-600g fish fillets (I used Rockling) but any white fish would work.
1 270ml can of coconut milk
200g vegetable stock
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp fenugreek powder
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tsp ginger, grated
2cm stick of cinnamon
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 10cm stick of celery cut in 4 pieces
150g of green beans, chopped (optional)
Salt

To Serve:

Lime cheeks
Thai basil or Coriander
Roti or Rice

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Heat half the ghee or coconut oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
Add the sliced onions, half the curry leaves and a pinch of salt.
Drop the heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally until the onions are a deep brown. Take your time with this, it took me 20 minutes to get the onions as dark as I wanted them. Remove these from the pan and set aside.

Wipe the pan and add the rest of the coconut oil / ghee.
Once this is melted turn down the heat and add the chopped onions, the rest of the curry leaves, the coriander, cumin, turmeric, fenugreek, cinnamon, garlic, ginger and celery.
Cook stirring often until the spices are fragrant and the onions are softened.
Add the stock and coconut milk. Cook this mixture down until the gravy reaches the consistency of thickened cream.
Add the beans, if you are using them, to the pan.
Sprinkle your fish fillets with salt and add to the pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness of your fish. When you turn the fish over, add the chopped tomatoes.
Check for taste – add more salt and or a squeeze of lime to balance out the flavours.
Remove the cinnamon stick and the pieces of celery.**

To Serve

Place a fillet of fish on each place, spoon over the gravy and top each piece of fish with the reserved onion and curry leaf mix.
Garnish with coriander, Thai basil and lime wedges
Serve with rice and/or flaky roti to soak up that lovely gravy.

Enjoy!

Notes

*I had 450g of fish which was three fillets however there was a lot of gravy so you could easily add another fillet in for this same quantity.

** I do not like the texture of cooked celery so I like to remove it before serving. If you are happy to eat it, chop the celery into smaller slices, as you would when making a soup and leave it in.

This is a lovely gently spiced delicate dish – the perfect response to anyone who thinks that all Sri Lankan food is blow your head off hot!

I also found myself eating the leftover gravy with more of that roti the following day and it was also delicious!

I hope you have enjoyed my updating of this old recipe!

Have a great week!

24
Jul
2022

Taste Testing Reuben Sandwiches

categories: Sandwiches, United States of America, World Cooking

A little while ago, we were talking about sandwiches and one of my readers said that her favourite sandwich was a Reuben. I had to confess that I had never eaten one. I was not even 100% sure what the ingredients for a Reuben were! However, for it to be someone’s favourite, and a discerning person (after all, they are a reader of this fine blog) at that, I was sure that it would be a pretty good sandwich. So, I decided to make one!

The History of The Reuben

First things first though. Why is a Reuben called a Reuben? There are a few versions of this story but the one we are going with is that the Reuben was invented in the Blackstone Hotel in Omaha Nebraska when a gentleman called Reuben Kulakofsky asked for a sandwich with corned beef and sauerkraut during one of his weekly poker games. The cook added some Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing and encased the lot in between some slices of rye bread. The sandwich became popular locally when it was added to the lunch menu at the Blackstone. It became popular nationally after winning the National Sandwich Idea Contest in 1956.

The Rick Reuben – 8/10

My first attempt at this classic American sandwich was a recipe from the classic but not at all American Rick Stein. Why? I was reading his wonderful book Rick Stein at Home when I got the idea for this challenge. Rick suggests using salt beef in his recipe. I used pastrami in mine. I’m not sure I have ever seen salt beef in my local deli.

This was delicious. I LOVED this sandwich! BUT it was lacking something. Every picture I had seen of a Reuben had a bright orange dressing and the Rick version of the dressing consisted mostly of white ingredients It did have some tabasco but I would have had to put in a whole bottle of tabasco to achieve the vivid orange I have seen in pictures. And that is a step too far even for a chilli lover like me! As a result, I felt I was missing the true Reuben experience on this one.

The Toasted Reuben – 8.5/10

My second attempt at a Reuben was a toasted version which came from the May 2022 issue of the Australian Women’s Weekly Cooking Magazine which I bought around the same time as I was reading the Rick Stein book. Coincidence that both contained a recipe for a Reuben? I think not.

