Rustie’s Carribean Corned Beef and Rice

James
Summer’s playing havoc with the schedule with everyone off at one event or another. This week was cancelled because Knocker was off at the Jools Holland gig at Kew Gardens and next week because of the opera in the park (Walpole Park). To try and keep a bit of momentum we’ve decided to catch up on some of the menus over the last six months. This one was from a couple of months ago and to be honest one of my few real successes. It was written at the time when this blog was imminent!!!!

I met Rustie Lee at Waterstones in the Mall on Ealing Broadway at her book signing and invested £20 in her latest book, A Taste of the Caribbean, Culinary delights from the original celebrity chef, which of course I got signed. What a lovely lady. She entered the bookstore and brought the whole place to life. Truly the original celebrity chef. As work is a bit busy at the moment I asked if she could recommend a quick and simple meal and she pointed me to this one. The description reads, “this is a very quick, easy recipe, but very filling – great for family meals” – she was not wrong.

This was a really easy meal to cook, just 20 minutes. Best to prep everything first and then just throw in a big wok as and when required. I’d never used ginger before so this was surprisingly exciting, considering it was corned beef at the core. Understanding how to grind ginger was beyond me, so actually just grated it with a cheese grater. I am aware this might be the same thing. The recipe required chopped tomatoes, which I couldn’t find in M&S (shame on them), so had to go to Sainsbury’s, which only had tinned organic tomatoes (which is of course good, but still shame on them as well), so paid 30p more than expected. Good tip to have tinned tomatoes in as you always need them. The whole recipe does raise the old question about getting hold of small amounts of herbs and I’m not sure what to do with the ginger and the thyme that’s left over. Herb gardens at work could be the way forward – for those who don’t have gardens. Tempting to cordon off a part of haven green as a big communal herb garden that we can all take a cutting from on the way home.


Overall rating 7.25


Washingupability 4/5 - because of nice pace of cooking you can get most of the washing up done while cooking.

Knocker’s Rating 7.5 Cleared up the plate and had seconds.
Nice and spicy. Wouldn’t change the recipe but would cut the peppers smaller.

James’ Rating 7
Nice and filling. Good spice to it. Surprisingly blended. Ginger works well.

Drink: Barcadi Breezer – Coconut.
Knocker 8/10 as an accompany drink nice and refreshing. Tempted to even have down the Wheaty on a Super Sunday.
James 6/10 Not sure I could drink more than one. A bit sweet for me in spite of my sweet tooth, but went well with the meal.