Elin’s Gazpacho

Posted on 13 February 2013 by Linda Peek

In hot weather Gazpacho, a chilled soup which originated in Andalucia in southern Spain, makes a perfect lunch or starter. I’ve tried quite a few recipes, but one of the best versions was served for lunch by my Danish friend Elin, while we were living in Copenhagen. I remember thinking how delicious it was (better than my recipe!) and how snazzy the croutons looked cut into soldiers. Elin has given permission for me to share her recipe with my readers.

Gazpacho should be made when you have tomatoes in the garden or can buy local ones in the market. Supermarket tomatoes which have been refrigerated won’t taste the same.

This recipe has quite a few ingredients so it’s not a five minute job. But the effort is well worth it. If preferred leave out the chilli altogether.

4 large red capsicums (peppers)
2 chillies (preferably peperoncino)
1½ kg good quality vine-ripened tomatoes
10 semi-dried tomatoes
200ml extra virgin olive oil
2-4 cloves garlic, depending on size, crushed
4 Tbs vinegar (preferably sherry)
1 bunch fresh basil
1 Tbs lemon juice
2 small cucumbers
1 loaf day-old Italian bread
2-3 Tbs sugar (depends on sweetness of the tomatoes)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
To serve:
1 red capsicum (pepper)
1 small cucumber
Extra virgin olive oil
The rest of the bread made into croutons

Preheat oven to 200°C. Place a piece of foil on a baking tray and place capsicum and chillies on top (saves washing up). Bake until blackened, then cool, peel and remove seeds. If they are difficult to peel you haven’t cooked them long enough. The chillies being smaller will need to come out much earlier – they are a bit fiddly to peel so just removed stalk and seeds.

Meanwhile pour boiling water over the tomatoes in two bowls, leave for 2 minutes then tip away water, peel and remove hard cores.

In a blender puree the capsicum, tomatoes, dried tomatoes, peeled cucumbers, chilli, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, basil leaves, 3-4 slices of bread with crusts removed and oil. You will have to do this in 2 or 3 batches. Taste and add sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Chill several hours or preferably overnight.

To serve: If soup is a bit too thick add a little iced water then pour into a soup tureen or ladle into individual bowls. Add some ice cubes (optional) and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Serve with the following side dishes so people can help themselves – peeled and diced cucumber, with some skin left on (to add some dark green colour) and diced capsicum. Make croutons from the rest of the loaf of bread – cut bread into “soldiers”, spray or brush with olive oil and bake until golden. For those who like spicier food you can serve some extra chopped chillies, but it was hot enough for my liking – probably because I used birds eye chillies rather than peperoncino which are much milder!

Serves 12

Note: sun-dried tomatoes as opposed to semi-dried tomatoes tend to be rather dark in colour which will result in a brownish gazpacho. So best to use semi-dried or leave them out altogether.

Italian Mince Pies with Panna Cotta & Berry Compote

Posted on 11 February 2013 by Linda Peek

When I’m looking for inspiration I browse through old cook books. I have quite a few, including some by Robert Carrier.

Born in the USA in 1923, Carrier’s success came in England, where he worked for most of his life as a chef, restaurateur and food writer. The Jamie Oliver of the 70s and 80s, Carrier tried to persuade the British public there was more to life than meat and three veg. He retired to France where he died in 2006.

Carrier said he acquired the recipe for Mezzorgiorno (which I have shortened to “Italian”) Mince Pies served with Panna Cotta and Berry Compote from The Don Camillo restaurant in Provence. It may seem like a complicated recipe, but most of the work is done by the food processor and you can spread it over three days. Make the pastry and filling for the pies on day one. Next day make the panna cottas, the compote and the pies. Refrigerate them covered, but uncooked. On the third day brush with egg and bake an hour or so before serving.

The pastry is not easy to roll out and you may find yourself using quite a bit of flour to stop it from sticking, especially on a hot day. Unfortunately too much flour makes pastry tough, so if you’re having difficulty try rolling it out between two sheets of baking paper. You could always substitute home-made or bought shortcrust or puff pastry.

Mr Carrier said to cut the pastry into 8cm squares, but I found this made the pies too big – 6 to 7cm is a better size. The original filling included brown sugar in addition to the honey, but the mixture is sweet enough with all that dried fruit and chocolate, so I left it out.

