February feels like a bit of a waiting game when it comes to vegetables. We still have all those roots and tubers, but there’s a huge desire for spring to arrive with its bounty of fresh greens. So I’ve decided to abandon our fair shores for this week and instead head to the Philippines, a place where I dream of going on holiday – a winter holiday through food, with ingredients youcan find closer to home.
Ginataang kalabasa with ginger and prawn oil (pictured above)
In the Philippines, ginataang refers to any dish cooked in coconut milk or cream. This stew-type dish is usually served with a generous helping of bagoong, a condiment made with fermented fish or prawns. Here, I’ve maximised on the “prawniness” by using fresh prawns in the stew, the heads in a flavourful stock and the shells in an incredible oil to pour on top. Serve with rice.
Prep 35 min
Cook 50 min
Serves 4
1 large butternut squash (1.2kg), halved, seeds removed, peeled and flesh cut into 3½cm cubes (900g)
4 shallots, peeled and cut into quarters (200g)
3 tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper
12 shell-on, head-on raw tiger prawns, peeled and deveined, shells and heads reserved
120ml sunflower oil
5 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced
200g green beans, trimmed and cut in half
20g ginger, peeled and finely grated
2 tsp aleppo chilli
200ml coconut milk, plus 2 tbsp extra to serve
1½ tsp fish sauce
20g coriander, leaves and soft stems
2 limes, 1 juiced, to get 1½ tsp, the other cut into 4 wedges
Heat the oven to 240C (220C fan)/475F/gas 9. Put the squash, shallot quarters, a tablespoon of olive oil, half a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper on a large baking tray, toss to coat, then roast for 10 minutes. Remove the shallots and set aside (they’ll have softened, but not darkened), then return the tray to the oven and roast the squash for 10 minutes more, until soft and lightly coloured at the edges.
Meanwhile, make the prawn oil. Put the prawn shells (not the heads) and sunflower oil in a medium saucepan on a medium-low heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes, until the shells are pink and the oil fragrant. Pass through a sieve set over a small bowl, then discard the spent shells. Set aside two tablespoons of the prawn oil, pour the rest back into the saucepan and stir in the ginger, aleppo chilli and a quarter-teaspoon of salt. On a low heat, bring to a simmer, cook gently for 15 minutes, then set aside.
Meanwhile, make the prawn stock. Put a large saute pan for which you have a lid on a medium-high heat. Once hot, add the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil and the prawn heads, and fry for five minutes, until pink and fragrant. Add 500ml water, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Strain into a large bowl, use the back of a spoon to squeeze out as much liquid from the heads as possible, then discard the heads.
Now make the stew. Wipe dry the saute pan, set it on a medium-high heat and add the two reserved tablespoons of prawn oil and the sliced garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, for a minute, until fragrant and starting to colour, then pour in the prawn stock, coconut milk and the roast shallots and squash. Cover, cook for five minutes, then stir in the green beans, lower the heat to medium, replace the lid and cook for 15 minutes, until the beans are tender. Stir in the prawns, cover again and cook for two or three minutes more, until the prawns are cooked and pink. Off the heat, stir in the fish sauce, lime juice and coriander.
Drizzle over the extra coconut milk, spoon over half the prawn oil and serve the rest with the lime wedges alongside.
Pork and fennel lumpia with fennel sweet chilli sauce
Lumpia is a skinny version of the spring roll, usually filled with minced pork and vegetables, or with a sweet stuffing made with bananas. In this savoury take, I’ve added fennel for a twist on this tasty Filipino classic. You can find spring roll wrappers in the frozen food aisle of most supermarkets (use the wheat-based ones here, not the rice paper wrappers); they come in all sorts of sizes, so if need be trim them to a rough 12cm x 12cm square. Fill the rolls the day before, if you like, and keep them in the fridge, spread out on a tray and well wrapped, ready to be fried; they also freeze well for up to a month.
Prep 40 min
Cook 55 min
Makes 28
For the fennel sweet chilli sauce
6 red chillies, finely chopped, seeds and all (60g)
150ml apple cider vinegar
100g caster sugar
1½ tsp fish sauce
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
½ tsp fennel seeds, toasted and lightly crushed in a mortar
Salt and black pepper
1 tsp cornflour
For the lumpia
3 tbsp olive oil
40g piece fresh ginger, peeled and roughly grated
4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
500g pork mince
1 large carrot, peeled and roughly grated (200g)
1 large fennel bulb, trimmed, halved, cored and cut into ½cm-thick slices (300g)
1½ tsp fennel seeds, toasted and lightly crushed in a mortar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsp cornflour
50g coriander, finely chopped, stems and all
5 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced (50g)
56 12cm x 12cm wheat-based spring roll wrappers, defrosted
1 litre sunflower oil, for frying
For the chilli sauce, put the chillies, vinegar, sugar, fish sauce, garlic, fennel seeds, a half-teaspoon of salt and 150ml water in a small saucepan. Put on a medium-high heat and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes, until the chillies have softened and the liquid has reduced by three-quarters. In a small bowl, whisk the cornflour with two teaspoons of cold water, to dissolve, then stir into the pan and cook for a minute or two, until the sauce thickens slightly. Take off the heat and leave to cool.
