The World - It's hard having families that are spread far and wide. To keep us closer to the ones we love, The Dubai Times is compiling recipes of some well loved family favourites. Please send your to [email protected]
Great food from all over
HOLLY'S APPLE CRUMBLE
Bathurst
1 cup cake flour
I cup sugar (sticky brown is nice)
1¦2 cup butter
1 piece of stick cinnamon
2 table spoons almond flakes
2 table spoons of seedless raisins (optional)
grated lemon peel (optional)
4 large granny smith apples
a pinch of salt to taste (literally).
Mix together the flour, sugar and butter until mixture resembles bread crumbs, keep cool until ready to use, peel, core and cut apples in slices. Arrange apples, raisons and cinnamon in oven proof dish and cover with crumble. Sprinkle nuts on the top and bake in a moderately hot oven for about 35- 40 minutes or until the crumble is golden brown. Serve with dollops of fresh cream.
JAMES'S BACON AND EGGS
Dubai
1 - 2 eggs per person
A pack of bacon
Pre-sliced wholewheat bread
Butter
Salt & Pepper
Fry up bacon, keep warm. Fry eggs and pop toast into toaster. Butter toast, top with egg and bacon.
Serve with coffee and orange juice.
ANDY'S FISH CURRY
Bathurst
1 kg fish slices
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
3/4 cup peeled and chopped tomatoes
2 cups coconut milk
2 green chillies
10 curry leaves
To make spice paste grind together:
15 cashew nuts
1 tsp each salt and turmeric
2 tbsp each coriander seeds, cumin seeds, red chilli powder, garlic ginger and tamarind paste.
Fry onions until golden. Add spice paste and tomatoes. Cook on medium heat until tomatoes are soft. Add 1 cup coconut milk. Bring to boil, add fish, curry leaves and green chillies. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Add remaining coconut milk. Simmer uncovered for a futher 5 minutes. Serve hot with boiled rice, pappadums and pickles.
KIM'S GREEN CURRY
Dubai
6 - 8 big prawns per person
Peel half, leave half in their shells, deveined.
Green Thai curry Paste (as recommended on pack)
Half a cup of sliced vegetables per person, use:
Spring onions
Baby corn
Mange tout
Red bell peppers
Finely chopped lemon grass, or lemon zest
125 ml coconut milk per person
corn flour and water (opt)
Coriander
You'll need a wok or a rather deep non-stick pan:
Using a little oil (light sesame), stir fry prawns on high very quickly until barely cooked but browned. Cook them in two batches, the shelled separate from the ones in shell. Set these aside. Stir fry spring onion with the curry paste. When the spring onions start to wilt, add rest of vegetables and lemongrass/ zest. First add the vegetables that take longer to cook, then the ones that cook quicker. Flash fry these then add the coconut milk. You may want to thicken this with a little cornflour blended with water. Add prawns and warm through. Taste and salt if necessary. Garnish with fresh coriander.
The actual cooking shouldn't take you longer than 7 - 8 mins or you'll have over cooked it.
VEAL WITH PORCINI MUSHROOMS
Johannesburg
Thinly sliced veal
Porcini mushrooms or similar
Garlic
Salt
Black Pepper
Butter
Olive Oli
Flour
Parsley
Make sure the veal is thinly sliced from the butcher. Dust with flour and set aside.
Put a little butter and olive oil (1/2 - 1/2) in a pan and simmer with garlic (1 or 2 cloves whole which you can remove before serving, I like to bruise the garlic a bit so that it releases its flavour into the oil). Thinly slice the mushrooms , add to pan and gently fry a few minutes, when done add some coarsely chopped fresh parsely and season with salt and black pepper.
Remove garlic and set aside.
In a separate pan 1/2 butter - 1/2 oil, gently fry the veal, it really doesn't need long because its so thin. Salt and Pepper to taste. Flambé with a little cognac, place on a platter with a little of its juice, throw over your mushrooms and a sprinkling of fresh parsely and serve.
FARFALLE CON PESTO
Johannesburg
Fresh Basil
Parmesan
Pine Nuts
Olive Oil
Garlic
Salt & Pepper
Fafalle Pasta (Divella is a good brand)
You need really fresh basil for a good pesto, preferably the smaller younger leaves. Also Pesto discolours with exposure to air so you need to prepare it right before you use it. I normally put all the ingredients in the liquidizer, but only blend it when the pasta is cooked.
Pull leaves away from stems and place in liquidizer whole (+/- to fill liquidizer) Put in a 1/2 handful of pine nuts a handful of good grated Parmesan (Reggiano or Grana Padano), garlic to taste (I don't like a lot, so half a fresh clove is good for me, you may like more, salt and black pepper to taste and liberal amount of good olive oil.
Cook the Farfalle. When ready, quickly blend the Pesto, add a spoon of fresh cream on the last blend, (this one's a debatable point, maybe not purist but I like it because it freshens up the colour of the pesto which is generally not fresh enough from the shops, too much and it's too creamy and ruined) pour over the Farfalle, mix lightly, sprinkle with more Parmesan and serve immediately. P.S use a cold dish to put the Pasta in because a hot one will also discolour the Pesto.