With the seasons changing and seeing the baby lambs in the fields encourages me to cook with lamb. I have been making this dukkah coated dish for  some time now and finally I have a reason to document it as a recipe for the British Larder.

What is Dukkah? It’s a spice and nut blend originally from Egypt. Each household has their own recipe and blend their own dukkah spice according to their taste. It’s used as a garnish over vegetable and salads or a as cooking ingredient mixed with oil, juice and sometimes honey to coat meats. The dukkah spice and nut blend is a great store cupboard ingredient. You can purchase ready made blends or make your own like this recipe of mine. I incorporated ingredients that I like and store it in a small spice pot amongst the rest of my spices. It’s a lovely touch to add to North African styles dishes. To transform ordinary steamed rice add a few teaspoons full of the dukkah spice , toss and serve or use to create that ultimate wow factor this summer at your BBQ gatherings.

I served these delicious dukkah dusted lamb cutlets with a quinoa and aubergine salad. The aubergines are cooked using a hot griddle pan and then marinated in a delicious marinade made from olive oil, honey, pomegranate and orange blossom vinegar.  Aubergines are  easy to get wrong and hard to inject with flavour, this combination is a winner, the flavours work well and the end result is very tasty aubergines indeed!

Quinoa is a seed similar to grain and  originates from South America. It’s gluten free, easy to digest and high in protein, in short quinoa has more nutritional value than rice or wheat. Both the brown and white varieties of quinoa are regularly available in the UK, I purchase mine from a  good supermarket or health food store. It’s very important to remember to cook quinoa correctly, I cook it like rice and not like instant couscous. It should boil rapidly at least for 12- 15 minutes  in plenty of water.

To complete my delicious dukkah dusted lamb cutlets with quinoa and aubergine salad I served it with a saffron yoghurt. The cutlets could be cooked in a griddle pan, in the oven or even on the BBQ. This marinade also goes well with chicken, quails, duck or white fish such as cod, halibut  or haddock.

This is a tasty sharing recipe perfect for lazy summers spent on the patio sipping chilled crisp pinot grigio and reading the weekend papers…roll on summer!

This Keralan Style Cod Loin En-Papillote could be baked in the oven or cooked on the BBQ over cool coals, just before serving. The term “en papillote” describes the technique of cooking and serving food wrapped in paper or foil. Any fish benefits from being cooked in this way as the flavours are sealed in during cooking. The paper swells as steam is produced and you have a moist and succulent piece of fish.

I prepared this Keralan inspired marinade, with a slight Japanese twist, by the addition of fish sauce also known as Nam Pla. Living in Britain is a fantastic place to be for foodies, we have the amalgamation of many different cultures all with their own cooking styles and traditions. I’m very selfish, so I cook food I love to eat, but I might borrow a few ideas from around the globe to fuse with my own style. This marinade is Keralan inspired with plenty of coconut, mild curry powder, turmeric, limes and coriander. This recipe is by no means traditional as it is my own creation.

Cod is a fantastic fish with  large flaky white flesh. It’s subtle fish flavour allows a keen cook to experiment, as it easily absorbs most  flavours regardless of their strength or subtleness. The trick is to balance the flavours by getting the right mixture of saltiness, sweetness, sourness and bitterness to create the perfect taste sensations that work best with the cod.

It’s very important that we always purchase fish from reputable fishmongers and from sustainable sources. Do not be scared to ask questions about the origin of the fish, freshness, sustainability and fishing methods used. All fishmongers should know the answers to these questions.

I also served  the cod with a crisp citrus Keralan slaw. Reason for calling it a slaw is because most of the ingredients are raw and I also added a few interesting textures with the shaved fresh coconut and toasted almonds.

How to open a fresh coconut….

