Indian Summer

Continuing with the BBQ/Indian food theme (well, the weather continues to be good so why not?!) it's time to turn to that modern day and much consumed in various guises of foods, the burger.

Now the burger gets a hard time from the food police. Blamed for the continuing obesity 'crisis' that has hit our shores, burger bars and other fast food joints are being ganged up on one side from the 'you must be insane to eat in such a place you fool' lot and the doors battered down by the 'we don't care, we'll eat what we want thank you very much' gang. Agree or disagree with what amounts to be some minced meat, flattened, fried then stuffed in between a bun, there is no doubt the power of the thing. We bleedin' love 'em really don't we?

Me, I prefer to make my own, and with the BBQ out it seems foolish to not get 'squidging' with the nipper and form a few patties for the grill. Served once every few weeks with a decent bun, some salad and wedges and it becomes a balanced meal. Therefore I plead not guilty PC Food Snob. And so should you as long as you aren't living in one of the places. Enjoy.

Indian Spiced Lamb 'Burgers'
Makes 6 large burgers

500g quality minced lamb
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 thumb of fresh ginger, grated
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tbsp yellow mustard seeds
2 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp turmeric
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
A handful each of fresh mint and coriander
1 egg, beaten
Salt and pepper
2 handfuls of stale breadcrumbs

1 - Put the mustard seeds into a dry frying pan and toast until fragrant. Remove.
2 - Put all of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl them combine thoroughly with your hands.
3 - Form into your preferred burger size then grill or BBQ to your desired rareness. Or form around BBQ sticks and call them a shish kebab.
4 - Serve with toasted sesame seed buns, fresh salad and raita.

Good Times

It has been absolutely scorching recently and our commitment to a British only holiday this year is appearing to be a wise choice if it continues like this. We risked getting the BBQ out yesterday. From the garage was wheeled the creaking cookery platform with distant memories of BBQs long gone still evident. A good scrub, some new coals and it was ready for some food.

Now I've always been a bit sceptical of BBQs of the British variety. Anything that gets a bloke who never cooks donned in a comedy pinny, lager in one hand and tongs in the other ready to tease a few economy sausages over the flames isn't my idea of culinary heaven. Put it this way; I've had a few close shaves in one or two smokefilled gardens over the years. And salmonella roulette isn't a game I enjoy too much.

Thankfully it was just the family around and it all turned out to be rather lovely if a little optimistic; 6pm in a small garden in South Tyneside is never going to be the Algarve no matter how you look at it. But a few sticks of tandoori turkey stuffed into warm flatbreads and smothered with cooling raita made for a nice introduction to, fingers crossed, good times to come this summer.

Tandoori Turkey Sticks with Mint Raita

1 tsp each of ground cumin, ground turmeric, ground coriander and chilli powder
4 ground cardamom pods
Salt and pepper
200ml natural yoghurt
Juice of half a lemon
500g turkey breast cut into chunks
4 wooden skewers, soaked in water for a couple of hours, or metal skewers

For the Raita
3 tbsp fresh mint, roughly chopped
Half a cucumber, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks
200ml natural yoghurt
Salt and pepper

1 – Put the yoghurt into a bowl and stir in the spices along with a little seasoning and the lemon juice.
2 – Thread the turkey onto the skewers. Put the turkey skewers into a shallow dish and pour over the marinade, ensuring that it is covered. Leave to marinade for 2-3 hours or overnight in the fridge.
3 – To make the raita, mix everything together in a bowl with a little seasoning.
4 – BBQ the turkey skewers for 10 minutes, turning regularly, until golden and charred in places.
5 – Serve with chapattis or naan breads, plain or lemon rice and the raita.

Far Gone and Out (at sea)

I can feel the anticipation already. Silver shoals of mackerel are now heading for our shores and the greediest, most delicious and easiest to catch of all fish will be getting caught using nothing more than a piece of foil on a hook by yours truly.

I've been fishing with my daughter recently in an effort to get her passionate about our nearby free food larder. Unfortunately the experience has been fruitless. Hopefully the bounty of mackerel we will soon be catching will make up for it.