This one used pastrami and the addition of Sriracha into the sauce gave me the orange colour I was craving. I also liked the splash of Worcestershire sauce in the dressing on this one. And it was toasted. so the cheese got all melty and delicious.

Now, the recipe below was intended to be made in a pie-maker. I do not have one of these so I made it as an ordinary sandwich.

The Bought Reuben – 9.5/10

So far, I was pretty happy with both Rebens that I had made. However, never having eaten one I had no point of comparison. How would my homemade version stack up against a Reuben made by a professional? So, one lunchtime I popped into a cafe in the CBD that specialises in American-style sandwiches and bought one of their Reubens. The Bowery to Williamsburg Reuben won on the slow-cooked brisket pastrami. That was sensational. Also even though I bought posh sauerkraut instead of the reg supermarket stuff, the B2W sauerkraut had a funk that was both delicious and disturbing. The cafe is a good 20 minutes walk from my office and as I was short on time I ordered my Reuben to go. As I was walking back I began to smell something not entirely pleasant wafting about me. I soon realised the odour was from the very funky sauerkraut and, thankfully not from me! This was delicious!!!! Bright orange dressing, swiss cheese and a pickle on top completed the deal but that brisket pastrami? Heavenly! BTW, The first photo in this post is the B2W Reuben.

My Reubens tasted pretty similar to the one from Bowery to Williamsburg. The difference really was in the quality of their meat. It was warm, it was smoky and tender in the middle and a little bit crunchy on the ends. It was sooo good.

You may be wondering why I only rated it a 9.5 when it was so good? Well, it cost a very hefty $17 dollars which is a LOT, even if t was huge! I had half of it for lunch that day and took the rest home for dinner! I’m both glad and somewhat relieved that Bowery to Willamsburg is quite the trek for me. I could easily become addicted to their Reuben which would not be great for my bank balance. Having said that, I might pop in there this week because writing about their Reuben is making me really want one!

Have a wonderful week everyone!

17
May
2022

Chicken Chanteclair

categories: 1970's food, Chicken, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, United States of America, World Cooking

I am not doing a Best of April post as the very sad and sudden passing of our beloved boy Oscar at the end of the month has muted pretty much everything that was good. We are still working through our grief which for me personally has meant a great lethargy. I have barely been motivated to cook and not at all motivated to write until today. Baby steps are enough at the moment. But one of the things I made just before Oscar passed away was the recipe for Chicken Chanteclair from the Creole section of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery which was so tasty and comforting that I had to share it.

What on Earth is Chicken Chanteclair?

The name Chanteclair comes from the French words chanter meaning to sing and clair meaning clearly. So, to my mind this is a dish that will inspire you to sing its praises loud and strong.

Chicken Chanteclair is a Coq Au Vin by another name. I can’t see any particular Creole influences in this dish – to me this is purely French. Indeed one of my notes from when I made this was that it made the house “smell like France”. And, just to be clear, I didn’t mean that in the way I mean it when I talk about our trip to Toulouse. There, it smelt like every male in the town was using the streets as his own personal urinal. Chicken Chanteclair made the house smell of herbs and wine and meat cooking low and slow. It smelled like family and comfort. One of my other notes on this recipe was “this is the kind of dish you cook for people you love”

Here’s The Recipe: Chicken Chanteclair

The actual recipe wasn’t much so here are my notes:

1 kilo of chicken thighs on the bone.
I added 3 sprigs of thyme and 2 bay leaves to the marinade
For the marinade I used 3/4 bottle of wine (Just enough left over for a glass with the meal)
I threw in 12 fresh mushrooms as well as the dried mushrooms
I wasn’t sure about the tarragon at the end but it really worked
I served mine with mashed potatoes to soak up that luxurious sauce. Crusty bread would also be a great option!

Apart from those changes, the rest was easy. Marinade the ingredients overnight, pop them in the oven and voila – Chicken Chanteclair!

The leftovers were also delicious in some cheddar and jalapeno biscuits I made!

This is so easy to make but it feels like a much more complex dish. It is delicious, reheats well and is comfort food at its best. This will go on high rotation at my house!

