An Alternative Christmas Lunch

I love Christmas. the excitement of decorating a freshly cut pine tree, the warm smell of cloves adorning the traditional baked ham and rum soaked Christmas puddings ! all these smells remind me of my childhood family Christmases and I could go on... !

My menu this week is not the traditional turkey or goose but a roast leg of lamb accompanied by potato Dauphinoise which is an ideal accompaniment for a rich meat such as lamb. And as a treat for vegetarians, a tasty butter bean and aubergine stew.

For a light starter thinly sliced smoked salmon garnished with sliced lemon and sprinkled with black pepper and served with some excellent brown bread. To end the meal a luxuriously creamy banana brulee.


Roast leg of lamb

3 - lb leg of lamb
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 teaspoon finely chooped rosemary
3 oz softened butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to gas mark 7 220 C/425F

Make small incisions all over the surface of the lamb and insert the garlic and chopped herbs. Rub the softened butter over the lamb and season with salt and pepper. Place the lamb in a a well oiled roasting tin. Cook for between 1 hour and 20 minutes until done. Transfer the lamb to a warm serving dish.


Gratin Dauphinois

4 lbs good quality potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 pint double cream
1/4 pint milk
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 1/2 oz butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to gas mark 3/170c/325F

First peel the potatoes and slice them very thinly. In a gratin dish arrange a layer of potato slices, sprinkle with the garlic, pepper and salt then arrange another layer of potatoes on top. Mix the cream and milk together and pour over the potatoes add the butter on top and bake on the highest shelf in the over for 1 /1/2 hours or until tender.


Butter Bean and Aubergine stew

4 tbsp oil
1 onion peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 aubergine trimmed and cut into chunks
a glass of white wine
1/4 pint vegetable stock
1 400g can of chopped tomatoes
1 1/2 teaspoon tomato puree
1 x 400g can of butter beans
Salt and freshly ground black pepper


Heat 2 tbsp oil and fry the onion and garlic. Transfer to a flameprof casserole. Add remaining oil to pan and fry aubergine until soft. Transfer to casserole.

Pour over the wine, stock and tomatoes and stir in the tomato puree. Bring to bubbling and simmer for 15 minutes to reduce. Stir in butter beans and gently heat through. At the end of cooking season to taste.


Banana Brulee

1/2 pt double cream
4 egg yolks, beaten
1 tbsp caster sugar
2 ripe bananas peeled, sliced and sprinkled with lemon juice
Demerara sugar for topping

Place the double cream, beaten egg yolks and caster sugar in a pan. Stir gently over a very low heat until the custard thickens. Arrange banana slices in the bottom of 4 ramekins. Pour the custard mix over the banana slices and leave to cool. Transfer to the fridge and leave to chill for one hour. Next sprinkle a layer of demerara sugar over the custard mix and cook under a pre-heated grill until the sugar is melted and caramelised. Leave to cool again then chill until required.



To drink: try a bottle of red Rioja Contino Estate Reserva 1984

An Elegant Dinner Menu

Here is a delicious and easy dinner menu for the festive season ahead. This is my own version of Chicken Fricassee, a Jamaican favourite. Start the meal with a fresh and lemony crab salad and finish with chilled Passion fruit cheesecakes below.


Fresh Crab and Avocado Salad

2 large avocados
7 oz white crab meat
crisp lettuce leaves
1 small red chilli diced

Dressing:
6-8 tbsps olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Mix all the ingredients together. Halve the avocados, cut into thin slices and add to the lettuce leaves . Pour over the olive oil dressing and serve.




For the Chicken Fricassee:

3-4 lbs chicken pieces
3 slices streaky bacon, chopped
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
2 tblspns plain flour for coating the chicken pieces
2 oz mushrooms, sliced
1 chillie, chopped
Oil for frying the chicken
1 pint chicken stock
Sprig of thyme
Black pepper and salt for seasoning

Season the chicken with the salt and pepper and coat with the sieved flour. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the chicken until browned. Transfer to a warm dish and set aside. Fry the bacon, onions and garlic until soft and then add the chillie and mushrooms. Add the chicken pieces to the pan and pour in the stock and stir. Add the thyme and bay leaf. Transfer to a casserole dish and place in a hot oven to cook for about 40 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened. If the sauce is too thick add more water to the sauce. Serve with boiled white rice.


