Frizelles Recipe from New York

I was sent this recipe for Frizelles, a crisp biscuit from the Bronx, New York a week ago. I am across it this evening and had to share it.

Frizelles Biscuit Recipe

Ingredients
490g (3 1/2 cups) plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
250ml (1 cup) olive oil
250ml (1 cup) cold water

Method:
Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and blak pepper in a bowl and stir to mix with a fork.

Add the olive oil and water and mix everything together until you have a soft dough. Take a small piece of the dough and roll it in the palm of your hand.

Using kitchen scissors, cut into bite-sized pieces and place on an ungreased baking tray (ensure they do not touch).

Transfer to an oven pre-heated to 200ºC (400ºF) and bake for about 30 minutes. Ensure you turn them over half way through so that they are golden brown on both sides.

Check the biscuits after about 10 minutes and if they are browning quickly on top, flip them over and bake for just 10 minutes more.

Allow to cool completely before storing or serving.

Aficionados store them in a jar and chill them in the refrigerator over night before serving.

For more biscuit recipes see the Celtnet Biscuit/Cookie recipes page.

Beef Italian Chili Recipe

This is a beef chili made with a ragú (Italian bolognese sauce base). The original recipe came from Johnny Carino and this is supposed to be a good copycat version of Johnny Carino's Italian Chili.

Beef Italian Chili Recipe — Johnny Carino's Copycat

Ingredients:
500g (1 1/8 lb) minced (ground) beef
225g (1/2 lb) Italian sausage
1 medium onion, chopped
75g (1/2 cup) green bell pepper, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
850ml (30 oz) bolognese ragú
400g (1 tin) cooked blak beans (tinned is fine)
400g (14 1/2 oz) chili beans
400g tin of chopped tomatoes (with juice)
400g (14 1/2 oz) sliced mushrooms
250ml (1 cup) water
50g (1/2 cup) sliced pepperoni, halved
5 tsp hot chilli powder (or to taste)
freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
chilli flakes, crushed, to taste

Method:
Add the minced beef to a large pot, heat for 2 minutes then add the sausage, onion, green bell pepper and garlic. Fry for about 8 minutes, or until browned then drain off the excess fat.

Add all the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes, or until the chili is thick and the flavours have melded.

Serve hot.

Top 20 Food and Recipe Blogs — Part 1: 1 to 10

I love food and cookery and though I spend a lot of time pouring over historic and ancient recipe books (I translate these and make them freely available) I do view other peoples' blogs to see what they are doing and how they are presenting their recipes, as well as gaining inspiration and finding areas of cookery that I might not know much about.

Below is the first half of my list of the top 20 food blogs. The list is based on relative rankings in Google over a few weeks, in addition to my personal view on the long-term longevity of the blog.

1. simplyrecipes.com This is the blog of Elise Bauer, showcasing the best of her family's food and recipes that she cooks. The blog is updated at least every other day and there are a number of guest posts. It is beautifully illustrated throughout and has anecdotes and descriptions associated with the recipes, as well as a very well presented version of the recipe, which is printer friendly. Preptime, cooktime and number of servings are given for each recipe. You also have the option of printing the recipe out with or without the image of the dish. Excellent food blog and well worth visiting.

2. RECIPEgirl  This is the blog of Lori Lange, who describes herself as a recipe developer, food writer and a mom. The bog is to share 2500 of her recipes with readers. There are anecdotes with the recipes and the recipes themselves are nicely presented and easily printable with good images. The blog is well laid out and easy to navigate. New recipe are added every couple of days. My only quibble would be that the recipes can sometimes be buried in the other text on the page and they sometimes feel as if they are not the main focus of the site. But the recipes themselves are well written, cover a wide range and this blog is well worth visiting.

3. SkinnyTaste This is the blog of Gina Homolka, who describes herself as an author, photographer and recipe developer. The blog began in 2008 and presents healthy and low-fat recipes. The recipe images are beautiful, but there is a popup, when you navigate to a recipe page and that's something that instantly turns me off, especially as the popup is US-based only (geo-targeting is not hard). On the recipe page, the images and the recipe are the main focus, but the page does look a little cluttered. There  is a short description of the dish and then the recipe. As you would expect the recipe itself is well presented and the range of food is good. Worth visiting.

