Dublin coddle

If you're wondering what to prepare to celebrate St Patrick's Day, Coddle could be the answer. Here's the version from J P McMahon's magnificent new The Irish Cookbook.

JP writes: "Coddle, or Dublin coddle to be more precise, is a dish made up of leftover sausages and bacon. Traditionally, the sausages and bacon were cut up and combined with onions and potatoes and left to stew in a light broth. Though often unappetizing to look at, the dish was made famous by several Irish writers, from Jonathan Swift to James Joyce and Seán O’Casey.

Modern versions include barley and carrots. It is essentially a dish that grew out of poverty and famine and then migrated into the working-class areas of Dublin at the beginning of the twentieth century to become a dish of central importance to the people who lived there. Often it contained a drop of Guinness (or it was eaten with plenty of pints and soda bread).

It is said that the housewives would prepare the coddle during the day and it would sit on the stove until the men returned home from the pub. The word itself is derived from the verb ‘to coddle’ or ‘to cook’ (from French caulder). With its associations of poverty, it is surprising to find ‘authentic’ recipes, especially given the status of the dish as being made with whatever leftovers were to hand (as in pig’s trotters/feet, pork ribs, etc.). Some associate it with the Catholic Church’s insistence of abstaining from meat on a Friday.

Coddle was a way of using up the bacon and sausages on a Thursday. In this recipe, I fry the ingredients before covering them with the stock, but traditionally they were just layered and simmered until cooked.

Preparation: 20 minutes

Cooking: 1 hour

Serves: 8

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 tablespoons rapeseed (canola) oil, plus extra if needed
• 500 g sausages, cut into pieces if preferred
• 500 g streaky (regular) bacon, cut into pieces
• 500 g onions, sliced
• 2 tablespoons chopped thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 litre chicken stock
• 1 kg (9 medium) potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
• 4 tablespoons chopped parsley
• freshly ground black pepper

METHOD:

Warm the oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the sausages and bacon and fry for about 10 minutes until they have a nice colour. Remove the meat from the pan and set aside.

Add the sliced onions to the pan and a little more oil if necessary. Reduce the heat and fry for about 10 minutes so that the onions caramelize slowly.

When the onions have a nice colour, return the sausages and bacon to the pan and add the thyme and bay leaves. Cover with the chicken stock (broth) and return to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and add the potatoes. Cook for about 30 minutes.

Add the chopped parsley and plenty of black pepper and serve.

What to drink: Personally I'd go for a stout like the wonderful Gibney's stout I wrote about the other day but a glass of cider wouldn't go amiss either. And Irish food and wine writer Tom Doorley suggests a riesling kabinett which sounds spot on too.

Extracted from The Irish Cook Book by J P McMahon published by Phaidon at £35.

Pizza by any other name

What to eat on a Sunday night when you've been out for the day and everyone suddenly wants supper? Rosie Sykes addresses just this issue in her delightful Sunday Night Book which was published in 2017.

It's full of short, easy but tempting recipes to rustle up from ingredients you're likely to have readily to hand or can pick up without too much effort from a small supermarket. This is one of my favourites.

Rosie writes: "What I’ve done here is turn a pizza on its head: this is basically a slightly sloppier version of the tomato sauce you might spread over a pizza base, spiked with some tasty morsels from the fridge, then topped with mozzarella and chunks of bread and baked. Couldn’t be easier, and it needs little in the way of accompaniment – although a green salad is always good. Feel free to pick and choose what to add to the tomato sauce, depending on what leftovers you have."

For 4

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

6 rashers streaky bacon

2 red onions, sliced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 sprigs of thyme, leaves stripped from stems

400g (14oz) stale bread, torn into chunks

250g (9oz) mushrooms, sliced

half a 280g (10oz) jar roasted red peppers, drained and torn into bite-sized pieces

1 x 400g (14oz) tin of tomatoes

1 bay leaf

175g (6oz) mozzarella

few sprigs of basil (optional)

sea salt and black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6.

Heat a generous splash of olive oil in a large heavy-based saucepan (with a lid) over a medium heat. Using scissors, snip the bacon into chunky lardon-like pieces straight into the hot oil, then let it sizzle and release its fat. As soon as the baconhas browned a little, lift it out with a slotted spoon and set aside. Throw the onions into the pan with a pinch of salt and stir to coat in the bacon fat. Add asplash more oil if they don’t look shiny, then turn the heat down to low and cook gently for about 7 minutes, or until soft but not brown.