Panna cotta – which means cooked cream – is delicious served with just the compote. And the pies are nice served on their own as a change to traditional mince pies at Christmas. But all put together they make an unusual dessert.

Italian Mince Pies

Pastry:
½ cup caster sugar
150g unsalted butter at room temp
1 Tbs cinnamon
grated rind (zest) 1 lemon
3 eggs
2¾ cups (350g) plain flour
Filling:
125g good quality dark chocolate
150g dates, pitted
250g dried figs, stems removed (or substitute raisins)
3 Tbs honey
3 Tbs Marsala or port
100g pine nuts, toasted
Grated rind (zest) 1 lemon or orange
½ cup dried sour cherries (I substituted cranberries)
1 egg, beaten
Icing sugar for dusting

Pastry: Place sugar, butter, cinnamon and lemon rind in food processor and process until creamed. Add eggs and when mixed add flour. Process until dough comes together in a ball. Tip out, form into a flat disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or up to 3 days. Can be frozen for several weeks.

Filling: Break chocolate into squares, then pulse in food processor until coarsely chopped. Tip into a bowl. Place dates, figs, honey and Marsala or port in food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add to the bowl with remaining ingredients except egg and icing sugar and mix well. Store in a covered container in the fridge. Keeps several weeks.

Assembly: Preheat oven to 170°C. Roll pastry thinly on floured surface and cut into 6 or 7cm squares. You should have enough to make 35-40, but it’s best to make only as many as you can eat on the same day. Also it’s easier to work with about a quarter of the dough at a time. Place one rounded teaspoon of filling on one side of each square, brush 2 sides with egg and fold over to form a triangle enclosing the filling, pinching well to seal.

Place pies in the cups of lightly oiled muffin trays, which is what gives them their interesting curved shape. If you don’t have muffin trays use flat baking trays. Brush with egg and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Don’t overcook or they will be dry. Dust with icing sugar and serve warm.

Pies are best eaten the day they are made, still warm from the oven, so it’s best to make just the right amount and store leftover pastry and filling for another time. While leftover cooked pies can be reheated next day, they are not as nice as on day one.

Vanilla Pana Cottas

4 Tbs water
3 tsp powdered gelatine
750ml cream
250ml milk
4-5 Tbs caster sugar, to taste
Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla essence

Place water in a small bowl, sprinkle gelatine on top then zap in microwave to dissolve. Heat cream, milk, vanilla and sugar in a saucepan to boiling point, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add gelatine, mix well, cool a bit then divide among 10 half cup moulds. Refrigerate, covered, overnight. To serve, tip briefly in hot water, run a thin knife around the edge and tip out. Serve with Berry Compote and one or two Italian Mince Pies.

Serves 10

Berry Compote

750g – 1 kg fresh or frozen berries (one or more of the following: raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, stoned cherries)
1 Tbs lemon juice
¼ cup cherry brandy, Kirsch or other liqueur (optional)
¼ cup sugar, or to taste

Slice or halve strawberries. Place all ingredients in a bowl and allow to macerate for several hours or overnight, stirring from time to time.

Serves 10

Spinach Salad with Red Dressing

Posted on 9 February 2013 by Linda Peek

When we were living in Pretoria, South Africa, in the late 1980s someone brought a delicious spinach salad to a pot luck BBQ we were hosting. I made a mental note of the ingredients in the salad, but it took me a while to get the sweet and sour red dressing right.

This salad is very popular as part of a buffet or to accompany a BBQ. The ingredients are unusual and the contrast of the spinach and eggs with the red dressing looks good. I used to call it Sweet and Sour Dressing, but as everyone in the family called it Red Dressing, I decided to go with the flow. Serve in a large shallow bowl, so there is only one layer of each ingredient, then spoon the dressing over at the last minute and serve without mixing.

The bowl in the photo is hand made and was bought at the craft market at Los Dominicos in Santiago, Chile. We lived in Santiago for 4 wonderful years and every time I return I end up bringing back a salad bowl for someone who has admired mine and asked for the spinach salad recipe. It’s a perfect size and shape for this salad.

2-3 packets baby spinach leaves or use half spinach and half lettuce leaves
1-2 cups bean sprouts
4-6 hard boiled eggs
4-6 rashers bacon, diced
1 can water chestnuts
Red Dressing (see below)

Wash and dry spinach and remove stalks. Wash and dry bean sprouts and sprinkle over. Drain and slice water chestnuts and sprinkle over. Cut eggs into halves or quarters, lengthwise and arrange over the salad. Can prepare ahead to this stage. Just before serving fry the bacon in a pan without oil until crisp, dry on paper towels and sprinkle over the salad. Vegetarians can leave out the bacon. Just before serving spoon over some Red Dressing.