Now for the filling. Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan on a medium-high heat, then add the ginger and garlic, and cook, stirring, for a minute or two, until lightly coloured and fragrant. Stir in the mince, using the spoon to break it up, and cook for 15 minutes, until lightly golden. Stir in the carrot, sliced fennel and fennel seeds, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes, until the vegetables have softened.
In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce, oyster sauce and cornflour with a tablespoon of water, stir this into the pork mixand cook for two minutes, until glossy. Stir in the coriander and spring onions, and leave to cool. You should have about 830g of filling.
To assemble the lumpias, put two spring roll wrappers on top of each other on a work surface with one pointed end facing you (so it looks a bit like a diamond). Have ready a small bowl of water. Use a pastry brush lightly to wet the edges of the top wrapper with water, then spoon 30g (or about one and three-quarter tablespoons) of the filling into the middle. Fold over the right and left pointed ends into the middle (they shouldn’t meet), then roll up the pointed end nearest you over the folded-in ends, to cover the filling. Tightly tuck and roll up the spring roll wrappers to encase the filling, then cover with a damp tea towel and repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling, to make 28 lumpia in total.
Put the sunflower oil in a saute pan set over a medium-high heat. Once it’s hot, fry the lumpia four or five at a time for three to five minutes per batch, until golden and crisp. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to a tray lined with absorbent paper and repeat with the rest.
Serve hot with the sweet chilli sauce in a bowl for dipping.
Custard with pandan tapioca and cardamom syrup
This is a twist on taho, a Filipino dessert made with silken tofu and tapioca pearls, which I’ve here combined with a set custard and a dark muscovado syrup reminiscent of leche flan, another Filipino favourite. To get ahead, make the custard and syrup the day before, making sure to bring the custard to room temperature before serving.
Prep 15 min
Cook 40 min
Chill 1 hr+
Serves 4
For the custard
4 gelatine leaves
100g caster sugar
4 egg yolks
450ml whole milk
200ml double cream
2 tsp vanilla bean paste, or 2 tsp vanilla extract
20g flaked almonds, well toasted
For the syrup
115g dark muscovado sugar
3/8 tsp salt
5 cardamom pods, bashed in a mortar, empty pods reserved and seeds ground to get ¼ tsp
For the tapioca
50g tapioca pearls
2 pandan leaves, tied in a small knot – you can buy these at specialist Asian food stores
2 tsp lime juice
Start with the custard. Put the gelatine in a small bowl, add cold water to cover and leave to soak for 10-15 minutes, until softened.
In a large, heatproof bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar for about two minutes, until completely smooth and slightly pale.
Pour the milk, cream and vanilla into a small saucepan on a medium-high heat and cook for five minutes until simmering gently. Take off the heat, then slowly pour a quarter of the warm milk mix into the egg yolk bowl, whisking continuously so it doesn’t curdle. Pour this into the milk mix pan, return to a medium-low heat and cook gently, stirring continuously with a spatula, for five minutes, until slightly thickened. Take off the heat.
Lift the softened gelatine from its soaking water and squeeze out any excess water. Stir the gelatine into the warm custard until it dissolves, then strain through a sieve set over a jug. Divide the custard between four small shallow bowls or ramekins (each holding about 170ml), then cover tightly (with reusable kitchen wrap, ideally) to prevent a skin forming and set aside to cool. Once cool, put in the fridge to set for at least an hour, or overnight.
To make the syrup, put the sugar, salt, cardamom pods and seeds and 200ml water in a small saucepan, bring to a boil and cook vigorously for seven or eight minutes, until it’s thickened to the consistency of a thin syrup. Set aside – it will thicken more as it sits – then, once cool, pick out and discard the cardamom pods.
For the tapioca, bring 500ml water to a boil, then add the tapioca and boil for 17 minutes, until the pearls are translucent. Strain, then rinse the tapioca under cold running water until all the starch is washed away and the pearls are no longer sticky. Return the tapioca to the saucepan, add the pandan leaves and 250ml fresh water, then put on a medium-high heat and cook for 10 minutes, until most of the water has been absorbed. Lift out and discard the pandan, set aside to cool for 15 minutes, then stir in the lime juice.
Divide the tapioca and syrup between the four custard bowls, sprinkle over the toasted almonds and serve cold.
