A glut of blackcurrants

I suppose it's not a glut - you can never have too many Blackcurrants!

They are of course excellent eaten fresh, with a little sugar (if you wish) and some cream or crème fraîiche or put them in a tart or flan.  Many of my friends would instantly say "summer pudding", especially as we had  rather a lot of red currants and raspberries too, but although the taste of summer fruits is exquisite, I have never really grasped the delight of soggy white bread.

Often we just sprinkle blackcurrants with caster sugar and place straight in the freezer. In that way they are always on hand for a surprise summer dessert  even  in the depths of winter! Redcurrants and blackcurrants both freeze rather well.

This year we have made both blackcurrant and redcurrant jelly - but this year we have experimented with blackcurrant vodka and blackcurrant sorbet.

Blackcurrant  Vodka

We started off the blackcurrant vodka on 13 August and bottled  it a month later on 21 September - it's now in a cool dark place waiting for Christmas! 

I looked up proportions on the internet which suggested 250g currants to 175g caster sugar, but we had more than a kilo of currants, so here's my recipe.

Ingredients

1 kilo blackcurrants

4 litres Vodka litres 

Method

I made it in two batches. With the first batch I added the vodka to the fresh currants but with the second I deployed the sloe gin trick of putting the currants in the freezer overnight. In the freezing and thawing process the skins crack which means the juice is released easier when the vodka is added.

Add sugar to currants; put in jars, stir and pour on vodka tighten lid and shake daily. Leave for 4 - 6 weeks in a cool place, and then strain through muslin.  Pour into bottles and seal tightly. Place bottles in a cool, dark place and leave for at least 3 months before drinking.

Black currant sorbet

Ingredients 

200g caster sugar,

200mls boiling water

12 mint leaves 

750 g black currants

4 tbsp liquid glucose

Method

Dissolve the sugar in the water by heating and then boil gently for a few minutes. Add a handful of fresh mint leaves and leave to cool.

When cool remove mint leaves.

Add black currants to the sugar syrup, bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Add 4 tbsp liquid glucose.  Whizz mixture and strain through fine sieve.  Stir in the juice of 2 lemons. If you have an ice cream machine use this, but if not,  put in shallow dishes and freeze. Stir frequently, to ensure the slush freezes with a smooth sorbet- like texture. Leave in freezer. Take out of freezer 10 minutes before needed to allow to soften. Serve decorated with fresh mint leaves and cream or crème fraîche.

I was disappointed with the resulting texture - freezing in trays and stirring never quite achieves the desired texture that you get with the constant stirring of an ice cream  maker.  And although the taste was absolutely exquisite and not too sweet, the mixture was sticky and the texture not quite right for a sorbet. I think that next time I will use less liquid glucose.

John Austin
Hove, September 2015

Summer fruits -

Black currants and redcurrants (and raspberries)

We had a very heavy crop of black currants and red currants this year and a reasonable harvest of raspberries, so were busy in September with jam making as well as experimenting with Blackcurrant vodka.

I used to first kilo of black currants for straightforward blackcurrant jelly.

Black currant jelly

Ingredients

1kg black currants

1 litre water.

Sugar 450g/1lb sugar for each 600mls/1pint liquid

Method
Put black currants and 700mls water in a stainless saucepan and simmer gently for one hour. Mash with wooden spoon. Allow to cool a little then put in a jelly bag and leave to strain for  1-2 hours.  Do not squeeze the bag, otherwise the jelly will be cloudy.  Set aside the juice and return the pulp to the pan with 300mls of water and simmer for half an hour. Return to jelly bag and leave to strain, without squeezing for an hour. Mix the resulting juice with the earlier juice that you have set aside and measure.

Put juice in clean pan, warm gently and then and add sugar stirring until the sugar has dissolved. The general rule which my mother used (pre-metric) for most jellies and jams is 1 to 1 i.e  1lb sugar to 1 pint of liquid. For 600mls/1 pint juice I add 450g/1lb sugar.

When the sugar has dissolved, bring rapidly to the boil and keep boiling until you can get a set.  Test by dropping half a teaspoon of the mixture on a cold, dry plate. If a skin forms you have reached setting point.  This usually takes no more than ten minutes as blackcurrants are high in pectin.

Skim off any scum and then pour jelly into sterilised jars and seal immediately.

Redcurrant jelly with port

Less water is required with redcurrants than black currants and even less with raspberries - some recipes use no added water.   This recipe provides a firm jelly suitable for serving with lamb or game dishes.

