Chicken, Artichoke and Green Olive Tagine, with Saffron and Pistachio Couscous.

Chicken tagine with preserved lemons, green olives and artichokes, served with saffron and pistachio couscous.

I regret that I never ticked Morocco off my travel bucket-list, before I left Europe. I love North African food. Luckily when I smell this tagine cooking, I can close my eyes and conjure up the bustling souks of Marrakech and Essaouira. I’ll get there one day and until then I have my heavily perfumed dreams.

I made preserved lemons recently; you can read that recipe here. They take a month to mature, if you can’t wait that long you can buy preserved lemons at some supermarkets and most delis. You really do need this ingredient, don’t try and substitute regular lemon rind, it’s just not the same thing.

Serves 4.

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

1.5 kgs skinless, boneless chicken thighs

Salt

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, chopped

1 preserved lemon, pulp discarded, rind cut into thin strips

1 cup pitted green olives

1 cup of artichoke hearts in olive oil (quartered)

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

METHOD

If you are using a clay tagine, you must soak the bottom in water overnight before using, and then put a heat diffuser on your element to stop it from cracking. I find this all a bit fussy and my tagine is too small anyway, so I use a thick-bottomed stockpot, with a lid.

Combine all the spices in a large bowl. Pat the chicken thighs dry with paper towel and cut into quarters. Put the chicken in the bowl, coat well with the spice mixture and let stand for at least 1 hour.

Heat the oil on a medium-high heat and place the chicken pieces in to brown for 5 minutes. Do this in batches if you need to, as you do not want to over crowd the pan and sweat the chicken. Lower the heat to medium-low, add the garlic and onions over the chicken. Cover and let cook for 15 minutes.

Turn chicken pieces over. Add the lemon slices, olives, artichoke, and 1/2 cup of water. Bring to a simmer on medium heat. If you are making the tagine in advance you can take it off the heat now, cover and leave it to finish off when you are ready, otherwise continue directly with the next step.

Turn the heat back to low, cover, and cook for an additional 30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and quite tender. Mix in the fresh parsley and coriander right before serving. Taste and add salt and black pepper if required.

Serve with Saffron and pistachio cous cous.

I have my own method for cooking couscous and it has always given me fluffy, well flavoured couscous with no fuss. It really is the easiest thing in the world.

1.5 cups couscous

¼ tsp ground cumin

5 threads of saffron

Handful sultanas

Handful pistachio nuts

1 clove garlic

Juice of half a lemon

Black pepper

Olive oil.

Put the couscous, cumin, saffron, sultanas, and pistachio nuts into a bowl. Crush a clove of garlic and add the pulp to the bowl. Combine the lemon juice with equal part olive oil and pour this mix over the rest of the ingredients. Take a fork and mix the lot together, so that each grain of couscous is ‘dressed’ in the mix. I find a mix and chop motion the best.

Boil the kettle and cover the couscous with enough boiling water so that there is just a thin layer of water floating on top, covering the couscous; this will quickly absorb but don’t add more. Cover the couscous and set aside until you are ready to use it. It’s THAT easy.

When you are ready to use the couscous, remove the cover and using a fork ‘fluff’ the grains, making sure you get the fork all the way to the bottom of the bowl and chop up any lumps. 

Taste, and add more lemon juice, olive oil, salt or pepper as required, then simply clean the sides of your bowl and dress the top with coriander leaves and if your feeling fancy some pomegranate seeds.

Saffron and Pistachio Couscous.

Preserved Lemons

Home made preserved lemons. So Easy.

I love North African food and the big zesty flavours of Tagines are a favourite in my house. Once you get your head around the basic flavours: cumin, coriander, paprika, cinnamon, ginger and preserved lemon, Moroccan cooking can be very easy throw together. These hearty one-pot dishes make cleaning up a breeze and you can prepare everything in 15-20 minutes, then just leaving it all to stew long and slow. Great for busy families.

I was lucky, living in Europe, to have middle-eastern groceries on my doorstep and at very reasonable prices. I was disheartened to find some of the staples of this cuisine only available in the posh delis of Sydney as gourmet products at extortionate prices. A tiny jar of preserved lemons for example, containing perhaps 4-5 segments of lemon, for around $18.00. Seriously? It’s basically a lemon in salt water?!

