Spicy & Sweet Lamb Drumsticks

It is traditional during Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) to serve foods that are golden and sweet. The gold part is meant to symbolize prosperity. Sweetness represents a pleasant year ahead. There are many other religious points of reference when it comes to food during this time and indeed for Jewish food in general, but that’s about as far as I am willing to go with pious cooking actions.
I’m not Jewish and not particularly religious (though I do study Kabbalah), but I can’t help getting into a celebratory mood and cooking up a feast. In fact I don’t even need a reason. If I want to eat something, I’m going to cook it. And why not? Most people I know celebrate Christmas and Easter. And that includes roast turkeys and chocolate eggs, etc. Yet most of those people don’t go to church or even claim to be Christian. So with that in mind, I don’t feel the need to be Jewish to have to braise lamb shanks for the Jewish New Year either. The fact that it is springtime just makes me want to go on a lamb feast anyway.
This dish is best if you cook it the day ahead (it does take all day to cook). The flavours improve upon standing. Lamb shanks also throw a copious amount of fat during cooking- its much easier to remove the fat, once it has cooled and solidified.
I served these sweet and spicy lamb shanks with saffron rice, chickpeas and sautéed garlicky leafy broccoli- it was one of the best meals I have cooked all year.

Components
4 Lamb shanks
Olive oil or duck fat
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves
1 red pepper, coarsely chopped
(Remove the skin if you like- I use a potato peeler)
1 dried red chili, finely chopped
1 tsp Spanish sweet paprika
1 tsp Spanish smoked paprika
1-2 pieces cassia bark or cinnamon sticks
1 tsp dried Greek oregano
150ml red wine
400g tin Italian tomatoes
Stock, to cover
Honey, a generous drizzle
Sea salt
Toasted pine nuts

Process
Heat up a spoonful of olive oil or duck fat in pot large enough to hold the lamb shanks. Brown the lamb on all sides and remove to a plate.
Put the onion, garlic and peppers, chili and oregano into the same pot. Lower the heat and cook the aromatics until they have softened- about 15 minutes.
Add the paprikas and cook for a further minute.
Place the shanks back into the pot. Splash in the wine and add the tomatoes too (I don’t bother chopping them). Add enough stock to submerge everything.
Cover the pot and simmer until the meats are tender and almost falling of the bones. It is important to cook everything very, very slowly. And patience is definitely required- mine took about 6 hours to reach the fork- tender stage. It is also a good idea to keep an eye on how the flavours are developing during cooking. You may want to remove the cassia or cinnamon once its reached the right point.
When everything is nice and tender leave it in a cool place until the next day.
When you are ready to serve the following day, scrape away most of the fat (leave some).
Put the pot over a low heat and reheat gradually. This dish needs to be reheated slowly- the meat is dense and takes time to heat through properly.
Once the temperature is right, drizzle over a generous amount of honey to flavour and sweeten the stew. Check for saltiness too.
Sprinkle over with pine nuts and parsley. Serves 4 carnivores.

Barramundi Parcels with Blood Orange and Spices

Incase you haven’t noticed, I have a thing for savory foods combined with sweet, fragrant flavours. This wasn’t always the case though. It has only been in the last couple of years that I’ve developed a taste for savory/sweet combination. I assume our palates are constantly changing. The same way that ours lives evolve, reflecting our mood and personality at the time. Who knows, maybe I have become a sweeter person in general and that’s reflective through my diet.
Anyway, that’s enough of the philosophical banter.
I thought it would be a nice idea to make use of the striking blood oranges that are available right now. The season for the fragrant and scarlet orange is rather fleeting, so I like to make to buy some whenever I see them.
I like to eat them the same way I like to eat tangelos- that is peeled and segmented with a very sharp knife to produce thin wedges, without any of the tough membrane that holds the fruit together. I squeeze over any of the juice from the carcass (which will be quite a bit). I then sweeten with homemade vanilla sugar, and leave them to sit for a few minutes, so all the components merge together. Whilst the blood orange (or tangelo) segments are macerating, I sweeten some crème fraiche with more vanilla sugar. I serve the oranges in huge amounts with some of the crème fraiche to dip each citrus segment, before eating. This combination is divine and I think it leaves strawberries and cream for dead.
This recipe is another excellent way of combining fragrantly sweet with salty. Barramundi is quite a popular fish here in Australia, however it can be on the pricey side. It is delicious though, with a sweet and delicate white flesh and I thought it would go well with blood oranges and spices. If you can find fillets from a small fish, by all means use those. I think they are much nicer, than fillets from a massive fish.
They are baked in a foil parcel and served at the table straight from the oven. There is a certain anticipation and thrill about ripping the parcel open at the table.
River Café London was the inspiration for the following recipe.