Serves 8-10 or more as part of a buffet

Red Dressing

¼ cup sugar
a pinch of salt
1 small onion or ½ medium
½ cup cider or white wine vinegar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
½ cup tomato ketchup

Process all ingredients in food processor until smooth. Keep in the fridge in a jar with a lid. Shake well before using. Goes well with any salad but especially with Spinach Salad.

Ricotta Hot Cakes with Honeycomb Butter

Posted on 7 February 2013 by Linda Peek

Bill Granger owns three busy cafes in Sydney where he has made his name serving fantastic breakfasts and brunches. We went to the one in Surrey Hills on Sunday a couple of weeks back. You can’t book and by the time we arrived it was nearly 10.30 so there was quite a queue. We were told the wait would be 20-30 minutes, which unfortunately ended up being fifty.

Fortunately the meal was worth waiting for. I chose the Gravlax which was good, but not as good as the Ricotta Hot Cakes with Honeycomb Butter, ordered by one of our party, who generously gave me a taste. I’m sure you know the feeling when you realise you should have ordered what someone else is having!

Bill’s recipe was easy to find online. It says it serves 6 to 8, but it’s not something I would make if I had to serve that many people for breakfast. Let them eat toast! I halved the recipe which made a filling breakfast for two. By making the hot cakes a bit smaller, or serving two per person instead of three, we could have served a third person.

The Honeycomb Butter is delicious, but if you want to serve the hot cakes for breakfast you need to make it the day before as it needs to chill for a couple of hours. If you don’t have time for that just spoon it into a small bowl and serve it in dollops. Or forget about the Honeycomb Butter and just drizzle them with honey. At Bill’s they serve maple syrup on the side, for those who want to add more sweetness, but I don’t think you need it.

To serve the hot cakes as a dessert, make them half the size so you end up with 12 little cakes which will serve 4. They would also be delicious with stewed rhubarb or indeed any fruit – cooked or fresh – that you have available.

¾ cup ricotta cheese
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs, separated
½ cup plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
pinch salt
butter for frying
fresh strawberries, halved or sliced banana
icing sugar for dusting
Honeycomb Butter:
125g unsalted butter at room temperature
50g Honeycomb or a Crunchie Bar
1 Tbs honey

Remove chocolate from Crunchie bar with a sharp knife and discard (or eat!). Place all ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth. Shape into a log on plastic wrap, roll up, seal and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Mix ricotta, milk and egg yolks in bowl. Add sifted flour, baking powder and salt. Whip egg whites in another bowl until stiff peaks. With a metal spoon, fold thoroughly into batter in two batches. Lightly grease a large non-stick frying pan with butter. Make three hotcakes using about 2 heaped tablespoons of batter for each. Cook over medium-high heat for 2 minutes or until golden on the underside. Turn and cook on the other side. Transfer to a warm plate while you make three more, adding a little more butter to the pan.

Serve hotcakes with halved strawberries or thickly sliced banana and a slice of honeycomb butter. If you don’t have time to make the Honeycomb butter just serve drizzled with honey instead. Dust with icing sugar.

Makes 6 large hot cakes which serves 2-3

Note: if you can’t find ricotta you could use cottage cheese, whizzed in the food processor to remove lumps. South American readers could use queso fresco.

Chinese Chicken Salad

Posted on 5 February 2013 by Linda Peek

While living in Chile in the 90s we had a couple of holidays in the United States. When lunching in one of those huge shopping malls with umpteen different takeaway foods to choose from, I invariably head for the salad bar.

At one of these I found a selection of salads created by Wolfgang Puck, a well-known restaurateur and cookbook writer, originally from Austria but now well-established in the USA. His Chinese Chicken Salad was delicious, so I dissected it and wrote down the ingredients. I’m a bit of a pain when travelling, always whipping out a notebook to write down food ideas! I had to guess what was in the dressing, adjusting the quantities each time I made it, until I got it right.

The internet didn’t exist back then so before writing this post I read through some of the many versions of this salad which appear online – including one on Mr Puck’s very own site. There are lots of variations!