I really hope you cook this for someone or someones you love very soon!

I am away a training course all of next week so will not be posting anything. The following week I will be back with a Dining with the Dame. It is a Poirot and our very first Ariadne Oliver novel!

Have a wonderful week!

25
Apr
2022

Vogueing A Ham and Cheese Croissant

categories: 1980's Food, 1980's recipes, Bread, France, Magazines

Now you might be wondering why on earth am I featuring a recipe for a ham and cheese croissant? Surely that’s not even a recipe? Well, we are cooking from the Vogue Entertaining Guide from Autumn 1986 which means we are making easy food complicated because that’s what posh people wanted back then.

You or I or most normal people would make a ham and cheese croissant by placing ham and cheese inside a croissant and toasting it. If I was feeling a bit fancy I might grate the cheese. I always add a bit of mustard because I love the ham, cheese, and mustard combo. That’s as fancy as I normally get.

But Vogue in 1986 would have us melting the cheese with some cream and pouring it over the top of the croissant. And if that’s what Vogue wanted me to do, that’s exactly what I did! I feel that someone at Vogue HQ back in 1986 thought making a sauce, somewhat akin to the bechamel used in a traditional Croque Monsieur would make this more…French? Sophisticated? Elegant?

Or, none of the above.

It was messy and made the croissant soggy. And no one likes a soggy croissant!

But there was something here I didn’t want to let go of. And I’d bought a multipack of croissants

I also had some of that cheese sauce left.

So why not give it a little twist?

Ham and Cheese Croissant Day 2 – Better In Than Out

The problems with Day One (apart from having to make a cheese sauce) were the sogginess and the mess. I want to be able to eat my ham and cheese croissant without utensils. However, pouring sauce over the top of the croissant made this impossible.

But….instead of over the croissant, what if I put the sauce in the croissant?

This was a lot less messy. I could pick it up and eat it without having to use a knife and fork which was a bonus and it also meant that the outside of the croissant stayed crispy and flaky. But it was a bit messy, the sauce leaked out onto my hands a bit so it was still not ideal.

Ham and Cheese Croissant Day 3 – The Bruléed Croissant

So the issue with making this with cheese sauce instead of plain cheese is the sauce. For day 3 I thought about how to make the sauce less, well, saucy. Which is how I got to the idea of the bruleed croissant. Same as Day 2 but instead of serving the croissant as soon as I added the cheese, I popped it back into the oven and under the grill for a few minutes.

This was the best so far. The croissant was crispy and flaky. The sauce was not too runny and it took on that lovely flavour of grilled cheese.

Day Four – A Break Day Bagel

Day Four I went into the office and bought a bagel for breakfast from my favourite place. I was getting a little bit sick of ham and cheese croissants. However….

It. Was. Terrible.

Possibly the worst bagel I have ever eaten.

I’m not naming and shaming them because pre-covid they were superb. But I also will not be buying a bagel from them for a while. I have sourced a new bagel place not too far from home which I will try out during the week. As well to the traditional salmon and lox, they also have some combos like a chicken katsu, a miso mushroom and a labneh and za’atar bagel. All of which I cannot wait to try!

Day 5 – The Classic Ham and Cheese Croissant

Sometimes you just have to go back to basics and tell Vogue to take a hike.

Swap out the sauce for a slice of cheese and place your croissant under the grill for a few minutes until the cheese melts. I used a slice of Jarlsberg but feel free to to use whatever melting cheese you have.

Oozy cheese, flaky croissant, no cutlery required to eat. Perfection!

Here’s the recipe from Vogue October 1986. Why you might want it is another question entirely!

For slightly more successful dishes from Vogue October 1986 you could check out the following:

Have a wonderful week my friends!

18
Apr
2022

Shakshuka – Murder in Mesopotamia

categories: Dining With The Dame, Eggs, Middle Eastern, Poirot

Easter greetings crime readers and food lovers! In a seasonally appropriate menu today I am cooking eggs. Shakshuka is a Middle Eastern dish described somewhat inelegantly by Nurse Amy Leatheran in Murder in Mesopotamia as “eggs in sauce”.