Components
2 Barramundi fillets or other white fish
1 Blood orange
A pinch of fennel seeds
A pinch of chili powder
Cinnamon
20g melted cultured butter (unsalted)
20ml vermouth
20ml extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Fresh black pepper
Foil

Process
Preheat the oven to 220c. Squeeze the orange juice. You only need a dash of juice- about 20ml. Remove 2 strips of orange zest and set aside. Crush the fennel seeds and a small piece of cinnamon, until you have a powder. Mix in a small bowl all the ingredients, minus the fish. Pour half of this over the fish fillets and allow it to marinade for a few minutes.
To make the parcels, use a length of foil 5 times the length of the fillet. Fold the foil in half, shiny side out. Place the fillet at one end and pour over half the remaining orange and spice mixture. Top with a strip of orange zest and season with salt and pepper, then fold the foil over the fillet and seal by folding the two ends together, three times, creating a very tight seal. Repeat with the other fish fillet.
Place both parcels on a baking dish. Bake in the preheated oven until both parcels have puffed up to their full capacity.
Serve immediately by placing the unopened parcels on a plate.
This dish goes well with a plate of wilted dark, leafy greens of whatever sort. Serves 2.

Chicken Story 3 - Spices and Chickpea

It being winter in my world also means influenza season is upon us. And unfortunately Mike was violently struck down last week. With the flu that is…

Which means one grumpy gay guy and another bitchy gay guy stuck in an apartment together, all day long. One is grumpy because he is sick; the other is bitchy because the grumpy one is getting on his nerves. And so the bitchy one just gets bitchier and bitchier. Get the picture. It’s a vicious circle. But, they love each other. Immensely.
The bitchy one decides to make a restorative chicken soup in the hope that the grumpy one will get better, and go back to work, leaving the bitchy one in peace. After five long and intense days, during which the bitchy one goes on several solitary shopping expeditions to escape the all prevailing grumpiness, the ailing grumpy one recovers and he returns to the workplace. The bitchy one is convinced the recovery had something to do with his delicious and magical broth. The grumpy one knows better, and pretends to agree. At last, all is well again…

I promise this to be the last installment of “The Chicken Trilogy”. There will be no “Revenge of the Supermarket Chicken”.

Spicy Chicken Broth with Chickpea Dumplings

Ingredients
For the broth:
1 kilo corn fed, free range, organic chicken wings
1 onion, peeled, cut into chunks
1 carrot, peeled, cut into chunks
1 celery stalk, cut into chunks
1 garlic clove, peeled but kept whole
Peppercorns- black and white
Cardamom pods
Cumin seeds
Fresh ginger, cut into slices
Saffron threads, a large pinch
Turmeric
Whole dried red chili
Sea salt
Fresh lime or lemon, juice and zest, finely chopped

For the dumplings:
I small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
250g minced chicken
100g chickpea flour
All of the spices above

Method
Place all of the ingredient (except your chosen citrus) for the broth into a stockpot. I used about 5 grams of each spice, more or less. Find the balance you like. I also crushed the spices very lightly to release the aromas, with the mortar and pestle.
Cover with cold water. Bring just to the simmer, and cook very slowly for 2- 3 hours. I never boil my stock; I keep the temperature below a simmer. This keeps the stock crystal clear.

Strain when you are happy with the flavour and discard all the solids. You can season the broth with chicken stock cube instead of salt. There is nothing wrong at all with this practice- my grandmother does it, and so do restaurants I have worked in.
In the meantime, you can prepare the dumplings.Sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil gently, for about 15 minutes to soften.

