Hiyajiru (chilled miso soup) with cucumber ice cubes

The perfect hot weather dish from chef Tim Anderson's Nanban - even if you only make the cucumber ice cubes

Tim writes: One of my all-time favorite dishes on a hot day. Some may find the idea of a cold miso and fish soup strange, but keep in mind all the cold miso and fish dishes found throughout Japan – this just takes those flavours and translates them into a refreshing liquid format. Usually this is served with a side of hot rice so diners can enjoy the contrasting temperatures. I use room temperature rice so everything stays nice and cold, but do whatever you prefer.

In Miyazaki this is dished up with a few ice cubes in it to keep it cold. I don’t really like this because as they melt, all they do is dilute the soup. To add flavour where it would otherwise be lost, I use cucumber-chilli ice cubes, which make the dish both lighter and more exciting as you get to the bottom of the bowl. This will make more ice cubes than you need, but they are fantastic in a Bloody Mary, or G&T.

Hiyajiru
冷や汁
Chilled miso soup

Yield: 4-6 servings

For the miso soup:

2 mackerel fillets or 4 sardine fillets (about 150g total), skinned and boned
30g miso
15g toasted sesame seeds
40ml rice vinegar
40ml mirin
300ml dashi
340g firm silken tofu, pressed to extract moisture
300g rice
1/2 cucumber
20g beni shoga (red ginger), minced
4 leaves shiso or 8 leaves basil, cut into a chiffonade
salt
sesame oil

For the cucumber-chilli ice cubes

1/2 cucumber
juice of 1/2 lime
2 Thai green chillies
30ml rice vinegar
50ml water
pinch of salt

To make the ice cubes, simply puree all the ingredients in a blender. Pass the purée through a fine sieve and transfer to an ice cube tray. Freeze until set.

For the miso soup: Season the fish with a little salt and grill until done – it should actually be a little overcooked so it’s quite dry. Purée this in a blender along with the miso, sesame seeds, vinegar, mirin, dashi, and 100g of the tofu until completely smooth. Pass through a fine sieve and refrigerate for at least an hour to get it really nice and cold. (The mixture will separate as it chills. Not to worry – store it in a jar and give it a good shake to bring it back together before serving).

To serve: Cook the rice. Cut the remaining half of cucumber lengthwise, then shave it thinly – use a mandolin, if you have one. Salt the cucumber slices liberally and leave them to sit for 10 minutes, then squeeze out the liquid and give them a quick rinse under cold water. Cut the remaining tofu into small cubes.

Place a mound of tofu and cucumber slices in each bowl. Add a small spoonful of beni shoga on top, and then a pile of shiso chiffonade. Pour in the soup, stopping just before it reaches the top of the tofu and cucumbers. Add a few drops of sesame oil and the ice cubes. Serve rice on the side.

What to drink: Like many soups I'm not sure this needs any liquid accompaniment but a glass of chilled sake would work or a very dry white such as a muscadet.

© Nanban: Japanese Soul Food by Tim Anderson (Square Peg), photography by Paul Winch-Furness.

Kid Rogan Josh

One of the most interesting cookbooks to come out in the past couple of years is James Whetlor's Goat - a book of recipes for using goat meat.

Whetlor used to work with Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall at River Cottage then set up a company called Cabrito to sell the meat from billy goats who would otherwise have been immediately put down because they were not milk producers.

He saw the potential for using this sustainable and delicious type of meat and has been selling it to chefs and consumers ever since. (It's well worth reading the fascinating introduction to the book.)

This is his recipe for Rogan Josh which he says is one of his favourite curries, worth doubling up and freezing any leftovers.

Kid Rogan Josh

Serves 4

600g/1lb 5oz diced kid

75g/1/3 cup plain yoghurt

2 teaspoons chilli powder (add more if you want it hotter)

2 teaspoons unsmoked paprika

1 red onion, roughly chopped

1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

small bunch of coriander (cilantro), leaves and stalks separated

30g/2 tablespoons butter

1 cinnamon stick

5 cardamom pods

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

3 whole cloves

3 tomatoes, roughly chopped, or ½ x 400g/14oz can tomatoes

salt

Mix together the meat, yoghurt, chilli, paprika and ½ teaspoon salt, and leave to marinate for at least 1 hour, and up to 8 hours in the fridge.

Put the onion, ginger, garlic, ½ teaspoon salt and the coriander (cilantro) stalks in a small food processor and blend to a coarse paste.

Melt the butter in a frying pan, add all the whole spices and fry for 30 seconds. Add the paste and cook for 15 minutes until all the liquid has evaporated and the paste begins to stick to the bottom of the pan.

Add the meat and its marinade with the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes to break down the tomatoes. Add 200ml/scant 1 cup water then cover and simmer for 1 hour or until the meat is tender and the sauce is rich and thick. Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t dry out, adding a little bit of water if it does.

Check the seasoning and sprinkle with the coriander leaves, roughly chopped. Serve with rice, naan and chilli and garlic chutney (the recipe for which is also in the book).

