I found this recipe in a magazine article on BBQ cookery so I attempted this on a grill pan. It was a disaster! The marinade is delicious but it just sticks to the grill pan. Next time, I’ll cook this under a grill.
Ingredients
- lamb cutlets, 8-12, well trimmed
- root ginger, 2 tsp, grated
- garlic, 3 cloves
- 1 red chilli
- fresh coriander
- 1/2 lemon
- natural yoghurt, 125g
- tomato purée, 1 tbsp
- garam masala, 1 tbsp
Potato Salad
- new potatoes, 500g
- natural yoghurt, 125g
- garlic, 1 clove, crushed
- extra-virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp
- mint, about 2 tbsp
Directions
- Bash the cutlets between cling-film until flattened and coat in the marinade for at least 1 hour or overnight.
- Boil potatoes until tender, then cool under running cold water. Mix yoghurt, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and mint in a large bowl. Slice potatoes and add to yoghurt dressing.
- Cook the lamb cutlets under a grill for 3 minutes on each side so that they are pink in the middle but blackened around the edges.
Serves 4.
Right, I’m sure the purists say you can’t add chorizo to a Spanish tortilla, but are you seriously trying to tell me that no-one in Spain has ever tried doing this? In any case, it tastes great. Not healthy, but very tasty. I’ve included amounts in this recipe but they’re not really important; use as much spud, chorizo, onion & garlic as you like.
Ingredients
- eggs, 5 (organic or free-range, naturally …)
- milk, splash of
- potatoes, a handful of waxy baby/salad potatoes will work best
- onions, 2 chopped
- garlic, 2 cloves, crushed
- chorizo, about 150g
- olive oil
Method
- Cook potatoes in salted boiling water and fresh under cold water.
- Heat olive oil in a frying-pan, fry chorizo until it starts to release it’s red oil.
- Add onions and garlic, turn heat down, and fry until onions are soft and caramelised.
- Preheat a grill.
- Slice potatoes and add to pan so that potato becomes red with oil from chorizo.
- Season mixture with salt and pepper.
- Beat eggs well, add a splash of milk and season well with salt and pepper.
- Add tortilla mixture to pan and cook slowly.
- Finish off the top of the tortilla under the grill.
- Turn out tortilla onto a wooden board, slice into wedges and serve.
Serves 2.
Read an interesting article in the Indo today about a fruit called ’synsepalum dulcificum’. The red berry, native to West Africa, allegedly contains a compound that alters tastes in your mouth by blocking out the ability to register ’sour’ tastes. Examples given are:
Once the pulp is swilled around the mouth and the large stone spat out, lemons suddenly taste like sugary lemonade, vinegar takes on a peculiar treacly tang and Irish stout tastes frighteningly similar to chocolate milkshake.
You can read the full article here. (registration required)
As we’re spending a good few days in Saigon next December, I thought I’d research some Vietnamese dishes. I don’t want us to end up eating KFC for a week! The excellent Thorn Tree forum on Lonely Planet recommended noodlepie.com, a Vietnamese food blog written by a witty chap called Graham Holliday.
The author takes a classic Vietnamese dish such as pho, a noodle broth, and reviews a wide range of restaurants, markets and shacks serving it; from Saigon to Hanoi. If you’re into Asian food, check it out.
The French colonial influence can be found all over Vietnam it seems, and not just in the architecture. Take the Vietnamese version of our breakfast roll, a banh mi: French bread filled with pate, cucumber, chillies, coriander, shredded pork and sprinkled with nuoc mam, the Vietnamese fish sauce. It’s got to be tasty stuff.
