Cruising in Food Heaven

If you read my other blog, you'll know that all too recently we returned from a cruise to celebrate my grandmother's 80th birthday. One of the absolute highlights of this trip with the four course dinner every night, which featured Italian cuisine with fantastic presentation and a great taste - and imagine! the cooks were catering for hundreds of people at once! Quite the accomplishment.

So although the rest of this blog doesn't actually feature any of my own recipes, I simply had to show you all the amazing things we ate on this Costa cruise line in the Mediterranean, and hopefully it will not only inspire you to try your hand at some of these dishes, but it will also inspire me to try and make some of these food creations. I've made a few notes below the pictures, with a few suggestions for changes I would make to the dishes. After all, the poor chefs on the cruise had to cook these dishes up for hundreds of people at once!

Squid Ink Risotto with Prawns and Cherry Tomatoes

This was pretty nice - I've never tasted squid ink before and I was concerned it would be too salty and strong. It wasn't, just a really lovely flavour. I would have loved king prawns with this dish, cooked in garlic and butter and added on top. Probably wouldn't have bothered with the cherry tomatoes, but maybe some chilli instead?

Meat filled Ravioli

This tasted a lot better than it looked, although I haven't a clue what the sauce was. And they were advertised as 'meat'-filled, as opposed to any specific meat being named. Some spinach and more garlic would have been welcome here.

Sea Bass with creamy potato, sautéed greens and cherry tomatoes

A classic, beautiful dish. The presentation could use a bit of work, but I wouldn't change a thing!

Grilled Swordfish with lightly fried Octopus

This was one of my favourite dishes on the entire cruise. The octopus was cooked absolutely beautifully, and the swordfish wasn't bad either! Adding anything extra here would probably ruin the dish - it really didn't need any carbs or veggies on the side. Swordfish is pretty filling actually.

Steak with stuffed pepper, bubble & squeak and red onion chutney

The steak and stuffed pepper were great (a nice change from steak and chips) but I wasn't a fan of the bubble and squeak at all. It was more like a quiche, and they would have done so much better with potato fritters. I don't like having gravy poured on top of my steak either...

Mussel broth tagliatelle

Absolutely beautiful dish. You could taste the freshness of the mussels, and Italians never go wrong with pasta.

Fried courgettes in a creamy pasta sauce

This was quite a surprising dish. I'm not a big fan of courgettes, but sliced thinly and fried like this, they really work! The cream was surprisingly light, and it was an excellent starter.

Rare steak with jacket potato and kapunata

Yum yum yum! Served beautifully rare and the kapunata (Italian dish of peppers and garlic and other veg) complemented it amazingly. Again, nice change not having chips on the side - the baked potato was great!

The most amazing seafood platter

We didn't actually have this seafood platter on the cruise - I ordered this for dinner the night before we boarded in the port town of Savona. Aside from being a huge dish, at an amazing price of 20 Euro, it was perhaps the best dish I've ever tasted. The highlight was certainly the octopus, which was cooked perfectly and was absolutely divine. The mussels, prawn and scallops were fantastic, and the fish itself: swordfish, tune and the whole sea bream(?, maybe?) were incredible. And there were chips on the side!! The best start imaginable to this holiday, and I will one day return to that restaurant and order it again!!

Meatball Tagine

I've never been to Morocco but in the last couple of years I've developed a real obsession with Moroccan tagines. I think this started when I was visiting Malta and decided to host a Moroccan party for my entire family one year. Given the size of my family, I had to think big and come up with some amazing tagines...which I did in the form of a spicy chicken and a slow cooked meatball tagine. They were so delicious that since then a good slow cooked tagine has become one of my staples.

Below I give the recipe for my favourite meatball tagine, which absolutely has to be slow cooked for a long time in either a Moroccan pot as I do, or a slow cooker or crockpot will also do the trick. It is perfect for any time of the year, and you can up or remove the spices according to your preferences. Me? I like it hot!!

Moroccan Meatball Tagine

Ingredients

Beef meatballs (feel free to make your own)
5 cloves garlic
2 tbsp ginger
1 tbsp harissa paste (again, feel free, but it's a lot of work!)
chilli peppers (quantity according to taste)
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp lemon juice
saffron (couple of small strands)
beef stock
flaked almonds
golden raisins
1 chopped carrot
2 chopped onions

Method

Heat some oil in your pot and sear off the meatballs. This will ensure that they stay whole and juicy. Remove from the fire.

