Meen Molee [South Indian Fish in Coconut Milk]

Very quick and very straightforward. I made this, just about, after coming home from an 80 km bike ride with feet I couldn’t feel and hands I couldn’t stop shaking. And it still turned out alright. So it can’t be that hard…! Adapted from Mighty Spice.

Ingredients

4 garlic cloves
2.5cm ginger
2.5cm fresh turmeric (use a teaspoon of ground turmeric)
1 large onion, diced
1 large tomato, chopped
500g white fish fillet, cut into bite-sized pieces
400ml can coconut milk/cream
juice of 1 lime
1 tsp curry powder
handful of green beans
1 carrot, peeled into slivers

Method

Mince the garlic, ginger and turmeric together into a paste. If you have one use a mini blender, but I don’t so I made do with a stick blender, a large mug and a little oil.

Fry up the onions for 5 minutes over a medium heat. Add the paste and tomato and cook for a couple more minutes. Add the coconut milk and lime juice and season with salt. Stir, bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and add the fish. Cook for 5 minutes before adding the carrots and beans then continue until fish is cooked through (approx. 3-4 minutes).

Sorry, no piccy. Wouldn’t have been able to hold the camera probably…

Middle-East Feast

We would certainly recommend this as a lazy weekend afternoon set of recipes. There’s nothing particularly difficult here, but it’s nice to get everything together in a leisurely manner – even factoring in time for a mid-aftermoon cocktail! Equally you needn’t cook everything here, feel free to mix and match as you see fit!

Serves 4-5

Harissa Lamb Kebabs

Ingredients

400g lamb steaks, cut into inch cubes

Marinade

1 tbsp harissa paste
1 tbsp tomato purée
juice of one lime
2 garlic cloves, crushed/finely chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds, ground
a few cloves, ground
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp paprika
salt and pepper

Method

Mix up the marinade ingredients in a bowl. Stick in the lamb and smush around till all sides of are coated. Cover with clingfilm and stick in the fridge. 15 minutes before you plan to eat, remove from the fridge and stick on a skewer, leaving a small gap between each cube. Stick under a medium grill for 10-15 minutes (or to your preference) turning every so often until the outsides are slightly charred and hey presto.

Oven-Baked Aubergine

Ingredients

1 large aubergine
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed/finely chopped
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
few handfuls of raisins
handful walnuts, chopped up

Method

Preheat the oven to 200^oC/400^oF/gas mark 6. Halve the aubergine lengthways and slash the cut side. Wipe all over with olive oil, stick in a roasting tin and season with salt, pepper and a little paprika. Cover with foil and bake for 35-40 minutes.

Meanwhile sweat the onions and garlic in a little oil, add the spices and cinnamon stick, raisins and nuts and a little water. Cook till the onions are translucent, adding water if things start to stick. Remove the aubergine from the oven, take off the foil, cover in the mush and put back in the oven for 5 minutes.

Flatbreads

See here

Hummus

Ingredients

1 tin of chickpeas
1 tbsp tahini
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper
1 tsp paprika

Method

Drain the chickpeas, preserving the water in a separate jug. Whizz them up with a blender until they are crushed, before adding the tahini paste, lemon juice, paprika and seasoning. Whizz a little more, a cautiously add bits of the chickpea water until you reach the desired consistency.

Tasty Tabbouleh

Ingredients

2 tomatoes, chopped
2 inch piece of cucumber, chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
1 large handful of herbs: mint, parsley, coriander, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper

Method

Add all the chopped vegetables and herbs to a bowl. Drizzle over the oil and lemon juice, season well.

Yoghurt, Two Ways

Ingredients

400g natural yoghurt
1 tsp harissa paste
1 spring onion, finely sliced
1 inch piece of cucumber, chopped
handful fresh mint, basil and coriander leaves, roughly torn
squeeze of lemon juice
pepper

Method

Add half the yoghurt to one bowl, stir in the harissa. Add the rest of the ingredients to a separate bowl, stir and that is essentially it! Time to enjoy all this incredible food!

J&W

Everything-But-The-Kitchen-Sink Chicken Stir Fry

As I’m currently on Easter break I am home for a while which means I have access to many more (free) ingredients than I would do normally. Hence this stir fry has got everything I could get my hands on in! It could easily work with a lot fewer ingredients.

Serves 4-5

Ingredients

400g chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
1 large carrot, thinly sliced
½ broccoli, cut into small florets
handful red chard, leaves stripped from stems, stems sliced
½ karela*, cut horizontally into strips
1 red pepper cut into strips
1 cup of peas
handful peanuts
handful cashew nuts

*also known as bitter melon apparently, I picked one up in the supermarket because it looked interesting. This really is pretty bitter, though grated in the marinade it gets cooked through nicely and loses its edge much more than when left in chunks. If I use it again I think I will probably grate it all.