Ingredients

1kg redcurrants

300 mls water

Sugar – for each 600mls fruit liquid add 450g sugar

2 tbsp port

Method

Basically the method is the same as for black currant jelly but I note that some chefs, including Delia, boil the fruit with the sugar and then strain through a jelly bag.

I followed the same procedure that I used for black currant jelly (as above) but with one exception.  Unlike blackcurrant jelly, I discarded the pulp after the first straining and did not reboil.

When setting point is reached, stir in the port, leave to cool a little then pour into sterilised jars and seal immediately.

Red currant and raspberry jelly

The proportions of red currants to raspberries will depend on what you have available – if you don’t have quite enough, either adjust the water accordingly or you can always add some apples to bulk it out.

Ingredients

1kg mixed raspberries and red currants

200mls water

Sugar – for each 600mls fruit liquid add 450g sugar

Method

Follow the red currant jelly recipe as above, but omit the port.  This preserve is excellent on toast for breakfast or with afternoon tea.

John Austin

Hove, September 2015

Za'atar

I recall the remarkable thyme-like smell as I walked in the south Hebron hills a couple of years ago. One of the shepherds picked some of the wild herb and gave it to me - "Za'atar" he said. He had tears in his eyes as he told me he was about to lose his home and was facing eviction by the Israeli colonists from land to which he had title that had been his home,his father's and his grandfather's and in his family's ownership since the days of the Ottoman Empire.

My recollection of that day is published by Labour2Palestine.

Za'atar is a thyme like herb growing wild throughout Palestine and Lebanon and is often served with flatbread and olive oil or yoghurt or with the traditional salad, fattoush.  Za'atar is the name given to the fresh herb itself, but is also used to describe a mixture of the dried herb or thyme mixed with sesame seeds and sumac which is now available widely in the UK. It is worth doing a search to find recipes for using Za'atar. It's good with roast chicken for example or roast butternut squash, with aubergines or chickpea salad ...

When I lived in south east London I could buy Za'atar at Turkish, Middle eastern or North African stores. Now I am living in Hove, I am fortunate to have two very good grocery stores a short distance away in Portslade almost next door to each other

John Austin
October 2015

SUMAC

Rhus coriaria - also known as Sumak, Sumach, Soumak, Sumaq

Although I had journeyed on many occasions since the 1960s to North Africa and the Middle East and am a lover of Moroccan, Lebanese and Syrian cuisine it was not until the nineties, on a visit toTurkey,that I became aware of and familiar with Sumac
.

Previously,I had assumed that the lemony tang in many dishes was due to lemons. On a visit to a Kurdish area in Istanbul, however, I discovered Sumac; mysterious red berries in sacks in the markets or sold ground as a powder, varying in colour from deep red to maroon or purple. Sumac comes from a plant in the Rhus family, which includes many poisonous varieties, but the berries of Rhus coriaria are not harmful and add a delicious tangy lemon flavour to foods.

Apparently sumac was used in Europe before the arrival of lemons in Roman times. It has also been used in place of lemons when they were out of season* but it has a deserved place in cooking in its own right.  Having made the discovery, I brought some back from my visit toTurkey and also subsequently from Palestine but it is now readily available in the UK, not only in Turkish and Middle eastern shops but also in some larger supermarkets.

Until recently, I was living in SE London where there are excellent Turkish grocery stores which I frequented in Lewisham and Bermondsey and now that Brighton and Hove is my adopted city I can shop at Tiba or Al Jazeera - a few doors away from each other in Portslade - for all my middle eastern or Turkish culinary needs.

Sumac is used extensively in the Middle East and the Maghreb to season salads, yoghurt, chicken and lamb dishes but I use it most frequently in fish dishes as a dry rub for whole fish, prior to roasting or in a marinade to enhance the flavour. 

Sumac is also often used in Za'atar which is the topic of a separate blog.

John Austin

July 2015

*Living in England we have almost lost all recognition of seasonal produce as everything seems to be available 12 months of the year. But before this globalisation, lemons were only available throughout the year (mainly in the Maghreb and the Middle East) as preserved lemons, an essential,ingredient of many dishes, such as Moroccan tagines, and this is the topic of another blog.

JOHN DORY 

What's in a name

At the restaurant,  LaTaberna de Lucia, by the marina in Santa Pola the fish of the day is on display in a chilled cabinet from which you can choose. When we visited in June they had a fish with the distinctive “thumbprint” which suggested it could be John Dory which I knew in Spanish as Pez de San Pedro.

The waiter said it was Gallo, which I found strange and confusing as I knew gallo as Megrim sole and this was not any kind of sole; although flatish, it was not a ‘flatfish”. The sharp spiny dorsal fin should have confirmed my suspicion that this was John Dory.  I questioned the waiter further, testing my shaky Spanish vocabulary and his “poco” English and he said “chicken fish” which seemed logical as gallo is cockerel in Spanish, but I remained confused.

