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Pakoras -warning addictive!

These are absurdly easy to make and unfeasibly delicious so be warned, this is your last chance to turn back...

OK, you are basically going to make a batter but using gram (chickpea) flour. Grab a bowl and add about a cup of flour for four people as a starter or enough for two people having a pig out.

Season with salt, pepper, chilli powder to taste and a goodly amount of fresh chopped coriander. Now for the secret ingredient: bicarbonate of soda. A half teaspoon of this stuff will make your pakoras heavenly light and fluffy.

Mix the dry ingredients and add warm water slowly, mixing all the time until you have a slightly sloppy mixture similar to that you would use for pancakes.

Now add at most half a finely chopped onion or a similar amount of any other yummy you want to try such as mushrooms and give it a final mix.

Heat oil in a pan. It needs to be about a centimetre deep and a low sided pan like a frying pan will help you get the mixture in and out.

When the oil is nice and hot, slowly and carefully spoon about a desert spoon of mix in to the oil for each pakora. They'll fry quickly in a minute or so, turn over with a slotted spoon, remove and place on kitchen towel. Eat as soon as they are cool enough or just before if you can't wait. Serve with a dash of ketchup or chilli sauce.

Tip of the hat to Farah for this wonderful recipe.

July 4th Cookies

So they have a big celebration here on July 4^th... I think it's in preparation for my birthday which is very sweet of a whole nation. And much disdain was cast my way because I didn't have anything red, white or blue to wear on the holiday run. Seriously. So I thought I'd better make up for it. As chance would have it - I had 6 egg yolks to deal with after making meringue for Squirrel Nut Mess - another special recipe for summers here. A quick google of "egg yolk cookies" (what else??) led me to this great place (thank you to Cindy Lynn):

http://www.food.com/recipe/egg-yolk-cookies-63803?mode=us&scaleto=60.0&st=null

So could I do something red, white and blue to salvage my place with the East End Runners? Well the judgment will be written up in their blog but I think I am safe for a while....

Paula from Pitt

USA cups in red

• 6 egg yolks or 3 whole eggs
• 225g butter 1 cup = 2 sticks
• 300g sugar 1 ¹/₂ cups (I used organic raw stuff)
• 350g plain flour 2 ¹/₂ cups
• 2 tspn baking powder
• 1 tspn pure vanilla essence
• 100g ^1/₂ - ²/₃ cup good quality white chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)
• 100g dried fruit ¹/₂ - ²/₃ cup (50g unsweetened blueberries + 50g Bing cherries)
• 2-3 tbspn brandy

The realtively sharp fruit offsets the sweetness of the white chocolate and sugariness that many cookies have. Put dried fruit in a small heavy based pan with a lid and add just enough brandy to come ¹/₂ way up fruit. Bring to boil and take off heat. Leave lid on for 30-60mins. Just to get brandy into fruit and plump fruit up. You could do the same with water.

Heat oven to Gas mark 4, 180C, 350F. You will probably need two baking sheets (cookie sheets) lined with bakinng parchment or well greased.

Cream butter and sugar in a bowl until as light and fluffy as your machine or tired arm can get.

Beat egg yolks and vanilla essense in a small bowl. Add to butter/sugar and blend well.

Mix baking powder and flour in yet another bowl.

Gradually add flour mix to wet ingredients.

Add choc chips, dried fruit. At this point my kitchen was in the low 30Cs (80Fs) ie very warm! I picked the wrong day to make meringue, cookies and then pecan praline.... So cookie mix was quite easy to work. You could chill the mix if it seems too soft at this point.

Make into balls about the size of a walnut and place on baking sheet. Flatten with a fork but not too much (slide the fork off to one side, gently holding the cookie to get stripes).

Bake for 10-14 minutes - very approximate. I was trying to get a little colo(u)r but you don't want to over cook or you will lose the chewiness in the centre. Take out of over and place tin on cooling rack.

Onion yipy tarts

The cookery muse can often be found deep in the depths of the freezer or top shelf of the larder. Working back from a box of large vol au vent type pastry cases bought by mistake for pastry sheets and a single large videlia onion came these. The spice mix came from something I read about cloves in an onion tart (sorry no idea where), ground mace which I never use but Iain got for his Christmas cake production (yes he has discovered a talent!) and things that were almost empty. You could go to town varying this mix.