Seared meatballs

Put the onions, chillis and ginger in the hot oil and sauté for a few minutes. Add in the garlic and all the spices and harissa. Stir well. Then stick the meatballs back in and allow all the tasty spices and flavours to infuse for a minute or two, whilst on a low heat.

This creates the world's best smell,
and wait til you add the spices!

Add the carrots, raisins and almonds, followed by the tomatoes, beef stock and lemon juice. Stir well, add the saffron and bring to a boil. Then cover and simmer for at least a couple of hours. I like to transfer the mix to the oven at this point, to allow the tagine dish to do its thing.

Halfway there!

Bring out in time for dinner, add a toot more almonds and dish up. Absolutely delicious!

After a couple of hours, it's ready to go!

Science Corner

Boyfriend and I have often discussed the merits of cooking in a tagine rather than a stewing pot. This is why it's better:

The conical shape of the tagine makes it a uniquely hot, moist environment for cooking in. Due to the wide base and the snug fit of the lid, steam rises into the cone, condenses and then trickles down the sides into the dish. This means you don't need to add as much water to the dish, but the meat won't dry out and will tenderise beautifully. As for the flavours...well, try the above recipe!

Fusing BBQ with Italian and a toot of the Brit

Winter can last a long time in the UK, and there are days when I've come home from work and simply ache to be sitting at my home in Malta, with the BBQ going, my feet dipped in the pool, enjoying the company of my family as we sip at a glass of wine. However, in reality it will be raining or too cold to have a BBQ, and I don't have a pool in England, so those daydreams cannot truly be brought to fruition.

I do have my own coping mechanisms however - I'll call my mum up on Skype so that I can see all those things that I'm missing, and I'll whip up my quick, healthy and tasty alternative to a Maltese BBQ: polenta, marinated and grilled pork chops and creamed spinach. Not too difficult to explain, but I'll give you the recipe here anyway.

Grilled Mediterranean Pork with Creamed Spinach & Italian Polenta

Marinade:

Garlic (crushed)

BBQ sauce

Soya Sauce

Olive Oil

Herbs (I use dried, mixed herbs containing salt, pepper, thyme, basil but feel free to be creative)

Creamed Spinach:

Fresh spinach

Garlic (crushed)

Dash of lemon juice

Single Cream

Dash of olive oilu

Salt and Pepper for seasoning

Additional:

Asda pre-cooked polenta, chopped into thick slices

Pork chops/loin/steaks (whatever you have handy)

Method

Mix the marinade ingredients together and coat the pork in them. Cover and place in the fridge for as long as possible. I try to do this in the morning to have it fully flavoursome by the time I've returned from work.

The rest is all timing. Prepare a saucepan for the spinach, get the griddle pan super hot and a frying pan with a dash of oil ready for the polenta.

Polenta, seasoned and crisping up

Put the steaks on the griddle and the polenta in the pan around the same time. Don't move the steaks around too much as they will lose heat. The polenta needs to be on a medium heat, and season as you go with plenty of pepper and a toot of salt.

The trifecta

I like to see that blackness coating the pork - perfect flavour

After you've turned the steaks and polenta once, start on the creamed spinach. Heat a dash of oil in the saucepan then throw in the garlic. Don't let the garlic burn as it will go bitter, so you want to follow up with a bag of spinach pretty quickly. Mix this around slowly, to allow the spinach to get the heat of the pan and begin to wilt. Then add a bit of lemon juice and final small amounts of single cream until you get the consistency you're happy with. Then BOOM! you're done.

Creamed Spinach

The final product...

From all angles

Indian lunch

It wasn't until I had lived in the UK for a few years that I actually tried Indian food for the first time. I'm not really sure why this is - I guess I didn't eat out a lot when I was a student and tended to prefer a Chinese takeaway. The first time I remember going to an Indian restaurant was when I moved to Preston, and we went to Spice of Bengal the day after my first proper night out there with the other PhD students. Although I'd eaten curries before, I'd never done the whole sharing poppadoms thing, and I don't think I had quite realised the range of tastes, flavours and styles that Indian food can come in.

