Cheese Tarts/Dukka/Scallops/Marinades

What ho. It’s been a while, and there has been some (very welcome) nagging to write more, so here more is.

The cheese tarts, which are basically quiches but a bit smaller, we just had for supper and they’re delicious. The recipe for dukka, an Egyptian spicy seed/nut mix is stolen almost in its entirety from the River Cottage Every Day book, which I thoroughly recommend you buy – it’s a very economising/thrift oriented book, and he does things with fruit that could make even the most hardened carnivore go ‘ooh, yes please’. The scallops recipe I have to admit I haven’t tried yet, I just made it up, but from experience it should turn out pretty well – I’ll amend it later if necessary. And the marinades are tried, tested, and made up as i went along. They’re both ostensibly aimed at chicken. Hurrah!

Cheese Tarts

Ingredients:

Quantities are going to be fairly rough here – it’s a using-things-up recipe

Shortcrust pastry

Dijon mustard

Cheddar or other strong grating cheese

1 medium red onion, finely diced

2 very large or three medium eggs, free range.

a couple of dollops creme fraiche (or a few tablespoons double cream)

a splash of milk

finely chopped fresh parsley and chives

Method:

Line several greased mini-quiche tins, or one big one, with the pastry. Don’t bother to bake it blind, I’ve never found it particularly necessary, especially if you’re using shop-bought stuff. Spread a little Dijon mustard over the bottom of the pastry cases.

Gently fry the onion in a little oil or butter, then divide it between the cases. Grate the cheddar and pile it in, leaving a little room around the edges. Beat the eggs, add the creme fraiche and milk, and season to taste. Add the chopped herbs to the egg mixture, then pour over the cheese so it comes to just short of the top.

Bake at 180 degrees C for about half an hour – test the tarts after this time with a knife, they should be slightly firm and probably have risen quite a lot. They’ll deflate when you take them out of the oven.

This is very much a springtime supper, so have it with a green salad, new potatoes and white wine.

A note on potatoes – even the most bland and boring of new potatoes can be enlivened by, when they’re cooked, draining, adding a little butter and black pepper to the pan, and then sticking on a lid and shaking the hell out of them. The edges go all soft and mashed, which is amazing. A sprig or two of fresh mint works wonders, too.

Dukka

Ingredients:

A large handful of hazelnuts or cashew nuts, shelled

1/2 tbsp of cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon dried chilli flakes

1tbsp coriander seeds

1tbsp sunflower seeds

2tbsp sesame seeds

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

a handful of fresh mint and coriander leaves

Method:

You need to dry fry the various ingredients separately (i.e. toast them in a frying pan with no oil etc). First, the nuts. Dry fry them in a pan for about five minutes, or roast them at 180 degrees C for about the same time, til the skins are blistered. Wrap them in a clean tea towel and leave for the minute.

Toast the coriander and cumin seeds until they start to give off their amazing scent, probably less than a minute. Don’t do what I did and put the chilli flakes in there too, or everyone within a mile will be coughing, spluttering, eyes streaming etc. Once they’re done, set them aside and repeat the process with the sunflower and sesame seeds, til the latter are golden, about four or five minutes. They’ll give off a little oil of their own, which is all that the recipe needs.

Rub the nuts in the towel vigorously, and don’t you dare read anything into that sentence, until some or all of the skins have come off. Obviously cashew nuts won’t require that. Bash the cumin and coriander seeds up moderately in a pestle and mortar. If you don’t have one, I suggest you make the investment, they’re fantastic pieces of kit. You can get them from Ikea, or most Indian food shops, and loads of other places these days. Failing that, use a very solid bowl and the end of a rolling pin. You don’t want to crush the seeds into a powder, just break them up a bit.

Put the spices on one side, and give the nuts the same treatment. You want smallish pieces. Finally, mix everything together and add the mint and coriander. It’ll keep in an airtight container in the cupboard for a few weeks, assuming there’s no water or anything in there. The best way to eat dukka is by dipping crusty bread or flatbread into good olive oil and then the dukka, or by sprinkling it into hummus or on salads.

Scallops with tarragon cream sauce

Ingredients:

6 king scallops (do buy these from a fishmonger, frozen or shrink wrapped scallops are lacking in the taste/healthy bowel departments respectively)

a glug of cream

a squeeze of lemon

a dash of Pernod, pastis or something else aniseed flavoured and alcoholic. Probably not absinthe. Although, who knows?

2 shallots, finely chopped.

A few fresh or dried tarragon leaves

1 garlic clove, minced, or a good squeeze of garlic puree

Method:

Pat the scallops dry, season them lightly with salt and black pepper, then fry in butter or oil for no more than a couple of minutes each side. Give them a light prod with your finger to see if they’re done – if they bounce back, they are, if you leave a dent, they’re not. Set aside.

To the same pan add the chopped shallot, garlic and tarragon. Soften for a couple of minutes. Add the pastis, let it reduce for a minute or so, then add the cream, lemon and a little black pepper. Cook on a low heat for two minutes, stirring so the cream doesn’t curdle. Sling some sauce over the scallops, and wolf it down.

Barbecue Marinade

Ingredients:

Ketchup

Reggae Reggae Sauce (I’m not the BBC, so I can use brand names. This stuff is excellent)

2tsp Dijon, English or German mustard, depending on how strong you like it.

1 red pepper, cut into strips.

A large pinch each of ground cumin, coriander, chilli powder/cayenne pepper and celery salt

Lots of black pepper

a pinch of brown sugar

a splash of Maple syrup

a splash of Worcester Sauce

Garlic, either 2 good squeezes of paste or 2 cloves

Method:

As a preamble, I should note that this is very much a ‘whatever you’ve got in the cupboard’ recipe. Nearly all of the ingredients can be swapped out or substituted, although the first three are a reliable base.

Brush the strips of pepper with oil, then grill them skin side up til the skin is nice and smoky and charred. Let it cool and then whizz it up in a blender or food processor into a fine paste. To this, add a really good glug of ketchup (maybe a third or half a bottle) and a smaller glug of Reggae Reggae sauce. Then chuck everything else in, whizz it all up and coat your chicken, or maybe pork, with it.

Orientalish Marinade

Ingredients:

4 large spring onions, quartered and chopped very finely

1 red chilli, finely chopped

a good squeeze of garlic paste

a good squeeze of tomato puree

a splash each of soy sauce and vegetable/groundnut oil

a pinch each of salt, pepper, celery salt, ginger, cayenne pepper

finely chopped chives and coriander

Optional: finely grated and chopped rind of one lime

Method:

Pretty simple. Let the spring onions macerate in the soy sauce for a few minutes, then bung everything else in. Good for fried chicken or beef, or probably even stir fried vegetables.

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