Passion Fruit Cheesecakes

Serves 4

6 oz digestive biscuits
3 oz unsalted butter, melted
7 oz cream cheese
Juice of a lime
Pulp and seeds of 2 ripe passion fruit
4 fl oz thick double cream
1 sachet gelatine
3 tbsp hot water
2 egg whites

Crumble the digestives in a processor, add melted butter and mix well. Press a layer of the mixture into the bases of four 3 in loose-bottomed flan tins. Chill until set.

For the filling, beat cream cheese until softened then stir in lime juice and passion fruit pulp and seeds. Fold in double cream. Dissolve gelatine in 3 tbsps boiling water and leave until syrupy. Add gelatine to cheese mix and stir through. Whisk egg whites until stiff and carefully fold into the mixture. Divide between flan tins and chill until set.

Turn out on to 4 plates, decorate with passion fruit seeds and pulp.


To drink: A chilled sauvignon blanc from the Loire Valley.

Glazed Ham with Sweet Pickled Baby Onions

With the Christmas holidays and festivities upon us nothing is quicker and easier for feeding unexpected guests and family than a traditional whole baked ham. Served hot or cold with a cold potato salad or creamy mashed potatoes. In this recipe the ham is glazed with mustard and Demerara sugar and accompanied by sweet pickled onions and raisins.

1 x 8kg smoked cooked ham
2 doz cloves


For the Glaze
4 fl oz orange juice
2 oz brown Demerara sugar
4 tbls Dijon mustard

For the pickled baby onions

1 kg baby onions
100ml water
150 ml Balsamic vinegar
4 tbsps olive oil
100g caster sugar
1 tbsp tomato paste
50g raisins

To pickle the onions place them in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave to stand for one minute. When cooled put the onions in a saucepan with the vinegar, oil, sugar,tomato paste, raisins and 100 ml water. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer gently uncovered until the onions are tender and the liquid has reduced. This will take around 30 minutes.


Preheat the oven to 190C/375F Gas mark 5
Remove the skin from the ham and score the fat in a diamond shaped pattern. Into each diamond insert a clove and pread the mustard all over the ham. Next sprinke on the brown sugar. Put the ham in a roasting tin with the orange juice, place in the oven and bake for around 30 minutes basting occasionally until the surface turns golden. Serve with the pickled baby onions.



To drink: I suggest a good Beaujolais

Creative Caribbean recipes: Smoked Salmon Kedgeree

Creative Caribbean recipes: Smoked Salmon Kedgeree: "This is a recipe I have adapted from one passed down to me by my formidable former mother-in-law. This was a favourite breakfast recipe - r..."

Smoked Salmon Kedgeree

This is a recipe I have adapted from one passed down to me by my formidable former mother-in-law. This was a favourite breakfast recipe - rice with fish and curry - dished up by Indian servants during the family's miltitary service in India in the old days of Empire!



This makes a delicious and simple lunch or supper dish and acceptable to many vegetarians!

1 1/2 lbs lightly smoked salmon fillets
3 oz butter
300g Basmati Rice
150ml milk
1 onion chopped
4 hard-boilled eggs, shelled and chopped
1 teaspoon hot curry powder
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 green chillies, finely sliced
5 tblspns chopped fresh coriander
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Place the salmon fillets in a large sauce pan and cover them with the milk. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 10 minutes until the fish is cooked. Transfer the fish to a dish, reserving the milk. Cook the rice in lightly salted boiling water with some of the milk until tender. In a saucepan melt the butter and soften the onion, the cumin seeds, and chillies for about 5 minutes then stir in the curry power and cook for a further minute. Stir in the cooked rice and the chopped eggs. Flake the fish and add to the rice mixture with a little of the milk to moisten. Sprinkle over the chopped coriander and stir the ingredients together and heat through. When ready to serve, season to taste and transfer the kedgeree to a hot serving dish, pour over the lime juice. My mother-in-law liked to serve a dollop of thick cream to the kedgeree.


To drink: A well chilled chablis

My Mother's Chicken Curry

Chicken Curry and Goat (mutton) Curry are firm favourites in Jamaica and have become part of the national cuisine thanks to Indian indentured labourers brought to Jamaica in the 1830s to work on sugar plantations after slavery was abolished. Most Jamaican parties are incomplete without a steaming plate of chicken or goat curry!


