Cheddar Risotto

Nigella has the best ideas. I persevere with her television persona and fondness for alliteration because her recipes are generally great and she has a real knack to for knowing how to find a guilty pleasure in food. This cheddar risotto is a prime example - all the comfort of macaroni cheese and the cosiness of a risotto (see I'm talking like her already...).

As Nigella says, the Italians may not necessarily agree with this recipe, but sharp cheddar and creamy risotto works so well - if parmesan, mozzarella or blue cheese can work then so should cheddar.

It's a cinch to put together, and a lot less work than macaroni cheese but with the same feeling. I didn't alter the method of Nigella's recipe, only the quantity - 300 grams of risotto rice was far too much to serve 2 as a main, 150 grams saw us fine.

I used a very strong crumbly cheddar, Tesco Finest's Wookey Hole cheddar was ideal, a cheap cheddar will result in a claggy oily risotto. 

Nigella's recipe is here.

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Bhel Puri

Hands down, bhel puri is my favourite savoury thing to eat. Closely followed by pani puri and then from a completely different culture - macaroni and cheese.

Bhel Puri is a type of Chaat - which is simply savoury snacks sold at the roadside all over India, but many associate them with cities like Mumbai and Delhi. I love the origin of the word chaat.

From Wikipedia "The word derives from Hindi cāṭ चाट (tasting, a delicacy), from cāṭnā चाटना (to lick), from Prakrit caṭṭei चट्टेइ (to devour with relish, eat noisily)."

You can also buy (or make yourself) chaat masala which is made up of amchoor (dried mango) powder, black salt, coriander, ginger, salt, pepper, asafoedita and chilli powder. This is used in all kinds of chaat to easily season, plus it tastes great! Add it to your next chickpea curry.

Bhel puri offers everything - it is a Gujarati snack made popular in Mumbai by migrants to the city-  it's crispy, crunchy, soft, sweet, savoury, spicy and sharp. The base is a mixture of puffed rice (mamra) and fried chickpea noodles (sev) which is then topped with chopped onion, sometimes tomato, boiled spicy potato (often with chaat masala), mint chilli coriander chutney and tamarind chutney. You mix it all together and eat it up immediately whilst it is still crunchy. Fancier versions I've had, at Dishoom for example, also contain pomegranate or diced mango.

As I've said, it is traditionally a snack, but if you love it like I do, it's more than ok to eat three portions and call it dinner. You'll find sev, mamra and tamarind in most Indian grocers and also very large branches of the main supermarkets. If not The Asian Cookshop has everything you'll need, and their delivery charges aren't too dear.

Tamarind can be bought in a large scary looking block, which needs to be soaked and then passed through a sieve, it is a bit of work but you can freeze the resulting paste and take out as needed. You can also buy jars of tamarind paste in most supermarkets, but it often has added ingredients.

Bhel Puri Serves 2 generously for dinner, 4 for a snack 

 200g sev
200g mamra puffed rice
 ½ onion, diced finely then soaked in water
 2 medium sized potatoes diced and boiled
¼ tsp chilli powder
½ tsp chaat masala salt (boil til soft, drain, cool and then add seasoning and spices) 
2 tomatoes, diced

 Green Chutney 
15 mint leaves
large bunch of coriander
¼ tsp garam masala
¼ tsp cumin ½ cm ginger salt
¼ green chilli (or more to your taste!)
4 tablespoons of water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
scant 1 tsp sugar 

Blend all the ingredients in a food processor - you want a thin sauce, a bit like salsa.

Tamarind Chutney 
1 tablespoon of tamarind paste
1 ¼ tsp caster sugar
pinch of garam masala
5 tablespoons of water
pinch of salt

Add all the ingredients to a saucepan and simmer over a medium high heat til boiling. Turn down and then simmer gently for 5-10 minutes til it thickens to just a little thinner than ketchup.

To Serve
When serving put all your separate ingredients in to bowls and then let diners make their own bhel puri by piling up ingredients and chutneys to taste in a bowl.