4. For the Love of Cooking This is the blog if Pam, who is obviously a good photographer. There is a wide range of recipes here, with Asian recipes being a big features. Recipes are the main focus and they are beautifully illustrated throughout. Recipes have a nice print option, which comes with a thumbnail of the dish. Lots of recipes, lots of different dishes and a nice simplistic layout. I really liked this blog.

5. No Recipes This is the blog of Marc,  specializing in cooking techniques, classic and Asian recipes (Japanese and Korean being a speciality). The pictures are beautiful, there is a long description (which is very informative) of the recipe. The recipes are simply and nicely presented with images of ingredients and methods. There is no easy print option though. However, the recipe is obviously written by someone who is knowledgable about food and loves cooking. Highly-recommended blog.

6. 101 Cookbooks This is the blog of Heidi, who describes the site as a 'recipe journal'. The blog is written based on the premise that at some point, your shelves won't fit even one more cookbook. Great recipes and gorgeous food photos for those who want to 'eat smart and do it in style'. It is beautifully and simply presented and there is quite a lot of information about the recipe and text to describe it. The recipe is simply presented in conversational style (which I like). Indeed, it's rather like reading a well-written Victorian cookery book. Highly-recommended blog.

7. Baked Bree This is the recipe blog of Bree and the blog has a nice, uncluttered layout. The images are beautiful and plentiful, including step-by-step guides. I like the images, but I am not sure having such big ones breaking up the text is such a good option. But others I have shown the Blog to like this as it gives a visual guide whilst cooking.  Still, a number of the recipes (but not all) have a summary of the recipe at the bottom with an easy print option. However the print version does not have an image of the dish. Liked the recipes and the range and I would definitely recommend this blog for a visit.

8. The Spiced Life This is the recipe blog of Laura, and brings together a large and eclectic collection of recipes (many ethnic). The blog has a nice, uncluttered, appearance and the recipes are beautifully illustrated throughout. There is descriptive text to go with the recipe and a summary is presented at the end. The recipe summary is nicely presented in descriptive form and has a print option, making it easy to keep a copy. This is an excellent blog with an excellent range of dishes (Thai is particularly well represented). Visit this blog today.

9. eCurry A blog focussed on Indian cuisine and is written and photographed by Soma. It's not just Indian dishes, but they are the focus. The recipes are all beautifully and copiously illustrated with extensive descriptions. The recipe is presented at the end of this with a descriptive method that's easy to follow. My only quibble is that though the recipe is nicely and clearly presented separate from the other contents of the page, there is no easy print option for just the recipe itself. But given the quality of the site and the recipe that's a minor quibble in this case. This is a brilliant blog, well worth a visit.

10. Steamy Kitchen This is the blog of Jaden Hair, who describes herself as: a professional recipe developer, food columnist, and food photographer specializing in fast, fresh, and easy recipes for the home cook. There is a large selection of dishes mainly separated into meal types. All the recipes are copiously illustrated and extensively described. The recipe is presented at the end with a thumbnail of the finished dish and an easy print out option. Nice presentation and good writing. Highly-recommended for a visit.




If you enjoyed this listing of ten of the best food and recipe blogs on the web, and you find it useful, please consider linking to this page http://celtnet-recipes.blogspot.com/2012/10/top-20-food-and-recipe-blogs-part-1-1.html also mention this page on your favourite social networking site.

On to part 2, detailing sites 11 to 20.

Alphabetic Recipes W — Walnut and Honey Tart Recipe

Today we have a classic British recipe for a traditional dish of a walnut and honey breadcrumb filling baked in an orange shortcrust pastry shell.

Today's is the twenty-sixth entry of my new series of Alphabetic recipes. Each day for the next month and more, I will be adding a new recipe linked to a different letter of the alphabet. As I collect recipes from all over the globe, and have lots of Welsh recipes, I am going to use a blend of the Welsh and English alphabets:

A | B | C | D | E | F | Ff | G | H | I | J | K | L | Ll | M | N | O | P | Q | R | Rh | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

so there will be 30 entries in total. As today is the twenty-sixth day in this series I am providing a recipe starting with the letter 'W'. This is a traditional recipe from Britain for a classic dish of venison baked in a puff pastry crust.

Walnut and Honey Tart Recipe

This is a traditional British recipe for a classic dessert of a honey, breadcrumb, sugar, egg and walnut filling baked in a wholemeal flour pastry base.

