Pickled Celery

The boy loves a cheese board – especially at Christmas. His favourite is a good Double Gloucester, and the more different kinds of crackers the better. We always have chutneys to have with cheese but I found this recipe in a book of pickles from the late 1980s. 

2 heads celery

600ml cider vinegar

1tbsp salt

25g ginger, chopped as finely as you can

4 blades mace

1 small red pepper, cut into thin strips

We have had a couple of organic box deliveries in a row that included celery, which is what inspired us to pickle them. Organic celery has such a mineral hit that you don’t find in supermarket versions. We’d happily have it in a salad but it’s cold and the thought of having it pickled with cheese for Christmas, is more appealing.

A compilation of 80s hits on the kitchen CD player will salute the age of the book – it will also put you in an incredibly good mood.

Look at your jars and cut the celery stalks so they will fit upright, easily.

Put the vinegar, salt, ginger and mace in a saucepan, and boil for 10 minutes. Add the celery and red pepper and boil for another 2 minutes.

Pack the celery into jars, upright, popping the odd strip of pepper amongst them. When the vinegar mix is cool, pour it into the jars and seal. If you can’t resist (and I can’t), add a small dried chilli to each jar.

They need at least 2 weeks to develop so they will be perfect by Christmas. The boy has no idea I have made them so I hope it will be a nice addition to his Christmas cheese board.

Superb X Chilli

I’m going to be manning a chilli stand at a charity Christmas Fair this year, so I’m subjecting the boy to a practice run. It’s from a book called Texas on the Half Shell, which I found at a car boot sale a few years ago. It includes a recipe for making chilli with Armadillo!

1.5kg minced beef

425g Passata or chopped tomatoes

350ml water

1tsp Tabasco

3tbsp chili powder

1tbsp dried oregano

1tsp ground cumin

6 garlic cloves, chopped

1tsp salt

1tsp paprika

4 dried New Mexico or California chillies

4 dried Chipotle chillies

4 dried Piquin chillies

1 can kidney beans

Firstly I have adjusted the amount of chillies from the original down a little bit - not too much – I want it hot but not off-putting for all my customers. I’ve also amended the quantities to metric so don’t worry if you can’t get ingredients in these exact proportions. Chilli is forgiving. Passata is a little thicker than American tomato sauce so add more water if you think it needs it. Finally I substituted some of the dried chillies with Chipotles to give the chilli a smoky flavour.

The boy is interested in the project but at this stage, not interested enough to help me. Start with browning the meat and then put it into a large pot along with the pasata and enough water to cover the meat by about a centimetre.

Add everything else except for the dried chillies and beans. Stir it al together. Once it’s combined add the dried chillies, being careful not to break them. People can choose whether to pick them out or eat them. The boy will certainly pick his out, but he won’t do it as he goes, he will spend ages inspecting the entire plate, turning things over with his fork until he is satisfied he has removed every trace.

Simmer for 1 ½ hours. Cool it down and let it rest for at least another hour. Skim off the grease.

Add the beans and get the heat back up. Make a thickener of 2tbsp cornflour and water and simmer it through for another 25 minutes.

We’re serving with rice – which to be fair, the boy did make –in the rice cooker. As well as some sour cream and Pico di Galo salsa on the side.

It is hot but not mind-blowingly so, and with all danger of coming across a whole chilli removed, the boy seems happy with his supper.

Rasa Cucumber Curry

We have a surfeit of cucumbers in the organic box, so I’m making a recipe from London’s Rasa chain of restaurants. We don’t tend to cook cucumbers that much, but this is really good.

1tbsp tamarind pulp

1/2tsp fenugreek seeds

4 dried red chillies

50g desiccated coconut

1tsp turmeric powder

4tbsp vegetable oil

1/2tsp mustard seeds

7 curry leaves

400g cucumbers, peeled and partly seeded

Understandably the boy is not sure about this at all. I was tempted to tell him this was actually an Asian vegetable he hadn’t had before but realised that this would do nothing for his confidence. This is London-Asian so a Bhangra CD goes on.

Steep the tamarind in 4tbsp hot water and break it up with a fork, as much as you can. After about 20 minutes sieve it to get a thick liquid. The sieve is a nightmare to wash up, but that’s just part of it.