I'll be serving bhel puri plus plenty of other yummy things at my upcoming Gujarati Supperclub in Cambridge in August, dates to be announced soon - sign up to the mailing list here. 

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Gujarati Recipe Series - Handvo, Savoury Cake

This post marks the first in my series of Gujarati recipes! This is something I've been meaning to start for a long time and I have been encouraged by many of my twitter followers to do so too. I think it is pretty fitting to start off with a cake, but this time a savoury, spicy vegetable cake.

Handvo, or Andvo, is made from chickpea and semolina flour with carrots, peas, onion and sweetcorn, chili and ginger inside with a crispy top with mustard seeds on top. We always used to eat this on Saturday nights, with other snacky food like samosas - although it is a pretty filling meal in its own right.

Handvo
Makes one 18 x 6 cm dish (though will work in slightly bigger or smaller dishes)
You need to start this the day before you want to eat it. 
My cups are American cups, teacups also work well.

Part 1 - the day before
Ingredients
1 cup of coarse semolina flour
1 cup of chickpea (gram) flour
1 tsp of grated fresh ginger
1 - 2 green chillies (to taste)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 cup of natural yoghurt (my Mum said the cheaper the better as you want a nice tangy yoghurt!)
2 tbsp of groundnut, sunflower or mild olive oil
warm water - about 1/2 - 1 cup

Mix together all the ingredients except the water, add the water gradually to loosen the mixture til it is the texture of cake batter. Cover and leave in the fridge overnight (or up to 24 hours) when you want to use it remove from the fridge and bring to room temperature.

Part 2 - the next day
Ingredients
1 1/2 tsp of baking powder 
1 medium onion, diced
2 tbsp of frozen peas
2 tbsp of frozen or fresh sweetcorn
1 medium carrot, finely diced

Add all of the vegetables to the 'cake' mixture plus the baking powder, stir briefly (don't overwork the mix) to combine. Preheat your oven to 180c / gas mark 4. Grease and line your dish and pour in the mixture.

Mustard Topping
1 tsp of black mustard seeds (the yellow ones don't really work as well, try your local asian grocer or health food shop for black mustard seeds)
3 tbsp of groundnut, sunflower or mild olive oil

With your mixture ready in your dish and your oven heated up. Heat the oil in a high sided saucepan on a med/high hob. Put in the mustard seeds and quickly cover the saucepan with a lid. Allow the mustard seeds to pop for about 30 seconds. Turn off and remove from the heat and allow it to cool for about 1 minute. Then pour the oil and mustard seed mixture over the cake mixture in the dish.

Bake for 45 mins - 1 hour in your preheated oven. You want the top to be quite brown, possibly looking a little overdone (I erred on the side of caution here so mine is a bit paler than it should be). 

Handvo is supposed to be served hot so slice up as soon as it comes out of the oven, it is best served with a dollop of good old tomato ketchup! It is also great cold the next day

Am hoping to return soon with more Gujarati recipes, I've got lots of things I'd like to make next. I hope you might make this, its a great recipe to try if you like baking cakes.

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Kale Chips

Kale is one of those vegetables that I do like but always ends up getting left in the back of the fridge to go off. I received some in my veg box and after a week I really really needed to use it up. I normally put it on pizza but we weren't having pizza so I made kale chips, which I've heard about before.

Kale chips are super duper easy, it is nearly not a recipe.
Just wash your kale, remove the stalky bits and tear in to medium sized pieces. Drizzle over some olive oil and season, toss to cover all the leaves.
Bake in a low-medium oven (about 150c) for 10-15 minutes, turning every five minutes to stop them buring - mine caught a little bit which means they go a bit bitter.

Eat!

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Untimely Cucumber Pickles

The timing of this blog post is slightly bad in light of recent news/scare stories. But if you buy some lovely local cukes like I did then you will be fine, I'm sure. Trust me, I'm not a Doctor.