Ingredients:


For the Pastry:
175g (1 1/4 cups) wholemeal flour
75g (6 tbsp) butter, diced
pinch of salt
freshly-grated zest of 1 orange
juice of 1 orange

For the Filling:
4 tbsp runny honey
75g (3/4 cup) wholemeal breadcrumbs
3 tbsp dark brown sugar
3 eggs
100g (1 cup) walnuts, roughly chopped

Method:


For the pastry, combine the flour and salt in a bowl. Add the diced butter and rub into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in the orange zest, then work in just enough of the orange juice to bring the mixture together as a dough.

Form the pastry into a ball, wrap in clingfilm (plastic wrap) then place in the refrigerator and chill for at least 20 minutes. After this time, turn the pastry out onto a floured work surface and roll it out until large enough to line a 20cm diameter fluted flan dish or tin. Prick the base of the dough, line with parchment paper (typically trimmed to a circle known as cartouche) and fill with baking beans then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 200ºC and blind bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, take out the baking beans and baking parchment and set aside.


For the filling, combine the sugar, honey and breadcrumbs in a bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly to combine after each addition then work in the left-over orange juice.


Sprinkle the chopped walnuts in the base of the pastry case then pour over the filling. Transfer to an oven pre-heated to 200ºC and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the filling is set and golden (cover with greaseproof [waxed] paper or foil, if the tart is browning too quickly in the oven).

When the pastry is lightly coloured and the filling is set, remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 20 minutes. This tart can be served either warm or cold and accompanied by ice cream, custard, cream or clotted cream.

The recipe presented here is based, with permission, on the Celtnet Walnut and Honey Tart recipe.

This recipe is brought to you in conjunction with the Celtnet Guide to Recipes Beginning with 'W'.

Find more British recipes on the Recipes from the British Isles page of this blog.

If you enjoyed this recipe, why not go over to the Celtnet site to download your completely FREE eBook of 45 Halloween recipes.

Alphabetic Recipes V — Venison Wellington

Today we have a classic British recipe for a classic dish of venison baked in a pastry crust with pâté and mushroom duxelles. This makes an excellent dish for a Christmas or a dinner party meal.

Today's is the twenty-fifth entry of my new series of Alphabetic recipes. Each day for the next month and more, I will be adding a new recipe linked to a different letter of the alphabet. As I collect recipes from all over the globe, and have lots of Welsh recipes, I am going to use a blend of the Welsh and English alphabets:

A | B | C | D | E | F | Ff | G | H | I | J | K | L | Ll | M | N | O | P | Q | R | Rh | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

so there will be 30 entries in total. As today is the twenty-fifth day in this series I am providing a recipe starting with the letter 'V'. This is a traditional recipe from Britain for a classic dish of venison baked in a puff pastry crust.

Venison Wellington Recipe

This is a traditional British recipe for classic dish of a fillet of venison covered with mushroom duxelles and pate that's baked in a pleated puff pastry covering.

Ingredients:


1kg middle cut fillet of venison
4 tbsp thyme leaves, finely chopped
sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper
ground juniper berries
500g duxelles
150g pâté (eg foie gras, mushroom, duck liver etc)
2 tsp English mustard
500g puff pastry
1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp milk
melted butter, to glaze

Method:


Liberally season the venison with the thyme leaves, juniper berries, sea salt and black pepper. Rub well into the meat, place on a non-reactive baking dish, cover and set aside to infuse for 30 minutes.

After this time, heat the olive oil in a pan and when almost smoking add the venison and fry to sear on each side until nicely browned. Remove the meat from the pan and set aside to cool.

Take the pastry and roll out on a lightly-floured work surface until slightly wider than the meat and just over twice as wide as the meat. Coat the pastry (leaving a 2cm rim) with the pâté. Take half the duxelles mixture and use this to cover one half of the pastry.

Cover the venison with the mustard them place on top of the pastry half covered with the duxelles. Use the remaining duxelles to cover the visible surface of the venison then lift the uncovered half of the pastry and use to cover the meat. Trim the ends of the pastry so that they're slightly longer than the venison and crimp together (use the egg mix to help seal).

Trim a piece of baking parchment so that it's the same size as the venison Wellington. Grease with butter and use a spatula to carefully lift the venison Wellington on top. Transfer to a lightly-greased baking tray then set in the refrigerator to rest for 40 minutes.