Murder in Mesopotamia – The Plot

“Bismillahi ar raham ar rahim. That is the Arab phrase used before starting out on a journey. Eh bien, we too are starting on a journey. A journey into the past. A journey into the strange places of the human soul.”

– Hercule Poirot in Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie

Our journey into the strange places of the human soul begins when our narrator. hospital nurse Amy Leatheran, is hired by Swedish-American archaeologist Dr Eric Leidner to look after his wife Louise who is suffering from “nervous terrors”. The couple is living at an archaeological dig site very closely based on the Royal Cemetery at Ur where Christie met her second husband Sir Max Mallowan.

Friends tell Amy that a strange tense atmosphere prevails at Tell Yarrimjah, an atmosphere that most people blame on Louise Leidner. Louise is disliked by everyone but her husband who adores her.

Louise shows Amy a series of threatening letters which she believes may have been sent to her by either her dead / not dead first husband or his deranged younger brother. It is these along with some other scary events that are terrifying Louise.

Louise Leidner is murdered the next day. Hit over the head by a heavy blunt object.

However, no one entered the compound during the time of the murder. So someone in the dig party is a murderer.

But who? And why?

Plot Points

Poirot solo. No Hastings or Japp in this one although Amy steps in to be Watson to his Sherlock. The Poirot episode of Murder in Mesopotamia does have Hastings though.
“Dead” faces in windows and other things that go bump in the night
Poirot jabbing people with pins
Another member of the dig party killed horribly but not before she can gasp out a key clue to Louise’s deah
A priest who might not be a priest
Some side shenanigans of stolen artefacts and drug abuse

There is a truckload of casual racism in Murder in Mesopotamia, most of which is espoused by Amy. I feel though that we are meant to see this as a by-product of Amy’s parochial ways and not as an espousal of Christie’s worldview. Does this make it more palatable? It’s definitely a case of hate the player not the game which is not always distinguishable in Christie.

Beware Spoilers

Ok, if you intend on reading Murder in Mesopotamia, skip down to the covers. For the rest of us, let’s talk about that ending. When I was in high school, in either year 8 or 9 we had to read a book called The Wife of Martin Guerre. The premise of this novel (land also the movie Sommersby which was a film adaptation of it) is that Martin Guerre returns home after being at war or somesuch for an extended period of time. Only he’s a very different man to the one who left. Not just emotionally. He’s actually a different man.

Even as a young teenager I found this plot ridiculous. Because why does no one else recognise that this is not Martin Guerre numero uno? The wife has a vested interest because MG2 is a whole lot nicer. But did no other person realise that this man was not Martin Guerre?

Similarly, in Murder in Mesopotamia, we find out that murderer of Louise Leidner is her devoted husband Eric who is also her dead / now definitely not dead first husband Fredrick Bosner.

I mean really? I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed but if one of my exes was to turn up on the doorstep tomorrow with a new name and haircut I am pretty damn sure I would recognise him long before I decided to rekindle any old flames.

It’s certainnly a plot twist but just not a very credible one!

Murder in Mesopotamia – The Covers

There are some AMAZING covers here including a French and a Bangla version of Murder in Mesopotamia. My fave is the pulpy middle row second from left which shows a terrified Louise Leidner in the foreground with a threatening man – (dead / not dead first husband? Deranged younger brother? ) in the background.

The Recipe – Shakshuka

I used the chickpea shakshuka recipe from Women’s Weekly Vegetarian for my recipe. Chickpeas are not a standard inclusion in a shakshuka however, I like them as they bulk out a meal that I usually eat for dinner rather than the traditional breakfast. I also like to sprinkle a little feta over my shakshuka which is not in this recipe.

Lunch was just ready and we went in, the doctor apologising for his daughter who he saiid was always late. We;d just has a very good dish of eggs in sauce when she came in an Dr Reilly said , “Nurse, this is my daughter Sheila.”.

-Agatha Christie – Murder in Mesopotamia

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Murder in Mesopotamia

Tea and coffee (lots of both)
Toast and jam, rock buns, cutting cake
Curry
Scones
Sandwiches

May’s book will be Cards on the Table, another Poirot but this time with Ariadne Oliver who I love!