4 tbsps oil
3 1/2 lb chicken, cut in 8 joints
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 Scotch Bonnet pepper, chopped
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 1/2 tsp ground tumeric
3 tbsp hot curry powder
1/2 hot chicken stock or water
2 potatoes, peeled and chopped in chunks
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 fresh limes
1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander leaves

First rub the lime juice over the chicken , pat dry and set aside.
Heat the oil in a pan and brown the chicken joints. Transfer to a flameproof pan. Fry onion, garlic and Scotch Bonnet pepper until soft but not browned. Stir in spices including the curry powder and cook for a further minute. Add the chicken and potatoes and mix together. Pour in the stock. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer until chicken is cooked through and the curry is thickened. This should take around 45 minutes. Add the chopped coriander leaves stir and simmer for another 5 minutes. Serve on its own with a mixed green salad or with boiled white rice if you are feeling greedy!

To drink : A delicious chilled New World sauvignon blanc which would go well with the spiciness of the curry.

Chickpea and Salt Cod Stew

This is a super delicious and rustic recipe, ideal if you are in need of some comfort eating!

750g (1 1/2 llb) dried salted codfish (you can get these in the larger supermarkets)
350g (12 oz) dried chickpeas
1 x 175g (6 oz) potato, peeled
85ml (3fl oz) olive oil
8 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
4 plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
3-4 tbsp chopped parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cover the chickpeas in plenty of water and leave them to soak overnight.

When you are ready to cook, drain the chickpeas and pour over enough fresh water to cover. Bring to boil, add the peeled potatoes and simmer until tender, adding hot water now and then, if necessary, to make sure they stay well covered. Drain and set aside, saving the cooking liquid.

Put the salt cod into a pan of boiling water and simmer for 6-8 minutes or until cooked. Drain and when cool flake the fish into large pieces, discard the skin and any bones.

Heat the olive oil in a large pan , add the garlic and chilli flakes and cook for a minute without browning. Add the tomatoes, chickpeas and potatoes. Add a little of the cooking liquid from the chickpeas and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the stew has reduced and thickened. Fold in the salt cod and parsley and season with freshly ground black.
pepper.

Serve with a salad of crisp green leaves.

To drink: French whites from the Loire Valley would be best such as muscadet or sancerre.

Sausage and Cannellini beans in Red Wine

Fifth of November celebrations are under way this week-end with huge bonfire parties in parks and cosy back gardens and people wrapped up warm standing around in the cold and damp watching the most brilliant firework displays. Bonfire Night parties are usually very informal affairs with simple food such as spicy hot dogs and piping hot baked potatoes.

This is my warming and simple recipe for braised sausages and Cannellini beans in red wine for cold and hungry guests. I am using Black Farmer's pork sausages (www. theblackfarmer.com) which are absolutely delicious!


1 tbsp sunflower oil
8 Black Farmer's pork sausages
8 oz bacon, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 onions, chopped
2 sprigs thyme
1 heaped tbsp plain flour
150ml red wine
410g can Cannellini beans. drained and rinsed
1 teaspn Dijon Mustard
600ml chicken stock

Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the sausages and brown all over. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add to the frying pan, the chopped bacon, garlic, thyme and onion and saute for 3-4 minutes. Sprinkle over the flour and mustard and cook for a further 3 minutes stirring constantly. Gradually add the wine stirring with a wooden spoon and bring to the boil then reduce the heat. Add the sausages and hot chicken stock. Season with salt and black pepper. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes until the sausages are cooked through and the sauce has thickened. Stir in the Cannellini beans and cook for a further 5 minutes. Serve with creamy mashed potatoes.

Delicious Chocolate Rum Pudding

This is an easy but impressive chocolate pudding laced with Jamaican Rum


40g/1 1/2 oz breadcrumbs
25g/1 oz ground almonds
175 ml/6fl oz double cream
50ml/2 fl oz dark Jamaican Rum
150g/51/2 oz dark chocolate, broken up in pieces
50g/1 3/4 oz unsalted butter
3 eggs, separated
125g/4 1/2 oz golden caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Combine the breadcrumbs, the ground almonds, cream and rum in a large bowl and leave for 30 mins. Meanwhile, place the chocolate pieces in a pan and set over simmering hot water and gently melt it. Butter six individual souffle dishes and dust them with ground almonds. Cream together the butter, egg yolks and 50g 1 3/4 oz of the sugar in a mixer or food processor. Combine this with the breadcrumb mixture, then stir in the melted chocolate.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff then whisk in the remaining sugar in about three goes, whisking well with each addition until you have a glossy meringue. Fold a quarter of this into the chocolate mixture, then add the remainder. Spoon into the prepared souffle dishes and bake for 30-40 minutes. Don't worry if they sink slightly in the middle. The puddings can be reheated for 10 mins in the oven at 180C/350F/gas mark 4 when required.