Marinade

6 spring onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic, grated
½ bitter melon, grated
thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, grated
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp tomato purée
2 tbsp brown sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
2 tsp chilli powder
3 tsp coriander
1 piece galangal, broken into a few pieces
zest and juice of ½ a lemon
zest and juice of ½ a lime
1 kafir lime leaf
handful fresh basil, torn up
handful fresh coriander, torn up
1 stick lemongrass, slightly crushed
glug sesame oil

Serve with noodles

Method

Usually I would advice cutting everything up first but seeing as your chicken is going to want to marinade for a while it makes sense to do the marinade first. Stick all the marinade ingredients into a large bowl. Give a good mix then add the chicken and smush around until everything is relatively evenly coated. Cover with clingfilm and stick in the fridge. I left mine for an hour or so. Go get cutting!

If possible get a wok, preferably one with a lid. (You could use a frying pan but it would have to be pretty mega). Toast the nuts for a few minutes then set aside. Fetch your marinaded chicken from the fridge. Heat a fairly large glug of oil (sesame if you have it, but this is by no means essential) over a high heat. Add the chicken and fry off for a few minutes, until cooked through. Remove and put to one side.

Put a saucepan onto boil for your noodles. Fry up the onions for 7-8 minutes then add a little water to the wok and throw in the broccoli. Stick the lid on and steam for 5 minutes or so. Remove lid, stir, add carrots and chard stalks, replace lid. After a further five minutes add the peas, chard leaves and re-add the chicken and nuts. Heat everything through while you cook your noodles. Depending on personal preference either add the noodles to the wok or just put them on a plate and add the stir fry on top.

J

 

‘Don’t-Ignore-Me’ Chicken Korma

I get the impression Chicken Korma is somewhat of an unloved second-cousin to what springs to most people’s minds when they think of curry. This reputation is no doubt bolstered by the fairly weedy offerings from supermarkets and take-aways and in my opinion is completely undeserved.

Korma can be delicious. Creamy, nutty, spicy, it’s a wonderful taste experience. This recipe is taken almost verbatim from John Gregory-Smith’s Mighty Spice cookbook, a Christmas present from my sister. It’s extremely quick – although you will need some kind of processor/blender – so if you’re after curry-in-a-hurry you could probably knock this up quicker than you could order and receive a take-away.

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

2 medium chicken breasts, cut into bitesize pieces
1 tin coconut milk
50g cashew nuts (or almonds)
1 large onion, chopped
1 large carrot chopped into thin strips
2.5cm piece fresh ginger
1 small chilli
1 heaped tsp coriander
1 heaped tsp cumin
½ tsp salt
good few twists of pepper
1 heaped tsp hot curry powder
juice of 1 lime

Method

Add the coconut milk, nuts, ginger, chilli, coriander, cumin and salt to the food processor and whizz until smooth.

Heat a little oil in a decent-sized frying pan/saucepan over a medium heat and add the onions. Sweat for 5 minutes then add the curry powder, stirring to coat the onions. Add a little water if it starts to stick to the pan. After a couple more minutes add the chicken and cook, stirring every so often. After a further five minutes throw in the coconut paste and stir to cover everything. Squeeze in the lime juice, bring to the boil then add a lid and reduce to a simmer.

Cook for approx. 15 minutes, stirring every now and again. With 10 mins to go throw in the carrots and for the last 5 minutes, remove the lid and increase the heat to thicken up the sauce – if it gets too thick just add water.

Serve with:

– rice
– naan
– bhaji
– raita
– mango chutney
– all of the above

Sorry, again no photo. Really need to get back into taking pictures of things before I scoff them! You could totally throw in some spinach or kale into this to up the veg content too.

J

Summer Berry Jam

If you are looking for a definitive jam recipe from someone who knows what they are doing this is not it. I sort of made this up as I went along and the recipe that follows is how I may do this in future knowing now what I did right/wrong. I will highlight all the mistakes I made so hopefully you won’t make them too! It still tastes pretty epic by the way but if you want something foolproof…I recommend going elsewhere!

This makes quite a tart jam, so if you have a sweeter tooth obviously up the sugar.

Makes…quite a lot!

Ingredients

1.5 kg summer berries, I used (575g blackberries, 500g raspberries, 500g blackcurrant and 200g blueberries. I realise that doesn’t add up to 1.5 kg but I’m trying to make the weights a bit more scalable)
500g sugar*
6 tbsp orange juice
4 tbsp lemon juice (+keep the lemon, pips** and all)
2 tbsp lime juice (+ keep the lime, pips and all)
handful fresh rosemary
handful fresh thyme
handful fresh lavender
3 tsp vanilla essence
2 tsp ground nutmeg

Method

Squeeze your juices into a deep pan (as deep & wide as you can: jam is like magma when boiling and it has a tendency to jump out and attack you). Get your herbs, put them in a piece of cloth or something porous, with the remains of the lemon and lime (pips and all!) and bind with some twine. Crush with your hands to release the smelly loveliness. This would be a good point to sterilise some jars for preserving, so fill a bowl with soapy water, set the oven to a low heat, wash the jars then stick them in the oven to dry. (Read here for a little more info).