What to drink: I like a young rioja or other tempranillo with a rogan josh which is not an exceptionally hot curry though you can obviously add extra chilli powder or chilli flakes in which case I'd probably go for a South African pinotage.

Extracted from Goat: Cooking and Eating by James Whetlor (Quadrille, £20.00) Photography: Mike Lusmore. 50% of the royalties from the book go to the charity Farm Africa.

You can buy goat from the Cabrito online shop and other specialist online meat suppliers.

Baingan Bharta - roasted smoky aubergine

I've been lucky enough to eat my friend Romy Gill's food on many occasions - she's an inspired home cook - so it's great to finally see her recipes in print.

This is one of her favourites from her lovely new book Zaika, which she describes as her 'ultimate desert island dish'.

Romy writes: The beauty of Indian food is that it not only has regional dishes but families cook each of these in so many ways. If you don’t like one method, you can just cook it another way! Baingan bharta with dal and roti would be my ultimate desert island dish; the perfect balance of smoky aubergine and the warmth of the green chillies is so divine.

The aubergines are roasted on the hob and then left to cool down before peeling off the skin and mashed; this recipe is how my mum made it, so I give her all the credit.

30 minutes

SERVES 3

2 medium-sized aubergines

6 tsp rapeseed oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

3 medium onions, finely chopped

3 green chillies, seeds in, finely chopped

2 tomatoes, finely chopped

20g coriander leaves, finely chopped

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp salt

Roti, to serve (there is a recipe in the book)

Roast the aubergines over a gas burner on the hob over a medium heat using a pair of tongs to hold them, or under a preheated hot grill. Either way, turn the veg regularly for even roasting. Allow to cool, then when cool enough to handle, peel off the roasted skin. Mash the flesh in a large bowl.

Heat the oil in a pan, add the cumin seeds, then add the garlic and stir for 1 minute. Add the onions and chillies, cook for 4–5 minutes over a high heat and keep stirring. Once the onions are translucent, add the chopped tomatoes and coriander to the pan and cook for 3–4 minutes. When the tomatoes have broken down into the onions, add the rest of the spices and salt and mix together well. Finally, stir in the mashed aubergine and cook for 5 minutes over a medium heat.

Serve with roti.

What to drink: I'd probably drink lassi with this or one of the lovely soft drinks in the book but you could drink a light aromatic white like a sylvaner or riesling (I know Romy's favourite is the Kung Fu Girl riesling) or a rosé.

Extracted from Zaika: vegan recipes from India by Romy Gill, published by Seven Dials at £20. Photo ©Del Sneddon.

What wine to pair with curry: my top five picks

Kimchi fried rice

If you're a bit of a kimchi addict you'll love this recipe for kimchi fried rice which comes from chef Judy Joo's book Korean Food Made Simple. I think would be brilliant for a weekend brunch.

KIMCHI FRIED RICE

KIMCHI BOKKEUM BAP

SERVES 4

Judy writes: My sister used to make this for me when we lived together in New York, and I loved it! Fried rice is the perfect way to use up leftovers, so feel free to improvise. Any kind of veggies or meat you have in the fridge – just toss them in. This is a great lunch or side dish. A variation, called omurice, is to make omelettes with the eggs and wrap them around the fried rice like a burrito. At Jinjuu, we like to fancy up our kimchi fried rice with a garnish of julienned roasted seaweed (kim) and lotus root chips.

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 slices thick-cut bacon, diced

2 carrots, diced

1 clove garlic, grated or finely chopped

9 button mushrooms, destemmed and diced

1⁄2 courgette, diced

3 spring onions, thinly sliced on an angle

225 g (8 oz) drained Cabbage Kimchi (there's a great recipe in the book but you can obviously use ready prepared kimchi), chopped

700 g (11⁄2 lb) steamed short or medium grain Korean rice, at room temperature

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 soft sunny-side-up fried eggs

In a large pan heat the oil over a medium- high heat. Add the bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until crispy, about 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a kitchen paper-lined plate to drain.

Reduce the heat to medium, add the carrots and garlic and cook for 2–3 minutes, stirring constant- ly, until the carrots are just softened. Add the mushrooms, courgette, two-thirds of the spring onions and the kimchi and cook for 4–5 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Add the rice and drained bacon, breaking up the rice with a wooden spoon and combining it with the other ingredients. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the rice is hot. Season and spoon the fried rice into four bowls and top each with a fried egg and the remaining spring onions.

TIP: Kimchi can stain your chopping board and the smell has a habit of lingering, too. To avoid this, put the kimchi in a bowl and use kitchen shears to cut it into smaller pieces.

What to drink: When I tried this dish in Judy's restaurant JinJuu (with which she is no longer associated) we drank cocktails (Jumi - Earl Grey infused soju with yujacha (citron tea) and HIte Korean lager with the meal which worked really well. Maybe just the yujacha (for which you can find a recipe here) if you have it for brunch!

From Korean Food made Simple by Judy Joo, published by Jacqui Small