Quick Lamb Curry

This simple lamb mince dish is based on one from Simple Indian Cookery by Madhur Jaffrey – an old book that I came across at work recently, with loads of terrific and EASY Indian dishes.

There is no rocket science here; the key is in the use of fresh spices – get your mortar & pestle action on!

You could serve this as is, in a bowl, or make it a bit more glamorous with rice, tortillas or naan bread, raita, and maybe a side dish of sauteed mushrooms or mashed potato!

Minced Lamb With Peas

2 tbsp olive oil

1 brown onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tbsp freshly grated ginger

1 tsp cumin seeds, ground

1 tsp coriander seeds, ground

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp cinnamon, ground

1/4 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tomatoes, chopped

4 tbsp low-fat Greek yoghurt

500 gms minced lamb

cracked pepper, to taste

1 cup water

juice of 1 lemon

3/4 cup frozen peas

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan or frying pan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and ginger; stir until lightly browned.

Add the cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg and cayenne pepper, and stir for 10 seconds. Add the tomatoes and yoghurt. Cook over medium heat until the tomatoes have softened, stirring often.

Add the lamb and cracked pepper. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes, breaking up all the lumps.

Add the water and bring to a simmer, then cover and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add lemon juice and peas, return to a simmer and cook gently, uncovered, for a further 10 minutes.

Serves 4

Happy Fooding!

Mulling Over This One….

This Mulled Pork recipe looked excellent on the face of it – anything that calls for a whole bottle of red wine can’t be bad! I did enjoy it; however, the meat was too dry, particularly with the leftovers the next day. The flavours were fabulous and my flat smelled amazing – lots of citrus and red wine and cinnamon and cloves in the air – it was quite Christmasy in fact!

The dish is adapted from a recipe from More Than a Schnitzel, a German cookbook recently acquired by my library. I will make this again quite happily, but use beef instead of pork – slow cooking for 8-10 hours is just too much for pork, in this instance. Venison would probably be good with these flavours, but might also dry out I suspect.

Mulled Pork

1 kg diced pork

750 mls red wine (I used a Merlot)

2 1/2 tbsp brandy

juice and zest of 2 oranges

juice and zest of 1 lemon

1 tbsp brown sugar

6 cloves

1/4 cup raisins

1 tbsp beef stock powder

4 apples, sliced

3 onions, sliced

4 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

cracked pepper, to taste

1 tbsp cornflour

Place all ingredients except cornflour in crockpot bowl, and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours (or leave overnight in fridge).

Place bowl into crockpot base and cook on LOW for 8-10 hours. About an hour before serving, mix the cornflour with a little cold water and blend to a smooth paste. Add this to the meat and stir through.

Serves 4-6

Happy Fooding!

Still on the Vegetable Crusade….

Chopped veg

With my mountain of vegies to play with, I found this easy Pumpkin & Lentil Curry dish from the 4 Ingredients website – I mean you can’t get much simpler than this really – but I decided than rather than just pumpkin, I’d throw in a variety of vegies, because, well, why the hell not?!!

I was also feeling very lazy, so didn’t even peel the skin off the pumpkin…..

The result was okay, nothing too flash – actually it doesn’t look so great but it tasted better than it looks. A bit stodgy, but healthy and filling.

I’m off to an ANZAC Day picnic today, and yes I probably should have made Anzac biscuits, but I just couldn’t be bothered. I made olive tapenade and a zucchini slice, homemade bread and coleslaw instead.

Happy Fooding!

Luscious Lentil Spag Bog!

OMG this vegetarian spaghetti bolognaise was fantastic! Taste has such great recipes, from a variety of magazine sources and all thoroughly tested with good photos and clear instructions. I make a lot from this site and love the comments people add, to help me decide if I will give something a go or not. I’m always on the lookout for new vegetarian things to try and this fits the bill perfectly – it’s perfect for dinner parties or pot lucks where you need a vegetarian dish.

I did add 2 tiny red birds eye chillies, finely chopped, to the initial sautéed veg mixture, and increased the garlic a tad.

I also halved the amount of dried spaghetti, as I thought mmmm I think 500 gms is a hell of a LOT. I don’t know about you, but I like my pasta to have a real amount of sauce through it, not just 90% pasta with a tiny little blob on it! Halving the pasta quantity was the right decision as it was perfect with 250 gms, and looking at the website’s photo I can’t see how that is 500 gms of pasta unless they doubled the sauce. 250 gms is just right, as with all pasta dishes this is VERY filling – so it will still serve 4-6, depending on whether you have just a bowl of it on it’s own or serve it with salad, garlic bread etc.