After this time, brush the surface of the pastry with melted butter, cut three slashes in the top for steam to escape then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 180ºC (350ºF) and bake for about 25 minutes, or until the pastry has puffed up and it a dark golden brown in colour.

At this point, take the venison Wellington out of the coven. Cover with kitchen foil and put in a warm place to rest for 10 minutes. When rested, slice the venison Wellington and serve with roast vegetables and creamed, mashed, potatoes or roast potatoes.

As a variation you can also make this recipe with a beef fillet or even a pork fillet.

The recipe presented here is based, with permission, on the Celtnet Venison Wellington recipe.

This recipe is brought to you in conjunction with the Celtnet Guide to Recipes Beginning with 'V'.

Find more British recipes on the Recipes from the British Isles page of this blog.

If you enjoyed this recipe, why not go over to the Celtnet site to download your completely FREE eBook of 45 Halloween recipes.

Burmese Lentil Soup (Pe ni lay hin cho)

This is a classic soup recipe for two from Burma (Myanmar). Typically this soup is served either before or as an accompaniment to chicken or beef curry.

Burmese Lentil Soup Recipe (Pe ni lay hin cho)

Serves: 2 persons

Total preparation time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

250g lentils

1 onion, peeled and thinly sliced

3 tbsp cooking oil

1/4 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp salt

1 tsp fish sauce

Method:

Heat the cooking oil in a large heavy-based pan. Add the onions and fry for about 8 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the onions with a slotted spoon and set a side.

Was the lentils well, drain in a sieve then turn into the pan. Stir to coat in the oil then pour in 50ml water and the ground turmeric. Bring to a simmer and cook until the lentils are fragrant (about 5 minutes). Stir well to combine then add 1l water along with the salt and fish sauce.

Bring to a boi and cook for about 20 minutes, or until the lentils are tender (time will depend on the type of lentils used). 

Take off the heat, turn into a soup bowl, garnish with the fried onions and serve immediately.

Alphabetic Recipes U — Ungodly Chocolate Truffles Recipe

Today we have a classic French recipe for a classic Christmas or Valentine's day treat of chocolate-coated chocolate truffles.

Today's is the twenty-fourth entry of my new series of Alphabetic recipes. Each day for the next month and more, I will be adding a new recipe linked to a different letter of the alphabet. As I collect recipes from all over the globe, and have lots of Welsh recipes, I am going to use a blend of the Welsh and English alphabets:

A | B | C | D | E | F | Ff | G | H | I | J | K | L | Ll | M | N | O | P | Q | R | Rh | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

so there will be 30 entries in total. As today is the twenty-fourth day in this series I am providing a recipe starting with the letter 'U'. This is a traditional recipe from French for a classic treat of cream, chocolate and butter truffles that are chilled to solidify and coated in thick chocolate before serving.

Ungodly Chocolate Truffles Recipe

This is a traditional French recipe for rich chocolate truffles make from a mix of chocolate and cream that are coated in dark chocolate. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic French version of: Ungodly Chocolate Truffles.

Ingredients:


240ml double cream
300g dark (at least 70% cocoa solids) chocolate, chopped
3 tbsp unsalted butter, chopped
500g dark (at least 70% cocoa solids) chocolate, chopped (for coating)

Method:


Pour the cream into a heavy pan, slowly bring to a simmer (a microwave and a glass bowl is just as good for this). Remove from the heat and whisk in the 300g chocolate and butter. (The smaller they are cut up, the easier this will be.)

Once the chocolate has melted and been incorporated into the cream, allow to cool and refrigerate until firmly set, stirring now and then. This will take about 4 hours in the refrigerator compartment. If you use a freezer you can cut that down to under an hour, but you will need to stir much more frequently.


Using a melon baller or spoon, scoop out a tablespoon or so of chocolate and use your hands to form balls about 2 to 3 cm in diameter. Spread them on a baking tray and freeze for an hour to ensure they are solid. While the balls are freezing, chop and carefully heat, in a bain-marie (double boiler) or in a microwave, the chocolate for the coating.

Stir until melted then take off the heat and allow to slowly cool until it feels just warm to your skin. The object is to have it just above the melting point so that when the frozen chocolate balls are dipped in it, they gather and congeal a thickish coating around them.


