Three Green Pilaf

 

Middle Eastern cookery is a wonderful thing.  Packed full of sweet and savoury flavours, glorious textures and fragrant with mellow, ponderous spices it is always a pleasure to prepare a slow cooked tagine, a ripe and rich salad or a spiced pilaff.  The aromatics of this region seem to suit my soul: lemon, garlic, harissa, cinnamon, tamarind, sumac, saffron, ginger, cumin, chilli and honey, these are all heaven to me and what is equally wonderful, is that the vast majority of middle eastern cookery is naturally allergy friendly or, if not, easily lends itself to being adapted – you can replace bulgur wheat and couscous with quinoa and make pitta from gluten free flours.  My first experience of true Middle Eastern recipes was - like so many others - through the cooking and writing of Claudia Roden.  Claudia Roden hails from the Mediterranean Coast of Egypt and has written numerous beautiful works about the food of that region and beyond, her first being the definitive A Book of Middle Eastern Food, originally published in 1968 and still going strong, although some of the recipes have been reproduced in her more recent incarnation Saffron and Tamarind.

I love the way that Claudia Roden writes; she transports the reader to far flung places and wraps you in the heady scents of toasted spices, fragrant fruits, seared meats and baking terracotta.  If you are new to Middle Eastern cookery or perhaps only like to dabble in a little hummus and falafel from time to time, I implore you to get hold of a Claudia Roden Middle Eastern cook book; it will be both a joy to read and to cook from and is, as Claudia says herself: “all about pleasure and enjoyment but...also a way of discovering other worlds and other cultures”.

Pilaf is a traditional method of preparing rice that originated in the East.  In its very basic form a pilaf is made when the rice is browned in oil or butter with onion, then cooked in stock; halfway through cooking, vegetables, meat or fish can then be added.  Pilafs vary in ingredients but the one consistency is that a pilaf is always spiced.  This particular one is inspired by the glorious abundance of vegetables in season at the moment – I have a real passion for freshly podded peas, light, leafy spinach and bright, robust broccoli and they work really well together in this pilaf to make a lovely, aromatic, summer garden supper.

THREE GREEN PILAF

Serves 4

1 tbsp dairy free butter (Pure Sunflower Spread)

2 tbsp olive oil

2 medium white onions

1 large cup/400g brown basmati rice

2 large cups/1 litre hot vegetable stock

200g/7oz Broccoli

2 large handfuls of young or baby leaf spinach

150g/5½oz Peas, frozen or freshly podded

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp turmeric

80g/3oz apricots

40g/1½ oz sultanas

80g/3oz pine nuts

Begin by dry frying the pine nuts in a heavy based frying pan, over a medium heat until golden and toasted, remembering to shake the pan every now and then to avoid the pine nuts catching.  Finely chop the onions and crush the garlic, trim the broccoli in to little stems, rinse and roughly chop the spinach, cut the apricots into quarters and then set aside.

Place the dairy free butter and olive oil in a large, heavy based pan with lid and heat over a medium flame until melted and bubbling, then add the onions, garlic and spices to the pan, season well and fry gently, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft.  Add the apricots and rice to the pan and stir together so that the rice becomes coated in the oil and spices.  Pour over the stock, cover and then bring to the boil.  Once boiling, turn the heat down to its lowest point and leave the rice to simmer, still covered, until the rice has absorbed all of the stock – about 45 minutes.

Five minutes before the end of cooking time, lift the lid and layer the broccoli over the top of the pilaf, re-cover and leave to finish cooking.  Once cooked, take the pilaf off the heat, add the sliced spinach and peas, re-cover and leave to stand undisturbed for 5 minutes. Next, gently stir in sultanas and pine nuts and carefully fold all of the ingredients together and serve.

Shredded Beef & Ginger Stir Fry

Having recently been given the most amazing new gift - a terracotta, flame and oven proof wok - I have taken to making stir fry’s with a serious amount of zeal.  I love to make this kind of aromatic, flash fried dish: I think it is something to do with the meditative experience of finely slicing the ingredients, the rainbow array of colours involved, and of course the pleasure of creating such quick and delicious meals; and that’s before you have the zen like experience of eating your fare with chop sticks! 

I had thought about posting my Ginger and Garlic Pork Stir Fry recipe or perhaps my Pork and Prawn Pad Thai.  But after much consideration, and a look in my fridge (always a good gauge for what to cook) I decided on offering up my Shredded Beef and Ginger Stir Fry.  Here, I use strips of dense rump steak marinated in toasted sesame oil, a little five spice and a good dose of sweet and hot stem ginger.  The result is a lively dish with a wonderful medley of flavours, perfect for energising you and adding a bit of zing to your evening. 

You will see that I have included bouillon powder and brown sugar in my recipe.  Not such a conventional combination I admit.  The reason for this is that when bouillon powder, brown sugar and the tablespoon of hot water are combined, they create a perfect substitute for soy sauce.  The salt from the bouillon is matched by the sweetness of the sugar, giving you a strong base on which you can add your own variety of spices and flavours.  I use this mixture as the building blocks to all my stir fry recipes, relying on it to give my dishes that somewhat mysterious fifth taste, umami.

SHREDDED BEEF AND GINGER STIR FRY

Serves 2

250g rump steak

2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp soft brown sugar

1 tsp powdered vegetable bouillon (Marigold Swiss GF, DF & yeast free vegetable bouillon powder)

2 tbsp water

½ tsp five spice powder

A pinch of sea salt

2 balls of stem ginger

½ tbsp groundnut oil

200g broccoli – florets, tenderstem or purple sprouting

Begin by making up the marinade for the beef: mix together the powdered stock, sesame oil, sugar, five spice, sea salt and water until you have a smooth paste.  Trim the broccoli and cut in to single stems or florets; finely slice the stem ginger in to thin strips and cut the rump steak, lengthways, into lean strips – approximately ½ cm in width.  Add the cut beef to the marinade, mix well and then leave to marinate for 10 – 30 minutes.

Heat the groundnut oil in a wok until smoking hot, scoop the beef out of its marinade and stir fry for 1 minute.  Add the broccoli to the wok and continue to stir fry for 5 minutes until just tender.  Pour the remaining marinade over the beef and beans and stir fry for a further 2 minutes.  Take off the heat and serve immediately with a bowl of steamed white basmati rice.