Category: Falklands

The following article was written and published by the Penguin News, The Falkland Islands weekly newspaper

“I’ve recently been lucky enough to have the time to join Uzma’s Kazmi’s Spicy Cuisine evenings at FICS. Last week, with her patient supervision, we made Chicken Biryani and Lahori chiker cholay, a spicy chick pea curry. It turns out that the trick with an authentic Biryani is to fry the onions until they are so caramelised they take on a whole new flavour. Uzma informed me that the word Biryani means fried onions. I later asked her what masala meant “gravy” she replied and then as I showed so much wonder at what she had told me she smiled her beautiful, mischievous smile and said “Yes Molly it’s like learning another language!” The list of ingredients was extensive but we all pooled our spices and offered each other advice on where to find the rarer items.

Later in the week I was wandering around Stanley and, as ever, was drawn to the end of aisle bargains. I can never resist a red sticker. In Seafish I found Tamarind and then later in the West Store there was a glut of palm sugar both reduced to pennies. Neither of these ingredients I expected to find in FI. They made me think of one of my all time favourite curries. The Goan Prawn Balchao. I was taught it at Rick Stein’s years ago. It’s a relatively dry curry and is traditionally made with prawns but works just as well with chicken strips and, I can imagine, it would be fabulous with squid.

Firstly make the paste. If you have a coffee grinder throw all your spices in it but if you have had a bad day at work get out your rolling pin, pestle and mortar or whatever blunt instrument you have to hand and start smashing 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds and 2 teaspoons each of coriander seeds, black peppercorns and cloves. Pop them all in to a food processor adding 1 teaspoon of turmeric, 1 teaspoon of palm sugar (muscovado will do if it’s sold out), 1 teaspoon of salt, 6 garlic cloves, 100g red chillies, 2 teaspoons of tamarind (if you are using the dry stuff you might need to add a bit of warm water to soften it) a thumb of ginger and 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar. Blitz together and that’s your paste done.

When you are ready for supper chop a couple of onions and another 6 cloves of garlic frying them until brown add the paste and fry for a couple of minutes until the spices start to separate from the oil. Mix another 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar and 1 tablespoon of palm sugar. Simmer for a minute or two before adding the prawns. They just need to warm through. Try it, It’s unusual but so tasty and I do hate seeing good food go to waste”

“Thank you to all the people who emailed to tell me where to find seaweed. I am off out to have a bit of a forage. Mols”

I’ve been out and about this week, taking advantage of the lovely weather to do a spot of foraging. I am pleased to say that I have found Sea lettuce at Eliza’s Cove, Bertha’s and Cape Pembroke. Seaweed has made a bit of a culinary comeback of late. When I was a child growing up on the west of Ireland I only ever remember it as a very unappetising brown sludge but then all my Grandmother’s cooking was like that so it’s no reason not to give it a second chance. You will be glad to hear that there are no poisonous seaweeds in the world but some look and taste better than others. Sea lettuce is easy to recognize as it looks like lettuce, has a ruffled edge and is vivid green. Collect it, give it a quick rinse and then immerse it in equal parts of water and white wine vinegar and leave in the fridge for a day or two. It is delicious with Salmon or any oily fish as it holds its colour, shape and texture and cuts through fishy fattiness as would a caper or a gherkin. Also, like all seaweeds it’s packed with essential minerals and vitamins.

A bit closer to home in Stanley there are so many edible leaves and flowers that we can use to prettify salads. I like to throw a handful of gorse flowers or marigold to add colour and I use young dandelion leaves and the tender shoots of plantain to add hints of flavour.

Dandelion by the way comes from the French words ‘Dente de Lion’ the teeth of the Lion which, if you look at the leaves, makes perfect sense.

One thing I was delighted to see growing wild in town is Three Cornered Leek. It’s the same family as garlic and onions and has a pretty white flower. I haven’t got a clue how it got here but it seems to be doing very well. I use the flowers as edible decoration and the leaves and stalks I make it in to Pesto. Add a few bunches to olive oil, a handful of toasted pine nuts and some parmesan and blitz it until it has the same consistency of the basil pesto that you would buy in the shops. It’s fabulous added to cream to make a pasta sauce or to breadcrumbs to make a crust for fish. It also works as a drizzle in soups or as a dressing for salads or vegetables. I first discovered it, many years ago, when working on a boat in Norway. The skipper would add it to wild garlic and make a sauce that he used to call “Viking Viagra” I have no idea how well it worked, I’ll let you do your own research. All the allium family are known to be wonderful for cleansing the blood and I am sure many of us will benefit from that in the New Year!

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