When the centres of the chocolate balls are frozen and the molten chocolate is ready, take each ball and drop it into the coating, roll it quickly about, then remove it with the tines of two forks and drop it onto a sheet of wax paper. If the coating thickens too much, reheat it a little, perhaps using a microwave.


When all the truffles are dipped and well coated, you can serve them right away. If they will be stored or transported, refrigerate them a while longer first.


Find more Valentine's day Recipes Here and more Christmas Recipes here.

The recipe presented here is based, with permission, on the Celtnet Ungodly Chocolate Truffles recipe.

This recipe is brought to you in conjunction with the Celtnet Guide to Recipes Beginning with 'U'.

If you enjoyed this recipe, why not go over to the Celtnet site to download your completely FREE eBook of 45 Halloween recipes.

Bronzed Chicken Wings with Ginger Recipe

This evening it's a simple chicken wings recipe. I had a bag of wings in the freezer that had been there for ages. I cam across this recipe in an old eBook I had lying around and with a few tweaks, this is the recipe as it actually ended up being cooked:

Bronzed Chicken Wings with Ginger Recipe

serves 4

Ingredients:

1kg chicken wings

60ml honey (or golden syrup)

60ml soy sauce

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp groundnut (peanut) oil

2 tsp fresh ginger, finely minced

2 tbsp dry sherry

115g very small mushrooms

100g bamboo shoots, sliced into thin slivers

2 spring onions, cut into 3cm lengths

120ml chicken stock

1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)

2 tbsp water

Method:

Cut wing tips off the chicken wings. Arrange the wings in shallow baking dish. 

In small bowl, stir together the honey, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Pour this mixture over  the chicken wings then toss to coat thoroughly. Cover and set aside to marinate for 30 minutes. 

After this time, drain the wings, but reserve marinade.

In large heavy-based frying pan (or skillet), heat the oil over medium heat. Add chicken wings and ginger and stir fry 2 minutes then stir in the reserved marinade and sherry. Add mushrooms, bamboo shoots and spring onions. Cook, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes then add the chicken stock. Bring the mixture to boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pan an cook gently for 20 minutes or until the chicken wings are tender. Using tongs, remove chicken wings to serving platter and set aside to keep warm.

Stir together the cornflour and water until you have a smooth slurry. Stir this into the pan. And, whilst stirring constantly, bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat and boil 1 minute. 

Spoon the sauce over the chicken wings and serve immediately.

Restaurant-style Tuna Korma Recipe

As this is a blog, it's not just for reporting the recipes that I cook, it's also for culinary experimentation that I undertake.

This recipe comes from an experiment where I adapted a coconut-based curry originally intended to be made with lamb to be prepared with tuna instead. The recipe is based on a restaurant curry original and is a classic example of a restaurant fish curry. The recipe below is what I came up with:

Restaurant-style Tuna Korma Recipe

Ingredients:


500g tuna meat, cubed
250ml basic restaurant curry sauce
100ml vegetable oil
4 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
2 bayleaves
1/2 medium onion, finely sliced
salt, to taste
2 tsp korma curry powder
125ml warm water
80ml coconut cream
4 tsp granulated sugar
150ml single cream
2 tbsp ghee
cream, to garnish
fresh coriander leaves, to garnish

Method:

Heat a little oil in a wok and use to fry the tuna pieces until lightly golden brown on all sides. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add the remaining oil in a wok and when hot, add the cardamom pods and bayleaves and fry gently for 1 minute. Now add the onions and stir-fry for about 4 minutes, or until soft and translucent, but not coloured. Season to taste with salt then add the curry powder and fry, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes before adding the curry sauce.

Bring to a simmer then add the water. Stir to combine then bring the mixture to a boil and cook for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook gently for about 30 minutes or until the sauce has begun to thicken.

At this point stir in the coconut cream along with the sugar and cream. Bring the mixture just to a boil (do not allow to boil for any time or it may split), reduce to a simmer and cook gently for 10 minutes more, stirring occasionally (add more water if the gravy looks too thick). Finally add the ghee and stir to combine. Add the tuna pieces to the curry sauce, reduce the heat to low, cover and allow the curry to cook for about 10 minutes more or until the tuna is just cooked.