I have learned a few tricks by working with people from all walks of life.Recently I learned how to open a coconut with ease and how to get to the delicious white flesh out without injuring myself. First you need to remove the coconut water, one of the three eyes of the coconut is thin and you need to locate which one it is. In my case it’s always the last one. You do not need a lot of force just use a sharp paring knife and find which one it is, make a hole and shake  the coconut until all the water is removed. Then wrap the coconut in a clean tea towel and crack the coconut with a hammer . Then place the coconut pieces on a baking tray and bake it in a preheated oven at 200°C for 10 minutes, leave to cool completely.It will now be easy to remove the white coconut  flesh from the hairy hard exterior by pushing a blunt butter knife in between the  flesh and the hard shell. Rinse under cold water, pat dry and the fresh coconut is ready to use.

The sticky ribs were a special request from mum. Unfortunately the weather has not been the best so I had to cook the ribs indoors instead of on the Webber. She was telling me about her friend ‘Aunt ‘ Elise who makes delicious ribs using ginger beer. Deep down I wanted my ribs to be more delicious than ‘Aunt’ Elise’s and hers were superbly good. Sticky sauce round our mouths and Mr.P licking the plate provided a good enough testimonial for me that this dish was a true success.

My secret in cooking ribs successfully is as follows: Invest in the best ingredients that you can afford. Look for a lovely piece of rib that has a good layer of meat and little fat. Choose an interesting beer like  St. Peters Ruby Red Ale , beer is important as it tenderises the meat. Cook the ribs at a low temperature and baste the ribs regularly. I pour half the marinade over at the beginning with the ribs presented side down, I then turn them over after an hour and half, add half of the leftover marinade and continue cooking the ribs for a further hour. By this time the marinade has caramelised and became very sticky and glossy.

This recipe is ideal for the oven or the barbecue. When I cook ribs on the barbecue I blanch them in boiling salted water for 20 minutes , I then rub them with the marinade and continue cooking them over a low heat, basting them regularly. Basting the ribs will ensure a sticky thick glossy coating and  a sweet,succulent and moist  meat.

The technique of  semi-drying  tomatoes is also a  feature of this recipe. When I have a glut of tomatoes I usually semi-dry them with fresh garlic, thyme and freshly cracked black pepper. Once they are dry I preserve them by keeping them in a sterilized glass jar covered with olive oil. These tomatoes are brilliant in salad, risottos and pasta dishes.

I have used bobby beans for this recipe, if you do not have bobby beans then use normal green beans as a substitute. I can hear you ask what are bobby beans? Well it’s a green bean that is larger than a dwarf bean with a light furry feel. The seeds have developed and sometimes you can even pick them out. In short they are over grown green beans.

I normally do not follow savoury recipes to the letter as I like to make my own variations and techniques, but when it describes how to cook dried pulses I’m all ears and do not dismiss any warnings. Cooking pulses is easy but you must follow the rules carefully. Always hydrate the dried beans over night in 5 times the ratio of water to dried beans. The dryer the beans the longer it will take to hydrate, to be on the safe side leave it overnight. Secondly you must wash the hydrated beans under cold running water. Thirdly cook the beans in a large saucepan, cover generously with cold water, bring to the boil and simmer the beans gently until nearly cooked before you add the salt. If you add the salt at the beginning the skins will remain tough and the beans will never cook.

Along with the outside pottering  comes  alfresco dining. The barbecue gets a dusting and out comes the garden furniture. Unfortunately it requires some maintenance work as it looks rather grey after being stuck in a corner of the garage during the winter. Nevertheless it does the job and I quite like the patio as my main living space for the summer, it feels as if the house has suddenly grown and gained a extra room, a bonus!

I was brought up on meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner but  then barbecuing food was my dad’s speciality. I have the tendency to try and barbecue as often as time and the weather allows me to. I find it relaxing and the lovely smokiness of the food cooked over hot coals taste different and delicious. Lamb is one of my favourite meats to barbecue as the fat caramelizes perfectly and the flavour penetrates the rest of the meat. These lamb kebabs taste even better if you let the lamb marinade overnight. The pomegranate molasses gives the meat a slight sweet coating which encourages the caramelization and adds to the extreme yummyness. I serve these skewers along with my North African Couscous salad and with a generous amount on fresh pomegranate seeds.

