My Chicken and Capsicum Curry

I always buy a whole chicken and joint, fillet and skin it myself, since it is much cheaper that way. After using some of the chicken in another dish I ended up with about 1kg of skinned and boned chicken breast. I also had a pack of three mixed peppers in the fridge that were starting to look as if they needed using up. I could have made a version of Basque Chicken or Puerto Rican Chicken but my mind was set on curry. I couldn’t find a recipe for chicken and pepper curry so I had to improvise.

This is my version and it was very tasty.

1kg skinless chicken pieces ( breast or thigh with or without bone)

2 tbsp vegetable oil

5 cloves garlic roughly chopped

Fresh ginger root approx 50x25x25 mm skinned and roughly chopped

Medium onion sliced

3 (bell) peppers of mixed colours sliced

Tomato purée 2 large heaped tbsps

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp ground coriander

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp mild chilli powder or to taste

1 tsp panch phoran (optional)

1 tsp garam masala

Pinch salt

Fresh coriander (cilantro) to garnish

Purée the garlic and ginger in a processor or mortar with a little water to loosen.

Heat the oil in a large pan and brown the chicken pieces on all sides. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside. Add the onion and peppers to the pan and sweat gently, covered for 5 to 10 minutes until softened. Add the ground spices together with the panch phoran and fry off for a few seconds, then add the garlic and ginger paste together with the tomato purée and a little water if necessary. Continue to cook this mix, stirring frequently, until the oil starts to appear on the edges, ( about 5 minutes or so) that is difficult to explain but you will recognise it when it happens. Return the meat to the pan with enough water to form a gravy and almost cover the meat. Cover the pan and cook on a low heat for about 30 minutes until the chicken is fully cooked.

Garnish with roughly chopped fresh coriander and serve with plain boiled rice.

　

　

　

　

Not Chicken Balti

This recipe started off as a Balti sauce in a Slimming World book, but I didn't have all the ingredients so I improvised. In the end I had a very tasty curry. What follows is my version and it is nothing like a Balti.

Ingredients

8 chicken thighs, skin removed but left on the bone and slashed across a couple of times to allow the sauce to penetrate. You could use boneless if you wish.

1 whole garlic bulb, skinned. Yes, I do mean a whole bulb or head, not a clove.
5 cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1 red chilli, 1 green chilli ( They weren't very hot so I left the seeds in)
1 large or 2 medium onions peeled and quartered
A little water

2 tsp ground coriander
1tsp ground black mustard seeds or 1 tsp mustard powder
1tsp ground cumin
1tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp fenugreek seeds

3 whole cloves
3 green cardamom pods lightly crushed
1 tin chopped tomatoes

Fresh coriander (cilantro) would have been good

Method

Put the garlic, ginger, onion and chillies in a food processor and blend to a smooth paste, add a little water as necessary to help it along.

Fry the paste in a large pan in a little sunflower oil for about 5 minutes. Add the ground and whole spices and stir in the tomatoes. Add the chicken thighs and bring to the boil stirring occasionally. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 40 minutes stirring occasionally.

If you are lucky enough to have some fresh coriander, add a small handful of roughly chopped leaves just before serving.

I just served it with plain boiled rice. I allow 1/2 cup of uncooked good quality basmati rice per person. Don't be tempted to buy easy cook rice or poor quality rice. The good stuff has a beautiful fragrance and texture.

Green Lentils

Green Lentils
I like this served as an accompaniment to a pan fried piece of salmon, but I’m sure it would go with other fish and meats. In fact I could eat it on its own, straight out of a bowl, with some nice crusty bread just as comfort food.

Ingredients:

1 cup of dried green lentils, Puy lentils or lentilles vertes, washed and drained

3 cups cold water

1 medium onion finely chopped

1 carrot finely diced

1 stick celery finely diced

1 bay leaf

1 bouquet garni sachet

Vegetable or chicken stock cube

Put all the ingredients apart from the stock cube in a suitable saucepan and bring to the boil, turn down and simmer uncovered for about 20 to 30 minutes or until the lentils and vegetables are tender but still retain their shape. Towards the end of cooking add the crumbled stock cube and season to taste with freshly ground black pepper.

Warning. May cause flatulence but it’s worth it.