I’ve been making my version for over 20 years and it’s delicious, so what was in the original recipe has become somewhat irrelevant. A great salad for a summer evening and if you’re in a hurry buy a cooked chicken and you’re halfway there. Go easy on the dressing for small kids as it packs quite a punch. Mr Puck uses crispy fried wonton wrappers to crumble over the salad, but corn chips or crunchy noodles – a ready-to-eat Asian snack available in Australian supermarkets – work well and are easier.

Meat from 1 whole roast chicken, cut into strips
4-5 cups finely shredded white cabbage
2 cups finely shredded red cabbage
3 carrots, cut into fine julienne
4 spring onions, finely sliced
1 cup celery, very finely sliced
A handful toasted cashew nuts, sliced (optional)
Honey Mustard Dressing (see below)
2 cups corn chips, crumbled by hand
Or ready to eat crunchy Asian noodles
chopped coriander, parsley or chives

Keep a few nice pieces of chicken breast to garnish, then mix the rest with remaining salad ingredients (except corn chips) and enough dressing to moisten. Place in one large or individual serving dishes, top with reserved chicken pieces, drizzle with a little more dressing and sprinkle corn chips or crunchy noodles over the top. A few chopped herbs, just to add a bit of green colour and it’s ready. You will have dressing left over.

Serves 4-6

Variations and Additions: add some thinly sliced snow peas (mangetout), red capsicum or beansprouts

Honey Mustard Dressing

4 Tbs Dijon Mustard
1Tbs hot English mustard
2 Tbs sweet chilli sauce
2 Tbs honey
1 cup oil
¼ cup cider vinegar
1-2 Tbs lemon or lime juice, to taste
1 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs grated fresh ginger

Place all the ingredients in a jar and shake vigorously to emulsify.

Rio Palace Waffles

Posted on 2 February 2013 by Linda Peek

Many moons ago when we were holidaying in Brazil our kids decided that the Rio Palace Hotel in Rio de Janeiro made the best waffles. I asked the chef for the recipe and somehow managed to write it down. Communication was hampered by the fact that he only spoke Portuguese and while I do speak Spanish, it’s similar but not quite the same!

His recipe started off with a dozen eggs and would have made enough waffles to feed an army, so I divided it by six. It wasn’t long before the kids had weekend waffle making down to a fine art, doubling the recipe if they had friends staying … and sometimes even when they didn’t. I was always amazed at how many they could demolish.

They’re great for breakfast with honey or maple syrup. For dessert try them with quartered strawberries sweetened with a little sugar and a dash of white balsamic vinegar, caramel sauce and whipped cream, as shown in the photo. The kids never bothered, but if you have time separate the eggs and fold in the lightly whipped whites at the end, by hand, which makes the waffles even lighter. You can use milk instead of cream and water, but the results are crunchier with cream.

2 tablespoons melted butter
2 eggs
200g or 1¾ cups plain flour, sifted
½ cup cream
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar or honey
½ to ¾ cup water

Using electric beaters or a food processor mix all the ingredients for the waffles, adding enough water to make a thick batter. Preheat an electric waffle iron, butter it and cook the waffles according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Serves 8 for dessert (3 pieces each) or 2 hungry kids for breakfast

Salmon with Cucumber & Asian Dressing

Posted on 31 January 2013 by Linda Peek

Salmon is a delicious protein with minimum waste. We eat it quite often so I always have some in the freezer.

One of my favourite ways to cook salmon is to lightly spray a piece of foil, place it on a baking tray and place the salmon fillets on top. For two portions each weighing 180-200g, mix 2-4 teaspoons each of grated ginger and Thai sweet chilli sauce and spread it over the fish. I use 4 teaspoons, which is equivalent to a tablespoon, because we love ginger! Place in a hot oven at 200°C for 7-8 minutes, if you like your salmon medium-rare. Serve with a salad or green vegetable for a quick, delicious and healthy weekday dinner.

Adapted from one of chef Luke Mangan’s recipes, this Salmon and Cucumber with Asian Dressing takes a little longer to prepare, but it’s not complicated. If you halve the recipe use a very small omelette pan to poach the fish.

