Swordfish Curry & Armadillos!

I've said it once, I've said it many a time ... ancestral eating is simply a case of putting good food together and enjoying it. What grows together goes together; what grows at the same time goes together.

Local and seasonal.

Sometimes though, food combinations come together in the strangest of ways; flashes of genius, even if I say so myself ...

Armadillos!

Armadillos? Soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside!

I have some cottage cheese that wanted finishing. So, what to do? Shallow fried? Why the hell not!

Mix together your cottage cheese with tapioca starch (or manioc flour, or polviho azedo, or whatever you call it in your language ... I guess rice flour would do at a push). I kept adding flour and mixing until it made a stodgy puck.

Add in some flavour - I went with asafoetida and a minced chilli. In retrospect, a little salt would have been good.

Into about an inch of hot coconut oil drop balls of this mixture in and let it fry off. The balls will rise to the surface as they cook. Retrieve onto a piece of kitchen roll to absorb the excess fat and enjoy!

They puff up, crisp up and have a gorgeous crispy, chewy texture.

Swordfish Curry

Delicious as the cheese balls are, they're not a meal ...

I made up a main of roasted red peppers, red onion, garlic and chilli, blended to make a wet sauce into which went quartered cherry tomatoes, pieces of squash and pieces of courgette to cook through.

Once reduced, I stirred through cubes of swordfish, added a few peas, some ground coriander, fresh coriander, poppy seeds, black pepper and celery salt for a vibrant punch of flavour.

Garnish with fresh coriander, serve with the cheese balls and a light rocket salad of leaves, thin sliced cucumber, poppy seeds, cider vinegar, splash of olive oil, a little sea salt and some pine nuts.

Cracking!

Warm Salad of Pollock & Tomato

Fusion, or a mish-mash ... you decide.

Ancestral eating is simply about putting good ingredients together and enjoying. The great thing about real food is that no matter what it is, it generally goes well together. Simply prepared, the flavours come out individually and fun combinations form on the plate.

Tonight was one of those "I have some real food and I'm just going to put this lot together" kind of dinners ...

LIDL do some lovely tomatoes, on the vine. Large, juicy and so flavoursome. I also have some pollock, a North Atlantic white fish with a firm texture and a good flavour somewhere between cod and haddock.

Slice up the tomatoes and lay into an ovenproof dish with a little sea salt and black pepper. No fat. Lay the fish over, a little more sea salt, some shredded onions and finally the vines from the tomato which will perfume the dish as it cooks.

Now, settle it into a pre-heated oven set to 200C (400F) for 15 minutes. That is quite sufficient to cook the fish just perfectly and not overly cook the tomatoes.

Meanwhile, I boiled some salad potato slices then sautéed them off with a little butter and some chorizo slices. I also macerated a few cucumber slices in cider vinegar with a little sea salt and chopped dill.

Serve out, scattering the potato and chorizo around, take a good slice of the fish and tomato, push a few slices of cucumber in here and there and garnish with finely chopped chilli, lemon juice and a little olive oil. As an afterthought, I scattered some halloumi over mine.

Sort of Ratatouille, I suppose?

Sino-Cymric Shredded Lamb

Probably about as bonkers as it can get, but how about a sort of Sino-Cymric dish for dinner?

Sino-Cymric? Hell, yeah, Japanese Welsh Fusion! It's so out there it can't possibly have been done ...

The Welsh: Lamb. Shoulder of, boned and rolled around a fascine of sage, thyme and rosemary.

The Japanese: Wasabi, Yuzu, Rice Vinegar & Chillies.

On purpose? Well, no. We'd been out for the day, got back about six without enough time to cook this joint, but I have a cunning plan ...

To do this, get hold of the following:

• Lamb joint - boned, rolled and stuffed with herbs
• Garlic & Lemon
• Yuzu, Rice Vinegar & Chillies
• Potato, Butter & Wasabi
• Vegetables - Sprouts, Carrots & Peas

Lamb

Place your joint on an oven-proof plate, garlic bulbs alongside, lemon wedges, too. Salt over.

Cover with kitchen foil and commit to the oven at 180C (350F?) for a good hour and a half.

The lamb will now be technically cooked, but pretty tough. It really wants another couple of hours at a lower temperature to soften up, but we didn't have the time ...

So, out it comes, allow to just cool off and now get in there with your hands, peeling off all the sinews and membrane.

Shred with the fibres and you'll have a pile of meat.

Lamb like this is still very fatty and can be overfacing unless paired with sharp and spiky flavours. We'll be doing a Wasabi Mash, but let's cut through the meat itself.

In a skillet, load in the meat and pour over some rice wine vinegar and some yuzu juice. Chillies, too. Gently heat through while you prepare your vegetables and top up with a little water here and there.

The meat will soften and take on all these flavours.

Wasabi Mash

Boil some white potatoes.

When soft, mash with generous amounts of butter and mash in some wasabi to taste.

Vegetables

Steam 'em alongside the mash.

Serve

Put the lot together onto a plate, mash in the middle, mound the meat up on top and vegetables around the side.

Pulling the meat down through the mash and catching some of the sweet vegetables, gorgeous! Loved it!

Do again? Probably not, largely because I never do the same thing twice, but elements will make it into future dishes.

Venison Chilli [Variation]

Friday night, again, and Chilli Night!

Having enjoyed Vension Chilli so much a couple of weeks ago, I happened upon a good deal for diced venison in the supermarket and fancied a repeat.

With a twist ...