I resigned myself to solving the problem when we got home and settled down to eat but the fish, which had been deep fried as thin steaks plus the spiny appendages, served on a bed of potatoes with aubergine topped with two fried Quail eggs (which I thought an unnecessary addition!) 

It  looked and tasted like John Dory and was absolutely delicious. Other views of this restaurant can be found on Trip Adviser

Back home, however, Alan Davidson came to the rescue (eventually).  I looked in the index of “Mediterranean Seafood”  and “gallo”  was listed as Whiff, Sail-fluke or Megrim Sole as I had thought. Looking at the section on John Dory, however, Davidson gave the Catalan name as Gall and although the usual name in Spanish is San Pedro and in French is Saint-Pierre, he gave an alternative French name, Poule de mer (sea chicken). Davidson’s “Tio Pepe guide to the seafood of Spain and Portugal” was more forthcoming. Gallo in the index referred to the entries for both John Dory and megrim sole. Gallo appears to be the name for megrim sole but gall or gallo is the Catalan name for John Dory. The local language in the Santa Pola area is Valencian which is very similar to Catalan.

I also have a rather ancient book (1957) “Spanish Cooking” by Elizabeth Cass (originally published by Andre Deutsch but reprinted in 1968 for The Cookery Book Club, which gives the name gallo as well as San Pedro for John Dory. Dr Cass describes gallo as the name used in Andalusia.   Just to add confusion she gives Gallina del Mar (hen of the sea) as an alternative name for Gurnard but confirms that the widely used term gallo is a member of the sole family i.e. megrim. Another fish, with a similar name, gallineta, is mentioned which she describes as a variety of rockfish related to rascasio (scorpion fish). Davidson’s Tio Pepe guide confirms that gallineta, (gallineta rosada in full) is the French rascasse rose or slender rocklfish in English.

Leaving aside confusion over names, the long and the short of it is that John Dory is delicious and widely available in both Spain and the UK and I can’t wait to try my hand at cooking it.  Unfortunately, John Dory  has a lot of spines and waste so a reasonably sized specimen yields little flesh and when I looked in my local fishmonger in Hove last week, John Dory was £17 per kilo and one fish weighing just over a kilo would have produced only two fillets, albeit of a generous size, so I am waiting to see it on sale in UK at a much lower price or waiting till I return to Spain. In the meantime I would welcome any suggestions for recipes.

John Austin

September 2015

Paella Mixta

Mixed seafood and rabbit* paella

*you could substitute chicken for rabbit

Serves 6-8

I cooked this for 11 people so increased the quantities by half and cooked it in two pans as I did not have one large enough.  I have used this recipe, or variations before and in the past have added clams instead of or in addition to mussels.  I have also cooked it with galera (mantis shrimp) which are common in the Mediterranean and Adriatic and much cheaper than langoustines, but not popular with everyone.  On this occasion I used only prawns and not langoustines.

Ingredients

75-100mls Extra Virgin olive oil

6-8 raw prawns & 6-8 raw langoustines (or 12+ prawns)

1kg fresh rabbit (or chicken or a mixture) chopped

250g small squid, cleaned and chopped in rings, preserving tentacles and chopped wings

2 medium tomatoes, skinned and chopped

3-4 cloves garlic

2 bay leaves

12 + mussels  (always prepare a few more than needed in case some have to be discarded)

1 small onion, minced or finely chopped

250g French beans, cut in 3-4cms piece

1 large green pepper, deseeded and chopped

1.75 litres of stock (use cooking liquid of mussels and/or chicken or rabbit stock

½ tsp saffron

½tsp sweet paprika (pimentón dulce)

3-4 peppercorns

750g Valencia (paella) rice

½ glass dry white wine or dry sherry

Small jar/tin roasted red peppers (pimientos del piquillo dulces)

Ingredients for cooking the mussels: olive oil; ½ small onion or 2-3 shallots, finely chopped; 1 stick chopped celery; a handful of chopped celery leaves; 2tbsp chopped fresh parsley; 1 glass dry white wine or dry sherry

To serve: 2-3 lemons; chopped parsley

Method

It is helpful to do as much preparation as possible in advance – e.g. put the tomatoes in boiling water for two minutes, then remove skins and chop;

Remove seeds from green pepper and finely dice flesh;

Wash and scrub mussels, removing any dirt and beard (discard any which are broken or will not close) and leave in cold running water.

Heat half olive oil in a paella pan and gently fry two cloves of garlic and two bay leaves. When garlic has softened remove it and bay leaves and set aside.

