Veggie Balti! My favourite at home curry… with veg from the garden!

Abbie’s veggie patch is proving to be a huge success. She loves going out and fetching strawberries which, of course, she is allowed to eat straightaway as they’re ‘from my garden, Mummy!’ She was a little too enthusiastic on Saturday morning and decided to pull up 3 of her ‘Enormous Turnips’ – so we needed to do something with them! This recipe came to mind as we all love it (we put yoghurt into Abbie’s to cool it slightly) and it is something I know that Jon can make while I write a few more reports! It is also really low fat and super healthy, great after my virtuous week – 2 Body Pump classes and my first attempt at Zumba!

The best ever Veggie Balti – adapted from an old Good Food recipe from about 10 years ago!

1 tblsp veg oil
1 large onion, sliced,
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 apple, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
3 tblsp Patak’s balti paste
1 med butternut squash (or the top half of a large one) – peeled and cut into chunks
2 large carrots, sliced
200g/8oz turnips, cut into chunks
1 med cauliflower, broken into florets
400g can chopped tomatoes
425ml/3/4pt hot vegetable stock
Chopped corriander for sprinkling!
Natural yoghurt/mango chutney/lime pickle for dolloping!

• Heat oil in a large, lidded pan – add onion, garlic and apple and cook gently until soft
• Stir in curry paste
• Tip in fresh veggies, add tomatoes, stock and handful of corriander – stir to combine
• Bring to boil, cover, then simmer for half and hour
• Remove lid and cook for 20mins until liquid has reduced – season to taste
• Ladle curry into bowls, top with yoghurt and an extra sprinkling of corriander
• We normally serve ours with warm naans, mango chutney, lime pickle and a cold beer (on offer at Sainsbury’s!)

The finished curry

Curry, naan and Namibia's finest beer - doesn't it just scream Saturday night in!

Leftover roast chicken?.. the solution….. spicy bird tacos from Thomasina Miers

Actually made these on Monday night with chicken leftover from Sunday’s roast, but have been crazy busy so posting had to wait until now! These tacos are so delicious, mostly due to the chipotles in adobo, which we make large quantities of and store in the fridge as they play a major role in many of Thomasina Mier’s recipes and are amazing!

Spicy Bird Tacos – from ‘Mexican Food made simple’ Thomasina Miers

1 tbsp olive oil and a knob of butter
1 large onion sliced
salt & pepper
1 tbsp brown sugar
generous pinch each of ground allspice and cinnamon
2 fresh bay leaves
2 fat cloves of garlic chopped
2x400g cans of chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons of chipotles en adobo (apparently you can use Discovery chipotle paste, but it is easy to make the real thing – if you are interested I would recommend that you get the book!)
600-800g leftover roast chicken
16 small corn tortillas or 8 larger ones

Heat the olive oil and butter in a pan and then add the onion, seasoning, sugar, spices and bay leaves and cook for 15 minutes then add the garlic cloves and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and chipotles and simmer for at least 15 mins over a low heat. Finally add the shredded chicken and check the seasoning. Remove the bay leaves before serving !

I served these in tortillas with sour cream and salad on the side – oh and a cold beer, natch! It’ll warm you up this week or next!  Have to say that these are too spicy for Abbie, so I make her a quick quesadilla by putting a bit of grated cheese and sliced tomato onto 1/2 of a tortilla, folding it over and then dry frying it on both sides until the cheese melts and the whole thing sticks together. this way she still feels part of the meal, but will actually eat!!

Spicy bird on top of sour cream on a tortilla, served with some leaves from the veggie garden.

Korean Keema….. the perfect end to a perfect day cooked by my near-perfect husband!

I am currently getting our upstairs bedroom and bathroom ready for Abbie to move into on her 4th birthday – not long now! The job at hand at the moment is painting 2 of the bathroom walls ‘disco glitter pink’… and I can only get to it when Abbie is sleeping, so whilst I painted… my wonderful husband cooked Nigella’s ‘Korean Keema’ from her most recent book ‘Kitchen’.

It uses the Korean chilli paste known as Gochujang paste, which we managed to find on Norwich market, in an Asian foodstore.  We have used this before, when making Korean squid from the same book and now need to find more recipes which call for it as have a tub to use.  This is definitely one recipe which we will be making again… if you make it don’t be put off by the turkey mince smell (not pleasant), the spicy hot, smoky, sweet flavour of the paste masks any turkey mince nastiness!

The finished dish – next time we’ll use sushi rice, but two meals in one day didn’t seem like a good idea!

We should have served the keema over the top of sushi rice, but having had sushi for lunch… we dipped pittas in instead! I also put a dollop of sour cream with mine.

 

Korean Keema (Nigella Lawson) – served 2 generously

 

250g turkey mince

6 thin/ 3 fat spring onions, chopped

125g frozen petit pois

1 tsp veg oil

2 tablspn rice wine

1-2 tablspn chopped corriander

 

For the sauce:

2 tblsmn gochujang paste

1 tblspn honey

1 tblspn rice wine

2 tablspn soy sauce

 

• Whisk together sauce ingredients and stir in turkey mince – leave to steep for 5 mins
• Heat up wok (while heating up, pour boiling water from a kettle over the frozen peas in a sieve) and add oil to wok, add peas and spring onions – stir fry for 3-4 mins
• Add turkey and it sauce and stir fry for 4-5 mins until cooked
• Add 2 tblspn rice wine adn 4 tblspn water to remainder of sauce and empty into pan, stir fry for 30secs more or until piping hot
• Serve over rice with a generous sprinkling of chopped corriande

What a fantastic dish – a real winner for Friday night after work or when you need something quick to make that satisifes aching bones (something I am encountering more and more these days!)

Superman is ill – chilli needed!

In Tesco’s when I receive a pathetically voiced call from Jon. He is poorly….. I am instructed to ‘buy treats to make me feel better’. So 1) lucozade, 2) fizzy cola bottles and 3) malt loaf are purchased and I speed home to make prawn and coriander rolls from Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries. Full of chilli and bound to clear out his sinuses.
Forgot to take a picture of the final product as had had a glass of wine and talked with best mate Annie whilst making- they were hungrily gobbled once made.  I’ve never had any luck when frying food like this; usually having been told how easy it is by Nigella (who I usually love), but can’t believe it – these worked! No problems!   They were delicious  – didn’t have any iceberg so we used Romaine lettuce.  Super hot….. super delicious  – will definitely make again.

Had another glass of wine – Villa Maria NZ Sauvignon Blanc – and decided to have a slice of leftover Lemon Demerera Cake – again Nigel. Great cake in that it keeps for a week; ate with greek yog; perfect combination.

Recipe isn’t on the internet, but get yourself a copy of this fab book for not a lot at Amazon; http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0007199481/ref=cm_rdp_product

Have bought simple things for Jon to put together for us all tomorrow lunchtime while I’m at work. More about ridiculous cereal selction tomorrow…….. night!