These barbecued pomegranate and coriander lamb kebabs taste just as good cold. Take the left over salad and kebabs along on a lazy picnic in the park. If you would like to impress your friends skewer two pieces of lamb per cocktail bamboo skewer and cook them as soon as they arrive for a barbecue party, they make stunning canapes along with a cold glass of Pimms.

The Cape Malay marinade that I made a week ago came in very handy. The tangy sweet slightly fruity and mild curried aroma made this marinade the prime candidate for my delicious deboned chicken skewers. The deboned chicken thighs cook quickly on the barbecue but still remain moist and succulent.

I love crispy chicken skin. I simply cannot resist the caramelised crispy and juicy chicken skin from the barbecues thighs, it’s simply finger licking good.

Talking about the barbecue, I never realised how serious and personal the choice of the actual barbecue can be. I grew up with a braai which is an open fire made with wood, lit with fire lighters and fueled with petrol to set it alight. It sounds primitive but its simple and very effective. I think that we are trying to be far to civilized and complicate things too much by faffing about with expensive flash looking gas barbecues or a charcoal equivalent.

Just last night I got it all wrong again trying to get it going with  charcoal. I either put too much or too little charcoal on at the beginning and it just does not burn as it should,but I persisted and we managed to enjoy these Malay chicken curry kebabs with my mothers special cheese, tomato and onion toasties.

These cheese, onion and tomato toasties are the ultimate barbecue treat. We actually do not eat them on the day but the following morning. There is something simply irresistible about cold barbecue toasted sandwiches. When I first introduced these to Ross he frowned and was not quite sure what to expect. Now it’s tradition and we must make them every time. I do not complain as it sorts breakfast!

I paid my  regular visit to Brindisa to stock up on my favourite sherry vinegar and then off to Monmouth coffee for a caffeine fix followed by a stop at Neils Yard to choose a tub of goats curd and some Montgomery cheddar.

After a hard day’s shopping I do not intentionally want to spend many hours in front of the cooker. I love cooking but do not misunderstand me but sometimes dinner must be super quick. With my shopping bags unpacked,  my kitchen cupboards are gaping as I can not fit anything else inside. Even when I removed the couscous the door  simply would not close.

Not only do I love the ease of this recipe but it’s delicious and very tasty indeed. I like working with couscous, it absorbs flavours incredibly well and the texture is magical. It almost looks after itself, therefore perfect for me.

Now onto one of the great loves of my foodie life. A.R. Valdespino Jerez vinagre superior, a wonderful Spanish sherry vinegar, I have been using this brand for as long as I can remember. A dash of this magical vinegar transforms this dish and takes it into a different stratosphere! I also like adding a dash of Valdespino to lamb dishes as it cuts through the richness  of the meat and its fruitiness works like magic with the lamb.

I bought a new jar of Ras-el-Hanout and sumac from the Arabica Food and Spice company. I love these guys and think their spices are brilliant, authentic full of power and freshness. A teaspoon of Ras-el-Hanout and a dash of Valdespino makes my couscous salad extra special!

This North African couscous and pomegranate salad tastes even better the following day. Making a bit extra does not go to waste as it’s perfect for my lunch box.

I have been proven to be completely wrong, if I had not joined Twitter I would have never known about Polly Robinson from Food Safari UK.

I find the Suffolk coast line most intriguing,which explains  our many visits.The Aldeburgh Food festival has become a highlight on our yearly foodie calendar. It’s a family affair and together with Ross’s parents, Annerly and Duke the dog , we make an annual pilgrimage to Aldeburgh to savour the best food that Suffolk has to offer.

Twitter worked it’s magic and I saw a message posted by Polly about the Sea Food Safari that was due to take place. Keen and interested we joined in on the fun.

It was a brilliant day starting with Polly’s home made flapjacks and coffee at the quay before boarding the small fishing vessel to sail up the river Ore. I got all excited as we spotted lambs grazing on the banks and so salt marsh lamb came to mind.