TO SERVE: run a knife around the edge of the puddings and turn them on to 6 dessert plates. Spoon over some more rum and serve immediately with vanilla ice cream.

Braised Oxtail with Butter Beans

This is a delicious cold weather supper richly flavoured with thyme and bay leaves and firey Scotch Bonnet Pepper!


4 lbs oxtail, trimmed
2 tablespoons Sunflower oil
2 bay leaves1 1/2 pints beef stock
2 tablespoons flour for coating the oxtail
2-3 Spring onions, chopped
1 Scotch Bonnet Pepper
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1lb onions, peeled and roughly chopped
1lb carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 sprigs thyme
Freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste
2 tins butter beans
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Season the oxtail with salt and pepper, thyme, bay leaves, spring onions and leave overnight or a couple of hours to absorb the flavours. When ready to cook, thinly dust the oxtail with the flour. Put two tablespoons of sugar in a sauce pan with the Sunflower oil. Heat gently and then add the oxtail. When browned add the 1 1/2 pints of beef stock, the carrots, onion, Scotch Bonnet pepper (left whole) and the rest of the seasonings. Allow to simmer for about 90 minutes on a low heat or until the meat falls off the bone. Add more water if necessary. Finally, add the butter beans and cook for another 10 minutes. Serve with mashed potatoes or boiled white rice.


To drink - a rich red Burgundy

Two delicious soups for Autumn

When I was a child growing up in Jamaica, it was traditional to have a hearty bowl of soup for lunch on a Saturday whether it was pouring with rain outside or gloriously sunny. Soups were usually Pumpkin, Beef or Pea and often enriched with root vegetables such as yams or potatoes. In these two recipes I have omitted the chunky vegetables and have simply liquidised the ingredients to give a rich thick smooth soup. Delicious with warm crusty bread.

Pumpkin Soup

2 oz split peas
2 pts chicken stock
1/4 lb peeled and chopped pumpkin
1 onion coarsely chopped
2 rashers grilled crispy bacon, crumble for garnishing
Salt and freshly ground blackpepper
Sprig of thyme
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 whole Scotchbonnet pepper or two green chillies chopped
A tablespoon of freshly chopped parsley for garnishing

Soak the split peas in a bowl of water overnight. When ready to use, rinse thoroughly and place in a saucepan with the stock and other ingredients except the bacon and parsley. Simmer until the pumpkin and split peas are tender. Cool and then put through a liquidiser until thick and smooth. Serve hot and garnish with the chopped parsley and bacon.

Serves 6


Sweet Potato Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 large onions - peeled and roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 lb sweet potatoes - peeled and diced
1 1/2 pints chicken stock
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup double cream

For the Garnish

2 tablespoons sour cream or creme fraiche
1 tablespoon chopped chives
2 rashers bacon grilled and crumbled

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute until softened. Add the sweet potatoes, the stock, herbs and seasonings. Bring to the boil then lower the heat and simmer until potatoes are tender. This should take about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat, cool and puree in food processor/liquidiser adding the stock gradually. Process until smooth but if not smooth enough, pass through a fine sieve. When ready to serve, reheat the soup and add the double cream. Spoon the soup in bowls and garnish with the sour cream or creme fraiche, sprinkling over the chives and bacon.

Serves 6

Creative Caribbean recipes: Oven Baked Red Snapper with a Tomato & Chilli Pepp...

Creative Caribbean recipes: Oven Baked Red Snapper with a Tomato & Chilli Pepp...: "Oven Baked Red Snapper with a Tomato & Chilli Pepper Sauce Red Snapper is a popular fish in the Caribbean. This is a typical recipe but it ..."

Oven Baked Red Snapper with a Tomato & Chilli Pepper Sauce

Red Snapper is a popular fish in the Caribbean. This is a typical recipe but it is also delicious stuffed with callaloo/spinach or steamed in the tomato sauce accompanying this recipe or curried.

2-3lbs Snapper, gutted and scaled
with head and tail left on
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon crushed thyme
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 bay leaf, crushes
ground blackpepper

Rub the cleaned fish inside and out with salt and ground black pepper. Cut gashes on one side of the fish. Put into a greased baking pan with the cut side facing up. Pour the olive oil over the fish and sprinkle the crushed herbs into the cuts and in the belly of the fish. Pour over the lemon juice. Bake in a hot oven at 350F, 180 C for about 20-25 minutes basting occasionally or until the skin is crisp and the flesh just flaky.