Meanwhile, make the topping. In a large bowl, mix the garlic and thyme leaves with any remaining olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Throw in the stale bread and toss to coat in the oily mixture. Season generously with black pepper – and maybe a pinch of salt, depending what kind of bread you are using.

When the onions are soft and sweet, turn the heat up to medium and add the mushrooms, along with another sprinkling of salt. Keep the pan moving while the mushrooms cook – this should take about 3–4 minutes. Next, add the peppers, return the bacon and, after a brief stir, add the tomatoes and bay leaf.

Bring the lot up to the boil and simmer vigorously for about 5 minutes to let everything get to know each other and for the sauce to reduce a little.

Season with salt and pepper to taste, then pour into a baking dish about 20cm x 15cm (8in x 6in) and shake gently to level, so that it completely covers the base of the dish. Tear the mozzarella – and the basil, if using – into bite-sized pieces and distribute evenly over the tomato sauce. Scatter the bread over the top, making sure everything is covered, then bake in the oven for 15 minutes until golden, crisp and bubbling. Serve straight away.

What to drink: Given this is a leftovers dish I'm tempted to say whatever wine you have leftover from the previous night but in case the contents of your bottle have a habit of mysteriously disappearing a simple Sicilian or Southern Italian red - like a nero d'avola - would hit the spot perfectly. Nothing fancy. FB

From THE SUNDAY NIGHT BOOK: 52 short recipes to make the weekend feel longer by Rosie Sykes (Quadrille, £12.99) Photography: Patricia Niven

Nokx Majozi’s Fish Curry and Pumpkin Maize Meal

There are so many good recipes in The Female Chef, a compilation of favourite recipes from Britain’s leading women cooks that it’s hard to pick out just one but here’s one from a chef I really admire, Nokx Majozi of the Holborn Dining Room. Nokx is famous for her pies but this is a family recipe from her homeland of South Africa.

‘This is a recipe my late father used to make. He worked in the harbour and right beside it there were fishmongers. He often used to come home with fresh fish for dinner, so it’s a fond memory and one of the first recipes I ever learnt. I’m from Durban in South Africa; a city that is huge on curries.’

Serves 4–6 people

For the fish curry
15g/1⁄2oz curry powder
10g/1⁄4oz ground cumin
30g/1oz fish masala spice mix
1kg/2lb 3oz fish steaks (you can use a fish of your choice)
50ml/13⁄4fl oz vegetable oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
15g/1⁄2oz garlic (around 2–3 average-sized cloves), grated
15g/1⁄2oz fresh ginger, peeled and grated
sprig of curry leaves
200g/7oz tomato purée
10g/1⁄3oz sugar
150ml/5fl oz coconut milk
15g/1⁄2oz fresh coriander leaves

For the pumpkin maize meal

1 tsp salt
1kg/2lb 3oz peeled pumpkin (or butternut squash), cooked and mashed
250g/9oz maize meal (or polenta)

For the salsa

1 carrot, grated
1 small onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1⁄4 cucumber, chopped
1⁄2 lemon, juiced
salt and freshly ground black pepper

To make the fish curry, first mix together the spices and divide in half, then rub the fish with half of the mixture until well coated. Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium heat and add the fish, frying on both sides until browned. Remove the fish from the pan and set aside.

In the same pan and oil, cook the onion, garlic, ginger and curry leaves until the onion and garlic
are translucent and the rest are browned. Lower the heat, add the other half of the spices and stir well. Add the tomato purée, sugar and coconut milk and bring to a boil, then add the fish back in, lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the pumpkin maize meal. steaks Place 1 litre/13⁄4 pints water in a pot (that has a lid) over a medium–high heat, add the salt and bring to a boil. Add the pumpkin (or butternut squash), maize meal (or polenta) and stir until all is combined and smooth. Reduce the heat, put on the lid and simmer for 10–15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.

To make the salsa, mix together all of the ingredients and season to taste.

When ready to serve, scatter the coriander leaves over the fish curry and enjoy with the maize meal and salsa.

What to drink: I'd pair a viognier with this FB.