Things have changed dramatically since then - not even five years ago. I've learnt what I like about Indian cuisine, and adopted my favourite aspects of it into my cooking. My favourite parts are, of course, the spices, flame-grilled meats, loads of veggies. And so nowadays we frequently have Indian food for dinner and it is one of my favourite things to cook when I have people coming over for a meal.

A thoroughly marinated chicken :D 

Additional chicken, for a certain someone who doesn't like bones

The following set of recipes are some that I've started cooking quite regularly, and is particularly good for big lunches with friends. A tandoori roast chicken, with chana masala, home-made chapattis, curried daal and Bombay potatoes. All super easy to make (provided you have a well-stocked spice cupboard), and most of these dishes can be made in advance, which means that you don't have to slave over a hot stove the entire time your guests are there.

And just in case any of you are of a mind to say: but this is Indian food, not Maltese recipes in an English kitchen!...well, I have a few answers to that.

First of all: English kitchens see a lot of Indian food make their way in and out again. The British love a curry!!

Second, and more importantly - a good Maltese cook needs to accept that although Mediterranean cuisine is the best, sometimes it pays to step outside your comfort zone and make something entirely different. Once you're familiar with cooking foods from different countries, you can move into Fusion cooking and hell! there's nothing better than that! And now...to the recipes..

An Indian Feast

Tandoori Roast Chicken:

raw, whole chicken

tandoori paste (you could make your own but totally not worth the time)

2 tbsp yoghurt

fresh coriander

Coriander Chutney:

handful of fresh coriander

3 garlic cloves, peeled

large piece of ginger, peeled

2 green chilli

lemon juice

cumin powder

Chana Masala:

can of tomatoes

chickpeas, soaked overnight and boiled

Fresh/frozen spinach

onion

3 garlic cloves

large piece of ginger, peeled

cumin powder

garam masala

turmeric

Curried Daal:

bag of daal (yellow split lentils)

red pepper

red chillis

cumin powder

fresh curry leaves

hot curry powder

yellow mustard seeds

Home-Made Chapattis:

chapatti flour

cold water

fresh coriander

Bombay Potatoes:

chopped, peeled potatoes

hot curry powder

garam masala

chopped fresh tomatoes

chopped, fresh coriander

half a garlic bulb, crushed

Method:

Preparing all this is all about getting your timing right, as is the case with virtually any other roast dinner. 

1. The day before, mix the tandoori paste with a tablespoon or two of yoghurt, then liberally baste your full chicken in this. Be sure to lightly slice the drumsticks, to allow the flavour to soak into these tender parts. Sprinkle a handful of chopped fresh coriander over the top, cover with foil and leave in the fridge to marinate overnight.

2. Prepare the chana masala first. Add chopped onion to a little oil over the hop, and sauté for about five minutes, until they're soft but before they turn brown. Add chopped ginger, garlic and chilli to the mix and after another minute, add generous helpings of all the herbs and spices. I don't usually measure this part, but at least a tablespoon of each. Stir these into the mix, add your chickpeas and can of tomatoes and bring to the boil. Leave this simmering for about an hour and then take off the heat and allow it to partially cool down, which enhances the flavour. When you reheat it on the stove before serving, add the spinach.

Chana masala - ready to be dished up

3. At the same time, put the chicken in the oven (still covered in foil) at about 180 degrees for a couple of hours. You can also get the daal on the go - put some oil in a pan, then add mustard seeds. Wait for them to start popping, at which point go in with your chillis, red peppers and other spices. Then, add the daal to the pan with boiling water (just enough to cover the daal), stir, and leave to simmer until the daal soaks up all the water. Tada!

Curried daal with red peppers and fresh tomatoes

4. Only a few things left to do. The coriander chutney is very easy - stick all the ingredients into a blender and the rest is fairly obvious. Add a little olive oil if it looks too dry.

Coriander chutney - star of the meal!

5. Mix chapatti flour with chopped coriander, seasoning and small amounts of water until it comes together to form a dough. Be careful not to let it get too wet. Work it for about ten minutes, until it becomes a bit more pliable in your hands. Then rest in the fridge for about half an hour. Fifteen minutes before serving the meal, split the dough into small balls, roll them out into roughly circular, very thin shapes and cook them by putting them into a very hot frying pan for about 30 seconds on each side. You're not supposed to add any oil at this point, but I find this makes them puff up nicely. Other people might coat them with some ghee after cooking, but that makes them too fattening for my taste!