The people in the know on South Shields pier reckon it will be another couple of weeks before they appear. So in the meantime I've been grabbing the odd brown crab, my favourite food by far, and making all kinds with their sweet meat. From crabby tatties to crab salads, not a week passes when I don't indulge in our classy crustacean.

Like the mackerel, they are cheap and sustainable and it is worth every effort buying live crabs, boiling and cooling then spending some time with the back of a small spoon extracting every last piece of creamy white meat from the body. And if you are lucky enough to get hold of some sea spinach, salty and packed with iron flavour, it will only benefit your crab themed plate.

Crab and Aubergine Spaghetti
Feeds 4

1 onion, roughly chopped
1 clove of garlic, sliced
1 aubergine, cut into roughly 1 cm dice
2 tbsp olive oil
4 anchovies, roughly chopped
A handful of black olives, stoned and roughly chopped
A handful of capers, rinsed
A handful of sun dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
A pinch of chilli flakes
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 400ml tin of chopped tomatoes
White and brown meat of 1 crab
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper
A couple of handfuls of sea spinach or baby spinach

1 - Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the onion, garlic and aubergine. Cook and stir for 5-10 minutes until they are softened and beginning to colour.
2 - Stir in the anchovies and cook until dissolved. Then add the olives, capers, sun dried tomatoes, tomato puree and tinned tomatoes. Bring to the boil then simmer for 10 minutes until slightly reduced.
3 - Stir in the crab meat and lemon juice and heat through for 2 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Serve stirred into spaghetti with spinach scattered on top.

Transform the Norm

What does a man do with excess supply of rhubarb? Well, the sensible option is to of course eat it. Rhubarb isn't around for too long and like I said last week, you need to at least try to make the most of the seasonal vegetables and fruit that are now beginning to appear.

Rhubarb has long been subjected to the old crumble treatment and although there is absolutely nothing wrong with this, we usually stop there, wondering what else to do with this highly acrid vegetable that requires a good dose of sugar to stop your face disappearing into itself on eating.

Grated and stuffed into duck with some fresh herbs is a good place to start, sitting the bird on a few sticks as a roasting bed which makes superb gravy. A tart rhubarb puree perhaps with a kick of chilli makes for a great accompaniment to oily fish such as the soon to appear mackerel or sardines. Or you could always do what my mam used to do to us as kids and walk around with a bag of sugar and a stick of rhubarb and give yourself an unusual belly churning Geordie treat, the treat being 'Treat with caution.'

Rhubarb and custard is probably the simplest partnership and a nice way to transform this classic into an alternative dessert is to mix the two together, bake slowly in the oven then burn a little sugar on the top for a rhubarb and custard burnt cream, or crème brulée to the masses. I prefer the word 'burnt' in the description. If anything it may put people off eating it and leaving more of this delicious dessert for yours truly...

Rhubarb and Custard Burnt Cream
Feeds 4-6 people depending on size of ramekin

4 small sticks or 2 large sticks of rhubarb, washed and trimmed
50g sugar
200ml double cream
100ml single cream or full fat milk
3 large egg yolks
1 vanilla pod
50g sugar
Icing sugar

1 - Pre-heat the oven to 140C, GM1.
2 - Chop the rhubarb into chunks and place in a saucepan with a little water and the sugar. Bring to the boil then simmer for 10-15 minutes until broken up completely. Leave to cool then stir to a puree.
3 - Pour the creams into a pan. Spilt the vanilla pod and scrape in the seeds then bring almost to boiling point before taking off the heat.
4 - Beat the egg yolks with the sugar thoroughly, and then pour onto the hot cream, stirring all of the time. Fold in the rhubarb puree.
5 - Pour the hot custard into the ramekins. Place into an oven tray then pour enough hot water in to reach halfway up the ramekins. Cook for 45 mins-1 hour or until it is just cooked with a slight wobble when you shake them.
6 - Cool completely, place in the fridge then when ready to eat, sieve on a good layer of icing sugar and tidy up the sides. Use either a cook's blow torch or a hot grill to 'burn' the sugar to a crispy topping to smash your spoon through.