To serve, turn the curry into a warmed serving dish. Pour over a little cream, garnish with coriander leaves and bring to the table.

For a large collection of curry restaurant dishes on this site, see the: Celtnet Restaurant-style Curries page

For more curry recipes, see the Celtnet Curry recipes page or the Celtnet Reastaurant-style Curries page.

For all the curry recipes on this blog, see the curry history and curry recipes page.

Alphabetic Recipes T — Traditional Bread and Butter Pudding Recipe

Today we have a classic British recipe for a classic traditional dessert of buttered bread and dried fruit baked in a home-made custard base.

Today's is the twenty-third entry of my new series of Alphabetic recipes. Each day for the next month and more, I will be adding a new recipe linked to a different letter of the alphabet. As I collect recipes from all over the globe, and have lots of Welsh recipes, I am going to use a blend of the Welsh and English alphabets:

A | B | C | D | E | F | Ff | G | H | I | J | K | L | Ll | M | N | O | P | Q | R | Rh | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

so there will be 30 entries in total. As today is the twenty-third day in this series I am providing a recipe starting with the letter 'T'. This is a traditional recipe from Britain for a classic leftovers dish of bread slices that are buttered, cut into small pieces, arranged in a baking dish and cooked in a custard base.

Traditional Bread and Butter Pudding Recipe

This is a traditional British recipe for classic pudding of layered slices of bread with currants or sultanas baked in a simple milk and egg custard.

Ingredients:


16 slices of bread (or more, depending on the size of your dish)
butter, softened
100g currants or sultanas
50g sugar
900ml milk
3 eggs
freshly-grated nutmeg

Method:



Take the bread and butter each slice liberally on one side only (removing the crusts is up to you). Now quarter each slice of bread diagonally into triangles. Arrange a layer of the buttered bread triangles in the base of an oven-proof baking dish (overlap them slightly) then sprinkle some of the currants (or sultanas) over the top.

Arrange another layer of bread slices on top then scatter over more fruit. Continue this layering process until the bread is all used up, finishing with a few of the dried fruit.

Pour the milk into a pan, gently bring to a boil and immediately take off the heat. Crack the eggs into a heat-proof bowl and beat them with the grated nutmeg. Add the sugar and beat into the egg mix until dissolved.

Now, whilst whisking briskly and constantly add the milk as a slow, steady, stream to the meat mixture. Pass the resultant custard through a fine-meshed sieve into a jug. Pour this custard over the layered bread and fruit mixture. Set aside to soak for 20 minutes then scatter some more sugar over the top of the dish and add a little more freshly-grated nutmeg.

Transfer the dish in an oven pre-heated to 150ºC and bake for about 60 minutes, or until the top is golden and the custard has set.

Serve hot, accompanied by custard or cream.

As a variant, top the buttered bread with a little marmalade. This gives a delicious orangey tang. Instead of bread you can use brioche or even fruited tea breads. At Christmas, this is excellent when made with leftover panettone. It can even be made with thinly-sliced stollen.

For links to a whole range of leftovers-based recipes, see the Celtnet Leftovers recipes page.

The recipe presented here is based, with permission, on the Celtnet Traditional Bread and Butter Pudding recipe.

This recipe is brought to you in conjunction with the Celtnet Guide to Recipes Beginning with 'T'.

Find more British recipes on the Recipes from the British Isles page of this blog.

If you enjoyed this recipe, why not go over to the Celtnet site to download your completely FREE eBook of 45 Halloween recipes.

African Recipes

African Recipes on Celtnet Recipes Blog

Map of the Continent of Africa, showing North Africa
in blue, West Africa in red, Central Africa in green,
East Africa in Yellow and Southern Africa in brown.

Africa is both the world's second largest and second most populous continent, yet it is almost totally unknown by everyone outside Africa. Even North Africans know little of what happens to those lands south of the Sahara Desert.

I have been collecting African recipes for over 20 years and travelling the continent for almost as long. There are few African recipe books available, as most Africans are what I would call 'instinctive cooks'. They have been taught mother to daughter to cook a range of foods and that experience allows them to vary the basic methodology to create new dishes and new variants. However, as the recipes are never written down, just communicated by practice it takes a long time to get hold of a recipe. You actually have to sit down with a cook and convert measurements of handfuls or metric units bought into more familiar Western recipes.

