Nams' Secret Curried Crab Recipe

It's been nearly two years since my last post on here so I thought it is about time I started catching up a little.
In my defence I have moved from Poland and currently live in India with the wife and dog.
And what an amazing place this is for a foodie like me!
When we got here we very quickly became good friends with a colleague of mine and neighbour, Namrata, an absolute gem of a woman, who has been so patient with me whilst teaching me how to cook Indian Style.
This morning she called me up quite early (well anything before 9am is early on a Sunday morning for me) and told me we were in luck, the local fishmonger had crabs (don't laugh) and we should go to him straight away and get a whole bag of them.

So that's is exactly what we did (no one argues with Nams).
Only a short drive away, outside a chicken shop, on the pavement was a whole bunch of fish, 3 guys hard at work and an audience of about a dozen customers. Nams very quickly got the chaps attention and hey presto from under a bag he pulled out a dozen fresh crabs. Before you knew it the chaps on the chopping boards were cleaning them out and chopping them into pieces. Pretty efficient. Our bags of crabs in hand we went back home and Nams invited me round to show me how to do her famous curried crabs, it is a family secret, and under no circumstances must I divulge her secret to anyone. I'm pretty sure no one reads this blog anyway...

Nams and our maid Kalpana hard at work

I stuck around taking notes and pictures and then went back home to try it myself, so, here is Nams' Secret Curried Crap recipe.

Ingredients:

• About 2Kg of cleaned and chopped up crabs
• 2 nice onions
• 4 tablespoons of blended garlic and ginger paste
• 2 teaspoons of turmeric
• 2 teaspoons of coriander powder
• 3 teaspoons of red hot chilli powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 teaspoons of mustard seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek
• 1 coconut
• peanut oil (6 tablespoons)
• fresh coriander (handful)
• fresh curry leaves (2 dozen)

The whole process is pretty simple, but the quality of the ingredients is a priority, so don't use pre-packed coconut milk when it is easy to do at home. Same goes for the ginger and garlic paste.

Start by marinating the crab in the turmeric, coriander powder, chilli powder and salt...

Mix well and set aside

De-husk and crack open the coconut...

Keep the water aside (dogs love it if you don't)

Remove all the flesh and pulp it in a blender

To this add 2 large cups of boiling water

Make sure the lid is properly secured before blending...

Leave the pulp to soak for half a minute

Chop up the onions

Put some peanut oil in a large pan and crackle the mustard seeds and fenugreek

Add the onions

And a dozen curry leaves, stir fry for a couple of minutes

Stir in the crabs with their marinade, cook until the change colour (blue to red)

Sieve in the coconut milk

Add the ginger and garlic paste and bring the whole thing to a boil

When it has been boiling for 3 or 4 minutes add another dozen curry leaves, cook until the gravy has the consistency you desire

Finish off with some chopped coriander leaves and dig in!

It is usually eaten with rice or you can do like me and just eat it with...your fingers!

Bon appetit!

Mariusz's Zurek Soup

I could hardly write a culinary blog without including a few of Poland's best kept secrets. We all know about French or Chinese cuisine and could probably name half a dozen dishes from each without even thinking, but how many Polish dishes do you know? Surprisingly to me, Poland's food culture is really extensive. Heavily influenced by German styles as well as Russian tastes, it also includes a subtle French finesse in everything they present (if you want to see the culmination of this I urge to go and eat at the Belvedere in Warsaw http://www.belvedere.com.pl/?lang=en , avoid at all cost the self inflated Gessler eateries, atrocious places run by a self proclaimed food guru whose only claim to fame was to have once been a "cook" for the Spanish royalty (I'd hazard a guess that she was a kitchen porter)...).
My father-in-law, Mariusz, isn't a chef, he's a doctor in anesthesiology specializing in severely handicapped children. Now if that wasn't sublime enough, he also happens to be one of the best self taught cooks I have ever had the pleasure of eating with.
Today is Easter Sunday and for this occasion in Poland it is tradition to eat Zurek soup and what a wonderful soup it is. And because he is the generous person that he is, Mariusz has agreed to show me how to make his version of it, which to my palate is probably the best one out there and certainly the easiest to make.
This is how it goes:

Start by chopping up some smoked sausage (Kielbasa in Poland) and placing them in a large pan full of water.

Add some smoked bacon...

Turn on the gas and bring to a boil...

Add All Spice to the pot...

A couple of bay leaves...

A pinch of crushed black pepper and a pinch of coarse salt...

A large helping of dried Marjoram...

Whip together some double cream with a pinch of fine salt, a few spoons of flour and a splash of cold water...

"Burn" an onion and add it to the pot...

When everything is frothing, stir in a few ladles of the hot stock to the cream and then add the cream and flour mix to the pot...it will separate at first but very quickly dissolve.

Add a spoon of sugar...

A spoon of the compulsory Vegeta (a Polish dried mix of vegetable and salt...similar to a stock cube)

A generous splash of Maggi (similar to Worcester Sauce)...