Probably The Best Sandwich In The World

I know that the old 'eat seasonal and local' phrase has become an over-used mantra to some people, and I also know that this philosophy is a difficult one to stick by when you are struggling with a large family and little money. So I choose to use it wisely and with caution when teaching; some people simply cannot follow the foodie idealist way of life and I can sympathise.

However, there are certain products that I feel so strongly about that I almost urge the nation to buy them when they are in season. Products that are in such abundance that you would be a fool to not make the most of their short window of growth.

At the moment asparagus and rhubarb are everywhere and I'm being given both of these vegetables on a regular basis from kind mates and family. I'm cooking with and eating rhubarb almost every other day and there are only so many crumbles a portly gent is allowed to consume in a week. So more rhubarb recipes, both sweet and savoury, will be appearing soon.

The best asparagus is almost at an end and this 'King of the vegetables' should be treated with great respect. My favourite way is to simply roast them in a little olive oil and balsamic and eat with a few shavings of Parmesan, Cheddar or crumbly Lancashire. Another great thing to do is team them up with some quality bacon in a kind of BLT or 'BLAT' which becomes a sandwich to beat all sandwiches. Probably the best sandwich in the world? I would say.

Bacon, Lettuce, Asparagus and Tomato Sandwich (The BLAT)
Feeds 2

4 pieces of thick white bread
8 asparagus spears, trimmed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper
4 tbsp quality mayonnaise
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
8 slices of good smoked bacon
A handful of sun dried tomatoes in olive oil or 2 tomatoes thinly sliced
Lettuce leaves

1 - Pre-heat the oven to GM6/200C. Put the asparagus into a baking tray and toss in the olive oil and balsamic vinegar with a little seasoning. Roast for 10 minutes.
2 - Grill the bacon until crisp and golden. Reserve on kitchen towel.
3 - Lightly toast the bread.
4 - Mix the mayonnaise with the mustard and spread liberally onto the toasted bread.
5 - Layer the bread with lettuce, hot bacon, asparagus and tomatoes and devour.

Hot & Saucy

We've recently been turning to ways of transforming otherwise bland leftover food into something amazing. In our fridge there are always airtight containers with last night’s rice, pasta, cooked vegetables, fish or meat in. Waste not want not is the mantra.

A great way of making, say, a load of cooked vegetables and cooked pasta taste good is to whack it all into a casserole dish, cover it in a good tomato sauce (hopefully one that you have made and stored in the freezer) top with a cheese sauce and cook until golden and bubbling. Or take your rice and combine with leftover chicken, lemons, cardamon and cinnamon and bake in foil for a lovely quick 'leftover pilaf'. I'll post that one up here soon.

I like to make sauces such as salsa verdé or 'green sauce', a strong, piquant sauce made from store cupboard ingredients that transform the blandest of meals into a thing of pleasure and beauty. A close second to that is harissa, a fiery North African sauce of red pepper and chilli that is so easy to make yourself and again, transforms the boring to the beautiful. Try it with fish or white meats, rice and salad. Make the most of your own little store in your kitchen and soon you will be a master of the leftovers.

Harissa Sauce

2 red peppers
1 large or 2 small red chillies, deseeded
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp paprika (smoked or unsmoked)
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper

1 - If you have a gas hob, light 2 rings and place the peppers straight onto the flame. Using tongs, turn regularly until the skin is black all over. Pop into plastic food bags, seal and leave to cool. If you don't have a gas hob, rub in a little olive oil and roast in a hot oven until collapsed. Put into the food bags, seal and allow to cool.
2 - Once cooled, peel off the skin and discard the stalks and seeds. Pop into a food processor along with the chillies and garlic.
3 - Put the coriander seeds and cumin seeds into a dry frying pan and pan roast for 2 minutes until fragrant. Add to the food processor along with the paprika and lemon juice. Blend until smooth. Taste for seasoning.
4 - Pour into an airtight jar and top with the olive oil. This will keep for a couple of weeks in a fridge.

