Ratatouille

On a bit of a French kick at the moment. Ah well.

Yes, this is the ratatouille from the film. Again, easy, fun to make, and you get to say the word ratatouille. I mean, how cool is that?

This should serve 3-4 people, depending on quantities.

Ratatouille

2 large aubergines, cubed
3-4 large courgettes, cubed
2 peppers, bite-sized chunks
3 or 4 tomatoes (you can put more in, but it's quite good with less of a tomato-ey taste). Pierce the skin, submerge in boiling water for about 20 seconds, then take them out and skin and de-seed them. Or don't. Either way, cut them into quarters.
Thyme (or Provencal spice)
1 or 2 onions, sliced (but not diced)
Garlic to taste (3 or 4 should generally do the trick)
About 2 tablespoons of red wine (or wine vinegar)
1 teaspoon sugar

For those of you with a bit of adventure in your souls, add some olives, a chilli or two, and some anchovies (but don't overdo the anchovies). A big cast-iron pot is also quite useful.

Cook the aubergines for about 5 minutes until soft, then remove from the heat. Don't overcook just yet. Repeat with the courgettes (until brown) and peppers (browning and then taking them out). Then cook the onions until soft and stuff. Add the garlic, fry for a bit, then add the wine/vinegar and sugar. Stir in, add the tomatoes and the thyme or Provencal spice, stir in again, and add the courgettes, aubergines, and peppers (and olives and anchovies if you're using them). Add salt and pepper to taste, then cook for about 5-10 more minutes.

I'd recommend serving this with couscous. And wine. It'll make you think of your childhood. And then overlook gross violations of public health and sanitation.

Coq au vin

I've been wanting to try coq au vin for a while now. I finally got round to making it tonight. It was lovely. It's remarkably easy too, for something so tasty.


Coq au vin - serves about 3-4 people

750g chicken legs and thighs
150g bacon, sliced
4-5 medium-sized onions in quarters, or 10-15 shallots, peeled and sliced in half
4 cloves of garlic (mine were minced, but you can also just peel the cloves)
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup red wine (the drier the better)
Bay leaves
Thyme (fresh is better, but dry will do)
Salt and pepper to taste
250g mushrooms

Brown the bacon in a big pot. Remove, but leave the fat behind. Add the onions and chicken, and brown well over a medium heat for about 10 min or so. Halfway through, add the garlic. Add the stock, wine and herbs, and put the bacon back in. Cover and simmer for about 20-30 min, until the chicken is cooked through. It will probably look pink or crimson. THIS IS NORMAL. When done, remove the chicken and onions from the liquid, and add the mushrooms to the sauce. Reduce the sauce over a high temperature by about 75 percent. When done, put the chicken and onions back in the pot, heat up, and mix in. Serve over something - we had mashed potatoes, but some pasta would probably work too. I also recommend some bread on the side.

Enjoy.

Tom Yum Soup aka Hangover Cure

This is the first soup I've ever made. It was nice. It was tasty. It packed a punch. And its name is not my invention, although I'm pretty sure it would live up to its reputation in the event of its being needed. I've cheated and used store-bought paste, although you can obviously make it from scratch. If anyone does, please let me know the recipe.

This is a Thai fish soup, flavoured to be hot and sour. With a bit of bread it is lovely. Even without the bread it's lovely. The recipe below is one I adapted, cutting it down to a serving for 2-3. Still very nice and tasty.

Ingredients (feeds 2-3):

2-3 diced shallots (or an onion)
about an inch of galangal or ginger, diced
3 or 4 diced garlic cloves
1 or 2 chillis (with or without seeds according to taste)
3 stalks of lemongrass, or 1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemongrass paste
1 1/2 tbsp tom yum paste, store-bought or homemade (sorry, find your own recipe for this one)
1 small (approx 140ml) tin of coconut milk, or a big can for creamer soup (your choice) - I used a little tin and it was fine
1 litre chicken or fish stock
zest of a lime (with lime juice if you fancy)
sliced mushrooms (or brinjals, peppers, or other vegetables of choice)
fish or seafood (I used 200g of salmon, but most recipes allow for prawns or other seafood. Go wild)
Fish sauce and Thai basil to taste
Coriander, asparagus to serve

In a sufficiently large pot, fry up the galangal, shallots, garlic, lemongrass and chilli for 1-2 min. Add the paste and fry for a few more minutes. Add the stock. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 3-5 minutes. Add coconut milk, bring to the boil again, add mushrooms or other vegetables and the fish or seafood. Cook until ready. Use fish sauce rather than salt to season. Serve immediately with coriander and asparagus.

Very good. Cannot recommend this enough.

Bobotie

For those of you who are not of Seffrican descent, bobotie is/was the official dish of South Africa, much as the croissant is of France and crappy everything is of the UK. This is a relatively easy dish to make, unlike anything from France, and tastes really good, unlike anything from the UK. If you can get your hands on it, it goes best with Mrs HS Balls's chutney. If you can't, make your own, or find some in a supermarket. Can't help you there yet, but when I do, I'll let you know.