The upside of this outrage is that I’ve always wanted to make my own, and this was the motivation I needed to get around to doing it. It was so easy and the jars look so pretty; I’ll never buy them again.

This is how it went…

3 x 500ml preserving jars (sterilized)

20 med-large juicy lemons

Salt

Peppercorns

Bay leaves

Cloves

Cut 10 of the lemons into wedges, 8 per lemon, then carefully de-seed them.

Cut the remaining 10 lemons in half and thoroughly juice them. Set this juice aside.

Press a layer of lemon wedges into the bottom of each jar.

Cover each layer with: 2 teaspoons of salt, 3 peppercorns, 1 clove and a bay leaf.

Firmly press in another layer of lemon wedges, and repeat the salting and spicing. Continue with this process until the jars are almost full to the top, you should only have 2-3 cm of space at the top of the jar.

Fill each jar with the lemon juice squeezed earlier.

All you need to do now is find somewhere cool and dark to store them; under the stairs or at the top of a cool cupboard. They will be ready in a month, but you should check them after a few days. If you have not used enough salt there may be some gas in the jars that needs to be released; simply open the jars briefly to release it and then close them until they are ready. How easy is that?

Veal Saltimbocca with Pumpkin Risotto

It’s autumn again, and I have just returned home to Australia after 15 years in Europe, so find myself in the season for the second time this year. Luckily it is my favourite season, and even though autumn in Luxembourg is very different to autumn in Sydney, some things are constant; like the presence of pumpkins.

For me and nothing goes better with pumpkin than sage, and by lucky coincidence I have a large sage bush on my terrace in Sydney, just as I did in my garden in Lux.

This recipe is a favourite of mine; it’s elegant and delicious enough to serve up at a dinner party, yet easy enough to do for a simple family meal. For 4 people, it goes like this…

The Veal

8 veal escalopes 

8 slices of prosciutto

8 sage leaves

2 tablespoons olive oil

60g  butter

185 ml marsala 

Salt and black pepper.

 Place each veal escalope between 2 sheets of cling film and gently pound with a mallet, or rolling pin, until even in thickness. Season each lightly with salt and pepper.

Place a slice of prosciutto on top of each escalope and trim the edges to fit, place a large sage leaf on top of the prosciutto and pin it all together using a cocktail stick.

Heat the oil and half the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed frying pan. Cook the veal in batches, frying prosciutto-side-up, over a medium-high heat for about 4 minutes (until the veal is just cooked through). Transfer each escalope to a hot plate when done, and continue this process until all the escalopes are done.

Drain the excess oil from the pan and add the marsala. Cook over a high heat until the liquid has reduced by half, be sure to stir and scrape all the tasty ‘bits’ from the bottom of the pan.

Add the remaining butter, taste and season if required. When the butter has melted into the sauce spoon it over the veal and serve with the pumpkin risotto.

The Risotto

2 cups Arborio rice
600ml chicken stock
500g pumpkin, peeled and diced.
1 cup dry vermouth
2 sticks of celery
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
20 sage leaves
75g butter
3 tbsp olive oil
75g grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper.

Preheat the oven to 200degrees.

Place the pumpkin on a lined baking tray, drizzle with 1 tbs of olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and roast for 35 minutes until starting to go crispy and gold at the edges.

Roughly chop half the sage leaves.

Put the stock in a saucepan and bring to a simmer, turn the heat down and keep the stock warm on the hob beside your risotto pan.

Melt 2/3 of the butter in the risotto pan with the remaining olive oil. Add the onion, celery, garlic and sweat over a medium heat for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally until the mixture is soft but not browned.

Add the rice and stir to coat each grain with the buttery mix.

Turn the heat up and add the vermouth, when this has been almost absorbed, add a ladle full of stock. Stir the mix until the liquid has been almost absorbed then add another ladle of the warm stock. Repeat this procedure of adding stock and stirring.

When you have only 2 ladles left in your stock pot, add the roasted pumpkin and chopped sage to the risotto mix, pour in the last of the stock, the grated cheese and stir the whole mixture gently folding the pumpkin pieces in(the whole stock and stir process should take 30-40 minutes).

Cover your pan and set aside.