Add 2/3 of all the fruits to the fruit juice over a medium heat and bung in the lovely smelly sack. DON’T ADD ANY EXTRA WATER***. Stir regularly with a spoon and after 10-15 minutes add the sugar, nutmeg and vanilla essence. Continue to bubble away until the fruit is reduced and mushy and somewhere between liquid and solid. Add your remaining fruit – this way you get some mushed-down, jelly-type spread and hopefully some whole fruit too, yippeee – and turn the heat right up for 10 minutes or so. Really my timings are very rough – leave it as long as you deem necessary, the longer you do obviously the stiffer your jam will be.

Please be aware the area around the pan can and will get fairly splattered so don’t wear your favourite-brand-new-turquoise-shorts-that-are-so-good-your-girlfriend-steals-them****.

Remove your jar/s from the oven when dry and immediately fill with the hot jam – a funnel is really useful at this point. Seal the jars as soon as they are full so a vacuum is formed. Leave on the side to cool for a few hours before putting in the fridge, otherwise the glass is liable to crack due to the rapid change in temperature.

Serve on toast, in peanut butter and jam sandwiches (I used to be a non-believer, but my god they are awesome – honestly if you’ve never tried one you really ought to), in puddings, y’know, wherever you usually use jam…!

My Mistakes

*I used 300g of sugar (initially only 200!) and having had it for my lunch to say I have to say it was a little on the…tangy…side, even for me (and I’m usually one for cutting down the sugar in recipes by a lot).

**I didn’t include the pips but apparently they are a big source of pectin which is what is put in jam/jam sugar to help it solidify. So include yours!

***I added 100ml of water – BIG MISTAKE. The berries create plenty of liquid themselves and the extra water just meant it took forever to reduce. Honestly, although it might not seem like it at first you don’t need to add any.

****I got jam splodges on my favourite-brand-new-turquoise-shorts-that-are-so-good-your-girlfriend-steals-them *shock*. Fortunately my dad was there to very kindly wash them while I continued to tend to my jam…in my boxer shorts…

And on that beautiful image I shall leave you! Have a jamtastic time ;]

Blackcurrant & Lime Ice-Cream

Prepare to be hit by a whirlwind of devilishly wonderful frozen cream-based goods now that we have our new toy! Well I say our new toy, it’s actually W’s but I have stolen it for the weekend *evil cackle*.

Makes 1 litre.

Ingredients

500g blackcurrants
150g sugar
150ml single cream
180ml milk
3 egg yolks
zest and juice of 1 or 2 limes*
zest of ½ a lemon

*I used 1 but next time I would definitely go for 2!

Method

Identical** to Raspberry & Dark Chocolate ice-cream recipe here. But with blackcurrants and limes, obviously. And the following alterations:

– no need to push the purée through a sieve
– heat and stir for slightly longer as using single instead of double cream

**so I’m being a bit loose with the definition of identical but really there was no point writing it out all again was there?

This is damn tasty and not too unhealthy, as far as ice-cream goes. Sorry for the current lack of picture, I will rectify that tomorrow (if it’s not all been scoffed by then…!)

So what’s next on the frozen cream-based loveliness list? I’m thinking Lemon & Ginger…any other suggestions?

J

Rhubarb, Lime & Ginger Shortbread

So according to W, we use far too much ginger. Ginger in this, ginger in that, ginger in heffing everything! But you know what? Ginger is the dog’swhatsits. Sweet, savoury, spicy; show me a recipe that can’t incorporate ginger in it somewhere and I will explode. Literally*.

*well…probably.

This week I tried three (THREE!) ay-may-zing ginger treats – 1, a ginger ice-cream with summer berry pudding, 2, a ginger & lime crème brûlée and three and 3, my aunt’s ginger ice-cream (which was totally different to the first ginger ice cream!). And now I have baked these, so make that four ginger treats. It would appear to the casual observer that I may have a teensy-weensy, itsy-bitsy, incey-wincey addiction. And y’know what? They’re probably right.

Adapted from smittenkitchen’s peach shortbread.

Makes approx. 40 2×2 cm squares.

