Dish 13: Indian Lamb Curry

The dish

Another curry! To be honest, I was looking forward to preparing this dish. Like its Mid-Week buddy, this dish takes at least an hour and a half before it's done, so I wouldn't prepare it as a last minute thing. If you have the time for it, though, do it. Now.

For me the hardest part about this dish were the ingredients. It requires ingredients such as allspice berries and cardamom pods. Over the past 12 dishes I have expanded my kitchen cabinet's spices section threefold, but these items were not there, nor were they to be found at the larger supermarkets. Next time I might go on a scavenger hunt for them, but this time I chose to use instructions on how to replace the particular flavours of these items with the spices that I did already have available to me.

The preparation

You chop up some of the ingredients, such as the lamb. Andy's recipe requires lamb shoulder, but our local butcher only had leg of lamb, so it had to do. 

And it did. I cubed it, seasoned it and browned it. Important to keep in mind is that you need to use a pan that has a lid! You don't need it just yet, but you will regret it if you use a pan without a lid.

After transferring the browned meat back into its bowl, you need to use the same pan to heat some of the spices, such as cloves and bay leaves, until they are fragrant.

You also use some of the other chopped ingredients, and put them in with your fragrant spices.

You add your tomato paste to this mixture once the onion is soft, and then also add the lamb and the stock. At this point you will need your lid, because this needs to simmer for one full hour.

I put all of this stuff in a nice deep pan for which I didn't have a lid. Instead I used a bigger lid that did cover the pan. Unfortunately most of the steam did manage to escape by dripping down to the edge of lid and seeping down.

This meant that after about 45 minutes, I had nearly burned my lamb. It started smelling overly fragrant (which I never trust), and when I checked on it, the lamb was about to blacken. Not even thinking twice I chucked in extra stock, and hoped for the best. 

Luckily, when I added my potatoes and coconut cream a little later, things seemed to be alright. I tasted it. No trace of a burnt flavour. I was a happy camper. At this point you will also have to put the (in my case absolutely useless) lid to the side.

Since you have added your potatoes by now, these are the ones that need to be cooked through, so if you are not sure that the 20 minutes the recipe requires are enough, just grab a fork and test the potatoes. If it's been 20 minutes and your potatoes are soft, you are ready to eat.

Don't forget to prepare your basmati rice in time! Top it all off with fresh coriander, and you're ready to dine. Don't forget to filter out the cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon stick!

The result

I love curries, so I was really glad that my lamb didn't burn or leave a burnt flavour.

This curry was absolutely delicious, although I probably do prefer the Mid-Week Beef Curry (p. 50) just slightly over this one, as that one packs a bit more of a punch in terms of flavour. However, if you're a big fan of lamb, this dish brings those particular lamb flavours to a new level. it had been a while since I had eaten lamb that I have enjoyed this much. True story.

Next time

Well, as I'm writing this it's Wednesday night, the 2nd of April, and it's my birthday. This means that this coming weekend, I will be celebrating with friends and family, and have not yet considered anything to make yet.

So, I will let it be a surprise or a last minute thing.

Also, I will vow not to leave the updates of this blog hanging. I will try to put up a new post every Monday night (since I usually cook things on Sunday). 

If you do not believe me, or know yourself to forget this, and you really want to know what else is in Andy Allen's cookbook, feel free to fill out your e-mail address and get notifications whenever I've updated! 

See you at our next elemental meal!

P.S. Don't forget to pay a visit to Judy's Books and Bakery!

P.P.S. Interested in purchasing Andy's cookbook? You can order it here.

Dish 12: Popcorn Chicken with Lime Mayo

The dish

If you are a normal human being, you probably sometimes have those "I need to have some fried right now" cravings.

This dish, Popcorn Chicken with Lime Mayo (p. 106) is the perfect solution to that. Want to eat chicken fillet but are sick of preparing it the same way you always do? Fry it, Andy says. And whenever Andy says something, we listen. (Except when he says, "gracias señoritas".)

The preparation

As you may have understood from its name, this dish has two components. One the one hand, we have our fried chicken, and on the other hand the lime mayo.

Let's start with the mayo, as once you've prepared this, you've got your hands free to get down and dirty with the chicken.

