The New English Kitchen: Changing the Way You Shop, Cook and Eat

fresh mango chutney

This chutney can be made in half an hour or less. Eat with sausages or hot ham.

150ml/

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pint white wine vinegar

3 cardamom pods

120g/4oz golden granulated sugar

1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped

3 mangoes, peeled, stoned and cut into 1cm/

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inch cubes

1 tablespoon black onion seeds (nigella)

Put the vinegar and cardamoms in a small saucepan and add the sugar. Heat slowly, allowing the sugar to dissolve before the mixture boils. Simmer until the mixture has reduced in volume by about one-third and then remove from the heat. Add the chilli and stir. Pour the mixture over the mangoes and throw the onion seeds on top. You can eat it immediately or store it in the fridge for up to a week.

plantains

If you have never visited an Afro-Caribbean market, you are in for an experience. At Brixton Market in London, you will see some of the most demanding shoppers in action. African and West Indian women, and men, shout at market traders to push prices down and go for bulk deals. They pick up everything, squeeze it and smell it; they are terrific buyers of fresh vegetables and understand their true value.

Plantains are large, banana-like fruits that are eaten cooked. On my trip to Tobago, I ate them sautéed in butter or ghee for breakfast and they were wonderful. Their skins must be completely black before you cook them or they will have no flavour. Eat them with baked chicken legs and Corn Fritters (see here (#litres_trial_promo)).

fried plantain

Serves 2

1 plantain, peeled and cut slightly on the diagonal into slices

1cm/

/

inch thick

ghee or butter mixed with vegetable oil

1 lime

Shallow-fry the plantain slices in the fat until golden on both sides and tender when prodded with a fork. Squeeze a little lime juice over them and serve.

pomegranates

Pomegranates are in Middle Eastern shops all year round, although they are particularly plump and fresh in late summer to autumn. They do keep a long time, though – I bought some for Christmas once and they were still there in April, albeit a little shrivelled, but the pips inside were red and juicy. Pomegranates appear frequently in Iranian cooking. I tend to buy them because I like the look of them, and then use only a few in a pilaff or a salad with oranges and spinach. What to do with the rest? What the Iranians do, of course. Make a pomegranate syrup to eat with roast poultry or game.

pomegranate syrup

I am ever grateful to the exhaustive research of Claudia Roden for this recipe. This is an adaptation of her version.

4 pomegranates

juice of 2 lemons

1 tablespoon golden caster sugar

150ml/

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pint water

a pinch each of salt and pepper

Cut the pomegranates in half and dig out the seeds. Put them in a food processor and blend for a few seconds – enough to break the skin that surrounds the seeds. Transfer the pulp to a sieve placed over a bowl and squeeze out the remaining juice by rubbing it through with a wooden spoon. Four pomegranates should yield about 300ml/

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pint.

Put the pomegranate juice in a pan with the lemon juice, sugar, water, salt and pepper. Heat slowly and bring to the boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook until the mixture has reduced by about a third. Add more lemon juice if it is too sweet. Pour into a jar and store in the fridge.

kitchen notes

To eat pomegranate syrup with poultry or game, pour it over browned chicken, mallard or pheasant, then cover and simmer for 1–1

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hours, until the meat is tender. Thin the sauce with water if you wish.

Throw fresh pomegranate seeds over the pilaff on here 202 (#litres_trial_promo) – substituting pheasant or other game for lamb will be even nicer.

dried fruit

Dried fruit has gone though a renaissance and you can now buy wonderful, freshly dried soft pineapple, plums, figs, cherries and cranberries. I cook them with ordinary dried figs, adding them sliced to stock when braising partridge or pheasant. I make trifle with them too, having discovered by accident when short of fresh berries that they make a much more interesting pudding that is nice for Christmas meals.

winter trifle

Serves 8

480g/1lb dried fruit, such as figs, cherries, pineapples, plums and peaches, roughly chopped