Heat a little extra olive oil in a pan, toss in the remaining sage leaves and flash fry until they turn crispy. This will take just a few moments so be careful not to burn them.

Stir the crispy leaves through the risotto and serve immediately with the veal.

A Scotch Eggstravaganza.

Chorizo-spiced pork scotch eggs.

My husband loves scotch eggs, “proper home-made scotch eggs” he tells me “are a delight” and far, far removed from the things I was used to sampling on bad cocktail party platters. I think he likes them as they remind him of his favourite pub in the world, The All Nations, Madeley in Shropshire, where they only have 3 things on the food menu (raw black pudding sandwich, pork pie and scotch egg).

I have made 2 versions of this British classic for you; the first is my own creation (I have borrowed part from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall , his ‘Tupperware Chorizo’ is a simple and tasty recipe you really should make yourself aware of). The second is a little more delicate, I found it on the wonderfully niche ‘Forever Eggsploring’ food blog, but it is actually a Jamie Oliver recipe (with a few modifications).

Ingredients for my duo of Scotch Eggs.

Giant Chorizo Spiced Pork Scotch Eggs.

Ingredients

500g minced pork

1 tbsp sweet smoked paprika

2 tsp hot smoked paprika

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tsp fine sea salt

1½ tsp fennel seeds

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

¼ cup Marsala

Freshly ground black pepper

5 large hens’ eggs

150g breadcrumbs (made by blending a stale baguette)

Oil, for deep frying

Method

Take your eggs out of the refrigerator and leave out to adjust to room temperature.

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's
Tupperware Chorizo

Mix together the pork, both varieties of paprika, the minced garlic, salt and pepper, fennel seeds, cayenne pepper, and Marsala (the original recipe calls for wine – ‘whatever you have lying around open’…well I don’t EVER have wine lying around open, as it usually gets drunk, so I used Marsala. You can use red wine if that suits you). You should end up with a spicy, red, fragrant mixture. Cover and put this in the fridge.

Now boil 4 of the eggs to your liking; 6 minutes for soft and 10 minutes for hard yolks.

Remove the eggs from the pan and plunge directly into iced water to stop the cooking process. Shell the eggs remembering to be gentle if they are soft boiled

 

Split the pork mix into 4 equal parts and flatten each portion in the palm of your hand, place an egg in the centre and gently mould the pork around the egg so that it is completely encased and there are no gaps.

Beat the remaining egg then dunk and roll each Scotch egg in this. Transfer the Scotch eggs into the breadcrumbs and roll to coat

I don’t have a deep fat fryer, it’s not a way I generally like to cook and I hate disposing of the oil afterwards. For this, I half filled my wok with vegetable oil, and waited for the temperature to reach 180oC, then carefully lowered my eggs in, frying for around 10 minutes, I needed to roll the eggs around every now and then as they were not quite covered by the oil. You need to ensure that the eggs are a nice golden brown colour, and that pork inside is cooked.

Drain on kitchen paper to remove excess oil.

These eggs are sublime. I made mine slightly runny and the rich, creamy yolk goes sooo well with the spicy pork mince. You could make these with quail’s eggs and serve as part of a tapas platter. These big ones make a substantial supper when served with a salad and selection of condiments (mustard, chutney) maybe a platter of Spanish bread and cheese, and of course good bottle of Rioja. Ole!

Salmon and Dill Scotch Eggs.

Ingredients

250g salmon fillet, skinned
1 handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 handful of fresh dill, finely chopped
grated zest and juice of 1/2 lemon

½ tsp paprika
8 quail’s eggs or 4 hens’ eggs
2 more hens eggs for the coating
salt and freshly ground black pepper
150g breadcrumbs (made by blending a stale baguette)

Oil, for deep frying

Method

Take your eggs out of the refrigerator and leave out to adjust to room temperature.

Place the salmon in a food processor and blend to form a rough paste. Add the parsley, dill, a beaten egg, lemon juice and zest, season well with salt and cracked black pepper. Cover and refrigerate.

In a separate bowl, mix together the breadcrumbs and paprika and season with salt and black pepper

Take a toothpick and gently prick a tiny hole in the top of your quail’s eggs. To do this, hold the eggs steady in the pack and gently, but firmly punch the toothpick into its shell. Now boil the eggs to your liking;

§         for the hen’s eggs boil 6 minutes for soft and 10 minutes for hard yolks.