I guess you could substitute other types of lentils, but red are perfect in this instance I think, and they cook so quickly, so no need for any pre-soaking/cooking.

As with any pasta dish, sprinkle liberally with freshly grated parmesan cheese if you like…..mmmmmm yum.

Happy Fooding!

Chicken Tagine

Marinating it all.

From one of the Two Fat Ladies‘ cookbooks – Potty, by Clarissa Dickson-Wright, I adapted this chicken dish, which is very suited to preparing in the morning before work and then easily plonking on the stove at night. And speaking of plonk, I think you should also have a glass of wine in hand while you’re keeping an eye on the chicken…..I usually have wine in one hand and a book in the other, because I am such a nerd!

I think next time I will add some green olives to this – I thought of it too late, as I had already started cooking and the shops were shut!

Chicken Tagine with Green Peas & Preserved Lemons

800 gms skinless chicken thigh fillets, trimmed off any fat and cut into 3cm pieces

1 large brown onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

3 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped

1/4 tsp cumin seeds, ground

3 tbsp olive oil

skin of 1 preserved lemon, thinly sliced

350 gms frozen peas

cracked pepper, to taste

Place chicken in a bowl with the onion, garlic, parsley, coriander, cumin and olive oil. Mix well to coat, and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight to marinate.

Transfer chicken mixture to either a tagine or large saucepan, and add just enough water to cover the chicken.

Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for 45 minutes, covered. Stir occasionally.

Add preserved lemon, peas and pepper, bring back to a simmer and cook for a further 15 minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally.

Serve with couscous or rice, naan bread and yoghurt.

Serves 4

Happy Fooding!

Crockpot Vegetable Chilli

Healthy and filling, this slow cooker chilli is the perfect example of the ‘chuck it all in and turn it on’ philosophy that slow cookers are all about. To me, a slow cooker should be about convenience, so the recipes where you still have to saute things on the stove first etc are just not my idea of fun. I want my crockpot to serve my needs, and this chilli suits the slow cooker ideal so well. Plus, it tastes great!

Vegetable Chilli

2 medium zucchini (OR 1 large eggplant), chopped

1 green or red capsicum, chopped

1 medium carrot, peeled & chopped

2 celery sticks, sliced (optional – include leaves as well)

2 brown onions, chopped

425 gm can chopped tomatoes

425 gm can chickpeas, drained & rinsed

2 tsp chilli paste

2 tsp cumin, ground

225 jar salsa (hot)

140 gms tomato paste

425 gm can corn kernels, drained

cracked pepper, to taste

Place all ingredients in crockpot. Cook on LOW for 8 hours. Serve with rice or tortillas.

It doesn’t get much easier than that!

Happy Fooding!

Super Duper Salmon Pad Thai

I know, I know….there’s been a definite emphasis on Thai style curry flavours in my cooking, since Christmas. I have no idea why!  Perhaps it’s the hot weather and the fact that Thai dishes are a lot lighter and fresher than the stodginess of say an Indian curry (much as I LOVE Indian curries!) or a casserole.

Whatever the reason, this recipe from the Tassal Tasmanian salmon producer’s website, is amazing! I adore Pad Thai, but the only one I’ve ever tried to make, a few years ago, was a vegetarian one and was majorly complicated. When I saw this salmon version I thought it looked too easy to be great tasting – not so. Easy yes (I made it after a day at work when tired, so that shows how uncomplicated it is), tasty yes yes yes!

I followed the recipe exactly, except I garnished with cashews instead of peanuts, as I just like them a lot better. And I was starting to make it when I realised I had completely overlooked the red capsicum when I wrote out my shopping list, and had none in the fridge – so just had to leave that out.

If you can please imagine flecks of red here and there, when looking at the photo, then you will have it about right….

I made the full serving, so as it definitely does make enough for 4 as stated in the recipe, I had it for lunch at work for the next couple of days – I could have reheated it, but I just ate it cold as a kind of noodle salad and it was delicious.

Happy Summer Fooding!