4 x 180g-200g salmon fillets
3 or 4 Lebanese cucumbers, depending on size
Poaching liquid:
1 cup white wine
1 small onion, sliced
1 bay leaf
a few peppercorns
enough water so liquid just covers salmon
Dressing:
1 lemon grass stem – core removed and thinly sliced
¼ cup olive oil
2 Tbs rice vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbs finely grated ginger
3 tsp soy sauce (or more, to taste)
2 Tbs Thai sweet chilli sauce
Herb salad:
¼ cup each Vietnamese or ordinary mint, Thai or ordinary basil and coriander
To garnish:
¼ cup fried Asian shallots (from Asian shops)

Place poaching ingredients in a small shallow frying pan. Simmer for 5-10 minutes then add salmon, cover and switch off the heat. Leave to cool.

Meanwhile make dressing by placing ingredients in a jar with a lid and shaking well. Peel cucumbers, then slice lengthwise with a wide vegetable peeler, going round and round removing the flesh in ribbons and discarding the middle when you get to the seeds. Place cucumber in a bowl and mix with some of the dressing.

When salmon is cool enough to handle, remove from poaching liquid and break into large flakes, discarding skin, bones and the poaching liquid. Wash and dry herbs for salad – just the leaves. Recipe can be prepared ahead to this stage. Keep the individual components covered in the fridge till serving time.

To serve: divide cucumber salad between four plates, forming into a round nest in the middle. Place salmon on top and spoon over some dressing. Mix herb salad with some of the dressing and arrange some on top of the salmon. Garnish with the shallots.

Serves 4

Sago Plum Pudding

Posted on 29 January 2013 by Linda Peek

Sago Plum Pudding, an old-fashioned dessert made from simple ingredients, is one of my all-time favourites. I think its origins must be Antipodean as I never came across it when I was growing up in England. Some in our family see it as an excuse to eat Brandy Butter when it’s not Christmas. I’ve never been a big fan of Brandy Butter and prefer it with thick, unsweetened cream.

I like to make individual half cup puddings rather than one large one. They keep in the fridge for several days and are quicker to cook than steaming one large pudding. I love being able to whip one out of the fridge, zap it in the microwave and demolish it whenever the mood takes me, which is quite often when I know they are there! This recipe came from my mother-in-law.

¾ cup sago
2 cups milk
180g butter
½ cup sugar
2 cups sultanas or mixed dried fruit
2 cups breadcrumbs (made in food processor from day old bread)
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
2 tsp mixed spice
To serve:
Brandy Butter, thick cream or custard

Soak sago in milk overnight. Place butter in a mixing bowl and zap in the microwave to melt. Mix in remaining ingredients then scrape into a one litre pudding bowl, lightly buttered. Cover with a piece of buttered foil, buttered side down and place in a large saucepan on something to lift the bowl slightly. A metal trivet, old saucer or a small brick will do. Add boiling water to come halfway up bowl. Cover with the saucepan lid, bring to the boil and steam steadily for 3-3½ hours, adding more water as necessary. The top of the pudding will have an even dark brown colour when ready – lift foil from time to time to check. Stand for 5 minutes then turn out, cut into slices and serve with thick cream, Brandy Butter or custard.

Serves 8-10

Note: make individual puddings in 8-10 half cup ramekins, dariole moulds or Chinese teacups, lightly buttered, as shown in the second photo. Fill almost to the top as they don’t rise much. Place in a shallow ovenproof dish and add boiling water to come halfway up the cups. Cover the whole dish with a sheet of foil, buttered side down. Bake at 160°C for an hour to an hour and a half, or until evenly rich brown on top. Tip out and serve immediately or store covered in the fridge and reheat for about a minute in the microwave, covered in plastic wrap, then tip out.

Tri-Colour Coleslaw

Posted on 27 January 2013 by Linda Peek

At our rural property we had a good crop of cabbages until the earwigs found them. Matthew went up there for a couple of days earlier this week to water the new trees and brought a cabbage back with him. As I started to remove some of the outer chewed leaves out jumped a million earwigs! They were everywhere and it was easy to see what they had been eating. I had to throw away about about half the cabbage before I got down to virgin territory.

I’ve been reading up on the internet about tried and tested earwig traps and saving empty containers with lids. Vegetable oil with the addition of something attractive to earwigs, such as a dollop of peanut butter or the oil/juice from a can of tuna, is said to do the trick – it lures them in and they drown. We’re going to the property the weekend after next and those b***** earwigs had better watch out!

Coleslaw when I was growing up was pretty standard – cabbage, carrot and bought mayonnaise – or Heinz salad cream – sometimes with a tin of crushed pineapple thrown in for good measure. This is a more modern version.