§         for the quail’s eggs boil for 1.5 minutes for soft and 5 minutes for hard yolks.

* note, have a runny yolk in the final scotch egg is a treat, but peeling a soft boiled quails egg is really painstaking and often ends up in the whole egg bursting in your hand. Decide how much you want the runny yolk in the final product. A harder quail’s egg is a lot easier to handle...

Remove the eggs from the pan and plunge directly into iced water to stop the cooking process. Shell the eggs remembering to be gentle if they are soft boiled

Split the salmon paste into 8 equal portions for quails eggs or 4 equal portions for hen’s eggs (I broke 2 of my quails eggs and so quickly soft boiled a hen’s egg to make up the numbers) and flatten in the palm of your hand.

Place an egg in the centre of the flattened salmon and wrap the paste around it, squeezing gently to seal the joins
Beat your remaining egg then dunk and roll each Scotch egg in this. Transfer the Scotch eggs into the breadcrumbs and roll to coat

I don’t have a deep fat fryer, so for this I half filled my wok with vegetable oil, and waited for the temperature to reach 180oC, then carefully lowered my eggs in, frying for around 3 minutes for the quail eggs and 5 for the hens egg, the eggs should be all golden brown in colour.
Drain on kitchen paper to remove excess oil.

These eggs are yummy hot or cold, obviously make great picnic food, but can also be plated up and served with tartare sauce, and a salad

A truly eggzellent buffet!





Fabuleuse Brittany

Clams Marinier

Yesterday was my birthday and I spent the day in Loqueric Harbour with the family. Yes, IN the harbour! There was a long, low-tide and local people were down on the sea bed, walking about on the wet sand. Some were working on the hulls of high-and-dry boats, others digging in the sand for treasure. TREASURE: clams, razor clams, whelks and mussels, all there and easy pickings. We came home with a bulging bag of the sweetest clams in the entire world and made a large pot of Clams Mariner. We’re going back for more soon.

BBQed Cote de Boeuf

Today we gave seafood a rest day, and visited the local Boucher, we came out with a magnificent côte de boeuf, we barbequed it and served it with béarnaise sauce. It was simply delicious.

    

Today Ian BBQed a large crab and some sardines; I cooked tomato and caramelised onion Tarte Tatin. The seafood won the pic of the day…so here it is (recipe for the tarte, which was delicious, will follow soon – I’m on holiday!)

We spent this afternoon back on the little beach in Locqueric. It’s so gorgeous with boats floating on the water, men fishing from the pier, kids building sand castles…and all this is surrounded by a small but perfectly-curated selection of cafes and restaurants. Today the village celebrated with the annual Nuit de Marine, moules et frites were the order of the evening along with some wonderful dry cidre eaten on the sand and followed by a spot of traditional Bretagne dancing in the street!

In the village of Plougasnou, while browsing the morning market for supplies, I snapped this photo of a man in local garb selling rotisserie chicken and ham hocks. I like him.

Artichokes from Brittany on my kitchen window. Perfection.

Je suis en vacances en Bretagne. C'est magnifique. Coquilles Saint-Jacques, de cidre, crêpes et beaucoup d'autres merveilles culinaires attendez-moi.

Apricots for sale at the marche des legumes in Chartres.

Brittany is everything I imagined and more, I spent this morning wandering around the Sunday morning market in the village of Pestin, it was so perfect I wanted to cry.  There were fishmongers selling lobsters, languostine, mussels, and scallops; there were bearded men selling sausage, pate and rillettes; Cheesemongers with carts so smelly they almost sent you running, but then drew you closer with a curious awe; there were olives and tapenades, butchers and bakers and the artichokes…Don’t mention the artichokes…Dear God! They are perfection. I think I bought one of everything!

I’m, going to upload 1 picture a day while I’m ‘en vacances’. Just 1 image of whatever foody thing I fall most in love with that day. Today it’s the artichokes I bought from the market in Pestin. I’ve also uploaded my image from yesterday; the apricots from the market we stopped at in Chartres. Who cares about some Cathedral? If I was a religious person I think I’d find more of God’s glory in a perfect apricot than the finest stained glass in all the world.

