Tonight it's a variation on a theme previously written about here http://blokeinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2009/10/bloke-pasta-with-chorizo.html - this time with mushrooms, chilli, garlic, olive oil, some leftover manchego and Serrano ham and a handful of chopped parsley. All ready before kick-off.
I'm keeping an eye out for the Blue Boys tonight with Bainesy and Jags wearing the three lions. COYB!
Laters.
For me, yesterday was no exception and my roast beef yielded not only a batch of broccoli stalks which are great for broccoli soup (diced and frozen until needed) but a nice chunk of beef just crying out to be turned into a cheeky curry.
This recipe works just as well with lamb and if I'm going to take the time (4 hours or so) to cook lamb shanks, I always do one more than I need, just for a Monday night curry.
Anyway, back to the recipe.
Soften one thinly sliced onion in a little vegetable oil along with a couple of cloves of crushed garlic, four cardamoms and cloves, salt, pepper and a teaspoon each of cumin, ground coriander, turmeric and crushed chilli flakes.
While that's all softening, cut the beef into bite-sized chunks.
Add the beef to the pan and give it a good stir to coat the meat with the spice mixture. Leave that to cook for a few minutes while you get a pint of hot chicken stock ready (if I don't have any fresh or frozen stock I use Knorr Touch of Taste concentrate).
Add the stock to the pan along with a carton of passata and stir well.
Bring it to the boil then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for at least 2 hours.
Serve it up with some pilau rice. I thought I'd previously covered pilau rice on another post but a quick trawl through the Bloke archives confirms otherwise.
Ok, bring a large pan of water to the boil and add a good pinch of salt, pepper, saffron, turmeric and onion seeds (these are the little black seeds you see in naan bread and they're available from supermarkets).
When it's boiling, add a mug of rice (I always use basmati but that's just my preference), stir well and boil for around 10 minutes.
I tend to regard cooking times on rice packets with a degree of scepticism. I've seen some instructions say 15 minutes or more. If you want wallpaper paste then go right ahead. But I digress. Try a bit of rice after about 9 minutes and make your own mind up.
When the rice is cooked, drain into a colander, put the colander back over the pan (not over heat) and cover it with foil. Leave it for around 10 minutes. This will leave the rice nice and fluffy.
Serve the curry and rice with a few bottles of ice-cold beer or, as I did last night, a big, meaty Cabernet Sauvignon.
Enjoy!
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With friends Les & Jac round for tapas yesterday - a thank you for looking after Pooky whilst the Missus and I went off to Seville to celebrate my 40th birthday, shopping was a little more interesting than the usual trip to Tesco (other supermarkets are available).
For a touch of the authentic, I popped into Liverpool One to visit the excellent Lunya Deli. I left with two types of olives, one stuffed with orange and chilli, the other marinated in olive oil, paprika, chilli and oregano - both wonderful. I also bought some fantastic manchego cheese, jamón Iberico, morcilla with rice (which I pan-fried and served with a little rocket and topped with caramelised red onion) and some of those marvellous little breadstick like nibbles which were served with every beer in Seville.
I also served up some chicken wings seasoned with a little paprika, patas bravas with a great spicy tomato salsa, roasted asparagus wrapped in Serrano ham, roasted almonds and another wonder discovered in Seville - pringá.
Pringá, or certainly the version we had, is slow-cooked pork (I used shoulder steaks) cooked for hours with chicken stock, garlic and onions until the meat is falling apart and served with crusty bread. From what I've read, I think it's traditionally a way to use up leftover pork and is sometimes also made with morcilla or chorizo.
Needless to say, that was all washed down with a considerable amount of Spanish beer and a couple of nice bottles of white Rioja.
Which brings me to today and the growing part.
Today I finally got my seedlings in the ground. For a couple of months now I've been growing a batch of plants in propagators, waiting for them to get big enough to fend for themselves.
So, after getting rid of the weeds and giving one of the beds a good dig over, I've planted my broad beans, radishes, peas and Brussels sprouts. Hopefully the frosts have passed now and they'll be ok out there.
I still have some onions, grown from seed, and butternut squash indoors. They're not yet big enough to go out but I'm sure they will be in a few weeks.
Now I've got empty propagators now though and that'll never do. Courgettes, leeks and tomatoes are next to go in and I'll be sowing them later on today.
Anyway, today's roast (topside of beef with all the trimmings) won't cook itself so I'm off to sort that out.
I'll leave you with a photo (although I'm updating this via email so I don't know if it will work). I'll keep you updated on the progress of my crops and hopefully I'll soon have a bountiful haul of fresh produce to cook, eat and write about.
TTFN
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