Learn to Churn

I’ve always avoided buying an ice cream maker for one reason only. I reckon that I would make a new ice cream at least once a week and that would do nothing for the old love handles. Unfortunately I’ve found a way of making perfect ice cream that doesn’t involve an expensive ice cream maker.

We have been experimenting with different flavoured ice creams for some time now using the patient method of freezing your ‘custard’ in a sealed container and freezing, remembering to churn the mixture at least every hour to help the ice crystals evenly distribute. Pain staking and easy to forget, you inevitably end up with a solid lump that needs a good 30 minutes of thawing. No good when you have children demanding the fruits of their labour NOW!

Cerys and I took a load of rhubarb from the garden and stewed it in honey and stem ginger, a difficult task when you have a ginger addicted daughter trying to eat whole stems and licking the sticky syrup dribbling down her arms. Once cooled, I could safely hand the reigns over to the little one for stirring in yoghurt and cream before sealing and freezing.

And the magic bit? Blitzing it in a food processor to make the most perfectly smooth rhubarb and ginger ice cream. Don’t forget to reserve some of the pink rhubarb syrup to make your own ‘monkey’s blood’ as we Geordies affectionately call it.

Rhubarb and Ginger Ice Cream

300g rhubarb, cleaned and chopped into chunks
100g honey or sugar
3 stem gingers and a little syrup to taste, roughly chopped
150ml natural yoghurt
100ml double cream

1 – Put the rhubarb, honey or sugar and a little water into a saucepan. Bring to the boil then simmer for 10-15 minutes until the rhubarb has broken up. Allow to cool.
2 – Remove a little of the pink syrup with a tablespoon and reserve. Stir in the stem ginger and syrup.
3 – Put the yoghurt, cream and rhubarb into a large bowl and beat thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Pour into an airtight container and freeze until frozen.
4 – Remove and put into a food processor. Blend until smooth. Scoop into cones and drizzle on the rhubarb syrup.

Greece Is The Word

One of the biggest problems I have as a dad and a cook is figuring out what to put on the family menu each evening. My worst fear is eating the same things all of the time. I want my daughter to try new things as much as possible but of course with work and timing issues that makes it all that bit more difficult.

Most families have the same problem and lots opt for the easy option of the ready meal. I'm not going to mock that but I will always say that just 15 minutes each evening prepping food is usually all that is needed to knock up a cracking family meal. Learning a few simple skills and getting cooking has to be the answer.

The other issue is money and we have to stretch out pennies wisely. So I'm always on the lookout for new no fuss family meals that will do the job. A quick look over the waters to countries such as Italy, Spain and Greece will give you a multitude of recipes that match these criteria.

Pastitsio is like a Greek Moussaka with pasta, a delicious combination of meat, spice, egg and cheese that feeds the whole family for less than a fiver. I'm sure my Greek friends who read this will no doubt pick me up on how unauthentic it looks but that is of little importance to the common man. Serve it with a big green salad and enjoy the simplicity of easy, inexpensive and great family food.

Pastitsio
Feeds 4

2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, sliced
2 celery sticks, diced
2 carrots, diced
500g minced beef
400g chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato purée
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp dried oregano
100ml beef or vegetable stock
Salt and pepper
300g rigatoni pasta50g Parmesan cheese

For the cheese sauce
50g butter
50g plain flour
500ml milk
100g Cheddar Cheese grated
A little freshly grated nutmeg
2 eggs beaten