As I gather new recipes I put them up on my main site, Celtnet's African recipes pages. But I have also added a number of African recipes here on this blog, too. I am now putting this page together to link all those recipes and make them more readily visible and available. Here you can also easily find out which region and which country in Africa the recipe comes from.

Below are the links for every region and every country in Africa. The links below take you to the corresponding page on the main Celtnet site, but the recipe links actually link to the recipes on this blog.

The aim, eventually is to have one recipe here for every region and country in Africa. As you can see from the list below, that will be quite a few recipes! If you would like to support this effort, please scroll down to find out about my 'Recipes of Africa' eBook.

Africa

North Africa

Kookoo Sabzi (Seasoned Savoury Cakes)
Algeria
Algerian Grilled Sardines with Lemon
Egypt
        Lamb and Okra Stew
Libya
       Kufta Hoot (Libyan Fish Kofta)
       Libyan Spicy Fish
Morocco
       Fried Fish with Moroccan Herbs
       Moroccan Chicken Stew
       Moroccan-style Pan-fried Baby Squid Recipe
Sudan
Tunisia
       Fish Fillets With Harissa And Black Olives
       Tunisian Doughnuts Recipe

sub-Saharan Africa
Um'Bido (Peanut and Greens Stew)

West Africa

        Cassava Soup
        Jollof Rice
        Senegal Pepper Peanut Soup
Benin
Burkina Faso
Côte d'Ivoire
        Ecrevisses au Curry (Crayfish Curry)
The Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Liberia
        Papaya Pie Recipe
Mali
Mauritania
Niger
Nigeria
        Ogbono Soup Recipe
Senegal
        Cëebu Jen Recipe
        Sea Bream Stuffed with Peanuts Recipe
Sierra Leone
Togo
islands of Cape Verde

Central Africa

Angola
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Chad
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Republic of the Congo
        Mwamba Recipe
        Dongo-dongo (Beef Gumbo) recipe
Equatorial Guinea
Gabon
São Tomé and Principe

East Africa

Burundi
Comoros
Djibouti
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Kenya
Madagascar
        Greens with Peanuts and Minced Beef Recipe
Malawi
Mauritius
Mayotte
Mozambique
        Pudim de Banana (Baked Banana Pudding) recipe
Réunion
Rwanda
Seychelles
Somalia
Tanzania
        Zanzibar Honey Chicken Recipe
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe

Southern Africa

Yellow Rice with Raisins

Botswana
Lesotho
Namibia
South Africa
        Chicken Curry Potjie
        Cape Malay Chicken Curry
Swaziland

African Fusion
       Rack of Lamb with Sénégal Pepper Emulsion
       Simple Pepper Soup with Spiced Couscous Recipe

This list of African regions and African recipes is brought to you in association with the Recipes of Africa eBook. With over 1000 recipes covering each and every country in Africa, this is the most comprehensive book of African recipes available anywhere.

If you love African food, or are just interested in African cookery, then the Recipes of Africa eBook is a must-buy. You get information about every region of Africa and every African country along with a selection of classic and traditional recipes from that country.

This is a must-get book for anyone interested in food. Learn about a continent that to this day remains mysterious to many people. The recipes presented here are written by someone who has travelled extensively in Africa and who is a published Author. The book is a properly-produce and published eBook and the collection is immense.

Don't delay, get yourself a copy of the Recipes of Africa eBook today!

Alternatively, you can buy it now using the button below (uses the e-junkie purchasing system).

Alphabetic Recipes S — Stir-fried Rice with Pork; Jamaican Recipe

Today we have a classic Jamaican recipe for a traditional Asian-inspired method for using up leftover cooked pork and rice by stir-frying with eggs.

Today's is the twenty-second entry of my new series of Alphabetic recipes. Each day for the next month and more, I will be adding a new recipe linked to a different letter of the alphabet. As I collect recipes from all over the globe, and have lots of Welsh recipes, I am going to use a blend of the Welsh and English alphabets:

A | B | C | D | E | F | Ff | G | H | I | J | K | L | Ll | M | N | O | P | Q | R | Rh | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

so there will be 30 entries in total. As today is the twenty-second day in this series I am providing a recipe starting with the letter 'S'. This is a traditional recipe from Jamaica for a classic leftovers dish of pork, onion and rice stir-fried to heat through.

