14 posts tagged “ginger”

In the past we've made this, which is wonderful, but I've had in the back of my mind a more oriental version that would go well with sushi-type things rather than the traditional blinis and cream. So, today I have taken:

• 2 fillets lovely dark pink wild alaska salmon, the same size and shape and weighing about 500 gms total
• 3 heaped tablespoons caster sugar
• 2 heaped tablespoons coarse crystal salt
• 1 teaspoon wasabi powder (freshly opened)
• 1 big hand fresh ginger, very coarsely grated but not peeled.

I put one piece of salmon skin-side down on some clingfilm, mixed up the cure ingredients, and spread them on top. Whacked the other bit of salmon on to complete the sandwich (skin-side up), wrapped the package up tightly. I've put it in a deep oval dish in the fridge, with a plate and the Christmas gammon on top to weight it. Today's the 21st, I shall turn it and look after it every day, with a view to serving it for supper on Christmas Eve. I'll wipe the cure off and cut it in slices, like a thick cut smoked salmon.

Purist Japanese foodies can look away now, but I'm going to do a variety of beginner dishes from Just Hungry, with what I can easily get locally, and have a munchie buffet.

We liked the lamb shank braise, and I was reading Nigel Slater the other day, and he suggested oxtail. And I remembered I'd seen some excellent fresh oxtail in Waitrose, so I went and bought some. Stupidly cheap, half the price of braising steak and not that much bone. Nigel had a recipe variation on the standard red wine braise, which had a Chinese theme, with ginger and star anise. I like star anise with carrots, Dad does them like that for special dinners. I was most of the way through preparing this when I realised it's also a variant on the beef stew with clementine and ginger that we had before Christmas. I didn't follow the Nigel recipe, which involved flouring the oxtail and included onions. I just assembled in a casserole dish:

4 pieces of oxtail (weighed about 1.3 kgs)
3 capfuls Winter Pimms (the orange brandy one)
10 slices of peeled ginger, each about the size of a 10p / quarter
3 cloves garlic, chopped in half
4 medium carrots, in wedges, cut on the diagonal
3 sticks trimmed celery, ditto
3 tablespoons low salt soy sauce
2 whole star anise
A few grindings of black pepper

I brought it up to hot but not necessarily boiling, covered and bunged it in the oven at Gas Mark 3, it's had three hours so far and will get about another one. Every so often, I took it out, turned the oxtail over, and submerged the veggies more in the juices. Smells lovely. John has some work to do this evening, as soon as he's ready I'm going to zap some Thai noodles and dish up, probably in time for Coronation Street.

I saw this recipe in a recent Waitrose magazine, and adapted it for our tea today.

800 gm pack diced braising steak
1 oz plain flour, seasoned
4 banana shallots
2 tbsps oil
1 piece star anise
Half bottle (250ml) fresh clementine juice
250 ml reserve (red top) ginger wine
75 ml beef stock

Heat oven to Gas Mark 2. Toss the meat in the flour, fry in batches in half the oil. Put aside. Chop and fry the shallots in the rest of the oil. Stir in the anise and the liquids, tip the meat back in and boil. Put a lid on it and bung it in the oven for an hour. Take the lid off and give it a stir, and another hour. If you're not ready to eat it, chill it and reheat, or keep on very low for another hour or so.

It was nicely orangey, and a tart orange rather than a sickly one. The ginger smelled good initially, but faded and you could only just taste it. Maybe a bit more fresh or powdered ginger towards the end? It smelled of a good Chinese restaurant while it was cooking, they recommended mash and green veg with it (which is what we had), but I'm thinking boiled rice and a crisp veg stir fry. There was lots of gravy, it was a bit pale and pasty, like flour-based stews often are. Perhaps keep the flour out, just cook in less liquid initially and then thicken at the end with some cornflour and more ginger wine. That was quite a hit of sugar, though. That quantity gave us two large portions each and there's a good portion left.

