The Hackney Butchers Association

These are from a Rick Stein recipe & they are damn good.  Crispy & very more-ish.  They are very easy to make & can be prepped in advance by a day if needed, just leaving the frying until you need them.  They do have to be cooked in small batches though,  so not the speediest of dishes.  Worth the wait though. This recipe makes about 20 fish cakes, enough for 6 as a starter, or 4 as a main, along with some home-made green chilli sauce, salad and some nice bread.  These are bistro standard beauties, that seem to be liked by everyone, including kids.  They are good hot, and also warm, so would be great for a picnic too. SALT COD RECIPE HERE There was no point in reproducing it, as it doesn't need any altering, it's spot-on as usual with Rick Stein's recipes! Also worth checking out is BAKED SALT COD WITH PEPPERS & POTATOES . Great comfort food...

One of three Mojo sauces on HBA.  This is the green one (Verde).  It's fresh and delicious. Great with fish, pork, potatoes or steamed greens. Check out Mojo Rojo (Red) for the spicy one.  It rocks! Check out Mojo Hervido (Boiled) for another classic. Ingredients ½ teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted 6 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed 1 teaspoon sea salt 2 cups chopped coriander (cilantro) ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil 2 teaspoons sherry-wine vinegar 2 teaspoons water Instructions With a mortar & pestle, grind up the cumin seeds first, then each of the dry ingredients one by one.  Slowly mix in the olive oil until you have a paste. Then mix with the vinegar and water to emulsify.  It's effectively a thick garlic & coriander dressing. Great stuff!

Eaten with some fried fish (Huss and Ling) yesterday, accompanied by piles of home-made flatbreads, Baba Ghanoush, Dukka, and Fennel/Feta Kofte.  Damn good it was too!  This tarator has got a lovely nutty/garlic and lemon/parsley flavour.  It's surprisingly light.  This recipe came from Silvena Rowe's awesome book "Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume.  It came out a little dry, so I added a good drizzle of olive oil over the top just before serving to loosen it up.  It was loved by everyone. Tarators come in many varieties.  This one is Turkish.  In Albania it takes the form of a cold soup, in Iran there is a similar dish called the brilliant sounding "Ab-Doogh-Khiar" an iced yougurt soup with leek & mint (sounds interesting). Many countries use yogurt instead of water, and leave out the nuts.  In fact, it's hard to see what the common link is apart from the name! Takes 5mins, makes enough for eight decent portions. RECIPE BELOW:

  Wow, a surprise 40th birthday present!  This is going to call for some serious munching.  The green & white moulds are apparently fine, they can be washed off with a mix of water/vinegar. Underneath is amazing ham that is two years in the making.  Tomorrow, (hangover permitting), i'll hack into it, and start looking into Palma recipes.  Any ideas, please leave comments.  Cheers!

   Wow, this is amazing.  It's very easy and fairly cheap. Unlike a lot of curries, this one cooks in around 20mins, (marinading time on top of that). I will be doing this again very soon! The flavours are warm and moreish, cumin, coriander seeds, ginger & toasted oniony rice, chilli & of course lamb! The Coriander sauce is so fresh and healthy it makes you feel like you must have just been to the gym. Well, sort of... (having not been to a gym for at least 10years I'm not an expert...) There are quite a lot of ingredients, but mostly dried spices which last for months and months. The only fresh ingredients I needed to get were fresh coriander (cilantro), mint, & green chillies. You could do this without the fresh coriander sauce but you'd be missing out big time. Make the sauce...make the sauce... I used some suckling lamb chops from a local market. £5 for 2 big chops, not bad I thought... for something quite special and amazingly...

This books rocks!  It is a book for foodies, even the index is delicious. I bought this to take on a recent holiday to Turkey and read it cover to cover quite a few times.  The recipes are simple, totally achievable and look beautiful. The photography got me hooked within minutes of opening the book.  This a passionate book by someone who clearly loves their food, and it's very contagious! I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes Eastern Mediterranean food.  It draws influence from Turkey, Syria, Jordan and the Lebanon. The recipes are all based on traditional ideas but have a very light modern feel.  It's really very clever. Bulgarian born Silvena, affectionately includes the teachings of her half Turkish dad, which gives the book a personal feel.  It's a history book, family story and inspiring cook book all in one.  A lovely book. The meat dishes are incredible, (including Grilled Red Mullet with toasted citrus and Nastur...

Ok, so not the prettiest thing you've ever seen, but might tasty none the less! This smoked pigs cheek set me back the princely sum of £3. 3 hours of poaching in unsalted water later... and with the main skin (& hairy bits) removed... I now have a slab of incredibly tasty meat.  It has a very tender texture & can be eaten hot or cold.  It will keep for at least a few days in the fridge, and can be used instead of pancetta to flavour other dishes, or in small chunks with pasta etc.  It has a deep bacony flavour, with a pork belly texture.  It would be a shame to waste it. Unsmoked, the Italians call this cut Guanciale (meaning 'cheek').  There's a curing recipe on this site, CLICK HERE. Today I fried up a few slices in some olive oil with some left over cooked chard and a small sprinkling of cumin seeds.  Thankfully no one else was around, I could have got territorial.