Baba Ganoush

The elegant aubergine.

The aubergine is the glamour-queen of vegetables, all smooth and darkest-purple with that pistachio green hat, so elegant.  I think they are so pretty, sometimes I buy them just to look at them.

If I ever have an interior designer ‘do’ my home, and they ask me to create a mood-board for my bedroom, I shall just hand over an aubergine and say ‘I want that!’

Last year I grew one of my own. My plant produced just one gorgeous fruit, an edible Barbamama promising to transform into whatever delight I imagined. I was so proud, but what does one do with a single aubergine? Babaganoush of course! A perfect serving for 1, me!

Here is my recipe; this time I’ve used 3 aubergines, as you may want to share.

3 aubergines

3 cloves of garlic

½ cup tahini

1 tbs olive oil

½ tsp cumin

½ tsp paprika

Juice of half a lemon (more to taste)

Salt and black pepper

Put the aubergines under the grill, watch them and turn them until the skin is nicely charred. Remove from the grill and put them on a tray in the oven (180degrees) for about 40 minutes. Poke the aubergines with a skewer; they should be soft and mushy inside. Let the aubergines cool.

baba ganoush.

Once cool, split them open and scoop the flesh into a bowl, and discard the skins. Add the rest of the ingredients and mash the mixture with a fork. Taste, add salt, pepper and, if required, a little more lemon juice to suit your palate.

The mix is best left to mature for a couple of hours in the fridge before serving. To make it pretty, you can drizzle some more olive oil over the top and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve with toasted pita and a bowl of black olives as an aperitif.  

Prawn and Vegetable Tempura with Salmon Nigiri

Prawn and Vegetable Tempura with Salmon Nigiri.

This was harder than expected, for a few reasons. The first being that I had already started to enjoy a Friday-night bottle of Crémant de Luxembourg , so I was cooking, taking photos, sipping Crémant and getting the kids to bed all at the same time. Secondly, Luxembourg is a landlocked country so getting sushi-fresh seafood is not that easy. I found a gorgeous piece of salmon, but I had hoped to be a little more adventurous with my toppings. Then of course there is the extreme precision-of-execution required to make really good Sushi…. I mentioned the Crémant already didn’t I? So, I’m no Shinji Kanesaka, but actually my nigiri were better than most of the dire ‘riceballs with fish’ I’ve sampled here in Luxembourg. So if you want to create your own Japanese takeout platter at home, try my recipe, and let me know how it goes.

sushi slamon should melt like butter in your mouth

For the Salmon Nigiri

250g short grain sushi rice

300ml water

5cm piece kombu (dried kelp), this is optional if you can’t source it don’t worry, leave it out.

2 tbs rice vinegar

1.5 tbs sugar

1 tbs mirin

2 tsp salt
some nori sheets cut into strips

Fillet of sushi grade salmon, about 10 cm long and 6 cm wide (but if you get more you can always have a sashimi starter)

Wash the rice in 3 changes of cold water then leave to drain for 1 hour.

Put the rice, kombu and water into a saucepan, bring to the boil and cover with a tight fitting lid (if you’re in doubt about the seal, cover the saucepan with foil before putting the lid on, you are steaming the rice so it is imperative that the seal on the pan is good). Turn the heat down as low as it can go and leave for 15 minutes, then turn it off and leave for another 15 minutes. When done, discard the kombu and tip the rice out into a flat dish.

Mix the vinegar and remaining seasoning ingredients together and stir until the sugar is dissolved; pour this over the rice and mix it in so all the rice is coated.

While you wait for the rice to cool to room temp, you can slice your salmon into 20 thin slices; try for 3-4mm in thickness, cut across the grain of the gorgeous buttery white fat with a very sharp knife.

set up your station, before assembling the nigiri

Now set up your ‘rolling station’ (see picture) you will need your dish of rice, sliced salmon, some wasabi paste, a bowl of water with a dash of rice vinegar, and some strips of nori seaweed about 10cm long and 1/5 cm wide.  Wet your hands in the water and take a tablespoon of rice, gently squeeze the rice in your hand to form a nice oval shape. Take a piece of salmon and spread a small amount of wasabi on one side (if you are not familiar with wasabi, taste a small amount to know how much you would like to taste, your guests can add more before eating so it’s best to err on the side of caution!). Place the salmon on the rice wasabi side down, then take a strip of nori and dampen it using your fingers and a little water and wrap it around the salmon and rice bundle sealing it at the bottom. Repeat, until you have done all your nigiris, arrange them on a platter and serve as soon as possible.

