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!)

Turkey, sweet potato and pea curry… well Jon and I liked it!

I got this recipe from an old BBC Good Food ‘Cooking for Kids’ booklet, created by Leslie Waters, and had really high hopes for it – Abbie is keen on chilli flavours, but not yet on curries….  Jon and I both LOVE curries! This was very mild (korma paste used) and had cocunut milk in it. Have to admit that Abbie has never eaten as much of a curry before, but still only ate about half of the small portion I gave her – she tried all the componenets, but told us that it did not get ‘two thumbs up’ – her rating of a good dish!

Abbie was not altogether convinced!

The recipe was supposed to feed 2 adults and 2 children, but we only at half of the curry last night (even though Jon had seconds) and so I have frozen the leftovers for another go, maybe for when Abbie is not so tired and more receptive to new flavours.  Jon and I loved the curry, even though it was a bit tame for us.

I would love you to have a go with your children and let me know what they think about it!   Here’s the link: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1555/chicken-sweet-potato-and-coconut-curry

A one pot meal!

served on top of rice, to soak up the cocunutty juice