Anyway.
There is another disclaimer that goes with this blog post, I don't like cucumber.
There is something about the odd watery taste of cucumber that just sets my teeth on edge. But pickling it in rice vinegar, herbs and chilis takes away the odd unfinished flavour of cucumber. It might sound odd but I know what I mean.

This recipe is super easy, no cooking required, just some slicing and pouring and waiting.

Cucumber Pickles
fills one 250ml kilner jar

1 whole cucumber
1/2 red chili or pinch of chili flakes
handful of soft herbs - thyme, oregano, basil, coriander
100ml of rice wine vinegar or white wine vinegar
1/2 tablespoon of caster sugar
pinch of salt

Slice your cucumber thinly into coins, about 1/2 cm thick, and then half the coins into half moons. Salt them and leave them for about 10 minutes in a colander over a bowl. This will remove some of the water from them so you get nice crunchy pickles. Rinse under cold water.

Layer up the cucumber neatly in a wide mouthed glass jar, a kilner jar is great. In between the layers put in the herb leaves and chili so it is well incorporated. Mix the vinegar and caster sugar together until the sugar dissolves. Then pour into the jar slowly so it reaches all the cucumber. If you find you don't have quite enough vinegar just add a bit more on top.

Seal and leave in the fridge. They are ready to eat after about 2-3 hours, and keep for about 2 weeks in the fridge. And like most pickles they are really good after a few days.

I am mainly eating mine at lunchtimewith cous cous and vegetables, but I am sure they are fantastic with a nice burger.

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Risotto with Baked Ricotta, Tomato and Herbs

I won something! I never win anything!
I entered a competition on the Laverstoke blog to win a parcel of their lovely buffalo ricotta and I won!
What was even better is that they sent me a whole array of goodies, I got two pots of their fresh mozarella, some of their smoked streaky bacon, a big pot of ricotta and a carton of buffalo milk.

We have enjoyed the mozarella on pizza and the bacon in sandwiches (naturally) and diced and combined with some ricotta gnocchi (I used the rest of the ricotta here). We aren't sure what to do with the buffalo milk, I could make burrata (although I do have a lot of mozarella already) or we could just have it in our tea!

Being as the ricotta was the main prize I thought I'd come up with a nice recipe for you. This risotto is slightly summery but comforting enough to warm you up on this early autumn days. The ricotta is baked in the oven for 10 minutes which makes it meltingly tender and allows you to infuse it with herbs.

Risotto with Baked Ricotta, Tomato and Herbs
serves 2

Knob of butter
olive oil
approx 200g arborio rice
2 cloves of garlic
handful of cherry tomatoes
about 1 tablespoon of fresh italian herbs - I used sage and oregano
about 1 pint hot chicken stock
parmesan
4 tablespoons of ricotta

First preheat your oven to a medium heat. Put your ricotta in a small ovenproof dish, spinkle with herbs, olive oil and seasoning. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes whilst you make your risotto base.

Chop the tomatoes into halves or quarters, add to a bowl and add a little olive oil, cider vinegar and seasoning.  Leave to stand whilst you make your risotto.

Next start to make your risotto. Melt your butter with a splash of olive oil in a large nonstick pan, add in your crushed garlic and fry for a minute. Then add in your rice. Stir quickly to coat all the rice in butter and oil. Cook for another minute. Then start to ladle in your stock in small amounts, stirring and waiting for the stock to absorb before you add the next ladle. Keep testing your rice for done-ness all the time, you might not need all of your stock.

When the rice is about 3/4 done add in your tomatoes, herbs, another knob of butter and about 2 tablepsoons of parmesan, stir to combine and melt the cheese and butter. Take your ricotta out the oven. Put half into your risotto and stir in.

Once the rice is done and everything combine in the pan serve in warmed bowls. Divide the rest of the baked ricotta between the plates and serve on top. Serve with a bit more parmesan and black pepper.

Yum!


You can find Laverstoke in branches of Waitrose and some Sainsburys. You can also buy from their website.

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