Chapattis - ready to go in the pan

6. The last thing to do it the Bombay potatoes, and there's loads of ways to make these. I like to par-boil chopped, peeled potatoes beforehand. Fifteen minutes before serving, I'll throw the spices with a lot of garlic into a saucepan with hot oil, then add the potatoes and chopped tomatoes. A little bit of water also helps the process. I continue to stir these on a medium heat until the potatoes have soaked in all the spices and softened enough to eat. Then a sprinkle of fresh coriander, et voila!

Looks good enough to eat!

Et voila!! The final masterpiece

A Mexican twist on a Maltese Favourite

Something that every little Maltese girl is likely to tell you, is that her Nanna (grandmother) makes the world's best Ross Fil-Forn (Maltese for baked rice). This was certainly true for me - my grandmother makes the tastiest, most moist and cheesiest baked rice I've ever eaten. And although Baked Rice was one of the first Maltese dishes that I learnt how to cook when I started university, I've never been able to get anywhere close to replicating Nanna's ability. And even now, I'm put off making this super tasty dish because boyfriend complains about it being boring and rather tasteless. Not something someone who has slaved away in the kitchen all day likes hearing.

So recently I decided that I felt like making Baked Rice but, with these thoughts in mind, I also decided that it needed a distinctly flavourful twist to it. And that's when I came up with the idea of creating a Mexican-style chilli con carne Baked Rice. All the greatness of Maltese cooking, with a spicy Mexican twist.

The recipe below describes how I made this but, if you don't want to follow the Mexican route, you can make the Maltese version of this by simply not putting any of the Chilli spices into the original sauce. But to all you Maltese out there, I definitely recommend giving it a try. It comes delicious!

A Myriad of Spices 

Chilli con Ross Fil-Forn

(see what I did there?)

Chilli con carne sauce:

minced beef

onion

garlic

HP sauce

chocolate powder

mixed herbs

paprika

cayenne pepper

cumin

turmeric

Cinammon & Cayenne Pepper - a miracle combo

ground cinnamon

carrots

kidney beans

chopped tomatoes

chilli peppers

Other ingredients:

white rice

two eggs

grated cheese (cheddar will do)

Method

First make the chilli sauce. Add chopped onions to a hot saucepan with oil in it, and sauté until soft. Add garlic, chilli peppers and then minced beef, stirring until all the mince is browned. Add about a tablespoon of all the spices (a bit less in terms of turmeric and cinnamon). Also add a table spoon of chocolate powder (just do it! trust me!) and a squirt of brown sauce.

Onions, garlic and chillis - the most delightful smell

Mix these all together, then add the carrots and chopped tomatoes. Mix and bring to a boil before letting it simmer for a while. This would be a good point to give it a taste and see if any further spices are needed (I like my chilli to have a powerful depth). Add some seasoning, the kidney beans, stir and allow to cool.

Chilli sauce completed!

While the sauce is cooling, put the rice in a deep baking dish. Add the eggs and whisk, making sure they are fully integrated with the rice. This is important, as the egg causes the dish to solidify, rather than remaining a soggy mess of chilli sauce and rice. 

Rice, with a dash of cinnamon

Rice mixed with egg

After the egg has been mixed in, add some cold water to the dish. This is needed for the rice to cook properly and prevent the dish from drying up.

Looks a bit weird at this point, but needs be done

Finally, add the chilli con carne sauce to the mix, and stir until properly combined. Then grate half the cheese over the dish, stir it in, then grate the rest of the cheese over the top. This is now ready to go in the oven at about 180 degrees celsius.

Sauce all added - beginning to look more consumable!

Pre-oven

After about half an hour, it is recommended that you get the dish out and stir it through again to mix the heat around. It should be solidifying by this point but you should still be able to stir it fairly easily. Leave it in for about an hour total and then allow it to cool slightly before serving up. And trust me, it will be worth the wait!

And after this, boyfriend has never complained about my Ross Fil-Forn again!

An hour later, golden and delicious

Bon Appetito!