Ingredients

300g plain flour
225g butter
120g polenta
120g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 egg, whisked
3-4 sticks rhubarb
1 flat tablespoon brown sugar
4cm piece of ginger
juice of ½ a lime

Method

Sieve together the flour, polenta, caster sugar & baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and egg and form into breadcrumbs with your fingers – work it for a while to make sure there are no large lumps of pure butter. Form the crumbs into a ball, wrap with clingfilm and stick in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 190^oC/375^oF/gas mark 5. Butter a brownie tin. Slice up your rhubarb to roughly 5mm thickness. Retrieve your dough and split into two balls, one roughly twice as big as the other and place the smaller one back in the fridge. Press the dough you’ve kept out into the brownie tin and add the rhubarb slices. Grate (or chop) the ginger over the rhubarb, squeeze over the lime juice and sprinkle the brown sugar over the lot. Lastly, fetch the smaller dough ball from the fridge and evenly grate over the top of the rhubarb, gently pressing down. Stick in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the top is nicely browned.

Hopefully you’ll get to a stage where your shortbread is light and the rhubarb is slightly squishy but still retains its shape. The polenta adds a really nice crunchy texture. Please note – I tend to reduce the sugar content of most of my desserts, this being no exception, so if you want a sweeter treat feel free to add more sugar. Also, shortbread hardens as it cools so don’t worry if yours come out quite cakey.

I reckon these could do with an extra kick of something but I’m not sure what…I was hoping the lime would cut through a little more than it does…if anyone has any suggestions I would listen most gratefully!

J

Vegetable Parathas

Paratha, as the Hairy Bikers reliably inform me, is a type of Indian flat-bread, usually stuffed with vegetables. I took their recipe and edited it slightly but credit must go mainly to them. I made far too much (which I guess isn’t a bad thing as they’re damn tasty) so I’ve slimmed down my quantities here. This would work with various spice mixes so if you don’t have all the ingredients feel free to mix and match, swap them in and out till your heart’s content! The filling is also perfectly serviceable on its own. I did this over two nights, making the veg mix first then the bread dough the next day.

Serves 5 (at a guess)

Vegetable Filling

Ingredients

1 large, old potato, chopped into 2cm cubes
1 large sweet potato, chopped into 2cm cubes
½ butternut squash, chopped into 2cm cubes
1 carrot, chopped into 1cm cubes
1 cup peas
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 thumb-size piece of ginger, finely chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 little finger sized piece fresh turmeric, grated (or 1 tsp powder)
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin (crushed seeds, or powder)
handful fresh curry leaves, roughly chopped
handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped
juice of 1 lime

Method

Apologies for all that chopping – you’re probably worn out by now. I know I was. Anyway, put the potato on the boil, then after a few minutes add the carrot, sweet potato and squash. Leave to simmer and have a power-nap. Or don’t, that could be dangerous…

Heat a glug of oil in a frying pan and when ‘ot throw in your onion, garlic and ginger. You’re aiming to sweat the onions rather than caramelise them so don’t have the oil too ‘ot. When starting to soften add the turmeric, chilli powder, ground coriander and cumin and cook for a further few minutes before adding the curry leaves and fresh coriander. When cooked through, turn down to as low as heat as possible to keep warm without cooking any further.

Stab the fattest cubes of potato, squash etc to check they are cooked though – slightly firm is preferable to too squishy. If cooked, drain and roughly mash to taste. I added a couple of teaspoons of butter, a glug of milk, a few twists of pepper and a pinch of salt and mashed roughly making sure not to leave any too large pieces. Throw in the onion mix and peas, squeeze in the lime and give a good smush around. And there you have it, some awesome Indian-inspired mash. Cover and stick in the fridge

Bread Dough

Ingredients

400g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
200ml milk
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp coriander
pinch of chilli powder
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Find yourself a large mixing bowl, sieve in the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Whisk up the egg, with a pinch salt and dash of pepper and stir into the mix with a wooden spoon. Add the milk slowly – 20ml at a time, until the dough starts to come together. If you add too much the dough will become too sticky and hard to work with. If this happens, as it did with me, add flour a little bit at a time until the dough is less ‘wet’. Add all the spices then work roughly (either with a spoon, or better, with your hands) for 10 minutes. Cover bowl with clingfilm and leave to rest for 15 minutes. Meanwhile fetch your spice-tastic mash. I heated mine on a low power in a microwave for several minutes, until it was warm all the way through.

When the dough has rested, flour a work surface and pull golfball-sized clumps off the doughball. Pat down onto the flour, then flip over and do the same. Roll out with a rolling pin to pound coin thickness – it should make a 10cm (ish) round. Add a couple of spoonfuls of mash to the centre (leave a wide margin around the edge) top with some raw spring onion rings  then bring the edges of the pastry up and roughly twist over the top to seal (sort of) the paratha. Flip over and gently roll out  again, until about 1cm thick. I recommend making a few (2-3 per person) before cooking.

Heat some oil wayyy hot in a frying pan. Place as many parathas as you can comfortably fit in the oil, twisted-side down and cook until brown (a couple of minutes). Flip over and repeat. Serve with a simple salad. No pictures of these I’m afraid (sadface) but I do have a beautiful picture of my chopped veg:

J