I like bread sauce, John doesn't. And it doesn't really go with goose anyway (although it's divine with sprouts). One year I found a German idea, which was like bread sauce except made with gingernut biscuits instead of bread. And that's proved quite popular. Except this year I messed it up, and every rescue attempt took it further and further away from the original. It ended up quite interesting, though, worth making a note of to repeat as a thing in its own right, or at least using as a starting point for something better.

• Most of a big tub of half fat creme fraiche
• A finely chopped shallot
• About half a pint of Chardonnay
• About half a pack of gingernuts
• Some powdered ginger, allspice, pepper and salt

Heat the cream, mix in the wine and shallots and cook slowly for an hour or so until the shallots don't taste raw and crunchy any more. Crumble in the biscuits. Taste and add the spices to suit. Keep warm until ready to serve the goose - any chunks of biscuit will dissolve if whisked, or you could leave the lumps in if you like.

Next time - cook the shallots better first! maybe in a bit of butter. A drier wine wouldn't hurt, it was a bit oversweet. Or just chicken stock.

Breakfast:

Beetroot-cured salmon, blinis, hardboiled quail eggs, creme fraiche, Ovruga fake caviar, chives and dill. Champagne or clementine juice, coffee.

Dinner:

Glass of Taylor's Chip Dry White Port, chilled.

Roast goose, goosefat roast potatoes, butter roast parsnips, sausages in bacon, sage and onion stuffing balls, plain boiled sprouts, petits pois, ginger cream sauce, port and redcurrant gravy. Choice of spiced pickled pears, sweet spiced prunes, cherry compote, cranberry and horseradish relish. Chateau Neuf du Pape.

Christmas pudding with cream or white sauce or rum butter. Orange Muscat Flora.

Coffee and Bendicks mints.

Late supper:

Winter apple, Comte cheese, clementine.

Phew.

This looks good. I like parsley, but John doesn't, so a whole article on great recipes featuring parsley in fresh magazine June 2005 was a natural bit of food porn for me. You could use coriander, I suppose. No nutritional info given, but fried, so probably Not Good. Makes 12 gyozo.

Dip

• 300 gms greek yoghourt
• 1 tsp finely chopped lemongrass
• 2 knobs stem ginger in syrup, finely chopped
• 1 crushed clove garlic

Mix all together and put in a pretty bowl.

Gyozo

• 300 gms peas, lightly cooked
• small bunch parsley, finely chopped
• salt and black pepper
• 12 gyozo wrappers
• 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
• oil for frying
• Maldon salt and chilli flakes to garnish

Lightly mash the peas or pulse in the processor, to a slightly coarse paste. Add the parsley and season. Put a teaspoon of filling in a wrapper, and brush the border with egg yolk. Fold to make a semicircular pasty and pinch edges to seal. Crimp the edges with a fork to make pretty and provide extra seal. Fry in hot oil, a few at a time, until golden. Drain on kitchen paper, sprinkle with salt and chilli flakes to serve.

If you can get Japanese mayo, that could probably sub for the yoghourt - although it's also quite sweet so maybe you could reduce the stem ginger, or you could use sushi ginger instead. Fat-free yoghourt and fresh ginger would take the calorie count way down.

This is a drgourmet recipe, which I've adapted for British (well, Waitrose) packet sizes. It's really lovely. The original recipe says serve with brown bread and orange marmalade, but it's fine on its own.

390 cals per serving, makes 2 dinners and a lunch for later.

Strain a 454 gm tin mandarin oranges in juice, or two small tins. Keep the juice (the original recipe says frozen concentrate, and assumes that you can only get mandarins in syrup).

Make a dressing with 2 Tbsps grapeseed oil, 1/4 cup of the juice, 1/8 tsp each salt and pepper, a handful of parsley, and a handful of chives (or a spring onion if you can't get chives). Whizz them all in a blender with 2 Tbps of Ming Ginger, not the sugar coated crystallised ginger cubes, but the less sweet dried slices. If you just pulse it in the blender you'll get small bits of ginger left in it, not a smooth smooth dressing that loses its oomph. Chill.