Once again, the ingredients you'll need are:

• Venison & Smoked Bacon
• Mushrooms
• Coconut Oil
• Onion, Garlic & Chilli
• Cocoa Powder, Ground Coriander & Paprika
• Worcestershire Sauce, Chipotle Paste & Beef Stock
• Chopped Tomatoes
• Oregano & Marjoram
• Black Pepper & Smoked Sea Salt

Tonight's deviation:

• Guinness

Melt some coconut oil in a heavy based skillet, browning off the meat and dropping in a bunch of sliced mushrooms to soak up all the good fat.

Now, empty the cupboards!

Ground coriander, paprika, cocoa powder, black pepper, smoked sea salt ... just bung a load in! Sprinkle over the herbs and then a good splosh of Worcestershire Sauce and some Chipotle Paste (I used some Discovery brand which has no offensive ingredients, just chipotle, tomato vinegar and salt).

Pour in some Guinness. For two people and about a pound of meat, I used half a can of Draught Guinness.

Meanwhile chop up an onion, garlic and chillies, and blend together. Pour into the skillet and cook through.

Gently blend some chopped tomatoes, too. Pour these into the skillet and stir through, adding some beef stock.

Lower the heat and give it a couple of hours, topping up with water as necessary.

Tonight, served in rustic bowls, salad alongside and a ramekin of guacamole, this was a seriously gorgeous meal! Yoghurt crowning the chilli, perfect.

The Guinness added so much. Next time, I'll use a bottle of Foreign Extra ...

It struck me that this dish was very French. As I was cooking it, I thought to myself how French in style it was - maybe because it was me cooking, and French cuisine has had a big impact, maybe because it was actually just how many good, honest, rustic French dishes come about.

I don't know, but I'm marking up this method as "fusion".

Thoughts?

Salmon Stir Fry

Stir Fry ... easy as, for when you're lacking imagination or ingredients for something that makes sense.

Tonight, we enjoyed salmon, leek, asparagus, green beans and red cabbage, spiced up with ginger, garlic and chillies, ground coriander, black pepper and a chilli sauce over.

The sauce was made from Maggi Chilli Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, Tomato Ketchup and lemon juice. Shredded ginger, too.

That's the sauce, which can be made up in advance ...

The fish needs frying or poaching. We love poached salmon, so it got poached, simply in water for around 10 minutes, retrieved, dried off and flaked.

With the fish set aside, the vegetables simply need shredding and frying through in coconut oil. Add any additional flavours and drop the fish in at the end.

Serve out, sauce over, perhaps a fried egg alongside, maybe a thin omelette shredded and tossed over?

Sprinkle some seeds on top - I have a jar of mixed pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and linseed.

Dinner, sorted!

Venison Chilli

Friday Night!

Chilli Night! How about something a little bit different?

Vension Chilli!

I had some diced venison in and thought, "why not?".

If you want to try this, you'll need:

• Venison
• Mushrooms
• Coconut Oil
• Onion, Garlic & Chilli
• Cocoa Powder, Ground Coriander & Paprika
• Worcestershire Sauce, Chipotle Paste & Beef Stock
• Chopped Tomatoes
• Oregano & Marjoram
• Black Pepper & Smoked Sea Salt

Melt some coconut oil in a heavy based skillet, browning off the meat and dropping in a bunch of sliced mushrooms to soak up all the good fat.

Now, empty the cupboards!

Ground coriander, paprika, cocoa powder, black pepper, smoked sea salt ... just bung a load in! Sprinkle over the herbs and then a good splosh of Worcestershire Sauce and some Chipotle Paste (I used some Discovery brand which has no offensive ingredients, just chipotle, tomato vinegar and salt).

Meanwhile chop up an onion, garlic and chillies, and blend together. Pour into the skillet and cook through.

Gently blend some chopped tomatoes, too. Pour these into the skillet and stir through, adding some beef stock.

Lower the heat and give it a couple of hours, topping up with water as necessary.

Serve up with some rice or potatoes, perhaps tortilla, perhaps not ... some grated cheese, perhaps, shredded lettuce and most definitely Holy Guacamole.

Deep flavoured, sumptuous and seriously smoky! Definitely a do again ...

Pesce-Poutine?

... probably the last post of the year and we're having a late breakfast cum lunch: brunch, then. We're out later and will no doubt get to eat a little later than usual and there'll be a lot of drink, so wise to get our stomachs lined!

We're having a Poutine, of sorts.

Poutine is a French Canadian dish of fries, gravy and cheese curd. We have some smoked salmon left over from the Christmas period which needs using up and some cottage cheese which really wants eating. Potatoes, goose fat and a heavy based skillet ...

Presenting: the Pesce-Poutine!

If you were to have a go at this, you'll need:

• Smoked salmon
• Boiled egg
• Cottage Cheese
• Potatoes, goose fat and a skillet
• Red cabbage and rocket leaves
• Paprika and Tabasco

Peel and cut up the potatoes into chips, fries, frites, or whatever your language dictates, par boil for a few minutes and then fry off in a skillet in lots of goose fat. Lovely job!

Meanwhile, shred up some red cabbage and mix with rocket leaves.

Chips ready? Shove a handful in a bowl with the salad over, mounding cottage cheese over, smoked salmon on top and a boiled egg to crown.

Sprinkle a little paprika over the egg, splash a load of Tabasco all over it and season with a little black pepper and sea salt.

Sorted! Now, on with the New Year celebrations! Cheers, all ... Happy 2014.