There. That's that done. Andy wants you to use Kewpie Mayo, but I don't think they sell that in the Netherlands, so I just used your ordinary every day mayonnaise. Add some lime juice and lime zest (see? told you he likes citrus) and mix it all together. Put it in the fridge while you work on the chicken, and send your best friend out to get some fries from the local cafeteria (the irony is not lost on me).

Fact is, I don't own a deep fryer and unless I inherit one or get one as a gift, I don't think I ever will own one. Frying stuff makes your house stink. Maybe if at some point I have a garage or barn or some kind of creepy filled-to-the-brim-with-spiders shed I will fry stuff there.

For now, I will suffer through the recipes that require deep frying, and once the weather allows, I will open up all windows when doing so.

But anyway, you get your chicken and you chop it into the most evenly sized cubes you can master.

I know. I'm kind of impressed, myself. 

Kiddink, kiddink.

But yes, you then get your conveyor belt style line-up ready:

1) a bowl with flour

2) a bowl with egg and milk

3) a bowl with breadcrumbs

Get this show on the road. After a while, you will end up with your chicken looking somewhat like this:

Brilliant! In the meantime you should have already got your sunflower oil going, so it's time to check the temperature. 

Get the oil up to 180 degrees Celsius and drop in some of your chicken pieces. I used a skimmer, because I wouldn't like getting hot oil splattered all over me. Naturally it depends on the size of the frying pan you use how many pieces you put in there together.

These little buggers brown up quickly, but don't pull them out until you've counted to 120 (or set a timer, what you will), because we don't want to give anyone salmonella. 

Don't they look delicious? It takes some time, and if you're on your own I'm not quite sure it's worth going through the trouble. On the other hand, if you want to satisfy your need for something fried, this isn't the worst thing you could do.

The result

Add two and two together, and you end up with a crunchy but tender bite of chicken, coated in fresh lime mayo. 

And my best friend's verdict? "De-li-cious."

I think that says it all.

Next time

Time to get back into the groove with a proper full fledged dinner dish: Indian Lamb Curry (p. 46). I would love for you to join me on this ride.

See you at our next elemental meal!

Dish 11: Mushroom Sauce

The dish

If you do not like mushrooms, you'd best stop reading now, because this dish is not for you. To quote You've Got Mail (and technically Shop Around The Corner): 

"Well, if you don't like Kathleen Kelly, I can tell you right now, you're not going to like this girl." "Why?" 

"Because it is Kathleen Kelly."

The preparation

One takes mushrooms. Several kinds of mushrooms.

You chop and tear them up, and then you get to do what I love: chuck them in a pan. Naturally you add about 10 other ingredients to this pan, including some stock and you add your other ingredients in the order that Andy tells you to. 

You end up with something that looks like this (or at least, I did!):

I know, it may not look as appetising as you may have expected, if you expected anything at all. But, the proof is in the pudding and not in the way it jiggles.

And naturally there is something that makes everything look better. Tasty garnish! Add some parsley and voilà, a tasty looking mushroom sauce.

Not too shabby, right?

The result

If you have not realised this already: Andy Allen loves his citrus. Almost every dish I have made up until now has had lime/lemon juice or zest through it. Sometimes I find that the acidity can dominate the other flavours a little, but in this sauce, it is amazing; the saltiness of the stock combined with those delicious mushrooms and the freshness of the parsley just fits perfectly alongside the sour lemon juice..

And if, like my best friend and I, you like your mushrooms next to a good piece of meat, you could try combining it as follows:

A good piece of steak, oven baked potatoes and green asparagus. Delicious.

Next time

I don't think I can avoid the fried food for much longer, so get ready to get your deep fryer out of the garage or from the attic (because surely you can't use it that often?). It's time for some Popcorn Chicken with Lime Mayo (p. 106).

See you at our next elemental meal!

Dish 10: Pork & Fennel Sausage Rolls

The dish

You may know by now that I'm not a huge pork fan. Still, not only have I sworn to myself to prepare every dish in this cookbook, I will always give stuff a second, third, or fourth chance. 

And so I chose to make Pork & Fennel Sausage Rolls (p. 120).

The preparation

To be honest, the prospect of having to make my own sausage rolls was kind of daunting. I had no idea if it was going to be hard or if I had to be very careful with amounts. 

In terms of preparation, this is becoming kind of a regular thing: you start by chopping things up, such as shallots!