Tarte aux Pommes

Apple Tart to you and me.
I found the basic recipe in an old cookery book and it is one of the easiest pastry based puddings to make ever. You do not even need a cake tin or pie dish and you don't need to blind bake the case. I added some spice to the recipe because I find cooked apples bland but they are not essential. I also used a mixture of apples to get a variety of texture in the filling.

Pastry base

Ingredients

225g plain flour
pinch of salt
50g butter and 50g lard, or all butter if lard offends you
about 3 tbsps cold water

Whizz the flour salt and fats in a food processor until they resemble bread crumbs, add the water with the processor running, until it comes together in a ball. Remove from the processor, wrap in clingfilm and put in the fridge to chill.

OR buy a pack of ready made short crust pastry, you need about 350g

Filling

Ingredients

900g apples, about half and half Bramleys and eating apples, peeled, cored and cut into pieces about 5mm thick
Juice of 1/2 lemon
55g caster sugar
40g butter
2 whole cloves (optional)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)

Put the sliced apple in a large frying pan, sprinkle with the lemon juice, add the cloves, mix the cinnamon with the sugar and sprinkle over and stir it all together. Add the butter around the side of the pan and cook over a low heat for about 12 minutes stirring frequently but gently until the Bramley apple has turned to pulp and the eating apples are cooked but still keeping their shape. Remove from the heat and set aside.

When the filling is cool. Pre-heat the oven to 190 deg C/375F/Gas Mk 5

Lightly grease and flour a baking sheet. Roll the pastry to a 30cm round and cut to shape. I used a dinner plate as a guide and guestimated the extra. Transfer the pastry to the baking sheet. Spoon the apple mixture into the middle of the pastry, leaving a 5cm border all round. (remove the cloves if you wish). Turn up the pastry border over the outer apples all the way around. Bake in the centre of the oven for 35 - 40 minutes until the pastry is crisp and brown and the apples lightly caramelised.

Serve warm with cream or ice cream

Rescuing Soft Brown Sugar

If, like me, you find that your part used bag of soft brown sugar now resembles something more like the Rock of Gibraltar. Do not despair, do not throw it away, try this. Stand the open bag of sugar in a large polythene food bag, dampen a sheet of kitchen paper and put that alongside in the polythene bag. Seal the top of the poly bag and leave for 24 hours. Worked like magic. Rock returned to soft brown sugar.

Molly Cake

I made Molly Cake today. I'm not sure where I first heard about it, but a cake that contains no eggs, no fat and no added sugar sounded intriguing. I did a search on line and a number of recipes are listed. I decided to try this one, for no particular reason:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7961/fat-free-gooey-molly-cake

Allegedly it is called Molly Cake or Molly's Cake after an elderly lady called Molly who gave the recipe to the National Trust at Cliveden.

I was a little sceptical about the ingredients, no eggs, no fat, no sugar didn't sound much like cake. There seemed to be far too much batter to put in a 2lb loaf tin and I had visions of it boiling over, but it didn't and the cake is truly delicious (if you love fruit cake). It is moist and very fruity with just the right amount of spice and has a really old fashioned weight about it. Certainly one I will be making again. Also it is very easy to make, but do not try to chop the dates in a food processor, they stick to the blades. Just cut them up roughly by hand.

Fakes Soupa

This is a recipe for Greek lentil soup from Rena Salaman which I have adapted somewhat, the original contained 150 ml (¼ pint) of olive oil. It has been a family favourite in our house for about 20 years and is very tasty and filling.

250g Continental (Green) Lentils washed.

N.B. not Puy or Vert lentils but they would probably be ok

1 litre water

2 onions

2 cloves of garlic chopped

1 large or 2 medium carrots diced

2 sticks of celery diced

400g can of chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp light olive oil

1 tbsp dried oregano

2 Knorr vegetable stock cubes

Extra Virgin Olive oil to garnish (optional)

Put the lentils in a pan with water to cover generously, bring to the boil and boil for 3 minutes. Strain and dispose of the cooking water. Set aside.

In a separate large pan, sweat the diced onion, carrot, celery and garlic in the light olive oil over a low heat for about 10 minutes until the onions become translucent. Add the lentils and the remainder of the ingredients, crumble in the stock cubes and pour in the measured water. Bring to the boil then simmer for 30 to 40 minutes stirring occasionally until the lentils are soft. Season with ground black pepper and salt to taste.