Stir-fried Rice with Pork Recipe

This is a traditional Jamaican recipe for a classic stir-fry of pork, celery, shallots, water chestnut and rice finished with a mix of egg, soy sauce, salt, sugar and chilli flakes.

Ingredients:

80g shallots, sliced
80g celery, cut at a bias (ie diagonally)
300g roast pork, diced
1 tbsp garlic, finely minced
2 tbsp groundnut oil
450g cooked rice
200g water chestnuts, sliced
1/8 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
pinch of hot chilli flakes (or to taste)
3 tbsp soy sauce

Method:


Heat the groundnut oil in a wok or large pan. Add the onions, celery and pork and stir-fry for about 5 minutes, or until the shallots are just tender. Now add the rice and water chestnuts and stir to combine.

In a bowl, whisk together the egg, soy sauce, salt, sugar and chilli flakes. Stir this mixture into the meat and rice mix and stir-fry the resultant combination for about 3 minutes, or until the egg is set and all the ingredients are heated through.

Serve hot.

For links to a whole range of leftovers-based recipes, see the Celtnet Leftovers recipes page.

The recipe presented here is based, with permission, on the Celtnet Stir-fried Rice with Pork recipe.

This recipe is brought to you in conjunction with the Celtnet Guide to Recipes Beginning with 'S'.

If you enjoyed this recipe, why not go over to the Celtnet site to download your completely FREE eBook of 45 Halloween recipes.

Fish Meatball and Coconut Milk Curry Recipe

As this is a blog, it's not just for reporting the recipes that I cook, it's also for culinary experimentation that I undertake.

This recipe comes from last night's supper. I had some quite boring white fish fillets in the freezer and a tin of coconut milk in the cupboard. As I've been writing curry recipes this past week I decided to create a new, Kerala-style curry of my own invention using the fish to make lightly-spiced meatballs and to finish then in a coconut milk curry sauce. The recipe below is what I came up with:

Fish Meatball and Coconut Milk Curry Recipe

Ingredients:

For the Massala:
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/4 tsp hot chilli powder
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1cm length of cinnamon
2 tbsp coriander stems, finely chopped

For the Curry:
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 green chillies, finely chopped
400ml coconut milk
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp grated lime zest
4 tbsp coriander leaves, finely chopped
groundnut oil for frying

For the Fish Meatballs:
500g fish fillets, thawed if frozen and skinned
100g sweetcorn kernels, stripped from the cob, from a tin, or defrosted from frozen
1 small egg, beaten (you may not need all of it)
2 tbsp mixed parsley and coriander, finely chopped
3 spring onions, finely chopped
pinch of ground cumin
pinch of ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
Plenty of salt and freshly-ground black pepper
A little plain flour for dusting
A little oil for shallow frying
Method: Coarsely chop the fish then place in a food processor and chop finely (but do not purée. Turn the fish into a large bowl and mix in the sweetcorn, herbs, spring onions and spices.

Method:
Begin with the massala. Separately toast the whole spices in a dry frying pan for about 90 seconds, or until aromatic. Turn into a spice or coffee grinder, add the other spices and grind until you have a fine powder. Turn the spice mix onto a plate and set aside.

Heat oil in a frying pan, add the onions and fry for 6 minutes. Add the garlic, scatter over the massala powder and fry for 2 minutes more. Stir in the chillies, lime juice and lime zest and fry for 1 minute more before adding the coconut milk. Bring to a simmer, and set aside to cook gently whilst you prepare the meatballs.

Coarsely chop the fish then place in a food processor and chop finely (but do not purée. Turn the fish into a large bowl and mix in the sweetcorn, herbs, spring onions and spices.

Mix well with your hands and season with salt and black pepper. Add the egg (just enough to bind) and mix with our hands again. Now shape into meatballs about 3cm in diameter.

Place a little flour on a plate and roll each meatball in it.

Heat oil in a frying pan and use to fry the meatballs until golden brown all over. You do not need to cook them all the way through if you are going to finish in a sauce.

Thin down the curry sauce if it's a little thick then place the fish meatballs in the sauce. Increase the heat slightly and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the meatballs are thoroughly heated through.

Serve hot, accompanied by rice.


For more curry recipes, see the Celtnet Curry recipes page or the Celtnet Recipes Forum.

For all the curry recipes on this blog, see the curry history and curry recipes page.