And then you chop up some more things, including the fennel! For the record and in case you have never cooked with fennel before (comme moi), remove the heart of the fennel, like you would with witlof (chicory/endive).

Next step: mashing everything together with your pork mince. It seemed all fine and dandy up until this point. 

And then came the part that worried me: getting out your puff pastry and actually forming the sausage rolls.

Unlike the recipe in the book, the puff pastry I had were not slabs of 15 x 30cm. Instead I had to work with squares of 10 x 10cm.

I had calculated that I didn't need that many, but ended up adding more as the portions of the minced meat concoction were so plentiful that the 6 or 7 sheets I had laid out were hardly sufficient.

Still, I tried to stuff as much meat into the puff pastry as possible.

As you can see, the meat mix took up about one third of the puff pastry, so folding these little rascals and keeping them shut was quite an experience. Luckily my egg wash helped a lot, and I think the experience I have with using this kind puff pastry when making apple turnovers also gave me a boost of confidence.

Let me tell you: I won. And all these little pigs in blankets went straight into the oven with their fennel comrades.

 

The result

They turned out quite alright, although, perfectionist as I am, I'm not entirely pleased with the way they look, simply because they don't look the way they do in the book. But then, this is the first time ever I made them, and they are incredibly good-looking, aren't they?

As for taste... Well, let's just say they tasted of pork. But the addition of fennel was really great! I think I did make a mistake regarding seasoning, though, because I found that I really needed to sprinkle extra salt over it to give it some flavour. The moment I had figured that out, it was all good.

Mine were also twice as big as they are supposed to be if you follow the recipe precisely, but since I prepared them for dinner, I figured a slightly bigger version of the same thing couldn't do any harm. And it didn't, but they are quite heavy on the stomach. I would definitely suggest them as a party snack, though!

Next time

Next time I'm not going to prepare a full dish. Instead, I will focus on one of the extras in The Next Element, and that is a sauce! I know, it's absolutely thrilling. But just you wait, Henry Higgins!

See you at our next elemental meal!

Dish 9: Rosemary Baked Hand-Cut Chips

The dish

Alright, let me start off by saying that I have been dreadfully negligent with regards to this here blog. Sorry, blog!

However, that doesn't mean that I haven't kept to my promise of trying out every Andy Allen recipe; it just means that you know nothing about it! Muahaha! Nah, just kidding. It just means that I will have to write a lot, and I will do so today, because my lovely friend Judith basically forced me into it. She is going to share a link to this blog on her own incredibly pretty and professional blog. Yeah, so by the by, if you are looking for an awesome and stylish blog, head over to Judy's Books and Bakery.

On with the actual blog. As I noted in my previous update, I hardly had any time for proper cooking, let alone documenting all that I did. And no, I obviously did not end up making those scones (they live to love another day). Instead, it was Oscar night! And what do you eat during Oscar night?

That's right! Nothing, because all those skinny women in beautiful dresses intimidate the hell out of you. Except if you're me, and all that intimidation just leads to you eating your way through your cupboards.

Actually, none of that is true. Well, not really. I just figured that a snack such as this one would be perfect. Why buy crisps/chips if you could also make them yourself?

The preparation

As you would expect with a dish called Rosemary Baked Hand-Cut Chips (p. 70), it is pretty straightforward.

You get your potatoes, and you slice them. If you are fancy you use a mandoline. If not, and you're like me, you create your own (slight more wobbly) version.

Once you have sliced as many potatoes as you need, you put them in a bowl, and add some seasoning.

Don't forget the olive oil and mix it all together. 

Then comes the lazy part if you're someone else, and tedious "it will fit perfectly" part if you're me: you put all the slices onto your baking tray.

Add your rosemary and your garlic. Add a little more olive oil, add a little more seasoning, and chuck the tray into the oven.

Because the slices are so thin, it only takes a short while before they're done. However, did I mention that you need to flip them over halfway through? Yeah.

But, in the end you will end up with some lovely hand-cut chips!

The result

They say a picture is worth more than a thousand words. So here:

And I only have one more to add: Yum.

Next time

Due to the fact that I'm writing this update after I've already done four other dishes, I can tell you, without any form of surprise or change of plan, that the next dish is something I have never tried before: Pork & Fennel Sausage Rolls (p. 120).

Oh dear. Pork again. Read on to see how this Next Elemental meal was received.