Serve and garnish with a swirl of good Extra Virgin Olive oil if liked.

　

Holly Bell's biscuits

I made Holly Bell's biscuits today. They are absolutely delicious!


http://www.recipesfromanormalmum.com/2011/02/13/cherry-white-chocolate-and-apricot-oaty-biscuits-or-whatevers-in-your-cupboard-biscuits/

Cottage Pie

Sometimes only comfort food will do and one of my favourites is Cottage Pie. This is my version adapted from Delia Smith’s original recipe:

Serves 4 to 6

Filling:

500g minced (ground) beef

1 tbsp oil

2 medium onions chopped

2 carrots finely diced

1 clove of garlic finely chopped

½ tsp powdered cinnamon

½ tsp dried mixed herbs

1 tbsp chopped parsley

1 level tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp tomato purée

275 ml beef stock from cube or a Knorr beef stockpot

Salt and pepper

Topping:

Tomato (optional)

Mashed potatoes, made with plenty of added butter.

The pie filling can be made ahead of time. Brown the minced beef into a non-stick frying over a high heat, constantly turning and stirring the mince until it is no longer pink and the fat has come out. If there is a lot of fat, pour the mince into a sieve and set aside to drain over a bowl. If it is very low fat mince just set aside.

Gently sweat the onion, carrot and garlic in a large covered saucepan stirring occasionally until the onion is translucent , about 10 minutes. Add the mince, season with the salt and pepper and add Delia’s secret weapon, the cinnamon ( this is what makes this pie so special for me), the mixed herbs and parsley. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir it in. Add the tomato purée and the stock and bring to the boil then simmer for 20 minutes. You can make this with minced cooked beef, which was probably the original version, in which case you will only need to simmer the filling for about 10 minutes.

This makes enough pie filling for three meals for us two when served with other vegetables, so I divide the mixture into 3 portions, freeze 2 and put one portion into a well buttered pie dish to cool. The dish I use for 2 people is approx. 15 cm diameter and 5 cm deep.

About half an hour before you are ready to eat, cover the filling with a single layer of thinly sliced tomato (optional) then with a good layer of mashed potato, roughen the top with a fork and put in a pre-heated hot oven Gas Mark 6, 200deg C, 400 deg F for about 25 minutes until golden brown.

You can sprinkle grated cheese over the topping before you bake it, or make the mash with 50/50 potato and celeriac, or swede and carrot, whatever you like. Serve with vegetables of your choice or just enjoy it on its own.

P.S. If you want to make Shepherd’s Pie, just substitute minced (ground) lamb for the beef.

Green Pepper and Cashew Nut Risotto

I made a Spanish style chicken dish the other day which used red and yellow peppers, so having bought a pack of peppers, I had a green pepper that needed using, we also has some cashew nuts lurking about in the cupboard. I came up with this which was a great success

Enough for 2

Ingredients:

½ tbsp olive oil

1 cup risotto rice, (carnaroli or arborio)

1 green pepper, deseeded and finely sliced

1 banana shallot or ½ onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

50g raw cashew nuts

50g pumpkin seeds

50g frozen sweet corn kernels

50ml extra dry vermouth or dry white wine (optional)

1 litre hot vegetable stock made from 2 Knorr vegetable stock cubes

½ tbsp dark soy sauce

Salt and pepper to taste.

Have the hot stock gently simmering in a pan on an adjacent burner. Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the shallot, pepper and garlic and fry gently for about 5minutes until soft . Add the rice and stir for a minute or so to ensure that the grains are coated with oil. Pour in the vermouth or wine and stir until the raw alcohol smell has disappeared and the pan is almost dry. Add a ladleful of the hot stock and keep stirring until it is absorbed by the rice and the rice is releasing its starch. This is what will make the risotto creamy. Add another ladle of stock and repeat the process. Keep doing this until the rice is cooked which will take about 20 minutes in total. About 5 minutes before it is ready, i.e. after 15 minutes of cooking the rice, add the cashew nuts, pumpkin seeds and sweet corn together with the soy sauce. Stir together, cook for the last 5 minutes ( adding more stock if necessary). Check the seasoning and serve. You will probably not need any salt since the soy sauce is very salty.