2 slices white bread (save up your stale offcuts, they work much better than fresh bread)

2 onions, diced

25g butter

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1kg packet lean minced beef

2 tbsp curry paste

3 cloves

1tsp mixed herbs

1 tbsp allspice (this I got from the original recipe I used. I didn't know what it was, and if you're as ignorant as I was, it's a very common spice in Caribbean cuisine)

2 tbsp peach or mango chutney

3 tbsp raisins

6 bay leaves

300ml (full cream if possible) milk

2 large eggs

Heat oven to 180C. Soak the bread in cold water while doing the other stuff.

Fry the onions in the butter. Add the garlic and beef and brown the beef. Stir in the curry paste, mixed herbs, spices, chutney, raisins and 2 of the bay leaves with 1 tsp salt and plenty of ground black pepper.

Cover and simmer for 10 mins. Squeeze the water from the bread, then beat into the meat mixture until well blended. Tip into an oval ovenproof dish - about 23 x 33cm and about 5-6cm deep. Press the mixture down well and smooth the top.

For the topping, beat the milk and eggs with seasoning, then pour over the meat. Top with the remaining bay leaves and bake for 35-40 mins until the topping is set and starting to turn golden.

The topping is rather very important. If it ain't there, you're doing it wrong.

Serve it with yellow rice: shove 1 1/2 cups of rice into a pot with water according to directions, along with 1/2 a cinnamon stick, 5 tbsp of raisins and 1 tsp of turmeric. If you want to be fancy, put some cardamon in as well.


This is an adaptation of a BBC recipe - who would have known the Brits could make good Saffer food?

Sex Chicken Pesto Pasta

This one was something a friend made for us one very cold winter's evening. Lovely stuff, very easy. It is magical stuff, and if you are using it for a date, it will work wonders (hence the name). I can't remember the exact details, but I've adapted it and changed it (probably) and it still tastes pretty good. And it's dead easy.

Ingredients: (this should feed 4)

500g chicken breast, in smallish chunks
3 cloves garlic
2 onions
150g sun-dried tomatoes diced
2 1/2 tbsp green pesto
(Optional) mushrooms, peppers, Worcester sauce, 400g tin of tomatoes
Pasta of choice (macaroni or fettuccine should be best)
White cheese (feta or otherwise)
Salt and pepper to season

Mix the chicken, one onion, garlic, tomatoes, and 1 1/2 tbsp pesto and put to one side, the longer the better, but for at least an hour. Chop up the other onion, mushrooms, peppers, etc, fry them up. Prepare the pasta as directed. When everything is ready, shove it in a bowl with cheese on top. Enjoy.

Ema Datshi (Bhutanese Chilli Stew)

This is a traditional Bhutanese dish, made from chillies and cheese, with some tomatoes and onions thrown in for good measure. Due to the lack of authentic Bhutanese ingredients in Tallinn, I used some other stuff. Due to its ingredients, it can be hellishly hot, so if you do not like spicy stuff, deseed the chillies. Also, if you do decide to take the seeds out, I strongly recommend wearing gloves. Seeding a quarter kilo of chillies means that the stuff gets under your nails, and it burns for a long time after...

Anyway, here's the recipe. Good, strong, healthy, put hairs on your chest etc. Eat with rice and naan.

Ema Datshi

250g chillies (variety according to taste. The original recipe called for jalapenos, I used rohelised tsilid from the supermarket)
1 1/2 cups of water
1 big onion, diced
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 big tomatoes, diced
5 cloves of garlic, finely diced
about 250g feta or some other white cheese (plus extra on the side)
Coriander

Wash and chop up the chillies. Deseed if desired. Put the chillies, onions, water, and oil in a pot. Bring to the boil and simmer uncovered for about 10 min. Add the tomatoes and garlic and simmer for 3 more min. Add the cheese, mix, and simmer for 3 min more. Take off the heat, add the coriander, let sit for a few minutes covered before serving. Serve with rice and naan, and something to take away the burning if needed (raitha, milk, yoghurt etc).

I have also discovered that, with a touch of ginger, and a can (400ml) of beans, the taste is multiplied severalfold. So instead of just having spice, you have taste too! 

Quick and easy dough for pizza

This is off Fired Up Cooking SA, a website with a whole bunch of quick meal options. Lots of the options are South African specialties, such as pap and wors, but most of the recipes use ingredients commonly available everywhere. This is a quick dough recipe for pizza bases - not quite authentic pizza dough, but does the trick and is rather tasty.

Dough for a pizza base

2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup oil
2/3 cup milk

Shove it all in a bowl, mix it up, put it on a baking sheet.

Put your topping of choice on, then shove in the oven at 180 Celsius for an hour to cook through.