FLOWER POT KITCHEN: BEST EVER CRAB PAKORAS GREAT BALLS OF FIRE

17 Jul 2017

BEST EVER CRAB PAKORAS GREAT BALLS OF FIRE

GREAT BALLS OF FIRE

The inspiration for these most brillant Crab Pakoras came from my budding 15 year old son Chef Oscar!!! He has a wicked sense of humour with chillies, we had a glut of habaneros and around 30 were stored in the fridge, I also had a whole crab in the fridge that really needed using, but I was not in the mood for a crab pasta dinner which crab sort of lends it's self to apart from on its own or with a salad and I was not in the mood for crab salad. Oscar came up with a pakora recipe after watching Man v's Food and Salvador Molly's Great Balls Of Fire Challange, hence he married the habaneros and crab in to the pakora mix and has successfully blown My head off, much to his delight...These are so gorgeous I loved them!

Prep time 10 minutes / Cooking time 4 minutes each batch

Ingredients

(Makes 20)

1 whole crab meat only

1 habanero per ball (10-20) blitzed

1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

250g gram flour (chic pea)

50g self raising

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp nigella seeds

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander

250-300ml water

Oil for frying

Great Balls of Fire

Place all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and combine, add the water and stir in, you want a consistency of double cream, that's your batter ready to fry. Heat your oil to 180 degrees and spoon in dollops of your batter, do this in batches. Cook the balls for around 3 minutes and flip over half way through. When cooked remove from the oil and place on paper to drain, serve immediately while hot.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.