Still on the Quinoa Train…

I recently borrowed Cooking With Quinoa: The Supergrain from work. It’s a great resource for quinoa recipes, and here is a lamb dish that I’ve adapted. The only time-consuming part was grinding a tablespoon of cumin seeds – as I have quite weak wrists I find using a mortar and pestle not that easy, but I do prefer to grind the spices freshly as I need them. I sat outside in the sun with my neighbour, grinding away whilst stopping regularly for champagne liquid refreshment to keep me going!

Lamb With Quinoa

2 tbsp olive oil

2 medium brown onions, cut in half & thinly sliced

500 gms minced lamb

5 clove garlic, crushed

1 tsp cumin seeds, whole

1 tbsp cumin seeds, ground

3/4 cup quinoa (rinse it if you prefer)

1/4 cup black rice

1 tbsp light soy sauce (I like Pearl River Bridge)

1 tsp chilli paste

2 cups hot water

1 cup frozen peas

1 red chilli, sliced

10 dried prunes, roughly chopped

preserved lemon & low-fat Greek yoghurt, to serve

Heat the olive oil in a large deep pan, and saute onion until soft and golden. Add lamb mince and cook until well browned.

Stir in the garlic, cumin seeds and ground cumin, and cook for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.

Add the quinoa, rice, soy sauce, chilli paste and water. Stir, cover and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the quinoa is almost cooked.

Stir in the frozen peas and prunes, and cook for a further 8 minutes. Add the sliced chilli and cook for a final 2 minutes.

Serve with pieces of preserved lemon and yoghurt, if desired.

Serves 4.

Happy Fooding!

All Aboard the Quinoa Train

I became a fan of quinoa when living in Chile – it’s a staple thing there, just like rice or couscous. At the time, no one in Australia had heard of it, but now it is very trendy and recipes are popping up in all the foodie magazines. Quinoa is extremely nutritious, and goes equally well as a plain side dish or as a more substantial meal, such as this pilaf.

My work colleague, who writes the fabulous Excelsior literature blog, and runs the book club at our library, adores quinoa and recommended this Indian-Spiced Chicken Quinoa Pilaf recipe as one he had tried and found delicious. And I agree! I made it exactly as written and it was completely perfect in every way.

My goodness, this was sooooooooooooo tasty! There was quite a bit of chopping up and measuring things out beforehand, but the actual cooking part was easy. I thought it would be very spicy because of the green chilli and all the spices, but actually it wasn’t so much spicy as flavoursome – a great Indian blend of aromatics that works really well.

This is VERY filling and quinoa, like rice, increases hugely as it absorbs liquid, so this quantity would easily serve 6 if you had some kind of bread and salad with it.

As a variation, I’m thinking prawns instead of chicken would work really well here – added sometime towards the end maybe, as 20 minutes would be way too much cooking time.

This is definitely going in to my saved recipe files.

Happy Fooding!

Asparagus Risotto

Risottos are usually made with LOTS of butter, which doesn’t suit my low-fat lifestyle, so this is my reduced-fat version of a basic risotto. The only tricky thing here is to stir continually, whilst gradually adding the liquid – otherwise you get brown crusty bits in your risotto and your poor saucepan ends up with a burnt bum!

I usually use lemon juice, but this time added preserved lemon instead, from my recently made jar – wow, such a difference. Definitely worth it.

Risotto should be soup-y, so keep adding extra liquids if you need to. It is quite a bit more gluggy and stodgy the next day, so serve immediately if you are having guests, but leftovers (I like it cold, which by now should not surprise you…) are great in a bowl the next day if you don’t mind it being a bit more solid.

Asparagus Risotto

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

1 bunch asparagus, cut into 2.5cm pieces

1 brown onion, finely chopped

1 1/2 cups arborio rice

2 tbsp basil pesto

3 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup white wine

1 tbsp lemon juice OR 1 wedge preserved lemon, finely chopped

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated

cracked pepper, to taste

Heat oil and butter in a heavy based pan; saute onion and asparagus until onion is transparent. Add rice and pesto, and cook for 1 minute, stirring to coat well.

Mix wine and stock together in a jug, and slowly add to the rice, stirring constantly. Add bit by bit as the rice absorbs the liquid (if necessary, add extra chicken stock until the rice is cooked).

Add lemon, cheese and pepper, mix through and serve.

Serves 3-4.

Happy Fooding!