Toast 3 Tbsps flaked almonds, and slice half a red onion really thinly.

Heat a heavy pan and sprinkle with a tiny bit of olive oil. Add a pack of mini chicken breast meat strips, about 350 gms. Sprinkle the upside with a very little salt and 3 Tbsps sesame seeds. (Recipe says black sesame seeds, which I have used, but they oozed black colouring all over the chicken. Yuck.) Cook until done on the bottom, turn, and cook again until done all the way through and the sesame seeds are dark golden and well crunchy.

Put 2 bags baby spinach salad in a big bowl and toss with the dressing.

Lay out 2 plates and 1 lunch box. Start with the spinach, then the onions, orange pieces, and almonds. Top with the chicken, seeded side up.

Yummity yum yum yum.

What a wintry mood. Must be the thunderstorm outside. From Vegetarian Christmas 2002, which is proving a mine of interesting stuff.

6 portions, 339 cals per portion, not including cream or custard.

• 100gms unsalted butter, softened
• 2 Tbsps honey
• 5 cm piece stem ginger, finely chopped
• 1 Tbsp stem ginger syrup
• 1 lemon, zest and pith removed, and thinly sliced
• 100 gms caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 75 gms self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 Tbsp ground ginger
• 75 gms fresh white breadcrumbs

Grease the inside of a 1.2 litre pudding basin (might well be marked 2 pints).

Mix honey and syrup, and pour into the bottom of the basin. Press the lemon slices into the syrup, and then up the sides to line it.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, beat in eggs a little at a time until incorporated, sift powdered ingredients in, fold in. Fold in lumpy stuff. (Jeez, just make a sponge with everything else.)

Spoon into prepared basin, cover with 2 layers greaseproof paper and a layer of foil, pleated, tie with string, steam for 2 hours.

Do something intelligent with the lemon zest before you slice them up. I'd use a strong flavoured honey, or it's not a lot of taste.

Thought I might as well rescue the other recipes from the Umrat Cookbook. We made this originally as one of seven courses for a Scottish Baronial Dinner.

Rhubarb cooked in sweet syrup (poach your own or buy a tin)

A jar of ginger preserved in syrup. If you can't get this, although you can in most mainstream supermarkets now, reheat some of the rhubarb syrup with some powdered ginger or chopped fresh ginger root.

an ice-cream maker or a freezer, a food-processor helps too

Drain the rhubarb, keeping the syrup, and process it, or mash it as finely as you can.

Add syrup from the ginger jar, a dessert-spoonful at a time, tasting as you go.

You want to end up with a puree that is substantial but definitely liquid - like Vichyssoise is more than cream but less than mashed potato. The sugar is necessary not just for sweetening the rhubarb but in the final texture of the ice, and freezing will reduce the sweetness.

When the puree is gingery enough for you, add a bit more for luck. If it still isn't wet enough, add the syrup from the rhubarb.

When the puree is wet enough, if it isn't gingery enough for you, finely chop some of the preserved ginger and add.

Put through the ice-cream maker and either eat immediately or store in the freezer to ripen, remembering to take it out and put it in the fridge for 15-20 minutes before you want to serve it to get the best texture and flavour.

If you haven't got one, and you're freezing it, you could gently stir in a couple of stiffly whisked egg whites before freezing it, which should help with the texture. Note: I haven't tried this! but it is often recommended in ice-cream books. Put it in a freezer-proof container with a lid, freeze, taking it out after about 2 hours and stirring gently to scrape ice crystals from the edge into the middle. Do this again later on if you feel like it. This is not as crucial as it can be in thinner smoother liquids, as the ice will form less regularly anyway.

This is a great palate cleanser between rich main courses in winter (between the haggis and the venison, say), or can be used to make gin or vodka slushes in the summer ...

It will vary each time you make it, especially if you're like me and add a bit of lemon juice, or turn it into ice-cream and serve it with hot rhubarb crumble.