Tempura

Dipping sauce

1/4 cup dashi (I used ready made)

1/2 cup light soy sauce

2 tsp fresh ginger, finely grated

1/2 cup daikon radish, finely grated

1/4 cup mirin

Tempura

12 prawns peeled and de-veined but with tails left on.

Salt and pepper

2 tbs mirin

Canola or peanut oil

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ tbs baking powder

1 tbs sesame oil

300ml sparkling mineral water

A selection of fresh vegetables, I used the following:

1 small sweet potato

6 chestnut mushrooms

4 young courgettes and their flowers

6 large sage leaves

4 sugar snap peas

To make the sauce, place all ingredients into a saucepan and heat to a simmer. This can be done in advance; the sauce will keep for a few days in the fridge. Just bring it back to warm before serving.

Vegetables for tempura.

For the tempura, I used sweet potato, courgettes, mushrooms, sugar snaps and sage leaves, but you can really use whatever is fresh and good and you have to hand in your kitchen or garden. Just be sensible with the prep. Things like the sweet potato need to be par-cooked before the frying process. I peeled and sliced the sweet potato into 1cm thick discs then boiled for about 6 minutes and let them steam dry before coating them in batter. I used the mushrooms whole, except for a couple of larger ones which I cut in half. I sliced the courgettes thickly on a diagonal and left the gorgeous flowers whole. The sage leaves were large ones, from a rampant plant I have in my garden and I left them whole (a friend recommended tempura sage leaves, I was a little dubious but they were delicious). The sugar snaps were freshly picked and left whole…of course.

Make several shallow cuts across the inside curve of each prawn and press down on a cutting board this will prevent too much curling during cooking. Sprinkle prawns with a little mirin, salt and pepper.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl, and whisk together with the sesame oil, then whisk in the mineral water and keep whisking until the batter resemble frothy cream.

In large saucepan over a moderate heat, heat 4 inches of oil (I’m told until thermometer registers 325°F, but I don’t have a thermometer, so I just threw a crumb of sweet potato into the wok, and when it sizzled immediately the oil was ready).

Work in batches, using tongs to dip the items into the batter and then fry, turning occasionally until golden, about 1- 1.5 minutes each. Watch for the batter to look crispy and golden, remember all these things are ready to eat so you just need the batter to crisp up, you don’t need to cook the food. The sage leaves and courgette flowers need even less time about 30 seconds.

Transfer to paper towels to drain. Watch the temperature of the oil and use a slotted spoon, or egg lift to clean the oil of residual bits of batter before adding next batch.

Serve immediately with dipping sauce.

Kansas City BBQ Ribs

sweet and smoky Kansas City BBQ Ribs

When the weather is fine I like to cook and eat outdoors as often as possible. To me a BBQ doesn’t mean burnt bangers and some charred chops. Modern BBQs are gourmet kitchens that actually allow you to do much more than your regular indoor unit; smoking, rotisserie, flame grilling. I remember growing up in Australia it was common for folk to roast the turkey in the Weber at Christmas.

In the first of my BBQ series I’m going to head to the U.S and a righteous rib recipe adapted from the Kansas City Barbeque Society (whose motto is : “BBQ – it’s not just for breakfast.”). I have adapted it for 2 reasons; firstly it contains ingredients that I feel are either a little dubious or unavailable to me, such as liquid smoke and poultry seasoning.  Secondly, the salt content was so incredibly high, I had to reduce it. My recipe is high enough and definitely not the kind of thing I would recommend eating on a regular basis. I can’t even imagine eating the original version with well over twice the salt AND the poultry seasoning.

I have used this rub and sauce combination on pork and beef ribs and also on chicken and it’s totally scrumptious on all - in a bad way, it’s so bad and so good. With this kind of addictively delicious food on the menu I can see why obesity is on the rise stateside. You may need an exit strategy!