1 – Heat the olive oil in a sauce pan and add the onion, celery, carrot and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes until beginning to soften. Add the minced beef and cook for 5 minutes until browned.
2 – Add the tomatoes, tomato purée, cinnamon and oregano and stir through for 1 minute. Then add the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 30-40 minutes until the sauce has thickened. Taste for seasoning.
3 – Boil the pasta according to the instructions then drain and set aside.
4 – To make the cheese sauce, melt the butter in a pan and add the flour. Stir and cook for 1 minute then gradually beat in the milk until you have a thick white sauce. Stir in the cheese and nutmeg then taste for seasoning. Finally stir in the eggs.
5 - Grease a large ovenproof dish with the butter. Spread one-third of the pasta over the base of the dish and cover with half the meat sauce. Add another third of the pasta and then the rest of the meat sauce then cover with a final layer of pasta. Spoon over the cheese sauce.
6 – Sprinkle over the Parmesan cheese and bake on the middle shelf for 40 minutes until golden brown. Serve with a simple green salad.

By George

The 23rd April brings what should be the English day of celebration in St George's Day. I often wonder how many of us English people will actually raise a glass to our patron saint as well as get stuck into a good old English meal. Not many I reckon.

Whilst we don comedy 'Guinness' hats for St Patrick's Day and have a 'wee dram' of the single malt stuff for St Andrew's Day, we all seem to forget our heritage when it comes to our special day.

Can we please bring it back oh folk of England? Can we please just retain some heritage and tradition and remember where we come from for one day of the year? I don't mean rampage down the street with faces painted destroying all in your way - we have enough of that around International footy day. I mean have some food and drink with your loved ones, feel positive about your heritage and be proud to be English for a change. I'm all for a multi-culturist society, love it in fact. But we should not be afraid to be proud to be English. Perhaps a bit of pride and a positive outlook is the key to this damned recession eh?

I'll be celebrating with some local food, pease pudding to be precise. I'm getting into making large batches of our most famed Geordie split pea concoction and freezing it for rainy days. I'll be simmering a load of split peas in a muslin bag along with a ham hock before toasting some stottie cakes, another one of our traditional foods, smearing liberally in English mustard and making the best ham and pease pudding butties in town. All washed down with a bottle of Jarrow Brewery Rivet Catcher.

You will have a load of local traditional dishes where you come from. As we don't seem to have one dish that describes our wonderfully diverse food in England, it's time to look local and knock one up for you and your family this Thursday. Enjoy it and tell the world that it's okay to be English.

Pease Pudding

250g yellow split peas
1 ham hock
1 onion
1 carrot
2 sticks of celery
2 bay leaves
A handful of fresh thyme
5 black peppercorns
Water

1 - Place the yellow split peas into a muslin cloth and tie securely. Place them along with the rest of the ingredients into a stock pan.
2 - Cover with water, bring to the boil then simmer for 2 and a half hours.
3 - Drain the split peas then mash with a fork or blend depending on how smooth or rough you like them.
4 - Serve spread thickly in buttered thick bread, slithers of ham hock and English mustard.

No Kidding

I've been writing a new column for Times Online this past couple of weeks and failed to indulge myself by mentioning it here - so now I am!

Kids In The Kitchen will be a weekly column which I hope you all enjoy. The title says it all - it's all about cooking with the kids - and it's a subject that has been close to my heart in the time I have been writing this Blog.

This week is a take on a kedgeree. The recipe is below but please check out the article at The Times and feel free to comment over there if not here.

Fish and Pea Kedgeree
Feeds 4

Prep time – 15 minutes
Cook Time – 10 minutes

4 eggs, boiled for 5 minutes then left to cool in cold water
50g butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
A pinch of cayenne pepper
200g basmati rice, cooked and drained
100g frozen peas
1 tin of your choice of fish, drained
Salt and pepper
A handful of fresh dill, parsley or coriander, roughly chopped
2 lemons, halved

1 – Heat a non-stick pan and melt the butter. Add the oil then stir in the onion. Cook for 5 minutes until softened.
2 – Add the spices and combine thoroughly. Cook for 1 minute until fragrant.
3 – Stir in the cooked rice and peas and heat through for 5 minutes, stirring all of the time until piping hot.
4 – Flake in the fish and stir in the fresh herbs. Taste for seasoning.
5 – Plate up and decorate with the boiled eggs – food faces optional. Serve with a wedge of fresh lemon.