The reason for sailing up the Ore was to empty the lobster pots. We pulled the pots filled with  numerous treasures, including various sizes of lobsters, common shore crabs, eels, whelks, sea urchins and jelly fish eggs. Peter, the captain for the day, reminded us that you are not allowed to fish for lobster unless you have a valid permit and you must return the lobsters to the sea that are below the legal 10cm size, that is measuring from the eye’s to where the tail is attached to the body. Peter was also keen to tell us some other names that fishermen call sea urchin’s but I think I shall keep that one for another time.

After the boat trip we took a behind the scenes tour of Pinney’s smoke house at Butley creek. This was followed by a delicious sea food lunch at Butley Orford Oysterage Restaurant.

While we visited the oysterage at Butley Creek ,Polly pointed out the samphire and sea purslane growing on the banks of the river, it was a fantastic find, so I helped myself to a useful supply to take home along with the lobster from earlier that day.

As we were driving home ,I toyed with a number of ideas on which recipe to use with the lobster and the other sea vegetables that we found that day. All of a sudden it came to me, the inspiration of the day was the smoke house.

We kept Larry the lobster neatly wrapped in damp news paper in the fridge until we were ready the following day to light the barbecue and make this lovely dish.

A few years ago when visiting New York I found these cedar wood sheets in one of the many classy delicatessens, they wrapped them around salmon to enclose all sorts of interesting flavours, marinades and herbs. After chatting with the person behind the counter he pointed me in the right direction to where I could purchase some of these cedar wood sheets. I brought some back home and tested them on the barbecue. The results were fantastic as the food inside steams while it is lightly smoked at the same time. The secret is that the barbecue must be fairly cool so that it cooks slowly before the soaked wood drys out and catches fire.

There is a terrific predominant Cape Malay influence in the traditional  cookery history of Cape Town. Malay is the “name” given to  immigrants that came to South Africa from  North Africa,  Malaysia and anywhere in between. These immigrants made Cape Town their home, merged  their different cooking styles which  gives us the classic Cape Malay cooking style and traditions as we know it today.

Sosaties is one of those adapted “Cape Malay” influenced dishes that has been passed on from generation to generation. Sosaties is a typical South African kebab made with lamb steeped in a spicy curry marinade. The secret to a good sosatie  is the cooking of the marinade. It needs to simmer over low heat for a half an hour, the sugars caramelises and all the flavours start working together to make this a delicious marinade. Another essential factor is the time the meat is left to marinade, the longer you leave the meat in the marinade the more flavoursome and tender the meat becomes. The best cut of lamb for this dish  is the shoulder, a good bit of fat is essential.

I always make a good size batch of marinade, jar some and keep it in the fridge. It’s forms the perfect base for my home made curries and a  tablespoonful  stirred in with cooked chicken and crème fraîche makes a lovely coronation chicken sandwich too!

…….I spotted them! In their tight grass green jackets all packed in tightly like sardines in a can. New season garden peas.

They were  so tight in their fresh new season pods that they almost looked like square peas instead of round.

They were not just any peas they were peas from Hertfordshire! It’s my locality and I was so incredibly pleased to have found vegetables on offer that were picked that morning from no more than a 5 miles away. Now that is what I call local and fresh!

I was pretty impressed as I did not expect to see peas around until early July, but then I can confirm that even the peas in my garden have flourished over the past week, the pods are swollen and give it a few more days then I could start my own mini pea harvest festival. I have been using the pea tops to brighten up my salads and sandwiches. I have planted two batches of peas one  Late April and the second mid May so that I’m ensured to have fresh garden peas available for good period of time.

I was eating them faster than mum could pod them, they were fresh, sweet and juicy. The freshness and age of these peas inspired me to use them completely raw for this recipe. I crushed them in the Thermomix and macerated them with a generous amount of good fruity cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and a sprinkling of sumac and cumin. A scattering of feta cheese and pea tops complete this dish beautifully. A true reminder that summer has arrived!