Paula from Pitt

• 1 large videlia (or any really) onion - diced
• 1tspn cumin seeds
• ¹/₂ tspn each of ground mace, charnoushka (black nigella seeds), Spanish smoked paprika, sweet curry powder
• 2 cloves
• 1 tbsp olive oil mixed with a little vegetable oil to raise the cooking temperature
• Some cheese! 3-4oz I used Lancashire thinly sliced but grated would be fine
• 1 pack frozen pastry shells

In a medium pan with the heaviest base you have, warm the oil and fry off the spices gently until they start to give off a fragrance. Add the onion, put the lid on the pan and slow cook the onions on a very low heat for 30-45 minutes. You are trying to soften and sweeten the onion but not burn it. The depth of colour is up to you. Stir every 10-15 minutes. This time is flexible. When cooked just turn off heat and leave to cool or in pan to keep warm.

Meanwhile - or the next day if you are prepping for a party - cook the pastry shells according to the packet instructions. You could make the onion mix in advance and just keep in the fridge for a day or so.

To serve just take the lids off the shells, spoon some onion mix, layer with cheese and more onion mix. Put pastry lid on. Serve as is, or warm through.

Yipy is from the noises I made whilst removing the pastry shell lids. You'd think I'd learn - hot is hot.

Spiced Tomato Soup

There is only one Tomato Soup and that is made by a firm that is not British (surprise!) but from Pittsburgh and comes in an Andy Warhol tin.  But with a surfeit of sun dried tomatoes one night I made this.  Pretty darn good we thought.  Very, very rich but based on what might be found in most store cupboards.

Paula from Pitt

Ingredients (Imperial as I now live in the Glorious Homeland - as an "alien")

• 3-4oz sun dried tomatoes soaked in 2 cups (= 16floz) hot water for about 1/2 hour, chopped
• 2 tbspn vegetable oil (or 1 each of veg & olive oil), chopped onion, 1-2 bay leaves, chopped celery stick (don't worry it will be blended later for those that avoid celery), 1/2 tspn chili powder, 1/2 tspn cinnamon (trust me I'm a doctor), 2 cardamom pods cracked
• 14oz(ish) tin tomatoes chopped plus juice
• 1 cup(ish) water, 1 tbsn shredded basil, salt to taste, good grind black pepper, yoghurt or sour cream

How to: put oil in medium sized, heavy based pan with lid, with chili powder, cinnamon, cardamom and medium heat for 2-3 mins til spices give off aroma and start to crack.

Add bay leaves, onion, celery, turn down heat very low and put lid on and soften for 20 mins or so till onion goes clear but not brown.

Add tinned tomatoes & juice and sun dried tomatoes & juice. Simmer for 20 mins or so.

Remove bay leaves & cardamom, liquidise soup (this really is better smooth). Add basil, salt, pepper and a cup or so of water to get to a thick but still soupish consistency (your choice).  Warm through.  Serve into warm bowls and add a dollop of sour cream or yoghurt if you like.  I'd suggest not cream as you need something sharp to cut through the rich sweetness of the soup.

NB if you want to make this ahead of time (soups are often better the next day) then stop before you remove the spices and liquidise.  Let it cool. Store for a day and then remove spices etc.

Guacamole Zinger

Guacamole, pretty simple, right? Erm, well yes it is but this recipe adds lime to create a serious zing and let's face it who hasn't eaten guacamole and wished it could live up better to its lively Latin reputation?

Veggie Sausage Sandwich (with Green Pesto)

In my opinion, vegetarian Lincolnshire style sausages work best with the green pesto.

And for added effect, once the sausages are cooked, pop the whole sandwich into a sandwich toaster or George Forman grill for a couple of mins to brown the outside of the bread before eating.

Voila! A quick and tasty supper.

Yvonne

PS: You could be really experimental and try adding fried onion too.

Witte Rijst met Krenten

This recipe may well make you believe that Dutch cuisine deserves the reputation that British cuisine has, but if you, like me, love rice and, like me, love currants, and, like me, have a sweet tooth, you might think this is the best dish in the world.

The other day I had eaten a big bowl of soup earlier on and neither fancied eating a complete meal, nor going out to the shops to buy a snack. Looking in our cupboards, I noticed all the ready-made snacks had already disappeared in our stomachs. My wife, who as always shared my predicament, decided to just boil some rice and snack on that. I would have gone along with that, had it not reminded me of one of the greatest dishes I had as a child.

Halloumi dressing

Finally the secret of the halloumi dressing of bbq & dinner party fame...

For 1 pack of halloumi: Juice of 1 lime, a teaspoon or two of red pesto.

Doubting Bro wrote "where is the rest of the recipe?"

OK so a grind of black pepper to taste.  Slap it on griddled/bbq'd/fried/raw... halloumi.

Sometimes the best things are simple.  Trust me I'm a doctor!

Paula

Paté de Trucha (Trout Paté)

Second in our series of recipes from Bogotá, courtesy of Paola.

Dip de Alcachofas y Espinacas (spinach and artichoke dip)

First in a series of lovely recipes from Colombian foodsteros. Paola shares her recipe and i try and translate it:-)