Extracted from The Female Chef by Clare Finney & Liz Seabrook published by Hoxton Mini Press at £28

Layered sweet and sour beef stew (Lah'meh Fil Meh'leh)

So many cookbooks these days have similar dishes that it's great to come across one that includes recipes you won't find elsewhere. That's absolutely the case with Eat Share Love a collection of recipes and stories from the home cooks of Bristol's 91 language communities collated by food writer and campaigner Kalpna Woolf.

This unusual sweet and sour Syrian stew from Viviane Bowell sounds really delicious and I can't wait to make it

Viviane writes: "My mother’s family originates from Aleppo in Syria. My grandparents left in 1910 for economic reasons and settled in Egypt as it had become the new El Dorado, due to the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. The Jews of Aleppo had developed an elite cooking style which featured fine ingredients such as cinnamon and allspice, and exotic flavours such as tamarind paste and pomegranate molasses. Dried fruits were commonly available in the markets of Aleppo and were added to all sorts of vegetable and meat dishes. This remained very much my grandmother’s style of cooking. She taught my mother everything she knew, and I have tried to keep the tradition going in my own way.

I have shared two Syrian Jewish recipes for this book: layered beef stew (opposite) and borekas, which you can find on page 142. These little pies are the trademark and the pride of Jews of Spanish descent. Their ancestors were expelled from Spain in 1492 and most of them settled in the Ottoman Empire and the Balkans. My father’s family moved from there to Egypt just before the First World War as the Ottoman Empire had by then disintegrated. Borekas were a staple in my family and part of my childhood. Every housewife had her own variation and prided herself that hers were the best. The ones I remember most fondly are my mother’s as her pastry just melted in the mouth.

LAH’MEH FIL MEH’LEH (LAYERED SWEET AND SOUR BEEF STEW)

This Syrian Jewish dish favours the sweet and sour combination of ingredients. It’s very easy to prepare, as it’s all cooked in one pot. The flavour will improve if prepared a day ahead and reheated in the oven before serving.

Preparation time: 30 minutes • Cooking time: 2+ hours • Serves 6-8

900g stewing beef
• 21⁄2 tsp salt
• 1⁄4 tsp black pepper
• 1⁄2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 11⁄2 tsp allspice
• 2 medium onions
• 2 medium potatoes
• 1 large sweet potato
• 1 medium aubergine
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 3⁄4 cup (134g) pitted prunes
• 400g tinned chopped tomatoes
• 21⁄2 cups (625ml) water
• 3 heaped tbsp tomato paste
• Juice of 2 lemons + 3 tbsp
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce or pomegranate molasses
• 1 tbsp tamarind paste
• 1⁄4 cup (51g) firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1⁄4 tsp salt

First, prepare the layers. Cube the stewing beef and then combine it with the salt, pepper, cinnamon and allspice in a bowl, mixing well with your hands. Cut the onions into wedges and separate them into layers, then peel and chop both types of potato into medium chunks. Cut the aubergine into 2cm cubes. Pour the vegetable oil into a heatproof casserole dish. Spread half the onions in a single layer over the oil. Place half the meat over the onions, pressing down firmly. If using a large saucepan, you may have to use all the onions in one layer and then all the meat. Add the vegetables in layers, beginning with the white potatoes, followed by the sweet potatoes, prunes and then aubergines, in that order. Press down firmly and then pour the chopped tomatoes over the vegetables.

Next, prepare the sauce. In a medium saucepan, combine the water, tomato paste, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce or molasses, tamarind paste, dark brown sugar and salt. Give the mixture a stir, quickly bring it to the boil and then pour the sauce over the layers in the casserole dish.

Cover with a lid and simmer the stew over a low heat for 1 hour. Correct the seasoning to taste. You may have to add more brown sugar, as the sauce should have a sweet-tart taste. Preheat the oven to 180°c (Gas Mark 4) and then transfer the casserole dish to the oven and cook for another 1 hour 30 minutes, or up to 2 hours until the potatoes and aubergines are soft. If necessary, cook uncovered for a further 15 minutes if the sauce needs to be reduced. Serve with white rice.

What to drink: There is actually a great Syrian red if you can get hold of it but otherwise I'd go for a full-bodied Lebanese red or a grenache/syrah/mourvedre blend. FB

Eat Share Love by Kalpna Woolf is published by Meze. All proceeds from the book go to the award-winning Charity 91 Ways to Build a Global City.