The Rub

2/3 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup white sugar

½ cup paprika (smoked if you can get it)

¼ cup salt

2 tbs freshly ground black pepper

2 tbs chili powder

2 tbs mustard powder

1 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp allspice

½ tsp cayenne pepper

¼ garlic powder

Mix all ingredients together and store in a jar, it will keep for several months.

Sweet and Smoky Barbeque Sauce

6 tbs dark brown sugar

½ cup cider vinegar

¼ cup molasses

¼ cup honey

¼ cup Worcestershire sauce

2 tbs dark rum

2 tbs American mustard (or Moutard du Luxembourg)

1 tbs chili powder

2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp allspice

¼ tsp ground cloves

4 cups ketchup

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over a medium heat and cook until all the sugar dissolves, stirring for about 5 minutes.

I separate the mix into 2 parts at this point and keep half the ‘starter brew’ in a jar for another time and then  only add half (2 cups of the ketchup), it just depends how much of the sauce you want, this mix will make 5 cups in total.

Add the ketchup and stir well, be careful at this point as the ketchup has a tendency to spit and splatter. Reduce the heat to low and leave the sauce to simmer gently uncovered for 30 minutes. You can use it right away or bottle it; the sauce will keep in the refrigerator for several months.

To make the Ribs.

Buy 1 rack of baby back ribs for each person and have the papery skin removed (easy to do yourself if you don’t have a butcher). You will also need some BBQ smoking chips if you can get them.

Sprinkle each rack with the rub (about a tablespoon each); pat the rub in with your fingers, cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for an hour.

Soak 1 cup of smoking chips in apple cider (or water) for 1 hour, then drain and put in the smoking box of your BBQ grill. Don’t start grilling until you see smoke.  If you don’t have smoking chips or a smoking box, don’t worry your ribs will still be good, you’ll just miss out on the extra smoky hit.

Put your ribs on the grill away from the flame and indirect grill for 1 hour (this means on a 3 burner BBQ you light the left and right, and put the ribs in the centre, on a 2 burner light 1 side and out the food on the other).

Brush the ribs with the sauce now and continue to indirect grill until they are done, this could take another 15 -30 minutes. When they are done the meat will be extremely tender and will have pulled back from the bones.

Transfer the ribs on to a platter and serve with extra sauce for guests to add themselves, BBQ corn on the cob, a large bowl of coleslaw and cold beer.

Lemon and Ginger Barley Water

Homemade lemon and ginger barley water, so easy to make and so good for you.

My Husband was knocked down with a nasty and rare auto-immune disease last year. It led to kidney disease and some permanent damage to his kidneys. It was pretty scary. When he was ill, he was on a lot of medication, and I did what I could to give holistic nourishment though his diet. I read a lot about the benefits of barley at the time, and started making barley water.

Most of us know barley water,as that yellow, sugary cordial bought at the supermarket, but it is a traditional drink that has been enjoyed for its health giving properties since ancient Egypt, and it's really easy to make. It helps to support and nourish the kidneys in times of stress and is an important part of any kidney cleansing program, which will produce tremendous overall benefits. It is also said to clear the complexion and stop the formation of wrinkles (that got me hooked!), aid digestion and soothe inflammation of the stomach.  It can be helpful in the treatment of cystitis and a good way to control Urinary Tract Infection during pregnancy. Give me a glass now!

I still make my barley water brews every couple of days and have even got the kids drinking it. Now that you've read what it can do for you, you’ll be wanting your 2 cups a day too!

It’s quite delicious, and like me you will no-doubt tinker with this recipe to create your own tasty brew (try adding cinnamon, cardamom, cloves or orange to the recipe to taste).

My basic recipe is this:

§         1 x cup whole grain organic barley (don’t use pearl barley as most of it’s goodness has been removed along with the husk)

§         2.5 x liters water

§         Juice of 2 lemons (and the zest of 1)

§         4 x tbs honey

§         1 x 2cm knob of ginger (peeled and cut into 4)

Put the barley into a sauce pan with the ginger. Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat and keep on a low rolling boil for 40 minutes.

Put a sieve over a large bowl containing the lemon juice and honey. Strain the barley broth through the sieve, stir the mixture to incorporate the honey and lemon juice and let it cool before bottling it.

Don’t throw away the precious grains of barely you can use them to make a delicious salad, or add them to a soup or casserole.