A large dollop of grated horse radish...

Bring it to a lively boil for 5 minutes...

Let it cool down and leave it to "sour" overnight...

The next day, heat up and serve with a hard boiled egg and a spoon of horse radish. Bon Appetit!!

Beer butt roasted chicken with Boschetta al Tartufo and potato bake

I have a real need to innovate and create when it comes to cooking. This week the Captain said she wanted to eat something french...so...being out of ideas I thought I'd cook something that could pass as french, but use ingredients and techniques borrowed from all over the world.
Beer Butt Chicken is a very effective way to roast a chicken, traditionally it's done on a grill with a lid but an oven works perfectly. The idea is to sit the chicken upright on a tray with a nearly full beer can inserted in the backside of the animal. This technique keeps the meat really tender and moist as the beer evaporates in the cavity.
The Boschetto and potato bake came to me as I was thinking of the Savoyard Tartiflette. Even though I like it very much it is extremely heavy and hearty. I remembered having crushed steamed potato with Truffle oil drizzled over it and it was delicious, so I thought, why not combine elements from both, make a kind of Tartiflette but use truffle cheese and also Greek yogurt instead of creme fraiche. The combination was a resounding success!
So here is how it goes:

What you need is: Fresh chicken, firm potatoes, olive oil (+truffle infused olive oil), beer in a can, Greek yogurt, Boschetta al Tartufo cheese and Vegeta (a Polish dried vegetable and salt spice, but a stock cube could do), salt'n pepper.

Make a mix by adding a little olive oil to a large table spoon of Vegeta (or stock cube) and spread the mix all over a rinsed and patted dry chicken. Sit the chicken over the opened beer can (of which you have already drunk a third and added a teaspoon of Vegeta), put the chicken and beer can on a tray and in the oven at 170C for 2h.

To make the potato and cheese bake all you need is this: Spuds, cheese (Boschetto), Greek yogurt, Truffle infused olive oil, salt'n pepper.

Start by peeling and slicing the spuds into thick slices.

Roughly slice the cheese.

Par boil the spuds for about 5 minutes.

Drain and leave to cool.

Layer the spuds, cheese and yogurt (and a drizzle of the truffle oil) in a buttered over dish.

Finish with yogurt, a sprinkle of crushed pepper and salt and a handful of grated cheese. Stick it in the oven next to the chicken when there is about 45 minutes left and bake for the remaining time.

Once all is cooked leave the chicken to rest out of the oven for 10 minutes and serve everything. Ladle some of the jus around the food.

Bon appetit!

Confit duck legs with green lentils and Chorizo

I have a real penchant for rustic dishes and for me there is not much that can beat the succulent and delicate flavor of confit duck.
In this dish I have married my confit duck legs (you can follow the confit preparation on my youtube channel: www.youtube.com/renskitchenchaos) with green lentils and nuggets of spicy Chorizo sausage.
I am a big fan of the French Cassoulet but it can be a little bland at times, so I find this dish a little bit more interesting. The green lentils have of course a unique flavor of their own but it's the contrast the Chorizo gives to this dish that really ties it all together. I also include whole cooked garlic cloves which are like little gems you fall upon in your plate. This is a really simple dish to make, even if the whole process of confit-ing the duck can take a little preparation, there is nothing here that is complicated. It's an ideal Sunday lunch that you will plan a week before so that you have all the ingredients ready and get ready from the Friday onwards, I insist, none of the steps take time, it's just that you need time between each steps to get the best results. On Sunday, putting the dish together takes one hour maximum and the result will be remembered for ever!
Here is how it goes:

First you need these ingredients (for 2): 2 confit duck legs, green lentils, onion, garlic bulb, Chorizo sausage, chicken stock cubes.

 

You start bu making the chicken stock by dissolving the stock cubes in about a liter of hot water.

 

Remove the duck legs from the fat they were preserved in, try and wipe of as much fat as you can but don't be obsessive about it. Keep the left-over fat in a jar to make another dish another day. Put the legs on an oven dish, skin side down.

 

Chop up the onion, separate the garlic cloves (but keep the skins on) and chop up the Chorizo into large slices.

 

Soak the lentils in hot water for about half an hour, then cook the lentils for a further half hour in the chicken stock.

 

10 minutes in the lentils cooking, stick the duck legs in a preheated oven at full whack for 10-15 minutes of warming up and skin crisping. 

 

In some of the confit fat start coloring the onion, whole garlic cloves and Chorizo. The sausage will imparts it's delicious spicy oil to the mix and the cloves will infuse a gentle garlic flavor. After about 4 minutes, remove the garlic cloves and add them to the lentils and stock to soften them. 

 

When the lentils are soft, strain them and add them with the garlic cloves to the onions and Chorizo and stir through. 

After 10-15 minutes, remove the duck legs from the oven. You are now ready to plate up!

Simply spoon the lentil mix on a plate and put the duck leg on top. 

Bon appetit!