In a bowl mix together with a wooden spoon, the chicken, chickpea flour, the softened onion and garlic.

Add to the mixture, all of the same spices that went into the broth. Use only pinches of each one and make sure they are finely ground. Again find the balance you like. Season well with salt.

Roll them into small meatballs.

Poach them in simmering water for 15- 20 minutes or until cooked through. Drain them using a slotted spoon.
To serve: place the hot meatballs into a soup bowl, however many you like. Top with the boiling chicken broth. Sprinkle the citrus zest over each bowl and add a squeeze of the juice too. Delicious. Makes about 4 –6 serves.

A big bowl of red

A Big Bowl of Red is what Texans call their state dish, otherwise known as Chilli con Carne. The literal translation from Spanish is “chilli with meat”. For this reason Texans do not add beans to their “chilli” as do other states in America. I do not heed by this practice, I like mine with beans. There are some very good traditional recipes posted on the internet, and one that was very strange. The ingredients included road kill (anything but skunk) and way too much chilli.I guess such a copious amount of chilli is to mask the flavour of the road kill!As mentioned earlier mine has beans, deeming it inauthentic. I also replace the sugar with port. It works really well. This is great comfort food. I like it for dinner with rice and a salad, or for breakfast with good crusty bread.

Ingredients
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 celery stalk, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 onion, finely diced
1 red pepper, finely diced
130g bacon, finely diced
30g lard
600g coarse ground beef
1 tsp crushed dried chilli
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika (I use Spanish, it is by far superior)
1 tsp fresh white pepper
1 tsp fresh black pepper
125ml port
400g can tomatoes, chopped
400ml stock (fake is fine)
400g can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Fresh parsley

Method
Melt the lard over a gentle heat and fry the carrot, celery, garlic, onion, red pepper and bacon until golden. Do this slowly. It should take about 15 minutes.
Remove this to a bowl and keep aside.
Add the beef to the pan and let it brown a bit (not too much or the meat will be hard). Break it up a little, keeping it chunky.
Now return the vegetables and bacon to the pan.
Add all the spices, port, tomato and stock. Cover and simmer for 50 minutes. Check from time to time that it isn’t drying out. The final result should be a bit saucy
Add the beans and simmer for another 10 minutes.
Finish with parsley. Don’t bother being delicate with the parsley. This is supposed to be a rough and ready dish.

Chicken with Chilli Cumin & Lime

I prepared this simple but delicious marinade for roast chicken the other day. I know what you are thinking -another chicken recipe! But you see I purchased a twin pack (at a bargain price) for my chicken soup and so I was left over with one other. And you know what they say "waste not, want not". I was being economical…. I spactcocked the chicken , rubbed over the marinade and left it for 36 hours. Then roasted until done. I served with the pan juices and wedges of lime to squeeze over. Roast carrots and peas with olive oil completed the meal. I must say, my partner and I devoured this bird.

Chilli and Cumin Marinade for Roast chicken

Ingredients
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp Spanish paprika
1 tsp mustard powder
1 dried chilli
1 garlic clove, finely grated.
Fresh black pepper
Fresh white pepper
Pinch of rock salt
2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method
Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl.
Rub all over the spatchcocked bird and leave to marinade for as long as you like in the fridge.
Just a note on spatchcocking- its easy enough to do. Just remove the backbone(I use scissors) and flatten out the bird by applying pressure with your hands. You may here some bones cracking(I love this sound) Chicken prepared this way has the advantage of cooking more evenly and somehow remains more juicy and succulent .Roast breast side down for 30 min at 200c. Check every now and then, that the bottom of the tray isn’t drying out and burning. Add some water to prevent this. Turn the bird over and finish cooking breast side up for another 30 mins. Turn the oven to maximum for the last 10 minutes. Cooking time is based on a 1kg bird, perfect for 2 people.
I must say, spatchcocking is the only way I have ever roasted chicken, even as a young boy. I honestly don’t ever remember cooking it in the conventional fashion. And why would you want to. It is too good this way.