When the fish is done, transfer to a warm plate. Now make the sauce with the juices from the pan. I may be necessary to add a little water to the pan.


Tomato and Chilli Pepper Sauce

There are many versions of this sauce varying in name and the amount of peppers used.

1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 medium tomatoes diced or a small tin of chopped tomatoes
1 garlic clove, crushed
olive oil for frying
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh green chilli pepper
pinch of salt
6 pimento berried, optional

Saute the onion and garlic together gently in the olive oil and then add the chopped tomatoes, peppers and pimento berries. Mix all the ingredients together with the liquid from the fish pan and bring to a boil. Add more water if necessary. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Pour over the fish and serve.

Pan-Fried Duck Breasts with Passion Fruit Sauce Plantation- Style

This is a delicious recipe inspired by the beautiful old Great House & Plantation, Rawlins Plantation in St. Kitts.

Ingredients:

2 duck breast fillets (about 8 oz each)
Olive oil for frying

Passion fruit sauce

1 cup passion fruit pulp (about 10 ripe passion fruits)
1/4 cup white sugar
2/3 cups water
1 tablespoon cornflour
2 tablespoons Grand Mariner or Red Rum (optional)

Combine sugar, water and cornflour in a small saucepan over a low heat. Cook gently stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. Add the passion fruit pulp and bring back to boil. Remove from heat. When cool add the Rum or Grand Marnier and chill. Set aside.


To cook the duck breasts:

Heat the oil in a frying-pan. Prick the skin of the duck breasts and place in the frying pan skin side down. Fry over a high heat for about 4-8 minutes on each side until browned or cook until just a thin line of pink is visible in the centre.

Transfer the duck breasts to a warm plate and slice thinly. Arrange a fan of the thinly sliced duck on a plate and pour the passion fruit sauce over the duck and serve.

Recipe for the week - Jamaican Jerked Pork Chops

I love collecting recipes..."

"....from those copied from my mother's old recipe books to those exciting new ones picked up while travelling abroad.I love talking and writing about food too. Compiling a book of Caribbean recipes a few years ago, I was given many exciting recipes by kind hostesses, I now have a superb collection of delicious Jamaican recipes.

Many are traditional but there are some which I have adapted, using old ingredients to create modern and stylish new ones, such as, Ackee Wrapped in Smoked Salmon Parcels. Jamaican cooking is simple and delicious, making good use of the abundant local ingredients available - fresh vegetables, seafood straight from the sea, aromatic herbs and spices, flavoursome hot peppers, yams, bananas and potatoes, all from small rural farms. And of course, there is the rum - white and dark rum - the main ingredients in Jamaica's popular punches! Delicious too in flavouring roast pork dishes and puddings.

For me, there is nothing more pleasurable than cooking for family and friends and trying out the latest recipe, the anticipation of presenting the food, decorating the table with pretty china, gleaming silver and sparkling glasses and arranging bowls of fresh flowers in every conceivable spot. I have added some of my favourite recipes here and hope you will enjoy them too."

My receipe this week is Jamaican Jerked Pork Chops and I will be introducing a new receipe every week.

This is a simple and delicious recipe and friends always ask me to serve it when I invite them round for supper. Once you have made the marinade for the pork chops in advance and coat the pork chops to absorb all the flavours for at least an hour you are on your way!

4 pork chops (trimmed but with some of the fat left on)

For the marinade you will need:

A tablespoon of pimento berries
a Scotch Bonnet pepper or four red chillie peppers finely chopped
2 bunches of Spring Onions or Escallion, washed and roughly chopped
2 dried Bay leaves
2 sprigs of thyme, chopped
4 large cloves of garlic
a small teaspoon of salt

Put all the ingredients for the marinade in a mortar and use the pestle to crush them to a thick paste. The salt helps to liquidise the garlic and spring onions. Once you have a thick paste coat the pork chops generously and leave them covered in the fridge. When you are ready to cook the pork chops, scrape off the marinade and put them in a roasting pan with a little oil in a hot oven say, gas mark 6 for about 45 minutes turning them at least once. Serve with boiled rice or a Cannelli Bean and tomato Stew and a green salad.

To drink: a bottle of chilled Rose or a crisp Sauvignon Blanc


Jenny Mein