Season the rabbit (chicken) pieces with salt and freshly ground pepper, gently brown in the paella pan and then set aside.

Very gently fry the prawns/langoustines until just turning pink – not fully cooked – and set aside.

Crush the cooked garlic and bay leaves with a pestle and mortar with 2 cloves fresh garlic, saffron, paprika, 3-4 peppercorns  and a little coarse sea salt.  Add ½ glass dry white wine or dry sherry, stir vigorously or whizz in a blender and set mixture aside.

To cook the cleaned mussels, take a fresh saucepan , add a little olive oil, heat gently, add the chopped onion/shallot and cook until softened but not brown.  Add the chopped celery, celery leaves and chopped parsley and stir in the full glass of white wine/sherry adding a wine glass of water, bring to the boil and add mussels.  Put on lid and cook for a few minutes, gently shaking the pan. After 2-3 minutes the mussels should have opened.  Discard any that won’t open with a little further cooking.  Remove, cover and set aside the cooked mussels.  Strain and preserve the cooking liquid (any sand/grit should have sunk to the bottom of the pan so leave the liquid at the bottom of the pan when straining).

Gently sauté the squid rings, tentacles and chopped wings for a few minutes in the paella pan then add the green beans.

Add chopped tomatoes, continue frying for a minute or two then add the minced onion and chopped green pepper and fry for a further two minutes, then add remaining olive oil.

Add the rice to the paella pan and cook gently whilst stirring until the rice is coated with oil – it may be necessary to add a little more olive oil to ensure that all the rice grains are coated.

Take the reserved strained liquid from the mussels and make up to 1.75 litres with chicken or rabbit stock. Add this stock to the paella pan with the crushed garlic mixture and stir whilst bringing gently to the boil, then simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the rabbit (chicken) pieces, stir and simmer for a further 10-15 minutes.  Test that the rice is al dente.  From this point on do not stir!  Remove all but 6 mussels from their shells and add the shelled and unshelled mussels to the paella dish together with the prawns/langoustines and simmer

gently for  5 more minutes until all the liquid is absorbed. Taste to ensure rice is cooked. If not, or if at any time before this all liquid has been absorbed, add a little more stock – but cautiously and do not stir.

Remove from heat, decorate top with strips of red pepper.  Leave to stand for 5 minutes.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with quarters of fresh lemon.

Santa Pola

19 August 2015

MORE GREY MULLET

Llisa is the common name for grey mullet in south eastern Spain and they were plentiful on my last visit to Santa Pola – and very cheap. 

I bought six reasonably sized ones for a little over 2 Euros, which were enough to feed my daughter and her family who were with me.

I have an electric paella pan/all purpose cooker (multi cocina) which is basically a large non-stick pan with lid.  This dish could be cooked in any large sauté pan or frying pan that has a good fitting lid.

For the marinade you could use any herbs that you like or are easily available.  On this occasion I used some fresh rosemary and would have added some fresh fennel if it had been available, but I added ½ tsp of fennel seeds and a dash of Anis Seco. (Any dry aniseed liqueur will do e.g Pernod. Ricard, Arak, Ouzo etc but not too much as the flavour can be overpowering). If you don't like the aniseed flavour, omit the Anis and fennel and add a glass of white wine, dry sherry or dry vermouth and use whatever herbs you fancy, rosemary, thyme, oregano - the choice is yours. They all work well with mullet.

Some of the children are averse to eating things that are looking at them, so on this occasion I removed the heads before cooking!

Ingredients

6 grey mullet – one per person

Olive oil

½ tbsp chopped fresh rosemary ( or herbs of choice)

½ tsp fennel seeds

1 tbsp Anis seco or half glass of white wine, dry sherry or dry vermouth

1 - 2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced

¼ preserved lemon or thinly pared zest of lemon or lime

Method

Have the fish cleaned and scaled, cut two or three slashes on each side of the fish, rub with olive oil and herbs. Put thinly sliced preserved lemon peel or lemon/lime zest in slashes and place fish in the pan with fennel seeds, and garlic. Fry gently for 2-3 minutes. Add anis or wine allow to bubble to boil off alcohol. Place lid on pan and cook on moderate heat for 10-15 minutes, turning once during cooking.

Serve with steamed or boiled new potatoes and a green salad.  An alternative to new potatoes is mashed potatoes - and try the mash with finely chopped preserved lemon.  Simply take the peel of a quarter of a preserved lemon (flesh removed and peel rinsed to remove excess salt) chop finely and mix it in with potatoes during mashing.

Santa Pola

July 2015