About 4 cups shredded white cabbage
About 4 cups shredded red cabbage
About 1 cup thinly sliced celery
About 1 cup coarsely grated or julienned carrot
About ½ cup thinly sliced green (spring) onions
1 cup dried cranberries (or other dried fruit)
Dressing:
1 cup mayonnaise, preferably home-made
½ cup thick Greek yoghurt or sour cream
½ cup French dressing (see below)

Prepare salad ingredients and place in a large bowl. Place dressing ingredients in a jar with a lid and shake vigorously to emulsify. Add enough dressing to the salad to moisten to your liking – you may not want to use it all. Taste and add more salt if you think it needs it.

Serves 6-8

French Dressing
1 cup oil (sunflower, canola)
¼ cup cider or white wine vinegar
1 Tbs Dijon mustard
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 Tbs honey (optional)
1-2 cloves garlic peeled and halved

Place all ingredients in a jam jar with a lid and shake vigorously to emulsify. Keeps in the fridge for up to a month. I usually make double or triple in a very large jar so it’s always on hand when I need it. If you like a sweet dressing add the honey. Otherwise just add about half a tsp of sugar.

Quick Fish Curry

Posted on 25 January 2013 by Linda Peek

I love a good curry, even in the middle of summer. You can’t eat salads all the time, even in a heatwave. Anyway they were invented in a hot climate, the theory being that by making you perspire you cool off.

We eat a lot of ginger in our house so I buy at least half a kilo at a time. I try to choose fat evenly shaped tubers because they’re easier to peel, although I have to confess that if I can find someone ensconced in front of the TV watching cricket or rugby, I get him to do the peeling. My wonderful unpaid sous chef! Once peeled, process the ginger in a food processor until very finely chopped, then freeze in ice cube trays. They hold about a tablespoon and that’s how much I use in most recipes – stir fries, curries etc – even if the recipe says to use less! If you don’t like so much ginger, fill them only half full. Once frozen tip into a plastic container and keep in the freezer to use as needed. Zap very briefly (20-30 secs) in the microwave to thaw, or throw them straight into a stir fry as they are.

Buying ginger as you need it usually means throwing away what’s left over – when you eventually find it at the bottom of the fridge or all dried up in the vegetable basket! So I find it very convenient to always have it on hand – peeled, chopped and ready to go. I also have a jam jar of small whole red chillies in the freezer and another containing chopped lemongrass. We grow it and it’s all ready at the same time, so I have to freeze it, but you could buy some and freeze it. Using frozen ginger, chillies and lemongrass is probably not quite the same as using fresh, but once cooked you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference. In case you’re worried, jam jars won’t break in the freezer.

If you want to try growing your own ginger here are some tips.

Ginger is very good for you and I always thought you couldn’t eat too much. However, according to Wikipedia “an acute overdose of ginger is usually in excess of about 2 grams of ginger per kilogram of body mass, dependent on level of ginger tolerance, and can result in a state of central nervous system over-stimulation called ginger intoxication or colloquially the ginger jitters”. Maybe that’s my problem.

3 cloves garlic
1 small onion, peeled
1 Tbs grated or very finely chopped ginger
2 stalks lemon grass
½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp paprika
1 Tbs palm sugar or brown sugar
2 Tbs fish sauce
1 small red chilli, seeds removed (or less if you don’t want it too hot)
1 400g can coconut milk
4 kaffir lime leaves (see note below)
About 500g firm white fish cut into 2-3 cm chunks
Juice ½ lemon or 1 lime
Chopped fresh coriander and steamed rice to serve

Place garlic, onion, ginger, lemon grass, turmeric, paprika, sugar, fish sauce, chilli and coconut milk in food processor. Process till smooth then tip into a heavy based frying pan. Add kaffir lime leaves, crushed with your hand. Bring to the boil then simmer for about 10 minutes or until thickened. Add fish and cook gently for 4-5 minutes or until cooked. Add lemon juice and check for salt – you probably won’t need any as the fish sauce is salty. Tip into serving bowl and top with coriander. Serve with steamed rice and an Indian pickle or chutney.

Serves 3-4

Note: in Australia kaffir lime leaves are sold in most supermarkets, but if you can’t find them just leave them out. If you can buy them you usually have to buy quite a few, so freeze the surplus. If you can’t find lemongrass add some lemon rind removed with a vegetable peeler and very finely chopped. Not the same, but quite a nice addition.