Chop the cucumber into fairly small pieces. I think a little unevenness will give a better variety of textures at the end so allow for some really big and small pieces.

In a dry frying pan, toast the fenugreek seeds and dried chillies for a minute and then tip them in a blender with the tamarind pulp, coconut and turmeric to make a paste.

In the same frying pan, heat the oil and fry the mustard seeds until they pop. Add the paste and the curry leaves and get it nice and hot. Then add the cucumber. Turn the heat down low and cook for 5 minutes.

The good news is that the boy does actually like it and claims he probably wouldn’t have thought it was cucumber if I hadn’t told him.

Lebanese Lamb Meatball Soup

250g minced lamb

1 onion, grated

1 ½ tbsp. plain flour

1tsp 7 Spice seasoning

400g tinned chopped tomatoes

1 litre vegetable stock

1tbsp brown sugar

300g tinned sweetcorn

Salt & pepper

Small handful flatleaf parsley

It’s cold so a hearty soup is just the thing. The boy loves soup, he loves meatballs and he loves Lebanese food, so this should do the trick. Get him to make up the 7 Spice mix. It’s made up of the following: Allspice, Pepper, Cinnamon, Cloves, Nutmeg, Fenugreek, Ginger. I’m letting him experiment with the exact proportions, though there should be a little more allspice than anything else (and a little less pepper and cinnamon).

Mix the lamb, onion and flour together in a bowl and add the boy’s 7 spice seasoning and salt and pepper. Amazingly the boy wants to help – probably only because he’s hungry and wants it to be ready faster. Roll about 2tbsp of the lamb into a ball and let him make the rest, about the same size.

While he’s doing this, pour the stock into a large pan, along with the tomatoes. We’re using Knorr stockpots and Cirio tomatoes, though you could use any brand. Marigold vegetable bouillon is great and chopped tomatoes are often better than whole ones. Stir in the sugar.

Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 mins. Stroke the boy’s hair – he’s done a great job with the little meatballs. He’s off duty while you finish this off.

Add the meatballs and simmer for another 15-20 mins – just make sure the meat is cooked through. Drain and rinse the sweetcorn and add it to the soup, warming through for another couple of minutes.

Let the boy taste and adjust the seasoning while you roughly chop the parsley for garnish. Sprinkle over.

We’re having ours with lightly toasted Lebanese bread with grassy green olive oil to dip it into from time to time. I hate cold weather but Lebanese meatball soup and snuggling with the boy on the sofa makes it endurable.

Fiery Los Angeles Prawn Cocktail

This is a very different prawn cocktail. It’s easy to dismiss the traditional version but at the same time, it is good. The boy has been expecting a 1970s pastiche so he should be pleasantly surprised.

400g raw king prawns

250ml passata

Juice & zest of a lemon

Olive oil

Sea salt & black pepper

Juice of 3 limes, zest of one of them

2 green chillies, sliced

2 spring onions. Sliced

A handful chopped coriander

1tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1tbsp tequila

½ a cucumber

1 little gem lettuce

1 avocado, sliced at the last minute

A long list of ingredients, but worth it. Raw king prawns aren’t cheap so you should only do really good things with them. The boy has been playing hockey so he’s muddy and freezing. Into the shower he goes while you gently fry the prawns in olive oil with  a good sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Drain them and add them to a bowl and cover with the passata. Unusually, our house has the bathroom just off the kitchen, so the boy comes out in his bathrobe about now. The passata isn't cooked so it should be top notch. Unsurprisingly, I'm using Cirio brand.  Add the chillies. Since he’s watching, maybe use only 1 ½ instead of two. Let it rest for an hour so the chillies can do their work. Get the boy to taste. Stir in the coriander.

Add more salt, pepper, the Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, lime juice and the zest of both and Tequila. As you have Tequila and lime juice, you may as well make the two of you a Margarita.

Get the boy to peel the cucumber and then run a fork down it so it has nice deep ridges. He can slice it thickly. While he’s at it he can tear the lettuce and divide it between your bowls. Add the cucumber, spring onion and avocado and spoon over the fiery prawn cocktail.

It’s good. The boy will be surprised – not that it’s good, but how different it is from what he was expecting.