Recipes: Spice up your life in Malton

Tony’s Asparagus with Lime & Coriander Hollandaise

Serves 4–6

Ingredients

1kg asparagus, washed and ends snapped off

salt

For the hollandaise reduction:

20ml white wine vinegar

juice of 1 lime

40ml water

1 small shallot, chopped

30 coriander seeds

1 tsp black peppercorns

sprig of coriander

sprig of tarragon

1 bay leaf

For the hollandaise sauce:

150g unsalted clarified butter (ghee)

2 egg yolks

a pinch of chilli powder

juice of about ½ a lime,

plus wedges to serve

2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

1 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon

salt

For the saffron aioli (optional)

½tsp saffron strands

juice of 1 lemon

1 tbsp Pernod Ricard

1 egg, plus 2 yolks

5 cloves garlic, peeled

½tsp Dijon mustard

250ml (9fl oz) rapeseed oil

Method

Put all ingredients for the hollandaise reduction into a small stainless steel or ceramic-lined pan. Bring to the boil and boil for 3–4 minutes to reduce the liquid to two tsp of liquor. Strain the liquor through a sieve and leave to cool.

For the hollandaise sauce, gently melt the clarified butter and keep warm. Put the egg yolks and half the vinegar reduction in a small heatproof bowl. Set this bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, checking that the water does not touch the base of the bowl, and whisk with a hand-held electric whisk until the mixture begins to thicken. Switch off the heat and remove the bowl from pan.

Continue to whisk while slowly trickling in the warm clarified butter; the sauce will thicken. Add a pinch of chilli powder, a squeeze of fresh lime juice, and salt to taste. Mix in the chopped herbs and place back over the pan of water to keep warm, without turning the heat back on.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Drop in the asparagus and simmer for 3–5mins until tender. Drain and serve with the spiced hollandaise sauce on top and a wedge of lime on the side. For the saffron aioli, toast the saffron in a dry pan for 1min, then set aside in a bowl with the lemon juice and Pernod Ricard. Bring a pan of water to the boil and add the whole egg and four of the garlic cloves. Boil for 8–10mins, then remove. Peel the hard-boiled egg and set aside the white. Allow the yolk and the garlic to cool. Put all five garlic cloves, the mustard, three egg yolks Saffron mixture and seasoning in a food processor. Pour the oil into the running processor in a slow, steady stream.

Cyrus’s Pulled Pork with cinnamon

& cloves

Serves 6–8

Ingredients

2kg rolled pork loin or shoulder

50ml vegetable or rapeseed oil

baby gem lettuce leaves, cleaned and well drained, to serve

3 tbsp fresh coriander, to garnish

For the masala marinade

1 tbsp broken pieces of cinnamon

15 cloves

2 large dried red chillies

5cm piece fresh root ginger, chopped

4 garlic cloves

2 small red onions, coarsely cut

1 longish fresh green chilli

½ heaped tsp turmeric

2½ tbsp tamarind paste

100ml palm or cider vinegar

½ tbsp brown sugar

25ml sunflower or rapeseed oil

½tbsp salt

Method

With a pestle and mortar, coarsely crush together the cinnamon and cloves. Gently toast in a dry frying pan over a low heat until a spicy fragrance emanates. Tear the red chillies into pieces and add to the pan. Continue to dry-fry the mixture for a short while but do not burn. Set aside to cool and put in a blender. Add all the remaining masala ingredients and blend to a relatively fine paste. Taste and adjust seasoning. Rub the masala all over the pork, and place the meat in a dish in which it fits snugly. Cover the meat and set aside in the refrigerator for a few hours.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4. Pour the oil into a roasting tin and heat on the hob over a medium heat. Scrape any excess masala from the marinated pork, place the pork in the roasting tin and brown well on all sides. Transfer to the oven and cook for 30 minutes.

Reduce the oven heat to minimum. (You can now pour a few tablespoons of marinade over the pork for extra flavour. Cover the pork tightly with aluminium foil, well tucked in so that the pork steams in the tin and the meat literally falls off when cooked. Cook for a further 3–3½ hours if using a rolled joint. Remove the pork from the oven and shred using two forks. To serve, put some pork on top of a lettuce leaf. Top with some coriander.

Tony’s Apple Crumble with star anise

Serves 6

Ingredients

For the crumble topping

300g plain flour

200g brown sugar

200g unsalted butter, cubed and softened, plus extra for greasing

pinch of salt

For the filling

75g unsalted butter

1 kg eating apples, peeled, cored and chopped into large chunks

150g caster sugar

5 star anise

1 cinnamon stick

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas 6. To make the crumble topping, put the flour and brown sugar in a large bowl and mix well. Taking a few cubes of butter at a time, rub them into the flour mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs. Sprinkle the mixture onto a baking sheet in a thin layer. Bake in the preheated oven for five minutes or until lightly golden brown. Remove from the oven and break with a fork, then return to the oven and repeat the process a couple of times, until you have a lovely crunchy biscuit topping. Set aside.

Heat a wide, shallow, heavy-bottomed pan and melt the butter until it foams. Add the apples, sugar, star anise and cinnamon, and cook, stirring frequently, until the sugar has dissolved and the apple is soft at the edges. Remove the cinnamon and the star anise, and add a little bit more sugar if you like.

To assemble, butter a medium-sized ovenproof dish. Spoon the fruit mixture into the bottom, then sprinkle the crumble mixture on top. Ensure the oven is preheated to 200°C/gas 6, and bake for 20 minutes until the crumble is browned and the fruit mixture bubbling. Leave to cool slightly.

To serve, put some crème fraîche into a small bowl and mix in some pomegranate seeds. Drizzle with a little pomegranate syrup and serve alongside the crumble.

The Incredible Spice Men by Cyrus Todiwala and Tony Singh (BBC Books, £20).

For more information visit www.maltonyorkshire.co.uk